Crush of the Week.

Although she honestly shouldn't count because I am in love with her all the time, not just this week.
Guess I was just looking for an excuse to bring her up...

Iron Man 2 **

Director: Jon Favreau
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle
Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson
Garry Shandling, John Slattery, Clark Gregg

Iron Man 2 is an unapologetically American snapshot of current times. It's unapologetic because it shows no caution in glorifying excess; from its convoluted plot, to its thinly disguised allegories about politics, economics and society, almost every element proves to be cringe worthy and deluded.
When the film opens, Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) appears in front of a huge crowd to unveil his company's grand world fair.
Surrounded by perky cheerleaders and massive screens he's a combination of Steve Jobs, an evangelical guru and Barack Obama. As he gloats about how he "privatized world peace" while his fans roar excitedly, he's a disturbing reminder of a time and age where politicians have become more rock stars than actual politics professionals.
When Tony's father (played by Slattery) appears on a screen in all his Walt Disney like glory, it's impossible not to chuckle at its direct aim at American culture icons but also expect the movie to deliver much more.
If the screenplay, written with slight strokes of cynicism by Justin Theroux, had explored this more thoroughly, perhaps the movie would've resulted in something more interesting and compelling.
Instead after this, the movie becomes an amalgam of Freudian issues, lazy character development and superhero movie clichés.
It turns out that Tony is dying; the palladium in his arc reactor is poisoning him and he chooses to live his last days in decadence.
He hands out his company to loyal companion Pepper Potts (Paltrow), disregards Congress' wish to use the iron suit for the military, enters a public feud with rival Hammer industries (Rockwell plays CEO Justin Hammer) and embarks on a partying binge that leaves disastrous PR repercussions.
While Tony desperately seeks for attention and throws technologically aided tantrums, an evil plan is forming across the world.
Russian physicist Ivan Vanko (Rourke) has decided to seek vengeance from Stark Co. believing they stole his father's iron suit technology and destroyed his life.
Ivan and Tony then create a facile dichotomy: they are both trying to solve unfinished business concerning their fathers, they represent polar ideological differences (the film's juxtaposition of a McCarthy-ian hearing featuring "good guy" Stark, with cuts of the evil Russian building his own war machine are tacky to say the least) and in a fourth wall breaking way, they embody a tête-à-tête of two of the most fascinating comebacks in recent Hollywood history.
With so many things to choose to concentrate in, Iron Man 2 chooses them all and becomes an uneven spectacle that sometimes drags, sometimes excites but rarely engages.
The film is built from many parts that don't work well together and for a film about a man made out of iron, this technological mishap metaphor can't help but feel ironic.
It's a pleasure to see Downey Jr. in action though. Reminding us why choosing him to play Stark was a genius casting decision, he delivers his lines with enough snap and wry humor to evoke Cary Grant.
He's one of the few actors who can make snark seem lovable and his scenes with Gwyneth Paltrow are the best thing in the movie. Their chemistry is delightful and might be the one thing you want to see more of.
The rest of the cast does satisfying job, Rourke is effective, if not memorable while Cheadle and Johansson are vastly underused (they are supposed to have bigger storylines in upcoming sequels) and Rockwell delivers his best Tom Cruise on cocaine in the 80's impression to make Hammer the most annoying character in the film.
All the parts never amount to much and the entire film relies on stereotypes that the first installment refreshed.
When it comes down to capturing the film in a single moment, a scene comes to mind that's both pathetic and unsuccessful: a drunk Tony Stark pees the iron man suit after which he proceeds to dance to no other than Daft Punk's Robot Rock.
If the song choice isn't wildly imaginative, it's the sense of trying so hard to impress that makes this Iron Man a tin can in dire need of a repair.

Take,Toss,Store

The blog enters a very short hiatus from today until Monday.
I'll be moving during the weekend and while I get settled into my new apartment I doubt I'll have the time or energy to get online much.
I'll sure miss writing and talking to all you guys out there and I'll sure miss the movies (won't get to see Iron Man 2 until next week!)
If anybody wants to come help with the packing, you're more than welcome!

