Couch Time with Sheldon

Black Sheep Reviews is going through some major site changes and this feature will soon be no more. In the meantime though, with all the behind the scenes work to be done, I have to get a few capsule reviews out there so as not to fall too far behind. Here are a few of the titles you might come across on video store shelves, or more likely you will come across them online to stream or download, and whether or not they are worth it your dollar or your bandwidth.

JACK GOES BOATING

JACK GOES BOATING is the directorial debut from Academy Award winning actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is based on a 2007 play that Hoffman was in, making this a passion project which unfortunately falls prey to all of the trappings that can so easily accompany these scenarios. Jack (Hoffman) is a broken, single person - the kind you just know is never really going to find anyone. He is introduced to Connie (Amy Ryan), another lost cause, and they start preparing themselves mentally to potentially date each other. People who don't know how to be around other people are not the kind of people I want to watch on screen really. They make me uncomfortable and Hoffman does everything possible to make sure that discomfort hits home. By the time the dinner scene climax roles around and explodes into a drug-addled catastrophe, I didn't care whether Jack ever made it boating. Even if he did, he would just sink. (Alliance)

BIG LOVE SEASON 4

I had heard plenty of bad press about the fourth season of the HBO series, BIG LOVE. I have been a fan of the show since the beginning but even Chloe Sevigny was bad mouthing the writing in this particular season. I have to say I found the reports to be greatly exaggerated. Sure, it got a little outlandish by the ninth and final episode but by then, I was already deeply involved in the insane hijinks of the Henrickson clan. This season, Bill (Bill Paxton) decides he has a testament to run for public office and then come out as a polygamist to his constituents so that he and his three wives (Jeanne Trippehorn, Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin) can change the face of polygamy in America. The testament could be an extension of Bill's ever expanding ego though and everyone but Bill knows it. The fifth and final season is currently airing on HBO. (Warner Bros.)

NOWHERE BOY

Like the title character in NOWHERE BOY, this film might get lost amidst the shuffle, as it might not jump out at anyone at first glance. This would be tragic as this gem is often almost as brilliant as the man it is about. The man is John Lennon and he is played here with surprising depth by Aaron Johnson. World renowned artist, Sam Taylor- Wood has chosen to tell the story of Lennon's adolescence as her first feature film. It is a story that most will not be familiar with so Beatles fans who think they've seen it all will be delighted. That said, the family drama has universal appeal thanks to its great depth and incredibly talented cast, including Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff. Click here for the original Black Sheep review. (Maple Pictures)

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Black Sheep @ The Box Office

Really? A $50 million opening weekend for a third JACKASS installment. I will admit to watching and laughing whole heartedly at the first JACKASS but that was after a drink or five and I was in the privacy of my own living room. It was also eight years ago. How are we not over this by now? Not only are we not over this but $50 million is more than double what the first installment pulled in on opening weekend and $20 million more than JACKASS: NUMBER TWO pulled in its opening weekend in 2006. Thank God for 3D, right? This revolution in cinema has allowed for great film franchises like JACKASS to flourish! Is this what you had in mind, Mr. Cameron?

I wasn't able to catch RED this weekend but I hear great things and $22 million is a strong second place showing for this adult action-comedy. Together, RED and JACKASS 3D took THE SOCIAL NETWORK down to the third spot. Still, with less than a 30% drop for the second week in a row, this David Fincher film is clearly striking a chord that will help its chances come awards season. I mean, it isn't JACKASS 3D big but we can't expect intelligent film to do the same kind of business as films where people tie remote control helicopters to the ends of their penises with strings, now can we?

IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY is apparently not so funny to anyone else either. The Zach Galifianakis dramedy has stalled in 12th place in its second week with a 37% drop. Documentary, WAITING FOR SUPERMAN and Edward Norton/Robert Deniro thriller, STONE, continue to expand strongly. Hilary Swank vehicle, CONVICTION, opens to a less than convincing $10K per screen average on 11 screens. Meanwhile, John Lennon film, NOWHERE BOY, sees its grosses blow up by 570% after adding 200+ screens. Still, the biggest art house success of the week is not surprisingly, Clint Eastwood's latest, HEREAFTER. The Black Sheep review will be coming next week but this weekend, on just 6 screens, the Matt Damon led film pulled in over $230K for an average of $38,500 per screen. Word is still out on the film's afterlife.

NEXT WEEK: HEREAFTER goes ultra wide on 2200 screens and takes on another spookfest, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 opening on 2900 screens. Two films dealing with what happens to us after we're dead, two very different films I'm sure. Who knows though? Eastwood could easily be the ghost in PA2 for all we know.

Source: Box Office Mojo

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NOWHERE BOY

Written by Matt Greenhalg

Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood

Starring Aaron Johnson, Kristen Scott Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff

John: Why couldn't God make me Elvis?

Julia: Because God was saving you for John Lennon.

I’ve had the privilege of seeing some of Sam Taylor-Wood’s art firsthand in exhibition. It was stark, cold but yet still emotional and affecting. It was both sad and sexual, making for a challenging experience, to say the least. Still, it was an experience I’m glad I had and one that I am also glad to say, has effectively translated to film in Taylor-Wood’s first feature, NOWHERE BOY. The images here may be moving in comparison but are just as rich with depth and pain.

This is a story of a young boy in Liverpool, whom you might know as John Lennon. Unless you know Lennon’s history well though, you will not know this story. The film opens with a dream and that classically unmistakable opening chord from The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” rings in the image. That is the last you will hear of anything The Beatles ever sang or recorded for the rest of the film though. This is not that story, not exactly. This story is about a boy, played with surprising charm and strength by relative unknown, Aaron Johnson (KICK-ASS). This boy wants to put a band together but it proves to be tricky when he is caught between the affections of the aunt who raised him his whole life (Kristen Scott Thomas) and his unstable mother (Anne-Marie Duff) with whom he has just reunited. His name just happens to be Lennon and the band he throws together in a bathroom just happens to be one of the most influential of all time.

We all come from somewhere and if we happen to have been blessed with a little talent or a little genius, then the odds are that the somewhere we came from may not have been so simple a place. Taylor-Wood shows us Lennon’s somewhere and allows us to draw our own conclusions about what made the man that would become a legend rather than do all the drawing for us. There was nothing simple about Lennon’s upbringing. He was kept in the dark until he was an adult and by then, the damage had been done. Fortunately for him and for his fans the world over, that damage became great music.

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