Easy A (2010)

Tags

Alyson Michalka, Amanda Bynes, Comedy, Dan Byrd, Easy A, Emma Stone, Lisa Kudrow, Movie, Patricia Clarkson, Penn Badgley, Romance, Stanley Tucci, Thomas Haden Church

look, honey, we're not always going to be there to carry the movie. at some point you're going to have to find some other interesting characters to hang out with...

PG-13

Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Dan Byrd, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Alyson Michalka, Lisa Kudrow

Random Guy: Hey Olive, how’s it going?
Olive: I’m swell…guy I’ve never talked to before.  Thanks for asking.

Olive (Stone) makes up a story about losing her virginity in order to shut up a friend who’s asking about it, not realizing that somebody else was listening to their conversation.  When this rumor spreads like wildfire, Olive embraces her new image as school tramp and even finds a way to make some money out of it.  Of course, things start to go too far, get out of control, etc, etc.

Okay, I have several problems with this movie.  Some are minor, nit-picky things, and others are larger, more important issues.

I’ll start with a couple nit-picky things.  First, if Olive is so invisible (which I find hard to believe in the first place) at school (as she states in the opening voice over), how is it that this rumor about her spreads so quickly to everyone?  I know if a similar thing had happened to me in school, most people’s reaction would be “who is this person, and why do I give a crap about their sex life??”  Yet, we see this rumor spreading around to people like they just found out Justin Bieber(yeah, I went there) is going to start attending their school.  It’s a California high school, nobody would care.  Maybe if it was middle school, then it would be more understandable, but…well…that would be a whole different kind of movie.

Second nit-picky thing: eighth grade Olive looks nothing like high school Olive.  How hard is it to find an actress that at least looks somewhat like Emma Stone?  Nobody shapeshifts that much between eighth grade and high school.

Now on to the bigger issues.  Why is it that the adult characters are so much more interesting than the high school kids.  Only Olive has any sort of intelligent dialogue written for her.  Everybody else is just a stereotype.  The dumb jocks, the ditzy blond, the nutty Christian kids, the put-upon gay character, and on and on.  Nothing nuanced here.

As I mentioned, though, the adult characters, specifically Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci as Olive’s parents, shine much brighter than anything else in this movie.  Every time they were on screen, my interest picked up.  I could have watched an entire movie about them and it would have been much much better than this one.

The other big issue:  I just didn’t find it that funny.

I like Emma Stone, and I think she can definitely carry a movie, but she deserves better than this.  There are a few funny moments outside of the scenes with the parents, but for the most part it’s just another shallow teen comedy going for easy laughs via cliches and low-brow humor (gee, a scene where two people go into a room and loudly pretend to have sex in order to trick people…how novel).

Check that all the stalls are empty before you start confessing things (whether true or not) in the bathroom.

10 – 2 for so many poorly written characters – 1 for too many unbelievable plot aspects – 1.5 because it’s just not that funny + .2 for Tucci and Clarkson = 5.7

The Lovely Bones (2009)

Tags

Drama, Fantasy, Mark Wahlberg, Movie, Rachel Weisz, Romance, Rose McIver, Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, The Lovely Bones

even my cool hat couldn't protect me...

PG-13

Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, Rose McIver

Buckley: Grandma, I know where Susie is.
Grandma: Yeah, Susie’s…gone to heaven, sweetheart.
Buckley: Lindsey says there is no heaven.
Grandma: Alright then, she’s dead.
Buckley: You might be dead soon.
Grandma: Why do you say that?
Buckley: Because you’re old.

After being murdered, Susie (Ronan) is stuck in a sort of limbo between earth and heaven, unable to move forward due to the ties she can’t break.  Meanwhile, her family struggles to move on after being struck by this tragedy.

Yikes, this movie is just all over the place.  Is it a serious drama about a murdered 14 year old girl?  Is it a Twilight-esque love story?  Is it dark and scary?  Is it a family movie with a few comedic interludes?  Well…it tries to be all of them, and only succeeded occasionally.

