The brainchild of 80s movie master John Hughes, Weird Science is an outlandish and goofy ride through suburban teenage angst. Kids in the 80s weren’t like the rebellious youth of the 50s, the drug-addled hippie kids of the 60s or the disenfranchised youth of the 70s. They were simply looking for people who understood them. John Hughes was their cinematic savior.
Gary and Wyatt are two nerds who don’t get on well with the ladies. They are smart, skinny, pale and socially awkward. Popular kids ignore them, jocks and goons make fun of them and girls just walk right past. Since they can’t make it with the ladies, the duo decides to make a lady of their own. Using an ancient-looking modem (by today’s standards) the boys hack into a government computer and create Lisa- the perfect woman. She’s got large breasts, gorgeous legs and a waistline to kill for.
To the boys’ collective surprise, Lisa also comes equipped with super powers, making her capable of doing anything she and the boys want. Instead of catering to their every indulgence, Lisa instead plays an impish role, confronting the boys and helping them to find within themselves the qualities that women like. It’s certainly the long and uncomfortable way of getting what they want but Gary and Wyatt have no choice.
At the time, I’m sure that Weird Science was interesting and mostly fresh. These days though, the film seems full of clichés and just plain silly. This is mostly because teen films of the 80s overexposed the angst and insecurities of young people. While Gary and Wyatt are able to overcome their issues, films like Weird Science make it seem like conquering your fears and reinventing yourself is oh so easy. While it’s fun to watch, we not-so-secretly know that this is not true.
But Weird Science is one of the better 80s teen comedies. It doesn’t get bogged down by seriousness or melodrama like its 80s peers but it does have heart. Thankfully though, the film doesn’t wear its heart on its sleeve. Even when the heartwarming goo arrives, there’s still plenty of humor to go around, be it sight gags, quick one liners or just fine comic timing.
A lolling clarinet intro sets the tone for this animated short. Badgered is all about a sleepy badger’s attempt to get rid of a couple of crows perched outside his hole. The plot is pretty simple and there’s really nothing groundbreaking at all about the animation, but this simple setup manages to be clever, hilarious and meaningful all at the same time.
Our poor badger friend is not only bothered by the crows. During his quest for rest, men come and build a weapons installation in the hill under his hole. This not only makes a racket but also intrudes upon his den. The collision of technology and nature is used for added humor but it also makes an interesting point. The more we intrude upon nature, the more awkward it gets for animals to exist in their own natural habitat.
Maybe there is a more anti-military or anti-war message to be gleaned from Badgered but I just took it as a nature-meets-technology thing. There’s no dialogue; just animal sounds and electrical instruments beeping and blaring. It’s never boring which means the humor never dies. This makes Badgered a success as an animated short because you will enjoy it every time you see it. Perhaps it’s true that sometimes it’s the simplest things that make life worthwhile.
Short films deserve short reviews but as far as animated short films go, this one is a doozey. For 28 moody minutes, director John Canemaker uses the audience as his personal shrink. The content of the film is based on Canemaker’s rocky relationship with his deceased father. The titular imagined conversation has John Turturro as the voice of the son and Eli Wallach as the voice of the father. The duo talk about the elder’s parenting techniques, missteps and failures, with the father often coming up with all kinds of excuses.
It’s a painfully awkward exercise to witness but you can’t help but want to sympathize with the son, longing for the closure that Canemaker will never be able to get. It is also a very one-sided ordeal. As the director and narrating viewpoint, Canemaker has the upper hand in making his side of the story seem like the only side we need to know. That doesn’t mean I felt the short to be emotionally dishonest in any way. Believe me- it’s more emotionally honest than comfort typically allows for. It’s just noticeably one-sided and the philosophical part of me can’t help but wonder if Canemaker was exploiting his control in the narration of the conversation.
The brutal honesty of Canemaker’s venting is likely what won The Moon and the Son its Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. It certainly had little to do with the animation involved. Sure, it’s stylistically appropriate but it’s hardly innovative or inventive. If nothing else, it’s a way for the emotionally damaged little boy that Canemaker never let go of to come out and have his say. The overall presentation works to emphasize the hurt Canemaker feels but I can’t help but wonder if the director ever truly thought that this therapy session cum animated short would be enjoyed by anybody. Appreciated, sure, but enjoyed? I have my doubts.
