Review: Music & Lyrics, The Prestige, Stranger than Fiction.

Over the last several weeks I've seen three films that I liked quite a bit and wanted to share my thoughts on them. If you have not seen them and want to avoid spoilers, read no further.

Music & Lyrics
This is the only film I saw in the theater. The occasion was for our purposefully bleated Valentines day, where Jules and I were so sick we just ate bowls of won-ton soup for dinner before the show. (Nothing can stop us from celebrating this holiday - and the Burr should be grateful). After 20-mins of commercials and previews, I'd almost forgotten what we came to see. The lights went down and everything was quiet. In the darkness the studio's logo began materializing and I heard this steady synthesized keyboard rhythm, that only the Roland Juno 106 could produce. Being a huge fan of synthesized 80s music, a grin spread across my face from ear to ear. The opening sequence was an original 80s music video that was everything you loved about the 80s. Cheesy lyrics about gold and silver, Flock of Seagulls hair-dos, lots of awkward male dancing, over-dramatic relationship storyline, you know, the works. I laughed my rear-end off and so did most of the theater.

Some have said that this move is the Wedding Singer, but substitute Hugh Grant for Adam Sander. That is somewhat true. BUT - The main difference is in the title (Wow - I'm a GENIUS!!) Okay. This one is not set in the 80s, is not focused on weddings, has no love triangle, and is about a washed up star, not a wannabe star. It is a great film about has-beens and how they interact with the world. The thing I liked the most about the film is that is had a tight time line, that keeps good tension in the plot. The humor was pretty clean and the overall feel was light-hearted. It was a good escape from the worries of the day and revel in my 80s nostalgia. Perhaps the best part of the movie was the music. Most of it (as far as I know) was original and clever. If you like music, this should at the least, be interesting for you. Apparently, it was the #1 album on itunes after its release. Overall, I highly recommend this for your next romantic comedy. It is one of the top 3 chick-flicks I've seen in a long-time.


The Prestige & Copy Cats
Magicians operate on a three-act basis: The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige. This is a hard movie to write about because I SERIOUSLY don't want to give anything away. Hands down, this is the best movie I've seen in 2007 (it came out in 2006). When I first saw the cover, I thought "Its Batman vs. Wolverine!", but there is much more to it. The film is directed by Chris Nolan (Batman Begins) and the main supporting actor is Micheal Cane (Alfred- Batman Begins). So if you liked the chemistry of Batman Begins (which I did immensely) then I guarantee you'll love this flick. This movie has multiple layers of meaning and I'm looking forward to a second viewing.

The film chronicles the rivalry between two magicians in the 1800s. Both pull some good tricks on each other that are great to watch. The movie has very little swearing, violence or strong action. But it was intellectually and emotionally tense the whole time. If you hate to think during a movie, avoid this one. But for those of you that do, I guarantee you'll be watching it a second time.If you liked the Illusionist (I did), this one is 5x better. The Illusionist is a similar film about a magician set in the 1800s, with a surprise ending. This brings me to a good opportunity to discuss an interesting phenomenon in Hollywood. Ever noticed how two similar movies come out at the same time? Here is a list:

Armageddon & Deep Impact
Harry Potter & LOTR
Star Wars & Flash Gordon - That's not a stretch!!
Tombstone & Wyatt Earp
Speed & Blown Away
First Knight & Braveheart
Dark City & The Matrix
Mission to Mars & Red Planet
Pirates of the Caribbean & Master and Commander
Conspiracy Theory & Enemy of the State & Arlington Road

Please comment and tell me if you come up with more.

Is there a conspiracy? Or Hollywood just stealing each others ideas because they have no originality? I guess other businesses do this all the time too. One of my favorites is Gillette and Schick. How many blades can a person shave with? 2 blades, 3 blades, 4 blades, 5 blades or 6 blades with battery power? Soon I'm going to be shaving with something that won't fit between my nose and upper lip and I'll have to buy a special blade from them just for that. Let's hope they don't read this.

Stranger than Fiction.
Whew! If you are still reading this post from the beginning you must either be really bored, or my mother. (No offense mom). I don't think Julie reads my Blog, but that is another topic for another day. --- On to the movie. Very interesting. Reminds me of a mix between John Candy in Delirious (where he is a soap opera writer that can write his future) and Her Alibi (a Tom Seleck Movie where he narrates the story as it goes) - (I recommend both those to your Netflix list).

The film is about a boring, rain-man esque I.R.S. agent who starts hearing a British Woman narrate his life with stunning accuracy. Will Ferrell can make anything funny and does a great job of going from a mild mannered auditor to a freaked-out guy discovering himself. He finds out through the help of a literature professor that his life is being narrated by a woman who always kills off her heroes in a tragedy. He then tries to find a way to stop this from happening. I think my favorite line from the movie was "This may sound like non-sense to you, but I think I'm in a tragedy" My other favorite moment is when the whole bakery (run by his love interest that he is auditing) boos him as the "TAX MAN! - BOOOO!!!" The movie also has a bunch of special effects that measure and count things on screen showing how his mind works which is very interesting to watch (especially for someone like me who has zero math power). Overall, you'll have a good time with this one and I highly recommend it.