Movie review: Nothing prime about 'Number 23'

Movie review: Nothing prime about 'Number 23' (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)

Jim Carrey unwisely ignores his comic talents in favor of a pile of pretentious pseudo-scary garbage.

By Colin Covert, Star Tribune

Here's a primer on the bad things that can happen if a rubber-faced comic decides that his next project will be dark, dangerous and dramatic. A loud, discordant mess of a movie, Jim Carrey's "The Number 23" is based on the premise that the second and third integers are really spooky. You see, many unpleasant things have happened on the 23rd days of various months. Including the release of this film, which is the 23rd project that hack extraordinaire Joel Schumacher has directed. Case closed. Point proven.

The story, about a dogcatcher consumed by pulp-novel fantasies in which he's a hard-boiled, sax-playing detective, suggests the kind of material Carrey might use for a satire. Instead, it's played straight, with a faltering style, overwrought camera work and an uneven, confused tone. If you are sucked into the theater because you admire Carrey's comedy skills, you'll want to bash your head against the wall in sheer misery.

Consumed by a tattered book that seems to echo his own life in the form of a detective story, Carrey becomes fixated on his fictional alter-ego and the mysterious significance of the ubiquitous number 23. Much of the movie takes place in the dogcatcher's unruly head. In woozy fantasy sequences combining the worst of soft porn and film noir, dream-Carrey sports greasy hair, a wife beater tank shirt and skinny arms covered with thorn tattoos.

He's a twerp's fantasy of a tough stud. The sight of him all butched up and sweaty is presented as an intensely powerful aphrodisiac, and he feverishly mauls hussies on rumpled sheets or against the walls of trash-strewn apartments. It's so cheesy that it's almost transcendent. If the film were not impervious to sanity, his partners would demand that he take a long, hot shower first.

The fantasy world bleeds into everyday reality as Carrey discovers links to a long-ago murder and tracks the killer, and the finale unveils a ludicrous howler of a twist ending. The film probably was doomed the day the leading role was cast. You've got to be nimble to pull off this kind of dual-identity tightrope act, but Carrey slips off the wire.

Schumacher's work shows the plight of a director at the low ebb of inventiveness and budget. Virginia Madsen plays her second long-suffering wife role of the week; Danny Huston appears quite pleased with himself as her suave, shady friend.

Movie Review: Magic and Loss - The Prestige

Movie Review: Magic and Loss - The Prestige

Written by Kendra
Published February 22, 2007

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.


"There's a bit of magic in everything and then some loss to even things out." - Lou Reed

Every act of magic consists of three parts: the Pledge, the Turn, and The Prestige. The magician takes the ordinary something, a deck of cards, a bird, or a man, and makes it do something extraordinary. The audience in the theatre needs to see it's indeed real, normal... but it probably isn't. This is the way the pivotal character Harry Cutter (Michael Caine), the engineer who invents complicated tricks to supply the illusionists, opens this "tricky" story about magic, sacrifice, and disappointment, based on a novel of the same name by Christopher Priest and adapted into a screenplay by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan. The knot of the plot is about two 19th century magicians whose rivalry turns deadly when a magician performs an ultimate magic trick.

An American magician named Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) is married to Julia (Piper Perabo) whose accidental death inside a water tank during a magic session turns him angry at world, specially towards his professional rival, low-class British Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), whom he considers guilty of practicing a Langford knot on Julia which she couldn't slip off underwater.

Director Christopher Nolan is occasionally ambiguous at a moral level about the conflict between self-respect and respect for others, as in his masterpiece Memento (2000). Many viewers of the film complained about the numerous loose ends the story and its twists left, but my advice would be to try to watch closely and re-tie the knot. On the surface it's another of Nolan's defiant puzzles to watch and ponder about, but I made a trip - not literal - to the obsession which haunts the detached Angier, and I finished this pretense accepting something that makes much more sense to me.

Initially I was surprised about the secondary relevance of the female characters: Sarah Borden (British actress Rebecca Hall), Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson) and the aforementioned Mrs. Angier (Piper Perabo) seemed puppets in the deceivers'/magicians' hands, but we must keep in mind the story is set in the Victorian era in Colorado Springs. Still, it was a crude contrast to the male/female power games thrown by Nolan. The women at some points in the film were mere "assistant-dolls" who would passively exhibit themselves and play a supporting role to the "brains", especially Olivia, a flighty butterfly with party-girl manners, comfortable in her roles of mistress and sexual magnet on stage. The innocent Julia's blind trust in the autodidact Alfred's rope strategies resulted in her death, and the goodness of Alfred's wife, Sarah, is destroyed by the malevolence of his genius.

The sci-fi part — when Angier (now auto-nicknamed "The Great Danton" in honour of his deceased wife) meets the eccentric electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla (David Bowie) and his assistant Alley (Andy Serkis) — was handled in a romantic "H.G. Wells" style, showing us a gloomy forest filled up with duplicated black cats and top-hats, enticing us into a deliberately confusing plot-trap. As Tesla says: "The extraordinary is not permitted in science and industry", and so the magic field should be virgin territory for the purely unknown, and "The world only tolerates a change at a time." But, even surrounded by wise scientific men, Robert Angier has replaced his life for his obsession. And after finding a double for his sessions in Gerald Root, an out-of-work actor, he wants to learn the definitive trick to make him stand out and win over Alfred Borden. Although he knows he will have to risk everything for it, even his dignity, he discovers that's "why every magic trick has a third act. The hardest part. The Prestige."

Meanwhile, lustily intelligent Borden, as he once confessed drunkenly to his tormented wife, "Secrets are my life, Sarah. Our life", has chosen a similar fate to Angier's, living a "double" secret life, which the director simplifies by revealing us he has a twin brother disguised as his grey silent assistant Bernard Fallon, who he swaps places with in the cabinet.

But the ambiguity of Nolan's revelation is as sharp as his magician's minds; pay attention to the painful exchange of dialogue between Alfred and Sarah, when she believed he suffers a split-personality disorder because of his profession and was convinced some days he loved her and other days he didn't, and also exposed in the familiar retelling from Borden's diary stolen by Olivia for her lover, the notebook Angier tries to decipher ("I want the method, not the keyword. I don't even know if the secret is in your notebook").

Both magic stalwarts were two sides of a coin, but Bale's character got ahead ("This is what a good trick costs. Risk. Sacrifice.") and in the end, he wants to prove to us he hasn't been fooled by Angier's platonic ideation of magic: "The audience knows the truth, that the world is simple. Miserable. But you could make them wonder." And my take on the final shot of "The Great Danton" clone ("No one cares about the man inside the box, only about the man who comes outside") is that he is a projection of Borden's fear that maybe his trick wasn't the best after all.

A key quote from The Prestige: "You want to be fooled because you're looking for the secret but you won't find it because you don't really want to know". And the key questions of mine would be: Is worth life living without magic? And Is magic worth it without dignity?

Movie Review: Pan's Labyrinth

Movie Review: Pan's Labyrinth

Written by Ernesto Burden
Published February 22, 2007

Guillermo Del Toro is one of the best storytellers working in movies right now in terms of capturing deep truths within myth and symbol through jarring, beautiful images. Pan's Labyrinth is beautiful and captivating. The movie is in Spanish, directed by Del Toro, who did The Devil's Backbone (another great Spanish language film – one of my favorite ghost stories ever) as well as some high-budget English language movies like Hellboy and Blade II.

The story is set in northern Spain in 1944, just after the Civil War. A mother and her daughter, Ofelia, come to an old mill in the country to be with the mother's new husband, the sadistic Captain Vidal, whose soldiers are tasked with hunting down the last of the resistance fighters hiding in the hills. Ofelia is enamored of fairy stories, and encounters a real fairy, who leads her through an ancient labyrinth in the woods by the mill, where she meets a faun who tells her she's the long lost daughter of the king of the underworld and sends her on three quests.

The story follows two intertwined plot lines – Ofelia's magical quests and the brutal efforts of Captain Vidal. The mixture reads very much in tone like Latin American literary magical realism – if the works of Gabriel García Márquez or Jorge Luis Borges or Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate) make sense to you, this one will too. For me, this has always come down to whether a reader or viewer cares whether the story formalizes whether (and which) metaphors and symbols in the story are "real" or not. Without this formalization, some find the story line incoherent – a sentiment that seems sort of Manichean to me… why insist on absolute separation of matter and spirit (metaphorically or literally speaking)? In a story, especially this sort of story, I tend to care more about whether the plot elements are "really true" than whether the author spells out in some technical manner if they "really happened."

