Thursday, August 30, 2012

Lawless




Runtime: 115 minutes

Directed by: John Hillcoat

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Gary Oldman

From: The Weinstein Company

Here is a movie that I had only first heard of earlier in the month, when they were heavily advertised on a UFC pay per view. I then looked into it and I was interested by the whole deal; it was based on a book known as The Wettest County in the World, by Matt Bondurant, based on the exploits his old relatives had in rural Virginia in the 1930's running moonshine and dealing with their enemies. As an independent production they unfortunately ran into money issues. It took Shia's involvement to get the project made.

I already explained the basic plot of the story. It follows a trio of brothers, Jack (Shia), Forrest (Hardy), and Howard (Jason Clarke) as they run a moonshine operation in rural Virginia in the early 1930's. In fact, let me steal the plot given on IMDb:

“The three Bondurant brothers run a bootlegging operation during the depression, up in the mountains of Franklin County, Virginia. Crooked Special Deputy Charles Rakes (Pearce) is after a share of the brothers' profits. Compounding their troubles, the local competition is elbowing in on their activities. Forrest's boisterous defiance and Cricket's (Dane DeHaan) knack for moonshine production help the brothers gain a local monopoly. When Forrest is wounded as tension with Rakes escalates, Jack, initially the timid one, must prove his worth against gangster Floyd Banner's (Oldman) mob, and we see him metamorphose into a cocky exhibitionist in his attempts to woo the off-limits preacher's daughter, Bertha. (Mia Wasikowska)”

Yep, that sums it up pretty well.

This movie has gotten a mixed reaction. I mean, many critics enjoyed it but many others also were disappointed by it. I'll say that while this doesn't reach the heights that it could have given the plot and the quality cast assembled, I still managed to quite enjoy it. It's a pulpy tale where you see various colorful characters interact in a cool setting and while it's mainly dramatic, when you get outbursts of violence, it's quite intense. I mean, there's Tommy guns, knifes, brass knuckles, and other implements of destruction and when they're used, the results are real bloody. I mean, this film doesn't mess around when it comes to the violence.

Pearce's villain role is rather interesting. He just acts peculiar. He sticks out from the backwoods folks in Virginia in a drastic way. I mean, it's implied by subtle and not so subtle clues that he's a homosexual, but there's more to it than that and it's unexplained why he's so odd. It's quite the performance from him; Hardy as the seemingly indestructible Forrest also delivered a fine performance. He manages to deliver a good old boy accent quite well for an Englishman. Even Shia's performance was unobjectionable to me and usually I'm “meh” towards him. Really, I have no complaints with the cast. And for you horndogs there is some female nudity present also.

I also have to mention that while Oldman's role isn't too large, he does look AND sound eerily like Charles Bronson. No kidding. I have no idea how much of the story told in the book is entirely truthful (let alone it getting adapted to the screen) but what I saw was wildly entertaining. Mr. LaBeouf is a rather odd character in real life; that said, I do have to say it is ballsy on his part to at least say he is going to leave the big studio world and only do moveis in the independent world. Will he stick with that... who knows.

I'll be back Sunday night.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Next of Kin



Runtime: 108 minutes

Directed by: John Irving

Starring: Patrick Swayze, Liam Neeson, Adam Baldwin, Helen Hunt

From: Lorimar

Here is something that I found on Blu-Ray in a local Wal-Mart and I picked it up for someone I know; I remembered they enjoyed the movie and only had it on VHS. I figured they were due for an upgrade. I decided to check this out as it features the famous faces I listed above plus others (such as-no kidding-Ben Stiller, Ted Levine, and Bill Paxton) and I remember seeing parts of it way back when, as a kid.

The plot is that Truman Gates (Swayze) is a Chicago cop who is from rural Kentucky and most of the rest of his family has remained there. There's his brother Briar (Neeson; yes, Liam plays a redneck and it is as tremendous as it sounds) and the other brother Gerald (Paxton), who has to work in Chicago for the time being. A member of the mob (Baldwin) guns down Gerald and kills him. Briar gets pissed so he gets mad at Truman (well, even more mad as he was already ticked at him for leaving Kentucky) and vows to go into Chi-Town to dish out his own brand of justice. You can just imagine what Truman's wife (Hunt!) thinks of such a thing.

The movie isn't as tremendous as it sounds. I mean, with the cast and the plot it could have been pretty darn awesome. As is, it is still entertaining as long as your expectations aren't too high. It's more of a drama-thriller than an action movie as most of that you see in the memorable ending. There was one aspect of that ending which I clearly remembered from seeing it so many years ago; if you're familiar with the film you can probably guess what I'm referring to.

