Ka-Choo, Bless You - Contagion

3 1/2 Popcorn Kernels out of 5

See Trailer Here

There have been many disease-of-the-month movies, and many have just turned into Zombie-of-the-Month; but this one has focused entirely on the disease itself, the course it takes, and the people it touches (regardless of race or social status). Common cold, Ebola virus, STD, or The Kissing Disease; they all could have been the muse for this - because what is interesting is not the cure for the disease, but in this one, what is interesting is its birth.

When it comes to the diversity of this movie, it has to be applauded. This is an ensemble piece, and the greatest minority in this movie is the disease - which enters the picture on many levels; the first is with a cough.




Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow), returns from a businesses trip in Hong Kong with a cough, and then a fever, and becomes very sick within a 3day timescale. Her husband Mitch (Matt Damon), rushes her to the hospital where (as you see in the trailer), she dies. His troubles don't end there, but in the meantime, the doctors try to do an autopsy to find the cause of death. 


What they find is a mystery.


Contagion is not a thriller in the regular since of the word, it is more of a medical-thriller, where there are not spectacular special effects of Hollywood CGI illusions. For some, this may come across as a disappointment. If you find the History Channel intriguing, then this will appeal to you. The acting is great among the central characters, and the direction of Steven Soderbergh, keeps you interested (just as his movie Traffic had done). How society handles an unknown virus is quite interesting.

Origato Mr. Roboto

When Mitch's wife is examined and they discover a new and unknown virus in her system, the chain of discovery goes in the direction of CDC (at Homeland Security - it is amazing how threats on the human population have now involved every nature of human life, and for that matter, the involvement of Homeland Security in regarding everything as a weapon of mass destruction). We meet Dr. Ellis (Laurence Fishburne) who tries to understand the threat, and Dr. Erin (Kate Winslet) who works with understanding how the threat is spread. She has a difficult time getting a vaccination started and funded in time to have it not only produced, but distributed; oh, and to make sure that it works!


Meanwhile, the virus is spreading by the hundreds, with Mitch seeming to be immune, and having now to take care of a daughter on his own who he is not sure has inherited his immunity trait. The neighborhood is shared by a neurotic blogger Alan (Jude Law) who posts conspiracy theories about the political/pharmaceutics connections to this new disease. Then there are the scientist Dr. Ally (Jennifer Ehle) who must find a way to isolate the virus to create a vaccine - and in the end when too many failures reduces her funding, she decides to inoculate herself on the version she has more faith in.


We also have Dr. Leonora (Marion Cotillard) with the World Health Organization who is at work at trying to find where this disease originated. A disease that eventually has the population scared, the President in hiding, cities quarantined, and nations blaming nations.


The diversity in this film is refreshing, and the mesh of nationalities are neither stereotyped or exploited. In fact, they are interchangeable, and this is a good thing, for something like a disease that can be caught by a simple cough, it becomes a movie that we feel can not only happen, but one that can happen to any one of us. Each of the actors are at their best (with nods to Marion, Laurence, and Kate), with emotions that let us know that these characters are real people on the inside, with a life beyond what they do for a living.


In speaking about the diversity, what Marion's character goes through when she visits Hong Kong and a local village that wants the vaccine first - provokes anger and a realism about Power and Privilege. It is very accurate at how the world treats the poor and the minorities within its backyard.


Contagion could have been a made-for-cable movie if not for the star power that it employees. It's message is simple, and reflects all our lives, and its examination of society coming together against a common enemy is what is really contagious about contagion.

Painting By Numbers - In Time

3 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels

See Trailer Here

Being a lover of science fiction, I was very intrigued at the premise behind In Time; although this is not a new premise, it is a new take on the dystopian science fiction thriller (where technology advances to such a degree that it controls our lives...literally. Can anyone say ATM!). But this take on an old theme, although freshly acted, is somewhat dimmed by a staggering screenplay.

That is not to say that In Time is not interesting, it is very interesting, and it is more of a action thriller than a Utopian one. But given that this feature is about time - it is not surprising that it takes on the action side of science fiction. Given the director Andrew Niccol (who also directed one of my favorites: Gattaga), I was assuming something else. But here, we are introduced to a society, where time is money...literally. Everyone is given 25 years to live - in that time - anything you earn that would usually pay in money, now pays in minutes to your life. So the rich can live forever, and the poor are struggling to buy time.You either add to your life or the government turns off your body clock and you die upon your 26th birthday. Of course - my biggest beef about science fiction features, is their lack of minorities in this future...but more on that later.

You Parked The Car WHERE?

In In Time we meet Will Salas (Justin Timberlake), who seemingly lives with his mother Rachel (who also looks 25), in the ghetto of the future...funny how it looks like the ghetto of today. He shares some if his time with his mother, who is approaching her 50th birthday, extending her life. There isn't much depth to their relationship, it serves as only a vehicle for the plot near the end of the movie. One day, while in a bar having drinks with his best friend Borel (Johnny Galecki of The Big Bang Theory), they see a guy, Henry (Alex Petttyfer) buying drinks for people in the bar (this obvious act eludes that he is wealthy). This attracts the attention of some thieves, who try to attack him - but Will intervenes and helps Henry to escape.


