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Imagine Me and You movie

Romantic comedies don’t get more generic than this one. Imagine Me & You (beware movies that borrow their titles from pop songs…) follows the established formula with only one Sapphic deviation - the romantic leads are both female. But, for all the that script explores the societal and cultural repercussions of this, they might as well be a man and a woman. The lesbian nature of the relationship seems designed for no purpose other than to spice things up, but it doesn’t work. Imagine Me & You isn’t unpleasant, but it is unremarkable. If nothing else, it proves that gay romances can be just as uninspired as their heterosexual counterparts.

The two future lovers meet at a wedding. Luce (Lena Headey) is the florist, and Rachel (Piper Perabo, appearing in her second lesbian romance) is the bride. Their fates are sealed with a look. For a while, they play at being “just friends,” but Luce’s admission that she’s a lesbian raises the ante, and Rachel’s growing emotional distance from her husband, Heck (Mattthew Goode, who can currently be seen as Tom in Match Point), is symptomatic of a mismatch. The women grapple with the forces that seek to pull them apart and the attraction that pushes them together until the expectedly happy ending resolves everything. (Warning: some viewers may experience sugar shock during Imagine Me & You’s climactic scene, which appears to have been borrowed to some degree from Crocodile Dundee.)

I was hoping for a little more Kissing Jessica Stein and a little less Romantic Comedy 101 from writer/director Ol Parker’s debut feature, but Imagine Me & You shies away from doing anything daring, offensive, or interesting. The PG sex scenes (in an R-rated movie that earns its citation because of one too many uses of the f-word) are so tame that it’s hard to imagine anyone being disturbed (or turned on). And, while Perabo and Headey (an underrated actress who deserves better roles) do a good job of inhabiting their characters, there’s no heat in their interaction. It’s easy enough to accept these two as best friends, but the “lover” label is incongruous given the nature of their on-screen chemistry.

The screenplay boasts a few biting one liners, most of which are delivered by Heck. This is Matthew Goode’s consolation prize for playing the guy who comes out on the short end of the stick. To the film’s credit, he isn’t presented as a cretin or an annoyance. He’s a sympathetic guy, and the movie’s best scene is a quiet one in which he engages in a rooftop discussion with Rachel’s younger sister, Beth (Sharon Horgan). There are also the obligatory wacko parents (Celia Imrie, Anthony Head), who start out as impediments but end up providing support and valuable advice.

There’s can be a benefit to the familiarity in most romantic comedies, but that assumes all of the elements are done well. The problem with Imagine Me & You is that the romance lacks the intensity that adherents of the genre appreciate. We have to fall in love with the characters as they fall in love with each other, and become invested in the success of their relationship. That doesn’t happen as well as it might in Imagine Me & You, and it makes the happy ending feel forced. There’s nothing terribly wrong with the movie, but there’s also nothing that would make this a stand-out for either straight or gay audiences.

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Illegal Tender movie

Even as the teenage girlfriend of a South Bronx drug dealer, Millie DeLeon is the investment adviser you’d want on your account. Without telling him, Millie invests his profits in Microsoft. This was in the late 1980s. “I only made one mistake,” she tells her son years later. “I didn’t buy enough.”

What she bought, however, was enough to turn $2 million into a fortune, and as the story jumps forward 20 years Millie (Wanda DeJesus) is living in an elegant suburban home, and one of her sons, Wilson DeLeon Jr., is attending Danbury College, pulling down 4.0 grades and is in love with a student named Ana (Dania Ramirez). He also dotes on his kid brother Randy (Antonio Ortiz), who is by a different father, because Wilson DeLeon Sr. got gunned down in a mob grudge on the day he was born.

They lead a life both comfortable and dangerous, as Millie realizes in the supermarket one day when she is spotted by a hit woman from her past. In a panic, she races home, tells the boys to start packing because they’re moving again and sets a revenge tragedy into motion.

“Illegal Tender” was written and directed by Franc. Reyes, who is fascinated by the zero degrees of separation between low and high finance. Reyes’ first film was “Empire” (2002), about another young South Bronx kingpin fascinated by the lifestyle of a flashy Wall Street wonderkid. His protagonist this time comes closer to making an escape, but the bad guys from his mother’s boyfriend’s past have long memories, and more reasons than we think for wanting her and her family dead.

My advice to her would be twofold: Move to a suburb a lot farther away from the Bronx than Connecticut, and do not give your son his father’s name with a “junior” tacked on. How many Wilson DeLeon Juniors can there be who are not the offspring of the Wilson DeLeon?

