A film review by Roger Ebert.
Now I have fans who say, We are so sorry, Michael Bay, you still suck but we love you. That's what the director of Transformers told Simon Ang during an interview in Seoul. He could have been speaking for me. I think Michael Bay sometimes sucks (Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, Bad Boys II) but I find it possible to love him for a movie like Transformers. It's goofy fun with a lot of stuff that blows up real good, and it has the grace not only to realize how preposterous it is, but to make that into an asset.
The movie is inspired by the Transformer toys that twist and fold and double in upon themselves, like a Rubik's Cube crossed with a contortionist. A yellow Camaro unfolds into a hulking robot, helicopters become walking death monsters, and an enemy named Megatron rumbles onto the screen and, in a voice that resembles the sound effects in Earthquake, introduces himself: I--AM--MEGATRON!!!
I think that's the first time I've used three exclamation points. But Megatron is a three-exclamation-point kinda robot. He is the most fearsome warrior of the evil Decepticons, enemies of the benevolent Transformers. Both races (or maybe they're brands) of robots fled the doomed planet Cybertron and have been drawn to Earth because Megatron crash-landed near the North Pole a century ago and possesses the Allspark, which is the key to something, I'm not sure what, but since it's basically an alien MacGuffin it doesn't much matter. (Note to fanboys about to send me an e-mail explaining the Allspark: Look up MacGuffin in Wikipedia.)
The movie opens like one of those teen comedies where the likable hero is picked on by bullies at school, partly because he didn't make the football team, and mostly because he doesn't have a keen car. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) talks his dad into buying him one, and he ends up with an old beater, a yellow Camaro that is actually the Transformer named Bumblebee and gets so mad when his paint job is insulted that it transforms itself into a shiny new Camaro.
This is more than a hot car. It plays the soundtrack to Sam's life. It helps Sam become visible to his sexy classmate Mikaela (Megan Fox), who says, Do I know you? Sam mentions casually that they take four classes together and have been in the same school since first grade. The high school stuff, which could be a teenage comedy on its own, segues into the battling robot stuff, and there is some low-key political satire in which the secretary of defense (Jon Voight) runs the country, while the president (not even credited) limits himself to a request for a Ding-Dong.
Voight sends the armed services into action, and we see a lot of Sgt. Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Tech Sgt. Epps (Tyrese Gibson). They and their men labor during much of the movie under the optimistic impression that a metal robot the size of a 10-story building can be defeated by, or even brought to notice, automatic weapons fire. Sam and Bumblebee are crucial to the struggle, although a secret ops guy (John Turturro) asks the defense secretary, You gonna lay the fate of the world on a kid's Camaro?
Everything comes down to an epic battle between the Transformers and the Decepticons, and that's when my attention began to wander, and the movie lost a potential fourth star. First let me say that the robots, created by Industrial Light and Magic, are indeed delightful creatures; you can look hard and see the truck windshields, hubcaps and junkyard stuff they're made of. And their movements are ingenious, especially a scorpion-like robot in the desert. (Little spider robots owe something to the similar creatures in Spielberg's Minority Report, and we note he is a producer of this movie.) How can a pickup truck contain enough mass to unfold into a towering machine? I say if Ringling Brothers can get 15 clowns into a Volkswagen, anything is possible.
All the same, the mechanical battle goes on and on and on and on, with robots banging into each other and crashing into buildings, and buildings falling into the street, and the military firing, and jets sweeping overhead, and Megatron and the good hero, Optimus Prime, duking it out, and the soundtrack sawing away at thrilling music, and enough is enough. Just because CGI makes such endless sequences possible doesn't make them necessary. They should be choreographed to reflect a strategy and not simply reflect shapeless, random violence. Here the robots are like TV wrestlers who are down but usually not out.
I saw the movie on the largest screen in our nearest multiplex. It was standing room only, and hundreds were turned away. Even the name of Hasbro, maker of the Transformers toys, was cheered during the titles, and the audience laughed and applauded and loved all the human parts and the opening comedy. But when the battle of the titans began, a curious thing happened. The theater fell dead silent. No cheers. No reaction whether Optimus Prime or Megatron was on top. No nothing. I looked around and saw only passive faces looking at the screen.
