Estranged siblings (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney) reunite to handle the living arrangements of their father (Philip Bosco). Check out the official site. After a month in limited release the film opens wide tomorrow; check out our review! Larger trailer available in the Full Diagnosis.
The Savages
4 Stars
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Anybody else a little disappointed it’s not called The Master Debaters? Anywhoo, Denzel Washington directs and stars as a college debate professor. Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker, Gina Ravera, and Forest Whitaker also star. Check out the official site. The film opens everywhere on Christmas Day. Larger trailer available in the Full Diagnosis.
The Great Debators
N/A
“There’s a whole in the world like a great black pit, and the vermin of the world inhabit it, and its morals aren’t worth what a pin can spit, and it goes by the name of London.”
When I heard Tim Burton was set to direct Sweeney Todd my initial response was to expect a great looking but overproduced and underwhelming film (like say Sleepy Hollow). I was dead wrong. In another director’s hands the bloody tale would have been cut, trimmed, and made to look nice enough to earn a PG-13 rating. Burton however embraced the story of vengeance and loss and gives us a Sweeney Todd worthy of the name. How good is Sweeney Todd? It’s arguably Tim Burton’s best film.
For those unfamiliar with the original story and the Broadway musical, the plot involves a young barber named Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) whose wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly) and infant daughter Johanna are taken from him by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman). Turpin steals the women for himself and sentences Barker and banishes him from London forever. The film opens with the return of Barker years later under the new name of Sweeney Todd
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“You can teach them to type, but you can’t teach them to grow tits.”
Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a junior Congressman from a small district in Texas, did the impossible. Not only did he spearhead the largest covert war in United States history, but he kept it a secret for years.
Wilson, a member of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee and the only Congressman from a district “who doesn’t want anything,” was in an unique position to change the world while nobody was looking.
After learning about the Afghan resistance against the Soviets, and being cajoled into providing more assistance by a powerful political contributor (Julia Roberts), Wilson with the help of his friends and CIA operative Gust Avrakotots (Philip Seymour Hoffman), over the course of the decade began increasing the money, weapons, and training being put into Afghanistan and began fighting a covert war which only a scant few even knew was taking place. And we aren’t talking a small increase here; we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.
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“It ain’t easy to walk to the top of a mountain. It’s a long hard walk, but I will walk hard.”
The collaboration between Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow is a perfect parody of recent overly serious and sentimental music biopics like Walk the Line and Ray which examine the entire life of an artist with all the skill and depth of a Behind the Music special. The film follows Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly, who plays the character from the age of 14 to 71) who faces the tragic death of his brother to an unfortunate machete accident, the disapproval of his father (Raymond J. Barry), drugs, booze, and women, to become a legend.
Although it helps if you’ve seen the films this one parodies it’s not a necessity to get most of the jokes (though you will miss some of more subtle moments including specific shots and camera work). Reilly is terrific in a role that let’s him prove just what a great dumbass he can play. And, as he proved in A Prairie Home Companion (read that review), he can sing. It’s a combination of the music and sharp unrelenting wit that transforms this film from the regular mass produced parodies like the Scary Movie franchises, and moves into the elite company with This Is Spinal Tap and Airplane.
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