Real Movie Review-Movie Reviews, Movie Quotes, Movie Trivia

Director: Karyn Kusama

Starring: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, Adam Brody

I saw Jennifer’s Body in its third and final screening at the Toronto film festival and found it to be a pleasant surprise. This is a
comedy/horror in the vein of an American Werewolf in London, and this genre has more than its share of video store dust collectors. Two names give this one a shot of avoiding this fate.

One is Diablo Cody’s sparkling writing which though sometimes over the top, is interesting, amusing and at least makes us old geezers over 25, feel like we are in on the hippest new teen slang. Whether we are or not, how would I know? I haven’t spoken to a teen since the last time I got a 2am Big Mac at a drive through.

The other advantage Jennifer’s Body has is, well, Jennifer’s body. Hiring Transformers star, Megan Fox, has gotten this film a lot of attention and even more so when word got out on what a sexy role the sultry beauty would be playing. She looks good (pronounced in this case as goooooooood) and puts in a pretty solid performance besides. This girl may still have a future when she stops spouting off yawning filler dialog next to stupid alien warbots that somehow felt that they should earn some extra endorsement coin to cover travel costs by turning into the latest model year of cars sold on a planet 800 zillion years from where they’re from. Sorry. Guess I sprinted off onto a raving tangent for a second there.

Jennifer’s Body is the story of a couple of teenage friends. The applicably named everygirl is Needy (played by Amanda Seyfried), who finds herself torn between her sweet boyfriend, Chip (Johnny Simmons) and her hot, school ruling best friend, Jennifer Check sizzled up by the aforementioned Ms. Fox. The two friends head off to a local bar where Jennifer is hot to hook up with a visiting band. They both have a night of their lives, but not in a good way. All young women at this age are undergoing a lot of changes, but not usually as extreme as Jennifer who might also be some kind of bloodthirsty, short-skirted monster. Its up to Needy to figure out what’s going on.

With equal parts comedy, horror, gore and a little suspense mixed in, this film tries to do a lot, but never tries to take itself seriously, which in the end saves it from sinking into the crap pile. Some decent performers firing out Cody’s Juno-style dialog make this one worth catching.

Director: Jonas Pate

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Mark Webber, Robin Williams, Keke Palmer, Saffron Burrows, Jack Huston, Pell James, Robert Loggia, Dallas Roberts, Jesse Plemons

Jonas Pate steps out of TV land, where he has spent the last decade in various behind the camera positions to try his hand at the big screen and despite the help from a talented cast that includes the award-laden duo of Kevin Spacey and Robin Williams, as well as the promising young actress Keke Palmer (Akeelah and The Bee), Pate is unable to lift the film above the ponderous overfilled script. There are way too many characters here, and the result is a lack of real character interaction and depth that would allow the stars to work their magic.

Kevin Spacey is Henry Carter, a prominent psychiatrist to the stars with a best selling self help book. Life should be great, but the recent suicide of his wife has led him to a drug problem and serious self-doubt. This ties in with the stories of an aging star fighting philandering tendencies (Williams), a Hollywood power agent along with his pathological germ fear and his sweet pregnant assistant. There is also a teen struggling with loss (Keke Palmer), an aspiring screenwriter, a beautiful aging actress. Robert Loggia plays Carter’s father, and Jesse Plemons plays his drug dealer who also serves as a shoulder to lean on. I guess writer Thomas Moffett didn’t think he had quite enough characters yet. I would like to tell you more about the seemingly endless sub-plots here, but I have used all my space just giving most of the characters. I might have missed a couple, but you get the idea.

If you imagine taking Ordinary People and mashing it up with American Beauty and Crash you will have some idea of what to expect here. The offspring here though, is not a best picture winner but rather a muddled mass of wasted potential and missed opportunity. In the end, there is a mediocre drama that will suffice for Friday night viewing for genre fans, but no more than that.

“I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

“Let’s face facts, this was always a no-win situation. Anna’s a goddess, you know what happens to mortals who get involved with gods.”

