Rambling Film

Are you a psychopath? What's your story? Marty (Colin Farrell) is an alcoholic screenwriter who accidentally ends up right in the middle of his friend Billy's (Sam Rockwell) dog kidnapping scheme. Only this time, he and his partner Hans (Christopher Walken) have stolen from Charlie, (Woody Harrelson) who is an actual psychopath, and is relentless in getting his beloved dog back. Like director Martin McDonagh's last film, In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths manages to balance dark comedy with some pretty intense violence well. I found it to be very erratic. There are many parts in SP that are hysterical, but at times the film feels like it drags its feet. Thankfully there's more of the former, but it's hard to over look things like that when In Bruges was so perfect. One thing SP does really well was show some very emotional moments. (mostly involving Hans and his wife) The performances are top notch, with Sam Rockwell stealing the show. Will we see him in th...

A Bond review from someone that's never sat through an entire Bond film.   Yes, you read that right. James Bond movies are pretty low on my "give a fuck" list. In fact, the only reason I went to see this was because The Sessions wasn't playing at the time I thought it was. Lucky for me, I actually had a pretty good time watching it.     James Bond (Daniel Craig) is back and this time he's tracking down a very clever (and creepy) criminal named Silva. (Javier Bardem) He's stolen a list of agent's identities and he's hacked into MI6's computers. There's something different about Silva, and it's something that comes back to haunt M. (Judi Dench)   I was really expecting this to be boring. It had plenty of action movie cliches, but I have to say the way director Sam Mendes presented them made it amusing. (The use of the score after a certain car gets blown to pieces is hysterical) The film starts off with a fantastic motorcycle...

What if you could erase your bad memories?   Joel (Jim Carrey) has just gotten out of a relationship with Clementine. (Kate Winslet) It's extremely hard on both of them, and when Joel learns that Clementine has underwent a procedure to wipe Joel completely from her memory, Joel wants to do the same. During his procedure, technicians Stan, (Mark Ruffalo) Patrick, (Elijah Wood) and receptionist Mary (Kirsten Dunst) get a little side tracked. Joel, who is asleep tries to save his memories of Clementine. We see in his mind how they try to hide from being erased, but will they get a happy ending?   Kate Winslet is golden in everything she does, and there's no exception here. This movie belongs to Jim Carrey in what I think it his best performance to date. He had already had a few serious roles in Man on the Moon and The Truman Show under his belt, but this is the film that really sold me on his dramatic skills. I find that I can't even enjoy his comedies anymore becau...

He made her a star.   I saw this the night it premiered, and this review has been sitting in my drafts since then. Whoops.   The Girl in question is Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) and it follows her as she becomes Alfred Hitchcock's (Toby Jones) new star in 'The Birds.' The film chronicles Hitch's strange obsession with Tippi, and the hell he put her through while filming. All of this seemingly happened while his wife, Alma (Imelda Stauton) idly stood by.   To be perfectly honest, while I appreciate Hitchcock's work, his back story is one that I'm not all too familiar with. Did he pursue Tippi and abuse her during filming? Probably. Who knows? The Girl certainly does Hitchcock no favors and Jones plays him as an absolute creep. Sienna Miller plays Tippi as a woman who knows she's in too deep to just walk away, yet she holds her head up high on her last day of shooting Marnie.   Hitch gossip aside, I thought the actors were all really great h...

Getting caught up in a lie.   Nader (Payman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) are growing apart in their marriage. They fight about living abroad, they fight about the well being of their 11 year old daughter, they fight about Nader's Alsheimer stricken father whom they've been caring for. In the midst of a divorce, they are faced with even more challenging times. Iran's first film to win an Oscar is equal parts fascinating and frustrating. A Separation never loses it's pace when it's telling the story. What starts as a simple accusation morphs into lies on top of lies. You sort of lose sense on who's telling the truth here, who's doing the right thing, and who's completely wrong. It's frustrating because there is a LOT arguing. The entire film is almost a never ending fight. It's also frustrating because one person is so clearly at fault above all others. (Although not everyone is a saint here.) The ending is frankly, horrible. Somet...

Loud.   "Loud" is a good way to describe Howl. It was nothing like I expected it to be.   Allen Ginsberg (James Franco) writes a poem that is labeled obscene. Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Andrew Rogers) actually goes on trial for publishing it. The film cuts between animated sequences to describe the poem to us. Was it really that obscene to deserve this kind of treatment? Howl is one of those films that I remember seeing the trailer for way back when, and stuck it in my Netflix queue when I came across it. Needless to say, I forgot the trailer so when I watched the film I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the somewhat chaotic style it was shot in. It really fit with the fast paced story. I think James Franco is wonderful here and it's clearly one of his best roles to date. Grade: B Memorable Quote: "Let there be honesty." - Jake Ehrilich (John Hamm)

Ôdishon   Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a fun evening. In true Halloween spirit, I decided to review one of my favorite horror movies; Japanese 'Audition.'   Shigeharo Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) is a widower who takes up an offer from a friend to hold "auditions" for a new wife. Of course, the girls auditioning think they're going for a movie role and one girl catches Shigeharo's attention. She's the mysterious Asami. (Eihi Shiina) Too bad Asami is not what she seems.   This is what I tell everyone who's about to watch the film for the first time: Stay with it. It starts off really, really slow. When you get to a scene of our two main characters on the phone, THAT is when the film grabs you and takes you down a path of "ohh what the fuck" for the rest of the film. The last 20 minutes are probably some of the most intense minutes I've ever experienced watching a film. Audtion may get off to a rough start, but the pay off ...