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2009-06-21T15:11:00.001-07:00

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2009-06-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

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The Brothers Bloom

2009-06-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Rian Johnson

I haven't enjoyed Mark Ruffalo since I saw him have sex with an old and rather hairy Meg Ryan in "In the Cut". Adrian Brody hasn't been spectacular since his award-winning performance in "The Pianist." And who can forget the adorable Rachel Weisz as an archeologist crusader in "The Mummy."

Synopsis: The Bloom brothers are the world's best con men, millionaires in their own right. But they're going to retire after one last job - taking a millionaire heiress around the world in a romantic adventure that ends up making them re-evaluate their lives.

A rental at best.

Offical Site

Night At The Museum 2: A Battle To Watch

2009-06-11T17:37:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Shawn Levy

A sure sign of a struggling sequel is when you have to repeat jokes from the first film to help the audience remember why they went to see the first. Night at the Museum 2 is purely a kids film. It's fast-paced, slapstick and flashy. I can only think that a child would gain the most from watching Battle at the Smithsonian. This would seem obvious, but the first Night At The Museum had such a broad appeal it didn't feel like a kids flic. The historical puns in both 1 and 2 would also seem to suggest that only adolescents and adults would possess the requisite knowledge to truly enjoy the humour of an animated mannequin Amelia Earheart talking about her "successful" last flight. But I guess that's why they put some extra computer work into this one to garner the attention of the 8-13 demographic. From an adult perspective, the jokes are tired and the plot was pretty thin (even for this franchise) so unless your choices of comedies to watch are The Hangover, Land of the Lost or Night at the Museum 2, I guess I would have to suggest Night at the Museum 2.

The Hangover: Lowering the Humour Bar

2009-06-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Todd Phillips

Always be suspicious of films that plug its director on the poster in order to entice viewers. Just to clarify, this is not Old School. This movie has just helped lower the humour bar for 2009. It's only savings grace is that the comedies it's up against at the box office are equally, if not more so, terrible. Small consolation. The humour is forced, it's character development poor and the dialogue is banter. An example is the scene where the four men are driving down the highway on the way to Las Vegas and the bachelor party (about ten minutes into the film). Their discussion and jokes regarding marriage are so conventional, tired and recycled it could have been written by anyone. The irony is that you wouldn't even want to watch this film while hungover.

Land of the Lost: A Ferrell Failure

2009-06-11T16:52:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Brad Silberling

The first and last thirty seconds of Land of the Lost is funny, but that's about it. I didn't have high hopes for this film to begin. And after an hour and forty minutes, my suspicions were confirmed. This is almost as bad as Ferrell's last T.V show/movie-remake, Bewitched (2005). I understand the dinosaur graphics were supposed to be cheap, the humour campy and the premise and plot ridiculous, but it's a poorly delivered package. The comedy is reminiscent of the worst SNL skits, but with a multi-million dollar budget, which does nothing but emphasize how poor the dialogue and plot are once you quickly grow tired of the trite gags and laughs. I almost want to say this is as bad as the Flintstone movies, but I don't know how to be that cruel.

If you want to see actors running around and being chased on a green screen for almost two hours, it's still only worth a rental.

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens

2009-06-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Barbara Leibovitz

I know this came out three years ago, but some things take time to travel. If you want, you can purchase the DVD and enjoy it at home (which I recommend doing anyway), but if you love photography, or are a photographer yourself, you won't want to miss the opportunity of seeing a great selection of Leibovitz's iconic work on a large screen. It's also a good chance to see some celebs spout their "views and wisdom" if you're in to that kinda thing - like actually listening to celebrities. I joke.

Blood: The Last Vampire (ブラッドザラストヴァンパイア)

2009-06-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Chris Nahon

If you're a big fan of anime, then you won't want to miss this live-action adaptation of the popular Blood series. The hugely successful original anime film by the same title was released in 2000. It spawned a franchise; several comic novels, a video game and a T.V. miniseries all came out of the original film, directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo.

