The Ugly Truth

Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl star in this ultra-formulaic romantic comedy about a seemingly mismatched pair that realize they are perfect for each other after an hour and half on screen.

URBAN: The funniest part of this film was the preview for the upcoming film Old Dogs.

The basic story of the film is that Gerard Butler plays a misogynistic exterior with a secret heart of gold who tells the ugly truth about what both sexes really want. Katherine Heigl plays a blond version of Charlotte from Sex And The City. They both work for a morning television show that attempts to deviate from a Good Morning America with a more edgy format.

Of course, the two don't hit if off so well, but after Butler helps her to get a date with the man of her dreams, Heigl becomes much more open to life's possibilities and possibility that her idealistic view of the world may be incorrect. Butler effects a similar change on the staff of the show, revitalizing a marriage with his open and frank discussion of sex and gender roles.

Of course, before long Heigl and Butler have fallen for each other. The only obstacle to their relationship is the blossoming one that he helped create for his coworker. This crisis is narrowly averted as Heigl realizes that she has become a different person, per Butler's advice, in order to win the heart of the dashing gentleman. It is hard for the viewer to realize this though. Other than the hair extensions, the change really doesn't come through.

The film has a fundamental fallacy that I just couldn't overlook. The ugly truth that Butler constantly refers to in the film is that relationships just aren't worth it. Love is an unrealistic goal that should be replaced by lust. In the end though, this bit of advice is ignored and replaced by the true love he feels for Heigl. I never really believed him anyway.

As you can probably see, the film isn't believable. The most fake scene of all is an attempt to evoke the famous orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally. Clearly, the director attempts to mute the performance. It was surprising to me that this was the scene in a rated-R comedy that the director chose to pull punches. I guess that the ugly truth in this case was just too much to handle.

URBAN: Not Recommended

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Summer Of The Limited Release

Last Year, there were only a few limited release films that I was unable to see because of my geography. Mongol, a 2007 film made the rounds last summer, and I eventually was able to view it in Cleveland while on vacation. Son Of Rambow was another that I was looking forward to, but it never came to a theater in my region.

This summer is even more of the same, with In The Loop, The Hurt Locker, and 500 Days of Summer, all as limited release pictures.

It begs the question: Why have all of the best reviewed films this summer not been given a wide release?

The answer of course, is economics. Film studios license certain films for a run specific geographic areas. They do this because in most cases, these films were made for less money and the studios don't want to spend a lot of money to distribute a film that may only have earning potential in major markets. In some cases, after a film has made enough to cover the cost of its production, it is then given a wide release. This is usually only done when studio executives believe that the film has garnered enough attention to earn a major profit. The best example of this, is probably last year's Slumdog Millionaire.

Luckily, 500 Days of Summer will be in Kansas City next week. The Hurt Locker just got here after nearly a month in an even smaller list of select cities. Hopefully, the rest of the great films this summer will be given a wider release at some point or make enough money to be given the full treatment in every theater in America.

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Observe And Report

I watched and wrote this review a few months ago, but didn't exactly know how or what, to think and write about it. The themes of the film are so convoluted, that any review is likewise unorganized.

This movie isn’t very funny. It is more than a little frightening though. The basic premise is simple. Seth Rogen is Ronny, a security guard (chief of mall security) who takes his job way too seriously. He lusts after a girl who works at the department store makeup counter (Anna Faris). The mall is plagued by a streaker.

I will be the first to admit that I didn’t really ‘get’ this movie, if there is a giant joke looming in the background. I have this sneaking suspicion though, that there isn’t a joke at all. Even if there was, the plot is flimsy, the characters aren’t endearing, and the only real drama comes from a perceived conflict in Ronny’s mind between himself and the real cops. The thing is, Ronny is literally crazy. About halfway through the film the viewer realizes that Ronny has stopped taking the medication for his bi-polar syndrome. The rest of the zaniness that would normally pass for laughs loses its punch. I hardly even want to touch on the issue of date-rape, which is trampled over and (just) barely avoided in this film.

I guess the real reason that I could not understand this movie is the disparate images and themes that the film refers to.

What do Red, Hot, American Summer, Jerry Maguire, Fight Club, and Dazed And Confused have in common? Thematically, nothing. What they do have in common is that all of these films have scenes that are replicated in detail by Director Jody Hill during Observe and Report. The first of these scenes takes place near the end of the film when Ronny first faces the fact that most of the issues are really in his mind. As a result, we see him and another mall security guard going on a drug fueled rampage, ending with Ronny watching as his friend injects heroin into his arm in a bathroom stall (RHAM). Near the end, Hill attempts to conjure three different images from three very different films the final scene of impending doom set to the Trixies’ “Where’s My Mind” (Fight Club), the line “fuck you, fuck you, fuck every one of you” (spoken by O’Bannion in Dazed And Confused), and the raise your hand in triumph even though you are confronted by a large group of people who want you to leave (Jerry Maguire).

