NEW THIS WEEK:
Body of Lies (See If You Want)
"Director Ridley Scott is back with collaborator/muse Russell Crowe, but to get a little more bang for his big budget’s buck, he’s borrowed Martin Scorsese’s current collaborator/muse to take the role that once would have been Crowe’s.... The action scenes goe on for an awfully long time though – and for a good hour, they seem almost pointless. They certainly establish Leo’s bona fides as a tough guy, and they set up the relationship between DiCaprio and Crowe very well, but it’s not all that obvious that they’re accomplishing anything – or what their goals even are. It’s going to take some patience to get through it all."
Full review at moviejungle.com
The Duchess (Stay Away From)
"I sense through history there must have been thousands of stories of noble women held back by their royal spouses – beloved by the masses but loathed by the men they married because they couldn’t give them a male heir. And I feel like Hollywood is determined to tell every one of them... For all her suffering, we don’t see acted out why Georgiana is a great figure. You do learn that all of this becomes important – when you read the “whatever happened to” subtitles at the end. Director Saul Dibb has made a movie about an asterisk to history and not about history itself."
Full review at moviejungle.com
NEW ON DVD:
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Jason Segel, Mila Kunis)
Producer/writer/director Judd Apatow credit doesn’t forget his friends, especially if they have talent... he continues to use many of the same people, confident they’ll deliver. And with Forgetting Sarah Marshall, he’s mostly right. Segel and company will absolutely be delivering Apatow another box office hit... and will be delivering to fans some more great and quotable lines – but they aren’t delivering the movie world another comedy for the ages like Virgin or Knocked Up proved to be. (See If You Want)
Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow)
As Marvel Super Hero movies go, it's the best debut for a series yet. Better than the first Spider-Man, better than the first X-Men, but I'm not sure it's better than Spider-Man 2 or X2. They gotta call the sequel Iron Man Lives Again. (Go See)
You Don't Mess With The Zohan (Adam Sandler, John Turturro)
… you would also think you don’t mess with a sensitive subject like the violence in the Middle East, but Adam Sandler and crew do take it on in You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. Other filmmakers in the post-9/11 world have bravely taken on the subjects of terror and the unease in that region – big names like Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, and George Clooney. You know those names, but off the top of your head, can you name the movie? Probably not. No one went.... It’s still just an Adam Sandler movie that relies on bare asses about every fifteen minutes to get a laugh. But you have to give credit to a movie that takes such a serious topic and makes everyone involved look just a little silly. There is some common ground: bare asses can be funny to everyone. (Go See)
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Hello, and welcome to the site. I'm going to keep going at something I very much enjoyed the last few years: writing about movies, tv and pop culture. I admittedly never went to film school or anything close (and if you look at this site, it's pretty obvious I never went to any kind of design school either), but I think through years on Rochester radio as the Go-To-Guy for "Who's that guy in that movie who did that thing?," I developed something of a rapport with listeners. I'd like to think you knew me and trusted my opinion.
Some of my reviews are right here, and for some others, I'll refer you to moviejungle.com, where I've joined up as a staff reviewer. Thanks for your patience following the links. Still, I'll try to provide something fresh about a new movie below... So please... click around! And please comment!
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A few lists tied to recent movies...
The Official Ranking Of The Star Wars Movies:
1. The Empire Strikes Back 2. Star Wars 3. Revenge Of The Sith 4. Return Of The Jedi 5. Attack Of The Clones 6. The Phantom Menace 7. The Clone Wars
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have reunited for Step Brothers -- a piece of crap movie from two otherwise talented guys. So here are each of their 5 best you can rent instead (not counting cameos):
WILL FERRELL:
1. Anchorman 2. Old School 3. Stranger Than Fiction 4. Talladega Nights* 5. Dick
JOHN C. REILLY:
1. Boogie Nights 2. Walk Hard 3. Talladega Nights 4. Gangs Of New York 5. Chicago
*featuring both
THE BEST MIKE MYERS CHARACTERS:
1. Dr. Evil
2. Dieter
3. Wayne Campbell
4. The host of "The Nude House Of Wacky People"
5. Austin Powers
THE BEST "HULK" MOMENTS IN POP CULTURE HISTORY
(Even I, a devoted comics reader, never really read The Incredible Hulk on a regular basis. It always seemed limited as to what could be done with in. So here's what I pieced together)
1. Ultimate Hulk eating his opponents in the pages of The Ultimates
2. The last 30 seconds of each episode of the TV series, as David Banner moves to a new town and that piano music plays (ripped off years later by James Blunt)
3. The last 30 seconds of the Ang Lee movie, when Velvet Revolver pick the movie up a pace, just in time for it to end
4. Hulk Hogan reveals himself as the 3rd member of the NWO
THE BEST ADAM SANDLER MOVIES
1. The Wedding Singer
2. Punch Drunk Love
3. You Don't Mess with the Zohan
4. Airheads (sure, it's an ensemble, but it's a guilty pleasure)
5. Spanglish
The Sex & The City list. The category is what you probably think it is:
1. Miranda (after the 1st season)
2. Charlotte
3. Samantha
4. Carrie
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COMMENTS:
I sent out an e-mail to people who were kind enough to contact me over the last year and let them know they can send comments or reviews of their own: to be Ebert to my Siskel if you will. I'd love to make the site more interactive, so please feel free.
