No Regrets (aka Huhwihaji anha)

Release date: 16 November 2006 (South Korea)

Korean director Hee-il Leesong shows us the payoff when a nation supports its young filmmakers. South Korea, I still maintain, is producing some of the finest directors out there. In this sorrid tale a young orphan Su Min (played by Nam-gil Kim)'s factory job is saved by the intervention of the boss' closeted gay son, Han Lee (played by Young-hoon Lee). But Su Min ends up quitting anyway to take up a job dancing naked at a gay karaoke club where the staff provide any level of sexual service you'd like. Han Lee soon follows smitten with his love for Su Min. The film is well done, though could have benefited from fewer corny bits (some perhaps lost in translation true) and the - seemingly - odd plunge into noirish revenge at its end. With a few more films under his belt, Hee-il Leesong will refine his skill and provide us a movie filled with scenes as moving in their emotional and visual statement as the couple he captured in No Regrets. I will remember Su Min, his outstretched hand tossing his friend's ashes from the car as it speeds down the highway, and the lovers whispering their secrets to each other, for some time.

My rating 7 out of 10.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Release date: 12 December 2008 (USA)

While the special effects were top notch, and director Scott Derrickson kept true to Edmund North's classic 1951 screenplay, including the uber-fabulous alien robot-guard Gort, this is an awful movie. The main problem is (and it simply wrecks me to admit it) Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, the majordomo boss alien, can't act. I adore Keanu for purely sexual reason yes, but not even watching his wonderful body move through an hour and a half of wooden acting was enough to save the film. Things are no where helped by Jennifer Connolly as the bright geneticist Klaatu takes a liking to, and worse by Kathy Bates in one her most desperately horrible roles ever. Dreadful stuff. Robert Wise's 1951 version (yes, that same Robert Wise who directed The Sound of Music) remains the definitive one to rent. If you opt to watch this for the special effects, by all means go for it, but find a copy of the band Klaatu's great first album from 1976 and put on "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" to avoid the talky bits.

For the special effects solely, my rating 3 out of 10.

Sweeney Tood: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Release date: 21 December 2007 (USA)

Johnny Depp singing. Yes, hard to believe but he does in this macabre, over-the-top, gory remounting of one of the theatre's classic shows, the story of Sweeney Todd. Directed by Tim Roth in full Rothenesque-style, I thought the film was fantastic. Granted, the tragic (very) bloody tale of Sweeney's return to Fleet Street to avenge his exile by Judge Turpin (played with relish by Alan Rickman) and rescue his daughter, Johanna, is not for everyone. The film is dark and, well, violently gruesome but the addition of Stephen Sondheim's (very difficult to sing) music, including the classic piece "A Little Priest" is perfectly done. Helena Bodham Carter plays Mrs. Lovett and is a perfect foil alongside Depp. The gore aside, Sweeny Todd delivers a wonderfully musical two hours with a truly tragic ending that speaks volumes about what we wrought when we seek to avenge wrongdoings.

My rating, noting I have a macabre streak in me, 9 out of 10.

Cloverfield

Release date: 16 January 2008 (USA)

Matt Reeves directs this monster|alien version of Blair Witch Project complete with aggravating shaky camera action. The film focuses on a group of New York friends - none memorable - who end up in the midst of a battle royal in Manhattan the night a creepy monster|alien thingee, that sheds wee monster|aliens thingees like itself, arrives in New York City. Despite all logic, one of the ragtag bunch opts to film everything with his shaky cam as they flee the destruction. Probable? Hardly. The acting is miserable but the monster is neat - especially since the special effects had to be translated across the hand-held camera (no small feat) - and it was fun watching just to see how each principal would meet their inevitable end. The promotional title for this flash in the pan film was 'Monstrous' ... and that about sums things up.

My rating of 5 out of 10.

A Zed and Two Noughts

Release date: 9 September 1986 (Toronto International Film Festival)

This thoroughly modern film starts with a swan crashing headlong into a car and killing two pregnant women and severely injuring the woman driving the vehicle. The husbands of these two women, Oswald and Oliver, are twins and, in an obsession with death and symmetry, start a bizarre journey with the car accident survivor, now disabled by the amputation of her leg. Amid this journey as with all Greenaway films, you meet some pretentious and strange folks, including a mad doctor who's advice to the amputee is to amputate the surviving leg so it doesn't feel lonely. You'll meet a women obsessed with zebras and a zoologist obsessed with time-lapse photographing larger and larger animals as they decay ... including, eventually, himself and his brother.

A Zed and Two Noughts is a feast for the eyes and senses and while you see how the film will end from miles away, the sheer audacity of it all warrants my rating of 7 out of 10.

Deathnote 2

Release date: 17 June 2006 (Japan)

DeathNote 2 gives us another four episodes of this fascinating Japanese anime series and continues to follow young high school student, Light Yagami, as he descends further and further into murder and mayhem after finding the Death Note, a book which when a name is written in it, results in that person's death. This set of four episodes focuses on the continuing cat and mouse game played between Light and the mysterious L, the detective who is working to bring the child killer to justice. The story is infectious and I can hardly wait to see the next set.