My guess is we're getting to the point where CGI should be used as a topping and not the whole pizza. The movie runs 144 minutes. You could bring it in at two hours by cutting CGI shots, and have a better movie.
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=58, viewers=82)
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Brett Eisenberg (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a 24-year-old associate editor at a small NYC book publisher. She's caught the eye of Archie Knox (Alec Baldwin), the wealthy, 50-year-old celebrity editor-in-chief of a much larger book publisher. Archie is an alcoholic and a diabetic, with two failed marriages, a daughter who won't speak to him, and a twenty-year history of dating progressively younger women.
In Suburban Girl we get beautiful people with lots of money, witty, sophisticated dialogue, believable on-screen romantic chemistry between Gellar and Baldwin, gorgeous costumes, makeup and sets, glossy production values, and a peek into the book publishing business. Ultimately, though, we're cynical about the relationship between Brett and Archie. Brett needs a mentor in the publishing world, and Archie's trying to recapture his lost youth. We understand Brett, when she says to Archie: When I look at you, I see a teacher; when you look at me, you see a student. And we understand how much Brett has grown, when she explains to Archie why she won't marry him: Because a girl can't grow up until she loses a father and leaves an Archie.
Suburban Girl was screened at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, but was never given a theatrical release and was released on DVD in early 2008. Critics panned the film as a pseudo-sophisticated romantic comedy-drama that could be described as a blend of Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada. Regardless, if you enjoy romantic comedy-drama set in New York City, in which there's a daughter-father age difference between the leads, films like Love Affair (1994) with Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, Sabrina (1995) with Julia Ormond and Harrison Ford, Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, and Autumn in New York with Winona Ryder and Richard Gere, then you will very likely enjoy Suburban Girl.
Labels: Cinderella-story, comedy, drama, rom-drama-faves, romance
Internet Movie Database 54/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=61, viewers=56)
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In a life imitates art moment in June, 2012, 54-year-old Alec Baldwin married his 28-year-old yoga-instructor girlfriend, Hilaria Thomas. One can only assume that Hilaria had not watched Suburban Girl before accepting Baldwin's proposal, or that she simply ignored Gellar's advice... a girl can't grow up until she loses a father and leaves an Archie.
One can also assume that when Hilaria's father was watching The Hunt for Red October in 1990, starring 32-year-old Alec Baldwin, he had no idea that his six-year-old daughter Hilaria would, 22 years later, marry the actor.
This film takes its name from the concept that seemingly random, chaotic events contain hidden patterns of orderliness. Frank Allen (Ryan Reynolds) is an efficiency expert who gives lectures on creating structure and orderliness in our lives through making lists of actions to be performed, and not allowing whim or spontaneity to sidetrack us.
Then, one morning as he's leaving home for his latest speaking engagement, Frank discovers that his wife Susan (Emily Mortimer) has accidentally set the kitchen clock backward ten minutes (she intended to set it forward to give him a time cushion). As a result Frank misses the 8 o'clock ferry into the city and is late for his speaking engagement. Even worse, his lateness sets in motion a chain of events that Frank is helpless to control, and which results in Susan mistakenly believing he's having an affair with another woman with whom he's fathered a child. However, this is just the beginning, and things get much, much worse... or better, depending upon your point of view.
Finally, Frank is forced to reevaluate the principles upon which he's built his entire life, his marriage to Susan, his long-term friendship with Buddy (Stuart Townsend), as well as his profession and his reliance on orderliness through list-making. As we watch, we cannot help but wonder what we would do if we were in Frank's place, and then we realize that our own life might be only a step or a moment away from tumbling into chaos.
The casting for this film is excellent with great chemistry among all three leads - Reynolds, Mortimer and Townsend. The screenplay is cleverly written, with drama and comedy well balanced, and only occasional forays into over-the-top humor. If you enjoyed Definitely, Maybe also starring Ryan Reynolds, or Bed of Roses or I'm With Lucy, I predict you'll enjoy Chaos Theory.
