The House of the Devil
02.2.2010 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: R for some bloody violence.
Release Date: 2009-10-30
Starring: Ti West
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: No disponible.
Go to our film page
02.2.2010 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: R for some bloody violence.
Release Date: 2009-10-30
Starring: Ti West
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: No disponible.
02.2.2010 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: PG for some sensuality, language, thematic elements and smoking.
Release Date: 2009-10-23
Starring: Ronald Bass, Anna Hamilton Phelan
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: NULL
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.
02.2.2010 | By Jack Rico |
When it comes to action movies ‘From Paris With Love’ delivers. It’s not the best action film since Wanted, but it did do a good job of extracting a few ‘ooooohs’ and ‘aaaaahs’ from me. I must confess that according to the trailer, the film looked worse to me than what it was. Perhaps this is why I think better of the film, because I was expecting pure detritus. What you need to know is that John Travolta – though he might look a tad silly, one gets over it quickly – is once again intense, amusing and entertaining. Johnathan Rhys Meyers looks like an amateur actor and disappoints tremendously all the while french director Pierre Morel (Taken) is the new John Woo! When people talk about action directors such as Guy Ritchie, Woo and Luc Besson, Morel has to now be a part of the conversation.
The storyline has some interesting twists and turns, enough to dial you in. While in Paris, a young employee (Johnathan Rhys Meyers) in the office of the US Ambassador hooks up with an American spy (John Travolta) looking to stop a terrorist attack in the City of Lights.
This is the type of film you go to when you had a stressful week at work or at home and feel like seeing someone splatter some person’s brain on the wall with a semiautomatic silencer. Definitely a stress reliever.
02.1.2010 | By Jack Rico |
With less than 24 hours away from the 2010 Oscar nomination announcements, most of us movie critics are thinking who the Oscar committee will pick as the Top 10 films this year. Will the comedy ‘The Hangover‘ make a surprise appearance this year? How about ‘Up‘ which I think is one of the best films of the year overall.
Here at ShowBizCafe.com, I got together with our staff and decided to predict the nominees in the top 10 categories. In the Foreign Film department, 9 finalists made it and two of them are Latin American, there is an Argentinean film and Peruvian film in the mix. I picked both because they’re that good, but looks like Haneke’s ‘The White Ribbon’ will take major honors.
Closer to the Oscar Awards in March, I’ll give you my take on the winners.
Without any more delays, check out my 2010 Oscar Nominees Predictions:
Best Picture
Precious
The Hurt Locker
Up in the Air
Inglorious Basterds
Avatar
Up
District 9
500 Days of Summer
A Single Man
An Education
Best Director
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Best Actress
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Maggie Gyllenhall, Crazy Heart
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Best Actor
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Best Supporting Actress
Mo’Nique, Precious
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Diane Kruger, Inglorious Basterds
Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Matt Damon, Invictus
Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker
Original Screenplay
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Pete Docter & Bob Peterson, Up
Scott Neustatder & Michael H. Weber, (500) Days of Summer
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Adapted Screenplay
Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach, Fantastic Mr. Fox
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Animated Feature
Up
Coraline
9
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Mary and Max
Foreign Language Film
The White Ribbon – Germany
A Prophet – France
El Secreto de Sus Ojos – Argentina
Winter in Wartime – The Netherlands
The Milk of Sorrow – Peru
01.30.2010 | By Jack Rico |
‘When in Rome’ is everything that is bad with movies nowadays. A romantic comedy with a recycled and absurd premise, vacuous humor, and a script as predictable as the weather in LA. These are the types of movies that you should never pay to see for many reasons including a lack of soul, depth or real substance to any of these characters. Everything ssems to be a fantasy passed off as reality and the producers must think we are the fools that will buy it.
Here’s the storyline. Beth (Bell) is a young, ambitious New Yorker who is completely unlucky in love. However, when she impulsively steals some coins from a reputed fountain of love during a whirlwind trip to Rome, she finds herself aggressively pursued by a band of suitors with one of them becoming her one true love.
The protagonists seem to be better than what the script constrained them to. Kristen Bell showed promise in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Josh Duhamel (who looks like Joey Lawrence’s long lost twin brother) could be either an action leading man in his future or continue to do rom-com’s. The acting wasn’t the big problem, the screenwriters, David Diamond, David Weissman and the director Mark Steven Johnson are fully responsible for this ignominious failure.
The standard for today’s romantic comedy was set with Rob Reiner’s ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and some would argue Woody Allen’s ‘Annie Hall’. But ‘When in Rome’ looks like a disaster from the onset and should not be worth your time or money at the movies. Perhaps a DVD pick? Not even. It is one of the worst movies of the year.
01.29.2010 | By Karen Posada |
‘Edge of Darkness‘ was directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) who also directed the English mini-series from the 80’s with the same title on which the movie is based on. Not being familiar with the mini-series I thought the previews had given too much away and I could guess the outcome of it. I was wrong. There are many surprising moments and twists that have you guessing and wanting to know more. The story unfolds nicely and though at times it is hard to understand Gibson’s mumbles as well Winstone’s english accent, I enjoyed the thrilling ride.