Continuing with the tradition of fabulous, luscious anime married to an an utterly intriguing story, my rating 9 out of 10.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Release date: 25 December 2008 (USA)

Based on a small handful of pages written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button tells the story of a boy born an old man who inexplicably grows younger as he ages. It is a fascinating premise for sure and the tragic love story woven in its 2 hours and 40 minutes is exceptionally well done. Benjamin Button is played by the ever sad puppy-eyed Brad Pitt, and his love interest of 70 some odd years is Daisy, played by Cate Blanchett. This reviewer entered the theatre wary of both Pitt and, of all people, Zodiac and Fight Club director David Fincher tackling a fantasy love story. But both succeed - Fincher more than Pitt - thanks to screenwriter (Forest Gump) Eric Roth. The lessons we learn of love and life as Daisy's daughter, Caroline (played by Julia Ormand), reads Benjamin's diary to her dying mother as Hurricane Katrina roars down on New Orleans, resonate with a truth so real it is sure to overwhelm all who see it. Bring someone you love to see it; and bring tissues.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Frost/Nixon

Release date: 15 October 2008 (London Film Festival)

Post Watergate and President Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, all everyone wanted was an apology; an admission that Tricky Dicky did cross the line. It took British television host, David Frost, four interviews but he did succeed in getting the former President close to saying sorry. This movie dramatises that journey. In the hands of director Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon rolls on quite banally for the first two-quarters of the film before finally getting down to business and delivering some great movie making in the last third. This movie is made watchable solely on the astounding performance of Frank Langella as Nixon. His work is, simply, breathtaking. Bravo Mr. Langella.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Doubt

Release date: 30 October 2008 (USA)

John Patrick Shanley directs the movie version of his own play that centers on the place where faith, doubt and certainty intersect. The story takes place in a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964 and concerns the battle between an old school nun, Sister Aloysius (played by the always great Meryl Streep) and her Vatican II supporting boss, Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman). When a junior nun, Sister James (Amy Adams) mentions a concern she has about Father Flynn and the school's only black student, Donald, to Sister Aloysius, the witchhunt is on. Doubt is a fantastic movie with fine, fine performances - Viola Davis as Donald's mother in particular. The sermon Father Flynn gives (us all) midway through the movie is worth the price of admission itself. In the end, Doubt delivers a storyline that is current with enough smarts to have you leave the theatre thinking about how certain your own beliefs may be.

One of the best movies this year gives it my rating of rating 9 out of 10.

In the Shadow of the Moon

Release date: 19 January 2007 (Sundance Film Festival)

This excellent documentary, directed by David Sington and released at Sundance Film Festival in 2007, recounts a story we all know: the Apollo moon landings between 1968 and 1972. What makes this documentary special is its simplicity. Twelve men have walked on the moon; only twelve. And while we know their story, and while those of us old enough know exactly where they were when Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the moon on July 21, 1969, hearing their story in their own words provides a new context to the achievement. These test pilots cum-astronauts have been forever changed by the experience for they have seen our world from a perspective we never will. In recounting their flights, you'll be mesmerized by their journey and perhaps, just perhaps, see the earth and our responsibility for and to it in a different light.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Romeo & Juliet

Release date: 1 November 1996 (Canada)

Baz Luhrmann directed this 1996 version of the near 500 year-old classic by William Shakespeare. What first struck me about watching this very stylistic version of the story set in Verona Beach is just how timely it still is today. There remains, I am sure, star crossed lovers in many countries separated by their cultural upbringings and parental obligations and certainly urban gangs are as real today as in 1582. I loved this version of the classic, though I know not everyone will. Baz Luhrmann tends to be a director you hate or love passionately. I side firmly on with the later. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Romeo and does a super job (DiCaprio seems to be losing his ability to act the older he gets). Clare Danes stars as Juliet and is a little shell-shocked taking on such a classic role to say nothing of mastering Elizabethan English. All is saved however by Luhrmann’s amazing vision for this film – I loved the scene where Romeo and Juliet first meet between the aquarium - and Pete Postlethwaite as Father Laurence.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Juste une question d'amour (aka Just a Question of Love)

Release date: 26 January 2000 (France)

Christian Faure adapted (and then directed) the original story by Annick Larboulette about a closeted gay lad who finds himself and love while at agricultural school in France. The film was originally shown in 2000 on France 2, a publically-funded television station, and despite its theme, received but three complaint letters and stole some 28% of the market share the night it was shown. A great testament in a coutnry still struggling with homophobia. Cyrille Thouvenin stars as Laurent, the gay lad in question; Stephan Guerin-Tille plays his love interest, Cedric. What makes this film work where so many other gay films fail is the substance of the story and the performances. You believe these characters wholly. The supporting cast, especially Emma, the token yet endearing 'fag hag' (played by Eva Darlan), are superb. Films like Juste une question d'amour go far to illustrate the true feeling of gay lads coming out, parents struggling with the revelation, and the indisputable fact that love is love despite the bias society tends to place on guys loving guys. Well worth a watch. In French with English subtitles.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Sharkwater

