Movies, Movies, Movies

Word of the day :

lamia : a female demon


Well, it's Saturday - grass to cut (?), work to do, basketball and art history programs to watch, walks to take, potty training lessons to begin, itineraries to plan...

Here are the movies opening this weekend:

At Any Price

Dennis Quaid is reputedly at his best as an esteemed, ambitious Iowa farmer who wants his son (Zac Efron) to take over the family business.  Zac wants to ride, though - race cars.  Roger Ebert, in one of his last reviews, called this drama a great American film.  It's about family and the toll the economic crisis has had on the small farmer.  Directed by American-born Iranian filmmaker Ramin Bahrani. 
(YES)

Pain & Gain 
No, thank you, and here's why: it's a Michael Bay (Transformers) film.  Cue the hyperkinetic visuals and sensory assault.  This one is "inspired" by a true story - about three Florida personal trainers (Mark Wahlberg, The Rock, Anthony Mackie) who get involved with a local criminal millionaire (Tony Shalhoub).  Ed Harris and Ken Jeong co-star.  Critics are calling it really dumb. 

Mud
One of the best-reviewed American movies of the new year, Jeff Nichols' follow-up to the terrific Take Shelter (whose star, Michael Shannon, has a role here) is a relatively short (90 minutes), Arkansas-shot-and-set, Huck Finn-esque tale about two boys who find a mysterious guy (Matthew McConaughey) hiding out on an island in the Mississippi River.  The man needs the boys to help him get back to the love of his life (Reese Witherspoon).  She is waiting in town for the man - Mud - but is Mud what he seems?  Has he killed a man?... This could be McConaughey's long-overdue Oscar nomination - he has a cracked front tooth, dirty hair - and he's supposed to be outstanding. 
(YES)     

The Big Wedding 
Dreadful reviews for this all-star comedy.  Robert DeNiro, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl, Topher Grace, Amanda Seyfried, and Robin Williams are all here, in a remake of a French comedy about an acidic divorced couple (Bob and Diane) forced to play nice at the wedding of their adopted son. 

Also:

Love is All You Need, a comedy-drama starring Pierce Brosnan as a lonely Danish architect who meets a hairdresser on his way to Italy to attend a wedding.  Good reviews.  (YES)

Kon-Tiki, an Oscar-nominated Norwegian film about Thor Heyerdahl's famous voyage by raft from South America to the Polynesian Islands.  (YES)

Arthur Newman, a low-key road movie about a depressed man (Colin Firth) who tries to change his identity and meets up with a bruised, down-at-the-heels suicidal woman (Emily Blunt) who becomes his companion.  Filmed in North Carolina - average reviews. 

*
 
Bachelorette (2012) wants to be a female version of The Hangover but, honestly, it's not even as good as The Hangover 2.   Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, and Isla Fisher (appealing comic actresses all) are three nasty, drunken, bitchy and slutty bachelorettes who come together for the wedding of their friend (Rebel Wilson).  Stop right there: Why cast Wilson in this underdeveloped straight role if you're not going to give her any good lines?  There's not a likable character around - not even the usually dependable James Marsden or Adam Scott as two of the best men.  Some funny parts here and there, but someone forgot to inform or notify director Leslye Headland (who wrote the screenplay and the play (!) the film is taken from) that the background music she employs in almost every single sequence drowns out most of the dialogue.  Which might actually not be that big of a loss.  Not terrible, but disappointing indeed.