I saw this movie mainly because I was surprised and delighted by the title and the poster. In the world of urban legend underground sex fetishes, furry loving is a thing where people get turned on by and have sex with people dressed up in full-body animal costumes - like high school bear suits and whatnot. I'm not at all sure that this is a real thing, but it is a recent meme that comes up a lot on The Daily Show and e-mail forwards. The poster for this movie shows star Brendan Fraser being attacked by a big bear - but it almost looks like it could be a person dressed up in a bear costume. That this was also supposed to be one of the worst movies of the year made this all the more enticing to me.
Well - it was really neither of these things. It was not a movie about weird sex fetishes that nobody has (to paraphrase Roger Ebert's great line about David Cronenberg's film Crash) and it was also not the worst movie of the year. It was a nice family film with a nice message and basically totally harmless. Surprisingly it has one of the biggest casts in recent memory for such a weird family film.
Dan Sanders (Fraser) is a nice family guy with a wife, Tammy (Brooke Shields) and a son. He works for a company that is building a housing sub-division in the middle of a big forest. As he begins to tear down some of the trees to put up houses, the animals in the forest turn against him and begin to torment him for his anti-enviro business. Dan is just a middle-man, though, and the real villain is his boss and company owner, Neal Lyman (Ken Jeong - who is everywhere these days). Dan's family begins to think he's crazy as the animals torment him more and more.
Other the the main actors, the cast also features lots of cameos from actors (some of whom are recent parents): Angela Kinsey, Samantha Bee, Rob Riggle, Patrice O'Neal, Jim Norton and Wallace Shawn, to name a few.
The story is perfect for kids and easy enough for adults as well. There is nothing really challenging here and it ties up nicely with a good happy ending message about loving nature and animals.
It feels like a 1980s comedy with John Candy or Chevy Chase - but in the best possible way. Like a PG version of The Great Outdoors or The Money Pit. There is no reason to hate this movie - it is exactly what it says it is - a sweet family comedy that is safe for all ages.
Stars: 2 of 4
30 Nisan 2010 Cuma
Breaking Upwards (Friday, April 30, 2010) (38)
Breaking Upwards is a very small and very sweet indie comedy about a young twenty-something couple in New York who love each other dearly but are getting somewhat bored with dating. They decide to begin to take 'days off' from dating to try to live independently. At first this is difficult as they both contact one anther non-stop on the phone, email and Internet. Ultimately they realize that they are drifting apart more and more and they have to come to terms with the reality of their individual single lives.
The film was made on a shoestring budget, but has a really nice feel about it. It's rather hand-made, but there is much more of a script and a structure than anything particularly mumblecore (it's not mumblecore at all - just low budget). It was co-written by lead actors Zoe Lister Jones and Daryl Wein (who also directed the picture) along with Peter Duchan - and the concept is really nice and well done. There is nothing fancy here other than good, if simple, story telling. The dialogue is very punchy and clever - and feels very natural for New Yorkers of this age and background.
I have to say, as much of a fan of mumblecore as I am, it's nice that there are still independent movies being made in New York that are not just mumble. The normalness of the form (the three-act structure and scenes with real beginnings and ends) is refreshing. At the same time, I think part of what's charming about this film is its smallness - the fact that there is an intimacy and a familiarity with the places and things we see. As good a concept as this is, I don't think it would work well as a bigger budget project. It would just feel fake and forced in such a situation.
I also have to mention, of course, the similarities between this and the recent German film that I loved, Everyone Else. They both deal with the same concept - two people who love each other but can't stay together - but in very different ways. They're interesting to see close to one another - especially because this one doesn't have the tragic, sad elements of the Everyone Else, and that one doesn't have the funny smallness of this one. I guess lightning can strike twice but have very different results.
Stars: 2.5 of 4
The film was made on a shoestring budget, but has a really nice feel about it. It's rather hand-made, but there is much more of a script and a structure than anything particularly mumblecore (it's not mumblecore at all - just low budget). It was co-written by lead actors Zoe Lister Jones and Daryl Wein (who also directed the picture) along with Peter Duchan - and the concept is really nice and well done. There is nothing fancy here other than good, if simple, story telling. The dialogue is very punchy and clever - and feels very natural for New Yorkers of this age and background.
I have to say, as much of a fan of mumblecore as I am, it's nice that there are still independent movies being made in New York that are not just mumble. The normalness of the form (the three-act structure and scenes with real beginnings and ends) is refreshing. At the same time, I think part of what's charming about this film is its smallness - the fact that there is an intimacy and a familiarity with the places and things we see. As good a concept as this is, I don't think it would work well as a bigger budget project. It would just feel fake and forced in such a situation.
I also have to mention, of course, the similarities between this and the recent German film that I loved, Everyone Else. They both deal with the same concept - two people who love each other but can't stay together - but in very different ways. They're interesting to see close to one another - especially because this one doesn't have the tragic, sad elements of the Everyone Else, and that one doesn't have the funny smallness of this one. I guess lightning can strike twice but have very different results.
Stars: 2.5 of 4
The Ghost Writer (Friday, April 30, 2010) (37)
I was a bit surprised that with all the press Roman Polanski was getting with being arrested in Switzerland recently there was not more attention given to him having new movie out, The Ghost Writer. Somehow this movie snuck up on me and I didn't really know it was a Polanski movie until a few people told me about it. Regardless, I was interested to see it not only because it stole its title from one of my favorite Philip Roth novels, but also because Polanski has had an interesting voice, at least in the past.
This film tells the story of a man (Ewan McGregor) who is hired as the ghost writer for the recently-retired Prime Minister of the UK, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), as he tries to complete his memoirs. It seems that his last ghost writer mysteriously killed himself a few weeks before. As McGregor sets into the task, he discovers more and more unusual stuff in Lang's past. As this is happening, Lang is being accused of helping the CIA torture terrorist suspects - a fact that makes the writing of the memoirs even more difficult.
Overall the story is rather straight-forward and silly. There are a few twists that you might expect from a film of this nature, but nothing is all that surprising. The big reveal at the end is rather dull and visible from miles away.
There is not really all that much here to be all that critical about. The film looks good and the story generally hangs together well and moves along well enough. I found it a bit dull somewhere late in the second act - but that's also not a surprise for a big budget film like this (perhaps the story could have been shaved by a few pages around that point).
The acting is good, but nothing really remarkable. Brosnan and McGregor are generally always good; Olivia Williams, as Mrs. Lang, is very good, I thought - and I look forward to seeing her in more stuff (she's got the more down-to-earth appeal of Liz Hurley, with a bit more acting chops). The one casting decision I was surprised by was Kim Cattrall in the role of the PM's chief of staff. She is really not a very good actor and I thought struggled through this role. Considering she was born in the UK and studied there a fair amount, I was surprised that she seemed to have trouble with the English accent she had. I don't know - too much sex in New York can take the Brit out of any woman, I guess...
One funny thing - which, again, I am surprised hasn't gotten more press - is that Lang is hanging out in the U.S. after he's been charged in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The U.S. doesn't sponsor this court and as a result does not extradite people to it. This of course is weird as Polanski has been living in France and Switzerland for 30+ years because they wouldn't extradite him to the U.S. to be charged for his statutory rape of a girl in the 1970s. I don't know if this was a thumb in the eye of the American judicial system or not - but it's an interesting real-world rhyme with the picture.
This is not a great movie - but not a bad one by any means. It's very OK. It's a clever ride and ties up nicely, if predictably. There's nothing particularly Polanski about this - it feels rather anonymous - but it's a decent effort nonetheless.
Stars: 2 of 4
This film tells the story of a man (Ewan McGregor) who is hired as the ghost writer for the recently-retired Prime Minister of the UK, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), as he tries to complete his memoirs. It seems that his last ghost writer mysteriously killed himself a few weeks before. As McGregor sets into the task, he discovers more and more unusual stuff in Lang's past. As this is happening, Lang is being accused of helping the CIA torture terrorist suspects - a fact that makes the writing of the memoirs even more difficult.
Overall the story is rather straight-forward and silly. There are a few twists that you might expect from a film of this nature, but nothing is all that surprising. The big reveal at the end is rather dull and visible from miles away.
There is not really all that much here to be all that critical about. The film looks good and the story generally hangs together well and moves along well enough. I found it a bit dull somewhere late in the second act - but that's also not a surprise for a big budget film like this (perhaps the story could have been shaved by a few pages around that point).
The acting is good, but nothing really remarkable. Brosnan and McGregor are generally always good; Olivia Williams, as Mrs. Lang, is very good, I thought - and I look forward to seeing her in more stuff (she's got the more down-to-earth appeal of Liz Hurley, with a bit more acting chops). The one casting decision I was surprised by was Kim Cattrall in the role of the PM's chief of staff. She is really not a very good actor and I thought struggled through this role. Considering she was born in the UK and studied there a fair amount, I was surprised that she seemed to have trouble with the English accent she had. I don't know - too much sex in New York can take the Brit out of any woman, I guess...
