Real quick, just a couple more reviews of little loved movies after a day that’s seen 20 total movie reviews, and even more tomorrow…
Stand Up Guys…This movie (about Al Pacino getting out of jail and Christopher Walken being his oldest friend in the world who’s also asked to kill him by ten the next morning) may be formulaic garbage, but damned if it ain’t soulful garbage. I won’t lie, this isn’t a very good movie, but Pacino and Walken have the kind of weary chemistry that makes it feel much better than it is. Grade: C+
At Any Price…Dennis Quaid headlines this shape-shifting indie as a big-farmer and genetically-modified seed salesman whose goofy/folksy demeanor helps cover up his extramarital affair, his shady sales tactics, a looming investigation into him selling “washed seeds” (apparently you can’t wash GM seeds because they’re copyrighted…fuck you, Monsanto), and possible complicity in a murder. Quaid never plumbs the depths behind this farmer’s fake folksiness, Heather Graham shows up merely for a couple of ultra-fake looking sex scenes, and Zac Efron keeps trying to pull off brooding as his resentful youngest son. There’s a couple of interesting tidbits about modern farming and seed copyrights, but the overall picture (which goes from feel-good to morally murky feel-good) isn’t emotionally coherent. Grade: C