A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (2010) - April 30, 2010
A bad though suprisingly not terrible remake -- this is probably the best of the Platinum Dunes remakes, though that's really not saying much.  Samuel Bayer's direction was decent enough (though the film still definitely had that Platinum Dunes look), and some of the dream sequences were actually fairly effective.  One of the film's bigger problems is that none of the characters were really worth caring about -- the Freddy shenanigans were afoot right from the first second of the film, and we never really get a chance to know any of the characters, who are all fairly generic and who are never developed beyond the superficial.  They're marginally better than the annoying douchebags from something like Friday the 13th, but they're pretty dull.  Still, I was pretty much going with the film for the first half or so, as it was reasonably well made, and there was a death every ten minutes or so to liven things up.  But there came a point, about half-way into the film, where the two surviving characters try to uncover the mystery behind Freddy's origins.  The film seriously slowed down at this point.  Oh well.  Considering how bad I feared this would be, it was kind of a pleasant surprise.  **

Footloose (1984)

FOOTLOOSE (1984) - April 28, 2010
An entertaining film about a high school kid who moves to a small town where dancing has been outlawed.  It isn't nearly as campy as it sounds (aside from a somewhat ridiculous scene where Kevin Bacon goes alone to an abandoned warehouse to dance out his anger), and in fact is mostly fairly low-key -- including some really good performances, particularly John Lithgow as the conflicted preacher who outlawed dancing in the first place.  ***

Scoop

SCOOP (2006) - April 27, 2010
An enjoyable movie about a student reporter who starts investigating a charming aristocrat when she receives a tip that he may be a murderer.  Well made and well acted, this was a fun film -- not exactly up there with the Woodster's classics, but then it's not trying to be.  ***

Dread

DREAD (2009) - April 26, 2010
An interesting if somewhat overlong horror film about a guy who, after watching his parents' grisly murder as a child, becomes obsessed with the idea of fear; he convinces a film student to do a documentary about what makes people afraid.  There's definitely a lot of good stuff here, though the film's origin as a short story is fairly apparent, as it does feel a bit stretched thin. I don't know if the characters were necessarily good enough to support the somewhat uneventful first hour, but the film is definitely commendable for trying something a bit different.  **1/2

You Don't Know Jack

YOU DON'T KNOW JACK (2010) - April 25, 2010
A well made and exceptionally well acted bio-pic about Dr. Jack Kevorkian, AKA Dr. Death.  Al Pacino gives a really phenominal performance as Kevorkian -- certainly, it's his best performance in a while and probably right up there with his best work.  All the other performances are just as good, though it's definitely Pacino who makes the biggest impact.  The film is well over two hours but doesn't feel long at all, and is surprisingly well directed by Barry Levinson, who hasn't made a film this good in many, many years (which really surprised me, since his output over the last two decades or so has been so horrible).  Good stuff.  ***1/2

The Losers

THE LOSERS (2010) - April 24, 2010
Meh.  A basically entertaining if kind of mediocre action film about a group of ex-soldiers who set out to get revenge on the man who tried to kill them.  It's definitely not as fun as it's trying so hard to be, but it was decently made and I was never bored.  **1/2

How to Train Your Dragon

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (2010) - April 24, 2010
Wow!  This was actually a lot better than I thought it would be.  Not that I didn't think it would be good, but it was definitely one of the better movies I've seen in a while, and will no doubt rank as one of the best movies of 2010.  About a kid who lives with a village of vikings whose whole society seems to revolve around fighting dragons, and who makes a surprising discovery when he befriends an injured dragon.  Boy, I really enjoyed this movie, from the direction to the performances and even the 3D (!), I loved everything about this film.  ****

Drag Me to Hell

DRAG ME TO HELL (2009) - April 23, 2010 (Second Viewing)
Man, what a great movie.  This was even more enjoyable than I remembered it being.  Sam Raimi's direction is pretty much perfect, and the whole movie is just so fast-paced and entertaining.  Raimi keeps things moving at an almost absurd pace, with very little downtime between the set-pieces, and it's just so much fun.  And that ending... it's perfect, and definitely one of my favourite endings ever.  ****