Labels: comedy, drama, romance
Internet Movie Database
Metacritic 44/100
Tomatometer (critics=30, viewers=60)
Patti (Selma Blair) is a brilliant writer who hasn't published in ten years, is selling real estate to try to make some money, and is stuck in a failed marriage to Chazz (Donal Logue) a chef who doesn't have a literary bone in his body. Kate (Debra Messing) is a school teacher who, years earlier, dumped her boyfriend Murphy (Edward Burns) now a successful attorney, because she thought he had cheated on her. And Brian (Patrick Wilson), Murphy's best friend and Patti's old college boyfriend, is a wildly successful pulp-fiction crime novelist who is trying his hand at writing serious literature.
One evening, twelve years after college, Patti and Kate are having dinner together, when who should come into the restaurant but Murphy, Brian, and Brian's current girlfriend, twenty-something, loud and abrasive Bernadette (Elizabeth Reaser). This accidental meeting is the catalyst for Patti to realize that she's always loved Brian, and she's got to get out of her dead-end marriage; and for Murphy to realize that he's always loved Kate and he's got to try to get her back.
This finely-crafted, romantic drama successfully weaves the joy and anticipation of two growing relationships with the frustration and heartache of two disintegrating relationships. Edward Burns' screenplay is taut and smoothly-paced, with internally-consistent characters and believable dialogue. The cast does an excellent job, especially Selma Blair and Patrick Wilson as two writers who each doubt their own talent, and who are afraid to reach out for love. If you enjoy Edward Burns' films, especially She’s the One, Sidewalks of New York, and Life or Something Like It, and if you enjoyed Bed of Roses, I predict you will really enjoy Purple Violets.
Labels: comedy, drama, romance
Internet Movie Database 6.5/10
Tomatometer (critics=NA, viewers=61)
Set in Williamstown, a small town in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, this is the strange story of Dr. Ben Marris, his wife and their teenage daughter. Ben (David Duchovny) is an optometrist, and his wife Hannah (Lili Taylor) is a housewife. Both of them have been struggling to understand and communicate with their rebellious daughter Samantha (Olivia Thirlby) who's an excellent high school student but has begun experimenting with alcohol, drugs and sex. One day Hanna and Samantha get into an argument while Hannah is driving the car, there's a terrible accident and both end up side-by-side in intensive care, clinging to life. As Ben watches, Samantha starts to slip away. Desperately, Hannah reaches out to her daughter, holding her wrist tightly, and both mother and daughter seem to die at the same moment. But Samantha still has a pulse and when she awakens in the recovery room she has all of her mother's memories, personality and behavioral traits, and none of her own.
At first Ben tries to deny what has happened, but gradually he grows convinced that he's living with his wife Hannah in the body of his daughter Samantha. Reluctantly, Hannah returns to high school and by connecting with Samantha's friends, and reading her journal, she begins to discover her daughter. And then the questions come tumbling forth. If Hannah is possessing Samantha's body, where is Samantha's spirit? Will Samantha's spirit ever return to claim her body, and what will happen to Hannah's spirit? Can Hannah really pretend to be her own daughter? What will Ben and Hannah's relationship be like in the privacy of their home? Will they be able to keep this a secret? Can Ben ever live a normal life again?
This is a romantic drama with a mysterious, supernatural quality; it's mildly suspenseful, but definitely not a thriller or a horror film. To the extent that we believe what Ben and Hannah/Samantha are experiencing, the film is quite successful. To its credit, the screenplay treads lightly when dealing with the sexual tension between the two, or the possibility that a third person might discover their secret and have to be told the truth. David Duchovny is an accomplished actor, but this is Olivia Thirlby's film and she is excellent, convincingly playing both mother and daughter in a single body (Si j'étais toi, the film's alternate French title, translates as If I were you). This is a thought-provoking film, as any mother with a teenage daughter can attest. If you enjoyed Peggy Sue Got Married, then I believe you will enjoy The Secret.
Labels: drama, fantasy, mystery, romance, tragedy
Internet Movie Database
Tomatometer (critics=NA,viewers=44)
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Wikipedia: The Secret (film)
Composer Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) was a member of the 1980s hit singing group PoP! After the band broke up, Alex released a solo album, but he was not a strong lyricist, and so his album flopped. Now, twenty years later, he's been reduced to performing at high school reunions and amusement parks, but even these gigs are drying up.
