So today we spend some time taking some quick looks at recent releases that we missed in theaters but have caught on DVD...so let's just get right to it...
Must Love Dogs is a typical romantic comedy starring John Cusack and Diane Lane. It was such a typical romantic comedy that I believe this film should force a moritorium on the genre for at leats 5 years (like that'll happen). The movie is so bland that it didn't even get a real "Special Edition DVD" release (and every piece of crap does these days) as it contains some deleted scenes, a gag reel and a trailer. Yawn.
The Bad News Bears is one of those remakes that begs the question "why did this need to be remade?" With Billy Bob Thornton stepping in for Walter Matthau we essentially get a cross between Bad Santa and The Bad News Bears. It's pointlessly raunchy...actually it's just pointless. See the original. Heck, see the sequels to the original.
The Constant Gardner is one of those films you're not sure about when you see the trailer. Is it a drama? Is it a mystery? Is it a dramery? Well...after having seen it, it is a political thriller...and a really good one at that. Ralph Fiennes plays a British diplomat who gets tangled in a web of deception after his journalist wife (Rachel Weisz) dies in a car accident. These days I normally don't like films that push a political agenda, but this one's a noble nose tweaking of the pharmacutical industry so I didn't mind much. Amazingly shot, this is one beautiful film to look at. This will easily make my best list for 2005.
Red Eye is another film that was marketed strangely. Trailers suggested a horror film on an airplane since it's directed by Wes Craven...but it is mostly suspense...and then about 45 minutes later the story moves off of the airplane and completely falls apart (not that it was so great to begin with). Rachel McAdams plays a hotel manager on her way home when she is forced by a strange man (Cillian Murphy) to do something against her will (to tell you what that is would ruin what little plot there is). Not worth cathcing this one (pun intended).
Layer Cake is a must see movie...especially fi you want to see why Daniel Craig was picked to be the new James Bond. This story of a drug dealer planning to retire is simply engaging from start to finish. One of the best films of the year.
Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y is an odd surreal piece of the kind I was forced to watch in film classes during college. Don't even remember what attracted me to this, but I gave up after 15 minutes (and the film runs just over an hour). It's mostly a long montage of images and sound bites of terrorist attacks from the 60s, 70s and 80s and its attempting to make some sort of point about the media's role in reporting these, but I'll be damned if I could figure it out in 15 minutes and didn't feel like wasting an hour to get there. For the record, the film was made in 1998.
The Aristocrats is the funniest film of 2005. Hands down. This documentary is essentially about the construction and deconstruction of a joke that many comedians tell amongst themselves and few people have actually heard. The joke starts "A guy walks into a talent agent's office and says "I've got this great act for you.'" And it ends with "The agent asks 'What's the act called?' and the guy replies 'The Aristocrats.'" Of course, this simple version isn't funny...it's the in between that I've left out where all the mayhem begins. You see every comedian puts their own spin on what this act does and it seems like each one is trying to top the other. They throw in every possible sex act, scatalogical act and taboo subject matter possible for this "family act" to go through. Some of the jokes last about 30 seconds (like Emo Phillips), some people claim to have streched it to a two hour story (Dana Gould), there's an animated version using the boys from South Park and even a version by a mime. And the film isn't just a string of comedians telling the joke. We get its history, how it gets reinterpreted by females, by African-Americans, how it can make a political statement and other permutations. This is not for the faint at heart as some of the descriptions defy repeating...but I was so on the floor with this film that I'm working on several versions myself.
Two animated films that got me a big angry about the use of stars instead of vocal actors are Madagascar and Robots. The former is a very funny film about animals wanting to escape from the Central Park Zoo and the latter is about a young robot with a dream that gets crushed by the system. The former utilizes Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith and the characters sound and act just like Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and some lady whose voice you won't really recognize. It's distracting and annoying, but the film is very funny (especially the penguins).
Robots on the other hand isn't as funny and it uses many more recognizable actors, but the only ones that are truly obnoxious are Robin Williams and Mel Brooks since they have the most recognizable voices and play characters similar to themselves. Everyone else, Ewan MacGregor, Halle Berry, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Coolidge, Paul Giamatti, Jim Broadbent and Drew Carey aren't as vocally recognizable and their characters don't seem like the actors' public personas anyway. So while this film wasn't as funny and didn't make me as angry (since it had more people "acting" than being themselves) it's still a good representation of what's wrong with most big screen animation these days.
Another film that got me angry, in a completely different way is Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. This documentary takes a look at the rise and fall of Enron and essentially exposes what is the biggest flaw in a capitalist system. Once greed overtakes one part of it it's very easy for it to infiltrate others. This is a film everyone should see if only to understand that this WILL happen again on perhaps an even bigger scale. This is a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions and a wealth of characters who all deserve punishments as harsh as any in the Bard's plays.
The Chumscrubber is an odd little film with a strange cast. Glenn Close, Ralhp Fiennes, Rita Wilson, Lauren Holly, William Fitchner, Carrie-Ann Moss, Allison Janney, Jason Isaacs, John Heard and Jamie Bell star in this darkly comic look at suburbia. When a teenager finds his best friend has hung himself everyone seems to continue acting as if its business as usual. He quickly realizes that he may not have really known his friend and winds up involved with drug dealers who think they've kidnapped his brother but have actually taken the sherrif's son by mistake. It's not a great film by any means and its not an original film either (let's face it, David Lynch cornered the market on the dark side of suburbia years ago), but it is an interesting film with some great acting.
Well...that's all for today (isn't that enough). We'll play catch up on TV shows next time...
Be seeing you.
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