L.A. DINE-N-CLUB FAVORITE MOVIE PICKS
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THE PEOPLE I’VE SLEPT WITH
(A People Pictures – 89 min) Unrated
Now Playing at Sunset 5
A sexy comedy about a promiscuous woman who finds herself with an unplanned pregnancy and five potential would-be fathers, she quickly goes the private dick route to find out who the baby-daddy is in order to marry him to live a “normal” life.
Provocative and funny, the potential dads include what the film’s main character describes as: 5-Second Guy, Mystery Man, Nice-But-Boring-Guy, Mr. Hottie, and BFF (her gay best friend). Finding creative ways to obtain DNA samples from her past conquests, at the core of the film is a touching story of the importance of defining friendship and family for a modern woman who must find the path to accept herself.
Directed by indie filmmaker Quentin Lee, The People I’ve Slept With is a funny, boundary-pushing comedy. Hipper than The Switch, it’s not as hilarious as Knocked Up but it will definitely make forward-thinking audiences laugh.
Click here to view the People I’ve Slept With trailer.
SALT
NOW PLAYING EVERYWHERE
(Columbia Pictures – 100min) Rated PG-13
A superstar with an ever growing lovely brood at home, you might not think of Angelina Jolie, one half of the dynamic duo that is "Brangelina" along with Brad Pitt, as action star material but you’d be mistaken. The star of such films as Wanted, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, not to mention the Lara Croft Tomb Raider series, Jolie, who now stars in Salt, destined to be a female-led action franchise, is at it once again.
Playing CIA officer Evelyn Salt, sworn to duty, honor and country, her loyalty is tested when a Soviet defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. On the run and using all her trained skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture, Salt's efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: "Who is Salt?"
With the starring role originally offered to Tom Cruise to play CIA officer Edwin A. Salt, the actor turned down the role thinking it was too similar to his Mission Impossible character Ethan Hunt. Yet the film really works with a strong female lead. Personally I just find Jolie to look like a stick figure with big lips so it’s hard to really believe such a frail person could really kick so much ass. Please, someone feed this woman some food, she looks undernourished.
Teaming up with filmmaker Phillip Noyce (The Saint, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games), the people involved do know their action, and with the subject of Russian spies in the U.S., the plot couldn’t be any more timely. Although not quite on par with the Bourne films, Salt does manage to add a little spice to the current lackluster action genre.
COLIN FITZ LIVES!
(Sundance Selects - 91min) Rated R
Available Now on IFC Films – Cable on Demand
Billed as the “greatest film never released,” Colin Fitz Lives! has been compared to indie classics like Kevin Smith's Clerks and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Robert Rodriquez's El Mariachi, all low-budget films that went on to great acclaim. The only difference with Colin Fitz Lives! is that it sat on a shelf for 14 years, until now.
World premiering at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, the comedy about two security guards hired to guard the gravesite of a rock star on the fifth anniversary of his death (it seems that avid fans had committed mass suicide the previous year), the film garnered critical acclaim and won numerous festival awards including Best of Fest as well as Best Feature at the Austin Film Festival, and Best Comedy at World Fest Houston (apparently it was very big in Texas). With a cast of budding stars, at the time anyway, the cult hit stars William H. Macy, Martha Plimpton, John C. McGinley, Mary McCormack, and Christopher Bauer now of “True Blood” fame, and was on the fast-track to become an indie classic and mainstream crossover. The only problem was that back in the ‘90s it was more expensive to make and edit films and the offers that first-time director Robert Bella was receiving wouldn’t cover his costs. In debt, out of money, and homeless for a while, it took Bella years to get his finances in order and only recently was he able to buy back the film from his creditors and find an offer that would get the film out to the masses. It’s currently available now On-Demand (check your local cable provider to order).
A comedy about love, death and rock & roll, Colin Fitz Lives! is a heady romp that deserves to finally see the light of day. Had Bella and crew made the same film today, with the advances in digital technology, it would have been a breeze to sell the film and get it in theaters. But now everyone can finally see what all the buzz has been about all these years where only a handful of film fest goers were privy to the life and times of one Colin Fitz.
Click here to watch the Colin Fitz Lives! trailer.
www.colinfitzlives.com
FINDING BLISS
(Phase 4 Films – 96 min) Rated R
NOW PLAYING
Set in the world of the adult entertainment industry, the characters in Finding Bliss don’t like the P-word (that is, pornography). This is a self-discovering, arousing comedy about a real go-getter with desires to make it in Hollywood as a filmmaker but is forced to start out at the bottom (or at least looking a bare bottoms all day long) editing hardcore adult entertainment.