Just don't forget to bring champagne!

Brooklyn's Finest **

Director: Antoine Fuqua
Cast: Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes
Jesse Williams, Ellen Barkin, Brian F. O'Byrne, Shannon Kane
Lili Taylor, Will Patton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Logan Marshall-Green

Despite a cast that ought to guarantee a superb movie experience, Brooklyn's Finest often verges on parody with its treatment of the police genre.
Director Fuqua centers on the parallel stories of three police force members in the title borough.
Officer Eddie Dugan (Gere) is a mere week away from retiring when he's asked to train rookies that lead him to no good.
Detective Salvatore Procida (Hawke) is a family man in need of money to support his ever growing family (Taylor plays his wife), which he gets from cash gone unnoticed in drug raids.
Detective Clarence Butler (Cheadle) is working undercover who gets offered a chance at a promotion if he helps bust his friend Caz (Snipes), a known criminal who's been recently released from jail.
The three men show us what countless movies have shown us for decades: being a cop is not easy, noble or good if you're in New York City.
That Fuqua does so with a certain degree of condescension towards the audience seems absolutely bonkers.
There is not a single cop flick cliché these characters aren't willing to embody. Eddie's only friend for example is, you guessed it, a hooker with a heart of gold (Kane), while Salvatore's Catholic guilt forces him to pray before he shoots people and when the time comes for each of the three leads to get their comeuppance, it happens within the limits of the moral lesson they were meant to teach us about all along.
The film isn't lacking in good performances (how could it with this cast?) but most of the time it doesn't know what to do with the talent it's given.
Perhaps Brooklyn's Finest was just too ambitious and overreaching for Fuqua, who has no idea how to handle parallel storylines without turning them into a violent Destiny's Child video sans split screens.
Every time there is a major set piece, all the characters go through the same things at the same time; when to this unbelievable fact you add an ominous, overpowering score, we are left with a sloppy version of Magnolia that thinks it has important things to say about interconnections but really has nothing new or even interesting to contribute.

The Actor Factor 1964.

It's time for the second installment of The Actor Factor, last month Andrew, Luke and I discussed 2004.

This time we discuss the 1964 Best Actor Oscar race.

Jose: I was thinking about the historical context these movies came out in and it's such an odd time to imagine living in

Luke: True. Tumultuous... Duly noted.

Jose: and just plain weird! Hahaha we had hippies and wars and then musicals making huge business at the box office, it just sounds prehistorical in a way.

Luke: It's true - this category just doesn't seem fitting considering the changing times.

Jose: So OK, what did you think of the category as a whole?

Luke: I'm going to go against the grain - since I fear I'm generally over-positive about, well, everything - but I really didn't like this line-up!

Andrew: It's a mixed bag for me, it's diverse...and no one's really BAD but I still don't like it.

Jose: Really? I actually think it's a banner year for actors.

Luke: Oooo... I sense a heated convo coming.

Jose: why don't you like it?

Luke: I guess my feelings on the five range from acceptable to dislike. It definitely doesn't scream "best" to me I guess...

Andrew: I'm in the middle then, I guess. I think the group is fine and a good judge of the year...but I don't think that the year was that good to begin with.

Jose: but then again all of the actors arguably were at their pinnacle; Sellers never was as brilliant after that and even Harrison used his limited vocal range to deliver his most legendary performance

Luke: You know, I don't think has anything to do with the actors for me. I'm a fan of most of these gents in other scenarios... perhaps its the lackluster movies that didn't hook me.

Andrew: Ummm, well yeah Sellers hasn't been as good since, and same goes for Harisson. But I don't think that either of them are excellent actors.

Luke: The trouble for me is that of the five, Peter O'Toole is the only one I have a real attachment to I guess (which I know contradicts what I just said...)

Jose: but that's what makes it so good, we have three of the greatest actors in history going against two so so actors who gave the unexpectedly good performances AMPAS loves so much.

