kduce.com

What’s there to say about Return of the Jedi that hasn’t already been said?  It’s the third installment of one of the best two trilogies of all time; the other of course being The Godfather.  I’m saying it’s a trilogy because I don’t consider the three movies director George Lucas started in the late 90’s to be in the same group.  Yeah, some of the characters are the same; but they’re just different.  Anyway, I happen to like Jedi better than the original Star Wars.  Maybe it’s because when it came out, I was old enough to see it in the theater and know what I was watching.  I saw it in this shitty theater in Redwood City.  Needless to say, it was a huge event.  There is something to be said about the effects of all the Star Wars movies.  If they were made today they would be filled with CGI and the look would be, oh I don’t know… blah, sorta like the more recent Star Wars trilogy.  How Lucas was able to pull off using puppets and models to create these characters, spaceships and worlds is quite amazing.  What’s more amazing is how well it holds up.  You’ve all seen the movie and I would assume that most of you love it.  If you haven’t seen it, you’re weird.

I Heart Huckabees is one of those movies that you’ll appreciate more the more times you watch it.  That’s not always a great quality in a movie as most normal people only see a movie once.  For those that do watch movies multiple times, they usually only do so with movies they liked.  I liked Huckabees the first time I saw it, but began to “heart” it as I watched it a third, fourth and fifth time.  David O. Russell wrote and directed the movie.  His resume at that point was already strong with Flirting with Disaster and Three Kings, but this movie solidified him as a Hollywood formula outsider on the rise.  Russell makes movies on his own terms and doesn’t fall in to the same boring traps that most mainstream directors do.  That is why I Heart Huckabees is completely original, all over the place, hard to figure out at times, often hilarious and when it’s all over stays with you.

I’ll give you a quick (as I can) run down of the plot, but keep in mind that it’s really not all that important.  Jason Schwartzman plays Albert, an environmentalist and poet who is searching for the meaning of his existence.  To try and figure this out, he hires a husband and wife existential detective team.  These are Mr. and Mrs. Jaffe, played by Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman.  To dig in to Albert’s self conscious they use odd ball methods and spy on him at all times, “even in the bathroom”.  After he meets with them there are various shots of them in the background of scenes or snooping outside of windows.

Jude Law and Naomi Watts play Brad and Dawn, the golden boy and girl of Huckabees Department Store.  Huckabees is sort of Wal-Mart.  Brad is a top executive and Dawn is the spokesmodel.  They are a couple and as fake and pretentious as anyone you could imagine.  Brad and Albert become enemies as Brad stabs Albert in the back by planning on building a strip mall over a marshland that Albert is trying to save.  To spite Albert, Brad hires the Jaffe’s to spy on his and Dawn’s life as well.

Mark Wahlberg plays Tommy, a disillusioned post 9/11 firefighter who is also a client of the Jaffe’s.  He and Albert have some things in common and become fast friends.  Tommy has become so embittered with big oil and corporations that he rides his bike to the fires that he fights.  He eventually leaves the Jaffe’s to become a client of their dark thinking rival Caterine who is played by Isabelle Huppert.

All of these characters and stories intertwine and hilarity ensues.  The movie has depth too and lots of it.  While we may never be certain what any of it means, we can all relate to the emotional roller coaster each character is riding and the questions they have about why they even bother.  And to me, isn’t it the point that we don’t know what it means?  None of the characters know either.  We’re all on the same journey. 

From top to bottom the cast is awesome.  There is not one shotty performance in the bunch.  The standout though is Marky Mark.  He is so fucking funny in this movie, and his pain is so believable I honestly think he should have been nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.  He was nominated for Departed, and deserved it but this is the performance of his career.  I don’t understand some of the movie choices that he makes.  He is awesome in supporting/character roles.  I am guessing and hoping that when he gets older and the offers for ridiculous action movies start dwindling, we’ll get a chance to see him show off his acting chops more.  He is a very good actor, but so far he has only given us glimpses. 

If you saw this movie once and didn’t love it, I would highly recommend giving it another shot.  If you haven’t seen it ever, watch it.  It’s not for everyone, but for those of you who the movie clicks with will not be disappointed.

SIDE NOTE:

David O. Russell and Lily Tomlin, who worked together on Flirting with Disaster, had a highly publicized fight on the set of Huckabees.  Thanks God for youtube, because the fight was caught on tape and is pretty damn hilarious.  Check it out here.

