Film Guide

Someone in the marketing department decided to make American Mary pose as a seductive revenge horror, where a surgical student uses her skills to take revenge on those who have wronged her. It had me thinking something akin to Hostel, but hoping for something with a lot more substance.

What American Mary turned out to be however, is something else entirely.

Sure, it has a surgical student who uses her talents to take revenge on someone, but this is a minor part of the film.

Rather, American Mary is a kind of political film that wants the viewer to empathize with the misunderstood freaks and geeks of the body modification underworld – the kind of people who have horn implants in their heads, or have their nipples removed to they can look more Barbie like. It is a fascinating, if somewhat disturbing look at an edgy subculture, and shows the seemingly disturbed lengths some people will go to to feel better about themselves.

It also shows the lengths students up to their eyes in debt, will go to to make a little money on the side – though body modification wasn’t Mary’s intended path to financial freedom, her first idea was equally seedy.

American Mary also is more of a big tease than the torture-porn it pretends to be, with most of the gorefest done off camera, and unless you enjoy perving at Barbie when the kids are in bed, Mary doesn’t live up to the other end of the genre ether.  Read the rest of this entry »

Amin Jaafari is an Israeli Palestinian surgeon, fully assimilated into Tel Aviv society. He has a loving wife, an exemplary career, and many Jewish friends. But his picture-perfect life is turned upside down when a suicide bombing in a restaurant leaves nineteen dead, and the Israeli police inform him that his wife Sihem, who also died in the explosion, was responsible. Convinced of her innocence, Amin abandons the relative security of his adopted homeland and enters the Palestinian territories in pursuit of the truth. Once there, he finds himself in ever more dangerous places and situations. Determined, he presses on seeking answers to questions he never thought he would be asking.

The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.

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The original script by Ilya Tilkin does not have any literary source. The screenwriter studied diaries of the participants of the Battle of Stalingrad. He also used museum archives, documents and recorded stories of its participants.

The plot is based on “a dramatic love story against the backdrop of a grand battle.” The action takes place in 1942 when the German troops occupied the bank of the Volga river. Having failed while attempting to cross the Volga to launch a counteroffensive on the German Army, the Soviet troops were forced to retreat. However, a few soldiers managed to get to the shore on the enemy’s side. They remained hidden in a coastal house where they meet a girl. The Germans had occupied her home, and she did not have time to leave the front lines.

Against the backdrop of the most bloody battle in the history of mankind develops a love story, and, from that moment, the soldiers have to protect this girl at any cost. The prototype of this house is the legendary Pavlov’s House in Stalingrad. On the eve of the filming, the script was significantly rewritten by the director and screenwriter Sergey Snezhkin including the plot and dialogues.

My wife and youngest two kids (12yo and 14yo) sat down to watch Billy Crystal’s new movie last night and we’re giving it more than two thumbs up. The kids pushed through the initial shock factor when we told them they were seeing the voice of Mike Wazowski (Monsters Inc) in real life and we all settled in to an enjoyable night.

The 64yo Crystal is joined by the ageless Bette Midler as the ‘other Grandparents’ who are called on to help their ‘successful’ daughter get a much needed break. These modern parents have kept each of their unique kids in line with a plan for success but have since become disconnected from the grandparents. Next we find a serendipity of events brings everybody together where some wisdom and age are able to bring the family together with some old fashioned common sense.

Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a justification for the ‘old ways’. The heart of this movie comes from Billy Crystal being able to put himself at the centre of the humour. The opening story shows Crystal’s character as a Baseball game announcer who loses his job. Just when our empathy level is reasonably reaching its peak we also see the thoughtlessness and selfish stupidity that also needs to be brought into check. The whole script is a brilliant vehicle for Billy Crystal and you would think you were watching a 100min long introduction to the Oscars he is so famous for hosting. Bette Midler keeps guiding Crystal and the rest of the family through the experience and thankfully we also got an opportunity to hear her sing as well as matching Billy Crystal’s comedic genius with a glint and a glare. The screenplay itself centres around the family’s patterns and schedules. It’s a sugar free environment that needs care and control, two factors that will be missing in order to stir up a recipe for bedlam. A classic piece involves Crystal trying to get out of his parental duties to audition as an announcer for the X-Games where Tony Hawk is in a cameo role skating a half-pipe and putting him at the centre of a recipe for disaster. The comedy and consequences are brilliant as the entire story comes together. Read the rest of this entry »

Five friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier unwittingly become humankind’s only hope for survival.