Search This Blog and Bert Postings

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Shame (2011) Rating 7/10

Being a little generous here with the rating.  Fassbender walks around naked through this film with aplomb and perhaps deservedly so considering his endowment.  Sex addicts probably do exist.

Fassbender's character is so dopamine starved without sex that while clearly heterosexual, he has to go to a gay sex club to get .. serviced .. in a desperate moment.

To be that desperate for sex all the time defies belief a little.  But still I guess it could happen to people especially since it might be evolutionarily beneficial.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Rebound (2009) Rating: 6/10

From the cover, I had the vague idea that the actor in this movie, Justin Bartha, is cute.  It turns out he isn't bad looking here.  And in fact, my gaydar was set off pretty heavily while watching this movie.  This despite the fact he plays a nominally straight unlucky-in-love guy who gets picked up by the quite a bit older Catherine Zeta-Jones.  His character is just way too passive in a way that younger gay men can sometimes be when pursued.  He is pursued by Zeta-Jones in a way that might seem familiar to gay guys, if her character was male.  Maybe the script came from a gay guy, and Bartha's just an amazing actor.  (But if so, why would he try to act like a gay guy...)

I did a little online search and found that Bartha is currently cast as one-half of a gay couple in an NBC sitcom "The New Normal" which premiers in September.

Oh yeah, the movie review.  It's not very good.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Mirror, Mirror (2012) rating: 7/10

Another movie by Tarsem Singh who also directed Immortals and The Fall.  The story is better written in this case, and there are lots of moments of hilarity as well as his usual serving of male skin.  Armie Hammer mostly fits that bill playing the handsome prince who gets robbed of most of his clothing as he enters the evil queen's kingdom.

Mostly lightweight and sometimes self-aware, the film is easily watchable.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Rating 9/10

I usually don't see movies in the theaters except blockbusters. In this case, I had pre-ordered tickets before bad things happened on opening night in Colorado here in the US.  Because they were pre-ordered, I ended up going despite some apprehension about security.  Probably I wouldn't have gone on the first weekend otherwise.

It turned out to be a very good movie, exceeding my expectations, which admittedly had lowered somewhat after reviews stating it fell significantly short of the 2nd movie in the series.  Some thought has gone into the plot which is quite involving, and while not flawless, holds together reasonably well.  I've read criticism of the villain that he is not as well formed as in other Batman films.  While that may be true, it doesn't detract greatly from the film, I don't think.

Seeing the film in IMAX is a wonder. Projection and sound are very good.  Crucially the sound didn't seem overbearing.  The many action scenes are mesmerizing and even the dramatic scenes are well acted and shot and some quite moving in fact.

And I did like the attractive Joseph Gordon-Levitt quite a lot here playing the cop who seems to find out/know more than he should.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Albert Nobbs (2011) Rating: 7/10

I learned recently from a natural history museum that human males have a more prominent brow than females. I think this is one of the subconscious cues which caused me to never seriously consider Glenn Close as a male despite all the movies attempts to make this plausible.  While this lack of believability detracted from the movie, I did still very much enjoy the drama of the story.  As well, I applauded the prominence of the lesbian aspect of the story.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Oscar 2012 movies

The Artist:  Gimmicky and self-conscious. I'd seen a couple silent movies before this one and noticed the focus on expression, the 'mugging for the camera' and it seemed interesting and novel then. Extending that interest to this contrived throwback to the silent movie era was difficult. Uggie was amazing, but knowing that he was being coached throughout every scene from the sidelines detracted from the experience.  Rating 6/10

The Iron Lady:  Not really a flattering portrait of Margaret Thatcher. A union busting war-making Prime Minister. I'm afraid I didn't like the movie as much because I didn't like her. Meryl Streep is good though. Rating 6/10

Moneyball:  Better than expected considering I'm not a baseball or A's fan. Rating 7/10

Midnight in Paris:  Not so great, although Paris looks nice. Rating 5/10

The Descendants:  Wow, I really liked this movie. The acting is good. The story is good. A little laid back Hawaiian culture lesson. Plus a minor plot line about mega riches. One bummer is there are no good looking guys in this picture. Women may swoon over the popular and funny Clooney, but I find he's old and unattractive here. Rating 8/10

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Love in a Cold Climate (2001) Rating: 6/10

A PBS 'Masterpiece' mini-series with Rosamund Pike playing one of three female main characters who are of matrimonial age in the years just before WWII in Britain. An interesting period piece with good acting, including Anthony Andrews who played the self-indulgent Sebastian Flyte in the original Brideshead Revisited, but who is very noticeably 20 years older here. For the most part no good looking men here though.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Dirty Girl (2010) Rating: 6/10

A lightweight movie about a somewhat slutty teenage girl who doesn't know who her father is and an overweight closeted gay teenage boy whose father is onto him. They get teamed up on a school assignment and things spiral out of control from there. Script is okay and acting serviceable.

