17/50: Up in the Air

Wow. I was totally not expecting to like this so much. It really surprised me.

I guess I just didn't understand what Up in the Air was all about. I was expecting a love story - which I sort of got - but that wasn't the heart of the story. I was just really knocked back by how much I enjoyed this film.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) fires people. I mean, that is what he does - it's his business. Companies hire Bingham's firm to lay off their employees, and steer them in their next direction.

Because of this job, Bingham is on the road pretty much the entire year. He lives on airplanes, in airports, hotels and on the road. It is what he likes. He doesn't like being tied down - he doesn't like having baggage.

On one of his trips he meets another woman, Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga), who, much like himself, is constantly on the road and they strike up a friends with benefits friendship. No real strings, just meet up whenever their paths are able to cross again.

Bingham's "home" is in Nebraska, and his boss, Craig Gregory (Jason Batman), has called all of the travelers to home base for a meeting. It turns out a newly hired genius, Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), has revolutionized how the company will do business. Things will now be done over the computer instead of face-to-face, saving the company tons of money - but also taking people like Bingham away from what he loves.

Apparently, Bingham has a goal he is trying to set - seventh person ever to fly 10 million miles. So, he raises a bit of a stink with his boss and he is teamed with Natalie to show her the ropes in face-to-face firing.

I am not going to give too much away about the movie because a lot actually happens with them while they are out on the road together. If you haven't seen it, I hope that you do sometime soon.

Also, Kendrick needs to get better roles from here on out. She is a fantastic actress - not to mention pretty darn cute - but her roles since this film (which she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar) have been extremely minor. Small roles in the Twilight series and a bit part as Scott's sister in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Get her better roles.

This grade may be a bit higher than it should, but honestly I came away from this really liking it and was so pleasantly surprised that I am sticking with it.

Grade:

Extract

I had been looking forward to seeing what Mike Judge's new full-length feature had to offer. Office Space, and to a lesser extent Idiocracy, have both become cult classics in the DVD-world.

I am a huge fan of Office Space and I enjoy Idiocracy on occasion, so I had to love Extract as well, right?

Well, I did not.

Extract was just not funny at all. I watched the entire film without once laughing, and that is hard for me to do. This film should have been hilarious, it starred Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons, David Koechner and Kristen Wiig - but the so-called comedy actually came out of Ben Affleck, who played Bateman's hippie best friend.

Let's get into the movie. Cindy (Mila Kunis) is a con-artist/thief. She uses her looks to get in with men in order to get a huge pay day. Lucky for her, Step (Clifton Collins, Jr.) has just lost his testicle in an accident at Russel's Extract plant. Joel (Bateman) is the owner of the plant, and Step has already agreed to take the insurance money due to his injury - until Cindy gets involved.

Joel is having his own issues at home. His wife, Suzie (Wiig), hasn't given him anything in months. He tries his hardest to get home before 8 p.m. because once Suzie gets the sweatpants on, they are not coming off.

He first believes that Cindy is flirting with him, and starts to contemplate cheating on his wife. But, being the nice guy that he is, he can't get himself to do it. But his buddy, Dean (Affleck), gets Joel to hire a male prostitute to seduce his wife and see if she would cheat on him - therefore opening the doors for him to cheat on her.

There are just too many stories going on at the same time in this film that only runs just over 90 minutes. It almost feels like two films at once. Plus, too many funny people are just wasted in the film - Simmons and Wiig are way funnier than either of them were able to be.

Overall, I was just not pleased with the overall film. It wanted to do more than it should have, and went in too many directions with the plot. Focusing on one or the other may have given the plot more of a purpose and allow Judge to sprinkle in many more jokes that were just lacking in the final product.

Grade:

Weekend Movies

Over the Labor Day Weekend I was able to check out a couple of movies I had not seen yet.

The first movie we checked out was The Ex, a rather under-the-radar comedy with a pretty large cast.

The movie stars Zach Braff, a favorite of mine thanks to his portrayal of JD on Scrubs, as Tom Reilly, a chef in the big city who is about to have a baby with his wife Sofia (Amanda Peet).

Paul Rudd, in his only scene of the movie, plays Reilly's boss at the restaurant and on the day his wife is about to give birth - Tom is fired.

So, he caves and accepts a job in Sofia's father's ad agency. The big-time ad executive of the office is Chip Sanders (Jason Bateman), who is paralyzed from the waist down. He also had a huge crush on Sofia in high school (or college, can't remember) and apparently still does.

A lot of things start to go wrong for Tom at the office, and in his life, thanks to Chips doing. Although no one else in the family has any clue that Chip appears to be sabotaging Tom at both work and in his personal life.

