The Music Never Stopped

“Musical Chairs”

Supposedly based on fact (a case study by Oliver Sacks called “The Last Hippie”) Jim Kohlberg’s film “The Music Never Stopped” is a missed opportunity to tell an important story about the healing power of music. That’s because this rather serious subject is treated like an 80s disease-of-the-week made-for-TV movie.

Set in 1986, the story begins when two parents reconnect with their estranged son Gabriel after he’s lost his memory as the result of an operation to remove a brain tumor. Lou Taylor Pucci must be the luckiest actor alive to have landed the lead role of Gabriel without much acting experience or credits. His performance is laughably bad. His beard is worse.

Well known character actor J.K. Simmons plays Gabriel’s father as though he were Mike Brady of The Brady Bunch. It’s small consolation to know that his goofiness eventually becomes endearing in the end as he finally comes to embrace the 60s protest-rock music he once despised.

Winter In Wartime

“Those Amsterdamn Nazis”

The cinematography of “Schindler’s List” offered a weird contrast in showing us the beauty of black-and-white photography along with the ugliness of war. Martin Koolhoven’s new WWII Dutch Nazi drama “Winter In Wartime” is filmed in natural color, but looks as cold as winter with its ashen greys, whites and blues. Strangely beautiful to look at even as the ugliness of war is at its center.

It’s very near the end of WWII in The Netherlands when a young Dutch boy finds a wounded British soldier in the woods and attempts to help him. This draws the boy into the war, a concept that, in his young years, he’s first coming to understand. He makes it his mission to help the soldier escape, even if it endangers his family and creates sexual tension between the soldier and the boy’s sister.

Reportedly, this film is based on a 1972 children’s novel by Jan Terlouw. That’s a testament to how quickly European children mature. That a child can be the hero in a story with Nazis, guns and sex is a bit like putting Harry Potter in the real world and making him mortal!

Source Code

“Intelligent Sci-Fi Making A Comeback”

From “The Matrix” to “Minority Report” to “Groundhog Day”, the recipe for the new sci-fi thriller “Source Code” has a long list of familiar ingredients. But it’s served up with intelligence, humor and a lot of heart. Following “Limitless” only a few weeks ago, “Source Code” is evidence that thoughtful science-fiction is starting to make a strong comeback.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays a sort of military cyber-soldier. He wakes up on a Chicago commuter train that, in 8 minutes, will explode at the hands of a terrorist. In a cool bit of new time-travel physics, this explosion has already happened and everyone aboard the train has been killed, but Gyllenhaal is able to be sent back only as far as 8 minutes before the explosion for the purpose of identifying the terrorist before he can strike again later. His mission must be repeated over and over during those same 8 minutes until the terrorist can be identified. Saving the passengers or trying to alter the outcome is impossible since they are already dead. To explain more would be to give too much away.

Trust

“A Friend Behind The Camera”

When the cast of TV’s “Friends” moved their careers toward feature films, none of those results have been as shockingly surprising as David Schwimmer emerging as the director of one of this year’s strongest and most important films. “Trust” is a movie that every parent should require their teenage daughters to see before they are allowed to use the internet unsupervised. In fact, high schools everywhere should adopt this film as part of their acedemic curriculum.

“Trust” is the greatest movie ever made about statutory rape. It showcases a powerful performance by newcomer Liana Liberato as 14-year Annie Cameron who falls for a boy she meets in an internet chat room for teens. When they finally hook-up at a shopping mall, he is actually a 35-year old man and he seems to have her mentally trapped in a situation that soon becomes sexual.

Super

“Anyone Can Be A Hero”

Unfunny is not how a comedy would want to be described. A movie like “Taxi Driver” wouldn’t be considered a comedy. Yet in “Super” Rainn Wilson plays a Travis Bickle-type psycho in a movie that comes dressed up like a comedy yet has more violence than a Martin Scorsese picture.

Wilson loses his wife (Liv Tyler) to Kevin Bacon, so he decides to become a home-made crime-fighter. He’s as human as you and I, with no special powers, but he creates the masked and costumed character Crimson Bolt and runs through the streets yelling “Shut Up Crime!” That’s funny, until it becomes evident that he might be very psychologically disturbed.

Eventually he meets up with Ellen Page in a comic book shop and she recruits herself to become his sidekick Boltie. There’s real chemistry between them and some of their scenes together are genuinely touching. Their journey leads to a startlingly bizarre conclusion which, again, is not funny.

