aprilindeecee Reviews

Leatherheads (2008)

Extremely well executed comedy -- for its audience

[9/10 · 11 May 2008]

With comedy -- quit ably demonstrated in Albert Brooks's "Search..." movie -- enjoyment is directly dependent upon the observer's frames of references. Most of the things one finds funniest in life are inside jokes that would be funny to few other people outside the circle. I believe this simple truth to those of us with much world experience sometimes eludes the Nintendo generation viewers who tend to dominate these message board.

For those of us with a sense of history and understand the films' reference points, this was a lovingly crafted, superbly directed, and superbly acted comedy. Zellweger was amazing! Clooney and Pryce were perfect. And Krakinski (a newcomer to me since I had never seen the office) was just fine. Stephen Root was hilarious in his bits, and Randy Newman's cameo as the piano player was hilarious. If one wishes to nitpick, I think the actor playing the commissioner threw away his best lines and lacked the grandiosity the part required, but this is a small objection indeed.

Kudos to Clooney for putting the love and effort into a very well-crafted and enjoyable comedy for those of us with patience and who understand the reference points.

Happy Go Lovely (1951)

Waste of time and talent

[3/10 · 28 July 2007]

Happy Go Lovely is a waste of everybody's time and talent including the audience. The lightness of the old-hat mistaken identity and faux scandal plot lines is eminently forgivable. Very few people watched these movies for their plots. But, they usually had some interesting minor characters involved in subplots -- not here. They usually had interesting choreography and breathtaking dancing and catchy songs. Not Happy Go Lovely. And Vera-Ellen as the female lead played the whole movie as a second banana looking desperately for a star to play off it -- and instead she was called upon to carry the movie, and couldn't do it. The Scottish locale was wasted. Usually automatically ubiquitous droll Scottish whimsy is absent. The photography was pedestrian. The musical numbers were pedestrian. Cesar Romero gives his usual professional performance, chewing up the scenery since no one else was doing his part, in the type of producer role essayed frequently by Walter Abel and Adolph Menjou. David Niven is just fine, and no one could do David Niven like David Niven. At the end of the day, if you adore Niven as I do, it's reason enough to waste 90 minutes on Happy Go Lovely. If not, skip it.

Venus (I) (2006)

Autistic rather than Artistic Direction

[1/10 · 10 June 2007]

I can hardly believe the number of comments opining that this was a well-directed and well-written movie. It is completely under-written, then punched up so young people could relate to the profanity. As for the direction, snails-paced and meandering are the best things I can say about it. Some thought this to be exploitative, but I felt that it wanted to be exploitative but was never on-point enough to achieve it. This is a pity. Add to this the fact that Jodie Whittaker is given no direction to go with her feckless and underwritten character, then has no screen chemistry with O'Toole, thus giving us no clue to the old man's obsession with her -- other than her being young, but that is belied by his reaction in other scenes when he interacts with young women. O'Toole does well in his scenes alone with Phillips and some of the other old-timers. And, Vanessa Redgrave adds the film's only touch of class which serves more as an incongruity than an enhancement.

The Guardian (I) (2006)

Paean to Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers does some things magnificently, but spends a lot of time doing others terribly

[5/10 · 26 March 2007]

"...so others may live." This slogan of the Coast Guard Academy particularly applies to its rescue swimmers. Kevin Costner stars as a veteran rescue swimmer beyond his prime who is ordered to take over an instruction cycle at the Coast Guard's Rescue Swimmer Training School. He delineates his character superbly for us as a true rescue artist who sacrifices everything else meaningful in life for his craft. From opening until closing, this movie electrifies us with its rescue sequences. Andy Davis, of Fugitive and Steven Segal movie fame certainly knows how to direct action sequences, but these are significant achievements even for him. The integration of stunt work, special effects, acting, and computer graphics is spellbinding. As Jake Fischer, the brash young Costner want-to-be (think Richard Gere in an Officer and a Gentleman), Ashton Kutscher gives his best performance-to-date -- and then some (otherwise I would be damming with faint praise). Although not in Costner's league nor as good as the aforementioned Gere or Cuba Gooding Jr. in the superb "Men of Honor", Kutscher blends the texts and the subtexts of his fairly complex character with aplomb in all his scenes with his male characters. (In dealing with women, he's still a squishy jerk even when his character had supposedly transcended beyond that -- but that's a very minor part of the movie and his character so I wouldn't hold it against Kutscher too much.) And as a woman, I must say that his male charms are on display in a quite attractive way. That's all the good news.

