Talking Pictures

Despite the fact Gwyneth Paltrow can really, really sing, Country Strong isn’t interesting enough to hold an audience’s interest for long. This cliche-ridden soap opera plays out like the lyrics to a 3rd rate country song, which is too predictable and too shallow to be taken seriously.
The film focuses on a young man (Garrett Hedlund) who want’s to sing because he loves to share his songs with “the people.” He meets a recovering alcoholic country superstar (Gwyneth Paltrow) who takes a shine to him and
gives him the chance to perform on her come back tour, much to the concern of her manager / husband played by Tim McGraw. I can’t begin to explain the many pitfalls with this film, but my first problem is why have a film featuring country music and starring Tim McGraw where he doesn’t sing a note?
Then there’s the problem with Paltrow’s superstar character constantly canceling her performances on the “comeback tour,” but the opening acts still go on and the audience never seems to mind. However the concert promoters keep showing up and complaining, but it seems it’s “OK” because everyone “goes way back” and remembers “the old days.”
Also a secondary character, Chiles Stanton, played by Leighton Meester is hired by Tim McGraw’s character after she flubs an audition completely. She proves she just isn’t ready for performing on the road, yet is hired and
becomes a featured act.
Country Strong is a mess and despite decent performances by the cast, it just isn’t worth the ticket price in.
It gets a C- and is rated PG-13 for thematic elements involving alcohol abuse and some sexual content.

Rich’s Quickie: I friggin’ LOVE this movie!

Okay, I’m going to gush. If Natalie Portman doesn’t get at LEAST a best actor nomination, something is very WRONG out there. “Black Swan” has it all for me; the acting, the writing, and the direction is all first rate, but be warned – it is a nasty movie about the underside of, well nearly everyone IN the movie. It has an R rating and it earns it, and it is downright unnerving. It got under my skin while watching it, and it genuinely creeped me out. And that’s just what a psychological horror film is supposed to do, and don’t let all the pretty ballet moves deceive you – it is a psychological HORROR film… and a really GOOD one.

Movie Grade: A-

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Writers: Mark Heyman (screenplay) and Andres Heinz (screenplay) and John J. McLaughlin (screenplay) (as John McLaughlin), and Andres Heinz (story)

Rated R for strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language and some drug use.

Rich’s Quickie: Not your grandfather’s feel-good sports drama; and that’s a good thing.

Probably a nominee for Movie Of The Year, “The Fighter” deals with rather serious issues for a sports drama, and as such (and given it’s R rating), it’s not in the same family-friendly area as “The Blind Side” or “Invictus.” And that’s fine by me.

Based on the true story of Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), and their struggles with each other, their family, and Dicky’s drug addiction, among other things. It turns out that for this fighter, the greatest fight he has is with his own family.

Although Wahlberg is in fine form, giving Ward an innocent air, and Amy Adams is surprisingly pitch-perfect in the role of his troubled girlfriend, it is Christian Bale’s Eklund who drives this movie, and who may get the Oscar nom, as well as the movie that surrounds him. Although the direction is done documentary style adding to the realism, it is also done so well that you barely notice it. The dialogue is believable, and brought home by its actors. And nicely, even the fight sequences are realistic, and overly violent to hyperactive. The Fighter also boasts one of the best “pep talks” of any sports drama. One of the best movies of the year.

Movie Grade: A-

Director: David O. Russell
Writers: Scott Silver (screenplay) and Paul Tamasy (screenplay) & Eric Johnson (screenplay); and Paul Tamasy (story) & Eric Johnson (story) & Keith Dorrington (story)

Rated R for language throughout, drug content, some violence and sexuality.

Rich’s Quickie: Not much of a legacy…

Bits: Yes, the effects are amazing, and it’s fun and cool to see the original TRON light cycles and other stuff hyper-updated. Yes, if you’re going to see it, pay extra and see it in IMAX 3D. Yes it’s great see Jeff Bridges in the role again, and relative newcomer Garret Hedlund holds his own onscreen with him. Yes, Olivia Wilde looks great in virtual spandex, and it’s good to see Bruce Boxlietner get work.

