From my favorite movies..

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Chemistry can make all the difference in a film, even when the story has been done before. St. Vincent wasn't a great film because the story was out of this world. In fact, it wasn't even all that original, but rather the fantastic chemistry between veteran Bill Murray, and newcomer Jaeden Lieberher made all the difference. After a bitter divorce, Maggie & Oliver have been forced to move to a new neighborhood, where they find their new neighbor is a bitter old drunk named Vincent (Murray). Vincent wants nothing to do with anyone, until happenstance throws him together with Oliver, who he reluctantly agrees to watch in exchange for a paycheck, but what does he know about taking care of a kid? Even though this movie could have been more raunchy, Bill Murray is always funny and paired together with this scrawny, innocent, overprotected kid, made for some of the best interplay I've seen in a very long time. Murray was at the top of his game, but he almost had the show stolen right out from under him by young Jaeden Lieberher. Four years later, we know this kid is a star, and after seeing this performance, it's easy to see how he landing huge roles in the movies It and The Book of Henry. Finally the cast is rounded out by Melissa McCarthy who I honestly can not stand anymore, but believe it or not, she was very reserved and laid back. I didn't know she was actually capable of doing that. St. Vincent won't win any awards for originality, some parts could be a bit slow, although there were a few surprises. As for me, I love the chemistry, I always enjoy seeing how young actors and actresses got their start, and the film stars Bill freaking Murray, need I say more?

I feel as though this movie was an incredible waste of my time full of dull drama, unnecessarily sappy cheese and a topic that's been done before over and over ... A cranky curmudgeon is touched by the friendship of a child. Bill Murray inexplicably plays a New Yorker with a thick Boston accent. He has a gambling addiction, drinks too much and treats people in a generally dismissive and curmudgeonly way. Murray does a good job with the character but we've seen it so many times before ... It could basically have been an impression of Nicholson in As Good As It Gets.The writing is what really kills the film. Beyond the trite acts of bringing a child to a horse track or the bar, it's so sickly sweet in terms of incorporating every bit of adult/kid sappy shtick. The boy gets in a fight with some boys, which is witnessed by Murray, so Murray teaches him to fight (while hitting a heavy bag with a drink in his hand) Hokey. The kid gets picked on in a Dodge ball game and ends up punching the bully in the nose and knocking him out. Incredibly hokey. THEN the kid makes friends with the bully and discovers underneath is a nice, insecure friend. Hokey to the tenth power.Murray's wife has Altzeimers disease and doesn't recognize him so he dresses up as a Doctor in order to visit her at the fancy nursing home. Yet the evil nursing home is going to kick her out so he has to raise money to allow her to stay so he goes to the track and loses. And this is where things get horrible from a writing standpoint.Murray has a stroke at the very moment the bookies come to beat him up. Apparently he has a major stroke which paralyzes the left side of his body. But it's okay because in only a week or two's time he fully recovers. Not sure if Wes Anderson bothered to do any research on strokes but this is so far from the length of recovery time. I'm sure a year or more's recovery wouldn't work with the script but the whole thing is so dumb. Right down to the part where they pack the left side of Murray's mouth with cotton balls so it appears he cannot speak. Again, not at all what happens when someone has a stroke. Research?Finally, in the last 20 ish minutes of the film we inexplicably learn that in the couple weeks Murray was fully recovering from his major stroke, his healthy looking wife died. And Melissa McCarthy's ex was suing her for custody of the boy Murray was looking after. And hired a private investigator to take photos of Murray and the boy at the track, the bar, and the boy with Murray's Russian girlfriend or whatever she is ... Who is a hooker/stripper (of course).The end breaks all records for campy shtick as the boy goes to a Catholic school and they are required to pick a human Saint that they know. Of course the boy picks Murray who at the last minute decides to skip the track and walk into the auditorium JUST as the boy is starting his presentation. Through an epic PowerPoint presentation (this is a 7 year old boy who somehow puts the presentation together using photos of Murray's life which are oddly of an actor playing a young Bill Murray, it seems) We learn that Murray was a hero in Vietnam who saved members of his platoon and actually was a decent human being until he turned into an old cranky person. Cut to a CU up Murray with tears in his eyes. Then his Russian girlfriend has her baby.So over the top, poorly written, everything works out in the end and it's predictable, campy and just not at all funny. I don't even know if I'd call this a drama. I'd call it a waste of time or a screen writing mess.

The type of mid-budget star-vehicle that gets sold in production meetings with the caveat that it's "a feel-good movie." With Bill Murray acting like a lovable jerk (not a big stretch for Murray), "St. Vincent" also has the earmarks of a project groomed and designed to generate Oscar buzz--it has 'prestige' by way of its edgy but essentially warmhearted presentation. A grouchy Vietnam veteran in Brooklyn inadvertently becomes a babysitter for the little boy living next door after his parents split up and Mom has to work all day at the hospital. Fill-in-the-blanks screenplay by director Theodore Melfi has absolutely no surprises up its sleeve, and Murray is no longer the inimitable rascal you hate to love (he's present, but I question his sincerity). The picture isn't unique--it doesn't feel fresh, it doesn't tear you up--and Oscar did not come calling. I'm not even sure what Melfi was ultimately aiming for here (beyond setting up his happy ending), especially with the anticlimactic casting of Melissa McCarthy as the child's harried mother (she has little to do but react and scold). There's not a convincing scene in the entire 102 minutes, but some audiences may respond to its 'endearing' qualities, which is what the people behind "St. Vincent" had planned for all along. ** from ****

Bill Murray hands in a bravura performance as "St. Vincent" in this 2014 drama also starring Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O'Dowd, and Jaeden Lieberher, all of whom are dynamite.Murray is curmudgeon who drinks, smokes, hangs out at bars and the race track, and owes money to thugs. He's so drunk one night that he backs his car into his fence, which he blames on his new neighbor Maggie's (McCarthy) movers. Maggie is divorced with a young son, Oliver, and one night when she is late coming home from her job, Oliver winds up at Vincent's when he asks to use the phone. Vincent charges her for babysitting, and then agrees to watch the kid after school for a certain amount per hour.Vincent and Oliver don't realize it yet, but they're crazy about each other. Vincent takes Oliver to the track, and Oliver's picks win big. He takes him to his neighborhood bar, and he introduces him to a pregnant Russian prostitute, Daka (Watts), who continues to have sex with him. He teaches the boy, who is on the small side, to fight the bullies.Vincent also visits a beautiful woman in a nursing home and pretends he's her doctor.Maggie, meanwhile, has to fight her ex-husband for full custody.This is such a wonderful story, with laugh out loud moments and tears. Bill Murray is fantastic and should have been nominated for an Oscar. He plays drunk, sick, nice, mean and everything in between. Children in films can be annoying, but Lieberher is wonderful. Naomi Watts does an excellent Russian accent and is quite funny. This was more of a dramatic role for Melissa McCarthy and she handled it beautifully.Director Theodore Melfi's direction is solid and keeps the film going. A heartwarming film, perfect for the holidays and after all the chaos of the election. Lots of fun, and a film about the power of love.