Everyone out there, even snobs have their guilty pleasures.  The food snob who secretly loves Chicken McNuggets, the rock n’ roll snob who will only listen to Dave Matthews Band on his headphones so no one else can hear it and then there is the movie snob who loves the movie Diggstown.  I mean loves it.  Maybe the comparison isn’t spot on. More people have heard of McNuggets and Dave Matthews than have heard of Diggstown.  Also, no one should be embarrassed by loving Diggstown but anyone who loves the Dave Matthews Band probably should be.  I will also openly admit that I think MgNuggets are delicious.  Anyway, I guess the point that I am trying to make is Diggstown is by no means a great movie.  It’s filled with cliché and is even a little cheesy, but for whatever reason I have always loved it.  It’s like a girl who you think is really hot maybe because you like how she dresses or because she’s in to the same music as you, but your friends are kinda like “eh”.  So after all of this, do I recommend this movie?  Fuck yeah I do.  The cast is great, it moves quickly and if you can’t get passed the shortcomings, it’s a lot of fun to watch. Read the rest of this entry »

The next movie on the list is Donnie Darko.  I am not going to try and explain it or tell you what I think it’s about because when it gets right down to it, I have very little idea.  I just enjoyed the trip. This was the debut for writer/director Richard Kelly and it looked like he was one to watch.  That really hasn’t been the case so far.  Five years after Darko, he released his follow up, Southland Tales which was a huge disappointment and has a movie called The Box coming out in November which looks to be equally forgettable.  Still though, Darko was one of the most interesting movies of the decade, so we can hold out some hope that he’ll eventually realize his promise.

The title character of the movie is a troubled teenager in a suburban Christian school played by Jake Gyllenhaal.  He is in therapy and heavily medicated.  (By the way, his therapist is played by none other than Elaine Robinson.  Some may know her has Kathryn Ross.  Where has she been for the last 25 years?)  Why exactly is he in therapy?  It’s hard to say at the beginning.  His family seems normal enough and it’s not like he is  completely without friends.  He’s funny and obviously smarter than the other kids in school.  Maybe it’s the evilish man-sized rabbit named Frank that visits him at night telling him that the world is going to end in 28 days.  Frank apparently gives Donnie images and sends him messages on how he may be able to save the world.  Along with this, Donnie averts being killed by a 747 engine that crashes in his room one night because he is on one of the sleep walking adventures that Frank sends him on.  There’s really a lot going on here; too much for me to try to explain.  While it all sounds like sort of a confusing mess, it’s not.  At least not really.  We have teen angst, scary rabbits, time travel and worm holes.  You may not ever come to a pitch-perfect conclusion here, but there’s a lot to talk to about and you can at least come up with your own idea.

I am cutting the plot short because there are some other things that I want to mention.  Darko takes place in 1988 during the presidential elections and Donnie goes to a Christian school.  There are plenty of religious and political undertones here, but Kelly doesn’t bog you down with them.  He also does a great job at creating a surreal and suburban late eighties feel.  In particular there is a great music montage of the goings on of the school to Tears for Fears, Head over Heals.  There are also some great characters and acting throughout.  Gyllenhall is very good.  I usually think he’s good, but this was one of the times where he was particularly good.  He captures the over-medicated ADD teenager of the late eighties perfectly (thanks Bob).  I also want to give a special shout out to Patrick Swayze who probably had the performance of his career as the kiddy porn and Jesus loving motivational speaker who takes an active role at Donnie’s school.  He really is hilarious in this. Check this scene out.

This was a really difficult movie for me to write about.  It’s very hard to summarize and try to explain to someone who hasn’t seen it.  I would assume most people reading this have.  It starts out as a dreamy and surreal look at teenage life in the late eighties that ends up taking you in all sorts of directions.  All teenagers have the fantasy of saving the world (thanks again Bob), and Donnie is given a chance… we think.  This is a great movie to get lost in and if you haven’t seen it and don’t mind having to think a little when watching a movie, definitely check it out.  It really works for multiple viewing too.

