Leap Year

My girlfriend asked me to watch this with her. I might’ve said no, if not for Amy Adams. This is pretty much your run of the mill, “opposites attract” kind of romantic comedy. Y’know those romantic comedies that are neither romantic nor very funny. I admit I chuckled a couple of times and actually laughed once, but overall I was very stoic throughout the entire running time.


I would love to critique the film making or directing, but it is entirely phoned in. No wait! “Leap Year” is packed with green screen shots of sky or hills that are some of the worst green screen shots I’ve seen in a long time. Those shots were the funniest thing in the film.

As for acting, it’s rom-com acting. Amy Adams plays that same rom-com female character. She is a strong, in control, successful woman with a mediocre relationship and personality “quirks” that would send most men running. Matthew Goode plays that same rom-com male character. He’s easy going and slightly disheveled in a way that is supposed to be sexy and is anti-relationships. Naturally, these two can’t stand each other. So, they spend a lot of time together and through a series of mishaps come to find that they love each other, in spite of each other. (Personally, I’d rather watch two people who are good for each other fall in love, but I’m not a chick so what do I know about romance?)

Between this and “Watchmen,” I’m still waiting for Matthew Goode to impress me in something. I could watch Amy Adams on mute and still be happy. John Lithgow is wasted in this film as Adams’ father. (My girlfriend watched all the deleted scenes and says his role was basically cut from the movie.)

At the end of the day, if your lady likes sappy chick flicks: rent it and just shut up and watch it with her. She’ll appreciate it.

Rating: 6 out of 10 (would’ve been a 5 but for Amy Adams. She‘s an automatic booster.)

Crazy Heart

Finally got around to watching it. Last year was my absolute worst year ever for keeping up on films, especially Oscar nominees/winners. (I still haven’t seen “Hurt Locker” but that’ll be remedied soon.) Now I can check “Crazy Heart” off my list of Movies I Can’t Really Discuss And It Makes Me Feel Ashamed. After all the buzz and Academy accolades, can I say that “Crazy Heart” lives up to its hype? Kinda.


My girlfriend (who didn’t like this film) put it best when she asked me, “So this is basically ‘The Wrestler?’” And I found I couldn’t say, “No. It’s not.” Instead, I just replied, “Be quiet.”

“Crazy Heart” is just like “The Wrestler” with better music but ultimately not as good. The music really shocked me though. Most movies having anything to do with a musician have terrible, TERRIBLE songs. This movie had songs that really embodied true American old-school country. In fact, they were so country that I found it hard to believe that the super-star character Tommy Sweets would have found fame on contemporary country radio. That kind of music is not what is called country today. That was addressed briefly in the movie but I think that the film’s songwriter, Ryan Bingham, just doesn’t have a pop song with steel guitar in him.

Moving on, the cinematography is great. The southwest looks amazing. Also, I love the way the actor’s faces are shot and lit. “Crazy Heart” is definitely a movie that is nice to look at.

Every actor in this movie turns out a great performance too. Jeff Bridges is everything that the hype said. He may not turn in a performance that is high octane and super emotive, but he’s just so real. Sometimes, it’s not so much what a performance a role elicits from an actor; it’s what that performance elicits from the viewer. That, I think, is the essence of Jeff Bridges’ Bad Blake.

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Colin Farrell give great supporting performances too. They do their jobs well, but neither one bowled me over. However, Robert Duvall seemed to steal the show during his few scenes. I love Duvall. Every movie should have Robert Duvall in it. End of story.

All in all, a good show. I saw better last year. I saw worse.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Videodrome

Had a hard time sleeping last night, so I decided to watch a movie and hopefully fall asleep to it. I don’t know why, but my choice was “Videodrome.” Now, I’ve seen “Videodrome” probably a dozen times. I know what I’m getting into. And somehow, I thought that should be my lullaby. Needless to say, I didn’t fall asleep. I was, as always, hypnotized.


