Gretta (Keira Knightley) is a British songwriter living in the U.S. with her boyfriend, Dave Kohl (Adam Levine). While in the UK they were very much a team, but they were brought to the US by a label that maybe discovered him after his song(s) were in a movie. Since he's the one that was brought over by a label, he's the one getting all that attention, so she's being treated kind of shiftily. Then he just goes ahead and ditches her for some chick at the label he's known for a month.
Gretta heads to her mate Steve's place on the Lower East Side, planning a trip back to the UK, but he ropes her into open mic night at Arlene's grocery.
Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a washed-out A&R guy, sees her at Arlene's and can imagine the song with the other instruments. He pursues her for his old label. Mos Def, his old partner, isn't having it. Dan decides to record it alone with her. Outside. On the streets. It's a bit of a rough idea. They rope in James Corden. Then Dan recruits a cello and violin player and teaches them the accompaniment parts he imagined at Arlene's, a keyboardist, guitar player and drummer, and suddenly there's a backup band. That all happens pretty quickly, watch it and find out.
They need bass musicians, which is where Cee Lo Green comes in. No money, no problem, because Mark Ruffalo is worth it. [Please note, this is the first person in the movie to give him any credit for being worth a damn, although you can tell deep down his ex-wife (Catherine Keener, whose face is now 75% covered by hair - it's important to see her movies before the eclipse becomes complete) thinks he's alright, although his daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) thinks he's crappy. Can this new record turn all that around?]
They bond, it's sweet.
Dave Kohl shoots to stardom, claims to be finally achieving his amazing dreams that he never used to have, so that's fabulous.
This movie totally comes together. Good indie flick.
Availability: Netflix Streaming, Amazon, Hulu
Released: 2013
Reason I watched: Just found it on Netflix today
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Boogeyman 3
I'd seen the first two, which I must have liked okay. I think I remember the first one, and it was good. No recollection of the second one.
This one is in a dorm, no recognizable actors, and I really wanted it to end.
Skip it.
This one is in a dorm, no recognizable actors, and I really wanted it to end.
Skip it.
Availability: DVD only
Released: 2008
Added to my queue: 10/10/2010
Reason added to my queue: I like to watch things through to the end of the series. But if there's a Boogeyman 4, count me out. Saturday, April 11, 2015
City of Ember
This kind of movie is typically not my fare - and as usual, it's been so long since I added it, I have no idea why I did. Post-apocalyptic science fiction, I would normally leave on the shelf. That's probably why (and yes, I know I'm doing this more and more often) it's been sitting here since the beginning of March.
Before I go on, I have to admit: I am really fuzzy on what post-apocalyptic is intended to mean. I have read the Bible, for what it's worth. From what I recall and have heard, it involves the "End of Days." And Judgment Day is in there, where humans are confronted about their beliefs and sent to heaven or hell. I guess I have two points where I get confused. My first is, I have for whatever reason understood that Earth would also be destroyed in the apocalypse. My second is, I have always thought the people would be destroyed in the apocalypse.
These bring me to my main problem with post-apocalyptic movies. Unless they take place on another planet (I suppose I could understand a few people escaping, but if God knew about it, wouldn't he go after them?), it really lowers the believability of the movie AND the Bible for me.
Science fiction, I mean. I'm not that into science fiction.
Anyway, I had to watch this in order to send it back to Netflix.
The film's main character, Lina Mayfleet (Saorse Ronan, Atonement) is a teenage girl living with her mother (Mary Kay Place), crazy Granny, and little omnivore sister in an underground city in a "post-apocalyptic" situation. As glamorous as this sounds, it actually sucks, because there's very little freedom and kids are given jobs by picking them out of a bag on a special day. None of the jobs sound very fun, either. Nobody gets to be, say, PR executive for cruise ships. One of my sorority sisters does that and it sounds awesome.