This is the story of a Boston police investigator in the quest to find out who brutally shot his daughter and the reason why. Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) is a widowed parent who has a estranged relationship with his only daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic), he seems to love her deeply but know very little about her life. Once she’ shot he’s got nothing to loose and decides to put justice in his own hands. On his road to finding his daughter’s killer he opens up a can of worms and finds himself in the middle of a big corporation/governmental plot. In this quest he ends up getting to know his daughter more than he did when she was alive and finds that her principals were just what he taught her. A professional killer (Ray Winstone) sent to kill Craven proves to be his only ‘friend’ through his dilemma, a character that complements him well. Craven states the premise of the movie perfectly ” you had better decide whether you are hanging on the cross or banging in the nails”, this is exactly what the film makes us think of as we are introduced to new settings and characters.
The one thing that bothered me about the film were the moments where Craven hallucinates hearing and seeing his daughter as a child and an adult, there was no need to play the crazy card; his irreparable pain was enough and his misplaced anger worked to show it. Craven acting as a superhero for the later part of the film would have bother me except that knowing he’s a father that finds himself on ‘the edge of darkness’ and his only purpose is to revenge his daughter’s death lets me accept his ‘superpowers’.
Gibson’s words from our interview resonated as the movie continued, I got the connection he made to Jacobean tragedies and this film and you will too. It is a film that does make you think about how much power the government and how little we may be able to do about it. For those that know the series they might not find it as appealing as they already expect the shocking moments but it may appeal to them to see it under a new light. At some points the thought provoking plot does get in the way of the action but the moments of surprise make it worth it.
01.28.2010 | By Karen Posada |
‘Edge of Darkness‘ was directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) who also directed the English mini-series from the 80’s with the same title on which the movie is based on. Not being familiar with the mini-series I thought the previews had given too much away and I could guess the outcome of it. I was wrong. There are many surprising moments and twists that have you guessing and wanting to know more. The story unfolds nicely and though at times it is hard to understand Gibson’s mumbles as well Winstone’s english accent, I enjoyed the thrilling ride.
This is the story of a Boston police investigator in the quest to find out who brutally shot his daughter and the reason why. Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) is a widowed parent who has a estranged relationship with his only daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic), he seems to love her deeply but know very little about her life. Once she’ shot he’s got nothing to loose and decides to put justice in his own hands. On his road to finding his daughter’s killer he opens up a can of worms and finds himself in the middle of a big corporation/governmental plot. In this quest he ends up getting to know his daughter more than he did when she was alive and finds that her principals were just what he taught her. A professional killer (Ray Winstone) sent to kill Craven proves to be his only ‘friend’ through his dilemma, a character that complements him well. Craven states the premise of the movie perfectly ” you had better decide whether you are hanging on the cross or banging in the nails”, this is exactly what the film makes us think of as we are introduced to new settings and characters.
The one thing that bothered me about the film were the moments where Craven hallucinates hearing and seeing his daughter as a child and an adult, there was no need to play the crazy card; his irreparable pain was enough and his misplaced anger worked to show it. Craven acting as a superhero for the later part of the film would have bother me except that knowing he’s a father that finds himself on ‘the edge of darkness’ and his only purpose is to revenge his daughter’s death lets me accept his ‘superpowers’.
Gibson’s words from our interview resonated as the movie continued, I got the connection he made to Jacobean tragedies and this film and you will too. It is a film that does make you think about how much power the government and how little we may be able to do about it. For those that know the series they might not find it as appealing as they already expect the shocking moments but it may appeal to them to see it under a new light. At some points the thought provoking plot does get in the way of the action but the moments of surprise make it worth it.
01.28.2010 | By Jack Rico |
We just got a hold of the first TV spot of The Crazies before it has even hit the TV networks! It shows some never before scenes directed by George A. Romero.
The Crazies is a remake from the 1973 original that George Romero directed about the inhabitants of a small Iowa town suddenly plagued by insanity and then death after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply. One man, his wife, a nurse, and the sheriff try to survive this plague, but when the military are killing everyone on sight, they’re going to have to fight their way out, or die by either the plague or the military.
The film is released Feb 26th! Check it out now!
01.27.2010 | By Namreta Kumar |
There are some films that you love instantly, and others that you hate; this film does not fit either category. Saint John of Las Vegas is distinctly unmemorable.
John, played by Steve Buscemi, is a “recovering” gambling addict, whose journey starts and ends in Las Vegas. The film follows John from his unexciting job in insurance, back to Vegas. Along the way we meet the typical boss, Mr. Townsend, and some particularly peculiar characters that drive along the fraud investigation of a car “accident.”
I really cannot find anything to say about this film, neither good nor bad; and unfortunately that in itself is bad. Everything about the film is mediocre. Steve Buscemi does a convincing enough job playing John, however it is nothing we haven’t seen before. The story is too reminiscent of every other film of its genre and the characters albeit quirky aren’t altogether new either.
The hundreds gambled at a gas station that form the crux, and narrate the larger story, are perhaps the best moments of the film. Luckily they are spread out intermittently to form a strong writing arc and keep the story moving. Unfortunately though it makes the feature film feel like an addition to a better short.
This character based film lacks character. First time writer/director Hue Rhodes’ attempt at creating another independent comedy of manners is grossly unoriginal. Saint John of Las Vegas is a film that can be missed for better films of the same genre.
01.26.2010 | By Jack Rico |
Rated: PG
Release Date: 2009-10-28
Starring: Kenny Ortega
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/michaeljacksonthisisit/