The parallel story lines contrast the brutality of human evil and the sometimes impersonal evil of nature, along with a metaphysical hope that underlies the structure of all things. It was this hope that made an extremely dark movie different from the rash of nihilistic horror films being made right now – in the end there's hope and redemption.

Del Toro is also an amazing image maker – the pictures he paints with every scene in the movie are beautiful – even the dark, scary ones. This is a movie you could watch with the volume off and still be entirely engrossed.

The pacing is perfect. Ivana Baquero is captivating as Ofelia and Sergi Lopez is dark, bestial, and somehow deeply compelling as Captain Vidal. Absolutely see it.

Movie Review: Last King of Scotland

Movie Review: Last King of Scotland

Directed by Kevin Macdonald

Written by Jeremy Brock, Giles Foden, Peter Morgan

Starring
· Forest Whitaker
· James McAvoy
· Kerry Washington
· Gillian Anderson
· Simon McBurney

Review by Sean Kernan

Forrest Whitaker has long been one of our most respected actors. And yet, the big prize, that signature role has always eluded him. That gives a little extra juice to his role in Last King Of Scotland. Hollywood has wanted to find a way to honor Whitaker and now they have a good reason for it. As the evil Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, Whitaker is a powerful presence who dominates the screen even when offscreen.

The Last King of Scotland overall is a flawed, somewhat messy movie that without Whitaker's mesmerizing performance would have never made it to the screen.

In 1970 Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) graduated medical school and seemed destined to join his father's family practice in Glasgow Scotland. Seeing his life laid out before him, Nicholas decided to shake things up. Taking on a missionary role in Uganda Africa, Nicholas thought he would spend a year treating the locals, building his kharma and then head home. He wound up staying for nine eventful years.

Nicholas's arrival in Uganda coincided with a coup that brought the country a new leader. His name was Idi Amin (Forrest Whitaker) and his man of the people schtick worked because of his huge personality and the tacit backing of the British government who had trained him for leadership for years. Nicholas and Amin met by chance when the dictator was injured in a minor car accident. The two bonded over Scotland where Nicholas was born and where Amin was trained as a younger man.

Amin, liking Nicholas's heritage and brash spirit invites him to come to the capital where he is to become the dictator's personal physician. At first he resists, but after being promised the opportunity to shape Uganda's health care industry and advise his friend on all matters, health as well as political and social issues, the offer of power is too much for Nicholas to turn down.

His decision is a fateful deal with the devil as Amin's wild mood swings have Nicholas watching people killed and worrying for his own life.

The Last King of Scotland was the inventive idea of fiction writer Giles Foden who got the idea to chronicle the life and crimes of Idi Amin through a fictional character, Nicholas Garrigan. Nicholas is a composite of several different men who held favor with the real life dictator throughout his 9 year reign. It works as a shorthand way of trying to tell the story of Idi Amin. However, as a dramatic device in this movie it's distracting.

To often the fictional character of Nicholas Garrigan pushes the real life Idi Amin off stage. We watch often as Nicholas enjoys his new position of power, comes to abuse it, sleeps with one of Amin's life and then comes to fear for his own safety. The scenes are strong enough but because Forrest Whitaker's Idi Amin is so powerful we are left wishing we could be where he is rather than watching the fictional drama of Nicholas.

It's not that James McAvoy's performance isn't strong enough to carry the story but he's not nearly as interesting as Whitaker. McAvoy's Nicholas Garrigan is wishy washy and more than a little naive. These are vividly played characteristics but they aren't as interesting as the real life paranoid behavior of the twisted dictator.

Director Kevin MacDonald directed the exceptional documentary Touching The Void, one of the ten best films of 2003. That film combined documentary style interviews with dramatic recreations of the events that took place. Macdonald's documentary style approach is often well used in Last King of Scotland, however there are a few to many instances when McDonald's documentary look is at odds with his melodramatic storytelling.

Forrest Whitaker nails the role of bloodthirsty paranoid dictator. Unfortunately, the film to often lurches away from his performance for more time with Nicolas Garrigan and we are left wondering what Idi Amin is doing. Granted, a movie that focused more directly on the evil dictator would likely be oppressive and dark given Amin's well chronicled crimes, however it would be more interesting than much of what made up the final cut of The Last King Of Scotland.

The problems with The Last King Of Scotland stem from the Nicolas Garrigan character and not from anything done by Forrest Whitaker in the film. The Garrigan character is weak and far less interesting than Idi Amin. Moreover, Garrigan never develops much beyond being a plot device. He is a manufactured character in place so this story could be told. That might be okay if the character were more interesting but as written Garrigan is lightweight and forgettable where Amin is at once horrifying and fascinating.

Forrest Whitaker nails every aspect of this role. His Idi Amin is monstrous yet charismatic. He is a horror film character made real. This is a remarkable, transformative performance and yet not surprising. People have been waiting for Forrest Whitaker to find this kind of role and make it his signature and he finallly has. That his performance is far better than the film in which it exists is all that holds it back from being the best performance of any actor in the last year.

See The Last King of Scotland for Forrest Whitaker.

Movie Review : Wild Hogs

Movie Review : 'Wild Hogs' is a welcomed mid-life crisis

by Richard Romero
published on Thursday, February 22, 2007

Wild Hogs is the latest work of art from Touchstone Pictures starring silver screen favorites John Travolta, Tim Allen, William H. Macy and Martin Lawrence.

The "fantastic four" take on the roles of Doug, Bobby, Woody, and Dudley. Doug (Allen) is a dentist who is constantly ignored by his son who finds him boring; Bobby is a dreamer who is bossed around by his demanding wife, Woody is a bankrupt divorcee in denial; and Dudley is a computer programmer who just wants to meet a girl. While each man deals with their individual issues, they share a common passion for motorcycles and riding around their town as the "Wild Hogs". Early in the film, the four friends realize they have transformed into the "old, boring" people that they had always feared of becoming. After the pain has had a moment to sink in, Woody proposes a road trip to the coast to revitalize their lives. All four friends welcome the adventure and in no time are on motorcycles touring the open road.

Of course this movie cycles through the typical tribulations of the "road trip comedy" from encounters with strange cops to wandering aimlessly in the desert in desperate need of gasoline. But the film takes a different turn when the Wild Hogs meet and anger a real motorcycle gang called the Del Fuegos. The Del Fuegos are lead by the ruthless Jack (Ray Liotta) who would like nothing more than to put an end to the Wild Hogs' road trip (and possibly their lives).

The movie Wild Hogs is a comedic breath of fresh air and should hold up well at the box offices considering its main competition around the release date will be Ghost Rider, and The Number 23. With neighboring films like these, Wild Hogs should stand in a league of its own and be given many moments to shine.

While the story of a road trip is not entirely original, the movie itself is awesome considering the comedic dream cast that dominates every scene of the film. While Allen, Travolta and Lawrence play the believable roles of the "witty family man", William H. Macy steals the show with his character Dudley, who is a huge nerd that seems to know every odd fact in the world and wonders why no woman will give him more than five minutes of her time. He perfectly plays his role with every awkward line that leaves his mouth.

As if the four leads were not enough to have movie-lovers flocking to the nearest theater, the supporting cast is also something to consider. Not only are the antics of the Del Fuegos hilarious on a cartoon-like level, but so are the numerous cameos from John C. McGinley (Dr. Cox on Scrubs) who plays one "very jealous" highway patrolman.

Wild Hogs is cinematic comedy at its finest and can be enjoyed by anyone with an open mind; however, the previews can somewhat be deceiving. Due to the cast and theme, Wild Hogs can easily be mistaken for the next film in the Disney franchise.

IT IS NOT!

Wild Hogs is rated PG-13 and is very "wild" due to its crude and sexual humor. This film is recommended for families with mature adolescents who will be able to appreciate the jokes that can, at times, be far from squeaky clean.

Overall, Wild Hogs is one of the most enjoyable comedies of the month and will most definitely be a top seller once it hits DVD in stores. It may even inspire some potential bikers to stop spending their cash on ticket stubs and start stashing away for a Harley.

Grade: A

Wild Hogs is set to release in theaters on March 2, 2007.

