New on DVD
Where the Wild Things Are
Rated PG for mild thematic elements, some adventure and brief language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Based on Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book, Wild Things follows a rebellious young boy named Max as he runs away from home and finds himself on an island filled with dangerous monsters that befriend him. Director Spike Jonze (Adaptation) unleashes all of his creative prowess in this live-action fantasy that is at times weird, but always interesting. Artistically, it is one of the most intriguing films of 2009, full of imagination and eye-popping wonder. At times, though, it gets a little repetitive, but forgivably so. I’m not so sure this is a film for young kids, but rather older kids, teenagers and even college students will probably love it. A-
2012
Rated PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and some language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
The Earth as we know it is coming to an end, as predicted by the Mayan calendar, and only a few people know it. One of those people is John Cusack and he must rescue his kids and ex-wife before and bring them to safety before they are taken down with the rest of the planet. Story-wise, this isn’t the greatest film ever made. The escapes are very repetitive with each successive plane take-off barely making it and way too many close calls. Also, logic issues abound which will leave you scratching your head throughout. That being said, the special effects are what folks are most interested in here and they are spectacular and plentiful, even if they don’t make much sense all the time. If you really want to add some gravity to the silliness, wait till The Road comes out and watch the films back to back, pretending the latter is the sequel. C
Ponyo
Rated G
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Master animator Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) tells the tale of a five-year-old boy that befriends a goldfish princess, who is the escaped daughter of great wizard and a sea goddess. If you’ve seen any of his other films, you know that his storytelling is as eccentric as his animation style. This story, inspired by The Little Mermaid, is for the most part mesmerizing, but at the same time really, really strange. Dubbed into English from it’s original Japanese with a host of great voice talent such as Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, and Matt Damon, the film is very accessible for all ages. Kids just need their imagination. Adults might need a few drinks. B-
Shutter Island
Shutter Island
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, and Ben Kingsley
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Rated R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity
Appropriate for ages 17+
In 1954, U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels travels to a hospital for the criminally insane on the very remote Shutter Island to search for a missing inmate. When he finds the staff there to be less than cooperative, he attempts to investigate without their help, until he discovers that they might have lured him there to the island for some other sinister purpose.
There are so many things to like about this movie that it’s hard to pick where to start. I think the obvious first praise has to go to DiCaprio and the rest of the magnificent cast for their performances. This film gathered some of the top talent in Hollywood, which really does make a huge difference with such challenging material.
And then there is the craftsmanship of Scorsese who is really stretching out with this picture that looks and feels more like a modern-day Hitchcock or Kubrick picture than something he is capable of making this well. At times it gives the real sense of a horror film, but at heart it is a psychological thriller that really plays with your head. Scorsese’s touch is straight forward in the real world and fantastical with the dream sequences and when the two begin to become entangled, the movie really pulls you in and doesn’t release.
Most importantly here is the story by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River), with screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis. With so many films of late trying to fool you, you kind of know when you’re up against one that isn’t on the level. I have been trying to figure this one out since I saw the trailer, and although I kept guessing till the end, I was blown away, so much so that I can’t wait to see it again, just to see where I missed the clues. My suggestion – just enjoy the bumpy ride and don’t get your brain all worked up trying to guess what it’s all about. A
New on DVD
New on DVD
The Informant!
