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Movie Reviews

The Wedding Song
Namreta Kumar
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2009/10/23 at 12:00am

Reviews

The Wedding Song

10.23.2009 | By |

The Wedding Song

For a film that is so loaded The Wedding Song does not say a lot. Karin Albou structured the film from story to acting with an intimate design in mind.

The story is simple: a tale of the friendship between Myriam (Lizzie Brochere) and Nour (Olympe Borval), and how it grows in the face of their stark differences and the world that is rapidly changing around them. While Myriam is thrust into an arranged marriage in desperation to shield herself from the war, Nour’s “love” marriage traps her within the prejudice views of the times. Design was the cornerstone of this film and its failure. Albou’s design defines the good, the bad, and the ugly of The Wedding Song.

The good: The many layers of a woman’s coming of age are beautifully intertwined with the lesser known hostilities of a War that defines so much of who people became. Albou’s design and technique of the layers of intimacy between two friends in the heat of World War II is so particularly crafted in front of your eyes that your emotions are taken from simple homes through the ages that defined it.

The bad: The craftsmanship and design are forced through every scene. Although beautifully crafted and unique, the story is hard pressed for a slice for everyone to identify with. What makes coming of age stories special are the people we see in them and this art, with its specificity, lacks empathy.

The ugly: The Wedding Song is a heavy-handed art film and the design that faults it defines it. Albou has brought together so much of life and its unpredictable nature into each character set scene and action that it demands an active audience.

In short this film is a beautiful story with a lot of detail but a curtailed base. In the long run it will find itself as a winner with critical thinkers but not with the targeted bathetic audience.

Amelia
Jack Rico
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2009/10/23 at 12:00am

Reviews

Amelia

10.23.2009 | By |

Amelia

If you’ve seen the films ‘Aviator’ from the director Martin Scorsese and ‘Titanic’ from James Cameron, then you will have a good idea of what to expect from ‘Amelia’.
 
The film is a celluloid biography about the real life of Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank), the first woman that attempted to fly around the world. The movie focuses on her beginnings as a pilot, her voyages in the Atlantic and Pacific, her marriage to George Putnam (Richard Gere) and eventually, her mysterious death around Hawaii in 1937.
 
‘Amelia’ is a good film but it doesn’t deserve too many praises. The cinematography of the film was great and recreated the 20’s and 30’s on point. Acting wise, Hilary Swank was once again splendid, capturing Earhart’s innocent and joyous essence. Her nomination for an Oscar is more than assured. Richard Gere on the other hand, did not move me with his acting, to be franc, he was indifferent to me. I don’t know, I think his best days as an actor are over.
 
Anyway, the film lacked the magic that ‘Titanic’ or ‘La Vie En Rose’ by Olivier Dahan had. Those are movies that you keep in your heart for months, years, even a whole life time after you’ve seen them in the movie theater. As a cinematographic piece I recommend seeing ‘Amelia’. It’s a good film but is not that special.

Astro Boy
Jack Rico
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2009/10/22 at 12:00am

Reviews

Astro Boy

10.22.2009 | By |

Astro Boy

Since I saw the preview I knew I was going to enjoy the animation. Usually I don’t get that feeling but ‘Astro Boy’ didn’t disappoint. The quality of the computer generated graphics was excellent, the voices were on par and the plot will make any parent tear more than once. Get ready.
 
The film is based on a popular manga and anime series from Osamu Tezuka. The movie tells the tale of a father (Nicolas Cage) who looses his son (Freddie Highmore) in a scientific accident and then recreates him as a super-robot. Sadly, his pain is so great he rejects him completely. The rest of the story has our hero trying to win back his father’s love.
 
Usually anime or manga films don’t have a lot of success in Hollywood but they do on T.V. such as Voltron, Pokemon, Speed Racer, etc… ‘Astro Boy’ is a risk to the Summit Entertainment company since the main character doesn’t have a fan base in the U.S. most of its reputation comes from Japan. I personally liked it and in my opinion you will too.

