To the Redbox

Movie of the week: I Love You, Phillip Morris

Horribly surprising: Jim Carrey plays an impeccable gay man. Not so surprising: so does Ewan McGregor.

I Love You, Phillip Morris is about a guy named Steven Russell, Carrey, and his obsession with Phillip Morris, McGregor. Whether it’s because he was bought off a mother walking out of an emergency room, or just because he likes it, he spends his life lying about who he is. After getting into an intense car accident, he decides to stop living his life as a straight man, divorces his wife, moves to Miami and starts conning a hell of a lot of people out of thousands of dollars.

After getting caught for insurance fraud in Miami, he escapes from jail twice. Once rearrested and back in prison, he meets Phillip Morris. His cons become more over the top and risky so the two can live a comfortable life together. It’s pretty intense the lengths this guy will go to.

And it’s all a true story. I didn’t believe it either, but see for yourself.

Steven Russell is currently in a Texas prison. Phillip Morris was released in 2006. The two still talk.

When watching “the making of” portion on the DVD, I was hoping to get some answers about whether it was difficult for Carrey and McGregor to act out their make-out scenes, but they don’t mention it.

McGregor does talk, though, about visiting Phillip Morris to get to know his character. He said his main goal was to play Morris realistically, not as a stereo-typical gay man. He hit the nail on the head.

Mentioned in the “making of” was my favorite thing about the movie – it’s about a con man, not a gay one. Yeah, it definitely hits you in the face with the fact that these men are gay, but the real greatness here is in Russell’s ability to smart the hell out of everyone.

The movies that make you care about its characters are the best kind.

I wish Russell wasn’t locked up for life. I wish his next parole wasn’t until his 120 birthday.

I can’t wait for him to escape again. If he did, it would be for the 15th time.

He’s just an overly-smart guy who’s in love.

He didn’t kill anyone, he just stole a shit load of money.

Movie of the week: The Joneses

If you don’t watch the trailer before watching the movie — you’ll get a little freaked.

This movie is about a set of four people paid to play as if they are a family, a perfect one. All four of them are attractive (meow David Duchovny), and they have cool stuff. That’s why they are paid — to “sell” the stuff they have.

The movie opens with them driving into their new city. Their house is already perfectly decorated once they arrive. At first, they have no conversations or indicate that they aren’t an actual family. That’s why the scene of the daughter, played by Amber Heard, stripping off her clothes and crawling into “Dad’s” bed is pretty disturbing.

After that the story unravels.

Though you can see the ending coming, it is such a timely topic.

Everyone is so obsessed with having what everyone else has, or being one step ahead of another, that real life becomes jaded.

I actually wouldn’t be surprised if this movie wasn’t “based on a real story.” They are likable, charming and gorgeous – who doesn’t want to be those things? Because the people who surround them can’t actually turn into The Joneses, they do the next best thing – buy all of the same shit The Joneses own.

Good job Redbox. I may not watch this one over and over like I’m going to with It’s Kind of a Funny Story, but it was a doozy.

Other reviewers were right. It really is a “funny,” “sophisticated,” “timely” and a “zeitgeist film.”

Movie of the week: It’s Kind of a Funny Story

While you’re reading this post play this song: White Hinterland — Icarus

I have already downloaded the soundtrack for this movie and I’ve ordered the movie itself off Amazon. This should clue you in to how wonderful this movie is. I want to watch and listen to it over and over and over.

This movie is about a 16-year-old boy who is struggling from depression, so he checks himself into a mental hospital to get help. While there he makes friends and realizes that he is going to struggle from the illness all his life, so he better learn how to deal with it.

The artistic scenes and the soundtrack really make this movie wonderful. If you aren’t a fan of the song playing, then I’m not sure you’d be a fan of the film. It has the same air. This song plays two or three times during the film, really setting the mood.

A good example of its artisitc feel is in this scene. It’s so relevent to the movie because the song is talking about how hard it is to live “Under Pressure,” which is what this 16-year-old boy is doing.

This is the first film I’ve seen where Zach Galifianakis plays a serious role. Yeah, he makes some jokes, but they are more serious. In the movie he is a funny guy, but I think that’s because Galifianakis can’t help but be.

Thank you, Redbox. This movie is SO good. Unless you have no depth, you’ll love it.

