{Tower Heist opened in Seattle on Friday, November 4 and is playing at the Metro, The Meridian, The Majestic Bay, and Thornton Place Theaters}

There are a lot of reasons to suspect Tower Heist may be the latest overly engineered star-vehicle that seriously screws up a beloved beloved genre for a new generation of fans. There are occasional moments of excessive seriousness (all involving Ben Stiller). Plus a few spots where things threaten to stall. But in the end, it's an entertaining romp that's worth a look. I know - I couldn't believe it either. Almost makes me want to go double or nothing next week with the new Adam Sandler flick. Hey, I said almost....

Tower Heights certainly has some laughs, but overall I felt it owed more to the heist genre than that of slapstick comedy. An allegiance the film declares from the start with soothingly familiar "we're up to no good music". Trust me - you'll know it when you hear it. It's definitely a positive sign. You can think of it as one of the Ocean's 11 films - perhaps with less attractive people. With Casey Affleck in the mix to force the comparison.

more...

{Fright Night opened in Seattle on Friday, August 19, and is playing at The Metro, The Meridian, and Thornton Place} 

I’ll own it: when I heard they were making a Fright Night remake, I cringed inside. I’m a HUGE fan of Chris Sarandon’s vampy womanizer and William Ragsdale’s wide-eyed horror-fan teen in the original, and who could ever replace Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent and Stephen Geoffreys as Evil?

Modernizing the story a bit, this Fright Night moves the action to Las Vegas, painting main guy Charlie (Anton Yelchin, who’s pretty much made for this part) as a teen who’s recently shed his nerdiriffic role-playing D&D monster movie past to hang with the cool kids. This is all so he can hold on to his smokin’ hot girlfriend, Amy, played by cute-and-sexy-at-the-same-time Imogen Poots (sorry, Amanda Bearse, but uh. This chick? Hot).  

When former best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse)—nicknamed “Evil” because of his occult obsession—approaches Charlie with the news that his GQ-esque neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell, who I am starting to like more and more) is a vampire who’s been eating their classmates, Charlie brushes it off as a desperate attempt to get his attention. But after Evil disappears and Jerry’s activities become increasingly suspicious, Charlie starts to think his new next door neighbor might actually have fangs. 

more...

{30 Minutes or Less opened in Seattle on Friday August 12, and is playing at the Metro, Oak Tree Cinemas, and AMC Pacific Place} 

We've all had those days. You're minding your own business, delivering pizzas at a dangerous rate of speed when a couple of get rich quick lazy dipshits go out of their way to totally harsh your buzz. But when their plan is to strap a bunch of explosives to your chest in order to coerce you into robbing a bank, most people would agree things have gone too far. 

That's basically the premise of 30 Minutes or Less - a comedy that crams a lot of things into a pretty short span of time. While overall it may be a bit silly, I had a good time. And it's edited in a way that shows a respect for movie-goers who don't feel the need to sit through a two and a half hour bloated endeavor when there's really only 90 minutes of material to be had.
 
Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is an adult delivering pizzas for a living. Why this level of achievement is enough for him isn't exactly clear. In the meantime, he makes due with with his crappy job and unexpressed (yet obvious) love for the twin sister of his male best friend/roommate.

more...

{The Help opened in Seattle on Wednesday, 8/10 and is playing at the Metro, Oak Tree Cinemas, Majestic Bay and AMC Pacific Place} 

I am one of the only women on earth who hasn’t read Kathryn Stockett’s amazingly popular book, The Help, so I have no idea how close this film adaptation is to the beloved story or not—but I guess I’ll find out shortly when there’s either tons of outrage or tons of applause.

But honestly I can’t imagine anyone being outraged (except maybe some rich white ladies who grew up in Jackson, Mississippi during the 60s), since The Help does its job as an empowering dramedy well, with enough heart and substance to make it better than what you’re expecting.

The story revolves around recently returned from college Eugenia (the amazing Emma Stone, stuck with some atrociously bad curly hair) annoyingly nicknamed “Skeeter,” who would rather take a low-paying job answering cleaning advice letters at the local paper than engage in the time-honored Jackson tradition of hunting for an eligible husband.

more...

So Landmark's Metro theater is doing this awesome thing for August where they present "Metro Classics" on Wednesday nights, and for girls like me who heart the crap out of B&W noir, it's kind of a dream come true. Tonight they are presenting one of my very favorite Hitchcock films, Rebecca. This 1940 film is a mishmash of gothic romance, thriller, murder mystery, and ghost story. 

Plain (ha!) little Joan Fontaine (true to the Daphne du Maurier book, her character has no name) is playing personal assistant to a bossy rich lady in Monte Carlo when handsome, brash widower Maxim De Winter (Laurence Oliver) sweeps her off her feet. Well, less sweeps - more just tells her they're going to get married, which I guess seems like a boss deal for a shy orphaned girl in the 40s. Anyway, once they get to his GIANT mansion Manderlay, the evil, lurking housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (omg Judith Anderson is amazeballs in this role) makes it clear that she'll never replace the beautiful and perfect first Mrs. De Winter - aka "the" Rebecca - who may or may not be haunting the halls of the house, scaring the bejeezus out of everyone. From there, it gets even more complicated after Joan digs into the past and discovers Maxim's "secret", which I have to admit totally surprised me the first time I saw it.

I highly recommend you get thee to the Metro tonight at 6:45pm or 9:10pm to see this Hitch masterpiece in all its gothy glory. Tickets are $10.50 general admission, or $8.25 for students w/ID. 

{Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 opened in Seattle on Friday, July 14 and is playing at the Majestic Bay, the Pacific Science Center IMAX®, the Cinerama, and other area theaters}

THE END of Harry Potter is here. And as I’ve said before, I’m not a huge fan. But Amie! You’re nerdy. And you love supernatural things. And you heart the crap out of reading. All this is true, but the first 5 HP books (won from a work contest many years ago) sit dust-covered and untouched on my bookshelf.

See, Harry Potter is one of those things where every single person and their brother’s brother said some variation of this to me, “OMFG they are so amazing you will totally love them read them all right now whatiswrongwithyou?” - which is the best way to make sure I NEVER do something. So instead of reading, I just went ahead and cheated by seeing all the films. And while there were a few moments I appreciated, they kind of all blended together and I just wasn’t that impressed.

So I wasn’t really expecting to be blown away by this, but I joined in the hype just because it was fun. And on the day of the press screening for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, I had to go ahead and post this smartass tweet:

Which naturally totally screwed me, because I ended up pouring out some serious waterworks over the course of 2 hours and 5 minutes. So I’ll just say it: this movie surprised me.

more...

{Larry Crowne opened in Seattle on Friday July 1 at the Metro, the Meridian, the Majestic Bay, and Thornton Place}

When I first saw the trailer for Larry Crowne, I was overjoyed.  I'll admit taken on its own, it looked like the sort of over-the-top annoying saccharine nonsense that gets made when a big star writes, directs, produces and stars in his own romantic comedy. But then I realized that it must be the "what if they met years later?" mashup of Forest Gump and Pretty Woman I've been waiting forever for Hollywood to wise up and make. It was a heavy blow indeed when I realized that wasn't the storyline at all! Probably akin with what my friends described to me a few years back when they realized the characters in Sweeney Todd weren't going to stop singing anytime soon. Though at least presumably that situation had a bloody catharsis thing going on providing some sort of release..

In terms of likely box-office success Larry Crowne definitely has three things going for it - Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and an unchallenging plot. Unfortunately, to be a really great film that's not going to be enough. In short: it's a basic romantic comedy that had me seriously groaning by the end.  Actually pretty close to the beginning, though I was laughed enough that I was distracted for a bit from how treacle stuffed the entire enterprise was.  If you love, love, love Hanks and/or Roberts I don't think there's anything here that's gonna change your mind.  So don't be too scared of seeing it.  It's not like either of these folks is turning in a performance likely to shock or offend their core constituencies (Jim Carrey inThe Cable Guy this is not). Lots of folks are going to dig this film, don't worry - I won't judge you if you're one of them. But for me I'd have to suggest seeing last week's Bad Teacher first - at least they were reaching for something.

more...

{Bad Teacher opens in Seattle on Friday 6/24 at the Landmark Metro Cinemas, the Regal Meridian, Crossorads, Thornton Place, and Lincoln Square Cinemas}

I've got to admit I was super excited when I sat down to see Bad Teacher with a crowd full of people Wednesday night. While I knew there was a risk that all funny bits were in the trailer, the combination of Cameron Diaz playing an teacher with what appeared to be an "all children left behind" policy and the likable Jason Segel made me uncharacteristically optimistic. Completing what I can only assume to be the conclusion of a trilogy of films started with Bad Santa and Bad Lieutenant focused on people failing in their chosen profession, Bad Teacher applies that formula to our education system.

It's a watchable comedy that provides a decent number of laughs and a good number of smiles. What it didn't do for me is deliver the steady stream of deep belly laughs that a great comedy can/should. It's possible (OK likely) that if I'd gone in without having seen any prior clips from it I might have had a much better time. My suspicion is that this will become one of those things that you watch a piece of with nostalgic fondness when it's on TV - not quite an Animal House or Old School, but perhaps somewhere in the Dodgeball range.

more...

{Green Lantern opens in Seattle on Friday, June 17 and is playing at the Metro, AMC Pacific Place, the Cinerama and Oak Tree Cinemas}

Even though I have a comic-nerdian background, I’m only slightly familiar with this particular superhero's lore, and thus probably not qualified to judge whether Green Lantern does it justice or totally ruins it—that said, I found it to be pretty damn entertaining.

The whole thing reminded me of vintage Superman (as in Richard Donner’s 1978 version), with a lot of exposition at the beginning explaining the origin of the Green Lantern Corps, and a ton of space exploration with prettily colored stars and crystalline spaceships. With uh, much more advanced special effects and some pretty damn fantastic alien makeup.

more...

{Bridesmaids opened in Seattle on Friday May 13th, and is playing at The Big Picture, Pacific Place, the Metro, and Oak Tree Cinemas}

Hi, my name is Rich and I'm a big fan of romantic comedies. But even if you don't have this particular personal problem quirk, I think most people will find something to laugh seriously at in Bridesmaids. If you're male and in a dating situation it also has the benefit of appearing to be a chick flick while (I'm pretty confident) appealing to a broad population.

Guys - don't worry, this isn't like Sex in the City 2, where you went to be nice and spent the next two and a half hours deciding if the downside of clawing your eyes out outweighs the benefits of not having to see what was going on for the rest of the picture. That said, Bridesmaids isn't is a film to bring your young daughters (or sons) to...unless you want to expand their vocabulary a bit, and not in the workplace acceptable way.

Even the most casual film viewer from the last hundred years will recognize the story and the milestones along the way. Annie (Kristen Wiig), a woman without a lot of luck in love or business, struggles with emotional baggage while serving as her best friend Lillian's (Maya Rudolph) Maid of Honor.

more...