Ok, So A Movie with Kevin Costner as Main Comedic Presence has Problems Right Off The Bat.....

So tonight I am beginning my plan to get back into the movie watchin habit, and threw in one of the DVDs I have had from the Blockbuster.com for a while now. The Upside of Anger stars Joan Allen (who I love) and Kevin Coster (um, yeah, not so much) in a romantic dramedy. Allen plays a woman whose husband left her and her three young adult daughters, and she's pissed about it. She drinks, she is cold to her children (who are all really good in it - Erika Christensen (Traffic), Kerri Russel (Felicity), Alicia Witt (Cybil) and Evan Rachael Wood (Thirteen).) Anyway, Costner plays her next door neighbor who helps her to pick up the pieces of her life (a la Nicholson in Terms of Endearment). Get this - Costner takes a chance and plays....are you ready for this....a BASEBALL player. Well, a washed up baseball player. Other than Waterworld - has he every played ANYTHING but a baseball player or a cowboy? I mean, honestly.) The film just kinda floated along...Everything was just a bit too pretty. Plus the mood will suddenly jump to "quirky" for no reason - lots of happy music and Joan Allen mugging for the camera. In one scene I almost expected a spit take...There is also a twist in the movie, but I kinda saw it coming. I would not recommend this movie, but didn't mind sitting through the end of it, so watch it, don't watch it, It's fine with me....

PS. What the hell do people do with the DVDs from blockbuster - the last few I have gotten have been all busted up and scratched - halfway through the movie the picture went all wonky and the movie would have to jump to the next chapter on the disc....WTF?

OK, so Grindhouse.....

So, as Rodan said below, we saw the Grindhouse movie(s) this weekend. We decided it would be fun to post reviews (and by we, I mean me.) Anywho, I enjoyed the movies very much. Of course, the last movie I saw before this was 300, and the last movie before THAT was Jackass 2....so me getting out of the house is kinda nice. Anywho, Grindhouse.

I liked them both very much. I was worried that it was going to be gory and give me the nightmares, as I don't like the bloody stuff. I am happy to say that it was so ridiculous that you couldn't help but laugh at it. I only think I looked away one time during Planet Terror, the zombie movie. Now, Death Proof, the car chase movie was a little more stressful to watch, just because it was based more in reality....ish. I think that many people ae finding it disappointing because PT is so much more over the top, you can't help but think that DP is going to eventually go that way as well. But take it as a separate movie and it goes down a little easier. Oh, and the trailers and the 70s style of the filming...amazing. I truly enjoyed both these movies very much, and while they aren't doing very well in the theatre, I suspect they will be HUGE on DVD. Just sayin' ......

Ok so...The Break Up

Watched The Break Up tonight. You know, the one with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn?

Um, I thought it was supposed to be a comedy.

Does anyone have a gas oven I could stick my head in right about now? I'm actually quite sad.

Ok So...A Dirty Shame

Tongiht I watched John Water's A Dirty Shame. It was pretty funny, though not the best John Waters movie I've ever seen. Tracy Ullman plays a repressed woman who gets hit in the head and becomes a sex addict. Chris Isaak (rrrowr...) plays her husband and Selma Blair, her daughter Caprice (aka Ursula Udders). The whole town becomes a haven for sex addicts and...well, there isn't a whole lot of story, but it's damn funny, mindless fun. And there is a whole subplot about bears that is pretty funny as well. ("Grrr! Wooof!!! Grrrrr!")

Give it a shot if you are looking for a dumb laugh.

Ok, So, Food of Love

Last night I watched Food of Love. It was a small independant film that was produced in Spain, starring English actors playing American roles. Yeah, I thought that was weird, too. It is one of those coming of age stories about a young man who falls in love with his mentor and discovers himself in the big city, blah blah blah. The young man, Paul, is played by Kevin Bishop, who was in Muppet Treasure Island when he was a kid. Yeah, well, he's all grown up now! He's cute - he reminds me of a friend of mine from high school. Unfortunately, the thing that stands out most in the movie is the horrible acting by the woman who plays his mother (Juliet Stevenson). She's English, but trying to have a California accent, but keeps slipping back into her English accent, so she talks with a clenched jaw and doesn't open her mouth, i.e. Jael and from ANTM. She was over the top and campy and just kinda an ass.

If you like movies where they show an 18 year old's ass about a million times as he puts his pants on in a half lit room, then Food Of Love is for you.

Ok, so...Beer League

So, um...Beer League...

