MOVIE REVIEW: FRIDAY NIGHT TRIPLE FEATURE

The Air I Breathe
Grade: B

Great cast: Andy Garcia, Kevin Bacon, Julie Delpy, Forest Whitaker, Emile Hirsch, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Brendan Fraser.
This is one of those post-Crash movies with poignant vignettes that are all intertwined to make one large compelling story. And for the most part, it's a success. It's a movie about the human condition, about raw emotion, and the viewer really does feel empathy, sadness, fulfillment, regret, and joy along with the characters. It's nice to see true character depth and development, because that's sorely lacking in many films today. Andy Garcia plays a hardcore bad-ass gangster, probably the grittiest role I've ever seen him in. Supposedly his method acting on set freaked Gellar out so bad that she had to walk off set to shake it off. But why oh why must he have the name "Fingers"? Can't they come up with a more original gangster name? Gellar does a great job in the Avril LaVigne type role of snotty pop princess who gets her shit dealt straight by the Garcia gangsters. And Brendan Fraser has a hot love scene with her. I admit it - Fraser is the one and only reason I rented the movie. He's friggin hot. And he plays a bad-ass, too, much like his recent role with Mos Def in Journey to the End of the Night. He's been typecast in the duddy Dudley Do-Right/George of the Jungle family movie genre and action packed hero genre (Mummy I, II, III, IV), and I'm glad he's been taking some headier roles that show he's got some chutzpah. I feel like Forest Whitaker and Kevin Bacon were sort of wasted, but with such a large, strong cast, anymore development of their characters would have made the movie entirely too long. Emile Hirsch has a very short but perfectly acted role. Props to him (and the casting director.) Why a B? I can't get over the name "Fingers." And - spoiler alert - almost everyone dies or should die and doesn't. So it makes the 1.5 hour time investment feel futile.



27 Dresses
Grade: A-

What?! I'm... a... girl. I'm genetically predisposed to watch and sometimes enjoy chick flicks. And this was one of the best I've seen in a long time. It's silly, it's fun, there are hot guys, and Judy Greer plays the best friend role, of course. She's like a good biscuit - always around as a staple, enjoyable, reminds you of home. It doesn't hurt that there's actually a decent plot and not too much sappy romance stuff. It's like Wedding Crashers Lite. It is what it is, and for what it is it's good.



I Am Legend
Grade: A-

In true Castaway/Tom Hanks fashion, Will Smith does a superb job carrying most of the movie all by his lonesome. He's strong, independent, smart, and the viewer feels compassion for him and his dog Sam. The ONLY thing that made this an A- rather than an A+ is the computer generated zombies/vampires (zompires?) There was so much anticipation built up before the first sighting, then when I saw one up close I said to myself "Oh puhlease." It's like they combined Gollum with the gratuitous yellin' black man zombie from George A. Romero's Land of the Dead. Totally unbelievable. I still enjoyed it immensely, but I wasn't scared at all once I saw the zompires. And I sort of wanted it to be scary.