It's Complicated

Running Time: 120 minutes
Media: DVD

I have to confess I find Meryl Streep somewhat attractive, I loved her in Mamma Mia and I've at the same time despised her in both The Devil Wears Prada and Julie and Julia.

It is at this moment that I can say I found Meryl attractive again on this particular occasion. Here she plays Jane, a divorcee of ten years who finds the opportunity to rediscover the possibility of playing the field again... with her ex-husband Jake, played by the somewhat aging and slightly plump Alec Baldwin... who's remarried to the woman he left Meryl for!

Throw three kids and a potential love interest in the ever immortal and kid-at-heart, Steve Martin, playing Adam, an architect who has been retained by Jane to add an extension to Jane's home. Everything seems to be going smoothly until Jane swaps her ways with Jake for a more comfortable romantic interest with Adam. Jake as a result starts wanting Jane more than ever and does whatever he can to get her back.

The proverbial s[CENSORED]t hits the fan at a pivotal point that involves Alec Baldwin's nudity and a webcam, not a good combination by any extreme... for anyone (including the audience)! The idea of potentially seeing Alec's junk is not necessarily the only reason I'm giving this one less star, there's something that makes me feel that this movie's a little hammy, but not because of Martin, Baldwin or Streep, but some of the lesser known actors on the film.

All in all, I happen to have this film on Blu-ray and look forward to seeing it again on future occasions, though I may have to shut my eyes when Alec shows up in the buff! Four stars.

My Name Is Bruce

I don't mind the occasional Bruce Campbell movie... Army of Darkness is one of my favorites. My Name Is Bruce, sadly, is not one of my favorites... And I'll tell you why, although the movie has its moments, they're far and few between and the movie itself is a spoof on so many levels you forget that there was meant to be a plot line.

To be honest, I'm not sure how seriously I'm meant to take this movie... I have a feeling that this was deliberately done to spoof the number of schlocky B-grade films that have starred Bruce; and to be honest, I think I may be right. Bruce intentionally take the piss out of his own movie career and throws some even crappier fake movies on top of this to really upstage it.

This movie actually reminds me of ¡The Three Amigos! in plot line in many ways:

1) There is a main antagonist who is terrorizing a town;
2) The worried townspeople take solace in the heroes (protagonists) who appear to be the heroes they need to rid themselves of the antagonist; and bring the heroes to the town;
3) The heroes believe this is all meant to be a movie or production of some sort, only to find out that it's all real and there is a possible risk of harm or death to themselves, to then back-pedal out of the town as fast as they can;
4) The heroes get a change of heart when they realize how much everyone who had faith in them now despise them, in particular a possible love interest;
5) An unusual plan is hatched with the aid of some townspeople;
6) The antagonist is vanquished, resulting in the hero regaining the trust and respect of the townspeople.

Those who have seen both of these movies will immediately see the resemblance, and possibly similar links to those of other movies...

I have to give Bruce a little credit here, he's pulled out all stops to take the piss out of himself and still get away with it... there's a few clichés here and there that seem to crop up in such spoofs and although the humor comes in hot and fast, it kinda leaves you flat towards the middle of the film. I want to give it a 1 star rating, but I'd honestly be a bit harsh by doing so. It deserves double this amount, only for the sheer courage that Bruce has found to mock himself, and still get away with something that still ranks above the average on IMDb. For thoswe playing at home, at the time of writing this review IMDb had this movie registered at 6.4 out of 10.

The Breakfast Club

Running Time: 97 minutes.
Media: DVD.

There are certain films that change your life, some that you can't help but take a piece of it with you after seeing it. The Breakfast Club was one such film that changed the life of yours truly, the Movie Madman.

Would you believe I saw this film over three days when I was in primary school, back in the sixth grade, back in 1987, when VHS cassettes were all the rage, a CD was nigh unheard of, Rubik's cubes were the bane of every smart guys existence and Hall and Oates were considered one of the coolest bands back in the 80's.

Five students, complete strangers to one another, find themselves in detention together. They all have their unique personae, Emilio Estevez as the jock, Ally Sheedy as the socially displaced recluse, Anthony Michael Hall is the nerd, Molly Ringwald as the rich girl socialite, and Judd Nelson as the rebel, John Bender.

I think anyone from the 80's who has seen this film will immediately identify themselves with one of these characters. With me, it was mostly with Brian, the nerd/genius/geek. Being a nerd/geek (I'm not a genius by any means) I understood the pressures of trying to score good grades back in high school... And to be honest, I could understand where all five of the main characters were coming from in their own respective ways. 

