The Lincoln Lawyer

Let me start by saying that I am one of those people who sees a Matthew McConaughey movie and pretty much sees/hears nothing but David Wooderson (BAHA!) from Dazed and Confused. "Party at the moon tower...hey, hey watch the leather, man!" Not to mention that I'm pretty sure he signs autographs by spelling his last name phonetically-Matt Mick-Con-Oh-HEY!-but, let me be straight up when I say this, I think The Lincoln Lawyer may be the best role I've seen him play. I really think he's had other good roles, such as U571, Contact, Amistad, A Time to Kill and in particular I love Reign of Fire (shut up!) and Sahara, but this one...this was just a very raw performance. Very gritty. I think he's aided by how the film is shot-shakey hand cams and close-ups on his very stressed out, watery, bloodshot and emotive eyes. In addition, since he plays a father there's something fiercely protective about how he comes across, especially in the latter half of the film when things start to unravel considerably.

Now, in a random twist of normalcy, I haven't actually read the source material for this movie. I kind of wanted to, but now that I've seen the film I think it might be a bit unnecessary. Not that I didn't get what the twist was based on the trailer, but there were some other things that happened that I wasn't exactly expecting, so if I read the book I'm sure I'll either be underwhelmed since I already know what happens or I'll be annoyed if the movie took too many liberties, and I like this movie too much to risk that ruckus.

McConaughey plays lawyer Michael "Mickey" Haller, a very experienced yet somewhat shady defense attorney who works from the backseat of a baller old school Lincoln Town Car. He has a daughter with his ex-wife, Maggie and she (naturally!) is an ADA. Cute. Maggie is played by the wonderful Marissa Tomei (who bears a striking resemblance to Amy Ryan in some of the film's scenes which was odd but kind of awesome). It's clear that they once loved and still love each other quite a lot, but despite it all, they're just never going to be able to agree and therefore a separation-with-benefits is probably the best thing for their daughter.

In the beginning of the film, Mickey picks up a big payday client from a delightfully nerdy John Leguizamo who is his go-to case man. He introduces him to Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) who immediately starts freaking out about being in jail and crying innocence. Mickey takes Roulet's case to the tune of $100,000 upfront and $550 per hour plus separate expenses for his investigator (nice!). There's a particularly awesome scene outside the county jail when Mickey swindles the Roulet family attorney out of a cool grand.

Of course though, things are not always as they seem, and as Mickey begins his research to prepare for his defense of Roulet he begins to uncover things that make him very wary of the man he's representing. The shift in the tone of the film is very subtle, yet very poignant. McConaughey goes from being easy breezy to taut and vicious and weathered in a matter of minutes. This added layer of grittiness is what really surprised me about the film. Even the way certain scenes are shot adds to the tension and you begin to feel really paranoid in the theater about how things might turn out.

For his part, Phillippe is out-freaking-standing. His performance definitely rivals that of Ed Norton in Primal Fear (the roles are similar). But, he slips from confused-scared-richy-business-kid to sociopath-smooth-criminal-bastard so easily it's frightening. The transition isn't slow either. He goes from prey to predator in one, excellently executed scene.

From there, the film really, really soars. I found myself feeling an almost physical need for Phillippe (and bonus points to Francis Fisher for playing his mother in a delectably freakish way) to have the book thrown at him, yet you knew Mickey couldn't do anything to fuck up the case because he himself could be sued and prosecuted and potentially disbarred.

Oh! And before I forget to mention it, Josh Lucas is also in this film (insert giggly laughter here for the two of them being in a movie together) and portrays the ADA facing off against Mickey during Roulet's case. Mickey runs legal circles around him, but in the end you know he'll get his man. In addition, Michael Pena cameos as a prisoner from one of Mickey's former cases (I won't explain his connection to the case at hand, because it's very predictable yet still plays incredibly well on screen. His transformation is a sight as well.)

Needless to say, there is a very clever, lawyerish ending to the film which also has an uplifting (if not bordering on cheesy) full-circle final scene that will leave you with a nice taste in your mouth and a very satisfied feeling.

It's April now, and while I'm not fully caught up on the movies I wanted to see due to a week-long parental unit visit, I have to say that this is the best movie I've seen all year. Rango is a close second, but this was just a fantastically executed film. The cast was superb, the writing very real and the pacing pretty much spot on. I didn't feel like the film dragged anywhere or wasted words or scenes, everything in it had a purpose, something it needed to achieve plot-wise yet it didn't feel forced or out of character.