It is not until the next morning, after they have slept in an abandoned warehouse, that Will discovers that he has more than a Century of time displayed on his arm (this digital display is embedded in all the forearm of the citizens...no need to wear a watch), and when he looks outside the windows, he see that Henry is about to commit suicide bridge-style. The time he gifted to Will, was his Thank You. Henry had already lived 100 years, and was just tired...of living.


This act attracts attention of both the police and the previous attackers; one who wants to make sure Will didn't steal the time, and the other who want to take the time from Will. In the meantime, Will enters an interesting world of the rich, and this is where I thought In Time was fascinating. The dynamics of the wealthy, their use of time, the ways they can manipulate the very digital system that keeps the poor alive (seemingly just long enough so they have to labor a lot more just to survive; thus making the wealthy more wealthy...sound familiar?), was what I wanted more of from this movie. But in an action movie, the characters have to run through these dynamics without us really delving into them.

At The Tone...The Time Will Be...

Will eventually meets Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of a wealthy businessman, and kidnaps and holds her hostage in order to slow down both of the types that are trying to catch him. It is really their movie. Justin and Amanda have amazing chemistry, but because of their youth, they are only becoming aware of the way the government controls the world through time, so we never go more that skin deep into this society. We understand their different lifestyles, and each get a chance to see and feel how the other lives, but they are both still children who live at home with their parents, so their sacrifices in life are limited. I would have loved to have known about their parents struggles in getting to the point to even make the decision to HAVE children in such a society. Can you imagine the medical bills? What is the cost to your life just to have a child? Are there even doctors in such a society where the government gives you an automatic 25 years of life?  What about taking care of your child...what would be the cost of that? Adoption? Hacking the system? Bank accounts? Interest? Credit? These issues are never covered, but it would have made In Time a much more thought provoking experience.


And as for the minorities in this movie, which are not introduced at all. We see them in the poorest grottoes of the neighborhood, but they have no real presence. I understand that the movie is the point of view of just one part of society, but this movie seemed smarter than that. With such a division of classes, minorities would have been the logical subdivision that would also have made this movie a classic. Gattaca did the same thing in it's depiction of classes, and yes there was no minority presence in that one, but it did display a very emotional part of society, disabilities, and a minority class that went beyond skin color; and that made it shine; because there was a story-arch in the way rich and poor looked at each other, and they appreciated and understood the differences. 


In Time doesn't make that arch. We see the poor giving to the poor, and the rich feeling sorry for them, but there is never a great change in their morality. But we already live in a society like that - and this one is taken as pure entertainment, not as a lesson for life...and if you see this movie on that level, you will be on time to have a good time, no matter what the time of day you see In Time.

Driving Mr. Daisy - Drive

4 ouf of 5 Popcorn Kernels

See Trailer Here

There are movies about an occupation - and there are movies about the lives that surround an occupation. Drive is like (and his is a compliment), a low-grade Quinten Tarintino movie, that he may have made his first year in college). It starts off in neutral, and takes you all the way to 3rd Gear.

Drive stars Ryan Gosling, as simply the Driver - who is a driver of many sorts: he works part time as a stunt driver for movies, he also works in his friend Shannon's (Bryan Cranston) garage fixing cars, he moonlights as a get-a-way driver-for-hire; where he helps criminals get from point A to point B after a heist.

His life is complicated, and gets even more so in two ways: Shannon has more schemes that Ron Popeil, and decides to ask his longtime friend Bernie (Alber Brooks in an amazing role) - a mob boss - for a loan to buy a Nascar racer (guess who he also sells on the idea of driving it). The Driver is always down for a few extra bucks, and accepts the idea.

Complication #2 arrives early in the movie, when Driver meets his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) at a grocery store, as her car has stalled there. He decides to DRIVE her home, and fix her car. Over time they bond (as well as her 5year old son), despite the fact that her jailed husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) is soon to be released. Upon release, they meet, and the hidden words they share at a dinner table with all of them present, is riveting. 

Standard however, is forced to go back into a crime pattern he had before his imprisonment, and needs a driver (guess who).

It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

I will stop there.

The plot, the characters, their occupations, begin to then unfold over on each other - then they soon all lead back to the Driver, and what he can eventually do for each of them...some things go right, but as it happens, things begin to go horribly wrong. 

And the Driver turns into something quite unexpected. 

Ryan Gosling proves his acting chops (once again) and his calm but deadly demeanor is reminiscent of the early days of Christian Slater or Antonio Banderas. I first saw Ryan in Blue Valentine (reviewed here), and I was taken aback. I also have to give kudos to Albert Brooks as Bernie, which is a character we sympathize with, but one who turns out not to be so nice. I always considered Ablert Brooks as a dad who speaks volumes of wisdom, but whose voice is so slow that you are forced into an act of immense patience just waiting for those words to come out. 

