Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Title: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
Director: Chris Columbus
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Lead Actor(s): Daniel Radcliffe
Rating: PG
152 minutes

I think just about everyone can agree that the first two books and the first two movies are the weakest of the series. For the two of you who do not know the plot, a boy named Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) finds out he is a wizard and is shipped to a school called Hogwarts to work on his magic. While there he stumbles upon an attempt to raise the evil Lord Voldemort (Richard Bremmer) from his half-death. Harry with the help of his friends, Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), must stop him from rising.

I don’t think we can really blame Daniel Radcliffe too much for the disaster of this movie. It was a huge phenomenon and he didn’t know quite yet where to take the character. It’s rare that a movie of this length rests on the shoulders of a 10-year-old. Origin stories also tend to lag in character development because you have to get all of the tracks laid.

The best part about this film is Richard Harris who was the best Dumbledore there could have been. His death was such a shame.

Really the problem is Columbus takes a lot of the magic out of Hogwarts. This story lends itself to exaggeration. Instead the movie is so static that it loses any magic it could have held.

**** 4/10

The General

Title: The General (1926)
Director: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton
Genre: Comedy
Lead Actor(s): Buster Keaton, Marion Mack
Rating: UR
107 minutes
Silent

Apparently there are some bad copies floating out there because the film is now in public domain, but I saw a rather good copy with a good score. Buster Keaton plays Johnny Gray, a Southern train engineer who loses his girlfriend, Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack), when the recruiting office won’t allow him to enlist for the Civil War. After his beloved train, The General, is captured by Union soldiers with Annabelle on-board, Johnny hi-jacks a train and pursues.

Buster Keaton is sort of like John Hamm. He looks like a very serious, strait-laced person, but he can actually be funny. Obviously Keaton is funnier than Hamm, but he looks serious the entire time. Johnny Gray is so sincere in everything he does that the story that could have been ridiculous seems perfectly logical. His humor comes from his stoicness as opposed to outrageousness.

Marion Mack is also impressive in her role as Annabelle. She does a lot of physical comedy while in Civil War dress. These aren’t modified outfits that allow for moment and comfort like some of the outfits now, but hoop skirts and bloomers and confining garments. It never seems difficult for her to move though. She also doesn’t let herself be upstaged by the very funny Keaton. She holds her own which must have been difficult.

This is a funny movie. It is also impressive considering the lack of cgi or stuntmen. Everything that happens on screen actually happened, including the climatic scene that was the most expensive scene ever shot in the silent movie era. This is a different and good movie. It’s funny and surprising. It is definitely worth seeing and might surprise you on the quality of the film and the talent of Keaton, who is often overlooked for his more famous colleague, Charlie Chaplin.

******** 8/10

My dad is coming into town so I have been cleaning and thus am exhausted so no post today or this weekend because there is a rally I am going to. Sorry.

Machete

Title: Machete (2010)
Director: Robert Rodriguez, Ethan Maniquis
Genre: Action
Lead Actor(s): Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba
Rating: R
105 minutes

This is a crazy movie. At one point Machete (Danny Trejo) swings out one window and into the window one floor down with a man’s intestines. This was originally seen as a fake trailer between Planet Terror and Deathproof. Basically Machete is an ex-federale who was burned by a drug pin, Torrez (Steven Seagal), and emigrates to Texas trying to work as a day laborer when he is offered $150,000 to kill Senator John McLaughlin (Robert DeNiro). It turns out to be a setup to bolster the senator’s poll numbers. Now a massive manhunt is looking for Machete and Machete is looking for the men who hired him. This is basically a 2010 mexploitation.

I love Cheech Marin as Machete’s brother, a gun-toting priest. He was incredibly funny in the part and oddly convincing when blowing people’s heads off. He is a fallible priest who knows he is fallible.

Danny Trejo is a badass. That is all that really needs to be said about him and his character.

There is footage from the original Grindhouse interspersed in the movie, sometimes it is more noticeable than others. There is gratuitous blood and gratuitously bloody shots. Really this is just a fun movie. You can have a good time watching it and it is different from just about any movie that has been released recently.

