Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/ reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post about some of the movies from last week and THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This all follows this post about guidelines to choosing good movies to watch yourself!

Wknd Box Office: San Andreas, Aloha, Iris, The Connection

By Debbie Schlussel

One shiny, sparkling documentary among the new movies opening in theaters this weekend. And the rest are, for the most part, dogs. Sorry for my late reviews. But, you can always hear my movie reviews live, first thing every Friday morning on “The Mike Church Show” on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 after 7:05 a.m. Eastern, on “The Pat Campbell Show” on KFAQ 1170 AM Tulsa at 7:35 a.m. Eastern, and on “The James Show,” on KWTX 1230 AM at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. I do my movie reviews on all three shows, as well as some discussion of current political issues and pop culture topics.
* “San Andreas“: This movie is ridiculous . . . ridiculously unbelievable. And not in a good way. There is fatal disaster after fatal disaster, and yet, despite all credible odds, each of the main characters survives each deadly situation without much of a hair out of place. And the movie is basically a mash-up/rip-off of “2012” (read my review), which is by the same filmmakers, and the “Taken” movies. This one, like the “Taken” movies, has a wife who’s divorcing the financially broke superhuman human (with “special skills”) in favor of a cowardly billionaire and his mansion. And, like the “Taken” movies, this one has a daughter the superhuman father is trying to protect and save. Like “2012,” an earthly disaster–in this case, an earthquake, threatens to destroy California (I loved the scene in which the “Hollywood” sign’s letters tumble down the hill on which they are mounted.)
The story: Duane “The Rock” Johnson is a jack of all trades and a MacGyver of sorts. He’s a first responder, whose wife is divorcing him. The wife (Carla Gugino) and his daughter have moved into a billionaire’s mansion. But, soon, a massive earthquake hits San Francisco and an expert (Paul Giamatti) predicts that it will strike the entire San Andreas Fault with a magnitude and force unlike that which has ever struck the earth. Giamatti has created a computer model that can predict where and when earthquakes will strike, and after seeing the Hoover Dam fall to the initial earthquake, he warns everyone to get out of San Francisco.
Soon, the first of the earthquakes hits San Francisco, and Johnson’s daughter is trapped in a car in the basement of her mother’s billionaire boyfriend’s building. The boyfriend is a coward and flees, leaving the daughter in the trapped car, where she will die if not rescued. A guy who was interviewing for a job and had met the daughter as he was waiting for his appointment, sees the billionaire telling a guard where the girl is. So, he and his little brother find her and rescue her. Then, together, they flee and try to reach her father, Johnson. Ultimately, they get in touch and plan to meet at a higher point of land somewhere near San Francisco. In the meantime, Johnson has rescued his estranged wife from the top of a skyscraper. The movie is filled with disasters, from none of which a normal person would ever live or be rescued. But in this movie, it’s situation after situation like that, and the daughter gets rescued.
I saw this in 3D, and even though the 3D effects were decent in this, you’ll be fine staying with 2D and without shelling out extra. Like I said, there’s nothing you can believe in this movie. Not even remotely. There is not suspending disbelief for even a second. But it’s definitely non-stop, entertaining action, and you won’t be bored at all. It’s like the movie, “Earthquake,” with a faster pace and much better special effects.
That said, I could have done without the Oprahfied segment of the movie in which Johnson starts crying and apologizing to the wife over how their relationship broke down after the death of their other daughter. PUH-LEEZE. And right in the middle of a catastrophe, in which there’s not time for that. I wanted to slap him and shout, “MAN UP!” The same for multiple other scenes like this between Johnson and Gugino and between the daughter and the guy who rescues her. Um, there’s no time for that when your life is in danger from massive earthquakes.
There’s a nice patriotic flourish at the end with an American flag in the foreground and Johnson saying, “We will rebuild.”
ONE REAGAN

Watch the trailer . . .

* “Aloha“: I was not invited to screen this movie, and it wasn’t promoted (or even represented, I believe) by the normal studio representatives for most other big feature films. But I went and saw it on my own. Big mistake. The word, “Aloha,” can be used as a greeting of hello. But it can also be used to say good-bye, which you’d be best advised to do. It’s just awful. The movie is a long, boring, disjointed, nonsensical slog containing multiple, stupid, uninteresting stories.
Bradley Cooper is a jaded former Air Force man in the space program Now, he’s an unethical contractor for a greasy, strange billionaire (Bill Murray) and his Blackwater-esque company. He meets with militant, anti-American Hawaiians to get their blessing for the installation of a pedestrian gate at an Air Force airport and the launch of a satellite. His babysitter is Emma Stone, a fighter pilot who is liked by Hillary Clinton and is on her “Honor Guard” or something like that. (Do we have so many fighter pilots and so little for them to do that they are put on babysitting duty with contractors?)
Stone is half Asian and a quarter Hawaiian (funny, she doesn’t look Hawaiish), and she has endless conversations with Cooper and the militant Hawaiians about Hawaiian mystical folklore that sounds like gibberish and is never explained. Cooper’s ex-girlfriend (Rachel McAdams) is also at the base, and she is married to a guy who barely speaks and instead communicates with looks and gestures. McAdams is whining to Cooper about how he was the love of her life and didn’t pay her enough attention. Stone is anti-weaponry (which is weird since she’s a fighter pilot for the U.S. Air Force–hellooooooo . . . .?). And she gets all upset when she learns that the billionaire for whom Cooper is working wants to launch nuclear weapons into space with his satellite, making him unaccountable to anyone. So, Cooper destroys the satellite after launch to win Stone’s heart. Then, Cooper finds out McAdams’ daughter is his child. The End. Oh, and did I mention that fat Alec Baldwin plays an angry Air Force commander and that another Air Force officer does weird things with his fingers?
Sound like a great movie to you? Me neither. And I sat through this Gitmo-torture-worthy crap. This was clearly nothing more than a paycheck for every actor involved. “Aloha” is a low blah.
THREE MARXES PLUS TWO ISIS BEHEADINGS

Watch the trailer . . .

* “Iris“: This is by far one of the most enjoyable, light, entertaining documentaries I’ve seen in a long time. And it’s not about anything serious or important. Just the opposite, in fact. But, still, I was thoroughly enthralled and amused by it.
It’s about the life of Iris Apfel, a 93-year-old Jewish lady from New York City, who has become something of a fashion icon and entrepreneur very late in life. Her husband, Carl Apfel, turns 100 during the movie, and the filmmaker/director, Albert Maysles, died in March of this year at age 88.
If you’ve ever read any fashion magazines or human interest articles in any of the major newspapers you’ve probably seen or heard of Iris, the woman with the giant, round black glasses and outrageously loud and massive costume jewelry. My late Grandma Marilyn used to use the yiddish term for this kind of dressing up: “fah-putzed.” The movie begins showing Iris putting on layers and layers of loud, chunky jewelry and clothes, and we soon learn that she has one of the largest and most expensive collections of costume jewelry in the world. She also has a giant collection of collectible chachkes and knickknacks in her two fancy New York apartments and her Palm Beach condo. That even includes a Christmas train display (she and Carl are Jewish, though that isn’t mentioned in the film).
Iris’ collection is so different and so well known that it became an exhibit at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute’s annual charity fundraiser. As a result, her renown took off, with write-ups by all the top fashion publications and newspapers of record. The buzz made her a star in the fashion world, and soon, she was consulted by major fashion designers and buzzed about by celebrities (the movie shows Kanye West telling her how much he admires her). Because of all this, Iris started her own jewelry and shoe line, which quickly sold out on HSN.
Watching this, you wonder how Iris got all this money to buy all these expensive designer clothes and costume jewels to pile on and store in three residences. And that’s, frankly, the more interesting part of the movie, as dazzling as the eye candy of her jewels and fashions.
Iris built a career as an interior decorator, beginning in the 1950s. In the ’60s, she began working with the first of eight Presidents, including Reagan, in helping to decorate the White House. Her husband mentions that Jackie Kennedy didn’t like them because there was “that incident,” but this is a tease because they don’t tell you the story (Iris admonishes her husband to keep quiet about it). I really do wanna know that story.
But Iris was more than an interior decorator. She was an entrepreneur. When she began her career in interior design, Iris wanted fabrics that didn’t exist. So, she went to various weavers and loomers and contracted them to create fabrics using the designs she created. The fabrics were so in demand that she and her husband partnered with one of the weavers to create a company, Old World Weavers, a textile firm that created her unusual designs, most of them classics in the style of old world Europe. Because of the fabrics, she was invited to restore and decorate state Houses of Representatives and the White House, as well as lots of private, wealthy residences.
It’s really a great story of American talent, ingenuity, and capitalism. Above all, Iris’ message–and we should all take it to heart–is individualism. Don’t be a follower. Make your own style.
And Iris, although a New York socialite and likely a part of the New York social left, is not a liberal when it comes to feminists and children. She declares in the film that she decided early on not to have children because she wanted a career. She frankly states, “Women cannot have it all,” and adds that if she wanted both a career and children, one would suffer–the career or the kids. She says she didn’t want to have children who were raised by a nanny. I liked that she is open about this and doesn’t buy into the fantasy that you can have it all as a career women. You can’t.
Although it’s only an hour and 20 minutes, I felt the movie was a little repetitive toward the end, but that was a minor thing. Overall, I really enjoyed watching this. It’s not just eye candy for women interested in fashion, although I do love that stuff. It’s also funny and amusing, as Iris is so over the top and is in on the joke. She enjoys all the ridiculous hype over her. And how hype has turned this ancient Jewish lady into a fashion icon (who was never a model or a fashion designer before) is part of the statement of this movie. I believe men will find this almost as enjoyable as the women (or gay boyfriends) they take to see it. Or at least, they will definitely find it hilarious and fun to watch.
Despite her wealth, Iris shows that you can find her over-the-top style of jewelry at very affordable prices on the streets and shops of Harlem and little flea markets in your neck of the woods. Still, the movie is an interesting, relaxing look at how the beautiful–and not so beautiful, but very rich–live.
Absolutely fabulous.
FOUR REAGANS

Watch the trailer . . .

