Crazy Movie Lady 35

September 20-26, 2009
526. Must Love Dogs. Romantic comedy about two people unlucky in love who find, then don't find each other. Has that typical "I'm so witty" romantic comedy but seemed like it was trying too hard. Boring. Dermott Mulrooney? Heeeey. But not enough to turn this movie around. Actually I think I like everyone but Diane Lane's character. Since this film is based on her... yeah... that makes it a problem. People on movies also have glass showers way more often than I've ever seen them in life. It also spoiled 'Doctor Zhivago.' Thanks for that, never seen it. Pretty boring. 2.9 stars
527. Changeling. Angelina Jolie plays a single mother in the 1920s whose son disappears. When he returns she starts to believe he isn't hers which prompts her commitment at an insane asylum. She finds help in a crusading preacher. I don't believe Angelina Jolie as an actress. Not in this film as hard as she tries. This could be completely related to the amount of time I see her in the media completely unrelated to being in a movie. Though not her fault, it sways me. Cute clothes, though. I need every last one of her hats. The story is great. Almost everyone else around her does a nice job. Especially the villains. The "good" people seem to be trying a little too hard. Some nice photography. The music may be an overly melodramatic touch. Really, really long. At least 2 false endings. 4 stars
528. Daddy Day Camp. Cuba Gooding, Jr. stars in this film about rival camps, his being the lame rundown one. Full of adult and kiddie capers. Silly plot. I didn't understand why Cuba had nothing to do but organize camps for his kids. I wonder if I would like it more as a kid or if I had kids. I don't fall into either of those categories and didn't really care what happened to the characters so 2.4 stars
529. General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait. Slow-moving documentary, made with his cooperation, about the notorious dictator. This man said he took people to "visit the war" in another country. Really? Crazy. It's an hour and a half of him talking talking talking about everything and nothing at the same time. Extremely indulgent. 20 minutes of him only talking at a meeting? Give me a break. Yes you get to see a side of him you ordinarily don't see but the long takes of EVERYTHING are wearying. I also feel like he was trying to propagandize me which I don't like AT ALL. It was a struggle to finish. 2 stars
530. Barefoot in the Park. Robert Redford and Jane Fonda are newlyweds in a tiny apartment which is in a building full of strange characters. They interact wildly with the one who lives above them... well the bohemian wife does, the attorney husband works on being a bit less stick in the mud-ish. Strange and pretty pointless film. 3 stars
531. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Matthew McConnaughey plays a super douche (wow typecast... will he ever tire of these roles) who is forced to relive his failed relationships at his younger brother's wedding. I guess I should've read the synopsis of this film. I got excited by MM's face and blocked out any possible bad press. So chorny. That's right. Cheesy and corny. The 'spiritual guide' tho was hilarious! Lol. Michael Douglas is hilarious, too. It's the ghost of Christmas past but with doucheb.aggery. And it literally went from bad to worse. Dumb, dumb, dumb. 2.4 stars
532. Two for the Road. Audrey Hepburn is half of a married couple relieving how they fell in and out of love in Europe. Pretty depressing portrait of married life which moved back and forth through time. Hairstyles were the only way to tell when she changed. I feel slightly better than lukewarm about this film. It moved pretty nicely. 3.3 stars
533. Leave Her to Heaven. Interesting start to this old film about a man who has no idea what he's getting himself into when he marries a woman he's just met. After the interesting start, it meandered a little too slowly. I wanted to know what was going to happen but I also wanted SOMETHING to hurry up and start. Pretty crazy story and I would say the main character did a good job of playing an unstable woman, but the melodrama was too much, particularly in the court room scene. In this time of Law & Order and a plethora of other courtroom shows, I found it unbearable. 3 stars
534. Rosemary's Baby. Crazy film about the wife of a struggling actor who as she grows more and more pregnant becomes more convinced something strange is going on. More nudity than I care to see. I can't tell how I feel about this film. Definitely disturbing. 3.5 stars
535. Sunset Boulevard. An aging abandoned silent film star plotting her return employs an out of work writer who she attempts to ensnare in her plan in more way than one. Predictable at first, then captivating. Probably a bit too long. 3.8 stars
536. Maria Full of Grace. Film about a drug mule in Colombia who encounters problems once she gets to the U.S. I liked the film. My issue was with the passage of time. I couldn't really tell the number of days in which things had happened. 4 stars
537. The Wonder Boys. Michael Douglas film about a writer who hasn't published since his critically-acclaimed novel 7 years earlier, his editor (Robert Downey, Jr.) and crazy students (Katie Holmes & Tobey Maguire), as well as his affair (Frances McDormand). Interesting at first but lost its way about halfway through. I found the narrating annoying and disingenuous from the beginning and it didn't really ever lose that quality. Some continuity issues. The end was far too predictable and silly. Waste of a good cast. I bet the book was much, much better. 3.2 stars