For starters, you really have an interesting concept here. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". When he is one question away from the big prize, he is apprehended and accused of cheating because there is no way a "slumdog" from the streets of Mumbai could have the knowledge needed to answer these questions. The movie takes you from the interrogation room, to the stage of "Millionaire" to the streets of Mumbai as Jamal explains his life experiences helped him answer the questions that were on the show. Against a backdrop of severe poverty and a life of survival living on the streets, you have a love story as Malik is determined to help rescue his beloved Latika (Freida Pinto) from the life of "slavery" she finds herself in. Along the way, he is both helped and hurt by a brother (Madhur Mittal), who finds the only way out of the slums is to embrace and work with the criminal element that is present where they live. This film is deep, dark, entertaining and inspirational. The cast is exceptional and Danny Boyle's direction paints a great picture. The only element that bothered me were the subtitled scenes, which use some strange "decorative" way of displaying the subtitles which actually make them more difficult to read. I found even the performance of the "Millionaire" host, Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor), to be layered and crucial to the story. He nails the stage presence of the smiling, humorous host who is loved by everybody, but is a quite different man when the lights go down. I loved the movie and found that it worked so well on just abour every level. The powerful themes cut across all cultures (in fact I understand the framework of the story is based heavily on the Greek myth of Euridice and Orpheus), while still giving you a look at the tremendous class struggles present in India. I highly recommend this, but I will say this: I found it to be just short of being worthy of all of the hype that has surrounded it the last few months.
I had not heard of this movie when I picked it up from Redbox, but I knew this much: The story of a serial killer preying on children with the same first and last initials would, at the very least, be interesting. Who knew I could be so wrong? For starters, this is another of those movies "based on a true story" that bears NO resemblance to the true story. It has gotten to the point that it no longer has any meaning when a movie is "based on a true story" or "inspired by actual events". This movie is really a completely fictional account of a detective, Megan Paige (Eliza Dushku), who finds herself unraveling while working on the case, losing her fiance (Cary Elwes), her job and her mind in the process. She ends up institutionalized for a while and, two years later, begins to put herself back together and returns to the police force in a desk job. Then, the "Alphabet Killer" strikes again and she finds herself getting more involved in the case, teetering on the brink of schizophrenia along the way. It is amazing how uninteresting a film they were able to put together with that concept. Dushku is not a bad actress, but she did not seem to be able to pull off the schizophrenia thing. Of course, there is always the chance that I have never met a schizophrenic, so I am unaware that she nailed it, but it certainly did not appear that way. Her shaking hands and head and "staring off into space" eyes just seemed forced and definitely felt like acting. (Remember, the key to acting is to never get caught doing it). So, this ended up being a very disappointing movie. The fact that I never heard of it until I saw it in Redbox should have tipped me off to that. Grade: D
"Bolt" is one of Disney's few non-Pixar cracks at computer animation. Of course, Pixar's John Lasseter was heavily involved, so the pedigree is still there. "Bolt" is the story of a TV dog who plays a dog with superpowers, Bolt (John Travolta). In order to get the best from the dog, they have managed to convince him that he really is a super-dog and that the shows are actually happening (canine method acting). This all works beautifully until Bolt gets out of his trailer and thinks his Penny (Miley Cyrus) is in trouble. In a series of unfortunate events, he finds himself in New York City, on the opposite coast from Penny and begins to learn he is not really a super dog after all. With the help of stray cat, Mittens (Susie Essman), and a hamster, Rhino (Mark Walton), Bolt must find his way home to be reunited with Penny. "Bolt" pretty much hits all of the spots it needs to hit. It is funny when it needs to be funny, cute when it needs to be cute and warm when it needs to be warm. It mixes those styles very well and the result is a very entertaining movie the whole family could enjoy. In fact, in many ways, it is more Pixar than Pixar. Pixar's early films were more straight entertainment and humor. Lately, while still very good, the Pixar movies seem to be more message-based, culminating in "Wall-E", which turned out to be very heavy on the message, not so much on the funny. We enjoyed this movie and had a lot of laughs and my daughter has already seen it twice.
"Transporter 3" is one of those movies that you really know what you are getting going in and you get exactly that. Looking for well-written drama with an engaging storyline? Look elsewhere. Looking for escapist action with over-the-top stunts and fight scenes? Well, pull up a chair. In this installment. Frank Martin (Jason Statham) has turned down a job he was not comfortable with taking and recommended a replacement. When the replacement does not work out, Martin finds himself reluctantly completing the job. To "guarantee" his cooperation, he and the woman he is transporting are given explosive bracelets which will explode if they ever get too far away from the car. What follows, of course, is some great car chases, explosions, violence and near non-stop action. One interesting thing about this series is how, uh, homo-erotic the fight scenes are. In the first one, he has a fight in a garage with no shirt on and doused in motor oil (so no one can grip him) and it is one of the most amazing and totally uncomfortable fight scenes I have ever seen. ("Uh, this is cool, but isn't this really a dude hot oil wrestling??"). In this one, he again has a fight scene with a group of thugs in which each piece of clothing is removed one by one and used as weapons. Again, very cool and very homo-erotic. Strange. While I liked this movie overall, I think the franchise has run its course. This one seems to be a very close copy to the original, which would indicate they have run out of ideas. Statham is great, as usual, and is probably the best action star out there right now.
