12/29
THE PAINTED VEIL is a film adaptation of the 1925 novel by W. Somerset Maugham who was one of the most popular authors of the 1930s and probably the highest paid. The Painted Veil was also a 1934 Greta Garbo movie but not likely as authentic looking as this version. The update stars Naomi Watts as an upper middle class, frivolous, self centred English woman. Despite her flaws she captures the heart of an earnest but humourless medical researcher played by Edward Norton. Under parental pressure to marry she accepts his proposal, but after the wedding he informs her that they have to return to China where his work is. She thinks him a fool because of his shyness but when she takes a lover she finds out that he is not to be trifled with. He volunteers to take over as the only doctor in a remote village being ravaged by disease and she is thrust into a situation of danger, death and despair where she does a lot of growing up. The Painted Veil is a rich, romantic movie that is gorgeous to look at.
12/22
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM was originally supposed to be filmed in Montreal but turned out to be the most expensive movie every shot in Vancouver. In yet another of his goofy comedies, Ben Stiller is back as a divorced New York entrepreneur whose complete lack of business sense has pushed him into bankruptcy. Although he could stay afloat by moving out of the city but he desperately wants to stay for easy visitations with his son. Unqualified for a real job he settles on the only work available – night watchman at the Museum of Natural History. The museum is being downsized and standouts Dick Van Dyke and especially Mickey Rooney provide Stiller with training before receiving their pink slips. Their detailed instructions neglect to mention that the exhibits come alive after closing which means among other things a terrifying T-Rex confrontation and a humiliating war of words with a pint sized cowboy played by Owen Wilson. Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt provides courage and consolation as Stiller comes to realize what is causing the relic resurrections.
THE GOOD GERMAN can’t seem to decide if it wants to be homage or send up of the classic films noir. The scene is post war Berlin shot in black and white using special effects abandoned by the 60’s. George Clooney is an army correspondent sent to cover the Potsdam division of Europe. His character seems to forget that he wasn’t trained for active duty as he picks at least half a dozen fights and looses all of them. He’s welcomed to Germany by Toby Maguire, a low rank hustler assigned to be Clooney’s driver. Cate Blanchett is Maguire’s girlfriend and as it turns out at one time she was dating Clooney too. If this sounds like it’s a coincidence, it’s not and we spend the movie finding out why as bodies pile up and betrayal runs rampant. The Good German is god but could be better.
THE GOOD SHEPHERD is not only better it could be the best at Oscar time. Robert De Niro directs an all star cast that includes himself in this fictionalized genesis of the Central Intelligence Agency. Matt Damon is outstanding as a mild mannered flag waving spook. Flashing back from the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs incident we see how his Yale connections and his work as a post war OSS operative put him on the fast rack to power in the fledgling spy agency. However The Bay of Pigs failure meant there was a leak somewhere and Damon is assigned to discover who talked. A grainy photo and a scratchy tape recording lead him to the answer and force him to decide between his country and all that he loves. The Good Shepherd is an epic tale almost three hours long that almost leaves you wanting more.
WE ARE MARSHALL is the answer to the question “who are we” when posed by the football coach of West Virginia’s Marshall University. One fateful night in 1970 all of a sudden it was we aren’t Marshall after a tragic plane crash wiped out 75 members of the team ant its coaching staff. The football program almost collapsed until the arrival of the new coach played by Matthew McConaughey who makes up in charm and cunning what he lacks in taste for clothes, even by 1970’s standards. He not only has to try to miraculously put a team together but also has to dispel the demons of the surviving team members. We Are Marshall is an inspiring fact-based film but along with Gridiron Gang and Invincible makes this the third football movies this year and in those standings only ranks number three.
CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER is from the same director as House of Flying Daggers and Hero. As far as martial arts go, this one is a little less martial and a lot more art. Exploding colour rather than fists bombard the eyes in this drama set during the Tang Dynasty 1000 years ago. That’s not to say there’s an absence of jaw dropping punch-ups, just more emphasis on plot. Superstars Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li are Emperor and Empress locked in a power struggle that forces the three princes to choose between them and thus tears the family apart and leaves the Empire in ruins. Look for Curse of the Golden Flower as China’s 2006 Oscar entry for best foreign-language consideration.
Opening Christmas Day:
DREAMGIRLS is a film that you will hear a lot about in the coming months. Already nominated for multiple Golden Globes, it will also get a lot of attention at Oscar time.Beyoncé Knowles steps up and hits her stride in a dream gig opposite veterans Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy who thankfully learned to sing since 1985’s “Party All the Time”. Foxx is an oily Barry Gordy Jr. type who manipulates to his advantage several 60’s musical careers including Murphy (who looks like Little Richard and acts like Marvin Gaye) and a Supremes like female trio originally called the Dreamettes. Mirroring Diana Ross, Knowles is the reluctant new front for the group at the expense of the original lead played by the movies real standout, former American Idol reject Jennifer Kate Hudson whose agonized offering of 'And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going' is a complete show stopper. The story has a right-on familiarity but the music is the key to DreamGirls. Motown fans will have to be thrilled by the refreshed spin on that great musical genre.
BLACK CHRISTMAS is a remake of the 1974 Canadian cult favourite starring Olivia Hussey, Andrea Martin and Margot Kidder. Andrea Martin returns in this one but no longer a doomed sorority sister, this time she’s the matronly house mother. Although filmed in Vancouver there’s not much to identify our city but there are some casting curiosities like stars Katie Cassidy who is the daughter of David Cassidy and Goldie Hawn’s son Oliver Hudson. Although this gives more background on the psychotic killer this one is not as much fun. The ’74 version was directed by Bob Clark who also gave us A Christmas Story and although he’s an executive producer on this version the original humour is missing or subdued by the gore required to draw fans of Saw and Hostel. With that you might not be amused but you’ll keep an eye on the screen because there always seems to be someone’s eye on the screen.
12/20
CHARLOTTE’S WEB brings the best-selling children's paperback of all time by E. B. White to the silver screen. Dakota Fanning is her usual fanning-tastic self as Fern a farm girl who literally saves the bacon of a porcine runt and names him Wilbur. The rural adults are constantly considering Wilbur more as pork than as a pet but a creative barn spider named Charlotte comes to his rescue not only from humans but also from the scrutiny of the other farm animals. Julia Roberts is the overly subdued voice of Charlotte and she and Fanning are among an all star voice over cast that includes Oprah, Kathy Bates, John Cleese, Jennifer Garner and Reba McEntire. Standouts include Steve Buscemi as Templeton the Rat and an unrecognizable Robert Redford as Ike the Horse and holding his own among these heavyweights is 10 year old Dominic Scott Kay as Wilbur. Charlotte's Web will charm all who see it but will delight pre-teens more than the adults that bring them to the movie.
Also out:
ROCKY BALBOA
12/15
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS is based on the book telling real events of author Chris Gardner’s life and stars Will Smith as a less than successful medical supply salesman who hits rock bottom after his wife abandons him and their son. The story follows him literally chasing his dream to become a San Francisco stock broker. Smith is a charming as ever and playing his son is Jaden Christopher Syre Smith who is a standout. The kid comes by it naturally since he’s the actual son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith so the on screen relationship comes across very real, although unlike Chris Gardner who had trouble buying his son bus fare, Smith can obviously buy his son as many names as humanly possible. The Pursuit of Happiness is often the pursuit of frustration. You can predict what is going to happen but the journey there can be annoying to watch. It is hard to believe that a guy who has the right stuff to ace exams and wow big wheels could make so many dumb mistakes.
THE HISTORY BOYS doesn’t exactly put a lie to the cliché of latent gay tendencies lurking around the halls of British all-boy schools. That said there is a lot to take away from this story of a graduating class of boisterous lads reaching for the Holy Grail of academia – acceptance into Oxford or Cambridge. Their fussbudget headmaster hires a young turk to bolster their test scores as he is determination to have a high number of his students placed at those Universities. In order to do the job the new teacher must elbow in on the territory of a beloved old school history teacher played by veteran actor Richard Griffiths who manages to be completely loveable and completely repulsive at the same time. We can all take a lesson from The History Boys.
SNOW CAKE is a Canadian triumph that attracted some high end international talent. This UK/Canadian co-production stars our own Carrie-Anne Moss along with Britain’s Alan Rickman who talked Sigourney Weaver into rounding out the cast. They all end up in Wawa Ontario after some tragic circumstances involving Weaver’s daughter. Rickman is a hang-dog overseas traveller who was the reluctant good Samaritan giving the daughter a lift while on a mysterious road trip to Winnipeg from Toronto (it didn’t look that far on the map).He feels compelled to meet Weaver who turns out to be a raving obsessive compulsive personality and soon he’s staying in the frosty hamlet for much longer than he is comfortable with and getting more involved with the small town populace than he’d like – except for Carrie-Anne Moss. Snow Cake is an entertaining story that is well told.
Also out:
ERAGON
12/8
APOCALYPTO is an action packed thriller that takes place as the ancient Mayan civilization of Central America is disintegrating. Jaguar Paw, the main character lives a pastoral life in a jungle village oblivious to the troubles crushing his race. After a pillaging war party attacks, he and the surviving villagers are taken prisoner and marched to a pyramided city where some are sold as slaves and others are literally marked for appeasement to the Sun God. As remarkable as the cinematography is the talent of the unknown cast, including 2 Canadians Jonathan Brewer and Fernando Hernandez Perez plus the star Rudy Youngblood who spent some time living close to us in Washington State. Another fascination is that director Mel Gibson as in The Passion of the Christ has the actors all speaking in the indigenous language of the time. Apocalypto is about 25 minutes too long but as we all know Gibson is not the world’s best editor.
BLOOD DIAMOND is an even longer movie that seems to fly by. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as an unscrupulous South African mercenary engaged in diamond smuggling. Djimon Hounsou is a poor fisherman separated from his family by marauding rebels looking for children to recruit and slaves to mine the diamonds that fund their war. When they meet in jail Dicaprio finds out that the fisherman at his own peril has hidden a huge pink diamond in the wilderness. Dicaprio wants to con him out of the gem but a journalist he meets played by a more mature but no less appealing Jennifer Connelly softens his resolve and his diamond-hard heart. Blood Diamond, following on the heels of The Departed is another 2006 triumph for DiCaprio only this time even more so and he should expect a best actor nod at Oscar time.
THE HOLIDAY has Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet as heartbroken workaholics who meet on line. They swap houses in Hollywood and Surrey England respectively to flee their troubles at home. While holidaying they each find comfort in the company of Jude Law for Diaz and Jack Black for Winslet. Black seems an odd choice for a serious love interest but pulls it off. As a matter of fact without him they’d have to drop “comedy” in describing this as romantic comedy although it’s probably wise that we don’t see him and Winslet snogging a lot or they’d have to drop “romantic”. The majority of the canoodling is left to Diaz and Law, both equally pretty but Diaz at time proved to be a little too cute. The Holiday is a refreshing getaway date movie for the upcoming holiday season.
MONKEY WARFARE stars Don McKeller, a Canadian who has put some very watchable ideas on film over the years. Monkey Warfare is about 60’s revolutionary sensibilities barely surviving in the modern world. This is a tasty film but the ending looks less like a conclusion and more like an exhaustion of government grant funding.