8 1/2

8 1/2 (1963) - April 22, 2010 (Second Viewing)
I’m about to say something that you’re probably not going to agree with. No point in beating around the bush, so here goes: I don’t like 8½. That’s not to say that I hate it; there are some classic films where the appeal just completely eludes me, and that’s certainly not the case here — this is an exceptionally well made movie, and I can definitely see why someone might love it. But it just didn’t connect with me. I don’t know why. I won’t say I was bored, but I wasn’t exactly riveted.  One thing that I can unequivocally say about this film, despite my feelings on the movie as a whole, is that Federico Fellini’s direction is really top-notch. This is an amazingly good-looking film, and almost every frame looks great. Even when I wasn’t necessarily enthralled by the film itself, I was at least able to appreciate what Fellini had achieved on a visual level.  But… I don’t know, the movie itself I just found kind of dull, despite Fellini’s striking direction, and despite the presence of Marcello Mastroianni, who is one of those actors who can liven up a scene without even saying a word. I’ve liked some of Fellini’s other movies (in fact I’ll soon be revisiting Amarcord, which is a film I remembered enjoying), and this is, by most accounts, his masterpiece. Many call it one of the best movies of all time. And yet it just doesn’t do much for me. Oh well. I’m sure there will be a third viewing at some point in my future. Maybe I’ll like it better then. **

Margot at the Wedding

MARGOT AT THE WEDDING (2007) - April 21, 2010
Well, that wasn't so good.  Filled to the brim with unlikable, angsty, unpleasant characters, this was decently made (other than the unappealingly muted/brownish colour palette), but just wasn't particularly entertaining.  It's not even that I was bored, I wasn't, I was just never particularly keen on spending 90 minutes with these absurdly unpleasant people.  The titular Margot, in particular, was almost comically unlikable.  In Greenberg, Noah Baumbach's most recent film, the title character is self-absorbed and a bit of a jerk, but he's like Cary Grant compared to the dour and unpleasant Margot.  Plus, he's surrounded by more likable characters to balance things out.  No such balance here, where pretty much every character acts like they're constantly on the verge of hanging themselves.  **

Animal Farm

ANIMAL FARM (1954) - April 20, 2010 (Second Viewing)
Well, this is the second time that I’ve seen Animal Farm, and I definitely liked it a bit better this time around. I still don’t think it’s a classic on the same level of some of the movies I’ve already watched for this blog, but certainly, it is a good film. The first time I watched it, I had just read George Orwell’s classic book, and some of the liberties that Halas and Bachelor took with their adaptation kind of irked me (most notably, the choice to make most of the animals mute, and the tacked-on happy ending). It’s been a few years since I’ve read the book, and now that it’s not particularly fresh in my mind, I was able to appreciate the film on its own merits.  It was actually kind of interesting to watch this so soon after 1900, which had a pretty strong pro-communist message. Obviously, Animal Farm is pretty much the opposite, as it’s well known to be an anti-communist allegory (and in fact, rumour has it that the film was partially funded by the CIA to act as a piece of anti-communist propaganda).  Just speaking as a fan of classic animation, you have to appreciate this movie just based on the visuals alone. The fluid, stylish animation is right up there with the best stuff of the era, and an iffy DVD transfer notwithstanding, this is a must-see for anyone who has any kind of interest in animated film. As for the story, it’s fairly compelling, if not quite on par with the book. The movie does a good job of making us care about the animals, and it’s hard not to get wrapped up in their plight, especially towards the end of the film when things start to really go sour for the embattled denizens of the farm.  The movie certainly has its flaws, but I can’t deny that it’s worth watching. ***

Creep

CREEP (2004) - April 17, 2010
An effective horror film about a woman who gets trapped in the London subway overnight, and finds herself stalked by some kind of strange creature.  Well directed by Christopher Smith, there wasn't anything particularly amazing about this film, but it was well made and accomplishes what it sets out to do.  ***

