Gideon58's Reviews

The Gong Show was shown over here in the 80's when a new channel (Channel 4) started. I loved it. I knew Simon Cowell would **** it up with the ... Got Talent franchise.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

THE HOURS

Suicide is one of my least favorite topics, whether it be as part of a conversation or a way of dealing with a problem or the subject of a movie. I have always been of the belief that suicide is a selfish act of cowardice that doesn't solve anything and destroys the people who loved the victim. The effects of suicide as a concept and a reality are thoughtfully approached in 2002's The Hours, a slightly pretentious but compelling melodrama that melds three separate stories in a lethargic fashion, perhaps a bit too lethargic, but is watchable despite a thready screenplay that leaves a lot unexplained but crisp direction and a first rate cast will hold your attention.

The film begins with a look at the troubled author Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) and her journey to writing the novel Mrs. Dalloway. We are then introduced to a 1950's housewife (Julianne Moore), pregnant with her second child, who is fascinated by the novel and, in 2002, a gay writer dying of aids (Ed Harris) and his best friend (Meryl Streep) who he refers to as Mrs. Dalloway and though it takes a minute, a connection other than Woolf's book does come into focus.

This film makes no qualms about the unhappiness of the characters and how they view suicide as the only option to relieve them of their misery...the film opens with Woolf attempting suicide before she even completes the novel that triggers this entire tale, but I think what bothered me about this film is that it is never really made clear why Woolf and Moore's character are so desperately unhappy. It's especially confusing with Moore's character...this woman seems to have everything a loving husband, a beautiful home, a child who adores her and another on the way but somehow you can see it coming from miles away that the woman is planning to kill herself. Confusion about her sexuality is hinted at but not fully explored. I was also troubled by the fact that when Moore takes her son to a sitter before executing her plan, there is a sense that her son knows exactly what she's planning to do and I had a hard time buying that.

The writer's motivations for wanting to end it are obvious, but this story is made watchable due to Streep's complete investment in the role of a woman who is still in denial about possibly being in love with this man at one time, even though she is lesbian herself and how her feelings seem to flood back with the return of her friend's ex-lover (Jeff Daniels).

Despite some unexplained character motivations, the film remains watchable due to Daldry's detailed direction and some first rate performances...Streep is marvelous, as always, and Nicole Kidman won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance, though I think she has done better work and Ed Harris amazes in a performance that earned him a nomination as did Moore's work as the unhappy 50's housewife. I wish some of the story holes had been filled better, but it's still worth watching for the performances alone.

THINK LIKE A MAN
Think Like a Man is a glossy, but empty look at the New Millenium Battle of the Sexes where the primary weapon in the battle is a self-help book.

This 2012 romantic comedy looks at four very different relationships in four different stages: a commitment phobe (a newly slim Jerry Ferrera) is working hard to avoid proposing marriage to his girlfriend (Gabrielle Union); an unemployed prep cook (Michael Ealy) finds himself involved with a high-powered lady exec (Taraji P. Henson) who doesn't acknowledge men who make less than six figures and a guy (Terence Jenkins) a little too attached to his mother (Jenifer Lewis) wants a relationship with a woman (Regina Hall) who has a son; a player (Romany Malco) who is only into the chase finds himself attracted to a woman (Megan Good) who wants more.

Things become complicated for the guys when the gals all read a best selling book by Steve Harvey called "Act like a Woman, Think Like a Man" that teaches women how to get what they want out of their men. Coupled with a lot of bad advice from the guys' spiritual leader (Kevin Hart), who is going through a divorce himself, the guys make things worse when they get hold of the book and try to turn the tables on the ladies.

Steve Harvey actually did write this book, which was the basis of the screenplay here, which offers some sporadic moments of humor and sexy, but this story is rich with rampant predictability. We know 20 minutes in how this movie is going to end and there's no reason the journey to said conclusion should be 2 hours long.

The cast is pretty and Kevin Hart steals every scene he's in. I did have issues with some casting...Ferrera and Union had no chemistry at all and I never bought them as a couple and Jenifer Lewis was beyond annoying but the movie had its moments, it just goes on forever. The film features pointless cameos by Morris Chestnut, Chris Brown, Wendy Williams, and, of course, Harvey. In discovering this movie, I learned there is actually a sequel...can't imagine what else could be covered here.

