His Movie Reviews

Hop aboard and take yourself back to a time when the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, and every classic rock god ruled the air waves. You’ll soon find yourself aboard the Radio Rock ship found in the movie Pirate Radio, now playing in theaters. Set in the 1960s, this fun little movie is about Britain’s ban on pop music and the radio pirates that would broadcast from anchored ships just off the coast in international waters.  While Britain officials were trying to stop the spread of rock music and the ‘unsavory’ lifestyle it promotes, 24 millions listeners would tune in to these rogue stations each day to listen to their pop music.  Pirate Radio takes the basic idea of these events and fabricates a story based around them.  Set to an amazing soundtrack of classic rock tracks, the characters, story, and soundtrack are a fun and rebellious 2 hours against the government and the man.  But it is also a story of a group of characters (that besides their love for music are complete strangers) that come together to form a family.  The writer and genius behind Love Actually comes back in this film with his witty light comedy style that keeps you entertained and laughing the whole way through. And for some, singing the whole way through.  This is just one of those films that you can’t help but enjoy.  Nick Frost (Simon Pegg’s sidekick from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) provides some great laughs and holds his own as a comedic player.  But my favorite is of course the great Bill Nighy who plays the leader of this eccentric band of radio disc jockeys.  I suggest that when looking for a movie to see, check this out.  You will be entertained and surely not disappointed.

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Now hitting rental shelves near you, this con man flick is a quirky, fun, little caper. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, Brothers Bloom are very successful con men (as the movie notes, the best in the business) that use their highly dramatic and adventurous stories to swindle money from the richest of people.  Their last and final con is to be played out upon the lovely billionare Penelope Stamp (Rachel Weisz). She is a girl who has no problem crashing a Lamborghini in the morning and having it replaced before lunch. In addition, she is quite a strange lot, so they will have to stay on their toes to fleece this damsel. But of course they are the Brothers Bloom…

This film is created by the same  man that created the film Brick, so I had high hopes for this film.  And after viewing, I would have to say this film doesn’t live up to the awesomeness of that movie – but I don’t think it has to.  This film has a different quality about it. If he wanted to make a copy of his last film he would pull a Guy Richie and make Snatch.  But he didn’t, I think he tried something new and different and definitely didn’t come out with a Swept Away. Alright enough Guy Ritchie analogies….The truth is that he made a decent little film that is worth a rent.  Maybe I can’t get enough of con men films like Ocean’s Eleven or Matchstick Men with witty dialogue and trying to fool everyone at every turn, but I love these kinds of films.  And this one brings a little indie style and storytelling to the film that gives it a quaint yet enjoyable feeling.  Its like you are in this storybook land of con men with their crazy yet amazingly great sidekick Bang Bang. You sort of follow the team on their tale and see where it all ends up. I do admit, however, that I was a bit disappointed by the final con (which I won’t give away here) but you connect with the characters. You enjoy the ride.

I give credit for this to not only the storybook style and quaint charm, but also to the amazing actors that appear in the film.  Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody do wonderful jobs as the Bloom brothers. And Rachel Weisz is absolutely outstanding as always.  However, the biggest highlight of the film is definitely Bang Bang.  With pretty much no dialogue, she is just a fun character. She is just a bad ass Asian girl that really likes to blow stuff up – and for that you love her.  Also throughout the film look for other small parts played by great actors.  Alot of Brick cast members make appearances in the film if even for a spilt-second (Don’t think we didn’t notice you Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Hell now that I am flipped over to IMDB, did the whole cast show back up for this film?  Nora Zehetner plays a very small role (I think she is awesome ever since Brick came out – check her out now on the new season of Grey’s Anatomy). Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) shows up for a bit and even the kid from Where the Wild Things Are (Max Records) has a bit.  So be on the lookout for great talent while getting lost in one of the Bloom fabricated stories.

