The premise of “Wanderlust” is fairly believable, on the face of it: not-so-young-anymore couple, George and Linda (Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston), suddenly finds themselves jobless, and now they can’t afford to pay their bills.
“Silent House” is of interest because of style points. The whole 85 minutes was done in one “take.” No cuts, no editing, no “tightening” of the scenes, no excess footage on the cutting-room floor.
“Friends With Kids” is one of those ensemble comedies that follow the awkward antics of a set of four couple-friends through marriage and early childhood.
Here’s an unguarded generalization: one of the issues in every man’s life is the relationship with his father. And, of course, every man’s relationship with his father is different from every other man’s, so there are few rules, and every man’s relationship with his father evolves over time, so the way is fraught with unseen perils.
As a documentary, "Undefeated" is compelling because it seems so honest and down-to-earth. Bill Courtney, a successful small-business owner in North Memphis, has a wife and four kids and lives in an affluent (white) suburb. Nothing unusual there.
This one was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film. It’s “Schindler’s List” in the sewer. Literally. A Polish sewer maintenance man hides some Jews in the sewer underneath the city of Lvov while it was occupied by the Nazis during World War II.
“The Borrowers” was originally written in 1952, and there have been many literary and cinematic adaptations ever since, but the concept is a timeless one: the reason things keep disappearing around the house is that there are little people who live under the floor and “borrow” them. They don’t mean anyone any harm, they just take what they need and try to keep a low profile, so you never see them.
It’s the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The entire country is in chaos. What began as a kind of populist “occupy movement” turned into a full-blown revolution, where family members took up arms against each other. After the fighting started there was no stopping it until the bitter end, and in that war there were many bitter endings.
The reason this is such a fantastic documentary is it doesn’t consist primarily of boring interviews and stultifying background information. This is almost pure performance art. And it’s unique.
There’s a reason that a certain set of movies is released at the end of the year, around Oscar voting time, and another set is released….sometime after. Right about now. Nobody even remotely expects this thing to win any awards for anything. But who cares? It’s Hollywood, so get the 3-D glasses, go buy some popcorn, bring the kids and lower your expectations and you’ll be fine.
This thing is neither fish nor fowl. It tries to be both an action movie and a romantic comedy, somehow simultaneously, but not surprisingly, it has a little difficulty sustaining believability when it so easily flip-flops between one mode and another. After a while, we get the impression that it’s all just a big act, which of course it is, but somehow it lacks something along the lines of the necessary suspension of disbelief.
Yes, you have to remember that the original three (1977-1983) are now called IV,V, & VI, and what is now called I (1999) actually serves as a prequel, with II and III completing the back story leading up to the originals.
