A couple recent viewings...

Chris recently purchased the new Star Trek and I had been wanting to watch it again so I did just that last night.  It's not going to impact my top 10 (I had thought that a second viewing might), but it's still an immensely enjoyable example of quality action/adventure mainstream filmmaking.  It's basically like Star Trek: The Brat Pack Years, but I love that, and the scrappy, energetic cast makes it work.  This is a youthful approach to a franchise that started feeling a tad musty quite a while ago, and for a longtime Trekkie like me (that's right, I prefer "Trekkie" to "Trekker", dammit!) it was a nice breath of fresh air.  And it looks like a million bucks, too!

Then tonight it was movie night at home (my choice this week!) and I chose my brand new Criterion Edition of...

...1994's brilliant Hoop Dreams, not just a great documentary, but a great movie.  Epic in length but never once less than totally involving, it follows two inner-city teenagers and their families as both struggle to make it into the NBA.  Emotionally wrenching and full of more twists and turns that a screenwriter could have possibly written convincingly, it is quite a ride.  I hadn't seen this film in over 10 years, but it's always stayed in my memory, and I greatly enjoyed re-visiting it.

AVATAR  (2009)  **  When disabled Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) becomes an avatar spy and space travels to Pandora to mine -- and exploit -- an Earth-rescuing mineral, he soon finds himself involved in an interstellar conflict with the alien Na'vi race. After meeting Na'vi warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), Jake begins to question his loyalties. James Cameron writes and directs this epic action film.

My Review: Yes, yes, visually "Avatar" is awesome.  The concept has great promise, too, but it's been transferred into a storyline of such thudding predictability and so full of heavy-handed "messages" that it's been rendered moot.  It also would've helped if ANY of these characters had some life to them, but nope...  The 3D is pretty neat, but I don't see what's so revolutionary about it.  Just this year, "Coraline" and "A Christmas Carol" both made more inventive use of the format (and had more involving stories.) 

James Cameron has always been a genius with telling big stories with big budgets and not forgetting to pull us along with interesting charaters and a lot of heart, but this time he seems to have invested much more time into the purely technical side of things, the result being a film with lots of bright colors, loud noises and Very Important Messages About Our Modern Age but very little of the human element that made his other films so enjoyable.  That's a shame, too.

I also saw "Up In The Air" again while I was in Vegas, with Chris and my niece Angela...

...and that is a real movie.  Even better the second time, which is really saying something.

And today I watched...

JULIA  (2009)  ***  At an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Julia Harris (Tilda Swinton) agrees to help her friend Elena (Kate del Castillo) kidnap her son Tom (Aidan Gould) from his industrialist grandfather. But when Julia takes the scheme into her own hands, she quickly descends into a dangerous world of Mexican con men. This Cassavetes-inspired drama from acclaimed French director Erick Zonka screened at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals.

My Review: Tilda Swinton tears up the screen in this memorably strange, absurdist character study/suspense thriller.  Her Julia is a deplorable, selfish, alcoholic train wreck who becomes only moderately more sympathetic as the film progresses (and even that's debatable), and Swinton is fearless in her portrayal.  The movie feels like three films wedged awkwardly together and at 145 minutes is a bit overlong, but the sprawling, free-form realism is also what makes it unique and makes it so breathlessly and unexpectedly suspenseful.  And believe it or not, it's also funny as hell.  Poor Tom, is all I'm gonna say.

ME AND ORSON WELLES  (2009)  **  After convincing Orson Welles (Christian McKay) to give him a key role in the first Shakespearian play to run on Broadway, 17-year-old Richard (Zac Efron) finds himself on shaky ground when he clashes with the manipulative director over pretty assistant Sonja (Claire Danes). Sonja's ambition, Richard's desires and Welles's controlling nature all add up to more drama off stage than on for the Mercury Theater's production of "Julius Caesar."

My Review: Pleasant, affable, and well-acted.  Also dull.  Yes, like you may have heard, Christian McKay is a revelation as Orson Welles, nailing his mannerisms, voice and very essence in a way that is truly uncanny.  The rest of the movie isn't exactly a vacuum (Efron is likeable and sympathetic), but it's terminally bland.  And as a big Richard Linklater fan, I was disappointed that there isn't a single trace of him evident here.  I'm not saying I expected a roto-scoped Orson Welles or some classic rock on the soundtrack, but any sort of filmmaking style at all would have been nice.

And I continued my Holiday movie marathon with...

 ...1988's awesome Die Hard.  Deservingly a total classic and still one of the high water marks for the no-holds-barred action genre.  The film is a tad longish, but it sustains itself nicely with solid pacing, a large cast of characters, and excellent use of space, juggling multiple and coverging storylines during a Christmas Eve hostage crisis in L.A.  A brawny, wisecrackin' Bruce Willis literally became a star with this movie, heretofore mostly known for romantic comedy (!), and Alan Rickman proves a worthy and entertaining villain, like Snidely Whiplash re-imagined as a EuroTerrorist.

UP IN THE AIR  (2009)  ****  Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) racks up major miles flying around the country firing employees on behalf of companies. But he faces losing the job he savors to Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) -- and losing the ability to escape emotional ties to anything. A connection he builds with Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga), however, might change his outlook on the future. Jason Reitman's smart comedy also stars Jason Bateman as Bingham's boss, Craig.

My Review: One of 2009's very, very best films (in fact, were it not for "Inglourious Basterds", it would probably sit at the top).  Much like Cameron Crowe's great "Jerry Maguire", "Up In The Air" is about a slick, no-strings-attached corporate man accidentally and unexpectedly locating his soul, and George Clooney gives perhaps the best in a gallery of excellent performances.  This is a perfect film - wise, entertaining, moving, funny, surprising, thoughtful, and best of all, relaxed and unassuming.  This is not a movie that hits you over the head with self-conscious Greatness, and its modesty is a terrific asset. 

Last night was movie night at home and it was Chris' pick - his selection was...

...a favorite for both of us (as well as practically the rest of the planet), Rob Reiner's just-plain-perfect 1987 satirical fable The Princess Bride.  This is one of those movies that I've seen so many times I know it by heart, and yet it never gets old.  The cast, the script, the music, the very originality of the idea...it's lovely from start to finish.  INCONCEIVABLE!

That got me in a Rob Reiner kind of mood (the man was a powerhouse or quality mainstream filmmaking in the 80's...what happened?!), I decided to check out another of his classics...

...1989's When Harry Met Sally..., still one of the most shining examples of how to make a romantic comedy with skill, soul, and without insulting the intelligence of the audience or making men want to carve their eyeballs out.  Nora Ephron's script is ambitious (spanning over a decade) and crackles with whip-smart dialogue that Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan chomp into, giving the performances of their careers.  They've got great chemistry, too, even (perhaps especially) when their characters can't stand each other.