"Inception" Actor Looks To Become Household Name
But Does This Validate The Film As Being Great?
In Theaters
Jul 29, 2010
Ron Livingston (Office Space) and Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) need to star in a good comedy together. Livingston is a sort of jaded John Cusack, an “everyman” who has an infectious, deadpan insight into whatever shit situation he lands in. Galifianakis, on the other hand, is a sort of juvenile John Belushi, if you can imagine such a thing. He has the size and brutish swagger that’s key to Belushi’s screen presence but is restrained by his own wide-eyed, childlike fascination with everything he comes in contact with. The fact I pondered the traits of these comedic actors, who are only peripheral players in Jay Roach’s remake of Dinner For Schmucks, just shows you how tuned out I was during stretches of this new film. That’s never a good sign...
In Theaters
Jul 28, 2010
Boom! Everything and everyone is gone in an instant. That’s the unnerving realization that settles in your mind when you consider the phrase “nuclear explosion.” Lucy Walker’s Countdown To Zero is a polished, impressively edited petition that asks its viewers to sit up, take notice, get worried and then text ZERO to 77177. It’s less of a flooring documentary and more of a studied recap of how dangerously close we could be to having a huge mess on our hands. But the fact that the doc is clear in its voice, assured in its direction and sympathetic toward the fallacies of our short history on this planet, makes it a useful viewing experience. It may not shake you like Collapse, Chris Smith’s masterful documentary on peak oil, did but it does provide some eerie insight into how sloppy the powers that be have become in regards to weapons management and nuclear security. Using an array of renowned world figures for talking heads—Robert McNamara, Tony Blair, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev—along with experts in the field of weapons material and control, Walker’s documentary ends up a rather articulate presentation on the subject of nuclear catastrophe. It is an expository piece on sensibility and survival...