Movie Review: 2012

Monday, November 15, 2009
Movie Reviews: 2012
IN THEATERS

 

2012

Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. 2012 is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors.

Cast: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt

Director: Roland Emmerich

Opened November 13, 2009..

Runtime: 2 hr. 38 min.

Rated PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and some language

Genres: Sci-Fi Disaster Film, Science Fiction

Review:

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen was Michael Bay at his most excessive and bombastic; the film was an orgy of everything ever associated with the much maligned director. Equally, Roland Emmerich’s 2012 is a new high point for this apocalyptic auteur. By high point I mean its Emmerich unleashed and unchecked, destruction occurs on such a grand scale that it’s almost comical. It feels like watching an old Tex Avery cartoon, so much so that if a massive anvil were to fall on a major city of monument you’d hardly notice or care. Visually, it’s a technical marvel. A virtual highlight reel of what the best CGI in the business can do with nearly unlimited funds and imagination. The film’s massive set pieces are great fun and deliver the trill ride promised. Then there the story, much like his previous film, Emmerich populates this with a bevy of clichéd characters that always act and react the way you’d expect. John Cusack is pretty much just asked to scream a lot of painfully atrocious dialogue. Cusack is a fine actor but here there very little he can do to elevate a script that sounds like it was written on a Mad Libs book. Equally mired is Chiwetel Ejiofor who has the task of playing the world’s worse scientist. Everything he does and says are wrong but people continue to listen to him because he’s got a conscience unlike Oliver Platt’s stereotypical government chief. Amanda Peet isn’t given anything to do other than stand run and look worried from time to time. Thandie Newton, Danny Glover and Woody Harrelson are collecting a paycheck here and don’t really add much to the proceedings. Harrelson even phones in a character which should have been a lot of fun. It’s all par for the course and should be expected since it’s Emmerich we’re talking about. While some of this films failings are expected one major one wasn’t, the films massive run time that’ll have you wishing the world would just end already! I’ve always thought of directors like Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich like candy bars, they give you a nice little rush but too much could make you sick. Excepting any depth or substance is foolish because like the candy bars they have no problem telling you what they are ahead of time.

C

Movie Reviews: THE BOX

Friday, November 13, 2009
Movie Reviews: THE BOX
IN THEATERS

THE BOX


A suburban couple, Norma (Cameron Diaz) and Arthur (James Marsden), face a moral dilemma when they receive a gift that bears irrevocable consequences. With the press of a button, their simple wooden box will bestow $1 million; however, a stranger somewhere else will die, at the same time. The box will be theirs for only 24 hours, and as time ticks away, Norma and Arthur confront the depth of their humanity as they consider their choices.


Cast: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella


Director: Richard Kelly


Opened ..November 6, 2009..


Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some violence and disturbing images


Genres: Supernatural Horror, Horror


Review:


Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko is a cult classic and rightfully so. His second film, Southland Tales, was a masturbatory cinematic explosion of excess that it’s entirely up to the viewer as to whether it’s high art or the worst kind of garbage. His third film is similar to his first two but different in various ways. The Box is as a visually arresting morality tale that has Kelly melding Twilight Zone-ish scenario with Kubrick like visuals and music. It’s a fascinating blend that makes the entire endeavor feel like some metaphysical dream. It’s probably Kelly’s most accessible film as the story and plot stay fairly tight for the most part. That’s not to say there aren’t the typical oddities that Kelly likes to dabble in, there are plenty especially as the film reaches its 3rd act. If you’ve watched his previous films you should know going in that everything won’t have a nice tidy resolution by the films close. Personally, I’ve always enjoyed this type of filmmaking which leaves the final interpretation of its meaning up to the individual viewer. Kelly’s talent as a filmmaker shouldn’t be in doubt even if he does tend to over extend himself too much at times in his story telling. The cast here is up to the task for the most part and give the subject matter sufficient gravitas. Frank Langella’s cold yet empathetic turn as morally nebulous Arlington Steward was the real ....high point.... of the film. Langella possesses an interesting quality to display varying emotions without changing expressions. Cameron Diaz and James Marsden do fairly impressive jobs with the leads. Diaz seems a bit limited by the exaggerated southern accent she’s trying to pull off, most of the time she sounds like Anna Paquin on True Blood. Regardless, she turns in a solid performance throughout. Richard Kelly’s The Box is a fascinating piece of cinema that probably won’t convert any of his detractors or let down his fans.


