Film Guide

The problem with films like Flame and Citron is that they make me feel so inadequate as a reviewer. I fail to see how I can do such a good movie justice with my grasp of literary prose, and all my attempts at writing turn out sounding like the stark ravings of a lunatic fanboy.

But I have to write a review, so I will approach it with a little history that will probably only reinforce my sounding like a frothing fanboy….

I desperately wanted to see Flame and Citron at last years Film Festival, but couldn’t make any screenings align with my ability to be in the city, so when I first heard that Vendetta was releasing it on DVD this year, my eager anticipation went into overdrive. I’m not sure why I was so interested in this particular film – sure I have an apparently unhealthy fixation on World War 2 – but this wasn’t a true war film. It was a Danish film based on the true exploits of two Danish resistance fighters in World War 2.

But there was just something about it that intrigued me. I somehow knew it was going to be a good film.

And this is where we get to the raving fan boy part of the review.  Read the rest of this entry »

In the near future, you don’t live to play… you’ll play to live.

Set in a future-world where humans can control other humans in mass-scale-multi-player online gaming environments, a star player from a game called Slayers’ looks to regain his independence while taking down the game’s mastermind.

Sweet, a film that brings together my two loves; gaming and films.

Add to that Gerald Butler in the lead role and you have the probability of a winner.

Then you read the small print; written and directed by Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor. For some reason I’ve seen every film these two idiots have made, staring with Crank, moving through the interesting but ultimately a hash job that was Pathology, through the dismal mess that should have seen them thrown out of Hollywood, Crank 2 and now Gamer.

These two hacks may have come up with an awesome concept – who knows, they do have the writing credit, but maybe they stole to concept from someone with an ounce or two of creativity – but they managed to destroy it in the process of turning it into a film. The high points would be the social commentary on how addicted we are becoming to virtual worlds where our Avatar can be what ever we desire, and do anything without having to deal with the consequences.  Read the rest of this entry »

In true brutal Korean action-thriller mode (think Old Boy) virgin director Na Hong-Jin’s The Chaser is at once thoughtful storytelling and as visceral as they come. To be sure, this is not a movie for the faint of stomach!

Eom Joong-ho (Kim Yoon-suk), a not particularly likeable pimp, is in trouble. Several of his girls have gone missing and Kim Mi-jin (Seo Young-hee) is the straw that breaks this camel’s back. Suspecting a kidnapping/human trafficking conspiracy he turns his previous experience as a police detective toward finding his ‘charge’ and is led on a twisty and twisted journey over a tension charged 12 hrs. As Joong-ho faces down an alleged serial killer who he believes has taken his lost girl, we witness the multitudes of reasons he is no longer a member of the local constabulary.

In classic noir style Joong-ho is a flawed protagonist; in this case deeply flawed. He brow beats underlings, physically beats suspects, shows little to no sensitivity to other victims and witnesses, lies to the cops, and appears driven solely by his desire to not lose his own personal financial investment in the girls. In fact the most prominent positive trait you can ascribe to him is his tenacity in searching out his quarry; he simply refuses to give up. In the latter parts of The Chaser some more admirable qualities push their way to the fore but by that time you know for sure that this is one troubled guy.  Read the rest of this entry »

Set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) is investigating the disappearance of a murderess that has escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island. As he questions the hospitals psychologists (Von Sydow and Kingsley) his fears of a major conspiracy take flight. As he continues on, the more his investigation uncovers, the more he realizes that everything is not as it would seem.

Now this is one of those films where subtle plot twists and visual hints give way to larger twists that will change the whole direction and feel of a movie. So it goes without saying that I really do not want to give anything major away in the general plot and direction of the film. Instead let’s look at some of the components that pulled this film together. As we have come to expect there are stunning performances from such great actors as Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow and Jackie Earle Haley. However the thing that pleased me was that the very up and down Leonardo puts in a brilliant lead performance that keeps you guessing all the way just how on the level he really is and exactly who it is that might be out to get him.  Read the rest of this entry »

“It’s the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters have walked out of the pages of high school student Percy Jackson’s Greek mythology texts and into his life. And they’re not happy: Zeus’ lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Even more troubling is the sudden disappearance of Percy’s mother. As Percy finds himself caught between angry and battling gods, he and his friends embark on a cross-country adventure to catch the true lightning thief, save Percy’s mother, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves.” – 20th Century Fox

So how does it stack up over all? There are elements that I like in this film and several parts that get in the way of truly losing yourself in the two hour screen time of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Read the rest of this entry »

Here we have a remake of the classic 1041 horror made by Lon Chaney. The story follows the returning of the long estranged son Lawrence Talbot (Del Toro) upon his learning that his brother has gone missing. As he arrives home he find that things are not as they would seem and in many ways not as he remembers them to be. Firstly his brother’s body has now been found ripped to shreds and left in a ditch and it appears that there is some form of unearthly beast terrorizing the village. Vowing to uncover the mystery of what is going on things take a turn for the worst when Lawrence is bitten by the very beast he is hunting.  Read the rest of this entry »

Nine is the cinematic adaptation of the musical adaptation of Federico Fellini’s 1963 film “8 1/2”. Directed by Rob Marshall Nine features the same lush production values of his previous musical cinematic outing “Chicago” and is jammed to the brim with famous faces with most of them being women of immense beauty.

The story follows infamous Italian film director Guido Contini (Day-Lewis) in his struggle to make his ninth movie. As he battles his inner demons which have blocked his creativity, all Guido has for his film is a title (Italia) and a basic set. Through use of creative explanation he dodges the media, the producers and even the cast and crew as he finds himself slipping deeper and deeper into writers block thanks to his uncompromising addiction to beautiful women and his inability to really connect on a truly emotional level with just one. Whether it is his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard), his mistress Carla (Penelope Cruz), his mamma (Sophia Loren), his actress muse Claudia (Nicole Kidman) or any of the other women who have slowly integrated themselves into his subconscious, Contini is obsessed and unable to move forward until he faces down his demons.  Read the rest of this entry »

Small town boy Shawn MacArthur is barely earning a living selling counterfeit goods on the streets, but his luck changes when he meets hustler Harvey Boarden who introduces him to the world of bare knuckle street fighting. Shawn of course is a natural.

The thing that irked me right from the start – and I’ll admit, its something that I let slide in many films, but for some reason it bugged me in this one – is that we’re given no reason for Shawn to be out on the street seeling knockoffs. It’s like one day he just up and left home, travelled to New York and decided to try his had at selling counterfeit. It just didn’t seem right.

Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t be looking for reality in a film about back street fighting, but there you go.  Read the rest of this entry »

Perception and experience both effect reality, as a group of strangers discover when a random act of violence erupt in a LA diner, resulting in a number of patrons being shot dead.

How the survivors cope, how their loved ones try and understand, relate and help then is the concept of this film.

Sadly it’s a concept that never really gets off the ground.

On the one had it plays like a cheap and nasty Christian film, with one of the main characters turning to God an insisting that everyone else sees the miracle and becomes instant converts.  Read the rest of this entry »