Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

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Plot: Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), the bad guy in the first Wall Street movie gets released from prison after 13 years. It's 2007, and he writes a book about the pending financial collapse of 2008, and soon young Wall Streeter Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) tracks him down. Jake is engaged to Gordon's daughter Winnie Gekko (Carey Mulligan). In the meantime Jake loses his job working at a Lehman Brothers-like investment bank when it goes bankrupt due to toxic assets. Jake gets a job at a rival company and hooks up with with Gordon for advice. Gordon wants to reconcile with Winnie, and Jake tries to set that up. As the financial crisis of 2008 unfolds, there is narrative about the bank crisis and Federal Reserve actions, as well as much moaning about "moral hazard."  

Review: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is uneven. It has some excellent scenes especially at the beginning before Michael Douglas enters the story. There are some wonderful and poetic visuals that are worth seeing. I loved the richness of the sets. The weakest part of the movie was the preaching by Michael Douglas: no one talks like that. The dramatic scenes with Michael Douglas were not that good either.

The Shia LaBeouf scenes are strong though, and I liked his scenes with Carey Mulligan too.

The plot involving the fusion power company struck me as clever. I liked how it was threaded through the movie. The plot was well-crafted to deal with the issues of the financial crisis without being too pedagogical. I suspect that someone without much financial background might be lost though.

I liked the ending. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps was enjoyable, but lacked consistent dramatic or artistic content; it is a near miss.

Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Michael Douglas, Carey Milligan

Directed by: Oliver Stone

Rating: 3.0, almost 2.5 but I liked the ambition and the subject matter.


More: They said "moral hazard" over and over again, but seldom used it correctly.

Even More:  I liked how Jake's Mom (Susan Sarandon) quits real estate and goes back to nursing.
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The Town

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Plot:  Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) lives in an Irish working class district called Charlestown in Boston.  "The 'town" is home to an Irish bankrobbing mafia. At the beginning, he and his friend James (Jeremy Renner) rob a bank. They take the bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage and release her when they get away. Later Doug and Claire get romantic while FBI agent Frawley (Doug Hamm) investigates. 

Review:  An exciting movie with solid dramatic action, a great script, and  dynamic scenes. The chemistry between Ben Affleck and Rebecca Hall was tops. Ben Affleck's performance was Oscar worthy.

A highlight was the bankrobbery scene dresses as nuns, as shown in the poster. I liked the idea that these losers were organized and professional enough to pull of a Mission Impossible style crimes. I liked the Blake Lively plot line especially her roll in unravelling the final heist.

What I like about this movie is that it has everything, action scenes, flirty romance, three dimensional characters, fun chase-scenes, and a no holds barred ending.  It reminds me of Mystic River which also combined grittiness, action, and clever dialog in a crime drama.

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Doug Hamm

Directed by: Ben Affleck

Based on the book "Prince of Thieves" by Chuck Hogan

Rating: 4.0 flasks; One of the year's best.


More:  When we lived in Pittsburgh, we knew a mafia florist too.

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Going the Distance

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Plot: Erin meets Garrett while she is working in New York as an intern, and they fall in love. When summer is over she goes back to San Francisco, and they have a long distance relationship punctuated by phone calls, texting, and plane rides. Erin and Garrett have side-plots with Garrett's goofy friends and Erin's compulsive sister. By the end of the movie, they need to decide whether they break up or move. 

Review: Going the Distance is a nice light comedy with some fresh situations and clever jokes. While it is a romance, it is not like all the other love stories because it has enough clever twists and strange friends providing entertaining distractions.

Drew Barrymore's acting is strong, but Justin Long is only OK. He needs a better haircut too. I liked Christina Applegate as Erin's compulsive sister. I liked the chemistry between Garrett's friends, and Charlie Day as roommate Dan was pretty funny.

The movie keeps moving; the jokes are pretty good; and overall it was a positive movie going experience. This is better than most light romances, so I recommend it.

Cast: Drew Barrymore, Justin Long

Directed by: Nanette Burstein; written by Goeff LaTulippe - his first movie

Rating: 2.5 flasks; likeable, fun but not great.


More: I liked roommate Dan playing DJ for the date -- that was reliably funny.

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The American

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Plot:  An underworld killer and gunsmith is being hunted by Swedish assassins, so Jack (George Clooney) shoots his girlfriend to cover his tracks and treks to a mountain town in Northern Italy to hide. His boss sends him a client, Ingrid (Irina Bjoeklund) for whom he makes a specialty rifle. He meets Clara (Violante Placido) in Italy and flirts with her.

Review: This is a patient drama about how a cartoonish killer might respond if suddenly dropped into a art school film. Clooney plays a his assassin/gunsmith as a deeply repressed and flinty tough guy. The camera spends the first half of the film staring deeply into his wrinkled face looking for emotion.  We don't find much emotion or motivation.

Why does this guy kill so many people? It does not seem to be to fund his cool lifestyle. It is not for his friends, his family, his country. He's not being blackmailed.

The film has a long sex scene that is supposed to show Jacks and Clara's developing affection, but it seems gratuitous. The skinny dipping scene is better in that Clara's playing in the idyllic lake is contrasted with murderous intentions (we imagine) the characters are thinking.

There are some highlights. The scenery is pretty, especially the city scenes. I want to go visit Italy. Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli,) the local priest is a bright spot. Those scenes were interesting; even  if Paulo Bonacelli's hairy and flabby face was pretty gross.

