The Counselor

My View:  The Counselor  (2013) R  Michael Fassbender plays a greedy lawyer, only known as The Counselor, who becomes involved with the seedy world of drug trafficking.  With a cast to-die-for - Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt, this should have been an amazing movie- going experience.  Instead, after watching this film, you feel as though you just sat through a college philosophy class.  The dialogue is so dense and abstract that it would have been better suited for a book, not a film.  There is a reason for this - novelist Cormac McCarthy wrote the script, and it feels like it.  The film is also hard to follow with a plot that is never fully explained.  To make maters worse, some of the hair and makeup on the cast is so extreme, I found myself fixating on Javier Bardem's hair (which I think was a tribute to those 80's films that Robert Downey, Jr. did) or Cameron Diaz's eye makeup, that it took away from my paying attention to what those characters where saying.  The film is painfully slow, though it does pick up somewhat in the second half of the film, but, at that point, I just wanted it to end as I didn't care what happened to any of the characters.   My Rating:  Cable  The Counselor Website       

The 50 (A Movie from My Best/Worst Film of All Time)
#4 Worst Film:
Mac and Me  (1988)  PG  A blatant rip-off of E.T. in which a young, wheelchair-bound boy befriends a “Mysterious Alien Creature” (MAC, get it?).  This film is one long marketing tool for products as Coca Cola and McDonalds.  At one point, there is a dancing scene involving Mac dressed as a teddy bear, a football team and Ronald McDonald (listed in the credits as Himself).  To quote an old McDonalds ad, “You deserve a break today," so don’t ever see this film.  Mac and Me Info

Forgotten Film:    Wish You Were Here  (1987)  R  Lynda (Emily Lloyd) is a spunky sixteen year old girl who lives in a small coastline town in England in the 1950s   Lynda loves shocking people with her saucy language and feisty attitude.  She is easily bored, goes from job to job and boyfriend to boyfriend and has problems with her widower father.  Her world changes when she has an affair with an older man and must cope with getting pregnant and having a baby.  Emily Lloyd gives a brilliant performance and wins us over from the first time she appears on camera.  Full of life, Lloyd just dazzles on-screen.  The film is very often funny but also has a bittersweet side to it.  My Rating:  Full Price  Wish You Were Here Info

In Memory of Ed Wood (A Movie I’ve Only Seen in Trailers But Just Looks Like a Bad Idea): The Amityville Horror: The Awakening (2014)  When is Hollywood going to wise up and realize that we want intelligent, creative, scary films like this year's The Conjuring, and not a retread or rip-off of past films like this one?  The Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes Info

In Case You Missed It (A Film Just Released on DVD / Blu-ray):  The Internship (2013) PG-13   This rarely funny comedy is about two out-of-work salesmen (Vince Vaughn / Owen Wilson)  who are hired as interns at Google.  The film is one long infomercial with one-dimensional characters and very predictable scenes.  My Rating:  Cable  The Internshiip Website  

Weird Credits: From the credits of The Counselor:  Cheetah handler

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You:  Dallas Buyers Club (2013) R   The year of Matthew McConaughey continues as he portrays a Texas electrician / part-time cowboy named, Ron, who is diagnosed in 1986 as HIV-positive.  When told he has only 30 days to live, he does research and discovers that there are experimental drugs for treating AIDS in Mexico and overseas but are not allowed in this country.  He figures out a way to get the drugs and help other HIV-Positive patients live longer.   Dallas Buyers Club Website

Until Next Time!

The Internship

My View:  The Internship (2013)  PG-13  Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) are salesmen who see the business they work for destroyed by the digital world. They decide, when you can’t beat them, join them, as they talk their way into an internship at the ultimate digital workplace, Google. Now, they must compete with fellow interns who are younger and much more tech savvy to land a job in the fast paced, high tech world.  The film is one long, and I do mean long, infomercial for Google.  The Google name is plastered across the screen so much that, at times I thought I was watching an instructional video on how to do a search on the web.  The characters are all one dimensional, the scenes are all predictable and the film rarely is funny. While Vaughn and Wilson do play off each other well, there just isn’t much to the script to make it interesting.  If you are asked should you see this film, you don’t need to Google it - just say no.  My Rating:  Cable   The Internship Website

