Review: SUPER 8

SUPER 8 is a lot of fun.  It took me back to the “horror” movies I loved in the fifties.  It’s sort of a combination of “ET,” “The Goonies,” and “It Came from Outer Space.”  There are some serious lapses in logic in the story, some pretty foul language for kids to be using, and some bloodless violence, but I still injoyed it a lot.  It’s a simple story. A group of 6 middle school kids are filming their own horror film near railroad tracks, and as they’re filming, a train wreck occurs (it must be the longest lasting train wreck in history), and the wreck is caught on their film.  On the train is an alien who is trying to “go home.”  The alien escapes from the train and strange things begin to happen in town, and the kids have to save the day.  Most of the special effects are well done, although a couple were pretty weak.  The kids are great.  Elle Fanning is every bit the actress her sister Dakota is in a wonderful performance as the token girl.  The boy who plays the leader of the kids is fantastic and very believable.  There are a couple of jump-out-of-your-seat moments, and the story keeps moving to its inevitable conclusion.  I enjoyed it thoroughly and give it a socks up 7.9.  Be sure to stay to watch the kids’ final movie during the credits.

While in St. Louis over the week end we went to see a Shakespeare in the Park production of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.  The acting and staging were first rate, but for some odd reason it was set in the 1950’s, which I found a distraction more than anything.  Good show, though.

Happy 49th anniversary to the love of my life, Beth.  49 years ago today it was a brutally hot 95 degrees in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin – but what a joy.

REVIEW: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

I just came from seeing MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, Woody Allen’s new film, and it flew up to number 2 on my list of all-time favaorite movies.  It’s a movie that seems like it was made specfically for me.  I was totally enthralled and can’t wait to buy it.  It has shades of Allen’s THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, and thus requires the willing suspension of disbelief, but it’s worth it.  The movie begins with a rather long montage of scenes of Paris, many of which I have visited, and it took me right back ; it was like going there again.  The cinematography of Paris throughout the movie is exceptional.  The cast is excellent across the board, and since Allen wrote and directed it, it is filled with his dry wit, which I love.  Owen Wilson plays a hack writer visiting Paris with his fiance (Rachel McAdams) and her parents.  He loves walking in Paris at night (who wouldn’t), and one night (and every night thereafter) at midnight he is picked up by a vintage Peugeot and whisked back into the 1920’s (and sometimes the 1890’s) where he parties with all of the famous expatriate writers and artists, including Ernest Hemingway, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein (wonderfully played by Kathy Bates), Lautrec, Rodin, Monet, Matisse, Dali, and on and on.  To be expected, he falls in in love with a gorgeous woman who is Picasso’s mistress.  The story shifts back and forth in time as he tries to work out his relationship with both women, and then deciding in which time period he wants to live.  Allen really makes the most of the Paris setting, and accurately depicts the 20’s.  The costumes are gorgeous, the settings lush and crowded, and the acting superb.  On a scale of ten, it gets a socks up 15.  warning – if you go to see it at the Oriental, I recommend parking in the public lot just south of the theatre.  F inding parking on the streets, most with one hour limit, is horrendous.

REVIEW: KUNG FU PANDA 2

KUNG FU PANDA 2 is that rare creature – a sequel that’s better than the original.  Yesterday I had a private showing (no one else wanted to see it yesterday?!) and thoroughly enjoyed it.  There are a lot of laughs plus a well written story.  Po (Jack Black), the Kung Fu Panda, was found by his foster father, a goose, and has no idea where he came from, so part of the movie is a quest to find his origin and identity.  The main plot has an evil albino peacock, Shen (Gary Oldman), trying to take over China by harnessing fireworks.  So Po and his five kung fu companions have to try to stop the evil Shen and his pack of wolves.  The art and animation are fabulous, and the acting is excellent. In addition to Black and Oldman, the cast of voices includes:  Dustin Hoffman as Masster Shifu (Po’s guru), Victor Garber as Master Thundering Rhino, Jean-Claude Van Damme as Master Croc, Dennis Haysbeck as Master Storming Ox, Angelina Jolie as Tigress, Jackie Chan as Master Monkey, Lucy Liu as Master Viper, and a cast of thousands.  It’s a fun movie, worth seeing in 3D, that is never boring, and I give it a socks up 8.