Luke: Uh-oh... which ones are you referring to as "three of the greatest actors?"

Andrew: It's weird, (I may be rushing here) but I find O'Toole and Burton to be two of the three best here...but yet they've been eons better than they were here.

Jose: O'Toole, Burton and Quinn

Luke: I'm sensing I'm going to step on some toes when we start talking about Mr. Burton...

Andrew: Those toes may be mine...

The Nominees

Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb


Andrew: Honestly, I'm no fan of Dr. Strangelove...is that like a blasphemous statement or something?

Jose: how come? It's perhaps the funniest movie ever made.

Luke: On first viewing, which was a forced one by my father who loves it, I didn't understand the appeal whatsoever. But on repeat viewing I drew more from it.

Andrew: I always feel really guity about not liking it. I understand what's nice about it...and why is would be funny...but nope. Nothing. I don't hate it, it's obviously a good movie. And Sellers REALLY impressed me playing the President.

Luke: I think it's good enough. But in this case, I honestly like George C. Scott better than Sellers. Is that crazy?

Jose: Haha I guess there's no crazy in this case, I love Sellers playing the British officer.

Luke: So I'm getting the sense that we either admire or love Sellers' performance? Or maybe even admire isn't the right word...

Andrew: Maybe respect is a better word...

Luke: There you go!

Andrew: I've never been hot for Sellers though...

Jose: perhaps his performance was too weird for Oscar? I mean they were impressed by the gimmick but perhaps didn't know what to do with him.

Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton in Becket



Andrew: I could write a thesis on Becket...those are two of MY FAVOURITE ACTORS: I always remember Burton for being a ham, and O'Toole for being subtle...but in Becket we have it inverted. Burton goes subtle and Peter plays the ham...and it's a little weird. The film works best in the first hour when they were young.

Jose: I had trouble deciding who was better. I kept deciding that O'Toole was supporting and go with Burton, but then O'Toole would impress me and I was so confused.

Andrew: I give the edge to Burton because he makes those maddening soliloquies work (I admit they got insufferable sometimes).

Luke: Brace yourselves - I thought Becket was insufferable!

Andrew: WHY?????????????????????????????????????????????????

Luke: It just dragged on and on and I couldn't stand their chemistry - it was so overwrought and drove me batty.

Andrew: You're making me laugh, even if I am offended.

Luke: Though I generally love Peter O'Toole, Richard Burton does nothing for me outside of Who's Afraid. I know, I'm loathsome.

Andrew: Burton doubter? I object.

Jose: I don't like the movie either, I think they're fantastic but the movie is too damn theatrical (like A Man for all Seasons)

Luke: Thank you! That's an excellent comparison!

Andrew: Yikes, I like A Man For All Seasons...

Jose: but then I do love The Lion in Winter.

Luke: We're such selective melodramaphiles, apparently. It's hard for me to be impressed with these types of historical dramas I guess... so many of them seem so identical, and it's tough to see anything fresh and unique I guess.

Andrew: But The Lion in Winter is good because it doesn't take anything seriously...I like Becket (as I've admitted) but I like it all the while I notice the faults. Like how the hell was Geiguld nominated for an Oscar? WHAT THE HELL DID HE DO?

Jose: be John Gielgud I guess, all these theatrical adaptations got the weirdest nominations come Oscar time, like Gladys Cooper in My Fair Lady.

Luke: Ha - yes what the hell is up with the Cooper incident?

Andrew: But as least Cooper was a bit fun if My Fair Lady...

Jose: respected actor does a bit part in an important theatrical adaptation=instant Oscar nomination.

Luke: Bottom line - Richard Burton reminds me of Liberace in every movie of his that I see... and I can't get on board with that degree of kitsch...

Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek.



Andrew: Quinn is in the top three with the Becket boys.

Luke: Quinn has never been so great in my book (maybe I haven't seen the right performance), but I thought his Zorba was at least acceptable.

