The results are in...

Who needs a statue of a golden Ken doll to tell you you've made the best movie of all time when you could have a pile of money to jump in?  TMMC's first reader poll asked, "with Avatar likely to take the #1 slot for highest grossing movie of all time, out of the top 5 highest grossing movies, which was your favorite?"  And the results are in... 

Lord of the Rings:  Return of the King was your favorite highest grossing movie of all time, receiving 7 votes!

Batman's The Dark Knight was a close runner up with 5 votes.  Titanic came in third with 2 votes, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest received 1 vote and shockingly, the highest grossing movie of all time, Avatar, received NO VOTES!

So you weren't a fan of Avatar, huh?  Blue creatures from a far off, futuristic planet ain't your thing?  I'm sure James Cameron won't mind too much, he's too busy taking a bath in his money pool.  Nothing helps rinse off the stench of narcissism better than rubbing yourself with hundred dollar bills.

TMMC has to agree with the masses and voted for LOTR as well.  We may not love blue giants that feel each other up with tentacles, but we'll take a pipe-weed smoking wizard, homoerotic hobbits and a peeping Tom Dark Lord any day.

Peter Jackson, you may look like a Hobbit yourself, but you'll always be number 1 with TMMC readers!

Thanks to all who voted in last week's poll and don't forget to respond to this week's question!

TMMC's Weekly Round Up

Just a few hours remain for voting in this week's poll and we have a nail biter on our hands.  It looks like The Dark Knight and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King are our prize fighters for favorite highest grossing movie amongst TMMC readers.  Are we going to end up with a tie?  I suggest we put  directors Peter Jackson and Christopher Nolan in a ring, tie their hands behind their backs, glue beaks to their noses and let them cock fight it out - who's with me?  James Cameron will have to sulk in the corner sucking his thumb, poor guy hates being left out.

Closing out January,  TMMC's off to a great start in 2010 - thanks to all you who take the time to read my drivel!  Unfortunately, Barack Obama's not doing as well in the new year - if he were a t.v. show, he'd be canceled over his 8% drop in State of the Union t.v. ratings this week.  Thank goodness he doesn't work for NBC! 

Thanks to our TMMC interns, who we keep chained underneath the desks, here's a look back at the week that was.

• In case you've been under a rock, or a pile of work, Avatar has unseated Titanic as the highest grossing movie of all time.  In related news, J. Cameron was spotted on a Carnival cruise shouting, I'm still king of the world!  Read more.
• Is the world ready for the first 3-D porn movie ever?  It's bring new meaning to the phrase, "watch out for that pole!"  I'd see this out of sheer curiosity.  Read more.
• Almost as good as porn, Warner Bros. has also announced the final two installments of Harry Potter will come out in 3-D.  Unfortunately we still have to wait until Nov. to check it out - that's just plain riddikulus.  Read more.
• Et tu Mickey?  The 31 year old movie distributor Miramax has officially shut its doors, thanks to a pink slip provided by Disney.  The list of acclaimed movies Miramax has brought to audiences is enormous, but more interesting are the six completed films that haven't been released yet and their fates, yet to be determined.  Read more.
• Thanks to TMMC's rating system, Netflix reached 12 million subscribers in the 4th quarter.  Now it expects to spend $600 million on postage this year.  That's a whole lot of stamp licking - I'm sure they can get Andy Dick to help.  Read more.
• Apple launched the iPad, women of the world cringed, and Hitler got really mad.  Totally unmovie related, but absolutely hilarious.  Watch more.

Now that you're up to speed, go have yourself a great weekend and rest up for the big Oscar nominees announcement next Tuesday!

It's Complicated, but it's also funny!

After all the hype over this movie generated by the Golden Globes, I was curious to see if It's Complicated could live up to expectations.  In solidifying my admiration for its cast, it did...in solidifying my distaste for rehashed romantic comedies, it did.  In a story as old as 1999, a 55+ divorcee reunites with her 60+ year old ex-husband and starts a passionate love affair behind the backs of their families and children.  Let the hilarity ensue.  Yes, this movie was written and directed by the same Nancy Meyers that did Something's Gotta Give, so if you see any parallels, it's called laziness.

If nothing else, the movie is a testament to how mediocre writing can really come to life when you've got great actors to help you out.  As our female lead, Streep is endearing, easily lovable and has a knack for romantic comedy that I didn't expect.  As our male lead, Baldwin is...well he's Alec Baldwin.  Sure he's a bit of an ass, but he wears it well and you end up shaking your finger saying "Oh you Alec..."  Thanks to 30 Rock, that's become oddly endearing.  Do you think Tina Fey is Jesus and resurrected this 21st century Lazarus?  And all along I thought Oprah was God.

The only real problem was that I saw more of the two than I ever cared to - I really didn't need to see that much skin, or hair...ahem.  Who knew Streep has man feet and underneath Baldwin's 30 Rock suits he's wearing a woolly suit of his own.  Let's try and keep some more mystery between us in the future, shall we?

A post op, all Botoxed up Steve Martin and John Krazinski round out the acting team as Meryl's triangle love interest and future son-in-law, respectively.  Martin would've been better if he could still move his face and Krazinski impressively holds his own against the veterans.  Oh Jim, how you've really grown up from Scranton into a big screen actor.  Now just leave Pam and you're on your way.

While all four lead actors play their parts well, I couldn't help but feel their comedic talents seemed restrained.  There were several parts where I wanted them to really go for it, even if it would've been a little over the top.  They were like those poor children you see in grocery stores who're strapped into leashed harnesses, trying to run off but their mothers keep whipping them back. Sure, I plan on using them on kids of my own one day, but they have no place in movies.