Labor Day
Jason Reitman, the creative genius behind Thank You for Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air, has a little less success with a 2013 drama called Labor Day, which features some meticulous and detailed direction, but suffers due to an overly padded and contrived screenplay.

One labor day weekend in 1987, single mother Adele and her son Henry are shopping at a discount store one day where Henry encounters a man named Frank whose stomach is bleeding and asks Henry to ask his mother for a ride. It is soon revealed that Frank has just escaped from prison but just needs a night to rest but instead makes himself appealing to Adele and Henry by temporarily becoming man of the house and convinces Adele that they can start a new life together in Canada.

Reitman's basic story idea is a good one, but the focus of the story gets spread a little too thin. The screenplay spends a little too much time showing us, through flashbacks, why the central characters are the way they are, including why Frank was in prison. We learn that some bizarre circumstances led to Frank being in prison but what we learn takes up too much screen time and though we understand what happened to Frank might have been a miscarriage of justice, the Frank we have been exposed to thus far would have felt that he deserved to be in prison and would do his time served and would never attempt escape.

The story is also overcrowded with unnecessary characters like a mentally and physically challenged little boy and his nosy mother (Brooke Smith), a cop (James Van Der Beek) whose curiosity about Henry walking down the street just seems unmotivated, and Adele's ex-husband, who shows just enough of a lack of interest in Adele to make him seem more like a jackass than he really is. Not to mention a know-it-all pre-teen who spends her screen time coming on to Henry and trying to convince him that Frank can't be trusted.

But when this movie works, it works really well, and that's mostly due to Reitman's talent as a director...there is a fabulous scene where Frank actually teaches Adele and Henry how to bake a peach pie, which is shot in loving and intimate detail and is the last thing you expect to see a prison escapee doing with his alleged hostages. I also loved the juxtaposing of Adele withdrawing her money for their escape while the nosy mom has conveniently just walked into her house and run into Frank.

Reitman also gets first rate performances from his cast. Josh Brolin, who is looking and sounding more like Nick Nolte with every performance, is the perfect combination of sensitivity and danger as Frank and even though her screen persona is a little too intelligent for this character, Kate Winslet is quite affecting as Adele and Gattlin Griffith makes all the right moves as young Henry. Smith is properly annoying as the mother and Clark Gregg, who has made a career out of playing scummy ex-husbands, shows why he's so good at it. It takes a little too long to get to the last of the three or four endings, but despite some slow spots, the actors and Reitman's direction make it worth seeing.

I agree it's about middle age crisis. Remember at the begining

- I feel invalided.
- You mean invalid?
- Yes, that too. But I mean invalided.

And then there's the argument against "the broad" Julie.

- Accept your defeat like a man.
- I would, if you wouldn't so god deam hard trying to win like one.

And the physical stuff consists of the talk with her on the phone after visiting the dentist.

Brothers
Despite some problematic casting and story structure, the 2009 drama Brothers is a sometimes explosive and vividly realistic look at mangled family relationships and the sometimes devastating effects of PTSD.

This remake of a Danish film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Tommy Cahill, a man recently released from prison who steps up when his older brother, Sam (Tobey Maguire), a career marine, goes missing in Afghanistan and while Tommy is fighting long-buried feelings for his sister-in-law, Grace (Natalie Portman), Sam's battle to get home to his family has done irreparable damage.

I'm not sure where to start here...there's a whole lot going on here and I think screenwriter's David Benioff's work is a worthy attempt at trying to encompass too much. My first problem was with Sam going missing, there was just no suspense there. Grace and his daughters believe Sam is dead and it would have been nice if the viewer had been allowed to be curious a little longer about it. We know from jump that Sam is not dead because he's played by Toby Maguire, who receives top billing and the scenes of what he goes through are pretty non-watchable for several reasons. It would have served the story more effectively to have Sam played by a lesser known actor so that we might have actually wondered for more than 30 seconds if he was still alive.

Sam is severely damaged by what happened to him in Afghanistan and is a changed man when he returns home but he refuses to talk to anyone about what happened, making his behavior bizarre, shocking, and often unjustifiable, thereby making it hard to keep the character sympathetic, which is exactly what he should be. He does finally talk, but it takes way too long for it to happen.

The other problem here was that even though Maguire works hard in the role of Sam, he's just miscast...I never really buy him in the role of this military hero who has gleaned hero worship from his dad (Sam Shepherd) and resentment from Tommy. Not to mention the fact that Maguire looks younger than Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal and Portman are solid though and everything their characters go through rings true...especially Tommy's trying to resume a normal life after prison and trying to win back the long lost respect of his father.

