FIVE FILMS - INEQUALITY FOR ALL, KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM, NURSE, THE MONUMENTS MEN, MITT

INEQUALITY FOR ALL

This excellent documentary gets its strength from detailed statistics and a through explanation of all the different reasons for income equality in the United States (Globalization, too low taxes on the wealthy etc.).  It also does a very good job explaining the danger to the future stability of the United States caused by income equality.  It all works because of INEQUALITY FOR ALL’s narrator/subject/chief explainer former Clinton Labor Secretary and college professor Robert Reich.  He is an engaging, self-deprecating figure who explains complex economic ideas in a way that a layman can understand.  Wish he’d been a teacher of mine.

KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM

LARP (Live Action Role Playing) gamer nerds square off against a demon they mistakenly summon.  Good enough premise for a film and this is an amiable slacker comedy with a fair amount of blood and guts as well.  I did laugh a number of times and the writer knew enough to develop his characters beyond clichés – Some effort was put into this film which I appreciate.  An okay film for watching while drinking beer with a bunch of fellow slackers.

NURSE

Paz De La Huerta fills a movie like a sexier, female Bela Lugosi all bad acting and overacting presence.  In Lugosi’s case, it was accent.  With Huerta, it’s an an odd cadence not dissimilar from a female Christopher Walken but without his understanding of what he’s saying.  The sex here is rushed and cosmetic, the nudity weirdly prioritized (tons of butts but hardly any boobs), and the violence is bloody but more animated Japanese style than slasher movies.  This is a good bad movie – stupid, ridiculous but fun due to all the putrid acting and silly plot twists and hackneyed narration.  Also I have no idea why this movie is in 3D.

THE MONUMENTS MEN

A huge disappointment.  A great real life story combined with an excellent cast (Clooney. Murray, Goodman etc.) equals a dull TV movie of the week with action scenes stolen from a 100 other films and no real chemistry between all the different characters.  I’m not sure what went wrong here but I’m going to guess it started with the script.  The people who made this movie just don’t know how to tell a story.

MITT

The biggest question I had after watching this movie was what was the point?  If the mission here was to humanize Mitt Romney and family then it fails miserably.  The Romney family comes across as completely scripted and very unlikable.  There’s no insight here into Romney(s) and without that, this film is a total failure.  Only two good parts – Mitts presidential debate prep scenes and him talking about his father George Romney (that part felt real – only time I felt that while watching this movie).