Everything Must Go

Everything Must Go  directed by Dan Rush

Drive-By Blog

On a movie night with a friend I suggested that we rent this movie.  From the preview you see Will Ferrell, defeated and living in his yard, a couple lines of silly dialogue with him and the neighborhood kid he befriends. Get this - This movie is not funny or light in anyway.

Your mood and expectations when you sit down to watch a movie can be as important as the movie itself. Perhaps, I was just not in the right headspace, but this movie didn't do it for me.  It was drab, depressing, and fell flat on most accounts; including Ferrell's character.

In the movie Ferrell loses his job the same day his wife leaves him, and later we find out she is also sleeping with someone else. His car gets repossessed, the wife changes the locks to the house and drains all the funds from their accounts.  He buys beer with the little bit of money that he has and lives in a recliner on the front lawn with all of his positions strewn all over.

They have a bit of a back story about him being a baseball player so you hope that at least he will find a way to offer some life advice to the chubby kid.  Which he does, minimally.  Then you think something sweet will arise from the pregnant neighbor across the street (Rebecca Hall), then it doesn't. I mean he gets some reprise with the cheating wife leaving him and losing his job right?  No, he's a loser deadbeat and that is the movie in a nutshell!

Obviously I was less than impressed, but again, I was in the mood for a dramcom.  In Everything Must Go, what should really go is the story entirely. To redeem Will Ferrel and his dramatic comedy abilities, if you haven't seen it you must watch Stranger Than Fiction!

Will Farrell in Everything Must Go

in Stranger Than Fiction

Tree of Life

 Tree of Life

Eesh.  I just watched the trailer again to make sure my expectations were set correctly for a movie and not an IMax, Discovery channel film.....and yes, expectation falsely set.

Malick attempts to show us in a "new way" his art on the ebb and flow of the universe, with special emphasis alongside a very traditional Texas family in the 1950's. Questions surround life and death, beginnings and endings, spirituality and evolution. Texas never comes up in the movie, I just recognized many of the scenes from being filmed here in Austin.

There are loooonnng segments of nature; from the cosmos to dinosaurs to cellular mitosis.   While this is all very beautiful and fascinating, we have seen it all before.  Another nod to the wonderful Discovery Channel; especially Planet Earth and Blue Planet, oh and don't forget the screen savers that come loaded on every computer.

Sean Penn may be super famous, but not sure if 5 total minutes of screen time is worth a top name billing.   The acting parts that there are, are great even with them pieced together for you decide the emotion versus dialogue leading you through a plot.  And did I mention the creepy whispering narration..?

I wish I could find more positive things to say, but honestly I just couldn't wait for it to end so that I could stop wasting my Sunday Funday....

Again, abstract does NOT equal complicated and artistic does NOT equal brilliant.

Go see it, but watch this trailer again first and see if the film even tippy toe touches your expectation.

The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender

If this were a real drive-by, this movie would be capped in the head.  Let's first discuss the expectation of Mr.M.Night Shyamalan as a director.  At first it was high hopes: The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, first half of The Village.   Then we start going downhill: second half of The Village, Lady in the Water.  Then plummeting with The Happening, and now having hit rock bottom with The Last Airbender.

I am a big fan of fantasy movies, anything with magic, special powers, witches, wizards, spirits..... all of it.  The idea that people were connected to one of the 4 elements and could "bend" them, along with an avatar who could bend all of them and would protect Earth from the super power that fire had become, super cool! 

So what went wrong? Acting - sorry kids but you did give a first timers performance.  Isn't some of that blame to be placed on the writing?  Definitely.  How can one be expected to put so much of themselves into lines with such little impact.  For example, the spirit's advice for the water people to win a battle was, "Show them the power of the ocean."  Ummm, their lives are dedicated to controlling water and they live on the sea...I think they are aware of the ocean's power. 

Not only did Shyamalan not see any of this in all of the hours that he was working on the film, but he also thought that it was good enough to leave as a cliffhanger!  If part two makes it into production I will be shocked, but will also watch it....I need closure. :)

Anyone see Devil?