Scoreboard!

Happy Friday! We periodically post a scoreboard of everything we have reviewed thus far. Of our Boston Movies Reviews, here are our rankings:

A..... The Departed

A-.... Gone Baby Gone

A-.... Good Will Hunting

A-.... Shutter Island

B+... Mystic River

B...... Blown Away

B...... Edge of Darkness

B...... Love Story

C...... The Bostonians

C...... Paul Blart: Mall Cop

C-..... Alex & Emma

C-.....What's The Worst That Could Happen

D+.... My Best Friend's Girl

D...... What Doesn't Kill You

D-..... The Women

F....... The Pink Panther 2

And for Not-Made-In-Boston Movie Reviews:

B- Practical Magic

D- Knowing

Movie Review: Alex and Emma (2003)

"Alex & Emma" is the kind of movie you might get stuck watching on an airplane. It's a harmless Rob Reiner romantic comedy -- though it lacks the both wit of "When Harry Met Sally" and the comedy of "The Princess Bride".

The main character, Luke Wilson's Alex, has 30 days to write a book or else loan sharks will kill him. It opens with them holding him off a green screen balcony demanding to see what he has written. Already, preposterous -- why would they care about his writing (Does the screenwriter has delusions of grandeur about his craft)? Enter Kate Hudson's Emma, a court stenographer who can help him quickly hammer out his novel. He waffles, she backseat drives the creative process... obviously they'll fall in love by the end.

I wouldn't blame either actor for this being a boring movie. They gave their best to the repetitive dialogue. With Alex dictating the story to Emma, there is little action and too much explanation. Remember when your English teacher used to say "Show, don't tell"? This movie only tells.

"Alex & Emma" is set in Boston, but it looks like it was mostly filmed on a soundstage. Even its lone passing reference to the Red Sox feels out of place. The production probably came here for a few days, shot some building exteriors, and then flew back to LA. We don't know anyone who worked on it... prove us wrong!

For being a story about a writer that's poorly written, it gets...

Final Score = C-

Deja Vu Location: F.J. Doyle & Co.

What would a Boston film be without a scene at an Irish Pub? Characters drink away their sorrows, dish out advice to friends, plot heists, or just lose themselves in thought over a pint. The pub is dark, but lively. Locals of all ages drink there. There's a Red Sox game on the television, and Guinness mirrors on the wall.

It might seem, from these films, that all bars in Boston look alike. In reality, many of them were shot at the same pub: F.J. Doyle & Co., now known as Doyle's Cafe in Jamaica Plain.

Just off the top of our head, Doyle's has appeared in:

21, My Best Friend's Girl, Mystic River, Blown Away... give us a second, we'll think of more...

Filming at Doyle's Cafe is much easier than at downtown bars and pubs. There's parking, for starters. You can set up base camp in the neighborhood, use nearby buildings for extras holding and lunch. Also, Doyle's doesn't need a whole lot of set decoration. If you're looking for a "traditional Irish pub"... their decor is steps ahead of you. Just provide an extra in a Red Sox cap to bartend, place your actors, and roll!

Review: Shutter Island (2010)

The third of our Dennis Lehane based movie reviews!

Seeing "Shutter Island" on opening night, in Boston, inevitably meant running into crew members and/or extras who participated in its filming. The production was massive -- hundreds of crew members, hundreds of starved (and sometimes naked) extras. They took over the now defunct Medfield State Hospital for 80+ shooting days, built a graveyard, created a hurricane, etc. Epic productions lead to epic films... let's dive in!

"Shutter Island" has a very Hitchcockian vibe to it. It's cloudy, both literally and psychologically. Though it has some of violence, the anticipation of violence does more to drive the plot. We wait, and wait for things to jump out at us... we wait for the car to explode. The tension builds.

For those of us who had read the script, "Shutter Island" seemed overstuffed with plot explanations. For those of us who hadn't, this movie left us with a barrage of questions... what the hell just happened? Perhaps there is a happy medium after a second viewing.

DiCaprio's great as our hallucinating tour guide through "Shutter Island". We were even more impressed with the dry-witted doctor played by Sir Ben Kingsley. Other acting highlights include:

1) KC Jones from the Ninja Turtles movies... with his face torn to shreds.

2) The pedophile from "Little Children"/Rorschach from "Watchmen"... with his face torn to shreds.

3) Ted "Put the Lotion in the Basket" Levine from "The Silence of the Lambs"... playing the hilariously creepy prison guard. At one point he starts threatening to bite DiCaprio in the eyeball! The whole audience laughed out of discomfort.

This film shares a few things with the other Lehane films: it's a mystery to be solved by a law officer, there are dead children in the water, and it dwells in morally gray areas. "Shutter Island", however, lands far outside any conventions. We would say more, but then we would have to kill you.

Final Score = A-

Review: Mystic River (2003)

It's Dennis Lehane movie week!

Mystic River, a Clint Eastwood film that is so depressing, it makes our short list of good movies that we never want to watch again!

