District 9 (2009)

Wow.  I was very interested in this film well before I sat down in the movie theater.  I have to give the marketing guys props for this because it was one of the best ad campaigns for a film I have seen in a long time.  District 9 is a fascinating film about aliens that are attempting to co-exist with humans in a dingy and unforgiving world.  Wikus Van De Merwe (newcomer Sharlto Copley) becomes our eyes and ears as he becomes more and more sympathetic to the aliens plight.

What’s good about it–Fantastic visual effects; it does what they should and they add to the movie and they do not BECOME the movie.  Filmed in Johannesburg, the cameramen went down and dirty and went for guerrilla filmmaking which gives the film a raw and grizzly feel.   The story is original and very compelling.  It was filmed in a very documentary style and you fall right into the world that the filmmakers created.  I was fascinated and I had no idea where the film was going to take me.  And I was moved too!  The film had something to tell me and I was angered by the aliens and by the humans.  It turned the camera around on us and made us think.  The acting was very good and I felt a connection with Wikus as his eyes were slowly opened to a different perspective.  You feel something and you want to do something after you see the film and that is a difficult artistic achievement. 

What’s not so good–Make no bones about it, this is an action movie.  For me the third act was a little bit of a let down as far as the story goes.  It became extremely violent (we even had our summer movie giant killer robot at the end).  It reminded me that I was not watching a message film with action, but an action film with a message.  Not really a critique, just know what movie you are watching…it will help.  There are a lot of questions left unanswered, but the answers are not easy ones to find (especially if you parallell it’s message with our world today).  It can be messy and a tough ride, but hang on because it is worth it.

I will want to watch this film again, and I wonder if a sequel might be in the future.  It doesn’t have to be, but the story certainly could go on.  I would highly recommend seeing this film, but bring your trash bags in case blood splatters on your shirt.  A-

(500) Days of summer (2009)

I often feel my film standards are set too high.  I cringe at little things that others omit from there memories and I praise the smallest camera trick that is barely noticeable.  However, I feel this film is a nice blend–audience appeal and good filmmaking.  Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) recounts his relationship with Summer (Zooey Deschanel) in sporadic, non-linear fashion.  It is both hilarious and touching to watch the results of two people sharing so much of their lives together to ultimately not be compatible.

What’s good about it–Everyone will connect with this film.  Everyone has felt this kind of pain/happiness and there is no great leap to relate.  The performances are understated and natural with no sign of a “cheeky romantic comedy wink”.  The film uses Tom’s memories to it’s advantage and spreads it’s wings to create a strong narrative that does not seem cliche.  I laughed out loud several times and that is not an easy thing for a movie to do for a tight-wad like me. 

What’s not so good–It may profess to not be a romantic comedy, but ultimately, the film is a indie romantic comedy.  You have the depressed male hero meeting the overly eccentric female who opens his world to knew ideas yet the world is not as picture perfect as idealized.  It follows the indie film formula, so the overall message is not necessarily new (which I am okay with).  I found the film far more accessible than most indie films and for that I applaud it.  But I was more satisfied watching ANNIE HALL then this one. 

This is a fine film!  I recommend it to all my friends (moviewatchers and novices alike).  There is something to be mined for everyone.  Very creative and a lot of fun

Rating=B

The Brothers Bloom (2009)

The director of THE BROTHERS BLOOM is what initially attracted me to this film. Rian Johnson created BRICK back in 2005 which was a film noir favorite of mine.  He has returned (with a bit more of a budget this time) to create a fun heist movie with Adrian Brody and Mark Ruffalo as sibling con-men.  They hatch a scheme to swindle a billion dollar heiress (Rachel Weisz) yet through the course of there adventure, Brody inevitably falls in love with her.  However, they all have crafted a web of lies that has become too tangled to get out easily.  We are left wondering what is true and what is false just as much as the characters. 

