Elf and The Polar Express

Christmas is on its way! To celebrate, I sat down with a cup of tea and my knitting and watched Elf.

I saw this movie in the theater, and remember it being quite funny. After watching it last night, I saw so many other things that I thought were funny. The ending kinda cops out, gets campy and silly, but it's a very fun movie. Definitely one you should see at least once. Will Farrell is truly at his peak performance in (at least the beginning of) this movie. A must see for the holiday season!

The Polar Express was a beautiful movie. The artwork was exquisite. They may have spent too much time on the artwork, to be frank. It is as long as it is beautiful. It runs very slowly, and the story gets a little drawn out at times, but if you sit back and enjoy the artwork, you'll appreciate it.

Traffic

Meh... This movie was really just okay. It was Way of the Gun meets Goodfellas meets I don't know. Steven Soderberg is not one of my favorites; his movies tend to run slow and long and seem far too pretentious for my tastes.

Erika Christensen and Topher Grace were the best ones in the movie. Let me rephrase- Christensen was incredible. Playing the baked- out daughter of the head bureaucrat in DC (famous for his stance on the war on drugs), she was incredibly convincing. She is definitely one to watch- an up-and-comer. I hope she doesn't find herself cast in crap as so many good actresses do. A word of advice for her: let Natalie Portman's movie career be your guide. The girl has yet to make a bad decision- even Star Wars, as a necessary evil, was good for her career.

I did enjoy Catherine Zeta Jones's character and the storyline she folowed. I can't quite decide if Soderberg is a fan of PTA's and that's why he cast Cheadle and Guzman or if Debra Zane is just an incredible Casting Director. (I would wager the latter- she also cast American Beauty, The Last Seduction, and Pleasantville.)

Anyway- it was a long movie, but worth a sit through at least once. This is the second time I have seen it, and I thought it was pretty good.

The Stepford Wives

Why did this movie even use the same name as the one with Katherine Ross? It is SO different in SO many ways. It uses a Hollywood "twist" in so many areas, that it's not even the same MOVIE!!

The gay neighbors, the entire last 20 minutes, the silly stereotypes, the blonde bimbo and jewish jokes; each one of them made the movie that much more unbearable. There were so many modernizations in it that even if it wasn't "supposed" to be a remake, I wouldn't have liked it. But the fact that they said it was a remake of the one from the 1970's just made it worse.

See the original. Don't EVEN bother with this piece of crap movie. In a phrase, it sucked more than anything has ever sucked a suck.

Eyes Wide Shut and Hysterical Blindness

Eyes Wide Shut

Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi! *insert eye roll here* What was I thinking? I purposely rented this movie after hating it at the theater- specifically for the purpose of giving it a second chance. I figured Kubrick couldn't have been that far off his rocker, no matter how close to death he was. Wrong.

Let alone the storyline of the staged orgy and the marital problems of the Cruise's, this was not either of their best performances. Kidman shined in Dogville, and if you follow her career, it was after this movie that she really flew off the page. (On a side note, I believe that the divorce from Cruise did for Kidman what the suicide of Cobain did for Dave Grohl.)

While the film kept the audience suspended- waiting for the traditional Kubrick climax- the plot continued on and on and on until ultimately- we are dropped off of a cliff. The ending is so incredibly disappointing, and when it finishes, you just want to scream. You feel cheated. You feel that someone wasted your time. Up until the very very very last word you're ready for this climax- and it never comes. The last scene sells out as you realize that the couple is going to decide to stay together- and then it's over. Up until the last scene I was starting to enjoy the film- and then I remembered why I had felt so cheated in the first place.

Oh- and Leelee Sobieski never looked more like Helen Hunt.

Hysterical Blindness

Uma Thurman plays Debby in this HBO movie about a girl who blows things out of proportion with this guy to the point that she thinks they're going to get married after the first date. Juliette Lewis plays Beth, a single mother and Debby's best friend. Debby, who lives with her mom (Gena Rowlands), is so stressed out that she loses her sight for breif periods of time. Ahhh.... the 80's.

The movie starts slow, ends short, and in between is nothing to call home about. The soundtrack and the fashion is the most interesting part of the whole movie.

Oh- except for this part-

Debby and Rick sit on his couch drinking beer. An uncomfortable silence grows between them. Rick starts to take a swig of his beer.
Debby: I give an incredible blowjob.
Rick: (spitting out his beer) Really?
Debby: You'll never get better.
Rick: I'd like to see that sometime.