In this 2009 version, the protagonist, Saya, is played by a Korean, Gianna Jun. Saya is a vampire, employed by a covert government agency in a post-WWII Japan to hunt and destroy demons. The plot thickens when Saya is inserted into a military school to discover which of her classmates is a demon in disguise. There's plenty of blood, sword fighting and walking on air, a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (same producer) to make it a worth while watch.

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2009-06-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

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About Spencer's Silver Screen

2009-06-09T15:15:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Spencer's Silver Screen! This site is made in the interest of serving the ex-pat community in Asia. Where ever you may be, Spencer's Silver Screen, in conjunction with ESL Daily.org and World Movie Times, helps deliver all the movie news, reviews, resources (both movie and ESL related) and show times you can want, in one convenient location.

We are still growing and would love you're feedback. If there's something you don't see or have any suggestions to help serve you better, than by all means, give us a comment, submit a review or drop us a line at contact@ssscreen.com. Enjoy!

Drag Me To Hell

2009-06-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Guest Review by Sean

Sam Raimi has returned to the horror genre after the Spider-Man trilogy and he has not disappointed. In a movie based on the classic "curse" films of the 1950’s, Raimi delivers the humor and suspense fans associate with the Evil Dead movies. The script may be slim on subtext and character development, but it delivers in droves with shocks, gross out material and campy dialogue. It is nice to see a horror film enter the theaters that isn’t fixated on showing the audience countless ways to mutilate a body. Drag Me To Hell begins with a loan officer at a bank named Christine (Alison Lohman) foreclosing on an old woman’s house in an attempt to gain a promotion, and in return the old woman curses Christine. Written by Raimi and his brother Ivan, you can see how much fun they had creating their tongue-in-cheek scares - many of which are performed memorably by Lorna Raver, who plays the old gypsy woman, Mrs. Ganush. The 1970’s look, low fi effects and driven plot make this a must see for horror enthusiasts or anyone that enjoys a good film.

OFFICIAL SITE

Mother 마더

2009-06-08T02:14:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Bung Jun-ho

This film is already a run-away blockbuster in South Korea, topping consecutive weekend domestic box office totals for the last two weeks (May 29th-June 6th), beating out Hollywood heavyweights Terminator:Salvation and Angels and Demons. Korean cinema is renowned for its melodrama and although it's palpable in Mother, the subject matter is what makes this movie interesting.

Known only as Mother, (Kim Hye-ja) this matriarch lives in a rural community with her son Do-joon (Won Bin) above her oriental pharmacy. Do-joon is handicapped by mental and emotional suffering produced in part by his mother's overburdening parental care. Mother keeps Do-joon in an almost infantile state by feeding him, sleeping with him and arranging her entire world-sphere around him.

Mother is an exploration not only on the nature maternal love, at one end of the spectrum its dignity and at the other, its potential cause for harm. The film might also be taken as a subversive comment on the nature of parenting in South Korea, a society not alone in the world well-known today spoiling its children to an excessive point. But there is a flip side to this.

There is an excessive strain put upon Korean youth to follow strict social norms and an intense pressure to succeed that more than counterbalances any parental over-indulgence. This can be evidenced in the compulsive military for males, the the high suicide rate of adolescents caused be the annual University entrance exams, which still determine, to a very large extent, the success one will have for the future, and the exorbitant amount of money spent on education.

It all starts at home. Mother is worth a watch.

World Movie Times

2009-06-08T02:05:00.000-07:00

World Movie Times is the umbrella of an ongoing project by ESL Daily to list, in a comprehensive, easily searchable format, show times in several countries around the world. The first country to be finished in this project is South Korea. Japan is currently in development with more countries to follow. You can link to Korea Movie Times here or follow the link in the menu bar above. Enjoy!

12 Rounds

2009-06-08T01:33:00.001-07:00

Directed by: Renny Harlin

It might be called 12 Rounds, but the predictable outcome isn't worth the anticipation worthy of a prize fight. It's not even worth the anticipation billed on the poster, "From the Director of Die Hard 2." John Cena is not Bruce Willis. You might remember this pro-wrestler turned actor from 2006's "The Marine" - it's okay if you don't remember.