REVIEW: The Adding Machine

Of the hundreds of musicals I’ve seen in my life, Skylight’s THE ADDING MACHINE is far and away the worst!  Five minutes in I couldn’t wait til it was over, and it lasted another hour and a half, which seemed like at least five hours. The set, costumes, and most of the performances were fine – Ray Jivoff, not one of my favorite actors, was very good in the lead, but the writing and music were flat out awful.  There was one boring scene where the characters were doing nothing but adding numbers that seemed to go on ad infinitum.  The female lead had a screechy soprano voice through which one could not understand a word.  The story, built around reincarnation, was boring and poorly structured.  It’s only redeeming feature was that it was relatively short.  But we did have good food and wine before the show at Palms, so the evening was not a complete loss.  If you don’t already have tickets – don’t buy any.  If you have tickets – give them away.  This is a show not worth seeing. I cannot possibly explain how awful THE ADDING MACHINE is.  It gets a minus 10.

Review: THE BEAVER

Granted, Mel Gibson is a nut case, and he’s messed up his life big time;  but, he’s still a fine actor – his HAMLET remains one of my all-time favorites.  Soooo, I went to see his new film, THE BEAVER, and I’ve just saved another hour and a half of your time.  This is a movie about a seriously depressed man with a depressed family, and it is really depressing.  The brief ray of sunlight at the end doesn’t nearly make up for it.  One of the things Gibson does best, of course, is act crazy, and he does it to perfection again in this movie.  He plays a man who is so far into depression that he can no longer communicate with anyone, so , to compensate, he starts wearing a hand puppet of a beaver and talks through the puppet, with a really grteat Cockney accent for some reason.  The pupet becomes real, not only to the character, but to the viewer as well – it’s very well done.  And the acting is great – so it all adds up to serious depression.  If you want to see it, go quickly; I don’t think it will be around for long.  Not many people want to go to a movie to get depressed, even one that’s well made and well acted.  Jodie Foster produced and directed the movie,and plays the long-suffering wife.  It’s all very well done, but you come out feeling really depressed.  How do you rate something like that?  How about a 6.

Review

Yesterday I saw PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES. I’ve seen all four of the movies, but this one is the second best, I think, after the first.  It’s much better than the last one.  Johnny Depp is still wonderful as Captain Jack Sparrow, but the character is not quite as light or quippy as in the past, and the whole movie is darker; in fact, it’s not for little kids.  There are some scenes that Ithink would be really, really scary for them, and there is a lot of violence (of course, it is a pirate movie)  The story is simple – three competing groups are off to find the fountain of youth, one of which is led by Sparrow.  Along the way they meet all sorts of impediments – the other groups, vampire mermaids, zombies, strange supernatural happenings, and the like.  It’s all a lot of fun, and the 137 minutes fly by; I couldn’t believe it was over already.  Depp is perfect as Sparrow; he has the character down to a T.  Penelope Cruz is gorgeous and makes a good foil for him, as it’s questionable what side she’s on.  Geoffrey Rush is back as Jack’s nemeis, Captain Barbossa, and Ian Mc Shane is wonderful as Blackbeard.  The love interest between a young pirate and one of the mermaids is interesting.  The sets and props are fantastic, as are the studnts and special effects.  The movie has gotten some bad reviews, but I really liked it and give it a socks up 7.9.

Painting

Hard to believe, but it’s a bit over a year since I painted anything (other than rooms), and I have the itch again.  So I had five stretched canvases laying around my office, and I’ve picked out five pictures I’d like to paint, and I just finished preparing the canvanses.  Tomorrow I will begin to draw on them, and then back to work.  Aaaaaaaaaah!

