For Your Renting Pleasure

That’s right, my write-up for rentals has changed yet again.  This time around (and hopefully I will stick to it this time) I will write up little blurbs about the movies I have seen in the past week on Fridays, giving you suggestions for what to pick up and what to avoid when considering what to rent that weekend.  On this weeks list we’ve got: The Back-up Plan, The Last SongOperation: Endgame, Repo Men, The Runaways, A Single Man, and The United States of Tara.

Fight for the Last Copy:

United States of Tara: Season One

This Diablo Cody created, Showtime TV show is about a woman who has recently gone off the medications that have helped to suppress the other faces of her multiple personality disorder (or dissociative identity disorder).  Toni Collette plays Tara, and the way in which she moves in and out of these other personalities is pure artistry.  Though this is a serious topic, it does not shy away from the humor of it all, thanks in large part to the people she becomes.  In the beginning she is aware of three: Alice is a 1950s housewife, Buck is the redneck hick with a heart of gold, and T is basically the teenage slut, but eventually another emerges (but I will not spoil in for those who want to watch) in response to the overriding story arc of Tara digging into her past to discover what caused this disorder to take form during her teen years.

The show does not just stop with how this disorder effects Tara, but shows the strain it puts on her family.  John Corbett plays her supportive husband who i leading the search to discover her past and must constantly coral the other personalities (though he is far from ashamed of his wife). [Read more...]

Review: Green Zone

Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass have teamed up on an adaptation of Imperial Life in the Emerald City and the result is a decent political action hybrid that runs into some pretty big third act issues that really hurt the picture.

The story follows Chief Miller a WMD team leader for the Army and is coming up empty repeatedly on sites that are supposed to be legit and he begins to wonder why the hell he is over here in Iraq if there are no WMD’s.  After getting a tip from a local citizen, Freddy, who sees some top officials ducking into a secret meeting, Miller, is pulled into a chain of events that might uncover one of the government’s biggest secrets about the war.  Miller then starts to get pulled from both sides by a pair of clashing department heads for the White House and the CIA and he has to sort out whose intel he will believe to actually making a difference here in Iraq.

[Read more...]

Review: 'Flash of Genius'

Flash of Genius is a serious drama about the true life struggles of Bob Kearns who had to fight the major motor companies for vindication on his creation, and the results are a solid offering, even though it might be a bit of heavy material.
Bob Kearns (Greg Kinnear) is an engineering professor who was always coming up with something. For as long as he could remember he was always creating useful ways to improve things and make things work better, so one day when he noticed a problem with his windshield wipers, he sought out something to do about it. What he created was the later to be named intermittent wiper that we all know and love today and he began on the process to sell it too the major motor companies in his home town of Detroit. [Read more...]

Review: Ghost Town

Ricky Gervais teams with David Koepp to make a great debut as a film lead for American audiences in a film that is a bit familiar but fresh and funny enough to keep you entertained.
Frank (Greg Kinnear) is walking along the streets of New York having a cell phone conversation with his wife, followed by his real estate agent, and over the course of these conversations we discover he isn’t the most faithful of husbands’ right before he dies. We are then introduced to Bertram Pincus (Gervais), a dentist who isn’t a fan of people, keeps to himself, and has to prepare himself for a routine colonoscopy. After the procedure he begins to see and be able communicate with dead people and is harassed by them to help them solve their problems so they can move on. Upon returning to the hospital Bertram discovers that he died for nearly 7 minutes and that might explain is current situation.   [Read more...]

Review: Feast of Love

An interesting look at love that dissects a number of individuals’ lives that are all closely connected and the consequences and effects love has on this group of individuals.
Morgan Freeman serves as a mediator and father figure for all of these individuals as he deals with his issues with his family while trying to protect those that he still can. Greg Kinnear is the other lead and we follow him through his mis-steps and successes in relationships as well that spans over the course of three women.   [Read more...]