02.24.2009 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: R for language, some violent images, sexual content and some drug material.
Release Date: 2008-10-17
Starring: Art Linson
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.whatjusthappenedfilm.com/
02.17.2009 | By Mike Pierce |
Rated: R for bloody violent and disturbing content, terror and language.
Release Date: 2008-10-10
Starring: John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.containthetruth.com/
Here’s what I thought about the horror film Quarantine, but first off, here’s a little plot summary:
Television reporter Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman (Steve Harris) are assigned to spend the night shift with a Los Angeles Fire Station. After a routine 911 call takes them to a small apartment building, they find police officers already on the scene in response to blood curdling screams coming from one of the apartment units. They soon learn that a woman living in the building has been infected by something unknown. After a few of the residents are viciously attacked, they try to escape with the news crew in tow, only to find that the CDC has quarantined the building. Phones, Internet, televisions and cell phone access have been cut-off, and officials are not relaying information to those locked inside. When the quarantine is finally lifted, the only evidence of what took place is the news crew’s videotape.
NOW…what did I think about it you ask…it was ok. I thought it was going to be better. I mean, the “zombie like people” (I’ll keep it like that so I don’t give away the TRUE story) were dope…but, that’s about it. The whole movie is played back by the camera guy – the camera jerks, moves in all directions! That was pretty annoying. Ladies, you’ll be happy – Jay Hernandez is in the movie. He was cool. Guys, if your looking for a good “date movie in October.” – – go check it out.
I give Quarantine…3 out of 5 Popcorns!
01.27.2009 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: R for language and some sexual content.
Release Date: 2008-09-26
Starring: Neil Burger, Dirk Wittenborn
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.theluckyonesmovie.com/
I can’t believe I’m going to say this, and probably never will again, but this is one of those rare times that I found a soldier film to be ‘delightfully lovable’. Yes, I said it. It is due in part to an endearing story concocted by director/writer Neil Burger and a great group of actors who turned on the charm.
In ‘The Lucky Ones’, three wounded soldiers come back from the war cherishing to return to a life of normalcy, or at least what is left of it. With flight delays threatening to hinder their plans, they rent a car to St. Louis where they hope the city’s airport will have a batch of planes ready to depart to Las Vegas. The road trip back home is where the true journey begins for these three servicemen.
Tim Robbins is a wonderful every-man’s actor. He manages to capture the reality of daily living in all his characters. Michael Peña continues to deliver solid performances demonstrating a range of emotion in his roles, even if they are confined in lawmen and soldier characters. I mustn’t dismiss though, the unexpectedly comical, yet solemn performance of Rachel McAdams, who in my mind, was the star of the film. I would dare say, this is an Oscar nominated performance. She is not known for her comic timing, nor delivering amusing lines with deadpan expressions, but McAdams not only proved she is actually funny, she showed she can carry and steal a movie from under the nose of a proven veteran actor such as Robbins.
If you are feeling lucky and in the mood for a small, independent, but very good film in the tradition of Little Miss Sunshine, do yourself a favor and see ‘The Lucky Ones’.
01.27.2009 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: R for pervasive language, violence, drug use and brief sexuality.
Release Date: 2008-10-31
Starring: Guy Ritchie
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Country:England
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01.27.2009 | By Alex Florez |
Rated: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving sexuality, and smoking.
Release Date: 2008-08-15
Starring: Woody Allen
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Country:USA, Spain
Official Website: http://vickycristina-movie.com/
Not so long ago, New York based director (at that time, anyway) Woody Allen once confessed to us that the reason there are never any prominent hispanic characters in any of his films is because he sticks to what he knows. Meaning of course, old Jewish families, upper class Manhattanites and chaotic love affairs that usually flirt with death. So what does Allen now know about Catalonia and Spanish culture in general that prompts him to set his latest film on the mediterranean coast? Other than that they will finance his films?
To answer my own question, I think the appeal for Allen has been the idea that such sexual promiscuity and emotional confusion also exists outside the realm of New York and in practically every single corner of the globe.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, his first and most likely last film to be set in Spain, pits Scarlett Johansson (Cristina) and Rebecca Hall (Vicky) as two American friends who decide to spend their summer in Barcelona. Cristina, more of a wandering spirit, is always on the lookout for adventure, while Vicky on the other hand, is much more sensible and committed to her fiance back home.
But their radically different attitudes towards love are tested when they meet Spanish painter Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) and his volatile ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz).
A case can be made that Allen has made this same film 35 times over (excluding the ‘early funny ones’). As usual, you’ll find plenty of sarcasm, infidelity and yes, a few rounds fired from a gun. But the plot only sizzles when Penelope Cruz joins the cast. Her turbulent behavior is wildly reminiscent of Judy Davis’ brilliant performance in Allen’s Deconstructing Harry (1997).Â
Unfortunately, in this film, Cruz is the catalyst for an event that never arrives. The sense that something absurd, tragic and utterly hilarious would take place in the end, the way it did in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) for instance, kept building throughout the film. Instead, it moves right along, one lustful scene after another, wondering what sort of statement it wants to make about ‘love’ that it hasn’t already.
