fredag 30 mars 2012

Wrath of the Titans

Bill GibronBill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.

Wrath of the Titans is the worst kind of creative hodgepodge. It's all ramped up action and CGI and very little mythology or meaning. Cherry-picking through the ancient fables for footnotes to free associate off of, this unwarranted sequel to the remake no one demanded drains all the life out of its already whisper-thin characters to provide a jumping off point for otherwise stunning set-pieces. Want to see Zeus (Liam Neeson) battle his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) in a lava-drenched underworld? No problem. Need to see the hero Perseus (Sam Worthington) maneuver through a complex maze where clockwork walls and floors interconnect with F/X precision? You got it. Want to feel anything or care about what's going on?  Well...

It's been ten years since the Kraken was defeated and Perseus has been trying to avoid his famous reputation by living as a humble fisherman. A widower, he is raising his son Helius (John Bell) to ignore the gods and avoid the sword. Meanwhile, the battle rages on for control of the ethereal world. Hades makes a pact with Aries (Edgar Ramirez) to capture Zeus and use the last remaining vestiges of his powers to resurrect their father Kronos, King of the Titans. Trapped in Tartarus, a vast underground prison, the evil entity plans on literally bringing Hell to Earth. Forming an alliance between Poseidon's (Danny Huston) son Agenor (Toby Kebbell) and Queen Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Perseus vows to rescue Zeus and stop Hades once and for all.

Like an epic poem gone rancid, Wrath of the Titans is all flash and no substance. It creates a clunky, clothesline narrative with a wholly simplistic goal and then hangs a bunch of inventive if rather superficial action elements onto it. Director Jonathan Liebesman has been down this creative path before, using the intriguing premise for Battle: Los Angeles and turning it into an awkward quest with some inspired scenes tossed into the mix. There's no background or depth. Perseus is shown trying to maintain a low profile, and then before you know it, a two-headed fire breathing dog shows up to destroy his village. From there, it's visits from the Gods, a scrape with a Cyclops clan, and a random appearance by Bill Nighy (as the weapons master to Olympus).

You can see just how unnecessary it all is by the looks on everyone's face. Worthington, now juggling more than a few franchises, clearly has little faith in this material. He sleepwalks through his bloodied and battered iconography. Similarly, Neeson and Fiennes are so busy maintaining the bottom line of their bank balance sheet that they forget to act. Kebbell, usually a spirited performer, is laden with lousy jokes that few will find funny. Pike looks pretty, but is given very little to do. Only Ramirez tries to rally any support out of the situation, imagining his mandatory villain's role as something akin to Shakespeare. Of course, since Liebesman is preoccupied with all the visual sturm and drang, the attempted dramatics disintegrate.

In truth, Wrath of the Titans is the emptiest of eye candies. It may provide some slight satisfaction, but the overall experience is vacant and derivative. By the time the conjoined demons descend on Andromeda's troops, their whirly-gig attack style resembling a blur with blades, we want either a payoff or a point. In response, the storyline merely substitutes more sword and sorcery leftovers before repeating the previous finale and then quietly walking away.  If all you want is empty calories, Wrath of the Titans is perfect cinematic fast food. It will fill you up without leaving a lasting impression.


View the original article here

Turn Me On, Dammit!

Turn Me On, Dammit! - Filmcritic.com Movie Review Filmcritic.com RSS Twitter Facebook filmsite.org The Greatest Films 100 Greatest Films Greatest Quotes The Oscars Most Controversial Films amctv.com Story Matters Here AMC Movie Guide AMC News Games & Quizzes In Theaters New Reviews: Wrath of the Titans Mirror Mirror (2012) The Island President Turn Me On, Dammit! Womb The Hunger Games October Baby Brake The Trouble With Bliss The Deep Blue Sea (2012) The Raid: Redemption 4:44 Last Day on Earth 21 Jump Street Casa de mi Padre Jeff, Who Lives at Home Salmon Fishing in the Yemen See All In Theaters Reviews

New On DVD New Reviews: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)Alvin and the Chipmunks: ChipwreckedA Dangerous MethodIn the Land of Blood and HoneyCorman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood RebelEl Bulli: Cooking in ProgressThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyThe MuppetsCarnage (2011)The SitterHopLouder Than a BombRoadieA Lonely Place to DieThe Yellow Sea See All New On DVD Reviews

Top Rated By the filmcritic critics By the filmcritic community Columns & Features Recent Stories 5 Lessons from the Hit "Hunger Games" and the Flop "John Carter" The Best Comic Book Movie Trailers of All Time What "The Hunger Games" Owes to Milla Jovovich, Kate Beckinsale, and Sigourney Weaver How YA like "The Hunger Games" Came to Rule Fantasy and Scifi Films Top Movie Columns John Scalzi on ScifiNick Nadel on Comic Book MoviesThelma Adams on Reel WomenSridhar Pappu on Sports FlicksMovie Mix TapeTop Ten See All Columns & Features

Trailers & Video Coming to Theaters In Theaters New on DVD Trailers by Genre Trailers by Decade In Theaters Turn Me On, Dammit! Reviewed by Chris Cabin on Mar 29 2012 Turn Me On, Dammit! Rated by critic: Rated by users: Rated by you: Chris Cabin Chris Cabin Beloved by Ebert. full bio of Chris Cabin

From its opening scene of a teenaged girl furiously masturbating on her kitchen floor while a phone sex operator grunts and spins debauched wet dreams to her, Jannicke Systad Jacobsen's Turn Me On, Dammit! certainly grabs your attention. Restrained both mentally and physically by the small-town environs of Skoddeheimen, her hometown in Norway, the teenaged girl in question, Alma (an effective Helene Bergsholm), is in desperate need for a proper fuck, and whom it comes from seems only a minor matter.

What she hopes is for local hunk Artur (Matias Myren) to take her into the forest for some intense hump session, or at least split a spliff with her after making love in her room. But she's also not against fondling and going down on her best friend's bitchy sister, Ingrid (Beate Stofring), or entertaining a back-room rendezvous with the boss at the local supermarket. All options, however, seem to be null and void when Artur exposes himself and presses his erection against her leg at a party, an incident that sparks a he-said-she-said debate in school that pins Alma as hyper-sexual psychotic.

The key reversal of a young woman, curious about sex and hungry for intimacy, seeking out the end of her virginity, without the ritualism of a prom or a wedding or an anniversary, is refreshing and, for at least the film's first half, allows for some lively, unpredictably funny moments. Jacobsen, who also wrote the film's script, knows her way around comedy of embarrassment and Bergsholm infuses these scenes with a teen's unmistakable eagerness to at least seem normal.

That the film tampers down these events, such as when poor Alma is caught attempting to get herself off with a roll of quarters at work, and lacks a full-bodied portrayal of high-school politics and community are perhaps the chief faults that make Turn Me On, Dammit! feel more scattershot than fluid. Despite the fact that Alma is obviously the main character -- her ruthless alienation is the film's unconvincing dramatic touchstone -- Jacobsen haphazardly follows the separate goings-ons of her best friend, Saralou (Malin Bjorhovde), who is obsessed with moving to America to abolish the death penalty.

The attitude and the premise are sound and constitute a welcome divergence from largely misogynist, empty and deeply unfunny comedies that make hash of young men sticking their dicks into something, anything. But then, Jacobsen falls into similar traps as those comedies, even if they resonate as more of a problem of storytelling than sexual politics. Artur is as heinously underdeveloped as Shannon Elizabeth's Nadia in American Pie, which might have been interesting if Jacobsen focused more on his physical prowess, a key into what exactly drives Alma's hunger for him.

