Welcome to the Rileys Movie Review …

Welcome to the Rileys is one of those rare films that allow an actress like Kristen Stewart to do the brand of sulking and blank staring that’s made her famous. Fortunately for audiences, Stewart is the only blah part of Welcome to the Rileys, and for once she makes it work.

Meet the Rileys, Doug (Gandolfini) and Lois (Leo). Doug and Lois have been growing apart since their daughter died in a car accident eight years ago and both cope in completely expected ways. Doug begins an affair with local waitress Vivian (Davis) while Lois quietly deals with her own guilt by hiding from the world and relying on the kindness of hairdressers who make house calls and a preacher.

As Welcome to the Rileys moves along one begins to wonder if this is just one of those sad bastard films where everything is so sad that it’s borderline comedic. For instance, Doug makes a business trip to New Orleans shortly after his mistress unexpectedly dies. Life does indeed work in mysterious ways, but the tragedy of a dead mistress is more comedy than tragedy.

That confused feeling began to dissipate when you realize that Doug’s situation is less about making bad mistake and more about trying to carve out some semblance of happiness after tragedy. But you have to wonder what strange turn Welcome to the Rileys will take when Doug accepts a dance from a teenage stripper named Mallory (Stewart) who may or may not be 16 years old.

When Mallory offers Doug more than a dance, he refuses much to her chagrin and you realize Welcome to the Rileys isn’t that kind of film. He goes home with the teenage runaway but rather than sex or other vulgar propositions, Doug offers Mallory $100 a day to get his life (and hers) in working order. After getting a glimpse of Mallory’s post-Katrina living arrangements, it’s clear just how screwed up Doug’s life is that her place is his safe haven.

Until this point in the film, Welcome to the Rileys is an average film that slowly chugs along without much emotion or pizzazz. However when Doug phones Lois and informs her that he won’t be returning home, Welcome the Rileys takes on an unexpected charm. Despite her repeated attempts and offers of seduction, Doug rebuffs Mallory and they continue to live in a state of suspended domesticity. It’s creepy in so many ways but its obvious that Doug’s attachment to Mallory has more to do with her resemblance to his dead daughter than any latent perversity.

Then there’s Lois who has been stranded in her home for so many years that a trip to the mailbox is too taxing. But Lois summons her courage to suppress her fear of the outside when she realizes she may lose the only person she has left—Doug. Leo infuses realness into Welcome to the Rileys and the character of Lois, particularly in a scene where she masters the riddle of re-learning how to drive after a decade of agoraphobia.

After a few failed attempts Lois successfully maneuvers the car southward towards Louisiana to save her dying marriage. When she arrives, Lois is startled to see that her husband has been shacking up with potty-mouth hooker, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the couple’s dead daughter.

This is the point in Welcome to the Rileys where I felt as though I were watching a respectable middle-class family who woke up in an episode of “The Jerry Springer Show”. Lois moves into Mallory’s place as well and the three live as a 21st century family until Lois actually tries to act like a mother to Mallory and the Rileys become less welcome.

Mallory balks at Lois’ attempt to straighten her life out and runs into trouble after a run-in with a client. When Mallory is hospitalized and arrested, Doug and Lois pretend to be her parents to visit her and ultimately bail her out. But as these things tend to go with emotionally unstable runaways Mallory runs away, leaving Doug and Lois to realize that they were only using her to fill the void left by their daughter’s death.

Welcome to the Rileys is a soft spoken film that doesn’t cram emotions down your throat. It slowly guides you through the myriad emotions that accompany sudden death, and it forces you to work them out on your own. Mallory isn’t there to provide absolution to either of the Rileys and she stays true to her broken and self-destructive ways.

Gandolfini shows that he’s more than a bad gangster stereotype in Welcome to the Rileys. When allowed to flex his acting muscles, Gandolfini is proving that even without conventional good looks he’s got the emotional fortitude to carry a film. Aside from his intermittent southern accent, Gandolfini makes Doug Riley likable, charming, and flawed but well-meaning.

Stewart, well she plays the barely there role better than any young actress in Hollywood and it works surprisingly well in Welcome to the Rileys. Leo is persuasive and sympathetic in a role that requires such oddball behavior that would never warrant real-life sympathy.

Welcome to the Rileys was a quiet charmer with unexpected depth at times. The backdrop of the French Quarter adds an element of callousness to the unforgiving life these characters have chosen or been forced to lead. At times the emotions are brutally real and at other times you feel the characters talking around them as we often do in real life.

Welcome to the Rileys is a good film with solid acting. The story is charming and the journey difficult and heartbreaking, although missing something (or someone) that could have made it great.

Welcome to the Rileys Movie Trailer

Iron Man 2 Movie Review…

Iron Man 2 takes place 6 months after the first movie and we learn that Tony Stark, played once again by Robert Downey Jr, has managed to negotiate a treaty of peace throughout the main powers that be in the world.

