At the Cinema - February 2012

The Grey - 9

You’ll like this movie if you like
a. to be frightened
b. the feeling of impending doom
c. Arctic adventure

This movie is so graphic and harrowing If you don’t avert your eyes at some point from what is on the screen, you are either very oblivious or a glutton for punishment. This is one strong movie.

A suicidal sniper, played by Liam Neeson in his bi-yearly adventure role, picks off the wolves threatening workers at some kind of arctic drilling site. A group ships out one morning on a small airplane. The plane crashes in the arctic wilderness in one of the great film depictions of a plane crash, shot entirely from inside the plane. That’s the beginning of the fun.

The small group of survivors, led by Ottway (Neeson), tries to make their way to safety. Unfortunately, they begin getting picked off one by one by the elements or the animals. It’s almost too realistic and bloody, although the wolf attacks are the blurry action you’ve come to expect from Hollywood. The real surprise is that the director Joe Carnahan develops each character nicely while suggesting you not get too attached to them.

This is one hell of an adventure tale. I swear although I didn’t look for wolves when I exited the theater, my feet were freezing and I had no desire to visit Alaska until this movie is a distant memory.


Chronicle - 7

You’ll like this movie if you like
a. Teenage Angst
b. The bizarre
c. Hand held cameras

This is the story of three teenagers dealing with high school. Steve Montgomery is black, popular, and running for Class President. Matt Garety is responsible. His cousin Andrew Detmer is an outcast. He’s socially awkward, gets picked on a lot, and has a terrible home life. His mother is dying and his unemployed, alcoholic father bats him around like a piñata.

The gimmick of the movie is that it is filmed by Andrew with his camera. We see his high school, his home, and his friends through his virtual eyes. The three of them navigate through the parties, the fights, and the sexual encounters of high school in a fairly realistic manner. It’s teenage angst on today’s stage and the trials and tribulations of what it must be like in high school today.

Oh, there’s one more thing. They can fly.

You see at one of the parties they stumbled upon a meteor-like hole in the ground, wandered into the abyss, and left with powers of telekinesis. They gradually harness their new-found power to move things, eventually learning to move themselves through the air – a pretty neat premise as an excuse to get them flying around.

As you would expect they gradually lose perspective and begin to abuse their power, particularly the volatile Andrew. As their relationships and lives deteriorate things get out of control, both personally and special effects-wise.
All in all it’s interesting and bizarre, with the hand-held camera bit getting old and restricting the action a little. But, it’s pretty ingenious and you’ve got to give the filmmakers credit for a pretty original take on that age old horror story – high school.


Driver – 8

You’ll like this movie if you like:
a. Taxi Driver
b. Ryan Gosling
c. Fast Cars

Ryan Gosling plays Driver, a man with no name and what has to be a questionable past in this atmospheric drama. He’s a movie stunt driver of limitless talent who also uses that talent on the side as a robbery getaway driver. The tone and the mood reminded me of the classic Taxi Driver, and that’s a good thing.

Driver is silent and deadly. His veneer begins to crack when he begins to become of enamored of his neighbor, played by the marvelous Carey Mulligan, and her young son. When her husband returns from prison, Driver feels compelled to help him payback his prison debts by doing “one last job,” always a bad idea. The robbery goes bad, and Driver finds himself tangled in an impossible web.

Gosling and the cast are perfect and you can’t help but admire the vision. Cool movie and much like Taxi Driver it peaks in some graphic violence that will leave an impression.


Faster (2010) – 6
You’ll like this movie if you like:
a. The movie above
b. Revenge
c. The Rock

Guess what? Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson plays a character named Driver. First he’s driving an old GTO, then a Chevelle SS 396. They don’t make powerplants like that anymore. He’s on a mission to get revenge for his brother’s murder at the hands of a rival gang after a robbery. They murder Driver with a bullet to the back of the head, but he miraculously survives it and 10 years in prison.

Then he’s after the bad guys. Other bad guys and various cops Carla Gugliana (easy to look at) and Billy Bob Thornton (hard to look at) are chasing him.

Nice cast in a stripped down action thriller. Pulp Fiction on wheels. Great song over the closing credits.

THE ACADEMY AWARDS
The Oscars will be awarded Sunday night and never has there been a blander gathering of movies to choose from.
My Predictions:

Best Picture:
Will win – The Artist
Should win – The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo, which incredibly was not even nominated, and was the only truly great movie I saw all year. Of those nominated I had Moneyball rated the highest but this is one very average group of nominees.

Best Actor
Will win – George Clooney
Should win – Brad Pitt by a hair over Clooney.

