Though some consider this 1987 historical comedy a classic, I’d never seen the attraction. My mistake, director Rob Reiner (just off the very different Stand By Me) and writer William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Stepford Wives, All the President’s Men) did a really good job with a very small budget; Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest and Wallace Shawn star.

The Princess Bride is a semi-fantasy tale of love interrupted. Elwes is a farmboy named Westley on a farm where Buttercup (Wright) lives and they fall in love as they grow up. Westley leaves to make money for them to get married on, only to be captured by the dread pirate Roberts and with Buttercup and everyone else assuming he’s dead since the pirate never leaves anyone alive.

Five years pass and Buttercup has captured the heart of Prince Humperdinck (Sarandon). Just weeks before their nuptials, she’s kidnapped by three men (Shawn, Patinkin and Andre) who plan to kill her at the border of the prince’s rival kingdom. Westley has returned just as they take her away and races to save his true love, disguised as the dread pirate Roberts.

Honestly I expected more of a fantasy but with one small magical exception and a few pseudo-anachronisms this is just sort of medieval. For much of the movie no one (except the viewer) knows that Roberts is Westley but he’s smooth, daring and near enough gallant to win Buttercup’s affection anyway. Sarandon’s Price is obtuse and obnoxious, which is just what the movie needs; Shawn’s Vizzini, who features more early on, is the same character but smaller.

recommended

Dazzling visuals give this transposed Greek tragedy an epic feel but in the end Curse of the Golden Flower is a tale of betrayal and revenge inside a single family. Chow Yun Fat is the father and Li Gong the mother of the two younger sons–though she appears far too young to be the mother of the older of her boys, well, it is a movie.

Set 1100 years ago during the T’ang Dynasty in China, an ambitious soldier has completed his rise to power and consolidated control of the empire. The Empress, daughter of the ruler of a neighboring kingdom, has reached the end of her usefulness. His three sons are all grown but Wan, the oldest, is a weakling, Yu, the youngest, a bit mad and Jai, the middle, cannot bear the way his father has betrayed his mother.

The annual Chrysanthemum festival is drawing near, an event with special significance for the family. Not only is it the day the Emperor chooses to celebrate the values of his monarchy, it is also the anniversary of the death of his first wife, his eldest son’s mother. Further, the Empress has found out that her husband has added a poison to her daily medicine, a concoction of his own composition.

To celebrate, then, the Empress has arranged that at the opening of this year’s festival a coup will be staged; she will be rid of her disloyal husband and the son of his first wife. This is a royal soaper so in addition, Crown Prince Wan is having an affair with the lovely daughter of the Imperial Doctor and she and her father are the ones adding the poison to the Empress’ medicine–and the wife of the Imperial Doctor is the person who told her of it.

Writer/director Yimou Zhang (House of Flying Daggers, Hero) continues to use the screen as a vast movie canvas, swaths of brilliant color always in motion. Golden Flower is played out on the huge stage of the Forbidden City in Beijing and the coup attempt involves, literally, thousands of soldiers between the two sides. One army is dressed all in gold, the other in steel, and despite the numbers a great deal of stealth is involved. The palace interiors dwarf the cast, the walls and doors huge blocks of fabrics, and the costumes, especially of the royal family, massive affairs that somehow do not restrict movement.

recommended

An out and out chick flick, this was our Saturday night date movie with TS1 even bringing the fresh popcorn. A fun way to spend a couple of hours after a day full of English and American football–Liverpool had another crap 0-0 outing but USC reached back for a nice 24-3 rebounder–and Mandy Moore is growing on me as a nice young actress

Moore costars with Diane Keaton in Because I Said So, a slight romantic comedy whose twist is that Keaton is not only Moore’s overbearing mother Daphne, she’s afraid her own life is over at 60 (her birthday party is a key scene) without her ever having had an orgasm. Lauren Graham and Piper Perabo play Moore’s character Milly’s two slightly older, better adjusted sisters so you can imagine the locker room scene is very male viewer friendly.

Daphne despairs of the 20-something Milly ever finding the true love she never did–the girl’s father was “the wrong choice”–and so she posts a single ad asking for suitors for her daughter. Interviewing applicants in a hotel lounge she finds one good man, an architect named Jason (Tom Everett Scott), and has an arrogant conversation with Johnny (Gabriel Macht), leader of the jazz combo playing there.

Milly of course meets both men and, this being the 21st century, sleeps with both after a decent/minimal number of dates. Johnny turns out to be a better match, though appearances and mom disagree. Hilarity ensues. Daphne meets Johnny’s dad (Stephen Collins) and learns what an orgasm feels like. Milly and Johnny’s five year old son Lionel hit it off instantly. Jason never does figure out how to get the stick out of his ass.

Fairly standard stuff but nicely done.

recommended

Writer/director Joe Carnahan (the less than stellar Narc) was apparently going for a parody of an early ’70s, semi-blaxsploitation type of movie, with plenty of carnage and characters so stereotyped they could have come from Ralph Bakshi’s animation studio in a setup more cliched than the Spy Kids trilogy. He almost made it work, too, until a jarring turn to the serious at the climax nearly ruined all his good work.

Jeremy Piven is Vegas entertainer and friend of the mob Buddy “Aces” Israel and the title refers to a rumor that dying mafia chieftain Primo Sparazza wants his last act to be rubbing out Israel, with a $1 million bounty. See Buddy’s gotten a little too close to his criminal pals and crossed over into active participation, and when he gets caught decides to trade his inside knowledge for a free pass.

From the large cast, a few performances stand out. Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta are FBI agents, partners sent to get Aces from his Reno penthouse hideout as soon as the ink is dry on his deal. Alicia Keys and Davenia McFadden are a beautiful pair of hitters (and lovers); McFadden gets the biggest gun of all, a .50 caliber she sets up in a room in a hotel across the street facing Aces’ suite. Joel Edgerton is an assassin whose stock in trade is a mastery of disguise and mimicry, his Hugo about as different from his lead role in Kinky Boots (which is another one I missed writing up!) as I can imagine.

A 2.5 for the humor and confident action of the first 90 minutes. Points off for the last 15 minutes as well as driving home Buddy Israel’s sleaziness well beyond the necessary.

modestly recommended, if you like this kind of thing.