This film delves into the underbelly of Los Angeles, and it is filmed beautifully by Nicolas Winding Refn. The son and father Oscar Isaac, are the only minorities seen in this world, and it is okay - this movie is truly a one-man-show, and this type of underground seediness of mob-bosses, gangsters, and shysters is truly a world that has never really been one occupied by many people of color. Oscar has been in many films (Sucker Punch, The Nativity Story), and his Cuban background lends for him to infuse into roles that belie his heritage. Unfortunately, as with many minority roles, the weight of tragedy falls heavily on this character, and he relies on a non-white to rescue him (oh, the ways of Hollywood). But this film was never meant to be one that ends in a morality tale, for Ryans character himself is more of an anti-hero, and his only redeeming factor is that he is paid for what he does (but in Hollywood, the character that bonds with a child (or animal), are actually the hero's in the movie) and he is paid, in a sense, for his actions.

There is unexpected violence in this movie, and like a Cohen Brother's film, it is not overpowering, but it does move the story along, but shuts down any romantic/ nurturing plot set up in the beginning of the film. It turns from melodrama straight into an action/adventure and keeps that pace till the end. If the end could have been the middle, it would have been a much better film. But as it stands, it moves, and moves, and moves...and never never leaving you parked for long.  

Cinderfella - Midnight in Paris

4 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels

Watch Trailer Here

Okay, it's official; Woody Allen is some kinda genius. His Midnight in Paris, is part fairy tale, part fantasy, part history lesson, part time travel, and part love story. Even with all these elements - this movie is not for everyone. Although the story is easy enough for any audience to comprehend, the magic of this film lies in the actors and their portrayal of their characters (and how familiar the audience will be of those characters).

Writers, Artists, World-Travellers, History Buffs...in other words, this is a film for the Geek/Cultural/Artsy-types.

The film stars Gil (Owen Wilson), on a trip in Paris with his fiancee, Inez (Rachel McAdams). Gil is a screenwriter, and like many writers, he has a pantheon of iconic writers he loves and admires. He wishes he were back in a time where the Arts was taken more seriously (before the time of e-readers and short-attention spans). He hopes that Paris will be his muse, as he dreams of someday penning the Great American Novel. Inez just wants to visit a nice cafe and down a few choice croissants. 


As you can imagine, these two dreams are far apart, and soon, Gil is off at night admiring the atmosphere of the Paris he dreams of, and Inez is off shopping with her friends who just happen to be in Paris: Carol (Nina Arianda), and Paul (Michael Sheen), an insufferable know-it-all about all things Parisian; but really doesn't know anything at all. Inez is enthralled with Paul, and they thirst for present Paris nightlife, while Gil is enthralled with it's past.


One night, while Inez & Company go dancing, he decides to troll Paris, and while sitting on a set of church steps, a bell tolls midnight, and an old-age car pulls up filled with passengers, who invite Gil to join them. At a bar, noticing it's very vintage style, and patrons who call themselves: Zelda, F.Scott Fitzgerald - who take him to see Ernest Hemingway - he realizes he has been transported back in time to Paris' heyday in the 1920's. There, he talks of his manuscript, and Hemingway promises to show it to Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) to read it (all while Josephine Baker is putting on a show). OMG! So he rushes back to retrieve his manuscript - but time has shifted back.


I wont give much away than that. But because of the performance, I must say, in another visit, he does meet the mistress of Pablo Picasso, Adriana (Marion Cotillard), who captures his heart in her time, but her thoughts (just as his) are of an earlier, simpler Paris. This mishmash of characters, situations and twists in history, reminds me very much of the film Shakespeare in Love (one of my favorite). In a film where time travel is incorporated, there is usually dense melodrama, or high-pitched action - this one sort of lies in-between.


A lot of the jokes went by me, because many of the characters speak as they write, or many are known through their histories and the struggles they may have had in being a writer or artist at the time. So there were small bursts of laughter in the audience at some times, and a roar of everyone at others. 


Gil (Owens), is at once charming, and although I don't claim to be a fan of many of his movies (or his acting as well), here he is very good. This character is very much him. He makes Gil seem tired of his world and his circumstances, but we feel he doesn't hate them, he just dreams of something else. He makes the most out of his life whether it is in the NOW or in the PAST. Adriana (Marion), well I am a fan of hers - and here she too plays a smart woman (just as Josephine), in a time where women were not only beautiful but talented. A world where you were known by what you did, not the gender/color you were born into. She handles her and Gil's relationship with tact, despite the underlying attraction they have. Their union is built upon childlike innocence. And Gertrude (Kathy) attacks her role with panache and bite. This is were many of the creative minds of Paris gather and converse (The cast ensemble is too vast to name). She is another smart woman who KNOWS she is, as if she were the madame of an artistic geisha house.




Midnight in Paris has appeal and grace, like a good ballet. The laughs are soft, and the pacing very smooth. It ends as it should...and also how you will feel. 


Good.

From Cigars to Neckties - Columbiana

3 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels

See Trailer Here

There is quite a suspension of belief when it comes to the movie Columbiana, but it handles this with such seriousness that it becomes a rollercoaster of high adrenaline, and you are just there for the ride. 

