Seriously Overdue Movie Reviews - 2010 Catch-up, Part I: The Other Guys, Micmacs, Inception, Cyrus

Film reviews? What are those? Here are capsule reviews of some of the movies I've seen yet not yet reviewed from 2010. If memory serves correctly, these will be in order of viewing.

The Other Guys
It's hard for comedians to have long-lasting film careers because, with each film added to their resume, it becomes harder and harder for them to surprise us. We've seen Will Ferrell play overgrown children, we've seen him play it straight, and we've seen just about everything in between.

So the success or failure of The Other Guys would have to come from elsewhere, and it does on both counts. Success in the 85th comeback of one Michael Keaton, going goofy as the police chief that needs results (and, in an inspired bit, peppers his language with references to a certain R & B bands from the 90s); failure (for the most part) in another attempt to turn Mark Wahlberg into a comic actor; he's spotty at best, with the high points coming from his incredulity at whom Ferrell is married to.

The story - something about a corrupt financial businessman - is largely irrelevant, and it's penchant for attempting social commentary falls flat. Your liking or lack thereof of Guys largely depends on how funny you find Ferrell to be in general, and whether or not you can stomach yet another mismatched buddy cop comedy.

Fletch's Film Rating:

	Expectation: "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you."
	Reality: "You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you."

LAMBScore:

Micmacs
I could talk for awhile about the way that Jean-Pierre Jeunet can make even a Parisian landfill look beautiful or how he somehow seamlessly meshes a story about a man who becomes homeless with a satire on global arms dealings, but it'd much easier to just say this: if you dug Amelie, you're likely to feel 80% of that towards Micmacs, and probably vice versa. See or don't see this accordingly.

Fletch's Film Rating:

	Expectation: "Darn tootin."
	Reality: "Darn tootin."

LAMBScore:

Inception
The less said here the better, I'd imagine, given the press it received. I've already crowned it my favorite film of 2010 - you've likely granted it a spot in your top 10 (or 5) as well. For those of us that bemoan the Michael Bays of the world and their brainless (and admittedly, sometimes fun) action flicks were salivating from the moment the teaser for Inception hit. The tag line told us from the gitgo that we were in line for something a bit more cerebral: "Your mind is the scene of the crime." But what was the last mind-bender that had suck kickass set pieces? Or award-winning international casts? None - and that's why Inception will live in a class inhabited by few others, the most recent of which is the first Matrix. Bring on the sequel...
Fletch's Film Rating:

	Expectation: "You're the best around!"
	Reality: "You're the best around!"

LAMBScore:

Cyrus
I'm still confused by the definition of the "mumblecore" genre - how it's any different from the low-budget indie comedies/dramedies of the 1990s and 2000s is beyond me. Low budget, improvisation, no-name actors (hence the low budget) - it's all there. Of course, Cyrus has name actors, so it's inclusion in the genre is even more bewildering. I suppose it just means that one or more of the Duplass brothers are involved in the film's making.

What I'm not confused about is said brothers' film making abilities. That they could take what is essentially a stock comic setup - mother dotes on her only son, son rebels when mother starts dating again - and turn it into a funny, charming, realistic movie is evidence of that. That they could wring out the best performance of Jonah Hill's career to date (admittedly, not an overwhelming task there, but still...) is icing on the cake.

Fletch's Film Rating:

	Expectation: "Darn tootin."
	Reality: "Darn tootin."

LAMBScore: