Angels & Demons (trailer)
Director: Ron Howard (The Missing, Cinderella Man, The Da Vinci Code, Frost/Nixon)
Longtime readers will know that I’m not particularly a Ron Howard fan, but even still, I didn’t think The Da Vinci Code was all that bad. I can’t say that I’m really looking forward to this, but at the same time there’s no way it’ll be the worst movie of the summer, either, so no harm done as I see it.
Metacritic: 49
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) (trailer)
Director: Ellen Kuras
Documentary, filmed over the past 23 years, about a Laotian family who fled to the US amid the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
Metacritic: 78
Every Little Step (trailer)
Director: James D. Stern & Adam Del Seo (The Year of the Yao, …So Goes the Nation)
Documentary about the casting for the revival of “A Chorus Line.” I’ll admit, whenever I see the title, I don’t think of “A Chorus Line” – I think of Bobby Brown’s theme song from Ghostbusters II. And let’s face it, a Bobby Brown documentary wouldn’t be the most interesting thing in the world, but it would be more interesting than a documentary about the casting of “A Chorus Line.”
Metacritic: 76
Management (trailer)
Director: Stephen Belber
Years from now, if there are still people watching and studying movies, people will be debating whether or not Jennifer Aniston had any genuine acting talent. She’s had kind of a weird career, having established herself on a sitcom, and since then doing very few movies that were notably good or notably bad. She seems to be someone famous that a lot of people like and who simply isn’t interested in being much more than that.
Metacritic: 50
Rudo y Cursi (trailer)
Director: Carlos Cuarón
Sort of an unofficial follow-up to Y Tu Mamá También but with Carlos directing instead of his brother, Alfonso, who produces along with Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Reviews are about what you’d expect from a kind-of-but-not-really sequel of this sort, i.e., unenthusiastically respectful.
Metacritic: 67
Vivre Sa Vie
Director: Jean-Luc Godard (Contempt, Alphaville, Masculine-Feminine, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her)
I’ve seen a few Godard films in my time – I count 6, I guess – and they tend to be pretty difficult for me. I’m just being honest here … I always get more out of films by his New Wave contemporaries than I do from his films. I know I’ll never be a real c–easte until I stop preferring Truffaut’s empathy and warmth to Godard’s arch disdain, and I’ll just have to live with that.
Metacritic: not listed
Why is everyone so self-editing nowadays? First I hear James removed a comment from the Lost thread, and now a Slim comment (which I shall title “In Defense of A Chorus Line”) disappeared as quickly as it appeared!?!?!
I deleted it because I thought it was too pissy in tone. Suffice it to say that I am looking forward to seeing Every Little Step, and that it seems very interesting to me, a lot more than anything about Bobby Brown could be.
Sorry about the Lost thing, btw. I quickly typed something. Realized I wanted to say more. Deleted it. Then realized it was bedtime.
I will eventually get back to the thread!
(BTW, I may delete this post when and if Joe responds to it to play with his mind)
I deleted it because I thought it was too pissy in tone.
A shame … I would have liked to read that.
Well, Angels & Demons sucked. I’ll have a review up shortly if I can summon the motivation. It makes The DaVinci Code look brilliant in comparison.
Many a times have I felt the urge to do a Jaydro, but I limit myself to the edit button and the odd missing word. Please, fellas, if you see a spelling mistake or something missing, do not hesitate to tell me.
The first review I’ve seen of T4 and it’s not good:
“In Terminator Salvation, machines have exterminated most of humankind and run the planet: I think they made the movie, too. This isn’t storytelling, it’s programming–inorganic matter passing for life.” (David Edelstein, New York Magazine).
There has been nothing about the marketing of this film that has given me any interest in seeing it. I’m not even sure if I’d want to rent it.
Management is a pretty solid little romantic comedy. Aniston and Zahn have great chemistry together, it’s surprisingly heartfelt that avoids many of the cliches of the genre. Pleasantly surprised.
There are few things I like more than a random past Openings appearing on the Recent Comments sidebar. So often, when I reread the post, it comes across like something written not by me but in my voice, because I don’t remember most of the movies involved and I don’t recall writing about them.