Also out this weekend:
SK8 LIFE
and
UNACCOMPANIED MINORS
12/1
BOYNTON BEACH CLUB is all about the angst of dating. However the stars are anything but hyper-hormonal twenty-somethings, they’re seniors in a Florida retirement community and starting over after decades in a comfortable relationship proves every bit as awkward for them as just fledged kids trying to score. Players, betrayal and body image are just as common although Viagra is a new phenomenon. Boynton Beach Club is worth it just to revisit long time favourites like Sally Kellerman and Dyan Cannon although Cannon looks like she hasn’t eaten since the ‘80s. Maybe they just sucked out all her body fat and injected it into her lips, but that’s the only quibble with this gentle and delightful comedy.
NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VAN WILDER: THE RISE OF TAJ is Van Wilder in name only. There’s no sign of Ryan Reynolds but Kal Penn who co-starred in that 2002 dorm storming comedy is back as the focus. He’s off to a stuffy British university for post grad work, thinking that like his father, he’s pledged to a prestigious fraternity. That proves not to be the case and he finds himself in charge of a dormitory of unpopular misfits. Thankfully Taj can fall back on party animal skills acquired at Coolidge College to elevate the self esteem of his students. Kudos to Van Wilder 2 for taking a risk relying on a racial protagonist and introducing fresh and amusing new adjectives for genitalia however this is yet another cookie cutter predictable teen flick.
TURISTAS opens with young travellers taking a wild ride on a Brazilian bus who get stranded after the driver fails to negotiate a tight corner. They think they’re in luck as the bus disintegrates a short distance from a paradise-like beach with a well stocked cabana, however they come to the next day robbed and alone and unbeknownst to them, the subjects of a grizzly plot. The location shots in Turistas are gorgeous but the story grows inconsistent. All of a sudden everyone in the lengthy underwater chase has a waterproof flashlight and it’s hard to tell who is swimming after whom. Turistas is a little like Hostel meets The Cave but more thrilling and less gruesome.
UNNATURAL & ACCIDENTAL was one of the featured films at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival. A young native woman searches the seedier areas of Vancouver in vein trying to find answers in the death of one of many first nation women. Indifference to this tragedy is obvious in the way curious deaths involving alcohol are dismissively tagged after an autopsy – Unnatural and Accidental.
Also opening this weekend:
THE NATIVITY STORY
and
BLACK EYED DOG
11/24
DECK THE HALLS was screened by a host of CISL listeners Monday night, and I noticed some laughter among them - perhaps nervous laughter for the people who would eventually pay to see the movie. Matthew Broderick plays a small town optometrist who as chair of the town decorating committee lives for Christmas. His tranquil life is disrupted when a miscast Danny DeVito as a vagabond car salesman move in across the street with his trophy wife and twin future trophy wife daughters. Devito decides his mission in life is to string enough Christmas lights so that his house is visible from space. This puts him at odds with his new neighbours. Laughs are sparse and often the result of irritating set ups and despite patent pandering to cheap sentimentality, Deck the Halls can not raise an ounce of sympathy for any of its characters.
BOBBY on the other hand really got to me. An all star cast portrays ordinary citizens affected by the events of June 6th 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Las Angeles where Robert F Kennedy was assassinated. Emilio Estevez wrote and stars in it along with his father, former brat packer Demi Moore and her child bridegroom Ashton Kutcher. Our friend to the south may feel this is an “important” film but it doesn’t go that far. However it is wonderfully nostalgic as it captures an era and CISL listeners will love the music. Bobby leaves one wondering what direction the world would have taken had this visionary actually become the president to which he seemed destined.
TENACIOUS D IN ‘THE PICK OF DESTINY’ stars the actual duo that makes up the acoustic spoof rock band Tenacious D - Kyle Gass and the more familiar actor Jack Black. For the uninitiated Tenacious D started as an HBO series which spawned a popular music CD. Now the two slackers are on film still trying to be the greatest rock band in the world. After carefully examining the album covers of various metallic glam-rock artists they discover a common denominator – guitarists using The Pick of Destiny which turns out to be fashioned from one of Satan’s teeth. They believe that owning that pick is their ticket to super stardom or at least victory at open mic night and will stop at nothing to possess it. Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny will blow your mind but only if you’re a male 18 year old fan of the band.
VOLVER starring Penélope Cruz opened this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. She plays a Spanish mother in hard times with her unemployed husband. Things get worse when a dear aunt dies. The aunt always seemed haunted by the ghost of Cruz’s mother and after her passing mom appears to her children and grandchild. Meantime Cruz seems to be pulling her life together when she puts her culinary skills to work at a restaurant. However there is more drama when her daughter takes revenge on the man who is molesting her and again Cruz has to get creative to resolve a bad situation. Volver is another triumph for Penélope Cruz - surpassed only by her break-up with Tom Cruise.
Also out:
DÉJÀ VU with Denzel Washington
and
THE FOUNTAIN with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz
11/17
CASINO ROYALE takes the James Bond franchise to a newer, higher level. There was some doubt whether Daniel Craig had the royale jelly to do 007 justice but not to worry he actually raises the bar. He’s not the sophisticate we’re accustomed to but rather he’s a little ruffled and rough around the edges. Although set in the here and now the story takes place just after he gets his license to kill which helps explain the attitude and the split ends. There’s a refreshing absence of gizmos but no lack of heart pounding action as Bonds maverick over-achieving jeopardises MI6. While on forced leave he uncovers a terrorist money laundering operation and is assigned to neutralize the bad guys in a high stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. Canada’s Oscar winner Paul Haggis is a co-writer and his handy work is evident in the clever dialogue.
LITTLE CHILDREN stars Kate Winslet as a neglected housewife. Her only human contact is daily playground meetings trapped gossiping with the vacuous neighbourhood mothers. While the others tongues start wagging from a distance at the new arrival of a hot stay at home dad, Winslet strikes up a friendship that blossoms into much more. He’s in the same boat at home with his wife played by Jennifer Connelly. She’s a workaholic PBS producer (in a subliminal irony the narrative is done by a familiar PBS voice). He finds some additional fulfillment as a touch football star quarterback. He’s talked into playing by an old friend with low self esteem issues that manifest themselves in a bullying demeanour. Little Children touches a lot of emotions as the kids play and the adults try to grow up. It’s a mystery why the release date for this movie has been pushed back a few times. Maybe they want it still fresh in voters minds come Oscar time.
FAST FOOD NATION yet again stars Greg Kinnear as a junior exec in a fast food company who is sent to a Texas border town to investigate why hamburger patties produced there have unacceptable levels of bacteria. The packing plant that he is sent to see about is a haven for illegal Mexicans. Bruce Willis is an oily cattle man who almost has Kinnear turning a blind eye but a revealing conversation with an in-the-know rancher played by Kris Kristofferson outlines the real truth. Will he blow the whistle or is his CEO grooming like the future of the illegal aliens – at the mercy of the let- sleeping- bacteria- lie status quo. Fast Food Nation is based in the non fiction best seller by Eric Schlosser and masterfully dramatizes his research into a compelling story.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION is a headline often seen in the film trade magazines ads around Oscar time as a way of prodding Academy members to remember a movie or actor when it comes time to vote. For Your Consideration revolves around making the film Home for Purim where the dialogue is peppered with Yiddish colloquialisms spoken in a southern drawl as a deep south family with issues unites for the festival of Lots. Rumours of Academy Award nominations on set starts the imaginations of several actors running rampant. Again the ensemble that brought us Best in Show and A Mighty Wind regroup here to improvise more clever hilarity. In contrast to those films this is not done mock-documentary style yet still it pokes a big sharp stick at the Hollywood formula.
FUR: AN IMAGINARY PORTRAIT OF DIANE ARBUS is a completely fabricated scenario using one of the world’s most renowned photographers as the central character.
Nicole Kidman is Diane Arbus who made her mark in the 50’s and 60’s with her photos of freaks and outsider. She did come from money and married a struggling actor (who in real life ended up on the TV series MASH after they divorced). After that the facts are out and fiction takes over in a macabre. She finds herself drawn Robert Downey Jr. her hirsute upstairs neighbour who seduces her and introduces her to the outsiders that become her vision. Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus is odd but engaging and the performances are flawless.
Also out:
HAPPY FEET is an animated feature with the voices of Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, and Britanny Murphy .
LET’S GO TO PRISON
11/10
STRANGER THAN FICTION stars Will Ferrell, a tightly wound and lonely government tax auditor who one day starts hearing a voice narrating he every move. Emma Thompson is the voice which turns out to originate from a best selling author working on her masterpiece. This haunting is merely a curious annoyance until it foreshadows Farrell’s death, so he seeks professional help from the only logical source, an English-lit professor played by Dustin Hoffman. Audiences enjoying this action might be convinced that it can only end badly, but it doesn’t, the ending is perfect. Farrell is a loveable actor but his movies can be hit or miss. Like Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby this is another triumph. Stranger than Fiction is hilarious too but also triggers emotion, something that so far has eluded Farrell’s work.
A GOOD YEAR reunites Russell Crowe with director Ridley Scott this time without the Gladiators. Crowe hasn’t done much comedy lately but he has the chops for it. He’s a British stock market bulldog whose tenacity was nurtured during early teen holiday visits to a French vineyard estate owned by his beloved vintner uncle. Although estranged for some time, when uncle portrayed by Albert Finney dies his pastoral home is passed on to his only living relative. Crowe goes to France planning to cash out but his delayed return gives the surrounding village a chance to seduce him. The gentle humour of A Good Year has legs and the romance is full bodied.
HARSH TIMES is a gritty action drama that has been sitting on a shelf since 2005. Christian Bale stars as a battle scarred ex-army ranger trained to kill with no remorse. He dreams of making a life with his Mexican sweetheart by getting on with the LAPD. Freddy Rodríguez is his boyhood friend from South Central LA who makes a daily pretence of job hunting to placate his girlfriend played by Eva Longoria but the two long time friends spiral back to their former life of petty crime. Bales character is turned down by the police department slips into psychosis even though he’s successful with his plan B of working with the Department of Homeland Security because they want him to do the same kind of wet work that haunts him from his days in the armed forces.
DRIVING LESSONS is a cute but predictable coming of age British midlands comedy. A stifled teen reluctantly takes on a part time job as houseboy for a cantankerous and conniving fading actress. The experience not only gives him a backbone but pumps new life into his employer. Julie Walters gives her usual attention commanding performance and Laura Linney is convincing as his smothering British mother.
CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD is a rather preachy movie based on author Neale Donald Walsch, whose faith saved him from his life of homelessness.
THE RETURN with screamer queen Sarah Michelle Gellar
11/03
BORAT is the big screen coming out for comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. He is Borat Sagdiyev a fictional TV reporter from Kazakhstan that Cohen created, who was introduced on British TV prior to being picked up by HBO. Borat’s shtick is to interact with real people, usually interviewing pompous authority figures, and to pepper the event with outrageous remarks and totally unacceptable behaviour. In this movie the bits are strung together by a plot which has him coming to America to produce a documentary about the USA. While watching TV in New York he discovers Bay Watch and is smitten by Vancouver Island’s Pamela Anderson. He convinces his producer that a road trip to LA (home of Mrs. Kid Rock) is required for the integrity of their film. The humour in Borat is often very uncomfortable but also groundbreaking and brilliant.
(Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan)
FLUSHED AWAY is an animated feature that has Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman as the voices of 2 mice that team up in the sewers under London when one is literally flushed away down the loo from the cushy life of an upper crust pet. He discovers a whole universe where life is an adaptation in a Flintstones – MacGyver kind of way of everything that comes down the pipe. Ian McKellen voices a neighbourhood royal watching frog with a grudge against one of our heroes and a devious plan for all the neighbours. In a slightly politically incorrect twist, his frog accomplices all happen to be French, still the humour is cute and fresh and will amuse young and old alike.
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND is a remarkable piece of work for Forest Whitaker who plays 70’s Ugandan strongman Idi Amin. Any of us who remember Amins terrors might have wondered how someone so ruthless could be given that kind of power. Whitakers captivates the populist down to earth façade that masked the monster underneath. One quirky Amin attribute was a fascination for anything Scottish, so when a missionary doctor fresh from Scotland arrives he’s immediately pressed into service as Amin’s personal physician. Power and political charm blind the MD to unfolding atrocities until he is the target of the dictators' wrath and by then it is too late for him to bow out. The last King Of Scotland is a gripping adaptation of the novel of the same name.
SHUT UP & SING: THE DIXIE CHICKS is a fantastic documentary that bounces back and forth from 2005 to 2003 when Natalie Maines provoked controversy with an offhand remark at a London concert when she expressed regret that George W. Bush is from her home state, Texas. The reaction back home was immediate and vicious since the USA was about to invade Iraq and Bush was at the height of popularity. The fallout had a definite detrimental effect on the group’s career. In 2005 Bush and the war are far less popular but are the Dixie Chicks been redeemed? I’m proud to say that they are in Canada. This is not so much a concert film, although there is some great music (sometimes performed in the face of death threats). This is more a story of a remarkably strong group of woman who bravely stand together in the face of extreme pressure and adversity.
BABEL is a movie that you might think is of a biblical and/or mystical theme but in fact it is not. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are a couple with issues that suffer a tragedy while tourists in Morocco. Meantime events in Mexico, Tokyo and the USA are affecting or are affected by their Moroccan situation. As you would expect, the performances by the recognizable names which include Gael García Bernal are great, but most impressive are the actors that are not household names. The story brings to mind The Butterfly Effect and the style is reminiscent of Traffic
Also out:
THE SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE again stars Tim Allen and Martin Short.
10/27
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS unlike Saw has nothing to do with the improper use of tools. It refers to the edgy lifestyle of Augusten Burroughs a confused teenager whose unbalanced mother after separating from his alcoholic father sends him to live with the wacky family of her therapist. This might scar most adolescents but for Burroughs it was fodder for a best selling book Running With Scissors. The movie is probably going to get some Oscar buzz for Annette Benning, and so should her make-up artist who makes co-star Jill Clayburgh unrecognizable and transforms Benning from glamour queen to drug addled hag. Alec Baldwin, Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow round out the all star cast of this fairly satisfying comedy drama.
CATCH A FIRE is a fact based story of an innocent man jailed by zealous Afrikaners at the height of apartheid. Tim Robbins wears a South African accent comfortably and garners sympathy as the unlikeable anti-terrorist cop. Derek Luke we’re more familiar as a jock in this years Glory Road and Friday Night Lights from 2004. He plays Patrick Chamusso, a real life hero whose persecution shakes him out his apolitical lifestyle and into freedom fighting. Catch A Fire is one of the best movies I’ve seen regarding that turbulent time in South Africa.
DEATH OF A PRESIDENT is a controversial British film about the aftermath of the fictional assassination of George W. Bush. Some US networks are refusing to run ads for the film which uses archival footage to tell this story documentary style. Death of A President is gripping and engaging as we see the predictable American xenophobia immediately kick in when the real threat comes from within.
Also out:
SAW III
DELIVER US FROM EVIL
TIDELAND
TALES OF THE RAT FINK
10/20
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS features plum roles for Campbell River’s Barry Pepper and Adam Beach from Manitoba. Clint Eastwood directs this think piece that centres on a moment in time that completely captured the imagination of the USA. Despite the true story behind the famous picture of the soldiers who raised the stars and stripes at Iwo Jima in 1945, the perception of facts is what gets exploited. Flags Of Our Fathers makes the point that all war, no matter how noble or heinous has one common denominator – financing. The soldiers who allegedly hoisted old glory are taken stateside and paraded around as spokesmen for victory bonds. It looks like Eastwood is trying to rekindle the emotion of Saving Private Ryan but in that respect unfortunately like the mouthwash that Dirty Harry’s boss preferred, it just ain’t makin’ it.
THE PRESTIGE is a title with double meaning. The Prestige is what magicians call the final stage of a trick but being turn-of-the-century London’s best illusionist is the prestige sought by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. They are fierce rivals since one accidentally causes the death of the others beloved wife. All their tricks are revealed throughout the film save for one on either side and the two go as far as murder to manipulate the other into revealing his secret. David Bowie makes a rare screen appearance in this film. The ubiquitous Michael Caine also stars as well as the almost as ubiquitous Scarlett Johansson in this riveting thriller.
MARIE ANTOINETTE is the sophomore offering from Sofia Coppola who hit one out of the park with Lost in Translation. This time she produced, directed and wrote a movie that tries too hard to be important but in the end is as substantial as the bouffant beehive on Kirsten Dunst. She by the way looks as inviting as the Versailles cuisine and the pre-Bastille opulence is fascinating but we get bored with it just as fast as that French Queen. Of interest to CISL listeners is Marianne Faithful playing her mother. Jason Schwartzman is completely miscast as Louis XVI. As a matter of fact credibility suffers having the French portrayed by Americans when Jay Leno gets an ovation every time he equates France with cowardice. And then there’s the soundtrack. I know that The Cure and Bow Wow Wow are retro but not back to the 16th century. Coppala, Dunst and the subject matter gave me high hopes, but Marie Antoinette is a huge disappointment.
THE QUEEN is one of those surprising movies that are the reason that I go to movies. This follows the frantic events in Buckingham Palace that follow the death of Diana. At the time neophyte prime minister Tony Blair almost single-handedly saved the royals from their haughty, insulated selves. They just couldn’t believe that the divorced princess was still relevant. The attitudes may not be surprising but still shock and royals that you might admire come away stained while the blemished Prince Charles come off in a fairly positive light. Helen Mirren just won an Emmy for her portrayal of Elizabeth I, The Queen will give her a lot of buzz as Elizabeth II next year when they hand out the Oscars.
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES is a documentary that through the camera lens of Edward Burtynsky focuses on industrial pollution especially in China. Manufactured Landscapes is revealing, artistically stunning, but painfully slow.
Also out:
FLICKA
10/13
MAN OF THE YEAR is the latest filmed in Canada (Toronto as Washington) Robin Williams offering where in a bit of a stretch he plays a comedian. He’s a cable talk show host who for reasons barely explained decides to run for U.S. President as an independent - both in thought and party affiliation. With virtually no funding and ignoring the sage advice of Christopher Walken as his manager, he sails effortlessly into the White House. However computer geek Laura Linney informs him that the new electoral computer system may have erroneously given him the win. He’s faced with the moral dilemma of coming clean and her life is threatened by the ambitious computer executives whose future is in peril. Man Of The Year tries to be a lot of things that it is not. It’s not really a thriller or a very poignant political satire or ripping political commentary or sadly very funny. Egyptians were laughing at about 50% of the jokes – although with Williams’s capable timing they still made me laugh.
THE GRUDGE 2 gives top billing to Sarah Michelle Gellar however “Buffy” makes an early exit. Would that the audience were so lucky. As we recall from the original, a Tokyo house that was the site of a grizzly family murder harbours a malicious aura. Those who come in contact with the house are haunted to certain doom by its sibling victims. When they finally take their toll on Gellar, her sister played by Joan of Arcadia’s Amber Tamblyn looks for some Japanese answers. The Grudge 2 does reveal some mysteries but remains a boring confusion of long irritating set-ups to predictable punch lines.
THE U.S. VERSUS JOHN LENNON is a David and Goliath forum that not only rekindles wonderful nostalgia but is also an eye opening reminder of what happens when too much power is put in the hands of undeserving leaders. The US Versus John Lennon is about the Nixon administrations paranoid attempt to deport Lennon. The former Beatle didn’t think he held much sway but of course he actually did. It probably couldn’t have been make without the cooperation of Yoko Ono but it’s too bad they couldn’t have somehow edited her out when she wasn’t looking. It could have done without Watergate criminal G. Gordon Liddy as well. Every time he came on the screen I felt the need to shower.
KEEPING MUM stars Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) as a rural vicar who is a real church mouse. Kristin Scott Thomas is his comely wife who is tempted to swing on and off the links with Patrick Swayze her sleazy golf instructor. With shades of Arsenic and Old Lace, stress levels miraculously disappear (along with those who cause them) when Maggie Smith is hired on as the new housekeeper. Keeping Mum is one of those charming movies centring on the British Midlands that come out abut once or twice a year.
AMERICAN HARDCORE is a documentary that tells the story of punk-rock music in North America from the late seventies to the mid eighties. I never did gravitate to the music much but there isn’t a lot of music in American Hardcore. The movie is a fascinating look at the rise and fall of a closely knit sub-culture phenomenon. Of particular interest is the prominence of Vancouver’s DOA as not just a part of the movement but genuine innovators.
EXPIRATION DATE is a low budget dark comedy about a first nation’s man in Seattle preparing to die on his 25th birthday which he believes is his destiny since his father and grandfather were both run over by a milk truck the day they turned 25. In his last 7 days he does the right thing by breaking up with his girlfriend but feels it’s OK to start a relationship with another woman since she is also about to die. Expiration Date has a cute premise and nicely showcases the emerald city but I’ve witnessed better acting in Alarmforce commercials.
Also opening this weekend:
INFAMOUS another Truman Capote story featuring Sandra Bullock and Gwyneth Paltrow
And
THE MARINE
10/06
THE DEPARTED is an on the edge Quentin Tarantinoesque crime thriller from Martin Scorcese. Home town actors Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg get the Boston accent to foul mouthed perfection and for the most part so do the rest of the star studded cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Sheen Alec Baldwin and the always stellar Jack Nicholson. Nicholson is a crafty low life beantown Irish mobster who infiltrates the Massachusetts’ State Troopers with his own mole. Unbeknownst to him is the mole that the lawmen have inserted into the mob ranks. The tension is non stop as the clandestine duo tip-off the opposing sides while trying to remain undiscovered. The Departed is an A+ gangster drama that twists and turns so much that one doesn’t mind the two and a half hours that it takes to tell the tale.
ALEX RIDER: OPERATION STORMBREAKER is based on the first of the best-selling series of novels by Anthony Horowitz. The author hand picked 16 year old newcomer Alex Pettyfer from 500 hopefuls to play Alex Rider, an orphaned British school kid who lives an outgoing life thanks to the kind guardianship of his banker uncle played by Ewan McGregor. However Uncle is actually a spy and all the fun and games with Alex have actually been training for a career in espionage. When Rider senior takes a fatal bullet, MI 6 presses the young Rider to investigate Micky Rorke an American of dubious character. They believe he’s up to no good even though he’s offering to make a donation to every school in England – a next generation computer for every school child called a Stormbreaker. Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker is like Spy Kids hitting puberty and is lots of family action-packed fun.
