Drama

Notting Hill

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Notting Hill
  • IMDB: link

Notting HillRecently re-released on Blu-ray as part of Universal Studios “Best of the Decade Series,” 1999’s Notting Hill romatic comedy featuring the unlikely pairing of a Hollywood star (Julia Roberts) and British book store owner (Hugh Grant) is a watchable, but not always entertaining, piece of romcom fluff helped by the performances of its two leads (but not always the script by Richard Curtis).

Asking an interesting question of what happens when a celebrity falls for a nobody, the film rather quickly gives up any attempt to say anything original while falling back on the clichéd romcom roller-coaster template complete with a final act break-up and ridiculous last moment romantic gesture to bring the lovers back together. In comparison with other movies of this genre (see the filmogprahy of Kate Hudson or Katherine Heigl), Notting Hill isn’t awful but it’s far from one of the best films of this decade.

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2004 – Million Dollar Baby

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Million Dollar Baby
  • IMDB: link

Million Dollar BabyNo matter how many times I’ve seen the film, there’s a moment in Million Dollar Baby that hits me like a jab straight to the gut, far harder than any thrown inside the ring in this film about boxing, life, death, and balancing the consequences of all three. Even ten years later with the movie now available in a new Tenth Anniversary Blu-ray release I find myself reluctant to give away the twist for those who have not yet seen the film.

The movie is never about what you think it’s about. While borrowing aspects of your run-of-the-mill sports film, the script by Paul Haggis travels a winding road of subtle and abrupt turns, much like life. Earning near universal praise, Million Dollar Baby took home Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director for Clint Eastwood, Best Actress for Hillary Swank, and Best Supporting Actor for Morgan Freeman. The film has aged well and, along with Sideways, The Incredibles, and Before Sunset, it remains one of my favorite films of 2004.

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The Monuments Men

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Monuments Men
  • IMDb: link

The Monuments Men

Originally planned for a Christmas release, The Monuments Men finally makes it into theaters this weekend. Directed and co-written by George Clooney, who also stars as George L. Stout, the film is a war-time picture highlighting an unusual group of heroes. Based on true accounts, The Monuments Men tells the story of Stout and other over-aged art experts and connoisseurs who were put together by Franklin D. Roosevelt to save priceless art being plundered and destroyed by the Nazis during WWII.

The group of Monuments Men includes Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, and Bob Balaban, along with Englishman Hugh Bonneville, and Frenchman Jean Dujardin. A little bit Ocean’s Eleven and a little bit old school war film, Clooney’s latest project begins with Stout stumping for the need for such and organization and recruiting old friends on what many in both Washington and on the battlefield see as nothing more than a fool’s errand. From basic training through searching abandoned German salt mines after the end of WWII, the film follows the fate of the unusual band of art experts and historians turned soldiers and the treasures they seek.

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The Best Produced Lifetime Movie for Women Ever Made

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Labor Day
  • IMDB: link

Labor DayI’m a Jason Reitman fan. Young Adult made my Top Films of 2011, as did Juno a few years earlier. I consider Thank You For Smoking the best satire (by far) of the past decade, and Up in the Air was easily my favorite film of 2009. With a combination of wit, talent, and an eye for casting, the writer-director has produced some terrific films over the past few years. Sadly, Labor Day is not one of them.

Based on the novel by Joyce Maynard, Labor Day lacks Reitman’s usual flourishes or the trademark edge of the director’s previous work. Although competently acted and well produced, neither the director nor its stars (Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, Clark Gregg, and Gattlin Griffith) can save the movie from trashy romance novel themes about the nicest escaped murderer (Brolin) this side of Mayberry and an implausible love story that is impossible to take seriously (but also not quite cheesy enough to laugh at or enjoy). It’s with neither malice nor spite, but with a heavy heart, that I dub the film the best produced Lifetime Movie for Women ever made.

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Lone Survivor

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Lone Survivor
  • IMDb: link

Lone Survivor

Based on Marcus Luttrell‘s (Mark Wahlberg) personal accounts, Lone Survivor chronicles a mission in the Hindu Kush mountain region of Afghanistan to find and kill high ranking Taliban member. Of the four-man initial team, and the first group sent in to retrieve them, Luttrell would be the sole survivor.

After a brief introduction to life on the base and the various Navy SEALS (most of whom will play only ancillary roles to the main tale) the film moves forward with the introduction and deployment of Luttrell, Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), Dietz (Emile Hirsch), and Axelson (Ben Foster). Arriving at their destination without incident, the mission takes a turn for the worse when they are discovered by three locals.

Cut off from HQ, and with no standing orders for such a situation (something which seems a tad odd), the foursome argue over how to proceed knowing any chance of their mission succeeding means the death of the old man and two boys which the team is unwilling to do.

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