Ember's Mayor (Bill Murray) is a benevolent-dictator type, and when Ember's generator (which keeps the entire city in play) goes on the fritz, he allays concerns by appointing a new (pretend) task force to investigate. This is not enough for little Lina, and she and her friend Doon (Harry Treadaway) decide to seek further truths...encouraged by Doon's father, Barrow Harrow (at this point, I was too invested to get irritated with the cheese), played by Tim Robbins.
I won't ruin the ending for you, but I ended up finding it engaging and interesting - AND wanted to see how it ended. It would also make for a fun amusement park ride.
Before I go on, I have to admit: I am really fuzzy on what post-apocalyptic is intended to mean. I have read the Bible, for what it's worth. From what I recall and have heard, it involves the "End of Days." And Judgment Day is in there, where humans are confronted about their beliefs and sent to heaven or hell. I guess I have two points where I get confused. My first is, I have for whatever reason understood that Earth would also be destroyed in the apocalypse. My second is, I have always thought the people would be destroyed in the apocalypse.
These bring me to my main problem with post-apocalyptic movies. Unless they take place on another planet (I suppose I could understand a few people escaping, but if God knew about it, wouldn't he go after them?), it really lowers the believability of the movie AND the Bible for me.
Science fiction, I mean. I'm not that into science fiction.
Anyway, I had to watch this in order to send it back to Netflix.
The film's main character, Lina Mayfleet (Saorse Ronan, Atonement) is a teenage girl living with her mother (Mary Kay Place), crazy Granny, and little omnivore sister in an underground city in a "post-apocalyptic" situation. As glamorous as this sounds, it actually sucks, because there's very little freedom and kids are given jobs by picking them out of a bag on a special day. None of the jobs sound very fun, either. Nobody gets to be, say, PR executive for cruise ships. One of my sorority sisters does that and it sounds awesome.
Ember's Mayor (Bill Murray) is a benevolent-dictator type, and when Ember's generator (which keeps the entire city in play) goes on the fritz, he allays concerns by appointing a new (pretend) task force to investigate. This is not enough for little Lina, and she and her friend Doon (Harry Treadaway) decide to seek further truths...encouraged by Doon's father, Barrow Harrow (at this point, I was too invested to get irritated with the cheese), played by Tim Robbins.
I won't ruin the ending for you, but I ended up finding it engaging and interesting - AND wanted to see how it ended. It would also make for a fun amusement park ride.
Availability: DVD only
Released: 2008
Added to my queue: 10/10/2010
Reason added to my queue: Oh who knows.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
The Women
Clare Booth Luce's play, The Women, has a special significance for me. When I was a teenager, in drama class, we had to do two-person scenes from plays, and one of the scenes I chose was from this play. From that scene, in which a woman discovers that her best friend's husband is having an affair, I was enchanted. I longed to see a production of the entire play.
Years later, living in Manhattan, I had that chance. I procured tickets to The Women for a group of my friends, and was able to see the entire juicy story of loyalty, jealousy, betrayal, gossip, catfights, truth, honesty, and friendship that makes women's relationships with each other so delicate, complicated, painful, and hilarious.
There is a movie version from 1939, directed by George Cukor and starring Joan Crawford, which was excellent and MUCH more true to the play....
When I saw that another movie version was being made, I was not inclined to see it, lest they royally screw it up or otherwise ruin it for me. But somehow, on October 10, 2010, I added it to my Netflix queue, and despite having it in my house since this PAST October, I finally decided to watch it last week. After all, Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing, Eva Mendes, et al can't ALL be wrong, right?
Actually, right. While this version is updated for the 21st century (and therefore MUCH more loosely based on the play), this movie is good. It's all the things I mention above, and a great chick flick. Plus, as I remembered from the play, there are no men in it. Literally. Even the cheating husband never shown in person.
And Meg Ryan's plastic surgery isn't distracting, she looked basically fine, I thought.
Years later, living in Manhattan, I had that chance. I procured tickets to The Women for a group of my friends, and was able to see the entire juicy story of loyalty, jealousy, betrayal, gossip, catfights, truth, honesty, and friendship that makes women's relationships with each other so delicate, complicated, painful, and hilarious.