TRAILER PARK BOYS: THE MOVIE takes Bubbles, Julian and Ricky onto the silver screen where they continue to wreck havoc on their east coast trailer park - when not guesting at the crowbar motel. Trailer Park Boys: The Movie isn’t the natural progression that you might think since the cast was leery about doing the project at first fearing that the integrity of the show might be compromised by Hollywood sensibilities. It turned out to be no gamble as one time Canadian Ivan Reitman is the executive producer and he delivers a stand alone version of the TV show that will hopefully give international exposure to one of the funniest and most original TV show that this country has ever produced
SHORTBUS is some more Canadian celluloid that stirred up the juices at the Canne Film Festival. Seven New Yorkers explore many facets of sexuality. Former singer for Vancouver Bob’s Your Uncle, Sook Yin Lee is fantastic but the cast isn’t the problem with Shortbus. It is an artistic triumph in that art should stimulate emotion be they positive or negative, but for me some of the explicit sexuality was a little too discomforting.
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING is yet another evil spawn of the very loosely fact-based 1973 Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the real guy was from a different state and used a gun). That version had 4 sequels and then in 2003 they remade the original. Back from the remake are Andrew Bryniarski as Leatherface and the sinister R. Lee Ermey as Sheriff Hoyt. As this is a prequel you absolutely know none of the pretty people stand a chance but even knowing that the tension is well paced. If you fancy cuisineart cinema or just want answers as to the family predilection to humans as delicacies or why the face to face face on Leatherface, then this may be the best of the bunch.
Also out this weekend:
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH starring Jessica Simpson .
9/29
Wednesday I could have seen Ashton Kutcher as one of the voices in the animated
OPEN SEASON which opens today.
But I decided to see Ashton Kutcher in
THE GUARDIAN where he plays a hot shot trainee for the US Coast Guard. He stars opposite Kevin Costner as his reluctant instructor who is deskbound following a tragic rescue operation gone wrong. This heroic veteran and Kutcher’s brash character butt heads but it turns out they are both driven by past demons and their separate motivations bring them close. I liked the fact that we have a military setting where the object is saving lives rather than taking them and other than the contrived ending this is a very entertaining adventure. The Guardian will also establish Kutcher as a decent dramatic actor, something that seemed impossible after Dude, Where’s My Car?
SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS brings back Napoleon Dynamite’s Jon Heder again as a nerdy loser but this time his character takes a turn for the better. Tired of being a doormat he takes a tip from a friend played by David Cross (in Vancouver last week for the comedy fest) to call Billy Bob Thornton who runs a school for the testosterone challenged. Heder rises to the top of the class which rankles the ultra competitive Thornton who decides to take Heder down a peg by dating the girl that he has his eye on. I loved Heder in Napoleon Dynamite and I’ve been waiting for a decent vehicle for his talent but Benchwarmers was definitely not it and his role in Just like Heaven was good but small. School for Scoundrels is an imperfect but very funny movie into which he really sinks his oversized incisors.
THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN has most of the stars of the outstanding 2001 movie Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. Fast does not apply at all to this picture but the pace fits in with the fascinating lifestyle of the people in the film. A Scandinavian explorer visits a village of traditionalist inhabitants that choose to live apart from those who work for the white race. Where Atanarjuat was about the spiritual world of the Canadian arctic centuries ago, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen is about arctic first nations people at the beginning of the last century whose spirituality is challenged by the incursion of Christianity.
Also out the IMAX film MYSTIC INDIA.
9/22
ALL THE KING’S MEN stars excellent British actors Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Anthony Hopkins talking with southern drawls to varying degrees of success. This is the third time this story loosely based on Governor Huey Long of Louisiana has been released. It was made for TV in 1958 but more importantly won 3 Oscars in 1950 including best actor honours for Broderick Crawford who we remember from Highway Patrol. Sean Penn may be shooting for another Academy Award himself here. He’s is riveting as Willie Stark, a failed civic politician who manipulates and is manipulated into Gubernatorial victory during the 1940’s.
FEARLESS is based on a real life turn-of-the-century Chinese martial arts legend Huo Yuanjia. It takes a lot of liberties with the reality of both facts and gravity, although the action is not to the surreal extent of movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Jet Li’s character is unique in that although he is an unbeatable fighter he’s not a noble protector but uses his power for his own gain. The action slows for a long stretch as he seeks redemption after his conduct cause personal disaster. This film also features Australian bruiser Nathan Jones who seems to be the new “must have” insurmountable opponent for wiry Asian fighters. Two weeks ago he was featured in The Protector with Tony Jaa who has seriously raised the bar for martial arts action. The challenge of keeping up with Jaa may be why this is advertised as Jet Li’s last fight feature.
JACKASS: NUMBER TWO is yet another litany of vignettes featuring Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, and Wee Man either consuming something totally disgusting or more likely somehow deliberately putting themselves in harms way - usually with a dangerous contraption or farm animal - the result of which is bodily injury just short of maiming. It’s not only abusive it’s brutal, detestable, flippant, loathsome, nauseating, objectionable, perverse, rude, uncivil and obnoxious yet I laughed out loud for 90 minutes… except for the times that I was squiring in my seat and trying to look away from the screen.
CONFETTI is a fictional British bridal magazine. We see here in documentary style this publications attempt to bolster readership by holding a competition for the most unusual wedding theme. Only slightly more original than the discounted all-Elvis idea are the 3 couples they decide on. One duo with a love for musicals want to do a Busby Berkeley production, two super competitive jocks plan a tennis theme and a pair of naturalists are going for an all nude wedding. Two fragile but determined wedding planners are hired to make perfection out of these three screwball notions and the travails they overcome from all sides foster a lot of rib tickling moments.
THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP is a real flight of fantasy and yet another coup for Mexican heart throb Gael Garcia Bernal. He lives in Paris working in a dead end job although his coworkers are not only delightful but also insightful. His mother is French and he’s moved to France after his Mexican father dies. He’s attracted to his neighbour and the feeling seems to be mutual but there’s one thing standing in the way of their relationship blossoming and that’s his overactive imagination. His vivid dreams tend to spill over into his reality and vice-versa. The special effects are reminiscent of piñata technology but they really work and the result is a very imaginative dreamscape.
Also out:
FLYBOYS
KEANE which was made in 2004.
and
RIDING ALONE FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES a non martial arts film from the director of House of Flying Daggers.
9/15
THE BLACK DAHLIA is a film noir in late 40’s Technicolor. This is a fact based mystery of the unsolved gruesome murder of Elizabeth Short, a post-war B movie actress. She’s played by Canada’s Mia Kirshner and in real life she liked the movie The Blue Dahlia and dressed in black, hence the name. According to this film Short had a lot of LA imitators. So what did one well heeled Dahlia wannabe played by Hilary Swank have to do with the mutilated corpse found in January of 1947? That’s what Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart delve into with much gusto. They’re two goal-oriented police pugilists in a love triangle with Scarlet Johansen. I liked this movie but you really have to pay attention. For me the standout was Fiona Shaw who we know as Aunt Petunia from the Harry Potter series. Her role as a sotted, snobby, old money wing nut is small but Oscar worthy.
GRIDIRON GANG is also based on true life events revealed in the well received 1993 documentary Gridiron Gang. A bombastic councillor at a juvenile detention centre named Sean Porter provides positive therapy for his delinquents by playing football against teams from regular schools. Porter is played Dwayne Johnson who had a brief football career with the Calgary Stampeders but who we know much better as pro wrestler The Rock. Johnson is easy to watch in this role and although the scenario is predictable, football movies always provide compelling footage and Gridiron Gang is no exception.
THE LAST KISS is the story of 20-something angst facing the onset of thirty-ness. Central are four guys in various stages of commitment but every relationship in The Last Kiss is either fragile or severely damaged. Zach Braff from TV’s Scrubs seems to be the only one in a truly loving situation, however he’s led astray by a forward co-ed played by Rachel Bilson who can’t seem to stretch past the character she plays on The OC. Braff doesn’t strike me as the type that a hottie like Bilson would randomly throw herself at but the twenty-somethings in the theatre with me seemed able to suspend that disbelief and were getting right into the story.
EVERYONE’S HERO was premiered by 650 CISL. This animated feature was directed by the late Christopher Reeves and features his son Will Reeves as one of the voices.
9/08
HOLLYWOODLAND is an exploration of the mysterious suicide of the original TV Superman George Reeves. The 50’s man of steel is played more powerful than a steaming locomotive by Ben Affleck as the despondent typecast actor. He yearned for more challenging roles and thought that his affair with Diane Lane as the wife a studio head honcho played by Bob Hoskins might be his ticket. The question profiled by Adrien Brody as an edgy private investigator is, did his dalliance provide a motive for murder disguised as suicide, and if so who pulled the trigger. Along with the great performances Hollywoodland captures an era and wraps that around an intriguing and entertaining story.
THE PROTECTOR brings back Tony Jaa in a follow-up to his break-out 2003 martial arts stunner Ong-bak. He’s a practitioner of Muay Thai fighting which was originally used to protect the elephants of royalty so that the animal’s spirit can not be stolen by the king’s enemies. He must leave his pastoral Thailand life of an elephant wrangler in search of the family’s prized pachyderm that has been kidnapped to Australia. In Sydney the action is relentless. The 4 minute one take shot of Jaa dispatching one hoodlum after another as he makes his way up a staircase is stunning. Who knew there were so many ways to break bones and varied sound effects to go along with them? I’m not sure if this is a send-up or homage to all the old Bruce Lee movies with bad writing, bad lighting and bad lip-syncing but even though the edits barely make sense there is a lot of humour and fantastic action in The Protector, probably one of the last summer thrillers.
CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER WOMEN is your kind of movie if you liked Before Sunrise and its sequel Before Sunset. Again here we have two smart people engaged in clever dialogue that is sparking with sexual tension. With refreshing use of split screen presentation we see them start to flirt at a wedding but as the attraction gets stronger we see that these two have a lot in common that is revealed before and after their hotel room hanky panky. Pulling off this role is a cake walk for veteran Helena Bonham-Carter but you might wonder about Aaron Eckhart who we last saw in Thank You for Smoking. Not to worry he matches Bonham-Carter in Conversations With Other Women quip for quip and turns in an equally strong performance.
THE HAMSTER CAGE stars We’ve Got to Keep Our Love Alive singer Patricia Dahlquist as a mother trying with limited success to keep her Vancouver family alive at a reunion dinner. When her husband’s sexagenarian brother arrives with gifts and a 20 something girlfriend the extent of the family’s dysfunction becomes apparent. The Hamster Cage is billed as a comedy but it tries so hard that the humour is too dark to muster a chuckle.
Also out:
THE COVENANT
9/1
THE WICKER MAN is a remake of a 1973 movie set on a fictional remote Scottish outcropping that stars Britt Ekland, Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward as a self assured mainland policeman investigating the disappearance of a young girl. In the new version Nicolas Cage is a flawed lawman on the case which is now set on an inaccessible island in Puget Sound. With a few adjustments the premise is the same in that the uncooperative island residents are an occult group bent on human sacrifice. As you might expect the new version of The Wicker Man is splashier but I found it a little wordier than it needed to be and not as well researched as the original.
