An Education

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Plot: Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a smart high school girl, is distracted from her studies by an affair with a thirty-something man, Jack (Alfred Molina.)

Review:  The first three-fourths of the movie are cringe-worthy as Jack seduces Jenny, and we see what a creep he is. Jenny seems oblivious -- although maybe 16 year olds are like that. I really did not like the movie, and I ultimately decided to work on my blog why the movie played. At the climax of the movie, the Jenny/Jack relationship let's say changes, and the movie becomes a lot more interesting.

I thought the parents were funny, and they lighted up the mood.

Carey Mulligan's performance was good through-out. I don't know that it was Oscar quality.

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina

Directed by: Lone Scherfig based on the memoir of Lynn Barber

Rating: 1.5 flasks; almost 1 flask since the beginning was so hard to watch. Redeemed by a likeable ending.


More:  Here is a profile on Lynn Barber upon whom the movie is based. The book comes down even harder on her parents than the movie does.

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Prince of Persia

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Plot: The Persian Empire is at the height of its power, and three Persian princes invade a neighoring city for its weaponry. The weapons turn out to be magical and guarded by the cute Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton). After the King is assassinated by a magical weapon, Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Tamina run away, and the Persian army and a league of assassins pursue. Dastan and Tamina have a magic weapon that controls time, and the rest of the plot involves controlling this weapon and using it to thwart the bad guy.

Review: I actually ate a large bag of popcorn with the movie. Popcorn eating is a major part of watching Prince of Persia. Just stop analyzing it. It is a fun movie with a cartoon story.  It is crowd-pleasing movie that relies the likeability of Jake Gyllenhaal and his chemistry with Gemma Arterton. The audience cheered at the end.

It is movie where magic is more real than history, geography, science, or certainly the role of woman in the Middle Ages. There are a lot of magical legends are essential to the plot and all are pretty arbitrary. Actually they remind me too much of objectives in a video game, but I only know the slightest bit about the game -- so maybe I am wrong.

The film is kind of fun if you don't think about it, or don't know much history, geography, or science. There is a character who is a tax protester -- making a humorous reference to the tea party and their anti-tax rhetoric. Pretty funny.

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley

Directed by: Mike Newell, based on the video game and story by Jordan Mechner

Rating: 2.0 flasks


More:   I did not see any acknowledgement that Persia is now in modern Iran, and certainly the cast was all European, except for one character from Darfur in Sudan (why Darfur?)

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Letters to Juliet

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Plot: Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) goes to Italy with her boyfriend, while site-seeing she goes to Juliet's house -- the Juliet from Romeo and Juliet. In the movie, as in real life(!), women send letters to Juliet asking advice. In the movie, Sophie finds a letter hidden for fifty years, and tries to answer the letter -- as if she were Juliet. In time, she hooks up with the now elderly Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) who brings her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) to Italy. They crisscross the Italian country-side looking for Lorenzo  (Franco Nero). In time Sophie begins to like Charlie, but she goes back to New York with her boyfriend, but wait --- the movie ends with a happy Hollywood ending.

Review: The story is the lightest fluff you could want, but it has beautiful Italian travelog photography, and vivid performances from Amanda Seyfried -- who carries the movie. Vanessa Redgrave carries off her part with dignity, but she is really to lovesick and idealistic to be believable. The whole reason this movie is not intensely awful is Amanda.

There is real chemistry between Christophen Egan and Amanda though, and this makes the first two thirds of the movie pleasant.

The movie gets stomach-wretching syrupy sweet at the end, but the characters are likeable so I wanted them to get the fairy tale ending destiny intended.

Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Egan

Directed by: Gary Winick (written by male writers Jose Rivera and Tim Sullivan)

Rating: 2.5 flasks


More: If you can believe it, Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero actually were a couple in 1966, and they have a child together.

Iron Man 2

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Plot: Ironman and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) have gone fat and soft. Tony has become egotistical, and the US government is trying to get Ironman's secrets from him. Meanwhile Russian Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) is puts together another Ironman suit, and ambushes Tony during a car race. Ivan brings Tony down to earth, and business rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) steps in to help Ivan develop Ironman suits for the Pentagon.  Tony flirts with a cute young lawyer (Scarlett Johanson), and lets secretary Pepper Potts (Gwynth Paltrow) run the company. Guess what? In the end there is a big fight. 

