Memoirs of a Movie Maven

Monday, January 25, 2010

The Informers

Based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel, I was very excited to see this film as I am a huge fan of American Psycho. After seeing this as well as the 1999 film Laws of Attraction, I'm beginning to feel like I'm not so much an Ellis fan as I am a fan of Mary Harmon's (American Psycho) interpretation. This movie was flat out depressing with only one likeable character. The whole point to this film is summed up by the only decent scene in it, with a line in it being "How are you supposed to know what's good and bad if nobody tells you?" This movie takes place in the 80s (which really threw my hubbyy off and got him not to be interested in it anymore) amongst a group of high class people with no morals. I'll never watch it again. Rent American Psycho instead.

1/2 star

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Downloading Nancy

This movie will make you want to slit your wrists, so don't watch it if you're in a bad mood. Based on a true story about a depressed woman tracks down a guy on the internet to help kill her. She finds one. Through a series of flash backs and forwards you learn why she wants to kill herself. This film is a harrowing character study of a seriously abused woman. The acting by Maria Bello is incredible (completely deserving of her Indie Spirit nomination-let's cross our fingers for a win) as is Jason Patric as the mysterious internet man. They both manage to bring some humanity and sympathy for these unlikeable characters. Still, it was so hard to watch that I never will again. Creepy.

** for the acting

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Paul McCartney: In Performance Hits

This documentary centered on Paul McCartney during and post The Beatles. It mainly covered his song writing and musicality. He played quite a few instruments. Well, that was what it was supposed to be about anyway. It started off as a beautifully detailed docu-timeline working through the entire Beatles anthology, stopping at key McCartney penned gems accompanied by live performances of those songs. Then it stopped. Only 72 minutes. That wasn't enough time to finish Paul's career. After they got to Abbey Road, they showed the remainder of Paul's still strong career (he just got nominated for a Golden Globe for best original song) in the last five minutes. The Beatles broke up in 1970, so five minutes isn't sufficient enough time to fit in 30+ years of fantastic solo and side band work. It needed another hour. Very disappointing.

** stars simply for it being a McCartney docu (he's my favorite Beatle)

The Pregnancy Pact (TV)

I just watched an awesomely bad lifetime made for TV movie. I will admit that really bad over the top TV movies are a guilty pleasure. This one had just the type of plot to serve that purpose, the type of plot that really makes my sarcasm run amok, as I laugh and poke fun at every teary eye and crazy scream fest. This one was just bad and not in a fun way. First of all, only twenty minutes of Cameron Manheim What?. She's the only reason I was even slightly excited about this movie. Seeing her at a podium harkened back to those good ole "The Practice" days. And you, Lifetime, only give me twenty minutes. Shame. Now to the plot. Though it is based on a true story, and I understood by the end why the girls made this pact, I still didn't feel any resolve with the film; Thora Birch, who I usually like, had absolutely no emotion in her face the entire film. It's as if it was botoxed away. Don’t even get me started on the fact that they just "had" to make it so it turned out the Catholic parents didn't actually wait until marriage. Is it so inconceivable that there might be people that actually do wait? I did. My parents did. I know plenty of other girls that did as well. The one thing I liked about this film was the character development with Thora Birch's and Nancy Travis's characters. They were well-rounded characters; there was no good guy or bad guy in this film. I liked that.

Still tho only *1/2

I Love You Beth Cooper

This movie was pretty funny. It definitely paid homage to Ferris Bueller. Beth was a character that could've been very unlikeable, but she was played so well by Hayden Panettiere (who I haven't really been a huge fan of since she's grown up) that I liked her. The best part of the movie was the lead guy's in-the-closet film fanatic best friend. My husband said he's the gay male version of me. Lol. All in all, an ok time filler with a few laughs but nothing special. However, it was a good date movie that won't make you gag.

**stars

Friday, January 15, 2010

Armored

Thrilling, interesting, not terribly original, but very entertaining suspense/heist hybrid about a down on his luck Iraq veteran who joins forces with his late father's (and now his) coworkers to rob the armored truck they are supposed to be protecting. We've seen this heist film before done a few different ways, and though I knew pretty much every curve and bend, I still very much enjoyed the ride. Nice acting by all. Definitely some homage to Reservoir Dogs. My husband (an Iraq vet himself) pointed out that he liked that the Iraq vet was just a man put in an out of ordinary situation, rather than making all soldiers look like super heroes (a la The Marine). It gave the film some realism. A solid film.

**1/2 stars.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Top Movies of 2009

So here it is. I have taken every TV show (even if I saw only one episode) and every movie I've seen in 2009 and put them in order from best to worst. Yes, it took awhile.