As Douglas is sent to kill Andrew so to save Damion from a hanging on Christmas Day in 1800s Australia as we discuss John Hilcoat’s 2005 film The Proposition

Show Notes

What We Watched:
Douglas [00:01:17]: It’s Complicated, Whip It
Damion [00:04:00]: Serious Moonlight, Book of Eli
Andrew [00:09:33]: LOST, Bad Sleep Well, Yojimbo, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Up In The Air, Antichrist, A Serious Man

News
Zooey Deschanel in HBO Groupie [00:23:23]
Reboots: Daredevil, Mr. and Mrs. Smith [00:25:35]
Ben Stiller’s 5th Directed film to start in April [00:32:31]
24 the movie [00:35:30]

Trailers
The Last Airbender [00:39:10]
Cop Out [00:47:09]
The Losers [00:52:45]

Review: The Proposition (2005) [00:59:34]

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So what if one Christmas Eve as Santa [Edward Asner] is doing his thing an orphan climbs into his sack and gets carried back to the North Pole and ends up being adopted by an elf and being raised as an elf while actually being a human?  Well this is what happened to Buddy [Will Ferrell] and eventually he kind of comes across the information that he isn’t an elf and that his biological father, Walter [James Caan], is on teh naughty list and wants to meet him.  So Buddy goes on a long journey to New York City and meets the family that could’ve been while sharing his Christmas cheer with the entire city.

Let me begin this post by noting that in case you are a weary parent wondering whether to watch this one with your children, be warned, this movie doesn’t exactly let the cat out of the bag but it definitely throws the idea out there on the Santa story.

I’m not the biggest fan of Will Ferrell.  He tends to overdo all of his characters and there are only a few of his films which it tends to work for me (i.e. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers) and this movie isn’t one of them.  Sometimes I just can’t become objective at all, I can’t step back and see that it isn’t one of the most annoying comedians in film today trying to be funny when he isn’t rather than someone honestly owning the role that he is in.  When last did Will Ferrell play it subtle?  Now maybe this movie didn’t ask for subtlety but my goodness can Mr. Ferrell be any louder?  I felt like all he did for ninety minutes was to shout randomly about anything Christmas and it just attached itself to the end of my spinal cord and make it shiver continually wondering when he’s going to stop.

Now, let me not be all doom and gloom.  This movie was not a complete travesty; there are some good points for sure.  Some of the casting is really good, like James Caan as the cold hearted businessman who is doing what he thinks is right (i.e. taking it all seriously and trying to do great at work to keep his family happy at home) rather than doing what might be more fun, like spending more time with his family and enjoying the holidays.  I also loved seeing Zooey Deschanel (as I always do) in the movie and it was great to hear her singing again (check out her music here if you don’t already listen to it) and also the best part of this movie has to be the scene with Peter Dinklage as Miles Finch.  The scene with Dinklage works for the main fact that you have Ferrell throwing out offensive midget jokes while he as well as the audience knows he just doesn’t know he isn’t an elf and that was honestly hilarious to see Dinklage take down a man about three times his size.

Overall here is another Will Ferrell film with not that much to offer than too few funny moments and too many not so funny moments.   I definitely will not be watching this movie again anytime soon and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless you are one of those die hard Will Ferrell fans.

IMDB says 6.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 83%

I say 4.0/10

Tom Hansen [Joseph Gordon-Levitt] works as at a greeting card company and his boss just got a new assistant, Summer Finn [Zooey Deschanel], that he falls in love with at first sight.  The movie takes u through the 500 days of Tom’s life with Summer, including the ups and downs.  The best way to summarize this movie is a story about love, but it isn’t a love story.

Since certain films I don’t get to see in theatres for a long while – if at all – I find myself always playing catch up and being hyped for films before walking in.  As much as I refuse to read proper reviews for films before I’ve seen it myself I’ll always read people’s small comments on twitter on see the glorified titles in my rss feed reader as I skip through all the posts they make every day.  So to say that this movie’s reputation preceded itself is maybe being coy.  However, I must agree 100% with critics that I’ve heard from on this movie.  This is one of the best movies of the year, and currently sits #1 on my list of top films of 2009.

