This week in DVD - December 4th

I'm still fighting off whatever bug or sinus infection that's been lingering, hence the delay in my posting, but the good news is that it means more time for watching movies!



Friends with Benefits

Here's my original review.  Blah!

I still maintain this was the best romantic comedy of the summer.  I think it's a great movie to rent if you want something fun, but not too raunchy.  I'm on the fence about buying this one, but I'll probably wait until it gets in that $9 range.


30 Minutes or Less

Blah, blah, blah...

This is a movie that didn't get reviewed particularly well, but I came away liking it.  Sure, the story is kind of shitty, but I liked it for the chemistry of the characters and the humor.  Plus, it's barely 90 minutes long, so you won't feel like you're watching it forever.  I may have also been a bit swayed Ruben Fleischer's direction.  I'm a huge fan of Zombieland, which he also directed, so I'm sure my love of that might had me going in more optimistic.

I think it's a good rental, but don't expect a smart comedy.  It was just silly fun for me.


Tucker & Dale vs Evil

I don't think I mentioned this in my original review, but this is seriously one of my favorite films of the year.  It might even end up in my top ten.  T&D vs E is simply a fun parody and different take on the whole slasher in the woods flick.  I highly recommend watching it with friends.  I'm buying this as soon as I see it on sale.


The Future

Bay Area native Mirandy July wrote, directed and stars in this indie drama about a couple in their mid-30's that seem to just be kind of going through the motions.  They intend on adopting a cat, but even this freaks them out when they are told that cat may live long enough to push into their 40's.  Originally, they were told the cat only had a few months to live, but upon hearing it might hang on for a few years, they worry that it's too much of a commitment.

It's a little hipster and mumblecore-ish, but not terribly so.  I thought it was okay and had it's moments.  However, there are a few parts that didn't sit well with me and it got weird at times.  It felt kind of experimental at times, so it may work for some people more than others.  Again, I didn't hate it, but didn't love it either.

It's worth a rental if you like indie films, but again it might be a little too much for the casual film watcher.  Actually, Miranda July's first film, Me and You and Everyone We Know, I would actually recommend instead of you haven't seen it yet.  I thought it was a better movie and might give a more of an idea of what you might be in for with The Future.


Our Idiot Brother

I actually really liked this.  This was in and out of the theater and I think it was due to it being marketed as a Judd Apatow-ish comedy, when it really has more of a indie comedy feel to it.  It just happens to star Paul Rudd and several other popular actors (Elizabeth Banks, Rashida Jones, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer), which kind of dictated it being marketed as a mainstream film.

Anyway, Paul Rudd basically plays a sweet, hippie-type.  While the movie's title implies he's an idiot, it's not so much that he's stupid as much as he's just naive and brutally honest.  He trusts people and wears his heart on his sleeve.  It may be a little unrealistic, but I thought it was a cute enough movie.  I laughed a few times and enjoyed watching it.

I think it's a good rental.


One Day

Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess star in a romantic drama.  I didn't like this.  It's predictable, but I don't really hold that against the movie.  What movie isn't a little bit predictable?  It just didn't work for me.  There was something about the characters that didn't sit right with me.  Maybe it was a lack of chemistry between the leads.  I can't quite put my finger on it.  Plus, the soundtrack really annoyed me.  It was like they kept using the same violin sample over and over.  Towards the end it started to get really grating.

I'm going to say pass.


The Smurfs


Ugh...kids will probably kid a kick out of it, but even as someone that watched the cartoons as kid, there's not a lot to like here or recommend.  It's just silly.  Neil Patrick Harris deserves better than this.  So does Sofia Vergara.  It's an all-star cast of voices for all the Smurfs, but half the time, you don't even recognize the voice.  The only thing I liked about it was that Jonathan Winters voiced Papa Smurf, but this mainly because I thought he had passed away.  Turns out he hasn't.

Anyway, this is a pass.  At best, rent it for the kids and then leave the room.


Seven Days in Utopia

Here's another movie that didn't do much for me.  A golfer gets in a car wreck in a small town, Utopia.  He recently had a very public meltdown on TV and lost his game.  He's then tutored by Robert Duvall to get his game back.  It's golf, painting, fishing and religion.  None of it is very interesting, and it's all very predictable.    It's a 98 minute movie that has many, many scenes that were a complete waste of time.  Like a scene where guys laugh and throw washers into a metal hole in the ground.  Fascinating!

