Film Review: This Means War (*1/2)

A action tinged romantic comedy completely devoid of competent action, romance, or comedy, ‘This Means War’ is about as stupid as movies get. I’d say that it’s no surprise considering the director is McG, but I dislike him less than most critics, and actually really enjoyed his “serious” effort ‘We Are Marshall’. Here, he’s being as lazy as possible (and so are scribes Timothy Dowling, Marcus Gautesen, and Simon Kinberg as well), and it really does show. At no point does this mindless flick manage to be at all entertaining in the least. Really, you spend most of the film shaking your head and being disgusted at the actions of the 3 principle characters. Stars Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, and Tom Hardy are wasted and play pretty terrible people. I’m not sure what’s worse, the awful individuals we’re supposed to think so highly of, or the talented performers who don’t even bother to try. Witherspoon is sleepwalking through a role hardly distinguishable from a number of her previous jobs, Pine is just upping the jackass quotient from his portrayal of Captain Kirk in ‘Star Trek’, and Hardy is wasted so much it doesn’t seem like he knows what to do. That’s an unforgivable offense on the part of this team. When you waste Tom Hardy like this film does, you know you have a pile of junk on your hands. I’ll confess that I was mildly hopeful that this would be a light piece of popcorn entertainment with some fun to be had (ala ‘Mr. and Mrs Smith’)…how wrong I was.

February 21, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: Angela Bassett, chelsea handler, Chris Pine, McG, Reese Witherspoon, This Means War, Til Schweiger, Tom Hardy . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 3 Comments

Film Review: Perfect Sense (**1/2)

‘Perfect Sense’ is a movie that can’t be faulted for trying to do too little. A hybrid of recent films like ‘Another Earth’, ‘Blindness’, ‘Contagion’, and ‘Melancholia’ (with a little bit of ‘Children of Men’ thrown in for good measure), but perhaps even more ambitious, this apocalyptic romance has almost unlimited potential, but it can’t quite pull it all off in the end. The work is admirable, but somewhat unfulfilling. There’s something admirable about trying to make an end of the world flick that deals with the loss of the senses, but it never completely comes together. The individual sequences of the senses going are like little short films, but the romantic narrative that ties it all together is on the weak side. That isn’t the fault of leads Ewan McGregor or Eva Green, but it’s a bit of a failing on the part of director David Mackenzie and writer Kim Fupz Aakeson. The germ (no pun intended) of their idea is one with which any number of films could have been made. The one they came up with is both arty and safe at the same time, so it has a rather disjointed feeling. I harbor no animosity towards this film, but I have a hard time coming up with any passion for it either. It’s just such a mixed bag.

February 18, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Connie Nielsen, Eva Green, Ewan McGregor, Perfect Sense . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 3 Comments

Film Review: Safe House (**)

A distant relative of the Bourne style of filmmaking, ‘Safe House’ is a bland knockoff that doesn’t really do anything to make itself worthwhile, but never manages to particularly push you away either. What we have here is a thoroughly mediocre action movie that’s always watchable but never especially interesting. It doesn’t help that the two main characters, despite noble efforts from Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington, never become 3 dimensional and keep us always at arm’s length. Reynolds fares better than Washington, but neither are the issues here at all. Director Daniel Espinosa and scribe David Guggenheim turn in workmanlike efforts, showing an understanding of the genre, but never the concept of how to improve upon its conventions. This is the type of movie that you’ll mix up with any number of similar features in a few years. It’s bland and forgettable, but with a good enough pace that it takes most of the movie before you start to realize how little has happened and begin to check your watch. I like nothing more than when a supposedly standard action flick winds up doing something different, even to a small degree, but here we have a film content to be supremely average. That may be okay for the filmmakers, but I wanted more.

