The Last Exorcism has a cast of barely knows including star Patrick Fabian as Cotton Marcus, a charlatan evangelist taking over the family ministry from a long line of bible thumpers many of whom claim to have exorcised demons. Cotton was a child preaching prodigy and although his faith is waning he continues for pragmatic reasons which he justifies on camera in documentary style. Although no longer a committed missionary he does have a mission which is to mitigate the damage done by “dangerous” exorcists. To that end he takes to the Loozianna swampland with the camera crew in tow to document tricks of the trade that he uses to cast the devil out of Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell) a teenager possessed who lately has been mutilating the livestock of her widower father Louis (Louis Herthum) and sullen and wary brother Caleb (Caleb Landry Jones). Once the job is completed Cotton barely has time to whiffle through his cash retainer when it becomes clear his mission is accomplished in George Bush fashion only. When it turns out that Nell is pregnant fingers start pointing everywhere and Nell starts contorting in ways that Linda Blair only wishes she could. The Last Exorcism revisits the creepiness and camera angles of The Blair Witch Project with mostly pleasing results and with surprisingly shocking low budget special effects a la Let Her In. When it’s not tickling you it’s freaking you out.
Lebanon doesn’t have much in the way of anything Lebanese – language or gentry. It’s 1982 and the start of “First Lebanon War” routinely glimpsed claustrophobically through the periscope of an army tank manned by four reluctant Jewish conscripts. This vehicle is stencilled with the Hebrew phrase “men are made of steel, tanks are just junk”. Maybe not so much in this armoured personnel carrier. Asi (Itay Tiran) is the unsuccessful commander of three unruly charges and on day one of the invasion they are put under the command of Gamil (Zohar Shtrauss) a steely veteran paratrooper who leads them on an easy mop up mission that turns out to be far less of a slam dunk and is fraught with the horror and terror that is modern combat where enemies are not so easily defined. This latest expose of Israeli navel gazing produces a tense, original, authentic and very compelling film.
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, and Rebel on the surface might almost be mistaken for a somewhat self serving legacy piece somehow funded by the iconic octogenarian but when you follow the money it leads nowhere near Hef. This documentary is funded by Canadian dollars some of which originates from Astral Media. This helps to objectify this well made film with the objectifier of women at its centrefold. There’s a myriad of talking heads some not unexpected like hedonistic henchmen Gene Simmons and James Caan but accolades from Jesse Jackson and Mike Wallace perk up your eyebrows. And it’s not a total love fest for this purveyor of free love. Pat Boone gets a lot of face time to spout religious morality and likewise bitter feminist Susan Brownmiller who has been on the warpath with Hefner since the sixties and remains unrelenting (although now sounds jaded and shrill). Hefner is a well known jazz fan so it’s no surprise to hear kind words from Tony Bennett but accolades from Pete Seeger and Joan Baez seem strange. Academy Award winning director Brigitte Berman has laid bare a paradoxical legend who to no one’s surprise is an advocate of free speech and first amendment rights but what is a surprise is his historic contribution to human rights.
Also out this weekend:
Takers
Teenage Paparazzo
Nanny McPhee Returns bring back that stern but kind hearted governess with the startlingly bad dental work even by British standards. She left last time when she was wanted and not needed and here comes to stay when needed but not wanted by Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal issuing a spot on Brit accent) a weary shop keeper and farmer’s wife whose husband is off to war. At her wits end trying to keep a thatched roof over her unruly children Norman (Asa Butterfield), Megsie (Lil Woods) and Vincent (Oscar Steer) but lacking funds to even bring in the harvest much less take it to market, she’s suddenly saddled with a well healed and spoiled niece Celia (Rosie Taylor-Ritson) and nephew Cyril (Eros Vlahos) from London. Their privileged city airs manifest more bratty behaviour among the cousins which brings on the need for Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson). As she disciplines the children Isabel has to deal with Mrs. Docherty (Maggie Smith) her absent minded shop assistant and brother in law Phil (Rhys Ifans) who has gambling debts and is constantly trying to sell off the family farm. Joining the cast in surprisingly small parts are Ralph Fiennes and Ewan McGregor (in a non speaking role). Nanny McPhee Returns still leaves us with burning Nanny McPhee questions. Where’s the ack story on why her complexion heals up with each lesson learned by her charges and why does she ugly up again before each new gig? Also specific to this film - how did she foster a terse relationship with a dyspeptic crow? Still, unlike many sequels this one has all of the original charm presented in a more entertaining film.
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work had a reality show like inception and ended up as a documentary of a TV reality show star. Not that she wasn’t a star already but through the footage captured during fourteen months of the 76th year of her life interspersed with file footage we get a revealing look at some dramatic points in television history. There’s her departure as permanent guest host as anointed by Johnny Carson himself of the prestigious Tonight Show. Also explored is the catastrophic personal toll resulting from her failed move to the fledgling Fox network where she went head to head not just with Carson but also her new bosses. The film starts inauspiciously as this somewhat mercenary septuagenarian with an ebbing notoriety takes on stand up gigs at divvy clubs in order to maintain her lavish lifestyle. Looking like she is capable of doing absolutely anything for money we’re there when she gets the call from Donald Trump to do Celebrity Apprentice. What seems like another desperate sell out turns out to be a game changer as the funny and feisty Rivers took that show’s top honours which put her career back on top - even though the experience brought out the daggers that define the love/hate relationship she has with daughter Melissa. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work documents the career of a living comedy legend and it could not be more fascinating. I mean, can we talk? No longer lost in the ubiquitous face-lift jokes that follow her everywhere (she originating many) is the courageous pioneering she did for generations of grateful female performers who followed.
Also out this weekend:
Vampires Suck
Lottery Ticket
Piranha 3D
The Switch
The Disappearance of Alice Creed
Eat Pray Love would be an enthralling but a little far fetched romantic novel - if it were fiction. However it’s actually the memoirs based on a year in the life of author Elizabeth Gilbert which dominated the New York Times best seller list for years. At 32 New York starts to feel surprisingly small with her ex husband Stephen (Billy Crudup) and fading boy-toy David Piccolo (James Franco) still pining after her long past their expiration date. Liz (Julia Roberts) sets off on a voyage of discovery starting in Italy where she eats her way into the next jean size and then seeks spiritual nourishment at an Indian Ashram. She completes her soul search by revisiting Ketut Liyer (Hadi Subiyanto) an Indonesian shaman in the tropical paradise of Bali where love waits for the taking. But will she take it this time around? The role is a huge challenge for Roberts who is in every scene of this two and a half hour film and for the most part rises to the occasion but being two years older than the now 41 year old Gilbert I’m reminded of Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea being beyond believable playing someone so much his junior. And you’d think polished veterans like Roberts and Javier Bardem as Felipe her end game love interest could effortlessly produce some incendiary chemistry but we got more on screen passion between Liz and her Roman pasta than her Balinese boyfriend.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World stars Canada’s Michael Cera who does a subtle stretch in acting style to inch past the terminally virginal alter ego he’s constantly cast to play. Scott Pilgrim is a 23 year old slacker who at least appears to have had some success with women even if the relationships all ended badly. Cera must have been thrilled to be set in his actual home town of Toronto where he’s crashing at the apartment of his gay friend Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin) and dating Knives Chau (fellow Ontarian Ellen Wong) a seventeen year old high schooler. This is much to the consternation of his sister Stacey (Anna Kendrick) and fellow band mates of the group Sex Bob-omb - a garage band that features drummer Kim Pine (Alison Pill), a resentful ex girlfriend of Scott’s. Scott’s ardour for Knives cools when he meets his actual dream girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), an Amazon.ca courier. In order to date Ramona however Scott must defeat her League of Evil Exes that includes Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh) with his almost unbeatable psychic vegan abilities as well as Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), Kyle and Ken Katayanagi (Keita & Shota Saito) and Roxy Ritcher (Mae Whitman). Once defeated league members dissolve into a heap of coins (loonies and toonies of course), however the league was assembled by a more challenging foe, Gideon Gordon Graves (Jason Schwartzman) the New York record producer who holds Sex Bob-omb’s future in his hands. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World appears to answer the question “what if video game rules applied to real life”? and with lightning editing and hilarious dialogue may end up indeed capturing the world. This highly anticipated and brilliantly executed film is based on a series of six graphic novels, not all of which are fully explore in the film. That’s a good thing as it could mean we’ll get more.
Animal Kingdom is a tense Aussie underworld flick that takes place on the mean streets of Melbourne (why does that just sound odd?). Joshua 'J' Cody (James Frecheville) at eighteen is a bit slow so when his junkie mother OD’s he’s really at a loss. Although estranged he calls the only help he can think of - his grandmother Janine (Jacki Weaver) who is affectionately called Smurf and looks every bit the doting family patriarch. It soon becomes apparent why J’s mother dropped out – she didn’t want her son to get involved in the family business that grandma benignly runs. The family business is robbing banks. Right now business is slow because her oldest son Andrew 'Pope' Cody (Ben Mendelsohn) is in hiding from a special police task force that is inclined to shot first and ask questions later – maybe. Not only that but the biz is showing signs of erosion as Pope’s brother Craig (Sullivan Stapleton - constantly high on his own supply) has started a sideline business selling drugs while Pope’s business partner Barry Brown (Joel Edgerton) wants to hold up on the hold-ups and go legit. Just as Joshua joins the clan Barry is gunned down by the police and the unbalanced Pope decides to go to war with the cops. This unwinnable battle puts Joshua in the grasp of Detective Nathan Leckie (Guy Pearce) who wants to massage the kid over to his side. Joshua successfully resists the persuasive Leckie until family politics put him in peril. Animal Kingdom doesn’t feature any animals other than the two legged variety but as in the animal kingdom there are some creatures that have no conscience about eating their young.
Also out this weekend:
The Expendables
The Other Guys are what they call third string paper pushers in the NYPD, diametrically opposed to the precinct heroes. In the New York precinct where P.K. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Christopher Danson (Dwayne Johnson) are kingpins, Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) are very much the other guys and they get zero respect. In the case of Hoitz who was an up and comer its because he put a beloved Yankee on the injury list for a season but for Gamble the lack of respect is for his anal personality – but he can respect that lack of respect. As a matter of fact the only person he shows no respect for is his drop dead gorgeous physician wife Sheila (Eva Mendes), just one of a litany of hot females unexplainably attracted to this geek and one of a litany of hilarious quirks that make this summer action comedy a hoot. When Highsmith and Danson perish as the result of believing their own publicity, top dog status is up for grabs. The volatile Hoitz wants to go vigilante to make his bones but it turns out that their best bet is due to some of Gambles forensic auditing that points to big white collar fraud perpetrated by a David Ershon (Steve Coogan) in cahoots with a multinational powerbroker played by an uncredited Anne Heche. But why is their Captain Gene Mauch (Michael Keaton) so ready to roadblock their investigation when he gets heavy duty political pressure? As producer the heat is doubly on Ferrell who also needs a rebound from the disastrous Land of the Lost and here he dials his over the top instincts back with pleasing results. As for Wahlberg he needn’t wonder if he can do comedy and can add another one to his growing list of impressive works.
Step Up 3D has dynamic narrative but third rate choreography – NOT! No longer centered in Baltimore this unnecessary outing in even more unnecessary 3D has the action moves to New York City. Moose (Adam G. Sevani) from Step Up 2: The Streets and Camille (Alyson Stoner) from the original Step Up movie are the only vaguely familiar principles but who knew they were an item (albeit platonic) through the first two films? Maybe I did but just forgot as I did with the rest of these generic waddles. Here Camille and Moose are fresh faced freshmen at NYU dropped off by Moose’s grateful parents who are glad he finally left that “dancing thing” behind. He’s not alone for two minutes when implausible circumstances start dragging him back and hook him up with the nimble Luke (Rick Malambri), a resourceful street dancing patron of sorts who owns a hotwired Gangs-Of-New-York- style warehouse for broke but aspiring and talented hoofers. We could run through the wafer thin plot but why waste time on something so generic, derivative and downright hoaky. It’s all just a set up anyway for spontaneous outbreaks of explosive high energy dance moves which run the street scene gambit from krunking, locking, popping and even some capoeira and a little third rate parkour thrown in. It’s hard to tell which of the Step Up trifecta would come in last.
Get Low is a backwoods colloquialism for putting ones affairs in order before casting off this mortal coil. Here the backwoods is in 1930’s Tennessee and feeing it’s time to get low is Felix Bush (an almost unrecognizable Robert Duvall) a recluse with a reputed short fuse. The film is based on a true event of a hillbilly hermit buying himself a fancy funeral that he wants to attend while still alive. Where that reality ends this one is embellished with Bush harbouring a dark past. Unsatisfied with the funeral arrangements offered by the clergy through Rev. Gus Horton (Gerald McRaney) he contracts the somewhat shady funeral director Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) and his family man assistant Buddy (Lucas Black) who may in days gone by been one of a litany of kids who tormented Felix at their own peril. They’re hired to stage the funeral and have it open to anyone who has a story to tell about Felix. Feeling that his scary personally might make partygoers literally gun-shy about sharing their stories, Felix offers to raffle off his large acreage of prime timber to someone in attendance. Through the process of arranging the funeral the truth dribbles out about a long ago relationship between Felix and Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek) and the terrible secret that’s kept him in a self imposed prison for decades. Get Low gets high marks for the superb telling of an interesting scenario.
