Better Off Ted (2009)

I am very glad I finally made time to watch the eminently quirky Better Off Ted. This show is a joy and a hoot (intelligently so)! Ted (Jay Harrington) is the smart, moral, friendly, likable, tongue-in-cheek R&D manager at Veridian Dynamics, a mega corporation so large and diversified that it can chide GE even as it develops its own weaponized or genetically modified vegetables, tests cryonically freezing employees, uses children from its corporate daycare center as unpaid custodians, and commits a panoply of other human rights violations for profit (because, according to Ted’s boss, “the company never parts with [money] unless forced to by a government stronger than they are -- and there's only three of those left”). Portia de Rossi is excellent as Veronica, the blithely immoral and punctilious R&D director. (“It's gonna be a fantastic new tool, if we can get it to tell the difference between soldiers and children.”) Jonathan Slavin and Malcolm Barrett are superb as the firm’s two top R&D scientists (so nerdy). Andrea Anders is perfect as an R&D tester who is Ted’s unrequited love interest. (She wants him, but he’s too moral to go there – for work reasons, but he is also a single dad: “I don’t have the energy for a onesome.”) The ensemble cast has exceptional chemistry. Particularly entertaining are the company commercials, included in nearly every episode, promoting questionable stances on ethics or morality. ("Veridian Dynamics. Making your world better. Whether you want us to or not." Or, “Our robot servants are programmed to not be dangerous. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t. Please don’t taunt our robot servants.”) Better Off Ted is eminently quotable for fans of over-the-top irony and sarcasm. The writing is well above average. Enjoy! 5 stars. (4-27-2016)

Tea with Mussolini (1999)

Tea with Mussolini presents a semi-autobiographical story that is finely crafted and meticulously told. His biological father’s disinterest causes Luca (the director, as a boy) to be taken in by the man’s secretary and a circle of art-loving English expatriate women in Florence, Italy known as the “Scorpions.” The brash American heiress Elsa (Cher) secretly sets up a trust fund for Luca’s education and all the women (esp. Judi Dench and Maggie Smith) teach him their indelible love of culture and art. As Fascists multiply and security devolves, the women insist on speaking their minds directly with Benito Mussolini over tea; his unctuous reassurance of a personal interest in their safety is apparently insincere, but the former British ambassador’s widow (Smith) retains her admiration and faith in him to nearly the last. Ultimately, as war looms and Jews are being rounded up, the truth becomes apparent and secret steps must be taken to safeguard their lives. Ultimately, the women’s pluck and grit carry them to a final defense of their adopted city and its treasures, and Luca returns to them full circle. The revelations that arise across the intervening years’ developments ring a clarion call for free will, courage, and faith in humanity. It is much better than The Grass Harp meets Miracle at St. Anna. Enjoy! 5 stars. (4-27-2016)

Halt and Catch Fire (2014)

Halt and Catch Fire is Mad Men meets Steve Jobs (any one of a half-dozen films), with a theme song ripped off from The IT Crowd (but improved). I finished the final episode of Season 2 on April 1 (via streaming, since that season is not yet available on DVD), and I look forward to the greenlighted Season 3. First of all, the show’s explanation of the term “halt and catch fire” is mythical; as a machine language operator, HCF was a wry in-joke, appearing on a list of dozens of other terms such as “fire photon torpedoes” and “halt until after lunch.” Second of all, the monomaniacal visionary character may be a bit more psycho than Jobs ever was. (Jobs could be more devious and emotionally destructive, but I doubt he was a pyromaniac with control issues over flat-chested female hackers and had sex with even men to manipulate them. While it is true that being placed for adoption was a motivation to prove himself to the world at large, Jobs greatly respected his adoptive father, who served as a character and product quality touchstone throughout his life.) This series is most captivating in the first season, when the brainstorm that has morphed into a paradigm-shifting start-up company, and then an EDS-like corporate division with a good-old-boy CEO, is working to reverse-engineer and then be first to market with an IBM PC clone (before it sees a Macintosh prototype). The second season revolves around the development of a woman-owned alt/rebel online community that cannot decide whether games or chat rooms (community) are its raison-d’être, but it is just not as exciting (in a business, engineering, or psychotic sense). Because of my career path, I would not miss an episode of this series, although I find a raft of other shows more suspenseful and gripping. 4.5 stars. (4-27-2016)