I enjoyed Aidan Gillen in HBO's "The Wire" as Mayor Thomas Carcetti. But he's less memorable in 12 Rounds, spending a considerable amount of time in the film yelling into a mobile phone. Here he plays a psychopathic ex-con who kidnaps Cena's (Detective Danny Fisher's) girlfriend as revenge for putting him away. This movie probably won't help either of these actor's careers. Still, it's a good action movie to watch on a hungover Sunday afternoon because it almost reminds you of watching a cheesy Schwarzenegger or Willis flic in their '80s glories. Almost.

The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3

2009-06-08T00:58:00.001-07:00

Directed by: Tony Scott

I don't agree with remakes. The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 is a remake of the 1974 classic with Walter Matthau as "Lt. Garber", played now by Denzel Washington. John Travolta's character "Ryder" wasn't in the original and is a kind of composite of the original gang of bad guys, all code named a different colour (this film was the inspiration behind the code names of Tarantino's robbers in Reservoir Dogs)

It's Denzel Washington as another cop and John Travolta as another bad guy. There's bound to be some seriously intense scenes with Travolta yelling as a madman and Washington showing off his superior intellect and cop instincts. Nothing against Tony Scott, but if you want to see something really special, watch the original. Matthau as a detective is excellent.

Movies By Month

2009-06-07T04:48:00.000-07:00

If you want to search for what's playing in a particular month, search under the month you are looking for on the top menu bar or click the link below:

June 2009

July 2009

The Transporter 3: Jason Statham is Weeping

2009-06-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

Directed By: Olivier Megaton

This is the plot summary for Transporter 3 as explained on www.imdb.com:

Frank Martin puts the driving gloves on to deliver Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of a Ukranian government official, from Marseilles to Odessa on the Black Sea. En route, he has to contend with thugs who want to intercept Valentina's safe delivery and not let his personal feelings get in the way of his dangerous objective.

What the F*&!? This plot is as thin as melted butter. And this is number 3! It’s the same plot as numbers 1 and 2! If Jason Statham thinks this is his redemption for doing Death Race, then he’s on the same crack as the studio execs that green lit this picture.

The only way I’m going to watch this movie is if I can suddenly induce a comma by drinking 10 bottles of Soju in which case I’m admitted into a dungeony, old public Korean hospital and strapped to the bed as I twitch of fever and formaldehyde poisoning and finally, when I’ve calmed because of the necessary lobotomy, the nurse turns on the green color-cast Zenith TV and sticks in a cheap, old bootleg of Transporter 3 in which you can hear the dude who pirated it eating popcorn.

Jason Statham must be weeping. Daniel Craig, his fellow action star and countryman, is garnering Golden Globe and Oscar attention for his role in Ed Zwick’s “Defiance,” not to mention a steady reputation as a moneyman in another successful installment of the Bond franchise in 2008’s Quantum of Solace. And what is Statham doing? Transporter 3.

I always think of Statham as his character “Bacon” in Guy Ritchie’s 1998 genre-defining, fast-paced gangster flic “Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels.” But Statham’s even more memorable as “Turkish” in Ritchie’s more successful second effort, 2000’s “Snatch,” with Brad Pitt as a Pike boxer.

Not bad when your first two roles turn out to be in very successful films that actually launch your career. And I hoped for big things for Statham, just as I did for the entire cast of the Band of Brothers, the majority of which was British. I like the idea of the British action star, a little bit country, a little bit rock’n’roll, a little bit metro-sexual, a little bit trained, sociopathic, lethal weapon. Somehow it just works. I guess that’s the appeal of James Bond. Oh wait. I forgot, I’m talking about Statham and The Transporter 3. Damn, I want to watch Daniel Craig right now kill that guy in the beginning of Casino Royal. The sink just falls apart after he rams the bad guy’s head through it. It’s incredible.