And what a ride it is.

From childhood, Cataleya has had killing in her blood, and it started way before seeing her parents killed before her eyes - because her father Fabio, was paying off his debt to leave the drug lord Don Luis(Beto Benites), but for insurance, held on to a key piece of evidence denoting all his dealings. Well, he passed on this piece of information to his child, Cataleya - and in one fell swoop, as the men, one named Marco (Jordi Molla), tried to accost her, she manages to injure and escape their grasp via rooftops, and sewer systems, and a myriad of hallways. Yea, she was not meant to be a desperate housewife.


She gets into the states where she meets with her uncle Emilio (Cliff Curtis), who, upon her duress, makes the decision to train Cataleya as a professional killer; but she has to go a regular school first. She is afterall, barely Twelve. Talk about a role model. 

An Eye for an Eye

Then we flash forward to Cataleya as an adult (Zoe Saldana), and we watch as she begins her plan for revenge, in a jumpsuit, or short skirt, or tight pants, or...whatever. She wore more on the set of Avatar, than in this movie. All this while she wields semi-automatic weapons, and slips through ventilation shafts, and manipulate electrical units, and operate remote bombs beyond the technology of the James Bond era. But who cares...Zoe is doing it. And she does it so well, with so much seriousness, that we believe that at her young age, and possibly having only graduated high school at 18, that she would acquire not only the smarts, but the ability to handle a variety of  weapons, but every electrical system, and locked door in the free world. And still manage to battle the challenges of love, with her handsome boyfriend, Danny (Michael Vartan - of the Alias television show).


The star of this of course, is Zoe as Cataleya - her versatility is stunning. This movie got a lot of flack from true Colombians, who thought the depiction was on the bad side of being stereotypical. And in part, I have to agree - but since this movie seems more parody/adventure/fantasy/action - than anything else, it all comes across as comical. With Zoe's Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage, I admire her ability to meld many cultures, without becoming a stereotype herself. Her acting is better than the script deserves, and I believe that is because her fans KNOW she has been in better, and here she is having fun. I found her performance more convincing that that of Angela Jolie in Salt - as their characters run across the same lines.


As for the other actors, and for Danny in particular. Whenever Hollywood chooses an actress of Zoe's shade, and style, why must she always be paired with an Anglo-Saxon? Danny's part is such a plot device, that I didn't mind, and this at least gives the film a diversity for the audience it is trying to appeal to, but really - hasn't the industry grown up just a little more than that to film a country saturated with Spaniards, and Cataleya's family from a Catholic heritage, and she can't find a man that at least knows Spanish? Where did she meet this boyfriend of hers? Was it while shopping for bullets at the local Piggly-Wiggly?


But for all that it fluffs up, it is a good movie with action aplenty, that manages to even laugh at itself...but don't tell Cataleya that-cause she's no joke.

Beauty and the Beast - Biutiful

5 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels

See Trailer Here

Yes. This movie is subtitled.
Yes. This movie is subtitled in Spanish.
Yes. This movie is subtitled in Spanish, and it doesn't matter.

Finally. This movie is amazing!

Biutiful is not a perfect movie, but the rating is perfect, because of the actor involved, the tension that is built, but mainly because of the emotions that it surfaces. From love, to fear, to shock, to compassion...I have rarely come to a movie that has turned me in so many directions that I felt dizzy from the experience.

Kudos go out to the director: Alejandro Gonzalez - who also worked on the films Babel and Amores Perros, both of which were very intense as well as captivating in its portrayal of hidden cultures & cultural differences. His films seem to be pushed by the boundaries of human morals and sacrifice.


Here we meet Uxbal (Javier Bardem), a man who has crossed to many lines in his life: he imports and provides undocumented workers to work on fake designer accessories in Barcelona, for a factory in the seedy part of town (aren't they all). These items are sold on the street illegally, and when a crackdown happens, the sellers have to gather-and-run...to the next street corner. Talk about moving up the corporate ladder. Not only does Uxbal have to bring in the workers, he also has to oversee their living conditions (and with that their overall health). His fingers are everywhere they are not suppose to be.


With his divorce from his bi-polar wife, Marambra (Maricel Alvarez)  who drops in from time to time, followed by a constant trail of cigarette smoke, we see that he is the only one who is struggling to take care of their two small children, Ana and Mateo. The money he gets is barely enough for the cereal they call a meal in the mornings. While he is at work the children have a caring Nanny, Ige - whose love seems to cross the lines with Uxbal on many levels. In taking care of his children, he also has to TAKE CARE in watching these women. He is spread very thin.


Then he gets the news that he is dying (and we get that news in the beginning of the film with his bathroom visits ending in bloody discharges). This film is anything but subtle, in both imagery, tone, as well as its message. For Uxbal now wants to set his life right now, and do good by his children - all while he hides this news from those around him. It is a tough road indeed.