Two Reviews

I’m almost embarrassed to say that I went to see BRIDESMAIDS on Saturday, but, there was nothing else showng that I wanted to see, and I had the afternoon to kill, so I went.  Actually, aside from the amorality, immorality, and foul language, it’s not bad.  The writers seemed obsessed with the F word, for no good reason – it would have been a better movie without it.  Not being a watcher of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, for whom she is a regular, I had no idea who Kristen Wiig was, but now I am a fan.  She was the star of the movie and created a delightful, lovable, vulnerable, really cute character.  The movie had a lot of cute girls in it, and a few, um not so cute, and is a bit of fluff.  It is about a group of girl friends, one of whom is getting married, and the events that surround the planning of the wedding – the shower, getting the dresses, the bachelorette party, etc. Kristen Wiig plays Annie, the bride’s best friend, who is asked to be the maid of honor and who, in competition with another friend, miss perfect, who is planning every event, manages to ruin every one of them – she’s a born loser.  Along the way she meets and falls in love with a state trooper (it is a romantic comedy, after all), and they have their problems, and so it goes.  There are some really funny scenes, but the underlying theme seems to be, “Sleep with as many people as you can as often as you can, and that’s what life is all about.”  (the amorality and immorality), but, as I said, the underlying story really is interesting and a lot of fun.  So keeping that in mind, as a Romantic Comedy, I give it a socks up 7.5; as a raunchy buddy film it gets a 1.5.  You’ve been warned.

Last night was book club night, movie night for me, and there wasn’t much to choose from, and I wound up watching BURLESQUE, which is a very misleading title.  When one thinks of “burlesque,” one thinks of pole dancers, sleazy strippers, and the like.  This movie is not about that; Burlesque is the name of the club owned by Cher’s character.  Granted, the story is as trite and cliched as it’s possible to be, but it’s so well done that it really pulled me in and I loved it.  And consider the cast: Cher, Christina Aguilera, Peter Gallagheer, and Stanley Tucci (one of my all-time favorite actors).  There is a lot of fantastic Fosse-like choreography beautifully done, and some great singing by Cher with her smoky voice and Aguilera who can really wail.  Simple story – the naive farm girl from Iowa (of course), played by Aguilera), somes to the big city (Los Angeles) to become a star, works her way into the club, owned by Cher’s character, as a cocktail waitress, replaces a sick girl in the chorus, and becomes astar – how often have you seen that!  But the story goes way beyond that and gets into characer and relationships, and the acting is excellent, the singing and choreography wonderful, and the two hours just flew by.  I really loved it and give it a socks up 8.  Unike BIDESMAIDS, you don’t have to worry about foul language, graphic sex, or awful people, and can just enjoy the fun story with touches of GYPSY, CABARET, and 42nd STREET.

Review

Special effects have sure come a long way!  THOR was about what I expected, stupid, but fun, although the two other people in the theatre cheered when it was over (and not because it was over).  The story line is practicaloy incomprehensible, but then it’s more about special effects than about story.  For some reason, Thor has made his father, Odin, angry, so he is banished to Earth, for what purpose I’m not sure.  There he meets and develops a crush on an earth woman, while other demigods from wherever are trying to track im down and kill him.  That’s aobut it. Needless to say, everyone gets what they deserve.  Anthony Hopkins plays Odin, and who better to play a mythological chief god?  I don’t know the actor who played Thor, a tall blonde hunk for the ladies, but he wasn’t bad.  Natalie Portman, finally playing a straight role, is fine as his earthly girl friend.  Rene Russo is totally wasted in a thankless role as Thor’s mother.  There are a lot of silly lines, the special effects, overall, are pretty good, the acting is mixed, and the story inane.  Stan Lee does his usual cameo, but I missed it.  It’s a lot of un, but probably not worth seeing in 3D, especially for the extra cost.  I give it a 6.5.  After the credits there is a preview of the sequel.

Student gem

Another student gem, from a report on Vncent Van Gogh = “Van Gogh did seek painting lesions. . .”  Perhaps in the area of his missing ear lobe?