Insidious

“Insidious” is an old-fashioned haunted house thriller. And probably the loudest. The “gotcha” moments are jolting, but the quieter moments are more frightening for their visual creepiness. James Wan’s film has the mood and atmosphere of Dario Argento’s best films. Like Argento’s “Suspiria”, this film has a glorious shivery look to it.

A couple played by Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne move their family into a new house and suddenly strange things begin to happen. So they move into another house, but the strange things follow them. Soon they realize that the houses aren’t haunted. It’s their son who’s haunted.

From here they enlist the services of a sort-of Ghostbusters-like crew and things really start jumping. Character actress Lin Shaye plays the family’s psychic advisor and she does a far better job of explaining their son’s condition than I ever could. It has something to do with out-of-body experiences and a dimension called The Further. But it’s all just window-dressing to disguise what is actually an all-too-familiar plot.

Hanna

“A Real Spy Kid”

In 2007, 13-year old Saoirse Ronan received an Oscar nomination for her role in “Atonement”. She joined an impressive list of other child actresses who have been recognized by the Academy such as Jodie Foster, Tatum O’Neal and Abigail Breslin. Ronan’s nomination had me scratching my head. I didn’t get it. But after seeing her as the lead in Joe Wright’s new assassin thriller “Hanna”, I now think Ronan’s career trajectory will be more Jodie than Tatum.

In this astonishing new film, Ronan plays a 16-year old world-class-trained assassin named Hanna. Raised by her father, an ex-CIA assassin in exile played by Eric Bana, Hanna has never seen the outside world. She lives in the snowy woods in what looks like a cozy gingerbread cottage where her father has been relentlessly training her her whole life.

When Hanna feels confident and ready to face her destiny, her father tells her to flip a switch on a device that will alert the CIA to their whereabouts. That signal is then picked up by CIA hardass Cate Blanchett who wants to hunt down and kill Bana. The international chase-to-the-death is on from the Arctic Circle to Germany.

The Conspirator

“Lincoln Assassinated Again”

It’s amazing that such a towering historical figure like Abraham Lincoln has not yet had a decent movie made that’s about him. Steven Spielberg’s got one in the works for next year in which Daniel Day-Lewis plays Lincoln, so that strange missing link between Hollywood and history might finally have a resolution. There have been a few minor films about Lincoln nearly a century ago, and others in which President Lincoln is a supporting character in stories about The Civil War. But none that really ever focused on the man, his politics and his leadership of this nation through an extremely turbulant period.

Robert Redford’s new directorial effort “The Conspirator” is a story on the trial of the assassins. If that phrase sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it’s similar to the title of Jim Garrison’s book about the Kennedy assassination which happened almost exactly 100 years after Lincoln’s assassination.

Water For Elephants

“Robert Pattinson’s Sideshow”

The circus is often described as “the greatest show on earth”. But music video director Francis Lawrence shows that he’s incapable of cinematic greatness. His film version of the popular novel “Water For Elephants” is dull and lifeless. Even with ace screenwriter Richard LaGravenese (“The Bridges Of Madison County”) on board, Lawrence is more concerned with the visuals rather than with getting any real emotion to leap off the pages and on to the screen.

The casting of “Twilight’s” sexy vampire Robert Pattinson may have been viewed as money in the bank by producers, but Pattinson meanders through this movie in a zombie-like trance offering no romantic chemistry with Reese Witherspoon. When we meet Reese’s character, she is married to the villain of the story played with poisonous venom by Christoph Waltz. Waltz plays the owner of a traveling circus who employs Pattinson as a veterinarian to care for his mistreated animals.

The Bang Bang Club

“Action, Then Cameras”

“The Bang Bang Club” doesn’t offer enough bang-bang for your bucks. It’s an amateur version of a mature movie. It looks like the real thing on the surface, but lacks any real depth.

Ryan Phillippe plays real-life combat photojournalist Greg Marinovich. As a member of a gang of photographers, Marinovich finds himself competiting with his colleagues to get the best shot of the bloody action that surrounds them daily.

These wartime paparazzi are based in the South African town of Soweto in the mid-90s. Very little is explained about the politics of the conflict they are covering. They just follow the bloodshed the way Hollywood paparazzi follow Lindsay Lohan.

Their photos are then sold to the photo editor of a Johannesburg newspaper played by Malin Akerman. Almost as an obligitory element to the film, Akerman and Phillippe develop a romantic relationship that leads absolutely nowhere. Akerman’s British accent is so bad that it makes Madonna sound positively royal by comparison!

