I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.
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| Knocked Up -As brash as the title. |
Watch Knocked Up
Written by: Judd Apatow
Directed by: Judd Apatow
Starring: Katherine Heigl, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel
Rated: R
Plot:
Allison (Katherine Heigl) discovers she's pregnant after a one night stand with Ben (Seth Rogen). The only thing they have in common is the baby.
Verdict:
It's a raunchy comedy with some heart. The story is predictable, but the sub-plots of the support characters add to the movie. It's one of Judd Apatow's better comedies, but it lacks the insight and humor of his earlier series Freaks and Geeks.
It depends.
Review:
You know the premise going in, that's not a mystery. The first few scenes contrast Rogen's day with Heigl's. He's the going nowhere stoner, Ben, while she is the professional on the rise, Allison. For some inexplicable reason they hook up. The mistake is apparent the next morning. Then the mistake becomes huge. she's pregnant. She wants to tell him, but soon realizes it was a mistake to even consider telling him. He's just not father or even boyfriend material.
This is the odd couple, a story we've seen, but with a new premise. It has the typical Apatow dead pan humor.
Debbie (Aliisons sister): "I don't give a [flip] about Ben."
Pete (Debbie's husband): "Sorry Ben."
Ben: "I didn't think she did anyway."
The movie also explores the marriage of Debbie and Pete, Allison's sister and brother in law. It compliments the story with a couple that's been married for a while to a couple that doesn't know if marriage is right for them. It works towards the theme and keeps the pacing quick.
When Allison and Ben run into Allison's friends, there's a nice subtlety. She tries to avoid them to no avail, but then introduces Ben as her friend. She's embarrassed by him, and he doesn't realize at all, having no problem telling her friends that they met over a one night stand.
I found Rogen annoying which works for the character. I liked the Harold Ramis cameo as Rogen's father, though Jason Segel may have been the best character in this movie. He's one of Ben's roommates. It's a small role but he conveys creepiness and absurdity in equal measure.
The movie goes a little long in the last quarter. Wrap it up! They split and Ben grows up, gets a job, reads pregnancy books, and then he and Allison get back together during the birth.
I can't believe the movie showed the baby crowning multiple times. That was a bit much, because I dislike gross out humor. Gross out humor is always a failed attempt at humor. It's not clever, and it's not funny. I liked the credits showing baby photos of the cast and crew.
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| Irrational Man - Coincidence, it's all coincidence. |
Watch Irrational Man
Written by: Woody Allen
Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey
Rated: R
Plot:
Abe (Joaquin Phoenix) is a womanizing, boozing, washed up college professor who forms a platonic friendship with a student Jill (Emma Stone).
Verdict:
It feels a bit like Woody Allen with some introspection, but ultimately it's slow. It's once removed from the mystery. Instead of depicting a mystery, the characters just talk about it. The premise sets up a few clever scenes, but the movie just can't capitalize on the concept.
Skip it.
Review:
Abe is the embodiment of a trope. He's a philosophy professor questioning the meaning and purpose of his life, having lost all passion. He has a bad boy reputation that everyone finds intriguing when he relocates to a small college.
He befriends a student, Jill, in a matter of minutes, which felt completely off. If they had run into each other more than once and began sharing a knowing wink, in class, I could buy that. Instead it happens instantly because the plot demands it. Abe also starts a relationship with a married professor, Rita as soon as he arrives. These are the only two things that happen quickly in this movie. When you're a college professor that doesn't care about your life, you attract women, apparently.
If we weren't sure whether Abe was completely apathetic, when two guys at a college party are explaining Russian Roulette using an unloaded revolver, Abe picks up the gun, chambers a bullet, points it at his head, and pulls the trigger. Of course everyone is shocked and appalled, but Abe proceeds to turn it into a philosophy lesson. We get it. Abe doesn't care. Maybe it foreshadows Abe's sociopath tendencies, but the scene came out of nowhere and the introduction of the gun felt completely contrived.
When Jill isn't spending time with Abe, she is telling her boyfriend how great Abe is. Jill wants a sexual relationship, but Abe rebuffs her. This is portrayed as an oddity for Abe, but this better captures his lack of passion, and it isn't as ham fisted as the Russian Roulette scene.
In the seminal scene, Abe and Jill overhear a woman bemoaning her custody case. The odds are against her and her life is on the precipice of being ruined.
Does Abe realize his life isn't that bad? No. Abe decides he will kill the judge presiding over the custody case and solve the woman's problem, though he doesn't tell anyone. It's perfect in its simplicity, and it fills Abe with purpose and passion. He can make a difference in the world and regain control, but this control on his life is predicated by ending someone else's life.
Abe plans the crime and gains access to the chemistry department through his previously mentioned affair. He succeeds in committing the crime, and Jill can't believe the coincidence. A man they wanted to die, has. Maybe that's the main theme of the movie, there are no coincidences, everything has a purpose. It would certainly help explain some of the heavy handed plot points.
Abe is ecstatic over his victory and is easily convinced to sleep with Jill now that his passion for life is back.
When the media reveals the judge was poisoned, Abe, Jill, and her family theorize how the crime could have occurred. Abe adds his theories too, trying his best to avoid overtly implicating himself. It's a fun scene as Abe threads the needle.
At this point the movie, shifts into cruise control. With more coincidences, Jill is able to piece together that Abe might have actually committed the crime. She runs into Rita who also has a theory that Abe might have done it. Jill and Rita are obsessed over the idea that Abe might have done it. I don't know why. I guess because the movie couldn't continue if they weren't. It's surprising that the movie depicts amassing clues as so boring. After a few more unlikely coincidences and very little plot progression Jill confronts Abe. She ends the relationship, but won't turn him in.
