Pat Coston Movie Reviews

Friday, April 16, 2010



Kick-Ass

I'm still a little bit in shock after watching Kick-Ass which definitely lived up to its name. I thought maybe I should wait a few days and absorb and contemplate what I just saw. What the hell, let's go for it. Chloe Moretz (Hit-Girl) really stands out as the 11 year old girl with the purple hair who can shred a roomful of gangsters with guns like it was child's play. Hit-Girl is the new Grrrrl Power poster girl. This movie is rated R for a reason. The violence is way more extreme than you'd see in a PG-13 flick. The potty mouth on Hit-Girl is pretty shocking. You just don't hear 11 year old girls use that kind of language in movies. There is sex and nudity so it has everything to bump it up to an R-rating. What is up with Clark Duke. His career is on fire with Superbad, Sex Drive, Hot Tub Time Machine and now Kick Ass. Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Red Mist. You might remember him as Fogell in Superbad. I didn't recognize him in the Red Mist outfit. The Red Mist setup at the end is proof there will be a sequel. I waited to the end of the credits but there was no bonus scene. I was able to suspend disbelief until the scene with the jet pack. Modern jet packs can only stay aloft for about 1 minute and this one definitely exceed that time limit. Plus I think having gatling guns on each shoulder would not only leave you deaf but the kick back would send someone in a jet pack flying backwards. Hit-Girl does this amazing move where she ejects her hand-gun cartridges and flips two more up in the air as she's running and manages to slam the guns onto them in mid-air. I'm not sure that's possible but it was certainly cool to watch. I thought Big-Daddy looked too much like Batman. I saw a web page that compared the comic to the movie and he had a very different appearance in the comic. So did Red Mist. One final thought ... I don't think anyone will dress up and try to be a superhero. The movie definitely made it clear that fighting crime is dangerous to your health.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010






Pandorum (2009) stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. I love SciFi movies involving massive Starship Arcs traveling thousands of years with millions of people in suspended animation. As I kid I loved the British TV show StarLost which had the same plot. I never heard of this movie and only learned about it from a NetFlix recommend but I was pleasantly surprised. I feel inspired to write my own SciFi story involving a massive Starship traveling thousands of years with millions of people in suspended animation. I'd love to know where they filmed this. The set was amazing. Lesson learned: DO NOT trust a cute little alien child. She may be smiling and looking all cute but it's only to draw you close so she can cut your throat.





Lars and the Real Girl

This is a hidden treasure. I never heard of this movie until NetFlix recommended it. Here is the NetFlix description: "When a delusional loner buys a life-size sex doll over the Internet, promptly falls in love with her and starts telling people that the doll is his girlfriend, his brother and sister-in-law decide it's time to intervene." Based on the advice from a psychologist, everyone decides to go along with his delusion and gets very involved in the life of this sex doll. The sex doll ends up making a big impact on people's lives in a positive way including Lars. This is really a feel good movie that I recommend. People who rented this movie also rented Maid-Droid. I added that to my queue but have not watched it. Here is description: "When he tries to reprogram his robotic maid to gratify him sexually, he begins to fall in love with the droid -- only to discover that her batteries are slowly but permanently losing their power. Meanwhile, a detective investigates a series of rapes that may be connected to the robot." A NetFlix member review says "This is a great movie, but not for the reasons you would think by reading the summary." I would say that is true for "Lars and the Real Girl" too. I found another "sex doll" movie called Love Object but it's a horror flick so I'll avoid that one. Here's the description: "Attempting to get over his fear of revealing his feelings to his co-worker, he purchases a realistic doll named Nikki that looks like Lisa and eventually works up the nerve to talk to his dream girl. Unfortunately, the doll soon becomes jealous of Kenneth's affection for Lisa and reveals her violent tendencies." I had no idea there were so many movies about sex dolls. We have a drama, scifi and horror. What we need is a sex doll comedy.


Special

The superhero movie Kick-Ass is almost upon us. Can't wait for a movie about average people becoming superheroes? Then check out this hidden Indie treasure. Here's the NetFlix description: "Enrolling in a drug study to spice up his humdrum life as a low-paid meter reader, Les begins taking an experimental antidepressant, which proves to have a few unexpected side effects. Convinced that he's actually developing special powers that can be used to fight evil, Les decides to quit his day job and focus on being a superhero … despite his doctor's professional opinion that his abilities are all in his mind." imdb.com user review "A seriously under-rated masterpiece" A user review on NetFlix says "It has the lovable character quality of Lars and the Real Girl and it cleverly integrates comic books and there influence without really becoming a superhero movie or a comic book movie." Ignore that it's 25% fresh on rottentomatoes.com. A review from that site says "It may not be perfect, but this under-the-radar indie from Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore is smart enough to leave you glad you found it." The thing I liked is the message that anyone can do amazing things if they simply believe they can.






