1. Once + + + +
Consensus: A charming, captivating tale of love and music, Once sets the standard for the modern musical. And with Dublin as its backdrop, Once is fun and fresh.
Synopsis: The Irish romance ONCE may be a musical, but it is miles away from the traditional Hollywood idea of people bursting into song. Glen Hansard (frontman for indie rock band The Frames) plays the guy,... The Irish romance ONCE may be a musical, but it is miles away from the traditional Hollywood idea of people bursting into song. Glen Hansard (frontman for indie rock band The Frames) plays the guy, a street musician who is playing for change when he meets the girl (Marketa Irglova), an immigrant from the Czech Republic. The pair immediately bond over their shared love of music (he is a guitarist, and she plays the piano), and the film chronicles their tentative relationship. Both are weighed down by plenty of baggage: his songs are fueled by a painful breakup, and she is a young mother who left her husband behind in her native country. Like the independent favorite BEFORE SUNRISE, ONCE is a simple, sweet drama that doesn't rely on an elaborate plot. With its use of digital video and handheld cameras, ONCE matches its spare visual style to its intimate mood. Each moment feels stolen from real life, and the story is at once familiar and fresh. Driven more by music than by dialogue, ONCE features a stirring soundtrack of heartfelt indie rock sung by Hansard and Irglova. Before his foray into film, director John Carney (ON THE EDGE) played bass in The Frames, and his passion for music is clear in this modern musical that hits every note perfectly.
Captures the rare chemistry and unforced artistry of two people finding musical as well as personal harmony together and we are lucky enough to be there to watch it.
New York Daily News : The only thing of interest in this move is the beautiful music. But let's not judge a movie based on the soundtrack. The story is paper thin, and the weakest link is Irglova, who adds very little and is unconvincing as an actress. All she does in the first fifteen minutes is ask a stranger multiple times about his old girlfriend. The fact that they play out entire songs that don't drive the plot is another mistake. One-dimensional characters and lack of story kill this film. I saw Hansard & Irglova in concert and unlike the movie, didn't walk away wanting my money back.
Film Threat : A film of limited production values, a low-quality picture and the occasional flubbed camera move. But it makes up for these flaws with sharp observations, compelling characters and a great collection of music.
Soundtrack Lists:
1. Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
2. If You Want Me Marketa - Irglova and Glen Hansard
3. Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy - Glen Hansard
4. When Your Mind's Made Up - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
5. Lies - Glen Hansard
6. Gold - Interference
7. The Hill - Marketa Irglova
8. Fallen From The Sky - Glen Hansard
9. Leave - Glen Hansard
10. Trying To Pull Myself Away - Glen Hansard
11. All The Way Down - Glen Hansard
12. Once Glen - Hansard and Marketa Irglova
13. Say It To Me Now - Glen Hansard
2. Doctor Dolittle 4: Tail to the Chief
I'm absolutely hypnotized by the stories that stories make. I often think of stories having their own agency, doing whatever they need to do to survive. That can take one of two paths I think.The first is the path I normally pay attention to. A story can coax and guide it's tellers and receivers toward paths that matter, that penetrate and dissolve bits of us. These matter, and it's not just interesting to look at what they are and why they affect us, but also how they became so.And then you have other path, which you could consider the quantity over quality model, where a story evolves so that it can simply be repeated. These reflect rather than make worlds and they thrive on a parasitic energy from other stories. I think that is what we have here.The Dolittle story in it's basic form has been around for eons I suppose. In films I first encountered it as something which could carry some simple endearments spiced with enough humor to entertain. But that form has no juice today.So it evolved, attracting Murphy and support to become something more colorfully funny, adapting a raunchy persona. But the fertility fades on that as well.Now I suppose that there is a branch of evolution for all stories where they end up a Saturday afternoon kids babysitting material. And I suppose that this story already was headed in that direction. But the specific form is interesting at least. It has moved to the "black" theme part of the story ecosphere.It's a comfortable, secure niche that guarantees longevity and repetition because it links to an audience that uses such stories to define self.The story form has these elements: the focus is on women and how they make the world right. In every case, there is an environment in which men live and which has a dysfunctional dynamic, needing the common sense of women, common sense that is deeper in the African American woman than anywhere.The chief character is always the same. Here she has poor grades and a focus on "social skills." she seems inept at first, but her pluck allows a situation in which she can apply her "emotional intelligence" to the problem. It invariably is the result of some family dynamic which incidentally explains deficiencies in our heroine.She does her stuff and the world is made right, to the befuddled who lack this gift. In this case, it is the president that needs help, and by implication the soul of Africa (literally) that needs to be saved.An interesting thing here is that the story includes multiple references to endangered species and preserved ecostructure in the context of personal (meaning in this sense, animal) personal inadequaciesSurvival folded into survival.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
