Movie Reviews - Brought to you by Quantas

With two exceedingly long flights to and from the US, armed with a seat back entertainment system, and with no ability to sleep, I watched a bunch of movies. Happily enough, most are recommendable. In not necessarily the order I watched them, here are reviews.

Ocean's Thirteen - the first of these was a sort of remake of an old Ratpack caper/heist movie. As a fan of such movies I am easily sucked into watching films of that ilk, and the first of the three did not disappoint. It was filled with witty dialogue, a nearly improbable plot, and knew not to take itself seriously. Very entertaining. The sequel was similar though less of all three of the things that made the first one good. The third one was more of the second one, perhaps because they were treading much of the same ground, but mostly because the plot was just out of control. Too many impossible tasks for one movie. Entertaining but not great. I'd give it a 65 out of 100.

Knocked Up - I wasn't sure what to expect of this movie. It had gotten pretty good reviews but I was nervous about it wallowing in stereotypes. It mostly does not. It's got plenty of gross-out humor, slacker behavior, and crude language, but at it's center is a remarkably good natured comedy about trying to do the right thing despite your inclination to be a total fuck up. 80 out of 100.

A Mighty Heart - Angelina Jolie stars as the wife of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a fairly gripping recounting of the days between his disappearance and ultimate beheading. This should not be a spoiler to sentient beings. Since you know the end going into it, the film gives you some insight into the workings of foreign journalism, politics and justice in Pakistan, and the tangled web of terrorism. Angelina Jolie is definitely a good actress and this shows her talents off well without her needing to be scantily clad (though that's never bad). 75 out of 100.

Transformers - exceedingly low expectations going into this one (Michael Bay making crapfest after crapfest) but I was pleasantly surprised at the result. They managed to avoid some fairly common blockbuster pitfalls and actually managed to make the characters (even the Autobots) likable. Sure, there are an excessive number of explosions, and the dorky kid gets the super-hot girl, but he's more interesting and she's not just eye candy. 70 out of 100.

Once - a sweet little movie about a street musician in Dublin and the Czech girl he befriends. I'd heard a couple of the songs from the movie (all by Glen Hansard - star of the movie and a member of the band The Frames) and liked them a lot, so I knew the gist of the movie going in. It has nothing that will blow your mind but it is just a lovely story with some great simple songs in it. It's sort of in league with one of my favorite movies, Local Hero, though not as good as that. I actually watched this twice (once going and once coming back). 88 out of 100.

The Simpsons Movie - I'd done an original review here, but I feel like it's worth revisiting this having seen it again several more times. In addition to being on both international flights, we had several domestic flights on Quantas while moving ourselves around the country and on two of them they showed The Simpsons Movie, so now I've seen it almost 4 times. Every time I watch it I like it more. It is simply great. It has all of the things that made some of those middle seasons great and returns to the family focus of the first few seasons. It has great heart and is hilarious all at the same time. There are moments of sublime comedy, my favorite being one where Homer and the pig (I won't say more about the pig or its reasons for being in the movie at all) are watching something melodramatic on TV and Homer turns to the pig and says (in that Homer whisper), "Maybe we should kiss to break the tension." The pig appears to be game but Marge comes in to disturb the moment. It leaves me speechless every time I see it. This is a DVD worth owning. 94 out of 100.

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten - Joe was the lead singer for The Clash, a band I've always (maybe not always) seen as one that transcended punk. The Sex Pistols epitomized punk and as such faded fast, and The Ramones managed to remain unchanged forever, but The Clash evolved, though always seemed to maintain the outraged spirit of punk. The movie charts the life of Joe from his childhood as the son of a diplomat living at various times in Turkey, Mexico and other spots around the world, through his English boarding school days, to his early bands, leader of The Clash and beyond until his untimely death in 2002 (he had an undiagnosed congenital heart defect rather than some extreme drug problem). Through it all they talk to important people in his life and people he inspired (all of whom are interviewed sitting around bonfires, something that makes some sense by the end). Interesting, though probably mostly for Clash or Joe Strummer fans. 75 out of 100.

Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer - this is a really bad movie. Amazingly it suffers from too much character development, as it is done so clumsily as to make one wince. Not even Jessica Alba makes this one worth watching. 25 out of 100.

Evan Almighty - the first in this series (Bruce Almighty) was decent, with the movie at least trying to tackle some issues of omnipotence that might otherwise be missed, and Jim Carrey didn't have to carry the movie with goofiness. The latest one is mostly forced, with Steve Carrel (who I think is very funny and is riding a wave of popularity) reprising his minor role from the first movie and expanding it into the lead part. He's commanded by God to redo the Noah story from The Bible. It seems like there are lots of possible choices one could make to inspire the plot from The Bible that would seem less forced than this one does. There are genuinely funny moments and even some clever directions that the movie goes, but all in all it's pretty uneven. 60 out of 100.

I tried to watch an Australian movie called Ten Canoes that is supposed to be good, but the subtitles (it's the story of some Aboriginals, with them speaking their native language) were unreadable on the small seat back screen so I gave up. I also watched the first hour or so of Groundhog Day just before we landed in San Francisco on the way back but I won't bother to review that.