Even Alma's mother, played by Henriette Steenstrup, is written as little more than a flummoxed guardian, and we certainly don't come to understand any bond between her and Alma. Indeed, despite the film's bold premise, there is a familiar ring to the fact that Alma finds refuge with Saralou and Ingrid's older collegiate sister, Maria (Julia Bache-Wiig), and fits right into Maria's parlor of friends; there's even a brief flirtation with a college boy. Ultimately, the film is only partially interested in young feminine lust, an incredibly untapped reservoir for humor, insight and emotional turmoil, and ends with an act of wish fulfillment that feels perfunctory. The film essentially works as an It Gets Better promo for white, rural, heterosexual girls, as quirky and nifty as it is aimless and soft.               
Tweet Comments: Newest Oldest Most Replies Most Liked
About This Film from the AMC Movie Guide Don't Miss Mirror Mirror (2012) by Bill Gibron The Island President by Chris Barsanti Womb by Chris Cabin The Hunger Games by Bill Gibron More from AMC Sites AMC Blogs AMC Movie Guide Filmsite Prove You're a Real Maddict With the Mad Men Ultimate Fan Game The Mad Men Fashion File - We Need to Talk About Megan Story Notes for Die Hard With a Vengeance Now on Android, iPhone and iPad - Mad Men Season 5 Premiere Episode 1960s Handbook - Office of Economic Opportunity

Go to AMC Blogs at AMCTV.com

Quintessential Movies of the 1960sFavorite Movies 1960sBuddy Cop Movies

Go to AMC Movie Guide on AMCTV.com

The Best or Greatest Film Scenes Greatest Film Lines and Movie Quotes Academy Awards® - The Oscars 100 Greatest Films

Go to Filmsite.org

Filmcritic.com Home In Theaters New on DVD Top Rated Columns & Features Trailers & Video Sitemap Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions Contact Advertising & Syndication RSS AMCtv.com filmsite.org Copyright 2012 American Movie Classics Company LLC. All rights reserved.

Some movie data from: Freebase, licensed under CC-BY
Some additional movie data from Wikipedia, licensed under the GFDL

Rainbow Media AMC IFC Sundance Channel WE tv IFC Entertainment

View the original article here

The Island President

Chris BarsantiChris Barsanti has been a Filmcritic reviewer since 2002. So there.

What just might be the scariest movie of the year doesn't feature skyscraper-crushing robots or species-annihilating bacteria. The setting of Jon Shenk's documentary The Island President is the tranquil and paradise-like island nation of the Maldives. The star, Mohamed Nasheed, is a perky rights activist-turned crusading environmental politician. The villains are China, India, the United States; indeed, most of the nations of the world. The threat is rising sea levels that are already grinding away at the Maldives' coastlines and will, within a matter of decades, drown the nation entirely. As Nasheed points out during a press interview in New York, his nation is just the canary in the coal mine: "Manhattan is as low as the Maldives."

Shenk's film doesn't waste time trying to create a nuanced portrait of its subject, and it's easy to see why. The environmental movement has rarely had a true broad-appeal hero. Normally its spokespeople are academics with a limited audience or celebrities who make up for in passion what they lack in ability to actually effect change. For all that his nation lacks in people and power (400,000 people scattered over some 1200 islands), Nasheed makes up for it in indomitable drive, a curiously endearing brand of angry optimisim, and a willingness to do whatever it takes (including a photo-op "cabinet meeting" held on the ocean floor with all the ministers in scuba gear). Every cause should have somebody like him leading the charge.

Nasheed's passion, as shown in Shenk's intimate and admiring film, would be remarkable in most individuals, not least somebody like himself who spent several years imprisoned for his democracy activism, which included a long stint in solitary confinement and two bouts of torture, under the three-decade rule of the dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Making his story more incredible is that after returning from exile, Nasheed helped pressure Gayoom to hold elections and was then elected as president in November 2008. By March of the following year he had already pledged that the Maldives would be completely carbon-neutral in just ten years. As one of the only developing world leaders not to take the stance that carbon emissions control needs to be handled by the developed world, Nasheed occupies a unique place in the world body politic. So the film's climactic sequence finds him in December 2009 shuttling between rival factions of the nearly 200 nations gathered at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, a needling and indefagitable champion of the need to do something to keep carbon emissions low enough to keep the Maldives from drowning.  There are times when The Island President suffers from its over-attention to Nasheed. Shenk has worked as a cinematographer before, which is no surprise once you see the eye-popping crystal-blue imagery he conjures up here of this impossibly fragile archipelago. A mix of moody Radiohead tracks backgrounds the otherworldly scenery and adds to the science-fiction feel of this paradise threatened by apocalypse. But by focusing so narrowly on Nasheed's environmental cause, the film ignores nearly every other aspect of his rule. For viewers who know nothing else about Nasheed but this film's one-note portrait, they'll be surprised to discover that he was forced to leave office in February 2012 after a rumored coup attempt. Even without that news, though, The Island President is much like its subject: hopeful but frustrated. As much as Nasheed believes that he and those who understand the threat are on the side of the angels, he also knows -- as he states in a righteously despondent speech to the United Nations -- that, "deep down, we know that you're not really listening." The happy warrior knows that papers might be signed and talks given, but the carbon level in the atmosphere keeps rising, as does the ocean around his beautiful, doomed home.

View the original article here

Mirror Mirror (2012)

Bill GibronBill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.

If it didn't have the visionary Tarsem (now going under his full name 'Tarsem Singh Dhandwar') sitting in the director's chair, one could easily see Mirror Mirror coming out of the Shawn Levy school of cinematic slights. It's the odd combination of outright pandering and artistic reach that seems to brainwash audiences into thinking they've seen something significant, when the truth is far more limited. And yet, the man who made The Cell, The Fall, and last year's 300 knock-off Immortals, brings a real sense of style and wit to this post-modern fractured fairytale. As usual, the costumes and sets are stunning. The real surprise, however, is the sly self-referential tone that never takes itself too seriously, leaving the viewer capable of laughing at the lovely ludicrousness of it all.

Having taxed her kingdom back to the Stone Age, evil Queen Clementianna (Julia Roberts) worries that she will no longer be able to live the life of luxury her ego demands. Setting her sights on wealth via marriage, she spurns the advances of the aging Baron (Michael Lerner) and latches onto the latest arrival in her depressed domain -- hunky Prince Andrew Alcott (Armie Hammer). Of course, there's a complication: the 18 year old daughter of her late husband, the King -- Snow White (Lily Collins).

The minute the arriving royal sees her, he is smitten. So the Queen contacts a plan to have Snow taken out into the woods and killed. Luckily, she is saved by seven thieving dwarves: Butcher (Martin Klebba), Wolf (Sebastian Saraceno), Chuckles (Ronald Lee Clark), Napoleon (Jordan Prentice), Half-Pint (Mark Povinelli), Grub (Joe Gnoffo), and Grimm (Danny Woodburn). Together, they decide to overthrow the wicked woman and win over the Prince. Unfortunately, Her Hideous Highness has some dark magic up her sleeve. She won't give up her position, or her youth, quite so easily.