Alas, the early part of the decade was the best part of it for most of these British actors. Most of the Band of Brothers cast has been scattered to the wind and Statham started doing The Transporter movies in 2002. Perhaps that’s the problem with the whole character of Frank Martin, Statham’s character in The Transporter. He’s not James Bond. But he’s subtly suave. He’s not an assassin, but he’s ex-military. He’s a character always struggling with what he does and what he’s capable of doing. And perhaps for the first movie that was a strong enough twist to fall back on. But this is number 3. Statham’s character should know by now, when he drives people around, he gets into trouble and has to kill a lot of ineffectual bad guys. Seriously, didn’t Bruce Willis kill the same longhaired, incompetent thugs in 1988? At least Die Hard was nominated for four Oscars. Studios have to have a lot of confidence to go after a number 3. But then again, trilogies are all the rage again. Does any one else feel like it’s the mid-1980s?

Congratulations Statham. You join a special group of trilogies with disappointing third installments. Lethal Weapon 3, Return of the Jedi (and all of the new Star Wars films for that matter), Back to the Future 3, X-Men 3, and to some extent Spider Man 3 and The Lord of The Rings 3. (I’m sure I’m missing some). Even the Bourne series was stretching it with the third Installment, The Bourne Ultimatum. What ultimatum, Jason Bourne kills everyone. There’s no ultimatum.

The character of Frank Martin needs some new motivation. Action movies, after all, are solely based upon the heroin’s motivation for blowing stuff up and kicking some ass. There at least has to be some internal struggle, where the heroine tries to cope with who they are, what they’re doing, how they want to change or how they will overcome their personal and professional challenges.

The soldiers in the Band of Brothers were fighting fascism and tyranny, while struggling with their own mortality, patriotism and fear of letting their fellow soldiers down. James Bond is an elite assassin who fights terrorism in an ambiguous and dangerous post-Cold War reality. The new films with Daniel Craig have Bond struggling to remain emotionally unattached as he continues to be responsible for collateral damage and the death of perhaps the first genuine love interest in any Bond film. Stop playing coy Statham, get rid of this phony ‘good guy- put-upon’ persona, and come out and kick some real ass.

So let’s revisit the plot summary one more time for The Transporter 3. Frank Martin, Jason Statham, drives really fast in a black car, kills people with any object present, ala Jason Bourne, gets semi-romantically involved with a piece of spent-Euro-jet-trash, tries to not compromise his strict ethical and moral code all the while reluctantly solving a lame-ass plot of international intrigue, miraculously surviving to drive another day.

If anyone is hung-over enough one Sunday to actually pay to see this movie and feels like sharing some details, drop me a line in the comment section. I’m going to go and watch a little James Bond: Casino Royal.

Official Site

Defiance: Not Up To The Zwick Standard

2009-06-06T23:26:00.000-07:00

Directed By: Edward Zwick

Measured up against his other war movies, Glory and The Last Samurai, or even his 2006 effort, Blood Diamond, Edward Zwick’s latest film, Defiance, is not up to his usual standard. The mix of action and drama, plot and character, just isn’t there.

The weight of history can obscure and compromise a historical narrative, especially with such a controversial subject as the Holocaust. Defiance is a bit of a bland movie with several historical inaccuracies and factual liberties. But this isn't the history channel, and holding films accountable for not retelling historical truth is a discussion for another time. The acting, although Daniel Craig has generated some Oscar buzz for his role as Tuvia Bielski, is what the Times critic Richard Corliss called “generic.” (Times Review) However, there are some good scenes between the brothers, Tuvia (Daniel Craig) and Zus (Liev Schreiber). But the actors couldn’t overcome a repetitive story structure and the missed chances of character developing scenes that would have given this film a real leg to stand on.