What is good about it:  It is fun.  The art direction and costuming present us with a world that is closer to fairytale than real life.  There is always a hint that we should not take the story too seriously, just as we should never truly trust what Ruffalo says.  The story is character driven and we are intent on finding out what choices will lead them to happiness.  Adrian Brody has the unique ability to be so sympathetic yet never rolling over into cliche.  And Rachel Weisz is quirky, fun, and she exercises impressive comedic chops.  

What’s not so good:  Like most con-movies, it can be confusing.  I was a little lost on where the plot was leading at times, but luckily the characters were interesting enough that I didn’t mind.  I think the film avoided cliche so much that it could have actually benefited from a car chase or two.  Just something to help us spring board into the next step of the plot with more energy.  The film meandered about but ultimately the story is not about the heist, but about the brothers (and the title is still confusing to me…their names are Steve and Bloom.  So perhaps it is meant to say the brothers “bloom”). 

This is a great movie to see with friends or on a date.  The comedy is hilarious and the relationships are touching.  You want to go wherever the movie takes you.  A solid “B+”.

Moon (2009)

Most films that are released in the summer months are box office dynamite–in that they draw in audiences.  After watching a few of what Hollywood had to offer, I felt a sharp ache in my heart for something deeper.  I realized that ultimately the spectacle of Wolverine, Terminator, and Transformers was a drug that provided little sustenance.  I therefore went to the indie theater, and my money now goes toward tickets for the underground favorites.  I feel like I am giving my lunch money to a small, intelligent dork with a lot of potential instead of the flashy, popular class bully that everyone ultimately dislikes.  So may I introduce you to MOON.  Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is completing his 3 year mission on the moon mining for precious minerals to sustain life on Earth.  He is alone, aside from his computer companion GERTY (in the spirit of HAL 9000–and voiced by Kevin Spacey).  All he wants is to return home to his wife and child, but his mind is finally reaching a breaking point on the empty lunar surface.  Then something happens (as it always does in science fiction).  Sam is injured and is rescued by…himself.

What is good about it:  I saw the trailer and immediately looked to find where the nearest theater would be playing it.  It was a brilliant movie and completely absorbing.  Sam Rockwell is–as always–dynamite and fascinating to watch.  The film was shot with a budget of $5 million, using models and in camera effects.  The result is authentic and organic, and I believe more films would do well to follow the “less is more” approach to effects work.  The story is not terribly complex, and it leaves room for interpretation which I believe will reach movie-goers who do not directly gravitate to sci-fi.  I truly enjoyed the experience.

What is not so good:  It is a slow film.  Let’s be honest, we have one actor and one location–so anyone expecting a fast action should keep away.  It is cerebral and introspective which again is a hard sell for audiences.  It demands something more from a viewer that requires us to engage the material, and so it won’t always work for everyone.  I felt the explanation for Sam’s situation in the film was arrived at too quickly and thus some suspense was lost, but I feel that the film sacrificed some gimmicks in order to entertain the themes that the movie presents. 

I will tell you to go see this film, but not to have extrodianrily high expectations.  It is classified as “hard science fiction” which can be hit or miss depending on your mood.  However, I do think that you will be surprised and ultimately satisfied after watching the film.  A strong “A” from me and I hope to see more risky fare like this from the studios.

Seriously, do we see any similarities in these two promotional posters?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Hey everyone, finally I will interject a review in the middle of the Friday the 13th marathon.  I break the silence with X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  We get the back story from everyone’s favorite X-man.  We discover what tortuous past leads Logan to inject indestructible metal into his bones and become Wolverine.  He must battle the government, his arch-nemesis Sabertooth (brilliantly casted with Liev Schreiber) and mingle with many-a-mutant.  Forewarning, there will be spoilers if you keep reading…

What’s good about it…

All the action you could want from a superhero movie: lots of cool fights and lots of shout outs to the fans.  This is really a fan movie; I mean, we finally get Gambit and even though he was a little silly–I finally got to see his STAFF SLAM ATTACK!  The real story though comes with Sabertooth and Wolverine…that is probably the weightiest part of the film and what I was most interested in.  I also loved seeing Wolverine with the team of mutants that Stryker teamed up (harkening to the teams we have seen in the other films). We see some favorites like Blob, Bolt, Deadpool, Cyclops, and many others.  It redeems somewhat the time I wasted with X-men 3. 

