Persepolis

Its good to see animated movies that aren't made for kids. This along with "Waltz With Bashir" show the flexibility of the medium to do basically anything that's needed. Since this is taken directly from the graphic novel of the same name it just makes sense to do it as an animated feature.

Even for being very simply drawn, at least on first glance, it is very dense with prolific imagery that is beautiful, stark or even a few moments a little alarming. Its the story of a young rebellious girl growing up in Iran, when their revolution fails and the new regime takes over she becomes to dangerous to keep in the country. The way she talks she will end up in prison, or worse, hanged. So her parents send her to Vienna for school. She has to deal with lazy and judgmental Europeans who either think she is a novelty, or distrust and dislike her since she is Iranian. She returns to Iran, and eventually has to leave again for Paris, which is where we leave off.

It did seem like an abrupt ending for sure, and I read some reviews saying that. But I disagree, the film to me was a love letter to the people of Iran, and a slap in the face to the government. So when she leaves the letter ends, her life in Paris I'm sure is very interesting, but this is about the place that made her into who she is today. Its a true story, and the writing is excellent, she captures all to well, what its like to be a child, and how influenced you can be by all these intermingling factors. The writer, who also is who the film is about, Marjane Satrapi, also co-directed it, and does a fantastic job. She very firmly understands how to tell a story.

The animation is great, and the voice work as well. It reminded me in many ways of "Maus" which is another graphic novel, this one being about surviving Auschwitz, another true story. The two works look very similar, and it works great for both. I would recommend anyone to watch this, to me the fact that it shows Iranians as real people, and gives them a face reminds you that they aren't all like Ahmadinejad. 8/10 stars.

Directors: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Parounnaud

Starring: Chiara Masroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian

El Rey de la Montana

I love it when I get a more than pleasant surprise, and this movie was a great surprise. I read the description, said to myself "I could go for a horror/thriller type movie tonight, why not?" I was not expecting it to be as good as it was.

A man (Quim) is on a road trip to see an ex-girlfriend. He has a chance encounter with a girl (Bea) in the bathroom at a gas station that because of the circumstances he has to follow her, he thinks she stole his wallet. He has to stop his car in the hills because something hit it. When he gets out to see what it was he finds the bullet hole on his hood, and the shooter is approaching. He gets nicked in the leg by a the shooter and takes off in his car. He hits the shooter with his car a little later on, but turns out there's more than one, and they are hunting him. He finds Bea and they go on the run together.

It was a lot like "Duel" and "Deliverance" put together, and thankfully not at all like "Wrong Turn" Because for much of the movie you only see bits of the shooter, and eye, or a hand it really drives home the terror. As well as they are dressed for this, hunting clothes, the sniper rifles. Not the usual approach of a Thriller, or Horror movie. What I mean is I'm not afraid of a man or woman chasing a bunch of teens with a knife while dressed up in a way that of course obstructs their face. In fact that doesn't even kind of bother me, its lame and over done 20 years ago. This was fresher.

They aren't just battling and trying to stay alive from the shooters but also their surroundings. They try and cross a raging river, there are wet slippery rocks that they can fall on, holes and crevices to fall in. They run into the cruelness of mother nature at every turn making them that much more desperate. What I really loved was that you heard the sound of the gun fire, and then a moment later the bullet would meet its mark, so there was that moment of terror in realizing it might be headed to you. You could see it in their eyes.

There are moments that seem normal in the movie, such as a cop turns over the body of the shooter that Quim hit with his car, and he freaks out. Later on when you find out more about the shooters it makes a lot more sense, and that much more of a punch. There is more than one twist in the story, unexpected as well. I can usually see something coming, and at least twice I was surprised that it wasn't what I had expected.

I must be a sucker for POV shoots because this is the second movie in a few weeks that has used it that made we really involved in the story. The POV isn't just for fun either it makes sense when you find out more about who the killers are. I wont say any more about that. There was some Snorricam used (Look it up, you might have seen it used before, Darren Arronofsky uses it often) It was shot very well, made me gasp more than once and made me really happy I had watched it. This is how horror/thrillers should be made. It has a brain, and uses the story to scare and frighten more than just some jerk in a costume with a meat hook, or whatever. 8/10 stars. Check it out, its worth it.

Director: Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego

Starring: Leonardo Sbaraglia, Maria Valverde

Sleep Dealer

This is a movie that could have made a really tough and biting commentary on globalization, immigration, media, and the privatization of natural resources. Instead they let all that take a back seat to a sort of love story and a sort of sub plot about a pilot with guilt over killing an innocent person.

The story is as follows, Memo, who lives in a small Mexican town dreams of bigger things. He builds a radio of sorts that allows him to listen in to phone calls, that is until he listens in on the wrong one and the conglomerate finds out and on live television blows his house up with his father inside. He leaves for Tijuana to make money for the family while the pilot tries to find out more about the mission he had just done. That's when it sort of jumps into "The Matrix" people can have "nodes" put in that let them physically be on an Internet, they can sell memories, be connected to a machine in the US that does manual labor while the Mexicans stay safely in their own country (biting right, sort of a bitch slap to the US) The problem is they never flesh it out and make it a problem, the people are all to happy to just go along with it. He has a sore spot about his father, and its brought up, but not well enough that his father was never the same after they put a damn in the town he's from and charge people insane amounts for water (not to far from the truth, and that is the truth in certain places)

The problem is they never focus on that enough. Instead they deal with a pretty boring love story, and an equally boring subplot of the pilot. They seemed to have enough money for decent effects, but not enough for good effects. The story and images work the best when its real sets with the strange equipment they use to tap into this virtual world. The art direction and sets were for the most part really interesting.

It just wasn't a complete movie, maybe it work better as a mini series, or a show where they can fully draw out all the messages they want to say. Acting was okay but not great, and the way it was shot was for the most part just adequate. 6/10 stars.

Director: Alex Rivera

Starring: Luis Fernando Pena, Leonor Varela, Jacob Vargas

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

I was told to check out this movie by a friend who based on my description of another movie said that I would like this. And you know what, I really tried, I did. I just couldn't get past a few blaring inconsistencies of the story, and it mostly has to do with the presumption of the film makers.

Like "I'm Not There" which is a terrible movie, this movie is about a real life person, and instead of sticking to the real life story of the persons life they decide to get really artsy with it. Okay, fine by me, but here is where the presumption comes in, they don't know this person and think they can tell more than just their life, but also deep seeded things about them. How egotistical is that? Most of this movie isn't even about Mishima's life, its parts of the books and plays he wrote, that certainly tells me things about him, but doesn't really give me a workable picture of who he was, or why he did something very ground breaking in the ending of his life.

It was strange and exotic, but left me very unfulfilled. Walking away from this movie I only felt like I was given ripped out pages of a book, page 4, page 109, with giant gaps. Now I do agree that trying to sum up someone's life in 120 minutes is crazy, but they could of at least tried to have some sort of semblance of a narrative. It had to many false starts and dead ends.

It was shot decently, for the time I'm sure it looked incredible, and parts certainly were, but for the most part I was disappointed in the ill formed images. Parts looked cheap, and not nearly as detailed as Ive come to expect from Asian Cinema, but maybe that's because it was not made by Asians. That to me causes a problem, to make a movie like this you should leave it to the culture that spawned the story, otherwise it wont be accurate, it can still be good but it wont be true. I was mostly just annoyed with it. I don't regret watching it, but I don't feel I would have missed out if I hadn't watched it. 5/10 stars.