One funny thing - which, again, I am surprised hasn't gotten more press - is that Lang is hanging out in the U.S. after he's been charged in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The U.S. doesn't sponsor this court and as a result does not extradite people to it. This of course is weird as Polanski has been living in France and Switzerland for 30+ years because they wouldn't extradite him to the U.S. to be charged for his statutory rape of a girl in the 1970s. I don't know if this was a thumb in the eye of the American judicial system or not - but it's an interesting real-world rhyme with the picture.
This is not a great movie - but not a bad one by any means. It's very OK. It's a clever ride and ties up nicely, if predictably. There's nothing particularly Polanski about this - it feels rather anonymous - but it's a decent effort nonetheless.
Stars: 2 of 4
29 Nisan 2010 Perşembe
Movie Reviews: THE SECRET OF KELLS & CITY ISLAND
THE SECRET OF KELLS (Dirs. Tomm Moore & Nora Twomey, 2009)
It was a bit of a surprise that this was nominated by the Academy for Best Animated Feature Film of last year, because in the current computerized cartoon climate it looks distinctly out of place with its old school hand drawn design.
THE SECRET OF KELLS concerns a curious kid (voiced by Evan McGuire) in the 9th century living in the Monastery of Kells. His stern uncle, Abbott Callach (Brenden Gleason) fearing Viking attack, forbids him to leave the protective walls enclosing them and venture into the mystic forest.
Of course, that's where he's gonna go - especially now inspired by the elderly Brother Aidan (Mick Lally) who requires the boy's help to finish his mighty magical book. Our intrepid lad journeys into the glowing lush forest to gather berries for ink and meets a playful yet spooky fairy - Aisling (voice of Christen Moony). She guides and aids the boy also adding some cryptic warnings. Moony breathes considerable life into the piece, that is until she starts to sing (thankfully there's just one song).
The pace is tight as it winds through its earnest storytelling, but unfortunately the flat look of its animation, and the fact that its chosen style makes it look like The Powerpuff Girls gone green, detract greatly from the earnest sincerity and its otherwise stable sense of wonder.
Its admirable nobility is what got it Oscar nominated, but its lack of tension and grip to its tale, elements that the winner UP had in spades, left it deservedly on the sidelines. At least since it has no thematic intensity, it's one you don't have to fear about taking the kids to, unless you fear that they'll fall asleep.
Don't consider this a complete pan though. THE SECRET OF KELLS does contain a lot of pretty imagery and the story is fairly solid, I just wish it had more oomph.
Speaking of needing more oomph:
CITY ISLAND (Dir. Raymond De Felitta, 2010)
Nearly every member of the Rizzo family, a working class Bronx family, has a secret.
Father and correctional officer (he hates being called a prison guard) Andy Garcia is taking acting classes which he doesn't tell his wife (Julianna Margulies) about, causing her to believe he's having an affair. Their daughter (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) is working as a stripper at a sleazy club because she got kicked out of her first year of college.
Their wise-cracking son (Ezra Miller) has a fetish for overweight women and is eyeing their next door neighbor (Carrie Baker Reynolds) who just happens to have a website catering to people who, uh, have fetishes for overweight women. Also add to the mix Steven Strait, Andy Garcia's long-lost-just-out-of-prison son, who, of course, Garcia hasn't told anybody about - not even Strait knows he's Garcia's son.
Garcia brings him into their home and then we fret as his wife and daughter are attracted to him - something that could have been avoided if he just told them the situation. This movie is something that could be avoided in one swift family meeting. As it goes each scene is a joke on the scene before it and not a very well timed or funny joke.
The addition of Alan Arkin as a crusty acting teacher (at least he's not a quipping grandparent who dies in the last third) just confirms the contrived and quirky nature of this tired material.
At one point, Garcia gets an audition for a Martin Scorsese film (don't worry - Scorsese wisely doesn't appear). Only his acting partner Emily Mortimer, who yes, he didn't tell his family about, knows this and encourages him. These scenes are sort of sweet as Garcia has a believability about him and Mortimer makes the most of an underwritten (and unnecessary) role.
If the sitcom sensibility and overreaching comic tone could have been dropped and the characters were given room to be people and not sketch premise devices, CITY ISLAND could've really been something other than just a watchable throwaway.
More later...
It was a bit of a surprise that this was nominated by the Academy for Best Animated Feature Film of last year, because in the current computerized cartoon climate it looks distinctly out of place with its old school hand drawn design.THE SECRET OF KELLS concerns a curious kid (voiced by Evan McGuire) in the 9th century living in the Monastery of Kells. His stern uncle, Abbott Callach (Brenden Gleason) fearing Viking attack, forbids him to leave the protective walls enclosing them and venture into the mystic forest.
Of course, that's where he's gonna go - especially now inspired by the elderly Brother Aidan (Mick Lally) who requires the boy's help to finish his mighty magical book. Our intrepid lad journeys into the glowing lush forest to gather berries for ink and meets a playful yet spooky fairy - Aisling (voice of Christen Moony). She guides and aids the boy also adding some cryptic warnings. Moony breathes considerable life into the piece, that is until she starts to sing (thankfully there's just one song).
The pace is tight as it winds through its earnest storytelling, but unfortunately the flat look of its animation, and the fact that its chosen style makes it look like The Powerpuff Girls gone green, detract greatly from the earnest sincerity and its otherwise stable sense of wonder.
Its admirable nobility is what got it Oscar nominated, but its lack of tension and grip to its tale, elements that the winner UP had in spades, left it deservedly on the sidelines. At least since it has no thematic intensity, it's one you don't have to fear about taking the kids to, unless you fear that they'll fall asleep.
Don't consider this a complete pan though. THE SECRET OF KELLS does contain a lot of pretty imagery and the story is fairly solid, I just wish it had more oomph.
Speaking of needing more oomph:
CITY ISLAND (Dir. Raymond De Felitta, 2010)
Nearly every member of the Rizzo family, a working class Bronx family, has a secret.Father and correctional officer (he hates being called a prison guard) Andy Garcia is taking acting classes which he doesn't tell his wife (Julianna Margulies) about, causing her to believe he's having an affair. Their daughter (Dominik Garcia-Lorido) is working as a stripper at a sleazy club because she got kicked out of her first year of college.
Their wise-cracking son (Ezra Miller) has a fetish for overweight women and is eyeing their next door neighbor (Carrie Baker Reynolds) who just happens to have a website catering to people who, uh, have fetishes for overweight women. Also add to the mix Steven Strait, Andy Garcia's long-lost-just-out-of-prison son, who, of course, Garcia hasn't told anybody about - not even Strait knows he's Garcia's son.
Garcia brings him into their home and then we fret as his wife and daughter are attracted to him - something that could have been avoided if he just told them the situation. This movie is something that could be avoided in one swift family meeting. As it goes each scene is a joke on the scene before it and not a very well timed or funny joke.
The addition of Alan Arkin as a crusty acting teacher (at least he's not a quipping grandparent who dies in the last third) just confirms the contrived and quirky nature of this tired material.
At one point, Garcia gets an audition for a Martin Scorsese film (don't worry - Scorsese wisely doesn't appear). Only his acting partner Emily Mortimer, who yes, he didn't tell his family about, knows this and encourages him. These scenes are sort of sweet as Garcia has a believability about him and Mortimer makes the most of an underwritten (and unnecessary) role.
If the sitcom sensibility and overreaching comic tone could have been dropped and the characters were given room to be people and not sketch premise devices, CITY ISLAND could've really been something other than just a watchable throwaway.
More later...
28 Nisan 2010 Çarşamba
MUTANT GÜNLÜKLERİ İZLE
Mutant Günlükleri – The Mutant Chronicles (2009)
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27 Nisan 2010 Salı
A Few Random Blu Ray Reviews
BIGGER THAN LIFE (Dir. Nicholas Ray, 1956)
Missing in action from the home video scene, Nicholas Ray's disturbing domestic drama is finally released on Blu ray and DVD.
Starring James Mason as a cultured school teacher and family man, it concerns his downward spiral from abusing the prescribed drug cortisone. Mason begins taking the drug because of painful attacks and at first all is peachy - his strength and energy increases as does his intense focus.
This escalates into psychosis scaring his wife (Barbara Rush) and son (Christopher Olsen) into submission until they realize it's gotten out of hand. Mason (who also co-wrote and co-produced) delivers a performance that is a tour de force; it's remarkable work coming from an actor who specializes in suavity - even his iconic flustered Humbert Humbert in Stanley Kubrick's LOLITA is more a study in restraint than this character.
The film moves with Mason aesthetically evolving from brightly colored small town tranquility into dark shadowy behind closed doors oppression. Its ending is a bit too pat but BIGGER THAN LIFE is a movie milestone now restored to a proper place in the cinematic canon thanks to the Criterion Collection.