Before America entered World War II, the US government sought Disney’s assistance in keeping good relations with the nations in South America. This led to Walt Disney taking a number of his animators and musicians on a tour of the continent, all the while picking up ideas and inspirations for a South American-based series of animated shorts that would become Saludos Amigos. While this film has largely gone unremembered, it deserves credit for ingenuity and creativity.
Blending live-action footage of Disney and his crew touring various locales with the animated shorts inspired by each hot spot, Saludos Amigos manages to be part educational film and part travelogue. While it may look like South American culture has been generalized and stereotyped now, you have to consider that the film was made during the early 1940s. Americans knew very little about South America, with these generalizations probably being about it. This made them necessary inclusions in the film because it would be something familiar enough for American viewers to connect with and enjoy. For South American audiences, these generalizations may have simply been neat for them to see on screen.
However you slice it, Saludos Amigos pales in comparison to any of Disney’s previous five animated films. That doesn’t make it a bad film though. Similar to Fantasia, there are animated shorts involved but they are not nearly as complex and inventive. The first involves Donald Duck doing a little sight-seeing at Lake Titicaca and a nearby village. The narrator talks about village life and Donald is merely along for the ride as a beloved Disney character. Using a flute to control a cantankerous llama turns into an amusing two minutes where the animation and music get to play off of one another.
The second short involves the tale of Pedro the airplane. Pedro is a young Chilean mail carrier plane who has to make the dangerous trek over the Andes Mountains in order to pick up mail in Argentina and deliver it back home. This segment features more impressive animation, including detailed backgrounds of the dangerous mountain passes.
The third segment takes us to the pampas of Argentina, where Goofy learns what it takes to become a true gaucho, or Argentinean cowboy. Goofy is used for some slapstick moments involving his clothing and horse. Goofy also gets a taste of traditional Argentinean music and dance.
The final and best segment of the film introduces José Carioca, a lively parrot displaying the colors and rhythms of Rio de Janeiro. This part of Saludos Amigos is a real treat. Like in Fantasia, the blending of animation and music hits the mark. As the music pulses away, an animator's brush creates lavish scenes and South American landscapes. The music adds to the overall effect, making it even more enjoyable than some of the shorts in Fantasia. Donald Duck pops in and José shows him the beauty and fun of the samba. They dance the night away and take in Rio’s nightlife.
Maybe it’s because I saw this movie when I was a video game-playing, MTV Generation high school student, but Lola Rennt (or Run Lola Run for English-speaking audiences) continues to be one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s an unrelenting, 81-minute thrill ride that has all of its ducks in a row.
The plot is quite simple- Lola, Franka Potente (whom fans of the Bourne trilogy will recognize) gets a call from her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu). Manni has been working for some powerful crime bosses and got his first test. He received a payment of diamonds for some luxury cars and exchanged the diamonds for cash. Unfortunately, he left the satchel of cash on a train and he’s got 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Marks or his boss will kill him. With this, Lola leaps into action and the audience can only hold on for the ride.
Fueled by an almost non-stop, toe-tapping, if not foot-pounding, electronic soundtrack and adrenaline-inducing action, Lola Rennt manages to be a little bit of everything. It’s a thriller for sure, as we’re constantly reminded of how much time is left on the clock. It’s also an emotional drama, as we see short side scenes where Manni and Lola share their insecurities with each other. Last, but by no means least, Lola Rennt is a thinking man’s film, touching on themes of free will vs. determinism and the importance and insignificance of money.
Probably the most intriguing aspect of the film is its three-part structure. We actually watch Lola make three different attempts at her run. Are our characters stuck in a time loop? No. Director Tom Tykwer is merely out to show how every single decision we make from departing Point A, every little thing that we do, can snowball into a drastically different result when we finally reach Point B. For some, it’s far too heady a concept for an action film but most people will be transfixed by it. Tykwer’s set up demands repeat viewings so you can catch all the little details and how they change with each of Lola’s runs.
Lola Rennt will thrill you, shock you, give you a few warm fuzzies and make you think all in 81 minutes. This is a movie that knows not to overstay its welcome because it knows that you’re going to need to go back and watch it again. The slim runtime perfectly allows for that. Pretty impressive for a foreign film that will require you to read subtitles (I abhor overdubs and advise against such lazy viewing tactics). In fact, the characters and action do most of the speaking through their actions. You could probably watch this film without the subtitles and understand most of it.
The film never passes judgment on Lola and Manni’s involvement with organized crime but it also doesn’t condone it. In fact, it’s only used as mechanism to set up the action. Moralists might complain but they’ll be missing the point. In time of crisis, all that matters is keeping your head above water.