* “The Connection [La French]“: This French-language film with English subtitles shows us the French side of “The French Connection,” the drug ring that smuggled dope into America in the early ’70s. The mob is run by an Italian Frenchman, Gaetan “Tany” Zampa. But the movie’s focus is on the man who fearlessly prosecutes him, French magistrate Pierre Michel (Jean Dujardin).
While this is a very courageous story and features clear right versus clear wrong, I felt the movie was predictable and something I’d seen a million times before. I know the filmmakers can’t help that: this is a true story, and it depicts what happened. Still, I felt like the movie came about 30 years too late, as we’ve seen so many of these movies already. That said, the acting is very good and makes it entertaining and enjoyable. It’s definitely not boring. And I liked seeing the 1970s-style fashion, cars, and sets. It’s not a bad movie, just not much new in it.
ONE-AND-A-HALF REAGANS

Watch the trailer . . .

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/ reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post about some of the movies from last week and THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This all follows this post about guidelines to choosing good movies to watch yourself!

Wknd Box Office: And So It Goes, Lucy, Hercules, A Most Wanted Man

By Debbie Schlussel
I am not surprised that this has been the worst summer in terms of tickets sold and money made at the movies. The movies this summer have been the most underwhelming that I can remember, and this weekend is par for the course. I only really liked one new movie debuting at theaters this weekend.


* “And So It Goes“: This is the relative best of the bunch among the new releases this weekend. And it appears to be aimed primarily at older adults and senior citizens, though I think adults of any age above 25 will like it (and the story is timeless and ageless). Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton star in this senior citizen chick flick that is very funny and which even guys will like and find entertaining. It’s cute, light, and airy–the kind of escapist movie I and many others enjoy going to the movies to see.

Douglas is an egomaniacal, rude, insensitive real estate agent who owns a set of duplex apartments in which he lives along with other tenants. He has developed a love-hate relationship with one of his tenant’s, Keaton, a nightclub singer who shares too much gloomy personal information with her audience. Douglas is trying to help clean up her act (with not so subtle constructive criticism) and also attempting to get her a higher paying gig. In the midst of all this, Douglas’ estranged son is sent to prison for nine months and the young granddaughter he never knew is dropped on him to take care of. He then pawns off the granddaughter on Keaton, who develops a loving relationship with Keaton. Eventually, they all become like a family, while Douglas and Keaton develop a romance.
As I said, this is very funny. I laughed a lot. I could have done without a scene of a dog having sex with a stuff animal (it was gross in the first of a gazillion movies I’ve seen this cheap shot in–now it’s beyond rotten). But everything else was hilarious and fun to watch. The best actor or actress in this movie is Frances Sternhagen, who cracks many of the jokes and smart alecky lines perfectly, as if she were 24 instead of 84 years old. (Eighty-year-old Frankie Valli makes a cameo in this, too.) But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that this is directed by uber-lefty Rob Reiner. The movie moves along at a fast clip and, at just over 1.5 hours, it’s the perfect length, too.
Enjoyable and with a happy, if predictable, ending. (This is one of the few movies that is actually far better than its trailer.)
THREE REAGANS



