Review: Valkyrie (2008)

* * *
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Tom Cruise

Valkyrie is one of those movies that seems to have had a pall pulled over it before it even got started. Instead of being buzzed about as "the serious movie about the 20 July plot" it was talked about as "the movie where Tom Cruise is an eye-patch wearing Nazi ("Ha" implied)." The very idea of it was met with hostility in Germany, where Scientology is looked upon less than kindly, and everywhere else it had to come up against the fact that over the course of the last decade, Tom Cruise' image has become almost unforgiveably ridiculous. I fully believe that if Valkyrie had come out in 1998 instead of 2008, it would have been a little more warmly received. 'Cause you know what? It's actually not a bad movie.

Review: The Tree of Life (2011)

* * * *
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn, Hunter McCracken

Whatever else you can say about Terrence Malick, you certainly can't accuse him of compromising his artistic vision for the sake of making his work more commerically viable or more easily accessible. His latest film, the long-delayed The Tree of Life, is an almost defiantly personal film that seems to have been designed to be as divisive as possible. I liked it, I know a lot of people didn't; I think this is a film that is destined to inspire a lot of strong feelings (good and bad).

Friday's Top 5... Bads

#5: Bad Boys

Without 1995's Bad Boys, the world might have been deprived of the cinematic prowess of Michael Bay. Oh, what a pleasant world that would have been.

Everybody's Fine (2009)

* *
Director: Kirk Jones
Starring: Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale

To answer the question you haven't actually asked yet: yes, Everybody's Fine is as bland as its title. It's not a good movie, it's not a bad movie, it's just sort of there, inoffensive and somewhat uncertain as to what sort of movie it wants to be. It isn't without its redeeming features, but it's a wildly uneven effort.

Review: Midnight In Paris (2011)

* * * 1/2
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard

These days, when Woody Allen is off, he tends to be way off. Fortunately, every once in a while, he's capable of being right on target and it's the fact that for every couple of clunkers there's a Vicky Cristina Barcelona or a Match Point that keeps us coming back. Midnight in Paris is one of his winners, a charming, magic realist comedy that just might be his best film since 1999's Sweet and Lowdown.