MONGOL

Historical drama
In Mongolian with English subtitles.

F.Y.I.
The Mongols were an illiterate, religiously shamanistic and sparsely populated nomadic group of herdsmen, perhaps no more than 700,000 in number, that lived on the grassy plains north of the Gobi Desert and south of the Siberian forests. Before the year 1200, the Mongols were fragmented, moving about in small bands and living in portable dwellings.

Khan (alternately spelled in lowercase as khan) is a Central Asian title for a chief, a sovereign or military ruler. For the most part khans only headed relatively minor tribal entities, generally in or near the vast Eurasian Steppe. Some managed to establish principalities of some importance as they expanded the territory under their control.

In geography a steppe is a flat and arid land. The Eurasian Steppe is the world’s largest zone of steppes and is found in southwest Russia and neighbouring countries of Central Asia. Another large steppe is located in central United States and western Canada.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Odnyam Odsuren: 9-year-old Temüjin
Bavertsetseg Erdenebat: 10-year-old Börte
Asano Tadanobu: the adult Temüjin who later was given the title of Genghis Khan meaning "emperor of all emperors"
Khulan Chuluun: the adult Börte
Honglei Sun: Temüjin’s brother, the Mongol chieftain Jamukha

REVIEW
Just mention the name Genghis Khan and most everyone thinks of the cruel Mongol war-chief who became leader of a vast empire. Well he was that and more.

As the movie would have it Temüjin was a clever man, a visionary, a lover and superb horseman. But that’s not always easy to perceive because the story is far too convoluted and disjointed with more than a few unanswered questions.

Too much time is devoted to the battles, which is the main reason the film is more than two hours long. Few of us need to see so many and not quite so graphically with blood flying around in slow motion, spattering the camera lens and everything else around. Not since Braveheart with Mel Gibson did I so frequently have to avert my eyes to the bloodshed and violence. It’s a wonder I stuck it out.

Mention should be made of the cinemaphotography: some of it is stunning. The panoramic shots of the steppes and surrounding area make you want to get up and go see it for yourself.

CLASSIFICATION
for sequences of bloody warfare (and they ain’t kiddin’)

KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL

Family entertainment

BACKGROUND
The Great Depression was a worldwide economic downturn beginning in some countries as early as 1928 in some countries stuggling to overcome the effects of the First World War. It hit the United States following the stock market crash on October 29, 1929 (so-called Black Tuesday) and continued until the onset of World War II in 1939. Scholars cannot agree on the exact causes and their relative importance except for one thing: debt.
For years consumers and businesses relied on cheap credit, the former to purchase consumer goods such as automobiles and furniture and the latter for capital investment to increase production. This fuelled strong short-term growth but created consumer and commercial debt. People and businesses that were deeply in debt when called upon to repay found they could not. Many drastically cut current spending to make payments, thus lowering demand for new products. Factory orders plunged and some 86,000 businesses ultimately went bankrupt. Massive layoffs occurred, unemployment rates soared from 9% to over 25% (about 15 million in the USA alone). More than 9,000 US banks that had financed this debt failed as debtors defaulted on debt. The savings accounts of 9 million people were wiped out.

Hobo is a term that refers to a subculture of wandering travellers who are homeless and willing to do work (whereas a tramp travels but will not work and a bum does neither). No one is sure of the origin of the term but it may have come from the term hoe-boy meaning "farmhand", or a greeting such as “Ho, boy”.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Abigail Breslin: 10-year-old aspiring reporter Kit Kittredge
Julia Ormond: her mother Margaret
Chris O’Donnell: her father, the owner of a car dealership
Wallace Shawn: Editor of the local paper
Max Thieriot: 16 or 17-year-old hobo Will
Willow Smith: his younger sidekick Countee
Zach Mills: Stirling, one of Kit’s school chums
Glenne Headly: his mother
Stanley Tucci: Mr. Berk, an itinerant magician
Jane Krakowski: a dance instructor
Joan Cusack: driver of the mobile library truck

REVIEW
Although the target audience would certainly be pre-and-teenaged girls it will appeal to anyone who likes a good story, told in a staightforward manner involving a likeable bunch of characters (well most of them anyways) all of whom are perfectly cast.

The acting is uniformly good and Breslin comes across as believable and entirely charming. The producers have gone to great length to recreate the period: the costumes are bang on and so are the autos (even to the point of having the correct 1934 Ohio license plate on all vehicles).