Dinner for Schmucks is based on the 1988 French film The Dinner Game. Tim (Paul Rudd) is making impressive jumps up the corporate ladder despite backstabbing by jealous co workers. He learns that he can really cinch that corner office by landing one perfect client – the most outstanding idiot as designated by his boss Lance Fender (Vancouver's Bruce Greenwood) when brought as a guest to one of Lance’s swish dinner party. When Tim literally runs into Barry (Steve Carell), a taxman/taxidermist who makes dioramas from dead mice he can almost feel the executive washroom key jingling in his pocket. His own conscience bothers him but the biggest obstacle is Tim’s disapproving girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak). Tim invites Barry anyway and soon discovers how devastating it can be to have such a well meaning but monstrous loser enter his life. Tim’s trick back leaves these guys alone together for a day that sees Barry inadvertently manufacture one disaster after another for Tim, not the least of which is to reveal Tim’s address to his on line stalker Darla (Lucy Punch) - who actually seems like a little more fun that Julie. Dinner for Schmucks is The Hangover for the summer of 2010 and just like that sleeper comedy coincidentally has Zach Galifianakis in a secondary role. One might assume that this is the corporate equivalent of a college “pig” party spawning expectations of low grade laughs hinged on degradation but the comedy here is brilliant. That’s largely dues to Carell’s inventive interpretation of a totally unlikeable character that can engender so much pathos.
Charlie St. Cloud is a teen romance flick starring Zac Efron. As a high school senior he’s poised to escape from his cloistered home town thanks to a sailing scholarship (say what?) when his life gets put on hold with the untimely death of his eleven year old brother Sam (sparky but believable Charlie Tahan). Instead of college he takes a job as groundskeeper at a local cemetery so that he can keep a promise to Sam’s ghost that every night the two brothers commune via the ultimate male bonding glue, baseball. All’s fine for half a decade until the re-emergence of Tess Carroll, a former sailing rival played by Langley’s Amanda Crew – formerly of TV’s intriguing but largely ignored series Whistler in which she’s the love interest of a guy mentored by his brother’s ghost. Yikes, typecasting already. Also featured are Kim Basinger and Ray Liotta in throw away roles. When Tess is imperilled while training for a solo global circumnavigation Charlie has to make a choice between her and Sam. Charlie St. Cloud was filmed at West Van’s Eagle Harbour and It’s hard to decide what is more captivating, the steel blue beauty of our coastal water or the steel blue beauty of Efron’s dreamy eyes. However if you enter the movie with expectations as low as I did you might be pleasantly surprised.
Also out this weekend:
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
Mr. Nobody
Restrepo
Salt stars Angelina Jolie as CIA operative Evelyn Salt who is accused by a Russian defector of being a mole for the former Soviet Union. She takes off using all of her spy chops to elude former colleagues, not the least of which is Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) the one person who speaks out on her behalf. While she’s not only on the lam but also trying to rescue her kidnapped husband we learn that there are cells of Russians embedded in America since their indoctrinated youth and ready to spring into subterfuge on a future unnamed date with the aim of causing chaos and instability in the west. In a post cold war world this scenario might seem too far fetched except for the fortuitously coincidental news in the real world lately of Russian spies expelled for long term espionage on American soil. The action is relentless but it would be a more plausible experience if Salt relied way more on her wiles as opposed to reducing this character to the common cliché that it’s possible for a willowy woman to physically overpower groups of men twice her size. Still this Salt has a fair amount of pepper.
Solitary Man stars Michael Douglas as Ben Kalmen an almost sexagenarian skirt chasing scoundrel with a spotty EKG – which at least proves that he does have a heart. While bedding a litany of females who are at most half his age he spends his life emotionally sabotaging the relationships he has with those who refuse to stop loving him. That includes his friend of 35 years Jimmy Merino (Danny DeVito), his newfound protégé Daniel Cheston (Jesse Eisenberg) and even family like his daughter Susan (Jenna Fischer) not to mention ex wife Nancy (Susan Sarandon). Once a kingpin in the New York business world Ben blows it all on a hair brained scam and just when he’s on the cusp of a comeback he manages to again scuttle himself completely through the double cross of his latest liaison (both political and romantic) with Jordan Karsch (Mary-Louise Parker) via her daughter Allyson (Imogen Poots). Rebounding this time seems impossible which is one of the elements that make this well written and unpredictable story worthwhile, but it also re-establishes Michael Douglas as a crackerjack leading man. That’s an attribute we almost forgot having only seen him in occasional brilliant cameos lately.
I Am Love is a gorgeous and gastronomic journey into the lifestyles of the rich and Milano. Tilda Swinton does justice to her Italian lines as Emma, a Russian émigré married into the old money of the Recchi’s whose patriarch Edoardo Sr. (Gabriele Ferzetti) is about to pass down the reins of power in the families lucrative factory. However in a family already showing signs of strain this will lead to more instability. Those eligible include Emma’s husband Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) and their sons Edoardo Jr. (Flavio Parenti) and Gianluca (Mattia Zaccaro). Shortly after the fractious decision is announced it’s revealed that daughter Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwacher) is a lesbian and Emma starts an affair with the much younger Antonio Biscaglia (Edoardo Gabbriellini). This relationship is doubly doomed as Antonio is also Edoardo Jr.'s best friend so in effect she’s cheating on her husband and her favourite son. Meantime Eduardo Jr. is twice deceived as under the stewardship of Tancredi the family business is about to head down a road that Eduardo finds abhorrent. All this transpired in a whirlwind of high fashion, idyllic Lombardy landscapes and especially exquisite Italian cuisine. You may not leave the theatre feeling the love but you surely will leave saying “I’m hungry!”.
Also out this weekend:
Ramona and Beezus
Inception implies a commencement of sorts and in the case of this latest Sci-fi thriller from innovative director Christopher Nolan it refers to the genesis of a life changing idea. That’s nothing too revolutionary except that here the person conceiving the idea is not the originator, the thought is place externally. Leonardo DiCaprio is Dom Cobb an expert at such things in a world where with the right science applied, dreams can be invaded and shared. He usually uses the technology to steal ideas but this time around he has to leave a thought behind - a feat no one believes possible. And why? Well, in an almost aside he’s hired by the mysterious billionaire Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe) to rewire the psyche of Robert Fischer Jr.(Cillian Murphy) to avoid a monopolization of world energy by the Fischer dynasty. With the help of his long time associate Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Cobb assembles a team of experts for this task that includes Eames (Tom Hardy), Yusuf (Dileep Rao) and at the recommendation of his former father in law and mentor Miles (Michael Caine) one of his brightest new protégés Ariadne (Ellen Page). In order to succeed in this task they have to go into a dream within a dream within a dream, plant the idea and escape all three levels or risk being left in an eternal limbo. Unfortunately for all involved Cobb has been distracted lately and the line between reality and the unreal has become blurred by haunting confrontations with his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) whose confusion about reality caused her to commit suicide in the real world. Kudos to the genius of Christopher Nolan, not a big fan of CGI and here uses it sparingly which makes for a more believable visual without jeopardizing the awe factor. His conception of Inception is exceptional.
The Kids Are All Right features two kids who prove to be indeed alright but maybe not so much the unstably grounded people who spawned them. The kids here are Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson) who seem to typical teenagers but really are not at all typical. Too bad the title ``It’s Complicated`` was already recently used because here it’s much more applicable. Joni is the daughter of Nic (Annette Bening) and Laser is the son of Jules (Julianne Moore) – so far so good but the kids have the same father. Okay, the age we live in but wait, Nic and Jules are in a long term committed lesbian relationship and were artificially inseminated by the same donor. Now it’s complicated, especially when the kids make contact with turkey baster dad Paul (Mark Ruffalo). He turns out to be a free spirited restaurateur who quickly enchants everyone in the family save for Nic who doesn’t like the encroachment on her alpha male status much less her A-type personality. Things really blow up when one of the moms starts playing ball on Paul’s team. Smart and funny The Kids Are All Right is one of the best films of 2010 so far.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice is the latest release from the Disney Juggernaut. Working on his sorcery ticket is the reluctant Dave (Montreal’s Jay Baruchel, the current flavour of the geek), a physics nerd at NYU who for some reason has a connection with that most famous of wizards, Merlin (James A. Stephens). Finding Dave ends the millennial quest of former Merlin underling Balthazar (Nicolas Cage sporting yet another ridiculous hairpiece) who needs Dave for more than just an apprenticeship. He has to not only vanquish Horvath (Alfred Molina) and Morgana (Alice Krige) the murderers of his mentor but also free his true love imprisoned for 1000 years, the beautiful Veronica (a wasted Monica Bellucci but still a treat to see). The reason Dave is reluctant to take on another TA position is that he’s in the process of reconnecting with Becky (Teresa Palmer) his grade school fantasy and pressure from Balthazar is doing nothing to help get his mojo working. Yes Fantasia fans there is an homage to the Mickey Mouse segment of the same name from that classic animated film. The rest of the film won’t be so familiar other than the structured formula used to hang the action on.
The Girl Who Played With Fire is the second chapter in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson that follows closely on the tail of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. She would be Lisbeth Salander (the angular beauty Noomi Rapace) who feels the need to come home from her tropical hideout where she escaped after the first leg of this engrossing saga. She returns to Stockholm to further button down Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson) her scumbag parole office and quickly comes to the realization that she’s being targeted by a mysterious blonde goon. Meantime magazine publisher Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) Lisbeth’s former colleague and paramour is excited about his latest expose on human trafficking thanks to the research of a young girl and her boyfriend reporter who Mikael has on retainer. When this couple turn up viciously murdered Mikael has to stay tight lipped with the police in order to protect the story’s sources. However he’s determined to do his one investigation which coincidentally crosses paths with Lisbeth’s would be blonde assassin. Meantime Nils Bjurman also shows up dead and the police suspect Lisbeth not only for all three murders. Once again Mikael and Lisbeth have to do their sleuthing at arms length via cyberspace to try to locate the elusive Alexander Zalachenko (Georgi Staykov) who not only seems to be the root of all this evil but is also a painful connection to Lisbeth’s past. The plot is intricate but never implausible and leaves the back door wide open for the third chapter - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the book currently on everybody’s best seller list. I can’t wait!
Also out this weekend:
Despicable Me
Predators
Wild Grass
The Last Airbender is the latest offering from M. Night Shyamalan's who in a departure is directing a film that he did
not write but instead brings to life the popular Avatar: The Last Airbender from the Nickelodeon Animation Studios. The principle here may be the last but he’s more than just an airbender. He is Aang (Noah Ringer who has moves but is still irritating) a twelve year old airbender who lives in a time when certain gods can manipulate one of the four elements - either fire, earth, air or water. Aang has been suspended in ice for a century in a frigid climate until set free by Katara (Nicola Peltz) the last of the waterbenders and her subsequently often moist brother Sokka (Twilight heartthrob Jackson Rathbone). Aang ends up being perused by hoards of firebenders led by Prince Zuko (Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel) who has a trumped-up political agenda for holding him captive as it’s believed that Aang is the Avatar - a unique god with mastery over all four elements. There is no shortage of action here but the 3D technology is wasted on this film and seems more like cinematic cash grab. The dialogue is laughable as proved by the inappropriate audience giggling that I witnessed. Shyamalan to date has not been able to top his 1999 masterpiece The Sixth Sense and even with someone else’s script seems has not manipulated the elements of a top notch movie.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is the latest run at box office gold with an adaptation of the third novel by Stephenie Meyer that continues this wildly popular tale of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and her haemoglobin jonsein’ main squeeze Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Torn between two lovers this time isn’t the biggest problem facing Bella because even as overtures from luscious lycan Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) are gradually wearing her down, again tossed into the mix is the vindictive Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) who has been seeking to kill Bella since book one and is now craftily creating an army of newbie vampires with help from her home made flack Riley (Xavier Samuel) to fulfill that purpose. This kind of vampire vigilantism is frowned upon by the Voltari (a kind of Vampire mafia) and if they’re forced to trek from Italy to Forks Washington (actually Belcarra Regional Park) to clean up this mess they’re bound to notice that Bella has not yet acquired a taste for blood – something promised as her salvation at the conclusion of The Twilight Saga: New Moon. The Cullen’s and the local werewolves (the pack that Jacob runs with) have to form a truly unholy alliance in order to vanquish these villainous vampires. Where the second film seemed to rush through the meaty details of New Moon this Twilight reveals a lot from the again voluminous novel Eclipse yet stays true to the book – not easy to do in just two hours which makes this possibly the most memorable offering so far.
