Quick Hits - A Few Recent Viewings

The Adjustment Bureau - B. On DVD (2011).

Matt Damon stars in what even he has to recognize has become 'his' character: a prodigious and handsome star with a hard scrabble past that threatens to derail his success. This time he is a congressman running for Senate that meets the love of his life (Emily Blunt) on an important night. Trouble is, there is an Adjustment Bureau that controls the world, and he isn't 'supposed' to be with her. Blunt and Damon are both very entertaining, with decent support from Anthony Mackie as a sympathetic agent. I enjoyed the direction of the film, but the concept and predictable story just weren't that great. Not bad.

Click below for Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, Lincoln Lawyer, Winnie The Pooh, and the Bottle Rocket Rolling Roadshow:

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop - B. On DVD (2011).

This documentary follows Conan as he tours the country in the aftermath of his ouster at NBC. It gets a B for being interesting, not necessarily funny. I found it mostly interesting to watch Conan's behind the scenes life and his compulsion to be the center of attention. He is a prisoner of his own graciousness as he burns himself out talking after the shows and taking on extra gigs.

Lincoln Lawyer - C-. On DVD (2011).

I feel like I heard good things about this one during its theatrical run...must've been from an insane asylum. Matthew McConaughey stars as a semi-morally bankrupt criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles. A million cliches get thrown around with a supremely weird and uninteresting relationship with Marisa Tomei. I like McConaughey a lot, and there were some decent moments, but this is a dumber, longer Law and Order..Skip It.

Winnie the Pooh - C+. In theaters. Okay, so its pooh, I know. But, its only 63 minutes long and the story was uninteresting and boring. Worth it only if your kids are under 8 and sheltered (which applies to me, but it was rough).

Bottle Rocket Rolling Roadshow. Europpraiser and I (plus our wives) attended last Saturday night's Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow presentation of Bottle Rocket at the hotel where it was filmed in Hillsboro, Texas. Robert Musgrave (Bob Mapplethorpe) was in attendance, and it was really cool to watch the film outdoors, on a big screen at the hotel. A cool experience and greatly enjoyed watching the whole film without stopping on a big screen - gets better and better. "Bob, you're the zero". Click here for a writeup and pictures of the event.