NEW: A friend at the same screening of I Am Legend sent me some comments before I had a chance to write mine. He's wrong, but here's some of what he had to say (edited heavily to not reveal plot points):
"That movie was one of the worst action films I have ever seen. I hate movies that fail the test of a minimum level of logic..IT MADE NO SENSE!
The movie took its worst turn when (MAJORLY EDITING HERE)... he's always getting some kind of head injury where he's groggy (EDITING AGAIN)... OF COURSE AFTER THE DAMAGE IS DONE HE IS SUDDENDLY NOT ONLY ABLE TO STAND BUT TO PICK UP HIS DOG AND WALK TO HIS TRUCK AND DRIVE AWAY! IM SURE THE DOG WAS THINKING, "COULDN'T YOU HAVE DECIDED TO BE ABLE TO MOVE A LITTLE EARLIER?"... I also hated all the brief flashbacks. You assume his wife and kid were killed. There was also too much downtime in the movie and the brief funny-cute parts were not funny such as that stupid Shreck scene. Also my friend pointed out that there a full useless 10 minutes of him looking around for his dog in the dark when the movie could have at least revealed more...
NEW: Bert went and saw Mr. Brooks starring Kevin Costner on his own and sent in a review I'm sure he'd love others to read.
The plot outline sentence being used by most web sites for this film is: "A psychological thriller about a man who is sometimes controlled by his murder-and-mayhem-loving alter ego."
Yeah, it's a psychological thriller, but I'd also call it a dark comedy. Costner and Hurt really are a hoot in this one. Typically of Hollywood, the protagonist is a despicable criminal, made a sympathetic character in the film. However, Costner is surprisingly good in an odd role for the guy who's been America's best baseball movie hero for almost 20 years (Bull Durham, 1988, Field of Dreams, 1989, For Love of the Game, 1999). Hurt is his usual professional self and Demi Moore is lookin' good! Bizarre movie, but well worth seeing.
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You know, I was thinking about your original email to folks that got me going again on writing reviews. You said "...be Ebert to my Siskel if you will." What do you think of actually trying a debate or two on your site over selected movies? Maybe schedule live chat gathering on line? It would take a fair amount of pre planning, but might be a lot of fun.
Bert, I'd love to do live chat, but lack the know-how to get it done. I have to stick to the e-mail environment, where I cut and paste comments, then add my own. So keep 'em coming please...
And more from Bert:
"Well Mike, I think the world's better off without another cult, especially one that might have formed around this movie! Superficially The Da Vinci Code is a fun film to watch, just as the book of the same title upon which it's based is fun to read. It doesn't matter that they're both nonsense - at least according to real historians, art historians, semioticians and other scholars - it's still an entertaining adventure. Maybe a little too frenetic here and there and the protagonist's decoding skills almost became comical, but I'd agree with your "Go See". Just don't take it seriously.
My old friend Beth Adams caught Philip Seymour Hoffman in Before The Devil Knows You're Dead:
Once I was over the emotional trauma of the plot, I realized what a stunning film this was. Our Phillip Seymour Hoffman was amazing. My only problem with the movie was that I was continually distracted by the obvious stretch that the character played by Ethan Hawke could actually be this guy's brother... I can't remember the last time when I was at a movie where the crowd sat in stunned silence as the credits were rolling and remained that way after the lights went up.
Kathleen skimmed through the TV/DVR section of the site:
What happened to Boston Legal this year?! Still loving James Spader who is just one of my fave actors, but poor Denny Crane has been over the top ridiculous this year! Nip/Tuck is still freaky but I am still watching, wasnt happy with Rescue Me this year ( know Dennis Leary is a writer/producer of the show and, and that has now become painfully obvious as almost every episode this past season has a woman who wants to do all they can to hop in bed with him)-- it just didnt grab me but I am hoping that my Boston Legal can pull itself up. The first 2 episodes this year were great, then it went downhill.
(She's so right about Rescue Me, and I'm not sure Boston Legal needed to clear house the way they did to make room for dull characters like the two new women)
And while I don't yet have a celebrity endorsement, I do have one from a celebrity's mom:
Hi, Mike- I last e-mailed you when you left WHAM and hope that you are doing well and that you are happy with what you are doing. To catch you up on daughter, Kristen (Wiig), she had a small part in Knocked Up which landed her a lot of critical acclaim, she had a major part in "the Brothers Solomon" which unfortunately got bad reviews and she will play the first wife of actor John C. Reilly in the upcoming movie, Walk Hard - a take-off on Walk the Line. She is very busy in NYC still with SNL and loves New York. Will e-mail you any updates but I would like to tell you that I miss you on WHAM and really hope you are happy. Stay in touch.
I just saw Knocked Up and was happy to pause it when Kristen came on and tell the room: "She's one of ours."
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Finally, some misspellings of my name that I'm putting here to try and ensure that this site shows up when you search for it:
mike digeorgio
mike digregorio
mike digronizio
mike digorgio
mike degiorgio
mike degorgio
mike degeorgeo
nick ditucci
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