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Reviews
For Your Consideration (2006)
Awesome and very funny
The gang from Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind are all back and raring to go. Each actor once again comes up with their own unique character quirks and personalities--some, of course, more outrageous than others. Stand-outs in that department include Higgins as the uptight, militaristic publicist Corey; Willard as the bombastic TV host with a "faux" Mohawk, with the plastic Lynch, smiling sweetly--and completely insincerelyby his side; and Coolidge as yet another dumb, hat-wearing, push-up bra-strapping blonde who delivers some of the funnier lines in the movie. But the real surprise is O'Hara as Marilyn, the veteran actress who has all but given up on the dream of making it biguntil she gets caught up in all the excitement and starts to believe again. It's actually more than a little heartbreaking to watch, as O'Hara provides an emotional core amidst the sea of cut-ups.
Gridiron Gang (2006)
Cool...
t's difficult to truly knock Dwayne Johnson--he currently shuns the name that begat his celebrity, The Rock, in favor of his birth name--for taking the pledge of serious actordom. After all, when any highly bankable actor makes such a decision--not to be confused with the comedy-to-drama crossover--isn't it more admirable than the alternative of staying the same, finance-driven course? Alas, however, Gridiron is absolutely not a serious actor's vehicle. Johnson has a few surprisingly tender close-ups, but most scenes feature him from afar, shouting his best chest-bump voice. Xzibit, attempting another kind of crossover (rapping to acting), is in almost every scene yet says almost nothing. Maybe the best performance comes from youngster Jade Yorker, who plays the team's hotheaded star.Yorker's emotional range (and shirtless prancing...for the ladies) makes him one to keep an eye on in the future.
Notes on a Scandal (2006)
So Interesting...
Dench and Blanchett give tour-de-force performances yet again. Blanchett's natural effervescence provides the beacon for all the wantedand unwantedattention Sheba receives, but it's her fragile emotional state that draws you in. Played like a wounded butterfly, Sheba is too weak to either stave off a dalliance with the young gentplayed with convincing lustfulness by newcomer Simpsonor tell the stifling Barbara to bugger off, despite the consequences. Then there's Dench as Barbara, representing the opposite end of the spectrum as Notes' driving force. She's a bull dog, whose withering glares stop her students in their tracks and cutting remarks slice her fellow colleagues to bits, all punctuated by her caustic running commentary. Still, when Barbara turns madly obsessive, with her soft underbelly eventually exposed, she crumbles with the best of them. And the best part of Notes is watching these two brilliant actress go toe-to-toe for the first time on film. The underrated Nighy also does a fine job, ditching his Pirates of the Caribbean's tentacles to play Sheba's down-to-earth yet hapless husband. A top-notch cast all around.
The Messengers (2007)
sell out but still great
Stewart, Jodie Foster's endangered daughter in Panic Room, is appropriately moody and plucky as the terrorized teen whom no one believes. Penelope Ann Miller and Dylan McDermott are both suitably dense as Mom and Dad, with twins Evan and Theodore Turner suitably spooky as the wide-eyed baby brother who can see everything. X-Files regular William B. Davis, sans cigarette, drops in a couple of times as the local real-estate agent, and a grizzled John Corbett plays a shotgun-toting farm hand who the family hires with surprisingly little hesitation. There's only so much the actors can do with the material, and they pretty much do it. Direction
Directors Danny and Oxide Pang, veterans of such popular Asian scarefests as The Eye and Ab-normal Beauty, know their way around a scare, and The Messengers has some decent jolts along the way. Ultimately, however, the peskiest of all problems the plot tends to get in the way. As the story pieces fall into place, the film itself tends to fall apart. In addition, this is yet another horror film that has been given a box-office-friendlier PG-13 rating (in the February issue of Fangoria, co-star Corbett makes his displeasure known about this issue). This is the Pang brothers' first stateside project, and despite their stylistic touches, there's an unmistakable sense of selling out.
Epic Movie (2007)
awful...
