For once, as far as reviewing a movie goes, with The Prestige I’m kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. It seems that if I wanted to discuss the film, I would have to unintentionally ‘spoil’ the major and minor twists and turns. There’s not a lot of legroom to work with here. There is one trick I will give away: the trailer suggests that Christian Bale’s Alfred Borden will be the magician gone wrong. In truth, it turns out to be Robert Angier, the character played by Hugh Jackman.
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Well, Meryl Streep does it again. It’s amazing how she alternates between high drama roles and relatively flippy-floppy ones in comedies, yet sustains the high quality of her acting. This was a flippy-floppy film, but perfectly entertaining for a couple of hours, mainly thanks to Streep’s character and some memorable on-liners.

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Director Rose Troche followed up her acclaimed indie Go Fish, with British production Bedrooms and Hallways, about London roommates Leo, Darren and Angie. While Darren has a turbulent sexual affair going with his real estate agent, Leo joins a new age mensgroup and soon falls for straight member Brendan. Brendan has recently broken up with Sally, who just happens to be Leo’s childhood sweetheart. What follows is much more than a romcom: it is an intelligent take on love, relationships, sexual orientation, friendship and the urban family and how and why we love who we love.
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Lucha Libre or “free wrestling” is very popular in Mexico and most Latin-American countries. It is comparable to All Star Wrestling in North America with the WWF as its most famous wrestling federation. In Mexico some wrestlers like Blue Demon and Santo even got to a superhero status, starring in countless movies and always staying in character, never taking off their masks. So, there was enough heritage for this movie to make a nice story about it and it could have served as a good excuse to portray the beautiful Mexican culture and countryside. I am therefore confused as to why director/writer Hess and producer/actor Jack Black chose this particular “angle” of a Mexican friar dreaming of a career as a luchador.

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Personally, I think David Lynch is one of the most interesting of current filmmakers. The past couple of years, Lynch spent specializing in learning to work with his new toy, a digital video camera (abbreviated as DV), he extensively used for experimentation on his website. Last year, at the Cannes Film Festival, Lynch announced he had been working on a new film, starring Laura Dern en Jeremy Irons, for almost two years. It was supposed to be about a woman in trouble. A description being just as vague as the last thirty minutes of his previous film Mulholland Dr. Last Monday, I had the good fortune of attending a special screening of INLAND EMPIRE (as his latest three hour DV piece is called) in the company of the master himself and leads Laura Dern and Justin Theroux. Let me tell you: INLAND EMPIREin its entirety is just as wonderfully vague as the last act of Mulholland Dr. or the disturbing Eraserhead.
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Zwartboek (English title: Black Book) has the privilege of being the first Dutch Paul Verhoeven film since 1983. Verhoeven not only directed, but also co-wrote (with Gerard Soeteman) the WWII story of a young Jewish woman who joins the Dutch resistance, tries to expose a traitor, and falls in love. Although a Dutch production, Zwartboek is not a Dutch film. It aims for a bigger audience.
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Like a vintage muscle car, The Departed thrusts forward with an ingenious plot, excellent acting and a rock heavy soundtrack mixed with the sound of gun fire. Martin Scorsese is back to doing what all film buffs wants him doing—making a film with hard-edged characters drenched with blood. With an ensemble cast comprised with both movie stars and veteran character actors, Scorsese had all the elements to add another classic to his already impressive body of work. Sad to say though, the wheels on this vehicle fall off on its last lap.
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Most of the time, I’m a sucker when it comes down to true story, motivational formula sports movies. When films are made on this by the numbers playbook, I’ll forgive them. That is, so long as the performances are good, there aren’t too many liberties taken, and there might even be something new to say. If there is one thing great I can say about Gridiron Gang it is that Dwyane ‘Rock’ Johnson is well cast and could play this role in his sleep. He’s that natural and convincing. Added to this are surprisingly good supporting perfomances by newcomer Jade Yorke, character actor Leon Rippy and rap star Xzibit. So what can go wrong? Plenty.
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