CLASSIFICATION
Not one swear word. How refreshing!

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
In 1934 a loaf of bread cost 9 cents not 5 as shown on the sign outside the grocery store.

It’s unlikely a young boy could have saved $40 just by doing odd jobs: that is equivalent to $636 in today’s currency.

P.S.
The American hobo communicated to others using a basic system of symbols hand drawn in chalk or coal on a trestle, fence, building or sidewalk. Mostly they provided information such as “these people are rich” or “ill-tempered man lives here”. Other signs were warnings such as “dangerous neighbourhood” or “bad water”.

WANTED

Action

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
James McAvoy: 25-year-old Account Manager Wesley Gibson
Angelina Jolie: Fox
Morgan Freeman:Sloan, leader of the Fraternity

REVIEW
With the target audience being young adult males, the movie panders to their base emotions and/or less noble desires such as having sex with their best friend’s girl, beating someone to a pulp just to toughen them up, telling the boss where to stuff it. Frequent use of the f-word, fast cars, gratuitous sex, lots of gadgets and gizmos serves only camouflage the fact the story line is practically non existent.

As far as acting goes, forget it. Jolie has little to say and so her acting is mostly pouting and sometimes demurely blinking her eyes. Her most significant contribution to the film is a lingering backside view of her as she leaves the hot tub.

For the first half of the film McAvoy is mostly called upon to grimace and make distorted facial expressions of terror. The other scenes with him at home and at work are pathetic.

I might have stuck it out to the end but frankly I just got fed up seeing one bloody brutal scene after another. We all have our limits hey?

CLASSIFICATION
for strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language and some sexuality.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Mr. X’s tie is somewhat askew while standing in the elevator but then he quickly leaves and winds up to the roof of the Memorial Building. And now his tie is perfectly in place.

Wesley picks up his prescription medicine at the drug store and when he places the bottle on his desk we can see that it is not his name on the label (instead it’s a Jeremy something).

At one point Wesley gets a sharp crack across the bridge of his nose leaving a red cut. Several scenes later it has disappeared only to reappear a couple of scenes later on.

WALL-E

Animated cartoon

WITH THE VOICES OF
Ben Burtt: WALL-E, an acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earthclass type robot
Elissa Knight: EVE, another robot with an acronym for a name
Jeff Garlin: Captain of the good ship Axiom

REVIEW
Expectations not met makes for an unhappy experience.

Pixar’s track record of producing entertaining state-of-the-art animated CGI cartoons led me to believe this would be one more to add to the list of Knick Knack (the animated short film about the snowman trapped in a snow globe), Toy Story (the first ever first fully computer-generated feature film with Buzz and Woody), Finding Nemo (my all-time favourite with Marlin, Nemo and Dory), Ratatouille (with Remy and Linguini) and Cars.

Such is not the case.

The first half-hour is depressing with monochromatic browns of a world we would rather not see populated only by a robot going through his repetitive daily manoeuvres whose only buddy is a cockroach. Although the animators have attempted to “humanise” WOOD-E with expressive “eyes” and limited (very limited) vocal expressions I found it impossible to feel for this mechanical thing. So his dire situation left me entirely unmoved and consequently of little interest.

When EVE comes on the scene things liven up a bit and there are a couple of funny moments, even some tender ones. But that doesn’t last long as we are transported to another world where the producers hammer home their second strong message (about the consequences of a pampered life; their first was about the effects of over consumption) but it goes on far too long. It would be fine if these sequences were novel or funny, but they are neither. In fact there is not one really humorous moment during the entire film.

One thing needs be said though: the technical aspects are simply amazing not only in terms of the images but the sound. However that alone is not reason enough to sit through almost two hours of filmmaking.

CLASSIFICATION


P.S.
At the showing I attended the movie was preceded by Presto, a new Pixar short about a magician and his rabbit. It is amusing and for some (the four or five-year-old crowd) absolutely hilarious. With hindsight, I should have left when it was over.

WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Mathew Beard: 16 or 17-year-old Blake Morrison
Jim Broadbent: his father Arthur, a general practitioner
Juliet Stevenson: his mother Kim, also a physician
Colin Firth: the adult Blake
Gina McKee: Blake’s wife Kathy
Bradley Johnson: 7 or 8-year-old Blake
Sarah Lancashire: Blake’s Aunt Beaty
Claire Skinner: Blake’s sister Gillian
Elaine Cassidy: Sandra, the family's Scottish maid

REVIEW
Using flashbacks that are more than mere snippets of memory is an effective way to develop this story of the relationship between a father and son. The acting is uniformly good but the teenage Blake stands out above the rest. He really nailed it.

