Owen Wilson finds himself in yet another action-buddy comedy. This time he is teamed with Eddie Murphy in a remake of the 1960’s TV series “I-Spy”.

Aspiring secret agent, Alexander Scott (Owen Wilson) wants to be taken seriously. Scott always seems stuck in the shadow of the agency’s top spy, Carlos (Gary Cole). Scott gets his chance when the agency assigns him to recover a top-secret stealth aircraft known as the “Switchblade”. To aid him on his cover, the president assigns Scott to travel with boxing champion Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy) who is journeying to Eastern Europe for a fight.

Before Scott knows it showboating Robinson is as much involved in the mission as he is. Will this unlikely duo be able to stop the likes of vicious arms-dealer Arnold Gundars (Malcolm McDowell)? More importantly will Scott ever get the proper respect he is looking for?

“I-Spy” is a light and funny action comedy that expands on both the quick wit of Murphy and the comedic charms of Wilson. Murphy seems to be reliving his days of old as he over-acts his Robinson character with such style. I haven’t seen Eddie this fresh and funny since “Beverly Hills Cop 2”.

His performance also reminded me some of the character he created in the “Golden Child” as well. I am one of the few people who liked that movie. There were signs of the former Eddie Murphy in last year’s “Showtime” but here the old Eddie seems to be back. And thank goodness since I was getting so sick of Eddie’s versions of “The Nutty Professor” and “Doctor Doolittle”.

There are some great comedic moments in “I-Spy” like when Alex Scott (Wilson) is shown what gadgets he will be using for his mission then Scott sees what his rival Carlos (Cole) gets. This is a classic rip-off of the infamous “Q” scenes in the James Bond films.

By far the best part of the movie is the constant squabbling between Wilson and Murphy. There comedic timing is hilarious and Murphy does such a wonderful job of over-acting Robinson’s arrogance. I loved the moments where Eddie Murphy’s Kelly Robinson would refer to himself in the third person. Such as, “This isn’t the way Kelly Robinson is supposed to die!” or “What do you mean Kelly Robinson isn’t going to get his parade?”

As for a story, this film has a very basic one and Malcolm McDowell plays your typical cardboard villain. But these aren’t the reasons I liked “I-Spy” so much. I liked it because it was fresh and funny.

The scenes where they are poking fun at the “spy-genre” are some of the best parodies I have seen aimed at that genre. Sure you have Austin Powers but that was focused on the cult-like quality and style of the 1960s.

“I-Spy” aims more at the updated and recent spy kind of films like James Bond (Brosnan era), Tom Clancy films and others.

Just sit back, relax and forget about the world for a good hour and thirty minutes. That’s all you have to do to enjoy “I-Spy”.

3.5 out of 5

So Says the Soothsayer.

Written: November 4, 2002

Famke Janssen

Io vi trovero’ è un film del 2008 diretto da Pierre Morel. Il protagonista del film è Liam Neeson. Il film è molto veloce e pieno di azione. Impossibile annoiarsi.

Leggi altre notizie su: | Pierre Morel | Liam Neeson | Maggie Grace | Famke Janssen

Los Acusados: The Others (2001), Case 39 (2009), 100 Feet (2008).

 La Evidencia:

Análisis del Caso: No sólo se parecen a madres estos materiales promocionales, sino también sriven de publicidad a tres filmes del mismo género: terror/suspenso. Dos de ellas giran alrededor de seres del más allá, y la otra es sobre una niña (típico) que resulta no ser tan inocente como se pensaba. Peor aún, los tres mentados one-sheet (que realmente son one shit), son protagonizados por mujeres, una con más talento que las otras, por supuesto, y otra, con menos belleza.

