Funny People Review

Judd Apatow. A man singularly responsible for causing me to laugh more than any other one person. I had some pretty high expectations for this apparent summer laugh factory, and while the film fell short of my expectations I did enjoy it. First thing is first, this is not a comedy, it is a drama about funny people, hence the title. Obviously no one wants to go check out a movie about some dude dying, hence the advertising campaign aimed at making it look like another one of Apatows giggle riots. I left the theater earlier today, making a perplexed 'hmph' noise as I walked out. In the car on the drive home I must have repeated the noise at least 7 times. There is simply something about this movie I could not put my finger on. It made me laugh, it made me tear up at times, and unlike most comedies it made me think as apposed to just turning my brain off.

I really like Adam Sandler in serious roles, he is one of the rare comedians that can pull it off. Unfortunately Seth Rogan does not share this rare gift. While this is still a comedic role for Rogan, its a little outside of his pay grade as far as how demanding it is in a dramatic sense. Sandler is great, Apatows wife and kids are great, Jonah hill and Jason Shwartzman are pretty good, and I didn't hate Eric Bana. I did however feel that Rogan was cast in this role purely because of his relationship and history with Judd. He really didn't have what it takes to convince me.

This is a movie about comedians, there lives and how the whole acting/stand up system works. In that realm it can get pretty funny, but the main story is a pure drama. A man at the end of his life tries to realize what he has done wrong and attempts to mend some bridges. Some pretty serious stuff, in the beginning of the film (while I was still under the impression I was watching a comedy) I found myself doing that half laugh, you start out laughing and then trickle off into a weird limbo "was I supposed to be laughing at?" kinda thing.

I hate to say this but I cannot whole heartedly recommend you people to go see this in theaters but definitely rent it. If you are a huge fan of this crew of usual suspects then by all means throw down that 10 bucks. Just don't say I didn't warn ya.

7/10

-Ben

The Hurt Locker - Review

WAR, YAAAYYY!!!!

Who doesn't like war movies? Its war, c'mon people. There are tons of flicks in this genre, most of my favorites run through WWII or Vietnam, that in large part is because no war past Nam' has really been portrayed well in cinema. Until now. Kathryn Bigelow has made her masterpiece in "The Hurt Locker" (dumb title in my opinion that really has nothing to do with the film, oh well). Set early on in the Iraq conflict HL throws us into the last 30 days of Bravo Company's bomb disposal unit. Yes this movie is a war movie, about iraq, and its good, very good, this is no "Stop Loss".

By the time the two hours and twenty minutes whizzed by I left my usual seat in the arclight with a pain in my eyes and a dry mouth, basically because I felt that there was no appropriate time to blink or swallow, believe me, this shit is intense. The great and stand out thing about HL is that it does not try to be like previous stand out war films. War has changed, and war movies need to change too. While the action is intense its very different then the wars we see in "Saving Private Ryan" or "Platoon". We follow closely three very different characters. All of them delivering stellar performances. I actually laughed when I noticed the two biggest names of the cast (Ralph Feinnes, Guy Pearce) thinking that they would be the starts, and they are in it for a total of what feels like 6-7 minutes. The main characters are relatively new to big budget flicks, (the guy who plays sanborn doesn't even have a photo on his imdb profile 'snicker' 'snicker'). That doesn't take away from how great the chemistry and performances are of these relative newbies. Mark Boal (writer) really makes you feel for these three, you understand where each are coming from, and you get to know them all relatively quick. Boal wrote 2007's In the Valley of Elah, which was technically about Iraq, but didn't take place anywhere near it. This is Iraq, this is the war we have all watched for years as it graced our CNN news hour, and these are the people fighting it, and these are the people we are fighting. The whole time you are right along with the terror the soldiers have for the entire civilian population, every person could be an insurgent and you find yourself scrutinizing every member of the populace wondering if they are the ones with the cell phone programed to detonate the big bomb your buddy is standing on. There is a sniper scene so gut wrenchingly overpowering in comparison to previous sniping situations in film the entire full theater let out a uniform gasp at its end.

This is good, a good movie, go see it, preferably in theaters.