Avoiding cliche while embracing the new millennial approach to obvious irony, Mirror Mirror is an overly cute commercial confection. It's like watching a pre-teen girl's glitter sticker-filled wish book come to life. In the hands of Tarsem, who never met a backdrop he couldn't complicate with couture, the results play like the bastard brainchild of a Terry Gilliam/Jean-Paul Gaultier collaboration. Half the time we keep waiting for the ex-pat Python's humor to come oozing through. Instead, we get jokes at the expense of the material and its mannered truisms, but that's about it. The rest of the time, we marvel at the creative casting (Nathan Lane as a bootlick lackey, Mare Winningham as a kitchen servant) and the quasi-inventive takes on the narrative.

The best bit remains the seven little men themselves, each one given a decent amount of depth and a clear character note to differentiate them from the others. Their current occupation -- highway robbers -- is a relief from the "Hi-Ho" hokum of jewel miners and their grubby personas are a nice contrast to the sugar-spun frills of the rest of the storyline. For their part, the actors addressing the undersized scenarios are uniformly excellent, while the leads lend a certain level of legitimacy. Oddly enough, Hammer has the least to do, while Collins and Roberts battle back and forth in cool cattiness.

Granted, the movie can't maintain its mannered quirkiness for the entire running time and many of the jokes fall flatter than Tarsem's way with human emotion, but there is still enough here to enjoy without feeling horribly guilty about it. Later this year, Snow White will once again return to the big screen in a darker, more action oriented take on the classic kiddie story. Until then, this lighter, more lithe version of the yarn will leave you pleasantly surprised.


View the original article here

onsdag 28 mars 2012

5 Lessons from the Hit "Hunger Games" and the Flop "John Carter"

John ScalziJohn Scalzi is an award-winning science fiction writer.Hey, folks: sick of me talking about John Carter and The Hunger Games? Too bad! I'm going to talk about them again this week!

Why? Because the two of them are in fact perfect bookends of science fiction film success: On the one hand, you've got The Hunger Games, which racked up $150+ million in its opening weekend, becoming the biggest non-sequel film opening ever -- it's on track to earn its studio, Lionsgate, $300 million in profit when all is said and done. On the other hand you've got John Carter, which cost $250 million to make and has performed poorly enough that its studio, Disney, has already declared that it expects it will take a $200 million writedown on the film. That makes it officially one of the biggest flops in movie history.

Is there anything we can learn from the divergent paths of these two films? Here are a few things that occurred to me.


1. A Film That Flops Isn't Necessarily a Bad Film
I know quite a few science fiction writers and professionals, and many of them are flummoxed by how poorly John Carter was received; the general line among the scifi cognoscenti is that it's a fun adventure film that doesn't deserve the abuse it's gotten. And they're correct: John Carter is not the best science fiction film you'll ever see, but it's fun and enjoyable and worth catching on the big screen.

But in Hollywood -- and this has always been the case -- it's not just whether a movie is good. It's everything else around the movie as well: The marketing and gossip and even the reviews. John Carter wasn't a bad film, but neither was it good enough to get in front of everything else about it.

The flip side of this is the terrible movie that everything else makes a hit: See any Transformers film for this. The Hunger Games could have been lackluster as a film and still have done very well; fortunately for it, it's also generally considered a good film, which will extend its box office reach.

2. When Making a Literary Adaptation, It Helps if Audiences Are Familiar with the Source
To go back to my scifi professional friends, a lot of them knew about John Carter as a literary figure because they are generally fairly well steeped in the history of the science fiction genre; they can also tell you about Odd John and Gully Foyle and Lazarus Long, which are three other names from classic science fiction literature that will draw a complete blank in the general population. In a very interesting article on the failure of John Carter, New York magazine's Vulture column notes that John Carter director Andrew Stanton apparently believed John Carter was a household name. In the Stanton household and in the households of science fiction nerds? Yes. Everyone else's? Not so much.

Contrast this with The Hunger Games. The books have sold millions -- and more importantly, have sold millions in the last decade, so that even if folks in the audience hadn't read the books, they knew someone who had, and had loved them. This was the same advantage that the Harry Potter and Twilight series had going into film adaptations. Sales and familiarity alone are not enough to make a hit -- see the film of Cormac McCarthy's The Road as evidence of this -- but in terms of generating excitement for a film adaptation, it's better than not.

3. Know Who Your Audience Is (and Know How Big It Is)
The Hunger Games had an enviable core audience: teenagers, and specifically teenage girls. This is an enviable audience because it is already engaged with the story through the books, is highly motivated to talk about the film prior to the film's release, is liable to bring other people (parents, dates, friends) to the film, and is likely to see the film more than once. The film's PR team, knowing all of this, crafted its marketing message to whip up the potential audience to a fever pitch.

Who was the John Carter audience? It's a Disney film, so was it a family audience? It's a science fiction film, so is it a nerdy audience? It's an action film, so is it a male audience? None of the trailers and marketing of the film suggested that anyone involved with the film had much of an idea who the film was really for (or primarily for). Without that core marketing message, the public perception of it foundered.

4. Let Your Pros Do Their Work
Going back to the Vulture article, it's said that one of the problems John Carter had was that director Andrew Stanton had final say on marketing for the film, which led to a number of clashes with the Disney team. Stanton had final say because his financial track record with Pixar (he directed Finding Nemo and WALL-E, which between them made more than a billion dollars worldwide), but on the other hand John Carter was his first live-action film. In retrospect, he probably would have been better off listening to the people whose full-time job it is to sell movies to audiences. Especially when his film cost $250 million. Which brings up a final point ...

5. Budgets Still Count
John Carter: $250 million to make. The Hunger Games: $75 million. If the two films had swapped their first weekend box offices, they could have both been successful in the long run. Alas, that's not how it went. 

Those are some lessons; there are others. But now I'm out of space for the week.


View the original article here

The Best Comic Book Movie Trailers of All Time

Nick NadelNick Nadel is a comedy writer and blogger living in Brooklyn, NYWith the trailers for The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises pumping up audiences for this summer's crop of comic book movies, it's a good time to look back at some of the trailers from years past that had fans buzzing months in advance of a film's release.

While the movies didn't always live up to the hype, these trailers successfully pumped up fans through their brilliant mix of music, special effects, and unforgettable characters.


batman 1989.jpg OK, so maybe this isn't the flashiest trailer in motion picture history. (It doesn't even include much of the dramatic Danny Elfman music or peppy Prince songs featured on the soundtrack.) But when fans got their first look at the trailer with a grim and gritty Batman, they understandably went batty. From the use of a simple logo on movie posters to its mysterious, action-packed trailer, the promotion for Tim Burton's 1989 Batman forever changed how blockbuster movies are marketed. Place this trailer in the context of the mega-hype surrounding the first Batman movie, and you'll get an idea of the excitement that greeted the clips of the Batwing soaring through Gotham and Jack Nicholson's Joker wondering where Batman gets his "wonderful toys." 