What sets this movie on its spiralling course, is that even while Uxbal tries to mend his ways, he is reminded that when it comes to life, we don't live it alone - and the morals of others may not fit the plans that we have for ourselves. 


Biutiful is a masterwork in how life, although on film, is not always a movie with a picture-perfect ending. What we set in motion, has to play itself out in the direction it was aimed, no matter how we might want to bend the road in a different direction. Javier is an amazing actor, and exhibits the torture inside this character who is forced to change his nature. We all want to be better people, but there is resistance when we are FORCED.


The idea of death and limitations, as well as circumstances that are beyond our control, litter this film. The look of it is very fresh, with vistas and locations that show is a different side to this country. It is very awe inspiring. The images is imposes, from a waft of cigarette smoke, to a beach laden with corpses - our senses are numbed.


Though the character's life isn't all that beautiful - what we walk away with is.

Maids of Honor - The Help

41/2 Popcorn Kernels out of 5

SEE TRAILER HERE

Can this film be classified as an African American film? From a character standpoint - Yes. From a character viewpoint - No. It is so sugarcoated with the nicest white folk I have seen while living in the darkest era of Civil Rights, that it feels as if I've stepped into Emerald City, instead of Jackson, Mississippi.

The Help is about three women - one white journalist, and two black maids, each with a dream that pushes them past their caged boundaries when achieved, and into the greatness within themselves.


We first meet Skeeter (Emma Stone), a white woman, who comes home after graduating from the University of Mississippi (more on this connection later), to find the only writing job she is able to get is one doing an advice column in the local paper on household cleaning techniques. At home she is not only shocked at the mysterious disappearance of her own childhood maid, but at the treatment of the maids that service her friends and other homes in town. For the column she asks the advice of a friend's maid, Aibileen (Viola Davis), and at the same times observes the racial abuse within her world.


She find this may be a better story for the novel she has always wanted to write, and eventually gets Aibileen's best friend, Minnie (Octavia Spencer) to expound on excerpts of their lives surrounding the town. She tells her publisher in New York, "Nobody every really talks about it down here," and she wants to be that voice, in describing the very people that take care of and mother the children of, a white populace that despises them.


So we enter the lives of two maids, Aibileen; who loves taking care of the white children in the houses she is employed with, and who also yearns to write stories someday, and Minnie, a maid with a biting tongue, who is the best cook/baker in town, as they deal with racial divisions, along the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's.

There's No Place Like Home...

The casting is great, and Sissy Spacek is a charm in many of her scenes. Viola Davis lets us know why she was nominated for an Oscar in "Doubt" with her matriarch manners and cold reserve; but the surprise is Octavia, as Minnie, she is the backbone of tenacity throughout the film, with an emotional range that hits all over the place. Her performance is on top in a scene where she first meets Skeeter at Abileen's home...and we are presented with her quite unique baking techniques.


We are also presented with quite a different view of racism in this film, one that had me a bit perplexed; while I am told that the book may reveal more of this in depth, the film's views of separation of bathrooms, and the disregard for Black Humanity, are quite in-your-face...but take time to listen to the edges of the film. On the televisions and the radios, we get a glimpse of the real Jackson Mississippi in all its racist horror. But sitting in a theatre of mixed race, I noticed that only the Blacks caught these glimpses, while other received it as emptily as they did the popcorn they were eating.

Very quickly, I'll mention one of those edges, and that had to do with the reception of the activism and assassination of Medgar Evans in the film. Medgar was an African American who fought for desegregation ever since he was motivated to attend - and graduate from - The University of Mississippi (the same school Skeeter came from, and I am guessing where she learned her blatant tolerance from). Skeeter and Medgar seemed about the same age, so I am guessing she may have even met the man. Ironically, Medgars parents were a prelude to his life; considering they were both named Jesse and James (names that together carry a volatile mix). Medgar went to college because his many cousins before him had been lynched, and he wanted the hatred and ignorance to stop. Medgar was the hope of Blacks in the country - having an education and served time in the military (buried in his uniform), all with the intention to give back to a community that hated him. He wanted his actions to stall the violence against his people. It didn't...but the Help manages to avoid the world that Medgar saw, but one that many African Americans know existed in that time.

For me that may have been the only flaw in this film. I wanted the story to give a real depiction of the racism going on in Jackson, but The Help is suppose to be a family-film, and maybe that is why the real threat to these women (and their men) was not brought to full light. Many critics and audience members of Color, thought it glossed over the subject too - but then I remembered, this whole movie is really brought to light from the point of view of Skeeter - not the maids. We know very little about the maid's circumstances that forced them to become maids; what had the men in their lives been doing?  But with such a lack of African American films out there, many African Americans want to include everything that relates to us - the good and the bad - when a drama like this is released...and it just cant.


Which is why I implore you to see this film, talk about this film, take a friend. It is a strong feature, with amazing actors doing an amazing contribution on a story that is fresh, new, and quite entertaining...while also keeping history alive. And if you do, I'm sure it will Help...other such movies to have a voice too. 

