Movie Review: SYRIANA (2005)
Syriana (2005) – **** It took me a while, almost halfway through Syriana, to finally get beyond comparing the film to 2001’s Traffic. Syriana, written and directed by Traffic scribe Stephen Gaghan, isn’t nearly as epic a film, but Gaghan’s portrait of oil politics caught me off-guard. Not nearly as aloof as I was expecting, it took me a long time to realize that I cared what happened to these characters. The film mainly follows the story of five characters whose lives intersect directly and indirectly because of America’s need for oil. There’s Prince Nasir Al-Subaai (Alexander Siddig), the oldest son of the Iranian Emir who envisions a democratic Iran using its oil wealth to modernize the country. Nasir is courting the Chinese in a deal that could bring the country the prosperity he sees possible. At weekend business party hosted by the Al-Subaai...
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Movie Review: BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)–**** Most great love stories don’t have happy endings. So goes Brokeback Mountain, the first great love story of the 21st Century. It’s impossible to calculate the cultural impact of a mainstream film about two men falling deeply in love in 1960s Wyoming (so tenderly called the “gay cowboy movie” in the major media). What I can gauge though is the emotional scope of a film that brilliantly and tragically captures the complexities of human relations. There’s no doubt that Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) will fall in love. As the two men meet waiting to get instructions on their sheepherding job, glances are exchanged. It’s not love at first sight, but Jack and Ennis notice each other in a way that two men in their place and time were not supposed to...
Read MoreMovie Review: THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (2005)
The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)–**** If one great thing came out of the cancellation of Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, it must be The 40 Year-Old Virgin. The TV series, which revealed in the awkward geekdom of high school and self-reinvention in college, respectively, lead up to Judd Apatow’s comedic examination of the insecurities that affect men as the age and still can’t seem to find a place in life. Andy (Steve Carrel) is the package deal when it comes to male anxiety. He’s a play by the rules kind of guy who exercises every morning, keeps his action figures in the package, signals when he makes a turn on his bike and drinks Fanta soda instead of beer. It’s a last minute invite to fill-up a poker game from his male co-workers who really don’t know or like him that gets him...
Read MoreMovie Review: ALIVE AND LUBRICATED (2005)
Alive and Lubricated (2005)–**1/2 I was honestly scared watching the first ten minutes of the Butler Brothers film Alive and Lubricated. Pop savvy dialogue. Sex from the male point of view. Was this an uninspired rip-off of Clerks? Thankfully, the answer is no. Alive and Lubricated does have it’s setbacks, but none have much to do with a damning comparison toClerks. Dedication to the characters and a better eye for filmmaking certainly stand in the face of most Kevin Smith comparisons. Where the film succeeds is the Brothers’ commitment to the characters and relationships, Seinfeld-esque as it may be. The immaturity in some of the scenes, however, does impede the film’s momentum. Breakups seem to be a good place to start when it comes to making an indie film about relationships. That’s where Alive and Lubricated begins, with voice over dialogue that says things like “Every...
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Review: BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)–** At the end of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, I couldn’t help feeling our loopy heroine Bridget wasn’t good enough for the charming and oh so adorable Mark Darcy. I doubt that’s the reaction I was supposed to have, considering this is the sequel to one of 2001’s the best movies. The Edge of Reason still revels in the woes of the single, thirty-something woman in the 21st Century, and doesn’t let the fact that Jones is in the relationship of a lifetime get in the way. The frumpy Brit thus seems borderline psychotic instead of loveably lovelorn. In a way it’s tragic, but who could have expected more from a woman ditzy enough to end up in a Thai prison. But the drug trafficking arrest happens about halfway through the film, after...
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Movie Review: ALONG CAME POLLY (2003)
Along Came Polly (2003)–**1/2 Along Came Polly shouldn’t have the cast that it does have. The comedy is trite and predictable, more suited for the likes of Drew Barrymore, Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider than Alec Baldwin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jennifer Aniston. It’s formulaic and would be a disposable comedy were it not for the concentration of surprising comedic performances. Polly is not destined to be a classic, nor is it close to being on par with writer John Hamburg’s previous Ben Stiller vehicle Meet the Parents. The only reason this comedy almost works is its stars are so in need of a mainstream cinema boost they play their characters with exuberant jubilation. The only cast member who’s too at home is Stiller, playing the neurotic risk analyst. He’s that every man character whose uphill struggle to find love is obstructed...
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