Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Cold Souls, The Box, Couples Retreat, Little Ashes, Fantastic Mr. Fox











A Few movies to do this time, I figured I better get these up here before I start watching the new ones I rented and seeing Alice in Wonderland on Friday! In no specific order here are the most recent movies I have watched.
Cold Souls-
Cold Souls stars one of my all time favorites Paul Giamatti, if I have yet to mention how much I love Paul Giamatti, I apologize for that, I love him so much that I cannot enter a wine section without saying in as loud of voice as possible “I don’t want no fucking merlot!” to Fish. So, I have an unfair bias to this film from the beginning. However this film is very interesting, touted on the back as a reimagining of a Woody Allen story, so I am completely confused by the IMDBers who have nothing better to do that bitch about how this movie is stolen from Woody Allen, obviously it says that right on the back! The story is about Paul Giamatti playing an actor named Paul Giamatti who is having a hard time with a depressing role so he decides to take his soul out and put it in storage, when he feels to hallow without it, he rents a Russian poet’s soul (or so he thinks) and does a fantastic performance. The issue arises when he starts seeing these crazy memories that are not his and he wants his soul back however now they cannot find his soul. This is one of those movies where the reviews are just off and utterly wrong. I swear if I see one more review raving about how hilarious a movie is when it is not really meant to be a funny movie I will freak out. Cold Souls does have funny pieces because Paul Giamatti’s interactions with people and reactions to events are funny but this movie isn’t really a comedy. It is however good and worth a rent. I can’t really go into much without giving away a lot. I know you can get it from reading the back of the movie, but don’t, just go in and watch it. I saw almost no previews or reviews for this movie in popular places, but when I was in the Arabian Nights room I saw a short clip on the movie preview channel for buying to watch and thought it looked funny so I knew I would rent it when it came out. You should all check it out if you have time.
Little Ashes
I am not a huge Salvador Dali fan that is my sister’s area of expertise. However, I have been a fan of his art alone for many years and can pick out many of his pieces. This is how I find the coolest presents for my sister. :-) Fish picked up this movie because we saw a preview of it on another movie and it looked very interesting. The movie stars Robert Patterson in a non shinny but still gay role as Salvador Dali, who I never even knew was gay, probably because he hid it his whole life and Javier Beltra’n as the famous poet Fredrico Garcia Lorca, who was excellent in this movie. The movie explores the secret and controversial relationship that develops between Dali and Lorca and explores the changing of times in Spain in the 1920’s. I learned a lot about Dali, I never knew he was a pompous ass like Picasso, but now I do, thanks Little Ashes! :-) The movie is very awkward and very weird at times but I chose to look past these parts. You will literally have to tighten your jaw on some scenes where if you do not you will die of laughter. IF you can make yourself serious and take the movie for the historic pieces then you will have found a good movie. The movie has an incredibly interesting storyline and I think that primarily the actors were not bad. I do think though that somewhere along the line either in directing or exploring the roles, the idea of making this movie a dramatic work of art was superseded by the issue of acting looking downright silly. The overall effect is a movie that could have been amazing but because of something I cannot put my finger on it fell short. Please rent it and tell me why you think it is not quite there, and please don’t just tell me it is Robert Patterson’s acting because he really isn’t THAT bad in it, (his acting was on par with Dali’s history and actions), nothing compared to Beltra’n (how do you make the Spanish ‘ on the keyboard?!?! :-( ) though.
The Box
The Box is another movie that fell short. It was much longer than I anticipated and the overall story that it is sold as is literally over in the first 20 minutes of the movie. I have seen interviews with the stars of this movie and they have it right you would either do or not do it there is no middle ground. The movie is about an upper middle class family who receives a box with a red button in it, they are told that if they push the button they will receive a million dollars but someone they don’t know will die and they have 24 hours to decide. They have no real reason to have a million dollars and when the wife (Cameron Diaz) pushes the button it opens up a whole new can of worms that takes the movie from a normal horror movie into a twisting, turning Wicker Man logic movie. Fish and I have had several discussions about this movie because in the end it didn’t make a lot of sense to either of us. However we came to a few conclusions, the box is only given to families that don’t NEED the money, of course they would like the money but they don’t need it. I suppose this is why I found the wife to be an idiot. Even if the box is a joke why would you push a button that would kill another person. In the movie she makes a comment that it could be a murder on death row, really? Cause that would cause a moral dilemma? No way! They would never kill a person who deserves to die otherwise where would the moral problem come from. I am so far to the “No Way” side that I could not understand why she hits the button and everything that happens I can’t help but think, you didn’t even need the money! The movie is well acted for what it is, except I kept looking at the matte job for the scar face man and that was completely distracting, damn you After Effects class!! The story is alright but really took a dive for the crazy as you can get in two hours mode. As referred to above, check out the Nicolas Cage Wicker Man for more on this type of writing. At the end I felt nothing for any of the characters, I felt nothing for the story, I felt nothing for anything associated with the movie other than an adamant I would not push the button. Would you push the button for a million dollars if it killed someone you didn’t know? There’s the whole concept of the movie and I would like to know from you! Fish: “It was Stupid, which is sad because it is by a great director, its just too dumb, everyone in the movie is dumb”
Couple Retreat
I don’t care what anyone says Vince Vaughn is funny. I enjoy his comedies very much even if they are stupid, stupid comedies are a nice change of pace from the serious movies we normally watch. I of course forced Fish to rent this movie and he of course did not like it. He felt it was too cliché, but that is more than likely the reason that I had to wait two weeks after it came out to rent it. America loves cliché! The movie was very predictable. There are no real moments where you don’t know what is going to happen. However this movie is not the movie you rent if you want a mind fuck movie or a strong drama, this is the movie you rent if you want classless jokes about sex, nudity and in this case relationship issues. This is a movie you rent because you are in the mood for mediocre. I personally found Vince Vaughn funny in this movie and there were some nice funny parts, but not up to the other comedies he stars in. The locations are gorgeous though and we both wish they had explored them a bit more! So if you want a crappy little movie to break from all the awesome movies, Couples Retreat is not a bad rental.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
I went into Fantastic Mr. Fox wanted to see awesomeness and while I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, I must admit that I think I worked myself up a bit too much as I was a bit let down. The movie is fantastic and included some AMAZING voice talent. In fact, I believe they could not have done a better job in casting. The animation is superb and the designs are amazing. The music is also very well placed. The story is nothing like the previews and that threw me for a loop but the story in the end was pretty interesting. I kept thinking the movie was going to end and then when it went on I was pleasantly surprised. The characters were very interesting but the story was very different and I personally think it could have had a bit more. I believe if the characters were not so awesome I would have very much disliked this movie. In fact when I think about it, if these characters had been people instead of animals then I may not have liked the movie at all, a weird thought to have since the actors are some of my favorites and like I said some amazing talents! This movie is a sort of piece of life movie and those can go seriously wrong, see ALL of Noah Baumbach’s other movies. When I saw that he was the screenplay writer I thought “There it is, there is why this movie can’t just grab me and hold me!” Again though, the movie is a very good movie, but if it were just regular people (not the amazing talent) it would just be another crappy Baumbach movie, thank God Wes Anderson is there to make it fantastic!
Love Love
Jettychan