CRANK marks the return of Jason Statham who we were introduced to in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and more recently carried the Transporter movies. Continuing with his macho darkness, this time he’s a hit man given an anonymous lethal injection that leaves him with one hour to live. He discovers that adrenaline is the only way to stave off the poison’s effects, the result being that he not only over stimulates his own adrenal glands, but also those of the audience. As his girlfriend, Amy Smart provides a few moments of ditzy tranquility to offset his frantic pace. Unlike the Transporter duo, Crank is not as over-the-top and relies much less on reckless motoring but is every bit as entertaining.
THE QUIET is an exploration of people living in denial. Camilla Belle is cast as an orphaned teenage deaf mute taken in by a suburban family. Edie Falco as the mother is nice but obviously has a problem with substance abuse. The father who seems like the households kindest person soon proves to be a monster. Their daughter played by Canada’s Elisha Cuthbert of 24 fame is viciously cruel to the new arrival but turns out to have much in common with her. Through some well crafted and tense drama, everyone’s unspoken secrets become apparent.
TRUST THE MAN is another attempt by David Duchovny to shake the X-files typecasting and it almost works. It’s certainly more watchable than House of D but not totally because of him as this also features Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Trust The Man dissects two close New York couples with disintegrating relationships. It has moments of insightful comedy but verbalizing what many couples leave unspoken may be a little too close to reality for some committed to the long term.
THE WAR TAPES is a unique documentary in that it is filmed by three soldiers actually on active duty in Iraq. While they come home outwardly sound, the footage shot shows very apparent battle scars on the inside.
CROSSING THE BRIDGE is a fascinating documentary for those with eclectic musical tastes. This is an expose on the diverse music scene of Istanbul which is the crossroads of East and West cultures. Both have a fascinating influence on the uncommon music of the region.
8/25
INVINCIBLE I believe is a play on the name of the focus of this biopic. Vince Papale was anything but invincible as he had very unimpressive stats with the NFL for 3 years back in the 70’s. They Hollywood-ed the facts in the name of entertainment, still his story is compelling since he was the most unlikely player to ever make the Philadelphia Eagles. He is the oldest NFL rookie ever signed that never played college ball but is given a lot of credit for inspiring Dick Vermeil’s team to climb out of the basement and go all the way to the Superbowl. A high five to Mark Wahlberg for a game performance as Papale, a part time bartender and substitute teacher who beats the odds in this latest Disney movie.
BEERFEST coincides with Germany’s Oktoberfest, but its revellers distain Oktoberfest as being for lightweight guzzlers. Beerfest involves a lot of sophomoric beer drinking games designed to increase consumption, the capper being Das Boot and a running gag is that Jürgen Prochnow the U-boat captain of the 1985 film Das Boot is in this movie. At one point for no good reason he ends up commanding a submarine. He’s the villain here having humiliated two of his American nephews. They return home to assemble Team America and spend 12 months in training for revenge at the next Beerfest. Cloris Leachman and Donald Sutherland take part in the fun as well. Beerfest stars, is written by and directed by the same guys as Super Trooper with Kevin Heffernan again a stand-out. This film is not the breakout comedy that Super Trooper was but frothy heads above their dreadful Club Dread.
HALF NELSON tells of an inspiring Brooklyn high school teacher whose unconventional teaching style not to mention hands-on influence outside of the classroom compels his students to take control of their lives. However his personal life is completely out of control. One of the girls in his class that he seems to hold the most sway with becomes aware of his drug habit which she takes as licence to start on a downward spiral. We see whether their unlikely relationship can save them from themselves. "Half Nelson" stars Canada’s Ryan Gosling who is fantastic. This movie is a feature adaptation of 2002’s Sundance award-winner short film, "Gowanus, Brooklyn." which starred Shareeka Epps as Drey who reprises the role opposite Gosling.
HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS stars Canada’s Tom Cavanaugh. He moves his family to a new town where his pre-teen son has trouble adjusting. The boy is bullied into accepting a dare to eat 10 fried worms all in one day. Anyone under 12 may enjoy this mild gross-out, but their parents will probably squirm and wiggle at the plodding plot points.
IDLEWILD is a musical starring academy award nominee Terrence Howard and two guys for that Hey Yeah group Outkast.
8/18
SNAKES ON A PLANE may very well be the sleeper hit of the summer. If not, certainly the slither hit of the summer. This movie has been burning up the internet for months so it’s a shoe into top the weekend box office. A surfer dude witnesses a gangland killing in Hawaii and Samuel L. Jackson has to escort him to Los Angeles to testify against the murdering gang leader. The gangster has worldwide tentacles and booby traps the plane with some 400 snakes that bomb sniffing dogs won’t notice but that will doom the aircraft. I hope Jackson and Julianna Margulies enjoyed their time on the west coast as this was filmed in Burnaby and featured home grown BC snakes. Snakes on a Plane will give some major exposure to local actors like Gerard Plunkett and Mi-Jung Lee who plays herself. This movie is an amusement ride that will have you squirming, laughing, rolling your eyes and screaming all at the same time.
ACCEPTED has a lot of recognizable TV faces with unrecognizable names playing high school grads that no university will accept. As a desperate act, our hero Justin Long (anonymous name with an “oh that guy” face) photo-shops his own acceptance letter to get his disapproving parents off his back. This works fine until the semester starts and he has to fabricate a campus. Once that little problem is solved he has to deal with the litany of losers that show up on the first day of class because they also couldn’t get into any other college. Accepted is a pretty funny teen angst film if you can get passed the fact that kids clever enough to visualize and execute such a scheme would have any trouble at all being accepted at the post secondary facility of their choice.
THE ILLUSIONIST is an early 20th century period film that stars Edward Norton as a Viennese magician. At the apex of his career he is re-introduced to his teenage sweetheart played by Jessica Biel. As children they were forced apart because he was far below her station. Now as adults, society again conspires against them as a policeman (captured perfectly by Paul Giamatti) is the eyes and ears of Biel’s nobleman fiancé. For a time The Illusionist seems a little fraudulent as magic tricks are easy to do on film, but this movie turns out to be a charming romantic whodunit with a twist finale that’s literally killer.
HOUSE OF SAND is a gorgeous epic from Brazil that got some notice at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Starting in 1910 and spanning 3 generations, it tells the story of a pregnant woman and her mother who along with a wagon train of others, settle at an oasis in the middle of a stark desert. Once abandoned they become prisoners of their environment and live in an uneasy relationship with their neighbours, a community of runaway slaves. Glimpses of progress in the modern world pass by periodically, but an escape back to Rio de Janeiro remain elusive and they become resigned to their fate. Fernanda Montenegro who was nominated for an Oscar for Central Station stars along with her real daughter and like the sand they shift brilliantly from one character to another.
Two Quebecois films opening this weekend deserve very honourable mention:
BON COP BAD COP is partly filmed in BC as well as Quebec and Ontario. It ironically has Colm Feore playing an uptight OPP detective as the Bon Cop and Patrick Huard as the slovenly Bad Cop from the QPP. A body shows up draped across their provinces border so jurisdiction is in question, a situation that forces the pairing of this mismatched duo to solve the murder. Bon Cop Bad Cop has to be a first. A police buddy picture, completely Canadian, juxtaposed against the French/ English solitudes that is actually very entertaining.
FAMILIA centres on an unemployable woman in desperate need of among many things, a gamblers anonymous meeting. She’s forced to rely on the kindness of family but as that becomes untenable, she and her teenage daughter turn up on the doorstep of the upper middle class suburban home belonging to her now straight laced childhood friend. As their daughters become friends the friendship of the mothers is tentatively rekindled. It turns out her friend has her own trauma to deal with which she does with dramatic vengeance. Familia will leave you with equal episodes of mirth and pathos.
Also out:
MATERIAL GIRLS with Hilary and Haylie Duff
and
HATE CRIME
8/11
WORLD TRADE CENTER is touted as an important movie. I think “important” is Oliver Stone speak for “long” although this wasn’t overly long, then again there wasn’t really much to tell but he still took over 2 hours to tell it. In terms of Sept 11 2001 I found United 93 to be a much more important and gripping film for both heroism and realism displayed by ordinary people that day. World Trade Centre focuses on 2 of the 20 rescue workers who survived after being trapped following the collapse of New York’s twin towers. Their spectrum of emotions is well told outside of one laughable delusion of a bottled water toting Jesus. There is also some historical inaccuracy in that the real life Marine who discovered them was anonymous until recently and his fictionalized persona I found annoying. Having said all of that, it is unquestionably a very emotional film.
STEP UP like in Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas earlier this year, has traditional dance and hip hop colliding but the attraction of opposites turns into a winner. Jenna Dewan who was also in Take the Lead is a serious dance student at a fine arts school in Maryland. Channing Tatum is a felonious foster child from the wrong side of the tracks with all the right moves. They meet while he is doing community service at her school and when her partner for her big showcase gets injured, he kick-steps in. This clumsy mix gels and becomes life alerting for everyone involved. Step Up is a fairly well crafted teen romance if you can get past hunky 25 year old guys trying to pass as high school seniors.
BLACK GOLD does not refer to oil, but an almost equally precious commodity – coffee. The problem is that the people who work the hardest for your daily fix of overpriced caffeine are starving. This documentary touches base all over the world and features bubble-heads managing the original Starbucks to a championship barista competition (won by a Vancouverite). However it focuses on the birthplace of coffee – Ethiopia and puts a name to the struggle for equality. Tadesse Mekela is the leader of a farmers union numbering 75,000. He’s a man on a mission to get fair prices for Ethiopian coffee that we are shown is an uphill struggle against the status quo which favours multinational food companies. Black Gold will leave you with pangs of guilt to go along with every Espresso Macchiato that you pay a kings ransom for from now on.
ZOOM is the re-telling of ostracized kids with super powers who are thrown together to save the world from an incoming menace. To train them, Tim Allen, a washed up wise cracking super hero is pressed back into service by the military lab that ruined his life. His reluctance to take the job seriously fades as he realizes that if he fails then it will be much to the children’s detriment. They will have their super powers artificially enhanced to proficiency, the same way Allen and his former doomed colleagues were. Like Sky High and to a certain extent The Incredibles and X-Men, Zoom follows in their wake but doesn’t have enough super power to come near passing them.
Also out:
PULSE starring Kristen Bell TV’s Veronica Mars
8/4
BARNYARD: THE ORIGINAL PARTY ANIMALS works on the premise that when humans are not looking, farm animals get up on two legs and get down to the music. Of course the natural order of things has to be maintained so that the secret is never revealed, for which our hero Ben takes the bull by the horns. However after a fatal battle with Dag the Coyote and the rest of his pack leadership is foisted on Ben’s reluctant son, the party machine Otis who all of a sudden has a lot of maturing to do. This isn’t the best animated feature ever made but it is stylish and although I found the anatomical incorrectness of udders on all the male bovines distracting, young and old in the theatre with me seemed genuinely entertained.
TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY will probably end up the box office winner after the weekend and why not, it’s a very funny movie. Jeff Foxworthy got it right when he said “you might be a redneck if you’ve spent more time on the top of a Winnebago than in one and you know the "Back way" to Talledega”. NASCAR is rife with lampoonable trailer trashiness and Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly take up the Foxworthy mantle drive home every last stereotype. Farrell is Ricky Bobby who despite issues over his dead-beat dad stumbles into his life-long dream job and makes it to the top of the stock car auto racing game. His life and career crumble with the arrival of a Formula 1 driver from (shudder) France.
