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Body of Lies: Tense in Some Parts, Tedious in Others

BuzzSugar — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:30:41 -0700

Body of Lies has slipped on and off my radar over the past couple of months. It's hard to ignore because it's Ridley Scott working with Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, and yet the previews haven't looked all that original. But I went anyway, hoping to be entertained and thinking that if it turned out to be thought-provoking as well, all the better.

The thing is, this movie doesn't do more than it has to in terms of both entertainment and thought-provocation. There's a tedious quality to it that, despite some good action scenes and funny lines, is hard to shake. That said, I appreciate that Scott aims to give us a slightly different, more psychological view of life on the ground for American operatives in the Middle East. But to see why I'm a bit torn about this movie,

Rachel Getting Married: Riveting and Painful Realism

BuzzSugar — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:30:53 -0700

I normally cry at weddings (and wedding scenes), so spending a whole wedding weekend with Rachel and her family in Rachel Getting Married was quite the teary experience. It’s not all weeping and sighing (though there's a lot of that, in both the joyful and the heart-wrenching scenes) — there is also silliness and humor. It's a movie about forgiveness, heartache and the tenderness of human frailty. So, despite the lovely main plot point (a backyard wedding overflowing with the generosity of friends and family), it's incredibly heavy.

Rachel (Rosemarie Dewitt) is indeed getting married at her father's home in Connecticut, and her recovering addict sister Kym (Anne Hathaway) is coming home from rehab to spend the weekend with her family. The duration of the movie takes place over this weekend as we watch the roots of the family's dysfunction unravel before us. There isn't a ton that happens in the story, but an awful lot is said and even more implied. The family spends the weekend in the warm company of friends and family, but while the guests are in full wedding celebration mode, the simmering emotions between the sisters, their father and their mother boil over, creating some majorly messy drama. For more of my thoughts on the film,

Blindness: To See, a Brutal Gift

BuzzSugar — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:30:08 -0700

I saw Blindness by myself, with nothing to occupy me on the way home but a copy of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Bad idea. This movie requires a funny friend or mindless magazine afterward to decompress. I don't shy away from depressing films, but Blindness is one of the bleakest things I've ever seen on screen. At times bleaker even than Babel or Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. But cheery isn't really an option when portraying a dystopia plagued by a mysterious epidemic "immune to bureaucracy."

Based on the novel by Nobel laureate Jose Saramago and directed by Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardner), this apocalyptic allegory is imperfect but powerful. Reminiscent of Children of Men and old zombie flicks, Blindness begins with a man going blind while driving. His eye doctor (Mark Ruffalo) is puzzled by the affliction, in which eyesight is obscured by white rather than cloaked in dark. But soon the doctor is also rendered blind by the contagion, so

Appaloosa: Solid Entertainment But Could Have Been More

BuzzSugar — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:33:32 -0700

Appaloosa is a totally passable and — to my surprise — fun (and funny) Western movie. I'm amazed Ed Harris, the star/director/co-writer of the film, hasn't played more gunslingers, because his face was built for it. Under the shadow of a wide-brimmed hat, his skin looks believably weathered and creased, his bone structure sturdy and chiseled. By contrast, Harris's costar, Viggo Mortensen, is not what I think of when I think "cowboy." He's long and lean and hardly recognizable under a strange (but probably historically accurate) haircut and facial hair. His character drags around one of those giant long-barreled shotguns as opposed to expertly twirling a smaller one out of his holster.

The pair make a fine acting duo; they have an easy chemistry I could watch all night long. Beyond that, Appaloosa tells a well-thought-out story. But unlike Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven or last year's remake of 3:10 to Yuma, there is no new cinematic ground being broken here. For the most part, it's simply a traditional Western, which — depending on your outlook — can either be a great way to spend a night at the movies or a teensy bit disappointing. To see what I mean, just

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist: It's Just So Cute

BuzzSugar — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:30:19 -0700

I'm trying to separate the experience of watching the movie Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist from the experience of reading the book. In truth, the two bear only a few similarities and I enjoyed the book more than the movie. Still, as a standalone piece of entertainment, the movie version is fun and silly and adorable, mostly due to the great cast. At the heart of what's so likable about it are Nick and Norah themselves, two precocious, creative, music-loving teens who spend a wacky night in New York City together, both learning to grow beyond their past relationships and into something that feels exciting and right. Ah, young love. Is there anything sweeter?

If there is, it's Michael Cera's cute little face. He plays Nick, a funny, self-deprecating young man who is the sole straight guy in his band. He's struggling to get over his ex, Tris (Alexis Dziena), when he meets Norah (Kat Dennings), a droll, witty girl who shares Nick's love for a band called Where's Fluffy? Nick and Norah have an immediate connection and Nick's bandmates, sensing the possibility for Nick to forget Tris, offer to take Norah's drunk friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) home, and send Norah off with Nick in his yellow, beat-up Yugo. Things go awry, of course: Caroline runs away from Nick's friends, Nick and Norah have a fight, Tris becomes jealous and follows Nick around the city, and Norah's sort-of-ex-boyfriend Tal (Jay Baruchel) keeps making Norah feel conflicted. Through it all, these cool, indie teens are trying to figure out where Where's Fluffy? is playing their secret show in New York. For my thoughts on all this,

The Duchess: Oh, the (Beautifully Costumed) Drama!

BuzzSugar — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:30:41 -0700

Of course The Duchess is dramatic. Georgiana Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire, led a dramatic life and she herself was a dramatic — and smart, and charismatic — woman. I really liked this movie, but I might have liked it more if it were a slightly broader examination of the Duchess. I don't mean that they should have included more years in her life (I think that would have been a mistake) but the vast majority of the film is about her romantic and reproductive woes. She was a daring, intelligent, and remarkably influential woman during a time when women were expected to be anything but those things. While I liked this sweeping period drama, I might have enjoyed less soap opera and a tad more substance.

