What were you doing this new year’s eve? I hope you were celebrating with those you love or just celebrating in general. But if you happened to be at the movie theater, I pray that you were nowhere near the egregious load of crap disguised as a movie called “New Year’s Eve.” If you were one of those looking to get in the holiday spirit, I surmise you walked out not blissful for the year to come but rather disgusted that movies like this are allowed to exist.
Only see the movie for the following reasons:
1. You for some reason like to watch bad actors doing bad acting. Yes, Katherine Heigl, you should not have spit in Judd Apatow’s face because he actually gave you a multi-dimensional character. Now, enjoy being stuck in movies like this and “Life As We Know It” for the rest of your life. Zac Efron … it’s official, your glory days were in the “High School Musical” era. And in case you need a reminder, many musicians can’t act – looking at you, Ludacris and Jon Bon Jovi. Oh, and Lea Michele too, who somehow to forgot how to act between “Spring Awakening” and “New Year’s Eve,” picking up how to be a gratingly obnoxious diva. (Wait, she got that from “Glee!” Thanks a lot, Ryan Murphy…)
2. You for some reason like to watch good actors doing bad acting. Can you count the Oscar wins and nominations on this poster? 13 Oscar nominations and 5 wins. While we can’t get the Academy to reclaim the statues (and indeed they shouldn’t), we as a public can take away their credibility and prestige. I just don’t understand why Robert DeNiro can’t seem to stop the out-of-control downward spiral that is his career. Strangely enough, the most unbearable members of the cast is a horserace between two-time Oscar champion Hilary Swank and three-time Oscar nominee Michelle Pfeiffer. Any good will for a career comeback after “Hairspray” just went down the drain.
There’s no place like home for the holidays … unless its the home of your boyfriend’s overbearing family.
Such is Christmas for Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker) in the “F.I.L.M. of the Week,” Thomas Bezucha’s “The Family Stone,” a winter dramedy with a perfect balance between the two genres. It’s enjoyable to watch at any time of the year, but it has a particularly warm and loving embrace around the holiday season. With a fantastic ensemble and pitch-perfect writing, this movie has been a favorite of mine ever since it hit theaters five years ago today. (And yes, I was there to see it on its first showtime that day.)
It’s always tough meeting the potential in-laws, and the uptight Meredith doesn’t leave the best first impression as she tries to simultaneously be herself and be charming. The odds are against stacked against the potential new addition to the Stone family as Amy (Rachel McAdams) has it in for her after a dinner in New York didn’t exactly endear her to the incessantly blabbering throat-clearer Meredith. The tension is only heightened by matriarch Sybill (Diane Keaton), determined not to give her mother’s wedding ring to Everett (Dermot Mulroney) for him to put on Meredith’s finger.
Yet not everyone is determined to see her demise: the fun-loving prodigal son Ben (Luke Wilson) does his best to bring out the welcome wagon, and the ever-reasonable father Kelly (Craig T. Nelson) is determined to give her a chance. But after a day, Meredith mixes with the Stone family like oil mixes with water, and things go haywire as the holiday spirit combines with mean spirits. The result is a hilariously potent comedy about the importance of family, both the ones we are born into and the ones we create.
I’d be remiss, though, if I didn’t mention the heavier side of the movie. Much of what happens in “The Family Stone” is due to an unpleasant truth about the future of a member of the Stone family, and it had been quietly kept secret until Meredith arrives. The movie is not only a comedy but also a deeply touching and heartfelt look at our families and how much we value each member of them. Around the holidays, there’s simply nothing better than a movie that can make you laugh and cry with the people you love the most.
Hey, Hugh Grant, over the holidays, I watched you in “Love Actually.” Really good performance in a really good movie. So tell me, Hugh, why on earth would you choose “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” You usually have good taste, but couldn’t you just hear the crickets chirping as you read the script?
Hey, Sarah Jessica Parker, I got a chance to feel the warmth of “The Family Stone” this holidays, a movie that earned you a Golden Globe nomination. We all know you have acting chops, so tell us, why did you choose to star in “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” You don’t do many movies, but you have a lot of respect from winning award after award for “Sex and the City.”
Oh, the questions I would love to ask the stars. I can’t, of course, nor would I to their faces. But I couldn’t help but wonder why two very capable actors would waste their time on a movie like this? Honestly, this movie deserves the talents of Pauly Shore and Jenny McCarthy.
