Super 8

J.J. Abrhams, who is the director, is one of the best sci-fy screenwriters today. And being produced by Stephen Speilberg, it has an odd similarity to E.T. Now there is a lot of over done action scenes, CGF or whatever it is called. That did not necessarily ruin the feel of the action, but after a while you just wanted that scene to end. This is one of the ongoing flaws of Hollywood productions today, so I will not criticize it harshly.

While filming a scene for a homade zombie movie, a group of friends witness a bizzare train wreck. Set in the summer of 1979, things start happening in their small town of Lilian, Ohio. Joe Lamb's (Joel Courtney) father, Jack Lamb (Kyle Chandler, is the deputy of the town and quickly becomes overwhelmed by the numerous strange incidents. So Joe and his gang of friends, head out to investigate for themselves.

When I refer to gang I mean, Joe (Joel Courtney), the focus of the story. Charles (Riley Griffiths), the bossy, and a little overweight, director, and a trust-worthy friend. Cary (Ryan Lee), a kid obsessed with fire and blowing things up, a typical imature boy. One of those boys you suspect has some type of hyperactive disorder, but you are not really sure. Martin (Gabriel Brasso), the dork. And Preston (Zach Mills), a wimp who thinks over every situation until he finds some way that it might go wrong. It is an amazingly realistic portrayle of middle-school imaturity and spot on everyday interaction with eachother. I knew every one of those boys in my middle-school. To the inth degree J.J. Abrhams has made those characters at point that they were no longer characters but people. Boys who could be sitting next to you at the theater.

Joel Courtney is incredible for a child actor of his generation. I can say the same about his costar, Riley Griffiths, who plays Charles. I type this with shaking hands, because I would have never known this if I had not looked it up. This is the first time acting, for both of them. For most of the boys in fact. Elle Fanning, Dakota Fanning's little sister, who obviously takes after her in the way of talent, plays Alice Dainard. Her act does not go unnoticed. Even though Alice is for the most part important to the film and storyline, I found myself wanting to see more of Joe's character. Of course a major film can not get produced with out some sort of romance, so figure it out yourselves.

I think that this movie could have been split. One plot, a family drama, and the other, a sci-fi comedy. But the plots do come together very easily towards the end, although I do not think it neccesary. This ease is not very common which is also a way this movie works.

Something that bothers me though is the rating. It is rated PG-13. To me it seems like it should be rated R. There is a lot of blood and cussing. Thank god I did not take my little sister to see it, which I was going to. 10 and up is my recommended age.

I have seen this movie three times. You should at least see it once.

The King's Speech

I consider this to be the "feel-good" movie of 2010. 'Feel-good' in the way of triumphant intelligence. We judge of the high honors people receive, but we do not always know the reason they are honored, just trust that it was something important or advised. Sometimes, eccentricity can cure the eccentric.
Based on the process of King George IV, played by magnificent Colin Firth, overcoming his speech impediment and fear of public speaking as he is lead toward the thrown. After trying multiple physicians with no improvement King George has given up. His wife, Queen Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter), is still determined to find someone who can help her husband. She comes across a slightly different speech therapist, Lionel Louge (Geoffry Rush), who doesn't exactly use the 'normal' methods of therapy. King George is at first stubborn, but gives in for the sake of his wife. Lionel and King George's are vastly different but, they soon develop an odd trustful friendship.
Colin Firth is amazing in the way he handles any character he plays. Helena Bonham Carter is a doll, and dearly close to my heart (acting wise). Nothing need by said of the great Geoffry Rush. In my opinion both Firth and Rush are some of the best actors of their generations. Tom Hopper, the director, mastered this period piece and I hope continues to do many more. This is by far one of the best historic films I have seen, in my lifetime (of 14 years). Every element captures the time period perfectly. Simply a masterpiece.

