Special— Michael Rapaport plays Les, a man who agrees to a clinical trial of a new pill. The pills give him super-powers, so he decides to become a super-hero/vigilante. The only thing is: no one believes he has powers, and he routinely gets his ass kicked.
This is an odd movie, but one that keeps the suspense very high. Is Les crazy-- or is there a conspiracy to make him think he’s crazy?
I’ve quite liked Rapaport’s work (mainly his television work), but this may be one of his career highpoints. He played Les as a man truly gleeful to have powers, who then becomes very focused as he plans out his work; and then he also has to show that Les is suffering from a great deal of emotional turbulence. B
Terminator: Salvation-- A mostly-lambasted film, but I really didn’t see much wrong with it. The Terminator movies aren’t known for much other than stringing cool action scenes together (although the first two films had enough story—realistic or not-- to hold it together). I thought the plotline of Sam Worthington’s character was interesting; a good use for an actor who seems to be growing with each film. I groaned a bit whenever the super-huge terminator as tall as a building was on screen, but I accepted most of the rest of the machines and plot. B-
The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard.— Jeremy Piven as a cocky, mercenary car salesman. Not really stretching from his role on Entourage—but that’s okay because he excels in those types of roles. He does here as well, but he doesn’t always have great material. He and his team come in like the cavalry and sell cars to keep dealerships from going under. In the case with the plot of this movie (per a bet made, ‘80s-era movie style), he needs to sell EVERY car on the lot to make this happen. Tough enough to accomplish, but there’s also the added struggle with a girl Piven’s character likes (and the two make a VERY unlikely/unbelievable pair, in my eyes). Plus a silly past disaster which haunts him (thankfully, Will Farrell is involved in those scenes, so they’re not a complete loss). It just all seems like a bunch of filler in order to stretch this film beyond the 30 minute mark.
All in all, this is a collection of skits and jokes, and that’s okay. It’s funny, though, that the actual plot is what detracted from my enjoyment of the film. C+
Zombieland— A film that, on paper, probably could have been any of a dozen other zombie movies. But director Ruben Fleischer brought a little more of a humorous style to some of the scenes (visually showing Columbus’ rules of survival) as well as directing it as a buddy comedy as opposed to a normal zombie flick. Props also to Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin for their performances. Not trying to diminish the work of the others, but Harrelson’s work as Tallahassee was perfect for him; I honestly can’t think of any other actor who could have played the role like he did. And Breslin really showed a maturity for her role that belies her actual age.
Other than a poorly-plotted part for Bill Murray (sorry—I have no inkling that the real Murray is as stupid as the “Bill Murray” of the film; not that he wasn’t great playing “himself”, but he needed to do one thing to move the plot along—and become the payoff for a joke—that was just unbelievably moronic), this is a pretty good movie. B+
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