A Christmas Carol

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2009) - Dec. 18, 2009
Another disappointing and visually unappealing mo-cap fiasco from the once-talented Robert Zemeckis.  I think I've already made my issues with Zemeckis' ill-advised ultra-real mo-cap style fairly clear, so I won't repeat them.  As for the movie itself, its main problem is that Scrooge just isn't a particularly interesting character, and since we're all abundantly familiar with his jerk to nice-guy character arc, the movie tends to feel a bit dull and pointless.  It doesn't help that there isn't really any conflict in the story -- there isn't much at stake for Scrooge to become a nice guy, other than Tiny Tim's life, I guess.  I don't know, the whole thing was basically entertaining I guess, but kind of dull.  **

The Princess and the Frog

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG (2009) - Dec. 16, 2009
A mostly enjoyable though kind of disappointing cartoon from Disney -- Disney's first traditionally animated film since Home on the Range, which is why it's disappointing that it's not better than it is.  The film has definitely proved that there is still a place for traditional animation (or at least there should be), as it looked really really good.  The story, involving a girl who is transformed into a frog thanks to a voodoo curse, was fine, if not anything really groundbreaking -- I can appreciate that Disney is trying to play it safe since this is their first 2D outing in a while, with traditional animation  lamentably being an oddity these days.  The problem is that the film really starts to lag a bit in its midsection -- with the two main characters as frogs, surrounded by overly-quirky characters in a visually unappealing swamp (at least compared to the film's vibrant rendering of 1920s New Orleans).  However it starts and ends quite well, and I was definitely never bored.  If nothing else, the film is worth it just for its dazzling animation.  **1/2

Five Minutes of Heaven

FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN (2009) - Dec. 15, 2009
A really well made and extremely well acted film about a former UVF member who agrees to meet the brother of a man he killed several years earlier.  The film is really well directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, and features some surprisingly tense moments.  However, it is the performances that really stand out, particularly Liam Neeson, who proves yet again that he's one of the best actors working right now.  ***1/2

Whatever Works

WHATEVER WORKS (2009) - Dec. 14, 2009
A really enjoyable comedy by Woody Allen about a grumpy old coot (a self-proclaimed genius) who befriends (and later marries) a young, small-town girl.  Easily Allen's funniest film in ages, this actually felt a lot like the films of his heyday, though not quite on that level in terms of quality.  It was definitely right up there with his better films of late, and a definite reminder that the Woodster can still knock 'em out of the park when he feels like it.  The film was at its strongest for the first hour or so, and runs out of steam ever-so-slightly by the end, but it was still quite enjoyable throughout and featured a surprisingly strong lead performance from Larry David.  ***1/2

Armored

ARMORED (2009) - Dec. 12, 2009
An enjoyable thriller about a group of armored truck drivers who decide to rob the truck that they're driving; things don't go according to plan.  This is Nimrod Antal's follow-up to Vacancy, which was superb.  This wasn't quite in the same league, but it was definitely enjoyable and really well directed (other than a short car chase which was a bit too heavy on the old shaky-cam).  ***

Fired Up

FIRED UP (2009) - Nov. 29, 2009
An enjoyable and wacky comedy about a couple of guys who decide to go to cheerleading camp in order to meet girls; wackiness ensues.  The movie unfolds pretty much exactly how you think it will, but it's quite entertaining throughout, and features a number of genuinely funny moments.  ***

Ninja Assassin

NINJA ASSASSIN (2009) - Nov. 28, 2009
A really silly but mostly enjoyable film about a member of an elite group of ninjas who goes rogue.  The action was completely over-the-top (and a bit cgi-heavy) but was mostly enjoyable.  The main characters were all kind of bland, but pretty much got the job done.  **1/2

Mission: Impossible 3

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 (2006) - Nov. 26, 2009 (Second Viewing)
While I think I enjoyed this a bit more this time around, it's still definitely not on the level of J.J. Abrams' directorial follow-up, Star Trek.  The action is all very well done, and it's quite entertaining throughout, though I still think it's probably a bit too action-heavy in the second half.  ***

Fantastic Mr. Fox

FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009) - Nov. 26, 2009
I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about this going in -- Wes Anderson is such a great director of live action, it seemed to me like he was just wasting his time dabbling in animation (much like what Zemekis has been doing for the last little while).  Fortunately, I couldn't have been more wrong -- this was an utterly charming film, and the shift from live action to animation has done nothing to dull Anderson's ability to create a really compelling group of characters; this is easily right up there with all of Anderson's best films.  The retro animation style is a bit off-putting when only seen in small chunks, however within the context of the film it works beautifully.  But no amount of great visuals would have helped much if the story were weak -- however, this isn't the case at all.  The film is funny, touching and really enjoyable throughout.  ****

2012

2012 (2009) - Nov. 21, 2009
About the events surrounding the end of the world in 2012, mostly revolving around a divorced author struggling to maintain a relationship with his kids, and a scientist who was one of the first to discover what was happening to the Earth.  The film definitely overstays its welcome a bit at over two and a half hours, and the plot/characters are far from fresh, but just for the spectacle of it all it's definitely worth watching.  Roland Emmerich is pretty much a master at destroying things on a huge scale at this point, and his direction in the action scenes is refreshingly devoid of the old quick-cut/shaky-cam.  Plus, the film features some of the best special effects that I've seen in a while, so the destruction is almost always fairly convincing.  ***

The Men Who Stare at Goats

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS (2009) - Nov. 13, 2009
An enjoyable if somewhat episodic and rambling film about an American reporter in Iraq who gets caught up with a with a man who claims to be a member of elite group of soldiers with paranormal abilities.  The performances were all quite good, and it was well made, but it wasn't quite as engaging as I might have hoped.  ***

The Box

THE BOX (2009) - Nov. 7, 2009
About a couple in '70s-era Boston who receive a mysterious box containing a button, and are told that if they press it, they will receive a million dollars but someone who they don't know will die.  Oddball shenanigans ensue once the couple decide to start investigating who's behind the box.  The film features expectedly primo direction from Richard Kelly, who does a great job of establishing and maintaining an atmosphere of dread.  The problem is that the film just gets more and more bizarre as it goes along, eventually introducing a lot of bizarre sci-fi plot twists which may or may not hold up to scrutiny.  ***

Monsters vs. Aliens

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS (2009) - Nov. 5, 2009
A silly but enjoyable cartoon about a woman who is turned into a giant, and is subsequently locked up with a few other wacky monsters, and eventually called upon to save the Earth from a sinister alien.  It's not exactly Pixar, but then it didn't really seem like it was trying to be anything other than innocuous fun.  And for what it was, it was quite enjoyable.  ***

This Is It

THIS IS IT (2009) - Nov. 1, 2009
A really enjoyable but kind of sad concert film, documenting Michael Jackson's rehearsals for what was to be his final set of concerts, if he hadn't died.  It's sad because it shows that Jackson, despite outward appearances, was ready and completely able to put on a really great show, and was still clearly just as passionate of an entertainer as ever.  It's always apparent that this is just a rehearsal and not a real show, but it's just as apparent that the concert would have been pretty great.  ***1/2

Law Abiding Citizen

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN (2009) - Oct. 31, 2009
Though the film gets progressivly sillier and more far-fetched as it goes along and starts to wear out its welcome a bit towards the end, this was a basically entertaining film.  About a man whose family is killed, and who then embarks on what has to be the most ridiculously elaborate revenge scheme ever committed to film, this was an extremely ludicrous but mostly enjoyable film.  **1/2

Southland Tales

SOUTHLAND TALES (2006) - Oct. 28, 2009
A bizarre film about a bunch of characters in Los Angeles in a not-too-distant future in which America is essentially a police state and at war.  A kind of strange mishmash of genres, sort of sci-fi and satire and dark comedy all at once -- I can see why the reviews were mixed, but I thought it was pretty great.  It's sort of ambiguous and weird and quirky, but it definitely worked for me.  Richard Kelly's direction is stellar, which certainly helps.  The performances were all quite good, and the film was just intriguing all the way through.  Good stuff.  ****

Saw VI

SAW VI (2009) - Oct. 27, 2009
Slightly better than the last few films in the Saw saga, this one focused on a smarmy health insurance executive who made the mistake of turning down Jigsaw's request for a procedure that could have cured his cancer, which was obviously not the smartest call on his part.  This one featured another new director who, like the last guy, is bland, but still a huge step up from the flashy hackery of Darren Lynn Bousman.  The film is almost ridiculously low rent -- it's almost surprising that a theatrical release can get away with such low production values, but I guess that's becoming part of the charm of the Saw movies.  All the stuff with the hapless executive was quite entertaining, but I found myself losing interest every time the film cut to Hoffman's shenanigans, with the exception of the scene in which an increasingly shifty Hoffman is on the verge of being found out by his colleagues (Hoffman definitely needs to go -- he's easily one of the lamest villians ever).  **1/2

Paranormal Activity

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007) - Oct. 23, 2009
About a couple who think that they're being haunted, and who set up cameras to record themselves while they're sleeping, this was a genuinely creepy film.  It's kind of slow and pretty uneventful for the most part, and yet there's something about it that's oddly terrifying.  ***1/2

Them

THEM (2006) - Oct. 19, 2009
A simple but effective horror movie about a young couple who wake up one night to find their home besieged by invaders.  The film was well directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, and definitely did a good job of keeping things fairly suspensful.  Though the first half was definitely more effective than the second, it was still quite enjoyable throughout.  ***

The Stepfather

THE STEPFATHER (2009) - Oct. 17, 2009
Though I haven't seen the original on which this was based, I have to assume that it was better than this.  About the latest family of a killer who goes from family to family, weaseling his way in and then killing them when they don't meet his standards.  The main problem with this movie was that it just wasn't all that interesting, with long stretches in which not all that much happens.  Once it's established that the eldest son of the family is suspicious of the stepfather, the film essentially just spins its wheels without much of note happening for long stretches of time.  The suspicious son, who is essentially the main character, is super bland, which doesn't help matters.  Nor does the fact that the film is ridiculously watered down, even by the usual tame standards of a PG-13 horror film -- when the bloodiest part in a thriller like this is when the main character cuts himself while shaving, you know you've got problems.  Despite all that, the film featured competent (if somewhat bland) direction from Nelson McCormick, and up to a certain point I was thinking that the movie was pretty bad but not outright terrible.  But then there was the ridiculously anti-climactic finale, which had to have been the worst ending I've ever seen for a movie like this.  It was frustratingly bad. Seriously, what were they thinking?  *