What is not so good…

If you are not  an X-men fan, then this will seem as a sloppy film.  It interjects so many fights that it really gets more repetitive than exciting.  The story is far too complicated (his girl is killed, then not killed, then working for the enemy, then back with Wolverine, then killed again).  The story is with Sabertooth and Wolverine…that is where it should have stayed; forget this weird Deadpool mutant hybrid storyline.  They really don’t even explore Wolverine as Weapon X–which is why he cannot remember anything (not because of a stupid adimantium bullet lobotomy…that was really lame).  They could have done fine making this a Weapon X story, but it was more of a Wolverine story. 

I give it a C-.  There are several reasons why this isn’t a spectacular movie.  They toned down the really intense stuff (it’s PG-13), they spent too much time trying to give fans what they wanted, and Hugh Jackman produced.  But they at least created a story that was true to the characters and that seemed to add to the other X-men films without repeating too much or killing off beloved characters.  My biggest critique about X-men films is that it should always be about the team, and not about the individual–but alas, I still enjoyed this film.

friday the 13th retrospective: part 8 jason takes manhattan

This is the low point of the series, but I told you that I would watch all these, so here I am. I’m doing this so you don’t have to. That said, here we go!

It’s graduation time. A local group of high school students are planning a trip to Manhattan, The Big Apple. Lucky for us, two of the graduates decide to take a houseboat from Crystal Lake to the spot where the boat is leaving. Again, lucky for us, they drop their anchor to have sex.  Their anchor gets stuck on a large power line that just so happens to have been laid over Jason’s body. So as the boat pulls on the anchor the line breaks and jolts Jason back to his old self. He disposes of them and rides the boat to the same dock where the rest of their classmates will soon be leaving. Jason “hops” on the boat and away we go!

There are a couple of main characters that the “story” revolves around, but who cares. This is another one where you just want Jason to kill all the characters off. There isn’t anything new here. A couple of people make it to Manhattan and Jason chases them there. It ends in the sewers where they catch Jason with a nightly toxic flush. When it’s over he is left there as a boy crying on the ground.

Part 8 doesn’t do it for me. They try to make Jason funny at points, but its not. If you are looking for more Jason kills then you might enjoy it, but if there is one movie you have to skip, this is the one.

Rating: 1 Machete (No, it doesn’t even deserve any blood)
Body Bags Needed: 19
Non-Jason Kills: 2
Survivor(s): Rennie and Sean

friday the 13th retrospective: part 7

In case you missed them: retrospective intro, part 1, Part 2, part3, part 4, part 5, part 6

For anyone who hoped that after the sixth movie they would really try harder to make a decent movie, I’m sorry. Notice I didn’t say good movie, but decent (I’m willing to be realistic).

I’m not really sure what they where thinking at this point. The plot revolves around Tina. She has telekinetic powers (I know, I don’t get it either). Her parents have a cabin at Crystal Lake. As a child, she saw her father hit her mom and was so pissed that she took a boat to the middle of the lake. Her father came after standing on the dock, but this just escalated her anger. While her father was on the dock, her fury unlocked her telekinetic powers, destroying the dock and drowning her father.

Now as a teenager, her doctor takes her back to the cabin to face her fears, but all the doctor wants to do is study her powers. Frustrated, she goes to the lake to use her skill in hopes of bringing back her father. Guess what happens instead? She brings Jason back instead. Again, there are some teenagers in a nearby cabin for Jason to kill, and he does so.

This also marks the first of four times Kane Hodder plays Jason. I’m not a fan of his Jason. People say that he brought personality to the role. But I don’t think that turning his head quickly compared to his slow moving body is much of a personality. All Jason needs to do is look big and beat the crap out of people, period.

