Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases Beginning 12/25/08

Curious Case of Benjamin Button (PG-13)
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormand,
Director: David Finch
A marvelously conceived, painstakingly detailed, and brilliantly acted tale of a man who is born aged and then lives his life getting younger with each passing minute. Spending his formative years at a nursing home, he befriends a pygmy and a 7-year-old girl both of whom will play an important part in his future as a younger man and boy.
3 and1/2 pieces of this is a must see toast

Frost/Nixon (R)
Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Toby Jones
Director: Ron Howard
Three years after being pardoned by his former Vice President, Richard Nixon agrees to a TV appearance with the British interviewer David Frost. The historic program was transformed into a Broadway tour-de-force for the actors who portray these two men onstage. Now Ron Howard brings the same talent to his movie version of the same piece of history. It was a wise choice, for the Welsh actor who is best known for playing British Prime Minister Tony Blair in “The Queen,” and the American who played both Dracula and Perry White, transform themselves into something which should be seen and appreciated. The interview itself is flawless. Less convincing is the behind-the-scenes one-upmanship practiced by men with towering egos.
3 and1/2 pieces of this is also a must see toast

Doubt (R)
Starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Directed by John Patrick Stanley
The playwright directs his own Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway hit about an angry and mean-spirited nun who accuses a popular priest of molesting a 12 year old altar boy behind closed doors. The truth is, although certaintude runs rampant, we don’t know what happened. Streep and Hoffman are encouraged to chew up the scenery while Adams, as the young novitiate, remains dazed and confused about who to believe.
3 pieces of overacted toast

Bedtime Stories (PG-13)
Starring: Adam Sandler, Keri Russell, Guy Pearce, Richard Griffiths
Director: Adam Shankman
This bastardized cross between “Walter Mitty” and “The Princess Bride” has Adam
Sandler miscast as an uncle who expressly defies his sister’s wishes against telling her children fairy tales in which he is the hero. With the Disney studio behind it, you might think the thing would work but it seems designed for those select children who have been raised in a bomb shelter or on a deserted island where no television, videos, or reel-to-reel movies have ever been seen.
1/2 piece of please save your money and stay away from this ill-conceived toast

Marley & Me (PG-13)
Starring: Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Dane, Alan Arkin
Director: David Frankel
One thing all dog owners need to realize is that their pet will not live forever. The newly married couple in this film decide they aren’t ready to have children, and adopt an ill-behaved Labrador puppy. Instead of taking him to obedience school, they tolerate and even encourage his rambunctious and destructive activities (presumably because it makes the audience grin and laugh). But there is scene of pet euthanasia which brings tears instead of laughter, and it is that sequence which will be remembered instead of all the doggy-style slapstick.
2 pieces of only for dog-lovers toast

Valkyrie (PG-13)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Terence Stamp
Director: Bryan Singer
Some really good actors offer support for a gritted-teethed Tom Cruise as his character attempts to assassinate Hitler and bring an end to WWII. But the beginning two thirds of the film don’t work. Instead the film has a great final third with Hitler taking revenge on those who plotted his death. The movie would have been much better if it had started after the failed attempt and instead built upon the scenes which work.
1 and 1/2 pieces of we’ve seen better things on the History Channel toast

The Reader (R)
Starring: Kate Winslet, David Kross, Ralph Finnes
Director: Craig Mazin
A lusty teenage boy has a passionate affair with a woman his mother’s age. She is only interested in the sex and remains cold and distant for reasons which are left unexplained until the final third of the film where the now grown up boy reflects upon what happened. Explicit, but somehow too cold.
2 pieces of ultimately dull and disappointing toast

Gran Torino (R)
Starring: Clint Eastwood
Director: Clint Eastwood
Eastwood is recving “Best Actor” nominations for his work as an older, retired Dirty Harry clone who does’t mind pulling out a rifle to settle what he perceives as trespassing.
3 pieces of we soon see where this is going toast

VIDEO/DVD

Burn After Reading (R)
Starring: George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Llike their classic “Raising Arizona,” the Coens have created a star-studded comedy that many in the audience just don’t understand. This time, it’s a recently fired spy writing his memoir while his wife has an affair with a federal agent and what happens with the staff at a fitness center worries about liposuction, lecherous co-workers and what to do with that top secret computer disc loaded with valuable (and dangerous) secrets. Got that?
3 pieces of Coen Brothers toast

Hamlet 2 (R)
Starring: Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, David Arquette, Amy Poehler, Elisabeth Shue
Director: Andrew Fleming
An unexplained hit at Sundance, this cross between “High School Musical, “”Mr. Holland’s Opus,” and “Waiting For Guffman,” stars a crude British comic as a failed actor turned Tucson school teacher who wants to stage a musical sequel to “Hamlet.” With a script by South Park’s Pam Brady, you expect so much more than dropped trousers and bathroom jokes, and the songs just don’t hold a candle to the Academy Award nominated ditty “Blame Canada.“
1 and 1/2 pieces of toast