Land of the Lost

LAND OF THE LOST (2009) - Oct. 16, 2009
An extremely silly but essentially enjoyable comedy about a misunderstood scientist whose oddball theories turn out to be true, and who winds up traveling back in time with a fellow scientist and a gas station attendant.  The film was fairly episodic, and for the most part just felt like an excuse for Will Ferrell and Danny McBride to do their usual schtick in a high-concept environment, but it was generally entertaining enough, and I chuckled a few times.  **1/2

The Children

THE CHILDREN (2008) - Oct. 13, 2009
A really effective horror movie about two couples who go to a secluded house around Christmas with their children.  It quickly becomes apparent that a strange illness is affecting their kids in a very sinister way.  The director does a really good job of establishing and sustaining tension, and in fact the whole thing is quite well directed (and somewhat Kubrickian in parts, with at least a couple of overt nods to the Shining).  Good stuff.  ***1/2

Capitalism: A Love Story

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY (2009) - Oct. 9, 2009
An almost absurdly boring film about why Michael Moore thinks capitalism is a flawed system. Although it actually starts off fairly well, the repetitive nature of the film along with the emphasis on sermonizing over actual human stories eventually completely wore me down. I was almost ridiculously bored by the time the movie finally lumbered to its conclusion (at just about two hours, the film felt WAY overlong). In fact, when it became clear that the movie was wrapping up, I could feel my heart start to beat faster -- the notion of being able to leave that theatre was quite exciting to me. This movie has definitely confirmed that I hate Michael Moore; not because of his politics, but because he is a hack filmmaker. He's all style, with seemingly no knowledge of stuff like pacing or storytelling -- he's the Michael Bay of documentarians. All he cares about is getting his message across, which invariably happens within the first half hour or so. After that, it's like listening to the same song on loop over and over again. 1/2*

Year One

YEAR ONE (2009) - Oct. 8, 2009
A kind of shoddy and not particularly funny comedy about a couple of guys who wind up wandering through a few biblical stories. Most of the humour is pretty lame, and while there are a few funny parts (which are pretty much all in the trailer) it's generally just not that funny. Jack Black and Michael Cera do their best and definitely have good chemistry, but there's only so much you can do when the material is this mediocre. The movie sort of kept me entertained, though there were a bunch of times when I was starting to get bored. Was this really directed by the same Harold Ramis who directed Groundhog Day? **

The Day the Earth Stood Still

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (2008) - Oct. 7, 2009
A really well directed film about the fallout that ensues when a mysterious alien comes to Earth. The performances, with the exception of a somewhat grating Jaden Smith, were really good (particularly Jennifer Connelly) and Scott Derrickson's stylish and effective direction did a good job of maintaining tension. The special effects were also pretty impressive -- this was definitely a good-looking film. The movie sort of falls apart a little bit if you over-think it, but that's really a minor complaint. ***

Trick 'r Treat

TRICK 'R TREAT (2008) - Oct. 6, 2009
Featuring four interwoven stories that take place in the same town on Halloween night, this was an entertaining if somewhat overrated Halloween anthology film. The strategy to intercut the stories rather than tell them one at a time may not have been the best choice, as the individual segments never really come together in a meaningful way (other than the occasional intersection of the characters) -- it kind of feels like the director wanted to take everything he likes about horror movies (ie. slasher films, ghost stories, monster movies, vampire movies, etc.) and cram them all into one film. It feels kind of incongruous at times. It's definitely entertaining and well made, it just seems like the director was trying a little too hard to make the ultimate Halloween movie. ***

Crossing Over

CROSSING OVER (2008) - Oct. 4, 2009
Sort of like Crash but for immigration policy instead of racism, this was similarly heavy-handed but quite well made and entertaining throughout. Featuring a bevy of above average performances from people like Harrison Ford and Ray Liotta (though special mention must go to Cliff Curtis), I'm really not sure why the critical reception was so overwhelmingly negative -- there's definitely a lot to like here, from Wayne Kramer's sure-handed direction to the uniformly superb performances. ***

Zombieland

ZOMBIELAND (2009) - Oct. 5, 2009
A really fun movie about a group of survivors of the zombie apocalypse, who travel across the country in the hopes of reaching a supposedly zombie-free theme park. Well directed by Ruben Fleischer, the film is kind of thin on plot, but it's so enjoyable that you don't even really notice. It helps that the characters are all really good (it's always nice to see Woody Harrelson on the big screen; Jesse Eisenberg was just as good as an unlikely survivor of the zombie plague) and the film is quite funny throughout (particularly a hilarious cameo by Bill Murray, playing himself). As far as zombie comedies go this isn't quite on the level of Shaun of the Dead, but it's actually surprisingly close. ****

Sorority Row

SORORITY ROW (2009) - Sept. 30, 2009
A mediocre slasher film that feels like it came out ten years too late, this was about a group of sorority sisters who cover up a murder when a prank goes seriously awry -- a few months later, they start getting killed one by one on the last night of school. Though the film actually starts out fairly strong, it just isn't very well written, and so I found myself seriously losing interest during the film's lengthy midsection. Once the killer sprung into motion I was basically entertained for a while, but the film's climax went on far longer than it should have (Carrie Fisher pops up towards the end and livens things up considerably, though her part was lamentably small). **

Messages Deleted

MESSAGES DELETED (2009) - Sept. 28, 2009
A surprisingly shoddy film about screenwriting teacher who gets a couple of messages from murder victims just before they are killed, and soon finds himself the prime suspect for their murders. Everything about this film feels ridiculously low-rent, from Rob Cowan's bland, downright incompetent direction (which is a big reason that this film doesn't work -- a lot of sequences that are clearly meant to be suspenseful or exciting just fall completely flat) to the score to the second-rate performances (even Matthew Lilard, who I like, did his best but was clearly miscast as a leading man type). It's surprising, given that it was written by Larry Cohen, who recently wrote the above average thrillers Cellular and Phone Booth -- this probably would have been quite a bit better with a better director and slightly higher production values, but it still wouldn't have been on the level of those two films. Oh well. *1/2

The Time Traveler's Wife

THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE (2009) - Sept. 27, 2009
Though not nearly as good as the book it is adapted from, this was an enjoyable and well made film about the romance between a man who periodically and uncontrolably time travels, and the woman who has known him since she was a child. The film sort of feels like a really simplified version of the book, which I guess was probably necessary given how dense the novel was -- it's a shame to lose the intricate nature of the book, where a lot of the time travel stuff was woven in in a really ingenious way, but for what it was the film pretty much succeeds. Certainly, both Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams gave stellar performances, which went a long way towards making up for some of the film's deficiencies. The movie's chick-flickiness felt more overt towards as it went along, and my attention did wane slightly towards the end, but for the most part this was a decent enough adaptation, if not at all on the same level as the novel (but I have to say, jeers to the filmmakers for replacing the book's melancholy, pitch-perfect ending with something a bit more upbeat and generic). ***

Jennifer's Body

JENNIFER'S BODY (2009) - Sept. 26, 2009
About a high school girl who starts eating her classmates after she's turned into a demon of some sort, this was a pretty mediocre film. Featuring ineffectual direction from Karyn Kusama, who does a pretty terrible job of generating any kind of suspense, and who seems to flinch away from any real violence -- I'm not sure why she even directed a horror film, since it seems like she's uncomfortable with the genre. Diablo Cody's quirky, super-stylized dialogue doesn't work nearly as well here as it did in Juno (it feels almost like Cody is parodying herself in parts, though I'm sure that wasn't the intention), though I did get used to it after a while. The film's main problem was that the horror stuff was pretty lame, it wasn't funny enough to work as a comedy, and the characters weren't really interesting enough to carry the film on their own (they were basically just variations on characters we've seen in a million other high school movies). **

[REC] 2

[REC] 2 (2009) - Sept. 19, 2009
An awesome follow-up to the original [REC], which is definitely just as good as that film if not even a little bit better. Taking place just after the events of the first film, this one finds a group of soldiers entering the apartment with a doctor in an attempt to figure out just what the disease is all about. Featuring some amazingly tense sequences as well as some seriously sweet action, this was definitely one of the more flat-out enjoyable films I've seen in a while. ***1/2

Road, Movie

ROAD, MOVIE (2009) - Sept. 19, 2009
A surprisingly boring film about a young man who decides to take his uncle's truck, a beat up old truck from the '40s that's been outfitted as a traveling movie theatre, and drive it across India's desert. He picks up some quirky characters along the way. There are so many problems with this film I don't even know where to start. It's visually not compelling at all, as the protagonist quickly leaves the city and spends the rest of the film driving across the barren desert. The main character was completely bland and not even nearly interesting enough to carry the film. The two main supporting characters are ridiculously quirky and are never developed beyond their initial quirkiness. There's a subplot about mobster-controlled water wells that feels out of place and goes absolutely nowhere. Blech. The official TIFF guide called this the "new Cinema Paradiso," which as far as I'm concerned is a crime. *1/2

Air Doll

AIR DOLL (2009) - Sept. 19, 2009
An odd misstep for Hirokazu Koreeda, this wasn't bad by any means, but it definitely wasn't on the same level as Koreeda's previous films. About a sex doll who comes to life and then begins to see what life is like as a human, including working at a videostore an starting a romance with one of her coworkers, this was definitely well made, but it was kind of odd and something about it just didn't quite work. It was just as slow as Koreeda's previous films, but unlike those I definitely felt the slowness -- the usual richness of character typical of a Koreeda film seemed lacking. It probably didn't help that the film focused mostly on the air doll, who just didn't seem to be an interesting enough character to carry the entire film. **1/2

Ong Bak 2

ONG BAK 2 (2009) - Sept. 19, 2009
A disappointing follow-up to the awesome Ong Bak (and a sequel in name only, as the presence of Tony Jaa is the only thing tying this to the original), the muddled story involves a young prince (or at least I think he was a prince) who escapes after his family is murdered and subsequently joins a group of bandits and trains to fight. The movie itself was pretty poor, but at least I was never entirely bored. However, there really wasn't enough really good action -- there were exactly two above average action sequences, including a final action scene that was pretty awesome. So it wasn't bad, I guess, but it was certainly nowhere near the instant classic that the first one was (but it is pretty hard to go wrong with a movie in which someone does a somersault off an elephant and then kicks someone in the head). **1/2