Never mind. This movie is based on drama, not logic. Otherwise four or five hit men would not come calling in broad daylight and open fire at the outside the DeLeon house. Hit men are supposed to be more clever than that, no? And is it possible they could all, every last one, be wiped out by a fortyish housewife and her son whose entire gun experience consists of shooting three cans off a rock in only about 11 shots? And all before the cops arrive? A running gun battle in a rich suburb usually gets a pretty quick response.

We’re not thinking a lot about things like that, however, because the dynamic of the movie circles DeJesus and her passionate performance as a mother who wants to protect her family. The other main strand is how Wilson Jr. evolves in a short time from Joe College to his father’s son. This journey takes him back to Puerto Rico and a search for his father’s past.

“How come you speak such good Spanish?” the kingpin asks him. “I’m Puerto Rican,” he says. “Yeah,” he says, “but most Puerto Ricans from New York speak lousy Spanish.” I wanted Wilson Jr. to explain, “Plus, I got a four-point average in Spanish at school.”

Like his “Empire,” “Illegal Tender” has the potential to be a better film than it is. Reyes obviously wants to make a rags-to-riches story about a Puerto Rican kid from the streets who climbs the American financial ladder, and almost equally obviously he doesn’t really want to sell it to Hollywood as a guns-and-drugs movie. I urge him to just go ahead and do it. The film’s producer, John Singleton, whose own life has taken him from Los Angeles outsider to the top in Hollywood, would probably support him. And if it’s true that Reyes has his act so together that he shot this good-looking film in only 28 days, he could do it at the right price.

As it is, “Illegal Tender” works as a melodrama, and it benefits enormously from the performance of Wanda DeJesus. She isn’t a big movie star, but so good that she’s cast by them and works with them in major roles; she co-starred with Clint Eastwood in his “Blood Work,” has been cast in major roles by such directors as Michael Mann, Laurence Fishburne and Joel Schumacher, is all over “CSI: Miami” and has real screen presence. She sells us her character and her concerns, and with this screenplay, she has her work cut out for her.

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Igby Goes Down movie

  • Author: admin
  • Filed under: Comedy, Drama
  • Date: Sep 23,2008

Based on second-hand experience, it seems to me that the coming-of-age film is among the easiest kind of movie to do badly, but one of the hardest to do well. Too many pictures in this genre have a bland, overcooked feel, as if the memories that comprise the story have been filtered through a series of fine strainers to remove all the impurities. With Igby Goes Down, writer/director Burr Steers has fashioned a solid (although not classic) coming-of-age tale by following one simply rule: reject nostalgia in favor of irreverence. Thus, we are presented with a gallery of off-centered characters with a skewed view of the world. The screenplay is edgy and witty, and offers its share of laugh-aloud moments. Steers’ intention isn’t to reflect reality (that can be left to Truffaut’s The 400 Blows), but to give us some “real” moments amidst the absurdities of the characters’ lives. It’s like a less extreme version of Ghost World or Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (which, like Igby Goes Down, stars Kieran Culkin).

Igby (Culkin) hasn’t had the greatest childhood. His father, Jason (Bill Pullman), is in a mental institution after suffering a breakdown while Igby was in grade school. His pill-popping mother, Mimi (Susan Sarandon) is cold, unfeeling, and more concerned about how Igby’s frequent failures will reflect upon her reputation. His young Republican brother, Oliver (Ryan Phillippe), appears embarrassed to be related to his undisciplined sibling. The only one Igby can rely upon is his open-minded, wealthy godfather, D.H. Baines (Jeff Goldblum), who views Igby’s upbringing as his personal charity.

Igby fails at school because of his indifference. He has been expelled from one private institution after another until he finally ends up in military school. He doesn’t last there, and ends up in rehab. Soon, he’s hanging out in New York, acting like a bohemian. He lives in the same flat as D.H.’s artist mistress, Rachel (Amanda Peet), with whom his relationship quickly evolves from a platonic liaison to a sexual one. He gains an older girlfriend, the improbably-named Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes), who stays with Igby until someone better comes along - namely his brother, Oliver. Meanwhile, Igby is hiding out from his detested mother and trying to figure out what to do with his existence. Despite his glib tongue and bravado, he is deeply insecure about the future. His major in life may be attitude, but on more than one occasion, he admits to being scared.