Director: Paul Schrader

Starring: Ken Ogata

Holly

There are so many problems with the world. To me is seems like each one is a mountain of work unto itself, not taking into account the rest of the other problems. This movie focuses on one such problem while still saying to itself and the audience "What can we do? Solving this problem is like a drop in the bucket"

The story is about a man named Patrick (Ron Livingston) who is living in Cambodia. He is a card player and does freelance management for a local slum lord, perfectly played by Chris Penn. He doesn't really care about all the problems that surround him because he is obviously haunted by something of his own. He by chance meets a young girl (Holly) who has been forced into prostitution and is fighting it tooth and nail. His kindness to her is immediately viewed by everyone as him being interested in being the one to have her first. A disgusting thought all around. She wants his help, but he doesn't have the money to buy her. When he is able to get the money together she has disappeared and the rest of the movie is trying to find her and save her.

But in this story there is no Knight in shining armor. No matter what he does, even if he does save her, what then? How can he get her out of the country, or care for her? He cant even take care of himself. As its put by one of the characters "As long as its not tragic, its happy" I don't think there is room for a happy ending within this story. This is just one small corner of the world, the problems we have everywhere else even seem to over shadow the 30,000 children in Cambodia alone who work as sex slaves. There is one scene where a five year old asks Patrick if he wants "yum yum," for cheap, she's to young for "boom boom" It made me want to throw up, and for that I found it very realistic.

I was impressed to learn that this was made with the money of two people who feel very strongly about the whole situation. The young girl in it, Thuy Nguyen (Holly) was great, she was very believable as the character she played, and its sick to think that there are girls like her right now doing these things. It was shot gritty and real, which fit, a lot of handheld, but not noticeably shaky.

Overall I really liked it and I think I can say its because of its mostly pessimistic view of the world, I'm not a pessimist, but I appreciate movies that try and shed truth and light on a matter. The last shot of the movie was incredible, it sent shivers down my spine, it was a perfect exclamation point to end the movie. 8/10 stars.

Director: Guy Moshe

Starring: Ron Livingston, Thuy Nguyen, Chris Penn, Virginie Ledoyen, Udo Kier

Startup.com

I saved this documentary on the DVR I have available to me at the time a little while ago, and just today got in the mood to check it out. It was made right as the dot com boom was beginning and goes through the two years or so until they all started dropping like flies. We focus on two childhood friends who start a company and try and stay afloat.

The two men we follow are Kaleil Tuzman and Tom Herman. Their company is pretty simple, they are a middleman between you and the government in paying parking tickets. Right away we see their characters, Kaleil is a corporate bully, pushing anyone who might not agree with him, and Tom is more the people person who seems to be a fish out of water because hes just not cut throat enough. Most of the documentary is their trials and set backs as they try and get the company up and running, and to me it only really started getting interesting when Tom is fired for not agreeing with Kaleil. They built this company together and he gets thrown out like yesterdays trash. If only the rest of the documentary focused on this messed up situation. Tom certainly comes out looking like a martyr and Kaleil sort of looks okay by the end of it, but for a while looks like a total dick.

I don't get this world(business), to much focus on money and greed and not enough on real human relationships and connections. Kaleil ignores both girl friends we see him have in the course of the movie, and his in your face, follow me or get out of the way mentality falls down and shows how ignorant, or at least misinformed he might be. Such as he tells his employees not to during the taping of an interview use their fists in the air when yelling the chant they do because its a show of being part of the Nazi party. No its not, who told him that?

Overall its an okay movie, nothing really eye catching though, the most interesting parts of it wasn't the corporate espionage but the real life human relationships between the two men we follow in the documentary. 6/10 stars.

Directors: Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim

911: In Plane Site

Well let me see, where to start....I try and give each voice their due time to speak, as I mentioned in my review of "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" When you make a political or dissenting documentary for the most part you preach to the choir, so I think the least I can do is hear those opinions I disagree with. This documentary is no exception, it certainly rubbed me the wrong way, and several time made me laugh out loud in disbelief.

I can recall the events of September 11th very well, as I'm sure most people can. And I recall this very well, one of the news pundits just hours after the initial attacks asked an expert "Who could gain from this?" The experts answers were basically right on target, he mentioned Al Qaeda and other middle eastern powers that might want to do this to us, and then surprisingly he said "Even Bush could gain from this" The pundit asked him if he was saying that that was a possibility, and he said, sure its possible, but its totally ludicrous to seriously consider that. This documentary like so many others in the 8 years since that dark day revolves around the assumption that it was an inside job.

Now I call it an assumption because the "proof" they claim to have wouldn't hold up for a third grade research paper, they are basically acting as detective, forensics analyst, judge and jury all in one. The moron who narrates for us says that he is going to simply give us the facts and let us decide, but he keeps saying that here is the proof and you have to accept it, how is that letting anyone decide for themselves.

What does this man know of physics, chemistry, government, national defense, terrorism...anything for that matter? He is not an expert or a source of information at all. He is doing this from his arm chair and jumping to wild and unsubstantiated conclusions. Ill give some examples:

1. There was a flash before the planes hit the towers....he claims that's proof of a charge set in the front of the plane to make the rest of the gas explode. Okay, but why would they need that, its jet fuel, it'll blow up going upwards of 600 + miles per hour into a concrete building, I mean really. He claims its a government military plane. Why in God's name would they use a military plane with 9 million potential eye witnesses in the city for the 1st strike, and then hundreds of millions for the 2nd, thanks to the power of TV? His argument, thin as paper.

2. Lets say that all of point #1 is true, then where are the passengers from those planes that they said hit the WTC?

3. The owner of the WTC said that because of all the loss of that day (as in life) that they should just pull WTC building 7. This dipshit narrator says that's proof that it was a controlled demolition. The man was referring to pulling the fire fighters out so no one else would die, the building was about to collapse, and did. They ask why did it fall if no plane hit it? Well lets think about this...two buildings weighing hundreds of millions of tons fell onto it, of course it fell down you dumb shits!

I don't even need to keep going with my points, everything that is said in this documentary is simply stupid, No proof, no science, nothing to substantiate any of these claims. This guy says we could view the JFK assassination so why cant we view this and learn from it, does he think there aren't people in the government that didn't spend months reviewing the footage? He shows us fuzzy, out of focus footage and tries to pull things from that, why not just put a man with terrible vision on the witness stand and have him point out who he saw commit a murder from 100 feet away?

The documentarian is a complete and total moron, I cant emphasise that enough, if you want to laugh at the stupidity of people take a look at this, and if you do watch and feel swayed by his arguments, just sit back and say...show me the proof, something that would hold up in court. Something that is real, not this wannabe stuff.

9/11 was not an inside job, and this doc. shows how stupid the people are who believe that. 2/10 stars on the serious scale, if you want a laugh 5/10 stars, it has a few good laughs, unintended but still.

Director: William Lewis

Host: Dave VonKleist

The Three Faces of Eve

Multiple Personality Disorder is a great narrative tool, as excellently used in movies like "Fight Club" "Primal Fear" even "Identity does a very good job with it. This movie is based on the real thing, and those other movies aren't to far off, well maybe not "Identity" that was way off reality but whatever.

The story if of a wall flower, sad little woman named Eve White (played by Joanne Woodward, as well as she plays the other 2 personalities that exist within her) Eve is having head aches and blackouts, she sees a psychiatrist who seems to be helping her until Eve Black emerges, a play girl who really doesn't like Eve White all that much. The doctors do what they can to try and merge the two personalities until Eve Black starts blacking out, and then Jane enters the picture, the third and final personality (in real life the woman had 26 separate personalities) As they figure out why she ended up like this we learn the inciting incident which is more than a little creepy, but I wont say more.

Joanne Woodward won an Oscar for her performance, which she fully deserved, with little more than her face and minor hair changes she goes from one personality to another, most times right in front of our eyes, no cuts. Her husband in it is a total tool, and the doctor in the movie seems really nice and I just wish he had been in real life (The real woman wrote a book, and got the movie deal, but he made her sign something that withheld all rights she had to the material, she didn't make a dime from the book she wrote, the doctor did)

The thing that bothered me about the movie, and its indicative of older movies, its easy to see that every scene is a set on a sound stage, and the lighting was more than a little heavy with the shadows, but that is what they did then. For only being 90 minutes it feels a lot longer, but its because there is no real action (as my cousin Scott put it, it could have been a play) It was a strong movie story wise and acting. If your like me and appreciate modern cinema more, then it might not totally appeal to you, but still a good one. 7/10 stars.

