southwest3210-156-400970 Reviews

Light of Day (1987)

Joan Jett overshines Fox in this..Surprise....

[25 October 2011]

MJ Fox may have done his best serious acting here, but jett is better. A strange thing about the 70's runaways group. One chick, the one Dakota played in the biopic of the runaways recently, Cherrie Curie, did a great job acting in the 1980 movie Foxes.....and Joan nails it in 87...go figure....

A simple, very depressing, but realistic movie....slice of life stuff. Which, as someone mentioned, is obviously why it flopped at the BO. Very good bar band stuff from Jett here.....

Paul Schrader has never made a movie without merit. Keep in mind this is the guy who wrote the script for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, so even his least movies have something to offer. Schrader deals in some very heavy, deep human motivations and inclinations in his flicks, and never made a movie that was light fluff yet. This is the closest to that claim, and even this movie has merit and substance. Prob the worst movie he made, but even this is good....

Let's face it, the guy has never made a bad movie...

A Good Year (2006)

Critics are penalizing Crowe for light comedy is all...

[24 October 2011]

Crowe has had so many weighty roles in the last 10 years...gladiators, undercover whistle blowers, naval commanders, genius college professors that are crazy, etc., that if he stoops to play light romance, he gets castigated, as if he is beneath himself. Sure, this is a Hugh Grant-sh role typically, only because he is usually cast in such things, and he is a good one-trick-pony at it. I think every great actor, including Hoffman,Pacino,and Dinero, have done the light stuff. Pacino got reamed for his one attempt, "Author, Author", but Hoffman won honors and best pic for "Kramer vs.", and Dinero has been essentially beloved for his light comedies, and deservedly so.

Yet once Crowe, who I believe is of that same caliber, tries it, it gets reamed by critics. Go figure. I think it is also because he is disliked by so many. Perhaps a likable role just doesn't jive with their image of him, who knows? This performance was just fine. A nice change of pace for Crowe.

Hall Pass (2011)

Easily the worst comedy I've ever seen, bar none.....

[22 October 2011]

Oh my God....I never thought Owen was exactly a laughriot, but, being the farrelly bros., I thought perhaps this was worth a watch. Does a comedy without laughter make sense? This makes "Caddyshack" look like Citizen Kane. Where did they go wrong? Man, where do I begin? Horrible script. Horrible, humorless acting. No laughs OR drama. Not even good raunch, like Old School or The Hangover. Just a really boring flick. Would find more entertainment value in a Hannah Montana movie.

While the movie grossed 45 million, a shock(obviously in the first couple weeks before the word got out the movie sucked), it has all the feeling of a direct to video movie. This is actually painful to watch, it's so empty of everything.

The only laugh for me was at the beginning, when the son said his mom had a fat butt. And then it went downhill very fast.

Last factoid...the mousy secretary from the office stars in this, and she is really really bad. Applegate is as awful. Let's hope they stick to sitcoms in the future. The two male leads are just as bad. really really really bad.

I've seen direct-to-video movies that look like Casablanca in comparison to this dreck. I am in shock that this actually made money at the box office(46 mill).....they all deserve their money back. The two hours of their lives wasted, however, are gone forever, sadly..

Adventureland (2009)

"HEY!!! In the CLOWN"S mouth!" LOL!!!

[26 September 2011]

My God, one of the classic "coming of age" movies! I'm 49, and long past the period when these types of movies should have any resonance, and I loved it. I would rank this right up there with "Risky Business" as a cinema right of male passage moment, though this one has a female one as well with "Em", the "Twilight" gal co-lead here. This one is perfect..not almost...the only bone I can possibly pick here is that both leads do not look or act as if they were well into their college years...Jesse Eisenberg looks and acts more like he is graduating high school, not winding up a 4-year degree as seen here. Same with "Em", who is attending NYU but looks and acts 16 here...would a 19-20ish woman still be fighting with her parents and acting out morose attempts at independence? I would think that one year at college would have burnt out all that, yet she fights her mother like a bitter 15-year-old in a "I hate you!" mode.

So, other than not setting both leads at an age they look and act like here, the movie is simply classic. Funny without being too silly, and dramatic without being too sentimental. A true masterpiece.

As coming of age movies go, this would have to be near the top. And few movies since "Dazed and Confused" have captured the old era of the 70's and 80's, or used its music, so effectively....

superb movie!

Soldier's Girl (2003 TV Movie)

"Full Metal Jacket" Meets "The Crying Game".....

[26 September 2011]

And actually not terribly far from the quality of either as well... I rented this definitely out of my box of what I typically watch. I saw the material, and decided to go out on a limb, subject matter wise. I certainly was not expecting a movie that would have gotten raves if released at theaters. I honestly would say that the two leads displayed Academy worthy brilliance. Perhaps MORE than some nominees of recent years.

The intensity of the acting was just overwhelming. This one is something you just can't forget after the credits roll. The director, Frank Pierson, has made many cable movies for HBO/Showtime and such, and they are every bit was worthy as the best that is offered at theaters. Do yourself a favor and rent anything this man has directed for cable. He is easily the finest in that realm that ever was or will be.

