Remember Me

OK OK, you got me, I will admit it. I did go see this movie because Robert Pattinson is in it. Wait a second before you judge me though. I don't like Pattinson in Twilight, he is better than his insipid costar sure, but I am still not thrilled with him in these films. I did like him as Cedric Diggory though, and there are a few moments in Twilight where you see that he may have some depth as an actor. In this film he plays Tyler Hawkins, brooding poet living in a crappy New York apartment and chain smoking his way through life. No one does brooding quite like Robert Pattinson.

The rest of the cast is phenomenal. Pierce Brosnan plays Charles Hawkins, Tyler's distant business minded father. The always classy Lena Olin plays Diane Hirsch, Tyler's remarried and loving mother. Emilie de Ravin plays Alysa "Allie" Craig a college student aspiring to be a social worker specializing in criminal justice. Chris Cooper plays Sgt. Neil Craig, Alysa's overbearing father and investigator for the NYPD. Finally we have relative newcomer Ruby Jerins who plays Caroline Hawkins, Tyler's adorable little sister. Ruby was divine in this film and I hope to see her get more traction as an actress from this role.

The film follows the Hawkins family and the Craig family through a summer in New York, focusing primarily on Tyler and Allie. The movie starts on a NY subway platform where an 11 year old Allie is waiting for a train with her mother. As the train approaches two young men pull guns and take the mother's purse. They get on the train to leave but when the doors open one last time the shoot the mother and leave with the departing train. We first meet the Hawkins family at a graveside. We find out later that it is Tyler's older brother who died on his 22nd birthday.

The complexities of grieving family are something that could be endlessly studied. No two people grieve in the same way. When you get together more people all grieving the same thing but in different ways, things can get very tense. Some people try to hide from their grief, some embrace it and move on, some languish in their grief never willing to heal. Tyler and Allie find each other through interesting circumstances, but what I think bonds them is that they have both suffered great losses.

The film goes through the typical romantic comedy style interactions for Allie and Tyler. They meet cute, go on a clever first date with an activity aside from dinner. They flirt, the make out and they fight and break up. All of this you should expect. This movie is good for the parts of the film outside of this relationship. True, there are two incredibly hot make out sessions that are fast forward-to-the-good-part worthy. The films true charms, however, are in the little things outside of the main romance. Ruby Jerins portrays the artsy little sister with true panache. She makes you wish this little girl were real so that you could be her friend and mentor. If you watch this movie and don't want to crawl into the screen and give this little girl a hug and ask her about her drawings you must really dislike children.

Film watchers be warned, this movie requires a pack of tissues, it is not the stuff of summer romance that you might expect. Tyler's legal troubles that develop through the movie lead him to a fate that none could have predicted as Allie's father's world is turned upside down. The end of the movie is beautiful in the pain that in inflicts, you never see it coming, just like the real event.

Inglorious Basterds

I have already mentioned that I wanted to see the Best Picture nominees before the Oscars, it should be noted that I failed miserably. I managed to see 3 out of 10. I will eventually see most of them, but 10 is a big number. I did manage to see Inglorious Basterds before the awards show, and I am tremendously glad that I did. I wasn't sure how I felt about this movie going into it. I had heard that is was incredibly violent, and knowing Quentin Tarantino movies I didn't doubt this. I also thought that this would be a very sad movie, you don't often go to a WWII film and laugh your way through it. I watched this one because my roommate wanted to, and I ended up loving it.

The title of the film refers to a group of Jewish-American soldiers who tromp through Germany killing and scalping Nazis. This group is led by Leiutenant Aldo Raine, played by the brilliant Brad Pitt, a soldier from Tennessee. The Basterds are very good at what they do and their name is soon feared by all Nazi soldiers. The Basterds are a very violent group, and much of the film's gross out moments come when they are on the screen. The scalping, while disgusting, was not too bloody for me, the chicken, to watch. I did turn away when they took a bat to a Nazi's head but apparently it wasn't too terrible to watch. Another name among the Basterds is BJ Novak from The Office. His character doesn't talk much, but it was interesting to see him play someone very serious and stoic.

While the title of the film would indicate that the story is about these Basterds, I would have to say that the movie is only half about them. The rest of the movie is taken up by two brilliantly portrayed nemeses. Christoph Waltz won an Oscar for his role in this film as Colonol Hans Landa of the Third Reich. Col. Landa is known as the Jew Hunter among his peers, and Waltz does a stunning job of bringing out this man's true brilliance and creepiness at the same time. I truly hated this man while watching this film, and while I guess that is probably not hard to do while playing a Nazi I really believe that Waltz took it to another level. His nemesis is Shoshanna Dreyfus played by Melanie Laurent.

Col. Landa and Shoshanna first encounter each other in the dairy region of France when Landa slaughters her family and she narrowly escapes. This is our first glimpse of the relentless heartlessness of Landa. Shoshanna picks her life back up in Paris where she runs a relatively small cinema. Landa and Shoshanna are reintroduced when the Third Reich decides to hold a movie premiere at Shoshanna's theater and Landa is in charge of the security. The brilliance of these two actors is highlighted in a cafe scene where Landa goes on and on about putting creme on Shoshanna's apple strudel. The scene is so incredibly tense, you sit on your edge the whole time, yet really they are just talking about dessert.

