Balls of Fury

Funny, funny, funny. Funnier than Hot Rod. Unfortunately, there are moments when the filmmakers underestimated how funny they could have been. But otherwise, funny. Jack Black clone and Broadway star Dan Fogler is a good sport. Maggie Q has to be one of the top ten most beautiful women working in movies today. And James Hong, as a loony Mr. Miyagi guru, is pitch-perfect. I was told by the advertising to expect Enter the Dragon with ping-pong. My expectations were fulfilled.

Cruising

It’s refreshing to see Al Pacino in a movie where he isn’t screaming his lines. “YOU’RE OUT OF ORDER!” and “ATTICA!” or “YOU’RE AN ABSENTEE LANDLORD” or how about “I’D TAKE A FLAME-THROWER TO THIS PLACE!” He’s surprisingly restrained and subtle in a movie that, if it were released today, would probably receive an X rating. Admittedly, though, I was baffled by the ending, and therefore couldn’t really reconcile the plot. But there are great performances here and director Friedkin confidently takes us to a place we have never been before: a land of fetish cops and Crisco fists.

The Invasion

Unusual because it sucked, but I’m not sure why. Nicole Kidman was a trooper, running around killing and crying. But the rest of the cast was drab, the plot was dull, and the stakes felt very low. Also, there were montages and flashbacks that were confusing; featuring scenes that were obviously cut out of the movie. About the fifth bomb in a row for Kidman. Again, I’m not sure why. But there you have it.

Rocket Science

Imagine if “Raymond” was the lead in Rain Man and there was no “Charlie” equivalent to ground it. That’s Rocket Science –- a nearly autistic, stuttering schmo trying to drive the action, yet he never learns, grows, or overcomes anything. The high school debate scenes didn’t ring true either. This was lame.

Death at a Funeral

Dark, dark, dark comedy, which, ironically, is cut from the same cloth as the Judd Apatow movies and the Farrelly Brothers stuff. But it’s somehow more credible for some reason that the poo is splattering on the faces of BRITISH people. Makes it seem more “hoity-toity.” But it’s still as gross and ribald and laugh-out-loud funny. Worth seeing for canny, low-impact silliness.

Superbad

Like all buddy movies of this ilk, (see Wedding Crashers, Blades of Glory, Dumb and Dumber) this is really a love story about the two guys. So it’s much more of a “relationship” movie than a “hero’s journey” movie, which at times can be frustrating, since it seems like the main characters keep forgetting what they set out to do at the beginning of the movie. But there are plenty of laughs, lots of dick jokes, and great, rich, and comedically sophisticated performances from the two leads, Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. So it’s funny, but not “goal oriented.”

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Superficially this is about a nice guy going after the world record in Donkey Kong, but it weaves a tangled web of duplicity with Shakespearean precision. How lucky the documentarians were to find a hero (Steve Wiebe) with such heart and integrity, and an adversary (Billy Mitchell) so reprehensible, he seems less like a real person and more like the mustache-twisting villain from old-timey melodramas. This is the kind of doc that most people will skip because the “subject matter” (i.e. video games) does not appeal to them. But the subject matter is only the setting. The true drama, both basic and familiar, depicts the ingredients of most great dramas: good versus evil. Inspirational, not for the filmmaker’s great skill, but for finding a story so simple and profound buried in a subculture, but which is ethically microcosmic. That’s right, I said “inspirational.”
According to Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post, “One of the great pleasures of movies is that buzz you feel when you want to start grabbing people and saying ‘YOU GOTTA SEE THIS MOVIE.’” King of Kong is that kind of movie.

The Ten

Bizarre and funny. More amazing, though, than laugh-out-loud funny. It’s the A-list cast, Wynona Ryder, Gretchen Mol, Liev Schreiber, doing an oddball hybrid: a stoner version of a Samuel Beckett play and an SNL sketch about the ten commandments. The Gretchen Mol segment about taking the lord’s name in vain was the best. But seeing pretty Wynona Ryder make it with a ventriloquist dummy was mind-blowing. More silly than thought provoking; it’s still unabashedly unique and worth seeing.

Hot Rod

Plenty of belly laughs, and not for situational reasons. For random crap. Non sequiturs. Bits and sketches having little to do with the plot, and which aren’t even funny, except they get carried way too far. I can’t even remember what this was about. I just know I laughed.

The Bourne Ultimatum

This is a masterwork in pacing. Plot wise, little happens. Jason Bourne steals some files. Learns some secrets. Big deal. But the sequences, the chase through London’s Waterloo station, the footrace in and out of people’s flats somewhere in the Middle East, are the best of their kind. Brilliantly directed and edited. The most precisely exciting movie of the year.