Release date: 11 September 2006 (Toronto International Film Festival)

Canadian Rob Stewart directed this engaging documentary that reveals some truths about sharks which you may not have known. The key one being they are crucial to life in the oceans and - by extension - to ourselves. The underwear filming is just stunning and the made-for-tv sudden onset of Stewart's flesh eating disease aside, does explore the brutal overfishing of sharks (for their fins) that is currently taking place in two of the worlds most noted eco-friendly destinations - Ecuador and Costa Rica. If you're looking for a balanced view of this crisis, look elsewhere. Sharkwater is decidedly one-sided, right down to finding the dumbest, most challenged english-as-a-second language speaking proponent of 'fining' on earth. And while the film also serves as a 90-minute advertisement for the (very) radical Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, it will make you look at consuming any "sharkfin soup" in Chinese restaurants with real concern forevermore.

My rating 7 out of 10.

The Tired City

Release date: unknown

Directed by John Chan and Pam Hung, The Tired City illustrates the struggles of one young woman amid the craziness of a seemingly tireless job and city. Drawn in dreamlike watercolour sepias, and with innovative use of text squares, this wonderful animation takes us on a journey for peace that ends with chasing dreams in bubbles and the pessimistic view we cannot escape our realities.

My rating 9 out of 10.

The Chestnut Tree

Release date: 7 September 2007 (Los Angeles, USA)

South Korean, Hyun-min Lee created this fine hand-drawn 4-minute animation based on recollections of her childhood and mother. Beautifully sweet in character - something much needed these days - it is an homage to both mothers and the lost Disney art of hand drawing individual animation cells. I loved the initial transition from young woman to little girl. Well done.

My rating 10 out of 10.

Great Expectations (1998)

Release date: 30 January 1998 (Canada)

Based on the classic Charles Dickens book of the same name and starring a very young looking Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow, this Alfonso Cuaron directed film - while pretty to look at - is not even a third as good as David Lean's 1948 classic. Leave it to the Americans to take something classic and mess it all up. The story has been transplanted to New York City, hence the arrival of Robert De Niro, playing the part of Magwitch. While the film stays true to the original story at the outset, using a backwater Sarasota as Finn Bell's (aka Pip's) home and Ca d'Zan as Ms Dinsmoor's (played by the always wonderful Anne Bancroft) Havisham-esque mansion, things go astray when young Bell heads to New York City to find Estella and make it famous as an artist. The innate problem with this film is the edge needed to make the plot truly meaningful. Bell is not near enough kindhearted or poor to make his transformation mean something while Estella is not near cruel enough to make her key purpose, that of heartbreaker, plausible. What's left is a shadow of the real version, perhaps better called Middling Expectations.

My rating 5 out of 10.

Dan in Real Life

Release date: 26 October 2007 (USA)

Advice columnist Dan Burns (Steve Carell), single with three daughters, is great at giving advice to everyone but is dirt poor at following it himself. This film centres on a weekend getaway the Burns family make to their cottage where Dan unexpectedly finds himself falling in love with a very beautiful Marie (Juliette Binoche). What makes the romance more interesting and comic is that moment when Dan realises Marie is the current girlfriend of his brother Mitch (Dane Cook) and that she too is staying at the cottage. What results is a wonderful cat and mouse game as Dan and Marie try to carry on their romance with the entire family sharing a cottage. There are some genuinely funny moments in this film; the shower scene in particular. It is Carrell's movie and his transformation as a man, and father, through his relationship with Marie is a delight to watch.

My rating 7 out of 10.

The Lookout

Release date: 30 March 2007 (USA)

The Lookout is a bank heist movie with a twist. The twist being the recruitment of a young brain injured lad, Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), into the gang planning to rob a rural Kansas bank. A reckless car accident has left the former high school hockey star with a brain injury that challenges his ability to sequence the daily activities of life you and I take for granted. With the help of his notebook and a blind roommate Lewis (Jeff Daniels), Chris struggles with rehabilitation and depression while working nights cleaning the bank. When a gang slowly reels Chris into their web, he unknowingly becomes the key player - the lookout - in a bank heist that goes terribly wrong. Director Scott Frank keeps the focus squarely on Chris the entire film, and to good effect. We sympathise with his disability and understand the challenges people with brain injuries face each and every day. There are certainly better bank heist movies out there but the use of the heist as a means to an end is done effectively.

For conveying the hope a person with a brain injury has in regaining what was lost, my rating 8 out of 10.