The movie comes to a peak as we near the movie premiere. The movie is about Frederick Zoller a sniper that held down a town for the Nazis single handedly. Frederick, who plays himself in the movie called Nation's Pride, falls for Shoshanna. It is his idea to have the premiere at her cinema. The Basterds hear about the premiere from a prominent German actress, Bridget von Hammersmark played by Diane Kruger, who has turned against the Third Reich. When they hear that Hitler himself will be at the premiers the Basterds come up with a plan. The Basterds are going to go into the premiere with Bridget and with tons of explosives strapped to their ankles.

What the Basterds, and the Third Reich, don't know is that Shoshanna has devised her own plan for taking out the people in the theater. Shoshanna and her projectionist have a large collection of film as you would expect a theater to have. The upside for them is that at this time in history film is one of the most flammable items on the planet. They have enough to burn the theater to the ground.

I won't tell you how the whole things comes to an end because I really want you to see it. If you don't mind a little blood and a lot of tension, you will love this film. It's a good story, everyone loves to hate the Nazis. Brad Pitt is always talented, and you will definitely want to hear him try to speak Italian with his Tennessee accent. There is enough humor in this film to break up the tension and find that perfect balance of action and comedy.

Star Trek

I wanted to see this movie when it was in theaters. Somehow I never got around to it. I wanted to see it when it was at the discount theaters, again I didn't get around to it. I finally rented it this weekend. While I would not consider myself a Trekkie, I have always been a Star Trek fan. I usually like the movies, and I regularly watched The Next Generation series on TV. I am a little young to have watched the original series on TV, but my parents made sure we saw the movies.

This movie was good not great. For those few of you who may not be in the know, this is an origins story with a twist. It shows you how the original characters from the series came together to man the Starship Enterprise, well how they would have come together if it had happened in an alternate universe. For those of you who are closer in age to my generation you may find some of this movie boring or confusing since you are probably not familiar with the original cast. Sure you have heard the phrase "Beam me up Scottie" a lot of times, and you may be cool enough to do the Vulcan farewell, but you don't really know much more than that. For this group of people this movie is more about the action and adventure of deep space travel.

The story is that a Romulan man named Nero has traveled back in time to try to prevent a tragedy to his people. He personally holds Spock responsible. Nero kills Kirk's father, so Kirk grows up a rebel with no respect for Star Fleet. He still ends up joining but winds up as a stowaway on the Enterprise's first voyage instead of captaining it. The Enterprise pursues Nero across space to try to stop him from destroying Earth. It's very entertaining. There are lots of phasers, hand to hand combat and explosions. I definitely think that you non-Trekkies out there would enjoy this movie.

For those of you that do know and love the original Star Trek cast then this movie is a must see. It's very witty, there are lots of jokes that reference the original series, but they are somewhat subtle. Directed by JJ Abrams this film definitely captures the excitement from the original series in an updated way. I think the most exciting part of the film was seeing Leonard Nimoy comprise his original role as Spock. He still has what it takes. The scene where future Spock meets current Spock was laugh out loud funny. Major points go to Zachary Quinto for pulling off Spock in a manner that I think old Leo himself was impressed by. Young Sulu, Chekhov and Scottie are near perfection. One of my favorite lines in a Star Trek movie is said by Checkhov: "Take me to your nuclear wessels." While they don't use this line exactly there is a scene or two of Chekhov trying to say the letter V.

So in the end I say definitely watch this one. It's a little long, so it is probably perfect for a rainy Saturday. I wouldn't tell you to run out and buy it, it's not the kind of movie you watch over and over. If you haven't seen it yet, and you like the idea of Star Trek even a little bit, put this version on your list of rainy day movies.

When In Rome

I cannot tell a lie. This movie looked really bad, really really bad. I have a thing for bad movies. You know the ones I am talking about. The movies that take things too far, the ones where the cheese factor is sky high. I actually like the sequels to movies that were already pretty cheesy. I liked Step Up and Step Up 2: The Streets. I fully intend to watch the fourth Cutting Edge movie that will be premiering on ABC Family in the next few weeks. Please don't think that I don't know the difference between good movies that normal people enjoy and the awesomely terrible movies that I get a kick out of. I thought this movie would fall into the latter category, but I was surprised to find out that it did not.

The movie stars Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel. Kristen has a impeccable sense of comedic timing. I haven't ever seen Veronica Mars but it is on my list of shows to watch now because of her. Josh Duhamel is not know for his comedic abilities, he has starred more in action style shows and movies. He does a heck of a job in this film though. Kristen plays Beth a curator of the Guggenheim. She loves her job, she is not married nor in a serious relationship. She says that when she finds someone that she loves more than her job she will settle down. Josh plays Nick a former pro-football player who is now a sports photographer.

The two meet at a wedding in Rome. They bond over their shared horror at the bride and groom's impetuousness. A misconception leads Beth to become frustrated with love. She climbs into the fountain of love, conveniently located right outside the reception hall, and pulls out some coins. When she returns to New York she finds that several men have fallen head over heels in love with her. Her paramores are played by Will Arnett (Arrested Development), Dax Shephard and John Heder (Napoleon's Dynamite). These gentlemen are hilarious.

I won't go as far as to call this movie a great movie. It was entertaining. I was funny. The ending is predictable, but enjoyable. If you like romantic comedies, you will like this one. Light and frothy, with some beautiful scenes of Italy thrown in. Rent it for a ladies night, and enjoy the eye candy that is Josh Duhamel.