Jim Sheridan's direction is better than the screenplay...he provides some moments of genuine shock, tangled emotions, and creates a family dynamic here that sizzles with tension every time these characters gathered around a dinner table. I think with someone else playing Sam, this film could have been something really special.

SONG ONE
Fans of Anne Hathaway will definitely have a head start with 2014's Song One, a lethargic and voyeuristic drama made watchable primarily due to its star.

The Oscar winner plays a woman named Franny who has been studying abroad who returns to the states when she learns her estranged brother Henry (Ben Rosenfield) is in a coma after being hit by a car. Upon her return, Franny's effort to learn what was current in her brother's life led her to the discovery of his favorite musician, a new age folk singer named James Forrester, with whom Franny actually begins to have a relationship.

This indie project for director and screenwriter Kate Barker-Froyland shows definite promise, though I think her directing is slightly superior to her writing...the screenplay is slow and spotty and focuses a little too much on Franny's relationship with Forrester, which doesn't make a lot of sense since Franny doesn't know anything about him or his relationship and the fact that he is currently having writer's block should have motivated Franny to back off a little. On the other hand, despite his writer's block, Forrester seems to be in demand as a performer, even though the level of his fame is never really made clear. It seemed odd that Franny had never heard of the guy but her mother, beautifully played by Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen, had.

Surprisingly, the portions of the story that concentrated on Franny's vigil at her brother's bedside, her conversations with him and other attempts to connect in some way to motivate his awakening, were absolutely riveting and I wish the story concentrated a little more on this part of the story than Franny's relationship with Forrester, which just came off as forced as convincing.

Despite the problematic screenplay, Barker-Froyland pulls a charismatic performance from Anne Hathaway that kept me invested in what was going on and I also loved Steenburgen as the mother, still partially living in the past and trying to mend fences with her daughter. Johnny Flynn tries to keep the Forrester character viable but it's difficult. Maybe with someone a little more well known than Flynn might have made the screenplay, as presented, a little more viable; however, as it stand, the performances of two Oscar winning actresses make this a project worth checking out.

Glad you watched it Gideon, that makes two MoFos now that have seen it. Your review is pretty much spot on. I would add that people who make music and artist might find the inside look of a musical performer interesting.

I just didn't find the James Forrester character or his music that interesting.

50/50

A challenging and humorous screenplay and some terrific performances highlight 50/50, a 2011 comedy-drama that takes a surprisingly light look at a rather dark subject, that provides realistic and appropriate laughs without ever overlooking the seriousness of the subject.

This fact based drama stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Adam, a 27-year old writer who finds his life forever changed when he learns that he has contracted a rare form of spinal cancer. The film not only documents Adam's dealing with a life-threatening disease but also the various reactions of the people in Adam's orbit, not to mention the very real stigma attached to the word "cancer."

The stigma attached to the word is beautifully illustrated in the scene where Adam first learns of the diagnosis and actually stops listening to the doctor talk after the word cancer comes out of his mouth. The reactions of friends and family are also various and realistically depicted...Adam's mother (Anjelica Huston) just wants to smother him and put him in a plastic bubble to protect him; his self-absorbed girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) wants to stand by him but it is clear in the scene where Adam gives her an out and she doesn't take it, that she should have. Adam's BFF Kyle (Seth Rogen) is loyal to his friend, but is secretly in denial about the whole thing and hopes that it's a mistake. Throw into the mix a student therapist (Anna Kendrick) who has been assigned to Adam to help him sort through the feelings about what he's going through.

They say that the grieving process is divided into five stages: Anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance and Will Reiser's rich screenplay allows Adam to go through all five stages, sometimes in a single scene. The screenplay provides solid laughs throughout, laughs that aren't nervous or inappropriate, but it never forgets the seriousness of the subject matter either.

Director Jonathan Levine has pulled some terrific performances from his cast too...Gordon-Levitt gives a performance that makes the character likable and sympathetic no matter what he's doing. Huston is solid, as always, as Mom and Seth Rogen steals every scene he is in as Kyle. Bryce Dallas Howard is convincing in an unsympathetic role and Anna Kendrick has never been more likable onscreen...Kendrick usually plays such icy and tightly wound characters, but she is deliciously human here. Mention should also be made of Phillip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer as fellow chemotherapy patients of Adam's. A movie that on the surface should be kind of a downer, but is anything but.

