Hey Todd, Dante Bean. If you were planning to
review this yourself, I totally understand and won't be offended if you
disregard.
Up in
the Air -
I should disclose
from word one that I will pay to see just about any George Clooney movie there
is. It would really have to look like an incredible misfire for me to
avoid it, ala Intolerable Cruelty. I think he is a legit movie star and
can carry any flick on his back, even a run of the mill genre flick like Michael
Clayton, and knock it out of the park, which he does here. He completely
sells the role, a traveling bearer of bad news contracted by CEO's too spineless
to deliver it themselves. I loved this flick. I love the
Clooney.
My only real reservation about this flick was it being
billed as "From the director of Juno". Which is a turd, but that really
isn't the fault of Reitman. And I enjoyed Thank You For Smoking. So
I guess he's 2-1 for me now. It's a sharp flick, he keeps the pace brisk
and given the drab setting, it's pretty stylish overall. I think he wants
to make indie hipster finding yourself type flicks, but he wants to do it with a
big budget and A-list stars. The Bateman and JK Simmons both return from
Camp Reitman. Zack Galafalinkaalkakas, Danny McBride and (way
unexpectedly) so does Sam Elliott. But most of them don't even get two
minutes of face time.
For a movie that so clearly
has an agenda (this economy, woooooooooo boy I tell you what) it mercifully
doesn't beat you over the head with it by focusing on the story of Clooney who
happens to be in that setting first, instead of the other way around. It
never came off as preachy or obnoxious. My only misgiving about the whole
thing really is what feels just fine as a far away sub plot becomes a major
focal point in the final act. They could have cut it out entirely, and it
would have no ill effect on the story and the ending would remain
unchanged. Which pretty much defines completely unnecessary.
3 Things I Liked
About This Movie:
-Clooney always sells it.
-I came home and bought the
soundtrack on iTunes
-Topical without being pretensious
3 Things
I Didn't Like About This Movie:
-Stumbles in the final act
-So much great
talent relegated to cameo status
-Spillover Juno stink
If this
is playing in your area, it's an absolute must see. Best flicker show I've
seen at the movie house since The Hurt Locker.
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Same
deal as last time OT!
Brothers -
This
movie has the worst trailer ever made. As I'm sure you could probably
tell, it pretty much goes over the entire movie for you. From opening shot
to finale. This movie only keeps one secret to itself, and while a
relatively important plot point, it's inclusion or absense doesn't really alter
the proceedings that much. So because the trailer gives everything away,
I'm not especially worried about spoilers.
So basically, Spiderman
goes off to war, leaving Queen Amadalia to watch after the kiddos. When an
accident happens overseas, his brother Donnie Darko is there to watch over the
fam and ends up almost laying his wife. There are two problems with this
okay setup. One, all of this happens in the first twenty minutes or
so. It is too much, too fast before we know or care about any characters
here. It's impact is dulled even further by letting us know going in that
Spiderman is going to make it home to Amadalya anyway. So not only do they
let all this high drama unfold on total strangers to the audience, we don't care
anyway because we know how this all wraps up. I won't give away what
little there is left, but it's obvious there is no positive way to end this
one. This is one of the most down depressing flicks I've seen in
ages. Up there with The Killing Fields and Big Mama's House
2.
Even with all these nagging problems, this movie gets away with
it to some degree because our three leads have friggin great performances.
I liked watching these three act out this story. Spiderman's post war
freak out on Donnie is awesome. It looks like he lost a ton of weight like
Batman did for that Machinest flick. His cheeks are sunken and his eyes
are hollow. Total creeper, in a good way. This movie even skates
around what is normally a huge problem with child actors. These two little
girls who's names I'm too lazy to look up are excellent. The best I've
seen in ages, especially the older one. They really hold their
own.
3 Things I Liked About This
Movie:
-Queen Amidala having long hair again
-Great
performances, even from the kids
-I like seeing Spiderman in pain. I
liked pretending it was pennance for Spiderman 3.
3 Things I Didn't
Like About This Movie:
-Debbie. Downer.
-Zero surprises
-Way
overlong, especially considering the trailer told the story in two
minutes.
Netflix it if you're really, really
interested.
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