And the award for oddest casting...

For those who aren't in the know, Southland Tales is the new movie from writer/director Richard Kelly (the man who gave the world Donnie Darko). It stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake, and half the cast of Saturday Night Live (past and present). The film looks really interesting and really out there, but the cast has me mesmerized,...and I'm not sure if it's in a good way.

I like Sarah Michelle Gellar; she's done some good work. Even though Johnson proved himself to be a decent actor in Be Cool as well as The Game Plan, I still am a little wary of his dramatic skills. Then there's throwing these two in the mix with a lot of SNL people, and I mean A LOT. You could play a drinking game with this trailer. Take a shot every time you see a SNL alum.

Watch the trailer, and let me know what you think. (That means you have to actually leave me comments!)

For the HD version, click here.

Southland Tales Official Trailer

Man Meets Alien--a Love Story

Martian Child is an utterly predictable movie. But I don't care. It's an utterly predictable adorable movie that made me feel warm all over.

John Cusack is David, a widower who's having a hard time coping. He and his late wife were going to adopt, and David's sister Liz (played by John's sister Joan) is trying to deter him from the idea. Oh well, it doesn't work, and David is introduced to Dennis (the adorable Bobby Coleman). Dennis is a little strange. He was abandoned as a baby, and he's convinced that it was Martians who left him, not his deadbeat parents. David writes sci-fi stories, so they're just a natural fit. Of course, there are problems, but it's easy to tell that David and Dennis are meant to be.

The story might be strong, but the script is a little stilted. Every character speaks far better than any real world person would, although John Cusack has a real knack for making it all seem so natural. I'm sure most of you know that I love John Cusack. But I swear I'm not being biased when I say he is the best thing about this movie. Bobby Coleman does a wonderful job playing the scared, intelligent, and slightly off kilter Dennis, but without John, I think this movie would've fallen flat.

Props must be given to Joan Cusack as well. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a lot of screen time, but the chemistry between her and John goes beyond familial. They are simply two great actors who work extremely well together.

Amanda Peet has a great smile and a cutesy demeanor, but I think her role is generic enough that any nice-looking actress could've done it. I don't know if this is her fault or just the way the character is written, but either way, I felt like the character was added at the last minute for some romance.

Gee, from this review I've just given, it sounds like I didn't really like the movie. Sorry about that! I loved the movie! It made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me want to go hug my mom. This is a wonderful, sweet movie that celebrates family and makes parents out to be the heroes they definitely are.

Royal Action

In an interview I recently watched with Peter Berg, he said that the last thirty minutes of The Kingdom should be as if he's stepping on the throat of the audience. Well, consider my throat officially squashed.

I think Chris Vognar from the Dallas Morning News said it best: "The Kingdom has its cake, eats it, then blows it up with an RPG."

Amen.

The opening credits, filled with the history of oil and Middle East/US relations, fools you into believing this is an anti-war movie. Watching a suicide bomber blow up a softball game filled with families almost solidifies the idea. But then, Jamie Foxx, with his mental guns blazing, comes out ready to fight and find those bad guys. He has no problem hunting them down, killing them, and then going home to hug his son. It turns out this is no anti-war or pro-war movie. It's a movie about war. It's a movie about the ugliness, the passion, and the copious amounts of bloodshed that war brings.


Oh, and it's an action movie. It is first and foremost an action movie...even though you don't really get to the action part until the last half hour or so. But that's okay, when that half hour came, I had a little trouble breathing. If the whole movie had been that visceral, I may have passed out.

Even though the story as a whole worked for me, I did have some issues with certain story elements. It was quite obvious that conflict was being forced. If you were the head of an "elite FBI task force" going to the Middle East, would you really bring a brass-balls type of woman and a Jewish wise ass with you on your journey? No. I didn't think so. But ask me if I enjoyed Jennifer Garner shooting the bad guys? Yes, yes I did. And vindictively, I couldn't help but think the last thought going through these terrorists' minds was, "I can't believe it. I just got killed by a woman."

A lot of critics have been tearing into The Kingdom because they claim it doesn't know what kind of movie it is. Is it an action movie? Is it a war movie? Is it a message movie? Well, it's definitely not a message movie. But it is an action war movie. Exactly how can you have a war movie without any action? Hell, even Casualties of War has action in it.

Anyway, I think Peter Berg was quite aware of what kind of movie he was making. The breakneck editing, the shaky hand held camera work--it all prepares the audience for that throat-crushing last thirty minutes. It may not be his best film (that honor goes to Friday Night Lights in my humble opinion), but it is an entertaining bit of cinema.