The costumes, however, cannot be disputed, for they are devastatingly gorgeous. I would watch this movie over and over with the sound off just to feast my eyes on the clothes. Dressed to perfection in every scene, Keira Knightley plays Georgiana, who marries William Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire when she is just a teenager. The marriage is soon strained as it appears that Georgiana will only bear daughters. While the relationship grows bitter in private, Georgiana starts to become quite popular in public and immerses herself in the world of politics and high society. She's a natural charmer and trend-setter, though her husband puts more and more distance between them, choosing other women over his wife. Before long, Georgiana finds herself falling in love with a young politician, Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper), but the threat of scandal proves too great for the Duke and Duchess and a relationship with Charles is forbidden. There's much more to the story, but I won't spoil things for you. I can still share some thoughts, though, so

Nights in Rodanthe: Something to Watch With Grandma

BuzzSugar — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:30:40 -0700

As you might've predicted, Nights in Rodanthe is a sentimental, non-threatening weepie that could have just as easily been made for TV and run on the Hallmark channel. The story is bland and yet sugar-saturated at the same time. It's tame, not too racy and it features unlayered characters. There’s redemption in the male character’s storyline and an awakening in the woman’s. It’s boring as all get-out sometimes, and tries its damndest to make you cry. So, in other words, it's your average Nicholas Sparks stuff.

Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane) separated from her husband after he cheated on her with her best friend. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) is a doctor whose workaholic tendencies drove away his wife and son (played by James Franco). After a patient dies on his operating table, Paul travels to Rodanthe to meet with the patient's husband. He stays at the inn that Adrienne is running while her friend is away. There's a big storm that brings the two of them together, bada bing bada boom, they both learn how to love again. What follows is a string of scenes meant to be either heartwarming or heartbreaking, depending on Diane Lane's incredibly expressive face. For more of my thoughts on all this,

The Lucky Ones: Surprisingly Funny and Cute

BuzzSugar — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:00:38 -0700

It's hard to say bad things about a movie this well-intentioned and sweet. It's a story about Iraq War soldiers that is heartwarming and funny, which is something we haven't seen much in films about the current war. I have no idea why the trailer for The Lucky Ones includes Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You," a song practically engineered to force people to cry, because this movie isn't really sad. I brought tissues and I didn't even use them.

Rachel McAdams is the biggest reason to see this, as her character is so incredibly endearing and McAdams portrays her perfectly. She plays Colee, a young soldier on a 30-day leave from Iraq after a gunshot wound to the leg. Colee is an (extremely) open book, blunt to a fault and full of wide-eyed, childlike naiveté. Tim Robbins is career soldier Cheever who is leaving the Army for good after suffering a back injury. Michael Pena plays TK, a bit of an insufferable know-it-all whose "private parts" are not quite back to normal after being wounded. The three are stranded in New York when they land and discover that all flights have been canceled. There is one rental car available to them at the airport, and thus the three embark on a road trip together. Nothing — seriously, nothing — goes as planned, however, and challenges pop up for these characters faster than a whack-a-mole game. This bombardment of predicaments is both funny and problematic, though, so to find out more,

Miracle at St. Anna: Epically Disappointing

BuzzSugar — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:30:10 -0700

The conflicted and heroic history of World War II's Buffalo Soldiers deserves to be told in a dramatic and thoughtful movie. Unfortunately, Miracle at St. Anna is neither of those things. After seeing the subtle trailer, I was curious how Spike Lee's style would translate into a war epic, but I never imagined this. The overdone melodrama is so weighed down with trivial details that it loses the potentially powerful impact of its subject matter.

With Miracle at St. Anna, Lee sets out to correct that fact that black soldiers have been largely absent from WWII cinema and memory. To that end, the story follows four members of the 92nd Infantry Division, comprised of 15,000 African-American troops. After a devastating battle on the Italian frontlines, the surviving foursome — Stamps (Derek Luke), Bishop (Michael Ealy), Hector (Laz Alonso), and Train (Omar Benson Miller) — are left to fend for themselves with a broken radio and an injured Italian kid they've picked up along the way. For what goes wrong,

Eagle Eye: Absurd . . . ly Fun

BuzzSugar — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:30:28 -0700

The story of Big Brother watching and controlling all of the helpless citizens in Eagle Eye might be more effective if it weren't quite so preposterous. That said, this movie intends to thrill and entertain, and it succeeds on all counts. It holds your attention with all the plot twists and the bombardment of explosions, the kind of explosions that make a certain audience cheer. Eagle Eye will probably not be an award-winner, but it's great for when you want to totally escape with a loud, ridiculous, big ol' Hollywood popcorn flick.

For starters, the two leads are seriously likable. I so enjoy watching Michelle Monaghan in pretty much anything (even crap like Made of Honor) because she seems so comfortable on screen. She's like someone we all might know. Not average, really, but familiar in a comforting way — smart, nurturing, sweet, tough. And Shia LaBeouf is utterly adorable in this film. It doesn't ask much of him, but he delivers nicely nonetheless. He plays Jerry Shaw, a slacker living in Chicago and having trouble making ends meet. The sudden death of his estranged twin brother Ethan sets off a series of baffling occurrences for Jerry, starting with a strange woman contacting him on the phone just as he's being set up to look like a terrorist. Oh, this is only the beginning, though, so

Towelhead: Sad, Disturbing, Just Like the Book

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:30:33 -0700

There's been some controversy and outrage surrounding Alan Ball's adaptation of Alicia Erian's novel Towelhead, which I might understand more if I hadn’t read the original work. People are calling the film "abhorrent," "ethically reprehensible and irresponsible," and "gratuitously offensive." And yet, this isn't really Ball’s fault. His adaptation is completely faithful to the novel — I don’t think there’s even one line of dialogue or one bit of action that isn’t in the book — so why wasn't there this reaction to the novel?

The story is shocking and disturbing. It’s a coming-of-age tale focusing on a young woman (Jasira, played poignantly by Summer Bishil in the film) who is half-Lebanese and half-white, living in a largely white Texas community with a strict father and a leery older male neighbor. Everything Jasira does (from using tampons to dating a black boy) seems to anger her father and disappoint her mother (played by Maria Bello). So, Jasira confuses the attention she gets from her leery neighbor (Aaron Eckhart) with a kind of true affection, which he easily exploits. Jasira's young sense of self and her burgeoning understanding of sexuality get all mixed up with abuse and humiliation and — occasionally — pleasure. This is just the tip-top of the iceberg, so

Ghost Town: Easygoing and Sweet

BuzzSugar — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:30:22 -0700

One of the things I like best about Ghost Town is that it doesn't ask anything of you. There's no brain power required, though it's not insultingly stupid or empty. It's not hysterically funny, but it's also not crude or painfully immature. For my money, it's certainly the most easygoing — easy to enjoy, easy to forget afterward — of all the movies out in theaters right now.

