Movie Review - Outrage (2009)

Directed by Kirby Dick

The crux of this film, as was stated in the pre-film introduction by a former professor at the University of Delaware, is whether the outing of gay politicians by other gays should be considered gay-bashing in the homosexual community. Should politicians who support legislation that is "harmful" to the gay community be outed if they are hidden deep in the closet?

Although the film does detail the story of the outing of Democrats Ed Koch and Jim McGreevey, the huge focus is on the Republican party. Granted, it's the conservatives that are more likely to vote against gay-friendly legislation, but it certainly comes off as more anti-conservative than anti-liberal (This was most evident to me in a completely unnecessary scene towards the end of the film that throws in tales of multiple gay teens who were killed...the only reason this segment is in the movie is to drum up sympathy and it made me angry). Still, even the Republican writing this must admit that there's something innately hypocritical about gay politicians constantly voting "no" on gay legislation.

Yes, the film criticizes my political leanings, but I'm the first to admit that the Republican party isn't perfect (although we're certainly more perfect than those nutjob liberals). It angers me when the Republicans team up with the Religious Right and allow religion to rule over everything. Have some balls, folks! Heck, I'm a religious guy, but isn't a staple of all religions some tenant of kindness? No need to be nasty against people that are "different" from you. I may not be pro-gay marriage, but I'm not gonna be nasty about it (note that I'm for legal unions for homosexuals, but not for the use of the term "marriage"...but enough about my political leanings...there's nothing like discussing politics to make people hate you...so I'm gonna stop).

The film, as a whole, moves along at a fairly quick pace. It doesn't really drag and it looks pretty good onscreen. Yes, it's evident that it's pushing an issue/side (and those interviews with the gay Log Cabin Republicans don't fool me into thinking it's really even-keeled), but it was surprisingly decent even if it didn't really bring anything new to the table.

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2009)

Directed by Sacha Gervasi

Unlike It Might Get Loud's three musicians, I have no desire to go and listen to the heavy metal group Anvil after watching this flick. In fact, if I never hear another word about them, the better.

We are introduced to the band via interviews with rockers like Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Slash from Guns 'n' Roses telling us how influential the 80s metal band Anvil was to them. For some reason or another (we're led to believe that it's because of crappy record labels), Anvil falls into some level of obscurity, all but forgotten except by some loyal (read: crazy) fans. Although lead singer/guitarist Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner are now working normal everyday jobs, they long to return to their roots. When a fan contacts them about becoming their manager and starting a European tour, they jump at the chance. The tour is somewhat of a failure, but it gets Lips in the mood to record another album, attempting to regain the success of his youth.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the fact that this felt like a mash-up of VH1's Behind the Music and Reuniting the Band. The film was trying to get me care about these guys, but they're really just two nutty fifty year olds who are going through a mid-life crisis, longing for their youth. There were interviews and moments here that really felt set up, too, which doesn't sit well with me -- for example, we just happen to be sitting with Lips as he reads an e-mail about the fan that I mentioned above who wants to be their manager and set up a world tour...how convenient!

Towards the end of the movie, someone compares Anvil to Rolling Stones and The Who. I may not even care a bunch for those bands, but Anvil is not even in the same category, and pretending that they are makes you lose some credibility.

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Movie Review - No Denying: Delawareans Bear Witness to the Holocaust (2008)

Directed by Steve Gonzer

Part One of a five-part series, No Denying: Delawareans Bear Witness to the Holocaust is essentially a series of five to ten-minute interviews of Jewish Delawareans who survived the atrocities of the Holocaust and Delawareans who were part of the military that freed the Jews during WWII.

Without a doubt, these interviews of these folks should be filmed. It's important to have this on record (if only to prove to the crazies out there that the Holocaust actually occurred...a point that only quickly mentioned despite the fact that the title would make you think otherwise). That being said, these interviews don't make a good film. There's no flow to this documentary at all. It's simply an interview, followed by another interview, followed by some black-and-white photography or video footage from the 1930s/40s...then we're back to another interview, then another, and then the stock footage again. It just gets boring, unfortunately. You could easily have got up and left at any point in time and not missed a thing.

Once again, it's necessary to have these accounts on record, but I really didn't think it works as a cinematic vehicle.

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Movie Review - Tyson (2009)

Directed by James Toback

It's apparent that Mike Tyson has been hit one too many times in the boxing ring. Let me just throw out some choice quotes that came out of this guy's mouth.

