movies | pinartarhan.com

Beautiful Girls starring Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman, Natalie Portman and Mira Sorvino

Posted on September 19, 2010 Written by ripitup

Beautiful Girls starring Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, Noah Emmerich, Lauren Holly and Rosie O'Donnell — Beautiful Girls starring Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, Noah Emmerich, Lauren Holly and Rosie O’Donnell.

Willie Conway (Timothy Hutton) is a piano player, living in the city. He is not exactly sure about his future career path and he is equally clueless about what he wants from his girlfriend Tracy (Annabeth Gish).He heads home to a small town called Knight’s Ridge, to stay for a couple of days and reunite for his old school friends. As it turns out, Willie is not the only one unsure about his relationship:

Tommy (Matt Dillon) is dating Sharon (Mira Sorvino) but he is still hung up on his high school girl friend Darian (Lauren Holly); who is married with a kid, but still hung up on Tommy and ready to bed him at any opportunity. Sharon loves Tommy, but she is not sure how much longer she can take the Darian issue.

Paul (Michael Rapaport) has been dumped by Jan, his girlfriend of 7 years (Martha Plimpton) – because he wouldn’t make a commitment. She is now seeing another guy and this is handled “very maturely” by Paul whose job is to clear up snow-blocked patios but keeps blocking her garage door with snow and by trying to force a brown wedding ring on her. He has a dog called Elle MacPherson and has his room walls covered with posters of models.

Michael (Noah Emmerich) is the happier one. He has turned into the perfect family man, raising his two young kids with his wife, and seeming to be OK with domestic bliss, which is really pissing of Paul –who thinks men do deserve supermodels.

Willie finds his old house and his residents pretty much the same- his father (Richard Bright) still loves TV and his younger brother Bobby (David Arquette) is pretty much in his own world. However change comes in the form of the 13-year-old next door neigbor girl named Marty (Natalie Portman). She is smart, friendly, upfront and likable. So likeable in fact that Willie starts wishing he wasn’t 29. He is also thinking that her older version could actually be his soulmate.

Things get even more complicated when their favorite bar owner Stinky (Pruitt Taylor Vince)’s gorgeous cousin Andera (Uma Thurman) comes for a visit. All the gang pretty much wants to be around her. Will the gang be able to grow up a little before their high school reunion comes up?

***

This is a wonderful “coming of age” story. It is not about teens turning into adults, but young adults who have problems of letting their teens/younger versions without responsibilities go. Granted, it is strength is not in the originality of the characters or the story, but in the lovely story-telling and more than impressive cast. The dialogue is also very fun.

Beautiful Girls is a drama/comedy/romance, but I would call it a relationship genre, if there was one. Because it is about relationships- romantic/family/friendships and also about the characters’ relationships with life. It has pretty decent jokes and entertaining moments. The comedy is more dominant than the emotional tones and thankfully nothing is overdone. It is lovely to see all of these actors in one movie and all of them so young. See this.

Directed by Ted Demme, written by Scott Rosenberg 7.1 on IMDB, voted by over 15,000 people.

Selection of Favorite Lines

Rosie O’Donnell’s character is educating” Wilie (Timothy Hutton) and Tommy (Matt Dillon) about life:

Gina: I’m finished speaking to both of you okay? You’re both fucking insane. You want to know what your problem is? MTV, Playboy, and Madison fucking Avenue. Yes. Let me explain something to you, ok? Girls with big tits have big asses. Girls with little tits have little asses. That’s the way it goes. God doesn’t fuck around; he’s a fair guy. He gave the fatties big, beautiful tits and the skinnies little tiny niddlers. It’s not my rule. If you don’t like it, call him.

***

Stinky (on Andera, played by Uma Thurman) Do you see her face? Girls like that are born with a boyfriend.

***

Willie: I was jealous of a little kid on a bike, because he gets to be her age, and I’m this vile old man. Like that guy, what’s-his-name…
Michael ‘Mo’ Morris: Roman Polanski?

Willie (on Marty): You just want to say to her, in all sincerity, take me with you when you go

Michael: Willie, she was a zigot when you were in the 7^th grade!

***

Tommy: No, Paul is not my friend. He lives in my house. I got cockroaches, I got termites… I got Paul.

Fun Facts

– Timothy Hutton is 36 in the film. Natalie is 15.

– This is the second time 12/13 year-old character of Natalie Portman fascinates an adult male. The other movie is Léon.

