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Taking Woodstock
Alex Florez
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2009/08/27 at 12:00am

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Taking Woodstock

08.27.2009 | By |

Rated: R for graphic nudity, some sexual content, drug use and language.
Release Date: 2009-08-28
Starring: James Schamus
Director(s):
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Country: USA
Official Website: http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/taking_woodstock

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Taking Woodstock

I’ve always felt that Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee can do anything.  A director as versatile as they come, Lee refuses to be pigeonholed to any one genre and be restricted by the technological challenges of a film.

Think about this: Lee has gone from the experimentation and liberalism that defined the 1970s (Ice Storm, 1997), to the adventures of a young woman in feudal China (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000), to the biggest and baddest hero of the Marvel universe (Hulk, 2003) to an Oscar award winning cowboy drama (Brokeback Mountain, 2005).  How’s that for range?

But fearlessly stepping out of your comfort zone has its risks. Lee has made his share of forgettable movies and with ‘Taking Woodstock’ he maybe adding to that list.

Based on the memoirs of Elliot Tiber, the comedy stars Demetri Martin as Elliot, who inadvertently played a role in making 1969’s Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was.  When his parents are in danger of losing their dumpy motel in the Catskills, Elliot offers it up to the festival promoters to generate some much needed business. 

In the end however, the film is about the peculiar relationship with his overbearing parents.  The rock n’ roll, the drugs, the mud slides, and everything else we’ve come to know about Woodstock plays second fiddle and is ultimately nothing more than a backdrop, a setting for what is otherwise a family drama with very little at stake. 

Regrettably, something about the performances doesn’t seem as sincere as some of the others we’ve seen in other movies set in that time period.  But I won’t pin all the blame squarely on the actors.  Mr. Lee stumbles but doesn’t fall.

The September Issue
Jack Rico
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2009/08/26 at 12:00am

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The September Issue

08.26.2009 | By |

Rated: PG-13 for brief strong language.
Release Date: 2009-08-28
Starring: Documentary
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country: USA
Official Website: http://www.theseptemberissue.com/

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The September Issue

Le tenemos la reseña de la película ‘Earth’ y le diremos si merece invertir su dinero en verla.

Inglorious Basterds, reseñas de Inglorious Basterds, resena de peliculas, criticas de Inglorious Basterds

Check out our movie review of Max Payne and we’ll let you know if it’s worth going to or not.

Max Payne, film review, movie review

Rudo y Cursi
Jack Rico
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2009/08/25 at 12:00am

DVD ReviewsReviews

Rudo y Cursi

08.25.2009 | By |

Rating: 2.5

Rated: R for pervasive language, sexual content and brief drug use.
Release Date: 2009-05-08
Starring: Carlos Cuarón
Director(s):
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Film Genre:
Country:Mexico
Official Website: http://www.rudoycursilapelicula.com/

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“Rudo y Cursi” is a lively and engaging comedy that highlights some drama in its storyline. Regrettably, in the end, feels a little thin, largely because it is unsure of how earnestly to treat its own lessons about fate, ambition and brotherly love. There is a lot of velocity in this ultimately familiar tale of rising and falling, but not much gravity. “Rudo y Cursi” is partly about the consequences of taking a game much too seriously, but at the same time it treats everything else — life, death, love, money — like a game.

 

Beto (Diego Luna) and Tato Verdusco (Gael Garcia Bernal) are half brothers who work together at a banana plantation and live with their extended family in a village in southern Mexico. When the two of them are suddenly (and somewhat improbably) plucked from rural proletarian obscurity and turned into professional soccer players in Mexico City, they achieve fame as Rudo and Cursi, nicknames that can be translated more or less as tough and corny.

 

But Mr. Cuarón also has trouble managing the tone of the film as it swerves from light-hearted absurdity toward a darker, more cynical view of its characters and their fate. Too often he allows “Rudo y Cursi” to coast on the likeability of its stars, who seem at times to be enjoying themselves more than their characters are able to.

