The Company Men

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A multi-million dollar company lays off 1000s of people to please their rich board without touching their own higher-ups' multi-million dollar bonuses. This is the story of what happens to some of the people who are made redundant to protect their fortunes.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Craig T. Nelson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Eamonn Walker

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Stop! This movie is so depressing that any ending these characters might arrive at would feel happy... including death.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: It's kind of funny how much this movie made me want to take my own life.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: No, it doesn't even let you do that! There really is no hope. Why do I even keep going?

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Just in case voters feel obliged to fulfill their "fairness" responsibilities by watching this film, despite my warnings, here is the number for the suicide hotline: 1-800-273-TALK.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Many of the Boston accents are distractingly inconsistent, often sounding more like they're from Long Island. Also, when Ben Affleck first arrives at the unemployment placement center, there is a large Black man (Eamonn Walker) who instantly notices him, and looks at him throughout the film like he's planning to seduce the hell out of him. The weird thing is he doesn't. That's like introducing a gay gun in the first act, and not shooting it in the third act! You can't do that! Since the gay innuendo turns out to be unintended, I'm forced to deduce that it's simply bad acting.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Boring directing tries to redeem itself with an overbearing score and soundtrack.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: My friend Lisa is one of those people who is very careful about how she phrases things, often avoiding saying anything negative or controversial, but when this movie ended, she went on a tirade about how it was redundant, pedantic, and trivializes what all the laid-off people in America must actually be going through. Personally, I thought it was a decent enough movie, but I couldn't send anyone to go see it, unless I was trying to convince them that life just isn't worth it, and they should take action against themselves immediately. Which actually gives this movie a huge upside, because it would be cheaper than taking a contract out on my enemies, and in these hard times, any penny pinched is a penny saved!

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: Speaking of not giving up on things that are pointless, this is our 400th review! Just my luck that it would be a red light... where did I put that suicide hotline number again?

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-company-men/1429932/trailers

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Adam

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A romance develops between a man with Asperger's Syndrome (Hugh Dancy) and his beautiful neighbor (Rose Byrne).

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving, Frankie Faison

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. While the movie clearly tries to shed light on what it is to live with Asperger's Syndrome, it's unclear if the filmmaker is trying to create sympathy for the bearers of this mental condition, or if this is a cautionary tale warning the rest of us to stay away from them.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: If you see any blurbs describing this film as a "romantic-comedy" (as I did), I would advise you never to read the trash-rags on which that was printed again, as a film is required to have jokes, in order to qualify for that label.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It makes me sad to think that if this film's depiction of Asperger's is correct, no one should ever date a person who has it... On the bright side, since one of the key elements of Asperger's is that you can't tell how other people are feeling, at least you would never have to know that you are not loved.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Not to go back to the whole "Half-retard" thing (see Tropic Thunder), but clearly Hugh Dancy took this role in the hopes that he would get recognized by award-givers everywhere. Unfortunately, his forced performance is one of the things that worked against the movie's success.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Not only is Hugh Dancy's performance uneven, and way too autistic to represent the true functionality of a person with Asperger's, but he's also not nearly as attractive when he doesn't use his English accent. Rose Byrne proves to be a TV actress, at best... Although, I've never seen her on TV, and guest reviewer Russ says she's no good at that either.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Since the director is also the writer, I have to blame him for the bad performances, as he had to have known the right way to deliver the lines, and wasn't able to get the actors to do it. If Hugh Dancy, for example, had simply trusted the words in the script, and said them like a normal person, instead of adding so many actorish mannerisms to them, the words alone could've gotten his social awkwardness across in a much more believable way. It's called trusting the script.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: For once, the script was better than the movie. Not by much, mind you, but with stronger actors, it could have been ever so slightly more compelling. And perhaps I would've understood what the author was trying to tell his audience about people who have Asperger's. Because I find it hard to believe that he went to the trouble of writing a film, raising money for it, going through an arduous production and post-production process, doing the festival circuit, and finding a distributor, just so that I could take away the message, "Don't bother with these people, they're not worth the effort."

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/search/adam/trailers

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Last Chance Harvey

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A divorced man (Dustin Hoffman) goes to London to see his daughter get married, and while he's there he loses his job, and finds out that his daughter wants her step-dad (James Brolin) to give her away. That's when he meets a lonely woman (Emma Thompson), and spends a romantic day with her.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Eileen Atkins, Kathy Bates, James Brolin, Liane Balaban, Richard Schiff, Daniel Lapaine, Bronagh Gallagher, Michael Landes

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Stop! You know how some movies put all the funny parts in the trailer? Well, this one puts all the entertaining, romantic, and remotely interesting parts in the trailer. Watch the trailer, and skip the rest.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: This is one of those movies where most of the comedy is in the awkward pauses where people don't say something. That is often my favorite kind of comedy-- and it's certainly the most highbrow kind. But it didn't work on me here.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: As boring as the movie is, Hoffman's speech to his daughter at her wedding did bring tears to my eyes. So at least they got one thing right.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: The two lead actors are nominated for Golden Globes in the Musical or Comedy category, but this film doesn't even deserve that amount of recognition. Hoffman and Thompson are great, because they're always great, but these roles are nothing of a stretch for either of them, and they should lose points for picking a movie so full of nothingness.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Every bit of life this film contains comes from the predictably perfect performances of Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. That said, the background performers are for the most part pretty terrible. They look like wanna-be actors who can't beleive they were sharing the frame with the likes of Dustin Hoffman, and the thought playing in their eyes is, "Look! There he is!" I probably shouldn't have been noticing the extras in the first place, and we can blame the director for that... or maybe we can blame the writer for causing me to be so bored that I would pay attention to the people walking by. As a compromise, I'll just blame them both, since it's the same guy anyway.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Directors are often judged on their taste in material, and in this case, Joel Hopkins proves that he's not to be trusted. If he couldn't get his hands on a stronger project then he should've made the writer develop this script into something that feels like more than a first draft based on a personal experience. Unfortunately, since he is the writer, he thinks his story is already perfect and has no way of seeing that it is completely underdeveloped . Hopefully for him, Harvey's last chance won't also be his.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: There is no conflict between the main characters. He asks if she wants to go on a walk, and she says yes. He asks if he can wait for her outside her class, and she says yes. He asks if she wants to go to a wedding, and she says yes. Because everything is so easy for them, all the romantic-comedy tricks that are supposed to keep them apart and build the tension so we think they might not come together, feel like stupid character choices that no real person would make. Meanwhile, all the parts where they're supposed to be getting to know each other are shown as musical montages of two people walking and talking, where you can't hear what they're saying. In the end we have no idea what it is they admire about each other besides that she's desperately lonely, and he's got nothing else going for him.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/last-chance-harvey/30332/trailers

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