Jon Watches Movies

I like movies so I decided to watch at least one movie a day.
This Means War (2012) Director: McG Writers: Timothy Dowling and Simon Kinberg (Story by Timothy Dowling and Marcus Gautesen) HORRIBLE! I was describing this movie to Maura and she said “even though you say this is horrible it actually doesn’t sound like a bad idea for a movie” and I agree it sounds alright!  And from the writers of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “Knight and Day” two perfectly OK Action Rom-Coms this could have turned out good but I am going to lay the blame on hacky Michael Bay Jr. director McG and the briefest of run times, 95 minutes, on this.  I mean you’ve got totally likable leads and a good premise but it feels just like a too many cooks in the kitchen mess of a movie that they realized sucked so they cut it down to the shortest time in which it would still kind of make sense in an effort to fit in more opening weekend screenings before word got out that it blows.  This one gets a big old fart noise from me.  NEXT!

This Means War (2012)

Director: McG

Writers: Timothy Dowling and Simon Kinberg (Story by Timothy Dowling and Marcus Gautesen)

HORRIBLE!

I was describing this movie to Maura and she said “even though you say this is horrible it actually doesn’t sound like a bad idea for a movie” and I agree it sounds alright!  And from the writers of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “Knight and Day” two perfectly OK Action Rom-Coms this could have turned out good but I am going to lay the blame on hacky Michael Bay Jr. director McG and the briefest of run times, 95 minutes, on this.  I mean you’ve got totally likable leads and a good premise but it feels just like a too many cooks in the kitchen mess of a movie that they realized sucked so they cut it down to the shortest time in which it would still kind of make sense in an effort to fit in more opening weekend screenings before word got out that it blows.  This one gets a big old fart noise from me.  NEXT!

Kicking and Screaming (1995) Director: Noah Baumbach Writers: Noah Baumbach (Story by Noah Baumbach & Oliver Berkman) Really funny and packed with great lines.  A bunch of faux intellectual arrested development slackers hanging around college after they’ve graduated.  I just really enjoy movies about know-it-all losers judging people constantly but never really doing anything themselves.  Maybe I just enjoy watching assholes.  Either way really funny.

Kicking and Screaming (1995)

Director: Noah Baumbach

Writers: Noah Baumbach (Story by Noah Baumbach & Oliver Berkman)

Really funny and packed with great lines.  A bunch of faux intellectual arrested development slackers hanging around college after they’ve graduated.  I just really enjoy movies about know-it-all losers judging people constantly but never really doing anything themselves.  Maybe I just enjoy watching assholes.  Either way really funny.

Drugstore Cowboy (1989) Director: Gus Van Sant Writers: Gus Van Sant and Daniel Yost (Based on a novel by James Fogle) Movies like this are always for some reason really interesting to watch.  They always end the same, there really is only two ways addiction movies could go, but it just seems like such  crazy different world than I will ever know.  Matt Dillion turns in a really great performance Bob, the leader of a gang of dope fiends who rob drugstores across the country to get their fix.  

Drugstore Cowboy (1989)

Director: Gus Van Sant

Writers: Gus Van Sant and Daniel Yost (Based on a novel by James Fogle)

Movies like this are always for some reason really interesting to watch.  They always end the same, there really is only two ways addiction movies could go, but it just seems like such  crazy different world than I will ever know.  Matt Dillion turns in a really great performance Bob, the leader of a gang of dope fiends who rob drugstores across the country to get their fix.  

Leaving Las Vegas (1995) Director: Mike Figgis Writers: Mike Figgis (Based on a novel by John O’Brien) I LOVE Nicolas Cage.  I know people love to shit on him for seeming to say yes to every script he is given but I do think he is a truly great actor.  Yeah he is in a lot of garbage but even in garbage he is totally entertaining.  But when he is in something great he really is unbeatable (Kick-Ass, Adaptation, Bad Lieutenant 2).  So even though I love him I had never seen Leaving Las Vegas before, the movie in which he won an Academy Award for.   Pretty much he is a lonely and depressed alcoholic Hollywood agent who just wants to end it all by moving to Vegas and drinking himself to death.  He figures it will take about a month to do so he sells all his possessions and leaves everything behind.  He meets a prostitute, played by Elizabeth Shue, who is another lonely depressed soul.  They form a kind of bizarre connection that really doesn’t fit into the normal definition of a movie romance.   Cage really is great in this movie and he really elevates Shue.  Not that I every thought she was a bad actress, and I guess a big part of it is the role itself, but this really seems like an on screen pair where one maybe wouldn’t work as well without the other.  That coupled with Figgis’s directing, which apparently was done on 16mm in Vegas on the sly with no real official filming permits, it is a very powerful and sad document of alcoholism.

Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Director: Mike Figgis

Writers: Mike Figgis (Based on a novel by John O’Brien)

I LOVE Nicolas Cage.  I know people love to shit on him for seeming to say yes to every script he is given but I do think he is a truly great actor.  Yeah he is in a lot of garbage but even in garbage he is totally entertaining.  But when he is in something great he really is unbeatable (Kick-Ass, Adaptation, Bad Lieutenant 2).  So even though I love him I had never seen Leaving Las Vegas before, the movie in which he won an Academy Award for.  

Pretty much he is a lonely and depressed alcoholic Hollywood agent who just wants to end it all by moving to Vegas and drinking himself to death.  He figures it will take about a month to do so he sells all his possessions and leaves everything behind.  He meets a prostitute, played by Elizabeth Shue, who is another lonely depressed soul.  They form a kind of bizarre connection that really doesn’t fit into the normal definition of a movie romance.  