The time frame covers the period from Blake’s childhood right up to when he is a published author. Consequently the makeup department had quiet a challenge to age Blake’s parents and his aunt over a span of four decades. They were up to it.

Great attention to detail by the Production Design group is evident in making sure the props and costumes are right for the time-period, even to the point of having the correct expiry date (Dec. ’62) on the decal affixed to the car’s windshield.

By the way, just ignore the title: it makes no sense since the question posed is never really answered. Besides it’s far to long and unwieldy so will never fit within the limited space of movie marquees of today.

CLASSIFICATION
for sexual content, thematic material and brief strong language.

P.S.
Many scenes include a mirror image of the actor. Perhaps that was meant to convey the fact the actor is a mirror image of someone or maybe what he is saying\doing mirrors someone? Never did figure out the significance of this framing technique.

FOUR MINUTES

Original title: Vier Minuten
In German with English subtitles
Drama

F.Y.I.
Robert Schumann (June 1810 – July 1865) was a German composer and influential music critic. His 148 published compositions were, until 1840, all for the piano; he later composed works for piano and orchestra. One of his earliest compositions was the much-liked Carnaval (op. 9, 1834). His Träumerei is one of the most famous piano pieces ever written. Kreisleriana (op. 16, 1838) is considered by many as one of his greatest works.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Monica Bleibtreu: Fräulein Traude Krüger, 80-year-old piano teacher
Hannah Herzsprung: Jenny von Loeben, 20-year-old convict in a women's prison
Stefan Kurt: Direktor Meyerbeer, prison Warden
Sven Pippig: prison guard Mütze

REVIEW
This is one terrific movie combining a well-constructed character study with exceptionally good acting. Movies about relationships too often are so predictable; this one is not. Music is central to the story: there is lots of it including many original pieces along with those composed by Schumann.

Despite the fact some of the flashbacks are a bit confusing this shortcoming does not significantly alter the overall story line. The cinemaphotography is top notch and the editing bang on.


CLASSIFICATION
for disturbing images and brief violence.

P.S.
Fräulein is the German title for unmarried women as opposed to Frau for married women. It is the equilivant of Miss in English.

GET SMART

Comedy


F.Y.I.
CONTROL is a fictional covert American intelligence spy agency.
KAOS (pronounced chaos) is the evil crime syndicate of some unnamed Eastern bloc nation. Despite being capitalised, CONTROL and KAOS are not acronyms and do not stand for anything.

Cone of Silence: one of CONTROL's security protocols, this transparent plastic hemisphere was lowered over each speaker; its use is of dubious value.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Steve Carell: Maxwell Smart, a CONTROL analyst aspiring to become a field agent
Dwayne Johnson: superstar Field Agent 23
Alan Arkin: The Chief, head of CONTROL
Terence Stamp: Siegfried, head of KOAS
Anne Hathaway: Agent 99

REVIEW
The Story Editor whose function it is to identify any weaknesses in the script and then make suggestions to the writers for the next draft either did not do his job or his comments were ignored. The result is a convoluted story line that often jumps from one situation to the next without any apparent connection to the preceding scene. The plot does not make a lot of sense and serves mainly to be the rational for including some CGI pyrotechnics.

Relying on more than a few types of humour some of them, such as the slapstick and sarcasm, work better than others. The gross-out scenes and the couple instances of the scatological sort might be offensive to some.

Some of the chase scenes are among the best and the crazy gadgets would be the envy of James Bond (or maybe not?). Overall not a bad movie but it could have been better.

CLASSIFICATION
for rude humor, action violence and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 Maxwell Smart gets his suit jacket cut up in several places. These slashs come and go with just about every POV change.
 When picked up by the limo, the title-over indicates the time in Washinington D.C. to be 7:30am. This is belied by the strong noon-time shadows beneath the car.
 The folded blanket next to the pillow at the end of the cot moves about pretty much from one scene to the next.
 There is no part for a piano so one would not be in a prominent position on stage for any performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor.

P.S.
Those who remember the television version of the late ‘60’s will appreciate how close Agents 86 and 99 resemble the originals.