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Release date: 27 August 2008 (Venice International Film Festival)
The
Coen brother's success as directors draws A-list stars to their films
and Burn After Reading is an example of this. The plot is vintage Coen
with quirky characters, subtle humour and violence; this is black comedy
through and through. Fitness centre staffer Linda (Coen regular Frances
McDormand doing what she usually does) wants a lad and is seeking
dollars for plastic surgery. CIAer Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) has
been fired and opts to write a memoir. His philandering wife Katie
(Tilda Swinton) accidentally leaves the DVD with his memoir at the gym
whereupon happy-go-lucky and not-too-bright Chat (Brad Pitt) finds it.
Together with Linda, the duo concoct a plan to blackmail Osbourne.
Meanwhile, Harry (George Clooney) a US Marshall and another philanderer
doing the lowdown with Katie ends up meeting Linda through an internet
dating site. The lives of all these folks and their various schemings
all end up at Cox's house one afternoon - with typical Coen results. The
stars are all great here and the Coen's commitment to messaging the
baser motivations of common Americans is in fine form. Yet, it is this -
the film's usualness - that is ultimately its undoing. We've seen these
folks before and we know where the brothers Coen are going to take us.
My rating 7 out of 10.
Release date: 27 February 2009 (Denmark)
The
fact Hollywood only took 2 years to release its remake of Stig Larsen's
runaway worldwide bestselling novel - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -
speaks volumes about both the book and the original 2009 Swedish film.
Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, the film follows the search by
investigative reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) into the
disappearance of a 16-year-old girl named Harriet - a member of a very
powerful Swedish corporate family - in the 1960's. Hired by the girl's
uncle Henrick Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) forty years on, Blomkvist is
aided by a fine young lass with, you guessed it, a dragon tattoo and
panache for internet and online hacking, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi
Rapace). Together they begin to unravel what is a neatly tied mystery
involving cults and Nazis and some very sick family members. The film is
an excellent whodunit and the forced and unbelievable love connection
between the two main characters aside, is well worth watching.
My rating
8 out of 10.
Release date: 9 August 2011 (Locarno Film Festival)
It's
the 1980s and 15-year-old Italian Martino (Luigi Ciardo) wants to learn
to surf, well, and capture the heart of Silvia (Matilde Maggio) who
happens to be dating his brother. Conveniently, on the shoreline of his
small town lies a US base where Captain Jeff Clark (an excellent Treat
Williams of all people) lands occasionally to hang out. Clark, also
conveniently, happens to be a surfer and is eventually teaching Mario
about surfing, life and girls. The film is directed by Massimo Natale
and uses a couple of historically accurate Italian crises - the 1980
crash of a plane near the island of Ustica ascribed to a wayward NATO
missile, and the bombing in Bologna's train station in 1985 by
terrorists to good effect. The result is a fine movie that while
predicable in many respects is beautifully shot with great heart.
My
rating 8 out of 10.
Release date: 30 July 1993
Back
in 1993, Thomas Schlamme directed a just-emerging-into-his-genre Mike
Myers as down on his luck San Fransico beat poet, Charlie MacKenzie, who
meets the butcher of his dreams, Harriett, (an excellent, over-the-top
Nancy Travis). So I Married an Axe Murderer is a comedic thriller where
paranoia reigns supreme. While decidedly shallow on many levels and a
little slow through its middle, there is enough crass comedy layered
amid a refreshing love story and gratious violence to make the utter
silliness of it all, well, work.
Not highbrow in the least and a great
example of Myers doing the stuff that would make him millions later in
the 90s, So I Married an Axe Murderer gets my rating of 6 out of 10.
Release date: 9 September 1992
The
first half of this movie is great - a real mystery unfolds and the
ensemble cast including Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier,
River Phoenix, David Strathairn and the beautiful Mary McDowell play
perfectly off each other amid the action and comedy. Sadly when Gandhi,
er, Ben Kingsely arrives halfway through the laces come undone as he
unfolds a plot full anti-establishment angst. From this point on,
Sneakers slows right down, and, like a novice marathoner on the 18th mile,
never really finds its soul (pardon the pun) again.
