Film Guide

What do you do after selling one million Call of Duty: World at War map packs during their first week of availability? You make more. And, lo, Activision and developer Treyarch are doing just that, prepping a second salvo of DLC for a June release.

The Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 2 (c’mon, guys, you can surely come up with something catchier using all that dough) will introduce three new multiplayer maps: “Banzai,” a jungle environment riddled with caves; “Corrosion,” a Russian train yard; and “Sub Pens,” a rain-drenched submarine base.

That’s all well and good, but now for the good stuff: a new Nazi Zombie map! “Shi No Numa,” promises new Perk machines, a new weapons, new Achievements / Trophies and flaming Hell hounds. It also promises to keep our repository of nightmare material well-stocked. [joystiq]

Of course, what most people would probably like to see is a Map Pack that contains ONLY new Zombie maps… with a few variations on gameplay. Maybe we’ll have to wait for Modern Warfare for something like that?

Carl Allen (Carrey) is in a rut and live seems to be going nowhere really fast. While at a strange motivation seminar, Carl is manipulated into making a covenant with himself to say “Yes” to everything that comes his way for the next 12 months. As we can well imagine something’s that come his way deserve a “No” but get a “Yes” and the comedy unfolds.

I know what you’re thinking… right from the get go this sounds a little similar to Liar Liar. A guy gets in trouble because he is forced to answer people a certain way but in the process he learns what is most important in life and therefore becomes a better man. Well you’d be right! There is that similarity in the style of this film; however “Yes Man” covers a little wider ground for someone like Jim Carrey, a little more depth in character and the opportunity to push himself a little wider with his character development. With a similar level of serious drama blended into this comedy, we see a man who has all but given up on life because his ex-wife gave up on him. He is scared of taking a chance and so he is closed to all the possibility around him. Now I will point out at this stage that the basic premise and title of this film comes from a book of the same name as written by the British humourist Danny Wallace, whose book “Yes Man” was a biographical telling of his choice to say yes to everything for a year. From what I have read the title and the premise are pretty much the only things that have stayed the same within the movie and most if not all of the events that unfold within the movie are not in the book. But I digress…

A chance meeting with an old friend ends up dragging him into a setting that he would normally have steered clear of. As begins to say yes to opportunities that he faces, he is lead on a journey that begins to bring him back to life. To a place where he starts to grow and even connect with those around him, even to the extent of opening up to new people that he meets. Enter Allison (Deschanel), a somewhat experimental musician with an air of spontaneity. As the yes’s keep coming so too does the crazy antics and situations that Carl finds himself within.

Now one of the major draw cards for me was the addition to the cast of Rhys Darby as Norman. Norman is Carl’s boss and shares similar characteristics with Darby’s other alter ego, Murray the hapless Band Manager from “Flight of the Conchords”. In “Yes Man” there is a lot of wonderful dialogue between Carrey and Darby. My favourite being the scene where they are making faces at each other and it ends up with a scary looking Carrey with copious quantities of cello tape wrapped around his head. (You will need to see this to completely understand)

Over all the jokes are very funny and the slapstick action is very satisfying to behold. I even read that Carrey even did some of his own stunts including the Bungy Jump. There was one scene in the movie where Carrey turns and walks straight into a waitress and ends up flat on his back. Rumour has it that he kind of executed the stunt badly and ended up landing so hard that he cracked 3 ribs in the process.

I haven’t laughed this hard in a movie for quite a long time so my advice is that if you expect a Jim Carrey movie you won’t be disappointed.

Reviewed by: Jon E Clist
Rating: M – Offensive language & Sexual references
Running time: 105 minutes
Genre: Comedy
Starring: Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Rhys Darby & a cameo from Louis Guzman
Director: Peyton Reed

20th Century Fox head Tom Rothman revealed to IESB that there is “some talk” of an Alien “prequel” to go along with the recently announced Robert Rodriguez-produced Predator reboot Predators. Rothman confirms that director Ridley Scott is “toying around with the idea.” And the Fox head gives the impression that another Alien movie, be it sequel, prequel or reboot, would only happen with Scott’s involvement.

I remember reading an interview with Scott where the filmmaker expressed interest in making a prequel that would explore the origins of the space jockey and the Aliens. At one point James Cameron was working on an origin story for a fifth Alien film, but abandoned the development when Aliens vs. Predator was announced. Sigourney Weaver has publicly expressed interest in doing a sequel, but it wouldn’t make sense to include her character in an origin story. [/film]

Paramount Pictures has acquired and is developing an Untitled Tokyo-Set Thriller for director Pierre Morel. The film tells the story of a CIA operative stationed in Japan who is ordered to carry out one final mission before he retires from service. Of course, the agent finds himself “caught in the middle of an international conspiracy.”

