MID-SEASON MOVIE REVIEW
TOP 5 MOVIES OF 2009 (so far…)
Drag Me To Hell
Along with “Tyson”, “Drag Me To Hell” is biggest surprise of the year so far. FINALLY a horror movie that doesn’t involve UN-scary, pale, Asian kids hiding under some white woman’s bed. Now, if you’re willing to kinda let go and have fun for 90 minutes, you’ll probably enjoy this. Just know from the beginning that Sam Raimi goes back to his early “Evil Dead” roots and takes a break from the “Spiderman” world, which has pretty much consumed him for the majority of this decade. I get the feeling he wanted to make a smaller feature after years and years of making one studio ”blockbuster” after another. In ”Drag Me To Hell”, a young bank employee is haunted by the ghost of an old woman who died shortly after being denied a loan to keep her house. The gore & violence in “Drag Me To Hell” is so over the top in some parts, it makes the movie (in my opinion) a horror-comedy. Combining 2 genres like horror and comedy successfully is pretty tough, so I give this movie major props for accomplishing that (Bob Balaban’s “Parents”, Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” movies and Polanski’s “Fearless Vampire Killers” are a few examples of good horror/comedy). The fight scene in the parking lot towards the first half of movie is easily the best part.
Tyson
Watching “Tyson” in a crowded theater made it even sadder than it already was. In this documentary, Mike Tyson lets us in on a lot of personal issues ranging from; his depression, almost getting killed as a kid, being taken advantage of during the height of his career, and his time in prison. However, all through out the movie all I heard from in the theater was laughter. I swear, if you closed your eyes and listened to the audience, you’d think they were watching a comedy. I guess its come to the point in Mike Tyson’s life that even when he’s at his most personal, no one can take him seriously. James Toback’s approach to this autobiography was slightly different than most documentaries. Instead of the Errol Morris-like face-to-face interview format like in “The Thin Blue Line”, Toback sat behind Tyson, asking a series of questions, similar to a psychiatrist/patient relationship. This type of questioning clearly worked, because Tyson really opened up. The most heartbreaking scene in the movie is the footage of his final post-fight interview, where loses to a sub-par fighter, and then proceeds to apologize to his fans for his performance. Fans of “Fat City”, “Raging Bull”, “Beyond the Mat” and “The Wrestler” will love this.
Star Trek
after seeing JJ Abrahms’ “Cloverfield”, I was almost certain this movie was going to be just as bad. I REALLY didn’t wanna like this, but I couldn’t deny how much fun it was. In fact, I saw it twice. Plus, one of the best things about the prequel is that you don’t have to be a star trek nerd to enjoy it. I may have a few minor issues with the plot (which i dont want to get in to for sake of giving away anything), but that still doesn’t take away from how entertaining this movie was.
Hunger
Steve McQueen’s directorial debut focuses primarily on IRA member Bobby Sands and the 1981 hunger strike he led in prison, with hopes of trying to win political status in the UK. Weather you share the same beliefs as the IRA or not (which many people don’t, causing quite a few walkouts during last years Cannes screening), this is still a GREAT movie. In fact, I don’t think the film takes any “sides” at all. We see perspectives from both pro IRA and non-pro IRA points of view in the movie. Steve McQueen (the photographer NOT the actor), brings his photography skills to table, setting up many amazingly lit, (sometimes) extremely TENSE, single-take shots. In fact, “Hunger” has one notable continuous scene that’s well over 20 minutes long, where the camera stays put in one position for the entire scene. This movie is a great blend of art, mixed with random spurts of violence. This is one of the best directorial debuts of the last few years.
as the son a high school teacher, as well as spending time as a substitute high school teacher myself, I can tell you first hand that teaching nowadays is tougher than ever. Unfortunately, that’s not often portrayed realistically on film. In 2009, there are still WAY too many movies that paint high school as this fantasy place, where everything is perfect. And if that isn’t the case, there’s these pretentious, angst-ridden movies directed by someone in their mid-20’s who had a shitty high school experience and has a skewed outlook on the world. Movies like “Chalk” and “Welcome the Dollhouse” are some of the few movies that show a realistic look at jr high and high school. Funny, Awkward and sometimes not so great. “The Class”, which won best picture at last years Cannes film festival, is shot in a cassavetes/cinema verite’ style, with a mixed cast of professional and non-professional actors. The unique aspect about “The Class” is that the movie only takes place in the school, focusing on one class, its young teacher, and the daily obstacles they face. It doesn’t have a sub-plot about the teachers personal problems outside of school, no token drug selling black student, or any other cliché’ storyline that usually come with a typical high school movie. At some points, the movie is so realistic that it feels like a documentary. Fans of John Cassavetes and Mike Leigh will love this movie.
TOP 5 DISAPPOINTING MOVIES OF 2009 (so far…)
Wolverine
chances are, you’re probably reading this right now and going; “oh yeah, Wolverine. I forgot about that one”. Exactly. Just when we think we’re in a renaissance of good comic book-based movies (”dark knight”, “batman begins”, “iron man”, “sin city”, etc), Wolverine comes along, and screws everything up. The biggest issue with this movie is that its 3+ hours worth of material crammed in to 100 minutes. The horrible editing is the next major issue. One minute we’re in the 1970’s, and then the very next shot we’re 30 years in to the future without any warning. There’s barely any insight or development in to the “Weapon X” program, and hardly any background on the (important) supporting characters/mutants. Two of the most anticipated marvel characters (Dead Pool & Gambit) got the same treatment and same amount of camera time that Venom got in “Spiderman 3″ (and why was Gambit even in the movie?) Instead, the movie spent too much time on characters that had NOTHING to do with Wolverine’s origin, and shouldn’t have been in the movie in the first place. I can only imagine how horrible the Magneto movie is going to be. I guess we have to wait until next year for Iron Man 2.