Jose: I heard in his biography once that losing that Oscar was a huge blow for him. I mean he already had two but he really wanted a Lead Actor statuette like Michael Caine.

Andrew: What the hell? Who cares? Leading, supporting? It's a freakin' Oscar.

Luke: True that. So what do we think of Quinn's performance then?

Jose: I think it's good and iconic like a male version of Auntie Mame.

Andrew: I think he's good...as I said he's in my top three...but I don't like his performance as it comes down to the end. I will give it that - the iconic thing can play a big part in retrospect. (Good comparison there.)

Luke: Hmmm... Unfortunately I have sort of little to say about this one - the movie didn't really resonate in any way for me. Maybe I was in a sour mood or something, but it all seemed very "meh."

Jose: The movie might be a bit too cliché in its representation of non-Westerners being barbaric.

Andrew: Like after he comes back and is all angry at Alan Bates, etc I just get bored with the film and his performance. But Quinn does a great job underplaying all the chauvinist and racist clichés

Jose: yes, I think Bates was an accessory, a cardboard cutout could've played his part, they just needed a British guy to make Zorba work.

Andrew: Ouch.

Andrew: I'm not sure I prefer Kedrova to Irene Papas. Am I wrong on that too?

Jose: I guess both could've been nominated although I do prefer Kedrova, she was heartbreaking.

Luke: She was probably the best part of the film for me.

Andrew: The women were the best part.

Jose: I think that might have a bit to do with our last man. Have you noticed how the category is very male centric?
I mean, other than the Rex Harrison flick, most of the other movies barely have women.

Andrew: And in addition, all the men don't like women (or enough to marry them, and love them).

Luke: Or they just don't like women.

Jose: even Kedrova and Papas are just "used" to move the men's stories forward. Feminists must hate this year.

Andrew: Can I just cut in to ask though, as good as I think Burton is in Becket, he should have been nominated (and won) for Night of the Iguana. And that was ALL about the women...

Jose: I think in this case he should've won because of how good he was in Iguana.

Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady



Luke: I have to say - though his speak-singing is pretty ridiculous (and the fact that no one seems to be using their own singing voice for anything here), at least he played the part to a tee. Even though the part itself is troublesome...

Jose: but is that really the actor's fault? Remember how insane Jack Warner was.

Luke: No, it's not his fault. It just makes it more difficult to like his performance. It's pretty one-dimensional.

Andrew: ...that's not why I don't like the performance...at least not only...
Reading the play (which I did first) you get the sense of a cad who's still charming. A bit like Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley or Errol Flynn in...anything.

Jose: or Leslie Howard in Pygmalion even?

Andrew: oooh, yes. Duh.

Luke: Wait - Leslie Howard is charming in something?

Jose: well no, but he's more charming than Rex. I find him too passive in everything.

Luke: Sorry - I can't think of him as anything else other than wilting flower Ashley Wilkes.

Jose: but Andrew, straying from the play doesn't have to be bad...I like what Rex brought to Higgins actually.

Andrew: It's just all so lazy with Rex, at the beginning I want to slap him and at the end I want to slap him. No development. When he sings "I've Grown Accustomed..." It's so unreal I feel the urge to just fast forward.

Jose: he's detestable but Audrey's performance is so good that we believe she sees something in him that we probably never will.

Luke: It's true. His change of heart doesn't really make sense. I don't know if that's the fault of his performance or the director. But Audrey is fantastic.

Andrew: Audrey's okay, I guess. I don't know. I find her to be so bland really...good...but bland.

Jose: why do you think he won then?

Andrew: Well isn't it obvious? BIG musical, split votes with Burton/O'Toole; Quinn has two Oscars and Sellers was just too avant garde. And George Cukor is just so goddamn fun, how can you vote against his actors? (unless they're Katharine Hepburn, and Cary Grant).

Luke: Was it a campaigning thing?

Jose: Audrey wasn't even nominated!

Luke: One of the bizarre snubs of Oscar history...

Jose: I think that he got a career Oscar for playing "against type" or "against genre" in this case, [about Audrey] it's not so bizarre, AMPAS loves its vendettas.