Neva Knew Love Like This - Crazy Stupid Love

3 1/2 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels

SEE THE TRAILER HERE

It is nice to walk into a movie without any expectations, and come out with a smile on one's face. This movie has a young heart, but I don't think will appeal to those with younger birthdays. It reminds me of a boxed puzzle set where all the pieces don't fit until the end, but excitement still builds with each part.

This movie falls somewhere between romantic and screwball comedy. It starts off fast and unforgiving like Bridesmaids, in setting the atmosphere of what we are about to encounter. In the beginning, Cal (Steve Carrell) is having dinner with his wife Emily (Julianne Moore), who after having a modestly nice dinner, want "to have a divorce" for dessert. Cal is shocked, and while on the drive home, as Emily feels the need to confess more of her litany of reasons for her decision, his only need to escape all the chatter, is to open the door of the car and exit himself upon the moving pavement.


This is our first couple saga.


As the couple come home, they meet their baby sitter, 17 year old Jessica (Analeign Tipton), who we discover has an infatuation with Cal - and then there is Cal's 13 year old son Robbie (Jonah Bobo) - who has an infatuation with Jessica.


This is our second couple saga.


Cal drowns his divorce blues at a bar, where we meet a modern-day womanizer, Jacob (Ryan Gosling), who offers to help Carl drown his sorrows in the lesson of How To Get A Different Kind of Cocktail, namely women, and his lessons begin to work, especially with his first time out with Kate (Marisa Tomei) playing a most neurotic partner...until Jacob begins to find a woman who is immune to his come-on, Hannah (Emma Stone), and starts to chase her.


This is our third couple saga.

Lounge Lizardy 101

As you may guess this turns out to be an ensemble piece, and parts of it are very adult, as in Cal and Emily's relationship. We can tell they have had a long marriage, love each other, but want something more that the marriage isn't providing - or has been grayed out in the long term. And then there is the craziness of the young infatuations, that go well into comedy. No one breaks dishes, no knives are thrown, no revenge is taken, no one gets kicked below the belt...they all understand that love come, love goes, and some love lasts forever.


What makes Stupid Crazy Love unique is the way these love interests escalates to include a puzzle that eventually involves the whole cast of characters, and arrive at a most surprising ending. It will seem a little stupid, and make you a little crazy, but you will fall in love with these folk all the same.

Monkey See, Monkey Do - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

4 our of 5 Popcorn Kernels

 SEE TRAILER HERE

Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is a very difficult movie to review. This is a movie where the human actors act more like the apes than the apes do. 

Rise has some very good special effects; they wont stand the test of time, because you can tell the real from the CGI, but 20 minutes into the movie, when the lead ape Ceasar begins to gain personality, it is quite appealing and fascinating to watch...everyone else is (excuse the pun)...second banana.

There is action a-plenty in Rise, and it moves very quickly while still giving us a plot that makes sense. And of all the Planet of the Apes movies (Tim Burton's version still being my favorite), this one manages to create a world where  animals are animals, and not an allegory for gender/class separation as the X-Men series has become; but then again, this story feels unfinished, with an ending that teases us with what is yet to come. Will there be a sequel - I'm sure that will depends on the box-office receipts.


The movie stars Will Rodman (James Franco), as a neuroscientist who is trying to develop a cure for Alzheimer's, which his father Charles (Jon Lithgow) is afflicted. He has good results on one chimpanzee, who has developed a very high intelligence along with some very brigh, very human eyes - but that chimp goes...well...apesh*t, and is killed but is also found to have just given birth. This baby is ordered to be destroyed by Will's boss, Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo - good performance), but Will's coworker Robert (Tyler Labine), and he, cannot do it, and Will takes the baby chimp along with him to raise.


This is where CGI takes over, and as any New Yorker will tell you, keeping wild animals in your home is only cute as long as they stay babies - but all children will grow up, and to imagine that this chimp can stay at this home is unreasonable. And in the movie, as the chimp gets smarter, and Will's funding gets cut, he decides to try the cure on his Father. It works, and this small family grows into an interesting one, but through some happenstances, the chimp, named Ceasar (Andy Serkis - more on him later) adult tendicies come to surface, and Will has to have him sent to a primate facility, where he confronts chimps, apes, and the like - that aren't as domesticated as he...but he plans to change that...


And so Rise begins to take off in the direction that it is suppose to, and Ceasar begins to Rise against the tyranny of the facility, and the reality of who (or what) he really is. The diversity of the animals, and the range of their personalities is really well thought out, and once Ceasar escapes and finds the cure (which we soon find out is not all that it promises), and brings it back to his hairy brother and sisters, the personalities really become 3-dimentional, and we want the chimps to conquer their freedom.

Work Can Be A Zoo

But all this plotting feels disjointed. There is really no reason for their freedom being gained, and it makes no sense that Ceasar, having being brought up inside a home all his life, would have the smarts to know how the outside world really works, and to develop a realistic plan for survival. Unless the cure was airdropped around the world, and the chimps had advanced smart phones to communicate with each other, their plan to just run into the wild, seems foolish. I expect that if there are sequals, maybe this will be developed more carefully.