"I'll fuck you 'til you love me" -To a newspaper reporter who had given him a hard time

"I like to watch women like a tiger watches its prey after it wounded them."

"My insanity is my only sanity."

Believe me...there were a ton more where that came from...those were just the three I wrote down.

This is Tyson's life story, dealing with his youth (he was a thief and a crook), his introduction to boxing, his work with his favorite trainer Cus D'Amato, and his heavyweight championship bouts. While the film certainly does hit on his many significant misfires in life -- his famous failed marriage to Robin Givens, his rape conviction in 1992, his biting of Evander Holyfield's ear in 1997 -- it oftentimes feels like they're glossed over. The only reason I likely am even saying that is that the film is told as an autobiography -- there's no narrator and the only person we hear speak (outside of archival footage) is Tyson himself. I was impressed that he actually spoke about his various issues, but I wanted a little bit more.

The film was a little jumpy, bouncing back and forth in time, and I don't think I needed to see Tyson reading a poem in a voiceover as he walks along the beach at sunset. Still, it was a decent look at this guy...but also showed that, without a doubt, he's nuts.

The RyMickey Rating: C+

2009 Newark Film Festival

Starting today, I'm headed to exotic Newark, Delaware, to attend the 2009 Newark Film Festival. At this point, I'm feeling like the fest is a little heavy on documentaries, but I'm all for docs as long as they're interesting and have a point. Also, it's slightly disappointing that two or three of these just recently came out on dvd. Oh, well...I'm looking at this as prep for the Philly Film Fest next April.

It'll be 21 movies spread out over six days...so expect a bunch of posts for a bunch of movies you've never heard of within the next few days...

Movie Review - The Big Lebowski (1998)

Starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and John Turturro
Directed by Joel Coen (and an uncredited Ethan Coen)

I'm not really gonna go into a summary here as nearly everyone I know has seen it already. There's a lot of depth here for a comedy, both in story and in dialogue. There's an intelligence in the verbiage used here that shines through despite the fact that we're dealing with some dumb (or at the very least lazy) folks...and it shockingly didn't feel out of place. Characters (even the most minor ones) are well defined and each really has their own unique voice and manner of speaking.

It's the characters and the actors that play them who make this movie the comedic gem that it is. Jeff Bridges is genius as The Dude, taking the slacker routine that has been seen so many times on film to a new level. And just when you think you're seeing something great in Bridges, along come John Goodman who has one of the best supporting roles I've seen onscreen in ages. His volatile bitterness and shifts from happiness to anger were ridiculously hilarious. Goodman's role is certainly the stand-out here, but Julianne Moore and Steve Buscemi also are pretty damn good in their smaller roles, making a sizable impression despite less screen time.

Obviously, these actors have the Coen brothers to thank. At this point, this is by far my favorite Coen brothers movie I've seen to date (although I know I've got much more in their oeuvre to go...and I'm not gonna hear the end of it until I see them all). The wit and intelligence they bring to the screen is refreshing. Bring on the rest of their stuff...

The RyMickey Rating: B+

Movie Review - All About Steve (2009)

Starring Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, Bradley Cooper, and Ken Jeong
Directed by Phil Traill

Like Sandra Bullock's last movie, The Proposal, All About Steve is a flick where her central character is annoying, obnoxious, and altogether unappealing, but she surrounds herself with some good actors who are actually given funny things to do. It's unfortunate that her main character couldn't be less ridiculous.

Mary Magdalene Horowitz (Bullock) writes crossword puzzles. She has no life outside of her work. Her parents set her up on a blind date with a tv news cameraman named Steve (Bradley Cooper). After a brief five minute date during which Mary alluringly pounces (or, more like sexually attacks) Steve in his van, Steve tells Mary that he just received a phone call that he needs to head to cover some story in the Midwest. However, his throwaway line to her -- something along the lines of "You should come, too" or "I'll see you there" -- is taken to heart by Mary and she travels across the country because she insanely believes that this guy wants to be with her. Of course, in the end, Mary learns her lesson that she doesn't need a man to be happy (oops...ruined it for you, but you can see that coming a mile away, I promise).

As I said above, whenever the movie focuses on Mary, it's a failure. However, when the flick spends time with Steve and his co-workers -- news reporter Hartman (Thomas Haden Church) and assistant Angus (Ken Jeong) -- it's actually really funny. All three of these guys had different comedic styles, but they all meshed and there were many moments where I laughed quite loudly because of them.