It has Melissa Leo and Robert Duvall

The most insulting thing is the very end of the movie cuts away and tells you to go to a website to find out how it ended?  What?  Go to a website to find out how a MOVIE ended?  Just out of curiosity, I went to the website, were you at treated to an eight minute video where the writer reads you a passage from the sequel?!  I couldn't watch the whole video.

Some people may like the religious aspects of this, but I felt like the movie was trying to sell me something.  This may put off a lot of viewers.

Pass

Outrage - Movie Review

Here's a time where I was looking forward to a movie for all the right reasons.  It's about the Yakuza!  Sweet!  I love gangster or crime movies.  It's also getting great reviews on rottentomatoes.com.  Okay, good sign!

However, after watching Outrage, I kind of feel a little outraged towards some of the reviewers on rottentomatoes.com.  I'm calling bullshit on them.  I found Outrage to be wildly disappointing.  I almost have to wonder if they watched a different movie than I did.

A warning up front that this is a foreign, subtitled film, which may put many of you off right from the beginning.  I know lots of people that don't like subtitles.  Even I have a hard time with them if I'm not in the mood.

Spoilers ahead...

It basically starts out with a misunderstanding between Yakuza clans.  The 'misunderstanding' may have actually been a setup to push a confrontation, but I'm not sure.  The 'Chairman', basically the Yakuza's big boss, tells the clans to work it out, but at the same time he pushes particular people do take actions on others.  Kill this guy, rough this other guy up, take over their turf, etc.  This leads to a string of Yakuza killings, where each killing demands a retaliation.  Eventually, nobody is left.  Seriously, everyone dies in this movie.

I'd talk more about the story, but I felt that's pretty much all there was to it.  It's a bunch of homicidal maniacs killing one another over insults or turf.  Maybe it's because Outrage is subtitled, but I spent half the movie trying to figure out who everyone was and keeping it all straight.  I still didn't do a very good job of it.  There are so many characters and clans that it's hard to keep it all worked out.  Plus, it doesn't help that they are all pretty much wearing the same black suit and looked similar.  Maybe if I had some familiarity with the actors prior to seeing the movie, I might have had an easier time knowing who was who.

There are a lot of things I just thought were silly about this movie:

• There are many times where people don't notice guys standing directly next to them with guns.  At one point a guy is getting out of a car, and another car pulls up immediately beside him.  He doesn't even give a glance to the car that's less than three feet away from him.  Anyway, the guy pulls out a gun and shoots the dude.  No peripheral vision at all.
• It also irritated me that none of the clan members were smart enough to see that they were all being manipulated by The Chairman.  It was so obvious that they were.  It was clear that nearly everyone in the movie had ulterior motives and couldn't be trusted.
• Oh, and here was my favorite scene:  A guy walks into a room with a machine gun.  The four guys already in the room all stand up upon seeing this.  Rather than duck behind the cover they were sitting on, or pulling our their own guns, they just stood up like they wanted to get shot.  Then, they all start doing what I like to call the 'I'm getting shot in a hail of bullets' dance.  You've seen it before: the person  usually has his arms at a 45-90 degree angle and then starts to alternately straighten them, while swinging their torso from right to left, while also simultaneously shrugging his shoulders.  It's always amazing to me how many bullets a man can take doing this dance before going down.  Here's the kicker, one of the guys in the this scene starts doing his dance before any bullets hit him.  In fact, he's standing behind another guy, who has barely yet stood up to receive his bullets and react to them.  The squibs weren't even going off yet to show they had been hit.  It was hilarious.  I probably watched that scene like give times.

Outrage felt very cheap and low budget.  There were many scenes that ended with fade-outs that looked like the kind of effect done with a camcorder.  Other times the camera cuts away or only gives you an obscured view of the violence, where I think a little more brutality would have worked here.  It's all about people killing one another, why sugarcoat it or be tame?  It is plenty violent, and there were a few creative killings, but something about it all seemed very fake to me.   There a kill towards the end that I thought was particularly cool, but even then, the scene was cut up funny and I had to watch the scene a few times to figure out exactly how it happened.  Outrage did have a little style about it though, I'll give it that.