SPY
Paul Feig and his muse Melissa McCarthy have proven they can deliver solid screen comedy with films like Bridesmaids and The Heat and have now shown what they can deliver with what appears to be an unlimited budget with the 2015 comic adventure Spy.

This expensive and ambitious James Bond spoof stars McCarthy as a CIA agent who works as a computer tech aiding a field agent (Jude Law) who gets the opportunity to go into the field herself to complete a mission that resulted in the death of her field partner.

Director and screenwriter Paul Feig has clearly seen his quota of James Bond films and knows the genre intimately, creating a dead on valentine to those films with just the right of tongue in cheek sensibility to the screenplay and complete confidence in his leading lady to sell a story that stretches credibility at every turn but we forgive and go with it because McCarthy has such a commanding screen presence. Her work in dominating a comic adventure rivals Murray in Ghostbusters and Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop, but there's no denying that the movie goes on forever.

There's money everywhere here...there some beautiful location filming in Paris, Rome, and Budapest and Feig has put proper attention into cinematography, film editing, not to mention some really offbeat casting choices, some work better than others...really didn't care for Rose Byrne as the evil femme fatale, but loved, loved, loved, loved Jason Statham in an on-target spoofing of his onscreen persona as a fellow agent of McCarthy's whose ego and insecurity about being passed over for this assignment don't stop him from staying right in the middle of it.

With a little tightening of the screenplay and some re-thinking of the supporting cast, this film could have been something on the scale of the above mentioned classics, but as is, McCarthy almost makes you believe everything going on, though you will be checking your watch.

"Spy" must be in my top 10 movies of 2015, so clearly I liked it.

I liked Bridesmaids and The Heat, so maybe I should check out Spy.

Nice Reviews

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

Thank you Nebbit.

INFAMOUS

The timing is a little suspect, but a year after the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar for Capote, we were treated another film on the exact same subject matter called Infamous.

The 2006 release, like Capote, is a period specific look at a portion of Capote's life and career...when he traveled to a small town in Kansas when he hears about a farm family that was brutally murdered, a horrific crime that would eventually be the inspiration for his novel "In Cold Blood".

This film is actually based on a novel by George Plimpton that attempts to take an inside look at the flamboyant author whose motivations for wanting to document this crime are unclear and to do it through the eyes of the convicted killers, who, upon Capote's arrival in Kansas, had not been apprehended yet. What we see is Capote trying to get as much information out of the citizens as he can, whose initially homophobic reactions turn dramatically when Capote starts dropping famous names to ingratiate himself to the people in an attempt to get them to open up.

Writer and director Douglas McGrath has constructed a spotty and slow-moving story that throws a lot of not very interesting focus on Capote's relationships with his snooty Manhattan friends, but the only relationships that really resonate here are the ones he has with writer Harper Lee and the one that he develops with Perry Smith, one of the killers who Capote cultivates a relationship with in jail. Why McGrath would want to invite comparisons to the 2005 film is a mystery, but the film has its own sets of problems that have nothing to do with the other film.

The opening exposition involving Capote and his Manhattan life is just not that interesting as is the homophobic treatment he gets upon arriving in Kansas, the running joke of everyone thinking Capote is a woman wears thin very quickly, but the relationship between Capote and Lee is somewhat interesting but it is the relationship that develops between Capote and Perry Smith that really kicks the film into high gear, but this doesn't happen until halfway through the film.

Toby Jones fully commits to the role of Capote, giving a more flamboyant interpretation of the character but misses the sensitivity that Hoffman brought to the role, something which might not have been as noticeable if the films had been released more than a year apart. Sandra Bullock is surprisingly effective as Harper Lee and Daniel Craig turns in a powerhouse performance as Perry Smith and it is this trio of performances that make this film worth checking out.

It's amazing how a film like Little Fockers with Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller as its leads can be such a bad movie.

FALLING DOWN
Even Joel Schumacher, a director with a real hit and miss resume, has a masterpiece and for me it was an absolutely riveting psychological cat and mouse thriller called Falling Down.

This 1993 film is a chilling and intimate look at the decay of American society through the eyes of one man. Bill (Michael Douglas) is a former defense plant employer and divorced father of a little girl who has spent his life being pampered as a child, bullied and manipulated as an adult, and moved back with his mother after the divorce, which he is still in denial about. He also seems to be in denial about some mental health issues that he has been asked to address but has ignored said requests.

