Get Him to the Greek (2010)

Director: Nicholas Stoller. Cast: Jonah Hill. Russell Brand, Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs. 109 min. Rated R. Comedy.

Producer Judd Apatow's formula is running out of gas. A new style of comedy that started with 40-Year Old Virgin, Superbad, and Knocked-Up, has exponentially declined to Pineapple Express, Funny People, and now this. Reason? Way-too-long comedies that keep repeating the same story elements again and again (in this case, Jonah Hill vomiting at the end of a party). Greek has a few genuine laughs, but other than what the title says (getting a singer to L.A.'s Greek Theater), is devoid of a story. Not even Hill's everlasting charm is able to hold this up. Surprised by the Tomatometer rating.

Mo says:

Psycho II (1983)

Director: Richard Franklin. Cast: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, Dennis Franz. 113 min. Rated R. Horror.

No matter what, Norman and the Bates Motel are such sacred entities, any rendering is a delight. Vera Miles revives her Lila Crane role, and the plot does have one or two surprises. But aside from that, everything is wrong here: acting (yes, even Perkins), story (a Friday the 13th copycat), cinematography (going from black and white to color!), even makeup (ghastly Dennis Franz death scene). You must have nerve to make a sequel to Hitch's best work ever. Why can't they just leave classics in peace, rather than pieces?

Mo says:

The Devil's Backbone (2001)

Director: Guillermo Del Toro. Cast: Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi. 106 min. Rated R. Spain/Mexico. Fantasy.

Like the Japanese, the Mexicans have proven they can make good ghost stories. This one boasts the disturbing style Del Toro later perfected in his Pan's Labyrinth: combining a child's story with some bold bloody violence. But as the story goes on, too many events are left for the ghosts to handle, which dilutes the "believability" factor. For a much more haunting (and enjoyable) Mexican event, I would recommend another Del Toro produced flick, The Orphanage.

Mo says:

Oceans (2009)

Director(s): Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud. Narrator: Pierce Brosnan. 84 min. Rated G. France, Switzerland, Spain. Documentary.

Compared to the 2008 documentary Earth, which lied on a subtext of global warming, this DisneyNature feature is more concerned about environmental pollution, and contains a prominent human element in the footage - as opposed to Earth, in which no humans were present. Both are visually stimulating (the beauty of the blanket octopus provides a moment of meditation), and both movies are well worth the watch. But like the other water documentary Tapped, this one will make you think twice before you buy the next bottled water, and throw away the plastic.

Mo says:

Please Give (2010)

Director: Nicole Holofcener. Cast: Catherine Keener, Rebecca Hall, Oliver Platt, Amanda Peet. 90 min. Rated R. Drama.

Being frank. It can be a source of friendship, understanding, closure, ... or uninhibited evil. Please Give delves into the consequences of being frank in social relations, and creates a great many moments where a character's actions reminds you of someone you know, or the sweet/bitter memory of some irrational thing you've done. The honesty of this movie made me wish it would never end. A great film for self-reflection.

(PS: I told you Rebecca Hall is on her way up!)

Mo says:

Robin Hood (2010)

Director: Ridley Scott. Cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Danny Huston, Mark Addy. 156 min. Rated PG-13. US/UK. Epic/Historical.

This was confusing. Never seen a prequel made before the ... sequel? original? post-prequel? Ridley Scott's version reminded me of the Dracula dilemma: If the Prince of Thieves can be twisted and manipulated with such wide variability each time, what was the real Robin Hood all about? (As though Dracula or Robin Hood really existed.) As great an actor he is, I had some difficulty picturing an old chubby Russell Crowe as Robin; as opposed to Blanchett, who works fine as Lady Marion - or any other role. Scream to high heaven: I still like the Kevin Costner version best.

(Trivia: This was Ridley Scott's fifth collaboration with Russell Crowe, after Gladiator, A Good Year, American Gangster, and Body of Lies. Apparently being obsessed with certain actors is a family trait: His brother Tony Scott is also preparing his fifth collaboration with Denzel Washington in Unstoppable, after working together on Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Deja Vu, and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.)

Mo says:

The Secret of Kells (2009)

Director(s): Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey. Voices: Evan McGuire, Brendan Gleeson. 75 min. France/Belgium/Ireland. Animation.