We went to this movie really just to get out of the house for a couple hours and were very happily surprised at it's quality. Honestly, even if you're not a McConaughey fan, you need to see this, because he does a good job at getting you to reconsider your opinion. I enjoyed the hell out of it. If you liked Primal Fear or you just like legal movies and thrillers this is wholly worth your time.

Take Me Home Tonight

Let me start by saying that I had my doubts about this movie. I pretty much thought it would be a slightly-not-as-good-as-Superbad-yet-still-Superbad-in-the-80s romp, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was definitely Superbad in the 80s, but the overall sentiment was different and I found the actors to be engaging and almost more fun to watch than it's "younger" predecessor.

The difference between the two is this: Superbad gets old. It does. I almost hate admitting that, but it's true. I remember seeing Superbad in a packed house filled with all manner of people and utterly laughing my ass off, but about a year later I was staying over at a hotel during a road trip and it was on HBO or whatever so Mike and I were all excited to see it again and you know what happened? We laughed about about 80% less than we had initially. One might say this is normal, that you know the jokes, that you see them coming and thus, shit isn't as funny, but that's simply bullhonkey. I to this day laugh at Ace Ventura and The Big Lebowski as much as I did the first day I saw them, so good comedy does stand the test of time. I'm not saying that as a segue to revealing that Take Me Home Tonight is a timeless comedic classic, but I think it's more timeless than Superbad ever had a chance to be.

There are a couple key conversations in the film that make it sort of resonate emotionally as well, one being a conversation between Grace and his love interest-Teresa Palmer-at a stereotypically 80s fortune-500 office party. Initially, Palmer starts out saying all the right things when Grace asks her if she enjoys her job, but at some point she just blurts out that she hates it and everything about it and it's awesome. It's liberating to hear her say it because you can actually see the relief surge through her once she does. Not only that, but it's nice to see someone admit that that financial world is a huge fallacy full of pointlessness. The idea of "the soulless pursuit of money" came to mind.

In addition, there's a nice moment between Grace and his father, played by Michael Biehn, that really sat well with me because it reminded me so much of my own station in life and some of the conversations I've had with my own mom. Not to mention it made me happy to know that it's usually hard for people to figure life out, and that maybe it never does get figured out, but the important thing is to know when to just go for it...just to prove to yourself that you can, failure or success not withstanding.

The kicker of this movie is Dan Fogler, who is the comedic heart of the film and thoroughly enjoyable to watch, laugh at and laugh with. Not to mention, he actually does what I'm sure all of us have dreamed of at some point. Get fired-very publicly-then break in to work, set off the alarm and steal the most badass car (the boss's car) on the lot. Since it's an 80s movie this act is of course followed by finding blow in the glovebox, but that just adds to the vibe of the film and is damn funny.

I didn't need to see this movie in a theater, but I enjoyed it and I would definitely say that it would make an excellent rental for a boring Friday night. You'll laugh, you'll feel a kinship to the movie and you'll get a straight into-the-veins-dose of one of the wackiest and most often themed party-d decades of all time.

Battle: Los Angeles

I need to make a point in saying this straight out of the gate: I had NO expectations for this movie. That fact alone may mean that this review is biased in favor of the film, but overall, and in a really weird way, I adored this movie. And this is coming from someone who has always been a fan of science-fiction and has never held sci-fi movies to a lower standard than any other film genre. Is this something worthy of, say, the praise I constantly give District 9? No. But, in its own way, it really held its own on-screen.

I've read many a complaint about this movie that its dizzying, hard to follow, jumpy, blurry, lacks a general plot, etc., and on the one hand, I don't necessarily think those complaints lack a certain merit, but on the other, this movie kind of puts everything out there on the table just in the title. It's called Battle: Los Angeles, not Battle: Whole Earth Invasion, and the trailer in no way implied it would be anything other than that. Reduced to utter simplicity, this movie is like the bastard love child of Black Hawk Down and Signs. And to be honest, I don't actually think the film lacks a plot, the plot is merely extremely one-dimensional. Earth is invaded by an alien race for a natural resource that we actually have in abundance-water. They have advanced weaponry, are hugely militaristic and intend to come to Earth, take our water and destroy anything that gets in their way of achieving that goal.

As Mike said of it coming out of the theatre, "this was the most realistic 'invasion' movie" he'd seen in a long time, and I really don't disagree. The movie showed, without a doubt, how unprepared even our best military personnel really would be in the face of such complete annihilation. I think the shakey cam and blurry action only added to the sheen of authenticity that actually holds through the whole movie. The aliens are fast and have big guns. The soldiers can merely hope to react in time to hit something and stay alive.