Movie Review: 'The Number 23'

Movie Review: 'The Number 23' (San Antonio Express-News)

Larry Ratliff
Express-News Film Critic

Well here's something that can't be linked to the somewhat mind-boggling enig- ma of the No. 23 — an entertaining psychological thriller starring Jim Carrey.

Whether you believe that all things are linked somehow to the No. 23 or not, "The Number 23" makes a decent enough case for the cause. The screenplay, written by British first-timer Fernley Phillips, who also produces, certainly throws enough of it out there. Like it taking 23 seconds for blood to circulate throughout the entire body, for instance, or that Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times.

Jim Carrey's Walter Sparrow, a brooding animal-control officer, becomes obsessed with this kind of info/nonsense (take your pick).

Carrey has been in this sort of frantically stylized thriller-of-the-mind before. Unless you were totally fascinated by "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" in 2004, however, you might want to stay 23 feet or 23 days away (or longer) from this one.

See, the No. 23 really is popping up everywhere!

Carrey and co-star Virginia Madsen, who's also opening this week as Billy Bob Thornton's wife in "The Astronaut Farmer," play dual characters in this frenzied tale of a mind either blurred or enlightened, but probably not both.

Walter appears to be somewhat happy with wife Agatha (Madsen) and their son Robin (Logan Lerman, who headed the cast in "Hoot").

But after his wife introduces him to a mysterious book titled "The Number 23" on his birthday (not his 23rd, by the way), Walter begins to identify closely with the writer. That's not such a good thing since the writer appears to be going increasingly nuts and is prone to murder.

The second set of characters, Fingerling (Carrey) and Fabrizia (Madsen), spring to life from the darkest corners of Walter's imagination. Mostly they pop up in nightmares.

But as "The Number 23" trudges along, it becomes more difficult to separate the real from the imagined.

That could be a plus attributed to director Joel Schumacher if the film itself worked better as a descent into insanity. However, the director and screenwriter seem so intent on flinging red herrings our way, everyone might soon be as confused and frustrated as the characters.

Carrey and Schumacher ("The Phantom of the Opera") worked together a little over a decade ago on "Batman Forever" (1995). As the Riddler, Carrey turned in some decent, decadently crazed moments (as did Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Two-Face).

Carrey's not going for that kind of over-the-top frenzy this time. This is the brooding, dramatic Carrey of "The Majestic" or, to a certain extent, "The Truman Show."

Sadly, this one gets pretty tedious — in fact, borderline boring for a film where the lead character is so hyped up he rips wallpaper right off the walls.

If I had the space, I'd list 23 more reasons why this one doesn't rise above mediocrity.

See, there's that number again.

Movie Review: 'The Astronaut Farmer'

Movie Review: 'The Astronaut Farmer' (San Antonio Express-News)

Larry Ratliff
Express-News Film Critic

Did you ever want to be an astronaut?

Maybe.

Did you ever want to be an astronaut bad enough to build your own spacecraft out in the barn?
Probably not, but Billy Bob Thornton's character does in "The Astronaut Farmer."

Charles Farmer yearns to soar above Earth's atmosphere so much; he wears a spacesuit to round up lost calves. Neither his horse nor the calf seems to mind.

The townsfolk of sleepy fictional Story, Texas, sure do. Even though Farmer's devoted wife, Audie (Virginia Madsen, who also appears in "The Number 23"), and the kids are solidly behind him, almost everyone else thinks Charlie's a few chickens short of a full henhouse.

I hate to go all Frank Capra ("It's a Wonderful Life") on you, but we could use more feel-good family films like this down at the corner multiplex.

Especially one from twin-brother filmmakers Mark and Michael Polish, the tremendously creative minds behind quirky projects such as "Twin Falls Idaho" and "Northfork."

Thornton, an actor of tremendous range, brings a little quirk of his own. After all, the writer (an Oscar-winner for "Sling Blade" in '96), director ("All the Pretty Horses") and actor has been convincing as Davy Crockett ("The Alamo"), the president ("Love Actually") and, of course, the alcoholic, thieving shopping-mall Santa ("Bad Santa").

He has no problem walking his character's fine line between grim determination and lunacy. As combined forces, the Polish brothers and Thornton stir the creative pot with a lightning bolt of eclectic energy.

The co-writing Polish boys (Michael directs; Mark plays an FBI agent) didn't set out specifically to make a "stand-up-and-cheer" movie. The intent is to honor family, specifically their "you can do anything you set your mind to" father.

I don't preach much in this space. So, a humble suggestion: When that moment comes when you're moved to stand up and cheer, go ahead. It'll bind you to the most uplifting moment in any movie so far this young film year.

Of course the odds of getting your own spacecraft off the ground — much less looping around Mother Earth in orbit — are rather slim.

Charlie was in NASA's astronaut training program at one time, however. He dropped out for reasons I won't reveal here to return to a dusty patch of family Texas land (although the film was shot in New Mexico). His heart, however, remains set on a date with zero gravity.

This is not a movie without some minor flaws. The plot spends too much time in the first act, then too little when it gets down to the nitty-gritty. On the other hand, Bruce Willis is a real plus as an astronaut who drops by the Farmer farm.

The best way to let "The Astronaut Farmer" work its magic is just to settle in for a dramatic fable not to be taken too seriously, but not to be completely ruled out, either.

Thornton and Madsen are comfortable and convincing as a rural husband and wife bound by love and a common goal.

If you're looking for one new Madsen movie to see this weekend, it's this one. It's her finest performance since her Oscar-nominated turn as the lonely waitress in "Sideways."

Movie Review: Shut Up & Sing

Movie Review: Shut Up & Sing

Written by Brandon Daviet
Published February 21, 2007


One the eve of the DVD release of the Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up & Sing, comedian/political commentator Bill Maher was a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. At one point the conversation turned to the Dixie Chicks' recent achievement of winning five Grammys back on February 11. Of course, ever the ball-buster, Jay Leno made the remark that the Grammy board of voters had just now gotten around to listening to the band's latest album, Taking the Long Way, implying that the band had won on the strength of their battle for free speech as opposed to any musical talent.

While this might or not have some truth to it — I mean the academy did give a Grammy to Jethro Tull for “best Heavy metal album once upon a time — Shut Up & Sing is the most important movie to come out in 2006 after singer Natalie Maines commented that she was “ashamed the president is from Texas” at one of the band’s 2003 concert performances.

Shut Up & Sing, directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, documents the fallout from Maines' remarks and provides a compelling look at how current “son of a Bush” politics have affected the creative arts and freedom of speech. The movie is well made and fairly objective throughout and the band, comprised of all women, displays more balls that most of the male politicians that are running our country.

I have never listened to a Dixie Chicks album in my life but I made sure I saw this film the minute it opened in theatres. Shut Up & Sing is a movie about freedom and the ways that the government looks to persuade public opinion in times of national crisis, i.e. war. I don’t care what side of the political spectrum you find yourself on — if you haven’t seen this movie you are shirking your responsibility as a taxpaying American.

Movie Review: The Host

Movie Review: The Host , A Big Monster Movie With A Big Heart

Written by Danny Smooth
Published February 21, 2007

This South Korean monster movie swept the nation and now is on the brink of being released in North America. Since its release last year, The Host has been praised by critics at the Cannes Film Festival and has made legions of die-hard fans.The Host is inspired by the real story of illegal chemical dumping in the Han River, the river that runs right through Seoul. The fear that the toxins in the water would have dangerous effects on the public prompted the writers to concoct this tale.

In the film, the chemicals mutate the marine life of the river and consequently, a large fish-like monster arises from the deep. But this is not the typical 'monster runs amok in a large metropolis' film; at its core there’s a family drama with some laughs and an environmental message.The Park family, proprietors of a small riverside restaurant/convenience store, who bicker amongst themselves constantly, are bound together tightly when the young Hyun Seo, daughter of Gang Du, is captured by the monster and dragged to its underwater lair. They beg the military and the police to help them search for the missing child, but they are met with apathy and are dismissed. So, against all odds, the family break the security cordon around the area to search for her themselves.