The Golden Compass

Release date: 27 November 2007 (London)

Based on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and specifically the first novel, Northern Lights, The Golden Compass is a fantasy story centered on Lyra, a young girl who lives in a parallel universe where people exist side by side with their daemons, animals of various ilks who hold your spirit. When Lyra's best friend, Will, is kidnapped by the dark forces of the Magisterium, a veiled version of the Roman Catholic Church, she heads north to the land of the armoured polar bears to rescue him. In her possession is the alethiometer, the "golden compass", which only she can use to see into the future. There is a lot going on in this movie and its ravishing mix of cultures, time periods and animal and human characters makes for a fantastical journey. The movie is 'heady' and says much about philosophy, theology and physics. Replete with star power including Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Sam Elliot, Ian McShane, Ian McKellen and Freddie Highmore, The Golden Compass - while requiring focused viewing - is a treat for transporting you to a world unlike any you've seen.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Enchanted

Release date: 20 October 2007 (London Film Festival)

If you're looking for a wonderful twist on a classic fairytale, look no further than Enchanted. Starring Amy Adams (as Princess Giselle), Patrick Dempsey (as Robert Philip, her modern-day Prince), James Marsden (as Prince Edward, her fairytale Prince) and the great Susan Sarandon (as the oh-so-evil Queen Narissa), Enchanted challenges the line between modern-day love and fairytale love. When Queen Narissa whisks Giselle from the saturated, colourful world of fairy tales to modern-day New York City, she begins to rethink all her fairytale notions of love. Soon after arriving, she meets Robert Philip, a lawyer, who befriends her unaware she is a real fairytale Princess. The comedy that results is great and is enhanced when both Prince Edward, nasty Queen Narissa and her sidekick Nathaniel all appear in NYC. Charming in its innocence and revealing in its morale, Enchanted is a watch.

My rating 8 out of 10.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Release date: 9 May 2008 (Festival Internacional de Cine Acapulco)

Andrew Adamson directs this second installation of the Pevensie siblings adventures in Narnia. Based on the classic set of books by uber-Christian C.S. Lewis, the story has the kids enlisted to help ward off an evil King Miraz and restore young Prince Caspian as the rightful heir to the land's throne. The look of the film is great, but sadly the story creeps along at such a tiresome pace - all 2 hours and 29 minutes of it - that you quickly lose any interest in what's going on. This, even despite the 'will-Aslan-return-or-not' plot devices. All battles all the time does not a movie make. Prince Caspian proves bigger and louder is not the right formula for a squeal.

My rating 4 out of 10.

Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Release date: 18 May 2008 (Cannes Film Festival)

You can get too much of a good thing as this latest installation of the mega movie juggernaut proves. The usual stars return for another romp with mystery, Nazis and adventure. Granted, older and more creaky; Shea LeBeouf being the (aggravating) exception. This time out, Professor Henry Jones is on the hunt for an ancient Peruvian city, leading a ragtag band of misfits constantly in hot in pursuit from a group of mystic Nazis headed by Cate Blanchett. Fantastical stuff yes. And while the film is utterly predictable and continues its far-fetched jumps in logic, it does maintain the always great Spielburg pacing and framing and is worth a look if only to bring back the memories of when Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark was fresh and new.

My rating 6 out of 10.

The Sky Crawlers

Release date: 3 September 2008 (Venice Film Festival)

Hiroshi Mori wrote the original story and book back in 2001, which Kenji Tsuruta then animated. The story is set in an alternative historical time – vaguely reminiscent of Europe in World War II – and concerns Kildren, genetically engineered teenagers who never die until shot down in an air battle. At its core this film examines an essential truth about life and whether knowing you will live forever, makes living worth it or not. This theme is explored in simply gorgeous detail through 122 minutes of magnificent anime. Directed by the genius of Mamoru Oshii, The Sky Crawlers is one of the most subtlety perfect movies – in any genre – in a long, long time. It is, in a word, a masterpiece.

My rating, a rare, 10 out of 10.

El Greco

Release date: 11 October 2007 (Crete, Greece)

Sadly when you take a great story, the life of the Greek painter, Doménicos Theotokópoulos, made famous during his time in Spain as “El Greco”, and place this story in the hands of an over-wrought director, Yannis Smaragdis, with a panache for melodrama and ensuring his actors over-act each and every scene, the result is never good. Such is the fate of El Greco. This film should be used by film school instructors to demonstrate the worse in archaic film style, including the creation of one dimensional characters. Most irritating is the mix of languages the film uses, it seems everyone in the 16 century could easily speak Greek, Italian, Spanish, English … and subtitles to boot. It is all too bad as the story of El Greco’s lifelong relationship and battle with Cardinal Niño de Guevara, Toledo’s Grand Inquisitor, does make for a good story. To sum-up, this dreadful film is an embarrassment to have shown at TIFF and worse, an embarrassment to El Greco’s art.

My rating, mainly for the fact Vangelis did the music, 2 out of 10.

Elephant

Release date: 3 October 2003 (Italy)

Elephant is Gus Van Sant’s take on and testament to the Columbine shootings in 1999. Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2003, Van Sant shows us a gaggle of teenagers going about their day, an utterly ordinary day, except for the machinations of two disturbed boys at the Portland high school portrayed in the film. The plain ordinariness of it all and Van Sant’s quiet direction, following the school’s photographer, the prom couple, the library nerd, makes the horror that follows at the end of the film even more impactful. Elephant is a bold, disturbing film. A film that does not moralize what happens but simply shows us an event stripped of biases. The title could not be more apt, there is an elephant in every high school in the nation, and in most cases we don’t even know it’s there.

