See below - I've added a few old reviews that were sitting around in draft form. I can't figure out how to redate them without the ol' cut and paste so...you can see how long they have been in the queue.
Enjoy! Perhaps you will find a holiday rental option!
Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
On DVD - The Station Agent
I had heard of this film, but I had no idea what it was about until I pulled that little sleeve out of the Netflix envelope. Had I known what was to come, I would not have waited a month to watch it.
Fin, a dwarf, inherits a station. The kind where a train station agent would live, or at least work, when the station was active. He moves into it. The movie never really explains why, but it does not really seem important. I understood him to want to get away from people; maybe he's grieving. Regardless, the station is out in the middle of nowhere, or at least that is the way it looks.
Throw in one Latin coffee vendor (out of a truck, parked next to the station, again, not explained, and thus, funny) who cannot stop talking and one lonely, bruised woman and you have got an interesting "people piece." I call it that because nothing really happens in the movie - well, of course things happen, but nothing really happens. There is no real mystery to figure out (even though things unfold), no one dies (except the throw-away character at the beginning), there is no real love story...it's just about how these three (and a few other) people interact, how the dwarf experiences life with his differences, and how he and the others realize that maybe, just maybe, having some other people around is not all that bad. Eventually they find family in each other.
It's a cute, funny, sad, and ultimately very optimistic movie with some GREAT performances.
This is a solid ****.
Fin, a dwarf, inherits a station. The kind where a train station agent would live, or at least work, when the station was active. He moves into it. The movie never really explains why, but it does not really seem important. I understood him to want to get away from people; maybe he's grieving. Regardless, the station is out in the middle of nowhere, or at least that is the way it looks.
Throw in one Latin coffee vendor (out of a truck, parked next to the station, again, not explained, and thus, funny) who cannot stop talking and one lonely, bruised woman and you have got an interesting "people piece." I call it that because nothing really happens in the movie - well, of course things happen, but nothing really happens. There is no real mystery to figure out (even though things unfold), no one dies (except the throw-away character at the beginning), there is no real love story...it's just about how these three (and a few other) people interact, how the dwarf experiences life with his differences, and how he and the others realize that maybe, just maybe, having some other people around is not all that bad. Eventually they find family in each other.
It's a cute, funny, sad, and ultimately very optimistic movie with some GREAT performances.
This is a solid ****.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
In Theater - Zack and Miri Make a Porno
They really do. They make a porno.
I kind of thought it was a metaphor - or just the backstory - but the porno-making is really front and center. Full-frontal?
It's a charming film nonetheless. A classic love story. With Kevin Smith twists.
The main leads are decent actors; the supporting cast? Not so much. And as he is prone to do, he turns nothing scenes into little bouts of hilarity all the while making you think that the whole thing was shot by hand in a mini-mart. Wait, wrong movie. But you do get the same feeling as with Clerks -- only if Clerks had had a bigger budget.
It's not like the story is a big mystery at this point (another review sitting in draft...). Zack and Miri have been friends forever, and they now live together in Pittsburgh, which Smith makes look as depressing as it might actually be (hey, I grew up in Cleveland). It's the middle of winter and they are going to their high school reunion. Neither has a great job and they have no money - what they do have Zack spends on crap he can't afford and then can't pay his rent or the bills. Eventually, the electricity is turned off, and they are freezing and practically homeless. What to do?
During a fairly hilarious conversation with the "Mac guy" at the HS reunion, Zack learns that Mac guy makes and distributes gay porn on his own in LA. After making a joke about Miri becoming a prostitute, Zack mentions that if Mac guy makes porn, why couldn't they do it and make some money? His big idea is to use the HS reunion contact list for sales because "if you heard somebody from HS was in a porno, wouldn't you want to see it?"
So they embark. They cast a porno. Nudity ensues. Boobs. Full frontal. They get ready to film and ... the set is destroyed. But they find a new set in a mini-mart...I mean coffee shop and we see more boobs, nudity, sex, back door sex, nudity, fighting, love, and...
The porno gets done. Zack realized he loves Miri after she leaves because of his boneheadedness (that really isn't). Eventually Zack hunts her down, and they have REAL sex (not porno sex). It's love. The end.
So, even with the less than stellar acting (which you get used to, I guess) and mild predictability, the film is fun and entertaining. Worth watching - but you could probably wait for the DVD. I say this after a few (weeks) months - the day after I saw it I was ALL about how funny it was. So after a second screening, I may change my mind again.
***
I kind of thought it was a metaphor - or just the backstory - but the porno-making is really front and center. Full-frontal?