As in most movies of this kind, there is a leader who must rise to the occasion after a moment in his history that quakes his belief in himself. This leader is, consequently, resentfully obeyed by the younger people in his squad who don't really know him aside from reputation and assume they know all there is to know about him and the mysterious mistake from his past. That leader is Aaron Eckhart, who I feel just by his presence on screen gives this movie a heart and a resonance that would have been absent otherwise. Naturally, his mistake was getting some boys killed in his last tour, one of who's brother just happens to be in Eckhart's newly formed squad. Even with everything going on around them they do eventually have the moment of discussing what happened, and I really thought the scene between Eckhart's Sgt. Nantz and Cory Hardict's Cpl. Locket was well done. Basically, Eckhart gives him the whole, don't-judge-me-until-you've-walked-in-my-shoes speech, but he does it with such sheer force of reserved military emotion that it's hard not to think about how many times that conversation has probably been had between soldiers. The respect in Nantz' voice is palpable, as is the regret he has for what happened as a result of his command. You know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that he would gladly trade places with all of them if he could.

The speech also serves as a turning point in the film, and the remaining soldiers alive suddenly feel an almost desperate familial bond to each other and Nantz and the task at hand. Armed with intel found by Sgt. Santos (Michelle Rodriguez) the team discovers a way to disable the aliens' airborne weapons (which are basically giant badass predator drones, unmanned, or shall we say, unaliened and controlled by a central machine.). Their goal is then to test their theory in the hopes of having intel to pass onto all the other countries and cities being plagued by the invaders.

The movie comes to a close with a successful and very human-triumphant vibe, but it also ends by way of continuation. Gloriously satisfied that their theory was proven correct, Nantz' team refuses to sit on the sidelines and wishes to slam head first back into the battle, because the city is not yet won. It's a moment that screams patriotism and unity amid chaos and is a general fist-pumping-generating moment.

There are brief civilian storylines thrown in and tragic deaths and very spectacularly brutal special effects and as it all rolls up together in the film I think it works. I don't think every sci-fi/alien movie has to be Aliens or District 9 or ET to be appreciated. This movie is almost like a snapshot of one area during one massive invasion. It's momentary, breathless and aggressive, but to say it's mindless or heartless would be blatantly untrue, at least in terms of how I looked at it.

I grant that it's not for everyone. For people who need a very involving plot or something that includes a lot of layers to be satisfied, then obviously this isn't for them, and if people want action that is clean and devoid of anything unpredictable they won't be pleased. But, if you want an invasion movie that is simply that, you want this. It's down and dirty, it's in your face and it doesn't apologize. You feel what those soldiers and civilians and little kids feel. You feel fear and confusion and panic and you feel blinded by the onslaught that is coming at you. So, if you can accept all that, or get past all of that, there's definitely a unique vision to see here.

Rango

Oh my gosh, how I enjoyed this movie. In a lot of ways it reminded me of how I felt coming out of Wall-e or Up. Just an all together fantastically made, highly enjoyable, makes-you-feel-good-about-life movie. I also happened to see it over my town's Spring Break, so even though it was a mid-afternoon showing on a week day the theatre was filled with all manner of patrons who were equally enthusiastic about the movie.

I had my doubts about Johnny Depp as a voice actor, not going to lie, but he really embodied the spirit of his little chameleon and I found myself really enjoying Rango's long soliloquies on how he was a rough-and-tumble-western-badass-turned-good-guy-sheriff.

In fact, all the voice talent in this film is fantastic. The only one I couldn't nail was Ned Beatty, who plays the mayor of Dirt. (Yes, DIRT.) Ray Winstone is in there as the town baddie, Bill Nighy is fantastic as the outlaw Rattlesnake Jake (his allegedly non-British "southern" voice is hilarious and awesome) and guess what kind of an animal he is?! Abigail Breslin and Isla Fisher are lovely as feisty town girl Priscilla and Rango's love interest Beans, respectively. Claudia Black as Angelique was brilliant, but the best cameo of the whole freaking movie was Timothy Olyphant as "The Spirit of the West". There are not words for how inspired that character is. I punched Mike in the arm and went "Timothy Olyphant!" in the theater in a harsh whisper and he looked at me like I was nuts. (Good times.)

Basically, Rango starts out the movie as a pet on a Southwest journey with his family. And, Rango thinks himself a thespian. The film's opening scene is nothing if not fantastic. Not only does it set the bar supremely high for the rest of the film's animation, but it sets the tone for who Rango is and what he really wants most, which is a simple "human" desire at it's core-much like Wall-E (to be loved and be in love) and Up (to learn how to live again after a loss)-Rango wants friends. He wants a family. He wants to be appreciated...Rango wants to belong and be the hero of his own tale. That sentiment in itself is what endears me most to the film and Rango. I mean, don't we all? We just want a place to feel at home and feel like someone loves us and looks up to us. That simple honest yearning is what gives the film it's heart and soul.

