Grace Is Gone
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Grace Is Gone John Cusack 3 out of 5 stars Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson |
I like John Cusack. I hate movies with kid actors. Imagine my dilemma when I received “Grace is Gone,” a weeper in which Cusack suddenly finds himself the sole parent for his two young daughters. Taking a bullet for Cusack’s sake, I tried to take in “Grace Is Gone” with an open mind. And guess what? Director/writer James Strouse tried so hard to make Cusack’s Stanley Phillips believable he turned him into a lifeless zombie who’s more bound up than a bar of government cheese. Cusack is too good an actor not to have an impact, even when he’s starting from a deficit, but it’s Shelan O’Keefe (who plays Stanley’s oldest coming of age daughter, Heidi) who’ll command your interest. Score one for the kid actors.
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Posted June 28, 2008 Permalink
The Upright Citizens Brigade - ASSSSCAT
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ASSSSCAT The Upright Citizens Brigade 3 out of 5 stars Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson |
Improvisational comedy is the equivalent of watching a blind man balance on a high wire greased with margarine with a group of famished lions waiting below. If you’re not quick enough or smart enough, your ass belongs to the cats. That may not be how the Upright Citizens Brigade came up with “ASSSSCAT,” the title for their latest DVD, but the same concept applies. The troupe performs skits suggested by members of the audience, a dangerous concept if your audience is primary college kids with tricked out bongs. Every line is made up on the spot, and as the ideas begin to flow, the comics move in and out of the sketches like wrestlers in a tag team match.
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Posted June 28, 2008 Permalink
Cassandra's Dream
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Cassandra's Dream Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell Director: Woody Allen 3.5 out of 5 stars Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson |
What would you do to help your brother, your favorite uncle…yourself? Lie? No problem. Scheme? It’s my middle name. Kill? Well, that’s gonna cost ya. Woody Allen’s 2007 enjoyable suspense drama “Cassandra’s Dream” follows the plight of two working class Londoners, brothers Terry (better than you may think Colin Ferrell) and Ian (Ewan McGregor cast as the level-headed sibling), who find themselves behind a financial eight ball. The brothers are offered a risky way out that could either fulfill their dreams or turn their lives into an ongoing nightmare.
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Posted June 28, 2008 Permalink
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
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Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei 4 out of 5 stars Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson |
“Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” opens with one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve ever witnessed (and I’ve seen “Caligula”). Blotchy, bloated Phillip Seymour Hoffman, playing an emotionally bankrupt corporate accountant, is having sweaty monkey sex with Marisa “oh my” Tomei (who plays Gina, his love-starved wife) in a filmy bedroom in Rio. Tomei’s obviously been to the gym more recently than Phil. It’s like watching W.C. Fields ravage Ava Gardiner. It’s very, very wrong, and it’ll make you feel like you’re going to need a shower with a high pressure hose and an exorcism in order to expunge the memory from your mind. The next time someone says there ought to be a more proportional split in screen nudity between men and women, remember this scene. Fortunately the film takes a quantum leap in quality and you’re spared further views of Hoffman’s pasty backside.
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Posted May 29, 2008 Permalink
September Dawn
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September Dawn Jon Voight, Trent Ford Christians and Lions - 2.5 out of 5 stars Mormons - 1 out of 5 stars Reviewed for Coffeerooms by Mike Jefferson |
If ye be of the Mormon faith you’ll undoubtedly be offended by “September Dawn,” a 2007 film based on the September 11, 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah. The film gives a fictionalized/historical account of a little known incident in which 140 men, women, and children paid the ultimate price for trespassing.
The plot takes a few liberties with the actual events in order to support a fictional love story between emigrant ingénue Emily Hudson (corn-fed Tamara Hope, looking as if she stepped out of an Eddie Bauer catalogue), and teenage mutant Mormon heart throb Jonathan Samuelson (prairie Tarzan Trent Ford). A wagon train bound for California led by Captain Alexander Fancher (comfortable cowboy Shaun Johnston), mosies into a fertile valley belonging to the Mormon Church. The acreage is ruled by Bishop Jacob Samuelson (Jon Voight, as slithery as a snake in Eden. Oops wrong denomination). Fancher asks the Bishop if his 200 head of cattle and expensive horses can graze for a spell. In the tradition of keeping one’s enemies close, Samuelson, who harbors a hatred of gentiles, seemingly extends his hand in friendship, proving once again that guys with chin beards and no moustaches not only look creepy, they are creepy. Samuelson charges his eldest son, Jonathan, with the task of keeping an eye on the emigrant’s mares, but the only Philly he’s interested in is young Emily. The two quickly fall in love, make plans to marry and head to Californee.
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Posted May 29, 2008 Permalink