Overall, this isn't a good movie, but there's certainly worse out there. It's got some good lines and some good secondary characters...it's just got a ridiculously awful central character.

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Movie Review - The Beaches of Agnes

Directed by Agnes Varda

I'll be honest here. This was probably the most surreal movie I've seen this year and I'm sure that certain things meant something deep and meaningful, but I absolutely didn't "get" any of that insight while watching this movie. It's essentially a cinematic autobiography of French filmmaker Agnes Varda. She retells the story of her life story by using film clips from her movies (and the movies of other French filmmakers including her husband Jacques Demy) and by creating new scenes to detail her past.

It's all too ridiculous to understand (and it probably didn't help that I had never heard of this woman before stepping foot into the theater). There's some six-foot tall orange wooden-cutout of a cat that interviews her in a Stephen Hawking-type voice. There's a bunch of mirrors set up on the beach to capture...well, I'm not sure what they're supposed to capture. And if you ever wanted to see two naked people nuzzle up to each other while wearing pillow cases over their heads, well, this is the movie for you.

Yet, somehow, I wasn't really bored during this. It ran on about 20 minutes too long, but it was certainly a head trip...and in a good way. Still, I can't really say that I'd recommend this because, although it was certainly interesting to watch, it wasn't exactly what I'd call "enjoyable." That being said, I'm sure the lack of enjoyability stems from the fact that I know next to nothing about Ms. Varda (and my knowledge of French cinema as a whole is very limited...although I did recognize the Umbrellas of Cherbourg clips [which was her husband's film]...see a review of that enchanting film here...). Had I known something about her, I may have at least understood a little more about her surrealistic point of view. And the thing is, unlike the music from the artists showcased in It Might Get Loud where I wanted to learn more about their stuff after I watched the film, I really don't feel the need to rush out and get a trippy Varda film (although I'm not opposed to watching anything of hers).

So, in conclusion, an interesting movie that I really didn't understand all that much.

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - World's Greatest Dad (2009)

Starring Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, Alexie Gilmore, Henry Simmons, and Geoffrey Pierson
Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait

There are two distinctly different tones in this movie here. Neither are bad, but the beginning outweighs the ending which brings the overall rating down a notch.

Robin Williams plays Lance Clayton, an English teacher, struggling writer, and single father to Kyle (played by Spy Kids alum Daryl Sabara). Kyle isn't exactly the nicest teenager. All that's on his mind is sex and, honestly, he's probably the nastiest, rudest kid that I've seen in a movie this year. There's much more to this black comedy, but I don't really want to discuss it as it's best left for you to witness it as it unfolds onscreen.

Williams is really quite good in this. His character takes an emotional journey in this movie and I believed every second of it. Also, I was amazed at how impressed I was with Daryl Sabara. I remember liking this kid in Spy Kids, but he took what could've been (and was) an outrageous character and made him watchable (and this character could've so easily veered into the "too overboard" category). Unfortunately, the film falters a bit with Lance's love interest -- Alexie Gilmore's Claire is too cutesy and the dialogue between her and Williams at times felt a tad forced.

Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait hasn't crafted a perfect film here (I have problems with the second half as my fellow moviegoer is aware...oh, the argument that ensued in the movie theater...), but it's surprisingly moving and funny. For the first 45 minutes, I laughed (oftentimes uncomfortably) a whole lot, and the last 45, while I'm not fawning over it, wasn't at all bad.

This one's worth checking out if black comedy is your thing...it's certainly not for everyone, but it was a fun watch for me.

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - My One and Only (2009)

Starring Renée Zellweger, Logan Lerman, Chris Noth, David Koechner, and Kevin Bacon
Directed by Richard Loncraine

My One and Only opens with a shot of a nuclear bomb exploding with Renée Zellweger's name popping up mid-explosion. That's pretty much how I feel about her career. How this woman is popular is beyond me. She is absolutely one of my least favorite actresses working today and the fact that she has an Oscar is inexcusable. She does herself no favors with this really horrendous movie.

Zellweger is Anne Deveraux who, at the beginning of the film, discovers that her husband (an awful Kevin Bacon) is cheating on her and decides to take her two sons out of NYC and travel from place to place hoping to find a new man to support her. Each man that she meets seems worse than the next and, in the end, she really doesn't learn her lesson. In one way or another (although albeit in a slightly different manner than she expected), she's still reliant on a guy to support her in the end.

