Bea says: Terrible title, which made me suspect it was going to be a terrible film. Cecil read out the synopsis to me before we left, and that didn't reassure me either. But it was this or nothing (as every other choice was even worse, or we had already seen) at the Regal cinema multiplex in Vienna, West Virginia on Saturday night.
Acutally it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be - thanks mainly to the 3 main players, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake and Lucy Punch , as well as their director Jake Kasdan. They all showed great comic timing and deadpanned beautifully (although I was the only one in the audience giggling at the "Eat, Pray, Love" scene, and I am sure the young audience did not the Dangerous Minds reference either...). Of course Diaz has done this many times before, but Timberlake was surprisingly good, and was responsible, I am sure, for the swathes of teenagers in the audience - I didn't think young folk like that went to the cinema anymore!
The basic plot is not-as-young-as-she-used-to-be teacher and gold-digger Diaz finds herself dumped by her mealticket fiance, and reluctantly has to return to school to teach yet another year. She is, of course, completely disinterested in her job, and gets through the days showing DVDs to her hapless pupils while plotting how to raise enough money for breast enlargement surgery, in order to catch another rich bloke.
Enter Timberlake, a serious, and seriously well-off, substitute teacher. Throw overachieving teacher-across-the-hall Amy Squirrel into the mix and the film is basically a classic love triangle, with gym teacher Jason Segel waiting in the wings for Diaz's eventual fall.
Unfortunately, the writers are too heavy handed with Diaz's character, and even though she transforms a little through the film, it is difficult to summon up enough liking for her to care whether she ends up happily ever after or not. In fact, I felt more empathy with goody-two-shoes Squirrel, and was more interested in how her rather limited story progressed through the film. This heavy handedness comes hot on the heels of Bridesmaids for me, and kind of concerned me. I had a similar, if slightly less so, reaction to the main character of that film - I didn't really empathise with her enough to care enough about the outcome.
I kind of wonder what these kinds of main characters are trying to say, and I wondered what this film was trying to say overall - that you succeed when you are empty-headed and superficial and care more about your looks than your profession (what a great message...)? Or that money and things are unnecessary and all you need is love? This film felt a little confused, as did Bridesmaids, about where it was ultimately going and what it wanted to do and say, trying to go all out for bad taste and shock, then tying it all up nicely with a sugary ending.
**
Cecil says: Well, I have to take part of the blame for Bea thinking that young kids don't go to the cinema anymore. Thing is, it's me who chooses the films where we are the youngest in the room. So, it was one of the first things I noticed on Saturday, sitting on the back row as ever, that we were probably the oldest couple in the room for a change. I guess we'd need to go to a few more vampire or pirates films to repeat this experience...
I have to confess I was with Bea in caring more about the Squirrel/Timberlake partnership than about the build-up to gym teacher and Camern Diaz getting it together.
I guess both of us probably fell more into the goodie-two-shoes mode at school, though I like to think that both of us have also learnt to appreciate a bit of a wicked side since we left our respective educations. So, while I could recognise the sensible advice Diaz gives the poor, earnest geeky 7th grader about lurv and girls, on the whole, as Bea says, she didn't come across as a very likeable character or as someone we should care about in particular.
I did notice, like Bea, that people in the audience laughed at different episodes and stories: the scene where the kids buy a 'rape kit' got them rolling in the aisles; and similarly the bit where the flatmate goes head over heels over a car parked in the parking lot got a big guffaw across the auditorium.
Thing is, I like slapstick in the Chaplin/Keaton genre, but in a modern-day drama, even one trying to be light-hearted about life, this felt mis-placed (especially as we came across almost that exact incident on our drive home: guy falls off his motorbike and bangs his head on rocks: he was nastily injured, and it just wasn't funny).
I don't know. Maybe I should take a chill pill and lighten up a bit. But don't get me wrong; I didn't spend the entire film tut-tutting or thinking how awful it all was. I enjoyed the story really. It just isn't a film I'd choose to go and see again. But sometimes, you don't have much choice.
**
Monday, 27 June 2011
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Super 8
Bea says: Somewhat to my surprise, Cecil suggested this latest outing from Steven Spielberg as a matinee during a recent stay in Maine - we saw it at the lovely Colonial cinema in the waterfront town of Belfast.