Cyrus is the character played by Jonah Hill who has a creepy oedipal relationship with his mother Molly (Marisa Tomei) as evidenced by the framed photos in their living room of him breast feeding years past the toddler stage. When mom takes up with John (John C. Reilly) Cyrus makes it his mission to sabotage the romance and vanquish his rival. The terminally dateless John on the other hand comes from a vulnerable place where he’s unable to let go of his sympathetic ex wife Jamie (Catherine Keener). When a one in a million chance at happiness with Molly falls in his lap he’s not about to give up due to the scheming of a man half his age but his equal in clinginess. Oscar nominee Reilly and Academy Award winner Tomei come pre-approved to belong in this worthwhile dramedy but Hill, a very successful young actor with an ever expanding waistline, we’re used to seeing in laugh out loud yet sophomoric comedies. Here the laughs are more subtle so for Hill this is a much bigger acting role. No worries, he rises to the challenge. For more reasons than are obvious this is a really fat role for Jonah Hill.
Winter's Bone is a hillbilly murder mystery full of tension and with a look that is as bleak as the future of its main character Ree Dolly (sensational up and comer Jennifer Lawrence). She’s a Missouri seventeen year old whose natural beauty is never exploited -nor is there any need for it with such a fine performance. She has the weight of the world on her very young shoulders and she’s so desperate that the army seems to be a pleasant relief option. With no father and a catatonic mother she proudly and without complaint tends to her pre teen sister and brother, sometimes with the kindness of neighbours but mostly thanks to the old growth wood lot on their property which provides a meagre diet of deer and squirrel. Like so many in the community her father Jessop ran a meth lab but skipped on his bail after he got busted. The house was put up as collateral and when the bail bondsman comes to foreclose Ree takes up the hunt for Jessop. Unfortunately this runs her afoul of the local organized crime gang most of whom have blood ties to Ree. Genetics aside Ree’s persistence in her search has some painful and ultimately grizzly results. Kudos to director/writer Debra Granik for such brilliantly depressing texture not to mention casting all of which no doubt went a long way to capturing the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
This Movie Is Broken is a showcase for the band Broken Social Scene that is basically a concert film but with a unique difference. A free spirited episode is fashioned by juxtaposing full live versions of this voluminous Toronto band’s repertoire against a boy/girl drama. Bruno (Greg Calderone) has been in love with Caroline (Georgina Reilly) since they were kids some 15 years ago. During the awkward day after their one and only hook up they elect to spend her last day in town before heading to Paris by taking in a BSS free harbour side concert. As the band bears its soul on stage so too do our protagonists in the audience, one clearly more smitten than the other. This Movie Is Broken may be a low budget effort but none the less is a heady fix for music lovers that gradually wins you over to its brilliance.
Also out this weekend:
Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky
Grown Ups
Toy Story 3 as the name would imply is the third instalment in this ultra creative franchise and here we get an underlying message about loyalty and family that also has adventure, intrigue, hearty laughs, heartstring tugs and a hilarious introduction of Barbie and Ken. Andy’s historical toys still include Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) along with their plastic and stuffed pals who still come to life when humans are not looking. The problem is that nowadays no humans are really looking. At 17 Andy’s rhapsodic imagination that for years took the toys on flights of fancy has moved onto other things as he prepares to go to college. After mom lays down the good housekeeping law the toys get accidentally handed down to a daycare centre which seems ideal to their neglected sensibilities at first. Then they discover that they’re not only just abuse fodder for kids who have not yet developed an inside voice but also that the place is run by a godfather-like teddy named Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear (a long absent Ned Beatty). Woody is left to rescue all of the toys from this ersatz jail. Like so many other films that reach trilogy status this picture also feels it’s the perfect time to also ventures into the third dimension but Pixar animation is so consistently stunning that the 3D seems almost superfluous. Never the less, with or without 3D this may be the best of the bunch. This Toy story should be in play for a large part of the summer.
Jonah Hex is another graphic DC comics anti hero brought to life on the silver screen. Hex (Josh Brolin) who communes with dead people is a facially disfigured Civil War veteran and current bounty hunter with a bounty on his own head. He suffered a near death experience at the hands of Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) and his ensuing recuperation with the help of a local first nation’s tribe left him with the odd necrosis sixth sense. Hex and the merciless Turnbull rode together during the Civil War until Hex killed Quentin’s son Jeb (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). As a result Turnbull forced Jonah to watch him wipe out the Hex clan and then left Jonas barely alive and so severely scarred that he’s destined to live his life haunted in so many ways. In time Quentin succumbs to his own megalomania and his attempt to have the South rise again seem unstoppable to US President Grant (Aidan Quinn) without the aid of an unwilling Jonah Hex. Unnecessarily tossed into the mix is Lilah (Megan Fox - but no argument here!) loosely based on the comic character Tallulah Black. Look for other minor roles featuring Tom Wopat and Toronto’s Will Arnett. True to the comics, Nitro burning revenge is the ongoing theme of this incredibly short but incendiary fable, however it’s sadly sanctimonious in that although the action takes place 150 years ago it’s contemporized by veiled references to terrorists brandishing weapons of mass destruction that threaten to destabilize US power.
Year of the Carnivore is the brainchild of Sook-Yin Lee, Vancouver’s brainy and child like former front singer for Bob’s Your Uncle. With familiar Fraser Valley locations as a back drop she’s taken a mini Sarah Silverman named Cristin Milioti from Sopranos bit player to the borderline of being the next Ellen Page. In front of a mostly Canadian cast Milioti plays the ironically named Sammy Smalls whose diminutive stature is the result of cancer treatment as a child. Now 21 she’s on her own for the first time much to the chagrin of over protective mom and dad (Sheila McCarthy and Kevin McDonald). She has a job in supermarket security working for her vigilante boss Dirk (Will Sasso) and she has a crush on street musician Eugene (Mark Rendall). Although Sammy and Eugene seem willing to make a romance work there’s baggage on both sides that each needs to work through before sex isn’t totally awkward. Their search to that end makes Year of the Carnivore a rather meaty script.
Also out this weekend:
Knight and Day
The Karate Kid is a distant knock off of the 1984 film of the same name with Jackie Chan taking on Pat Morita’s mentoring role and Ralph Macchio’s tormented fish out of water Daniel Larusso is now Dre Parker played by Jaden Smith. There are a lot of departures in this film not the least of which is that kung fu and not karate is the martial art of choice and the action is nowhere near the USA but rather in China. The location is probably by the design of money people since the production company is China Film Group - the largest and most influential state-run film enterprise in China - so Beijing becomes one of the stars. Dre comes from Detroit in tow with Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) his single mother who is ecstatic to be a Motown black woman still working no matter where the job is. The story gets familiar as Dre runs afoul of local bully Cheng (talented newcomer Zhenwei Wang) who not only makes Dre’s life miserable but cock blocks his progress with a classically trained China doll names Meiying (Wenwen Han another newcomer who manages to totally personify sweetness). Dre’s misery abates when he undertakes the tutelage of Mr Han (Chan) a reclusive maintenance man who turns out to be good with his hands with more than just tools. But can this tortured handyman get his protégé ready in time to face the Cheng nemesis in a looming kung fu mash up? This is an excellent role for the aging Chan who may not be believable as a one man wrecking crew so much anymore but still has some cool choreography to display – that is when he’s not hobbling around like a bow-legged rickets survivor. At 11 years old (going on 30) playing a 13 year old, Smith in only his third picture basically carries the film with an infinite amount of charm. He comes by his talent honestly being the son of Hollywood power couple Jada and Will Smith (Will is also one of the films producers). This kid has some chops.
Agora refers to an open "place of assembly" in ancient city-states and in Alexandria’s antiquity was located just outside of its lamentably sacked library. Originally a place where citizens would gather to hear statements of the ruling king or council, in the time of the scientific philosopher Hypatia (Rachel Weisz) the space was used to find recruits for the newly emancipated religion called Christianity. Carl Sagan once called Hypatia the last librarian of the Library of Alexandria but she was also a teacher who would wax philosophically with Pagan, Jewish or Christian students while her adoring but astute slave Davus (Max Minghella) watched and listened. When the forces of Christianity rumbled into a position of influence she became a focal target in the struggle among zealots that included former students Orestes (Oscar Isaac) who became Imperial Prefect and Synesius (Rupert Evans) who became bishop of Ptolemais as well as the Patriarch Cyril not to mention Davus who turned his back on Hypatia to gain his freedom. This got a lot of Christians treating Hypatia very, well, un-Christian-like. Agora is a provocative movie that people should see but something says it may cause movie goers Agora-phobia.
Micmacs is the latest round of devilishly witty insanity from French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet who gave us Amélie, probably Europe most profitable film export ever. Dany Boon plays Bazil, a video store clerk who survives accidentally being shot in the head. Surgeons elect not to remove the bullet since the procedure would likely put him in a vegetative state while leaving it in will only “likely” kill him or at best make airport security a nightmare. With his old job gone he survives as a bad street performer until his rescue by a gang of junkyard rejects. As they include a human cannon ball with a Guinness world record and a comely contortionist this crew resembles a circus side show but together they decided to pool their quirky talents to exact revenge from the powerful but callous munitions barons responsible not only for manufacturing the bullet lodged in Bazil’s cranium hut also the land mine that killed his army dad while serving overseas in 1979. Micmacs has absolutely nothing to do with First Nations people on Canada’s east coast but is a big part of the current Fourth Annual French Film Festival on Canada’s west coast.
Mother and Child is a heartfelt trio of stories with adoption at their heart that eventually intersect although some more predictably than others. Annette Bening is Karen, a bitter 52 year old woman who lives with her aged mother Nora (Eileen Ryan). Karen has used the world as her whipping boy since having to give up her daughter who was conceived when she was only 14. Today that daughter is Elizabeth (Naomi Watts) now 37. Even though she grew up in a loving home adoption has left her damaged, an affliction that she actually uses to her advantage in making herself a legal superstar at her current law firm headed by Paul (Samuel L. Jackson). While Elizabeth barters promiscuity in the bedroom as well as the boardroom Karen manages to do a one-eighty on the attitude through the help of Paco (Jimmy Smits) a smitten co-worker as well as Sofia (Elpidia Carrillo) her mother’s care giver. This leads Karen to finally seek out Elizabeth which sets in motion her encounter with Lucy (Kerry Washington) and Joseph (David Ramsey) an infertile couple desperate to adopt. With the clinic in acting displayed by Bening and Watts in bringing this exceptional script to life this film may spur some long memories come Academy Awards time.
Also out this weekend:
The A-Team
Get Him to the Greek reintroduces us to the vacuous, hedonistic rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) who we met in Forgetting Sarah Marshall – although at this point for him she’s merely a substance addled almost memory. For our part we should completely forget that Jonas hill played Matthew the waiter in Sarah Marshal as here he’s Aaron Green, an LA record industry flack working for an A+ personality label CEO named Sergio Roma (an excellent Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs). Aldous is on Sergio’s roster but no longer an A-list act due to a disastrous recent release. This is causing Aldous a lot of stress as is a break-up with the mother of his child, Jackie Q (Rose Byrne) who is now really riding high as a solo act. Aaron is a huge Aldous fan and gets the bright ideal of an anniversary repeat of Snow’s historic performance at LA’s Greek Theatre. At a low point in Aaron’s relationship with his girlfriend Daphne Binks (Elisabeth Moss) Sergio buys into his idea and gives Aaron a huge break, escorting the drug addled Snow from London so that he will be on time for an interview on the Today Show and then the gig at the Greek. Easier said than done especially since Snow has fallen way off the wagon and in no time lures Aaron into the waiting arms of the Rock and Roll lifestyle. Like Sarah Marshall this tawdry comedy was also written by Jason Segel and directed by Nicholas Stoller so to no one’s surprise it is really in your face especially with body parts and functions you don’t want there. Still it’s every bit as funny.
Also out this weekend:
Killers
Marmaduke
Splice
Sex and the City 2 picks up where the 2008 movie left off and takes us from a gay wedding to the hot sands of Abu Dhabi with a host of adventures in between. Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) still do lunch frequently but the single life does not dominate the conversation so much save for Samantha (fighting menopause tooth and nail with the sage help of author Suzanne Somers). Motherhood tends to be the focus especially with Miranda and Charlotte who have to deal with career juggling and smoking hot nannies. Meantime Carrie feels like Mr. Big’s (Chris Noth) is settling way too comfortably into their marriage and it’s taking away her edge. After the unlikely wedding of friends Anthony (Mario Cantone) and Stanford (Willie Garson) consecrated by (who else?) Liza Minelli Samantha gets a PR proposition from an Arabian Sheik and heads off to the UAE to talk business on the condition that all expenses are paid and that she gets to take her best buds. Four females who were in no small way responsible for a paradigm shift in attitudes towards strong women in America holed up for a week in a country where clerics have made misogyny law – what could go wrong? With crisp writing that speaks to more than just women this is like a whole season of the wildly popular TV series at once and at just less than two and a half hours runs just about as long. But time flies when you’re having fun and Sex and the City 2 is like catching up with dear friends that one has not seen for two years and rediscovering what attracted you to them in the first place.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is an epic tale with gorgeous locations and par cour that is innovative and thrilling but the movie also contains some inherent flaws - not the lease of which is that none of the stars cast looks Persian. OK, maybe Ben Kinglsey since we already bought him as Ghandi. He might squeak by but not Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar the ex slave with a weird penchant for ostriches and certainly not Jake Gyllenhaal. And since when do all people from Persia all speak with an upper crust British accent? Gyllenhaal plays Dastan a former free running street urchin elevated to royal status by kindly King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup) who generously rules his vast kingdom with the help of his brother Nizam (Kingsley) and two natural sons Tus (Richard Coyle) and Garsiv (Toby Kebbell). When the city of Alamut is accused of going rogue by providing weapons to the enemies of Persia the king sends his three sons to investigate. After Alamut is sacked and the city’s beautiful princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) is taken prisoner she is betrothed to Datsan for political reasons. However when King Sharaman gets poisoned Dastan gets blamed and he has to flee with his reluctant fiancée who he finds useful but who is also constantly schemes against him. He finds out that she holds the key to the sands of time, the real reason for the Sharaman’s assassination and Dastan realizes that it’s up to him to make things right even with the might of the whole Persian army breathing down upon him and his plotting bride to be. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is based on a video game with extraordinary longevity having been developed as a side scroller game for MS DOS yet recently re-released on Game Cube. The movie might not have those kinds of legs.