Besides the pace of the action, the actors are a bit bland, given the roster of talent on board. James Franco is subdued, which is surprising from the performance (and Oscar Nod) in 127 Hours. John Lithgow, whom I love, seems satisfied to just play the father, brush his wild hair back, and go collect his check. David, as Will's boss, is a Black British actor - and an very talented thespian, who once played the part of a "white king" in a Shakespear production that had audiences gasping at such a thing (you can also see a glimpse of him in The Help, as the preacher), has volume but is too busy playing "mean" to really be a good protagonist. Look also for a few Slumdog Millionaires, and former Wizards here too...As for Ceasur, who is played by Andy Serkis (who also played Gollum in Lord of the Rings, Kong, and soon to play Capt. Haddock in the new Tin Tin movie, and Gollum again in The Hobbit), who is also British, has some very good depth in conveying emotion in body language. He must be a ninja when it comes to playing charades.


And it is this emotion, this feel for the character, that Ceasar accomplishes, which has not been given to the other actors. When the chimps, apes, orangatangs get together it is a treat, and it didn't need a lot of special powers, or explosives to pull this off. This is really a movie that can stand along your collection of other Planet of the Ape movies, and is better than it should be...it wont have you climbing the trees with excitement, but at least it wont have you scratching your head either. 

America The Beautiful, Very Beautiful - Captian America: The First Avenger

3 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels

SEE TRAILER HERE

I really wanted to like this movie, and although I didn't dislike it, it just felt a bit dated - but Captain America is a rather old comic book character, although the lead actors on it seemed photo-shopped right from GQ and Vogue magazines.

The look of Captain America, is really good. For those of you that are familiar with the comic books (or older comic books in general), they have really captured the look and feel of those very graphic and moving images. The color is a bit grayed, the buildings bold, the clothes stylish for that time, and story set up (nerd turned hero) is typical.


...too typical.


Maybe I have overdosed on the superhero movie - and maybe I was even more shocked to see that a trailer for another Spiderman movie had been made (WTF!) - that it would be nice to see the hero lose a battle or two these days, and maybe see what a villain would actually do if they really Ruled-The-World...world...world...world...<-- (place mountainous echo here). Hell, I'm sure The President would love to have someone to take over things at this point.


But without even seeing the movie, we all know how it is bound to end. When has a superhero ever NOT saved the day? But here's the rub...the movie is set in the 1940's - the best special effects to come along in that day was maybe Godzilla in a wet suit. You can only stretch the action so far and also keep it realistic to the times. There are no Magic-Wands, no Transforming Cars, no Phasers, no Aliens, no Lords or Rings...just a few made up inventions and a lot of Bang/Pow fight scenes (many done in slow-mo). It all is very fast-moving, but in the end, feels a bit dated - as if this would have been a better cable movie than a feature film. But Captain America - just like Thor - is a lead-in movie to introduce 2011's Avengers movie.

Beefcake Being Served - Table 1

This movie stars Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), who is a scrawny man with hopes of joining the army in the era of World War II - he is rejected time and time again because of physical ailments, but his tenacity us strong...so strong in fact,that it captures the attention of one of the doctor's, Dr. Erskine (Stanely Tucci), who wants Steve for a special project involving a new
"Super Soldier". So he is recruited in this special group, and is met by Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), who is there to train the troops, and Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who is overseeing this secret operation. At first there are misgivings about Steve, because he can barely fit the uniforms he is given; until he does an unselfish act that gains their attention.


Meanwhile, Nazi officer Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving aka. The Red Skull), has stolen an object of unknown powers, which he believes will not only power his massive weapons, but also himself...and turn the war over in their favor, but the power is a bit unstable, and will need some time to be controlled. Moving forward...Steve quickly becomes the only one to achieve success in accepting the "Super Soldier" formula which changes his body into something every boy (and some men) can envy - even Agent Peggy, who looks like she walked directly off a pinup calendar and into this movie. Meanwhile...the greedy Schmidt decides to try the power stone, despite the dangers it possesses.


With The Red Skull's attempt to take over the War...then the World, Steve (Now Captain America) is there to thwart his every move, and the battles begin, Good vs. Evil, Live vs Death, Man vs Machine...and all that other superhero stuff. Unfortunately, it is stuff that we have seen before - of course with a less beautiful cast. In mentioning the special effects put upon Captain America (when he is scrawny, and I am starting to believe when he is in full-buffness too) cudos! It is a seamless technique seen both in "The Devil's Double", and "The Social Network"...and one that will do away with the split/screen when it comes to actors playing duel roles. As for the rest of the film, which was bathed in CGI - as an action film, it passes. I just found it odd that in World War II where there are soldiers on both sides, that none of them are skilled enough to hit a half/naked man in bright American Flag colors when aiming at him from all directions...really!