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
Alex Florez
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2009/10/22 at 12:00am

Reviews

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

10.22.2009 | By |

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

The minute a genre becomes popular, Hollywood does its very best to milk it.  To squeeze every last dime out of our pockets.  And it will continue to do it as long as there continues to be an audience for it.  Let’s take ‘SAW’ as an example.  This week, the franchise releases its 6th installment with numbers 7 & 8 already on the way.  Let us remember that the first film hit theaters in 2004. Can they crank them out or what?

However, what seems to be all the rage these days are vampires. They’re everywhere: movies, TV shows, books, toys and on Halloween in every costume party in America.  To what do we owe this resurgence? Why the public obsession with a corpse supposed, in European folklore, to leave its grave at night drink the blood of the living? I have my own opinions about it but Hollywood could care less so long as we keep opening up our wallets.

For those that haven’t yet had their fill, this week you’ll have the option of seeing Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, but do so at your own risk.  The film, based on the popular series of books by Darren Shan, will do little to excite the average viewer.

Here’s the gist: A 16 year-old unknowingly breaks a 200-year-old truce between two warring factions of vampires. Pulled into a fantastic life of misunderstood sideshow freaks and grotesque creatures of the night, he vanishes from the safety of a boring existence, and puts at risk his relationship with his best friend to fulfill his destiny.

Think of Cirque du Freak as the vampire version of ‘Harry Potter’. Unfortunately, the magic just isn’t there.  A supporting cast that includes mexican actress Salma Hayek as ‘the bearded woman’ doesn’t even manage to spice things up. I will say however, that John C. Reilly (Step Brothers, Walk Hard) who plays Crepsely – The vampire who mentors young Darren and shows him how to develop his vampire abilities – shows his acting range and takes on a role we rarely see him in.

Unless you already a diehard fan of the books, I advise to stay away from the film.  The characters are dull and uninviting. You will leave the theater without a care in the world and a few dollars poorer.

One final note: Isn’t actor Chris Massoglia the spitting image of a young Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid)?

 

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Alex Florez
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2009/10/20 at 12:00am

DVD ReviewsReviews

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

10.20.2009 | By |

Rating: 2.5

Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material.
Release Date: 2009-06-26
Starring: Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.transformersmovie.com/

 Go to our film page

‘Revenge of the Fallen’ falls somewhere between ‘American Pie’ and ‘Terminator’.  Yes, I know that covers the gamut of movie genres, but that’s exactly the situation at hand.  Director Michael Bay’s follow up to the blockbuster film based on Hasbro’s action figures, is clearly targeting the graduating class of 2009.  School is out, summer is in and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman turn the first half of the movie into a teen-sex comedy, something most fans of the original cartoon series from the 80s won’t really care for.  But somewhere beneath all the sophomoric double entendres, lies a story-line with the potential of whipping fanboys into a frenzy by shedding light onto the ancient origins of the Transformers.

Optimus Prime, leader of the ‘Autobots’ (the good ones), is the ultimate hero to rally around but it is Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBoeuf) the boy responsible for discovering the alien race, who will hold the fate of the world in his hands.  Together with the help of the humans, the ‘Autobots’ engage in a battle of biblical proportions against the evil ‘Decepticons’.  The action here is certainly impressive and the special effects out of this world but it is difficult to enjoy when you can’t quite tell what’s going on – also my biggest concern with the first film. With the exception of Optimus Prime, the hot-rod semi-truck and Bumblebee, the golden Camaro, telling some of these robots apart is a mounting challenge especially during combat scenes.   

At the end of the day, there’s a lot of fat that can be cut out of the film to make it a leaner action-packed extravaganza. I’d start by eliminating a series of extraneous characters that add very little.  John Turturro as Agent Simmons, for instance, feels as out of place as the late Richard Pryor in ‘Superman III’.  And we all know how that franchise turned out.

