Movie Review: Yanks

Another WWII movie. I'm rather on a WWII-themed-movie-with-girls-no-fighting kick. This one is about American soldiers (Yanks) stationed in England prior to being deployed to fighting on the continent. It follows roughly two romantic interests between American soldiers and English women. The one story of Vanessa Redgrave and William Devane was so-so. God! William Devane is one ugly SOB and he practically ruined the movie for me. I almost had to look away when he showed up or worse yet, opened his mouth to start romancing Vanessa Redgrave. Men that ugly should not be cast in romantic roles. It wasn't just his looks that I had against him. I disliked him for his home-wrecking abilities and his overall "skeeziness" of character. What lovely Vanessa Redgrave saw in him, I have no idea.

The other couple was Robert Gere and Lisa Eichorn. Adorable. She is SO gosh-darn lovely. I want to look like that when I grow up. Their relationship was much more edifying.

Overall, it was a pretty sappy, slow-paced movie with very little to stir the mind. However, it was a good story for a tired evening and the acting was pretty decent. With the exception of William Devane. Lord spare me another movie starring him! Unless he's the villain who dies early on.

Movie Review: The War Bride

This Canadian made movie really stuck in my mind. Set during WWII, it chronicles the story of a Canadian soldier who meets and marries an English girl. She gets pregnant. When he is sent abroad to fight, she goes to Canada along with all the other English "war brides" for safe-keeping. She ends up out on a prarie in Alberta. Her in-laws don't like her, but she keeps up her spirit and suffers through.

I liked this movie. The main actress was really good. She is kind of person I might like to meet sometime. It isn't a fast-paced movie or particularly stirring. But it was at the level of an intelligent chick flick.

"Despicable Me" Movie

Last night I couldn't sleep for a long time (the Irish coffee I insisted on drinking at 7pm is to blame) so I "thunked out" a few blog posts. The fact that my family and I now quote Despicable Me to each other all day long has prompted me to let you know about this AWESOME movie! It's a kids' movie, but with enough witticisms and funny lines to please the grown ups. I'm not going to turn this into a spoiler, so watch it yourself. But it was hilarious! Steve Carrell outdid himself. In fact, his performance as "Gru" is in my opinion, his best. One of my favorite aspects of the movie is that it is simply fun without that obnoxious, sugar-coated, propagandizing undertone to it. Yes, I appreciate that the environment, gay tolerance, recycling, animal rights, homeschooling and world peace are all important in their own place, but please! Not in my movies. I hate feeling like I am subtly being lectured to during what is supposed to be a kid's movie. Ice Age was like that. Horton Hears a Who was another. The list could go on. It could be that I read too much into it. But after all, I'm an English major and my job is to dig up hidden messages and read into simple implications. Still, I like to credit movie producers with at least my level of intelligence. If I can pick up on something, then I'm inclined to think that it wasn't put there by accident.

Ok, that was a minor tirade. Point being, Despicable Me is just a really fun movie that I think most families could enjoy together.

"Revolutionary Road"

I shouldn't ever bother writing this, but I hated the movie so much that my sense of proportion would not allow me to let this one pass unscathed. I watched this mind-numbing flick featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet this past weekend. I seriously felt like I was in the middle of a war zone. The relationship between this romantic pair could not have been less turbulent than drowning on the Titanic. From Scene I, the two fought and fought and fought. And it was ugly. It was noisy. It was vulgar. And it was pointless. Kate and Leo play a married couple who deem themselves too special for ordinary living. However, they find themselves stuck in this ordinary, ol' world, and hence, go around with a perpetual grudge against each other for said circumstances. Nice, right? Kate plays this AWFUL woman... silent, accusative, begrudging, contemptuous, and just ugh! Why do I always make myself watch movies in which the lead actress is a human being I really dislike? Nicole Kidman is one. Kate Winslet is another. Please don't assume I'm jealous. If I looked as mean and angry as the two of them, I might not like myself very much either. DiCaprio plays the more or less selfish, slightly indulgent husband desirous of his wife's attention. The two decide to leave their humdrum lives in the US and go to France, where Winslet will work as a secretary and support her husband's ambition of sitting around and coming up with his life's mission. But ah... she gets pregnant, they start cheating on each other, and the crazy son of a busybody neighbor tells them exactly what they are.

And here is my confession. In the middle of another stirring fighting match between the romantic couple, I shut the movie off. I'm too pregnant and hormonal to be able to sit and enjoy watching a married couple fight, even it it isn't real. I couldn't see anything getting better for this pair, except maybe having a paid assassin shoot the two of them. But as that did not seem to be in the cards, I left well enough alone and went to bed. Still, the entire performance left me with a bad enough feeling to waste my time this morning, writing a partial review of a movie that I could not finish.

"Australia"

I've been plagued by ironing lately and needed a really long movie to get me through the pile of shirts that have been sitting in my laundry room. I remembered reading reviews of "Australia" when it came out a year ago and the critics didn't like it because it was too long. Well, let's start this by saying I finished ironing all 12+ shirts and the movie was still going on when I finished!

Pros - I liked the fact that Nicole Kidman played a semi-ridiculous person. I'm not a Kidman fan. She has a mean face, angry eyes, and her best roles involve serious, business-like women, or else the stereotypically beautiful, cold seductresses. Worse yet, she isn't even pretty for all the hype she gets. So it was nice for a change to see her as something other than unlaughable. Hugh Jackman was good... did you ever notice how much he looks like Gregory Peck? The cinematography was first-rate. I am a sucker for expansive outdoor shots and mountainous scenery. The little kid's accent was cute.

Cons - Way, way, way too long. I thought the movie was going to end at three separate points... and the sad thing is that it could have ended at any one of those points and no one would have missed the rest. But no, it dragged on. Kidman became more and more melodramatic as the movie progressed. The villain was just too bad. And pointlessly so. He just did not seem to have enough motivation or reason to act as wickedly as he did. I didn't appreciate the typical Hollywood smack at the Catholic church, portraying the priest-run Children's Island (where all the half-breed aboriginal kids were send for "proper" training) as some sort of hell on earth. The priests themselves, while not evil, were weak and stupid. But thank God, the noble, good-hearted aboriginals, with the help of Hugh Jackman, were there to save those poor children from decimation by the Japanese. Oh Hollywood.

Overall, it was a very unremarkable movie except for its length. It was VERY long. Too long, I think. The story was not uninteresting, but nor was it stirring. The emotions were overdone and the music was too much in all the wrong places. Would I watch it again? Probably not, unless I somehow start working at a dry-cleaners, pressing shirts all day.