The conflict of the film revolves around Dirt's water problem. The town bank doesn't lock up money, but water, which is a visually arresting thing when you see the bank in the film. Not to mention, since Dirt is a desert town, it's fucking brilliant while being completely fucking practical. I LOVE animated movies these days for that reason. It brings the funny for the kids (fire-breath burp jokes, cactus juice as alcohol, characters named after food, a chameleon wearing long-johns), but it also has this completely adult plot line that is simple enough for children to follow, yet complicated enough for their parents to grasp and appreciate the film on a different level.

Naturally, Dirt loses its water and people are being forced to close shop and move, and Rango (aided by his vast theatrical imagination and a LOT of dumb luck) seeks to save Dirt and expose the evil doers (cough LAS VEGAS! cough) to get the town's water back. There is, of course, a villain closer to home than just Vegas, but remember who I said played the town's mayor? I'm pretty sure if I knew that going in I would have known from the first frame what was up.

Upon entering the Dirt watering hole, Rango decides to tell a magnificently tall tale and fashion himself a six-shooting dispatcher of bad-guys. All of Dirt thinks he fought off Rattlesnake Jake and his cronies with one bullet and thinks he's a hero, so they make him their sheriff and for a while, things go alright. But once the bank's water gets stolen and Rango leads an adventurous-albeit failed- rescue attempt he ends up being exposed as a liar to the whole town and cast out by the mayor and Rattlesnake Jake himself. At this point, he ventures back into the desert to find his way back to the road and civilization. Nearly at the end of his rope, delirious, depressed and nearly dead Rango finally meets who he's wanted to meet his whole life. His DESTINY, conveniently packaged in the shape of "The Spirit of the West" who is the most creative homage to the Westerner of all Westerners, Clint Eastwood himself. Olyphant, while not quite Eastwood, does a massively good Eastwood impression and Rango finally knows what he must do and treks to "the source" of the water to make one last effort to save his own life just by believing in himself.

I really, REALLY enjoyed being in the audience for this movie. It was fun, it was moving, and it was fucking incredible to look at. There were moments when the scene encompassed the landscape of the desert or the sky and dude, I'm telling you if I hadn't known it was animation, I would have assumed it was real. The amount of animation detail (and not just visually) this movie has is just unfathomable. This is the kind of movie that reminds you-if you need reminding-of why you love movies. It's the little things, the moments where you go "Jesus, that was great that they thought of that!" that make you love it. And I love the imagination behind this film too, it's just so unique yet it's such a basic and simple story that we've all heard a million times yet it doesn't feel stale or old at all.

Rango is fresh, hilarious, fun, relatable, gorgeous and does a pretty convincing job of showing that we probably all have a little of that ballsy chameleon in our souls. We tip our caps to you, Rango.

Capsule Reviews: Beastly, Red Riding Hood & The Adjustment Bureau

Ok, let's be fair. I knew Beastly was going to be shit. I had low expectations for Red Riding Hood and unfortunately for me, I had about six extra months of anticipation for The Adjustment Bureau which only served to make it worse for me once I saw it. Just wanted everyone to know the playing field. Let us begin.

Beastly: If you know me at all, you know that I am a sucker for Beauty and the Beast. It is and probably will always be my favorite Disney movie, even though to some extent it can be considered the film that began the systematic destruction of hand-drawn animation-but, that's not the point. Apparently Beastly is based on a novel by the same name which I have been trying to read and which is awful. So, source material being what it is, I'm surprised this film got made at all. Alex Pettyfer plays Kyle/Hunter, our resident jerk-off-becomes-nice-guy-after-being-turned-into-hideous-chud. Kyle is the epitome of selfish, vain and outright douchey and Pettyfer hits on all the right notes there, even while doing it with a very wayward "American" accent. Vanessa Hudgens plays Lindy, the girl whom our beast sets his sights on when he comes to slowly realize there actually is more to life than just "the pretty people". I found Lindy to be awkward and forced at times, though considering the rest of the plot, who really cares? The single BEST thing about this movie is Neil Patrick Harris, who plays a blind tutor to Kyle after he gets voted off the island by his equally douche-vain news anchor father. He's quippy and fantastic (as usual) but he brings a much needed brevity and reality to the texture of the film. Look, I'm not even going to do the rest of this. That last sentence is just making me laugh. The point is, if you like Beauty and the Beast, go see this movie for shits and giggles (matinee, price!). It does have it's moments of being worthy of "Tale as Old as Time" which WILL get stuck in your head for no reason at all. I went to it after a rather droll day at work and it did make me feel better. Granted, I went home and watched the REAL Beauty and the Beast...but again. Not the point.