My rating 8 out 10.

Awake

Release date: 30 Novemeber 2007 (US)

Joby Harold wrote and directed this intriguing little movie that uses a a rarely known medical condition as the starting point for neat thriller. The condition is anesthetic awareness whereby a patient though anaesthetised remains 'awake' and paralysed during an operation. A great starting point I thought but poorly executed thanks to the machinations of two B-rate actors, the vapid Hayden Christensen and poor little Jessica Alba. The story concerns uber rich kid with a wonky heart, Clay Beresford (Christensen), his wife Sam (Alba) and a nasty plot to make some money. The creaky acting and ridiculously contrived plot twists make the film fun to watch and it's worth a rental if you're keen for a laugh one night.

My rating for the brilliant starting point of it all 5 out of 10.

Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles

Release date: 17 September 1998 (Toronto International Film Festival)

Long before director Jennifer Baichwal made herself famous filming Manufactured Landscapes, she visited the mysterious expat American musician and author, Paul Bowles, as he lay dying on his bed in Morocco, his home of more than 50 years and a central aspect of many of his great works, including Let it Come Down and The Sheltering Sky. Both great reads, I may add. We see a man who talks but truly says nothing about his life, his marriage to the playwright Jane Bowles, his association with the 'beat' generation writers or his homosexual life. We see an enigmatic man as unfathomable and as intriguing as the sands of the Sahara itself.

For the tiny glimpse Baichwal gives us of this pillar of American literature my rating 7 out of 10.

Gone Baby Gone

Release date: 5 September 2007 (Deauville Film Festival, France)

Based on the Dennis Lehane novel, this Ben Affleck directed film was a challenge to watch. I actually started it four times before being able to get through it, which is usually not a very good sign. Casey Affleck stars, and talks funny with a Bostonian accent, as private eye Patrick Kenzie hired to assist the Boston Police search for the missing girl of a drug addicted single mother. When the little girl shows up (apparently) dead, Kenize and his wife Angie (Michelle Monaghan) wander about all sad and miserable wishing they could have done more. Despite being told by Boston Police captain Doyle (Morgan Freeman) and his number one detective Remy (Ed Harris) not to worry, the pair continue to dig for 'the truth'. And is often the case, searching for the 'truth' can lead to things you'd rather not learn. The premise is good and the story great, and, in the hands of a more skilled director, may have even been a real winner. Sadly, even two of Hollywood's best actors can't pull the mess together and so you're left struggling to finish a film that is flat from the outset.

My rating 5 out of 10.

The Brave One

Release date: 6 September 2007 (Toronto International Film Festival)

The usually ever-wonderful Jodie Foster has had a couple duds of late and no one larger than this dreadful pro-vigilante movie, The Brave One. Directed by Neil Jordan it has poor Erica Bain (Foster) struggling to get over the brutal attack in Central Park that took the life of her fiance. The radio host soon finds herself purchasing an illegal gun and - predictably - becomes a new form of justice on the New York streets as she stumbles into various criminal situations. Toss in a wonky link whereby Bain starts to get close to the detective assigned to track down the vigilante and it all becomes just too much. In true Hollywood style, Bain manages to hunt down and murder the folks who killed her fiance and the dear old police detective Mercer hushes it all up. Awful stuff.

I'm loath to give films that support Americans taking justice into their own hands any rating but since Mary Steenburgen had a small role in the film as Foster's radio show boss, and was fabulous as ever, I give this miserable film 2 out of 10.

Ryan

Release date: 2004 (Canada)

Canadian Chris Landreth created this great Academy Award for Best Animated Short (2005) film that reflects on the life of filmmaker Ryan Larkin who produced some of the most influential animations of his generation. Sadly, years later, a victim of drug abuse and alcoholism Larkin was destitute and living on the streets of Toronto. Landreth's film is strangely animated and combines interview of Larkin with macabre computer generated characters. It is a sight to behold and you can understand why this won the Oscar.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Last Time in Clerkenwell

Release date: 2008 (UK)

Alex Budovskiy directed this delightful short animation of a bird's conquest of a dream world inspired by London. The stark black and white animation is just gorgeous and the music by Real Tuesday Weld is as catchy a tune as I've heard in a long, long time. It is a perfect match to the on-screen visuals.

My rating a wonderful 10 out of 10 for the sheer its inventiveness and wonderful music.

