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Extract

Rating:

Movie: Extract (2009)

Studio : Miramax Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 92 min

Website : extract-the-movie.com

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9oeph

Review:

The title of Extract comes from what the main character (Joel) sells: flavor extract. He is the founder of a local factory that makes nothing but flavor extract and loves talking about the stuff the same way a Trekker loves talking about the Enterprise. When one of his workers busts a nut at work (literally), things begin to get irksome as a pretty young con artist steps in to push Joel, his business, and his home life, into the ground.

Mike Judge has a talent for noticing characters that are absurd but strangely true to life, and this movie takes no exception with the minor roles of this film. If you ever worked in a menial manual labor job, you might recognize quite a few characters in the movie such as: the associate who keeps “voluntarily” soliciting you to go to events you don’t want to go to, the guy who remembers nobody’s name despite how long he’s been there, the musician who seems to be into really obscure musical niches, the gabby old lady who’s always been there and does nothing but gossip and blame the silent and unculpable immigrant worker for everything. There’s a lot there that I have (unfortunately) seen and experienced at one point or another, and I couldn’t help but praise Mike Judge for seeing this.

While it has its share of scenes that are funny just to watch, the humor as a result tends to borderline enough to make it a little too cerebral for the people looking for a quick laugh, and a little too primitive for folks wanting something witty, and I think this will not make it too popular. Still, considering how Mike Judge’s films tend to go cult as time passes, I can see this film’s popularity gaining steam once it hits DVD.

If you do find this film funny, you might also want to check out “The Promotion,” which is also fairly low-key, and strangely true-to-life (that, or my life is very, very, demented).

-Donald Lee

Comedy, In Theaters Comedy, extract, mike judge

Taking Woodstock

Rating:

Movie: Taking Woodstock (2009)

Studio : Film in Focus

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 110 min

Website : Taking Woodstock

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa3i5g

Review:

As a lifelong fan of Woodstock-era artists like The Who and Jimi Hendrix, I looked forward to this movie, an uncharacteristically lighthearted affair from director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain). It’s inspired by the true story of Elliot Tiber (renamed Jake Teichberg in the film), a New York City interior designer who organized the iconic festival in order to save his parents’ failing motel.

One of the things I enjoyed about this movie was its focus on the work that went into putting on the festival. Amazingly, we don’t see any concert footage or meet any actors called on to play Hendrix or Joplin. It has a documentary-like feel in such scenes as when we see Teichberg (played by Demetri Martin) riding on the back of a cop’s motorcycle in order to get into the actual concert or when we see Max Yasgur (well-played by Eugene Levy) agreeing to let the promoters hold the concert on his land while offering them some of his farm-made chocolate milk. The film is at its best when we’re among the fans and we’re seeing the show put together. We meet some colorful characters during the journey, including Liev Schreiber as a transvestite security guard and Dan Fogler as the leader of a postmodern thespian troupe that lives in Teichberg’s parents’ barn and manages to cause a ruckus among Bethel’s more conservative types, who feared the hippies would destroy the town.

The film also includes some interludes involving Teichberg’s tumultuous relationship with his mother (Imelda Staunton), who kavetches throughout the film, while his father is more accepting and drinks beer with the hippies. While Staunton has some good one-liners, this part of the story feels underdeveloped, and the final scene doesn’t have the emotional impact for which it seems to be reaching. It feels secondary to the festival. Still, I enjoyed the film on the basis of the realistic crowd shots, the likable Teichberg, the vibrant supporting cast, and that groovy soundtrack.

-Craig Wynne

Comedy, In Theaters, Music Comedy, Music, Taking Woodstock

In the Loop

Rating:

Movie: In the Loop (2009)

Studio : BBC Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 106 min

Website : intheloopmovie.co.uk/

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9n24e

Review:

Politics has two faces: on the one hand, there are the smiling buffoons dedicated to convincing the rest of us that they know what they are talking about and on the other, there are the conniving and plotting backroom sleazebags who tell the buffoons what to do. Such is the premise of the blisteringly funny and abrasive British comedy, In the Loop.
Ostensibly a fictional tale about the build-up to an obviously unjustified war (read Iraq), In the Loop refuses to trade in the gentle barbs that blight so many recent political satires, preferring instead to strap its main protagonists down and go to work on them with a blowtorch of righteous indignation. (That blowtorch, by the way, is delivered via some of the most obscene and inventive dialogue to play out on the big screen since Tarantino first hit the scene.)

The action starts off in London just as the drum beat of war is gathering pace. Hopping back and forth across the Atlantic more often than Jason Bourne armed with his frequent flyer miles, In the Loop follows the main characters through committee meetings and conference calls with a handheld camera style that gives a constant sense of urgency and chaos to the rapidly unfolding proceedings.

The multi-layered script is made all the more impressive when you consider the huge variety of characters in the movie. Some of the more memorable characters include a cool and collected – but ultimately cowardly – Colin Powell-like US General (played by the mighty James Gandolfini), and an unforgettably x-rated-ranting British prime ministerial press chief. All are equally convincing in both their comical value as well as in their chilling indifference to the implications of their actions.

You don’t need to know anything about politics to enjoy this movie. You don’t even have to worry about it being left or right wing propaganda. All you have to do is strap yourself in for 106 minutes of sheer, unadulterated comedy excellence as you laugh your ass off at the state of how we organize our political world. In the Loop makes clear that it is not so much a question of lies versus truth, but rather it is a question of heavily armed lunatics running the asylum. In this regard, In the Loop is a worthy and equally scathing successor to Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove.

-Paul Meade

Comedy Comedy

(500) Days of Summer

Rating:

Movie: (500) Days of Summer (2009)

Studio : Fox Searchlight Pictures

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 95min

Website : foxsearchlight.com/500daysofsummer

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9q55j

Review:

(500) Days of Summer is the story of Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his year-and-a-half on again/off again relationship with Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). Tom, a greeting card writer, falls head over heels for Summer, a new administrator at the same greeting card company, and is convinced that she is the one he’s been waiting for all of his life. We’re told that Tom believes that he’ll never be truly happy until he finds “the one”—hence the importance of discovering Summer Finn—and he’s carried this belief with him his entire life because of 80’s British pop music and a misreading of the film The Graduate. Summer, on the other hand, doesn’t really believe in love, at least not the kind of love Tom believes in, but insists on taking Tom on a ride that he and audiences will never forget.
Audiences also will have a hard time forgetting the performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Gordon-Levitt’s Tom, wonderfully balanced with charm and sympathy, paired with Deschanel’s free-spirited and whimsical Summer makes their repartee so much fun to watch. They execute their parts so well, it’s really difficult to imagine anyone else playing these characters.

This script, by neophytes Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, has Best Original Screenplay written all over it. It’s a combination of the best of the youthful, hip, music-induced flicks Garden State and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist with the originality and freshness of Little Miss Sunshine. The “author’s note” at the beginning of the film implies that the author did, in fact, live this story. And there’s just enough realism in the script to believe that, perhaps, he did.

With such a splendid cast and such a solid script in place, Marc Webb could have just phoned in the direction. However, for his first major motion picture, this music video director decided to not let his considerable visual acumen go to waste. And though he uses every trick in the book—animation, split-screen screen, infectious music—it doesn’t feel overwrought.
Webb’s Los Angeles backdrop is the real winner here, and thanks to Webb, anybody under 40 who doesn’t want to visit L.A. after this film doesn’t have a pulse.

-Sam Henderson

Comedy, Drama, Romance 500 days of summer, Comedy, Drama, Romance