That said, there are some knee slapping, laugh out loud moments in the movie and it kept a smile on my face nearly the entire time.  Writer/director Meyers does deserve some credit for writing some really hilarious scenes, I just wish someone had taken the script away from her to save her from herself at times.

There are some big lulls that should've been edited out entirely as they don't add to the movie at all, and in the end the movie's about a half hour too long.  And of course, they're all rich white people stepping out of Martha Stewart and J. Crew catalogs. As a result, the characters are incredibly hard to relate to at times.

While this movie will definitely resonate better with an older audience, a younger one can still enjoy it too.  Despite its pitfalls, it's just an entertaining movie with a great cast that makes it worth watching from first drunken sex romp to last joint smoking charade.  It's Complicated isn't really that complicated after all, it's just fun. But instead of having sex with your hairball of an ex husband, why don't you just DO A MATINEE instead!

TMMC Goes Green

There's something comforting in that green screen that pops up every time the lights go down in a movie theater.  Like taking solace in knowing Arnold Schwarzenegger can never be president, you know every time you go to a movie you'll get an amuse-bouche to start you out before the main event (thanks for teaching me something Food Network!)  Since starting TMMC, I've been to a lot of movies and in the process seen a lot of previews.  Some look interesting, some look funny, some look tragic and still none of them have Keanu Reeves.  Regardless, there's something for everyone hitting the theaters soon.  So today, I invite you to take a gander at what's to come.  I'm sure you'll find something you'll want to see.  And don't worry men, I won't tell anyone if you sneak a peak at Sex and the City, TMMC doesn't judge. 

FOR THE GIRLS:  All you Anne Geddes fans out there who love seeing babies in awkward situations, the wait the movie you've been waiting for is finally here.  Four babies, four countries, 1 year and a million + diapers later, this light hearted documentary will most certainly act as birth control if you need it.  Give the gift of life and check out the Babies. 

FOR THE GUYS:  Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure meets The Hangover in this comedy about a magical hot tub that transports four women chasing (the movie isn't nearly as kind as that) friends back in time where they encounter themselves in 1986.  An interesting move for John Cusak's follow up to 2012, but with The Hangover winning a Golden Globe for best picture, maybe this'll be John's big break at an Oscar - good lord.  Take a dip in the Hot Tub Time Machine.  Note, this trailer is rated R. 

FOR THE GAYS:  They couldn't just stop at one could they?  The Sex and the City girls are back, yet again, this time a bit older, saggier and...wiser?  Doubtful.  Whether you're as weary about it as I am, they're rolling the dice hoping to squeeze the last bucks out of the franchise.  This time it appears they're headed to the middle east, giving terrorist a whole new reason to hate America.  Whine on ladies, you know I'll still see you in SITC 2. 

FOR THE FAMILY:  Speaking of dying franchises, enter Shrek.  No I'm not talking about the first through third movies, nor the Broadway musical, I'm talking about Shrek 4.  Will it still be endearing?  Has the economy hit Dreamworks that hard?  And why couldn't Mike Myers have just kept the Austin Powers franchise going instead?  At least it's in 3-D, that might be interesting.  Shrek: Forever and Ever and Ever and Ever and...I mean Shrek:  Forever After.

Hope you enjoyed.  Visit us again tomorrow to check out the TMMC review of It's Complicated.  Until then, don't forget to vote in the TMMC poll of the week!

A Single Man Stays Single

I anticipate ruffling some feathers, particularly Ebert's, with my review of A Single Man, being hailed by many critics and audiences in the gay community.  Unfortunately it didn't resonate with this movie viewer, at all, and I doubt that it will catch mainstream wildfire.  In his debut film, co-writer and directer, as well as former Gucci designer, Tom Ford brings to life the 1964 novel of the same name.  We meet the movie's main character (Colin Firth) eight months after the death of his partner in a car accident.  Taking place over a 24 hour time period set in the 60's, the movie follows Firth through his day as he copes with his partner's death and decides whether or not to take his own life.  Throughout various parts of the movie, depending on how bored I was, I was rooting both for and against it.

Readers beware, the melodrama movie genre has never been a favorite of mine, significantly putting A Single Man at a disadvantage right from the start.  I have a hard time watching a person wallow in self pity for two hours - I swear I'm not heartless!  But come on, don't you ever just want to reach through the screen, slap the character and shout "SNAP OUT OF IT" - you know, Moonstruck style.  It wasn't the subject matter per say that didn't resonate with me, it was just how it played out on screen.  In a movie with very little action driving the plot to begin with, A Single Man just really drags on at times. 

Not every melodrama has to suffer from this syndrome, it just takes a bit more effort in the directing department.  Look at The Hours, directed by Stephen Daldry.  You don't get any more melodramatic than three characters moping about for hours, no pun intended, but it worked because all the pieces fit well together.  I think Ford's directing debut shows through in this department.   He brings a very stylized point of view to the screen, but ends up creating a movie that to me felt like a cross between a perfume commercial and a 60's French film.

Close up of an eye...a little girl jumping rope...a dew drop on a red rose...shirtless men filmed in black and white...Fin.  I thought I was quite possibly watching a 2 hour fashion house commercial! Ok, I get it, they were all metaphors, but honestly, do I really care to analyze a yellow pencil sharpener vs. a blue or red pencil sharpener?  Oh yeah, it goes that off the deep end at times.  Sometimes metaphors ARE a bridge too far.

Colin Firth and Julianne Moore are both receiving critical acclaim for their acting, but part of me wonders why.  While I'm a fan of both, Julianne Moore is only in the movie for a total of 15 minutes playing the boozy best friend of our main brooder, during which the two argue over whose life is worse.  Mine is - I have to watch you two whine.  Colin Firth does the part justice, but my only problem is he doesn't crack whatsoever, he's just a stiff cardboard of a person bottling up emotions.  The hard part is connecting with him because he's so emotionally detached.  I would've loved to have seen him cry or lash out or something, anything!  I know you're British, but let go of that stiff upper lip chap.

