In Her Shoes

In Her Shoes directed by Curtis Martin staring Shirley MacLaine, Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz. 

This is a movie about two sisters who discover they have a grandmother they didn't know they had and the relationships that build, get destroyed and get rebuilt again. There needs to be more movies out there like this with strong female characters and good story lines that treat them like people and not some over sexed, hyper glamorized, bean pole that Hollywood keeps saying is how women are. 

This movie was great, a lot better than I thought it was going to be and everything that goes into making a good movie was here in spades: direction, casting, acting, screenplay, set design (yes set design) and wardrobe (yes wardrobe). 

 First off, yes this is a typical drama with hardly any surprises in the screenplay but the screenplay plays to the strengths of the characters letting their actions and choices determine where the storyline is going, where as most Hollywood movies seem to want over-the-top occurrences (that border on the implausible) to determine where the story line goes. Here the characters are allowed to be characters and the movie is all the better for it. 

I'm not a huge Cameron Diaz fan but this is probably one of her best acted movies that gives her more range than I've seen from her in a long time. I just wonder if she has somewhere in her contract that she has to appear in at least one seen in bra and panties and another scene showing off her legs? This is just something I wonder-not that I was complaining mind you. Toni Collette has always been a solid actress- I've liked her in everything I've seen her in - and she gives another solid performance here that proves what a good actress she is as she more than holds her own with the great Shirley MacLaine. Shirley MacLaine is well Shirley MacLaine of the best actresses of her generation and even the new generation that has risen up.  She was one of the reasons I wanted to see this movie and did not disappoint at all . There is one scene near the end of the film that has MacLaine, Collette, and Diaz in it where some revelations are discovered.  It is easily one of the best scenes in the movie and one of the best scenes in movies I've seen in a long time: well written and acted with the characters personality really driving home the scene with certain parts that didn't require dialogue but just had the actresses facial features doing all the acting.

Hanson - being a very good director - let his actresses act and didn't ruin this scene with over editing and chose some good camera angles to enhance the acting and the writing. The set design also helped to make this movie better than I thought.  Hanson is really good at this see - The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and LA Confidential for proof.  The Philadelphia scenes were colored in chrome, blues, shadows, and dark colors while the architecture was very confined with sharp angles.  The Miami scenes, by contrast, were colored with bright colors, lots of green grass, pastels, summer and warm colors while the architecture was more curved and open, no where near as confining as the Philadelphia scenes. The wardrobe department did a great job letting the clothes the sisters and their grandmother wore really help to enhance the characteristics of these characters. All in all a good movie and well the time of watching.

Black Rain

Black Rain directed by Ridley Scott staring Michael Douglas. 

This movie should have been tag lined, "One man against a Billion." I found this movie on Netflix and decided to watch it solely on the fact it was directed by Ridley Scott and stared Michael Douglas. I've got to admit I think Ridley Scott is one of the most overrated directors in Hollywood with about 90% of his films fading out of my mind after I get done watching them.  The two major exceptions are Alien and Blade Runner but even those movies have lost a lot their muster over the years for me. I think the only thing Scott really has going for him is his visual style which only translates to about 50% of his films, even that number might be generous. 

This is a typical cop solving a case in a foreign land storyline where the American cop has all the know how and gumption to catch the criminal and the local foreign cops are clueless about solving anything. The action scenes in this movie are laughable and devoid of all tension as at least 2 of them involve the use of motorcycles to heighten the tension. It must have been some kind of fade at the time it was made but now it only serves to seriously date this movie.  I mean even John Woo couldn't do much with them in Mission Impossible 2 or Hard Boiled. But I will say this Michael Douglas proves what a good actor he is at about anything he touches and is believable as an action hero, I just wish he a better storyline to work with. And he's a much better action hero than these girly, man-children we have as action heroes today.

Brave

Brave by Pixar. 

Another movie night with the kids and it's definitely a winner by a long shot. My brother and I have said over the years that every story has been already been told countless times, it's in how you tell the story, that's what matters. Pixar has been re-telling countless stories since they started making movies, but it's in the telling of the story that Pixar has hit on all cylinders (except for the atrocious political/environmental/agenda pushing Cars 2, you figured everyone would have learned from Pocahontas that agenda pushing doesn't sell tickets, just tell a story and let the message explain itself).  Thankfully Brave doesn't fall into this pushing an agenda type of storyline, but instead just tells a story and it's all the better for it.

Brave's gorgeous photography, fluent camera movement/placement/angles, great editing, inspired cutting between scenes and the simple elegant story telling is a thing of beauty and a wonder to behold. One thing I've noticed over the years from watching a Pixar movie is that they have a more grounded and better language of film than about 90% of the people directing movies now-a-days. How they manipulate the camera to get their shots, how they edit, how they cut scenes, how they use music, how they use color, and well even how they write stories is so far better than just about every live action movie out there a few directors not with standing (Michael Mann, David Fincher, Christopher Nolan, and James Cameron) that I think Hollywood should hold their head in shame at being upstaged by cartoons. And not just upstaged in a small way, but upstaged in an extremely large way. I also find it interesting that Disney's last two movies to have a female lead also had the hair as a minor character: Tangled and the incredibly long blond hair; Brave and the stringy, wild red hair. 

This is also one of the first cartoons I've seen in a while where the main character has both parents where as most cartoons the main character either has one parent or no parents at all, that alone makes the story line already a different way of telling a story. There was a lot to laugh at in this movie at least for me, Jess kept wondering what I was laughing at the whole time and I had to tell her, I just thought that what was happening was funny, and there was a lot going on that made me laugh. All in all it's a good family movie from Pixar one not just to see but to own as anyone whose a movie buff should own every Pixar film (except Cars 2).