The Good Heart

THE GOOD HEART (2009) - Sept. 18, 2009
It's pretty much impossible to go wrong with a film starring the great Brian Cox, and this was certainly no exception. About a cantankerous old bartender who befriends a down-on-his-luck young man and decides to train him to take over his bar once he dies (he has a bad heart and expects to go at any moment). The film was kind of oddly quirky but it was well made and quite enjoyable throughout. ***

Leaves of Grass

LEAVES OF GRASS (2009) - Sept. 18, 2009
Featuring some above average writing and direction from Tim Blake Nelson (his first film in about eight years), this was a really good movie about an esteemed professor who returns home only to find himself embroiled in a scheme cooked up by his drug dealing twin brother. Edward Norton, playing both brothers, was superb, as were all the other actors. ***1/2

Phantom Pain

PHANTOM PAIN (2009) - Sept. 18, 2009
About a cycling enthusiast who loses his leg after an accident, this was a decent film featuring a really good performance from Til Schweiger. The direction was okay (despite an almost comical overabundance of musical montages set to cheesy soft rock songs), and it was definitely well acted, but I can't say I was ever particularly into it. **1/2

Last Ride

LAST RIDE (2009) - Sept. 18, 2009
A really well made and well acted film about a father and a son traveling across Australia. Featuring a really good performance from Hugo Weaving, the film was exceptionally slow-paced but quite enjoyable throughout. It helped that both of the main performances were so good, and that the father and son dynamic between them seemed interesting and real. ***

Vincere

VINCERE (2009) - Sept. 18, 2009
A good looking but otherwise fairly crappy film about a woman who had a romance with Mussolini before he became Prime Minister of Italy, had his kid, and was subsequently cut out of his life entirely. She later wound up in an insane asylum when she continually insisted that Mussolini was her husband. The film started out pretty well, but it's clear almost immediately that Mussolini is a much more interesting character than this woman, and he leaves the film at about the forty minute mark, never to be seen again. The film then gets more and more dull as it essentially just consists of the woman trying to convince various people that Mussolini is her husband. The cinematography was quite good, but a keen sense of style just wasn't enough to save this film. *1/2

Solomon Kane

SOLOMON KANE (2009) - Sept. 17, 2009
A mostly entertaining if somewhat routine adventure movie about a greedy plunderer and mercenary who renounces his evil ways when he finds out that the devil wants his soul; he is forced back into action when a young girl he has befriended is kidnapped by evil forces. Reasonably well made and featuring an expectedly good performance from James Purefoy, I was pretty much entertained all the way through, though it did lose its momentum at times, and I was never a hundred percent into it. **1/2

Kamui

KAMUI (2009) - Sept. 17, 2009
Slow-paced and somewhat underwhelming, this was a kind of mediocre film about a wandering rogue ninja who finds respite in a small fishing villiage. The movie didn't really have much of a plot, and most of the time there really wasn't all that much driving it forward -- it felt pretty meandering, so my interest was seriously waning at times, particularly in the middle of the film. The movie does, however, begin and end with some really good action. But for a movie with both pirates (who hunt sharks) and ninjas, this was definitely a disappointment. **

High Life

HIGH LIFE (2009) - Sept. 17, 2009
A basically enjoyable if somewhat aimless film about a group of dim-witted criminals who decide to rob an ATM. Timothy Olyphant was quite good in the main role, and the direction was decent enough, though the film's origins as a play are fairly apparent -- it's quite dialogue heavy, with the type of self-aware, writerly dialogue that's hard to pull off, which sort of works and sort of doesn't. Also, the washed-out, poor man's Kaminski cinematography was really unappealing to look at. Other than that, the film was decent enough (I particularly liked the classic rock soundtrack). **1/2

Cell 211

CELL 211 (2009) - Sept. 16, 2009
A surprisingly enjoyable film about a young prison guard, on the day before his first day of work, who ends up getting stuck in the prison during a riot, and who passes himself off as a prisoner to get by. The film was well directed and quite enjoyable, though it faltered a bit in the third act. Aside from that, it was fast-paced, and I really wouldn't be surprised if it wound up getting remade by Hollywood. ***

The Angel

THE ANGEL (2009) - Sept. 16, 2009
Well, I guess it has to happen at least once per festival -- the film wasn't exactly fast-paced, and I was tired from waking up so early every day, and I fell asleep. For pretty much the entire more, other than the first twenty minutes or so. It seemed decent from the first twenty minutes, if somewhat slow, a bit overly gritty in its visuals, and with a somewhat tired premise (a young mother tries to overcome a heroin problem). NO RATING

The Front Line

THE FRONT LINE (2009) - Sept. 16, 2009
A dull film about a group of extreme left wing Italian terrorists who operated in the late '70s and early '80s. Decently directed with a hand-held, though thankfully not overly-shaky style (which seemed similar to the style of the Dardenne brothers, who produced this film), the film isn't particularly interesting despite the seemingly fascinating subject matter. Meh. **1/2

The Loved Ones

THE LOVED ONES (2009) - Sept. 15, 2009
A better than average horror film about a guy who is knocked out, only to wake up and find himself the prisoner of a seemingly meek but actually psychopathic girl that he rejected -- things just get worse and worse from there. Featuring solid direction from first-time director Sean Byrne, the film did a really good job of establishing and maintaining a pretty high level of tension. Good stuff. ***1/2

Enter the Void

ENTER THE VOID (2009) - Sept. 15, 2009
More of an experience than a traditional movie, this was a strange, haunting, flat-out bizarre and kind of brilliant film. About a drug dealer in Japan, who dies and then begins to float above his friends and his sister, and re-lives some of the highlights (and lowlights) of his life. The entire thing is shot from the drug dealer's point of view (other than the flashbacks, which are shot over his shoulder), from the pre-death stuff with him getting high and having a conversation about death with one of his friends and subsequently getting shot and killed, to all his post-death experiences, all the way to his reincarnation. A technical and directorial tour-de-force, this definitely establishes Gaspar Noe as some kind of crazy genius -- there really never has been a film quite like this before. Powerful and almost always visually stunning, the film feels a bit long, particularly towards the end, but that's almost beside the point. The film succeeds brilliantly at evoking a certain mood and tone, and is almost ridiculously hypnotic -- even when there isn't much happening, there's almost always something bizarrely fascinating about the movie, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching some kind of crazy masterpiece (a flawed one, but a masterpiece nonetheless). Certainly, it's rare that you see a film that's so amazingly unique -- I'm fairly confident that, for better or for worse, this movie is going to be remembered for a long, long time just for trying something that's so dazzlingly unique. Walking out of the theatre, I had the strangest feeling; a strange sort of numbness that I almost can't describe, like my brain wasn't quite sure if the movie had ended and real life had begun. It was an odd sensation, and one that took me a good fifteen minutes to shake. What a crazy, crazy movie. WTF man. WTF. Also: I think, more than any other movie I've seen in my life, this *needs* to be seen on the big screen. I can't imagine that it would have nearly the same impact on a little TV. I think it would be a different movie entirely, quite frankly. It just needs to be witnessed in a dark theatre on a gigantic screen. ****

The Jonses

THE JONSES (2009) - Sept. 15, 2009
A decent film starring David Duchovny and Demi Moore about a "family" whose job is to influence people and make them want to buy certain products. It's a pretty absurd premise, and I never entirely bought into it, but the film was entertaining enough despite a third act that was almost ridiculously soap-operatic. Meh. **1/2

Harry Brown

HARRY BROWN (2009) - Sept. 14, 2009
Featuring yet another amazing performance from Michael Caine (the man is definitely on a roll), this was a really good movie about an aging ex-military man who slowly realizes that something must be done about the escalating gang violence in his neighbourhood when his best friend is murdered by a group of punks. The film did a really good job of setting everything up, and the pacing was pretty much perfect. There were also some pretty riveting sequences here, particularly a scene in which Caine visits a drug dealer to buy a gun. Daniel Barber's direction was quite good, and Caine was obviously pitch-perfect as the titular Harry Brown. ***1/2

Cairo Time

CAIRO TIME (2009) - Sept. 14, 2009
An entertaining film about a woman who goes to Egypt to meet her husband, only to find that he's tied up with work. Instead, she ends up spending a lot of her time with a charming friend of her husband's. The film was well made and very well acted, particularly Alexander Siddig as the husband's friend. In fact, he was so good that I found my interest kind of waning every time he was off the screen. Not that Patricia Clarkson wasn't good, but her character was kind of bland, and so the movie suffered every time Siddig left her alone (which was a good half of the movie). **1/2

A Serious Man

A SERIOUS MAN (2009) - Sept. 14, 2009
A bizarre Coen brothers film about a man having some problems in his life, both at home and at work. I'm really not sure what to make of this movie -- I was definitely quite entertained throughout, but the movie was quite odd and featured an ending that was less than conclusive, putting it mildly. And yet there was something strangely satisfying about that crazy ending; it seemed like the perfect conclusion to this particular film, despite its abruptness. Michael Stuhlbarg was certainly quite good in the main role, and the film was really well directed and featured a surfeit of the memorable dialogue that the Coens are known for. ***

Under the Mountain

UNDER THE MOUNTAIN (2009) - Sept. 13, 2009
A kind of mediocre adventure movie about two twins who find out that New Zealand -- and the entire world -- are at risk of being destroyed if they don't do something. The film was reasonably well made, and it was well acted (particularly Sam Neill as the twins' grizzled mentor) but it just wasn't all that interesting. It was kind of dull and slow-paced, and felt remarkably free of adventure for an adventure movie (there was a LOT of set-up -- most of the film felt like it could have been compressed into about twenty minutes, to set up a much more exciting adventure movie). **

Perrier's Bounty

PERRIER'S BOUNTY (2009) - Sept. 13, 2009
A really fast-paced and entertaining film about a guy, a girl and his dad, who get mixed up with loan sharks and mobsters -- shenanigans ensue. This actually reminded me quite a bit of Intermission, which was Mark O'Rowe's (the writer of this movie) first film. It's definitely just as good, featuring top-notch performances from people like Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, and a scene-stealing Jim Broadbent. O'Rowe had previously collaborated with John Crowley on Intermission and Boy A, while this film has been directed by Ian Fitzgibbon. Thankfully, Fitzgibbon's direction proves to be a good match to O'Rowe's script. ***1/2

