What is your favorite Mel Brooks film?
Young Frankenstein 42%
Blazing Saddles 30%
Spaceballs 11%
Robin Hood: Men in Tights 7%
Dracula: Dead and Loving it 3%
History of the World: Part 1 3%
Thanks for voting!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Review - Shutter
I'm not ashamed to admit that I am a fan of Asian horror remakes. I love the imagery of The Ring and even the cheap jumps of The Grudge. Even The Eye appealed to me. Admittedly, none of these movies are great film masterpieces but I usually find myself entertained and more often than not I find myself at least making sure the dog is close by if I need some reassurance.
However, Shutter was a dissapointment on every level. The premise, despite haing the potential to lead to a few interesting moments, is not even remotely original and feels like a thousand other movies. Considering the fact that the movie never actually leads to any of these possible interesting moments an uninteresting premise is the kiss of the death but just in case you weren't convinced, Masayuki Ochiai does everything he can to make you hate this movie.
However, Shutter was a dissapointment on every level. The premise, despite haing the potential to lead to a few interesting moments, is not even remotely original and feels like a thousand other movies. Considering the fact that the movie never actually leads to any of these possible interesting moments an uninteresting premise is the kiss of the death but just in case you weren't convinced, Masayuki Ochiai does everything he can to make you hate this movie.
His directing is clumsy; he exchanges the claustraphobic, alien atmosphere of other horror remakes for what looks like something filmed by drunk cameramen. With the exception of one scene, this film is so visually defunct that I could barely decipher what was happening. The camera focuses on objects that have no role in the plot and significant character interactions happen off-screen and the audience never sees what happened. Ochiai does try to make good use of the light/dark aspect of photography and in one genuinely frightening scene the lights go out and we are shown the action through one of the cameras flashes. Unfortunately, not a single scene in the film lives up to the promise of this one.
As if all of that wasn't bad enough the screenplay feels like i was written by a 15 year old. The big "twist" is so blatantly obvious as soon as the character is introduced that by the time it actually came around I was earnestly pleading with God for an ending that I couldn't have written in a drunken stupor. Even the lead actors seemed bored throughout the film, just going through the motions until its over. The only time Joshua Jackson proves he is capable of emoting is during his brief almost-sex scene with Rachael Taylor. It's interesting how much film mirrors real-life. I'm normally not one for gratuitous sex scenes but I was hoping for it in this movie just so I would have something to look at.
The worst part about this whole experience was how terribly familiar it was. Really? No one can think of a better reason for a ghost to be around than rape, murder, blah blah blah.....Ghosts are boring or at least the one ghost that keeps haunting every movie I watch is boring. Is it really that much to ask for a little creativity? At this point I would be happy with a movie about a ghost who haunted someone because he didn't like their haircut. At least it would be something that wasn't 110% foreseeable.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Review - Vacancy
2007's Vacancy, starring Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale was potentially the scariest movie of the year despite being formulaic and predictable. Amy and David Fox are a struggling couple whose car breaks down on the side of the road and their only refuge from the night is the dumpy motel. Surely it is obvious by now where the story is going; there will be a maniac who torments them Norman Bates-style and their trials will be a sort of couples counseling reminding them why they loved each other in the first place.
However, despite the obviousness of the plot, Vacancy doesn't feel contrived but rather feels familiar. It is easy for the audience to settle into the story and recognize the archetypes and the steps within the story. Audiences are sure to recognize the conventions 'borrowed" from not only Psycho and Halloween but also Texas Chainsaw Massacre and more modern classics like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. What would normally have killed a movie like this--predictability and a serious lack of originality-- actually work in Director Nimrod Antal's favor. He smartly borrows only what works and leaves the contriteness and silly slasher-movie cliches behind.
He is clearly a very strong director, reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock. His extreme close-ups and tight camerawork mirror the imprisonment of the film's leads. He turns Vacancy, which could have been another grungy, butcher knife in the shadow movie into a stylish thriller which actually delivers genuine scares. It is one of the few films in recent memory that actually makes my heart race even though i know exactly where it is going.
The first half of the film is especially strong, using the simplest of events to convey fear like bright lights and loud noises. Like Hitchcock, Antal knows the fears that are present in everyone-- claustrophobia, powerlessness, the unexpected-- and he utilizes every one of these horror tropes to shock his audiences. Vacancy works because it doesn't try to scare you with its masked killers; they are simply a means to turning your own internal fears against you.
There hasn't been a horror movie so stylishly made and so connected with its audiences real fears since Hitchcock.
