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 Sunday night the Oscars for acting will be handed out. And while some of the acting categories seem locked, others look like they could go any which way. Bridges or Clooney? Or could there be a dark horse in Renner? Streep or Bullock? Wouldn’t it be a hoot if Penélope Cruz actually won for Nine? Vote for your faves and let’s see who comes out on top. Who was the Best Actor? Jeff Bridges in Crazy [... Keep reading]  This is a wonderful film! It should be on the expanded Academy Awards list for Best Picture, but sadly it isn’t. At least both Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as his wife Sofya are nominated in their respective acting categories. The Last Station is the story of the last years of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy’s life, his tempestuous relationship with this wife, his coterie of adoring sycophants who turned him into a cult figure, and a young man who became his personal secretary and family confidante. Fear not though; this is not a [... Keep reading]  Garry Marshall is brilliant. He made a mildly entertaining movie with an A-List cast and a name that virtually guarantees it a place in holiday rerun history. Valentine’s Day is like Crash-light. Really, really, really light. It follows a bunch of folks whose lives intersect in various ways as they break up, make up, find love or survive singledom on Valentine’s Day in Los Angeles. The cast is a virtual who’s who of stars from the big and small screen – including McSteamy and McDreamy, Kathy Bates, Jamie Foxx, Topher Grace, Jessica Biel, Ashton Kutcher, Anne Hathaway, [... Keep reading]  Dear John seemed to come out of nowhere Super Bowl weekend to rake in more than $30 million and overtake Avatar atop the Box Office charts. But those aliens of Pandora needn’t worry too much. Movie-goers will write off Dear John way before it gets anywhere near Avatar’s record-breaking totals. Not that it’s a bad movie. It just doesn’t resonate beyond the theater walls. And I didn’t cry once! Dear John is the latest in a slew of Nicholas Sparks novels to be turned into a big screen romantic drama (The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, Nights [... Keep reading]  Seriously? That’s what I thought when I heard the Coen Brothers film announced as an Oscar nominee for best picture. It’s out on DVD now and I have to admit I saw it a while ago but I struggled with my review because all I wanted to say about it was “I hated it.” I can’t help but think that if anybody but Joel and Ethan Coen (Academy darlings that they are) had made this movie, it would never have been nominated for an Academy Award. A Serious Man chronicles the woes of one Larry Gopnik, [... Keep reading]  The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is one of those small arty films starring an impressive roster of accomplished actors who probably took the gig for the love of the material rather than box-office glory. It’s a psychological drama tinged with wry humor and melancholy. So if you like that sort of stuff, you’ll probably like this film. Robin Wright Penn plays Pippa Lee, a middle-aged woman who’s married to a much older man (Herb, played by Alan Arkin) who decides the couple should live out their remaining years together in a staid retirement community in Connecticut. [... Keep reading]  Terry Gilliam does not make mainstream movies. They are always quirky and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is no exception. Part of the strangeness this time is that (as anyone who has not been living in an underground lair is aware) Heath Ledger died while they were shooting and they had to come up with a way to finish it without him. So for three fantasy sequences in the movie (that somehow make perfect sense anyway), the character Tony meant to be portrayed by HL is played instead by Johnny [... Keep reading]  I finally had the chance (i.e. excuse) to see this movie when my 10-year-old niece decided she wanted to see it for a second time. After all, there’s just something intrinsically appealing about a good ol’ fashioned, hand-drawn Disney princess fairy tale and the promise of a “happily ever after.” The Princess and the Frog follows the standard formula of the princess classics, but with a few modern twists. Our heroine is a hard-working, African-American waitress named Tiana (voiced by Anika Noni Rose) who dreams of opening her own restaurant in the great city of [... Keep reading]  It’s Complicated is a good, solid chick flick – a romantic comedy with two endearing leads in Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin. It’s also the tamest ‘R’ rated movie I think I’ve ever seen. I’m told the rating had something to do with the inclusion of a pot-smoking scene, which is ironic since unlike The Hangover or Pineapple Express, I highly doubt anyone younger than 40 will attempt to sneak into this one! It’s purely an adult movie with adult themes and humor. Streep plays Jane Adler, a successful, attractive middle-aged divorcee who hooks up with [... Keep reading]  I heard about Chéri when it was around, but being in small town USA, it was only here for an instant and I missed it. Fortunately, it is now on DVD and it is a great chick flick, especially for women over 35. 50+ and still ravishing, Michelle Pfeiffer is lovely playing Léa, a courtesan of a certain age in Belle Époque Paris. Rupert Friend (Albert in The Young Victoria) plays Chéri, the 19-year-old son of one of Léa’s old courtesan rivals (Kathy Bates). He has known and loved Léa since childhood, and [... Keep reading] |
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