August Movie Reviews

***** Excellent

****   Great

***     OK

**       So So

*         Blah

Aloha with Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams was about people on Hawaii, military stuff and corporate private stuff and old love and new love. I don't know. Performances were good but the story made me crazy trying to follow the storyline and who is in who's pocket. I thought the very, very  end was wrong, totally unrealistic. Cooper is gorgeous.**

Beyond the Reach is about a young tracker who is hired to take a filthy rich, incredibly entitled business man (Michael Douglas) big-game hunting in the desert. By accident, or just stupidity, the rich guy kills an old timer who lives in the hills. He thinks this social faux pas would ruin his reputation so he tries to bribe the tracker. When that doesn't work he makes him strip to his undies and walk while he follows with his high tech waiting for him to collapse and die in the heat. It's gruesome, but this kid knows the desert. He knows where all the caves and hideouts are. It's very tense and suspenseful. Great role for Douglas who is really good at portraying sleazy and arrogant. I think I would have liked a different ending, but I enjoy vengeful payback and the tracker is just too saintly. Great photography and performances. ****

Carol is about lesbian love in the 1950s. Carol (Cate Blanchett) is going through a divorce and her husband isn't a happy man. He files for sole custody of their little girl on moral grounds unless she comes back to him. In the meantime Carol falls in love with Teresse (Rooney Mara). The costumes, cars, music, and sets are magnificent. Excellent performances. The photography is beautiful, but the story is a little melodramatic and slow. ***

Courageous was about a group of men who get together and make a resolution to be outstanding fathers and role models after one in their group loses his nine year old daughter in a car accident. It was a great story. If all dads signed and lived by such a resolution to be honest, loving, caring, respectful, and protective just think how much society would improve. Some of the performances were really good, others really bad and there was way, way, way too much superstitious God talk for me, lots of praying to God and expecting God to change everything which I find ridiculous. It was still a good story with a great message. I think men could step up to the plate without relying on a religious crutch. ***

Drive was about a movie stunt driver/mechanic/race car driver by day/get-away car driver by night (Ryan Gosling) who falls in love with the neighbor lady. When her husband gets out of prison and he owes bad guys protection money, Ryan offers to help get him out of the mess by driving the get-away car. It all goes wrong because he was bamboozled. He's kind of a superhero in a sociopathic kind of way, but I liked the character. There was something honorable in all that revenge. An honorable sociopath. HA! What will Hollywood think of next? ***

50 First Dates is about a guy (Adam Sandler) who meets a girl (Drew Barrymore) who has a brain injury from a car accident. She wakes up every morning with no short term memory and no memory of the previous day so he has to start over every day, meeting her, and getting her to like him. It's very sweet and made me want to move to Hawaii, but you really need to like Adam Sandler's stupid humor, which I don't. However, this story has less stupid and more sweetness which made it tolerable. ***

The Forger John Travolta plays an art forger who gets out of prison early by hitting up the bad guy to bribe a judge so he can spend time with his dying fifteen year old son. (Art and cancer...what is not to like about this????)  As payment for the $50K debt owed for the bribe, he must forge a Monet and steal the original out of the museum so the sleazebag can pay his debt to some mafia boss. It was good, very complex with lots of human relations mixed with crime and intrigue. ***

From Time to Time is about a boy in England just as World War II is ending. His father is missing in action and his mother is in London trying to find his father.  He is sent to live with his formerly rich grandmother (Maggie Smith) who lives in this SPECTACULAR old estate with all kinds of antiques and dust and towers overgrown with weeds. Such a dream. Unfortunately, she is about to lose it all. He spends a lot of time searching the rooms, spiral staircases, listening to old family stories, and seeing GHOSTS! It's an outstanding story with outstanding photography with misty atmosphere and beautiful color. Awesome. *****

The Girl on the Train was dark and strange and too much philosophical babble about love and relationships. The babble, although beautifully written,  made my head hurt. For some reason I kept with it even when the video had technical problems. So frustrating.  **