It's hard to categorize this movie, since it's not a romantic comedy, necessarily. There's not a lot of romance, and while there is comedy, it's often bittersweet, due to all the dead people. Ricky Gervais plays dentist Bertram Pincus, an ornery, solitary man who comes out of a medical procedure to discover that he died briefly during it. His momentary death gives him the ability to see people who have died but who are still hanging out on Earth because they have unfinished business. And now they implore Bertram to finish it for them. One such restless soul is Frank (Greg Kinnear) who needs Bertram to prevent Frank's widow, Gwen (Tea Leoni), from remarrying. The ghosts torment Bertram until he agrees to Frank's request, but as he goes about breaking up Gwen and her fiance, Bertram starts to fall for Gwen. To find out my take on it all,

Righteous Kill: Mostly Just Killing Time

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:39:24 -0700

You know, it's nice to see Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro up on the big screen together. It's sort of sweet to see the two enjoy some banter back and forth, two grumpy older men who happen to be film legends. But is it worth sitting through the mediocre, thrill-less thriller that is Righteous Kill? I'm not so sure.

Much of the movie feels incredibly familiar, and my guess is it wouldn't have gotten any attention if it weren't for the promise of "DeNiro and Pacino reuniting on the big screen!!" The script — and, frankly, the performances — are lacking so much, these two huge legendary names in the credits can't save it. For more of my thoughts on this,

The Women: Not Fizzy, Just Empty

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:34:00 -0700

Philosophically, the very existence of The Women is something that makes me cheer. As its title suggests, it's a movie full of only women — and many of them "women of a certain age," at that. Director and screenwriter Diane English spent years trying to steer her remake of George Cukor's 1939 classic to the screen, and I respect and admire her determination. A powerful remake of The Women could have sent yet another signal that moviegoers want to see women on screen in all their beautiful, imperfect, daffy, lovable, clueless, fantastic glory.

On screen, though, The Women disappoints to an almost depressing degree. It's not an outright disaster; there are good moments from nearly everyone in the gigantic cast. But it's not screwball enough to honor its '30s movie heritage, not clever enough to make for a fun night out at the theater. And its own message on women is utterly conflicted, threatening to undermine the potential positive impact of bringing an all-female movie to the big screen.

Meg Ryan stars as Mary Haines, whose life comes complete with adorable daughter, fabulous luncheons, and blooming garden she planted herself. If there are cracks in that shiny veneer, she'd hardly notice; as a friend, Alex (Jada Pinkett Smith), points out, she's too busy filling them in. So it knocks her flat when she finds out — thanks to her gossipy manicurist (Debi Mazar) — that her husband is having an affair with the Saks perfume "spritzer girl" (Eva Mendes). That betrayal would be bad enough, but before long, there's another one, courtesy of her best friend Sylvie (Annette Bening), who sells out Mary to save her own floundering career. The Women does fine with that broad sketch of a plot. It's in the details that the movie loses its footing, so

Burn After Reading: A Smart and Sinister Spy Comedy

BuzzSugar — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:31:51 -0700

As the opening credits of Burn After Reading blip across a satellite image of Washington, DC, viewers may find themselves wondering if they've wandered into the wrong movie — a Bourne Identity type thriller filled with high-tech secrets and evil intentions. But for every spook with high-security clearance in DC, there is a goofball at Jamba Juice, waiting for his afternoon smoothie. And when that iPod-wearing dude wanders into the tropes of a spy movie, the results are wonderfully absurd and fraught with a different sort of intelligence.

The Coen brothers have given us stories of bumbling criminals time and time again, but with Burn After Reading, the filmmakers approach the familiar theme in an entirely fresh way. The "criminals" in this case are more accidental than bumbling, their deceptions adorably mundane against an ominous, thundering soundtrack and spy-camera cinematography. For all the details,

Vicky Cristina Barcelona: Neurotic Mixed With Beautiful

BuzzSugar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:30:32 -0700

I'd probably say I'm a medium-sized fan of Woody Allen. If I were ordering a dose of Woody Allen at Starbucks, I'd probably get it in a grande cup. His nebbishy dialogue style grates on my nerves after too long, and some of his movies remind me of me at my most neurotic, which is tiring. Vicky Cristina Barcelona is more of the same Allenistic stuff we've grown to expect, but it's also given a refreshing jolt from the (mostly) talented and entirely beautiful cast. There's a nice balance of overthinky anxiety, wacky storyline, and attractive people to make this Woody Allen film a medium-sized, easy-to-drink treat.

The movie is narrated as though someone is reading us a story, and the detached commentary provides occasional insights into the thoughts and feelings of the protagonists, which I appreciated in this case. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are girlfriends who set off for a Summer in Barcelona. They soon befriend a famous painter, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), who is known for his volatile relationship with his ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz).

Cristina becomes Juan Antonio's paramour, but before too long, Vicky finds herself drawn to him as well, despite her engagement to the wealthy, steady Doug (Chris Messina). The love triangle becomes a square when the emotionally unstable Maria Elena returns to live in Juan Antonio's house, which he now shares with Cristina. The tangled web gets messier — and funnier — as the Summer goes on. For more of my thoughts on all of this,

The House Bunny: Generic Sorority Comedy

BuzzSugar — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:46:07 -0700

To be honest, I really wanted The House Bunny to be great. I didn't expect it to be, but I wished it would surprise me and turn out to be fun and hilarious. Amidst the constant comedic bombardment from the Ferrells, Stillers and Apatows of the world, I wanted there to be a totally kickass, stand-out female-led comedy. And while Anna Faris is endearingly goofy, the movie overall is just another manufactured cookie-cutter cutout of the same ol', same ol' (not unlike an actual Playboy bunny, come to think of it).

You can glean pretty much all the necessary information about the plot from the movie's trailer. Playboy bunny Shelley (Faris) learns that she's been kicked out of the Playboy mansion after her 27th birthday. She wanders around until she spots a row of houses that look like miniature Playboy mansions: frat and sorority houses. Shelley ultimately finds herself at the Zeta Alpha Zeta house, thus far led by the adorably nerdy Natalie. ZAZ is the place where the "misfit" sorority girls go (you know, ones who have piercings, or a back brace, or were raised on a farm). The girls need to get at least 30 new pledges in order to keep the ZAZ house, so Shelley appoints herself as the sorority's housemother and gets to work changing around the sorority's reputation. For more on how she goes about doing this,

The Rocker: Major Points For Trying

BuzzSugar — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:45:22 -0700

There is this undeniable, crazy-intense talent that I think Rainn Wilson has yet to unleash on us, that goes beyond his hilarious and iconic portrayal of Dwight Schrute on The Office. Thanks to smaller roles that he's had, including his creepy character on Six Feet Under, I've had faith that Wilson is not a one-note actor, and that he possesses the tools to take part in a variety of genres. So, I was looking forward to his first time out as a comedic lead in The Rocker. And while the movie is far from perfect and not the laugh-riot that will launch him into major stardom, it's an excellent start.