The movie hasn’t the slightest desire to be original or at least interesting. After seeing the trailer and the leading actors, we know that this New York power couple is going to get over their rough spots and get back together. It’s the classic formula, and everyone knows it. Grant and Parker play separated New York moguls who witness a murder and are forced to enter the Witness Protection Program together in Ray, Wyoming. It’s a fish-out-of-water comedy where the fish is dead when you take it out of the water.
Hugh Grant is fairly bearable in this unbearable movie. However, Sarah Jessica Parker is endlessly awkward, and her every movement just made me cringe. I haven’t the slightest idea why she reverted to these mannerisms. I never watched “Sex and the City,” but if people thought she was sexy on that show, she surely had to carry herself with more poise than this. And it’s not like her character is some graceless buffoon; she is a real estate tycoon who is on the cover of magazines!
When I made the decision to see “Did You Hear About the Morgans?,” I was in a very interesting mood. I didn’t really have the desire to see anything good; I just wanted to see something kind of trashy and dumb. Upon reflection, there is much better bad entertainment out there than this. It isn’t egregiously awful, but it is so unimaginative that I found it hard to even laugh at the movie as a whole. In fact, you don’t even have to see a movie to be more entertained than this at your theater. I’d recommend watching the ICEEs mix. D /
What is in my mind the finest month for the movies is almost here! Let Marshall guide you through the best and steer you away from the worst, but most of all enjoy! The studios have been holding back their best movies all year to dump them all here, where they can get serious awards consideration.
December 4
A major Oscars wild-card is “Brothers.” No one really knows what to make of it. If the movie hits big, it could completely change the game. But it could just fly under the radar like most expect it to now. However, the trailer makes it look as if it the movie could be absolutely mind-blowing. Directed by Jim Sheridan, who has received six Academy Award nominations, “Brothers” follows Grace Cahill (Natalie Portman) as she and her daughters deal with the loss of her husband, Sam (Tobey Maguire), in war. Sam’s brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) comes to live with Grace to lend a helping hand. But romantic sparks fly between the two at precisely the wrong time: the discovery that Sam is alive and coming home. With the two brothers both tugging Grace’s heart for their share, a different type of sparks fly.
You have heard me say plenty about “Up in the Air.” If you haven’t read my Oscar Moment on the movie or heard my bliss at the release of the trailer, let me give you one more chance to hope on the bandwagon.
But the movies don’t stop there. “Armored,” an action-drama that is tooting its own moral horn, starring Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne. “Everybody’s Fine” appears to be a holiday movie, so that might be worth checking out if you’re in the spirit. The movie, a remake of a 1990 Italian film by the same name, stars Robert DeNiro as a widower who reconnects with his estrange children. And “Transylmania” looks to cash in on the vampire craze sweeping the nation by satirizing it, but I doubt it will be financially viable because it is being released by a no-name studio and without any big names.
December 11
The highlight of the weekend for many will be “The Princess and the Frog,” Disney’s return to the traditional animation by hand musical. The movie looks to capitalize on what we know and love Disney musicals for, adding some catchy tunes to a fairy tale we have known since childhood. Anika Noni Rose, best known for her role as Lorrell in the film adaptation of “Dreamgirls,” lends her talented voice to the princess Tiana. As a huge fan of “Dreamgirls” during the winter of 2006, I couldn’t think of someone better equipped to handle the sweet, soft Disney music (which isn’t designed for belters like Beyoncé or Jennifer Hudson). That being said, the music won’t sound like anything you’ve ever heard from a Disney fairy tale. It is being scored by Randy Newman, not Alan Menken (“Beauty and the Beast,” etc.), and will have a jazzy feel much like its setting, New Orleans.
This week also boasts the opening of three major Oscar players. Two have been featured in Oscar Moments, “Invictus” and “A Single Man.” The former opens nationwide this Friday, the latter only in limited release. I’ll repost the trailers below because they are worth watching. But read the Oscar Moment if you want to know more about the movies.
According to the people that matter, “The Lovely Bones” has all the pieces to make a great movie. But for summer reading two years ago, I read the source material, Alice Sebold’s acclaimed novel. I found it dreadfully melodramatic and very depressing without any sort of emotional payoff to reward the reader for making it through. But maybe Hollywood will mess up the novel in a good way. If any movie could, it would be this one. With a director like Peter Jackson and a cast including Saiorse Ronan (“Atonement”), Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, and Susan Sarandon, it could very well happen. It opens in limited release on this date and slowly expands until its nationwide release on Martin Luther King Day weekend in 2010.
Marshall and the Movies 
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