Best Marigold Hotel

Bill I’s Review – 3 out of 5

Very pleasant film, of the (multiple) fish out of water genre, 2012 version of Cocoon where old folks find their second life through exposure and immersion in a different culture. Best English actors of their age infuse this movie with their incredible talents, from Maggie Smith to Judi Dench and Bill Nighy, they make it look effortless and keep your attention regardless of the run-of-the-mill plot. Dev Patel is fun as the young scion of a wealthy family trying to make his vision a reality of a wonderful hotel where old people will want to live until they die. Reality of making a profitable venture get in the way, while his first crop of paying patients/guests find things to turn them on in the surrounding environment of a hectic Jaipur.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Prometheus

Bill C’s Review – 3 out of 5

Prometheus is Ridley Scott’s long-awaited return to science fiction. His previous iconic sci fi movies were Aliens and Blade Runner. This film is an indirect prequel to Aliens and focuses on a space mission to find the civilization that planted life on earth and the ensuing struggles to survive.

This is a gorgeous movie to watch. The special effects are excellent and I thought the 3D was extremely effective. While most movies hit you over the head with things coming at you unexpectedly, this 3D usage was much more subtle, especially the great planetary 3D landscape.

I thought the second half of the movie, when the action picked up, became somewhat muddled. The plot could have been simplified and the movie tackled too many themes, including the beginning of life on earth, faith, and eternal life.

Michael Fassbender as the robot David and Charlize Theron as the company representative that financed the expedition were both excellent. Interestingly this was her second evil role in a row (see Bill I’s review of Snow White and the Huntsman). I also really liked Idris Elba as the ship’s captain.

Overall I’d say this was an ok sic-fi movie but it did not quite live up to my expectations.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Safety Not Guaranteed

Bill C’s Review – 4 out of 5

This is the review I wrote back in March when I saw this at SXSW.  This opened in N.Y. last week and opens in Austin this week. It’s definitely worth seeing.

I really enjoyed this comedy. Excellent performances by Aubrey Plaza (similar to her Parks and Rec persona), Mark Duplass and Jake Johnson.  The plot focuses on 3 reporters following up on an ad looking for a person to join Mark Duplass’ to travel back in time.  But it’s really the characters interactions as they move forward with their lives and overcome some of their problems. The comedy is good and you develop a connection with the characters.  Definitely go see it when it comes out.  This had an excellent Q+A afterwards with the director and stars.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Moonrise Kingdom

Bill C’s review – 3.5 out of 5

Moonrise Kingdom is the latest from quirky director Wes Anderson.  Some of Anderson’s previous films include Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaum’s and the animated Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Moonrise Kingdom is set in summer 1965 in a small laid back New England town and is about two young teenagers, Suzy (a member of a dysfunctional family) and Sam (an orphan who is spending the summer at boy scout camp).  They run away together and the town and scout troop search for them as a hurricane approaches.

Anderson has his own unique style and as in all of his films this is filled with interesting characters. They include Bruce Willis as the town police officer, Bill Murray and Frances McDormand as Suzy’s parents, Edward Norton as Sam’s troop leader, Tilda Swinton as ‘Social Services’ and Jason Schwartzman as the strange Uncle Ben.   But most of these characters take a back seat to the fine performances of  newcomers Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman playing Suzy and Sam.

While this has it’s funny moments (especially involving the scouts) I didn’t think this was as consistently funny as some of Anderson’s other movies.  However I found the young love story of two trouble kids sweet and touching.

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

Besides the forgettable title (I had to look again at my ticket receipt just now to remember it) I loved this film, had a smile on my face throughout. Wes Anderson’s truly unique style makes this a fantasy, children’s story metaphor that combines some realistic characters (mainly the grown-ups: Bill Murray’s burnout, neglectful husband and father, Bruce Willis’ decent, lonely, sheriff, Frances McDormand’s cynical, lazy, housewife/mother who relies on a megaphone to call her kids up the stairs to dinner) with some snappy dialogue spouted from 12 year-olds, including the two amazing leads. This puts Juno to shame in fashioning beyond-their-years youngsters who seem to have their acts together and appreciate life’s adventures better than their elders. I guess you should bring your kids to this, don’t think their’s anything outwardly R rated, and the sexual undertones are fairly discrete (an affair where you don’t even see the adults kissing) or so chaste (first french kiss, skinny dipping with their clothes on…well they dry off in their underwear afterwards). The plot gets a little crazy towards the end but you will like the realistic ending. Keep an eye out for Harvey Keitel, Bob Balaban, Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman in small but great roles. I don’t think I can describe this very well, you just have to see it.

 

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Snow White and the Huntsman

Bill I’s Review – 4 out of 5

I saw this as an allegory about how much our culture values youth and beauty, to the extent that people will do anything to stop time’s damages. For example, how does Jane Fonda look better now at age 74 than she did 25 years ago? Is she sucking the life force out of young girls like Ravenna the evil Queen does in this movie? Actually, this film is very well done, with excellent acting (Charlize Theron gets an Oscar nomination for sure), cool storyline and wonderful special effects. Check out Ravenna’s special finger-fitted fork.  For me, this beats all of the Lord of the Rings movies. This ain’t no Disney fairy tale, so don’t bring the little kids!

 

Headhunters

Bill C’s Review – 3.5 out of 5

I really enjoyed this Norewegian thriller.  Roger (Aksel Hennie) is one of the leading corporate headhunters.  Due to his exorbitant lifestyle he needs to moonlight as an art thief.  When he decides to rip off one of his clients after discovering he owns a major piece of art the real action begins. His client, Clas Greve is played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who plays Jamie Lancaster in Game of Thrones).  Both give good performances, as does Synnøve Macody Lund  who plays Roger’s wife.

