Movie Reviews

I'm way behind on movie reviews, so here's some catching up:

Swing Vote - Kind of an interesting idea and had some nice playful political moments, but it was too long and too much of it was too stupid.

Pirate Radio - This was released as The Boat That Rocked in April in England and did badly. It was retitled Pirate Radio and shortened from about 3 hours to 2 hours for the US release. It's losely based on a true story but is really fiction. To me it played more as a collection of scenes rather than a story. The reason to see this is for the music. If you like the music you'll enjoy the time, otherwise skip it. And skip the soundtrack, the good songs aren't on it.

Babette's Feast - Saw this for the first time at the Coolidge Corner Theater with an opening food lecture by Guy Crosby from America's Test Kitchen and the actual dessert from the film provided by Finale. I found the film starts slow and tells a small story that had me wondering what the big deal was. Well it ends with a long feast that makes it all very worth while. I think the message is self-denial is crazy and decadent indulgence solves all problems.

The Men Who Stare at Goats - This had such promise but it didn't pay off. Clooney is entertaining as a former member of an Army ESP program led by Jeff Bridges basically replaying 'The Dude'. Though Kevin Spacey was perhaps my favorite. The flashbacks to the origins of the unit were the most fun, but the present day story couldn't find it's tone or center and didn't do much to keep me interested.

Red Cliff - I caught this on HDNet Movies just before the US theatrical release and loved it. There are a lot of characters to keep track of and it's confusing at times, but this shows epic battles that make the ones in the Lord of the Rings look small. You see real strategies thought up and attempted and it was great fun. There's also a bit of a romance and two female characters who really are necessary to the story (which is all too rare in war films). If you liked Crouching Tiger or Hero, this is a bit different (directed by John Woo) but just as great and beautiful to watch. One of the my favorites of the year.

The Messenger - tells the story of two men with one of the most difficult jobs. Staff Sgt. Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) is assigned to work with Capt. Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) and inform next of kin that their loved ones have been killed. Montgomery was recently wounded in combat and is still dealing with that and Stone is dealing with his own issues. They try to be the first to break the news so they operate on call. Everyone takes it differently and usually badly so Stone teaches Montgomery that it's best to do things by the book, though it doesn't usually help. This is a well done character study with strong performances and tells of a little known and difficult responsibility. I heard an interview and while all the scenes were scripted, Harrelson and Foster did not meet the actors or look at the sets before filming their notification scenes to add to the realism.

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans - By all accounts this looked awful but it was directed by Warner Herzog and got very strong reviews. I saw it in a group of 8 and was the only one that didn't like it. It's Nick Cage doing all his over-the-top schtick as a corrupt cop in New Orleans trying to deal with his drug addiction, gambling debts, prostitute girl friend, sick but on-the-wagon father with an off-the-wagon girl friend while tracking down crime. I can understand how people could find this entertaining as the story does continually spiral further out of control just to be slightly reigned in, but in the end, I never cared at all about Cage's character so I didn't care what happened to him (well, I was rooting for him to die about two-thirds of the way through the film).

Amreeka - is a really good about a mother and son that immigrate from Palestine to Illinois. The first half hour or so show's their life in Palestine dealing with check points and the occupation. To escape that and so her son can get a better education, they move to Illinois and live with her sister's family. There they deal with anti-Iraqi prejudice (yeah they wonder about that too) and trying to fit in as well as just the difficultly of raising teenagers and finding work. It all works because of Nisreen Faour's strong performance and a good script.

Infernal Affairs - This is the original Hong Kong film that The Departed was based on and I'd seen it before. I think Scorsese added plot holes, made it an hour longer, stupidly combined all the women characters into just one, added way more choreographed violence and blood set to rock music, and weakened the ending. In sum he dumbed it down and glorified the violence. See the original, there's more to it, though it is a little harder to tell all the characters apart.