– Lauren Holly co-stars in this movie with David Arquette, actress Courteney Cox’s husband. Courteney Cox met David Arquette on the set of scream. Lauren had turned the role Courteney played in Ace Ventura, opposite Jim Carrey. But Lauren later played in Dumb and Dumber opposite Jim Carrey. The two later got married

<br />

Other Posts on the Cast Members

Natalie Portman

Closer starring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts

Noah Emmerich

Pride and Glory starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Noah Emmerich and Jon Voight

Beyond Borders starring Clive Owen, Angelina Jolie and Noah Emmerich

Matt Dilllon

In and Out starring Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Matt Dillon and Tom Selleck

Timothy Hutton

The Absolute Timothy Hutton Trivia: 18 Facts About Leverage Star Timothy Hutton

City of Industry starring Harvey Keitel, Stephen Dorff and Timothy Hutton

The Killing Room starring Timothy Hutton

Ordinary People starring Timothy Hutton, Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore and Judd Hirsch

Serious Moonlight starring Timothy Hutton and Meg Ryan

Taps starring Timothy Hutton, Tom Cruise and Sean Penn

Leverage TV Series starring Timothy Hutton

The Ghost Writer starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan. Feat. Timothy Hutton

The Good Shepherd starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie. Feat. Timothy Hutton

Uma Thurman

10 Celebrity Couple Break-Ups You May Not Have Seen Coming

10 Most Entertaining Sci-fi Movies: Favorite Sci-fi Movies of a Non-fan

Looking Up: Tall Girls Dating

The Accidental Husband starring Uma Thurman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Colin Firth

Pulp Fiction

The Life Before Her Eyes

Looking Up: Tall Girls Dating

Mad City starring Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta

Posted on September 15, 2010 Written by ripitup

Mad City starring John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman. Directed by Costa- Gavras. Written by Eric Williams and Tom Matthews. 1997.

Max Brackett’s (Dustin Hoffman) live “brush” with fellow reporter Kevin Hollander (Alan Alda) has resulted in Max’s being relocated to a local television, still dependent on his old network. Max is bored, as his boss Lou (Robert Prosky) won’t let him “move the line”( that is to interrupt the news objects’ lives for the sake of news)…

As luck would have it, however, Max accidentally runs into the story of a lifetime. As he is doing an interview at the museum run by Mrs. Banks (Blythe Danner), Sam Baily (John Travolta) decides to pay her a visit: she has just fired Sam, who was one of the two guards working for her. Sam, a husband and a father of 2, just wants his job back. But when Mrs. Banks can’t be bothered to give Sam two minutes, Sam brings out the big guns-literally. What he hasn’t planned on is the news reporter in the bathroom, and the group of young school kids on a school trip at the museum.

Soon, this turns into a career-defining opportunity for Max and a nightmare for Sam, it doesn’t take long for Sam to find Max out. But Max has no intention of letting the story go, even as he becomes a hostage. For one thing, Sam is not a psycho criminal but a desperate man who just wanted to be heard. Second, he is much more experienced than Sam when it comes to hostage situations. So from then on, Max helps Sam, and steers him in the direction that will help Sam and Max’s career.

But the news is just too big for Kevin Hollander to ignore and for the FBI to stay away. While Max mostly works to show Sam in a positive light, the rest seems intent on showing him as the ultimate villain. With the parents of the kids hating him, and his own wife trying to figure out how as to handle things, can good intentions be taken into account when a weapon and kids are involved? Or are the ratings just more important than humanity?

Mad City is one of my favorite films. It is from 1997, so today, you may not be moved by it as I was when I first saw it over a decade ago. After all, 1997 was before Youtube and Twitter and Facebook. The story could no way flow the way it was written. Probably one of the kids would have a high-tech phone with an internet connection or their teacher or Mrs. Banks…There would be no need to create a public poll as the public would create the buzz after they heard it. People would follow the news worldwide and it is likely that some of the pro-Sam audience would offer Sam a job and things would never quite get out of control. But it was shot in 1997, and it was all about the big networks and their ratings.

Yes, by now, probably you have seen at least tens of hostage situation movies where sometimes you were probably rooting for the villain. But this film is one of the better ones, and it does have a great cast. Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta make a great team.

I’d love to share my favorite line, but that would be a spoiler. Let me just say it is the final line of Dustin Hoffman. A really good take on the lust for ratings vs. the fight for survival.

Fun notes: Blythe Danner is Gwyneth Paltrow’s mother.

Mel Gibson is referenced a couple of times.

Other John Travolta Movies and Posts

Face/Off starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage

6 Movies with Brilliant Casts feat. Hairspray starring John Travolta

From Paris with Love starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and John Travolta

Basic starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson

Phenomenon starring John Travolta, Robert Duvall and Kyra Sedgwick

Favorite Actors to Play Villains feat. Nicolas Cage, John Travolta and more

Actor Musicians and Musician Actors: Feat. John Travolta and Bruce Willis

Monster in Law starring Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda and Michael Vartan

Posted on September 14, 2010 Written by ripitup

Monster in Law starring Jane Fonda, Jennifer Lopez and Michael Vartan. Written by Anya Kochoff. Directed by Robert Luketic, director of The Ugly Truth. 2005.

Charlie (Jennifer Lopez) is a young woman who works at temp jobs and walks dogs for a living. One day on a beach, she runs into the handsome doctor Kevin (Michael Vartan). Soon they start dating and they are the perfect couple: the relationship is easy, passionate, loving and fun…until Kevin takes Charlie to meet his recently-fired, famous TV personality mother Viola (Jane Fonda). Viola is depressed, neurotic and totally driving her P.A/best friend Ruby (Wanda Sykes) insane. Kevin, unintentionally, kills the chance of a good relationship between his mother and his girlfriend when he asks Charlie to marry her at their first visit. From then on, Viola decides that Charlie is absolutely the wrong girl for her son so she turns into the future mother-in-law from hell. The idea is to show her evil side to Charlie and make her run.