The Maid is a Chilean film starring Catalina Saavedra as Raquel a 41 year old live-in maid who has spent half her life in the service of the Valdez family and who is so comfortable in their Santiago home that she runs the house like a general. After being laid low by health issues her paranoia runs deep regarding the help hired to take care of things during her convalescence. Rather than rest she gets extra busy making the stay as uncomfortable as possible for these servant interlopers. However she meets her match in Lucy (Mariana Loyola), an intuitive country girl with a very disarming personality. The Maid deservedly received a nomination for best picture at the 2010 Golden Globe awards undoubtedly in large part doe to the phenomenal acting of Saavedra who can say ten time more without dialogue than she can reciting lines.
Also out this weekend:
Babies
Shrek Forever After has Mike Myers back as Shrek in this fable that resembles a perfect storm where It’s a Wonderful Life collides with Grimm’s Fairy Tales and the Wizard of Oz. Also retuning are Cameron Diaz as the voice of Princess Fiona and the frenetic Eddie Murphy as the scene stealing Donkey. Back too is Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots - for the most part with a bit of a glandular problem. New is Walt Dohrn as Rumpelstiltskin who is introduced in a quick flashback as a charlatan magician who almost had Fiona’s royal parents King Harold (John Cleese) and his Queen (Julie Andrews) convinced that in exchange for their kingdom he could cure her of her ugly curse when news broke that Shrek had already done the job. Flash forward and the Shreks are a nuclear family of five with one cat in the yard along with a donkey. This blissful life is good for a while but Shrek after all is an Ogre and starts missing the terrorization of townsfolk. An alert Rumpelstiltskin sees a way in this Ogre angst to revisit his earlier deal and tricks Shrek into signing a contract that propels him into an alternate universe where he has one day to make everything right again or perish forever as though he’d never existed. Shrek Forever After features 3D animation that is quite remarkable as a combination of computer generated animation as well as the "live action" performance capture technique used in Polar Express and is a worthwhile finale (if it really is) to a franchise that fizzled badly in its previous third incarnation.
Harry Brown is a Londoner who is as a bit of a loss - quite a bit of a loss actually. He’s lost his child and more recently his wife. He’s lost the tranquility of his neighborhood to thugs and pushers but when he loses his only friend Leonard Attwell (David Bradley) at the hands of those local hoodlums the ex British marine decides it’s time to take action. His most fierce opponent however isn’t the local lawbreakers, it’s himself. He’s a septuagenarian with emphysema and a very meager pension. Still the resourcefulness he’s earned medals for while serving in Northern Ireland get him a decent arsenal in short order and the bad guy casualties start the stack up. Hot on the tail of his vigilante activity is D.I. Alice Frampton (Emily Mortimer) who is also assigned to investigate Leonard’s murder. She in turn gets little support from her arrogant superior who feels she should be on a cushier assignment which she unexplainably abandoned to get down and dirty in the trenches. Michael Caine bolsters his long running legacy as Harry Brown.
MacGruber is a modern day comedy that is a send up of the McGyver days of the mid 80’s right down to the epilates, high waisted jeans and (ugh) mullet hair. Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels is a producer and SNL regulars Will Forte (MacGruber) and Kristen Wiig (Vicki St. Elmo) are two retired government operatives pressed back into service by the US military to thwart a nuclear threat from the disgruntled evil mastermind Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer). Like McGyver, MacGruber shuns firearms in favour of weapons improvised from stuff lying around the house. He has a penchant for tearing out the throat of his adversaries although his toughness is questionable since he usually acts like a little girl at the first sign of trouble. When some of his home brewed C-4 wipes out his hand picked vigilantes he is forced to work with the less than desirable Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe). Juxtaposed against the comic timing of Wiig and Forte Phillipe is a solid straight man (save for one incident involving celery) and a jowlier Kilmer is a respectable foe. The set-ups are not forced and Forte and Wiig can make it work but the humour is either deep in the darkness or deep in the toilet.
Robin Hood is a prequel to the altruistic woodsman that we’re familiar with thanks to the gelling of traditional ballads into the character portrayed by Walter Scott in the 19th century novel Ivanhoe. Here Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) is a crusader with King Richard The Lionheart (Danny Huston) returning to England from the Holy Land via France and pillaging along the way to pay for that 12th century version of the War on Terror. Richard’s ridiculous demise causes Robin to return home under the assumed name of Sir Robert Loxley along with a merry ban of reprobate crusader buddies that included Little John (Kevin Durand) and Will Scarlet (Scott Grimes). On a mission of honour they proceed to Nottingham where the aged and blind senior Loxley (Max von Sydow) takes Robin in as his son to ensure that his daughter in law Marion Loxley (Cate Blanchett) can rightfully inherit the Loxley land. Meantime the new King John (Oscar Isaac, who gets all the best lines) is bent on raising taxes with the aid of Godfrey (Mark Strong) of no fixed rank or historical credence. Godfrey as it turns out is working as a double agent for France and trying to weaken Britain by dividing her from within. In a real stretch, when Friar Tuck (Mark Addy) joins the rest of Robin’s crew they become “brethren of the hood” (they all wear hoods as disguises) in revolt against the new oppressive tax scheme. Most of this sounds kind of intriguing until you factor in copious historical inconsistencies (King Phillips landing craft made his assault look like the Normandy invasion in reverse) not to mention a complete disregard for the laws of physics (arrows just don’t go that far!). And then there’s the silliness of Maid Marion as a kick ass Medieval ninja, not to mention the suggestion that it was Robins father who authored the Magna Carta. Talk about robbing from the rich (Ivanhoe) to give to the poor (the scriptwriters of this bloated misstep). Here the usually infallible director Ridley Scott is definitely no Walter Scott.
Letters to Juliet are apparently a long standing tradition almost exclusively for women
Shakespeare fans visiting Verona, the mythical home of the feuding Capulets and Montagues. These letters are posted by the lovelorn beneath a balcony in the centre of town and collected daily by women on the city payroll whose job it is to write unctuous responses to the broken hearted authors. This is all news to Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) an American who only discovers this while being neglected on her pre nuptial honeymoon by her fiancé Victor (Gael García Bernal). Sophie is befriended by the ladies and lends a hand with their daily task but when she discovers a letter dated 1957 her journalist sensibilities kick in and she writes a reply that gets an immediate response. The aristocratic Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) shows up looking to reunite with the young mans she abandoned 50 years previously due to class distinction reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet. In tow is her haughty grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) who thinks his grandmother is totally foolish and the ladies of Verona completely reprehensible for turning the head of a susceptible old woman. Sophie’s skills as a fact checker for the New Yorker narrows Claire’s search down to a mere 76 men likely to be the one stood up. The three head out on a Tuscan road trip that start s with a lot of tension and ends with a lot of different tension between Sophie and Charlie who grow close but the fiancé matter stands in their way. A subdued Redgrave is her usual perfect self as the dignified heiress trying to fulfill her dream. However despite the suggested romance there isn’t much chemistry between Egan and Seyfried on screen but no matter, the pastoral Italian beauty makes up for a lot of the movies flaws.
Just Wright is another romantic comedy for Queen Latifah that has some endearing moments if you can get past the derivative script and the uncomfortable stereotyping. Latifah plays Leslie Wright, an accomplished physiotherapist who although a home owner drives a total beater that might be worth $100. OK, that running (barely) gag gets explained away logically but there’s some political incorrectness that remains to defy logic like when she drives home after helping to polish off a couple of bottles of wine. Then there’s the implied given that black men have to pin their hopes of success on making it in sports or that the only way for a black woman to improve is to snag a wealthy man. Leslie shares her house with her friend from childhood, the freeloading Morgan Alexander (Paula Patton). While Morgan schemes to meet an NBA sugar daddy Leslie actually makes friends with one, Scott McKnight (rapper Common) of the New Jersey Nets. It looks like chemistry is brewing between them until Scott gets one look at Morgan and becomes Mr Shallow. The engagement between Scott and Morgan disintegrates along with Scott’s knee at the All Star game and Leslie has to nurse him back to playing shape by the playoffs or he risks his contract renewal. Physio leads to physical but can Leslie’s inner beauty hold Scott when Morgan comes crawling back? Yes there is charm in this predictable movie mostly from the strength of Latifah but there’s also some surprising acting chops displayed by Common. Still it’s also rife with implausibility not the least of which is the Nets making the playoffs.
Mao's Last Dancer stars Birmingham Royal Ballet principal Chi Cao who makes a smooth cross over to film playing the adult subject adapted from Li Cunxin best selling autobiography. A child of Mao’s Cultural Revolution Cunxin was taken from his peasant family to study ballet at the Beijing Dance Academy. For being able to artistically portray Maoist ideology he became an unlikely star in his own country and then went on to make international headlines by refusing to come home after a three month stay in America as a guest of the artistic director of the Houston Ballet. Vancouver’s Bruce Greenwood is subtly effeminate at the ballet impresario Ben Stevenson in that watershed of culture known as Texas. The consequences of Cunxin’s actions not only placed in peril his extended family in China headed by his mother Niang (Joan Chen) but also proved to be almost as painful as the brutal conditions that he left behind both on the commune as well as at the strict academy. You know you’re being manipulated but it’s impossible not to get emotionally involved with this film. Mao's Last Dancer is a thrilling spectacle for ballet enthusiasts and a biopic with fascination for students of history.
Also out this weekend
The Trotsky
Iron Man 2 takes us six months past the original Iron Man where Tony Stark told the world that he is the man in the red and gold suit. Reprising the role is Robert Downey Jr.whose name may be mud in a law court but is pure gold on the silver screen. Hard to imagines it but Stark’s swagger has increased since he’s used the phenomenal exo-suit to bring about world peace. He receives rock star adulation at the world’s fair he’s opened as homage to his genius father Howard Stark (John Slattery) who envisioned the technology currently keeping Tony alive. The problem is that what is keeping him alive is also killing him and a substitute for its key element is elusive. Toxic technology is not all that Tony has to worry about. The US Government wants him to turn over his suit to the military and a brooding Russian ex con physicist named Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) is planning revenge on the Stark clan. He’s upset because he thinks that his father Anton Vanko was double crossed by his former partner Howard Stark which led to a life of Russian penury while the Starks prospered exponentially. Ivan has also harnessed this powerful technology for his own highly charged weaponry. Just before the pressure causes Tony to have a mental meltdown he makes Pepper Potts Gwyneth Paltrow his CEO and gives her old job to Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) who turns out to be an agent from S.H.I.E.L.D working with director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).and they provide Tony with coded information from his father. Can he decipher it in time to not only cure himself but also stop Ivan from his insidious plan once he gets in leaguer with Tony’s industrial rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell)? You probably know the answer which doesn’t deflect the fact that Iron Man 2 is an iron clad guarantee of big box office numbers for the summer of 2010.
Please Give offers up a pleasant slice of New York surrounding the last days on earth for Andra (Ann Guilbert), a rather nasty grandmother of two sisters - the vivacious Mary (Amanda Peet) and the younger more serious Rebecca (Rebecca Hall). Mary s a beautician on the rebound obsessed with the woman who stole her man and constantly feels the need to justify her vocation to her clearly brighter lab technician sibling. Conversely Rebecca lacks her sister’s sensuality and has trouble getting a date. Andra lives in the apartment next to Alex (Oliver Platt) who is married to Kate (Catherine Keener), the real protagonist of the story. Alex and Kate run a very successful second hand furniture store recycling unwanted heirlooms. Kate feels guilty about this and is constantly trying to make amends by helping the needy yet she won’t spend any money to bolster her awkward teenage daughters self esteem. Kate is the only one feeling guilty in the guilty pleasure of a movie since Alex has designs on Mary and both he and Kate have designs on Andra’s apartment. If only she’d die they’d be able to purchase a needed extension of their own suite. For a few brief weeks the lives of these quirky and not all that likeable characters intersect in this gentle comedy.
