If you’ve never seen of any of the X-Men, The Matrix, Scanners, or the TV series Heroes or The X-Files, then Paul McGuigan‘s new film, Push would appear to be the neatest, most entertaining film made in many years. Having a Hong Kong setting doesn’t hurt, and hey, if all else should fail, we have a buzzed up drunk pre-teen super psychic played by Dakota Fanning. Sadly, the masses have been exposed to all those other films and shows. Push, despite all sorts of exposition and information crammed down into under two hours, remains a slightly entertaining film. If nothing else, there’s a nice performance by Dakota Fanning, whose character must drink something harder than Red Bull everytime to get her ESP kicking in high mode.
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Mermaids is an enjoyable film about about the trials of growing up in an unconventional and somewhat dysfunctional family in the 1960s. Whatever people might think about Cher, she can definitely act. In Mermaids she is the perfect casting choice for the unconventional Mrs Flax, who dresses like she’s still in her teens and doesn’t like to commit to anything. Her inability to commit to any place or any one means that the family are constantly relocating and never stay in one place too long.
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When there is a genre piece, be it science fiction or fantasy, no matter how crazy the ‘rules’ are, a set of rules must be set and enforced. The rules don’t have to be many. They can be direct and simple. The reason for having them is to help the audience enjoy the film more and to give limitations on some of the characters. Rules can give those characters challenges to face and overcome. There were a few things that worried me early on with Dragonball Evolution, the first being a narration which will repeat itself halfway through just in case the audience dozed off, the next being the bold declaration that ‘the rules are that there are no rules’. Well, I’m curious- isn’t that a rule?
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I caught Renee Zellweger on David Letterman saying that she’s been coasting for the last year, getting things done she’s always wanted to do, like open a restaurant. That slack attitude seems to have followed her into this movie. Five out of the last six films that Renee has done have been period films and really none of those six have been any better than decent since the first one, Cinderella Man. She reprises her kewpie doll looks from Chicago to play Anne Deveraux, a high class lady living in 1950’s New York with two boys, one from a previous relationship and one from her current marriage to Dan Deveraux (Kevin Bacon). Why the film is set in the 50’s is really beyond me. Maybe because Renee requested it to keep up her track record. This story had no connection to the 50s and, honestly, a woman with two bastard children would not fly as well as it did back then. The younger child, George Deveraux, portrayed to an amazing degree by Logan Lerman, narrates the movie. His character had a depth and subtext that no other actor brought to their roles.

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Writer/Director David Twothy serves up a decent summer thriller. A newlywed couple, played by Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich, go to Hawaii for their honeymoon. There they encounter another newlywed couple, Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton, looking to hitch a ride. Although Zhan and Jovovich stop to give them a ride, things don’t quite work out and the hitchers are left by the side of the road. There is yet another couple that they meet played by Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez since it seems no one goes to Hawaii without a partner. And so begins the suspicion, the deceit, the tension which makes a thriller fun – and, really, it could have been lots of fun. Could have been.

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Time Travel is a tricky thing. Paradoxes, Space/Time Continuums and all manner of plot holes manifest when you start skipping people through time. However, this film does time travel somewhat properly and, by the end of the movie, time travel doesn’t really matter. It’s almost a gimmick to tell the same story in a new way. And this is the same story.

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Neill Blomkamp, the writer and director of District 9 starts out the movie like a docu-drama, moves it into a sci-fi mentality, evolves into an action/adventure film and finally settles as a buddy movie and does it all swimmingly and effortlessly.  This story started its life as a short that Neill made in 2005 called Alive in Jo’burg.  In the short there was more then one spaceship and the aliens looked like something you’d see in the original Star Wars cantina (by original I mean before ILM put its sticky fingers all over it).  The short was filmed in a pseudo-documentary style and that style followed the story into this feature film.

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Writer-director James Gray is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors, and once again, he teams up with his We Own The Night star Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix clearly gave a great performance in the previous film, and while Two Lovers is different in genre and tone, Phoenix again proves that he is one of this generation’s best all around actors. The sad part about it is, his ‘announcement’ of ‘retirement’ from acting to pursue some music endeavors hurt the film upon its US release earlier this year.
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Not counting the occasional Hellraiser direct to video film series, it’s been some time since a movie based on a Clive Barker story has cropped up, or should I say chopped up, on the screens. But like other Barker adaptations, The Midnight Meat Train fell victim to a studio system which made a controversial 2008 limited theatrical run. I suspect it will gain a cult following, as it does have not only an involving mystery about it, but also an incredible intensity.
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Doubt is an unusual film with a brilliant cast. I say ‘unusual’ because it is essentially a theatrical experience, but in film form. The film has very few characters and settings and it challenges the mind in the same way that a good play might, by making you look inwardly at yourself and the snap judgements that you might make about people you encounter.
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