Oz The Great and Powerful (2013)

I've never read the Oz books and quite frankly have never had much urge to. (See what I did there? I used up my only clever bit on a bit of wordplay). I've always thought that Baum books were a bit juvenile, which is fine of course, but that doesn't appeal to me as an adult, and even less when I was a juvenile trying to hard to get what was "going on" by reading adult fiction. In college a friend suggested that if I were to read a series of books aimed at kids that I would be far better off reading C. S. Lewes, so that is who I went with and I've never regretted choosing the land of Narnia over the land of Oz.
I think every child of my generation saw three things growing up that help form our cultural identity - Bambi, the Sound of Music and the Wizard of Oz. I bet you thought I was going to say Star Wars, and while that was key, it's not as big as those three - kids today might have a different take on that though. Now, I was not a child when these three movies came out, but I was a child at the start of the home video revolution and syndicated television which showed old movies because they were cheaper to buy the rights to. I would guess by the time I had graduated high school in 1990 that I had seen each of these films at least a dozen times (Star Wars half that at best), the only other movie coming close at maybe half a dozen times was It's a Wonderful Life - the Jimmy Stewart version not the Marlo Thomas version which fortunately I have only seen once. In fact I knew a guy in college that had stumbled on to the generational zeitgeist that made these movies oddly appealing to us as young adults. Now, I normally don't use names in this blog, but this dude doesn't deserve my protection, his name is Pete, though perhaps as a mercy I have misplaced his surname at the moment. On Friday and Saturday nights, Pete would play these movies in his dorm room - he had one of the two singles on my floor - with the door open in hopes of drawing people in. He did this every weekend and for the first month or so, this just made Pete seem more interesting because why would a guy in her early 20s be watching these movies every weekend. Well, one reason was that lots of people stopped in for a little bit or a whole movie and hung out because they had something in common to talk about. I figured this out on my own and actually thought it was a clever way to say "I'm kind of shy, but let's hang out" which was something I could appreciate from my problem with shyness when I was younger. As the year progressed and the weekends I was on campus my room became more of a destination to go to from a fraternity party, I began to notice that girls who had come back to the room with us - there was a regular group of us plus whom ever we bumped into at the parties, these girls would head off to the bathroom and be gone long enough that someone would get sent to find them. One weekend about two-thirds of the way through the semester, all of the girls disappeared - the ones who initially went to the bathroom, and then the two gals who had been sent to find them. One of the guys, who was not embarrassed to go into the women's restroom if the need should arise went to find them and then didn't return. Now, I didn't think that anything wicked had happened to them, I just assumed they had found a better scene and neglected to come get me. I left a couple of fellows behind to hold down the fort, because I knew I would be coming back eventually since it was my room. As I approached the won en's restroom the other end of the floor, I heard laughter and music, the Sound of Music to be precise and all of the missing people were in Pete's room watching the end of the film. As credits rolled, the other guy from our group rallied the troops to head back to my room. As one of our female friends has having a bit of a hard time walking on her own, I helped her back. Fifteen or twenty minutes parsed and two of the girls hadn't come back yet. I thought that perhaps Pete had convinced them to watch the Wizard of Oz which was what he had tried to enchant all of us with as we left. These two girls were pretty, um, intoxicated shall we say, well they were pretty too, to swing the term in that direction too. I got back to Pete's room just as the door was closing. I could hear and see that the movie was still on. It was like claxons went off in my head, clearing any of my own fog that might have remained. I pushed in to see my two friends where I had left them and Pete was cozying up next to the blond who was just approaching the drowsy stage of drunkenness. It seems Pete had been sharing a bottle of wine with them while they watched the movie. I asked Pete what was going on. He said something to the effect that he didn't normally do so well as to get two girls, and not as pretty as these two surely and that I could "have" the