Insightful featurettes from author Jonathan Lethem ("Motherless Brooklyn"), the director's widow Suzanne Ray, commentary by critic Geoff Andrew, and a half hour interview with Ray from the 70's (which is mostly about REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) make for a great package for this all too long absent near masterpiece.
COCOON (Dir. Ron Howard, 1985)
COCOON (Dir. Ron Howard, 1985)
A ton of older titles are hitting Blu ray every day it seems which can be a good excuse to revisit forgotten films. However, In the case of this film the pristine picture quality hinders rather than enhances the dated special effects and its other cheesy attributes.
Being about a group of seniors who stumble upon a fountain of youth in the form of a swimming pool which happens to have ancient alien cocoons resting in its water, this movie appeared to exist so that there could be at least one sci-fi film in the '80s that you could take your grandparents to.
Don Ameche (who won the Oscar for his role), Hume Cronyn, and Wilford Brimley (who was only 51 at the time) are the old timers who find the inside pool located on property rented by Brian Dennehy as the leader of the visiting aliens disguised as humans.
The aliens hire Steve Guttenberg, taking a break from the POLICE ACADEMY series, and his boat to help them move the cocoons. Meanwhile the old folks (including Jessica Tandy, Maureen Stapleton, and Gwen Verdon) show off their new youthful power in a standard era montage - one of many hammy scenes that made me wish this film remained in the dusty VHS section of my mind.
Watching it again after all these years, it looks like Howard too closely followed Spielberg's alien handbook - when revealed as the generic glowing loose-limbed life forms that became the norm after CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, a good deal of the charm and fun is drained from the project. Likewise for big reveal of the alien's mother ship too.
Some of its corny charm is still there, but COCOON is really just a footnote from a period populated by much better fantasy film offerings. It's by no means a classic, shiny Blu ray notwithstanding.
Among the ample special features that ignore this, there's a trailer for COCOON: THE RETURN which is more than I want to see of one of the most unnecessary sequels ever again.
Broderick plays a former children's folk music star that lives a sorry existence as a cynical divorced man toiling in jobs he believes are beneath him. When his roommate (Michael K. Williams - Omar from The Wire) falls ill and needs hospitalization, Broderick contacts his family back in Senegal. Sanaa Lathan arrives as Williams' sister and a romance blooms between her and Broderick.
WONDERFUL WORLD could be seen as a more accessible version of THE VISITOR - an over educated socially withdrawn white man meets a foreign woman who re-ignites his spark while they both try to help a brother in need with culture clashes becoming revelations. It may be predictable in parts, but this is a film with a lot of heart and just the right amount of comic edge to make it satisfyingly worthwhile.
More later...
WONDERFUL WORLD (Dir. Joshua Goldin, 2009)
26 Nisan 2010 Pazartesi
GREENBERG: The Film Babble Blog Review
GREENBERG
(Dir. Noah Baumbach, 2010)
"I'm really trying to do nothing for a while", Robert Greenberg (Ben Stiller) says repeatedly throughout this low key independent film that matches his nothing scene by scene.
Stiller's acerbic misanthropic New Yorker title character is house-sitting for his brother (Chris Medina) in LA and starts and stops, and starts and stops again, an awkward romance with Greta Gerwig as his brother's personal assistant. That's basically it plot wise. It's a series of scenes in which we cringe anticipating how exactly Stiller will socially sabotage every given situation.
And that really doesn't make for entertaining movie going. It seemed so promising at first. The possibilities of tapping into Stiller's talent for comic anger without cheap laughs, a la what PUNCH DRUNK LOVE did for Adam Sandler, could make for a iconic assessment, but the discomfort that supporting cast members Rhys Ifans and Jennifer Jason Leigh (who is credited for the story - a baffling credit since there barely is one) convey is contagious.
Greenberg, the character, is simply not interesting. He was once a musician that botched a record deal for his band that he's never owned up to, and his so called friends barely tolerate him. He writes complaint letters to every commercial institution that he comes across from American Airlines to Starbucks. And now he can't figure out if he wants to pursue a relationship with a 26 year old woman who is also floating through life with no direction.
You'd think that she'd see that this guy is just an asshole and move on, but maybe there's some actual realism there. Realism may be the film's problem. I mean, Greenberg all too well reminds me of former friends who I stopped hanging out with because they were way too negative and boring.
Many of Stiller's jerk wad exchanges just brought to mind the many times I disgustedly hung up the phone with such folk. When I realized halfway through that this guy was never going to change and there was no point to this slice of his dull life I want to hang up with the movie.
Underwritten and un-affecting; it's a charmless movie about a charmless man. It has echoes of James L. Brook's AS GOOD AS IT GETS which similarly dealt with a socially inept curmudgeon begrudgingly accepting love. That film though had more witty life to it - GREENBERG just sits there. Oh, I should say that Baumbach tries to combat the underlining nothing with a desperate party sequence with snarky kids, drugs, and loud music in the last third.
I like the work of Noah Baumbach a lot more than say Armond White, but here this particular spotlight on self absorption really needed more going for it than just these bare bones slightly spruced up with James Murphy's (LCD Soundsystem) soundtrack (which isn't bad actually).
When asked how he's doing early on, Stiller quips: "Fair to middling, Leonard Maltin would give me 2 and 1/2 stars." If I used a star rating I'd be way less generous.
More later...
İLİŞKİ DURUMU : KARMAŞIK ROMANTİK KOMEDİ
EN KOMİK FİLM
Oyuncular: Meryl Streep , Steve Martin , Alec Baldwin
Oyuncular: Meryl Streep , Steve Martin , Alec Baldwin
TÜRKLER ÇILDIRMIŞ OLMALI İZLE
TÜRKLER ÇILDIRMIŞ OLMALI
oyuncular: Peker Açıkalın , Tuba Ünsal , Erdal Tosun , Kadir Çöpdemir , Zeynep Beşerler
oyuncular: Peker Açıkalın , Tuba Ünsal , Erdal Tosun , Kadir Çöpdemir , Zeynep Beşerler
25 Nisan 2010 Pazar
Have You Heard from Johannesburg (Sunday, April 25, 2010) (34-36)
I normally don't review documentaries like this - made for television and multi-part - but I watched this one at Film Forum, where it played for two weeks, so I'm counting it and reviewing it. This is a seven-part, nearly-nine-hour history of the anti-Apartheid movement. It follows the early political actions of the 1950s through the 1980s and the American movement to divest from South African firms who were complicit in the racist movement.
Much like Eyes on the Prize, it tells a beautiful story of how over time, people such as Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Govan Mbeki led the movement in its early days in the streets of Soweto and how they were all arrested and jailed or exiled from the country. It shows key points in the movement, like the murder of Steve Biko, the Soweto riots and the government beat-down of activists in the 1970s.
Through the different chapters many different parts of the movement are shown. One part deals with the sporting arena and how by the 1970s, South Africa was not allowed to participate in many international competitions as they couldn't find opponents who would play their all-white squads. Another part shows the rise of anti-Apartheid sentiment in the United States and how university students forced their schools to sell stock in South African business.
There is not much here critical of the movement - all the leaders come across as saintly men and women who do nothing but good throughout their lives. This is clearly not the true case. Just as in any political movement, there were misplayed moments and even some outright bad stuff. But what they did to end the Apartheid system is important enough for me to let the omissions slide.
This is a great work and one that should be taught in classrooms around the world.
Stars: 3 of 4
Much like Eyes on the Prize, it tells a beautiful story of how over time, people such as Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Govan Mbeki led the movement in its early days in the streets of Soweto and how they were all arrested and jailed or exiled from the country. It shows key points in the movement, like the murder of Steve Biko, the Soweto riots and the government beat-down of activists in the 1970s.
Through the different chapters many different parts of the movement are shown. One part deals with the sporting arena and how by the 1970s, South Africa was not allowed to participate in many international competitions as they couldn't find opponents who would play their all-white squads. Another part shows the rise of anti-Apartheid sentiment in the United States and how university students forced their schools to sell stock in South African business.
There is not much here critical of the movement - all the leaders come across as saintly men and women who do nothing but good throughout their lives. This is clearly not the true case. Just as in any political movement, there were misplayed moments and even some outright bad stuff. But what they did to end the Apartheid system is important enough for me to let the omissions slide.
This is a great work and one that should be taught in classrooms around the world.
Stars: 3 of 4
The Secret in their Eyes (Sunday, April 25, 2010) (33)
I was curious to see this film because it won the Oscar this year for Best Foreign Film, beating out The White Ribbon and A Prophet, two movies that I either liked or loved. Last year the Oscar winner, Departures, was a very safe and sweet movie, but not even close to the brilliance of The Class, Revanche or Waltz with Bashir, three other films that were nominated and were superior to the victor.
And once again, the Academy picked the safe, easy, boring movie over two more interesting, difficult pieces.