3. Phantom Racer (cant find the poster and etc..)
4. The Last Boyscout
If there is any genre that typifies the overkill, the standard-issue sex-and-violence decadence, the overwhelming burnout of imagination in contemporary movies, it's the buddy film. All those noisily ''explosive'' testosterone fantasies in which two wisecracking clowns get turned into profane crash-test dummies — by now, I'd be happy never to sit through another one. Yet one of the things that makes movies eternally exciting is that when the lights go down, you can never truly predict what's going to come up on that screen. The Last Boy Scout is a cheerfully disreputable buddy thriller that also happens to be one of most entertaining movies of the season. Director Tony Scott (Top Gun) knows how to stage a car chase with choreographic finesse, and he has toned down his usual smoke-and-rain TV-commercial slickness. He has made a buddy movie that gives the actors room to stretch out.
The film taps into the grimy proletarian charisma Bruce Willis had in Die Hard. He plays a tough/jaded/boozing/unshaven private eye who has sunk so low he has literally stopped caring about whether he lives or dies. The role is a takeoff on Mel Gibson's half-crazy cop in the Lethal Weapon films, except that where Gibson milks his existential lunacy for laughs, Willis seems to be playing — slyly — off the humiliating failure of Hudson Hawk. In terms of his own star-celebrity status, he truly is down in the dumps, and his weary, too-gone-to-be-scared macho is so convincing it's funny. Willis is a true movie star. Like Bogart, he plugs you right into his cynicism — then, in the middle of the most untenable situation (say, when a grinning thug keeps socking him in the jaw instead of lighting his cigarette), he'll drop a soft-voiced, grace-under-pressure remark that detonates like a neutron bomb.
The Last Boy Scout teams him with shaven-headed Damon Wayans, who plays a former professional quarterback out to get his old job back. Wayans, the breakout star of TV's In Living Color, is surprisingly low-key here (if anything, he's the straight man for Willis), but with his blithe baby face and dead-on delivery, he has the quicksilver charm and confidence of a natural actor. The film also features a spunky performance by Danielle Harris as Willis' combatively foul-mouthed teenage daughter. The Last Boy Scout is a guilty pleasure by any standard, but I've seen plenty of guilt-free movies lately that aren't this much fun.
5. Thor : Hammer of the Gods
Thor: Hammer of the Gods is pure cookie cutter Sci-Fi Channel movie-making and cookie cutter is not an expression one should have to use to describe a fantasy horror flick involving Vikings battling werewolves. I can't even bring myself to fault the two screenwriters because I've heard too many stories over the years from various Sci-Fi original movie authors about how stifling they tend to make the creative process and watching this film it is quite evident that the creative process did not allow for much by way of creativity. I can fault them for the stilted dialogue and I can also fault the actors for believing that just because they are appearing in a Viking movie that means they have to speak every stilted line as a bad Shakespearean actor would. The rest is an assembly line of clichéd plotting, visual effects hampered by the usual budgetary restraints, and a lead actor so absurdly miscast it should have been obvious to everyone long before the cameras began rolling.
I give Thor an extra knife rating because as lousy as I thought both films were at the very least THOR had more ambition.
On the other hand, having just sat through another upcoming Sci-Fi original,FIREBALL, I'm starting to think I was too harsh on both; at least neither bored the living hell out of me like that one did.
When you said Fireball my mind immediately went to another upcoming film called Fireball, which is an underground basketball game where the players can use Muay Thai as well as normall basketball techiques.And it's to the death.
Just watched a clip from the other Fireball film. I didn't realize lan Somerhalder was that desperate for work.
6. Mirrors
Consensus: Inconsistency and listless plot make this K-horror remake a less-than-frightening time at the movies.
another comments:
- Despite some creepy scenes and superb special effects, Mirrors is let down by a ludicrous script and some dodgy acting, though it remains watchable on a so-bad-it's-good level.
- There are a few effectively grisly moments, but no really new ideas.
- The main problem with Mirrors is its truly clunky screenplay, which fails to support the often stylish visuals.
1:13PM TH
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