Med City Movie Guy

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"

Now Reviewing.

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Read the complete review in the Post-Bulletin

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10 Reasons to see "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”

Read the article in Thursday's Post-Bulletin then come back here to comment.

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Ashton Kutcher gets lucky in “Vegas”

What Happens in Vegas is that Ashton Kutcher beats the spread.

      What are the odds? Two strangers, in Sin City to forget their miserable lives, wake-up married to each other and while negotiating a break-up hit the Megabucks slot machine for $3 million. Even in Las Vegas, that’s a long shot, but Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher parlay this predictable film into the date flick of the year (so far, anyway).
      When haggling over the disposition of their windfall lands them in court, a judge freezes the money and sentences them to “six months hard marriage.” Try as they do to get the relationship to fail they fall for each other.
      Overall, the humor is not for the refined palate--more “Roseanne” crass than “Seinfeld” smart--though there are some very funny laugh-$6-Pepsi-out-of-your-nose moments like the wedding chapel flashback.
      Dennis Miller is underutilized and Queen Latifah is out of place. But Kutcher, who stared in MTV’s Punk’d and the Academy Award winning Dude, Where's My Car? (“Best Catering,” I think it was) is the real jackpot. He carries the film and it’s a sure bet no one will call him just Demi’s Moore’s son anymore.

2 Honks

"Speed Racer" stalls

With so many people starving in the world, it's a sin that $120 million was wasted bringing Speed Racer to the big screen.

    This week, Speed Racer faces a much greater challenge than just his formidable adversary, Royalton Industries, and the death-defying cross-country rally known as The Crucible. Speed Racer also goes up against a legacy of cartoon to live-action flops. And it stalls.
      Even the Wachowski Brothers, who brought us the Matrix trilogy, couldn't break the "little theater" curse. No kid's cartoon has made a successful transition to the big screen. Fat Albert, Underdog, Dudley Do-Right, Popeye and The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle were all flops.
      To its credit, Speed Racer's graphics (especially on digital screens) are exquisite and in small doses, for instance, watching them as you pass the HD plasmas at Best Buy, you might be awestruck. But the film is basically a two hour and fifteen minute romp through Mario Kart's Rainbow Road without the seizure warning (though maybe the film ought to have one with all the flashing colors and action). That may please younger audiences, but the over-12 crowd will find it exhausting and maybe even boring after half an hour.

     Skip Speed Racer and rent Pixar's Cars instead.

1 Honk

The 13th Annual Rochester International Film Festival

Ask around and you’ll hear the same thing. Rochester is not a movie town. Sure, Lea Thompson is one of ours, and a scene from the Mighty Ducks was filmed here (D2 or D3, it’s not important). Yes, and every now and then you’ll even find someone with a Handycam at Silver Lake, but Rochester’s not a movie town, right? Don’t be so sure.

     The 13th Annual Rochester International Film Festival (http://www.rifgweb.org/ ) opened tonight and the Wehrenberg theater, who’s hosting the event this year, rolled-out the red carpet. Literally.
     And it sold-out!
     About 200 film lovers packed the theater for the opening feature The Counterfeiters (which took the Oscar last year for Best Foreign Film) but not before crowding the anteroom to enjoy a generous reception. Happy Family played afterwards with a coffee break between the films.

    (Read Tom Weber's "International film fest wows locals" for additional information.)

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Robert Downey Jr. forges “Iron Man” into a blockbuster

Bad boy Robert Downey Jr. has a sobering experience riding back from a demonstration of his firm’s newest weapon of mass destruction in Iron Man.

     When his “Funvee” caravan is ambushed, Downey is conscripted to build the Jericho Missile for an Afghan terrorist group. Instead, he forges a new image for himself from the technologically well-appointed cave where he’s imprisoned.
     Jeff Bridges shines as Obadiah Stane and later as the villain Iron Monger (though he’s no Norman Osborn) but supporting cast members Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard are wasted in their token roles.
     There’s a modicum of humor (Stan Lee’s cameo is greeted with, “You look great, Hef”) and Mayo cardiologists will find inspiration in the miniature arc reactor.
     On the superhero film spectrum, Iron Man comes in well to the right of disappointments like Hulk and Daredevil and just to the left of genre apexes Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. It is easily the best film of the year thus far and worth seeing again (especially if you didn’t stay for the end credits the first time).

3 Honks

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MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content.