Reported on January 12th, on www.wenn.com, the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation has developed the website www.jewishpartisans.org as an incentive for New York City schools to teach the movie in online

curriculums. And as a historical document, this film is worthy. But it needs to be taught alongside the novel on which it is based, Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, by Nechama Tec, to flush out the historical and factual inaccuracies for which it has warranted criticism. This is not Schindler’s List, nor The Pianist. But Zwick intentionally made the film because it wasn’t. He wanted a film about Jews fighting the Germans, not being victims. And there are plenty of good action sequences to show that he made just that film. In this respect, it is unique among Hollywood Holocaust films.

The four Bielski brothers, Tuvia, Zus, Asael (Jamie Bell) and Aron (George MacKay), Polish Jews, escape into the

Belorussian forest after local German SS officers murder their family. After they encounter other Jewish refugees in the forest, they decide to help protect them and fight the German occupation. The film covers the first year of the community’s survival. In the end, after three years surviving in the forest, the brothers help save nearly 1,200 lives.

But after a promising and bloody start to the film, it starts to drag. As more refuges join the Bielski brothers in the forest for escape and protection, the focus shifts from the struggle between Tuvia and Zus, to the greater challenge of building and maintaining a forest encampment while being hunted by German soldiers. If this was a documentary on a proto-civilization and how they dealt with all of the challenges the first humans must have faced when they began to change to an agricultural society from a hunter-gatherer way of life, then money well spent. But it isn’t. It’s a $50 million WWII film.

Tuvia and Zus have an almost fatal fight over how the encampment should be managed and protected. Tuvia is for diplomacy and Zus is for a military state. Zus decides to leave and join with Soviet Partisans to fight the Nazis. Tuvia stays and looks after the camp. At this point the narrative shifts and becomes more about Tuvia and his struggle to lead the community. But as the audience, we don’t care, because we have invested our emotions in Zus as well. And Zus disappears from the film several times, as he is busy fighting with the Soviet Partisans. When he reappears, you have almost forgotten about him. Zwick missed the chance to explore and exploit the themes of the war and the Jewish plight by not developing the internal struggles of his protagonists.

And these two moments really cheapened the whole movie for me. When Zus and a raiding party return to the camp with food for the refugees and a horse, Tuvia decides to mount the horse and deliver a motivational speech, ala Brave Heart. And three quarters of the way through the film, as German Stuka bombers devastate the camp and a bomb bursts through a make-shift shelter, killing many people, Tuvia’s ears ring and the sound becomes muted, as everything in front of him is reduced to slow motion destruction, ala Saving Private Ryan. Oh, and if miss these moments, the music should help you find them; here’s a clue, it gets loud.

Ultimately, Edward Zwick, who co-wrote the screenplay with Clayton Frohman, let the core that made this story compelling, the relationship between the brothers and their struggle to define their lives as refugees, partisans and protectors, become obscured and he fell back on letting the weight of history and the score of James Howard Newton to prop up his film.

Official Site

Be Kind Rewind: Amateurish Novelty

2009-06-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Michel Gondry

When Jerry (Jack Black), an eccentric mechanic and tinkerer, becomes magnetized after being electrocuted, he accidentally erases all of the VHS tapes at his friend’s video store. The owner, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover), is about to lose the business to a redevelopment project. Jerry and Mike (Mos Def) decide to remake the missing films on a Hi-8 camera with low-budget special effects in a bid to satisfy their loyal customers and save the failing business.

The comedy between Jerry (Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def) remaking Hollywood blockbusters in true, low budget, amateurish, trash-can special effects style is hilarious and the only enjoyable bit of the film. Otherwise, the script is wonky. The pace lags and the dialogue seems contrived and forced. At times, it resembles the runner-up in a freshman film competition, or the second draft of a play. There is a weak plot running through the film regarding the life and times of a fictional Jazz musician who was the rave of New York and New Jersey (the film is set in Passaic, New Jersey) of the 1930s and 40s. And there is the threat of the video store being forced to close because of building violations, which Mr. Fletcher has no way of paying to repair them. But these are just vehicles to propel Black and Def to make their shoddy, and instantly hip, remakes of popular films.

