The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Wes Anderson is starting to feel like a one-not-very-good-trick-pony. Although I flat-out loved The Royal Tenenbaums, the shtick is getting old.

Wes: How 'bout instead of a crazy old house and its eccentric family...we make it a submarine with a researching crew?
Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, and Bill Murray: Genius, Wes. We're there.
Wes: Now how 'bout instead of a sub, we make it a train and three dysfunctional brothers on a quest?
OW, AH, and BM: I guess we could do that.
Wes: The next one's gonna be gonna be set in...
OW, AH, BM: We have to check with our agents -- not sure we're free.
Wes: But you haven't even heard the set-up!!
All: Pretty sure we've got the gist.

I was bored to tears and I hated my traveling companions. Anderson does know how to choose a soundtrack, though.

D

Jolson Sings Again (1949)

...and again, and again, and again. I mean, the guy just won't shut up.

This follow-up to The Jolson story covers the break-up of his marriage, his self-imposed sabbatical from singing which resulted in a "who-cares" attitude by producers and public when he decided he wanted back in, and his slow comeback process aided by his work with the USO.

I know this is a weird complaint, but there was just way too much singing. It was only 96 minutes, but I'd wager a third of that time was spent listening to him croon. Perhaps the problem is that I don't like Jolson's voice (the actor lip-syncs to Jolson's dubbing) or the overstylized performance mannerisms -- but I do think it wound up feeling as though there wasn't enough story and they had to add a bunch of filler in the form of song to make it feature length.

C

Michael Clayton (2007)

This is a really good legal thriller with great performances -- but it's not groundbreaking in any way.

George Clooney plays Clayton, a "fixer" for a tony law firm. He's a gambler and has quite a bit of debt due to a restaurant venture that failed because his drunk brother/business partner apparently ruined it somehow. He's obviously at a "what's the point" place in his life...working non-stop at a soul-sucking job with nothing to show for it but worry lines and cash troubles. So, when he's called in to work on the messes being left by one of the firm's top litigators who has become an unpredictable loose-cannon, he's looking at the problem from a sympathetic position for probably the first time in his life.

Like I said, it's good, but not terribly original. Also, I'm not sure there was any good reason to start the movie with a scene that falls, chronologically, toward the end of the story being told. It didn't really seem to add anything -- just was a little confusing, to tell the truth.

B+

In the Valley of Elah (2007)

Tommy Lee Jones is ex-military police who's lost one son in combat and gets the call that his remaining son, who he thought was still in Iraq, is back in the states and missing from his base. Not the type to just sit around, he goes looking.

This reminded me a lot of "Courage Under Fire" -- Jones driven to get to the bottom of a mystery that everyone else seems determined to kick under the rug. I've read a couple of reviews that accuse Paul Haggis of making this film as a statement against the military...but I disagree that this movie only works as a screed. It's emotionally deep and extremely well-constructed as an investigative thriller.

Basically: I believed it and it broke my heart.

B+

American Gangster (2007)

Ruby Dee got nominated for this?? I can think of at least a dozen actresses (Jennifer Garner in Juno, Helena Bonham Carter in Sweeney Todd, Leslie Mann in Knocked Up, Jennifer Jason Leigh in Margot at the Wedding -- and that's just off the top of my head, people) who deserve a supporting actress nod more than Dee does for this teeny-tiny role that's not even, let's face it, very masterfully performed. If the Academy was hell-bent on honoring an older woman who barely clocked any screen time, it'd have been more sensible to go with Vanessa Redgrave in Atonement: might not have been a big role, but I'm pretty sure she had more lines than Dee did and Redgrave was perfect in it.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest: the rest of the movie plays like a dozen other movies/Law & Order episodes we've seen. Slick bad guy entrepreneur gets taken down by straight-arrow cop. I've seen this kind of story before -- wasn't worth the time to see another slight variation.

C

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

Of all the Oscar-nominated films, this was the one I dreaded seeing the most. Just thinking about the emotional draining that was sure to occur while watching "the guy who had to blink everything movie" exhausted me. Well, thank you Oscars. Once again, you've forced me to see a marvel of a film that I would've certainly missed otherwise.

