TED

Ted is the perfect mix of childhood fantasy, bad taste, and Boston! When I heard myself guffawing at fart jokes, pot jokes, and pussy jokes, I realized I was channeling my inner 13 year old boy. I was thoroughly enjoying Mark Walhberg (still hot), a teddy bear (Ted), and shots of my hometown (South End, Hatch Shell, Cambridge).


The movie premise being that as the result of a childhood wish, John Bennett's teddy bear, Ted, comes to life and has been by John's side ever since - a friendship that's tested when Lori (Mila Kunis), John's girlfriend of four years, wants more from their relationship. This comedy by "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane keeps the bad jokes coming while taking you on a visual tour of Boston not seen since The Town. (Ted also utilizes fabulous Fenway for it's tragi-comi ending.) Somehow there is a sweet love story thrown in the mix. 

Ted, unlike Trix, is not for kids but rather adults who still have some juvenile at haaart (sp).

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, discovers vampires are planning to take over the United States. He makes it his mission to eliminate them. The premise may have worked in print as written by Seth Grahame-Smith but it fails miserably on the big screen. Filmmakers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov take themselves far too seriously while the cast is wooden and bland. The terrifying creatures of the night are visceral and bloodthristy but not really all that scary. Apparently the undead made up the entire southern army. The special effects are decent and reminiscent of Burton's Dark Shadows, which at least had Johnny Depp and a few good jokes. Vampire Hunter should have a stake through it!


Personal Note: I did see this weak and laughable movie. I went as an homage to the Harvard Square Cinema, an institution for 28 years in Cambridge, which closes 7/8/12. Why? So Apple or another large chain can open? The Square has lost it's eclectic flavor and mirrors every vanilla mall across America. Freddie Taylor I salute your vision. I will miss the broken seats and lack of a first floor bathroom. See you on the 7th for the last Rocky Horror Picture show. 

Fenway 100 Celebration

Taped the most wonderful hour of TV I have seen in a long time. Reality TV at it's best and I'm an expert. The Fenway 100 Celebration on 4/20/12. I cried. We all have our favorite Fenway moment.

Beautiful day at the park with 100 old timers (Pesky, Yaz, Rice, Ekersley, Tito, Nomar and 94 more), the Pops on the field directed by "Maestro's" Williams and Lockheart, fans cheering, and then Petey and Millar with a Cowboy Up champagne toast at the end. We are really lucky to have Fenway, the heart of Boston, and be Sox fans, even if they then lost to the Yankees. I loved the way they did the celebration!

Yes, I am still a fan. I may even go back to stalking.

I did feel bad in a way that Theo was not there. He built those two WS Championships.

The Hunger Games

Skip dinner, pass on dessert, run to The Hunger Games which is playing on every screen at every theatre near you. You will be on the edge of your seat for the entire 2 hour & 20 minute spectacle. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a tyrannical government stages an annual televised competition of  young people fighting to the death. The Hunger Games is Mad Max meets Gladiator at the Olympics. I am not usually a fan of young adult or series literature (and I use the term "literature" lightly). I have never read a Harry Potter, The Girl with..., or Twilight novel. Yet the marketing for this movie was brilliant and "reaped" my interest. Casting is terrific featuring Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Lenny Kravitz, and Donald Sutherland as the "President". Hunks Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth are sufficiently hot and easy on the eyes. Costumes and make-up are outrageous, Nazi-esque futuristic sets are wonderfully overdone, and even the multiplying hairless Rottweillers are original. Yet the movie belongs to the talented Jennifer Lawrence. Any of you who saw her in Winter's Bone knew she had talent. A heart pounding race from start to finish. Bring on Hunger Games 2, I'm starving for this type of original action film!

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Long, grey, confusing and yet somehow intriguing! If you don't fall asleep you'll be riveted to the screen. Cast amazing, Gary Oldman Oscar worthy and Colin Firth always brilliant. "I know who he is."

The Iron Lady

"The Iron Lady" is a portrait of Margaret Thatcher, the first and only female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. One of the 20th century's most famous and influential women, Thatcher came from nowhere to smash through barriers of gender and class to become the Leader of the Conservative Party, a party which does not believe all men are created equal, but rather men--and women--are created to achieve, and achieve she does. Thatcher's "Just get up and do" ethic is evident to a fault as she leads England through a tumultuous time of union strikes, IRA bombings, a downturn in manufacturing, and mortgage defaults (sound familiar?).


The story swings chaotically between her humble beginnings as a grocer's daughter and Oxford graduate to head of Britain, and her later years filled with paranoia and hallucinations. Meryl Streep is dramatic and full of costumes & make-up as "MT". Yet, it all seems somewhat shrill, staged, and stiff, as if we are watching a wax figure from Madame Tussauds. You never loose Meryl in Margaret. The movie has no substance other than endless newsreels of Britain burning and/or warring in the Faulklands. The men who surround Margaret are one-dimensional, and terribly English, stiff, cold, and remote. 


Meryl plays Thatcher's sad descent into Alzheimer's with a mix strength and courage, yet it all seems horribly forced. Jim Broadbent, who is usually brilliant given a meaningful screen play, appears silly and foolish as Dennis Thatcher, her pompous husband. The performances are an effort rather than a gift. This was not Meryl's best role and the movie is a dud.

HUGO

Best said by the late Amy Winehouse, "They tried to make me go to HUGO and I said, no, no, no." Unfortunately, the good press on Martin Scorsese's fantasy piece, HUGO, drew me in. What is this movie about? Inventions, clocks, trains, movies? How likely is it that two kids will meet and both be orphans? Does it really snow that much in Paris?

Living in the walls of a 1930's Paris train station, which might actually be the present day D'Orsay, thirteen year old Hugo is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton. An automawhat?
Fantasy is not my preferred genre. Ben Kingsley was wasted, Sasha Baron Cohen was ridiculous, only the doberman seemed real. I think I'd prefer rehab!