The move is basically just a bunch of Yakuza guys killing each other.  You don't care about any of the characters, because you don't now anything about any of them.  None of them have personalities and can easily be swapped out for one another.  They were a bunch of cardboard cut-outs, who's only purpose in the film was to take a bullet.  I think this is part of why I had a hard time keeping track of who anyone was.  There was nothing distinctive about how any of them behaved.  Think about gangsters in Tarantino or Scorsese movies; even though they are bad people or doing bad things, you are interested in them or even care about them, because you at least have a sense of who they are and they've shown you some kind of personality.

Outrage was written, directed and stars Takeshi Kitano, who has done many other movies that have been received well.  I have to wonder if this is an example of a reviewer'sOutrage and it turns out that I've seen a few Takeshi films before.

Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I didn't get Outrage.  I just can't find anything to really recommend about it to others.  I was initially enthusiastic about a Yakuza movie, but came away from it not caring about the movie at all.  I advise you to skip it.

Last week in DVD - November 27th

Okay, short DVD post because I'm lagging.


Conan

Here was my original review.

It's still a remake/reboot of something nobody was asking for, and then they didn't do anything to make it better.  You're still better off watching the original Conan with Arnold, and again, if you really want a good laugh, watch it with Arnold's commentary track.

Super 8

Original review here.  I kind of got a weird laugh out of reading my review again.  It's just interesting to see how much more blah I wright in my reviews now than even just a few months ago.  Plus, I also try not to write them after a heavy amount of drinking (although it still happens).

The Devil's Double

Okay, this one was interesting movie.  It's based on true events and I'm sure some of what's in the movie was done for dramatic purposes, but DAMN!  You know how they alwasy used to say that Saddam Hussein had a double?  Well, so did his son, Uday Hussein.  The movie follows the story of Uday picking an old school friend, Latif Yahia, to be his double.  Dominic Cooper plays both roles, and he does a fantastic job.  He really is able to keep the personalitiy of both roles very distinct.  At times I had to remind myself that both roles were played by the same person.  It's not like how Armie Hammer played both Winklevoss twins in The Social Network.  It's way more involved than that.  Plus, you also get to see what a raving lunatic Uday Hussein was.

I highly recommend renting this one.

The Family Tree

I didn't like this, despite having a lot of people I liked in it.  It's one of those messed up family comedy/dramas, but just isn't that good.  Hope Davis plays a woman who's cheating on her husband, suffers a head injury during one of her cheating sex sessions and then loses her memory to just after she got married.  You know, back when she was still happy in her relationship.  It's kind an interesting concept actually, but just not done very well.  Then, the movie devolved into lame slapstick at the end.  I really had to work to get through it.

Pass

Bellflower

Indie movie written, directed and staring Evan Glodell.  It's basically about a bunch of weird hipsters with an apocalypse and Mad Max fetish.  They build flamethrowers and other weapons in the hope for a future like what you see in Mad Max.  Then, one of the guys starts dating a girl and gets all weird on her.  However, she sleeps around with a dude that rolls in the same circle as them, so then they deal with that.  None of these people appeared to have jobs and no real problem screwing friends over.  So you know, real likeable people.


Then, the end goes 'experimental' and gives you two different scenarios on how the story plays out.  There are some ridiculous things that happen during this part of the movie that I just couldn't buy into.  Other movies have handled the two alternate outcomes thing much better.

I'm hearing a big deal about how Evan Glodell, is the new Tarantino and I just don't see it.  Tarantino characters have better dialog and are more interesting, even when you know they are bad people.  This is just a bunch of whiny hipsters that you end up not really liking.  The dialog is knowhere near the Tarantino level either.  Maybe he'd do better with a story he didn't write himself and didn't put himself in the movie.

I say pass.

Arthur Christmas - Movie Review.

Here's yet another movie where the trailer made this look cheesy, almost to the point where I didn't want to see it.  I was actually kind of swayed by the fact that I thought this was a Pixar film.  It's actually produced by British animation studio Ardman Studios, which has put out movies like Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit.  However, this could have passed for a Pixar movie as far as the quality goes, and I mean that in the best possible sense.

