50x3: Say Anything (J-2)

Well, I have been very bad in posting these reviews - again. I watched this quite awhile ago and am just now finally getting to it.

Anyway, Say Anything is a movie I had never seen before, but is also sort of a cheat because this movie is pretty much iconic - and even though I had never seen it I did know pretty much the entire plot.

Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) is an average student with an above-average crush. He has feelings for the valedictorian of his school, and even though he has never spoken to her, decides that he is going to ask her out.

Diane Court (Ione Skye) was selected for a fellowship to study in England. She is a very smart girl, but does not have the greatest experience in social environments. Lloyd gives her a call to attend a party for their graduation - and feeling she should experience it she accepts.

Diane actually really enjoys her time with Lloyd and they begin a relationship. Diane's father, Jim (John Mahoney), is a nursing home owner and is also very overprotective if his daughter.

When he finds out that Diane is dating Lloyd he disapproves because he is such an underachiever and that he may drag his daughter down.

Jim, though, has his own problems as he goes under investigation by the IRS for tax violations at his nursing home. Diane feels she should be with her father, and eventually breaks up with Lloyd - offering him a pen as a consolation present.

As I said, I knew the movie pretty much all the way through - but it was finally nice it.

It's funny that I thought Jeremy Piven's character would have been in the movie much more - his character was absolutely crazy and hilarious. John Cusack pretty much plays the same character in all of his movies - and his sister, Joan, always seems to be his conscience.

Overall, a decent film. Pretty dated, but still glad I watched it.

Grade:

29/50x2: Eight Men Out

I had heard about this scandal for years, and it is sort of depicted in a small way in Field of Dreams but here we get an entire movie about it.

Warning: Filled with spoilers, obviously.

In 1919 the Chicago White Sox were quite possibly the greatest baseball team ever assembled, especially at that point in time. Eight Men Out shows that some of the players on the team agree to fix the World Series of that year and allow the Cincinnati Reds to win in order to make extra money.

The team is owned by Charles Comiskey (Clifton James), who is notoriously cheap when it comes to his players and rewarding them for their strong play. A few gambling men, Arnold Rothstein (Michael Lerner) and Bill Burns (Christopher Lloyd), agree to pay a few of the players more than they would make if they won the World Series to throw it - and thus the fix was in.

Star, but aging, pitcher Eddie Cicotte (David Stratharn) agrees to the fix and, although he had won 29 games during the year, loses his first two starts of the World Series. Other players like Lefty Williams (James Read), Swede Risberg (Don Harvey), Hap Felsch (Charlie Sheen) and Chick Gandil (Michael Rooker) are also along with the fix.

Cicotte's mind was easily made up after he was benched for rest the final two weeks of the season upon winning his 29th game. Cicotte had a clause in his contract that would have awarded him $10,000 if he won 30 games, but Comiskey ordered him to sit and thus allowing him not to pay Cicotte the bonus.

But, eight men in all are said to be included in the scam, including Buck Weaver (John Cusack) and Shoeless Joe Jackson (D.B. Sweeney). The White Sox lose the series to the Reds, five game to three, and at the conclusion the newspaper reveals that the series may not have been played on the level - thus beginning a search of the team and an eventual trial.

Players Williams and Cicotte sign confessions, and Jackson signs one as well despite not knowing what he was signing due to his inability to read. Weaver, however, maintains that he was never in on the fix and all of the players fight the accusations.

Though found not guilty the eight players are banned from ever playing professional baseball again. Weaver, though, continued to fight for his reinstatement up to his death in 1956.

This was an interesting telling of the story, one that obviously has many different points and sides to it. This story points to Comiskey as the villain - and we all know that despite their large salaries the real money makers in professional sports continue to be the owners.

The story mostly focuses on Weaver and Cicotte with a bit of Jackson and his homelife thrown in as well. The others that are part of the scandal are mostly window dressing, though we see players like Gandil being one of the main ringleaders.

I am not 100 percent sure how accurate the portrayals are of the athletes, but I found it interesting that Jackson was unable to read and really played up to be a simple person who really just loved playing baseball and that was all that he knew - and because of that was taken advantage of in situations.

It was a very fascinating depiction, though we don't really get an answer to the tale - but that isn't the filmmakers fault, because honestly there is no true answer. We do know that some of the players were in on the fix, but how many and who will always be a mystery.

Grade:

3/50x2: Being John Malkovich

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in someone else's body?

Well, what about if that body was that of actor extraordinaire John Malkovich?

Being John Malkovich gives you the opportunity to do just that. Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is a puppeteer, who does small jobs here and there, but wants to make puppeteering huge.

He is married to Lotte Schwartz (Cameron Diaz), who is completely obsessed with animals - and has a ton of them throughout their apartment. Lotte wants to have a child, but Craig doesn't feel they are ready financially yet. He does agree, however, to get a job and he lands one at a weird office at LesterCorp on the 7 1/2 floor. He becomes a file clerk under new boss, Dr. Lester (Orson Bean).

While there he runs into Maxine (Catherine Keener) and becomes very attractive to him - despite her non-attraction to her, he stays very persistent.