The tandem of Black and Def was obviously the selling point Michael Gondry (Director/Writer) made to the producers in the pitch meeting. But the rest of the film is a let down. On the other hand, his use of low budget special effects is imaginative, inventive and occasionally inspirational. If anything, Gondry shows he has fun making his films. And the gumption and inventiveness showed by his main characters Jerry and Mike to overcome many of the challenges in reproducing big-budget special effects on no budget at all should serve as an inspiration to all first-time filmmakers.

Official Site

Valkyrie: Not Quite a Classic

2009-06-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

Director: Bryan Singer

No one should dismiss Valkyrie as just another Tom Cruise action film. Although this is obviously a Tom Cruise picture - he co-produced, Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men) directed - he does a good job of surrounding himself with a remarkable ensemble cast and playing a part of that ensemble instead of keeping the attention on him. This is a sentiment shared by many critics of the film. And this action flic/psychological thriller almost delivers.

Brief Synopsis: An outspoken critic of Hitler’s handling of the war, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is severely wounded by an allied attack in Tunisia. He is reassigned to Berlin where fellow dissenting officers soon recruit him into an assassination plot to kill Hitler, save Germany and Europe and end the war.The problem I had with the movie, and perhaps it will seem nitpicking to some, was the lack of explanations regarding the motives of the co-conspirators. You might not get this impression on a first-watching because the pace of the movie and the superior performances of the actors mostly overshadow this.

In this respect, Valkyrie certainly earns a place in cinematic history by following in the same footsteps of other WWII films employing the cream of British and international talent, as in The Longest Day, The Train and The Guns of Navarone. But in my opinion, Valkyrie can’t take a place on that podium. The characters, with the exception of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, just aren’t developed enough to elicit the empathy of the audience. And empathy is crucial in a film like this if the audience is going to experience the full impact of the decisions these men made and the risks they took. At the end of the day, Valkyrie is a runner up, but still an exciting and fun film to watch, especially if you’re a war history buff.

If you’re curious enough, and lucky enough to find this on the net, watch Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler. Directed and written by Kevin Burns, (Not to be confused with Ken Burns, no relation) Bryan Singer executive produced. It’s a documentary about the July 20th plot, as it is known, the people involved and at the end a brief glimpse into the filming of Valkyrie.

Official Site

The Curious Case of Fincher and Roth: Benjamin Button

2009-06-03T05:50:00.000-07:00

Directed By: David Fincher

(Guest Review by Sean)

Imagine “Big Fish” and “Forest Gump” had a baby, a son born with the infirmity of sentimentality and nostalgia. The son’s name is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is born at the turn of the 20th century as a an 80-year old infant, living his life in reverse, becoming younger as time passes and his actual infancy coming at the end of his life and the turn of the 21st century. It’s a provocative and intriguing story in the capable hands of Fitzgerald, all the more profound because of its brevity and the fact it was written 88 years ago.

There were several things to like about the film adaptation. The cinematography by Claudio Miranda, who was originally a gaffer on Fight Club - arguably David Fincher’s best movie, is praise worthy. The digital imaging used to create the elderly Benjamin Button was nearly flawless. But screenwriter Eric Roth (The Postman, Forest Gump) and Robin Swicord (Memoirs of a Geisha) are writing for a particular audience, a demographic susceptible to tears, false teeth and retirement.

Of course the setting of New Orleans meant a co-staring role for Hurricane Katrina (Eric Roth, Fitzgerald is a better writer, you should have left the story’s structure alone). The movie begins as an elderly Daisy Fuller (Cate Blanchett) is dying in a New Orleans’ hospital as Hurricane Katrina is threatening the city. She asks her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) to read from a diary written by Benjamin. From here the story transitions to a narration by Benjamin, beginning at the end of WWI and his birth. In essence, the whole movie is a flashback, ala Forest Gump.

By the end this didn’t bother me as much as watching Cate Blanchett in a hospital room slowly, ever so slowly (all 2 hours and 47 minutes of this film), dying while wearing 10 tons of old-people makeup. Julia Ormond smokes and looks pissed off the whole time. She is almost seething opposite Blanchett. Perhaps Julia was wishfully dreaming of days gone by when she was the female heroine opposite Pitt, i.e. “Legends of the Fall”.