One nice thing about the movie is that it portrays the rural types real fairly. You know, they aren't ignorant bumpkins or even worse, the evil mountain men from Deliverance. Instead, they're real people, simple folk but still real people. You have some scenes in Kentucky and the country scenery looks quite scenic.

Anyhow, like I said if you watch this cheesy late 80's programming with tempered expectations, then you should enjoy this product of the times, where you see Swayze drive a late 80's grey Camaro... and interestingly, for the longest time the stereotype is that only white trash with mullets drive those vehicles after they became popular.

I'll be back Thursday night.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Stealing Paradise



Runtime: 90 some odd minutes

Directed by: Tristan Dubois

Starring: Rachael Leigh Cook, Graham Abbey, Paula Jean Hixson, Neil Napier

From: Incendo Productions

How did I spend my Friday night tonight? Why, drinking several alcohol beverages at home while watching a TV movie from Canada that debuted up there last year (and was made in '10) and tonight made its American debut... on the Lifetime Movie Network. Yes, I watched a fillm on that channel, and yes it was for its lead. It was a movie I had known about before while going through her filmography and I knew its origins. I just had no idea when it would be shown in the United States. It turns out, last night I found out it was making its debut tonight. I am glad I did find that out; I would have been pissed if I had missed it.

In this movie set in Boston but filmed in Montreal, Amanda Collier (Rachael) is an MIT genius who graduated with honors in aeronautical engineering (shamefully, even I have to laugh at that) and is working on a big design breakthrough. It gets stolen by a co-worker and he claims it as his own. She gets pissed and she and her lawyer brother (Abbey) fight to get credit for it. The co-worker gets murdered and it's made to look like Amanda was the one who did the killing. Her and her brother try to defend themselves, while some other people get off'ed...

There are various twists and turns in this murder mystery. And no the final twist isn't that it was actually Amanda who does all the killings. I won't spoil it any further in case you want to check this out sometime in the future. It's basically Rachael and a bunch of random Canucks, but everyone at least delivers a fine performance and the filmmaking is satisfactory. It's nothing spectacular but it certainly isn't awful; it was perfectly acceptable (and more) for a TV movie and if you enjoy oogling and goggling at the lead then you might want to check this out, as it's a fine way to spend a random afternoon or evening... and she does look pretty hot.

And no I have no idea if the big design improvement presented in the film is possible or if it's just poppycock. It doesn't really matter. Also, I can't really explain the title of this motion picture. The apparent French title listed on its IMDb page, La Bataille d'Amanda, makes just about as much sense.

I'll be back Tuesday night.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Crank 2: High Voltage




Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Neveldine/Taylor

Starring: Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Clifton Collins, Jr., David Carradine

From: Lionsgate

Here is a movie I saw back in '09 on the big screen but hadn't seen since then until last night. I watched it on Blu-Ray; as both this and the first one were shot digitally, they look great in that format. Back in '09 I saw the first film shortly before seeing the sequel. I wasn't sure what I'd think about viewing the movies a few days apart.

The plot is not exactly complex: Chev Chelios' tremendous heart literally gets stolen from him and replaced by an artificial one, which requires electricity to keep on ticking. Chev is pissed so he goes on a hunt from it, and not only deals with the Chinese guy who stole it (David Carradine!) but also a gang of Mexicans who are after him for a personal reason.

Of course, the film is largely the same as the first one. It's so fast-paced, it's slickly done and stylized, the music is in your face, and so on and so forth. There definitely are entertaining and fun moments. And yet at various times I cringed and just got tired of it. You know, they certainly tried to top the the first movie and there's a lot of zaniness; one scene having Chelios and his rival giant-sized and fighting as if they were Godzilla vs. say, Megalon was bizarre but also funny. Other times, though, the drive to be even more insane than a crazy film started to wear thin on me. It was chaotic at times and not in a good way. It seemed to end out of nowhere.

And the vulgarity and all the cursing sometimes got on my nerves. This release needed an option like the release of the first movie where on the DVD/Blu-Ray there's an option to watch it with all the cursing/dirty phrases removed and replaced with something cleaner; for example, “mother freaker” and “mickie frickies”. I think I needed that. If only there was an option to remove all the racism against the Chinese. Bai Ling's entire character and how she acted... a big turn-off in general, along with most of the other Asian characters you see. Bizarrely, Carradine's too small role did not offend me too much aside from the fact that he played a sterotypical guy from East Asia and had the trying way too hard name of Poon Dong.

