You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER (2010) - July 28, 2011
Another big winner from the Woodster!  About the romantic struggles of a few related characters in London.  The film featured a surfiet of really interesting, compelling characters, and some really solid performances to back them up.  It also had some especially strong direction from the Woodster, whose emphasis on long takes suits the material perfectly.  ***1/2

Joshua

JOSHUA (2007) - July 27, 2011
A slightly more grounded take on the "livin' with a psycho" subgenre, this was a well made film about a father who begins to realize that his son is a sociopath.  If nothing else, this film has definitely confirmed that Sam Rockwell is one of the greats -- the man strikes the perfect balance between charisma/screen presence and real acting talent, and livens up anything he's in.  As for this film, it's well made and definitely has some pretty memorable moments.  ***1/2

Captain America: The First Avenger

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011) - July 22, 2011
A basically enjoyable film about a scrappy but scrawny wannabe soldier who winds up getting injected with a special serum that turns him into a super soldier, and then goes after a similarly-injected baddie, the Red Skull.  Featuring some solid direction from Joe Johnson (whose old-fashioned direction, particularly in the action sequences, is quite refreshing) and an engaging lead performance from Chris Evans.  The film kind of drags in parts, but I was definitely never bored, and it was fairly engaging all the way through.  It's nothing particularly special, but it was a passable piece of summer entertainment.  **1/2

Frantic

FRANTIC (1988) - July 21, 2011
A really slow-paced "thriller" about a doctor whose wife disappears in Paris, and who tries to figure out who took her and to get her back.  Harrison Ford was quite good in the main role, and Roman Polanski's stylish visuals were nice to look at, but the film was exceptionally slow-moving, and really took much longer than it needed to at every turn.  Polanski was obviously going for a Hitchcockian vibe (without much success), and there were definitely some good moments here, but all in all this was kind of a failure.  **

Beginners

BEGINNERS (2011) - July 20, 2011
An enjoyable enough but kind of middling movie about a man who, still getting over the grief of his father's death, meets and falls in love with a French actress. It was definitely well made and quite well acted (both Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer were at their best), but I was just never as engaged with the story as I should have been.  I'm not sure why.  **1/2

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN (2011) - July 20, 2011
A well made if somewhat slow-paced film about the enduring friendship between two women, both in modern-day China, as well as the 19th century.  The film was well made and the characters definitely become people we care about; one of the film's main problems, aside from the slow pace, is that most of the modern-day stuff has the two main actresses speaking heavily-accented English -- English, in this case, obviously being a language the actresses aren't comfortable with.  It definitely affects their performances, and kind of dulls the impact of the modern-day scenes.  Aside from that it was a solidly-made film, and I did find myself moved by the (admittedly treacly) ending.  **1/2

Presumed Innocent

PRESUMED INNOCENT (1990) - July 18, 2011
A well made legal drama/thriller about a DA who finds himself investigating the murder of a colleague he was having an affair with, and who is eventually accused of the crime (whether or not he's actually guilty is left ambiguous until the final moments of the film).  The first half is a bit slow, though it does pick up quite a bit once the trial starts.  In particular, Raul Julia gives a really compelling performance and pretty much steals every scene he's in.  There's also a twist ending that I probably should have seen coming, but didn't, and was thus fairly shocking.  ***

Bad Teacher

BAD TEACHER (2011) - July 15, 2011
About the eponymous bad teacher and her efforts to fund her breast implants by any means necessary, this was a surprisingly bad film from the otherwise very reliable Jake Kasdan (though having just looked up the writing duo of Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg and discovering that their last film was the awful Year One, I'm a bit less surprised -- how do you still get work after writing something so bad?).  Kasdan does the best he can given the material; what drew him to the film in the first place is a complete mystery.  The biggest problem here is Cameron Diaz's bad teacher.  Aside from a few brief glimpses of humanity, and a last-second redemption that feels completely unearned, she's a complete douchebag and a misguided main character for a movie.  I mean, not every protagonist has to be a "good" person, or even likable -- but they have to be interesting or nuanced, which Diaz's one-note jerk is definitely not.  There's also a grating performance from Lucy Punch as Diaz's nemesis; she plays every scene at an eleven and gives a performance that is way, way bigger than the movie really needs.  Everyone else was fine (Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet was definite highlight), and I was never all-out bored, but yeah... not the best.  **

The Tourist

THE TOURIST (2010) - July 13, 2011
Though it's a pretty humongous step down from the Lives of Others, this was still an entertaining enough thriller from Florian Henckel von Donnersmark.  About an American math teacher, on vacation in Europe, who finds himself embroiled in some shenanigans involving a mistaken identity and billions in stolen money.  The movie kind of drags in the uneventful first half hour or so; it picks up once the action starts kicking in, though it's never as interesting or exciting as it thinks it is.  It seems like Donnersmark is going for a fun, Hitchcockian-style wrong man thriller, though it never quite gets there.  There's just something off about it -- Donnersmark's direction is solid, and the performances are fine (I'm kind of off Johnny Depp these days, and Angelina Jolie had the same smug expression on her face for pretty much the entire film, but they were both fine), so... yeah.  Not sure what went wrong.  **1/2

Larry Crowne

LARRY CROWNE (2011) - July 12, 2011
Oh, Tom Hanks -- why?  This was a surprisingly awful film about an easy-going guy who, after being fired from his job, decides to go back to college.  Though Tom Hanks was quite charming (as usual), he's surrounded and overwhelmed by a surfiet of insufferably quirky characters.  The movie is called Larry Crowne, and Crowne is obstensibly the protagonist of the film; yet so much time is spent with the over-stuffed supporting cast that it ultimately feels like Crowne gets the short shrift.  Certainly, so little time is given to the almost comically thin relationship between Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts that when the film ends with them getting together as if it were a traditional romcom, it just feels puzzling.  Am I supposed to care about these two people getting together?  Because the film has given me almost no reason to do so.  The two characters had a real conversation, what, twice?  And one of those times one of them is completely sloshed.  Not to mention the fact that Julia Roberts spends about 90 percent of this movie being disgruntled, making her kind of a tough character to root for.  And what was the point of giving her a sleazy husband?  There didn't seem to be any dramatic purpose for it (as opposed to her just being single), and the scenes with them going at each other were just unpleasant.  What this movie really needed was about ten less absurdly quirky supporting characters, and to focus on Tom Hanks' character and his relationship with Julia Roberts.  Oh man.  What a fiasco.  *1/2

Live!