Kick-Ass

KICK-ASS (2010) - April 16, 2010
A really fun comic book movie about a high school kid without any particular powers or abilities who decides he wants to be a super-hero; meanwhile, a much better prepared father and daughter also don masks and fight crime (quite violently).  This was a really enjoyable film that managed to work both as a self-aware take on superhero comics in general, and just as a really good superhero film in itself.  Matthew Vaughn's direction was quite effective -- the over-the-top action scenes were pretty much awesome, despite the presence of a bit more CGI blood than I'd like.  The performances were all quite good, particularly Mark Strong, who gave another really... strong... performance as a ruthless mob boss.  ***1/2

1900

1900 (1976) - April 12, 2010 (Second Viewing)
I’m going to admit that I actually received this movie from Zip.ca way back in January, and it has been sitting on my desk ever since, collecting dust and just waiting to be watched. I’ve seen this movie once before, and I remembered liking it a lot, but how often do you feel like sitting down and watching a five hour Italian epic (five hours and fifteen minutes, to be precise)? Of course, the obvious solution would be to watch it over two nights — it’s even broken up over two discs, which would make deciding when to stop watching remarkably easy. But that just feels like cheating to me, and so the movie sat around unwatched for months, waiting for me to be in the right mood.  The sad thing about my reticence is that this is a really good movie, and I knew that since I’d seen it before — though the only thing I really remembered from my first viewing was the scene in which Donald Sutherland kills a cat by headbutting it (with a running start, no less), in order to illustrate the proper way to deal with the perils of communism. It’s kind of hard to forget something like that.  Yes, the movie is super long. Almost absurdly long. And yet it somehow justifies its length far better than American Graffiti, which was under two hours and still felt way longer than it needed to be. The length allows you to spend such a long time with the characters — from their childhood all they way through to their middle age and beyond — that you really get a sense of knowing them that would simply be impossible from a shorter film. Many of the characters, De Niro’s in particular, undergo transformations that could have easily seemed forced in a shorter movie, but seems completely natural given the scope that Bertolucci chose to work with.  Bertolucci, working with famed cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, creates a film that is really beautiful to look at. And of course, the performances are all quite good; De Niro in particular does a really great job of making his character subtly change as he grows older. Really, I don’t have many complaints about this film. Some of the characters tend to be a bit simplistic, either being clearly good or clearly evil, without many shades of gray (ie. Donald Sutherland’s cat-headbutting Fascist). Also, the actors in this film all spoke their own languages (Depardieu spoke French, De Niro spoke English, etc.) and were dubbed over in post. The DVD has an English track, an Italian track and a French track, which means that it’s impossible to watch the film and hear all the actors speak with their own voices. I chose English because I wanted to hear De Niro speak since he’s the main character, but it wasn’t exactly ideal.  ***1/2

Greenberg

GREENBERG (2010) - April 9, 2010
A really well made character study about a self-absorbed 40 year old who returns to LA after several years to house-sit for his brother.  While there, he reconnects with an old friend and a forms a tentative relationship with his brother's personal assistant.  Noah Baumbach's direction is quite good, and he does a really good job of getting us to care about the characters -- Greenberg himself is a bit of a jerk, but Ben Stiller is pretty much perfect in the role and ensures that the character is always relatable.  The other performances were just as good, and all the characters were exceptionally well drawn and compelling, making the film's kind of meandering vibe and lack of a plot a distinct non-issue.  ***1/2