Director: Nunnally Johnson

Starring: Joanne Woodward, David Wayne, Lee J. Cobb, Edwin Jerome

Au Revoir Les Infants

This film is a struggle, one between the two boys who star in it, one struggle is between the writer and the truth, and another being between the French who are resisting and the rather ambiguous Nazis that are stationed in the town.

The story is one Ive seen before, a young man (Jean) joins a school, Catholic Boarding to be exact during WWII (he is Jewish). He doesn't know who to trust, and he has no real reason to trust any of the other children, the priests and monks know, they are hiding him in plain sight. One of the other students, (Julien) is slowly starting to realize whats going on. He is smart, but in some ways woefully ignorant, as in he doesn't even know what a Jew is. The thing about this story that made it different for me from the usual telling of this sort of story is that it's based on the writers actual life story. Other than that I cant say much more about the story for fear of giving something away.

Guilt is what drives this story, guilt and the unfairness of life. Which when talking about the Holocaust unfair is an understatement. The writer is obviously trying to work his way through some of his problems, and to me its something that cant really be dealt with, no matter what you do. When it comes to trying to wrap your mind around something as large as the Holocaust this movie doesn't even try. Which since its from the POV of a child, who only experiences the war through his life at the school, and disliking the Germans because they are told to, it makes sense. They laugh and play around when there are air raid sirens, they don't fully get the gravity of the situation.

Its a strong movie, but its not normal fare for a movie about war, its more about the children caught in the middle who don't get whats happening around them, war sounds fun until its real. They play war games in the yard, they challenge one another, and fight almost constantly, then laugh about it afterwards. When they are actually left alone to the world they turn into what they really are, just children, as we see in one scene involving our two main characters lost in the woods. The Germans of the story are nice for the most part, but I saw them as being more just along for the ride and just doing their time until its over. Towards the end we see the naked aggression of the Nazi mentality. 7/10 stars.

Director: Louis Malle

Starring: Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejito

The Fall

I had seen the poster image for this all over a few years ago, most notably in Facets, a local indie theatre and rental house. I remember wanting the poster because it looked so cool, but I guess the thought never crossed my mind to actually see the movie, which I wish I had, because on the big screen it must be incredible.

Within 10 minutes it had already made a deep impression on me and I was ready to say 8 or 9/10 stars, I was that amazed by it. As I watched I couldn't help noting that it reminded me of "The Cell" which a quick look at IMDB proved that it is by the same director, only on a much, much larger scale. The story is rather simple, its during the 1920's, a Hollywood stunt man named Roy has been injured in a stunt gone wrong leaving him as a paraplegic. Which of course devastates him, but what is really putting him over the edge is that he got broken up with right afterwards, presumably because she couldn't handle him like that. So he is in a hospital looking for a way out, and that's where Alexandria comes in. She is a young girl who is in the hospital because she has broken her arm, in a fall like that of Roy's. They meet and she quickly takes a liking to him because he tells her stories, which she thinks is great. He continues to tell her stories because if she wants to hear the rest of the story shes going to have to get him a bottle of morphine so then he can swallow all of it and end his life.

The parts of the story that are in the tale he weaves for Alexandria are breathtaking, in fact every shot in this movie is carefully planned and motivated, none of it seems to be simply for coverage of the scene. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, it was beautiful. They shot this movie in 18 different countries and 26 different locations, including the Taj Mahal. All of the performances were amazing, especially the girl who plays Alexandria, for a child actor I was very impressed. I cant even try to describe the visuals and I really wish I could because it is just so incredible. If "The Cell" was ground breaking, which I think in a lot of ways it was, then the director Tarsem Singh took the foundation that is "The Cell" and built an incredibly dense and intricate castle on top of it. Any one who worked on this movie should be proud to be a part of it.

They story really emphasises and shows off how important storytelling is to every culture in the world. I think its pretty easy to over look the history of it all, with so many media outlets we have I think people forget that it is simply just another way of telling a story like we used to, orally and perfected. The movie isn't overly sad, or happy, it just gives you raw emotions. Like I had said before I had it ranked at about a 9/10, that was until a very creepy and perfectly placed bit of stop motion animation that jumped this movie for me to a 10/10. I cant say that enough, it was so beautiful and complex. It reminded me of a line from "The Fountain" that goes as follows "Our bodies are prisons for our souls. Our skin and blood the iron bars of confinement" Roy cant walk, but in his mind he can fly away and go where ever he wants. The story is a love letter to the human mind and imagination, and that's a message that I don't think we hear enough. It also had a message about the beauty and innocence of being a child, Alexandria doesn't understand why Roy is so upset, but she understands the story and expects a happy ending.

The make-up, and costumes were great, why cant this movie be nominated for an Oscar? Set design, art direction...everything it is more than just a solid movie, its concrete, its a diamond. I couldn't find a chink in the armor. If you read this then watch this movie, period. It was that good. 10/10 stars. You wont regret it. If I can get at least one more person to see this I will be happy because its to good to go ignored.

Watch this trailer and then watch the movie.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2511470873/


Director: Tarsem Singh

Starring: Catinca Untaru, Lee Pace, Justine Waddell

Tyson

What a complicated person. As we all are, very complicated, but when someone is so in the spot light I think we tend to just get a caricature of the person, which I don't think anyone would disagree with. And this documentary is no exception, you still only get part of the story, and its from Mike Tyson's point of view.

He is a scared, sad person. Being incredibly strong and intimidating never seemed to be enough for him. Almost anyone going toe to toe with him would not only get knocked out right away, but he could hit someone hard enough to kill, easy. So how did he go from a fat kid in Brooklyn being beaten up and chased around to one of the best boxers ever? I think the answer is a simple one: Fear. He seems to at least in his own words be afraid of everything, and surprisingly other people. When someone needs to have 10 people in between them and the person they intend to hit that says a lot about someone power, if he wants to hit you, there better be a mob of people between you and him for you to even have a chance of getting out unscathed.

I feel sorry for him, he actually has a good reason to fear and distrust people. The one man in his life that even vaguely appeared to be a caring father figure was Constantine"Cus" D'Amato his first boxing coach, and seemingly the only one who cared for him and took nothing from him but perhaps some of his enthusiasm for life, died when he was a very young fighter. Tyson is stunted in so many ways it cant even fully be described. He thinks he is smart, he thinks he has a full grasp on the English language, and maybe he is smart, but it doesn't show. He desperately uses as many big words as he can think of and like Muhammad Ali tries to speak rhythmically and poetically, and maybe I'm to easy but some of his descriptions I found to be maybe not beautiful or mature, but genuine. To me his genuineness it what sold me on his character. He didn't seem to be lying about anything, I mean I don't necessarily believe him about being innocent of the rape charge, but he seemed to have no ill will towards the girl who made the claim and sent him to prison for 3 years. I think he did it, and he is a scary individual because of that, but behind the facade I see a very broken person. His make up is that of a smashed mirror hastily put back together.

Even if it is all a lie, then even that shows something about his personality. The fragments of him are very well brought through with the editing which consists a lot of having several images and clips of him playing at the same time while we hear audio from one of them, and occasionally a few. I also like the techniques they used in getting Tyson's story across, Tyson is the only one to speak, you hear no questions being asked or see no one around him, its just him and his version of his own story.

We hear a quote in the film about a small fire eventually becoming a raging inferno by feeding it what it needs, and it accurately describes him, the right people pushed the right buttons with him and turned him into an animal. The inferno seems to have gone out, there is a softness to his eyes now, and a certain calmness and I hope he is able to keep it like that. A strong personal documentary, 8/10 stars,

Director: James Toback

Narrator/Subject: Mike Tyson

Children of God: Lost and Found

This documentary is not to different from other ones I've seen dedicated to the subject of a religious group openly denying and fighting allegations of child abuse. A huge difference here though is that it was a common practice of the members of this particular Christian cult to molest children as part of the usual routine. Sickening to say the least, in other religious groups they at least know its wrong enough to try and hide it.

