As a side note, I had my very best theater experience of my life tonight. We went to a theater in Westwood called The Landmark. You pre-selected your seats… and when I went into the theater itself, I nearly pissed myself. The whole theater was big, soft beautiful black leather sofas with more leg room than you can dream about. The theater only sat about 100 and the picture and sound were impeccable. I’m going to be spending a LOT of time in that theater. If you’re in LA, go check it out.

THE GENERAL IDEA

Jeff Bridges is a man in a small and tightly knit together town who has never found his break. When his ex-wife marries a very rich man he becomes increasingly frustrated by his lowly economic situation and comes up with a plan that he, and his community can strike it rich… by all coming together and producing a porno movie. Everyone likes the pitch, and together they pool their resources to raise the money they’ll need to become the first community financed porn movie in the industry. All they have to do now is actually make it, write it and somehow come up with a cast.

THE GOOD

Jeff Bridges is such a natural actor if defies belief. Bridges is the heart and soul of this movie. As a father, friend and misguided community leader who is down on his luck and just looking for that one break to do something of significance. While it may not be as good of a movie as The Big Lebowski, I’ll stick my neck out and say the performance he gives in this film is equal to, or even better then his immortal portrayal of “The Dude”.

Bridges is not alone. Joe Pantlianato, William Fichtner, Tim Blake Nelson… are all great in the film… but the guy who really stood out to me was surprisingly enough Ted Danson. Ted was FUCKING AWESOME in this flick. He’s a gay man, that everyone in town knows is gay… but he doesn’t know that they know he’s gay… and he keeps trying to act like he’s not. There is one scene in particular that he just shines and had me in stitches the whole time. I never thought I’d wish to see more Ted Danson in movies again… but I do now.

It’s got soul. It’s rare that silly style comedies also bring a lot of heart and soul to it. Take Superbad for example. It was a great comedy that I laughed a lot in. Great film… but you’ll have a hard time convincing me it had any heart (and that’s totally fine for the type of movie that it was). But The Amateurs brought a lot of it to the table. You love these guys. You cheer for them. You feel like you know them… you actually empathize and care. The movie was about more than tits and lesbian jokes, and it’s on that level that the movie becomes special.

THE BAD

Some of the film just gets too down right cheesy. The ending in particular felt more like something out of Naked Gun that what I think it was gunning for. The strongest parts of the film where when (although with an outrageous situation) it felt real. The outrageous in the real is often what attracts us… but too often this film slips into the slapstick, almost Monty Python style story telling which just didn’t work in this movie

OVERALL

Most critics didn’t like this movie… but once in a while all of us have opinions that break away from the mainstream and I have to do that here. I LOVE THE AMATEURS! Jeff Bridges is at his very best. Ted Danson shows an amazing side of his talent that we’ve never seen before and William Fitchner proves yet again he’s one of Hollywood’s most under appreciated character actors. The Amateurs is a comedy with enormous heart that had me laughing, and feeling, the whole way through. The frequent departures into the slapstick feel took much away from what had the potential to be an instant comedy classic… but even with that one brutal flaw, I still ended up thoroughly enjoying The Amateurs. I hope you will too.

I give The Amateurs an 8 out of 10.

When Lord of the Rings became such a smash success, we all knew it was inevitable that the studios would go hunting for other fantasy novel franchises to develop into films. Eragon and Narnia are two such examples… and most figured that The Golden Compass (From the His Dark Materials series) would get done… and sure enough they announced it was coming with none other than Nicole Kidman taking the lead (sort of).

To be honest, with Kidman and Daniel Craig featured so heavily in a fantasy epic movie based on a successful book series, I’ve been pretty underwhelmed with the amount of buzz I’ve sensed for the film. Not as many people talking about it as I would have expected. Personally I haven’t exactly been blown away by the trailers or ads either. Seems the PR companies have been putting more effort into manufacturing fake “controversy” for the movie than they did for the actual marketing campaign. But that’s neither here nor there.

THE GENERAL IDEA

In a parallel universe to our own and thousands of others, another world exists where each person’s soul or spirit walks beside them manifested as an animal spirit or avatar that they call “demons”. This world is ruled by the authority known as “The Magisterium” who are basically the representation of the church (please note, I’m talking about how it is represented in the movie… not the books) who have dictated the world’s understanding of the the universe for centuries. Daniel Craig discovers truths about the universe that directly contradict that teachings of The Magisterium which pits the forces of the authority on a quest to stop Craig from proving his theories.