Pero vámonos al grano. Los tres posters involucran una fuente de luz que alumbra entre la oscuridad, reflejando por excelencia una premisa de suspenso y misterio. Dos de estas luces provienen de lámparas o velas visibles (The Others, 100 Feet), mientras que la otra surge de una puerta entreabierta. Gracias a esta luz es que podemos visualizar las caras asustadizas de Nicole Kidman y Famke Janssen, ambas mirando hacia nuestra derecha, como si acabaran de ver algo pasar. La otra, Reneé Zellweger sólo asoma un ojito. Para recalcar que estamos viendo a estas actrices, dos de los posters nos ponen su nombre en la parte arriba (Case 39, 100 Feet), mientras que el otro lo hace tan sólo encima del título del filme que es otro claro ejemplo de gran imaginación. Los tres con letras grandes y algo borrosas, y, al menos, en inglés, de dos palabras. Por útlimo y para rematarla, las tres utilizan mediocres taglines que acompañan, y disque le dan sentido a la imagen. Já, cómo no.

1. “Tarde o temprano, ellos te encontrarán”
2. “Algunos casos nunca deberían ser abiertos”
3. “Quédate en casa, bajo tu propio riesgo”

Veredicto: El jurado declara culpables a todas por seguir diseños tan formulaicos y hasta clichélados, pero al menos exonera a The Others (2001) por gozar de un producto que vale la pena checar, teniendo en cuenta que la otras nunca tuvieron siquiera un buen estreno. Al menos los estudios se dieron cuenta de la calidad de aquéllas.

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot…

Be careful with the fireworks.

Hmm, Hugo Weaving wore a mask for the whole of this film. Would he make a good Judge Dredd?

Oh and remember, remember the flux capacitor was invented on this day.

Happy Birthday to Sam Rockwell, Famke Janssen, Corin Nemec, Robert Patrick, Armin Shimerman, Tilda Swinton and whoever else had a birthday today.

POKER DE FOTOGRAMAS (III)

Texto de Ricard Aumedes para 39escalones.

Rounders se estrenó el 11 de septiembre de 1998 en 2.176 salas de cine, recaudó 8,5 millones de dólares durante su primer fin de semana y posteriormente 22,9 millones de dólares en Estados Unidos. El crítico de cine Roger Ebert le dio a la película 3 de 4 estrellas y su opinión en el New York Times fue, “Rounders a veces tiene un aspecto negro pero nunca tiene un sentido negro porque no trata sobre los perdedores (o al menos no lo admite). Básicamente se trata una fotografía de deportes, en la que gana el héroe de talento, se enfrenta a casos de desastre y luego se empareja una vez más contra el campeón”.

A pesar de un estreno en cines anodina, Rounders ha pasado a ser un clásico de culto, especialmente entre los entusiastas del poker. Algunas personas dicen que la película es la responsable directa del reciente aumento de la popularidad del juego de poker Texas hold’em; sin embargo, para otras, el aumento sustancial en la popularidad de esta modalidad de poker no tiene nada que ver con la película; sin embargo, años después de su estreno, es más que relevante la coincidencia entre ese aumento y el éxito de la película. De ahí que se comente que Rounders es la mejor película de poker que jamás se ha realizado.

Rounders empieza con un joven estudiante de derecho, Mike McDermott (Matt Damon), que pierde todo su dinero (30.000 dolares) en una partida de poker Texas hold’em contra Teddy “KGB” (John Malkovich), un mafioso ruso que dirige una sala de poker ilegal que Mike suele frecuentar. Aturdido por la pérdida decide concentrarse en sus estudios y le hace la promesa a su novia (Gretchen Mol) de no volver a jugar al poker nunca más. Knish (John Turturro) se ofrece para financiar a Mike después de haber visto como perdía todo su dinero contra Teddy. Mike decide aceptar un trabajo a tiempo parcial conduciendo un camión de reparto de Knish. Las cosas para Mike darán un vuelco enorme cuando su mejor amigo “Gusano” Murphy (Edward Norton) sale de la cárcel y vuelve a llevarle por el camino de las mesas de juego. Mike, entusiasta del poker, decide volver a jugar para ayudar a Gusano a pagar todas las deudas que tiene pendientes, pero a consecuencia de ello pierde a su novia, ya que ella se convence de que no podrá dejar de jugar nunca. En el transcurso de la película se suceden infinidad de acontecimientos que llevarán a Mike a jugar en la serie mundial de poker.