Up in the Air

UP IN THE AIR (2009) - Sept. 13, 2009
Featuring what is quite possibly George Clooney's best performance, this was a really good movie about a guy whose job is to fly around the country and fire people. He feels more at home on airplanes and hotels than in his actual home, and he's obsessed with collecting ten million frequent flier miles. However, his friendship with a new coworker and a cross-country romance cause him to start rethinking his life. Surprisingly funny, this was a really well made movie, featuring performances that are uniformly superb. The film does a really good job of mixing drama and comedy -- the laughs always feel organic to the characters and the situations, and the more dramatic moments never feel incongruous with the comedy. Jason Reitman wrote and directed this film; I guess I have to rethink my opinion of him after the enjoyable but way over-rated Juno. This was a really accomplished, well made film, and unlike Juno, if it gets Oscar attention it'll actually deserve it. Certainly, I can't imagine that I'll see a better performance than Clooney's this year. ****

Making Plans for Lena

MAKING PLANS FOR LENA (2009) - Sept. 12, 2009
About the various shenanigans revolving around an unpleasant family, mostly centred on a recently divorced mother, this movie was decently directed and well acted, but completely worthless as a piece of entertainment. I was essentially entertained for the first little while, but as it went on, having to spend time with these thoroughly unlikable characters became increasingly oppressive. Towards the end I was extremely tempted to walk out. There was also a bizarre interlude in which a character tells a story about a woman who wanted to find a husband to dance with, that really only served to sap whatever momentum the film had going (which was very little). *

The Dirty Saints

THE DIRTY SAINTS (2009) - Sept. 12, 2009
An almost comically bad film about a group of wanderers in some sort of post-apocalyptic future. Pretentious almost to the point of parody, if I didn't know any better I would have sworn that this was some kind of satire on bizarre foreign art-house films. The characters, who are all completely underdeveloped, do bizarre things seemingly just for the sake of being bizarre. There is a bit of a plot -- the characters are trying to get to a river, as things are supposedly better on the other side. But it really doesn't go anywhere, or at least not anywhere that makes sense. 1/2*

Rabia

RABIA (2009) - Sept. 12, 2009
A decent and well directed film about a maid who falls in love with a hot-tempered man who, after accidentally killing someone, hides out in the house where she works and lives (unbeknownst to her or anyone else). The film definitely looked quite good, and there were some really compelling sequences, but it started to feel a bit too aimless as it went along, and definitely ran out of steam by the end. Still, the above-average performances and Sebastián Cordero's stylish direction mostly kept things interesting. **1/2

SHE, A CHINESE (2009) - Sept. 11, 2009
About a girl from a Chinese village who moves to a small city, and then later to London, England. Xiaolu Guo's direction was mostly okay, though the aggressively drab, muddy digital cinematography certainly didn't do the film any favours, and Guo's use of music was a tad iffy. Still, it was fairly entertaining for the first little while (mainly because of Lu Huang's compelling performance), but by the last third of the movie (the London stuff, basically) it had really started to wear out its welcome, and by the end I was completely ready for it to be over. **

Like You Know it All

LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL (2009) - Sept. 11, 2009
About the random exploits of a Korean movie director -- first at a remote film festival, then a few other random places, this was pretty much interminable. It started out decently enough, but the completely aimless, random vibe eventually wore me down. It was essentially just a series of vignettes, completely random encounters, without even the vaguest notion of a plot -- which isn't necessarily a problem, but the main character wasn't particularly interesting, nor were the situations he found himself in. There was actually a point about an hour into the film, when the director leaves the film festival, where it seems like the movie should be wrapping up (I even saw a bunch of people checking their watch at this point). It goes on for another hour. Then there's Sang-soo Hong's bizarre directorial style, which finds him frequently and obtrusively zooming in and out to adjust the frame right in the middle of scenes (and not in that faux-documentary type of way that seems to be a bit of a fad right now, just random zooms). *1/2

House of Saddam

HOUSE OF SADDAM (2008) - Sept. 8, 2009
A really well made miniseries about Saddam Hussein -- ranging from his seizure of the presidency of Iraq in 1979 to his hanging in 2006. Despite a running time of almost four hours, the film is completely entertaining throughout. In fact, it was so interesting and well made, it could have been longer and I would have been perfectly happy. It helps that it was very well acted, especially Yigal Naor as Saddam himself. His Hussein was brutally ruthless without ever veering into caricature or outright villainy. You could almost sympathize with the guy -- almost. ***1/2

Nobody Knows

NOBODY KNOWS - Sept. 6, 2009
A slow-paced but really well made film about a group of four siblings who are left to fend for themselves after their mother goes away, leaving the eldest -- a twelve-year-old boy -- in charge with only a small amount of money to get by. None of the kids are allowed to go to school, and only the boy is allowed to leave the apartment, as the landlords think that only one child lives in the home. The film is completely plotless and somewhat slow-paced, with a definite neo-realist vibe. However it proves to be compelling throughout, with an emphasis placed on the small details of these children's lives. Featuring really impressive performances from all of the kids, this was definitely another winner from Hirokazu Koreeda. ***

Gamer

GAMER (2009) - Sept. 5, 2009
A mediocre film from Nevaldine/Taylor, about a future society in which death-row convicts participate in a game called Slayers -- in which they are controlled remotely like a videogame, and fight each other to the death like a real-life first-person shooter. The movie is directed with Nevaldine/Taylor's usual in-your-face hand-held style, which worked a lot better for the Crank films than it did here. You can always tell what's going on in the action scenes, but it's just too chopily edited to ever really get into. Some of the action is okay, but a slightly less frenetic visual style would have really helped. Aside from that, one of the main problems with the film is that it doesn't do a very good job of developing the characters -- which is particularly true of Gerard Butler's protagonist. It's subsequently kind of hard to care too much about his quest to reunite with his wife and child. Nevaldine and Taylor also try to throw in some social commentary about the dehumanizing effect of these videogames, which is clunky and really doesn't work. One of the film's few unabashed bright spots is Michael C. Hall as the gleefully sinister billionaire creator of the Slayers game -- he steals every single scene that he's in. I just wish there had been more of him. **

Extract

EXTRACT (2009) - Sept. 4, 2009
A really enjoyable comedy by Mike Judge about a guy who owns a company that makes flavour extracts, and the shenanigans he gets himself into with his wife and a mysterious con-woman. Judge eschews the more broad laughs of his previous two films in favour of something much more low-key, but it definitely works. The film has a really easy-going vibe, and contains a surfeit of compelling characters. Jason Bateman proves that he definitely has what it takes to carry a film, and supporting actors like Ben Affleck, Kristen Wiig and J.K. Simmons were just as good. The film kind of reminded me of Judge's TV show, King of the Hill, which is definitely a good thing. ***

Obsessed

OBSESSED (2009) - Sept. 1, 2009
Thoroughly inept right from the first moments of the film all the way through to the conclusion, this was a surprisingly bad film about an executive who finds himself the victim of an obsessive temp. From the cheesy, overbearing, downright grating score to the dull, cliche-ridden screenplay, to the flat direction and low-rent cinematography, this is pretty much a failure in almost every regard. For a movie that purports to be a thriller, there is a distinct lack of thrills here -- which wouldn't necessarily be a problem, except that the movie spends an eternity just setting things up in the most dull and clunky way imaginable, and then seems more interested in terrible melodrama than in thrills. I've seen films that looked worse, or that had worse performances, or a worse screenplay, but it's rare to see a movie that's just so consistently inept on every single level. I think the only good thing I can say about this film is that Idris Elba gave a pretty good performance, or at least as good as is possible given the material he had to work with. So bad... 1/2*

I Wanna Hold your Hand

I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND (1978) - Aug. 31, 2009
Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale's first film, about a group of teens who travel to New York to see the Beatles on the day of their legendary appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Hijinks ensue as the girls split up and go on their own separate adventures. It's a bit slow in parts, but it's mostly quite enjoyable. ***

The Final Destination

THE FINAL DESTINATION (2009) - Aug. 29, 2009
Another mediocre installment in the Final Destination series, this one finding the requisite prognosticating teen seeing a series of horrific deaths at a race track. This was presented in "Real D" 3D, which just reminded me how much I dislike this technology, though that was probably the least of this movie's concerns. The series' requisite elaborate deaths just felt perfunctory, though it probably didn't help that the over-reliance on CGI combined with the 3D projection made everything seem exceptionally artificial. The characters were all ridiculously under-developed, even for a Final Destination movie (aside from a reference to one of the side-characters being an alcoholic, there was literally no character development at all), which made it impossible to care about any of them. Suffice it to say, the screenplay is a big reason that this film doesn't really work; David R. Ellis's workmanlike direction is fine, if unspectacular, though the film does a really poor job of sustaining any kind of tension. It seems pretty clear that the presence of James Wong is required to make a decent Final Destination movie -- he directed the first one and the third one, which were the only enjoyable ones in the series. **

Halloween II

HALLOWEEN II (2009) - Aug. 28, 2009
A failure on pretty much every level and tedious almost right from the get-go, this sequel to Rob Zombie's mediocre Halloween remake picks up one year after the events of the first film, with the survivor of Michael Myers' previous attacks (his sister) still pretty messed up. Myers, of course, comes back for more shenanigans. There is really very little that works here -- Zombie's direction is fairly shoddy, and becomes incoherent any time there's any action on the screen. He's also either unwilling or unable to create any kind of tension -- the film is remarkably devoid of suspense. His writing isn't much better -- there isn't a single character worth caring about, and the whole idea of Michael Myers seeing a ghostly apparition of his mother is a complete disaster (and in fact, there's nothing about the portrayal of Michael Myers that feels right). The ending, which I guess is supposed to be creepy, is almost laughably bad. Then there's Brandon Trost's cinematography, which is murky and unpleasant (it's super dark, but not in a good way). I always thought, even when I didn't necessarily enjoy his films, that Zombie had a lot of potential. Not so sure about that at this point. *

House of 1000 Corpses

HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES (2003) - Aug. 26, 2009
Rob Zombie's first film, about two couples who are terrorized by a family of weirdos after stopping at a bizarre roadside museum of curios. The film started out pretty well, and it definitely had its moments, but I found my interest steadily waning as it lumbered towards its increasingly bizarre conclusion. Rob Zombie's direction, which clearly took more than a little influence from the horror films of the '70s, was mostly okay, though his random stylistic flourishes did grow old after a while. **