It's odd, when I first saw it a few years ago I thought I enjoyed it well-enough. Viewing it again left me with more mixed feelings, and that is a surprise to me.

I'll be back Friday night.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Crank



Runtime: 88 minutes

Directed by: Mark Neveldine/Brian Taylor

Starring: Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Efren Ramirez, Dwight Yoakam

From: Lionsgate

I decided to go to Blockbuster on Sunday and as it was 49 cents for a cheap rental, I decided to get both this and Crank 2. I hadn’t seen either since the spring of ’09. It turns out, I did not remember all that much about this film.

Before I get to talking about the plot, I do have to comment it was quite a shock to hear that Tony Scott took his own life on Sunday. No matter the reason it was still sad news. It turns out I’ve seen more of what he’s produced than what he’s directed, but early in ’09 I did get to see Top Gun on the big screen with a crowd of only a few others, and that was quite the experiences. Most of the homoerotic overtones were laughed at, especially the infamous beach volleyball scene. Anyhow, without Tony Scott’s stylized directing style I say there’s no way this film would have turned out the way it did.

The plot is rather simple: some gangsters get revenge on Chev Chelios (Statham) for killing their boss by injecting him with a legal drug. He literally has to keep his adrenaline up or else he’ll die. Thus explains all the batshit insane stuff he does throughout.

This is certainly a loud, profane, and in your face movie, filmed and directed in a stylized way. Usually that sort of thing at least runs the risk of turning me off. But somehow and someway, it works for this movie. It’s so fast paced and frenetic (and it’s appropriate for what the movie is about) it manages to be enjoyable for being so crazy and out there and balls-out and just wacky. In hindsight, Nveldine/Taylor may be one trick ponies as what they’ve worked on since the Crank movies definitely hasn’t been as well-received, but maybe one day it’ll change. As is, I manage to enjoy this unique film for what it is.

I’ll be back Wednesday night.

Friday, August 17, 2012

The Expendables 2



Runtime: 103 minutes

Directed by: Simon West

Starring: Sly Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Nan Yu, etc.

From: Lionsgate

This movie... it's saved the summer for me, a summer of not much happening movie-wise and when I did see a few movies I felt let down by it. I was hoping this would be good as I dug the first one; despite the short kerfuffle about what rating this would get (the whole PG-13 thing just left a bad taste in my mouth; I didn't finally feel 100% comfortable until it was announced a few weeks ago that this would indeed be an R; turns out, it was a hard R) I was hoping this would be befitting all the new and old school action stars.

Yes, yes it was.

I saw it at its midnight debut. I picked a giant screen showing; it was at a Regal Theatres joint and their new RPX system. The picture didn't always look fantastic but the sound always was great, and it was LOUD too. That was pretty nice during some scenes, especially. The crowd there wasn't too large and there were some nincompoops around, but I was still able to enjoy the film... oh yes I did.

The basic plot is that the whole gang is there, with a new member (Liam Hemsworth; yep, the soon to be Mr. Miley Cyrus) and they end up dealing with the villainous Jean Vilain (yes, that's Jean-Claude's character name) and his group, including the underrated Scott Adkins, a guy who deserves a much bigger career than has currently. They have to work with a dame (Nan Yu) but she holds her own.

That's about as much plot as you need to know. It certainly seems like a story from the 80's; things are simplistic, stuff don't always make sense, thre are corny one-liners, etc.... and I dug it all! No matter what you thought of the first time, this blows it right out of the water. I mean, simply kicks its ass. More than once during the movie I was reminded of the various epic moments you saw in Fast Five. The opening to this movie is comparable to the ending of Fast Five. No kidding. It was that stupendous. There are great action scenes, MANY sons of bitches getting killed, graphic violence, humorous moments, one-liners... most action fans should love this. I sure as heck know I did. I thought it was amazing.

In fact, I say this is now my film of the year. That's how much I loved it. I'll be seeing it again at least one more time on the big screen. If you enjoy action movies/the best films of all the old guys who appear here, then this is a MUST-SEE. You must see it ASAP. The movie manages to be as awesome as the cast it has.

I'll be back Monday night.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Expendables (Expanded Director's Cut)


The Expendables (Extended Director's Cut) (2010)

Here is something special; last year an Extended Director's Cut of this film was released. I picked it up but it was just today that I watched it, in preparation for tonight's big midnight debut of The Expendables 2. Below in italics is my original review of the original film. After that I'll talk about my opinion on the longer version.