(Maybe somewhere in the Top 5, behind "Requiem for a Dream", "Dancer in the Dark", and "Kids")

Clint Eastwood directs dark movies. Add to this Lehane's frequent usage of neighborhood pedophiles, dead children, grieving parents, working class people who don't always talk to cops, bodies thrown into water, and all sorts of morally gray areas... this movie hurts.

The plot centers around three former friends' lives getting interwoven after the murder of one of their daughters. Who dunnit? And while we try to figure that out, let's get dragged through the morgue with the grieving family. Then let's listen to them give a statement to the police, and watch them break down. Now they have to bring an outfit for the corpse, write the obit, select the tombstone... are we having fun yet?

The performances are terrific though. At first, Sean Penn is heartbreaking to watch as the victims father; later, his character is unforgivable in his vengeance. Great job, here's your Oscar.

While we don't usually get into celebrity gossip, the a few of the Teamsters recently mentioned what a pain in the ass it was working around one of the actresses in this film. We'll give you a hint: Not Marcia Gay Harden. Or Laura Linney. Rumors people, just rumors.

Final Score = B+

(And coming this weekend, our third installment of Dennis Lehane movies, Shutter Island! Fingers crossed, no neighborhood pedophiles!)

Script Rewrites and Page Colors

Good morning PAs!

If you are one of the lucky few to be working in the Production Office, you will be close friends with the copy machine. You will also likely have a strong relationship with the WB Mason delivery guy.

The most time consuming, tedious copy job usually comes when the writer does a rewrite. The original draft is on white three hole punched paper. It's held together with a medium sized "brads" (seen above - Staples calls these "Brass Fasteners"). When the rewrite comes along, you:

1) Copy only the new pages onto blue three hole punched paper. Make enough copies for every member of the crew.

2) Remove the matching pages from all the white scripts and replace with new blue pages (this is script collating).

3) Count every single page of every single script to make sure you didn't mess up.

Once these are distributed and you're feeling good about yourself, there will be another rewrite. This time, it goes on pink three hole punched paper. Repeat the process from above. Then, inevitably, another rewrite -- this time on yellow three hole punched paper. And so on until the film wraps.

The page colors can vary from production to production, but typically are something like:

White... Blue... Pink... Yellow... Green... Gold/Goldenrod... Buff... Salmon... Cherry... Tan... Double White... Double Blue... Double Pink... (pray it never gets this far). Sometimes Gray and/or Ivory come before we hit the Doubles. Buff and Tan look similar, so be careful with those. All these colors are available at Staples.

The worst we have personally seen is Double Blue... not telling which local production did that, but let's just say 12 rewrites during production made for a terrible film.

Review: Gone Baby Gone (2007)

At this exact moment, when Oscar nominated "Precious: based on the novel Push" is offending communities in New York (see this NY Times article), it's interesting to watch a Boston movie about cokehead parents and abused children. This is the first film we reviewed that features the Orange line, Dudley station, and unapologetically poor white trash. It's excellent... and I mean that in a non-condescending "I liked Precious" sort of way.

This is the first of several Boston films based on depressing Dennis Lehane novels. We're not knocking Mr. Lehane -- his writing portrays a gritty, darker side to Boston than flakey shows like Ally McBeal can even approach... so kudos. It's not all happy endings in this town.

Casey Affleck stars and brother Ben directs in this solid film about the kidnapping of a 4 year old Dorchester girl. The more you learn about the people involved, the worse it gets. Characters here struggle to do the right thing, and unlikely heroes emerge (like the drug dealer who tips off the presence of neighborhood pedophiles). Amy Ryan knocks it out as the self-absorbed, coke head mother of the missing child. You simultaneously are disgusted by her, and quietly rooting for her. This film leaves you questioning the behind-the-scenes of your average feel-good local news coverage.

Like other Lehane films, specifically Mystic River and the soon-to-be-reviewed Shutter Island (coming next week!), you walk away from this movie feeling down on the state of humanity. People make bad choices, and the consequences here are deadly. Both Afflecks give this film its appropriate gravity. We just don't want to stay in this world very long.

You could write a whole dissertation on it's moral complexity, but instead will say this: Gone Baby Gone is a damn good movie.

Final Score = A-

Scoreboard!

Happy Friday! We periodically post a scoreboard of everything we have reviewed thus far. Of our Boston Movies Reviews, here is what we have:

A..... The Departed

A-.... Good Will Hunting

B...... Blown Away

B...... Edge of Darkness

B...... Love Story

C...... The Bostonians

C...... Paul Blart: Mall Cop

C-.....What's The Worst That Could Happen

D+.... My Best Friend's Girl

D...... What Doesn't Kill You

D-..... The Women

F....... The Pink Panther 2

And for Not-Made-In-Boston Movie Reviews:

B- Practical Magic

D- Knowing

Review: Blown Away (1994)

Not to be confused with the 1992 Blown Away (in which Corey Haim and Corey Feldman go head to head with the hot chick from Charles In Charge), this movie lets a delightfully psycho Tommy Lee Jones loose with explosives, then has the Big Lebowski chase him down. It's pretty fun to watch... especially on mute.