Cassandra's Dream

CASSANDRA'S DREAM (2007) - Aug. 24, 2009
About a couple of brothers who get embroiled in some serious shenanigans when their uncle makes them a sinister proposal -- and the fallout that ensues -- this was definitely one of the Woodster's stronger efforts in the past few years. While it's not on the level of his classics from the '70s, '80s, and to a lesser extent, '90s, it was definitely really well made and well acted. ***1/2

Inglourious Basterds

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) - Aug 22, 2009
After the disappointing Death Proof, there was really no where to go but up for Tarantino, and this is definitely a big step up. Though a far cry from what the marketing -- and Tarantino himself -- would have you believe (that this is a "men on a mission" movie), this was a really well made, super talky, and occasionally riveting film. Featuring distinctively Tarantinoian dialogue, there was an awful lot of talking in this film -- it was all quite good, though not quite up to par with his best work (ie. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction). I was certainly never bored, though, and even at slightly over two and a half hours, it didn't feel long at all. The performances were all quite good (particularly Brad Pitt as the boisterous Aldo Raine, and Christoph Waltz as the sinister "Jew hunter"), and Tarantino's direction was top-notch, as usual. ***1/2

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA (2009) - Aug 18, 2009
About a secret, elite group of soldiers who spring into action when a bunch of really dangerous missiles are stolen, this was a generic, dull big summer action movie. As far as this summer's blockbusters go, this was definitely better than Transformers 2, but that's really not saying much. Featuring barely competent direction from Stephen Sommers, the quality of the action (which was plentiful) ranged from meh to terrible (how do you mess up a fight between two super-skilled ninjas? Seriously, how?) The performances were all fine, though only Joseph Gordon-Levitt was able to make any real impact as Cobra Commander -- I think he realized how bad the movie was, and decided to just go hog-wild and make his character as evil as possible. It was pretty sweet. Other than that, I was mildly entertained up to a point, but by the end the surfeit of mediocre action wore me down, and I was getting pretty bored (not Transformers 2 bored, but bored nonetheless). *1/2

Five Fingers

FIVE FINGERS (2006) - Aug. 17, 2009
A clunky but essentially enjoyable film about a man who gets kidnapped by a group of Muslims while on a trip in Africa, and the interrogation that follows. Though this doesn't seem to have been based on a play, I wouldn't be surprised if the screenplay was originally written for the theatre; it is exceptionally stagey. The movie essentially consists of a series of conversations between Laurence Fishburne and Ryan Phillippe, and though it's always basically entertaining, writer/director Laurence Malkin squanders the tension inherent in the premise, and the movie is never as suspenseful as it's trying to be (or should be trying to be). It definitely doesn't help that Malkin's directorial style is non-existent, and that the low-rent score only serves to remind you that you're watching a low-budget film. The performances are all quite good -- Phillippe, who is saddled with a bizarre Dutch accent that's never really convincing, still manages to give a pretty good performance, and Fishburne gives an expectedly reliable performance (despite also being saddled with an accent, though his is slightly more convincing). **1/2

District 9

DISTRICT 9 (2009) - Aug. 15, 2009
A really interesting and well made sci-fi film about a group of aliens who are stuck in South Africa -- their ship just appeared there one day, and twenty years later they're still being forced to live in a shanty town and being treated like second-class citizens. The film eventually becomes about a hapless government worker who gets infected with an alien virus, and who winds up forming an unlikely alliance with one of the aliens (or "prawns", as the South Africans call them). The film starts off as a faux-documentary, outlining the general situation with the aliens and the corporation that seems to have complete control over them, but then gradually adopts a more traditional narrative. This transition is actually fairly seamless, though my interest did wane ever-so-slightly at first when the focus shifted entirely to the imperiled government worker. The film eventually becomes an all-out action film, and a pretty awesome one at that, with some surprisingly exciting action sequences. The last little bit becomes quite tense, as we wonder if the government worker and his prawn sidekick will be able to pull off their scheme to help out the aliens once and for all. ***1/2

The Sniper

THE SNIPER (1952) - Aug. 10, 2009
A surprisingly well made film about an angry young man who vents his frustration with the world -- women in particular -- by using his sniper rifle to shoot women who he feels have affronted him. Though it's kind of hokey in parts, it was definitely entertaining throughout, and Edward Dmytryk's stylish direction was quite effective. ***

The Hurt Locker

THE HURT LOCKER (2009) - Aug. 5, 2009
About a military bomb squad in Iraq, headed by a leader who seems to take pleasure in putting himself in the most dangerous situations possible, this was a surprisingly riveting, edge-of-your-seat action film. Despite the complete absence of a plot (the movie essentially just goes from one action set-piece to the next) and a long running time of over two hours, the film is completely entertaining from start to finish, and in fact manages to sustain a pretty absurd amount of tension with relatively little down-time. Kathryn Bigelow's gritty, no-nonsense direction suits the material absolutely perfectly, and there are some really memorable scenes here, including what has to be the best sniper battle I've ever seen (even if the rest of the film had sucked, it would have been worth it just for that awesome scene alone). I need to see this again. ****

Hamlet 2

HAMLET 2 (2008) - Aug. 4, 2009
An enjoyably quirky film about a dim-wittedly earnest drama teacher who decides to put on a performance of Hamlet 2 in order to save the drama program at his school. Featuring a really funny lead performance from Steve Coogan (who is almost single-handedly what makes this movie so entertaining), this was sporadically hilarious and always entertaining. ***

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory

UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY (1995) - Aug. 2, 2009
A by-the-numbers but fairly entertaining action film which is essentially a remake of the first Under Siege, though set on a train instead of a boat. The whole thing feels fairly routine, and there's nothing particularly exciting about it, but it's competent and enjoyable throughout. Plus, it's always nice to watch an action movie devoid of the over-polished slickness that has ruined the genre over the last decade or so. **1/2

Star Trek

STAR TREK (2009) - Aug. 2, 2009 (Fourth Viewing)
Perfection! Honestly, I can't imagine that a better Star Trek reboot could exist. This film just gets everything so right, from the casting to the visuals to the music... all good stuff. 100 percent pure entertainment. ****

Funny People

FUNNY PEOPLE (2009) - Aug. 1, 2009
About a famous comedian who finds out that he's dying and ultimately attempts to rekindle an old relationship, this was another overlong film from Judd Apatow. It was well made and well acted (particularly Adam Sandler, who confirms that he can be a really good actor when he wants to be) and I was always entertained, but the film definitely dragged in parts, particularly the bloated third act. It's too bad, because there's a lot of good stuff here, and so I definitely think that with a bit of trimming (well actually, probably more than a bit) this could have been a really good movie. ***

Fast and Furious

FAST AND FURIOUS (2009) - July 30, 2009
Another mediocre entry in the Fast and the Furious series; this one features the return of Vin Diesel, out to get revenge for the death of his girlfriend. Unfortunately, even the return of Toretto can't make up for the mediocre script and Justin Lin's shoddy direction. The film actually starts off with a surprisingly well made action set-piece involving the hijacking of a moving truck, but it's all downhill from there. It's really quite baffling how that scene can be so much better than the rest of the film -- all the other action scenes, featuring lots of close-ups and shaky-cam, are muddled and unexciting. The non-action stuff is equally mediocre, and as the film went on I was getting more and more bored. I was thinking that this was slightly better than the other two sequels, if only for the presence of Vin Diesel, but I gave Tokyo Drift two stars, which was probably too generous. *1/2

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

PAUL BLART: MALL COP (2009) - July 26, 2009
A mediocre action comedy about a dedicated mall cop who must defend his mall when it's taken over by a group of really non-threatening terrorists, this was pretty much unfunny all the way through. None of the jokes are particularly funny, and the action from the second half of the film doesn't fare much better; it's pretty much a failure from start to finish, though I was never entirely bored, and all the performances were fine. **

Orphan

ORPHAN (2009) - July 25, 2009
A silly but enjoyable film about a family who adopt a young girl, only to slowly realize that she is incredibly sinister. It was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed the unspeakably awful House of Wax remake -- while far from perfect, this was a humongous step up from that. It was definitely too long at 123 minutes, and there was nothing fresh about it, but for what it was it was quite entertaining. ***

Public Enemies

PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009) - July 25, 2009
A dull film about famed bank robber John Dillinger, and Melvin Purvis, the man tasked with bringing him down. Featuring the flat, jittery, cheap-looking digital cinematography Michael Mann has become infamous for of late, this was an ugly film. Mann's surprisingly shoddy direction didn't help matters; it almost looked like he arrived each day on set unprepared, and simply commanded the cameraman to follow around the actors as close as possible. The whole film looked improvised and cheap. Even aside from that, the movie just wasn't very interesting -- it basically seemed like random vignettes from Dilligner's life leading up to his death. There was no real sense of momentum, nothing really moving everything forward. There were a number of compelling sequences (though not the shootouts, surprisingly enough) and I was never all-out bored, but I was never exactly enthralled, either. It's too bad, because the performances were all top-notch. **

The Sniper

THE SNIPER (2009) - July 24, 2009
A decent film about a disgraced ex-police sniper who aligns himself with a criminal to get revenge on his former unit. The plot was a bit convoluted, and the characters were thinly developed, but it was essentially entertaining and nice and short at under ninety minutes. Dante Lam's direction was a bit over-the-top, but it got the job done; the action, in particular, was quite well done -- the standout easily being the final sniper battle (which was, disappointingly, the only sniper battle in the film, but it made up for it by being super awesome). **1/2

The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother

THE ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER (1975) - July 22, 2009
A surprisingly dreadful film about the titular brother of Sherlock Holmes, who must solve a case involving a stolen document. Written and directed by the usually hilarious Gene Wilder, this featured jokes which were almost uniformly terrible; the film essentially feels like a poor man's Mel Brooks (from whom it's clear that Wilder took a lot of influence, putting it mildly). Brooks' broad style of humour tends to be hit-and-miss, but in most of his films there are enough big laughs to make up for the failed gags -- here, the humour was ridiculously broad and it never even gets a chuckle. *1/2

