Actors: Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Jane
Galloway Heitz, Joseph A. Carpenter, Harry Dean Stanton, Everett McGill
Rating: 10 out of 10, I don’t know what surprised me
more - that this was a David Lynch film or just how powerful the movie was. The simple elegance of the story and the
understated command with which the story is conveyed is almost mesmerizing. Farnsworth plays Alvin Straight who decides
upon hearing of his estranged brother’s stroke that he will jump on his riding lawn
mower for the 300 mile journey. This
apparently is based on an actual event.
There is no flash or attempt to overly dramatize the journey. Farnsworth was suffering from terminal cancer
when this was shot but he delivers a performance for the ages. Again, the simple dignity of a man
confronting himself and doling out wisdom to those he encounters without
preaching. There are so many memorable scenes
in which little is said but so much is conveyed. The scene between Alvin and another aged
World War 2 veteran sitting in a bar and revealing the pain they’ve each harbored
for all the years since is heartrending.
Alvin
tells the story of accidently killing a comrade in combat and reflects that as
he gets older he doesn’t count the years he’d lived but the number of years he’d
denied his comrade. Again, that simple,
but powerful elegance this whole film is permeated with. The ending is perfect. I find it hard to do justice to this film. If you love films and you haven’t seen this –
do yourself a favor.
MVP: Farnsworth as Alvin Straight, a fitting send
off to a great character actor
Actors: Bruce Willis, Jane March, Ruben Blades,
Lesley Ann Warren, Scott Bakula, Brad Dourif, Lance Henricksen, Jeff Corey
Rating: 6 out of 10, A very long movie set back in
the days Willis still had a hairline although you can see the beginning of its
death throes. He plays a traumatized
psychologist called upon to take over group therapy for a bunch of complete
wackos, one of which murdered his best friend, or so we think. Everyone in the group as well as Willis and
his deceased friends sample Ms March in one of her incantations although it’s
never really explained where she got all the time (not to mention energy) accomplishing
that. March is not very convincing but
she is very adept at shedding clothes which was what her part called for. This film may have driven the stake into the
heart of the post-Basic Instinct main stream crime-porn movies. It’s also very, very long (but I already said
that).
MVP: Willis is watchable even in a bad movie
Actors: David Duchovny, Timothy Hutton, Angelina Jolie,
Peter Stormare, Michael Massee, John Hawkes
Rating: 5 out of 10, I’m not sure what possessed me
to keep watching this – incredibly bad movie.
I’m pretty sure it was partly due to the extremely high unintentional comedy
level. Duchovny plays a drug addled
former doctor who’s called upon to perform emergency surgery in bars and hotel
rooms. Duchovny is okay, as is a
pre-body sculpted Jolie but Hutton is a complete and utter disaster as a
supposedly ruthless crime lord. I’ve
seen girl scouts that were more convincing villains. Don’t waste your time with this.
MVP: Duchovny as Dr Eugene Sands
Actors: Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Channing Tatum, Catherine
Zeta-Jones, Vinessa Shaw
Rating: 8 out of 10, Wow, unbelievable – a really
smart movie – huge surprise, although Channing Tatum as a Wall Street banker
was a bit of a stretch. A movie that
grants the audience a modicum of intelligence and then runs with it. I love movies that leave small early clues to
the major late plot shift, basically giving you the tools the figure out the
big surprise but not being obvious about it.
Mara is back in chameleon form seemingly a new character in each new
scene. However this movie belongs to Jude Law in arguably his strongest role
ever. He plays the victimized psychiatrist
who steadfastly pursues the truth. He’s
definitely moved beyond his pretty boy roles.
A great watch.
MVP: Law as Dr Banks tortured but triumphant
Actors: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Dylan
McDermott, Rick Yune, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett
Rating: 8 out of 10, Gerard Butler in full Leonidas
mode saving the day when terrorists seize the White House (again!). It pissed me off a
little bit to see the White House taken down (again!) but the action was relentless
and Butler can
really do this kind of thing. It was like seeing a return of Jack Bauer, but
with a sneaky Scottish accent. It was totally unbelievable and some of the plot
holes taken to keep the story moving were laughably farfetched but I still
loved the flick. The female actresses were a bit wasted but this was Butler's flick and he
delivered.
MVP: Butler
as the Mike Banning the ultimate Secret Service agent
Actors: John Cusack, Malin Akerman, Liam Cunningham
Rating: 6 out of 10, An interesting, if
flawed, spy thriller with Cusack once again playing a wrung out has-been (carving
out a real niche there). I liked this
because it was different; shot mostly in an underground bunker where a disgraced
CIA killer is under siege while protecting Akerman with both sides urging him
to kill her. I know the director was
aiming at some lofty comment on the insidious spy agencies but he accidently
made a fairly good movie, thanks mostly to Cusack and Akerman.
MVP: Cusack as Emerson the reluctant hero, a
killer discovering his conscience
Actors: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison,
Ringo Starr, Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy
Kinnear
Rating:
8 out of 10, Since I hear Beatles music all the time I had forgotten
just how charismatic the boys were at the height of their fame when this was
shot. The movie itself is a huge mess –
as if a highly stoned member of the Monty Python tried to make a Bond picture. It is still so much fun though, a real guilty
pleasure. The Beatles look impossibly
young and the iconic music still stands by itself.
MVP: Ringo
could actually act – a very little bit
