When I saw the trailer, I jokingly said it was as if Leo and Kate had survived Titanic (even though I knew it took place in the 50s). Brilliant soundtrack from Thomas Newman (Finding WALL-E)…the main theme is a dead giveaway signature. Dreamworks received no compensation for featuring cigarettes…I assume this is because cigarettes were so heavily featured in this period piece and the lawyers (ála Thank You For Smoking) were freaking out over culpability. Boo! Hopeless emptyness… John became a life-matician because of the electro-shock treatment…

The biggest thought in my mind (aside from how much I loved this movie and how incredible Michael Sheen and Frank Langella were and how glad I am that Ron Howard captured their incredible stage performance) is my curiosity regarding the human condition. Allow me to explain via ramble. The movie is framed around four taping sessions that David Frost paid Pesident Nixon 600,000 dollars for…you know…for the privilege of interviewing a former President. The story details a contract between Frost and Nixon that divides the subjects to be covered in the taping sessions so that Nixon can even-handedly justify his actions and talk about the good he did as President. The contract goes so far as to specify that Watergate is only to be covered in the last taping session, which proves to be the most dramatic interview of the four. In the first three interviews, Frost is bowled … Continue reading →

Absolutely beautiful. An entertaining Disney/family film of the highest quality. Yay Jonathon Pryce! Yay Courtney Cox and Keri Russel! Yay Aisha Taylor (Mother Nature from Santa Clause)! Bad Botox job for Guy Pearce…*tsss*. Although he did his own singing for 30 seconds and he was an amusing villain. OMG! It’s Xena Warrior Princess as the villain’s helper! Double-OMG! It’s Uncle Vernon as the hotel magnate!

Absolutely brilliant! Frank Miller is incredible (look for him in the first scene as Officer Liebiwitz)! It’s a beautiful homage to the world of comics that was while still staying relevant to the modern world. Gabriel Macht’s Spirit is dead-on with his dry wit and sense of humor. Samuel Jackson’s Octopus is outlandish, insane and absolutely delicious. And the women! What would a Spirit movie be without a bevy of beautiful maidens! All of Central City seems caught in a futuristic vintage world where cell phones, BFG’s (none of that bio-force crap) and fedora’s exist side by side! It’s beautiful!!!

I thought I would be really dissappointed with the end result when Chris Sanders (voice/creator of Stitch (and Lilo)) was pulled off his own project, but with time (and various blog entries talking about the Disney precedent of replacing film directors if the story wasn’t popping right) I eventually decided that I wanted to see the film anyways. And boy am I glad I did. For all the whining and griping I did, this is an incredibly enjoyable film and a proud addition to the Disney canon. Oooo! It’s a Jessie/Woody moment! Still a valid story moment, but it’s fun to see dogs and cats arguing like toys or real people. 😀

I suspect that if Michael Bay had titled ‘Pearl Harbor’ ‘Hawaii’ instead the movie would have been very differently received…because (without having seen it in a while), that’s basically what happens in this film…an epic love story with personal hardships framed around the Japanese naval bombings in the Pacfic during World War 2. Well that and it’s a western. Due to burning-the-midnight-oil-post-production the soundtrack is still forthcoming….curses! The music is really incredible…there’s even an awesome Australian swing number (banjo and didgeredoo!) while Hugh Jackman is beating people up. As well as Begin The Beguine and some stunning variations and choral versions of ‘Somewhere (Over The Rainbow)’.

Rather similar to Meet The Parents, but uniquely hilarious in it’s own right. Full of brilliant and crazy family moments (including nymphomaniacs, violence-prone cage fighters and holistic cradle robbers), it also has a heart of couple’s therapy (as all good romantic comedies do). I say romcom because I believe it falls into the same category as Wedding Crashers, which was a raunchy romp revolving around romance. OMG! It’s Tim McGraw! Wow…a great addition to a really stellar cast (yay Olive Snook)!

Absolutely brilliant! Classic Kevin Smith! Yay Seth Rogen! It’s Daryl from The (American) Office! Haha! What? How did Jason Mewes’ privates onscreen for at least 10 seconds qualify for an R rating? I thought that was automatic NC-17 rating? And that’s also a little misleading…anyone who’s seen a Kevin Smith film before (which are all rated R) wouldn’t exactly expect this (although the title does lend itself to graphic content) and it’s misleading of the ratings board to be so…I’ll use the word generous because I love Kevin Smith’s work…the point of a ratings board is to advise the public properly of what they’re about to see….and it failed it’s job. I therefore call for a new age of personal responsibility where-in we abolish all ratings boards and rely on internet advice boards that detail what is objectionable in a play so everybody knows what’s going on. And if your … Continue reading →

A brilliant conservative satire by David Zucker, you would be remiss (or politically biased) to see W. (Oliver Stone’s latest opus that villifies our current President) or Bill Maher’s Religulous (saying that all religion is stupid) and not see this film. Then again, multiple movie theatres are shorting the gross reports for this movie by printing another movie title on the ticket and Bella Terra is so leftist it’s not even playing at their theaters!!! Then again, they could be thinking there are not enough people in their market to support the movie…no, even *I* can’t make that bacon fly. Starring a laundry list of Hollywood conservatives (Kelsey Grammar, Dennis Hopper, Jon Voight, Bill O’Reilly, country star Trace Adkins, and Chris Farley’s little brother Kevin), it’s a twist on Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol where a Michael Moore-esque character tries to abolish the Fourth of July. JFK plays the ghost … Continue reading →