Bottle Shock

BOTTLE SHOCK (2008) - July 20, 2009
A really well acted film about a winery in Napa Valley in the 1970s, and a visitor from France who causes a stir. Featuring some top-notch performances from people like Alan Rickman, Chris Pine and Bill Pullman, and handsome direction from Randall Miller, this dragged in a few places but was mostly entertaining. ***

Under Siege

UNDER SIEGE (1992) - July 19, 2009
About an ex-Navy Seal who must stop a group of terrorists from taking over a battleship (ie. Die Hard on a boat), this was solid action film from a time when they were still making simple, effective action movies on a fairly regular basis. There was nothing particularly special about this film -- Steven Seagal was doing his usual cocky, laid-back badass shtick, Tommy Lee Jones was quite good as the flamboyant villain, and Andrew Davis' direction got the job done -- but it was enjoyable throughout, and a reminder that you don't need a lot of flashy camerawork and CGI to make a compelling action film. ***

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009) - July 18, 2009
Awful. About... I don't know, giant robots? The plot -- even more so here than in the first one -- is definitely secondary to the spectacle and the explosions and the seemingly neverending action sequences. Cram-packed with the type of juvenile humour that Michael Bay seems to love (the movie was officially dead to me once John Turturro made reference to a Transformer's scrotum) and horrible dialogue to match, I'm having a really hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that this was written by the same people who wrote the exhilarating Star Trek reboot. I can only assume that Bay himself had a hand in the actual writing of the script. Though I was never into the movie to any real degree, I wasn't all-out bored -- until they arrived in Egypt. Shortly thereafter began an excruciatingly long action sequence which just went on, and on, and on -- I can't even remember the last time I was that bored in a movie theatre. It was brutal. At some point during this scene I came to the realization that a bomb could have dropped and killed every single character, and I wouldn't have cared in the slightest. So awful. As far as Michael Bay's movies go, this wasn't quite as bad as the horrendous Bad Boys 2 -- but it's close. 1/2*

Ghost Town

GHOST TOWN (2008) - July 13, 2009
An enjoyable and well made romantic comedy from David Keopp about a man who gains the ability to see ghosts, and winds up helping a recently deceased man with his wife. The film featured really good performances all around, and was quite entertaining throughout. ***

Fanboys

FANBOYS (2008) - July 12, 2009
Hmmm. This movie takes what seems to be a foolproof premise (four friends, one of them dying of cancer, take a road trip to Skywalker Ranch so they can see Episode I before their friend dies) and pretty much squanders it with a healthy dose of lame humour and a low-rent vibe, mostly thanks to Kyle Newman's flat, styleless direction. I think I might have chuckled twice, but for the most part the jokes all fall flat, despite what must be the record for the most Star Wars references crammed into one film (which mostly just made me want to watch the trilogy again). The film doesn't fare much better in the dramatic moments, which are hackneyed and generally sitcom-level. The movie isn't all-out awful (it's basically entertaining) but as it turns out I guess there's a reason it took so long to come out. **

Face/Off

FACE/OFF (1997) - July 11, 2009
An above-average action film about a dedicated special agent who trades faces with a dangerous criminal (his arch-nemesis, who six years earlier killed his son) in order to get information about a bomb. There's nothing subtle about this movie, from the explosive, slow-mo filled action sequences to the emotional moments (which sort of feel like a slightly dialed down version of the over-the-top melodrama you find in many Chinese films). The movie features pretty much element that John Woo has become known for -- the elaborately choreographed gun-fights, the slow-mo, the dives with two guns blazing, the Mexican standoffs, the doves -- but it never really feels like all these elements are crammed in for their own sake. Somehow, despite the melodrama and the dialed-to-eleven action sequences -- either of which could have been a deal-killer under a lesser director -- it all really works, and is definitely John Woo's best American film. ***1/2

Bruno

BRUNO (2009) - July 10, 2009
Another documentary / scripted comedy from Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles, this time revolving around Bruno, a flamboyantly gay model from Austria who is trying to make it big in the States. Like Borat, this had its moments (I chuckled a few times) and was pretty much entertaining all the way through, though it was starting to wear out its welcome a bit by the end of its brief 83 minute running time. **1/2

The Girlfriend Experience

THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE (2009) - July 9, 2009
An aggressively dull film about the daily life of a high-class prostitute and her boyfriend, a personal trainer. The film doesn't contain even a hint of a plot, which isn't necessarily a problem, as Soderbergh is clearly going for a really low-key character study sort of vibe. The only problem is that the prostitute, her stupid boyfriend and all of the clients are not interesting in the least as characters. The dialogue, which is clearly mostly improvised, sounds authentic enough -- it consists almost entirely of the type of small-talk and random chit-chat that you tend to engage in with people you don't really know -- but it isn't even remotely interesting to listen to. Soderbergh has also assembled the film in a seemingly arbitrary non-linear fashion, which really only serves to heighten the "look how avant-garde I'm being!!!" factor. I guess I can see what Soderbergh was going for here, and maybe he even succeeded, but this film is just not for me. It felt like a succession of random scenes with no real cohesion, to the point where in the last half hour or so I honestly thought that each scene could be the last, and when it finally did end, it just felt arbitrary. Why that scene and not the one before it? Or the one before that? The movie looked very good, I will give it that; I definitely left the theatre with more respect for Steven Soderbergh the cinematographer, but less respect for Steven Soderbergh the storyteller. *1/2

The Shining

THE SHINING (1980) - July 8, 2009 (Fourth or Fifth Viewing)
Oh man, good stuff. A seriously awesome film about a man who takes his family to the remote hotel in which he's acting as the caretaker for the winter, who slowly goes crazy. Jack Nicholson is pretty much perfect as the husband and father who essentially goes completely insane, and Shelley Duvall gives what is probably her best performance as Nicholson's harried wife. And then there's Kubrick's direction, which is... do I even need to say it? Seriously. ****

ROAD TO PERDITION (2002) - July 7, 2009 (Third Viewing)
Wow! This was even better than I remembered it being, and I remembered it being quite good. About a mob enforcer who, with his eldest son in tow, seeks vengeance for the death of his wife and youngest son. I'm not sure if it occurred to me before, but this is essentially a revenge movie, which is probably one of the reasons why it's so good. It's also a mob movie, and a damn good one, as well as a movie about the relationship between fathers and sons. I can't possibly say enough about Sam Mendes' direction and Conrad Hall's sumptuous cinematography; I don't think there's a single frame of this film that doesn't look amazingly good. Thomas Newman's memorable and affecting score complements the visuals perfectly, and the performances are all pretty much perfect (Tom Hanks and Jude Law both give stellar performances playing against type). There's also a few scenes in this film, such as the final confrontation between Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, which easily rank among my favourites. Good stuff. ****

Moon

MOON (2009) - June 25, 2009
A really well made film about a miner on the moon, who is working by himself and reaching the end of his three year contract, who starts to realize that something sinister is afoot. This is the type of smart, interesting sci-fi film that is, lamentably, so rarely seen on the big screen. This has definitely been influenced by previous great sci-fi like 2001, but the film never feels derivative or like a rehash. Duncan Jones' direction is quite good, and Sam Rockwell gives an astounding performance that would easily get an Oscar nod if there were any justice in the world. ***1/2

Half Nelson

HALF NELSON (2006) - June 24, 2009
A basically well made but meandering and really slow paced film about an inner-city teacher with a drug problem, and his relationship with one of the students in his class. The film is directed with a gritty, shaky-cam, documentary-like visual style which isn't the best ever, though it gets the job done (I'm generally not a fan of the faux-documentary visual style, and this certainly hasn't changed my mind, though the style does essentially fit the tone of the film). What really saves this movie are the two central performances -- Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps are both so good that it almost makes you forget the film's shortcomings. **1/2

Just my Luck

JUST MY LUCK (2006) - June 23, 2009
A cheesy but enjoyable romantic comedy about a girl with ridiculously good luck who winds up switching luck with a guy with ridiculously bad luck. I wouldn't exactly call this a good movie, but it was generally well acted, and entertaining throughout. Special props must go to Chris Pine -- I really hope he doesn't get pegged as a sci-fi actor, because he's definitely got that movie star charisma that you don't see too often. **1/2

13: Game of Death

13: GAME OF DEATH (2006) - June 22, 2009
A kind of silly but enjoyable thriller about a down-on-his luck salesman, recently fired, who receives a mysterious phone call and is informed that he's been selected as a contestant for a new game show, and must complete 13 tasks if he wants to win the jackpot. The tasks start simply enough (kill a bug, make some kids cry) but get more sinister as the game goes along. Essentially a non-crappy version of 12 Rounds with less explosions (and since this came out a few years ago, I'm going to have to assume that the writer of 12 Rounds took more than a little inspiration from this film), this wasn't exactly great, but it was quite entertaining throughout. It kind of falls apart if you over-think it, but for what it was it was enjoyable enough. ***

Friday the 13th

FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009) - June 21, 2009
Another crappy horror remake from Marcus Nispel and Platinum Dunes, though this was slightly better (or slightly less crappy, I should say) than the Texas Chainsaw redo. Opening with a group of partying teens who are on the search for some marijuana they think is growing around Camp Crystal Lake, the film bizarrely spends almost half an hour with these disposable characters even though they're really only there to establish Jason and up the already-high body count (this is the sequence that would take about five minutes in any other horror film). The movie then establishes a whole new batch of characters who are, astoundingly, even more generic and cliched than the previous bunch (including a motorcycle-riding badass with a heart of gold named Clay (!) -- at first I was thinking that this had to be tongue-in-cheek, but I'm pretty sure it was being played seriously). The problem with this movie, aside from the murky, unpleasant visuals and the fact that it's almost impossible to care about these thinly-drawn characters as they get offed one by one, is that it just isn't particularly compelling or entertaining at all. There are a few decent sequences here and there, but for the most part it's just dull. Also: special mention must go to the female protagonist's one-liner after she thinks she's about to kill Jason ("Say hi to mommy... in hell!"), which has to be one of the worst one-liners I've ever heard (the unconvincing delivery probably didn't help matters, but really, how can you possibly say that line and not sound ridiculous?). *1/2