Schwartz the makes a pretty iconic discovery - a small door that when entered allows you to get inside the body of actor John Malkovich for 15 minutes. Then it spits you out on the side of the NJ Turnpike.

Schwartz brings this to the attention of Maxine in hopes to gain her attention, and it sort of does, but more in the form that the two of them begin charging money for people to spend time inside John Malkovich.

This was a very strange, yet entertaining film. I like when films go out on a limb a little bit and don't completely fall on their face.

The acting was done very well, but the most entertaining was John Malkovich practically playing himself - yet even more over the top, if that is possible.

Grade:

2/50x2: 2012

I have to admit, I am a sucker for a good disaster film. And when I saw the trailer for this one I was pretty psyched to see it.

Of course, I never really got around to actually watching it - then it got torn apart all over the place. But, I figured I would give it a shot with my second 50 list.

Anyway, 2012 stars John Cusack as Jackson Curtis. Curtis is an author who wrote a science fiction book about living on a spaceship. I honestly have no idea why Curtis is the main character, unless of course he is someone we can identify with.

Because, honestly, the only thing Curtis did was write a book and happen along two major things on a camping trip to Yellowstone with his children. One being Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who has discovered that the Earth will soon be going through some serious issues due solar flares that will cause the Earth's core temperature to increase. The second being Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), a conspiracy theorist who broadcasts on the radio. Frost tells Curtis about what is about to happen and that the government has created 'ships' to protect the smart, important and rich.

Curtis, of course, does not believe him until returning to Los Angeles to drive a Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Buric) and his twin boys to the airport. The children let it slip that they have a spot on one of these ships because they are so rich.

The rest of the film involves Curtis getting his family that consists of his children, his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) and her boyfriend, Gordon Silberman (Thomas McCarthy) from Los Angeles to China where the 'ships' are located. Oh, and figuring out how to get a spot on the ship that costs a ton of money.

This film also stars Thandie Newton as the presidents daughter, Laura Wilson; Danny Glover as President Wilson; and Oliver Platt as Carl Anheuser.

It was a decent disaster film, but nothing extraordinary here. I really enjoyed Harrelson's character, but he didn't have a lot of screen time.

The film borrows a lot from other disaster films, such as 'the arcs' from Deep Impact and the Earth killing itself (or healing itself) in The Day After Tomorrow.

I enjoyed the film, but I don't feel it is one that I will rush to see again - perhaps in the future, but, again, nothing too extraordinary here.

Grade:

LWITM: Con Air

I haven't written anything in two days, and for that I am sorry. My life has been pretty busy, and yet I haven't really had anything to write about. The start of the NFL season has gotten me excited for football - but I didn't want to have yet another NFL blog post, so I wrote nothing instead.

So, I thought I had better write something before the weekend - so here is my fourth installment of the LWITM (Look Who's In That Movie).

Fletch over at Blog Cabins is having himself a Cagefest for Nicolas Cage movies. Fletch doesn't hide his hatred for all things Nic Cage, and I respect that. But, I have no ill feelings of the actor - he doesn't bother me, and yet he doesn't get me running out to see a movie either - so I guess "I nothing him" (extra points for what show that comes from).

So, I have decided to 'gel' with his Cagefest and make my fourth LWITM be about Con Air.

The movie obviously stars Nicolas Cage as Cameron Poe, a military man who is tossed in jail for killing a man while protecting his wife.

The movie's premise is simple, Poe is parrolled and on his way home to see his wife and his daughter - who he has never met. To get there, however, he is tossed on a plane that happens to also be transporting every known badass possible.

So, of course, the plane is taken over by these mad men - and it's up to Poe to be the vigilante in the sky.

The bad boys are as follows:

• John Malkovich: Plays the leader Cyrus Grissom, who is the brains behind taking over of the plane.
  
• Ving Rhames: Plays Nathan Jones, Crissom's second-hand man.
  
• Nick Chinlund: Plays Billy Bedford, the third major criminal on the plane.
  
• Dave Chappelle: Plays Pinball. A druggy, who gets everything started by setting his seat partner on fire and releasing Cyrus.
  
• Danny Trejo: A rapist known as Johnny 23.
  
• M.C. Gainey: Is picked up in Carson City and is known as Swamp Thing. He takes over as the pilot.
  
• Steve Buscemi: Garland Greene, the most feared of all of the inmates, even the other inmates fear him - but seems to be the most well behaved.
  
• Mykelti Williamson: Mike O'Dell, Poe's best friend in prison who goes into diabetic shock when his insulin isn't administered.

Not bad, and that's just the inmates. The movie also has a few of the good guys, including:

• John Cusack: U.S. Marshall Vince Larkin, who is in charge of the plane before it gets taken over - and becomes an ally on the ground for Poe.
• Colm Meaney: DEA Agent Duncan Malloy. Not a total good guy as he ends up getting one of his men shot on board, and gives Grissom a gun in the process.
• Monica Potter: Plays Tricia Poe, Cameron's wife.

Not a bad hall of well-known actors for a movie. Most of these actors have gotten even bigger since Con Air was filmed. Although for the most part I think you could get most of them together in a single movie again. Chappelle, despite having a small part, might be the most difficult to get on - without a large pay raise.

Grade: