Movie #357 - Last Action Hero

Last Action Hero
1993 - Rated PG-13 - 2 hr 10 min
Director: John McTiernan
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Murray Abraham, Austin O'Brien, Art Carney, Tom Noonan, Anthony Quinn, Ian McKellan, Mercedes Ruehl

Boy Movie Alert!  This is a total 90s boy movie.  Ugh.

Ok, it's cool in that the action scenes kick total butt.  Rad.  Also, who doesn't love a good Ah-nold movie rife with Terminator references, right? 

But a magic movie ticket that transports you into the movie? I don't know guys.  This premise is a bit thin.  (I know, this from the chick who likes Lake House. Fine).  It is pretty funny that the characters in the movie don't know they're not real... not until one Arnold meets the other on the red carpet. Eek!  And oh look, Maria Shriver!

It's a cool idea if you're a boy (or nostalgic about when you loved this movie as a young boy) and the action scenes are pretty good. End of story.

Movie #356 - Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl
2007 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 46 min
Director: Craig Gillespie
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner, Patricia Clarkson

This movie could have been a total farce or completely tasteless.  But somehow, Ryan Gosling falling in love with a plastic sex doll that he things is a real Brazillian girl named Bianca is.... sweet.  I don't know how they did that. My head is still spinning.

Anyway, he's lonely and isolated and really, really awkward.  His brother and sister-in-law do everything they can to help him out, but Lars needs to get that help himself.  He orders a doll online and from the moment she shows up, he's treating her like a "real girl."  She even gets her own bedroom and rides around in a wheelchair.

And although Gosling's performance does much to transform this movie from would-be farce to true heartwarming story, it's not even him that has the biggest impact.  What's more amazing is how the people in town react.  Totally committed to playing along until Lars deals with his unaddressed anxieties/problems/depression/weird plastic doll affair, they just help him keep up the charade.  Before you know it, Bianca's quite the social butterfly and Lars is coming out of his shell. 

Then when Lars is finally ready to say goodbye, they let him do what he needs to do.  By then, it's not just playing along anymore, his friends and family and neighbors are truly attached.  It affects them all in a really beautiful way. 

I'm so glad this isn't a tasteless sex comedy and a guy who fantasizes that his plastic doll is real.  This is so much better.

Movie #355 - Lake Placid

Lake Placid
1999 - Rated R - 1 hr 22 min
Director: Steve Miner
Starring: Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, Betty White, David Lewis, Mariska Hargitay

Oh, Betty White!! I think this movie might be the first time we saw this Golden Girl swear and it was so worth out.  And look where she is now!

Anyway, I know this movie is crappy.  It's like Anaconda. You want to hate it but you just keep watching it.  And you're rooting for Oliver Platt to get eaten by the crocodile and for Bridget Fonda to shut the hell up.  And you're glad to see Betty White's (SPOILER ALERT) "litter" of tiny crocodiles that will one day take over the placid lake and eat everyone.  Not psyched enough to watch Lake Placid 2 or Lake Placid 3, but psyched all the same.

And no, it does not take place at the real Lake Placid.  Bummer, I know. But the po-dunk town is the perfect place for this beastie to have its way with humanity.  Awesome.

Movie #354 - The Lake House

The Lake House
2006 - Rated PG - 1 hr 39 min
Director: Alejandro Agresti
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Christopher Plummer, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Dylan Walsh, Shohreh Aghdashloo

I hate to admit this out loud... or in print, as the case may be... but I really like this movie.  I know, I know. How cornball of me.  But really, it's different.  And it's a romance, which we already know I like.  And even Keanu doesn't ruin it. 

He's got good chemistry with Sandra Bullock. Which is probably why they keep getting paired up.  And no, a speeding bus does not burst onto the scene and obliterate the lake house, sorry to disappoint.

It's just a pure and simple romance, with not so simple circumstances.  And it's beautiful in this odd construction, weirdly relatable despite the time-traveling weirdness.  Hey, if we blindly accept The Time Traveller's Wife, why not this? Right?

Anyway. I like it for its creativity.  And for how much they make you sweat that ending!