For some reason, I thought The Fall was a foreign film. It's not. It's just a beautiful, tragic story of a little girl in the hospital and a young man who tells her stories while they heal. Only it's way more. It broke my heart. I cried and laughed and enjoyed the visual delight of the stories. See it.
A classic sci-fi film, The Day the Earth Stood Still, is about to get the remake treatment. This version has a polite, well-dressed alien in the form of Michael Rennie ("Assignment Terror"), trying to save the Earth from itself. The movie gives an interesting look at how an outsider might see our world. It also shows how humans are easily led to distrust what they don't understand, outsiders of nay sort. I hope the remake can capture at least some of this.
I really loved Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Jason Segel ("Knocked Up") stars as a musician who's actress girlfriend dumps him. Then he goes to Hawaii to try to get over her, only she's there, too. It's sweet sometimes and seems like a real relationship. But it's also hilarious. Often with the main people, but the side characters are all memorable and funny as well. And the mock CSI is brilliant. Can't wait to see this again.
Writer/director Bryan Bertino's feature debut The Strangers The Strangers (2008)is a mesmerizing nightmare. A couple find themselves in a remote cabin tormented by three masked strangers. Liv Tyler ("The Incredible Hulk") and Scott Speedman ("Adoration") are really the only two with any screen time, and they are totally believable. The colors of the film are great, warm and dark. The atmosphere is creepy and leads us in slowly so that we buy into the terror on screen. I can't wait to see more from Bertino.
An After Dark Horrorfest movie, The Deaths of Ian Stone is one of their better offerings. Mike Vogel ("Caffeine") stars as a young man who wakes every day in a slightly different life, only to be hunted down and killed by mysterious clawed shadow creatures. The effects are quite good. And I enjoyed the mythology and slow build to the reveal of why this is happening to Vogel.