Iron Man Trifecta

I wanted to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Rated R, 108 minutes) at the theater months ago when it came out, but I was never able to find someone to go with. With it out on DVD I bought it once I was able to find it and watched it that night. It is now officially one of my favorite movies. Jim Carey and the extremely cute (as always) Kate Winslet star as a couple who break up and through the wonderful advances in modern medicine have their minds erased of each other only to fall for each other again. I liked how we traveled through his mind as the techs worked on removing the memories of her. Although I could never go through a memory removal process such as the ones the characters went through I could see the lure to do something such as this, but my personal opinion is your thoughts are what make you the person you are, regardless if they are good or bad.

This is a great movie and a wonderful love story. Plus you get the bonus of seeing both Kate Winslet and Kristen Dunst!

$9 out of $9 and added to my favorite movies of all time list.

So last weekend I saw I Heart Huckabees (Rated R, 106 minutes) staring an ensemble cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jude Law, and (Marky) Mark Wahlberg and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Schwartzman has been one of my favorite actors since his debut in Rushmore a movie by one of my favorite writer/directors Wes Anderson, and he does Writer/Director David O. Russell (Three Kings) well as Albert Markovski, a young environmental activist hoping to save some marshlands from untimely demise. He experiences three coincidences which he can find no explanation for and seeks out the assistance of existential detectives Bernard and Vivian (Hoffman and Tomlin) who have two entirely different approaches in how they do their job. As the detectives shadow Albert to see how he spends his day we are introduced to Brad (Law) then anti-Albert that works as an up and coming executive for Huckabees (think Target) a store that sells everything, wants to seem as if they are trying to improve their environmental image with the help of Albert by underwriting his Open Space Coalition. Brad uses his charming smile and smooth talking to convince everyone that Albert’s poems are no match for a party, when it comes to saving the marsh. Later we meet Tommy (Whalberg) who is Albert’s anchor and becomes his counterpart throughout the movie as they deal with Brad.

One of my favorite characters was Bernard a quirky out there doctor like character who teaches Albert about how everything in the world is interconnected like a white bed sheet, a tree, the marsh, Albert, all part of same thing. Him and long with his wife Vivian, believe that everything is connected and have made it their professional to explain what it all means. Whereas later in the movie we discover Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert) who contradicts everything they believe to be true with her insistence of a somewhat nihilistic approach that nothing is connected. She takes Albert and Tommy under her wing after they are put off by the detectives’ insistence that Brad (who also has hired the detectives) isn’t undermining Albert.

This movie is all over the place and I’m not even sure if I give it justice when I try to do a simple plot description. Most the parts are well acted and Dawn (Naomi Watts) is a pleasure to see throughout the movie as the voice of Huckabees. It was well worth the price of admission.

$7 out of $9.