For the first portion of the film (probably 45 minutes at least), we're looking at the world from the viewpoint of Jean Dominique "Jean-Do" Bauby -- and what a difficult view it is. Thankfully, Bauby's internal commentary is far from saccharine OR morose. He's quick-witted and condescending, e.g. mentally telling a doctor who wants Jean-Do to think of him as a friend to "just be a DOCTOR," frustratedly dismissing his speech therapist's idea of blinking to communicate as unworkable, and quickly adjusting his conversation with a visitor to fit the haphazard translating job the visitor's doing.

There's beauty, hope, and precious little sentimentality here.

A

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

First, I just want to say that the human population of the film is terrific. It looks as though they just started the film rolling on the actual neighborhood and got permission to use it later -- really authentic.

That said, I had a few problems with the execution of the movie. The editor in me found something that could've been tweaked in at least half of the scenes. Too much just seemed false and it was driving me (and poor Gary, who had to listen to me) a little nuts. Now, without spoiling anything, by the end of the movie I was a little more on board with the directing/acting choices that were made throughout the story -- they were more plausibly deliberate than simply clumsy once the whole story was told.

In the end, I judge this a good film that had the potential to be great.

B

Becoming Jane (2007)

I do love the romance of Austen novels. I'm also a teeny bit crazy for James McAvoy, a fellow I think embodies mischievous charm. In short, I expected to enjoy, maybe even LOVE, this fictionalization of Jane Austen's life despite the fact that I'm not a fan of Anne Hathaway (yes, she's got gorgeous eyes and flawless skin, but I find her rather bleh).

But I didn't. The romance was dull, the drama was too meandering, and the humor was barely there. I wanted wit and passion -- instead I was served up a Pride & Prejudice light with a bummer of an ending. Why bother?

C

Friday (1995)

Just a couple of buddies hanging around on a front porch all day. They watch the neighbors, tell stories, go on a convenience store run, and get high.

This was probably the 5th time I've seen this. It's one of those movies that Gary and I both love and quote incessantly -- our two faves are probably: "Oh, you ain't catchin' no crackhead" and "He gon' cry in the car," but we seriously have at least a dozen Friday quotes in embarrassingly frequent conversational rotation.

B+

Heroes for Sale (1933)

Tom Holmes gets shot on a WWI battlefield and is thought dead...BUT he is taken to a German hospital and nursed back to health. He comes home to find that the coward responsible for putting him in harm's way has also taken credit for his heroic work on the battlefield...BUT he's given a job in that guy's bank. He loses his job when it's found out that he's addicted to morphine as a result of his injuries...BUT he kicks the habit in rehab. His mom dies and he leaves town...BUT his new town comes with Loretta Young looking all pretty.

And on and on. Basically, Tom's a decent guy who keeps getting lemons and squeezing them into lemonade and we should all be like him. This movie preaches so many messages that I was a little tired of it all by the time the credits rolled.

C

There Will Be Blood (2007)

The first I heard of this movie was when the trailer ran before the feature Juno. I leaned over to Gary and said "that'll win best picture." I think I've got a decent shot of having that early prediction come true.

Though it spans decades, my attention was glued to the screen throughout, mainly because of Daniel Day-Lewis's extraordinary performance. The guy might be method-y enough to make me roll my eyes when I read an article about his character immersion, but there's no denying it gets results. The only thing that took me out of the moment were the times when I could see, in close-up, the holes in his pierced ears. With all that can be done with special effects, why does no one ever bother to mask those glaring anachronisms in period pieces?

Really, the only thing that the movie does wrong is to let it go on a bit long. The entire last act could've been edited down to about 5 minutes -- just let us check in with everyone and see how their choices have paid off. I'm actually surprised at the way the final points were hammered since the rest of the film seemed to trust the intelligence of the viewers.

A-

Ong-bak: The Thai Warrior (2005)

Bad guys steal the head off of a small village's Buddha (Ong-bak) and they send young Ting to the big city to fetch it back for them. Ting's a nice, uncorrupted (read kinda bland and boring) kid, but he's been trained in the Muay Thai martial art by a local monk.

