Wednesday, September 28, 2005

LORD OF WAR





Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Nicolas Cage:Yuri Orlov, a Ukranian immigrant
Jared Leto: Yuri's little brother Vitali
Bridget Moynahan: supermodel Ava Fontaine
Ethan Hawke: Interpol agent Jack Valentine
Ian Holm: Simeon Weisz, an international arms dealer

REVIEW
Any story about international arms dealers is bound to show the ugly side of man. And this one does just that. It is doubtful many will find this movie a rewarding experience since there is so much sadness about the whole thing.

CLASSIFICATION
for scenes of violence and graphic gore (mostly shootings), frequent use of profanity (the f-word), drug content (cocaine use) and simulated sex (with flashes of partial female nudity).

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Jack’s face is alternately in shadow or in bright sun while talking with Yuri in the desert depending upon the camera’s point of view while he’s speaking or when Yuri is.

While Simeon is sitting in a chair with a cloth around his neck, despite the fact his hands are tied and no one approaches him, the blood stain on the cloth moves between shots from directly beneath his chin to the right hand side of his neck and back.

P.S.
At 2 hours and 12 minutes it’s a bit too long. Much of what Yuri does is repetitive and predictable. Some of it should have been edited out.

MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION
WALKING ON THE MOON




IMAX documentary

REVIEW
For most of us this will be the closest thing to actually being on the moon. The accurate recreations of several moonwalks are amazing. Interspersed with these are archival photos and television news reporting of the same events but not in 3D like the movie: what a difference that makes.

CLASSIFICATION

Monday, September 26, 2005

JUST LIKE HEAVEN




Romantic comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Reese Witherspoon: Elizabeth Martinson, resident physician at St. Mathews Hospital
Dina Waters: Elizabeth’s sister Abby
Mark Ruffalo: David Abbott who’s looking for a furnished apartment
Donal Logue: his party-hearty friend Jack
Ivana Milicevic: Katrina, David’s new neighbour

REVIEW
Hardly a laugh-out-loud type of comedy, it is nevertheless entertaining with more than a few amusing moments. The chemistry between the two principals is good and the supporting staff do a fine job.

CLASSIFICATION
for some sexual content.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

OPEN HEARTS




Drama
Original title: Elsker dig for evigt
In Danish with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Sonja Richter: Cecilie, a 23-year-old resident of Copenhagen
Nikolaj Lie Kaas: her boyfriend Joachim
Paprika Steen: Marie, a mother of two children
Stine Bjerregaard: Marie’s teen-aged daughter Stine
Mads Mikkelsen: Marie’s doctor husband Niels

REVIEW
This is not a lighthearted romp. It’s a movie about relationships and what can happen when we are faced with unexpected circumstances. The cinematic style using just hand-held cameras coupled with acting that is so real, especially by the women who communicate so much with a simple facial expression. Matter of fact, the story seems more like a docudrama than a movie about people coping with life.

CLASSIFICATION
for language and sexuality.

Friday, September 23, 2005

FAMILIA




Drama
In French with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Sylvie Moreau: Michèle, an aerobics instructor and a single mother
Mylène St-Sauveur: Marguerite (aka Margot) her 14-year-old daughter
Macha Grenon: Janine, Michèle’s friend, mother of two and an accomplished interior designer
Juliette Gosselin: Janine's 12-year old daughter Gabrielle (aka Gaby)

REVIEW
The title roughly translates as “being with one’s family” and that pretty well describes what the movie is all about. Although there are many issues here, the main theme is essentially this: the way we act mirrors how we were brought up. Two mothers with dissimilar beliefs and values, cope with life’s many problems and we see how this impacts their lives and that of people around them.

CLASSIFICATION


FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
While looking for a certain colour of drapes, Janine tentatively approaches a house while holding her handbag in her right hand. When the house’s occupant opens the door to inquire what she is doing, Janine waves a greeting with her right hand since somehow the handbag jumped over to her left hand.

Monday, September 19, 2005

LEWIS AND CLARK
GREAT JOURNEY WEST




IMAX documentary

BACKGROUND
Spaniards were the first Europeans to establish a permanent presence in the Americas. In terms of land area, Spain's was the largest of the colonial empires in the New World and included the following holdings: Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico as well as The Bahamas and some other smaller islands; all of Mexico and most of Central America; large sections of South America; all of Florida and the South-western quarter of what is now the United States of America, better known as their Louisiana holdings. This territory comprised far more land than just the present state of Louisiana since it included land stretching from present–day Florida all the way to Oregon on the Pacific coast.

In 1800 Spain ceded the territory to France. Napoleon Bonaparte had always envisioned a great French presence in the New World, and he hoped to use the newly acquired territory as a food and trade centre to supply the island of Hispaniola, which was to be the heart of this overseas empire.

But facing renewed war with Great Britain, he could not spare troops to defend the territory and he needed funds to support his military ventures in Europe. Accordingly he offered to sell the land to the United States.

