the movieGOOMBA

3 GOOMBAS

As the season's first slated blockbuster, it's no wonder the hype for the summer movie line up has been minimal. Cheesy advertisements and a seemingly misfit role for Downey Jr. didn't sure give Iron Man a leg up, that's for sure. It's hard to believe summer has arrived without such a large bang at the box office, and I'm surprised to see how differently the critics feel about the latest super hero flick when many would rather stay at home to their beloved TV set.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), a multi-billionaire and a bona fide genius, owns and runs the leading military weapons industry in the United States. However, after an unfortunate hostage situation in Afghanistan where he played the part of the hostage, he realizes that his weapons are being used against the the great US of A and vows to shut down production and focus the company's energy toward something more hero-ish. Afghanistan (if you hadn't already guessed) and someone close to home are the bad guys. Gwyneth Paltrow also stars as his beautiful, yet timid assistant.

Blatantly patriotic but generally entertaining, this movie wasn't nearly as cheesy it could have been. It was sleek and realistic, just like the Iron Man suit, and it struck the right balance between superhero archetypal themes and realism. It doesn't look comic-bookish, like its Spider-Man counterpart, but it isn't as stark as Batman Begins. Overall, I thought Robert Downey Jr. did an excellent job transitioning his character from a selfish and indifferent billionaire to a selfless superhero. I did have some issues with logical aspects of the film. How, for example, does Stark survive thousand foot drops in his suit? Brilliant and intelligent, he doesn't have super human padding. Also, I'm also sensitive to the fact that he shut down his weapons company only to make himself a weapon. Granted, he trusts himself to do greater good, my impression was that he would eventually create suits for others. How is that different from creating missiles?

This film has all the typical things you'd expect in a film of this caliber; crazy good CG, excellent explosions, interesting technology, and a decent character arch. I'd take the time to see it . . . until the Dark Knight hits the silver screen. I have a feeling that Iron Man will fall like an iron anvil short in that comparison.

On the side: Stay until after the credits. There's an extra scene that you might find interesting.
On the side: I hate how adding scenes after the credits have started becoming trendy. Its like the filmmakers are trying to pre-define a film as a cult flick.

3.5 GOOMBAS

SYNOPSIS: Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is part of a group who provides support and protection - through coercsion - to a community dominated by poverty, drugs, prostitution, corrupt cops, and troubled youth. He's an American gangster. Eventually he becomes the leader and raises his gang through the corrupted hierarchy by buying cocaine from the source, smuggling it into the country via the U.S, military, and selling "Blue Magic" at a competitive price. It's up to Detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) to catch "the man above the mafia."

The GOOM: I thought this film was very interesting. It did a good job portraying mafia-type politics, and if I were a Political Science professor I would have shown this in my class for fun day. It was easy to follow, provocative, and exciting. An overall quality film.

The BA: No matter what Denzel does, I can't see him as a bad guy. I always see his foe characters as people who make poor choices but can always be redeemed; never just evil for the heck of it. So when Frank Lucas shoots a man straight in the head with no remorse in his eyes, I say "Well, that sucks. It's okay, I'm sure he didn't really mean it."

I also had issues with his wife's character. I don't think the movie illustrated whether she is just a gold digger or if she just doesn't care that her husband is a murder.

1 GOOMBA

Terrible, nauseating, and not even redeemably corny, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, features an acclaimed cast who failed to deliver. Molly Mahoney works at Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, a magical toy store in the middle of a bustling city, but her dream is to be a famous pianist and composer. When eccentric Mr. Magorium's lifetime shoe supply has reached its last pair, he decides that its time to go. He is 243-years-old after all. Yet when the store gets wind of the news, it decides to throw a temper tantrum, forcing Mahoney, Eric - the Hat Collector, and Henry - the Mutant to find the magic without Magorium. Natalie Portman, Dustin Hoffman, and Jason Bateman star.

As a family film, I don't understand the message it was trying to send to the younger generation. Could it be, give up all adult responsibility in favor of being a kid? Or to give up your dreams to work at a magical store? Mahoney wanted something else for her life, and instead, she gives that up to be the owner of a toy store with feelings. I still don't understand how that was the better choice.

Don't watch this un-wonderful flick. It will rot your kid's brains out and take away any hope of a bright future they they thought they had.

