Last Chance Harvey - Mini-review

Last night, I was just in the mood for somehting light, and I caught Last Chance Harvey on Netflix's Play it now feature.  This is a light-weight Rom Com, but it's just a delight to see Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman act opposite each other.  Emma Thompson has just been ignored on a blind date and has a very needy mother, but Dustin Hoffman's Harvey has her beat in the miserable department.  He's just been fired, and his daughter wanted her step-father to walk her down the aisle in stead of him.  Harvey's daughter's wedding is what has brought him to London, and he finds himself the odd man out at all the celebrations as his daughter has become much closer to her step-father.

You don't usually see a love story between two middle-aged people on screen like this, and you feel like they are much more cautious, but also recognize how rare and precious the connection they've found is.  The acting craft in the small moments between them is what was truly special, even if there were no surprises in the plot.  All I can tell you is that the movie made me smile for it's 90 minute length.  Definitely worth a rental and 3 stars.

Bangarang

One almost forgets that Spielberg made Hook!

This one just made me smile.

The Tale of Despereaux Trailer

The Tale of Despereaux has the voice talents of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Sigourney Weaver, Richard Jenkins, William H. Macy, Kevin Kline, and Emma Watson. Looks fun, and one I'll enjoy seeing with my kids.

Kung Fu Panda - mini-review

Jack Black is a cartoon character come to life, and so voicing an animated character is the perfect role for him. I've loved Jack Black and his zaniness since High Fidelity. He was a blast in School of Rock and I even loved his gentle crazy romantic in The Holiday with Kate Winslett, but he was miscast in King Kong. Did anyone really believe all those men would follow Jack Black to the ends of the earth?

The voice casting for Kung Fu Panda is dead on. Angelina Jolie smolders as the all so serious tiger who loses out to Jack Black's pudgy panda as Dragon Warrior. Dustin Hoffman is maybe a little lemur, and is Po's exasperated kung fu master, who discovers the best way to train Po is by using food as a reward. The fight over the last steamed dumpling was amazing! Ian McShane of Deadwood plays the best evil rumbling voiced big cat since the tiger in Jungle Book! Seth Rogan of Knocked Up was a surprising voice choice as Mantis, David Cross of Arrested Development plays Crane with Jackie Chan also doing a short voice cameo as Monkey.

So, did I enjoy the movie? We saw it on IMAX and to quote Jack Black, I was blinded by its awesomeness. I loved it! Po's dream sequences are even gorgeous graphic novel like 2-D paintings. It's inventive, it looks great and we howled with laughter. The whole family loved it, and I consider this a new classic animated film. Three and a half stars edging to almost four. This is not just for kids, but I liked that it wasn't full of the "of the moment" adult aimed jokes as the Shrek movies have had.

A great Sydney Pollack scene from Tootsie

I still can't get over Sydney Pollack's death. I don't know why it's effecting me the way it is. This man worked in the business my whole life. He was just always there. He did every genre -- thriller, romance, epic, comedy -- both as a director and an actor. Here is a classic scene from Tootsie, where he played Dustin Hoffman's agent and directed what is probably his best known film.