ARTHUR'S MOVIE RATINGS

I don't presume to tell you whether or not you're going to like a movie or not--people have different tastes and like different things. The main purpose with the ratings given for movies here is to give you an idea of whether or not you should see it in the theater, wait for it to hit DVD, or skip it altogether. So if you want to break it down...

*****: AMAZING! Everyone should see this as soon as they possibly can!
****: GREAT! Worth every cent to go see it in the theater.
***: GOOD! May or may not be worth seeing in the theater, but definitely a solid choice for a rental.
**: DECENT. Not a horrible movie, but it's not a bad choice for a rental.
*: BAD. Do not watch this movie. Well, you could, but I wouldn't advise it.

17 October 2010

RED (2010)

RATING:**** (4 stars)

When a retired CIA operative is targeted for elimination, he assembles his old team to find out who wants them all dead.

Many Americans (myself included) have been looking forward to RED since the first trailer came our earlier this year. If you haven't even heard of this yet, prepare for another action movie in a year of action movies--except this one has an all-star cast and is liable to make you laugh the entire time as well. Our hero this time around is Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), who thinks he might have found a girl (Mary-Louise Parker) who will let him put his past behind him and lead a "normal" life. A professional hit squad, that he deals with rather well I might add, lead to a more awkward first meeting than he hoped for. So he rounds up friends from the old days to figure out what is going on (Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren) while they are pursued by young CIA operative William Cooper (Karl Urban).

RED delivers on everthing the trailer promised, from beginning to end. We have more than enough action to classify this as an action movie, and more than enough one-liners and laughter-inducing scenes to call it a comedy as well. In addition to the cast above, you can expect some notable roles from Richard Dreyfus and Brian Cox to give you even more of a reason to get to theaters this weekend and see this film.

Sure, some of the camera-work could have been a little better and the plot itself isn't anything outstanding. Let's face it, we're not exactly looking at anything that is likely to get anybody an Academy Award in a few months. But that also is part of the reason you want to go and see it--because it's a blast to watch and sure to sate your movie appetite for the month. Unless of course you wanted lots of drama and romance, but there are other movies in theaters to provide that.

Trailer

09 October 2010

Life As We Know It

RATING:**** (4 stars)

When their best friends die in a car accident, two godparents who can't stand each other are left to raise their friends' baby.

I'm not going to deny that I can be rather picky when it comes to "date movies", but pickings have been pretty slim in the latter half of 2010. So it was with reserve that I went to Life As We Know It, and I was pleasantly surprised. The movie starts rather slowly, taking its time to build up to the premise. But hang in there, because what is really happening is that you are being introduced to Messer (Josh Duhamel) and Holly (Katherine Heigl) and learning what makes them tick. We then get pivotal event #1: the married couple dies. Given the fact that this film is not meant to be a depressing film, the way this was handled was startlingly well done. Things progress quickly from there in a fairly genre-typical fashion.

Life As We Know It fires on all cylinders and does exactly what it is meant to do. We get the small laughs throughout the film, interspersed with just the right amount of emotional touches. What was particularly interesting, and well-done by both the writers and our lead actor and actress, are the various scenes where Messer and Holly are coping with the loss of their best friends. Two strong, independent people coping and looking for emotional release in ways that won't make them look vulnerable. Very good stuff.

Really, the only thing going against the film is the predictability, and I'm certainly not going to hold that against one of the few really good date movies to come out recently that is quite good. So grab that special someone (or that person you would like to become that special someone!) and go see it!

Trailer

02 October 2010

The Social Network (2010)

RATING:*** (3 stars)

A story about the founders of Facebook.

Perhaps the most talked about film of the 2010 movie season has not been The Twilight Saga: Eclipse or Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, but the not-entirely-factual film about a website that has changed the way we interact dramatically over the last decade: FACEBOOK.

In what seems almost a natural role for him, Mark Zuckerberg is played by Jesse Eisenberg and does a great job portraying the CEO of Facebook as a genius, a nerd, and perhaps a little socially inept. Aaron Sorkin's screeplay is also particularly good at bluring the lines between "reality" and what the character of Zuckerberg "believes" to be the reality.

However, outside of the scripting and the acting of the young actors and actresses, we do not have anything particularly great. Everything pretty well plays out as one would expect and there certainly isn't anything memorable about the film. A great film to grab for a night with popcorn at home, but maybe not one worth theater money.

Trailer

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

RATING:**** (4 stars)

As the world is on the brink of economic collapse, a young Wall Street trader allies himself with Gorden Gekko--a Wall Street mogul recently released from prison after having been convicted of insider trading.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is an astonishingly good sequel to Wall Street (1987), also written and directed by Oliver Stone. In this installment for the new generation, our [somewhat] naive protagonist is played by Shia LeBeouf. Aside from that primary difference, the core story is much the same as the original: our hero is a Wall Street trader looking to make his way up in the business and finds his salvation (or damnation?) in Gordon Gekko (played once again by Michael Douglas).

The most notable difference in Money Never Sleeps is that it is written to be analogous to our actual economic collapse of 2008 on Wall Street. The whole shebang too--sub-prime mortgages, risky investments, "too big to fail" firms, and government bail-outs. Everything hits very close to home throughout the film, and is really only emphasized by the cast that is most certainly up to the task of making their characters as believeable as possible. There is even a long story arc within the film on Gordon Gekko's search for redemption that is certain to throw viewers for a loop (particularly if you saw Wall Street).

All-in-all there really isn't anything negative to say about the film other than the fact that the actual ending feels a bit... contrived. Particularly for an Oliver Stone film where his movies are typically less about traditional "happy" endings and more about realistic endings, what we end up with in Money Never Sleeps just seeems... off. However, considering how strong the analogy to our real-life economy is, I think that for 2010 a happy ending was just what this film needed.

Trailer