The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The film version of Douglas Adams' classic stood up pretty well to the novel, but as I left the theater I realized that the movie didn't really add anything to the Hitchhiker's Guide experience for me. Sometimes a movie adaptation really draws me in--the Harry Potter films, for example. But even though I thought Martin Freeman and Mos Def were very good as Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, and even though I thought the film did a pretty good job of capturing the lighthearted spirit of the book, it didn't do much for me. Part of it may have been that the nature of film doesn't allow for quite as much digression as print does--and Adams' tangents were really the best part of his writing--but it may just be that I don't care as much about the books as I did when I first read them. Fun movie, though, so don't let my reaction stop you from seeing it.
Viewed: 2005-04-29 | Released: 2005-04-28 | Score: B
Kung Fu Hustle
If you like kung fu movies, you'll like Kung Fu Hustle. Stephen Chow, the director and star, understands the genre very well; well enough to make a movie that is conscious of all of the ways that they are ridiculous. Kung Fu Hustle walks a fine line between being a full-on spoof and a solid member of the genre, and succeeds brilliantly. The funny parts made me laugh harder than any movie in years, and yet it was also not without serious moments. Go see it.
Viewed: 2005-04-26 | Released: 2005-04-21 | Score: A
A Lot Like Love
I had been mildly interested in seeing this one, but Juliette really wanted to, so of course we saw it. It was pretty good. Juliette compared it to When Harry Met Sally, and in some ways it is similar. Both movies follow the development of a relationship between a man and a woman over a number of years, giving us scenes that are separated in time by months or years. The main difference is that Harry and Sally are platonic friends for much of their film, while Emily and Oliver--the main characters of A Lot Like Love--are hardly more than acquaintances. I think if you like the one, though, you'll like the other. Amanda Peet and Ashton Kutcher had very good chemistry, which was really what made the movie so cute. Kutcher, especially, was notable for pretty much completely leaving behind the type of antics he became known for in That 70's Show and Dude, Where's My Car? (both of which, incidentally, I think are quite funny) for a more subtle, realistic, touching performance. The supporting cast was also pretty good, and it was fun to see Kal Penn as Kutcher's business partner.
Viewed: 2005-04-30 | Released: 2005-04-21 | Score: B
What Babies Want
What Babies Want was the documentary feature that we saw at the Newport Beach Film Festival. The title sums up the subject pretty well; the film is about prenatal and very early postnatal influences on child development, with a heavy emphasis on birth and the events immediately following delivery. The film has a definite "hippie" slant, being generally in favor of home birth and alternatives to "traditional" hospital birthing procedures. I would imagine that there are any number of people out there who would have problems with the film--indeed, I was not without my own criticisms of the ways in which some of the information was presented--but I was lucky enough to hear the filmmaker say that she considered the movie to be "the beginning of a conversation" rather than the final word, which I think definitely made me more open-minded. Whether or not you buy into the philosophy behind the film--and more and more I'm coming around to such ideas--it was a well-made documentary that presented quite a lot of information in less than an hour.
Viewed: 2005-04-22 | Released: 2004-11-06 | Score: A
Alice's Misadventures in Wonderland
Alice's Misadventures was the last feature-length film we saw at the Newport Beach Film Festival, and fortunately we were able to get in a few shorts afterwards so we didn't end on such a bad note. I gave it one star because some of the writing was genuinely clever, but everything else about it was pretty awful. Even allowing for the poor filmcraft, which can easily be explained away by considering this a low-budget or semi-amateur film, the acting was universally terrible, and much of the production design, costuming, and makeup was actually disgusting enough to make me uncomfortable watching it. But everyone else in the theater except me and Juliette loved it. In fact, it's won audience awards at several festivals. So what do I know?