Igor

IGOR (2008) - June 20, 2009
A mediocre but essentially enjoyable cartoon about a land which is dominated by evil scientists and their Igors (their hunchbacked assistants); one Igor dreams of becoming an evil scientist himself, though he may not be as evil as he thinks he is. The movie is filled to the brim with celebrity voices (it's definitely using the Dreamworks philosophy of cramming in as many celebrities as possible), which works against the film more often than not (many of the casting choices seemed like they were made purely to add another name to the marquee, and after a while the cavalcade of celebrity voices gets distracting). The film is basically entertaining throughout, and the animation is decent enough. It's not exactly Pixar, but it could be a lot worse -- it's not overly juvenile or crammed with random pop culture references like certain Dreamworks cartoons, so that's a plus. **1/2

Ride 'Em Cowboy

RIDE 'EM COWBOY (1942) - June 19, 2009
A decent Abbott and Costello film, which finds the two -- after a wacky chain of events -- working as cowboys on a ranch. The problem with this movie (and every Abbott and Costello film up to this point) is that the duo essentially share an equal amount of screentime with other characters (in this case, involving a romance with a writer of cowboy fiction who doesn't actually know anything about being a cowboy); there are also several songs which have nothing to do with the plot of the film and which seriously hurt the movie's pacing (everything essentially stops so that these songs can be performed). However, pretty much everything with Abbott and Costello is quite good, and frequently laugh-out-loud funny. **1/2

Eden Lake

EDEN LAKE (2008) - June 18, 2009
A really effective horror/thriller about a couple, on a camping trip in a remote forest, who run afoul of a group of violent teens. The film does a really good job of setting up the characters and making us care about them before putting them in peril. It's also really well directed by James Watkins, who thankfully avoids the dreaded shaky-cam (the film actually looks quite good), and does a great job of building up and maintaining a high level of tension. Essentially, once the horror stuff starts getting into gear, it essentially doesn't let up until the end credits roll. Definitely a primo first film, and I look forward to seeing more from Watkins. ***1/2

Silent Running

SILENT RUNNING (1972) - June 17, 2009
A slow-paced and somewhat dated film about a space ship in the distant future, which carries a couple of bio-domes (it's implied that something terrible happened to the Earth and that these domes are all that has survived of Earth's greenery). After they're given the order to jettison and nuke the domes, the ship's somewhat off-kilter botanist snaps and murders the other crew in order to save his dome. Bruce Dern plays the character as essentially being insane right from the get-go, and I'm not sure if that was supposed to be the point or not, but it wasn't the best performance ever. The film (and Dern's performance) does improve once the other crew members have been dispatched, but certainly, this is no 2001 (despite being directed by Douglas Trumbull, the man behind many of the special effects in 2001; not surprisingly, the effects in this film are quite impressive for the time). **1/2

Citizen Kane

CITIZEN KANE (1941) - June 16, 2009 (Fifth or Sixth Viewing)
Justifiably known as one of the best -- if not the best -- films of all time, this was a masterpiece about the rise and fall of Charles Foster Kane, a newspaper tycoon. Everything about this film -- from Orson Welles' direction to Gregg Tolland's stunning cinematography to the performances -- is pretty much perfect. I don't think I can possibly say too much about Welles' direction, which is absolutely amazing -- both considering when it was made, and just taken on its own. The film has barely aged at all, mostly because of Welles' dazzlingly contemporary direction (in fact, I wish more contemporary directors would learn a thing or two from Orson Welles). Then there are the bravura performances, particularly Welles himself, who convincingly portrays Charles Foster Kane from from his early years as an idealistic young newspaper owner, to his final days as an embittered, defeated old man. It's a really amazing performance; the fact that Welles was able to do such an incredible job both in front of and behind the camera pretty much makes my brain explode. What a genius -- and what a tragedy that he was subsequently treated so shoddily by Hollywood. ****

The Proposal

THE PROPOSAL (2009) - June 15, 2009
An overlong, silly romantic comedy about a woman who blackmails her assistant into marrying her after she finds out that she's about to get deported. Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds have definite chemistry and are both quite good in their roles (Bullock in particular is an old pro in the romcom genre) -- I just wish that they were in a better movie. The same can be said for the supporting cast, including people like Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson, who deserve so much better than this. The main problem with this film is the overabundance of silly, superfluous moments (ie. Bullock and her relatives-to-be visiting an egregiously wacky stripper, Betty White and Bullock doing a bizarre raindance of some sort, etc.). There is a genuinely entertaining romcom buried in here somewhere; this film should have been about 80 minutes instead of 107. It works best when it's being essentially low-key -- every time the film goes for over-the-top laughs, it absolutely falls flat. **

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 (2009) - June 13, 2009
A surprisingly entertaining remake about a man who holds a subway car full of people for ransom, and the transit employee who gets stuck dealing with him. Walking in, this seemed like an unnecessary remake to me; the original is justifiably regarded as a classic, and while this probably wasn't as good as that, it was still quite compelling all the way through. As with Tony Scott's last film, Deja Vu, he has considerably toned down his way over-the-top style, which is a good thing. The film is still a bit flashier than it needs to be, but for the most part Scott's direction is quite restrained, at least comparatively speaking. The film does a really good job of keeping everything moving at a really fast pace despite the fact that much of the film consists of the two main characters talking over the radio, and Denzel Washington made for a really compelling lead character. John Travolta didn't fare quite as well, but he was decent enough as the crazed hijacker. ***1/2

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs

FUTURAMA: THE BEAST WITH A BILLION BACKS (2008) - June 11, 2009
Although perhaps not quite as good as the first film, Bender's Big Score, this was still quite enjoyable -- this time finding the Earth invaded by a strange creature from another dimension. This one kind of felt a bit padded out, but it was definitely entertaining, and it's always nice to see the further adventures of the Planet Express crew. ***

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS (2007) - June 9, 2009
A well made documentary about the competition between Billy Mitchell, the record-holder for Donkey Kong since 1982, and Steve Wiebe, who is out to take the high score. The film is quite enjoyable throughout, and does a good job of building tension as we wonder if Wiebe will be able to beat the score. ***

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME (2006) - June 8, 2009
A really well made anime about a young girl who discovers that she has the power to travel through time; she initially has a lot of fun changing things around and using her power to generally get her way, though she soon realizes that her actions have consequences. The film kind of reminded me of a cross between Groundhog Day and the Butterfly Effect. It was quite well made, and though it was a tad slow in parts, it was definitely entertaining throughout. ***

The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice

THE LIBRARIAN: CURSE OF THE JUDAS CHALICE (2008) - June 7, 2009
Another kind of mediocre but basically entertaining entry in the Librarian series. This one finds the Librarian in New Orleans, seeking out the Judas Chalice -- a cup that will supposedly revive dead vampires. Like the other films in this series, this never quite lives up to its potential, thanks mostly to the ultra-low budget which permeates every facet of this movie. Noah Wyle is as charming and charismatic as ever, and in fact all the performances are quite passable -- the main problem with this film (and the series as a whole) is how low-rent it tends to feel, and the less-than-stellar screenplay (it's written by the guy who directed the Love Guru, so I guess I should just be glad that the film is as good as it is). **1/2

While She was Out

WHILE SHE WAS OUT (2008) - June 6, 2009
Starring Kim Basinger as a seemingly meek housewife who fights back against a group of goons after they terrorize her on Christmas Eve, this was a surprisingly bad film. Surprisingly because the film has a decent enough concept, and because it was executive produced by Guillermo Del Toro. I can't imagine what he saw in this movie. Featuring some embarrassingly clunky dialogue, this was definitely one of the most badly written films I've seen in a while (and I just saw Pathology). It takes way too long to get going, and once it does it just isn't all that compelling; the bad guys are atrociously written and never come off as being even the least bit threatening, so there's pretty much no suspense. Some of the deaths are reasonably violent, but all the characters are so underwritten that it's hard to feel anything but apathy when they get killed off -- certainly, there's not that feeling of bad guys getting their comeuppance that you'd expect out of a film like this. Kim Basinger was fine, but all the other performances were uniformly terrible. Even the usually reliable Lukas Haas was awful, though to his credit I don't think a good performance would have even been possible given the material he had to work with. This was pretty much an all-around failure. *1/2

The Hangover

THE HANGOVER (2009) - June 5, 2009
An entertaining comedy about four guys who go to Vegas for a bachelor party; they wake up the next day with the groom missing, and with no memory of what happened the previous night. This was never laugh-out-loud hilarious (though I did chuckle a few times) but it remained enjoyable throughout thanks to the affable lead characters (particularly a scene-stealing Zach Galifianakis) and the film's brisk pace. ***

Pathology

PATHOLOGY (2008) - June 3, 2009
A stupid movie about a young doctor who goes to a new hospital and suddenly finds himself a participant in a group who take turns killing people, giving the other doctors a chance to try to figure out how they did it. This group is led by Dr. Gallo (get it? Gallo? Gallows? Get it??). Setting aside the implausibility of this group murdering dozens of people and never even raising the suspicions of the police (because in a movie this silly, you're not really supposed to think about stuff like that), or the fact that this group of coworkers all happen to be sociopaths, or the fact that the protagonist essentially goes from normal guy to crack-smoking murderer overnight... even setting all that aside, this was still not a particularly good movie. It was written by Mark Nevaldine and Brian Taylor, the duo who wrote and directed the Crank films, which were both awesomely absurd. This was just absurd. It's kind of disheartening, because I had sort of assumed that Neveldine and Taylor were talented, but this was so bad on so many levels it really does make me wonder if they aren't just one-hit wonders, good in the over-the-top context of a Crank film, but otherwise inept. And this was definitely inept, from the clunky dialogue to how ridiculously, gleefully evil everyone in the little group were (all they were missing were mustaches to twirl). Marc Schölermann's direction was fine, and Milo Ventimiglia did the best he could with the material, but aside from a few decent scenes this was really not good at all. *1/2

Timecrimes

TIMECRIMES (2007) - June 2, 2009
An intriguing thriller about a man who stumbles onto a facility where time travel takes place, and the many shenanigans that ensue. This is one of those movies that really has to be watched more than once to fully appreciate -- the film is continually adding new layers to what has previously unfolded, and so a second viewing would definitely be interesting, if not downright necessary. My main problem with this film is that many of the main character's actions as the film progresses seem quite illogical, though the more I think about it the more I think it does make sense. I do feel like I need to see this again to know I really feel about it, though. The film is definitely quite well made; I'm looking forward to seeing what Nacho Vigalondo comes up with next. ***