Black Swan

As a film critic, I find it much more difficult to right a review praising a film than a disapproving one. The dictionary definition of a critic: a person who often finds fault and criticizes. I suppose I know more adjectives that define imperfect than perfect. But I cannot use those imperfect words because this film was the exact opposite, it was perfect.
You could vaguely describe it as beautiful. That is not doing any justice to this stunningly intricate film. Natalie Portman is intriguing in her performance as Nina, who is obsessed with perfecting her ballet performance as Odette in 'Swan Lake'. She is beginning to find confidence, but that is shattered when a free-spirited dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis), steels the attention. Nina slowly breaks down, becoming more like the black swan, Odette's evil sister, Odil. Now Nina wants her 'turn'...
David Aronofsky is simply an ingenious artist. The camera angles, the eerie music, the persistent symbolism. Nina's emphasized breath gives the film a haunting element, and yours eventually becomes as heavy as hers. I eventually realized, that when the film had ended, my mouth was wide open. I did not move the entire film, and all of the credits (with my mouth still open). Go to this film, and you will witness art. Images you will never forget.

Cyrus

Cyrus is an interesting movie, I will say that. The actors are great. The cinematography, great. Plot line, great. Script, great. The thing that threw me off was its sense of humor, if that is what it was...
John, played by John C. Reilly, is recently divorced (recently meaning two years). Not yet over his soon to be married ex-wife, he lives alone, lonely. But his ex convinces him to get out of the house and go to a party. There he meets a lady named Molly (Marisa Tomei). It is an instant connection. But she has a son, a 21-year-old son, named Cyrus (Jonah Hill), who lives at home. Unwilling to share his mother's love with someone else, he does everything in his power to scare off John.
Overall it is a good movie, but the humor? The humor? I just don't get it! Throughout the movie I was thinking "is that supposed to be funny?" There are points in the movie where you laugh your ass off. But there are also parts when the character says something with such a bland demeanor that you do not know if you are either supposed to laugh out loud or sit still. Is the seriousness part of the humor? I still do not know...

I Love You, Phillip Morris - Trailer

Skeletons - Trailer

Rushmore

As you know, or do not know (depending if you have read my blog before), I am in love with the director, Wes Anderson (his movies, that is). Rushmore is just another to add to that wonderful list.
Rushmore, filmed in Houston, Texas (yeah!), is the story of a fifteen-year-old high school student named Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman). He is an exeptionally smart playwrite and lives for the private school, Rushmore, that he attends. He is pretty much in charge of every club and extracurricular activity created in the school. But he finds himself spending to much time involved in hobbies and not enough time involved with acedemics, causing him to fail. This is the last straw, he is sentenced to 'acedemic probation'. Devistated, he has to endure public school. But he spends many days visiting Rushmore, uninvited.
He meets a young elementary school teacher, Miss Cross (Olivia Williams). And guess what, he falls in love. He also developes a close friendship with Herman Blume (Bill Murray), a business man who's two jerk sons attend Rushmore. He also finds himself becoming attracted to Miss Cross. The whole thing becomes an oddly entertaining, and heartwarming/breaking love triangle.
Of course, I have never had the grave experience of watching a bad Wes Anderson film. I think it is impossible that he could even dream of making a flop. So I guess that is all I have to say, since you have probably already guess that I would highly recomend this movie.

The New Tenants - Trailer

The New Tenants trailer from Det Danske Filminstitut on Vimeo.

Youth in Revolt

An original, unusual take on a teenage romance. It it cute, funny, poetic, dramatic, sharp, and weird at times. It is catagorized as a comedy, but I find it more of a dramatic romance.
Directed by Miguel Arteta, Nick Twist (Michael Cera), is a mama's boy, high school nerd, and virgin. He doesn't have any experience with relationships. He longs to escape from home, his mom (Jean Smart) I am sorry to say, is kind of a slut. She divorced his father, George (Steve Buscemi), and is now dating a gross hick, who has developed a rivalry with Nick.
On a trip to his mom's boyfriend's trailor, he meets a girl, Sheeni (Portia Doubleday), walking in the trailor park. He falls in love. The problem is she has a boyfriend (of course). He comes up with a plan to elope with her. She just doesn't want to date a goody-two-shoes.
So he devolpes a "bad-ass" alter-ego, named Francois Dillinger. And when he doesn't know what to do, he uses Francois as a sort of guide and mentor.
I think the ending was my favorite part of the movie. It was not quite what you expected, but at the same time it was. It is bitter-sweet, but I would say more sweet than bitter! :)