But, really, this isn't a movie about Anne. It's a movie about her son, George, who we know is both smart and "different" from his superficial mom because he likes the book "The Catcher in the Rye." He just wants to be in school and learn and get smart...and his mom just wants to run around the country like a floozy, looking for a man. It turns out this flick is loosely based on the life of "actor" George Hamilton and I couldn't care less.

The only thing saving this movie from a complete failure is Logan Lerman (who was also recently in Gamer) as George. He was actually decent and he did what he could to negate Zellweger's heinous face scrunching which she equates with acting.

The RyMickey Rating: D-

Movie Review - Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Directed by Aviva Kempner

As the poster says "You don't have to be Jewish to love Molly," and it's true. Molly Goldberg, a character created by Gertrude Berg in the 1930s, is a simply Jewish mother living in New York City going through her everyday routine...there's nothing to dislike about this typical homemaker. Apparently (or so the filmmakers would have us believe) this Gertrude Berg woman was pretty darn popular on radio and later on television starring in her own sitcom, but for some reason, I've never heard of her at all. And I probably never would've heard of her except that this movie for some inexplicable reason has been playing at the Ritz for weeks now...so we figured we might as well check it out since it's got some huge staying power.

Unfortunately, the film is just an A&E Biography-type thing of Gertrude Berg. It glosses over anything bad or remotely questionable (not explaining why her popular radio show was canceled or dropped or not renewed was the biggest issue, in my eyes) and paints this woman as a saint. And maybe she was, but the praises heaped on this gal were overblown...more popular than FDR and his wife! The most well-known woman in America! Pshaw! Really? If she really was so well known, I feel like I'd at least have heard about her. Sure, I may not have known a thing about her, but I find it hard to believe that I've never heard the name uttered before if she was the greatest thing since matzah as everyone interviewed here would have you believe. Also, it should be noted that with movies being the visual medium that they are, there's nothing more exciting than watching people sitting around a radio listening to the sound waves coming out of it. Not only do we get shots of this once or twice, but it felt like this was all we saw during the first twenty minutes of the movie (I'm exaggerating a little there...but not much).

I wasn't looking for an in-depth analysis of this woman's pros and cons, but something with a little more oomph would've been nice because as it stands now, this simply belongs on any PBS station during a "give-us-your-money telethon."

FINAL TIDBIT: Another ridiculous thing...at the beginning of the movie, they say that Gertrude was extremely influential in terms of creating the first "sitcom-like" television show. In order to show this influence, they show Gertrude (and several guest stars on her show) walking through a doorway on the set of "Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg" into the Goldberg residence. Apparently, shows like Seinfeld, Friends, and I Love Lucy copied this from Gertrude because we see clips of Kramer, Chandler Bing, and Ricky Ricardo walking through doors to get into their apartments, too! Naturally, people didn't walk into apartments through doors prior to "Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg," they just magically appeared.

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Movie Review - It Might Get Loud (2009)

Directed by Davis Guggenheim

Just the first of over ten documentaries I'll be watching over the next week, It Might Get Loud brings three renowned electric guitarists together for a closed-door jam session -- Jimmy Page of Led Zepplin fame who came onto the scene in the late 60s/early 70s, The Edge from U2 who popped up in the 80s, and Jack White of the White Stripes and The Raconteurs who came onto the scene in the late 90s/the aughts -- so they can tell their stories of how they came to love their six-stringed instruments.

I'm certainly not the music buff, but I thoroughly enjoyed this flick. I knew a little about each of the guys featured here, but it was interesting to see how they each started out, got their first guitars, joined their first bands, etc. That being said, learning each of those things about each of these guys was also the flick's problem. The movie ran on for about 20 minutes too long and it's partly because we learn about Page's first guitar, The Edge's first guitar, and then White's first guitar, and then we learn about Page's first band, The Edge's first band (which contained the core group of U2, so he really was only in one band, if I remember correctly), and White's first band. Then we move onto the same thing again and again. Granted, it's interesting to learn about each guy's story, but it grew to be slightly repetitive.

Nevertheless, I certainly enjoyed this flick, appreciated the way it was shot, and it absolutely makes me want to go out and listen to the music of each of these guys' bands.