Director Joon-ho Bong has made a decent drama that doesn’t get too sappy and at the same time a decent monster movie that doesn’t go over the top with cheesy effects and dialog. Instead of making the movie dead serious, it has elements of comedy which make it much more appealing and interesting to watch. The monster plays a large role, but the family rallying together takes the bulk of the film. We get to see the monster relatively early on in the film and the special effects don't disappoint.The cast is made up of some veteran actors from Korean cinema and television: Kang So Song plays the lazy but good-hearted Gang Du; Ah-Sung Ko plays the cheerful, Hyun Seo; Hie-Bong Byeon plays the crotchety old grandpa, Hie-bong; Du-na Bae plays the athletic sister of Gang Du, Nam Joo; Hae-il Park plays the dyspeptic activist, Nam Il.

There is a small cameo from character actor Paul Lazar (of Mickey Blue Eyes, and the remake of The Manchurian Candidate), who plays a HAZMAT doctor who wants to help the Park family. He provides a ray of sunshine from the American involvement in the catastrophe. Unlike his counterparts, he shows real concern for the Park family and wishes he could help.The film is decent entertainment during its two-hour run time. It doesn’t push any boundaries or break any new ground but it works well inside the genre. It has cheesy moments, heartfelt moments, and there are a few good laughs, so check it out when it's released on March 9, 2007.

Movie Review - Guru

Movie Review - Guru (HindiSong.com)

Produced and directed by: Mani Ratnam
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Madhavan, Vidya Balan, Mithun Chakraborty,
Music: A.R. Rahman
Cinematography: Rajiv Menon
Dialogues: Vijay Krishna Acharya

Mani Ratnam, one of the finest filmmakers of India has come out with his new film called GURU amidst great expectations. The master storyteller tells the story of a man who rises from the bottom and becomes the premier industrialist of the country through hard work, determination, passion, and strategy.

Basically, GURU is a tremendously inspiring story that makes the viewer feel more confident to encounter challenges and hurdles in life. While the movie has a strong message, which is highly motivating, the entertainment value has been commendably added to the whole fair. There is almost no moment when you feel bored.

Set in 1951, GURU is a story of a dreamer. It depicts the way how the dreamer makes his dreams a reality. A young man living in a small village of Idar in Gujarat, dreams of making it big some day. His father [Rajendra Gupta], the headmaster of the village school, tells him that dreams never come true. But Gurukant Desai [Abhishek Bachchan] dares to dream!

The ruthlessly ambitious villager moves to Turkey first and Mumbai later with his wife Sujata [Aishwarya Rai] and brother-in-law Jignesh [Arya Babbar] to fulfill his dreams.

In Mumbai, he encounters the hard reality. The business world in Mumbai is a closed community ruled by a handful of rich and influential people who don’t believe in giving opportunities to new players. Guru is unperturbed and dares to take on the big weights with his determination and strategic brilliance. He gets a break through and starts Shakti Trading.

His unique ways and amazing zeal help him climb the ladder of success at a furious pace. He doesn’t hesitate to violate the laws to get his plans work. He ultimately captures the commanding heights. His dreams come true.

Manik Dasgupta aka Nanaji [Mithun Chakraborty], who publishes a newspaper Swatantra, treats Guru as his son. But when he learns that Guru’s means to make it big are not always right, he along with the Editor of his newspaper, Shyam [Madhavan], decide to expose Guru’s unjust ways.

His wife Sujatha doesn’t remain a mute spectator in his life. She provides him the much needed emotional support. When he fells sick she comes to the forefront to face the odds.
The rest of the film depicts what happens to the fight between the newspaper and the industrialist. It also tells how he faces the trial of justice.
There is plenty of dazzling moments in the film. Guru’s brother-in-law Jignesh [Arya Babbar] staging a walkout and creating a rift between Guru and his wife, the confrontation between the journalist [Madhavan] and Guru at the publisher’s residence, Guru’s emotional moment in the hospital when his trusted aide [Manoj Joshi] attempts suicide are some samples. The finale in which we see the peak of Junior B’s powerful performance is the high point of the movie.

Guru’s strange relationships with his father [Rajendra Gupta], and newspaper publisher Nanaji, and his aide have been conceived and portrayed in a fine manner. The director has handled the vicissitudes of the life of the protagonist in a manner that the audience naturally identifies with the character. The depiction of the marital relationship between Guru and Sujatha is amazing. The chemistry between the pair is incredible.
The graph of GURU escalates gradually and reaches its peak in the final scenes. Guru’s monologue in a packed courtroom is awesome. The impact it creates is beyond the realms of words to describe.

Ace director Mani Ratnam has documented the life of an industrialist but has carefully avoids the boredom of a documentary. The twists and turns in the screenplay keep the interest of the audience intact. The film has been executed with a lot of maturity and credibility. The director has maintained his grip over the medium through out the film. He has chosen right actors and extracted top class performances from them. The script is absorbing.

However, there are a few loose ends that cannot be overlooked. The tiff between Guru and his bro-in-law Jignesh is not convincing. Moreover, the film doesn’t say anything about what happened to Jignesh after the rift. The way young Guru manages to corner the IAS officer sans logic.

The Madhavan-Vidya Balan track could have been developed further. The emotional dimension between them has been told beautifully and the kissing scene is aesthetically filmed. But the track somehow seems to be an extra fitting in the backdrop of the overall narrative. More justification could have been added to this sub-plot.

The pace in the second half could have been better. Apart from tightening the narrative, the director could have done away with the song ‘Ek Lo Ek Muft’.

Despite these shortcomings, GURU ranks amongst Mani Ratnam’s excellent attempts. The unique stamp of the genius is seen in each sequence and the impact is tremendous.

A.R. Rahman’s music gels well with the film. ‘Maiya Maiya’ at the start of the film [Mallika Sherawat] is peppy, while ‘Barso Re’ [Ash’s introduction – what a dance!] and ‘Tere Bina’ are melodious. Background score adds another dimension to the entire venture. Rajiv Menon’s cinematography is on par with international standards. The look and feel of 1950s has been stunningly captured. Dialogues (Vijay Krishna Acharya) are poignant. The dialogues in the climax are breathtaking.

Abhishek Bachchan steals the show with his outstanding performance. He has shrewdly grasped the nuances of the character and handled it excellently. This one is a complex role and hence Abhishek deserves special complement. He has depicted the various stages of life with commendable ease. The intensity with which the average audience identifies with the character speaks about the success of the characterization and the performance. From a sharp teenager in Turkey to the biggest entrepreneur of the country, Abhishek expresses the various shades this character demands with dexterity.

In short, Abhishek Bachchan’s performance in GURU is top class. Hats off to Junior B.
Aishwarya Rai too comes out with a powerful performance. She has got a sumptuous role and handled it very well. She adds a sort of grace to the character. Her looks are amazing and her acting is stunning. GURU has unearthed some hitherto unknown talents from her. Her dancing, particularly in the intro song is simply marvelous. She exudes a lot of maturity when she depicts an older Sujatha.

Mithun Chakraborty plays the role of an honest newspaper owner. His experience and unique skills help him to deliver a natural performance.

Madhavan does well in a small but important role. So is the case with Vidya Balan. Mallika Sheravat sizzles in the item number with her curvaceous body.

Movie Review: Babel

Movie Review: Babel (Blogcritics.org)

Written by TV and Film GuyPublished February 20, 2007

The tragic, ironic, and, honestly, funny, thing about the movie Babel is that much like the tower of the same name from the biblical story, the entire thing comes crashing down without remorse or pity. While in the biblical story the tower comes crashing down because God decided that people should have limitations, the movie comes crashing down because it takes itself so seriously and puts forth a moderately ridiculous story with only vaguely related, and often completely unbelievable, story lines.

In brief, the story follows the effects on several different families when two boys decide to play with a rifle and happen to shoot an American tourist in Morocco (played by Cate Blanchett, with Brad Pitt as her husband). This creates an international incident and sparks an overly-thorough investigation by the police in an attempt to prevent any thoughts by the Americans that Morocco may be soft on terrorists and terrorism.

The various stories in play here include: that of the American couple, Susan and Richard; the Moroccan family of the boy that shot Susan; Susan and Richard’s children and nanny (Amelia) back in North America; and a Japanese father (Yasujiro) and daughter (Chieko).