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a biography of street pop artist Thierry Guetta the man who among other accomplishments designed the cover of Madonna’s Celebration Album. This affable Frenchman (single handily trying to rejuvenate mutton chops as fashionable) emigrated to the USA and made a comfortable living in second hand clothing but his passion was his ubiquitous video camera. This gave him reams of random material but when he started documenting the illegal antics of his street artist cousin code named Space Invader the genesis of a real documentary was born. Guetta documented some of the world’s most gifted taggers but the London’s notorious Banksy eluded Thierry as successfully as he does the law. When out of the blue Banksy called Guetta to document his upcoming LA adventure it was like manna from heaven and the two became close. It was also at this time that Banksy went mainstream and felt Thierry should share his archives with the world. The only trouble – Guetta was no filmmaker so Banksy took on the job leaving Thierry with the impression that it was time to take a shot at being an artist. Borrowing from everyone he’s met and capitalizing on a few well chosen accolades from friends, overnight Thierry becomes the sham toast of the LA art scene under the pseudonym of Mr. Brainwash ("MBW"). Exit Through the Gift Shop is a curious title until you reflect on the goodies “gifted” (a nice euphemism for plagiarism) to Thierry Guetta at the end of a long tour.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is the latest in the Freddy Kruger franchise that spawned eight sequels from 1984 to 2003. Here we’re back to square one with a bunch of twenty something adults pretending to be terrified high schoolers. With a little tweaking the story is basically the same. Again the children of guilty parents are haunted in their dream by a bogeyman with razor extensions on his fingers and a serious need for moisturizer after being burned alive by those parents for his role as a child killer. The only problem is these nightmares can be fatal so the dreamers have to keep seeking ways to stay awake while trying to lure Kruger into the real world so that he can be destroyed for good. Wes Craven who was the driving force behind the original is given credit for the characters although no names remain the same save for Frederick K. Kruger became an icon portrayed by Robert Englund but now taking on the mantle of scar tissue and putting his own stamp on it is Jackie Earle Haley who ironically unsuccessfully auditioned for a role in the original with a friend who did get a part and has since done OK – Johnny Depp. Most of the actors even though long in the tooth for these roles still were not born when the original came out which makes a redo worthwhile to redo for a whole new audience because it’s a good idea for a chill fest. In a departure from the original which as usual with slasher films had a moral element in that the kids who have sex are the first to die, here there is no sex yet kids still get julienned. The action may be on a street lined with Elm but that’s the only hardwood in this picture. Even with the rod spared the child is still spoiled.
Furry Vengeance is the story of Dan Sanders (Brendan Fraser) an ambitious suburban developer eager to please his soulless boss Neal Lyman (a wasted Ken Jeong as is Angela Kinsey playing his assistant Felder). To do this Dan is forced to uproot his family from Chicago and move to the sticks to oversee the building of a new ticky tacky neighbourhood. This development requires the deforestation of a wilderness that legend dictates contains woodland creatures of a highly intelligent and resourceful nature that communicate well with one another. Guess what, the legend proves to be true and for a perceived much longer time than the advertised 92 minute we see Dan foiled by the crafty woodland critters that make him seem mentally imbalance to Tammy Sanders (Brooke Shields) his progressively less tolerant wife. Shields still looks good these days but not good enough to counter balance Fraser’s sagging physique not to mention the corny textbook Hollywood formula script. Expect heavy nominations for this one next year a Razzy time. Furry Vengeance is not a movie that you want to spend money on, but you might encourage someone else to see it. If you really wanted to get revenge!
Gunless is the latest big screen outing for Canada’s Paul Gross but unlike last years Passchendaele this one is far more palatable and the gorgeous typography of Osoyoos can rival that of any American duster ever made. Gross plays Sean 'The Montana Kid' Rafferty, a US frontier gunslinger who has just narrowly escaped a lynching only to stumble into an even worse fate, ending up in the Canadian hamlet of Barclay’s Brush where few carry side arms and many spend time philosophically discussing Aristotle. Montana picks a fight a la the code of the west with the towns gentle giant blacksmith but can’t get satisfaction until the only other pistol in town is mended – which might be a problem since that requires the expertise of a smithy. To even acquire the broken weapon he has to make a deal with Jane (Sienna Guillory) a local, currently single lady who needs help assembling a windmill. This project turns out to be a well spring for fondness of the locals by Montana yet he remains determined to continue with the gunfight even as bounty hunter Ben Cutler (Callum Keith Rennie) closes in. Yes of course there are crimson tuniced NW Mounted Police who save the day, sort of. With partial funding from Astral Media Gunless does feature some comedy sharp shooting that’s mostly a running gag on Canadian American differences which is subtly set up and not forced.
Passenger Side is a Canadian road movie but all of the lead actors are American and the action takes place in California. This however doesn’t look like the Golden State we’ve come to see portrayed elsewhere as the backdrops are a succession of deserted desolation as two brothers with mommy issues go on a wild goose chase to find a woman. Michael (Adam Scott) is an author and his older but fragile brother Tobey (Joel Bissonnette) just back from a lengthy stay in rehab has an agenda. Theresa (Robin Tunney) is the woman of his dreams and he’s insistent on finding her. Since Toby can’t drive he leans on Michael to chauffeur him around. Michael is cool to the idea but resigns himself to the task because he knows that his mother (who we never see – the closest we get to her is a muffled voice on the phone) will insist on it. They stumble down one blind ally after another encountering to Michaels surprise uncomfortable situations familiar to Toby like porn film sets and horny transsexual. While rushing a rescued migrant with two amputated fingers he self-diagnoses his condition as eight out of ten, but the real charm of this low budget comedy is the extemporaneous banter between men who wouldn’t ordinarily share a space but are drawn together via pure brotherly love. Then there’s the shocking twist at the end that really emphasizes their sibling reverence.
Also opening this weekend:
The Perfect Game
The Back-Up Plan is the latest romantic comedy for Jennifer Lopez that nullifies any creds that she may have clawed back after 2003’s Gigli. She plays Zoe a single New York high roller who traded her corporate status for a small business. This takes the pressure off mentally but there’s still the matter of her biological clock ticking very loudly and she can no longer wait for Mr Right so she goes the artificial insemination route. However immediately after her date her turkey baster date she meets Stan (Alex O'Loughlin coming off of last years Whiteout – yikes!) a hunky farmers market cheese peddler. You heard me right. Of course the often unsuccessful insemination takes which leads to an awkward scenario regarding commitment. The plot starts off with some promise but doesn’t take long to cause enough eye rolling to bring on a major migraine. At 41 and after twins Lopez looks fantastic and it’s nice to see Linda Lavin back again playing Zoe’s grandmother as well as Tom Bosley as Nana’s boyfriend Arthur (although she’s aged more gracefully than he) but really, if you have a back-up plan for seeing this movie it would be prudent to move that into the number one position.
The Losers is the latest screen adaptation of a graphic novel and features a devil-may-care quintet of special ops on a CIA mission in Bolivia who are burned by a rich megalomaniacal industrialist named Max (Jason Patric) and the five have to fake their own deaths to survive long enough to regroup. They’re itching for revenge but stuck in South America with no way to get Stateside until they’re approached by the hot an mysterious Aisha (Zoe Saldana – Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean). Her first encounter with the team leader Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is a furious dust up (that actually looks like sex) where she convinces Clay that she can get him and the guys - Jensen (a hard to recognize Chris Evans), Roque (Idris Elba), Pooch (Columbus Short) and Cougar (Óscar Jaenada) – back to the USA since she wants Max dead too. During their mission it is discovered that the mysterious Max has an agenda – to cause international chaos using environmentally friendly weapons of mass destruction. Their adventure is undertaken with comic book glee and glib verbal exchanges making The Losers just crazy enough to be a winner – it better be because the back door is left wide open for a sequel.
The Secret In Their Eyes has eyes that continuously show a strong romantic connection between Benjamín Esposito (Ricardo Darín) a state prosecution investigator and Irene Menéndez Hastings (Soledad Villamil) an Argentine judge. The secret is why over several decades they never managed to get it together. We begin to get an answer just after Benjamin retires and decides to write a novel based on a frustrating 1970’s case involving a conviction after some astute yet manipulative police work by Benjamin and the newly assigned Irene. The defendant was found guilty of the brutal murder of a beautiful young woman but political interference by Inspector Romano (Mariano Argento) an unpleasant Peronist, secured the release of sadistic killer Isidoro Gómez (Javier Godino) and Benjamin does all that he can to comfort the surprisingly calm pacifist husband of the victim, Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago).. When Benjamin is plagued by writers block in his new found vocation he turns up at the office of the now married and very powerful Irene to get some inspiration. Not only does his reinvestigation shed new light on the case and reunite Benjamin with Ricardo, it also invigorates the old glow between these two former co-workers. It runs a close second for me (I liked A Prophet better) but The Secret In Their Eyes won the 2010 Academy Award for best foreign language film.
Control Alt Delete are computer commands hit simultaneously should all else fail trying to unlock a computer. Here all else fails for a computer nerd named Lewis Henderson (Tyler Labine) so he hits on his computer – romantically that is. He’s a techie scrambling at the end of 1999 to ward off the tidal wave of doom expected from the impending Y2K. Sarah (Laura Bertram) is his beautiful girlfriend who is way out of his league – not that he notices but regardless he has self esteem issues that drive him to online pornography. When a frustrated Sarah takes a hike Lewis takes solace in computer sex – no longer with porn sites but with the actual computer. Don’t ask. OK it involves a drill, taped bubble wrap and lotion. Soon his personal computer is no longer satisfying enough and he starts dating units from work. Talk about dipping your pen in the company ink! When Angela (Alisen Down) his tightly wound boss discovers the computer molestation he covers his tracks (so to speak) by feigning a romance with Jane Fredrickson (Sonja Bennett) the new receptionist. Jane is quite willing to date an overweight geek with self loathing issues because as it turns out she has her own litany of peccadilloes. Although not named this is clearly a Vancouver-centric comedy shot on a shoe string. It’s somewhat interesting in itself but more so in that it was one of the films on the radar in light bill C-10, the shelved Federal censorship legislation. Seeing Control Alt Delete might aid in your decision about deleting or altering this extreme kind of control.
The Eclipse is not the next book in the Twilight series to come to the silver screen - that’s not till summer. This may be disappointing to some but still there’s no shortage of nifty creep outs in this ghost story with the title ironically culled from a novel within the story. That book dedicated to the supernatural is authored by the charming Iben Hjejle (Lena Morelle). She’s accepted a speaking engagement at the terminally quaint Irish seaside village of Cobh, famous for its annual literary festival. Cobh is also the home of Michael Farr (Ciarán Hinds) a single father of two and local woodworking teacher who likes to volunteer. He volunteers to visit the elderly and also to chauffeur notables about the town’s annual ode to literature. Michael’s wife tragically passed away two years previously but her memory isn’t all that haunts him. Lately he’s seen some startling apparitions that keep getting stronger. When he’s assigned to see Iben about town he confides in her and they begin to drift closer. Also trying with less success to get close to Iben is Nicholas Holden (Aidan Quinn) a pompous and married American author with whom she had a one night stand the previous year. She’s trying to forget about it but he can’t. For his role here Hinds won best actor at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and deservedly so. He’s terrific in this retro collection of terror jolts for adults.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a Scandinavian murder mystery that involves solving a case as cold as a Stockholm January. Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is a journalist on the losing end of a libel suit due to disappearing sources that could verify embarrassing exposes he’s published about a powerful big wig. Before he’s sent to the slammer for three months he gets some good news in that a rich industrialist wants him to investigate the disappearance of a favourite niece who vanished decades before. He’s selected for the high paying job after being vetted by Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) a young but expert computer hacker sporting several piercings and, under a lot of studs and leather, a massive amount of ink in the shape of a dragon. She also has a lot of residual anger issues that still require legal supervision and her rage is only fuelled by sado masochistic episodes with her repugnant new state sponsor. A la CSI, Mikael’s use of new technology with old evidence gets him close to the real story but it’s not until Lisbeth e-mail’s him an important clue that he realizes that the case involves a serial killer and that he’s being cyber-watched. Eventually the paths of Mikael and Lisbeth intersect and they work in tandem to not only solve the case which involves Nazis and veiled incest but also to get a full appreciation of her body art. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the most successful Swedish film ever made but at 152 minutes it’s extensive. But wait, there’s more! This is just the first in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.
Also out this weekend:
Kick-Ass
Death at a Funeral
Oceans
Captain Abu Raed
Date Night
City Island
A Shine of Rainbows
Cousins
Formosa Betrayed
Clash of the Titans is a remake of a ground breaking epic from 1981. There are three brother deities lording over the earth. Poseidon (an underused Danny Hudson) god of the sea, Hades (Ralph Fiennes) banished to the underworld by the trickery of Zeus (Liam Neeson) who is the creator of Man. Lately however mankind has been showing little respect and Zeus is ready to unleash a holy terror called a Kraken on his minions. Zeus has already cuckolded one errant king whose wife sired a demi-god son named Perseus (Avatar’s Sam Worthington) and now Zeus is threatening the rogue city of Argos with the Kraken by the next eclipse which is approaching fast. The king of Argos implores Perseus to save his citizenry as with his divinity he’s the only one capable of doing the job. Perseus feels powerless however as he’s been raised as a fisherman by Spyros (veteran Pete Postlethwaite, for a change with an unlikely hot onscreen wife (Elizabeth McGovern) alas for him for way too short of a time) who perished at the hands of Hades. Hades has an agenda that requires the unleashing of the Kraken’s wrath and he does everything in his power to stop Perseus from attaining the one thing that will stop the beast – the hideous head of Medusa. He goes so far as to convince the citizens of Argos that the Kraken can only be stopped by the sacrifice of the innocent princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos). Not that I’m telling tales out of school – wait, yes I am since the story is based on well known Greek mythology that is the genesis of many household names. It’s in 3D which is almost mandated now for splashy big budget Hollywood renderings but in this case it’s subtle to the point of being almost unnoticeable making its necessity like the story itself, a myth.