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

Memoirs of a Geisha is a sumptuously designed and filmed exposition (largely historical) of the geisha traditions of Japan during the transition to modernization before and after World War II. The film had its critics but seems to stand on its own merit as it tells a powerful and captivating tale of courtly subterfuge and eventual transcendence. The impoverished family of Chiyo, age 9, sells her to a geisha academy, where she will be cultivated in the womanly arts and serve at the whim of the conniving headmistress and a manipulative head geisha. Being auctioned off for life and deflowered by a rich or possibly scabby patron will also be involved. (Take a lifelong Miss America competition, throw in a few seasons of Survivor and Big Brother, plus maybe Fear Factor and Blind Date, and you may have a running start.) Seriously, I do not mean to belittle the historically based narrative, but Chiyo has to repeatedly fight her way through challenges and setbacks to ultimately gain the full respect of others as well as control over her own career. (Then, after WWII tanked her career into the historical dustbin, she had to face the caricatures that Western society made of her once noble profession.) This is an exotic and beautiful story that I would readily watch again. 4.5 stars. (4-27-2016)

Grimm (2003)

This modernized Dutch riff on Hansel and Gretel has Jacob and Marie, ages 15+, abandoned in the forest by their poor and selfish parents. So they are cut loose in the world, with no food or money or resources, to fend for themselves. They find a note from their mother suggesting that they go live with their uncle in Spain, but it turns out he has died. So their journey, from sleeping on the ground in the forest to walking and riding a bus or a train, begins with turning sexual tricks to earn cash. At one point, Marie (with Jacob) is taken in by a well-to-do man (living with his ill sister) that Marie intends to marry, but complications ensue. (Brother and sister are devoted to each other through everything, and there is nothing incestuous as some assert. It would be PG-13 though.) It’s a puzzling narrative on the whole, and one that ought to be followed as it unfolds, like any travelogue. 3.5 stars. (4-26-2016)

Primer (2004)

Primer is a movie that grinds my gears because its proponents say it is complex and momentous – labels I would personally confer on Memento or Pi. So let me tell you, for all its technojargon and pseudo mumblecore wannabe indie virtue, Primer is no Pi and it is certainly no Memento. Primer was made on a budget of $7K, which its fans claim as a virtue, but to which I say: If you made a Viennese sacher torte of a movie on a shoestring budget, that would be awesome – but you made a chicken pot pie on a shoestring budget, so what’s the big deal? The dialog is largely unintelligible throughout – and I have watched the film 3 times over 6 years, each time trying to give it another chance. (Now on streaming, you can watch it as much as you like.) The technobabble makes little sense, even to an engineer; at least it avoids (I think) “subspace damping fields” and “resonance coils.” Primer’s fans write tracts and treatises online trying to explain the brilliance of the plot; since when did needing extrajudicial explanations make a murky, turgid plot as slim and elegant as Esther Williams? A movie is good if it stands on its own and doesn’t leave you ten times more confused than when you started. A movie is brilliant if it hits you with a lightning flash near the ending, and successive viewings fill in the gaps of your perception because it was already all there to see in the first place. Memento meets this test in spades; Primer falls far short. (Sorry, “too cool to comprehend” is not a movie category.) What really burns my brisket though is to find that Primer partisans have stuffed the ballot box at Netflix by submitting 3,184 5-star “reviews” – of which I estimate more than 80% are duplicates and nonreviews. Hackery is one sin; arrogance is another; dissembling is a third; but hijacking just takes the cake. Burn this piece of celluloid to the ground. 1.5 stars. (4-26-2016)

Citizen Dog (2004)

