Elizabethan Theatre

If you haven’t checked out The List of Movies That Made Going to the Movies Suck over at Mike’s blog, there are some really interesting essays going up daily all month long.  You can find my essay on IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, which kicked off The List, here.  Now, onto the reviews.

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The Back-Up Plan (2 stars): if you are aching /to see Alex O’Loughlin / watch Moonlight instead

Stuntmen (3 stars): an amusing look / at the stuntman industry / mockumentary style

Orange County (3½ stars): the transition from / high school to college is hard / but also funny

The Princess Bride (5 stars): truly a classic / epic comedic romance / with awesome swordfights

Singles (3½ stars): from Cameron Crowe / a film about single life / and finding the one

Shades of Ray (3½ stars): a sweet indie film / an identity crisis / both funny and real

Iron Man (3½ stars): excellent relaunch / to a franchise and career / more RDJ please

Iron Man 2 (3½ stars): the sequel lives up / to my expectations and / perhaps exceeds them

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And last but not least, don’t forget to watch Chuck, (catch up online!) because I don’t want it to get cancelled, because then I’ll have nothing to live for on Mondays (8/7 Central on NBC, folks!).

So, I’m posting this something like 12 days after I intended, but it’s April and that means Screnzy + soccer + more soccer, and I’m busy.  So sue me.  But please keep reading my blog.   Also, if there’s one thing that can be learned from my Haiku Reviews, it’s that I like Cary Grant.  So here’s a picture to make up for the super-lengthy delay.

Notorious (4 stars): Hitchcock delivers / Cary Grant’s best performance / plus great female role

The Cove (4 stars): surprisingly fair / with huge amounts of research / hard to watch at times

Lethal Weapon 2 (3 stars): the toilet bomb scene / is worth price of admission / on its very own

Precious (3 stars): good performances / but too melodramatic / for my normal tastes

Butterflies are Free (3½ stars): flighty hippie chick / befriends and falls for blind guy / in sweet funny film

The Bounty Hunter (2 stars): wanted to be like / His Girl Friday but failed / so miserably

HouseSitter (3½ stars): Steve Martin flustered / by Goldie Hawn’s odd antics / makes hilarity

My Man Godfrey (5 stars): like Easy Virtue / happy and before the war / kooky and awesome

The Big Sleep (4 stars): whodunit and why / Bogey and Bacall trade barbs / and light up the screen

She Done Him Wrong (3 stars): pre-code scandalous / plus a young suave Cary Grant / yes please I want more

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (2½ stars): kind of cute in parts / swimming pool number is weird / never quite grabbed me

Casablanca (5 stars): doesn’t get better / if you haven’t seen this film / please fix right away

Gone With The Wind (4 stars): i loved the first half / second was quite a downer / a gorgeous epic

How to Train Your Dragon (4 stars): like Lilo & Stitch / at turns poignant and so fun / want a dragon now

Chloe (3 stars): first half got five stars / but the end went off the rails / not in a good way

People Will Talk (3 stars): lighthearted movie / about serious issues / plus it’s Cary Grant

The Guild, Seasons 1, 2 & 3 (5 stars): hilarious look / at collisions of real life / and online networks

She’s Out of My League (3½ stars): a sweet knee-slapper / one of the better rom-coms / of the past few years

I’m way behind on my movie recaps, so I’ll do half today and half tomorrow.  Off we go!

The Awful Truth (3 stars): a husband and wife / suspect worst of each other / bring on the hijinks

How to Marry a Millionaire (3 stars): some pretty ladies / try to land themselves rich men / but find love instead

Easy Virtue (5 stars): i love this movie / i’ve said so a few times now / but it’s still quite true

Shutter Island (5 stars): Scorsese directs / another cinematic / thriller tour de force

The Wolfman (2 stars): i wish i had watched / an american werewolf / in london instead

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (5 stars): if the writer’s strike / brings entertainment like this / let’s strike more often

The Illusionist (4 stars): underrated film / about illusion and love / and the force of each

Girl With a Pearl Earring (4 stars): a study of art / and the way artists connect / in their unique way

Coco Avant Chanel (3 stars): stubborn as a mule / that was one of Chanel’s traits / and it served her well

Crazy Heart (4 stars): a country singer / trades his dignity for booze / but learns his lesson

Cop Out (2 stars): I wanted to laugh / they should have hired Abed / to write it instead