Yeah, I should have known better, but anyone who knows my secret identity knows I love me the Howard Stern show on Sirius. It's my not so guilty pleasure. Anyway, a sidekick from the show, Artie Lange, made a movie last year, and it bombed and they all make fun of him about it on the show. So, being a loyal fan, I decide I'm going to check it out, knowing it was going to be a dud.

I had NO freakin' clue just how much of a dud it was going to be. Holy shit. The acting is horrible, and the storyline is just kinda dumb. It's supposed to be Bad News Bears for frat boys. Dumb, drunk frat boys.

I will say this, though. The whole movie takes place in Jersey, and it reminded me of summer up there. It also was a good motivator to get me out of the house and enjoy being outside...well, ok, outside to my car so I could go to the gym, but the fact is I was outside, so back off!

Stay away from Beer League.

Ok, so....Sin City

Holy Shit!

What a great movie.

I borrowed this from Taffy (Yeah, I get the creepy nightmare thing - you don't even have to tell me which part you were talkin about, Taff....) Anyway, the visuals on this were AMAZING. Use of black and white with splashes of color...it was just a great movie. Now I REALLY wish I had seen this in the theatre. It was a total pulp/camp/hero/anithero story. It has it all.

And I have never wanted to be a ninja gun toting hooker so much in my entire life, let me tell you!

Rent this if you are looking for a great movie. I mean it!

Ok, So 300....

Yeah, I'm a big soft squishy femmy girl.....

It was a great movie. Taffy and I, and Taffy's husband, went to see it this afternoon after my trip to the dentist (more on that in the already recorded Ep. 4.....)

All those abs looked GREAT on the IMAX screen.

so...gym tomorrow, anyone?

Ok, so....Running With Scissors

So tonight I watched Running With Scissors.

Um.....

Er.....

Am I missing something? It appears that the movie, which is based on author Augusten Burroghs' real life, is weird for the sake of being weird. Everyone in the movie looks like they need to take a bath. I mean, I know it was the late 70s - we ALL needed to take baths, but the house, the stars....everyone just looked....greasy.

There was some great acting in it. Jill Clayburgh was very good in it, and Joseph Cross, who plays Burroghs, was very good. Tightfaced Gwynneth Paltrow (who I used to love) sort of wanders around trying to be crazy, but looks like someone who is trying to act crazy for a movie, and Annete Benning....you just know she read this thinking, "NOW I'll get an Oscar." She's campy and over the top, but not as much in a fun way as in someone who thinks they are guaranteed an award for playing retarded.

If you really must, watch it. You won't be missing much if you don't see it. That is all.

Ok, so one good, one, eh...

Ok, so I watched TWO more movies today - The Oh In Ohio, and Coming Out Party.
The Oh In Ohio was a great movie. Any movie with Parker Posey, Paul Rudd (a Cute Guy of the Podcast) and a scene where Liza Minelli has a blond wig on and is talking about the virtues of masturbation WHILE wearing a silk robe that SAYS Masturbation on the back of it is good for at least one watch! Posey plays a woman who learns how to give herself an orgasm while Rudd plays her frustrated husband. Truly, a great great movie.


Coming Out Party is a comedy concert with 7 GLBT comedians/storytellers, including Dan from The Real World: Miami and Terry Sweeny, the first openly gay cast member of SNL. While some of the stories were stronger than other (Jackie Beat, Bob Smith), some of them felt like that kid in high school who is in drama club and LOOOOOOVES to give monologues so that all the attention is on him. By about the fourth story, I was thinking, "Ok, ok, I get it - you all came out. You're better for it!"

Ok,so when will this movie be over?!?!

I failed to find the humor in this......and it was the longest comedy. Ev. Er.

Taffy will be disappointed, I'm sure, as she loaned this to me.....she'll live....

Ok, so FINALLY a good one

I watched The Groomsmen tonight - after a series of lousy movies, I finally saw one that I liked. Ed Burns (um...where is he on the CGoTP list?) wrote and directed this movie about a group of childhood friends who come together for a friend's (Burns) wedding. The cast is strong, the writing is believable and the houses remind me of houses back home up in Jersey, so you know I was all about that. I enjoy Ed Burns's films (The Brothers McMullen, She's The One), and if you do, too, you'll enjoy this one. Like I said in the title - FINALLY a good one!!

Ok, so...For Your Consideration

Wow...what a HUGE disappointment....I just finished watching it, and I am speechless....just...speechless

I will say this, Catherine O'Hara does have a funny ongoing physical gag about an hour into the movie.

Oh, did I mention the movie's only an hour and 20 minutes long?