3 GOOMBAS

I am so happy that The Office is back with new episodes. After the Gilmore Girls season finale, I didn't know what to do with myself. It was okay for a while. It just seemed like a long summer. Then Heros and The Office came out of hiatus; but my wonderful gleam of excitement was promptly squashed by the unfortunate, but necessary, wirter's strike. I had absolutely nothing to look forward to; nothing at all. No, not even serious, exciting life changes could pull me out of my constant channel flipping stupor. Though, I've had more time to watch movies - but watching Steve Carrell in Dan In Real Life isn't the same as watching pitifully selfish Michael Scott harass his staff.

The trailer for Dan In Real Life was obviously a sales pitch for Steve Carell, the person, not Steve Carell, Dan. Because of his fame from the popular television series and from The 40-Year-Old Virgin, advertisers seem to think that Steve Carell is their best selling point. Rather than sell it as a romantic comedy, which it is, by the way, they pitch it with Carell as a lonely widower who faces the comedic complications of raising three teenage daughters. Quite differently, the meat of the film is about Dan's attempt to control his love for a woman who happens to be his brother's girlfriend.

Patient, protective, pitiful Dan brings his daughters for a long weekend at the shore for an annual family reunion. On his first day, he stops by the bookstore and for the first time in a long time he makes a connection with a woman. However, when he returns to the house to recount his meet cute with the rest of his family, he's shocked to see the woman already there - as his brother's girlfriend.

The quality of this movie was quite surprising. Under the guise of a Tim Allen-like comedy, this movie seemed like it would make a nose dive to the bottom of the bin at the Dollar Tree. Yet it was particularly enjoyable to watch, and I found that the romantic comedy genre suits Carrell. I was taken by his simplicity and earnestness, and I was also completely jealous of his game playing, morning group aerobic exercising, boys vs. girls speed crossword puzzling family. They are totally awesome.

I expect this flick to make it to the small screen sometime in the next year. I also expect TBS to buy the rights to this film fairly quickly. It'll be around soon, so I suggest denying Blockbuster your $5. I think you can stick it out. It's not fantastic, but it'll do. I mean, its real life, so it can't always be good. Sometimes its just okay.

2 GOOMBAS

My office building is basically in the middle of a canyon. Every week there's a new department memo reminding us to be "aware of the rattlesnakes that like to hide in the shade," "wary of the coyotes who wander the parking lot early in the morning," or "mindful of the ducklings who could get run over by our cars." What's bizarre is I don't work in the middle of nowhere. This particular building was built by the freeway in a prominent business district, but it just happened to be nestled into a canyon. And with the summer quickly approaching, the latest nature warning memo was about a bee hive in a tree next to the building entrance. Bees freak me out.

Now, this particular bee hive doesn't have anything to do with Bee Movie, which is fine by me. However, I did like to see how creative Dreamworks could be with bees for its subject.

Barry B. Benson, a honey bee, has just finished school (all 3 days of it) and is off to the workforce to pick his life long job. Unsatisfied with the choices he is offered, Barry decides that he wants to be adventurous - even though he wasn't built to leave the hive. After venturing out on his own, he meets a human, Vanessa Bloome, and basically falls in love with her. But durng his time outside the hive, he finds that humans are stealing bees' honey. With the help of Vanessa, a florist, he progresses to sue the human race and wins, but when all the honey is returned to bees, the bees, without reason to work (now with more honey than they can imagine) grow lazy.

Completely outrageous, Bee Movie is over the top and sometimes very strange. I thought Barry's crush on Vanessa was out of line. It actually made me feel very uncomfortable. Not to be prejudice or anything, but he's a bee and she's a person. That's weird. It was even more bizarre when Barry was competing with Ken (Vanessa's ex-boyfriend) for her attention. That was just wrong. Plus Jerry Seinfeld's voice on a bee doesn't fit. I couldn't get past that middle-aged, matter-of-fact, tone. It didn't belong to Barry, a young, college graduate bee; it belonged to Seinfeld. The moral was pretty basic and uninspiring, which is a huge ding for a family flick. It had some good gags and some creative imagination. Dreamworks did a pretty good job imagining up a world of bees with humanistic qualities, but suing the human race? Come on. Will kids really buy that? Mutant Turtles or Transformers are so much more feasible. Maybe my 80's childhood puts me at a disadvantage, but I don't care. Bee Movie wasn't good.

I don't like bees. They sting and buzz and fly around so you can't tell where they'll land. Yes, they make honey, but rightly, I don't like honey either. I had a traumatic childhood experience involving chicken nuggets and dripping honey hands. So I guess the universe is aligned. I don't like bees. I don't like Bee Movie either.

