Surrogates Has Bruce Willis Break Type-Casting by Playing a Law Enforcement Agent.
I knew from the first trailers that Surrogates looked so incredibly cool that it had to have high probability of sucking. In a stunning turn of a events, Bruce Willis is playing a cop–well, an F.B.I agent this time. However, I’m happy to report that it’s not that bad, but it is a fairly unspectacular sci-fi thriller that was brimming over with a high concept and not whole heck of a lot more in terms of plot or action. I’m sure this is one of those films that will have its niche cult following in the coming years, But I think we’re looking at high concept, low box-office gross film.
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The Informant!: A Fat Matt Damon and Director Soderbergh Will Leave You Kicking Yourself–In a Good Way.
While it’s not always the earmark of a great movie by any means, I love it when a film forces me to dwell on it intermittently the next day. I saw The Informant! last night and I walked out swimming in thoughts about the movie, mainly the character of Mark Whitacre, expertly brought to life by Matt Damon who packed on the pounds to take this part that’s well outside of his standard roles. Quite frankly, I’m not sure how good Damon’s performance is in this because it took me an entire 24 hours after the film to sort out the complexities of the character. I guess that means it was pretty darned “Okay.”
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9: Classic Tim Burton. Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That. Or Maybe There Is.
I can’t tell you how many times over the last 17 years I’ve gotten all excited seeing an incredibly cool trailer for a film only to have my expectations shattered to see Tim Burton’s name attached to the movie. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Tim Burton. He’s been responsible for some films I love, but I do generally consider his involvement with a movie as a curse rather than a benefit. I can pinpoint the exact day that I came to this decision about about Tim Burton. It was the evening of June 19th, 1992.
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Inglourious Basterds is Great Cinema but Falls Short of Being Tarantino’s Masterpiece.
When the opening credits for Inglourious Basterds rolled and Tarantino’s name flashed across the screen, I had an unexpected well-up of emotion that I hadn’t had in a movie in many years. Even though I’m a huge Tarantino fan I wasn’t expecting this. Basterds is the film that has been haunting Tarantino for years as his unfinished masterpiece with a massively long development process almost all in his quest to perfect the script. I had a great time with it, but the farther I get away from my first viewing and my first impressions of it continue to gel I have to admit that even with how incredibly well done it is, Basterds is a deeply flawed film.
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Peter Jackson’s District 9 is a Strong, Expert Drama Disguised as a Summer Sci-Fi Film
The trailers for District 9 sparked my interest as one of those guilty pleasure pulp-sci-fi flicks that come along every once in a while. I have no shame in admitting that I will continue to be an unashamed apologist for films like Independence Day, Starship Troopers or Total Recall. Instead, producer Peter Jackson and director Neil Blomkamp have surprised us with a first class character study wrapped up in an allegorical cautionary tale about morality and racism. It succeeds so wildy in this approach that I was completely blindsided by a powerfully good film shattering my complete lack of any real expectations. One of the small pleasures that I appreciate most in this life is walking into a movie expecting nothing and walking out grinning ear to ear completely blown away.
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If GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra Were a Horse, We’d Have to Put It Out of Its Misery.
I have to put the GI Joe phenomenon firmly in the same category as Transformers. While other kids my age were firmly engrossed in those two animated series in the 80s I was engaged in much more “mature” pursuits such as Star Trek, Doctor Who and mourning the loss of Three’s Company between planning my weekly schedule around Cheers and Night Court. However, the trailer for GI Joe tugged at the coolness factor of my long dead kid as well as the former lead actor from the recently resurrected Doctor Who, so I was hip for this, at least up until the first 45 minutes or so of sitting through it.
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Funny People Throws Expectations Out the Window for Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan.
The marketing for Funny People has to be the biggest act of cowardice in a movie marketing campaign in 2009. The trailers are desperately trying to sell this film as an Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan crazy laugh fest. There are plenty of laughs in the film, but the truth is that this is a serious, thoughtful character study that may be Judd Apatow’s best work as well as one of the best film’s I’ve seen this year, certainly not something I expected to say coming out of an Adam Sandler film.
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: No Way Weasley Shouldn’t Be All Over that Granger Chic
In the desperate rush to adapt all the Harry Potter novels before the stars of this popular film series become grandparents we’ve come to the sixth film, 
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have mixed feelings about this film series. I’ve never read one word of any of the books, but I understand the obsession of original fantasy/sci-fi works on young minds. I thought the first film, was quite good. The Chamber of Secrets was a rather bland follow up in my assessment and kind of what I expected. A good start followed by progressively less exciting followups until the money train finally dries up. I was wrong. I was actually surprised at how good Goblet of Fire was, best of the three. Progressively, every film in the series since has gotten better.
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Bruno: A Funny but Flawed Film That Reinforces Rather than Refutes Negative Stereotypes
I’ll admit that I was completely uninspired to see Borat when it hit theaters and indeed I didn’t. When I finally caught it on DVD later I was actually astounded that I liked it as well as I did. Apart from the shocking and funny moments in Borat, it really has a pretty important subtext about current U.S. cultural values, intolerance, and anti-semitism. I’m not touting Borat as an educational film, but it certainly manages to create some rather uncomfortable moments when showing real people at their worst. Bruno tries to brew some of the same cultural controversy around acceptance of homosexuality, but utterly fails.
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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — Damn You Michael Bay! A New Summer Cinema Low.
I believe that it may be in my best interests to forfeit my official position of being a mild Michael Bay apologist. Now I’m not completely bonkers, I’m not ranting on talkbacks about how he’s been snubbed for best director Oscars or anything, but the man is an entertainer. When he makes a film his number one goal is to do whatever he can to entertain the audience. Armageddon’s worst crime was not to moviegoers, it was to anyone with a basic knowledge of science. Other than that, I had a fun time with Armageddon. How often do you get to see Bruce Willis explode? With that out of the way, let me say that Michael Bay did not entertain me this weekend.
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