The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011)

Morgan Spurlock [Super Size Me] is back with a documentary about brand marketing in movies. Spurlock has made just one feature documentary between this and the 2004 McDonald's documentary that was so popular, mainly because he has had a documentary TV series, 30 Days, that he has been working on.


The documentary starts by giving examples of advertising in movies and television shows, some incredibly blatant. He then decides he wants to make a movie built 100% on advertising money. He gives his pitch to a few companies and receives constant rejection. I'm not sure if this was just editing to make the viewer think that he went from constant rejecting to a lot of acceptance or not. He starts to pick up some major sponsorship from POM Wonderful, JetBlue, and Mini. At this point the film really takes a turn, we see the affect of the sponsorships and what he is allowed to say. The final approval of the film requires that POM Wonderful is happy with the final product. So we aren't even sure what ELSE has been taken out.

The film does not attack any of the issues with advertising in film, it merely talk about how it works. That isn't enough for a good documentary. You won't see this on anyone's "top" lists.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1743720/

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Rio (2011)

Blue Sky Studio's latest animated film, the company that brought you The Ice Age Series, Horton Hears a Who, and Robots, brought out their latest animated film earlier this year. A good year for a weak computer animated film since Pixar's film was a flop and Disney and Dreamworks didn't have much.

The film is about a rare South America bird who's home is Minnesota. Domesticated before he was able to fly out of his nest he has never learned to fly and has never been outdoors. When an ornithologist visits his owner she is convinced to take Blu to Brazil to mate him with the last female of his species.

The film is very cookie cutter from the start. Probably enjoyable for the kids and something my 3-year-old would enjoy some day. As an adult I was bored the whole time. The assisting characters I found irritating and juvenile. Probably the weakest film this company has made to this point [maybe equal to the Ice Age sequels]. It is a very weak Oscar Animated year if this one gets nominated.

KSF: 2/5
Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1436562/

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Conviction (2010)

Like Flash of Genius I struggled to commit my time to watching this one because I felt I already knew the entire story. It only takes reading the imdb synopsis to get the whole story, but this is one of those films that knowing what happens really doesn't ruin the story itself. I remember this being on the Oscar radar but I don't get what kept it out of the running. Sam Rockwell seems to be constantly ignored by the academy and Hilary Swank already has two wins in the leading lady role, so getting overlooked for this one isn't that big of a deal.

The film is about a brother and sister who grow up in a small town with a dysfunctional family. They like to sneak into other people's homes and pretend they have a normal home with a normal family. After several run in's with the police Kenny [Rockwell] is labelled as a suspicious character and is hauled in for questioning every time their is a crime in town. After a brutal murder he is brought in for questioning and almost a year later is determined to be the killer. With no physical evidence he is given a life sentence thanks to an ex-wife and ex-girlfriend on the stand that lied about this whereabouts. His sister Betty [Swank] decides to pursue a law degree to free her brother.

I also relate this film to Flash of Genius because the main character gives up a normal life and family in pursuit of what they feel is right through legal means. Based on a true story this one, overlooked last year, is well worth your time.

Vote: 8/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1244754/

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Friends with Benefits (2011)

Director Will Gluck, who brought us Easy A, last year. Brings us a movie that at one point was going to be called "Fuck Buddies." Good luck marketing that. It was actually in production around the same time as No Strings Attached which features Natalie Portman who was paired up with Mila Kunis in Black Swan. Just a little interesting that co-stars of a film with 5 Oscar nominations was in the process of an ad campaign for a film where the stars were working on two separate and similar films.

So the film is about a young hot shot website designer [Justin Timberlake] who is contacted by a headhunter [Mila Kunis] to take a job in New York. Dylan seems happy in LA, but with some convincing from Jamie he takes the job. He works for GQ where Woody Harrelson plays a pretty funny sports writer that questions Dylan's sexual preference. Jamie is Dylan's only friend in the city and their "work" relationship turns into a friendship with "benefits." Trying to avoid a romantic relationship their emotions start to play a factor and we learn that Dylan has commitment issues.

Pretty typical to have a guy with commitment issues, which is why I liked No Strings Attached a little more. In retrospect I'm not exactly sure when No Strings didn't get an 8/10. Either way, the flash mob scenes are pretty cute, there are some good running jokes, and Timberlake proves once again he can handle the shift from singer to actor. Probably worth your time if you like Rom-Com's.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1632708/

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I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor star in an interesting comedy based on a true story. The film which was produced in 2009 and released in three other countries before the production company decided not to bring it to the US. The rights were purchased by two other companies and release at the end of 2010.

The film is based on Steven Russell, an American con artist & prison escape artist. Russell seemed to be living a normal life with a wife and daughter, until one day he decided he no longer wanted to hide being gay. He moves to Florida, gets a boyfriend, and lives an extravagant lifestyle... all on credit card fraud. Eventually caught, he serves him times before getting out, running his con, and going back.

The story is silly, almost unbelievable, and definitely a little over done for Hollywood. Overall I liked it. Not one to watch with the kids and probably not for people that don't like Jim Carrey since he reverts to some of his old comedic shticks.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045772/

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Deep Red: Profondo rosso (1975)

A little late for horror month, this one came out on blu-ray earlier in the year and was the last horror movie in my possession, yay! Folder complete now.

This 70's horror film has taken a little bit of flack for actually killing a lizard on screen. I can't say that screams animal cruelty to me, but it seems to bother some people so I can respect that. The film starts out a lot like a modern day horror film. A creepy mysterious killer in a leather jacket murders a famous psychic, we do not see who it is but we immediately know there is not a twist involving our main character.

The film gets really slow and basically turns onto a murder mystery at this point. I personally had trouble connecting with the film, partially because I was a little sick of horror films at the time, and also because I watched it with the goal of being done, and not to enjoy it. My fault. Overall I did like it, but the almost constantly out of sync [due to poor dubbing... it is mono audio], and blu ray doesn't help this. It is distracting and keeps me from wanting to watch it again.

Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073582/

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Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011)

The full title of the film makes it pretty self explanatory. The film is a look inside The New York Times newspaper at a time when newspapers are a dying breed. Considered a front runner for an Oscar nomination I felt that the film had the perfect scope on an interesting subject matter. That being said, I'm writing this review after finding out that it did not even make the 15 film short list for the Oscar.

The film starts with us meeting some of the staff and they explain the process behind determining what will make it on the cover of the newspaper. We look at some of the important moments in the paper's history and how they have been a national if not world leader in news. The film isn't like some of these "band" documentaries where they ignore the negatives, there is actually discussion on the WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] fiasco and how the Times reporter pushed false information. They also defend her, in that, the information to was given by a government source was wrong.

The most interesting and scary thing about the documentary is that the newsroom venue of collective minds deciding was is important news is dying. It looks at internet sites that take Times articles and plug in search engine keywords to retool the titles to get more internet hits. It looks at the fact that without newspapers credible field reports are going to be hard to come by.

Oscar or not, this is a documentary you should watch. Informative, interesting, and important.

Vote: 8/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1787777/

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