Luke: Ha - but just the fact that they drooled all over My Fair Lady and its centerpiece was ignored.

Jose: because of the Julie situation, again damn studio system!

Luke: Ah yes... don't mess with Julie.

Andrew: I know we're veering off, but who'd you boot off to include Audrey? Sophia Loren, Debbie Reynolds, Julie and Anne are all good to me.

Luke: Weeeeeeell.... I haven't seen enough of the nominees to make an informed decision I suppose.

Jose: omg Debbie Reynolds! That movie is so dull.

Andrew: Really? I remember it fondly, but I saw that a long time ago.

Jose: so who do we think should've won the Oscar that year?

Andrew: 1964 is just a dull year.

Jose: Let's try to be as objective as we can haha.

Luke: Yeah, I'm finding that as well.

Andrew: Dull, dull, dull and yet they didn't nominate the men who deserved to be there...

Luke: Out of these nominees, who should've won?

Jose: I'm gonna say Richard Burton

Andrew: I say Burton, Burton and Burton again.

Luke: Well....I'm going to go with Sellers.

Jose: How would we rank the performances?

Andrew: Ranking them it would be Burton (B+), O'Toole and Quinn (B), Sellers (B/, Harrison (C/C+)

Jose: 1) Burton A- 2) Sellers A- 3)O'Toole B+ 4)Quinn B 5)Harrison B-

Luke: Sellers - B ... Harrison - B- ... Quinn - B- ... O'Toole - C ... Burton - C-/D+ ...

Andrew: Okay, who should have been nominated...? I have a few.

Jose: I'm gonna be insane and say Dick van Dyke [for Mary Poppins]

Andrew: I agree!

Jose: also Mastroianni [for Marriage Italian Style], considering they went ahead and included Sophia and also Burton for the other movie.

Andrew: Dick Van Dyke, Burton in Night of the Iguana, Mastrioianni definitely...

Luke: Well I've got nothing - I'm just a fusspot with nothing to back it up or replace it with. I'm just assuming there had to be SOMETHING better that year. How about Cary Grant in Father Goose?

Andrew: Well, there were better choices I guess...

Jose: I'm also gonna go on a crazy limb here and say Nino Castelnuovo for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, now that's a musical performance Rex Harrison!

Andrew: I never saw that, never even heard of it to be honest.

Jose: it's one of the greatest musicals ever made!

Jose: so any final thoughts?

Luke: "Underwhelmed and underwhelmed," said The New York Times.

Andrew: Not so much underwhelmed, I guess, as a bit disappointed...bored...

Luke: Call me when 1964 is over....

What do you think of this Oscar race? Any favorites? Have you seen the performances? anyone you'd loved to have seen win?

Leap Year *

Director: Anand Tucker
Cast: Amy Adams, Matthew Goode
Adam Scott, John Lithgow, Kaitlin Olson

Why are current romantic comedies so chauvinist? Even if they pretend to be about strong, independent women who take the reins of their lives in the face of adversity (which usually comes in the shape of a charming, detestable and often sexy man who they inevitably fall for), the truth is that they serve only as vessels of pent up anger and extreme gender polarization.
In Leap Year, Amy Adams plays Anna, the control freak interior designer with an agenda: marry her boyfriend Jeremy (Scott).
When he presents her with a small jewelry box, before he parts on a business trip, she is sure he's finally proposing; but when the contents of the box reveal to be earrings, Anna takes charge.
She decides she will travel to Dublin and propose to him herself! After all an old Irish tradition establishes that it's acceptable for women to propose to men on February 29th.
So, not only is her empowerment limited by an ancient tradition that happens only once every four years (like presidential elections), it also forces her to act out of pure despair and surrender her self control to irrational behavior.
For starters, you never believe that someone like Anna would take on such an insane enterprise (especially when she's supposed to be on the hunt for a new upscale apartment) but also Amy Adams is just too likable for us to think she's a total bitch like the screenplay suggests.
Then again she obviously isn't flying to Ireland just to be with her boyfriend, she also is meant to meet, hate and then fall for an obnoxious local.
This time it's Declan (Goode) a pub owner who's a bit rough around the edges but has a killer smile and sensitive eyes that capture Anna's heart despite her original mission.
All along of course, it's the woman who seems indecisive, it's Anna who thinks of cheating and flirts with a handsome stranger while her boyfriend cures hearts (he's a cardiologist).
It's only when the movie's ready to give Anna a new male reason to live, that Jeremy's ugly nature begins to surface, but only when the movie's sure Anna will now have a new male figure to torment.
The film gives her a facile Freudian excuse by showing us a glimpse of her dad (Lithgow): an unstable, irresponsible man who made his daughter fear spontaneity and poverty; but when the movie suggests that Anna's materialism in a way will come bite her in the ass, you can't help but realize there's really no way this woman will be able to please this plot.

