Sunday, November 13, 2005

Get Rich or Die Tryin'

The s*it was terrible. Period. I will leave a little room for the possibility that my interpretation was skewed by the number of mojitos I drank at the bar before the movie, BUT I'm pretty sure it still sucked. I also went to the bathroom for two minutes, so maybe those were a really good two minutes that would've explained everything...somehow I doubt it. My date was snoring. If you like the straight- to-video rap movies advertised in the Source magazine, maybe Get Rich or Die Tryin' is just the movie for you. There are plenty of good hip-hop influenced movies out there, from Belly to 8 Mile to Hustle & Flow. Get Rich aint one of 'em. There are plenty of talented rappers turned actors, from Will Smith to Ice Cube and even DMX. Fifty aint one of 'em. Actually, his performance was better than I thought it would be and his acting wasn't even the biggest problem with the movie. The movie was just a bunch of random $hit happening. A collection of scenes. Terrence Howard (Crash, Four Brothers) has been in everything this year and the brother is talented, but this was a waste. Joy Bryant (The Skeleton Key, Antwone Fisher) is featured as Fif's girl, so the role was pretty basic. Homeboy from Oz plays the gangster who won't let 50 go straight. OK I'm done really trying to break this movie down like it was something. I didn't like it. Go see it if you want.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Derailed

This suspense thriller is an okay addition to the genre, but it's definitely not going to set the world on fire nor the box office. I suspect that moviegoers may want to see Jennifer Aniston (Along Came Polly, Bruce Almighty) shine in her first post-Friends role, so the movie may do well in its first week. After that, I expect it to sink. Who knows, maybe I'll be surprised.

Aniston stars as Lucinda Harris alongside Clive Owen (Sin City, Closer) in this somewhat predictable movie. Owen plays Charles Schine, a married man who encounters Lucinda on a train during his morning commute. She pays his fare when he comes up short, and the "sparks" fly. Except they really don't. But I can tell I'm supposed to think that they are flying. Sorry, Jennifer Aniston is not a knockout, so I'm not buying that she's this head-turner who has all the men on the train breaking their collective necks just to get a peek. Charles is open to the idea of getting to know Lucinda better because his marriage is strained. He and his wife are caring for a diabetic child and have stretched their finances to the limit. Thus the door is open for an affair, and Lucinda strolls right through it. The plot thickens when their seemingly impromptu meeting at a hotel goes violently awry. Suddenly getting busted on a late-night creep session by the wife is the least of Charles' problems. I'll stop right there. The rest of the movie is comprised of Charles trying to get his life back on track.

I dig these kinds of movies, so I figured I'd check it out, despite the fact that I'm not really a Jennifer Aniston fan. She did an okay job, but the role could've been so much more. I can't figure out if it was the writing or just her performance. She didn't do anything really wrong, but she didn't really do anything right either. I will need to see her in something else before I'm convinced that she has any depth or range to speak of. I like Clive Owen, so I think he did a fine job, although nobody will be winning any awards for this one. However, I must say that Vincent Cassel (never heard of him before this) was very good as the villain who terrorizes Owen's character. Xzibit (XXX: State of the Union) and RZA (of Wu-Tang for you non-hip hop heads) are in this too, so that was kinda interesting. X to the Z is a decent actor, although not much was required of him. RZA was sorta cute as the mail guy at Charles' job.

This movie was kinda cheesy. I had to laugh when Charles went to the "hood," and the filmmakers were sure to cue in the "gangsta" rap to make sure the audience knew that Charles was going to encounter some scary ethnic types. If you're a big Aniston fan, you'll probably like this. If you're a fan of really good movies, maybe you better wait for the DVD.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Check for this TV Show: Criminal Minds

This show is great. I don't really get into the new dramas the networks unleash on us every Fall, but Criminal Minds is like a mini-movie each week. Like Law & Order, CSI, and other prime time crime dramas, Criminal Minds is self-contained and doesn't require that you watch each episode, so jump in any week. The premise: a group of FBI profilers solve sadistic and heinous crimes through careful deconstruction of the victims' lives. This show isn't exactly breaking new ground in terms of the profiler plot, but it is uniquely entertaining in its darkness. It's like a psychological thriller done for the small screen, and each week the case is just as chilling as the last. CBS has definitely become the network for crime/mystery dramas and features the best: Cold Case, all of the CSIs, and Without a Trace. If you're not doing anything else, Criminal Minds is definitely worth a look. Wednesdays 9 PM EST on CBS. Starring: Mandy Patinkin (Dead Like Me) and Shemar Moore (Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Brothers).

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Jarhead

I was really looking forward to this movie, and I was not disappointed. Jarhead features a stellar cast in both starring and supporting roles. Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, The Day After Tomorrow) stars as 20 year old Anthony Swofford, a real-life Marine who served in Desert Storm. The movie tells of his personal experiences dealing with the boredom, uncertainty, anxiety and disappointment that may come with military service.

Set in 1989(?), Jarhead paints a truly realistic portrait of Marine life, from the hazing rituals to the Marine vernacular. Anyone who knows a Marine or is a Marine themselves can see that director Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition, American Beauty) did his homework. I guess it's pretty easy to convey the authenticity since the movie is not fictionalized, although I assume some artistic liberties were taken. FYI, a "jarhead" is another name for a Marine and the name comes from the standard haircut which makes the Marine's head look like a jar.

Gyllenhaal has really grown on me. Swofford is wide-eyed but gutsy, and never tries to be something he isn't. He misses his girlfriend and wonders if "Jody" is keeping her company. He's proud to serve his country and is a good marine, but like a lot of Marines, his grip on sanity is a bit loose. His experiences in Desert Storm show the pointlessness of his purpose….he is a sniper who never even gets to fire his gun. I could feel his boredom and desire for some "action" in the desert. How does one "fight" in a war as a sniper and never fire his gun?? Particularly effective was a scene between Gyllenhall and Peter Sarsgaard (Flightplan, Shattered Glass) as they return from a mission to find that the war is over. The other members of their troop are partying, drinking, celebrating and dancing around a fire, happy to be returning home after months in the sweltering heat. Their euphoria and wild abandonment contrast sharply with Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaards's crestfallen faces. They should be happy, the war is over and we won! They can go home now. However, the unspoken question is "what was the point?" What did I do, why was I here?" And to top it off…I never even fired my weapon! This feeling dissipates as Sarsgaard's character tells Swofford to fire his weapon now. A great scene follows where Swofford fires his weapon in the air and sets off a chain reaction. Men. Gotta love 'em. They're so beastly and cute.

Anyway, suffice to say this movie was highly entertaining and gave a different account of the military. There are many great war movies out there (Full Metal Jacket, Born on the Fourth of July), but this one (I think) is the first one to capture the mundane aspects and real day to day experiences of a soldier who didn't see much combat. Gyllenhaal was simply great and Peter Sarsgaard is a supremely underrated actor. This man should be a bigger star than he is. Jamie Foxx as Staff Sargeant Sykes is also great. Foxx doesn't even seem like he was ever a stand-up comedian, this man is a real actor who can hang with anyone on the big screen. The cinematography and imagery were also beautiful. There's a scene where Foxx and Gyllenhall are shown in silouhette against the backdrop of a red and orange sky as oil fires burn in the distance. Good stuff. I put Jarhead in my top 3 of the year, behind Crash and ahead of Sin City. Check it out.