However, despite the obviousness of the plot, Vacancy doesn't feel contrived but rather feels familiar. It is easy for the audience to settle into the story and recognize the archetypes and the steps within the story. Audiences are sure to recognize the conventions 'borrowed" from not only Psycho and Halloween but also Texas Chainsaw Massacre and more modern classics like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. What would normally have killed a movie like this--predictability and a serious lack of originality-- actually work in Director Nimrod Antal's favor. He smartly borrows only what works and leaves the contriteness and silly slasher-movie cliches behind.
He is clearly a very strong director, reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock. His extreme close-ups and tight camerawork mirror the imprisonment of the film's leads. He turns Vacancy, which could have been another grungy, butcher knife in the shadow movie into a stylish thriller which actually delivers genuine scares. It is one of the few films in recent memory that actually makes my heart race even though i know exactly where it is going.
The first half of the film is especially strong, using the simplest of events to convey fear like bright lights and loud noises. Like Hitchcock, Antal knows the fears that are present in everyone-- claustrophobia, powerlessness, the unexpected-- and he utilizes every one of these horror tropes to shock his audiences. Vacancy works because it doesn't try to scare you with its masked killers; they are simply a means to turning your own internal fears against you.
There hasn't been a horror movie so stylishly made and so connected with its audiences real fears since Hitchcock.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Review - Goya's Ghosts
When reviewing a movie like Goya's Ghosts it is difficult to decide which aspect of the film to focus on. One could discuss the construction of the film, the performances of the leads, the power of the screenplay among any number of other things. With most films, there is some semblance of continuity between all of these different facets of the film but with Ghosts there is a severe disparity in quality.
To start off, kudos to Natalie Portman who proves that she can still act. After the disastrous Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, I was beginning to think that Portman was lost to intelligent films but then she came roaring back with this film and the just-released The Other Boleyn Girl. Under the experienced director Milos Forman, she acts the hell out the two different characters that she plays in the film. She is superbly cast as the naive young Ines who is "put to the question" by the Holy Order of the Spanish Inquisition for refusing pork at a meal but her talent really begins to shine when she emerges from the dungeon fifteen years later, caked with mud and scabs and disease. She has become a potentially mad woman, resembling the always spectacular Helena Bonham Carter, obsessed with finding the child that she gave birth to while in prison. She continues to impress as that very daughter, a young whore with a serious overbite in the final act of the film. Much of the credit undoubtedly goes to the make-up people for the physical transformations but Portman creates a distinct persona for each character and not once does she falter in keeping the characters separate from each other.
Also surprisingly well-acted is Javier Bardem's Brother Loreno, a fanatical priest who is eventually disgraced by the church and forced to flee to France where he becomes a prosecutor only to return to Spain, jail the leaders of the Inquisition (which he had started) and act as the harbinger of the ideals of the French revolution.
Ironically, Stellan Skarsgard, the titular character Goya, need hardly be in the film and serves only to anchor the plotlines together. His character is uninteresting and unimportant although his artwork and the themes behind it lend an interesting angle to the bureaucracy and religious zeal that abounds within the film.
The film's major weakness is its disjointed story. Set against a very contentious time in Spanish history in which the French and the British duel for control in Spain and Spain struggled to remain independent of the influence of Napoleon and other figures, the film often felt more like a history lesson than a narrative. Forman had the distinct challenge of not allowing this story to become about the history but about the individuals involved. He succeeds in doing so only in a few scenes. Too often, he allows himself to get caught up in the epic feel of the time period and forgets about Ines, Lorenzo and even Goya.
With that said, the film is tremendously successful in translating the fears of the time period to film. Both the fears of persecution by religious authority and the terror caused by invading, imperialist armies are palpable throughout the story. Additionally, the attention to detail and the backdrops for the scenes are breathtaking. From Goya's studio to the king's palace to the dungeons, every scene is littered with historical details and realism that would be fitting for a historical epic if only Forman had gone that direction.
Forman obviously has a keen sense of visual power. There are numerous images that are unforgettable within the film. One of the best is actually the last where the mad Ines skips along, carrying a baby which is not really hers and clinging to the hand of the dead Lorenzo as he is carted away from his execution, surrounded by dancing and singing children. If only Forman had had a more unified script to work with, this would have been a much better film. As it is,
the story is too disjointed to be enjoyed. Especially after it unexpectedly jumps ahead fifteen years. It is difficult to follow and difficult to piece together as a single narrative but for anyone interested in the Inquisition, the politics of dueling kingdoms and the influence of art in all of this, Goya's Ghosts is good viewing. Before the sudden time jump, in fact, it is excellent viewing.