From then on, the “typical” romantic comedy turns more into a fun comedy. It is no longer about two people finding love and getting together but the monster-in-law’s psychotic plans to break them up.

Now, I am not saying this movie is without clichés, in fact it has many. But this is not your typical romantic comedy either. Finding your “soulmate” part is especially cut short so that we have more time for Jane Fonda’s hilarious act. And what makes it so annoying and ridiculous at parts comes from the fact that unfortunately mother-in-laws like that do exist. My father’s mom was pretty much the only problem my parents had during their marriage. The moment my mom stopped contact with her, the marriage was saved.

While avoiding this film won’t exactly make you miss much, watching it can entertain you a great deal if you let it. And while girls can cross their fingers to meet a guy like Kevin, they sure as hell should remember to wish his mother isn’t like Viola. Sure, for the sake of being a (romantic) comedy, things do end well but…in real life, she sure would keep up the witch bitch act for good.

One of my favorite lines:

Viola (Jane Fonda): Have you got anything on the girl yet?

Ruby (Wanda Sykes): Nothing. No criminal record, no death….

Viola: What about drugs? What about promiscuity?

Ruby: She did fewer lovers in her life than you had on the closing day of Woodstock!

Other Posts on Michael Vartan

Alias starring Jennifer Garner, Michael Vartan and Bradley Cooper

Never Been Kissed starring Drew Barrymore, Michael Vartan and David Arquette

Face/Off starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta

Posted on September 11, 2010 Written by ripitup

Face Off starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. Co-starring Joan Allen, Dominique Swain and Gina Gershon. Featuring James Denton.

Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) is the worst kind of criminal: he is smart, vicious, dangerous, he has great resources and he is a total psycho. The man who is closest to catching him is Agent Sean Archer (John Travolta). In attempt to kill Archer, however, Castor accidentally kills Sean’s little son. This results a determined quest on Sean’s part. He eventually catches him. Sean’s doctor wife Eve (Joan Allen) is more than relieved, as she won’t have to be feeling alone and deal with their rebellious teenage daughter Jamie (Dominique Swain) on her own. But one last assignment won’t give Sean the time to catch up with his family and finally find peace:

Castor isn’t dead, but is in a coma. His brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola) is in a maximum security, top-secret prison and unfortunately he is the only person who knows the place of the bomb they placed in the city: So despite how impossible and difficult it seems, Sean has to agree on an advanced but reversible surgery, which will allow him to “be” Castor: the doctors remove Castor’s and Sean’s faces and implant Castor’s face on Sean. This top secret mission is known only by his doctor, and 2 colleagues.

As much as he hates looking like his son’s killer, Sean (now played by Nicolas Cage) goes to the prison to pretend to be Castor. He gets the info he needs, but he gets a big shock: Castor has woken up and he is more than willing to be Sean for a while, to use his resources. So he gets the surgery, and then kills everyone who knows about the mission. So know, Castor (now played by John Travolta) gets to be with Sean’s wife. As impossible as it might seem, now Sean’s only way out is to break out of the prison, pretend to be Castor to those who don’t know Sean is indeed Castor and he also has try to persuade his wife that he might look like their son’s killer but he is in fact her husband…

Face/Off is a really decent and glorious action film. And once you suspend your disbelief to believe that the technology that allows facial implants/replacements to exist the way it does in the movie, you are in one hell of a ride. It is also fun to have a movie where John Travolta and Nicolas Cage play both of the lead characters for a certain period of the movie and both get to show their acting chops as a villain and the ultimate good guy. It is directed by John Woo (Mission Impossible 2, Broken Arrow), who just knows how to make an action film look good. Written by Mike Werb and Michael Colleary.

It is that over-the-top, full-of-explosions/chases/gun fights action film that keeps you glued to your seat for more than 2 hours. And it is not about how it will end (you know how it will end); but watching how the movie will get there. It helps that the supporting cast is great well. Castor’s girlfriend is played by Gina Gershon. And in a very small role, there is James Denton (Mike Delfino of Desperate Housewives). Intellectual? No. Mind-bending? No. Fun as hell? Oh, yeah.! See it . It never gets old or boring. Yes, I have seen it more than twice.

Other Nicolas Cage Movies and Posts

Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke and Jared Leto

Nicolas Cage Trivia

Moonstruck starring Nicolas Cage and Cher

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice starring Nicholas Cage, Monica Belluci, Jay Baruchel, Teresa Palmer

City of Angels starring Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage

Knowing starring Nicolas Cage

Other John Travolta Posts and Movies

Pulp Fiction

6 Movies with Brilliant Casts feat. Hairspray starring John Travolta

From Paris with Love starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and John Travolta

Basic starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson