Forcefully 'Extract'-ed

The trailer for the movie "Extract" was hilarious. The basic points/the idea of the movie was summarized, along with funny scenes that I'm sure really helped at the box office.

The premise revolves around the going-ons at an extract plant, owned by Joel (Jason Bateman, "The Kingdom"). He learns to deal with the various characters that work there until a worker named Step is injured on the factory floor and the whole thing goes haywire. Joel had been planning to sell the plant that he had begun and created himself to General Mills, but with the injury and insurance issues, the sale is put on hold. Meanwhile, a criminal drifter named Cindy (Mila Kunis, "That 70's Show") sees the news of the injury, and hopes to uses Step as a pawn on her way to big bucks in a law suit. The attractive Cindy begins to work at the plant, and things also become complicated between Joel and his wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig, "The Brothers Solomon"). As you can imagine in a Mike Judge ("Office Space") directed film that things don't always go according to plan.

The movie itself is actually really funny. The storyline is pretty weak, but it holds the film together enough for some really hilarious parts. I thought the casting for this film was excellent, and that each character really plays their roles appropriately and extremely well. Ben Affleck steals the show as Joel's bartending, advice giving, drug-taking/dealing buddy Dean. Bateman is similar to his character in "Arrested Development," a role that really fits him. Wiig is funny if unspectacular in the role as his wife. Kunis is a sexy vixen on the lam and out to con people, a role she plays well too. KISS frontman Gene Simmons has a funny cameo as a sleazy ambulance-chasing attorney, J.K. Simmons ("Juno") has a small role as Joel's right hand man at the plant and David Koechner ("Waiting") nails his role as Joel's super-annoying, intrusive neighbor Nathan. The cast and performances themselves make this movie worthwhile in itself.

Like I said, it's not the most gripping storyline of all time and it's pretty predictable, but that's not the point of this film. The laughs are many and really funny, and the cast is great. If you liked "Office Space," you should like this one.

"Extract" is rated R for language, some sexual content and brief drug use.

7 out of 10 stars

New movie Tuesday

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas holiday, and are ready for the new year. Can't believe it's 2010 already. I only had a chance to watch parts of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," but I'm sure many holiday movies have been playing all week. Hope you got a chance to enjoy your favorite with family and friends.
Anyways, a few noteworthy DVD releases today. "Paranormal Activity," the low-budget horror movie that I saw and found boring was released today. I can't seem to find my review, so I'll try to do that one. Also out is "A Perfect Getaway" which I also saw and liked, but don't have a review of, and "Jennifer's Body," starring super-hottie Megan Fox. I went with "9", an animated film about the end of the world that looks pretty cool, and is produced by the visionary Tim Burton. I'll get a review up soon. And yes, I watched "Extract" last week, and thought it was funny. Review to follow...

New movie Tuesday

Lots of good ones out today, probably because December is a good DVD month because of CHRISTMAS (in case you didn't know it's coming up). The big release is "District 9" which I saw in the theaters but don't seem to have a review up. Maybe I'll rent it and give a review. Also out is "(500) Days of Summer," an indie rom-com that was well received at lots of film festivals last winter. I went with "Extract," a Mike Judge ("Office Space") comedy that looks pretty funny, and stars Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis. I'll try to have a review up soon, but it will be a busy holiday week, so please excuse me in advance.

The theaters have some good ones out too. Playing in Ronan right now is "Avatar," a futuristic CGI-filmed James Cameron monster. I'll try to see that soon; it will continue playing there this week and next. "2012" and "Planet 51" are playing in Polson, but new ones are on the way. "Sherlock Holmes," which looks excellent and stars Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr., comes out this weekend, as does "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel." Lots to see. I'll try to have reviews and recommendations up soon. And don't forget to contribute to our holiday/Christmas discussion about our favorite movies during the holidays. Poll votes are coming in, so vote before the New Year! Have a great Christmas, and enjoy some good movies with family and friends.

Christmas/Holiday Movies

With Christmas just around the corner, I though I'd get your thoughts on your favorite holiday movies. Feel free to write in the comments here, or check out the new poll to your left.

"Elf" has become a staple of the holidays, and "It's A Wonderful Life" is always a classic. "Home Alone" is underrated and a great film that I watched non-stop as a kid, and "Bad Santa" is an awesome flick for the adults. "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" is a movie all can relate to and "A Christmas Story" might be the most played movie on TV around the holidays. These are just a few, and some of my favorites. What are yours? I'd love to get a good discussion going. Happy holidays and happy watching!

