BEFORE: OK, last film connected to 9/11, I swear. Which is fine by me, I'm starting to have flashback dreams. OK, I had a dream about having a flashback dream, but that's kind of the same thing. Linking from "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close", Sandra Bullock was also in "Crash" with Don Cheadle (last seen in "Iron Man 3")
THE PLOT: A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.
AFTER: I wonder if this is how Hollywood people view New Yorkers, that we're all still haunted by losing friends and loved one in terrorist attacks, to the point that we're all neurotic and shut down and unable to move forward. I know, two films doesn't make a pattern, but it's odd to see two films in a row where the main character is so stuck, so unable to move forward or even grieve, escaping into music to remain calm.
I'm not a therapist so I can't comment on the process, whether someone would shut down to this extent to deal with tragedy, but I suppose it is possible. It's good that the character got the help he needed, but I'm left wondering if the movie tied up too many loose ends too quickly, which somehow also made the ending feel that not much got resolved.
I liked the scenes of NYC while the character rode around on his scooter, though - I recognized a few places from the Greenwich Village/NYU area, like Washington Square Park and that pizza place on 2nd Ave. and St. Mark's where I used to eat after trivia matches. Seeing Adam Sandler with long hair, acting moody, wearing a big overcoat and playing guitar made me think that he really needs to star in the definitive Bob Dylan biopic one of these days.
Also starring Adam Sandler (last heard in "Zookeeper"), Jada Pinkett Smith (last seen in "Collateral"), Saffron Burrows, Liv Tyler (last seen in "U Turn"), Donald Sutherland (last seen in "Outbreak"), Robert Klein (last seen in "Mixed Nuts"), Mike Binder (last seen in "The Contender"), Jonathan Banks, B.J. Novak (last heard in "The Smurfs"), with a cameo from John De Lancie.
RATING: 5 out of 10 Mel Brooks films
A woman's toe gets run over by a street sweeper and severed. A friend picks it up, packs it in ice, and jumps on a bus to get it to the hospital. A mugger on the bus pulls out a gun and the friend knocks him out. But the driver has passed out from the commotion, so the guy has to jump in the seat and grab the wheel of the out-of-control bus. Then the mugger comes to and starts choking him. Instead of doing anything to help, the other passengers keep ringing the bell to get left off at their usual stops.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeooRXYmOu8
I acknowledge that this isn't an everyday occurrence in New York City. But this scene, or one just like it, is what comes to mind whenever someone who lives outside of the New York metro area thinks "New York City."
When a New Yorker denies that it captures the essence of the city, it means that he or she has been living in New York too long.