I have to admit for some reason I missed this film in theatres. I think Halle Berry is not only an underrated actress most of the time, but she’s also smoking hot as usual. Bruce Willis is an always reliable actor, nothing wrong there. As for director James Foley, he’s directed some of my favorite thrillers- specifically After Dark, My Sweet . As I watched the DVD, I kept getting interrupted. Stuff happens, what can I say? That’s good drama. So when I finally get to this lousy, clunky film I count my blessings that I made it through to the end. All this talent, and there’s no suspense, no noir, nothing that risque, and worse, since all the actors are as stiff as boards, there is no drama. Nothing believable, anyway. I defy anyone to make heads or tails out of this crazy film.
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Leonardo DiCaprio is responsible for this new documentary about the environment and what we are doing to the planet. A nice follow-up to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth perhaps? So far I have not been able to find out when this is hitting Europe, but it’s already out in the USA. They are not giving out any review copies, so I look forward to one of our American authors checking this out and letting us know how DiCaprio is at documentary making.

With today’s movie industry churning out one romantic comedy after another, and with them all too often being repeats of the same tired plots we’ve seen hundred of times before, it is rare to come across a film in this genre that contains any originality. You go to a dvd shop today and buy a romantic comedy, and you know how the film is going to proceed before you’ve even switched it on. The female or male protagonist will be down on their luck; they’ll meet an attractive guy or girl who at first either they don’t appear to click with, or obstacles are preventing them from from getting together; then before you know it, the two will fall in love and that will be that. Pretty Woman and The Wedding Planner are just a couple of examples.
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This is without a doubt, a tough movie to review. On one hand, I sincerely want to tear it a new rear end for any number of things, including , but not limited to: the lame, unbelievable twist, the mere possibility that Jet Li’s co-star, Jason Statham, wasn’t really needed to the story, occasional scenes of dullsville, and an uneeded scene with a call girl that is never talked about again. On the other hand, the big (yet minor) pluses are that the fight scenes are nicely done, the shootouts and car crashes are fine. Then there’s Devon Akoi, who is a Yakuza daughter ready to run the family business, and most notably, it’s a revenge story laced in with shades of Kurasowa’s Yojimbo. Since the film is showcased as a showdown between Statham and Li, that should be the tiebreaker. Since it takes a long time to get there, and an hour and a half seems like three hours…
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My hairdresser recommended this film and its soundtrack to me, knowing that I have a love for British films made in or portraying the 1980’s. It’s about eight boys at a grammar school in Sheffield in 1983 who, on achieving excellent A-Level results are tutored an extra term to get into Oxford or Cambridge University. Adolescent boys, school uniforms and a dash of homosexuality sounded like my cup of tea – but somehow I couldn’t get into this film to appreciate it as much as many others seem to.

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When it comes to comedies, I admit that I bring a certain skepticism. I can only laugh when the jokes are intelligent. For me the best comedy I’ve ever seen have come from television. Shows like The Simpsons, Arrested Develeopment and the Chappelle’s Show are examples of comedic genius. Very few films actually match the laughter that generate from those shows. The last couple of good movie comedies I’ve seen were Little Miss Sunshine and Hot Fuzz. With that said, Wild Hogs is a stinking pile of waste. Note to John Travolta: it’s time to call Quentin Tarantino to revitalize your career again.
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I’ve heard a lot of bad, bad, horrible things about this film. While some of the transformations from human to wolf are a bit too simplistic, the worst thing about the film is by far and large, the dumb title. Now, it also my understanding that the title is the same as the novel it is based on. It’s still a stupid title. The main surprise is that for some reason, and I really can’t put my finger on it- the film does work, not as a scary horror film, but rather a character driven film with moments of suspense in it. More importantly, it isn’t boring.
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The two biggest problems with the the new version of Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers, called Invasion overtakes the film not unlike like the pod people do in the film. One one hand, it’s almost too easy to tell where one director left off and the other took over; and on the flip side, screenwriter Dave Kajganich decided to ‘re-imagine’ the pod takeover. The end result is an interesting mishmash of ideas and nightmarish visions comprimised by bad editing, uneeded car chases and an unsatisfactory ending.
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Importing directors from other countries, in my opinion, is a far better option than remaking thier work for North American audiences. On the other hand, that’s not really a great thing- what is the point, really, if the studios just wind up tying thier hands behind thier backs and let the film run on auto-pilot? For about seventy minutes of The Messengers, Danny and Oxide Pang really show what they can do. The twenty minutes that follow, however, seems more like a cheap plot hole that nobody could escape from and someone got the idea, ‘hey, let’s make a twist which makes no lick of sense, break the rules we worked so hard to establish, and everyone will love us for it’.
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I had heard that this was a sweet little independent film about a busker in Dublin who falls in love with a Czech immigrant girl. And the big draw for me was that it’s also a musical! Seemingly a perfect escape on a hot sticky NY summer night, I found myself sadly only enjoying the air conditioning and the comfy seats. A more apt description would have been a low quality, extended music video for star Glen Hansard (whose bio reads suspiciously like the thread bare storyline of this movie.)
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