If you’ve never seen “Videodrome,” please, please, please rent/buy it. This is Cronenberg at his best. I’ll admit that it is not an easy movie to watch. It’s gruesome and crude and really fucking smart. I still have a hard time getting friends to watch this movie. Mostly because I don’t want to give away the whole thing when they ask, “What’s it about?” My answer to that is usually something like, “It’s about a guy who watches a pirated broadcast of a show called ‘Videodrome’ and it causes him to begin hallucinating and before too long he grows a six-inch vagina in his abdomen and people put video tapes in the vagina to brainwash him.” Only one of my friends has watched it.

Regardless, I fucking love this movie. “Videodrome” is prophecy come true. The paranoia about television and people’s lives through exposure to and on media is incredibly poignant today. And this even before the (at the time non-existent) internet, which, when factored in, makes Cronenberg’s script seem like a goddamn crystal for the new millennium.

I want to keep this review short so as to not give much of the movie away because nearly every scene is a revelation. Every word rings scarily true. Every effects shot trumps any CG magic. (Consider CGI when listening to Professor O’Blivion and you’ll get shivers at the implications.)

This is one of the great, little-seen classics. Get a hold of it, watch it, then show it to your friends and wow them with its awesomeness. LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!

Rating: 10 out of 10 (I need to review a bad movie here soon.)

Hot Tub Time Machine

Got out and went to a movie last night. I’d been meaning to see “Hot Tub Time Machine” since before it came out, but just never seemed to get around to it. Well, it finally went to our local second-run discount theater. I figure a three dollar ticket price couldn’t hurt what already looked to be a fun flick.


My girlfriend and I had some friends over and we all wanted to see a movie. The girls were a bit indecisive and the guys were firmly in favor of “Hot Tub Time Machine.” We made a pact to go hot tubbing after the movie and it was off to the cinema.

We arrive and behind us in line were a group of 5 or 6 loud, rowdy teenagers trying to decide whether to see “Hot Tub” or “Kick Ass.” I can’t stand loud, obnoxious people in the theater, so I very firmly recommend they all see “Kick Ass.” They agree. Awesome.

A few, rather forgettable, trailers later, we’re starting the movie .

For those of you who didn’t see (and judging by the total box office, that’s plenty), this is a film about four guys who go back to the 80’s in a hot tub. It’s as retarded and awesome as that sounds. Usually, when you’re partying in a hot tub, you wake up in the future.

More specifically, it’s about three friends who are not at all where they want to be in their early 40s. Lou (Rob Corddry) is wild and self-destructive and spends a drunken night singing in his garage with the car on. This is mistaken for a suicide attempt and his friends, Adam and Nick (John Cusack and Craig Robinson), decide that they should all spend a weekend at a ski lodge where they enjoyed all their best weekends. Adam also drags along his nephew, Jacob (Clark Duke), just to get him off the computer and out of the house. The four find the ski town dilapidated and make the most of it by boozing in the room’s hot tub. One debauched montage later, they awake in 1986 during a weekend in which choices they made determined the course of their lives forever. However, they decide to make all the same choices again in order to protect the future. But they find it very hard to fuck up their lives all over again. Hilarity ensues.

Truth be told, the hilarity is in full force long before Reagan and pink spandex make an appearance. This was a movie that I went into with high expectations and got more than I bargained more. While this film didn’t receive the audience attention that “The Hangover” did, it deserves to be recognized as its near equal. The characters are so honest and relatable that guys will laugh at how much they have in common with them (especially the way that they justify and attempt to understand time travel through movies they’ve seen). The ladies can laugh at how much these guys are like their boyfriends/husbands.

I can’t recommend this movie enough. Every actor is so spot on. The supporting cast really shines at making it feel not so much that you’re in the 80s but in an 80s movie. Chevy Chase is odd but fun to watch. Crispin Glover steals every second of screen time he is afforded. I cannot wait for this to hit Blu-Ray.

Rating: 8 out of 10