Do you think Adam Sandler is a funny guy? What about Seth Rogen, Jason Schwartzman or Jonah Hill? In general, when you see the name Judd Apatow on a movie poster, do you think, “That’s gonna be funny”? Personally, I would answer yes to all these questions. If a little bird hadn’t warned me ahead of time, I might have watched this movie with expectations for hilarity. Knowing that Funny People (2009) is not a laugh fests like, Knocked Up (2007), The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005), or others baring the Apatow comedy stamp of approval, I was instead, able to enjoy it for the mildly entertaining result of Judd Apatow’s reveal of just a bit of the darker side of comedy.

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Let me share with you one of my pet peeves when it comes to film marketing and releasing. When a given film is targeted for a theatrical release, regardless how limited or wide it opens, I just want the distributing studio to put it out in that time frame. Momentum and awareness is the key. When a finished film is postponed one of the three things will comes to pass: A potential audience will either avoid it thinking it wasn’t as good as they might have thought; the film slips in unnoticed and people miss it/can’t find it or folks shrug in dismay and wait for video. If the studio cannot decide on theatrical or right to video, that’s even worse. That means hardly anyone can see it unless it shows up at a film festival or two. That’s what happened with Trick ‘R Treat, a horror anthology film written and directed by Michael Dougherty.
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Once in a while you come across an indy gem with a high feel good factor, and wonder why this one never got more attention. It’s quiet, there’s no big budget, or actors with any kind of “name”, but none the less, it moves you in the right places. Sometimes, these films are just slow burners, and hopefully, once the word gets out about them, they can pick up some distribution, and well deserved attention. Last Stop for Paul (2006) is one of those movies. It’s a mood piece that will be a favorite with people who are travelers, but not tourists.

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Make no mistake, Roland Emmerich does fill a void for movie going audiences. Emmerich tends to make the kind of movies, for the most part, that would make Irwin Allen proud. 2012 follows like formulas of Emmerich’s Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow where several diverse yet cliched characters are fatefully interconnected over sections of plot threads regarding some sort of disaster on a big scale. Audiences don’t seem to mind the melodramatic popcorn films, and overall, they are entertaining while speaking on elements of the human condition. While not as outstandingly bad as Godzilla from almost a decade ago, 2012 comes really close as one of Emmerich’s poorer efforts. I’m not expecting anything really profound, but I am hoping for a good time. Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here.
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In 1966, the government-backed British Broadcasting Company (BBC) broadcast barely two hours of rock and pop music every week over the UK radio airwaves. By comparison, 571 American radio stations were showcasing such music 24 hours a day. So in the home of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who, at the height of British pop music’s greatest era, the only way 25 million people – over half the British population – could hear their music at any time was to tune into a boat. This is not the story of that boat. Instead, this is about a boat in similar times and with similar purposes broadcasting a show called Rock Radio owned and captained by Quentin (Bill Nighy) and staffed with a motley crew of DJs such as The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman doing a calmer but still bon mot spewing Lester Bangs), Gavin (Rhys Ifans from Notting Hill), Dave (Nick Frost from Shawn of the Dead) and Angus (Rhys Darby of Flight of the Conchords). This film is chock full of great actors having fun with a story that does not take itself seriously at all. Neither should you.

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Before this year, some may have called stop motion animation a dying art form. What with its tireless work schedule – being able to get 1 – 3 minutes of footage done in a full days work – it seems a cruel taskmaster to follow. Yet this year has already given us Coraline, an amazing piece of animation from some veterans of this technique since they were behind Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas. Plus this year’s AFI film festival had three stop motion animation films, two of them from foreign countries. The third film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, however, comes from Wes Anderson, the director behind Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and Bottle Rocket. Nothing in his oeuvre, but a few sequences in The Life Aquatic, has given any indication that he might take this incredibly brave sharp right turn into stop motion. Yet, he has and he shows no hindrance from it. The movie is distinctly Wes Anderson, from the camera placements and movements to the eccentric and quirky characters. The story telling style is all his and it is wonderful.

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I’ve heard a lot of good things about Terry Gilliam films, but i’ve never really got around to watching any. The Fisher King may be my first, but I was thoroughly pleased with it. The film starts slowly and probably takes a good thirty minutes to draw you in, but once it gets you enthralled, it’s fascinating. It’s a  tragic comedy, which may sound like an oxymoron, but what I mean is, the film has some very funny moments, but although you laugh, you never forget the tragedy that surrounds the comedy. There are a lot of tragic elements to the film, including: murder, madness, heartbreak, and loneliness. This at times makes it hard to watch. The central friendship between Jack (Jeff Bridges) and Parry (Robin Williams) provides the film with a hopeful atmosphere  which works alongside the tragedy, as you wonder how the two are going to benefit from getting to know one another.
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Every now and then, I see a film either on film or DVD that starts off on an interesting premise, builds up well and then the more that is revealed the more the filmmakers treat the audience like a bunch of idiots. Then the final twist sneaks in, and the filmmakers pat themselves on the back, thinking they are so clever, when all that final reveal does is contradict everything that has just been seen. Horsemen is one of those films. It also makes it really difficult to discuss the rest of the story that came before the twist, but let’s just say the motivations of those characters does not make any sense.
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