For some reason I see every reason why someone would call this a romantic comedy, however I don’t think of this as one at all.  This is a romantic film told from the perspective of Tom and the 500 days of his life which consist of him falling in and out of love with Summer.  I love not only the moments which are sweet and charming but also the depressing sad times with Tom being crushed and eventually getting over her.  There are moments in the movie which were totally over fantasized by Tom, especially the great moments when everything was great between the two of them, but at the same time I kind of accepted it as fact because it was such a joy to experience the story through his thoughts.  The kicker in the movie for me was how we perceive the ending of relationship, we’re thrown into the middle of the story and am not sure what really happened and feel almost as dumbfounded as Tom as to why Summer decides to end it and then we’re treated to some depressing moments that can only be compared to the wonderful film from 2000 High Fidelity.

Marc Webb incorporates the correct amount of sweet and salty to bring us the correct flavour that tastes just right in a movie which will, I hope, show all the other generic romantic comedies what they can really be.  His use of time shifting in the film is wonderful in helping us understand every moment that occurs for Tom as he jumps from day 1 to day 255 and further throughout the film.  For all those out there who have gotten tired of the now mundane romcom that comes out every two to three months in the theatre this is for you.  Even if you’ve never had your heart broken there is a lot to relate to in the movie and you can empathize with Tom as he goes through his depression in the later part of these 500 days.

The perfect topping on this movie was the addition of Tom’s little sister, Rachel [Chloe Moretz], who plays the role of the honest female voice for Tom.  It is down right hilarious that a 10 year old is giving Tom insight into the female mind and also helping him cope with his dolor.

In the end I have to say that this movie is perfect in my eyes and I can’t wait to see it again.  I loved everything about this movie and I hope you do too.

IMDB says 8.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 87%

I say 10/10

New York City has been attacked. Across the city people are killing themselves. There is no explanation for this. Mass suicides are taking place. It is spreading all over the North Eastern coast of USA. Elliot Moore(Mark Wahlberg), a high school science teacher, and his best friend Julian(John Leguizamo) decide to leave the city with Alma Moore(Zooey Deschanel), and Julian’s daughter, Jess(Ashlyn Sanchez).

This movie will probably be the worst movie for the summer. I cannot think of any other huge release being this awful. I’ve decided that M. Night Shyamalan will never make another good movie for the rest of his career. However, I still think he is a good director, maybe if he decides to direct/produce films written by good writers then it may be better. But this movie is plain horrible.

The story starts out with this decent idea. Especially for a horror movie. I’ve always believed that the scariest thing ever would have to be something completely unexplainable. Something that no matter how much you try and rationalize you cannot understand or counter. And this is the best part of the movie, the premise. Every other part of this movie is terrible.

The acting is pretty bad. Mark Wahlberg, who I believe is an awesome actor, disappointed horribly. And I don’t blame him as much as I blame the lame dialogue and direction he was given by Shymalan. John Leguizamo, who I already don’t like as an actor, is also a terrible choice for the movie. Let’s remember Leguizamo was Luigi in “Super Mario Bros.” and Pestario in “The Pest”. The only movies I liked that Leguizamo were in are “Moulin Rouge” and “Ice Age”, everything else I’ve seen him do is crap. Zooey Deschanel has been creeping onto my radar recently as a fun movie girl. Meaning that she appears in movies that are no masterpiece but are fun, and if not overall, her performance is fun and enjoyable (eg. “Failure to Launch”, “Almost Famous” and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”), and she was okay in the movie.

Another horrible thing about this story is that Shymalan tries too hard that during this horrific time to try and give us this deep understanding into the relationship between Elliot and Alma. Like I understand that people are people, and will say some random things to each other, but in this circumstance I (the audience) doesn’t really need to hear that kind of stuff. Like in some movies you can look at it as a random comedic draw away from the main story line, but since the main story is so stupid to begin with then it makes it even less enjoyable to see these random moments in the two characters relationship.

One comment I must make about this movie is that half way through the movie I started to notice that the entire theatre was breaking out in laughter. And this made me think that maybe this is the next “Evil Dead”. A horror movie that takes itself way too serious, and just goes so over the top and becomes a cheesy comedy. Except I realized I didn’t find it very funny. Maybe it’s because I was just plain pissed at how horrible the movie was, and the fact that I took the time and money to go to the theatre for this one. Shymalan I will not be fooled again.

This movie is a definite pass. Don’t even rent it when it comes out at your DVD rental shop, and when it hits CABLE, skip it, go outside and play some football or something. If you paid to see it, please, join me in mailing a letter to M. Night asking for your ticket money back.

IMDB says 6.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 17%

I say 1.5/10