Some C Grade Movies

I thought I'd start out this blog with a sample of some movies I have watched in each category. C-grade movies are competent and reasonably amusing but uninspired, often disappointing, and not memorable.

C
Happy Here and Now

David Arquette, Liane Balaban, Ally Sheedy

Internet chatters in antediluvian New Orleans as a girl searches for her missing sister. Good face acting by Balaban, excellent acting by everyone actually, but total lack of narrative cohesion. Good music, forgettable photog and directing. Nice locations.

C
Callas Forever

Fanny Ardant, Jeremy Irons. Dir= Franco Zeffirelli. Costumes provided by Chanel.

A biopic of the great opera singer Maria Callas. If you're an opera fan like me, the gorgeous music alone will hold your interest. FA does a great job acting with a klunky script. JI has moments but mostly not. As with most biopics, the director confuses biography with filmmaking, to the detriment of the latter.

C
Happy Endings

Laura Dern, Lisa Kudrow, Maggie Gyllenhall, others. Writ, Dir = Don Roos

A collection of characters in California interact. Printed captions "explaining" their actions appear on many scenes, the self-consciously clever but spurious comments of an omniscient narrator (DR). The story is an episodic soap opera about who is or was sleeping with whom, who is or is not pregnant or gay, who had a child or an abortion, who is unfaithful to whom, was married to whom, etc., etc. The characters have as much motivation as chess pieces. Some sharp humor. LK is a standout in a dramatic role. LD tries her best.

C
We Don't Live Here Anymore

Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern, Peter Krause, Naomi Watts

Two academic couples are unfaithful with each other's spouses. This story has already been told. Cliche writing, sets, costumes, families. Does raise the question, what is jealousy about ? Is it sociobiological control of the eggs, or is it egocentric battle of wills? Fine talent (esp. LD) is wasted here.

C
Suspect Zero

Ben Kingsley, Carrie Ann Moss, Aaron Eckhart

Confused story of an ex-FBI psychic "remote viewer" (Kinglsey) who finds serial killers and kills them. Current FBI thinks he is the serial. Film is dishonest with the viewer about what's up. BK is worth watching for his Sexy Beast intensity. The story quickly loses its way and degenerates to nonsense.

C
Ocean's Twelve

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherine Z. Jones, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac

Are we supposed to swoon from seeing so many famous faces on the screen at once? This sequel to a remake is so lame, by the time the story ended I couldn't remember what it was about. You could watch it with the sound off, (The music is way too loud). Some funny bits. A 'C' is generous here.

C
Silver City

Daryl Hannah, Richard Dreyfuss, Tim Roth, Kris Kristofferson. Written and directed by John Sayles.

Candidate Pilager (get it?) runs for governor of Colorado. He is an unsubtle caricature of GW Bush running in Texas. The story reveals cynical, ruthless, greedy machinations of the party. Republicans and Dems will both say, "So what's your point?" It's not funny or insightful. Dialog is formulaic, directing ho-hum. But outstanding performances by Roth, Hannah, and even KK. Where has Tim Roth been hiding?

C
What the Bleep Do We Know?

Marlee Matlin. Interviews with Stuart Hameroff, Amit Goswami, other well-known scientists whose ideas are not in the mainstream of modern physics.

An off the wall indie that spread by word of mouth. It is a docudrama like Nova trying to explain an important scientific topic on PBS. Animations, diagrams, interviews with scientists, and vaguely relevant acted vignettes. High production values, but repetitive and boring. First it emphasizes quantum indeterminism to imply an idealist metaphysics where we all make up our own reality. But the second half sells the reverse view, that we are puppets of our neurotransmitters. That fairly reflects the ambiguity in contemporary thinking.

C
Paparazzi

Cole Hauser, Robin Tunney, Dennis Farina

A dimwitted Hollywood movie star who has no lawyers, advisors or publicity agents, does not appreciate a gang of tabloid photographers. They do a Princess Diana on him and his son is injured. He does the only sensible thing: kills them one by one. Good score, production values. Weak acting, cameras as loud as shotguns.

C
This Girl's Life

James Woods, Juliette Marquis, Michael Rapaport, Rosario Dawson

Adventures of a porn star who lives in a web-cammed house. There is a very slight story and a very slight message, but the heavy handed voyeurism swamps it all. Top notch acting all around, but a pointless waste of a good opportunity. Not even convincing porn.

