Don't Mess With the Crazy Heart.....

I recently screened 2 movies on video.  The newly released Crazy Heart and the Adam Sandler comedy You Don't Mess With the Zohan.  As you can see, I don't necessarily watch movies in any particular order.... just whenever I get around to it.  Keeps people guessing.... Let's begin with the new, and much more respectable, Crazy Heart.
Starring Jeff Bridges (who won the Academy Award for his performance) and Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart is the story of an all but washed-up country singer and his attempt to come back from the brink of obscurity and alcoholism.  Bridges as "Bad Blake" is perfect for the role and well deserving of the Oscar.  You really believe that he is the character.  He's kind of reminiscent of Kris Kristofferson's character in A Star is Born and looks quite a bit like modern day Kris in some scenes.  Coincidentally, Bridges and Kristofferson are good friends and they reportedly had a good laugh about the similarities.  Bridges performs all the original songs himself and does a pretty good job.  The story is solid and has great character development for the most part, but they were a little lite on Gyllenhaal's motivations (then again it wasn't about her).  The movie ran just a bit longer than it needed but, overall, the pacing was good.  I recommend this one for anyone seeking a lite drama.

Next, Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess With The Zohan.  Sandler tends to do one of these stinkers every other film... One good mainstream movie, one silly, etc.  Zohan is not without merit.  It has some genuinely funny moments and his supporting cast that includes John Tuturro and, of course, Rob Schneider are good.  However, in the "it's so stupid it's funny" category, this one leaned a little bit more on the stupid side.  Sandler got all of his friends together to make another movie (under his own production company, Happy Madison) and they just wanted to poke a little fun at the terrorism paranoia and the racial stereotypes that go along with it.  I think he succeeded but you have to wade through all the sexual innuendo and crotch jokes first.  There are too many cameos to mention here, suffice it to say there seems to be one in about every scene!  All-in-all it's a fun way to waste about 90 minutes if you so choose...