Three Kings (1999)

 

David O. Russel delivers both an entertaining Hollywood movie and a message about the absurdity of war. War is about greed. Greed for land, power, and money, and everything that comes with having those things. The antidote is empathy, which is in short supply. The film delivers a somewhat hopeful message of how empathy can occasionally cut through that greed to do some good. 

Rating: B

Beastie Boys Story (2020)

Full disclosure: I’ve been a Beastie Boys fan all my life. For a long time they were my favorite band. I’ve seen them live multiple times and listen to their stuff as much now as I did back then. So yeah, I was pumped for this.

Pumped and completely biased, as I believe all critics and journalists should be. Oh, you don’t like your human journalists to have opinions and biases that trickle into their work? That’s too bad, go get your news from a ferret then.

Back to the movie. It’s an absolute thrill listening to Mike and Adam regale a live audience, and us viewers by extension, with stories from their youth; casually name dropping dope ass punk bands they saw in their early teens like Bad Brains, Misfits, and Circle Jerks. Why didn’t I get to grow up in New York City mom? WHY?!?!

The documentary plays in real time, and was filmed on the last night of their Broadway show. Mike and Adam talk to the audience and then Spike Jonze rolls video clips. Did you know Beastie Boys opened for Madonna on her very first tour? Neither did I. There’s some mind blowing stuff in this thing.

They were just some dumb kids who stumbled into fame and went with it. They made mistakes along the way and learned from them. It's a fun two hour ride. I had a smile on my face the whole time. If you are a fan of the B-Boys, you will too.

Rating: B

Her (2013)

Quite a strange film about love and the future. I recently watched a similar premise on the fantastic series Black Mirror from the UK. It’s a great concept with almost limitless plot possibilities. I felt this film sometimes got distracted by the details, some of which were brilliant, but others seemed farfetched.

Rating: C+

Jackass: The Movie (2002)

Whew. That's tough to get through. I've never really watched the show on MTV, so the characters and stunts were all fairly new to me. I can't imagine what makes these guys want to do the things they do. Sure, I know they find it funny and entertaining, but it's a hell of a way to become famous and make money.

The hardest thing for me to watch was the paper-cuts between the fingers and toes. Ouch. I wouldn't say the movie is funny as much as a train wreck you can't look away from.

Rating: C

Where The Wild Things Are (2009)

My expectations were very high considering the collaborators on this project. Turns out the Wild Things costumes were the best thing about the film. It's pretty amazing what Spike was able to do with them. The story, however, left me bored and disinterested.

The interactions between characters was childlike—which didn't appeal to me as an adult. Ironically, this movie would bore actual children to tears; when it wasn't scaring the crap out of them. Essentially, this means the movie has no audience.

Rating: D-