I found this movie to be a great trip back down memory lane, and it made me sit back and smile. John Kapelos and Paul Gleason finish off the cast wonderfully, what with Kapelos starring as the philosophical school janitor Carl, and Gleason as Richard "Dick" Vernon, the antagonistic school principal. You eventually find yourself moving from hating Bender for being such an ass to everyone else, to cheering him on as the anti-hero of the movie. The one scene where Vernon threatens to beat Bender up is riveting and makes you seriously question who really is the threat to society. I laughed, I cried, I smiled; this movie was well written, well scripted and cast...

I am giving this movie 5 stars for reminding me what it was like to go back in time and experience a day in the life of a school student through their eyes...

Source Code

Wikipedia listed this as a "science fiction/techno-thriller"... As the concept of a "techno-thriller" is hard to define, I'll settle for "science fiction/thriller". For what Source Code is able to pull off in 93 minutes is astounding, and with a little bit of shock value and some tear-jerking moments towards the end has already given me reason enough to reach for the 5 star rating.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays the part of Captain Colter Stevens who after a mission in Afghanistan wakes up to find himself in the body of some other guy on a moving train opposite Michelle Monaghan. Personally, the idea of waking up facing Michelle Monaghan has become the subject of a few dreams myself over the last few days since watching this film, but I digress. Stevens finds that he appears to everyone, and including himself in his own reflection, that he is Sean Fentress, a history teacher. Once he's come to terms with this unusual setting of events, the train blows up.

Colter then finds himself in a specialized cockpit which is part of the Source Code project, where he has the ability to basically travel back in time for eight minutes in the body of another being; over and over and over again. His mission, find out how the train blew up, who blew it up and why, and with what, etc., and prevent another potential dirty bomb from detonating. We find Gyllenhaal being re-inserted into the Source Code over and over and over until the very end. This movie is a mix of the Quantum Leap TV series, which I currently own in its entirety (yes, big time travel nut here) and 12:01, a movie that's not particularly well known, that involves a time-loop...

Now, one thing I noticed when I was watching the movie was hearing the voice of Colter Stevens' father, played by Scott Bakula... I nearly fell out of my chair in delight... Reason being? Scott Bakula's character in Quantum Leap, was that of Dr Sam Beckett, a man who kept leaping through time and whose consciousness popped into particular people's bodies; rather much like Colter Stevens did here! It's a nice little homage to Quantum Leap fans who would pick up on this little Easter egg within the film itself.

I've given this film 5 stars for originality and clever use of time travel concepts, and also for the little well-related cameo!

IT

Running Time: 181 minutes.
Media: DVD.

I never thought I would say this, but this movie still gives me the creeps after 21 years... I don't know whether it's because of the horror element, or whether Tim Curry just scares the bejeezus out of me... But Stephen King movies are designed for that one purpose, to scare the living s[CENSORED]t out of the audience; and he succeeds very well! This movie was a two-part series that was screened in the US back in 1990 over two days. The DVD came out some several years later as a double-sided disc, at a whopping 181 minutes... You actually had to flip sides half-way through...

The movie flips back and forth between two timelines of the lives of seven kids from the fictitious town of Derry in Maine. Seems Mr King has a fascination for Maine... which kinda makes sense seeing he was born in Maine so he must know the area rather well... IT is based on the novel of the same name, one of 49 he's written as of this time in 2011... A big achievement i would say in his genre of expertise, but I digress. These seven kids are taunted by the wise-cracking Pennywise the Clown, a character which is apparently just a shell for a being that awakens every 30 years to feed, and it seems that the concept of the "kid's meal" is taken a little too literally by Pennywise, who is apparently responsible for a number of murders then and even further back then.

The kids defeat him (or so they would believe back in 1960), and find out that he's come back some thirty years later, performing more kiddy murders... So we're now faced with a bunch of 40-somethings who then team up to go through the motions yet again and hopefully rid Derry of It once and for all...

I really enjoyed this film, but often felt the hairs of my neck stand up on end, and I love a good horror film that is capable of doing that! It was actually amazing to see both John Ritter and Richard Thomas in the same movie after so many years of starring side by side in the TV series The Waltons... What surprises me the most now is that Jonathan Landis, the guy who played the pre-teen Bill Denborough in the film actually committed suicide some few years back, a bit of a sad loss really. John Ritter also died some time back from heart-related issues. Tim Curry, who plays the role of Pennywise/It is outstanding and outlandish and fits so well in the part, it makes you realize how unique a talent he really is... it truly explains the reasons behind his acquiring the various other roles he has obtained in his career: Tim Curry has talent!

I would recommend this movie for anyone who wants a decent scare... they're guaranteed that with watching IT. I'm giving this 4 stars due to its great storyline, and I look forward to actually reading the novel by King. I'd give the movie 5 stars but there's a reasonable amount of disbelief that I have to take into consideration about the way some of the acting is portrayed at the start of the movie, a little hammy... but you tend to ignore it if you love movies the way I do.