I'm off to go trade in my movies at Blockbuster. I'll let you all know what I get later!

Ok, so...more movie reviews...

Ok, so I got back into the movie watching thing tonight with two movies that have a similar theme, but go about their ideas in totally different ways. Both were "mockumentaries," a style that I normally love, with Best in Show and Drop Dead Georgeous as two of my favorit movies of all time.

Niether of these movies were Best in Show, let me tell ya!

On Edge takes place at a California ice skating rink, and is supposed to show the competitive nature of the girls who are all trying for a spot at the regional championship, the doorway to the Olympics. Of course they are all backstabbing and dim witted, and cookie cutter in their design and presentation. There is even a cameo from a regular Christopher Guest film actor in the end. It was horrible. Don't waste your time.

The second film, Stardom,was a bit different, and kept my interest. Stardom is more in the drama range, and is about a model, and her rise and fall. The entire film is pulled together from various news interviews, talk show spots, TRL and Jerry Springer-like circuses and more privat moments shot by a good friend of the model who happens to be a documentarian. While I had a good idea of where the road was taking me with this movie, I was never quite sure where it was going to lead to. Some wooden acting by the model (played by Jennifer Pare), but an interesting movie none the less. It would be a way to kill an hour and a half some rainy Sunday if you happened to see it on cable.

I gave On Edge one star on Blockbuster.com, and Stardom three stars.

I also have For Your Consideration, and am looking forward to watching that, hopefully tomorrow night.

Not so bad movie - just a lousy ending....both of them.

Ok, so last night I watched Employee of the Month (see the review below), and tonight I watched The Forgotten. It starred Julianne Moore, who I love, as a woman who lost her son in a plane crash...or did she? Everyone in the movie thinks she's crazy, so she runs around a lot in New York while people chase her. It was good, if not formulatic, and I did enjoy it much. The ending confused the hell out of me though. There is alternative ending, which I also watched, and I gotta say, I'm glad they went with the ending they did. The alt. ending left you wanting more. It was an ok rental, and it was only 90 minutes, which I liked - nice and quick, to the point.

I'd tell people to watch it if they like mysteries

Bad Movie! Bad, Bad Movie!!!!

Holy Shit is this a horrible movie! Ok, so I decide that I am going to go through my blockbuster.com list and pick movies that sound...well, just interesting. I rememeber a movie coming out a while ago that was supposed to be really good, a movie where Matt Dillon was supposed to have his comeback role, and he won all sorts of indepndent film awards....well, this ain't it. Employee of the Month stars Dillon, Christina "Smelly Pirate Hooker" Applegate, and Steve Zahn, who is overacting so bad he should be embarassed. In short, it is about a guy who loses his job and his fiancee all in the same day, and he snaps. Or does he? It's one of those movies that is trying WAY too hard to be a Tarintino movie from he mid 90's - gratuitous sex and violence for no good reason. There is a "twist ending" that I saw mostly coming from about halfway through the movie (although there was one or two little twists I didn't see, I will give them that.) There is even the obligatory lesbian angle. Really? Really? Is that necessary for the storyline? Whatevs.

Whatever you do, avoid this movie.

hooo, boy....

OK, so I watched a DVD tonight, "Jackie's Back." The Premise for it sounded pretty good. A camera crew follows an aging musical diva for a week before her big comeback concert, reviewing her life and meeting people that were affected by her over the years. It has a ton of cameos in it, people from Bette Midler to Penny Marshall to Melissa Etheridge. Good idea for a movie, right?

This was a painful 90 minutes. I kept thinking it was going to get better and there was going to be a big finish. It was bad. I should have known it was going to be a piece of garbage when the opening credits looked like this was a made for TV movie. Ugh. Stay far away from this piece of shit. It least I got this though my blockbuster.com account, so I didn't pay specifically for this movie. I'll trade it in for something better soon.

Movie Reviews, OK SO..... edition, vol.1

OK, SO, I gotta say I was a little disappointed with the movie. I mean, it was ok, but I think that so many people had made such a big deal about it, I was expecting a lot more than I got. It also probably hurt that numerous people at work told me enough parts about it that I knew the general outcome before I watched it. However, lots of excellent acting in it, and I think it's great that the little girl who's name completely escapes me at the moment is nominated for an Oscar. She was (is) very cute and had some great scenes, not the least of which was the scene with her and Alan Arkin, who was also very good in it. The last scene in the movie was great, too, and made me laugh.

God, could this review be any more bland? I'm giving Little Miss Sunshine four out of five stars. I guess. I don't know...I got cupcakes to frost......What did YOU think?