Movies

Richard: I just feel like everyone tries to do something different, but you always wind up doing the same damn thing.

1. Star Wars Trilogy

2. Indiana Jones Trilogy

3. Blade Runner

4. Apocalypse Now

5. Presumed Innocent

(Honorable Mention: The Fugitive)

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Go backstage with A Prairie Home Companion, and experience the laughter and joy of down-home America's favorite radio show. Acclaimed director Robert Altman (Gosford Park, The Player) leads an all-star cast in this magical, fictional account of the legendary show's final radio broadcast. As cast and crew assemble one last time to sing, tell stories and reminisce, the result is an unforgettable homage to a beloved American treasure.

The things I had heard about A Prairie Home Companion were positive ones. No one seemed to gush over the movie and no one called it an "absolute must-see." All of the thoughts I heard or read seemed to portray A Prairie Home Companion as a GOOD movie. And that is what it was. A Prairie Home Companion is a hearty, meat and potatoes, stick-to-your-ribs kind of good movie. The movie may be overflowing with highlights personal to you, but from a broader perspective I would only list one highlight. It wasn't "that kind of movie." Rather than a story about a radio show airing its last broadcast, it was a heartwarming story about a band of radio personalities giving their final performance. The focus was the people.

The movie was a look into their lives. They tell stories, some for the first time, with others they've lost count. They laugh. They cry. They are a family. And while the stories may not be familiar to us, the faces sure are.

The cast includes Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Marylouise Burke and L.Q. Jones. Surely you've heard one or two of those names! So many names, some bigger than others. It was nice to see so many people be a part of a movie like this when many of the roles were limited. Try to argue all you want that there aren't big names in that list, but I will fight you there.

Oh, and before I forget: that highlight I mentioned earlier. Kevin Kline. If you are a fan of Mr. Kline, I probably won't need to elaborate. If you have seen the movie, then you may even agree. This guy is magic. I loved the part he played as Guy Noir, the short-of-work 1930s private eye stuck manning security for the theater. As he spoke, whether it be conversationally or in narration to the movie, he did so in an overly dramatic style characterized decades ago by men and women in film. In the DVD extras, director Robert Altman talks admiringly about Kline. He says that the camera has to be on Kline's body rather than zoom in because he plays his parts with his entire body. Think about that after watching one of his movies if you don't believe it. The man is talented, and his performance was the highlight for me.

I liked A Prairie Home Companion. It was fun to hear some of the ridiculous jingles that the performers had to sing. It was a pleasure to be let into the lives of the characters facing the end of the careers they loved so deeply. And it was a riot to hear some of the jokes. A Prairie Home Companion may never see an award from the Academy, but please do not limit your movie watching based upon that metric.

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Danny Deckchair

An average guy uses gags and pranks to liven up his blue-collar life and accidentally ends up taking off in a deck chair strapped to giant helium-filled balloons while his friends watch helplessly from below. He starts a whole new life in a far-off town where he crash lands...until his old life catches up to him.

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Maggie Gyllenhaal (World Trade Center), Tony Shalhoub (Monk), Edie Falco (The Sopranos) and Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report) deliver brilliant performances in this intoxicating, intelligent comedy. In this character driven masterpiece several New Yorkers -- an oddball office shrink, a cluelessly competitive pastry chef, and a flirtatious security guard -- reveal their eccentric private stories. It's a deliciously bittersweet comic triumph from director Danny Leiner (Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle).

How does that Meat Loaf song go? Two out of Three Ain't Bad? I guess that means one out of three is bad. This movie was neither Great, nor Wonderful. And as soon as it is no longer considered "new," it will be zero out of three.

I wanted to enjoy the movie. For most of the movie I enjoyed the characters and felt for them in certain scenarios. Something was just missing. Well, I figure two things were missing: cohesion and closure.

I can appreciate the idea of many smaller stories combined to form one bigger super-movie. Maybe I am just used to seeing it more when the stories have some common element. These stories never intertwined and nothing, except the emotional roller coaster of life in The Big Apple was the same for any of the characters.

There were emotional highs and lows. Hopes were exalted and dashed. And all the while...nothing really happened. There was no story; we simply follow a few people on their day-to-day routines and see the happiness and pain they experience at whatever intervals they experience them.

And then the movie ends. That's it.

Well to be fair they showed one more scene that only serves to compound the abundance of loose ends and detract from any feeling of compassion. I won't spoil the final scene, but it was not the most "pro-family" scene I have ever watched.

The movie does have a decent list of names associated with it. Probably my favorite of the bunch is Jim Gaffigan. He may not be the funniest comedian, but I have enjoyed seeing him in what I can when I can. He and Tony Shalhoub bantered well together as doctor and patient. Their story was a little forced, but the two had good chemistry.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is finally beginning to grow on me. Or then again it might just be the part she played was much more...wholesome than roles she has had in the past (e.g. Happy Endings)

It certainly would take much more than additional witty banter from Jim Gaffigan and wholesomeness from Maggie Gyllenhaal to even make The Great New Wonderful into A Movie Worth Seeing. I do not recommend you see this movie. I will even go one step further to recommend you avoid it altogether.

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1. The Muppet Christmas Carol

2. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

3. Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (original animated version)

4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

5. A Christmas Story

(Honorable Mention: Home Alone)

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