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Lew's Movie Reviews

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IN THEATERS

Charlie Wilson's War

***½

If I were a movie star I would never agree to be in a movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman.  He has stolen every film I've seen him in including this one.  Here he plays a CIA agent who battles with equal vigor against communists and Agency bureaucrats.  His portrayal is remarkable.  Tom Hanks in the role is a Texas congressman whose character flaws make Bill Clinton look like Mother Theresa.  He is convinced by a wealthy benefactor in Houston to take up the cause of the Afghans  who are fighting the invading Russians.  Hanks is great from this point on, but he not quite convincing as a rogue in the first half.  Jack Nicholson would have been more convincing as Wilson's playboy side, but picturing him as a congressman would would have been too much of a stretch. (2007).

Mamma Mia!

***

The magic of the play Mamma Mia! was its connection to the audience.  Hand clapping and dancing in the aisles was the norm.  The movie Mamma Mia! is viewed at a remove.  The Greek isle scenery is beautiful but adds to the distance between the audience and the action.  Meryl Streep is great as always but she is such a natural actress that whenever she breaks into song it highlights the movie's clash between reality and fantasy.  That being said it is fun to watch the older actors steal the show from the youngsters.  I just wish Colin FIrth would get over playing Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.  (2008)

Sex and the City

***½

Chick Flick Alert!  Women will love it  and sensitive new-age guys will too.  As for me, I liked it but didn't love it.  I would have liked it a lot better if the chopped about thirty minutes off the length.  The girls are back and they don't appear to have aged. Their men-folk are as goofy as ever.   If you were a fan of the HBO series you'll like this movie as it carries forward the themes from TV.  If you've never seen the show you won't understand a lot of the situations.  Jennifer Hudson does a nice star turn, but Candace Bergen's cameo as the editor of Vogue reminds us that nobody can look good forever.  This is pure entertainment - don't look for any Oscar nominees here.  (2008)

The Visitor

****½

This low-budget film is simply terrific.  Richard Jenkins stars as Walter, a New England college professor who finds a young couple living in his infrequently used apartment in New York city. He is visiting the city to present a paper at a conference.  The young man is Syrian and his girlfriend is from Senegal.  After getting over the shock of finding his apartment occupied, Walter lets the couple stay with him for a few days until they can find other accommodations.  They apparently had been paying rent to a scammer who said he was a friend of the owner.  Being illegal immigrants the couple take every precaution to avoid contact with the police.  I won't give away more of the story, but when the young man gets in trouble his mother arrives from Michigan to try to help.  Walter's developing relationship with the mother is beautifully and subtly played.  The context of the story, the post-9/11 world, colors all of the relationships.  Don't miss this one. (2008) 

DVD/HBO

Black Dahlia

*½

Hilary Swank is OK but just abut everyone else in this putative film noir is either miscast, misdirected or just plain bad.  My ** category (coming soon to HBO) had this kind of film in mind. I really liked Scarlett Johasson in Lost in Translation, but this one isn't going to look good on her resume. James Elroy is a pretty interesting writer but something got lost in the translation from book to screen in this one. (2006)

Knocked Up

***

The critics loved this one but I thought it was over-rated.  Maybe I'm just too out of touch with today's hip generation to appreciate stoner humor.  Anyway, Seth Rogen plays Ben Stone (get it?),  an unemployed doper who, along with his friends, take time away from their hash pipes to occasionally go to a bar and drink.  On one of their bar forays, Ben meets Alison (Katherine Heigl), a beautiful off-screen employee of the E! channel who is celebrating her promotion to on-camera interviewer.  The title gives away what happened during their improbable one night stand.  The story moves along without any major surprises, but has some funny sequences, especially a meeting of Ben and his father, nicely played by Harold Ramis.  The creative team for this movie was the same that brought us The 40 Year Old Virgin.  I found their previous effort to be funnier. (2007)

Out To Sea

***½

The perfect movie to see while you are on a cruise.  Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau near the end of their careers play brothers-in-law who sign up to be dance hosts on a Caribbean cruise ship in hopes of finding rich widows to bail them out of their dire financial straits.  Much of the action is predictable, but who cares.  Watching these two pros is worth the price of admission. (1997)

 

 

*           waste of time and money
**          coming soon to HBO
***        worth a trip to the neighborhood cinema
****      worth a trip across town
*****    don't miss