Near Dark

Near Dark directed directed by Kathryn Bigelow starring Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Adrian Pasdar and Jenny Wright. 

This is truly the most different and oddest vampire movie I've seen in a long time. In no way is this a perfect movie.  There's just too much that happens in the movie where I was going, "That makes no sense narrative-wise," and character motivation is non existence at times when it should be.  I also hate those movies where bad ass villains suddenly become non-bad ass villains when the story line deems it necessary.  But the way everything happens throughout the movie and the fact it's not a typical vampire movie makes it an interesting watch. 

These vampires are dirty, grungy and for the most part homeless, which is in stark contrast to the over glossy, always rich, teenage hormonal models of today's vampires. There is one scene set in a bar that is the best scene in the movie.  It's very bloody, very gory and filled with all kinds of tension. Bill Paxton steals every scene he's in and is the best reason to watch this movie. It's also the first movie I've seen that mixes the genre of cowboy and vampires with surprisingly good effects and for that alone it's worth watching.

Have fun with the look of this poster also because this movie is 180 degree different from the typical Twilight look of this poster. I can just imagine the Twilight fans watching this movie and the utter shock that would burst through their system as the movie progresses, that alone fills me with joy.

The Adventures of Tintin

The Adventures of Tintin directed by Steven Spielberg. 

With the name Spielberg attached as director I would have thought this movie to be more adventurous and the action more quick and daring, but alas this movie lacked the magic that made Spielberg's name synonymous with that type of movie. 

This is a good movie and my son Alex really enjoyed watching it (which for me in the long run made it worth it, he responded really well to it) but for me, at least, it was missing that Spielberg magic that I had grown up with. And if there was ever a movie that seemed more apt to showcase the Spielberg magic this movie was it, but for whatever reasons that magic was lost somewhere. 

The animation for Tintin was crisp and sparkling with vivid color and was (for me) surprisingly good considering I don't normally like these kind of animated movies. Even the acting done by the voice cast was good and blended well with what the animators did. I was very impressed. I really liked how Spielberg used his camera moves throughout the movie to make the action, sets and production come alive.  He really added a little something that would have missing without him.  The only thing that was really missing was his special magic that he normally brings to these kinds of movies.  I can't even say what his special magic was that was missing, but you can definitely tell it was missing.  By all accounts it shouldn't have been lost because this is a story that fits in with everything that's made Spielberg's name synonymous with hi-octane action.  The story is one full of adventure, with its roots firmly planted in the past as the adventure grows from there into the present time of the movie.  There's plenty of intrigue that weaves into the story with ease, without any trace of gimmicky or falseness.  But, as I've been saying all along, there's just a large empty hole in the movie at times.  This miss placed part would make the movie better than it is and should have been. 

Untraceable

Untraceable staring Diane Lane. 

A much better movie than I expected to see. 

 It's a typical cops versus robbers story and has the standard cliches that accompany those types of story lines, but what it doesn't have here is the standard cliches that the Hollywood system seem determined to bestow on these types of movies. For that I was thankful. I kept waiting for the "love" angle to show itself sometime in this movie, but the director and writer never let the story line go that way, which was a good thing, because it would have betrayed the main character and took the story in a direction it didn't need to go. Instead they let the "love" angle deepen the main character's past and character. 

It was also refreshing to see a movie that had a strong main character, female role, without it being demeaned by feminist or political ideologies. They just let the female character be herself and be a real person and Diane Lane did a good job of portraying the character's psychology and inner self. Another thing I liked about this movie was that it proved a movie doesn't have to have a huge star to be good and that if a movie can get a bunch of good character actors to be in it the result can make any poor story better and a good story close to great just by the caliber of actors involved. The guy who played the lead cop and Colin Hanks did a great job of selling this movie and making it enjoyable. 

The end result was a good movie if your looking for a good cops and robbers thriller to pass the night. I would also say this movie is a Silence of the Lambs done lite.  It has nowhere near the depth or seriousness of psychological analysis as Lambs, nor is the direction and storyline as tightly focused as Lambs.  But then this movie isn't trying to be that movie.  It's just a good movie to pass the time.

Hotel Transylvana

Hotel Transylvania directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. 

I have no idea how to say this guy's name, but all I know is that everything he touches is laced with quality: Dexter's Laboratory (a simple cartoon of such genius), Samurai Jack (again a simple idea but made so great by shots of the cartoon were of a cinematic effect and the movie like cut scenes that linger long in the mind when each episode is over) and finally Star Wars: Clone Wars (made to bridge the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, this single-handedly renewed my faith in Star Wars, which was something even the mighty Lucas couldn't do, and Genndy also helped to make Jedi's cool, again something Lucas failed to with 2 [count them 2] Star Wars films). 

This movie is no different. I don't know why I didn't have that much faith, but I will admit I got caught up in the negative reviews of this movie of which I'm happy to say are completely wrong.  This is a gem of movie with good family values, some genuine laugh out loud moments, and some very good set and monsters designs that make this movie great from the second it started. Oh, and by the way it's also a good family and kids movie, did I forget to mention the kids will enjoy it? There's a lot of love and care in this movie. It just shows from the second it starts and moment the credits start to roll. There is so much to enjoy here.  Go see this movie with your kids or just go see it for yourself.