Since it’s New Year’s Eve. Just wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone out there is Spudland a happy New Year. If you drink don’t drive because the fines are hefty and the stupidity factor overall is just way too high for your self-esteem to take.
The Wife and I are going to do an early dinner at Feathers, where the ribs are great and then head off to see Sherlock Holmes, which I have been looking forward to. Then it’s back home to flip around and watch the world bring in the new year. I never really got the significance of New Year’s. I guess people look at it as a chance to start fresh and undo a lot of the junk that has been slowing them down in the present year. But most people just plod along business as usual, and not much really changes. Hence, my mystification.
But I do wish you all the best nonetheless.
LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
TWO SPUDS — Definitely Worth Checking Out
Gerard Butler, who is quickly becoming the North American Clive Owen, plays this dude who is seeking revenge on the legal system after his family is brutally raped and murdered by a couple of lowlife creeps. Jamie Foxx is the DA who cuts a deal to get one guy to testify against the other and pisses Gerard off even more. But what nobody knows about Gerard’s character is a) something I can’t tell you, because I’m not a dick reviewer, and because its b), where the movie gets all its fun and excitement.
Now you will have to suspend some disbelief to enjoy this movie. But hey, it’s worth it. This as an exquisite revenge film and in the capable hands of writer Kurt Wimmer and action director F Gary Grey, they create a fast paced thriller that really looks like it was made by people who actually have a clue.
Now this movie is a bit graphic in parts and not for the squeamish. But the satisfaction level is so high that all pussies are advised to just close their eyes and hum to themselves when the gory bits are on.
This movie is several notches above the average thriller. And the kind of movie I love to watch.
PUBLIC ENEMIES
1.5 SPUDS—Worth Checking Out, But Don’t Expect A Ton
This is a bastardized bio-pic directed by Michael Mann and starring
Johnny Depp as John Dillinger. Now the simple fact of filmmaking is that you can’t go wrong with Johnny Depp. The dude is so precise in whatever he does that he really kinda take you away.
Michael Mann, who is one of the best directors working today does an okay job of bringging the period to life. But there’s something about his directing style in this film that left me kind of cold. The film itself, really looked like a bit of a slice of life of the last month or so of Dillinger’s life, after he started getting pursued by Christian Bale, who plays the G-Man, Melvin Pervis who really starts getting everybody seriously behind the cause of ridding thew works of bad guys like Pretty Boy Floyd, Babay Face Nelson and John Dillinger. There is also a great performance by Marian Cotillard, who played Dillinger’s girlfriend.
Michael Mann movies tend to have a lot of people in them and sometimes they just aren’t properly introduced, so the movie tends to get a little confusing in terms of who are the bad guys and who are the good guys and who are the bad guys who are ratting out the other bad guys. Stuff like that.
In spite of the really decent cast, I found the movie a bit flat and one dimensional. I like it a lot better when Michael Mann sticks to fiction, I guess. Sorry Mike.
THE ANSWER MAN
TWO SPUDS — Definitely Worth Checking Out
This is actually quite a brilliant little movie written and directed by some guy name John Hindman, who has literally come out of nowhere.
This movie tells the story of a terribly screwed up individual named Arlen Faber who, 20 years earlier wrote a book which he based on conversations he had with God. It became a best seller and then a whole industry unto itself, which the author remained completely reclusive, living in a ritzy area of Philadelphia and basically hiding out from the world.
Arlen Faber, which incidentally was the original name of the film, is played perfectly by Jeff Daniels. His eventual love interest, in the person of a chiropractor who helps him with his bad back is played by TV vet Lauren Graham. The third lead character is a young bookstore owner just out of rehab, played by Lou Taylor Pucci.
This film could be classed as a romantic comedy, because there are some very funny bits in it, mostly performed by Mr Daniels. But this is really more a film about dealing with loss., as all three main characters are confronting loss of various kinds in completely different ways.
This film is extremely well written, almost poetic in certain parts, and the actors are all on board with it. And in a character drama, well you really can’t ask for much more than that. Except maybe Nora Dunn as Arlen’s publisher, and she’s great too.
This is a movie that will make you feel very good.