* “Lucy“: I expected better from this movie, and I’m usually a fan of Luc Besson. This isn’t a horrible movie, but it’s not a great one, either. It’s not tight and well-crafted, and below what I usually expect from Besson, who directed this. The first half of the movie is good, suspenseful, and action-packed. But the second half is a mess and bored me. The thing about science fiction movies of this ilk is that you can only suspend disbelief so much. My general rule of mental suspension of disbelief is this: only one thing can defy reality. Too many things, and I just don’t believe it or find it credible or enjoyable anymore. And that’s the case here: the one thing that would cause me to experience a credible suspension of disbelief is then topped by many others that simply aren’t credible or sensical.
In this movie, Scarlett Johansson is forcibly subjected to surgery in which a Korean mobster inserts a powerful, unusual drug into her body and then forces her to become a drug courier. But the pouch containing the drug leaks into her body, and the drug causes her to become supersmart and able to use up to 100% of her brain, which the movie tells us is far more then the proverbial 10-20% of the brain that some claim that we use (that, by the way, is a myth–we all already use 100% of our brains, according to brain surgeons and other medical professionals in the know). That Johansson becomes hypersmart and superstrong is something about which I could suspend my disbeliefs.
But, then, she starts controlling the internet, computers, phone lines, people and their guns, and all matter, and she’s able to go forward into the future, backward into the past, and able to stop time. At that point the movie becomes a silly mess I wasn’t buying. And that’s the point at which the movie begins borrowing heavily from “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Transcendence” (read my review), which most other critics panned, but which I found semi-interesting and entertaining until it, too, became an all-controlling mess just like “Lucy” (and in which Morgan “Whites Are Racist” Freeman plays a similar role as in this–come on Hollywood, stop repeating yourself like a fart).
This movie is incredibly violent. But, as with most Besson movies, there is clear good and evil, and the violence is ultimately against the bad guys. Still, I just didn’t find the movie to be as good as I was expecting it to be. Moral of the story: don’t believe the hype. Johansson and this movie are getting a lot of that. But they don’t merit it here. Not so much, anyway.
The movie isn’t objectionable, but just isn’t up to snuff. At least not to my liking.
HALF A REAGAN



* “Hercules“: More like, “Not Hercules.” This silly “re-imagining” of the story about the Greek demigod really has nothing to do with anything. It’s like someone made a long, boring, silly flick so that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could be half naked for 1.5 hours and get paid, and then stuck the name “Hercules” on the movie. And it’s funny that all of the Greek kings and minions–and everybody else–in the movie have English accents, while only Johnson has an American accent, and it’s never explained why (other than that he was too lazy to try one or the movie was too stupid to try to make sense).
I note that the other “Hercules” movie, “The Legend of Hercules,” which debuted early this year was panned by critics (though not by me–read my review). This makes that version look like a masterpiece.
This long bore made the 1.5 hours seem more like 15 hours. And it’s quite violent, with men being shown burned alive, lots of beheadings and dismemberments, and so on (which I’d hate to see in 3D–I saw this in 2D, but you can shell out extra bucks for the charming thrill of seeing limbs fly in your face). Lots of fighting in this “300″-wannabe, but not much in the story department. Also, a guy sticks his finger into a month-old rotting dismembered head and then eats what he digs out. Yuck.
The “story”: Hercules is a man who may or may not be the son of a god and a mortal. He may or may not have special powers. But he’s never proven any of this. He and his band of fighters doubt it and think he’s just a mighty con artist thug who can fight, just like them. And he’s a mercenary who fights for the highest bidding kings, doing their dirty work. He’s sent out to fight legions of troops who are harassing a king and his kingdom. But soon, Hercules learns he’s been set up and must discover and prove whether or not he has the powers of a demigod to fight off the evil king.
Who cares? I certainly didn’t. I couldn’t wait for this movie to end, and that was just a minute after it started (or maybe 30 seconds). Snooze-fest extraordinaire.
ONE MARX



* “A Most Wanted Man“: The only thing you need to know about this long, boring, waste-of-time movie is that it’s based on a John Le Carre novel. As I’ve noted before on this site, the far left Le Carre a/k/a David Cornwell hates Israel and Jews and loves Muslims and Arabs, whom he sees as innocent victims of the West. Oh, and he also hates America and loves Communists to the point that he proudly declared how he nearly became a double agent for the Soviets while a member of British intelligence. Almost all of those sentiments are sharply on display here in this incredibly unthrilling “thriller.”
In his last movie, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman looks every day of his 66 years, except for the fact that he died at 46. His role in this movie shows us yet again, why he was no loss to acting or movies. It’s a mess, and so is he.
The story: a Chechen Muslim comes illegally immigrates to Germany, and a German intelligence group run by Hoffman (with a really bad German accent that he uses only about 60% of the time) is trying to use him to unwittingly frame another Muslim who is the father of another Muslim who is an informant to Hoffman. Got that? Yeah, it’s confusing, and really kinda stupid when you get to the conclusion of the movie in which nothing really happens (other than evil Americans messing everything up). On top of that, Rachel McAdams plays a German lawyer for illegal aliens who is trying to protect the Chechen Muslim and coaches him on what to say so he can get asylum (sound familiar? Texas border, anyone?). McAdams, by the way, went to the same Crappy German Accent University at which Hoffman matriculated. She is then forced by Hoffman into getting the Chechen Muslim to unwittingly frame the father of the other guy, the Muslim informant.
Throughout this, an evil American female CIA agent (Sean “Spicoli” Penn’s former wife, Robin Wright) is hovering over Hoffman, annoying him and threatening to mess up his operation with the American “exuberance” to actually catch and lock up Islamic terrorists. But, of course, the “evil,” “bigoted,” “headstrong,” “anti-Muslim” Americans don’t get that this Chechen Muslim is not a terrorist, but just a peaceful, good, innocent guy who is legitimately escaping torture he experienced at the hands of non-Muslims. I mean, isn’t that the case with all Muslim illegal aliens and immigrants to America?
Yeah, that’s the ticket. . . in John Le Carre’s warped mind. Which this movie reflects.
Alhamdulilah [praise allah] and Hollywood. And Mr. Al-Carre.
FOUR MARXES PLUS FOUR BIN LADENS PLUS FOUR OBAMAS

Wknd Box Office: Safe House, The Vow, W.E., Journey 2: Mysterious Island

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/  reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post some of the movies from last week and  THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed!  This all  follows this post about guidelines to chosing good movies to watch yourself!