What strikes me most about this movie is how good-natured it is underneath its gimmicky concept. If I had some teenagers to entertain this weekend, this is the kind of movie I'd love to watch with them. It's hard not to compare the overall spirit of this funny high school tale with that of other recent Summer comedies, and the biggest difference to me is that it has a warm and fuzzy center (despite the groin pain it causes the main character).

To see what I mean by "groin pain" and why I think The Rocker is a pleasant addition to this Summer's comedies,

Sundance Review: Henry Poole Is Here

BuzzSugar — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:30:17 -0700

Note: I posted this review soon after I saw this movie at Sundance, and today it's out in theaters, so I thought I'd share my thoughts again. It has some flaws, but overall I really like this movie.

Henry Poole Is Here was one of the first non-documentary feature films to be snatched up by a studio at this year's Sundance, and I can easily see why. It's a sweet, feel-good movie featuring great performances and a quirky look at the old discussion of faith vs. reason. It's not for everyone, veering as it does into some schmaltzy territory, but the subject matter lends itself to some cheesiness and I can't quite see how that could have been avoided. The hipster soundtrack helps to make things more edgy, as does the artful direction by Mark Pellington.

Luke Wilson plays Henry Poole, a grouchy man who buys an ordinary house in Southern California. Before long, his very friendly neighbor Esperanza (Adriana Barazza) notices a stain on the outside of Henry's house that she thinks is the face of Jesus. She calls in a priest (George Lopez) and starts telling everyone in town about "the miracle" at Henry's house, much to Henry's annoyance. Henry tries his best to get rid of the stain, wanting nothing more than to be left alone in his dreary house. But the more he angrily resists the "miracle" on his house, the more proof presents itself that the stain truly does have some kind of power. For more of my thoughts about Henry Poole,

Tropic Thunder: Clever and Explosive

BuzzSugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:30:10 -0700

I never really thought I'd say a Ben Stiller comedy was genuinely smart and funny, but here I am, saying just that. It's partly the talented cast and partly Stiller's collaborator on the film, Justin Theroux, but whatever the cause, Tropic Thunder is a hilarious movie that doesn't completely rely on gross-out humor or cheap shots for laughs. The entire thing exists to comment on the hypocrisy, egotism, delusional sense of self-importance and backward moral codes of the people who keep the Hollywood machine churning. And it's all set against the backdrop of one of the most serious film genres: the war movie.

Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a has-been action star who hopes that the filming of the war movie Tropic Thunder will restart his fading career. Soon, however, the film's director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) decides to drop the film's stars into the middle of the jungle to get some "grittier" footage. The group of actors includes the Australian Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), an Academy darling who has surgically changed his skin color to play a black character, an actual black actor named Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), newbie actor Kevin Sandusky (the beloved Apatownian Jay Baruchel) and goofball comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black). The men find themselves in a real combat situation, and it takes them a while to realize that they're not actually on a controlled movie set. The whole thing is a series of jokes, explosions and gunfire, resulting in a kind of giant comedic spectacle. Those are just the basics, though, so

Bottle Shock: Intriguing Story Muddled by a Fruity Aftertaste

BuzzSugar — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:00:11 -0700

I live near Napa Valley and I enjoy wine a great deal, so when I first heard about a new little movie called Bottle Shock all about the historical legitimization of California wine, I was intrigued. I may have taken for granted the fact that Napa hasn't always been a world-renowned winemaking region, and that at one point it was viewed as nothing more than a bunch of back-water country hicks noodling around with grapes. Which is why I was disappointed to not love this sincere attempt to bring this story to life on the screen. I had such high hopes, but in the end the movie spends too much time on other stuff and not enough on the part that's the most interesting.

Invariably, this tale of Napa's beginnings will be compared to another indie film about California wine, Sideways, and though the subject matter may be similar, it's not an accurate pairing. Where Sideways uses wine country as a setting in which to explore the lives of four intriguing characters, Bottle Shock is a saccharine mix of slapstick comedy, melodrama, and sweeping shots of California's golden hills. This director practically fetishizes the beauty of the state's coast, and at times the movie feels more like a tourist ad than anything else. I wish the filmmakers had relied on the interesting true story for a dramatic arc rather than tossing in several tedious subplots, including an emotionally weightless father-son drama and a mind-numbing love triangle. To see why,

Pineapple Express: More Than Just a Stoner Movie

BuzzSugar — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:30:48 -0700

How much you enjoy Pineapple Express may depend more on how charmed you are by the chemistry between James Franco and Seth Rogen and less on how funny you find pot jokes. Don't get me wrong, marijuana jokes abound in this comedy written by Rogen and his frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg, and they are funny. But I was surprised by how much more Pineapple Express falls into the category of buddy movies like Lethal Weapon, rather than the stoner category like Half Baked. I guess I'll put it this way: You don't have to be high to be entertained by this.

I've been feeling fatigued by some of cinema's leading funny men these days who keep pumping out the same old comedies left and right, and Rogen's shtick is definitely pushing it for me. But I was pleasantly surprised to see how well he plays the straight man (no pun intended) to Franco's snuggly drug dealer. They strike a hilariously delightful chemistry together, which I kind of didn't want to end. But there's more going on here besides the two lead actors. To see why I think the director of this movie was a cool choice and which scene-stealer I think earns himself a place in the Apatow kingdom,

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2: Maybe Even Better Than the First

BuzzSugar — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:33:53 -0700

At one point in the second installment of the stories surrounding girls who have pants and will travel, an exasperated Carmen (America Ferrera) says something like, "Can we just please focus on the pants?!" And yet, that's the thing I find most refreshing about this sequel: there's not really a focus on the pants. The fact that Carmen has to remind her friends to think about the pants is a good sign in this case; the focus should be on these girls and their friendships, not two tubes of faded, magic denim. And as the girls have grown older and more mature, in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 they're centering on the important stuff: their relationships, their goals, finding themselves and supporting each other.

