Quick Movie Reviews (Oct. 27, 2008)

Brick (2005)
What do you get when you take film noir and put it in a high school? You get this great independent film from Rian Johnson. Clearly influenced by great hardboiled film noir of the past (think: “Maltese Falcon”), “Brick” stars young Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan (Bogart). The dialog is sharp and quick but the plot moves quicker. You think you’re lost. You keep backing up to get missed dialog. I watched it on my DVR so didn’t have the advantage of subtitles. But you get it. You’re hooked. The criminal mastermind? Played by Lukas Haas (he of “Witness). One side note: This movie is Rated “R” but I really don’t know why.

Gaslight (1944)
This Cukor-directed classic has not held up well. Caught this on Turner Classics not too long ago and was struck by how aged it is. The movie asks you to suspend all sort of reality in order to get to the point where Ingrid Bergman as Paula can be manipulated by her husband Charles Boyer. This is where the movie really shows its age. If I tried to convince my wife that she really had lost that all-important brooch, she would have found it in a place I wouldn’t want it found. A surprising bright spot? Angela Lansbury as Nancy the housemaid.

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan (2008)
I keep trying Adam Sandler movies hoping to find one that is just funny from start to finish.. I am still searching. The good news here is that Zohan is downright funny for about the first hour. The concept of Sandler as the greatest Israeli hero who just wants to be a hairdresser is funny on its face. But then when the movie generates a “plot device,” it just falls apart. A classic Sandler mistake is finding a joke that is funny the first time and then just running it into the ground. Really, after a while, how funny can an erection be?

High School Musical 3 (2008)
According to my 11-year-old daughter and her friends, this movie was great. I will take their word for it. The very first scene of the movie is a close-up of Zac Efron’s sweaty face and the young ladies in the theater went wild. It set the tone for the rest of the film. They talk. They sing. Zac emotes. An odd note here – Zac’s nose is unusually red throughout the film. He either had a cold or had been crying throughout shooting.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster (2008)
This terrific documentary has generated a lot of buzz this year and justifiably so. Chris Bell has two brothers – Mark and Mike. Both of them use anabolic steroids and Chris, who wants to get bigger and stronger, is trying to determine whether he should start taking steroids. This is the premise of the doc. We follow Chris as he works to separate steroid truth from myth. Steroids are bad, and they kill – right? Not so fast. After watching this documentary, you will question any pre-conceived notions you may have about steroids and steroid use.