10 Years…10 Screenplays

I need to comment on this post. I appreciate what the writer is going for, but I feel he didn’t go quite into the depth as I would have liked (i.e. he picks a movie for 2000 without having seen it completely). So, I decided to go back through and see how my picks would look. I realized that it would be best to show several nominees for each year and pick my favorite. So, let’s see how it goes.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

As you have probably have heard by now, there will be a new Star Wars movie hitting theaters in the not too distant future. George Lucas has announced that his animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars,  is going to get a run in theaters before the show kicks off.

Now, I like Star Wars almost as much as the next guy (there are a bunch of people who are way bigger fans than I am, but I can still tell you what a Mandalorian is) but I don’t have much desire to see this movie/TV series. It is really a combination of things that I don’t like.

A National Treasure

Over the weekend, I went to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

It was really good. Actually, depending on the genre classification of Hot Fuzz, NT:BoS is my first or second pick for action/adventure of the year.

The movie has tons of great jokes and good action sequences.

I would go into more details about the movie, but I’m doing this review half-assed (not even half, more like quarter-assed).

Overall, I really enjoyed National Treasure 2 and I gave it 5 out of 5 stars on Netflix. Go catch this movie in the theaters. It is fun and entertaining.

Dis-Enchanted

I went to see Enchanted this past week (as did much of America). It turns out that I am one of the few people who didn’t like the flick.

The movie movie was sold by the trailer. We were sold into thinking that this would be a wonderous tongue-in-cheek look at the world of Disney Fairy Tales (kind of like Shrek, but done better).

The basis of the movie is that a young princess-to-be, Giselle (Amy Adams) gets sent real life by an evil queen (who happens to have the powers of a witch, but that is never really explained). Once in real life New York, Giselle goes through culture shock. Eventually things work out.

I’d like to say that there is more to the plot than that, but there isn’t. The movie has this great premise but fails to do anything with it. It could have been somewhere along the lines of Elf, but instead it just crumbled to pieces as a hackneyed piece of work.

Here’s some of the issues that kept me from enjoying the movie.

First, it’s chocked full of song and dance. Some people enjoy this, I hate it. The biggest snore of the movie comes in the middle with a huge song and dance through Central Park that takes some where between 5 and 30 minutes. The song just drags on and on. It just took me right out of the movie (similar to the driving scenes in Ricky Bobby: Talledega Nights).

Second, the entire story was too simplistic. Outside of the originality of the “fairy tale comes to real life New York” twist, the story is very basic. So, while I can appreciate that one twist drives a story (i.e. read anything I have ever written), it isn’t good enough for a full length moving picture. It just doesn’t play out well.

Third, the satire isn’t biting enough. As I said earlier, this movie could have taken the route of Shrek and broken down the stereotypical Disney fairy tale movie. Instead of doing that, itself was a stereotypical Disney fairy tale. There are a few pokes and prods into the world of satire with the film, but they are done half-heartedly (in my opinion). Thus, nothing gets a full belly laugh from the audience; only a few snickers.

The last issue I’ll discuss is the overlap of trailer and movie. Once again, all the best jokes were put into the trailer for the movie. So, by the time we got to see the movie, they were all tired and didn’t garner any laughs.

Add all of this up, and Enchanted is one of my least favorite movies to come out this year. I know I will get ripped for my opinion (last I checked, the movie was rated 93% on Rotten Tomatoes), but I gave the movie 2 out of 5 stars on Netflix.

I’d suggest renting Elf or Ella Enchanted to get your fill of:

A) Mythical/Fairy Tale beings making the leap to the real world (Elf)

and

B) Satire of the stereotypical Fairy Tale (Ella Enchanted)

Dan in Real Life in Review

Over the weekend, we got the chance to watch Dan in Real Life (the new rom-com starring Steve Carrell).

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the movie. Steve Carrell does a really good job holding up the flick. At times he has Michael Scott-esque moments, but I enjoyed it. The script allow Steve to pretty much take over the flick to the point where none of the other characters really mattered.

While I enjoyed the movie there are a few weak elements. The plot is pretty predictable and it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Some of the emotions the characters showed seem a bit out of place. There is no real B-storyline to help support the Steve Carrell storyline (unless you count the daughter’s story, but they are horrible).

On a side note, is there something about rom-coms or com-drams that necessitate the use of the music of The Who/Pete Townshend? A quick few examples are:

Dan in Real Life – My Love Opened the Door (Townshend solo work)

Reign Over Me – Love, Reign O’er Me (The Who)

American Beauty – The Seeker (The Who)

The thing about it is, I like all of those movies. Am I just a big Who fan without really knowing it? Are the Who the perfect musical blend of comedy and drama? Is this all just unoriginality in Hollywood where they keep reusing the same music?

If you asked me to compare Dan in Real Life to another movie, I’d probably say it is a combination of Reign Over Me and Catch and Release. It has humor and moments of greatness that reminded but it was bogged down by boring drama in a small one room setting (humor/greatness = Reign, Crap Drama/Small area = Catch + Release).

Overall, I dug Dan in Real Life. It had laugh out loud moments. The drama was decent, but a bit hackneyed. With that being said, I can understand people not enjoying the movie. It really depends on how much you like Steve Carrell. If you love his work, it is worth checking out. If you aren’t into it, this movie can probably be skipped.

