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.
Pompe disease is a rare neuromuscular disorder that attacks the muscles.
It has something to do with sugar. So does Extraordinary Measures, a film based on the true story of an extraordinary ordinary man, John Crowley, who gave up a promising business career to find a cure for the awful disease that was killing two of his children.
Crowley and a brilliant researcher team up to find a treatment.
The researcher is a composite character. Brendan Fraser is Crowly and Harrison Ford play the composite researcher. One is an optimist and a financial whiz who refuses to sit on the sidelines and watch his two children die. The other is a loner curmudgeon with the potential cure.
Back to the sugar. Extraordinary Measures isnt extraordinary. Better suited for TVs Hallmark channel, Robert Nelson Jacobs (Chocolat) screen treatment of Geeta Anands book is saccharine sweet. While these films normally leave an aftertaste, Extraordinary Meaures doesnt. Part of the credit goes to the excellent casting.
Fraser (The Mummy), usually more suited to comedy, gives an extraordinary performance that plays nicely off of Fords sarcasm. What makes this part work for him is that it is more of an anchor that all the individual plot parts revolve around.
Fraser who has an exceptionally expressive face has this under-the-surface tenaciousness about him that gives his performance credibility.
Ford has always been an excellent curmudgeon. He has a surly side and an uncanny ability to get a laugh from a brilliant one-line comeback to any statement. Even when the comment isnt funny, Ford somehow manages to get you to laugh.
You dont laugh much here.
His last couple of movies have seen little daylight and have not made it to the Tri-Cities. He has done serious roles before, but none quite like this one. Youll like what you see.
Make no mistake though. This one will load you up with sugar. The predictable beginning leads to a crisis mode middle and then to the three-hanky ending. What it isnt is manipulative. If youre careful and limit the soda intake, you wont leave the theater with a sugar high.
Mr. Movie rating: 4 stars
Rated PG for mature themes. It opens Friday, Jan. 22 at the Carmike 12 and at the Fairchild Cinemas 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.
With the exception of one of my favorites, the movies on the list all revolve around Christmas.
While to some it is not politically correct to refer to the season as Christmas, I still like to call them Christmas movies. That’s the holiday and in the past Christmas was the reason for the season.
Adam Sandler is still doing them and usually within five minutes of the beginning of a movie. Hard to believe isn’t it? And he doesn’t stick with just one. Sandler’s form of “humor” can be found twice, thrice, sometimes even four times in a film.
Prepubescent boys find a toot a hoot. By the time you’re 15, fart jokes are pretty much passe. Maybe it’s Sandler’s signature. Modern comedians tend not to use them. Billy Crystal is one of the few. He’s simply marvelous. A lot of old-time comedians did. Jimmy Durante said goodnight to Mrs. Calabash. Bill Cosby’s signature is, “Hey, hey, hey.” George Burns told his lovely bride to, “Say goodnight, Gracie.”
Kudos to Battelle Film Club for bringing 'The Hedgehog'
The Hedgehog is a subtitled French film from 2009 that finally got released in the U.S. last year, and thanks to the Battelle Film Club , it will be seen in the Tri-Cities.
The story centers around Paloma, an 11-year old girl whose interests are philosophy and art.
No one in her family can relate. Her parents barely speak to each other much less to Paloma. The disconnected mom talks to plants, and the psychiatrist but can’t talk to her daughter. Dad is nowhere to be found.
'Exit Through the Gift Shop' via Battelle Film Club
Tri-Cities theaters don’t see many documentaries. Last year’s Oscar winner Inside Job made it. This year, we got to see the fabulous Buck .
But for the most part, there isn’t much demand for documentaries. Most of the time if you want to see one you’ll have to catch it at a Battelle Film Club offering.
Exit Through the Gift Shop is the one they’re showing for the fall series. This one got an Oscar nomination for best documentary instead of the much-better and more important Waiting for Superman . But you could perceive that documentary as being anti-union — and it kind of was anti-teachers union — so Hollywood isn’t going to go there.
Tim Blake Nelson, who plays a lot of 'weirdos,' breaks character for 'Big Miracle'
ORLANDO, Fla. - There's a trick to the character actor's trade. And Tim Blake Nelson, who has been the good guy ("The Incredible Hulk"), the bad guy ("Holes," "Hoot"), the stoner ("The Good Girl," "Leaves of Grass") or the rube ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?") will share it with you:
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