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Speedracer (2008, Wachowski Bro ...
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"Speedracer is to me what Iron Man was to a lot of people- pure entertainment. No, Speedracer does not have much complexity or depth but I would argue that it is not a movie about ideas or characters- it is about aesthetics. The movie has a unique vision never before put to screen. Yes, it is a candy-colored world with child-like imagination but the movie is not innocent. It is not a Spielberg world where everything is childlike. There are some chillingly violent scenes in Speedracer that are almost too bizarre. In one scene, a henchman’s finger is shredded by neon colored piranhas. Other scenes on the death race are equally eerie. One might make the claim that this is damaged art, like Sydney Lumet’s The Wiz but I’d say that Speedracer is too intentional. I feel that the directors achieved exactly what they set out to do, and that is to put a unique cinematic vision to screen. From the source material one can gather that they were not trying to make a ... " [More]
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008 ...
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"To my dismay, Forgetting Sarah Marshall beings with all the college student movies clichés. A boy comically brushes his teeth in the mirror. Then he grabs a whole box of cereal and eats it in his grossly decorated apartment. The montage of lazy, filthy boy continues. We see him in sweat pants flopping from one lazy position on the couch to another. He tries to exercise but can’t find the motivation. Then his lovely girlfriend calls and says she’ll be home early. Boy must clean the house. When Sarah Marshall arrives Peter steps out of the shower completely naked to greet her only to realize that she is breaking up with him. Instead of being awkward and vulnerable comedy, the scene drowns in insincerity. Every real moment is traded for the laugh. The director seems to celebrate his cleverness yet at every step falls flat to cheap jokes. I almost walked out of the theater. Fortunately, the movie gets a lot better. Peter tries to escape his mis ... " [More]
A Boy and his Dog (1975, L.Q. J ...
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"I just saw the amazingly bizarre A Boy and his Dog. Set in apocalyptic earth after WWIV, Vic (Don Johnson) telepathically communicates with gifted dog Blood. Blood has the infallible ability to locate females, a fantastic gift for endlessly horny Vic. Starving and horny the two wander the desolate land. Their only hope for is the world over the hill- utopia (one conversation suggests that this is the dream of lost civilization, the idealized world of yesterday). In this animal world, a primitive and violent Vic survives solely on pillage and rape. The most poignant remainders of humanity are found in the touching relationship of this boy and his dog. The biggest problem with the movie is that it introduces several interesting ideas and does not explore them. For example, there's a threatening glowing green force called the screamers that are apparently very harmful. One reference suggests that is they so much as touch you- you'll die. Even the toughest of men run like c ... " [More]
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (196 ...
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"It’s hard to know where to being to begin to describe my personal reaction to this movie but it helped me to understand a deep tragedy in my life- in the views I had adopted. Maybe it helped me to realize the reality of the love that I had so soundly convinced myself was inconceivable, unobtainable, lost. And so, it is a movie about the lost love of my life and the movie that helped me to find him again. I begin with my “DEPARTURE” (the 2nd section of the movie) with Guy. In this section of my life, I convinced myself that even the most real love was suspect and could not sustain a relationship. I believed more in logic than in love because I knew that, from my own experience, I had the best love, the truest love, and that it had escaped me. I tried with all my powers of deception to make love compatible with logic. I convinced myself that I could will myself in love. Now I know this is foolishness, but I had to test the idea. I tried to love another man. He wa ... " [More]
The New World (2005, Terrence M ...
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"How do you get over your first love? Maybe you will always love him, but that is all right because it is possible to love the man of your past and live in the present. Terrence Malicks fourth film The New World (2005) is an epic love story that misses the mark. Pocahontas, Q'orianka Kilcher, exuberates life. She experiences the joys of first love with Colin Farrell. They share pleasures in a fantasy world, which Farrell says is a dreamlike world, but he later acknowledges that this world was the most real thing he has known. The dream world shatters with the outside world, which demands Farrells attention. Farrell feels the call of reality and leaves his love, and instructs the she be informed that he is dead in an attempt to make her forget him. His departure almost breaks her. Another man, Christian Bale, relates to her sufferings and eventually grows to love her. They marry, but she has not forgotten her first love. Voiceovers tell the emotions. These voi ... " [More]
Gallipoli (1981, Peter Weir, Au ...
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"A better runner film than Gallipoli (1981) is Hugh Hudson’s Chariots of Fire (1981). A better male bonding film is Howard Hawk’s Rio Bravo (1959). A better historical representation film is Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987) But as a fantasy film, Peter Weir’s Gallipoli (1981) works with a grace unique unto itself. Archy, Mark Lee, trains hard to be the fastest runner. Gallipoli (1981) does not explore this passion for running as in Chariots of Fire (1981). Running may be a way for Archy to advance in life. However, the film implies that his uncle Jack may like the fact that Archy runs more than Archy does. Archy tells Jack that there is more to life than racing. The film does not explore the dynamics of the sport, or introduce intense passion to win a race. Instead, the fact that Archy is a runner serves as a base for a friendship with Frank Dunn, played by Mel Gibson. In the first organized race of the film, Archy defeats the cocky Fra ... " [More]
Badlands (1973, Terrence Malick ...
