Julie & Julia

Yes.

If you have white hair and love to complain, you'll love Julie & Julia.

You can start your adventure by complaining that the senior price, that is by no means a law or a requirement of any kind, is too high. You have developed a sense of entitlement over time and have no problem telling the box office cashier how much other theatres charge just before you pay the ticket price anyway. Then you can make snide remarks about the cost of concession products... this is important because no one else knows that the prices are high. If you don't tell the 16 year old behind the counter that $5.00 for a small popcorn is "criminal" or "outrageous", than the prices will never go down.

Once you get to the theatre, be sure to stare only at your watch so that if the movie starts 30 seconds late, you can scoff and make a mental note to tell the manager that the movie started 15 minutes late. Because we hate that you can hear, the projectionist turned the volume up to unbearable levels and the manager turned the A/C on full blast because he want your extremities to freeze and fall off.

You could miss 5 minutes of the movie to let the theatre staff know about the volume and the temperature, but instead, you'll sit, miserable, through the whole movie and expect a refund afterwards, even though you watched the whole movie and enjoyed it.

The Informant!

No.

All The Informant has going for it, is the random, hysterically funny monologues that run through Matt Damon's mind thanks primarily to his mental disorder. Other than that, it's just an average movie that may be worth checking out on DVD, but not in theatres.

Gamer

No.

I felt like I was being attacked. I sacrificed my senses for you. Do NOT put yourself through this. Gamer is a horrible experience.

Sunshine Cleaning

Nah.

Sunshine Cleaning was released in theatres on 3/27/09 and on DVD and Blu-ray on 8/25/09.

Sunshine Cleaning is just as formulaic as a Hollywood blockbuster, but masquarades as a quircky indie flick. Not a romantic comedy... it could have been if the followed through on that sub-plot. It's just sort of implied that they get together, but never really fleshed out. It's really just another dysfunctional family movie set against a the backdrop of a strange situation. You kinda know how it's gonna end, but ultimately, you won't care by the time the end comes around. This review is just as pointless as the movie. I'm gonna stop writing.

Sorority Row

No (yes).

Everyone's entitled to one or two guilty pleasures each year. Sorority Row is mine. It's really soooo bad, but I liked it.

There's almost no way to guess who the killer is which sucks because part of the fun of slasher flicks is accusing each character only for them to be vindicated by bloody, gruesome death. Sorority Row does a great job of that, but I also like the opportunity to get it right and there really is no chance because the killer is barely a character and really has no real motive... or maybe I'm just bitter because I didn't guess it.

Sorority Row is campy, bloody, silly and fun... and that's all I'm going to say...

9

hmmm... yeah....

... but only because it's so short. 9 has the animation of a Pixar movie and the dialogue of a Japanese Anime movie. If you've read my reviews of Up and Ponyo, you'd know that this is a very mixed review.

The animation is stunning, making this 79 minute feature a sight to behold, but the screenplay leaves a lot to be desired. There isn't much speaking and when they talk, the characters speak in bursts like, "We have to go after him", and "Look out!". It seems like the screenplay had been written for a family adventure film, but the animation was too dark and scary for a PG rating. There are very few engaging, thought-provoking, or compelling interactions between the characters and so the only device this movie has to grab hold of you with is the beautifully rendered animation.

At the end of the movie I had a strong sense of indifference as to how I had just spent the last hour and 20 minutes. I shrugged my shoulders, got up and left. I know this isn't a stirring recommendation, but I do think it has some good ideas and some amazing visuals. If the screenplay were better, I would be giving 9 a rave review.

Duplicity

No.

Duplicity was released in theatres on 3/20/09 and on DVD and Blu-ray on 8/25/09.

To be fair, I didn't really pay much attention to the movie while it was on. Then again, maybe that's telling. It never captured my interest. The times when I did tune it, I couldn't tell whether or not what Clive and Julia were saying was part of the plan. I gather that that was kind of the point, but how can you invest in these characters if you never know their true motive. I liked the twist at the end, but really didn't care enough for it to have any real impact.

If you've seen everything else that's available and you have nothing else to do, please... but really, there's no other reason to watch Duplicity.

Extract

No.

I think I'm more embarrassed than anything else. I'm also mildly disappointed because Office Space was so good, but mostly embarrassed. Whenever anyone would ask me if I thought this was going to be good, I would say that since Office Space was so funny, I couldn't imagine that this wouldn't be. I was wrong and now people who hadn't seen Office Space probably won't go out of their way to see it... which is a shame.

Extract doesn't really ever go anywhere. The story isn't over yet (not that I would have liked the movie to go on for longer). The main character is stuck in cycle of unhappiness that we see up until a pseudo-resolution masquerading as a happy ending. Anyone who believes that the end of Extract is a happy one needs to look into the future a little bit further. Nothing changed for anyone during the course of the film so there is no reason for it to have been made.

Ben Affleck was terrible, Kristin Wiig's talent was wasted along with J.K. Simmons, and Bateman played the role in accordance with how Mike Judge wanted it, but the surrounding characters hadn't been properly fleshed out for his contribution to be appreciated.

Extract is basically another comedy that takes relatively the same situations as Employee of the Month, Waiting..., Clerks, and so on and so forth, and sets them in an extract factory. Not original. Not funny. Not worth your time and money.

Adventureland

Yes.

Adventureland was released in theatres on 4/3/09 and on DVD and Blu-ray on 8/25/09.

Adventureland suffered severely from poor marketingitis. Yes, this is a quirky indie flick, but the ad campaign screamed Superbad. The ads showed the funny moments in the movie but none of the drama... and let's be clear, this is a funny drama, not a serious comedy. In fact, I think the movies only real flaw (for what it was trying to be) is the casting of Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig as the park's managers. Maybe it wasn't the casting, so much as it was just the existence of the characters that messed up the movie. They were overly goofy and completely out of place.

Flawed though it may be, Adventureland is a fun nostalgia trip worth taking.