Monthly Archives: December 2011
Flash Movie Review: Katyn
This Polish film was nominated for best foreign picture in 2008 and rightfully so. The year was 1939 and a group of Polish military officers were captured and imprisoned by Soviet troops, on the border of Poland. Based on true events, this film delves into the lives of those officers, their family members left behind and the steps that lead up to their deaths. This was a powerful movie of an event unfamiliar to me. From the moment the movie started, I was completely caught up in the story and at times, had to remind myself to breathe as the tension of this horrific period of time was depicted before my eyes. I believe history buffs and non-history buffs would appreciate this movie. As a side note: the director was only 13 when his father was part of this captured military group. His remains were never found. Polish with English subtitles.
3 1/3 stars — DVD
Flash Movie Review: The Sitter
If I knew this movie was going to be as bad as it was, I would have brought a jigsaw puzzle with me. Starring Jonah Hill (Superbad, Moneyball) before his weight loss, as Noah Griffith, an unmotivated college student; this role was the same as other roles Jonah has done prior to Moneyball. There was the same straight face sarcasm, the same foul language and the same ridiculous situations. Agreeing to do a babysitting job to help friends of his Mother; Jonah is not prepared to handle the 3 children and what the night has in store for all of them. Yes, I know, a real surprise here; we never would have imagined such a clever plot line. I was bored throughout the movie and can honestly say, for what is being labeled a comedy, I chuckled at a total of three lines of dialog. In fact, even the previews were dumb. So I guess when those movies come out, I will be forced to review reality TV shows.
1/2 star
Flash Movie Review: The Help
Think about it; it was the 1960’s, the civil rights movement was in its infancy and Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan (Emma Stone) was back from college and wanted to interview the black maids from her small Mississippi town. With any luck, Skeeter hoped to get the stories published. Can you imagine, writing a story from the black maids’ perspectives during this time? To have them utter out loud what it felt like to cook, clean, raise the children; yet, not even being allowed to use the same bathroom in the house–what maid would jeopardize her job, even her life to do it? What in the world was Skeeter thinking?! Well let me tell you: Skeeter is a character who looks beyond the surface; has a determined fire inside of her and the actress Emma Stone (Easy A, Crazy Stupid Love) nails the performance as she is unwavering to get their story out. The acting in this movie is truly wonderful: from Viola Davis (Doubt, Eat Pray Love) as Aibileen; to Octavia Spencer (Being John Malkovich, Seven Pounds) as Minny, who has a gift for comedic timing; to Bryce Dallas Howard (50/50, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) as Hilly Holbrook, the steely, snooty, better than thou housewife. I have not read the book this movie was based on; however, I have heard it closely followed the story. Whether it does or does not, I feel you will be just as enthralled as I was, when I viewed this film.
3 2/3 stars
Flash Movie Review: Super 8
If you take the wonder from E.T., mix it with the excitement from Jaws, you would then get this exciting movie. What a simple, pure filmed movie that is fun to watch. For me, this film showed Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment production company coming full circle, in creating a story driven movie with innocent kids becoming involved in extraordinary events. A group of friends, making a movie by the local train station, happen to catch a horrific train crash on film and discover something is not right. Have I piqued your interest? I hope so. Another revelation was seeing Elle Fanning acting and looking the part so well. I believe she will have a long career in the movies. And I have to admit, I found it cute having her character being the female lead for the group’s film. When you want to just sit back and watch a movie for the sheer joy of it, this is one movie you certainly want to experience.
3 stars — DVD
Flash Movie Review: Arthur Christmas
With this movie, we finally see how Santa delivers presents to every household in one single night: a massive underground, hi-tech, quasi-military operation, headed by his eldest son, Steve. Looking the part of a military commander, Steve is tall, handsome and muscular. His younger brother, Arthur, is the exact opposite: clumsy, non-muscular and goofy in appearance. He has been placed in the mail room to answer Santa’s letters and stay out of trouble. So, we have the dynamics of the family set up with the prodigal 1st son and the disappointing 2nd son. We all are familiar with this scenario, nothing new here, except these are Santa’s children. The base story line is the dilemma of what to do when a little girl’s house is accidently passed over, during the delivery of presents. This movie had a little of everything–some slapstick, some jokes, some action, some humor. I had a bit of difficultly understanding some of the accented, rapid fire speech and found the story predictable. For children over 7 years old, maybe it would be more of a fun movie. And as an exrra bonus, before the movie, they show Justin Bieber’s holiday video of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” What more do you need for the holidays?
