Hustle & Flow

HUSTLE AND FLOW (2005) - May 27, 2007
Featuring a really impressive performance by Terrence Howard, this was a well made film about a pimp who aspires to be a rapper. Though Howard is clearly the standout, this is a really well acted film (even Anthony Anderson and DJ Qualls are quite good). The film also features some good writing and direction by Craig Brewer (and is certainly a step up from his last film as a writer, the decent but forgettable Water's Edge). ***

L'Enfant

L'ENFANT (2005) - May 26, 2007
A well made film about a young couple and their new baby, focusing mostly on the guy, a petty criminal who tends to make questionable decisions. Well directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who shot the film in a handheld style that nicely complements the story (it was good, French New Wave style handheld, not ugly, shaky Paul Greengrass style handheld). Jérémie Renier was really good in the main role, as were all the other performances. That's two really good films in a row. Sweet. ***1/2

Volver

VOLVER (2006) - May 25, 2007
A delightful film about two sisters and their mother, who has apparently come back from the dead. This was really entertaining from start to finish, and featured some really good performances, particularly Penelope Cruz (!) who I guess is actually a pretty decent actress when she's not busy struggling with the English language. It was also a really nice looking film; the direction and cinematography were quite good. Almodóvar and his cinematographer do a really good job using the widescreen frame -- I also liked the use of stark colours. But really, the biggest surprise here is how good Penelope Cruz is. What's up with that? ***1/2

Esma's Secret

ESMA'S SECRET (2006) - May 24, 2007
Anchored by a really excellent performance from Mirjana Karanovic, this was a low-key but engaging film about a mother and her daughter in post-war Sarajevo. It was well directed and was quite entertaining throughout despite being almost entirely plotless. ***

Meet the Robinsons

MEET THE ROBINSONS (2007) - May 24, 2007
About a plucky orphan who winds up traveling into the future, this was a silly but mostly entertaining film. What really stands out in this movie are the visuals; it looks nicely cartoony, and wisely avoids the creepy realism of stuff like the Polar Express and the Shrek movies. And then there's the 3D, which is easily the best use of 3D I've ever seen. The illusion of depth is completely convincing, and it never feels gimmicky or over-done. I'm generally not too crazy about 3D, so I was surprised to find that it actually did enhance the experience. ***

Waitress

WAITRESS (2007) - May 23, 2007
A cute romantic comedy about a small-town waitress stuck in a loveless marriage (whose husband seems like a jerk even compared to the usual jerk husband/fiancee seen in these types of romantic comedies) who finds out she's pregnant and begins to fall in love with her doctor. Keri Russell is very good in the lead role, but it's Nathan Fillion who really steals the movie (in a role that's way too small) as the doctor she falls in love with. How is he not a big movie star yet? I don't get it. He's the second coming of Tom Hanks, as far as I'm concerned. The movie was also well directed and quite entertaining, though I do have some qualms with the ending. ***

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END (2007) - May 23, 2007
That was long. Very, very long. It started out pretty well, with the main characters trying to recruit a band of Singaporean pirates to assist them in rescuing Jack Sparrow. But then not a whole lot happens, and the movie spends the next hour or two setting up the many plot threads leading up to the action-packed finale. There are double crosses, and triple crosses, and probably quadruple crosses -- I was basically able to follow it but it certainly seemed unnecessarily convoluted. Much of what I liked so much about the first one (the fact that it was just a relatively simple, fun swashbuckling adventure) is completely absent from this film, replaced in favour of a much more epic feel. And then there's the whole ending sequence, which is LONG and seems to be compensating for the relative lack of action in the mid-section. Couldn't some of this action have been spread out a bit? The film is well made and looks very good, but I just had a hard time maintaining my level of interest for the entire three hours. **

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST (2006) - May 21, 2007 (Second Viewing)
Well, I think I liked this better the second time around. It probably helped that I knew how long it was and where it was going. It also helped that my expectations were somewhat lower. Anyway, I enjoyed it. I still think it's too long and not nearly as good as the original, but it's well made and fun. ***

Summer '04

SUMMER '04 (2006) - May 20, 2007
A slow-paced and typically European "art-house" type of film, about... not much of anything, really. There's a couple, and their kid, and his girlfriend (and it took me at least ten minutes to even figure out those relationships) and another random guy, and some stuff happens. The direction was quite good, and it was well acted, but man was it slow. **1/2

Shrek the Third

SHREK THE THIRD (2007) - May 19, 2007
Well, that could have been better. After the first one, which was quite enjoyable, and the second one, which wasn't quite as good but still okay, the series has finally worn out its welcome. I can't quite put my finger on what went wrong with this one, other than to say that the whole thing is a bit stale at this point. **

Total Recall

TOTAL RECALL (1990) - May 14, 2007 (Umpteenth Viewing)
Ah, now THIS is an action movie. They don't make them even remotely like this anymore. Arnold Schwarzenegger is at his wisecracking best in this film about a man who discovers that he's been living a double life, and that he's really a secret agent on Mars. Gleefully violent, the film earns its R rating in a way contemporary action movies don't even dream to do. There are few people who can direct action as well as Paul Verhoeven (and it certainly isn't by shaking the camera and cutting a million times a second). Good stuff. ****

28 Weeks Later

28 WEEKS LATER (2007) - May 12, 2007
If I had telekinetic powers, I think Jaun Carlos Fresnadillo's head would have exploded by now, because I've been sending him some pretty bad vibes. He is a horrendously bad director. By all accounts, this should have been a pretty good movie -- the performances were good, the screenplay was okay and it had a solid enough premise, but man... the direction. It feels like, at film school, his teacher said "Here are the different types of shots: there are extreme close-ups, close-ups..." at which point he immediately stood up, "Alright! I've heard enough! Time to go make me a movie!" I swear, I think 90 percent of this film consisted of close-ups. As for the action, it was probably more like 100 percent. Sweet Jesus, don't even get me started on the action scenes, all of which were unrelentingly terrible. I don't think I've ever seen such badly directed action scenes; they were a complete and utter mess, a chaotic mishmash of images and sounds without even a hint of coherency. Each shot can't be more than a few frames, and it's just an unpleasant, confusing visual assault. And so shaky... Jesus. And I don't mean "we shot this handheld" shaky, I mean "let's shake this damn camera as hard as we can without breaking it" shaky. Even Paul Greengrass looks restrained in comparison. I can imagine someone might defend the film by saying something like "it's a chaotic situation, and the direction/editing-style puts you in the heads of the characters." Well, unless the character is an ADD-afflicted, crack-addled seven-year-old in the midst of a seizure, that simply isn't the case. And even if that were the case, why would I WANT to be in the head of that character? What's pleasant about that? What's enjoyable about watching a barrage of sounds and images and having to struggle to figure out what's even going on? I need to go find Fresnadillo so I can spit on him. *

Reeker

REEKER (2005) - May 10, 2007 (S)
Hmmm... That wasn't so good. It started out well enough -- it had a pretty generic setup (a bunch of teens get stuck in the middle of nowhere when their car breaks down) but did a reasonably good job of building tension. The tension builds, but then... nothing happens for a while. And then when stuff does start to happen, the director makes the odd choice of not showing the villain at all, and making it look like people are getting killed my a menacing cloud of gas. Finally, more than an hour in, we get to actually see the bad guy, but it's sort of too late by then. And then there's the twist ending, which sort of made sense but seemed more like a twist for the sake of having a twist. The film was essentially well made, but was undone by the absence of a compelling villain, and a lengthy mid-section in which not much happens. **

Away from Her

AWAY FROM HER (2006) - May 9, 2007
About a woman who gets Alzheimer's, goes to live in a retirement home, and winds up falling in love after basically forgetting about her husband, this was a well made film. It was very slow-paced and exceptionally depressing, but it was a good film (Sarah Polley does well in her debut as a writer/director, though it does occasionally seem like she's trying a bit too hard to be profound with her dialogue). If nothing else, the movie would be worthwhile if only for the performances, which are uniformly excellent; Gordon Pinsent, in particular, gives a really phenomenal performance as the husband who has to watch as his wife falls in love with another man. ***

Weekend at Bernie's

WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S (1989) - May 7, 2007 (Umpteenth Viewing)
Ah, Weekend at Bernie's... From a decade that brought us some pretty wacky comedies, this is certainly one of the wackiest. About a couple of guys who decide to pretend that their dead boss is still alive, I still really enjoyed this movie despite having seen it about a million times. It helps that Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy have very good chemistry together. Where's Weekend at Bernie's 3? ***

The Desperate Hours

THE DESPERATE HOURS (1955) - May 6, 2007
Humphrey Bogart (in one of his last roles) is very good, as usual, in this film about a group of three escaped convicts who terrorize a suburban family. Though perhaps not quite the crackerjack thriller I was hoping it would be (it actually moves at a fairly deliberate pace) this was still a well-made and enjoyable film. **1/2

Spider-Man 3

SPIDER-MAN 3 (2007) - May 5, 2007 (Second Viewing)
Well, I enjoyed this just as much the second time as I did the first, so I have to say that I'm a bit puzzled about the lukewarm reception this movie has been receiving from the critics. No, it's definitely not as good as the second one, and maybe not even the first, but it's still a smart, well-made, better-than-average summer blockbuster. It's long and there's a lot of plot crammed in there, but it never feels muddled. People also seem to be complaining that it's too dramatic ("everybody cries"). But what? Would they rather have another bland, explosion-filled snooze-fest? Well, whatever. I liked it. ***1/2

Lucky You

LUCKY YOU (2007) - May 2, 2007
About a professional poker player dealing with his estranged father and his new girlfriend while trying to raise funds to enter the world series of poker, this was a decent film. It was well made and very well acted (Eric Bana in particular was really good) but it was a bit on the long side and somewhat cheesy in parts (the romance with Drew Barrymore wasn't very well done). But the stuff with Eric Bana and Robert Duvall was quite good, and even though I only know the basics about poker, I still found the poker scenes to be pretty interesting. **1/2