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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Kick-Ass

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Plot: Kick-Ass (Aaron Johnson) is a high school boy and wanna-be Superhero, who falls in with more seasoned superheroes Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Kick-Ass has many embarrassing adventures chasing low-lifes around the Bronx. He makes up an excuse to hide his secret identity, and soon a pretty girl befriends him because she thinks he is gay. Later, they take down a local Mafia lord, and there is a big fight at the end.  Child hero Hit Girl does most of the killing.


Review: Very entertaining. The film has a voice over narration and a light comedic feel that make the plot's high body count acceptable. While there is a lot of violence, it is comic action with people dying from single blows, and very little blood. Some of the worst violence is off-screen.


The movie is carried by the character of Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) who is an eleven year old, that fights like Trinity from The Matrix, and who says "cunt," "fuck" and all the words your Mother disapproves of. Moretz, who delivers her lines with great earnestness, has made many TV episodes.


The script is the biggest star. The story is well told, and is a crowd-pleaser. I also liked the high school soap opera plotline. I liked the incorporation of YouTube and streaming video into the story.


The movie is fun enough for a 3.5 or 4.0 star rating, and you have to love the fight scenes were Hit Girl chews up busloads of bad guys. The acting from Cage and from Johnson don't measure up, and girlfriend Katie Deauxma (Lyndsy Fonseca) is not good. The movie is strictly for fun, and has no serious message of any sort. 

I have three favorite scenes. The first is a parody of Darth Maul twin bladed light saber in Phantom Menace, where Hit Girl does the same moves with a double-tipped spear. The second when Hit Girl does a parody of Trinity and Neo passing the security guards in The Agent's headquarters in The Matrix. The third is also from the Matrix where Neo shoots the agents from a helicopter, and I don't want to give too much plot away.


Cast: Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Nicholas Cage


Directed by: Matthew Vaughn, based on the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita


Rating: 3 flasks; The funnest movie of the season.

More: There should be a Hit Girl Sequel.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (Men who Hate Women))

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Plot: This is a complicated cold-case, murder mystery set in Sweden that starts with a girls disappearance forty years ago, and ends with a series of grisly murders of women. The title character is Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Repace), who is a thin, goth hacker that has a violent history. Mikael Bloomkwist (Micheal Nyqvist) is a washed-up reported paid to investigate the cold-case, and who eventually teams up with Salander.

Review: The best part is the Lisbeth character who is compelling and mysterious. They keep teasing us with more details from her complicated past. She is well played by Noomi Repace, who portrays Lisbeth along the lines of the novel. The script fits in most of the complicated story, and I liked how they got the essential scenes into the movie without making the movie too long or too hard to understand.

There are some violent scenes, but they are essential to the edgy-ness of the movie.

This is a satisfying movie that I enjoyed watching. I think I liked it better since I had read the book.

Cast: Noomi Reace, Micheal Nyqvist

Directed by: Niels Arden Oplev; based on the novel by Stieg Larssen

Rating: 3.5 flasks; It was fun to watch, but not higher because it was subtitled, and because the plot was a bit complicated. It  has a theme of violence against women, but was not a message film.


More: I am going to read the sequel.

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Even more: Lisbeth Rocks!
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How to Train Your Dragon

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Plot: A Viking boy named "Hiccup" lives in a village that routinely gets raided by flying, fire-breathing dragons, and the people of the town have become expert at killing dragons as they defend themselves in the raids. Hiccup injuries a dragon, and secretly tames it. Hiccup is ashamed that he has not killed the dragon although the other village kids are learning to kill them. [Minor spoiler] Soon he becomes a Dr. Doolittle/Dragon Whisperer who is able to calm a charging dragon, and leads the village to the movie's climax.

Review: How to Train Your Dragon is a fantasy story made up of a string of interesting scenes that are fun to watch. I don't expect a fantasy story to make sense, but with all the killing in this movie -- it should be a horror film. To keep the tone light the teenage characters have jokey dialog and are never afraid.  The characters and their interaction remind me of what the Illiad might have been if Ulyesses's kids were the Power Rangers.

The characters are not well drawn, and directors Dubois & Sanders have given the interaction between the teenage characters a cool, cynical attitude, especially considering that their friends and family are getting devoured routinely by flying dragons. The tone makes the film lighter and more comedic, but this plot problem prevents the movie from being anything more than pretty good.

It is pretty good though. The movie works especially the action scenes. Naturally it has a happy ending with some entertaining scenes of life in the village, and everyone leaves the theater smiling.

Directed by: Dean Dubois and Chris Sanders; based on the novel by Cressida Cowell

Rating: 2.0 flasks; Entertaining, and I am glad I saw it, but no masterpiece.


More: A great use of 3D, and nicely animated. I liked the art direction throughout, especially Stoick's beard.

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Hot Tub Time Machine

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Plot: Four guys get in a hot tub and travel back to 1986. Back in 1986 they relive their past and then return to the present. You knew that before your read this -- didn't you?

Review: Hot Tub Time Machine starts out slowly with a lot of gross-out images. After they get to 1986, the movie starts working, and it is pretty funny by the end. The humor is guy-oriented. There are a number of cover-your-eyes gross-out scenes. The characters are interesting and fairly well developed, but not very likeable.

My wife did not enjoy Hot Tub Time Machine because the sex scenes were not girl-friendly - probably misogynistic.

The movie knows that it is campy, but it plays the whole thing as a joke, and that is OK with me. You know that a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine was going to be campy.

Rob Corddry, who plays the "asshole" friend, gives a great performance and carries the film with his larger than life, fun-loving character. It would not have been enjoyable without him.

By the end of the movie, I liked it. The writer put in some interesting, introspective scenes at the end, and everyone likes a happy ending.

Cast: John Cusack, Rob Corddry

Directed by: Steve Pink

Rating: 2.5 flasks; too funny to be a 2.0; started too slowly to be a 3.0


More: Quote: "This is scientifically possible!"

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The Ghost Writer

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Plot: A ghostwriter, Ewan McGregor, is a writer hired by a British ex-Foreign Minster Lang (Pierce Brosnan) to write his autobiography. The previous writer died unexpectedly. Lang is accused of war crimes, and has continuing political and anti-terrorism roles.  Meanwhile, thugs try repeatedly to steal the book.



Review: This is an intelligent and entertaining movie that was well-acted and well-directed. Director and child-rapist Roman Polanski is a talented director, and I really liked this film. It is clearly a well-crafted movie that moves smartly from set-up to climax with building tension and intelligent dialog. There is enough comedic lightness to keep the mood up, since the basic geo-political plot line is heavy.

The co-stars Olivia Williams, who plays Lang's wife, and Pierce Brosnan give vivid, dynamic and occasionally funny contributions. I'd give Olivia an Oscar nomination.

The ghostwriter is unnamed in the film, as a joke that ghost writer's names don't appear on their work. Although a sophamoric joke, I did not realized Ewan McGregor's character did not have a name until the movie was over. 

Like last week's movie, Green Zone this is an overtly political movie, but the politics is from the British point of view, and the movie is not preachy about it -- so the movie works better.

I enjoyed this movie, and I wonder why more people don't see it -- especially with the lack of good movies in the theater now. Maybe it is too British, but I think you can get past that.

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams

Directed by: Roman Polanski, based on the book by Robert Harris

Rating: 3.5 flasks


More: I don't know how admitted child rapist Roman Polanski managed to direct a movie while he is jail. Obviously a talented fellow, but that is not a Get Out of Jail Free Card.

Even more: I never comment on sound editing. If I notice bad sound effects -- it must be quite bad, and I thought the sound-effects were un-natural throughout.

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