9/10

-Ben

Public Enemies - Review

Like all movie nerds, I have my favorite films, whether its apart of an 'all time' category, or something that's lumped into genres, I have my favorite film-makers. Favorite actors. I am one of those nerdy little kids constantly mobbing around imdb.com checking what all of my favorites are up to. Almost two years ago, I was taking part in my mid morning mob around imdb and I decided to look into what Mr. Michael Mann had on his plate. Mann has always been a favorite of mine, while he has dropped the ball with his last few films, I believe 1995's "Heat" is one of the best crime movies ever conceived by man. "The Last of the Mohicans" and "The Insider" are also high on my list of films that I can't get enough of. While scrolling over his previous films to make sure I had caught everything this mans man of cinema has created, I find at the top with a little red pre-production next to it "Public Enemies"."OOoO" I said softly to myself as I waited for the page to load. Low and Behold, Johnny Depp, (one of the favs) Christian Bale (another) and Marion Cottard (new fav) are all starring in a Michael Mann film about one of the most badass crime figures in the history of this country. I thought to myself that this wasn't possible, this is too much, this is just too perfect. All of these powerhouses under one camera. This is what we call stoked. How could this be bad? What could possibly go wrong? Nothing I convinced myself.

Dude was I wrong. It could be the fact that I was eagerly awaiting its release for years, It could be my high expectations from the cast and crew. But in all seriousness, that had to be one of the largest disappointments of a cinematic nature in recent memory.

Difficult to sit through, hard to care, and slightly loose are things only really scratching at the surface as to whats wrong with this picture. The picture is even wrong with this picture. Why shoot a period piece full of rich tones in digital?! It looks digital, feels digital, hard to connect with. It completely lacks a feeling of life. Wait until the medium looks good before you use it, stop trying to be so goddamn state of the art. The soundtrack and score is a joke, Mann is not someone known for his choices in the music department, but this is shit. The performances of Depp and Bale are so flat, boring, and one dimensional its almost painful to watch. Cottard is one of the only redeeming factors of the cast but still nothing to jump up and shout about, just not horrible. The screenplay is the real problem here. Too many characters to follow without enough backstory, you have no idea who John Dillinger is, even after 2 and a half hours, all you really find out is that he likes fast cars baseball good clothes and Marion Cottard (which is a line from the trailer). The relationship between Cottard and Depp is weak, and doesnt really grab you as a feasible romance. Apparently it happened, but I still don't really believe it. There are so many moments you have to backtrack and go, "wait how did we get here? oh yea, yea? hmm" way to much overly dramatic slo mo accompanied by the hokie over dramatized score.

The one and only reason one would go to this movie and be satisfied is if they are going for the shootouts. They are good. They are always good in a Michael Mann film, shockingly realistic, startling, and extremely intense. I am not sure who to thank for that, but those parts are really damn cool. My ears hurt at times, it really shows that more film makers should use blanks in their films, sure its more expensive and exponentially more dangerous, but it really stands apart from other cinematic gun fights.

All in all, because of the cast and crew, reputation and track record, this movie is good enough to warrant a rental. NOTHING MORE, do not spend 30 bucks on the bluray or special edition dvd until you have seen it. Spend the 4 bucks at blockbuster in a few months and make sure.

4/10

-Ben

Moon - Review

Who knew sci-fi wasn't dead, who knew that one actor and a robot could make an entire film, who knew that the offspring of ziggy stardust himself would make a brilliant first film about what else but life off of the planet earth, not far off earth, were talking the moon, the dark side of the moon. moon.

SAM ROCKWELL!?! Jesus Christ did this guy blow me away. Don't get me wrong, Sam is not a new actor to me, I have been following his career since his stand out performance in Frank Darabont's "the Green Mile", he was spectacular in George Clooney's directorial debut "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and he really stood out in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Ridiculously Long Title". Seriously though, this performance launched Rockwell in a whole new realm of acting splendor for me. He is this movie. Period. And what a good movie this is. This role makes Mickey Rourke's so called "comeback" in last years "The Wrestler" look like Eddie Murphy's comeback from "Norbit". Enough about other actors, Sam Rockwell kills this, kills, murders, assassinates, any other synonym of kill, Sam does it. I will be equally blown away if the academy doesn't appreciate this performance to its full extent and deny him a Best Actor Oscar, If he doesn't get nominated I will loose faith in them entirely. He's that good. I actually ran into Mr. Rockwell at the Arclight a few days after I saw the movie, and let me be clear, I hate it when people harass celeb's, I think tmz is disgusting, however I had to shake his hand, I had to thank him, and I did, he's a nice guy. Even if he wasn't a nice guy, if he spat in my face and took a cheese grater to my shins I would still say this is hands down the best performance by a male in 2009 (so far.)