The film did nothing so much as remind me of the halcyon days of my early teenage-hood, when myself and a group of school friends would take ourselves into Adelaide town centre to see whatever the latest Spielberg - or other blockbuster aimed at teens - offering was. Together we saw films like Karate Kid, Back to the Future (all parts), Ghostbusters (all parts) etc, until I went to university and got arty, and they drifted off into married and other lives.
Partly I was reminded of those days because the protagonists of the film were all in their early teenage years, partly it was the era depicted (although 1979 is a little early for me - I was about that age a few years later, in 1983) and partly it was just the general style, story line and events - kids get unwittingly caught up in military cover-up of alien life. Naturally, as in all good yarns involving kids, the kids are much, much cleverer than all the adults involved and manage to save the day with the adults barely noticing.
The Super-8 that the title refers to is also a subject of nostalgia these days - one of the kids is a budding film maker, and the vital sub-plot (although given the title, perhaps the alien conspiracy is really the sub-plot) running throughout is the Super-8 film he is making and planning to enter into a national competition - rather like, I do believe, Mr Spielberg himself used to do as a nipper (a probably well-known gem which I discovered recently at a Smithsonian exhibition). Stick around for the credits, as we always do, and you will get to see the Super-8 film the kids make.
This is pretty standard offering for this kind of genre, and it was entertaining and fairly gripping. My only criticism would be that I would have liked some kind of closure to the plot-line concerning the kids' teacher - who is vital to the film, and whose story is unfortunately abandoned after we see him injured and being ill treated in a military camp. Perhaps a little too much time on special effects and too little on tying up the plot's loose ends?
However, good fun, and good nostalgia.
** 1/2
Cecil says: On one level, this film could do no wrong: it was the end of a perfect day-out in the wonderful town of Belfast and in one of the movie theaters America does so well to preserve. Yes, the Colonial opened in 1912 and is working towards it centenary. They only had a dozen in for this matinee, but the public announcement at the start (projectionist standing on stage - it's so Cinema Paradiso) gave the impression it was sold out last Friday evening, so things are looking Ok for this grand old theatre.
As to the film itself, it did a lot of things I can't stand in movies: combining science fiction with 'real life'; having lots of special effects, which I hate; and making the story about the making of a film. But, you know, I kind of liked this film-making aspect of it. It all felt so like Bugsy Malone, but with the kids a few years older. And it certainly made me regret not having a bunch of creative friends like that when I was school - I'd have loved to be the 'lead' opposite the girl, though it's the make-up artist that gets the girl in the end. Nice twist!
Once all the shit kicked off and the alien monster begins to cause havoc round town, it all began to feel a bit like Scooby-Doo, as so many American movies do, but as long as I let myself go along for the ride, it drew me in and kept me interested.
Yes, we almost didn't bother with the credits, even though we're normally the last people out of the cinema, but if you go to this movie, you MUST stay for the final credits, as Bea says.
**.5
The film did nothing so much as remind me of the halcyon days of my early teenage-hood, when myself and a group of school friends would take ourselves into Adelaide town centre to see whatever the latest Spielberg - or other blockbuster aimed at teens - offering was. Together we saw films like Karate Kid, Back to the Future (all parts), Ghostbusters (all parts) etc, until I went to university and got arty, and they drifted off into married and other lives.
Partly I was reminded of those days because the protagonists of the film were all in their early teenage years, partly it was the era depicted (although 1979 is a little early for me - I was about that age a few years later, in 1983) and partly it was just the general style, story line and events - kids get unwittingly caught up in military cover-up of alien life. Naturally, as in all good yarns involving kids, the kids are much, much cleverer than all the adults involved and manage to save the day with the adults barely noticing.
The Super-8 that the title refers to is also a subject of nostalgia these days - one of the kids is a budding film maker, and the vital sub-plot (although given the title, perhaps the alien conspiracy is really the sub-plot) running throughout is the Super-8 film he is making and planning to enter into a national competition - rather like, I do believe, Mr Spielberg himself used to do as a nipper (a probably well-known gem which I discovered recently at a Smithsonian exhibition). Stick around for the credits, as we always do, and you will get to see the Super-8 film the kids make.