Like the first movie, this one consists of four separate storylines that occasionally intersect. When we are reintroduced to the four friends, they're all in college: Tibby's (Amber Tamblyn) making movies at NYU, Carmen is at Yale and does backstage work at Yale's School of Drama, and Lena (Alexis Bledel) is painting (and cavorting with the insanely hot model Leo, played by Jesse Williams) at Rhode Island School of Design. Bridget (Blake Lively) doesn't yet know her major, but she decides to try her hand at archeology for the time being. After spending the year at their respective schools, Carmen, in particular, is anxious to have some good sisterhood time together over the Summer — only to find out the other three won't be in town at all. So, Carmen decides to do her own thing and goes to work backstage at a theater in Vermont.

For more of my take on the movie,

A Chat With My Boyfriend About The Mummy

BuzzSugar — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:30:38 -0700

Full disclosure: I've never paid too-too much attention to these Mummy movies starring Brendan Fraser, but I know they're meant to be fun action-adventures that we shouldn't take too seriously. For this third installment, I thought it would be a good idea to take my manfriend along with me to see The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Sometimes instead of spending brain power on a review of a movie like this, it's more helpful to just talk it out with someone who's more likely than I am to passingly enjoy this kind of Summer action flick.

But as generous as my boyfriend can be about action movies and CGI, even he wasn't swayed by the "charms" of Brendan Fraser, and came away feeling like the movie's kind of a mess. I don't want to give away too much of our conversation before the break, other than the big takeaway: he really likes the Yetis, and I don't think he'd object if the fourth movie were to star them instead of the humans.

To check out our review discussion,

X-Files: I Want to Believe: Sadly, a Disappointment

BuzzSugar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:30:07 -0700

You can count me among the fans — but not the super-fanatics — of The X-Files when it aired in the '90s. I may not have been as insane about it as others, but I kept up with the weird, spooky drama and I looked forward to new episodes. Plus, Gillian Anderson's character, Dana Scully, is a strong, female sci-fi heroine of sorts, and I really looked up to her at the time. Oh, and of course David Duchovny's Fox Mulder was definitely crushworthy so all in all, it was a highlight of my TV-viewing universe. This is why I had nothing but high hopes for X-Files: I Want to Believe, and I tried to ignore those pesky questions during the build up to the release like: "Really, ten years later?" and "Will people still, in fact, want to believe?"

I should also point out that this movie has been promoted as a stand-alone story, meaning that even folks who have little knowledge of the series would be able to get on board and enjoy a dark thriller with a compelling mystery. In fact, details of the plot have been kept so tightly under wraps my assumption was that they must have thought of something really awesome to hinge a new movie around — hence everyone's willingness to get back together years after the series left the airwaves.

Which brings me to the bad news first (and I won't give away spoilers): the so-called "mystery" that has been so shrouded in secrecy is truly nothing very exciting. In fact, it hardly stands up to the most mediocre of episodes, which only adds to my perplexity over this movie. Truth be told, I'm pretty bummed out. To see why,

Transsiberian: Spooky But Irritating

BuzzSugar — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:30:29 -0700

In select cities, a little indie thriller titled Transsiberian quietly opened over the weekend and did fairly well in the indie market (despite the long shadow cast by The Dark Knight's opening), which frankly surprises me. With some folks calling the movie "Hitchcockian" in its suspense, and featuring a cast that includes the enigmatic Emily Mortimer and a shape-shifting Ben Kingsley, I was interested in seeing it myself. But now I kinda wish I hadn't.

Emily Mortimer and Woody Harrelson play Americans Roy and Jesse, who are taking a train through Russia after completing a missionary assignment teaching English in China. Roy is your typical all-American tourist, boisterous, over-eager and naive, while Jesse has worked hard to get over her bad girl past, in which she struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. They meet another young couple, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby (Kate Mara), who turn out to have some shady secrets of their own, and Carlos manages to rope Jesse into a dangerous world of drug trafficking. Enter the two-faced Russian cop Grinko (Ben Kingsley) who has interests in Carlos's activities extending beyond official police work. When Carlos goes missing and Jesse was the last to see him, Grinko focuses all his energies on the American couple, and the movie kinda derails from there. To see what I mean,

Mamma Mia!: Hard to Imagine a Better Party

BuzzSugar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:30:53 -0700

If there were a family get-together with all the slick, recent Broadway-to-film productions, like Hairspray and Dreamgirls, Mamma Mia! would be the drunk older aunt whose clothing doesn't really match and who says all the wrong things but you love her and her kooky, off-kilter self anyway. The movie is, like that aunt, all over the place: Only a third of the cast can actually sing, the plot is thin, and the characters are — with the exception of a few moments — as one-dimensional as it gets. Oh, and there are hardly three minutes between one ABBA cover and the next.

In place of the large-scale choreographed dance productions of other musicals, Mamma Mia! chooses to go heavy on stuff like arms waving in the air, frolicking through streets, and bed bouncing. It has all the girlish exuberance of a slumber party, the sweaty debauchery of a bachelorette party, and the spectacle of a big fat Greek wedding. The movie — and all the actors in it — so unabashedly embrace a spirit of innocence and joy that it's hard to imagine a more perfect form of escapism.

To see why, despite filming in a stunning sun-drenched location, the cast is the real reason this summer movie shimmers,

The Dark Knight: Tense, Sad, Unsettling — And One of the Best Movies I've Seen in Years

BuzzSugar — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:30:27 -0700

"This town deserves a better class of criminal." – The Joker

Indeed. And by extension, audiences deserve a better class of villain. In The Dark Knight, we get one. Director Christopher Nolan seems to have a keen understanding that we want our heroes to be badass — but we want our villains to be way badder. The movie tells a story about Batman, sure, but really, this is The Joker's tale. Even when it's Batman's story. . . The Joker owns it.

The Dark Knight is unlike almost any other superhero movie that came before it. It's insanely dark, it's melancholy, it doesn't leave you with a great sense of peace. But the thing is, we can handle it. I think this is Nolan giving audiences some credit. And every superhero tale has these themes of good vs. evil, order vs. chaos, hero vs. villain. It's just that this one doesn't sugarcoat these things at all. And why should they be sugarcoated? The superhero's tale is actually the perfect vehicle for exploring these things, and explore them we do. Nolan brings us an affecting, disturbingly dark tale, and one that could easily be seen as an allegory for the goings-on of today's world (terrorism vs. peace, cowardice vs. heroism, etc.). To see more what I mean (and I promise — no spoilers),

Meet Dave: I Thought It Would Be Worse

BuzzSugar — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:33:33 -0700

So, full disclosure: I dragged myself to this movie with the lowest of expectations. Things like Norbit and The Adventures of Pluto Nash danced through my mind and I prayed to the comedy gods to spare me a numbingly unfunny experience. I mean, I've just barely recovered from The Love Guru.