Max Manus (Aksel Hennie) was a freedom fighter in Norway during World War 2 who although only a gnat on the hide of Hitler’s war machine was able to make a big difference with a relatively small contribution. Norway was one of the early victims of the Third Reich’s plans to assimilate all of Europe and by the time the Nazi’s had entered Scandinavia they appeared unbeatable. Still Max and a hand full of school mates would have none of it. Initially they launched a propaganda campaign but in a fashion so cavalier they were easily tracked down by the SS. Max became legend by surviving a jump from a top floor window to avoid capture by the Germans. After training in Scotland re guerrilla tactics Max and many of his former mates operating between Sweden and Norway took a much more pro active approach to dealing with the occupying force headed by the young and ambitious Siegfried Fehmer (Ken Duken) who was as ruthless as he was charming. Success came but at a tragic price for this band of renegade brothers whose numbers diminish rapidly due to the diligence of Fehmer and for which Manus as one of the only survivors was riddled with guilt. To this day Max Manus is the most decorated of Norwegian military personnel and perhaps more surprising, it took some 65 years for his heroic adventure to make it to the silver screen.
Also out this weekend:
Why Did I Get Married To?
The Last Song
A Town Called Panic
Hot Tub Time Machine has three buddies whose best days are way behind them. They decide to revisit their halcyon days by going on a ski trip to one of their old haunts after a wakeup call prompted by the attempted suicide of one of the trio. That would be Lou (total standout Rob Corddry) an alcoholic divorcee with a vile personality. The road trip seems like the perfect tonic for all three to Nick (Craig Robinson) a bored pet therapist with a cheating wife and Adam (John Cusack) a jaded insurance salesman freshly dumped by his girlfriend. Along with Adam‘s geeky nephew Jacob (world's coolest nerd Clark Duke) they head off to discover that their old haunt looking a little haunted. However it does come complete with a hilarious running gag via the one armed bellhop Phil (Crispin Glover) and a hot tub. When the boys fire up this spa it’s transformed into a time machine due to an electrical mishap caused by the illegal ingredients of the Russian equivalent to Red Bull called Chernoblee. All four wake up in 1986 and quickly realize they must do everything the same as they did on that night 25 years prior to get back to the future (hey, that might have been a good title!) or the butterfly effect could ruin the world. For some that means reliving terrible physical pain for others it means sex with a beautiful woman yet surprisingly neither seems preferable. Hot Tub Time Machine by way of the title leaves little to the imagination whereas the potty mouth, body-function-centric scenario definitely shows some imagination and is a great movie for fans of films like last years sleeper The Hangover. Even though filmed locally it has clearly dodged the Vancouver curse.
How To Train Your Dragon takes place in a rowdy Viking outcropping where the only thing that makes it less than idyllic is the constant pillaging by waves of dragons of all stripes. Until now not much has been made of the fact that there are almost as many breeds of dragons as there are of canines and while the Nordic locals cheerfully battle with most marauding fire breathers there is a stealthy breed that Viking are wary of. One ingenious but lightweight villager named Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) brings one of these fierce dragons down with a catapult of his own design but rather than slay it he makes it his pet and names it Toothless. This sets in motion a philosophical change in himself that he’ll eventually have to get all his neighbours to consider which will be no mean feat. He’s usually dismissed as a never-will-be Viking by not only his peers but also his mentor Gobber (Craig Ferguson), even his own father Stoick (Gerard Butler) and possibly most devastating of all by Astrid (America Ferrera) the girl he has an unrequited crush on. How To Train Your Dragon is another Disney 3D cinematic treatment, this time of the series of children’s books by British author Cressida Cowell and is co-written and co-directed by Canada’s Dean DuBois. In this village the adults speak with a thick Scottish brogue while their offspring speak with a neutral accent but that’s the only inconsistency in this consistently entertaining film and actually lend to the fun allowing Baruchel, Butler, and Ferguson to have at it in their own comfort zone.
Greenberg stars Ben Stiller in possibly his most credible work to date and that’s saying a lot considering the production he’s delivered not to mention his litany of projects in development. As Roger Greenberg he’s a New York carpenter recovering from a nervous breakdown who picks possibly the worst place to recuperate – at his brother’s house in Las Angeles. This is the city where he grew up and that still harbours a lot of elements that he wanted to escape 15 years previous, most notably Beth (Jennifer Jason Leigh) the woman that he could not commit to – or maybe that could not commit to him. Carpentry is really a sideline to his passion which was music and before he left town his band was poised for greatness. We find this out from his one steady contact with the past Ivan Schrank (Rhys Ifans) who himself is possibly the worst person for Roger to associate with having come through rehab and currently on the verge of a divorce. Greenberg’s other close contact is Florence Marr (excellent newcomer Greta Gerwig) the timid and malleable assistant to his brother. They start a relationship that constantly meets with doom largely due to Roger’s grating personality that seems impossible to change. Greenberg was written for the screen by Jennifer Jason Leigh and her husband the notable director Noah Baumbach who also calls the shots here. They’ve produced a unique film that makes awkward amusing, ironically with lots of humour yet not a lot of laughs.
Also out this weekend:
Chloe
Mother
The Runaways was a 70’s band unique in that it was the first female truly rock band. It was also notable that it was legendary rocker Joan Jett’s training ground for later more successful work with the Blackhearts. Kristen Stewart with tough frailty gives a stunningly authentic portrayal of Jett but like the real Jett in The Runaways she’s upstaged by the equally capable Dakota Fanning who exudes the naughty pubescence of vocalist Cherie Currie. Joan and Cherie were driven as much by alienated home lives as by teenage ambition but these inspirations alone could not have gotten them anywhere. It took an oily producer named Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon) who was a repulsive as he was ingenious at moulding The Runaways that also included guitarist Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton), drummer Sandy West (Stella Maeve) and a composite bass player called Robin (played by a surprisingly dialogueless Alia Shawkat). Like their vastly outnumbering rock male counterparts their short but meteoric careers included all the basics of Rock and Roll - drugs and yes eventually sex of all persuasions which for girls so young is a creepy thought. Kudos to Canadian raised director Floria Sigismondi for making that aspect believable with a minimum crawling of skin. Although Cherie (whose mother ironically is played by tarnished former child star Tatum O'Neal) succumbed most overtly to the hard core lifestyle she had a softer side that prevailed. However for Joan Jett there was no turning back and clearly of the two she really was the one who loved rock and roll as she loudly proclaimed in her best known post Runaways anthem.
The Bounty Hunter is a skip tracer’s wet dream in that after a bitter divorce Milo Boyd (Gerard Butler) a former cop reduced to running down bail bond delinquents is assigned the task of finding his ex wife who neglected to make a court date and putting her behind bars. She is Nicole Hurley played by Rachel – oops I mean Jennifer Aniston who has fared much better since the big D as a newspaper reporter. While Milo is spending the weekend between New York and Atlantic City trying to bring her to justice she’s giving him the slip while trying to prove that a recent suicide is actually a murder and eventually discovers that their mutual NYPD friend Bobby (Dorian Missick) may have been part of a cover up. Notable are SNL’s Jason Sudeikis as Stewart, Nicole’s workmate who thinks he’s got a shot and Christine Baranski as Nicole’s uninhibited mother Kitty but really The Bounty Hunter simply features two infinitely appealing actors in an only moderately appealing romantic comedy. The plot doesn’t go much past the heavily promoted trailers and being portrayed by such adorable people do ya think Milo and Nicole just might rethink their split before the final credits roll?
Repo Men is not a sequel to the 1984 movie starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez and really owes more to 2008’s Repo! The Genetic Opera but is actually an adaptation of Eric Garcia’s novel "The Repossession Mambo". Set in the not too distant future medical science has made it possible to drastically extend life through artificial organs. Cornering that market is The Union Company headed by Frank (Liev Schreiber) who is twice as slimy as the machinery he’s flogging. Since everyone’s parts eventually wear his products aren’t much of a hard sell but many customers don’t pay attention to the fine print in their financing contract especially the part about repossession for non payment. Payments are steep which keeps the repo men working at a rapid yet grizzly pace. Two of the best are Remy (Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker) inseparable friends since school (although Remy sounds like an English prep school grad and Jake talks like a kid from the projects. Just one of the many silly inconsistencies in this film). Remy’s wife is not fond of his occupation however and has thrown down the gauntlet about a career change to which he reluctantly agrees. However an equipment glitch on one last assignment puts him on the other side of a fine print contract and when his new lower salary leaves his account in arrears Remy ends up having to dodge his old colleagues, including Jake. You might enjoy this film if all you want is some squirmy action and are able to ignore its many lapses in logic but many will probably wish they could repo their price of admission.
Also out this weekend:
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Cooking With Stella
Inferno
Mid-August Lunch
Green Zone was established after the 2003 invasion as a Baghdad American Military safe haven in the immediate vicinity of Saddam’s former palace. In this Matt Damon action thriller activity outside of the Green Zone is not so safe and enemy combatants are not the most lethal adversaries. Damon is Chief Warrant Office Miller repeatedly frustrated with faulty intelligence provided in his unsuccessful search for the elusive Weapons of Mass Destruction. His complaints fall on deaf ears especially those of State Department honcho Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear) who has the press believing that a sequestered snitch named “Magellan” will lead them to the WMDs at the root of the Middle East invasion. Surprisingly at odds with this white house flack is the CIA in the form of Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson completely sans Irish lilt) who Miller finds himself turning to when he uncovers a notebook belonging to General Al Rawi (Yigal Naor) one of Saddam’s elite soldiers. The result sets Miller of on a wild mission to find Al Rawi, a mission where the biggest threat is not the Iraqi army but Special Forces from his own country. The Green Zone delivers a sharp slap in the face to US foreign policy as well as sloppy work by embedded media but from what we’ve known for some time about WMDs there isn’t much shock and awe from any bombshell the movie may think it’s dropped.
Fish Tank stars impressive silver screen neophyte Katie Jarvis as Mia, a fifteen year old with a foul mouth, delinquent attitude and a love for animals and break dancing. She lives in a rundown London suburb with Joanne (Kierston Wareing) her not much older single mother and Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths) her much younger sister. When mom brings home a new boyfriend named Connor (Michael Fassbender) Mia’s awakening hormones sit up and take notice. Connor feels an attraction too but initially seems only to want to give some comfort to a family that’s having a rough go. It turns out that Connor has a big secret that an inquisitive and resourceful Mia find out but not until it’s really too late. At that point the short fuse on Mia is itching for payback and she’s prepared to resort to evil to exact revenge. This low budget British film was a favourite last year at Cannes where it captured the Jury prize.
Also out this weekend:
Our Family Wedding
Remember Me
She's Out Of My League
Alice in Wonderland is the latest from kinky director Tim Burton using advanced digital 3D technology to produce a lush hybrid of Lewis Carroll's beloved stories “Alice through the Looking Glass” and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. As with many adaptations in the past, characters are exchanged or blurred like the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts while other characters are introduced like the fierce Jabberwocky which is only alluded to in the books famous nonsensical poem. This is a much matured Alice (Mia Wasikowska) who at age 19 falls down a rabbit hole to escape an unwelcome marriage proposal only to revisit a long forgotten world. Here the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) with help from Stayne the Knave of Hearts (Crispin Glover) controls the kingdom via fear of unleashing the vicious Jabberwocky (Christopher Lee). The other creatures like Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas), Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) and Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman) have eagerly awaited the return of Alice so that she might slay the Jabberwocky with the vorpal sword and restore power to the White Queen (Anne Hathaway). Yet again Burton taps the copious talent of Johnny Depp to play the Mad Hatter who is only mad when channelling Ed Wynn but turns lucid while expressing himself in a Scottish Brogue. There is also a quasi romantic vibe between him and Alice that Lewis Carroll probably never dreamed of. Disney/Pixar do their usual magic with Burtons creative juices to make an exciting spectacle that like most of Burtons work and unlike most Disney productions may be a little too intense for the very young.
The Ghost Writer Stars Ewan McGregor as a biographer appropriately unnamed and in over his head when with a lot of cajoling by his friend Sidney Kroll (Timothy Hutton)he’s hired by John Maddox (a hairless Jim Belushi) as the nom de plume for Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) a very Tony Blair like ex British Prime Minister whose former ghost writer is recently quite literally a ghost due to drowning. The audience starts to doubt the accidental nature of his passing far sooner than our anonymous scribe does but the pieces start to fall in place as he observes the interaction of Mrs Lang (Olivia Williams) and Amelia Bly (BC’s Kim Cattrall with a convincing British accent) at the States side eastern seaboard bunker of the former PM and his entourage. As Adam Lang becomes the target of the International Court for war crimes our writer gets in jeopardy by confronting former CIA recruiter and Lang college mate Paul Emmett (Tom Wilkinson with a passable American accent). The Ghost Writer is a fabulously witty political thriller that may have as much to do with politics off the screen as on. It seems more than a coincidence that director Roman Polanski suddenly gets arrested for a nasty crime decades ago just as he’s receiving awards for a film that says “you think what I did was bad, look what these guys got away with”.