Citizen Dog admittedly does remind me of Amelie, the delightful French film with impeccable cinematography that cornered the market on wild whimsy in 2001. In contrast to whimsy, however, Citizen Dog gives us a steady dose of magical realism, drawn in bright colors but with limp acrylics and clotted composition; its palette is eye-popping, but the scene composition is cluttered and the story has a weak emotional impact. In a word, you grow deeply fond of Amelie and her inner world, while Pod and Jin are cute but misguided and at best (p)lucky. Amelie achieves her goals by intentional and moral choices; Pod and Jin do so by accident. Quirkiness is integral throughout the script of Amelie; it is episodic to Citizen Dog. The moral of Amelie might be “Random acts of kindness can change the world”; the stated moral of Citizen Dog is "You don't always find what you're looking for. Sometimes it's when you stop looking that it just finds you." I could watch Amelie every day for years and not grow tired, but I would watch Citizen Dog one more time, because it is inventive and cute. Where else do you have a friend who gives you a daily moped ride to work, but doesn’t wear a helmet, so one day he has become a moped-riding zombie? Where else does a jetsetting young woman get in your cab who looks and talks like a little girl, but smokes and swears? Where else do you find a cigarette-smoking teddy bear who swears? (OK, Ted and Ted 2 – but that teddy is a savant compared to this fuzz-for-brains.) It’s endearing that Jin has a compulsiveness to clean and organize things, and is fixated on the foreign tome she constantly peruses (longs to be able to read), but that did not work out as she hoped in the end. So her next obsession is to collect recyclables, until she has built a mountain of plastic that reaches to the moon. With Amelie, the story is a banquet and its culmination is the dessert; with Citizen Dog, the story is amusing but unsubstantial, and the ending leaves you wondering if the gecko tail between your fingers will hold. 4 stars. (4-26-2016)

The Worst Week of My Life (2004)

The BBC’s The Worst Week of My Life came out 4 years after the USA’s Meet the Parents, and the star often resembles Ben Stiller, so there is that. However, each ensuing catastrophe in Worst easily outmatches those in Meet the Parents. Both are ensemble films, with each character getting in their own lines and licks; you get to know them through the disasters they fear and then face. And what disasters! Literally everything this poor schmuck (the would-be groom) does, goes wrong – so very wrong – and often more than once! This is a miniseries (one episode per day) depicting the ultimate train wreck in all-one-happy-family experiences. Being a British production, the characters take a heartbeat or two longer than Americans are used to seeing, when they react and pause for dramatic or comic effect. Because so many of the snafus are serious in nature, I suspect this is why some US viewers feel uncomfortable or awkward with the developments. (You wouldn’t want to be in the same county as this guy’s shoes, much less imagine walking in them.) Even his sweet homely secretary gets put through the wringer – though she also introduces the final happiest moments. (Warning to animal lovers: Part of the story line involves a beloved pet that comes to an accidental end. Best to skip this show if you can only imagine a pet being coddled and stuffed with treats.) I’m glad I got hold of this show – it was a Very Long Wait title so I stuck it at the top of my queue until it came through. 4 stars. (4-25-2016)

The Nightingale (2015)

The Nightingale (2015) is a bit cloying but lets us feast on sumptuous landscapes across China as a grandfather reconnects with his precocious young granddaughter during a cross-country trip from Beijing to his old village, where he hopes to fulfill a promise made to his wife before losing her more than 18 years previously. The trip does not go as planned, and complications embed themselves one after another, but the grandfather welcomes and adapts to change, although his estranged son and daughter-in-law are high-profile urban professionals who would probably kill him if they knew the details. The granddaughter has been weaned on her iPhone and iPad and can be a bit snotty; she once even throws her grandfather’s iPhone into the bushes because it is a 4S and hence “old.” In time, she learns the joys of playing with children, swimming outdoors, and exploring nature. Meanwhile, dark clouds border on the privileged but disappointing marriage shared by her parents. The last 5 minutes wrap a tidy bow on the otherwise organically developed story, with a happy ending for all. The nightingale is the adaptive and unifying metaphor. This is a gorgeous movie and a sweet story that I would watch again in a heartbeat (and can, since after returning the DVD, I see it is now available via streaming). 4.5 stars. (4-25-2016)