A tour de force that you won’t soon forget, Lola Rennt is easily one of the best foreign films I have ever seen. Had I not taken German in high school, I probably never would have discovered this film. What a scary thought! Watch it, love it and watch it again!
The truth is finally revealed in the third and (hopefully) final installment of the Jason Bourne trilogy. Featuring the same level of intensity and quality as its predecessors, The Bourne Ultimatum is a thrill ride that simply must be seen.
The Bourne Supremacy ended with Jason in New York playing mind games with the CIA. Ultimatum rewinds the action a couple of weeks and shows what led Bourne to New York. Despite what Supremacy may have led you to believe, Bourne did not come to the States to get even with the CIA. The first half of Ultimatum sees Bourne once again mixed up in the CIA’s cleanup operations for the failed Treadstone project under the new and more dangerous Blackbriar codename. Through a number of patently Bourne plot twists and action sequences, Jason learns that a facility in New York City holds the key to his true identity and past.
Matt Damon is starting to show his age a bit in this film, appearing noticeably more than just a few weeks older than he did in Supremacy. While this is largely unavoidable given the three-year layoff between films, it almost works in Damon’s favor. By now, Jason Bourne is weary from all the running around and now has had only a few weeks to recover from injuries sustained in Supremacy before being tossed back into the crosshairs.
High-octane car chases and frenzied fist-flying are now par for the course in Bourne films and the filmmakers wisely put more emphasis on the story. In New York, Bourne begins to have flashbacks to his recruitment to Treadstone but the details are murky. Only a suicidal mission to return to recruiting headquarters will once and for all settle who Jason Bourne is and why. Along the way, we revisit Supremacy’s brilliant closing scene and we continue from it to yet another dramatic conclusion.
Another positive twist to the Bourne formula this time around is the interplay between the CIA deputy chiefs assigned to bring Bourne down once and for all. Joan Allen returns as Pamela Landy, who was assigned to take care of Bourne in the last film. Landy is now playing second fiddle to Noah Vosen, played with cold, calculating precision by David Strathairn. Vosen is the head of Blackbriar, the newly retooled black ops unit picking up the pieces of Treadstone.
At first just a battle of ego and methods, the two deputy chiefs eventually turn on each other. Vosen thinks Landy doesn’t have the stomach to do what is necessary while Landy believes Vosen is needlessly abusing his power and resources. The scariest part of this interplay is that both sides have valid points in this very grey-area predicament.
As is true in real life, the resolution behind Jason Bourne’s identity is something of an anticlimax. There can be no such thing as a happy ending when you are a rogue former CIA black ops killing machine. Anyone expecting a warm, fuzzy ending will be disappointed. Then again, anyone expecting that sort of ending hasn’t really been paying attention to the story either. The ending we get is the ending we need, no matter how inconclusive it may be. The story of Jason Bourne cannot be tied up with a pretty bow.
Enough cannot be said for director Paul Greengrass’ commitment to his craft. While he only came on as director with the second installment of the Bourne trilogy, his impact on the series has been tremendous. Using a combination of fast cuts and long takes makes the action feel agonizingly real. Greengrass is wise to stick to the tried and true Bourne formula without allowing Ultimatum to feel formulaic. The CIA infighting and the sometimes confusing flashbacks to Bourne’s origins add weight and substance to what is mostly a white-knuckle collection of top-notch stunts.
What is perhaps most remarkable about this film is that it manages to live up to the impossibly high bar set by the first two installments. While other spy and action series sag in quality after a while, each subsequent film in the Jason Bourne trilogy is able to inject a new level of intelligence and ingenuity to the formula to match and honor those that came before it. This kind of consistency is a rare thing in Hollywood. After three films and five years, the Bourne movies continue to be relevant and engaging.
A shining example of less-is-more horror, The Mist is one of the most chilling and deflating movies I have seen in some time. While touching on the topics of the family unit, survivalism and religious fundamentalism, the constant, suffocating fear of the unknown is almost as thick as the titular mist itself.
Following a violent storm, a small town in Maine is mysteriously enshrouded by a thick mist. Artist David Drayton and his young son find themselves trapped in the community’s grocery store when police and others start warning of some form of danger residing inside the mist. As mysterious creatures begin to threaten their fragile safety within the store, a religious fanatic (played by Marcia Gay Harden) slowly begins to convince others that Armageddon is upon them. This generates conflict between those trapped in the store as many doubt the divine nature of their assailants.