If I judged this movie based on quality and cinematic value, it would be ** 2/10
If I judged it based on how much fun you can have and how much enjoyment can be had while watching it, I give it a ********* 9/10

The Princess and the Frog

I was dead on Thursday, thus, no update on Friday, sorry.

Title: The Princess and the Frog (2009)
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Genre: Animation, Family
Lead Actor(s): Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos
Rating: G
97 minutes

This is the first Disney princess movie in over a decade. It takes the classic Frog Prince fairy tale and places it in New Orleans in 1926. Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) is working furiously to earn enough money to buy herself a restaurant when she works a party for the richest family in New Orleans. Through a complicated series of events, she ends up kissing the prince of Maldonia who was turned into a frog and becomes a frog herself. The two are pursued by The Shadow Man (Keith David) and must work their way back to New Orleans before Mardi Gras or they may stay frogs forever.

None of the characters are the best or most entertaining. Tiana definitely has more backbone than Cinderella or Snow White, but sometimes her personality becomes grating. She puts Naveen down quite a bit. Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos) is not charming and I find the development of their relationship fake. It seems to spring from nowhere. I like the idea of The Shadow Man, a voodoo practitioner, but his character becomes less sinister and more comical. The songs are written by Randy Newman. Alan Menkin’s music always seems so natural in the movies, but Newman’s songs mostly feel forced.

The characters I like best are Ray (Jim Cumming), a Cajun firefly, Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley), a trumpet playing alligator, and the La Bouffs, a rich family in New Orleans. Ray is kind of like Jiminey Cricket and the mice from Cinderella. He is desperately in love with the North Star who he says is a firefly named Evangeline. Louis is a mix between Baloo and King Louie from The Jungle Book. His only desire is to play the trumpet in a Jazz band. The La Bouffs are just ridiculous and over the top. They are some of the funniest characters in the movie.

Considering the problems with the character, Campos was the best person they could have cast for Naveen. His voice matches the aggravating personality perfect. He has the narcissism of Gaston and the ambition of The Tramp.

I love that Disney went back to hand-drawn animation. In general I prefer that over computer animation, with the exceptions of Pixar. The whole movie just feels a little forced to me. I hope they continue with the hand-drawn. I don’t know if they have anything in the works, but the movie isn’t so bad as to put me off and I will probably buy it because I buy all the Disney princess movies. It isn’t the best of the Princess movies, but it is worth a look and I can see the appeal. I think Disney tried so hard to be careful with their characterizations, that the personalities seem fake.

***** 5/10

Easy A

Title: Easy A (2010)
Director: Will Gluck
Genre: Comedy
Lead Actor(s): Emma Stone
Rating: PG-13
92 minutes

Easy A is told through an internet stream as Olive Penderghast (a fairly awesome last name) (Emma Stone) and flash backs as she tells her side of the story in chapters. It begins when she lies about having a date with a college guy in order to get out of going on a camping trip with her friend, Rhi (Aly Michalka), and Rhi’s hippie parents. Her friend becomes convinced that Olive slept with the guy and when Olive sarcastically agrees, the school goody-goody, Marianne (Amanda Bynes), tells the whole school and now Olive is branded as a slut. Olive decides to embrace this view of her by channeling The Scarlet Letter and letting guys say they did something with her in return for gift cards. The only people who really seem to be consistently are her parents and Mr. Griffith (who I knew was going to hit on her, but you will have to see it to find out if he does) (Thomas Haden Church).

This movie is built around Emma Stone. She is able to display the wit and stamina needed for the role. The one-liners, some of which are seen in the trailer, would not have been nearly as funny if Bynes had been in the role instead. Stone has a dryness about her that differentiates this movie from so many of the other recent high school movies. She really is a funny and self-assured actress. There is a montage of her weekend that I have now watched twice on youtube just because it’s a quick funny thing to watch during dull commercials or breaks from dull studying. Should you want to watch it, search for Easy A pocketful of sunshine.

