Cowboys and Aliens

Yep, I saw it again.

Cowboys and Aliens

It’s a happy and inspired marriage of genres. But the gimmick is the fusion, without bringing anything new to the individual genres themselves. In other words, aliens are still slimy and roach-like, cowboys are still tough and trigger happy, and Indians are still quiet and noble. It seems like it might be time to get some new aliens. Battle: Los Angeles, Super 8, and Falling Skies all have slimy, gross, roachy aliens. If they’re so much more advanced than we are, how come they’re not more evolutionarily advanced? Westerns and alien invasion movies are the quintessential Saturday matinee/b-movie genres. It makes sense that the filmmakers here would stick to the conventions of each genre, assuming that each one would compliment the other. But a hybrid should also be an improvement over the individual parts, and while this is a successful effort to fulfill all the Saturday matinee/b-movie requirements, there doesn’t seem to be much effort to improve on them. Then again, maybe I’m getting way too over-analytical. Maybe I should stop thinking, eat some popcorn, and behold Harrison Ford kill some aliens.

Friends with Benefits

We were supposed to see Another Earth, but the start time got botched. So we saw this instead. That's the end of this sad, sad story.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2

The final installment has some great filmmaking. Production design is perfect, shots linger beautifully, and the music soars. I’ll admit, most of it didn’t make a lot of sense to me. The J.K. Rowling/lame plotting that I always complain about still rears it’s ugly dragonhead from time to time. But it’s a cinematic wonder watching those kids grow up in their characters, and watching digital effects mature and grow over the years, too. It’s a testament to the imaginative and detailed world created by Rowling that it would become such a beloved series in spite of the amateurish, 5th grade-level plotting.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Joe Johnston is great at the corny nostalgia. It’s a gift, really. Chris Evans was cast perfectly and the “little Steve” segments were technically amazing. It seemed like it was probably a good movie. I was at the theatre. Really. But I couldn’t actually SEE the movie, because it was WAY TOO DARK. I kept having to lift up my 3-D glass just to see what was going on. Maybe I should see it again in 2-D so I can actually perceive the action on screen.

The Trip

Could be called, "My Dinner With Coogan." It’s a funny but plotless series of episodes with comedian Steve Coogan driving around the English countryside and dining with comedian Rob Brydon. The point seems to be that the people who are your best friends are often the biggest pains in your ass. Or the converse, which is no matter how big of a pain in the ass a friend is, it sure beats eating alone.

Horrible Bosses

Who HASN’T wanted to kill their boss?? A great comedy because it’s structured really tightly like a good thriller. There’s a lot of hysterical twists and pay-offs to things you never would have expected. The cast is fantastic. The repartee is like jazz and always skillfully plays into the plot. It’s a coming out party for Charlie Day, who blasts into movie star orbit with his neurotic, free-form rages. Bateman is in top form at his driest and dead-paniest. I laughed all the way through. So, so, SO much better than The Hangover, I wanna grab the world and shake it and scream, “See!? This is comedy!”

Buck

Buck is a well-meaning doc about the real horse whisperer. Interviews with Buck Brannaman, Robert Redford and various family and friends reveal Buck had an abusive father. Buck uses his experience being abused to try and empathize with naughty horses, and it becomes clear that Buck is using horse training as his own therapy. What’s unfortunate is the series of events doesn’t seem to be in the right order for a doc. Small victories occur early on and major setbacks happen near the end, which makes the whole thing a downer. Seems to me that the doc would want to end on an up note, with a small victory for Buck. Does that make me sentimental? Or just commercially pragmatic?