Take Me Home Tonight (2011)

Late yesterday afternoon, I happened upon some screening passes to Take Me Home Tonight. If you haven't heard of this film yet, I'm not surprised. It's not scheduled for wide release until March 4, 2011.

I found out when I arrived at the theatre that it was a trade screening for exhibitors and that the film's star and executive producer Topher Grace (of That 70s Show fame) was in the house to meet and greet and introduce the film. Although I was not invited to participate in the meet and greet, I was present  to see Grace introduce the screening. (No photos are available since my phone's battery died seconds before he was introduced.)

Grace, adorned in a Kansas City Royals cap, thanked everyone for being there and asked the crowd a few questions including, "Do you like John Hughes movies?" and "Do you like movies with a little sex in them?" He even dropped a few f-bombs into his pitch to endear himself to the crowd. As he walked toward the studio reps post-introduction, he shrugged his shoulders with a "this is not my kind of thing" look on his face. From there, the movie started and the actor was not seen by me again.

As for the movies, he was right in asking if we liked John Hughes movies. In the opening credits, a yearbook montage informs the viewer that the characters all attended Shermer High - the high school attended by Hughes characters in several of his movies (although this Shermer was located  in So Cal and not the Chicago suburbs). Unfortunately, Take Me Home Tonight was more like an R-rated extended episode of That 70s Show than Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Whereas I am of a fan of that sitcom and a Topher Grace fan in general (he is great in a small role in Traffic), this is not a bad thing, but not what I was needed.

The story revolves around a pivotal day in the life of Matt Franklin, a recent MIT grad who doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. While he figures it out, he is working at the Suncoast Video at the local mall. While at work, he runs into his high school crush, Tori Frederking (played by Teresa Palmer). Lies and miscommunication between these two lead to all kinds of mayhem and confusion standard in romantic comedies.

References to the excesses of the late 80s - cocaine use, the rise of wall street banking, etc. - are hit and miss. The soundtrack plays like a K-Tel compilation put together by Casey Kasem - more America's Top 40 than MTV's 120 Minutes.

Dan Fogler (Fanboys, Good Luck Chuck) plays the overweight nerdy friend who goes off the deep end several times as he cuts loose after losing his job. Anna Farris (Scary Movie, The House Bunny) is wasted in the role of Wendy Franklin, Matt's twin sister. And, in a nice return to the big screen, 80s B-movie action star Michael Biehn plays the Hughesian father who seems disconnected, but knows exactly what to say and do for his kids.

This is the second film in as many years to return to the 80s to remember the Reagan years fondly. As with last year's Hot Tub Time Machine, the film is enjoyable, but not wholly successful. Although I enjoyed the movie, my biggest problem was three of the main characters are in their early 30s and portraying characters ten years their junior. Had this been told as a 10 year reunion story, it may not have been a distraction; however, this has already been done to perfection in Grosse Pointe Blank.

If I had to rate it, I would say 2.5 out of 5.

The Green Hornet 3D (2011)

When I left my home to attend a free screening of The Green Hornet, my expecations were low. The movie has been in development hell for years and has been tied to many directors including personal favorite Kevin Smith and Hong Kong auteur Stephen Chow. Nicolas Cage was orignally attached to the film as the bad guy, but dropped out for "creative differences." (This fact had less bearing since you can never tell if Cage accepts a role because he believes in it or because he owes back taxes). Furthermore, Sony Pictures pushed the opening from the busy Christmas season to mid-January.

Expectation lowered when I arrived at the theatre 30 minutes later. As we entered, we were directed to end of a very, very, very long line. When we arrived at the front of the line 35 minutes later, the studio rep let us know that the only seats left were in  the front row. I checked with my moviegoing companion and we decided that since we drove so far and waited so long to see a free movie, that yes, the front row would be acceptable.

So, imagine my delight when I found that The Green Hornet did not suck. It was a nice little popcorn film that didn't take itself too seriously (a death nail for many comic book adaptations), there was good chemistry between the two male leads played by Seth Rogan and newcomer Jay Choa, and plenty of the visual flair you would expect from Michel Gondry (director of External Sunshine of Spotless Mind).