Director: Roger Mitchell

Starring: Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Rhys Ifans, Tim McInnerny,
Gina McKee, Emma Chambers, Hugh Bonneville

Knotting is flawed, but pleasing romantic comedy with a clever premise wrapped into a script by English screenwriting luminary Richard Curtis (Bridget Jones, Bean, Blackadder, etc)that has both amusing lines and some unconvincing character actions that hurt the overall effect, but still leave director Roger Mitchell with his finest film, thanks to some surprising little style ideas of his own and wonderful performances by a strong cast. Grant delivers his lines with his usual fantastic self-deprecating style and Roberts glows in a role that she suits her perfectly.

In Knotting Hill, Hugh Grant is William Thacker, the owner of a small book store who finds himself meeting a world famous actress played by the world famous actress, Julia Roberts. Against all odds, the two begin a quirky on-again, off-again romance, while William is supported through this buffeting experience by a wonderful, offbeat bunch of friends. The movie features some funny little glimpses into a movie star’s life and touches upon issues of fame, which might explain some of the character behaviours that I found unconvincing.

Knotting Hill is entertaining light fare that is lifted above the average film in this genre by an intriguing premise for anyone who ever daydreamed about meeting a movie star and having a relationship begin just like they were real people! Imagine that! It’s funny, sweet and I have watched it more times than I can admit and still retain the right to enter men’s locker rooms.

Taken Trailer
Director: Pierre Morel

Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen

Liam Neeson is one of those actors that makes you say, “oh yeah, I forgot about him. I really like him, I wish he did more movies”. He seems to pop up every decade or so and never delivers a turd, Taken is no exception.

Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills. Ex CIA agent who took an early retirement package so that he could spend more time with his Daughter Kimmy, played by Maggie Grace and make up for the fact that he was away on missions for most of her childhood. His ex wife, played by Famke Janssen has remarried and spends most of her time making it very difficult for Bryan to make amends. Kimmy decides that she wants to spend the summer in europe with her best friend who seems to be a less than great influence. Both His ex-wife and his daughter succeed in making Bryan feel guilty about not wanting Kimmy to go so against his gut feeling that 17 year old girls should not be travelling to foreign countries on their own, he agrees to let he go. Almost immediately, both girls are abducted and Bryan must jump back into secret agent mode to try to save his daughter.

Taken is a classic suspense, action, thriller in the spirit of Frantic with Harrison Ford or Death Wish. It is not very often you get to see a well done, thriller that combines the ingredients of suspense and action anymore. Most action movies are just that, all action, very little suspense or story. Most recent thrillers are either based on absurd plot lines or have such weak performances that you walk out feeling, as Teddy KGB would say, UNSATISFIED. The other characteristic of current action movies and thrillers is their apparent need to sugar coat the endings, taking any edge the film might have had and griding it off. Taken avoids these trappings of the modern action thriller genre and offers 2 hours of car chases and mystery solving that leaves you thinking…Liam Neeson, I like him, I wish he would do more movies.

Righteous Kill Trailer

Director: Jon Avnet

Starring: Robert Deniro, Al Pacino, Carla Gugino, 50 Cent

Every decade or so, a director/producer gets the bright idea to team up iconic actors in a movie and create the next Godfather. Sometimes this idea works splendidly (Glen Gary, Glen Ross / The Departed / Analyze This), other times it is about as good an idea as Rosanne Barr singing the national anthem (Heat / Ishtar / Wag the Dog). Sometimes, when there is an absolute absence of an original idea and no real meat in the script, great actors are left looking very mediocre…..enter Righteous Kill.

Righteous Kill is the story of career long partners in the police force Tom “Turk” Cowan (played adequately by Robert Deniro) and David Fisk (played by Al Pacino). Fisk and Cowan are a couple of rough around the edges, old school New York detectives who have spent their career trying to do the right thing by keeping the scum off the street and making the world a safer place. Since no good deed ever goes unpunished, they have become increasingly dissatisfied with the effectiveness of the judicial system watching many of their good busts get thrown out of court for many different reasons. This growing resentment leads them to take justice into their own hands on a couple of occasions which has left them with a less than clear conscience. When a serial killer starts killing off defendants that had skated on major charges like murder and rape, the investigators become increasingly suspicious that it may be one of New York’s finest behind the death list. The question is who?