I liked some of the visuals and the idea of Susie being unable to leave behind her need for vengeance and her desire to protect her family.  That stuff was pretty good, but the entire romantic subplot involving her need for one kiss with this boy she knew for about 12 minutes was tiresome.  As was the entire grandmother character.  She’s supposed to be some big whirlwind of personality, but she feels totally out of place in this movie.  Especially the montage of her cleaning up the house.  It reminded me of the clean-up montage featuring Goldie Hawn in Overboard.  That fit in that movie…not in this one.

Also, I hate to say it, but Mark Wahlberg once again displays his lack of dramatic acting ability.  Plus, he and Weisz have absolutely no believability as a couple.  No chemistry there at all.  For this movie to work, the family needed to feel like a real, loving family, and it doesn’t.  It all just feels fake.  The only real quality performance is from Stanley Tucci.  He is very very creepy as the killer, George Harvey.  Maybe too creepy, as I’m not sure what kid (or adult) would trust that guy for a second.

The imagery of semi-heaven, or whatever it may be, is alright, but nothing profoundly great.  Those kinds of sequences are more in Peter Jackson’s wheelhouse, so I was expecting a little more from them I guess.

There are a couple of other good moments, and it will surely draw a tear or two at times (a story about murdered children is bound to), but all in all, it just feels like a big jumbled mess.  I’m sure the book had more room to expand on certain characters and themes, but obviously they couldn’t all fit into the movie.  So, we’re left with some shallow characters and a lot of confusing scenes.

Don’t follow creepy men into their creepy underground bunkers.

10 – 2.5 because the tone of the movie is just all over the place – 1 for the characters not being very well developed – 1 for some iffy acting = 5.5

Julie & Julia (2009)

Tags

Amy Adams, Chris Messina, Comedy, Drama, Julie & Julia, Meryl Streep, Movie, Stanley Tucci

...and now young lobster...you WILL die...

PG-13

Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina

Julie: What do you think it means if you don’t like your friends?
Sarah: It’s completely normal.
Eric: Men like their friends…
Sarah: We’re not talking about men!  Who’s talking about men??

Julie (Adams) decides to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s first cook book within 1 year.  Plus, she’s going to blog all about it.  Meanwhile, we see Julia Child as she first learns to cook in Paris, and then as she struggles to get her first book published.

Let me start by saying that I’m not that into food or cooking.  If something takes more than 15 to 20 minutes to prepare, it’s usual not worth it, that’s what I say.  I thought that attitude might hinder my enjoyment of a movie all about cooking and food, but I was wrong.  Instead, I found it all to be quite enjoyable.

It helps that I’m an Amy Adams fan and that Meryl Streep is charming even when she’s using a voice that would start grating on my nerves around the midway point.  Plus, even though the film has that Nora Ephron sense of non-reality throughout it, there’s still a sense of believability to everything.  It never gets too Hollywood.  You’re expecting them to throw in a finale where Julie gets rich, moves into a mansion, and becomes best friends with Julia, but that didn’t happen in the real life story, which thankfully means it doesn’t happen here.

The only real problem I’ll point out, besides Julia’s voice, is that in the middle there are a few scenes that seem extraneous and tend to slow the movie down.  It’s over 2 hours long, and I think a few of those scenes, like the sister’s wedding, could have been eliminated without taking anything away from the movie.  This probably contributed to me enjoying Julie’s story line more.  Although, I’m sure the fact that she’s setting up a blog, wondering if anybody will ever read it, and then rejoicing over her first comment had something to do with it too.  I could identify with some of those feelings.

A funny script, entertaining performances, and nice cinematography.  These are the key ingredients necessary to cook up a fine movie.  And with that, I’m sure I’ve become the 500th reviewer to make such a food related joke about this movie.  And for that…I am sincerely sorry.

Bon appetit!  (Really, I’m sorry, I mean it.)

Apparently it’s hard to bone a duck.  (That’s what she said!)  (Huh?)

10 – 1.6 for a few lulls/extraneous scenes in the middle section of the movie – .4 for Julia’s voice wearing on my nerves = 8.0