Bites: But that’s pretty much where the good stuff ends. The more I think about this movie, the more problems I have with it…
- After a strong start (which helps explain the relationships and sets up Hedlund’s “Sam Flynn” as a wunderkid of sorts), “Legacy” wastes a LOT of time doing things they didn’t even bother doing in the first one… like a LONG time for Sam to get his TRON outfit on. Funny; when his dad got zapped in – using the same avenue of entrance – the transition effect was BETTER, and he just appeared in his virtual outfit, disc and all. Seemed a whole lot more efficient back then. I think all of that time showing latex clad women cutting off his clothes and attaching his virtual uniform could have better spent on plot.
- I don’t lame Hedlund (I’m sure someone wrote his one-liners for him, and directed him to act a certain way), but Sam doesn’t seem surprised enough by his virtual surroundings for me. C’mon, you just found out all of your father’s bedtime stories were REAL! Other than a moment or two of “This isn’t happening”, can’t you be a kid again and just be scared and awed and thrilled to be there, BEFORE you’re delivering standard one-liners and swaggering onto the game grid in your new duds? Where was the marvel? Where was the magic of being zapped into your computer? In fact, none of the real people on the grid as like real people would, finding themselves zapped into the grid, or seeing their grown son after 20+ years.
- In such an effect-driven movie, you better make sure all of your effects are good, and in TRON: Legacy, they are not; most notably, the “Young Jeff Bridges”, aka, “Clu.” With Clu being shown and used as much as he is, with him being shown amidst some otherwise excellent effects, with Clu standing next to very real people, Clu is a huge distraction. It is so OBVIOUS that his yes are dead and nearly cross-eyed, that his face is nearly expressionless (except when it goes overboard for little reason), and his mouth doesn’t match his voice.
- The Big Bad Guy in the original TRON was the MCP/Sark and his real world lackey Ed Dillinger. Now the bad guy is… our hero from the last one? Kevin Flynn is the bad guy? Flynn is the bad guy either by pursuing perfection as Clu, or sitting around for 20+ years hoping Something will happen as Kevin. Where’s that genius scamp from the first one? Almost nowhere to be found. Legacy’s Kevin Flynn is part The Dude and part Bridges own persona, but almost none of the Kevin Flynn from TRON.
- Who are the Isos? What’s up with Clu, and with Tron, and with all of these gaming programs? Who is Quorra, Castor / Zuse, or Gem? Further – who CARES?!

Remember the end of the original Wall Street? Bud Fox has turned on his mentor and (also turned state’s evidence), and we see him heading to accept his fate (and we can only guess what the fate of Gordon Gekko is)? And then Wall Street 2 comes out decades later and we find out that Fox’s actions barely made a dent in Gekko (thereby undermining the original movie’s premise), and the guy who really put him up the river for years was… someone we never knew or was introduced to in the first one along with a whole cast of characters we also had to be introduced to because they weren’t in the first one? But at least we get an unnecessary cameo from Fox for continuity? Remember that?

If you do, then ladies and gentlemen, I give you “TRON: Legacy” – a special effects extravaganza (except for Clu), with a bunch of new and irrelevant characters for you to get to know, a convoluted plot that actually undermines the previous film, and a cameo – but one that at least makes sense. Too bad; “Legacy” is not how I wanted to remember TRON.

Movie Grade: C-

Director: Joseph Kosinski
Writers: Edward Kitsis (screenplay) & Adam Horowitz (screenplay), Edward Kitsis (story) & Adam Horowitz (story) and Brian Klugman (story) & Lee Sternthal (story), Steven Lisberger (characters) and Bonnie MacBird (characters)

Rated PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence and brief mild language.

Rich’s Quickie: I STILL don’t know…

How: How – and when – “How Do You Know” works is when Owen Wilson’s gee-whiz bewilderment and Paul Rudd’s …well, anything take center stage. Paul Rudd is fast becoming the best part of almost any movie he’s in, although Jack Nicholson and Reese Witherspoon (and even some lesser-known supporting characters) obviously help.

Why: But with James L. Brooks being the writer and director, maybe there was no one there to consult; no one there to say, “Hey is this a drama? Or a comedy? Or is it a romance?” Because while it seems to be a little bit of ALL of them, there also doesn’t seem to be enough of any ONE of them in a somewhat overlong movie.
Additionally, even though both of our leading men seem infatuated with Witherspoon’s “Lisa”, I’m not sure why. Sure she’s pretty, but not overly so. She’s successful and fit; but she’s also just old enough and past her prime that she gets cut from her professional softball team. She also seems pretty self-occupied, and doesn’t know what she wants out of life. So where’s the big draw? Further, she seems to allow Wilson’s oblivious professional baseball playa “Matty” to largely walk all over her (I guess because he has money, and she also needs a place to live), while treating with mere civility Rudd’s puppy dog “George” (possibly because he has less money, has just lost his job and is maybe heading to jail for fraud)? Again, what’s the draw to this Lisa person? She seems a bit shallow, as do all of our lead characters. Matty has a Peter Pan complex and has no concept of commitment, and even always likable Rudd’s George falls for Lisa without barely knowing her, even telling her at the end of the movie that he loves her (to which she doesn’t respond in kind).
In fact, some of the supporting characters have more depth to them then our main characters and in the end, I still didn’t know the answer to the title question.