The script occasionally manages to overcome its ‘over-the-top’ sentimentality with some rather interesting and fun adventures. A tugboat, which Button works on as an old man, joins the war effort in WWII and gets in a great “tugboat vs. Nazi submarine” action sequence - how did anyone not make that film! It’s like a subversive version Hemingway’s Old Man and The Sea. Captain Mike (Jared Harris), the tugboat captain, provides some much-needed frivolity, but is disposed of early on (suggestion: don’t bet on the tug boat to win the ultimate sea battle). Pitt does some very good work in Benjamin Button, but in movies of this fantastical/ epic scope he seems less at ease (Interview with a Vampire) than when he can sink his teeth into characters like Jesse James (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford).

David Fincher has directed some great films (Seven) and some questionable ones (Aliens 3), but this was his chance to really tug at the heartstrings and he relished in it (watch the cast brown nosing on Charlie Rose - “he’s just so great, he really lets you find those moments”). It should be said that this movie has a credible amount of talent and “unique love story” twist to draw in audiences and a few awards - if a movie like The Notebook is any indicator of the sympathies of modern audiences.

Read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (1921), by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Official Site

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

2009-06-03T05:05:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Patrick Tatopoulos

Tatopoulos braves the unforgiving waters of the ‘prequel’ in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and manages to swim. Once you adjust your eyes to the monochromatic blacks and greens on screen, this film delivers a good balance of plot, action, special effects and character development rarely seen in vampire genre pics, where the temptation is to squeeze out every blood bag in a ‘shock and awe’ of the audience. And this balance is rarely seen in prequel movies in general, despite that the label ‘prequel’ implies historical revelation and deeper character analysis.

There were valid concerns voiced by many fans when news was released that the third installment of the successful Underworld franchise was going to be a prequel, it was going to have a different director and the gothic, vixen vampire star, Kate Beckinsale (‘Selene’ in Underworld 1&2) wasn’t returning to reprise her role. These three things would normally be enough to doom a franchise. But give credit to writer Danny McBride (Underworld: Evolution) and Dirk Blackman (who is writing the new Conan film) and director Patrick Tatopoulos (directorial debut, but was the creature creator on I Am Legend, 10,000 BC and Silent Hill, including Rise of the Lycans) for making this a tight, efficient and ultimately enjoyable movie to watch. They stuck to simple plot twists and well-written scenes to make up for their change in direction.

Bill Nighy reprising his role as Viktor, the tyrant-king elder vampire, was a stroke of genius in Rise of the Lycans. He was an integral part of the success of the first Underworld and #3 gives him full reins to steer to the ship. This is his movie. The relationship between Viktor and his daughter Sonja (Rhona Mitra, who could be Kate Beckinsale’s twin) is one of the best plot lines from the previous two films. Sonja’s betrayal and Viktor’s vengeance is Shakespearean in scope. Rise of the Lycans did well to elaborate and explore this at greater depth. The film begins with Viktor sparing to kill a lycan child, Lucian (Michael Sheen), who is the first-born in an experiment to crossbreed humans and lycans. Lucian becomes Viktor’s favorite lycan slave. As a grown man, Lucian begins a secret love affair with Viktor's daughter, Sonja.

When werewolves attack Sonja in the forest, Lucian removes his slave collar to save her and changes into a large lycan, but in so doing transgresses the laws of the vampire coven. Viktor condemns him. But with Sonja’s help and that of Viktor's devious steward, Tanis (Steven Mackintosh), Lucian escapes and frees other lycans with him.

In a powerful scene between Viktor and Sonja, Viktor discovers his daughter’s forbidden relationship with Lucian. Lucian returns to save her, but is caught. Sonja proclaims she is pregnant with Lucian’s child. She and Lucian are condemned to death. Sonja is exposed to sunlight as Lucian is forced to watch. At night, Lucian overpowers Viktor and escapes to the castle walls, were he summons all Lycans to attack the coven. All the vampires in the castle are killed. Lucian and Viktor engage in a battle Lucian eventually wins. But Viktor is not completely defeated. He escapes, with Tanis, to a ship and enters a sleeping chamber. And so begins the war between Vampires and Lycans.