C
The Day After Tomorrow

Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhal, Ian Holme

This is the first "disaster" movie I have seen, and the special effects were enjoyable. Sudden global climate change freezes NYC and makes hurricanes in LA. Lots of very loud, un- necessary music. Bad acting, dumb story, risible script.

C
The Terminal

Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci. Dir=Spielberg

A man (Hanks) from a vaguely Slavic country is trapped in JFK airport because his entry visa was cancelled while he was in the air. He lives in the airport, eats condiments, befriends the maintenance crew, finally gets to NYC. Acting is ok, but the story is so disconnected and the characters so unmotivated that the movie is lifeless. Music, photography, and sets are good. Spielberg is way overrated.

C
Mean Girls

Lindsey Lohan, Tina Fey screenplay by Tina Fey (head writer on SNL)

New girl in an all white, rich suburban high school has her boyfriend "stolen" by another girl, vows revenge. The standard HS comedy stereotypes, with SNL-branded irony, sarcasm, and non-sequitur jokes. Amusing but very lightweight. No acting to speak of.

C
The Clearing

Robert Redford, Helen Mirren, Willem Dafoe

RR is kidnapped by WD, HM pays the ransom. Logical loopholes in the mundane, uninteresting story, and mediocre directing, are overcome by fine acting from HM and WD. RR plays RR, still not convincing. HM however, is a modern master

.

C
Never Scared

Chris Rock

Standup, mostly racial jokes. Funny but not biting, as he used to be. He is detached from the work. A forced performance, though fully competent.

C
Reversible Errors

Wm. H. Macy, Tom Selleck, Monica Potter, Felicity Huffman.

A Scott Turow mystery, driven by implausible story gimmicks. Macy is the defense atty for a death row nutcase. Selleck's wooden homicide cop buries outstanding performances by everybody else. Awful script & directing. Smells like TV.

C
Snow Walker

Newcomers, I can't remember. Based on a story by Farley Mowat.

Survival in the arctic NW Territories, of a pilot and Inuit girl. Charming, some insight into Inuit culture and language, but predictable and stereotyped throughout. The Fast Runner is a better picture.

C
Young Adam

Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Emily Mortimer

River barge worker in Scotland (EM), mounts every woman that crosses his path, then leaves them, sometimes for dead. The women don't seem to mind. A deeply misogynist film. Good sense of time and place. Adequate acting.

C
House of Sand and Fog

Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connally

Loser girl's house is mistakenly foreclosed, bought by Iranian immigrant Kingsley. She meets a cop who goes berserk, then, guns, alcohol, pills, chaos, death. It is ultimately about ethnocentricism, but that story is not well told. Fine acting by the principals.

C
Suicide Club

Japanese, subtitled. Dir = Sion Sono

Dozens of Tokyo school children jump - in front of trains, off buildings, out windows. Lots of splattered blood. Daring social commentary in raising the subject, but no analysis or point of view. Superficial detective story is an afterthought. A lost opportunity.

C
Anything Else

Woody Allen, Stockard Channing, Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci, Danny DeVito

Humorous but stale NYC relationship jokes. Woody has not really developed that genre. Nice to see Stockard act. Ricci - bad directing or bad acting?

C
Chicago

Rene Zellweger, Katherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere

Boisterous musical during prohibition. Surreal storytelling is good. Fosse style dancing is cliche. Music and lyrics mediocre. One good dance by professionals, 2 good songs. Much fleshy spectacle. The cast tries hard but the result is often embarrassing. Best Picture of 02 (!!?) No Way.

C
Punch Drunk Love

Adam Sandler, Emily Watson

A romantic comedy that is neither. AS is a dimwit who bumbles around Gump-like. Characters don't make sense. Photography is very good.

C
Bruce Almighty

Jim Carrey, Jennifer Aniston, Morgan Freeman as God

JC gets to be God for a week . His manic shtick is an acquired taste but must be respected. JA is naturally convincing. MF a pleasure. Lots of toilet jokes for the kids, but also a sophisticated parody of local TV news.

C
Ararat

Dir=Atom Egoyan

Armenians in Turkey try to understand the massacre. Movie within a movie format. Good acting, but disappointing directing. He wants to be Speilberg. Why? Basically a bad remake of Schindler's List.

C
Signs

Mel Gibson

Crop circles, aliens. Ludicrous sets. Good acting, but at no time was I "horrified." Still, hand-to-hand combat with aliens - how often do you see that?

C
Solaris

George Clooney

A pale shadow of the original, which was visually gorgeous. Here, alternating blue and orange filters constitute art. No acting to speak of.