Are Men and Women Really Different?

I don't know about you but I hate books like "He's Just Not Into You" -- like who made this guy or gal the know it all?  Of course because women fell all over themselves to buy the book.  It was spawned by an espisode on "Sex in the City".  The guy that wrote the episode and then the book is a comedian and writer.  He has managed to parlay his theory into a new full blown career including talk show host playing on women's insecurities. 

The Ugly Truth is in the same vein but funnier.  I never watched Katherine Heigl on Grey's Anatomy.  I have seen her in 27 Dresses and Knocked Up and if you ask me, she has a huge career ahead of her.  The rumour is that she will be taking up the role of Stephanie Plum when the Janet Evanovich books hit the silver screen in the near future.  I haven't decided on how I feel about that.  Gerard Butler is one hot guy -- and he's funny.  I haven't seen the Bounty Hunter but I think he is probably funny in that also. 

Heigl's character Abby is a romantic.  She wants Mr. Perfect to be Mr. Right and who is to say she shouldn't have him --she meets who she thinks is the perfect guy a doctor no less when her tv station hires Mike a no b'ser to be a cohost on the morning news show Abby produces.  Mike advises Abby on how to land her dream man and sparks fly.  I won't tell you anymore but I found it to be a fun romp.  The movie is what it is ... it isn't Shakespeare but it is an enjoyable 1 1/2 hour. 

I saw Crazy Heart the movie Jeff Bridges won the Oscar for as Best Actor.  I can't compare his performance to Clooney's performance in Up in the Air but it was Bridges time to win and he is amazing in the role.  The film itself can be a bit of a cliche but if you factor in that this project is the director/writer's first time out of the gate well it is pretty great.

I also watched Men Who Stare at Goats with both Clooney and Bridges.  I thought it was good.  Not everyone's cup of tea because the humour is twisted but hey.

To wrap this up and tie it in a nice bow, go, run now to see The Ghost Writer with Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor and directed by Roman Polanski. Brosnan shows a new side to himself ... you completely forget that he has played Bond and Remington Steele and see him as the beleagured former Prime Minister.  It is definitely in Polanski's top 5 films.  And really who cares what happened 32 years ago, is the guy trolling around LA trying to pickup 13 year old girls?  No.  He was in Europe and living his own life.  For a different look watch "Roman Polanski:  Wanted and Desired".  Great documentary if a little biased.

Ciao for now... fellow cine goers.  And are men and women really different?  I don't know but it can make great cinema :)

It's Complicated...

I went to see It's Complicated a couple of weeks ago... I don't know what I was expecting but it was great.  I laughed out loud more than once.  I love Alec Baldwin -- he's so funny and he and Meryl Streep had great chemistry together.  I also liked John Krushinski (I have probably screwed up his last name) but I thought Steve Martin was rather weak.  I don't know if it was his performance or his character... anyhow it was great and I could see myself buying the DVD when it comes out.

I am also just loving the 31 days of Oscar over on TCM Movies.  I love this channel -- all the time but this is my favourite month I think.  They show all the great movies -- this month I watched The Guns of Navarone, Love Me or Leave Me (the two leads Cagney and Day make the movie - I think the script is more of a melodrama) and tonight I am going to watch The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance with Jimmy Stewart who said that this was one of his favourite movies...I taped Hud with Paul Newman and Patricia Neal but I haven't watched it yet.

Have been reading "Nobody's Perfect" a biography of sorts from Charlotte Chandler on Billy Wilder... it has been very interesting and it's easy to read.. Wilder discussed his films with Chandler and she spoke to some of the stars of his movies as well as some of his collaborators... some of Wilder's classics include:  Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Some Like It Hot and the Apartment -- Wilder also wrote the majority of his own screenplays and co-wrote Ninotchka with Greta Garbo which I also watched this month...

Next month the Oscars -- are the winners set in stone .. I hope not :)

Public Enemies

Do you ever write a blog and then stop for a long time and then start writing on it again... it's almost like a diary...

Anyhow, life caught up with me with a vengeance and I didn't want to do anything for a really long time but hopefully that is over now.

For summer movies, I didn't see a lot. I saw Public Enemies ,which I liked, but I thought the script was weak. The movie made me want to read the book and that explained how the script was so stretched out... The book covers a year (1933/1934) in the early life of the FBI and all the mistakes that were made. 1934 was a popular year for bank robbers -- moreso than ever before and probably ever since. It was a year of Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, The Barker/Karpis Gang and Baby Face Nelson to name a few. The movie focused on Dillinger with some appearances of the other gangsters as happened in real life. I imagine that it would be difficult for the screenwriters to adapt a movie from the book.