The RyMickey Rating: B

A Book a Week - Handle With Care

Book Thirty-Four of the Book-a-Week Quest

Handle with Care
by Jodi Picoult (2009)

So, I've never read anything by Jodi Picoult, but I did see My Sister's Keeper (and enjoyed it) in theaters this year. Handle With Care is essentially the same story as that movie, with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI -- a severe brittle bone disease) taking the place of cancer (Granted, I didn't read the novel My Sister's Keeper, but there were an abundance of similarities between this book and that movie, and I imagine that My Sister's Keeper the movie is somewhat similar to the book). Still, despite the likeness, I couldn't help but enjoy this book (for the most part). It was a breeze to read and honestly kept me on the edge of my seat wondering the outcome.

Told from five different perspectives, this is the tale of Willow, a young six-year old girl with OI -- a disease that could cause her bones to break with a single sneeze. What was unique to me about the novel is that Picoult switches between five narrators, a technique that she apparently used in My Sister's Keeper, as well. Charlotte is the mother who decides to sue her ob-gyn for "wrongful birth" for supposedly not giving Charlotte the choice of terminating her pregnancy once it was discovered that Willow had OI in the womb. Piper is another narrator and Charlotte's best friend...and also her ob-gyn. Suffice it to say, suing your best friend doesn't go over too well. We also see the perspective of Sean, Charlotte's husband who doesn't agree with Charlotte's litigious mindset which causes a huge rift in their marriage. Marin, Charlotte's lawyer, is narrator #4 (my least favorite) who has a backstory with her trying to find her birth mother via various adoption agencies. The last narrator is Amelia, Willow's sister, who is a thirteen-year old girl having to deal with the fact that all her family's attention is focused on her ailing sister. From the very beginning, the reader sees that Amelia is in trouble emotionally and it becomes evident when she begins to cut herself and develops an eating disorder.

Jumping back and forth between these five narrators certainly provided an interesting perspective for me, and it was enjoyable. There's a somewhat different "voice" for each of the characters and Picoult does a good job of spending just enough time with each narrator before switching to someone else.

Picoult's writing style is a breeze to read and she really does make this emotional story a page turner. However, my biggest issue with the story is that I feel like it wrapped up much too quickly. The book is nearly 500 pages, yet I can't help but think that the ending felt tacked on as an afterthought. I've invested a ton of time with these characters, I'd at least hope for a decent build up to the ending...and it just kind of happened, causing all that build-up and tension to vanish. Plus, and this irritated me to no end, there's a "surprise ending" that was so ridiculously unnecessary that I was literally angry when I closed the book when I read the last page. There was absolutely no reason for the conclusion except to yell "SHOCKED YOU, DIDN'T I?" It left such a bad taste in my mouth after I had enjoyed the book immensely up until that point.

Nevertheless, despite the fault (and it's a huge one, in my opinion), the book (at this point) is still gonna make the Top Ten list over on the right-hand side of the blog. I would certainly pick up another Picoult novel in the future, however, I have heard that a lot of her books follow this same pattern of various narrators and this surprise ending. I'm unsure whether that's true (and, while this various narrators thing was fun for one book, the gimmick may get old), but I wouldn't be opposed to reading at least one more book by the author.

Movie Review - Carriers (2009)

Starring Lou Taylor Pucci, Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Emily Van Camp, and Christopher Meloni
Directed by Alex and David Pastor

Some form of deadly virus has swept across the United States (the world? Who knows...we're not really told), killing nearly everyone. There are a few survivors and this movie follows four of them -- two brothers, the older bro's girlfriend, and some other girl who (maybe?) is friends with the younger brother. They travel across the US, looking for food, shelter, and, well, I'm not really sure what else.

The movie overall is very vague. Yes, there's a virus, but we don't really find out what the virus does and we certainly don't find out why the virus spread so quickly. There's a lot of open-endedness here. Part of me kind of liked that the film didn't answer all my questions. But the film isn't quite good enough to earn a complete pass on the vagueness.

However, despite that, I kind of liked this movie, and in better hands than the writer-director Pastor duo, this could've been a really interesting character study. A film focused solely on four young adults and their coping with this apocalyptic barren world could've been kind of cool. And it was kind of cool, but only kind of, and that's where it falls short. Looking back on it now, it's one set-up followed by another set-up followed by another, and we're just slowly moving from scene to scene without any real emotional build-up or rise in tension.

I thought the acting was fine, but there were some horribly written lines here and no one could have really delivered them any better. Chris Pine was quite good in Star Trek and I actually think he was okay here (although he started to falter at the end). Similarly, Piper Perabo was okay, but her role started to fall apart as the film progressed (not her fault, though). Emily Van Camp and Lou Taylor Pucci (who is he and why did he get top billing?) were adequate in their roles.

