Last movie you watched......

Wow, I just read Roger Ebert's review of 'I Love You, Man.' I can't believe he gave that a good review.
That movie made me angry.

 

I think your hatred is irrational on this one. It's not Citizen Kane, but everyone I know seems to agree it was an enjoyable little movie.

 

The two characters were so contrived and flat-out unlikeable.
I'm watching a buddy movie and I'm thinking 'If I knew someone even remotely like either of these guys, I'd punch him in the face.'

 

Yeah, I can see that. But they're not supposed to be your buddies, right?

It was about what I expected. And I admired that Paul Rudd abandoned all sense of pride and completely went for it.

 

Dudes, Trapped In The Closet is now on IFC. I had no idea Omar was in it.

 

Watched 'Adventureland' last night. Big-time miss on a concept that could have been really good.

Your first job and the hilarity that ensues? This SHOULD be a good movie. But it just wasn't. 'Waiting' executed it better and even that wasn't terrific.

First off, Adventureland was horribly marketed. It seemed like it was supposed to be another 'Superbad' based on the trailers, but the movie's tone was nothing like that. I don't get the sense that i was really supposed to be a comedy, just more of a romance (there wasn't a single laugh out loud moment in the flick). Most of the characters are actually pretty sad.

The romances were so shallowly developed that it was hard to have any empathy or antipathy for any of the characters. One character randomly is an anti-semite and bases her decision not to date someone because she's Catholic. It was out of nowhere and did nothing for the film.

If it was supposed to be a comedy, they missed some real good chances for laughs. One character smokes weed with a girl and mentions how it makes him paranoid. Then he goes home to eat dinner with his parents and they spend a minute on that scene with no real gags. Totally missed opportunity.

I wanted to like this movie and even quickly decided that it had been mis-marketed and tried to enjoy it as a romance instead of a comedy. Didn't help.

Grade: D


Oh, and another thing I thought weird was that it was based the premise of several of the characters having their first job after graduating COLLEGE. Who waits until after college to get their first job?

 

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys. I'm on a bit of a Jenna Malone kick.

 

Saw Julie and Julia. The Julia part featured two of the best actors of our time. The Julie part featured two OK actors. Therein was the main problem. Just below that was that Julia and her husband had good dialogue and a dramatic milieu to deal with. The Julie dialogue seemed so whiny. But the Julie parts made it a worthwhile movie to see.

 

Love her.

 

She's so very fantastic. I totally thought she'd be the actress of her generation, then Ellen Page showed up. I was wrong.

 

Watched 'The Soloist' tonight with Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx. Excellent movie with two great performances.

With every movie he makes, I get more and more glad that Robert Downey Jr. didn't totally squander his career and life with drugs. He's so good in everything he does.

And Jamie Foxx has so much range as an actor, it's incredible. From Steamin' Willie Beamon to Bundini Brown to Ray Charles and now Nathaniel Anthony Ayers Jr., he can really run the gamut.

Joe Wright directed this movie and I was continually impressed throughout. The way his visual images were in perfect tune with the music was amazing. There was one scene early in the movie where Foxx is playing the cello and when Wright focuses the camera on Foxx, we hear the entire orchestra playing Beethoven, and when it's on Downey, all we hear is the cello. Between that subtle touch and the rest of the shot with the pigeons rising into the L.A. sky, it was the perfect visual illustration of this musical genius' love for the craft.

That scene, and another that shows what Ayers sees behind closed eyes while listening to Beethoven, should be shown to every film class in the country.

Atonement and Pride and Prejudice never held much appeal to me, but after seeing this, I'll have to check them out. Wright's direction was phenomenal.

 

I just saw Duplicity.

It wasn't so much bad as it was nowhere close to as good as it could have been.

Definitely a disappointment.