Back to the story, Jason has a bazillion fake deaths in this movie and it is more annoying than Tina’s freakouts. So finally, they are back at the lake and Tina summons her father from the dead and he pulls Jason back down with him. The end.

Rating: 1 Bloody Machete
Body Bags Needed: 16
Non-Jason Kills: 1
Survivor(s): Tina and Nick

friday the 13th retrospective: part 6 jason lives

If you missed them: Retrospective Intro, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

Ok, this one is bad, so lets make it quick. Tommy and his friend from the mental institution go to incinerate Jason’s body to end his madness once and for all. They go to dig him up during a lightning storm. Tommy freaks out, rips a rot iron pole from the fence and stabs Jason’s corpse manically. Guess what happens next, the pole gets struck by lightning multiple times and reanimates Jason.

Then the opening credits start where Jason walks out and spoofs the James Bond opening where he shoots the camera. When did Friday movies spoof other genres? The movie goes down hill from here. People die, they change the lakes name to “Forrest Green,” and a bunch of other worthless things happen.

What they tried to do was for this movie to make fun of itself. There is a couple of times it works, but other times I’d rather pee on my face, seriously. Why would anyone think people wanted this to be a comedy? Case and point, the entire paintball scene defecates on the entire series. Like in part 3, we return to rooting for Jason because you hate the characters.

It ends with Tommy figuring out he must take Jason back to his original resting place. He does by wrapping a bolder with a chain on one end and Jason on the other. I guess Tommy didn’t catch that he has to be dead for it to work because he is quite alive at the end of the movie.

Rating: 1 Bloody Machete
Body Bags Needed: 16
Survivor(s): Tommy, Megan and the camp kids

friday the 13th retrospective: part 5 a new beginning

If you missed them: Retrospective Intro, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 6

WHAT! Another one? I guess they made too much money for Jason to just die off. This Friday starts with a dream sequence. Tommy, the slayer of Jason, goes to his grave and finds two idiots dig up Jason to find that he is not dead. Tommy wakes up, looks to be twenty-ish, and is on his way to halfway house for kids his age. At the house, we meet some kids. The only kid who really matters is the fat annoying kid who gets killed by another resident.

We notice quickly that this isn’t the same Jason we’ve loved and hated. The Jason look-alike has different markings on his mask. Instead of the red triangle on the forehead there are two blue marks over the cheekbones. Tommy does have some visions of Jason in his mask as a reminder. Tommy hasn’t handled life well post Crystal Lake. He isn’t the fun talkative boy from the forth movie; he only has 15-20 lines in the whole movie and a short fuse too. He whips out some type of martial arts a couple times, which makes me wonder. Why would anyone let a kid with anger issues take karate lessons? Just sayin’.

Many people rag on this Friday. There are several reasons I enjoyed this one. First of all, they bring back the Jason POV shots in the woods, and an overall go since of suspense. They learned their lesson from the previous outing and realized that the “gotcha” scares work better if there is a little suspense to go with them. The other reason is that the first time I saw part 5 I was convinced that Tommy was the new Jason. So much that the second time I watched it, I thought that Tommy was Jason. I remember when Jason was in the barn with Tommy, and I still thought something was going to happen where Tommy was Jason. The writer thought it would be better for it to be a random EMS worker who’s son was killed at the beginning of the movie. Oh don’t forget that fat kid said that he didn’t have any family. If he only knew he had a stalker for a father, things would have been better.

There were three things that they could have done to help the series out. One, make Tommy a Jason 2.0. That’s what everyone wanted anyway. Two, make the kid who killed the fat kid Jason for the day. It wouldn’t have been good but it would have at least made more since than the actual killer. Three, not make the sixth movie . . .

Rating: 3 Bloody Machetes
Body Bags Needed: 18
Non-Jason Kills: 18
Survivor(s): Tommy, Pam and Reggie