Duplicity
Alex Florez
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2009/08/24 at 12:00am

DVD ReviewsReviews

Duplicity

08.24.2009 | By |

Rating: 3.0

Rated: PG-13 for language and some sexual content.
Release Date: 2009-03-20
Starring: Tony Gilroy
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.duplicitymovie.net/

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At its core, Duplicity is a romantic caper about two spies that have left the world of government intelligence for a scheme to cash in on a highly profitable cold war raging between two big rival corporations.  The problem is, half the movie goes by before we can figure that out.

Duplicity feels a lot like one of the Ocean’s Eleven movies with the romantic dynamic of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but its plot is wound up tighter than it really needs to be. Director Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, The Bourne Identity) seems to be overly concerned with keeping his audience guessing, virtually adding a plot twist wherever he can in the film.  Yes, for most of it we don’t quite know who’s good, who’s bad or who’s double crossing who, but at some points we’re also utterly confused. To make matters worse, this is one of those movies where the timeline isn’t linear and the events are completely shuffled around.

But let’s face it, at the root of this whole thing is a love story in which all those other details don’t really matter much.  For all of the intricacies Gilroy writes into the film, all we really care about is the fate of the two spies – as lovers.  Fortunately for us, both Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are total pros at being charmingly ‘duplicitous’, and thanks to them, the film is solidly entertaining.  Let’s remember how creepily untrustworthy they both were in Mike Nichols’ Closer. 

Of course, this isn’t The Bourne Identity nor is it Michael Clayton, and as far as romantic capers go, the endings are never as deceitful. Wink wink.

Inglorious Basterds
Jack Rico
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2009/08/21 at 12:00am

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Inglorious Basterds

08.21.2009 | By |

Rated: R for strong graphic violence, language and brief sexuality.
Release Date: 2009-08-21
Starring: Quentin Tarantino
Director(s):
Distributor:
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Country: Germany, USA
Official Website: http://weinsteinco.com/#/film/inglourious/

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Inglorious Basterds

‘Inglorious Basterds’ is a collection of brilliantly crafted scenes that are routinely interrupted by Quentin Tarantino‘s ego. Worried that we might forget who is directing, he reminds us that this isn’t any old World War II movie. The film could have been one of the great works of movie cinema this decade if it wasn’t for his compulsion for attention rather than concentrating in the craft at hand and the audience viewing it.

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” (Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Til Schweiger) are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl (Mélanie Laurent) who now runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

Don’t expect to see Kill Bill. This is the new evolution of Tarantino, a director who is absolutely grown in every way, except as a storyteller. The film is putatively about Nazi killers in the Second World War, but it is really about the love of cinema, Tarantino’s love of cinema. ‘Can it be?’, you might ask. That’s what I said when the movie ended. The constant reiteration of dialogue in homage to the French and German classics is unavoidable, and regrettably, it fractures the pace of the film in order to illustrate it. So as the audience, we get taken for a switch and bait. The crazy thing is that it is a delightful switch and bait. Expect to see a beautiful and meticulous visual cinematic experience with one Oscar award winning performance from Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa and perhaps Ms. Laurent’s.

The opening scene is riveting and one of the more memorable sequences Tarantino has ever put on celluloid, rivaling that of Pulp Fiction. It’s elegant and sophisticated, tense and engrossing, but at times, the film slips and doesn’t find its way such as some of its miscasting efforts and its bathetic ending. We are witnesses to a movie and a director trying to find themselves as it unfolds. Not very admirable, but interesting nonetheless.

What you’ll like about ‘Inglorious Basterds’ is its story concept, artistic cinematography, Tarantino’s directorial tone and mood and Waltz’s mesmerizing and petrifying performance. What you won’t like is that you paid to see a movie that isn’t about Brad Pitt killing scores of Nazis, but more about the romanticism of world film and Tarantino’s place in it. Go figure.