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"Terrence Malicks first film, Badlands (1973), provides insight to the desensitization of a murderer. The characters Kit (Martin Sheen) and Holly (Sissy Spacek) are depraved; the voiceovers allow them to be human while their actions distance them from humanity. Hollys relationship to Kit is interesting. They fall in love. When Kit murders her father, Holly makes the decision to stay with him. Their relationship is no longer the same. At first, they have fun, but Holly becomes more removed. She thinks about her future husband, and reveals to other characters that she feels as if she must support Kit, for he is lost and needs someone. Holly stays true to her initial decision to be with Kit, but she longs for a different life. It feels almost as if she fells obligated to stay with him because she first choose this path, though now she wants to be a part of society. It seems that many people can relate to this situation. A person may fall in love and decide to be with a person, but lat ... " [More]
Rabid (1977, David Cronenberg, ...
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"Cronenberg redefines the word "sweet". Cronenberg is just the director to pull off a typical plot with such mastery that even though you know what is going to happen next, it shocks you all the same. Cronenbergs second commercial film Rabid (1977) takes the epidemic horror film to a new level. It shocks me that I could predict the next move while remaining so tightly wound up in the plot that I felt surprise all the same. The predictable quality of the story ceases to matter. The movie gives the audience what it wants. There are really cool looking, gruesomely gorey scenes, that are not cheesy because Cronenberg knows the film he is making. Rabid (1977) is a film that builds suspense with the threat of horror. It does this in such a way that the audience lives fully in the world of the film. The look of the film (the original special effects true only to Cronenberg films) and the dialogue can be cheesy, but that is what makes the film believable. Only Cronenberg has bee ... " [More]
The Elephant Man (1980, David L ...
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"David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980) reminds of how a kind act can go a long way. Everyone knows some elephant man, someone who is mocked, scorned, disliked and needs someone to love him or her. The message of the film is simple: do unto others. It also displays the powers of love. Love is the best gift that a person can give another, and love is what makes the elephant man, John Hurt, feel alive and actually a human being. There is also a religious element to the film. The elephant man suffers the most atrocious beatings yet remains humble beyond any other. Instead of bitterness, the elephant man displays kindness and gentleness. He suffers scorn in a way similar to Jesus, and instead of revenge, they both become humble. Only through love is the elephant man saved, it not through anything that he does. This is a Christian idea and a Christian attitude. Dr. Frederick Treves, Anthony Hopkins, shows the elephant man this love. He struggles with the thou ... " [More]
Stardust Memories (1980, Woody ...
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"I am sorry to mention Fellini's 8 ½ (1963) because this movie is not 8 ½. It is Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories, but there are so many plot overlaps that it is hard to forget 8 ½. The movies are different: one cannot repeat 8 ½ and I do think that Allen makes the story of Stardust Memories his own. I do not even think that Stardust Memories should be compared to 8 ½, but I see why it is. I mean, the opening sequence is so similar to the opening of 8 ½. I am not going into the other similarities. I think that the big difference is that Allen tries to find meaning, while Fellini does not try for anything per se. Stardust Memories searches, 8 ½ happens. So now to leave all 8 ½ comparisons behind, Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories chronicles the life of a successful filmmaker who strives for meaning, for some justification of comedic movies when the world suffers so much. The film provides insight into Allen ... " [More]
Invincible (2001, Werner Herzog ...
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"Commercial? For a Werner Herzog film, I guess that one can call Invincible (2001) commercial if only for its highly accessible plot. However, the film has a classic hypnotic feel even if the photography is closer to mainstream then his other films and the cuts are faster. This big controversial question is whether the film is dumb or not. I am biased, but I say, how can such a mesmerizing and entertaining film be dumb? That is not to say that the film is without its problems. The acting is third rate. It does not bring humanity or life to the characters. For example, the woman of the strongman’s dreams receives the gift of her dream: playing Beethoven with an orchestra, yet her reaction is cold, flat, and unmoving when clearly the scene is trying to be touching. The strongman looks the part but does not demonstrate the complexities of his character, complexities such as the struggle to remain true to the Jewish people. The strongman’s acting is closer to an uninformed j ... " [More]
Katzelmacher (1969, Rainer Wern ...
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"Prostitutes, sex, gossip, money How could Scott say that Fassbinders Katzelmacher is the longest 88-minute film that he has ever seen? Katzelmacher has all the elements that sell in commercial Hollywood films like Rob Cohens XXX (2002), what could be boring about that? The film is somewhat indifferent and wants, in some respects, to be boring. Katzelmacher is empty, funny for its obscenities, and one of the better films about ennui; it relates the feelings of the characters to the viewers in a way that helps us feel their boredom and reflect on it. The men of the film are misogynists. They abuse the women, beat them at random, take advantage of free board, and sleep around without consequence. The women do not seem to mind the abuse. They are weak, fall in love easily, and remain loyal to such wretched creatures. The main conflict of the film results from gossip about a foreign Greek man who lives with one of the women. The only thing that the characters are interested ... " [More]