Hearing the stories some of these young people tell about what happened to them will make you want to throw up. The documentary is at times painfully amateur but I think overall it works very much in the movies favor since it is made by and from the perspective of one of the lucky few to escape the grasp of these religious nut cases. The doc. points out a few ways to escape from them; to one day just leave and attempt to live a life of manual labor since you have no formal education, or to kill yourself, or I guess to never leave it in the first place. Shocking to me that at least in the U.S. government no one has done much to stop this, its been happening for the last 30 years.

The doc. is short, a little over an hour, but when you've said and shown as much as they have what else is left, to just keep rubbing the wound hoping the scar will heal? I respect these people very much for being brave enough to speak out against "The family" and their actual family. This cult believes that the world will end in the next year or two, hopefully when it doesn't they will come to their senses, hopefully. I just remembered one of the other escape plans open to these poor victims, and that is not only suicide, but first murder, which we find out about in a part of this movie.

As I was watching this I thought how sick these members of this cult must be, but upon a quick sweep of my memory of other such docs. mostly about the Catholic Church, its not like this group is so much more out there than other groups that hurt and damage children and no one seems to do much of anything about it. A strong little documentary with a healing quality for the film maker I'm sure, as well as a great expose of the sick inner workings of a modern day travesty. 7/10 stars.

Director: Noah Thomson

Nursery University

I spent less time and effort looking into and fretting over going to college than any of these parents who are trying to get their kids into private NURSERY schools! They think that somehow if they go to the "right" nursery school, then they will go the right kindergarten, and elementary school....and so on up to the Ivy League schools. Well I hate to break it to these moronic parents, but a childs brain has something to do with what school they get into.

These lunatics are paying 20,000 a semester at some of these schools to have their kids play with colored blocks and eat crackers and drink juice, I mean really? How sad is that, and ass backwards? On the plus side to the situation, the kids are adorable. They make you smile every time the camera focuses on them, which is sadly not enough, instead we spend most of the film watching the parents cry and whine and lie to make their kids into a prepackaged commodity they are trying to sell to the schools. Do rich bored people have nothing better to do? Has the world ran out of real problems and drama and these rich ass holes have to make even this competitive? The adults cry and whine more than the 2 and 3 year olds!

I think that having children should be for everyone, but one of the women was 57 when she gave birth to her twins, no father by the way. Not that that makes a difference, but her time had passed, and shes a working professional, she shouldn't do all that to her new borns. And her son out of the twins (1 boy and 1 girl) she is positive has a learning disability, hes 2! The whole thing is a very sad circus and charade and its the poor kids who are going to end up suffering with insufferable parents like those.

A very well made documentary, insane, infuriating and bizarre to say the least, it still kept me open mouth gaping at the T.V. waiting for them to turn to the camera and say it was all a joke. 7/10 stars. Ever heard of a safety school for a 3 year old?

Director: Marc H. Simon, Matthew Makar

Sputnik Mania

Nothing shows how foolish current behavior is like looking at the past. The launching of a satellite into space signaling the beginning of an entirely new age is quickly over shadowed by fear mongering and paranoia. Sputnik, little more than a ball of tin foil with a radio inside it and a blinking light (important as it was) was viewed in the U.S. as a sign that the Soviets were going to start dropping bombs on us from space.

This very straight forward and simple documentary takes us from the moment that Sputnik is launched into space in a remote corner of the Soviet Union (specifically Kazakhstan) to a year after. How excitement and happiness turned to hiding and ducking for cover in the course of a few days. We are all pretty familiar with certain bench marks, such as Sputnik, or us landing on the moon, but I was unaware and saddened learning that the first animal in space was a dog on Sputnik II that the Russians allowed to die in space simply because they didn't think it was prudent to send it up there with a way to come back. Also I didn't know that our first attempt to send up a satellite was a complete disaster, an explosion really.

Its a very well made documentary looking at the culture shock as well as the implications on the world scope of what this meant, and even how what was considered a stunt when Eisenhower sent up a recording of him wishing everyone on earth a happy holidays in fact technically made that satellite the worlds first communication satellite. Taking this event and laying it over the event of 9-11, although very different inciting incidents they might be, it still orchestrates the same response of fear in our culture. It was also great to see the Russians in this saying "You were afraid of us, and we were just as afraid of you" There was no evil side in the Cold War. There were terrible things done on both sides, but the image of a scheming communist just wasn't so. It was funny and sobering at the same time, maybe the message wasn't intended to do this but it made me feel better and not worry so much.

52 years after it first went into space there is a phenomenal change on earth, I wonder where it will take us tomorrow. A great documentary, concise and smart, dry and with out politics. It also gives Eisenhower his due credit for being a military man who knew the dangers, and even warned us of the American Industrial War Complex, I just wish we had listened to him at the time. I encourage everyone to check out this movie, fill in some historical blanks. 8/10 stars.

Director: David Hoffman

Narrator: Liev Schreiber

If you want to know more about Eisenhower and his wisdom on the whole Industrial War Complex watch "Why We Fight"

Brothers of the Head

A strange little mockumentary. Not what I was lead to expect, I thought it was going to be a comedy, and it was far from it. Its the story of some conjoined twins who are taken into a band and turned into the front men as a sort of gimmick until it turns out they are really good.

The first ten minutes are not good, nothing happening, I didn't know where it was going, but after the 15 minute mark it started to pick up. The gimmick of them being conjoined was less a gimmick and more the central theme and conflict of these two separate people who are forced to be one, and couldn't survive literally with out the other, played very well by Harry and Luke Treadaway. So much of the struggle with the two of them is internalized, and alluded to, but never fully said. As each minute went by it was getting better and better. So at the start I really wasn't liking it, but by the end I thought it was very good. Needed some work here and there, but overall was very different than I would have expected.

Overall it gets a 7/10 stars. Not for everyone, strange and sad, very introverted.

Directors: Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe

Starring: Harry Treadaway, Luke Treadaway,

A Very British Gangster

So just in case there are any gangsters reading my blog (and I know there are) this movie was very scary with all the gangster shit, and he was a bad guy I don't want to mess with. The End.

Okay...all the gangsters gone? Good. Moving on. This documentary was a very interesting look at how new money, or new crime families are not like the ones of old. An example would be something along the lines of Denzel Washington's character in "American Gangster" (a real person) wouldn't last a minute with Mike, Sonny...or for that matter any Corleone. New money cant handle it like old can. And it goes the same for new crime families, they just will fuck up, unlike old. This is a real guy (Dominic Noonan) and in the course of the documentary he goes to court three times for various serious offensives. he has spent 2/3 of his life in prison. A real gangster doesn't get in trouble, they go into politics. Hes out taking care of his community, making sure peace is kept, I'm sorry but a real gangster lets the people come to him if they need something.

Now all that aside I wouldn't mess with this guy, he is bush league compared to the really scary people of this world, and the underworld, but he is still not anybody to fuck with. But you see a real flexing of power in the movie when someone calls him and threatens his life, and he triples his security, he is scared. Although a show of even more power would be no call at all, you kill them, and they never find the body...ever. No one takes you to court, no one ever comes close to saying you did it because they don't want to disappear as well. These gangsters are born out of poverty and desperation and are growing up knowing what a gangster does, and how they act, but not understanding how that all functions. These people are more a bane on the police force than owning the police.

Its a well made documentary, and the soundtrack is killer. But I couldn't help but get pissed at the documentation for feeding this Noonan's ego. As well as the people making the doc want me to feel sorry for this guy, and his criminal family, they deserve to go to prison, they are murderers. It shows how small of a fish this guy really is, no gangster, no REAL gangster would allow themselves to be followed by a camera crew. And no offense to other countries, but I think gangsters need to be home grown, over here in the colonies, you catch my drift Brits? Over all 7/10 stars.