Viewed: 2005-04-23 | Released: 2004-09-24 | Score: D
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
This was the first of three feature-length films that we saw this past weekend at the Newport Beach Film Festival. A cute, slightly offbeat romantic comedy, I found 50 Ways pretty fun to watch. There wasn't anything great about it--the acting was on the low end of adequate and the writing was decent but not particularly profound--but I enjoyed it all the same. In fact, I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I enjoy most big studio romantic comedies. One thing that I especially liked was the perspective on Los Angeles. The writer seems to display the same sort of fascination and repulsion toward the city that most LA immigrants I've met have, which worked well in the context of the film.
Viewed: 2005-04-22 | Released: 2004-05-05 | Score: C
Fever Pitch
I wasn't too jazzed about this one after seeing the previews, but it wasn't looking like a great weekend for movies and we had nothing better to do. As it turned out, Fever Pitch was quite a bit better than I was expecting. Now, it's quite possibly the least funny Farrelly Brothers movie ever, but what it lacks in laughs it makes up for in cute. Barrymore and Fallon have great on-screen chemistry, and I found myself quite drawn in by their relationship. On the downside, as Juliette pointed out on the drive home, Barrymore didn't really fit as the tough, driven, career woman, so that portion of the film didn't work very well. Still, it wasn't enough to ruin the rest of the story, so I'm fine with it.
Viewed: 2005-04-09 | Released: 2005-04-05 | Score: B
Sin City
Once again, I find myself in the position of having to write a review without having done my homework. No, I've never read the Sin City graphic novels. My thoughts on the film, then, will be based on nothing more than the film itself and my reaction to it. The most obvious thing to say about Sin City is that it is violent. You knew that (or you should have). But I don't think I'm stretching to say that it is easily one of the most brutally, graphically violent movies I've ever seen. It was enough to squick me out, which is the only reason that I couldn't give this one a fourth star. The rest of the film was excellent. Much of the dialogue (and the near constant voiceover) approached campy cliché, but that never bothered me. In fact, I think it worked wonderfully with the noir style. And there was plenty of good acting: Mickey Rourke was intense as Marv, and I particularly liked Nick Stahl as the villain of the Hartigan story. Clive Owen did a decent job, but no matter how good an actor does otherwise, if he can't get the accent down, it pulls me out of the moment. On the other hand, nearly all of the female performances were either too flat or too overdone. Though, since a lot of the female roles only exist for skin, it doesn't hurt the movie too much overall. So, to sum up, if you don't like horrible violence and a lot of bare female skin, this isn't a good movie for you. But you probably already knew that. Otherwise, check it out.
Viewed: 2005-04-01 | Released: 2005-03-27 | Score: B
Dear Frankie
This weekend marked our first trip back to the local arthouse theater this year. It seems like we go there so seldom, and nearly every time we go we wonder why we don't go more often. This was another one of those times. Dear Frankie was an excellent movie. It's a smaller, more humble movie than most of what we've been seeing this year, but it was very heartfelt. As you might guess from the title, much of the story revolves around letters. Frankie is a young deaf boy who has just moved to Glasgow, Scotland with his mother and grandmother. He has been writing letters to his father for his whole life, but doesn't realize that the letters never actually reach his father; his mother takes them and writes letters back, posing as the boy's father, who he thinks is a petty officer on a merchant ship. I tend to be drawn to stories about childhood and family, and this one certainly fits that bill. It also struck me as somewhat refreshing that Frankie is presented as neither a victim nor a hero because of his disability. Because it's not on the mainstream circuit, I doubt many people will see Dear Frankie, which is too bad because it's really quite a good movie.
Viewed: 2005-04-02 | Released: 2005-01-20 | Score: A
The Upside of Anger
I don't understand why this movie is being marketed as a comedy. I mean, there are many funny moments, but the rest of the movie is so full of tension and anger that the comedy seems almost out of place. I would definitely put it in the "Drama" category. By the end of the film I thought it was pretty well-written, but it started slowly and it took me a while to warm up to it. The acting was good across the board, and this may be Kevin Costner's best performance ever. Still, so much of the film is wrapped up in Joan Allen's character's wallowing in self-pity that I couldn't completely get into it. Not to say that it was a bad movie; it just wasn't great.
Viewed: 2005-03-25 | Released: 2005-03-10 | Score: C