This film is basically a Hollywood-style murder mystery with an Argentine accent. Benjamin Esposito is a retired lawyer who was a long-time clerk and assistant to a federal judge in Buenos Aires. He is now working on a novelization of an old case that has haunted him since he first investigated it 20 years before. At that time, a woman was brutally murdered while her husband was at work. Over the course of the investigation, Esposito found an old flame of the woman who he thought was the probable murder. The man was not convicted and then went missing.
Part of the story he constructs in his book involves Irene Menéndez Hastings, a young judge investigator (sorry, I don't totally understand the Argentine judicial system to know who does what) who worked with Esposito at the time of the murder. He was in love with her, but she had a husband and dating her was out of the question. As he finishes his novel, he reconnects with Hastings and falls back in love with her. He then goes off to see if he can finish the investigation and find out who really killed that woman so many years ago.
There is nothing particularly interesting or fresh about this story. It could have easily been written by John Grisham or the like. Director Juan José Campanella, a veteran of American television like House and Law and Order: SVU seems to borrow heavily from his small screen work. The characters are quickly sketched out with only a bit of depth and the story is rather simple - even considering its long, 127-minute run-time.
The best thing about the film is the performance of Ricardo Darin as Esposito. Darin, who was recently in the beautiful and brilliant XXY, is a natural talent - reminiscent of George Clooney and Javier Bardem. He oozes charisma and familiarity - as if he was your favorite next-door neighbor. The character is not all that special - but Darin makes him kind, lovable and sympathetic.
There is nothing really bad about this film other than the fact that it feels mostly recycled. What is great about contemporary Argentine cinema is the freshness and smallness of the stories. The movies deal with very matter-of-fact and frank stories on the ground. There is nothing all that fabulous or special about the stories - other than the fact that they are totally honest. This film seems much more over-constructed and complicated than any other recent Argentine effort. Much like how Tell No One was a failure of a French film because French filmmakers don't make Hollywood movies, this is a mess of an Argentine film for the same reason. Campanella has spent too much time making American TV shows and should return to his homeland for further study.
Stars: 2 of 4
And once again, the Academy picked the safe, easy, boring movie over two more interesting, difficult pieces.
This film is basically a Hollywood-style murder mystery with an Argentine accent. Benjamin Esposito is a retired lawyer who was a long-time clerk and assistant to a federal judge in Buenos Aires. He is now working on a novelization of an old case that has haunted him since he first investigated it 20 years before. At that time, a woman was brutally murdered while her husband was at work. Over the course of the investigation, Esposito found an old flame of the woman who he thought was the probable murder. The man was not convicted and then went missing.
Part of the story he constructs in his book involves Irene Menéndez Hastings, a young judge investigator (sorry, I don't totally understand the Argentine judicial system to know who does what) who worked with Esposito at the time of the murder. He was in love with her, but she had a husband and dating her was out of the question. As he finishes his novel, he reconnects with Hastings and falls back in love with her. He then goes off to see if he can finish the investigation and find out who really killed that woman so many years ago.
There is nothing particularly interesting or fresh about this story. It could have easily been written by John Grisham or the like. Director Juan José Campanella, a veteran of American television like House and Law and Order: SVU seems to borrow heavily from his small screen work. The characters are quickly sketched out with only a bit of depth and the story is rather simple - even considering its long, 127-minute run-time.
The best thing about the film is the performance of Ricardo Darin as Esposito. Darin, who was recently in the beautiful and brilliant XXY, is a natural talent - reminiscent of George Clooney and Javier Bardem. He oozes charisma and familiarity - as if he was your favorite next-door neighbor. The character is not all that special - but Darin makes him kind, lovable and sympathetic.
There is nothing really bad about this film other than the fact that it feels mostly recycled. What is great about contemporary Argentine cinema is the freshness and smallness of the stories. The movies deal with very matter-of-fact and frank stories on the ground. There is nothing all that fabulous or special about the stories - other than the fact that they are totally honest. This film seems much more over-constructed and complicated than any other recent Argentine effort. Much like how Tell No One was a failure of a French film because French filmmakers don't make Hollywood movies, this is a mess of an Argentine film for the same reason. Campanella has spent too much time making American TV shows and should return to his homeland for further study.
Stars: 2 of 4
23 Numara - The Number 23 film izle
Yönetmen: Joel Schumacher
Senaryo: Fernley Phillips
Oyuncular: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins
Filmin Türü: Gerilim - Drama
Orijinal Adı: The Number 23
Yapımcı Firma: Contrafilm
Yapım Yılı: 2007
Yapım Ülkesi: ABD
Orijinal Dili: İngilizce
Filmin Süresi: 95 dk.
Filmin Konusu: Eşine doğum günü hediyesi olarak 23 numara isimli bir kitap alır ve bu kitabın sırrını çözmeye çalışır.
İyi seyirler dileriz...
Oyuncular: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins
Filmin Türü: Gerilim - Drama
Orijinal Adı: The Number 23
Yapımcı Firma: Contrafilm
Yapım Yılı: 2007
Yapım Ülkesi: ABD
Orijinal Dili: İngilizce
Filmin Süresi: 95 dk.
Filmin Konusu: Eşine doğum günü hediyesi olarak 23 numara isimli bir kitap alır ve bu kitabın sırrını çözmeye çalışır.
İyi seyirler dileriz...
24 Nisan 2010 Cumartesi
No One Knows About Persian Cats (Sunday, April 25, 2010) (32)
This is a small movie about two twenty-something musicians, a man and a woman, who live in Tehran and want to get a permit from the government to perform in public and get their passports and visas so they can tour the world and play outside of their country. They are young rockers, not very different from young people in any country. They love music of all kinds and want to be able to enjoy it away from the government censors.
There is not a heck of a lot of plot in the film - basically you have the musicians trying to get their government documents and working with one musician after another to convince the authorities that they are safe and can be trusted. They work with one musician who has his visa, thinking that if they're in his band, they can get their documents too - but that doesn't work. Then they work with two women who are traditional Persian folk singers, hoping that if they have more than one female voice, the government will have less of an issue with their band. This doesn't work either.
As time goes on and they collaborate with more and more artists, they create a beautiful texture of musical and creative diversity in and around Tehran. The variety of styles is not different from what you would get in Williamsburg, Brooklyn or the Lower East Side. There is alt-indie-Rock, hip hop (in Farsi, but with a strong West Coast influence), traditional Brel-like French chanson (again in Farsi) and more straight-ahead singer-songwriter fare.
The music throughout the film is absolutely amazing. What director Bahman Ghobadi does brilliantly is to have the musicians meet their band-mates-of-the-day and start playing music, while he cuts to background, documentary footage of Tehran during the day and night. There is a quality reminiscent of Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisquatsi here where the documentary footage gets tied to the music in a way that both the visual and the audio seem almost tied together. (Since seeing the movie, I have bought the soundtrack and can say that the diverse range of music is amazing just to listen to without any visual aide.)
This whole film is as much an ode to Tehran and it's creative energy as it is a narrative story. The fact that the story has this mumblecore-like non-structure helps underline the point that this is about freedom. Not freedom in a trite political sense - but freedom to think and breath and move and create without the bureaucrats telling you what to do. This film is saying that Iran is basically the same as Brooklyn - and would be considered exactly that were it not for the current oppressive regime. But the politics here are underneath the surface - the film is really about how art has no boundaries and is non-partisan. It's a lovely tale along the lines of the 2007 film Once - but with a much stronger focus on music and less on story.
Stars: 3 of 4 (4 of 4 for the music alone)
There is not a heck of a lot of plot in the film - basically you have the musicians trying to get their government documents and working with one musician after another to convince the authorities that they are safe and can be trusted. They work with one musician who has his visa, thinking that if they're in his band, they can get their documents too - but that doesn't work. Then they work with two women who are traditional Persian folk singers, hoping that if they have more than one female voice, the government will have less of an issue with their band. This doesn't work either.
As time goes on and they collaborate with more and more artists, they create a beautiful texture of musical and creative diversity in and around Tehran. The variety of styles is not different from what you would get in Williamsburg, Brooklyn or the Lower East Side. There is alt-indie-Rock, hip hop (in Farsi, but with a strong West Coast influence), traditional Brel-like French chanson (again in Farsi) and more straight-ahead singer-songwriter fare.
The music throughout the film is absolutely amazing. What director Bahman Ghobadi does brilliantly is to have the musicians meet their band-mates-of-the-day and start playing music, while he cuts to background, documentary footage of Tehran during the day and night. There is a quality reminiscent of Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisquatsi here where the documentary footage gets tied to the music in a way that both the visual and the audio seem almost tied together. (Since seeing the movie, I have bought the soundtrack and can say that the diverse range of music is amazing just to listen to without any visual aide.)
