Excess of Opinions

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.

fascinating and moving – i do guess you’d need to be a fan of A Chorus Line, but i think that’s a pretty universal musical, in that it’s gritty and funny like musicals usually aren’t. the way they’ve juxtaposed footage and interviews about the original conception of the show with auditions and profiles of the revival is charming and effective. it’s really riveting and moving, and there isn’t a slow spot in it.

FUCKING AWESOME! very, very funny, and very, very gross. it definitely helps to like Sam Raimi (and i do so very much), and this is exceptionally well done. reminds me a bit of Shaun of the Dead, in that it is simultaneously poking fun at the horror genre, and being a really excellent example of it. acting several rungs above what it has to be – good on ya, Alison Lohman!

NOT the creepy Solaris-clone it looks like (which was a wee bit disappointing for me, actually), but i love a good Clones Are People, Too story. it has a compelling story, and Sam Rockwell is spectacular as always. i might have preferred a movie about what happens AFTER this one, but i liked it nonetheless – nice job, Ziggy Stardust Jr.