Surprisingly, Tash & I have had time to watch some movies (mostly at hom, but we did get to the theater for one by leaving Mac with his Granny for a few hours -- we figured if we didn't do it now, we'd never be able to do it)...so here's the mini round up of reviews.
In Good Company -- A surprisingly good film starring the underutilized Topher Grace, the almost always engaging Dennis Quaid and the soon-to-be-annoying-cause-she's-being-over- hyped Scarlett Johansen. The plot follows an ad exec at a sports magazine (Quaid) who is the victim of corporate buyouts and shennaigans. He winds up getting demoted and gets a younger boss (Grace) who winds up falling in love with his daughter (Johansen). The movie doesn't play like a typical Hollywood film and is well done in all areas. A genuine surprise and worth watching.
A Dirty Shame -- John Waters seems stuck in the mode of trying to top himself. Instead of making "good" films like Hairspray, he's trying to top the shocks of his classic Pink Flamingos (among others). This film is all about sex addiction. It's really funny and very raunchy, but what else would you expect from John Waters? Tracy Ullman stars as a sexually repressed woman with a sexually promiscuous daughter (played by Selma Blair who may have done her first real nude scene on camera if you consider having an enourmous prosthetic bosom as being "actually" nude). When Ullman gets hit on the head, she changes into a sex addict and discovers that not only is that what made her daughter into one, but that she's destined to help all the sex addicts of the world discover a new way of achieving orgasm. The other sex addicts she encounters are a virtual catalog of weird ways of "getting off" (one guy likes to eat garbage). The film is hysterically funny in that off kilter and off putting John Waters way. Not for prudes or anyone who can barely discuss the subject of sex.
Kinsey -- Speaking of sex...the father of modern sex education and theories gets his own biopic and is played by Liam Neeson. Like the previously reviewed film, it's not for anyone who has problems discussing sex. Unlike the previous film, this one takes its subject matter very seriously. We get a good look into what made this man tick and what made him so interested in everyone's sex lives.
Fat Albert -- I watched the original TV series a lot as a kid, but I'll be damned if I can remember any real specifics about it (beyond knowing the characters and what they did each week). And I'm always very hesitant about big screen remakes of old TV shows, especially new live versions of cartoons...but I was very pleasantly surprised by this film. The cartoon characters enter the real world from the TV when they hear the tears of a teenage girl in trouble. Once in the real world, we get comedy from these now "real" people as they try to adjust and slowly discover that the longer they stay, the harder it is to go back. The film has lots of obvious comedy in it, but all of it is honest and the film has a very simple sweetness to it that reminds us of Bill Cosby's creations and all that they stood for when they were created. Cosby makes an appearance as well in one of the more touching scenes in the film. Great fun for the whole family.
The Princess Diaries 2 -- This sequel is everything a sequel shouldn't be. Where the first one was somewhat charming and cute, this one is annoying and predictable. If you're gonna have a scene on film these days where Julie Andrews actually sings, a hip-hop duet with Raven Simone is not the way to go and it pretty much sums up this film.
Fantastic Four -- Ignore every critic you may have read so far (especially Ebert & Roeper...Ebert hasn't been the same since Siskle died and Roeper's just a man with an asshole). Not every comic book character is supposed to be a brooding vigilante or a mixed up and confused teen or an allegory for hatred and prejudice. Some comic book characters were created just to be fun. And that's what this movie is. Is it perfect? Not at all. I could sit and talk about the pacing (it does slow down in a few spots) or the changes they made to Doctor Doom (I don't have as many problems as the rest of the geeks...and feel they'll fix the problems, which aren't that bad, in the sequel) or even comment on the casting (Jessica Alba's not my idea of Sue Storm...but she does better than almost any female in a comic book film made in the last decade much to my surprise). The film is fun and if you don't enjoy watching this, you're either too narrow-minded of a geek to really be allowed to be a geek or you don't know what fun is. I can't wait for a fully loaded DVD special edition (after all every film gets one whether it deserves it or not) and I look forward to seeing where they take the characters for a sequel. No...it's not as good as the Spider-Man or X-Men movies, but it's better than all the other Marvel Comics based films.
Well...that's all for today...we'll be back again soon with more Malcolm updates (like how does one deal with a child that essentially poops himself to sleep...grunts and groans for five minutes and then makes a sound that you know is bad and then just drifts off...do you wake him to change him or wait until he wakes himself...dilemmas, dilemmas) and maybe a few other surprises.
Be seeing you.
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