Rated R for language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Matt Damon gives a highly underrated performance in this hilarious based-on-a-true-story comedy about an executive in the agriculture business that turns informant to the FBI, only to find himself getting himself into hotter and hotter water. Screenwriter Scott Burns took a semi-serious book by Kurt Eichenwald and, through a random-thought inner dialog spoken by Damon, brought out a dimension of the film that made the movie a purely enjoyable experience. Masterfully directed by Stephen Soderbergh, the film is well paced and keeps throwing you surprises left and right. And after all the dust has settled and I’ve seen all of the films for 2009, I am still holding tight that Damon not only deserved to be nominated for an Oscar this year for The Informant! (which he did not), but he should have won as well. A
Dead Snow
Unrated
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Norwegian with English subtitles
A group of Norwegian medical students heads to a remote cabin in the woods for a winter holiday only to find that the area is haunted by Nazi zombies. Unlike 2008’s Outpost starring Rome’s Ray Stevenson, Dead Snow chooses to have a little more fun with the story and creates a tale with almost as much comedy as gory violence. While this is an IFC release, this is not smart film making in the least, but it can be described as an innovative and peculiar way to represent the zombie genre, with loads of laughs and I-can’t-believe-they-just-did-that moments. I can easily see this becoming a big cult classic around colleges nationwide. B-
Lock n’ Load with R. Lee Ermey: The Complete Season One
Unrated
Available on DVD
Gunnery Sergeant, drill instructor, Vietnam veteran, and larger-than-life actor R. Lee Ermey (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) shows us 4 DVDs worth of weapons, from pistols to tanks to rockets, in this addictive little History Channel original program. Beginning with the origins of each weapon of discussion, he takes the audience on a journey of discovery of how the weapons evolved, the impact they have had, and through advanced high-speed photography and 3D graphics, he shows the details you’ve always wanted to know but were afraid to ask. B-
Everybody’s Fine
Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and brief strong language
Available on DVD
Robert De Niro is a widowed father that wants to see his kids again, so he takes a trip on a bus to see his adult children, one-by-one, all over the United States, only to find that the surprise visits are challenging for the startled hosts. You’d think that with a title like this and the smiles on the DVD cover, that this might be a boring, feel-good film. Well if you did, you thought wrong. This is a tough, challenging film about a lonely man coping with family issues that you could never see coming. I really liked the direction this film took and even though you watch it not being prepared for the dark places it takes you, it gets you out just fine and rewards your patience. The cast is strong here, but De Niro is especially at his best, giving an emotionally impactful performance that is a far cry from his usual fare. A-
The Wolfman
The Wolfman
Starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt
Directed by Joe Johnston (Hidalgo)
Rated R for bloody horror violence and gore
Appropriate for ages 17+
Stage actor Lawrence Talbot (Del Toro) returns to his ancestral home land upon hearing that his brother was murdered. While out looking for the murderer, he is bitten, and subsequently cursed by, a werewolf. Desperate to protect his brother’s fiance (Blunt) and haunted by his family’s past, Lawrence finds himself a danger to both himself and everyone around him once the full moon appears.
Just like the duality of the Wolfman himself, there is a wild and crazy fun part to this movie and a serious, dull, lifeless partition as well. When it’s scary it you are truly on edge. The attacks are fast and furious and full of realism. The special effects and sound mixing are both crazy good which makes the film even more frightening when it needs to be. Hopkins makes for an excellent wild card character, although too much of the story is given away in the trailer that should have been left for the film. Some will find the violence to be a little too much for them and I strongly advise the squeamish not to attend this one.
But then there are the moments when he is human and those are the times when you just want to take a restroom or refreshment break. There is an attempt by the filmmakers to make it seem like the movie is moving in fast forward, but not even that is overly helpful. Maybe the boredom comes because we are so used to the goings on in a film such as this. After all, the story here is not exactly breaking new ground as we have seen it over and over and over again. It’s hard to make a remake of the original Wolfman and freshen it up by just adding modern special effects and production values. Now granted, the story here is slightly slanted from the original 1941 tale, but the conventions are largely the same.
Production-wise, the look and feel of the film are pretty terrific. The cinematography by Shelly Johnson (Hidalgo), and the score by composer Danny Elfman (Spiderman) give the movie a wonderfully eerie ambiance that the film will probably be best known for years from now. B-
New on DVD
New on DVD
Black Dynamite
Rated R for sexuality/nudity, language, some violence and drug content
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
This parody of 1970 blaxploitation films stars Michael Jai White as Black Dynamite, an ex-CIA operative that seeks revenge for his brother’s death when he is killed working undercover on a drug sting. Unlike other, more expensively produced parodies such as Undercover Brother and I’m Gonna Get You Sucka, Dynamite has fun reproducing the actual look and feel of the original genre with a premise that is too ridiculous to be believed. Microphones getting in the way of shots, stunts going wrong and remaining in the film, bad acting, worse writing, and all of the whacked out racial stereotypes abound in this low-budget production. This is not only one of the most clever films of the last year, but one of the funniest as well. Some of the scenes had me in absolute stitches and forced me to rewind due to laughing over some of the dialogue. While the ending is completely over the top, I still found it very enjoyable and refreshing. Also, this film allowed me to finally forgive Michael Jai White for that atrocious performance in The Dark Knight. A-
Coco Before Chanel
Rated PG-13 for sexual content and smoking
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Before she launched a fashion empire, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel started from humble beginnings and this story follows her rise to the top, but not further. Audrey Tautou (Amelie) stars as the iconic designer whose complicated romantic affairs allowed her to do what she ended up being most famous for. The film is a little slow, but even though I’m not the most fascinated by the fashion world, I still found myself very interested. The performances were all very good, as is to be expected from a cast including one of the world’s most extraordinary actresses. The production here is phenomenal with stunning cinematography and an exquisite musical score by Oscar-nominated composer Alexandre Desplat (Julie and Julia). Story-wise, the film chose fiction over fact in many facets of her life in order to tighten the script, but this is forgivable as long as you understand that movies sometimes bend the truth to shape what works best for the script. B+
Spirit Camp
Unrated but contains sexuality/nudity, graphic violence, and language
Available on DVD
Local filmmaker Kerry Beyer writes, directs, and stars in this low-budget indie horror flick filmed in Houston and just outside Cleveland, TX. This cross between cheerleader and slasher-camp genres follows a group of beautiful young cheerleaders as they head to cheerleader camp deep in the woods. The film delivers exactly what you expect: young cheerleaders, lots of violence, all with a B-movie look and feel. With any luck, Houston might have itself a budding horror film star in Kerry. Available right now only on www.spiritcampmovie.com.