This whole film is as much an ode to Tehran and it's creative energy as it is a narrative story. The fact that the story has this mumblecore-like non-structure helps underline the point that this is about freedom. Not freedom in a trite political sense - but freedom to think and breath and move and create without the bureaucrats telling you what to do. This film is saying that Iran is basically the same as Brooklyn - and would be considered exactly that were it not for the current oppressive regime. But the politics here are underneath the surface - the film is really about how art has no boundaries and is non-partisan. It's a lovely tale along the lines of the 2007 film Once - but with a much stronger focus on music and less on story.
Stars: 3 of 4 (4 of 4 for the music alone)
23 Nisan 2010 Cuma
Exit Through the Gift Shop (Friday, April 23, 2010) (31)
Exit through the Gift Shop is the directorial debut of Banksy, the mysterious English street artist-cum-celebrity whose identity is shrouded in mystery. The film falls somewhere between a documentary, a mockumentary and a narrative film, mixing interviews that may or may not be scripted with documentary footage that was supposedly shot in the past to tell the history of the street art scene.
Street art, as we are told, is more than just graffiti, but is a much more elevated form that uses posters, stickers, spray paint and other media to do any number of creative things to the sides of private and pubic property. It is always outside and because the artists don't get permission from the landlords, it is almost always illegal.
The window through which we see the story is the camera of Thierry Guetta, a French ex-pat living in Los Angeles who owns a vintage clothing store. One time, on a visit to Paris to see his family, he spends time with his cousin who is a street artist called Space Invader.
Space Invader was putting his pieces up through Paris - these were a series of aliens from the 1980s arcade game. Guetta got hooked on the excitement of following his cousin around and documenting the works. He then met several other artists doing similar work throughout the world, from London to New York to L.A. At some point, he met Shepard Fairey, now known for his Obama "Hope" poster (done in a decidedly street art style), but back then doing his signature Obey posters showing wrestler Andre the Giant's face.
As exciting as it was to work with Fairey and others, Guetta's hero and holy grail was Banksy - largely because he couldn't get to the guy, even after taping most of the great street artists on the planet. Well, Guetta's luck changed suddenly, when Banksy arrived in Los Angeles one day and needed a fixer on the ground. The two became friends Banksy let Guetta tape him, as long as his identity remained protected.
From here we see how Guetta began making street art himself and then using a massive promotion machine to create a gallery show in Los Angeles after only a few months of work. He lost all connection to reality or decency and became widely hated by the street art sub-culture for being a fraud.
In many ways this is a brilliant structure that Banksy sets up for telling his story and the story of this movement - and very "street" at the same time. Rather than just showing footage of artists working and having talking heads speak about what they all do, Banksy has Guetta show it all to us. On top of this, Bansky is Guetta's personal Jesus Christ (almost literally) so he gets tons of praise from the man. Then - in the ultimate screw you to the traditional form - Bansky shows Guetta as a mad man freak who has lost all his credibility in the world they are in. Bansky's biggest fan and our sole source for the material we see turns out to be crazy and hard to believe.
To make matters even more challenging, it seems the whole time that Guetta might not actually be a real guy at all - but maybe just an elaborate creation (of Bansky?) to give us this background. It is certain that a man did walk around Los Angeles in the 1990s and 2000s with the name Thierry Guetta, but it is not clear that is a real identity. There is a bit of a wink in the eyes of all the interviewees about Guetta and the tone of the narration (by Rhys Ifans - who seems to be everywhere now, doesn't he) is entirely sarcastic. (Apparently there is a lot of speculation on the Internet that Guetta is a hoax created by Banksy - simply an elaborate street art creation to screw with the art world and show that people will buy anything if it's sold right).
Regardless of the facts on the ground, this is a totally fun and interesting movie. I like the idea that the whole thing is a big performance art piece - set up as a documentary. There is a lot of true stuff in there - about Fairey and Banksy and the history of the movement - but there must also be a lot of shit in it. The fun is to figure out which is which.
Stars: 3 of 4
Street art, as we are told, is more than just graffiti, but is a much more elevated form that uses posters, stickers, spray paint and other media to do any number of creative things to the sides of private and pubic property. It is always outside and because the artists don't get permission from the landlords, it is almost always illegal.
The window through which we see the story is the camera of Thierry Guetta, a French ex-pat living in Los Angeles who owns a vintage clothing store. One time, on a visit to Paris to see his family, he spends time with his cousin who is a street artist called Space Invader.
Space Invader was putting his pieces up through Paris - these were a series of aliens from the 1980s arcade game. Guetta got hooked on the excitement of following his cousin around and documenting the works. He then met several other artists doing similar work throughout the world, from London to New York to L.A. At some point, he met Shepard Fairey, now known for his Obama "Hope" poster (done in a decidedly street art style), but back then doing his signature Obey posters showing wrestler Andre the Giant's face.
As exciting as it was to work with Fairey and others, Guetta's hero and holy grail was Banksy - largely because he couldn't get to the guy, even after taping most of the great street artists on the planet. Well, Guetta's luck changed suddenly, when Banksy arrived in Los Angeles one day and needed a fixer on the ground. The two became friends Banksy let Guetta tape him, as long as his identity remained protected.
From here we see how Guetta began making street art himself and then using a massive promotion machine to create a gallery show in Los Angeles after only a few months of work. He lost all connection to reality or decency and became widely hated by the street art sub-culture for being a fraud.
In many ways this is a brilliant structure that Banksy sets up for telling his story and the story of this movement - and very "street" at the same time. Rather than just showing footage of artists working and having talking heads speak about what they all do, Banksy has Guetta show it all to us. On top of this, Bansky is Guetta's personal Jesus Christ (almost literally) so he gets tons of praise from the man. Then - in the ultimate screw you to the traditional form - Bansky shows Guetta as a mad man freak who has lost all his credibility in the world they are in. Bansky's biggest fan and our sole source for the material we see turns out to be crazy and hard to believe.
To make matters even more challenging, it seems the whole time that Guetta might not actually be a real guy at all - but maybe just an elaborate creation (of Bansky?) to give us this background. It is certain that a man did walk around Los Angeles in the 1990s and 2000s with the name Thierry Guetta, but it is not clear that is a real identity. There is a bit of a wink in the eyes of all the interviewees about Guetta and the tone of the narration (by Rhys Ifans - who seems to be everywhere now, doesn't he) is entirely sarcastic. (Apparently there is a lot of speculation on the Internet that Guetta is a hoax created by Banksy - simply an elaborate street art creation to screw with the art world and show that people will buy anything if it's sold right).
Regardless of the facts on the ground, this is a totally fun and interesting movie. I like the idea that the whole thing is a big performance art piece - set up as a documentary. There is a lot of true stuff in there - about Fairey and Banksy and the history of the movement - but there must also be a lot of shit in it. The fun is to figure out which is which.
Stars: 3 of 4
Bandidas film izle
Yönetmen : Joachim Roenning, Espen Sandberg
Senaryo : Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Oyuncular : Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Steve Zahn, Dwight Yoakam, Denis Arndt
Filmin Türü : Aksiyon, Komedi
Orijinal Adı : Bandidas
Yapımcı Firma : Europa Corp.
Yapım Yılı : 2006
Yapım Ülkesi : Fransa / Meksika / ABD
Orijinal Dili : İngilizce / İspanyolca
Filmin Süresi : 93 dakika
Film Hakkında : Eğer film izlemek ve hoşça vakit geçirmek istiyorsanız bu filmi kaçırmayın derim.
Filmin Konusu : 1888 Meksika’sında geçen bir komedi macera olan filmde başrolleri Penelope Cruz ve Salma Hayek paylaşıyorlar. Biri eğitimli bir Avrupalı, diğer ise bir köylü olan iki kadının yolları güçlerini birleştirerek başedilmez birer banka hırsızı olduklarında birleşir. Erkeklerin zor dünyasında maceralar onları beklemektedir.
İyi seyirler...
Senaryo : Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Oyuncular : Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Steve Zahn, Dwight Yoakam, Denis Arndt
Filmin Türü : Aksiyon, Komedi
Orijinal Adı : Bandidas
Yapımcı Firma : Europa Corp.
Yapım Yılı : 2006
Yapım Ülkesi : Fransa / Meksika / ABD
Orijinal Dili : İngilizce / İspanyolca
Filmin Süresi : 93 dakika
Film Hakkında : Eğer film izlemek ve hoşça vakit geçirmek istiyorsanız bu filmi kaçırmayın derim.
Filmin Konusu : 1888 Meksika’sında geçen bir komedi macera olan filmde başrolleri Penelope Cruz ve Salma Hayek paylaşıyorlar. Biri eğitimli bir Avrupalı, diğer ise bir köylü olan iki kadının yolları güçlerini birleştirerek başedilmez birer banka hırsızı olduklarında birleşir. Erkeklerin zor dünyasında maceralar onları beklemektedir.
İyi seyirler...