All in all, the movie just felt like one slow, long, high school English class poem and let's be honest, poetry was never my strong suit.  Unless you're Dr. Seuss, I just can't get into it...oh how I do still love that Cat in the Hat, what a crazy guy.  And if I did have to read the original book in English class, I most certainly would've spent more time trying to find the CliffsNotes than reading beyond page 5.

All in all, way too slow, way too art housey and just plain too much.  I know for sure there is a place for this movie amongst audiences, I'm just unfortunately not one of them.  Tom Ford, I applaud your effort and your aesthetic may appeal to many, but as I wear my Old Navy sweats I'm obviously not the right Gucci demographic.

Take Match.com's advice - it's ok to look, but I think you'll agree A Single Man will likely remain single.  PUT IT IN YOUR NETFLIX QUEUE!

What do tantrums, sperm, blockbuster movies and Betty White have in common?

Ironically enough, TMMC's least favorite day of the week is Monday.  Soon I'll start limbering up for my temper tantrum tomorrow morning - remember, it's very important to stretch before you start kicking and screaming.  Sure, the tantrum will be just as alarming to your neighbors, but your legs and thighs will thank you for it later.  But I digress.

Knock knock - "housekeeping!"  Ah yes, Maria  is here to help take care of some housekeeping for us.  Let's help her out, shall we?  So TMMC has hit twitter as TMMCritic - be sure to follow me for the latest TMMC announcements and news.  Recommendation of the day - consider following ebertchicago on Twitter as well, yes as in Siskel and Ebert.  Sure, your twitter feed will be flooded with tweets from him, but a good 90% are well worth it.  This weekend I learned Brad and Angelina filed for separation, Andy Dick was arrested after grabbing a bouncer's balls in West Virginia (least shocking news of 2010) and intense males have the best sperm.  Yeah, I thought the last one was a bit odd too.

Also, when you get a chance, vote in the TMMC Poll for your favorite highest grossing movie of all time.  All of them cost a fortune to make, all of them made a fortune for many people, and none of them starred Keanu Reeves - but which one was actually worth it?  Poll closes next Saturday and you'll have to wait till then to see my pick.

While you were out Saturday night, Hollywood actors convened yet again to talk about how much they love themselves, this time under the auspice of the 16th SAG Awards.  In case you're confused, the SAGs are not for female actors over the age of 65, but rather stands for Screen Actors Guild.  About 120,000 actor union members voted for their favorite performances of the last year, giving republicans yet another reason to hate unions.  TMMC missed out on the live airing but I'm sure we can catch it again when Bravo reairs it 20 times this week.

The only shocker to note was the fact that Avatar and Up in the Air weren't even nominated for best performance by a cast in a motion picture, making room for Inglorious Bastards to take the award.  Will scalping Nazis pull out an Oscar upset?  The acting categories mimicked the Golden Globes in nearly every category, including Drew Barrymore's win for best actress in a TV movie for Grey Gardens, a TMMC fav.  It seems that the Oscar acting honorees are squared away early, though rumor has it Meryll Streep is still giving Sandy B a run for her money as she hasn't won an Oscar in more than 27 years.  Will Julia Child help her bring home the bacon?  See a full list of SAG award winners.

One woman well overdue for a lifetime achievement award was Betty White.  Thankfully, she was honored Saturday night and responded with a great acceptance speech that included feeling up Sandy B.  Sandy's getting a lot of action this award season - first she made out with Meryll Streep, now a Golden Girl's copping a feel - you go Glenn Coco! 

So now that you're ready for the week, go hook yourself up to your coffee I.V.  Hopefully we can help each other ease our Monday morning pains together.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's review of A Single Man!

TMMC's Weekly Round Up

With so much going on in the world, we at TMMC know it's hard to keep up with your movie news.  To help you stay current, the TMMC team has been working all week to compile some stories to help catch you up to speed.  Let me know what you think of TMMC's first Weekly Round Up - Your Place For All The Fair and Balanced Movie News That's Fit to Print.

• In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day last Monday, TMMC learned Steven Spielberg is producing the first MLK biopic authorized by the King Estate.  You might as well just give it the Oscar now.  Read more.
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the new Spider-Man?  He better start hitting the gym and gaining some bulk, that's for sure.  It was officially announced this week that (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb will take on the next comic installment.  Will he be able to manage a budget 35x that of his rom com?!  Will he cast his favorite leading man JGL?!  Will someone finally uncover Peter Parker's worst kept secret?  Read more.
• Submissions from 65 countries for the Academy Award's Best Foreign Film have been whittled down to nine, including Golden Globe winner The White Ribbon.  Find out who the finalists are so you can at least pretend you're interested and saw them.  Read more.
• Tim Burton running out of material?  Perez Hilton claims off the heels of Alice and Wonderland, the ghoulish director has his sights on another remake based on one of Disney's best villains, Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent.  No bother holding casting calls, Helena Bonham Carter's already got her next gig obviously.  Read more.
• Blockbuster's on the ropes thanks to Netflix and RedBox, but everyone better watch out now that YouTube has announced it will start renting movies starting with those from the Sundance Film Festival.  Without a doubt it will likely catch on fire and create a stir.  Read more.
• And who needs health care reform when you can woo Hollywood to visit a state near you?  In an effort to attract more movie shoots, a bill has been introduced in the Florida Legislature proposing $75 million in tax credits over the next 3 years.  New York's governor has also included $2.1 billion in film tax incentives in his state's budget plan.  Maybe that will do more for creating jobs than anything Washington's done.  Read more.

Well I hope you learned something new today and stay tuned next week for more new reviews.  Enjoy the weekend!

