More movie reviews

I watched several movies over the weekend - unfortunately, none of them were all that great. I've been on a kind of indie/low-budget kick lately, but even though I keep going for movies with actors I like, I don't seem to have much luck.

Dare - starring Zach Gilford as Johnny, a bad boy loner who ends up in the center of an awkward love triangle. Alexa (Emmy Rossum, who is as bland here as she was in Phantom of the Opera) is using him to gain sexual experience, which she thinks will help her become a better actress, while her best friend, Ben, is using him for his own sexual awakening - and Johnny is so starved for affection that he doesn't realize they're both using him. Unfortunately, the guy playing Ben played him like a total creeper, and he looked like he was molesting Johnny when it was supposed to be consensual, which was just uncomfortable to watch. Really only worth it if you have a vested interest in seeing Zach Gilford play a different kind of kicked puppy.

Up - I really don't understand what all the hype was about. Okay, yes, the first half-hour was cute, and I recall a lot of people saying they wished the whole movie had been about the old couple. Agreed 100%. The second half-hour was pretty dumb, and by the final third, I was like, "WTF is even happening? This is absolutely ridiculous, even for a children's movie." Oh, Pixar. You let me down. Toy Story 3 better be better than this.

Deepwater - Note to filmmakers wanting to do a creepy thriller with a twist: be less obvious! This one is about a young drifter named Nat, recently released from the hospital, who comes across a car accident and saves the life of motel owner Herman Finch. In gratitude, Finch offers Nat a place to stay and a car, in exchange for Nat fixing up the rundown motel. In gratitude, Nat has an affair with his wife. There's something not quite right about everything, and Nat comes to believe that Finch is into some bad shit with the mafia, and possibly a murderer. Except it's pretty frickin' obvious from the way certain scenes are shot that Nat's perception doesn't match reality, and besides it's a RUNDOWN MOTEL. Everyone knows crazy shit happens at rundown motels!! So it's really hardly a surprise when we find out that Nat's a psychopath who escaped from a mental hospital. HE'S the one who murdered all the people, and a good deal of what's happened in the movie was all in his head (including the affair with Finch's wife). Sadly predictable, and Kristen Bell wasn't in it nearly enough.

Shades of Ray - Zachary Levi stars as a half-white, half-Pakistani actor named Ray who is torn between his white girlfriend of two years, to whom he's just proposed, and another half-Pakistani girl whom he's just met. I think it was supposed to be about racial identity and accepting who you are, but it kind of ends up seeming anti-interracial marriage. Ray's father feels he ruined his life by marrying a white woman, and is trying to prevent Ray from making the same mistake, so he introduces him to Sana (Sarah Shahi) - and somehow, after exactly four conversations with her, Ray is breaking his engagement to be with Sana because she "gets him," by which he means "is also biracial." Not that I don't understand the value in being with someone who comes from the same cultural background, but we don't actually see them connecting in any meaningful way. Presumably, he had a good relationship with his girlfriend, if he wanted to marry her, and he throws it away on a whim (which is a trope I LOATHE that comes up often in romantic comedies), and we're given no real basis for it except race. It could've been a decent story if their relationship weren't so poorly developed. Also, y'all know I love Zachary Levi to itty bitty bits, but Pakistani he is not. I especially found it impossible to buy the scenes of him auditioning for roles and being stereotyped as an ethnic actor. Seriously? They couldn't find an actual South Asian actor?