The American Movie Review

First of all, this movie is nothing like the theatrical trailer would have you believe. It is a slow character study not an intense action thriller... which would be just fine if I had been in the mood for a gloomy - if-it-had-been-better - depressing study of a dreary life.

When you boil it down it's a love story; though, in this reviewers humble opinion, not a very compelling love story. It's jumbled, hyperbolic in its understatedness, and did I mention slow?

Oh good lord have mercy it is slow - unnecessarily slow. It's like there wasn't enough content so the director thought, "I'll put in a lot of driving sequences to fill it out". Like adding extra words to reach a minimum word count, this movie is full of filler.

It might have been good as a short story - which I'm sure there are many covering the same subject - but as an hour and thirty-five minute movie it just doesn't cut it.

The acting is good, the story is very familiar, and it... is... slow...

I give The American a 2 out of 10 stars. Dull describes my evening with this film.

Aaah Zombies! Movie Review

First get past the horrible title. I know that takes a minute so I'll wait...

I did some reading on this movie and found that the original title was Wasting Away. That's better, not a whole lot but definitely better. I don't know why it was changed. Either way, we're past that now.

This is a low budget film. Unfortunately that is painfully obvious, mostly through the editing. The writing is surprisingly quite good and the acting is better than I imagined it would be. So, you can tell I wasn't expecting much from this film... I was wrong to prematurely judge it.

The idea of the film is that four friends accidentally turn themselves into zombies (contaminated soft serve ice cream and beer) but don't realize they are zombies. In fact, no one who is a zombie realizes that's what they are. They think everyone else has been infected. It's a clever idea that any zombie-phile is sure to appreciate.

To show the different perspectives of the zombies versus the humans the filmmakers use black and white and color. It's a fun idea and it's not badly done. But the movie didn't hold my attention. I tried because I really wanted it to. It really came down to the editing, it's just awful. Every scene goes on too long - every scene. That can make any movie hard to watch no matter how original, how well written, how well acted, how well anything.

Overall I'd recommend this movie only to serious zombie lovers and only then because it is different and clever. Here is my favorite bit of dialogue:

Tim: I don't feel like a zombie.

Nick: Yeah well idiots don't feel stupid but they are.

I'd rate Aaah Zombies! a 5 out of 10. It could have been funnier and is in serious need of a tighter edit but it stands out as an original film in a genre that usually only sees variations.

Easy Virtue

I just finished watching this film, I'd never heard of it before. I simply chose it off the On Demand list because it was free and Colin Firth was in it (I love me some Firth).

The film is about an ambitious American woman - a race car driver - who marries a young Englishman on a bit of a whim and travels home with him to meet and stay with his family.

This is a period piece (I've got a weakness for them as well) and the English family acts very much with the period. Very stuffy with an overbearing matriarch and a dour, almost absent father.

The family, apart from Dad, does not approve of the new wife who is played rather well by Jessica Biel. She tries her best to fit in with the family and their ways but meets with resistance and reproach with every turn. She finally decides to stop trying to change herself and flaunts her different style of behavior much to family's chagrin.

It's mostly a comedy with loads of wonderful dry English wit. I enjoyed it. I dare say much of my enjoyment came from the fact that Firth had a great character to play and performed a sexy dance near the end of the film. I would have liked it had he not been it in but certainly not as much.

I would rate Easy Virtue a 6 out of 10. For those who like period English comedies I would totally recommend it. For those who don't, I would stay away, you'll find it boring.

The Brothers Bloom

With a film like The Brothers Bloom the term quirky gets thrown around a lot. I don't think it was quirky, it was highly-stylized with an eccentric sense of humor. I'm also going to resist the comparisons to Wes Anderson. It's not like one of his movies at all - seems like anything oddball gets a Wes Anderson reference in the review these days and that's total BS. The Brothers stands on its own as a film that doesn't need to be compared to be talked about.

It focuses on two brothers who were moved from foster home to foster home as youngsters and developed into con artists along the way. The premise centers around the last con the younger of the two brothers (Bloom) is willing to participate in. As it's a con artist movie I'm not going to go into the story details. What I will say is it's a lot of fun and Rachel Weisz is fantastic - the highlight of the film.

It's definitely not a movie everyone is going to like - it's very character driven. The story may be predictable in some ways but the story isn't all important in this film. The interaction and arcs of the characters are both the center-point and most affecting part of this film. It's a bit sad and a bit sweet with a lot of goofiness in between.

Overall I enjoyed this movie. I wouldn't rush to watch it again (it drags a bit here and there) but it made for a fun afternoon's entertainment and, I'll mention it again, Rachel Weisz was absolutely great.

I'd rate The Brothers Bloom a 7 out of 10. Good, silly fun with great characters.

Cold Souls

Just finished watching Cold Souls with Paul Giamatti. First let me just say, big fan of this movie. It's conceptual which is enough to turn some people away; it's also a little on the slow side - it could do with a tighter edit - but that's my only complaint.

So the idea of the film in a nutshell is that the technology to remove the human soul and keep it in cold storage exists. Paul Giamatti plays a character named Paul Giamatti, an actor who feels his soul is too heavy and believes it's preventing him from "becoming" Uncle Vanya in the play he is starring in (Vanya).

The acting is stellar. David Strathairn is particularly wonderful as the doctor running the soul removal clinic in the US. The story is inspired and unique. To say it's Kaufman-esque, which I've read in quite a few critics reviews, I think is just an attempt to categorize which isn't necessary. The movie is funny, interesting, well-written, and as I mentioned well acted. I don't see the need to compare it, just enjoy it.

This is a great Sunday afternoon type of film. It feels small and intimate even with its big concepts. It's not something I could see watching over and over, but a second viewing is definitely in order, simply to appreciate all the nuances in the story and characters.

I'd rate Cold Souls a 8 out of 10 and David Strathairn a full 10 because he is so damn funny in this role.