2011

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I love spy movies.  I can't understand why anyone wouldn't.  And this is John le Carré!  The spy master's big story on the big screen.

So why did I have to drive 22 miles to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy?  Seriously, this is Los Angeles and only TWO theaters want to open a spy movie with Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy, John Hurt and a host of other crack actors at the top of their game? 

Friends, with lateral benefits

Friends With Benefits comes out on DVD/Blueray today.  Not that you should get it -- in fact, you shouldn't.  It's crass, mean-spirited, promotes the division of sexuality from emotions even while it's theme expresses the opposite, and perhaps the worst thing for Hollywood, it's derivative.  For all its snarky banter, it's structure is still paint-by-numbers. It wants to mock its romcom conventions but ends up rolling in them. 

Anonymous: Analysis

Ah, historical revisionism.  My favorite.   And Anonymous tackles one of history’s greatest “what if” conspiracies: was William Shakespeare (WS) NOT the writer of his plays?  

The movie is daring, engaging and the acting is top notch, but it will probably leave the audience cold.  It left me disappointed.   

Courageous. Yeah, kinda...

The latest, and most watchable of the Sherwood Baptist's movies, revolves around men desiring to be better fathers.  It's not a great film, but it does contain all the “Jesus-porn” you'd expect, along with some truly funny gags, workman-like action scenes and a strong dose of ham-fisted family drama.

Harry Potter: The Final Analysis

In the realm of children's literature, The Harry Potter series has almost no equal.  It has gotten millions of children to open books in a culture of movies, video games and pornography.  So well done.

I didn't read the books.  But I did run the Harry Potter movie marathon over the course of a couple weeks and I learned a few things:

Atlas Shrugged, and so did I

I've been hearing a lot of internet buzz about Atlas Shrugged Part I, that Hollywood panned it because of a liberal agenda, or that the production quality wasn't good enough, or that the acting was stilted.  Wrong.

The real reason Hollywood panned the movie is because it violated some of the most basic principles of storytelling. Perhaps this is Rand's fault.   I believe it is.  I came home and watched The Fountainhead with Gary Cooper to see if time and acting quality made a difference.  It didn't.

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