Sherlock Holmes

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Plot: Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) and Dr. Watson (Jude Law) chase and defeat a satanist, Lord Blackwell (Mark Strong), who is bent on taking over the British Empire and then the world. The movie's Sherlock is an action hero in addition to being a super-detective.  

Review: Sherlock Holmes is a fast-moving, chaotic movie that lacks strong characters and a strong story. We never learn what makes any of the characters tick especially the lady villian Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams). What did she and Holmes have going on? There is no chemistry between the main characters, especially between Holmes and Watson. There was not enough of Downey's great facial acting.

Holmes trademark is in-depth observations that show how he knew seemingly unexplainable things, and he did that in this movie. I found these explanations arbitrary and dumb -- like a Star Trek character explaining how warp drive works. This made Holmes even less human.

On the bright side the art direction is superb. It was interesting to see a re-imagining of the Holmes story. This was  far more fast paced than the BBC TV series.

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams

Crew: directed by Guy Ritchie; based on the classic books by Arthur Conan Doyle

Rating: 2.0 flasks


More: The fact that this Holmes could fight as well as think made him more like Batman, and even less human.

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Up in the Air

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Plot: This is a tragic satire about Ryan who lives his life avoiding commitment, avoiding empathy, and avoiding personal relationships. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) spends 325 days a year flying around the country and the world, and is only comfortable when he is away from home. He gives inspirational talks about being unattached to possessions and people. His job is firing people. In the movie, he teaches young Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) his job, and he meets Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) who is seemingly as unattached and afraid of commitment as he is. 

Review: This movie is a high concept satire of modern living. It shows people superficially connected, but actually very alone. Because it is so high concept, the characters in the movie don't really make sense as people. There is no 35-40 year old woman with Alex Goran's life situation at all -- period. The Alex of the beginning of the movie giving the sad advice to Natalie is not the same Alex as we meet at the end of the movie.

Ryan goes to his niece's wedding, and seems to have a meaningful experience, but then what?

The film gets points for ambition. The greatest image is Ryan (Clooney) alone in the hotel window at high. The film is really saying that people need the people they carry in their"back packs," to make life meaningful even though Ryan doesn't get it. I called Ryan soul-less; my wife asked me what I meant by that. This movie is an exploration of soul-lessness.

Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick

Crew: directed and co-written by Jason Reitman based on the novel by Walter Kim

Rating: 2.5 flasks


More: I have often said that no one makes a movie or book about what it is really like in the business world, and this is not it, but it does come close to addressing some of the issues of traveling a lot. Kim's novel is a lot more like the real business world. I might read it. 

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Best Movies of 2009

1. The Hurt Locker - 4 flasks:  A gripping film that had me so wrapped up in the tension I was tired by the end.

2. Avatar - 4 flasks: A great time at the movies with epic sweep

3. Rachel Getting Married - 3.5 flasks: Great dialog, loved Anne Hatheway.

4. Sunshine Cleaning - 3.5 flasks: A serious comedy about a couple of girls trying to get by. Engaging.

5. Invention of Lying - 3.5 flasks: A fantasy satire with Ricky Gervais that starts funny, and  then digs deep into religion and philosophy.

6. Ponyo  - 3.25 flasks: Sincere, adorable, cute. If you can't handle cute, see Hurt Locker.

7. Duplicity - 3.0 flasks: Intelligent spy thriller with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts

8. Watchmen - 3.0 flasks: An intelligent comic book movie

9. The Proposal - 3.0 flasks: Best romantic comedy of the year; gotta love Sandra

10. Public Enemies - 3.0 flasks: Great work by Johnny Depp and director Michael Mann

Honorable mention - all 3.0 flasks:
The Surrogates, Julie & Julia, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Extract, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, This is It, and Star Trek.
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That is my opinion. I suppose I will still see some officially 2009 Oscar films before Oscar night, but for the year 2009 that is how I see it.
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Top Movies of the Aughties

The Top Ten Movies of the Aughties

1. The Hurt Locker - Gripping, nail-bitting, suspenseful movie about defusing bombs in Iraq

2. Wall*E - Wonderful, heart-warming, clever, fun-to-watch

3. Borat - Clever, very funny, memorable, and socially aware

4. Sideways - great dialog, great characters

5. Passion of the Christ - a religious experience; unlike any other movie

6. Bruce Almighty - Very funny, clever, with a serious message

7. Spiderman 3 - Top action adventure film; fun, and with something to say.

8. Munich - Gripping serious drama about revenge for the Olympic hostage taking

9. Dreamgirls - It's about the lives of the singers, the dream of being famous, and lots of songs

10. Revenge of the Sith - Capstone to a cinematic adventure that I've grown up with.


I think this list is nicely rounded out. I have Spiderman 3  - a blockbuster action movie; Wall*E which is animated; Borat which is a comedy; Dreamgirls which is a musical, and Munich +  Sideways which are serious movies.