Wknd Box Office: Safe House, The Vow, W.E., Journey 2: Mysterious Island

By Debbie Schlussel



Incredible but true, I actually didn’t hate any of the new movies in theaters, today. But, two of them, I really liked.















* “Safe House“: To my surprise, I really liked this (though I do really like Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds as actors). When, at the beginning of this movie, they describe rogue CIA operative Denzel Washington as first going off the reservation when he was believed to have leaked information to the Mossad, I wondered if this will be your typical Hollywood leftist anti-Israel fest. I wondered the same again when quick flashes of documents on a giant CIA projection screen show emblems of the Mossad and the Government of Israel. But, thankfully, it turned out not to be. In fact,without giving away movie spoilers, Washington’s dealings with Israeli intelligence turn out to be the thing that saves the day, in the end. While it’s vague positive stuff on Israel, from Hollywood that’s a big deal, since it’s usually the same old anti-Israel crap.



Even better is that the main bad guy you constantly see chasing after Washington–and who finally gets his–is very obviously, visibly an Arab. I was shocked that PC Hollywood would do this. Sure, in the credits, the guy is listed as “Vargas,” but he’s played by a Lebanese actor named Fares Fares. I smiled as the old Jewish couple behind me clapped and loudly cheered both times this guy gets shot. Glad to see that not all of my fellow co-religionists have turned left and Islamopologist. (Who was that Jewish couple? If you’re reading this, e-mail me!)




Washington is Tobin Frost, the CIA’s most legendary and skilled agent. He’s been off the grid and a rogue agent wanted by the CIA for the past ten years. He just bought a computer file of some sort from a former colleague and friend who is former MI6. And suddenly a group of Arab-looking and other men with machine guns are chasing and trying to kill him. He’s in South Africa and, when he sees no way out from their pursuit, he sees the U.S. Embassy and turns himself in to save his life.



Ryan Reynolds is a rookie CIA agent who is a “housekeeper.” He spends all day maintaining a CIA safe house in South Africa, but after nearly a year of this and lying to his girlfriend about what he does for a living, he’s bored to tears waiting for a “guest” to be interrogated and yearning for action in the field. That day comes when a CIA interrogation team brings Washington/Frost to the safe house and all hell breaks loose. There’s a mole in the system, and everyone’s getting killed.



I could have done without the waterboarding scene and references to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being waterboarded, as if that’s supposed to make me think this is torture or feel bad for the mastermind of the 9/11 mass murder of 3,000 Americans. But other than that, I enjoyed the thrilling, non-stop action and suspense throughout. It’s my kinda movie–intrigue, guns, shooting, explosions, car chases, etc. Definitely NOT a chick flick.



The ending is sort of predictable, but you’ll like the movie anyway. It’s very violent and bloody and not for kids. But it’s one of the “good guys win” movies of which we’re in short supply these days. And, like I said, Israel is the good guy, even if it’s by vague reference. Given the state of Hollywood these days, I’ll take it and laugh as HAMAS CAIR and the other Muslim grievance theater actors whine.



THREE REAGANS





* “The Vow“:  Finally, Hollywood makes a movie in which the guy/husband is a mensch–the kind of guy all American men should be (even if he is sort of a hipster).  While I did feel that this movie was kind of manipulative, I still recommend it enthusiastically.  It’s a great date movie and the kind of chick flick which guys will find very bearable.  I really liked this, despite a few instances of unnecessary melodrama and a vague, sub-rosa element of class warfare.  If you liked Channing Tatum in “Dear John” (read my review), then you will definitely like this.  He plays a similar type of “classy guy” romantic lead role.



Based on a true story, the very hot Channing Tatum plays a Chicago husband whose sculptor/artist wife (Rachel McAdams) suffers a concussion in a car accident. When she wakes up from a coma, she cannot remember him and has regressed back to the time when she was still in law school, living with her wealthy family in Lake Forest, and was engaged to a previous boyfriend (Scott Speedman). As she is challenged to recover her memory, Tatum must win her back all over again, since she not only can’t remember him, but doesn’t feel attracted to him.