To say that Writer Ron Brinkerhoff's dialog is pedestrian does jaywalkers a serious disservice! Costner and Kutscher are able to supply the clichés with such subtext that the lines seem to serve their characters well. In their all-too-limited roles as Costner's bosses at the Academy and in action in Alaska respectively, veterans John Heard and Clancy Brown are able to pull off similar feats. No one else can.

In particular, the women are hung out to try here. The well-worn and meaningless clichés spouting from the mouths of such seasoned professionals as Sela Ward and Bonnie Bramlett are embarrassing and the actresses try so hard to do what they can with so little, it's embarrassing. Watching Melissa Sagemiller and Shelby Fenner having their more pedestrian talents overwhelmed by such inane dialog is even more painful. Fenner appears to start off playing a Lisa-Eilbacher-type character (another Office & Gentleman reference), then promptly disappears and doesn't even appear at graduation and we don't know why.

And, it's not just the women. Brian Geraghty (much better in Jarhead) is the only other actor for whom an actual character is written. Unlike the others I mentioned, however, his uninspired acting does little to capitalize on the opportunity given him. In contrast, poor Dule Hill (magnificent as Charlie Young on the West Wing and pretty good on Psych) goes through the entire movie being seen but not heard. Why bother signing talent like that if you refuse to use it? After graduation, the movie meanders at a snail's pace taking unbearably long to set up its conclusion. That said, wait for it even if you have to fast-forward past a few chapter stops. The last sequence is worth waiting for. And the postscripts probably constitute the best dialog in the entire movie.

So, since the Guardian is half terrific and half terrible, I wind up giving it 5 out of 10. If you are an action fan, add two points. If you have no use for action and hate Costner, don't bother.

A Good Year (2006)

Formulaic, but enchanting

[8/10 · 19 March 2007]

"Listen up, Lab Rats", intones Russell Crowe as he lays it on thickly while essaying a British version of Gordon Gecko in the bond markets. Archie Punjabi, as his saucy and ambitious assistant, makes these early sequences worthwhile all by herself. She's a scream! If we didn't know Crowe so well, we'd believe him, as he has all the mannerisms and attitudes down to a science. I know because I spent a score working with such people. Since we are already so familiar with Crowe in other contexts, his winning-is-everything act seems pretty synthetic.

This, of course, all sets up Crowe's change-of-life experience when he visits the château and vineyard of his newly deceased uncle (Albert Finney in flashbacks) in order to execute the handover and immediately subsequent sale of the estate. The ugly Briton learns the error of his money-hungry ways and gains a new appreciation for the lessons of his youth by re-visiting the south-of-France of his youth. Ho-hum! We've seen it all before. And, this villa cannot exactly equal the magic of Enchanted April, but the characters here are not as variegated.

All that being said, Crowe is resilient enough that even though we know exactly how he will change, he still throws us some surprises and makes us root for him by the end. The actress portraying his local interest is superb and has electric chemistry with Crowe. The couple playing the caretakers are equally wonderful. The photography and music are also spot on with splendid eyes and ears for subtlety and romance -- all this directed by Ridley Scott (Aliens, Blade Runner, etc.) !!?!!! I thought the actress playing his American cousin was rather weak, although she was best in her scene with Crowe's mercenary "best friend" Charlie.

On the whole, the acting, romance, dry humor, intangibles, and witty dialog overcome the tired plot line sufficiently to make "A Good Year" an enjoyable way to spend two hours.

Music and Lyrics (2007)

They're Playing Our Song - if we enjoy humor and romance

[9/10 · 19 March 2007]

There was a 70's Neil Simon show called "They're Playing Our Song" that I just loved loosely based upon the short-lived romance between Marvin Hamlisch and Carol Bayer Sager. Although not literally based upon that play, the spirit of that delicious confection lives on in this comedy.