And speaking of the casting, it is very interesting to dissect this, because then you can see how it aims to attract the appeal, not of the hero, but of the range of audience members it is trying to lure. Agent Peggy will get the men in, Steve Rogers will get in the girls (both with enough personality and good looks that they will appeal to both sexes & genders easily), Colonel Phillips gets the older crowd...and various other actors, including Schmidt, who are so well known in other films, that their name alone brings in numerous fans of all persuasions (he starred in the Matrix and Ring trilogies). With a varied audience to pull from in this movie the Avengers movie will need much less advertising because it is being plugged in this movie as well as others. We all know it is coming...


...and coming it will, for at the end credits of the movie, you get a taste of what will happen; which in my opinion once again, would have made a better beginning to start off with (nuff said).

Home on the StRange - Cowboys and Aliens

3 1/2 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels

 SEE TRAILER HERE

Peanut Butter and Jelly goes together - But Peanut Butter and Mustard...not so much. And so it goes with this film; giving us the best of two movies, rolled into one. Eat Up!

Cowboys and Aliens was inspired by a graphic novel of the same name, and in that I can see where such a storyline may have been hard to translate to film. Not that it does a bad job, but graphic novels are exciting because of the art and the story - the reader creates the emotion. In film, it is hard to compete with what the mind is thinking is happening on paper. All in all, Cowboys and Aliens is rather a treat, because of its concept, and the actors involved. The Western part of this movie dominates the Sci-fi part, and that is why this film may not excite everyone. Transformers it is not. A sort of Twilight-Zone-esc feel is what you get with this film (without the ending twist). In essence, this becomes what many Westerns become...a film about a quest; something bad comes to town, and the town has to fight back, usually with a gunslinger hero to lead them.

This hero carries more than a gun...

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

The movie begins with our anti-hero (in a movie that seems filled with them) Jake Lonergan Zeke to his friends (Daniel Craig), in the dessert, without a memory of how he got there, with a clunky bracelet that would have Tim Gunn screaming for the Fashion Police. He wanders into a town called Absolution, and the townspeople who don't give him the grandest welcome...especially by one of the towns founding shareholders and all-around bad guy, Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). Jake has gumption, and handles a few of the riff-raff in town quite well, including Dolarhyde's son Percy (Paul Dano).

Soon we find out that Jake is a wanted man, a leading member of a hold-up gang, who we soon discover has a vendetta against Jake for dissapearing on them after a gold heist of a stagecoach. In town we also meet Ella (Olivia Wilde), the local hot-gal that is drawn to Jake, and seems very intrigued by his situation to the point of unwanted tailgater. So all doesn't bode well for our anti-hero, because the Deputy Charlie Lyle (Brendan Wayne) wants the reward, Dolarhyde wants his hide, Ella wants the bracelet, and Doc (a wonderful acting job by Sam Rockwell), wants everyone to stop picking on him.

But as all of the cards seem to be folding for Jake, and the town is fixin' to hang him, in rides another visitor - space ships from the sky, that quickly swoop in to lasso a few of the townsfolk, until Jake aims his fancy wrist-piece at them, and it blasts a wave of energy enough to knock one of the ships down. Inside...well, the title says it all...aliens of course.

So now Jake is called to be apart of the town's posse in finding the abducted townspeople, and hopefully a part of his missing past. This adventure takes us into more of the Western part of this movie, as we journey into the dessert, and as Jake's memories slowly come back to him - and eventually the destiny of him, the aliens, and the townspeople.

Cowboys and Aliens is neither scary, or complex in its delivery. The aliens themselves do provide some thrills, but as with many alien movies, once they are done terrorizing us with their looks and uncivilized manner (which is odd for me that an advanced race can not only be found so easily, but they have even go through the trouble of capturing us in the open, for no better reason it seems than curiosity - you can learn much about us I would think just by them tuning into reality-TV),they have very little else to do in the movie. Where are the alien creatures that are written with the same complexity of emotions and purpose as the humans?

What I missed mostly about Cowboys and Aliens was the science fiction aspect of the movie. I understand that the western civilization can only be armed with six-shooters and arrows, but when pitted against advanced weaponry, how exciting is it bound to get? After a space ship travels past asteroids, meteors, solar flares, the coldness of space, debris, gravitational pulls...you mean to tell me that it takes 2 1/2 hours for them to fight with us?

Fashion Police Bracelet

I do have to say that the actors and the acting in this movie is what saves Cowboys and Aliens, for they are taking this with the seriousness that must be displayed so that this doesn't turn into a spoof about either genre. Nat Colorado (Adam Beach), plays an Indian in this movie, who helps Jake to get his memory back, and his portrayal in this movie of his character, almost torn between his duty and his heritage, is very pulling. Harrison Ford is strong in this role, and his character has a hard shell but a soft center that only he could play. Daniel Craig, with the help of his 007 role, really has turned into the action hero with steel reserve that kept me watching, and he plays well with Olivia Wilde.

Cowboys and Aliens is a good movie, with plenty of action, but non of it very surprising. We can figure out what is going to happen in the end, just as we do with most Westerns...and if you are not a fan of both (or at least interested in films like True Grit, 310 to Yuma), then I would sit at home and flip through the movie listing again, and cook popcorn at home.