Tag: movies

As promised from this post, my thoughts on American Dreamz.

Notice that it’s “my thoughts” now rather that a review. I am thinking on changing how I review the movies I watch, because they are not reviews that a Siskel Ebert would write, but just observations I had while exiting the theatre.

American Dreamz stunk. It tried to be satirical about current events, but it tried too hard. You can see the sweat on the forehead of the writer/director, Paul Weitz, as he told the story. He went about satirizing today’s issues, but did it in such a way, that it felt extremely heavy handed. You could not miss the point that he was trying to convey, because he was hitting you over the head with it every 5 minutes of the film. It stunk up the screen, oozed into the theatre aisles, and wafted its way to a seventh place opening weekend position.

We know that the current situation in America is fucked up. We know our president is a fuck up. We know that American Idol and reality shows reward the talentless, ruthless, insipid person. Why am I watching a movie about it?

It was so bad that I sympathized with the president. He could not be so dumb in real life (Yet he is!!!). It was bad that he made that dumb ass sympathetic. This current president sucks too much to be made sympathetic. He’s just plain pathetic. Weitz should never had made his President Staton a sympathetic character, since the current occupant of the White House does not deserve sympathy.

This only adds ammunition to defenders of Bush that say there is a vast left conspiracy trying to make the president look bad. It’s not a conspiracy if it’s out in the open.

1 of 5 stars.

This weekend caught American Dreamz (1 of 5 stars, thoughts on film coming) at the AMC movie house furthest from my house but within 2 miles of another one. That is another story. Before the movie began, though they played this commercial for American Express cards featuring Wes Anderson of Rushmore fame. Watch it. Like me, you’ll wonder when the Wilson brothers will show up.

I just wrote that title as “Thank You For Not Smoking,” but caught myself before the major faux pas.

Well, to pass Easter Sunday off and to load up on even more food while doing nothing, I caught Thank You For Smoking at a pricey matinee. I got the student discount, but damn the prices went up.

The movie was a riot. It is all the things that you think the big tobacco does to promote their stuff. The guy is that dude who “can pick up any girl at any time.” Slimy. A lobbyist. I laughed plenty all the way through. They came up with ways to spin things that were outrageous but funny. It is cynical.

4 of 5 stars.

Inside Man. Spike Lee’s most mainstream movie.

I liked it.

4 of 5 stars.

As promised.

V for Vendetta is an adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel of the same name. I have read the book. The themes are the same, but something has changed. The graphic novel is a rant against the Thatcher England. Think, fascism in the UK, and the Clash singing, “Clampdown.” That was the milleau that the comic was written in.

The movie is also a product of its times. Although, it was still set in London, it really is an indictment of the Bush adminisitration. Everything this corrupt White House spouts is reflected in the fascistic government of the film. The party line espoused by the media. The corrupt church. Torture of people. Demonizing gays. That’s all the Bush admin is about.

This movie was subversive. One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.

4 of 5 stars.

I have been a home owner for coming on three years now. So basically, I left home when I was 32. Matthew McConaughey’s character is still living at home in Failure To Launch at the age of “35.” Sarah Jessica Parker is supposed to lure him from that situation, but instead falls in love with him. Some things happen. Other things happen. He gets bitten by animals. And Zooey Deschanel steals the show.

I liked this film better than I expected to. It was the first time in a long while that Sarah Jessica Parker was not in a role that made her be an uptight shrew. She was decent.

They wrapped the romantic comedy around some nut job action that is similar to Something About Mary or Wedding Crashers. Unlike Wedding Crashers which started as comedy and ended in mush. Failure to Launch starts out mushy and ends in some hilarity.

3 of 5 stars.