OUR VERY OWN

OUR VERY OWN HOMEGROWN AND WELL DONE

In the 70's, a small-town group of friends anxiously await the return of Sondra Locke to her hometown, Shelbyville, Tennessee. They hang out together, drive to Nashville together, in fact, they seem to do everything together, except for Clancy Whitfield (an enduring Jason Ritter). He keeps secrets from his friends; well, as best he can. When his dad (Keith Carradine) is the town drunk people talk and everyone listens. His mother Joan (Allison Janney) does her best to keep a "happy face" and enable (a word not used so freely then) her husband while fighting off the re-possessors, banks, and other creditors. This isn't an action film; no explosions, no murders or escapes. This is a people film where the moves are made on the inside. Wonderfully enough, acting like Ritter and Janney let us in on those subtle differences. Janney owns every scene and Ritter isn't far behind. Clancy's friends are a bit stereotypical, but there's reason for that; stereotypes aren't imagined, they are based on something, but it doesn't detract from the movie in any way. This was a sweet movie, full of nostalgia and small town dreams.

Rating: Worth watching on a quiet night at home.

PLANET TERROR

PLANET TERROR SURPRISINGLY TERRIFIC
I wasn't going to include this review because I know about my twisted preferences in films and I would consider liking this movie a bit twisted. However, it comes with credentials from director, Robert Rodriguez, the mind behind El Mariachi, Desperado, Sin City and so on. He and Quentin Tarantino paired up and each made their own "grind-house" film, which, in theaters, was shown together with fake movie trailers (as does this one). I don't know why they didn't release on DVD together, but really don't care. Someone's having fun with their biology homework and suddenly people are breaking out all over; literally, with actual gory, gut-wrenching breakouts and then they morph into some sort of zombies. Yeah, it gets pretty gross, but more in a booger/zit popping kind of way. This is a true action movie. Lots of things get blown up, set on fire or shot at with heavy iron. The cast is all star and no one gives a bad performance; Bruce Willis, Rose McGowan, Josh Brolin, Nicky Katt, to name a few. The fun part was seeing the regulars in Rodriguez's other films making an appearance, including Tarantino himself. There was not a bad actor in the bunch (although Fergie should keep with the singing thing) but the standout was our hero, only second to McGowan, El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez). He was commanding, brave and made some very funny one-liners. That's the second part to why I liked this film. Rodriguez wrote most of the script after he had placed the actors. Some of the lines or sayings are theirs and he just put that in their character. It wasn't a movie that took itself too seriously. Characters were instant messaging and using cell phones (before they were commonplace or even invented) including a good reference to the Food channel, also not around then. The extras on the DVD is worth taking a look at. Always look for Rodriquez's 10 minute film school. In all its gore, this was a fun movie to watch. Just don't plan on eating afterward.
Rating: Gory and icky, but also funny and entertaining. Bueno El!