Ice Station Zebra (1968) - Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, who had experience both as a movie producer and a defense contractor for the U.S., is said to have watched Ice Station Zebra dozens of times on a continuous loop in his private hotel suite during the years prior to his death. This movie is 2.5 hours long with an Intermission. It stars Rock Hudson and Ernest Borgnine. I also recognized this actor named Ron Masak. I've seen him in dozens of TV shows and movies but he's never been a starring man. The guy is still working! There are no women in this movie. It is wall to wall testosterone. This is a manly man's movie. If you like submarine movies (and who doesn't) this is your cup of tea. Of course the sub has to sink to 1000+ feet and nearly implode. You can't have a sub movie without that happening! I love how when the sub is diving, the whole set is titled so everyone is standing at a 20 degree angle. Nice touch of realism. I did spot one glaring error. These jets were passing mountains when 2 minutes away from the North Pole. They allowed smoking on the submarine. Manly! My favorite line is when Ernest is checking out the nuclear engine and says "It ... it seems almost benevolent." Rock: "In that state yes. Confined. Controlled. Shielded. But it is nuclear fission and it hates being confined even more than you do." At the start it has a 2 minute Overture showing the sub and the word OVERTURE. The intermission shows the sub and the word ENTR'ACTE for 2 minutes. After the credits roll, it shows the sub and the words "EXIT MUSIC" and plays some music for 2 minutes. Interesting. The final scene is of a teletype printing out a news story indicating that the rescue went well and America and Russia worked together on this heroic mission and another example of of International cooperation ... NOT! Howard Hughes was mentally ill and I'm sure this propaganda at the end fed into his paranoia about governments and never trusting what you read.



Hell's Angels


After watching Howard Hughes' favorite movie, Ice Station Zebra, I decided to follow that up with one of Howard Hughes most expensive movies which he directed called Hell's Angels (1930) which by the way is one of Stanley Kubrick's 10 favorite films. It's the story of two brothers who become combat fighter pilots in World War I. One is a coward and the other is brave. The film is amazing for many reasons. About half the film was shot as a silent film before it was decided to re-shoot it as a talkie. Some of the scenes appear to be from the original silent cut since they appear to be running at double-speed and yet re-dubbed with normal speed voices. Some scenes were filmed in Multicolor and printed by Technicolor. It's a little odd watching a black and white movie then have it go into color. Night battle scenes are in a blue tint. When the zeppelin crash and burns, it's in a red tint. This works quite well. This movie was made before Hollywood starting censoring films. This has some very strong language for its time but its very tame these days for example "son of a bitch", "goddamit" and "for Christ's sake". The scene where they bomb the ammo depo is freakin' amazing even by today's standards. They really do blow up a whole lot of buildings ... for real! Being one of the first talkies, you have to forgive how bad the lines sound. The transition for actors to move from silent movies to talkies could not have been easy. The sexuality is off the charts for the 1930s. Major side-boob in one scene and very low cleavage. Very passionate kissing. Lots of sexy dresses and heavy flirting. This is an anti-war film that deals with the issues of why we fight. It also deals with the nature of women ... they're all bitchy sluts that can't be trusted. The ending is quite shocking. If you want to know what I'm talking about, you can read about it on the wikipedia link below.


If you liked Memento, the movie in reverse, then you'll like the movie 11:14. Just like Momento, this is a movie essentially in reverse and from different perspectives which then overlap the previous time-line. At first you ask a lot of questions like "who threw that guy off the bridge?", "why did that girl walk in front of the van?", "Whose that guy with the gun?", "what's that bowling ball doing in a grave yard?", etc. All of your questions are eventually answered as we reverse time and see what happened from the point of view of different people. Henry Thomas is at the center of everything. You'll remember him Elliot from ET. He's hilarious. He had me ROTFL. Patrick Swayze is also a major actor in this. You cannot miss Hilary Swank. Ben Foster who played the troubled artist in HBOs Six Feet Under has a key roll. 11:14 pm is the time all of the events come together in the lives of these dozen people. That is one crazy night where the paths of so many people criss-cross to create such amazing beautiful chaos!