New Yorker Garrett (Justin Long) works for a music label, scouting and promoting new bands, but he's very unhappy because his boss (played by Ron Livingston) won't let him promote the bands he really likes. To make matters worse Garrett has just been dumped by his girlfriend. Hanging out with his pals Box and Dan at their favorite bar, Garrett connects with Erin (Drew Barrymore) while she's playing a videogame.
Unfortunately, Erin is only a summer intern at the New York Sentinel newspaper, and in the fall she's returning to the San Francisco Bay area where she lives with her sister Corinne (Christina Applegate) and her family, and back to Stanford to finish graduate school. Their summer together goes all too quickly, and Garrett and Erin are faced with the stress of a long-distance relationship. Garrett flies to S.F. visit her, and Erin flies to N.Y. to visit him but it just is not working.
Directed by documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein, this romantic comedy feels, at times, like a chick flick, at times like a very raunchy buddy film, and at times like a drawn-out documentary, one that could have been cut by fifteen minutes with no loss. There is some funny dialogue, but nothing memorable, and there are a few genuine moments between the two lovers, but overall the chemistry between Long and Barrymore is nothing special. If you enjoy romantic comedies among thirty-something slacker New Yorkers, with lots of scenes of bachelor apartments and seedy bars, and with potty and simulated sex humor, this is probably a film you will enjoy. Otherwise, you'd might prefer to watch an episode or two of How I Met Your Mother
Labels: comedy, romance
Internet Movie Database
Metacritic 51/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=57, viewers=66)
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Elise Clifton-Ward (Angelina Jolie) waits in Paris to receive a message from Alexander Pearce, her mysterious lover, who has stolen a large sum of money from a British gangster named Shaw (Steven Berkoff). Shaw, who surrounds himself with a gang of brutish, sinister Russians, wants his money back, and both Interpol and a Scotland Yard inspector (Paul Bettany) want Pearce.
Leaving Paris on a train bound for Venice, Elise picks up Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp), an American math teacher on vacation. She hopes to convince both the police and Shaw that he is Alexander Pearce, thus taking the heat off the real Pearce. Arriving in Venice, Elise continues the deception, but when the gangster's goons begin shooting at Frank, he figures out what is going on.
As an action-romance-thriller, The Tourist leaves a great deal to be desired. There's lovely scenery of Paris and Venice, as well as beautiful costumes and sets. Beyond that we're treated to a mumbling, unappealing, uncharismatic Johnny Depp with bad hair, Angelina Jolie sleepwalking through her role, and zero chemistry between the two of them. The film has gruesome dramatic moments (a strangulation), as well as comedic moments (Johnny Depp running across rooftops in his pajamas), so we aren't sure if we're watching a drama or a comedy. If you are expecting Mr. and Mrs. Smith or Knight & Day you will be sorely disappointed. After having spent ninety minutes watching this, I came away feeling as though I had been the victim of a huge practical joke.
Labels: action, drama, romance, thriller
IMDb 60/100
MetaScore (critics=37, viewers=63)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critcs=44, viewers=60)
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A film review by James Berardinelli, September 2, 2010.
There are two kinds of thrillers - action-oriented endeavors such as those popularized by James Bond and Jason Bourne, and slow-burn motion pictures that rely less on pyrotechnics and gadgets and more on psychology. The American belongs in the latter category. With an unhurried pace and a focus on character over action or plot, this film takes us into the mind and life of a hardened assassin and follows the story to its natural conclusion. The tale is straightforward but many questions, perhaps tangential to the core narrative, remain unanswered once the screen has faded to black. The American ironically comes with a European flavor, not only because it was filmed overseas but because the style reflects the kind of movies favored by art house and film festival audiences.
The star (and only name actor) is George Clooney, who is also listed as a co-producer. Clooney is one of the most charismatic thespians working today, and he appreciates challenges (witness his participation in the remake of Solaris). He is sometimes drawn to films with little or no box office potential because he believes in the material. This is one such case. We often associate Clooney with upbeat, fun-loving roles, but the man he plays in The American is the hollow shell of an individual - one who has severed all emotional connections in order to maintain his edge as a hired killer. He shoots a lover in the back of the head because she's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Later, he informs a prostitute that she doesn't have to act when sleeping with him. I'm here for my pleasure, not yours. It's hard not to like a Clooney character, but this one comes close. He's a cold, hard person and identifying with him is a difficult task - until he begins the long, slow crawl back to humanity. That's his ultimate goal in The American, even though he may not recognize it at times: to regain his soul. Redemption, even when approached in such a roundabout way, is always a worthy destination for a motion picture character.
