Movie #65 - Bedazzled

Bedazzled
Twentieth Century Fox
2000 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 33 min
Director: Harold Ramis
Starring: Elizabeth Hurley, Brendan Fraser, Frances O'Connor, Miriam Shor, Orlando Jones, Paul Adelstein

After three pretty sappy movies in a row, it was nice to break things up with a mindless comedy. In Bedazzled, Brendan Fraser plays a huge loser (teeth-gratingly annoying too) who gets a visit from the Devil, a.k.a. Elizabeth Hurley, who promises him 7 wishes in exchange for his soul. Seriously, hottest person to ever play the devil. And I'm not into that, but yikes. Red leather is her friend. I'm actually a little scared.

Anyway, this movie is exactly what you expect it to be. It's a series of wishes gone horribly wrong. As the viewer, you'll find yourself guessing what the glitch in each seemingly perfect scenario will be. And the script does well to surprise you occassionally with some funny stuff.

For a typical comedy, this movie is a good time. There's nothing exceedingly substantial here to critique, aside from the entertainment value. Brendan Fraser is fun to watch in all the scenarios and does a great job "characterizing" each. Elizabeth Hurley plays a great straightman, with an edge of mischief that will unsettle you just slightly throughout the movie. All around, a good way to spend some time, especially if you don't want to think about anything and you'd rather just laugh (at someone).

Movie #64 - Becoming Jane

Becoming Jane
Miramax Films
2007 - Rated PG - 2 hr
Director: Julian Jarrold
Starring: Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith

Okay, guys. Make fun of me all you want, but I love Jane Austen. As the mother of women's fiction, she stands alone as a pioneer of her day. She has captivated generations of readers with her heartwarming stories, all complete with a happy ending, and her works remain among the greatest classic works ever written.

But it seems that one can't write such compelling tales about love unless she herself has had her heart shattered at least once. In Becoming Jane, we spend some time getting to know and love the "real" Jane Austen. And even though you may know the ending, and the sad fact that she lived and died a spinster, you can't help cheering for her to end up with James McAvoy's character.

Anne Hathaway is brilliant and the script outstanding. These period pieces can sometimes drag and lull, until you want to doze off, but Becoming Jane is well paced and brings you a historical personage without any of the drabness you might expect. I love watching this movie again and again, and not because it's about Jane Austen.

But if you're not a fan of her work, don't worry. Her writing life is very much a background feature of this film, and you won't be bored with long excerpts read here and there. It's clear the writing is important to her, but it's never allowed to take the central focus away from her charming personality and sad love story.

She gets her own happy ending, in a way, but you come to care for her so much by the end of this movie, you can't help wishing she got all her heart desired.

Movie #63 - Beauty & the Beast

Beauty & the Beast
Walt Disney Pictures
1991 - Rated G - 1 hr 24 min
Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Starring: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Angela Lansbury

I'm just going to come out and say it. This movie still makes me cry. And I'm not talking about one little tear. Full blown sobbing. The ending is gorgeous. The pain palpable. I just love this movie.

And it's animated, so I can see how that might sound weird.

Still, I consider Beauty & the Beast to be Walt Disney Pictures's masterpiece. I mean, come on. It won an Oscar for Best Picture, inspiring the Academy to create a separate category for Animated Feature Films. It was the first Disney movie to hit the Broadway stage. And I think it's still running... Just Googled that, and it's the sixth longest running musical in Broadway history. Take that, Cats!

So I love this movie. That's no secret. I've loved it from the first time I saw it in the movie theater. I can still remember seeing it. If you haven't seen this movie, there's something wrong with you. And if you don't know all the words to "Be Our Guest," I'm surprised (but I don't judge).

I really don't have much of a review to write about this one, since I'm so clearly biased. Watching this for the first time with Ellie was one of the highlights of my Movie Wall project thus far. And let me tell you, I think we have another big fan on our hands here, folks.