February 16, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Brendan Gleeson, Denzel Washington, Robert Patrick, Ryan Reynolds, Safe House, Sam Shepard, Vera Farmiga . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 1 Comment

Film Review: The Vow (*)

It’s hard to explain just how bad ‘The Vow’ truly is without getting mean about it. I’ll do my best here, but no promises. In short…my god, I hope this winds up being the worst film of 2012, because if there’s something worse lurking out there for me, it’s going to be a painful experience. This is a romantic melodrama devoid of an embraceable romance, drama even a half step above the worst you see on daytime soap operas, and indifferent acting that shows that the performers have as much contempt for the production as you do. Now I like Rachel McAdams, and enjoyed ‘The Notebook’ more than I should admit, while perhaps being the most vocal fan of ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ in the entire critical community, but here she’s mediocre at best and annoying at worst. As for Channing Tatum, this is as bad as I’ve ever seen him. He usually does absolutely nothing for me, but this is worse. To be fair, I did like him in both ‘A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints’ and ‘Stop-Loss’ (and he’s been average on a few occasions besides those), so I know he’s capable of not stinking up the joint. That’s not the case here, and the odor coming from not just his performance but every single aspect of this movie is enough to make you dizzy. The only goal of this movie is to make you cry. It’s perhaps going to be effective in getting some audience members to sob during the most cloying scenes, but it’s wholly incapable of being a film of any quality whatsoever. This is the first lock for my Bottom 10 of 2012 list, and it’s a safe bet to assume it won’t be moving off of it anytime soon.

Read more on Film Review: The Vow (*)…

February 15, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Channing Tatum, Jessica Lange, Rachel McAdams, Sam Neill, Scott Speedman, The Vow . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 3 Comments

Film Review: The Secret World of Arrietty (***)

I have somewhat of a hard time with Hayao Miyazaki films, but that’s more about me than him. His specific way of making a children’s film has delighted millions, but I’m often left wanting more for one reason or another. He may not have directed ‘The Secret World of Arrietty’, but he co-wrote and produced it, so his fingerprints are all over the flick. With the work of Miyazaki, I appreciate it more than I like it, and this is evident again here. I will say that this take on Mary Norton’s novel (‘The Borrowers’ was the name of the novel, as well as the American film and television series that both came out back in the 90′s) is my favorite to date, but it’s a bit of a case of damning with faint praise. The story is simple, and the plot moves slowly, but there’s a lot of charm there for those with patience. I’m not 100% sure if small children will be able to sit there quietly, but anyone able to appreciate beautiful hand-drawn art will like what this has to offer. If ‘Spirited Away’, ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, or ‘Ponyo’ wowed you, this should strike you in a similar way. For me, it’s another case of recognizing a quality film but not quite enjoying it like I perhaps should. I give all of this up front just so you know that I’m still recognizing the film, but won’t be too effusive in my praise of it. The cartoon is just not really my cup of tea, to be honest. I recognize a good movie though, so I won’t hold that against it in this review…

February 13, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Amy Poehler, Bridgit Mendler, Disney, Hayao Miyazaki, The Secret World Of Arrietty, will arnett . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 9 Comments

Film Reviews: Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts

Earlier this week, I covered the “Live Action Shorts” in our annual Oscar Circuit, dissecting each one to give readers a taste of what we can expect from this often under-appreciated Academy Awards category. This weekend, I was fortunate enough to see the Oscar Nominated “Live Action Shorts” at the NuArt Theatre in Los Angeles, where they premiered for movie-going enthusiasts. I am happy to report that quite a number of these films touched me in ways that a feature length film normally would not. Of the five nominated films, only one left me cold, resulting in the single negative review of the five I had watched. Without further ado, let’s get right down to the reviews of the each of the five nominated films after the jump. Read more on Film Reviews: Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts…

February 12, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: andrew bowler, Ciaran Hinds, conleth hill, hallvar witzo, Live Action Short Film, live action short film reviews, max zahle, oscar nominated 2012, oscar nominations, Pentecost, peter macdonald, Raju, terry george, The Shore, Time Freak, Tuba Atlantic . Author: Joseph Braverman . Comments: Leave a Comment

Film Reviews: Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts

2011 has been widely considered a poor year for Animated Features. While I myself don’t feel like the animated films this year are a complete bust, I can understand some of these sentiments. However, looking at this year’s crop of “Best Animated Short” nominees,” you find that things don’t look so bad in animation after all. I’m amazed how even after revolutionary animated films like Toy Story 3 and Shrek, I can still find myself in awe when witnessing marvels in computer-animated technology. This was the case for many of the nominated films I saw at the NuArt theater in Los Angeles this weekend. While some I may not have completely fallen in love with, there is no denying that every single nominated film pushed the boundaries in animation on some level. In other words, I never witnessed anything I had seen in prior animated material. With that said, here are my official reviews of each of the 2012 Academy Award nominated films for “Best Animated Short:” Read more on Film Reviews: Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts…