To start off, kudos to Natalie Portman who proves that she can still act. After the disastrous Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, I was beginning to think that Portman was lost to intelligent films but then she came roaring back with this film and the just-released The Other Boleyn Girl. Under the experienced director Milos Forman, she acts the hell out the two different characters that she plays in the film. She is superbly cast as the naive young Ines who is "put to the question" by the Holy Order of the Spanish Inquisition for refusing pork at a meal but her talent really begins to shine when she emerges from the dungeon fifteen years later, caked with mud and scabs and disease. She has become a potentially mad woman, resembling the always spectacular Helena Bonham Carter, obsessed with finding the child that she gave birth to while in prison. She continues to impress as that very daughter, a young whore with a serious overbite in the final act of the film. Much of the credit undoubtedly goes to the make-up people for the physical transformations but Portman creates a distinct persona for each character and not once does she falter in keeping the characters separate from each other.
Also surprisingly well-acted is Javier Bardem's Brother Loreno, a fanatical priest who is eventually disgraced by the church and forced to flee to France where he becomes a prosecutor only to return to Spain, jail the leaders of the Inquisition (which he had started) and act as the harbinger of the ideals of the French revolution.
Ironically, Stellan Skarsgard, the titular character Goya, need hardly be in the film and serves only to anchor the plotlines together. His character is uninteresting and unimportant although his artwork and the themes behind it lend an interesting angle to the bureaucracy and religious zeal that abounds within the film.
The film's major weakness is its disjointed story. Set against a very contentious time in Spanish history in which the French and the British duel for control in Spain and Spain struggled to remain independent of the influence of Napoleon and other figures, the film often felt more like a history lesson than a narrative. Forman had the distinct challenge of not allowing this story to become about the history but about the individuals involved. He succeeds in doing so only in a few scenes. Too often, he allows himself to get caught up in the epic feel of the time period and forgets about Ines, Lorenzo and even Goya.
With that said, the film is tremendously successful in translating the fears of the time period to film. Both the fears of persecution by religious authority and the terror caused by invading, imperialist armies are palpable throughout the story. Additionally, the attention to detail and the backdrops for the scenes are breathtaking. From Goya's studio to the king's palace to the dungeons, every scene is littered with historical details and realism that would be fitting for a historical epic if only Forman had gone that direction.
Forman obviously has a keen sense of visual power. There are numerous images that are unforgettable within the film. One of the best is actually the last where the mad Ines skips along, carrying a baby which is not really hers and clinging to the hand of the dead Lorenzo as he is carted away from his execution, surrounded by dancing and singing children. If only Forman had had a more unified script to work with, this would have been a much better film. As it is,
the story is too disjointed to be enjoyed. Especially after it unexpectedly jumps ahead fifteen years. It is difficult to follow and difficult to piece together as a single narrative but for anyone interested in the Inquisition, the politics of dueling kingdoms and the influence of art in all of this, Goya's Ghosts is good viewing. Before the sudden time jump, in fact, it is excellent viewing.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Review - Jane Austen Book Club
Jane Austen Book Club is just like a Jane Austen book, horribly contrived and overdone but still incredibly enjoyable. The book club consists of six people (five women, one man) who start the book club to escape their individual crises, namely divorce, infidelity, loss, loneliness, etc. (just like the themes of the Austen novels) because Bernadette (Kathy Baker) says that "Austen is the perfect antidote to life." As they begin to delve into Austen's work, one book per month, their lives begin to resemble more and more those of Austen's characters.
The film somehow manages to be about some of the schmaltziest literature in the English language and deal with some of the most sappy and mawkish themes possible without devolving into "just another chick-flick." It's certainly not the screenplay that somehow manages this feat, but rather the amazing ensemble of actresses. Each of the lead actresses is recognizable but none of them are superstars, which makes them easily identifiable and easy to relate to. They are like that lady down the street who you don't know by name but you always seem to see when you take the dogs out. Book Club works because it takes that figure and peels it back layer by layer until each character's eventual breakdown.
Of particular note in the ensemble is Emily Blunt who plays an uptight French teacher, disconnected from her husband and in love with one of her students. She has several stellar scenes but none so convincing as when she finally approaches her husband who "thinks Austen is a city in Texas," begging him to read Persuasion about two people who used to love each other and how they persuade themselves to try again. If you haven't figured it out--the two people are her and her husband who have been gradually growing apart since the beginning of the movie.
