Movie #345 - The Kingdom

The Kingdom
2007 - Rated R - 1 hr 50 min
Director: Peter Berg
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins, Kyle Chandler, Danny Huston, Kelly AuCoin, Minka Kelly

This movie's disturbing and a kinda depressing, but really good.  It starts in Riyadh, where a family compound for an oil company is suicide bombed and obliterated, killy hundreds of men, women, and children.  It sets off an international incident, forcing Jamie Foxx and friends to get over there and get involved.  The Saudi government isn't happy that there are Americans there to investigate the incident, and tempers flare.  Some serious $h*t goes down and lots of bullets fly.  Good stuff.

Most surprising thing about this? Jennifer Garner isn't so bad at action flicks.  Creepiest thing about this movie? The Saudi kid's last line.  Argh.

Movie #328 - Judgment Night

Judgment Night
1993 - Rated R - 1 hr 50 min
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr, Denis Leary, Stephen Dorff, Jeremy Piven, Peter Greene

Four friends go out for a night of fun and accidentally witness a murder.  Bad guy Denis Leary wants to kill them now.  Bad times. 

In Judgment Night, Emilio Estevez plays a new father who's been itching to get out of the house.  His friends take him out for the night and he almost gets killed. The lesson? New dads need to stay home and help new moms.  Not my opinion, folks, but apparently it's the filmmaker's.  Hey, I didn't write this movie.

Emilio Estevez is not playing hockey but winds up kicking some serious butt.  Denis Leary's evil, but isn't he usually?  There's not really much to this that's original, just some of the circumstances.  But it's your basic bad guys chasing good guys story and it's pretty predictable.  That's all I got here, folks.

Movie #241 - The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
2009 - Rated R - 1 hr 29 min
Director: Neal Brennan
Starring: Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, David Koechner, James Brolin, Kathryn Hahn, Ed Helms, Jordana Spiro, Ken Jeong, Tony Hale, Alan Thicke, Rob Riggle, Wendie Malick

Is this the funniest movie ever made? Nah.  Is it pretty funny in its own dysfunctional way? Absolutely.  Jeremy Piven plays "cocky bastard" like no other and Kathryn Hahn is totally priceless, basically in everything she does.  Then there's Ving Rhames... And Ed Helms's boy band.

It's nice to see these comedic side characters take on bigger roles and manage them well.  Even if they're characters aren't very likable as people.  They're brash and pushy and immoral lots of times, but damn can they sell cars!

Wait for the Will Ferrell cameo, which is one of the best scenes in this entire movie.

Movie #194 - The Family Man

The Family Man
2000 - Rated PG-13 - 2 hr 5 min
Director: Brett Ratner
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Tea Leoni, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Piven, Saul Rubinek

At least in this movie, Nicolas Cage is the good guy. Well, most of the time. He's a real jerk in the beginning, but he comes around.  And the transition is well managed, not forced or unbelievable.

The premise is like a backwards It's a Wonderful Life or a version of that parallel universe movie Sliding Doors (I kinda wish we had that one, actually).  Nic Cage left behind his college sweetheart to pursue his big time career as a broker.  A chance encounter with Don Cheadle earns him a "glimpse" at the alternate reality, where he stayed with the college sweetheart and started a family.  Gone are his power and success, gone are his life's luxuries, and gone is his freedom (and whorish lifestyle).  SPOLER ALERT...

But he soon starts to see that life with a wife and kids, living in a suburb, and working a retail job aren't so bad.  He's still in love with Tea Leoni, he learns. And his kids are pretty adorable, too.  The sad thing is that it's just a "glimpse" and he has to leave, has to return to the real reality where he left this option for his career.

The ending is a bit disappointing.  Yes, it would be super Hollywood of them to let him stay in the new reality.  And yes, the ending they did go with leaves a nice fill-in-the-blank for you. Do they get married and have those kids?  Probably not, since the odds are against them.  I do feel bad for him that he has to leave those kids behind after growing to truly love them.  I got really hung up on that and so the movie left me with a bad taste in my mouth.  Those poor unborn kids... Maybe I'm too worried about this movie.