Category Archives: 2011 Reviews

Aug 18 2011

Early Review: Fright Night 3D

Fright Night does what any good remake should:  Keep with the spirit of the original while providing an update for modern audiences.  This new version of the 1985 horror/comedy offers more explosions and 3D-enhanced blood splatters, but the humor is still there — just with more vulgar sex jokes and references to Twilight and “Real Housewives.”

If you haven’t seen the original, here’s the gist of the plot:  Charley (Anton Yelchin), a geek-turned-popular high school Senior and his mother (Toni Collette) live in a quiet Las Vegas suburb.  Their new neighbor, Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire.  Need more?  Didn’t think so.

Colin Farrell has become so sure of himself as a performer that he’s absolutely intoxicating to watch in everything he does.  This is no exception.  He plays the charismatic Jerry as more masculine and less sleazy than Chris Sarandon did in the original, while director Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) does a good job of limiting his screen time so his presence doesn’t become diluted.

Yelchin is reliably funny and plays his part well.  I just think he has matured so much since his Charlie Bartlett days that he’s no longer believable as a teenager.  At one point, the story takes us to a night club where a bouncer grabs him and asks “hey, how did you get in here?”  He simply doesn’t look young enough that a bouncer would pick Yelchin out of a crowd as someone who doesn’t look 21.  Card him at the door?  Sure.  But as someone already in the club?  He’s not exactly a sore thumb.

The film also offers a more established backstory between his ex-best friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who brings his usual geeky schtick) and his hottie girlfriend (Imogen Poots), which makes for some decent character conflicts.  David Tennant (“Doctor Who”) fills the role of phony vampire slayer Peter Vincent, but he mostly just does a pretty good Russell Brand impression before eventually settling into an interesting character of his own.

The film’s use of 3D is some of the best I’ve seen.  Sure, it’s still a distraction in those scenes when Charley is just talking to his mother or sitting in a classroom — I’m not sure that will ever change.  But it certainly adds to the already very cool creature effects and really comes into play when Jerry begins blowing up houses and vampires start exploding into fiery bits and pieces.

I saw the original Fright Night for the first time just a few months ago, thinking “well that was fun in a dated and cheesy ’80s movie sort of way.”  I’m sure people 25 years from now will say the exact same thing about the new Fright Night.  But as for us, we’ll be able to look back and think about how much fun we had watching it in theaters in the middle of that brief fad where you had to wear cheap glasses if you wanted to see a mainstream movie.

Grade: B

Aug 8 2011

“The Tree of Life” – 2011 Dir. Terrence Malick

With Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken and Sean Penn

“Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things.”

    NOTE: During this review/write up on Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” I will be discussing the film and my thoughts about it. Whether or not you consider what I’ll be talking about spoilers; be advised.

Terrence Malick is anything but prolific (I’d consider him the anti Woody Allen). “The Tree of Life” marks his fifth film in forty years. Each one of his films is incredible, and in their own right are all masterpieces. The terms masterpiece and visionary have been so over used they’ve become synonyms with the word awesome.

“The Tree of Life” is in fact awe-some. It inspires a tremendous amount of awe that will wash over you and leave you emotional overwhelmed. The film is set in Texas, and tells the story of the O’Brien family, lead by the patriarch Mr. O’Brien (Brad Pitt, who gives the performance of his career) and followed by Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) and their two sons Jack (played as a child by Hunter McCracken who is incredible, and as an adult as an also incredible Sean Penn) and the baby of the family Steve (Tye Sheridan).

    The film cuts between the present, as Jack struggles with the emotional burdens of his alpha male father and his playful enabler of a mother, and he reflects back upon his childhood. The bigger picture of the film is told through the origin of Earth, nature and grace.

There is a segment of this film that shows the birth of the galaxy, from cell formation to protozoa to dinosaurs. I’ve read people’s “reviews” of this film and they bitch about the CGI used in the film. For starters, CGI is not used in the film; it’s all optical images that were created by Douglas Trumbull who is the Terrence Malick of visual effects. His limited credits of visual effects are limited to “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and “Blade Runner”. That’s almost as an impressive resume as Malick’s.

    While the film shows the origin of life, the film’s theme is very prevalent: there are two ways through life, the first is nature and the second is grace. Malick paints the world as a very violent and beautiful place. Showing that nature (represented by Brad Pitt) is an uncontrollable storm, that it will lay waste to anything in its path, and if you’re not one of nature, you won’t survive this world.

