Sunday, April 22, 2007

The Lookout

Before I begin this review, I would like to say that this year has been great for movies so far. Usually I only give about 10-15 movies four stars in the whole year. It has been only four months in and usually all those four star reviews come around Oscar season. I already have three. This will be my fourth.


**** Stars

Now if someone told me that one day that kid in the old Disney movie Angels in the Outfield would be a terrific actor one day, I may have slapped you silly. I now deserve a slap myself. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is ready to start his true acting career off with a huge bang of a movie. This is great stuff.

Scott Frank gives a brilliant directorial debut after writing such classics as Out of Sight, Minority Report, and Get Shorty. This script, which he also wrote, has no cliche's that would make you want to role your eyes. This thriller won't give you one dull moment. Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a once promising high school athlete, has his life turned upside down after a tragic accident. As he tries to maintain a normal life, he takes a job as a janitor at a bank where he ultimately finds himself caught up in a planned heist.

The story really isn't about the bank heist. It is about how a young man with a very serious head injury would act under the conditions. You seem him make mistakes and you see him collapse. He is not going to be a hero who is protected by a heroic shield. Chris goes to a bar every day drinks an O'Douls while writing down how to get through the day. He cannot open a bucket of tomato sauce because his left hand is sometimes dysfunctional. He has a blindroommate, played wonderfully by Jeff Daniels. Both of these characters look real and feel real. This movie is the real deal.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Grindhouse


Planet Terror: **** Stars
Death Proof: **** Stars

I am not going to ramble on about the great scenes in this flick. There are too many. All you need to know is that it is one of the funnest times at the movies in a long time. Both Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino totally knock it out of the park.

Everyone in the world should know by now what Grindhouse means. Grindhouse is presented as one full-length feature comprised of two individual films helmed separately by each director. Tarantino's film, "Death Proof," is a rip-roaring slasher flick where the killer pursues his victims with a car rather than a knife, while Rodriguez's film explores an alien world eerily familiar to ours in "Planet Terror." And in between flicks, friends of the directors, including Eli Roth and Rob Zombie create some of the funniest fake trailers in movie history.

I will say no more. Just go out to the Grindhouse, and have a hell of a time.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Blades of Glory


*** Stars

Will Ferrell has mastered the art of ridiculous comedy, where he makes a statement that you just cannot help but laugh. "I see you look like a 15-year old only not hot." Ferrell makes this movie easily watchable with a premise that probably was shot down numerous times during negotiations.

In 2002, two rival Olympic ice skaters (Badass Will Ferrell and darling Jon Heder) were stripped of their gold medals and permanently banned from men's single competition. Presently, however, they've found a loophole that will allow them to qualify as a pairs team.

Like Talledega Nights, Farrell has mastered another secondary sports movie. Heder hides his Napoleon Dynamite persona and hold his own with Ferrell on screen. This is a surprisingly successful stoner movie. This is the kind of movie that reminds us why Ferrell became a star in the first place.