Post Grad
Alex Florez
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2009/08/20 at 12:00am

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Post Grad

08.20.2009 | By |

Rated: PG-13 for sexual situations and brief strong language.
Release Date: 2009-08-21
Starring: Kelly Fremon
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Country: USA
Official Website: Not available.

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Post Grad
Art & Copy
Alex Florez
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2009/08/20 at 12:00am

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Art & Copy

08.20.2009 | By |

Rated: Not available.
Release Date: 2009-08-21
Starring: Gregory Beauchamp, Kirk Souder
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Film Genre:
Country: USA
Official Website: http://www.artandcopyfilm.com/

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Art & Copy

Walking out of the theater I couldn’t help but think to myself “I can’t wait to sell this movie to our readers!”

More than just a history lesson on 20th century advertising, Art & Copy is the story of some of the most influential creatives of our time. Ones that have profoundly impacted our society and shaped our everyday lifestyle. That is, if we are to define ‘lifestyle’ as the site where consumer culture and individual identity intersect.

In his latest effort, Director Doug Pray (SURFWISE, SCRATCH, HYPE!) introduces us to the artists and writers that exploded onto the scene during advertising’s heyday or the “creative revolution” of the 1960s.  And chances are that you, over the last few decades, whether you like it or not, have fallen victim to the people featured in this film: George Lois, Mary Wells, Dan Wieden, Lee Clow and Hal Riney.  We may not recognize their names but we’ve certainly heard from them: “Where’s the Beef?”, “Got Milk?”, “Just Do It”, “Think Different” are just a few of the slogans that have swayed us throughout the years.

Most might ‘sell’ Art & Copy as the ‘behind the music’ of advertising or as an addendum to the ever so popular AMC series ‘Madmen’.  And while it is true that fans of the show will most certainly get a kick out of meeting the real life versions of their Madison Avenue heroes, Art & Copy is ultimately an inspiring documentary that explores the power of creativity, not just to sell a car to a customer or a president to a nation, but to problem solve.  As George Lois puts it: “The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.”

Casi Divas
Karen Posada
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2009/08/19 at 12:00am

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Casi Divas

08.19.2009 | By |

Rated: PG-13 for mature sexual content, language and thematic material.
Release Date: 2009-08-21
Starring: Issa López
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Film Genre:
Country: USA
Official Website: http://www.casidivas.com/

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Casi Divas

I have to admit that neither the title nor the trailer would have made me go see Casi Divas; I came out of the movie theater surprised at how fun and interesting it was.
 
The film was a hit in Mexico which is what helped launch it in the U.S. The plot of the movie is to find the main movie star for a soap opera turned movie. It sounds a little ridiculous but among the mockery of soap operas and other themes that make up the plot we stumble along some interesting themes such as: the racism of the indigenous people in Mexico, the way women factory workers at the border are abused by the coyotes, and a common theme among teenagers who try to follow Hollywood’s hype by doing extreme diets. The cast is made up by five women Patricia Llaca, Ana Layevska, Diana Garcia, Daniela Schmidt and Maya Zapata one stud Julio Bracho; each one of them offers a different view point and element to the story.

 

The movie sticks to its roots by the way the characters speak and by having its setting in Mexico City in places where the locals live. The movie is in Spanish but the subtitles make it true to the American viewer, they even change some cultural references so we can connect better to what the characters say when they refer to their cultural icons.
 
The movie is well rounded, its audience (teenagers, adults) will not be disappointed thanks to the different cultural themes that it touches upon along with the mockery and slapstick comedy; it has something to offer everyone, it is a movie that will surprise many.