And guess what: They sort of heard my prayers. I'm happy to report that Eddie Murphy's new comedy (that even he couldn't bring himself to watch) isn't all that bad. I wouldn't say it's good, either, but my soul is intact and I'm not as worried about the fate of all that is funny, so those are good signs. What's more, I came away with a renewed sense of Eddie Murphy's talent, and I think it's possible he might be back on that screen making me hurt with laughter one of these days.

To see what I think gets in the way of Murphy's hilarity in Meet Dave, making this another one of his forgettable comedies,

Hellboy II: A Super-Fun, Satisfying Sequel

BuzzSugar — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:30:46 -0700

I was awed and amazed by Pan's Labyrinth, and I really liked the first Hellboy movie, but I can now say with certainty that I am officially in love with Guillermo del Toro's beautiful brain. Hellboy II: The Golden Army is like being cast back to a time when your young imagination had no boundaries and no inner editor. Del Toro's vibrant, exciting, sometimes nightmarish and often funny work of creative genius is a constant delight. At times it veers into cheesy superhero stuff, and viewers who don't like this kind of thing definitely won't be on board for this movie. But viewers who do like it — and those with a soft spot in their hearts for big Red — may be totally delighted.

When we catch up with our hero Hellboy, he and his lady love Liz (Selma Blair) and their good buddy Abe (Doug Jones) are still working for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, using their superpowers to help people out. But even so, the public gives them no respect, no respect at all. And now they have the problem of Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), a rebellious leader of the creature world who is determined to summon the Golden Army, a vast army of robot-like warriors, to destroy all humans. Hellboy, Abe and Liz are joined by the ectoplasmic Johann Strauss (voiced by Seth McFarlane), along with the leader's twin sister Princess Nuala (Anna Walton) to stop Prince Nuada's evil plan. Meanwhile, Hellboy and Liz are having issues, Hellboy is struggling with his job, and Abe develops a bit of a crush on Princess Nuala.

For more of my take on the movie,

Hancock: A New Kind of Superhero Movie

BuzzSugar — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:30:26 -0700

I'm not totally sure who the intended audience is for Hancock. The superhero aspect is campy enough for kids (and sometimes way too campy for adults), but there's definitely language that doesn't seem suitable for youngsters. Perhaps the teenagers will most enjoy the movie, though as an adult I liked it well enough and I certainly applaud what the story attempts to accomplish: tell a superhuman's story with the emphasis on the "human" experience. In a world overly saturated with superhero movies, this angle is actually pretty refreshing.

Also, it's a mainstream movie focused on a black superhero and I gotta say, it's about damn time.

Will Smith is Hancock, a modern-day superhero who's fallen out of favor with the public. For every good deed he does, he leaves a staggering amount of destruction in his wake. Hancock is surly, drinks constantly and has intense anger management problems. But when he saves the life of PR guy and general do-gooder Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), Ray offers to help Hancock turn around his image. He devises a strategy for making the public stop taking Hancock for granted, while coaching him on how to seem more like a hero and less like a careless drunk. As Ray spends more and more time with Hancock, his son Aaron grows attached to the superhero, though Ray's wife Mary (Charlize Theron) seems constantly suspicious of him. Ray helps Hancock change his image, but that's just half the story; Hancock's past includes many more secrets he didn't even know were there.

For more of my take on the movie,

Gonzo: Focusing on the Work of Hunter S. Thompson

BuzzSugar — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:30:46 -0700

Hunter S. Thompson isn't always associated with terms like "brilliant writer" or "inventor of gonzo journalism" or even "patriot." By the time his famous work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was adapted for film in 1998, he was becoming a caricature and a symbol of a bygone era. Just as there is irony in one of history's most complicated revolutionaries, Che Guevara, being boiled down to an Urban Outfitters t-shirt, it is equally reductive to oversimplify Thompson as some kind of drug-addled delinquent without a cause.

Now that I've seen what will likely be referred to as the definitive documentary about Thompson's life by the Oscar-winning director of Taxi to the Dark Side, it's clear that reducing him to a kind of hipster icon who lived only to push the boundaries of consciousness with extreme substance abuse is terribly simplistic and inaccurate. Through the folks who knew him well (Jimmy Carter, publisher of Rolling Stone Jann Wenner, George McGovern, his first wife, etc.) the picture that emerges from this movie is of a man who was a walking, talking challenge to the status quo.

To read what surprised me about the good doctor's life and why this is an entertaining jaunt through recent history,

Finding Amanda: Never Finds Its Footing

BuzzSugar — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:30:43 -0700

For me, there are two big issues with writer/director Peter Tolan's feature-length debut: some crazy, disconcerting tonal shifts and a crazy, disconcerting casting choice. There's also a third, less important issue adding to my perplexity about Finding Amanda which is that Matthew Broderick lifelessly sleepwalks through his role.

Tonally, the movie seems to have no idea what it wants to be and vacillates between screwball comedy, dark humor, high drama, and bleak character study. Sometimes, when you toss those elements into a bag and shake them up, you get something pretty cool. But in this case, it's not cool. In fact, it reminds me of sitting in a car while someone learns how to drive a stick shift, getting jerked around uncomfortably between gears the entire ride. The gear shifts in this movie are so jarring emotionally that it made me want to get the heck out of that car.

To see why I think Brittany Snow should never, ever play another prostitute,

Wanted: Overflowing With Blood, Bullets, Testosterone

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:36:31 -0700

A few things Wanted is not: quiet or steadily shot. It's also not all that enjoyable. But then again, I'm surely not the target audience for this film. Watching the early trailers for the movie I was initially intrigued by the visuals — the way you can see every shard of glass as someone leaps out a window, for example. But the repetition of the same old thing — no matter how cool at first — gets tiresome, as is the case with the visuals (and the gratuitous violence) in Wanted. Often set to loud, racing music (or loud, brooding music), much of the movie would be better used in 3-minute segments on MTV (or whichever channel actually plays music videos).