B

My 10 favorite horror movies....

Friday, October 30, 2009
My 10 favorite horror movies....
If you feel like watching something creepy on All Hallows Eve, may I recommend one of my 10 favorite Horror movies…....

10. The Ring (2002) Gore Verbinski


Before all the hype more or less killed the scares in this film, remake of the Japanese film Ringu, delivered plenty of atmosphere and scares. At the same time it paid homage to plenty of horror staples like dimension bending TV's, scary little girls, people being marked in photos for death and me being creeped out and loving it.



9. Suspiria (1977) Dario Argento








Dario Argento's Suspiria is the great auteur’s best film. Bloodshed mixed with wonderful use of Techicolor makes the whole thing seem like a nightmarish hallucination. The whole thing may not make perfect sense but it’s horror as high art and the visuals are just so beautifully shot that you can’t help but captivated. A scene involving a girl with very little clothing and a pit of barbed wire still gets me. Not to mention having a blind man get killed by his own seeing eye dog. Disturbing yes, and just a little funny too.



8. 28 Days Later (2002) Danny Boyle







Visceral, unrelenting and extremely effective Not a Zombie movie, according to Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later reinvigorated the long stagnate zombie movie genre. This movie offers some of the best zombie scares around and the director puts you right in the middle of the action, by shooting the whole thing with digital cameras, the tension and immediacy of the predicament is always palpable.



7. A Nightmare on .. (1984) Wes Craven



....



Before Freddy Krueger lost all his fright and became a walking one liner machine in the lesser sequels, he was pretty scary. Wes Craven's first foray into nightmares was a head-trip of a movie that is still effective today; just watch that scene where Freddy is walking down the alley with the super long arms in the dark and tell me it doesn’t freak you out.



6. Poltergeist (1982) Tope Hooper







An underrated, sometimes forgotten, ghost movie that still packs a punch today. Plenty of everyday things are turned sinister in this Tobe Hooper classic. It became very hard to look at clowns, tree branches and especially TV's in the same way after watching this flick.





5. Halloween (1978) John Carpenter







John Carpenter's low budget film slasher is still the standard by which all slasher films should be measured against. Simplistic and precise, it laid all the now recognizable plot points of slasher movies. Jamie Lee Curtis kicks offs off her career in this flick at the tender age of 19. Now a days you'll know what's coming but with such an effective use of atmosphere it can still give you the creeps.



4. Dawn of the Dead (1978) George A. Romero





George A. Romero more or less created the modern zombie horror genre with his groundbreaking film Night of the Living Dead with Dawn of the Dead he perfected it. Now I've never, even as a kid, been a fan of the blue zombies but if you can get past that you have one of the best horror films ever made. Gory, funny and laced with Romero’s social commentary Dawn of the Dead is one of top horror movies ever made.



3. The Thing (1982) John Carpenter







John Carpenter's best film, The Thing, is a marvel of the now lost art of creature effects; and they still hold up today. Carpenter's movie moves at an perfectly deliberate and paranoid pace. When the Thing makes its first and subsequent appearances, it's the stuff of glorious nightmares.



2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Tobe Hooper






The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is over 30 years old and still a scary piece of filmmaking. This films effectiveness is directly related to its budget. It feels grimly dirty and real. That's the main reason this film's remake could never live up, it just look to clean and proper, reeking of ..Hollywood.. hokum. One of the favorite and most manic scenes has to be the finale with Marilyn Chambers covered in blood in the back of the pick up screaming her brains out as Leatherface waves around that chainsaw in the dawn sunlight before we cut to the credits.