The Hurt Locker

Wow! This film is amazing! Everything about it is amazing! The cinematography, acting, art direction, and directing! You truly feel like you are there, standing in front of a bomb about to explode! It gets your heart racing!
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, this movie is a bit of everything. Sergeant First Class William James (played by the talented Jeremy Renner) is addicted to war. As the leader of an Army bomb squad, he will put everything below the addrenaline rush. Even if it means endangering his team, Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldiridge (Brian Geraghty). They struggle with their emotions as they are on a journey where every one is a potential enemy.
It fully deserved the Oscar for Best Motion Picture. Like I said before, amazing!

Tenure

This movie was fun to watch. It was a sarcastic drama that you could just pop in the DVD player. It was good, except that it had absolutely no conclusion of important details. One of the most annoying and unnecessary things was the flash back in the beginning, no point to it at all.
Luke Wilson starring as Charlie Thurber, an English college professor struggling with a mid-life crisis. Charlie is determined to get tenure, a permanent job of a teacher until retirement, by sucking up to Dean Leakey (played by William Bogert). He soon finds himself in a competition against Elaine Grasso (Gretchen Mol), a high status professor from Harvard. His friend, Jay Hadley (David Koechner), a corky anthropology professor, and founder of the Sasquatch Club, tries to "help" him, by sabotaging Grasso's reputation. But she develops feelings for Charlie instead.
Like I said before, it would be a cute funny film, if there was any romantic chemistry between Wilson and Mol. David and Luke, on the other hand, seemed to naturally work very well together.
An example of a detail that was left unanswered was the fact that Charlie kept seeing Sasquatch, more like a man dressed like him. I was waiting for him to glance and see the face of Dean Leakey or Jay behind the mask, but it ended up ignored and never being addressed. There are certainly many other things left unanswered.
But it is just a relaxed movie that you can watch, if you're having a bad day. It is funny. I would recommend it, just for the hell of it.

Lars and the Real Girl

A heartbreakingly, heartwarming journey that bends your definition of real love.
This story, directed by Craig Gillespie, follows a sweet-natured, socially isolated man, named Lars (Ryan Gosling), who finds love in a life-size sex doll, named Bianca. He is completely content, in a delusional way, with his plastic lover. But finds he is delveloping feelings for a co-worker Margo.
This is a sweet, not to mention unique, story about discovering the limits of true love, and what is held back. You find yourself knowing what these characters are feeling, no matter how weird their relationships become, thanks to the quirky, well-written script by Nancy Oliver.
Although odd, this is a movie about love, yes real love.

Splice :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews

Maybe it is not the usually si-fi movie it is advertised as...

Splice :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Classic Wes Anderson, people! The signature comedy, the one color theme (in this case orange, red, and gold), the long pauses, the lasting close-ups. You are aware of the clearcut personalities of the characters, almost imediatly. Sure some of the pauses are little too long, but somehow that makes it more unique, more appealing...to me at least.
A whole world is created by the detailed animation and recognizable characatures.
Cocky, handsome [Fantastic] Mr. Fox (voiced by the smooth, George Clooney) is nearing the end of his salad days. He has a family to look after and care for. His son, Ash (voiced by the awkward, Jason Schwartzman), is desperate to impress his father. But his father seems to be focused more on Kristofferson (voiced by Eric Chase Anderson), a cousin who has come to stay with them. It seems that Mr. Fox has replaced Kristofferson as his son. Mrs. Fox (voiced by the always original, Meryl Streep) is a sweet, dedicated housewife, who is worried for her husband's safety.
Mr. Fox longs to be the daring guy he used to be. But he, and his whole family, end up in trouble when he starts to get back into his old habits.
Anderson's comedy may be a little mature for children, although silly sometimes. And the plot may also be a little too slow and complicated for them. My 7 year old sister was not that impressed. I did enjoy watching it with my family.

