While these locals now call Los Angeles home, they haven't gone Hollywood in terms of budget, as "The Selling" is definitely a low-budget affair. Diani plays Richard Scarry (yes, like the children's book author), a struggling real estate agent in Overlook, California (of course) who decides to buy a sketchy house (on Elm Street, natch) with his business partner in hopes of doing a quick flip and profitable sell. Unfortunately, it turns out the house is haunted, and selling becomes a bit of a challenge. After all, in this market people are already "too scared to buy."
While the film is a horror comedy, it is much better at generating laughs than it is scares, especially if you're a fan of slapstick. But ghostly apparitions, bleeding walls, and exploding toilet effects are all handled well, considering the budget. The majority of the cast are not well known, aside from Barry Bostwick, who has a small part as a priest brought in to "clean" the house. ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fans will also recognize the Mayor in a brief cameo.)
Ultimately, I think "The Selling" might have worked better as a short film, as towards its end, it begins to lose some steam, and jokes and scares begin to repeat themselves. Still, it's not a bad entry into the comedic horror genre, and I look forward to seeing more from these SFSU grads.
"Fast Five" is the most erotic movie I've seen all year. At one point in the hot mess that is the "fifth" entry into this ridiculous series, Vin Diesel, (back again some more!), and the Rock, (once again his hulking self, after some scary skinny years), stare intensely into each others eyes and start sweating. It is so obvious they want to kiss. Instead, they kick each others asses, but really, this is just foreplay.
I have seen every entry in the "Fast and Furious" franchise, but I couldn't for the life of me tell you what actually happens in any of them. If that's something you feel you need to know before going into this, I suggest Wikipedia. But if you want to catch up on these films, you really only need to see the first one, ("The Fast and the Furious") and the fourth one ("Fast and Furious"), which, yeah, is confusing since that means this one is actually the third real sequel, and that "Five" means nothing.
The film begins with a prison break, and ends with a bank heist. Dom (Diesel) is back, as is former cop Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), and the woman he loves, Dom's sister Mia (Jordana Brewster). Together they gather a team of everyone who has ever appeared in any of the previous movies (this includes Ludacris, Sung Kang, and Tyrese Gibson), to pull off One Final Job, stealing $100 million from Rio de Janeiro's criminal kingpin.
Hot on their trail is a Federal Agent named Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), who has put together his own team, which includes local law enforcement officer/beauty queen Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky), one of the only officers in Rio not in the pocket of crime lord Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida).
Of course, plot doesn't really matter in a movie like this, does it? It's all about the cars and the explosions. And to tell you the truth, I thought there was a little too much plot, and not enough cars. (The amount of explosions is fine.) The whole thing runs over two-hours long, and there's a solid 30 minutes in there that does not involve cars and/or fights. That is unnecessary, especially when the action is as well directed as it is here. (Justin Lin, who directed the previous entry, as well as "Tokyo Drift," is back in the driver's seat for this one.)
But what car action is presented, is all kinds of awesome ridiculousness. Most people will probably laugh at the implausibility of almost every stunt in the movie. But I'm not going to argue over the plausibility of a bus t-boning a 1970 Dodge Charger, with the result being the bus then flips over ten times, killing absolutely none of the dozens of prisoners chained up inside, and the Charger driving away with some minor cosmetic damage. I'm not going to argue about this because it's pretty obvious this could happen. The Charger is an awesome car.
But let's get back to the film's eroticism. Most of the men in this movie are buff and sweaty, except for the Rock, who is ripped and greasy. I found it pretty refreshing that while there are three attractive women with supporting roles in the film, there's only one scene featuring one of them in a bikini. The men and the cars are the real sex objects here.
I'll admit, I still love me some Vin Diesel, even if more and more he is beginning to resemble the bastard love child of Yul Brynner and Corky. And pairing him up with the Rock is so obvious I can't believe it hasn't been done before. So, even if the two of them are unable to consummate their love in this film, you can be damn sure there will be a sequel. (Especially since a scene that runs during the end credits drops a bombshell reveal about one of the series regulars.) And I say, bring it. "Fast Five" is about as much fun as a big, dumb, greasy slab of man-meat movie can be.