Igby Goes Down is one of those films where the whole is more than a sum of the pieces. There isn’t much of a plot - this is basically just a series of episodes that, when strung together, present a patchwork tapestry of whom the main character is and how he got to be that person. With a less deft script, this could have been a thuddingly dull motion picture, but Steers finds the right balance between irony and pathos. Despite some heavy drama, things never become overly somber. As a first-time director, Steers is adequate - where he really shines is as a writer.

By this time, there is little doubt that Kieran Culkin has surpassed his big brother Macaulay in the acting department. (After all, what is Mac known for other than the first two Home Alone movies?) Culkin has refined his craft over the past few years and become an effective thespian. Susan Sarandon is delightfully ditzy as Mimi, while Jeff Goldblum exhibits a sleazy charm as D.H. As for Igby’s on-again/off-again partners, Amanda Peet exudes a mixture of desperation and raw sexuality as Rachel, and Claire Danes offers a nice turn as the confused girl who pretends to know more about life than she does. Meanwhile, Ryan Phillippe makes it two films in a row in which he shows ability (the previous one being Gosford Park). Kieran’s younger brother, Rory (recently seen in Signs), has a supporting role playing Igby as a pre-teen.

Igby Goes Down ends pretty much where it begins, with the majority of the story being told in flashback. It’s an unnecessary device, but since suspense isn’t a component of this film-going experience, the structure isn’t a significant drawback. For the most part, Igby Goes Down is lightweight, although it exhibits enough heft for us to develop an emotional connection with the main character. I have always appreciated a smartly written motion picture, and, whatever flaws Igby Goes Down may possess, it is undeniably that.

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Identity Theft movie

  • Author: admin
  • Filed under: Crime, Drama
  • Date: Sep 23,2008

When a drug deal turns into a bloodbath, a junkie-gangster crosses paths with an illegal alien. The illegal alien ends up with the gangster’s ID and uses it to create a new successful life as a US citizen. A near death experience causes the gangster to re-evaluate his life, and when he leaves prison three years later, he is clean, sober, and ready to put his life back together. But both men are haunted by their pasts and they are soon set on a collision course that may destroy them and the women they love.

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Ice Station Zebra movie

Growing up in the late fifties it was a time of extreme tension. The growing animosities between the Untied States and the Soviet Union coined a new term, the cold war. Afraid of Russian bombs we built shelters; we kids practiced ducking under our flimsy ply wood desks in hopes of surviving the H-Bomb. One thing that did come out of this time of the cold war was it was the perfect, fertile ground for screen writers of the time. The movies where filled with cold war thrillers. While not all where great classics they genre is now mostly lost on the modern audiences. One of my personal favorites has always been Ice Station Zebra. Sure, it’s not the best film in the genre but I have enjoyed this flick for decades. Now, after all these years I can retire my well worn video tape and replace it with the DVD release. A Russian spy satellite crashes into the artic waste land and the film it contains is so important that the Russians and Americans race to recover the canister. The film itself is a bit of a McGuffin, we don’t really have to concern ourselves with the actual contents, and we just trust that it is of vital importance. Cmdr. James Ferraday (Rock Hudson) is dispatched in a nuclear submarine to get there first and recover the film at any cost. Along for the ride is a somewhat diverse crew assigned to his boat. There is Mr. Jones (Patrick McGoohan), the enigmatic British intelligence agent, Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine) the Russian advisor and Captain Leslie Anders (Jim Brown) the commander of a Marine contingent there to provide a little extra muscle. Naturally, the tensions are not limited to those between the super powers, things in the tight quarters of the Tigerfish become explosive as the very determined personalities clash. In one of my favorite scenes Farraday notes that his men where trained for jungle combat but a bullet travels just as fast in the artic. Mr. Jones calmly notes that the bullet would travel slower there, ‘denser air you know’. Farraday is ready to attack the cocky Brit but seems to realize that Mr. Jones is far more deadly than he lets on. Its little memorable moments like this that makes this film a guilty pleasure for many of my age group.

The production values here are not the best when compared to other films in the genre and time period. Sure, the Russian paratroopers look like toy soldiers drifting down on a child’s table. The use of miniature models is primitive to say the least but there is a camp value to be had here. Those of the younger generation spoiled by modern CGI effects will find the special effects here almost comical. Just go with it, enjoy it for what it was intended to be, a fun, Saturday afternoon cold war flick. If you make an attempt to put your self into those trying times you will get a lot more out of the film. You should also forget about great cinema, this never was and never will be considered for any best of list. Still, the campy fun is there for your enjoyment. It’s a wonder that this film was nominated for an Oscar for special effects, since it was up against 2001 there really wasn’t much of a chance for a win that year.

