Since the Oscars are coming up, I should knock out the reviews I have pending that are actually in Oscar races.  Our first entry is the “based on a true story”” movie, The Blind Side.  The story centers around Michael Oher, a homeless  teen, who is taken in by a family in Mississippi.  What follows is his discovery of football and attempt to get into college via football scholarship.

Sandra Bullock plays the mother in what will turn out to be the performance of her career.  The only cosmetic change was a bleaching of the hair.  What we get on-screen is a caring woman deciding to do the right thing, regardless of what others may think.  Bullock almost didn’t take this role until she met the family.  Given her rollercoaster career of mediocre to bad movie choice, one can only wonder what she turned down that would have been great.

While The Blind Side is nominated for Best Picture, it was not a top-10 movie for 2009.  This is a made-for-tv-like movie that got a big screen treatment because of Bullock and is better than expected because of an unbelievable performance.

My advice:  Check it out if it is still playing in your area; otherwise, get the DVD.

There have been many a time where I have found my self muttering, “…best laid plans of mice and men…”  Of course, this usually after a plan of mine has gone awry.  Things going awry is the perfect theme for this review…

The Plaza Cinema Cafe has been offering select movies for free on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  Usually these movies are more “independent” in nature and give an excellent opportunity to grow audiences.  So imagine my surprise when I found them offering 2012 as the “free movie of the week.”  I had been reluctant to spend money on movie, but free tickets will convince me to go.  I got off work around 8:30 on the Thursday that <shudder> Twilight <shudder> was premiering at midnight.  I make my way downtown, park, and head up to get my ticket.  Now the website had said 10:15; I got there around 9:15.  I should have known something was up when they wanted to wave me right in.  Instead I ran across the street and grabbed a couple of slices fromGino’s Pizza (highly recommend).  I wandered back up around 9:45 and was told that the movie had started at 9:00.  Of course it wasn’t posted and the first box office person never said anything.  So they let me go to any other movie starting within the next half-hour for free.  I saw Love Hurts starting and remembered that it had been part of the Orlando Film Festival a week prior.  So, concessions in hand and still no physical ticket, I walked into a theater with only one other patron.

Love Hurts is a story about a man too dense to realize that his marriage is falling apart before it is too late.  What follows is his convoluted path to finding answers to everything.  Richard E. Grant (no relation to Hugh) plays the title character; most might remember him best as the villain in Hudson Hawk.  Carrie Anne Moss, notably absent since the Matrix series ended, plays Grant’s dissatisfied wife.  After attempting to get through to her husband one last time, Moss leaves Grant and move in with her friend played by Camryn Manheim.  This leaves their almost grown son left to pick up the pieces of a man so heartbroken that he wallows around singing (very off-key) Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is A Place On Earth.”  After a makeover and some lessons on “love em/ leave em” from the son, Grant proceeds to get involved with 4 women (2 being twins).

The director and writer felt the need to make this a mirror story.  As the son coaches the father, the son soon needs coaching in love.  I felt that this was an unnecessary addition to the story.  It also forced a rushed ending that was unsatisfying to those wanting a full story.  The casting of supporting actors was good; I liked seeing Janeane Garafalo appearing on film again and Jenna Elfman did not annoy me this time around.

My advice: check it out on cable if you happen to run across it; even with its flaws, I think I saw a better movie than what I intended on seeing…

I am not a big fan of the horror flick.  I love thrillers and mysteries, but the “blood and gore”/slasher genre has never interested me.  If I end up seeing a movie in that genre, it is because I am with friends that wanted to see it.  Every once in a while I will see one without influence from friends.  After finishing second in the Orlando Shakes poker tournament, I was not ready to head home.  So I stopped by AMC Altamonte to see what was playing – I had two choices:  Zombieland and This Is It.  I chose the zombie flick – Spaldy is having a heart attack somewhere.  I grab a drink and get to my seat as the previews are wrapping up.

Zombieland shows a world overcome with the zombie virus.  Columbus (played by the guy from Adventureland) describes how we got to this state and how he survives via his list of rules.  As we follow him, we meet up with Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who loves killing zombies and is on a quest for a Twinkie.  Along the way, a couple of girls meet our heroes and make fools of them.  It is good to see Abigail Breslin trying different roles as she grows up from Little miss Sunshine.  Fun and mayhem fill the screen and our eyes over the next 90 minutes as we follow the crew on the quest to find something “normal”.

Woody Harrelson is a perfect choice for his role.  This is probably my favorite role of his since Cheers, and appears to signal a resurgence of his movie career with two more movies due out soon.  There is a brilliant guest appearance from a comedy legend that I refuse to reveal here.  the legend has more screentime than a cameo role and helps remind us that this movie is a comedy at heart.

The gore is most prevalent at the beginning; afterwards it is scaled back some.  There are a couple of points where I am reminded of Woody in Natural Born Killers, and of a scene from National Lampoon’s Vacation.  I liked the visual choice of how the rules are presented to the audience – very cool look.

My advice:  Check it out for some decent comedy and a good, simple story – guess this means I will have to watch Shaun of the Dead….

When a group of entertainers bond and have a good time working on projects together, it is easy to forget that sometimes the making of the movie was probably more fun for them than the watching of the movie is for the audience.  One of the earliest manifestations of this phenomenon was with the Rat Pack and the making of the original Ocean’s Eleven.  Frank and the boys were happy to make a caper movie in Vegas, where they could film during the day and still do shows at night.  From that point on, the movie-going audience has endured projects that served the interests of the group more than the people paying to see them on-screen.  Young Guns allowed the Brat Pack to play cowboys and indians; Mystery Men was the height of Ben Stiller’s influence; and Anchorman was Will Ferrell’s movie of excess.  That is not to say that these movies were completely bad or unenjoyable; just that they were more about the people making them than anything else.

Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau avoided this for the most part after hitting it big in Swingers.  True, Made was a step back; but each has proven the ability to make good movies beyond the easy stuff.  Peter Billingsley has avoided the fate of many child actors and become a successful adult in Hollywood (albeit behind the camera).  He helped Vaughn and Favreau when they first came to Hollywood and the three have been friends ever since.  So it makes sense that if Vaughn and Favreau wanted to make a movie in the island that they would make their buddy the director as a way to bring him along.

Couples Retreat focuses on four friends that have different relationships.  Favreau is in an unhappy marriage with Kristin Davis and is waiting for their daughter to head to college before getting a divorce.  Faison Love (The Replacements) is a man newly divorced and trying to be a sugar daddy for a young 20-year-old.  Vaughn is married to Malin Akerman (The Proposal) and has a normal family.  Jason Bateman and Kirsten Bell are Type-A adults that are married and are worried about losing their marriage.  It is this fear that drives them to convince their friends to join them on an island-based couples retreat.  What follows is fairly predictable wrapped up in too neat of an ending.

What was disappointing to me was the amount of great casting between the leads and supporting characters that failed to produce a home-run hit.  Each actor had interesting individual moments, but nothing that could be threaded together for a fully satisfying movie.  I would have felt slightly cheated had I not used a free movie pass to see it in the afternoon.

My advice: Wait for cable; bypass DVD – there is a scene after all of the credits, if you make it that long…