Reviews
As the movie entered its stride, the first question to come to mind was, “Is humiliating/abusing women on screen ‘in’ now?” Fortunately, the film’s direction does change to a less offensive, worthwhile watch early on. On a suburban street, two masked men seize a young woman. They bind and gag her and take her to an abandoned, soundproofed apartment. She is Alice Creed (Gemma Arterton), daughter of a millionaire. Her kidnappers, the coldly efficient Vic (Eddie Marsan) and his younger accomplice Danny (Martin Compston), have worked out a meticulous plan. But Alice is not going to play the perfect victim...
So, they made a second sequel to Step Up. Wow. The fact that they made even one sequel astounds me, and I am a huge sucker of dance movies. Thank goodness they tacked that ‘D’ to the end, because if they just made Step Up 3, I don’t know if I could have handled it. But there it is, the crucial element: D. The third dimension. Right away, we get to throw away every criticism we could imagine up for plot, script, and acting, because this movie was made solely for the purpose of bringing dance to a new level....
In his debut as a feature film director (he’s won an Oscar already for his first short film), Aaron Schneider has gotten it right: Get Low (2009) is a terrific film. Toronto audiences already got an early peek at the film last September at TIFF, but it was finally released in theatres last weekend. A period comedy / drama set in late 1930s Tennessee, it’s based on a real 1938 event, a “live funeral,” and (much more loosely) on the life of a real man (Felix “Bush” Breazeale). And though it’s been released during the hottest summer Toronto’s seen in...
The buddy cop movie has been produced to great success many times, with the Lethal Weapon series being a prime example. There is a template that most follow and a short list of scenarios that show up in each. Writer/director Adam McKay was the man behind the widely popular Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. However, in creating The Other Guys, McKay appears to have ignored most of the standards as well as his own recipe for funny....
I figured that Dinner for Schmucks, a remake of Francis Veber’s Le Dîner de Cons, wouldn’t quite capture the spirit of the original, but I didn’t think it would be that bad. They took a thoughtful, well-acted dark comedy, and turned it into something flashy, gimmicky, and dumb in the worst way. Yes, it is possible to do stupid jokes well, when there is a general spirit of silliness and abandon – instead, Dinner for Schmucks gives you the feeling that the writers and director are just exploiting cheap little moments, slaughtering the subtlety of their source material....
A protagonist on the run with a need to prove his/her innocence is not an original concept; but with Salt, Angelina Jolie joins the ranks of great women casted in roles written for men – in this case Tom Cruise dropped out and Edwin Salt became Evelyn Salt. As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt (Jolie) swore an oath to duty, honour and country. But her loyalty is tested when a defector accuses Salt of being a Russian spy. She goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt’s efforts...
Christopher Nolan makes movies. Now I don’t mean that Chris Nolan makes movies, I mean he makes movies. He makes movies that make you love movies. In Inception he has so finely crafted a story into a near-perfect movie that it leaves its audience baffled and dazzled, all the while marveling at the utter achievement of what they have just experienced. Nolan has created a movie that so completely defies reviewing that it seems silly to even try. In short: It’s really good....
The Kids Are All Right lives up to its high expectations in just about every way. Director Lisa Cholodenko brings one of the most compelling cinematic family portraits in recent times. There are many ways you can watch this movie – you can take it seriously, you can take it lightly, or you can wonder whether that overused Tolstoy quote about happy and unhappy families is valid. Despite the “unconventional family” setup, it is quite possible that something in this movie will remind you of family relations in your own life, but even if it doesn’t, the talented cast and...
Nicolas Cage is best known for his tortured looks and serious demeanour (excluding more recent pictures) and Jay Baruchel is well known for his deadpan deliveries in dark comedies. But in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, both actors appear to have decided to just have fun in the Disney live-action fantasy. Dave (Baruchel) is just an average college student, until the sorcerer Balthazar Blake (Cage) recruits him as his reluctant protégé and gives him a crash course in the art and science of magic. As he prepares for a battle against the forces of darkness in modern-day Manhattan, Dave finds it is...
The purpose of a trailer is to highlight the main selling point of a movie, hopefully without revealing too much of the plot. Those of you that have seen the trailer for Despicable Me probably recall a little girl screaming, “It’s so fluffy!” or asking, “Does this count as annoying?” You should note the star voice featured in the film is Steve Carell, but he’s definitely not the star of the movie....
As Bella whimsically recites the beautifully visual words of Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice” in the first few minutes of Eclipse’s opening scenes, one cannot help but notice a not-so-subtle parallel between the meaning of the poem and the narrative of the franchise. And maybe that’s the point, but if it is, comparing anything by Robert Frost to Twilight might be seen as, well, a tad over-ambitious. And it is. Despite this hubris, however, Twilight: Eclipse is not only the best entry to the melodramatic vampire series, but also one entertaining summer movie....
In Cyrus, writers and directors Jay and Mark Duplass take a simple and familiar concept and see what happens when you add a bit of subtlety to it. I’m sure you have seen stories involving a grownup man who is overly attached to his mother, and it is often presented as ridiculous material meant for easy laughs. This film presents this and other types of unhealthy relationships in a more life-like way. Although it is funny in many parts, the humour is darker than I had expected, and I was quite disturbed at the same time as I was giggling....