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

I'd like to begin this review with a question for TMMC readers.  After watching a movie, does spending more time piecing it together than thinking about its theme(s) still make it a good movie?  That is the question that I'm left pondering after seeing the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.  The movie is probably most notable for being Heath Ledger's final role, in fact his untimely death came only halfway through its production.

The movie follows Dr. Parnassus' traveling show and his band of carnie folk...you know, small hands, smell like cabbages.  To help you visualize, Dr. Parnassus is a cross between Dumbledore and Gandalf after an all night bender on butter beer and pipe-weed.  Ready for Parnassus' main act?  Step right up folks and you too can enter into Dr. Parnassus' imaginarium, where you can live out your dreams as if they were reality.  Careful though, a trip inside doesn't come without its consequences - queue gasp and ominous music.

As Ledger's final role this movie is eerily fitting, if not morbid at times, with incredibly dark themes and images of death.  I feel awful saying this, but watching the movie knowing how it ends for Ledger, makes it take on a whole new meaning and maybe even more interesting than what it would've been.  I'm sorry, but it's true!

Is the movie uniquely creative?  Absolutely.  Fluid?  Anything but.  It's very all over the place and incredibly hard to follow unless you pay close attention and bare with it at times.  You really have to commit to the first hour of the movie before you start getting any payback in plot or even understand what's going on. Ledger's death doesn't really help much either, as he was replaced by not one but three actors - Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp and Jude Law, each seeming like they're trying to figure out what the movie's about as the camera's rolling.

Apparently all the live action portions of the movie were filmed first, followed by the imaginarium/fantasy portions, so anytime Ledger's character steps into the imaginarium, you get a different actor.  They tried to make that part of the story line, but it just adds another layer of..."what the hell?"

Also, thank you Avatar for ruining movies for me with your cutting edge CGI.  Not everyone had the same budget as you Mr. Cameron, and now you're making every movie try and compete!  Parnassus doesn't stand a chance in that department, at times feeling like you're watching A-Ha's music video "Take on Me."  It's fantastically creative, but just not as well executed as what we're now used to. 

SPOILER ALERT:  If you can decipher a theme in the movie, I'm not sure it's as grandiose as it tries to be.  I saw it as life is just one big chess game between the devil and Jesus over the souls of humanity, with each of us left to make the ultimate decision for ourselves.  Seems thin to me - I mean, I could've told you that myself after 18 years in Sunday School.  Did I just pay $12 to see a "Catholics Come Home" commercial?

Dr. Parnassus is a roller coaster of a ride, filled with its creative peaks and moments where you just want off.  The movie begs the question, if you could take a walk through Dr. Parnassus' Imaginarium, what dream would you like to live out?  I ultimately decided mine would've been to see a different movie.  Ok, I'm being overly harsh, it's really not that bad.  But I didn't think it was good either. It's certainly worth taking a gander at Ledger's last piece of work, if nothing else than to experience how ironic it is.  So R.I.P. Mr. Ledger, you are missed, but by any stretch of the imagination, this is just a PUT IT IN YOUR NETFLIX QUEUE!

Check out the trailer and decide for yourself!  

Down the rabbit hole we go!

So in between my latest reviews, I thought I'd share with you a great new trailer to whet your movie going appetites.  Unfortunately, I'm very much hung up on Tim Burton's upcoming "Alice in Wonderland," so even though you've likely already seen the trailer, I'm still featuring it as today's post!  But really, how can you blame me - it's Tim Burton!

This is by far my most anticipated movie of 2010 and I'm ready to fall down the rabbit hole as giddy as a school girl after three Long Island ice teas.  How could you not drool over Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter reuniting in a Burton film about one wild acid trip?  Or perhaps that was a wild opium trip in Lewis Carroll's day?

As far as I can tell, this is Burton's first Disney film since he worked for the company in the concept art dept. way back in the day - his first live film ever was actually aired on the Disney Channel, a Japanese adaptation of Hansel and Gretel - fully stocked with a kung fu fighting witch.  Boo yeah, bet you didn't know that one!

To my surprise, Burton says this is his first foray into using green screens.  I know!  How is that possible!?  You're telling me Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was all sets?  I have a new appreciation for that one now.  And apparently it only took 40 days to shoot the entire film, which either means it was so good they only needed one take for every shot or it's hopelessly bad.  Fingers crossed for the former.

So, I'll be suffering from a different March Madness this year as a I madly wait for my Mad Hatter.  You'll see me in the front row of the first showing on March 5th - with 3-D glasses in hand and Advil in my pocket for the ensuing headache the glasses will give me.  I'll enjoy it nonetheless.

Come on, you know you want to watch it again!

If you haven't already heard, there's an amazing Tim Burton exhibit going on right now through April at the MOMA in NYC.  If you're at all a fan of Tim Burton's work, go see it.  Over the holidays I had the opportunity to waltz on in to Burton's twisted mind and it was worth every epileptic fit.  It's an amazing collection of his work over the last several decades and a real insight to his creative process.  Love him or leave him, he's a genius in his own right.  If the exhibit was a movie, I would most certainly give it a horrifyingly demented PAY FULL PRICE! 

Grey Gardens - Now on DVD

As much as I was particularly excited and interested to see this one, since I refuse to pay the ridiculous cost of full cable, I unfortunately had to wait until the HBO movie Grey Gardens came out on DVD.    If you're not familiar with the cult classic 1971 documentary also titled Grey Gardens, you should be.  It captures the fascinating lives of Big and Little Edie, aunt and cousin of Jackie O and former New York socialites as they live in destitution.

If you thought the folks on the A&E show Horders were bad, you obviously haven't met Big and Little Edie.  The two of them are so hard to describe - in fact, if you didn't know any better you'd swear you were watching a SNL skit, I mean back when SNL was funny and people watched it.