I, Robot

Release date: 15 July 2004 (Thailand)

You can’t often go wrong with movies based on great books and I, Robot proves this point. Based on Isaac Asimov’s story of a robot with a conscious it is directed by Alex Proyas and stars the ever wooden Will Smith. Yet even Smith’s performance as Detective Del Spooner fails to derail the film. The movie’s strength lies in its storyline of robots who think – sometimes – in order to protector their creators they have to supersede their programming and break the ethical laws humans have written into them. It is a great premise and the detective story that results when the robots’ creator, a scientist named Dr. Albert Lanning, is found murdered is a great ride. Full of action, philosophy and some great special effects, I Robot works to show us the err of our ways and the dangers that may eventual result when robots attain a consciousness similar to our own.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Yellow Sticky Notes

Release date: 2007 (Canada)

Canadian Jeff Chiba Stearns wrote and animated this short 6-minute story of his life – thus far – using the ubiquitous yellow sticky notes we’re all oh-so-familiar with. Motivated by the realization that his film-making journey and to-do lists of yellow sticky notes had overtaken his life, Stearns uses the same medium as a means to self-reflect on events since 9/11. This short piece is a joy to watch with more revealed with each viewing of the some 2300 sticky notes. The catchy original soundtrack is courtesy Genevieve Vincent.

My rating for a great idea captured in an experimental and fun fashion 8 out of 10.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Release date: 13 December 2007 (New York City, USA)

The usual suspects gather in this second, poorer, version of the box office hit from 2004. Nicholas Cage is back as cagey historian Ben Gates, Diane Kruger returns as his (now) wife Abigail Chase, Jon Voight is back as just as aggravating as ever as dad, Patrick Gates, and sidekick Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) returns to continue to add some comic interest. New to the adventure are the ever brilliant Ed Harris as bad guy, Mitch Wilkinson, and the ever brilliant Helen Mirren as Ben’s mom, Emily Appleton. The story is an over-the-top silly concoction concerning the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; a secret book passed from President to President that reveals the truth about some of history’s greatest events, and a secret city of gold hidden away by Mt. Rushmore. It is all thoroughly dumb and sadly does no justice to the brilliance that was the first National Treasure movie. It is all way too much and as such leaves the viewer bored as the chase unfolds.

My rating 4 out of 10.

Mama Mia

Release date: 30 June 2008 (London, UK)

Pierce Brosnan has no worries about preparing a speech for Oscars this year. In Mama Mia, he demonstrates a classic example of a (good?) actor utterly out of his depth. He is wooden, uncomfortable, and – yikes – even sings … horribly granted, but he does give it a screechy try. Based on the music of ABBA and a direct steal from the Broadway theatre production that won umpteen Tonys, the movie version illustrates, vividly, that not all Broadway shows can translate to the silver screen. This is no Chicago. Meryl Streep does a fine job as the woman, Donna, who doesn’t know which of three men fathered her daughter Sophie. Her two sidekicks – Julie Waters (as Rosie) and Christine Baranski (as Tanya) are particularly good, Baranski especially. Newcomer Amanda Seyfried plays the girl at the centre of the story. If you are not a fan of ABBA or the theatre version of Mama Mia, avoid this movie like the plague.

I am a fan of both but would still only give this lame, absurd movie my rating of 4 out of 10.

Across The Universe

Release date: 10 September 2007 (Toronto International Film Fest)

Julie Taymor directed this very long music video trying to pull itself off as a motion picture. The innate problem with the film is lies with Taymor and her reach. In trying to be a all things - sloppy romance between Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood); homage to Beatles music; commentary on the social environment and upheaval that was witness in America during the Vietnam War; and Julie's attempt to one-up Baz Luhrmann and his Moulin Rouge masterpiece - the film crashes, and badly. What's left is a film full of Beatles songs slowed down to the point of tedium, a love story as compelling as watching paint dry, and a journey that will leave you feeling like you've crossed the entire universe (beam me up please, Scotty). Such a shame.

My rating, for the music and some of the great visuals Taymor gives us, 5 out of 10.

I Am Legend

Release date: 5 December 2007 (Tokyo, Japan)

Francis Lawrence directs this third remake of Richard Matheson's novel of the same name, this time with ever-woody 'actor' Will Smith doing his usual - yawn - shtick. Previous, and better versions were, The Omega Man (1971) with Charlton Heston and The Last Man on Earth (1964) with Vincent Price. Lawrence's version is oh-so-slow to start and doomed from the outset by Smith's acting, which left me cold and rooting for the vampires, if only to shut him up.

That said, the night creatures are brilliantly executed in this film and for that - and that alone - my rating 4 out of 10.

Bewitched

Release date: 24 June 2005 (USA)

Wow ... bad ... real bad despite the star power of her highness Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrel (to whom I apply the moniker 'star' in very, very loose terms), Shirley McLaine and even Michael Caine. Based on the television series, the story ... oh ... heavens ... why even bother. It's an awful film. No amount of witchcraft can save this embarrassing Hollywood film.

My rating 2 out of 10.