brunette. how to describe how I reacted? I checked my anger by making a smart ass comment that went beyond facetious. Pete took at face value and said this is why he showed these movies every week, to lure in drunk girls that he would continue to give drink to and then "do what he could" In our dorm rooms in Belknap Hall, there were phones on the wall of every room and you could call any number on campus by just dialing four digits. I dialed my room and told them to come - to bring all my boys and bring all their guns. And then I did something I used another couple of times in college because it was damned effective. I called the fraternity that we had been partying at, and told them that some asshole had pinned the two girls in his room and as he got them even drunker was planning on fucking them if he could his small wretched prick into them, and of course I told them his name and what room we were in. The frat was just across a small plaza and some of those guys arrived before my friends did, several of the guys being from the same fraternity. We got the girls out and on their way home to sleep it off and when they were gone I was going to join the 7 or 8 fraternity guys in doing whatever it is we were going to do, which to be honest I hadn't thought that far ahead. One of the guys I knew quite well, pushed me out into the hall and closed the door after me saying I need not worry about this happening again. I didn't and it didn't. I never asked what they did to Pete if anything, but he never showed those movies with the door open again. Oddly enough, I would continue to see Pete around the academic buildings until I graduated because he was in the same major field as I was and he was always nice to me and tried to chat like we were old friends. I ran into him several years after college when he was selling business cards for a living and he acted like he had run into his oldest, bestest friend ever. He asked me to come have a drink with him and even as I declined walking away down the sidewalk, he followed me for almost half a block before he finally went on his way. As soon as I was around the corner I tossed his business card in a trash receptacle, lit a cigarette and wondered what he thought had happened that night. Pete had never been what anyone would have called smart, but surely he knew that I had instigated whatever it was that got him to change his ways. I thought the same thing then that I'm thinking now, "poor dumb fuck" and that if I ever run into him with a female of any kind, shape, age or form, I will tell them how I knew Pete when he was a rapist.
Years have gone since I've even thought about the Wizard of Oz, since it always reminds me of the above story, and the Sound of Music even more so, since I sat through the last few scenes of it with my friends feeling sorry for that bastard. Recently, right around the time that this movie came out in the theatres, one of the librarians was telling a younger patron about watching the Wizard of Oz while listening to the Darkside of the Moon by Pink Floyd. And I thought about when I did that in high school and how cool it seemed, and actually didn't think about Pete and the girls. I decided at that point that maybe I could James Franco a chance to put different memories in play for me.
James Franco, whom I tend to like in films often for his awkwardness, didn't seem like the obvious choice to me. If I had been casting this film, I think I might have gone with someone with a little more serious chops but who could still pull off the charisma-in-lieu-of-an-actual-plan quality necessary for this character. I would have gone with Joesph Gordon-Levitt. But, Franco did alright. His smile always seems genuine and that really work to the advantage of a character playing a con man.
Really, it was the women who stole the shoow, especially Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams at the Wicked Witch and Glenda the Good, respectively. These gals acted the crap out of their roles and looked good doing it.
Two of the main characters are CGI, so that's a bit hard to deal with. I mean the SF/X looked great and there are many scenes where one of them is being "held" by an actor and they did a good job of making it look like the actor had something or someone in their grip or sitting on their shoulder. The flying monkey, Finley, looked great, so did the evil flying baboons. Actually everything in this movie looked like Oz. There were great incredible scenic shots, while the people encountered payed homage in their look to the original film.
If for no other reason than that thee is some amazing eye candy, you should check this film out. It's not one you will buy and watch repeatedly, but it is one that you will be glad you watched, especially if it helps wipe out an old college memory associated with the Wizard of Oz that was less than positive.