This Oscar nominee for Best Animated Feature is a celebration of nostalgia for childhood cartoons. The Irish story of a child monk in medieval times who is obsessed with completing a "book of secrets" before the Vikings attack his village, is actually irrelevant. The power here, is the mesmerizing beauty and colorful simplicity of old pre-digital pre-3D cartoons, from a time when we (and the characters) had no concept of perspective. Watch this beautiful innocent animation, just to relax, and bring back to life some dreams from long ago - and ignore the fact that Up won the Oscar.

Mo says:

The Third Man (1949)

Director: Carol Reed. Cast: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli , Trevor Howard, Orson Welles. 104 min. UK. Noir.

Another missed classic. If you have any doubt how sometimes black & white works better than color, this is the movie for you - to watch how shadows hauntingly blend in with the background, and become a fascinating element to empower the story. No wonder Orson Welles was one of the greatest artists ever; his sudden mid-movie entrance is probably one the most memorable moments in cinema, and his cunningly fluent delivery of words in a famous Ferris wheel scene is the peak of an actor's cinematic charm. Watch this; get a sense how real movies used to be made.

(Incredible quote, spoken by Welles: "... You know what the fellow said: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.")

Mo says:

No One Knows About Persian Cats (كسي از گربه هاي ايراني خبر نداره ) (2009)

Director: Bahman Ghobadi. Cast: Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad. 101 min. Iran. Musical.

Is this the same Iran I lived in for many years? Where you dive deep into Tehran's seediest neighborhoods, going deeper and deeper underground, to find people playing the most cerebral music imaginable ... in hiding? This community is not fussing about water or health or electricity. They are literally dying for their passion to create art. Makes you think how many other fields in this society are meeting such a fate of "intellectual suffocation" - and when (and how) this bubble is going to explode. Last year's Green Movement was probably just a walk in the park.

(PS: This was the winner of the Special Jury Prize at 2009's Cannes Film Festival. Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist who was arrested and charged with espionage in Iran last year, was the script co-writer.)

Mo says:

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009)

Director: Jan Kounen. Cast: Anna Mouglalis, Mads Mikkelsen, Yelena Morozova. 119 min. Rated R. France. Drama.

Anna Mouglalis is a much more interesting Chanel compared to Audrey Tautou's in Coco Before Chanel of the same year, and Mad Mikkelsen has such a silent ominous presence, you expect him any moment to cry a tear of blood as he did with the James Bond villain in Casino Royale. But the main character here is neither Chanel nor Stravinsky, but his wife Katarina, a tragic figure who helplessly watches (and accepts) her marriage crumble before her eyes. Beautiful photography and an ingenious soundtrack work wonders in keeping the drama very much alive.

(Disclaimer: To enjoy this movie, know Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring", nicely featured in Walt Disney's 1940 animation Fantasia.)

Mo says:

The Town (2010)

Director: Ben Affleck. Cast: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper. 125 min. Rated R.

Ben Affleck. He's not much of an actor, but he knows how to write, and he definitely knows how to direct. This air-tight roller coaster of an heist flick is so well-written, the story's pace and character development so well done, you will not bat an eyelid till it's over. After Gone Baby Gone and this, Affleck is making Boston a favorite for good crime movies. Mad Men's Jon Hamm commands a strong presence as the FBI agent in charge, but watch out for Rebecca Hall: she's moving up in the world pretty fast.

Mo says:

Moolaadé (2004)

Director: Ousmane Sembene. Cast: Fatoumata Coulibaly, Maimouna Hélène Diarra, Salimata Traoré. 124 min. Senegal/France/Burkina Faso/Cameroon/Morocco/Tunisia.

Simple story in a small Burkina Faso village with incredibly amateur performances and idiot-proof dialogue, but since the subject is "female circumcision", without depicting anything gory, this film will be etched in your mind for quite awhile. Even the movie's symbolism is simple: at a time when batteries for transistor radios are as precious as daily bread, religious elders (mostly men) destroy radios as the source of knowledge at the foot of the village mosque, to keep female avoidance of the ghastly ritual at bay. Another movie guaranteed to spark discussions among friends.

(Trivia: Ousmane Sembene, the movie's 81-year old Senegalese writer/director, known as the first African director to receive international recognition, died three years after "Moolaade", his last full-feature.)

Mo says: