Dude, see? See? Qui-Gon Jinn didn't die, dude! He's back! Qui-Gon's back!
The Uninvited - In a surprise bit of meta-casting, Elizabeth Banks reprises her role as Laura Bush in this kinda-sorta-remake of the 2003 South Korean chiller, A Tale of Two Sisters (which, by the way, is carried by all fine video stores throughout the Capitol Hill area, and is doubtlessly much cheaper to rent).(Dex)
Waltz with Bashir - This highly praised piece of experimental autobiography appears in wide release just as Israel ends yet another senseless attack on the Palestinian people, this time in the Gaza Strip - irony, thy name is award season.
That a movie which bothers to reflect on one of the most wretched episodes in a long, long line of wretched episodes in the history of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians can open in a nation hypnotized by anti-Muslimism and the apparent strategic necessity of "our staunch ally" is notable, but as with any sort of discourse involving Israeli crimes (and as always, U.S. culpability at some juncture) in the Mid-East, that's only the beginning, and things get more uncomfortable the deeper we go: would audiences (and indeed, critics) be as receptive to a cutting-edge docudrama told from the POV of the victims, or would they cry "extremist propaganda"? And does that fact that filmmaker Ari Forman's story of rememberence and guilt is an animated one help convey the surreality and nightmarishness of his memories, or just obscure the fact that the '82 invasion of Lebanon happened to real people, in a real place? Is it a teachable moment, or a chance to duck responsibility? This one may be worth catching, if only to get a sense of where the conversation - such as it is in this country - might go.(Dex)
Taken- You have probably seen the trailer for this film and , like me, thought, "What the hell is Liam Neeson doing slumming in this piece of crap?" Well, after taking a look at Mr. Neeson's "esteemed" career I have come to the conclusion that I was partaking in what the scientists who study the reasoning abilities of the human mind call selective thinking. In my mind I was convinced that Liam Neeson was an actor of serious intent, above wallowing in a C-grade genre picture just to make a buck. I mean, after all he played Oskar Schindler for crissakes! Looking at Neeson's page on Imdb though disabused me of my faulty thinking, and how! For every Schindler's List, or Rob Roy or Husbands and Wives there was a Krull or Next of Kin (with Patrick Swayze) or The Haunting remake. It doesn't stop there though! How about the movie Satisfaction, which was supposed to be Justine Bateman's big break after the TV show Family Ties where she plays a member of a Bangles-like girl band called 'Mystery' (oh my gahd is that like, Julia Roberts on Bass!?!) and Neeson playing a bar owner/Bateman's daddy figure love interest. To continue with a list of films like Nell, The Dead Pool, High Spirits, Star Wars Episode I and K-19: Widowmaker only proves the point further that Liam Neeson is not slumming in this new movie but rather following a well established career arc. He is a ham from the C-list that gets thrown an A-list bone every once in awhile. He must have taken career advice from Ben "you can only play Gandhi once" Kingsley while they were working together on Schindler's List because they both have walked down the same path of being acclaimed and respected actors all the while signing up for one piece of shit movie after another. Next time Kingsley puts out a movie I'll list some of the winners he has been in and it might amaze you to see that Neeson, although he has attached himself to some of the most mediocre-to-awful films (listed above) made in the last twenty years, is a piker by comparison. (Pike)
New In Town- Another stupid fish-out-of-water comedy, this time starring Renee Zellweger who plays a big city executive who comes to a little Minnesota town to get the ball rolling on the 're-org' her company has planned for the local manufacturing plant. At first she treats the locals like dirt in her sassy, superior big city ways but sooner or later those quirky locals break her down with all of their naive, corn pone Americana cuteness, and teach our girl how to live, love and be happy. If this sound like a movie you are going to go see, please do me a favor. When you buy your ticket, buy a ticket for anything else that is playing at the time and then sneak in to see this. You might feel a little guilty sneaking around but that will be nothing compared to the guilt you would have felt after purchasing a ticket to this movie and realizing, as the final credits roll, that the twelve bucks you just spent gave some Hollywood studio executive the go-ahead to insult you again a year from now with New in Town 2- Down on the Farm. (Pike)