Esta historia ambientada en los juegos de azar, sobre todo en el poker Texas hold’em, da una visión general de cómo se vive en un entorno de mafiosos, deudas y juego que permanece vigente igualmente hoy en día allí donde existen cirtuitos de poker ilegal. El argumento cinematográfico centrado en el poker le proporciona al espectador los atractivos ingredientes habituales, tensión entre los jugadores, el duelo de miradas y nervios, las estrategias de juego, el suspense del farol, la incertidumbre por el desenlace de las partidas, etc., aunque como siempre conlleva el inconveniente de la pérdida de efectividad de la emoción y el suspense en posteriores visionados. En el caso de Rounders se compensa este déficit con la excelente construcción del guión, que contiene diálogos brillantes, y las buenas interpretaciones de unos personajes de fuerza y carácter especialmente difíciles, que hacen que las relaciones personales de animadversión, amistad y amor entre los personajes tengan mayor peso e importancia que el final de cada mano disputada en el juego. La escenografía que recrea las atmósferas propias de los ambientes y lugares clandestinos es realmente creíble y muy cercana al cine clásico, ámbito preferente del director John Dahl.

Es posible que la película no sea del agrado del espectador al que no le guste el juego y mucho menos el mundo de los profesionales del poker. Si por el contrario le interesa no sólo la estrategia, la psicología y las probabilidades del juego, sino también participar en él de vez en cuando, es probable que se sienta inspirado por esta película. Recientemente, al calor del inesperado éxito del poker online, se ha comercializado una edición para coleccionistas en DVD con unos estupendos extras que incluyen comentarios del propio director y los protagonistas principales, además de comentarios de jugadores profesionales en el poker Texas hold’em.

Post realizado con la colaboración de pokerlistings, una de las mejores páginas de poker online

Don’t mess with Liam Neeson’s family. Or just don’t mess with Liam Neeson in general.

While vacationing with a friend in Paris, an American girl (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers intent on selling her into forced prostitution. Working against the clock, her ex-spy father (Liam Neeson) must pull out all the stops to save her.

This film proves two things: 1) Liam Neeson can act in anything by just playing them, and 2) director Pierre Morel can make some great exciting action-filled movies but cannot write an effective original screenplay at all. The film suffers from its totally lackluster script.

The relationship between Neeson and his daughter didn’t feel real or true at all and if anything it just felt like two actors playing father and daughter. Oh wait for a second that’s what it was, so basically they did just a horrible job at that. Much of the screenplay is very cliched, and most of the lines in this film feel a little too familiar to other action filled movies.

The movie sort of felt like a big-budget 80’s action film where one man fights off against a thousand people. This was cool to see in such a 21st century way but in all it was a laugh fest since the film was very corny and highly unrealistic. Also many of the villains seemed so dumb and not very much of a threat.

The high point of this film has got to be the action. Its exciting, over-the-top, and ultimately very violent. Just seeing Liam Neeson lay the whoop down on some Frenches is a sight to see. The film’s action is completely outrageous but that’s the best thing about the film it keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Liam Neeson also shines very well in this film showing a great sense of raw edgieness that we have seen many times before but this more in a way that makes him dominant. He totally feels like a James Bond that knows kung-fu. Maggie Grace is great as the clueless, naive, rich, spoiled daughter that is kidnapped, while Famke Janssen as the equally naive, and estranged ex-wife of Neeson, pulls her role off well.

The film is very brainless but has a raw performance from Liam Neeson and features some high quality action that keeps you entertained throughout.

7/10=Rental!!!

I have some good news and some not-bad-but-kind-of-eh news.

The latter first: I won’t be doing anymore video updates until Part Two of the blog, which is coming soon. Unfortunately, I have not resolved the issues with my camera and computer connectivity and making the videos consumes too much time, which is why posts have been late. But the recaps will prove to be much more useful in the later parts of this project.