This last story line has virtually nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It just so happens that Yasujiro is a hunter and at some point in the past went hunting in Morocco and gave the rifle that was used to shoot Susan to his guide, who in turn sold it to the father of the boys. Nothing that happens to Yasujiro and Chieko throughout the story has anything to do with the rifle, except for two police officers visiting the family and Chieko trying to sleep with one of them (a minor point in their tale). The fact that Yasujiro is a hunter is irrelevant, the fact that he went to Morocco is irrelevant, his entire presence in the movie is irrelevant. But what’s worse than that is that the story isn’t even his, it’s his daughter’s.

Chieko, is a deaf-mute, is depressed due to her mother’s suicide, and desperately wants to lose her virginity. The story entirely revolves around her attempts to sleep with people and find comfort. It has nothing to do with the shooting of Susan and can’t really even be related back to it. Why is this story included? Probably because it makes the entire thing more international.

Then there’s the nanny and Richard and Susan’s children’s story line. Whereas the Japanese story line is irrelevant, this one is implausible. The viewer is told that the shooting of Susan has touched off an international incident, and gets to see that it is being widely reported in the press. Amelia, the nanny, despite all this, takes the children across the California-Mexico border in order to attend her son’s wedding. While that is plausible, the notion that there aren’t a ton of reporters staking out Richard and Susan’s house and following their children and nanny’s every move is completely ridiculous. Yet, apparently there are no reporters there, and Amelia, who just happens to be an illegal alien (she does however have a passport and crosses back and forth across border checkpoints with impunity), decides to attend her son’s wedding.

I understand that urge. I get that desire. But, really? Are we to believe that not only are there no reporters following the children, but that the illegal alien nanny decides to take the kids across the border without any sort of documentation stating that she can watch the children? I just can’t accept that.

As for Richard and Susan’s story... nothing happens. They wait for an ambulance, it gets canceled because the U.S. would rather send a helicopter (which is quite delayed), they get to a hospital and are okay. So totally and completely not worth it.

The Moroccan family? Their story line is by far the most interesting. The boys eventually admit what they’ve done, the father tries his best to protect them and make everything right, but the police are unwilling to listen and things quickly go downhill.

The moral of the movie seems to be that everything and everyone is wrong, but America and Americans most of all. That’s fine as morals go, but it’s apparent that that’s the movie’s point five minutes into the proceedings, which go on for another 137 minutes before finally wrapping up.

Babel, and everyone involved in it, seems to take itself so seriously that it becomes a little funny. It is an incredibly shallow, sad look at the world that does nothing to enlighten the viewer. It is a series of loosely interconnected, hugely implausible and impossible stories that shrouds itself in the guise of promoting a worldly agenda of understanding and mutual respect. In reality, it is a movie bucking for awards due to a faux depth and the inclusion of subtitles.

MOVIE REVIEW: We Are Marshall

MOVIE REVIEW: We Are Marshall (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

BY DANIEL NEMAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

The brilliance -- the only brilliance -- of "We Are Marshall" is that it tells the story of the 1970 plane crash that killed nearly the entire football team and coaching staff of Marshall University from a completely unexpected angle.

Anyone else would tell the story of the last, fateful year, and end with the terrible crash. You would tell it that way. I would tell it that way. Any writer in Hollywood would tell it that way.

But first-time writer Jamie Linden had a different idea. He thought it would be far more inspirational if the story began with the crash, showed how it devastated the college and the town, and then showed how the healing began with the team's rebuilding.

What a great idea. But it's the only good idea in the film.

The director, McG, ruins everything by turning up the heat too high. He overdirects, his actors overact and the dialogue is overwritten. Everything about this picture is too gloppy.

We know we're sunk from the beginning, when an injured player is listening to a radio broadcaster saying "Next week is a must-win," and the player solemnly intones "They're all must-wins, chief." A minute later, we see Matthew McConaughey trying to tune into the distant game on his radio, and just as he picks it up his kids race into the room and laughingly bowl him over.

Oh, isn't that just unbelievably heartwarming?

McConaughey plays the half-crazed Jack Lengyel, who becomes the new coach for the new team. McConaughey strains so hard to be charming that he comes across as frightening and weird, and the constant stage business with his hands seems affected rather than realistic. He may be the star, and the story may be about his character, but the movie is better when McConaughey is not in it.

But the fault, dear reader, lies not in our star. It is the self-consciously named McG -- he of the not-at-all-bad "Charlie's Angels" and the all-bad "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" -- who takes what could have been a good movie and artlessly pounds the life out of it.

McG has always been a man of, shall we say, few ideas, and he tends to do the same things over and over. In this film, he seems particularly infatuated with light streaming in through windows, with hand-held cameras, with close-ups and with a focus that shifts from one character to another. As always, he punctuates his story with inappropriate popular songs regardless of their meaning or connotations.

His facade of competence often slips, revealing the hack that lives within. The most hilarious of these slips comes in a kick-off, in which the ball is kicked in the daytime and caught at night. That's the kind of hang time that will get you into the pros. Then there's the time David Strathairn (as the strangely weak university president) gets rained on in Kansas City and is still wet back in West Virginia. And the way the radio announcer refers to the Xavier University Pirates (dude, they're the Musketeers).

The story of the Marshall University football team is one that deserves to be told, true. But it deserves to be told well.

Movie Review: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

Movie Review: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (Blogcritics.org)

Written by T. RigneyPublished February 19, 2007

Before I begin this snarky review, I just want to say that I really enjoy Jack Black as an actor. He's starting to show some much-needed versatility, and it's good to see him tackling roles that aren't catered to his uber-wacky personality. After all, it's fun to stretch your legs a little, right? See new sights, hang out with different people. Or, you know, make more money by starring in pictures you wouldn't have been caught dead in five years ago. I may not agree with the direction Jack's headed, but at least he's trying. Big fat gold star for him. Hoo-rah.

As a musician who plays "funny music," however, Black is hit and miss with me. Some of his stuff is catchy and slightly amusing, while others are embarrassingly awful and not nearly as hilarious as he and his band mate Kyle Gass seem to think they are. While I'm sure Tenacious D has a loyal following of intelligent, well-read fans, most seem content with whatever nonsense the pair decides to release into the global marketplace that decade. In fact, your opinion of this dodgy band and their work will ultimately sway your vote when it comes to their full-length feature Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. Think of it as one long Tenacious D music video, and make of that what you will.

Directed by fellow funny guy Liam Lynch, PoD lovingly documents Tenacious D's rise from total obscurity to relative mediocrity. After encountering Kyle's hypnotizing one-man show, Jack Black — who is only referred to as JB in the film — is left awe-struck and hungry for more. Kyle agrees to mentor the naive young lad, teaching him all the deep, dark secrets of rock-and-roll. Unfortunately for JB, his newfound friend's skills are merely a front for lesser things; his teacher, it seems, is nothing more than a full-time failure himself. But all is quickly forgiven, as there are more pressing matters to attend to.

Like, say, paying the rent.

Despite being much better than any open mic act I've ever seen, Tenacious D's entertaining performance registers as a wistful fart within the bowels of the music industry. Crushed but eager for success, Kyle and JB painstakingly research the traits that made the legends of rock so, well, legendary. Their desire to unlock the secrets of their idols soon leads to the discovery of The Pick of Destiny, a magical object crafted from the rotten tooth of Satan himself. The pick was last seen in the hands of Eddie Van Halen before it was stuck onto the guitar legend's axe and put on display in the Rock-N-Roll History Museum. Realizing their financial livelihood is staked on winning an open mic competition, the duo set out to steal the pick in order to craft the greatest music known to man. Will they succeed?

After the end credits had disappeared and the final gag had presented its bounty before me, I honestly didn't know what to think. Genius? Outright failure? Brilliant? So-so? It baffled me. There were moments when I genuinely laughed out loud, fueled by some truly bizarre lyrical content and the inclusion of a psychedelic sequence featuring a very sweet and understanding Sasquatch. Ben Stiller also turns in an unusual performance, essentially stealing the entire film from a buddies. A production, I might add, which he himself co-produced. You're the man, Stiller. You're the man.

On the other hand, there are bits and gags and jokes that are downright unfunny. While the proverbial "dick and fart" routine is rather humorous when used sparingly, it's not too amusing when you're subjected to it on a regular basis. If that's not sophomoric enough for you, feel free to inhale the many pot jokes exhaled by an assortment of oddball, THC-soaked characters. Again, this stuff is funny in small doses. One marijuana reference after another can get moldy and quite stale before you can take a hit off your buddy's water bong. That's assuming, of course, that you chipped in for the bag.