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Strolling the shelves of Blockbuster, we saw last week that Easy Virtue is now on DVD. I remember seeing the trailer for the film a while back and so we decided to pick it up and give it a whirl. Set in the 1920s, Easy Virtue, is a light film about the son of an upper class British family that marries and brings home a sassy American wife to meet his parents. And of course, conflict quickly arises as the mother and the wife become mortal enemies – let the battles begin. Overall, the film was a little simple and the plot wavered at times, but the light humor and duel of wits with the mother-in-law keeps you entertained to the end. This is definitely a movie that should be rented or caught on TV rather then paying the eights dollars to see it in the theaters – which is probably why I don’t recall it ever making to the theaters.  It is just sort of one of those movies that if you watch, that’s good, otherwise you won’t be missing much. Its not to say that the film was necessarily bad, I actually rather enjoyed it.  It just seems like sometimes the plot falls flat and is only made up by a clever line here and there.  And most of these lines were delivered by the highlight of the film, Colin Firth, who plays the father-in-law to Biel.  He is a man who cares nothing for the dull boring life of the English countryside and the upper class. His lack of respect for English tradition plus his cool one-liners provides for wonderful humor and a great ally for Biel in place where she surely lacks friends. Even her husband, Ben Barnes, never really stands up for her and instead plays a child that never really grew up to take responsibility. Throughout the film he stays completely oblivious to the outright war that wages between his wife and mother.   I was sort of waiting for him to redeem himself, yet, it never really happens.

The real charm this movie has is in its subtle humor.  This isn’t an over the top, laugh out loud type of movie, but rather a few chuckles here and there.  I appreciate the movie for that as it seems like comedy films these days seem to follow the same damn suit.  But not everyone needs to be the next Superbad, and sometimes a light little comedy is just what you need.  This film manages never to get too serious and detract you from the movie itself. Or too stupid for that matter either. So, if you manage to catch it on TV and looking for a little light comedy, check it out.  Or perhaps, if  you’re into films about 1920s British upper class, then I guess this film is definitely for you. 

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Having never seen an advertisement for Whip It, I viewed this completely on the urging of my girlfriend.  And I have to say, this movie is actually very good. Perhaps I am completely oblivious to every advertisement they have for this film, but to me this is definitely a nice little sleeper out in theaters right now that should be checked out. The plot-line is sort of predictable, like every other movie where the main teenage character has a dream to do something and her parents don’t approve.  But its not really the plot that drives this movie.  Its the characters and dialogue that really shine.  Ellen Page plays the title role with a subdued witty Juno-like quality that everyone loves her for.  Kristen Wiig plays a great role as sort of a mentor and friend. The characters are smart, funny, and just act real.  Its also not too bad that they roller skate in skimpy outfits as well.  I mean, I obviously knew the basic premise of the movie involved roller derby girls, so how bad could it really be?

It is a movie the can be considered a chick flick, but I definitely think a guy can sit through it and enjoy it.  I mean, there are some hard hits, blood, and broken bones.  I personally think Drew Barrymore purposely had her character injured every five minutes to keep her behind the camera instead of in front – but thats just me.  The only problem I have with the film is Page’s love interest.  That dude is just ugly, no two ways about it.  I mean seriously, he does a great job as the character but bring back the derby girls.  Sorry, dude.  So as far as this movie is concerned, if you’re looking for a nice, light, date-night flick, check it out and I hope you enjoy it.

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Yesterday we decided to shell out the fifteen plus bucks to go see the new Vince Vaughn / Jon Favreau creation in theaters now called Couples Retreat. I mean, from the outside, it has the makings of a great comedic masterpiece with the likes of the Swingers creators at the helm, not to mention decent one-liners in the trailer and the amazing Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell.  But as I was sitting in my velour theater chair, I found myself actually quite bored, and the movie was probably a mere 15 minutes into the film.  Dealing with heavy issues as divorce and family problems from the get-go makes  you begin to question if you have somehow been duped into some drawn out drama.  Of course, they try and keep you interested by sprinkling some comedic one-liners, but they almost fall flat compared to the gravity of other situations.  I mean really for most of the movie, the biggest highlight of the film is Colin Baiocchi, the boy who plays Vaughn’s youngest son in the film (and he has probably a total of 5 minutes screen time).  Granted, that is not to say that there aren’t funny lines in the film.  I did find myself laughing here and there (The shark scene was definitely a hit). But the main problem with the film, I felt, was the awkward progression of the characters through random fights and tension that was not cleverly or fully handled.  It seems to happen too often that a film tries to be more then one genre and gets burned.  Two movies were going on at the same time, a drama and a slapstick comedy yet the two never really melded together. As soon as there might be a need to solve some problem the movie cuts to another couple to capitalize on something funny they might do. You’re left with the haphazard mess that you can’t  decide was good or bad.  I mean, while my review of the film does seem entirely bad, I do have to say I did enjoy the funny parts of the film – I just wish there was more of them.  I would say to wait for this one on DVD and hope for more one-liners in the deleted scenes.

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