Wag the dog

Wag the Dog, 1997
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson

Stage: Home theatre, lovely Saturday evening



Wag in short: After being caught in a scandalous situation days before the election, the president does not seem to have much of a chance of being re-elected. One of his advisers contacts a top Hollywood producer in order to manufacture a war in Albania that the president can heroically end, all through mass media.

Preps: It is a recommendation from a side I really appreciate. I have never seen a bad movie with such recommendation. Plus, a claim that every person that works in mkt should see this. Hence.. am anxious with expectation.


Reality: Well, it's always good to see and hear what the president team has in their sleeve. In this case, I am just bursting with laughter. First, do you get caught with a scout days before the election? (you don't). Still, this is the case here and the team needs to wrap it up before the years of preps go rotten.
In any case, I seriously doubt now (after seeing this) in every war, every little thing the media produces, every announcement ever made by government. I see in this movie, how rotten it might be, behind the scenes, on a place we don't see or hear about. Even the closest to the president in this case don't know bits of scenario that is driven to the masses.
For a person living in the balcan region, it's highly amusing, how other countries (us in perticular) abuse the names of foreign yugoslaw republics and use it as a "terrorist" country. May it be Bosnia or Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia or in this case, even a southern country, Albania. What did Albania do to us, the chieftain asks.. What it didn't do to us, is the real question, De Niro answers. And creates a stunt war, made in studio. Was the Gulf War really directed in studio? Maybe not, but it made me question every bit of information I received about the event.
The power of marketing, if driven with intelligence and style, is amazing. The movie depicts real drama you can setup with mere imagination. At the end, how convenient, the director gets shot/killed for trying to speak up. How american!
This piece is one of the brightest I have seen lately. Even though it doesn't have the scenes, the photography, the music, or anything really obvious, it has a strong story and a direction. How convenient it is to have Hoffman in the role of the producer, fighting for his rights :) I could just burst in laughter again. His imagination inside the piece and intercapturing the role he's playing is spectacular. President wants a white kitten? We will give him the white kitten.
Last, but not least. Bringing in the fallen hero (making a mistake and afterwards, having him killed and watch the whole US cheering for his fallen return, with a super dog behind, wagging his tail).. it reminds me of some scenes I really admire in Monty Phython. If you are a fan, you will love this piece. If you are more average, romantic comedy type of movie fan, you won't really get all the fun parts there are here. Because some of them are just beneath the average skin.


My personal rating: 9,0 (absolutely brilliant. I loved it and laughed long afterwards)


Wag the Dog on IMDB

Sleepers, 1996

Sleepers, 1996
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Brad Pitt, Robert de Niro, Kevin Bacon, Dustin Hoffmann, Minnie Driver, Jason Patric




Sleepers in short: Four boys growing up in Hell's Kitchen play a prank that leads to an old man getting hurt. Sentenced to no less than one year in the Wilkenson Center in upstate New York, the four friends are changed by the beating, humiliation and sexual abuse by the guards sworn to protect them. Thirteen years later and a chance meeting lead to a chance for revenge against the Wilkenson Center and the guards.



Preps: None in perticular. The cast is astounding. The director is one of my favourites. And I have naturally watched this earlier, as a child. Admired it at that time, I am sure I will even more now with a critical eye.



Reality: I am right. This is one of better bitter stories ever being put on screen. I believe Levinson is a genious and a coragious man to put this live. Still, the US government and all similar facilities, deny that such places exist, such actions ever could take place and that there wasn't a trial as depicted in the movie.
Well, the story will rip your bones off. It is breathtaking and it makes you shiver with fear and horror all along the way. Violence creates violence. Put normal boys into a facility of correction, juvenile home or something, abuse them and be sure they will grow up to be criminals, most of them.
The sad story revolves around four boys being taken into a facility for a homicide they commited unintentionally. And the abuse they were submitted to, it is just horrible. Their commitment never to speak about that part of their lives is broken when two former boys, now adults, have the chance to take the revenge with a guy that raped them. So they kill them and are put into trial.
The trial isn't about the killing, it's about revenge to the facility that abused them while they were taken in for a year in their childhood. And they get the revenge, with style.
The cast is magnificent. The story is breathtaking. The director did his work and it shivers me even now as I write about it. A must see for any person. It will make you fear of such institutions and make you never do wrong in a way you would get into a facility like that. It will make you hate those that abuse children, even more. And will make you think about the sacrifice you are willing to take for the ones you love. The priest treads on his values or virtues to help the kids get the revenge they want. The truth, even though not admitted by the government, is out and it should be. In a fair world, such things wouldn't go unpunished. And no kids would die on streets with 29. But that is in fairy tales. We live in a no dream world. And need to take it seriously, for it's a place for filth and abuse. You see this undoubtfully in this piece. It will tear down your heart.


