Things We Lost In The Fire
After winning an Oscar, then making a total fool of herself
as ‘Cat Woman’, Halle Berry is now starring in
a movie more worthy of her talents. Danish director Susanne
Bier makes a very American movie, in which a distraught widow,
after the senseless murder of her husband, decides to care
for her husband’s best friend. A recovering heroin addict.
Not quite love, but much more than friendship, they find that
they become indispensable to each other. Although Halle gives
a very good performance, it is another Oscar winner, Benicio
Del Toro, who walks away with the movie, as the recovering
addict.
The Astronaut Farmer
After circumstances force an astronaut to leave the NASA training
program, he cannot abandon his dreams of space travel. Now,
a Texan rancher, he spends the next ten years, and every cent
he possesses, building a rocket in his backyard barn. With
the enthusiastic support of his family, he plans to launch
himself into space, but, naturally enough, American bureaucracy
gets in the way. For once, Billy Bob Thornton gives an unmannered
performance in this very likable movie about perseverance
and realizing impossible goals.
I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry
It has not been publicized, but this movie is actually an
adaptation of a very successful Australian comedy, which starred
popular Australian comedian Paul Hogan. Concerning two heterosexual
men, who, for tax purposes, decide to marry and pose as homosexuals,
the Australian movie was really naughty, insightful and witty.
Of course, the original Australian movie has now disappeared
from circulation, to be replaced by this homogeneous and totally
sanitized American version, starring Adam Sandler and Kevin
James.
You Kill Me
After one too many bungled jobs, an alcoholic hit-man is sent
by his Polish mob family in Buffalo, New York, to San Francisco,
where he is expected to clean up his act. There he is provided
with accommodation, and work in a mortuary. Reluctantly he
attends AA meetings, and attempts to get his life in order.
Sir Ben Kingsley gives a typically impeccable performance,
complete with ‘Bronx’ accent, while Tea Leoni
steals the movie, as Ben’s cynical and jaded new girlfriend,
who could not give a damn what he does for a living.
Lucky You
Eric Bana is rapidly becoming something of a Super-Star, but
you would never suspect that he is another Hollywood actor
originally from Australia. In this movie, about a Las Vegas
hustler trying to get into a big time World Series poker tournament,
he successfully hides his Australian drawl with a convincing
American twang. As these ‘gambling’ movies go
it is standard fare. The real magic of the movie is the wonderful
magnetism created by Eric Bana and his co-star Drew Barrymore.
They carry on as if they are really and truly in love. Their
romance becomes the highlight of the movie.
License To Wed
Robin Williams must be one of the most annoying comedians
to ever break into show business since Jerry Lewis. Robin
Williams is actually good casting in this movie, as he plays
an annoying preacher come marriage counselor. However, Williams
manages to take annoyance to new heights, and completely destroys
this movie, which could have been a nice romantic-comedy about
an engaged couple undergoing some pre-wedding marriage jitters.
Mandy Moore continues her career in vocal screeching and giggling.
The King
In 1968 Communist Italian director, novelist, poet and critic
Pier Paolo Pasolini made one of his more controversial movies,
called ‘Theorem’. It was concerned with an enigmatic
sexy stranger, who ingratiates himself into a wealthy family,
and then proceeds to play sexual and emotional mind games
with all its members, including the servants. Writer and director
James Marsh creates a free-form adaptation of the story, and
successfully relocates it to the American ‘Deep South’.
Gael Garcia Bernal is pretty hunky as the new sexy intruder,
while William Hurt is also pretty good as a Born Again Baptist
preacher, to whom most of the mental torture is directed.
Are We Done Yet
It is nice to see in the credits of this movie that its source
is acknowledged, instead of trying to pass the movie off as
something new. ‘Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House’
comes from the Golden Years of Hollywood, circa 1948. It is
a simple comedy, concerned with the trials and tribulations
a man goes through while trying to build a house for his family.
However, the synopsis of the film has always been very popular,
and various versions of it appear regularly. This remake changes
the Middle Class White American family into an up-market Black
American one. Ex-rapper Ice Cube is affable as the man undergoing
all the hassles, but, he is not a patch on the original Mr.
Blandings, who was Cary Grant, at the peak of his great debonair
charm.
The Sex Movie
If you are looking for a sexy movie, don’t let the title
of this film fool you. There is hardly any sex to be seen
in the movie. Instead, the movie is another classic ‘piny
movie’, except that it could be any city in America,
as all the action is contained within a glitzy studio apartment.
A straight girl throws a dinner party, and invites a straight
man, a lesbian and a gay guy. All they do is sit around and
talk about sex, for one hour and twenty five boring minutes.