Described by some as the greatest real estate deal in history, the Louisiana Purchase approved by treaty in April of 1803, transferred from France to the United States over 800,000 square miles of land. Overnight it doubled the size of the United States. The price was 60 million francs; adjusted for inflation this would be about $200 million in 2005 dollars, which works out to $250 per square mile.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Meriweather Lewis, a 28 year-old naturalist and U.S. Army captain
William Clark, his close friend, 32 years-old and with the same rank

REVIEW
All the expected elements of an IMAX movie are there: stunning photography, excellent narration and a story worth telling. In this case, it’s about a group of 31 people, including one woman and her infant son, and their three-year journey to find a water route to the Pacific Ocean--the fabled Northwest Passage – through the recently acquired Louisiana Purchase.

CLASSIFICATION

Friday, September 9, 2005

HORLOGE BIOLOGIQUE




Drama
In French with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Pierre-François Legendre: Paul
Jean-Phillipe Pearson: Sébastien (aka Séb)
Patrice Robitaille: Fred, father of a 3-month-old child
Catherine Proulx-Lemay: Paul’s pregnant wife Isabelle (aka Isa)
Geneviève Alarie: Seb’s girlfriend Marie, a department store cosmetician

REVIEW
The story about three men who feel their horologe biologique (biological clock) is running out is well acted. At times, somewhat amusing, but with moments for serious reflection. How representative these three men are of the male population in general is never really addressed. But again, it doesn’t have to be.

CLASSIFICATION

Monday, September 5, 2005

SKY HIGH




Comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Kurt Russell: Steve Stronghold, aka The Commander
Kelly Preston: his wife Josie, aka Jetstream
Michael Angarano: Will their only son
Lynda Carter: the principal of Sky High
Danielle Panabaker: Will’s best friend Layla
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Student-body President Gwen Grayson

REVIEW
Unlike most “coming of age” movies, this one has a slightly different twist: virtually all of the students going to this high school up in the sky have special powers. Those who don’t are consigned to "sidekick" status.

Certainly there are a few chuckles amidst all the problems of being a high school student but these laughs are best appreciated if you are of the age when you have yet to go to high school. Kids will get a kick out of these antics more than their parents will.

CLASSIFICATION
for action violence and some mild language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
When Will gets flattened by the falling car, he is knocked on his back. When the car is lifted off him, he gets up from lying on his stomach.

While sitting on the couch, Will’s mother has her arm around Layla’s shoulder clasping her upper arm. When the camera switches to a wider-angle shot, her hand is now pointed straight down and no longer squeezing Layla’s arm.

THE BROTHERS GRIMM




Fantasy

BACKGROUND
The Grimm brothers were not writers. They became famous instead as the first to publish an extensive collection of German fairy tales in 1812. These stories were not meant for children because they dealt with witches, goblins, trolls and wolves that prowl the dark forests throughout the countryside.
In 1857, an English version of their book got rid of the objectionable parts and rewrote the stories so children could enjoy them.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Matt Damon: Wilhelm Grimm
Heath Ledger: his brother Jakob

REVIEW
Given that the title pretty well says it all, most people would expect to see a movie about the famous brothers. Instead this is a dark, creepy film with lots of scary things that are barely discernible in the dimly lit settings.

Although there are short snippets of several well-known tales, something very frightening scares Little Red Riding Hood and we are left wondering why Gretel is screaming when she looks behind the tree. The whole premise of the movie is that there is a vile nasty witch lurking in the forest who is responsible for the disappearance of so many young girls. The brothers Grimm are out to get her. Not the stuff of merrymaking.

CLASSIFICATION
for violence, frightening sequences and brief suggestive material.

P.S.
Anyone not trained as a professional butcher will be taken back by the gruesome on-camera skinning of a rabbit about 15 minutes into the film. Audible gasps from some members of the audience attest to the scene’s shocking horror.

Friday, September 2, 2005

MR AND MRS SMITH




Romantic comedy, action

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Brad Pitt: John Smith, principal of Smith Engineering
Angelina Jolie: Jane Smith, boss? of I-Temp Technology Staffing

REVIEW
It is a bit of a stretch to promote this as a romantic-comic action movie. Apart from their first meeting in Bogota, there is no romance between Mr. and Mrs. Smith. In fact, they are in marriage counselling to sort out their problems at the beginnning. Moreover they hardly speak to each other much less with any feeling of love and devotion.

As far as the comedic aspect goes, there was nothing funny about the situation, nor anything in the dialog that engendered any kind of smile, chuckle, or whatever. And the action: it is there but interspersed between long dull periods of inane talk mostly at the dinner table, often with the admonition “promptly at seven”.

One other thing: the pompous, stiff acting is delivered in a matter-of-fact manner making you think they were reading their lines from cue cards. Perhaps they were.

My suggestion: get a hold of the trailer and you get to see the best of the movie in a minute or so. That’s all the time worth spending on this one.

CLASSIFICATION
for sequences of violence, intense action, sexual content and brief strong language.