Tyson
Jack Rico
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2009/08/18 at 12:00am

DVD ReviewsReviews

Tyson

08.18.2009 | By |

Rating: 4.0

Rated: R for language including sexual references.
Release Date: 2009-04-24
Starring: James Toback
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.sonyclassics.com/tyson/

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‘Tyson’ is an insightful biopic on arguably the greatest heavyweight boxer who ever lived. If you were a witness to his tumultuous personal and professional boxing career, this documentary clears up all, if not many of the rumors and debauchery he became notorious for: the biting of Evander Holyfield’s ear, the rape charges and the Don King attack to mention a few.

Indie director James Toback directs this portrait of ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson where he manages to extract, without inhibition, information about his womanizing, alcohol and drug addiction, bouts of mental instability, and criminal activity in great detail. Through a mixture of original interviews and archival footage and photographs, the film ranges from Tyson’s earliest memories of growing up on the mean streets of Brooklyn through his entry into the world of boxing, to his rollercoaster ride of worldwide fame and fortunes won and lost.

You might be surprised with the Tyson who narrates this movie. He is different from the monster built up and torn down by the media during the ’80s and ’90s. Age often brings perspective, and that would seem to be the case here. His explanations and views of the mischievous events of his dark days might not satisfy you, but what you have to appreciate is the sincerity and surrendering that Toback manages to withdraw from a man known to have a volatile and fractured mind. In terms of visual stylistics, there is a film quality that Toback directs with in contrast to the sensationalistic and over-dramatized VH-1 show ‘Behind the Music’ or Barbara Walters’ special interviews where the questions are crafted to draw tears from the interviewees. Here it is just you and him.

There are some scenes with heavy language so I wouldn’t suggest bringing children to see it. If in fact ‘Tyson’ is a spin free of publicist intervention documentary, it is a remarkable look inside the mind of a ‘killing machine’ who became a docile beast ready to welcome peace within himself. If you are a fan, you’ll enjoy it and if you’re not, it’s one informative retrospective at a living boxing legend.

Hannah Montana: The Movie
Jack Rico
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By

2009/08/18 at 12:00am

DVD ReviewsReviews

Hannah Montana: The Movie

08.18.2009 | By |

Rating: 2.0

Rated: G
Release Date: 2009-04-10
Starring: Daniel Berendsen
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/hannahmontanamovie/

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‘Hannah Montana: The Movie’ is Miley Cyrus’ second big screen film. She’s a little bit older, wiser and experienced, yet, she has not reached her prime and thus, we are witnesses to someone experimenting in film and making mistakes with an innocuous sensibility. Unfortunately, for us adults, who are aware of the mundane, we cannot ignore the mediocre acting and tween-filled soundtrack. Undoubtedly, Hannah Montana: The Movie will appeal to Cyrus’ core audience, but the chances of this sanitized, prepackaged effort crossing over to anyone else is zero.  

Miley Stewart (Miley Cyrus) struggles to juggle school, friends and her secret pop-star persona; when Hannah Montana’s soaring popularity threatens to take over her life – she just might let it. So her father (Billy Ray Cyrus) takes the teen home to Crowley Corners, Tenn., for a dose of reality, kicking off an adventure she would want her audience you to enjoy.

The storyline is pretty elemental. It’s written for 7-to-11 year old girls and knows its target group. Likewise, the acting is unimpressive but what the performers lack in skill they make up for in energy and charisma. Miley Cyrus is extremely likeable, although she shows little in the way of discernible range. Unlike other teenage actresses like Dakota Fanning and AnnaSophia Robb, she lacks depth. The weakness of Cyrus’ voice is amply displayed; one might have incorrectly assumed the filmmakers would employ some kind of electronic enhancement to strengthen the vocals. Her potential is not in films and neither in music (I had the chance to see her in 2008 in a multiple artist concert, musically she hasn’t shown much). She might not make it past the teenage years with a prosperous career. I hope I’m wrong.

Hannah Montana: The Movie, sets out what it was meant to do – make a big screen project for tweens and their friends. Unless you or your youngsters are BIG fans, this is better left for video watching at home… on a Sunday… when perhaps no one is around. Don’t worry, it’ll be our little secret.

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