This is a taut thriller with a lot of plot twists that will keep you fully engaged right to the end. In retrospect a couple of the plot twists and action were a little bit questionable or over the top and make for a good post movie discussion.

The subtitles seemed pretty quick at the beginning and I was having trouble keeping up but either they slowed them down or I started reading more quickly!

It might be hard to find this film near you (I saw it at the Violet Crown in Austin).  Butt if you get a chance to see it it is worthwhile.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Men in Black III

Bill I’s Rating – 3 out of 5

Same formula as before, proven with Will Smith and Tommie Lee Jones, enhanced by what I believe is an Oscar-worthy performance by Josh Brolin, as a Jones’ younger incarnation. Perfect imitation, fun to watch, as is the movie as a whole, with a cool villain, Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) nasty with an internal mind-blowing arsenal of which he makes liberal use. I didn’t recognize Nicole Scherzinger as the villain’s girlfriend early on (he’s not a sentimental type). This met my expectations for fun, action fluff, and surpassed them with the touching ending.

Bill C’s Rating – 3 out of 5

I was hoping Bill I. would repeat his ‘laugh stats’ from his review of ‘The Dictator’ and expand them to include ‘power laughs’ like they have for boxing matches!  As an action/sci-fi/comedy sequel it’s tough to do a great job in all aspects so while this isn’t great in any area this is good enough to be an amiable third movie in the series.  Josh Brolin’s performance was excellent and the hilight of the film.  As Bill points out they successfully add another element with the touching finish and it’s worth checking this movie out.

IMDB 

Rotten Tomatoes

Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black 3

Paramount Summer Classic Film Festival

This weekend is the beginning of the Summer Classic Film Festival in downtown Austin’s historic Paramount Theater. From late May through early September the Paramount showcases a diverse set of films with many different genres ting from the silent era to recent ‘New Classics’. This is a great opportunity to some old favorites or something you’ve never seen on the big screen. Many of the films are shown as part of double features and there are usually themes that last several days. Some of this year’s themes include Hitchcock week (The Birds, Rope, 39 Steps, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North By Northwest, Strangers on a Train), Comedy Classics (including Waiting for Gufman, Best in Show, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story and many others), Horror Week (including Nosferatu, Freaks, The Exorcist, etc.). Those are just a few examples. The full schedule is at this link.

Prices are reasonable and a book of 10 tickets is only $50. The opening weekend films are To Kill a Mockingbird, Pillow Talk, All Quiet on the Western Front and The Sting.

If you’re looking for something cool to do on one of those 100-degree afternoons, a double feature at the Paramount is a great choice!

The Dictator

Bill C’s Review – 3 out of 5

Sacha Baron Cohen is at it again with another politically incorrect, raunchy comedy. If you don’t like Cohen’s type of movie there is no reason to read any further – this movie is not for you.

Instead of his fictional character roaming around in the real world, Cohen plays a dictator looking for love and trying to preserve his dictatorship in a totally fictional story.  Of course, everyone/everything is fair game to be mocked including our political system, race relations, dictators around the world, etc. This is not nearly as good as Borat but a little better than Bruno (which I thought was sort of mean-spirited).

This movie had a lot of very funny moments but also had a lot of misses. If you’re a Cohen fan, the hits will outnumber the misses and will make for an enjoyable night at the movies.

Bill I’s Review – 3 out of 5

I decided to count the “hits” to analyze exactly how much fun this movie is, and for me I had 63 LOL moments! That’s more than I could hope for, expecting maybe 12 times when I had to do more than smile but make laughing, guffawing and other shout-outs type sounds. Yes, many were spurred from one-liners, low brow scenes, skits that were crammed into the story plot (e.g. tourist helicopter scene), but so what, isn’t that what made Woody Allen famous? Proud to note my fellow high school alum, David Mandel, is one of the writers (he was key writer on Seinfeld – remember “Man Hands”?, and now on Curb Your Enthusiasm). Keep the laughs coming!!!

IMDB

Rotten  Tomatoes

The Five-Year Engagement

Bill I’s Review – 3 out of 5

Quick review: pleasant, charming romantic comedy from Judd Apotow’s production group, co-written by, and co-starring, Jason Segal. Emily Blunt plays Jason’s fiance, and for various reasons their engagement is delayed, then endangered then concluded in a way I won’t give away here. Some very funny moments, and some typical plot twists. I love both of these actors, but after having recently viewed Her Sister’s Sister, where Emily Blunt also plays a similar role, where her best friend and her take years to cement their relationship, I see that The Five-Year Engagement plays it too safe and comes across as too predictable. Her Sister’s Sister is more exciting, more outrageous fun moments, and ultimately a more satisfying ending. The most obvious common thread of these two films is Emily Blunt. Her amazing ability to act without appearing to be acting, and often appear to be improvising, is enhanced by her likability and charm, and goofy laugh, making it believable that these guys fall in love with her and stay in love after years and various travails. My advice: wait until Her Sister’s Sister comes out (I saw  it at Tribeca Film Fest).

Bill C’s Review – 2.5 out of 5

I thought this movie was ok but it didn’t live up to my expectations from Jason Segal and Judd Apatow (producer). I was hoping for another Forgetting Sarah Marshall (since Segal wrote that too) but I didn’t think The Five-Year Engagement was nearly as funny. As Bill points out, the film was very predictable and, while you would expect tension between the couple in a romantic comedy, there was so much here that I would have been ok if they didn’t get together at the end. I also thought the ending was a little too cutesy (is ‘cutesy’ a technical movie review term?).

The movie did have some good moments and I thought the best performance was by Chris Pratt (from Parks and Recreation) in a supporting role.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

The Five Year Engagement trailer Jason Segel and Emily Blunt star in The Five Year Engagement trailer