Besides Stone’s performance, there aren’t a lot of strong performances. The exceptions are Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as Olive’s parents and Lisa Kudrow as Mrs. Griffith, the school guidance counselor. I have by now realized that Tucci is one of those actors who I am just ridiculously biased for. I love his performance and personality and energy. This was one reason I did not want to see him play a child murderer in The Lovely Bones. I doubt I will ever see that movie, even though I am sure Tucci was wonderful in that as well. Here he is over-the-top and funny. Clarkson as her mom is a little more reserved, but still hilarious and Clarkson and Tucci have great timing and chemistry with each other. They could be seen as too exaggerated, but the town that this is supposedly taking place in is supposed to be very small, so instead their performances help us understand why Olive is so different from her classmates.

Lisa Kudrow plays her guidance counselor very similar to her character on her character on “Web Therapy,” Fiona Wallace. Both are more interested in themselves than their charges and have no understanding about how to interact with those who seek their help. She is very funny in the view parts she has, especially when we first meet her visiting her husband in his classroom.

The rest of the characters are very lacking. Bynes’s Marianne is by no means Mandy Moore’s Hillary Faye in Saved. She lacks the dimension and her actions and conviction come off much more artificial than Moore’s. I think the character of Rhianna or Rhi was almost an afterthought. Olive doesn’t really seem to like her “best friend” and they quickly split for the majority of the movie. I also don’t really understand the point of Woodchuck Todd (Penn Badgley) character. Would it be bad for Olive not to find someone in this small and ill-fitting town to have a crush on?

My final issue with the film is a very stupid and petty one, so forgive me. Olive is almost thrown out of school for calling a girl, who called her a slut (or some synonym), a twat. She never gets in trouble for wearing clothing she literally bought at a lingerie store. I find this baffling. They try to wave it off by saying that her pants are always longer than her fingertips, but I would like to know of one school that would not take action when one of their students is essentially just wearing a whole bunch of corsets.

My favorite parts are the ones where it is just Olive talking to her computer. They are simple, but define her character and avoid the majority of unnecessary characters. The directing is not noticeable in a good or bad way. There are moments where it makes the action more fun (the montage comes to mind) and there are moments that are really very cliché (Olive walking through a crowd in slow motion once she decides to embrace her inner Hester Prynne). Overall, it is a fun movie with good wit and great performances from Tucci, Clarkson, and Kudrow and a stand-out one by Stone. If the rest of the Easy A world was as good as these actors, it would be a great movie.

****** 6/10

Miss Congeniality

Title: Miss Congeniality (2000)
Director: Donald Petrie
Genre: Comedy
Lead Actor(s): Sandra Bullock
Rating: PG-13
109 minutes

The best things this movie has going for it are Michael Caine as a pageant coach and William Shatner as a pageant host. The basic plot is that tomboy FBI agent, Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock), is forced to go undercover at the Miss United States Pageant to stop a copy cat killer.

All though this is not the most original comedy, Sandra Bullock does have some charm as the fish-out-of-water agent. Part of her charm is her awful clumsiness and thus makes what could have been a flat, bubble-head role into one with a bit of charisma. Her one-liners have good timing and delivery, although some are very unoriginal. It’s nice that Bullock keeps her temperament and behavior characteristics consistent throughout her transformation from Gracie Hart to Gracie Lou Freebush, her pageant name.

The best moments come from Shatner and Caine. Caine takes a role so different from the ones we are used to, that part of the appeal comes from the strangeness of it. Any movie that has Michael Caine saying “Don’t I look pretty?” is going to have some mildly funny moments. Shatner pokes fun at himself without being particularly obvious. His song at the end is particularly entertaining due to Shatner’s sheer persistence.

This is not the most original comedy, but due to some funny moments from the cast and entertaining performances by Caine and Shatner, the movie is spared from becoming a Valentine’s Day or its follow-up, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous.