Arthur Christmas is (obviously) about Santa Claus (Jim Broadbent), and his two sons, Steve and Arthur.  In the opening sequence you are shown how Santa and the Elves have moved into the modern age as they deliver their gifts on Christmas Eve.  This sequence is really cool, both in just how well it's animated, but in how the action plays out.  You then see that Santa's oldest son, Steve (Hugh Laurie), is essentially overseeing the delivery from mission control at the North Pole.

Steve is the strong, confident, older son that is next in line to become Santa.  Everyone is expecting Steve to take over for his father after this year's delivery.  Arthur (James McAvoy), as you might have guessed, is the clumsy but sweet, younger son that's kept behind the scenes so he's not in the way.

After the Christmas delivery is over, it is found that one gift did not get delivered.  While Santa and Steve don't think this is that big of a deal, Arthur thinks this must immediately be corrected as to not ruin Christmas.  He sets out on his own, with the help of his Grandsanta (Bill Nighy), who was the previous Santa, to deliver that last gift.  That's pretty much the premise of the story without getting into specifics.

The first thing that struck me was how subtle the humor was.  In the opening sequence alone there are all kind of subtle jokes and visual gags that you may not even notice the first time and many people might not even get.  There's so much going on that it's likely going to take you a few viewings to notice them all.  Fortunately, Arthur Christmas is a movie that you could watch many times.

It was just a few minutes into the movie and I was totally into the film.  I could tell this was not going to be a typical family film.  Arthur Christmas has a little something for everyone.  I heard kids laughing out loud at parts, and then adults laughing out loud at other things.  There was one part at the end where a kid in the audience let out a big gasp, which got a nice chuckle out of the rest of the audience.  Some of the humor is actually kind of adult in the few parts, but it will be over the head of young kids.

It's an all-star, British voice cast.  Normally, when studios, like Dreamworks, boast an all-star cast for an animated film, it seems like it's done just to get people interested in the film. It's not like their voices lend anything special to the story, and I think sometimes actually detract from it.  It's kind of distracting when you watch an animated film and you're trying to figure out who each voice is, or when you hear a voice and go, 'Oh, well, that's just Jack Black.'.  With Arthur Christmas, all of the voices are used well and make the characters feel more like real people.  I was never distracted by trying to figure out who a character was voice by.  I was actually more surprised by the fact that I didn't recognize many of the voices in the movie.

The animation is great!  It's a very colorful film.  I didn't see this in 3D, but I don't think that would be the worst thing.  I don't recall seeing things being thrown at the screen for cheap effect, so I would imagine the 3D would be more immersive.

Arthur Christmas was directed and co-written by Sarah Smith, who doesn't appear to have a lot of work to her name, but give her more projects like this to work on.  It was co-written by Peter Baynham, who surprisingly has written things like Borat, Bruno and Arthur.  That isn't exactly the best track record and not something that you think would be responsible for writing a sweet Christmas film, but that's what he did here.  However, this could be why there was so much subtle, and adult, humor in the film.

This is one of the best Christmas films I've seen in a long time.  It reminded me of older Christmas cartoons I watched as a kid and made my very nostalgic for when I was younger.  In fact, there was one shot of a Christmas tree that immediately made me think of Chirstmas' past back when we used to get huge trees filled with tons of super bright lights.  Things have toned down as I've gotten older.  This film really captures the spirit of Christmas.

Maybe someone's been sneaking soy protein into my food, but this is another movie that nearly had me a little choked up at the end.  I wasn't the only one either.  I heard many sniffles in the audience towards the end.

However, one warning:  Before the movie begins you are treated to an awful Justin Bieber video of 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'.  It's so bad, it almost put me in a bad mood as the movie started.  I can't believe they even threw this in there.  I'd rant about this more, but I don't want to go there right now.

What can I say, I LOVED Arthur Christmas!  I think it's a great, sweet, nostalgic Christmas film that the whole family can enjoy.  I can see me watching this movie every year.  I'm going to buy this movie as soon as it comes out on Blu-Ray.  I recommend anyone that wants to see a great, family Christmas film to go check it out.  You can see it full price or matinee and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Hugo - Movie Review

Anytime you see Martin Scorsese's name on a movie, you have to just kind of assume it's going to at least be a good film.  However, I was a little surprised to see he was making what appears to be a kids film.  Scorsese's movies usually involve lots of violence, craziness and death.  I went into this a little skeptical.