Director: Donal MacIntyre

Starring/Subject: Dominic Noonan

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

I always try and give each side of an argument a fair time to speak out on what they feel is right. Such as Ive watched many documentaries supposing, and sometimes blatantly stating that 9-11 was an inside job, and after watching half a dozen of those their arguments still fall flat on their faces. So I thought I would give the monotone Ben Stein his chance to explain to me why I.D. (Intelligent Design) should be viewed as a viable alternative to evolution.

Ill start by saying he is very convincing in his argument, but, its all a house of cards, when viewed from the right angle with the right context is looks totally plausible....but its not, and its certainly not science. In one of his early interviews a man claims that they handle him like an educational terrorist, and Ben Stein exclaims "A terrorist!" Which would make you say, "Wow" up until you realize this man is the one who claims that's how they view him, not what they say about him. Educators are being fired for their views on I.D. and these people feel they are being black listed, well I'm sorry but if you try and pass that off as fact then you shouldn't be teaching that sort of subject. Now I do feel sorry for some of them, because as they say they just mentioned it in a class, and didn't give it credit at all, but were fired anyway. So for them I do feel bad, but again...that's what they claim, the administration says differently, someones lying.

All these I.D. nuts keep saying that I.D. is not creationism. The fact is that it IS creationism. Watch a documentary called "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" It explains exactly how I.D. is creationism, down to the detail that in a text book they simply changed the word creationism to I.D, pretty damning evidence. They keep saying in this that the debate hasn't been settled: It has, evolution is science because it follows the scientific procedures of testing and proving, where I.D. says....God did it, or (laughing) a designer. Sorry, I'm not falling for it. They say that evolutionists will say that the theory of evolution has no problems, that's bull shit, no scientist would ever say that, and you see no scientist in this say anything of the sort. Of course it has problems, and that's why there are still biologists in the world, to figure out as much of it as possible.

They say Darwin corrupts minds in this! Nothing more to say there, just laugh. They say evolution is a mess, and that means it cant be true!? Of course its a mess, its life, its messy.

Ben Steins style is very slick, its basically the way Michael Moore makes documentaries. He walks around playing dumb trying to make the ones he doesn't agree with look stupid, while lofting soft balls at those they want to hit it out of the park. I cant complain because I like some of Michael Moore's work, but by no means is that a fair documentary, but it doesn't have to be, he cant market it as fair though. They keep making it out like evolutionists don't want to hear the other side because they know their side is wrong, fine, but what do they have to gain from that?

Towards the end of the Documentary Ben Stein walks into dangerous territory. He talks about how the Nazis used Darwin's ideas on genetics, and eugenics and how it was used for unspeakable evil. At one point he asks someone while sitting in one of the camps "What was the purpose?" I wanted to get up and slap him through the TV. There is no way anyone can fully understand the Holocaust and the terrible things that happened. He wants some sort of blurb explaining the Holocaust, foolish. Even those who lived through it and wrote books about it couldn't explain it to you, Ben Stein...for shame. Don't use this to help your point. He then also says "Look at another society that outlawed God" and shows footage from the USSR, and Stalin, yeah Ben, that's what made the Soviet Union so bad, it was the lack of a God.

He makes convincing arguments like I said, but are they viable? No. He thinks hes being slick with this, and he is, like a snake. He works himself in and asks the most idiotic question there is "How did life begin" When hes not happy with "No one knows" he thinks its a perfectly good jump to the I.D. conclusion "God did it" Fine, lets say that's true...prove it now. You cant? Then its not science and we cant teach it. For style the stars go up a little on it, for it being well made it gets another star or two, for its lack of a good argument it gets 4/10 stars.

Director: Nathan Franowski

Host/Narrator: Ben Stein

Jellyfish

A few posts ago I had watched an Israeli film called "There Was No War in '72" and I commented on its down to earth view and centered perspective, and I thought with this movie, "Jellyfish" I would get along the same lines, and was more than pleasantly surprised.

The story is simple, we follow several women living in Israel, whose lives intersect although briefly at a wedding, and from then on their stories are all fairly separate. They are all searching for something, struggling with life and love, all within a few days span. I was not expecting it to turn as surreal as it did, which wasn't Daliesque surreal, but still very different. There are clues about who or what people really are, and if they really exist in the first place, but nothing is spelled out for you. There is a poem written in the story that I thought was just beautiful, as well as I think Israeli women are very beautiful, and all these women were (except maybe the old lady) beautiful.

The story flows like a river, bending and changing with no real narrative force, but it didn't make a difference, it made it all the better that there wasn't some slave driver moving the story along, it went at its own pace. Usually when people try and co-direct a movie, especially people who are married it doesn't work out well....couldn't have worked better for this. There's just so much I liked/loved about it. I don't have any complaints, it was a truly fantastic movie that should have played here. If there's any complaint I could make right now is that I watch so many foreign or indie movies that should be getting their due credit in the American Cinema system we have here, and they just don't. Transformers 2 everyone has heard of, and a lot have seen (gross) and no ones heard of this movie, its shameful.

It was beautifully shot, great use of lighting, and the art direction and design was awesome. Every shot was composed as they wanted it to be (watch for the posters of a woman making a triangle with her hands, the wall paper, etc.) They use the camera to help tell the story not to simply show whats going on. There is a fantastic Steadicam shot going around the wedding at the beginning of the movie that I loved, as good as the one out of "Goodfellas" when they are going into the night club. There is also a well done POV shot from the eyes of a little girl.

After about 10 minutes in I couldn't stop smiling, anticipating what they were going to do next, I even clapped my hands a few times (scaring the dogs in the process) to show my appreciation for a really well done original film. It does its own thing, and it doesn't try and be anything that its not and for that I have to say I really couldn't get enough and wanted it to be longer. Its a great surrealist movie because it only has hints of it, not stupid and mundane whacked out moments or whole chunks like something out of anything by David Lynch. If you read this, then watch this movie. 9/10 stars easy.

Directors: Shira Geffen, Etgar Keret

Starring: Sarah Adler, Nikol Leidman, Gera Sandler, Noa Knoller, Ma-nenita De Latorre, Zaharira Harifai

Hitler's Britain

I had watched "Inglorious Basterds: earlier in the night, and had a very nice evening, very nice indeed. That was until I woke up from a very disturbing dream at 4 in the morning with some major pain....in a sensitive area. I guess the kidney stones weren't as gone as I had assumed. So I'm up, I'm in pain, what to do? I'll watch another revisioning of WWII, this time what if Hitler had succeeded in taking over Britain?

Its interesting, to say the least, this pseudo documentary is basically saying a big WHAT IF? The Nazis apparently had thousands of hand books printed up of how they were going to handle the Brits, instead of manhandling them, they were going to take the approach of how they handled France, which was much more of a wooing, trying to get them on their side. That's what this plan called for, and if they would have been able to put it into effect, its what would have happened, with only one front left (Russia) they could have taken all of Europe, a scary thought.

It could have been made better for sure, but it made up for that in the fact that it is basically getting as close to reality as a documentary about what never happened can get. Props to the guerrilla Brits who were going to pull an "Inglorious Basterds" type of approach to the Nazis, kill them, and just keep killing them till they kill you. 7/10 stars.

Director: Richard Bond

Inglorious Basterds

Oh boy! I was up in the air about how I felt with Tarantino taking on a war movie, let alone WWII. Its more than just a touchy subject, for me and I'm sure a lot of other people. I've watched movies that got negative press for showing certain things about the Holocaust that are less than ideal, an example is the movie "The Grey Zone" about Auschwitz, it shows some of the Jews as being opportunistic. They steal, they do what they need to help themselves survive and ignore others pain. I say buck up and get over it, its not being hard on the Jews, its showing how it was, and how people could only focus on their own survival. So when I saw that Tarantino, who is not very sensitive was taking this on it made me a little nervous.

