Review: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 93%

Audience: 85%

It is what it is -- a very well-executed, very entertaining action movie. Who of us doesn't go to the movies every once in a while just to be guilelessly entertained? Amazing stunts and an interesting plot make this film delightful from beginning to end. And Tom Cruise, no longer the boy of Risky Business, defies aging by performing his own stunts.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip it

Review: The Descendants

Nonna's Rating: $$$1/2

Rotten Tomatoes: 89%

Audience: 91%

Without George Clooney, The Descendants wouldn't have garnered much notice, let alone be nominated as Best Picture. Clooney brings his ability to portray an ordinary, sincere guy convincingly to this movie. He manages to capture the angst of being a father raising daughters who have swum beyond his ken, the angst of being a husband cuckolded by his wife who recognizes the role he has played in her disaffection, and the angst of the hope and despair of waiting for someone to die in a hospital in the 21st century. He's honest, he's goofy, he's at loose ends. The film is finally remarkable in that it celebrates the ordinary moments of life, those that can pass us by without our noticing how filled with glory they are. Clooney's character learns to stop and notice.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip it

Review: Margin Call

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 89%

Audience: 74%

I'm always a bit amazed when people who don't work 9 to 5 in cubicles in gray-walled offices portray the people who do -- so very well. And Kevin Spacey is such a master of the genre. He does a fine job here again. But there are other performances which deserve mention for their accuracy, their subtlety, and just how recognizable they are: Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Stanley Tucci, and yes, even Demi Moore. The film expertly explores the ethical and moral decisions of people developing squirmy investment vehicles at a unnamed New York firm.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip it

Review: Hugo

Nonna's Rating: $$$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 93%

Audience: 82%

Hugo was the best movie I saw this year. Generally, critics liked it, but relatively few moviegoers saw it. I predict it will be one of those films about which, ten or fifteen years in the future, we will say, "How did people not flock to this movie? Why didn't they see what we see?" I have many reasons for my love of this film: 1. It's about movies; the birth of film. 2. It's impeccably directed by Scorsese. 3. The child actors, Asa Butterfield as Hugo and Chloe Moretz as Isabelle carry the film well. And Asa's blue eyes are riveting in 2D or 3D. 4. The 3D is so integral to the film and appropriate to the meaning, I lost my awareness of it and just enjoyed the movie. 5. The other actors, especially Sacha Baron Cohen, Emily Mortimer, Jude Law, and Ben Kingsley only add to the film. 6. And finally and most importantly, a magical story full of wonder helps us rediscover why we love to sit in large dark rooms with strangers and gaze at flickering patterns of light on a silver screen.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip it

Review: My Week With Marilyn

Nonna's Rating: $$

Rotten Tomatoes: 83%

Audience: 79%

Kudos to Michelle Williams who is one gutsy girl -- doing her best to reanimate Marilyn Monroe in 2011. She almost does it -- which is saying a lot -- in this engaging film based on Colin Clark's memoir of the time he spent as 3rd Assistant Director (a gofer) on The Prince and the Showgirl -- a 1956 film directed by and starring Lawrence Olivier. If you've never seen it, I don't recommend you do. There is absolutely no chemistry between the two stars. Olivier is too old and Marilyn is too Marilyn.

There are several other notable performances in My Week: Kenneth Branagh nails Lawrence Olivier; Eddie Redmayne as 23-year-old Clark couldn't be more charming; Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike gives another impeccable Jude Dench performance; Julia Ormond as an aging Vivien Leigh is convincingly desperate and sad; and Emma Watson (Hermione!) shines in a small part which is a promise of things to come.

It's easy to say that Williams just doesn't have the body to pull off Marilyn Monroe -- of course what female star in the 21st century does! What's missing is more than a body though: it's that magical, ineffable, no-way-you-can-pin-it-down, essence of Marilyn.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 87%

Audience: 89%

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo repeats the Swedish version almost scene for scene. It actually sticks closer to the book, but that doesn't make up for its biggest problem--Rooney Mara who plays Lisbeth. She's competent and does a decent job, but Noomi Rapace, the Swedish Lisbeth, brings subtlety and complexity to the character that Mara doesn't even approach. Rapace expertly conveys a deeply troubled young woman who is capable of extreme violence and resolve, yet vulnerable and easily wounded. Rent the Swedish film.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

The Best Movies I've Seen This Year

1. Hugo, 2. Melancholia, 3. The Artist, 4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, 5. The Descendants, 6. Jane Eyre, 7. Tin Tin, 8. Moneyball, 9. The Guard, 10. The Help,

Honorable Mentions in No Particular Order

A Better Place, Carnage, Dangerous Method, Albert Nobbs, Sarah's Key, Another Year, Barney's Version, Beginners, Win Win, Margin Call

Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 90%

Audience: 74%

Martha Marcy May Marlene is a disturbing movie. I realize I'm not going to be particularly analytical, logical, or objective about this film. It's well made and well acted, a psychological thriller that does not belong to the realm of "this-could-only-happen-in-the-movies." What is particularly disturbing is the ordinariness of the of the main character, a young woman who slips in and out of a "family" which, at the beginning, has somewhat benign similarities to what might have been the early days of the Manson family. Evil resides at the center of this film. Not evil as depicted in the devil movie genre or evil as portrayed in thrillers about murderous psychopaths, but elemental evil: the darkness we might all be capable off; the darkness we choose to rise above. If you watch it, be with someone you can talk to afterwards.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: Anonymous

Rating: *

Nonna's Rating: #

Rotten Tomatoes: 47%

Audience: 61%

I love a good Elizabethan romp with great costumes, plenty of dancing, and a touch of the Bard. But I was wary of this movie. It dug up the theory, long-buried by reputable scholars of English Literature, that Shakespeare didn't write his plays.

I decided to go to the movie with an open mind. After all, Shakespeare himself embellished and shuffled historical characters in his own plays -- and we still love them. At first, I was caught up in the Elizabethan fun. I kept reminding myself that it was just a fiction, but then, near the end of the film, there were truly preposterous revelations about the Earl of Oxford and Elizabeth I that simply burst the fragile bubble that the movie had become. It was, in short, a waste of time.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: The Ides of March

Rating: **1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$

Rotten Tomatoes: 85%

Audience: 75%

Ides of March is well made, but you've seen it too many times before. Watch The Candidate again with Robert Redford to see it done extremely well the first time. In spite of that, individual actors' performances are excellent. George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and the always amazing Paul Giamatti do a fine job. I'm afraid though, that films about political shenanigans can't keep up with the real life circus in Washington and the Governor's mansion in Illinois.

I must note, however, one magnificent scene late in the movie which takes place at a Roman Catholic funeral service. The church used is actually Episcopal -- Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, MI. And the fine actor playing the R.C. priest (although he has no lines and just sits there looking R.C.) is my friend Gary Hall, former Dean and President of Seabury Seminary.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: Contagion

Rating: *

Nonna's Rating: #

Rotten Tomatoes: 84%

Audience: 62%

What were critics thinking when 84% of them gave this film a positive review? It's embarrassingly bad in spite of considerable star power: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, and Elliott Gould! It's the story of a lethal virus which first appears around Hong Kong and which Gwyneth manages to bring to the U. S. on a flight from Hong Kong to Chicago. So, we watch some stars die and some survive. Too often the story line strains credibility. It's a mess.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: Moneyball

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 94%

Audience: 87%

PACR ("pitchers and catchers report"). It's music to my ears. I do love the game of baseball, so it's not surprising I loved this film. However, my movie buddy Linda also loved it, and I doubt she's ever watched a game from beginning to end. Only Aaron Sorkin could write dialogue about statistics that would be absolutely fascinating. Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland A's, and Jonah Hill as Peter Brand, his statistician, are the heart of the film and deserve their Oscar nominations. Phillip Seymour Hoffman's performance as Art Howe, the team's manager, is spot on and largely ignored by the critics. It's a delightful film, filled with true wit.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: Sarah's Key

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 73%

Audience: 84%

Until this film, I had never warmed to Kristin Scott Thomas's acting, but she delivers an excellent, convincing performance in this movie. Based on a popular novel I have not read, the story revolves around Julia Jarmond (Thomas), an American journalist who discovers and investigates an old secret guarded by her French husband's family. The shameful story involves the removal of Jews from Paris in 1942 by French police in response to a Nazi decree. Julia's investigation leads her to discover truths about herself as well as truths about the secret.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: The Guard

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Audience: 82%

A story about murder, blackmail, and drug-trafficking set in rural Ireland and replete with humor and surprises. Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is the marching-to-his-own-drummer cop, and the always watchable Don Cheadle is straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett. It's a marvelous film, although, I must confess the Irish accents had me straining to catch the nuances of the dialogue. I'm looking forward to being able to watch it with English subtitles. Gleeson very much deserved his Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for this film.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip It

Review: The Debt

Rating: **1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$

Rotten Tomatoes: 76%

Audience: 68%

This espionage thriller about Mossad secret agents moves back and forth in time to tell the stories of three operatives. The plotting and the story are passable; what makes it truly worth watching are the two sets of agents: when-we-were-young (Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, and Marton Csokas) and when-we-were-much older (Helen Mirren, Ciaran Hinds, and and Tom Wilkinson).

