Semi-Pro

Today I got a chance to see Semi-Pro, the new Scott Armstrong (Road Trip, Old School) comedy starring Will Ferrel. For those of you haven't seen the ads, it's about 70's one-hit wonder Jackie Moon (owner, coach, and player for the Flint Tropics) as he fights to have his ABA team merged into the NBA. The movie has the usual Armstrong crew, relying on the usual slapstick and shenanigans seen in Talladega Nights and Anchorman.

When the ABA announces it's merger into the NBS in the late 70's, only four teams are allowed to move onward while the rest are disbanded. In a desperate attempt to both learn basketball and round up 2000 fans, Jackie and the Tropics go into a frenzy of ridiculous gimmicks from wrestling bears to leaping over cheerleaders.

As a die hard fan of Ferrel's work on Saturday Night Live in the 90s, I'm pretty much biased when it comes to anything and everything he shoots, with the exception of the cinematic catastrophe known as bewitched. I can't say this was bad, but after his last few successes it's probably fair to call it disappointing. For a slow, boring weekend it might be worth seeing, but you might want to just catch it on DVD.

There Will Be Blood

While I'm a little late on this one (since I saw it a month ago in theaters) I just thought I would go through with a review anyways in honor of "Oscar Season". There Will Be Blood is loosely based on "Oil!", the Upton Sinclair novel. The film is extremely dark and dismal, looking into the cut-throat (literally) dealings of the oil trade in the early 1900s.

Daniel Day Lewis leads the film with an incredible performance as Daniel Plainfield, the twisted, troubled, ruthless businessman as he ascends from a struggling prospector to an affluent tycoon. On a side note for those of you who missed it, he was nominated for and won Best Actor this year. Getting back to the film, Plainfield discovers vast fields of oil buried underneath the property of some simple, country farmers and looks to buy the land at "Quail-Hunting" prices in order to exploit it for profit, but the Eli Paul Sunday (Paul Dano), a young preacher, is wise to Plainfield's plans and forces him to support his church.

The film centers about Plainfield, the unusual story of his "son", and his conflicts with the land and the people of his new vast "ocean of oil". The film follows him through his development and exploitation, while dealing with his competitors and Eli all the while. As the movie goes on we learn more about his troubled past as he struggles with insanity.

Lewis and Dano really make this one of the best films of 2007. The acting is incredible, and the story is a deep look into the scarcely-seen vicious nature of oilmen during America's early years. This is a must-see, Daniel Day Lewis seems to limit himself to a movie every 5 years, and as usual it's worth the wait every time.



Here's an infamous scene from the film where Eli comes to Plainfield for money at the end of the film, if you haven't seen it this might be a spoiler.

Vantage Point

This week I finally caught a movie I was looking forward to, Vantage Point. For those of you who haven't heard, it's an action flick about a terrorist attack in Spain (fiction). The cast was pretty impressive, with Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, and Matthew Fox all on board. The basic storyline is that the President of the United States is attending an event to speak out against international terrorism, when he is shot on stage and the city erupts into chaos.

The movie is surprisingly similar to the concept of Crash or Pulp Fiction, with eight different unrelated characters being followed into an eventual inter-twined clash. What's different about Vantage Point is that you actually watch the same segments of the movie over and over, from different perspectives, with each segment revealing more details and secrets about the characters. While the concept got a little old about halfway through the film, it was something different.

The action was impressive and for this genre of movie it was pretty well made. I won't go into any details about the story like I sometimes do, because it's something you'll want to see for yourself and I'd hate to spoil it. While this may not make it's way to the academy awards, it's a damn good "lazy weekend" action movie, and you get your money's worth.

Jumper

Today I'll be writing about the colossal cinematic failure that is Jumper. While I would usually have enough good judgment to avoid these kinds of movies, I'm a die hard Samuel L. Jackson fan and there wasn't much out this week.

Jumper focuses on an imaginary, uber-breed of children born with the ability to teleport themselves huge distances by running through portals. These kids are called "jumpers", and there are no details on why they have this ability, where they came from, or even what they have in common. All is not well in the world of Jumpers, though, because everyone knows that no great power goes unchallenged.

When David Rice (Haden Christiansen), an American jumper, starts to bring attention to himself, the evil organization known only as the Paladins begin to pursue him. While we really don't know much about the Paladins, we do hear that they were tied back to the crusades and witchcraft trials, and they have Roland (Samuel L. Jackson) on their side, so you should know better than to screw with them. Somehow, the Paladins have connections with governments from different countries as well as access to technology that can prevent jumpers from... well, jumping.

What follows is a predictable, high-budget series of chase scenes and violence. Things turn ugly when David's elementary school sweetheart Millie (Rachel Bilson) is kidnapped by the Paladins to draw him into the eventual showdown.

Jumper is predictable, full of plot holes, and to say the acting is disappointing is generous. While the concept works on paper, they failed to explain the Jumpers or Paladins beyond initial introduction, and spend most of their time switching back and forth between fight scenes and sex scenes. Samuel L. Jackson may have been able to save Snakes on a Plane, but he was no match for Jumper.

In Bruges

This weekend I was home visiting the family, so the inevitable urge to escape the boredom and catch a movie struck early. Always a big fan of Austin's Alamo Drafthouse, I caught a matinee for "In Bruges", the heartwarming story of two amateur hitmen, a dwarf actor, and a drug -dealing femme fatale all meeting in Bruges under unusual circumstances.

The movie focuses on Ken (Colin Ferrel) and Ray (Brendan Gleeson), who are sent to Bruges following the aftermath of an assassination-gone-bad to lay low for a while. For those of you who don't know, Bruges is a historic city in Belgium known for it's historic architecture and world-famous mayonaise-soaked french fries. The film is a comedy that relies heavily on sarcasm and circumstance as the two hitmen try to remain low-profile and survive the boredom of one of Europe's oldest cities. Ray spends his time sight-seeing and enjoying the tourist attractions, while Ken complains and fades in and out of different states of intoxication.

When the two meet Harry (Jordan Prentice) the dwarf actor and Natalie (Elizabeth Berrington) the local dealer and con-artist, things turn interesting. Not long after, an order is sent from the manic and delusional mob boss known only as Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to take out Ken for accidentally killing a young boy during the assassination of the priest we was sent after (gotta stick to your principals, right?). When the shit hits the fan and Harry comes to town, all hell breaks loose as a violent and ridiculous series of events unfold.

In all honesty, I really did enjoy In Bruges. The plot and storyline are obviously a little over-the-top, and a lot of the humor is low brow, but overall the movie it worth seeing, especially with the limited, disappointing few weeks we've had in the movie world. This film is limited release so catch it while you still can.