!!MAJOR SPOILER!! What is the point of this movie?  Are we watching a cartoonish killer turn from girlfriend slayer to co-worker and boss killer? Is that moral progress? Are we supposed to be impressed that he gets teary when he is wounded? Is he crying for himself?

Cast: George Clooney, Violante Placido

Directed by: Anton Corbijn; based on the novel by Martin Booth

Rating: 1.5 flasks; dull enough for one star; overwrought; basically pointless.


More: George Clooney fans will probably be severely disappointed.

Even more: Other critics has called this movie slow and silent. I did not have a problem with the pacing or the minimum of dialog.
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The Switch

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Plot: Kassie's (Jennifer Aniston's) biological clock is ticking down, and she wants to get a sperm donor. Wally Mars (Jason Bateman) is Kassie's BFF and former boyfriend. He naturally is really in love with her, and SWITCHES (ha! that's the title) his sperm for the sperm donor's. Time passes. The kid becomes a precocious and neurotic 1st grader. The rest of the movie is humor based on this premise.

Review: Like children's and horror movies, romantic comedies have their own rating system. Yes this was unrealistic, and it was done just for fun with no real morale, message or insight into the human condition -- despite a pithy voiceovers at the beginning. But in the romantic comedy universe, this was pretty good. This film is more artificial and arranged than most -- it is more of a fantasy. If you are looking for a drama or an action movie you'll be disappointed.

Jason Bateman is great in this movie, and he makes the film worth watching. Jennifer Anniston is good also, and there is some good chemistry between them early in the film. Jeff Goldblum steals every scene he is in.

The child, Sebastian (Thomas Robinson), has unnaturally adult dialog, which is funny at first, but also moves the story along faster; another example of the artificiality of the film.

Still it is a cheerful, likable movie, that provides a diverting movie experience, and it is better than most romantic comedies.

Cast: Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Jeff Goldblum, Thomas Robinson

Directed by: Josh Gordon, Will Speck; based on the short story The Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides

Rating: 2.5 flasks because the acting was good, but not higher because this is still a forgettable comedy.


More:  Did they use the word "sperm" in the movie at all?  Perhaps once.

Even more:  I wondered how long Jeff Goldblum was going to keep explaining over and over that the sperm got switched.

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Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

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Plot: Scott (Michael Cera) becomes Ramona's (Mary Elizabeth Windstead) new boyfriend, but her old boyfriends have formed a club to keep her single --out of revenge. Scott needs to defeat each one of them as in a video game. The battles are like a Street Fighter game or a role playing game. Scott's old girl friends are in the story too:  Knives (Ellen Wong), Kim (Allison Pill), and Envy (Brie Larson) each contribute subplots. Scott and Kim are in a band, and two of the boyfriend battles are musical showdowns.

Review:  Scott Pilgrim is a winner because it's good time and it's clever. The plot is a simple romance between Scott and Ramona, and its gimmick is video game battles and rock-n-roll.

Like a musical or a Power Rangers episode, the live action scenes stop for surrealistic, video-game action sequences. There are also dream sequences and magic doors.

The action scenes are at least as interesting as in regular action movies, probably because the idea is so novel.

Director Edgar Wright keeps the action moving with quick video editing. The visual story telling works especially well, and is a major part of why this film works. There are split screens  and captions styled like comic books.

Micheal Cera plays Scott Pilgrim in a low-key fashion, like "look at the weird stuff that keeps happening to me." It might have been better if Scott were more dynamic, but it would have been a different film. Similarly Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Ramona as troubled, but she could have been more quirky and mysterious.

On a serious note, every new person we meet has to deal with baggage of all our previous experiences and relationships. The film can be interpreted that way. Each ex represents some facet of Ramona's life and how she moved past it; perhaps the graphic novel expands on this. The movie is more about fun than life-lessons though.

This movie is an instant classic. I want to see it again, even though I am not a gamer.

Cast: Micheal Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Directed by: Edgar Wright; based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Rating: 3.5 flasks; perhaps it deserves only a 3.0, but I did like it a lot.


More: The video game action will catch all the attention, but the fast moving video style, and the interaction with gamer culture will be the lasting impact of Scott Pilgrim.
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The Other Guys

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Plot: Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) is a nerdy accountant, who is also a New York cop, and his parter is Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) a normal guy who is ashamed to work with Allen because he is too nerdy, clueless and not macho enough. Allen and Terry stumble upon a financial scandal, and fight the bad guys. There are many subplots involving Allen's strange attraction to women, and the back story of each detective.

Review: The is a strange and ridiculous movie. It is funny because it is relentlessly ridiculous -- very funny at times. 


Will Ferrell is the star. His Alan Gamble character is pitiable, but not quite pathetic. The plot is simple, but it keeps the comic set-ups coming, and the jokes follow.


The special effects are showy and punctuate the jokes, but they seemed to be tacked-on to awe the audience not to advance the story. 


Mark Wahlberg is a great straight-man, and he is likeable enough. I expect it is harder to be a straight-man than it seems; still I was not overly impressed.

The Other Guys is all for fun, and it has no serious side. Just a mindless August movie.  Mindless or not, I was glad I saw it.


Cast: Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Keaton

Directed by: Adam McKay

Rating: 2.5 flasks; Really funny at times, but not a top quality comedy.


More: This is one of the funniest movies of 2010. What are the funniest? Date Night and Take Him to the Greek are the best funny movies. The Other Guys and Hot Tub Time Machines are laugh-out-loud mindless fun.

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