There is a movie version from 1939, directed by George Cukor and starring Joan Crawford, which was excellent and MUCH more true to the play....
When I saw that another movie version was being made, I was not inclined to see it, lest they royally screw it up or otherwise ruin it for me. But somehow, on October 10, 2010, I added it to my Netflix queue, and despite having it in my house since this PAST October, I finally decided to watch it last week. After all, Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing, Eva Mendes, et al can't ALL be wrong, right?
Actually, right. While this version is updated for the 21st century (and therefore MUCH more loosely based on the play), this movie is good. It's all the things I mention above, and a great chick flick. Plus, as I remembered from the play, there are no men in it. Literally. Even the cheating husband never shown in person.
And Meg Ryan's plastic surgery isn't distracting, she looked basically fine, I thought.
Availability: DVD only
Released: 2008
Added to my queue: 10/10/2010
Reason added to my queue: Not sure!?!?
Friday, February 6, 2015
Bangkok Dangerous
I fell in love with Nicolas Cage the first time I saw him. This was not in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, although if it had been, I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed him. It has taken subsequent viewings to realize he was even there.
No, friends, my love for Nicolas Cage began with Valley Girl. That movie is amazing and I've seen it a bazillion times, and shut up if you don't like it because it means you have terrible taste.
Unfortunately, the last Nicolas Cage movie I remember really liking was Face/Off. That was another excellent movie, where he spent the majority of the film doing his best John Travolta impression, and vice versa - with both succeeding wildly.
I have not really sought out his movies since then...until Bangkok Dangerous landed in my mailbox from Netflix. It's in a Halloween envelope, so I'm assuming I've had it since October; I have been studying for a licensure exam, and did not get around to watching it until this week.
Bangkok Dangerous is a decent action movie, with Nicolas Cage playing Joe, an assassin who has traveled to Thailand to do some...assasinating, and Shakrit Yamnarm as his "student" that he begins training, for kind of random reasons even though becoming close to a random guy makes Joe vulnerable to outside attack. The storyline isn't all that weak. There's even a sweet romance between Joe and a deaf pharmacy salesgirl, which is a nice break from the action AND a particularly nice break from Cage's voice, since she can't hear him and it is therefore pointless for him to talk.
Which brings me to the crux of my problem here. Why is Nicolas Cage so bizarre these days? In days of yore, he just had a very unique look and voice. These days, he has this jet-black combed-back hair that is ridiculous. And his voiceover narration of this movie is indescribably annoying. I have a vocabulary, but cannot find the words to explain what about his voice pins down the annoyingness.
He looks like he's trying to become creepy, and he sounds like he might want to become creepy. Not in this movie only - in life. But he's only succeeding in making me want to shake him and say, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? WHY ARE YOU DOING MOVIES LIKE BANGKOK DANGEROUS?"
Twist at end.
**UPDATE**
Clearly I am not in touch with pop culture, and everyone already agrees with me.
https://screen.yahoo.com/weekend-cage-000000506.html
Twist at end.
**UPDATE**
Clearly I am not in touch with pop culture, and everyone already agrees with me.
https://screen.yahoo.com/weekend-cage-000000506.html
at end.
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
The Foot Fist Way
Okay, so I might be back.
Today, I watched this movie. The premise is that Tae Kwon Do instructor, Mr. Simmons, played by Danny McBride (of "East Bound and Down" fame), basically is all macho and thinks he has his life by the horns. In reality, his life is boring, his wife is a whore, and even if any of it is worth hanging on to, he has none of it within his control. More things happen. I can't remember how much or how little you want me to spoil on these blog posts. Characters to watch are Suse, his sometimes sympathetic, sometimes just whorish wife (played by Mary Jane Bostic); Chuck "The Truck" Wallace, (Ben Best), a martial arts icon who is more of a burned out douchebag; Julio Chavez, (Spencer Moreno) a "little walls have big ears" kid who looks up to Mr. Simmons and will do anything for him; and, Carlos Lopez (played by Henry Harrison), a meek, skinny teenager - will he ever defeat the tough guy?