And, good news: 37 Languages is now on Twitter! You can catch up with the blog at 37 Languages. Be sure to follow; I’ll have links to posts and also tweet about interesting things going on in the language world.

Now, on the the Afrikaans wrap-up.

SUMMARY: Afrikaans is spoken in South Africa and Namibia by roughly 7 million people. It is a descendant of Dutch and came into usage by the European settlers in the western part of South Africa (known as Afrikaners). While the Afrikaners moved away from the cape region and formed republics elsewhere, the language also became standardized through the appearance of publications. Afrikaans is one of South Africa’s 11 official languages.

FINAL IMPRESSIONS: Pretty cool, to me at least. I was worried that this language would seem really Germanic (as in identical to German) but that wasn’t the case at all.

The Web site I’ve been using for this, Open Languages, has been extremely helpful. It’s very comprehensive and provides audio for most of its online lessons. One thing I learned was that double vowels are usually added to make one syllable words long (tak vs. taak). I also learned that the “g” sound is really almost like an h, but comes from the throat (no English equivalent). The “r” is also kind of trilled too, which I like.

In the introduction for the grammar section, I was impressed. There’s no verb conjugation except for the verbs “to be” and “to have” and gender for nouns aren’t used. There are also no case systems. Um … what? This language is in the same family as German and English?

Some other distinguishing things about Afrikaans are the use of double negatives (basically just tack on the particle “nie” at the end of a sentence) and its word order, known as “STOMPI” (Subject, Time, Object, Manner, Place, Infinitive).

But it did seem a little too good to be true. Many people are opting to just learn English now as a second language, especially as  Afrikaans was seen historically as the language of the oppressor. While there’s a resurgence of spoken Afrikaans in media and people wanting to learn it, it makes me wonder if English is still the more popular option. And then there’s Dutch …

I still like it though. It sort of sounds like Norwegian (I really liked Norwegian) and when you read it, it sort of looks like a quirky version of English. Sort of.

See Ellen DeGeneres speak Afrikaans (and laugh)!

EVALUATION:

Intelligibility: 4
Complexity: 5 (not hard at all)
Resonance: 3
Continuation: 3

COMING UP: Greek

SOURCES USED IN THIS POST:
Open Languages
Wikipedia (Afrikaans Grammar)

Let’s face it, Hollywood is never going to fund a big-budget original movie ever again.

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Marco and I have been talking for a while about doing a series of posts on movies that should be made. Now don’t get me wrong, the projects we’ll be proposing shouldn’t actually be made. In a better world, the budgets would go to real artists who do good work, but that’s not the world we live it, and at Counterforce, we believe in making the best out of a bad situation. Just like Liam Neeson.

no thank you

So, let’s get right down too it. You know, you know they’re going to make an ID4:2 some day, so we might as well make it enjoyably bad. Hell, just the idea of watching this movie instead of some Michael Bay cartoon-adapted crapfest gives me a boner. You can never ever go wrong blowing up as many international landmarks as possible.

Thus, The Counterforce Casting Couch: Independence Day 2

PREMISE:

This is gonna be a little rough, we can fill in the blanks during lighting shifts on the set. So, it’s like 20 years after the event of ID4. Will Smith is the President, obviously. The White House will have just finished being rebuilt and look exactly the same as before. Jeff Goldblum will basically be playing Al Gore. Sorta Green Living Apostle / Technocrat in Chief. Shia LeBeouf is Goldblum’s rebellious kid and Aaron Yoo is his buddy who films all their wacky adventures on his Flip Camera. There will be some drama because Shia doesn’t know his dad was a hero because Goldblum’s role was classified or something.

Ryan Kwanten from True Blood will fill in the Hick Character contingent with his little jailbait sister, Dakota Fanning. I threw a lot of brits into the cast so there can be other groups of characters in the UK and Australia, Iraq, etc. Famke Janssen will play somebody’s wife. Maybe Bill Pullman’s.