American Graffiti

AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973) - April 8, 2010
Meh. Wasn’t crazy about this one. I guess the streak of really good movies had to end eventually. Not that this was a bad movie, but it’s not exactly something I’m going to run out to add to my collection.  I should note that the original original Star Wars trilogy (ie. the non-adulterated versions) are among my favourite films of all time, so this is a movie that I’ve been meaning to watch for a while. American Graffiti is the last film George Lucas made before moving on to Star Wars, and along with THX 1138, it’s the only feature film that he directed without the words star and wars in the title.  So what was wrong with it? Lucas’ direction is fine, if nothing particularly spectacular. The performances were all good (and it was kind of neat seeing a really young Harrison Ford and Richard Dreyfuss). But the film feels long and meandering, and I just never connected with the characters in a meaningful way. Every scene seemed to go on a bit longer than it needed to, and while I was never all-out bored, I was never particularly riveted, either. Some of the subplots were more interesting than others, but to be honest they all kind of over-stayed their welcome to a certain extent. Meh. That’s really the best way to describe my feelings about this movie.  **1/2

Chloe

CHLOE (2009) - April 7, 2010
A decently made melodrama about a woman who suspects her husband is cheating on her, and who hires a prostitute to see if he'll remain faithful.  Atom Egoyan's direction was serviceable enough, and the whole thing was well made, but it was just kind of middling -- it's the type of film that you forget about almost as soon as the lights go up.  Though the performances were really good, I will give it that.  **1/2

Wall-E

WALL-E (2008) - April 6, 2010 (Seventh Viewing)
A brilliant film -- this is such a great movie from start to finish, and I really don't think I can think of a single flaw.  I love it.  For sure, it's one of my favourite movies ever.  ****

All The President's Men

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976) - April 4, 2010
It’s odd — on the surface, it seems like the movie shouldn’t be that great. It’s very long (almost two hours and twenty minutes), and consists entirely of the minutia of Woodward and Bernstein’s (or “Woodstein,” as their editor calls them) investigation. We never learn anything about either Woodward or Bernstein’s personal lives, or at least nothing that we can’t glean from their fastidious investigation. You’d think that the lack of any significant character development would hurt the film, and yet somehow it doesn’t. It helps, I’m sure, that both Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford are great actors, and are at the top of their game here.  It seems like the movie should be dull, but it isn’t. Woodstein spend an inordinate amount of time chasing down leads over the telephone, visiting with people and running into dead end after dead end. Somehow, director Alan J. Pakula manages to make a scene like someone simply talking on the phone surprisingly tense. There’s something really compelling about watching the pieces of the investigation very slowly fall into place.  Pakula’s direction is definitely top-notch, as is Gordon Willis’ cinematography; from the bustling expansiveness of the newsroom, to the dark, shadowy parking lot where the meetings with Deep Throat take place, this is a really visually compelling film. This is, of course, a movie that not only rewards but demands your full attention — with the sheer volume of names and information being constantly thrown at the viewer, it’s easy enough to fall behind. But assuming you’re in the mood for a movie like this, it’s definitely worth your time. The book calls it one of “the most gripping, deft and utterly compelling of thrillers,” which I definitely agree with, despite the absence of any of the elements you might expect from a typical thriller — there are no car chases, no shootouts, and nothing even remotely resembling a typical action scene. There’s just the investigation, and it’s absolutely compelling.  ***1/2

Clash of the Titans

CLASH OF THE TITANS (2010) - April 2, 2010
A silly and kind of mediocre film about a half man, half god who decides to take on the god Hades after his family is killed.  Huge action set-peices ensue.  Louis Leterrier's direction was decent enough, and the film was basically entertaining, though it kind of lagged between the action scenes -- none of the characters were particularly compelling (with the possible exception of Mads Mikkelsen), including Sam Worthington, who was pretty bland as the main character.  Some of the action scenes were decent enough in a really over-the-top way, but the film was just kind of mediocre.  **

Repo Men

REPO MEN (2010) - April 1, 2010
A basically enjoyable film about a repo man of artificial organs in the not-too-distant future, who finds the tables turned when he can't pay for his artificial heart.  There were a lot of things I liked about this movie, from the (admittedly absurd) premise to the futuristic setting, but it dragged a bit in the middle, and I found myself seriously losing interest.  The movie definitely won me back, however, with the gleefully violent, way over-the-top finale, which was pretty awesome.  **1/2