Foxes (1980)

Put it on to laugh at the retro stuff, and soon stopped laughing..

[21 September 2011]

..stopped laughing because the acting was so realistic, and heartfelt. And then realized how a well told story can be dressed in any era, as the human heart never changes. Young adults trying to make their first forays into the adult world, confused, stumbling, and learning by getting burnt, as always. This is no Little Darlings. LD is a cartoon compared to this. And Fast Times at Ridgemont High is like a sitcom(which it later actually became for a short spell) in comparison.

Best of all, you get the first strong glimmering that something special will be in store for Jody Foster. She is only 18 here, with a baby face, but you can strongly sense something very much more would be in store for her down the line, after she wisely got her Yale degree. We are missing her in movies for almost the entire 80's, but she more than made up for it from "The Accused" on. One wonders what she might have done in her missing "20's" decade acting-wise, but good for her for what she considered more important at the time. Now she has a Yale degree AND two Oscars, and isn't even finished yet!

Alive (1993)

Nice effort by Hollywood to create a "real" disaster movie

[8/10 · 20 September 2011]

No Poseidon Adventure here! Just a gritty real-life disaster. How realistic CAN one make something as horrific as this, or, if one COULD make this as graphic and real as it was, who could bear seeing it? The Hollywood slightly glossed-over version is nasty enough. I cannot get the image out of my head of people getting sucked out of the back of the plane screaming during the crash. This was truly 50 days of hell for all involved, living with dead bodies of former friends, eating them, etc. The Hollywood version is far graphic enough. I could barely watch it as it was, as much for, if not more for, the reality and pain behind such events.

I could easily see this as a great vehicle for someone like Hitchcock, who liked to play survivor egos against each other for great drama, ala "Liveboat". This director kept it more peaceful and amicable, though I can imagine there was far worse infighting during the actual event. Keep in mind these are not special forces landing on the Andes, but relatively pampered rich kids playing for a rugby team. All the more amazing they were able to survive this.

This is def not a "Popcorn" movie, so leave your tub of buttered popcorn/nachos in the fridge and cabinet.

One hell of a movie....and finally a unique plot and scenario...no superheros or explosions, just one crash....and a whole lot of aftermath..

Conspiracy (2001 TV Movie)

With Cable movies like this, who needs the Multiplex?

[18 September 2011]

No, this movie stars no superheros..no explosions even....yet the drama and suspense here is as taught as the best of Hitchcock.

I admire the way they portray the high-end dinner and servers as integral aspects of the meeting. Horror dreamed up on a banquet table served with the finest food available. What irony. And have we changed? Now 1% of the US controls 70% of the wealth, and eats in luxury while the majority struggle to survive. Boardrooms are NOW a venue for multimillionaires to send jobs overseas with a flick of a pen, destroying lives at many points removed.

I'm obviously not placing this on the same level of the Holocaust, just saying how the powerful and rich destroy lives and livelihoods with the same broad strokes....some things never change..

I agree that this would/should have been nominated for best pic if released in theaters...

Down with Love (2003)

Visually stunning.....an experiment of sorts....

[17 September 2011]

I saw this more as an experiment, a chance to pay homage to a time and place in movie-making. I was also reminded of "Breakfast at Tiffanys" a tad in its glamorization of that Jackie Kennedy/Audrey Hepburn period of high ladies fashion. It was sort of a 50's lag, a last vestige of the classy old styles before the hip/hippie modern era would sweep them away forever. Call it the end of elegance, if you will.

On the other hand, it was the end of an era for the more innocent screwball comedies/romances as well. Movies changed just as abruptly, and got just as down to earth in its realism as the fashions. So, we are seeing here a double homage, to the fashions, and the more lighthearted tenor of movies, in the 50's/early 60's.

The movie did well in the plot/story/jokes department. It was a tightrope, because if they got TOO risqué or hip, it would take away from the tenor and point of the whole retro/throwback thing. In that case, it inevitably would come across in some ways as a retread and stock, but that was the price paid for doing this. There simply was not much room to work with in any sense per plot development, and tongue-in-cheek can only go so far without betraying homage to the old school of doing things. With the aforementioned built-in restrictions, I think that Payton Reed did a pretty darn good job here! Well worth seeing, and a must-see for those who love retro fashions and movies.

The Astronaut Farmer (2006)

One of the finest movies ever made....

[10/10 · 16 September 2011]

..and no kidding about that. I do not care that it technically was a financial flop. Some movies are just too good, and I truly mean that, to strike a universal chord with the general public. This is one of them.

Strikingly shot, the entire movie glows visually, helped by the starkly desolate beauty of New Mexico. Yes, it is preposterous, per the premise that one can build a functional rocket in ones' barn, but if we discounted movies with far fetched plots, at least half would qualify, including such greats as "Wizard of Oz" and any based on fantasy, let alone sci-fi.

The movie itself is so heartwarming, a family movie without the cloyingness of most family movies. Simply put, the faith/love of a family backing up the Don Quitote dream of a tinkerer father, in this case a tinkerer who builds rockets in his yard, planning to create his own manned mission into space.