Jessica Chastain represents grace (and who I believe is an angel in the film), the free spirit that floats through life, adjusting to the changes and countering everything that nature throws in its path. There is much that I don’t understand in the film, and that’s okay – I don’t think we, as the viewers, are supposed to understand everything, and if we chose to believe so; that’s vanity.

    In the present day we follow Jack through one day, he silently navigate through his life as an architect. He may be the most broken character ever filmed. How could he not be, since his father is the ultimate alpha male. To say that Mr. O’Brien is a villain for afflicting Jack’s life to the point of zombification is a little much. Mr. O’Brien raised his two children the only way he knew how, through nature – to make them strong, to be their own men. As he says in the film, “it takes fierce will to get ahead in this world.”

As the film comes to a surreal climax of Jack walking along a beach, (re)connecting with his past family, including himself as a child, the film overwhelmed me so much, that it brought me to tears. This film has anything but a linear narrative. Watching this film, you’re not watching actors in a scene; you’re watching moments in time. And that’s what Terrence Malick does, he captures moments in time.

These moments in time are mostly without dialogue. There isn’t much dialogue in the film. Sean Penn has about 12 audible lines, Brad Pitt makes up most of the spoken word on screen. What we’re left with are these beautiful moments captured on film, with voice over narration by the three main characters, and most of the time the narration is as haunting as haunting gets.

As Jack wanders the beach he approaches a doorway, on the other side he sees himself as a child, and the child is waiting for him. Jack flirts with entering the frame, he’s hesitant and then he finally breaks on through, walks through the door frame and walks to the beach where he meets his father and mother (who look as they did in his flashbacks).

    Here be the spoilers I spoke of.

What the ending of this film, represents to me, is that Jack killed himself, and his soul is now finally at peace. The film ends with Jack exiting the gigantic glass building that he works in. He exits the building into a sea of people and looks up into the sky and smiles, and for the first time, we see him at peace.

End spoilers.

This is the most ambitious and profound film ever made. The only film that I can think of that is as challenging and unique is “2001″, yet the two films are vastly different. A lot of people consider this film to be very “pretentious”, and they don’t like it because of that. Wrong. The way I interpretive those thoughts are that since the person doesn’t understand the film, they automatically don’t like it because they don’t understand it.

Tom Wilkinson has an incredible line in “Batman Begins”, and it goes: “And people always fear what they don’t understand.” I believe that to be true to this film. This film examines life, and examines God. And I think what Terrence Malick is trying to say is that if God exists; God can never be as powerful as nature.

I’d just like to close by saying that my review/thoughts of this film don’t do it any justice what-so-ever, and there is no way anyone’s review possibly could. All I can say is that I feel is that I think this film should be required viewing for everyone. It’s an incredible film that you won’t be able to stop thinking about.

Rating: 11/10

Jul 26 2011

Early Review: The Devil’s Double

The Devil’s Double stars British actor Dominic Cooper (An Education, Captain America: The First Avenger) in dual roles as Uday Hussein (Saddam’s son) and his chosen double Latif Yahia.  While the two look strikingly similar, make that nearly identical after a few cosmetic procedures, the roles could not be more different.  Uday is the flamboyant playboy with the wacky grin who takes anything he wants, which usually happens to be women.  Modest family man Latif is reluctant to work for Uday, but he has no choice.  What Uday wants, he gets, and he threatens the lives of Latif’s loved ones if he doesn’t cooperate.

Latif’s duties include posing as Uday to make appearances and speeches, opening up Uday’s schedule so he can have his way with cocaine and whores.  Latif takes all the risky jobs that might put Uday at an assassination risk.  In turn, he gets to live in Uday’s lavish mansion and attend the most extravagant parties Baghdad has to offer.  Fair trade, right?  No, not really.

And of course there is also a romantic interest.  French beauty Ludivine Sagnier (Mesrine) plays the sultry Sarrab, who Uday has laid claim to so he can exercise his control inbetween all his other sexual conquests.  Latif is told he would be murdered for merely speaking to a woman Uday has “chosen,” but Sarrab immediately takes a liking to him.