Directed with
aplomb by Phil Alden Robinson, Sneakers gets my rating of 7 out of 10.
Release date: 7 July 2011 (London, England)
Finally
the franchise ends ... or does it? Doesn't matter really, as David
Yates tackles the most difficult gig in directorland and succeeds in
giving the Potterites the conclusion they wanted and in step with the
author's vision. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2 has Harry
(Daniel Radcliffe) coming to terms with his history and his destiny as
he faces evil Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) ... successfully. Like a perfect
gift, this film is perfectly wrapped and tied with precision. So long
Harry and farewell.
My rating 8 out of 10.
Release date: May 2008 (Milan Film Festival)
The
late Brittany Murphy stars as Abby, an American lost in translation in
Tokyo after her boyfriend up and leaves for Osaka. Unwilling to head
home, she undertakes the challenge of learning the art of preparing
ramen from a gruff and stoid chef named Maezumi (Toshiyuki Nishida).
Along the way she meets Toshi (Sohee Park), her new lover and comes to
terms with herself while learning the ramen ropes. Directed by Robert
Allan Ackerman somewhere between drama and comedy, the film - while very
good and essential viewing for any 'foodie' - missed its mark as great
by not holding firmly to one genre or the other.
My rating 7out of 10.
Release date: 11 September 2004 (Venice International Film Festival)
A
beautifully filmed Japanese anime movie directed by master Katsuhiro
Ohtomo. Steamboy, let us first say, is a gorgeous film to behold built
sadly on a very light plot. In mid-19th century industrial England Rei, a
young inventor, receives a gift from his grandfather Roid - a marvelous
invention called the "Steam Ball" which can make any engine umpteen
times more powerful. What ensues is a treatise on the good/bad of
science as embodied in Rei's father and grandfather married to the evils
a monolithic corporation - the Ohara Foundation - bent on
capitalizing the ball for all its worth. It is a beauty to behold and
a boredom to watch (the chase scenes aside).
My rating 5 out of 10.
Release date: 8 March 2011 (Westwood, California)
If you can move past the movie's central premise and believe that anyone would actually want to save
Los Angeles and/or if you're the type of movie goer who loves the
patriotic - if idiotic - silliness of Hollywood's fascination for these
US-Marines-battle-Aliens romps, you're going to love Battle Los Angeles
and Jonathan Liebesman's direction. For the rest of us there is but a
ever-so-thin plot driven by even thinner character development focused
on one Sgt. Nantz (Aaron Eckhart). Battle Los Angeles is filmed in a
Hurt Locker-style that - one supposes - adds grittiness and a real
'I'm-there' feel. Alas it doesn't help and this reviewer spent its
overly long runtime praying the Aliens would win.
My rating 3 out of
10.
Release date: 11 November 2009 (Belgium)
You
probably heard the world is ending in 2012 but seems John Cusak and
Amanda Peet missed the memo. And so, instead, we're forced to watch them
watch the world come a tumbling down a la the ancient Mayan - or was it
Aztec - prophecy. Whatever. If you can suspend reality utterly and
plant tongue firmly in cheek you may enjoy this noisy nonsense directed
by Roland Emmerich. Made marginally bearable only thanks to the science
of CGI, 2012 does make one think the world's end can't come soon enough.
My rating 2 out of 10
Release date: 16 February 2011 (Westwood, California)
When Dr.