The ensemble cast of Epic Movie is a mix of actors with various levels of spoofing ability. In the leads, Penn (Van Wilder 2) is clearly the most adept. He approaches the ridiculous with a knowing level of sarcasm. He's like, ''It sucks to be in a stupid spoof and I'm going to point it out.'' Mays (TV's Heroes) plays Lucy as if Forrest Gump were playing mentally challenged. There's no payoff to her ditziness. Campbell (Date Movie) plays Peter like a prancing, preening wuss. Nobody ever taught him that spoof characters have to play it straight. And Chambers (White Chicks) plays Susan with no personality whatsoever. She's not even the generically sassy black chick. Spoof veteran Carmen Electra is almost unrecognizable as Mystique, another hot chick in blue, while the Johnny Depp clones are expertly cast, especially Hammond as the effeminate Jack Swallows (Get it?). Glover as the effeminate Willy is also scary. Finally, Fred Willard nearly steals the show as a sex-crazed lion man, while Jennifer Coolidge could pout her lips in a tragedy and still be hilarious.
Ghosts (2006)
Excellent
The title of Nick Broomfield's new film is deliberately ambiguous; ghosts being the disparaging term the Chinese use to describe white westerners and (possibly) a reference to the invisibility of poorly paid, unprotected non-British workers who work in slave conditions in the food industry.
Three years ago such workers made the news, briefly, when 23 illegal Chinese immigrants drowned in Morecambe Bay while digging for cockles late one evening. As the waters rose around them, they rang their families to say goodbye, unaware they'd have been better off ringing 999.
Their deaths inspired the notorious Broomfield to make a film in which he re-enacts the events leading up to the disaster. In this he is assisted by a cast of amateurs, many of whom are themselves illegal immigrants, and the film's star Ai Qi Lin, a non-professional, whom we follow through various low-skilled jobs in the food industry in a bid to pay back the $25,000 she borrowed from 'Snakeheads' to smuggle her into the country.
There are times when she must wonder why she bothered, forced as she is to live in a two-bedroom house with 11 other Chinese immigrants, all of whom are sworn at and spat on by their neighbours. The landlord is no better: he overcharges them.
And yet, for all that., despite the horrific ending, Ghosts isn't entirely bereft of hope. After all, if nothing else, its impact is such that it should force us all to question our own appetite for cheap food and embarrass supermarkets into altering the way their products are produced.
Music and Lyrics (2007)
Funny
Forget about all the romance--Music and Lyrics is really about the evolution of a good pop song. The hilarious opening '80s music video, starring Alex's fictional band Pop!, truly sets the moodleaving you humming their catchy but totally irritating song "Pop! Goes My Heart" throughout the entire movie. Director/writer Marc Lawrence (Two Weeks Notice) knows what he is doing when he's got his two lovebirds collaborating on the love song for Cora. But the film falls apart when Lawrence tries to justify everything else, such as why Sophie's a neurotic wacko (coming off a bad breakup) or why Alex fell off the wagon (bitterness over a split with his writing partner)and most importantly, how these two kids make it work (the ending is too pat). I suppose it wouldn't be much of a movie if it were just about how bad the music was in the '80s, but it certainly boosts Music and Lyrics' corny spirits.
Gray Matters (2006)
Romantic
ray Matters doesn't really seem like a stretch for any of its stars. Graham has already done the wide-eyed, neurotic single-girl shtick plenty of times, and--even with its ''am I gay?'' storyline--the movie doesn't offer anything new on that front. Plus, Gray is so busy yammering on and on about nothing that Graham doesn't have time to do much more than make big gestures and mug for the camera. Cavanagh's brand of goofy charm has been more or less the same Ed, Moynahan's only requirement is to walk around in skimpy lingerie and be irresistible, and Molly Shannon is gratingly broad as Gray's friend/co-worker Carrie. Cumming's Gordy is one of the film's few bright spots; the usually fey Scotsman plays it sweetly (and rather ironically) straight as a new friend who helps Gray cope with the emotional maelstrom she finds herself at the center of.
Journey to the End of the Night (2006)
I loved this movie...
What fun seeing a good ole fashion blood and guts, shoot 'em up noir. I felt like I was seeing a whole other side of the way crime thrillers could be made. This one uses sex, mostly in the backdrop and dialog in a hauntingly unerotic way--which speaks to the characters' misery and inability to feel pleasure. Not even sex or drugs can save them.
Journey's plot is secondary to the indelible, painterly images; so much like Christopher Doyle's work that I had to stop the DVD and see who the cinematographer was.