To fully appreciate the impact this trailer had, you have to put yourself  in the mindset of comic book fans in 1994. Outside of the Tim Burton Batman movies, we didn't have much in the way of comic book flicks, let alone one which featured a violent, gothic sensibility. (Alec Baldwin as The Shadow doesn't count.) The Crow's mix of superhero revenge story and tragic romance was a game-changer,  and the trailer showcased both the movie's stark production design and the late Brandon Lee's brilliantly haunting performance. Also, if you want to know what 1994 was like, take a gander at the TV spots which prominently featured a Stone Temple Pilots song from the movie's hit alternative rock soundtrack. Spiderman-Kiss.jpg Now that the trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man has fans fired up about mechanical web=shooters and what the Lizard looks like, it's interesting to remember the 2002 trailer that introduced the world to Peter Parker. It's a bit forgotten now, but the first teaser trailer for Spider-Man was actually a mini-movie that featured a bank heist and Spidey dangling a helicopter on his web that was affixed between the Twin Towers. (Sony pulled the teaser following the September 11 attacks.) But it was the full-length trailer -- which introduced Peter, Mary Jane, and Green Goblin and featured the iconic upside-down kiss -- that really showed fans that Spider-Man could swing on the big screen. While The Amazing Spider-Man looks fun, it's hard to top the excitement of that first trailer. x2.jpg While X-Men kicked off the golden age of Marvel Comics movies, it was 2002's X2: X-Men United that set the template for future comic book movie sequels. And the thrilling trailer showed that director Bryan Singer was making sure everything was bigger for the sequel. The stakes were bigger, with the government now hunting mutants. The special effects were grander, thanks to new characters like Nightcrawler and Deathstrike. Heck, even Wolverine's hair seemed bigger. Expanding on the far more modest X-Men, the X2 trailer offered fans peeks at Iceman and Rogue's relationship, the growing tension between Magneto and Professor X, and Jean Grey's gradual loss of control. All this, plus Wolverine meets a cat. What else can you ask for in a trailer? Sin-City 125.jpg Featuring an all-star star cast, a stark black-and-white look that only offered occasional bursts of color, and a throbbing rock score courtesy of Cells' "The Servant," the Sin City trailer announced its presence like a gunshot rattling through a back alley. The mix of tough-guy dialogue and rapidly cut shots that build to a crescendo served as a template for future comic book movies that wanted to show that they didn't play by the usual goody-goody superhero rules. (See Watchmen, Kick-Ass, etc.) While light on plot details, the visceral trailer got people talking and led to a box office smash. Here's hoping that Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller can deliver as good a trailer when they finally get around to making Sin City 2. Superman returns 125.jpg Want to instantly get chills? Watch the teaser trailer for Superman Returns, the 2006 reboot/sequel/154-minute homage to 1978's Superman. Mixing snippets of Marlon Brando's decades-old narration with John Williams's stirring score, the trailer evokes the grandeur of Richard Donner's original movies. (More than a few fans got misty-eyed during Brando's monologue.) The second trailer (which you can see at the review above) offered actual plot details, as well as peeks at Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor and Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane. Unfortunately the trailers proved to be too prescient, as many fans felt the film failed to be more than a long homage to the days when Christopher Reeve wore the red-and-blue costume. 300-125.jpg When the first teaser trailer for 300 debuted at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con, the buzz was deafening. For the first time, a movie had managed to transplant the artwork and style of its comic book source material to the big screen without making it seem cheesy or visually inert. Director Zack Snyder offered a trailer ripe with visually sumptuous tableaus and Gerard Butler bellowing the now-famous line, "This is Sparta!" The amped-up, macho trailer set the tone for future Snyder films, proving that he's a director who works best in small doses. And since audiences are usually mixed on the actual movies, perhaps producing killer trailers is Snyder's real calling. Watchmen-125.jpg Aka, "Zack Snyder strikes again." Once again Snyder appeared to do the near impossible by translating Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's acclaimed graphic novel that had thwarted many a filmmaker on its long road to the big screen. Much like with his trailer for 300, Snyder let the visuals tell the story here, offering quick cuts of scenes lifted almost verbatim from the comic, all set to the grindingly apocalyptic strains of the Smashing Pumpkins song "The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning." We get glimpses of Dr. Manhattan's transformation, the OwlShip epically rising out of the water, and more before Rorschach delivers the kicker line, "The world will look up and shout, 'Save us,' and I'll whisper, 'No.' " (X-Men this wasn't.) The second trailer, featured in the link above, offered more plot details, set to epic music by Philip Glass and Muse. Of course, reaction to the actual movie itself was decidedly mixed. But for a brief moment, it looked like Snyder had actually managed to adapt a famously unadaptable work. Coming on the heels of a brilliantly creepy viral marketing campaign that set up Heath Ledger's Joker as an anarchist terrorist and introduced his catchphrase ("Why So Serious?"), the breathtaking full-length trailer for The Dark Knight set an appropriately epic tone. Whatever skepticism fans had over the casting of Ledger was thrown out the window when Joker and his terrifying cackle were introduced. Building on the setup of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight trailer plunges us into a Gotham teetering on the edge thanks to an insane madman. New characters (Harvey Dent) are introduced, while old favorites like Alfred pop up to give Bruce Wayne moral support. All this, plus a creepy score that pulsates in the background. It was such an effective trailer, Christopher Nolan basically made it a second time for The Dark Knight Rises.

View the original article here

What "The Hunger Games" Owes to Milla Jovovich, Kate Beckinsale, and Sigourney Weaver

Thelma AdamsThelma Adams is a New York Film Critics Circle member and the author of "Playdate," a novel.With all the buzz surrounding The Hunger Games and the anticipation for its three sequels to come, there's been plenty of shock and awe that a female-driven action movie has this kind of box office clout. And while some (like Melissa Silverstein on the must-read Women and Hollywood blog) have asked whether The Hunger Games will be the first real female franchise, I have a definitive answer: No. It can't be. Because it's not the first.

Though they've been oft-overlooked by the Hollywood establishment -- and critics, too -- at least three women-driven franchises have commanded the box office: Resident Evil's soon-to-be-five installments, anchored by Milla Jovovich, represent the most successful video-game movie series ever; Kate Beckinsale's leads the four Underworld movies; and the grandma of the bunch, Sigourney Weaver, kicked extraterrestrial butt as Ripley in Alien and its sequels.

Violent Video-Game Vixen milla-jovovich-resident-evil-125.jpg
When former cover girl Milla Jovovich dazzled at this year's Oscars, owning the red carpet before presenting an award, the general response was that she looked great -- but why was she there? Though it's not common knowledge, the Ukrainian-born actress's action series Resident Evil has grossed $675 million worldwide since the first installment in 2002, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. In fact, each successive film has grossed more than the last. The fifth, Resident Evil: Retribution, will open in September. Jovovich plays Alice, a character of few words and deadly aim who routinely battles to the death and survives to eradicate villains in another sequel. With Alice, Jovovich has emerged as a major female star who can open movies internationally. She also endures in the pop-culture ethos as the redheaded Earth savior opposite Bruce Willis in Luc Besson's cult classic The Fifth Element. It may be that while critics have never embraced Resident Evil, but there is a devoted, mostly male fan-base that definitely knows how to spell Jovovich.
Surprise Supernatural Series Starkate-beckinsale-underworld-awakening-125.jpg
London-born Oxford University dropout Kate Beckinsale is a totally unlikely action heroine, even though she looks great in a shiny black catsuit on a big billboard over Hollywood Boulevard. The porcelain-skinned, fine-boned English actress seems to have been born to play Jane Austen characters. But her Underworld: Awakening 3D, released in January, the fourth in the series, solidified her spot as a genre-action queen in a movie that features vampires and werewolves. She plays Selene, a vampire who began the series by avenging her family's slaughter, and the plot has twisted and turned with each succeeding episode. Beckinsale's daughter with costar Michael Sheen, Lily Mo Sheen, has gotten into the act too, playing Selene as a young girl. The self-deprecating Beckinsale, who seems as surprised as anyone that she's come to be the face of a supernatural action franchise, has been laughing all the way to the bank. She even met her husband, Len Wiseman, while he was directing her and her ex Sheen (Midnight in Paris) in the movies. The first four Underworlds have grossed $450 million worldwide and have been enormously profitable, particularly because they have kept overall costs down, unlike some higher profile movies like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which the studio claims to still be in red ink despite a worldwide gross of $231 million.