Transformers 2
I’m well aware that transformers is about giant alien robots, transforming into vehicles, doing battles against each other on planet earth. So from the start I’m not expecting this movie to carry the same depth as a film by Tarkofsky or Ingmar Bergman. But after watching the disappointing sequel, I think a slow, “artsy”, black & white version of Transformers 2 would’ve be a lot more interesting than what’s playing in theaters right now. I’ve never been a fan of Michael Bey, and this movie legitimizes my hatred for that guy. The dialogue sounded like stuff a 7 year old would say while playing with action figures. Aside from the shitty writing, there were WAY too many unnecessary slow-motion shots of Megan Fox. Don’t get me wrong, she IS very attractive, but it almost got to the point where 2 transformers would be in the middle of smashing a city to pieces, and than all of a sudden there’s a random slow-motion shot of Megan Fox bending over to pick something up. If I wanted to see that, I could’ve just stayed home, and prowled the internet for REAL porn. Now…the most upsetting part of the Transformers sequel is the addition of the 2 new “ethnic” autobots, equip with gold teeth and fluent Ebonics. Even in robot form, black people get no respect. So yeah, this movie is nothing new. Typical Michael Bey, slow-mo explosion shots with people randomly yelling “NOOOO!” or “LOOK OOOUUUT!” every 10 minutes.
Limits Of Control
Jim Jarmusch (director of “Limits of Control”) is truly an icon of American independent film, but he hasn’t been as active this decade as he was in the 80’s & 90’s. “Coffee & Cigarettes” (2003) was “cute”, but that was about it. With the exception of the segment starring; Rza, Gza and Bill Murray, that movie wasn’t anything special. ”Broken Flowers” (2005) was great, as well as Bill Murray’s performance, but not that many people in the U.S. saw it outside of independent theaters. Finishing off the decade is the disappointing “Limits of Control”. In Limits, Isaac Bebankole (a Jim Jarmusch regular) plays a skilled assassin who’s sent to do one last mission before he retires. The problem with this is that we have to sit through damn near 2 hours of basically nothing until he finally kills someone, which is at the very end of the movie. The music and cinematography are the only things that kept my attention. And to be quite honest, after a while those 2 factors started to wear thin, because it started to seem like Jarmusch was more interested in shooting one “cool” individual scene after another, instead of focusing on the movie as a whole.
For good movies by the director, be sure to check out: “Down By Law”, “Mystery Train”, ”Night on Earth” or “Ghost Dog”.
Bruno
I had to see this movie twice to come to the conclusion that it wasn’t that good. It tried to follow the same formula and plot as the (far superior) “Borat”, but failed. The problem with that was that “Bruno” is only around 80 minutes long, so everything felt rushed. Aside from the rushed storyline, I can’t help but think that a lot of the scenes were fake, scripted or HEAVILY edited to make things seem funnier and more shocking than they really were. I find it hard to believe that the Terrorist leader interviewed in the movie would take the insults “Bruno” threw at him, without serious reprocutions. The gay humor was SO forced that it started to get annoying (and uncomfortable), especially for the last half of the movie. Those forced situations made people’s reactions in the movie not all that surprising, taking away from the comedy and shock value that “Borat” had. I think its time Sasha Baron Cohen move on, and focus on acting in other people’s films more.
Girlfriend Experience
I’ve always respected Steven Soderbergh. In fact, I think he’s the best active American director right now. Movies like; “Schizopolis”, “Che”, “Sex Lies & Videotape” and “The Limey” clearly prove this. His latest movie however does NOT deliver. The one thing I like about Soderbergh is that no matter how many big budget movies he makes, and ”mainstream” he gets, he never loses his urge to experiment and work small between big projects. Much like Soderbergh’s earlier film ”Bubble”, “Girl Friend Experience” uses non-professional actors, as well as long, single-take shots. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. In G.F.E’s case, it doesn’t. The acting runs flat, half of the scenes go on for way too long, and the movie needed some serious editing in general. The final nail in the coffin is the silly turn in plot during the last half of the movie. If you didn’t like “Bubble”, you’re probably going to HATE this. Skip this movie, and just wait for “Che” to come out on DVD.
TOP 5 ANTICIPATED MOVIES OF 2009…
Where The Wild Things Are
as far as I’m concerned, this is the most anticipated movie of 2009. Spike Jonze hasn’t made a movie since “Adaptation” (2002), so I’m really excited.
The White Ribbon
Michael haneke’s long overdue best picture winner at this years Cannes film festival. He has yet to make a bad movie (the piano teacher, code unknown, funny games, time of the wolf, cache’, etc), and the fact that this won best picture at one of the most important film festivals leads me to believe he’s going to keep his perfect streak.
Black Dynamite
This satirical look the blaxploitation genre will probably be one of the 5 best movies of the year, and is sure make Tarantino jealous. Speaking of Tarantino…
Inglorious Bastards
somewhere between the last half of kill bill 2 and pretty much ALL of the writing in “grind house”, Tarantino pretty much exposed the fact that he lost his knack for good writing. Maybe he can redeem himself with Inglorious Bastards. Although I’m a little disappointed that the movie doesn’t star Tim Roth and Michael Madsen, who were originally supposed to star.
Antichrist
Along with Michael Haneke, Lars Von Trier is one of the few directors left who truly fuck with the audience. Not in a cheap M. Night Shyamalan way, but more in the Vein of Hitchcock and Orsons Welles. It’s been 2 decades since Von Trier took a stab at the horror genre. He’s grown immensely as a director in those 20 years, so I can’t wait to see how this turns out.