Emily Blunt

Gulliver’s Travels

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Gulliver’s Travels
  • IMDB: link

A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT

I’m not sure, but I’m willing to bet the central idea for putting Jack Black in a remake of Gulliver’s Travels was for the express purpose of having him fight a giant robot in the town square as the miniature masses looked on. As ideas go, this one is less than inspired (but, then again, so is the rest of this hapless film).

How you take the talents of Jack Black, Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Amanda Peet, and Billy Connolly and create something as thoroughly inane and painfully unfunny as Gulliver’s Travels is a mystery. This might be the dumbest movie I saw this year.

Black stars as slacker mailroom worker Lemuel Gulliver. To impress news editor Darcy Silverman (Peet), for whom he’s had a secret crush for years, Gulliver plagiarizes various travel articles earning him a spot to write for the paper. (I can’t imagine how such a well designed plan might blow up in his face.) His first assignment takes him to the Bermuda Triangle. (Cue ominous music.) After sailing into a storm Gulliver finds himself in the land of Lilliput, a kingdom filled with people less than 6-inches tall.

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The Young Victoria

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Young Victoria
  • IMDB: link

The Young Victoria is a solid effort from screenwriter Julian Fellows (Gosford Park, Vanity Fair).

Emily Blunt proves capable of capturing a young woman on the verge of controlling an empire and struggling with advisers, her mother’s power-hungry lover (Mark Stong), and her own ideas for her country’s future.

And yet, something is missing.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed The Young Victoria. The sets, cinematography, acting, costumes, all demonstrate talent and a keen eye for the period.

Maybe I’ve just seen too many of these paint-by-number historical dramas, or perhaps this film does too little to distinguish itself from all the others.

The film is an attempt to show Victoria (Blunt) blossoming into womanhood, her rise to power, her early years as Queen, and her romance with Prince Albert (Rupert Friend). And it does exactly that, and nothing more.

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Sunshine Cleaning

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Sunshine Cleaning
  • IMDB: link

Sunshine Cleaning, much like it’s lead actress, is quirky and pleasant to watch – even if it does get a bit hokey at times.

Hitting a mid-life crisis, Rose (the always perky Amy Adams) spends her days cleaning homes of the wealthy and her nights in a cheap hotel room with her married high school sweetheart (Steve Zahn). She sums up her existence late in the film: “I’m good at getting guys to want me, not marry me. That, and cheerleading.”

Things aren’t much better at home where her ADHD/OCD riddled son (Jason Spevack) has just gotten kicked out of another school, her father (Alan Arkin) is involved in yet another get rich scheme, and her sister Norah (Emily Blunt) has just gotten fired from yet another job. Hmm, I sense a pattern here.

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Good Time Charlie

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Charlie Wilson’s War
  • IMDB: link

“Why is Congress saying one thing and doing nuthin’?”
“Well, tradition mostly.”

charlie-wilsons-war-dvdThe film is based on the true events of a Congressman from a small district in Texas named Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) who with the help of a rich debutante (Julia Roberts) and a rebel CIA agent (Philip Seymour Hoffman) changed the world.

This is simply a fascinating tale written with the trademark Aaron Sorkin wit, performed by three wonderful leads and a strong supporting cast (including the beautiful Amy Adams, Jud Tylor, Cyia Batten, Hilary Angelo, and Emily Blunt), and directed with both humanity and flair by Mike Nichols.  For more on the film read the original review.

Here’s a terrific tale, all the more mesmerizing because it’s true.  Charlie Wilson and his covert war in Afghanistan is a piece of history told exceptionally well by this list of talented professionals.  Although the DVD isn’t packed with as much extra material as I would like, the featurettes are nice, and the film itself is the real prize.

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Charlie Wilson’s War

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Charlie Wilson’s War
  • IMDb: link

“You can teach them to type, but you can’t teach them to grow tits.”

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a junior Congressman from a small district in Texas, did the impossible.  Not only did he spearhead the largest covert war in United States history, but he kept it a secret for years.

Wilson, a member of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee and the only Congressman from a district “who doesn’t want anything,” was in an unique position to change the world while nobody was looking.

After learning about the Afghan resistance against the Soviets, and being cajoled into providing more assistance by a powerful political contributor (Julia Roberts), Wilson with the help of his friends and CIA operative Gust Avrakotots (Philip Seymour Hoffman), over the course of the decade began increasing the money, weapons, and training being put into Afghanistan and began fighting a covert war which only a scant few even knew was taking place.  And we aren’t talking a small increase here; we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

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