Hello, My Name is Doris  I love Sally Field and this is a great role for her. Who said there are no roles for older women in Hollywood? We are seeing lots of baby boomer movies featuring older quirky female characters. This one is about an older woman who lives with her mother in a huge house filled with hoarded junk. She's odd to say the least: crazy mismatched clothes, drenched in jewelry, lots of  make-up and just slightly left to normally in terms of personality and socialization. After her mother dies, she meets a younger coworker (Max Greenfield) and fantasizes about him all the time. She stalks him which is creepy. She misinterprets his friendship as something more and he misinterprets their friendship as...well, friendship.  It was weird, and sad, and at times uncomfortable. The commentary on how older people are perceived was interesting and the message was if you are a little strange, alternative rock is where you belong. Performances were great, but there was something melancholy  and depressing that made it not as entertaining as it could have been. **

The Ides of March is a movie about a presidential primary with Ryan Gosling as an ambitious, idealistic campaign worker and George Clooney as the presidential hopeful.  The politician, of course, looks really honorable in the media as if he's the perfect candidate, but there's lots of sleazy behavior going on behind the scenes. Ryan tries to prevent a scandal from breaking and everything takes a turn for the worst with the poor guy getting backstabbed by his own people. Great performances. ***

Into the Storm is an action movie about tornadoes - not just one tornado but six at once and then the next front comes in and two GINORMOUS tornadoes converge into the monster of tornadoes. The special effects were outstanding. The performances weren't so good, in fact at times rather awful, but it was still fun. ****

I Remember You was about a man who goes for a midnight swim, gets slapped around by a wave and crashes his head against a pier. A woman jumps off the pier and saves him. He comes out of it with some kind of brain injury which makes him sensitive to light and sound and gets the weird impression he knows her somehow. She develops a really serious fear of water. It was interesting, but the overkill artsy effects were a bit irritating. The characters were odd too, kind of brain dead but I think that was for effect. **

Jane Got a Gun That is the most idiotic title I could ever imagine for this movie. It rings of sexism and it trivializes an outstanding Western-themed story. The very complicated plot is about a Southern woman (Natalie Portman) during the Civil War who escapes to the Wild West. That's the summary. I'll try not to give too much away. It begins with Jane living in the middle of New Mexico nowhere with her husband who stumbles home after being shot multiple times. Who shot him? Why? Why are they coming after the couple?  Lots of mystery keeps viewers intrigued throughout the movie. I like a movie that engages your brain by constantly slipping in hints that make you question what you don't know. There is a LOT of background the viewer doesn't know that is funneled into the story one tiny detail at  time. Love it. Even with the flashbacks. Time travel is so often disruptive and confusing but in this case it's used perfectly. Natalie is an exceptional weeper - gut-wrenching tears of misery that had me sobbing right along with her. Lots of human relationship and survival themes. Outstanding performances. Natalie's costumes are exceptional. I want that coat! And the hat! Her character is KICK ASS. The New Mexican Wild West dirt and dust are outstanding especially all over her outfits. Outstanding movie. God, I love a good Western! Stupid title. It sounds like a title for a first-grader primer and the fact she already had a gun makes it even more nonsensical. I mean with a title like that you'd think the whole plot was about getting her a gun and figuring out how to use it! *****

King Jack was about one week in the summer of a fifteen-year old boy who keeps having run-ins with an older bully and his side kicks. The bully used to be bullied by the kid's older brother who is an abusive ass. His twelve year old cousin stays with him over the weekend and they get into all kinds of mess. The performances were really good. You'd think this would be a silly coming-of-age story, but it was a rather dark and serious expose on teenage boys. I think they should have named it "The Secret Life of Bullied Teenage Boys Who Have Lousy Parents and Abusive Brothers". ***

Laggies is about an almost thirty year old directionless woman (Keira Knightley) who has the same group of friends from high school, the same high school boyfriend, hangs out at her parents' house, and works for her dad. She never grew up. She meets some teenagers and starts hanging out with one of the girls, even moving in with her and her dad to escape her life. It was a little slow, almost boring, but not very realistic. What thirty year old woman would be allowed to move in with a teenager. That screams PEDOPHILE.  I kept getting up to do things without pausing the DVD. That's a sign. **

Life after Beth is a comedy zombie movie. I think you have to be stoned to really appreciate it, but the performances were outstanding.  In this rendition, zombies are soothed with smooth jazz. LOL **