My View:  The Purge  (2013)  R  In the near future, all crime has been eliminated due to The Purge. It’s one night, where, in a twelve-hour period, anybody can commit any crime and get away with it. The Sandin family is set for the night, as their house is literally a fortress. But a stranger begs his way into their home and, suddenly, they are the target of some devious hit-men out to get the stranger.  This is a violent film that uses the “shakey cam” (where the camera shakes for effect) for much of its action sequences.  In this Hunger Games for adults, the people in this film don’t really seem real, as their character development is almost paper thin.  Ethan Hawke and Lena Headly aren’t given anything to work with, and Headly, whom I like as an actress, comes off as a screaming crybaby.  I couldn’t tell if the filmmakers wanted this film to be a satirical look at American society or if they just wanted to make a siege picture with lots of killing.  Either way, it doesn’t work.   My Rating:  Cable   The Purge Website

Indiefest: The Kings of Summer  (2013)  R  Three teenage boys (Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias) decide to get away from their rather strange and controlling parents by running away to build a house in the middle of the woods.  This is a great film for the summer.  It’s funny, moving and full of fine performances.  While viewers will see this film for the supporting cast, which is full of great comedians like Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, it’s the three lead boys (Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso and Moises Arias) that make this film so exceptional and a joy to watch.  Nick Robinson, playing the leader of the gang, Joe, is absolutely perfect in the role of a kid who is so tired of his life that he just wants to run away.  Gabriel Basso does a terrific  job of portraying Patrick, the boy who just goes along with Joe’s ideas, and Moises Arias steals the  movies as he plays the strange but loveable Biaggio.  The film is a wonderful coming of age story where the boys find out that running away doesn’t always solve problems.  My Rating:  I Would Pay to See It Again   The Kings of Summer Website   Please note that the film is being released by CBS Films and I work for the CBS Television Stations Group.

Indiefest:  Stories We Tell  (2013)   PG-13   In this documentary, Actress/Director Sarah Polley has known that her family has harbored some secrets for some time now. So, Sarah decides to interview members of her family and let them, in their own words, tell what really happened.  This is an incredibly moving documentary about a woman who is determined to get to the truth.  It’s a fascinating film that explores how people remember events in their lives and how those stories are shaded by their own beliefs.  It’s a funny and touching film that is not to be missed.  My Rating:  Full Price   Stories We Tell Website

Indiefest:  Violet & Daisy  (2013)  R  Violet (Alexis Bledel) and Daisy (Saoirse Ronan) are not just your ordinary teenager girls. They do love clothes and the music of their favorite pop star, Barbie Sunday. But, the girls are a little different from your average teenager, as they are assassins for hire. When they discover that Barbie Sunday has designed a costly dress, they take a hit job – a job that may change their lives forever.  This is one of those strange “Indie” films that just doesn’t quite hit the mark.  It tries to be quirky but ends up being kind of clunky in its storytelling.  I liked Bledel and Ronan as the two lead characters, but the film tries too hard to be unconventional, making the film hard to really like.  Visually, it’s an interesting picture, but the storyline and the wordy dialogue slow down the picture to a degree that you really hope for any sort of action to speed things up.  It’s an ambitious film that never quite figured out what kind of film it wanted to be.   My Rating:  Bargain Matinee   Violet & Daisy Website

Forgotten Film:  The Warriors  (1979)  R   Set in the future, gangs control New York.  A dynamic gang leader has decided that now is the time for all of the gangs to come together and take over the city.  But the gang leader is assassinated,  and the gang from Coney Island, The Warriors, have been framed for his murder.  Now this one gang must make it across the city with everyone out to get them.  This is a fun film to watch, as long as you don’t take it too seriously, with each gang wearing different outlandish outfits.  The film moves incredibly quick and most of the film was shot at night, on location, which gives the film an almost surreal feel to it.  Fast, action-packed, it’s a film that was way ahead of its time.   My Rating:  Bargain Matinee    The Warriors Info

Weird Credits:  From the credits of The Internship:  Personal Makeup Artist for Mr. Owen

Coming Soon to a Theatre Near You:  The Way, Way Back  (2013)   PG-13  A big hit of the Sundance Film Festival, this film is brought to you by the same writers that did The Descendants (2011).  The film is about a teenager (Liam James) who, during a summer vacation, works at a water park and grows from being a withdrawn, shy kid to a confidant man with a girlfriend.  The cast includes Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Amanda Peet, Rob Dorddry, Toni Collette, Allison Janney and Maya Rudolph.    The Way, Way Back Website

Until Next Time!