Charlie Bartlett

First Hit: A very mediocre Rushmore or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Although Anton Yelchin, as Charlie Bartlett, did a fairly good job of being a bizarre unreal high school student, this film did not hold together nor was it believable.

Kat Dennings is the most solid character in this film however her Principle dad, (played by Robert Downey Jr.) was out of place and I couldn’t help but wonder why Downey would do such a film.

The plot centers around Charlie who has been kicked out of every private school because he has a difficult time fitting in. He gets good grades at these schools but other behaviors (making and selling fake IDs) are not the kind of behaviors blue blood schools can tolerate.

His uptight, pill popping mother (played by Hope Davis) decides to send him to public school. Immediately, he notices he doesn’t fit in and gets beat up by a bully. However, Charlie is too smart for these kids and figures out a way to become the focus of attention. He does this by prescribing legal prescription drugs he obtains by tricking a litany of psychologists that he has all these symptoms to which they give him unending prescriptions.

This makes Charlie popular with the kids because he listens to the kids and gives them drugs for a small fee.

He falls in love with Susan Gardner (Kat Dennings) who is being raised by her father Principal Gardner (Downey). Principal Gardner is having a hard time being Principal and has taken to drinking again.

This film becomes a war between Charlie and the Principal.

Overall: This is a poor imitation of other films and a waste of Downey and Davis’ abilities. However the introduction of Dennings was a bright spot.

Definitely, Maybe

First Hit: Although Ryan Reynolds wasn’t really convincing, I found the story line and interplay between Ryan and Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher, and Rachel Weisz to be engaging and thoughtful.

The film begins with Ryan (as Will Hayes) picking up his daughter Maya (played by Abigail) from school because it is his turn to have her stay with him. It is apparent that he thinks the world of her and having her on these particular days brings great joy to his life.

Will and his soon-to-be ex-wife are on the verge of signing the final divorce decree which was delivered to him at work just prior to his leaving to pick up his daughter from school. That evening with her curiosity running high, Maya begs him to tell her how she met her mom.

Reluctantly, he tells the story but with a twist, he tells her he is going to change the names of the 3 main women that were in his life and she is going to have to guess who her mom is. This makes the story fun and engaging, because as the story unfolds we live the story through the film.

On occasion we come back to him telling her this story while lying on her bed. As the story unfolds from his college days he weaves his lift into how he met each of these woman and what he liked about each one of them. What I liked about the way this narrative presented itself is that it was thoughtful from a thoughtful man’s point of view.

As the story unfolded I found myself guessing which woman it was and why. I liked each of the women and their relationship with Will and also saw why each failed. But the emphasis was the wonderfulness of each of the women and maybe this is just a guy thing, but it is a nice way to remember the women we love. We do find out who Maya’s mother is and then Maya encourages Will to reconnect with one of the other women because she thinks this will make him happy.

Overall: Although I didn’t think much of Ryan’s acting, I thought the way the film was written, directed and the way it fleshed out the relationships more than made up for this and was truly enjoyable.

In Bruges

First Hit: A great and wonderful execution of two genres, comedy and dramatic action, into a single film.

Martin McDonagh wrote and directed this outstanding, well executed film. The characters are well defined through their dialogue.

There are three main characters Ray (played by Colin Farrell), Ken (played by Brendan Gleeson), and Harry (played by Ralph Fiennes) who are criminals and live by a certain code. Each person has their role in this small time criminal organization which exists to eliminate people.

The film begins with Ray and Ken arriving in Bruges with Ray calling the town a “shit hole”. As the film unfolds you learn that they have just murdered a priest, as instructed to by Harry, and are hanging out in Bruges as Harry requested until the heat dies down.

However, as you also learn this isn’t the only reason they are in Bruges. When Ray shot the priest he also accidently killed a child and as the film unfolds, this act is starting to affect him and is the reason they are in Bruges.

The comedy is pointed, fearless, and always through their view of the world and their reaction to stereotypes. The acting is outstanding on all counts, especially Colin Farrell, and there wasn’t a dull moment in this film.

Overall: This film was well written, paced, directed, and acted.

Teeth

First Hit: What a bizarre film and although attention grabbing at the beginning it soon becomes predictable.

Vagina Dentata; that’s the term they use for it in this very odd film by Mitchell Lichtenstein.

The film is about Dawn a young high school girl (played by Jess Weixler) who is an up and coming star in the red ring wearing Promise Club.

The Promise Club promises to save their virginity until marriage when they trade the red ring in for the gold ring of marriage. Dawn shares her home with her sick mom, stepdad and a step brother whose finger tip got bitten off when, as a very young boy, when he touched Dawn’s private part.

As an added layer of background giving rise to Dawn’s abnormality there are multiple scenes where the cooling towers of a nuclear power plant are hovering over Dawn’s home. These cooling towers give this film a sense that her mom’s sickness and Dawn’s vagina oddity are the result of radiation poisoning.

Dawn starts to fall in love with another member of the Promise Club and dreams of him on their wedding night. While on an outing he tries to have his way with her and she gets very angry and in her anger, the Teeth in her vagina bite off his penis.

Mitchell doesn’t spare you the details therefore you get good looks at the bleeding member and the place it was once attached. That is part of the humor and darkness of this film.

Dawn wonders if she is the only person with this abnormality. She visits a doctor and when his manual inspection goes a little too far and she feels threatened the Teeth do their number and leave a floor full of bleeding fingers.

Overall: You get the picture, it was funny at times and in your face gross at others.

27 Dresses

First Hit: If you watch the first 20 minutes, then watch the last 20 minutes you will realize that this film went from mediocre to bad.

This film starts at an OK and at an amusing pace with Katherine Heigl (as Jane) running between two differently themed weddings in one night.

Because Jane is a bridesmaid in each of these two weddings, she must change dresses in a taxi while she flits between the weddings. After this segment, we drop into her working world as an assistant to Edward Burns as her boss of an outdoor sporting company whom she loves and admires.

Now we have the set up, she loves weddings and she is hopelessly in love with her boss and cannot tell him. Her sister, Tess, comes for a visit and snags Burns quickly by flirting shamelessly and lying about her lifestyle. This slowly pisses Jane off but the last straw is when her sister creates Jane’s dream wedding for herself.

Jane eventually exposes her sister as a fraud to fiancé, family and friends, then tells her boss of her love for him and then discovers she loves someone else.

Overall: I know this film was billed as a comedy, but it is hard to do comedy when the main character must be hurt, sad and crestfallen all the time. This film has few comedic moments and was poorly conceived, crafted, and executed.