The Brothers Bloom

Have you ever watched a movie, there is good acting, good cinematography, good directing, a good score, and a good script, but there were so many twists you were just ready for it to end. That is what is wrong with this movie.
Directed and written by Rian Johnson, The Brothers Bloom is about two brothers that become con-men. The younger brother, Bloom (Adrian Brody), is longing for a real life, an "unwritten" one. The older brother, Stephen (Mark Ruffalo), is still obsessed with the thrill of the con. With their "sidekick" (in a sense), Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), they devise the most radical and imaginative cons, all written by Stephen, and pull them off, or possibly smooth talk their way out of it! But when the try to rip-off Penelope (Rachel Weisz), a lonely, single, heiress from New Jersey, it does not quite go as planed.
The problem is the brothers (and the writing) con you, and the audience, too much. The first two twists are intriguing and unexpected, but when you get to the 3rd (at the least), it sort of loses its thrill. Not that the movie was not good and fun to watch. It has a bit of everything, adventure/action/romance/comedy/drama, ect.
Adrien Brody gives a wonderful performance, and so does Mark Ruffalo. Like always Robbie Coltrane (The Curator), does a fantastic job. Rinko Kikuchi, whom I had never heard of before this film, is amazing, and I hope to see more of her in American, or British, movies! Rachel Weisz on the other hand...I do not like as much. Her character is a big part of the movie and she did not really seem to capture it well. I can see how it would be a hard role to play, an eccentric, lonely, hopeful, heiress, longing for adventure. But it just does not work, it seems like she is pushing too hard. Not to generalize, but I have never really liked her movies, or acting.
Yes, I would recommend this movie. Although you may get exhausted at times, its fun.

And personally I think Adrien Brody is handsome, although everyone seems to disagree. I guess I have a thing for tall, thin, jewish looking guys. Oh well, just felt like mentioning that.

Whatever Works

Boris Yellnikoff (Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm) hates people. The human race is a "failed" species, according to him. They are all "microbes" compared to his Nobel Prize intelligence. He would rather be isolated from the world than have a social interaction. Long story short, lets just say he is an extreme pessimist.
On his way home, from visiting the few friends he has, he meets a happy-go-lucky runaway named Melody St. Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood). He takes her in and figures out, although she is not the smartest person in the world, she is not so bad. She opens his heart to the not so bad things in life and, for once, he is happy.
Woody Allen directs this sarcastic film about a guy who learns to love, despite how stupid.
I have to say I did not expect much of this movie. I thought it was going to be another story about a not so likable guy who finally discovers the meaning of life, or something like that. But I was pleasantly surprised. They were a lot of laughs, which I did not expect either. It was a feel good movie with a guy who learned what feel good was.

The Cove

This is the heartbreaking, yet at times heartwarming, journey through a cove in Taji, Japan where the unbelievably cruel act of the annual slaughter of dolphins takes place. Ric O'Barry, the trainer of the dolphin, Kathy, that appeared on the popular TV show Flipper. When Kathy died from depression in his arm, he decided he would try and stop the capture of dolphins for entertainment, which he feels he has created. And the mental, and physical, abuse that comes with captivity.
He rounds up a team of people that are willing to try and stop this horrific act at all cost. The Cove is off limits...but of coarse that does not matter to them. It is hardly any chance of getting into it, it is blocked by rails, steep slopes/mountains, fences, and even electric fences. They maneuver around all of these challenges though, they are extremely brave, talented, determined, and passionate activists.
These are the type of people who deserved to be looked up to, and I certainly do. The film crew, oh my god the film crew, they are willing to risk it all, along with everyone else. Could you imagine what it would be like to follow these people around, having to go through almost all of the same things, carrying a film camera on your shoulder? How brave!
This film is disturbing, depressing (and I mean "I wanna kill myself" depressing), and there is a possibility that you may lose all possible hope in humanity. But don't, I am not saying you will not cry, or the images on the screen will not snap your heart in half, I am simply saying there is hope. There is hope because of the people who are willing to risk it all, the very people that you are watching on the TV screen.

