My December 2007 Viewings

Included my personal ratings.
Recommended fiDVDs lms in bold.

Ballykissangel 5:1 12/26/07 (B)
Cold Comfort Farm 12/26/07 (C-)
The Heartbreak Kid 12/26/07 (D)
Big Love 2:2 12/20/07 (B)
Scoop 12/19/07 (B+)
The Lost City 12/19/07 (B)
Ballykissangel 4:3 12/17/07 (B)
Hot Fuzz 12/14/07 (B+)
Big Love 2:1 12/14/07 (B)
Ballykissangel 4:2 12/12/07 (B)
Ocean's Thirteen 12/10/07 (C)
The World's Fastest Indian 12/10/07 (A)
Superbad 12/06/07 (A)
Wilby Wonderful 12/04/07 (B-)
The Butterfly Effect 12/03/07 (C)
Ballykissangel 4:1 12/03/07 (B)

Scoop (2006)

Dashing, Dapper, and Deadly?

Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson), an awkward yet earnest young American journalism student, is on holiday in England. While attending a magic show starring The Great Splendini, aka Sid Waterman (Woody Allen, who also directed), Sondra is recruited from the audience to participate in a magic trick where she has to enter a large box called The Dematerializer.

Inside the box, Sondra meets the ethereal (and deceased) reporter Joe Strombel (Ian McShane) who has crossed back over the River Styx to tell Sondra the identity of the Tarot Card Killer who is running rampant in London.

Sondra shares the information with Sid Waterman and while she is convinced she's got a solid lead, Sid seriously doubts that Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman), a handsome British aristocrat with political ambitions, could possibly be the murderer.

Posing as Jade Spence and her father, a wealthy oilman from Palm Beach, Sondra and Sid weasel their way into Peter Lyman's life to investigate -- with Joe Strombel's ghost to help. In the process, Sondra/Jade falls in love with Lyman and becomes convinced that he couldn't be the murderer while Sid grows certain that Lyman is the Tarot Card Killer.

What ensues is a comedy romp that allowed Woody Allen to spew his funny remarks reminiscent of earlier Allen comedies.

Favorite retort:
Sondra: "You always think the glass is half empty."
Sid: "That's not true. I think the glass is half full. With poison."

This certainly isn't either high comedy nor high mystery but it does prove to be great fun and a relief for me at least from Woody Allen's more angst-ridden and depressing films that I've seen recently.

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content.

The Lost City (2005)

Havana In Turmoil

This is a story of turbulent Havana in the late 1950 -- a story Andy Garcia worked 16 years to bring to fruition to honor what his native home was and the people who lived there.

El Tropico is a successfully swank nightclub owned by Fico Fellove (Andy Garcia, who also directed). Fico is devoted to his family and to the amazing music and dance he presents at the club, but Batista threatens to destroy so much of what Fico loved.

Fico's father, the distinguished Federico (Tomas Milian), feels a constitutional government should replace Batista while his son Ricardo (Enrique Murciano) becomes a communist and his other son Luis (Nestor Carbonell) joins the democratic opposition.

Fico saves Ricardo from execution for anti-regime activities by calling in a favor and urges Ricardo to escape to New York, but instead Ricardo joins Che Guevara's rebel band. Luis becomes involved in a plot to kill Batista and restore democracy but the plot fails and Luis is eventually killed by Batista's police.

Meanwhile, Fico fights off advances by American mobster Meyer Lansky (Dustin Hoffman) who wants to bring gambling to El Tropico. When a bomb explodes at the club claiming the live of the star performer, who was also Fico's love, Fico suspects the mob but is never certain.

Fico's mother encourages him get involved with Luis' widow Aurora (Ines Sastre), and he does, eventually evolving into true love.

In many ways, this long film (2.5+ hours) is epic with further family deaths, suicide, disaster at the club, departure and beginning again.

Weaving throughout the tale is the wry writer (Bill Murray) who seems to have no other purpose than serving as the Greek chorus for this story.

The length and sometimes slow pace of the film made it, at times, tedious for me but overall, seeing Havana and the people of Havana trying to survive in that devasting time was interesting.

Rated R for violence.

Hot Fuzz (2007)

Lethal Weapon with Laughs

Strictly-by-the-book London bobby Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is so good that he's an embarassment to his supervisors, including the Chief Inspector (Bill Nighy), so he's promoted and transfered to a sleepy village in the country where he finds a police department full of slackers.

Nicholas is partnered with naive prankster cop Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), the son of local police inspector Frank Butterman (Jim Broadbent), who laments that he's stuck in a nothing-happening environment. He longs for the adventure and danger Nicholas has faced in London.

Soon a series of grisly "accidents" get Nicholas' energies flowing when he realizes they're actually murders. Nicholas swiftly suspects the sinister Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton), manager of the local supermarket. He kicks into high gear trying to solve the mystery and capture the murderer.

