cult film freak: rachel mcadams

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Written by James M. Tate / 5/30/2015 / 1 Comment / 2015 , bill murray , bradley cooper , cameron crowe , emma stone , rachel mcadams , romantic comedy

REVIEW OF CAMERON CROWE'S ALOHA

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2015 rating: 1/2</td></tr>
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The Politically Correct Machine has helped save ALOHA by venting complaints that there aren't enough actual Hawaiians in a movie set in Hawaii. Controversy covering up for an empty shell. <br />
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First off, there's hardly anyone around beyond the primary cast, with the exception of a small village of… Native Hawaiians that, unlike the greedy white folk, are like “Indians” in Neo Westerns, looking to the sky with wisdom while those neurotic Caucasians race around like gaudy checkers on a plush chessboard. And what really needs to be centered on is how truly awful ALOHA is, in every regard – which might be an impossible feat since no other recent movie has lacked so much: including plot and character-development, two things attempted right off the bat simply because three popular and attractive movie stars appear together on the big screen: After cramming everything into a rushed introductory narration, we meet Bradley Cooper’s Brian Gilcrest, a maverick defense contractor sent to Hawaii – and yet we never actually experience anything he’d ever risked. Imagine if Han Solo were first introduced to audiences already frozen in carbonate... Tony Stark in a coma.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0TCRFaSrPCcauJoKqlAIhxJb57QYKyXG_h_l2ZwRXr2jISmv0wOPqQwPKeEDhDL9niQ4KmkJULpkCLUiXMa4gUofeM35H5sbSytYWqAriToDQGenRLo69D__8hMd-VZ7qs_6OkFPutE/s1600/2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0TCRFaSrPCcauJoKqlAIhxJb57QYKyXG_h_l2ZwRXr2jISmv0wOPqQwPKeEDhDL9niQ4KmkJULpkCLUiXMa4gUofeM35H5sbSytYWqAriToDQGenRLo69D__8hMd-VZ7qs_6OkFPutE/s320/2.jpg" width="192" /></a>By his side, overacting to the hilt… an embarrassing, hyperactive attempt to <i>steal the picture</i>... is Emma Stone as Allison Nig, a spunky fighter pilot never once seen fighting or piloting. Hired to keep an eye on Cooper’s ambiguous shyster while they get lost in the "magical" Hawaiian night, working out a land deal with the natives, their Romantic Comedy chemistry is beyond awkward. She seems to be frantically auditioning for the “role of a lifetime” while Cooper blandly rehearses for just another paycheck: as if his SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK character overdosed on Valium, and went with it. Meanwhile, in writer/director Cameron Crowe’s usual low-rent Hal Ashby fashion, he throws in a collection of otherwise good tracks for no apparent reason: a jukebox playing in a barroom of chattering nincompoops.  <br />
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If this pseudo couple weren't bad enough, throw in an ex girlfriend, Tracy, played by the always overly-angelic Rachel McAdams, and her two perfect Hollywood-Cliché kids, attempting to give our leading man legitimate background as a flawed-endearing human being. Yet no one is fleshed-out beyond idyllic chatter tethered to a buried plot involving a really rich guy (Bill Murray, wasting his and our time) who wants to launch a rocket... of some kind... to the local’s existential chagrin.  <br />
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As for an actual story – there isn’t one. In fact, ALOHA is neither a popcorn time-filler, an arthouse comedy, a political/military satire or any kind of romance. By far the best character, involved in a humorous moment towards the end, does the audience a favor by hardly speaking a word, a miracle in itself: For Cameron Crowe’s dialogue has become so vapid, he should start making Silent Films… Let’s just hope someone else writes the title cards.

2015, bill murray, bradley cooper, cameron crowe, emma stone, rachel mcadams, romantic comedy

REVIEW OF CAMERON CROWE'S ALOHA

2015 rating: 1/2 The Politically Correct Machine has helped save ALOHA by venting complaints that there aren't enough actual Hawaiia...

