Season of the Witch

2011 in Movies: biggest disappointments

December 10, 2012January 3, 2012 by movie gourmet

1. I haven’t seen Killer Joe, Restless and Tyrannosaur becuase they haven’t been released where I live. And I haven’t seen Oslo August 3, The Kid on the Bike, Paul Williams Still Alive, Natural Selection, Polisse and Little White Lies because – as far as I know – they haven’t yet been released in the US. You can read descriptions and watch trailers of these films as Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

2. Meek’s Cutoff is an unfortunate misfire by the excellent director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy).

3. Le Quattro Volte is supposed to be a lyrical contemplation on the Circle of Life, but you’ll find yourself checking your watch during the interminable hacking of an aged goatherd. If the geezer had taken Robitussin DM, there would be no story at all.

4. The bewildering, pompous mess that is The Tree of Life . It does contain a fine 90-minute family drama about a boy growing up in 1950s Waco (a superb Hunter McCracken) and the friction with his caring but brutishly domineering father (Brad Pitt). Unfortunately, there is another 60 minutes in the movie.

That additional 60 minutes is a self-important muddle that tries to lift the story to an exploration of life itself – from creation through afterlife. There are beautiful shots of clouds and waterfalls, with unintelligible whisperings from cast members. There are Bible verses, the Big Bang and dinosaurs (yes, dinosaurs). And, in case you don’t get how seriously the movie takes itself, there is an overbearingly pretentious score.

5. The Hangover Part II. I really enjoyed The Hangover, but the sequel was just lame.

6. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is by no means a bad film, but I expected more from the winner of the Palm d’Or.

7. David Gordon Green, director of All the Real Girls, Undertow, Snow Angels and Pineapple Express, showed up this year with The Sitter. Say it ain’t so, Dave.

8. HBO’s take on the financial meltdown, Too Big To Fail, failed in spite of an excellent cast. It wasn’t nearly as good as last year’s great documentary Inside Job or this year’s fictional Margin Call.

9. James Franco co-hosting the Academy Awards. Lay off the weed, Jimmy!

10. After watching the jaw droppingly awful trailer, I was hoping that Nicholas Cage’s Season of the Witch would be deliciously and entertainingly laugh out loud bad. But it was just bad.

Movies to See Right Now

February 24, 2011 by moviegourmet

You can still see True Grit, The King’s Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter and Another Year. They are on my Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours and Biutiful are also good movies out now. The Illusionist is the wistful and charming animated story of a small time magician who drifts through an ever bleaker array of gigs while helping a waif blossom. Cedar Rapids is a fun and unpretentious comedy.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is Animal Kingdom. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV this week include Tom Jones, The Silence of the Lambs and All About Eve on TCM.

Movies to See Right Now

February 17, 2011 by moviegourmet

The must see films are still True Grit, The King’s Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter and Another Year. All are on my list of Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours and Biutiful are also good movies out now. The Illusionist is the wistful and charming animated story of a small time magician who drifts through an ever bleaker array of gigs while helping a waif blossom.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is Inception. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include Blow-Up, The Third Man, All the King’s Men, 8 1/2 and Tom Jones on TCM.

New Movie Recommendations

February 10, 2011 by moviegourmet

True Grit, The King’s Speech, Black Swan and The Fighter are all crowd pleasers. A bit more challenging, Another Year and Rabbit Hole are also on my list of Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours, The Way Back, Somewhere and Biutiful are also good movies out now. The Illusionist is the wistful and charming animated story of a small time magician who drifts through an ever bleaker array of gigs while helping a waif blossom.

Season of the Witch is a bad Nicholas Cage/Ron Perlman buddy movie set among the plague, crusades and witch hunts of the 13th century.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

I haven’t seen Cedar Rapids (opening tomorrow), but you can its trailer and those of other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is The Social Network. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

It’s a good week for movies on TV, including Quo Vadis, The Graduate, Gone With the Wind, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Victor/Victoria, Mon Oncle, The Stunt Man, Do the Right Thing and Blow-Up on TCM.

This Week’s Movie Recommendations

February 3, 2011 by moviegourmet

127hours2 — James Franco in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours

If you want to see the Oscar nominees for Best Picture, I’d suggest catching True Grit, The King’s Speech, Black Swan and The Fighter in a theater. Another Year and Rabbit Hole are also on my list of Best Movies of 2010. 127 Hours, The Way Back, Somewhere and Biutiful are also good movies out now.

Another Year is Mike Leigh’s brilliant observation of the human condition, and asks why some people find contentment and others just cannot; Lesley Manville has the flashiest role – and gives the most remarkable performance – as a woman whose long trail of bad choices hasn’t left her with many options for a happy life. I also strongly recommend Rabbit Hole, an exquisite exploration of the grieving process with great performances by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhardt, Diane Wiest, Sandra Oh and Miles Tenner.

