Horrible Bosses, Last Mountain, Terri, City of Life and Death, Thor (the Bore)

I've been gone on vacation for three of the last four weeks, so the film-going has been sparse, but now that vacation is over, it's back to the movies for me. Here's what's new for this week.

THE LAST MOUNTAIN is one of the strongest documentaries of the year. It tells of the pillage of the mountains of Appalachia by the coal industry, which has had dire, deadly results to the people who live in the area, as well as nearly every citizen in the US--poisoned water supplies, lung clogging pollution, cancer cases that are shockingly alarming, and gross, costly corruption of our national government. This is a shocker. GRADE-------- A

A disturbing film that lightly fictionalizes the Rape of Nanking in 1937, when the Japanese Imperial Army captures the capital of China, and then proceeds to literally massacre nearly every citizen in sight, this unpleasant film is painful to watch, even though CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH is very well made. I was exhausted and sickened by the end (think of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN's first 20 minutes, stretched into over 2 hours.) The story feels hopeless, bombastic and depressing. See this only if you are interested. GRADE------B-


Not a promising title, but HORRIBLE BOSSES manages to be a bit funny and clever in that new vulgar comedy category that includes films like WEDDING CRASHERS, BRIDESMAIDS, KNOCKED-UP, THE HANGOVER, GET HIM TO THE GREEK and several others. The cast is quite game, and includes Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Anniston, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis, Jamie Foxx and Donald Sutherland and a nearly unrecognizable Colin Farrell. If you can stomach the crude language and sexual preposterousness, then there are some laugh out loud moments and I was not bored. GRADE------B-

We've seen troubled kids struggling in high school before, and this variation doesn't add much to the mix. The main character, TERRI, is a large fat boy, who wears his pajamas to class (I guess because they are more comfortable, but not much is made of this point, except that he gets a lot more dirty looks...) who is counseled by a sympathetic vice principal (John C. Riley) and ends up befriending several other "odd- ball" students, who all have issues with authority, sex, confidence, drugs, etc. Some weird scenes and unpleasant sexuality issues still do not lift this out of the "seen it before" category. GRADE-------C+

It's taken me a while to catch up with THOR (at the bargain theatres now), and $3 is definitely all that it's worth. I found myself wanting to nod off a couple of times. There is a lot of mumbo jumbo that takes place on another planet between Thor's race and some Ice creatures, that didn't make much sense, and that is cut into the subplot of Thor being banished to Earth by his wise father/king Anthony Hopkins, because of his bad attitude, and sort of falling for smarty scientist Nathalie Portman. There is one fight scene on earth between Thor and what looks like a TRANSFORMER--otherwise most of the best (but minimal) action happens on the other planets, in the near dark. Not so hot. GRADE--------C

Tree of Life, The Trip, Buck, Page One: Inside NY Times Bridesmaids

Went to see BRIDESMAIDS again, and it is just as funny, vulgar, clever and sweet as the first time, and my wife really liked it. Getting her to laugh at a comedy is getting tough these days. My 82 year old aunt said that it was disgusting and vulgar, but she and her lady friends found themselves laughing in spite of themselves. It will not disappoint you. GRADE------------ B+

PAGE ONE;INSIDE THE NY TIMES is an inspiring account of the struggles of the Times to compete financially and in otherways with the changing face of news organizations around the nation. It is also a damning indictment of how shallow news is on the internet (ie Huffington Post), and it made most of us want to subscribe. GRADE----B+

BUCK tells the true story of the man who inspired THE HORSE WHISPERER--he survived a cruel abusive childhood to become a sensible,thoughtful communicator of horses (and people). A very heartwrenching, moving story. GRADE--------B+

THE TRIP recently was discussed a couple weeks back. This is based on a British TV series where two or more characters travel around Britain sampling the cuisine and accommodations of various restaurants and hotels, and then verbally critique them, with lots of jokes, impressions and fun. I like this movie version--the two leads are charming and funny as they try to out-impression each other. GRADE-----B-

TREE OF LIFE is an ambitious tale which starts with the sad news that one son has died at the age of 19. Then the story flashes back, WWWAAAAAAYYYYY back to the creation of the heavens and the earths, with stunning National Geographic style photography of what early life might have looked like, although we've seen these images before. Shots of molten lava, cells dividing, light shows (think 2001 SPACE ODYSSEY), then sea creatures--many bizarre shots of plant,sea, insect life---all to the religious and classical score that make this seem grandiose. Then we suddenly have a scene straight from JURASSIC PARK with a dinosaur stomping on the head of a weaker creature. I am not kidding. Now, I'm not exactly bored, since the mother and father and brother are spouting, over the top of the music and imagery, platitudes like "What was God thinking" and "Does He know us all?" and "Why must life be like this" ETC ETC ETC. At times I wanted to giggle, but this is played with deadly seriousness, and I appreciated that the director was trying to reach places and feelings that movies seldom go to. When the narrative does pickup again (about 20 minutes later!!!!!!), the story flashes back and forth in time to the 1950's and then to current time when the surviving son (Sean Penn) wonders, at times pointlessly through the urban jungle of sky scrappers, pondering his childhood, that was filled with fun, mischief, abuse from his father (Brad Pitt), love and understanding from his mother, etc. I kept expecting a (symbolic) dinosaur to come out of nowhere and stomp on him. This is a thin plot for an abstract, impressionist movie. What annoyed me most is the current fashion of directors/cinematographers to use an aggressive HAND HELD camera, which is dizzingly frustrating to watch, and throws me out of the plot/experience. If the camera work had been easier to watch, I might have the heart to give this unique film a B-, but as it is, it is an ambitious experiment that doesn't work like it should. GRADE----------C+