Movie Monday - 1/17/2011

Movie Season, or the Road to the Oscars, is officially heating up.  Last night, the Golden Globes bestowed the best dramatic picture honors to The Social Network.  The Kids are Alright also brought home some important awards, including Best Comedy-Musical. We will see which one wins out at the big show....Nominations will come out next week.  I can't wait!

Still in theaters:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third installment in the series. It was very well done…a very good adaptation of the book. The story begins with the younger Pevensies (Lucy and Edmund) living temporarily with their cousin Eustace. Soon, the three are heading to Narnia, meeting up with Prince Caspian and are off on an adventure. The 3-D feature lends itself well to this fantasy film. I really liked it.



I don’t think I’ve seen the original True Grit. (I know…shocking!) In it, John Wayne plays the role of Rooster Cogburn, the marshal hired by Mattie Ross to find her father’s killer. This new version is directed by the Coen Brothers and follows the book more closely. The story is told from Mattie’s viewpoint. Jeff Bridges plays Rooster and Hailee Steinfeld plays Mattie. Josh Brolin and Matt Damon are also in the movie. It was very well acted - I’m thinking multiple Oscar nominations will result. It was very good.


I didn’t really like Somewhere, starring Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning, and directed by Sophia Coppola. Dorff plays Johnny Marco. He’s a movie star who has abused drugs, sex and rock-n-roll. He doesn’t seem to have many real friends. Fanning plays his daughter Cleo, who spends a little time with him before she goes off to camp, since Mommy leaves to find herself. Roger Ebert states, in regards to Coppola, “She sees, and we see exactly what she sees. “ True and what I see is a depressed, waste of potential. I cannot feel any sympathy for this guy, because while I understand that movie stars live challenging lives – being stalked by their admirers, not having any privacy, living their lives in the public eye, not knowing who their real friends are…the list goes on – it’s a choice. They can choose to live a simpler life away from the limelight. It has been done successfully by many actors. They can choose not to partake of the drugs, sex and rock-n-roll. Not all actors are in rehab, contrary to popular belief. To be fair, I am aware that I don’t like this movie, because I don’t like Johnny Marco, or the type of person he represents. This character is trying to get somewhere, but he ends up nowhere.


Made in Dagenham is a delightful period piece set in England in the late 1960s. It is based on true events. Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Rosemund Pike and Miranda Richardson star in it. There was a common practice at that time of paying women lower wages than their male counterparts. The Ford factory in Dagenham, England was no different. The women sewing the seat upholstery were fed up and decided to strike. It was a very good movie.

Out on DVD:


The Social Network is the story of how Facebook began, and is based on the book by Ben Mezrich, The Accidental Billionaires. Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerman, Andrew Garfield plays Eduardo Saverin and Justin Timberlake plays Napster founder Sean Parker. I’m not really sure how much of the movie is factual, but the film didn’t leave me with a high opinion of Mr. Zuckerman as a person. I found it ironic that he started a social network, when he doesn’t seem to have any people skills. I liked the movie, but Best Drama?  I don't know...


Easy Virtue is a cute, cute, cute comedy with Jessica Biel, Kristen Scott Thomas, Colin Firth and Ben Barnes. Biel plays Larita Huntington, an American car-racing widow, who marries John Whittaker – a British aristrocrat. The plot gets interesting when the newlyweds go home to meet John’s parents (Scott Thomas and Firth). It seems that Mummy isn’t too keen on the whole whirlwind wedding thing, especially to a “floozy.” Money problems, cultural issues and the widow’s past all play a part in causing conflict between the newlyweds. It ended with a bang. I really liked it.

Until next week...

MK out.