Meet the Med City Movie Guy at "The 13th Annual Rochester International Film Festival"

Meet the Med City Movie Guy at "The 13th Annual Rochester International Film Festival" opening reception, Friday, May 2 at 6:00 pm at the Wehrenberg/Galaxy14 Cine.

     The festival runs from May 2nd through May 10th. Here is the preliminary schedule. For more information, visit http://www.RIFGweb.org

Friday, May 2

• 7:15 PM Counterfeiters, Austria
• 9:15 PM Happy Family, The Netherlands

Saturday, May 3

• 12:30PM Winky's Horse, The Netherlands
• 2:30 PM The Postman in Shangri-La, China
• 4:30 PM Katyn, Poland
• 7:00 PM The Band's Visit, Israel
• 9:00 PM Full Scope, Russia

Sunday, May 4

• 1:00 PM The Planet, Denmark
• 2:50 PM Betrayal, USA/Laos
• 4:40 PM Wind Man, Russia/Kazakhstan
• 7:00 PM Colorado Avenue, Finland
• 9:20 PM Full Metal Village, Germany

May 5-May 10

• Selected holdovers and features

“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” leaves you with some not so forgettable quotes

Good films emboss our culture with legendary dialog like, "You had me at 'Hello,'" and "We don't need no stinkin' badges." Forgetting Sarah Marshall's gift to our collective phraseology is this gem: "I saw him beat-up a guy with a starfish."

     When Peter Bretter's girlfriend, Sarah, dumps him, he flees to Hawaii where he can forget about her. But that's not bloody likely because Sarah and her new flame, rock star Aldous Snow, pick the same resort at which to vacation.
     It's the latest, and quite possibly greatest, product of the Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson factory which also gave us Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
     Best suited for 20- and 30-somethings, Forgetting Sarah Marshall is literally a laugh a minute, and like American Pie, if you render-away the crudeness, even quite charming.
     A great cast--Veronica Mars' Kristen Bell, That '70s Show's Mila Kunis, SNL's Bill Hader, 40-Year-Old's Paul Rudd and Superbad's Jonah Hill--and a wildly witty script make for an enjoyable 112 minutes, the capstone of which is a Dracula opera performed by puppets.

3 Honks
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content, language and some graphic nudity.

Let's Talk Genre: Mob Films

Of all the genres, probably the most beloved is the gangster film. For decades, it’s been a cinema staple--starting with classics like Public Enemy (James Cagney) and Little Caesar (Edward G. Robinson) through to today’s blockbusters, most recently Denzel Washington’s American Gangster.

     Among the genre are many classics like The Godfather (Marlon Brando, Al Pacino; D Francis Ford Coppola) and Casino (Robert De Niro; D. Martin Scorsese). Other outstanding films include: Goodfellas (Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta; D. Martin Scorsese), Donnie Brasco (Al Pacino, Michael Madsen, Johnny Depp), and The Untouchables (Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro; D. Brian De Palma).

     There have even been some mob “spoofs,” only one of which is worth mentioning: Robin and the 7 Hoods (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby, Peter Falk, Edward G. Robinson; D. Gordon Douglas).

     The recent spate of shootings here in Rochester have to make us all wonder, though. Precisely what is it about this genre that we find entertaining? Is it that there is some semblance of loyalty, order, or that the bad guys get their comeuppance?

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If you want to sample purgatory, sit through “Deception”

Deception’s one achievement is that, by comparison, it makes the orthodontist and Realtor advertisements that precede it look very well produced.

     A high-flying rounder (Hugh Jackman) befriends a stereotypically meek accountant (Ewan McGregor, looking like a 30ish Tobey Maguire) and introduces him to the thrills his life is lacking.
     The fun is pretty tame until the two accidentally switch cell phones and McGregor finds himself an unwitting, but not unwilling, new member of an executive trysting club that Jackman has on speed dial.
     Unfortunately, the plot has all of the unpredictable twists and turns of a straight line: McGregor returns from the ice machine to his hotel room after one encounter, is knocked unconscious and when he wakes, finds that his favorite partner (Michelle Williams) has disappeared.
     From there, it’s just another of the “if you ever want to see her again...” variety and not unlike the much better executed Swordfish, in which, coincidentally, Jackman was on the other end of the proposition. This time, McGregor has to exploit his super system access in an upcoming audit to move some money into Jackman’s European account, or else.
     IBMers may appreciate the ThinkPad product placement, if nothing else. In fact, plan on there being nothing else.
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½ Honk
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content, language, brief violence and some drug use..