The First Female Action Franchisealien-sigourney-weaver-125.jpg
And what about Sigourney Weaver? Her tenacity and lack of vanity as the scientist Ellen Ripley fighting the relentless mother of all extraterrestrial antagonists in the 1979 hit Alien has achieved classic status in action franchises -- male or female. The Alien saga, which included three more films with Weaver, had not only box office success but also critical acclaim (unlike the previous two mentioned). It is arguably the greatest contemporary landmark on the road to the female franchise that has peaked with The Hunger Games. In the first installment, Weaver played an astronaut who became the last woman (or man) standing in a battle of wits, stamina, and muscle against an alien protecting her nest on an abandoned alien vessel. More than 30 years later, warrior Weaver soldiers on, leaping to a major role in Avatar, and riffing off her prominent position as a scifi icon in movies like the geek comedy Paul. Although the franchise peaked domestically with Aliens in 1986, there may still be a fifth movie in the series that has grossed $557 million worldwide -- if the principle participants agree. Interesting factoid: Tom Skerritt was originally cast as the hero, Ripley, but was demoted to the costarring role of Dallas when Weaver came on board, in an apparent effort by the studio to beef up projects with female leads.

So as we celebrate and embrace the monster success of The Hunger Games, let's not forget  genre vets Jovovich, Beckinsale, and Weaver, who broke ground in scifi and supernatural blockbusters and paved the way not only for Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss but, we can only presume (and hope), more female-led franchises to come. They might have been denied universal critical acclaim for boldly leading profitable action franchises, but they have managed to bring bodies into the theaters. You just have to look at one of their movies to realize that they have the body count to prove it.


View the original article here

lördag 24 mars 2012

October Baby

Bill GibronBill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.Abortion. The term alone stirs passion on either side of the ongoing debate. It's a concept without any clear middle ground. So when a film like October Baby promises a faith-based approach to its decidedly pro-life plotline, mainstream appreciation seems like a long shot. After all, in between the preaching and polemics, one has to find an actual film. Well, luckily, filmmakers Andrew and Jon Erwin discover something secular within their otherwise Christian clamoring. When the story focuses on its lead, we get lost in the emotion. When it moves into the philosophical, it stumbles...severely. All her life, Hannah (Rachel Hendrix) has had health issues.  At 19, and about to make her acting debut in a college theatrical production, she collapses. After this latest scare, her parents (John Schneider and Jennifer Price) finally reveal the painful truth - Hannah is adopted. Even more shocking, she was the product of a failed late term abortion. Stunned by the news, she decides to seek out her birth mother. With the help of her longtime friend Jason (Jason Burkley) and his cousin B-Mac's (Chris Sligh) beat up VW van, Hannah plans on traveling to Alabama. Once there, she hopes to find out what happened.

There is a moment in October Sky that all creators of Bible-thumping narratives should pay attention to - even the aforementioned Erwins. After breaking into the hospital where she was born, Hannah is arrested. Luckily, the police officer involved knows about her story - and the nurse who was there when the failed abortion happened. Essayed by Jasmine Guy (yes, THAT Jasmine Guy) in a performance so powerful it threatens to undermine everything around it, we learn the graphic details of that day...and it's heartbreaking. It's the right message measured out via the right means. Instead of taking the WWJD pronouncements and beating us over the head with them, Guy goes for the truth and takes us there, teary eyed.

Indeed, the biggest problem with most faith-based entertainment is the overemphasis on God and the lack of legitimate narrative connections. We understand the importance of religion in modern society and see who it could easily be applied to current and classic cultural issues. Abortion may not play fair as a position (it's impossible to be "on the fence" over the topic) but if handled like the scene with Nurse Mary, anything is viable. Sadly, the rest of October Baby is a sermon without sentiment. It's forced humor and relatively uninvolving characters. Hannah is inherently interesting because we want to uncover all her secrets. But at the end, after a less than meaningful reunion with her biological parent, we find ourselves underwhelmed.

That's because most agenda motivated moviemakers don't play to the audience. They just berate them. They want us to understand how horrible abortion is (and after Guy's gruesome description of what happened to Hannah, we sympathize) and how belief can benefit when it comes to such moral dilemmas. And while we don't expect October Baby to argue both sides, it would be nice to feel some compassion for our heroine's real mother. Instead, she ends up cruel and callous, her profession (lawyer) predicting how she will come across once confronted. Add in a last minute conversation with a Catholic priest and a far too pat wrap-up and you've got Christianity as a cure-all.

Had they been more subtle in their strategy, had they made a movie first and a statement second, the Erwins could have won over a few converts. With October Baby, all they do is lecture to those eager to hear what they have to say. The rest of the moviegoing public will just tire and then tune out.  


View the original article here

Brake

Bill GibronBill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.

There's a fine line between patriotism and outright jingoistic lunacy, a whisper thin wire that the new single setting suspense thriller Brake crosses time and time again. Within its very suspect and highly similar storyline (think Buried), our lead expresses enough "we don't negotiate with terrorists" tendencies to make even the most hardened Neo-Con smile with extremist joy. This is not to say that the thriller, occupying the same sort of set-up as the previously mentioned Ryan Reynolds effort, doesn't have its cinematic virtues. But when a political ideology is so intermingled within the various narrative threads offered, one can't help but feel a bit put off. Or bored.

Stephen Dorff is Jeremy Reins, a Secret Service agent who wakes up to find himself kidnapped and contained within a darkened plastic box in the trunk of a car. All he can see is a flashing timer and an access tube. Before long, he is in contact with his captors, radicals who demand to know where 'Roulette' is (the code word for the President's emergency bunker). Reins realizes this is a concerted effort for some manner of all out attack, especially after he speaks with fellow colleague Henry Shaw (JR Bourne) and his ex-wife (Chyler Leigh) is threatened. Through tortures both physical and psychological, our hero never budges. Even after his boss (Tom Berenger) tells him that he is one of many such people in peril, he will not betray his country.

Brake attempts the near impossible -- that is, making a one-setting plot with a one-note attitude work outside the strangled singular dogma being delivered. It's like watching a Jehovah's witness sit in a glass tube and deny the existence of science. Time and time again, screenwriter Timothy Mannion makes Dorff spew a particular party line, treating such blind adamancy as something akin to nobility. Even as aural cues indicate his stubbornness may be destroying the world, Reins remains forever and steadfastly "Amur-i-can." Mannion and director Gabe Torres might believe that this makes their character brave, or even a very good civilian foot soldier, but it doesn't make him a compelling character. Instead, we begin to anticipate Reins's responses, realizing before long that nothing he says will change the course of events.

Since the rest of the cast is nothing but voice work (that is, until the entirely goofy and beyond stupid double twist 'ending') it is up to Dorff to carry the remaining 80 minutes, and he just can't. It's not that he isn't a fine actor, he's just not given anything to work with. Spouting rhetoric for dialogue does not equal depth, and when he does finally have a chance to let his guard down, so to speak, subtlety is not his forte. Instead, Brake keeps bombarding us with limited action and excitement, hoping we will be entertained. Instead, we grow more and more aggravated as the narrative circles its purpose.

