only Ricky Gervais could make a brutally cheeky yet heart-warming movie about atheism! also has more cameos than a Muppet movie. if you don’t get the anti-religion messages (which range from hilariously obvious to fairly subtle and/or sincere), you may find the movie cute but silly and without much plot, which it sounds like most of the other reviews found it.
actually a bit restrained by Quentin Tarantino standards! mostly a vehicle for virtuoso performances by Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz (no one else is given much in the way of lines or really anything to DO). and when did Eli Roth get so HOT, holy crap?
cinematography is superb, really gorgeous. i couldn’t shake the feeling that this movie is crammed with visual references i wasn’t getting.
Abbie Cornish is AMAZING – i honestly only know her name from the tabloids, and was shocked at what a spectacular actor she is. she just IS her character, and can access such visibly real emotions that it literally took my breath away. Paul Schneider i recognize from Parks & Recreation, but he’s sharp and compelling here (with an adorable accent), while Ben Whishaw is suitably beautiful. young Thomas Sangster from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory is in almost every scene but gets only 3 lines!
not much structure to the plot, but John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph are so real and likable you don’t much mind. their 4 experiences visiting friends are each tour de forces that yank your emotions so hard in different directions, you get whiplash: from Side-Splitting Hilarity, to Vomitous Sanctimony, and on to a double dose of Gut-Wrenching Sorrow. every single actor is on their most subtle A-game, and the meandering path is a pretty good one.
why is Matt Damon so fucking adorable?! he is clearly having the best time ever in this movie, and makes it pretty fun for the audience as well. pretty much everyone else is pushed into the background by the force of Matt Damon’s personality, which i think is intentional, and the audience whooshes along the waterslide trajectory of the story. not as full a story as say, Catch Me If You Can, but much fun.
Meryl Streep’s half is terrific and fun and irresistible , but Amy Adams is totally incapable of playing a bitch – she comes off as merely neurotic and helpless, which just makes you feel bad for her and resent that Meryl isn’t on screen. also, Stanly Tucci = completely delicious.
I think this movie suffers most from the erroneous assumption that a story about a bitchy, self-obsessed 20-something writer is as interesting or compelling as a story about Julia Child. although perhaps if poor Amy Adams was able to give depth to her character, it could have been.
this is actually 3 movies: first is “Adam Sandler Dying”, which is really VERY good and funny and thought-provoking. next is “The Retarded Romance Of Suddenly Unlikable Jackasses”, which is lame and annoying, but does feature Eric Bana as Awesome Australian Stereotype, and he is so unexpectedly hilarious your bladder control will be strained. the final movie in this movie is “Completely Not Believable Bromance”, which only takes 5 minutes and that’s too long.
actually worth renting for Eric Bana!
REALLY JUST A KIDS’ MOVIE! very cute and sweet and pretty and surreal, but not transcendent like other Miyazaki movies. actually, this is the first Miyazaki i’ve seen that *ONLY* functions on a kid level. so really kind of boring for grown-ups, but i think most kids under 7 would LOVE it.
super rad! very layered and even a bit funny in parts, and lots of shit blows up real good while also having a compelling plot. the protagonist is a killer good actor – i’m a sucker for a hero that starts out a nebbish, as well as faux documentaries.
occasionally a wee bit heavy on the Anvil of Morality, but i liked this movie when it was called Enemy Mine so i didn’t mind.
sentimental to the point of being hokey. but that said, all the actors are nice, and if there’s one thing i don’t know shit about, it’s funeral practices in Japan. so very interesting on that front.