Am I glad I watched this movie: I mean, sure. I didn't not like this movie. I laughed a few times. I did not cry. I found characters interesting enough to want to see good things or bad things happen to them.
Weirdly: I had this sense from the start that it reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite. DO NOT GO IN THINKING THIS MOVIE WILL REMIND YOU OF NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. There's just something about the quality of the filming and the extremely understated acting that reminds me of the ND movie. I do understand that Napoleon Dynamite has reached cult status, and while I have seen it once, I did not then nor do I now appreciate the apparently genius comic writing and acting that is captured in that film. Forgive me or unfriend me now. I have seen genius comedy. I know genius comedy. That movie is, at best, I mean, I can't even comment on it. I found it barely funny. I guess different people find different things amusing, but literal comedic genius is objectively funny.
I was happier than I thought I'd be when I watched the movie, but I also thought it was going to be in Japanese. I had no idea what to expect.
Availability: DVD only
Released: 2006
Added to my queue: 3/19/2011
Reason added to my queue: Who knows.
Today, I watched this movie. The premise is that Tae Kwon Do instructor, Mr. Simmons, played by Danny McBride (of "East Bound and Down" fame), basically is all macho and thinks he has his life by the horns. In reality, his life is boring, his wife is a whore, and even if any of it is worth hanging on to, he has none of it within his control. More things happen. I can't remember how much or how little you want me to spoil on these blog posts. Characters to watch are Suse, his sometimes sympathetic, sometimes just whorish wife (played by Mary Jane Bostic); Chuck "The Truck" Wallace, (Ben Best), a martial arts icon who is more of a burned out douchebag; Julio Chavez, (Spencer Moreno) a "little walls have big ears" kid who looks up to Mr. Simmons and will do anything for him; and, Carlos Lopez (played by Henry Harrison), a meek, skinny teenager - will he ever defeat the tough guy?
Am I glad I watched this movie: I mean, sure. I didn't not like this movie. I laughed a few times. I did not cry. I found characters interesting enough to want to see good things or bad things happen to them.
Weirdly: I had this sense from the start that it reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite. DO NOT GO IN THINKING THIS MOVIE WILL REMIND YOU OF NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. There's just something about the quality of the filming and the extremely understated acting that reminds me of the ND movie. I do understand that Napoleon Dynamite has reached cult status, and while I have seen it once, I did not then nor do I now appreciate the apparently genius comic writing and acting that is captured in that film. Forgive me or unfriend me now. I have seen genius comedy. I know genius comedy. That movie is, at best, I mean, I can't even comment on it. I found it barely funny. I guess different people find different things amusing, but literal comedic genius is objectively funny.
I was happier than I thought I'd be when I watched the movie, but I also thought it was going to be in Japanese. I had no idea what to expect.
Availability: DVD only
Released: 2006
Added to my queue: 3/19/2011
Reason added to my queue: Who knows.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
The Dead Girl
This movie shows the impact of the death of a young prostitute (Brittany Murphy) on multiple people, including:
- The woman who finds the body, played by Toni Collette
- A family who has lost their daughter/sister (Mary Steenburgen, Bruce Davison, and Rose Byrne), and who believe the dead girl may be her
- A mother, played by Marcia Gay Harden, who comes to claim the body and learns why her daughter ran away, as well as details of her life before she died
- A wife, played by Mary Beth Hurt, who comes to believe her husband is responsible for a string of killings
- The dead girl, in the days before her death
This is the first Murphy movie I've seen since her 2009 death, and I'll admit it's weird watching her, particularly seeing her kind of cracked out yet hopeful and all of it.
I recommend the movie.
Availability: DVD only
Released: 2006
Added to my queue: 1/1/2008
Reason added to my queue: Netflix recommended based on my enjoyment of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Little Miss Sunshine, Brokeback Mountain, and American Beauty. Please note that while good, this movie is not in the league of these others.
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