Do you remember when Ben Stiller made good movies?  It wasn’t that long ago, was it?  Ok, Tropic Thunder had some really funny moments but that’s the only one you can give me since 2004.  And I don’t even think most people were that excited about his movies in 2004, Starsky & Hutch and Dodge Ball.  Those had some laughs, but pretty average overall.  Before that you have to go all the way to 2001 when he was in The Royal Tenenbaums.  Maybe it was that long ago.   I am looking at his resume on IMDB.com and am coming to the conclusion that he is vastly overrated.  (Side note: Ben Stiller played a character named Fast Eddie Felcher on two episodes of Miami Vice in 1987.  That, I would like to see.)  Overrated or not, he did have a run in the late 90’s where he made some very funny movies.  The funniest of that run was in 1996 with a lesser known movie called Flirting with Disaster.  

Disaster was written and directed by David O. Russell who hasn’t done a ton of movies, but is batting a pretty high average on those that he’s made.  In fact, this is the first two movies on this list that he has helmed.  The cast is absolutely loaded with veteran actors that know exactly what to do with a great script.  This movie is hilarious.

Stiller and Patricia Arquette play a married couple, Mel and Nancy Coplin who just had their first child.  The problem here is that Stiller was adopted, and while very close to his adoptive parents (Mary Tyler Moore and George Segal playing neurotic, New York City Jews to perfection) feels like he can’t name his new born son until he meets his real parents.  The adoption agency enlists Tina, played by Tea Leoni to help the young couple coordinate a meeting.  Mel’s real birth mom (we think) is in San Diego and Mel and Nancy head across the country to meet her.  Going with them is Tina who wants to document the event.  This is where everything gets a little crazy.  The agency makes some mistakes that send the Coplin’s and Tina on a wild goose chase across the country in search of Mel’s real parents.  Along the way they meet a bunch of hilarious characters including a couple of gay ATF agents played by Josh Brolin and Richard Jenkins, who end up going with them when they eventually find Mel’s parents.  Sexual tension arises between Mel and Tina and then Nancy and Brolin’s character who decides that he’s bi-sexual.  In the end we find out that Mel was put up for adoption because real parents, Richard and Mary Schlichting played by Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin (both very funny, but Alda just kills here) were arrested for selling LSD in the 60’s.   Read the rest of this entry »

The word ‘cop’ isn’t written all over him – something more puzzling is. 

This was the tagline of one of the great cop movies ever, Bullitt.  It’s also one of the great tag lines ever; how can this movie not be good with a tag line like that.  Steve McQueen plays bad ass San Francisco cop, Bullitt.  His job here is to guard a witness.  When that witness is blasted, Bullitt must keep the body under wraps until he finds out what the hell is going on.  There are twists and turns and the story doesn’t stray too much like most cop movies do.  That being said, it’s not the story that makes this such a great movie.  It’s McQueen.  He’s always been regarded as one of the “coolest” actors ever in Hollywood and he plays that persona to perfection here.  Bullitt is a rebel on the force and while a thorn in the side for his higher ups, he’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done.  Jacqueline Bisset is the love interest eye candy in this movie.  Her character is basically pointless, but she’s hot and doesn’t take enough away from the movie to care if she’s there or not. Read the rest of this entry »

I had Frost/Nixon as one of my top 3 movies from last year.  I’m usually not huge on Ron Howard fan unless he’s hanging out at Al’s with Ralph and Potsie, but this was one of his best.  With that said, it’s not the best movie I have ever seen about Richard Nixon.  No, Oliver Stone’s Nixon isn’t either.  The best one doesn’t even really have Nixon as a character.  The lead characters in the best Nixon movie I have ever seen, All The President’s Men are the guys who brought him down. 

The men who broke the story that eventually led to Nixon’s resignation are the now famous Woodward and Bernstein, played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.  What’s great about this movie is there is no fluff.  They don’t dwell on if one of the main characters had a drinking problem or if one had relationship issues.  It doesn’t matter.  That’s not what this movie is about.  It’s about the facts.  How the story broke, who was involved and what was the outcome.  That’s what we get.  Director Alan Pakula puts us in the news room and on the streets of Washington DC and shows us how the biggest political scandal in the nation’s history unfolded.  The acting is great from top to bottom.  There is no over-acting, what actually happened is interesting and suspenseful enough.  This is how true stories should be done.  If you’re interested in American History and this particular time in the history, this is a can’t miss.