The movie is pretty decent, but I can see why I didn't hear much about it when it first came out. It's your typical love triangle-type movie - with which the current boyfriend/husband drives himself berserk.

It is a fun watch, however, and the number of different actors you will recognize is pretty large. Charles Grodin and Mia Farrow play Sofia's parents. Donal Logue is the head of the ad agency while Amy Poehler and Fred Armisen both play ad execs who befriend Tom.

Grade:

The second movie of the weekend is one I have been looking forward to all summer long.

I become pretty infatuated with the original, so I was pretty eager to see the sequel - and I finally was able to see Harold & Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay.

We checked out the unrated version, and it was pretty vulgar. A lot of things even I couldn't believe were in the movie, but it was alright. The movie itself does not live up to the potential of the first film - but it still had me laughing a lot.

The movie starts off right where the first one left off, as Harold & Kumar are heading to Amsterdam to find Maria, Harold's new love.

Of course, Kumar screws things up as he brings a bong aboard an airplane, which is mistaken for a bomb and the two get tossed into Guantanamo Bay by a pretty racist security advisor.

The rest of the film follows them as they escape from prison, look to track down a friend to clear their name and also break-up a wedding where Kumar's old flame is getting married to a total 'douche'. All the while getting chased by the racist security advisor.

Neil Patrick Harris returns to play - Neil Patrick Harris. His role was pretty cool, until the final part which I felt was a little unnecessary.

Overall, the movie gave some pretty good laughs. This time around it was Kumar chasing down the girl of his dreams. But, if I had to choose one or the other, the first one wins hands down.

Grade:

Hancock

I found myself yesterday with a whole lot of free time and a free movie ticket. I had a basketball game at 9:45 last night and did not want to have to drive all the way home and then back again - so I went to the theater to see what movie would fit both my time schedule and was accepting the free movie passes.

So, I went to see Hancock.

I'll admit, I went in a little skeptical. A few of the reviews I had read were not too kind, but I had no other choice (and my movie ticket expired on Friday).

The movie stars Will Smith as John Hancock, a reluctant superhero who does most of his crime fighting hungover or drunk. When Hancock makes good, there is usually a large bill that the city will have to pay in order to fix all of the damage.

Hancock's reputation has been tarnished - instead of being loved by everyone, they loathe him. When along comes Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a struggling PR executive. Embrey, on his way home, get stuck on the train tracks and is saved by Hancock. Hancock, however, gets harsh criticism from the onlookers - and Embrey breaks it up by announcing that he had just saved his life.

Embrey then takes Hancock under his wing and believes he can clean up his act and make the people of the city not only long for him - but love him.

I knew that there would be a wrench thrown into the gears by reading reviews of the movie - but I was unaware exactly how it would happen. Here is where I think the movie got a little sidetracked - and those of you saw the movie know what I am talking about.

Hancock had the potential to be an excellent movie - and if there is a chance for a sequel perhaps it still could be - but the change in directions that the movie took (despite me knowing right away what was going to happen) didn't seem absolutely necessary.

The performances of both Smith and Bateman were excellent as always - Charlize Theron plays Mary Embrey, or Rey's wife and was also very good in her role.

The roles of the 'villains' almost seemed secondary to the theme of the movie - although I think the movie may have been even better with at least a viable villain.

Overall I think this movie was decent - though it had the potential to be something special. The idea was great, but I think they took a wrong turn somewhere in production. But like I said, if there are plans for sequels things could be even better because the character of Hancock was a good idea.

Grade:

Great Escape Weekend

This past weekend, Erika took me to The Great Escape for our anniversary (yes, our anniversary was a few weeks ago, but this was the time we had to celebrate).

Things started on Friday when we said goodbye to Kasey (he was watched by Nana & Papa Reyell) and headed out to Lake George around 3:30 p.m. We arrived just after 5 p.m. and checked into a hotel right next to The Great Escape. Erika decided to take me out to dinner at my favorite restaurant Red Lobster - I knew she doesn't like seafood, so I tried to persuade her to go to Outback instead, but we didn't.

I hadn't been to Red Lobster in awhile, and in the past I had always purchased the shrimp platter. This time, however, that was not on the menu, so I got crab legs and shrimp. Erika got a spicy chicken alfredo - she didn't like it.

So, we went back to the hotel room and got some nice rest before our day at The Great Escape the next morning. The room was ok, but I was expecting more. There were marks on the walls and doors, we ordered a room with a large tub in the room, but it wasn't large enough - the bed was comfortable, but overall the room was just subpar.

