Review: NEW YEAR'S EVE

The Time’s Square Ball Drop on New Year’s Eve is perhaps to be the most anticlimactic event all year. Thousands of people gather on Time’s Square, many more watch on their TV’s across several time zones (a rather lame thing to be doing on New Year’s Eve in my opinion, go find a party somewhere please), as a medium size ball of light is lowered towards a screen where a Panasonic ad is displayed. The whole thing takes about a minute; and there are no fireworks at the end. So if the last wish of a dying old man (Robert DeNiro) is to see the ball drop one more time from the rooftop of the hospital, I suspect he led a rather boring life.

Review: THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU

            Like many Sci-Fi thrillers before it The Adjustment Bureau plays with the conflict between predestination and free will. And it has a lot of fun tossing a few ideas while Matt Damon and Emily Blunt are chased across New York by the adjusters of fate. But it doesn’t even try to arrive at a conclusion. This is not a deeply philosophical movie, and it doesn’t even pretend to be one; it is a pulpy action/romance movie and it enjoys playing with the implications of these genres.

 

Review: HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE

            HappyThankyYouMorePlease begins with the staple mark of almost every Indy/student/amateur film, someone getting up from bed after a one-night-stand. Lo-and-behold the movie is about one of the two people involved in the previous night’s rump-a-hump and he happens to be late for a meeting. HappyThankyYouMorePlease is not very different from any other American Indy film, a style that has matured into its own genre, but it highlights all the reasons why I love American Indy. It is genre that makes you smile because you recognize yourself or a friend in every character and situation within the film.

 

Review: THE WACKNESS

Finally a movie about growing up in 1994. Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck), is an 18 year old drug dealer with a messed up life. His parents are broke and constantly fighting, he's graduating high school, he has no friends, and he still hasn't lost his virginity. Did I mention he's also a pot dealer? Even so, Shapiro spends his time selling drugs for money, as well as trading them to Dr. Squires (Ben Kingsly), a local therapist so he can have some one to talk to. Then he meets the step daughter of Dr. Squires, Stepahnie (Olivia Thirlby). Over the next few weeks of his summer, Shapiro experiences, loss, love, lust, friendship, and many things to help him become the man he was meant to be as Dr. Squires undergoes many trials and tribulations himself. In this coming of age story, its not about rising to the top, its just about learning to deal.