Hugh Grant plays an 80's Has-Been (loved the running gag about the Battle-of-the-80's-Has-Beens) former POP icon who has burnt out and taken the easy road in life. Lo and behold, a new POP icon, supposedly a riff on Brittany Spears although not really a very close one, wants him to write a song they can do as a duet. But he only writes music; he needs a lyricist. Enter the quirky and delightful Drew Barrymore, sister of Kristen Johnson who steals just about every scene she's in -- the latter owning a few weight-loss salons that Drew works at, and also a huge fan of Grant's old group. I don't know how true the music industry stories are but I found them hilarious, especially as recounted by Grant. Brad Garrett deadpans it just right as Grant's agent. And, Campbell Scott is perfectly smug as Barrymore's insipid literary ex-boyfriend. I did not know the actress playing Cora or the main guy in the entourage but they were also deliciously in-synch with the movie's overall feel and attitude.

I never liked Hugh Grant much in the 90's but thought he was wonderful in About A Boy and the two Bridget Jones movies. (If you enjoyed Grant here and never saw About A Boy, rent it -- I liked it even better). He built upon his new abilities to laugh at himself and the world at the same time recognizing that he's neither as noble nor as worthless as he once thought himself to be. There were two scenes where Drew seemed to think she was in The Wedding Singer again instead of a romantic comedy with a tad more sophistication and she didn't seem to reciprocate the chemistry with Grant that he was able to convey for her, but why nitpick when the film was so enjoyable? Good fun. See it with someone you love and laugh together.

RV (2006)

Well-paced silliness passable if you're in the mood

[5/10 · 17 September 2006]

I was in the mood for something stupid and silly. RV filled the bill, mostly because of Cheryl Hinds and the Goernike family (headed by Kristen Chenowith and Jeff Daniels). The dumb singing alone moved things along well enough. Robin Williams never believed his own character which is hard-to-take from a film's lead. And his boss, the film's ostensible villain, was a zero.

On the plus side are the film's pacing, the Goernike's, Cheryl Hinds, and three strokes of brilliance by Williams amongst a lot of glib throwaways. To its credit, RV never bogs down by taking itself too seriously or by trying to convince the audience it has an actual plot beyond its absurd trappings. Director Sonnenfeld has an amusing cameo as Irv.

In Her Shoes (2005)

Well-acted character study is worth seeing but too long

[7/10 · 28 May 2006]

"In Her Shoes" is a movie that takes an awfully long time to really get itself going. It almost seems as though there are two movies going on even though they are both from the same book: 1) Rose (Toni Colette) coming to terms with how much being her sister's keeper has saved her from dealing with the fact that she hasn't really allowed herself to develop or find out what she's really about; and 2) Cameron Diaz's shallow and self-absorbed "bad girl", a habitual user, going down to Florida to scam her grandmother and finally discovering that she's not such an unredeemable loser after all.

The problem for me is that the latter is such well-worn territory that showing all her episodes of personal failure prior to her grand faux pas of having sex with her sister's boyfriend become increasingly repetitive wastes of time -- especially the sequence with the two guys who take her to the impound lot and the first sequence that lands her in jail. None of this stuff -- in my opinion-- is needed in the film. We all know users like her; aside from the allusion to her dyslexia problem that she later addresses with Norman Lloyd, the other messes she creates are run-of-the-mill. They are treated with importance while shedding no new light on her character. Once we get to Florida and Shirley Maclaine catches onto her, then her ensuing transformation is worth watching, but by then we're halfway through the film. Hanson also seems obsessed with showing us everything he finds interesting about filming a movie that is supposed to take place in Philadelphia.

So much for the film's pacing problems. Everything else works quite well. The performances are all excellent. Shirley Maclaine, Norman Lloyd, Jery Adler, and Mark Feuerstein are all terrific in their supporting roles with the last showing a very nice and quirky chemistry with Collette. Maclaine is surprisingly understated and not surprisingly magnificent.

Unfaithful (2002)

Melodramatic Left Turn Overwhelms What Was A Haunting Character Study

[3/10 · 12 February 2006]

During the first two-thirds of the movie, Diane Lane gives a haunting and top-quality star turn as a suburban housewife having an affair. Indeed, the movie unfolds as an anatomy of that affair and what will happen while soft-spoken and loving husband Richard Gere eventually finds out about it. Things progress interestingly - if a bit overboard in the imaginative sex department - until Lane comes finally and grimly to realization that she must end the affair.