This is pretty standard offering for this kind of genre, and it was entertaining and fairly gripping. My only criticism would be that I would have liked some kind of closure to the plot-line concerning the kids' teacher - who is vital to the film, and whose story is unfortunately abandoned after we see him injured and being ill treated in a military camp. Perhaps a little too much time on special effects and too little on tying up the plot's loose ends?
However, good fun, and good nostalgia.
** 1/2
Cecil says: On one level, this film could do no wrong: it was the end of a perfect day-out in the wonderful town of Belfast and in one of the movie theaters America does so well to preserve. Yes, the Colonial opened in 1912 and is working towards it centenary. They only had a dozen in for this matinee, but the public announcement at the start (projectionist standing on stage - it's so Cinema Paradiso) gave the impression it was sold out last Friday evening, so things are looking Ok for this grand old theatre.
As to the film itself, it did a lot of things I can't stand in movies: combining science fiction with 'real life'; having lots of special effects, which I hate; and making the story about the making of a film. But, you know, I kind of liked this film-making aspect of it. It all felt so like Bugsy Malone, but with the kids a few years older. And it certainly made me regret not having a bunch of creative friends like that when I was school - I'd have loved to be the 'lead' opposite the girl, though it's the make-up artist that gets the girl in the end. Nice twist!
Once all the shit kicked off and the alien monster begins to cause havoc round town, it all began to feel a bit like Scooby-Doo, as so many American movies do, but as long as I let myself go along for the ride, it drew me in and kept me interested.
Yes, we almost didn't bother with the credits, even though we're normally the last people out of the cinema, but if you go to this movie, you MUST stay for the final credits, as Bea says.
**.5
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Bridesmaids
Bea says: Went to see this in Georgetown with a DC friend on a (very) hot afternoon yesterday - we figured the cinema was a good place to find refuge. I didn't know anything about this film, and kept my expectations low as I guessed it would be a kind of Bride-zilla comedy about getting married.
Well, I was actually quite pleasantly surprised. It was, of course, a comedy about getting married, but was also a nice study of friendship, particularly friendships that endure over many years, as well as being a look at getting your life together in your 30s.
The bride (Maya Rudolph) and her best friend/bridesmaid (Kristen Wiig) are indeed clearly not in the first flush of youth, and have lived a little over the years, which makes them a bit more interesting (and easier for me to relate to, being no longer in the first flush of youth myself!). In fact, judging by the music (Wilson Phillips - remember them?? Annoyingly, I can't get "Hold On" out of my head since watching this film!) it was written by, and targetted to, people of exactly my age. In fact I felt the characters were quite well-developed for this kind of genre.
In the 1990s, this film would have starred Meg Ryan, and Kristen Wiig does look a little like her, and had maybe modelled her character on Ryan's goofy style. I found myself missing those Meg Ryan type films, and kind of wished she'd played it; she might have added a little softness to the role.
This film was harder edged and much more explicit than those1990s romantic comedies though (hence the R rating I was surprised to see when we bought tickets, and explained the presence of several teenaged boys, who I was also surprised to see there - until the first sex scene happened), and is definitely not for the faint-hearted or prudish.
All in all, this film was a tonic, and I enjoyed nearly every minute, AND it left me feeling thoughtful, but good. A bit of welcome light relief from all those depressing European films we've been seeing lately....
***
Cecil says: Oo er - perhaps I'd better let Bea choose the next films...Shame I missed this one. I too thought it would be more targeted at 14 year old girls, so was quite happy to let Bea go to this while I slogged away at work...
Well, I was actually quite pleasantly surprised. It was, of course, a comedy about getting married, but was also a nice study of friendship, particularly friendships that endure over many years, as well as being a look at getting your life together in your 30s.
The bride (Maya Rudolph) and her best friend/bridesmaid (Kristen Wiig) are indeed clearly not in the first flush of youth, and have lived a little over the years, which makes them a bit more interesting (and easier for me to relate to, being no longer in the first flush of youth myself!). In fact, judging by the music (Wilson Phillips - remember them?? Annoyingly, I can't get "Hold On" out of my head since watching this film!) it was written by, and targetted to, people of exactly my age. In fact I felt the characters were quite well-developed for this kind of genre.
In the 1990s, this film would have starred Meg Ryan, and Kristen Wiig does look a little like her, and had maybe modelled her character on Ryan's goofy style. I found myself missing those Meg Ryan type films, and kind of wished she'd played it; she might have added a little softness to the role.