Then his manager brings him an opportunity to write a new hit song for rising young pop star Cora Corman (Haley Bennett), and sing the song with Cora at her upcoming concert at Madison Square Garden. But, Alex only has a week, and he doesn't have a lyricist until Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), the girl who waters his plants, shows a natural ability to write lyrics. Sadly Sophie lacks self-esteem; she fell in love with a best-selling novelist (Campbell Scott) who turned her into a title character - a failed young author and manipulative seductress.
Alex convinces Sophie that he needs her, and that she can do it; their new song Way Back Into Love is beautiful. But Sophie feels Cora's arrangement corrupts the song's purity, and when she can't write the final verse, Alex, in a fit of pique, accuses her of being a failure, just as the novel describes her, and Sophie is crushed.
The film has a clear, if predictable, story arc - boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back. The soundtrack is memorable and a pivotal scene in the film occurs during Cora's concert, when Alex sings his newly written ballad Don't Write Me Off as an extraordinary gesture to win Sophie back. Supporting characters Kristen Johnston as Sophie's older sister, and Brad Garrett as Alex's manager, are excellent; both have incredible comedic timing and provide great balance to Grant and Barrymore's terrific romantic chemistry and their surprisingly good vocals. This is a heart-warming, happy-ending romantic comedy that will have you smiling. If you enjoyed Two Weeks Notice, also written and directed by Marc Lawrence, I predict you'll love Music and Lyrics.
Labels: comedy, music, rom-com-faves, romance
Internet Movie Database 6.5/10
Metacritic 59/100
Tomatometer (critics=63, viewers=70)
Blu-ray
Way Back Into Love - Drew Barrymore & Hugh Grant (YouTube)
Way Back Into Love - Haley Bennett and Hugh Grant (YouTube)Don't write me off just yet and Way back into love
Lyla (Keri Russell) a concert cellist, and Louis (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) lead singer in a rock band, meet at a party following their New York City performances. After a night under the stars, the young lovers lose contact when Lyla's domineering father whisks her out of the city.
Eight months later, back in the city, a very pregnant Lyla is hit by a car while fleeing from an argument with her father. She wakes up in the hospital to hear him tell her she's lost Louis' baby, but she harbors doubts. Eleven years later we meet Evan (Freddie Highmore), a child living in an upstate NY orphanage. He has an incredible gift; he hears music in everything... from wind chimes to high tension wires. He knows that someday his mother and father will find him, and that playing beautiful music is the way he will draw them to him.
Escaping from the orphanage, Evan wanders the city until he falls under the influence of a Dickensian Fagan-like character named Wizard (Robin Williams) who recognizes the boy's prodigious musical talent, renames him August Rush and begins to promote him for his own less-than-noble purposes.
The film is most inspiring as we observe August developing... creating thrilling music on the guitar, piano and pipe organ, attending the Julliard School, composing a symphonic Rhapsody, and rehearsing it with the New York Philharmonic. Meanwhile, on his death bed in Chicago, Lyla's father makes a confession, and Lyla frantically begins to search for her son; at the same time, in San Francisco, Louis begins to search for Lyla.
The film's most satisfying aspects are Freddie Highmore's performance and the beautiful soundtrack. Not surprisingly, there's a happy ending at the Concert in Central Park; however, a more satisfying reunion of Lyla and Louis, and a smaller, less threatening role for Williams (who has become a caricature of himself), would have made the film even more rewarding for grownups, and more inspiring for musically-inclined children.
Labels: drama, music, romance
Internet Movie Database
Metacritic 38/100
Tomatometer (critics=37, viewers=82)
Blu-ray
Now I have fans who say, We are so sorry, Michael Bay, you still suck but we love you. That's what the director of Transformers told Simon Ang during an interview in Seoul. He could have been speaking for me. I think Michael Bay sometimes sucks (Pearl Harbor, Armageddon, Bad Boys II) but I find it possible to love him for a movie like Transformers. It's goofy fun with a lot of stuff that blows up real good, and it has the grace not only to realize how preposterous it is, but to make that into an asset.
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