Bill's backstory reveals that he was laid off from his job about a month ago but he has still been leaving Mom's house every morning pretending that he's going to work. When we meet Bill, he is stuck in an LA traffic jam, en route to his daughter's birthday party, an event that he has not been invited to. Bill appears to snap while sitting in traffic, deserts his car and begins an incredible journey to see his daughter that finds Bill challenged at every turn and instead of accepting the complicated consequences of every day life, Bill decides to have things his way, resulting in a rampage of violence and destruction that includes murder.

We then meet Prendergast (Robert Duvall), a veteran LAPD desk jockey who was actually stuck in the same traffic jam with Bill, on his way to begin his final day of work as an LA cop, who keeps accidentally bumping into clues about what Bill is doing, which motivate him to get from behind his desk and catch this guy. Of course, Prendergast is given minimum support at first because of his lack of experience and the constant phone nagging of his mentally fragile wife (Tuesday Weld) also impedes his mission, but it is the meeting of these two characters, or the journey to it, that is the groundwork for this bone-chilling cinematic which I'm pretty sure had me holding my breath for about two thirds of the running time.

Ebbe Roe Smith's screenplay displays flashes of brilliance and does an amazing job of painting a portrait of the central character without actually telling us anything. Bill's backstory that I outlined above comes out in Schumacher's direction and the character's attitude instead of being outwardly stated. Bill's actions and reactions belie the kind of person he is and what he has been through and we understand his anger at the decay of American society and begin to like the way he actually fights back...we love when he pulls out his gun in a fast food restaurant and then complains because the hamburger he's been served doesn't look like the hamburger in the picture above the counter...it is from this moment on that we absolutely love this guy and we want him to get home to his daughter and anything else he wants, though we're pretty sure things won't be working out that way.

Michael Douglas should have received an Oscar nomination for this surprisingly controlled performance, rich with explosive unpredictability. We never know what this guy is going to do or say and no matter what he does, he evokes sympathy, thanks to Douglas and Schumacher and Duvall is solid, as always, as we watch him slowly piece together what is going on, Columbo-style. Mention should also be made of Rachel Ticotin as Prendergast's partner, Frederic Forrest in a flashy unforgettable cameo as a skinhead army nave store owner, and Barbara Hershey as Bill's paranoid ex, but it's Schumacher's shocking attention to detail and the bone-chilling performance of Michael Douglas that makes this film, which stretches credibility and plausibility at every turn, a story that will have you glued to the screen.

ENTOURAGE
The HBO series Entourage was given the full screen treatment in 2015 and if you liked the series, you will definitely find entertainment here.

For those who never watched the series, this is the story of Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) a really pretty actor trying to be a movie star backed by his childhood friends, who now ride on Vincent's coat tails: Vincent's arrogant brother, Drama (Kevin Dillon), also an actor; his manager Eric (Kevin Connolly); his driver Turtle (Jerry Ferrara), and Vincent's slick talking agent, Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven).

Since the demise of the series, Vincent has starred in 15 movies and has only agreed to do his next film unless he is also allowed to direct. Ari Gold is now head of the studio and is in charge of handling the money men for the movie. When Vincent needs more money, the son (Haley Joel Osment) of a money man (Billy Bob Thornton) is sent to the studio to check the movie out and does his best to stop it. Other subplots include Eric's female troubles, which include a pregnant ex, and Ari's former assistant, the very gay Lloyd (Rex Lee), who is getting married and wants Ari to give him away.

As already stated, if you liked the series, you will like the movie, but I have the same problems with this movie that I had with the series: none of it seems real, Vincent and his friends just come off like kids playing movie star in Hollywood, it's never made clear exactly how famous Vincent really is, but he seems to have a bottomless pit of money, yet doesn't really seem to have any real power in Hollywood. It seemed odd that the star of 15 major motion pictures had to beg studio heads for more money to finish his movie.

There's money everywhere and just like the series, there are a plethora of cameo appearances including Ed O'Neill, Bob Saget, Jon Favreau, Gary Busey, Kelsey Grammer, Andrew Dice Clay, David Faustino, and the show's executive producer Mark Wahlberg, but really the movie is just so much about nothing.

I'm gonna watch "Falling Down". I suspect, me and Bill might have a lot in common.