A Serious Man, not an easy movie to figure out

I saw the most recent Coen Brothers movie, A Serious Man, the other night, and once again these guys found a way to surprise me. Honestly, nothing they do should really surprise me anymore, but this one was pretty unique. It was very Jewish and very into 60s rock. The music was Jefferson Airplane and Jimmy Hendrix and the plot was a black comedy about a man whose life was falling apart. In that way it reminded me of their film noir The Man Who Wasn't There, only there were no crimes and murders here. But there was certainly a femme fatale. Or two. The movie told of this man and his son and his wife leaving him for another man, and his job at school (a blackmail incident, so yeah, some crime I suppose), and his possible tenure. During the course of the film, the man goes to see three rabbis and each one is a pretty humorours experience. The tooth story is truly wonderful. The movie as a whole is just okay, but like most of their movies, I'm sure its smarter than it appears on the surface and will take some serious thinking about and maybe even multiple viewings to truly understand.

Wild Things, aint really wild, but is still okay

The Wild Things isn't quite as good as it should have been. It's a fine movie, but it's not really light or care-free. Spike Jonze has always been an interesting director, but also fairly dark. He's delved into depravity with his past two movies, and even though Wild Things might seem like a chance for him to break away from that (a movie about a fantasy island full of beasts), he doesn't. The movie treats the beasts like people, giving them real personalities and psychological depths. That's not really a bad thing, but it's probably darker and more thought-oriented than most expect. This is not a feel good movie. But it is interesting. The voices and costumes and animation and look of the film are all wonderful. James Gandolfini as Carol is terrific. And the story is alright. They say that this movie is closer to the real experience of being a kid than any other movie and that's actually true. But by the real experience of a kid, it includes all the bad things. Loneliness, not fitting in, unexplainable rage, things like that. It is a smart, good movie, but it is also sad. And if you want to enjoy it, you will need to do some thinking.

Law Abiding Citizen - a fairly good time

Jamie Fox and Gerard Butler star in a new thriller from director F.Gary Gray, and it's one of the best things any of the three of them has ever done. For Butler, he's got a few films that are better (300, Rock N Rolla), for Fox, this is probably his best, and for F Gary Gray, well, he's done a bad job with movies more often than a good job (Be Cool).

But this movie is a step up for all of them. It's about one man taking on the system and by the system I mean the city of Philadelphia. That one man is Gerard Butler, and the first quarter of the movie, the setup if you will, is fairly conventional. Man loses family to killers. Man becomes killer and goes after those responsible after court fails him. It's all very familiar from movies like Death Sentence. But then Butler goes after the cops and things get interesting.

He's got one trick up his sleeve after another, and they're all a lot of fun. There's even a nice little surprise where the magic trick is revealed and we learn how he did it all. The movie is both a thriller and a mystery and I like that it is not a one on one showdown, and instead has Butler target everyone in the cities government, including both the mayor and city hall. In that way it reminds me of The Dark Knight. Butler is very good in the role and F Gary Gray keeps things pretty edgy. It's a fun time at the movies and something a little different.

Extract, not great, but more enjoyable than most.

It's strange to be recommneding a movie based on these grounds. It's just that these days most movies are lousy and leave you both unfulfilled and feeling like the experience had nothing to offer. Well, Extract is better than those movies. It is not hilarious and doesn't satisfy the laughter need you go in with, but it certainly has an ejoyable story about a fun little loop-hole situation that seems to make sense, not only to its characters, but also to us. Jason Bateman wants to cheat on his wife, but can't unless she cheats on him first, so he hires a gigolo to seduce and sleep with her. Things get a little out of control from there. There's another main plot going on besides this one that involves a factory accident, a hot seductress (femme fatale baby), and a suing of the factory that can put the whole place out of business. The two plot lines run side by side for Joel, who also has to deal with an annoying neighbor who won't take no for an answer. For about half this movie, I thought it was just average, maybe even a little below. Not really funny and just slightly interesting. But then unexpected things started happening, some of them twisty, some of them just fun and nice. And the movie got better and better as it went on. The cast is appealing, and that goes a long way.In the end, Mike Judge has constructed a fun little film that doesn't do anything spectacular, but is still enjoyable on a very light level.

