Milk

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Plot: Milk is the story of Harvey Milk, from when he opened a store in the Castro district of San Francisco to his election and then the end of his life. It is a saga of the gay movement.

Review: Sean Penn's Harvey Milk is an outstanding performance, and no one can minimize it. The film is a stale & predictable docu-drama about the early gay movement.  The issues in this movie were so important at the time, but today it all seems old and rehashed. The film could have used stronger supporting characters, and some better dialog. Penn is great though. 

Cast and crew:
Sean Penn; directed by Gus Van Sant

Rating: 2.0 flasks


More: Why so much opera music?

Even more: The country certainly has changed in the last thirty years. 
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Watchmen

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Plot: Watchmen has a lengthy story involving the killing of a superhero, The Comedian, and the search to find his killer by another superhero, Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). His superhero friends, Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) are also afraid of being killed. There is a second plot involving the prevention of nuclear war by Dr. Manhattan, who is powerful enough to win wars for the United States, and the fight for lasting peace championed by Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode.)

Review: Watchmen is a thoughtful movie that has themes about the depressing nature of life, and the main villian is actually doing evil so that good may come. Rorschach similarly has a harsh evil side. This adult pairing of good and evil is the most attractive element of the story. I thought the plot was well-written and easy enough to follow. The use of Nixon, Kissinger and Lee Iacoca in the story was pretty humorous.

The characters were well-drawn, and fairly well-motivated for superheros. As in many superhero movies, the back stories are the most interesting. The acting was not especially good, or perhaps the direction did not stress emotive performances. For example, the discussion on Mars that leaves Silk Spectre crying was flat. Dr. Manhattan was particularly wooden -- I suppose he was supposed to be, but I think motion-capture is inherently wooden.

Cast and crew:Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson;
directed by Zack Snyder, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Rating
3.0


More: How many times was Dr. Manhattan's penis shown?

The International

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Plot: The International is a thriller about an evil bank empire that secretly trades arms and finances war around the world. Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) is an interpol agent working with New York district attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) to investigate international arms trading. The bank tries to obstruct the investigation by killing witnesses and investigators. (These are very blood-thirsty bankers.) 

Review: Both Louis Salinger and Eleanor Whitman are likeable characters, and the movie's complicated story keeps the action moving. I liked having a bank as the villian, although the bank is really a cartoon version of an evil bank, and it has little to do with finance. In this economy, I like the idea of an evil bank though.  The complicated plot was not too complicated for me. 

The movie had smart dialog (by Eric Singer) and some quotable lines. The movie was basically a genre picture with a message a bit like Jack Bower in 24 saying it is OK to be a vigilante and who shoots unarmed bad guys. 

There was a shootout at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and I don't know how they made that. Pretty cool. 

Cast and crew:
Owen Wilson, Naomi Watts; directed by Tom Tykwer
Rating
2.5 flasks- almost 3
1/2

More
"This is the essence of banking, to make us slaves of debt."

"If you control the debt, you control everything."

Howl's Moving Castle (2004) Hauru no ugoku shiro

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Plot: A witch curses a girl and makes her an old woman. She hooks up with a strange young magician who owns a magical moving house.

Review: This is a whimsical fantasy that I really enjoyed. The images are charming and the story keeps you involved. The plot is creative.

Cast and crew: directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Rating: 3.5 flasks
1/2

More:
Highly recommended

The Reader

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Plot: The Reader A 15-year old, Michael, (David Kross) in 1950's Germany has an affair with a female former Nazi Prison guard, Hanna, (Kate Winslet). In payment for the sex, the "kid" reads for the woman. Later we find out that she had Jewish prisoners read for her as well. At the end of the movie, the now-adult Michael (Ralph Fiennes) sends audio books to Hanna in prison.

Review:  This is a substantial drama, and the character of Hanna is well-drawn. The movie unfolds slowly and the plot twist with the war crimes trial picks the story up a bit. I did not think the law school scenes were worthwhile, and why was Michael's daughter in the movie at all? The post-climax bit with the survivor daughter would have been interesting if this were a true story, but is too trite and preachy for a fictional ending. Kate Winslet's performance was great, and watching her was the best part of the movie. Ralph Fiennes was solid.

Cast and crew: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fienes, David Kross; directed by Stephan Daldry
Rating:   3.0 flasks


More:  Out classed by Doubt, Slumdog and Frost/Nixon, not to mention Wall*E; about as good as Benjamin Button. Winslet is great, but Meryl still rules.

Even More:  In the unlikely event a movie is made of my life, I want Ralph Fiennes to play me, and that is not because he plays Voldemort.

The Wrestler

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Plot The Wrestler is a dramatic tragedy about an aging pro wrestler who is alienated from his daughter and whose only friend is an aging stripper. Randy "The Ram" (Mickey Rourke) is a tragic figure who was a popular entertainer when he was young, but now is old and washed up. He has no close friends or family, and when he gets heart disease, it all seems bleak. He decides to wrestle one more big match even though he is really too sick.

Review: The Wrestler is a lonely, tragic American. The movie plays on the duplicity between the entertainer as a role model/hero and as a real person with real problems. Both Randy and Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) the stripper had entertainment personalities and real life problems. We are sympathetic with Randy the Ram, and I kept waiting for the introductions to end, and the real movie to start. There was little delivery for all the set-up. It is not that entertaining watching someone being lonely.

Cast and crew:
Micky Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood; directed by Darren Aronofsky




Rating
2.5
1/2

More
Mickey Rourke gives a very good performance, but movie is not as good as that.

Coraline

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Plot Coraline 3D is the story of a girl who moves into a new house, that happens to be the doorway to a parallel world. At night she journeys to a parallel house with a parallel "Other Mother" and "Other Father" who are better and nicer than the real ones. She likes it there at first, but slowly she realizes that the "Other" world is an evil trap, and the movie becomes a horror movie where she must rescue other children and save her parents.

Review: The beginning of the movie is dark and creepy. All the characters are unlikeable and the scenes were dreary. This is the main reason that I dislike the film. It is not until her second trip to the "Other" world that the movie gets better. The plot turns more into a traditional horror movie, and the creepy cat becomes the first friendly character. The 3D animation is serviceable, but not outstanding. The dancing mice were fun. The dreary art direction is the biggest limitation. It is a derivative of the Nightmare Before Christmas and the Corpse Bride -- we have seen all this before -- though not in 3D.

Miss Forcible, the treacle-sweet, but soon grotesque and topless claymation lady, is disturbing and original. She embodied the different, better, creepy feeling of the "Other" world.

Rating: 2.0

More
Teenage girls wrestle in their heads with good and evil versions of their mothers. Coraline plays that out literally.