What happens next transforms Unfaithful into the realm of tawdry melodrama with no option of returning. The viewer is abruptly reminded of Glenn Close's abruptly violent spiral into insanity during the last third of Director Lyne's Fatal Attraction. Only the type of behavior exhibited by the character in question that adopts this posture is even more over-the-top and harder to reconcile with the character during the prior scenes in the movie. What ensues are scenes that recall Torn Curtain and The Trouble With Harry turning a sophisticated character study into a mock-Hitchcockian melodramatic thriller. Too Bad.

A Lot Like Love (2005)

Beautiful stars and feel-good guitar music are not enough

[3/10 · 12 February 2006]

This would have been a beautiful love story if they hadn't eschewed the story part. Instead, we get 6 years of snapshots (a theme of the movie) showing why these two who obviously fell head-over-heels for each other in their first encounter come close every year without ever quite hooking up. Some good supporting performances from the likes of Lee Garlington, Molly Cheek, Gabriel Mann, and Amy Aquino do what they can. But, the dialog is so Spartan and the contrivances moving the videos along so well-worn that there is little for the actors to do to really distinguish the movie. We get a lot of shots of eyes that lose their meaning after awhile. Overall, this is pleasant enough as background noise if you don't have to pay to watch it.

Fighting for My Daughter (1995 TV Movie)

Based on a true story...

[1/10 · 5 February 2006]

Too bad it wasn't based on a credible or well-written script! This isn't even good enough to be a bad Law and Order Special Victims Unit episode and isn't close enough to credibility to be "ripped" from today's headlines.

Lindsay Wagner is all over the place as Jessie's mother, Kate; the ingénue playing Jessie would be poor even by soap opera standards. She is almost laughable delivering her lines. Chad Lowe who has all of his scenes with Jessie brings out the worst in her. In fact, he gives his worst performance to-date (and that's saying volumes) as a wannabe pimp named Eric.

In contrast, Piper Laurie does what she can as Kate's mother, a judge - in very sense of the word. The actress playing Kate's best friend actually gives the film its best moments. The actor playing major-league pimp Russell was good enough to do so on a prime-time soap opera. The American Graffiti style happy ending hammers the final unbelievable nail into this typical women-as-victims-made-for-Lifetime exercise in wasting time.

The Wedding Date (2005)

Flat, by the numbers, and lacking chemistry

[4/10 · 28 November 2005]

The best thing I can say about this film is that it is well-paced. It did not fall flat. The next best things are the supporting performances by the actor playing foppish groom-to-be Edward, the always marvelous Holland Taylor, and the actor playing Taylor's husband. The actor helping to critique Messing's potential outfits in an early scene brings a delightful absurd-yet-winning quality to the proceedings. Okay, that's about it on the positive side.

Dermot Mulroney, whom I adore, is far more believable expressing contempt for Messing than in any scene where he's attempting to be either businesslike or supporting. As others noted, he appears to have no emotional investment in this enterprise other than wrapping it up as quickly as possible. Messing, on the other hand, sincerely tries to carry the film and to create the illusion of chemistry with Mulroney. She is adequate doing so, but is simply not strong enough an actress to pull all of this off without help. Give her an "E" for effort and a "C+" for achievement. Given Mulroney's indifference, the one thing that could've helped Messing would have been a brilliantly cavalier Irons-esquire performance from the actor playing her ex-fiancé, Jeffrey. Instead, his performance is weak-kneed, mewling, and feckless.

If I tried to analyze this one any further, I'd obviously be paying more attention than most of the people involved. It's harmless enough to pass time if you have nothing else to do, and less obnoxious (and less creative) than The Wedding Singer, but you're much better off watching "My Best Friend's Wedding" again.

