Day 241: "Fifty-five is fast enough to kill you, but slow enough to make you think you're safe."

Anyway....picked something goofy sounding and mindless for tonight, as I'm hitting another brick wall of apathy regarding this entire endeavor.  This Halloween, I decided to go with the cross country race movie The Gumball Rally.  Stupid to the nth degree, starring more classic, exotic cars than you con shake a stick at, and described with whatever cliches pop into my mind, The Gumball Rally was a brain-dead comedy about an illegal auto race from the right side of the United States map to the left, winner take all.  There's a lot of nice stunt work, fast driving, and goofy dialogue (best line in the movie: "What's behind me is not important.").  It's not a work of genius, but without this movie, there would have been no Smokey and the Bandit or Cannonball Run (not that that would have been a loss to American cinema, but there you have it).  It had a few funny moments, but I can't decide if this was a chase movie or a comedy, and that's what hurt it in my mind.

Starring Michael Sarrazin, Raul Julia, Gary Busey, Stephen Keats and Nicholas Pryor, Gumball was an ensemble of b-list talent, and it shows.  Only Busey and Julia went on to better things, and this is actually one of Raul Julia's funniest roles; and yes, I include Gomez Addams in that statement.

Not great, but a good time waster.  The car work is reason alone to see this, as the acting is mediocre at best.  So if you would like to see a long distance, hour and a half car chase of some of the best cars from the early to mid seventies, give The Gumball Rally a shot, if not, skip it and watch Smokey and the Bandit, which I had a much better time with.  4.5/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!

Day 240: "I think there could be something wrong with Esther."

Nothing says Halloween quite like a good murderous child thriller.  Seeing one of those vicious little buggers go up against the adult world, while taking a few of them out in the process is always a good time.  Of course, Hollywood always cops out in the end and lets the miniscule murderer off the hook and alive to kill another day, but that's a topic for another rant.  Orphan is another in the long line of such films, but done very well and with a few twists and turns for good measure.  A married couple are looking to adopt a third child for their family, they visit a local girls home and encounter Esther.  She's intelligent, artistic, and, seemingly, the perfect little girl.  They wind up adopting her, and shortly after her arrival, bad things start happening and they escalate quickly.  One of the things I never understood about these movies was how the adults either A) are absolute dunderheads and ignore what's going on right under their noses, or B) are absolute dunderheads and ignore what their own children are seeing go down.  While there are several continuity issues (count the bullets, just saying), Orphan is a really good Halloween movie, assuming you're into the whole creepy kid thing.

Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga star as the misguided parents.  They are by no means stupid, but they make some really bad calls in the movie.  The real scene stealers are the children.  Jimmy Bennett, Aryanna Engineer, and especially Isabelle Fuhrman are great.  Fuhrman, who plays Esther, was amazing.  I had no trouble believing she had a murderous streak in her, as she let loose her inner insanity to bring Esther to life.  hands down one of the best performances by a child actor I've seen.

A smart thriller that just builds and builds to a whirlwind climax.  Methodically paced and written with the idea that the audience has half a brain, Orphan is worth seeing.  It is disturbing in several places because the filmmakers pull no punches showing children in a whole lot of impending and violent danger, but it's nice to see a movie that doesn't pull any punches.  7.75/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!

Day 239: "There's only one man for this operation: Agent WD-40. Steele. Dick Steele."

Not a whole lot to say here.  Spy Hard is the token satiric stab at the action/spy genre.  Nothing surprising, funny or interesting here.  The lone high point was the homage to the Maurice Binder opening credit sequences from the James Bond movies, as directed and sung by "Weird" Al Yankovic.  Best part of the movie.  This genre was so played-out at this point, I have no idea how they kept getting made.

Leslie Nielsen, Nicolette Sheridan, Any Griffith, Charles Durning, Barry Bostwick, Robert Guillaume, "Hulk" Hogan, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Mr. T, and Marcia Gay Harden all appeared in this disaster, and should have been banned from making anything else ever again.

This movie just plain sucked, and has restored my faith that imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery, it's just lazy storytelling and a lack of any original ideas by a group of people who should have quit a long time ago.  I've seen better film on the top of a bowl of week old chocolate pudding.  Utter s**t.  0.5/10 for the credit song and sequence alone.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!

Day 238: "The only style of dancing that Uncle Mitch likes involves a big shiny pole and a broken woman with daddy issues."

As my wife so succinctly put it, "Oh great...another stupid 'switched bodies" movie.  Really?"  There are precious few times when my gut instinct is wrong, and this was one of them. The Change-Up is successful on a couple of levels: it was written by the guys who wrote The Hangover, one of my all-time favorite comedies, and had a genuinely funny, talented cast.  Two childhood buddies, one a workaholic lawyer with a great family and the other a misogynistic, narcissist who is stuck in high school.  One night while out drinking, they stop to relieve themselves in a fountain, stumble home, and wake up the next morning living each others' lives.  Mayhem follows, with each learning the obligatory life lessons regarding happiness in their own lives.  Along the way, though, there is a plethora of fart jokes, nudity, pubic hair styling and highly uncomfortable situations regarding employment.  I had a lot of fun watching The Change-Up, and that's something I haven't honestly had in a while: an unexpected good time watching a movie.

Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds are the principle characters: Dave Lockwood and Mitch Planko, respectively.  Reynolds already holds a top ten spot in my favorite comedic actors (he reminds me of a young Chevy Chase with his range of facial expressions, deadpan delivery, and impeccable comedic timig), but Jason Bateman has really come into his own as well.  Since seeing him in the TV show Arrested Development, I've warmed up to him in a big way.  Leslie Mann plays Dave's long suffering wife Jamie.  Between Dave's inattentiveness and Mitch's constant passes, she's in hard place, and pulls the performance off without a hitch.  I laughed myself on the floor at her bedroom scene.  Olivia Wilde is Dave's legal assistant, and Mitch's romantic interest, and she drops another solid performance alongside the two.