So, the Aliens come back, only this time, they come in peace and claim to be seeking asylum. Apparently these aliens are the not-evil faction of the bad guys. Will Smith will have all these mixed feelings because he hates aliens, but doesn’t want to be prejudiced to the nice ones. It will be like that scene in Star Trek 6 where Kirk talks about the klingons who killed his son, only this time it will be Will Smith saying it, and he’ll be talking to the First Dog.

Obviously, the bad aliens come back and destroy a shit-ton more monuments and landmarks. They’ll be led by Nic Cage, who is some kind of evil billionaire who helps the Aliens in exchange for world domination. Definitely gotta sack the Burj Dubai, the White House, Big Ben, the Golden Gate, the Vatican, etc. But this time, the good aliens have shared some of their technology, so the fight is slightly more fair, but earth still gets its ass kicked and the bad aliens occupy the planet. This would all take place on July 2nd.

yeah, that shit's gonna fall

The next day would be a lot of failed counter-offensives and characters hiding from Alien stormtroopers. Then Shia LeBeouf will decide to form a resistance and Aaron Yoo will do all the tech shit to get the word out on the internets. Ryan Kwanten will be there with Dakota, and he’ll turn out to be some kind of hillbilly ass-kicker. I see a scene with him, shirtless, feather tied to the back of his head, destroying enemy food supplies boston-tea-party style. Then we’ll cut to Said Taghmaoui in Iraq with a British accent and he’ll be all, “It’s the Americans, they want to organize a resistance, about bloody time!”

And then July 4th will be the big counter-attack. Aaron Yoo will die. Will Smith will fly an alien fighter ship with Bill Pullman as his wingman. They’ll fight their way to the mothership, land on it, then fight their way to Nic Cage’s lair on the bridge. Somehow, Jeff Goldblum will be there too. A big fistfight later, Will Smith wins, then escapes and Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum pilot the Mothership into the sun, sacrificing themselves. Shia hooks up with Dakota Fanning, and then after the credits roll, Samuel L. Jackson walks into a bar to talk to him about the Avengers initiative.

And… scene.

Fuck yeah!

You know you’d pay to see it.

ghost won't get this pillow...not my pillow he won't...not this one...

R

Famke Janssen, Bobby Cannavale

Shanks: Is there somebody in this house right now with you, Marnie?
Marnie: Define “somebody”…

Marnie (Janssen) has to serve the remainder of her prison sentence (for killing her abusive husband) under house arrest.  The 100 foot radius she is confined to starts to feel a lot smaller when her dead husband’s ghost starts terrorizing her.

I took another chance on a scary movie.  Strike two.  I was kind of hoping this was a movie about a killer centipede, but it wasn’t.  It was just another killer ghost story where the entity seems to have all the powers of a Jedi.  He’s really strong and can make things fly around the room.  Obi-wan has taught him well.

Apparently Marnie’s husband, Mike (Michael Pare), was a jerk when he was alive, but he’s an even bigger jerk as a ghost.  He’s able to beat her up even more now that he seems to have unlimited power on his side.  Bobby Cannavale plays Shanks, the cop in charge of monitoring Marnie.  He also happened to be Mike’s partner when he was still alive, so he doesn’t have a lot of good feelings for Marnie.  Those two yell at each other, the ghost comes and goes, Marnie flirts with her young grocery delivery guy, things take a sudden bad turn, then the movie ends in supremely confusing fashion.

Janssen and Cannavale are alright, but nothing special, and they aren’t given much of anything interesting to do or say.  This plot could conceivably be made into an interesting movie, but the script and production values bring it down.  Way down.

Abusive jerk in life, abusive jerk in death.

10 – 3.3 for a boring story – 1 for characters behaving stupidly – .8 for some low production values and poor effects = 4.9

Famke Janssen

Taken’s audience can be put into one single group: People who want to see Liam Neeson taking absolutely no shit whatsoever (for instance, if you’re a lifetime friend, and you stand in his way for even 5 minutes, he will shoot your wife) and kicking ass all around the board. If one is to look at it in terms of its target audience – does it succeed at providing 90 minutes of the most badass Liam Neeson you’ll ever see? It does indeed.

