Newer Movie Round-Up

2008-09-28
3:42:25 am

Just wanted to say a few quick things about three movies that I've seen recently and really enjoyed.

Sometime last week or the week before Em and I watched Baby Mama, starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Steve Martin, Romany Malco and more. I am a big fan of Tina and Amy first from their work on SNL and later Fey on 30 Rock, Romany was awesome in 40 Year Old Virgin and I can't wait for him to star in something on his own and Steve Martin is funnier in this as an aging hippy mogul that he's been in anything I've seen in a while. The basic plot is that Tina Fey wants to have a baby, but she can't so she goes through an agency and ends up with Amy Poehler as her surrogate. The plot itself is VERY formulaic (I had it nailed down about 20-ish minutes in), but it's the performances that really make this movie worth watching. If you're a fan of Poehler and or Fey, then it's definitely worth checking out.

Then, just today we watched Speed Racer. I know it bombed in the box office, but I can't for the life of me understand why. The Wachowski Brothers took a tired old cartoon that I generally disliked and turned it into this crazy mix of action and drama in a really effective live action cartoon. Oh, it also stars Christina Ricci who I've had a crush on since Casper. But really, I laughed and called out "Oh [bad word for poo]" off and on so many times during the 2 hour movie. Don't believe the bad hype and check this flick out on DVD. Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox and Shaft himself Richard Roundtree all offer up fantastically believable performances even against the backdrop of this cartoony world. Plus, the chimp scenes in this movie are my second favorite next to Any Which You But Loose and its sequel. Big ups to the Wachowskis, I think there's some kind of Hollywood conspiracy that kept this movie from doing well. A CONSPIRACY I tells ya!

Finally, tonight Em, her mom and I went to see the Coen Brothers' latest flick Burn After Reading. It was 97 minutes of pure delight. Definitely more Lebowski than No Country. It was much funnier than I expected it to be (I actually didn't really know what it was about going in, just that it was some kind of spy thriller). It's also a pretty hard movie to summarize, so I won't bother. Two of my favorite actors George Clooney and Brad Pitt were awesome, JK Simmons made me laugh so hard I almost watered up. And of course John Malkovich brought his A game. The Coen's really wove an interesting yarn with this one, keeping me guessing as to what was going to happen next, but also challenging me to keep up with the story. Oh, I also really liked the poster. Well done, what a great week for movies.