Key & Peele: Season 1 (2012)

These guys have been around for 5 seasons and I just heard of them? Proof that I don’t watch much TV. They have been friends since school age and are completely tight and hilarious while riffing off each other; their timing and spontaneity are impeccable. They follow the Chappelle Show format of opening with a personal riff on a theme to introduce prerecorded sketches along those lines (usually race- or gender-related), but they mix it up a bit more in between; they’ll do fake commercials but also random things. As always, I will update this review as I view, but season 1 strikes me as about as funny as the Chappelle Show, but less funny than one of my all-time faves, Boondocks. Yet the production values are exceptional and these boys present some great material: frequently we see Obama’s “anger interpreter,” Luther, who is so classic that he appeared at a White House event at Obama’s request; let us not forget “B**CH” (scope out the full perimeter before whispering the word); not to mention the mismatched gay couple, two slaves on the auction block, dueling magical Negroes, the irrepressibly affable taxi driver, the sneaky Negro-hunting Nazi, and Obama using reverse psychology on the Republicans. My initial 3.5 stars will doubtless glide up to 4 stars. Enjoy! (4-22-2016)

Entrapment (1999)

Sean Connery has “shtill got it” and Catherine Zeta-Jones is quite alluring (even with her little raccoon eyes) in this heist (though I’d say cat burglar) thriller. CZJ’s insurance detective wants to finger SC’s known art thief, so she inveigles her way into a partnership (which he makes a rule never to muddle with romance). She begins her training under his tutelage, esp. to wind her way (like a cat) through a mockup of the motion-sensor laser beams that protect their priceless quarry, locked in a vault to which only she knows the code. Sufficient plot twists and chemistry make this a movie I would watch again (even if Sean does not speak the line “There can only be one!”). It was better than expected – more Maiden Heist than James Bond, but it held my interest and could do so again. Entrapped! 4 stars. (4-21-2016)

The Letters (2015)

I enjoyed seeing The Letters on DVD, since I missed it in the theaters. It reminds me of Jon Voigt in Pope John Paul II (2005), which I also give 4 stars, because while admirable in nearly every way for its production values (script, cinematography, sound, and so on), certain aspects of this film move along at the same steady clip as the rest of the story. As a result of this film’s aim to faithfully depict the life and ministry of Mother Teresa, a certain paint-by-numbers panache develops. (For example, the “call within a call” that Teresa heard on the train is “God’s will” – and those two words remain virtually her only explanation for the sweeping changes she brought to birth for her own life, for the now 4,000 nuns in her order, and for the Church itself, which had rarely if ever released a cloistered nun to live and minister outside of the convent, much less in the filthiest slums of Calcutta, and had not approved a new religious order in 100 years. In this script, each authority, from a municipal manager to the bishop to the cardinal, favorably reviews her applications and passes them along, often the very next day. On the other hand, her patience and grace in awaiting their reply is exemplary.) Juliet Stephenson is wonderful as a living representation of Mother Teresa. Max Von Sydow as her spiritual director, to whom she wrote letters describing the intensely personal spiritual struggle she faced for 60 years, is suitably taciturn as the frame within which we hear the story. Rutger Hauer is the one who presents her case for sainthood to the Vatican. As the director said in the “making of” extra segment, “Every four or five hundred years, someone like this comes along.” Who would not want to watch, listen, and learn as much as possible from so great an example of compassion and humanity? 4 stars. (4-21-2016)

Star Wars: Rebels: Season 1 (2014)