Oyuncak Hikayesi 2 - Toy Story 2 çizgi film izle
Yönetmen : Ash Brannon
Senaryo : John Lasseter
Oyuncular : Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Don Rickles
Filmin Türü : Çizgi Film
Orijinal Adı : Toy Story 2
Yapımcı Firma : Walt Disney Productions (aka Walt Disney Pictures
Yapım Yılı : 1999
Yapım Ülkesi : ABD
Orijinal Dili : İngilizce
Filmin Süresi : 94 dakika
Film Hakkında : Filmin ilk serisinde sadece izleyicilerden değil eleştirmenlerdende büyük bir ilgi görmüştü ilk serisinde ve şimdi 2. seriside 2000 yılında gösterime girdi. 2. serisinide gerçekten beğenerek izleyeceğinizden eminiz. Çok güzel bir çizgi film olmuş.
Filmin Konusu : Yeni macerada Woody, kendisinin oyuncak koleksiyoncuları için büyük değer taşıyan bir parça olduğunu öğrenen açgözlü bir oyuncak satıcısı tarafından kaçırılıp, ofisinde hapsediliyor. Woody böylece eski dostları, Jessie, Stinky Pete ve sadık atı Bullseye'la yeniden biraraya geliyor. Bu arada Woody'nin genç sahibi Andy bir yaz kampında olduğundan Woody'yi kurtarmak da Buzz Lightyear ile oyuncak çetesinin diğer üyeleri Bay Patates Kafa, domuz Hamm ve Sinsi Köpek'e düşüyor.
İyi seyirler...
Senaryo : John Lasseter
Oyuncular : Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Don Rickles
Filmin Türü : Çizgi Film
Orijinal Adı : Toy Story 2
Yapımcı Firma : Walt Disney Productions (aka Walt Disney Pictures
Yapım Yılı : 1999
Yapım Ülkesi : ABD
Orijinal Dili : İngilizce
Filmin Süresi : 94 dakika
Film Hakkında : Filmin ilk serisinde sadece izleyicilerden değil eleştirmenlerdende büyük bir ilgi görmüştü ilk serisinde ve şimdi 2. seriside 2000 yılında gösterime girdi. 2. serisinide gerçekten beğenerek izleyeceğinizden eminiz. Çok güzel bir çizgi film olmuş.
Filmin Konusu : Yeni macerada Woody, kendisinin oyuncak koleksiyoncuları için büyük değer taşıyan bir parça olduğunu öğrenen açgözlü bir oyuncak satıcısı tarafından kaçırılıp, ofisinde hapsediliyor. Woody böylece eski dostları, Jessie, Stinky Pete ve sadık atı Bullseye'la yeniden biraraya geliyor. Bu arada Woody'nin genç sahibi Andy bir yaz kampında olduğundan Woody'yi kurtarmak da Buzz Lightyear ile oyuncak çetesinin diğer üyeleri Bay Patates Kafa, domuz Hamm ve Sinsi Köpek'e düşüyor.
İyi seyirler...
22 Nisan 2010 Perşembe
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO: The Film Babble Blog Review
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (Dir. Niels Arden Oplev, 2009)
Now making its way through the states, this stylish Swedish thriller based on the bestselling novel by Stieg Larsson, was the top grossing European film of last year.
With its effective and engrossing pacing, it's easy to see why. Michael Nyqvist stars as a financial magazine reporter who accepts an intriguing job offer to investigate a 40 year old disappearance right after he loses a libel suit against a corrupt industrial magnate (Stefan Sauk).
The missing person is a young girl - the great niece of Henrik Vanger played by the contrite Sven-Bertil Taube, a wealthy businessman highly suspicious of the dark ties in his family to the Nazi party. "
Who do you suspect?" Nyqvist asks Taube on a walk through his island estate. "Nobody. And everybody. That's where you come into the picture."
Taube replies in an appropriately hushed tone. Meanwhile, the title's namesake - a punk attired woman in her early 20's, Noomi Rapace, has been hacking into Nyqvist's computer doing her own parallel investigation. She is able to break down a code in the missing girl's journal and she emails it to him.
He tracks her down and before you know they are working together on the case - studying photographs, going through old records, and bit by bit piecing together the sordid murder puzzle that leads down more than one twisted path.
Rapace has a mysterious unspoken past involving crimes and mental institutions that have obviously toughened her up - her revenge against a sexually abusive appointed guardian (Peter Andersson) shows us this in disturbing detail.
The elaborate dragon tattoo on her back isn't really significant except as an identifier; indeed the film's international title is MILLENIUM: PART I - MEN WHO HATE WOMEN. Though the serial killer procedural threatens to drag the film down a bit, it's tightly wound and crisply presented with gorgeous cinematography and a spare gently chilling soundtrack.
Don't expect a Swedish SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (it has a much higher plausibility factor as thrillers go) and don't fret over subtitles - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is great gripping, albeit a bit violent, cinema that deserves your attention.
More later...
Now making its way through the states, this stylish Swedish thriller based on the bestselling novel by Stieg Larsson, was the top grossing European film of last year.With its effective and engrossing pacing, it's easy to see why. Michael Nyqvist stars as a financial magazine reporter who accepts an intriguing job offer to investigate a 40 year old disappearance right after he loses a libel suit against a corrupt industrial magnate (Stefan Sauk).
The missing person is a young girl - the great niece of Henrik Vanger played by the contrite Sven-Bertil Taube, a wealthy businessman highly suspicious of the dark ties in his family to the Nazi party. "
Who do you suspect?" Nyqvist asks Taube on a walk through his island estate. "Nobody. And everybody. That's where you come into the picture."
Taube replies in an appropriately hushed tone. Meanwhile, the title's namesake - a punk attired woman in her early 20's, Noomi Rapace, has been hacking into Nyqvist's computer doing her own parallel investigation. She is able to break down a code in the missing girl's journal and she emails it to him.
He tracks her down and before you know they are working together on the case - studying photographs, going through old records, and bit by bit piecing together the sordid murder puzzle that leads down more than one twisted path.
Rapace has a mysterious unspoken past involving crimes and mental institutions that have obviously toughened her up - her revenge against a sexually abusive appointed guardian (Peter Andersson) shows us this in disturbing detail.The elaborate dragon tattoo on her back isn't really significant except as an identifier; indeed the film's international title is MILLENIUM: PART I - MEN WHO HATE WOMEN. Though the serial killer procedural threatens to drag the film down a bit, it's tightly wound and crisply presented with gorgeous cinematography and a spare gently chilling soundtrack.
Don't expect a Swedish SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (it has a much higher plausibility factor as thrillers go) and don't fret over subtitles - THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO is great gripping, albeit a bit violent, cinema that deserves your attention.
More later...
20 Nisan 2010 Salı
Mistik Olay - The Happening film izle
Yönetmen : M. Night Shyamalan
Senaryo : M. Night Shyamalan
Oyuncular : Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez, Robert Bailey Jr.
Filmin Türü : Drama, Bilim Kurgu
Orijinal Adı : The Happening
Yapımcı Firma : 2008
Yapım Yılı : 2008
Yapım Ülkesi : ABD, Hindistan
Orijinal Dili : İngilizce
Film Hakkında : Filmde görünmeyen birşey ortaya çıkıyor ve garip ölümler meydana geliyor. Filmi izlemeye vaktim oldu izledim. Güzel bir filmdi. Konusunda zaten daha açıklayıcı çekilde yazıyor.
Filmin Konusu : Görünen bir uyarı olmadan birdenbire ortaya çıktı. Bir kaç dakika içinde Amerika’nın birçok şehrinde sebebi açıklanamayan garip ölümler meydana gelmeye başladı. İnsan davranışlarındaki bu garip değişikliğe neyin sebep olduğu bilinmiyor. Yeni bir terörist saldırı mı? Yoksa kontrolden çıkan bir virüs mü? Hava yolu ile mi yoksa suyla mı bulaşıyor?
İyi seyirler.
Senaryo : M. Night Shyamalan
Oyuncular : Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Ashlyn Sanchez, Robert Bailey Jr.
Filmin Türü : Drama, Bilim Kurgu
Orijinal Adı : The Happening
Yapımcı Firma : 2008
Yapım Yılı : 2008
Yapım Ülkesi : ABD, Hindistan
Orijinal Dili : İngilizce
Film Hakkında : Filmde görünmeyen birşey ortaya çıkıyor ve garip ölümler meydana geliyor. Filmi izlemeye vaktim oldu izledim. Güzel bir filmdi. Konusunda zaten daha açıklayıcı çekilde yazıyor.
Filmin Konusu : Görünen bir uyarı olmadan birdenbire ortaya çıktı. Bir kaç dakika içinde Amerika’nın birçok şehrinde sebebi açıklanamayan garip ölümler meydana gelmeye başladı. İnsan davranışlarındaki bu garip değişikliğe neyin sebep olduğu bilinmiyor. Yeni bir terörist saldırı mı? Yoksa kontrolden çıkan bir virüs mü? Hava yolu ile mi yoksa suyla mı bulaşıyor?