February 12, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: a morning stroll, amanda forbis, animated short film, best animated short film reviews, canadian animated films, Enrico Casarosa, grant orchard, La Luna, moonbot studios, oscar nominated animated short film reviews, oscar nominated films 2012, oscar nominations, patrick doyan, Pixar, Sunday/Dimanche, the fantastic flying books of morris lessmore, united kingdom animated films, wendy tilby, wild life, william joyce . Author: Joseph Braverman . Comments: 1 Comment

Film Review: The Innkeepers (***)

Filmmaker Ti West continue to hone his skills (and his resume, for that matter) as an emerging master of the horror genre with his latest fright flick ‘The Innkeepers’. This isn’t the scariest film you’ll see this year, but it has some great characters, a wonderful and wonderfully utilized setting and treats its story and the genre with a combination of respect and mockery that makes for a fun time at the movies. I liked what West gave us with ‘The House of the Devil’, but this is a less gimmicky and more complete package, featuring better characters and more humor to boot. For me, this is the best horror movie of 2012 so far…not that this is necessarily high praise, but it happens to be the truth. By making you care about the characters and keeping the tension level consistently high, we’re treated to a creepy and effective experience. The flick never tries to do too much, and because of that, it’s a very solidly successful movie. Personally, I can’t wait to see what West does with a real budget one day, because his talent seems to know no bounds. For now, he’s content to work deep within the independent realm, but I suspect that this won’t be for too much longer. He’s far too good to not get the call from Hollywood.

February 10, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Kelly McGillis, Pat Healy, Sara Paxton, The Innkeepers, Ti West . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 1 Comment

Film Review: Norwegian Wood (**1/2)

There will be no shortage of films branded as “coming-of-age” and since most, if not virtually all of those films deal with some form of sexual awakening, Norwegian Wood is merely the next of those films to arrive. Perhaps that this film is a Japanese import is a curious angle to consider when looking at the subject matter, but Norwegian Wood is a measured, beautifully shot ode to melodramatic tendencies, conflicting love interests, and young adults straddling between carefree youthfulness and serious adult issues. Hitting on many emotional beats, the film pulses and sways in and out of tune and has moments of great emotion and moments that fall out of key and register as tone deaf. Essentially, Norwegian Wood is an ambitious mixed bag.

February 5, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Drama, Japan, Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Norwegian Wood, Rinko Kikuchi, Tran Anh Hung . Author: Michael Ward . Comments: 1 Comment

Film Review: Chronicle (***)

As a child, in varying degrees, we often reach a place in life where we ponder what it would be like to have superpowers. Or daydream about the possibility of being superhuman and able to withstand anything life throws our way. Would we throw out the rulebook and live our lives without fear of repercussions? Would we use our abilities for goodwill and to aid in helping our fellow man? Perhaps we would we selectively use it, subtly and without provocation?

Three teenage boys ponder these thoughts in Chronicle, an intriguing and notable feature film debut from director and co-screenwriter Josh Trank. Set in my stomping grounds of Seattle (but mostly shot in Seattle’s photogenic doppelganger of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), we initially find Chronicle opening up as another entry in the exhausted found footage genre of science-fiction and horror story filmmaking. To my surprise, Trank and lead screenwriter Max Landis find ways to overcome those trappings and deliver a unique and compelling story that transcends its initial stifling premise.

February 4, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012, Alex Russell, chronicle, Dane DeHaan, Found Footage, Josh Trank, Michael B. Jordan, Science Fiction, Seattle, superhero movie . Author: Michael Ward . Comments: 1 Comment

Film Review: The Woman In Black (**½)

And so it begins. Daniel Radcliffe’s move away from Harry Potter, and his first leading role in a post-Potter world comes in the form of The Woman In Black, a well-intentioned and impressively mounted amusement park ride of scares and tension. The subject matter is decidedly grim and will serve as tonally unpleasant to some viewers, but The Woman In Black is a film which takes great delight in reinventing the tired old jump scares that have ruined many a suspenseful horror film and coasts by on a solid performance by Radcliffe and strong supporting performances from Janet McTeer and Ciaran Hinds among others.