So, the thing is, this isn't going to get a rating that falls into the recommended category or even in the "recommended for some" category, but it came pretty darn close. There's a good movie in there somewhere...it's a shame that the filmmakers weren't a little more adept at molding it into one.

The RyMickey Rating: C-

Movie Review - Extract (2009)

Starring Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristin Wiig, David Koechner, J.K. Simmons, Clifton Collins, Jr., and Ben Affleck
Directed by Mike Judge

Huge fan of the Mike Judge-created King of the Hill here. I could watch the show for hours on end. This flick isn't even close to matching the humor seen there.

Jason Bateman runs a company that makes flavor extracts. There's an accident one day that causes one of his workers (Clifton Collins, Jr., in his worst role this year) to lose one of his testicles (Laugh...it's supposed to be funny...Not laughing?...I wasn't either). Some hot lady crook (Mila Kunis) sees an easy way of getting money by convincing the hurt worker to sue the extract company for millions...she'll marry him, divorce him, and get his dough.

There's really no point in going into any more detail because there's really no point in anyone going to see this movie in the first place. Yes, there were some funny lines, but the whole movie just felt unusually flat. I'm no director, but I'm sure there's some modicum of difficulty when filming a comedy...trying to figure out whether you need to pause a split second here for laughter or whether the next line of dialogue should follow immediately. This movie just laid there onscreen with the poor direction and poor story (also by Judge) taking center stage.

Bateman and Affleck were okay and, even though she didn't do anything special, Kristin Wiig is an enjoyable comedienne to me. That being said, I honestly don't care enough to write anymore about this one.

The RyMickey Rating: D-

Movie Review - Surveillance (2009)

Starring Bill Pullman, Julia Ormond, Pell James, French Stewart, Cheri Oteri, and Kent Harper
Directed by Jennifer Lynch

Two people have been urging me to see this movie since they both saw it at the Philly Film Festival last April. My comment on another blog said something along the lines of "I'm not a David Lynch fan, and if his daughter's just as weird, I'm not sure about this one." Well, I was right that flick was a tad weird, but I really, really loved this movie.

For the most part, it's a straightforward flick with two FBI agents (Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond) investigating a series of murders in some small town out in Middle America. As they interrogate three witnesses, the crime unfolds in a series of flashbacks.

**A spoiler in the broadest sense of the term follows. Still, I'd skip the next paragraph if you're interested in seeing this film at all.**

I must admit that I didn't see the ending coming at all. Thinking back on it, I'm kicking myself for not seeing it, but when the big revelation of the flick occurs, I let out an audible gasp, followed by the words "Holy Fuck." Pardon my French (and I'm not talking about French Stewart of 3rd Rock from the Sun fame even though he was pretty awesome in this as a twisted cop), but it was a guttural reaction. I was floored. Like I said, it's not as if it should have been completely surprising, but it really surprised the hell out of me.

**END OF SPOILERS**

Yes, it's certainly true that the acting was kind of silly and forced by a lot of folks here, but it didn't really bother me in the slightest. Jennifer Lynch and her co-writer Kent Harper (who also plays a crooked cop) had me hooked from the very beginning. From the opening credit sequence which is interspersed with a murder to the interrogation scenes to the flashbacks, there wasn't a minute that I was bored during this movie. So, despite some less than stellar acting, the story here won me over and completely helped to overshadow some minor problems. Yes, it certainly turns twisted and Lynchian (there's a scene towards the end that was extremely disturbing to me which I'll spoil in the comments), but I really enjoyed the heck out of this movie. At this point, without a doubt, one of my favorites of the year. If this is what the film festival has in store for me next year, I'm gonna love it.

The RyMickey Rating: A-

Comments closed due to massive amounts of spamming.

Movie Review - Gamer (2009)

Starring Gerard Butler, Amber Valeetta, Michael C. Hall, Kyra Sedgwick, Logan Lerman, Alison Lohman, and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor

From the crazy minds that brought us Crank 2 comes this new insane creation. Set in a future "some years from this exact moment," Gerard Butler is Kable, a man on death row for murder, who is also a player in a new virtual reality game/reality show called "Slayers" created by the nutty billionaire Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall). In the game, nanochips are implanted into death row inmates' heads that allow them to be controlled solely by video game enthusiasts when the chips are activated. Should any inmate complete 30 levels of the game, they will earn their freedom and have their slates washed clean.

