Change Your Image
signinstranger
Reviews
Knocked Up (2007)
Horrible
Absolutely horrible and unbelievable. The best super-hot Allison can do is a drunken one-night stand with slacker Ben? And how do any of his friends earn enough to live? How can Pete and Debbie be so abrasive to each other? Why is there so much horrible language, as if an excess of four-letter words would make it funny? (If I ever get trapped in Hell and have to watch this again, I'll just count the f-words. There must be more than a hundred.) And the notion that Ben may be a role model makes me ill. This is a movie for 12- and 13-year-old boys in their twenties and thirties, who think stoner jokes, fart jokes, and no sense of responsibility is hilarious. And for those of you who find the birth scene over the top, please! This is nothing. Go rent DR. T AND THE WOMEN, which ends with a REAL live birth, nothing hidden.
Flightplan (2005)
"A breathless thrill ride ..."
In FLIGHTPLAN, Jodie Foster solidifies her reputation as one of the finest actresses working today with a stunning portrait of a woman who moves from despair to ultimate triumph, on the way by turns showing a brave face for her daughter, driven to desperation to passengers and crew, and finally reaching within her resources to defeat the villains.
The plot setup is already familiar from the trailer and endless message boards on IMDb. A woman taking a flight from Berlin to the U.S. becomes distraught when her daughter vanishes and no one acknowledges that her daughter ever existed. Critics have claimed this is a blatant ripoff of Hitchcock's 1937 classic, THE LADY VANISHES, which is nonsense. The only real points of congruence are the daughter, Julia, drawing on the window (no, she doesn't write "Froy") and the denial that someone was ever on board. (Indeed, in THE LADY VANISHES, Miss Froy is replaced by a lookalike; not so here.)
Instead we have a taut thriller that manages to maintain its suspense even when the third act unmasks the truth and the audience finally catches up with what's really going on. Director Robert Schwentke keeps the story in motion even though it's mostly tied down to a single (albeit multi-layered) set. Solid support from Sean Bean and Peter Sarsgaard, but it is Foster's bravura acting that really shines.
Also worth noting is the witty title sequence.
Extremely well done. For the E! crowd: "A breathless thrill ride that will have you gasping and cheering all the way to the explosive climax."
Easy Listening (2002)
Quirky, funny, moving, but hardly family fare
Burt is 40-going-on-15, playing in a Muzak-type orchestra and hating it. Twenty-something Linda, replacing the flautist who died during the previous session, loves playing the cheesy music and finally convinces Burt to enjoy his talents, just in time for the talent scout from the 101 Strings Orchestra to see his enthusiasm. The only true mystery is why Linda would have any interest in Burt at all, but the missing back story is suggested when she plays one of Burt's own recordings, apparently from before he was reduced to his numbing gig. Some occasional adult language -- startling in this context -- makes this definitely not family fare, but this well done indie has some wonderful laugh-out-loud moments.
The Lady Refuses (1931)
Early talkie has its moments, but not enough
Talky early talkie can't rise above its theatrical roots. Betty Compson is far too old (36 when this movie was released) and American to pass herself off as a Londoner fallen on bad times who can be hired to seduce rakehell John Darrow (who seems to know better than to attempt an English accent). Gilbert Emery is best in a stiff-upper-lip performance enhanced by his remarkable vocal and physical similarity to Stephen Fry. But this tale of a woman saved from the London streets so she can save the son from making the wrong choice is marred by blurry details, as if most of the story has taken place out of frame. What story remains moves slowly, and holds tight to its stereotypes of upper classes, comic butlers, loose women, and sneering foreigners. For devotees of early talkies only.