My personal rate: 8,5 (splendid piece that makes you think way beyond its purpose and content. It makes you cry in your heart and feel with the characters. Not many pieces do that to you).


Sleepers on IMDB

New Year's Eve, 2011

New Year's Eve, 2011
Director: Garry Marshall
Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Ashton Kutcher, Naomi Watts, Robert De Niro, Zach Efron, Hale Berry, Alyssa Milano, Jessica Biel,.. (a bunch of famous actors)




Stage: Local theatre, Christmas show in the morning


New Year's eve in short: The lives of several couples and singles in New York intertwine over the course of New Year's Eve.


Preps: wow, a bunch of famous people starring in this piece. Need to see it badly. But the critics are very bad for this piece. Well, couldn't hurt. Have seen several really shitty ones lately.

Reality: Wow. Every scene with some actor I admire or like to watch. For this, this piece is worth seeing. Like in Love actually. Or maybe Notting Hill. Or some other romantic comedies. Around NY you have them standing in a line, trying to get our attention. As said, the winner for the last five years is definitely Letters to Saint Nicholas. A touching movie you should definitely see.
But this one.. what was the budget for this piece? I imagine that the actors must have played for peanuts, because it's quite impossible to budget such a movie. It is definitely fun to see them all assembled, working in specific relationship issues (competition for the first baby, hating the idea of NY and falling in love in an elevator, trying to get your ex to forgive you for leaving her /escaping).. you cannot get fed up with these scenes, but it's not the movie itself that draggs the attention, it's the famous crew, I am sure.
The dialogues get sometimes really intelligent, otherwise, they cannot get rid of cliches and stories about xmas and NY and main resolutions you could make to make it count.
The drop of the ball is simply beautiful. Never knew this was such a big deal there. After seeing this movie, I want to see it live sometimes. This means the movie can be inspiring for some deeds in the future. And I strongly believe it to be a commercial to go and visit NY city. It is really obvious and I am sure that their economy will get a positive feed in the next months or in the next new year to come. And my personal wish.. I would sometimes like to be in charge of something as big as the drop of the ball for NY in NY city. I adore the position and the woman behind it. I think I could cope also with the challenge. In this sense I find the movie inspiring. Plus, a fun to watch. I especially laugh at the scenes and triviality of the baby homerun. Do they really get that amount of money? :) I would love to find out for real.

If you aren't burdened with the Xmas spirit, you will definitely enjoy the movie. It is fun to watch and pleasant to the eyes because of its crew. Plus, it has a positive philosophy: NY is about making piece with yourself. It's about finding forgiveness and a path for future, which doesn't carry burdens from the past. It's a period to reflect everything we wanted and got it and everything we wanted and didn't get it.



My personal rate: 6,0 (cute enough for this period. Plus, a parade of actors. Fun to watch. But don't worry about getting your mind overloaded. It's simple and plain)

New Year's eve on IMDB

Little Fockers, 2010

Little Fockers, 2010
Director: Paul Weitz
Cast: Jessica Alba, Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro


Stage: Home theatre
Preps: Hm, my friend wanted me to watch this at the movies. Not in a million years. I don't know whether to expect even worse crap than the last one of the Fockers saga. Let's see.

Fockers in short: It has taken 10 years, two little Fockers with wife Pam (Polo) and countless hurdles for Greg to finally get "in" with his tightly wound father-in-law, Jack. After the cash-strapped dad takes a job moonlighting for a drug company, however, Jack's suspicions about his favorite male nurse come roaring back. When Greg and Pam's entire clan-including Pam's lovelorn ex, Kevin (Owen Wilson)-descends for the twins' birthday party, Greg must prove to the skeptical Jack that he's fully capable as the man of the house. But with all the misunderstandings, spying and covert missions, will Greg pass Jack's final test and become the family's next patriarch...or will the circle of trust be broken for good?


Reality: Well, I have seen worse movies. I still think De Niro should think a bit before choosing Fockers 1 in the first place. And here we have the fourth sequel. How bad can it get? - Well, De Niro is the Godfather here, making me a bit laugh as he tries to somehow embed this into a comedy and picture himself as the god himself. It is from a comedy perspective I can judge I have seen worse comedies, that however doesn't mean this is a good one. It's pretty solid, making all the family known affairs open and ready to discuss also in the head of the viewer. It is a common problem, the family is facing, and I am sure that a lot of audience can recognize some of their lives inside this piece.
Still - Ben Stiller gives a bad name to man nurses. They cannot be all without a backbone. Ready to be told what they think and how they should act. But also because of such movies, we collect prejudice and make them real once we meet real people that are in such roles in real life.


My personal rate: 5,0 (The piece isn't something really special. But.. I maintained it until the end without deleting. Which can mean I had a real tolerance that day.. or that it isn't as crappy as I expected.)


Little Fockers on IMDB

Limitless, 2011

Limitless, 2011
Director: Neil Burger
Cast:Bradley Cooper, Anna Friel, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro



Stage: Home theatre, late at night

Limitless in short:An action-thriller about a writer who takes an experimental drug that allows him to use 100 percent of his mind. As one man evolves into the perfect version of himself, forces more corrupt than he can imagine mark him for assassination. Out-of-work writer Eddie Morra's (Cooper) rejection by girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) confirms his belief that he has zero future. That all vanishes the day an old friend introduces Eddie to NZT, a designer pharmaceutical that makes him laser focused and more confident than any man alive. Now on an NZT-fueled odyssey, everything Eddie's read, heard or seen is instantly organized and available to him. As the former nobody rises to the top of the financial world, he draws the attention of business mogul Carl Van Loon (De Niro), who sees this enhanced version of Eddie as the tool to make billions. But brutal side effects jeopardize his meteoric ascent. With a dwindling stash and hit men who will eliminate him to get the NZT...

Preps: Well, a notorious piece a while ago at the movies, but haven't had the chance to check it out. All I know is some kind of viagra, that is taken, but one for the brain :)

Reality: Wow, it begins with an added value. I definitely want to see loser becoming a victory man, Making my dream come true and answer what people yearn for centuries - how to stimulate your brain in order to make more out of all the data coming in every day.. There is supposed to be 5000-7000 various pieces of information stimulating your brains every day. You don't believe it? Of course you don't - because 99% of this you cannot remember. However, with this plastic miracle, you can.

Same as in the matrix, the main protagonist is put under a spell, after taking the drug. Obviously you cannot live without it and no, you cannot go back. What's the benefit? You get to remember everything you ever learned about, you get to maintain and upgrade existing knowledge within seconds.. you get to stimulate girls and make them laugh in an instant (obviously intelligence makes miracles).. etc. You get everything. Now, how about a downfall?
Like every drug, you cannot maintain the level without physical consequences.. therefore, you are screwed, when you run out of them. On the other hand, Cooper gets lucky and has a whole stack of these babies. One per day,.. and he's superman/Einstein/everything he ever wanted to be. Is his soul the same? This seems to be the main question, as he enters another time zone when taking the drug. And another timeframe in his mind. What kind of the person do you then meet, what are that person's feelings, ideas.. what is he when he isn't a god - good philosophical dilemmas hapenning, as we seek towards the end of this. Can he really finish in one year and make a huge amount of money in that time, to make him and his girlfriend rich and happy / least this is what he believes..
The run towards the end of the movie is too long and I get bored in the mean time. De Niro makes a good entrance and a good exit. But where is he in the mean time? Stage not that impressive, music is good enhancement of various scenes. And Cooper's act is quite good. Nevertheless, I think that in its third part, the piece loses its edge and its breath.


My personal rate: 5,5 (a superb idea, but poorly executed. I wish the director would re think the way he made his stage and his workflow..)


Limitless on IMDB

Stone, 2010

Stone, 2010
Director: John Curran
Cast: Robert de Niro, Milla Jovovich, Edward Norton



Stage: home theatre, with a slightly worse sound that it was supposed to be.

Stone in short: Parole officer Jack Mabry (Robert De Niro) has only a few weeks left before retirement and wishes to finish out the cases he's been assigned. One such case is that of Gerald "Stone" Creeson (Edward Norton), a convicted arsonist who is up for parole. Jack is initially reluctant to indulge Stone in the coarse banter he wishes to pursue and feels little sympathy for the prisoner's pleads for an early release. Seeing little hope in convincing Jack himself, Stone arranges for his wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) to seduce the officer, but motives and intentions steadily blur amidst the passions and buried secrets of the corrupted players in this deadly game of deception


Preps: hmmm, famous cast makes me believe this could be one of better ones in the genre. Otherwise, this prison playground is lately a bit abused by many directors, many bad movies lately on the topic. Nevertheless, I am confident it will be at least an average one.



Reality: What is the ultimate thing you will do to get your ass out of prison? How much is it worth to you and do you consider involving the ones that are close to you? This I would claim to be the top theme of this piece, very profound put into the hands of Norton (Stone), that is trying to shorten his sentence. To him, all means to do that lay at hand. All the time I am thinking that his beautiful wife is just sitting there, waiting for him to come out. Ups, a mistake. She's not really waiting, not really with all the virtues behind her wait. She's actually messing around with other. In this sense, she holds no true objections to seducing this parole hot shot (De Niro). De Niro again in a role of a strong half-villain, in a citizen duty role, but acting as a bitch towards his last case (Stone).