In the midst of all this, an old artifact, the golden compass, is passed to a young girl who is Craig’s niece. The Compass has to power to show the truth to whoever can read it (problem is that no one can read it… except this child). The girl embarks on a quest to save other children who have gone missing and finds herself caught up and at the very center of a brewing war between the Magisterium and those who stand against them.

THE GOOD

Visually the movie is just breathtaking. Everything from the costume, the city streets, the landscapes right down to the interior decorating of the offices and apartments. Such imagination and creativity went into making the world invoke a sense of wonder and awe. They made the world feel so much like our own, and yet so very different.

With each person in the world having their own demon (the animal spirits) you can imagine the screen getting quite cluttered with loads of unnecessary characters (each demon really is its own full personality character). But the film uses them each in a marvelous way… all with their own distinct personalities and designs. The “performances” brought out of each of them was an asset to the film rather than a distraction.

The mythology of the world the movie inhabits was very rich. he Magisterium, the animal spirits, Dust, alternate universes, polar bear warriors, witches… it’s all very vast and creates a wonderful playground for our imaginations to dwell in for a couple of hours. Sometimes fantasy films do a great job of coming up with a solid narrative, but don’t create an imaginative world for the story to live and breath in. Golden Compass succeeds on this level.

The Polar Bears. The nobel warriors in the world completely knocked my socks off. Ian McKellen does a masterful job voicing the mighty Lorek Byrnison, an exiled Bear warrior who joins the young girl on her quest and swears to protect and aid her. His side story was (to me anyway) the very best part of this movie in terms of story AND adventure AND action. Every single moment Lorek is on screen Golden Compass is fun to watch.

THE BAD

Sadly, the CONCEPT of the Magisterium in the film ends up being a lot more fun and interesting that the actual characters themselves. It’s always a shame when movies take a good idea for “bad guys” and just ruin them by making them so over the top “evil” that they end up being just a cheesy annoyance when on screen rather than the commanding presence they should be while instilling a sense of dread or fear. The members and agents of The Magisterium play like they should be wearing a big black top hat, twirling their mustaches while laughing “Muha ha ha haaaaaaa”.

Without question the worst part of this film… is the story telling. No one, no place, no object and no “myth” or “legend” in the film had any soul whatsoever. We are introduced to great concepts or great characters or great stories, but then we are simply whisked away to something else without ever giving any depth or soul to the various elements. We meet John Faa (the King of the Gyptians), but we see nothing of the esence of his character. We just meet him, told who he is, then he has some lines, and he’s then abandoned. Other than Lorek the Bear, no characters in the film have any sort of depth at all, as the film quickly skips ahead without giving any richness to what we’ve seen up to that point. The story of the film was great, the world in which the story is told is perfect…. but the story telling failed. Or to put it another way:

It felt like I was watching the Cliff Notes version of the movie… but it was still 2 hours long.

OVERALL

A beautiful looking film with a rich world, mythology and terrific story, almost spoiled by director Chris Weitz’s inability to tell the story in a compelling or engaging way (which is odd since he did both so well in “About A Boy”). The movie still does entertain on several levels, and there is certainly all the building blocks there for the franchise to improve and build on. In general I liked the movie, but I’ll probably forget about it tomorrow.

I give The Golden Compass a 6 out of 10

So here’s a question. How does a movie featuring Jessica Alba, Hayden Christensen and Terrence Howard just sneak into theaters with hardly anyone even knowing the movie exists? The answer is simple… it’s a HORRIBLE BORING movie that the studios knew well enough to not bother blowing more money on a marketing campaign for.

THE GENERAL IDEA

Hayden Christensen plays one of the wealthiest men in the world who also happens to have a heart of gold who uses his wealth to not only build MORE wealth, but also to improve the city and create jobs for people. Such a nice guy. Problem is, even though he has a proverbial heart of gold, his LITERAL heart is bad and he’s in need of a heart transplant. He’s also secretly engaged to Jessica Alba’s character who he loves with his whole defective heart… but he’s been hesitant to tell his mother who he fears will freak out at the news.

