Jun 17, 2011
(rated PG-13, 103 mins.) Based on a Susan Orlean article “The Surf Girls of Maui” and riding the wave-hype off last year’s “Fast and Furious”, Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth), plays a headstrong teen who moves to Hawaii in hopes of making it on her own and winning a surfing competition. Michelle (“Girl Fight”). Rodriguez is her best surfing pal. Miscast and underused in this role, Rodriguez should well have been the lead to fight off stereotype of the Gidget blonde beach-babe type. While Anne Marie has a NFL hug honey boyfriend (Matthew Davis) and a killer bikini body, with a closet that looks like something out of Pacific Swimwear, it’s not enough to sustain a full 103 minutes. Unless of course, you’re in the mood for pure eye candy on a surfboard then Hang 10. Turns out, the filmmakers are real world-class surfers with some great wave-riding sequences. But, if it’s story you’re after, you’ll surely be caught in the undertoe.
Jun 17, 2011
(rated R, 122 mins) …blew me away! Move over Steven Soderbergh! This is the movie that will put Director Ted Demme (“Beautiful Girls” “Monument Ave.”) over the top! A look at the life of George Jung (Johnny Depp), the first American to become the conduit to the Colombian Cocaine Cartel. The story opens with a voice over of the young Jung’s perspective of life and money, witnessing his parent’s (Ray Liota and Rachel Griffiths) love loss. Old enough to leave his old-fashioned Boston roots, Jung spreads his wings to land in the liberated free-love world of California where he and his best friend Tuna (Ethan Suplee) discover a get-rich-quick scheme that begins to snowball. Their lives interweave with many boogie-men types including a flamboyant hair dresser, Derek Foreal, portrayed with much gusto by Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman). Eventually Jung’s greed kicks in and he is forced to recognize his father’s words of love/money through the responsibility of a wife (Penelope Cruz) and their daughter (Emma Roberts) and of course, its consequences. Each and every role delivers the perfect marriage of character and actor. In the wake of all the “Traffic” hype, which slaps us with the realities behind drug trafficking, Demme’s film manages the reverse, pumping out slick visuals, and funky soundtrack that steal the audience onto George Jung’s side, sympathizing all the way to his demise. Not since Warren Beatty in “Bugsy” have I so much condoned a lovable bad guy.
Jun 17, 2011
The movie opens in a traffic jam with a man screaming out “I’m blind” from behind the wheel. Every driver’s nightmare. Seconds later another person, and then another, are affected by this insane epidemic of seeing only whiteness (as opposed to the blackness a blind person might experience.) Enter the Eye Doctor (Mark Ruffalo) whose wife (Julianne Moore) becomes a sort of savior for these victims. Quarantined in some hell-hole of a building, and left to degenerate as a society, we have plenty of time to ponder why the filmmaker would choose this route except that maybe it’s a poor adaptation of the book “Blindness” by a Nobel Prize winner. Maybe it got lost in translation? At least in Julianne Moore’slast end-of-the-world disaster “Children of Men” she not only dies in the first few minutes, but the characters (including Clive Owen) fight within normal society to be heard, to be recognized. The upside is the idea of examining issues that only the blind would have, but even that wears thin as the scenarios set up for the audience to eventually recognize them. I only wish I went blind so I wouldn’t have to watch this movie. One tiara
Jun 17, 2011
(rated R, not yet reviewed) Kim Basinger, who has a lot to live down after “I Dreamed Of Africa” stars in this spooky thriller that follows a child psychologist/nurse (Basinger) who uncovers a Satanic plot (think Damon in “The Omen”) with the help of a dashing detective (Jimmy Smits).
Jun 17, 2011
(rated R) Being kept under tight wraps by Artisan Entertainment, is the much anticipated sequel to last year’s success in the newborn cult thriller the “Blair Witch Project.” In the first film, a group of young filmmakers travel into the woods to make a documentary about the legend of an evil force called the Blair Witch, and though their videotape is found, none of the filmmakers are ever seen again. In this latest sequel, that same videotape–which has now been viewed by millions of people–has created curiosity and a huge tourist industry surrounding both the legend and the woods in Burkittsville, Maryland. One local entrepreneur, hiding a past as a patient in a mental institution, creates The Blair Witch Hunt, an adventure tour of the haunted woods which he advertises on the Internet. This time, newcomers, pitch a tent in the woods where all kinds of creepy-crawler things start to happen. Last year’s Heather, Michael and Josh are not dead, and Blair Witch may have just been a movie, but this year’s new groupie group of four victims may not be. Hhhmmmmm…..
