MOVIE REVIEW - The Town

It seems like a real long time since a real good drama has been at the box office. But The Town with Ben Affleck is certainly worth the wait.

I am not a big Affleck fan at all. I think we all have liked him in a few movies from time to time. Bbut for my money, he has made a bunch of very forgettable to even bad movies of all kinds since his best work in 1997's Good Will Hunting. But The Town is a good example that really good movies begin with really good stories. And that's what we've got here. Affleck takes this story, stars in it and directs it too right down the middle, and not off into the ditch.

The Town is the story of a blue collar area of Boston called Charlestown. More bank robbers have been spawned out of this area than any other place in the United States. In many cases it's a "craft" that is passed down from father to son. Affleck plays Doug. His father is in jail for a life of crime, and he seems to be on the same track.

Doug and his gang rob a big bank in Cambridge, and during the robbery a female assistant manager is asked to open the safe, and she does. They decide to take her as a hostage in their getaway. They release her blindfolded and decide to deal with her later. As the story goes on, Doug who was masked during the robbery, now is taking a romantic interest in her. Suddenly, he is having a change of heart, and wants out of the whole organized bank robbing life. But he finds out that is easier said than done. Bring in the feds who are hot on everyone's tail. And this story gets real good real quick. It's a story you haven't seen before, and that is it's biggest strength.

The Town is brilliantly written, acted and put together. A story that just gets better with every frame. Great character development, a perfect amount of action, a nice soundtrack, and all filmed in a fantastic backdrop of Bostons lesser known areas. Affleck is really strong here, and this only goes to prove, most times that good actors look bad is because of really bad scripts. The Town is not a bad script, but one of the years best so far.

The Town. Exceptionally well done!

MOVIE REVIEW - Devil

There is a little movie at the box office this week. All one hour and fifteen minutes of it, that is full of thrills, and suspense. M. Knight Shyamalan's Devil.

Devil comes off as a short story more than a movie, and that really is a huge asset to this compelling story of death, the belief in the Devil and a challenge to our spirituality. This movie could have veered off into gruesome-land or special effects heaven, but it doesn't. It's pure movie making.

Devil is the story of five non-related strangers that climb into an elevator in a Philadelphia skyscraper. The elevator then becomes jammed between floors. And one by one the people on this elevator start getting picked off and killed by some kind of supernatural force. All of our characters have a checkered past that fate has brought together. They are seemingly being punished for their life long wrongdoings.

All of this is going on as the building maintenance crew watch via camera, and feverishly try to free these people to safety. Bring in the police, with a lead detective that also has a storied past, and it's the best of all worlds. A perfect storm of unconnected stories coming together, paving he way for some heavy drama and serious irony.

Devil is a surprisingly good movie. This is a well done, short, to the point story, that keeps its focus squarely on the story, and doesn't fall in love with itself, and become something that it's not. As far as scary movies are concerned this is a small movie, only in budget and scale. But this is an interesting story that is told well.

Devil. It's a lot of things that are good. Dramatic, compelling, scary at times and overall fun for a jolt or two. Well done.

MOVIE REVIEW - Going The Distance

Another tanker romantic comedy at the movies this week. This time Drew Barrymore gets her chance to be dropped through the trap door in Going The Distance. Last week Jennifer Aniston rode the elevator with a snapped cable to the basement with her tremendous flop, The Switch.

It would seem one of three things are in play here. One - people are on no mood for romantic comedies this summer. Two - people have caught on to the fact that there are no new ideas in Hollywood. Or three - We are done with some of these stars more than Hollywood knows. Probably a combination of all three. Mainly two and three.

GTD stars Barrymore and Justin Long as a young couple that fall in love and then are separated by many miles and settle into a long distance relationship or sorts. Will they make it, or is this too much to overcome? Now doesn't that sound fun? I've never heard of this plot line before. There are no new ideas in Hollywood right now. And it's a problem, especially in this line of movie making. Romantic comedies are staggering around. They have attempted reinvent them recently by making them more crude and action based. This one goes down the crude road at times, and to be honest it really doesn't work. And not because it's crude, because it's not funny. And that's worse.

I won't lie, there are some nice moments in this flick. At times Barrymore is engaging and clever, but a movie can't rely on a split second or two here and there. And some of these stars it would seem are really starting to show their lack of versatility. And we by and large may be becoming done with them. They all do what they do relatively well, problem is with Barrymore, Aniston, and maybe even Katherine Heigl it's all he same time and time again.