**** 4/10

American Beauty

Title: American Beauty (1999)
Director: Sam Mendes
Genre: Drama
Lead Actor(s): Kevin Spacey
Rating: R
122 minutes

I just watched this again in my film lecture class. It told me a lot about the people around me who were watching and specifically made me want to deck the guy behind me who muttered “faggot” under his breath, but he was a very large guy and I am not. The movie follows the last section of Lester Burnham’s (Kevin Spacey) life. He wakes up one morning and realizes just how dead he has been and how much his daughter, Jane (Thora Birch), and his wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening), hate him. After meeting Jane’s friend, Angela (Mena Suvari), Lester begins fantasizing about her and changing the dull rut his life has settled into to.

Kevin Spacey is as good as he usually is. His best moment is toward the end when Lester realizes that he is happy. He makes the progression from catatonic cubicle occupant to happy free hamburger flipper. The shift is evident in every aspect of Spacey’s performance. His posture changes; his speed of speech changes; his speech pattern changes; his gait changes. Spacey as Lester becomes a whole new person.

To be completely honest, I have never been an Annette Bening fan. She isn’t someone whose acting makes me want to throw molotov cocktails at the screen (Keanu Reeves), but I have never found her to be just spectacular. Here she is good. I think she is often overshadowed by the superbness of Spacey’s acting. She definitely adds some much needed comedy and is a decent foil for Lester. I just am always wanting a little more from her.

The last actor I am going to discuss, simply due to not wanting to write a 1,000 word review on a movie that has been out for over 10 years, is Chris Cooper as Jane’s boyfriend’s Dad. He is Colonel Frank Fitts, US Marine Corps. He holds his household in an iron grip. Things must happen on his terms and in his definitions. Cooper is both frightening and heart-breaking in the role. In 1999 Michael Caine, Tom Cruise, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jude Law, and Haley Joel Osment were up for Best Supporting Actor. In my opinion, Cooper was better than Cruise, Law, and Osment and at least on par with Caine and Duncan.

Sam Mendes wants the viewer to be aware that someone is directing this movie. Sometimes these intrusive directing styles can steal subtlety from the film and make it a lesser movie. Luckily, this is not one of those cases. Mendes in conjunction with the cinematographer, Conrad Hall, work the camera in magnificent ways. The way the shots are framed and the angles the actors are filmed at elevate the characterizations and impact. Some of the most interesting camera work is when we are seeing Jane’s boyfriend, Ricky’s (Wes Bentley), hand-filmed footage. It has a much more raw and honest element about it. Those feelings map on to the relationship between Ricky and Jane and their association to the rest of the characters.

The final brilliant enhancement is the score by Thomas Newman. Particularly in Lester’s fantasies, the score situates the viewer into the mindset needed for the scene. As with the directing, this is not a subtle, shy score. It is wonderfully intrusive for the audience. With someone who did not fully understand the theme and evolution of the film, the score could have ended up like The Krays, where I had the strongest desire to simply mute the entire movie and read the subtitles. Instead it teases the viewer into the head of Lester Burnham.

All these enhancements and strong performances would be useless if the script were not of the quality that it was. Alan Ball is the screenwriter and his eerie understanding of the death of personality that can exist in the suburbs make this movie what it is. The subject matter could have slipped easily into a vulgar and disturbing movie, but Ball knew where to take the story to and stop. The script also has the style of dialogue that Ball has quickly been known for. Ball’s idea is the strong foundation that this film is built from.

Well I made it to just over 700 words. Sometimes I don’t know when to shut up. This movie has so many levels of complexity while still maintaining a sense of reality. If that reality were missing, this could slip into Christopher Nolan’s style. Instead what makes it so strong is the strong anchor it has in its realism. Annette Bening and Mena Suvari are good in their parts. The rest of the cast is great. Mendes, Ball, and Newman take this movie to the most extreme they can before drawing back to avoid a caricature. At the basest level, this is a story about a man coming alive again and this movie wonderfully succeeds.