With the exception of a prologue set in Sweden, The American transpires in Italy, where Jack (Clooney) is lying low to escape the notice of some Swedes who are out to kill him. His boss, Pavel (Johan Leysen), gives him an assignment while he's in hiding: develop a made-to-order special weapon for a client. Jack meets Mathilde (Thekla Reuten) at a café and she provides him with the specifications. While in this town, Jack also interacts with a local priest, Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli), who advises him that confession is good for the soul, and he becomes involved with a prostitute, Clara (Violante Placido), who likes him enough to consider waiving her fee. It is through these two that Jack sees a possible way back from the emotional brink upon which his future teeters.
Movies like The American generate tension not through fast cuts and adrenaline-pumping action sequences, but by the slow escalation of dread as pieces of a puzzle fall into place. Although we know almost nothing about Jack's background (beyond his occupation) and even less about who Pavel is and how he comes by his clients, we gradually become aware that such things are red herrings. What matters is how all the characters relate to each other as they are now. The key to understanding and unraveling the mysteries of The American lies not in the past but in the present. The answers are easily arrived at for those who pay attention and meaningful in their impact.
The director is Anton Corbijn, whose previous body of work includes a large number of high-profile music videos and the 2007 feature Control, about the life and death of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis. Corbijn brings a moodiness to this endeavor and his shooting of Castel del Monte is inspired - this unconventional location is imbued with a mixture of danger and Old World charm under Corbijn's stewardship. Most importantly, Corbijn ensures that the film's pace is appropriate to the material - not so slow that viewers lose interest and not so rapid that details are lost.
From an acting standpoint, Clooney is the centerpiece, although it's unclear whether this intentionally obtuse performance will find favor with his mainstream fans. Violante Placido exudes sensuality as the prostitute who dangles the possibility of love in front of Jack (while packing a pistol in her purse). It's a winning portrayal and the actress obviously did not require a no nudity clause in her contract. Johan Leysen, whose Pavel remains an enigma, is most notable for his pitted, weathered face - he looks a little like James Coburn.
The film's release date - the Wednesday before Labor Day weekend, where movies go to die - is evidence that Focus Features is unconvinced there's much of a mainstream audience for The American. Despite the presence of a major movie star in the cast (likely the reason it's being released in multiplexes), the material is suited to specialty audiences - those whose tastes gravitate toward the cerebral work of Le Carre and Deighton rather than the visceral thrills of Fleming and Ludlum. Anyone who understands what The American offers should come away pleased with the final product.
Labels: crime, drama, thriller, tragedy
IMDb 63/100
MetaScore (critics=61, viewers=68)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=65, viewers=56)
Blu-ray
This made-for-TV movie is a star vehicle for Hilary Duff, and not much more. Duff plays Lane Daniels, an ambitious young journalist who aspires to be a writer for Cosmopolitan magazine. When she gets the chance to pitch her idea for a story on love in the workplace to an editor at Cosmo (played by Jaime Pressly), Lane is told to get a job in the corporate world, start dating men in suits and write a piece on her real-life experiences.
So, Lane pads her resume and lands an analyst position at an investment banking firm. Both her boss Tom (Michael McMillian) and a coworker Seth (Matt Dallas) have dating potential, but Lane is really intrigued by Liam (Chris Carmack), whom she's met outside the office. Why? Well, like most young women, Lane is looking for her perfect man. She has a checklist, and Liam seems to score really high on the checklist, unless he's lying to her. [As an aside... while most young women may have a checklist, most young men just want to get laid. They will do and say whatever it takes to score well on the checklist. Eventually, though, the truth comes out, which is why two out of three divorce actions are initiated by wives.]
There are several problems with this film. The screenplay is derivative and uninspired with no character development, the direction is lackluster, the leads phone in their performances, there's little chemistry between Duff and any of the male leads, and the film's payoff is totally unbelievable, as in... what? She picked HIM! The woman-with-checklist concept has been done recently in The Ugly Truth with Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. The ditzy-female-writer concept has been done recently in Confessions of a Shopaholic with Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy. There are actresses and then there are personalities - Natalie Portman is an actress, but Hilary Duff is just a personality; she needs to take acting lessons and she needs to drop 20 pounds of baby fat. Women may enjoy this bit of fluff, but men should probably pass.
Labels: comedy, romance
IMDb 54/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=tbd, viewers=60)
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The Case Against Fracking in Gasland
A film review by Rob Nelson, Wednesday, Sep 15 2010.
