Crazy On The Outside -- This is a movie that (I believe) never made it to the theatres. I think it was only released at the Cannes Movie festival in 2009 (a quick check of IMDB showed that there was a release in 2010 in January, but it didn't make it to a theatre near us on the East coast). The movie stars Tim Allen as a guy getting out of prison (a 3 year term) which he took instead of ratting out his friend (Ray Liotta). His sister (Sigourney Weaver) picks him up from jail and has him stay with her family (J.K. Simmons plays her husband). And he finds out that his girlfriend (who his sister told him had died) is still alive (played by Julie Bowen - Claire from "Modern Family"). The Pocket Ferengei loved this movie, he thought it was a funny movie. I thought it was a decent movie (I first thought that this was a 'semi-autobiographical' movie about Time Allen, but it's not.) Worth a look.
The Fourth Kind -- This movie stars Mila Jovovich, and she plays a psychiatrist named Abbey Tyler who lived in Nome, Alaska, and how she gets suckered in to researching "close encounters of the fourth kind". At the beginning of the movie Jovovich talks to the camera as herself and states that the footage in this film is from archived footage, tape recorded sessions and notes from actual therapy sessions. When I saw the trailer (on a previous video--don't know which one), it looked interesting. The film got "outed" as using "hoaxed" film (and according to IMDB (again) "...promotional materials from Universal, the film is framed around a psychologist named Abigail Tyler who interviewed traumatized patients in Nome. However Alaska state licensing examiner Jan Mays says she can't find records of an Abigail Tyler ever being licensed in any profession in Alaska. Ron Adler, CEO and director of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute and Denise Dillard, president of the Alaska Psychological Association say they've never heard of Abigail Tyler. Web sites for an "Alaska Psychiatry Journal" and "Alaska News Archive" containing references to Tyler were created by the film's producers, but were outed as hoaxes when it was discovered they were registered a month before the film's release and the purported author of one of the archived news articles stated she had never written it".
The movie co-stars Elias Koteas (who looks a lot like Christopher Meloni from Law & Order - SVU, but it's not him; Elias played the skinhead from "Some Kind Of Wonderful" (another decent movie).)
It's an OK movie, probably something to watch when there's absolutely nothing else to do.
All About Steve -- This was the third Sandra Bullock movie from 2009 and if you believed all the reviews it's the worst movie of the year. There have been way worse movies in 2009 (some of which were nominated for (and lost) Academy Awards (In the Loop, Up In The Air)). Sandra Bullock is one of my favorite actresses, and I really feel sorry for her with all the bad luck she got when she won for Best Actress (look up curse of Academy Award Best Actress winners). Sandra plays a woman who is not normal (they did not come straight out and say she had a psychological illness, but she kind of reminded me of Sheldon from Big Bang Theory). She writes crossword puzzles for the local newspaper, and her parents set her up on a blind date with Bradley Cooper. Of course things go bad, and Sandra gets suckered in to following after Bradley by Thomas Hayden Church (who plays a news reporter--a man on the scene reporter-- and his cameraman is Bradley Cooper). A secondary interest for Sandra is an actor DJ Qualls (who is an up and coming "Steve Buscemi" type actor, not really a looker, but his acting is really good). I think this movie deserved better than what the critics gave it. It's not one that I would go to the theatre to see, but its a good movie to watch on Encore.
Shrek The Fourth (Or Shrek Forever After; Or Shrek The Final Chapter) -- I am a huge fan of the Shrek movies (even #3). This movie has gotten a lot of bad reviews, but I liked it. The story was good, the animation (as always) is fantastic, some of the dialogue was unbelievably funny (Donkey calling gingy "cracker" got me and the guy next to us (who almost spit out his drink when it came wizzing by) cracking up). This is definitely a keeper for me (I'll be buying it to go with the Shrek collection I have -- I'll also be spending some time this week going to Wallmart (and searching on-line) for new toys if they have them).
Defendor -- This was a really good movie. IMDB got it completely wrong by calling it "A comedy" (rest of the bio: "a comedy centered around three characters: an everyday guy who comes to believe he's a superhero, his psychiatrist, and the teenager he befriends"). This is not a comedy. It has some comedy elements to it (not many, but some). I might label it a dramedy (at the least), but definitely not a comedy. It stars Woody Harrelson as "Defendor" (who for all intents and purposes is playing Woody from Cheers (or in all actuality just himself), but as a straightman (no comedy). He's a mentally retarded person who dresses up as a superhero (Batman/Punisher type -- utility belt, with some really clever, non-lethal devices (unless they fall and break their necks from the marbles or are allergic to wasp stings)). This movie also stars Elias Koteas (as a bad guy, which he plays very well); Sandra Oh as the psychiatrist, and Kat Dennings as the girlfriend (she's turning out to be a decent actress because she made me so angry during this movie). This movie is definitely worth a look...and if you have ever seen the trailer for this movie (which is cut to make it look like a comedy, so maybe that's why IMDB got it wrong) you will be completely surprised--because its a different movie.
This movie got us talking about Woody's character afterwards (Bubba and Sharkboy were over tonight and this was the movie we picked), and the PF said it correctly "he should be Rorshack's partner". Woody's character did not see any "shades of gray" at all, everything was "black or white (good or bad)" there was absolutely no in between. I think Woody should have been nominated for this movie (instead of The Messenger -- which I will be watching later today).
That's all for now...more later. Booboo
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