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip it

Review: The Woman in Black

Rating: **

Nonna's Rating: $

Rotten Tomatoes: 63%

Audience: 66%

I'm not a fan of haunted house or horror films. I just don't get a kick out of being scared. I was hoping this one would change my mind. It didn't. Daniel Radcliffe plays a Victorian father of a little boy mourning the death of his wife. He's a solicitor and is sent to a remote village to settle the affairs of a deceased client. The moody Victorian setting is fine and Radcliffe does a decent job playing a serious, if rather small, adult. Other fine British actors round out the cast. But Radcliffe spends most of his time walking around the client's brooding, cobwebbed mansion. Every once in a while, his strolls are punctuated by some ghost or other's white, bloody face with dripping black eye makeup. This is always accompanied by dramatic and loud music. It was boring and not at all scary.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip it

Catching Up on Reviews

I've neglected this blog much too long, but I haven't neglected the Regal, 7 Bridges, Yorktown, or Glen theaters. So, I'm going to offer some thumbnail reviews. I must confess I don't even remember a few of the films on this list very well. Better forgotten. Here goes:

Nonna's Review: Glee: the 3D Concert Movie

Review: Glee: The 3D Concert Movie

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 60%

Audience: 70%

If you like the TV show, go see the movie. It's as simple as that. The cast stays in character and sings some of the best songs they've performed over the past years.

And that's when the film is in top form -- not when it's playing documentary concert film and interviewing fans to show how affirming the TV show has been for kids who don't feel they fit in and admit they have big "Ls" on their foreheads. Those add-on stories just don't work -- even though Glee's message every week is that same affirming, love-who-you-are theme. More singing and dancing would have been better.

Each cast member gets his or her moment in the spotlight. Some more than others. I really wanted to see more of Chris Colfer. At least he sang "I Want To Hold Your Hand." The small audience with whom I saw the film made it even more fun: very vocal teenagers, who obviously had crushes on several cast members, squealed, sang along, and clapped spontaneously with gusto. I even spied one of the finalists in The Glee Project, Damian, in the crowd. I do hope that's a good sign because I think he'd be a great addition to the cast with all his Irish charm.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip it

Review: The Help

Review: The Help

Rating: ***1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 73%

Audience: 93%

I actually liked it better than the book. I was prepared for disappointment, but the movie surprised me -- primarily because of a very powerful performance by Viola Davis as Aibileen, a woman who suffers with dignity. There is already Oscar buzz about Davis's performance. She doesn't have to say anything to convey the hurt, anger, and sorrow she feels as a black woman serving the needs of spoiled, clueless, racist white women in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s.

Some have criticized this film (and the book) because it doesn't portray the mindless, vicious violence perpetrated on blacks in the south fifty years ago. I can't agree with that criticism. That's not the kind of vile racism this film depicts. Instead, it illustrates the subtle, genteel racism of privileged white women who would never think of pointing a gun at one of their servants. Instead, they denigrate these women, assume they're diseased, accuse them of thievery, exploit them financially, deny them their families, prevent them from getting an education, give them unlimited access to children they've come to love, and treat that relationship as meaningless. And all for only one reason: they can. Yes, it's as if the 13th Amendment had never been passed.

There are funny moments in this movie. There are little triumphs, but, when all is said and done, there remains injustice masquerading as Christianity. All in all, it's horrific.

Octavia Spencer as Minnie delivers a fine performance as a woman who is mad as hell and won't take it any more. Emma Stone (Skeeter) is the amanuensis of this group of Southern black maids poised to step into the complex second half of the 20th century.

Movies have been pretty horrible this summer. Along comes one worth watching -- and talking about.

Nonna's Rating

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price

$$$ = Worth paying the Matinee price

$$ = Worth a rental

$= Wait for cable

# = Skip it

Review: Crazy, Stupid, Love

Review: Crazy, Stupid, Love

Rating: **1/2

Nonna's Rating: $$

Rotten Tomatoes: 75%

Audience: 86%

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a ** movie, but earns another half star when compared to other recent romantic comedies -- most of which have been formulaic, predictable, and boring. At least this film surprises us. Steve Carrell (Cal), who currently owns "sweet, lovable guy" roles, Ryan Gosling (Jacob), and Emma Stone (Hannah) all portray characters more authentic than those generally seen in romantic comedies. The supremely talented Marisa Tomei (Kate) could have been just as authentic but her over-the-top (over-directed?) performance is out of sync with the rest of the film. There was one very sour note at the end of the movie which spoiled the film for me. Not wishing to give the scene away, I only note that an older underage girl gives a gift to a younger boy which is, well, just inappropriate.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price

$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it