I’m going to throw this out there right now: I hated “The Hangover Part II”. HATED it. I thought it was incredibly lazy filmmaking: just set the first film in Bangkok because that’s a crazier setting than Vegas, then do everything over nearly beat for beat. It was also too self-aware, as sequels can be. You know the characters, so there’s less reliance on the quality of a joke. For example, Alan can eat a piece of poop and we would laugh because it’s Alan… not because it’s funny. Well, I’m probably alone in my feelings for that film because it did extremely well. People wanted more of the same from the Wolfpack. Well, this Memorial Day weekend, those people will be thrown for a loop as Warner Bros. releases “The Hangover Part III” – a much darker installment than anybody could’ve seen coming. Read more
Archive for May 2013
FAST & FURIOUS 6 (Film Review)
Summer has started and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has again bathed in baby oil and flung himself at the big screen. This time he reprises his role as Agent Luke Hobbs in Universal Pictures’ “Fast & Furious 6″. Featuring pretty much everyone who’s ever starred in the street racing series, “FF6″ serves as a link for the previous five films and gives us a glimpse at where the films are heading. Director Justin Lin also returns to the franchise he resuscitated with the fourth installment and it’s clear from the first racing scene that he’s not afraid to take her into the red. Read more
NIGHTFALL (Blu-Ray Review)
Alfred Hitchcock famously spoke of the difference between surprise and suspense. He illustrated his point with two people speaking at a cafe. One of them places a bomb under the table and we’re told that it will go off at say, 1 o’clock. By letting the audience know what is happening, they’re not surprised by a sudden explosion, but they’ve experienced fifteen minutes of suspense. Hitchcock said that you must always keep the audience informed – unless the surprise is a twist ending, which would be the highlight of the story. Most everybody can enjoy a good thriller. The best ones are full of suspense and tension, letting the audience white-knuckle it to the finish. On Tuesday, May 21st Well Go USA releases one such thrill-ride from Hong Kong: ”Nightfall”. Released on both Blu-Ray and DVD, “Nightfall” remembers both old Hong Kong crime movies as well as the Western noir. Read more
BACK TO 1942 (Blu-Ray Review)
The recent release of “Iron Man 3″ brought attention to a new trend of tailoring a film to the *ahem* needs of another country (read: China). Several non-essential scenes/in-film adverts were shot with Chinese celebrities to better sell the film in that region. From what I understand, the Chinese government was happy with the additions and the citizens were equally tlled. Well in an attempt to broaden international appealfor his latest film, “Back to 1942,” Chinese director Feng Xiaogang did something similar: he threw in some American stars. The film, available now on Blu-Ray and DVD from Well Go USA, is an historical drama featuring the likes of Adrian Brody and Tim Robbins in the midst of one of China’s darkest periods. No, this isn’t a special stateside cut, but could the inclusion of US actors help bring in US dollars? Read more
THE GREAT GASTBY (Film Review)
The worst thing in the world for a writer is “the start”; staring at that blank page and wondering how you’ll ever fill it all with words. Never mind how you’ll fill it all with good words. So imagine trying to adapt something like “The Great Gatsby”, one of the great American novels, for the big screen. Sure it’s been done before (Francis Ford Coppola wrote the screenplay in 1974) with so-so results, but how do you tackle something that big and make it good? Well, Warner Bros. might have figured it out: put Baz Luhrmann, the visionary behind the ultra-stylized, hyper-kinetic “Moulin Rouge!” in charge. Read more
THE ASSASSIN’S BLADE (Blu-Ray Review)
Pretty much any way you slice it, movies are marketed with a specific audience in mind. A movie starring Dwayne Johnson will likely be aimed at a younger male audience, while a Meryl Streep film may find a home with a more mature, female crowd. It makes sense that you’d want to get the attention of your key demographic to maximize ticket sales, but sometimes studios stretch the truth. They may have you believe a picture is an action packed shoot-em-up, when it’s in fact a cerebral thriller. While it can be an attempt to “throw some ketchup” on something bland, this isn’t always the case. Ever finish a decent movie that failed at the box-office and think ,”This would’ve done better if they’d sold it as a [whatever it really was]? Such is the case with “The Assassin’s Blade”, available now on Blu-Ray and DVD from Well Go USA. While the trailer-cutters get it wrong, Director Jingle Ma (“Hero”, “The House of Flying Daggers”) gets it right. Read more
RUBY SPARKS (Blu-Ray Review)
I’m sitting here listening to The Ramones’ cover of “Baby, I Love You” by The Ronettes and I’ve got that 80′s movie feeling. Maybe you know it: kind of a butterflies in the stomach, hopelessly crushing on someone while wishing you were someone else as John Hughes chooses the perfect pop song for your life to fall apart to feeling. It’s this melancholy romanticism that will win me over every single time as long.. as it’s genuine. When I heard about Fox Searchlight’s “Ruby Sparks”, a film about a writer whose latest female character suddenly materializes as his girlfriend, I got goosebumps…. “Weird Science” and “Mannequin” goosebumps. But as much as I wanted this movie to be my perfect mashup of these two childhood favorites, it wasn’t. And really, that’s perfect in a way because those expectations for an impossible ideal are exactly what the movie warns us about. Read more