Oz the Great and Powerful on IMDb

Now You See Me (2013)

If you've read me before, you know how I feel about Mark Rufallo. Well, if you read my discussion of a movie he'd been in. I don't normally talk about him. Really. Not even that one time., 'cause what I actually said was, "Hark! Buffalo!" Because while you were busy looking at me, I was looking at you and right behind you walked this 800 pound bison and I was just trying to tell you. I;m sure you remember that.
I'll make this short and to the point and will never mention it again. Mark Raffalo does not drag down every movie he is in or make the room you are in stink every time he appears on screen. Because every would include his whole body of work and he didn't bring down this movie or make the room stink just because he was on screen. That was the cat. The last bit that is.
What do you need to know about this movie? There are two things, but only the first one is essential to getting the most for your viewing dollar, which in my case was $0.00 because I got it from the library and it was worth every penny, and the fact of the matter is that you only need to pay attention to the first item as the second one is just an observation I made. First, listen to the voice over at the beginning. It will tell you everything you need to know to fully appreciate this movie. Everything one of the mains says to anyone else regarding magic or the nature of magic is directed at you, the audience member. The second item, is French women are hot, but you probably already knew that and so did they.

Now You See Me on IMDb

Date Night (2010)

Oh my god. This was funny. I think this might be the perfect comedy model. Take some well known wits, cast them as John and Jane Everybody and then put them in a ridiculous situation. Add in some well known action types and some well known hipsters playing goofballs and WHAM!
Now granted, I am a fan of Steve Carell. Now matter how similar his characters are, he always gives 110%. He seems like such a nice guy, too. And Tina Fey...I love her. I'm not even being very hyperbolic. I will watch anything that she is in, has written or produced. The same goes for books she's written, et cetera, et cetera. I just think that she is fantastic. And hot.
There are several supporting cast members that I am rather fond of; James Franco, Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg. I watch pretty much every thing they are in, and them all together in one film is perfect. In fact, this afternoon when talking about this movie and movies to watch in general, I recommended movies mentioning two of the three. I'll let you pick which two.
This movie is so improbable. That is a big part of what makes it work. No matter how outrageous it gets, the couple from New Jersey never turn into action heros. The closest it ever gets is when Phil hits one of the bad cops with an ore. Unless you count Claire dressing up the way she does in the Peppermint Hippo.
I don't really have anything critical to say about this film. Not that I need to say anything critical. But, I was going to dis Mark Ruffalo, except that he didn't totally annoy me. If he had been in the film longer he probably would have, but he didn't. It might have been offset by the fact he was playing to Kristen Wiig, who I didn't much care for on SNL, but have really liked in the various movie roles I've seen her in.

Date Night at IMDb

Your Highness (2011)

I am sure that the title of this film is intended to be a blatant double entendre on the fact that the main characters are princes and that a lot of pot is smoked by the characters. But I think really it's a quality control comment aimed at the audience, as in, "How much will enjoy this movie? That depends on your highness." As I stopped measuring my life in those terms years ago, I struggled through the first bit of this film as I ate my dinner, only continuing because it's harder to type this while eating than watch a bad movie while eating. But then two things happened (no double entendre intended - if you've seen the film you'll know what I mean), first I noticed that despite the juvenile and simple attempts at humor and a story, that the special effects, costumes and scenery were actually top notch and I think it is either the herald of a new age of special F/X wizardry where even sucky films can have great SF/X, or someone was actually willing to put a lot of money into this thing, perhaps because they were high. The second, and more important reason is Natalie Portman. Let's see, she's kicking ass and taking names while wearing tight outfits and revealing just a touch of skin...this is why I played Dungeons and Dragons for all those years - for this moment. That it happened in a crappy film is immaterial.
Okay, what didn't suck about this movie? Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, Charles Dance, Justin Theroux and sometimes James Franco, the SF/X, the scenery, the costuming.
What did suck in this movie? Danny McBride (or maybe he's just such a brilliant actor that I hate the character so much I don't even realize he's nothing like that), dick jokes, sodomy jokes, rape jokes and making light of child molestation on several occasions. Now, it should be said that I'm not the biggest fan of blue humor, but I still get it - this stuff was not funny, not even American Pie funny and that's about as base as you can get.
This movie was obviously designed to be a kind or "raunchy" comedy, but they took the genre serious enough to not go the spoof route. The jokes made about fantasy settings, this is a completely separate and more subtle business than the junior high humor that fills the dialog, are usually visual in this film and a nod to old school role playing games. But, really I was only able to get far enough to make that kind of analysis because of Ms. Portman.

Your Highness on IMDB