Leap Year

If “It’s Complicated” is the inverse of the typical way a movie in the romantic comedy genre goes “Leap Year” is textbook. There isn’t anything that is great about this movie. It’s not memorable. I watched this movie a week ago and don’t really remember much about it. I could probably successfully review a semi decent movie that I saw a year ago with great detail. Amy Adams stars as an American “stager” (Anna Brady), someone that rents furniture and televisions to stage real estate that is for sale for a small fee, who is in love with a doctor named Declan (Matthew Goode). Anna’s friend (Kaitlin Olson) sees Declan leaving a jewelry store in the city and the two jump to the conclusion that he must be proposing. When Anna gets to dinner that night, after having been fitted for a wedding dress earlier in the day, she is met with the gift of a nice set of ear rings. As soon as Declan gives Anna the gift he gets a text message, of something presumably disgusting like the inside of a colon, and has to rush off before leaving for Ireland. Prior to the dinner Anna meets with her father (John Lithgow) and informs him that she is going to be proposed to this evening, jokingly her father mentions that in Ireland on leap day a woman can propose to a man. After the devastation she receives at dinner she does some research of the folk lore and decides that she should go to Ireland and try and propose to Declan. After some bumps in the road she arrives in a small village where she meets Jeremy (Adam Scott) and he drives her to Dublin to propose to Declan. It’s pretty run of the mill from then on, normal things happen to Jeremy and Anna. You can probably deduce what happens after they arrive, it may vary a little from your standard equation but the answer is still the mean. I found some serious problems with the film, first there is never really any interaction between Anna and Jeremy that would spell love. I understand love at first sight, as a concept, but it clearly isn’t that between the two of them. There isn’t much talking, there love isn’t transcending languages or anything they just happen to be in love by the time that they reach Dublin after a two day trip. The movie builds Anna up as a high maintenance lady who carries around Louis Vuitton suitcases but is content with the ragged, pup owning, Jeremy that drives a beater in the movie. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone when you can easily watch a different terrible romantic comedy that you undoubtedly already have in your collection. If are an Amy Adams fan and are looking for a “Doubt” or “Julie and Julia” performance don’t get your hopes up, think more along the lines of “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” performance. Good viewing.
JP

Boondock Saints II All Saints Day

“Boondock Saints” is one of my favorite cult classic movies, ever. The brothers return in the all newish “Boondock Saints II All Saints Day” to reign terror on crime in Boston. Sean Patrick Flannery (Connor MacManus) and Norman Reedus (Murphy MacManus) return as the protagonist, though perceived as an antagonist to some of the citizens of Boston. The movie’s first couple of scenes include a scene from “Scary Movie 83 million”, or whichever installment that movie is on at this point with some ridiculous over the top sexual joke and a good looking blonde walking on to screen. The brothers are living in their native Ireland with their father (Billy Connolly) when they learn of a murder of a priest using their very own signature kill style. This prompts them to return to Boston for justice. There isn’t really much to say about this movie, there aren’t any cool action scenes until the very end. They look for some organized crime bosses and the killer that is imitating them. At some points this movie feels like it is going to be a forensics style movie instead of an action vendetta style movie. It is quickly discovered that the imitator is probably shorter than the brothers and that there is only one of him instead of the two of them so it is clear the brothers didn’t kill the priest. There is a little bit of cool back story that we find out about their father when he was a child and his partner in crime for and the killing that he started. The movie has lots of terrible dialogue with lots of sexual references to Willam Defoe’s replacement named Eunice Bloom (Julie Benz). There is a little suspense between the original cops that were in on the cover up of the brothers in the first “Boondock Saints” that Eunice might find out they had helped conceal the brothers evasion of the law to Ireland. The movie is boring, I nearly left multiple times. The end is a little redeeming but also frustrating when you learn that there will be a third installment of this now trilogy, here’s to it being better than “All Saints Day”. Good viewing.
JP

"The Blind Side"

Sandra Bullock certainly wasn’t at the top of the list of people that I thought would be nominated and ultimately the person that I thought should win best actress at the actress but here we are. Bullock has been what Julia Roberts used to be, an overpaid actress, starring in forgettable, at best movies like “Miss Congeniality” and “Hope Floats”. Her newest role in “The Blind Side” is her at her very best and hopefully what we can expect from her upcoming titles. It was refreshing to see Bullock take off her gloves from run of the mill mindless romantic comedies to portray someone of meaning and do it quite well. “The Blind Side” is a true story about now NFL lineman Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) and his road from not having a place to stay to being a multi millionaire. Oher is rescued by a lady in Tennessee named Leigh Anne Tuohy (Bullock), who is married to a wealthy owner of a popular fast food chain named Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw), from what is functionally an ad hoc home where he sleeps on the couch of someone living in the ghetto that doesn’t have Oher’s best interests in mind. Oher has flunked out of all of the schools that he has been floated through in the foster care system in TN, and has now found himself landed in a wealthy up class private school. Having a hard time fitting in, Oher resorts back to his old ways of not participating in his school work, being anti social, and nearly flunking back out of school. One night after a basketball game Oher gets passed by the Touhy family, also with two children enrolled in the same school S.J. (Jae Head) and Collins (Lily Collins), when Leigh Ann convinces Sean that they should pick him up. Upon arrival at the Touhy residence that is in the mind of Oher a mansion he is welcomed by Leigh Anne in to the family. There are lots of layers to Oher that are peeled back as the movie goes on, a relationship grows between the Touhy family and Oher as time goes on. Oher goes on to play football for this high school and the bulk of the drama of this movie comes during his senior year of high school while he is trying to get his grades up to get in to a division I school. He ultimately decides that he will play football where the Touhy parents are Alma moderates at, Ole Miss U, and an NCAA investigation ensues. S.J. offers a lot of comedic relief in this movie consistently always playing a bully to the coaches from various high education institutions that come to try and win Oher’s commitment to their school. SJ looks for all sorts of ridiculous perks for his stamp of approval like the right to walk on the field with the teatm at home games. Leigh Anne really takes care of Oher buying him clothes, which is a challenge for his larger than most frame, feeding him, and eventually purchasing him a vehicle. Oher at first has a hard time learning the fundamentals of playing team football but with some help from Leigh Anne eventually picks up the purpose of the game ultimately leading to his success. This is a story full of happy endings, there are certainly times when we would be on the edge of our seats if this were a story of fiction but we know the ultimate outcome before the movie starts so there isn’t as much suspense. Quinton Aaron does a fantastic job portraying Oher, but this isn’t really a movie about Oher, often causing the time he is on screen to not be the focal point of the movie. What is this movie about? This movie is about a ritzy white lady from Suburbia America learning that there is more to life than money and fancy eateries. Bullock delivers the performance of her lifetime; she broke her mold and then rebuilt it. I hope that she is able to continue this in future movies. I think this is akin to Julia Roberts defining performance in “Erin Brokavich”, now the question is whether Bullock can keep it up in other performances. Everyone should see this movie, there were certainly some teary moments at the beginning of the movie but it teaches us all a valuable lesson that we should heed wisely. Good Viewing.
JP