February 4, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012, Ciaran Hinds, daniel radcliffe, Horror, James Watkins, janet mcteer, Suspense, The Woman In Black . Author: Michael Ward . Comments: 2 Comments

Film Review: Don’t Go in the Woods (*1/2)

Actor Vincent D’Onofrio has always been a thespian willing to take a risk. His performances are always very different and usually distinctly so. Going by that, it makes perfect sense for his directorial debut to be about as unique as it gets. Sadly, while D’Onofrio often turns in a compelling and quality performance, his film ‘Don’t Go in the Woods’ is about as bad as it gets. A musical/horror hybrid without any level of coherence, you spend just shy of 90 minutes listening to pointless music, interspersed with poorly shot and acted melodrama and the occasional bland murder. It’s all done in such an amateurish and inept way that you can’t help but feel sorry for D’Onofrio. He’s trying to make a slasher flick mixed with a demo for a young band, but it’s a toxic combination. His direction is random and without any thought it seems, and the script he contributed the story too is about as bizarre and flawed as it gets. This is the type of production that you’d expect from a mediocre student film. Granted, this is clearly not meant to be for everyone and is the definition of an experimental movie, but it’s still a poor piece of cinema and I have to report it as such. I take no joy in pouring salt on the wound of a tiny film made with good intentions by a talented actor, but the end result is so bad I can’t do anything but report on what I see. This is likely going to be one of the worst films of 2012.

January 31, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, actors who direct, Don't Go In The Woods, Eric Bogosian, Vincent D'Onofrio . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 1 Comment

Film Review: The Grey (***1/2)

Incredibly bleak but undeniably powerful, ‘The Grey’ is a tough picture to sit through, but a rewarding one, especially in terms of Liam Neeson’s terrific lead performance. There was talk a few months ago of giving the film a quick qualifying run in December to have Neeson eligible for Oscar consideration (and the plan now is to re-release the movie in October to remind voters of his performance), and while it was too crowded a year for him, this time around…who knows? Neeson does some excellent work here, giving you a character hanging on to life by a thread. Without his acting, this might have been too bleak a film to sit through, though plenty of credit goes to Joe Carnahan for making as consistently dark a movie as this one palatable in a way. The flick is exciting but methodical, the characters are well fleshed out, and the philosophical agenda is somehow a perfect companion to the battle for survival in the snow. This has a lot in common with the work of Ernest Hemingway, and considering that the previews make this out to be the movie where Liam Neeson punches wolves, that’s some high praise. Strong acting all around and a firm directorial hand anchor the film, but it’s Neeson that puts things over the top. He’s combining his recent action hero outings with something deeper, and the result is a real winner.

January 30, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Dallas Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo, James Badge Dale, Joe Anderson, Joe Carnahan, Liam Neeson, Oscar hopeful, The Grey . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 7 Comments

Film Review: Big Miracle (**)

A well intentioned film with little going in its favor, ‘Big Miracle’ wastes its potentially interesting subject matter on a plot and characters that go nowhere, and slowly. A true story more fit for a documentary than a romantic comedy, the tale of a group of people trying to save some trapped whales in Alaska keeps opting to focus on the humans when they have nothing at all interesting to say or do. It’s never offensively bad, but everyone just seems to be going through the motions, and especially in the case of leads Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, you simply expect more out of them. Director Ken Kwapis has always been a thoroughly mediocre filmmaker, and this continues the trend, only now with a slight downward spiral. The script keeps jamming new and pointless characters into a story that couldn’t be calling for an ensemble less while shoehorning in a romance that just doesn’t work. Characters do things for no reason at all except that the film just randomly decides that they should. The flick is a mess. It’s got its heart in the right place, but the execution is just way off. For that main reason and plenty of others, it’s not coming anywhere close to a recommendation from me.

