Cedar Rapids

Movie: Cedar Rapids

Genre: comedy

Synopsis: Tim Lippe (Ed Helms) is an insurance agent for a small insurance company in a really small Wisconsin town.  When the top salesman in the firm dies – under awkward circumstances, Tim is picked to represent the firm in the annual insurance convention in Cedar Rapids. To say Tim is naïve is to grossly understate the situation.  He arrives in Cedar Rapids where he has to share a room with “to be avoided at all costs” Dean Ziegler (John C. Reilly) and Ronald Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.)  Dean and Ronald join forces with Joan Ostrowski-Fox (Anne Heche) to try and pull Tim out of his cocoon.  He ends up getting drunk, smoking crack, skinny dipping with Joan - and having a fling with Joan.  Then he has to face the music at the convention awards ceremony.

My two cents: This was a really funny movie.  Tim reminds me of the innocence most of the citizens of Mayberry had.  Ann Heche had a great role, as did John C. Reilly.  Kurtwood Smith (the father from That 70’s Show) was perfect as the president of the insurance convention.  His initial meeting with Tim in a gym where they each have just a towel – and then nothing – on was hysterical.  I can’t fail to mention Sigourney Weaver’s role as Tim’s sixth grade teacher who has been sleeping with him for the last several month.  Last but not least, Alia Shawat (Michael Bluth’s niece in Arrested Development) was a hooker – but Tim kept thinking she was just hanging around the hotel looking for someone to give her a cigarette; so he would counsel her on the dangers of smoking and offer her a butterscotch.. Everyone was just great in this film – and the ending was pretty decent too.

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The Housemaid

Movie: The Housemaid

Genre: Drama

Subtitled

Synopsis: This South Korean movie centers on Eun-yi (Do-yeon Jeon) a young housemaid/nanny.  Hoon (Jung-Jae Lee) is a very wealthy businessman.  Haera (See Woo), is Hoon’s wife.  They have one young daughter – and she is pregnant with twins.  Eun-yi is hired as a maid and to be a nanny to their daughter.  Hoon and Haera seem to be very happy and come across as extremely nice.  When Haera does not sexually satisfy Hoon, he shows up in Eun-yi’s bedroom to seek satisfaction.  Then things start getting complicated.  When Haera’s conniving mother enters the picture, things take a very dark turn and we see just how twisted this family is beneath the surface.

My two cents: An interesting movie.  I had a hard time believing a girl would be as subservient as Eun-yi – but that might just be a cultural difference.  I thought the revenge sought by Eun-yi could have been better done also, although I guess it could have been considered to be killing two birds with one stone.  Although I enjoyed the movie, I don’t know if most people would think it worth the effort to keep up with the subtitles.  Speaking of subtitles . . . this was one of those subtitled movies where it seemed that every few minutes the white subtitles would disappear against the white backdrop of the movie – very annoying.

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Just Go With It

Movie: Just Go With It

Genre: romantic comedy

Synopsis: Danny (Adam Sandler) is a very successful plastic surgeon.  Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) is his assistant and longtime confidante.  Adam has commitment issues and wears a wedding ring as a pickup tool – it seems to attract women who share his aversion to commitment.  Things backfire when Adam falls for the beautiful 20-something Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) when he is not wearing the ring.  When she finds the ring in his pocket, she dumps him.  He convinces her that he is married – but getting a divorce.  He has to enlist Katherine to play his soon-to-be ex-wife to convince Palmer that he is available.  His cover-up snowballs and he ends up having to “hire” Katherine’s two kids to play “their” children – and everyone ends up taking a vacation together in Hawaii.  In Hawaii, Katherine runs in to her old arch-rival from college, Devlin Adams (Nicole Kidman).  Katherine starts her own string of lies to try and impress Devlin.

My two cents: A really funny and charming movie.  Adam Sandler’s Billy Madison persona only surfaces a couple of times.  I think it was his best movie since Spanglish.  Jennifer Anniston was as likeable as ever.  I keep reading reviewers criticizing her for always playing to same type of character – but she does it sooooo well.  It was great fun to watch Katherine’s kids outsmart Danny.  And then there is Brooklyn Decker.  While her acting was OK, I would rate the scene of her walking out of the ocean as the girl-walking-out-of-the-water scene I have seen in a movie . . . better than Ursula Andress in “Dr. No”, better than Halle Berry in “Die Another Day”, and even better than Phoebe Cates in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”.  There is also a great hula dance-off between Jennifer Anniston and Nicole Kidman.

Bottom line:  This was one of the funniest movies I have seen in a while. No real dull spots and a great ending.

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The Eagle

Movie: The Eagle

Genre: drama

Synopsis: The movie opens in Roman-occupied Britain in 120 A.D.  Five thousand men of the Roman Ninth Legion were riding into the wilds northern Britain (what we now call Scotland), led by Flavius Aquila.  They were never seen again. Lost, along with the men, was the Eagle of the Ninth – a gold eagle that was the symbol of the Ninth.  Twenty years later, Marcus Aquila (Channing Tatum), son of Flavius, comes to Great Britain as his first assignment as a new officer.  After hearing rumors that the gold eagle of the Ninth has been sighted, Marcus convinces his superiors to allow him to take his slave, Esca (Jaimie Bell), as a guide and journey into northern Britain to try and find what happened to the Ninth, to find the gold eagle and to hopefully clear his father’s name.

My two cents: An interesting movie.  I had never heard before just what the purpose of the Hadrian Wall in Great Britain was.  It was built to separate the “civilized” southern Britain from the barbarians of northern England.  While perhaps not completely accurate from a historical perspective, I found the movie to be entertaining.  It certainly did not make me want to time travel back to England in the year 140 to live under Roman rule.

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The five 2011 Oscar nominations for “Best short film (live action)”

Movie: The five 2011 Oscar nominations for “Best short film (live action)”:

"The Confession": Two young boys are preparing for their first Catholic confession.  A practical joke goes tragically wrong.  For one of the boys, things goes from bad to worse as he struggles to decide just what he is going to confess to when he has his confession.  Starts out pretty funny and then gets really serious in a shockingly short time. Pretty well done.

"The Crush": A third grader has a crush on his school teacher.  He takes his feelings REALLY seriously.  A lot of surprises and a lot of humor – some a bit dark.  I thought this was the best of the bunch.

"God of Love": A singer receives a mysterious package of darts.  Sticking someone with one of the darts makes the person more susceptible to love – with the next person to come along.  A pretty funny film as the singer learns that he has a real knack for picking couples.  The surprise comes when we learn who sent the package.

"Na Wewe": Takes place during the civil war between the Tutsis and Hutus in 1994 Burundi.  A bus containing a diverse group of people is stopped by Hutu soldiers who demand that everyone in the bus identify themselves.  The plan is to execute any Tutsis. This film left me kind of flat – my least favorite.

"Wish 143": David is a terminally ill teenager whose wish (number 143) is to lose his virginity before he dies.  The film follows his efforts – and the efforts of a priest to dissuade him – to accomplish his wish.  This was myt second favorite of the five.  I thought this was a really sweet film with a pretty decent ending.  There is a scene where he is actually in bed with someone (I don’t want to give everything away).  When I heard what he really wanted, it almost made me cry.

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