 Then there’s the mysterious voice over which threads the film together. Totally unnecessary given that it doesn’t really explain anything nor does it provide any insight from an omniscient point of view.
The movie’s funniest moments, without question, rely on the chemistry between Bardem and Cruz, giving way to the little momentum the film manages at times – making Johansson and Hall seem out of touch with the whole ‘Woody Allen genre’.
Hispanics however, will marvel at how well Allen’s neurotic language translates in Spanish. While most of the film is spoken in English, the few scenes where Bardem and Cruz exchange a few words in, are hysterical. More evidence that these days, the international community seems to get Woody more than we do.
01.19.2009 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: R for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, language and brief nudity.
Release Date: 2008-10-24
Starring: Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.saw5.com/site/index.html
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SAW V is the worst film in the franchise’s history, yet it’s disturbing, gory, parody of itself maintains an appeal like no other in its ilk. Bad acting, a ‘horror’ of a script dialogue, all add to the mystique of why we as a collective mass of movie goers flock to films of this nature.
Jigsaw is dead and Detective Strahm is trying to get to the bottom of who is continuing his deranged games.
SAW movies are no longer frightening, they are just living off of their reputation from the first two. Director David Hackl reduces the bloodshed compared to it’s previous incarnations and in this fifth installment he delivers more of a character driven feature, leaving us more time to be engaged by the actor’s skills – why would you put us through such a thing!?
Nevertheless, the inventiveness of how to kill people is amped in this sequel; from homemade nail bombs to guillotine contraptions.
If you’re looking for a fright, save your money on SAW 5 and rent The Strangers on DVD. That has more of what you’re looking for. It was created to scare the skin off of you through a slow build of suspense that keeps you screaming to the very end.
01.12.2009 | By Alex Florez |
Rated: PG-13 for language.
Release Date: 2008-08-01
Starring: Joshua Michael Stern, Jason Richman
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Official Website: http://swingvote.movies.go.com/
SWING VOTE: ELECT TO SEE SOMETHING ELSE
Few would argue that Hollywood, as a whole, is a pretty ‘liberal’ industry whose star studded cast often shows its support by way of propaganda and sizable donations to left-winged presidential nominees every four years. Nowadays, whenever filmmakers have the opportunity to chastise our republican administration in the not-so-subtle of ways, they’ve taken it and in some cases exploited it – and I’m not just talking about Michael Moore and his rattling documentaries. Take films such as ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and ‘Transformers’, to name a more recent one, where the political jabs are more humorous than they are sharp.
Nevertheless, there are those, more conservative members of Hollywood, that from time to time strike back. Which is why it’s so surprising to see actor Kevin Costner, a registered republican, so decidedly neutral in this latest comedy about a middle-class american who will decide the next president of our country. Instead, the Costner produced movie, tries to focus itself on a father-daughter relationship while only underlining the importance of our civic duty. But that’s as much credit as I can give Swing Vote.
In it, Costner plays Bud Johnson, an apathetic, disorderly, but lovable father who is coasting through a life that has almost passed him by. The only bright spot is his overly precocious and overachieving 12-year-old daughter Molly (Madeleine Carroll) who in this case, is the one that takes care of him. That is, until one mischievous moment on Election Day, when she attempts to vote on Bud’s behalf when he is too drunk to show up to the booth. Later that night, when the tallies are all in, the nomination happens to come down to one final vote – Bud’s vote – which needs to be recast because of a technical error in the voting machine. The media soon takes hold of the news and within minutes, the courtship from both campaigns are full throttle.
But It’s that same courtship to win over Bud’s vote, that makes this film hard to watch. The politicians in the movie, played by Kelsey Grammer and Dennis Hopper are merely stereotypical representations of the republican and democratic party respectively, and consequently, the ways in which they attempt to win over Bud’s affection are beyond predictable.
Then there’s the media – represented by George Lopez as the local, cutthroat news director and his journalist on the rise Kate Madison (played by Paula Patton), but both come off as one-dimensional.
Costner seems more than complaisant with the notion of letting little Madeleine Carroll carry the movie, but she is too precocious for her own good. If she were more like a ‘kid’ then perhaps it would be easier for us to empathize with her and the situation she’s in.
Notwithstanding, the film does deliver a couple of Disneyesque moments where Costner’s character finally shows some arc. Unfortunately, they come way too late in the story, at a time when all you want to know is who ends up being president so you can leave the theater. However, even those curious of the outcome will be seriously disappointed.
01.6.2009 | By Mack Chico |
Rated: R for violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and brief drug use.
Release Date: 2008-09-12
Starring: Russell Gewirtz
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.righteouskill-themovie.com/
Jon Avnet’s new film ‘Righteous Kill’ reunites legendary actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Both actors flood the screen with their trademark acting styles and larger than life personalities, and convert what is an ordinary police thriller into a surprisingly entertaining cop romp.