January 28, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Big Miracle, Bruce Altman, Dermot Mulroney, Drew Barrymore, john krasinski, Ken Kwapis, Kristen Bell, Rob Riggle, Stephen Root, Ted Danson, Tim Blake Nelson, Vinessa Shaw . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 8 Comments

Film Review: The Iron Lady (*1/2)

I have a confession to make. It may shock you, but then again, it may not. Here it comes…I’m not a huge Meryl Streep fan. Some of you may have gathered this already, but for those of you who don’t know…now you do. I say this because I was never going to be blind to the flaws that ‘The Iron Lady’ has in order to blindly praise Streep. I found her performance fine but nothing special at all, and one of the most wildly overpraised of 2011. The film itself is rather terrible, and for my money one of the poorest biopics in recent memory (yes, even ‘J. Edgar’ is superior to me, and I didn’t care one bit for that one either). Director Phyllida Lloyd barely improves on her poor work on ‘Mamma Mia’ (which also wasted Streep), writer Abi Morgan makes me suspect her work on the script for ‘Shame’ was a fluke, and the acting on the whole is unworthy of much praise. Streep is doing the same sort of imitation acting that some love, but I didn’t like in ‘Julie & Julia’ either. Her voice sounds like the former Prime Minister, but she never goes any deeper than that in her performance. Honestly, Jim Broadbent gives a better performance to me. The story of Margaret Thatcher was always going to be a difficult story for me to embrace politically, but I’m relieved to say that its politics are the least of my issues (it’s actually rather mild overall). I can safely dislike this film on its own merits and failings as a biopic. And boy does it fail. The movie is incredibly self important without telling us why, as well as being boring and slow to the point of almost causing pain…perhaps its biggest failing.

January 25, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2011 releases, Abi Morgan, Jim Broadbent, Meryl Streep, Oscar hopeful, Phyllida Lloyd, The Iron Lady . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 53 Comments

Film Review: Haywire (***)

There’s really nothing in Steven Soderbergh’s new film ‘Haywire’ that you haven’t seen in other “man on a mission” action adventure tales. The gimmick here is just that the man is a bad ass woman this time around, and she does her own stunts to boot. Armed with Soderbergh’s somewhat unusual directorial choices for the genre, and this unoriginal story is done in an original enough light that this is a successful piece of cinema. Soderbergh cast non-actress and real life (now retired) MMA star Gina Carano in the lead, and while her acting won’t win her any awards, she’s an incredibly believable action star and the fights are given an extra measure of realism. You’re actually watching her tangle with these guys (many of whom are well known actors, which doesn’t hurt things at all), and there’s something pleasing about that. The film still has a bunch of plot holes and is essentially a high class B movie, but it does its job quite well and I have no qualms about recommending it. I have no doubts that you’ll certainly get your money’s worth, just maybe check your brain at the door. You’ll be pleased that you did…

January 22, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Gina Carano, Haywire, Michael Angarano, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Steven Soderbergh . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 7 Comments

Film Review: Red Tails (**1/2)

‘Red Tails’ is one half of a decently good film. When the historical action flick is in the air chronicling dogfights, things are A-ok. However, when it is on the ground and dealing with its actual characters, things take a distinct turn for the worse. The good half isn’t quite good enough to ultimately get a recommendation from me, but for a January release, this isn’t a terrible time at the movies. It’s just full of cliches and nothing we haven’t seen before. The script is subpar, which isn’t necessarily a death sentence for a film of this ilk, but in this instance it pretty much is. If ever a cliched story had elements of originality to be mined, this story of the Tuskegee Airmen is it, but the writers seem determined to stick to “been there, seen that” war cliches that torpedo the direction of Anthony Hemingway. This was a passion project for George Lucas for almost 2 decades now, and the final product has much more in common with ‘The Phantom Menace’ than ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. It’s hardly a terrible movie, and its action is all but worth the price of admission. The thing is, you can’t just have a movie of dogfights, and the film suffers because of this. The story of African-American pilots looking for respect is a worthy one to tell, but it’s simply not told in an effective enough manner.