One thing leads to another and when a heart becomes available, Hayden goes in for the transplant operation with his best friend (Terrence Howard) performing the procedure. The problem is, Hayden experiences a real condition called “anesthetic awareness” where the patient is put under, but is fully conscious and aware of what is going on and can still hear and feel everything. That would SUCK! While lying helpless and yet fully awake on the operating table (to everyone else it looks like he’s under) Hayden discovers that someone has a plan to kill him and profit from his death. DUN DUN DUUUUUNNNN!

THE GOOD

There is one pretty decent plot twist in the film.. and another AWESOME plot twist that total caught me off guard and I did not see coming. I obviously can tell you what it is except to say that it was set up in such a way that it really got me, and not only was it a twist just for the sake of a twist… it actually played perfectly into the story. It really was well done.

Terrance Howard as the Hayden’s best friend and doctor was very good. He played the role with a lot of subtlety and made great use of gestures and mannerisms to express and communicate things about his character.

The operating scenes looked VERY real. I’m not kidding… it was outrageously uncomfortable to watch… which leads us to…

THE BAD

Ok, we frigging get it. Open heart surgery looks gross. I kid you not… at least 20 minutes of the film the camera was on a ripped open chest. I can completely see the need for it up to a certain point (ie. seeing the doctors break his chest open so we can identify with and experience some of the horror Hayden must be experiencing being awake), but after that it was just gratuitous. It’s almost as if the producer said “Damn, we spent $300,000 on this realistic open chest… lets use it on screen as much as possible”. It became a total distraction from the story (not that there was much of one) and just felt needless as if they were just killing time.

No pace. People often misunderstand me when I say a film lacked pace. Slow movies are fine if there is a sense of motion to them, a pace. This movie from the first 5 minutes felt like it was trying to drive 2 wheel through thick mud. Entire sections of the film were just at a stand still with no progression or development. The best way to describe it is that it felt like at times the movie was just loitering.

Pointless. Here’s the thing… the movie is called “AWAKE” which suggests one of the key things to the story is that fact that Hayden is conscious during the procedure and over hears secrets in the operating room. Great…. but it has NO EFFECT on the story whatsoever. If this movie were done again, only Hayden was actually out cold… EVERYTHING else in the movie would have been 100% the exact same. I’m not kidding. Hayden being “AWAKE” has NOTHING to do with the rest of the story or the movie at all. It was completely pointless. Very frustrating for someone who sat through the whole thing waiting for the relevance that never arrived.

OVERALL

Some respectable performances (even by Alba) and an AMAZING little plot twist are wasted on this motionless, boring and by the end pointless film. Gore gimmicks that are better suited for the SAW series became a distraction, and having your main premise of the film end up being irrelevant to the actual story didn’t help either. AWAKE is a boring, uncomfortable film that felt much longer than it actually was. Don’t bother with it. I end up giving Awake a 3/10.

Went into “The Mist” with a sense of optimism. Frank Darabont is just one of the best directors out there, the story is a great one, and the previews have all looked pretty slick. So did The Mist deliver?

THE GENERAL IDEA

The Mist starts off with a horrible storm that causes most of the people in town to go to the central supermarket. While people buy supplies a think blanket of mist rolls in. When people try to leave the store and enter the mist, they are rewarded with the sweet embrace of death!

We follow (Thomas Jane) and his son through the movie and tension builds as they try to figure out if staying or leaving he store is the best option. Defenses are breached and otherworldly creatures begin to plunder the supermarket for fresh human meat.

THE GOOD

The beginning of the film is great, we launch very quickly into the story and it sets the mood of impending doom beautifully. Jain does a great job as the lead, and his son (played by Nathan Gamble) was outstanding. The creatures were otherworldly with some semblance to creatures of earth which made them seem plausible. People as a “food source” always creeps the hell out of me!

The end of this movie was awesome. It did not end how I anticipated, but it was perfect for the type of film that this was. I would tell you more, but I do not want to spoil it for those of you that will see it.

The kid who plays the son turns in one of the very best performances by a child actor we’ve ever seen. Not once did he not act like a real child of that age. His was probably the most authentic performance of the whole bunch.

THE BAD

The middle dragged. This movie should of been 90 min, it would of been so much better. Themes were repeated over and over and the tension started to stall. I am not certain why they felt the need to make this movie as long as it was, it would of benefited tremendously if it had additional editing.