Life of Crime I don't get the title. I wish people would take the time to select better titles for movies. This one takes place in the 1970s (great costumes) and is about two guys and a Nazi pervert who kidnap a wealthy man's (Tim Robbins) wife  (Jennifer Aniston). The husband is a sleazeball who has a secret bank account from all his sleazy real estate dealings and he treats his wife like garbage. She just puts up with it. He leaves for the Bahamas (?) to meet with his mistress but before he leaves he sends his wife divorce papers. The bumbling kidnappers demand a million bucks if he wants to see his wife again...well, he doesn't want to see her again. I thought this sounded like a comedy in the previews, but it wasn't. Fortunately, it was a great story with great performances. ***

Man Up was a romantic comedy with Simon Pegg (I love him) who you'd never think of as a romantic lead but he's so charming and sweet and funny it makes him irresistible. It was a great love story, boy meets girl accidentally, they are perfect for each other then everything goes wrong. It could have been another love story cliche, but it was a refreshing twist on a typical theme. ****

The Mighty Macs was a feel-good story about women's college basketball at a Catholic college. I thought it would be more interesting than the typical feel-good men's sports stories, but it was very predictable. Close to boring. **

Obvious Child is about a stand-up comic who's boyfriend dumps her and confesses he has been sleeping with her friend. Lots of drinking, and whiny babbling, and boredom. *

The Perfect Family was about an exceptionally religious housewife who is nominated to be the Catholic Woman of the Year and needs to go through a vetting process to confirm she is worthy. It had the makings of a great comedy. One soon discovers her so-called perfect family includes an alcoholic husband, a cheating son, and a lesbian daughter, and even that had comedic potential. Unfortunately, it failed miserably as a comedy and was so incredibly boring it even failed as a drama. Most of the movie is about her lack of acceptance for her lesbian daughter very much like the other movie I watched a few months ago Jennie's Wedding. Lesbians are very popular movie themes these days. The very, very, very bad performances made it painful to watch. Kathleen Turner looks, acts and speaks like she's uncomfortable in her own body. She slurs her words, hesitates before every line as if she doesn't quite know what she should be doing, and her movements are unstable. Is she drunk????  The whole movie was painfully uncomfortable. *

Shadowland with Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes is about an Australia couple living in the outback. Their two rebellious, unhappy kids disappear one night.  Neither of them liked living there, and I'm not sure why everyone thought they'd be stupid enough to just walk across a desert, but kids aren't always smart so I guess it's not so unreasonable. Lots of family dysfunction and drama. Such bleak landscape with hellish temperatures. I don't know how anyone could actually live in such a community. It looks like Snowflake, AZ. Strange story. Great photography and performances, but didn't have much entertainment value. ***

She's Funny That Way was a very bizarre, slapstick-ish-like 1930s comedy about a group of people in New York who all intertwine through each other's lives. It was so weird at first I thought it was a Woody Allen movie. I hate Woody Allen. Some of the characters were really original - like Jennifer Aniston as an incredibly messed up psychiatrist. She kept screaming at her patients and saying what she wanted to them which I'm sure is every psychiatrist's dream. Or she'd talk at length about her clients' personal problems and saying "But I can't talk about my clients."  It was a great role for her. ***

The Shunning was about a young Amish girl who's childhood love left the community (although they don't make it clear how until later), and at twenty years old she's being married off to the community bishop so he'll have a wife and mother for his two children. She still has her boyfriend's guitar and in secret she plays it, but when she's caught she has to confess her sin and promise not to divulge in the "English ways" ever again. Then a woman shows up in the community and she finds out she was adopted. It was actually really good, but I think they ended it too soon. I suppose that was a creative decision, but I'd prefer some heart-felt closure. Heck, it was a Hallmark movie so that should have been expected. ****

The Skeleton Twins starred Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader as messed up twins who's father killed himself when they were 14 years old. It's 15 years later and as she's standing in the bathroom ready to take a handful of pills she gets a call from a hospital the other side of the country that her brother just tried to kill himself. They haven't seen each other in ten years and he moves in with his sister and her husband. Great human drama with some really outstanding lines. When I see the names Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader I can't help but expect stupid comedy. I'm glad they are doing drama. They are both surprisingly talented. I think it's going to take a long, long time to stop humming the song "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now." That was a great scene. ***

Some Kind of Beautiful was a weird, predictable Hollywood-driven love story about a college professor (Pierce Brosnan) who gets his student-girl friend (Jessica Alba) pregnant, she leaves him for another man, he falls in love with her sister (Selma Hayek), and gets deported. Hmmm...it was OK. Nothing special. Oh, how nice it would to be live on the beach in Los Angeles in that gorgeous house. ***

