Lost - S4, E13: "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3"

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Season 4, Episode 13 - "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3"

RIP Sydney Pollack

1934-2008

Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (Robert Luketic, 2004)

First, is it too long post-comment to take umbrage with Chachi’s insinuation that I should see this film merely because I subject Kelly to artsy films all the time? I’ve probably seen more romantic comedies than any heterosexual man should. In fact, artsy vs. romcom, I’d probably come out on top.

Regardless, the moment we’ve all been waiting for (for whatever reason)… my take on Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!.

Topher Grace is the (only?) reason to see this film. The comedic timing he shows in Win a Date reminds me of why I thought so highly of his In Good Company performance; the false bravado, the awesome dorkishness, the desperation to belong. Topher plays the comedy right.

It’s the romance that doesn’t work. And because of that, I don’t feel like he’s been able to successfully transfer that comedic gift into leading man status yet. And why I don’t think he and Kate Bosworth belonged together here. Their relationship comes across as friendship. She never once thinks of him as more than that until the screenplay decides she must.

Meanwhile, he’s smitten, but doesn’t really show any reason why she should be with him. He’s better off in In Good Company when his loneliness and emptiness can work against his outer comedic posterior. And whereas there, Topher’s character was willing to risk embarrassment for a chance with Scarlett Johannson, here he comes across as too reserved, too shy for his own good. When the bartender asks him late in the film what he’s tried and he can’t come up with a good answer… that’s the problem. Then he has to rush out and break up what has looked like a good thing for both Bosworth and Duhamel’s characters.

The storyline is predictable straight down to the last scene, so large portions of the film rely on its actors to carry them and make them seem fresh. Kate Bosworth and Josh Duhamel are fine in their roles respectively, but neither one gives a performance you can get really invested in. What the film ultimately amounts to is a bunch of pretty-faced people having a good time making a concept movie. What would you do if your movie star crush started reciprocating those feelings?

But maybe that’s why I ultimately thought it deserved a minor recommendation? There are a couple of laughs in it, some pleasing performances and it never aims to be anything more than what it is. So in that regard, it reminds me a lot of the likewise worthwhile The Girl Next Door… entertaining concept, low expectations, solid performances, a few laughs and no real watching regrets.

Film Script's Top 7 - Animated Movies (Contemporary)

Okay, this list is by request... and because I'm a coward and I haven't revisited those classic Disney cartoons (Bambi, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, etc.) since I was a child, I chose to keep it to contemporary films. I've chosen to define "contemporary" as from your own personal date of birth until the present... so those younger than me will miss out on the glory of Smurfs and the Magic Flute whereas I will miss out on The Last Unicorn myself (yeah... I've seen neither of those as well). Anyways, without further hesitation, my own "Film Script's Top 7." January 29th, 1983 until the present. I'll come back with more detail in the comments section.

7. Ratatouille (2007)

6. Beauty and the Beast (1991)

5. Toy Story (1995)

4. Aladdin (1992)

3. The Lion King (1994)

2. Finding Nemo (2003)

1. The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Jon Turteltaub, 2007)

Do you really need Nic Cage, Jon Voight, Ed Harris, Helen Mirren and Harvey Keitel in this film? Oscar nominees one and all. But, seriously... for this?! And listen, I enjoyed the first one when a lot of people crap all over it. I recognize it’s trivial, but it was light, entertaining and a helluva lot more fun than The Da Vinci Code could muster up. And for a while, this one felt like more of the same form of peaceful amusement, but it just takes its ludicrous premise too far and feels like an enormous waste of talent. Forgiving the entire set-up, where Nic Cage’s still awfully named hero Benjamin Franklin Gates finds out one of his ancestor’s might have been a co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Forgiving that. We still get scenes where Nic Cage can show up at a party on Mount Vernon and end up buddying up to the President of the United States within minutes and nary a few seconds later, talk him into searching for a hidden passageway on the premises. I’m willing to let things go for the sake of a good time, but c’mon. But, hey, maybe without all those nominees it would have seemed even more implausible?

Lost - S4, E12: "There's No Place Like Home, Part 1"

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Season 4, Episode 12 - "There's No Place Like Home, Part 1"

I Drink Your Milkshake

I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds here, but I thought some people might find this amusing?