No Reservations

Release date: 25 July 2007 (New York, USA)

You see the plot of this movie coming from the moment the film starts. You know top New York chef Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is going to end up guardian of her sister's daughter. You know she will end up having to deal with parental responsibilities when all she wants to do is cook, and you know when her pregnant sous chef leaves and is replaced by free-spirited chef Nick (Aaron Eckhart) that there will be some real heat in the kitchen. And you know, despite that, I still enjoyed the film thanks to the topic (I'm a foodie) and the good acting of Eckhart, Zeta-Jones and Abigail Breslin as Zoe, the child in question.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Forever Mine

Release date: 12 Septemeber 1999 (Toronto International Film Festival)

G and I have a connection to this film as the scenes in the second half of the movie - of Congressman Brice's (Ray Liotta) house - where filmed in G's sister's home here in Toronto. Watching it does elicit a dejavu feeling, understandably so. Starring Liotta as a very crooked Congressman, Gretchen Mol (as his wife, Ella Brice) and Joesph Fiennes (as the cabana boy who stirs up trouble between them), it morphs between thriller and romance and has a real made-for-tv feel to it. When Fiennes and Mol's characters have an affair and the Congressman discovers it - well, wife Ella actually confesses - the Congressman tries to bump off the offender. Maimed and disfigured in the attack, cabana boy Fiennes returns years later as a wealthy criminal fixer who hopes to keep the promise he made to Ella and dish out his own form of revenge. Some stock twists and turns result before it all ends badly for everyone involved. While no one in this film is particularly great at acting - Fiennes seems especially uncomfortable - there is enough Sunday night at the movie drama (and a great house to see) to make it worth a rent.

My rating 6 out of 10.

The Dark Knight

Release date: 14 July 2008 (New York, USA)

Plenty has been said on this movie already and it is an instant classic - dark, thoroughly disturbing and action-filled. In this return to the original genre of the comic book, Batman (Christian Bale) battles the amoral Joker (played with chilling brilliance by the late Heath Ledger) in what is really a psychological drama of good vs. evil. Batman and Joker are the antithesis of each other and the movie, directed by Christopher Nolan, works to leverage the depths realized by these two characters pitted against each other. In the end, this is - and always will be - Ledger's film, a perfect portrayal of a psychopath. The Dark Knight, be warned, is no film for children - or the faint of heart, but within its two and a half hours, shows us a glimpse of the best and worse we can be as men. Run, don't walk, to see this film.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Bee Movie

Release date: 28 October 2007 (London Film Festival)

What a delightful, adult-oriented, animated movie. Bee Movie stars the voices of Jerry Seinfeld (as Barry B. Benson) and Renee Zellweger (as Vanessa Bloom, the adult who stumbles across Barry) and has cameos by oodles of others - Sting, Larry King, Ray Liotta and Chris Rock (to name a few). Barry, recently graduated from Bee School and faced with entering the colony for a life of drudgery, opts instead to join the Pollinator bees on a venture outside the hive. Predictably, Barry gets lost and ends up meeting, and - breaking Golden Bee Rule Number 1 - speaking to a human, Vanessa. When he realizes humans are more or less 'stealing' honey, Barry opts to file a class action lawsuit. With gorgeous animation, lots of laughs and a subtlety that speaks to human consumption, greed, and environmental issues, Bee Movie delivers the goods.

My rating 8 out of 10.

An Unreasonable Man

Release date: 2006 (USA)

This documentary film on the life and work of consumer advocate and presidential wannabe Ralph Nader, is long and full of many talking heads. And while, sure, we should all be appreciative of what Ralph has done for us - seat belts and food labeling to name but two, and angered by what he's done to America - the defeat of Al Gore and a second term with pea-brain Bush are his doing - the film never tells us much about the man other than his politics. I watched, somewhat bored, thinking is Mr. Nader a male version of a Stepford Wife? The man has the passion of a giant, the personality of a flea, and a personal life void of any emotional attachment.

My rating 6 out of 10.

Death Note, Volume 1

Release date: 2006 (Japan)

What would you do if all you had to do was write someone's name in a book and then forty-seconds later, that person would die of heart attack? That is the premise of this excellent manga series by created by writer Sugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata back in 2003-06. Light Yagami, Japan's top high school student, wanders across such a book - The Death Note - one afternoon at school after it mysteriously drops from the nether realm of the Shinigami(gods of the dead). The resulting story is a great marriage of philosophy (as Light opts to rid the world of criminals, and eventual reign as a new god of a new world free of evildoers) and mystery (as the police begin to suspect something is amiss with so many criminals turning up dead, and decide - with the help of an uber detective named L - to hunt him down). Light is escorted through the cat and mouse game by a Shinigami named Ryuk, who's scary and creepy as all get out. Death Note is a series of four volumes and I can guarantee its fascinating mix of intelligence and mystery and creepiness will have you hooked. I daresay you may even contemplate who's name you would enter in the Death Note. Of note, three live-action films have also spawned from this series, all released in Japan, the latest in February 2008.