Star Wars: Rebels is not quite as good as any of the several Star Wars: Clone Wars series (but it is Star Wars, so let’s not nitpick). Well, the animation is better (maybe because they based it on Ralph McQuarrie’s original art designs) but the story is slower and the characters are less compelling. Much of the familiar voice talent is back, though. The setting is between the first movie trilogy and the second one (which to me will always be “the first” because it came out first). We don’t know it yet, but Obi-Wan and Yoda are in hiding until more Force-sensitive Jedi trainees may be found; an aptitude test hidden in semi-plain sight helps identify Ezra, who stumbles into joining the mission of the Ghost crew. Nor do we know it yet, but Darth Vader continues his campaign to hunt down and kill every surviving Jedi and their future trainees; Anakin Skywalker’s padawan Ahsoka Tanoh will appear presently, as an Inquisitor named Kallus ably pursues the crew of the Ghost. I will update this review once I finish the series, but it seems quite promising, at least in its sincerity at preserving the Star Wars tradition and carrying on the story line. 4 stars. (4-20-2016)

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2010)

I greatly enjoyed Dylan Dog, because of its idiosyncratic worldview (creatures of the night walk among us, looking not that differently from some mortal humans) and light quirky take on the script. Routh is not that good an actor, but he does fine in this role; everyone does well enough, really. This is not meant to be an Oscar nominee; it is Blood Simple meets Hellboy (but more laid back). I would not mind watching it again; in fact, I am thinking of owning it. 4.5 stars. (4-20-2016)

The Proposal (2009)

The Proposal is a nicely done romantic comedy with decent performances by everyone in the cast but esp. the romantic couple (Sandra Bullock as a demanding book publishing editor and Ryan Reynolds as her put-upon executive assistant) and the federal agent determined to root out immigration fraud through marriage (played by Ben Stiller's sandwich-sneaking shrink in There's Something About Mary). Like Rene Zellweger's New in Town, The Proposal borders on being formulaic but keeps the plot development and twists subtle enough that it remains a feel-good movie on the whole. I like it better than New in Town and Bridget Jones 2 but not as much as Fools Rush In, There's Something About Mary, or Bridget Jones 1. In a word, I would not mind seeing it again sometime. Enjoy! 3.5 stars. (5-12-2010, posted 4-15-2016)

The Great Raid (2005)

I enjoyed The Great Raid very much – the story of the January 1945 rescue of 511 American soldiers from a POW camp in Japanese-occupied Luzon, Philippines (and still the biggest rescue in US military history). Basically, I agree with Roger Ebert: This movie’s focus is on the full story, on how and why wars are actually fought, on the moral and physical heroism of the soldiers on the ground, starting with the mission planners – in short, “how wars are won with great difficulty, risk, and cost.” I was pleased to see how closely the film hews to history, esp. the selfless sacrifices of Margaret Utinski and the Filipino guerrillas. This is no amped-up and tarted-up blockbuster like Pearl Harbor but the acting, while low-key, had me sitting on the edge of my seat most of the time (even the love interest subplot). I thought the script was exceptional, as well as the musical score. I appreciated the archival film footage at the end. This one a keeper that I will always be ready to watch again. My only quibble was that, once the offensive began, it was like a carnival shooting gallery with live ammo. You know: US soldier standing in the open, mowing down the enemy, while being untouched by return fire. On the other hand, we only lost 2 lives in the historical battle. Use the movie afterwards as a springboard to read up and learn more about this chapter in America’s history. Enjoy! 5 stars. (4-13-2016)

Doc Martin (2004)