The couple is a hipster/artsy couple living in downtown Chicago, but McAdams character came from a very preppy, wealthy suburban family. There is a subrosa class warfare thing going on in which the parents are “evil, wealthy” parents, while McAdams’ character was living without health insurance and voted for Obama. I didn’t need that part.



But, otherwise, it’s really romantic–though not in your typical saccharine or unrealistic Hollywood kind of way. And I found it enjoyable and entertaining. The husband in the movie is really very heroic and puts up with a lot, whereas the female is kind of bitchy. You almost never see this dynamic in the movies, even though that’s the way it is, many times, in real life.



THREE REAGANS



* “W.E.“: I didn’t hate this Madonna-directed (and co-written) vehicle like most of the mainstream liberal movie critics. While it is a bit disjointed and the camera moves way too much in the first third or so of the movie, I liked the dynamic of the modern story connected with the older story of the romance between Wallace Simpson and King Edward, who everyone knows gave up the throne to marry her, a commoner divorcee. And that’s even though I believe the Wallace Simpson/King Edward story has been done to death and isn’t all that important or fascinating. But, guys, you will not like this. So stay home or see “Safe House,” instead. This is a disjointed chick flick.



I could have done without some of the melodrama in the relationship between Wally Winthrop (Abby Cornish)–the modern-day admirer of Wallace Simpson, who daily visits the Sotheby’s exhibition of Simpson’s jewelry and belongings about to go up for auction–and her psychiatrist husband. And I could have done without the absurd seen of Wallace Simpson and the Duke of Windsor dancing to “Sex Pistols” music with modern-day Black model Alex Wek in the late ’30s/early ’40s or Wallace Simpson with bad “old-people” make-up in 1972, dancing to “The Twist.” Plot devices like that are just silly. And I didn’t like that Madonna gave a free pass to Simpson and King Edward on their support for Hitler and the Nazis.



But I liked the story of Wally, the modern day woman who imagines what it must have been like back then. I guess you could call it an “Antiques Roadshow” romance. I like to read letters back and forth between American soldiers fighting in World War II and their loved ones, so I can identify with someone reading Simpson’s letters and looking at her belongings, imagining what it might have been like. (But this woman’s occupation with Simpson goes much further. It’s an obsession–check out how much she pays for her winning bid on Wallace Simpson’s leather gloves.) I also liked rising star Oscar Isaac, who plays the most likeable character in the movie, a security guard at Sotheby’s. He’s probably the best actor in the movie and does a convincing Russian accent most of the time.



As I noted, the movie intertwines two stories: the story of how Wallace Simpson and Edward meet and eventually marry, he gives up the throne, and they forced to leave England and live a boring in France. Wally Winthrop, a modern woman whose mother and grandmother were obsessed with Wallace Simpson named her for the woman. She becomes fascinated with Wallace Simpson, as well, visiting the Sotheby’s exhibit daily, in order to escape her loveless marriage to an abusive, absentee husband. At the exhibit, she meets a Russian immigrant security guard, Evgeni (the handsome Oscar Isaac), who is attracted to her and keeps an eye on her. Will she eventually give Evgeni the time of day? That’s the story I found more interesting that the Wallace Simpson one.



Sadly, the acting isn’t all that great. Abby Cornish is cold and like a dead fish, as is James D’Arcy, the actor who plays the Duke of Windsor. It’s not a “great” movie, but it’s not bad and it’s entertaining enough. Plus, it’s a high-styled movie, with the most detail and attention having gone to exquisite period wardrobe, jewelry, and decor. Women will love that. But as I said, straight guys, this ain’t for you.



TWO REAGANS




* “Journey 2: Mysterious Island“:  This is fine for families and taking your kids to see.  It’s sort of a sequel to 2008′s  “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (read my review), but you don’t have to see that one to get this one.  They are completely different.  This is far inferior to the 1951 and 1961 version of  “Mysterious Island.”  But, like I said, it’s fine to take your kids to.  It’s wholesome, and it features good grandfather/son dynamics and father/stepfather dynamics.  I must note, though, that I hate Luis Guzman, whose inanity ruins every movie he’s in.  Also, I definitely could have done without Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s “pec pop of love” schtick in which he flexes his chest muscles.  Please make it stop.



Josh Hutcherson plays a teen boy who is always getting into trouble and is saved by his stepfather (The Rock/Johnson) from his latest stunt, crashing a motorcycle into a neighbor’s swimming pool. But Hutcherson, who dislikes his stepfather, really just wants to decode a message he believes was transmitted via satellite from his absentee grandfather (Michael Caine), who is an explorer believed to have discovered Jules Verne’s “Mysterious Island.” His stepfather helps him decode the message, and soon they are on a bonding trip to the other side of the world to try to find the island and his grandfather.