Could be they've done all they are really capable of doing, and now we're the wiser. We may be putting more thought into plopping down big money to see the same movie, character and performance time after time. Heigle to a lesser degree. She is funny and fresher, but Killers with Heigl earlier this year was also a mild hit. Aniston's Bounty Hunter did pretty well and was fun, but she had the draw of Girard Butler, and he's a big deal right now. He also was in The Ugly Truth with Heigl, and that was a big hit last year. But for the most part, the struggle is on.

Justin Long is a problem in GTD. Although really funny on MAC TV ads, and in smaller roles in other movies, he's just not strong enough to carry the load in a leading role. He brings no one to the theater and that's a problem too. Long and Barrymore may be great together in real life, but we don't have to pay to see that. The romantic comedy can be really great movie making. But right now we have a real problem getting the fans enthused into going.

Going The Distance. Old, tired idea, a leading actress that as fallen out of popular favor, and a male lead that no one wants to pay to see. You decide. A REDBOX rental in 90 days. Save your money. Everyone else did.

MOVIES OF THE MONTH - August

It's that time again. Time to announce my picks for the best and worst movies of the month. This time it's August. Gotta be honest, after looking at the list of movies last month, it was a tough choice to find ones that could wear the "best" tag. It was one of the worst Augusts I can remember. All movies mentioned have to be released to our area in the said month. Box office take makes no difference. I'll pick a best and worst and an honorable mention in each category.

So let's go!

Best Movie of the Month - August

Eat, Pray, Love - This wins by default. Although this is not a GREAT movie, it is at times very
well done. Julia Roberts is strong in this true story of a woman trying to
break a cycle of self esteem troubles. Filmed in some beautiful areas around
Italy, India, and Indonesia as well. A bit draggy at times but overall pretty
good.

Honorable Mention - Best

The Other Guys - Someone finally convinced Will Farrel his old and tired act was exactly that.
He is somewhat reinvented here, and there are some really funny moments
in this silly police comedy. Good cast, and a funny, sarcastic script. I am not
a Farrel fan at all, but he's not "Will Farrel" in this flick and it sort of works.

Worst Movie of the Month - August

The Expendables - Sylvester Stallone and tons of aging stars in this complete waste
of time movie. No real story, no real point, and too many "stars" and not
enough movie. Why? Dude, Sly.... retire, or reinvent yourself! This is
getting embarrassing.

Honorable Mention - August

Piranha 3-D - I know this is designed to be so bad, that it's actually good. Heavy satire and
parody here, that at times is amusing, but sheesh! This is just an excuse to show
as much guts and gore as possible. So much nudity, and everyone dying with no
clothes on too. Blood galore. So bad it's good? No, just so bad ...it's bad. 3-D not
necessary either. Added nothing

Check in next month for the best and worst movies of the month E-mail me too with your thoughts too scott@wqmx.com

MOVIE REVIEW - Machete

Every once in a while a movie like Machete comes out, and can turn into a cult classic real quick.

Time will tell is that will happen here, but Machete is so out there, so ridiculous, so absurd it just might.

Check this out. Machete stars, Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Lindsey Lohan, Michelle Rodriguez, Robert Dinero, Steven Seagal, Cheech Marin, and Jeff Fahey. It's not like there's a bunch of nothings here. But from the opening bell, you understand this is a real strange movie, and as time goes on it gets stranger.

Trejo plays an ex-Mexican Federale named "Machete." He get that name because he doesn't use guns, but a huge machete to do his law enforcement handy work. He ends up in America after refusing to die in the opening scene. And somehow ends up involved as a hit man against a American politician who is in favor of strict U.S. - Mexican immigration. There you really start to put together what this movie is all about. It is extremely agenda laden, and it is actually a total lampoon on many different issues.

It is heavily satiristic on the immigration issue, and the politicians who are in favor of reform on both sides of the issue. It lampoons slasher movies, action movies, serial killing movies, special effects in movies, and there are huge stereotypes flung around this movie, taking shots at Americans and Mexicans alike. Many of the stars , especially Lohan are lampooned personally as well as in the movie. It is so totally absurd, it turns out being very humorous at times by design. But there are instances they push too far, and cross over to being uncomfortable. Be aware. NOTHING is off limits in Machete. Everyone and everything is fair game and in play. There is no boundary they don't cross. It is tasteless, it is brutal, it is highly violent, and there is graphic gore about every 5 minutes or so. NO one or organization goes unscathed, including the church. So in case you are easily offended, stay away from Machete.