Man was I wrong, not his best, a different sort of story for him. If "Pulp Fiction", and "Kill Bill Vol. I" were him on speed then "Inglorious Basterds" was him slowly sipping brandy in a pressure cooker. Its slow and methodical, I mean it was a script 10 years in the making, it reflects that. Scene after scene we watch knowing what all the other characters know, but they must keep up appearances and we just hope they can do what they need to do. Scene after scene of talking and sweating, I loved it. And talk about violent, not his bloodiest, but up there in his brutal imagery. I think it was very smart of him to never mention the camps, or the Holocaust at all, and it makes sense because he very easily, almost effortlessly chooses the history he want to follow and that which he wants to rewrite, which he does, boldly.

Brad Pitt was hilarious in it, as was Til Schweiger, Eli Roth, BJ Novak...all of them were funny as hell. Watching Pitt try and be Italian, I couldn't stop laughing. And Christoph Waltz as the uber-Nazi, awesome, creepy and evil as I think he could be. The story is simple, try and kill as many Nazis as you can, at all costs, just kill them, and man are they good at it. Tarantino was born to write this sort of dialogue, it ebbs and flows, and makes you laugh. The last 20 minutes I was ear to ear grinning, I wont say more than that about how it ends, but Tarantino took the rules and ripped them up, and all I can say is "Good job" I think just about anyone else who would try that would fail, and I saw this as a success.

Its shot like so many of his other movies, the credits are like "The Godfather," the men with machine guns filling up a Jeep with bullets like so many gangster films. I also want to mention Melanie Laurent, and Diane Kruger. As some of his movies turn into boys clubs (not all, but some) it was nice to see some more strong female characters who kick ass all over Nazi occupied France. There is all his usual flairs, used in moderation, and nicely placed quick flashbacks. Like I said, not his best, but certainly up there, and another great addition to the Tarantio-verse.

Everyone who can stomach a little blood should see this if they haven't already, it is an acquired taste for sure, but come on, expand your palette a little and taste some of what he's cooked up, even if you don't like it, you wont see anything else like it. 9/10 stars.

Director: Quintin Tarantino

Starring: Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl...it keeps going, great ensemble cast.

Bottle Shock

There's not much to be said about this movie, I enjoyed it. But that's about the extent of my feelings on it, it was a feel good movie, there wasn't really anything wrong with it per say. It just was what it was.

Its the story of the competition in France where they judged their wines against the American made ones of Napa Valley. Underdog triumphs, the good guys learn a lesson. It was acted fine, it was warm and fun, but took no real risks. Other than that I cant say much about it. It had a lot of interesting and romantic takes in wine and viniculture.

If you are looking for a movie that just sort of kills the time and is fun then this is a good pick in that category, but if you are looking to be challenged and moved it wont do it for you. Over all 7/10 stars. A must see? No.

Director: Randall Miller

Starring: Chris Pine, Allen Rickman, Bill Pullman, Rachel Taylor, Freddy Rodriguez

I took an old list I had made for a class a few years ago with a good movie from several genres, I added to it, and here it is.

Adventure- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Archeology has never been more exciting and interesting. When Henry Jones Sr. Goes missing its up to his son, self named Indiana Jones, (after the dog) to find his father, fighting the Nazis again. This time the stakes are higher as they attempt to track down the Holy Grail, a piece of history that brings with it ever lasting life.
- Why watch it? Its one of those pop culture icons, how can you call yourself an American if you haven’t seen Indiana Jones, and who doesn’t like seeing the Nazis getting beaten again.

Other Adventure Films not to be missed: Jurrasic Park, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Goldfinger


ACTION - Kill Bill Vol. I, II
A nameless bride is gunned down along with the rest of the wedding party at the dress rehearsal. When she wakes up after several years, she is ready for revenge. We are taken into a totally different world with this two part saga about how she came to this point, and we along with her find out the truth. The bloodiest outing by Tarantino to date lives up to the hype, but is an acquired taste.
- Why watch it? If you can handle the blood, then there is a lot of fun to be had while watching this movie, and there are a lot of “that was cool’ moments to keep any action fan satisfied for a long time.

Other Action Films Not to Be Missed: Sin City, 300, Battle Royale, Cloverfield


DRAMA - The Fountain
Spanning a thousand years this story covers the present day, five hundred years in the past looking for the tree of life, and then five hundred years into the future looking for a way to be reborn. The past follows the trials of a Conquistador trying to find the fountain of youth for his queen. A doctor in the present looking for the cure to save his wife from brain cancer, and the same doctor in the future trying to reach total immortality, and rebirth for him and a tree with a special meaning.
- Why watch it? - Besides the amazing and beautiful love story the visuals are enough to keep you in your seat the whole movie. It’s the equivalent of being in an art museum and watching the most breath taking paintings come to life. Its even more amazing when there was no CG used at all in creating these worlds.

Other Dramas not to be missed: Crash, American Beauty, Citizen Kane, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Magnolia, Pandemonium, SLC Punk, 11:14, Atonement, Candy, Cashback, Head-On, The Hours, In Bruges, Junebug, Malena es un Nombre de Tango, Moulin Rouge, Pride and Prejudice, Requiem for a Dream

THRILLER- Se7en
When an extremely over weight man is found bound in his home, dead from eating till his stomach exploded, two detectives realize that they have more then a normal killer on their hands. Then the other murders start popping up, and a familiar trend is appearing. Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, now there is just two left, Envy and Wrath, and if he finishes his work then he will have won.
- Why watch it? The new horror movies, or thrillers have to go one step above the last, always out doing what they will show. But its not scary to the mind, its scary because you don’t want that done to you. Se7en terrifies you deeper then those other movies, and there is an air of mystery around everything that happens.

Other Thrillers not to be missed: 12 Monkeys, The Cell, City of God, Frailty, Memento, Pi, Primal Fear, The Prestige, The Broken, Children on Men, Hard Candy, The Hole, I Am Legend, Right at Your Door, Run Lola Run

Comedy- Animal House
College will never be the same, where do you think toga parties came from? Eating out of the trash, drinking all night and sleeping all day, cheating on every test, that’s just how the men in animal house live. We follow characters like Flounder, Pinto, Otter, Boon, and of course Bluto. The dean wants to expel them, and they just want to have fun.
- Why watch it? It’s the grandfather of the college comedy, and to this day still the best and most outrageous, the others are just trying to keep up and emulate Animal House, but there is no out doing them.

Other Comedies to see: Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb, Little Miss Sunshine, The Family Stone, The Royal Tenenbaums, 40 Year Old Virgin, About A Boy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Good Dick, The Hangover, Kabluey, The Mexican, Pineapple Express, Superbad


Crime/Gangster- The Godfather Part I and II
The scene is changing, the families are going to war, and when that happens people are going to die. There is a new racket in town: Drugs. And help would be needed by the head of the Corleone Family to successfully distribute the drugs and sell them while staying under the radar. When he refuses to help, the other families move in detecting weakness,and all hell breaks loose.
- Why watch it? Besides it being one of the best films of all time, it is a bench mark in the cinematic community and in our culture. It’s the top acting performances of most of the people in it, an all around epic.

Other Crime/Gangster Films to see: Oceans 11, Death of A President, Goodfellas, The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Departed


Science Fiction- The Matrix
Mr. Anderson knows something is not right, he can feel it. Something is wrong with the world he lives in but he cant figure out what it is. But with the help of a computer terrorist calling himself Morpheus he can find out the answer, but to do that there will be no turning back. Take the red pill or take the blue pill. What follows is a twisted, dark, post apocalyptic view of our future, bringing about for Mr. Anderson, now called Neo more questions to ponder.
- Why see it? From the words of Morpheus himself, “No one can be told what the Matrix is, you have to see it for yourself” True words.