This film was harder edged and much more explicit than those1990s romantic comedies though (hence the R rating I was surprised to see when we bought tickets, and explained the presence of several teenaged boys, who I was also surprised to see there - until the first sex scene happened), and is definitely not for the faint-hearted or prudish.
All in all, this film was a tonic, and I enjoyed nearly every minute, AND it left me feeling thoughtful, but good. A bit of welcome light relief from all those depressing European films we've been seeing lately....
***
Cecil says: Oo er - perhaps I'd better let Bea choose the next films...Shame I missed this one. I too thought it would be more targeted at 14 year old girls, so was quite happy to let Bea go to this while I slogged away at work...
Monday, 6 June 2011
The Double Hour ("La Doppia Ora")
Bea says: Aside from the great location (the cinema at Plimoth Plantation, Plymouth, Mass.), this was a diverting if eminently forgettable film - in fact I just had to get Cecil to remind me what it was all about before blogging!
This Italian thriller features a young Polish woman (Kseniya Rappoport) who meets a man (Filippo Timi) at a speed dating session, and they develop a relationship. Together, they become a victim of a tragic heist at his place of work. But as the film progresses, more and more questions are posed as to the reality of what we are seeing- what is real, what is not, what are we hearing that is true, what is false? Unfortunately, at about 20 mins in I figured out which way the plot was going to twist and got a little bored waiting for it to happen. The significance of the "doppia ora" (double hour, ie 10.10 or 23.23) seemed a bit tangential, or perhaps I missed something after all?
Nice cinematography. Nicely directed with good performances all round. Great knitwear! Not a bad night out - but a little predictable.
**1/2
Cecil says: Well, I clearly haven't read as many crime novels or seen as many thrillers as Bea, because it took me a lot longer to guess what was going on.
In fact, coming on the back of the last film we had seen: the Juliette Binoche one about reality and fake (see: Certified Copy); I much preferred this one, which was also, as Bea says, about what is reality, what is true and what is in the mind. It was kind of like the TV series "Life on Mars" without the clever 1970s historical references, but with two good-looking lead actors and a setting in northern Italy instead.
But there's not a lot to say about it, as Bea says. And I also haven't a clue what the significance of the 'double hour' is, especially as nobody in the States ever speaks in the 24-hour clock, so that changes the whole notion over here. And that, somehow or other, seemed to be the point of the film...Oh well...
Having said all that, fantastic that the Plymouth 'Plantation', which is kind of museum reality experience area, lets the cinema on site show arty films once a day. Maybe other museums could follow suit in towns where there is no independent cinema?
***
This Italian thriller features a young Polish woman (Kseniya Rappoport) who meets a man (Filippo Timi) at a speed dating session, and they develop a relationship. Together, they become a victim of a tragic heist at his place of work. But as the film progresses, more and more questions are posed as to the reality of what we are seeing- what is real, what is not, what are we hearing that is true, what is false? Unfortunately, at about 20 mins in I figured out which way the plot was going to twist and got a little bored waiting for it to happen. The significance of the "doppia ora" (double hour, ie 10.10 or 23.23) seemed a bit tangential, or perhaps I missed something after all?
Nice cinematography. Nicely directed with good performances all round. Great knitwear! Not a bad night out - but a little predictable.
**1/2
Cecil says: Well, I clearly haven't read as many crime novels or seen as many thrillers as Bea, because it took me a lot longer to guess what was going on.
In fact, coming on the back of the last film we had seen: the Juliette Binoche one about reality and fake (see: Certified Copy); I much preferred this one, which was also, as Bea says, about what is reality, what is true and what is in the mind. It was kind of like the TV series "Life on Mars" without the clever 1970s historical references, but with two good-looking lead actors and a setting in northern Italy instead.
But there's not a lot to say about it, as Bea says. And I also haven't a clue what the significance of the 'double hour' is, especially as nobody in the States ever speaks in the 24-hour clock, so that changes the whole notion over here. And that, somehow or other, seemed to be the point of the film...Oh well...
Having said all that, fantastic that the Plymouth 'Plantation', which is kind of museum reality experience area, lets the cinema on site show arty films once a day. Maybe other museums could follow suit in towns where there is no independent cinema?
***
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