In place as Neeson’s motivation is his daughter (Maggie Grace), kidnapped by Albanian criminals with the prospect of being sold in some quite appaling human trafficking scheme while on vacation in France. Neeson must travel to Paris, take things in his own hands, beat up, severely injure and for the most part kill every single criminal in Europe. And so it begins.

Let’s not even waste any time thinking about the ethics of this film – it at least has the good grace to make the criminality involved some of the most reprehensible you’ll ever see in a hardcore action thriller, and somehow enabling the audience to think of every single bad guy as solely responsible for the entire web of human trafficking we see on the screen. The only qualms I have about it is the fact that most of the time minorities fill in as “bad guys”, but fortunately once the web of evil expands we see that it is seemingly run by what is undoubtedly not minorities. And really, that’s not what this film is about in any case.

What this film is is the two most loved action heroes wrapped into one bad ass protagonist. You’ve got the fatherly, sensitive yet still infinitely manly John McClane, and you’ve got the calculating, genius, well-trained and unbeatable Jason Bourne thrown into one character. And then you’ve got Liam Neeson in that role. It is thus probably the sum of the last 20 years of action film characters, and while the script, supporting cast, and the slightly too low-budget feel of it doesn’t meet the standards one would have to expect if one were to call this anything close to perfect, it is probably one of the years’ best thrillers. In fact, considering the other rubbish that came out around the same time (in Norway, anyway) – Knowing, Wolverine, etc, this is an extraordinary film and I’m baffled it was not released theatrically.

It drags on in the beginning, any scene without Liam Neeson outsmarting everyone within 100 yards is a bit too boring, the characters are poorly written or ignored (in what seems to be an attempt to shift focus onto Neeson’s character, who actually rings pretty true, so I guess it an be forgiven), and there’s a number of other problems with it. As long as it doesn’t cost you too much more, this is a great way to spend 90 minutes. Liam Neeson may be the only good thing about it, but boy, is he good.

3,5/5

SOLO:  I am a frequent audience member at one of the best theaters in the greater Los Angeles Area, The Archlight in Hollywood.  They have assigned seating, a great gift shop, a bar with some great cocktails and appetizers.  The patrons that attend this theater are smart movie goers.  They are not obscene, they don’t take 5 minutes to open a candy wrapper, and are very aware of their surroundings.  There isn’t a bad seat in the house and the Archlight staff are A+ in my book.  There is also a great chance you will sit down and watch a film right next to a celebrity.  I’ve had the great luck to watch a film one seat away from actress Famke Janssen.  Wow, she looks so good in person.  It was at a screening of the Nicole Kidman film BIRTH.  The film wasn’t that great but having Famke one seat away was stellar.  I had to sneak a peek at her a few times but had to be covert as I was with my girlfriend at the time. 

My Dream Girl?????

All in All, the ARchlight is my all-time favorite theater.  And yes, their was a Flash Forward premiere there last night.  here is the article by The Eaminer LA writer Peter Gonzaga :

Last night at the Arclight Theaters in Hollywood, CA, a group of “Entertainment Weekly” readers had a chance to meet and watch a sneak peek episode of ABC’s new series “FlashForward.” Walking the impromptu press line included the stars of the show John Cho, Jack Davenport, Courtney Vance, Zach Knighton, Christine Woods, Peyton List, Dominic Monaghan and Brian O’Byrne. Unfortunately, Joseph Fiennes was a no show. 

      One photographer said that was one of the main reasons for her excitement of covering the special screening of “FlashForward.” I’m sure many fans were hoping to see Mr. Fiennes. 

      ”FlashForward” is about the humans in the whole world blacked out at the same time. A worldwide phenomena of individuals experiencing the future. Each character has a story to tell.

Great Shot from EW's Fall preview issue...

     The stars of the show began trickling in the VIP lounge area around 6pm to enjoy some light hor ‘douvres and drinks from the bar. Dominic Monaghan laughed before entering the photo press line and quipped that he better put down his cocktail before taking his photos. He jokingly talked to the photographers saying that it’s the worst thing of  having a photo with a drink in your hand because if one ever has to go to rehab, that photo will be the one that runs. Not that Mr. Monaghan would need rehab.

