Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

John Krasinski's directoral debut is much like John Krasinski's acting- muted. Krasinki gained fame for his role on The Office where he basically plays the straight man to the wackiness of many of the other characters in the show. Signature to this is where some other character says something crazy and Krasinkski looks at the camera as though to tell the viewing audience that he's aware how crazy it all is.

While this technique works for Krasinski in the Office and in his film Away We Go, Brief Interviews suffers from it. While the movie is not devoid of funny moments, all the characters are straight men, so to speak, and without the existence of wacky characters to counterbalance them, the characters fail to inspire the humor for which the movie clearly strives and ends up dull and non-conclusive.

My Rating:

2 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

Julie And Julia

A delightful picture with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams that parallels the story of Julia Styles writing the Joy of Cooking and a bureaucrat in 2002 blogging about cooking every recipe in the Joy of Cooking in one year. Overall, a very light and enjoyable movie, punctuated by some strife, some unnecessary scenes, and a little too much talk about blogging.

My Rating:

4 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

All Night Long

This film is something odd. In some respects, this is a satire on suburbia and the job of a night manager at a Walmart type store. In other respects, it's a strange sort of love story between Barbra Streisand and some guy. In still other respects, this is the story of Gene Hackman being angry. A lot.

That's why I'm hesitant to recommend this movie- it is a good movie, but it's really multiple movies put into one, where each is only dealt upon with insufficient depth and time.

Highlight: Since this movie was made in 1981, Gene Hackman drives by a vintage KFC that looked a lot like this:


My rating:

3 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

The Crimson Pirate

If I could describe this movie in no more than two words, those words would be "flamboyant pants."


Unfortunately, this was the only picture I could find, but rest assured that the variety and bizarreness of pants in The Crimson Pirate rival even some movies based around pants.

Also of note was the realistic physics(Dropping a wooden blackjack/dildo on someone's head will in fact knock them out), the absurd acrobatics (Did you know that all pirates can do back flips?), and the chance to look at Burt Lancaster's chest for 105 minutes straight.

Predictable, but still entertaining.

My Rating:

3 Arbitrary Shapes.

Stalag 17

Stalag 17 is a 1950s film with William Holden about American prisoners in a Nazi POW camp and the spy among them. I'd seen this before and watching it again was almost as enjoyable as I remember it. Definitely worth seeing.
My Rating:

4 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes.

The Invention of Lying

The Invention of Lying is a Ricky Gervais movie with Jennifer Garner set in an alternate universe where the human race has never evolved the ability to lie. Then a local loser spontaneously evolves the ability to lie and uses this to amass personal gain and become Jesus.

Ignoring the obvious scientific inaccuracies and the fact that the inability to lie makes a world with no religion and no normative statements, the movie was on a whole a disappointment. I've never been a fan of Ricky Gervais's work, and now that I've actually seen one of his movies, my dislike has been justified. Even the idea behind the movie is childish and its execution left me feeling that the more interesting aspects were covered only briefly while I had to sit through watching Gervais act like a loser.
Still, it was mildly entertaining at points.

My Rating:

2 1/2 Arbitrary Shapes

Theme- The Romantic Comedy Formula #1

The protagonist is romantically interested in the super popular (and likewise super attractive) member of the opposite sex, usually in a longing, sort of "(s)he'll never notice me" sort of way. At the same time, the protagonist has a close friend of the opposite sex who is romantically interested in the protagonist, but for some reason that is never fully explained, never deigns to express those feelings until immediately before or after the protagonist has managed to go on a date with his or her super popular crush. Eventually, the protagonist figures out that the popular crush is actually a jerk and realizes that he or she actually loves the friend who has been there all along.

Examples: The Princess Diaries, Starter for 10, Observe and Report
Notable Exception: My Best Friend's Wedding
Parody: Not Another Teen Movie (Please note: This is neither an endorsement nor suggestion that you actually watch this movie.)