You have to "get" what they are doing here. This may appear to some to be some totally offensive gore fest. And you would be right. Others will think this is some highly offensive, but guilty pleasure filled satire bent on mowing down everyone in it's path for a few laughs. and you would be right too. This is on a one way track to be or not to be a cult movie classic for those who like cult movies and don't mind the offensiveness of the material. Time till tell if Machete gets there or not.

Machete. My goodness, NOT FOR MOST. For those who are NOT easily offended by virtually anything. In all seriousness. This is way off the beaten path movie making, for a small sliver of the box office crowd. Leave Nana at home!

Things Worth Learning

One of the really good things about being around a while, is getting a little wiser. If you're lucky, the longer you're here, the more you learn. And in the grand scheme of things that's a good thing. More knowledge, better decisions, more happiness, and generally more internal peace.

I'm not talking bout the news or world events here. Those ebb to flow. Good news, bad news, no news, it's all a blur. And that kind of knowledge although valuable to have is just knowledge. It's fact. I'm talking here about the important stuff. The stuff that makes us who we are as a person.

I am a very curious person by nature, and a question that I have consistently asked myself internally is what I bring to the party. Maybe you have too. Do the things I say, or the way I make people feel really impact them in a positive way? Do I make the same difference to them, as many do to me? That's a fair and common question to ask. I don't think that question comes from low self esteem for most. I think it comes from modesty. Modest people are good people. Most people don't sit around fog-horning, "Yea well, I really make a difference to so and so with my vast knowledge of such and such.......blah blah....." And if they do, then they more than likely would have the potential for the self low self esteem card to come into play.

The reason I bring this up, is that at no time have I had the quality of people in my daily life that I do now. In uncertain times, it's comforting to know that as I negotiate through my day, the people in my day are ones that through their actions, words and deeds, are teaching me things I that didn't know.....that I didn't know. When those around you not only help you look at things from a different angle, or multiple different angles, it makes you better if your paying attention. As you go down the road, people weave in and out of your life that leave their hand print on you. Experience helps you weed out the ones who have nothing for you to learn from, and helps you gravitate towards the ones that do.

It's a basic lesson our parents taught us as kids, "Choose your friends wisely." We don't always do that very well as youngsters, but as time goes on, we seem to do a better job. I love learning from my friends, and from the powerful people in my life. And they are all ages, and from all kinds of places. It's good to know that as I wake up every day, the people I am going to see, and spend the most time with, hear from and talk with, are more than likely going to open my eyes and teach me something that I didn't know before. That makes me happy during the day, and helps me sleep better at night. Always a good thing.

Got me thinking maybe I should tell them more often how much how much I value them, and care for them. And how important their gifts are, with their goodness that they choose to share with me. Maybe I just did. And I learned that lesson this week from a friend that lead by example.

Blessed you are in life, if you have people with the ability to share things with you that are worth knowing. Maybe that's why if you have friends in your life for years or decades they are more than just friends, they are powerful people, worth knowing, and are always teaching you something you didn't know before.

And the good news there is, it would seem you are to them ....as they are to you.

MOVIE REVIEW - The American

We're heading into fall, and that means it must be time for the annual George Clooney sophisticated,serious drama movie. And here it is, The American.

The American is the story of Jack (Clooney). He is some kind of international assassin, gun runner, and just overall bad guy disguised as a slick, suave nice guy. After years of this lonely, solitary lifestyle he decides that he wants out of this terrible way of life. He yearns for a normal life, with a beautiful woman, and wants to reinvent himself as far away as he can. Trouble is, getting out is impossible. And his employer is going to se to it.

First off, this movie will miss with many movie goers who are going in thinking this is a big time action flick, complete with a bunch of gun play and chase scenes. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is NOT an action movie, it is a slow burnng thriller. You must be willing to be as patient as this movie is to enjoy it. This movie follows much of the same formula as old time Clint Eastwood westerns. Especially at the movies outset. Little duologue, and much quiet on screen acting. Much of this movie is told through motion and not words. This will leave some cold.

But The American does build slowly and does turn the corner at about the halfway point. Clooney has found a type of movie that he is comfortable with. Much like Good Night And Good Luck, Micheal Clayton, and Up In The Air, Clooney has found a formula that works for him. Good stories, told on his terms with good people around him, chucking much of the Hollywood predictable junk.

The American is flawed at times, and is a bit slow especially early. But the story is solid, acting is great, casting is superb, and this is filmed in beautiful, rural Italy. Just a fantastic setting for this movie. This is an adult movie, and won't hold much interest with a young crowd, as The American will not move fast enough for them. Nice adult night at the movies here.

The American. Not perfect by any means. But overall well told, and overall well done.