"Role Models" is the movie that moves Paul Rudd from the unknown sidekick into a leading movie star. Rudd plays Danny who, with his childish buddy, Wheeler (Sean Willam Scott), has a temporary lapse of judgement that has them facing jail time. Instead, however, the judge decides to place them in a "big brother" type program where they are expected to be mentors to a couple of kids who have trouble making friends. Danny is paired up with Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, aka "McLovin"), who is a nerdy type obsessed with "LARP"ing (Live Action Role Playing) and has trouble fitting in with his peers. Wheeler is placed with Ronnie (Bobb'e J Thompson), a foul-mouthed kid with a serious attitude problem. The comedy is built around these two guys, who have no business being role models, struggling to do the right thing to avoid jail time while also trying not to get too involved with these kids at all. While the movie does go through the "growth of the characters as people" sap, it always manages to remain funny. I also found it amusing that their jobs involve going to schools to give students "Stay away from drugs" speeches while touting the benefits of energy drinks, sort of a "legal drug". Scott and Rudd work well together and Scott is at his best since "Stiffler". Thompson, the foul-mouthed kid, is hilarious and pretty much steals the movie. Some may find a kid this age saying the things he does to be offensive, but I have to admit that this politically incorrect type stuff is very funny to me. This is a funny movie, beginning to end, and the entire cast gets their chance to shine.
"Lakeview Terrace" is sort of a poor man's "Gran Torino". In "Gran Torino", you have Clint Eastwood's retired "old school" racist who is angry about the non-white family moving next door. In "Lakeview Terrace", you have Samuel L. Jackson's much younger racist cop who is angry about the mixed race couple moving next door. The major difference is that "Gran Torino" is a story of personal redemption and "Lakeview Terrace" presents an unapologetic bad dude in Samule L. Jackson's Abel Turner. Turner is an LAPD cop who becomes enraged when Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) move in. Chris is a white businessman and Lisa is his black wife. Right from the start, Turner starts to make their life miserable in subtle and not so subtle ways. It is clearly his intent to drive them out. The movie is a pretty entertaining look at neighbors who just will not get along. Turner's character is given a background story to explain his problem with this couple (which is actually unnecessary and takes away from his character a little, in my opinion: seemed forced). One of the other problems is the couple themselves as they actually give Turner plenty of legitimate reasons to not like them (making love in the pool in full view of Turner's children, tossing cigarette butts over his fence). Sure, his reactions and methods are completely excessive, but making the couple less sympathetic makes the audience care less about what happens to them. This is no tale of redemption as Turner becomes more and more obsessed with driving this couple out and the things he does are more and more extreme, leading to an explosive finale. Samuel L. Jackson is great, as usual, and the rest of the cast is pretty good, too. It is a good, entertaining movie, but not great. Grade: B-
Here is a movie that had great potential. The movie opens strong with a brilliantly funny bad date and includes another funny sequence near the end at a wedding. In between, you have a very bland romantic comedy which just does not deliver enough on the comedy part. Even the romance is sort of contrived to find a way to use the Cars song of the title as its basis. Dane Cook stars as Tank, who makes his living as a guy who will take the girl that dumped you on a date so horrific she is "guaranteed" to come running back to you. This premise is played out in the opening sequence mentioned earlier for results funny enough to make you think you are in for some good comedy. Unfortunately, the scenario of the title is quickly introduced when Tank's best friend, Dustin (Jason Biggs), finds himself dumped by his dream girl, Alexis (Kate Hudson), and reluctantly agrees to use Tank's services. Of course, Tank finds himself smitten with Alexis himself and begins to try to woo her for real. Other than the two sequences mentioned earlier, the movie has too much sap and not enough funny, although Jason Biggs has his moments and Alec Baldwin delivers in the few scenes he has. I am tempted to recommend this on the basis of those two scenes alone, but I can't go that far. My advice is to rent it, use the chapter search to find those two parts and then move on to another movie. Interestingly, Dane Cook, the comedian, was much better in his only dramatic role ("Mr. Brooks") than in any of his comedies, although it is not his performance that is lacking here.
For starters, you really have an interesting concept here. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is a contestant on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?". When he is one question away from the big prize, he is apprehended and accused of cheating because there is no way a "slumdog" from the streets of Mumbai could have the knowledge needed to answer these questions. The movie takes you from the interrogation room, to the stage of "Millionaire" to the streets of Mumbai as Jamal explains his life experiences helped him answer the questions that were on the show. Against a backdrop of severe poverty and a life of survival living on the streets, you have a love story as Malik is determined to help rescue his beloved Latika (Freida Pinto) from the life of "slavery" she finds herself in. Along the way, he is both helped and hurt by a brother (Madhur Mittal), who finds the only way out of the slums is to embrace and work with the criminal element that is present where they live. This film is deep, dark, entertaining and inspirational. The cast is exceptional and Danny Boyle's direction paints a great picture. The only element that bothered me were the subtitled scenes, which use some strange "decorative" way of displaying the subtitles which actually make them more difficult to read. I found even the performance of the "Millionaire" host, Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor), to be layered and crucial to the story. He nails the stage presence of the smiling, humorous host who is loved by everybody, but is a quite different man when the lights go down. I loved the movie and found that it worked so well on just abour every level. The powerful themes cut across all cultures (in fact I understand the framework of the story is based heavily on the Greek myth of Euridice and Orpheus), while still giving you a look at the tremendous class struggles present in India. I highly recommend this, but I will say this: I found it to be just short of being worthy of all of the hype that has surrounded it the last few months.
