The Men Who Stare at Goats

imdb link  Photos

Plot: The Men Who Stare at Goats is about soldiers who were trained in extra-sensory perception ESP as a battle or intelligence weapon. Vietnam War-era soldiers were trained in "paranormal" combat, and had some success. Now in the 2000's, they are called back together for the war in Iraq.  Journalist Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) stumbles on the story, and he narrates the film. The movie is an absurd comedy where it is not clear how real the ESP is, or whether the soldiers are insane or geniuses. 

Review: This was an entertaining movie with a comedic, farcical premise. Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) is the main character with the strongest gift. Bob Django (Jeff Bridges) is the hippie founder of the New Earth Battalion, and they adopt old-time hippie practices to tune their abilities.

There are a lot of jokes and absurdities in the film, and I don't think it is trying to make any serious points about the military or the paranormal.

I liked the movie on the level of entertainment, and I think most people would enjoy it.

A decent performance by George Clooney. A nice likeable nuanced performance by Ewan McGregor. I thought Jeff Bridges was annoying, and I thought Kevin Spacy should have been in the movie more.

Cast: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacy

Crew: directed by Grant Heslov; written by Peter Staughan; based on the book by Jon Ronson

Rating: 2.5 flasks


More: Were there any women in this movie?

Even More:  I liked the way the goat fell over when it died. Clunk.

This is It

imdb link  Photos

Plot: This was a making-of video for Michael Jackson's London concert series that he was preparing when he died. It contains all the major songs from the show and backstage development of the show.

Review: This was a lively movie with singing and dancing. The first part of the film was great with powerful dancing and old songs that I forgot that i liked. It showed a dynamic Michael Jackson singing, working and practicing.

The latter part of the movie got repetitive, as the film became predictable. I think the best stuff was at the begining.

The movie is more substantive because it was Michael from beyond the grave. Michael's concert was going to push for action on climate change and environmentalism generally. It was a little corny to hear him preach about that although as you may know from my recent post, I find global warming beyond refute.

Cast: Michael Jackson

Crew: directed by Kenny Ortega

Rating: 3.0 flasks
 Early in the film, it was headed for 4.0, because it was fun and deep, but it kept going and lost a flask.

More: Surprisingly good; recommended. The actual live show would have been something.

.

W

imdb link  Photos

Plot: W is a biography of President George W. Bush with his personal triumphs and personal issues. 

Review: W is uneven. The beginning of the movie gives us some insight in the W's personality, and it is interesting as it shows his life in Texas. The political scenes early in the movie are the highlight with all of the fictionalized political figures. Once the Iraq Wars starts the movie becomes a bore, and eventually the movie fizzles to its 129 minute conclusion. 

Even though President Bush has only been out of office for one year, the film is dated already. The political shots in this movie already seem hollow and transparent rather than biting and insightful.

One constant in this movie is the clever and evocative acting from Josh Brolin -- should have had an Oscar nomination.

Stone's directing is still tops, and the film is well made and well photographed.

Cast: Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, Elizabeth Banks

Directed by: Oliver Stone

Rating: 2.0 flasks


Rating: The scene with the war council wondering without direction around Bush's ranch was a highlight --an example of the clever direction. 

.

A Serious Man

imdb link  Photos

Plot:  The movie opens with an introductory ghost story set in Poland that portends ill events. In the main film, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg)  is a physics professor whose wife Sarah (Judith McManus) wants to divorce him, his son is doing drugs, and who seems to have multitudinous problems all at once. Periodically he visits his Rabbis for advice, and they are not very helpful. The movie ends very abruptly without resolving most plot lines. 

Review: This is a black comedy, which means it has farcical almost sitcom situations, and the characters are exaggerated, but there are not real jokes. In this type of movie the strangeness of the characters means that the emotions of the characters is disconnected, and that happens here. Still I laughed a number of times.

Larry Gopnik is a serious man because he is trying to do the right thing as he learned in Jewish school and as his parents and Rabbi's taught him. Nonetheless, bad things just keep happening, perhaps because his parents or grandparents  got jinxed by a ghost back in Poland.

The best part of this movie is that it is trying to grapple with big issues like the meaning of life. It does that without any preachy sermons, and I don't think that it leads one to any conclusions except to go on living as best you can.

A Serious Man is a very Jewish movie, and people with a Jewish background would probably identify more.

The movie has a non-ending, where his son has a Bar Mitvah, and the film maker hints bad things start happening to him. Larry's plot lines are left in the air for the audience to guess at. In a real black comedy, there is a happy ending. This movie has a Zen-like non-ending perhaps reflecting the hopelessness of the modern experience.

Cast: Michael Stulhbarg, Judith Barg

Written and directed by:  Ethan and Joel Coen

Rating: 2.5 flasks; worthy of two stars, but and extra half because of its serious topics


More: There was a story about a dentist who found a message from God engraved on one of his patients teeth -- written in Hebrew on the back of his front teeth.  This is a memorable story because we wonder what it means, and because Rabbi Nachtner (George Wyner) tells the story well. The story shows something about how religion talks about God, but does not give specific answers to our problems. Wife Jenny liked it too.