Righteous Kill has an interesting although not very original premise and decent but not transcendent script. The performances although palatable could easily have been turned in by Mark and Donnie Wahlberg. Although I have nothing against the brothers Wahlberg, I expect more from a combined 6 Oscar acting Nominations and a combined 3 Oscar acting wins. Fifty Cent is entertaining as a Gangster/Drug Dealer/Club Owner, I am sure he has plenty of people in his entourage that he could have researched for that role. Righteous kill is a very typical, formula who dunnit cop movie that is entertaining enough if you happen to catch it on starz while doing laundry but definitely not worth expending any energy to see.

Defiance – movie quotes:

“The only thing the Jewish people value more than peace is our right to exist”

“Why is it so hard to like Jews?”
“Try being one.”

Movie lines from Defiance

Director: Edward Zwick

Starring: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell,

Edward Zwick, the creative force behind emotional action hits like Blood Diamond and Glory, scores again with this true, WWII story of human compassion and survival. The story is engaging, but lacks the impact that such a spectacular story should have. The direction is skilled, if a little uninspired, and the acting is solid, though Daniel Craig seems too detached in the lead role of the strong soft-spoken leader of a rag tag group of Jews trying to survive in Nazi-occupied Belaruss.

Daniel Craig, Live Schreiber and Jamie Bell play three Jewish brothers who take to the woods to hide from Nazis and their collaborators, after their country falls to the German war machine. Surviving indefinitely in the woods would seem a tricky enough business, but it gets a lot more difficult as more and more Jews join them in a bid for escape from the Jewish ghetto. Keeping their location secret from the enemy, while managing to provide food and supplies would be challenging enough, even without the group infighting that emerges.

Defiance, which plays kind of like Schindler’s List crossed with Red Dawn, has a fascinating story to tell, and tells it well, but it is both surprising, and a little disappointing, that Zwick didn’t manage to create the powerful impact common to this genre, especially since he has conjured up such emotion in many of his previous projects. This is still a very good film, however, that will hold particular interest for history buffs.

Defiance – movie quotes:

“The only thing the Jewish people value more than peace is our right to exist”

Movie lines from Defiance

strong>The Wrestler – movie quotes:

“I’m an old broken down piece of meat and I deserve to be all alone, I just don’t want you to hate me.”

Movie lines from The Wrestler

The Wrestler Trailer
Director: Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood

The Wrestler is a product of the creative mind behind such dark dramas as The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream, and Darren Aronofsky still isn’t going to win any laugh fests with this bleak character drama about a broken down professional wrestler. Mickey Rourke, who showed such talent and promise twenty years ago, in such projects as Barfly and Angel Heart before falling into a decade or two of obscurity, powers this film with an Oscar worthy performance. He is helped out by a noteworthy effort by Marisa Tomei, and by the grim, but engrossing story. The direction is dark and overuses the hand held camera to achieve an authentic look. The end result is an excellent art house film that deserved more attention than it got.

The flagging career of Mickey Rourke may just be revived with his role as Randy “The Ram” Robinson, an aging, good-hearted performer in the hard knock wrestling world of heels (bad guys) and baby faces (good guys). Randy was once a big name, but any money he made is gone and only a glimmer of fame remains along with a lifetime of injuries and regret, as he tries to rebuild a relationship with his daughter and find a place in the world outside wrestling. Marisa Tomei joins him in this journey as an aging stripper and would-be girlfriend just trying to find her own way out of an even grimier world than his.

Imagine the movie Rocky, where Rocky doesn’t get a million to one shot to change his life, but instead the film follows him through his sombre, empty life at the beginning of the film. This is best way to describe The Wrestler. Still, for fans of powerful dramas, the great acting and genuine story of a man stripped bare is worth seeing.

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