Monument Ave. (Ted Demme, 1998)

Monument Ave. - originally Snitch - is something of a laidback Scorsese mob film, only minus his amplitude and even more content to revel in the not-so-peaceful atmosphere of a bunch of drunk Irishmen sitting around a bar telling dick jokes and putting one another down. You remember that scene from The Departed involving Leonardo DiCaprio, Ray Winstone and a cranberry juice? Well, that’s this entire film. Denis Leary stars, so obviously right at home with the material you’d think the film was written for him. And in actuality, the screenplay was at least polished by him. Plus Ted Demme, who might as well have been Denis Leary’s personal director (having filmed both his stand-up acts “No Cure for Cancer” and “Lock N Load” as well as The Ref), directed this film as well. The story, or what there is of one, is about a couple of drug-using, plainly alcoholic petty car thieves in South Boston, themselves constituting their own brand of extended family. There are a couple scenes when the guys are “thrown a job” by the local mob boss (Colm Meaney) and have to actually venture out of the bar, but it’s never for too long and never amounts to too much. Much like the film’s protagonist Bobby O’Grady (Leary), the film feels somewhat unsure of what it wants to accomplish and when it reaches for more, it doesn’t seem right. It’s probably best to just sit back, spin some shit, get plastered and pick up women. In other words, stick to what you know.

In the Screening Room - Anthony Minghella's The English Patient

Session 018 - The English Patient

Who saw it and what are your thoughts on it?

Lost - S4, E11: "Cabin Fever"

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Season 4, Episode 11 - "Cabin Fever"

Sweet and Lowdown (Woody Allen, 1999)

Woody Allen was in a playful mood with this one (course, even Allen’s playful side can’t help riffing on old Federico Fellini storylines). Sweet and Lowdown is Allen’s unique brand of biopic, a peculiar story about the 1930’s greatest jazz guitarist, Emmett Ray. Well, second greatest, after this gypsy named Django Reinhardt whose songs make Emmett weep and whose presence makes him faint. So why is it so unique? The thing is, it’s all show. Yep, a fake. A spoof of the biopic form. The storyline and characters are concoctions from the mind of Woody Allen… and Sweet and Lowdown is all the better for it, avoiding many of the inherent plot potholes found in most ‘genuine’ (and genuinely dull) biopics. Allen himself appears in two forms, 1) as a talking heads “expert” on Emmett Ray who’s being interviewed for the film and 2) through Sean Penn’s idiosyncratic character, complete with Allen’s conceptual foibles like Emmett’s penchant for staring at trains for hours on end and going to the dump to shoot rats. As played by Sean Penn in an Oscar-nominated performance, Emmett Ray is a glorious bastard. A pimp and an egotist, not only is Penn’s Emmett one of the best guitar players in the world, he’s also, probably self-considered, “one of the top 5 or 6 poker players in the world” and “a great lover” amongst other virtues. Apparently those virtues don’t prevent him from hustling county talent shows, leaving his girlfriends behind in the middle of the night and for some reason his immeasurable talent always seems to leave him a year away from real fame or fortune. It’s Penn’s stalwart performance that makes the film work at first (Penn hasn’t been this funny since Spicoli roamed the hallways). But the heart of this story, where it really comes to life, is with Samantha Morton’s mute Hattie. She’s the only character that seems able to crack the hard veneer of Emmett’s defenses, one that has kept him from ever getting emotionally invested in a woman before. And that Morton is able to show this all without uttering a single word is remarkable, and entirely deserving of her own, rightfully earned, nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Must See Movie of the Month: May 2008

Okay, so I had to pick two this month and in honor of the summer blockbuster season kicking off... I'm also staying out of the arthouse cinemas that I've been frequenting (My Blueberry Nights, The Visitor). So, as much as I'd like to see Son of Rambow, it just couldn't hold up to these two titles. Plus, considering everyone's probably already seen Iron Man by now, I felt we needed an additional choice.

Who else wants to see it and what are your "must see's" of the month?

Other Notables:

Son of Rambow, Redbelt, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian , War, Inc. , Sex and the City: The Movie, Speed Racer

Lost - S4, E10: "Something Nice Back Home"

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Season 4, Episode 10 - "Something Nice Back Home"

Recent Watches: May 2008

Let's get some discussion going on here again guys with recent watches and some quick thoughts. You know the drill.