Movies, Comedy
One of the big ironies of modern society is that we require people to obtain licenses for important and trivial tasks before we let them lose onto the world. I remember being told in my late teens. The of two most important decisions in life about choosing the right job and the right wife. For almost every job we need to demonstrate qualification before we can get hired. But when it comes to marriage anyone having reached the appropriate age can self-declare to be ready for the task of committing for a life-time. License to Wed thinks this to be ridiculous. The reverend Frank (Robin Williams) believes that a couple should first go through a rigorous program of examinations before they can be declared fit to marry. Sadie Jones (Mandy Moore) enlists reverend Frank to help her figure out whether Ben Jones (John Krasinski) is the right one. I thought that the film’s premise was clever but the execution left much to be desired.License to Wed
Movies, Drama
This dark, prohibition era, film is a bit hard to swallow. By design it is unlike The Untouchables where good triumphs over evil. Human life does not count for much in a Mafia-ruled Midwestern town. The film has a number of technical flaws that disturb the attentive viewer. The most intriguing feature of the film is how the narrative begins and ends. The opening words run: There are many stories about Michael Sullivan. Some say he was a decent man. Some say there was no good in him at all. But I once spent 6 weeks on the road with him, in the winter of 1931. This is our story. The final words bring the narrative to a wonderful closure: I saw then that my father’s only fear was that his son would follow the same road. And that was the last time I ever held a gun. People always thought I grew up on a farm. And I guess, in a way, I did. But I lived a lifetime before that, in those six weeks on the road in the winter of 1931.Road to Perdition
Movies, Phantasy
High School Movie. Not long until graduation. Boy wants to become a writer in New York, escaping his controlling widow mother. Girl, after losing her mother, is angry and assumes the role of a violent troublemaker and gang leader. Girl kills boy, smacking him once too hard on the head. But there is a twist. Taking the Christian idea of an eternal soul, boy is somewhere between life and death, between a bodily and merely spiritual existence. The boy has a body that is invisible to everyone except other dead creates and us viewers. The virtually dead body of the boy is lying dying in a hole in the woods and now his invisible self tries to get in contact with the living before he cannot be brought back to life. It one point towards this film reminded me of Romeo and Juliet, only with a different ending…The Invisible
Movies, Phantasy
Brad Bird (writer, director) and Pixar have done it again. I continue to stand in awe of the dazzling imagination this team is bringing to the movies. Visually and conceptually Ratatouille is exquisitely pleasing. You don’t feel that this new film is a tiny bit repetitive of their previous effort The Incredibles. Guenter Grass selected the rat as the central character in his 1980s fable about human self-destruction and an apocalypse after which only rats will survive on our planet. Bird turns Grass on his head. Bird’s rat Remy does not want to live off human garbage but instead desires to eat the best human cuisine can offer. Remy’s inspiration is France most famous chef Gusteau, whose book “Everyone can cook” Remy has studied extensively. Remy also watches Gusteau secretly on TV. When Remy is washed from the French countryside to Paris, an incredible culinary adventure awaits him. Join Remy in Paris!Ratatouille
Movies, Phantasy
The film invents a skill that no human has ever possessed: to see for two seconds reliably into the future. Such a capability comes in handy. You can win against the Casino, you can prevent a robber from killing two people, and more.Yet our hero (Nicolas Cage) is ambivalent about his skill. It helps him with his small time magician act in Vegas and allows him to improve his income by beating the blackjack dealer. But during childhood it also subjected him to a visits with an endless number of psychologists and counselors who wanted to help this strange little kid. When the government now identifies him as someone who might be able to stop terrorist from triggering a nuclear bomb in LA, our hero is not eager to sign up. But a dedicated FBI agent (miscast by Julianne Moore) and the terrorists who learn about his skills are not willing to let him mend his own business. Meanwhile our hero has discovered that in one instance he can seeNext
Movies, Drama
Ocean’s 11 struck me as sterile. The third episode of the George Clooney’s star vehicle has considerable charm. An old friend of Ocean (Clooney) gets screwed by a ruthless Vegas casino owner (Al Pacino). Ocean rounds up his gang of thieves to rectify this injustice. I loved the final sentence when George Clooney and Matt Damon say “good-bye” to each other on the Vegas airport. Damon: “I see you when I see you.”Ocean’s 13
Movies, Phantasy
It takes imaginative writers to stretch a story across multiple films. Spiderman 3 lacked such talent. Compared to the first two installments, the film feels uninspired, repetitive and contrived. Audiences can only stomach so much transformation in the lead character before they will turn way.Spiderman 3
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