Some Movies

This indie film from 2012 about some porn actresses and a Bingo-loving old woman who one of them befriends following a yard sale lacked the necessary realism to really connect. And it's named after that dog on the poster which never made any sense to me. Dree Hemingway isn't terrible but has underwear issues. I enjoyed Besedka Johnson's performance as the old lady even though it was no secret that she was not a professional actress. She played a mean Bingo anyway. This kind of stumbles along and asks you to buy the relationships between the central characters without really developing those relationships. And then the movie doesn't really bother finishing, ending somewhat emotionally but too indeterminately to really have much impact. 12/20

If any potheads read my blog, they'd be disappointed that I didn't care for this 2001 movie, their favorite movie with policeman unless you count Police Academy 4 or Smokey and the Bandit II. I stopped paying attention to the plot after a while and just looked for opportunities to laugh. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any. I have to give it bonus points for the appearance of a naked fat man, something that cracks up stoners. 9/20

This comedy from 2011 didn't quite work for me either although it's at least halfway intelligent. Paul Rudd is fine as the titular Christ figure--a Jesus in Crocs, the only thing that really made him an idiot here--but the character's only got 1 1/2 dimensions. That's 1/2 more than each of his sisters though. Flat characters will make a flat movie, and I just didn't really care about what was going on with any of them. I kind of liked where the movie headed, right up to that Hollywood finale, but it seemed like a lot to work through to get there. And for a comedy, this wasn't really very funny at all. 12/20

I can't remember S.E. Hinton's book very well. I was supposed to teach it this year, but those plans fell through. This 1983 Coppola film isn't as stylistic or as interesting as Rumble Fish by the same author, but it makes up for it with a lot of Ralph Macchio. And everybody else, including a criminally-underutilized Tom Waits. Don't get me wrong--this does have a bit of style. The acting, some of the music, and a lot of Coppola's backgrounds give this a classic movie feel that makes it a lot different than other 80's movies with misbehaving teenagers. The actors squeeze the life out of already unrealistic dialogue, and the story is really kind of lame and--as presented here, at least--feels like giant chunks have been removed. 13/20 (Jennifer: 14/20 [but she fell asleep]; Emma: 11/20; Abbey: 12/20 [bothered by the differences between the film and the novel])