Michael Mann, the director, makes beautiful looking movies. He could be a Monet or Van Gogh (along with his cinematographer) in the film form. His timing is impeccable -- the robbery scenes of Heat, the chase scenes in Public Enemies are phenomenal. And he always picks a great cast... It is for these reasons that I go see any of his movies and hey, if the script is great then it is a bonus for me. Public Enemies is a good rental. The actors are great: Depp, Cotilliard, Bale and Crudup. It is a visually stunning -- it's too bad about the script but in a film world of dreck -- this one stands above.

I was re-reading some of my blogs and I was amazed to see comments from people I didn't know and from people I knew ... so thanks for that .. you made my day. Thanks to Anonymous for your dead-on, intelligent criticism.

Summer Movies

When I first started this blog, I asked the question are blockbuster movies a thing of the past? One person said they were - you could view movies in your own home theatre and another did not think they were dead. I concur with the latter although I don't remember if I said so at the time.

By the way, this blog is under one of my internet aliases - that I use on other sites - in case you wondering.

Summer 2008 has been the summer for blockbusters. IronMan kicked off the season in mid-May followed by Indiana Jones 4, the Incredible Hulk was next with Get Smart now in theatres. I, for one, am enjoying this season. When people ask me why aren't you blogging - well for one reason - there haven't been a lot of films that I wanted to go see. I confess to having a thing about going to movies alone but I am going to try to work on that.

An interesting turn of events has been the release of the "Sex in the City" movie. For months now, my friend Aaron and I have dreaded it's opening. What if it did not live up to the show? Well the success of the film seems to depend on the audience age. My 17 year old niece "hates the show!" - which didn't surprise me in the slightest because: (a) she's 17 and (b) she's never seen the show. I also think that my sister won't enjoy the film because of its vulgarity which unfortunately is integral to the show. I say unfortunately because my sister does not like vulgarity - (L - tip for you - go see Get Smart. Lots of laughs and almost no nudity!)

For me Sex was great! I began to tune in to the show during the 2nd season and could relate to the characters. No, not because of the sex... The female characters are my age. They deal with issues that I could possibly and do deal with. Sex is the "Mary Tyler Moore" show of my generation and I love MTM.

There are little, or no, voices for women my age in this media era. Actresses my age are cast as the mother or supportive friend to the female lead. This decade has done little for actresses of any age but when the main audiences are either baby-boomers or people up to the age of 25, well my generation loses out. I think it is no surprise that women such as Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman are choosing this time in their lives to have children.

In the 1930s and 1940s there were great film roles available for Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Ingrid Bergman to name a few. In the 1950s while the amount of quality female roles decreased there were still roles available for Deborah Kerr, Joanne Woodward, and Doris Day. In the 1960s while there were still "kitten roles" for women (ie Barbarella or almost any Bardot movie), they also had "Bonnie and Clyde" (Faye Dunaway and Estelle Parsons), or "They Shoot Horses Don't They?" ironically with Jane Fonda. The 1970s and the 1980s again had lots of roles for women but there seems to be a backlash against women 35+ in films today.

Actors who are in their 40s and older are linked with women 20 years or younger and these roles are supposed to be credible. To be fair in Ironman, Gwyneth Paltrow is roughly 35 and Robert Downey Jr. is 42 (I love RDJ) but this is not the trend. In "Get Smart", Anne Hathaway is in her 20s while Steve Carrell is in his 40s (but she is still very funny). So it is refreshing to see four women in their 40s living in NYC doing what they want to do albeit not without their challenges like Mary, Rhoda, Maude or Sue Ann Nivens did on '70s tv. So support "women" films because the bottom line is money talks.

For the record, I loved Ironman, the new Indiana Jones movie (but what a crappy role for Karen Allen as Indy's lost love), Get Smart and Sex. I loved "Michael Clayton" with George Clooney and Tilda Swinton (what a magnificent performance) - and that's about all I can remember right now...

Cheerio

Jean Harlow rocks... more to fo llow

Sandler and James rob the Cradle?

Who knew my life was over at 41? It's depressing. So much for 40 is the new 30 etc.