The Lovely Bones

Good story, good acting, good movie (for the most part)...except it was ruined! The sad thing is that only a couple of things ruined the entire movie.
A 14 year old suburban girl, Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a disturbed serial killer, George Harvey (Stanley Tucci), who rapes then murders young girls. When she realizes that she has died she goes to a sort of in between world, not reality and not heaven. Her father, Jack Salmon (Mark Wahlberg), is determined to find her killer, with Suzy guiding him from beyond. Susan Sarandon plays Grandma Lynn, who is a sarcastic alcoholic, brings some comedy to this dark story.
It did not stay true to the book, it was too watered down, the director, Peter Jackson, narrowed the character's personalities too much. Especially the murders character, I guess her thought that Stanley Tucci could not handle it, but I dare to disagree. Stanley Tucci is a phenomenal actor when he wants to be and I think he wanted to be this character. I also think he thought that the audience could not handle the characters gruesome mentality.
The thing that slaughtered the film is the in between world. I guess the word for it would be over-done. There were as many special effects as an action movie. This movie was definitely produced for adolescent girls.
I am extremely disappointed in this movie. It could have been well done. I don't blame anyone but the director.

Paper Heart

A corky documentary, directed by Nicholas Jasenovec, about love. I wonder why nobody has thought of this before. Love is usually thought of as either simple or overly complicated. It is certainly stereotyped, but this film dives deep into the concept of the word...love.
Charlyne Yi, comedian and actress, does not believe in love. She decides to go on a journey to figure out if love is real or not. On her journey she meets Michael Cera (from Juno). Ironically, they make an instant connection, and as the movie progresses, they fall in love. But Charlyne refuses to except this.
Their relationship seems real, but I could not quite figure out if it was part of the plot of the movie, or just a coincidence, they would be a good couple though.
Personally, I did not like Charlyne. I thought that she was to immature, so much so that she seemed like a 12 year old. She was too quiet, now if she was shy that would be a different story, but she just did not follow through when she spoke and did not make it clear why she was even speaking. But I am certain that she would be lovable to a lot of people.
The best scenes in the film were little puppet shows, which acted out moments when the couples being interviewed truly fell in love.
This was not the best documentary I have seen, but it did change my perspective on love.

*I would recommend this film.

Avatar

Directed by James Cameron, this film is part of the line of what can be imagined and still apply to reality.
The movie is more or less about connecting, or becoming one, with the earth/environment. Deciphering good from bad, right from wrong. When to take sides and why. Seeking the truth. A beautiful race of people, beautiful creatures, a beautiful language, a beautiful environment...but we come into their lives with greed, want, and anger, which ultimately leads to the destruction of beauty and everything pure. Sound familiar...trust me if nothing happens to our planet, it will.
The creatures in this movie move with lifelike grace, it is amazing really. In the beginning of the film the people/creatures were a bit jerky, but as the movie moved along the movements became more clear...and rarely can you make weird, animated sex hot. The art direction and animation were amazing, the setting, the spirits, the environment.
The movie was sort of lame beginning, but as it developed you got into it and wanted to find out what was going to happen next. The plot was a little predictable, but the way it was directed equaled it out.
This is a great excuse for a political movie, because it appeals to a large audience, kids, teens (like me), and adults, and it stills sends a message. It slips the message into your conciseness, without you really realizing it, but it will be there.