Fast-paced, brutally violent, full-of-profanity -- but hey, there's no nudity -- and there are so many laughs that I had to rewatch portions because I missed a lot when I was laughing so hard.

I really enjoyed the homage to Lethal Weapon, Kill Bill, Robocop, Dirty Harry and so many other action films. I can't wait for Hot Fuzz Part II!

Directed by Edgar Wright.

Rated R for violent content including some graphic images, and language.

The World's Fastest Indian (2005)

Following Dreams

Roger Donaldson was obsessed with Burt Munro. Kiwi Burt Munro was obsessed with speed -- especially while astride his classic and uniquely adapted Indian motorcycle.

Donaldson made a documentary about Munro many years ago but the true story niggled in his brain as suitable for a full scale film. Finally, as director, producer and writer, he saw it happen with this film.

Munro made his first trip to the USA in the late 1950s when he was 67 years old. His goal: to break a record on the famed Bonneville Salt Flats in Nevada. He did -- and he returned for many years to compete again and again, and set new records..

After watching Donaldson's documentary, which is a bonus on the DVD I viewed, I can't think of a better choice than Anthony Hopkins to play the role.

The film is essentially Munro's preparation in Invercargill City, New Zealand, and journey to his first Bonneville time trial. Despite a fresh diagnosis of angina, nothing was going to stop the determined man who'd fashioned odd parts out of strange materials for his beloved bike.

He earns his passage across the ocean by working as the cook on an ocean tramper. Upon arriving in California, he quickly learns how to drive in the USA, buys a car, fashions a rig for his bike and sets out for Nevada. Along the way, he encounters several kindly folks who help him on his journey including a Native American (Saginaw Grant) who gives him "crushed dog testicles" to relieve his prostate troubles and an older ranch woman named Ada (Diane Ladd) who helps him repair his car.

When he arrives at the Speed Week event, Munro is disheartened to find that he didn't pre-register and therefore can't compete, but so many competitors and fans, lead by driver Jim Enz (Christopher Lawford, who looks eerily like his father), are taken by this old man's determination that they arrange for him to have a chance.

Favorite quote: "You live more in five minutes on a bike like this going flat out than some people live in a lifetime."

Even if you're not a fan of speed or motorciccles, this is a feel good human interest story that is definitely worth the watch. Sir Anthony Hopkins has said this has been his very favorite role to play in all his years of acting.

Rated PG-13 for brief language, drug use and a sexual reference.

My personal rating: B

Superbad (2007)

Bad Boys Bad Boys

Once invited to a graduation party, virginal nerds Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) -- BFF -- decide to break all the rules by taking booze to a party and scoring with the girls of their dreams.

Thanks to a friend, Fogell -- aka McLuvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) -- who has a fake ID, the romp starts and leads to all manner of riotous problems compounded by the hapless police officers Slater (Bill Hader) and Michaels (Seth Rogen)

This is a surprisingly good and funny horny male teen flick directed by Greg Mottola.

Rated R for pervasive crude and sexual content, strong language, teen drinking, some drug use and a fantasy/comic violent image.

Wilby Wonderful (2004)

A Day in the Life of Deceit

This Canadian film focuses on a day in the lives and secrets of several people in Wilby, a Canadian small island town, and how they intersect as the town's annual festival approaches.

Dan Jarvis (James Allodi) is determined to commit suicide. His first attempt by jumping off a bridge is thwarted by the town handyman Duck (Callum Keith Rennie).

Carol French (Sandra Oh), a town mover 'n shaker and also a real estate agent, is insensitive to the sadness her husband, police officer Buddy (Paul Gross), is enduring over the recent death of his mother. All Carol can focus on is getting rid of the 'junk' from her mother-in-law's house so she can get it sold and making an impression on the town bigwigs as she tries to be a leader in the organization of the town festival.

Carol accidentaly thwarts Dan Jarvis' next suicide attempt when she arrives at a house she has listed for sale and finds him in the kitchen with the powerful smell of natural gas permeating the room.

Meanwhile, Buddy has an affair with Sandra (Rebecca Jenkins), a notoriously loose woman, as Sandra's teenage daughter Emily (Ellen Page) is making out with boy. Sandra teases Emily unmercifully when she realizes what her daughter's been doing.

Buddy uncovers the tip of the iceberg of city hall corruption involving the mayor (Maury Chaykin) and Dan Jarvis reveals to Duck why his wife left him. As Carol dashes into a house for sale that she is soon to show the Mayor and his wife, she finds Dan Jarvis' body swinging from a noose. Her only concern is to hide the body so as not to spoil the chance of actually selling the house.

Director/writer Daniel MacIvor does a fine job weaving together these entanglements -- and others -- in a tight 99 minutes revolving around love, acceptance and validation.

This Canadian film is not rated by MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America).