Crush of the Week.

Yes, for mere physical reasons.

Extraordinary Measures *

Director: Tom Vaughan
Cast: Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser, Keri Russell
Meredith Droeger, Diego Velazquez, Sam M. Hall, Jared Harris

Movies like Extraordinary Measures are perhaps doomed from the beginning. From the minute that it opens announcing it's based on real events, it's setting itself up into a trap; for not only will it have to live up to genre expectations but also must walk between the very delicate line of reverential biopic and schmaltz fest.
Because it deals with Pompe's disease (an incurable genetic disorder that affects muscles and nerves) we can expect it to veer a little more into the sentimental side.
The plot basically centers around John Crowley (Fraser), an assertive executive whose two youngest children Megan (Droeger) and John (Hall) suffer the rare ailment. When the children's life expectancy is about to reach its end, John and his wife Aileen (Russell) begin a foundation to raise money to find treatment.
They must recruit hermit scientist Robert Stonehill (Ford) who lives in Nebraska and feels more comfortable among test tubes and equations than with other human beings.
So begins an "odd couple" kind of thing where John's will power and love for his kids are put in contrast with Dr. Stonehill's idiosyncrasies.
For a simple effective movie, this would've sufficed. Seeing how the two men learn from each other and realize that they're not so different in the end has worked in similar movies.
This one however takes a different approach and instead contrasts the differences between John's business approach and Stonehill's scientific method.
Before long the movie turns into a dull battle between being fiscally responsible or sticking to academia.
This might be how the world works, where entrepreneurial qualities matter more than actual life saving, but who would want to hear about profits and enzymes in a fiction movie?
Even if this could've worked better as some sort of thesis, the director doesn't explore it this way and the movie ends up trying to satisfy its characters' whims.
Fraser and Ford never really turn their characters into actual human beings. Ford obviously makes the most of his caddish charm even if the character's eccentricity is too selfindulgent.
For the movie to work perhaps it would've needed to be made sixty years ago, films like Madame Curie combined science with melodrama effectively; for current audiences a film like that would feel dated or silly but probably would make more sense than this soulless work.
The movie does tap into a great energy with Droeger's performance, she could've taken a path of misery and overwrought drama but instead infects the movie with an adorable optimism.
Extraordinary Measures does try the dramatic aspect as well and when the inevitable "the medicine is working!" moment comes, the big inspirational score and crane shot kick in almost by inertia.
Too bad that they recur to classic Hollywood when the film is already beyond salvation.

I'll Tell You What I Do Want.

"I want someone who will be monogamous and nice to his mother.
I want someone who likes musicals but knows when to shut his mouth when I'm watching Lost.
And I want someone who thinks being really into cars is lame and strip clubs are gross.
I want someone who will actually empty the dishwasher instead of just taking out forks as needed, like I do.
I want someone with clean hands and feet and beefy forearms like a damn Disney prince and I want him to genuinely like me, even when I'm old.
And that's what I want."

I think this rivals the Bridget Jones "workaholic, alcoholic" monologue in terms of romantic perfection.