Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Cyrus
Collapse
-
- Published: 12-19-2010, 05:33 PM
- 0 comments
X
Collapse
-
Cyrus
Released by: Fox Searchlight
Released on: 12/14/2010
Director: Mark Duplass & Jay Duplass
Cast: John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei,
Year: 2010
The Movie:
John C. Reilly plays John, a man whose wife left him seven years ago and he's been in a funk ever since. He still has a friendship with his ex-wife (Catherine Keener), enough so that she makes him go to a party she and her new husband-to-be are attending. Her hope is that he'll chat with people and maybe meet someone, since he never leaves his house anymore. So he goes to the party, has a miserable time, and gets drunk. While taking a leak in the bushes, he meets Molly (Marisa Tomei, who looks very MILFy by the way) and they hit it off (and get it on). John's totally enamoured with Molly, but wonders why she seems so guarded. He follows her home after a night of boinking and stakes out her house, and in the morning approaches the home only to be met at the door by her 21-year old son Cyrus (Jonah Hill), who right away seems like an oddball.
The relationship between Cyrus and his mother is soon revealed to be a little bit strange. John sees a picture of Molly breast feeding Cyrus who looks to be about four years old at the time for example. Cyrus walks into the bathroom while his mom is showering and they sing together. She home schooled him and basically kept him from socializing. Things like that. It is also soon evident that Cyrus doesn't want John to come into their lives and take his mom away from him, so he tries to sabotage things to keep them apart and break them up. It all comes to a head (and a fistfight) at John's ex-wife's wedding and leaves the viewer to wonder if things will work out or not.
Let's be honest here. This isn't really anything new and you KNOW how it's going to end. That said, there was always the feeling throughout that something else could happen (or maybe it was the hope that something would happen) that was unexpected. So yeah, it kind of leaves you guessing just a little bit. The story is tight and the production is of good quality, but the best part of the movie is the performances. John C. Reilly is his usual awesome self, being both funny and pathetic at the same time, but he's very likable in his role and his execution is top notch. He could easily fall into playing over-the-top funny roles all the time, but he doesn't and that's admirable. Marisa Tomei is sexy and sweet and also has a multi-dimensional role as a smothering mother who knows she needs more in her life but is afraid to let her boy out into the dangerous world. And the kid, Jonah Hill, also does a really great job as an asshole mamma's boy who deserves a roundhouse kick to the head. He plays a great shithead and is very believable in this part. And that's not meant as a slight. He pulled it off well.
Aside from the fact that the plot isn't anything groundbreaking or even all that original, the one complaint about watching this film is the use of quick tightening and widening of the frame. Lots of jumpy zoom-in and zoom-out moments that can take the viewer right out of the story. It was quite distracting and it would be interesting to know what the point of it was. Perhaps it was to give a rather static film more energy by way of motion, but only the directors can reveal their intentions.
Video/Audio/Extras:
First of all, this is a screener disc, so it has a studio identification bug that pops up here and there, so why waste time talking about the video quality if this isn't even the finished product. The film is shown here in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen for those keeping track, but that's as far as this will go unless the studio sends a copy of the actual disc.
There are three audio tracks, a 5.1 Dolby Digital English track, a Spanish 2.0 Dolby track, and a French 2.0 Dolby track. The English track sounds great, with a proper balance between the music and talking. It gets quiet in some spots with some low volume chatter, but never to the point of needed to adjust the volume. There are no imperfections to note. It's simply a good solid sound.
Extras are pretty slim, with just two deleted scenes, a trailer for the movie and some sneak peak trailers for other Fox titles. The deleted scenes have intros by the writers/directors team, who happen to be brothers, and the two scenes are actually better than the typical deleted scenes for this type of movie. Total running time of the two scenes is around eight minutes. That's it. It's too bad because the intros (which can be bypassed if desired) are interesting and a commentary track would have probably been a decent listen
The Final Word:
A well-made movie with a basic plot is carried solely on the performances. All players keep the movie going, are realistic enough to care about, quirky enough to be interesting, but not so over the top as to be a turn off. This is something you can watch with the little woman and not have to sit through the typical romantic comedy dribble. Probably not much replay potential, and with the sparse extras, this may be one to check out as a rental.Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (272)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4162)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2513)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (391)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (300)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (497)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: February 22nd, 2022.
Director: Gianfranco Parolini
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance
Year: 1976
Purchase From Amazon
God’s Gun – Movie Review:
Directed by Gianfranco Parolini in 1976, quite late in the spaghetti western boom years, God's Gun (Diamante Lobo in Italy) introduces us to a bad, bad man named Sam Clayton (Jack Palance) who, along with his gang of equally bad, bad men, start wreaking...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:10 PM -
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: October 8th, 2019.
Director: Mario Bava
Cast: Christopher Lee, Reg Park, Leonora Ruffo, Gaia Germani
Year: 1968
Purchase From Amazon
Hercules In The Haunted World – Movie Review:
Directed by Mario Bava in 1961 and featuring a screenplay by Bava (and Sandro Continenza, Francesco Prosperi and Duccio Tessari), Hercules In The Haunted World (also known as Hercules At The Center Of The Earth and...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:08 PM -
-
Released by: Cinématographe
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jack Nicholson
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi
Year: 1978
Purchase From Amazon
Goin’ South – Movie Review:
Made at the height of his career as an actor, 1978’s ‘Goin’ South’ sees Jack Nicholson once again in the director’s chair, seven years after his directorial debut, ‘Drive, He Said,’ failed to set the...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:29 AM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: April 20th, 2024.
Director: Noburo Nakamura
Cast: Miyuki Kuwano, Mikijiro Hira
Year: 1964
Purchase From Amazon
The Shape Of Night – Movie Review:
Directed by Noburo Nakamura for Shochiko in 1964, ‘The Shape Of Night’ follows a young woman named Yoshie Nomoto (Miyuki Kuwano). In the opening scene, she’s working as a streetwalker on the outskirts of town and soon enough, she’s picked...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:26 AM -
-
Released by: Film Masters
Released on: April 23rd, 2024.
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Cast: Richard Carlson, Juli Reding, Lugene Sanders, Susan Gordon
Year: 1963
Purchase From Amazon
Tormented – Movie Review:
The late Bert I. Gordon’s 1963 horror film, ‘Tormented,’ is an effectively spooky ghost story made with an obviously low budget but no less effective for it.
The story revolves around a professional piano player...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:19 AM -
-
Released by: Grindhouse Releasing
Released on: March 12th, 2024.
Director: William Grefé
Cast: William Shatner, Jennifer Bishop, Ruth Roman, Harold Sakata
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Impulse – Movie Review:
Directed by the one and only William Grefé, 1974’s Impulse is one of those rare films that allows you to witness what it would be like if a really sweaty William Shatner got mad at a lady carrying balloons. Before that...-
Channel: Movies
04-15-2024, 01:20 PM -