A compelling documentary, it leaves you with the huge question of how these two women who had it all came to the point of eating out of cat food cans and living in a dilapidated, flea infested hell hole.  This 2009 HBO movie answers that question with great heart and compassion.

What really sets this film apart is the absolutely superb acting.  In her best performance since E.T., Drew Barrymore was almost unrecognizable as a legitimate actress.  In the special feature documentary, Barrymore says she worked harder to prepare for this role as Little Edie than any other she's ever done - and it sure has paid off.  The talented Jessica Lange is also unstoppable in her A+ performance, capturing Big Edie to an absolute T.  If you've seen the original documentary, you can hardly tell the difference between who is the real person and who's the character.  Big and Little Edie are very complex characters with many prominent idiosyncrasies so I was blown away at Barrymore and Lange's ability to tap into them flawlessly.

The set designers did a remarkably impressive job not only recreating the original Grey Gardens, but also giving it a real spirit as the character's third main character.  And if Grey Gardens was a real person, I'd say she's a nice blend of Lindsay Lohan and Nick Nolte.

Sadly, Alec Baldwin must've been busy filming It's Complicated, because HBO could only get Daniel Baldwin for this one.  But to my surprise even Daniel brought his A game.  Alec must've started hosting private Baldwin brother acting lessons...not so fast Stephen.

This movie has more heart to it than any movie I've seen in a long time, perhaps because the characters are based off real people.  You can't help but get drawn in by the heart wrenching, self-inflicted pain these two women created and then suffered through.  I must recommend you watch the original documentary before watching this movie.  It's not that you won't understand the movie, but you'll enjoy this movie so much more if you at least have a sliver of understanding of these women.

From what I can tell from the research I've done, the movie is quite close to factually accurate, which I was really happy to learn.  The fantastic costuming and music support this movie, but it's really the acting that makes it truly great.  Once again HBO has produced a knock out hit that rivals anything on the big screen and infinitely deserving of its two Golden Globes for Best TV Movie and Best TV Movie Actress, Drew Barrymore.

So, Mother dahling, please don't pass Grey Gardens over as it's earning my first ever PAY FULL PRICE! 

Check out a behind the scenes look at the making of Grey Gardens!

And the TMMC Golden Globe Giveway goes to...

Jennifer of Dumfries, V.A. 

As the winner of TMMC's first ever Golden Globe Giveaway, you just won a gift card to Fandango.com valued at $25!  Congratulations on correctly predicting Avatar as winner of Best Picture Drama and The Hangover as winner of Best Picture Comedy.

Thanks to all TMMC readers for entering in the contest!  Don't worry, it took Marty Scorcese three decades and eight nominations before he won his first globe.  Your time will come.

So let's round up tonight's festivities shall we?  I laughed, I cried, I napped and then I cried again - I laughed at Mickey Rourke's outfit and cowboy hat.  I cried at The Hangover.  I mean The Hangover!!??!!??  Really!?!?  Don't get me wrong, it was funny...but best picture?  When you boil it down, wasn't it just Dude Where's My Car II?  Discuss.

I napped because...well...really, it was rather dull - not much happened worth talking about.  At least not from what I could see from my couch.  The speeches were rather boring if not a bit melodramatic.  With so much going on in the world right now, it seemed a bit disingenuous for Hollywood to talk about how much fun it is being in the movie biz.   Meryll Steep's was the most poignant to me and Robert Downey Jr.'s was the most enjoyable. 

As the show's host, I very much enjoyed Ricky Gervais' awkward jokes making fun of nearly everything and everyone.  Sure they made you cringe, but you still laughed.  Best joke of the night at the expense of Mel Gibson!

Personally, I was quite proud of myself for correctly predicting a whopping 10 of the 14 movie categories, only missing Best Picture Comedy, Best Actor Drama, Best Song and Best Foreign Film!  Not to shabby if I do say so myself.    

Well that wrap's up TMMC's coverage of the 67th Golden Globes - hope you enjoyed!  Check out a full list of this year's winners!  Special shout out to Grey Gardens, winner for Best TV Movie and Best Actress in a TV Movie, Drew Barrymore - stay tuned for my review of the movie tomorrow!  Until then, check out the trailer!

2010 Globe Predictions

Congrats on making it through your second full week of work in 2010.  As we approach Sunday's festivities, don't forget to make your last minute predictions and enter TMMC's Golden Globe Giveaway!  Good luck to all you TMMC readers who've already submitted your entries.  And if you lose just remember...don't go away mad, just go away.  There's always the Oscars!

Instead of flying out to LA to attend this year's awards, I decided to donate the airfare cost to the victims of the Haiti earthquake.  I hope you do the same and join me as I put on my tux and sit on my couch Sunday night with a glass of Cristal.

So here it is all you readers out there, and what a group of lookers you are, TMMC's GG predictions.  See you Monday for a wrap up report!

• Best Picture/Drama -Avatar
• Best Performance by an Actress/Drama - Sandra Bullock, the Blind Side
• Best Performance by an Actor/Drama - George Clooney, Up in the Air
• Best Motion Picture/Comedy or Musical - Julie & Julia
• Best Performance/Actress Comedy or Musical - Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
• Best Performance/Actor Comedy or Musical - Robert Downey, Jr. - Sherlock Holmes
  
• Best Performance/Actress in a Supporting Role - Mo'nique
• Best Performance/Actor in a Supporting Role - Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Bastards
• Best Animated Feature Film - Up
• Best Foreign Language Film - Broken Embraces (Spain)
• Best Director - James Cameron, Avatar
• Best Screenplay - Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
  
• Best Original Score - Michael Giacchino, Up
• Best Original Song - "I See You" Avatar

Fantastic Mr. Fox

As a fan of both old school animation and Wes Anderson, I was seriously looking forward to seeing this movie.  Based on the children's book by Roald Dahl, author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," this fantasy features the fantastic Mr. Fox and his woodland friends as they feast on their neighboring farmers' fare and the frenetic feud that follows - ha, take that Mrs. Orlando and your 3rd grade lesson on alliteration!

