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Director: Morgan Spurlock

Starring: Morgan Spurlock

The documentary genius of Morgan Spurlock returns! In his first effort since the brilliant look at fast food, Super Size Me, Spurlock is about to become a dad, and decides he has to make the world safe for his offspring. The best way to do this, he determines, is to track down western public enemy #1, Osama Bin Laden. This premise is handled quite lightly, though this feature has less appeal than Spurlock eating MacDonald’s ninety times. Still it is another wonderful film that eases us into an uncomfortable subject and then offers an engaging introspective view of it. The film clocks in at less than 90 minutes and offers enough animation and cheesy CGI, that the whole thing looks just a little cheap, but is still entertaining and compelling.

Finding the most wanted man in the world, seems like it could be a tricky goal, but undaunted, Mr. Spurlock sets out on his task. His plan is simple. Just visit countries where he may be and ask people if they’ve seen him. Hmmm, why hasn’t western intelligence thought of that? Anyway, Morgan visits several Muslim and middle-eastern countries, and talks to people. Some are people of power and influence, while most are average citizens. Besides the inquiry into Bin Laden’s whereabouts, he asks them what they think of the terrorist leader, the United States and of their own circumstances. The results are interesting and range from chilling to amusing.

“Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?” plays like ‘political science light’ and will should make the rounds of grade twelve classrooms for the next few years. It is light enough to be fun and serious enough to offer a little insight, but with a feature like this, its best to keep in mind that its not difficult to give the viewer any message that the filmmaker wants to give.

Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? - movie quotes:

“How do I say: “don’t take me, take the cameraman”?”

Movie lines from Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?

Director: David Koep

Starring: Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni, Bill Campbell, Aasif Mandvi,

David Koep who has an impressive list of writing credits and a list of unknown directing credits co-wrote and directed this intermittently warm and occasionally humorous project with the very funny Ricky Gervais (The Office). The dialog could have been much better, and the low-on-laughs story is all too familiar, even for a comedy. The charismatic cast does manage to pull enough entertainment out to save this from being a poor movie but the end result is unremarkable.

Ricky Gervais is Bertram Pincus, an incredibly rude, people-hating dentist, whose main goal in life seems to be to avoid any human contact and get back to his lonely condo as quickly as possible, each day. This would seem like an incredibly rich opportunity to have us rolling in the aisles, but, incredibly, writers, Koep and John Kamps were unable to do more than pull out more than a few chuckles from me. At any rate, following what should have been routine medical procedure, poor Pincus, has a lot more humans to avoid on his way home, since he can now see huge numbers of dead people walking around in addition to all those pesky live ones. Pincus’ confusion over which are alive and which are dead, and living observers seeing one side of his conversations with these human-looking ghosts, who all want him to do something for them, provides the main base for cliche humour for the rest of the film. The most persistant ghost is Frank (Greg Kinnear), who wants Pincus to split his widow (Tea Leoni) from her new love (Bill Campbell). Pincus reluctantly agrees, but of course, promptly falls in love with her himself. Who would expect that kind of zany plot twist?

Ghost town, was a lot less funnier than I had expected, but did offer a slightly touching cliched story to pass the time with the result being a pedestrian project from beginning to end, that will stay in my mind about as long as my last golf score. Imagine a movie that crosses Ghost with Sixth Sense, with half the appeal of each, and you will know what you can expect here. Worth seeing for Ricky Gervais fans, perhaps, but if the popular TV actor and podcast star, wants to make it at the box office, he will have get better features than this one.

Ghost Town - movie quotes:

“You…uh…died for seven minutes…..We brought you right back. People die all the time.”
“Yeah, but it’s usually just once…at the end.”

Movie lines from Ghost Town

Director: George Roy Hill

Starring: Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Harold Gould, Jack Kehoe

If ever there was a film where the key elements of great writing, innovative direction and charismatic performances came together in a flawless and enjoyable cinematic experience, then that film is The Sting. A seasoned cast of excellent performers is lead by Paul Newman and Robert Redford as they re-created the on-screen magic that they had first demonstrated in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid in 1969. The clever story is smart and cool as it features fun period dialog, and is smoothly laid out by director George Roy Hill, and is brought together and made even more memorable by Marvin Hamlisch’s well known score.

Robert Redford is Hooker, a charismatic, depression era street grifter whose partner, Luther, is murdered under the orders of a ruthless Chicago mob boss, Doyle Lonnegan, played by Robert Shaw in a masterful performance. Hooker wants the kind of revenge only a conman can get and goes to an old buddy of Luther’s, Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman). Together they set out to hurt the gangster with a big con, while not ending up murdered along the way to a great ending.

The Sting is a 70’s classic and is required viewing for all scam loving movie goers., as well those who enjoy finely crafted, but still light and entertaining period pieces. The end result is not comedy, but is pretty campy and manages to invoke a mood all its own. Worth seeing and worth seeing again, and again, and again….You get the idea.

“There not a fix in this world that’s gonna cool him out if he blows on you.”

“I’ll get him, anyway….cause I don‘t know enough about killing to kill him.”

“There’s no point being a grifter, if its the same as being a citizen.”

Movie lines from The Sting

Director: Ethan and Joel Coen

Starring: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, J.K. Simmons

The Coen brothers who do everything on their films but the catering, have snap fired from the hip with this light, quick comedy that is more about characters and performances than it is about story and dialog, but what a great group of characters played to the hilt by a crew of seasoned performers who were clearly had alot of fun making this movie. I still find Tilda Swinton to lack charisma to truly fit into the star role, while J.K. Simmons (best known as Juno’s dad and Peter Parker’s boss) impresses me every time I see him.

John Malkovich is a disgruntled CIA guy whose memoir notes end up in the hands of a goofy fitness worker and his sad, pathetic co-worker (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand), who come up with the world’s worst blackmail plan. This is backed up by George Clooney as a treasury department officer with more testosterone than brains. For a film that seems to be set up as a comedy, it turns a little slow and depressing in spots, and could have benefitted from some more zippy dialog. The end result is an uneven but entertaining look at fidelity and intelligence and a group of characters who lack both. The whole thing ends strongly and has one of the funniest final scenes in recent memory.

Don’t go to Burn After Reading and expect Fargo or No Country For Old men. This feature is closer to The Big Lebowski or O’ Brother Where Art Thou, though is distinctly different from their previous efforts. Not a bad film for fans of off-beat comedies, or the Coen brothers body of work.

Burn After Reading - movie quotes:

“You’re a Mormon. Next to you, we all have a drinking problem.”

“Think that’s enough carrots?”

Movie lines from Burn After Reading