.

Capitalism: A Love Story

imdb link  Photos

Plot: Film-maker and activist Michael Moore raps on wealth, poverty,democracy, plutocracy and the Great Recession, punctuated with a few stunts.  The film has a number of loosely connected segments. 


Review:This movie was entirely too one-sided. I am a fairly moderate person, but this movie had a lot of old-style union rhetoric that left me behind. Michael has lost his populism, and become a preacher for work-place reform.

The best segments are the introduction to capitalism at about ten minutes in, and the interviews with the Socialist Catholic Priests. The worst part is the overly partisan, and biased treatment of complicated subjects. The endless scenes of Michael being blocked by building guards at banks are just boring. How many times do we need to see this?

Cast and Crew: starring, written and directed by Michael Moore

Rating: 1.5 flasks


More: First, this is not "A Love Story," The movie's sub-title had no part in this film. There is no pretense of a love story. If it is sarcasm, then it is pretty weak.

Even More: Second, why can't journalists understand derivatives? They are not that hard. Why is it so common to roll your eyes and pretend the audience is too stupid to understand them.

Yet More: The worst Michael Moore movie of all. Worse than Sicko.

.

The Invention of Lying

imdb link  Photos

Plot: Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) lives in a world just like our own, but no one lies there. Everyone is completely honest all the time. The first half of the movie shows Mark's sad life a struggling loser, and how he is insulted by his completely honest coworkers, his Mom, and Anna (Jennifer Garner), his date. His Mom get's sick, and he makes up a story about an afterlife to help comfort his Mom on her deathbed. The second half of the movie is very different -- it becomes a satire about religion. Mark becomes an international authority on the afterlife, and people hound him to learn more. Mark learns to lie to help his friends and perhaps to win the affection of Anna. 

Review: The first half of the movie is pretty funny. I loved the trip to the old folks home, the witty dialog between Mark (Ricky) and his secretary Shelly (Tina Fey,) the waiter at the restaurant, and the surprising frankness of Anna on their first date.

I was surprised how serious the second half of the movie was. It was easy to see when he spins his story of an afterlife for his Mom, that Ricky Gervais was taking a grand swipe at religion generally and Christianity specifically. Later, the film makes points about how an afterlife affects morality and motivation.

The Invention of Lying's strong criticism of religion may offend some people. Others may find it a springboard to conversation. Still others may enjoy the movie on its surface level, and miss the sarcasm.

The weakness of the movie is that there are almost no complex characters except Mark (Ricky). Everyone else is simply playing out the compete honesty premise. It is significant that Anna rejects something that Mark says in the last scene and she ignores him -- which shows some progress toward critical thinking.

Cast: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner

Written and directed: by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson

Rating: 3.5 flasks; Enjoyable and funny with serious issues. This is what movies should strive to do.


More: Funny and serious.

.

Surrogates

imdb link  Photos

Plot:  In a futuristic utopia, robots do all the work, and the people stay at home in their pajamas operating them. Just like "Second Life", all the robots are cooler and way more attractive then their real life masters. Not everyone likes the robot society and someone figures out how to kill the operator by shooting a fancy gun at the robot. FBI Agent Tom Green (Bruce Willis) and Agent Peters (Radha Mitchell) are FBI agents trying to track down the killers. The investigation quickly leads this leads to evil corporation VSI and its founder Dr. Canter (James Cromwell.)

Review: This movie is a murder mystery told with a Sci-Fi storyline. The science-fiction detail is pretty deep, but all the premises are in the first few minutes, and the geeky technology is not needed until the climax, which I won't give away. The premise is original, and the story flows naturally, with a few twists as we get closer to the identity of the bad guys.

Their are some really good chase scenes in the movie. The robots jump more realistically than in similar movies, and look less like CGI.

The acting of Bruce Willis and James Cromwell is excellent. I would like to have seen Tom Green and his wife interact in the real world.

The movie has a lot to say on a satirical level, For example,  people only interact on-line, and this is an extreme form of people who spend all their evenings online especially in Second Life or in World of Warcraft.

In the movie, people put forward a different public face from their real selves that they keep hidden -- rather like people do psychologically. After her son dies, Maggie Greer, Tom's wife, (Rosamund Pike) never comes out of the synthetic world, despite Tom asking her to come.

Finally, the movie takes on the notion that the whole world is just an illusion like The Matrix, but also like some Eastern philosophy. In the surrogate world, people get reincarnated all the time.

Cast: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Ving Rhames, and James Cromwell

Crew: directed by Jonathan Mostow based on the graphic novel.

Rating: 3.0 flasks (just barely)


More: The action scenes are dramatic and bold, but the producers did not spend as much money on the robot costumes. The robots in Terminator or Star Wars are far  more detailed; these seemed too simple and plastic.

Even more: The cover for the Surrogates, the graphic novel:

.