As an homage to the stop-motion animation of yesterday, I personally appreciated the movie's charm using claymation.  It's like stepping back into a childhood memory, back to the days of watching the original Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movies or Wallace and Gromit. If you've moved on from those days and Avatar's now more your speed, you'll most certainly find the movie to be a petrified dinosaur turd pulled out from the depths of cinematic history.

I've been a long time fan of Wes Anderson's past works, with Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums considered classics in my movie collection.  With quirky plots full of oddball characters, while the Anderson's trademark style translates well to animation, to me it's starting to feel somewhat redundant and overextended.  And while I once found his humor to be subtle and dry-witted, I'm beginning to just feel like I'm missing something.  Several times during the movie I found myself laughing and then thinking, "wait, was that really funny or was I just laughing because I think I'm supposed to be laughing."

Don't get me wrong, this movie does have some great belly laughs in it, and much of that is helped thanks to a great cast that includes George Clooney, Meryll Streep, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman.  Wild animals taking themselves seriously in human situations also doesn't hurt either - a fox and a badger growling at each other over a subprime housing mortgage is rather funny after all.

After first leaving the theater, I didn't know what to think about Mr. Fox.  So I turned to my friend "A" and asked her what she thought of it, not knowing anything about the movie going into the theater and being completely unfamiliar with Wes Anderson's previous work.  She hesitated for a moment and replied, "well, it was cute."  Yeouch!  How many filmmakers want their audience to leave saying that!?  The problem is, she's right, it was just...cute.

Maybe I built this up too high in my head as unfortunately, Fantastic Mr. Fox is...well...not as fantastic as I'd hoped, forcing me to give it a BREW & VIEW IT! 

Meet your woodland friends and view the trailer!

4 Days Left to Enter the GG Giveaway!

Don't forget to enter TMMC's Golden Globe Giveaway!!  You gotta be in it to win it!

Enter here!

Star Trek - Now on DVD

Ok, so TMMC was a little late to the party on this one, what can I say, I have a day job.  But after now seeing it, I sure am sorry I missed Star Trek in theaters.  Why did I pass it up?  Because Hollywood's fascination with rehashing old greats from the 70's and 80's hasn't quite panned out - I know, how could I think that with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx's 2006 cinematic masterpiece Miami Vice!?  Maybe it's just me, but 9 times out of 10 I liked a movie better when I saw it the first time.  Star Trek proved to be the 1 in 10.

I'm not normally a fan of prequels like this, George Lucas totally ruined them for me, but the approach they took with Star Trek was a nice surprise.  JJ Abrams has done a phenomenal job updating the original Star Trek, benefiting from today's movie technology without tearing apart the franchise's soul.  The story line is wildly interesting yet the movie maintains a good humored approach and doesn't take itself too seriously, even poking fun at itself at times.  Don't worry if you're not a devotee of the original, you may miss some of the references and jokes, but you'll certainly still enjoy yourself.  It's well worth playing a little catch up for.

I'm still scratching my head a bit at whether or not Winona Ryder's appearance as Spock's mother was supposed to be a joke or if I personally just found it hilarious.  A - where did they find her!? and B - she's of the age to play a mother already!?  My my, I guess it really has been that long since we last saw her mug shot.

As with most off Abrams' work, don't go into it with your thinking cap on - we know none of it can happen, that's a given.  Just unplug yourself, sit back, relax and enjoy the great special effects.  Certainly enough time has passed since the last Star Trek that unless you're a Trekkie you'll have a hard time picking out any inconsistencies with the original.  

The cast should also be given praise for fitting the parts perfectly yet still making the characters their own; so even though you wait for William Shatner's patented syncopation, you're not disappointed at all when you don't hear it.  I also loved the original score, which really enhances the movie's experience.

I particularly loved Leonard Nimoy's Yoda-like appearance in the movie - all he was missing was the limp and walking stick.  I only wish William Shatner would've made a cameo too - that was a bit of a bummer.  I was hoping for for the two of them to reunite for a great musical number.  Maybe bring back some of their psychedelic chart topping hits like the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins or It Was A Very Good Year.

If you haven't given Star Trek a chance yet, go see it!  Because it boldly went where no other 70s remake's gone before, I happily give it a DO A MATINEE!

TMMC's Golden Globe Giveaway!!!!

Tomorrow, or today (depending on when you're reading this), marks the final deadline for all GG ballots to be received by Ernst & Young.  Eyes up, pencils down and please pass all Scantrons to the front.  Now it's time to see if the Hollywood Foreign Press is as out of whack with their GG recipients as they were with some of their nominees. 

In honor of our first Golden Globes together, I'm happy to announce TMMC's Golden Globe Giveaway!! 

Correctly predict the best picture winners for BOTH Drama and Comedy/Musical and you'll be entered to win a free surprise gift valued at $25!!  I know, TMMC digs deep into his pocket for his readers.  To refresh your memory, here are our nominees:

Best Picture Drama

• Avatar
  
•  The Hurt Locker
• Inglorious Basterds
• Precious
• Up In The Air

Best Picture Comedy/Musical

• (500) Days of Summer
• The Hangover
• It's Complicated
• Julie & Julia
• Nine

To enter just add your comment to this post and don't forget to add your name so I can find you if you win.  Anyone who guesses correctly will be included in a random drawing.  If no one correctly identifies both winners, all entries with at least one correct best picture prediction will be entered into the drawing.  The winner will be announced on Monday, January 18. Good luck fellow movie watchers!