Bah. I hate bad movie weekends.

Shrek 2 and Crimson Tide

Shrek 2

Meh... it was okay. Not a horrible movie, but certainly not as good as the original. Puss in Boots was funny, and the plot was cute. It's definitely a movie for the family. I swear I thought it was Emma Thompson as the Fairy Godmother- but apparently it was Jennifer Saunders.

No matter, though. It was a pretty good movie overall. You kind of need to know the original story to really know what's going on. But, yes, I would recommend it.

Crimson Tide

Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman star in this movie about the nuclear subs the Russians used to have ready to attack us, and in turn, the subs we deployed to keep check on them. Quite a few up-and-comers were in it too- Steve Zahn, George Dzunda, Viggo Mortensen, and James Gandolfini also appear in this film.

Overall, it wasn't as I remembered it. I remembered it to be a lot longer and a lot more suspenseful. It was still a good movie, just not as good as I remembered it to be.

I rented this movie because we were learning about foreign policy in class. (It didn't teach me anything, it just was a dramatization of what we were learning about. ) I can tell you that it was interesting to see it in action.

Vanilla Sky

Quite possibly Cameron Crowe's most controversial movie to date, the American remake of Abre Los Ojos was cast with Tom Cruise- who has always impressed me, despite his looks, Jason Lee, with whom I have loved since Mallrats, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Kurt Russell, and a small role by Alicia Witt.

Why is it that this movie gets such a bad rap? I think it's lovely. The set, the sky, the plot, the acting, the paralells...

When I saw Atticus Finch and how they were relating Kurt Russell's character to Atticus Finch, my heart leapt. Atticus Finch is my second most favorite literary character, second only to Holden Caufield.

Tom Cruise's face was freaky, but that was nothing compared to the facial prosthetic they gave him *shudder*.

The movie, like all good movies, you need to see more than once to truly appreciate. I can tell at a glance what movies need a second chance the first time I see them, and this is one of them. (I'm going to see if Eyes Wide Shut is another one- I still can't believe that Kubrick would do a movie he didn't believe in...) Once you get past the initial "WTF is going on?!?" You start to find yourself relating to the characters- wondering if you've ever been on the edge to the point where you'd be the Julie Gianni psycho-stalker chick, or if you would love a man as disfugured as Daniel as Sofia does. For the guys, if you were introduced to a girl by your friend and felt strongly enough, would you go against your best friend's wishes? Or if the shoe were on the other foot, would you be as forgiving as Brian?

Although the whole "Life after Death" thing is kind of wacky, it does pull it together. The cinematography is picturesque- with Monet's Vanilla Sky in the background. It's so beautiful. As you relate to the characters, you start to get pulled in by the storyline. If you do not relate, you won't like it. So many people don't, but I feel it's because they don't really give it a chance. But I feel you should.

Give it a chance.

Relate to these characters.

Feel their pain.

Open your eyes.

The United States of Leland

Of COURSE I had to watch this movie! Kevin Spacey is in it.

Shame he couldn't salvage it. What a boring movie. With an amazing cast... but so poor! Jena Malone, Don Cheadle, Sherilyn Fenn, Kevin Spacey, Kimberly Williams... what a total shame.

Leland falls in love with a herion addict (Malone) and when she breaks his heart, he stabs her retarded brother. The family is devastated and their lives fall apart. When Leland goes to juvie, his counselor (Cheadle)tries to get to know him so that he can write a book about him, only to be told that he can't write it without the permission of Leland's dad (Spacey).

If I lost you with the description of the movie, just imagine how lost I was watching it. I completely missed the part where Leland makes out with Sherilyn Fenn because I was SO bored that I couldn't keep my eyes open.

How sad. And I love Spacey so.

Finding Neverland

Quite possibly the best movie Depp has done to date. Winslet was very good, but the kids! They were the best! Little Peter was the most adorable thing... I'm not a huge fan of kids, but he was wonderful.

The movie moved along with a good pace, and keeps the viewer interested. Radha Mitchell was pretty good as Mrs Barie, Kate Winslet was wonderful as always, and OH! Julie Christie!! I BAWLED at her part. How wonderful!

Go and see this movie. It is simply divine. Dustin Hoffman has a small role but he never lets even the small roles go unnoticed.

Superb!