Hugo is based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick.  From what I hear, the movie is very faithful to the book, which is kind of odd based on how it all plays out.  I'll get to that later.

As the movie revolves around a mystery, there's only so much I'm going to be able to talk about without ruining it for you.

The story follows a boy named Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), who's living in a train station with his uncle.  Hugo's father, played Jude Law in what I could only call a cameo, died in a museum fire some time ago.  Hugo's uncle is a drunk and is having him take care of all of the clocks in the train station.  Hugo's entire family appeared to be watchmakers or clockmakers.

The only thing Hugo has remaining from his father is an automaton, which is basically a mechanical man that is built to perform a single function.  Hugo has been trying to repair this automaton using his father's notebook.  He hopes that once he fixes it is, it will give him some kind of message from his father.  Hugo has to steal various parts from around the train station, so he's always avoiding the station's security guard (Sacha Baron Cohen).

Eventually he's caught by a toy maker that works at the train station (Ben Kingsley), who takes Hugo's notebook.  Hugo tries desperately to get his notebook back and befriends his goddaughter (Chloe Moretz).  Together they work together to get the notebook back and try to fix the automaton.

Around the halfway point though, Hugo completely shifts into a different kind of movie.  Again, I can't say too much without spoiling the mystery and what happens.  Basically, the second half of the film becomes a love letter to old movies and the history of cinema.  It's done very lovingly and I actually found this part of the movie more interesting than the first half.

At the same time though, this is where I think the movie may lose some people.  Hugo seems to be marketed towards kids, but I don't think kids will really enjoy the second half of the film all that much.  Also, the pacing of this movie really slows in the middle, and again, I don't think it's something that many kids, or even adults, might have the attention span for.

You can kind of blame the pacing on having too many unrelated subplots.  While I didn't mind the subplots and the actors (Christopher Lee, Emily Mortimer), I don't think it added all that much to the overall story.  It broke up the middle of the movie too much, where I felt like they just should have skipped all that and got on with it.  There's enough to keep track of with the main characters and the mystery they are trying to unravel.  You don't need more thrown in there to keep it interesting.    

The cinematography is beautiful and I would actually recommend seeing this in 3D.  This is one of best uses of 3D I've seen in any movie.  It really pops out at you, but not in the cheesy sense where they are just throwing things at the screen.

The performances across the board are all great.  Asa Butterfield has only been in a handful of movies, but I think he's done really well so far and I think he showed good emotional range.  Ben Kingsley is great as he always is.  There are parts in this movie where he's going to break your heart a little.  Sacha Baron Cohen is predictably the comic relief in the film, but he does a good job.  Chloe Moretz continues to be one of my favorite young actresses.  She does such a great accent in this movie, that I had to question where she was from originally.

Hugo is well made and well acted film.  I feel like it's only real flaw is the pacing in the middle.  However, it's kind of a hard movie to recommend, as it's going to mean different things to different people.  Again,  I don't think this is something that younger kids would enjoy.  Not in the theater anyway.  If you're someone that is fascinated by the history of film, then I think you really enjoy the second half of the film.

Overall, I'd say it's worth a matinee.

The Muppets - Movie Review

This was an interesting movie experience for me, as I was able to take my nephews (6 and 4 to this)., so I'm going to have multiple perspectives this time out.

I'll warn up front that this review might be a little spoilery.  I did like the movie, but I'm not sure how I can talk about The Muppets without spoiling a few plot points that aren't shown in the trailer.  Keep in mind that I've only seen the trailer that disguises this movie as an awful looking romantic comedy and then slowly introduces the different Muppets as cast members.  That was one of the best surprise trailers I've seen in a long time!.

As The Muppets is now a Disney property, the movie opens with a Pixar short  featuring the Toy Story characters.  This was very entertaining though and a good way to start off.