Here's a teaser for what we have in store Sunday....

The Young Victoria

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8 Days, 6 Hours, 37 Minutes

With the 67th Golden Globes coming next Sunday, January 17, there's only a few days left to get tucked, pulled and injected.  Regardless whether or not The Hangover wins best picutre, thanks to Botox you can bet the entire audience is going to look stunned.  If you haven't already, check out the full list of nominees. 

It's a sad year in movies when Sandra Bullock is nominated for best actress in the, nearly, straight to DVD The Proposal.  Too bad Meryl Streep didn't do a few more movies this year so she could have had more nominations for best actress.  I hope Daniel Day Lewis is starting to prepare for a better performance than he pulled out in Nine - losing graciously on international television.  And you'll definitely want to tune in to watch James Cameron flip a table, a la Real Housewives of NJ, if he loses best director.

I love the Golden Globes more than any other award ceremony for one important reason...booze.  Since the majority of the audience won't, or can't, eat solid food, they spend the subsequent five hours downing glass after glass of Moet Chandon - leading to some great off the cuff moments.  My biggest disappointment this year is that Mariah Carey isn't a nominee, so we won't be able to see drunk acceptance speech, part deux.  Monday Morning tip - pay more attention to when the camera pans the audience than what's on stage, that's when you really get to see who's primed the pump and ready to make an ass of themselves.

It's your last weekend before award season kicks off - if you can only see one more movie before next Sunday, what would it be?  Tell me - I wanna know!

The Rape of Europa - now on DVD

I'd love to be an artist too, but you don't see me getting rejected and deciding to take over the world!  To think WWII could've been prevented if a brooding, psychopathic young artist was validated by an art teacher with a gold star next to his drawings.  To the world's misfortune, Adolf Hitler was rejected from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and the rest is history.

One of the most interesting documentaries I've seen in a long time, The Rape of Europa chronicles the pillaging and destruction of art by the Nazis in WWII, and the efforts to save and rescue it.  We're all quite familiar with the atrocities against humanity committed by the Nazis, but less so about their effect on European art and culture.  If you have any interest in WWII history and fine art, most likely you'll learn something from, and be riveted by, this documentary.

As far as documentaries go I think this is a great one, but much of that is due to the rich subject matter.  Not to spoil anything, but just think - they say it takes a full week to see everything in the Louvre.  How long would it take to evacuate every work of art in the entire Museum?  Chew on that.


If you're not a history or art buff, you'll be done in five minutes.  The average age of the movie's interviewees is about 80, so at times it does have the feel of visiting a nursing home.  But thank goodness for us, everyone's taken their medications and are on point with what they have to say...if you can focus long enough for them to get it out.  Even with an interest in the subject matter, a few times I had to tell myself, "focus...focus...come on now, focus."  

Actress Joan Allen's narration of the documentary doesn't help this much.  I was really excited to learn she narrated the film, until I put the DVD in and listened to her trying to lullaby me to sleep.  Remember that old art show on PBS with the guru of all frizzed out hair, Bob Ross?  Remember how his soothing voice was as he talked about painting "happy trees?"  Remember how you used to watch him to fall asleep?  Joan Allen sometimes has a similar effect in this one.

So yes this documentary isn't going to keep you on the edge of your couch gripping the cushions in excitement and anticipation, but it still has enough fascinating stories for several Hollywood blockbusters.  In fact, I came out of it with at least one myself.  If you're a WWII history buff looking for something a little less gory and more factually accurate than  Inglorious Bastards, try The Rape of Europa on for size.  You won't be disappointed.  You won't like Nazis any better, but at least you won't have to watch the movie squinting through your fingers.  I toiled with the rating for this one, but have confidently settled on a strong DO A MATINEE!

Check the trailer out and see if it's the right fit.

AVATAR

Before I saw Avatar I heard a lot said about it - that it's the most expensive movie ever made, that the CGI is unbeatable and that it actually has a good plot.  The first time I saw the preview I wasn't all that impressed, but nonetheless, like everyone else I needed to see it to judge for myself.  So, we waited three hours for a sold out performance on a Saturday night and made our way into the theater.  In many ways, I was pleasantly surprised.  In many others, it was what I expected.

Everything I heard about the CGI was correct, it IS unbeatable.  Until now, I considered Lord of the Rings the gold standard of CGI, seamlessly blending live action and computer animation.  Avatar makes the Lord of the Rings looks like the Muppet Show.  While, yes, sometimes it feels like you're watching a cartoon, the majority of the movie you're so enthralled by the images that you don't realize, or care, whether it's computer generated or not.  Kudos to the creative team that worked on Avatar, I see many Oscars in your future.

Beyond the effects, James Cameron does a good job at creating a visually stunning world, Pandora, that I personally wouldn't mind visiting for myself.  The people of Pandora that Cameron's conjured up, and the scenario they find themselves in, are both imaginative and creative.  The only problem is, everything and everyone is a bit one dimensional.  All the characters fit easily into a nice box of "good guy" or "bad guy" and even the blue humanoid people of the planet, or Navi, are so underdeveloped that they just come off as a bunch of tree huggers.  We got it, you love your planet, we don't love ours - but for an entire new species of people, there must be more to them...I guess Cameron didn't get that far.  Pandora and its people just appear to lack significant texture that I would've appreciated.  A world of potential left right there on the creative table.  I'll say this right now, Ebert downright disagrees with me on this one.

Within five minutes of the movie you've nailed down the entire plot, how it's going to unfold and how it's going to end.  Halfway through the movie I thought, "there must be a twist coming...wait for it...wait for it..."  It never came.  Alas, the movie plays out exactly how you would expect it to, which I find somewhat disappointing.  Many times it felt ripped right out of movies like Braveheart - in fact at one point in the movie I found myself choking on the urge to stand up and yell, "they can take our land, but they'll never take our freedom!"  It's all just a big set up for the big battle royale, which wasn't even the best part of the movie in my opinion.  And of course the environmental, kumbaya theme is beat over the audience's head so hard you might get a migraine.   My biggest plot criticism actually stems from a few George Bush/Global War on Terror references that will sorely date the movie and really are unnecessary.  

