Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship

Movies to See Right Now

July 26, 2013 by movie gourmet

This week’s MUST SEE is The Hunt – the best movie of 2013 so far.

I haven’t yet see the critically acclaimed heart breaker Fruitvale Station, which also opens today. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My other recommendations:

Melissa McCarthy’s comic genius in the cop buddy comedy The Heat.
Pedro Almodovar’s Spanish daffy sex comedy I’m So Excited.
The magic documentary Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay.
The rock documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, essential for music fans.
the satisfying shocker The Conjuring.
The HBO documentary The Cheshire Murders, which us beyond the familiar police procedural;
Another HBO documentary, this one about Southern public defenders, Gideon’s Army.

Also out right now:

the gross-out comedy This is the End, which has its moments.
There’s cleverness in the psychological thriller Berberian Sound Studio, but just not enough thrills for a thriller.
Also out on VOD, Nancy, Please is a dark comedy about neurotic obsession among the over-educated. Not that funny.
Neither is the VOD comedy Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship.
Do not see the wretched crime thriller Only God Forgives, which I’ll write about next week.

My most recent DVD/Stream of the Week picks are the unintentionally hilarious Troll 2 and the documentary about it, Best Worst Movie. Troll 2 is available streaming on Amazon, iTunes and Vudu. Best Worst Movie is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming on Amazon, iTunes and Vudu. You can see some of the finer bits of Troll 2 by doing a YouTube search for “You can’t piss on hospitality” and “Troll 2 O my God”.

On August 1, Turner Classic Movies is showing In a Lonely Place, an under appreciated film noir. Two of my favorite classic stars, Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, each deliver one of their signature performances. Bogie plays a screenwriter with a drinking problem and a volatile temper – exactly the perpetrator profile for a local murder; good time girl Grahame wants to fall for him…and things will go better if he’s innocent.

Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship: why watch these guys?

July 13, 2013 by movie gourmet

Now out on VOD, Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship is an odd couple comedy with the promising premise that the two main characters become entangled when one has an affair with the other’s wife. The good news is that the comedy is driven by the characters, one an abrasive womanizer and the other a pretentious and self-involved minor novelist. The bad news is that the broad characters are neither textured or interesting or sympathetic enough to sustain a movie of longer than 49 minutes (which is when I stopped watching). And worse, Bert and Arnie wastes a supporting performance by the delightful Anna Chlumsky.

Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship is available streaming from Amazon and iTunes.

Movies to See Right Now

July 12, 2013 by movie gourmet

This week’s top choice is the cop buddy comedy The Heat – the best showcase so far for Melissa McCarthy’s comic genius.

My other recommendations:

The magic documentary Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay;
The rock documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, essential for music fans;
the French drama Augustine, about obsession, passion and the birth of neuroscience;
The HBO documentary about Southern public defenders, Gideon’s Army;
Much Ado About Nothing takes the homework out of Shakespeare and puts the screwball comedy back in.
Before Midnight, the year’s best romance, continuing the story of Ethan Hawke’s Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Celine from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.
The documentary We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is Alex Gibney’s inside look at an improbable scandal. It’s also available streaming from Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and other VOD outlets.
I like the unsentimental Western Dead Man’s Burden, available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon, Vudu and other VOD outlets.

Also out right now:

the gross-out comedy This is the End;
Fast & Furious 6 has exciting chases, a silly story, a smoldering Michelle Rodriguez and a hard ass Gina Carano.
There’s cleverness in the psychological thriller Berberian Sound Studio, but just not enough thrills for a thriller.
Also out on VOD, Nancy, Please is a dark comedy about neurotic obsession among the over-educated. Not that funny.
Neither is the VOD comedy Bert and Arnie’s Guide to Friendship.

I haven’t yet seen the promising coming of age comedy The Way, Way Back or the Pedro Almodovar rauchfest I’m So Excited. Both open this weekend. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

For the second week in a row, my DVD/Stream of the Week is the jaw dropping documentary The Imposter. You must see it to believe it. The Imposter is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and many other VOD providers.