Review - Knocked Up
Life in Joe motion
Knocked Up nicely champions the regular guy
Review by Robert Newton
KNOCKED UP
Starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl and Paul Rudd; Written and directed by Judd Apatow; 129 minutes; Rated R [for sexual content, drug use and language]
Every decade, movie audiences need a funny Hollywood Everyman. Tom Hanks ruled the 80s, Jim Carrey defined the 90s and now, it is Seth Rogen’s turn. He is not yet a household name, but in The 40-Year-Old Virgin director Judd Apatow’s latest comedy, Rogen proves that he has the chops for the job. He plays Ben, an unfocused, 20-something party boy whose one-night stand with Alison (Katherine Heigl), an up-and-coming TV anchor, results in unexpected fatherhood.
Apatow, who produced the gone-too-soon TV series “Freaks and Geeks” and “Undeclared,” is fast becoming the John Hughes of his generation, with this one even resembling Hughes’ 1988 comedy She’s Having A Baby. Here, he tells a [...]
Original post by Robert Newton
On TV (But For How Long?) - On The Lot
ON THE LOT [TV-PG]
For a guy who touts purity of the cinematic arts, Steven Spielberg has some balls in dropping this stinker of a Fox reality show on the public and unintentionally showcasing all that is wrong with his beloved Hollywood. Its debut episode last week (watch it at www.TheLot.com) had fifty aspiring filmmakers battling for a $1,000,000 development deal at Spielberg’s beleaguered DreamWorks, running through a task-oriented movie business obstacle course of sorts. Their fates on the forced, twice weekly “American Idol” patterned show are ultimately determined by an audience call-in vote, with their work appraised by judges Carrie Fisher, Jon Avnet, Garry Marshall and Brett Ratner. Yes, Brett Ratner — the man who dropped the Baby Ruth in the swimming pool of comic book fans the world over with X-Men: The Last Stand. What, was Michael Bay too busy? M. Night Shyamalan not taking your calls? Naturally, there [...]
Original post by Robert Newton
Review - Sacco and Vanzetti
SACCO AND VANZETTI [NR]
Veteran producer Peter Miller smartly chooses as his first film as director this scholarly but concise examination of the national embarrassment that was Massachusetts’ infamous Sacco and Vanzetti case. Two Italian anarchists accused of murder in the 1920s did not stand a chance of a fair trial, something that Miller proves through careful dissection through very fortunate interviews and forensic dissection. From biased judges to exonerating testimony discounted due to its ethnic source to evidence manufactured to suit the prosecution’s needs, Miller covers it all. Using a generous amount of clips from Giuliano Montaldo’s 1971 narrative film, a careful ratio of talking heads to visual material and a perfect casting of Tony Shalhoub voicing Sacco and John Turturro giving life to Vanzetti, Miller scores big here. He not only puts the case in historical perspective, but he connects it to our now, making the case for the [...]
Original post by Robert Newton
Review - Away From Her
AWAY FROM HER [R]
Still looking as lovely at ever at age 66, Julie Christie is heartbreaking as Fiona, a woman afflicted with early onset Alzheimer’s. First-time writer-director Sarah Polley shows a surprising level of maturity in depicting the tragic struggle faced by Fiona and her husband, Grant (Gordon Pinsent). Polley, working from fellow Canuck Alice Munro’s short story, “The Bear Came Over The Mountain,” blends nicely the story of Fiona and Grant with that of Marion (Olympia Dukakis) and Aubrey (Michael Murphy), another couple facing a similar life change. Pinsent (The Good Shepherd) is a wonderful old bear, and he and Christie play off each other like they actually have been married for 44 years. Emotionally cleansing and tremendously sensitive, Polley’s reflection on the nature of love is the kind of teary, stack-of-napkins treat that we don’t necessarily seek out, but are happy to have discovered. –Robert Newton
Original post by Robert Newton
Review - Bug
BUG [R]
If there were an award for “Ickiest Performance,” then Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon would win for theirs in this disturbing drama. Audiences expecting the typical mindless gross-out suggested by the film’s marketing will be disappointed, but director William Friedkin, responsible for countless soiled trousers since his The Exorcist in 1973, really amps up the suspense and psychological terror here. Judd (Come Early Morning) plays Agnes, a lonely and highly impressionable woman who is smitten by kindly but deluded drifter Peter, played by Shannon (World Trade Center). Peter convinces Agnes of his belief that the doctors in the Army hospital he escaped from planted egg sacs in him, meant to generate millions of information-gathering insects that can move from person-to-person-to-person. Friedkin establishes a sense of place and isolation early on, priming the dingy Texas rest stop town for all manner of mind-made horror, which he executes with skilled layering. [...]
Original post by Robert Newton
Westborough Virtual Office Space
We’ve been having these meetings at the Westborough Office Park, hosted by Highland March, which offers executive and virtual office space in Westborough. The place is very nice and perfect for a consultant or small business who doesn’t want to splurge on having their own office with a secretary, answering service, copy equipment, conference rooms, etc, etc. This has all that, and the cost of those things - that make the occupying businesses look professional - is distributed over all of the occupants.
Yes. I am testing the ability of my blog to raise search engine rankings. I mean what I’ve said above, though.
Original post by Peter Caputa
Timely legislation needed to save planet
Recent reports by national experts reveal that the global warming caused by our melting ice cap will soon cause severe water shortages in many American cities and probably cause the five Great Lakes to dry up as soon as 2012.
Original post by telegram.com- Opinion
Rent a stretch? Or ‘Watch your step’?
Maybe we’ve come to a certain age in life, but catching sight of a glittering limousine strutting down the street like it’s on a red carpet is more likely to make our eyes roll than pop.
Original post by telegram.com- Opinion