If you’ve seen the far superior previous versions of “Mysterious Island” mentioned above, you know the drill: giant animals and creatures, amazing, lush landscape, and a quest to get off the island before they are doomed. Captain nemo’s notebook and submarine/ship, the lost city of Atlantis. All that stuff is in this version, too. But this one seems too hurried and dumbed down for kids, even though I believe kids would really enjoy the original and other previous versions.



Nothing objectionable about this and entertaining enough for kids and families.



ONE-AND-A-HALF REAGANS

Wknd Box Office: Super 8, Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/  reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post some of the movies from last week and  THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed!  This all  follows this post about guidelines to chosing good movies to watch yourself!

Wknd Box Office: Super 8, Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris


By Debbie Schlussel



I did not see “Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer.” Here are my reviews of the new movies which I did see and which debut today at theaters:











* “Super 8“: I absolutely loved the first half of this movie (and the kid actors in this, which is why I’m giving it a good rating). It’s the second half–in which the U.S. Air Force are the evil bad guys who round up the population of a small town into a movie version of Gitmo–that was a mess and ridiculous. I’ve grown tired of alien thrillers that suddenly turn into “America’s military is evil, oppresses extraterrestrial aliens, and causes them to hate us and attack and kill us.” It was bad enough when they made this crap before 9/11. But when they made it afterward–as symbolism and allegory of how we are supposedly to blame for Islamic terrorists hating us–it got absurd. Come on, Hollywood, come up with a movie where it’s actually the aliens’ fault, not ours.



Several young boys in small town America are shooting a movie with a Super8 video camera. It’s 1979, and the lead character is one of those boys, Joe Lamb, played by Joel Courtney. His mother died, and his father–who is a deputy sheriff, wants him to give up his amateur movie hobby with his friends and go away to a summer camp for boys. One night, the boy and his friends sneak out to the train station to film their movie, when they see a horrific train crash after their teacher has driven onto the tracks, head-on into the train. It’s a spectacular scene, and probably the best use of special effects in the movie. The camera is still rolling, while the crash happens. They see their teacher, still alive in what remains of his truck, and he warns them to leave quickly and not to talk about what they saw.



Soon, airmen from the Air Force are on the scene, and the kids escape. The airmen are trying to find out who was at the train station and witnessed the crash. In the meantime, weird things are happening throughout the town. Dogs and people go missing. Buildings and cars are destroyed. Washing machines and other appliances are flying around in the air. And the Air Force sets fire to the land around the town, so it can evacuate the people and round them up onto a military base. Also in the meantime, Joe develops feelings for Alice (played by the beautiful and far more talented Fanning sister actress, Elle Fanning), the boys’ friend and fellow actress in their Super 8 movie.



I’ve already given away enough, so I can’t say more about the plot.



What I liked about this movie: the ’70s feel and the great acting by first-time actors who are just young kids, including the lead, Courtney, who was 14 at the time he filmed this. It was a more idyllic time, when kids were more innocent and didn’t act and dress like sluts and gangstas. The camaraderie of the young boys in the movie (and their female friend, the lovely Elle Fanning) is great and fun to watch. The kids are cute, and their interaction in this movie is reminiscent of the great boy buddy movies of the ’70s and ’80s, like “Stand By Me.” The late ’70s setting, morals, dialogue, costumes, and technology props made me feel like I was watching a movie made when I was a kid and with nearly the same morals and character.



What I didn’t like: this movie is aimed at kids and features kids in the lead roles, and yet the kids utter four-letter words. Was this really necessary in a movie kids are going to see in droves? No, it’s gratuitous. The movie would have been just as good without it, just as most of those kid movies from the ’70s and ’80s were. I also didn’t like the alien, which looks silly and unbelievable, kind of like the story.



And, per usual, the movie features your typical Hollywood race politics. To use Black cultural critic David Ehrenstein’s term, this movie features the “magic Black friend”–in the form of the kids’ righteous professor/teacher, Dr. Woodward, who warns them about the evil Air Force men (including the stark White evil commanding officer) and who resists the Air Force’s attempts to get him to talk about the whereabouts of the alien. He just so happens to be the only Black guy in town (until two Black guys are strategically juxtaposed as minions to the evil Air Force commander). The magic Black teacher is the one who tells the U.S. Air Force–in vain–that they should help the alien build his spaceship and leave. But, instead, we are evil and force the alien to stay and undergo experiments. Where’s PETA–People for the Ethical Treatment of Aliens–when you need ‘em?



Still, I so much enjoyed the first half of the movie, as well as these cute and charming kids that lead the story, I’m still giving it a positive rating. You will enjoy it, but for the silly ending, and it’s fine to take your kids to it, provided you promise to wash their mouths with soap if they copy the four-letter words in the dialogue. And you can do as my late father used to always do with me at these movies: tell your kids to ignore Hollywood’s anti-American, anti-military message, and tell them, in real life, it’s the aliens’–and the terrorists’–fault. We did nothing to deserve this, unlike what writer/director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg tell you.