What follows is a light on plot/heavy on elbows to the head series of chases and brawls -- which is just fine by me. Ting's moves are so amazing that the film often repeats the more incredible moves from different angles and different speeds, just to make sure we saw them. No wires, no CG, just awesome athleticism; at times I actually laughed in delight.

The movie reminded me somewhat of a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie. It never really mattered what the story was, it's all about the dancing. In this case, we're here for the beat downs and they don't disappoint.

B-

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

I saw this right on the heels of Elizabeth: The Golden Age -- a movie about which I complained that the visuals got in the way of narrative. Well, this movie is also interested in deliberate visual compositions but, rather than going for simultaneous look & story, they do them one at a time: 1) Narration while you look at stuff. Go ahead, keep looking. We'll wait. Done? You sure? OK. 2) Time for a bit of story before going back to 1. All in all, I think I prefer the "Elizabeth" way. At least it bored me for an hour less.

It's truly hard to spend this long in a film in which there's absolutely no one to like. I never felt any tension because I never cared if someone was in danger. What I was doing most of the time was wondering why on earth these idiots weren't better liars, why no one in his gang had killed the unpredictable Jesse earlier, and playing "ooh look, it's that guy from that thing."

C-

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

The film's definitely more interested in composing beautiful visuals than a compelling story. At times, the scene composition actually gets in the way of the narrative: Spanish men, seen only in silhouette behind a giant flag, ready for war; an entourage moving down a hallway looks more like a smeary oil painting than people and stone; Elizabeth zooms down a hall in a poufy yellow gown and we watch from a vantage point about 50 feet directly above, reducing her to a flouncy yellow daub. Sure, it looks cool, but it also removes any forward movement from a story that really couldn't spare the momentum.

Story in a nutshell: Elizabeth is horny. Sir Walter Raleigh is earthy and sexy. Walter gets it on with Elizabeth's favorite lady-in-waiting. Elizabeth throws a hissy. Then Spain invades to put things in perspective for her. And lots of music swells lots of times.

And I fell asleep twice.

C-

Trade (2007)

It feels almost evil to spend time criticizing a movie about girls, women, and boys being kidnapped and sold as sex slaves. I mean, really...how petty is it to complain that a movie doesn't really work when there are, right now, thousands of children being abused by pedophiles? But, criminy -- there's a gimme of an interesting subject and the film turns it into a sentimental (and awfully convenient) buddy tale.

We see Adriana get snatched off of her new bicycle -- the bicycle her mother told her NOT TO RIDE -- in broad daylight. So, I guess the moral of the story is "obey your mother or you might become a sex slave"? We see Jorge, Adriana's brother, entice a American tourist into a deserted side street with the promise of cheap sex only to rob him blind. So, maybe the moral of the story is "don't promise sex without delivering or your sister may, karmically, be stuck paying your debt"?

We also see Jorge jump into the trunk of a car that just so happens to belong to Ray (Kevin Kline), a cop who -- wouldn't you know it -- happens to have a personal interest in human trafficking as the rumor is that the daughter he's never met was sold to support her mother's drug habit. That turns on us to the real moral of the story: "no matter how impossible a situation, a contrived movie script can work it out -- even throwing in a fluffy kitten in a basket (no joke)!"

C-

Rocket Science (2007)

Back when Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip looked like it was going to be a hit, there was a funny little promo for 30 Rock where Alec Baldwin walks onto a set and is thanked profusely by Tina Fey for agreeing to star on their show about a sketch show and he replies with something like "no problem -- so when do I meet Mr. Sorkin?"

That's pretty much how I felt about an hour into this. I was getting pretty annoyed because 1) this kid still hadn't become some debate savant, shedding his impediment in the process and 2) Vince Vaughn was nowhere to be found. It was only then it occurred to me that I might have rented the wrong movie... which is rather sucky for me as Thumbsucker looks pretty decent.
This movie was, to put it mildly, not decent. It strained so hard to be quirky that it forgot to be in the least bit entertaining. Blech.

D+