Creation
Creation
Starring Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, and Jeremy Northam
Directed by Jon Amiel (The Core)
Rated PG-13 for some intense thematic material
Opens at the Angelika Film Center on February 12
Appropriate for ages 15+
Creation tells the story of Charles Darwin and how he came to publish The Origin of Species, the book that introduced to the world the theory of evolution. Haunted by the death of his daughter, pressured by a very religious wife that doesn’t wish for him to publish, and tortured by the thought of how God might judge him should he complete his work, Darwin pushes on like a confused and tormented soul.
The life of Charles Darwin is a very interesting one, especially told with some of these elements present here. The dilemma is that the way this picture is put together is so melodramatic, confusing, and poorly paced that it takes away from the elements of the story that work so well. I’m sure Darwin’s life was was tough, but this film shows it to be nothing short of devastating and depressing. And the storytelling is so hard to follow at times, going back and forth between past, present, and scenes involving he and his dead daughter, that you leave exhausted just thinking about it. Trying to be clever or innovative certainly did not pay off in this case.
What I did like about the story is Darwin’s guilt over what kind of revolution he may set off with his book. In modern-day we often see Darwin as the father of atheism and that is simply not true. I remember arguing with my Zoology professor in college with my highlighted copy of Origins that Darwin, while not exactly a preacher, showed evidence of a belief pattern that was far from negating the existence of God. This movie represents forces in his life pushing him in that direction, but a real dread of that conviction.
As far as Darwin as a naturalist, I much prefer to think of him as Bettany did in his role as the Galapagos visiting doctor in Master and Commander to this more historically correct figure, if it is indeed more correct. C+
New on DVD
New on DVD
A Serious Man
Rated R for language, some sexuality/nudity, and brief violence
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
This low budget dark comedy by the Coen brothers (No Country For Old Men) follows a 1960’s Midwestern professor whose life is falling apart around him. His wife wants to leave him and expects him to be very OK with the proposition. His money problems are mounting up on him. He has a student attempting to blackmail him when he doesn’t accept a bribe. His son is a pothead who even gets stoned on the day of his Bat Mitzvah. His loser brother spends all of his time in their only bathroom, which puts a huge strain on their entire family. There are some that think that this is a retelling of the book of Job from the Bible. Others have even more detailed observances of the meanings of each of the picture’s little quirks. The message boards are a blast to read with everyone having different insights and they are all correct in their own heads. All I know is that I enjoyed it thoroughly. The Coen brothers have such a unique filmmaking and storytelling style and this one is prime proof. Watching the making of documentary, it doesn’t appear that the brothers had such deep thoughts as the folks in the audience, but regardless, it’s a clever, funny, ridiculous adventure that is very worthy of its Oscar nom for best picture this year. I strongly advise to catch the short feature Hebrew and Yiddish for Goys which will teach you what you need to know to translate the film correctly. A
Couples Retreat
Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, and Jason Bateman lead an all star cast of four couples that are tricked into going to Bora Bora for what they think will be a vacation, but in reality turns out to be couples therapy. There is so much talent here that I am perplexed how this got to be such a mediocre film. These guys all know comedy well. They all have great timing. Favreau and Vaughn have proven their writing skills in the past. So maybe the beauty of Bora Bora was just too much for them? There were a few decent one-liners that got through and the pro-marriage message was admirable, but why did it have to be so absolutely stupid and overall unfunny? C-
Amelia
Rated PG for some sensuality, language, thematic elements and smoking
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Hillary Swank is Amelia Earhart, the legendary female pilot that disappeared somewhere in the Pacific Ocean as she attempted fly around the world. While it’s an overly long, horribly paced, and extremely boring look at the icon, Swank plays the part well and I like the history lesson, though I wish it were a little more exciting or at least interesting. Great cinematography and a lush musical score are the highlights of the film, but can’t overcome the poor directing by Mira Nair, who should have been less concerned with making an epic and more concerned with telling a decent story. C-
Dare
Rated R for sexual content, language, and alcohol use – all involving teens
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Emmy Rossum is a do-no-wrong high schooler that wants to be an actress. When an actor she respects tells her that she has to actually live more uncomfortably to be a great actress, she starts having sex, partying, and doing things that go against the way she was raised. The film takes some turns that don’t really make a lot of sense, like her moving in with her gay male friend when her parents feel she is acting up too much. But that being said, I think some parents might like to watch just due to the fact that it’s a pretty real look at what kinds of messes kids get into when parents aren’t around. Some might find the homosexual sex scenes very uncomfortable, but I’m convinced that there’s a touch of realism here pertinent to what kids are pressured with today. B-
Edge of Darkness
Edge of Darkness
Starring Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, and Danny Huston
Directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale)
Rated R for strong bloody violence and language
Appropriate for ages 17+
After an eight-year hiatus, Mel Gibson returns to acting as a Boston cop whose daughter is brutally killed in front of him. While the world thinks he was the target of the deadly crime, he sets off an investigation to discover who might want his daughter dead and the answers lead him to an unimaginable conclusion.
I have to admit, this film surprised me. I felt that the trailers sold it as an R-rated version of Taken, with Mel getting his vengeance on a plethora of baddies in heinous ways for what they did to his daughter. This film is far from that. Don’t get me wrong, it has its share of Mel committing violence, but the movie is not about violence, which is how it’s being sold. Mel is simply a father that wants to know the truth and he finds out too much. The theme is stated very shortly after his daughter’s death as he is pouring her ashes into the ocean telling her “I’ll be with you shortly honey.” He’s a man that now has nothing to lose and knows that the direction he is going only has one destination.
But the movie turns out to be even more than that. With a subplot involving a secret agent (Winstone) the movie turns out to deliver a sharp, resounding message about our political system, special interests, and the potential of America. It’s a deeper and more thought-provoking film than I could have expected or imagined.
The acting for the most part is pretty solid, although Mel’s accent is thick Bostonian in some scenes and not so much in others. Also, the film is far from boring, but the film does lag in spots. Then again, like a rocket taking off, there are some moments that had my heart racing seconds later as well. A-
New on DVD
New on DVD
Whip It
Rated PG-13 for sexual content including crude dialogue, language and drug material
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Drew Barrymore makes her directorial debut in this feel good sports comedy about a young girl, played expertly by Juno’s Ellen Page, who decides to end her mother’s dream of becoming a beauty queen in small town Texas, in order to make it big in Austin’s roller derby scene. While completely predictable, the film is very charming, funny and extremely well-acted by the very talented cast including Barrymore, Marcia Gay Harden, Daniel Stern, and SNL’s Kristen Wiig. And capturing some of the quirkiness of both small town Texas as well as Austin, the film will be pleasantly familiar to most folks reading this column. A-
The House of the Devil
Rated R for some bloody violence
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Set in the early 80’s in both time and style, this indie horror pic follows a young college girl who thinks she is being hired to be a babysitter, only to find out that a Satanic cult has other plans for her. There’s not a lot of jump out and scare you moments, but the suspense here is very frightening throughout as you just wait for something very bad to happen at any second. Writer/director Ti West had a little too much fun making the movie look like it was filmed 30 years ago, but had I not known in advance that the film was made this last year, I might have thought it was an authentic 80’s cult pic. B
New York, I Love You
Rated R for sexual content
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
One of the current trends in independent cinema right now is to take a breathtaking city and have some of the world’s greatest directors and actors tells their short stories within it in order to give a sense of the city from many directions and viewpoints. In 2006 we saw Paris, je taime, and now a few years later, New York, I Love You (Jerusalem and Rio are said to be next and who knows, maybe Houston will get one someday). This film follows many different love stories from directors such as Mira Nair (Amelia), Brett Ratner (Rush Hour), and even Natalie Portman tries her hand behind the camera. Actors include Bradley Cooper, Shia LaBeouf, Orlando Bloom, and a full assortment of other A-list actors wanting to get in on the game. It’s very artsy, but the different slices of New York life come together in a fascinating way that make the film fairly entertaining. Some of the stories were a bit too weird to fit into this film, but I loved the overall feel and energy. B-