Rock Hudson was a versatile and talented actor, capable of taking on any role from light romantic comedies to serious drama. Here, his talent is restricted by the script but professional that he was he gave is all to the project. He manages to portray a man sent on a difficult mission, doubtful of some of the command decisions forced on him yet devoted to doing his absolute best. In this fashion it would seem that Hudson could bring what he as an actor had to do into his character. For those that grew up when I did Patrick McGoohan is the definitive spy. With roles like Secret Agent, the Prisoner and even a spy turned murderer in a Columbo episode. McGoohan owns the title of master spy more than most of the actors that played James Bond. He is always cool and in control, possesses an uncanny diverse knowledge base and is certain to come out on top of any fight. Jim Brown was a football player who decided to break into films. He is physical imposing here and thankfully his dialogue is limited to about a dozen sentences. Ernest Borgnine is another excellent and talented actor that was mostly used as comic relief here. His Russian accent is dismal but again, think camp.

Looking at my film collection I discovered that John Sturges was one of my favorite directors. His illustrious resume included such definitive films as The Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Great Escape and even another camp flick, Marooned. Often nominated for awards but rarely the winner this director brought a touch of class to every single film he created. Here, Sturges uses his considerable talent to work within the restrictions the studio imposed on him. Since the special effects where far form special he concentrated on the situation to drive the film. He trusted his cast to perform as if this was the best film ever and the result was not great but sill enjoyable. He did what many modern directors have forgotten, the primary purpose of a film to draw the audience in and entertain them. He was also a director that fully understood how to use a wide screen format. He fills the frame with details that will take several viewings to catch them all. Sturges used the prevalent fear and discontentment of the audience to help create the proper mood for the film. The film was also nominated for its cinematography and this was deserved. The use of lighting and the camera work was excellent.

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The Ice Harvest movie

There are those, including the distributor, who would like audiences to believe that The Ice Harvest is a comedy. At first glance, that’s not so hard to accept. After all, director Harold Ramis was one of the Ghostbusters co-writers and scored a big hit with Groundhog Day. But Ramis’ funniest work is at least a decade behind him and, while The Ice Harvest has moments of dark, macabre humor, it’s pretty much a straightforward film noir tale. You may laugh, but it won’t be often or with much gusto. This is strictly B-movie fare. It tries to do some of the same things as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and suffers as a result of the comparison.

Our hero is a loser lawyer by the name of Charlie Arglist (John Cusack). Charlie isn’t a very nice person, but since he’s played by an actor everyone likes, we tend to overlook Charlie’s least appealing characteristics (such as the disdain with which he treats his children). Partnered with Vic (Billy Bob Thorton), who has the guts Charlie lacks, the sad-sack attorney figures out how to steal $2 million from his boss, Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid), on Christmas Eve. After the deed is done, all he and Vic have to do is go their separate ways for a few hours, meet up at 1:00 am, split the money, and ride off into the sunset. Charlie would like to take along his idea of the perfect woman, strip joint owner Renata (Connie Nielsen), but that would mean telling her more than is wise. Meanwhile, one of Bill’s enforcers (Mike Starr) has arrived in town and is asking questions about Charlie and Vic. And Charlie’s footsteps are dogged by his drunk best friend, Pete (Oliver Platt), who wants nothing more than to spend Christmas with his buddy (rather than his wife, who happens to be Charlie’s ex).

This being film noir, there are plenty of murders, script contortions, red herrings, and double-crosses. It’s hard to say whether the ending is “happy” or not - it depends on how you define the word, and I won’t go into detail here. There are some laughs to be had, but this is a mismatch for Ramis, whose forte has never been dark material. It’s hard to say whether Joel and Ethan Coen could have had more success with the script, but the result would have been more interesting. The Ice Harvest lacks the comic momentum necessary to make it more memorable than a run-of-the-mill thriller.

I have seen the movie compared to Bad Santa, but it’s an inappropriate comparison. There are three superficial similarities - the Christmas setting, a rogues’ gallery of characters, and the presence of Billy Bob Thornton - but the films are radically different in tone, intent, and storyline. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a closer match, although that film is better and more energetic. For anyone on the lookout for a holiday-themed motion picture, this probably isn’t going to scratch the itch.