Review: Ironman 2 is the Rocky 3 story of the young hungry underdog beating up on the fat and soft champion. The dynamic between Pepper Potts and Tony Stark carries the movie with old-fashioned chemistry and clever dialog. Mickey Rourke's Ivan has manic intensity and an epidermis full of tough guy tattoos. He gives the movie its intensity.

The Scarlett Johanson character produced some good fight scenes, but did not seem worthwhile. I wonder if there other plot twists left on the cutting room floor.

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow

Directed by: John Farveau

Rating: 3.0 flasks; Fun-to-watch, but not fun enough for 3.5 stars. The characters were interesting, but there was no deep hidden meaning or character study here.


More: Where was the Stan Lee cameo? I missed it. 

The Losers

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Plot: Five special ops soldiers are double-crossed on a drug raid in Boliva by a trigger-happy rogue CIA agent, Max (Jason Patric), and they are left for dead. Their leader, Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) leads them to a Bolivian city where they meet Aisha (Zoe Saldana) who bankrolls their return to the US to get revenge on Max. In the US, they have a series of missions leading up to their confrontation with Max at the end of the movie.

Review: The Losers was a solid, pleasant movie going experience. It is not great because the story is pretty thin, and the character-based action is not strong enough. There are a few scenes that are humorous and campy, and a few scenes play straight for action. The director, Sylvian White, tries to set up chemistry between the characters, and this begins to work, but not quite well enough.

Jeffrey Dean Martin does a nice job as the lead actor. Zoe Saldana play a good tough action hero, but the chemistry just begins to work.

A little more creativity in choosing and motivating the bad guy would have helped.  The movie works best if you don't ask why, and just eat the popcorn.

Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana

Directed by: Sylvian White

Rating: 2 flasks


More: It is completely conventional for action movie heros to be fighting rogue US government villains. It was so generic here that it just seems funny. 

Date Night

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Plot: Boring New Jersey couple Phil and Claire Foster (Steve Carell and Tina Fey) go out to dinner and are mistaken for criminals by corrupt cops. They are chased around town until they make a bizarre plan to save themselves.

Review: The is a smart comedy with many good laughs -- most of the laughs are about anatomy and sex with a few pointed jabs at suburban married life. I really enjoyed watching Tina Fey, who was funny and likeable. Steve Carell has some good scenes, but too many are the kind of cringe-worthy scenes where I can hardly bare to watch.

There is one car chase scene that is creative and funny.

Cast: Tina Fey, Steve Carell

Directed by: Shawn Levy

Rating: 2.5 flasks; almost three stars.


More: Tina Fey mostly plays single women, so it is interesting to see her take on married women -- as she is married herself.

Even more: I saw this movie with my wife, does that make it a date night? She did not like it. So the satire about suburban married women did not work, at least with her, although she said it was the over-abundance of sex jokes she disliked.

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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

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Plot: Joel (Jim Carrey) calls in sick and goes to the beach on a cool day to relax. There he meets Clementine (Kate Winslet), and they become friends. They spend some time together, but then Clementine forgets all about him, and Joel finds that she had her memories erased. Joel decides the only way he can live is if he also erases his memories. There are strange interior dream scenes where Clementine's memory runs from image to image in Joel's head.


Review: I saw this movie when it was new, but I was jetlagged, and slept through most of it. Wife Jenny read a review that claimed this movie has metaphysical insights, so we got it at the library.


I was looking for a DEEP HIDDEN MEANING, but I have decided that the most important meaning is the superficial one, which is that forgetting about the past can romantic relationships better. This is opposite of Freudian fixation on the past.


During the film, I was convinced that Joel (Jim Carrey) was insane, and all the characters were made up by his insane mind. Clementine (Kate) is a schizophrenic personality that the doctor is trying to disappear. The director does not end the film in a way that is compatible with that interpretation.


Jim Carrey give a competent performance. Kate Winslet had some moments early in the movie, but generally her character was so disjointed it was hard for her to have authentic emotion. The minor characters were strange enough to be interesting, and that contributed to the overall strangeness.


Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet


Directed by: Micheal Gondry


Rating: 3 flasks - It is not very fun to watch. I has some internal puzzles in it that keep you going, and it (may) take on substantial issues. Probably deserves a 2.5



More: I prefer to think there was a non-Hollywood ending on the cutting room floor somewhere, where Joel simply forgets Clementine, and the movie ends. Not very happy but artistically authentic.

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