For a great idea well executed in a gorgeous manga environment, my rating 9 out of 10.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Release date: 8 December 1988 (West Germany)

This cult classic is now 20 years old and while a fiasco from start to finish and wildly over-budget, it did not diminish the directing status of ex-Monty Python member, Terry Gilliam. Based on a series of tall tales written by Rudolf Erich Raspe back in 1785 called Baron Münchhausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels, it starred gobs of talent in Neville Mariner (as the Baron), Eric Idle, Oliver Reed, a young Uma Thurman (as Venus), an even younger Sarah Polly, an over-the-top and very frustrating Robin Williams (as the King of the Moon), and heck, even Sting. They story is ... well ... a hodgepodge of fantasy travels and fairy tales with a sort of Wizard of Oz story within a story angle, and is far too complicated to due it justice here. The film is probably a love-it or hate-it sort of venture with this reviewer decidedly on the love-it angle (with the exception of the aggravating sojourn on the moon with Robin Williams doing his tired old shtick).

For the spectacle of it all and with kudos to Mariner for pulling it off, my rating 7 out of 10.

Up the Yangtze

Release date: 30 September 2007 (Canada)

This documentary, directed by Chinese-Canadian Yung Chang, shows us two small stories among the many that have resulted from the the creation of the Three Gorges Dam in China. The stories of spoiled single-child Chen Bo, a self-confident, self-obsessed 19 year-old and Yu Shui, a 16 year-old from a very poor farming family, cross when they both take probationary jobs on one of the many cruise ships the ferry tourists up (and down) the Yangtze River. The more compelling of the two is that of Yu Shui, who's family is displaced as the water rises and their farm is engulfed. Chang's film is beautifully shot, and, weepy music aside, illustrates in its 90-odd minutes the pride Chinese feel towards the achievement of the Three Gorges Dam project, the sad impact it has dealt to Chinese who lived along the river's path, and the cultural repercussions it's sowed on people of all economic levels. This is a super documentary that should not be missed.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Are You The Favorite Person of Anybody?

Release date: 2005 (USA)

This very short 3-minute black and white dialogue has John C. Reilly standing on a street corner asking passerbys, "Are you the favorite person of anybody?" Now, while I grant you the question, penned by Miranda July, is intriguing, and while I'm a big fan of artsy-fartsy ideas like this, I did not enjoy this short film. The question is better posed internally or at least differently then directed on screen by Miguel Arteta. I'm sad to say with this review, I will not be the favorite person of either director Arteta or star Reilly.

For giving us an interesting question to ponder, my rating 3 out of 10.

The Danish Poet

Release date: 2007 (Canada)

A short film by the National Film Board of Canada, The Danish Poet won the 2007 Oscar for best Short Animation. Directed by Torvill Kove, the Danish poet in this film, Kasper Jørgensen, heads out on a quest to find inspiration and a legendary Norwegian author, Sigrid Undset. Along the way, fate intervenes and this is the crucible of what the film is about ... how fate works in our lives. With easy, fun animation and an oddity unbound, you can see how The Danish Poet wowed judges with its simple tale loaded with deep existential meaning.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Love and War

Release date: 2007 (Sweden)

An utterly amazing piece of stop-motion puppetry and digital animation, Love and War is short 14-minute opera starring a bunny and bear. Directed by Fredrik Emilson, with the libretto he wrote and score he orchestrated (performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra), Love and War shows us Bunny (a wartime nurse) and Bear (her fighter pilot lover) as they meet and fall in love. Called to duty against crocodilian foes, Bear is shot down while on mission, and, with a picture of Bunny in hand, meets his tragic fate. It is classic opera, and, as an opera fanatic myself, magically done. Unlike anything you've seen and well worth spending 14-minutes to get lost its gorgeous music and epic tragedy.

Sung in Italian with English subtitles, my rating 10 out of 10.

L.I.E.

Release date: 20 January 2001 (Sundance Film Festival)

L.I.E. was the movie that put actor Paul Dano on the stardom road. After L.I.E. came Fast Food Nation, Little Miss Sunshine, and There Will Be Blood ... which is a pretty impressive list. And back in 2002 you can see his stardom. L.I.E. (short for Long Island Expressway) is a very difficult film to watch. Difficult because it touches on subjects that are inherently taboo - bullying, homosexuality and child abuse. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, there is a touching human story amid the horror. Howie (Dano) is a 15-year-old who's recently lost his mother (in an auto accident) and is all but ignored by a father too caught up in his own work woes. Howie begins to travel with a wrong set of kids who spend their days breaking and entering homes along the L.I.E.. Clearly different then his friends, Howie is trying to come to terms with the death of his mother, his privileged yet emotionally vacant homelife, and his own sexuality. Secretly infatuated with the leader of their small gang, Gary (played by Billy Kay), Howie ends up meeting Big John (played ever so brilliantly and ever so creepily by Brian Cox). Big John is a vietnam vet, a pillar of the community and a gay pedophile. The result of their meeting is both surprising and sad. First time Director Michael Cuesta gives us the characters stripped down without caricatures of victim and abuser and leaves the difficult themes in the movie - of isolation, desperation and resignation -- for us to ponder. Well done.

My rating 8 out of 10.