The film, from a screenplay by Rogan and writing partner Evan Goldberg, tells the origin story of the Hornet and his sidekick Kato. Without going into any detail, all you need to know is that Kato is the real brains, brawn, and talent in this dynamic duo and Choa steals the show as the martial arts master / genius behind the gadgets and the cool cars that give them their powers.

The plot is traditional bad guy / corrupt city official fodder that we are used to and the supporting performances are thinly drawn, but adequately protrayed by Tom Wilkenson, Cameron Diaz, Christoph Waltz (in his first role since winning an Oscar for inglourious Basterds),and Edward James "Tough Guys Don't Do Math, Tough Guys Deep Fry Chicken For A Living" Olmos.

The action sequences are well staged and many of the visual tricks used are a lot of fun including a panelled montage bridging the second and third acts and the final credit sequence (which utilized the 3D well).

The film also alerted me that Edward Furlong (of T2 fame) was still amongst the living. I sure thought he had overdosed. I guess I must have confused him with Brad Renfro or one of the Coreys.

Although I liked the movie, I am not sure if I would recommend it. If you are not a fan of Seth Rogan (and I am from way back to his Freaks and Geeks days), you should probably stay away. However, if you are looking for two hours of diversion, you could do a lot worse.

A good sign of whether I am enjoying a film is the watch test - how far into the movie can I last before checking my watch for the first time. For The Green Hornet, my first check was at the 90 minute mark (of a 120 minute movie). That's a long time for me.

If I had to rate it, I would say 3 out of 5.

Sophie's Choice (1982)

I rewatched Sophie's Choice today. I probably haven't seen it in over 25 years. I don't remember much about the film beyond that Meryl Streep performance won her the Oscar for Best Actress and the unthinkable titular choice that her character reveals in the film's final act .

The film is a tragic love story between Stingo (Peter MacNicol), a young Southerner recently moved to Brooklyn to pursue a career as a writer, and Sophie and Nathan, the couple who live in the room above his. Nathan (Kevin Kline in his feature film debut) is a brilliant man whose fits of temper shake up the perfect world in which these three have created for themselves. Sophie is the beautiful immigrant living in guilt for surviving the WWII concentration camp where those that she had loved had not.

The performances across the board are phenomenal. Nothing more needs to be said about Streep. It was her career cementing performance which is still much talked about 30 years later. Kevin Kline delivers is this early performance the charm, the intelligence, and that anger that make him one of my favorite actors. And, MacNichol, best know for playing weasels throughout his career and someone whose performance have never truly connected with me, is really good in this role. The arrives in the first scene as a boy seeking adventure and fully matures into a man who has loved and lost by the final credits.

Director Alan J. Pakula creates a nice sense of time and place and praise must be given to cinematographer Néstor Almendros for a creating a visual tone that is warm one minute and chilling the next.

This is a solid movie that holds up well with time. If I had to rate it, I would say a 4 out of 5.

The Omen (1976)

I cannot even begin to explain why I have never seen this awesome display of movie making. I even saw Omen III: The Final Conflict when it was first released in theatres in 1981.

The Omen has everything - backroom adoptions of the son of devil, the birthday party from hell (literally), a suicidal nanny, dogs that make Cujo look like a cute puppy, a priest being speared / killed by a metal pole in a cemetery, main characters getting killed off in the second act, David Warner, David Warner (literally) losing his head by a projectile sheet of glass, a homicidal nanny, Atticus Finch stabbing said homicidal nanny in the neck with an ice pick, a killer Oscar-winning score, a great final shot of Damien smiling, and so much more.

I always thought that the story focused on the evil doings of Damien (as it was in the previously mentioned sequel). Instead what I got was an entertaining story about half the characters trying to convince Gregory Peck to kill his son and the other half trying to keep him from killing the boy. Good times indeed.

Not sure if I want to see the first sequel or the remake that came out a few years ago, but I am curious to re-watch Omen III to see if it holds up. I doubt that it will after watching the original.

If I had to rate it, I would say a 4.5 out of 5.

Signs (2002)

Since it was getting ready to fall of my NetFlix Instant Queue and it was a film I could watch passively while I worked, I decided to finally watch Signs this morning. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan at the end of his "glory days," the film stars Mel Gibson as a holy man who has lost his faith right around the same time some aliens create strange signs in his crops.