Hollywood has done it again. Now, everyone knows I love the magic of American movies as well as movies from other countries but I have to make a statement about the devaluing of women that the Americans (and probably the Canadians continue to do in their movies).

There's a new movie coming out next week called, "Chuck and Larry Get Married". Or something like that. It will probably be hilarious because it has Adam Sandler and Kevin James in it. There are a couple of possible strikes against the movie - and no I haven't seen it so I don't know for sure but ...

Strike One: Sandler and James pretend to be gay to save James's pension at work. That's not bad ... probably will be funny even. However, I bet you donuts to dollars that there will be some gay stereotyping going on. Which in itself can be amusing... so you say, "hey, what's the problem then?" Well (and again I haven't seen the movie) do we need to have two hours of gay stereotyping in the 21st century with 2 reasonably talented comedians? I say rent Some Like it Hot with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as a cheap alternative. Lemmon and Curtis dress as women (They are straight guys) who are trying to get out town safely before the mob can kill them and the fun ensues.

and while I am at it... Eddy Murphy quit dressing up as fat black women... it's not funny and I wish your mama would slap you upside the head for building a career on it (lately)!

Strike Two: the third role in the movie belongs to Jessica Biel. I don't think I have seen her in a movie but she is very attractive and she probably is a good actress. My problem is she is 25 (probably 24 when she made the movie) and Sandler is almost 41 and James is 42. I guess no actresses over the age of 30 were available for the role. And I suppose that it is believable that a 25 year old would be an experienced human rights attorney? I work in a law office, hello, wake up - maybe if the lawyer was Doogie Howser! It's not just Catherine Zeta Jones and Sean Connery - the guy has grey hair so it becomes more obvious. So now not only is it hard for actresses to get jobs after they turn 40, apparently the cut off has become 30 and lower. Great ... not that there are many great roles for women in North American films anyways... Thank goodness we will always have Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep and Jane Fonda.

If I sound bitter, I am. We are probably missing out on great stories with strong female leads. Since the market is aimed at teens and twenties, what do we expect... So go out and see Chuck and Larry - hope it is good - but see a movie where the male and female leads are in the same decade to balance the marketing spectrum a little bit.

Greetings Earthlings

It has been a long time since I blogged. Apparently, life gets in the way. But back to blogging:

Can we please get passed the whole Bradgelina - Jennifer Aniston phase?

B & A say themselves that they don't like the press but then there they are promoting their movies and on every freaking talk show. Enough already! And if you love your kids, why don't you spend some time with them instead of adopting more or looking for more to adopt.

As for Jennifer Aniston, she probably wishes she had never met Brad because of all the press about B & A.

Paris Hilton. Shut up already. You got caught driving DUI. You were told that one of the conditions of your sentence was to not drive. You can afford to take a cab or to even have a hired car - you didn't need to drive yourself. Same goes for Nicole Richie. There are people in the world who are really suffering so we don't need snaps of you bawling because you behaved badly and are receiving the consequences for it. Enough said. move on ....

Lindsay Lohan ... same thing. Take some time off and don't go to the clubs every single night. And wear some underwear.

Britney Spears... the poor kid has 2 kids of her own within 13 months, splits with her husband and then starts to freak out so she has to go to rehab? Give me a break! Take a normal person and they would freak out too ... (ok, they may have not shaved their head) She's been working since she was a child. Maybe she just needs to chill right?

Sopranos - the last season - thank you David Chase for this amazing series! Thank you James Gandolfini for an amazing performance over the past 8 years. I feel sorry that your career will always be shadowed by this character and the brilliant performances you churned out. But thank you just the same. What do I think happened? Nothing. Chase was making a show about a guy living with his wife in New Jersey trying to raise their 2 children who also happened to be part of the mob. So how to end it? Show the family going to a restaurant and having dinner together. How normal is that? Mob wars have been going on for the past century. People get killed but the rest go on and live their lives. It is a piece of life - so it went on the same for Tony and Paulie.

I rented Venus last week with Peter O'Toole. Very charming performance. Lots of f bombs but somehow it sounds better when said with a british accent. It would appear that people don't really change their personality after a certain point they just change physically. Anyways, it is a great renter.

Borat. Hmmm some of it was funny. It was a brilliant parody with all the country logos on it to boot but it was rather vulgar to the point that I thought I don't want to watch anymore. The producer and the bear were very funny.

This is it for now... hopefully it won't be so long next time... have fun