All that said, while it was easy to see through, the plot, with significant help from the CGI, keeps you engaged throughout.  It's highly entertaining, and well worth many of the awards it will undoubtedly receive, though don't expect any in the acting category.  Sigourney Weaver is by far the most engaging, but I am partial towards her.  Why we chose a no name, mediocre actor to play the leading man I'll never understand, but don't worry, he's so memorable you won't even remember he was in the movie after an hour.  ACCENT ALERT - Once again we have a leading man that can't decide if he's Australian or American!!!  Really, $500 million and we can't find an actor who can hold onto an accent for 2.5 hours?

I'm a big soundtrack person and I have an affinity for original scores - they make up nearly a quarter of my personal music library.  I think music can define a movie and is its heart, particularly in dramas or epics.  Music is one way I think movies can really affect viewers emotionally.  Unfortunately, James Horner missed the mark a bit on this one, though his fan reviews on iTunes remarkably disagree.  I made the mistake of purchasing the album myself to which Ebert responded, "there was even music in that movie?"  Yeah, it was that memorable.  Only one track worth even noting - the commercial theme song sung by Leona Lewis, "I see you."

After seeing this movie in digital 3-D, I'm really curious if that significantly enhanced the movie for me, as I suspect it did.  I'd be interested in what others who didn't see the movie in 3-D thought of it.  All in all, a very entertaining movie worth seeing, especially in 3-D.  While I don't think it's the timeless epic Cameron was aiming for, I do recommend it and give it a solid DO A MATINEE.

See the trailer!

NINE

The big number in this musical is "Be Italian."  Between this movie and MTV's the Jersey Shore, I don't think being Italian is something I'm interested in anymore.  Admittedly, I didn't know much about the musical Nine before seeing the movie, other than what I had learned from my parents who saw it on Broadway with Raul Julia.  I went in with an open mind, and yet still left the theater with a bitter taste in my mouth.

I have a rule of thumb with movies with big blockbuster casts, they usually suck.  Nine was not an exception to the rule.  Between the lot of them they have a whopping 17 Oscar nominations!  You'd think one of them would put up a worthy performance in this one, but other than Marion Cotillard, we got nothing.  The most unfortunate part is this movie highlighted the fact that none of them are real singers - you may be able to get away with that in a flashy movie like Moulin Rouge or Chicago, but with a more subdued or musically difficult piece like Nine, you're left wide open to showcase your flaws.  Poor Judi Dench, who I typically love, barely made it through her piece - screeching her way across the finish line.  Penelope Cruz is only up for a Golden Globe award because she tries to kill herself - award voters seem to love that sort of thing.  Believe me people, individually I love this cast, but together they did NOTHING for me.


Not to say anything about their accents - which I found more distracting than anything else.  In one scene we're Italian, in the next we're French, American or English.  Please, pick an accent, ANY accent, and stick to it.  Even Cotillard couldn't decide what nationality she wanted to portray.  I find that really inexcusable from such a strong acting cast.  Even Daniel Day Lewis was lackluster.  Don't get me wrong, he's got the brooding thing down, but he's not bringing much more to the role and certainly not his singing.  I leave Fergie out of most of this criticism because she didn't have a speaking role but did have the only semi-exciting number in the movie, despite looking like an absolute cow.  She must've had a fight with the make-up and wardrobe departments cause they didn't help a girl out for sure.  I'd rip into Sophia Loren, but Ebert says she's an icon and I have to keep my mouth shut.  So all I'll say is this - if you attend award ceremonies this season, easy up on the Botox, please.  I think the only person I was impressed with overall was Kate Hudson, for two reasons.  1.  I had zero expectations for her and 2. She was perfectly cast as a bubbly, blond vamp.


I was pretty disappointed by the movie's zero creative direction provided by Rob Marshall.  It was like watching Chicago light - nearly identical styles!  Instead of cutting from plot to staged vaudeville musical number, this time we went from plot to musical number on a movie sound stage.  If this is the formula Marshall's going to apply to any musical movie he directs, I'd prefer he stay away from directing another one.  I loved Chicago when I saw it the first time, I don't need another, thank you. 


Maybe it's just me, but the overall energy of the movie just lacked.  It didn't generate any excitement, or interest, whatsoever, and just seemed to ho hum it on to the finale.  With Nine, it gives me great pride in bestowing my first low rating of WAIT FOR VHS!

 Watch the trailer, it's better than the movie!

Yes, I’m a Monday Morning Critic

The definition of a Monday morning quarterback is as follows: One who criticizes or passes judgment from a position of hindsight.
Based on that, you could pretty much call me a Monday morning movie critic. I’m not in the movie industry, I don’t have any input at any production studio, I have no voice whatsoever in any movie ever made or being made. Yet, I still find myself at the end of a movie saying, “what they should have done is...” So to channel my movie thoughts and critiques I decided to create this blog.  Well, really Ebert told me to do it.  Secretly I think he was fed up with me dissecting every movie we see together.

While I have no education in film making, I love movies. I love the way they can leave an impression on you, positive or negative. I love how they can make you think about yourself, your life or just make you feel an emotion – happy, sad, depressed, excited, scared, etc. There’s nothing better than seeing a movie and continuing to think or talk about it for days afterwards. I’d love to make my own movies, but until someone with lots of money comes knocking at my door offering to fund my own ideas, I’ll just have to sit back watch the hard work of thousands of others, and then criticize it as best I can.