Martin Harris, a bio-technogolist from America (Liam Neeson) awakens
from a coma after a traffic accident in Berlin, he discovers someone
(Aiden Quinn) has taken on his identity. Not even his wife (January
Jones) fesses up to knowing him. With the help of a cab driver named
Gina (Diane Kruger) he begins to unravel the plot only to discover to
his horror - and to the movie's credit - he is actually a bad guy in
Berlin to blow up an Arab bigwig (Mido Hamada) and a
too-smart-for-his-own good professor who is about to save the world
(Sebastien Koch). While entertaining, the unknowns in Unknown simply
take too long to uncoil despite Jaume Collet-Serra's
'let's-get-this-movie-ended' directing style. While made watchable for
the first 40-odd minutes of mystery and the appearance of of Frank
Langella (as Harris' US boss) midway through - Unknown ultimately uses
too much umpf in getting to its point.
My rating 5 out of 10.
Release date: 7 March 2011 (Hollywood, California)
Catherine
Hardwicke directs the latest version of Little Red Riding Hood's
journey to grandma's house in this thriller. When Valerie's (Amanda
Seyfried) sister is killed by a werewolf, she starts to suspect
something's up with her rather odd family, in particular her gramdmother
(a mis-cast Julie Christie who seems to forgotten everything about
acting) who lives all alone out in the woods. The townsfolk are on the
warpath to do-in the naughty werewolf led by the town's priest, Solomon
(the always good Gary Oldman). The story in its broadest sense is
familiar and the manner of filming here is refreshing. Yet even with the
twists along the way, Red Riding Hood ultimately fails to engage this
viewer - blame Seyfried and Christie- and the ending involving
relevations about Valierie's dad, Cesaire (Billy Burke) leave little
bite.
My rating 4 out of 10.
Release date: 17 December 2010 (Dubai International Film Festival)
The
marriage of Diane Keaton (as morning newshow host Colleen Peck) and
Harrison Ford (as hardnews anchorman Mike Pomeroy) can't ever be wrong
and Morning Glory is no exception. Keaton is the longtime host who must
adapt to Ford's arrival on set as a crummondoey, serious political news
hack with little patience for 'lite' news. The clash of egos is
hilarious. Add into the mixture the young producer charged with making
these two work together, Becky (Rachel MacAdams), her love interest Adam
(Patrick Wilson) and the station's bigwig President, Jerry (a very good
Jeff Goldblum) and you will find yourself laughing out loud. Roger
Mitchell directs this silliness in the usual Hollywood fashion. Morning
Glory works despite this and delivers enough humour, romance, and heart
to make watching this newscast worth it.
My rating 7 out of 10.
Release date: 7 June 1985 (Canada)
Richard
Donner directs the outstanding screenplay by none other than Steven
Spielberg in this 1980s young-at-heart escapist adventure. When Mikey
(Sean Austin) and big brother Brand's (Josh Brolin) house is slated to
be confiscated by an evil developer, the pair commence a search for
pirate gold to find the money necessary to stave off foreclosure. The
film is pure fun with a lightheartedness that is completely refreshing.
The script weaves young romance, awkwardness, friendship, adventure and
comedy perfectly. Two characters stand out and truly make the film -
Chunk (Jeff Cohen) and of course, Mama Fratelli (Anne Ramsey). With
Kerri Green (as Andy), Martha Plimpton (as Stef) and Jonathan Ke Quan
(as Data), The Goonies remains a quintessential coming of age adventure
that is a classic.
My rating 9 out of 10.
Release date: 25 December 2010 (Canada)
Wow, such silliness.
Gulliver's Travels is a slap-in-the-face to the original story and
certainly takes it in new directions. Jack Black is Lemual Gulliver, a
hapless mail room clerk working at a New York newspaper with no ability
to take a risk or chance and a serious case of infatuation with the
paper's travel editor Darcy (Amanda Peet). When he inadvertently offers
to write an article for her she accepts and promptly sends him to the
Bermuda Triangle. There, in true Oz fashion, he ends up in a whirlpool
and shipwrecked on the island of Liliput, suddenly the biggest man on
the block. The film from there follows the ups and downs of King
Theodore's (Billy Connolly) kingdom and the love life of his daughter
Princess Mary (Emily Blunt). Directed by Rob Letterman, Gulliver's
Travels tells the story of one man's journey to self-discovery and love,
yet despite that lofty goal, is still pretty awful.