Doc Martin: Series 1-7 is a delightful British drama and low-key comedy that I have been pleased to enjoy straight through (Series 1-6 via streaming, Series 7 this year via DVD). It will remain at the top of my favorites – it is that good. Martin Clunes plays the taciturn, impatient, antisocial, and rude Dr. Martin Ellingham. (He is a superb doctor, completely professional – all work and no play – with no social graces. He simply does not see the point.) His most common words are probably: “Next patient!” “Come through!” “Stop talking!” and “No!” (Also to Buddy the sweet Welsh terrier: “Go away!”) A gifted surgeon in London, he moved to “Port Wenn” (actually Port Isaac), Cornwall, as the sole general practitioner after developing a blood phobia. The whole town calls him a “tosser” and hoots at him but he constantly responds to emergencies, saves lives, and is respected by the town’s “movers and shakers,” including Bert and Al Large (an entrepreneurial father and son team), PC Joe Penhale (the inept constable), his aunt Joan, his aunt Ruth (a psychiatrist), and best of all, Louisa (Caroline Catz as the grade school teacher who fell in love with and married him). Other favored regulars are a series of receptionists (culminating with Morwenna) and Mrs. Tishell, the loopy pharmacist. Clunes (who is actually a kind, gentle, funny soul and a big lover of animals) is the star of the show but Doc Martin is an ensemble production; everyone plays their part so well, you feel as if you live in the town among them. Clunes is a sympathetic character, for all his foibles, and the final scene in Series 7 will likely warm the cockles of your heart. (I see that 10 months ago, a future American version was announced. Also, 4 months ago, Doc Martin: Series 8 was announced.) Enjoy! 5 stars. (4-11-2016)

Secrets: Richard III Revealed (2013)

The discovery of Richard III’s skeleton under a parking lot in Leicester, followed by his church reinterment 13 months ago, made international news as the most significant British archeological find of the past century. It was fascinating to see the story unfold through the woman who spearheaded the effort, gathered funding, and (it turns out) intuited the precise spot where his bones were found on the very first day of excavations. This documentary lightly covers Shakespeare’s slander of Richard III, scientific testing and genetic confirmation of the bones, and the forensic reconstruction of his head and face. This is a straightforward documentary on a pretty cool subject. It will probably stay in my mind as one of the top 12 most memorable documentaries I have enjoyed. 4 stars. (4-11-2016)

Cybercrimes with Ben Hammersley (2014)

Cybercrimes with Ben Hammersley is a welcome documentary in that Ben makes a personable presentation of the essential facts and settings in each of six episodes, even to the point of sitting “in the very spot” where one sinister plot had been set in motion from a cyber café. It is just a bit dry – that is, the subject matter and script (actual words said), not Ben’s acerbic British dialect (how they are said). I appreciate the journalistic approach he takes, even to the point of globetrotting from San Francisco to DC to Nigeria. However, it is just not a Bob Cringely or Steve Jobs documentary. 3.5 stars. (4-11-2016)

One Too Many Mornings (2010)

One Too Many Mornings is a low-budget independent movie that is just above passable and acceptable. I liked it more than Primer, The Film Buff, and The Snake but less than Etienne, Gigante, and 11 Minutes – in fact, about the same as the Woody Allen vehicle Melinda and Melinda. This scrappy independent film’s dialog and roles are lively, as is the soundtrack. Peter is a heart-on-his-sleeve sad sack who just broke up with his girlfriend of 5 years (for good reason, going by his story), come to stay with Fischer, a happy-go-lucky slacker chum from high school who gets free lodging in a church building for doing odd chores and locking up at night. (The church also has a custodian who could easily perform these chores in addition to his other duties, and openly lobbies to absorb Fischer’s job and perks, to no effect on the amiable pastor.) Fischer is chummy and likable in that he validates himself and others, but he is actually a douchebag when you think about it. (He encourages his vulnerable friend to pursue revenge sex, promotes frequent drunkenness, and with dozens of others, he trashes the church building during an unauthorized party on the premises.) Suddenly, Peter’s girlfriend Rudy (huh?) shows up, and we learn what really has been going on. She is an interesting character study, given what we have been given to understand and what we can now see with our own eyes. The movie concludes addressing whether and how the couple’s relationship is resolved. I don't remember how or why I saw this movie; it was likely a preview and certainly not memorable. Don't expect too much from a movie with the tagline "A coming of age story about two guys who are too old to be coming of age." 3.5 stars. (6-8-2012, posted 4-7-2016)

Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

“I have a bad feeling about this.” And well you should, one last time, Han Solo – but I believe your faith will yield its reward. I finally saw Star Wars VII on the big screen last night – for the last evening screening in Houston, as I suspected, since it came to DVD the previous day. If you are a rabid Star Wars fan, of course, you love it, with an unqualified huzzah. If you have a love-hate relationship with George Lucas or JJ Abrams or Disney, you have your own quibbles that no one else can understand or dissuade you from (like my youngest son, who refuses to see the film). Taken as the seventh sci-fi movie in a stream of nine, set in an exceptionally imagined and portrayed alternate universe, however, I would say I like The Force Awakens, though certainly not as much as The New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back, and not even as much as The Return of the Jedi. Whoever came up with the three newest heroes’ names (Finn, Po, and Rey) crossed some wires with the villains (Snoke is laughable and Kylo Ren is no Darth Vader). One villain makes up for his name with a pedigree and a voicebox/mask (which he doesn’t seem to need because he takes it off during pivotal confrontations). He looks and sounds like a young Prof. Snape (but with a huge anger management problem). In his final duel, he powerfully overmatches newbie Rey until a 15-second meditation break centers her and she beats him back, while still making feeble prods with the light saber. The story has plenty of gaps (beyond the missing puzzle piece in the galaxy) and parallels (even a line similar to “Cover me, Porkins”). I would like to know whether George’s story would have been better, because I am afraid that if I start comparing this film to the prequel trilogy, the latter may come out better. Onward and upward! 4 stars. (4-7-2016)

The Ugly Truth (2009)

The Ugly Truth is the most tawdry film of its type (unorthodox makeover to win a boyfriend or girlfriend and get laid) that I have seen -- and that includes Forty-Year-Old Virgin. Katherine Heigl (I'll call her Nutz) is a prissy control freak and TV news producer whose housecat stumbles across a call-in show that makes her spit self-righteous bile at the scruffy Neanderthal-brained Gerard Butler (I'll call him Yutz), who unabashedly promotes "The Ugly Truth," that men are irredeemable pigs and women had best accept and play to the lowest possible denominator, if they want a man. Naturally, the following morning, the gone-to-seed boss of Nutz happens to introduce Yutz as a new guest host who will "mix things up" and bring the station some shock-jock ratings mojo. His offensive swill immediately flows as he starts a live-air confrontation between the husband-and-wife co-anchors about their lack of a sex life. Later, Nutz is in a fine restaurant making a business presentation to network executives who might buy the station when a remote-control vibrator she inexplicably installed before the meeting becomes a highly audible source of distraction from her presentation, esp. after the remote control rolls away into the hands of a child, who plays with it for many minutes while Yutz laughs knowingly. (His sister's son also watches his show, though he tells him not to, and solicits and receives advice about girls.) Think about everything offensive, chauvinistic, and inappropriate that could be said or done and it is almost all there. Only in the second half of the movie do Nutz and Yutz begin to speak like actual adults. In a word, Nutz accepts a challenge from Yutz to try his methods -- falsifying who she is and promoting boobs and butt to attract a man. How things work out does include a life lesson -- it is just too bad that all the wrong methods have to work so well before Nutz can come full circle to reclaim her identity. Despite its loose threads, I would have given this film 3.5 stars save for the tawdry first half, which I give 2.5 stars for an overall rating of 3 stars. (3-21-2011, posted 4-6-2016)

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a low-brow British comedy of errors – a moderately amusing heist film with so many crooks sticking their fingers (and gun muzzles) into each others’ business that I had to sort out who was who in order to figure out what was what. (There are roughly three crime kingpins, three enforcers, and three gangs of four – plus two idiots and assorted henchmen – all working at cross purposes to each other.) As Jason Statham’s first on-screen appearance, it is an ensemble cast, so he barely stands out. Everyone, in fact, plays their roles quite well and the plot does not lag much. I was just frankly confused at times about what was going on, trying to keep each East End bloke or thug separate from the next in my head. Like me, you will probably be glad you watched it – it has received a lot of buzz, so I wanted to see it – and I am happy I did. I even enjoyed it better than Quadrophenia, which is another low-brow British film about young toughs (“greasers” and “mods”) to which I could relate even less. 3.5 stars. (4-6-2016)