Am I merely too old for this kind of stuff? Has my sense of humor become so high brow that I can't laugh at a fat guy moving his bowels in a public bathroom while a creepy Tim Robbins lurks on the other side of the stall door? Probably not. I guess it just boils down to restraint. While you may have a thousand scatological jokes up your comedic sleeve, methinks only a handful will do the trick. You could easily argue that I'm being too hard on a stupid gross-out comedy, of course, but I don't think I am. Strip away the salty music and Pick of Destiny is nothing more than a PG-13 American Pie spin-off masquerading as hip, irreverent comedy.

Speaking of music, I was actually quite surprised by Tenacious D's output this time around, most of which seems specifically written for the film. Their album was quite a chore to listen to, I'm afraid, so I thought this aspect of the picture would surely tap dance all over my last nerve. Surprisingly, their music is easily the best part of the film. I'm particularly fond of "Kickapoo" and "Master Exploder," though it's honestly tough to choose a favorite. They may not get a DVD purchase out of me, but I'll certainly pick up the soundtrack if I see it lurking in a cut-out bin in a year or two.

So what do all of these words and sentences mean? Well, if you're a Tenacious D fan, it means you're gonna love every second of Pick of Destiny. In fact, you may even watch it twice within a 24-hour period. Hey, it could happen. The rest of us, unfortunately, will either love it or hate it. Is it worth the time and money you'll spend to discover which category you fall into? Possibly. You may think it's a staggering work of sewage, on par with whatever National Lampoon's flick is being released that week. Then again, you may think it's the best motion picture you've ever encountered in your pathetic little life. That depends, of course, on how much pot you have on hand.

And whether or not you chipped in for the bag.

Published: February 19, 2007
Type: Review
Section: Video
Filed Under: Video: Comedy, Video: Cult

Movie Review: Amazing Grace

Movie Review: Amazing Grace (Blogcritics.org)

Written by Gerald WrightPublished February 19, 2007

This biopic is the inspiring story of how one man's passion and perseverance changed the world. Based on the true life story of William Wilberforce, a leader of the British abolition movement, the film chronicles his epic struggle to pass a law to end the slave trade in the late 18th century.

Ioan Gruffudd plays a dynamic William Wilberforce, who was born to a prosperous family. Following the death of his father, he became a wealthy young man. His wealth allowed him to fund many charitable projects. He became a member of Parliament and an Evangelical Christian and wrestled with his conscience to pursue humanitarian interests.

But his younger close friend William Pitt (Benedict Cumberbatch), the youngest-ever Prime Minister, suggested that he use his political power to push his policies to the government. These two idealistic young men embraced the opposition's fight. Wilberforce seeks the advice of friend and mentor John Newton (Albert Finney), a former slave trader who wrote the song "Amazing Grace" and who turned to the Church in order to atone for his earlier life. Albert Finney is magnificient as the wise old man steering these younger men in their careers.

The terrific emsemble cast also stars Romola Garai as Barbara Spooner, the beautiful and headstrong young woman who shares Wilberforce's passion for reform and becomes his wife. Michael Gambon is Lord Fix, a member of Parliament who joines Wilberforce's group. Rufus Sewell plays Thomas Clarkson, another ally in the reform, and Grammy winning Senegalese singer Yousou N'Dour is Olaudah Equiano, an African sent as a slave to the Colonies who bought his freedom and made his home in London where he became a leading figure in the fight to end the slavery of his fellow countrymen.

Aside from a noteworthy script that tells a meaningful story with exceptional acting by all, this film gives a good account of historical facts surrounding horror of the slave trade. This is a must-see film.

Directed by: Michael AptedRun
time: 1 hr. 51 mins.
Release date: February 23, 2007
Genre: Drama, Thriller and Politics/Religion
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn FilmsMPAA
Rating: PG

Movie Review: Music and Lyrics

Movie Review: Music and Lyrics (Blogcritics.org)

Written by Chris BeaumontPublished February 20, 2007

This is a confectionary treat for the non-discerning fan of the romantic comedy, a film featuring leads so likable that you are likely to gloss over the lack of actual character, content to let the sappiness and generally agreeable tale wash over you like so much warm sunshine. This is a movie content to drift along on the cliches, confident enough in itself that it can do so and survive, leaving you to walk out of the theater with the feeling that you saw a nice movie, rather than the thought that you had seen this somewhere else before.

Music and Lyrics is the perfectly agreeable date movie. It takes two of the most bankable romantic comedy stars, concocts a plot to put the two together, tosses in a roadblock or two, perhaps some miscommunication, and voila - a Valentine's Day movie is born. As you can see, it practically writes itself.

While the story has that distinct "been there, done that" flow, and contains nothing we haven't seen these two in before, there is still a sweet nature to it, something that goes down easy. I found myself enjoying it for some odd reason.

The story centers on Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) and his relationship with Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore). Alex is an aging pop star, having been in a mega successfully 80's act called Pop (think of Wham), relegated to playing state fairs, amusement parks, and getting asked to "Battle of the 80s Has Beens." His bandmate left and became a huge star, and now Alex is left on the outside looking in.

He has a shot at regaining some level of fame, as the current top pop diva, Cora, is a Pop fan and is looking for a Fletcher-penned song for her next single. Enter Sophie Fisher, a clutzy, insecure young woman who arrives in Alex's life to water the plants. Sparks begin to fly when she is overheard singing some lyrics that would work for the song that Alex is working on.

Alex and Sophie work on the song together, and surely they fall in love, but the music business drives a wedge in between as they both have grown to seek different things with the song they created. Will they get past the roadblocks? Will they have a personal revelation that will set them on the right track to each others arms? Will you have to endure some of the lamest pop music you've ever heard? Will it end happily ever after? Are you kidding? How about all of the above.

As Music and Lyrics is structured, there is no room for any surprises. It floats along its predetermined course towards its inevitable conclusion, so please don't be looking to the story for any source of romantic inspiration. The filmmakers certainly didn't. For that matter, the characters of Alex and Sophie are terribly underwritten, to the point that the romance isn't all that romantic. It sort of makes me wonder why I have any type of affection for it. Despite it all, there are some things about this movie I actually enjoyed, enough to give it a mild recommendation.

The main reason to enjoy this are the two leads. Both of them have great presence, they have nice chemistry, and are just very likable in these roles. I have found that likability of the stars and how they play their roles can go a long way in making a mediocre film enjoyable, and these two are definitely rom-com leaders. The other reason I liked it was the sheen of music business insider that it has.

Sure, it is a lighthearted comedy, but everything that had to do with the idea of the aging star looking to secure a legacy, or even prove to himself that he still has it, is nicely done. Alex Fletcher is a man who seems resigned to his has-been status, and has thus adopted a rather cynical view of the business, a view that Sophie doesn't share, creating my favorite aspect of the film.

New Simpsons Movie Trailer! (Coming Soon)

A new trailer for Fox's The Simpson Movie is now online and can be watched via this link in various QuickTime formats!Directed by David Silverman, the feature film hits theaters on July 27. It features the voices of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille and Albert Brooks.

Warner Bros. Pictures and 4Kids Entertainment Kick Off a Month of Turtle Mania With Promotional Support for Theatrical Release of TMNT

In anticipation of the March 23 release of the all-new CGI action adventure TMNT, 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:KDE) and Warner Bros. Pictures have announced promotional and merchandising partners for the movie, based on the world-renowned Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

McDonald's, Airheads, Hot Topic and other retailers, including Wal-Mart, Kmart and Toys "R" Us will put promotional muscle behind the new movie starring the heroes in a half shell.

The impressive lineup of promotional partners supporting TMNT reflects the quality of the movie," said Alfred R. Kahn, chairman and CEO of 4Kids Entertainment, which is the licensing agent for the Turtles franchise. "This is a movie for everybody -- from today's kids to adults who were fans of the original television series almost 20 years ago."

MOVIE REVIEW: I SPY ... A SO-SO FILM (The Florida Times-Union)

Based on a true story, 'Breach' just never really engages us

By MATT SOERGEL, The Times-UnionBreach is a spy movie that feels more rooted in reality than most, with only minimal gunfire and not a single gravity-defying stunt.

Though you might appreciate the effort Breach takes to avoid spy-movie cliches, it ultimately can't find enough juicy, human emotions to substitute for them. It's not as if there aren't some possibilities for that.

