7.21.2008

not doing much of anything: movie reviews

k, so i spent the weekend in a stupor, discovered about 10 new comfortable ways to lay around the living room, rocked a couple more levels on assassin's creed and watched a bunch of movies, which I am taking the time to just for you.

Talk to Me **1/2 (out of 5)
If you know me, you know that I love dc and therefor I love ralph waldo "petey" greene. The foul mouthed conciensce of dc from the early 60s until his death in '84 and the host of the miracle that was 'petey greene's washington' on wdca channel 20. I got to know petey through his tv show and being a little white kid from upper NW I had a thing or two to learn about the real district and petey had a thing or two to teach. Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I heard that a petey bio-pic was in the offing. Unfortunately, the flick doesn't do petey justice. Don Cheadle does a remarkable job of getting the dc cadence down, and pretty much nails petey's staccato, but Chiwetel Ejiofor sounds like he is from Queens by way of Eton. Meanwhile, the real DC could have been a worthy costar, but instead we get shots of the capital, washington monument and (yawn) ben's. The story arc is also SUPER predictable mostly because the silly biopic arc of rise-triumph-failure-rebirth is adhered to religiously. The clip below says far more about Petey than the nearly 2 hour film, so enjoy this stand in:

Juno *** (out of 5)
I am not sold on this lil' charmer, because it is all so, well, charming. It tries a bit too hard to sell us on its cuteness, and while it is a fun watch I wasn't buying. It may be suffering from my dislike of Knocked Up- both movies seem to a bit pleased with their post-feminist 'an unplanned pregnancy is the road to happiness' message. While I have nothing against the choices women make with their bodies it all seems a little trite, like the serious emotional consequences are not accounted for.

The Grand **** (out of 5)
Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Woddy Harrilson, Hank Azaria, Chris Parnell, WERNER HERZOG, dennis farina, etc etc all in an improvisational comedy about poker- please tell me you think this could go wrong. The throw away moments are the best, and for me, parnell hits it out of the park with his semi autistic poker genius. Not great cinema, but a genuinely great time, a quick, fun, easy watch. Here is the trailer for info's sake:

Harry Potter and The Order of the Pheonix **** (out of 5)
Because I am in love with Gary Oldman as Sirius Black (dork alert!!!) and even though I don't care about the books I am love with these films. They are totally transporting and scary and funny and fun and beautiful. and I am in love with Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, did I mention that?

Ahhh ... Gary Oldman.

1 comment:

caddy said...

i didn't see the other movies but have to agree about juno. i thought it was over hyped considering what it was, AND even from my post-feminist baby having standpoint i, too, thought it was trite and a little bit too convinced of its own cleverness/cuteness. . . it was like i couldn't do that willfull suspension of disbelief thing, ever, because trying to be cute/cool stuff was too obvious or something. it wasn't just cool. it was obviously trying to be, to me. that being said, compared to most other movies out there these days it was cute and fun and i'm not mad about having spent the time to watch it. anyway it was refreshing to see that someone else thought the same thing about it. . . yah yah yah opinions are like something else everyone has, right!??