LIVE! (2007) - July 11, 2011
A really well made faux-documentary about an ambitious programming director who decides to air a game show in which six people play an actual game of Russian roulette.  The film is obviously satirizing the anything-for-ratings reality show culture in network television these days; however, the movie always plays it straight.  Though there is dark humour here, the film never winks at the audience or tries to hit you over the head with over-the-top satire.  Despite the outlandish premise (this is obviously a show that could never, ever happen in the real world), by the time the show begins to air, it feels plausible in the slightly tweaked version of reality in which the film exists.  The movie features an impressive central performance from Eva Mendes, who definitely turns what had the potential to be a one-note character into someone really interesting.  The supporting performances (from people like Andre Braugher, David Krumholtz and Jeffrey Dean Morgan) are quite good as well, and by the time the actual show rolls around, it's surprisingly tense.  ***1/2

It's Kind of a Funny Story

IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY (2010) - July 10, 2011
An enjoyable enough movie about a suicidal kid who checks himself into a mental ward, and the relationships he forms with the various wacky patients.  Blandly conventional (it's kind of nuts that this was directed by the team behind Half Nelson) but enjoyable enough.  **1/2

The Winning Season

THE WINNING SEASON (2009) - July 7, 2011
A really enjoyable film about a down-on-his-luck coach who's asked to coach a high school girls' basketball team.  Features an expectedly excellent performance from Sam Rockwell (seriously, you just cannot go wrong with Sam Rockwell) and some strong supporting performances.  James C. Strouse's writing and direction is also quite solid -- there's nothing here we haven't seen quite a few times before, and some of the emotional beats feel a bit forced, but it's just a really entertaining and well put-together film.  I like how the emphasis is really more on the characters than the games; there's really not all that much at stake as far as winning the games go.  The film is more concerned with the characters and their relationships, which I definitely appreciated (there's only so many times you can watch a bunch of underdogs work their way up to a big game -- which is what this was about on a surface level, but not really -- before you get sick of it).  ***

Mesrine: Part 2 - Public Enemy #1

MESRINE: PART 2 - PUBLIC ENEMY #1 (2008) - July 6, 2011
Though not quite as good as the first installment, this was nevertheless a very enjoyable crime movie about the later years of French bank robber Jacques Mesrine.  It does feel a bit more one-note than the last one, as there's not much character development left for Mesrine at this point; it's basically just a bunch of vignettes leading up to the man's murder by the police in 1979.  Speaking of which, the revelation that the police murdered Mesrine at the beginning of this film does kind of sap the final scene of the tension and suspense that it's clearly going for, which is a shame.  I know I would have been pretty shocked that the police just outright excecuted the man.  Oh well.  The movie is pretty thrilling, with shootouts, car chases and prison escapes, and Vincent Cassell is as charismatic as ever.  ***  

Road House

ROAD HOUSE (1989) - July 5, 2011
About a bad ass bouncer who comes to a small town to clean up a bar, only to find himself butting heads with an evil businessman.  Patrick Swayze was quite good as the initially unflappable bouncer, and Sam Elliott stole every scene he was in as his grizzled mentor.  But the movie itself is just not all that great -- certainly, it's not the action classic that it's been built up as over the years.  It actually drags pretty badly in parts, with long stretches in which not all that much happens.  There's also a romantic subplot which feels pretty much completely superfluous.  Rowdy Herrington's direction was fine, though the film does feel quite dated.  It does definitely improve towards the end, with some memorable action scenes (including a fight which ends with Swayze ripping a guy's throat out), but all in all this was a definite let-down.  **

The Red Shoes

THE RED SHOES (1948) - July 4, 2011
An exceptionally well directed film about a ballet company, told mostly from the point of view of a young woman who quickly becomes the company's star, a young man who becomes the company's composer, and the company's hard-edged leader.  Though it's a little slow in parts, seeing the inner workings of this company is quite interesting, and the movie does a really good job of developing the characters and making them compelling -- even side characters we don't necessarily spend much time with.  All of the performances are quite good, though special props must go to Anton Walbrook as the leader of the company; he's pretty mesmerizing in the role.  The film also looks very, very good, with top-notch direction and glorious Technicolor cinematography (the pristine Criterion Blu-ray probably helps in this regard).  Highlights include a hypnotic dance sequence in the middle of the film, and a supremely memorable ending, which has to rank up there as one of the best endings ever.  ***1/2

It! The Terror From Beyond Space

IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (1958) - July 3, 2011
This film supposedly inspired Dan O'Bannen when he wrote Alien, and it's not hard to see where that came from, whether it's true or not: the film follows a crew of astronauts, on their way back from Mars, who must contend with an alien stowaway who is picking them off one by one.  Despite its obvious origins as a low-budget B-movie, the film's lack of funds is only really apparent with the creature itself (it's obviously a guy in a shoddy rubber suit).  The characters are all a bit thin, but the film is decently made and entertaining throughout (the svelt 69 minute runtime probably helps).  **1/2