Jun 20, 2011
Frank (Greg Kinnear) almost gets caught cheating on his wife – but then gets away with it. He gets hit by a bus. And dies. On the other side of town, a miserable and anti-social dentist, Dr. Pinkus (Ricky Gervais) goes into the hospital for a routine procedure and comes out able to converse with ghosts. “I can see dead people” but I don’t want to, would be more the plot than “The Sixth Sense.” That is until Kinnear, who has some unfinished business with his widow (Tea Leoni) is determined to change Gervais’s way of thinking by continuing t pester him. Gervais now finds he may have to actually be something he’s never been: Human. This is Leoni’s best role in years with a perplexity and range that one wouldn’t imagine her capable of in portraying a widow. The movie is an unusual comic style, smartly written, well-paced, heart felt and genuinely funny. And here’s the real surprise…it’s written and directed by David Koepp, Hollywood’s ‘it’ boy known for scribing “Spiderman” and “Jurassic Park” to name a few. Beyond that, this film with do for British comic, Ricky Gervais what “Borat” did Sasha Baren Cohen only with a lot more class. Three and a half tiaras
Jun 20, 2011
(Rated R, 114 mins.)
Opens March 10th
A story that ingeniously re-creates the gangster picture as a cross cultural fusion of Eastern philosophy, hip-hop music and urban darkness in one of writer, director, producer Jim Jarmusch’s best achievements yet.
Forest Whitaker stars as Ghost Dog, a man of few words who shares his rooftop home with dozens of pigeons. Ghost Dog lives by percepts of the eighteenth century warrior text Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, practicing the ancient disciplines of the samurai and applying them to his work as a contract killer. Whitaker’s magnificently still performance is complemented by the film’s music, in which the soundtrack underscores both the hit man’s Zen -like qualities and the lurking menace of his environment.
The story is filled with Jarmusch’s signature humor and odd characters reminiscent of his earlier and stranger 1995 feature “Dead Man,” but this time with a samurai philosophy that is delivered through Whitaker’s light and versatile performance, yet maintaining spiritual impact.
Jun 20, 2011
“The summer’s Smart comedy!” I guess if you’re going to redo the 1960s television episode about a lovable-idiotic-secret-agent-named-Maxwell-Smart, who better in today’s Hollywood than Steve Carell to portray him, let alone really look like him! In this story we learn how Maxwell Smart came to be for a U S Agency called “Control” and run by his “Little Miss Sunshine” colleague Alan Arkin. Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson) is sexy and competent to Smart’s stupid and goofball ways. But after eight agency tests and an internal glitch that accidentally gives Smart his chance to be a real agent, he teams with the more competent Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) to fight the forces of KAOS. It’s clear that Hathaway was destined to be an A list star but whoever thought she’d grow up to be this sexy, not to mention a more independent and sophisticated version of the original Agent 99 role. Despite their constant bickering, there is a believable chemistry that smells ‘sequel’ and ‘franchise’ for the (sort of) “Moonlighting” team. Carell was made for this role – adorable, dopey, and a lovable nerd. Not to mention a far better actor than Don Adams. Carell is everything that would make original creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry proud! This is a movie where the dialog is all about the screenplay and where the acting couldn’t be better. Add in some small roles: James Caan is hilarious as President George W. Bush. And with all the Republican digs, it’s clear this production helms from a Democratic team. The only strange thing is a thirty second appearance by Bill Murray as a long-lost secret Agent 13 hiding inside a tree stump. Three tiaras
Jun 20, 2011
Every now and then a small gem of a film comes out of nowhere (even though this one was about 8 years in the making). This is the story of a fabled Tennessee man circa 1930s – part folk lore, part legend – named Felix Bush. He’s played by Robert Duvall (think the Apostle) and this is the one that’s going to get him that next Oscar nomination. When the story opens, Felix takes a rifle shot at the ankle of Buddy (Lucas Black) who afterall, has clearly disregarded the sign Felix posted reading, “No damn trespassing. Beware of Mule.” Next thing we know Felix runs into Buddy again where he works at a funeral home run by Frank Quinn (Bill Murray). Felix explains to the men that it’s “time for me to get low…to get down to business.” He wants to plan a living funeral and see just who will show up and what they’ll have to say about him. Has he made peace with God? Or is that his plan all along? Quinn’s Funeral home is going broke – nobody’s dying – so with Bill Murray giving the kind of dry performance we all know and love, he goes along with the old geezer’s foolish epiphany. On top of it, they’ll run a raffle at $5 a pop to determine who will inherit Felix’s land after he kicks the bucket. But alas, this is where the problems begin (not in the script but in the story). Let anybody get a whiff of money and you know they start to see things in a different light. Enter Mattie (Sissy Spacek) who has a lot of secrets and a long history with Felix. Seeing the two acting on screen together, btw, is wedded bliss. From the moment the movie opens with its tenderly-dropped lines about the nature of life and human relationships you realize it’s one of the smartest screenplays all year. The direction is brilliant and the pacing is superb, especially given the down-home turn-of-the-century feel of the South. The premise feels Six Feet Under meets Groundhog Day on Walton’s Mountain. It’s about taking the time to get life right. It’s about forty years of living a lie for ole Felix. It’s about living someplace between life and death, and finally discovering right from wrong. Three and a half tiaras
Jun 20, 2011
Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) is the “white Christ from outer Space.”A sex God, a rock star, you name it. A cliché of every tabloid cover. On the ten year anniversary of his band, a junior record exec, Aaron (Jonah Hill) is sent by his satanic boss, Sergio (Sean P. Diddy Combs) to escort him from London to NY for the Today show before heading him out to LA to the Greek theatre. This is fabulous news for Aaron whose boring lifestyle with resident doctor (Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss) needs an adrenaline rush and whose boss (Combs is superb as a nutjob) is overly demanding. But the seemingly simple feat turns out to be a ticking clock of nightmares as Aldous wants to party like a rock star all along the way. And like all recent bromances, this one has to end up in Vegas with a Hangover-esque feel to its story. That said, all in all a smart, raunchy film with witty dialog and enthusiastic performances, it sparks with laugh-out-loud in the first ¾ before fizzling into semi-ridiculous in the final ¼. Somewhere there’s an underlying message of live life in the moment and don’t be so tight wound, but even that message gets lost in the booze, heroine and three-ways. Two and a half tiaras
