Category: Mindless Mondays

I went to Chris Rock’s “Top Five” ready to see a great movie. It’s gotten incredible reviews, and most critics said it was Rock’s breakout, the film that finally translated his terrific standup persona to the big screen. I was more than ready for that film, but this isn’t really it. Despite a handful of…

Two very under-the-radar historical dramas (both centering around ideological and ethnic clashes) that I probably would have never watched if they weren’t both on Netflix…The question is: should you? Xingu…A film about the Villas-Boas brothers who encountered Xingu Indians in central Brazil during 1943 and then worked to protect them from “development” by outside government and business…

The destruction of our oceans is my pick for the most important issue facing the world, and especially as the top issue that nobody is dealing with at all. “Due to overfishing and rising ocean acidity, there won’t be fish to eat in 30 years” met with a shoulder shrug. “Fifty percent of the planet lives…

Two downbeat family dramas that aren’t exactly must-watches… Child’s Pose…An easier film to admire than like, it’s about a grown son who kills a child in a vehicle accident and his protective mother who’s desperate to keep him out of jail. It’s a series of long, dialogue heavy scenes with very minimal action, but a…

Fraternal relationships can be complicated, and these two very different documentaries highlight the varying ways brothers can wreak havoc on each other (“Mistaken for Strangers”) or the outside world (the Koch Brothers retro-activism in “Citizen Koch”)… Mistaken for Strangers…Indie rockers The National are supposedly a big deal, and the lead singer invites his…ummmm…”competency challenged” younger brother to…

Two films starring weird-looking French actor Mathieu Amalric (perhaps best known as the weird-looking lead villain in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace)… Venus in Fur…Sadly, I never got a chance to see the supposedly terrific Broadway play starring Hugh Dancy and Nina Arianda in the lead roles, but I better it was a…

Two mediocre comedic films about serious subjects (workplace violence/hostage-taking and suicide) starring two aging British thespians that are still pretty solid. Of course, it’s a little less impressive that Steve Coogan is the best thing in his film since it’s really a semi-vanity vehicle he created… Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa…It takes Steve Coogan’s clueless radio…

Two Asian films that center around robberies of armored trucks, but not all similar (sounding) films are created equal as one of these is bad and the other is arguably the most underrated movie I’ve seen this year. Firestorm…A movie about an obsessed detective (Andy Lau, who could play this role in his sleep and seems determined…

Every now and then a better-than-average movie slips through the cracks. I believe “The Immigrant” to be one of those movies… The Immigrant…It’s about—you guessed it—a European immigrant (Marion Cotillard, in a great performance) who comes to New York City in the early part of the 1900s and struggles to survive, quickly falling under the…

Three unconventional horror films (two of them closer to comedies really) but are any of them really worth watching? Knights of Badassery…My favorite of the lot but still not a very good movie. It’s about a group of role playing fantasy geeks who accidentally summon a real demon that just so happens to take the…