Monday, July 9, 2012

"Selda"/The Inmate (2007) Rating: 7/10

I'm being a little generous here.  This Philippine movie has a reasonably interesting and believable plot about inmates who become intimates.  One of them might even be straight.  It's unclear.  Acting is much much better than any other Tagalog movie that I've seen to date.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Baltimore Museums, overall rating: 7/10


American Visionary Arts Museum (AVAM): Interesting but smallish.  Steep entrance fee IMO (first weekend of the month, having a BofA card is helpful).  Black Icarus is quite nice.  Many mechanical devices in the sculpture building were broken (probably from all the use), but those that did work were fascinating.  A crafts fair had popped up there. Right next to a good view of Inner Harbor from Federal Hill.  Rating: 6/10

Walters: Some nice paintings and fine (well proportioned) greek sculptures.  Bonus: it's free.  Rating: 8/10

Baltimore Museum of Art: More nice paintings than Walters including Impressionists. Matisse's Blue Nude was out on loan, but this place is also free.  Rating: 8/10

Fort McHenry: A museum/historical site about war of 1812 and origins of the Key's Star-Spangled Banner anthem. I'm sorry to say, I didn't get the fever. Despite being on the water, the site isn't picturesque. Getting there and back was easy enough by bus. But I didn't find seeing inside the ramparts worth the time and $7 NPS entrance fee.  Rating: 5/10

Baltimore has a free purple line 'Charm' bus service which goes up and down Charles Street from Inner Harbor all the way up to Penn Station (as well as lines in other directions), and the visitor center at Inner Harbor is spacious and welcoming.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

The Adventures of Tintin (2011) rating: 8/10

I would think Spielberg decided to do a Tintin film after quite a lot of research into whether author Hergé was truly an anti-Semite. Or at least an conscious and overt one. Since it appears not to be the case, we get to enjoy a nice movie in a style of a comic book.

Stars of this film are beautifully rendered computer imaginations of Tintin and dog Snowy. I found Snowy particularly adorable while being amazingly dog-like. Tintin is too baby-faced to be handsome, but the character is brave enough and too surprisingly familiar with violence (guns and punching) to be an innocent boy.

Wikipedia says Tintin follows a scouting ethic. Further research.. it seems only 4 countries allow scout promises without reference to 'God': France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Israel. Hergé's Belgium now notably absent from this list.  Well, at least there are four rather than zero.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) rating: 7/10

Complex movie and plot wasn't fully explained I don't think. I was confused by the end. I guess I should have read the book. The online spoiler explained it to me, but by then it was anti-climatic.

I think I would have liked a little more hand-holding and hints in development of the 4-5 suspect characters which might have given away the ending, but at least I would have been more invested in it. I suppose the screenplay might have been constrained in attempting to follow the book and author who is still alive. Too bad.

There is a very very tiny gay interest subplot.

The Avengers (2012) rating: 6/10

The story is about the quality of say a Transformers film which I would say contains 0-1 obvious groaners (groaner: a time where I would say: "I can't believe they put that in the script"), but also close to zero true novelty or interesting plot devices.

A fair amount of eye candy of these forms: explosions, fights, high speed flying/chasing.  But none of the male leads are particularly attractive.

Monday, April 30, 2012

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) rating: 8/10

The actors are more attractive in this Hollywood version of the Swedish film. I liked Plummer, Craig and Mara. Craig is notably better looking than his Swedish counterpart who had a fat face and wasn't in terribly good shape. This also lends significant realism (in my mind anyway) to the nominally lesbian Lisbeth's sexual pursuit of his character which didn't exist in the original.