A Prophet s from France and stars Tahar Rahim as Malik El Djebena, a street level criminal and not even good at that judging from the physical scars he bears. He’s suddenly no longer a juvie and lands a six year stretch in a French maximum security prison which on the surface is remarkably cordial. However there is an underlying power struggle between the dominant Corsicans led by César Luciani (Niels Arestrup) and a growing Muslim population. Being of Arabian/Corsican mix is a hindrance rather than a helpful coincidence for Malik until the Corsicans need to dispatch an Arabic inmate and force Malik to act as assassin. As a reward his stay in prison gets easier although he’s forever haunted by the ghost of his victim. Meantime this illiterate 19 year old proves to be a fast learner and not just through prison rehab, and as the prison political dynamic shifts he uses that momentum to seize power. This film won the jury prize at Cannes and the quality is definitely there but maybe there was an all too real feeling in this country slightly xenophobic when it comes to Middle Eastern immigration. It’s also nominated for Best Foreign Language film at this year’s Oscars but perhaps like so many other such remarkable films should really be competing for best picture.
Also out this weekend:
Last Train Home
New York, I Love You
Frozen
Brooklyn's Finest
Cop Out shouldn’t be as likeable a formulaic cop action film as it is but when you add Bruce Willis’ Die Hardness to Tracy Morgan’s read-the-phone-book-and-be-funny delivery, a multitude of sins are covered up. Willis is the bad cop Jimmy Monroe (although not as bad as he would have you believe) while Morgan is Paul Hodges the goofy one whose want to be badder is almost as great as his paranoia over infidelity by his innocent wife Debbie (Rashida Jones). The two have unorthodox practices that include interviewing suspect with plagiarized movie dialogue. As is usually the case their non conformist actions get them in hot water and here it means suspension for a month. This is a particular hardship for Jimmy with an expensive wedding upcoming for his daughter Ava (Michelle Trachtenberg). His attempt to hock his prized baseball card gets him unwillingly linked to Dave (Seann William Scott revisiting Steve Stifler) a smart ass snatch and grab thief who turns out to be instrumental in leading the duo full circle to the nasty Latino gang responsible for their earlier dismissal. Director Kevin (silent Bob) Smith may be too fat to fly but his burgeoning size in Hollywood allowed him to land Jason Lee and Kevin Pollack in minor roles and more importantly gave him the clout to lure Willis and Morgan to this below par project.
The Crazies is a remake of a squirmy 1973 George A. Romero movie which this time around adds the capable acting chops of Timothy Olyphant to the mix. He’s David Dutton the sheriff of a sleepy Midwest farming town where the pace is a little mind numbing – but that is not what severely numbs the minds of townsfolk in a geometric progression. Something is turning the villagers into murderous zombies and as usual with these gore fests the culprit is either a rogue virus strain or a toxic government conspiracy. Here it’s actually a bit of both. As families are robotically torn apart Auschwitz style by anonymous soldiers in gas masks David is separated from his pregnant wife Judy (Radha Mitchell) but he makes it his mission to reunite with her at all costs. Then it’s survival any way possible against not only the all of a sudden ubiquitous army but also the stricken populace they seem only too keen on destroying. As splatter fests go The Crazies oozes out a fair amount of tension and fans of the genre won’t be disappointed.
The Messenger stars Ben Foster as Saff Sergeant Will Montgomery, a Purple Heart war hero stateside and almost recovered from his wounds. With only a few months left on his contract he’s assigned the duty of informing the next of kin about recent casualties overseas. His C.O. in this less than desirable assignment is the swaggering Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson in his best effort yet that understandably has earned him an Oscar nomination). Through their almost daily missions we see the casualty count extrapolate on the home front as lives are instantly altered with the relaying of their news. As the two unlikely friends become close we discover that there are inner demons at play with both men and in Will’s case that includes Kelly (Jena Malone) the one that got away but never left. His life takes on some balance when he starts a relationship (despite the taboo nature of it expressed by Tony) with Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton) one of the bereaved with whom they recently met. With an academy award nomination for best screenplay The Messenger is yet another in a growing list of films that delve into the worst of current conflicts that the USA is embroiled in yet pays homage to front line soldiers at risk. This one may be the best of the bunch.
Shutter Island is adapted from Dennis Lehane’s novel of the same name. Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a Massachusetts Marshal haunted by WW 2 concentration camp atrocities who in 1954 along with new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) is sent to investigate a case involving an escaped patient named Rachel (played intermittently by Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson) from a hospital for the criminally insane. Since the facility run by creepy doctors Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Naehring (Max von Sydow) is located on a remote Atlantic outcropping Rachel’s departure is truly a mystery. As we find out Teddy has an agenda in taking the case as he’s also haunted by the untimely death of his wife Dolores (Michelle Williams) at the hands of an arsonist named Laeddis (Montreal’s Elias Koteas). Things get unnerving when it appears that the island is slowly turning out to be a snare for Teddy. Shutter Island marks the return to the director’s chair for the legendary Martin Scorsese who has the creds to render the service of Hollywood’s elite with just one phone call but for the 4th time has cherry picked DiCaprio as his leading man. As usual Leo proves to be more than the right man for the job. The film culminates with a huge twist that can be figured out well in advance if you halfway pay attention but everyone has fun adopting a Boston accent and Scorsese seems to have borrowed the cellist from Jaws to dominate tense scenes and turn the production into a Kafkaesque salute to film noir.
Defendor has Woody Harrelson again playing an off kilter, borderline certifiable character that is under arrest and ordered into psychiatric evaluation with Dr. Park (Sometimes Vancouverite Sandra Oh) because he vandalized a dry cleaner. Their session reveals that this is just one of an array of acts that he performs as a self imposed crime fighter. By day he’s Arthur Poppington a construction flag but by night as Defendor he patrols metropolitan streets in black tights, storm trooper helmet painted on black mask and an antiquated video system looking to right wrongs on the mean streets with a unique array of organic weapons like angry hornets and lemon juice. He becomes the asexual champion of Kat (Kat Dennings) a teen runaway hooker that he thinks will lead him to a crime boss who is his preconceived nemesis. What he gets is ensnarled in police corruption involving Chuck Dooney (Montreal’s Elias Koteas) that results in some severe bruising for one imaginary super hero who refuses to back down. There’s a fair amount of charm in this movie that could be called Don Quixote light.
Also out this weekend:
Reel Injun
The Wolfman is not an homage to Bob Smith, the universally known DJ from the mid 20th century who also adopted the last name Jack. It is an homage of sorts though to an iconic horror figure from roughly that same era. Benicio Del Toro is Lawrence Talbot who in 1891 is summoned home to the English country estate of his estranged father Sir John Talbot (Anthony Hopkins) by Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt) the fiancée of Ben Talbot (Simon Merrells), Lawrence’s savagely murdered brother. Anthony Hopkins is as usual a bright light but like in 1993’s remake Bram Stokers Dracula he fights a lonely uphill battle. In the process of investigating the gruesome fraternal killing Lawrence survives a werewolf attack which leaves him destined for a new wardrobe and a wicked five o’clock shadow every full moon. According to gypsy legend Lawrence’s salvation is predicated on the love of a woman which necessitates a sudden but dubious attraction between Lawrence and Gwen - really we’ve seen more chemistry between Fox News and the Obama administration. While CGI has allowed today’s melodrama purveyors to have werewolves morph into a creature with a truly canine snout here the lycanthropy (at least facially) looks like the demon spawn of make-up artistry that’s over a half century old. So for purists there is a moonbeam of good news here but for everyone else it’s not much to howl about.
The Horse Boy is the inspirational documentary of Kristin Neff an American university professor with a Ph.D. in Human Development and Rupert Isaacson her British émigré travel writer husband and their unique and heroic effort to address the often daunting autism of Rowan their heart grabbing four year old. Rupert who has a history with horses and a history with shamanism (most of it he wrote himself) was surprised to find an equine simpatico with Rowan and a neighbours horse. Because of his African research with the Bushmen of the Kalahari Rupert postulated on combining the two as therapy for Rowan and the one place on earth that reveres both horses and witch doctors with equal measure is Mongolia. Kristin gamely goes along with the unorthodox scheme to blindly go to that wind swept steppe but can two highly educated people really take such a leap of faith? The answer is yes and with some very surprising results.
Love and Savagery is a starkly beautiful Canadian production filmed on the coast of Ireland. Michael (Allan Hawco) is a part time Newfoundland poet who in 1969 exchanged one rock for another, heading to Ireland to follow his passion. With this in mind it should come as no surprise that he’s a geologist but his passion for all things igneous is usurped when he loses his heart to Cathleen (Sarah Greene) a pretty fishing village barmaid. Unfortunately the fossils he’s studying aren’t the only ones in town, there’s also stiff Catholic mores dominating the landscape and all the townsfolk are churchgoing. Things get rough in a much more physical sense for Michael when he tries to ignore the fact that Cathleen is earmarked to become a nun. Despite the constant bruising, sparks fly constantly between these two but does Michael have much of a chance when his rival for Cathleen’s love is none other than God? Love and Savagery looks up front like a guy’s adventure but it turns out to be the unconventional empowerment of a maturing young woman.
Also this weekend:
Valentine's Day
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Dear John is the cliché opening salvo of a letter to a soldier in uniform but not in country with heartbreaking news from a sweetheart back home saying that the relationship is over. This seems hardly likely with crazy-mad-for-each-other John Tyree (Channing Tatum and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) who meet on the shores of South Carolina in the summer of 2001. He’s back home on surfing R&R from the Marine’s special forces and she’s between college years on her family’s annual trip to the seaside and after only two weeks they’re passionately in love. As she heads back to class and he gets deployed overseas but the plan is to stay in touch until his tour is up in 12 months and then reunite. When 9-11 happens John feels compelled to re-up and Savannah plays along for only so long before posting her Dear John (the reasons for which we eventually discover are not exactly logical). This plays like The Hurt Locker meets The Notebook and for good reason since Nicholas Sparks who authored The Notebook also wrote the Dear John novel. Although it’s a predictable romantic drama there are a few surprises especially in the subplot with John’s mildly autistic father played by the always solid Richard Jenkins. Tatum has upped his acting chops considerably and the chemistry between he and Seyfried is palpable. However the saccharin final 15 minutes does leave a slightly sour taste.
Saint John of Las Vegas has Steve Buscemi’s grill all up in your grill for a full 85 minutes. That much orthodontic neglect might be a little too repulsive if he weren’t such a wonderful performer and the peripheral cast only further enhances this smart but dark comedy. Buscemi is John, a compulsive gambler whose luck ran out in Vegas so he blew town, not stopping until he ran out of gas which landed him in Albuquerque. He scores a job with an insurance company and life seems to improve especially when he starts to connect with Jill (Sarah Silverman) the happy face loving flirty girl in the next cubicle. Unfortunately lotto tickets refuse to allow him to totally break free of his gambling addiction and when he approaches Mr. Townsend (Peter Dinklage) his diminutive but randy boss for a raise he’s put on the company fraud squad and his first assignment is a potentially bogus claim in his own personal Gomorrah – Las Vegas. Things get worse with Virgil (Romany Malco) his sullen and creepy mentor who does little to assuage the dread he feels heading back to sin city. Fans of funky comedy won’t be gambling choosing this sure bet.
Also out this weekend:
From Paris With Love
Edge of Darkness takes us very close to the edge of dumbness in the first five minutes when Emma Craven (Bojana Novakovic) gets ripped open by a sawed off shotgun even though her assassin is aware that she’s been terminally poisoned. Her murder cuts short an already too infrequent visit to her father’s home in Boston. He is Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson), a Bean town cop – untouched by any double barrelled scattershot - who is assumed to be the target of the killer. However thanks to his eventual good police work we find out that Emma is not the innocent four year old he often revisits via videotape. She has managed to get in the crosshairs of a private nuclear company with heavy classified government contracts that is less than a good corporate citizen. As Thomas gets closer to the truth a mercenary plumber named Jedburgh (Ray Winstone) is contracted to tie up loose ends. Thankfully for Thomas (being one of those loose ends) Jedburgh is at a stage in his career where he’s developing a conscience. Interesting trivia: the corporate heavy Jack Bennett is played by Danny Huston the son of Walter Houston who in 1943 starred in a movie called – Edge of Darkness!. Coincidence? Well yes but it’s no coincidence that this pot boiler is boiled down from a British 1985 six part TV mini series as it was very well received. This version, not so much yet despite the initial departures in logic Gibson delivers a good performance of an over-the-hill, nothing-to-lose father going ballistic in some cool action sequences.
The Last Station is a rich insight into the final year of one of the worlds most celebrated authors. War and Peace and Anna Karenina were written by Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) but who knew that the end his own life was an epic drama. Already an adored aristocrat writer living in pre-Bolshevik Russia he none the less embraces communist ideals setting up a “hippie” like commune in Telyatinki with Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) a passionate kindred spirit who is despised by Tolstoy’s wife Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren). She thinks Chertkov is manipulating Leo and robbing her children of their birthright. To spy on one another both the Countess and Chertkov enlist the aid of Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy) a young and eager Tolstoy disciple who spends time at the commune when not working directly for the Count at his country estate. Although his sympathies lie with the countess he’s really powerless to come to her aid if her wishes are in conflict with Tolstoy’s, the man that he worships. Plummer who rarely disappoints is right on his game as Tolstoy and if Helen Mirren doesn’t watch out, Last Station may be her next stop for an Oscar nod.
High Life is set in 1983, the year of the automatic teller machine, a revolution in banking and an easy target for four career criminals except for one thing – they only have one brain among them. That belongs to Dick (Timothy Olyphant) who seems only mildly psychopathic compared to his former cell mate Bug (Stephen Eric McIntyre). Bug got Dick fired from his janitor job at the hospital which left them without a supply or funds to support their morphine addiction and the new cash machines seem the victimless crime just waiting to take care of their needs. Their plan requires them to enlist the aid of the light fingered Donnie (Joe Anderson) and pretty boy confidence man Billy (Rossif Sutherland). When hilarious circumstances conspire against them Bug hastily implements a bloody plan B. Oliphant’s subtle efficient acting continues to impress here and is a welcome addition to this Canadian production which has a lot of great white north references from April Wine music to its wintry location (Winnipeg) to Vancouver’s Rossif Sutherland, grandson of Tommy Douglas. However like many worthwhile Canadian productions it has the feel of grant money running out as at 88 minutes it could have been fleshed out a bit. Certainly the writers are talented enough to have given High Life just a little more life.
Also out this weekend:
Police, Adjective
When In Rome
Extraordinary Measures reads like a disease of the week TV movie with desperate parent putting their live on hold and risking everything to procure a miracle for their terminal child. Here the disease is Pompe a form of muscular dystrophy and its victims don’t survive past single digit years. The Parents are and Oregon couple John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Aileen (Keri Russell) who have not one but two children afflicted by the disease (not uncommon with Pompe) and running out of time. Their faint hope is Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford) an irascible Nebraskan research scientist with a cure but only in theory. What takes the tale out of the realm of commercial filler and worthy of the silver screen treatment is the engaging drama that unfolds. The parent’s agenda is obvious but unlike the objectionable personality of Stonehill, what is not clear at first is his ulterior motive. Like many scientists he lacks business acumen and sees in Crowley a potential for funding. Meantime Crowley is big success in the business of selling so the symbiosis would seem prefect. However egos and agenda’s often bring the two into conflict putting the project in peril as the clock ticks mercilessly. The story is based on true events so you’re pretty sure of the outcome but what makes it play well is the story of how disaster faced head on at every turn was overcome.
Legion has God upset with humanity to the point that he wants to start over from scratch. The last time He was this irritated things got pretty wet but we’re warned that this time the end will be a lot more terrifying. His plan has a flaw in that all bets are off if a certain baby is born to Mohavi Desert trailer trash parents Jeep (Lucas Black) and Charlie (Adrianne Palicki), employees at the Paradise Diner (one of the only shreds of irony in this picture). Why is the baby so important? Who knows, the reasons could be legion. Slumming in the dust with them is grandpa to be Bob (Dennis Quaid). Also slumming is Paul Bettany as the angel Michael who along with Gabriel (Kevin Durand) are supposed to lead the vanguard of platoons of body snatching angels that will morph into baby destroying zombies. Destination - the Paradise Diner. Another problem here, Michael thinks that God is wrong and has decided to foil His plan. He head to the desert with clipped wings to head off the advancing forces with what else - M-16 and up firepower. For some reason the fireworks are temporarily successful. Why? Who knows, the reasons could be legion. Sure Legion starts out cool but for a movie that looks so chilling in the trailers it couldn’t be more disappointing. Thank God that God didn’t pay full price to see this or he really would initiate Armageddon.
Creation is a romantic drama about the origin of the Origin of the Species. Huh? That’s right Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany) wrote his revolutionary earth shattering theory in the throes of romantic turmoil. And not romantic in the highs-seas-adventure sense of the word. By the time Darwin put quill to paper he was long passed stumping after turtles and puffins in the Galapagos. Twenty years later in his stately country manor he’s pressed by his agnostic scientific cohorts to publish his data but his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly) is worried about religious persecution from a church that she’s aligned with. She also happens to be his first cousin and he’s wracked with guilt that if his theory is right such close breeding may have been responsible for the poor health of two of his children, particularly his stricken oldest child Annie (Martha West) with whom he has numerous therapeutic and cathartic discussions both real and imagined. The film’s pace at times equals that of scientific data being analysed but it remains a fascinating insight not only into a time of absurd beliefs both religious and scientific that was only a few generations ago but also into the unknown life of a household name who despite the feathers he ruffled still lies in Westminster Abbey with the full blessing of the church.
The White Ribbon is a symbol of innocence and purity that are merely superficial in this Teutonic plate-full of visual and thespian delights. In a Deutschland ersatz version of Children of the Corn we’re taken to a rural German village still is a somewhat feudal state run by Church and State through a Baron (Ulrich Tukur) and Pastor (Burghart Klaußner) about a year before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. The local school teacher (impressive first timer Ernst Jacobi) narrates the strange series of events that transpire involving sabotage, kidnapping and torture of the local doctor, a pre teen with Downs Syndrome and the Barons son. In the midst of this intrigue we explore the complicated family lives of the residents of these simple surroundings – complications like veiled incest and unfaithful behaviour. Starring a sensational yet unfamous cast (at least to North American audiences) and shot in black and white with subtitles, The White Ribbon is still two and an half hours well spent.
Also out this wekend:
Tooth Fairy
Crazy Heart features Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal doing some of their finest work which is saying something as their work is usually exemplary especially Bridges. Think Jennings-Kristopherson-Haggard and you’ve got Bad Blake (Bridges), a has-been country music legend who long ago succumbed to a hedonistic lifestyle of alcohol and loose women so that at 57 he’s broke and playing every dive between Houston and El Paso that will let him rest on his laurels for a few bucks. He holds in contempt the people who have faith in him the most namely his agent Jack Greene (Paul Herman) and his ex-protégé Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell). Not surprisingly about the only one he has a good word for is his favourites bartender Wayne (Robert Duvall), that is until he meets a smitten journalist named Jean Craddock (Gyllenhaal). He gives her the scoop and she dishes out the sugar and Bad starts to have feelings that he could only write about before. Is it enough though to get the train wreck he calls a life back on track? The story doesn’t contain a lot of drama but what’s there is subtle and not predictable. T-Bone Burnett, who penned the award winning music for O Brother, Where Art Thou? composed the films original rootsy music which provides one of the few negatives. They keep fading it down to get back to the story and the music is a delight for traditional country fans.
The Lovely Bones stars Saoirse Ronan (so far very impressive in her young career) as Susie Salmon who is just about to come to terms with the awkwardness of her 14 short years when she is raped and murdered by a neighbour, George Harvey (a hard to recognize Stanley Tucci). As month after month passes Susie watches the effect that her passing has on her family from a beautiful limbo, unable to part due to a nagging feeling of unfinished business. As her father Jack (Mark Wahlberg) tries in vain to track down the killer his obsession drives his wife Abigail (Rachel Weisz) away. Her mother Lynn (Susan Sarandon) moves in for some comedy relief and to help cope with younger brother Buckley (Christian Thomas Ashdale) and sister Lindsey (Rose McIver) on whom the father’s obsession rubs off and who finally discovers damning evidence against George Harvey. The Lovely Bones refers to a foundation of strength provided by her death upon which her shattered family could rebuild. It is Lord of the Rings uber director Peter Jackson’s screen adaptation of Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel of the same name that was on the best seller list for a year and although very stylish, well acted. and gorgeous to watch the movie may not be a best seller and if it is it’s not likely to be for very long.
The Spy Next Door has all of the cool choreography that Jackie Chan fans have come to expect. That’s the good news. All of it. The neighbours should have been tipped off to espionage in their community right out of the chute as Chan clearly goes by an alias with the name of “Bob” Ho. He’ a suburban dweller whose main squeeze Gillian (Amber Valletta) conveniently lives next door. She’s cliché clueless about his clandestine job but very aware that her children Farren (Madeline Carroll), Ian (Will Shadley) and to a much lesser extent Nora (Alina Foley) don’t think much of Bob. He’s about to tell Gillian all on the eve of his retirement from “the Company” when she’s called away on a family emergency and circumstances conspire to leave the three kids in the charge of the much maligned Bob. Parenting proves to be hard enough but then a Russian plot to hold the world hostage pops up and Bob is faced with the added pressure of being pressed back into service while keeping the trio out of the line of fire. Will kids in the audience at least find this entertaining? Not if they clue into how annoying the on screen child actors are. As for entertaining the adults with those kids, what does it say about a film when Billy Ray Cyrus in his worst mullet ever gets the best lines?
The Book of Eli is indeed about a guy named Eli who has a book. Eli (Denzel Washington) is a nomadic ninja adrift in a treacherous post apocalyptic world where he’s forced to live by the sword (mostly) but seems immune to dying by the sword, chainsaw, Uzi, Gatling gun, and a number of other ordinance. Since “the flash” wiped the planet barren he’s been on a 30 year quest heading west with nothing more than his backpack and a frighteningly efficient scimitar/machete and most important a rare version of the King James Bible - rare because it is the only one left. The rest were incinerated as the cause of the holocaust by its survivors but for Eli it remains a source of comfort. For the ruthless but literate Carnegie (Gary Oldman) a copy of that text would be his ticket to manipulating survivors, virtually all poor and ignorant, into submitting to his megalomania - if only he can get his hands one. You know when their paths finally cross there’s going to be more fireworks and sure enough… Despite the relaxation of the doomsday clock, global immolation is getting to be a repetitive theme in recent movies to the point of being cliché. The Book of Eli doesn’t deliver much that’s new even though it has a couple of interesting twists. It seems confused in its message about the good book, and then there’s the addition of red hot Mila Kunis as Solara, Eli’s venture side kick that makes it more confusing. And where did he learn all those cool moves? But hey it’s Denzel Washington in an action movie which, no matter what, his legions of fans will flock to see so no sense preaching to the converted.
Youth in Revolt is the first outing of the new decade for Canada’s affable Michael Cera. Within the past 10 years he’s established himself as Hollywood’s go to guy for the nebbish, virginal but erudite teen and here we go again – sort of. He plays Nick Twisp the 16 year old son of Estelle (a trailer trashy hot Jean Smart) and George Twisp (Steve Buscemi). Nick can’t stay with his father and his new trophy wife Lacey (Ari Graynor) because Estelle lives off of child support and thus needs to have custody of the child. Since their break-up Estelle has hooked up with a litany of losers the latest being Jerry (Zach Galifianakis) who has to take it on the lam for selling junk cars to the US Navy. Nick has no objections since he feels he’ll die a virgin in Oakland and figures a trailer park upstate won’t be much worse. It’s actually a lot better since Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) also lives just a few pads down in an upscale two level mobile home with her religious mother and father (Mary Kay Place and M. Emmet Walsh). Sheeni turns out to have pretty eclectic tastes. To Nicks delight she likes Sinatra and she likes Nick. Too bad she has a hunky boyfriend although she does hint that she could be swayed by a French bad boy. That’s all the encouragement Nick needs to clone himself into the moustachioed, chain smoking n’er do well alter ego he calls Francois Dillinger. To his usually uncomfortable surprise when Francois’ delinquent persona takes over good things start to happen for Nick – sort of. This is a nice recovery from Cera’s 2009 Year One as Youth In Revolt will have audiences in stitches. Like last years disappointing Paper Heart, the comedy here is augmented by cute animation but unlike Paper Heart the comedy here is actually funny. Very funny.
Leap Year is the story of Anna (Amy Adams) and Jeremy (Adam Scott) a New York power couple although Anna, rather than a Blackberry would prefer a ring for her left hand. After four years however Jeremy who is a brilliant surgeon is a little thick on this point. When he heads to Ireland for a medical convention an exasperated Anna, going on the outcome of a family fable told by her father Jack (a momentary John Lithgow), decides to follow and Sadie Hawkins Jeremy on February 29th with a marriage proposal. Gang disasters find her stranded literally on the shores of Eire where she hires Declan (Matthew Goode) an obnoxious local barkeep to chauffeur her to Dublin. As more disasters ensue, sparks fly between these sparring travellers which leaves Anna with a tough decision to make. The Academy award greased acting chops of Amy Adams easily carry this picture and go a long way to creating believable chemistry between her and Matthew Goode who, judging by the tittering females behind me in the theatre doesn’t have to go very far (certainly not as far as Dublin) to charm most women. Leap Year doesn’t require a leap of faith that no surprises are to be expected. What is unexpected is being charmed by such a predictable movie.
Daybreakers