Written by James M. Tate / 7/26/2014 / No comments / 2014 , espionage , philip seymour hoffman , rachel mcadams , robin wright , thriller , willem defoe

A POSTHUMOUS PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN IN A MOST WANTED MAN

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2014 rating: ***1/2</td></tr>
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The late Philip Seymour Hoffman always did vanish into his roles, and as German anti-terrorist agent Günther Bachmann, becoming someone else is a requirement...<br />
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Being that Hoffman, an American, is playing a German, speaking English with a thick accent and hunkered down in a stuffy office adorned by photos and tacked-on dossiers, providing his life’s work in a claustrophobic office/purgatory where Bachmann takes his job seriously… As seriously, in fact, as Hoffman took his entire cinematic career: And in this case, it’s a sublime yet subtle combination for fans of the actor and the potboiler genre.   <br />
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Based on a spy novel by slowburn espionage guru John le Carré, A MOST WANTED MAN is surprisingly basic and, unlike other movies of this kind, doesn’t expect the audience to follow impossible red herrings while suffering overlong doldrums to get to the good parts. <br />
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Throughout the cat and mouse maze, centering on Bachmann and his associates keeping tight eyes on a Chechen Muslim immigrant who literally washed up on the shore of Hamburg, Germany, we get equal glimpses into the trudging journey of Issa Karpov and those following him, eventually veering into a subliminal romance with Rachel McAdam's Annabel Richter, an idealistic lawyer helping Issa dodge those who may hinder his apparent “cause,” which, set post 911, is highly questionable. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">RIP</td></tr>
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There are predictable elements, like the very ending – no shock to anyone familiar with espionage flicks peripherally dealing with the American government – and the fact this wanted man is really a misunderstood victim of circumstance, deleting an important element of suspense had he been more ambiguous. By the young actor’s sheepish countenance alone, we know he’s got nothing to hide but himself.  <br />
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But it's really fun watching Hoffman’s agent slowly crawl out of his brooding shell, becoming more than a mellow observer in a progressively arduous task he’s done many times, which is apparent by his world-weary expressions. Only a great actor could provide a character’s entire history without use of expository flashbacks or back-story, and very little dialogue.<br />
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In Hoffman’s case, it’s all in the eyes. He seems to look through just about anyone to get to what he knows already. Damn shame life had to intrude upon art.

2014, espionage, philip seymour hoffman, rachel mcadams, robin wright, thriller, willem defoe

A POSTHUMOUS PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN IN A MOST WANTED MAN

year: 2014 rating: ***1/2 The late Philip Seymour Hoffman always did vanish into his roles, and as German anti-terrorist agent Günther B...

Written by James M. Tate / 11/10/2013 / No comments / 2013 , bill nighy , domhnall gleeson , lydia wilson , margot robbie , rachel mcadams

ABOUT TIME

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2013 cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Margot Robbie rating: ***1/2</td></tr>
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“Wouldn't this be a great world,” says Albert Brooks as the somewhat average and completely smitten Aaron Altman in BROADCAST NEWS, “if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive? If <i>needy</i> were a turn-on?” If that kind of world sounds interesting, then ABOUT TIME is your cup of English Tea… And despite the casting of popular American actress Rachel McAdams, this is as quirky-British-indie as you’re gonna get… This year, anyhow.<br />
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The quirk king himself, Bill Nighy, plays an important supporting role – especially when he tells his son, the film’s regular guy/underdog hero... a lanky, clumsy, neurotic, passive/aggressive 21-year old redhead, Tim… that they have the ability to go back (not forward) in time to change the course of personal events… So if something goes awry you can quickly make it better. Sounds a lot like THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE combined with GROUNDHOG DAY but it’s more SLIDING DOORS meets any Rom-Com where the main character does all they can to keep true love alive.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">More than eye-candy... Margot Robbie does a fine job as the girl of the underdog's dreams...</td></tr>
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Tim’s interests with this new power has nothing to do with making money or changing the world: he simply wants a girlfriend. Some of the best scenes occur before McAdams, as American import Mary, enters the picture… Tim tries to politely bed-down his sister's gorgeous best friend. And, after learning a thing or two about fate and getting lucky (and how the two don’t always mix), the primary romance begins: He meets Mary during a match-up date and... without giving too many clever twists away, things don’t always go as planned… He uses time travel (no machine needed, you just stand inside an enclosed room, clench your fists and close your eyes tight) to alter sporadic events, ranging from his new relationship to helping a friend’s stage play to choosing the right best man.<br />
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Some of the characters, including Tim and his artistic family, are a tad over-contented and unrealistically cozy… Sometimes writer/director Richard Curtis tugs too tightly on the heartstrings… And eventually, by the somewhat overlong conclusion, there’s a feeling the time travel aspect was a mere plot device to serve up a clichéd existential theme... But for a worthy alternative to big budget comic book movies and any sort of mainstream Hollywood romance, this is a “date flick” that should benefit either party…<br />
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2013, bill nighy, domhnall gleeson, lydia wilson, margot robbie, rachel mcadams