Stark has become even more popular with the general public and in Iron Man 2 he opens his father’s dream to his ever adoring fans in the shape of Stark Expo, all the numerous magnificent inventions which are going to literally assist in helping the world are showcased at Stark Expo. There is a dark cloud looming over Stark’s head though in Iron Man 2 in the form of the United States government, one main senator in particular wishes for Stark to give up the armour suits so they can be used throughout the military.

Iron Man 2 tends to start well with Downey Jr excelling in his role as the showman but then once the movie hits on the courtroom scenes it seems to come to a grinding halt for awhile, after the first instalment of the Iron Man movies Iron Man 2 lacks the same initial action and appears to just happily tick along.

Stark makes a public scene regarding giving up the armoured suits and declares that his rival, Justin Hammer a role played by Sam Rockwell, has actually failed with his attempts at trying to replicate the same technology.

Iron Man 2 shows Tony Stark feeling the effects of the palladium within his arc reactor, if you remember from Iron Man this is in place to prevent shrapnel from actually entering his heart, the palladium is poisoning his entire body and this will eventually lead to his demise. He has attempted to discover a replacement element but so far has failed. During Iron Man2 Tony Stark is seen slowly losing the plot and not caring anymore, he is convinced his death is imminent and insists that his personal assistant Pepper Potts is promoted and takes up the position of the CEO of Stark Industries. The role of Potts is taken up again by the beautiful Gwyneth Paltrow who captures the strong but slightly scatty personality of Pepper Potts perfectly.

Iron Man 2 boasts a couple of gorgeous women as along with Paltrow Scarlett Johansson joins the cast as Natalie Rushman, she replaces Pepper Potts as Tony’s personal assistant. A decision not completely embraced with confidence by Potts but this is more to do with the green-eyed jealousy monster than Natalie’s ability to complete the task.

Tony is going through a reckless phase in his life and this is highlighted when he decides to race in Monaco and it is here that we are introduced properly to Mickey Rourke playing the part of Ivan Vanko. We have already seen Ivan in Iron Man 2 with his dying father and been given a glimpse of his knowledge regarding the arc reactor. Mickey Rourke is outstandingly good as the evil Ivan; he has the perfect appearance with his naturally rugged looks and gruff charm. My only complaint concerning Rourke’s role is the fact that he does not have enough screen time, the part on the racetrack most people would have already viewed on a trailer for Iron Man 2 and after this it is easy to forget that he is even in the movie until you see him again.

Justin Hammer is seeking revenge on Stark and enlists the help of Ivan to carry out some work on his drone ‘army’ for him. Don Cheadle stars as Lt Colonel James Rhodes and his best scene in Iron Man 2 is when he goes head to head with Stark whilst wearing the Mark 2 armoured suit against Stark’s Iron Man.

In my own opinion I do not rate Iron Man 2 as highly as the first movie, it has a slow start and never really captures the excitement and action scenes of the first Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr is still fantastic as Tony Stark and plays the role with total conviction and Gwyneth Paltrow is her usual charming self as Pepper Potts. Samuel L Jackson turns up in Iron Man 2 as Nick Fury and delivers a convincing performance; Scarlett Johansson also puts in a good performance.

As mentioned though I was disappointed with the screen time given to Mickey Rourke and how his character was not developed much. Iron Man 2 is still an enjoyable movie though and I would advise watching it without comparing it to the first one too much. Catch a trailer to Iron Man 2 below.

Iron Man 2 Movie Trailer

Pretty in Pink is a realistic look at the differences between people with money and people without, this is highlighted when Andie meets Blane McDonnagh, Andrew McCarthy. He is in Andie’s words to her father a ‘richie’ meaning he and his family have lots of money. Pretty in Pink tackles the issue of forbidden love and how maybe because it is not meant to happen it should not happen. Catch a trailer for Pretty in Pink below.

Comedy is presented in the form of the very funny Jon Cryer in the role of Duckie, or to give him his correct and full name Phil Dale. He has been a best friend to Andie since childhood and dreams of them being married one day. One of his funniest scenes in Pretty in Pink is when he bursts into Trax the record store where Andie works and mimes along to the song playing at the time ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ sung by Otis Redding. Duckie is word perfect and Cryer has the scene timed to absolute perfection and couple this with Andie’s facial expression along with Iona, her boss and friend a role played by Annie Potts the scene is one of the many highlights of Pretty in Pink.

The teenage angst portrayed mainly by Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy throughout Pretty in Pink will probably make most of us think back to our teenage years and remember those same feelings with fondness.