The film was incredibly popular when it was released (making well over $200,000,000), but I remembering having no desire to see it. And now that I have , the film was pretty much everything I expected it to be - much about nothing. That said, Gibson delivers a quiet performance that reminds me of what people like about him. Phoenix is another story. His performance included a lot of the same facial quirks that he used as a troubled teen in Ron Howards' Parenthood. A young Abigail Breslin and one of the Culkin brothers are fine as the troubled reverand's children.

The film is pretty small in scale keeping the action pretty much within the preacher's farm. The suspense is minor (which may be a result of my passive viewing) and the questions about spirituality are tied up very cleanly by the end of the film.

If I had to rate it, I would say a 2 out of 5.

R.I.P. Peter Yates

Peter Yates, British producer and director, has passed away at the age of 82. Yates produced and directed one of my childhood favorites, Breaking Away, as well as one of my least favorites, Krull. Two of Yates films on my Movie Bucket List - Bullitt and The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

I often confused the films of Yates and Peter Hyams, the American director of such action films as 2010 and The Presidio, as well as one of my personal favorites, Running Scarred. I guess it must be the fact that they share the first name Peter and both have a y in the first two letters of their last name. (Yes, I know how lame that sounds.)

2011 Academy Award Hopefuls

I don't know why, but every year I get caught up in all the hoopla that surrounds the Academy Awards. I am no where near as obsessive as I once was, but I still try to see all of the movies that are nominated so I can not only make an educated guess about who will be nominated, but which movies and performances will win and which ones should win.

Although I have already seen a good number of the titles in contention for this year's awards, there are a few that I have yet to see and a few that I want to revisit. My favorite film from last year, The Social Network, seems to be taking all the early awards this season and I want to see it again to see if it is as good as I remember it.

To prepare for this year's awards, I have added a list of the films that I need to see that may be nominated and / or win. Those that I have already seen, but want to revisit are denoted with an *.

Welcome to The Movie Bucket List

I love movies. I can't remember a time when I didn't. As a child, I would sit and absorb the movie pages of The Kansas City Star the way "normal" kids would pour over statistics and box scores from the Sports pages. I was the teen who actually went to a midnight movie on a Friday or Saturday instead of just using them as a excuse for a few extra hours to party. As an adult, I go to late shows after the wife and kids go to sleep. When I travel, I seek out those special movie theatres that every city has before visiting the typical tourist spots. I belonged to NetFlix before anyone knew what NetFlix was.

During my lifetime I have seen thousands of movies. Since 1987 I have seen over 2,000 films in movie theatres alone. I know this because I keep track of when and where I see movies at the theatre. (I realize that this is not the behavior of a normal, functioning adult, but I have accepted this and thankfully so has my wife and daughters.) On top of the hours logged in theatres, I have watched countless thousands of hours of movies on cable and video through the years.

And although I go to movie theatres regularly, have a college degree that required me to watch hundreds of movies, served as the film critic for a local alternative magazine, worked for one of the largest theatre chains in the world, and have access to thousands and thousands of movies via DVD and streaming video, as well as seeing Howard the Duck twice in theatres, I have a huge blind spot of movies - important movies - that I shockingly, ashamedly have never seen.

To help address this gap in my moviegoing experience, I have decided to make a list of the movies that I need to see - my Movie Bucket List -- and then attempt to watch at least two of these films every month. (My original intent was to go for one movie a week, but with a wife, two daughters, work, and all the other responsibilities that life brings, I want to keep this goal realistic.)

As I watch a movie, I will remove it from the list. I will also add to the list as new movies are released, as movies are identified as need to see from friends, articles, podcasts, etc., or as I realize that movies are missing from the list. I will also include those movies that I have never seen that may not be important, but that I have always wanted to see.

Also, since I love to talk about movies but don't have the chance to do this as much as I would like, I have decided to start this blog. Not only will it serve as the home of the list, it will also provide me an avenue to write a few words about each movie as I watch them. I may also include posts about current movies that I see, as well as other movie related topics.

As with every other blog that I have attempted to keep, I am not sure if there will a post beyond this one or if anyone will ever read anything that I write. However, if you are reading this, thanks for stopping by and please let me know what movies are on your bucket list.