The film is set to the backdrop of Operation Desert Storm, with archival combat footage and President George H.W. Bush’s addresses interspersed throughout the narrative.  The pressure of the conflict makes Uday all the more unstable and adds an explosive atmosphere to the story.  During one excellent scene, Sarrab  pays Latif a late night visit even though they both know the consequences should Uday find out.  A conversation about feeling trapped turns into a steamy sex scene, with director Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) using gunfire and bombings as background noise throughout to elicit an intense feeling of paranoia and unpredictability.

The Devil’s Double is a mesmerizing film that is equal parts historical war drama, gangster epic and film noir and Cooper is captivating for every second of it.  He is at once the year’s most detestable villain and its most noble hero, a truly remarkable feat.  Yet the line between the two personalities begins to blur when Latif grows increasingly defiant to Uday’s sadistic nature, sensing he might have to become a monster if he ever hopes to break the chains.  It’s truly a marvel to behold.

Grade: A

Jul 23 2011

“Captain America: The First Avenger” 3D 2011 Dir. Joe Johnston

With Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayel Atwell, Toby Jones, Dominick Cooper, Derek Luke and Stanley Tucci

    In the summer, after the summer (and the summer before that) of superhero films, I had finally reached my saturation point, especially with Marvel. All these movies, all these trailers and all these pathetic Big Gulp promotions were wearing thin on me. So the “new” superhero film, directed by Steven Spielberg’s “protégé”, who as far as I’m concerned hasn’t made a decent movie besides “The Racketeer”, galloped into theaters on the coattails of all the other Avengers movies, and oh, it’s in 3D. Not even shot in 3D, just post converted. Yikes.

“Captain America: The First Avenger” in 3D is not good, it’s great.

Captain America has always been a superhero that I’ve liked a lot. The reason is the origin of Cap’s creation. Cap was specifically created to help increase moral on the home front during WWII, and the film does an excellent job of capturing that, during Caps transformation from selling war bonds in a song and dance show to destroying the Third Reich single handedly.

    I won’t bore you with all too common review/summary that most people who write about films do. I’m sure you’ve been bathed in the Captain America TV spots and trailers, and I’m sure by now, you get the jist of it. While I sat there, watching the film, I couldn’t help but think that this is one of the best action/adventure movies that I’ve seen in a really long time. It’s so good, that it made me want to race home and watch all the Indiana Jones movies. And no, not that shitty halfbreed that I still haven’t been able to forgive Lucas for, and almost solidified my resentment for Spielberg even more.

Chris Evans, who’s been around the block a couple of times, has finally gotten a vehicle that will allow him to ride off into the sunset of Hollywood, I mean the guy did sign a six picture deal with Marvel to play Cap. Evans does a very good job of showing us the progression of the weak and petite Steve Rogers metamorphosis into the symbol of American freedom, Captain America. Evans does a very good job of embodying the character, and not overact as it’s all too common to do with a character like Cap (see Hayden Christensen in the Star Wars prequels).

    Evans is backed up by a cast of wonderful character actors. Tommy Lee Jones plays the cliché military man who is there as half mentor and half comic relief. For as generic as the character is, Jones brings his all, and keeps you smirking and you can’t help but just enjoy the shit out of him. Stanley Tucci, another great veteran character actor, brings it home as the Marvel universes Albert Einstein, the man who not only created the Red Skull, but also Captain America. Tucci is great as always.

Hugo Weaving is terrifying as Johan Schmidt, the evil Nazi who heads up Hitler’s Hydra faction, which is the weapons and science divison of the Nazi party. Weaving is just great as the villain. He’s so cold and calculated; you can’t help but love his performance. Most of the lines that Weaving are given could have been very boring if another actor was brought on to play that part. But Weaving is extremely good at portraying the man of many identities.

I can’t believe I’m even going to be saying this, but see this movie in 3D! I know its post conversion, and I think 3D is a fad, but this movie looks FANTASTIC in 3D. It gives the film a nice sheen and polish too it and it’s not distracting with the film looking too dark, or other characters being out of focus. I really thought that the 3D made you feel more a part of the film, it’s as if the forth wall was slightly broken, and you could sneak in, if only for a moment.

“Captain America” is a solid film that really brings “Thor” into prospective, and is the embodiment of what a summer blockbuster should be: fun, loud, and lots of explosions. I think it’s safe to say that this is not only the best comic book film of the summer, but it’s also Marvel’s finest film too date. And I think it’s safe to finally say that Joe Johnston made a great film.

Until he ruins it with Jurassic Park 4. 5. And 6.

Rating 9/10

And be sure to stay after the credits. You won’t want to miss it.