See what I mean, these film references, like the rest of the film, doesn't have any coherency.

The only thing this film does have going for it is excellent fight choreography. Unlike many recent superhero films (The Watchmen immediately comes to mind), the fight scenes in this film pull no punches. Ronny fights off a large group of policemen with a maglight and the viewer gets to see it all. No jerky cameras that look away and definitely no too short cuts that confuse. Every swing is catalogued and even looks a little bit messy, like one would expect a real brawl to look like.

Urban: Not Recommended

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Listless Tuesdays: 5 Most Quotable Films

Listless Tuesdays-Top 5 Most Quotable Films

One of the things that I noticed making this list, was that there were several films that came because of great quotations, although when I tried, I realized I couldn’t really remember that many of them because they were too long. Fight Club was specifically one of these films, full of great lines, but too long to remember. American Psycho definitely fits into this description as well.

5. Snatch-


When you have an amateur boxing promoter with an eye for the obvious, a gangster with a penchant for dictionary definitions, and a gypsy boxer with an almost unintelligible accent, you have Snatch. Guy Ritchie does his best to copy Quentin Tarantino and this is his best attempt. The storylines are intertwined, a la Pulp Fiction, and all of the characters have tons of attitude. Memorable and very funny.
“How long for those sausages, Turkish?”
“Two minutes”
“It was two minutes, five minutes ago!”

4. Pulp Fiction-


Every line that Jules has in this film is quotable. His conversations with Vincet are among the greatest of all time. I can never get over how incensed that Jules is when he asks for his wallet and Ringo doesn’t know which one to grab. “It’s the one that says Bad Motherfucker!”
Personally, the best quotations in this film are supplied by the Wolf.
“That’s about 30 minutes away. I’ll be there in 10”

3. Blue Velvet-


While this film doesn’t have the volume of quotables found in Snatch or Pulp Fiction, it more than makes up for it with forcefulness. Nearly all the quotable lines in the film are supplied by the legendary Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). This film is completely bizarre and the quotations are amazing.
“You know what a love letter from me is????? It’s a bullet from a fucking gun”
It also has the greatest quotation having to do with beer.
“Heineken!!!!!! Fuck that shit!!!!! Pabst Blue Ribbon!!!!!”

2. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy-


This film is amazing because it takes a world and parlance that is completely foreign to us and it never lets down. Burgundy’s cronies all have great lines but it is the legend himself that makes this great.
“My apartment is full of leather-bound books. It smells of rich mahogany.”

1. The Big Lebowski-


The dude, Walter, Donny, the Big Lebowski, Brent, Bunny, the Nihilists, Jackie Treehorn, Jesus, all of the cops, the limo driver, the taxi driver, the brother seamus, and even Maude. Every single person has a hilarious line in this film.
“Fucking Nazi’s”
“Were they Nazi’s?
“Come on, Donny, they were threatening castration. Are we going to split hairs here?”
“No, they were Nihilists, they said they believed in nothing.”
“Nihilists, well fuck me. Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, at least its an ethos.”

I had to end it there, because the very next line, “And a, keeping a, amphibious rodent…. that aint legal either” just leads into another great quotation.

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Summer Blockbuster Update

Most Disappointing film of the summer thus far?

URBAN: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

I agree that it is sometimes nice to watch a movie that is less engaging, but this film goes entirely in the opposite direction. I just hope that one of the adventure movies this summer comes close to the success achieved in Ironman/Dark Knight last summer. I'm afraid that GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra is going to be a joke.

Best Film of the summer thus far?

Star Trek

Star Trek was good. The story, characters and action were interesting and fun, but it was too dependent on time travel and its paradoxes while avoiding serious themes that are required for a film to make a lasting impression.

In an odd way, I believe that it is going to be the films that aren't blockbusters. The Hangover impressed and 500 Days of Summer has been reviewed really well and I am really looking forward to Funny People. I don't quite know what to make of the upcoming District 9, which is produced by Peter Jackson. The advertising so far has caused ambivalence. On one hand, it looks Verhoevenish and counter-culture. On the other hand, the aliens seem really corny. Who knows?

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Listless Tuesdays: Top 5 Golf Movies

In a tribute to the British Open and summer, this week's list is going to be released a little bit later than a Tuesday. It was interesting in compiling this list to note how many were comedies.

5. Caddyshack II-


What can I say? There aren't that many golf movies.

