Gary Wolcott's "Mr. Movie" column has appeared in the Tri-City Herald since 1992. The Tri-City native now lives in Portland, Ore., and watches about 250 movies each year. This member of Portland's association of movie critics, Far From Hollywood, believes movies are made to be seen on theater screens and should be seen there and not on television screens. Have a question for Mr. Movie? Click on "Add Comment" below. Mr. Movie has joined Twitter. Follow him here.
Coco Before Chanel puts a showbiz spin on the famed fashion icons early life from a childhood spent in an orphanage to the edge of Parisian and worldwide fame. Audrey Tautou (Amelie) stars and portrays Coco as a determined gold digger. Coco moves in with a French jet set millionaire.
She dazzles his friends with her independence and her male-oriented fashion daring-do. And no one did better hats than Coco. Its the hats and uh other skills that launched her career.
Coco was a 1920s and 1930s version of Paris Hilton. Only with talent.
Tautous intense, dark, hypnotic eyes and single-minded persona drive a long and -- ultimately -- not all that interesting story. But fashion flicks arent my thing. Beefed-up biopics about historical figures arent either.
Outside of one or two shown by the Battelle Film Club every year, the Tri-Cities doesnt see too many French films. Fans should gobble this up while you can. It wont be here long.
Mr. Movie rating: 3 1/2 stars
Rated PG-13 for mature themes. It opens Friday, Nov. 20 at the Carmike 12.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on video.
2 stars to 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
In the spring of 1939, Coco Chanel said this about lace: "I consider lace to be one of the prettiest imitations ever made of the fantasy of nature; lace always evokes for me those incomparable designs which the branches and leaves of trees embroider across the sky, and I do not think that any invention of the human spirit could have a more graceful or precise origin."
'Arthur Christmas' delivers a new holiday favorite
In 2011, Santa is high tech. He zooms about the globe in an other-worldly looking craft.
The current Santa and his elves slide down ropes and use Mission: Impossible super-spy technology and military precision. And on one magic night, they disperse gifts to all the children in the world.
They’ve split up and are scattered about the globe. Kermit is a recluse. Other than Miss Piggy who is a “Devil Wear’s Prada”-style fashion magazine editor with a secretary that looks mysteriously like Emily Blunt from the movie, they’re not a happy bunch. That's about to change.
Gary, his girlfriend Mary and his Muppety-looking brother Walter travel to Los Angeles to see everything they can that’s Muppet. A tour of the broken down Muppet Theater has them learning that a greedy oil tycoon is going to tear it down because there is oil underneath.
'I Don't Know How She Does It' or why they made it
I not only have nothing nice to say about this movie, but it also is so bad it is a struggle to say anything about it at all.
A better title: I Don’t Know Why She Did It . Could it be “she” has no options other than getting cast as a cliche TV-like character. What else can you do after being stuck for years on TV in Sex and the City ?
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