Though competently directed, given the location and restrictions, Brake is a bust. It's an idea for a short extended far beyond its creative shelf life. Since we know Reins will never "break," we aren't invested in his capture or release. Even worse, when the ending reveals the purpose of his imprisonment, it's like a slap in the face of his ferocious determination. In fact, if you're going to make your protagonist a figure of fundamentalist reproach (in this case, love of country), you shouldn't compromise that for the sake of spin. Brake is a movie that believes in the driven divine right of the US of A. Too bad that the end result is more tedious than a lecture on applied civics.


View the original article here

The Trouble With Bliss

The Trouble With Bliss - Filmcritic.com Movie Review Filmcritic.com RSS Twitter Facebook filmsite.org The Greatest Films 100 Greatest Films Greatest Quotes The Oscars Most Controversial Films amctv.com Story Matters Here AMC Movie Guide AMC News Games & Quizzes In Theaters New Reviews: The Hunger Games October Baby Brake The Trouble With Bliss The Deep Blue Sea (2012) The Raid: Redemption 4:44 Last Day on Earth 21 Jump Street Casa de mi Padre Jeff, Who Lives at Home Salmon Fishing in the Yemen The Kid With a Bike Detachment John Carter Friends With Kids Silent House (2012) See All In Theaters Reviews

New On DVD New Reviews: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)Alvin and the Chipmunks: ChipwreckedA Dangerous MethodCorman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood RebelEl Bulli: Cooking in ProgressThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyThe MuppetsCarnage (2011)The SitterHopLouder Than a BombRoadieA Lonely Place to DieThe Yellow SeaThe Adventures of Tintin See All New On DVD Reviews

Top Rated By the filmcritic critics By the filmcritic community Columns & Features Recent Stories How YA like "The Hunger Games" Came to Rule Fantasy and Scifi Films What Your Daughter (and You) Can Learn from "The Hunger Games" And Now for Some Real Science Fiction ... Studio Math! 5 Answers to Your Burning Questions About "The Avengers" Top Movie Columns John Scalzi on ScifiNick Nadel on Comic Book MoviesThelma Adams on Reel WomenSridhar Pappu on Sports FlicksMovie Mix TapeTop Ten See All Columns & Features

Trailers & Video Coming to Theaters In Theaters New on DVD Trailers by Genre Trailers by Decade In Theaters The Trouble With Bliss Reviewed by Jules Brenner on Mar 22 2012 The Trouble With Bliss Rated by critic: Rated by users: Rated by you: Jules Brenner Jules Brenner Movies are the best narcotic. full bio of Jules Brenner

I'm tempted to say, "the trouble with this movie," but will hold forth for the sake of giving it a break. Based on author Douglas Light's quirky, somewhat kinky novel East Fifth Bliss and adapted by director Michael Knowles (One Night) for the screen, The Trouble With Bliss Iis another of those New York low-budget genre films that seem designed to keep local actors working, although I have to admit that this comedic satire has a few things going for it that makes it a cut above the general output. Not hugely so, mind, but maybe worth parking yourself on East Fifth for an hour and a half, which is where the whimsical fable for modern times unfolds.

Raising it a notch is the always wonderful presence of Michael C. Hall (Dexter) who plays Morris Bliss, a 35-year old slacker living with his widower dad Seymour (Peter Fonda, 3:10 to Yuma). "Living off" would be more to the point. Morris is so lost in his ennui he can't manage shopping for groceries even when dad pumps him with money for that express purpose time and time again. He'd rather blow the cash on beer at the local tavern for himself and the leeches he calls buddies, a pattern that makes him one too disappointed dad if you're going to be up front about it.

This being an idiosyncratic twist on the romantic comedy, Morris isn't only a flake and a low achiever, the ladies are strongly attracted to his placid demeanor despite the stubble on his appealing face. Witness 18-year-old sexpot Stephanie (Brie Larson, Rampart) in her Catholic schoolgirl uniform post coitus in his room. She's young and libidinous and knows an older man she can couple with when she sees one. She's not so much a loser as a wench following her hormonal impulses, and that has led her to what she thinks is the sexy, malleable personality that is Morris. Only, however much she tries, weedles and insinuates, he's not as into her as the other way around. That, of course, is his M.O. This guy wouldn't recognize a commitment if it came with ice cream. With much misgiving, and because he's such a softie, he agrees to be her date to her prom and meet her parents. Woe is he.

Good thing he has friends, like fast-talking buddy MJ (Chris Messina, Julie & Julia) who, for the price of a couple of beers, tries to spark Morris into a direction that will net him easy bucks. He claims to have saved Morris's life one time in their past but it could be the other way around. Either way, there's a tab running between the pair and that's on account of daddy's generosity.

A subplot is spawned when Morris runs into apartment neighbor Andrea (Lucy Liu, Detachment) an Asian beauty who develops an attraction to our laid back hero during a period of marital strife with muscular hubby George (Scott Johnson). Before this becomes a painful entanglement for either of them, which could bring on a serious connection with George's fist, it sputters out, but not before Stephanie catches sight of Morris with Andrea and has a fit of jealousy. Morris's worries mount when old classmate, big Steven "Jetski" Jouseski (Brad William Henke, Justified TV series) runs into him on the street and pushes him to revisit their high school haunts and level of maturity. But, a disaster looms. Stephanie's last name is Jouseski. Steven is her father. What are the odds in a city of 1.6 million? And Steve's already made clear what he thinks of any guy who would take advantage of his Catholic school darling. It could involve some bloodletting.

How will Morris work his way through the pesky roadblocks that rule his listless life and just let him get back to his ever welcoming womb-substitute, his bed? Well, that's what you're going to find out when you see this mild caprice of a Manhattan comedy. Hint: it has something to do with TJ, his lady landlord, a nasty cartel and revised evaluations.

As for the exceptional Mr. Hall, he embodies his loser with all the traits of slovenly slackerdom required for the character. It should provide his fans a contrast to his TV work even if it's not a breakout performance. But, it's Brie Larson who could be the big winner here with a sizable share of what excitement The Trouble With Bliss generates. She takes a superbly designed quirkiness beyond what's written on the page. There's a smash role out there in this actress's future.

So, what is the trouble with this movie? For one, when the central character is this stagnant, you might get the urge to flee the theater during the first 20 minutes for lack of engagement and a resumption of your life. But hanging in will pay off if you're open to wry humor and sly character development in the context of non-threatening passivity. A taste for the farcical and unlikely nestled in the 'hoods' of the concrete city will also help. A lack of testosterone can be a defining attribute worth a few laughs when coupled to an eccentric subset of neighbors and strangers.

P.S. You know that old refrain about movies coming in duplicate? Jeff Who Lives at Home, opening  the same week as The Trouble With Bliss, is another variation on the single-son slacker and it's not likely to do this modest film's commercial prospects any good, even with one of the hottest TV actors heading the cast list.

Tweet Comments: Newest Oldest Most Replies Most Liked
About This Film from the AMC Movie Guide Don't Miss The Hunger Games by Bill Gibron 4:44 Last Day on Earth by Chris Cabin The Deep Blue Sea (2012) by Chris Cabin The Raid: Redemption by Sean O'Connell More from AMC Sites AMC Blogs AMC Movie Guide Filmsite Chat Online About Mad Men's Special 2-Hour Season Premiere on Sunday Night Newsweek Issue Is Homage to Mad Men; EW and Rolling Stone Laud Season 5 Premiere Estée Lauder Mad Men Collection Tweetstakes San Francisco Chronicle Praises Kevin Smith's New Book; Ming Chen Chats Comics With MTV Breaking Bad Ranks High in New York Drama Derby; Aaron Paul Braces Fans for Season 5

Go to AMC Blogs at AMCTV.com

Quintessential Movies of the 1960sFavorite Movies 1960sBuddy Cop Movies

Go to AMC Movie Guide on AMCTV.com

The Best or Greatest Film Scenes Greatest Film Lines and Movie Quotes Academy Awards® - The Oscars 100 Greatest Films

Go to Filmsite.org

Filmcritic.com Home In Theaters New on DVD Top Rated Columns & Features Trailers & Video Sitemap Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions Contact Advertising & Syndication RSS AMCtv.com filmsite.org Copyright 2012 American Movie Classics Company LLC. All rights reserved.