Movie of the week: Due Date

This movie is intensely tiring. Zach Galifianakis is a riot, but holy hell, Robert Downey, Jr. should have killed him.

In this movie Galifianakis’ character, Ethan Trimblay, gets Downey’s character, Peter Highman, into a lot of trouble. While they are trying to get back to L.A. so Highman can see the birth of his baby, Trimblay gets him kicked off a plane, a broken arm, high, arrested at the Mexican border and shot.

It’s tiring.It’s funny. For a couple brief seconds, it’s moving.

Trimblay is annoying. Highman hates him for the majority of the film, until he realizes Trimblay’s father has died. Then he tries to be nice to him, then he kinda kicks his ass.

If this movie were diagnosed with a disorder, it would be bipolar disease.

Highman’s constant change of attitude toward Trimbaly makes this film tiring. That and the constant obstacles.

Galifanakis is the reason this movie is funny. If you need an explination  click on the link above on his name — you’ll understand.

Robert Downey, Jr., well, he’s a fox and he has a innate attitude problem that was perfect for this role. Kind of like Iron Man without the outfit.

If you want to snuggle up on the couch and relax, don’t even try to do so with this movie in the DVD player.

Also, it’s pretty awkward at times. Don’t watch it with your mother.

Movie of the week: The Switch

The best part? Well, Jason Bateman. But more specifically–he uses a picture of Diane Sawyer to “produce sperm” into a cup.

The rest of the film is pretty predictable. You get the gist from the preview –Bateman’s character gets plastered and switches his juice for this other “hunky” guy’s juice and ends up being a father. That’s really it, other than some small details like Bateman being horribly neurotic, and his kid being exactly the same.

Overall, I thought it was an OK film. It’s funny, it’s cute, it has a good plot line; but I probably wouldn’t watch it again unless it was on TV or something.

Honestly, it’s a typical Jennifer Aniston film. She only does romantic comedies, even when she tries not too (Come on Aniston. Even The Good Girl and Management didn’t take you out of your element.).

My advice: If you’re in love with Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Jeff Goldblum or Juliette Lewis, watch it. If you’re a sperm donor baby, watch it. Otherwise — pass.

Movie of the week: The Romantics

As if I just went through an old shoebox from a past relationship, this movie ended with me feeling horribly notalgiac.

It’s a love story, yeah, but not one that ignites joy.

It centers on a group of seven friends and their love for one another, but not friendship kind of love. Cheating on each other with each other kind of love. An “incestuous love” is what Katie Holmes character calls it, and she is right on.

Actually, I will admit that I’m a little bitter towards the male lead in this film, played by Josh Duhamel. He has to pick between two girls to marry — one is blond and simple, one is brunette and complicated. It’s one of those stories.

In case you don’t know to which story I’m referring, I’m talking about the story where the man must choose between loving a woman who will make his life simple – agree with him, take care of him, love him; or a love that is full of passion, intellect, fights. The kind of love that is challenging.

In the movie he actually makes the metephor “I’m scared of the ocean.” Blah.

I’m bitter that this guy has two girls to choose from and he actually leans towards the simple one. COME ON!

Something that was interesting about this movie from a college-student stand point though – all seven “friends” are college graduates, in relationships, with jobs, but they talk constantly about how they are at the brink of losing it. That they aren’t happy. They bring up  class assignments they had — “remember that  paper junior year” or “remember that red dress you took out of my closet sophmore year,” and it’s strange because right now I’m thinking of college as a bridge, not a destination. To these people, college was it, even after ten years.

I’m not sure if it was the complicated love story or the college years reflections that made me feel so heavy, but whatever it was worked- if that is what Galt Neiderhoffer, the director and writer of the book, was going for. Bravo.

My advice: If you feel like going through an old shoebox, just pick up this movie instead. As least I didn’t cry.

Now I’m going to watch this to get happy.

Movie of the week: Solitary Man.

Don’t waste your time, even with the link to the preview above. This movie was boring. When it wasn’t boring it was depressing.

I’m not talking “a good cry is awesome sometimes,” I’m talking about how I was sitting on my couch with my arms outreached asking WHY IN THE HELL WOULD SOMEONE MAKE THIS MOVIE?

I get it, I guess. It’s about an old guy, who thinks he’s dying, so he starts cheating on his wife and taking advantage of 18-year-old girls.. cool. Gross.

