It's movie time! Last Sunday Michelle, Brian and I went to see Midnight in Paris which finally made it to Orem, Utah after being released for six months. I'm not the most patient guy, so movies that start off in "limited release" sometimes drive me crazy. They are usually the best films and I instead waste my time watching movies like New Year's Eve... which you'll read about in just a second. But at least I didn't have to wait long for the new Sherlock Holmes!
Midnight in Paris AWESOME!
In this comedy by director Woody Allen, Owen Wilson plays Gil, a talented Hollywood writer who’s struggling to write his very first novel. The novel is about a man who runs a nostalgia shop, which mirrors perfectly the fact that Gil longs to live in the past. Paris in the 1920s to be more exact. He and his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) are traveling with her parents, and while all Inez cares about is shopping with her mother or going out dancing with her friends, Gil falls in love with the French city and walks the streets at night. It is then, at midnight, that he enters a world of yesteryear full of the greatest artists and writers the 1920s ever had.
This movie was positively delightful to watch, and the characters and their dialogue were so full of wit and insight that I found myself laughing quite freely while feeling enlightened at the same time. Not the easiest thing to accomplish. Gil’s time traveling is never really explained , which I thought was the film’s greatest strength, and the characters he meets there—Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), F. Scot Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), Salvador Dali (Adrien Brody) and Picasso’s lover Adriana (Marion Cotillard)—were all robust historical caricatures while still showing their humanity. Cotillard was fantastic in this film, as was Owen Wilson, and the final message that the lives of others aren’t necessarily better than our own was well received. This is a terrific film for anyone who’s ever had writer’s block and needs a bit of inspiration from the masters.
New Year’s Eve AWFUL
If you want to see lots of movie stars—like I did—then this is definitely the movie to see. There are a ton of celebrities including: Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert DeNiro, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Sofia Vergara, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michelle, Sarah Jessica Parker, Abigail Breslin, Josh Duhamel, Hilary Swank, Ludacris, Hector Elizondo and Ryan Seacrest… just to name a few.
However, if you want to see a movie that is funny or interesting or moving or good in any way at all, then this is not the movie to see. While it’s kind of fun to see Lea Michelle and Jon Bon Jovi (playing a pretend rock star named Jensen… why?) sing a couple of songs, there’s not much going for this movie. It’s not very amusing and when it tries to be emotional it falls flat. The biggest problem it has is that with so many characters and storylines—and I use the term “storyline” loosely—none of them get any of the time necessary to make it compelling.
Bottom line: If you want to see a lot of stars in one place, just watch the red carpet coverage of the next big awards ceremony or grab a celebrity gossip magazine next time you’re in the grocery store. I guarantee you it will be more satisfying.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows ADMIRABLE
Robert Downey Jr. is back at it again in this second installment of the Guy Ritchie twist on the Arthur Conan Doyle classic character. This time Holmes and Watson (Jude Law) are up against Professor Moriarty, who is equally as intelligent as Holmes but with aims far more sinister. Apart from toying with Holmes and threatening to kill Watson, he’s trying to start a world war now that he’s obtained control over all the weapons and bandages… a pretty ambitious goal for a university professor. Also involved is a gypsy woman named Simza (Noomi Rapace) who fears her missing brother might be involved in Moriarty’s schemes.
This movie was a lot of fun to watch last night at the midnight showing with my friend Michelle. The crowd laughed at the silly buffoonery of Holmes—like when he dressed in “urban camouflage” or donned a woman’s get-up—and applauded his astute observations and expert fighting techniques. And let’s face it, these movies are fun to watch… especially the love/hate chemistry between partners Holmes and Watson. Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. are the perfect bromance and these movies wouldn’t be successful at all without them. That being said, the plot of A Game of Shadows wasn’t quite as interesting or thrilling as the original film and there were times that I honestly didn’t comprehend the purpose behind their actions. It wasn’t until the final act that my adrenaline got going and things made sense… but that might have been the idea.
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