Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Lie
Due Date
Big Mommas : Like Father, Like Son
Hall Pass
127 Hours
Unknown
I Am Number Four
Gnomeo & Juli...
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Due Date
In his new film Due Date, director Todd Phillips (Old School, The Hangover) stages a rather audacious cinematic experiment, placing two enormously talented actors, Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, on a mostly deserted island, handing them an assortment of blunt and broken tools, and charging them with constructing a free-standing, fully-functioning Hollywood comedy.
To his credit, Phillips was at least considerate enough to supply his comic Crusoes with a detailed blueprint. An odd-couple/road trip movie hybrid, Due Date unapologetically mimics Planes, Trains and Automobiles, one of the John Hughes' rare “grown-up” comedies, in which Steve Martin starred as a straightlaced family man forced to travel cross-country...
Big Mommas : Like Father, Like Son
Big Momma is back, the question is: Why? In the name of all that is decent and thoughtful and pleasant, why? Was there some nuance of humor and commentary on the human condition to be found in an idiotic actor dressing up in an old-lady fatsuit that had not already been fully explored in Big Momma’s House and Big Momma's House 2? Of course not, because those films bothered not with such matters in the first place. I generously presume that all involved here are self-aware enough to feel remorseful when cashing their paychecks, and surely had to have been cognizant of what utter dreck they were flailing around in, but that only raises more questions, such as: Have they no shame? Martin Lawrence’s (Death at Funeral) FBI agent once...
Hall Pass
Men and women, as every chick flick and buddy-slob comedy will tell you, don't just come from different galaxies — they're locked in a battle for supremacy. But Hall Pass, a light comedy of horny marital woe from directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, makes a novel statement about the sex wars: It says that they're essentially over. And that the guys — in case there was any lingering suspense about it — have lost.
Rick (Owen Wilson), a real estate agent who dresses in amazingly dweebish plaid shirts, and Fred (Jason Sudeikis), a life-insurance salesman as genial and square as Howdy Doody, are suburban schlubs devoted to their wives and (in Rick's case) family. When Rick isn't taking out the trash or disciplining his children with textbook...
127 Hours
Danny Boyle doesn't believe in doing the same thing twice. After the rousing success of the romantic fantasy Slumdog Millionaire, he has switched not only gears but continents to tell the true story of Aron Ralston in 127 Hours, an "action film with a guy who can't move." The film's similarities to Buried are striking in that both movies rely primarily on the performance of the lead actor and both challenge the audience's stamina to stay with a character under trying circumstances for 90 minutes. The level of tension in 127 Hours does not reach the intense level achieved by Buried, but it contains a scene so disturbing in its blistering, realistic gore that some will be forced to turn away. 127 Hours is unflinching in its depiction of...
Unknown
Biotech scientist Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) and his wife Lisa (January Jones) arrive in Berlin for an international conference. However, he accidentally leaves the briefcase containing his passport and other important papers at the airport. Letting his wife check him in at the posh hotel, Harris catches a cab to go back to the airport. But on the way, the cab is involved in an accident and plunges into a river. Martin is pulled from the water by Gina (Diane Kruger), the courageous driver. Since she is an illegal Bosnian immigrant, she leaves the scene after making sure he is taken care of by a medical team.
Harris falls into a four-day coma and wakes up with a mild case of amnesia. Without his passport, he has no way of proving...
I Am Number Four
Based on the book by Pittacus Lore, I Am Number Four follows teenage alien John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) as he and his guardian attempt to blend into the fabric of a small town - with their efforts inevitably confounded by the arrival of vicious warriors from a rival planet called Mogador. Despite the decidedly sci-fi bent of its premise, I Am Number Four is primarily concerned with the budding (and idealized) relationship between John and a kindhearted local (Dianna Agron's Sarah) - which, when coupled with a slightly overlong running time, does contribute heavily to the film's distinctly erratic atmosphere. There's little doubt, however, that director D.J. Caruso does a superb job of holding the viewer's interest even through the...