Can it still be said that John Cusack possesses “boyish charm,” even though he’s in his 40th year on earth? He makes Charlie identifiable. On the surface, he’s an unappealing guy, but Cusack gives him enough likeability that we find ourselves rooting for him. Billy Bob Thornton does his usual schtick - the amoral thug with flashes of charm and a heart of lead. Connie Nielsen is miscast as the femme fatale (originally, the role was ticketed for Monica Bellucci). She’s not all that interesting or sexy. Randy Quaid, playing against type (he’s not a buffoon), adds a jolt of energy, but he doesn’t show up until late in the movie. Oliver Platt does a good job portraying a drunk, but a little bit of this kind of character goes a long way, and I found myself wishing he would fall face-down in a gutter somewhere and stay there.

The Ice Harvest has a short running time of 88 minutes. Despite its brevity, it seems padded, with all sorts of irrelevant scenes and dead-end subplots taking up time. It’s hard to figure out who the target audience is, since serviceable-yet-unremarkable B-movies rarely do much business. Next time, Ramis should work to his strengths, and film noir isn’t one of them. The Ice Harvest will have melted away long before the turkey leftovers are polished off.

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I am Not There movie

Plot
Biopic of legendary singer Bob Dylan through seven different stages in the artist’s life played by six different actors. The events that follow are drawn as much from Dylan’s songs as from his actual biography.

Review
A biopic where the famous white, male subject is subdivided into six personalities and played by everyone from an 11 year-old black boy to a statuesque Aussie actress, via both Batman and his forthcoming Joker, with not one of them going by the hero’s name? That’s just crazy. But wily American director Todd Haynes is on to something here. When the focus of your movie is that shapeshifting and hugely reluctant American icon Bob Dylan, how better to capture his slippery spirit than to tell six intertwined stories, each capturing one of the many personas of the great singer? And, for all the pinballing through history and psyche, Haynes, who played with the gauche moves of glam-rock with mixed results in Velvet Goldmine, manages a laid-back groove to his searching.

We start with titchy Marcus Carl Franklin, embodying the early years, when Dylan harkened to the call of his hero folk-singer Woody Guthrie and apparently rode across lush American fields in open-fronted boxcars. To add a further tickle of symbolism (and confusion), this version of Dylan is christened Woody Guthrie. Christian Bale, as Jack Rollins, encompasses the heroic early years when Dylan struck fame and radicalism, and later the ‘saved period’ where he took to the Bible as Pastor John. And Richard Gere, as craggy as a tramp with peppery beard and wire-rimmed specs, plays the modern incarnation searching for the roots of American folklore. Still with us? Okay, we’ll continue…

In the most striking and so-far lauded bit of Bob, Cate Blanchett gives an uncanny depiction of the controversial ‘electric years’ - that point when Dylan shrank away from his folk adulation and appalled the faithful with licks of what sounded like rock. It is Blanchett who most closely captures the familiar herky-jerky frame and wired truculence - the inner conflict of a man confronting a legend he can’t handle. Indeed, there is a look that Blanchett gives the camera, a long, loaded stare down the barrel of a gun, which is worth the asking price alone. You can’t see her missing out on a Supporting Actress (or should that be Actor?) nomination or two come backslapping time.
The story is fractionally chronological, but each tale wraps in and out of the others, defying narrative flow. There is little point in trying to treat each variation as the next ‘Dylan’ in a row. Two of them are, in fact, representations of an emotional event and inspirations. Heath Ledger, playing an imprint who seems to be more actor than singer, is the failed husband, and Charlotte Gainsbourg, as his forlorn wife, an amalgam of all the wounded women of his life. Then there’s Ben Whishaw, who preaches slivers of cute philosophy direct to camera, an echo of Dylan’s obsession with the poet Rimbaud.

As the leads rotate, so the style of filmmaking shifts and warps around the various ideas. For Blanchett’s taut electric years, it floats in a creamy black-and-white of mid-’60s glamour. For Gere’s autumnal years, it drifts into an elegiac landscape, directly referencing Dylan’s own presence in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garret And Billy The Kid. There is surrealism, madcap humour, heartbreak, poetry and pure nonsense; most of which, of course, you could equally say of the man himself.

It’s that kind of film: restless and brilliant, annoying and self-satisfied in its intimacy with the subject (who wholeheartedly approved). It will infuriate with its longeurs and frankly baffling little gimmicks, and it drifts on too long. But there’s no doubting Haynes has succeeded in capturing a real sense of the strange figure who can claim to have changed America. We learn nothing greatly significant about Dylan. He remains the fanciful enigma, but we do learn plenty about the futile effort of the press, fan and filmmaker alike to define their heroes. Which is partly the point.

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