Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 10/30/09

Michael Jackson’s This Is It (PG)
Starring: Michael Jackson
Director: Kenny Ortega
We’ve seen Fred Astaire and Nat King Cole come back to life through special effects, and I first assumed that this film would be cobbled together out of old film clips and computer generated novelties.  But it’s all real, all new, and all Michael. Over 100 hours of behind the scenes footage was shot during the last four months of the King of Pop’s life, and Kenny Ortega, the director of the stage show being filmed, has respectfully and wisely created a movie that showcases the singer’s talent. No “fat Elvis problem” here. The scenes that are shown are of a fifty-year-old performer still at the top of his game.
3 and 1/2 pieces of memorial toast

Boondock Saint II  (R)
Starring: Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, Billy Connolly, Clifton Collins
Director: Troy Duffy
Ten years ago, a bartender/musician wrote a screenplay about some Boston brothers who single handedly attempt to wipe out the local Mob. Chronicled in the documentary “Overnight,” the filmmaker seemed to be headed for a big score with financing, a director’s chair, and even a promise from investors to buy the bar where he worked and hire him as bartender for life. But like in all fairy tales, there was a frog in the ointment, (or Rumplestiltskin at the spinning wheel, or something else the upsets the proverbial applecart). Even so, the film did eventually get made even though, as the cartoon film critic always says; “It stinks.” This new movie is just as bad as the original and probably worse in that it lacks any humor at all (although it still thinks it’s very, very clever).
1/2 piece of totally amateurish toast

Amreeka (PG)
tarring: Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallen, Hiam Abbass, Allia Shawkat
Director: Cherian Dabis
A new director from Columbia Film School has made a fine first feature film. A Palestinian immigrant family faces discrimination and financial difficulties trying to survive in Chicago after 9/11. Going for sit-com style humor instead of gritty reality, there is still some bite in this burger (and I don’t mean the ones from White Castle where the well educated banker mom secretly takes a job to keep her family fed and a roof over their head).
3 pieces of  falafel burger toast

The Damned United(R)
Starring: Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, Jim Broadbent
Director: Tom Hooper
I’m not sure that our football obsessed culture will respond positively to the inside story of one of Britain’s most famous soccer team controversies. But this isn’t really a story about goals made and lost. It is the story of a single minded individual—a self described childish person who holds a grudge against another powerful and famous man who just happens to manage Emgland’s championship soccer team, Leeds United. And when that powerful man slips and stumbles, the childish one is there to pick up the banner and hold it high—for a short time.  Amazing screenplay by Peter Morgan and highest level of acting by all involved, make this one worth watching
3 and 1/2 pieces of soccer is life toast

NEW ON DVD
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (PG)
Starring: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah
Director: Carlos Saldanha
As usual, Scrat, the acorn-loving squirrel, steals the picture—and even more so since he meets an acorn-loving female squirrel. Shot in 3-D, it’s as though the filmmakers figured this was enough of a gimmick to carry the day, but this seems composed of ideas cut from the first two films and then combined with a moralistic (can’t everyone just get along?) message oddly mixed with “intelligent design”pseudoscience.
1 and 1/2 piece of did you know dinosaurs and squirrels lived together? Toast

Whatever Works (PG-13)
Starring: Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley
Director: Woody Allen
Woody Allen reverts to formula (he wrote the screenplay about the self-proclaimed “smartest man” falls for a Southern Belle, in the 70’s) and casts Larry David as his neurotic New Yorker alter-ego.  However, David is angrier than Allen, not so klutzy and lovable, and if you like to be yelled at, David is the perfect guy to do it. But, if you don’t see the humor behind all the complaining, then skip this one,  Go rent a Woody Allen classic like “Radio Days,” or  “Broadway Danny Rose,” or “Annie Hall,” or “Sleeper”  instead
2 and 1/2 pieces of Larry David is no Woody Allen toast