Soul Surfer is the story of Bethany Hamilton, professional surfer, who was attacked by a shark, lost her arm, and continued surfing. It was a great story. Just when I started thinking here's a girl with a perfect family, who lives on a perfect beach in Hawaii, spends every perfect day lounging on beaches and surfing, is perfectly beautiful, perfectly healthy even without an arm, has lots of perfect friends, perfect, perfect, perfect...Yeah, this horrible thing happens to her, but she still has a life most people in the whole world dream of so it's kind of hard to feel sorry for her. Then she goes to Thailand after the tsunami and she realizes everything I've been thinking! Great redemption. Lots of God talk, but I guess I should expect this if I watch a religious-themed movie. Carrie Underwood needs to stop trying to act. Stick with singing, honey. ***

Tammy features a character who is the quintessential all-American white trailer trash woman (Melissa McCarthy) who is shockingly stupid. She loses her job, finds her husband cheating on her, runs away with her alcoholic grandmother, robs a fast food restaurant to get her grandmother out of jail, and goes to jail for robbing the restaurant. Amazingly enough, it has an all-star cast: Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Dan Aykroyd, Gary Cole, Allison Janey, Toni Collette, and Sandra Oh. It is just slightly better than stupid humor so I'm a little perplexed why all these celebrities are in it. Lots of commentary on growing old, as in "I can do that [even though it's illegal]!  I'm old, so it doesn't matter!" I'm not quite sure how the main character got so trailer-trashy with such middle-class, competent parents, but it's not for me to question Hollywood.  Melissa McCarthy sure is making a lot of money these days for not being the typical actress. ***

What We Did on Our Holiday I had no idea what this movie was about. I saw the preview and it looked like a typical comedy about an English family with adorable yet pretentious kids on vacation and some good punch lines. It has much more depth than the snippet suggests.  It is about a couple with three children and in the middle of a nasty divorce they drive to Scotland to visit the husband's dysfunctional family for the grandfather's 75th birthday bash. They fight the whole time. The neurotic oldest child is convinced her parents are compulsive liars (they are) and needs to write everything down so she can keep the lies straight. The grandfather is a charming Scottish sage-like Viking who imparts his wisdom on the youngsters while he himself contemplates the value of a life well lived. Of course, kids will be kids and it's impossible  for them to keep secrets no matter how hard they try even after they've been sternly instructed not to tell anyone divorce details. At one point while the couple is overheard fighting the little boy says as a matter of fact, "They are fine. And they don't live in different houses, by the way."  And that's only the beginning of the movie. With every turn it gets better and better. I don't want to divulge too much. It takes such a delicious and unexpected turn I was thankful the preview made me think it might be tolerable. The dialogue is awesome with some outstanding LOL moments and perfect comedic timing, but it's less comedy and more human relations. Very sweet. I LOVED it, and then I watched it again. Can I move to Scotland now? *****

While We're Young is about a 40-something couple (Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts) who's friends are all having kids so they have nothing in common with them. They seem to be in a rut until they meet a young, 20-something couple (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried) and all of life's possibilities have returned for the taking. It's definitely an interesting perspective on aging. Spot on about the younger generation. ***

Zookeeper was a goofy movie about a geeky zookeeper in love with the wrong woman and the talking zoo animals who help him snag her. The first half was kind of sweet and seemed to have potential (aside from the immature humor), but the second half was incredibly lame with the talking gorilla. And unfortunately I kept thinking about that little boy who dropped himself into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo a few months ago. Watching the video of this tiny little boy stare up at a gorilla that's about to kill him was horrifying. Then the gorilla was killed to save him which was just as horrifying. Did the little boy see this movie before his visit to the zoo and thought that would be a good idea? Hmmm...even though children would love the story and the goofy humor, I think it gives them an unrealistic concept of wild animals. No, animals can't talk even in secret. They won't ride around in cars with you nor go out drinking and be your best friend. And if you fall into their cage, they will probably eat you and cause you a lot of pain while they do the deed. Besides zoos are inhumane and shouldn't be in existence. What was with the late 1970s soundtrack? Hmmm...*

Good god, I watch a lot of DVDs!