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is a pre-teen beauty pageant in California and this well paced comedy is about a dysfunctional family that travels west from New Mexico in a crippled Volkswagen van to get to it. Greg Kinnear is a third rate motivational speaker whose daughter has found out that as the runner-up in a local pageant she is now eligible to compete for Little Miss Sunshine. Along with them are her brother who doesn’t speak, their foul mouthed drug, addicted grandfather played by Alan Arkin, and Steve Carell as Kinnear’s brilliant, gay, suicidal brother-in-law. His wife Toni Collette is the only one remotely grounded in this pleasant rib tickler, which is ironic as she is up against herself this weekend in The Night Listener playing a woman who may be severely unhinged.
SHOOTING DOGS is another docu-drama following in the footsteps of Hotel Rwanda and revisits that 1994 genocide in Africa from a different part of the city and with a much different survival rate. The title is based on the terrible irony that UN troops could not take action against machete wielding Hutus’ but undertook shooting at the marauding dogs feeding on the bloody corpses that they left behind. John Hurt’s frustrated character grimly points out that the dogs did not shoot first. He revels in his role as a priest of waning faith running a school commandeered by Belgian peacekeepers. Fearful Tutsis flock to the campus believing it to be a safe haven. Where Hotel Rwanda was based on real characters, protagonists here are fiction. The realism is in the authenticity as this was actually filmed in Kigali and many of the cast and crew are survivors of the brutality that the world shamefully ignored for a decade.
THE DESCENT like 2005’s The Cave involves adventurers trapped underground and being stalked by subterranean creatures anxious to have them for lunch. The difference is that this movie is no spelunker clunker, instead it is stylishly terrifying. At one point I had the refreshing thought that the 6 all female cast members might survive intact but no soap. Touted as spawn of the makers of Saw and Hostel, this might have a shot at taking top spot at the box office.
THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS has Canada’s Sarah Polley undertaking a middle European accent and reclusive demeanour as a woman who takes on a nursing job aboard a nearly abandoned North Sea oil rig. There’s been an accident and only a skeleton crew remains along with the survivor in her charge played by Tim Robbins who is too fragile to evacuate. As their relationship unfolds in this slow paced rather dreary drama, we find out why each character seems so tortured.
THE NIGHT LISTENER is a movie that I really wanted to like. You know Robin Williams is working hard when he turns in a subdued performance and I always hope for good things for Vancouver’s Sandra Oh but her sharp character fizzles here. Williams plays a popular New York radio story teller who is not dealing well with the break-up of his gay relationship. Meanwhile the eloquent story of a lifetime comes his way written by a 14 year old and detailing unimaginable sexual child abuse. He establishes a friendship over the phone with the boy played by Rory Culkin and he’s about to tell the story to the world but the mysterious activity of Toni Collette, Culkin’s adoptive mother, give him pause. There is some engaging dialogue in this film but the mystery evaporates very early and we spend the rest of the movie watching Williams undertaking activity that’s not believable.
Also out:
THE LONG WEEKEND with Chris Klein.
7/28
MIAMI VICE is written and directed by Michael Mann the executive producer of the original TV series that ran from 1984-1989 and that’s about all that connects the series and the movie it spawned. Edward James Olmos was given a chance to reprise his role as Lt. Castillo but turned it down. Jan Hammer who did the chart topping title theme was asked to do a different type of score, but turned it down. Jamie Foxx takes on the role of 'Rico' Tubbs and Colin Farrell reprising 'Sonny' Crockett. After a breach in task force security, our heroes are deputised by the FBI to infiltrate a drug cartel. It soon becomes clear that Crockett and Tubbs can fry the big fish of they dig deeper, but have to fight the task force boss who wants to wrap things up fast. There are cool fast cars, cool fast boats and cool ordinance. I liked the surprising evolution of the relationship between Colin Farrell and Li Gong the gorgeous meanie from Memoirs of a Geisha, but I was a huge fan of the TV show and this doesn’t bring back the magic. The story is confusing and so is the film quality and I miss all the pastel colours.
SCOOP is what journalists call breaking that perfect juicy story. It’s an old expression so as any fan of Woody Allen could tell you, it’s a natural title for him to use. Like his Oscar nominated Match Point, this is set in England. Also like Math Point this stars Scarlett Johansson as a vacuous but ambitious journalism student on vacation in London. While at a live theatre performance of a third rate magician played by Woody Allen she is visited by the spirit of a crack newspaper reporter who gives her the lead of a lifetime. A charming, wealthy Hugh Jackman is guilty of murder. Johansson and Allen become a mismatched team bumbling their way through the facts. This is Woody Allen doing more of what he does best. Scoop has Johansson and Jackman stretching as actors and although full of the trademark Allen wit it seems to have been written in a hurry.
THE MISTRESS OF SPICES brings back the gorgeous Bollywood heartthrob Aishwarya Rai as the proprietor of a San Francisco spice shop. Her fellow south Asian community come to her for more than exotic cuisine flavouring because she not only has knowledge of the curative power of spices, but also a psychic ability that in her past was as much of a curse as it is a gift. In order to properly dispense spices she must never leave the store, never touch another human, and love only the spices. Her purpose in life is complicated when she is attracted to Dylan McDermott, a mysterious biker architect. McDermott hasn’t had much luck with roles since his 6 years as Bobby Donnell on The Practice but I like him here. I really love the stylish mysticism of The Mistress of Spices. For me the only disappointment is that the resolution did not involve a meshing of the spiritual past of McDermott’s character which has the potential to be as interesting as that of Rai’s character.
Also new this weekend:
The animated THE ANT BULLY with the voices of Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Paul Giamatti.
JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE a teen revenge comedy movie.
MAXX a musical comedy in Persian.
OMKARA an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello. In Hindi with English subtitles.
7/21
CLERKS II is more of the same drug laced potty laughs that peppered the original Clerks in 1994. Our clerks Dante and Randal have vacated the New Jersey Quick Stop convenience store as it was gutted by fire. They’ve mooooved on to Mooby’s, a hamburger joint where they have been followed by Jay and Silent Bob. Like the original this is day out of their life that turns out to be anything but ordinary as Dante is preparing to move to Florida and get married. He has to decide if he really wants to turn over a new leaf or if life in Jersey is want he really wants. If the crudeness of the original did not turn you off then you’ll probably laugh out loud at a lot of this, but maybe not as much as during the first one.
SIR! NO SIR! Is a revealing and powerful documentary of an almost forgotten conflict with a message that resonates today in light of recent ill-conceived Middle East adventures. Reminiscing Viet Nam vets talk of the military muzzling of the multitude of soldiers in the 60’s who protested the war in South East Asia.
MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND from the director of Ghostbusters stars Uma Thurman and Owen Wilson.
MONSTER HOUSE uses the animation techniques of The Polar Express and features the voices of Steve Buscemi, and Napoleon Dynamite Jon Heder.
LADY IN THE WATER is a fantasy from the director of 6th Sense starring Paul Giamatti of Sideways fame.
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7/14
This week I don’t think anything is hot enough to topple Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest, but YOU, ME AND DUPREE might make a dent. Owen Wilson looks familiar as the loveable loser blithely spouting twisted philosophies with confidence. However his life is a mess and is taken in by his lifelong best friend played by Matt Dillon. This would work fine for a couple of bachelors, but Dillon is just starting out on his marriage to Kate Hudson. Topping that off is pressure at work since Dillon works for Hudson’s land baron father played by Michael Douglas, and he really doesn’t approve of the marriage. The shifting of sympathies for Wilson’s character makes this a somewhat fun summer popcorn comedy.
A SCANNER DARKLY is yet another artistic curiosity from director Richard Linklater. In 2001 he gave us the similarly animated Waking Life where live action footage was graphically “painted” frame by frame via computer. Where that movie was a philosophical drift, this movie actually has a comedic and cautionary plot courtesy of sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick who gave us Blade Runner and Total Recall. Seven years in the future and a new drug, Substance D is all the rage. DEA agent Keanu Reeves, himself a user, is assigned to spy on Winona Ryder his frigid girlfriend and (here’s a stretch) his drug addled friends played to delightful perfection by Robert Downey Jr., and Woody Harrelson.
PEACEFUL WARRIOR is deeply philosophical but with an absorbing plot. From what I read prior to the screening I wasn't sure if the emphasis on spirituality meant a lot of religious bleating. My preconceived notions were unfounded as I was inspired by this story of a cocky, hedonistic college jock. His life is turned around by the musings of a mystical mechanic played by Nick Nolte and Amy Smart, the girl who also haunts Nolte’s gas station.
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? is about a real life mechanical philosophy that could have been that huge first step towards clean air and independence from foreign oil. The electric car was fast, quiet, pollution free, and maintenance free so of course it had to be crushed by big money interests. This revealing an infuriating documentary narrated by activist/actor Martin Sheen with commentary from devotees including Phyllis Diller, Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and Peter Horton follows the electric car through the 90’s from inception to deception. Government, bureaucrats, auto makers and oil companies are all put on trial for automobile-icide.
Also out:
LITTLE MAN - more comedy from the Wayan brothers so it will probably do well this weekend but I did not get to see it.
And
EIGHTEEN
7/7
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST takes up where 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl left off - at the interrupted marriage of Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner to Elizabeth reprised by Keira Knightley. They’re arrested for aiding and abetting the criminal activities of Captain Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp who is dressed like a pirate but talks like a lawyer. I think there’s some professional courtesy in that somewhere. The love birds are incarcerated separately and spend the movie trying to find one another on the high seas; this somehow always includes helping Captain Jack get out of his debt to Davey Jones played by Bill Nighy who is unrecognizable under creepy hyperactive prosthetics. Perhaps a little long but not uncomfortably so, the film is non stop action that not only sets up the sequel featuring Keith Richards that we all know is coming but perhaps also sets up a few new rides at Disneyland .
THE KING revolves around a character named Elvis Valderez who happened onto a small town after being honourably discharged from the US navy. Elvis is played by Gael Garcia Bernal who was so impressive in Latin America classics like Y tu mamá también Bad Education and Motorcycle Diaries. He’s equally at home in English dialogue as he endears himself to a family headed by William Hurt, an evangelist pastor with a chequered past. It turns out their meeting is no coincidence as Hurt once knew Elvis’ mother in the biblical way and they are in fact father and son. At first Elvis is spurned but with cold blooded determination he endears himself to each family member one by one. In the end you have to decide if he showed up to be accepted or for revenge.
Three other controversial movies out all have to do with the results of overzealous incarceration as the result of the USA war on terror.
THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO is an infuriating movie about a young Muslim from England who travels with his friends to their ancestral home of Pakistan for his arranged marriage in the fall of 2001. The talking heads of the actual victims cut with dramatizations of events tells their story of an innocent side trip to Afghanistan that leaves them stranded in a Taliban stronghold just as the US army moved in. Their cruel captors eventually send them off to that insidious Cuban detention centre. The zealous abuse of human rights by the USA can be somewhat grudgingly excused by the proximity to the chaos of post 9/11, but you hope that Canadian troops now fully engaged in that part of the world are not party to these kinds of disgusting shenanigans.