Pretty in Pink is essentially a love story between a rich boy and a poor girl and in one very touching scene Andie is adamant that Blane does not drive her home after their disastrous date as she is embarrassed of where she lives. Their date goes badly as Blane makes the bad decision of taking Andie to a friend’s party; his so called friends behave badly especially towards Andie. Steff, Blane’s supposed best friend, is the ultimate rich boy with his designer suits and total arrogance and James Spader has captured it all with complete conviction. Pretty in Pink is the perfect step back in time movie and a true classic with a moral about how money should not be a hurdle, just because one person might be better off than the other does not automatically make them a better person.

Andie is as clever as the next person regardless of her poor background and we see this in Pretty in Pink via her amazing clothes which she makes herself. Andie’s dream comes true when Blane asks her to the prom but after he allows Steff to convince him otherwise he makes an excuse to Andie, once she manages to track him down about asking someone else and forgetting about it, yeah right of course he did!

So Andie picks herself up dusts herself off and visits Iona, who by this time has had a complete makeover due to meeting Terrence, Andie takes Iona’s old prom dress and works her dressmaking magic with another dress bought my her father to make a stunning creation.

She says she does not want them to know they have broken her and heads off to the prom, cue big music, a doubtful and nervous Andie and a knight in shining armour called Duckie and you have a perfect conclusion. Pretty in Pink is predictable but then it does not promise to be a mystery, as to which guy gets the girl in the end well I will leave you to watch the movie to find the answer to that one.

The only fault I can see with Pretty in Pink is that some of the characters look a little too old to pose as high school kids, Spader and McCarthy particularly but this does not by any stretch of the imagination place any shadow over the movie.

In the meantime Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey) makes sure he’s covering the day from his concubine, so that he can spend some quality time with the official wife. Of course, as any gentleman would do, he does prepare some flower arrangements for them both. Bad karma makes him chose Reed’s flower shop for this and Reed is best friend with his lover.

Love is there for old guys too. Senior couple Edgar and Estelle (Shirley MacLaine) are celebrating many years together and do this with good perfume, flowers and a night out.

Young Edison, although still a kid, has got a serious crush on some girl and decides it’s the best moment to let her know about his true feelings. So he’s employing Reed too with a very important mission: take some flowers to the “woman” he loves.

In an airplane Captain Kate Hazeltine (Julia Roberts) counts the hours till she can be again with that someone special in her life. She’s an officer and she’d been away for the past 11 months.

Liz (Anne Hathaway) storms out of her boy-friend’s apartment since she’s almost late at work and, as soon as she’s on the street she answers the phone and starts a very disturbing sexual conversation with some guy with a Russian name. We later find out she’s been solving her financial issues by being a ‘sex call’ phone girl.

The only “normal” people who are not crazy with the event are Kara Monahan (Jessica Biel), who’s actually organizing a “I hate Valentine’s Day Party”, sportsman Sean Jackson (Eric Dane), Kelvin Moore (Jamie Foxx), a TV sports presenter who’s getting the task of covering the event and Paula Thomas (Queen Latifah).

And then it all goes wrong.

Proposals are rejected, old infidelities are confessed, new infidelities are found, preparations for the perfect sex get to a dead end, flowers are not being delivered on time etc. People break up for moronic reasons, the soon life shows them in love there’s more than bubbly champagne and flowers. And of course, because it’s a comedy in the end, everything sorta comes into place. The movie does offer some twists too, so you cannot really predict everything.

If you look at the cast, maybe you’re gonna have some high expectations, in the end there are some strong names in it. From this point of view the movie might under-deliver. On the other hand this is a comedy and no one claimed it should be more than that. There are enough funny situations to justify some good laughs too.

So, if you’re in for some cute pleasant story, with some good actors and some funny scenes too, you can make the “effort” to watch it. For two hours of entertainment, it surely does the job.

We can share our views together here. You can comment on my articles and recommend good movies I should have on my “to view” list.

In case you wonder …

My name is Ramona Iftode. You know me online as “dojo”. Let’s say it’s a personal “brand”. My web design firm is called Dojo Design so I played with this for quite a bit. When I don’t write about movies or God knows what in my blog here (and the others) I create unique designs for my clients. For the past 12 months at least I’ve worked intensely at designing blogs. So, if you like how this one looks and would love a new “facelift” for your  own site, you know who to call.

I am over 30 and, belive it or not, a woman. Working as a self-employed web designer allows for more time to watch movies and of course write about them. Don’t expect tens of articles a day, but one of my New Year’s resolutions would be to update the blog weekly (at least).

You’ll find here some old movies being reviewed, some of the new ones, even TV series I love or TV shows I have watched. The opinions here are of course personal and perfect, since it’s my blog. Kidding aside, I’d love discussing with you about movies and hope that, even if my opinions are perfect (we already established that), you’ll share your own views. The comments are open, so please don’t be shy.

Thank you for your time, see you on the blog.