It's a charming film nonetheless. A classic love story. With Kevin Smith twists.
The main leads are decent actors; the supporting cast? Not so much. And as he is prone to do, he turns nothing scenes into little bouts of hilarity all the while making you think that the whole thing was shot by hand in a mini-mart. Wait, wrong movie. But you do get the same feeling as with Clerks -- only if Clerks had had a bigger budget.
It's not like the story is a big mystery at this point (another review sitting in draft...). Zack and Miri have been friends forever, and they now live together in Pittsburgh, which Smith makes look as depressing as it might actually be (hey, I grew up in Cleveland). It's the middle of winter and they are going to their high school reunion. Neither has a great job and they have no money - what they do have Zack spends on crap he can't afford and then can't pay his rent or the bills. Eventually, the electricity is turned off, and they are freezing and practically homeless. What to do?
During a fairly hilarious conversation with the "Mac guy" at the HS reunion, Zack learns that Mac guy makes and distributes gay porn on his own in LA. After making a joke about Miri becoming a prostitute, Zack mentions that if Mac guy makes porn, why couldn't they do it and make some money? His big idea is to use the HS reunion contact list for sales because "if you heard somebody from HS was in a porno, wouldn't you want to see it?"
So they embark. They cast a porno. Nudity ensues. Boobs. Full frontal. They get ready to film and ... the set is destroyed. But they find a new set in a mini-mart...I mean coffee shop and we see more boobs, nudity, sex, back door sex, nudity, fighting, love, and...
The porno gets done. Zack realized he loves Miri after she leaves because of his boneheadedness (that really isn't). Eventually Zack hunts her down, and they have REAL sex (not porno sex). It's love. The end.
So, even with the less than stellar acting (which you get used to, I guess) and mild predictability, the film is fun and entertaining. Worth watching - but you could probably wait for the DVD. I say this after a few (weeks) months - the day after I saw it I was ALL about how funny it was. So after a second screening, I may change my mind again.
***
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Hellboy II
No secret: I love del Toro. I loved Pan's Labyrinth. I loved Hellboy. And now ... I really liked Hellboy II.
You can only expect so much from a comic-to-movie where the main character is a huge, weird, funny red guy with horns. That said, del Toro's imagination takes you right along with him. You really start to believe that Hellboy and Abe and Liz could exist in our world. Which is the magic of the movies.
It's been a few (weeks) months since I've seen it (I never got around to finishing this review!), so I'll just go with what I can remember. The plot is pretty straightforward. Long ago the elves and humans were tearing each other to shreds fighting over Earth. The elves, in their will to win, created an indestructible army (with the help of the trolls/goblins, of course) that caused so much death that King Elf couldn't take it, and he made a deal with the humans where the elves got the forests - where they would stay - and the humans got the cities - where they would stay. The backstory is all laid out in the opening scene flashback with boy-Hellboy and Papa Professor. It's a pretty cute scene.
Flash forward and the Elf Prince thinks living in the forest sucks, and he's decided to take back the Earth by unleashing the wrath of the indestructible army his father forged way back when. Of course, before he can do that he needs three pieces of a the crown that activates the army (a safety device, if you will).
Who can stop him? Why, Hellboy, that's who. And Abe. And Liz.
Here's what happens: chasing; humor, including a drunk Abe and Hellboy; a fight in a weird otherworldly (del Toro-ish) underground market; sword fighting; Liz having second thoughts about having Hellboy as her lover; Prince Elf getting the crown; army activated; Hellboy saves everyone.
It's funnier than the first one. There is one weird scene where some of the message of the movie is simply spoon-fed to the audience - the Prince Elf at one point unleashes a giant tree on the city and Hellboy must kill it to save everyone in its path from destruction. Prince Elf plays on Hellboy's outcast status (which the film has kindly highlighted for the viewer) to make Hellboy hesitate, think he might be more like Prince Elf and less like the humans he is saving. He wonders about his place in the world - being from Hell and all, this is to be expected - all the while balancing a baby (a metaphor?) in one hand and killing the tree thing with the other. The dead tree aftermath scene is a classic del Toro visual - everything the tree touched during the fight is now blanketed in this beautiful green grass and tree stuff is floating down from the sky like snow. If you review Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth you will see that both of them have a "snowy" scene that I find to be beautiful cinema; they are beautifully framed and shot.
It's still a comic book movie with a predictable plot line, but it's funny and entertaining and Hellboy is gruff but sweet. Liz is hot and Abe is lovable. I think the ending was a little better managed in this one as compared to the first one.
Rating: *** and a half.
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