Baldwin wrote Phillip Noyce’s The Art of Making Money and When Corruption Was King for Paramount, and also adapted a remake of The House of Flying Daggers for Sam Raimi at Sony. Baldwin is also scheduled to make his feature directorial debut with an adaptation of Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan for Warner Bros. So he knows something about the setting.

Morel started as a director of photography, working on The Transporter. He made a name for himself as a filmmaker, helming the Luc Besson-produced parkour action film District B13. Morel crossed over to US audiences with the 2008 French action thriller Taken, which has grossed over $218 million worldwide. [/film]

Based on Blake Morrison’s memoir of his father in the weeks leading up to his death from cancer, And When Did You Last See Your Father? is a labourious tale of unforgiveness, anger and death. Told through a series of non-sequential flash backs, And When Did You Last See Your Father? is at times confusing and disjointed, but ultimately a bizarrely beautiful tale of the bonds that weave us together.

Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent are wonderfully pared as father and son, and whilst they are aptly supported by great performances, they own the movie with their passionate embrace of the characters they portray.

As slow as it is, And When Did You Last See Your Father? is a journey worth seeing through to the end.

Reviewed by: Jonathan Read
Rating: M – Contains sex scenes and offensive language.
Released on: April 3rd, 2009
Year of Original Release: 2007
Stars: Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Juliet Stevenson, Gina McKee, Sarah Lancashire, Elaine Cassidy, Claire Skinner
Length (Minutes): 83
Media Format: DVD
Aspect Ratio: 1.78 : 1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Supported Audio: Dolby Digital Surround 5.1
Director: Tucker, Anand
Studio: ICON

A delightful French (subtitles) movie. A subtle story line that starts in a city with an estranged son, Antoine (Nicolas Cazale), who encounters his family after 10 years when his father (Daniel Duval) suddenly falls ill and is hospitalized.

The family tensions are evident, especially between Antoine and his brother Francois (Stephan Guerin-Tillie). He is put in a position where he has to take some responsibility at the insistence of Francois with regard to his family in their time of need. He takes his mother (Jeanne Goupil) back to his pad so she has somewhere to sleep whilst the father is ill in hospital.

He has not allowed his life in the city to include his family. Having his mother in his environment exposes and highlights his failure to create a successful life away from roots. Claire (Clotilde Hesme), a neighbour and acquaintance, is able to help him out, whilst she is in the midst of her own stressful life of working and studying to fulfill her dream.

Antoine reluctantly returns to the village he was brought up in to help his mother run the family grocery business. He has borrowed a sum of money from his mother and once this has been repaid from his working in the family business he will leave to continue with the life he has chosen away from it all.

He subtly entices Claire to join him at his family home to be away from her current stresses and to give her the opportunity to focus on her studies.

Life in the village and its rural environs is obviously suffering the plight of the modern world with very few young people staying to enjoy a life near the land. It becomes obvious that the majority of those that remain in the environs where Antoine drives their grocery van are those elderly folk that have worked all their lives in a rural environment where they have never ventured far beyond their local village.

Through Claire’s observations and comments it becomes apparent that in this simple family there is a feud that has been festering for some time, of which she wants no part. The strained relationships and communications between the 4 family members are really tested with the return of the father who does not cope well with illness, let alone the presence of his wayward son. There are many up and downs caused by personalities, non communications and regret for what life could have been.

This is a really delightful movie, beautifully filmed, with great moments of humour. The original soundtrack by Christophe Boutin I really enjoyed and recommend you listen to the words, sung in English, of the final piece.

Reviewed by: Linda Mcglyn

Don’t count Aardman Animations out just yet. The Academy Award-winning British animation studio is probably best known for their stop-animation and claymation productions, particularly those featuring Wallace & Gromit. The studio most recently produced a series of features, including their first computer animated film, for DreamWorks Animation, but “creative differences” lead to a seperation. Aardman entered into a three year deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2007, but no films have seen public release.

