Couple of movies opening in theaters today... and I have seen all of them! Seriously. Julia Roberts stars in Eat Pray Love, based on a book I had actually never heard of until the movie trailer came out earlier this year. I know, I've been living in a literary cave. I guess I never wandered over into that aisle at Barnes and Noble. But I saw the movie... and now I'm glad I never read the book.
The movie is about a privileged American woman who goes on a globe-trotting quest for self-discovery. If that sentence doesn't speak to you, this is not the movie for you. It's as simple as that. Julia travels to Italy, India and Bali -- in that order -- and eats lots of food, learns to meditate, and falls in love -- in that order.
The movie is travel porn. Lots of wide shots of beautiful landscapes and architecture, as well as an abundance of close-up shots of glistening plates of food. Along the way, Julia meets a toothless Yoda-like guru guy who sets the whole thing off, a young Indian woman reluctantly going into an arranged marriage, and a divorced Indonesian medicine woman -- all guiding this directionless white girl to whatever it is she's trying find. Lucky her.
Also opening today: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, based on the popular graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. This movie is audio/visual madness, unlike anything I've ever seen... but it works. Wildly inventive and entertaining, I think a lot of the video game visuals and conventions the comic book draws from actually work a lot better in the movie.
Relative newcomer Ellen Wong is in the movie with a fairly significant role as 17-year-old Knives Chau. She's fantastic, and heartbreakingly cute as the schoolgirl pseudo-girlfriend-turned-stalker of Scott Pilgrim. I hope we get to see a lot more of her stateside. Indeed, she is too cool for Scott.
There's also all this random Asian stuff threaded throughout the movie, including Satya Bhabha as Matthew Patel (Evil Ex #1) and Keita Saitou and Shota Saito as Kyle & Katayanagi (Evil Exes #5 & #6). They're all in the book, and I didn't know what to make of them... but it's even crazier in the movie. Like I said, random Asians. I am really glad though that the movie leaves out all the nonsense with Knives' samurai sword-wielding father.
And finally, Jet Li is in The Expendables, starring alongside Sylvester Stallone and about half a dozen other aging action stars of yesteryear. It's a crazy cast, which includes everyone from Randy Couture to Dolph friggin' Lundgren, and it sounds pretty awesome, right? To be honest, it's kind of awful.
I don't why I thought it would be good. At best, I should've expected it to be so-bad-it's-good. Frankly, it's just ends up kind of lame... and even a little boring. I feel like I was waiting between long stretches of bad dialogue scenes for the movie to get to the next action sequence. You know you're in bad shape when you have to sit through a scene between Jet Li and Sylvester Stallone -- the last two people who should share an extended dialogue moment together.
Oh, and Jet Li. His character's name -- I'm not kidding -- is Yin Yang. And he's basically there to be the butt of multiple short jokes. According to the press notes, his character is supposed to be a hand-to-hand combat specialist, though you wouldn't really know it, given how little fighting he actually gets to show off in the flick. If you have to see this movie, go in with lowered expectations.
But you know what? If you're in New York, I recommend just waiting on all these movies (they'll be in theaters for a while). Instead, you should go catch the limited engagement of The People I've Slept With, starring Karin Anna Cheung, directed by Quentin Lee and written by Koji Steven Sakai.
The film is playing a one-week engagement at the Clearview Chelsea Cinemas through August 19. For those of you in Los Angeles, The People I've Slept With will playing at the Laemmle Sunset 5 starting August 27.
Funny, sexy, charming and ridiculous, it's a crowd-pleasing little flick that's been picking up fans all over the film festival circuit for the better part of a year. Some see what the fun is all about, and support some independent Asian American cinema while you're at it. For more information about the film, go to The People I've Slept With website here.