Other SciFi to see: A Scanner Darkly, Signs, Alien, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Back to the Future, Sunshine


Gay/Lesbian Interest- Mysterious Skin
Two young children are molested by their baseball coach, one turns to prostitution to deal with the trauma that occurred to him, the other blocks it out, and creates a separate reality of what happened, involving being abducted by aliens, and them doing things to him. He then attempts to find the other boy who was there, to find out what really happened to him. A dark, sad look into the damage pedophiles do to kids, and the people that they abused turn into.
- Why see it? It reminds you about the real power of an authority figure over children, and how trusting they are. The damage that can be afflicted is astronomical, and unforgivable. Besides the acting it is shot and edited top notch, a good little indie to see.

Other Gay/Lesbian Interest films to see: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Kissing Jessica Stein, Brokeback Mountain, Imagine Me and You, Paragraph 175

Kids- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Based on the Animated Series of the early to mid nineties this film comes shooting out of the gate right away with moody images portraying a rotting, and sick Gotham city. Batman is still doing his best to keep the underbelly of the city down, and the good people safe. That is until a new killer comes to town, one that people think is Batman. So now he has to stop this new killer while keeping off the radar of the police who are looking for him for murder. The killer though is working a pattern, Batman just needs to figure out the enigma, and stop it. Little does he know that it involves his past, his one love, and the reasons why he became Batman in the first place.
- Why see it? They don’t make kids movies like this anymore, you see people die, people get shot at and hurt. Disney has made it so that is unacceptable for a kid to see, when in fact it is just fine. It is a classic, and when it comes to Batman films it is better than most.

Other kids movies to see: The Prince of Egypt, Finding Nemo, City of Ember


Documentary- The Corporation
Nothing will make you more sick with what people do in this world than this movie, but it opens your eyes to so much that is wrong with this world, but also gives a solution to the problem. People are capable of so much evil, but are capable of just as much good as well. In this film you are shown the startings of Corporations in America and how they have become a bane on the good people of the whole world. A stunning three and a half hour film that you never get bored with. You will be on the edge of your seat the whole time.
- Why see it? Everyone who consumes any goods at all should see this, and understand how they are capable of change, and how a revolution in the business community might just be needed. This film doesn’t push socialism, or communism, but a way of life that instead of thinking of yourself alone, or thinking of the company alone, or of the third party alone, but a combination of all three. We do whats best for You, me, the company, and the rest of the world, all in one solution.

Other Documentaries to see: The Fog of War, Grey Matter, Wisconsin Death Trip, The Bridge, Flow: For Love of Water, Jesus Camp, Lake of Fire, My Kid Could Paint That, Operation Filmmaker

Comic Book - The Dark Knight
Batman has changed how the underbelly of Gotham City functions, but this is turning out to be a bigger problem than a solution when a new villain enters the scene: The Joker. The opposite of Batman in every way, the opposing side of the same coin. Gotham heats up to a fever pitch giving birth to the Jokers proudest creation, Two Face. How can Batman stop someone who wont ever will quit until he's dead. "This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object"
- Why see it? Besides it being the best comic book movie to date, it is also an incredible film cast with Hollywood all stars. Finally someone is doing Batman right! Most likely the best villain...to date....period.

Other Comic Book Movies not to be missed: Iron Man, Batman Begins, Spiderman 2

HORROR - The Thing
An isolated Antarctic research center is thrown into chaos when they are joined by a new sled dog, that begins to change forms in the night and kill what it shapes into. As they learn that it can do more than take the shape of a dog they all start to suspect that someone else in their midst could be The Thing.
- Why see it? It is scary as shit, don't watch it alone and at night. The make up and effects even by today's standards are incredible. Its a smart and scary horror movie instead of just some slasher cutting up sexually active teens in suburbia.

Other Horror Movies Not to be Missed: The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Exorcist, Jaws, The Mist, The Strangers, Who Can Kill a Child?

War - Jarhead
The mind of a Marine seems to be the most volatile out of all the armed services of America. When the Gulf War begins our boys are sent over there to handle business. As they sit in the desert waiting they start be become ancy and impatient, and possibly unstable. When they finally get to see some action its not as expected, and afterwards there is more problems to deal with than before.
- Why see it? It is beautifully shot, and balls to the wall intense. It is carefully planned just like the war, but when they go into the "shit" nothing is as they were trained to. It is a new war movie, unlike the days of old with the high and mighty Sgt. who does good for all, how fake is that?

Other War Movies Not to be Missed: The Hurt Locker, Schindler's List, Tigerland, Waltz With Bashir, Saving Private Ryan

Tell me some great examples from these genres.

The Midnight Meat Train

***Be warned, this movie is not for the weak of stomach or heart***

What a brutal movie, this does not take any prisoners. Pools of blood, eyes coming out, people being hacked and smashed to death. That is basically all you see in this movie, and some sex. If there is any movie that someone would say they mix sex and violence my first thought would be this movie.

Based on the title I would say that this is a porno, and it's not far off, its a porno for people who love blood. A man named Leon who takes photos of car crashes and other news worthy stories is looking for his in to the art community. When he is introduced to a gallery owner he is told that his work is not good enough, to keep trying. Later that night be finds what he was looking for in a girl about to be mugged and assuming as well she will be raped. Before he saves her he takes photos of the attack. The gallery owner tells him to find two more photos like that and he can be in her next show. Instead he becomes obsessed with the fact that the girl he saved went missing right after he saved her. He figures out that it's a butcher (Mahogany, who says only 3 words the whole movie) who he thinks is abducting people, but we know better, right? From that point on it's him trying to prove that this guy is a killer.

Vinnie Jones is very scary in it as Mahogany, Bradley Cooper and Leslie Bibb were also very convincing. This movie walks up to the edge, pauses a moment and walks across it, then it breaks into a sprint, and flies over the edge. It is utter insanity, I tried hard not to turn away, and it made me queasy. I'm talking about buckets of red corn syrup. I'm not into that. They had a problem showing a little to much of the kills, I'd rather a lot of it be left up to the imagination.

When it came to the way it was shot....awesome. Very quick moving without any sort of crazy shaking in the camera. There are three colors the whole movie, Yellow, Green and Blue, with plenty of Black to fill in the shadows. There are two incredible POV shots. One a woman is trying to crawl away in a puddle of blood, she is pulled backwards and her head knocked off by a large metal mallet, we stay in her POV even after her head comes to a stop after rolling. Incredibly violent; yes, a great shot; definitely. I really liked the way it was shot, the Cinematographer (Johnathan Sela) takes risks and I liked it for that. Think "Se7en," or "Panic Room" and you'll get an idea of how it looks and feels. Most of the action takes place at night, its dreary and twisted.

A small complaint, it's the Midnight Meat Train, yet the killing goes on at 2 in the morning, not be a stickler, but the title isn't very accurate. Like I said earlier it is insanity, but when you get to the end you will see just how far the insanity goes. As a horror movie I think it does well, nothing is properly explained, it is very violent, and if that's what you want it certainly will satisfy that appetite. If you don't like gory horror movies NEVER watch this. Overall because of the way it was shot I give it 7/10 stars, but otherwise the story wasn't fantastic.

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Vinnie Jones, Roger Bart

The Hole Story

To start out with let me just tell you that "The Hole Story" is not real, its a mockumentary. Not that you couldn't have figured that out on your own, but as far as fake documentaries go it is very believable. The story is very simple, a man named Alex comes to Brainerd Minnesota with a small camera crew to make a pilot episode of a show about mysteries in America.

He is doing it with his own money. It all would go okay if only the mystery they went there to see and talk about hadn't disappeared. Its 20 below there, and there is a very large hole in the middle of a lake that should be iced over, by several inches if not feet. Well when they get there it turns out the hole is gone, and no one can tell them when it might come back. So now its a waiting game, and a desperate attempt by Alex to shoot enough footage of other people talking about the hole to fill his episode out.

