I am happy to post my first reviews online for KBOO. D.K. has helped me before, because I couldn't get the thing to work for me. So much for all those years in the computer business.
Look for longer "think pieces" on movies in general soon. Enjoy.
G-Force (Animated and Live Action, 3-D) Wide release
Director: Hoyt Yeatman
With: Zach Galifianakis, Bill Nighy, Will Arnett, Kelli Garner
Voices of: Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Jon Favreau, Penelope Cruz, Steve Buscemi
A better action movie than most of what I’ve seen this summer, with some quibbles. The story is clearly aimed at tweens and pre-adolescent boys. We could do without the fart jokes, which were really unnecessary, and the typical “believe in yourself” message unless it can be delivered a bit more subtly. But, the action is non-stop, the 3-D is very cool, and the voice work is good. There’s even a plot twist at the end that surprised me.
Warning: the 3-D curse is in; the ticket price was $11.00.
B+
The Windmill Movie (Documentary 2008) At The Hollywood
Director: Alexander Olch
Documentary film-maker Richard P. Rogers was very successful producing films for PBS and other venues, but was unable to complete an autobiographical project before he died. Olch, a protégé, gathered all the footage and edited it into this movie, which includes cameos and readings of Rogers’ words by friends such as Wallace Shawn. I found this involving and even moving in places. The dynamics of Rogers’ family add to the ups and downs of his professional life. Worth seeing.
The film is preceded by “The Quarry,” the short that put Rogers on the doc map. Beautiful black-and-white images of a stone quarry near Quincy MA, and the doings and musings of the working-class kids who swim there, all accompanied by the soundtrack of mid-60s top-40 radio.
The Quarry: A
The Windmill Movie: B+
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1981) At the Film Center this Thursday evening.
Director: Lou Adler
With: Diane Lane, Ray Winstone, Laura Dern, Barry Ford, Christine Lahti, members of The Clash, The Tubes and The Sex Pistols
Where did this come from? I never heard of it in 1981, and I was a rock journalist at the time. A baby Lane, Dern and Winstone are almost worth the less-than-90-minute running time. But, there is more. The story manages to hit most of the rock-film cliches about getting famous too fast and stepping on people on the way. But, Lane is great as an angry orphan girl with a bad attitude who goes on the road with her band on a tour with old has-beens and some English punks. Great to see Paul Cook and Steve Jones of the Pistols and Paul Simonon of The Clash as the Brit band, and Winstone does a creditable front man. Fee Waybill of the Tubes plays a used-up glam rocker.
The girls catch on with the help of an ambitious TV reporter, and become a hot, but brief, phenomenon. And therein lies the moral. The movie needed a better script, and could have benefitted from some more exposition, but, hey, that’s punk rock.
Oh, yeah. Not for young teens or kids.
B-