Today Sony and Aardman announced a three year extension to their contract with promises that we might actually see some more movies this time around. Pirates! and Arthur Christmas are the two films next in the development pipeline. Details on both projects after the jump. I’m sure the successful release of LAIKA’s 3D stop-motion film Coraline helps the cause, proving that an interest in old style stop-motion exists. The growing popularity and profitability of 3D is also likely to help sell these films. And no, they haven’t yet been announced as 3D productions… but c’mon…

Pirates! is a stop animated movie directed by Aardman co-founder and Chicken Run helmer Peter Lord. An adaptation of Gideon Defoe’s cult book’s about hapless pirates who journey to London, meet Charles Darwin and a talking chimp named Mister Bobo. Defoe wrote the screenplay and Lord will be co-directing with Jeff Newitt. At the header of this story you can find early concept artwork from Richard Bazley .

Arthur Christmas (originally titled Operation Rudolph) is a Sony Pictures Imageworks computer animated production about how Santa is able to deliver presents to all the children of the world in just one night. Apparently the film depicts Santa’s North Pole as “a high tech installation requiring a highly trained army of elves.” Sarah Smith and Barry Cook (Mulan) are directing from a script by Borat scribe Peter Baynham. [/film]

20th Century Fox has decided to postpone the Mexico City premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine due to the Swine Flu. The premiere was scheduled to take place on Wednesday, but the studio has decided not to risk sending “anyone into harm’s way”.

The flu virus crisis will likely hurt Wolverine’s box office in the country as Mexican government has asked residents to stay home. Schools and businesses have been shut down, including the nation’s top movie theater chains. Ci:epolis, Cinemex, Cinemas Lumiere and Cinemark. The remaining theater chains are expected to follow suit. [/film]

Just a couple of weeks after Gore Verbinski formally turned down the opportunity to direct Pirates of the Caribbean 4 in order to focus on the video game adaptation Bioshock, the project has reportedly hit a major snag. Universal halted pre-production on Bioshock last week and let some staff go because they feared that the budget was rapidly spiraling out of control. The projected cost of the film had risen to approximately $160 million, which was enough to cause Universal to get cold feet.

Verbinski says that Universal asked them to look for a new shooting location outside of the U.S. where they can take advantage of tax credits (possibly London), and this is currently being re-evaluated. Although gamers are no doubt having flashbacks to the Halo movie debacle, which resulted in the project falling apart after Universal and Fox backed out, the producers of Bioshock insist that this is just a minor setback and they remain committed to making the movie. Clearly studios are being a lot more cautious with their money as of late, which is probably a good thing. [filmjunk]

The eight members of a struggling Egyptian police orchestra find themselves abandoned at an Israeli airport. They attempt to find their own way to their concert venue, become lost and end up stranded in an isolated, desolate dormitory town. With the help of some locals they spend the night in this depressing township and catch the bus out the next day.

This is the sort of quiet, slow art movie where nothing much happens. If you love high speed car chases, big explosions and obvious gags this isn’t the movie for you -although the male lead – veteran Egyptian actor – Sasson Gabai did play a role in Rambo III.

If on the other hand you appreciate gentle, wry humour, delicate exploration of relationships and performances rich with subtle nuance you’ll thoroughly enjoy The Band’s Visit. Many people obviously did. This 87 minute Israeli film – the first feature for 34 year old director Eran Kolirin – won over 20 awards and accolades which describe it as “immensely charming”, “warm and delightful’ “heartfelt and humane.”

While all the acting was excellent in a low key sort of way, the two leads Sasson Gabai and Ronit Elikabeth were outstanding. Gabai, with his expressive hound dog face, gives us a wonderfully layered performance gradually revealing the deep pain hidden beneath his carefully correct and conscientious exterior. In Elikabeth we have a tough and confident restaurant owner desperately longing for love and life in this dead end town.

The Band’s Visit is not political. There is no racial enmity between the Egyptian band and their Israeli hosts. There is a lot of awkward silence as strangers struggle to communicate in English which is not a first language for either group. But slowly there is a touching attempt at cross cultural connection and some wonderfully poignant moments where their shared humanity transcends their differences.

My favorite scene has to be the roller disco romance. I won’t spoil it for you but it’s an understated gem which pretty much goes for the film as a whole.

Reviewed by: Andrew Dallaston
Rating: M – Contains low level offensive language.
Released on: March 12th, 2009
Year of Original Release: 2007
Length (Minutes): 85
Media Format: DVD
Aspect Ratio: 1.78 : 1
Languages: English, Arabic, Hebrew
Subtitles: English
Director: Kolirin, Eran
Studio: Madman