Doing a proffession like this for your whole life must truly be a pain in the ass. I mean, you get depressed just by watching this misery and all the bad persons sitting behind bars, the role of a parole officers is to listen to excuses about what they've done and how much change they have been undergoing since entering the prison. For some of them this might be the absolute truth, but who is God enough to be diferring good ones from bad ones only judged by their words and a talk every now and then? De Niro has this Godly act here, as he decides whether the convicts are going to be in prison longer or not. What does it take to get his mind elsewhere - well, for sure MIlla Jovovich in her devine suit could contribute to the cause :)

The simple plot turns into a psychological game, that includes a lot of static dialogues, lots of misery and bad charma. I am speaking about lots of talks between the wife and the convict. What do you talk about, when questions like "how are you" are truly trivial and unimportant?

The scenery is impressive, used to be one of the largest walled prisons, located in Michigan. Apart from that scene and some coffee shops and households (home environment) of the main protagonists, you don't see much. The way she seduces him seems profound, but actually it's limited to her big eyes and some sucking up to his profession, wearing tight shirts at the same time.

No big excitement in this movie, but also nothing for you not to be seeing it. A bit of an average piece, lovely to see Jovovich and Norton in action again, quite relieving that De Niro exceeds those stupid comedies (the Fockers) he's been involved into lately.


My personal rating: 5,5 (nothing really special, but a decent shot at the genre).


Stone on IMDB

Everybody's fine, 2009

Everybody's fine, 2009
Director: Kirk Jones
Cast: Robert De Niro, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell




Stage: Home theatre

Everybody's fine in short:Frank Goode lives by himself in Elmira, NY, a recent widower with heart trouble, retired from a factory job, proud of having pushed his adult children toward success. In the summer, all four kids bail on a reunion, so, against doctor's orders, Frank decides to surprise each with a visit. He sets out to see his artist son in New York City, his daughter the ad exec in Chicago, his son the conductor on tour and presently in Denver, and his daughter who's a performer in Vegas. None are as he imagines or hopes. Will they let him see themselves as they are, and can this dad adapt?


Preps: I only know De Niro being a lead cast in this and it's enough for me. As I admire the man, I am sure he doesn't underestimate a movie script and I should be satisfied.


Reality: Well, probably I expect too much of De Niro anyway. It seems that every now and then he goes with the family comedy flow (Fockers, Analyze that, etc), and sometimes it works - sometimes the fall is deep. The comedy part is absolutely brilliant. De Niro has this tremendous grime on his face that I am really nuts about. Therefore it's funny either way you put it. But there's a slight distinction between an amusing comedy and a true intelligent comedy he sometimes performs so brilliantly.

Now, for this piece. A romantic/family comedy/drama - you can find elements of all the stated in this one. He is desperate for kids abandoning him and not really caring about him (the funny side would be in movies that market something completely else - the situation, where the children don't want to leave home and are attached to their parents all the way through life). Here you have five grown ups, that lead their lives, and only after the wife is dead, he decides to take some sort of a roadtrip to prove the point. Everything's fine up to here. Everybody seems fine and even though they don't like the surprise, his soul is somehow satisfied to see them. Underflowing, a story where everything isn't peas and carrots and everything's not fine. The search for the drug addicted brother, the charade the elder daughter plays with her former husband and a rageous son, the dancer in Las Vegas, pretending to be in her own appartment to show daddy some independence and afterwards, proving that it isn't so pink as it sounds (her life)... All sorts of not so trivial understories are circling around the main roadtrip one.

Conclusion won't satisfy those that look for an answer. Do you need to stay in touch with your family or is it just something that is a part of your childhood and after that you are supposed to live independently, regardless of the roots? In some cultures, this is virtually impossible, as the people are brought up to take care after their relatives as long as they live. And in other cultures, like european or american, it seems pretty much normal to lead your own life and to move out as soon as you can. The big distance, however, is only the psychological divide. You can be neighbours and be even more distant. Does De Niro get his satisfaction? I doubt it, as the movie shows deep remorsement about his behaviour when the children were young that lead to the status quo. Will he repay his debt afterwards? Doubtful again, as the children are distant and even the death of the brother doesn't really bring them closer, only more honest.



My personal rating: 6,0 (a good reminder of the virtues you tend to forget in the everyday life)

Everybody's fine on IMDB