No Oliver Twist-kind of 'Orphan'

When a horror/thriller movie uses a child as the protagonist, you know that character is going to be really scary. I think this has to do with the "innocence of childhood," and all the preconceived notions society has of how a 9-year-old girl should act. "Orphan" takes those preconceived notions and shoves them out the door, while also preying on another unknown: adoption. In this case, the adopted child, Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) is even more shadowy because she has come to the Connecticut orphanage she resides at from Russia.

After Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) Coleman's third child is stillborn, they decide to adopt a child. They have two young children already: Daniel and Maxine (or Max), who is deaf and communicates with sign language. When the couple visits the orphanage, they decide to adopt Esther, a smart, artistic girl who is from Russia. At first things are good and the family gets along. Esther picks up sign language quickly, and seems to be doing well. Things quickly take a turn for the worse. A girl breaks her ankle at school, and Esther is nearby. She wears old fashioned type clothes, and is never without a choker necklace and bracelets on both wrists. She shows up at weird intervals, and generally creeps out some of the family, mostly Daniel and Kate, who begin to sense something is off with their new family member. We see just how "off" as the film goes on.

The acting is solid on all fronts, and is a different take on the "evil child" movies like "The Good Son" and "The Omen." This has some good twists and turns, though it does follow a similar formula to those other two films. Fuhrman does a great job as Esther, and really seems to be evil. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who liked either of those other two movies, or if are in the mood for a horror/thriller movie. It's well done, and has plenty of scares.

"Orphan" is rated R for disturbing content, violence and gore, adult language and situations.

7 out of 10 stars

New movie Tuesday

A lot of good choices for new releases for this week, a few of which I saw in the theaters. "Inglourious Basterds," the glorious film from Quentin Tarantino, is out today, and I highly recommend it. I saw it in September while it was at the Polson Showboat and loved it. You can read my review of it on this blog here. Also out on DVD is "The Hangover," probably the most popular and funniest comedy of the summer. Though I saw it I never reviewed it. Instead, click here to read fellow movie-lover and former Leader reporter Ty Hampton's review of the film while it played in Polson this summer. Ty knows his stuff and writes a great blog as well - check it out.
Also out is "G-Force," an animated children's movie about hamsters or something. "Taking Woodstock' came out today as well, and is intriguing, but I didn't see it at Crazy Mike's.
Instead, I went with an older movie but still recent release, "Orphan." This film looks creepy, sort of like a girl version of "The Good Son" (adopted child turns psychopath) so I'll get a review up soon. The folks at Crazy Mike's say its been renting at a rapid pace, so I figured I'd review it. Plus, it looks super creepy and I haven't seen a scary movie in a while. I'll have a review up this week; happy watching!

Sad or 'Funny People'?

I'm kind of on a comedy kick these days, so I rented Judd Apatow's latest comedic endeavor "Funny People." Though the movie came out on Nov. 24, I rented it this week because I had seen new releases "Public Enemies" and "Julie and Julia" and really had no desire to watch the new "Harry Potter" as I would be completely lost.

The premise of the film is that an aging, comedic superstar named George Simmons (Adam Sandler)finds out he has a lethal form of leukemia. Simmons had made a bunch of bad comedy movies that he has been paid a bunch to make. Maybe it's an autobiographical look for Sandler of his own life. Seeing his life in a different perspective than his normal womanizing, money spending ways, Simmons meets Ira Wiener (Seth Rogen) during a stand up gig at a small improv. Simmons takes a shining to Ira and hires him as his assistant/joke writer first for a corporate MySpace gig and then full time. And of course, there's the one who got away, Laura (Leslie Mann), Simmons ex-finacee whom he rekindles his relationship with once she visits him after finding out he's sick.

The movie, overall is a comedy, but I'd almost call is more of a "bromance." The reason I use this word is because it's used by an agent in the movie, but a "bromance" would be like the movie "I Love You, Man." Instead of being a romantic comedy per se, most of the film is focused on the heterosexual relationship between two men. Hence "bromance": a man romance (but not sexual). And that's what "Funny People" is. Sure, it's a bunch of comics coming together and having fun in a movie. But the focus is on the relationship between the lonely Simmons and the struggling Wiener. And yes, each has a romantic female interest as a side storyline, and yes, Simmons illness is another issue, but the relationship between the two male leads is the main storyline between beginning and end.

That beginning to end is a long time too. This movie seemed to run on about 3 hours too long, and there were a bunch of scenes that really dragged. The movie has a good concept, but I wasn't impressed with the execution, which surprised me because of the stockpile of comedic talent on the cast, and the great cameos throughout the film. A lot of the lines seemed improvised, which is appropriate for a comedy and a format I'm a big fan of. But it seemed like a lot of the jokes were bad: overused and stupid sex jokes and not enough funny, original comedy. That was disappointing to me. I've liked movies that every single one of the characters has been in, but combined, they sort of fizzled. I did like the actual scenes of stand up they did during some parts, and there are some parts that made me laugh out loud, but a lot were too much. The story is interesting, and the audience sees George learn from his ordeal, but it's kind of hard to have sympathy for him at the same time. Ira, on the other hand, ends up being the more sympathetic character, and seems more real.

"Funny People" is rated R for nudity, adult language, adult situations, etc. Not for kids.

6 out of 10 stars.

'Bruno'

"Vat's up, it's Brunnnooo!' Sacha Baron Cohen's absurdly flamboyantly gay character is back for his own 80 something minute full feature film. In the beginning, Cohen created a TV show based on his ability to interview high profile people under the guise of three distinctly different characters. "The Ali G Show" featured Ali G, the white, wannabe British gangsta that hosts a TV show for inner city youth. Borat was the reporter from Kazakstan, bringing unruly customs in his quest to learn about America. And finally Bruno, the gay Austrian host of a fashion show. As you can imagine, the show was insanely funny, mostly because Cohen had the ability to play each of these characters as well as the next, and manage to land big names who unwittingly played right into Cohen's mockery of them. Playing off the success of the show, Cohen created a feature length film about Borat. The film made a ton of movie, but obviously came with some controversy. Now playing off the success of Borat, Cohen brings Bruno to the big screen.

After ruining a fashion week catwalk in Milan (he wore a velcro suit and fell into all the models), Bruno's Austrian TV show is canceled. He decides to head for the United States to become a huge star. Along the way, he comes up with all sorts of ploys, from adopting an African baby to heading to the Middle East to mediate peace talks. In between, ridiculousness ensues, much like it does in "Borat."

The problem, though, is that this film isn't executed as well as "Borat" or the TV show (which is the best of all three, in my opinion). His accent and dress up is overdone, as is the acting. He is so flamboyantly gay that is doesn't bring up gay stereotypes in a logical manner, but rather perpetuates them. If his goal was to help gay rights, he didn't. Rather, he makes people angry by acting too crazy.

There are a lot of funny parts, but an equally amount that are just too over-the-top. I think the show was much better than this movie and "Borat" too, just because it was simpler then. He was more subtle, while this time he is in your face, non-stop, which becomes overwhelming for the viewer and the mocked person in the film. If you like these kinds of movies, I'd recommend the show over this. But check it out and let me know what you think.

5 stars out of 10

Twilight: New Moon

As promised, here is a very special guest review by the Leader's own Aimee Niles. She and sports editor Heidi Hanse went to the midnight showing the night it came out in Polson, so she got the movie and the atmosphere. Take it away, Aimee:

No matter what I write, it will not change anyone’s mind about the newest flick in the Twilight Saga. Those who love will continue to love and those who loathe will continue to loathe.

Such is the nature of the blockbuster beast.

“New Moon” starts off the fall after ‘Twilight” leaves off (for those with poor memories, the closing scene of “Twilight” featured the protagonists swaying slowly at prom). Our female heroine, Bella Swan (played woodenly by Kristin Stewart), is turning 18 and her ageless, vampire heartthrob—Edward Cullen (played in a “dear God please go away!” manner by Brit Robert Pattinson)—is stuck as his 17-year-old self.

After a whoopsie-daisy moment at her birthday bash, Edward decides vampires—even the non-human hunting Cullens—are too dangerous for Bella. Taking the “it’s not you, it’s me” breakup line to the next level, he leaves Bella in rainy Forks, Wash. as he and his “vegetarian” vampire family move on to the chapter in their immortal lives.

Which brings us to the next two hours of the movie. None of us in the audience were fooled for a second when Bella started “hanging out” with the ultra-hottie Jacob Black (played by the 17-year-old Tayler Lautner, so back-off cougar moms. Let your daughters have this one). We all know that this is just a painful interlude to the Bella/ Edward love story; one doesn’t even need to have read the books to get this.

So, for two hours, Bella mopes and cries for her dearly departed vampire love all the while leading Jacob on in the cruelest of manners. (I don’t care if you’re Jesus Christ in his teenage years; no boy handles a teasing girl as well as Jacob. Yet another false expectation Stephanie Meyers is parlaying to an entire generation of teenage girls.)

After a series of madcap antics, (oh no! Bella rides a motorcycle…) Edward thinks Bella is dead and goes to Italy to end his immortal life. Bella follows and I won’t ruin the ending for you.

Perhaps I’m not observant enough to recognize the nuances of Stewart’s performances, but the “happy” Bella in “Twilight” as compared to the deeply depressed Bella in “New Moon” is pretty much the same performance. Stewart takes her awkward personality (as demonstrated on numerous talk show appearances) and gets rid of her mullet to play Bella. Call me crazy, but I thought actresses were supposed to…act.

