Kramer vs. Kramer

Even a divorce and custody drama can be devoid of all kitsch and intriguing to watch when acted out by a couple of the greatest actors ever. Case in point: Mr and Mrs Kramer portrayed by Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep.

Joanna Kramer one day up and leaves her husband Ted, who pays more attention to his job than his family, and their small son Billy. Ted is left to take over a role he never had to fulfill, that of single parent. It is trying and difficult at first, but Ted adapts his priorities, which leads him to be more available to Billy but costs him his job.

In the midst of that particular struggle Joanna sweeps back into town because she now feels fit to take over custody of her child again, which leads to bitter and sad court appearances. The judge sides - like judges often do - with the mother. Eventually however, Joanna decides to not heed the court's decision and lets Billy stay with his father.

from Roger Ebert's review: The movie has encouraged us to realize that these people are deep enough and complex enough, as all people are, that we can't assign moral labels to them.

The film won five Oscars, incl. best picture, best director, both best actor awards. The little kid who played Billy was nominated for best supporting actor, making him one of the youngest nominees ever.

8/10

The Hangover Part III

The third part of the comedy series has something the second part didn't - a plot.

It starts with Alan's family and friends staging an intervention. The wolf pack sets out to take him to a treatment facility in Arizona. On the highway they get pushed off the road by a truck and then brought in front of one Marshall, who has some beef with the evil genius that is Mr. Chow. Chow recently escaped from a Thai prison and has disappeared before Marshall could get back the gold Chow had stolen from him earlier. The only one that has had contact with him, apparently, was Alan.

Doug gets taken (again) by Marshall, who threatens to kill him unless Alan, Phil and Stu bring him Chow. The search leads them first to Tihuana and, after unwittingly assisting Chow in stealing the remainder of Marshall's gold, once again in Las Vegas.

The wolf pack manages to return the villain to Marshall, but soft hearted Alan saves Chow's life, giving him 'a fighting chance'. Marshall and company bite bullets.

And Alan finds romance! Good for him!

6/10

Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog)

This film is all imagery and no plot.

Nearly everyone has seen the famous picture of the woman's eye about to be sliced by a razorblade and this is part of the sequence that opens the film.

Other images include a man riding a bike in a nun costume.

Ants crawling out of the palm of a hand (the man's in the nun costume).

A severed hand placed in a box and given to a woman, who is subsequently run over by a car.

Grand pianos, rotting monkeys, the Ten Commandments on tablets, two priests tied in ropes draged around the floor.

The list goes on and none of it makes sense. But it's all good, because it is not supposed to make sense. Actually, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí expected people to react negatively and expressed some disappointment when the opening night audience liked it. Allegedly, both had armed themselves with rocks as self-defense.

8/10

One Million Years B.C.

This film takes us, well, One Million Years B.C. Do not look for historical accuracy, however. Here men coexists with dinosaurs (maybe this is where Sarah Palin got the idea?) and is endangered by any number of oversized creatures.

The population is divided into the Rock tribe (dark haired, rough edged) and the Shell tribe (blond and Eloi-esque), both groups unaware of the other's existence until one day Tumak fall out of the Rock tribe nest after a fight with his brother. He spends the next 15 minutes stumbling through scenery, narrowly escaping some of the creatures. He barely makes it to the sea, dehydrated and collapses. It is there that he encounters the Shell tribe. They take him in and almost immediately, he clashes with his Shell equivalent.

Eventually he runs off with Luana, the bikini clad beauty that initially rallied up her fellow fisherwomen to save him. They return to the Rock tribe, where animosity reigns because Tumak's brother tried to kill his father (and chief) while out hunting.

Luana has been picked up and flown off by one of the evil creatures and is presumed dead. When father and son go head to head in battle, the group supporting the ousted father are joined by the Shell tribe, brought by Luana,who has returned to them injured and weak.

They prevail, but then a volcano erupts and the survivors (including Tumark and Luana, of course) are molded now into one tribe, destined to brave the new world together.

Hilariously ridiculous.

4/10

Film Quote

from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Innkeepers

Yet another ghost story.

With the owner of the Yankee Pedlar Inn vacationing in Barbados, two employees are left to man the front desk of the place in its final days. Both, Claire and Luke, are interested in ghosts and on a mission to record the sounds of one Madeline O'Malley, who is said to haunt the inn ever since she was killed and hidden in the basement.

Over the course of the last two days a total of four guests are in the house, a disgruntled mother with her young son, a former actress turned 'healer' and an old man insisting on renting a room on the already stripped third floor.

While Luke is off sleeping, Claire records the sound of a piano playing by itself, sees a disfigured ghost in a wedding gown and sits with the healer who warns her not to go into the basement. So, of course, Claire and Luke eventually explore the basement. Luke, who told of Madeline sightings before, freaks out and runs off. He also admits that he made everything up. This means that Claire is the only one to have seen the ghost of Madeline, apparently.

After she finds the old man dead of suicide, she runs off....and ends up in the basement once more where she is haunted now by not one but two ghosts, as the old guy has joined in the fun. She dies and Luke later finds her inhaler at the bottom of the stairs.

Most of this happens in the second half of the film. If you wonder what was going on in the first half - I honestly couldn't say. Basically, the film kicks off about 50 minutes in.

*shrug*

3/10

Movie 43

What. The. Fuck?

Why?

0/10