İyi seyirler.
19 Nisan 2010 Pazartesi
KICK-ASS: The Film Babble Blog Review
KICK-ASS (Dir. Matthew Vaughn, 2010)
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, as geeky high school student Dave Lizewski, wonders in a world where millions love comic book and movie superheroes, why don't more people actually try to become real-life superheroes? Taylor-Johnson's mother has just died, he's invisible to girls, and chronic masturbating is his biggest hobby (yeah, I know - TMI) so we can see why he fantasizes so vividly about being a superhero.
Not letting the fact that he possesses no special powers get in his way, Taylor-Johnson orders a green wet-suit online, dubs himself "Kick-Ass," and sets about fighting crime on the streets of New York City. Kick-Ass gets his ass horribly kicked by a couple of petty thugs on his first outing enough to put him in the hospital.
This doesn't discourage Taylor-Johnson's from following his superhero pursuits, because he's now reconstructed with metal grafts and with his deadened nerve endings he can fight without pain. So when another brawl is captured by camera phones he becomes an internet sensation via YouTube and a household name.
A girl he has a crush on (Lyndsy Fonseca) suddenly takes an interest in him, but as his snarky friends (Clark Duke and Evan Peters) suggest it's because she thinks he's gay. Fonseca has no inkling of Johnson's infamous alter ego when she emails Kick-Ass's MySpace account (the only aspect of the film that feels out of date) asking for help. A dangerous drug dealer is harassing her at the needle exchange clinic she works at and immediately Kick-Ass is on the case.
However, the pile of bodies that results in a ghetto showdown comes not from Kick-Ass, but from the surprise appearance of "Hit-Girl" (Chloe Moretz). The foul mouthed and fast acting Hit-Girl (who's 11 by the way) takes no prisoners, killing every attacking lowlife and leaving Kick-Ass stunned. She's the real deal he sees, and she's the protégé of another real deal - her father Nicholas Cage as "Big Daddy" whose shiny black costume makes him look like Batman's brother and he has lethal weaponry out the wazoo to match.
From here out Hit-Girl and Big Daddy steal the movie from Kick-Ass and he never quite gets it back. The villains they all go up against are big time mob boss Mark Strong and his son, McLovin himself - Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who has his own mock superhero guise: Red Mist.
Kick-Ass calls it quits now that shit just got real (not a line from the film but it just as well could be) and comes out as straight to Fonseca - the old pretending he's gay in order to get closer to her premise you see. Of course, he's gonna have to get back in the game and join Hit-Girl for the inevitable action movie climax. KICK-ASS has so many successful sequences going for it that I can overlook the myriad of problems I have with it, but for the record here they are. The satirical nature of the material replaced with predictable noisy bombastic mechanics in the last third, with the laughs sadly fading with the satire. And in the words of Grandpa Simpson: "The romantic subplot felt tacked on."
That said, KICK-ASS has a great cast - Johnson, Mintz-Plasse, and Strong are all solid and it's great to see a porn-stached Cage chew up the scenery with Moretz whose Hit-Girl poise, presence and power, as I said before, really steals the show. That is, if you don't have a problem with an 11-year old girl spouting out extreme profanity while she slaughters the enemy in bouts of ultra violence.
Don't bring the kids, or even the kid inside you to see this movie; it's an dark adult shoot-em up with a high body count packaged as a teenage superhero comedy - it's SKY HIGH as directed by Quentin Tarentino. It might not kick ass as much as I thought it could, but, as it's the first major movie to use the internet popularized phrase that something or someone "owns" (I believe the Onion AV Club's ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER coined it) for the most part it does indeed own.
More later...
O Şimdi Mahkum film izle
Yönetmen : Abdullah Oğuz
Senaryo : Levent Kazak
Oyuncular : Zafer Algöz, Fadik Sevin Atasoy, Ali Atay, Erkan Can, Abdülkadir Fıçıcı
Filmin Türü : Komedi
Orijinal Adı : O Şimdi Mahkum
Yapımcı Firma : 0
Yapım Yılı : 2005
Yapım Ülkesi : Türkiye
Orijinal Dili : Türkçe
Filmin Süresi : 120 dakika
Film Hakkında : 2005 yapımı dev bir yapıt olmuş. Komedi türü hoş bir film olan O Şimdi Mahkum filmini izlemenizi tavsiye ederiz.
Filmin Konusu : Askerlik bitmiş, iki yıl sonra… Oldukça başarısız bir iş kariyeri olan Levent (Levent Kazak) “O ŞİMDİ MAHKUM” adında bir sitcom senaryosu yazıp, başrolü oynamasını istediği Athena grubunun solisti Gökhan’ın peşine düşer. Büyük bir aksilik sonucu başları belaya giren iki arkadaş hiç alışık olmadıkları bir dünyanın içine, hapise düşüp, verildikleri koğuşta eski arkadaşları Karlıdağ (Yavuz Bingöl) ile karşılaşır. Ve bir anda kendilerini yeraltı dünyasının bir hesaplaşması içinde bulurlar. Kahramanlarımız, bazen soluk kesen bir maceranın, bazen gözleri dolduracak bir hüznün, bazen kahkahaların, bazen de yüreğinizi hoplatan bir hikayenin içine girerler. Yeraltı dünyasının Numan abisini dünyaca ünlü perküsyon ustası Burhan Öçal canlandırdı. Sağkolu Sadık Kazım’ı Erkan Can, Koko Niyazi’yi Zafer Algöz, sevgilisi Katerina’yı ise Fadik Atasoy oynadı. Karlıdağ’ın sevgilisi Suzan’ı Ayça İnci, Suzan’ın kocasını Menderes Samancılar (Osman), Athena grubunun solisti Gökhan Özoğuz’un sevgilisini Melisa Sözen, Numan’ın baş düşmanlarını ise, Ali Atay (Gürgen Çiftgör) ve Özbek Yıldız (Sürmeli) canlandırdı.
İyi seyirler...
Senaryo : Levent Kazak
Oyuncular : Zafer Algöz, Fadik Sevin Atasoy, Ali Atay, Erkan Can, Abdülkadir Fıçıcı
Filmin Türü : Komedi
Orijinal Adı : O Şimdi Mahkum
Yapımcı Firma : 0
Yapım Yılı : 2005
Yapım Ülkesi : Türkiye
Orijinal Dili : Türkçe
Filmin Süresi : 120 dakika
Film Hakkında : 2005 yapımı dev bir yapıt olmuş. Komedi türü hoş bir film olan O Şimdi Mahkum filmini izlemenizi tavsiye ederiz.
Filmin Konusu : Askerlik bitmiş, iki yıl sonra… Oldukça başarısız bir iş kariyeri olan Levent (Levent Kazak) “O ŞİMDİ MAHKUM” adında bir sitcom senaryosu yazıp, başrolü oynamasını istediği Athena grubunun solisti Gökhan’ın peşine düşer. Büyük bir aksilik sonucu başları belaya giren iki arkadaş hiç alışık olmadıkları bir dünyanın içine, hapise düşüp, verildikleri koğuşta eski arkadaşları Karlıdağ (Yavuz Bingöl) ile karşılaşır. Ve bir anda kendilerini yeraltı dünyasının bir hesaplaşması içinde bulurlar. Kahramanlarımız, bazen soluk kesen bir maceranın, bazen gözleri dolduracak bir hüznün, bazen kahkahaların, bazen de yüreğinizi hoplatan bir hikayenin içine girerler. Yeraltı dünyasının Numan abisini dünyaca ünlü perküsyon ustası Burhan Öçal canlandırdı. Sağkolu Sadık Kazım’ı Erkan Can, Koko Niyazi’yi Zafer Algöz, sevgilisi Katerina’yı ise Fadik Atasoy oynadı. Karlıdağ’ın sevgilisi Suzan’ı Ayça İnci, Suzan’ın kocasını Menderes Samancılar (Osman), Athena grubunun solisti Gökhan Özoğuz’un sevgilisini Melisa Sözen, Numan’ın baş düşmanlarını ise, Ali Atay (Gürgen Çiftgör) ve Özbek Yıldız (Sürmeli) canlandırdı.
İyi seyirler...
18 Nisan 2010 Pazar
Despero - The Tale of Despereaux film izle
Yönetmen : Sam Fell, Robert Stevenhagen
Senaryo : Kate DiCamillo, Will McRobb
Seslendirme : Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Kline
Filmin Türü : Aksiyon, Komedi
Orijinal Adı : The Tale of Despereaux
Yapımcı Firma : 0
Yapım Yılı : 2008
Yapım Ülkesi : İngiltere, ABD
Orijinal Dili : İngilizce
Filmin Süresi : 100 dakika
Film Hakkında : Beğenerek izleyeceğiniz komedi ve aksiyon türü müthiç bir animasyon filmi olmuş. Bana sorarsanız ben beğendim.