Last Night

“Europe In Manhattan”

Does Massy Tadjedin want to be Woody Allen? Tadjedin’s directorial feature debut “Last Night” is a four-character relationship drama taking place in New York. Three of the characters are from Europe and their accents seem to instantly elevate their IQ’s. It’s certainly refreshing to hear such intellectual conversation from a source other than Allen. Tadjedin has pulled off a near miracle here, losing points only for some ambitious yet pretentious editing that becomes annoying in several scenes.

But a conversational movie requires performances from actors that are so good we find ourselves hanging on their every word. Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington and Eva Mendes are three of those actors turning in top-notch dramatic performances. Each succeed beyond our expectations. Keira Knightly gives a tour-de-force that shows her at her Oscar-calibre best and more than justifies her recent Academy Award nomination for “Pride And Prejudice”.

Everything Must Go

“Making The Most Of A Bad Day”

Will Ferrell surprises us with some serious dramatic moves in his latest film “Everything Must Go”. Ferrell plays recovering alcoholic Nick Halsey on the worst day of his life. After being fired from his job, he returns home to find his wife has left him, locked him out of his house and has thrown all of his belongings out onto the front lawn. His response is to just sleep there on his favorite leather chair to the displeasure of his neighbors.

He drinks beer like a fish drinks water, that is until his cash runs out. With his credit cards not working, he finally decides to turn his plight into a massive yard sale. He befriends a young neighborhood boy to help him, smartly played by Christopher Wallace. He also strikes up a friendship with the pregnant woman moving into the house across the street, especially well-played by Rebecca Hall.

Bridesmaids

“Here Come The Bridesmaids”

Although it’s Maya Rudolph who’s getting married, Kristen Wiig and Rose Byrne steal the spotlight as feuding bridesmaids each trying to top each other in their arrangements for the girls’ pre-wedding events. From producer Judd Apatow who has been responsible for raising the bar on raunchy comedy since his 2007 hit “Knocked Up”, here’s a film that lets the women get raunchy for a change. That twist of getting sex jokes from the female point of view is actually a fresh and funny approach to movies like this.

Director Paul Feig is having so much fun with this material, he allows his film to run past the 2-hour mark which is unusual for a comedy these days. But with so many laugh-out-loud moments, the length can be forgiven, even with some unorginial and unfunny bathroom humor thrown in here and there.

The Beaver

“Jodie Foster’s ‘Beaver’ Finally Opens”

Let’s pretend for a moment that Mel Gibson never had a real-life mental breakdown. That he’s not violent toward women. That he’s still the biggest movie star on the planet. And that the public is still unaware of the anti-semitism of Gibson. Pretend that Jodie Foster’s latest film “The Beaver”, which stars Mel Gibson, is being released during Gibson’s most successful period among films like “Maverick”, “Braveheart” and “What Women Want”.

Now, imagine how a film like “The Beaver” would be received in that world. A film in which Gibson plays a family man so depressed with his life that he can only communicate with people through a beaver hand-puppet he found in a trash bin. And if you’re wondering why this role wasn’t given to Jim Carrey, it’s because “The Beaver” is definitely not a comedy. The only laughs generated by this film (mostly embarrassed snickers) are from people laughing at it, not with it.

So, in a world where Mel Gibson is still a much-loved movie star, “The Beaver” is one of those movies that could actually be considered a career-killer reminiscent of things like Sylvester Stallone’s “Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot”.

Midnight In Paris

“Woody Allen Makes Magic”

Woody Allen’s “Midnight In Paris” is charming and delightful. Getting out of New York has definitely been inspiring Allen in recent years and this is one of his most entertaining films in quite some time.

Critics everywhere have been challenging themselves to write about this film without giving away a magical plot twist. Roger Ebert didn’t even try to avoid it announcing at the top of his review that there would be spoilers ahead. As a rule, I never put spoilers in my reviews, but I also don’t get as detailed as most film critics when reviewing a film. If you want details, see the film!

Having said that, I firmly do not believe that divulging the so-called plot twist in “Midnight In Paris” would be a spoiler at all. That’s because it’s not really a plot twist to begin with. It first happens ten minutes into the film and then continues throughout the entire movie. It’s the premise of the film and therefore should not be kept a secret. It’s the seed from which the plot grows. So here I go, if you really don’t want to know then stop reading now.

The Hangover Part 2

“One Night In Bangkok”

Sequels are usually dangerous for fans hoping to recapture the experience they had with part one of anything. Sequels are never dangerous for those who profit from their release. If you build it, they will come, but only if they liked the first one, even if they’re well aware of how many hours they’ve wasted watching sequels they don’t like. There are rare exceptions like “Terminator 2” or “Godfather 2”, but “The Hangover” is a film that did not need a relapse. Especially one that’s not very funny.