When the cops have a suspect, Jill urges Abe to confess or else. Abe relents. As alluded to earlier in the film, one death opens the door to another. Abe must stop Jill, so he decides to close the loop, masking her death to appear as an elevator accident. Coincidentally, he worked as an elevator man at one point so he knows exactly what to do. It's as contrived as it sounds.
Abe meets Jill, attempts to throw her down the elevator shaft, but in the struggle slips on a flashlight he coincidentally won for Jill at a carnival earlier in the movie, falling down the open elevator shaft. Abe's passion for life has reached its end. It's a lesson you can't get from any textbook, Jill surmises in voice over.
Nearly all the plot points come full circle. The problem is that it ends up feeling contrived. Jill and Rita are just dumped into the plot because the plot will need them later. The flashlight is one of the few exceptions. It's introduction doesn't feel completely contrived and I soon forgot about it. When it comes back into play at the end, it works. This movie has a good idea, but it's not a good movie. It manages to bore us while Jill is solving the mystery of who killed the judge. Even bad movies can make mystery solving somewhat interesting. It's a good rough draft. The movie is only ninety minutes, so it had time to develop the female character introductions.
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| Broadcast News -When news was more than entertainment. |
Watch Broadcast News
Written by: James L. Brooks
Directed by: James L. Brooks
Starring: William Hurt, Albert Brooks , Holly Hunter, Joan Cusack, Jack Nicholson
Rated: R
Plot:
Jane (Holly Hunter) and Aarons's (Albert Brooks) news station is shifting from substance to entertainment, evidenced by the hiring of sports correspondent Tom (William Hurt) as the new anchor.
Verdict:
It's a look at what happens behind the scenes at a news network. The three main characters are really well developed. The story is a love triangle trope, but the setting, characterization, and writing stand out. The shift in the news from meaningful stories to fluff is paralleled by Jane's interest in the pretty boy who isn't a good reporter, while she friend zones an intelligent man that doesn't have the charm. Also it's written and directed by James L. Brooks of The Simpsons fame. It feels like a parallel to Nightcrawler (read review), if Nightcrawler were part romance.
Watch it.
Review:
It opens with the '80s trope of seeing the main characters as children. As adults their behavior is much the same. Jane is controlling, Aaron is obnoxiously smart, and Tom is vapid but charming. When the movie cuts to present day, Jane is decrying the failing of news. Instead of news, networks run fluff pieces. It's style over substance, but no one at the conference cares, walking out and cutting her presentation short. Thirty years later the same allegations hold true for the news. It's not news it's pushing an agenda. If the majority of viewers cared, it would change.
Jane's network hires Tom, and he represents everything she despises in a reporter. He doesn't have the experience of being an anchor and he's just not a good reporter. He's a pretty face for the screen. Hurt does a great job. You can tell he feels out of his depth, and it would be easy to make Tom a one note dumb character, but Tom knows his strengths and weaknesses. He feels like an impostor as the new anchor, but he is going to learn everything he can to make it. It's good writing.While Hurt does a great job, Holly Hunter easily steals the show. She's smart and confident, though a few too many scenes depict her crying. I guess it was a failed attempt at showing her feminine nature, maybe? It also took me a few scenes to get used to her Southern accent.
A lesser writer would make this a slapstick comedy, but Brooks has restraint. I was concerned when Joan Cusack makes a comedic dash through the studio to deliver a tape in time for airing. Thankfully this scene is an outlier, the rest of the movie isn't as juvenile.
Cusack's scene shows the chaos of making news while also showing Jane's controlling nature. She wants each segment just right. Her nature is further evidenced when she tells the cab driver which roads to take. It could be taken as a joke, but it doubles as character building.
Aaron is a competent reporter, but he's usually the smartest guy in the room and lets everyone know. He likes Jane, but is completely friend zoned. When he admits his feelings for Jane, we know that's going nowhere.
When Tom wants a few lessons in reporting from Aaron, Aaron is arrogant and pretentious. He flaunts his knowledge and rejects Tom. When Aaron gets a chance to anchor the news and goes to Tom for help, I wanted Tom to throw it back in his face, but Tom helps him without rubbing it in. Tom knows how to network. Tom isn't book smart, but he is charming and knows what it takes to succeed. It's why he's the anchor and Aaron isn't, despite Aaron's superior qualifications. It's also why Jane likes him. Aaron knows the right things, but isn't the success he hopes to be. It's easy to see why. In one of the first scenes, he's in high school getting beaten up and telling the bullies how much money he'll make when he grows up. Aaron never really changes.
Aaron is trying to monopolize Jane's time, but she's less interested now that she's in a relationship with Tom. Tom is upset with Jane leaving to see Aaron, and Aaron is upset that he can't hang out with Jane all night. Aaron is trying to masquerade the friendship as a relationship, and this movie is smart enough to not have a character out right say he's friend zoned. It's gives us enough credit to realize it on our own.
Massive layoffs at the network send them separate ways. Jane breaks up with Tom because he manufactured a news segment, inserting a scene of him crying during an interview. Of course it was Aaron, who tells her to look at the original tape. It seems like a minor thing, but it goes back to what Jane expects from the news.
The actors do a great job, in many scenes you know exactly what they're thinking by their expressions. Each character is distinct and well written. There are reasons to like them, and reasons not to. The depiction of the news process feels spot on.
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