Some movie data from: Freebase, licensed under CC-BY
Some additional movie data from Wikipedia, licensed under the GFDL

Rainbow Media AMC IFC Sundance Channel WE tv IFC Entertainment

View the original article here

The Raid: Redemption

The Raid: Redemption - Filmcritic.com Movie Review Filmcritic.com RSS Twitter Facebook filmsite.org The Greatest Films 100 Greatest Films Greatest Quotes The Oscars Most Controversial Films amctv.com Story Matters Here AMC Movie Guide AMC News Games & Quizzes In Theaters New Reviews: The Hunger Games October Baby Brake The Trouble With Bliss The Deep Blue Sea (2012) The Raid: Redemption 4:44 Last Day on Earth 21 Jump Street Casa de mi Padre Jeff, Who Lives at Home Salmon Fishing in the Yemen The Kid With a Bike Detachment John Carter Friends With Kids Silent House (2012) See All In Theaters Reviews

New On DVD New Reviews: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)Alvin and the Chipmunks: ChipwreckedA Dangerous MethodCorman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood RebelEl Bulli: Cooking in ProgressThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyThe MuppetsCarnage (2011)The SitterHopLouder Than a BombRoadieA Lonely Place to DieThe Yellow SeaThe Adventures of Tintin See All New On DVD Reviews

Top Rated By the filmcritic critics By the filmcritic community Columns & Features Recent Stories How YA like "The Hunger Games" Came to Rule Fantasy and Scifi Films What Your Daughter (and You) Can Learn from "The Hunger Games" And Now for Some Real Science Fiction ... Studio Math! 5 Answers to Your Burning Questions About "The Avengers" Top Movie Columns John Scalzi on ScifiNick Nadel on Comic Book MoviesThelma Adams on Reel WomenSridhar Pappu on Sports FlicksMovie Mix TapeTop Ten See All Columns & Features

Trailers & Video Coming to Theaters In Theaters New on DVD Trailers by Genre Trailers by Decade In Theaters The Raid: Redemption Reviewed by Sean O'Connell on Mar 22 2012 The Raid: Redemption Rated by critic: Rated by users: Rated by you: Sean O'Connell Sean O'Connell full bio of Sean O'Connell

Do you know the "money shot" scene that usually occurs in Act Three of every major action film? The pieces have been strategically placed around the director's "board," and the carefully constructed story culminates in an elongated, expertly choreographed, eye-popping sequence of thrilling events?

The Raid: Redemption is that one scene, stretched to a ridiculously relentless 101 minutes.

Writer/director Gareth Evans wastes no time introducing his razor-thin plot -- a well-armed Jakarta S.W.A.T. team, which infiltrates the solidified fortress of an Indonesian crime lord, must fight its way to safety when their plan backfires -- then sits back and watches the action unfold with hellish fury. If you are looking for more than that, you won't find it in The Raid. But for those bemoaning the watered-down state of action thrillers in the year 2012, The Raid is a shock-to-the-heart cure for your cinematic doldrums.

Evans's secret weapon continues to be Iko Uwais, a lithe Indonesian martial artist the Welsh-born director discovered while filming a documentary on the fighting style known as Silat. The unlikely pair collaborated on Evans's 2009 epic drama Merantau, and extended their partnership with The Raid. Maybe they realize how combustible their chemistry can be on screen. Or maybe Evans has yet to come up with an impossibly physical stunt that Uwais can't pull off, and he won't rest until he's discovered his gifted male lead's breaking point. Either way, we win.

Uwais stands out in The Raid by playing Rama, a rookie officer with a pregnant wife at home who takes matters into his own hands once he realizes his immediate supervisors can't be trusted. And like a video-game hero blessed with unlimited lives, Uwais kicks, punches, spins, flips, fights, shoots, dives, and slices his way through waves and waves of lethal opponents as we hold our breath and pray that the roller coaster comes to a stop before we collapse onto the floor in a heap of exhaustion. 

Evans's film is a pressure cooker of action movie endurance, a bone-crushing exercise in one man's lack of physical limitations. Bodies shouldn't do the things Uwais and his cohorts manage in Evans' battle royale. If you want a laugh to break some of the tension, stay for the duration of the end credits, where you'll find out who played Drug's Lab Guard #21 (Dedy Supriadi), Carrying Bowo Fighter #14 (Novi Rahmat Hidayat), Hole Drop Attacker #7 (Eko Kunianto) and Riot Van Shooter #3 (Dovan).

To me, these were faceless drones waiting to be dispensed by Rama, who barely walks with a limp by picture's end. I'm a bigger fan of vulnerable action heroes, guys like John McClane (Bruce Willis) in the original Die Hard, who's legitimately in danger of faltering before his particular mission ends. Rama's more of a well-oiled killing machine, and his victory's rarely in doubt. You're just left to guess how many corpses he'll leave in his wake before the day is done, and what creative way he will find to remove the obstacle(s) standing in his path. There's a reason this escalating thriller plays so well with Midnight crowds at genre film festivals. It's a button-pushing ride, and one action junkies will want to cue up again and again.

Here's the good news: Evans already has started rolling the ball on a Raid sequel (tentatively titled Berendal), and an American remake is in production at Screen Gems. So while it's marginally disappointing to see our hero ride off into the sunset as The Raid concludes, it's comforting to know he lives to fight another day, and that day's coming sooner rather than later.

Tweet Comments: Newest Oldest Most Replies Most Liked
About This Film from the AMC Movie Guide Don't Miss The Hunger Games by Bill Gibron 4:44 Last Day on Earth by Chris Cabin The Deep Blue Sea (2012) by Chris Cabin The Raid: Redemption by Sean O'Connell More from AMC Sites AMC Blogs AMC Movie Guide Filmsite Chat Online About Mad Men's Special 2-Hour Season Premiere on Sunday Night Newsweek Issue Is Homage to Mad Men; EW and Rolling Stone Laud Season 5 Premiere Estée Lauder Mad Men Collection Tweetstakes San Francisco Chronicle Praises Kevin Smith's New Book; Ming Chen Chats Comics With MTV Breaking Bad Ranks High in New York Drama Derby; Aaron Paul Braces Fans for Season 5

Go to AMC Blogs at AMCTV.com

Quintessential Movies of the 1960sFavorite Movies 1960sBuddy Cop Movies

Go to AMC Movie Guide on AMCTV.com

The Best or Greatest Film Scenes Greatest Film Lines and Movie Quotes Academy Awards® - The Oscars 100 Greatest Films

Go to Filmsite.org

Filmcritic.com Home In Theaters New on DVD Top Rated Columns & Features Trailers & Video Sitemap Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions Contact Advertising & Syndication RSS AMCtv.com filmsite.org Copyright 2012 American Movie Classics Company LLC. All rights reserved.

