April Movies

The Invention of Lying

This is a story of a man who figures out how to lie while everyone around him remains clueless.  It had such potential.  Ricky Gervais does his best to pull it off and had some good comic support from the cast, but the story didn't really deliver.  It just seemed there was so much more that could have been done with the premise.  Also, I found out that I really don't like the angular lines of Jennifer Garner's face.  She did an acceptable job of acting, but I can't see her as the beauty her character was supposed to portray.  In the end it's a forgettable story but ok if you want some light entertainment.

Best Line(s):

• "He's kind of a good guy, but he's also kind of a prick too."
• "Man in the sky forbid!!"

The Thief

This film takes place in Russia after World War II and follows the life of a young boy growing up with his single mother and her "friend" who is a con man, bilking people out of their meager possessions and then moving on to the next town.  The boy's father died in the war and he looks up to her mother's friend as a father figure.  The film ultimately ends with the son as an adult, still haunted by the events of his childhood.  Interesting story but not quite enough there to really recommend it.

Best Line:  "I like the life I live, I don't want another one."

Inkheart

My daughter read the book and I listened to the audiobook, so we decided to rent the film and see if they could do the book justice.  Well, it's a tough book to stuff into a 2 hour movie, and it shows.  The story involves a man and his daughter who have the ability to read characters out of books into the 'real' world.  But when they do, something or someone goes into the book to replace them.  In this case, the girls mother has this fate.  The father has been searching ever since for a copy of the book to try to get her back.  However, they encounter the characters from the book who desperately don't want to go back.  It makes for a good story, but the film just can't capture the depth and details and breadth of characters from the book leaving the story hollow and spread too thin.

Best Line:  "You don't know what I can do...and neither do I."

The Informant!

Matt Damon does an excellent job as a manic depressive executive who decides he wants to be an informant for the FBI.  The beauty of the story is it's told from his perspective and one can never tell what is real and what is part of his warped mind.  His constant lying to make himself more than he is keeps you guessing as to what his actual motive is for ruining his career.  Kudos also go to Scott Bakula for his role as the FBI agent.  It's worth watching but only because it's based on a real story and a real character who helped to expose price fixing in the food additive business.

Best Line(s):

• "Paranoid is what people who are trying to take advantage call you in an effort to get you to drop your guard."
• "Mark, you splattered the walls with ink!"
• "What do you make of that?  Hmm, that's kind of weird."

Up In The Air:

This film tells the story of a man with an empty backpack.  That's the main characters metaphor for removing all attachments in your life, in fact, he goes around giving seminars on the subject.  But that's just on the side, his day job is to travel around to companies and fire people.  He does this very efficiently and in the process is trying to rack up 10 million travel miles.  Lofty goals for someone, huh.  He's joined on the road by a newbie, someone fresh out of school who thinks they can rewrite the rules of the job.  Along the way he meets a woman like him and he begins to question the life he's chosen.  It's a great story and done well.  I liked the mechanical nature of the opening shots of the process of going through airport security.  I also liked the ending, very appropriate.  Good movie all around and more deserving of the Best Picture Oscar than The Hurt Locker.  Lots of best lines to choose from, but the one I chose sums up the main character well.

Best Line:  "It's not like I know her that well."

Cache (Hidden):

This french film tells the story of a man being harassed by someone unknown.  They leave video tapes on his front step.  Some show his house, others show the house where he grew up and still another leads him to someones doorstep.  We are lead to believe that the film is about who and why the tapes are being made.  But in reality, it's about guilt.  And believe me, having been raised Catholic, I know a thing or two about guilt.  But ultimately, the film fails in many ways.  The story is long and drawn out with no real conclusion.  There are stationary camera shots for minutes at a time with no movement.  The characters are wooden and unbelievable, but some of that may be because I watched it with subtitles.  It was so bad, I was unable to find any good best lines, so none will be mentioned.  The only redeeming factor (and the reason it gets 2 stars), is for a funny story told during a dinner party scene that I could probably use sometime.  Beyond that, there's no reason to see this film.

Where the Wild Things Are:

I really liked this film.  I watched it with my daughter and I think I liked it much more than she did.  Once you get past the brat aspect of the kid where you feel he needs a good smack upside the head, and he gets to the land where the wild things are, it becomes a great imaginative story told from the perspective of a kid.  You have to keep that in mind while watching this film.  It's basically the imagination of a child run amok.  Another wonderful aspect of the movie is the soundtrack, it complements the movie well.  I'm not sure if each of the wild things is supposed to represent an aspect of the boys personality and life, but it sure seemed that way.  The ending is short but nice and you get the feeling he might actually appreciate things a little bit more now.

Best Line:  "But happiness isn't always the best way to be happy."

Alice in Wonderland:

Tim Burton's re-imagining of the classic tale is done in true Burton style, with exaggerated visuals and bizarre characters.  We saw this in the theater in 3D and I think for this film, it was used poorly.  Too many things coming at you as opposed to using the technology to immerse the audience in the environment.  In general, the film was ok, but nothing great.  Johnny Depp was definitely one of the weaker characters playing the mad hatter and the story became run of the mill defeat the bad guy with a big fight scene near the end.  If you just have to watch everything Depp, go see it, but otherwise there are much better Burton films out there.  No best line since we saw this last month and I simply forgot to review it then.

There you go, some good movies and a few clunkers, but they can't all be gems.  Next month I should get to see The Blind Side, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story.  Should be an interesting month.