Crank: High Voltage was completely balls-to-the-wall psychotic and nuts, and that was one of the reasons I loved it. Unfortunately, Gamer doesn't quite reach that level. The action scenes in this movie were pretty damn cool. Sure, they were spastic and all over the place, but they were completely enjoyable. The unfortunate thing is that when the flick veers away from the "Slayers" game and into "Society", the other game created by Ken Castle, the film focuses on the "subversive humor" that was prevalent in Crank and it kind of lost me. That humor worked in Crank because the whole entire movie wallowed in that humor. This flick is much more of an action pic and I honestly just wanted it to get back to action.

Butler is fine in this, but he's not given anything to do and his character is absolutely one-note...not his fault. His wife in the flick, Amber Valletta, hasn't been good in anything I've seen her in and she continues that trend here. The star of the flick is certainly Michael C. Hall -- absurdly crazy and insanely funny, his character was so far over-the-top that you couldn't help but love him.

So, this flick isn't Crank, but directors/writers Neveldine/Taylor carry on the tradition of not giving a shit and creating nutty and freaky cinema. I certainly didn't dislike the film, although it's not quite as good as their previous effort this year.

The RyMickey Rating: C

Classic Movie Review - Double Indemnity (1944)

So I got to see one of my favorite movies of all time on 35mm last night. As I posted on Facebook, there's something special about watching old black-and-white movies on 35mm film in a theater. Call me a film geek, but I love the scratches, the sound fading in and out, the communal experience of seeing a film with an audience. In my original review below, I state that Double Indemnity may be in my Top Ten favorite movies of all time, but I'm fairly certain now that the film is entrenched in my Top Five movies. I love it. It's not perfect, but I love it nonetheless.

Below is a repost of my original review of the film.

***Originally posted on January 31, 2009***

starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinson
directed by Billy Wilder
screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler

Neff: You want to know who killed Deitrichson? Hold tight to that cheap cigar of yours, Keyes. I killed Dietrichson. Me, Walter Neff, 35 years old, unmarried, no physical scars...until a while ago, that is. Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money and for a woman. And I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman. Pretty, isn't it? It all began last May...

Seriously, they don't make movies like this anymore. With all the crap that they release today, it's nice to see that the film industry at least was able to produce excellent movies at one point in time and thank goodness we can go back and watch them.

A classic film noir, Double Indemnity has all that you would expect in the genre -- people doing bad things to get what they want, putting the audience on the side of the killer, a femme fatale, smoky rooms, and shadowy shots.

Walter Neff (MacMurray), an insurance sales man, confesses at the very beginning of the film to the murder of a man -- a man whose wife Walter has fallen in love with. Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) is unhappy in her marriage and she makes that perfectly clear when Neff visits the Dietrichson home on a sunny summer afternoon to renew her husband's auto insurance. The hubby isn't home, but Phyllis and Neff hit it off right away -- bouncing some incredibly witty, sexy lines off of each other (I am a big Billy Wilder fan and he does not disappoint here).

Unhappy in her marriage, Phyllis desires to take out accident insurance on her husband without his knowledge -- a sure giveaway that she intends to somehow kill him and take the insurance money. Neff doesn't want to be involved at first, but his newfound infatuation takes him over and he agrees to help Phyllis plan and carry out her husband's murder so long as they'll be together in the end.

Believe me, that's not ruining a thing for you as that is all laid out in the first thirty minutes of the film. And it's not ruining a thing to tell you that their plan doesn't succeed as they had planned...heck, you discover that within the first three minutes. It's what happens leading up to the murder and the clean-up afterwards that's a doozy. It's not that it's got a shocker ending like movies today, but there are plenty of unexpected twists that it never gets the least bit boring.



The acting is all top-notch. MacMurray (best known to me as the Absent Minded Professor of Disney movies) is the everyman who turns to the dark side -- completely believable as both a good guy and a bad one. Stanwyck is great -- sexy (in that 1940s Hollywood kind of way) and completely slimy at the same time. You know she's no good from the get-go, but you're lured in by her sultry mystique. Edward G. Robinson, playing an insurance claims investigator (and Neff's co-worker who is researching the Dietrichson case) is a hoot. His wise-ass retorts were spot-on.

And it's Wilder who's to thank for the words that come out of these characters' mouths. The repartee between Neff and Phyllis is amazing -- some of the best lines I've heard in a long time. As I already said, he saves a lot of great stuff for Robinson's character as well.