The premise has the Lennon and McCartney of detectives (Pacino and De Niro) hot on the trail of a serial killer who might end up being one of their own. Some tension is developed by two younger investigators (John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg) who want to crack the case before the seniors do.
The film offers some believable acting from the supporting cast, but nothing outstanding to make you begin your Oscar nomination pool. Leguizamo seems to play the same wise cracking cop in every movie and Wahlberg just seems to be happy to be working. Underrated is Carla Gugino, De Niro’s love interest, who continues to deliver consistently fine work. The director Jon Avnet, who gave us one of Pacino’s worst efforts, 88 Minutes, doesn’t offer us anything new here. Screenwriter Russell Gewirtz, who did Spike Lee’s Inside Man, one of the better films of the cop genre in the last five years, regresses with this hit and miss script and dialogue.
De Niro and Pacino are no longer the multi-layered, method acting thespians with depth, but they still possess enough of that charm, wisdom and experience to know how to carry a movie, ergo ‘Righteous Kill’. Together it becomes memorable and nostalgic.
It wasn’t so long ago that whenever someone asked who the best actor in Hollywood was, the answer was either Al Pacino or Robert De Niro. That is no longer the case. The best way to put it I guess, is that we are still looking for that last performance of greatness from them, that last attempt to prove all us critics wrong, that last hurrah for ol’ time sakes. Regrettably, this movie wasn’t the one to make us believe that.
12.16.2008 | By Alex Florez |
Rated: PG-13 for adventure action and violence.
Release Date: 2008-08-01
Starring: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar
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Official Website: http://robcohenthemummy.com/
Make no bones about it, The Mummy franchise is and always has been a blatant attempt to recreate the Indiana Jones lore. In this third installment, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the similarities are even more apparent. Rick ‘Ricochet’ O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) is Indy of course; Maria Bello (who replaces Rachel Weisz as Evelyn) is their version of ‘Marion’; and their son Alex O’Connell (Luke Ford) matches up with Indiana’s heir apparent, Mutt Williams (as played by Shia LaBeouf).
Unfortunately, the similarities also extend to the campiness, predictability, and unintelligent plot lines of ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’. Come to think of it, even their titles are both ridiculously long.
This time around, the O’Connells travel to Asia to battle the resurrected Han Emperor (Jet Li), awoken from a 2,000-year-old curse that a chinese sorceress (Michelle Yeoh) cast on him. The film, to its credit, moves along rather quickly with one battle scene following another, and its a good thing because the acting is often unbearable. At times, I couldn’t shake the feeling that newcomer Luke Ford, was doing his best Matt Damon impression. Just a terrible pick altogether to play Brendan Fraser’s son, since they look only a couple of years apart. An army of mummies, yetis in the himalayas and witchery I can believe, but Luke Ford playing Rick’s son, not a chance.
Of the three films, this one seems like the most poorly thought out as it strives to become more of a family adventure, than the thrilling archeological escapades in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ that most likely inspired the filmmakers in the first place. I assure you that years from now, these films will be no relic.
12.16.2008 | By Alex Florez |
Rated: PG-13 for intense violent sequences, thematic material and brief language.
Release Date: 2008-08-27
Starring: Jeffrey Nachmanoff,
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://traitor-themovie.com/
We know someone is either betraying a friend, a country or a principle – that we obviously get from the title. But who and why is something that’s buried deep enough in the film to keep us guessing and wondering how clever the filmmakers can actually get with this.
In some ways, ‘Traitor’ is the classic espionage film that mixes and matches modern day headlines to construct a plot where Americans continue fighting terrorism all across the world. To its credit however, it manages to personalize the story of its protagonist to a certain degree, stripping the film of the politically sententious rhetoric that so often make these films come across as propaganda.
Deceptively, Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Crash) plays Samir Horn, a former U.S. military operative who is linked to illicit activities in the middle east. When an FBI agent (Guy Pearce) heads the investigation, he begins to track Horn’s every move slowly uncovering the truth behind the massive conspiracy he’s been a part of.
Ultimately, the film is about a man trying to do the right thing for the right reasons, or his own convictions, but also about how wrong things can go in the process. In Traitor, that man just happens to be a Muslim American who finds himself in the middle of the conflict with hard decisions to make. However dangerously close the films comes to being about religious extremism and how far people will go for what they believe in, it is very careful with its commentary on the matter.
With a story that’s so rooted in politics and religion, the filmmakers actually manage to say very little about either subject. Both a good and a bad thing depending on how you look at it. Its moral ambiguity may frustrate some but alleviate others just tuning in to watch bombs being disarmed at the last possible second.
The film’s strong performances (save for Jeff Daniels as the veteran CIA contractor with a personal agenda) almost do the impossible: make it cliché-proof. Unfortunately, it is what it is: another spy thriller mirroring the ever present war on terror.
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