The Expendables (2010)

42% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 69 reviews)

Runtime: 103 minutes

Directed by: Sly Stallone

Starring: Sly Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Eric Roberts, Steve Austin, etc.

From: Lionsgate/Millennium/Nu Image


Yep, I got back from this a little before 2 AM but I’ve been tied up with other stuff, including talking about this on various messageboards.

For about the past two years now I’ve been looking forward to this; back then was when this was announced as being a film that would be made, and as all the big-name action guys got cast, anticipation for this in certain places and messageboards grew and grew. Even as it got bumped from April to August for the wildly disappointing Kick-Ass, it didn’t damper anyone’s spirits and in fact they grew more and more excited for it. They were hoping it would be what was promised, and I’ll give my opinion on whether it did or not, without trying to spoil anything.

Overall, this was an 80’s action movie, warts and all. Lord knows they weren’t always perfect (but what movie that’s ever been made has been perfect?), with goofy dialogue, macho posturing, simplistic plotting and what have you. There are pompous hipster types out there who are bashing the movie for being this very thing. Talk about missing the mark entirely. They’d rather fellate themselves over a ridiculous movie based on a comic book-that I’ve never heard of-that’s total hipster garbage and has no basis in any sort of reality at all even though it tries to be. Not to stress on this again, but Scott Pilgrim looks totally awful and really stupid! I have no idea how that sort of style can be deemed as entertaining at all, and yet you have douchebag critics/bloggers out there who are gushing all over it and leveling ridiculous platitudes upon it, like it’s “a gamechanger” or “it totally tells the story of this generation” or “a milestone” or “it’s important for the film industry” or other things that just make me laugh due to how pompous and overwrought it is. No offense to any of my films who are eagerly anticipating that film… I just totally don’t get it. Don’t expect me to ever watch that film; instead I’ll stick to good old time films like this when I want to see quality action and a grand old time.

Anyhow… the film is about the title group in question, filled with the manliest of men. You see them in action at the beginning and you understand why they have such a great reputation. The main plot starts once Sly meets up with 80’s action icons Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger (the roles of the latter two are mere cameos, despite what the advertising wants you to think); Bruce makes it known that there’s a case in an island off the coast of South America where a local general there is ruling things and he’s backed by a rich American type (Roberts) and his bodyguard (Steve Austin). Sly and Statham go there to check things out… and I won’t spoil the rest of it. There’s some sidetracks but it goes along with the story very well and nothing felt shoehorned in or tacked on.

The story isn’t anything revolutionary but it works for this movie. The important things here are the performances (no complaints there), the action (a lot of stuff gets blowed up real good, plus there’s a variety of action in other ways-from weapons to hand to hand combat and other things-and there are many satisfying moments, some of which seem to be designed to get the audience to mark out, which is exactly what happened; also, the way the action is filmed has some people griping, and yeah it’s fast-paced but it’s not hard to follow at all and it’s far better than something like the Bourne films or Quantum of Solace, for example), and how satisfying it is… it is indeed something I enjoyed, as did the small but enthusiastic crowd I saw it with at midnight. They buzzed afterward and most of it seemed to be positive.

It’s gloriously violent at times, and I appreciated it. It captures the spirit of old-school action movies very well-even if it isn’t an exact copy; after all, where’s the nudity?-and if you enjoy those types of films and don’t really care for the wussified action movies we seem to be getting on the big screen in recent years, well this is the tonic and cure for what ails ya. Don’t listen to the mainstream critics who don’t like the genre anyhow or the pompous bloggers out there who are smug hipster idiots and you know will cry and bemoan “That Mayflower Movie” bombing at the box office while The Expendables kicks its ass not by trying to be anything new with a stupid-looking style and an awful combo of videogames and comic books, but rather by being testosterone-filled and being crowd pleasing with funny one-liners (some of which aren’t great, but that’s again the style of 80’s action movies) and quality action. I highly recommend you check this out.


Wow, I was really mad about Scott Pilgrim at the time. I'm not quite sure why, as in hindsight the film didn't do much at the box office. There's a cult for it out there but it just sounds way too dopey for me.