     Interestingly when the stars of the show arrived, the men congregated together while the various women sat in separate areas of the lounge. As the night wore on before the screening, the ladies did warm up and began hanging out together. One might say that the cast is still building up camaraderie.

“FlashForward” premieres Thursday, September 24, 2009 on ABC. 

The Flash Forward Podcast LIVE with Heath and Ms. Wendy episode 2 will go live on Talkshoe 9pm est September 25, 2009.

SOURCE : WWW.EXAMINER.COM

Titolo originale: The Wackness

Regia: Jonathan Levine

Cast: Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen, Olivia Thirlby, Mary-Kate Olsen, Jane Adams, Method Man, Aaron Yoo, Talia Balsam, David Wohl

Distribuzione: Fandango, USA, 2008

Guarda il trailer

New York, 1994. Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) è un giovane spacciatore che per lavoro conosce il dottor Jeffrey Squires (Ben Kingsley) psichiatra in crisi. Luke gli consegna l’erba in cambio di sedute psicoanalitiche. I due avranno così modo di conoscersi meglio e di capire di avere molto in comune…

Jonathan Levine, alla sua seconda regia dopo All the Boys love Mandy Lane, inedito in Italia) , ci presenta una dark -comedy molto carina, che ruota attorno ai due protagonisti, Luke Shapiro, il classico ragazzo non popolare e ignorato dai compagni di scuola e dalle ragazze, e il dottor Squires, uno psicanalista dal passato hippie e decisamente fuori di testa. L’incontro tra i due sarà fondamentale per entrambi: Luke inizierà a comprendere maggiormente se stesso, le proprie esigenze e i propri desideri e il dottore affronterà la realtà e ciò che ha sempre cercato di nascondere a se stesso attraverso l’uso di droghe e di antidepressivi.

La scelta del periodo in cui la storia è ambientata è decisamente interessante: 1994, l’era Giuliani, caratterizzata da un fortissimo giro di vite nei confronti di droga, alcol e graffiti ma soprattutto un periodo d’oro per l’hip hop, come dimostra la bellissima colonna sonora, di fatto protagonista aggiunta della pellicola, con brani mitici come The What di Notorious B.I.G. feat. Method Man, Summertime, di DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, Can’t you see, di Total featuring Notorious B.I.G., The World is yours di NAS, solo per citarne alcune ( per la tracklist completa cliccate qui). Luke utilizza questa musica come una valvola di sfogo alle sue frustrazioni e la fa scoprire e apprezzare anche agli altri personaggi del film, il dottor Squires in primis,  ma anche la sua figliastra Stephanie ( Olivia Thirlby), la ragazza dei sogni di Luke, protagonista da sempre delle sue fantasie più ardite. Il loro rapporto sarà molto importante per la crescita e lo sviluppo del ragazzo.

Il film è indubbiamente ben fatto, i personaggi sono caratterizzati in modo preciso e gli attori sono perfetti per il proprio ruolo, a partire da Ben Kingsley, attore di talento che si dimostra versatile e molto a suo agio anche nei ruoli più comici e Josh Peck, l’ex protagonista della serie per ragazzi Drake & Josh, che con il suo sguardo imbronciato catalizza l’attenzione sin dall’inizio. Il film è un continuo gioco di ruoli e di capovolgimenti di situazioni: Luke è il vero strizzacervelli, è lui che dà di fatto consigli al dottor Squires e che capirà realmente cosa vuole dalla vita.

Questa pellicola ha ricevuto il premio del pubblico come Miglior Film drammatico al Sundance Film Festival 2008. Peccato che sia stato fatto uscire il 28 agosto, un periodo in cui l’afflusso alle sale è decisamente scarso. Avrebbe meritato di più.  Sicuramente ci sono dei limiti, ma in definitiva si tratta di un bel prodotto del cinema indipendente americano.

Conclusione: Da vedere.

Voto: 7+