One of my all-time favorite movies is the documentary "Grey Gardens." If you've never heard of that movie, I am not about to try and explain its brilliance to you. Just go out and rent it. Or better yet, buy it, because it is a film you will want to watch more than once.
The Danish documentary "The Good Life" is described as having "parallels" to the Maysles' classic, and that was enough to get me to watch. It's a portrait of Mette Beckman, a widowed mother, and her middle-aged daughter, Anne, who live together in a small apartment in a coastal tourist town in Portugal. Once upon a time, they were a rich Danish family, living the proverbial good life, with homes all over Europe. But political uprisings in Portugal led to the loss of all their money, and they now must survive on mother Mette's small monthly pension. This is something daughter Anne is unable to come to terms with, as she feels she is entitled to a much better life, and was not raised to actually do something as boring as work for a living.
While there are indeed some parallels to the Beales of "Grey Gardens," the Beckmans of "The Good Life" are considerably more...conventional, (some might say, more sane), and as such they aren't nearly as entertaining on their own as the Edies are. Still, it is interesting to see a contemporary tale similar to that of Beales play out, and I am sure it's a story that is happening with alarming frequency in this day and age.
There's a scene in the movie where we see Anne dancing by herself in a disco, a woman clearly in a world of her own, and it immediately reminded me of the dancing scene in "Grey Gardens." If only the two of them could have met and shared their terrific dances with each other, and a camera crew. That would be a document for the ages.
For a long time, I was convinced I didn't like Westerns. This was based on watching, and being bored silly by, a lot of John Wayne movies, and some other lesser entries in the genre. Meanwhile, I grew up loving the "Little House on the Prairie" books, and it wasn't until recently that I realized the "Little House" books are, essentially, just a female version of a Western.
Enter "Meek's Cutoff," a Western that falls closer into "Little House" territory than it does, say, "Stage Coach." It tells the story of three families traveling through the Oregon trail via covered wagons in 1845. They are led by Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), a boastful and grizzled guide who claims to know the best way to the Oregon valley, though after days of seemingly aimless wandering, and diminishing water, his followers begin to lose trust.
If you've seen any of Kelly Reichardt's previous movies, ("Wendy and Lucy;""Old Joy"), you should know not to expect anything resembling excitement. This movie does not attempt to mask the tediousness of cross-country wagon training. There's walking....a lot of walking. And I am pretty sure the ever present squeak of one wagon wheel will haunt my dreams for years to come. But Michelle Williams and her fellow female cast do an excellent job of portraying the drudgery of pioneer life, while also illustrating the feminist truth that both men and women had hard jobs to do on the American frontier. Only women had to do those jobs wearing corsets and blinding bonnets.
"Meek's Cutoff" isn't for everyone. If you prefer your Westerns have clearly delineated good guys and bad guys, action packed shoot-outs, and stereotypical happy endings, this is not the movie for you. But if you like covered wagons, women in bonnets and calico dresses, and small but complicated tales of the American West, check it out.
"Stake Land" is a post apocalyptic, vampire, coming-of-age, Western, road movie with a hint of Terrence Malick. Yeah. It's a mouthful. A bloody mouthful.
Connor Paolo--perhaps best known as Serena's gay brother on "Gossip Girl"--plays Martin, a teenage boy who is orphaned after his family is killed by the vampires that have turned the world into a ghost town. He is taken in by a man known only as Mister (Nick Damici--who also co-wrote the movie), a fearless vampire killer on his way north, to "New Eden," the country formally known as Canada.
As they travel across the vampire ridden wasteland, Mister teaches young Martin the ways of vampire slaying. Along their journey they face vamps, and the even more fearsome religious zealots who view this new world as their chance to rule. To top it off, an almost unrecognizable Kelly McGillis shows up in a small role as a nun.
Yeah, we're kind of up to our necks (sorry) with vampires these days, but "Stake Land" is a solid entry in the genre, with good scares, surprisingly beautiful cinematography, (some moments look like vampire slayers walked onto the set of "Badlands"), and did I mention, Kelly McGillis as a nun?
