a) In A World...
Lake Bell has acted in some funny things like "Childrens Hospital," but I really had no idea her debut film as a writer/director could be this good, I just adored this movie. Took a good premise based in real life, about the movie trailer voiceover world, and mixed in some comic exaggeration and built a good story around it. And even though the cast was just all these comedy people she'd worked with before, they all committed to the story and gave it some gravity, Rob Corddry and Michaela Watkins in particular got a really emotional subplot that gave them some room to really act.

b) The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty
As an actor, Ben Stiller picks projects of wildly varying quality, but I consider myself a fan of what he does as a director; Zoolander, Tropic Thunder and "The Ben Stiller Show" are all classic to me, The Cable Guy has its moments. But with this he really snapped back to something almost as lame as Reality Bites. It's kind of the opposite of how In A World... made the most of a cast full of comedians, in this Stiller and especially Kristen Wiig are just kind of wasted as these earnest leads. I remember reading the James Thurber story in school and I don't have any special reverence for it but it just seems so stupid and pointless to take the title and barest elements of the story and stuff this stupid treacly movie into it.

c) World War Z
I didn't go into this movie looking for signs of all the behind-the-scenes struggles with the screenplay and the third act, but it's really undeniable even if you don't know the backstory. It's just a very big, expensive movie that clearly hasn't been finished on some fundamental level. Of course, with a zombie movie that doesn't matter too much, and I liked what they did with the really zombies being infected within seconds and moving quickly, gave it a completely different pace than you usually get. And the way the first ten minutes unfolded was pretty great, it just got pretty tedious after that.

d) Paranormal Activity 3
I liked both of the first two Paranormal Activity movies probably more than they deserved. And even this one, it's clearly straining against the limits of the premise and retconning a new backstory, but I was still on the edge of my seat getting creeped out and waiting to see what happened next. Should I bother with the 4th one? I kinda want to.

e) Dance Flick
I ignored this at the time as yet another Wayans genre parody, but caught it on TV and realized it was an early showcase for Damon Wayans, Jr. before he established himself as being hilarious on "Happy Endings" and "New Girl." This is just a great showcase for his style of physical comedy, and I have seen enough of the Step Up movies to appreciate a lot of the direct parodies.

f) The Savages
After Philip Seymour Hoffman died, this was a movie that came up a bit in discussions of his best roles, which surprised me because I'd never even heard of it -- I can't remember it even coming out, although it may have just blended into the long line of limited release dramedies starring Hoffman and/or Laura Linney. It's pretty good, though. Very small in scope but in a good way that allows for actors like them to do a lot of subtle stuff and very occasional some big stuff.

g) She Hate Me
One thing that amuses me about Spike Lee is it always seems like there's an element of horny dude wish fulfillment in most of his movies, to as great an extant as you can say for Quentin Tarantino or Woody Allen or other guys who usually get called out for that -- it doesn't really diminish him as a filmmaker, it's just part of who he is. This is probably the most horny dude wish fulfillment movie of all time, though, just a really ludicrous sexual fantasy situation dressed up as a weird social satire. It's pretty good, though, at least until the stupid mafia plot takes over.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10, 2014 at 9:24 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.