With Kasey gone for the night, I was hoping to be able to sleep in the next morning, but Erika was wide awake at 7 a.m. So, we got ready and had breakfast before heading down to the park.

A few years ago, Six Flags took over The Great Escape - so we were hoping for things to be updated and fixed up - it wasn't. We didn't go on any of the water rides, but we hit all of the rollercoasters. I was just disappointed that things have not been updated or fixed up, plus a few rides have been removed. Basically, the only thing changed is the name and the prices went up.

Despite the fact that things didn't really go the way we expected, it was nice to spend the day with Erika - with Kasey around and being so busy all of the time, we don't get to spend too much time together, just the two of us - so that was nice.

Sunday was Father's Day and Kasey got me a razor and Sesame Street card (thanks Mom). We went to my parents for lunch and to give grandpa his card. Finally, we had a graduation party for Erika's cousin before we finally were able to go home.

I finished the day with mowing the lawn, watching the final hole of the U.S. Open then starting the Basketball Finals.

During the day yesterday, Erika and I did get a chance to watch Juno. We had been wanting to watch it for awhile now, and it finally showed up on Friday from Netflix.

She quickly pointed out that it reminded her a lot of Napoleon Dynamite which of course was due to the fact of the odd music and that it too was an indie film.

The movie itself wasn't as special as I was expecting with all of the hype, but overall was a pretty good movie. I was sort of disappointed with the ending, but I can deal with it. Jason Bateman and J.K. Simmons were very good in the film. Ellen Page and Michael Cera were both good as well, but I sort of despised Jennifer Garner's character - perhaps I was supposed to, I don't know.

Despite the over-hyping I will give this movie a 3/5 (in my old rankings). Check it out, it's worth a watch.

Top 10: Secondary Actors

Well, after a week off (thanks to my absent-mindedness) the Top 10 Tuesdays have officially returned.

This week, I have come up with my Top 10: Secondary Actors. This is a list of talented actors, who possibly, but probably not, could carry a film in a starring role. They are best known as the sidekick, the villain, the best friend.

So here is my list of the week (in reverse order as always):

10) Stephen Tobolowsky
Notable Films: Thelma & Louise, Basic Instinct, Sneakers, Single White Female, Groundhog Day, Memento, Adaptation, Freaky Friday, Robots, Wild Hogs.

9) Brent Spiner
Notable Films: Star Trek, Phenomenon, Dude Where's My Car?, I Am Sam, Independence Day, The Aviator, Material Girls, Superhero Movie.

8) Bruce McGill
Notable Films: Animal House, Wildcats, Three Fugitives, Little Vegas, My Cousin Vinny, Cliffhanger, Black Sheep, Courage Under Fire, Ali, Shallow Hal, Runaway Jury, Vantage Point, Recount.

7) Jason Bateman
Notable Films: Necessary Roughness, Breaking the Rules, Love Stinks, The Sweetest Thing, Starsky & Hutch, Dodgeball, The Break Up, Smokin' Aces, The Kingdom, Hancock, Juno.

6) Stephen Root
Notable Films: Ghost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dave, Office Space, Bicentennial Man, O Brother Where Art Though?, Ice Age, Finding Nemo, Jersey Girl, Idiocracy, No Country For Old Men.

5) Eugene Levy
Notable Films: Vacation, Splash, American Pie films, Armed & Dangerous, Father of the Bride, Multiplicity, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Cheaper By The Dozen 2, Bringing Down the House.

4) James Cromwell
Notable Films: The Man with Two Brains, Revenge of the Nerds, Pink Cadillac, Babe, Eraser, L.A. Confidential, Deep Impact, The Green Mile, Space Cowboys, The Sum of All Fears, I Robot, Spiderman 3.

3) Gary Cole
Notable Films: Lucas, In the Line of Fire, A Simple Plan, Office Space, The Gift, Dodgeball, The Ring Two, Talladega Nights, Breach, Conspiracy, Pineapple Express.

2) Joe Pantoliano
Notable Films: Risky Business, The Goonies, Running Scared, La Bamba, The Fugitive, Bad Boys, Congo, Bound, U.S. Marshals, The Matrix, Memento, Daredevil, Majestic.

1) Steve Buscemi
Notable Films: Reservoir Dogs, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Rising Sun, Pulp Fiction, Airheads, Big Daddy, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, Con Air, Armageddon, Ghost World, Big Fish, The Island.

That's my list. I may try to do Secondary Actresses next week, but will need some ideas - so please post some. Thanks.

Movie Booms I

I must say that the total lack of television on now, thanks to most of the seasons being completed, I have found some extra time to dive into some movies I have been longing to see.