Bewitched (2005)

Zany Duality Warmly Presented

[8/10 · 28 November 2005]

Bewitched is nothing if not hard-working. All of the actors, the director, the specialty directors, screenwriters, and people involved with the music seem to have given their all to being clever, different, edgy, provocative, but most of all, zanily entertaining. As with anything done "by committee," the result is uneven. There are two or three unnecessary left turns and probably one too many musical interludes. But, did they capture the zany spirit of the TV show they were saluting? Absolutely yes. Was there almost an overabundance of love espoused for the original series? Yes, and to me that was also a part of its charm. To those looking for something as "hip" and mocking as "A Very Brady Sequel" (which I also enjoyed on its own terms), you will be disappointed.

I enjoyed all of the performances -- especially ex-Pigeon sister Carole Shelley as a dignified-yet-befuddled "real-life" witch, Aunt Clara. I think some people didn't get that she was the witch-actress's aunt, not Samantha's aunt -- and hence rode a parallel, but not identical path to arrive there. I thought there was a terrific edgy chemistry between Kidman and Ferrell. I thought Shirley MacLaine's bits were marvelous and that she and Michael Caine (more Alfred Pennyworth than a parallel to Maurice, but who cares?) were marvelous in their scenes together; he was also a delight in the straight-out-of-the-TV-series bits in the supermarket where he talks to her from his visage superimposed on commercial packaging. Ingenious.

Kristen Chenowith's character had no parallel in the series, but her zany cheeriness was a welcome addition. Jason Schwartzmann caricatured agent wore a bit tedious by his third scene. ANd, there are some semi-legitimate gripes others expressed about Uncle Arthur's non-fit into the framework heretofore established by the filmmakers and the slightly off impression by the actor who starred in the 40-Year-Old Virgin (a lamer, albeit more "hip" movie) -- but he certainly wasn't boring! Unlike others, I thought the actress attempting Gladys Kravitz was doing it perfectly, and brought the duality to full circle.

Overall, I probably analyzed the movie a lot more for IMDb than I did while watching it with my girlfriends. Mostly, I just wanted to let other middle-aged fans of the series know that I enjoyed it!

Carve Her Name with Pride (1958)

Another unheralded Lewis Gilbert Masterpiece

[10/10 · 19 November 2005]

British Director Lewis Gilbert is unknown to most Americans. This is a pity because he has directed a number of "crossover" masterpieces and this true story of wartime heroism is but one of them. The movie reminds me somewhat of The Man Who Never Was, a spy movie which required a woman who had been through a recent tragedy, marvelously played by Gloria Grahame, to use that tragedy to make herself a believable spy.

Although she has excellent support by a young Paul Scofield and a non-too-shabby veteran cast, Virginia McKenna must pull off the central character, Violetta Szabo, in order for the film to succeed. She does so without question,and then some. If this movie does not bring tears to your eyes, no movie will.

Japanese Story (2003)

* SPOILERS * Typical "indy" twisted love story

[4/10 · 19 November 2005]

The self-absorption of today's independent film industry continues with Japanese Story. So many comment-givers cited this film's departure from convention as a reason for loving it so much. Well, in my opinion, it follows convention with great fealty -- the independent film twist on love stories. You begin two people who at first don't like each other, but then grow close, but never quite fall in love. Generally, the feel is that of a romantic comedy. Then, two-thirds way into the movie, everything suddenly takes a bizarre twist. In Lost In Translation, it is Bill Murray's affair with the otherwise anonymous band singer despite refusing overtures from Scarlett Johanssen. In The Shape Of Things and Kissing Jessica Stein, one of the partners had another agenda from the start. In Chasing Amy, it's that Ben Affleck is an obsessive jerk.

In Japanese story, a playful Toni Colette yells out "Last One In Is a rotten egg, then jumps in the water", her Japanese friend pursues her, jumps into the water, and promptly has a fatal accident. The last 35 minutes are about the mechanics she endures and the guilt and grief she feels about making arrangements for the friend's wife that she had just had an affair with to pick up the body and bring it back to Japan. That's 35 of the most dragged-out minutes in film history detailing every trivial aspect involved in getting a dead body back to Queensland, then her interaction with fellow co-workers, family, and necessary outsiders.

This is also typical of the pretentiousness of today's independent films. Showing the mundane and seemingly inconsequential becomes the focus and is seen as genius because any hack director can have a plot written, then tell a story. After all, it takes a great independent Director to have complete disdain for storytelling in favor of glorifying either something bizarre or something mundane.