While there is a certain lack of authenticity about

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer, rating: 7/10

The most valuable part of the book is the description of elements of improving creativity.

Having a more dominant right hemisphere of the brain is one thing that might not be altered (does a lefty automatically have an advantage here?). Being in a good mood could also be difficult to contrive.

But working in a blue room is condition which could be effected. So is having an environment encouraging lack of inhibition, yet allowing criticism of others, and featuring interaction with experts in various other fields. Just pretending oneself not to be an expert in a field is an interesting trick (prevents rejecting ideas out of hand).

Meanwhile the reader is treated to the secrets of the creative successes of Pixar, 3M and even Shakespeare.

###
August 2012: It appears Lehrer made up Bob Dylan quotes in the book.  I wonder why he would do that.  To spice it up, I guess.  How did he think it would get away with it?

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Drive (2011) rating: 8/10

I have not previously been inclined to like Ryan Gosling, but he's great and surprisingly (!) not unattractive here as the talented but directionless protagonist named 'Driver'. The dvd extras invoke Hitchcock, but I think rather Kurosawa. Driver is the quiet tough guy that does right in an unfriendly world. The driving scenes are mesmerizing and the soundtrack inspired. There is a great stylishness to the scenes. One of few films that I think I'll want to see again in a short time.

The Danish director, Nicholas Refn, gives a charming interview in the dvd extras. He seems a little more strange, yet interesting here.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

J. Edgar (2011) rating: 8/10

I confuse J. Edgar Hoover a bit with Joseph McCarthy who was sort of his contemporary and also is currently seen as gay. But in my view McCarthy is observed as a greater hypocrite in that he actually attacked homosexuals while being gay himself. On the other hand, Hoover's discreet acquisition of secrets about Presidents is presented here as political self-defense of his position and his new bureau. In this movie, his motivations are shown as attempts to protect the country against communism, and his racism is shown out of context, such that we're not sure whether to fully believe them true of the man.

So the movie does a fairly effective salvage job with Hoover, meanwhile in his personal life showing him having an intimate, but non-physical relationship with Clyde Tolson. I agree with other reviewers that DiCaprio's accent is a bit intrusive. In their old makeup, DiCaprio and Armie Hammer are at times convincing and at others not really with DiCaprio moving his arms and long fingers far too fast for a fat old guy.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Immortals (2011) rating: 6/10

Shirtless Henry Cavill and Kellan Lutz -- nice abs -- cavort through this Greek (but really, I think, more Roman-like) gods and men and titans supernatural action flick.  Visuals are great.  Directed by an Indian fellow, I believe.  Is he possibly gay?  I ask because of the amount of male nipple shown versus any female flesh.  In any case, male casting was excellent.  The story barely holds together though.

Watching the DVD extras is actually helpful to understand what happens.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The Debt (2010) rating: 7/10

Each character has two actors playing their roles.  One for 30 years ago.  The other for today.  They decided not to use makeup (making young actors look preternaturally old).  Probably a good choice because I ended up only liking two of the character+actor combinations from different times.  Mirren is great as the old Mossad lady.  How is it that she looks so, um, stereotypically, Jewish here?  And Sam Worthington is sometimes stunning as one of the young Mossad agents.  His older counterpart, played by Ciarán Hinds (Julius Caesar from Rome mini-series), is like Worthington fallen down some horrific cliff, which I suppose is always within the realm of possibility in 30 years, but would be one of those "God! What happened to him?" cases.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

San Diego Museums, overall rating: 4/10

Museum of Photographic Arts: wildly overrated in tour books, small, uninteresting

Timken Museum of Art: can't complain too much about free, but small, has a few very slightly above average paintings, weird old building

San Diego Museum of Art: better than above (not saying much); medium sized with some good paintings

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and La Jolla: rotating exhibitions; downtown was better with very interesting Isaac Julien and Ai Wei Wei pieces (downtown rating: 6/10)

Monday, January 2, 2012

The Princess of Montpensier (2010), rating: 7/10

French movie about a love triangle (quadrangle arguably) takes place during the period of 17th century France when Catholics and Protestants warred.  A wealthy heiress's marriage is arranged counter to her desires for her childhood sweetheart.  Her jealous (but IMO better looking) husband reacts with the typical mate guarding behaviors.  Nevertheless, the old flame stays alive.