Best Actress
Will win – Viola Davis
Should win – Michelle Williams but can’t complain about Viola winning

Best Director
Will win – Michael Hazanavacius (The Artist)
Should win – David Fincher, not even nominated for the Girl in the Dragon Tatoo. Hazy is as good as any nominated.

Best Supporting Actor
Will win – Christopher Plummer
Should win – Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid Love, not even nominated. Of those nominated I only saw Jonah Hill and Kenneth Branaugh and wouldn’t call either statue-worthy.

Best Supporting Actress
Will win – Octavia Spencer (The Help)
Should win – Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help (not even nominated) but without her as the evil Hilly, The Help doesn’t work as well as it did.
Of those nominated Jessica Chastain was pretty remarkable in The Help as well.

Best Original Screenplay
Will win and should win – Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Sreenplay
Will win – The Desendants
Should win – Moneyball

The Night's big winner – let's hope it's Billy Crystal.

Super Bowl Thoughts

What I saw was another routine NFL display of phenomenal Quarterback play. The history book will say that Eli Manning outplayed Tom Brady in the 21-17 Giants victory. Not so sure about that, but there was no doubt that the Giants receiving corps outplayed the Patriots. Remember how bad the Super Bowls used to be? Not any longer – not in the Quarterback era.

Here are the last 16 Super Bowl Quarterback Matchup results:

Eli Manning over Tom Brady
Aaron Rodgers over Ben Roethlisberger
Drew Brees over Peyton Manning
Ben Roethlisberger over Kurt Warner
Eli Manning over Tom Brady
Peyton Manning over Rex Grossman
Ben Roethlisberger over Matt Hasselback
Tom Brady over Donovan McNabb
Tom Brady over Jake Delhomme
Brad Johnson over Rich Gannon
Tom Brady over Kurt Warner
Trent Dilfer over Kerry Collins
Kurt Warner over Steve McNair
John Elway over Chris Chandler
John Elway over Brett Favre
Brett Favre over Drew Bledsoe

Only twice (Brad Johnson backed up by a tremendous Tampa defense and Trent Dilfer backed up by a tremendous Raven’s defense) has a non-elite QB won a Super Bowl in this pass-happy era. Only a few more non-elites have even played in this game.

So after all the gnashing of teeth throughout the season, your team’s not getting to this game if you don’t have a QB from this group:
Brady, Manning, Manning, Brees, Rodgers, Roethlisberger

If you have one of the QB’s that are close, you may get there but everything else has to go right, (and I’m really not convinced): Matt Schaub, Joe Flaco, Matt Ryan, Phillip Rivers, Alex Smith

And forget about it if Tony Romo, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, Matt Cassell, Jay Cutler, a rookie, or a journeyman is your man.

Given this reasoning we can assume that next year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans will be the Giants, Saints, Falcons, 49ers, or Packers against either the Steelers, Chargers, Ravens, Texans, or Colts (or whatever team Peyton is playing for).

Taking this a step further, how good are the coaches, really?

Holmgren without Favre?
Belichick without Brady?
Coughlin without Eli?
Dungy without Peyton?
Shanahan without Elway?
Payton without Brees?
McCarthey without Rodgers?

Just wondering.

Exhibit A: Look at the revolving coach’s door in Miami since Marino retired. Is it because they have no QB, or no coach?
Exhibit B: Joe Gibbs who incredibly won with 3 different Quarterbacks, but couldn’t do it in this era.

Back to the game.
Thought Madonna was great.
Tom Brady needed some help.
The NFL is a war of attrition and Rob Gronkowski was the “Pierre Thomas effect” in this one. Injuries seem to determine the outcome so often and Gronk wasn’t a factor.
The Patriots need a deep threat and I suspect they’ll go after Robert Meachem if the Saints can’t re-sign him.
Eli has now been the beneficiary of two of the greatest catches in Super Bowl history and Brady has been the victim both times. Karma?
Speaking of Karma I heard one report that Brady and Belicheck, after starting 10-0 in the playoffs, are 6-6 since Spygate.
Speaking of Karma, Belichick actually cut a player last night. Imagine how that guy feels.
Actually, it’s the Belichick magic that’s missing on defense, especially the best way to defend, which is with a pass rush.

One thing I learned in my short career as an amateur coach – if you have a weakness it will get exposed in the big game. Always.

I just want to forget it all because I think the Saints were better than both these teams.

So, now it’s the offseason and I can get off the potato chips for 7 months, although I expect one night I’ll sit down to wallow in what might have been by eating 5 turnovers just to see what it feels like.
Popeye’s anyone?