Gil Mansergh's Cinema Toast

New Releases 6/12/09

Imagine That (PG)
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church, Nicole Ari Parker, Ronny Cox, Martin Sheen, Yara Shahidi
Director: Karey Kirkpatrick
If you believe that you can be a good parent by spending "quality time" in a frenetic, twice as fast as the speed limit, mad dash to school to get your kid there on time, then this is the movie for you. For the rest of us, forget Eddie Murphy in this film, (which is about 80% of screen time), you've seen him do his schtick before, but young newcomer Yara Shahidi (and her future-predicting blanket) is fresh and Thomas Haden Church rocks as a politically incorrect (but funny), Native American financial guru.
1 and 1/2 pieces of mostly stale toast



Taking of Pelham 123 (R)
Starring: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro, Luis Guzman
Director: Tony Scott
In the original, 1974 movie, the cynical curmudgeon Walter Matthau played the transit authority policeman whose routine is shattered by the hijacking of a Manhattan-bound train. Led by a British mercenary (Robert Shaw) the gang have disabled the so-called "dead man switch" which is designed to stop the train if the driver dies. In the latest version, Tony Scott directs in his usual pyrotechnic style with John Travolta leading the bad guys, Denzel Washington as the desk-bound dispatcher stuck as negotiator, and James Gandolfini as the mayor. The final act is just plain unbelievable as Washington transforms into a superhero while the train hurtles faster and faster towards an explosive (and expensive) Coney Island finale.
2 piece of popcorn movie toast

Departures (NR)
Starring: Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Kazuko Yoshiyuki
Director: Yojiro Takita
Nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, this Japanese production opens with a "Six Feet Under" style death scene, when an out-of-work celllist accidentally begins a new job preparing a corpse for burial. Cultural differences abound between what is acceptable in Japan and what is "OK" in this country, and you can either embrace this mood-shifting, chapter-like exploration of a man who is a mediocre musician but a very good grief counselor "or not.
3 pieces elegant, Kleenex suggested, toast


Easy Virtue (PG-13)
Starring: Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Barnes
Director: Stephan Elliott
This is a Noel Coward play with Cole Porter tunes added and then brought to the movie theater. The cast is great (or at least good), the lines are pithy, 1920's English aristocrats and wealthy Americans are easy to make fun of, and in the end, it provides a toe-tapping and often amusing (but not hilarious!) ninety minutes. Hear, hear.
3 pieces of delovely toast





NEW ON DVD

Gran Torino (R)
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, Ahney Her
Director: Clint Eastwood
Walt Kowalski is an assembly-line worker who helped make the Ford Grand Torino muscle cars in the 70's, and one of them sits in show-room condition under a tarp in the garage of his Detroit home. He's been retired for a decade now, and since his wife died recently, and he doesn't get along with his two sons or their kids, he spends most of his time sitting on his front porch. In the morning, he sips his coffee and reads his paper. In the afternoon, he consumes a six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon and arranges the empty cans in a line. As he sits and contemplates his world, he sees change all around him. His lawn is the only one green and mowed. His house is the only one painted. His roof is the only one in good repair. Almost everyone else in the neighborhood is, as Walt likes to say, a "gook," a "chink," or a "slant eye." Other neighborhoods close by are filled with "spics" or "coloreds." His barber is a "guinea" and a "Dago."Walt's son says "he's Korean War hero still stuck in the 50's," but that doesn't explain his bigotry, or excuse it. In the movie "Gran Torino," Walt is played by Clint Eastwood, who has said in interviews, that this is his last film. If that is true, it's a disappointing last act.
3 pieces of we soon see where this is going toast