Some movie data from: Freebase, licensed under CC-BY
Some additional movie data from Wikipedia, licensed under the GFDL

Rainbow Media AMC IFC Sundance Channel WE tv IFC Entertainment

View the original article here

4:44 Last Day on Earth

4:44 Last Day on Earth - Filmcritic.com Movie Review Filmcritic.com RSS Twitter Facebook filmsite.org The Greatest Films 100 Greatest Films Greatest Quotes The Oscars Most Controversial Films amctv.com Story Matters Here AMC Movie Guide AMC News Games & Quizzes In Theaters New Reviews: The Hunger Games October Baby Brake The Trouble With Bliss The Deep Blue Sea (2012) The Raid: Redemption 4:44 Last Day on Earth 21 Jump Street Casa de mi Padre Jeff, Who Lives at Home Salmon Fishing in the Yemen The Kid With a Bike Detachment John Carter Friends With Kids Silent House (2012) See All In Theaters Reviews

New On DVD New Reviews: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)Alvin and the Chipmunks: ChipwreckedA Dangerous MethodCorman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood RebelEl Bulli: Cooking in ProgressThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, SpyThe MuppetsCarnage (2011)The SitterHopLouder Than a BombRoadieA Lonely Place to DieThe Yellow SeaThe Adventures of Tintin See All New On DVD Reviews

Top Rated By the filmcritic critics By the filmcritic community Columns & Features Recent Stories How YA like "The Hunger Games" Came to Rule Fantasy and Scifi Films What Your Daughter (and You) Can Learn from "The Hunger Games" And Now for Some Real Science Fiction ... Studio Math! 5 Answers to Your Burning Questions About "The Avengers" Top Movie Columns John Scalzi on ScifiNick Nadel on Comic Book MoviesThelma Adams on Reel WomenSridhar Pappu on Sports FlicksMovie Mix TapeTop Ten See All Columns & Features

Trailers & Video Coming to Theaters In Theaters New on DVD Trailers by Genre Trailers by Decade In Theaters 4:44 Last Day on Earth Reviewed by Chris Cabin on Mar 22 2012 4:44 Last Day on Earth Rated by critic: Rated by users: Rated by you: Chris Cabin Chris Cabin Beloved by Ebert. full bio of Chris Cabin

4:44 Last Day on Earth is a film about the end of the world but, even more importantly, it is the latest Abel Ferrara flick and this, more or less, is the whole baseball game. And to be completely honest, the particularly curmudgeonly tone the film takes on the whole would be insufferable in any other director's hands. But 4:44 Last Day on Earth is a film so carefully steeped in Ferrara's artistic persona, a grubby, violent and hugely charming set of visual tics and proclivities, that it makes even the most nagging bouts of cynicism, the most unsuccessful dicey decisions, feel endearing. It is also, in many ways, the most engaging and moving work in the entire oeuvre of cinema's designated poet laureate of New York City old and new.

But man, those dicey decisions. The conversation starts with the casting of Shanyn Leigh, Ferrara's muse and current off-screen squeeze, as Skye, one half of a Manhattan couple deciding what to do with their last hours on earth. "Al Gore was right," we hear NY1's anchor Pat Kiernan say before he gets off camera to be with his loved ones, but past that, some flickers of the word "ozone," a sudden blackout and some bargain-bin special effects, we don't really get an idea how the end will come or what was the last straw. It certainly isn't what Skye and her negligibly older husband, Cisco (Willem Dafoe, forever Ferrara's wild-eyed proxy), are interested in, which isn't to say that they aren't seriously grappling with the very concept of the end times. But these struggles of philosophy, morality, psychology, and society come up in ways more familiar to the Ferrara loyal: it's your last day on earth, you're gonna break 20 years of being clean and spike up as the world itself ends forever?

It's a question worth asking and fits snuggly next to intermittent contemplations of jumping off the roof of your six-floor walk-up, long, carnal bouts of lovemaking, painting your final canvas and watching your neighbors plummet from their fire escapes. The other thing they do a lot of is Skyping, with their parents, their loved ones, and a couple of friends who decided to spend the crest of the apocalypse jamming out one last time. In one of the film's most improbably effective scenes, they allow their take-out boy to Skype with his family halfway around the world, and it's Leigh's hippie-dippie response to this that raise the first red flag, so shrill is she in her melancholy. But she is, thankfully, more of a physical actress and at that, she is quite exquisite and, more to the point, she serves significant use in the film's volatile self-reflexivity.

On one hand, the film is a dream of neverland NYC, a stoned eulogy to what was the city that never sleeps but now needs two Ambien and an Airfit pillow to get an hour's rest. But it suggests also an urgent inner dialogue between Ferrara the human being and Ferrara the artist, as Dafoe's Cisco grows more and more frantic and needy and Leigh's Skye seems only interested in finishing her last painting and making love. The commentary extends to the end of film, as Cisco and Skye's last visions and memories come to them pixilated, on the screens of hi-def televisions, Air Books, iPads and, yeah, other Apple equipment. The film itself is shot largely on digital, with only flashes of 35mm found in vulgar thought montages that are actually the strangest part of this peculiar work.

Written by Ferrara as well and featuring a not all that surprising cameo from Anita Pallenberg, 4:44 Last Day on Earth offers irrefutable proof that we can no longer simply ignore Abel Ferrara as an essential American auteur, for the film is by every measure a personal and singular view of a subject that is becoming increasingly familiar. The film exudes Ferrara's longstanding love of maniacs and outcasts, as well as the other denizens of his beloved borough. It's also inarguably the most intimate picture Ferrara has ever directed. The most memorable sequences are not long diatribes about the afterlife from the Dalai Lama and other religious leaders both famous and not, or even the emotions that erupt when Skye encounters Cisco's ex through a Skype chat, but those physical moments that Ferrara shoots with his loose style and limber, liberal use of camera movement, a byproduct of his relationship with his most regular DP, Ken Kelsch. It's a film by a cynic, to be sure, but a cynic who still is in desperate love and voracious lust with life.           
Tweet Comments: Newest Oldest Most Replies Most Liked
About This Film from the AMC Movie Guide Don't Miss The Hunger Games by Bill Gibron 4:44 Last Day on Earth by Chris Cabin The Deep Blue Sea (2012) by Chris Cabin The Raid: Redemption by Sean O'Connell More from AMC Sites AMC Blogs AMC Movie Guide Filmsite Chat Online About Mad Men's Special 2-Hour Season Premiere on Sunday Night Newsweek Issue Is Homage to Mad Men; EW and Rolling Stone Laud Season 5 Premiere Estée Lauder Mad Men Collection Tweetstakes San Francisco Chronicle Praises Kevin Smith's New Book; Ming Chen Chats Comics With MTV Breaking Bad Ranks High in New York Drama Derby; Aaron Paul Braces Fans for Season 5

Go to AMC Blogs at AMCTV.com

Quintessential Movies of the 1960sFavorite Movies 1960sBuddy Cop Movies

Go to AMC Movie Guide on AMCTV.com

The Best or Greatest Film Scenes Greatest Film Lines and Movie Quotes Academy Awards® - The Oscars 100 Greatest Films

Go to Filmsite.org

Filmcritic.com Home In Theaters New on DVD Top Rated Columns & Features Trailers & Video Sitemap Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions Contact Advertising & Syndication RSS AMCtv.com filmsite.org Copyright 2012 American Movie Classics Company LLC. All rights reserved.

Some movie data from: Freebase, licensed under CC-BY
Some additional movie data from Wikipedia, licensed under the GFDL

Rainbow Media AMC IFC Sundance Channel WE tv IFC Entertainment

View the original article here