Basterds makes Four

I'm happily surprised to say that there are now four good movies of this summer. And I'm not including Star Trek in May. I'm not even going back to The Hangover in June. I'm talking about July and August, the real months of summer. There's The Hurt Locker, 500 Days of Summer, District 9, and now Inglorious Basterds.

Tarantino's new movie has his signature all over it. There is a lot of pop playfulness that shows us that making the Kill Bill movies really did change him. He's now more about having fun than seriousness and so I don't expect him to ever make a movie as serious as Jackie Brown again. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, because Jackie Brown was pretty great, but so is this new Tarantino.

Basterds is loaded with flashy screen titles that burst onto the screeen with loud music, catchy dialogue, and funny characters. The movie is a pretty straight forward men on a mission story, and from what I understand, when Tarantino was first writing this, he ended up with a giant novel that wouldn't end. It probably had nothng to do with the mission at the theater. I'm glad he didn't make that.

The movie is two and a half hours, but it doesn't feel like it at all. It moves quickly and keeps our attention at all times. Whenever I see a new Tarantino movie, it takes me multiple viewings before I can really appreciate it. So I'm not surprised that I don't love this movie right now, but I certainly enjoyed it and look forward to loving it in the future after I see it again.

Good news: GREAT MOVIES!!!!!

Finally, here in August, the good movies of the summer have finally come out. And it's not what you'd expect. All of the loud, big budget extravaganza turned out to be garbage. Be it the mega-junk films like GI JOE and Transformers 2 or the other stuff like Bruno and Public Enemies and Funny People. Aside from the Hangover, June and July were pretty terrible. But now, at long last, here we go....

Three movies: The Hurt Locker, 500 Days of Summer, and District 9. All of them cool. All of them fun.

Hurt Locker is the best of the three, although it aint no feel good movie. Still it is incredibly deep and thought provoking. The smartest movie you'll find. And ridiculously intense. Every scene is fantastic and clever and important. And the action is great too!

On a lighter side, because not everyone wants to see drama or action, theres 500 days of summer, which really is smart and nice and fun. It's a romantic comedy, although it doesnt play by any of the rules of romantic comedies. in fact, it sets out to defy the rules and does a damn good job. People have said there hasn't been a rom-com told from the guy's pov this well since Say Anything. I'd say since High Fidelity, but yeah, the idea is pretty accurate. Very enjoyable and quirky and different.

And then there's District 9, an alien sci-fi movie that also breaks the rules and tries to be its own unique, clever thing. Are we seeing a pattern here? District 9 is very cool with amazing effects that look real (as opposed to the usual drawings done by computers). It combines elements of Blair Witch and Cloverfield and the Office, to make the film feel more documentary-like, and that's exactly what a movie like this needs. It needs to be taken seriously and this movie figures out a way to do it.

So three good movies, none of them headlined by big stars, all of them low-key, and all of them smart as hell. These are the summer movies I've been waiting for. They're finally here!!!!!!

More of the same

As people start to weigh in about the movies that are out now or coming out soon, things are once again looking gloomy. The Adam Sandler movie Funny People is apparently way too long at 2 and 1/2 hours. It seems to be two movies in one, and more dramatic than funny. I'm sure its okay, but I was hoping for something a little better than okay. And the GI Joe movie, I thought it might be guilty stupid fun, but now I'm starting to think it will be just stupid. If it's all computer effects, like it appears to be, than what's the point? recently I've been rewatching the sci fi movies of James Cameron in the 80s, Terminator and Aliens, and the use of makeup and real effects as opposed to computerized ones make such a difference. These things actually look real. Unfortunately those days seem to be long behind us. 500 Days of Summer is still supposed to be good, and I'm sure Inglorious Bastards will be cool. So I suppose there's some silver lining out there somewhere.