Alright, now the differences are added scenes, changed dialogue, and the score is different at times. For example, the opening credits are in a different spot and new footage is put over that. Randy Couture telling everyone about his cauliflower ears... that story is longer too and now it actually has a point. Most of the added dialogue adds character to the characters. I wish that a song wasn't put over a key awesome scene but otherwise I dug it as something different. I don't know if I'd say it's markedly better than what you saw on the big screen, but both are pretty great and I still think the film is awesome. Hopefully the sequel is even better. You'll get to find out that answer tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

A Change Of Plans

Things popped up today that I wasn't expecting so I had to take care of that. However, I will be back Thursday evening, before I take off to see the midnight debut of The Expendables 2. The film I will talk about on Thursday evening... the extended version of the first Expendables. Friday afternoon I will post a review of EX2 and if it lived up to my ridiculously high expectations or not.

Monday, August 13, 2012

D.C. Cab


Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: Joel Schumacher (yes)

Starring: Adam Baldwin, Max Gail, Charlie Barnett, Gary Busey, Mr. T

From: Universal

Here's a movie I have an odd story behind. I know this is a rather strange memory to have, but when I was only a toddler I remember this movie was on TV one night and I saw at least a few minutes of it. I never actually saw it in full until tonight. I found it at a flea market earlier in the summer and this seemed like a good time to check it out. I heard a podcast review of it a few months ago so I knew a lot of what to expect here.

There isn't too much of a plot here, at least until the second half of the movie. It's a loud and crazy film about a guy from the South (Baldwin) who goes to Washington to work for a friend of his late father; he works at a ramshackle and run-down cab company where the drivers are almost all crazy lunatics and all wish they had better jobs than the ones they have now. Once you meet everyone some things happen but I won't spoil it.

Like I said, what a loud movie, featuring a lot of yelling and chaos throughout. It's wacky and there isn't too much of a plot but it doesn't matter as it's usually quite funny so you're not too worried about how it's usually a slice of life sort of thing. There are many famous faces besides the people mentioned, as Paul Rodriguez, Marsha Warfield, Bill Maher (!), Whitman Mayo, Irene Cara as herself, and the 80's babe known as Jill Schoelen.

There are many great one-liners and it seems like a lot of this film is improvised. There are also some rather unpolitically correct moments, as in racist lines and expressions. Of course I won't repeat them here. It's rather amazing to think that the Christian T would be in that sort of movie.

What was the most memorable performance was from Busey. As I've heard, he was so high at the time, he has zero memory of working on this motion picture. Judging by his performance I have no trouble believing that. He was out of his mind the entire time and said the craziest things. He says he does not want to work on January 8th, as it's Elvis's birthday. Or, his theory on the government having Bruce Lee's body frozen. Or saying such things as, “Tell them you're Batman” and “I'll bring my lucky rubber!” What a drug-fueled performance.

I'll be back Wednesday night.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Pinball Summer (a.k.a. Pick-Up Summer)



Runtime: 99 minutes

Directed by: George Mihalka

Starring: Michael Zelniker, Carl Marotte, Karen Stephen, Helene Udy, Thomas Kovacs

From: Brookdale Productions

Here is a movie I first found out about via a podcast reviewing it a few months ago (most of them hated it, for reasons I'll get into later) and I just discovered a few days ago that someone uploaded it to YouTube in 7 parts (not that I'd give away where Part 1 was) so I decided to check it out as it just sounded rather ridiculous from the podcast review.

In short, this is Canuxploitation (it was filmed in Quebec) about a pair of guys who go out with a pair of sisters and they deal with their rivals, a small biker gang, and the backdrop is a pinball competiton at Pete's Arcade. Amusingly, not only did this director direct the original My Bloody Valentine a year later, but several of the main members of this cast appear in that film.

It's best to describe this film in bullet-points.
  • What's so wrong about it... the “protagonists” are the ones who are the biggest A-holes! Sure, there are many douches in the film, but the heroes definitely act the worst. They needlessly harrass a rich kid just because he's rich, pretty much. They also harrass a poor chubby and possibly mentaly handicapped guy who works at Pete's Arcade, named WHIMPY.
  • To give an example, the alleged villain and leader of the 4 man biker gang, Bert, actually treats Whimpy far kinder than the heroes do. The two sides fight over the trophy that is a prize for the winner of the pinball competition. Whimpy finds it and is going to give it to Bert... in exchange for joining their gang. Yes it's that kind of film. Whimpy has to lose his virginity first. Bert actually hooks him up with a nice-looking hooker with nice boobs who is in her 40's. He could have gotten her an ugly one, a tranny, or what have you, but did the best he could and also teaches Whimpy some social norms. Of course the deflowering goes awry and Whimpy gets embarrassed... again.
  • There's a whole lot of homoeroticism throughout, especially between the two heroes, but there's also the bikers watching Whimpy trying to score; one of the bikers is so horny he starts dry-humping the guy in front of him! And this happens a few times.
  • The soundtrack is cheesetastic, in a good way.
  • Of course you see a decent amount of female nudity.
  • There are many wacky hijinx to be seen.
  • Pop top cans of beer are seen, amusingly, including Pabst Blue Ribbon.
As I knew already that the two protagonists are D-bags and loathsome human beings and the bikers come off as better dudes, I was able to get some enjoyment out of this stupid, stupid film. Most of the guys on the podcast hated it because they had no idea how badly handled the characters are.