There's not a wasted scene in this movie. I can't recommend this one more highly. If you haven't seen it, put it in your Netflix queue right away.

The RyMickey Rating: A

I'm going to try and make this classic movie review (movies pre-1980) thing happen once a week. I'm not sure they'll always be good movies (as I may take the time to watch movies I haven't seen before), but I'm hoping that the "classic" moniker will make most of them decent!

Movie Review - Cold Souls (2009)

Starring Paul Giamatti, Dina Korzun, Emily Watson, David Strathairn, Katheryn Winnick, and Lauren Ambrose
Directed by Sophie Barthes

Admittedly, this movie started out with me not enjoying it one bit. I didn't know a whole lot about it, but I knew that at 25 minutes in, I was longing for it to be over. The story of Paul Giamatti (he's playing himself...the actor) who decides to put his soul into storage in order to (hopefully) become a better actor and raise his spirits starts off way too metaphysical and psychological for me to enjoy. I always hated psychology class in college and once you start getting all deep and talking about souls and all that crap, you lose me. I kept telling myself if the next 60 minutes were going to be like this, I was in for one of my least favorite movie experiences of the year.

But then, something happened. The movie shifted from metaphysical mumbo jumbo to a real emotional tale about a nice guy (that'd be Paul) simply trying to become a somewhat better person all around. When Paul "rents" the soul of a Russian poet, I think he kind of realizes that his life isn't as bad as he thought and he soon longs to have his own soul back (although complications arise with that).

As I let this movie stew in my mind for close to 12 hours now, I must admit that I enjoyed it a bit more than I thought I did initially. Yes, I really disliked the first act of the flick, but the actors (pretty much across the board) were all damn good. I walked out of this saying that I wasn't all that overly impressed with Giamatti, but in retrospect, he certainly carried this movie and displayed a range of emotions while doing so. All the ladies in it (who, with the exception of Emily Watson were unknowns to me) were excellent as well (and pretty hot...always a nice plus, but note that this doesn't affect the rating).

Director-writer Sophie Barthes didn't win me over completely in terms of her writing, but she definitely proves to be a more-than-adequate director. I'll admit that I thought this was going to be just a mash-up of Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but as I was watching it, those movies didn't really come to my mind at all.

Sure it's weird and sure I didn't like the first act of the film, but I must admit that I like this movie now more than I thought I did when I left it.

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Movie Review - Thirst (2009)

Starring Kang-ho Song and Ok-vin Kim
Directed by Chan-wook Park
--in Japanese w/ English subtitles--

In its simplest form, this is the tale of Catholic priest Sang-hyeon who agrees to take part in some experiment to see if some medication can prevent some viral infection (or something like that). The priest is the only survivor of the experiment, but the medication somehow turns him into a vampire (so, I guess he really didn't survive if he's now one of the "undead"). He keeps his vampire characteristics a secret, but he is soon well-known across the country as "the one who survived the experiment" and meets a mother whose adult son has cancer. The son is married to the young Tae-Joo who hates her husband and dreams of killing him. In his quest for blood, Sang-hyeon soon spirals out of control, falling prey to some of the deadly sins that he tried to stay away from as a mortal priest. Sang-hyeon sees Tae-Joo's desperation and soon falls in love with her. There's some kinky sex acts involved and the oddest slurping sounds I've ever heard on film. Sure, there's more than that, but I don't want to ruin it in case anyone's interested in seeing this one.

First off, Chan-wook Park's direction here is great. There are some beautiful shots, coupled with some really cool techniques. I noticed quite a few long takes here (nothing super-long, but long enough to make me notice them). I am truly interested in seeing Park's other stuff now as I was thoroughly impressed with this.

Second, I liked the performances of Kang-ho Song as the priest and Ok-vin Kim as his young lover. Granted, neither were off-the-charts excellent here, but Song started out quiet and meek and turned into some weird vampiric crazy guy. Same for Kim...sure she was playing what was essentially an annoying teenager, but there were scenes she was in towards the end of this movie where I thought she was stellar.

Yes, the movie runs a little too long and it started out a little slow. And it does get a little (okay, a lot) weird as the priest and his lover begin to spiral out of control -- which makes the tone of the movie shift from serious to almost campy...but that worked for me. This certainly isn't a movie for everyone, but if vampire lore or foreign films interest you, you may want to check it out.

The RyMickey Rating: B