The Maid
Alex Florez
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2009/10/15 at 12:00am

Reviews

The Maid

10.15.2009 | By |

The Maid

‘La Nana’ llega a tierras estadounidenses como un mensaje dentro de una botella. Silenciosamente remitido por el cineasta chileno Sebastián Silva, el mensaje es sencillo y sincero.  Es un relato de mucha idiosincrasia y a la vez, un estudio de la condición humana para compartir dondequiera que la corriente lo lleve.

Silva nos cuenta de Raquel (Catalina Saavedra), una mujer agria e introvertida, que lleva 23 años trabajando de nana para una familia de un estrato social alto. Un día, Pilar (Claudia Celedón), su patrona, contrata a otra nana para ayudarla. Raquel, sintiendo peligrar su lugar en la familia, marca su territorio espantando a la recién llegada con crueles e infantiles maltratos psicológicos. A partir de entonces la película toma un tono jocoso y por momentos pierde el norte haciéndonos esperar más de la cuenta para saber como termina todo. No obstante, sale uno del teatro sintiéndose parte de la familia.  

La película se inspira mucho en el ‘cine de realidad’ o ‘cinéma vérité’, el estilo de cine que comenzó a mediados del siglo XX como una reacción europea hacia el sistema clásico de hacer películas. Un estilo que utiliza muchas técnicas naturalistas que muchas veces resultan en una fotografía temblorosa.  Piensen en esos vídeos caseros que tenemos todos guardados de alguna fiesta de cumpleaños donde la cámara no deja de moverse. Les advierto: si fácilmente se marea con los movimientos, ¡aléjense de esta película!  

Realmente es una lástima porque cine latinoamericano como este es raro y no debería arriesgarse a dar pretextos para no verla.

Where the Wild Things Are
Alex Florez
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By

2009/10/15 at 12:00am

Reviews

Where the Wild Things Are

10.15.2009 | By |

Where the Wild Things Are

The night that ‘Max put on a wolf suit and started doing one shenanigan after another’ marked the moment in my childhood when I let my imagination run wild. I’m referring to the boy in that fantasy book written by Maurice Sendak, who later finds himself in a forest ‘Where The Wild Things Are.’
 
When I found out that the filmmaker Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) had the intention of adapting a classic of children’s literature to the big screen, I was easily excited. However, the great expectations that came along with the making of the film were enough to worry me. How loyal would the film be to the book? And most importantly, how would they stretch out a story of just a few pages so that it would work as a movie?
 
For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the book is about a boy named Max who gets sent to bed early for his bad behavior. But he ends up escaping to a forest where he is accompanied by a family of wild creatures. As is traditional in children’s books, ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ has a moral to its story, but I remember it mostly for it’s surrealist world. Something Jonze’s film also succeeds at, but regrettably as a movie ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ falls short.
 
Here’s the problem: the film doesn’t have enough plot to push the story forward. Since the book is short, Jonze has no choice but to come up with something to further develop the movie. However, the filmmaker doesn’t risk quite enough to make things interesting. Instead he opts to show us filler – like extended sequences of Max playing with his monsters. And that’s just not filmmaking. Although the costuming, the special effects and the wonderful soundtrack do an amazing job of bringing the book to life, the captivating moments are rare. Simply put, the book would have been better served as an exceptional short-film.
 
‘Where The Wild Things Are’ is one of the all time classic bedtime stories, but when it also puts you to sleep in the movie theater, that’s not a good sign.

 

Law Abiding Citizen
Jack Rico
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2009/10/14 at 12:00am

Reviews

Law Abiding Citizen

10.14.2009 | By |

Law Abiding Citizen
The Proposal
Jack Rico
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By

2009/10/13 at 12:00am

DVD ReviewsReviews

The Proposal

10.13.2009 | By |

Rating: 2.5

Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, nudity and language.
Release Date: 2009-06-19
Starring: Pete Chiarelli
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://touchstone.movies.go.com/theproposal/

 Go to our film page

The Proposal is a formulaic romantic comedy that offers nothing remotely fresh or new while following a very predictable outcome. For some people, that’s enough. Some will think its enough, but  the film is mediocre at best and hoping its anything else are just false expectations. 