TWO REAGANS



* “Tree of Life“: This is THE most pretentious movie I’ve ever seen. Also the most boring and absurd. I struggled to stay awake. How could 138 minutes seem like 138 days? So frickin’ loooooong. The best part was when the credits began rolling. Couldn’t wait for this waste of time, hodgepodge of nothingness, artsy fartsy BS to end.



There is very little dialogue in this movie, and it goes in and out from scenes of people saying things in partial mish-mosh scenes to scenes of what seem like shoplifted National Geographic films just slopped on in the middle at several points. The National Geographic Channel called, and they want their films of dinosaurs, rivers, planets, animals being born, sunflowers, and oceans back.



When a completely unrelated series of scenes of wildlife and nature were slapped in the middle of the movie along with computer generated dinosaurs, I laughed out loud. But I was the only one. Everyone else was eating up this crap as if the emperor with no clothing actually had something on. He didn’t. I passed a note to a fellow movie critic, on which I’d written “WTF?!” It’s kind of my view of this movie. Pretentious drivel starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn clumsily edited and sewn together with an unrelated wildlife film from a boring museum. Oh, and it’s anti-Christian.



The “story”–if you can call it that: a mother in the late ’50s or early ’60s learns that one of her sons has died and she cries, with her husband (Brad Pitt) warding off sympathetic neighbors. Then, we see a scene of another son, now grown and in contemporary times, walking around his fancy modern home, then walking around his fancy modern office building, and then sitting in the office–sulking in each setting. Then, we go back to Brad Pitt’s younger family walking around their house and going outside, playing the yard. Then scenes of planets, nature, sunflowers, computer-generated dinosaurs, then scenes of the grown Sean Penn in his business suit on a beach, walking like a zombie and seeing his young mother also walking. Oh, he also walks in his suit in a desert.



From the few disjointed, slapped-together scenes in which there is any dialogue, the story is that Brad Pitt is a mean, overbearing, abusive, religious Christian father (is there any other kind of religious Christian father in Hollywood’s eyes)? His young kids hate him and seek refuge with their naive, soft mother. The father is a repeated failure who loses his job and patents he invented but can’t get approved in patent court. Life is tough. One of their sons dies–presumably in Vietnam, but it doesn’t say–and one grows up to be a confused, messed up Sean Penn. The end, plus a lot of nature films mixed in.



A five-year-old on speed could have made a better movie (with apologies to five-year-olds and speed addicts). “Tree of Life?” More like, waste of life.



FOUR MARXES PLUS THREE SLEEPING PILLS PLUS THREE LADY GAGAS (for pretentious BS)



* “Midnight in Paris“: This is a Woody Allen movie. And, if he’d stayed away from the several lines of dialogue, gratuitously knocking conservatives, Republicans, and Tea Partiers, I would have no reservations about it. But he put those in for a reason. They were unnecessary and added nothing to the movie, other than to please the many liberals who flock to fund Woody Allen’s investment and pension fund by seeing his movies. Still, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that part of this movie are very, very funny and entertaining . . . like when pretentious, left-wing, artsy-fartsy, intellectuals are mocked–though without identifying their ideology or political party.



Owen Wilson plays a Hollywood screenwriter who is on vacation in Paris with his materialistic wife, Rachel McAdams. They are tagging along with her gauche, materialistic parents who chose to take the vacation. Wilson is working on a book about a man who works in a nostalgia shop (think “Brady Bunch” lunchboxes), but he won’t show it to anyone. He longs for a life of art and writing, away from materialistic Hollywood. His wife doesn’t. They run into her married former college friend. He’s the pretentious artsy lefty. One night, at midnight, Wilson is sitting on a Paris street, when suddenly he is invited into an old fashioned car and transported to a bar in the early part of the 20th Century. He meets all the famous authors and artists of the time: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Salvador Dali, etc.



The next day, back in contemporary times and the real world, Wilson realizes that he longs for another time, that he wished he lived in that era. But when he goes back, a woman with whom he’s fallen in love says that she longed to live in an earlier era. The issue is raised, regarding whether people who collect nostalgia or long to live in another time feel this way because they refuse to face their problems of the present time.



While Wilson is away every night back in the 1920s and ’30s, getting advice on his book, and dreaming of bedding the woman he’s fallen for there, his wife and her parents are getting suspicious that he’s cheating on her.



There was a lot of buzz about Carla Bruni, wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, having a role in this movie. But her role, as a tour guide, is paltry, and she still can’t act. Big whoop. Don’t believe the hype.



Can’t give away the whole movie because, without the pointed, brief, anti-conservative attacks, it was actually entertaining and elicits a few good laughs. It’s typical of the better Woody Allen stuff, but not his best.



ONE HALF REAGAN