THE WAR WITHIN sheds some light on how terrorists can convince people to willingly commit suicide, even those who are well educated. Here we have a non-secular Muslin engineer living in England. Because his brother is mildly involved in radical protests he is earmarked as a terrorist. He’s forcibly grabbed off the street and without benefit of trial whisked to a Pakistani prison. His only solace from the torture there is a Muslim group which arranges his escape and smuggle him into the USA. For this he is to blow himself up in New York’s Grand Central Station and nothing - not love, not money, not friendship, not betrayal - can detract him from this singular purpose.
I did not see A/K/A TOMMY CHONG. It’s a documentary about the former Vancouverite who was tossed into prison for 9 months through some pretzel logic that equates the war on terror with the war on drugs.
7/1
SUPERMAN RETURNS is one of those visual delights that you have to watch on the big screen. Here Superman who left the earth to discover his roots, find that Krypton is destroyed. On his return he finds that in his absence Lois Lane has moved on. Not only that but Lex Luthor has made parole from his double life sentences and has discovered secrets about Superman that can cause the demise of Kal-el. What a big break this is for little known Brandon Routh who wasn’t even born when Christopher Reeves was flying high as the Man of Steel. He hold his own on screen with Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth who previously worked together on Beyond the Sea only here Bosworth has changed her blonde Sandra Dee locks to Lois Lane brunette and Spacey is a perfect Lex Luthor instead of a miscast Bobby Darin.
6/30
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA Refers to the editor of a New York fashion magazine who is the boss from hell. Anne Hathaway plays a dowdy (if that’s possible for Anne Hathaway) college grad who bluffs her way into the job of personal assistant to this editor. Initially she has high ideals and high hopes that the job is a stepping stone to a career as a writer but she is soon bedevilled by the veneer of high fashion. I’d like to read the novel by neophyte author Lauren Weisberger who once worked as a personal assistant to the editor of Vogue. The New York Times reviewed it twice which is unprecedented and trashed it both times. The novel is described as wickedly funny but that’s not the case with the movie. I saw it last night with several CISL listeners and it was amusing if predictable. The real joy is watching Meryl Streep work her magic to embody the satanic swell in question.
LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN is a tribute concert film focusing on the legendary poet from Montreal.
GABRIELLE is a drama from France.
6/23
CLICK is a movie that I was dreading having to see since it stars Adam Sandler and is the product of his Happy Madison production company. This notwithstanding the trailers which started months ago and seemed so revealing that I felt I’d already seen the movie. It turns out to have some creatively funny dialogue, a heart warming message and good acting by not only Sandler but Julie Cavner (aka Marge Simpson), David Hasselhoff, Henry Winkler, Kate Bekinsale and the always frightening Christopher Walken. A universal remote unit that remotely controls our immediate universe is a universal desire. That’s what comes into the possession of Sandlers overworked architect character. His life is charmed until the remotes pre-programming takes over. His moment of redemption is the result of an obvious cliché, but if you buy it in It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol then why not here?
THE LOST CITY has its moments even though it is a bit of an overblown make work project for Andy Garcia. He not only stars in it but directs the picture and I think he must muscled the film editor too because it’s about a half hour too long. He plays a successful night club owner from a well-to-do family in Batista’s Havana. When Castro’s Marxist coup takes power Garcia’s family is torn apart as families often are in civil war. Life becomes more and more intolerable until he finally makes a timely break to New York City when he must start life all over again.
Also out:
WAIST DEEP. Didn’t see it, but be forewarned it’s from the director of Glitter.
And two documentaries:
THE HEART OF THE GAME about a Seattle high-school girls’ basketball team
and
WORDPLAY about crossword puzzles.
6/9
THE OMEN has been in theatres since 6-6-06 ostensibly to take advantage of opening with the sign of the devil but having a three day head start on the weekend box office seems like a hell of a good idea too. There were some genuinely chilling scenes, mostly involving snarling canines. The scenario is interesting and includes some horror scenes that leave the audience gasping but the set-ups are silly and at times I felt like I was being converted. It’s ironic that we had all that religious fervour over The DaVinci Code yet when the message is a reinforcement of the churches traditional message, nothing is said about playing fast and loose with the book of revelations to further the plot. The Omen is a remake of the 1976 movie about a political family duped into raising the son of Satan. Apparently the original was not ominous enough, look who’s running the most powerful nation on earth.
A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION is a smart comedy based on the radio show of the same name that Garrison Keillor used to do on Public Radio in the U.S. Here Keillor is at the hub of an all star cast that again puts Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin back together to rekindle that magic chemistry that they sparked at this years Oscars. The story of the shows last hokey broadcast unfolds through some very entertaining work by Lindsay Lohan, Woody Harrelson and Tommy Lee Jones. Running counterpoint is a cheesy film noir scenario featuring Kevin Kline as a private dick reduced to theatre security work and a mysterious dishey dame played by Virginia Madsen. I don’t know if the radio show was anything like the movie is, but if it was I’m sorry I never got to listen.
CARS is the latest Disney/Pixar collaboration.
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH is the much ballyhooed documentary about global warming narrated by Al Gore.
6/2
THE BREAK-UP is that movie with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn that has been previewed in theatres for months. They even cut a second trailer for it when the first one got tired. There are some very funny bits in this movie, some of which Vaughn wrote, but they are all contained in those trailers. After 2 years of bliss our 2 lovebirds realize that they are incompatible but continue to share living quarters while they wait for an offer to come in on their condo. Every day the relationship becomes more and more unsalvageable. There’s a lot of plug-and-play in this romantic comedy but it doesn’t go totally Hollywood formula. For instance the ending which was changed at least once, is not predictable but reasonably satisfying. This will probably do well on the strength of the real life romance surrounding the two stars, but with X-Men and The DaVinci Code still riding high there is a chance that this movie won’t top the box office this weekend.
DISTRICT 13 is a French movie from 2004 originally called Banlieue 13 (treize). It stars David Belle the man who invented a new urban gymnastics sport called parkour which you may have seen kids doing in those Rogers cell phone ads. He and stuntman/ martial arts expert Cyril Rafaelli are buddies in 2010’s Paris where one section of the city is so malicious that the government has walled-in its ne’er-do-well inhabitants. Our 2 heroes have only a short time to disarm a nuclear weapon hijacked by an army of thugs inside the wall. Hey, no one interested in plot development is going to want to see this movie, but fans of really good action pictures are going to love it.
SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE LAST DAYS is the true story of a champion of free speech when free speech was having a bit of a time out – in Nazi Germany. At the Oscars this was nominated for best foreign language film and rightly so. She’s brought before the Munich Gestapo after being caught doling out leaflets. The ensuing cross-examination shows not only the quick wit of a young woman in a pressure situation, but also the humanity of her interrogator. He’s not the stereotypical brute but rather gets what he wants through good police work. He also show a great deal of compassion for the young woman whose fate he is sealing.
FREE ZONE is yet another revealing slice of Israeli cinema. It stars Natalie Portman who continues stretching herself as an actor in this film, and who was actually born in Israel. Here she’s an American who breaks off her engagement and as an excuse just to get out of Jerusalem goes with a friend on a somewhat dark journey to the Free Zone - an area of commerce in Jordan where business is conducted among opposing factions that might even be at war with one another. Through some very absorbing cinematography she ends up on a road trip with 2 other women a Jew and a Palestinian, which unfolds some insight into a very mystifying part of the world.
WAH-WAH is the sound that London born Emily Watson makes in an American accent while mocking pretentious colonial Brits running Swaziland in 1969. She’s a flight attendant from the USA who marries a man several years her senior. He has a cushy civil service post in that African country just before its independence. She stirs up some stodgy juices but also has to contend with her husbands shifting temperament and shy 14 year old son who is damaged by the break-up of his parents. This movie is based on true events from Richard E Grant's childhood and draws parallels between the demise of the British Empire and the downfall of his family.
5/26
Will X-MEN: THE LAST STAND topple The DaVinci Code at the top of the box office? We only know for sure that Ian McKellan doesn’t care because he makes money either way since he’s in both movies. He’s back as Magneto as is his former ally Professor Charles Xavier. Also returning: Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Cyclops, and appropriately rising from the dead, Phoenix who is sort of back as Dr. Jean Grey. Will this indeed be the last of the Vancouver filmed X-Men movies? Well it will for some because they don’t all survive, however there are new mutants introduced to take up the slack like Angel, Juggernaut and Kitty Pryde and there are hints after the credits that there could be more. In this movie a serum that inhibits mutant powers is discovered. For some of our heroes this is a cure and for others it is a curse. The two solitudes line up to do battle for what they think is right.
Speaking of things “X” and Vancouver, the term Generation X is culled from a 1991 novel by Vancouver’s Douglas Coupland. Although a successful author he also considers himself an artist and a patriot. In his low budget documentary SOUVENIR OF CANADA he uses a house as his canvass to display all that is uniquely Canadian. Anyone from this country or who has spent any time in Canada will find it to some degree, to be a delight.
THE PROPOSITION is a well done film which takes place in the Australian outback in the late 19th century - sort of a The Good the Bad and the Aussie. Who knew that Australia could be so lawless, then again it was settled by felons. The proposition refers to a deal struck by a merciless commander with the brother of a gang leader accused of rape and murder – you kill your guilty brother or I’ll kill your innocent brother. Some marvellous character development by an outstanding cast featuring Guy Pearce, Emily Watson, and Ray Winstone shows that no matter what your first impressions are, no one is completely evil or completely innocent. If Unforgiven left you hankering for another gritty western then this is the movie for you.
Speaking of westerns DOWN IN THE VALLEY revolves around a drifter (played by the ever impressive Edward Norton) who turns out to be obsessed with 19th century gunfighters. The Valley is the modern day San Fernando Valley where you can still ride a horse to a variety of strip malls. Norton’s character manipulates his way through a dysfunctional family, at first as the boyfriend to the underage daughter and then as the father figure of the alienated son. He comes on as a sod-bustin’, good-to-his-ma, honest-to-god cowboy, however we find out that he proves true the cliché about things that appear too good to be true.
5/19
THE DA VINCI CODE is the most anticipated film of the year. As I was walking out of the theatre a young man was texting a friend “I’ve broken the Da Vinci code. Mediocre”. The truth is that any movie that gets people reading and thinking has to be at least classed as important. Dan Browns book is already one of the most read books in history and this movie has instigated renewed interest. Ron Howard is as true to the book as any movie can be in just over 2 hours but it is almost impossible to live up to the hype surrounding this film. For me the book was a little life altering but I read it so long ago so I was almost able to watch like someone who had not read it. The idea is that the works of Leonardo Da Vinci contain clues to a conspiracy of silence on an issue so powerful that were it known it would shake the very foundation of Christianity – and the secret is about to be exposed. In addition to Tom Hanks, the cast includes 2 of my favourite French actors, Jean Reno and Audrey Tautou as well as one of England’s finest Ian McKellen.
I liked it but not as much as reading the book because the surprises don’t jump out at you as much. This will undoubtedly top the box office this weekend but as to whether it will sustain that kind of activity will be interesting to see.