2 1/2 stars
Flash Movie Review: Win Win
If they ever decide to do a live stage version of Droopy Dog (younger subscribers will have to look him up), Paul Giamatti would be the perfect choice to play him. Paul has the dark cloud over his head, fire in his belly, sad sack character down to a science. Playing Mike Flaherty, a down on his luck lawyer–and if that wasn’t enough, a volunteer wrestling coach to a losing team–who finds himself in a dilemma, when an opportunity presents itself to him though it is not ethical. With solid acting, Paul’s co-star Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead), who plays his wife, matches him in the acting department. I found the story well thought out and enjoyed the way the different characters intertwined, to add layers to the main story line. A well done movie that you will not regret watching.
3 1/3 stars — DVD
Flash Movie Review: Shame
As I looked at the crowd seated around me, prior to the start of the movie, it struck me that for some of the people, this was going to be their first NC-17 movie. Was that enough reason to come see this movie? Maybe that was part of the marketing hook, since the majority of articles I have read talked about the movie’s NC-17 rating for sexual content. For me, there has to be more than gratuitous sex, to go see a movie. Michael Fassbender is Brandon, a mid 30’s man who cannot get enough sex… as long as he is not emotionally involved with the person. His life is thrown into a tailspin when his sister Sissy, played by Carey Mulligan, appears unannounced at his home one day. I thought Carey did a wonderful job of acting and could get an Oscar nomination here. Michael, overall was good in his role; I just did not find as much depth to it. The film had an interesting look to it, where close-ups would almost be oversized as a counterbalance to the drama of the scene. Overall I did not feel sympathetic towards Brandon and was left wanting more.
2 3/4 stars
Flash Movie Review: Beauty and the Beast
I am sure you saw the title to today’s movie review and thought to yourself why? Before you click away, chances are you never saw this version of a classic story. This version was done in 1947 by Jean Cocteau, one of the 20th century’s most multi-talented artists. I saw this movie on a public broadcasting station when I was a small child. Images from this movie have stayed with me all these years, they were that powerful for me. Watching this film on DVD recently, I was immediately transported to a fantasy world that was filled with every imaginable shade of colorful magic as the surreal, artistic black and white scenes unfolded before my eyes. There are times, I feel, where we need to let the inner child in us come out and play. With this movie you are in store, for not only letting that inner child come out and play, but seeing how a true artist made a movie before computers took over. French with English subtitles.
3 1/3 stars — DVD
Flash Movie Review: We Bought a Zoo
Being an animal lover, I thought this was going to be a fun movie. I figured it had a lot going for it: based on a true story, Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, along with animals. Really, what could be so bad? Unfortunately, the movie was not very fun. Besides being predictable, I found it was trying to hard to get every movie cliche into the story. Matt Damon as the single Dad who has to raise his 2 children by himself; Thomas Haden Church as the brother to Matt’s character, who can only speak in sarcastic tones; and then there is Scarlett, who I felt was miscast as the head of the zoo’s staff. If you are looking for a movie that you can take the whole family to, I guess you could say, this would be one you could all go and see. For me, it was just a light fluffy movie to pass the time.
2 1/4 stars
Flash Movie Review: Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America was never part of my comic book realm; so, I will have to take the movie for face value on its version of how Captain America came to be. The movie was slow in the beginning as we watched Steve Rogers, the future Captain America, being rejected repeatedly from military service. However, the special effects to create a scrawny Chris Evans, to portray Steve Rogers, was impressive. It wasn’t until Steve was turned into Captain America that the movie became fun for me. The time was 1942 and Nazi Germany’s secret Hydra department was determined to create the ultimate weapon to take over the world. Led by Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt/Red Skull, he was a perfect comic book villain. Like me however, how many of you see Hugo and immediately remember him strolling down the street in his flip flop dress from the movie “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert?” I got a kick out of the good vs evil thing; though, Hydra had all the cool looking weapons and over sized machinery. If you are in the mood for some kitschy, comic book fare, then this would be a movie to watch. And make sure you stay through the credits.
2 1/2 stars — DVD
moviejoltz 