THANKFULLY MY HERPES IS IN REMISSION RIGHT NOW...

Now that fall’s here I’m going to try to get back into my movie groove.  I am so so far behind!!  I used to be able to catch 3-4 movies a week, especially back when I was with SUNDANCE or gap yearing it in VEGA$$.  Since I’ve moved to LA, however, it seems like it’s always been the last thing on my list of priorities.  I’ve been able to catch up though lately thanks to all the jetting around on VIRGIN AMERICA, JET BLUE and BRITISH AIRWAYS I’ve been doing.  (Love these airlines! Their entertainment systems offer so much to do i.e., on demand movies, closed circuit basic cable, Ethernet, chatting, music videos, a la carte playlists) that they always make a cross country or TRANSatlantic flight fly on by, if you will.  So throughout my upcoming posts, I'll be inserting quick little responses to some of the joints I've recently caught.  For a little bit they won't be as fresh and exclusive as when I was actually working for the festival circuit or whatever, but eventually I'll get caught up to speed enough that I can be a little more immediate with my responses.

So I had been looking forward to catching FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL since first catching wind of their clever add-campaign and learning what the cast's line-up would be, so I was thrilled to finally catch up to it on a recent flight to NYC after a number of complimentary cocktails.

Alright, so it had slipped my mind that one of the many loves of my life, KRISTEN BELL, but as soon as she popped on the screen I was transfixed.  Once you throw in a pre-stateside invasion RUSSELL BRAND mixed with those aforementioned cocktails... Well... suffice it to say, I was livvvvving!! First thing's first, I'm loving me some JUDD APATOW for throwing in all of those gratuitous full frontal male schlong shots.  I love that in this film, we follow the protagonist to Turtle Bay (a place that I know oh-too-well) to get away and they even gave it a name drop!!! LAIE POINT (another huge part of my coming of age) also plays a pivotal part in this film, so of course I was all kinds of overcome with the warm and fuzzies.  Come to think of it, I had no idea it was going to be, like, a HAWAII movie.  I couldn't help but think that is was what 50 FIRST DATES could've been had it not been so damn HOLLYWOOD.  The rest of the ensemble cast, including MILA KUNIS (who’s finally growing as an actress, this is probably her best work to date), SUPERBAD's JONAH HILL and a few other recognizable faces and fringey actors really round out the piece and capture the script's intent and tone perfectly.  There are definitely no sore thumbs in this one!  Not to mention, the original music used throughout was genius.  Anybody who's seen it, can't forget RUSSELL BRAND singing INSIDE YOU, the gorgeous Hawaiian version of NOTHING COMPARES TO YOU and of course the bizaarely strange VAMPIRE musical JASON SEGEL's character creates.  All of this comes together to create a solid, genuinely funny musical. (B)

I also recently caught THE BANK JOB on a flight.

What intrigued me the most about this film was the following question: What makes this movie JASON STATHAM’s only positively reviewed film in the past few years? I’m not sure if he’s actually carried a well received film ever. (IMDB?) Anyways, I had a really hard time switching gears into this one. Ultimately it just felt like I was sitting through one of countless many bank heist movies, with maybe a few special touches.. One of the biggest shortcomings was not using the film's setting, LONDON, to its full advantage. Instead it comes off as drab and non-descript, which I guess seems to be a common consensus amongst local Londoners... (I couldn't disagree more. If you know me, you know I hold LONDON as like seriously my favorite city in the world. Point is, it's probably an attempt to capture the mood in that city during the story’s time frame, but it also takes away from the intrigue. The joint’s final act does build to a satisfying end, but it’s a lot of work getting there. (B-)

I was also recently on a recently long flight without anything to do, so I decided to sit through the well reviewed KUNG FU PANDA.


Honestly, maybe I'm just a crabby-paddy, but it really just seems like we’ve seen this movie before. While the animation is undoubtedly top notch and fine crafted, the rest of the thing just feels so rehashed. Big celebrity ensemble voice cast that doesn’t really add or take away from anything. This trend has been around for the past few years and at this point it just so blatantly feels like a ploy to get people into theaters that it’s really hard to engage. (C+)

That's all.