********** 10/10

Eat, Pray, Love

Title: Eat, Pray, Love (2010)
Director: Ryan Murphy
Genre: Drama
Lead Actor(s): Julia Roberts
Rating: PG-13
133 minutes

I haven’t read the book. I never really had an interest in seeing the movie for the movie. I didn’t mind seeing it because I saw it with friends. The movie follows Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) after divorcing her husband. She dates a wannabe actor and then decides to spend a year abroad. She starts in Italy (eat), goes to India (pray), and ends in Bali (love). On her travels she meets a colorful cast of characters that help her learn about life and herself.

While this is not Julia Roberts’ best movie, the problems are not due to her. She is not off-putting or completely awkward in the role. The character is surprisingly annoying. She comes across as very self-involved. Despite her life being in a disarray, everyone she comes across is better for having met her.

The only actor whose performance I really like is Richard Jenkins as Richard. I like the actor quite a bit. His character all seems to be one of the few that shows a genuine believable emotion. All the others are very obvious about their acting. Part of it is the characters. They all are too wonderful or too damaged or too static.

The directing also is decent. The shots show off the beauty of the scenery and situations. All the visuals are right for the settings and characters. The thing that brings the film down is the story. I have mentioned the immense problems with the characterizations, but it goes to more than that. This movie is supposed to be about a character who is so emotionally lost that she has to travel the world to get a better understanding of herself. She never seems to really want to become a better person. It all is superficial. I never believe the character for an instant.

From all the hype about the book, I expected at the very least a decent movie. The flaw stems from the book though. It is not the fault of anyone involved. Without changing a lot about the source material, no one could fix the problem with the main character. The best thing about the movie is the poster. I doubt this is how Roberts wanted to jump back into leading roles. At least she got a good trip out of it.

*** 3/10

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Title: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Director: David Fincher
Genre: Drama, Romance
Lead Actor(s): Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett
Rating: PG-13
166 minutes

I think the premise is extremely intriguing. Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) ages backwards. He is born a creepy old baby. His mother dies in childbirth and after briefly considering infanticide, his father leaves him on the steps of an old folks home. He is raised by the black caretaker, Queenie (Taraji P. Henson). He meets Daisy (Cate Blanchett) and through their lives their paths cross again and again. Daisy grows older while Benjamin looks younger and younger.

Brad Pitt makes this movie. He is able to hold a child-like curiosity and maturity, while still looking like an old man. Then he has to have an old soul while appearing 22. The most convincing element, in my opinion is when Benjamin surprises Daisy in New York. You can see his heart breaking and yours almost breaks with it. He exhibits some of the carefree ease he did in Thelma and Louise. This is one of Pitt’s best performances in a long while. Despite his condition and his turmoils in love, he always see the beauty in what he has been given and the opportunity that could be wasted. He is able to travel the world like a young man, but still retain the wisdom of age.

I would not say this is Cate Blanchett’s best performance, but there are great points to it. Particularly when Daisy is pushing Benjamin away or trying to drag him closer. I don’t think her performance as the old Daisy is particularly intriguing. Blanchett does great in extremes and well in the in-betweens.

The cinematography is utterly gorgeous as well. There are several shots that would make gorgeous and expressive photographs. It enhances the beauty and meaning of the film in a way that makes the plot and actors the stars. The camera angles and positioning are also deliberate and compelling. There is a particularly beautiful scene in Paris in one of those butterfly wing sequences.

My biggest problem was Tilda Swinton. I have never really found her to be an entertaining actress. Here she plays a woman Benjamin meets in Russia named Elizabeth Abott. I never really believed her or the chemistry between her and Benjamin. Who can’t have chemistry with Brad Pitt? Luckily she is the movie for a brief time, especially considering how long the movie is. I would argue the only performance I really enjoyed was as the White Witch. She can’t express emotion with any conviction or believability.

The movie is beautiful and has wonderful acting from Pitt. He makes Benjamin heart-breaking and inspirational and tragic and beautiful Fincher used the story in the best way possible. These two are the shining stars in this movie. The rest for the most part is good. Swinton is not. Still this is a movie that is worth seeing. I understand, however, that some dislike movies this long and some may find the pacing boring. If it went faster, it would disrupt the simplicity Fincher somehow managed.

******** 8/10