Away We Go

AWAY WE GO (2009) - June 1, 2009
Featuring expectedly solid direction from Sam Mendes and really good lead performances from John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph (who couldn't be farther from the usual, embarrassingly over-the-top assortment of characters she played on SNL), this was a film that should have been really good but was weighed down by an oppressive amount of quirkiness. The film surrounds Krasinski and Rudolph with characters who are unreasonably quirky and, many times, downright unpleasant. The movie, which finds the two main characters traveling to different places and seeing old friends and family while trying to figure out where to move, is extremely episodic, and it does improve in the last couple of segments. At that point, the film starts focusing more on the main characters themselves and less on their interactions with the absurd supporting cast -- but it's sort of too late by then. The film is at its best when it's just a low-key drama about a young couple trying to find their place in the world; when it starts introducing all the "hilarious" supporting players, it falls flat. **1/2

Flawless

FLAWLESS (2007) - May 31, 2009
A handsomely made but otherwise dull heist film about a woman working in a large diamond company in the '60s who decides to go into cahoots with a janitor to steal some diamonds. The problem with this film is that it just isn't particularly interesting; it takes way too long to get going, and then when it does, it keeps the audience in the dark about how and why the heist was pulled off the way that it was, in favour of a dramatic last-minute reveal. The film seems to be operating more as a drama than a conventional heist movie, which is fine, only the two main characters are kind of thinly developed -- Demi Moore's character essentially spends the bulk of the film looking shifty, and Michael Caine's intentions are left foggy until the last few moments of the film. There is also a lot of time spent with essentially superfluous side characters, which doesn't help. Nor does the fact that a framing device set in the present essentially removes much of the tension, as it's fairly clear that Demi Moore has gotten away with it. The film isn't completely terrible -- Michael Caine was quite good as always, and Demi Moore was fine I guess -- but it doesn't work particularly well as a heist movie or as a drama, so I'm kind of wondering what the point was. **

Up

UP (2009) - May 30, 2009
How? Seriously, how? How do Pixar manage to maintain such a mind-bogglingly high standard of quality? What are they doing that every other studio isn't? About the adventure that ensues when an old man decides to fly his house to South America, with a precocious kid tagging along, it shouldn't come as a surprise at all that this is an amazing film. One of the things that's so great about this movie is how good of a job it does of developing Carl Fredricksen, the central character; the film opens with a brief recap of his entire relationship with his recently passed wife, which is completely brilliant on so many levels -- aside from how moving it is, it does a perfect job of getting the audience into the character's head, and allowing us to really empathize with him. The kid is another really memorable character, and serves as a perfect foil for the somewhat curmudgeonly Carl. The film pretty much nails everything -- it's exciting and funny, it's poignant with great characters, and it's just plain fun. And it looks so good, too. Anyone who doesn't like this film is a monster. ****

Drag Me to Hell

DRAG ME TO HELL (2009) - May 29, 2009
About a woman who offends a gypsy and winds up with a curse that will, after three days, literally drag her down into hell, this was Sam Raimi's return to the genre that made him famous. It's clear almost immediately that the years spent making dramas and superhero films have done nothing to dull Raimi's horror movie directing chops; if anything, he's just gotten better over the years, as I think this may just edge out any of the Evil Dead films in terms of pure effectiveness. The film is exceptionally fast-paced, and features a lot of "boo!" scares -- a tactic that generally comes of as laziness in most horror films, but which seems to go perfectly with what Raimi is going for here. Raimi isn't trying to reinvent the wheel or do anything particularly innovative, he's just trying to make a really fun movie, and he succeeds with gusto. I should also mention that the film's awesome final moments are probably my favourite since There Will Be Blood's "I'm finished!" I definitely need to watch this again, both because I enjoyed it so much and because the crowd I saw it with was kind of crappy. ***1/2

Army of Darkness

ARMY OF DARKNESS (1992) - May 28, 2009
Featuring Ash, after having traveled into the past at the end of the last movie, defending a castle from demons in the middle ages. The confined setting of the first two films is replaced here with a much more epic feel, and all traces of the more generic Ash from the first film have been completely wiped out -- the Ash here is a one-liner spouting bad-ass, and is definitely a supremely memorable character; it goes without saying that Bruce Campbell is pretty much perfect in the role. This is also the funniest of the three films (the Three Stooges-esque scene involving Ash being accosted by a bunch of skeletons in a graveyard being a highlight), and probably the most flat-out entertaining. ***1/2

Star Trek

STAR TREK (2009) - May 27, 2009 (Third Viewing)
So good. Seriously -- as far as summer movies go, this was pretty much perfect. It has a ton of action, but it knows exactly how much is too much, and it never crosses that line. From J.J. Abrams' stellar direction (I may have to revisit M:I III) to Michael Giacchino's memorable and rousing score (his best since his equally awesome score for the Incredibles) this is primo summer entertainment. ****

The Evil Dead II

THE EVIL DEAD II (1987) - May 26, 2009
Taking place immediately after the events of the first film, this one finds Ash (after a brief recap of the original, which changes a few things around) fighting some more demons, first on his own and then joined by a new group of people. Featuring a much more darkly comic tone than the original, it's even more over-the-top, if that's possible. It's also pretty much plotless; it's basically just a series of set-pieces, but it works. It's really well directed by Sam Raimi, completely entertaining throughout, and short enough that it never begins to over-stay its welcome. ***

The Evil Dead

THE EVIL DEAD (1981) - May 25, 2009
About a group of friends who go on a trip to the cabin in the middle of the woods; things almost immediately go very wrong when they inadvertently unleash a bunch of evil spirits. This is Sam Raimi's first film, and though obviously made on an extremely low budget, it features all of the stylistic quirks that he has become known for. Featuring an almost ridiculous amount of gore, this was quite entertaining throughout. ***

Rogue

ROGUE (2007) - May 24, 2009 (S)
About a group of tourists on a boat in an isolated river in Australia who wind up being terrorized by a giant crocodile. This is Greg McLean's follow-up to Wolf Creek, and like that film this one takes its time setting up all the characters before the crocodile shenanigans start kicking in. They're all pretty much stock characters (ie. the happy family, the bickering couple, the quiet guy, etc.), but I suppose that's necessary to be able to set them up all reasonably quickly. There's not quite as much crocodile carnage as you might expect (the bulk of the film is essentially Lifeboat with a crocodile), but it's suspenseful in parts and definitely entertaining throughout. And then there's the ending, which features Michael Vartan infiltrating the crocodile's lair in order to rescue Radha Mitchell, which is riveting and flat-out awesome. I kinda wish that the film had been more like that all the way through, but... oh well. ***

Terminator Salvation

TERMINATOR SALVATION (2009) - May 23, 2009
Another step down for the once-great, now crappy Terminator series. This one finds John Connor essentially reduced to a side character, with the emphasis shifted to Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright, a convict who is executed in 2003 only to wake up in the post-apocalyptic 2018 (the reason for this is completely spoiled in all the ads even though it isn't revealed until at least an hour into the film, though I suppose it would have been pretty obvious). One of the main problems with this film is that none of the characters are particularly interesting -- not even John Connor, played with monotonous intensity by Christian Bale. McG's slick, faux-gritty visual style also doesn't help matters. His action direction is decent (it's coherent, at least), but it's kind of mediocre and, for the most part, not particularly exciting. There are a few decent action set-pieces, such as the one in which a band of survivors is terrorized by a gigantic robot with motorcycles coming out of its feet -- but even that feels completely out of place in a Terminator film, and seems like it would be more at home in the latest Michael Bay Transformers movie. I guess I was essentially entertained throughout, though it is kind of sad that the best I can say about a new Terminator film is "eh, I wasn't bored." The conclusion, which apes the endings of the first two Terminator films by ending in a steel mill of some sort (I guess they make terminators there, though I didn't see any evidence of that other than a few terminator heads), only serves to demonstrate how much worse this film is than the first two. My attention did start to seriously wane at this point, though the appearance of a slightly off-looking CGI Arnie did basically make it worthwhile. **1/2

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (2003) - May 22, 2009 (Third Viewing)
A passable enough action movie, though pretty much a failure as a follow-up to the first two Terminator films, this was about the further adventures of John Connor in the days leading up to the apocalypse. Though Jonathan Mostow is a decent enough director in his own right, this movie is an unfortunate demonstration that he is no James Cameron. The action scenes -- which thankfully avoid the tiresome quick-cut/shaky-cam device employed by most contemporary action films -- for the most part feel perfunctory and unexciting; they're not necessarily bad, nor are they particularly good. They're just there. "Meh" would be a good word to describe them. As for the rest of the film -- Arnie's T-101 has essentially been reduced to a clown, particularly in the first half of the film. Kristanna Loken's "Terminatrix" makes for a passable, though bland, villain (it's hard not to compare her to the perfectly cast Robert Patrick) -- though attempts to play up her sexiness, such as when she sultrily licks a used bandage (!), just come off as laughable. The film does improve in the second half, when the plot starts to really get into gear, and the movie starts feeling more like a legitimate Terminator film and less like "The Super Wacky Robot and Friendz Happy Hour!" Special props must go to Nick Stahl, however, as his casting is the one element that this film gets 100 percent right. If this had been just a random action movie, I would have said it's a decent if unspectacular summer blockbuster. But as the follow-up to the nearly perfect Terminator 2, it's a pretty big let-down. **1/2

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991) - May 21, 2009 (Sixth or Seventh Viewing)
Pretty much a perfect sequel, this is one of those rare sequels to a really good movie that actually manages to top the original. The budget for this film is clearly much, much larger than for the first -- the action sequences are expectedly larger-than-life without ever coming off as overblown. Sequences such as the one in which the T-1000 pursues a moped-riding John Connor in a gigantic truck easily rank among the best action sequences of all time. But all that explosive action never comes at the price of the characters -- even if there were no action in this film, it would have still been really good just because the dramatic stuff is so well done. I mean, who doesn't get a bit choked up when the Terminator sacrifices himself at the end, giving the thumbs up as he descends into the lava? A robot, that's who. ****

The Terminator

THE TERMINATOR (1984) - May 20, 2009 (Second or Third Viewing)
A superlative action film. About Sarah Connor, a woman from the present who must contend with a cyborg from the future who is out to kill her. This has justifiably become known as a classic in the genre; aside from the dated synthesizer score, the film has aged quite well, and it's easy enough to see why it launched James Cameron's career. The direction is pretty much perfect, and the film does a really good job of blending the action and the more character-driven stuff with Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. ***1/2