Filmin Konusu : Dor krallığında insanlar keyifli bir hayat sürüyordu. Ancak meydana gelen bir kaza Kral’ın kalbini kırarken Prenses’i acılara boğdu, ülke halkını umutsuzluğa sürükledi. Her yer kasvetli gri renge büründü, cesur fare Despero doğuncaya kadar da böyle devam etti ve Despero, dış görünümün önemli olmadığını tüm dünyaya öğretti.
İyi seyirler...
Senaryo : Kate DiCamillo, Will McRobb
Seslendirme : Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Tracey Ullman, Kevin Kline
Filmin Türü : Aksiyon, Komedi
Orijinal Adı : The Tale of Despereaux
Yapımcı Firma : 0
Yapım Yılı : 2008
Yapım Ülkesi : İngiltere, ABD
Orijinal Dili : İngilizce
Filmin Süresi : 100 dakika
Film Hakkında : Beğenerek izleyeceğiniz komedi ve aksiyon türü müthiç bir animasyon filmi olmuş. Bana sorarsanız ben beğendim.
Filmin Konusu : Dor krallığında insanlar keyifli bir hayat sürüyordu. Ancak meydana gelen bir kaza Kral’ın kalbini kırarken Prenses’i acılara boğdu, ülke halkını umutsuzluğa sürükledi. Her yer kasvetli gri renge büründü, cesur fare Despero doğuncaya kadar da böyle devam etti ve Despero, dış görünümün önemli olmadığını tüm dünyaya öğretti.
İyi seyirler...
17 Nisan 2010 Cumartesi
Kick-Ass (Saturday, April 18, 2010) (30)
In Kick-Ass, Dave Lizewski (played by Aaron Johnson) is a dorky high school kid who has a small group of friends that treat him like crap and can't get a girl to speak to him, let alone date him, to save his life. After getting mugged one night and having his nervous system changed so he feels basically no pain (OK - it's a stretch, but go with it), he buys a costume online and becomes a super hero, Kick-Ass, who stands up to criminals.
The main villain in his town is mob boss, Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) whose son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is in Dave's class and seems to be more of a geek than Dave. Frank's criminal operation is being threatened by a mysterious masked super-hero who apparently looks like Batman- or so say the guys who are beat up by him.
It turns out they're not far off. Damon Macready (Nick Cage) is a former cop who now works with his daughter, Mindy (Chloe Moretz), as a crime-fighting superhero duo, Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. Big Daddy looks and talks just like Batman (at least the Christian Bale iteration of him). The pair realize that Kick-Ass is a good ally in their fight against crime in the city - and against D'Amico more specifically. Together, with no super powers, but a lot of guts and money, they take on the bad guys.
For me the most fun of the film is the freshness and tongue-in-cheek tone of the story. It's sarcastic throughout and knows well what its doing. Dave is a big fan of comic books and is a dork - so when he becomes Kick-Ass and gets his ass kicked (there are a bunch of lines in the script that make this joke), it's particularly funny because it feels realistic even as over-the-top as it is.
There is no doubt that the story takes place in our world - or a very close world to ours. Kick-Ass makes a name for himself through a viral video circulated online of him getting beat up. Big Daddy and Hit-Girl buy a hover-pack loaded with guns online with a credit card and joke about how they're going to pay for it. When Chris D'Amico becomes a super hero himself (to foil Kick-Ass) his action figures and t-shirts take over prime real-estate in the comic book shop, pushing the Kick-Ass gear to the sale table. (One thing that is disappointing is that the film is clearly shot in Toronto, though it is supposed to be New York City. Either more effort should have gone into masking the location or no city name should have been given.)
The film is somewhat reminiscent of Mystery Men, another story of losers who become ad hoc super heroes. But it's better than that. That tried to walk the line between kids movie and grown-up comedy. This is totally an adult movie and is really only tied to kids movies because the general genre is 'comic book movie'. This is not a movie for kids.
The story is fun, but it is a bit too complicated and too long. There are about three layers to the story, which is perfect for launching a franchise with tons of sequels, but a bit too much for a small movie like this to support. Big Daddy's back-story was explained but never really examined and seems a bit of an unnecessary appendage in this context. It might come out more clearly after a sequel comes out, but was not totally needed here.
Despite the screenplay, director Matthew Vaughn does a nice job with the material he has. He pulls no punches with blood and action, getting Dave stabbed and beat up badly without flinching. Young Mindy says words that you would never want and 11-year-old to say - and she does so without any apologies. He also uses a rock 'n' roll soundtrack brilliantly to heighten tension, wink at the knowing audience and joke about the content. There might not be a better use of Ennio Morricone or Elvis than in the final sequence of this film.
The acting throughout is very good. Aaron Johnson is very good as a dork who we can all sympathize with. He's a good guy who doesn't know exactly why he is seen as a dork. Chloe Moretz is great in a role that seems older than she would otherwise be playing. She steals the show with her great delivery of vulgar dialogue. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is basically the same guy as he was in Superbad, Fogell/McLovin, the dork who is cooler than you are. Nick Cage is as wooden as always here - but it sorta works for this role. (Again, I'm not sure if he's a really bad actor or a brilliant one.)
Kick-Ass is a raw, grown-up comedy and not a kids comic book movie. It's a fun ride filled with tons of funny, dirty language and some blood and violence (though it's not nearly as violent as some have suggested). It needs about a half-hour cut out of it, but I thought it was a lot of fun.
Stars: 2.5 of 4
The main villain in his town is mob boss, Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) whose son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is in Dave's class and seems to be more of a geek than Dave. Frank's criminal operation is being threatened by a mysterious masked super-hero who apparently looks like Batman- or so say the guys who are beat up by him.
It turns out they're not far off. Damon Macready (Nick Cage) is a former cop who now works with his daughter, Mindy (Chloe Moretz), as a crime-fighting superhero duo, Big Daddy and Hit-Girl. Big Daddy looks and talks just like Batman (at least the Christian Bale iteration of him). The pair realize that Kick-Ass is a good ally in their fight against crime in the city - and against D'Amico more specifically. Together, with no super powers, but a lot of guts and money, they take on the bad guys.
For me the most fun of the film is the freshness and tongue-in-cheek tone of the story. It's sarcastic throughout and knows well what its doing. Dave is a big fan of comic books and is a dork - so when he becomes Kick-Ass and gets his ass kicked (there are a bunch of lines in the script that make this joke), it's particularly funny because it feels realistic even as over-the-top as it is.
There is no doubt that the story takes place in our world - or a very close world to ours. Kick-Ass makes a name for himself through a viral video circulated online of him getting beat up. Big Daddy and Hit-Girl buy a hover-pack loaded with guns online with a credit card and joke about how they're going to pay for it. When Chris D'Amico becomes a super hero himself (to foil Kick-Ass) his action figures and t-shirts take over prime real-estate in the comic book shop, pushing the Kick-Ass gear to the sale table. (One thing that is disappointing is that the film is clearly shot in Toronto, though it is supposed to be New York City. Either more effort should have gone into masking the location or no city name should have been given.)
The film is somewhat reminiscent of Mystery Men, another story of losers who become ad hoc super heroes. But it's better than that. That tried to walk the line between kids movie and grown-up comedy. This is totally an adult movie and is really only tied to kids movies because the general genre is 'comic book movie'. This is not a movie for kids.
The story is fun, but it is a bit too complicated and too long. There are about three layers to the story, which is perfect for launching a franchise with tons of sequels, but a bit too much for a small movie like this to support. Big Daddy's back-story was explained but never really examined and seems a bit of an unnecessary appendage in this context. It might come out more clearly after a sequel comes out, but was not totally needed here.
Despite the screenplay, director Matthew Vaughn does a nice job with the material he has. He pulls no punches with blood and action, getting Dave stabbed and beat up badly without flinching. Young Mindy says words that you would never want and 11-year-old to say - and she does so without any apologies. He also uses a rock 'n' roll soundtrack brilliantly to heighten tension, wink at the knowing audience and joke about the content. There might not be a better use of Ennio Morricone or Elvis than in the final sequence of this film.
The acting throughout is very good. Aaron Johnson is very good as a dork who we can all sympathize with. He's a good guy who doesn't know exactly why he is seen as a dork. Chloe Moretz is great in a role that seems older than she would otherwise be playing. She steals the show with her great delivery of vulgar dialogue. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is basically the same guy as he was in Superbad, Fogell/McLovin, the dork who is cooler than you are. Nick Cage is as wooden as always here - but it sorta works for this role. (Again, I'm not sure if he's a really bad actor or a brilliant one.)
Kick-Ass is a raw, grown-up comedy and not a kids comic book movie. It's a fun ride filled with tons of funny, dirty language and some blood and violence (though it's not nearly as violent as some have suggested). It needs about a half-hour cut out of it, but I thought it was a lot of fun.
Stars: 2.5 of 4
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