He becomes erratic and the story moves on from there. It is funny, but not laugh out loud funny. The humor is more derived out of a sort of Murphy's Law. There are some really beautiful shots of frozen lakes, and the colorful characters who make up the town. It didn't get a release that was more than a handful of art theatres, not like that's a surprise. It is a stand alone movie, it takes place entirely within the confines of the world he creates. It was fun and I really liked it, as I watched it I was in tremendous pain from a kidney stone, but I still managed to smile as I watched. 7/10 stars.

Director: Alex Karpovsky

Starring: Alex Karpovsky

Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock

Well....where to start, where to start. Right off the bat I'll tell you it's a very good documentary, whether you like or know anything about modern art or not it is still very interesting. Very well done for looking low budget, they don't need or use any flair that might take away from the story. The thing I didn't like, or at least made me frown and roll my eyes is that almost every person they talk to in this is just despicable, in one way or another.

There are the exceptions, the old friend of Pollocks who says with wisdom that he can't say if the painting is a Pollock or not, and the forensic scientist who uses his skills to at least try and prove one way or another that it is genuine. But to take a step back, the story is simple, a white trash woman buys a painting that she thinks is ugly for a friend. The friend doesn't want it, and thus they try and sell it in a garage sale, a art teacher sees it and says it might be a Pollock. And so the roller coaster begins. This woman becomes convinced that it is, and wont take any less than 50,000,000. Simply because someone said IF it is a Pollock it MIGHT be worth that amount. As she is turned down and denied by the art community she gets more rabid saying that what do they know, why couldn't it be. In a way she has a point, but she wants it to be worth money so bad if there is any nay-saying she will say they are wrong, and she knows nothing about art.

Not to defend the art experts, because they are just as small and petty. One of them pompously says "Well what could she know, nothing" And he is right, but he doesn't have to be such a total tool about it. She is denied and denied, and instead of staying on the straight and narrow she starts lying to people about how she got the painting, and that's where I stepped away from her side. She would have went though with the lie to sell the thing 100% if she hadn't been asked to prove it. She is white trash, and she isn't trying to better herself, she wants her cut any way she can get it. So she starts bringing on other nefarious characters to help her prove its a real Pollock. One of them was in prison for selling fake paintings, and others are just in it for the quick buck, even it seems her son.

There is though, the occasional break where someone says something wise, such as another master fake painter looking at it and when asked, "Could you do this?" he responds with he couldn't, but he cant say if its real. As well as the long time friend who also says its to gray of an area to tell. The scientist who finds matching finger prints, and studies the panting extensively is the only really good argument that it is authentic. When the art community doesn't want to accept his findings the woman gets angry (this isn't a court of law) She thinks they should be forced to buy it, or at least sign off as saying it's real. The truth is no one could say for sure, the finger print is good, but not good enough (partial match)

The woman is offered 2,000,000, she wont accept that, she claims on principle. Yeah, right, she just wants to drip it for all its worth, and why shouldn't she, but with out proof shes going to have to accept that no one will take that huge of a jump to buy something that could be worthless. I mean would you buy something for 50 million if there was a sizable chance that it wasn't worth the canvas its painted on? Even later shes offered 9,000,000, still not good enough though. It seems she will be buried with the thing, she is to stubborn to understand, or ignorant I suppose to let go of the fact that no one has to believe her about it being real, since she hasn't a clue if it is or not. I pity her, but she should take the 9 million and walk, she nearly dead and living in a trailer, what's she need 50 million for. Great documentary, everyone should take a gander. 8/10 stars.

Director: Harry Moses

P.S. Honestly from the looks of it, I don't think it is a Pollock, I'm no expert on him, but I don't think it is his, I know his work well enough to say that much. But wisdom should prevail, I could be wrong!

There Was No War in '72

After completing "There Was No War in '72" I think I've found a pattern or a theme that goes along with Israeli movies. I've watched a few recently, and the two heavily pushed points are as follows: Guilt, and people are normal.

The few Israeli movies Ive watched all seem to revolve around normal everyday people doing normal everyday things, and most of the story is under dramatized. This film, made in 1995, but looks like its from the 70's focuses on a kid shortly after the 6 Day War, who is basically a fuck up. He gets kicked out of school, runs away, bothers everyone in his family as they try to help him. His father is sick of him, but his mother is still trying to coax him out of it, they play good cop/ bad cop. None of it seems to work though. That is the story in a nutshell, and so it right away made me think of "The 400 Blows" even the ending shot seems to be taken from 400.

The cast does a fair job, and there is an interesting mix of English and Hebrew in it. Although as a foreign film I saw no significant cultural difference, it could have been in America or in most of Europe. They only mention Arabs a few times, most of the focus is on the family dynamic. They don't even mention the war in it. It was boring for the most part, and I chalk that up to the fact that it's not telling an extraordinary tale, its just life. "Yom Yom" another Israeli movie I watched a few months ago had some of the same cast, specifically Natali Atiya, who is gorgeous. There is just something about her face, she really made the movie a lot better even though she isn't in it a lot. I must not be alone on finding her attractive since they put her on the cover of the box for "Yom Yom" and she is by no means even close to being a central character.

Like I said earlier the movie was sort of boring, and I kept getting annoyed with the kid for not just manning up and taking some responsibility, then again he was only 14. He's like an emo kid, everything is everyone else's fault and he just wants to play his guitar. Although if you look at it from the perspective that perhaps he is stupid then his behavior makes sense, and he is just not going to function that well.

Overall it was good, but if you want to see something blow up, or aliens or a comedy this isn't going to be what you want to pop in. 6/10 stars.

Here is a picture of the girl I was talking about so you see what I mean by gorgeous.

Director: Davis Kreiner

Starring: Adam Abulafia, Tova Asher, Samuel Edelman

War, Inc.

So I checked out the movie "War, Inc." because based on the preview it looked funny and interesting. Certain parts of it definitely had that going for it, but for the most part it just falls flat on its face.

Not the first movie to have the main character be a sensitive hitman who wants to get out of the business....strike one (since it wasn't done well) They try to make fun of the corporization of war in other countries where we as Americans simply do it to make money (might be true, might not be) but my problem isn't with that message, I'm fine with that message, my problem with that is that its done so clumsily its like if someone tried to fit an elephant into a smartcar....strike two. Strike three comes in the form of its lead, John Cusak, I don't believe for more than a second that he is a killer and can fight at all.

John Cusak holding a gun, have you ever heard of something so ridiculous. Now aside from that the cast is actually decent, none of them do very well with the under written and franky ridiculous characters they are given, but they couldn't do much with them anyway. I liked Hillary Duff as a bimbo pop star who is hiding the fact that shes a real person. Marrissa Tomei does a fair job as well. It just seemed to jump all around way to much, never focusing enough on his shadowed past, or the current situation, it was very under written and foggy. And as a satire it isn't funny enough. There were a few parts that made me laugh, and more than a chuckle, but it wasn't the satire. It was watching Ben Kingsley in a wheel chair trying to charge John Cusak who simply just steps out of the way. A physical gag, that's fine, but if that's the only part I'm laughing at, then someone dropped the ball somewhere.

Towards the end the story just gets to the point of utter absurdity, and still manages to give us a family safe happy ending, although the movie is not family safe...why end it like that? It was to predictable, to simple, the twists come right when you know they will and you know it all from the start anyway. I'm not sure why any of these people signed on to make it, I know Cusak helped write it, so there's one answer, but maybe he should just stick to his High Fidelity characters and shlubby charm and not branch to far from that. Overall it was a waste of time, but wasn't something I was angry I had watched, it just needed a lot of work. 4/10 stars. If someone has rented this and suggests you watch it just say no....like D.A.R.E.

Director: Joshua Seftel

Starring: John Cusak, Marissa Tomei, Hillary Duff, Ben Kingsley