The Mist really makes the most of its $18 million budget. Marcia Gay Harden is the only big name actor or actress attached to the film. Sometimes this sort of under-casting can cause the film to suffer in the acting department but this is simply not the case here. Thomas Jane, who was and still is most known for being the lead in the disappointing Punisher remake, gives a very modest performance as a father whose only interest is protecting his son. He doesn’t give in to disaster or parental clichés. His dialogue feels natural and appropriate.
Monster movies and disaster films often times go overboard on the visual effects but The Mist stands apart from the crowd quite well. Instead of using visual effects to put the monsters on display, most of the film is spent catching fleeting glimpses of the horrors that live in the mist. Unfortunately, when we do get a good glimpse of the creatures, the budget does betray the film in that the creatures do look conspicuously fake next to human beings. They are designed well and look sharp moving in and out of the mist but just don’t look real enough alongside flesh-and-blood characters.
While the general idea behind The Mist is nothing new (several people stuck together, facing trying times), it’s all about the execution. In other films, I have complained at the inclusion of religious fanaticism as an antagonistic element. In this case, I was fine with it. I think it is because of the very end-of-the-world nature of the mist and the creatures within it. That made the inclusion Gay Harden’s character acceptable. In other films, religious nut jobs are merely included because it’s easy and convenient. It never seemed like the filmmakers were trying to put down religion, which is another plus. It is merely a highlighted difference of opinion that is actually quite rational considering some of the odd depictions of End Times events in the Bible.
Without spoiling too much, the ending is a real shocker, and not in a good way. Many critics and movie-goers complained quite a bit with how writer-director Frank Darabont chose to end his film. Fans of the Stephen King short story were also up in arms, as Darabont deviated from the story’s ending. But Stephen King actually praised the gritty final moments as a better ending. Whether you agree with that or not, you have to admit that it takes a lot of courage to end a film the way Darabont does.
Love it, like it or hate it, The Mist does enough to stand apart from its horror-thriller-disaster flick peers. While you may not remember too much of it weeks later, you will never forget that ending. In a time when horror films fail to make much of an impression at all, this is an achievement. The Mist uses enough sleight of hand and classic thrills to keep you on the edge of your seat without becoming predictable. Well done.
If ever life imitated art, the unexpected success of Slumdog Millionaire is a prime example. From being nearly relegated to the direct-to-DVD market to becoming the Oscar-winning, feel-good hit of the year, this film’s success mirrors its story about an underdog from the slums of Mumbai going for riches on an Indian game show. A triumph in edgy filmmaking, this is a very rare kind of film that has the capacity to shock, disturb, fascinate and elate you through its breakneck pacing and tightly packaged drama. Slumdog Millionaire is a shining example of everything we love about movies.
Jamal Malik is a young man working the low end of the totem poll as an assistant (basically a coffee boy) for a cell phone company in Mumbai. By sheer luck he qualifies for the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Using the chance of a lifetime to get in touch with a long lost love, Jamal is suspected of cheating when he answers several questions correct. How could a common street rat know the answers to some of the show’s most difficult questions? Scenes of Jamal’s interrogation are intercut with flashbacks showing how the life of a common slumdog can yield a wealth of unanticipated knowledge.
One of the biggest highlights of the film is its uncompromising cinematography, which plants the audience into the heart of the impoverished shantytowns and desolate living conditions that exist in the shadows of India’s major cities. Director Danny Boyle doesn’t sugar coat anything but he also isn’t passing any judgment when he shows us some of the worst living conditions imaginable. In this way, he succeeds as a director. Whatever his motivation may be, he is leaving the audience to make our own decisions about the actions and places we see on the screen.
The content of these scenes of utter depravity are all shocking and, at times, terrifying. While Boyle may use some of these things to hammer home the living conditions of India’s poorest, he never shows anything for the sake of being gratuitous. This prevents the film from being tasteless despite some of the reprehensible things that we see. If nothing else, these scenes make us feel even more compassion and empathy for our protagonist. Some scenes play out for laughs, rightfully lightening the mood and giving the film balance. Some of these scenes may push the boundaries of suspension of disbelief for select viewers, but Slumdog Millionaire’s crisp pace moves you along before you can get comfortable enough to dwell on it.
In fact, comfortable is the last word I would think to use in describing this film. Danny Boyle never lets Slumdog Millionaire rest on its laurels. Sure, there must have been stretches where Jamal and his brother got by with minimal conflict but those are the kinds of scenes that fail to serve the story and only drag a film out. By trimming out the fat that hogs up many films (especially those that come to mind when you think of the Oscars) the film retains its edgy intent and never lets you back away from the edge of your seat for very long.