Pulp Fiction (3 stars): innovative, sure / but i wanted more of uma / and a bit less bruce

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (3 stars): John Krasinski gives / an interesting showcase / of why most men suck

Don’t Bother to Knock (3 stars): Marilyn Monroe / gives an edgy performance / in unsettling role

Alice in Wonderland (4 stars): i saw some heart here / where a lot of folks did not / in Alice’s arc

This week I’m buckling down on what will hopefully be my last round of revisions on TDPU.  Last week I finished a short script I’m hoping to film in the next couple of months, and I’ve got another short script I’d like to write whilst planning my next feature to be written in April for ScriptFrenzy.

I’m also trying to see as many Oscar-nommed movies and read as many Oscar-nommed scripts as possible before the big night on March 2nd.  I know there are a lot of folks out there who say the Oscars don’t matter unless you’re nominated for one, or they’re not in line with what the public thinks is good, but I still enjoy them.  And I don’t know — it is a jury of one’s own peers voting, and that has to count for something I think.  Generally, I’ve found that, even if I don’t agree that the Oscar picks are the best of the best, they’re still films worth seeing.  Now, onto the Haiku Review…

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (4 stars): visual stunner / in the Gilliam archetype / I miss Heath Ledger

Dorian Gray (3½ stars): lovely to look at / a worthy adaptation / please come to the States

Adam (4 stars): an autistic man / struggles with love and himself / moves the audience

La Jetée (3½ stars): a film in still shots / mind-bending and heart-breaking / check out 12 Monkeys

Food, Inc. (5 stars): eye-opening doc / helps us make informed choices / when choosing our food

Cry-Baby (3 stars): so bad it is good / ’50s spoof with fun music / and young Johnny Depp

Charade (5 stars): murder and deceit / but Cary Grant charms us so / can Audrey trust him?

America’s Sweethearts (3 stars): a guilty pleasure / an atypical rom com / about Hollywood

An Education (3½ stars): naïve girl wants more / older man shows her the world / and opens her eyes

The Hurt Locker (4 stars): detonation team / fights against bombs, hate and angst / can’t defeat the thrill

Un Chien Andalou (3 stars): unrelated scenes / but the brain makes connections / that do not exist

New York, I Love You (3 stars): it wanted to be / charming like Paris, Je T’aime / but can’t quite get there

Valentine’s Day (2½ stars): too many stories / to tell any of them well / but some parts are fun

A Serious Man (2 stars): life is difficult / for the man in this movie / not sure of the point

Pretty Woman (3½ stars): for Valentine’s Day / iconic rom coms are good / even when single

I’m tired of doing normal mini-reviews, so I’m going to try my hand at doing haiku reviews instead.  If you’d like to know what I thought about a particular movie in more detail, just ask.

Arsenic and Old Lace (4 stars):  screwball comedy / with a bit of slapstick, too / Cary Grant is hot

District 9 (5 stars): men v. aliens / against odds, two join forces/ one of the year’s best

Blind Date (4 stars): a tragic story / hopeful yet melancholy / captivating leads

Nine (2½ stars): pretty to look at / A few enjoyable songs / otherwise empty

Nosferatu (3 stars): vampires are scary / and can haunt your dreams with ease / when they’re not sparkly

The General (4 stars): a silent movie / with a delightful story / and Buster Keaton

Up in the Air (4 stars): a story about / the worth of what we carry / or leave behind us

What’s Up, Doc? (3 stars): Barbara Streisand / plays a screwball heroine / who gets what she wants

Kill Bill Vol. 2 (5 stars): revenge fantasy / and unknown consequences / not for claustrophobes

Statuesque [short film] (4 stars): Neil Gaiman directs / a short, silent film about / statues come to life

Avatar (4 stars): we’ve seen this before / but it’s still a good story / with gorgeous visuals

Shaun of the Dead (4 stars): a zombie movie / that spoofs but has lots of heart / Simon Pegg is great

The Bicycle Thief (2 stars): black, white, and silent / an Italian classic film / I hate the ending

Rebel Without A Cause (4 stars): a James Dean movie / that was surprisingly great / holds up against time

The First Wives Club (2½): so-so comedy / about fed-up ex-spouses / who get their revenge

Leap Year (2½): guilty pleasure film / rom-com clichés left and right / Ozymandias