W.
Directed by Oliver Stone
Starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn
Rated PG-13
Release Date: October 17, 2008

Any comedian will tell you the secret to a good joke is to make it accessible, have a good setup, and kill with the punch line. I don’t know that there is necessarily a golden formula but this seems like pretty sound advice on a general level. I suppose variations of the same thing can be said about making movies. Director Oliver Stone had nothing if not a golden setup. A movie about the exiting President of the United States, while he is still in office, mere days before the election that would remove him from power, and with just enough time to reflect on his last eight years in office. Stone, being no stranger to controversy or films of historical significance, seemed to be in a perfect position to move in for the kill. Instead we got what those in retail refer to as the old “˜bait and switch’.

W. does show us what we expected to see from this movie; that George W. Bush (Josh Brolin) grew up as a hard partying man of privilege who rarely had to deal with consequences for anything he did or said. He was an irresponsible, womanizing, carousing, spoiled little rich kid who wouldn’t and couldn’t hold a job. Any trouble he got into was fixed by a phone call from his father, George H.W. Bush (James Cromwell). It also told how Dubya fell ass-backwards into politics and eventually became the leader of the free world. It would almost be an inspiring “little engine that could” type story, if not for knowing the details about how everything actually turned out. The pre-release posters and trailers suggested the movie would be a caustic illustration of the rise and fall of the 43rd President of the United States. Turns out, W. shows a surprising lack of poignancy, political or otherwise.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
Directed by Robert B. Weide
Starring Kirsten Dunst, Simon Pegg, Jeff Bridges, Danny Huston, Gillian Anderson
Rated R
Release date: October 3, 2008

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People reminds me of a dog I had when I was a kid. It was this huge Great Dane that would lumber around and trip all over himself and destroy anything in the process. Anyone who saw him for the first time would be scared to death of him, but he was dumb as a bag of hammers and just a harmless. That’s pretty much where the comparison stops because I loved that dog and still have fond memories of him. On the other hand, I saw the movie late last night and can barely remember it enough to write this review.

Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) runs a British celebrity rag and makes a living pissing people off; crashing celebrity parties to get close to people more famous than him and patting himself on the back when he is successful at doing so. In his pocket he proudly keeps a laminated photo of himself in the wrong end of a Clint Eastwood headlock. He’s that guy.

Choke
Directed by Clark Gregg
Starring Sam Rockwell, Angelica Huston, Brad William Henke, Kelly Macdonald
Rated R
Release Date: September 26, 2008

Before a single scene was ever filmed, the movie Choke was at a disadvantage. Whether or not the film would be any good was of little relevance. It was already handicapped by two inevitable comparisons: to the Chuck Palahniuk novel the movie was based on and to David Fincher‘s Fight Club, also adapted from a Palahniuk book. They are comparisons are for obvious reasons, but in the interest of continuing that fairness I watched this movie with two thoughts in mind. One, this wasn’t going to be Fight Club. Choke didn’t have the director, stars, or the budget to even come close to competing. Two, and most importantly, the books are always better. Saying you didn’t like a movie adapted from a book because it wasn’t as good as the book is like saying you didn’t like Star Wars because you don’t like science fiction. I’m not saying it’s not possible or that some films haven’t come close, it’s just a stupid thing to say.

Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) has, what could be described as, baggage. Lots of baggage. He is a sex addict struggling to complete his recovery. He has a go-nowhere job as a historical interpreter at a colonial-era reenactment community. His mother, Ida (Angelica Huston) is in the hospital with a form of dementia that prevents her from recognizing Victor even though he visits daily. He had to drop out of med school to work and pay for his mother’s medical care. His job doesn’t sufficiently meet all of the financial requirements of the hospital so he has resorted scamming people. He goes to nice restaurants and pretends to be choking so unsuspecting patrons will “˜save’ him, feel bad, and send him money. Money he uses to pay for his mother’s hospital stay. A mother that doesn’t recognize him or deserve the attention she is getting. You get the idea; he’s got problems.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Season 4, Episode 1-2
FX Network

As many of the episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as I have seen, and as many of them as I have reviewed for this site, I have always enjoyed them with bated breath. They are generally pretty funny in their own right but I can’t help that little whispering voice in the back of my head warning me that the other shoe is bound to drop. For a show with no real direction that can be described as controlled chaos at best, I have complained in previous reviews that the show was beginning to rely too much on a shock and awe approach rather than creating their own mythology that could carry the show through weaker episodes. I went back and watched a handful of old episodes on DVD before I previewed the first two episodes of season four: “˜Mac & Dennis: Manhunters’ and “˜The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis’. What I found out was that in their avoidance of being stuck with a label, they have created that mythology by default. They have taken Seinfeld’s mantra — “Nobody learns, nobody hugs” — to unforeseen heights.

Son of Rambow
Directed by Garth Jennings
Starring Will Poulter, Bill Milner
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release date: August 26, 2008

I don’t know where this stuff starts. For months I had heard about this movie, the darling of the festival circuit, and had been interested in its premise. Two British lads inspired by a bootlegged copy of the movie Rambo: First Blood set out to make their own version of the film to try and win a young filmmaker competition. Sounds promising but there’s only one small problem: It was boring as hell.

I sat down to watch Son of Rambow one evening and fell asleep halfway through it. I woke up a couple hours later and finished it. Feeling I didn’t give it a fair shake, I waited until the next day and re-watched it in its entirety. What conclusions did I draw the second time around? That I was right the first time.

I know it’s supposed to be cute and endearing to watch kids do things usually reserved for adults but I just didn’t care about these kids or their actions. You’ve got your basic buddy story setup. Lee Carter (Will Poulter), the most misbehaved kid in school, bullies classmate Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) into hanging out with him. Wouldn’t you know, along the way they grow into actual friends. Neither kid seems to have any real guidance around him at home.