Bad accents are our common complaint, but this movie ranks up there with Kevin Costner's Robinhood. Did they even bother with a dialogue coach? Several of the characters are Irish born, living in Boston, which results in a lucky charms mangle of rolled and dropped Rs. Nobody sounds right here.

The other somewhat offensive thing is the implied terrorism connection between Boston and Ireland -- that IRA bombers naturally retire to Boston (we're their Florida?). Yes, we acknowledge our city's is historically bound to Ireland in many ways, but come on: this movie has IRA members selling concessions at Fenway Park.

We like this movie, though. Tommy Lee Jones runs amuck, trying to blow up major Boston landmarks with MacGyver-like creativity and Rube-Goldberg machines. He listens to U2 for irony's sake. His villain is so crazy and relentless that it reminded us of Heath Ledger's Joker for a little while... if the Joker had a bad Irish accent.

Jeff Bridges's character is not quite Batman, but he has his dark past. He rides a motorcycle and diffuses bombs wearing Hawaiian shirts -- what a cool guy. Forest Whitaker plays the cocky bomb squad member in gigantic shorts -- the annoying new guy who gradually grows on you. Lloyd Bridges appears too, in an Irish tweed cap, to give a few cliched toasts. Looks like he picked the wrong day to give up drinking.

Blown Away isn't a great movie, but it's entertaining. It has explosions, and people running in slow motion yelling, "Noooooooooooo!!" It's definitely worth watching for the murderous Tommy Lee Jones. They're always after his lucky charms. Kill the bastards.

There's a shout out to Father Mahoney of Charlestown in the end credits -- we thought that was a nice local touch.

Final Score = B

Deja Vu Locations

If you were to watch three of our recently reviewed Boston movies, you might have a feeling of deja vu during certain scenes. Specifically, the plastic surgery recovery center in "The Women" looks an awful lot like the art auction in "What's The Worst That Could Happen", which also looks like Senator Pine's house in "Edge of Darkness". Coincidence?

All three were shot at the same house on Dartmouth street in the Back Bay. Boston films, while not limited in shooting spaces, often reuse the same film friendly locations. Some are iconic: Boston Public Garden appears regularly -- be it for therapeutic discussions with Will Hunting or haunting flashback's of one's deceased children. Other's are insulated: Busy city driving scenes are often set in Post Office Sq (which is also the perfect place to watch a Surrogate collapse). And some seem completely random: The armored car robbery in "What Doesn't Kill You" and the airport loading dock from "The Maiden Heist" both took place in the Shaw's parking lot in Allston/Brighton.

And as for that house on Dartmouth street? It has also appeared in television commercials. The owner of the house has had small roles in most of the above mentioned films. It's quite the film friendly location.

Review of a Non-Boston Movie: Practical Magic (1998)

Practical Magic is the quintessential chick flick, which means it's great if you're into that -- or it sucks if you're not. This movie works best when accompanied by a pint of Ben & Jerrys, a bottle of wine, and some sort of traumatic breakup.

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman star as a pair of witchy sisters living on a fictional island off the coast of Salem, MA. They are into organics and conjuring. They accidently kill that guy from ER. Gentle sheriff Aiden Quinn appears from Arizona to throw some romance into the mix. The ladies drink margaritas and dance around the kitchen table while giggling. It's that kind of movie.

And why are we reviewing Practical Magic at this exact moment?

Because it was NOT filmed in here. Practical Magic was made before the MA film tax credit came into law. Despite it clearly being set in Massachusetts (author Alice Hoffman lives in Brookline), the producers shot this in Washington state. That's lost money to the MA film industry, and the state's economy.

We mention this now because there are petitions circulating via email and Facebook to fight for the MA tax credit. The 2010 state budget wants to cap it, which could severely hurt our work prospects. When Rhode Island capped theirs, it all but killed their film industry. That can't happen here. We need our jobs!

As for Practical Magic, the gals are giving it an A-, and the guys are giving it a C- (though we're not sure they actually watched it).

Final Score = B-

Boston, The Academy Awards and The Razzies

Today was the announcement, The 82nd Academy Awards nominations, and (shocker!) none of the Boston-based movies were in there this year. That's fair. Not every year produces a "Good Will Hunting". Just a reminder, the eligible crop from Boston this year was:

The Box

Bride Wars

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

The Invention of Lying

The Maiden Heist (though we're not sure if straight-to-video's are eligible)

Paul Blart, Mall Cop

Pink Panther 2

The Proposal

Surrogates

Conversely, some locally made films picked up 2009 Razzie Award nominations (if you've never heard of this award, it's the Oscars' evil little brother for Worst Films... Google it.). And the nominees are:

"Worst Actor - Steve Martin, Pink Panther 2"

"Worst Supporting Actress - Candace Bergen, Bride Wars"

"Worst Prequel, Sequel, Remake Or Rip-Off - Pink Panther 2"

and, new category, local guy Ben Affleck was nominated for "Worst Actor of the Decade"... though we think he will have a tough time beating out Rob Schneider for that title.

To all the nominees... Good luck?