4. The Legend of Bagger Vance-


Directed by Robert Redford it is a unique film that perfectly demonstrates "The Thing and the Other Thing" school of storytelling. It was based on a book by Steven Pressfield, best known for his atrocious novel Gates of Fire. One of the really great things about this film is actually the soundtrack which is filled with some really great entries from early 1930's jazz.

3. Caddyshack-


This one really doesn't need an explanation. Harold Ramis hits this one out of the park in one of the funniest and dirtiest movies of the period. The Baby Ruth in the pool, the playing through scene, and Bill Murray's attempts to catch the moles are all hilarious.

2. Happy Gilmore-


A lot of people will look at the rise in popularity that golf achieved at the end of the 90's and give all of the credit to Tiger Woods. While this is surely true, I think that both golf and Tiger benefited from the popularity of this Adam Sandler vehicle. This film also started the trend of sports comedies that feature a prominent actor in an individual sport (as opposed to a team), which has been taken to the limit by Will Ferrell. Adam Sandler went on a nice little run of funny movies that were named after the lead character.

1. Tin Cup-


One of the finest Kevin Costner films. You have to love the "going for it" mentality. I don't know why, but to me,the combination of the comeback story and the fact that Costner really nails his roles in sports movies makes this highly inspirational fare.

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The 400 Blows

Urban:
Truffaut's The 400 Blows is a cinematic experience. The story revolves around the tale of Antoine Doinel and his life as an adolescent in the city of Paris during the 1950's. The story owes a lot to Salinger as Antoine faces difficulty with discipline at home and at school.

Truffaut is said to be one of the originators of French "New Wave" Cinema, along with Jean Luc-Godard. These two are also credited with ownership of the "auteur" theory of film criticism. With these things in mind, The 400 Blows is obviously a film that focuses more on the telling of the story, than the story itself.

By this comment, I mean to say that the story, while brilliantly rendered, functions primarily as a vehicle for the filmmaker to demonstrate his ability to render beautiful shot compositions that are also technically sound, organically place allusions, and also to stretch the limits of cinema style from the period.

The film is shot beautifully. The film's credits roll along with a rolling shot of the city of Paris. Throughout the film, Truffaut attempts to display beautiful subjects, from Antoine's mother, to the brilliant architecture of Paris, in their natural poses. As a native of these things would be used to viewing them. To do so, instead of simply profiling these subjects, he portrays them at work, in the natural hustle and bustle of everyday life. Usually these shots are long tracking shots from a crane, following an individual or small group as they progress through the streets toward a destination, stopping to interact or accomplish tasks along the way.

The film is also full of allusions. Truffaut, in interviews from the period mentions his love affair with all types of cinema, and watching this film is also an object lesson. The most striking allusion that I picked up was the nearly constant framing of the city's neon lights, framing most, but not all of the letters in the picture, and then panning back slightly to include most,,, but still not all of the neon sign. The same practice is done in Citizen Kane, most notably on the sign above the lounge where Susan Alexander is interviewed. The scenes within the apartment all bear a strong resemblance to Hollywood versions of stage plays. A Streetcar Named Desire is obviously a strong influence here. On top of these "classic" film references, Truffaut pushes his allusions even further, into areas not usually referenced in serious film. Many of the scenes, especially those in the classroom, refer as far back as the silent film era with the slapstick jokes and pranks of children. These jokes, the less than covert passing of notes and grabbing of another's objects, do not require words. In fact, these jokes are never told with words within the film. They are just there, as slight gags, allusions to a past that is clearly present. The most notable and best example of this technique is done as the gym teacher leads the children on a run through the streets. As he moves from street to street a few children bleed off to cut class at every turn. By the time he realizes what is happening, only a few children remain.

As much as this film is built upon the tradition of past filmmakers, the film is quite significantly an example of French New Wave cinema. To begin, the last two scenes of the film radically depart from the linear storytelling of most of the film. Antoine's running is filmed from a moving platform that is moving at the same pace. The shot lasts 1:18 and it does an excellent job of depicting the long life of running that Antoine faces. The other ending scene that is a dramatic departure from cinema of the period is the ending. Instead of the "Hollywood" ending, complete with loving embrace and smile, Antoine looks from the surf with a look of complete realization of his past/position/future. The film ends there.

The 400 Blows is a film that was initially considered controversial because of the subject matter. The film openly discusses adultery, abortion, and abusive authority/child reform. Even more, it does not shy away from relating the possible ramifications of these subjects upon children. Today, however, the film has become notable because of the way that this story was told. By fully participating in the past and then pushing the boundaries recently explored Truffaut was able to participate in his vision of film auteur, rendering cinematic beauty along the way.

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