AppsScraps Movie Reviews

Jul 28, 2008

Across The Universe

Release date: 10 September 2007 (Toronto International Film Fest)

Julie Taymor directed this very long music video trying to pull itself off as a motion picture. The innate problem with the film is lies with Taymor and her reach. In trying to be a all things - sloppy romance between Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood); homage to Beatles music; commentary on the social environment and upheaval that was witness in America during the Vietnam War; and Julie's attempt to one-up Baz Luhrmann and his Moulin Rouge masterpiece - the film crashes, and badly. What's left is a film full of Beatles songs slowed down to the point of tedium, a love story as compelling as watching paint dry, and a journey that will leave you feeling like you've crossed the entire universe (beam me up please, Scotty). Such a shame.

My rating, for the music and some of the great visuals Taymor gives us, 5 out of 10.

I Am Legend

Release date: 5 December 2007 (Tokyo, Japan)

Francis Lawrence directs this third remake of Richard Matheson's novel of the same name, this time with ever-woody 'actor' Will Smith doing his usual - yawn - shtick. Previous, and better versions were, The Omega Man (1971) with Charlton Heston and The Last Man on Earth (1964) with Vincent Price. Lawrence's version is oh-so-slow to start and doomed from the outset by Smith's acting, which left me cold and rooting for the vampires, if only to shut him up.

That said, the night creatures are brilliantly executed in this film and for that - and that alone - my rating 4 out of 10.

Bewitched

Release date: 24 June 2005 (USA)

Wow ... bad ... real bad despite the star power of her highness Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrel (to whom I apply the moniker 'star' in very, very loose terms), Shirley McLaine and even Michael Caine. Based on the television series, the story ... oh ... heavens ... why even bother. It's an awful film. No amount of witchcraft can save this embarrassing Hollywood film.

My rating 2 out of 10.

No Reservations

Release date: 25 July 2007 (New York, USA)

You see the plot of this movie coming from the moment the film starts. You know top New York chef Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is going to end up guardian of her sister's daughter. You know she will end up having to deal with parental responsibilities when all she wants to do is cook, and you know when her pregnant sous chef leaves and is replaced by free-spirited chef Nick (Aaron Eckhart) that there will be some real heat in the kitchen. And you know, despite that, I still enjoyed the film thanks to the topic (I'm a foodie) and the good acting of Eckhart, Zeta-Jones and Abigail Breslin as Zoe, the child in question.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Forever Mine

Release date: 12 Septemeber 1999 (Toronto International Film Festival)

G and I have a connection to this film as the scenes in the second half of the movie - of Congressman Brice's (Ray Liotta) house - where filmed in G's sister's home here in Toronto. Watching it does elicit a dejavu feeling, understandably so. Starring Liotta as a very crooked Congressman, Gretchen Mol (as his wife, Ella Brice) and Joesph Fiennes (as the cabana boy who stirs up trouble between them), it morphs between thriller and romance and has a real made-for-tv feel to it. When Fiennes and Mol's characters have an affair and the Congressman discovers it - well, wife Ella actually confesses - the Congressman tries to bump off the offender. Maimed and disfigured in the attack, cabana boy Fiennes returns years later as a wealthy criminal fixer who hopes to keep the promise he made to Ella and dish out his own form of revenge. Some stock twists and turns result before it all ends badly for everyone involved. While no one in this film is particularly great at acting - Fiennes seems especially uncomfortable - there is enough Sunday night at the movie drama (and a great house to see) to make it worth a rent.

My rating 6 out of 10.

The Dark Knight

Release date: 14 July 2008 (New York, USA)

Plenty has been said on this movie already and it is an instant classic - dark, thoroughly disturbing and action-filled. In this return to the original genre of the comic book, Batman (Christian Bale) battles the amoral Joker (played with chilling brilliance by the late Heath Ledger) in what is really a psychological drama of good vs. evil. Batman and Joker are the antithesis of each other and the movie, directed by Christopher Nolan, works to leverage the depths realized by these two characters pitted against each other. In the end, this is - and always will be - Ledger's film, a perfect portrayal of a psychopath. The Dark Knight, be warned, is no film for children - or the faint of heart, but within its two and a half hours, shows us a glimpse of the best and worse we can be as men. Run, don't walk, to see this film.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Bee Movie

Release date: 28 October 2007 (London Film Festival)

