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Archive for the ‘Popcorn movies’ Category

“THE DEBT”: Then and now

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , , on August 31, 2011| 1 Comment »

Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington

“THE DEBT” My rating: C+ (Opening wide Aug. 31)

114 minutes | MPAA rating: R

It’s got star power out the wazoo, yet “The Debt” feels slight and perfunctory.

It certainly never achieves the depths it is so clearly aiming for; perhaps this remake of a hit Israeli thriller requires an Israeli audience to truly appreciate the morally conflicted situation it presents.

John Madden’s film takes place in two decades separated by 30 years. In the present (actually the mid-1990’s) we have the publication of a book about one of Mossad’s most celebrated operations: the 1966 capture and elimination of German war criminal Dieter Vogel, the notorious “Surgeon of Birkenau” who conducted fiendish “medical” experiments on Jewish prisoners.

The agents who undertook that mission — Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren), her husband Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson) and David Peretz (Ciaran Hinds) — long have been regarded as national heroes.

But the book’s publication opens old wounds, for these three know their story is based on a lie.

Okay, that’s a good premise.

(more…)

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“OUR IDIOT BROTHER”: Sibling ribaldry

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , , on August 26, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“OUR IDIOT BROTHER” My rating: C- (Opening wide Aug. 26)

90 minutes | MPAA rating: R

The only person likely to win any awards for “Our Idiot Brother” is the anonymous editor who cut the trailer. This unsung hero took an aggressively unfunny comedy and so effectively manipulated bits and pieces as to evoke potential ticket buyers’ memories of other, much funnier Paul Rudd films like “I Love You Man.”

But make no mistake, this is bottom-drawer stuff that, by all rights, should have shuffled straight off to home video.

And what makes it even more discombobulating is that “Brother” wastes a slew of good comic actors.

Ned (Rudd) may not be precisely an idiot, but he’s slow enough on the uptake to be in perennial trouble. Also he cannot lie. When a cop in uniform asks him for some weed, Ned takes pity on the poor flatfoot and sells him some. Result: Prison.

Newly out, Ned is passed back and forth among his three sisters. His childlike pechant for honesty gets him in one scrape after another.

Sister Liz (Emily Mortimer) doesn’t appreciate it when Ned reveals that her filmmaker husband (Steve Coogan in typical supercilious mode) is having an affair with the ballerina who is the subject of his latest documentary.

Sister Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), a magazine journalist, tries to use a source’s off-the-record comments in her latest piece. Ned calls her on it.

And Sister Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), in a relationship with another woman (Rashida Jones), doesn’t appreciate Ned letting it slip that she’s pregnant by an artist friend.

The best that can be said for this film from director Jesse Peretz and writers David Schisgall and Evgenia Peretz is that the hirsute Rudd (he looks like a very happy Jesus) exudes a sweetness that helps make up (though not nearly enough) for the script’s lack of cleverness and wit.

I mean, didn’t anybody read the screenplay?

| Robert W. Butler


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“ONE DAY”: When Dexter met Emma

Posted in Art house fare, Popcorn movies, tagged , , , on August 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“ONE DAY” My rating: B+ (Opening wide on Aug. 19)

108 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

My cynical side is scolding me for enjoying “One Day” so much.

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess in "One Day"

My poetic/amorous side is telling my cynical side to take a flying leap.

This is a chick flick with a Ph.D. — funny, sad, insightful and swooningly romantic, perfectly acted by Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess and evoking universal emotions about love and friendship.

Moreover, it was directed by Lone Sherfig, creator of one of my favorite films of recent years — “Italian for Beginners” — as well as the Oscar-nominated “An Education.”

Yeah, it’s predicated on a gimmick. Every episode in this Brit saga — there are 20 of them — takes place on July 15 in successive years. (David Nicholls adapted his own novel for the screen.)

We meet Emma (Hathaway) and Dexter (Sturgess) on July 15, 1988 as they celebrate their college graduation by partying all night with mutual friends. As dawn breaks they end up in her apartment…but all they do is talk (at least I think that’s all they do).

They’re an odd couple. Dex is a mediocre student but a wildly successful social animal. He’s a garrulous charmer, shallow but irresistible.

Emma is the dorky brain. Clearly she’s never enjoyed Dexter’s party life. Her look — shapeless dresses, Doc Marten boots and huge glasses — and her self-deprecating humor suggest a graceless young woman with little confidence in the romance department.

And yet over the next two decades their lives will be entwined in ways both swooning and heartbreaking.

(more…)

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“THE HELP”: Sweet potato pie with a side of Jim Crow

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , , on August 11, 2011| 8 Comments »

Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis in "The Help"

“THE HELP”  My rating: B+  (Now playing wide)

137 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

You can’t throw a rock at “The Help” without hitting an Oscar-worthy performance, making this adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s best-seller one of the best-acted films since, well, “The King’s Speech.”

All that thespian power comes in handy in diverting our attention from some of the story’s more Hollywood-ish plotting and an unimaginative visual style.

OK, maybe I’m being too much of a critic here. There may be a few pedestrian elements in this sure-fire box office smash, but there’s no ignoring the pure emotional power of this story set in the Jim Crow South.

This is a movie that will set audiences to laughing, then bawling, then laughing and bawling all over again.