3.5 GOOMBAS

I have trouble watching scary movies by myself. Hence, I tend not to blog about them because I've seen so few. I'll eventually try and rectify this deficiency because I made a new friend at work who happens to like horror/slasher films. She's 60 years old and still loves to be scared. I guess we can be scared together then. So No Country For Old Men had to be watched with company. I've been warned that this film can be very disturbing.

Winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director, No Country For Old Men is a suspense thriller about a greedy opportunist who finds himself in a sticky situation. While hunting out in the valley, Llewelyn Moss, comes across the remnants of a gun battle, and as he takes in the situation, he discovers a case full of money. Deciding to keep the money, he becomes the mouse in an elaborate chase for the fortune; the cat being a deranged serial killer with a crazy haircut.

Well thought out and intelligently crafted, No Country For Old Men is like Moby Dick; genius, yet entirely un-entertaining. I'm not saying that it was dull. The suspense and disturbing tension that predominates the film is 5 star, but as the ending approaches, the film increasingly becomes Coen-esque (i.e. weird). Conventional, key scenes slowly become omitted from the track, and I for one, almost lost the ball on the plot. "What, did she die? Huh? Did he die? What just happened? Where is he going?" were all questioned that I asked out loud. There was also a seemingly abrupt ending, accompanied with a seeming lack in resolution. However, for the Coen Brothers, it's always about motif, commanding themes, and prominent symbolism; usually never about the actual plot.

Each character in No Country For Old Men is a Coen-commentary on the people in our society and what our choices mean. The serial-killer, hit man - the epitome of evil (he's got the haircut to prove it; not to mention his weapon of choice establishes his complete detachment from normalcy); the cowboy, Llewelyn Moss - a man who makes bad choices (and is basically a bad person) but has a conscience; and Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a worn police detective who is a model citizen but has given up all hope on humanity. Each of the main characters is symbolic, and the ending is esoterically complex and original.

With all that said, I enjoyed the movie as much as I enjoy Mondays; not much. It was creepy and disturbing in all the right places, mostly due to a crazed Javier Bardem, but this film is for a very fine palette; one that I do not have. It's for the film artist, the complex thinker, and the Indie die hards. Not really for the movieGOOMBA's taste.

3 GOOMBAS

As I watched this movie, I reflected back on the first time I’d seen someone I knew play Black Jack with real money. Vegas: August 2004. In some smoke smelling, alcohol ridden casino, Joe, my fiancé, puts $40 cash on the table. The dealer explains the general rules. He's given the equivalent in chips. Then, two seconds and 4 hands later, it was gone. My friends and I groaned, we patted him on the back, and off we went play something not as disappointing. Now, $40 seems like Shrewt Bucks (1/100 of a penny) compared to what the kids in the Kevin Spacey film 21 coughed up.

Jim Sturgesse stars as the hot yet nerdy Ben Campbell in this teen audience targeted flick, 21. It first seemed to appeal to a wider audience, but I think that was a product of the marketing. No, this film is youthful and kind of MTV, trendy-edgy, especially in regard to its shot techniques. Though it dominated the box office in the recent weeks, it’s mainly because it’s the “coolest” movie out there. . . and your other choices are either that, Leatherheads or Horton Hears a Who.

So, what is this movie all about? It’s about making money, the shady, smart way. Ben Campbell is intelligent and hardworking as they come. A senior at MIT, Ben happens to impress one of his professors (Spacey) and is soon invited to the professor's secret Black Jack team. They count cards, hustle money from casinos, and make obscene amounts of cash. As Ben gets wrapped up in the world that is Las Vegas, his character takes a hit while his ego becomes gargantuan.

I thought the special effects in this movie were neat, and it glamorized the seemingly infinite possibilities that money can offer; the special effects were seamless, as effects should be, and it was kind of fun watching people my age swim in luxury (probably the same guilty reason why I read celebrity gossip magazines). However, the plot was soooo utterly predictable. As fun as it was to watch, I can’t honestly say that this is a good movie. Spacey’s performance was seedy and dirty (as in old man), but otherwise, it definitely wasn’t one of his best. I did like staring at Jim Sturgesse, and was thoroughly impressed by his ability to hide his British accent and camouflage it with a Boston one. But the impression he left on screen is as much as Kate Bosworth eats these days - not a lot. He should stick to singing.

Overall, I’d watch this movie again with a group of friends who don’t want to think too much about a movie. This film was made entirely for entertainment purposes. Any more expectation and you’ll bust.