Frozen River- A hit at last year's Sundance Festival and a 'best of 2008' pick by some prominent critics, first time writer/director Courtney Hunt's Frozen River is a story about two women who smuggle Chinese illegal immigrants into the U.S. from Canada across the frozen St. Lawrence River. Melissa Leo (who is nominated for an Academy Award for this picture) plays Ray, a woman with a high school aged son, a low paying job, and a husband who just split for Atlantic City with the money for their double-wide trailer down payment. On top of this, she finds her husband's car is being driven around by a local Mohawk woman (Misty Upham). Lila, the Mohawk woman, tells Ray that she knows a man on the reservation that will buy the car for well above resale value but when the women take the car to this man, they find they can make a faster buck, not by selling the car to the man, but by working for him to transport illegals across the border. This film, along with Waltzing with Bashir are probably the only things worth catching this week, so watch the trailer and see if it's for you. Besides, if the film does promote the idea that, "crime pays, social consequences be damned" as David Edelstein's review points out, then I'm all for that. (Pike)
Dex looks at The Lucky Ones:
It's helped immeasurably by its episodic structure - following one story through beginning to end would probably be too schmaltzy to tolerate, but checking in with the people periodically is a good way to follow the situation which is, in reality, the central idea of the film more than any individual character. I have to say, I expected the worst and I liked it quite a bit. As films that voluntarily place themselves into the gay-themed section of most video stores, it's top of the heap. As a film-film, pretty good stuff.
he's not likeable or disagreeable; not handsome, nor is he ugly; he doesn't get too heated over the situation, yet he doesn't totally lie down and go along with things. But with a budget approaching zero dollars and a couple unknowns, Edgar G. Ulmer crafter a fine little thriller long on mood and anxiety, short on all other amenities, and therein lies its charm.
Anyway, smoked meats made of human quarry are the norm in the innocuously named "Motel Hello" and Farmer Vince lives a simple, quiet life, recycling people into food and thereby reducing waste - that's how he sees it anyway. He is also living with Ida, and when the nature of their relationship is casually dropped into the story, it adds just another whole creepy level to the proceedings. The film takes a central premise but keeps throwing in ideas from way out in left field to keep you intrigued, keep things off-balance, and keep you involved. I can't say it ever really wraps up into a coherent statement (they seem to be avoiding going too heavily with anything serious here), but as a good slice of the weird, the funny, and the creepy, it does me just right.
the showdown between the two main characters. A good thing, strangely paced by American standards, but really effective in the way it draws you slowly and inexorably into the world it's created - something not too far off from the real world maybe (nothing here that's gonna dazzle you with shocks or special effects), but just "off" enough to be really unsettling. A sleeper, yes, but no pun intended.
display of the overthrow of capitalistic society via a zombie-led proletariat revolt. Still - it's fun going, like all the Dead films and just because I think it's easier to make this idea work doesn't mean it's not a good idea.
Enjoyably perverse attack on the values of two wealthy men who both attempt to woo - no wait, "possess" is a more appropriate word - the same woman and use every bit of influence and power at their disposal to do so. Benoit Magimel is particularly entertaining and over the top in his portrayal of the disturbed bon vivant Paul Gaudens, but François Berléand is no less creepy as famed author Charles Saint-Denis. Their never-satisfactorily explained rivalry also amuses, while Ludivine Sagnier is fine as the naive waif advertised in the title.
got a lot of other good players - especially Russell Brand - to bounce off here. Regardless, the loose approach to plot that Judd Apatow seems to encourage in his stable of proteges (if it's funny enough, who cares if it advances the story?) works well here for me. I had no idea I'd been waiting this long to see a fully staged puppet musical about Dracula.