It's based on the true story of Robert Hanssen, an FBI expert on Russian affairs who in 2001 was arrested as a traitor who'd been working for the Soviets and Russians for years. He was finally exposed with the help of Eric O'Neill, a young FBI employee who posed as a clerk in Hanssen's office to gather proof - right under the imperious nose of his wary boss.

Director Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) sets his film in a gray world of poorly-lit offices and wintertime Washington, D.C. It's drab, deliberately so, perhaps too drab to fully involve us

Hanssen (reliable Chris Cooper) is portrayed as a conservative Roman Catholic (and member of Opus Dei) who listens to the Andrew Sisters, drives a Taurus and goes to church every day. "I disapprove of women in pantsuits," he says. He also likes strippers, Internet porn and secretly videotaping sex with his wife (Kathleen Quinlan) and passing the tapes on to a friend. He hides thick stacks of money from his Russian handlers inside his house, one on top of the other.

O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe), meanwhile, is ambitious but a bit unsure of himself: He hasn't made agent yet, and wonders if he will. And he finds himself beginning to admire Hanssen, almost in spite of himself.

That's a promising set-up, and Breach creates a few moments of bristly tension in some psychological standoffs between O'Neill and his treasonous boss.

The film never really takes off, though, largely because it seems to be taking place in a vacuum. A stiff Laura Linney, as a big-wig FBI agent, has the thankless job of telling us over and over how rotten Hanssen is. Yet Breach can never quite persuade us that he's as dangerous or pathetic or diabolical as it would like us to believe. The movie keeps his character at a distance from us, instead spending more time on the rather bland young guy on his trail.

Hanssen's dirty work remains a mystery, and so does most of his messy mental state. Why did he do what he did? We get a few clues, here and there, but Breach seems curiously reticent in exploring his twisted psyche. Hanssen surely was a fascinating creep; I'd like to know the why and how of that, in all its disturbing detail.

Movie Review: Ghost Rider

Written by SterfishPublished February 17, 2007

Marvel's Ghost Rider is the latest comic book superhero to come to the big screen. Virtually unknown to those who don't follow comics (unless they're Method Man fans), this movie combines the superhero action and PG-13 horror genres. The result is a fun, silly flick that only appears to take itself seriously.The movie begins as we learn the legend of the ghost rider. This person makes a deal with the devil and in return must work as his bounty hunter of sorts. We are first introduced to Johnny Blaze as a young man who participates in his father's motorcycle stunt show and loves his soon-to-move girlfriend Roxanne. After finding out that his father is dying of cancer, the devil (Peter Fonda) visits Johnny in his dreams. The devil offers to cure his father's cancer in exchange for eventually calling upon Johnny to do his bidding. When Johnny wakes up, his father is cured but the devil (being a prick and all) kills him anyway. We flash forward a couple of decades where Johnny (Nicolas Cage) is a big-time motorcycle stunt man. Just before his latest stunt, his past comes back to visit as his childhood girlfriend Roxanne (Eva Mendes) shows up to interview him. Just when he thinks they can reconnect, he gets called upon to become the new ghost rider.What makes Ghost Rider work is the fact that it doesn't really try to take itself that seriously. Nicolas Cage is in full “Jerry Bruckheimer movie mode” as the title character. He takes his ridiculous role just serious enough to keep the movie from feeling like a self-parody. Cage talks in a digitally deepened, Hulk-esque voice as Ghost Rider which only adds to the fun. While Peter Fonda hams it up a bit as the devil, the performance I really enjoyed was that of Sam Elliott. He plays a mysterious cemetery “caretaker” who helps Johnny Blaze deal with his newfound powers. Elliott spends the whole movie talking in a western drawl and occasionally spitting. You can't help but like him.The effects in this movie are pretty good and the action scenes are quite funny. Little things will make you laugh whether it's the way a street punk asks for mercy when Ghost Rider goes after him or the way the camera closes up on a man's eyes as Ghost Rider's bike almost lands on him. This movie also finds every conceivable way to have horror without blood in order to get its PG-13 rating. Fans of the current crop of gore films won't be grossed out but there are a couple of times where the movie manages to make you jump.Ghost Rider is a popcorn movie through and through. It blurs the line between fun flick and hilariously bad movie. This movie is nowhere near the level of recent superhero films like Batman Begins and X-3 but then again, it doesn't try for that level either. If you want something fun and forgettable to take your mind out of the winter doldrums for a little while, this is the movie to see. If you're looking for something more substantial to pass the time in the movie theater, you had best look elsewhere.

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut

Last night Paulie Paul and I sat down to watch the Richard Donner cut of Superman II.
Superman II is one of my favourite films of all time. I saw it at the Cinema, and as far as I can remember it was the first time I had seen anything of that ilk actually at the cinema. I was too young to see Superman: The movie, and I hadn’t discovered Star Wars by then. I was however, obsessed by DC and Marvel Comics, and in particular Superman, Batman and Spiderman.*
I remember my Auntie, visiting from London, taking me to see it as a surprise. I was so excited, and having seen the trailers I knew I wasn’t going to be disappointed. At that time I was obsessive about Superman " I had the wallpaper, curtains, even trainers.
Shreddies were at that time my favourite cereal, and as every child knows, there is usually a free give away related reason for that popularity. These cereal boxes came with free transfers, and the back of the packet could be cut and folded to form a semi 3D scene from the film. I had all the variations, but the city destruction scene was my favourite.
When it came to watching the film as a five year old it blew me away, and that scene in particular was the peak of cinema for me. I’d only seen Pete’s Dragon and all the Disney films prior to that. It wasn’t a high bar to beat.
So it was with a mixture of schoolboy excitement and trepidation that I sat to watch this ‘new’ cut of the film. I was also keen to see if I could spot the subtle differences as well as the major ones.
Having sat through it, and Paul proclaiming that he ‘could see why [Donner] was sacked’ at most junctures in the film, I can say that I actually enjoyed it.
It also feels a bit darker in tone, and the replacement scenes are much better in my opinion than those that made it into the original. There are still a few crappy joke moments in it, but not the daft scenes, like the bloke staying on the phone when it falls over and is swept away by the wind. I was, however, gutted that the scene where Non tries to burn the twig and can’t had been taken out. Otis ‘climbing’ the ladder to the balloon remains though thankfully remains though.
I wont spoil it, but there is a major disappointment at the end, not least because it feels lazy, and it’s been done before (that’s a clue). You’ll see what I mean when you see it. The film also has some really weird cuts in it " it sounds anal to say it, but there are some seriously weird edits that seem a little sharp.
Overall though, I enjoyed it, and unlike the recent Superman Returns debacle, it doesn’t piss on your childhood memories.
*As an aside, during my formative years, I learnt to draw quite well, through tracing comic covers. Mi Mam was always quite good at drawing then, and used to help me. Pretty soon I could do it on my own, but I occasionally needed the odd bit of help.
The day my Auntie told me about the surprise, it was a saturday, and Our Kid’s dad was laid on the couch watching the horse racing on Grandstand, and I asked him to draw me Superman, as Mi Mam was making the tea. What he drew was the worst Superman logo ever (I can still draw it off by heart for the record " not boasting cos it’s actually quite sad), and then added a few speed lines after it. I can still picture it in my mind. Seriously it was rubbish.

Movie review: Blood Diamond

Movie review: Blood Diamond (Baltic Times)
Blood Diamond “Blood Diamond” is set in Sierra Leone in 1999 as civil war rages. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Danny Archer, an amoral mercenary who smuggles diamonds out of the country for a powerful diamond conglomerate.

Movie review | 'The Good German'? Good enough

Movie review 'The Good German'? Good enough (The Charlotte Observer)
Steven Soderbergh has made one of the better movies of 1946 in "The Good German," from Thomas Newman's beautiful period score to the moody, black-and-white cinematography of post-World War II film noir. Few people wanted to see it in 2006, but nostalgia buffs can get a fix.

REVIEW / 'Epic Movie's' tries at satire fail on a grand scale

REVIEW / 'Epic Movie's' tries at satire fail on a grand scale (San Francisco Chronicle)
RATING: (EMPTY CHAIR) Epic Movie: Comedy. Starring Kal Penn and Jayma Mays. Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. (PG-13. 86 minutes. At Bay Area theaters. For complete movie listings and show times, and to buy tickets for select theaters, go...

