Nine
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Stacy Ferguson, and Sophia Loren.
Nine has been doing decent business since it launched in limited release and now it's in wider general release, but it's been met with no-so-favorable reviews.
A.O. Scott in the New York Times noted that in one song, a lead character played by Daniel Day-Lewis sings, "I can't make this movie." Comments Scott: "Substitute "watch" for "make" and provide your own music." The director, Rob Marshall, also directed the movie version of Chicago, but unlike that musical, writes Claudia Puig in USA Today, "there are no show-stopping musical numbers here. It takes a couple viewings/listenings to appreciate -- or even distinguish -- its songs."
The problem, some critics suggest, is not the songs themselves but the actors who perform them. In the old days, beginning with Al Jolson and continuing later with Frank Sinatra and Doris Day, popular singers were cast in movies and asked to act. Now the reverse is true. Nine features a raft of high-power stars, but only Oscar winner Marion Cotillard is a trained singer. Comments Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times about the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis: "Because Nine is a musical, it would help if your leading man could sing. ... Love Daniel Day-Lewis, excellent racing shirtless through the forest, but a song-and-dance man he is not." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post comments that the movie has been contrived "to suit the vocal limitations of its Weinstein-gerrymandered cast." Adds Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Rarely have so many Oscar-winners struggled so strenuously for such meager payoff." Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe writes that Nine is the "Olive Garden version" of 8 1/2. "You can easily imagine he movie's catchiest song, "be Italian," used to sell bowls of spaghetti." And Roger Ebert closes his exasperated review of Nine with this advice."In the life of anyone who loves movies, there must be time to see 8 1/2. You can watch it instantly right now on Netflix or Amazon. What are you waiting for?"
RATING: PG-13 for sexual content and smoking.
Dear John
Starring Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Henry Thomas, Richard Jenkins, and Keith Robinson.
Critics have been largely dismissive of the romantic Dear John, deeming it superficial and highly manipulative. The film comes from a book of the same name from bestselling author Nicholas Sparks (Message in a Bottle, The Notebook). While most critics acknowledge that director Lasse Hallstrom has been able to capitalize on both Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried's good looks, Claudia Puig of USA TODAY suggests this is not enough to carry the film, "Besides indulging in redundancy, director Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat) skims the surface with his characters, giving them each one defining characteristic. John is a brave soldier. Savannah loves horses. It's hard to get swept up in a tale so superficial." Critics like Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter also find the story manipulative, pronouncing the film, "A lame romance coupled with more handicaps and hardships than any film can survive without the charge of audience manipulation." Like many reviewers, the L.A. Times' Betsy Sharkey feels the movie is simply more trouble than it is worth, "The lesson in all of this? If the letter starts with "Dear John," don't bother reading. Just stuff it back in the envelope and return to sender."
RATING: PG-13 for some sensuality and violence.
Up in the Air
Starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Tamala Jones, and Chris Lowell.
I consider this film the best that's currently showing in Anacortes. Ryan Bingham is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles and after he’s met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams.
RATING: R for language and some sexual content.
Edge of Darkness
Starring Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Shawn Roberts, Bojana Novakovic, Frank Grillo, and Gbenga Akinnagbe.
Edge of Darkness is an emotionally charged thriller set at the intersection of politics and big business. Thomas Craven is a veteran homicide detective for the Boston Police Department and a single father. When his only child, twenty-four year-old Emma, is murdered on the steps of his home, everyone assumes that he was the target. But he soon suspects otherwise, and embarks on a mission to find out about his daughter's secret life and her killing. His investigation leads him into a dangerous, looking glass world of corporate cover-ups, government collusion and murder – and to shadowy government operative Darius Jedburgh, who has been sent in to clean up the evidence. Craven's solitary search for answers about his daughter's death transforms into an odyssey of emotional discovery and redemption.
RATING: R for strong bloody violence and language.
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