Movie #62 - Be Kind Rewind

Be Kind Rewind
New Line Cinema
2008 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 42 min
Director: Michael Gondry
Starring: Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow, Melonie Diaz


Alright, first of all, this movie is not as funny as the previews made it seem. True, the Ghostbusters filming and some of the other moments between this unlikely duo illicit a chuckle, but for the most part, I wasn't laughing.

That said, the movie's not bad. It's just different from what I expected it to be, and when that happens, it takes my brain a moment to go, "Oh, hey. I liked that in a different way than I thought I would." So I do like this, and it's heartwarming save-the-town, preserve-VHS-tapes message. It's fun to watch, for sure. But pretty calm for a Jack Black movie.

It's not one I'll watch over and over, but I liked it all the same. And even though the ending is a bit weird (it just kinda stops...), I'm glad they didn't try to keep going. Everything you need to see resolved is resolved. Good for them for just ending it where it needed... even if it's a bit awkward.

Movie #61 - Be Cool

Be Cool
MGM
2005 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 58 min
Director: F. Gary Gray
Starring: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, Andre Benjamin, Steven Tyler, Christina Milian, Harvey Keitel, Dwayne Johnson

Want to learn about the seedy underbelly of the music industry? Here you go.

As the sequel to Get Shorty, this movie stands alone without leaving you confused. I know first hand, since I originally saw this one before I saw Get Shorty. I've seen both now and I feel like they can each stand on their own. Which is a good thing for me since they're alphabetically so distant.

So John Travolta is a big time movie producer who just had a big hit with Get Leo and now he wants in on the music business. Christina Milian plays his first client and a whole host of other big music names show up here and there, like gangster Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000 from Outkast). And of course, as you might guess, everyone wants to kill him. Mostly, they kill each other in the process. Vince Vaughn plays a hell of a pimp, Dwayne Johnson is his gay, star-struck body guard, and Uma Thurman plays the hip, cool music exec.

This one is lots of fun to watch. Travolta is his charming, mischievious self, which is always a good time. It takes on hit-and-runs and hired killers with a certain nonchalance that helps this movie not to take itself too seriously. It's just a good time.

RedBox Rental: Babies

Babies
Studio Canal
2010 - Rated PG - 1 hr 19 min
Director: Thomas Balmes
Starring: Bayar, Hattie, Mari, Ponijao

This one was a rental and it's a documentary, but I'd been hearing so much about it that I thought I'd take a peek and tell you what I thought.

Basically, Thomas Balmes follows four babies in four different parts of the world from "their first breaths to their first steps." Bayar is the second boy to a Mongolian farming family; Hattie is a first born girl in San Francisco (to a couple of hippy-ish parents); Mari is a first born girl in Japan; and Ponijao is the second baby for a woman in Namibia (she has one older brother).

There are no subtitles and no narrator; all you're asked to do is watch the babies. The film is well balanced between the four, and very well edited. Watching these babies grow, a few things become evident:

1. No matter what the environment is like, all babies show the same curiosity and wonder at their surroundings.
2. Babies don't develop exactly at the same pace, but the steps they take are nearly identical.
3. All babies, no matter the foreign tongue, babble the same ways.
4. Older siblings are going to lay the beatdown, even if a camera crew is watching.

Maybe it's because I'm a new mom, but this was really fun to watch. I'm sort of a documentary fan anyhow, though. Well, whatever. This movie is adorable and subtly educational. I probably won't own it, but I would recommend renting it.

RedBox Rental: Cop Out

Cop Out

Warner Bros.

2010 - Rated R - 1 hr 47 min

Director: Kevin Smith

Starring: Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Kevin Pollack, Adam Brody

I don't have much to say about this movie. We rented it thinking it would be a good laugh, but it ultimately feel flat. Tracy Morgan basically plays his character on 30 Rock and Bruce Willis just seems tired. To make it even worse, the plot is pretty stupid... Bruce Willis's prized baseball card gets stolen, a card he was going to sell to pay for his daughter's wedding. So they have to get it back. Yeah...

When all is said and done, there are a few funny bits -- a great recurring gag about Tracy Morgan's character quoting classic movies -- but this winds up being just another buddy cop movie. I expected better from Kevin Smith. Disappointing all around.