The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin





Friedkin's The Exorcist is still the ....Mount.. ..Olympus.... of horror films, for me at least, and too be honest I doubt anyone will ever top this masterpiece. Directed with a detached almost cold point of view, the audience is subjected to subtle jabs then in your face scares that build as the movie processes. The acting in this film is top notch, especially note worthy are Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller and, of course, Linda Blair. The scene with the final exorcism maybe the most effective horror movie climax ever. A movie that's not just about silly scares instead this one get under your skin

Movie Reviews: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Sunday, October 18, 2009
Movie Reviews: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
IN THEATERS

 

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Misunderstood at home and at school, mischievous Max (Max Records) escapes to a land populated by majestic, and sometimes fierce, creatures known as the Wild Things. The Wild Things allow Max to become their leader, and he promises to create a kingdom where everyone will be happy. However, Max soon finds that being the king is not easy, and that his relationships with the Wild Things are much more complicated than he originally thought.

Opened ..October 16, 2009..

Runtime: 1 hr. 34 min.

Cast: Max Records, James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Paul Dano, Tom Noonan, Catherine O'Hara, ..Forest.. Whitaker, Catherine Keener, Michael Berry Jr.

Director: Spike Jonze

Genres: Children's Fantasy, Fantasy Adventure, Adventure, Fantasy

Rated PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure action and brief language.

Review:

Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are is fascinating adaptation of the legendary children’s book. Visually stunning, the film has a palatable sense of youthful energy capturing the dizzying highs along with the painful lows. Jonze’s is able to capture this with extremely effective use of handheld cameras during certain portions of the film. The island is beautifully surreal giving it a dream like feel which fits perferctly into the story. The wild things themselves are technical marvels, created using a mix of puppetry and CGI. The voice actors complete these creations and bring them to life; Gandolfini in particular is surprisingly effective throughout. Lauren Ambrose also impresses as KW providing tenderness to her role mixed with a quiet strength. The rest of the voice cast are equally effective even if they aren’t given as much time as Ambrose or Gandolfini. New comer Max Record is a real find; he’s wonderfully naturalistic perfectly suited for the role. He has the gift to phase through the different emotions in a believable manner, something rare in child actors. Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers had the task of adapting a book with only a handful of sentences. They used the book as a starting point and expanded outward and created something magical, poignant and occasionally a little terrifying. It works a multitude of levels and can be enjoyed either as a straight forward tome or on more allegorical terms. Jonze’s had plenty of issues making this film and it could have fallen into a blackhole because of studio meddling. Luckily the film finally made it to the screen and we can see the fruits of Jonze’s labor. He has creating something that’s respectful of the book but able to stand on its own.

A

Movie Reviews: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

Saturday, October 10, 2009
Movie Reviews: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
IN THEATERS

 

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY

Soon after moving into a suburban tract home, Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) become increasingly disturbed by what appears to be a supernatural presence. Hoping to capture evidence of the haunting on film, Katie and Micah set up video cameras in their home, but they are not prepared for the terrifying occurrences which follow.

Director: Oren Peli

Opened October 2, 2009

Runtime: 1 hr. 39 min.

Rated R for language.

Genres: Thriller, Supernatural Thriller



Review:




Typically movies that get shelved for 2 years or so are destined to die a quick and painless death either through blink or you’ll miss it theatrical runs or as direct to DVD fodder. Many a big budget film has suffered one of these fates, just ask Mike Judge about Idiocracy, so how a film that was made over the course of a week and for ~$11,000 has survived and made a splash is almost as interesting as the film itself. Paranormal Activity has taken a long strange road the big screen and it’s building the kind of momentum that other recent horror “event” movies, ala The Ring and The Blair Witch Project, have had. Sharing the same DNA as the aforementioned Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity is shot point of view style here using a single camera and most of the action occurs in the couple’s bedroom. The acting and dialogue is decidedly amateurish but effective enough to not become grating. Most of the dialogue was improvised as there wasn’t really a script but only rough ideas for scenes. Micah Sloat does an admirable job as the skeptical and occasionally obnoxious boyfriend who tries to handle the problem himself. Katie Featherston doesn’t do as well and her inexperience is apparent throughout with her attempts at emotion either too subdued or manic. While the two are central to the story, director Oren Peli’s ability to create a slow burning tension is really the star of the show. He uses every haunted house trick available (doors slam, steps are heard, a Ouija board is used and there’s something in the attic) to creates a scenario where every creak or knock has your skin tingling. Slowly but surely ratcheting up the strange and scary activity, Peli becoming less and less subtle with each passing night, further tightening his grip around the audience’s conscience. The familiar setting makes the entire ordeal unsettling and it ensures the effect will remain well after you leave the theater, especially the next time you head to bed. The finale, sadly, comes off as cheap and unauthentic as if Peli wanted to knock it out of the park before sending the audience on their way but missing badly. A rumored alternate, original ending, sounds much better suited for the style and story. So is Paranormal Activity a great horror film? No, it’s a very good one and one that will have audiences, in later showings, bloated with expectations that this well crafted film won’t be able to meet which will invariably result an expected backlash. It’s best to watch these types of films early in the hype cycle with a packed theater and level head, much like The Blair Witch Project, because that’s when it’s most effective.




B-

Movie Reviews: TRICK R TREAT

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Movie Reviews: TRICK R TREAT
ON DVD



TRICK R TREAT



It is said that Halloween is the night when the dead rise to walk among us and other unspeakable things roam free. The rituals of All Hallows Eve were devised to protect us from their evil mischief, and one small town is about to be taught a terrifying lesson that some traditions are best not forgotten. Nothing is what it seems when a suburban couple learns the dangers of blowing out a Jack-o-Lantern before midnight; four women cross paths with a costumed stalker at a local festival; a group of pranksters goes too far and discovers the horrifying truth buried in a local legend; and a cantankerous old hermit is visited by a strange trick-or-treater with a few bones to pick. Costumes and candy, ghouls and goblins, monsters and mayhem...the tricks and treats of Halloween turn deadly as strange creatures of every variety—human and otherwise—try to survive the scariest night of the year.

Cast: Brian Cox, Anna Paquin, Dylan Baker, Leslie Bibb, Tahmoh Penikett

Director: Michael Dougherty

Originally intended release date October 5, 2007

Rated R for some sexuality/nudity, horror violence and language

Genres: Horror, Psychological Thriller, Ensemble Film

Review:

Stories of studio buffoonery are hardly anything new. Some movies and directors get tossed and beat around when a studio can’t figure out what to do with a film. Some never see the light of day at all or are given an unceremoniously short theatrical release followed quickly by being shoveled off to DVD. Michael Dougherty’s Trick R Treat sat on the shelves for nearly 2 full years before Warner Brothers decided to finally let it see the light of day via a direct to DVD release. Typical films cast off to direct to DVD hell are justifiable horrible and are probably best suited to have been seen by as few people as possible. Trick R Treat is not one of those films. It’s a true oddity that really makes you wonder how studio head couldn’t see the potential in this film. Michael Dougherty wrote and directed this incredibly fun Halloween anthology that pays homage to classics like Creepshow and Tales from the Crypt. Dougherty wrote a razor sharp script that’s effectively funny and frightening. He’s clearly a genre fan and it shows throughout as he interweaves the 4 divergent storylines into each other in a non linear fashion. He gives us fairly established motifs and conceits but gives them a nice little spin to make them interesting and fresh. Sam, the burlap masked midget, is equally familiar yet different and he doesn’t react the way you’d expect a character like him to. The direction is fun and colorful, doing a wonderful job of capturing the Halloween spirit when it’s in full force. Dougherty keeps a brisk pace moving the stories slow enough for you to savor them but he never lingers too much, kind of like going from house to house trick r treating. The director’s energy and enthusiasm is palpable and it extends to the cast as well. The most recognizable faces are Anna Paquin, Brian Cox and Dylan Barker. They all do very well in their roles playing up their stereotypical characters with a wink of a potential twist. The younger members of the cast, made up of primarily unknowns, are surprisingly effective and deserve big kudos for their work. At 82 minutes Trick R Treat is terribly short and it flies by, a good trait for films like this which make repeat viewings easier and required.

A