The Muppets is a movie about two brothers, Walter and Gary (Jason Segel).  While it's apparent to you that Walter's a Muppet, this isn't something that seems to be noticed by anyone else.  It's like having a Muppet in your family is just a random occurrence that isn't a big deal at all.  I kind of wish they would have explored this aspect of the story more, like how does one have a Muppet as a brother, but it wasn't really what the movie was about.  Walter grew up idolizing the actual Muppets and watching them on TV, hoping one day he could meet them or become one of them.

Anyway, Gary is going on a vacation to LA with his girlfriend, Mary (Amy Adams).  As Gary is very close and protective of Walter, they bring him along. Since they are going to be in LA, they plan on visiting the old Muppet studios.  However, after arriving to the Muppet studios, they find it's run down and has been neglected for decades.  The Muppets will lose the studio to an evil business man (Chris Cooper) if they don't raise ten million dollars before a certain date.  I think you can kind of guess where this is going at this point.

I really liked The Muppets, but not just for the nostalgia.  It's very self-referential, or meta, with it's humor.  Everyone in the movie is keenly aware of the fact this is a movie, and there were previous ones.  I thought this aspect really worked for the film.  The musical numbers were also treated in the same vein.  Normally, I get a little annoyed when a musical number starts, as they can be really cheesy, but with The Muppets I was won over every time.  Either the lyrics are funny or the actions of the characters were cute.  All of the actors seemed to really commit to their musical numbers.

Jason Segel really can't sing or dance all that well, but he has such enthusiasm for the material and the Muppets that it's really hard not to like him.  Plus, he co-wrote the screenplay, and you can see the love he has for the Muppets himself.  Just watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall for another example of this.  In fact, when I heard they were making new Muppet movie, it was Segel's involvement in the project that encouraged me.

Amy Adams, who I've always joked is the living embodiment of a Disney character (just watch Enchanted to see what I mean), continues with that here.  She really puts a lot of energy into her dance numbers. It doesn't hurt that she has great legs either!  Seriously though, go watch Enchanted if you haven't seen it already.  It's great!

I heard a complaint about how some of the cameos in the movie were odd and that younger audiences might not recognize or identify with them, but I thought that was kind of the point.  One of the central themes of the movie is that the world at large has moved on from The Muppet Show and they aren't culturally relevant anymore.  In fact, one character outright tells them that nobody cares about them anymore.  The Muppets have always had odd cameos on their shows and films, haven't they?

Director James Bobin did a really good job here.  As a former writer and director for The Flight of the Conchords, I can see how his direction seems suited for musical comedy.  However, he was also a writer and director for Da Ali G Show, which kind of makes me wish at times that maybe they had made a more 'adult' version of this movie.  I'm not talking X-rated or anything like that, but there were more than a few times my mind would go to certain places when one of the characters would setup a joke.  As the audience for the original Muppet movies and shows have grown up, it might have been funny to see them go there.

My nephews seemed to really like this and they told me so after.  They laughed throughout the movie.  At times, they would laugh at some of the things that I thought were corny or silly.  There's a sequence where the chickens do a rendition of Cee Lo Green's "F-You".  It's the once scene that I really cringed through, but my nephew laughed the hardest at this part.  It makes it easier to watch something like that when you see kids enjoying it so much.

The Muppets is a movie that has a lot to offer to a wide array of people.  It was interesting to see that the audience was about 50/50 couples and then couples with kids.  Those of you that have kids should feel confident that they'll enjoy the film and if you're nostalgic for the Muppets, then you'll like it as well.  Then again, if you don't have kids or weren't already nostalgic for the Muppets, then why would you see this movie anyway.  Overall, it's a very sweet movie and I wouldn't be surprised if you find yourself maybe a little teary-eyed at the end.

This movie is a pefect matinee with the kids, but if you paid full price, I don't think you'd feel like you wasted your money.

The Descendants - Movie Review

You know how people say that 'trailers lie'?  Hell, I've said this many times over the past few months.  Normally, that's meant as a bad thing.  With The Descendants, it's a good thing.  All of the clips you see in the trailer are fleshed out into either more thoughtful or much funnier scenes.

I'm going to tip my hand right now, as I'm not going to talk about The Descendants as much as I could.  My normal 'spoiler rules' have fully kicked into effect, which means I really liked the the movie.  I want to talk about it more, but the rules dictate that I can't spoil it.