On to Mr. Duncan (I am actually the son of David Bowie) Jones. I am crossing my fingers, holding my breathe through tunnels and praying to whoever responds to us agnostics that Jones does not bust an Antoine Fuqua and only make one good movie and then continually fuck up after that. Its classic film making with a modern edge, a sharp edge, but not sharp for sharp sake, just extremely solid, no bullshit film making. A good term to use would be clean, a lot of film makers that delve into the doomed realm of sci fi find themselves ending up being overly flashy i.e. Danny Boyle in his 2007 earth saving adventure "Sunshine". This may sound a tad nerdy but I have seen the movie three times now, and each time offers up more then the last, there are so many unanswered questions that Duncan leaves to the audience and every time I have strolled out of the theater I have found the lobby an absolute buzz with little huddles of movie goers going over their own opinions and theories as to what actually went down. There is a perfect pacing here, a rarity of information control, and each released tid-bit makes you that much more enthralled in Sam's search for the truth.

Clint Mansell as always provides a solid and very eerie score that flows throughout the film. The cinematography is spot on, it makes you feel as if the moon is not some far off distant entity but an actual feasible environment. There are few 'woah' moments, because truth be told there isn't anything that special about the moon, its a bunch of gray dust, not some far off alien world. The monotony of Sam's career flows through the screen and you understand and feel his loneliness.

This is a rare sci fi gem, not something to be missed, whether if you are a die hard fan of the genre of just your average everyday moviegoer. This is great American cinema, through and through.

10/10

-Ben

500 Days of Summer - Review

In a time when we are being constantly bombarded by copycats of the so called breakthrough indie. Its a rare joy and privilege to finally see something that really stands out. Every five years or so we are blessed with a shinning gem of indie splendor. Most of the time these blips are so good they quickly become taboo by the time they reach DVD. Films such as Clerks, Garden State, Lost in Translation, and Y' Tu Mama Tambien among many others. Most cinefiles find themselves hating these movies after hoards of uncultured frat kids bombard them with "Omagosh! have you seen that movie its like sooooo good." as they blast the key tracks from the soundtrack from inside of their mom's beemer. I am glad to say that Marc Webb's freshman feature will surely join the ranks of these classics, and all of us film geeks will be bashing it with our arms crossed before winter.

From the opening title card 500 days takes us on a hilarious, joyful, and sometimes painful ride through a modern day love affair. Anyone who has ever had a relationship with the opposite sex of any sort of consequence will find something to laugh/cry at. There are so many nails hit flawlessly on the head its scary. I wish I knew the process of Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber (writers) whether this was all from personal experience or just a good idea that popped into their budding screenwriting brains. Either way, the screenplay itself is nearly perfect (I will elaborate on "nearly" in a bit.) Webb and the duo of writers are a match made in movie heaven. I was surprised at the end credits that the writer(s) and director were not one in the same. The pacing and direction of actors throughout the scenes of dialogue is spot on, you hang on every word as if the entire film was the climax of some psychological thriller even though this will no doubt be shamelessly lumped into the rom-com category. The styling of the film will be envied and copied for years to come, managing to have an almost whimsical fantasy styling in some scenes while seamlessly balancing with scenes out of Greek tragedy. It has been a long time since so many fresh ideas have been brought into one 90 or so minute piece of American cinema. The stars of this piece have a kinetic chemistry rarely found in a romantic couple. They fit together so well it makes it that much more crucial for the viewer for them to come together. Joseph Gorden-Levitt really shines here, you cant be happier when he is happy and when he is sad, boy gosh golly are you bummed. You feel for him throughout the whole film, hoping and praying his dreams will come true. Zooey Deschanel is fantastic as well, those damn eyes will get you every time, and you fall in and out of love with her at the exact right moments. This is not the first time these two have been onscreen together, in 2001 they co-stared together in Jordan Melamed's Manic, a film a bit tough around the edges but another great example of JGL and Zooey's chemistry, and a good thing to throw on the netflix que.

I have a few complaints however. While the direction, cinematography, the entire art department and cast are great. The writers bummed me out a bit in the last scene. I wont ruin it for you, but I smell some studio involvement here. The only other thing that stood out against the film (and I may just be being picky here) was the soundtrack. Don't get me wrong, the soundtrack was great, everything fit, timing was good, and a varied selection, and I am sure all of those fore-mentioned frat kids will be running up to me asking if I have ever listened to the smiths. However its old, most of the songs came out a few years ago if not more. With a cinematic style as fresh as this I expected a soundtrack of equal or greater freshness to go along with it.

All in all this is a great movie, I recommend it to anyone, from you, to your 12 year old brother, to your grandmother, to your boss, there is really something here for everyone. You are going to want to watch it again and again and run out and buy/illegally download the soundtrack as soon as you get out of your seat. But truly, this is worth your 12 bucks at the arclight or whatever other cinemateque of your choosing, and besides you don't want to be one of those people who saw the movie 6 months after everyone else.

9.5/10

-Ben