Category Archive

In a Star is Born, we have the actor Bradley Cooper playing a singer and the singer Lady Gaga acting.  Did this role reversal work?  Were they able to pull off a great movie?  Read on to find out!

First, a disclaimer:  I’m not impartial — I am a huge fan of both Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.  I’ve always respected Lady Gaga’s independent spirit and enjoyed her music.  And, Bradley Cooper  has an equally interesting backstory.    Did you know he speaks fluent French and wanted to be Ninja?

And then, I watched the preview for the movie, and BOOM – there’s Dave Chappelle acting.  A singer, an actor, a comedian?  All my favorites!  What’s not to love?  I’m so in.

But, viewer beware, high expectations are often the death knell for a movie.  Even if it’s good, you’re disappointed as you expected great.

I went to see A Star is Born the first day I could.

So what did I think?

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A marginal movie can become a really good movie if you enjoy the topic.

This was the case when I watched He’s Just Not That Into You.  I thoroughly enjoyed the movie because the topic is compelling:  Do women realize when a guy is just not into them?  The movie is more than that as well…it’s about relationships between men and women.

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There is not a movie or TV show with Jason Bourne, Jack Bauer, or James Bond that I have not seen. I refer to them as the great JB triumvirate.

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Last night, I watched the movie Funny People with Adam Sandler and many other great young comedians.

20 years ago, you knew what to expect with an Adam Sandler movie; now you don’t.  I like that.

20 years ago, all was simply slapstick and often very funny.  Now, we still get slapstick but with serious, and sometimes slightly demented, undertones.  It is often said that great comedians and great comedy comes from the darkest of places where the only means of survival is through comedy.  In the recent career of Adam Sandler, he seems more comfortable exposing some of those dark places.

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If you’re a fan of gambling (and seeing people bring down the house), you’ll enjoy the movie 21. I certainly did…here is my review of the movie 21!

I was anxious to see the movie 21 as I had read the book Bringing Down the House, the book on which the movie is based.  However, aside from the idea of a bunch of MIT kids taking on Vegas, there are few similarities between the book and the movie.

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Gran Torino is the best movie that I have seen in 2009.

And though the year is only 24 days old, I am not sure another movie will come along this year to best it.

I wonder why.

The plot can be explained in a few of sentences:  A recently widowed, hard-nosed, prejudice, ex-military, solitary, old man finds himself newly alone in a poorish neighborhood now filled with ethics and gang violence.  Though he tries to remain isolated on his premises, circumstance and proximity lead him to interactions with his neighbors with whom he gradually develops true friendships.   After the gang violence tragically affects his new-found friends, he seeks retribution in his final act.

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At the end of my viewing of Avatar, the audience all clapped.  They clapped because the human race fell to a society of extraterrestrials.

Why is this?  Are humans beings discontent with the world they inhabit, with themselves?

In Avatar, human beings set out to obtain a precious commodity called unobtainium that exists on another planet named Pandora.  Unfortunately, this prized material is found in great abundance directly on the land that the Na’Vi (the indigenous peoples of Pandora) inhabit.  Thus, after perfunctory attempts to befriend the Na’Vi, the human beings attempt to destroy the Na’Vi people and claim their fortunes.

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Last week, I sat through the Michael Jackson movie This Is It and it was one of those rare movies that made me want to…walk out.

This Is It basically contains footage of the concert that never was, the concert that was to begin shortly after his sudden death this summer.

In Reaction to Michael Jackson’s Death, I wrote about the untimely death of Michael Jackson and the ambivalent feelings I had.

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The American, starring George Clooney, had the appearance of a great thriller.  They marketed this picture as a Bourne Identity type of movie.  Substitute George Clooney for Matt Damon and watch the thriller unfold.  Right?  Wrong!

Imagine that Jason Bourne has to lay low for awhile and is instructed to head up to a small village and talk to nobody.  Now, you have to watch him do basically nothing for two hours.  Kicking ass and taking names in this small village?  No.  Just sitting there in an apartment making a gun.

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