Cage really is great in this movie and he really elevates Shue.  Not that I every thought she was a bad actress, and I guess a big part of it is the role itself, but this really seems like an on screen pair where one maybe wouldn’t work as well without the other.  That coupled with Figgis’s directing, which apparently was done on 16mm in Vegas on the sly with no real official filming permits, it is a very powerful and sad document of alcoholism.

Headhunters (2012) Director: Morten Tyldum Writers: Lars Gudmestad and Ulf Ryberg (Based on a novel by Jo Nesbo) http://everyonequestion.com/headhunters-review Pretty OK.  Check out the full review over at everyone question.com!  Leave a comment!  Thanks!

Headhunters (2012)

Director: Morten Tyldum

Writers: Lars Gudmestad and Ulf Ryberg (Based on a novel by Jo Nesbo)

http://everyonequestion.com/headhunters-review

Pretty OK.  Check out the full review over at everyone question.com!  Leave a comment!  Thanks!

Bulletproof (1996) Director: Ernest Dickerson Writers: Joe Gayton and Lewis Colick (Story by Joe Gayton) Oh whatever.

Bulletproof (1996)

Director: Ernest Dickerson

Writers: Joe Gayton and Lewis Colick (Story by Joe Gayton)

Oh whatever.

I Think We’re Alone Now (2008) Director: Sean Donnelly Writer: Sean Donnelly This is a documentary about two mentally ill guys who are totally and completely obsessed and in love with 80s pop star Tiffany.  This movie was fascinating and sad and made me just feel kind bad.  The guy in the poster above has Aspergers and is convinced that he has a spiritual and psychic link, as well as being personal best friends, with Tiffany.  In one scene he dons a helmet with wires and things coming off it that he bought off the internet, a la Napoleon Dynamite’s crystal fueled time machine, in an effort to strengthen their spiritual connection.   The other star is a transgendered man (born a man but becoming a female) who tells a story of being in a horrible car accident and waking up and the first thing he heard was a Tiffany song.  She is constantly talking about his fitness and training, again like Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, despite always having a gut.  Her apartment walls are line with rows and rows of Tiffany photos.   I would imagine you could do a documentary like this with just about any female pop star but Tiffany is just old enough that it is bizarre but still memorable that you know who she is.  Both story lines reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite in ways, and it might seem funny in the start, but after about 10 minutes it really is a kind of sad strange movie.

I Think We’re Alone Now (2008)

Director: Sean Donnelly

Writer: Sean Donnelly

This is a documentary about two mentally ill guys who are totally and completely obsessed and in love with 80s pop star Tiffany.  This movie was fascinating and sad and made me just feel kind bad.  The guy in the poster above has Aspergers and is convinced that he has a spiritual and psychic link, as well as being personal best friends, with Tiffany.  In one scene he dons a helmet with wires and things coming off it that he bought off the internet, a la Napoleon Dynamite’s crystal fueled time machine, in an effort to strengthen their spiritual connection.  

The other star is a transgendered man (born a man but becoming a female) who tells a story of being in a horrible car accident and waking up and the first thing he heard was a Tiffany song.  She is constantly talking about his fitness and training, again like Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, despite always having a gut.  Her apartment walls are line with rows and rows of Tiffany photos.  

I would imagine you could do a documentary like this with just about any female pop star but Tiffany is just old enough that it is bizarre but still memorable that you know who she is.  Both story lines reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite in ways, and it might seem funny in the start, but after about 10 minutes it really is a kind of sad strange movie.

London Boulevard (2011) Director: William Monahan Writers: William Monahan (Based on a novel by Ken Bruen) A slightly confused British crime/thriller from the Writer of The Departed.  Too many things going on.  The movie changes its focus every 10 minutes or so and I found myself getting lost and tired of it after a while.  A shame because it has some good dialogue and a great soundtrack.  Just needs a bit more than that.

London Boulevard (2011)

Director: William Monahan

Writers: William Monahan (Based on a novel by Ken Bruen)

A slightly confused British crime/thriller from the Writer of The Departed.  Too many things going on.  The movie changes its focus every 10 minutes or so and I found myself getting lost and tired of it after a while.  A shame because it has some good dialogue and a great soundtrack.  Just needs a bit more than that.

The Brothers Solomon (2007) Director: Bob Odenkirk Writer: Will Forte Pretty bad.  There are some funny gags in it for sure but the whole thing is just all one the place.  I guess the creators didn’t know how to get past their sketch backgrounds?  Certainly some great comedy pedigree involved just doesn’t really come together.  Also just seemed very amateurishly made.  There seems to be a lot of awkward pauses in the conversation when cutting between shots.  

The Brothers Solomon (2007)

Director: Bob Odenkirk

Writer: Will Forte

Pretty bad.  There are some funny gags in it for sure but the whole thing is just all one the place.  I guess the creators didn’t know how to get past their sketch backgrounds?  Certainly some great comedy pedigree involved just doesn’t really come together.  Also just seemed very amateurishly made.  There seems to be a lot of awkward pauses in the conversation when cutting between shots.  

All About My Mother (1999) Director: Pedro Almodovar Writer: Pedro Almodovar Slowly catching up on my Almodovar movies.  This one is my third.  Very entertaining and unique.  I love how just over flowing with emotion and style his films are while never losing sight of the characters.  Excellent cinematography and production design.  Looking forward to seeing more!

All About My Mother (1999)

Director: Pedro Almodovar

Writer: Pedro Almodovar

Slowly catching up on my Almodovar movies.  This one is my third.  Very entertaining and unique.  I love how just over flowing with emotion and style his films are while never losing sight of the characters.  Excellent cinematography and production design.  Looking forward to seeing more!