January 22, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Anthony Hemingway, Cuba Gooding Jr., George Lucas, John Ridley, Red Tails, Terrence Howard . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 4 Comments

Historical Circuit: Wings (****)

Recovering lost films in Hollywood is a bit like treasure hunting. You never know what kind of rarities you are going to find, but at the end of the day you realize you have stumbled onto something worth incredible value. Finding and resurrecting a lost film that happens to be the first ever winner of the Academy Award for “Best Picture, 1927/1928,” and you have hit the threshold of all things valuable in cinema. Yes, after safeguarding spare negatives from the original negative prints of Wings, Paramount recently released the prints from their vaults and have restored the film with crisper picture quality, newly designed special effects, and brand new digitized sound effects thanks to the sound restoration technologies from George Lucas’s Skywalker Sound facilities. This remastered Wings is part of the celebration of Paramount’s 100th Anniversary as a Motion Picture Studio, and their project of releasing the film to a public audience at a large screening room at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences building (where I was privileged to see the film), as well as to Blu-Ray and DVD on January 24th, is one of the best gifts this studio could ever provide to lovers of cinema and its origins. Read more on Historical Circuit: Wings (****)…

January 19, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews, Historical Circuit . Tags: Academy Award Winners, buddy rogers, Citizen Kane, clara bow, film restoration, films made in the 1920s, first best picure winner, January Blu Ray/DVD releases, Paramount, Paramount 100th Anniversary, richard armen, silent films, the artist, War Films, William A. Wellman, wings, World War 1 . Author: Joseph Braverman . Comments: 5 Comments

Film Review #2: Carnage (**1/2)

A violent act on a playground between two middle school boys is all that’s needed to launch into Carnage, the cinematic adaptation of a Tony Award winning play about two sets of parents who are brought together to work through a situation their children have forced them into.

Directed by Oscar-winner Roman Polanski, Carnage is essentially a filmed play with four characters engaging in a rollercoaster ride of discussions about their children, their lives, their respective marriages, and a whole treasure trove of other related and unrelated topics. The film retains a feverish, almost manic, pitch and your ability to like this rests with how much vitriol, dialogue, and smarminess you can stomach from these four interesting, but slightly troubled, individuals.

January 19, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2011 oscar hopefuls, 2011 releases, Carnage, Christoph Waltz, Comedy, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, Roman Polanski . Author: Michael Ward . Comments: Leave a Comment

Film Review: Beauty and the Beast 3D (***1/2)

Disney continues their plan to re-release their classics in 3D with ‘Beauty and the Beast’, and the results should be just as successful for them, even if this time around the result isn’t quite as magical for me. Granted, this is a fantastic film, but for some reason it didn’t sweep me off my feet like last year’s 3D treatment of ‘The Lion King’ did. Honestly, I think the other critics at my screening felt the same way (this would have gone up early, but I wasn’t sure when the Embargo was up, so I played it safe), even though I’d say that for most they look at ‘Beauty and the Beast’ as the superior film to ‘The Lion King’. This time around the 3D doesn’t add much at all (though it never quite detracts from the viewing), so it’s mostly just watching the same movie you love again in theaters. That will likely deter almost no one, and it’s really my only caveat to the re-release. The story is still delightful, but it’s not as essential to check this one out. The tale of Belle and the beast that she learns to love is timeless, but I can’t make the case too strongly that you need to set aside your DVD and head to the multiplex. Of course, if you decide to go, it won’t be as if you’re seeing an inferior product. This is still one of Disney’s best works.

January 15, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Beauty and the Beast 3D, Disney, re-release . Author: Joey Magidson . Comments: 8 Comments

Film Review: Contraband (**)

Schizophrenia can be a helluva thing and the latest cinematic version of a film that cannot control its mood swings, temperament, or demeanor is Contraband. Essentially, Contraband looks like a gritty action suspense/thriller. And a heist film. And a family drama. And a wife-and-kids-in-peril horror film. And a rooting for the anti-hero film. In short, Contraband wants to be everything to everyone and mostly fails in being anything to anyone.

Mark Wahlberg is a fine actor and as a friend pointed out to me, and this comment is completely true in analyzing his career, he is most often great when he is in an ensemble. When asked to be the sole name-above-the-title, situations typically found in his lackluster attempts to be a big-time action movie star, Wahlberg and, in turn, the films suffer. For every The Fighter, The Other Guys, The Basketball Diaries, Boogie Nights and The Departed, there is The Happening, Shooter, Max Payne, and Rock Star. And now there’s Contraband.

