Movie #137 - American Dreamz

Title: American Dreamz

Director: Paul Weitz

Release Year: 2006

Plot Summary: Imagine a country where the President never reads the newspaper, where the government goes to war for all the wrong reasons, and more people vote for a pop idol than their next President.

Thoughts: First off - you have no idea how much it pains me to type that word with a "z." Ugh.

Anyway this one was amusing, but nothing to write home about. Almost all the characters fell pretty flat, though I did like Omer and his "uncles." All in all, I think my main problem was that the story was - hell, I'll say it, pretty damn stupid. I have never been even remotely interested in all these American Idol thingummies, and I might be assuming a lot here but it didn't actually seem like a "parody" so much as an accurate assessment of the whole debacle.

Poor Willem Dafoe. ~shakes head sadly~

Recommendations: Meh, you ain't missing anything.

Movie #136 - Chicken Run

Title: Chicken Run

Director: Peter Lord & Nick Park

Release Year: 2000

Plot Summary: A comedy escape drama with a touch of passion set on a sinister Yorks chicken farm in 1950's England.

Thoughts: It's got chickens. What's not to love! Seriously it's a bit of a kiddie movie, but it's very enjoyable for all ages - leastways that's the impression I get after watching it again with a group of twentysomethings who all liked it as much as I do.

Recommendations: Great for when you're in the mood for something lighthearted.

Movie #135 - Thank You For Smoking

Title: Thank You For Smoking

Director: Jason Reitman

Release Year: 2005

Plot Summary: A satirical comedy which follows the machinations of Big Tobacco's chief spokesman, Nick Naylor, who spins on behalf of cigarettes while trying to remain a role model for his twelve-year-old son.

Thoughts: It was funny, but I'm not quite sure that it was good. If that makes any sense. There were many parts that made me laugh out loud, but overall the story just left me sort of "meh."

On the bright side, Aaron Eckhart was pretty good at being simultaneously sort-of-slimy and charmingly disarming. Even as you're thinking "I can't believe he just said that!" you can't help but like the guy. Also I thought Christopher Bright was quite good as the son of a guy who, pretty much, lies for a living. Oh, and I loved William H. Macy's character, but then again I am seldom disappointed with him.

Recommendations: I dunno. Looking back, it just seems like so much fluff, sort of semi-disguised as a "movie with a message." But it was enjoyable fluff. So I'm sorta torn.

Movie #134 -- Pride and Prejudice

Title: Pride and Prejudice

Director: Joe Wright

Release Year: 2005

Plot Summary: Elizabeth Bennet has spunk. She likes this dude, Mr. Darcy, and he may or may not like her back.

Thoughts: ANYTHING Keira Knightley. Put her anywhere on the screen and I'll watch. You could probably put my infront of a black screen for a while and tell me that it was a movie about her and I'd sit there for at least fifteen minutes before feeling like an idiot. That being said, this is a really good movie. Of course, you'd have to be a collosal idiot to mess up the source material.

My first impression of this movie (other the fact that Keira Knightley is really, really hot) was that Keira Knightley can actually act as she earned a well-deserved Oscar nod. The sets are fantastic, the costuming is perfect, and the direction of Joe Wright (who?) is above par. Donald Sutherland is terrific as Mr. Bennet and it would have been nice to see an Academy Award nomination thrown his way (I would have taken it over George Clooney's performance in Syrriana any day). My only complaints with the casting are Jenna Malone and Judy Dench, who I usually like. I don't know... they were just kind of annoying.

Sure, the language is a little too flowery for some (it was a bit annoying at first, "It's a very well-to-do family, sir." and shit like that). And sure, you're not really sure why Elizabeth Bennet falls in love with Mr. Darcy, because he is, let's face it, kind of a douchebag.

That being said, I would like to see the BBC mini-series of this that came out some ten years ago, as I understand that it is fantastic. This version was too short, but I understand the limitations placed on movies... You really can't have a 4 hour movie like this and expect most people to stay with it the whole time.

Rating (0-10): 7.6. Sure, there's a "Knightley" factor involved, I'm not gonna lie, but it is a fantastic movie in and of itself.

Recommendations: Highly recommended. Rent it, indeed. Does it bear repeated viewings? Only if you're obsessed like I am.

Movie #133 -- Ice Age: The Meltdown

Title: Ice Age: The Meltdown

Director: Carlos Saldanha

Release Year: 2006

Plot Summary: Ice is melting. Animals who like ice are scared.

Thoughts: I never saw the first Ice Age movie. But, as the rule of thumb goes, very few sequels are as good as the first. Having seen this movie, I don't have much of a desire to see the first one. "Why did you go see this then?" you ask. I was on a date, she wanted to see it, and I thought that if I took her to see this movie we'd get to makeout later.

