Sorry guys…the new term has started so I’m gonna be a lot busier again…I will try to write more than last term though! The first couple of weeks are the worst, I am reading about 5 Plays at once and also have to memorize some scenes, monologues and a song. If you have any suggestions for great scenes (or monologues), let me know! Now, back to movies:

Inglourious Basterds Right up front I have to say that I wasn’t as impressed with this film as most of you were. I generally am not interested in war films so I was expecting to not fall in love with it. I can say this much though: Christoph Waltz was as amazing as everyone is saying (coincidentally, he went to Strasberg, too ). He was the ultimate bad guy, enjoying every cruel thing he did so much that it was immensely fun to watch him. Actually, pretty much everyone was good in the film. Quentin really got the German acting-elite to be in his film. I also like the change in history because I was rooting for the Basterds (and the French girl) to succeed but didn’t expect them to. I can’t quite put my finger on what I didn’t like. Just a general feeling I guess. When it ended I didn’t think “Wow, this is a great film!”.

Waitress There was a preview toWaitresson theOnceDVD which looked funny so I put it on our Netflix queue. But I was really disappointed by it. It had so much potential! The main character Jenna (Keri Russel) was fun and likable, there was a lot of pie in the movie (which is always great) and the story was cute and had very good ideas. The problem was that it never quite followed the intention it had. I always thought “this could get funny” and then the scene ended. The editing was also strangely slow. It is a pity but I just can’t give this movie more than two MovieStars.

Four Weddings and a Funeral I absolutely love this movie. Of course I have seen it before but I hadn’t seen it in a really long time. Watching it again just made me remember how great it is. This film is just about everything there is. It is tragic, loving, witty and most of all hilarious. Hugh Grant is so great in this film. Normally I am not a fan of typecasting but he just plays the floppy haired, confused but sweet guy so well.

Iron Man I thought this film was gonna be absolute rubbish but I actually quite enjoyed watching it. I love how much of a bastard Robert Downey Jr. is. The plot is certainly new when it comes to Super Hero films. Although Iron Man did remind me a bit of Batman with the difference that Bruce Wayne is only acting being a macho guy who is in love with himself whereas Tony Stark (Iron Man) just is like that (obviously he does have a good side to him as well). I am looking forward to the sequel that is coming out soon.

Sherlock Holmes

The much anticipated Sherlock Holmes has been criticized a lot on other blogs. I wanted to see it for myself though because the trailer looked very promising. But I have to agree, it is not a brilliant film.

Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes) is very well casted. He always seems quick witted and he is a bit of a bad boy. Perfect. Jude Law (Dr. Watson) would not have been who I would have casted but he is really good in the role. The slightly homosexual chemistry between the two works very well. The way it is filmed is quite nice. It has a dark and mysterious feel to it. What I didn’t like was that the fighting scenes with Holmes were always shown twice. Once in slow motion where Holmes is planning what he will do and knows exactly what impact it will have on the other person and then its shown again when he executes his plan. This would have been fine if he had failed once or something unexpected would have happened once. This way it was just a waste of time.

What really killed the film was the plot. It was boring, long and everything was foreseeable. Holmes also never had a moment where he actually figures something out in front of the camera. He always already knows everything. In my view, this film had everything going for it, it just wasn’t well told. This seems to be the problem with a lot of the recent films. Or maybe we, as a society, have seen too many films already and nothing can really surprise us anymore. I surely hope not though!

It’s Complicated

You might think that this is a strange mixture for a double feature but I can explain it: We planned to watch The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnussus as a second film but it was screened on another floor and we couldn’t sneak into it. It’s Complicated was the only other film starting at that time. Obviously I am not the target audience for this film at all and from the first time I saw the preview for it I thought it would be a horrible film. So why did we go into the screening anyway? I am a movie geek, what can I say.

To my complete surprise it turned out to be a really sweet and funny film. Jane (Meryl Streep) and Jake (Aec Baldwin) have been divorced for ten years and Jake is remarried to a much younger woman. Jane has come to terms with her life as a single woman and has no real interest in meeting men anymore. At their son’s graduation Jane and Jake somehow end up sleeping together which then turns into a full blown affair. At the same time Jane’s architect Adam (Steve Martin) start courting her.

Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin are really fun in this movie. Baldwin surprised me a lot. He does comedy really well and is perfectly casted. Even though he is playing an unsympathetic guy, he is still likable. Steve Martin is a very strange choice for this role. He is very serious and straight. Not his normal goofy self. I had no idea he could be serious. Although he looks like he has been lifted which is a bit strange. The trio works well together. John Krasinski as Meryl Streeps son in law is also hilarious. Although he has been in a lot of movies that I have seen, I didn’t really notice him until I saw Away We Go. He is great though and  I am hoping to see him in more films as a leading character soon.

The plot itself is rather uninteresting. I have seen this exact story in plenty of other films. But It’s Complicated gets some points for being entirely about people in their 50’s and 60’s. I am sure that there are films about that age group but I really can’t remember one right now.  Even though its not a perfectly made film, it is fun to watch and I know plenty of people (who are more the target audience then I am) who would enjoy watching it.

Ally McBeal is a self-centered, neurotic, eccentric lawyer whose sole purpose in life is to find a man.

Even though the series is named after Ally (Calista Flockhart), it really is about the firm she works at, Cage & Fish (In fact I think the series should have been called Cage & Fish or something along these lines). Over the period of five seasons the lawyers who work at the firm change quite frequently.

In the first and second season Ally is working side by side with the love of her life, Billy (Gil Bellows). They were high school sweethearts until he left her and got married to the Barbie doll look-a-like Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith), who, of course, also works at Cage & Fish. Ally is still in love with Billy and has to learn to cope with the situation. This doesn’t prevent her from dating other men, though.

After Billy goes completely nuts and Georgia divorces him, he is diagnosed with a brain tumor and dies (I guess the story-line was getting old or the actor got another show). This changes Ally’s life considerably.

Now she is open for a new relationship. This comes in the form of the lawyer Larry (Robert Downey, Jr.). Finally Ally is happy and in a great relationship until he leaves her to go to Detroit to live near his son. Just because I only mention two of Ally’s boyfriends here doesn’t mean she is not dating. She has a different guy almost every episode. A nice wide variety of men.

Some of the other major characters in the series are John Cage (Peter MacNicol) who is not only a partner in the firm and the best lawyer in the series, he is also Ally’s best friend. Richard Fish (Greg Germann) is the other partner, a sex-obsessed, strange man with a fetish for women’s necks. Ally’s secretary Elane (Jane Krakowski) has a great passion for dancing and singing; the “rich bitch elitist ice queen” Nell (Portia de Rossi) dates John for a while but mostly hangs out with her equally mean friend Ling (Lucy Liu), who dates Richard. There are many others, too many to mention all of them here.

I have to say, the series is very intelligently done. It is really funny and witty. Ally, as wacky as she is, is a wonderful main character and it is great to watch her go through all the little disasters that she encounters. Calista Flockhart really did a great job as Ally, I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it. The cast work well together, a real mix of personalities that make it an absolute delight to watch this show (at least the first four seasons).

This series absolutely deserves the MovieCat award.