Crazy Movie Lady 29

August 9-15, 2009
Stayed a little behind with the move this week but I'm not worried about it.
449. Switch. Film about a chauvinist who gets reincarnated as a woman so he can find a single woman who liked him when he was a man. I liked the concept and was intrigued and actually delighted for at least 20 minutes, which was enough to get me through another hour or so. But after an hour and 15 minutes, the movie devolved ridiculously and the characters did all these things that made no sense for them to do based on their previous development. In other words, this film jumped the shark. I did not like this movie because of the absolutely unbelievable ending. I believe the words I said were, "f you don't know how to end it, don't make the movie." 2 stars
450. Julie and Julia. Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in the film about a woman who decides to cook her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year- all 500+ recipes- and blog about it. Of course the idea to cook my way through one of my many Rach cookbooks popped into my head. Maybe later. Anyway the movie. Not quite deft juggling of the two story lines. At times I forgot the other half of the movie existed. Heavy focus on the Julie part which is one of many reviewers' criticism of the film-- too little Meryl. I just wanted this film to be shorter. I got it after an hour and a half. 2 hours? Yikes. 3 stars
451. Boy Interrupted. Emotional documentary by the mother of a bipolar teenager who committed suicide. It delved into his uncle's suicide decades earlier probably a bit too in depth as this story was about the boy. Though I definitely felt sorry for the kid's family, I wasn't particularly drawn in by the plot of the film. It was very nice, though, not to have the usual horrid voice overs of personal docs. 2.5 stars
452. Step Brothers. Silly Will Ferrell & John C. Reilly comedy where they become step brothers at 40 and hate then grow to love each other. They're both jobless mental children and yet this movie was funny. 3.9 stars
453. Citizen Ruth. Laura Dern plays a ridiculously good huffer who happens to be pregnant much to her surprise. I even felt high watching her get high. I did not like it. Swoosie Kurtz? Love her! But her talents weren't really on display. Burt Reynolds played a crazy pro-l.ifer. Dern gets caught between pro-c.hoice and pro-l.ifers. Pretty boring movie. I didn't really care what happened to her. That quite probably has a lot to do with her addiction. 2.2 stars
454. The Apartment. 5-time Oscar winner with Jack Lemmon & Shirley MacLaine. SO weird to see them so young! Wow! Adultery, old boys club, the only black people are janitors and shoe shine boys with 10 seconds of screen time total. A guy loans his apartment to his bosses for philandering but gets a shock when he finds out a secret about the girl he loves. I was really into the story line even though I didn't like things about it. It moved nicely. 3 stars mostly because I didn't personally like it, but I can recognize a well-crafted script.
455. A Night to Remember. Classic 1958 film about the sinking of the Titanic. For me this film was just as powerful as James Cameron's famous one made in the last 15 years. I actually liked this one more because it was shorter and I didn't go in with all the hype. I was just as horrified by the same things I was the first time around. I appreciated that there was no competing story line. (In Titanic there was the search for the rich woman's lost at sea jewels.) As with all good biopics I was compelled to find out more about what really happened. 4 stars
456. I Love You Man. This is a silly silly movie and Paul Rudd is hilariously awkward. It made me want to learn how to fence. It's about a guy who gets engaged and realizes he has no friends so he decides to find some. I really liked it. 4.5 stars. Lolol!
457. 17 Again. Matthew Perry only wishes he looked like Zac Efron when he was 17. ZE is HAWT!! MP? Not so much. But ZE's hair was a hot mess in the first several scenes of this movie. Why? Know what I loved? That they played that horrid Ed Hardy line. Hilarious. And ZE plays a really good old man now in a young man's body again. Very funny but got kind of corny at the very end. 3.5 stars
458. M. German classic from 1931 (by famous director Fritz Lang) about a serial killer gets off to an awesome start with kids singing a serial killer song for their serial killer game. The criminals are pissed because the cops are looking for the kid killer amongst them. A bit slow-moving like most old-school flicks but not too slow. Quite interesting. 4.3 stars
459. Life is Beautiful. 3-time Oscar winning Italian film about a cheerful Jewish Italian waiter who gets the girl of his dreams and a son. He must do what he can to help his family survive the concentration camp when WWII comes. Beautiful movie. 5 stars
460. Secrets and Lies. British film about an adopted woman who decides to find her birth mother but they both get a shock because neither knew the other was of a different race-- black daughter, white mother. I was enjoying it until they revealed who the daughter's father was. WACK!!! So so WACK!! 3 stars
461. People Will Talk. A conservative doctor tries to bring down a well-liked medical professor (Cary Grant) who falls in love with an unmarried pregnant woman with her own set of issues. Strange 1951 film. It was interesting enough but still boring in a way with its meandering story line. 3.3 stars