Also excellent is Hugh Dancy who is coerced into being the only male member of the book club by Jocelyn (Maria Bello) who wants to pair him up with Sylvia (Amy Brenneman). The problem is that he is in love with Jocelyn. In the end, like all good Austen romances, they of course end up together. Possibly the best scene of the movie is when it is time for his character to host the book club meeting. The ladies show up at his door to be greeted by a haunted house in honor of the gothic novel, Northanger Abbey and more specifically the story within a story, The Mysteries of Udolpho.
The greatest accomplishment of Book Club is that it managed to do what 4 years of high school could not. It actually made me want to read Jane Austen. In fact, it made me want to read in general. There is something about finding redemption in someone else's words and someone else's stories that speaks to the book nerd in me.
Book Club is certainly not for everyone. There is not a single explosion or murder in the whole two hours. But it is most definitely for anyone who loves books, specifically but not necessarily Jane Austen, or for anyone who appreciates a movie that leaves them feeling satisfied. There is most definitely a place for happy endings in Hollywood and movies like Book Club is where they belong.
The film somehow manages to be about some of the schmaltziest literature in the English language and deal with some of the most sappy and mawkish themes possible without devolving into "just another chick-flick." It's certainly not the screenplay that somehow manages this feat, but rather the amazing ensemble of actresses. Each of the lead actresses is recognizable but none of them are superstars, which makes them easily identifiable and easy to relate to. They are like that lady down the street who you don't know by name but you always seem to see when you take the dogs out. Book Club works because it takes that figure and peels it back layer by layer until each character's eventual breakdown.
Of particular note in the ensemble is Emily Blunt who plays an uptight French teacher, disconnected from her husband and in love with one of her students. She has several stellar scenes but none so convincing as when she finally approaches her husband who "thinks Austen is a city in Texas," begging him to read Persuasion about two people who used to love each other and how they persuade themselves to try again. If you haven't figured it out--the two people are her and her husband who have been gradually growing apart since the beginning of the movie.
Also excellent is Hugh Dancy who is coerced into being the only male member of the book club by Jocelyn (Maria Bello) who wants to pair him up with Sylvia (Amy Brenneman). The problem is that he is in love with Jocelyn. In the end, like all good Austen romances, they of course end up together. Possibly the best scene of the movie is when it is time for his character to host the book club meeting. The ladies show up at his door to be greeted by a haunted house in honor of the gothic novel, Northanger Abbey and more specifically the story within a story, The Mysteries of Udolpho.
The greatest accomplishment of Book Club is that it managed to do what 4 years of high school could not. It actually made me want to read Jane Austen. In fact, it made me want to read in general. There is something about finding redemption in someone else's words and someone else's stories that speaks to the book nerd in me.
Book Club is certainly not for everyone. There is not a single explosion or murder in the whole two hours. But it is most definitely for anyone who loves books, specifically but not necessarily Jane Austen, or for anyone who appreciates a movie that leaves them feeling satisfied. There is most definitely a place for happy endings in Hollywood and movies like Book Club is where they belong.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Screenshot - - - Le Voyage dans la lune (A trip to the Moon)
Because sometimes a picture says it all...
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Feature - Top 10 "Little People" and "Big People" in Movies
This is a tribute to those of extreme size, whether it be short or tall. Enjoy! Did I miss a few, perhaps they were too small to be on my radar. (ha ha) Comment with your suggestions.
The Small:
1.) The munchkins from the Wizard of Oz
2.) The oompa-loompas from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
3.) Mini-Me from Austin Powers
4. ) The seven dwarves from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
5. ) Willow Ufgood from Willow
6.) The Ewoks from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
The Tall:
7.) Karl the Giant from Big Fish
8.) Hagrid from Harry Potter
9.) Tiny from The Devils Rejects
The slightly confused (because she is both small and tall):
10.)Alice from Alice in Wonderland
The Small:
1.) The munchkins from the Wizard of Oz
2.) The oompa-loompas from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory3.) Mini-Me from Austin Powers4. ) The seven dwarves from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves5. ) Willow Ufgood from Willow6.) The Ewoks from Star Wars: Return of the JediThe Tall:
7.) Karl the Giant from Big Fish
8.) Hagrid from Harry Potter9.) Tiny from The Devils RejectsThe slightly confused (because she is both small and tall):
10.)Alice from Alice in Wonderland
