jimstaudt-142-658515 Reviews

Darkest Hour (2017)

Legendary performance by Gary Oldman

[9/10 · 24 February 2018]

If Mr. Oldman doesn't win the Academy Award for this role, I'll be very surprised. (The makeup artist deserves one as well.) Oldman absolutely NAILS the persona of Winston Churchill! The only complaint I had about the movie is that a lot of the scenes seem "under-lit", a trend I seem to see way too much in movies lately. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who is a WWII buff and/or a Churchill fan.

The Angriest Man in Brooklyn (2014)

I thought it was pretty good

[8/10 · 5 August 2014]

Robin Williams is great no matter whether he's acting the fool in a stand- up routine or whether he's playing a serious role. This one leans toward the serious side, although the movie has some really funny scenes. The one with James Earl Jones as the pawnbroker is borderline CLASSIC. Jones shows a comedic side I've never seen before -- actually had to rewind and replay that scene twice and laughed as hard every time.

Not Williams' or Kunis' best roles, but definitely not a time-waster. Williams can make even the plight of a man nearing death seem funny, and Kunis is easy on the eyes no matter what role she plays. Melissa Leo is always good, and this movie is no exception. And the guy who plays her sometime-lover, Bob Dishy, is probably the most "unknown famous actor" in the business. I KNEW I had seen him before, so I googled his name, and found that he goes all the way back to Barney Miller. Never knew his name before, but he sure is a familiar guy.

Lions for Lambs (2007)

Some really good performances

[7/10 · 28 January 2014]

When this movie came out, it was panned by the right as being "too anti-Bush" and anti-war. Well, what could we expect from Hollywood other than that? Now, 7 years later, the story line seems eerily prophetic. Senator Irving (Cruise), responding to the journalist's (Streep) question "Why not just pull out?", says (paraphrasing here), "One, Iraq goes back to being a third world country in ruins, two, Iran will have nuclear capability, and three, Afghanistan will continue to be the crap-hole it is, with a strengthened Taliban as a result." Funny, this is exactly what Barack Obama has accomplished. His pulling out of Iraq has destroyed what was a budding democracy, his weakness in dealing with Iran has them on the verge of having a bomb, and his pending promised pull-out from Afghanistan will have made 10 years of war there all for nothing, at the cost of an indeterminable amount of "blood and treasure". And hundreds of young men and women walking around on aluminum "legs", trying to make do with plastic arms, or dead.... or worse. And yes, Virginia, the Taliban (and al-qaeda) are indeed strengthened, despite the Obama claim that they were "decimated".

All told, a good movie. Great performances by Cruise (very believable as the either idealistic or phony (depending on your political point of view) "rising star" senator, Redford as your typical overpaid anti-war ideologue, and Streep as the reporter who thinks it's more important to report the news as she sees it as opposed to simply reporting the news. A great "message" movie, whether you take it from the point of view of the right or the left.

Nola (2003)

Slight spoiler... but good review

[8/10 · 5 February 2013]

The plot is way too contrived, and the ending a little too sappy, but Emmy Rossum, James Badge Dale, and Mary McDonnell all give really good performances. There were a few too many "convenient coincidences" throughout the film, which really made you have to stretch to buy the plot, but it was played out very well by all the actors. And come on... an 18-year-old Kansas girl sleeping in the subways and doorways in New York -- I don't THINK so. Emmy Rossum has been a huge favorite of mine since she played Christine in the most recent Phantom of the Opera movie, and I don't know why Dale hasn't really gone places yet. IMHO, he's one of the best young actors around. Hard to see Rossum sing pop-folk-ish music, though -- once you've heard her sing the operatic tunes in Phantom it just seems like a waste of her enormous talent. All in all, it's a good watch.

Cosmopolis (2012)

A total waster of time

[1/10 · 6 January 2013]

This movie belongs at the top of the "Rotten Tomatoes" list. Boring, filled with dialog that can most aptly described as "pseudo-intellectual psycho-babble" (with apologies to Jack Nicholson), with gratuitous meaningless violence interspersed, presumably, to keep the viewer from walking out (or falling asleep). I wasted a perfectly good Netflix rental on this turkey. IMDb requires I write ten lines, so I will try to do so, but the next lines have nothing to add to what I've already said. Ten lines? Hmmm... let's see... a forced, plastic performance by Pattinson, gratuitous sex scenes with a succession of meaningless partners... an over-acted scene with Giamatti... is that ten?