What a delightful, adult-oriented, animated movie. Bee Movie stars the voices of Jerry Seinfeld (as Barry B. Benson) and Renee Zellweger (as Vanessa Bloom, the adult who stumbles across Barry) and has cameos by oodles of others - Sting, Larry King, Ray Liotta and Chris Rock (to name a few). Barry, recently graduated from Bee School and faced with entering the colony for a life of drudgery, opts instead to join the Pollinator bees on a venture outside the hive. Predictably, Barry gets lost and ends up meeting, and - breaking Golden Bee Rule Number 1 - speaking to a human, Vanessa. When he realizes humans are more or less 'stealing' honey, Barry opts to file a class action lawsuit. With gorgeous animation, lots of laughs and a subtlety that speaks to human consumption, greed, and environmental issues, Bee Movie delivers the goods.

My rating 8 out of 10.

An Unreasonable Man

Release date: 2006 (USA)

This documentary film on the life and work of consumer advocate and presidential wannabe Ralph Nader, is long and full of many talking heads. And while, sure, we should all be appreciative of what Ralph has done for us - seat belts and food labeling to name but two, and angered by what he's done to America - the defeat of Al Gore and a second term with pea-brain Bush are his doing - the film never tells us much about the man other than his politics. I watched, somewhat bored, thinking is Mr. Nader a male version of a Stepford Wife? The man has the passion of a giant, the personality of a flea, and a personal life void of any emotional attachment.

My rating 6 out of 10.

Jul 9, 2008

Death Note, Volume 1

Release date: 2006 (Japan)

What would you do if all you had to do was write someone's name in a book and then forty-seconds later, that person would die of heart attack? That is the premise of this excellent manga series by created by writer Sugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata back in 2003-06. Light Yagami, Japan's top high school student, wanders across such a book - The Death Note - one afternoon at school after it mysteriously drops from the nether realm of the Shinigami(gods of the dead). The resulting story is a great marriage of philosophy (as Light opts to rid the world of criminals, and eventual reign as a new god of a new world free of evildoers) and mystery (as the police begin to suspect something is amiss with so many criminals turning up dead, and decide - with the help of an uber detective named L - to hunt him down). Light is escorted through the cat and mouse game by a Shinigami named Ryuk, who's scary and creepy as all get out. Death Note is a series of four volumes and I can guarantee its fascinating mix of intelligence and mystery and creepiness will have you hooked. I daresay you may even contemplate who's name you would enter in the Death Note. Of note, three live-action films have also spawned from this series, all released in Japan, the latest in February 2008.

For a great idea well executed in a gorgeous manga environment, my rating 9 out of 10.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Release date: 8 December 1988 (West Germany)

This cult classic is now 20 years old and while a fiasco from start to finish and wildly over-budget, it did not diminish the directing status of ex-Monty Python member, Terry Gilliam. Based on a series of tall tales written by Rudolf Erich Raspe back in 1785 called Baron Münchhausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels, it starred gobs of talent in Neville Mariner (as the Baron), Eric Idle, Oliver Reed, a young Uma Thurman (as Venus), an even younger Sarah Polly, an over-the-top and very frustrating Robin Williams (as the King of the Moon), and heck, even Sting. They story is ... well ... a hodgepodge of fantasy travels and fairy tales with a sort of Wizard of Oz story within a story angle, and is far too complicated to due it justice here. The film is probably a love-it or hate-it sort of venture with this reviewer decidedly on the love-it angle (with the exception of the aggravating sojourn on the moon with Robin Williams doing his tired old shtick).

For the spectacle of it all and with kudos to Mariner for pulling it off, my rating 7 out of 10.

Up the Yangtze

Release date: 30 September 2007 (Canada)

This documentary, directed by Chinese-Canadian Yung Chang, shows us two small stories among the many that have resulted from the the creation of the Three Gorges Dam in China. The stories of spoiled single-child Chen Bo, a self-confident, self-obsessed 19 year-old and Yu Shui, a 16 year-old from a very poor farming family, cross when they both take probationary jobs on one of the many cruise ships the ferry tourists up (and down) the Yangtze River. The more compelling of the two is that of Yu Shui, who's family is displaced as the water rises and their farm is engulfed. Chang's film is beautifully shot, and, weepy music aside, illustrates in its 90-odd minutes the pride Chinese feel towards the achievement of the Three Gorges Dam project, the sad impact it has dealt to Chinese who lived along the river's path, and the cultural repercussions it's sowed on people of all economic levels. This is a super documentary that should not be missed.

My rating 8 out of 10.