Christopher Guest is the master of the mockumentary.  There isn’t anyone else who is close.  A Mighty Wind is the first of three mock docs written and directed by Guest on my list.  This Is Spinal Tap is actually not one of them.  It just missed.  Maybe what puts it a notch below the three that did is it was only written by Guest.  Rob Reiner directed it.  I don’t want to take anything away from Reiner, he’s done some great work; Guest just gets it more than anyone else.  Anyway, to the movie…

A Mighty Wind is the story about a beloved folk music promoter from the 60’s who passed away and his children (mostly his son played neurotically brilliant by Bob Balaban) want to put on a memorial concert for him starring a few of the acts that he helped make (relatively) famous.   All of these groups have obviously disbanded since their hey day of the mid 60’s so this mockumentary gives a brief history of each group, what they are currently doing, their reunions, first rehearsals in years and at last the big performance.  I was not around yet when the groups that these pseudo groups are mimicking, but from old TV shows and documentaries I have seen they all seem like dead on impersonations.  

The three groups are The Folksmen, The New Main Street Singers and the headliners Mitch and Mickey.  The Folksmen include the three main actors who played Spinal Tap making it a reunion in reality as well as in the movie.  The New Main Street Singers are a hilariously cheesy tribute band for the original Main Street Singers.  They probably brought me the biggest laughs of the movie, especially because they are managed by a has-been TV personality who never really was played by one of the funniest people on Earth, Fred Willard.  I can go on about him, but will have plenty of time to do that in future reviews.  Mitch, played by Eugene Levy and Mickey, played by Catherine O’Hara were once young lovers who had a couple of hit records together.  Their relationship ended badly and left Mitch a confused and depressed shadow of his formal self. (Check these links for a few clips from the movie)  

While utterly hilarious and filled with great original music, I think what keeps this from being quite as good as Guest’s initial mock docs is that it isn’t quite as mean to its characters.  The laughs are a tad more good natured.  Also the movie revolves maybe a little too much on the relationship between Mitch and Mickey whose story is a little more sad than funny.  There is actually some drama there which at points kills the good mood.  That’s not to say they aren’t interesting or funny.  Levy especially has some moments that will have you on the floor.  Some of their parts just give you too long of a break between laughs.  None the less, the ensemble cast filled with Guest’s regulars are all pitch perfect hysterical and overall you will have hard time finding a movie that makes you laugh this hard and this often…  Unless you keep reading of course; because I do have some more for you as the list keeps going.

Something else to look out for.  The final performance which is televised on a fictional public access channel is a spot on parody of the reunion concerts for old doo-wop and hippie groups from the sixties that currently air on PBS.  If you ever happen to run across one of these shows while flipping through the channels you should stop and check it out.  Not a lot of things that make me laugh harder than seeing these old bands singing songs about their long hair, smoking weed and fighting the man.

It’s a movie that you’ve all seen.  There really isn’t anything I can tell you here that you don’t already know.  Raiders of the Lost Ark is just fun.  I think of it as sort of a B action movie made with A list talent.  Spielberg has never been one of my favorite directors, but you can’t deny his ability to give you a good time at the theaters.  Temple of Doom was actually my favorite of the series for a long time, but I think that quality wise, Raiders was the best.  I haven’t seen the new one, I heard it was terrible.  I guess I may eventually grab it on Netflix or something.  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with Connery is a little over-rated.  I mean it was fine, but nothing special. They probably really should have made it his last crusade considering how bad this last one was supposed to be.   Anyway, that’s all I am going to say on this one.  Great movie and the most boring post I think I have ever written on this site.  

I am not a fan of Robin Williams.  In fact, his shtick really gets under my skin.  Even though he goes in to a couple of typical “Robin Williams” moments in this movie; he doesn’t do it enough to ruin The Fisher King.  Terry Gilliam has proven that he is one of the masters of the modern fairy tale or just the flat out weird and he nails this one.

Jeff Bridges plays a Howard Stern like shock jock whose cruelty leads to one of listeners shooting up a restaurant and killing a woman.  This leads Bridge’s character to depression and alcoholism.  Williams plays Parry, a homeless man who saves Bridges from some thugs while he is on one of his benders.  Parry has obviously lost his mind as he is on a search for the Holy Grail in New York City.  The two become friends and Bridges joins him on his quest for the Grail.  

There is a little bit of everything in this movie.  Violence, romance, an elaborate dance sequence in Grand Central Station and some sort of evil knight on horse back that is trying to kill Parry.  I call this a modern day fairy tale because it sort of weaves in and out of reality and fantasy even though most of the fantasy is probably just taking place in Parry’s imagination.  There are beautiful shots of New York City throughout and it’s a great escapism movie.  I highly recommend it even if Robin Williams tries to ruin it at times.