Anyway, a wooly mammoth named Manny (voiced by Ray Romano), a sabretooth tiger named Diego (voiced by Denis Leary), and a thing named Sid (voiced by John Leguizamo) are made aware of their precious ice age coming to an end. They travel across treacherous terrain to get on a large boat so that they can survive the oncoming flood. Seriously. And also... Queen Latifah as a strange mammoth/sloth combination? Yeah...

Now, there were a few parts that did make me laugh out loud... I'm thinking Sid and his meeting with the crazy Sid worshippers and anytime that the squirrel was on screen.

As far as buddy/trip comedies go, you can do better... Sideways, Dumb and Dumber, hell... even EuroTrip. But as far as for inoffensive buddy comedies involving this much animation, it wasn't bad.

Rating (0-10): The movie on it's own = 6.5. Not essential to life and yes, this means I liked it more than Brokeback Mountain. The movie based on the fact that I later in the evening got to makeout = four trillion.

Recommendations: If you catch it on ABC or Disney or something in a few years or have to watch it, while babysitting or something, it's not bad.

Movie #132 -- Brokeback Mountain

Title: Brokeback Mountain

Director: Ang Lee

Release Year: 2005

Plot Summary: Two young men fall in love on a mountainside while herding sheep in Wyoming.

Thoughts: Easily, the most talked about movie of 2005. Easily, the most socially relevant movie since Napoleon Dynamite (tell me I'm wrong). Easily, the most self-indulgent movie of the year.

brodude mountain was just alright. it left me with a hollow feeling... similar to the one that gladiator left me with five years ago after everyone had been saying, "oh! it was so good." i thought it was just alright... jake gyllenhal (sp?) was pretty good and so was michelle williams, but heath ledger sounded like he had a cotton swabs stuffed in his cheeks the whole fucking time. his performance got really annoying. props to the casters for putting randy quaid and anne hathaway in the movie: inspired but maybe a little misguided. seriously, all i could think of the first few times either of them were on screen was national lampoon's Christmas Vacation and ella enchanted, respectively. the music got kind of annoying, too. i don't know how much more dueling acoustic guitars laced with reverb i could take. i did, however, think that the directing and cinematography were fantastic.

and also... the whole "gay cowboy" thing... WRONG. there was nary a cow herded that whole movie. these dudes were shepherds. yeah... hangin out with sheep. not cows. now, when i think of shepherds, i think of apostles and guys with white beards and crooks and relaxing on the hillside. this movie shattered that apparent misconception... shepherds are, according to ang lee's vision, dudes who eat beans, drink whiskey and wear carhart clothing.

think about it, though... had this movie been about a man and and a woman that fall in love in the rustic wilderness, it probably would have been written off as schmaltz... or we could have called it coal miner's daughter 2: in the shaft. [i totally just wrote a porno title, didn't i? ha! totally my intention -- more or less to see if i could get away with it. s-u-c-c-e-s-s.] or jerry mcguire 2: extreme outdoor sports challenge. you get the idea. it would have taken one hell of a better script for me to buy the closing scene where ennis is playing with jack twist's shirt. now, imagine if kate winslett had an article of leonardo dicaprio's clothing at the end of titanic and hung it in her closet like some sort of shrine. it would have been written off as hollywood drivel and nothing more. despite all of this movie's imperfections and constituions afforded to it because it is a love story between two men, certain scenes just work and others just don't.

i am glad that i saw the movie, though. i've now seen what all the hype was for... "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." don't deride me as a homophobe -- if you do, i think you may have missed the point of this entry: tongue-in-cheek, a little. scathing and honest, always.

so, in conclusion, what we have here is a movie born and bred for the arthouse [eternal sunshine..., anyone?] that because of it's subject matter was afforded a certain manner of leeway.


Rating (0-10): 6.2

Recommendations: Nominated for Best Picture? Are you kidding me? Seriously. I guess see it to say, "oh, yeah... i saw that." oh, and then, you'll get all the of the jokes that everyone told 3 months ago.

Movie #131 - The Warriors

Title: The Warriors

Director: Walter Hill

Release Year: 1979

Plot Summary: A gang called The Warriors are framed for killing a gang leader trying to unite all the gangs in the area. With other gangs gunning for them they must get back to the home turf of Coney Island... Alive.

Thoughts: I really think I need to completely stop watching Director's Cuts before watching the original theatrical release. The Warriors seems like it would be a very good movie if it was tightened up - as is, it's just a good movie. ;)

I have to admit that the characters were pretty one-dimensional. Even the de facto leader, Swan, really didn't resonate with me at all. I really think the film is more about the journey, the battle, than it is about the individuals who made that journey - I just wish that I'd actually cared about the characters, too.

Two more points:

1) "Themed" gangs are very funny. Mimes with facepaint and baseball uniforms, running around beating the shit out of people with bats? Comedy gold, man.

2) The comic book framing didn't really work. Actually it worked about as poorly as it did in Ang Lee's Hulk.

Recommendations: This seems like one of those movies that's often talked about but seldom actually seen. I think it's worth seeing. But it's definitely a guy movie.