You Kill Me

It’s a funny thing about this movie in a summer like this. Well, it’s rare almost all the time now.

It’s a movie that is inviting you to see it, not because of the spectacle of the movie, but because of the story.

In this summer of ‘The Sequel’, as it seems to be, the movie jumped out of the listings at me as an oddity and I decided it was time to see a movie not because of the special effects, or because it was a sequel, or because it was so-and-so’s yearly summer movie, but because I wanted to see what happened in the story.

And I can’t say I was disappointed.

Ben Kingsley plays Frank Falenczyk a member of the Polish mafia, who fails to complete a hit on Edward O’Leary, the head of the Irish mob, when he passes out drunk in his car.

With this failure Frank is sent to San Francisco to dry out and attend AA under the supervision of Dave, played by Bill Pullman, a San Francisco realtor. While there he becomes an undertaker, befriends Tom, his gay AA sponsor, played by Luke Wilson and falls in love with Laurel Pearson, played by Tea Leoni.

It’s Frank’s relationship with Laurel that keeps the movie moving and his character growing. Luke Wilson and Bill Pullman are mostly side pieces that play well when needed and serve a few comic moments, but are secondary to the story.

The performances in this dry, dark comedy are all very good and while the movie may drift into the unbelievable, like having Laurel follow Frank back to Buffalo and help him exact revenge for what took place while he was gone, it’s handled well and remains funny.

I’ve recommended this to anyone who asks, but in the summer movie season these types of movies quickly fall by the wayside in favor of the large summer monstrosities. But if you get a chance, I’d see it.

Mr Brooks

I’m a Kevin Costner fan, I make no bones about it. Arguments ensue with friends, but I always find movies of his that they like and they back off, but Kevin Costner has pretty much fallen off the radar since the mid-90’s.

Waterworld and The Postman were both really entertaining movies, but it seems like he was never able to recover from the bad publicity associated with them. And it’s a shame too, because in the last few years he has made a few movies that were really good.

Thirteen Days, Dragonfly, Open Range and The Upside of Anger were all good movies that were overlooked for the most part. And now Mr. Brooks is ending it’s run after making just under $30 Mil.

And it was a good movie.

A really good performance by Costner, and even Demi Moore, highlights this movie about a serial killer whose urges have crept up on him after a bit of a hiatus. Dane Cook stars as the witness to one of his murders who uses his leverage to become involved with Mr Brooks and join in on a killing. With Demi Moore on the chase as the detective working the murder.

Along the way there are hints of impropriety with his daughter, but they only hints, never really explored. It’s more of a weird feeling you have when their characters are on screen together. But it adds a bit more tension to the air.

It also seems to be one of those movies where you end up rooting for the bad guy in a weird way, which I think is probably the only way Costner would take the role as a serial killer, if they found a way to make him likable by the audience.

While it may be on the way out of the theater now, I would recommend grabbing the DVD and enjoying it.

Lucky You

This movie was good, fine, an ok afternoon at the theater. But they could have made this such a better movie, by dropping the entire Drew Barrymore storyline and focusing on the relationship between Bana and Duvall.

God knows the movie was long enough to clip a half hour or so.

Thats all.

28 Weeks Later

I remember when I saw 28 Days Later and was introduced to the idea of FAST zombies as opposed to the lumbering zombies we have become so used to, and I loved it. The movie succeeded on many levels and did alot of things in a movie that I like, with the exception of the whole military storyline.

I was just as excited about this one and it didn’t disappoint. Solid from beginning to end, and quite graphic at times the movie succeeds at continuing the story without screaming sequel.

My only real complaint would have to be the constant appearance of the father character, they could have killed him and replaced him with any other zombie and not lost anything in the story. His constant popping up became a distraction.

But, great film nonetheless.