James McAvoy plays poor, spineless Wesley, an accountant with major anxiety issues who is full of self-loathing, perhaps due to being walked over all the time. His boss is a heinously abusive woman, his coworker is sleeping with his girlfriend (who's also heinously abusive), and he just lets it all happen to him. Then he meets Fox (Angelina Jolie), a hot lady who tells him his heretofore absent father was actually a talented member of an assassins circle known as The Fraternity and was recently killed by a rogue member of the group. The Fraternity's leader Sloan (Morgan Freeman) recruits Wesley into the ring because Wesley has special assassin abilities and they need him to go after his father's murderer. What follows is a story of the unlikely pipsqueak "everyman" becoming an action hero by being as violent as possible. For more on this,

Wall-E: Post-Apocalyptic Robot Love

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:30:42 -0700

If there's one thing that's important to know about Wall-E, it's that it's not just a cartoon. Granted, Pixar has been making movies for a while now that are more than "just" cartoons: Last Summer's Ratatouille was as much about art and family as it was about cute rats cooking, and even Finding Nemo — written and directed by Andrew Stanton, who's also the man behind Wall-E — was a story about fatherhood that just happened to have some funny fish. But Wall-E takes that to another level. It's not an animated film — it's just a film. A wonderful, devastating, and ultimately uplifting film.

Flash ahead to 700 years in the future. Humans have evacuated Earth and are living a life of leisure on a luxurious spaceship while their former home wastes away under heaps of garbage. Left alone to clean it up is one final Waste Allocation Load Lifter — Earth Class, or Wall-E. Wall-E's mission is to scoop, compact, and stack the trash, building skyscrapers of waste. But over the years, he's developed a personality, including an affinity for Hello Dolly and a collection of treasures from the past, which he places carefully in his red Coleman cooler. His only companion is a Twinkie-eating cockroach — until the ship sends a visitor to scope out the situation.

That would be Eve, a brilliant little bot with a quick laser arm who's the instant target of Wall-E's affections. Eve is rather unimpressed with Wall-E's attempts to woo her — until he hands her a plant he found inside an old refrigerator. That clicks Eve into action: The plant signals to the spaceship above that life has returned to Earth and humans should make their way back, too. When a shuttle comes to take Eve back to the mothership, Wall-E goes along for the ride. From there, the movie branches out into several different stories: the choice the ship's captain must make to stay aloft or return to Earth; the evolution (or devolution) of humans into chair-sitting, screen-watching lumps; and, most of all, the sweet and moving romance between Wall-E and Eve. It's an ambitious film, but it works on every level. To see what I mean, just

The Promotion: Kind of a Slacker

BuzzSugar — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:00:57 -0700

Steven Conrad, the writer/director of The Promotion, could have gone in a couple of different directions with his film, which centers on two guys battling for a job at a Chicago chain grocery store. He could have traipsed through the well-worn but awfully funny territory of office humor, replete with annoying coworkers and pesky in-jokes. Or he could have gone a bit deeper, meditating on success and what it means to be good.

The main trouble with The Promotion is that Conrad's script doesn't commit to either direction. One minute the film is full of silly workplace antics (including a highly amusing tater tot battle). The next, it's fumbling toward a ham-fisted statement about addiction or manhood. In the end, the movie provokes neither riotous laughter nor profound revelations. Like middle managers everywhere, The Promotion just gets stuck.

Seann William Scott plays Doug Stauber, a grocery store worker who fears he may never climb above the dreaded assistant-manager rung of short-sleeved shirts and embroidered name patches. Outside the office, things are going well enough — cute wife (Jenna Fischer), hopes of buying a house — and so when a shining beacon arrives in the form of an all-new grocery store, Doug sees a chance at salvation. It could be his store to manage, all his; his boss, Scott (Fred Armisen), even goes so far as to proclaim him a shoo-in. That, though, is before Richard Wehlner comes to town. Richard (John C. Reilly) is a nice guy with a laid-back Canadian attitude and a sweetheart of a wife (Lili Taylor, who for some reason speaks with a Scottish accent). But Richard isn't about to roll over and let Doug have the job: Bolstered by self-help tapes, he goes about making the promotion his own. The Promotion creates a vivid picture of the workplace, but it doesn't do as well with its main characters. To see what I mean, just

The Love Guru: Oh, Hell No

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:32:19 -0700

I'm having a hard time with the old axiom "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" while figuring out how to share my thoughts on the new Mike Myers comedy (and by the way, that categorization is a stretch) The Love Guru. I have to be honest, I've been sitting on this for a few days now, and I'm hard-pressed to find a single decent thing to say about it. There is juvenile, there is crude, there is downright not funny. . . and then there is this movie.

In addition to the general unfunniness, watching The Love Guru is practically unbearable due to the desperation that permeates the entire film. It's hard to tell if Myers realized most of the shticks were lame, or if he felt that because he's Mike Meyers people will laugh, so he has carte blanche to go as low as he's ever felt like going. The camera is so close to his face for so much of the film, we see every bit of manic energy going into each line, and he uses this intense stare to practically will (or beg?) us to find it all hilarious. It's sad. And uncomfortable. Not even Justin Timberlake in speedos with a funny Canadian accent can salvage this attempt at humor.

If you're curious about what I found specifically mind boggling about this movie,

Get Smart: A Light, Easy Treat

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:30:10 -0700

You know when you're tired, cranky, and hungry right around mid-afternoon and you know you should just gnaw on the baby carrots you put in the office fridge during a fit of optimism but all you want to do is grab the Ho-Hos (or in my case, those Tag-a-Long Girl Scout cookies) in your top drawer and stuff your face? And then sometimes you decide to stuff your face and it's insanely satisfying (if only temporarily)? That's what my experience of watching Get Smart was like. This was one week when I needed a good, lighthearted laugh and in that sense, Get Smart is the perfect thing. It's obviously not high art and it's not even really clever as far as comedies go. It's just fun. I watched, I laughed, I went home happy.