Some would argue that Lucian, and his rise, as the leader of the lycans and the origins of the vampire/lycan war is the central theme of the film. But Sonja’s disloyalty to her father’s will and betrayal of her race by having an affair with Lucian, a lycan and a slave, is echoed in Underworld and Underworld: Evolutions. The theme of familial loyalty, forbidden love and tribal allegiance are the underpinning themes in Underworld. Selene in Underworld 1 (Kate Beckinsale), Viktor’s stepdaughter, disobeys him and falls in love with Michael, a direct descendant of the pure blood lycan progenitor, William. She eventually kills Viktor when she discovers that he murdered her family and saved her only because of her resemblance to Sonja. In Underworld: Evolutions, the bond of brotherhood is explored as Marcus, (the Dracula of Underworld) ceases at nothing to free his brother and lycan, William. Paternal disappointment and shame is again revisited as Corvinus, the father of Marcus and William, is finally convinced by Selene to kill his sons for the betterment of humanity. So in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, the two central themes running through all three films, love and betrayal, are held responsible as the fateful catalysts for the conflict between vampires and lycans.

This prequel makes it enjoyable to go back and watch Underworld and Underworld: Evolutions by giving the historical accounts in each previous film more weight and significance. This might sound obvious, but if you watch Star Wars episodes 1, 2 and 3 you will understand where prequels can go so very wrong. Fortunately, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans succeeds in its task.

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The Hangover

2009-06-01T01:27:00.000-07:00

Directed By: Todd Phillips

In what seems like the mature, adult version of "Dude, Where's My Car?", The Hangover seems like a movie that must have been pitched around Hollywood since Frank Sinatra was playing at the Sands. "So there's these three guys right. They go to Vegas to throw a bachelor party for their friend, but get so drunk and "wild" they lose him and must spend the next day piecing together where the groom-to-be is and what crazy things happened to them on their night out on the town." Well, that's the pitch. And that's the movie. The problem, other than the plot, is that there is no proven comedic talent in this film except Ed Helms (Andy Bernard in The Office). But the cameo from Mike Tyson should contribute some extra laughs. Phillips is a veteran at these films though, having directed Road Trip, Old School, and Starsky and Hutch. So you could probably assume there are at least a couple of extra funny skits in the film that aren't in the trailer.

Note: Phillips will direct Old School Dos, the sequel to the cult classic Old School. Slated for 2011.

Opens June 5th (Canada, USA)

Year One

2009-06-01T00:55:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Harold Ramis

I would usually pass on just another Jack Black comedy. Let's face it, if we want to entertain ourselves with twisted eyebrows and jumping yells, we could stay home and stare at mirror. The only hope I have for this movie is the director, Harold Ramis (who co-wrote the screenplay as well). If audiences are going to continue to pay money for Black's films, he needs to keep working with veterans like Ramis who know how to use his talents and keep him on a "comedic leash."

Opens June 19th (USA)

The Land of the Lost

2009-06-01T00:13:00.001-07:00

Directed by: Brad Silberling

Summer just wouldn't be complete without a Will Ferrell comedy. But from what I've seen, this promises not to be a Ferrell vehicle like Step Brothers or Talladega Nights. I'm always wary when comedians like Ferrell step outside themselves and play a "character" in a big-budget flic. They forget the fundamental reason why people like their movies: we like watching Will Ferrell be Will Ferrell, not for his acting chops. Adam Sandler is another actor from SNL who comes to mind that has never regained his early glory of films Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore after stepping out to "stretch" as an actor. I only hope writers Chris Henchy (former Co-executive producer on Entourage) and Dennis McNicholas (former SNL writer) will keep the film in the same vain as the comedies that have made Ferrell a star.

Opens June 5th (USA)

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