Super-heroes, aliens, character studies, parents and their children, time travel, the Scottish Highlands, young love, monsters, and the end of the world. Halfway through the year we take a look back at the ten best movies from the first-half of 2012.
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The Ten Best Movies of 2012 (So Far) Read More »
There is never a doubt that Moonrise Kingdom is a Wes Anderson film. From the opening credit sequence to the final shot the writer/director’s latest is filled with his voice and style. I haven’t always been Anderson’s biggest fan, as at times I think he sacrifices substance for style (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and to a lesser extent Rushmore), but I enjoyeed The Darjeeling Limited and appreciated The Fantastic Mr. Fox enough to include it on a list of my the Best Films of 2009.
Anderson’s latest is a bit of a departure as it focuses on a pair of 12 year-old characters (rather than his usual choice of an ensemble of thoroughly damaged and eccentric adults). Sam (Jared Gilman) is an orphaned Khaki Scout marooned on a small New England island with no paved roads and a group of unfriendly companions. Suzy (Kara Hayward) is the problem child of a pair of lawyers (Frances McDormand, Bill Murray) more comfortable discussing legal briefs than feelings.
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I’m not sure if writer/director Aaron Harvey is attempting to give us nothing more than B-movie along the lines of 2 Days in the Valley or (God help us) Smokin’ Aces or if he aspires to something more like early Tarantino. Whatever his intentions, what Catch .44 delivers is a trio of attractive actresses, short skirts, a couple loving butt shots, and a movie not nearly as smart as it wants to be.
Our story begins with a theft of a drug shipment gone wrong. Our would be robbers are a trio of women working for a local drug trafficker (Bruce Willis). After the opening shootout the movie resets to the beginning of the night as Tes (Malin Akerman), Kara (Nikki Reed), and Dawn (Deborah Ann Woll) while away the hours together before their job goes horribly wrong.
Tes is the leader of the pack, or “the smart one.” A waitress in a seedy strip club who gets kicks by stealing customers wallets, she takes the job as a drug runner as much out of boredom as anything else.
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His role of Friends aside, I’ve been largely unimpressed with Matthew Perry (Serving Sara and Three to Tango come to mind). It’s really a shame he’s made such bad choices on scripts because when you watch this flick you realize how good he could actually be in motion pictures.
The idea of a comedy starring Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry might not inspire much confidence, but what we get turns out to be pretty darn good. The Whole Nine Yards is a quirky, fun, occasionally dark, entertaining little movie. Full of odd characters and terrific comic sequences, most notably from Perry. And it provides not one but two love stories.
Nicholas ‘Oz’ Oseransky (Matthew Perry) is trapped. He’s living in Montreal with a horrible wife (Rosanna Arquette) who has made his life miserable for years. He continues to work at the dental practice he started with his father-in-law whose debt from an embezzlement scheme he is forced to pay off.
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The Whole Nine Yards Read More »
As I made up my list of my top ten films of the year I noticed something – not one was a box office hit in terms of Hollywood executive standards. None of my ten grossed $100 million at the box office, in fact only one grossed more than $50 million. Though most pulled in an excess of what it took to make, or at least enough to break even, very few people saw the films that I would consider to be the class of 2005.
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Top 10 Films of 2005 (That You Probably Missed) Read More »