Movie Review: Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny (Smart-Popcorn)

Combined Rating: 74% (S:68%; P:82%) - As a long time fan of Tenacious D there was little chance that I would not love The Pick of Destiny. Still, I wasn't completely satisfied. The movie is just a little too much like an extended version of the TV show. It's a great TV show, but as a fan I was hoping for something more. I am recommending The Pick of Destiny for fans of Tenacious D. For those new ...

MOVIE REVIEW: "Miss Potter" (News 14 Charlotte)

“Miss Potter” is a sweet confection of a movie that isn't done any favors by that generic schoolmarm title. Renée Zellweger, who plays the English children's author Beatrix Potter, pushes her skewed pixie features well past their usual scrunchiness.

Movie Review: Good Shepherd, The (Smart-Popcorn)

Combined Rating: 81% (S:84%; P:79%) - The Good Shepard is an absorbing, though slightly overlong, spy tale that features yet another career making performance by Matt Damon. Robert DeNiro's direction is understated and underestimated. All of those years working with Scorsese have paid off in DeNiro's great eye and scene setting ability. And, thankfully, the story is as stong as the actng and ...

Movie review: 'Seraphim Falls' (Metromix.com)

"Seraphim Falls" is a movie some will relish and others will find a bit anachronistic. It's a violently exciting Western with a vision of the West that's grand, mythic and also full of near-surreal menace, starring two Irish-born leading actors, Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan, who here often seem born to the saddle.It's a tonic to see a picture like "Seraphim Falls." Movie westerns, which used to stampede through America's pop culture landscape like the old buffalo herds, have in the last three decades begun to seem as rare as flowers in the desert--despite the fact that the technical means for making them have never been as sharp. But "Falls'" director/co-writer, TV veteran David Von Ancken ("Cold Case") knows his Westerns--and this one has welcome suggestions of Clint Eastwood's "The Outlaw Josey Wales," Anthony Mann and Sergio Leone's vendetta oaters and John Ford's "The Searchers."

Movie Review: Catch and Release (Blogcritics.org)

This is a movie that I thought was already through theaters and ready to hit DVD when I started seeing the commercials. I remember seeing the trailer what feels like a year ago, but then nothing. It has finally arrived in theaters, and after sitting through it, I can understand why they held it back for so long. It will be sure to create a "catch and release" type of response from ...

Movie Review: Pan's Labyrinth and Idiocracy - Obedience is Overrated (Blogcritics.org)

Which is scarier: being terrorized by someone who is both smart and evil, or by an entire society that’s stupid beyond belief? I got to compare and contrast yesterday when I saw the creepy, beautiful, tragic Pan’s Labyrinth in the movie theater, then came home and watched Mike Judge’s intentionally ugly, dark-edged satire Idiocracy . I know, I know, get a life. The films have a ...

Movie review: 'Epic Movie' is epically funny, if you're 14 (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune)

I can't say I was surprised that "Epic Movie" would not be screened in advance for critics, but I must say that my feelings were a little bit hurt. A crude, scatological parody of a handful of big-budget, inexplicably popular movies from the past two years -- what would be more likely to warm a critic's withered, cynical heart? 20th Century Fox, which released the movie -- it mocks (and thus ...

Directed by Jin Tiemu

Directed by Jin Tiemu

A retelling of the construction, life, and eventual sacking by Franco-British forces of Beijing’s old Summer Palace, Yuan Ming Yuan is the most ambitious Chinese documentary ever made. With a budget of RMB ten million – extravagant for a documentary even by Western standards – this film relies heavily on CGI reconstructions of the Qing dynasty summer retreat.

One of the most captivating sequences in the film starts with a shot of today’s ruins. We then watch as a building rebuilds itself and the surrounding fountains and gardens come vividly to life. Other scenes re-enact history using live actors against a largely CGI background. Because of its reliance on CGI and reenactment, director Jin Tiemu prefers to call it a “nonfiction film” rather than a documentary.[...] Read more!

Movie review: 'Epic Movie' (Metromix.com)

Epic Movie is an 80 minute game of "Where Borat?" Every other movie from the last year or so has been sent up in this, the directing debut of a couple of Scary Movie screenwriters. We wait and wait for the Kazakh punch line.

Movie Review Update

Prosecutors: N.C. movie breaks no porn laws (The News & Observer) Prosecutors in two states said Friday they found nothing illegal about a movie shot in North Carolina and screened this week at Utah's Sundance Film Festival that depicts a child rape, and instead said "Hounddog" offered viewers a "go
Published: on Saturday, 27 January 2007 15:32:34

Monumentally stupid movie (winnipegsun.com)What Date Movie did for romantic comedies, Epic Movie does for blockbusters, which is to say, nothing. But it will rake in money. The film's big claim to fame is the fact it involves two of the six writers of Scary Movie. The wrong two.
Published: on Saturday, 27 January 2007 14:47:20

Can A Kid Check Out An R-Rated Movie From The Library? (KXAN 36 Austin)While your child can't get into an R-rated movie at the theatre or check one out at the video store, they can check one out at the library. At a Dallas public library, an 8-year-old child was able to do just that. It's because of a policy that puts the parents in charge.
Published: on Saturday, 27 January 2007 10:51:12

Surf Movie Point Break Hits The Stage (ContactMusic)KEANU REEVES and PATRICK SWAYZE's cult surfing movie POINT BREAK has been turned into a New York stage show. POINT BREAK LIVE! is being billed as the
Published: on Saturday, 27 January 2007 09:23:09

Liz Renay, ex-stripper and cult movie star, dead at 80 (CP via Yahoo! Canada News)LAS VEGAS (AP) - Liz Renay, a stripper and cult movie actress whose real life included roles as a gangster's moll, convict, author, artist and Hollywood Boulevard streaker, died Monday from cardiopulmonary arrest and gastric bleeding, the Clark County, Nev., coroner's office said.
Published: on Saturday, 27 January 2007 08:35:00

Cult movie actress, stripper Liz Renay to be buried in Las Vegas (KESQ)LAS VEGAS Cult movie actress and legendary stripper Liz Renay will be buried next week in Las Vegas. That's according to Renay's son -- John McLain -- who's making plans for services next Wednesday. He's not sure yet what time or where.Renay died Monday in Las Vegas.
Published: on Saturday, 27 January 2007 08:08:28

What's that smell? It's 'Epic Movie' (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)Attempting to compensate for its lack of originality and humor, "Epic Movie" spoofs several dozen films, a few MTV shows and Paris Hilton.
Published: on Saturday, 27 January 2007 08:05:44

Cult movie actress, stripper Liz Renay to be buried in Las Vegas (Las Vegas Sun)LAS VEGAS (AP) - Graveside services were scheduled next week in Las Vegas for Liz Renay, a stripper and cult movie actress whose real life included roles as a gangster's moll, prison inmate, author, artist and Hollywood Boulevard streaker.
Published: on Saturday, 27 January 2007 07:26:37

Review: `Epic Movie' (AP via Yahoo! News)Attempting to compensate for its own lack of originality and humor, "Epic Movie" spoofs several dozen films, a few MTV shows and, of course, Paris Hilton.
Published: on Saturday, 27 January 2007 05:23:42

Actress Nicole Kidman, 7 others hurt on movie set (Reuters via Yahoo! News)Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman and seven other people suffered minor injuries on a Los Angeles movie set on Thursday when her car crashed into a light pole during filming, police said.

THUMBS DOWN Bush's spring break jackknifes when she and her boyfriend pick up The Hitcher, a retread of the 1986 video- store staple

THUMBS DOWN Bush's spring break jackknifes when she and her boyfriend pick up The Hitcher, a retread of the 1986 video- store staple

Photo Credit: The Hitcher: Van Redin

Like a slasher-film psycho, John Ryder (Sean Bean), the homicidal road-rage terrorist who haunts a couple of college kids (Zachary Knighton and Sophia Bush) heading off for spring break, can show up anytime, anywhere: in a family's station wagon, in a police interrogation room (how the heck did he get in there?), in your dreams. That's the reason The Hitcher, a remake of the 1986 suspense ''classic,'' is as processed and hoot-worthy as the original. Sean Bean, in the role Rutger Hauer sneered through, has a toxic charm, but about all the movie is effective at is insulting the audience.