Steve Carell resurrects Maxwell Smart, the main character from the 1960s TV series on which this movie is based. Smart only becomes a secret agent for the spy organization CONTROL when The Chief (Alan Arkin) needs more people on his team after their offices have been attacked by nemesis spy team, KAOS. Now deemed Agent 86, Smart is paired up with the intelligent, accomplished Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) and, together with The Chief and the outrageously manly Agent 23 (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), the CONTROL operatives struggle to stop KAOS from carrying out their plans of mass murder and world domination. Other CONTROL duos like Agent 91 (Terry Crews) and Larabee (David Koechner, who I wish had been recast with Rob Corddry), and the young geek team Bruce (Masi Oka) and Lloyd (Nate Torrence) provide additional laughs when necessary. To find out what I liked best about the movie,

The Happening: So. . . That Happened

BuzzSugar — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:30:53 -0700

The best part of going to see The Happening was getting to watch the X-Files movie trailer — which is way more chilling on the big screen than it is on YouTube. Can't wait for that one! As for M. Night Shyamalan's latest spookfest, well, as Alec Baldwin's character Bob Barrenger remarks after a car crash in State and Main, "So. . . That happened."

The movie has been getting poor reviews, and even Shyamalan himself is calling it "the best B-movie you'll see," so I didn't go into the screening with the assumption that The Happening would be a masterpiece. And it's not that bad; it's no Jumper, say. It just gives us nothing whatsoever to care about. At all. It's empty and kinda silly and the acting is not good. There's a mystery to solve, which is interesting for a short time, but when it gets solved, the explanation for the mystery is pretty freaking lame. For more on this,

The Incredible Hulk: Most Improved But Not the Best

BuzzSugar — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:30:47 -0700

Bringing Marvel's Hulk to the big screen is a challenging undertaking. For one thing, the idea of the Hulk is just funny: when a guy loses his temper he morphs into a giant green monster who smashes things. Plus, that green monster in ripped-up pants is just cartoonish, any way you slice it. You can always update Iron Man's suit with sleeker corners and more abilities or give Batman cooler gadgets, but how do you make a green monster-man something today's audience will take seriously?

So, given these obstacles, and the fact that Ang Lee did everyone a favor by demonstrating what not to do if you want the fanboys to show up, the most recent incarnation of The Incredible Hulk is pretty much a success. All things considered, the CGI looks great, there is plenty of action to keep hearts pounding, and Ed Norton and Liv Tyler turn in wonderful performances with the lines they have. That said, it's no Iron Man and I'm about 99.9% sure once The Dark Knight hits theaters we may all forget this movie even happened.

To find out why this Incredible Hulk will be remembered as the superhero movie that gave us something to do between Iron Man and Dark Knight,

Kung Fu Panda: Defies Expectations

BuzzSugar — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:30:20 -0700

Before seeing Kung Fu Panda, I guessed the plot went something like this: A big dopey Jack Black-voiced panda bear dreams of becoming a kung fu fighter but has to reach deep within himself to find the courage to do so. In the process, the naysayers that surround said panda will learn a little something about judging a book by its cover. And it turns out, this is basically the case. However, going into it I wasn't worried that I knew the storyline, I was worried that it would be dull. If this tired premise isn't done well, it's just boring and a waste of time.

But the truth is, I was surprised and delighted by the filmmakers' decision to just stick to making this movie what it should be: light, visually interesting, and funny. It's as if they were telling us (grown-ups): "Look, we know a movie about a panda doing kung fu is just fun and we're not going to bore you with animated animal soul-searching. Instead, we're going to give you a cute, totally conventional story, without pausing to explore what makes the praying mantis tick."

To which I would like to respond with: thank you DreamWorks! To see why I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this flick and why I think it's the perfect summertime family film,

The Strangers: Slow and Steady Gets the Scare

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:31:11 -0700

The Strangers director Bryan Bertino takes a simple storyline based in reality ("inspired," in fact, by true events) and tells it with such careful realism that our own basic human terror, usually lying dormant within us, rises inescapably to the surface. He has figured out a perfectly lethal recipe for horror movie success: take a large dose of realism, add a few scary things and then patiently wait for the fear to rise.

This movie is a great example of a horror/suspense film done well. We human beings already have so many fears just lying inside us, waiting to be tapped into. We don't need two hours of cheap jump scares (looking at you, Prom Night) or gratuitous, nauseating gore. We just have to witness very simple, normal things that could happen to plant a tiny seed of fear in the backs of our minds. Then, all it takes is a patient, detail-oriented filmmaker to nurture that seed until it grows into all-consuming terror.

To see the basic plotline and how it somehow so thoroughly scared the living daylights out of me,

Sex and the City: Sugary Sweet With a Sad Center

BuzzSugar — Fri, 30 May 2008 05:45:56 -0700

Despite the fact that I've never owned shoes in the $500+ range and have never been a single and fabulous 30-something (or 40-something) New Yorker, I related to and loved the characters on Sex and the City. Every week I could count on seeing four women who placed a high value on their female friendships rather than tearing each other down (ahem, The Hills), who fought bravely against those who would look down on them for being unmarried, and who talked candidly about not just sex, but everything. Amidst hardship, lapses in judgment, and insecurities, they were smart ladies who had the understanding that life — even for the truly sophisticated — is no fairytale.

Some of these cherished characteristics translated well to the big screen version and I'm so thankful for that. But I'm also a bit mystified by how far it strays at times from the very aspects I loved so much. I wish I could say that it's a witty and modern take on the meaning of love and friendship for middle-aged women (and women approaching middle-age). Instead, the film is at times a fun fantasy, but it's not the Sex and the City I remember.

To see what I totally enjoyed about seeing these women back together and what struck a false note,

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: A Great Summertime Kickoff

BuzzSugar — Wed, 21 May 2008 09:17:26 -0700

There's a lot to enjoy about this fourth installment of Indiana Jones. It's fun, silly, adventure-filled and completely entertaining in ways we don't always get from movies these days, with the greatest parts coming straight from the marvelous imagination of Steven Spielberg. Plus, it's a summertime blockbuster that doesn't totally rely on CGI which feels practically old-fashioned — and I mean that in the best way possible. The performances are strong and overall it's a sequel that doesn't embarrass itself or the whole franchise. It's refreshing and, honestly, it's a relief.

Sure, there are aspects I didn't like about it, but the experience of seeing this movie with a theater full of fans and happy moviegoers pretty much trumps any quibbles I have. The story finds our beloved Indy caught up with a group of Soviets (led by one fierce Irina Spalko, played by Cate Blanchett) trying to find the secrets behind ancient crystal skulls which are said to have been shaped by some kind of higher power (or other-worldly power). They need Indy's mad archaeologist skillz (and wide base of experience) to do this and one way of luring him in is via Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who they've taken captive. Marion gets in touch with Indy through her son Mutt (Shia LaBeouf). That's the basic gist of things but I wanted to leave plenty for you to discover at the theater, so for more of just my thoughts,