“The Hangover Part 2” is basically the same film as “The Hangover” only not as fresh-feeling. The concepts and characters are identical, but the setting has been moved from Las Vegas to Bangkok. Even the structure of the way the story is presented is the same. I suspect you could perfectly sync-up the two films and the scene changes would totally match. But the laughs are all in the first film, not this one.

The basic premise of both movies is a group of friends having a bachelor party-style wild night prior to a wedding. They wake up the morning after with no memory of the bizarre events of the night. One of their friends is missing and they must re-trace their steps from strange clues they find. The jokes are raunchy and very R-rated.

With the first film being such a monumental hit, it’s certainly curious why they would bring in new writer Craig Mazin for the sequel. Mazin’s last film was the underwhelming so-so comedy “Superhero Movie” in 2008.

History will view the two ‘Hangover’ films like this. In 1976, a group of raunchy foul-mouthed Little League baseball players were a hit in “The Bad News Bears”. Two years later came the now-forgotten sequel “The Bad News Bears Go To Japan”. “The Hangover Part 2” is “The Bad News Bears Go To Japan” in this scenario.

DVD Double Feature:

The fresh and very funny original “The Hangover”.

Super 8

“Not Very Super”

No, it’s not the 7^th sequel to the Rainn Wilson comedy “Super” from earlier this year! “Super 8” is the hotly anticipated new sci-fi film from director J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg. The setting is Ohio in 1979 when teenagers made their amateur movies on Super 8mm film, unlike today’s easy-to-operate digital video cameras.

“Close Encounters Of The Third Kind”, “E.T.”, “Raiders Of The Lost Ark”, “Jaws” and “The Sugarland Express” are just some of the Spielberg films that have inspired Abrams to make this film. Skilled as he is, Abrams is no Spielberg. “Super 8” sadly lacks the awe-inspring excitement of Spielberg’s films. It’s a fine imitation, but there’s nothing like the real thing.

The plot is like “The Goonies” meets “Close Encounters”. A group a 14-year olds set out to make a zombie movie with their Super 8 camera. During the filming of one scene, they accidentally capture a train derailment in the background. The train that has derailed was carrying an alien being which has now escaped and is terrorizing the town. This is a great set-up for a mystery in which the clues to whatever is happening might lie within the frames of that super 8 film. But, unfortunately I wasn’t asked to write this film, so that’s not what happens! Instead, the kids’ film itself plays no further role in Abrams’ film after the alien is set loose. From there, it just becomes like a weird sci-fi version of Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” leading to a laughably bad conclusion that seems more in line with bad B-movies than with anything Spielberg has ever directed.

The kids in the cast are mostly unknowns and all are quite good. Elle Fanning proves that she’s on her way to becoming a better actress than her sister Dakota.

The soundtrack is filled with authentic 70s hits. But in striving for 70s authenticity, it’s strange that Abrams’ movie is louder than a rock concert. Hey, Abrams, movies in the 70s were never this loud. The noise is an annoying distraction.

Another oddly annoying distraction is the constant appearance of blue-lines flashing across the screen from lights that hit the camera lens the wrong way. This just makes the film look defective. Shame on the cinematographer.

The best moment in “Super 8” happens over the closing credits when we get to see the full-length Super 8 film the kids have made. Intentionally amateurish and simply wonderful.

DVD Double Feature:

Today’s teens will probably like “Super 8” more than I did. That’s because most of them never saw the original Spielberg films that serve as Abrams’ template. But they would be wise to stay home and watch Spielberg’s 1977 masterpiece “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind” before they go to see “Super 8”. Richard Dreyfuss plays a man (in Ohio) who has a close encounter with an alien being. Let Spielberg show you how this sort of movie should be made.

The Tree Of Life

“The Meandering Of Life”

Famously boo’d at Cannes earlier this year, “The Tree Of Life”, Terrence Malick’s fifth film in nearly as many decades, is a 2-and-a-half-hour meandering, lifeless bore. Describing it as cinematic poetry is accurate, but not much of a recommendation.

Despite starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, this movie has precious little dialogue. Most of the screen time is taken up with Malick’s vision of Earth’s creation. In a scene that feels like an eternity, Malick takes us from the birth of our Earth through dinosaurs and eventually humans populating the planet. This is the pretentious and overly ambitious prelude to a story about a midwestern couple coping with the death of one of their sons. How he died, we are never told. Birth is a more important detail in this movie than death.