The basic premise is this:  Matt King (George Clooney) is some kind of lawyer that's trusted to handle a large, legacy land claim that his family is responsible for in Hawaii.  This claim has been passed down from his great, great Grandfather (I think it was his great, great Grandfather, anyway).  That's where 'The Descendants' comes from.

In the opening moments, it's also explained that King's wife had a boating accident and is now on life support.  As a result, he's forced to reconnect with his two daughters and take care of them. Fortunately, he's not a terrible father.  It's just that he hasn't always been 100% involved.  The trailer shows you that his oldest daughter is kind of a delinquent, but at the same time was aware of the fact that King's wife was cheating on him.  King was not aware of that, and now has to deal with that as well.

That's the premise and that's all I'm going to say about the plot.  From this point, you just watch it all play out. Fortunately, this is one of the funniest, most thoughtful and emotionally realistic films I've seen in a long time.  I laughed out loud consistently through The Descendants.  This movie kind of goes through the entire emotional scale.  There were times I was angry and other times I was almost brought to tears.  Non cyborgs (i.e. normal people) will likely get an even more emotional response from this movie.  I'm not saying that's a bad thing though.

Earlier in the week, I heard some hype about Shailene Woodley's performance as Clooney's older daughter, and I was ready to dismiss it as hype.  After seeing The Descendants, I'm ready to tell you that the hype is real!  I loved her in this movie.  I didn't like her in the fist few minutes, but that's intentional.  Once you get past that, she's just great!  I'd tell you more, but again, no spoilers!

I can only talk about the performances you see in the trailer, as there are a few people that pop up that you might be surprised by, but everyone is great.  Robert Forster and Beau Bridges are fantastic!  Clooney's youngest daughter, played by Amara Miller, is also an inspired casting.  Normally, I'm annoyed by child actors, but she and Woodley are just amazing as far as I'm concerned.  Miller has a scene in the movie that, again, nearly brought me to tears.  Even the doofus boyfriend (Nick Krause) ended up being a great choice.

Do I even need to say that George Clooney was great in this?  Well, he is!  That's all I can say!  He's great, fantastic  etc.  Clooney is the man, period!  His acting and narration in the opening moments of this film instantly get you into the movie and get you to care about his character. For better or worse, you end up caring about everyone in The Descendants.

On a weird note, and someone might be able to help me with this, King's wife is played by Patricia Hastie and at an early point in the movie you see a picture of her that I swear I've seen before.  Hastie's IMDB shows she's been on Lost, so I think that's where I've seen the picture.  Any confirmation here would be helpful.  I know I've seen that picture somewhere before and it's bugging the hell out of me.

Even the pacing of the film is great.  There was never a point where I felt like they needed to speed up or just get on with it.  In fact, there were times were I was almost upset when I knew it was coming towards a conclusion.  I could have watched this for another 30 minutes.  I was just that engaged and enjoying it that much.

Anyway, The Descendants is almost a perfect movie as far as I'm concerned.  It has everything I could have expected.  I even loved the music, and that's not always something I usually notice.  The only time I notice the score is when it's either especially great or gets some kind of emotional response out of me.  That happened here.

The scenery is beautiful as well, but it's in Hawaii.  Can Hawaii be ugly?  Not from what I've seen.  You are treated to a few shots during the movie that even as a viewer, you might find yourself saying, "Hey, take a picture!"

This is Alexander Payne's most recent feature since Sideways and I think I like The Descendants more than that.  What am I saying?  I like The Descendants WAY more than Sideways (and I like Sideways).  I hope Payne isn't so selective in the future with his projects.

I'll just come right out and say it, The Descendants is one of the best films of the year!  I'm going to go so far as to go ahead and put it in my top five favorite films of the year.  There are three movies I've seen this year that have been able to keep a smile on my face throughout the movie.  They are Midnight in Paris, The Guard and now The Descendants

This is one of those movies that if you don't like it, then F-you!  I give The Descendants my highest recommendation!  See it local, in an art-house (where I saw it), or wherever you can see it.  I wouldn't be surprised at all to see this heavily mentioned at Oscar time.

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