Season of the Witch is a bad Nicholas Cage/Ron Perlman buddy movie set among the plague, crusades and witch hunts of the 13th century.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is The Tillman Story. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include The Caine Mutiny, Glory, Quo Vadis and The Graduate on TCM.

The Rite: Taking today's Church into the 13th century

January 29, 2011 by moviegourmet

Earlier this month, I giggled through Season of the Witch, about the medieval Church’s exorcism of demons from an accused witch. Season of the Witch was set in the 13th century.

The new film The Rite is based on a book about Father Gary, who is the Diocese of San Jose’s official exorcist. Now. In 2011.

Helpfully, the Diocese has published FAQs about its modern-day exorcism. The FAQs include this statement:

“The Catholic Church maintains that demons are real and very rarely can inhabit the physical bodies of human beings, and to this day practices a rite of exorcism to make them leave. While it may take months or even years of exorcisms to free a person from a demonic presence, the Church’s solemn ritual of exorcism can be a formidable weapon against such evil.”

There is no word from the Diocese as to any Official Inquisitor.

Updated Movies to See Right Now

January 20, 2011 by moviegourmet

Somewhere: It's Dad/Daughter Month at the Chateau Marmont

Now is the time to catch future Oscar contenders on the big screen, especially crowd pleasers like True Grit, The King’s Speech and Black Swan.

True Grit is the Coen Brothers’ splendid Old West story of Mattie Ross, a girl of unrelenting resolve and moxie played by 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld in a breakthrough performance, and Jeff Bridges is perfect as the hilarious, oft-besotted and frequently lethal Rooster Cogburn. The King’s Speech is the crowd pleasing story of a good man (Colin Firth) overcoming his stammer to inspire his nation in wartime with the help of a brassy commoner (Geoffrey Rush). Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a rip roaring thriller and a showcase for Natalie Portman and Barbara Hershey.

Biutiful is a grim, grim movie with a great performance by Javier Bardem in a compelling portrait of a desperate man in desperate circumstance, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amores perros, 21 Grams, Babel).

Somewhere is Sofia Coppola’s (Lost in Translation) artsy portrait of a man so purposeless that he can find no pleasure in pleasure. An A-list movie star (Steven Dorff) is living at the Chateau Marmont with his expensive toys, booze and drugs and an inexhaustible supply of beautiful, sexually available women, but without Without any purpose or connection to others, his debauchery is completely joyless. To his surprise and discomfort, his eleven-year-old daughter (Elle Fanning) moves in for a few weeks.

I strongly recommend Rabbit Hole, an exquisite exploration of the grieving process with great performances by Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhardt, Diane Wiest, Sandra Oh and Miles Tenner. The Fighter is an excellent drama, starring Mark Wahlberg as a boxer trying to succeed despite his crack addict brother (Christian Bale) and trashy mom (Melissa Leo). Fair Game, the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, is also excellent. All are on my list of Best Movies of 2010.

I Love You, Phillip Morris is an entertaining offbeat combo of the con man, prison and romantic comedy genres. Red Hill is a stylish contemporary Aussie Western. Season of the Witch is a bad Nicholas Cage/Ron Perlman buddy movie set among the plague, crusades and witch hunts of the 13th century.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now.

I have not yet seen Another Year or The Way Back , opening this weekend. You can see the trailers at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is The Naked Kiss. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include Jason and the Argonauts, Hannah and Her Sisters, D.O.A., The Shop Around the Corner and Night of the Lepus on TCM.

January 14, 2011 by moviegourmet

Okay, I’ll admit that I saw Season of the Witch because the trailer made me laugh out loud. I thought that it might have been goofily bad enough to qualify for my list of 10 Movies So Bad They Are Fun. Unfortunately, it’s just bad and not much fun.

Season of the Witch is a Nicholas Cage/Ron Perlman buddy movie set among the plague, crusades and witch hunts of the 13th century. Cage and Perlman play two knights who, after slaughtering more than their share of women and children infidels, become disgusted with the Crusades. The deserters find themselves back in plague-ridden Central Europe escorting a comely accused witch to her abbey trial. Along the way, they encounter the cheesiest of CGI effects, the most portentous of soundtracks and every medieval cliché.

My recommendation: get some laughs from the trailer and skip the 95 minute version.

Movies to See Right Now

January 13, 2011 by moviegourmet

The Fighter1 — Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in The Fighter

Now is the time to catch future Oscar contenders on the big screen, especially crowd pleasers like True Grit, The King’s Speech and Black Swan.

For trailers and other choices, see Movies to See Right Now. You can see the trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD pick is In the Name of the Father. For my recent DVD choices (including trailers), see DVDs of the Week.

Movies on TV include 12 Angry Men, I Want to Live! and Glory on TCM.