My rating 3 out of
10.
Release date: 11 November 2010 (London, UK)
As
the Potter saga nears its (final) end, the series has once again
returned to some fine film-making. All the usual suspects are back again
and Voldemort has managed to wrestle control of the Ministry of Magic
at Hogwarts. Harry, Ron and Hermione continue to race against time to
destroy the Horcruxes and complete the work left undone by Dumbledore.
Directed by David Yates, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I is
a fine - and perhaps more importantly, mature - film that satisfies
from beginning to end.
It has left big shoes to fill for its final
segment and has my rating of 8 out of 10.
Release date: 20 August 2010 (Canada)
Jennifer
Aninston and Jason Bateman star in this comedy about the dangers of
playing with sperm. Aninston is Kassie, a woman who decides enough is
enough and opts to have a baby through artificial insemination. Bateman
is Wally, her best friend. At Kassie's artificial insemination party,
Wally gets drunk and replaces his sperm with the sperm donor's (a sedate
Patrick Wilson). Switch then to 7 years later and Kassie has moved back
to New York City with her son Sebastian. What ensues is a slow and
funny revelation as Kassie tries to get Roland and Wally more involved
in their lives and the slow realization that Sebastian is not the son of
the father she thinks. Directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, The
Switch - while silly beyond belief - had this reviewer laughing outloud
from the get-go and with the addition of Jeff Goldblum (as Leonard) and
Juliette Lews (as Debbie) is well worth sitting down to watch.
My rating
7 out of 10.
Release date: 26 January 2011 (Hollywood, CA)
Anthony Hopkins
stars as Father Lucas, a renowned if creepy, Jesuit exorcist while Colin
O'Donoghue is your typical priest challenged by his belief in god,
Father Michael Kovack. The two meet in Italy and watch over a young
woman purportedly possessed by demons (yawn). Full of the usual rot and
only redeemed - somewhat - by director Mikael Hafstrom's atmospheric
framing, The Rite has no right to call itself anything but boringly embarrassing.
My rating 3 out of 10.
Release date: 14 January 2011 (Canada)
The Green Hornet
is a tongue-in-cheek poke at the genre of superhero films and if you go
into the film with that front of mind, you will enjoy the sting it
provides. After the sudden death of his father James (Tom Wilkinson),
playboy Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) finds himself the new topdog of the Los
Angeles' "The Daily Sentinel" newspaper empire. Initially he maintains
his playboy lifestyle until one night when he and his driver Kato (Jay
Chou) stop a robbery. The revelation leads Britt and Kato to create
superhero The Green Hornet. This film, directed by Michel Gondry, is a
you-get-what-you-expect affair made enjoyable - despite the undertone of
racial stereotyping - by the addition of a sultry Cameron Diaz (as
Leonore Chase) and an excellent badguy with self-confidence challenges
named Chudnofsky (a superb Christoph Waltz).
It is an Inspector Gadget
meets the Goonies film and gets my rating of 7 out of 10.
Release date: 16 September 2009 (Toronto International Film Festival)
A clash of east meets
west ensues when a foreign service diplomat (Lisa Ray) and her chef
husband Michael (Don McKeller) are transferred to the Canadian High
Commission in New Delhi. In their new home they meet Stella, their cook,
who over 30 years of service has learned how to pad her salary with
some pilfering here and there. Michael is keen to learn all he can about
Indian cooking and works to gain Stella's trust and the two start
sharing recipes. When Michael and his wife hire Tannu (Indian star
Shriya) to care for their baby, a new dynamic enters the house. Tannu is
very honest and looks down on Stella's thievery. Cooking with Stella,
while an uneven film, gives us a good story of how people acclimatize to
a new culture and in doing so find the ability to change their views.
Directed by Dilip Metha with comedy amid its seriousness, it is a
foodie's film worth seeing. My rating 6 out of 10.