(more…)

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“RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES” : Damned dirty apes

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , on August 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES” My rating: C (Opens wide on Aug. 5)

105 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

At about the one-hour-and-20-minute mark the simian protagonists of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” rebel against their human captors/tormentors and run amuck in San Francisco. And for a few moments this moribund movie comes to life.

Getting to that point, though, is a real slog.

This prequel, which purports to show how those chimps, gorillas and orangutans in the original “Planet of the Apes” came to rule over humans, is sort of like a rejected Dickens novel. Instead of a plucky young human protagonist we have Caesar, an animated chimp acted by Andy Serkis (Gollum of the “LOTR” franchise) and made flesh — er, pixels — through the wonders of motion capture technology. (more…)

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DVD: Director Cary Fukunaga and the loneliness of “Jane Eyre”

Posted in New on DVD, Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , on August 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“JANE EYRE”  (Available Aug. 2)

It’s an old story in Hollywood: A fresh young director makes a splash with a first movie, but loses his/her way with a followup effort.

But Cary Fukunaga has avoided the sophomore slump. His “Jane Eyre” got rave reviews when it opened in March, and despite coming out on DVD this week the latest adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Gothic romance is still playing theatrically in Kansas City (it’s more or less taken up residence at the Screenland Crown Center).

Fukunaga, 34, is a native of Oakland CA and a film graduate of NYU who wowed many of us two years ago with “Sin Nombre,” a Spanish-language yarn about a Central American banger who hops a northbound freight train to elude his murderous fellow gang members and travels right up to the U.S. border, befriending a young woman hoping for a better life in America.

“Sin Nombre” suggested a major talent; “Jane Eyre” confirmed it. (more…)

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“CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE” : Romance, bromance, breakup

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , , on July 29, 2011| 1 Comment »

“CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE” My rating: B- (Opens wide on July 29)

118 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13 

“Crazy, Stupid, Love” isn’t just about cheating. It IS  a cheat.

But if you can buy its improbable premise, its jarring and sudden shifts in tone and its desperate desire to be all things to all people, you may find moments of real substance here.

It helps that this romantic comedy from directors Glenn Ficarra and John  Requa (“I Love You Phillip Morris”) features an astonishingly strong cast with several breakout performances.

Suburban husband/dad Cal (Steve Carell) is blindsided when Emily (Julianne Moore), his wife of 24 years, announces she’s been having an affair with a co-worker and wants a divorce.

Sad sack Cal finds himself sitting night after night in a bar bemoaning his fate and watching other people score. An expert in that pursuit is the suave, slick, self-assured Jacob (Ryan Gosling), who goes home every night with a different woman. (more…)

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“CAPTAIN AMERICA”: Corny in all the right ways

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , on July 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“CAPTAIN AMERICA” My rating: B  (Opening wide on July 22)

125 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Just when it seemed the whole comic book/superhero thing had burnt itself out in a conflagration of too much money and not enough inspiration, along comes “Captain America: The First Avenger” to make us remember why these movies can be so much fun.

“Captain America” is corny in all the right ways. It’s tongue-in-cheek funny, touching when it needs to be, warmly nostalgic and it perfectly captures its WW2 setting. (more…)

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“TROLLHUNTER” : Trolling for drollery

Posted in Art house fare, Popcorn movies, tagged , , , on July 22, 2011| 1 Comment »

“TROLLHUNTER” My rating: B- (Opening July 22 at the Screenland Crossroads)

90 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

The Norwegian “TrollHunter” purports to be footage left behind by members of a college film crew who have mysterious vanished.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Actually, André Øvredal’s film, an amusing mashup of elements from “The Blair Witch Project” seasoned with a bit of “Men in Black,” is a lot more entertaining than you’d expect given its by-now-cliched premise.

Maybe it’s the way the film wields its uber-dry sense of humor, presenting with a straight face thoroughly fanciful, nay, absurd notions.

Our student filmmakers are on-camera interviewer Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen), sound girl Johanna (Johanna Morck) and cameraman Thoms (Glenn Erland Tosterud…who is heard but rarely seen for obvious reasons).

As the movie starts they are trying to do an expose about wildlife deaths in rugged fiord country. There are rumors of rapacious poachers, and the three fledgling moviemakers  think they have a suspect in a bearded, middle-aged guy who drives a beat-up all-terrain vehicle and tows a mobile home that gives off an unidentifiable reek. (more…)

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“HARRY POTTER AND THE DEADLY HALLOWS: PART 2” : Last piece of the puzzle

Posted in Popcorn movies, tagged , , , , , , on July 14, 2011| 2 Comments »

“HARRY POTTER AND THE  DEADLY HALLOWS: PART 2” My rating: B (Opening wide at 11:55 p.m. July 14)

130 minutes | PG-13

Imagine that you’ve been in a coma for the last 15 years and missed the whole Harry Potter thing.

You’ve no knowledge of the real-life rags-to-riches story of creator J.K. Rowling. Of the long lines of readers awaiting midnight sales of the latest installment. Of the worldwide mania. Of the rise in childhood literacy. The theme park.

Imagine that the slate has been wiped clean. You’re a total Harry virgin.

Under those circumstances, if you were taken to a theater and shown one of the “Harry Potter” movies, what would you make of it?

Be honest, now. (more…)

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