I don’t have anything against super-arty filmmakers with lofty, epic ambitions. But Malick’s cosmic visuals are surprisingly unimaginative. Everything looks familiar. Like scenes from countless other movies. If there’s copyright-free library stock footage of the beginning of time, it would look like the stuff in this movie. It’s like Malick was working with a CGI-starter kit.

Edited with a peculiar sense of randomness, many might wonder if Malick has lost most of his marbles by now. There are far too many moments of lengthy black-screen nothingness. If Malick’s intention was to immerse his audience in a deep black hole, his attempt is thwarted by the fact that whenever the screen is black the audience focuses on the green-glowing exit signs on either side of the screen.

If you’re the adventurous type who wants to give this film a chance, see it at off hours when the theater is likely to be less crowded. I viewed this film with a packed audience. The steady and constant exit of audience members was a continual distraction. By the time the film finally ended, there were only 12 people left in the theater. You have been warned.

DVD Double Feature:

With 2011’s “The Tree Of Life”, Terrence Malick has now made five films. My favorite of the five was his second film, 1978’s “Days Of Heaven”. Richard Gere and Brooke Adams are lovers who claim to be brother and sister for the purpose of keeping their jobs on a farm. When their employer Sam Shepard falls in love with Adams, this triangle becomes tricky. Clocking in at a reasonable 93 minutes, this is a work from Terrence Malick’s better days.

Bad Teacher

“Too Bad”

I used to like Cameron Diaz. But in her new so-called comedy “Bad Teacher” it’s so easy to dislike her. Not just her character, but Diaz herself. And I’m not even sure if that’s a compliment to her performance. Diaz is playing a school teacher who is meant to be disliked. And she’s doing a hell of a job. It’s just a shame that the movie she’s acting in is so awful and stunningly unfunny.

“Bad Teacher” is directed by Jake Kasdan who, only a few years ago, made one of my favorite recent comedies in “Walk Hard”. So my expectations were high. I found myself trying to like it more. There were awkward moments of forced giggles, only to be embarrassed when I realized that the joke wasn’t really very funny at all.

Even the general plot makes you wonder how anyone could have signed on to make this movie. Diaz plays a bitter middle school teacher with a chip on her shoulder the size of a mountain. She’s a loner who is overflowing with bad habits and genuine ugliness. Her only goal in life is to marry a rich guy, not for love, but for his money. And she’s quite openly sincere about that.

She thinks the best way to lure wealthy men is to increase the size of her breasts. When she learns that her breast-enhancement surgery will cost neary ten grand, she uses her teaching position to create all kinds of oddball schemes to raise that money. From stealing her students’ car wash money, to conspiring to steal the state’s scholastic test answers, Diaz bounces all over the map as a cold-hearted lifeless bitch.

Making matters worse is co-star Justin Timberlake, Diaz’s real-life ex. Their scenes together are uncomfrotable to watch as their chemistry is clearly gone. They share a ridiculous sex scene with their clothes on! It’s probably meant as comedy, but it doesn’t even rate a chuckle from the audience.

DVD Double Feature:

In 1999, Alexander Payne made the ultimate ‘bad teacher’ comedy. It’s called “Election”. Reese Witherspoon plays a sexy, driven overachiever. Her teacher, played by Matthew Broderick, becomes obsessed with preventing her from winning an election for class president. Hilarious, truly inspired, and far superior to “Bad Teacher” in every way.

Horrible Bosses

“When Your Job Blows”

“Horrible Bosses” is a laugh-out-loud comedy about murder and sexual harassment in the workplace. There are 3 bosses, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston and Colin Farrell, and the 3 employees who want them dead, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day.

The 3 employees enlist the help of Jamie Foxx (an ex-con for committing crimes against Ethan Hawke) to serve as their murder guru advisor. The 3 murder plots become entangled with hilarious results.

Darker, edgier and sexually raunchier than the similarly themed “Nine To Five” in which 3 secretaries conspire to murder their boss, “Horrible Bosses” is at least 3 times funnier than that 1980 film.

In the tradition of “The Hangover” and this year’s “Bridesmaids”, “Horrible Bosses” tries hard to top the crude sexual humor in those films, and at times succeeds. But there’s plenty of standard sit-com hilarity as well. The 3 fish-out-of-water criminal-to-be’s argue and bicker with a Neil Simon-esque sarcasm that keeps the laughometer pumped up to eleven.

DVD Double Feature:

Kevin Spacey played this horrible boss character once before. In the brilliant movie-biz comedy “Swimming With Sharks” from 1994. He really is the same character in both films, but watch the earlier film and see his Buddy Ackerman be even more horrible to his new assistant played by Frank Whaley.