Star Trek

Release date: 6 April 2009 (Austin, Texas)

What a great prequel! Director JJ Abrams and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have dusted off the institution that is the Star Trek phenomenon and given us a refreshing, fun, action-filled version true to the original series. Chris Pine stars as James T. Kirk, the James Dean-ish renegade Starfleet Academy cadet, and yes that was Eric Bana as the evil and messed-up-in-time Romulan, Nero, and Winona Ryder as Spock’s mommy, Amanda Greyson. The story is your typical Star Trek romp and has Kirk captaining the USS Enterprise as it tries to recover Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) from the menacing Romulan who’s destroyed Vulcan and is now on his way to destroy Earth (but of course). The story is just a vehicle here to get us reacquainted with the characters we’ve long loved, and who, through the tragedy of time and too many Hollywood Star Trek films had become lost. This Star Trek is a real winner and it’s great to have the institution we love grounded again.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Man on Wire

Release date: 22 January 2008 (Sundance Film Festival)

Directed by James Marsh, Man On Wire – winner of the 2009 Best Documentary Oscar – recounts Philippe Petit’s own book detailing his fantastic crossing of the World Trade Center buildings in August 1974 … on a tightrope. The film uses Petit and his co-conspirators own recollections of the event and mixes archival footage with dramatization. The story is infectious, crossing personal drama with mystery and anticipation as the small group manages to haul a ton of equipment up the towers and rig the wire in the dead of night. The moment where Petit steps out onto the wire is, in a word, mesmerizing and sobering now that the WTC is no more. Man on Wire is a thoroughly engaging film that keeps the viewer on edge throughout its ninety minutes. More importantly, it allows us a glimpse into the unique mind of an artist and the mysterious force that guides his approach to life.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Blonde and Blonder

Release date: 18 January 2008 (USA)

There are dreadful movies we watch simply because in being so awful there is a redeeming factor in seeing them through to the end. These movies are often termed ‘campy’ and reward the viewer despite the embarrassment they were ever made. Blonde and Blonder is no such a movie. Dreadful from start to finish, it is a sad vehicle for Pamela Anderson’s breasts and ego. Worse, director Dean Hamilton and writers Gerry Anderson and Rolfe Kanefsky in trying to be funny only succumb in being mean, obnoxious and insulting. Anderson’s breasts star as Dee Twiddle to Denise Richard’s Dawn St. Dom, two blondes with nary a brain betwixt them, who end up getting confused as international mob killers. While the film does have high production value (a compliment I’m using to find at least one redeeming thing to say here), Blonde and Blonder is an embarrassment to every single person involved in its production. And is often the fact with such tripe, sadly, a sequel is currently in the works.

My rating 1 out of 10.

Young People F*cking

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

This film is what its title says; the stories of four couples (and one manage-a-tois) f***king. Each is a couple in transition but isn’t that true of all of us? And being in transition, the young stars are sweet, vulgar, mean, loving and frisky. Young People F*king works because of this and shows each of us, its viewers, some image of our own lives and loves. Never pornographic, it starts well before stalling mid-point (dare I say becoming boring despite its title) but climaxes well. Not for kids.

My rating 6 out of 10.

Angels & Demons

Release date: 7 May 2009 (Tokyo, Japan)

Reputedly anti-Catholic, this Dan Brown populist mystery-in-the-box is sadly anything but. Too long yes; preposterous yes; predictable yes. Directed by the redheaded-(now bald)-child-actor-who-thinks-he-can-direct, Ron Howard, the movie follows the world’s greatest symbologist who apparently can only translate select bits of Italian and Latin?, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), as he follows clues left by the Illuminati in a tug of war between the Church and science. Supported by an is-he-good-or-is-he-bad Camerlengo (a decent Ewan Mcgregor), Langdon spends the oh-so-long two-and-a-half hours Howard provides him zipping around Rome arriving 2 minutes late each time to prevent the death of another Cardinal. Sigh. Has the world’s greatest Catholic symbologist never been to Rome before? Sigh. If you can suspend reality wholly and enjoy lame preachy speeches, leaps of logic, and the notion a group of old celibate men have the right to speak on our behalf, let alone dictate how we should live our lives, then Amen, you’ll think this movie is like the Second Coming itself.

My rating 5 out of 10.

Sanxia haoren (aka Still Life)

Release date: 12 September 2006 (Toronto International Film Festival)

Directed by the Zhang Ke Jia, Still Life contrasts the anything-but-still reality of a city, Fenjiie, being systematically dismantled in preparation for the Three Gorges Dam with the submerged lives of two former citizens, whose quietude in the face of actions they should have taken years previously launches new emotional ripples. The juxtaposition of these two motifs within the movie is perfectly portrayed and reveal a subtlety in Chinese culture we in the West have difficulty understanding. One, a coalminer Han Sanming comes looking for his ex-wife and daughter; the other, Shen Hong (Tao Zhao) to hunt down a husband absent from home for two years. In their interactions with the current citizens of the town they learn the meaning of loss and connection and what’s necessary to keep, and cast off, in order to continue.

A beautiful film that rewards the viewer with an understanding of the power of reflection, Still Life gets my rating of 8 out of 10.

Sleuth (2007)

Release date: 30 August 2007 (Venice Film Festival)

Director Kenneth Branagh takes a decidedly Peter Greenaway approach to this remake of the 1972 classic starring Michael Caine and Lawrence Olivier. In this version, Michael Caine takes on Olivier’s role, playing Andrew Wyke, the British author with attitude whose wife has left him for a younger man, actor Milo Tindle (played by Jude Law). When Andrew invites Milo to his sprawling estate an intricate battle of cat and mouse ensues as the two men scheme to out think each other and plan each other’s murder. Anthony Shaffer’s great play is spun a little more tightly in Harold Pinter’s screenplay and the film works well for its first and second acts. Caine and Law are excellent and Branagh’s stark framing and perfect score play well with the witty and cutting dialogue. While certainly not as good as its original, Sleuth has enough atmosphere and intrigue to keep you interested despite its rather flat ending.

My rating 7 out of 10.