I posted a review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Saturday, but I was also able to catch four other movies during this extended weekend.

Things started off on Saturday, when on one of the movie channels I noticed that Next was about to start (I am one of those people that can't watch a movie he has never seen, unless it's from start to finish), so I decided to record it and watch it when Kasey went up for his nap.

Next stars Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel. Cage is Cris Johnson, a Las Vegas magician who just might be the real thing. Johnson has this ability to see into the future - but only two minutes ahead and only things involving himself.

The only occurrence of him seeing further into the future involves Liz Cooper (Biel), whom Johnson believes is part of his destiny.

The FBI, however, led by Callie Ferris (Moore) is trying to lure Johnson into helping them find and stop a group of bombers. Johnson, though, just wants to remain normal and resists - until Cooper is kidnapped by the bombers.

I was actually pretty interested in the film, Cage is always hit or miss with me, and he was pretty tolerable here - I was not too impressed with Moore as the FBI agent, however. The movie flowed pretty well - that is until the ending, which I felt ended much too soon. It was a pretty interesting play of events, but I was looking for me.

I would have to give this movie a 3/5 thanks to the disappointing ending.

Sunday night I managed to finally watch a movie I had been interested in seeing since it was in theaters.

The Kingdom revolves around a single incident in Saudi Arabia that involves two U.S. government agents. The agents, who had been stationed at a Saudi Arabian base, were killed when a bomb went off.

The movie stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper. Foxx plays Ronald Fleury, who without permission, sneaks himself and three other members of his team into Saudi Arabia to help track down the culprits behind the bombing.

Once there, however, the crew is not allowed to touch anything or go anywhere without supervision - until Fleury gets permission from one of the local princes.

It's hard to explain this movie without truly giving something away, so I will just say that the movie has a lot of action - a few squeamish scenes - and the acting is pretty top-notch. Bateman plays Adam Leavitt, and his character gives some much needed comedy to a very dramatic situation. I give the film a 4/5.

The third movie of the weekend was more of a television movie. I had actually heard that this movie was going to be on during an interview on The Mike O'Meara Show and thought it might be worth a look.

Recount premiered on HBO during the weekend. It stars Kevin Spacey, Ed Begley Jr., Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt, Denis Leary and Laura Dern.

The film is about the 2000 presidential election year between Al Gore and George W. Bush. I have never been a very political person, but this proved to be a very interesting movie.

The entire movie is focused on the state of Florida during the election, a state that proved to give the election - and the presidency - to Bush. Spacey stars as Ron Klain, an attorney for the Gore campaign, who trying everything in his power to find out the correct results of the election.

For those who might not remember, the state of Florida had a series of issues when it came to it's election. A handful of people, believing they were voting for Gore, accidentally voted for Pat Buchanon. Other votes were cast, with what is called a hanging chad (or a punch that didn't go all the way through).

Thanks to this, many votes for Gore were uncounted and thus gave Bush the presidency. There were so many twists and turns to this situation - which basically all came down to the decision of Florida's secretary of state, Katherine Harris (Dern), who decided not to count those that were uncounted. Harris is a Republican - perhaps that had something to do with it.

Like I said I am not too political, but this movie certainly had me enthralled. Imagine what could have been? Would we be in the situation we are now if Gore would have won? Very interesting. My lone complaint is I was hoping the filmmakers would have interviewed the actual lawyers and participants on the two campaigns. I was very interested to hear what say James Baker (Wilkinson) had to say about Bush now - eight year later. Nevertheless, I still give this movie a 4/5.

The final movie I was able to watch this weekend was Breach starring Ryan Phillippe, Chris Cooper. Laura Linney, Gary Cole and Dennis Haysburt.

Phillippe is Eric O'Neill, an upstart in the FBI, who is given his first real assignment as an agent. He is to work for, and investigate, Robert Hanssen (Cooper), an intense, religious, computer intelligence officer.

Hanssen has supposedly been selling off American secrets to the Russians for years, and before his retirement in two months, the FBI is looking to bust him. Phillippe is forced to outwit one of the most intelligent officers he has ever met - and actually begins to like him.

This movie was based on a true story. Hanssen is reportedly the worst spy in the history of the United States. The capturing of Hanssen was the one and only assignment for O'Neill, as he decided to pursue law after the long ordeal.

Breach was an interesting movie which kept me involved, but it didn't have much action - and the 'spy games' used in it weren't as involved as I would have liked. However, it was a good watch so I give it a 3/5.

There you have it - hopefully there will be more of these Movie Booms throughout the summer - as I try to get caught up on the many movies I want to see.