Directed by Julie Davis, herself a former editor at Playboy, this marks Davis’ fourth feature film, her other efforts include, I Love You Don’t Touch Me! and Amy’s Orgasm, both provocative films about strong women with relationship issues, as well as All Over The Guy. Davis’ style always delivers a candid and sexy approach and Finding Bliss is no different.
Starring Leelee Sobieski as 25-year-old award-winning film school grad Jody Balaban, young Jody wants to direct movies and is horrified when she has to take a job editing X-rated films. But then she decides to make her surroundings work to her own advantage by editing adult films by day and secretly directing her own film at night using the studio’s porn sets and porn actors, a compromise she must accept.
The film also stars Matt Davis (Legally Blonde), as well as Denise Richards, Kristen Johnston, and Jamie Kennedy who constantly steals the show as porno actor Richard “Dick” Harder. While the film glosses over the dark side of the adult entertainment business, the characters are at least well developed enough to not just be cookie cutter clichés.
Finding Bliss is playing all week at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 at 8000 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood.
GEORGE A. ROMERO’S SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
(Magnet – 90min) Rated R
Now Playing at the Nuart Theatre
The sixth zombie film for horror master George Romero, the man responsible for such classics as Night of the Living Dead, The Crazies, Dawn of the Dead, Monkey Shines, and The Dark Half, his latest offering, Survival of the Dead, again finds humans in the minority in a world where zombies rule.
Relentless, raging, rabid fun, the story is set off the coast of Delaware on Plum Island where two families are locked in a struggle for power, as it has been for generations. The O'Flynn's, headed by patriarch Patrick O'Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) approach the zombie plague with a shoot-to-kill attitude while The Muldoons, headed by Shamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick), feel that the zombies should be quarantined and kept 'alive,' in hopes that a solution will someday be found.
As the battle between humans and zombies escalates, Romero continues to reinvent the modern horror genre with razor sharp dark humor and pointed social commentary.
In classic George Romero fashion, Survival of the Dead is loaded with laughs, appropriate gross-out moments and edgy zombie mayhem. Purposely not as comedic as Zombieland or as intense at 28 Days Later, Survival of the Dead finds itself somewhere in between and just as entertaining.
George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead is now playing at the Nuart Theatre at
11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Los Angeles, CA 90025. Call 310-281-8223.
Click here to see the Survival of the Dead trailer.
MOTHER
IN THEATERS NOW
(Magnolia Pictures – 129 min) Rated R
Winner of the 2009 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film, Bong Joon-ho’s latest film, Mother, is a unique murder mystery about a mother’s smothering and primal love for her son.
The mother in question here is a devoted single parent to a simple-minded 27-year-old son who does what he pleases. One night while coming home drunk he begins to follow a girl that is found murdered the following morning. Since he’s an easy target, the police arrest the dim wit and charge him with murder. That’s where Mother jumps into action determined to prove her son innocent and find the real killer.
“The relationship between a son and his mother is the basis for all human relationships,” director Bong Joon-ho (last seen with his monster film The Host) explains. “Countless novels, films and television programs have approached the mother figure; but I wanted to explore it for myself, and see where I could take it on a cinematic level; and push it to the extreme.”
Mother (Madea in Korean) is a thriller along the lines of Hitchcock with elements of comedy. Starring actress Kim Hye-ja, a 50-year veteran of Korean film and television, she really captures the mother-on-the-edge to perfection and delivers a solid and riveting performance.
I guess the moral of the story is that Korean mothers aren’t to be messed with, similar to Latina moms, because this is one bad mutha in question. Nevermind the killer, there’s a determined mother on the loose…lookout!
Mother is in theaters now; playing in Pasadena at Playhouse 7 Cinemas; West Hollywood at Sunset 5; and West Los Angeles at The Landmark.
See the Mother trailer here.
— Jose Martinez
THE WOLFMAN
(Universal Pictures – 125 min) Rated R
Baring sharp fangs and a deadly bite, The Wolfman is a remake of the classic Universal film, bringing the story of a cursed man back to its iconic origins. Starring Oscar winners Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, the plot follows a nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father, he sets out to find his missing sibling. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, prompting a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector to investigate.
But even with the best of intentions to find his missing brother, bad luck comes upon him the night of a full moon when a werewolf owns the night. The Wolfman isn’t for the squeamish as it doesn’t pull back any punches when it comes to the gore factor. A throwback to old school Hollywood horror, with a bit of impressive modern day CGI to boot, the film is aided by solid performances, good direction by filmmaker Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III) and six-time Oscar winning special effects artist Rick Baker.
This Wolfman plays better than the ill fated 1994 Jack Nicholson film Wolf. There are tons of thrills and chills and some laughs, along with some very cool special effects. A good horror film is always a welcome treat in my book. I’m not sure if it is right for a Valentines weekend release but it will try to rip your heart out.
Watch The Wolfman trailer here.
— Jose Martinez
