Movie Reviews

Les Misérables

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Les Misérables
  • IMDB: link

les-miserables-poster

As someone who has never read Victor Hugo’s novel nor seen the musical adaptation on stage I was hardly going in to Les Misérables completely blind, but I was certainly coming from a different perspective from that of people who know either version of the source material by heart.

Clocking in with a running time of more than two-and-a-half hours, Les Misérables refuses to skimp in big set pieces (such as the opening sequence set in the Bagne of Toulon), large themes (faith, freedom, liberty, and morality), or filling out its roster with several big name stars.

…

Les MisérablesRead More »

Les Misérables Read More »

Jack Reacher

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Jack Reacher
  • IMDb: link

jack-reacher-posterI prefer my Tom Cruise action films a little crazy and more than slightly ridiculous. (Hell, I even kinda like Knight and Day.) Jack Reacher delivers on both counts. Based on the character created by Lee Child, Cruise stars as former Military Police officer turned professional nomad who shows up in Pittsburgh when a former Army sniper (Joseph Sikora) is accused of killing five people.

As Reacher tells the man’s attorney (Rosamund Pike), he doesn’t show up to save Barr (Sikora) but to bury him. With Barr in a coma after a prison beat down, the only way Reacher can get the proof he needs to make sure Barr gets the needle is to agree to work with his lawyer. However, the more Reacher digs into the case the more, to his increasing frustration, it appears Barr was framed for the crime. Reacher also discovers the killings weren’t as random as everyone believes.

I’ve never read a Jack Reacher novel, and I’m not sure this film sells me on the character quite enough to pick one up anytime soon. However, as a fun B-movie action flick Jack Reacher succeeds.

…

Jack ReacherRead More »

Jack Reacher Read More »

This is 40

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: This is 40
  • IMDb: link

this-is-40-posterThe latest from Judd Apatow is a very personal tale, and thinly-veiled comedic look at the writer/director’s own life (which casts his real-life family and is shot in their home). The film returns Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (Apatow’s real-life wife) in this sort of, but not really, sequel to Knocked Up. Set in between the weeks where both intrinsically selfish characters turn 40 years-old, the humor of This is 40 often rings true but doesn’t necessarily always produce big laughs.

Much like Apatow’s last film, Funny People, This is 40 meanders its way through its more than two-hour running time (nearly always a bad sign for a comedy) by exploring the everyday lives of its characters with, at times, the barest structure of a plot.

What Apatow does deliver is a frank (and at times amusing) slice of life snapshot, with moments of hilarity, between a couple both going through their own mid-life crises while dealing with the demands of their children (Iris Apatow, Maude Apatow) and parents (Albert Brooks, John Lithgow).

…

This is 40Read More »

This is 40 Read More »

The Hobbit: An Expected, and Familiar, Journey

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
  • IMDB: link

“I’m looking for someone to share in an adventure.”

hobbit-unexpected-journey-posterAfter several delays, including the director and the Tolkien estate both separately suing New Line Cinema and a brief flirtation with Guillermo del Toro taking over the project, Peter Jackson returns to Middle Earth for J. R. R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit. Roughly one-third of the 300-page children’s fantasy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey feels far too familiar, somewhat less magical, and far more expected, than the title would indicate.

Our story, oddly, begins on the same day as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) beginning to chronicle his adventures for his nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood), while waiting for Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to arrive to celebrate the Hobbit’s 111th birthday. After this somewhat awkward (not to mention completely unnecessary) sequence, our story finally beings in earnest as the younger Bilbo (Martin Freeman) meets Gandalf the Grey and thirteen dwarves for an impromptu dinner which will forever change his life.

…

The Hobbit: An Expected, and Familiar, JourneyRead More »

The Hobbit: An Expected, and Familiar, Journey Read More »

Hitchcock

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Hitchcock
  • IMDB: link

“And that, madame, is why the call me ‘The Master of Suspense.'”

hitchcock-posterBased on the book by Stephen Rebello, director Sacha Gervasi‘s Hitchcock is more centered on director Alfred Hitchcock‘s personal life and the enormous stress of his widely unpopular decision to follow up North by Northwest with Psycho than the actual filming of the movie. The result is insanely well-cast and immensely enjoyable study of the famous director and the most important woman in his life, his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren).

The film succeeds beyond my expectations on the strength of three terrific performances. Hopkins, no stranger to throwing on prosthetics to play a larger than life historical figure (Nixon), is transformed into the famous director who is equal parts genius and spoiled child. Mirren is perfect as the loyal wife, who has never gotten her due for being Hitchcock’s most trusted collaborator, who simply wants to spend a little time with a charming old friend (Danny Huston) working on a new project. And Scarlett Johansson brings more than just a pretty face to her portrayal of Psycho actress Janet Leigh who never loses her professionalism even when the director crosses the line.

…

HitchcockRead More »

Hitchcock Read More »