When I pulled the movie up in the Redbox I thought it might be a good one because it has a bunch of good actors including  — Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Mary-Louise Parker, Danny DeVito, Jenna Fischer and Jesse Eisenburg. They all did a great job, of course. But the screenwriters should be shot.

Maybe if I was in the mood to watch a movie about a dirt bag guy who mistreats everyone in his life, even his grandson, I might be into it. But that day wasn’t today. And that day will never come.

It’s gross. It’s sad. It’s depressing. It’s annoying. It’s boring.

Don’t rent it.

The Redbox failed me this time.

Movie of the week: City Island

If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you may have already noticed that I don’t like to pick box office movies. I picked this one for three reasons: It was on Redbox’s A-D list, I had never heard of it, it looked like a lower budget film.

I’d say I made another successful choice.

This movie centers a middle-aged man from City Island. He is proud, he is stubborn, he is a liar.

Like the father in many families, or at least in those portrayed in movies and TV shows, everyone centers him and has similar characteristics. The daughter is a college student (stripper), the son is normal (has a fetish with fat chicks), the wife thinks the husband is going to play poker (cheating on her) and the guy from prison is just a guy from prison (the husband’s son from a different woman).

The elements in this movie were those of good science project. The plot is thick. The characters are obscene. The setting is gorgeous (City Island is located across a bridge from The Bronx, New York).

What’s strange, but maybe predicatable about this movie is the guy from prison is the moral center. He is the one who keeps the characters from traveling down paths they shouldn’t. Though he was locked up for stealing an Impala, and two-thirds of the way through the flick he steals the wife’s car, he is the reason they all decide to tell the truth. He is the leader of the happy ending. Yeah, sorry.. it’s a happy ending.

Though it’s not a movie I would watch over and over, I’m glad I saw it. It’s witty, funny, but not light-hearted. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.

Holy hell that was good.

I can’t say I’ve seen  a lot of movies about Facebook, but next The Social Network, this one’s the best.

When I approached the local Redbox, not yet knowing what I was going to watch, I didn’t realize it would be a mind-tumber, an unexpected drama, nor a love story. Especially the last one because I normally hate love stories.

So, starting out, this documentary was supposed to be centered on a little girl who paints wonderful pictures. After the child sends one of her paintings from her home in Michigan, to a photographer in New York — a painting of one of his pictures — the group of filmmakers then decided to start documenting the story of this wonderful painter.

Over time, after photographer Nev becomes friends with little Abby on Facebook, he develops friendships with her entire family.

He becomes FB friends with them one-by-one. Mother, step-dad, cousins, close friends and finally her older sister. Because this sister tells Nev she is an artist and music-maker, and her pictures depict a young, gorgeous woman, Nev quickly finds himself encompassed with her.

This is when it started to get weird. This guy is drop-dead-gorgeous. Why does he need to use FB to find the ladies?

Good God.

This is not the strangest thing that happens in this movie but, the weirdness is what makes it.

If there wasn’t a question-and-answer session with Nev and the other filmmakers after the flick, I wouldn’t have believed for one second that this was a documentary.

The composition is flawless. The settings are flawless. The characters are flawless. The best writers in the world couldn’t have written those characters. (Well, OK, maybe the best.)

The point is — this movie was great. Besides the great twist and turns, the main character, Nev, is a real guy and he really feel in love. Just not with who he thought he was.

And, damn, what a hottie.

Though regretting it now, I have decided to write my blog on random movies out of the Redbox.

Because I would rather spend the extra $10 a month on a pitcher or two, I have decided to “suspend” my Netflix account. Thus, previous boring nights I have needed to fill my movie-void by hitting up a Redbox. Normally, I rent something I’ve been dying to see, but every once in a while I just get something that looks interesting.

Renting a random movie in the past has concluded in one of two attitudes — “Holy hell that movie was awesome,” or “What moron wrote that script?”

When I proposed this idea to Dr. B she thought maybe I would have a hard time finding time to watch and write about a movie each week, but I told her I would stick it out. Tonight, when I went to rent my first movie, the first two Redboxes I went to were “out of service.” This is going to be awesome.

I’ve decided there will be some method to my madness, but I’ll make it up as I go along. Tonight — I just picked the most interesting sounding on the first page of new releases.

The popcorn’s poppin’. The soda is cold. First feature of the blog – Catfish.

Stay tuned.