OVER THE HEDGE the animated feature which Oldies 650 CISL premiered this week, I think will surprise everyone with the success that it achieves at the box office. In this movie of forest creatures victimized by urban sprawl, Bruce Willis is the voice of a manipulative raccoon who tries to meet his own agenda by talking the other naive creatures into foraging among the humans. I loved William Shatner parodying his own Star Trek over-acting style and fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne does a nice job as one of the lesser characters. In addition to a message about human excesses, this has a lot of laughs for young and old which is why I think it will do so well.
ISN’T THIS A TIME!
Director Jim Brown’s concert documentary, shot at Carnegie Hall in 2003, featuring performances by folk legends such as Pete Seeger and the Weavers, Leon Bibb, Arlo Guthrie, and Peter, Paul & Mary. Rating unavailable at press time. Ridge.
BLACKBALLED: THE BOBBY DUKES STORY
Rob Corddry from TV’s The Daily Show stars in Release director Brant Sersen’s comedy about a paintball champion, banned from competition for 10 years, who returns to reclaim his title. Rating unavailable at press time. Granville 7.
KAMATAKI
Matthew Smiley and Tatsuya Fuji star in Revival Blues director Claude Gagnon’s drama about a young man who, after an attempted suicide, is sent by his mother to live with his uncle in Japan. Rated 14A. Cinemark Tinseltown.
SEE NO EVIL
Professional wrestler Kane stars in New Wave Hookers director Gregory Dark’s horror flick about a reclusive psychopath who gruesomely slaughters delinquent teens at a rundown hotel. Rated 18A. Colossus Langley, SilverCity Coquitlam, Empire Studio 12 Guildford, SilverCity Mission, SilverCity Riverport, Station Square 7, Esplanade 6, and Granville 7 cinemas.
5/12
It’s ironic that Hollywood in its attempt to get out of the financial doldrums, last week put faith in a movie about an Impossible Mission and this week about a sinking ship.
That said POSEIDON is a real edge of your seat movie. This is a remake of 1972’s Poseidon Adventure so we all probably know the story. A luxury liner is capsized by a massive wave and a handful of passengers try to survive in the upside down vessel. Different this time is that the women who seem destined to survive are like Shelly Winters in her hot days, not in her matronly days. Also computer imaging makes for a more spectacular picture but it’s surprising who does not make it in this film. Poseidon might not do much to attract a rainbow of cruise passengers as it looks like white people are the only ones who can live through an ordeal like this.
Also nautical but nice is
ON A CLEAR DAY. This is a charmer from Great Britain loaded with high end actors we all now but can’t put a name to. A Glaswegian 50-something shipbuilder is downsized out of a job. Time alone brings him face to face with his painful past, but his decision to swim the English channel proves to be cathartic not only for him but also for his friends and family.
WHEN DO WE EAT? Is about a stubborn businessman and his extended dysfunctional Jewish family. They’re united for a more than traditional Passover Seder which is the feast commemorating the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. Unfortunately no one really wants to be there, even his ultra kosher son. Things really take a turn when his rebellious son slips him some Ecstasy and he begins to believe he’s Moses. The release might have been timelier around Easter, still it is amusing and an interesting insight into what for some, might be a mysterious religious celebration.
Also out
JUST MY LUCK with Lindsay Lohan.
5/5
We’re coming to the end of the spring no-mans-land for movies between the Xmas blockbusters and the summer blockbusters. About this time last year Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith ended the drought, this year it’s MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3. There’s a lot riding on MI III but I have to say that back timing the quirky birth of his child to the release date of this movie has to elevate Tom Cruise to marketing genius status. Still no matter who knows about it, the film still has to deliver and Cruise and company do. The action is non stop and the locations are exotic as Ethan Hunt, Cruises Impossible Mission Force spy guy is pulled out of retirement and away from his fiancé because of a possible pandemic-in- a-bottle known as rabbits-foot. Oscar winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman is brilliantly evil as an elusive broker who wants to sell rabbits-foot to middle-eastern deep pockets, apparently in collusion with Lawrence Fishburn who plays Cruises boss.
Mission Impossible 3 is going to be impossible to beat at the box office, but some will give it the old college try.
ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL is kind of an Animal Art-house with some big names like Anjelica Huston, Steve Bushemi and John Malkovich (who is also a producer) but the story revolves around newcomer Max Minghella. The film spoofs the pretentious world of art through his character as an art school student. The bullying for his art that he endured in grade school makes him a natural to fit in with his fellow odd-ball post secondary classmates.
HEADING SOUTH was supposed to be released months ago but kept getting moved back. They maybe should have bumped it again to June… 2011. I don’t think cougars are indigenous to Haiti but they flourish in this film – by cougars I refer to 50-smething women looking for action. Charlotte Rampling doesn’t usually miss no matter the language in which she’s working, but she can’t save this pointless and uneven tale of 1970’s sexual tourists looking for brown sugar boy-toys.
HOOT seems geared to provide a fun way to get the kids aware of environmental issues. I had high hopes because Jimmy Buffet is heavily involved not only as a producer but also providing the sound track and even appearing on-screen in a small but important role. He’s a sympathetic Florida teacher to a misfit student from Montana who gets involved in saving the habitat of an endangered owl species. Hoot has all the makings of a cute after school special but as a theatrical release this movie is torture to watch.
I was very impressed with the latest release from Quebec, LA RAGE DE L’ANGE which translated means Angel’s Rage. Abused children come together on downtown mean streets looking for some comfort. These damaged teen are vulnerable targets for inner city predators and destined for tragedy.
Also out:
THE PROMISE
SOMETHING NEW
And the refurbished TIBET: A BUDDHIST TRILOGY
4/28
UNITED 93 totally surprised me. When I first saw the trailers I was a little creeped out feeling that even now, it is too soon after the event for a docu-drama on 9-11 that didn’t seem mercenary and opportunistic. This just shows you how wrong one good looking Realtor/DJ can be. Take my advice however and go to the washroom before it starts because you won’t want to leave during the movie. Even though we all know the result, the pace of this movie is positively riveting. United 93 is not only the flight number of one of the 4 doomed planes, but also refers to the bravery of the one group of passengers who actually had a fighting chance - and took it - that fateful September day in 2001.
RV once again brought Robin Williams to Vancouver to make a shambles of Shaughnessy, although not to the extent of 1995’s Jumanji. It‘s good to see locals like Stephen Miller getting a decent role here. The Williams usual frenetic pace is toned down but his comedic timing remains spot on. He’s a hot shot executive always wary of young Turks trying to take his place. His only way to placate his dysfunctional family and quarterback a company merger is to take a motor home through Alberta doubling as the American Rockies. Of course it proves to be one site gag disaster after another. Although predictable and formulaic this is amusing family fare if this turns out to be a rainy weekend.
THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE is an interesting portrayal of a legendary 50’s pin-up. Only Marylyn Monroe au natural was more popular and this takes her from the 30’s through to her notoriety and final redemption. Her mail order films are tame by today’s standards but back then were considered so pornographic she was subpoenaed before a US Senate committee investigation. The catch her is that Page although completely at ease with her work was deeply religious. Gretchen Mol, who we see mostly as a blonde on TV, seizes this role of the raven haired innocent in leather with a riding crop.
STICK IT is a breakout film for Vancouver’s 24 year old Missy Peregrym or should that be pair-of-gyms. She’s a teen gymnast with attitude whose terms of probation take her back to the sport that she turned her back on. Jeff Bridges plays her scheming coach with a heart. Despite the clumsy arrival at plot points, the action shots, soundtrack, her stoner buds and the Peregrym’s charm tend to pull you in to this movie.
AKEELAH AND THE BEE has been poised for release for so long that I think child star Keke Palmer is now designing crosswords for the New York Times. She plays an LA Ghetto child with scholastic potential. After butting heads with her coach played by Laurence Fishburne she makes it to the US National Spelling Bee.
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON is a documentary about a gifted but debilitatingly haunted artist whose songs inspired a litany of head bangers like Kirk Cobain.
Also out:
HARD CANDY
4/21
SILENT HILL introduces us to a 12 year old sleepwalker played by Nanaimo’s Jodelle Ferland. Making freaky drawings and chanting “Silent Hill” is all she will do when in this perilous state so her mother decides to take her to that condemned ghost town in order to erase her demons. Turns out she picks up a few more. Silent Hill isn’t all that silent but it is certainly over the top. It does have moments of delightful creepiness like the gang of busty faceless nurses that move like the Robert Palmer models, or Vancouver’s gorgeous Deborah Kara Unger playing an unrecognizable hag, but there’s some really corny dialogue and after 2 hours plus of gouging and gushing I think one should have a better idea of what’s causing all the fuss.
Seeing George Bush and American Idol both savaged in the same movie should leave a cynic like me completely satisfied, but I wasn’t with AMERICAN DREAMZ although I did laugh a lot. Here a clumsy terrorist inadvertently makes it to the finals of a cheesy TV talent show where the US President is scheduled to be a guest judge. High points include Hugh Grant as a cutthroat Simon Cowell type, the terrorist’s metro showbiz-ual cousin and a startling Willem Defoe playing an anorexic Dick Chaney-like character. However like Bush and Idol this film doesn’t have a great exit strategy.
DON’T COME KNOCKING is the latest Wim Wender interpretation of the American Midwest and his signature cinematography breezes through it like a tumbleweed. As in Paris, Texas he again collaborates with writer Sam Shephard who this time stars as an aging, self destructive cowboy movie star who curiously gallops away from his current film set and disappears. He discovers that he is a father and proceeds to Butte Montana, the home of the mother played by Shephard’s real life squeeze Jessica Lang. On his trip he is dogged by Canada’s Sarah Polley and Tim Roth. Roth is an insurance underwriter who must find Shephard or his company will have to pay big time. I loved the look and the great performances but some of the scenarios left me a bit sceptical.
KINKY BOOTS is a funny but very predictable story inspired by a real life British shoe factory. A young man inherits the factory which is swimming in red ink, but salvation lies in the manufacture of fetish footwear durable enough to survive drag queens weighing around 10 stone.
THE ROCKET stars Quebecois heart-throb Roy Dupuis who perfectly recreates those piercing dark eyes of stoic hockey icon Maurice “The Rocket” Richard. Anyone who watched the original 6 NHL teams will be taken back with this movie but it does more than masterfully capture an era. Culminating in the Quebec riot that followed Richards suspension in the mid-50’s we get insight into how financially perilous the early days of the NHL were. On top of that comes an inkling as to what simmers under French Canadian separatism. This film is like Cinderella Man on ice but with slightly more fights and is satisfying on a lot of levels.
Also out is 3 NEEDLES with Lucy Liu and Stockard Channing.
And
THE SENTINEL
4/14
The producers of the Scary Movie franchise should give lessons to Benchwarmers producer Adam Sandler on how to make a comedy that is actually funny. The original Scary Movie was an uber-original make work project for the Wayan brothers but that gifted family appears to have pushed the baby out of the nest as none of them appear to be involved in SCARY MOVIE 4. Not to worry, this filmed in Vancouver send-up equals and probably surpasses the 3 movies before it as it skewers The Grudge, The Ring, The Village, Saw, and especially Tom Cruise a la War of the Worlds. The series MVP, Anna Faris is back as the ubiquitous Cindy Campbell, this time trying to deal with a haunted old lady while saving the world from aliens.
You’d think that Jennifer Aniston would have a sense of regression by starring in a movie with Frie