And the only good thing about Robert Pattinson in this movie is that he wasn’t really in it. He was thankfully absent from the creamy center of this Oreo movie. It is black and white with very little surprises; a guilty pleasure to a balanced diet.

It wasn’t the main characters that made this movie remotely watchable—it was the fringe characters. Michael Welch as Mike and Anna Kendrick as Jessica were hilarious as Bella’s school friends and provided the only lip-twitching moments of the film.

If Lautner is jailbait for you, cast your eyes to the rest of his “pack” (Jacob is a werewolf in the movie). While taking up minimal screen time, his wolfie-brothers are just as tasty and much more culturally acceptable for the moms out there.

The more traditional, human-eating vampires, the Volturi are also pretty entertaining to watch. Dakota Fanning as the sadistic Jane worked for me despite Fanning’s squeaky-clean image. Michael Sheen is always a delight, and as Aro he almost eclipsed (no pun intended) Stewart and Pattinson’s performances in his tiny role.

Of the Cullen crowd, Ashley Greene as Alice got the biggest boost in screen time and she did well with it.

Don’t go into the theater expecting movie-making genius. Expect giggling girls and go with it—for being a tweener special, it’s a pleasure most people will find something to like about; even if it is only the eye-candy.

If anything, New Moon is proving the Twilight Saga’s rising bankability. New Moon has already grossed $40 million more than Twilight and has only been out for two weeks.

Despite my distaste and displeasure with everything Twilight, the ending scene teased me just enough to be among those who can’t wait for the third installment “Eclipse” in June.

Damn you Chris Weitz with your climatic ending to a mediocre movie, damn you.

New movie Tuesday

A couple of good new releases this week. "Terminator Salvation" was released, but I'd seen it in theaters. It's the fourth Terminator movie and I thought it was pretty awesome. It's in the future rather than the past, like the other three films. Also released was "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," which has been a pretty popular kids-type movie. I saw pieces of the first one, so maybe at some point I'll check out this one.

In theaters, everything stays the same. "The Blind Side" is in Ronan and "Twilight: New Moon" and "Old Dogs" are in Polson.

'Angels & Demons' and Priests, Oh My!

The all powerful Catholic church has a lot of sway, but even they couldn't stop the production of either "The Da Vinci Code" or "Angels & Demons" (though 'Demons' was banned in Samoa). And in some regards, despite my belief in the First Amendment, I can see why these movies would worry the Church. Yet people who watch it need to understand that it's a movie and not real. In a sense, it would be like security guards being offended by the movie "The Fan" because they didn't realize De Niro's character was actually the umpire before he killed someone. I mean, stuff happens, whether you're a powerful church or stadium security guard.

Anyway, I've read both "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels & Demons," two wildly popular novels by Dan Brown. After reading both, I liked "Angels & Demons" a whole lot more. Both subsequently had movies made of them, and again, I liked "Angels & Demons" a whole lot more.

Despite a few significant departures from the novel, I did enjoy "Angels & Demons." For those few of you who know nothing about it, I'll give a brief plot synopsis.

A bunch of scientists at CERN, the Swiss physics mecca, finally make antimatter, a highly explosive substance that sets off on contact. As soon as it is created, someone breaks in, killing a scientist and stealing the antimatter.

Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), the esteemed Harvard professor of symbiology, is called in because the dead scientist is left with an ambigram with the word "Illuminati" scorched into his chest. The whole story of the Illuminati, a true organization, is somewhat glossed over, but the book goes into much better, interesting detail.

Langdon and a CERN antimatter scientist named Vittoria Vetra are summoned and paired up in Rome in Vatican City where the antimatter is discovered. But a catch: the guards can't find the antimatter. Rather, it is hidden somewhere with a wireless camera showing it in the vicinity. In a few hours, the antimatter will go off, demolishing Vatican City and the thousands that have gathered in St. Peter's Square to mourn the death of the pope. That's the other catch: a papal conclave is ongoing to find the next Pope, and Langdon must find the antimatter. Add to that that the Illuminati have kidnapped the preferiti, or the four cardinals most likely to be voted Pope, and chaos ensues.

As you can tell, the plot is very confusing, and after reading the book, I wondered how a director would create a movie. Overall, it is well done, and gets the practical basics in to the film. There's too much detail in the book to fit into the film. But it gets it done, which is impressive. Some of the changes I didn't like, and it's pretty long (understandably so, but there's some good acting and a couple of pretty cool scenes. The book is better, so if I were you, I'd read the book first, then watch the movie, and then complain, like me, about why the book is better. You'll understand.

"Angels & Demons" is rated PG-13 for violence, language and Catholic Church bashing (not really).

6 out of 10 stars