While pacing, cinematography and editing are all crucial components of telling a story via film, much more is needed to create the full package. Fortunately, Slumdog Millionaire also features fantastic acting from its adult and child stars alike. The children used to show Jamal and his brother were actually cast out a real slum in Mumbai. Their performances are effortless and give the film its heart. Dev Patel is terrific as the overwhelmed adult Jamal and Anil Kapoor is electrifying as the charismatic game show host.
All the sights, sounds and colors of India are amazing and blaze by to composer R.A. Rahman’s beautiful contemporary soundtrack. The beats fuel the most intense scene and the gentler tracks add that extra touch to the film’s tender moments. Even though most of the soundtrack is in either Hindi or Punjabi, it doesn’t take away even a fraction of its enjoyability. It adds an extra layer of Indian culture on top of a film that already contains more than most Westerners know about the second-most populous nation on Earth.
When everything clicks in a movie, something magical ensues. Slumdog Millionaire gushes with that magic. Underdog stories are nothing new to cinema but they are seldom done so right as this film. Perhaps it’s because Slumdog Millionaire was made outside of the major studio system. Maybe it’s because the film captures a glance at a world so foreign and unfamiliar to us Westerners. Whatever it is, Slumdog Millionaire is a success on every level and was deserving of every accolade thrown its way. If you love movies, this is an absolute must-see.
Now that the site is back up and running, it's time to get caught up on my movie reviews! While the site was under construction, I continued to write reviews, so there is quite a stockpile ready to roll out.
The Tour de France is a 20+ day marathon of bicycling and one of my friends suggested I use the non-stop action of the Tour to get my reviews posted. I liked the idea, so here is how it is going to work: Every day of the Tour de France (even the days the racers are resting) I will be posting 2 movies reviews. One review will come in the morning and the other in the late afternoon or early evening.
I've got quite a diverse set of reviews coming up. Here are just a few of the title you can look forward to seeing soon: Dracula, Slumdog Millionaire, The Mist, The Bourne Ultimatum, I Am Legend, I Love You, Man, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and yes, even Twilight.
In all, 46 reviews will be posted in 23 days. Are you up for the challenge?
The 2nd Annual GEeK Awards are finally here! After many long delays, all 15 awards are now listed! Check out all the winners here!
Now that the awards have been posted I plan on getting back to writing reviews on a regular basis. I've watched a lot of movies already in 2009, so get ready for a plethora of reviews!
The brainchild of 80s movie master John Hughes, Weird Science is an outlandish and goofy ride through suburban teenage angst. Kids in the 80s weren’t like the rebellious youth of the 50s, the drug-addled hippie kids of the 60s or the disenfranchised youth of the 70s. They were simply looking for people who understood them. John Hughes was their cinematic savior.
A lolling clarinet intro sets the tone for this animated short. Badgered is all about a sleepy badger’s attempt to get rid of a couple of crows perched outside his hole. The plot is pretty simple and there’s really nothing groundbreaking at all about the animation, but this simple setup manages to be clever, hilarious and meaningful all at the same time.
Before America entered World War II, the US government sought Disney’s assistance in keeping good relations with the nations in South America. This led to Walt Disney taking a number of his animators and musicians on a tour of the continent, all the while picking up ideas and inspirations for a South American-based series of animated shorts that would become Saludos Amigos. While this film has largely gone unremembered, it deserves credit for ingenuity and creativity.
Maybe it’s because I saw this movie when I was a video game-playing, MTV Generation high school student, but Lola Rennt (or Run Lola Run for English-speaking audiences) continues to be one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s an unrelenting, 81-minute thrill ride that has all of its ducks in a row.
The truth is finally revealed in the third and (hopefully) final installment of the Jason Bourne trilogy. Featuring the same level of intensity and quality as its predecessors, The Bourne Ultimatum is a thrill ride that simply must be seen.
A shining example of less-is-more horror, The Mist is one of the most chilling and deflating movies I have seen in some time. While touching on the topics of the family unit, survivalism and religious fundamentalism, the constant, suffocating fear of the unknown is almost as thick as the titular mist itself.
Now that the site is back up and running, it's time to get caught up on my movie reviews! While the site was under construction, I continued to write reviews, so there is quite a stockpile ready to roll out.