I gave Dan in Real Life a 4 out of 5 on Netflix.

You Could Be Watching This Right Now

It looks like Netflix just dropped a bunch of good stuff into its Watch Instantly section.

The first thing I noticed was a big add for a new show type thing, Down in Front with Dana Carvey. You can read the news release about it here. From what I can tell, it is a MST3K style thing with more classic movies and Dana Carvey. It is only going to be on the site today and tomorrow, so check it out while you have the chance.

Speaking of MST3K, there is a new project by a bunch of guys from the show called The Film Crew. Similar to MST3K sometimes it is the funniest thing made, other times you fall asleep waiting for the funny to come. Well, their latest picture, “The Giant of Marathon,” is now on the Netflix Watch Instantly option. So, if you had it queued up (like me) you might want to push it down the queue and just watch it online.

But wait, there’s more!

Netflix has developed a great relationship with NBC/Universal especially when it comes to the Watch Instantly feature. Now, Netflix has the entire first season of 30 Rock, the third season of The Office, and the first season of Heroes (it looks like they also have the first few episodes of season 2 of Heroes).

So, now is a good time to be digging into the Watch Instantly feature. The system works good to well most of the time (with an occasional hickup). Most of the time a movie/show will start up within 5 minutes and qon’t freeze up unless you lose your internet connection (i.e. using a laptop can work, but it is prone to the occasional stop).

Tell Me What To Rent – Reviewed

A few weeks ago, I gave you the option to tell me which movie I should rent out of four choices (see that post HERE). Since that time, I have watched all four movies I gave out as options.

You may recall, I have already reviewed Cabin Fever, with the review being less than complimentary (I gave it 2 out of 5 stars on Netflix).

The next movie I rented was The Man Who Knew Too Much. While Hitchcock has made some great films in his day, I thought this film struggled to find its identity. Is it a movie where an ordinary person gets caught up in a cool spy story? Is it a movie about who some parents can be really dumb (honestly, who hands over their kid to someone they’ve only known for 1 day)? Is it a cute comedy (the ending would suggest it is)? It tried to do a lot but succeeded at none of them. Overall, I thought the movie was okay and I gave it 3 out of 5 stars on Netflix.

The third movie I rented was Death on the Nile. This Agatha Christie Murder-Mystery was more on target than the previous two rentals. While the murderer could be figured out if thought is applied, I wasn’t 100% sure on who did it until the reveal. The acting is solid due to a core of well known actors/actresses (Peter Ustinov, Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, Mia Farrow, George Kennedy, and Jack Warden). Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Netflix.

The last of the four movies was Where Eagles Dare. I wasn’t sure if I’d be into this film or not when renting it. It had Clint Eastwood in it (Plus). It was about WWII (minus). It was recommended by Netflix, and one person said it was like the video game Wolfenstein (plus). The first thing I noticed was that the theme music was good (almost reminiscent of Indiana Jones), but they seemed to play the music at awkward times (like when Nazis were on screen). The plot line was pretty good and offered up a couple of twists and turns along the way, but there was no supernatural element (ala Wolfenstein). The film could have been about 30 minutes shorter (current running time is 2 hours and 35 minutes). Overall, the solid story, the plot twists, the action, and the music kept me entertained. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Netflix.

Here’s how I’d rank them from favorite to least favorite:

1) Death on the Nile

2) Where Eagles Dare

3) The Man Who Knew Too Much

4) Cabin Fever

Lookout!

Last night, I received “The Lookout” from Netflix.

The Lookout hit theaters earlier this year and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Isla Fisher, and Carla Gugino (kinda, but we’ll get to that later).

The basic run down of the plot is a college aged kid (Gordon-Levitt) gets into a car accident (kind of like Disturbia in that regards) and suffers head trauma. At this point he meets up and becomes roommate with a blind guy (Jeff Daniels) and gets a job as a janitor at a bank. As he tries to put his life back together, he meets some nefarious people. These people take advantage of the kid and things go from there.

If you’ve seen the trailer, you pretty much know the movie. In fact, after watching the movie, I kind of wished I hadn’t seen the trailer. It gave away too many aspects of the film for my tastes.

In addition to the trailer, there were a few problems I had with the movie. First, Carla Gugino is in it for 5 minutes. She has a seen early on and then we never hear from her again. I would have liked to seen some kind of resolution with her towards the end. And I thought a resolution would have fit into the script pretty easily. Second, Isla Fisher plays a pretty sizeable role through out the film, but just like Gugino, there is no resolution to her character. She just get tossed along the way side at some point and then we never hear from her again. Last, we feel sorry for Gordon-Levitt’s character, but the problem is that he is a complete dumbass. So, while it pulls at our emotions one way, we can’t fully engage in his character because of how dumb he was.

With that being said, overall I really liked the movie. It has a good plot line that was quite original. The dynamics of the father-son relationship as well as the roommate relationship were done really well. The script offers of some very good ideas as well as a solid resolution to the main conflict of the story. The actors all put in good to great performances (i.e. how can we get J. G-L. more work?).

I rated The Lookout 4 out of 5 stars on Netflix. It is really worth the price of admission. And if you can get over a few things being left unresolved, you’ll love the movie.

So, go out and rent it.