I truly think the movie was perfect in every sense, from the screen writing to the acting to the verisimilitude of the media coverage, including the great Jay Leno interviews. Just a wonderful little masterpiece, that hopefully will find the attention it deserves on video one day, ala the way Shawshank Redemption was "redeemed"!

A true pleasure to watch this. One of the most heartwarming pictures I've ever seen. Precious....truly...

Stuart Saves His Family (1995)

Could have been more, but not bad!

[15 September 2011]

I think that the problem with this movie is that it has difficulty handling it's tragicomic aspect. That is so hard to pull off. In my mind, the perfect example of a movie that DOES would be Steve Martin's "Roxanne". Most tragicomic movies either err on being too dramatic or too comic. This one just leaned too far in the dramatic department. While it did really flesh out the smalley characters, it did so at the expense of being funny. It needed a little more crazy/absurd moments to be a truly good comedy. I should mention that at essentially every "skit" character based movie from SNL has fallen flat, so there is not exactly much to match or beat here. Regardless of that low-bar, I truly think this could have been a riot if made differently.

I had in mind something like "Stuart saves the world', like an Austin Powers flick(how ironic, BTW, that the most successful SNL alumni movies are NOT based on SNL characters, ala Bill Murray's Stripes, Groundhog Day, et al., or Chevy Chases Vacation flicks, The "Blues Brothers" being the one exception here)....Again, it would have been perfect if he saved the world through his insipid motivational drivel, seeing as how some of the actual gurus, especially the religious ones disguised as preachers, such as Joel Osteen, come close to at least "attempting" to do that right now. Actually, Joel Osteen is not at all dissimilar to Stuart Smiley. Scary but true. It could have been classic, but this little movie is still sweet, and far better then the manure 99% of the character skit SNL movies are. And now Franken has the last laugh, being one of only two US Senators that were former movie stars. Reagan will prob forever hold the record of being the only president of that ilk.

Liberty Heights (1999)

Unexpectedly Great!

[14 September 2011]

I saw all 4 of the so-called "Baltimore Quadrilogy" in sequence, and, while the first three were fantastic, Diner still rose to the top for me. It was the most real, most heartfelt, and most memorable. I put on LH thinking it would be "okay", and was shocked to see it just about right up there with Diner for all the same reasons. If you've seen Scorsese's "The Bronx Tale" with DeNiro, you might notice a resemblance, down to the "forbidden" teen interracial love plot. In Bronx Tale, the "mob" has a part, but with nothing terribly eventful. In both, the family and everyday storyline take precedence, as if the mob aspects were afterthoughts.

I can't say that the Jewish Mob background did LH justice, as Montagna just seemed too wishy-washy to be a front-line mobster. Montagna is a great actor, but I think he should have brought a little harder edge to the mob-orientated moments. He did fine as a father, though he could have had any occupation and the movie would not have been any the less for it. I strongly feel that if the movie did not have the mob element in it, and Montagna had a conventional occupation, the movie would have been perfect, and even more realistic than it was. The burlesque scenes again were a drag on what otherwise would have been a perfect "coming of age" film.

This movie comes very close to "Diner" quality, if not for the somewhat flawed "mob" subplots....well worth seeing though!

Northfork (2003)

Find conventional, cut-and dried movies boring? Here's an antidote.

[9/10 · 11 September 2011]

Stories, whether in book, oral, OR movie form, have always had some ambiguity and mystery to them. Even our Bible, containing prob the most well-known "Stories", is full of ambiguity and allegory. Think of the prophets and parables. Think of genesis/revelation. The beginning AND the end - all symbolism, wedded loosely to a tangible mystery we can never fully comprehend. Think of the Australian aborigines "Creation Stories", in which there is no time, and all that ever is or will be is ever with us....Time is NO time...and ALL time...at once..

These story ambiguities convey mysteries that will ever remain so. And the deepest "mysteries", ever residing behind a veil we can never fully tap into, can only be explained by "Allegory".

In this sense, Northfork is akin to a biblical story. Floods, change, redemption, death, light, dark, gray......and man's quest to understand the mysteries of this short but profound life through such allegories.

There is no "linear" time here. This "story" is all allegory, and lends itself to wherever one wants to be "taken". It is a dream scape more than a narrative.

"To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub/For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, /When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, /Must give us pause. - Shakespeare..

Twin Falls Idaho (1999)

David Lynch with a heart

[9/10 · 10 September 2011]

The first thing that came to mind was David Lynch, wedded to a heartwarming feel. Understated, yes, but oh so heartwarming. A little dash of the 1930's "Freaks" for good measure, in a good way.

The academy awards are such bunk(crap). A movie off the radar like this is essentially incommunicado per the awards, yet sitcom-like drivel like "Terms of Endearment", "Kramer vs. Kramer", and such win best picture. Forget awards. This movie rises above the standard issue formula that rings true for the academy, like so many "Indy Movies" do. I like to think of the lot of understated Indy movies as above and beyond what radar we typically place our "understanding" of movies in.

Twin Falls goes far beyond those expectations. Redefines them.

Rent the DVD when you want(need) to go beyond the standard issue Hollywood "drivel".