Scott Glenn rises to the occasion playing father and husband trying to make one last score so he can get out of the game. The old actor brings a lifetime of experience to the part. And really makes you invest emotionally in his plight. Also strong is Brendan Fraser, jumping out of his comedic pigeonhole and delivering an incredibly nuanced performance, at times funny, frightening and unforgettable.
Factory Girl (2006)
Okay
Oh, wow...
Factory Girl centers on East Coast socialite Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller), who in the '60s was considered Andy Warhol's muse, was linked romantically to Bob Dylan, and eventually died of a drug overdose at 28. The story starts as Sedgwick, like a contemporary Paris Hilton, becomes a tabloid fixture on the New York social scene. Warhol (Guy Pearce) brings Edie into his Factory workshop, populated by boho artsy types who spend all day indulging Warhol's artistic fantasies. When Edie quickly scales the social ladder as Andy's pal, she meets a Bob Dylan-like rock star (Hayden Christensen). Edie reaches a social stratosphere quickly, but it is fleeting, and she spirals downward, lashing out at everyone, especially Warhol. Edie dies sadly, dismissed by some of the ones who loved her best.
Catch and Release (2006)
So, So...
Not much happens in Catch. Everyone is engaging enough but there's a lack of sparks required to get us feeling all tingly about love. As the story goes, Gray Wheeler (Jennifer Garner) is struggling after the sudden death of her fiancé, Grady. His friends, however, take her under their wing and try to help her get over the loss. There's lovable goof Sam (Kevin Smith), hyper-responsible Dennis (Sam Jaeger), and, oddly enough, the old childhood buddy Fritz (Tim Olyphant), a seemingly irresponsible playboy whom Gray never thought she could relate to. Until she shacks up with himalong with Sam and Dennis--in Grady's house. Suddenly, deep, dark secrets about who she thought was the love of her life surface, and Gray finds herself inexplicably drawn to Fritz. Aw, let's see if these two crazy kids can't work it out.
Catch a Fire (2006)
Good
South Africa is as far away from Hollywood as we can get and this is the kind of movie in which actors get to really show off, transforming into people almost from another world. Luke pulls a Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda. We know Luke is a red-blooded American boy, but he sounds like a native South African here. Not only the accent, but he carries himself like someone who never knew the comforts of the suburbs. Robbins also produces an uncanny South African/Dutch accent. His Nic Vos is the scariest kind of bad guy, so frustratingly sure of himself it is beyond evil. He has legitimate reason to fear for his family's safety in the volatile political and social climate, but could he be any more smug? Henna has the most visceral part. As the wife caught up in both sides of Chamusso's life, she suffers as innocent bait and then gets abandoned for her husband's obsession. She cries her heart out and it always feels genuine, not just a show for the cameras. All three are sure to be considered come Oscar nomination season, though one may wonder if the film was written specifically for that reason.
Amazing Grace (2006)
great!
great, great, great! One of the best things Amazing Grace has going for it is Gruffudd's enthusiastic, heartfelt performance. Probably best known to American audiences as Horatio Hornblower, the Welsh actor is no stranger to period drama, and his ease in knickers and puffy shirts helps ground the film and make Wilberforce an accessible, down-to-earth hero rather than a crusading zealot. Meanwhile, with her arch looks and knowing smiles, Garai gives her relatively thankless role--basically, Barbara is an excuse for exposition-driven flashbacks--a spark of fun. Finney does a little (mostly justified) scenery chewing as Newton, while fellow veteran Michael Gambon has some delightfully devilish moments as Wilberforce's unexpected political ally, Lord Charles Fox. And Rufus Sewell, who often ends up playing smooth baddies, is both witty and wily as fervent abolitionist Thomas Clarkson.
Indigènes (2006)
awesome taste and content
Days Of Glory Set in WWII, when nearly 700,000 North African soldiers fought for France, Days of Glory follows a racially divided French brigade. Their mission culminates in a bloody showdown in Alsace. Racism and religious differences contribute to lingering suspicion for the unpaid pensions. French president Jacques Chirac announced last September after seeing the film that he would reverse a 47-year-old policy of freezing war pensions for the widows of expatriate African Army soldiers that fought for France. I laughed, I cried. I want more...There are some moments that some might find strange politically, but all in all a fine masterpiece by a director in his prime.