I have records of my movie going for the last eight years, and there were twenty 4.0 rated flicks.  I give out about two 4.0's each year. Here are the others.

Doubt - great story, great performances

The Bank Job - like a heist movie should be done; fun-to-watch

Blood Diamond - One of the weakest here; very political; not that fun to watch; I must have been in a good mood to rate it so highly

The Weatherman - Original, thoughtful, funny

Million Dollar Baby - Really good, but too melodramatic for the top ten; probably over-rated at 4 flasks

Cold Mountain - Unmistakable charm

In America - Good serious movie

The Aviator - A poignant tale about a sad genius; really well made.

Matchpoint - Probably number 11, well acted, well made

Avatar - Loved it; may belong in the top ten, but its just too new for me to have perspective.

Brothers

imdb link  Photos


Plot: Sam Cahill, a soldier (Toby Maguire) is captured in Afghanistan and is presumed dead. Grace, his wife (Natalie Portman) and brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) get together while he is gone and after he is rescued there is an awkward love triangle. Sam was tortured and has post-tramatic stress, so he is emotionally distant and violent.

Review: Brothers is a thin, manipulative melodrama with little meaning beyond its calculated emotional trap. The first hour of the move marches through the story line slowly and mechanically to get the love-triangle set-up. The entire Afghanistan story line is boring and empty with no insight into the prisoner experience nor the reason for the war -- simply a footnote When Sam is released, there is barely any interest in Sam's interior life, just the love story. Similarly loser Brother Tommy suddenly becomes a noble citizen to sharpen up his appeal to Grace.

Natalie Portman's Grace is the only bright spot in this dreary film. There is a wonderful moment when Grace hears that Sam is still alive on the phone. We see realistic facial expressions of disbelief, happiness and fear -- top notch. She had two or three of these brief moments of outstanding facial acting, for example when she kissed Tommy for the first time. Portman shows she is a skilled actress, and I'd like to see her in a better movie.

Cast:Natalie Portman, Toby Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal

Crew: directed by Jim Sheridan; based on the movie "Brødre" written by Bier and Jensen

Rating: 1 flask: Portman is good enough to make this 1.5 stars, but I hated being at this movie so much, it has to be 1.0


More: I wanted to leave during the middle.


Even more: The most over-rated movie of the year.

Yet more: At the end, the audience jumped up quickly and headed out of the theater like they could not wait to leave.
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Avatar

imdb link  Photos

Plot: Humans come to the planet Pandora for a rare mineral, and need to displace the native forest people, the Na'vi. Grace (Sigorney Weaver) genetically engineers native bodies that humans can animate like The Matrix or maybe a predator drone. A paraplegic, Jake Sculley (Sam Worthington), becomes a native, and is accepted by the natives and falls in love with Neytiri (Zoe Saltana) a pretty native princess. Initially Jake feeds intelligence to the humans, but later his loyalty becomes divided. 

Review: Great movie entertainment that is simply spectacular with action, emotion, and movie-house morality. I really liked the realistic way the animated Na'vi moved so gracefully though the trees, and later through the air. The movie characters were evocative and emotional -- unlike most motion capture characters, and even better than Lord of the Ring's Gollum -- far better than Disney's A Christmas Carol.

A fast moving story rapidly sets up the conflict between the humans and the Na'vi. Jake and the audience spends a long time with the Na'vi, and the wonderful visual world they inhabit. The audience is won over by the time the bulldozers arrive.

Although the story is predictable, that is because it is archetypal. The story is like the European migration into North America and the displacement of the native Americans. Visually it is more like Europeans coming to tropical Africa -- perhaps like displacement of natives in Nigeria for petroleum. There is the more elemental conflict between the spiritual, grounded and connected natives with the mechanized and money-grubbing humans.

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saltana, Sigorney Weaver, Steven Lang

Crew: written and directed by James Cameron

Rating: 4.0 flasks


More: I want to see it again.

Even More: I liked the animated Sigorney.
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The Veridian Dynamics Coffee Cup

To celebrate the return of Better Off Ted, the great sitcom on ABC, I want to show off my Veridian Dynamics Coffee cup.

For more on Veridian Dynamics, see my first two posts. 

I decided that I needed a Veridian Dynamics coffee cup, and after searching the ABC fan store, and poking around on eBay, where I found nothing. I ended up at Zazzle. Zazzle is a very cool site where you can make shirts, hats and coffee cups with your own graphics.

There is this technicality that the Veridian Dynamics logo isn't really my graphics, but well, anyway. I made a coffee cup, actually two, and it turned out OK. [A defect is the blue line under the logo, which is actually in the image file. I should have photoshopped that out.]

At Zazzle you can put your items for sale, and collect a little royalty. I tried that, but savvy Disney attorney's made Zazzle take the item off for copyright violations.