Snap Judgments - A Quick Review of 5 Movies

Chloe
Catherine (Julianne Moore), a gynecologist, thinks her professor husband (Liam Neeson) is cheating on her so she hires Chloe, a local hooker, to approach him and see if he flirts with her. Chloe (played very seductively by Amanda Seyfried) begins to tell Catherine of their progressive encounters. Moore is shockingly good. It's good to see her doing more character work than big budget crap. Neeson is mostly pushed to the side, but is serviceable. Seyfried gives her best performance to date. Director Atom Egoyan infuses the film with mirror and window symbolism and gets the upscale Toronto locations exactly right. The twist is easy to spot, but it doesn't matter when you're in the hands of talented pros like Egoyan and Moore. B

Cop Out
Overly maligned while in theaters, there's a lot to like in Kevin Smith's 1st director-for-hire job. Since Smith didn't write the screenplay, there's an actual plot (farfetched though it is) involving Mexican drug gangs, infidelity, and a stolen baseball card. Smith gives his actors (especially Seann William Scott and Tracy Morgan) plenty of room to improvise. But Morgan isn't nearly as funny as he thinks he is. As Morgan's cop partner, Bruce Willis looks bored and delivers each line either with arrogance or condescension. But the throw-back to the 80s-cop movie style works, strongly aided by Harold Faltermeyer's syncopated synthesizer score. C+

She's Out of My League

A TSA agent (Jay Baruchel) meets a hot events planner (Alice Eve) when she leaves her phone at security. She finds him funny and keeps inviting him places. His friends and family convince him that's she's too good for him which messes with his head and their relationship. There's not 1 realistic conversation in the entire movie which wouldn't necessarily be bad in a comedy if it were funnier and less mean-spirited. The duo's best friends (T.J. Miller and Krysten Ritter, respectively) are very funny in support, especially with their hatred for each other. But the Hall and Oates stuff goes on too long and the "lessons" learned are obvious to the average 2nd grader. C

Whip It
In a small Texas town, a former beauty queen (Marcia Gay Harden) gets her daughters into pageants, but the oldest (Ellen Page) wants none of it. When her and a friend (Alia Shakwat) travel to Austin, they discover ladies' roller derby and Page finds her new hobby. Director Drew Barrymore juggles the humor, action, and drama fairly well, and while the reconciliations and revelations are certainly telegraphed, they are effective nonetheless, mostly because of the terrific acting. Surprisingly, this one works more often than not. B-

Big Fan

Comedian Patton Oswalt got lots of critical praise playing an obsessed New York Giants fan who writes his thoughts and one-liners down at his toll booth job so he can call into talk radio when he gets home. After he has an altercation at a club with a star player, the player is suspended and Oswalt's family wants to sue. It's unpleasant, frustrating, and nearly unwatchable. Oswalt is certainly different than his stand up routine but it's neither entertaining nor insightful. D+