The Change-Up is, at once, disgusting, sexist, touching (yes), and ultimately funny as hell.  Say what you will about the cliche of 'switched body' stories, this one works.  Absolutely worth the time, but not at all for the younger members of the family, I'm pretty happy with tonight's choice, and I'm hoping for a stroke of inspiration to pop it in again.  Assuming I have the time.  I might just have to make some, though.  8.25/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!

Day 237: "A DOG? Really? A dog. Well, could be worse."

Normally, when an actor appears alongside an animal, their career is in a serious downward spin.  Fortunately for Chevy Chase, Oh! Heavenly Dog is a speed bump on his fast track to comedy success in the 80's.  The third of Joe Camps' movies starring his famous pooch, Benji, Oh! Heavenly Dog's story revolves around a private investigator who is hired to solve a mysterious case, is himself murdered, arrives at Heaven's gates, is informed that the has a borderline acceptance to Heaven, and is given the chance to solidify his place in the afterlife by going back to solve his own murder.  The catch is, he's a dog.  Makes perfect sense, right?  Anyway, this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, but it's actually pretty enjoyable.  It's not high art, but I've definitely had worse times in front of a screen.

Most of Chase's role is a turn in front of the voiceover microphone, but when he is actually on screen, it's classic Chevy.  The sly looks, the wise cracks, the sarcasm, it's all there.  Surprisingly, Camp managed to get some pretty hefty talent in this movie: Omar Sharif, Jane Seymour, and Richard Vernon all appear here.  I would just like to know whose decision it was to make all heavenly denizens British in the 70's and 80's, I don't get it.

A fun, nonsensical time waster, Oh! Heavenly Dog has a little something for just about every audience member.  While I really like Chevy Chase, kids always go nuts for Benji, there's some raunchy humor (not too offensive), and a lot of slapstick.  Nothing serious or highbrow, just a pretty good time.  6.75/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!

Day 236: "You're mine now and forever...and I'm so happy.

1980's Maniac is one of those seminal horror films that helped to define the genre.  This movie was one of the first to take a more "realistic" view of serial murder.  A seemingly normal, if only a bit quirky, photographer by day has a much darker and sinister side that comes out in his spare time.  He is a predator, through and through.  He has had a traumatic childhood, due to the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother, and is now taking his revenge on random women that he encounters.  This film is an uncompromising and brutal look into the life of a serial killer, albeit a fictional one, but the similarities to real life killers like Bundy and Gacy are unmistakeable.  Horror films since have borrowed heavily from Maniac, most noticeably Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.  both are shot in a documentary style, not suffering from the quick jump cuts and other editing tricks used today to artificially heighten tension when it's not in the story. 

Starring Joe Spinell, who also wrote the script, he brings a real creepiness to the part, as he seems so normal in his daily life, but so brutal in his hidden one.  This was a really uncomfortable movie to watch at times because of the great performance Spinell puts in.  Special effects legend Tom Savini also makes an on-screen appearance here.  Most exciting for me was the casting of Caroline Munro.  She was my first real crush as a kid, and I'll see anything she does.

This is not a gore fest from beginning to end.  The story has its ups and downs, but always returns to its core as a horror film.  The real horror here is that this isn't a faceless or sarcastic killer who is unbelievable as a person.  This is a guy who could be your neighbor.  Maniac is a really good movie, but you can tell that it was the beginning of the flood that was to come.  7/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!

Day 235: "Bad things happen... but you can still live."

The last thing I expected from a summer "blockbuster" movie was an abundance of quality.  As one of the main characters so bluntly puts it several times throughout the film,"production values."  Super 8 was a really enjoyable science fiction/action movie that had me enjoying a pretty good story while strolling down Nostalgia Alley checking out all the cool little details from my childhood placed around the sets.  The story revolves around a tight group of friends trying to finish a labor of love: a Super 8 zombie movie that they have been working on for, what we can only assume, about a year.  The group has recently added a female cast member, and are shooting "on location" at a small train station, when there is a monumental disaster and it's all caught on film.  As is the case with most movie disasters, the military is soon involved and all hell begins to break loose as it becomes obvious that there was something alive on the train that has escaped.  The gang begins to investigate what's happening and is soon in way over their heads.  Amazingly, the heart of this film is worn on its sleeve, and there is quite the emotional attachment to these characters as well, as one has to cope with an unthinkable loss throughout, but comes out that much stronger.  It was a pleasant surprise to see well developed characters in a genre that can be hopelessly embroiled in its effects shots instead.

Joel Courtney plays Joe Lamb, Ryan Griffiths is Charles, and Ryan Lee is Cary; the three main boys.  They have a really nice chemistry and are believable as the teens in a whole world of trouble.  Courtney, in particular, has a great presence for such a young actor.  Elle Fanning portrays Alice Dainard, Joe's romantic interest and resident damsel-in-distress.  She has a great scene towards the beginning of the movie, acting in the movie within a movie, and completely steals the scene.  Ron Eldard, Kyle Chandler, and Noah Emmerich play the detached adults trying to make things right, generally failing in the attempts.

I enjoyed this movie a whole lot, and director J.J. Abrams does a nice job keeping the peril turned up to eleven, although I did find his overuse of the "BOO!!" scare tactic a touch annoying.  One of my favorite things about Super 8 was finding all the classic toys and models that I, myself, had played with and built in my youth.  I never thought I'd see Classic Monsters of Hollywood magazine or a monster model kitagain, and it was really cool.  Like the movie.  8.5/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!!