January 14, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2012 releases, Action, Baltasar Kormakar, Ben Foster, Contraband, diego luna, kate beckinsale, Lukas Haas, mark wahlberg, remake, Suspense/Thriller . Author: Michael Ward . Comments: Leave a Comment

Film Review #2: A Separation (****)

What one learns about a couple of minutes or so in to the extraordinary Iranian film A Separation is that the title cards for the financiers, which appear in silence, are really the calm before the storm. Our first visual image is that of two angry and emotional people, Simin (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Maadi), pleading to us, the viewer, that a solution to their domestic disagreement must immediately be reached. We learn that we have the same perspective as a magistrate, with Simin and Nader arguing over Simin’s desire to receive a divorce and Nader adamantly against the idea.

As they make their case, a disjointed voice informs Simin that she has not provided sufficient grounds in making her case and that Nader has successfully blocked her attempts to earn a dissolution. The magistrate orders signature of a court order and Simin is left with no option but to agree. Simin then moves in with her parents and leaves Nader and their 11-year old daughter, Termeh (Sarina Farhadi, daughter of director and screenwriter Asghar Farhadi), to live in the family home, where Nader has agreed to care for his ailing Alzheimer’s-stricken father.

January 10, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2011 releases, A Separation, Asghar Farhadi, Best Foreign Language Feature, Leila Hatami, Oscar hopefuls, Peyman Maadi, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini . Author: Michael Ward . Comments: 1 Comment

Film Review: Pariah (***1/2)

“I am broken. I am broken open. Breaking is freeing. Broken is freedom. I am not broken. I am free.” – Alike (Adepero Oduye).

Dedication and commitment to a message have made many film projects become realities. For Dee Rees, it was her own life’s experiences which made her 2007 short film Pariah blossom into a feature-length film of the same name. With her feature film completed in 2009, raising the money necessary to have Pariah actually seen became her next task. Rees tirelessly spent the next two years trying, trying, and trying some more to have her film get in front of the eyes it needed to for possible distribution. Maneuvering through an endless sea of festival hopefuls, Rees finally found the right set of eyes when Focus Features acquired Pariah at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, following the film’s winning of the Excellence In Cinematography prize there. After a rapturous response from attendees of the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2011, and with the scoring of two 2011 Independent Spirit Award nominations, Focus finally released Pariah into theaters in late-December 2011, just in time for Oscar consideration.

January 10, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: 2011 oscar hopefuls, 2011 releases, Adepero Oduye, Charles Parnell, Dee Rees, Drama, Independent Spirit Awards, Kim Wayans, LGBT, Pernell Walker . Author: Michael Ward . Comments: 1 Comment

Film Review: Declaration of War (***)

To say I have not seen a film like Declaration of War would be an accurate statement. It would also be accurate to say that it has been a long time that I can remember a movie where I found the title characters to be so reprehensible, they literally made my insides fight hard not to shout at the screen in fury. Yet, through it all, the journey I took with Romeo and Juliette (the purposeful names of the main couple) was a compelling one, where the final shot of the film I felt completely at peace. It was as if all the frustration had finally lapsed, and I could understand our protagonists for who they were, not the Shakespearean characters they were longing to impersonate. Declaration of War is France’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film for the 84th Academy Awards, and while it is nowhere near as masterful as The Class, its creative screenplay and commendable pacing could lead to a surprise nomination. Valerie Donzelli, director and star of the film, makes a bold and artistic statement about the ways in which the fantasy we so wish to live in warps us into confused and uncaring individuals who cannot face reality when something truly disastrous enters into our lives. So too, is the declaration of war, where we as human beings must get out of our fantasy world of peace and invincibility, and face the reality of the misfortunes that plague our existence. Read more on Film Review: Declaration of War (***)…

January 10, 2012
Categories: Film Reviews . Tags: Best Foreign Language Feature, Best Foreign Language Film, classical music, Declaration Of War, films with amazing soundtracks, French Cinema, Jeremie Elkaim, movies about cancer, popular music, romeo and juliet, the class, Valerie Donzelli . Author: Joseph Braverman . Comments: 1 Comment

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