Kim's Thoughts

I saw the new Julia Roberts movie – Eat Pray Love – a couple of weeks ago on the 14th.  I got side tracked and didn’t write a review the day I saw it and then went out of town for a couple of weeks, so I am a little late getting my thoughts about it on here…….but, you know what they say – Better late than never!  So, here I am with an attempt to make amends and write my review.

Eat Pray Love is the story of real life American writer, Elizabeth Gilbert, and is based on her 2006 memoir.  Gilbert is a 32-year-old writer who is unhappy in her marriage, so she initiates a contested divorce, has an affair with a younger man, and after all that still doesn’t find her the happiness she craves, she takes a year to travel across Italy, India, and Bali to find herself.   She spends 4 months in each location — first, Italy to find pure pleasure in food and eating it;  second, India to find joy through prayer;  and third, to Bali to seek out inner peace, but ends up finding true love in the process.

Watching her journey was a pleasure.  In each 4 month stay, she made friends that helped her find what she was searching for and had adventures that brought her joy and fulfillment.  I personally enjoyed the Italy and Bali segments, but found the India segments to be a little slow and boring.  I think I would like to read the book because the movie gave me just enough of a taste to peak my interest and curiosity, but not enough to convince me that she got everything she was looking for in her year-long quest.

Julia Roberts does her usual charming job portraying her character.  Other characters of note include Richard Jenkins, who plays Richard from Texas, a fellow traveler in India seeking peace from the loss of his family due to (I believe) alcoholism.  Jenkins always impresses me in his roles – he is a natural actor who makes you want to love and believe his characters.  Javier Bardem is Felipe, the hunky Brazilian businessman that Julia finds true love with in Bali.  Bardem is irresistible and lovable in this role.  I was totally taken in by him!  BUT — I was absolutely 100% confident that he was also the guy who played Izzy Stevens’ love interest in Grey’s Anatomy – the one who was a heart patient and died!!!  I was shocked to find out it is NOT him — the Grey’s character was played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, which I knew — this actor is Javier Bardem!  But they look so much alike — I mean, like REALLY so much alike!  When I saw a different name on the cast list for the movie, I had to go searching to find out if I remembered the name of the Grey’s guy wrong or what!!!  I found that others obviously had the same confusion, because I found a comparison photo – here they are with Bardem on the left and Morgan on the right – long-lost twins, for sure:

So — bottom line — I liked this movie.  I felt like they left some important stuff out, but until I read the book, I won’t know what that was.  So, it did leave me wanting more and feeling like I was missing something.  But, that is usually the case with any film that is made from a book — they can’t put it all in a 1.5-2 hour movie……..  It was a typical “newly divorced woman needs to go to some exotic place to find herself” type of story, but it was told well and had some very interesting characters and relationships to help it along.  I rate it a solid B+ and recommend it to anyone who likes these types of stories.

There hasn’t been a lot of movies out this summer that have grabbed me and compelled me to go see them.  Most of the ones that did pique my interest didn’t motivate me enough to put other priorities aside and go to the theater.  And, the ones that I did go to the theater to see have been less than impressive – “The Kids Are All Right” was good, but fell a little flat and “The Other Guys” was a total waste of my time!  So, I decided not to gamble on “Dinner With Schmucks” – which I thought might be a fun movie, but so far, I haven’t heard many rave reviews from those I know who have seen it and I actually over heard someone at the theater yesterday say it was the dumbest movie they had ever seen – not a good sign!

So, I was even a little leery of “Charlie St. Cloud” – it looked like just the type of movie I really enjoy and the previews looked great, but my track record has been so poor, that I just wasn’t sure……..but, I gave in and went to see it today.  As I was getting my ticket, I over heard a group behind me talking about how much they were looking forward to the movie and a couple in their group said they have already seen it and can’t wait to see it again!  Good sign – I was feeling comfortable with my decision!!!

The movie stars Zac Efron – you know, “High School Musical” – in what I believe is his first serious film.  Efron plays the title role, a sailing enthusiast who lives with his little brother and mother in a sleepy little coastal town in the Pacific Northwest.  He is just graduating from high school with a scholarship and dreams for a bright and successful future.  Until tragedy strikes and changes his life forever.  As time goes on, he has to decide whether to honor a promise made to his little brother, Sam, or a chance at love and discovery of why he was given a second chance at life during the horrible accident that took Sam.

The story is touching, warm, and endearing.  Efron does a decent job in his role – not oscar worthy, but not bad.  Charlie Tahan, who plays Sam, was sweet and charismatic.  Amanda Crew is well cast as Tess Carroll, an old school friend of Charlie’s that comes back into his life.  In two smaller, but important parts, are Ray Liotta, as the paramedic who revives Charlie in the accident, and Kim Basinger, as Charlie and Sam’s mother.

The movie was a little slow in spots – they could have either beefed up the story a little or cut it down some.  But it was good.  I felt a part of the character’s lives and would have liked to see the director cut parts of the fluff and add-on to the end to show more of how everything turned out — although, they did have flashes of that during the credits.

I really enjoyed this movie.  I’ll take some points off for the pace, but over all, I rate it a solid A-.  It was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon and restored my faith in my choice of movies!

I hadn’t seen anything on the new Mark Wahlberg / Will Ferrell movie until I saw it listed on the line up at Spring Lane Cinemas.  I checked out the trailers online and was hooked!  Personally not a Will Ferrell fan, but LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Mark Wahlberg.  The plot sounded cool and the promise of a mix of Action/Adventure and Comedy was intriguing.  I instantly had to see this film.  I read the reviews on Yahoo and they were mixed with an average rating of B- for critics and B+ for users…….not bad!  Some really enjoyed it and some absolutely hated it.  I decided to give it a try!

Wahlberg and Ferrell are cops who aren’t really the “stars” of the precinct – they are “the other guys”.  But, they wanna be and they finally get the case that just might do it for them.  But, things just don’t go as planned.

I’ll get right to the point —- I can be added to those who absolutely hated this movie!!!  Hands down, one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a very long time!  It was NOT funny — I didn’t so much as smile at any scene and there were very few in the theater that chuckled and it was rare when they did!  The action scenes were totally unbelievable and hokey.  Will Farrell was dull and boring.  And the worst part of all?  Mark Wahlberg was supposed to be this ex-macho cop who was banished to low profile cases and made fun of because he accidentally shot Derek Jeter and cost NY a chance at the playoffs……..but, he came off as a mad, yet wimpy and irritating character.  AND – unless it happened during one of the times I dozed off, he never took his shirt off once!  I think this is the only movie he’s ever been in that he didn’t go shirtless for at least one scene!

As I just mentioned, I slept though parts of the movie.  Also, the couple in front of me left about 1/3 of the way through it!  And there was very little out loud laughter from the rest of the audience (BTW – the audience was mostly guys).  So, I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one there that was disappointed.

Save your money on this one — if you really think you might disagree with me and like it, wait until it comes out on NetFlix!  I rate this one a solid D — the only thing that kept it from being even lower was the presence of Mark Wahlberg, even though I was not at all happy with his performance.