With its jolting images of flammable tap water and chemically burned pets, New York theater-director-turned-documentarian Josh Fox's Sundance-feted shocker makes an irrefutable case against U.S. corporate fracking — the Haliburton-hatched scheme of natural gas drilling in and around the nation's shale basins. Narrating in the first person, the filmmaker begins by describing a gas company's six-figure offer to drill on his rural Pennsylvania land, which sits atop what the company trumpets as the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.
Refusing the deal, banjo-strumming Fox takes his show on the road, inviting citizens who did take big-energy cash to prove the contamination of their groundwater and recount its ill effects on their health. Describing himself as not a pessimist, Fox nonchalantly exposes EPA conflicts of interest and fingers the Haliburton loophole — a curious exemption to the 2005 Energy Act as cooked up by ex-Haliburton exec Dick Cheney. No mere collection of talking heads, the doc expertly juxtaposes instances of natural beauty with those of mechanized incursion, practically making us feel the toxic chemicals spilling off the screen and into our laps. Alas, Fox pushes his luck on the soundtrack by coming on like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, his ultimately numbing voiceover delivered in halting rhythms and hushed tones. Still, there's only one conclusion to draw here: No fracking way.
Labels: documentary, environment
Internet Movie Database
Metacritic NA/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=70, viewers=78)
Eighteen-year-old Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and fifteen-year-old Laser (Josh Hutcherson) are children of lesbian parents Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Julianne Moore). Each woman bore one of the children, but both used the same sperm-donor. Nic and Jules could not be more different; the older Nic is a controlling, highly-stressed physician, while the younger Jules is a sensual, go-with-the-flow creative type who is starting a new vocation in landscape design.
Joni, Nic's biological daughter, is a brilliant student who is preparing for college, in contrast to her younger brother Laser, Jules' biological son, who is directionless, and has fallen under the influence of a thrill-seeking, cocaine-addicted classmate. Laser becomes curious about the identity of his sperm-donor father, and convinces Joni to take the steps to contact him. They discover that Paul (Mark Ruffalo) is a laid-back restaurant owner and organic gardener. And when the two teenagers introduce Paul to their Moms Nic and Jules, Paul discovers that he is becoming part of their family unit, with some serious, unintended consequences.
On one level this film asks some interesting sociological questions. How does one select a sperm donor – is it based on genetic history, educational achievement, financial success, IQ, physical appearance? Is parenting defined as: (a) the biological donation of sperm or egg; (b) carrying the fetus in your womb for nine months; or (c) nursing, nurturing and raising the child for eighteen years after it is born? And what connection does a sperm donor have to the parenting process, nearly twenty years later? While the individual performances are excellent, particularly Bening, Moore and Ruffalo, the film's thematic material, its offensive language and depiction of teenage drug use, as well as its intense, gratuitous sexuality, is likely to make some viewers very uncomfortable, especially younger viewers who might otherwise benefit from viewing it.
Labels: comedy, drama, lesbian
IMDb 71/100
MetaScore (critics=86, viewers=72)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=78, viewers=74)
Blu-ray
It's their wedding weekend, and Lila (Anna Paquin) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) are getting married at Lila's family's East Coast waterfront estate. The wedding party includes Laura (Katie Holmes) who is Lila's best friend, Harvard roommate, and maid of honor, as well as a half-dozen of their college friends, collectively named The Romantics.
There's an undercurrent of tension between Lila and Laura, who were so close, before Tom came between them, that their friends named them Lala. For his part, Tom, is experiencing pre-wedding anxiety. He loves Lila, but doesn't know why and cannot express his feelings for her, although he's an English Ph.D. candidate. Curiously, however, he is able to eloquently express his feelings for Laura, whom he dated for several years prior to dating Lila, and for whom he still lusts. Laura, for her part, is in love with Tom, and cannot understand why he picked Lila instead of her. She's a published writer, and she's a perfect match for Tom, intellectually, emotionally and sexually. Why doesn't Tom recognize this, and what can Laura do about it?
Written and directed by Galt Niederhoffer based on her own novel, this independently-produced film is a talky, character-driven romantic comedy drama with glacial pacing, little character development, little tension between the main characters until the very end of the film, and insufficient material to support a 90 minute running time. While The Romantics may have aspired to be an ensemble romantic drama, like The Big Chill or St. Elmo's Fire, it falls far short of the mark. Don't waste your time on The Romantics.
Labels: comedy, drama, romance
IMDb 50/100
MetaScore (critics=43, viewers=59)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=44, viewers=48)