 

Not much in the sense of a plotline – A pushy boss (Sandra Bullock) forces her young assistant (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to keep her Visa status in the U.S. and avoid deportation to Canada.

 

It should not be considered a spoiler to reveal that the two actually fall in love. After all, that’s the point of the movie, and the only reason any percentage of the population will see it. (Also, once you’ve watched the three-minute trailer, there is no point in seeing the 108-minute film – not only does the trailer tell the whole story, but it includes all the best comedic material.)

 

The problem, which I alluded to earlier, is that the romance falls flat. It has nothing to do with chemistry. Bullock and Reynolds don’t burn up the screen, but they’re nice enough together. The movie doesn’t give us enough to go on to believe that these two have fallen in love. Those who buy it will do so because the formula demands it, not because the movie has succeeded in closing the sale.

 

There are some funny moments, chief of which is the overhyped “nude” scene in which Margaret, fresh from the shower and wearing nothing (but with arms and hands strategically positioned so the rating can remain PG-13) collides with an equally in-the-buff Andrew. It’s more amusing than laugh-aloud funny, and it’s about as naughty as things can get without crossing the line into R territory. Most of The Proposal‘s jokes are like that in that they provoke smiles and chuckles but fail to generate any really good laughs.

 

The cast isn’t populated by heavyweights. It has been a while since Sandra Bullock has been in the fast lane, and it’s been about a decade since she was a prime romantic comedy actress. Ryan Reynolds, who showed flashes of genuine talent in Adventureland, is back to phoning it in. (Although, to be fair, his flummoxed expression when Andrew “learns” he’s engaged to Margaret – which carries through more than one scene – is possibly the film’s funniest element.) 

 

The Proposal will give you a bland taste of romance this weekend. We rather you cozy up to one of the classic Tom Hank romantic comedies on DVD this weekend than endure the regurgitated, cardboard taste of The Proposal.

Land of the Lost
Jack Rico
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2009/10/13 at 12:00am

DVD ReviewsReviews

Land of the Lost

10.13.2009 | By |

Rating: 2.0

Rated: PG-13 for crude and sexual content, and for language including a drug reference.
Release Date: 2009-06-05
Starring: Chris Henchy & Dennis McNicholas
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.landofthelost.net/

 Go to our film page

‘Land of the Lost’ only has two funny scenes worth enjoying. The rest is ancillary and periphery entertainment that distracts you long enough from zonking out. I must admit though, Will Ferrell and Danny McBride are funny guys and they can make boring look funny, as was the case here. Without them, this film could have been much worse. Simply put, the story just wasn’t very interesting. In order to compensate for the deficiencies in the script, special effects teams had to work over-time to force audiences to re-route their attention to it.

Based on the television series with the same name, Dr. Rick Marshall (Ferrell) is sucked into a space-time vortex alongside his research assistant (Anna Friel) and a redneck survivalist (McBride). In this alternate universe, the trio make friends with a primate named Chaka (Taccone), their only ally in a world full of dinosaurs and other fantastic creatures. Can they all make it back to our world alive, and if so: will Dr. Marshall go from zero to hero with his discoveries? These are the questions that are not worth sticking around for.

But I’m not going to go into bashing this film frame to frame. The bottom line is that Ferrell and McBride are great at what they do and they really are funny. They’re worth every penny, but not here. The reason is the story, an incongruous story and plotline at that.

The CGI was inconsistent, sometimes it was on, other times it didn’t fulfill expectations. Overall, this movie doesn’t fulfill my expectations nor will it yours.

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