I'll be back Sunday night.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Alien



Runtime: 117 minutes

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright

From: 20th Century Fox

I figured it was time to watch the Blu-Ray of this great film, which I've seen on VHS, DVD, and even on the big screen before. It was a few years ago I got to watch it on the big screen, but it was an obvious DVD projection, as I realized by the end that it was the Director's Cut, which was literally only created to have another version of the film out there and to have some heralded scenes that fans wanted to see; stuff was taken out so that it would be the same length. Both versions are pretty cool to me but I decided to see the original version this time.

You guys already know the plot: a bunch of space trucker types end up going to a mysterious moon to research a mysterious signal; they find the famed Space Jockey and poor Kane (John Hurt) gets attacked by a Facehugger and a Xenomorph pops out of him and causes all that trouble.

I don't think I need to do much explaining as to why this movie is great and it works well even 33 years later, but I'll at least say a few syllables. The familiar cast of character actors along with the relativey new to motion pictures Weaver are pretty great as an ensemble. They work well together and all their arguing makes sense and it's realistic; the fact that the characters all seem realistic (for example, the characters played by Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton argue that they should be paid more for having to go down to LV-426) is a big asset too.

But, what is the best part is how tense and claustrophobic it is. It still is tense and claustrophobic in 2012, a lot of it being set on a ship that is actually huge but it comes off as being small. These average people have to fight a mysterious creature that is lethal with just items like flamethrowers and electric prods... awesome. Others have said much more and much better about this movie so you can explore those opinions on your own; I presume that everyone has seen this already and will agree with me on how great this is, anyhow. Compared to this, no wonder why I was let down by Prometheus.

I'll be back Wednesday night.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Tempo



Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by: Eric Styles

Starring: Melanie Griffith, Hugh Dancy, Rachael Leigh Cook, Art Malik, Malcolm McDowell

From: Various companies, including Grosvenor Park

Yep, another movie involving Rachael. It's a long story as to why I decided to check out my fifth movie in a row with her in it; after tonight it should be some time (as in, more than a few days) until I watch something else with her, just to get a little more variety in here. That said, I figured I should see an international film given it's Olympics time, which this is and it was filmed in such locales as Paris, Munich, and... Luxembourg. True story. A company from that country gave some money to produce the film. That was interesting to me as I'm like most people in not knowing too much about that small land-locked country.

The plot, taken straight from the IMDb: “Jenny, a young American woman, moves to Paris and gets involved with Jack, who is seemingly the man of her dreams. However, he has a lot to hide and Jenny quickly gets entangled in his dangerous lifestyle”.

I'll give some away but not too much. It's actually a love triangle involving Jack (Dancy), Jenny (Cook), and Sarah James (Griffith). Yep, Melanie was a cougar a few years before that term became popular. What happens is that Sarah is a thief of rare items. She gets something from an old lady but it's stolen for her and she's put in a pickle so she needs loverboy Jack to help her out, but he's preoccupied with his new flame. And let's be honest here, unfortunately by this point Melanie Griffith was already addicted to the plastic surgery so she did not look like she did in her heyday and given that Jenny was much more age-appropriate for him ^and^ Rachael was pretty hot in this film, and it wouldn't have been a hard decision for me!

The movie itself isn't all that great but still, there were fine moment throughout so I did not think it was a total waste of time. How it turned out was pretty amusing, and I did not complain about Jack and Jenny passionately making out and then engaging in sweaty sex... although Hugh Dancy was the one that you see nude. Plus, I was amused by such odd things as how apparently much of this was filmed in Luxembourg and at one point you see a Buddha statue and for some reason it has a giant erection; things like that made me laugh. I can't tell you why the film has the title it does, though.

I'll be back Sunday night.