Movie Grade: C-

Director: James L. Brooks
Writers: James L. Brooks

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some strong language (on appeal/re-edit); Originally rated R for some language.

One of the best films of the year, “The Fighter” stars Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams and in what is sure to be an Oscar-nominated performance, Christian Bale.

Bale creates a complex character as Dicky Eklund, a “never was” fighter whose claim to fame is he may have knocked down Sugar Ray in a prizefight. Now a drug addict, Dicky has been training his brother, Micky Ward (Wahlberg) to jump into the ring.

Bale, ever the master manipulator, brings us a multi-dimensional character both pathetic and regal.

Mark Wahlberg (who also produces the film) gives Micky Ward a vulnerability and innocence that in itself is extremely charming. Adding to his performance is Wahlberg’s determination to physically change himself during the course of the film, adding and losing muscles and weight.

This movie so compelling and so human, it’s hard not to see this film without feeling you intimately know each character.

“The Fighter” is one of the best films of the year and gets an A – its rated R.

The much anticipated “TRON: Legacy” is a mess. Great special effects are mixed with uninspired acting and a lackluster plot to create a totally unmemorable movie experience.

Disney should have delivered to us a story that would have been worth the nearly 30 year wait. Instead, like Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, the Producers thought they would hit box office gold just by bringing back some of the main characters from the original film.

Not so.

They forgot today’s audiences demand story along with their special effects and 3-D glasses. And “TRON: Legacy” just doesn’t have enough story or acting to carry the effects.

And for that reason I’m giving “TRON: Legacy” a D. It’s rated PG.

“Yogi Bear” is a “starter film” – a film you take little children to for their first visit to a movie theater. And for that the movie really does a good job entertaining little ones.

However the adults accompanying those little children will find “Yogi Bear” tiresome as the one-joke premise will grate on the nerves of anyone over 9 years old.

So, as a child’s movie the film rates a B-… as a film for the rest of us it gets a C-. “Yogi Bear” is rated PG.

Rich’s Quickie: An average movie with star power.

I can just hear The Tourist pitch meeting: “Okay. We get together Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp…”
And what else needed to be said?
The Tourist is a movie with pretty people about pretty people in pretty places, and as such, there are LOTS of lingering shots of Angelina Jolie just thinking of her next line, and of Johnny Depp gazing out upon beautiful Italian vistas. There are even plenty of shots of other people staring AT Jolie, as if we forgot her looks. But all of this posing really slows down the “thrill” part of this romantic thriller. And even once it does get going, its predictability is its problem; from hired assassins who can’t seem to aim their weapons very well, to the final twist that was plain from the start. Now there are some movies whose endings you can guess, but the movie makes it worth it, even though you can guess the outcome. Like a roller coaster you’ve been on before, the ride keeps you entertained enough, even though you know how it ends. Unfortunately, The Tourist just doesn’t supply the thrills or the fun to make the predictability worth it. But Jolie and Depp do have chemistry, and the plot is likable enough, and the action sequences re well shot… but you just get the sense that with this much star power attached, you should be blown away, and not just mildly entertained.

Movie Grade: C

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Writers: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (screenplay) and Christopher McQuarrie (screenplay) and Julian Fellowes (screenplay)
Jérôme Salle (motion picture “Anthony Zimmer”)

Rated PG-13 for violence and brief strong language.

Rich’s Quickie: The Narnia series ends (?) on a high note.

After switching studios, you may notice a bit of a difference with the latest and possibly last installment of The Chronicles of Narnia. Fans of the original novel(s) by C.S. Lewis may have their qualms about what is and what isn’t in the movie, but strictly as a movie-going experience, Dawn Treader moves quickly from one thing to another; but not at a break-neck pace. It simply knows where it needs to go and it gets about getting there. No sooner does the movie begin with our heroes on earth does the magical painting transport them back to Narnia fro another quest. Each of our heroes not only has an overall shared goal, but each must also face their own personal challenges which allows for a small and rare bit of character development for a PG children’s movie. Nicely, there is virtually no language, skin or violence (except for a bit of swashbuckling swordplay), only a surprisingly intense struggle against a rather nasty-looking beast; so this is one to which you can bring the family.
Finally, although the graphics are first rate, the 3D is a bit of an afterthought; apart from a scene here and there, I didn’t see a huge reason to have it in 3D. Not that it looked bad, mind you; it just didn’t seem to make much of a difference or add much to it. At the same time it certainly didn’t drag it down. Dawn Treader promises to bring back some of the magic and adventure of the first Narnia movie, and I think it does and then some.

Movie Grade: B

Director: Michael Apted
Writers: Christopher Markus (screenplay) & Stephen McFeely (screenplay) and Michael Petroni (screenplay), C.S. Lewis (novel)

Rated PG for some frightening images and sequences of fantasy action