There was one religious quack character in the movie that was given way too much screen time. She was overly blatant and the “religious people are crazy” theme was over done and in your face to the point of annoyance. She was not believable as a character, nor was she likable enough to realistically amass a group of followers in any situation. This character was overdone and overused. The movie just got plain old “PREACHY”… except it was anti-religion preachy, but hyper preachy nonetheless, and that got really annoying really fast.

Also at times the effects did not blend in as well as we have seen in other films, but use of rubber tentacles may have been a better choice. Some creatures looked meh, some looked alright - the mist always looked like fog.

OVERALL

For the first 20 min I thought I was going to really like this film. It started strong, dragged in the middle and ended strong, so I still enjoyed myself, but it was just alright. This movie could have been good, if they just trimmed the fat, and did something with the “coo coo lady”. I would reservedly recommend this to fans of suspense/horror films, but for those of you that do not fancy the genre, it may be best to spend your money elsewhere. 6/10

The movie is a flashback to the first mission of the Pegasus once it came under Apollo’s command and a a flashback of the flashback (stay with me here) of Apollo’s new Executive Officer as she remembers first coming on board the Pegasus just before the start of the new Cylon War under Admiral Cain.

The main character of the movie is Apollo’s new first officer Kendra Shaw. Shaw first came aboard the Pegasus under Admiral Cain just before the Cylons launched their sneak attack. We follow both Kendra and Cain as the new realities they live under start to alter them, blurring their moral code ultimately leading us to seeing them do things that they probably would have never thought themselves capable of.

Now, under Lee Adama (Apollo) Kendra is the second in command and is tortured by her secret past while under Cain. Admiral Adama gives Pegasus a mission to find a missing scout ship, only to discover that the missing ship has been captured by OLD STLYE CYLONS from the first Cylon war (yes folks… the cylon models from the Original Battlestar Galactica serise), and the Admiral sends Pegasus back to rescue the crew of the scout ship, and to destroy the old Cylons.

THE GOOD STUFF (Possible spoilers)

Fist of all, it was so great seeing Battlestar Galactica on the TV again. Just hearing the theme music filled my empty heart with joy.

Second, seeing the old style cylons RULED!!!! Not only the robots, but also the old style ships being piloted by 3 cylons. The damn things even spoke in their classic robotic voices and one even said the immortal line “By your command”. I was grinning like an idiot when they did that.

Third, seeing more back story to Admiral Cain was great. Also, seeing how she went from a highly respected officer in the fleet, to the monster we saw in the second season of BSG was an interesting character study (SPOILER - We also find out that Cain and one of the Number Six models were lesbian lovers, which sort of explains a lot).

THE BAD STUFF

As much as I liked seeing Cain descend into madness, the descent was far to sudden (SPOILER - She literally went from one moment chatting with her Executive Officer who appears to be her best friend, to shooting him in the head… just like that).

The flashbacks of flashbacks of flashbacks got a little convoluted. Don’t misunderstand me… it’s not that it was hard to follow, it just took a lot of the flow out of the movie, The whole thing is a flashback, then Kendra flashes back from the flashback. Then Adama has a flashback in the flashback, then Kendra has a flashback of the flashback of the flashback. Some of the jumping around was good storytelling… but some felt intrusive and like excess baggage.

There was no point. This was the biggest flaw of Razor. If you’re going to have a flashback story like this one, it should serve a purpose to the larger ongoing story with where we’re at now… and Razor didn’t do that… EXCEPT… (SPOILER - At the very end, a dying Cylon hybrid tells Kendra that Starbuck if the harbinger of doom for the human race and that she will bring destruction on all humanity. That’s big… but it was one, totally out of place line that had NOTHING to do with the rest of the movie. So in essence, it felt like the whole 2 hour movie was just for letting that cylon say that one line, which sort of soured the who thing for me a bit)

OVERALL

It was great seeing Battlestar Galactica on the screen again, even better to see the old style cylons, and in general it was a good little tv movie. However, like the 2nd half of season 3, it felt lacking. I’m glad I saw it, but I certainly wouldn’t have been missing anything if I skipped it.

Here’s hoping Season 4 follows the first 2.5 seasons and not the last .5