Jun 17, 2011
(rated PG-13, 92 mins.) Based on the 70’s pop cult television show I expected a movie dripping with T & A, hair flips and boring drama (yawn). Wrong. It’s pure comic entertainment! Oh, there’s hair flipping (but flipping Jackie Chan style) and there’s more “A” than “T” (thanks to Cameron Diaz), but it’s a testosterone flick with chicks and more costume changes than a Diana Ross concert. From it’s Mission Impossible opening infused with any Farrelly brother’s sense of humor and funky soundtrack, the story resurrects Charlie (the still sight unseen John Forsythe) who has a new assignment for his three angels. Cameron Diaz is the ditzy one, Drew Barrymore the driven one and Lucy Liu the brainy one, must stop a mad man (Tim Curry) from stealing the “audio DNA/voice identification” of Knox (Sam Rockwell) and his colleague Vivian (Kelly Lynch), a software mogul of some high technology company. Of course none of us really care about the plot because for once the plot doesn’t matter. It’s all the action of romping around in strategically unzipped wet suits, buildings blowing up ten feet in front of them without a scratch on their cute little bodies, and their ability to jump off buildings in a single bound without messing their hair. It’s the millenium way to be touched by an angel. And, their lovable, sidekick Bosley is portrayed by Bill Murray who seems more like their pimp with his classic deadpan humor.
Jun 17, 2011
(rated PG-13, 106 mins.) Does it really matter if the movie’s any good? Natalie (Cameron Diaz), Dylan (Drew Barrymore) and Alex (Lucy Lui) return for round two of sexy kick-butt bikini action. While this sequel is short on storyline, it’s full of more ‘grill’ and less girly girl than the first one. It’s hip, it moves and these angels know their places this second installment, having way too much fun racing, thrashing, karate chopping and sky diving like it’s nobody’s business. Demi Moore plays the nemesis that doesn’t quite fit into the rhythm of the film but Bernie Mac plays a better Bosley than Bill Murray did in the first round and there’s tons of other celebrity cameos to make everybody happy. Whether it’s good or not, the girls have so much fun on screen one can hardly help but love them.
Jun 17, 2011
The year is 1980. Charlie (Tom Hanks) is a player. Charlie is a guy who gets more women than Hugh Hefner. Oh, and by the way, Charlie is a Democratic Texas congressman in a world of what he calls “ultra right-wing communists.” But the Russian invasion of Afghanistan marks a turning point in Charlie’s life. Urged on by a Houston socialite named Joanne Herring (Julia Roberts), Charlie decides it’s up to him to supply the Afghanis with the state-of-the-art weapons they need to defeat the Russians. Aaron “West Wing” Sorkin based his screenplay on the book by the late George Crile of “60 Minutes” fame,” and director Mike Nichols tackles the subject of Washington and politics in his usual sexy, suggestive and crafty way. His last foray into this territory was “Primary Colors,” and this is just as smart. Roberts may not have much chemistry with Hanks, but their relationship is about business sex, not romance, and it works. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a rogue CIA agent, and with his rude and comical banter, he’s the movie’s live wire – he steals the show. Nichols’s directing is suave and sexy, fast and funny. In fact, the only big problem with this film is that it neglects to tell us what we, thirty years later, now know – that Charlie Wilson’s war may have helped bring an end to the Soviet Union, but it also helped create what turned out to be Al Qaeda.
Jun 17, 2011
Based more closely on the adaptation of the Dahl children’s classic “Willy Wonka” then the former 1971 Gene Wilder (screen) version, Charlie (Freddie Highmore) is a ragged little boy whose last meal, plainly wasn’t. One day a kooky candymaker, Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) throws a contest where five winning children will get an exclusive tour – an experience of a lifetime, inside his chocolate factory, if they can find the five winning candy bars. The first is a chubby German boy who eats his way through enough candy until he comes to a winning ticket. The second, an ‘entitled’ high society brat, tired of all the ponies daddy buys her, wins, while the third is a karate competitive, Georgian girl, with a “Kill Bill’ drive. The fourth, an overly-aggressive TV saturated brat from Colorado gets the fourth ticket. That leaves one ticket to be won by — you guessed it….Charlie. And so Charlie bids farewell to his mother (Helena Bonham Carter) and the five children enter the world of Wonka. It’s quirky and funny, more than the expected dark and scary Tim Burton style. And while the theatre’s trailers make it seem like total childlike boring nonsense, it’s anything but. It has a feel to what a grownup might imagine “Alice and Wonderland” meets Michael Jackson’s “Neverland”. And speaking of “Neverland”, the movie re-teams Depp with Highmore (the sweet little boy in last year’s runaway smash “Finding Neverland”) one of most critics top five list. It also reunites Burton and Depp which somehow earns this movie a certain come-to-be-expected pedigree. The movie is Burton’s best, as far back as can be remembered — pure brilliance and absolutely hilarious. Depp is always on his game when taking on roles that make him a grown-up-little-boy with a twist of fantasy, and always a heart of gold.
Jun 17, 2011
(rated R, 100 mins.) Imagine “road rage” that follows you home. That’s the story of Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson) a recovering alcoholic stressed out by an ex-wife, the kids and a nasty mortgage situation. Hotshot Gavin Banek (Ben Affleck) is just the opposite: A partner in a law firm run by his father in law (Sidney Pollack) and married to his daughter, the quintessential Stepford-wife-type (Amanda Peet). When his brand new Mercedes S500 sideswipes Gipson’s clunker Toyota, the games begin off the road. But it’s the games that turn into tit for tat revealing their real life problems that makes this movie work. And, of course the acting. Jackson is fantastic in a sympathetic role gone haywire and Affleck delivers tough acting skills we haven’t seen since “Good Will Hunting.” They’re both right and they’re both wrong and in the end only justice will prevail in this thriller.