Red Riding Hood: Jesus God. I don't even know much about Twilight beyond the general lame-ass-girl-inexplicably-being-fought-over-by-two-other-wordly-shitheads, but this freaking movie is the Old World fable version of Twilight. The ethereal Amanda Seyfried and uncompromisingly awesome Gary Oldman couldn't even save this film from Catherine Hardwicke's angsty hands. I was particularly flummoxed by the apparent "lack of discernable era" that the film emoted. They were in a forest, in a tiny town being haunted by a terrible beasty and yet I had NO idea when the hell it was taking place. A city was mentioned, but when they showed it it looked like the cobbled streets of London circa Jack the Ripper so that didn't help at all. Seyfried's two leading men-we'll call them #1 and #2 because they were laughable and horrid and I just don't care-were about as far from engaging as actors can be. I felt zippo passion on either front and I was just incredibly BORED with the whole arranged-marriage-loves-someone-else hoopla. The best thing this flick had going for it (aside from the more random than RANDOM steel elephant being drug through a snowy forest by Oldman's men) was the scenery of their little town. The whole time I was basically thinking "Fuck Grandma, I want my own cabin." Did I mention Julie Christie was in this? No? Well forget she was. I'm sure she already has. I guess that's your movie in a nutshell...a beasty, a mountain-faring-steel-torture-elephant and era-less real estate thoughts. Don't see this unless someone else pays, and even if they do, TRY to convince them to see Beastly instead. Based on the caliber of actors and how serious it took itself, Red Riding Hood is a farther cry from a good film than Beastly is, and man, that's just sad.

The Adjustment Bureau: As I said earlier, my not liking this movie was partly my own fault. I say again, partly. But in my defense, the stupid thing was supposed to come out last year! Plus, when you throw me such an excellent trailer with excellent people that I have to watch for seven months, it's hard for me to reign in that excitement. The funny thing was, coming out of the film I was ok with it. It was only after ruminating for quite sometime that I realized I HATED it. Here's the gist: Matt Damon plays a senatorial candidate, David Norris (who all through the film I assumed was related to Chuck) who has a hole in his heart due to family tragedy. Emily Blunt plays a stranger-on-a-train type contemporary ballet dancer, Elise Sellas, who just can't quite get her shit together long enough to get married. They meet, perchance, one thinks, after an important moment in Norris' career efforts, and are, allegedly, never to meet again. But, the whole film quickly becomes focused on David's necessity to find Elise again, because she's the only thing that makes him feel whole again. I have NO problem with the actors in this film, the performances, even from bit players are stellar. It's directed beautifully, with a lush appreciation for its urban surroundings and in general it's just very well done. The problem is that it was marketed as a science-fiction film with a heart when really it was just a bloody romance movie with a meager few quips on Christian fatalistic ponderings. The movie on the whole left me with far more questions than answers and I didn't even think I had questions going into it. I had expectations for this, yes, but the odd thing is my expectations weren't even in the same genre of what the film turned into.

The film implies The Chairman has a plan for everyone, and conveniently lets his employees work that shit out with handy dandy paper GPS books that look like blueprints of sewer systems. These employees are always a step ahead of their pray because they have special hats-yes, I said HATS-that allow them to pass through doors in a swift step and end up four blocks away. They never tell you how these angelic employees are chosen, how they're trained, or WHY angels need a giant office building in downtown New York as headquarters when they can go anywhere at anytime. Angels in the cubicles? Really? Not to mention, they never really explain why David and Elise are so damn important. Surely there are other people who would fight their faith to be with someone?

Regardless, I was led astray by the trailer, which clearly implied that there would be way more science-fiction and that the love story was merely a bi-product of the whole plot, but there's nothing I can do about it now.

The film has penetrating moments when you think it might be headed toward something other than the cosmic pull of love, but it ends up just being a tease. I liked both characters separately from one another, but pretty much couldn't stand them by the end of the film. Definitely not the outcome I had been hoping for.

Bottom line, this film expects me to believe that, not just former, but a disgraced former senatorial candidate rode the same bus for three YEARS just on the hope that he'd bump into a woman he knows nothing about. That's pretty much your movie, right there. And welp, jog the hell on with that.