We’ve been doing the Weekend Film Recommendation for a little while now and this is the first time that I’ve included a Martin Scorcese film, which is surprising because he is my favorite director. There are a couple of his films on Netflix Instant (Casino, Mean Streets, The Last Temptation of Christ) and all of them are more than worth checking out. However, I chose to hone in on Gangs of New York.
As with most Scorcese films, you’re going to need three hours or so to sit down and watch, but this is one of those films that doesn’t feel like it actually takes that long. Scorcese sets up engrossing characters and an intriguing plot within the first five to ten minutes of the film, anchored strongly in Daniel Day Lewis’ Oscar Nominated performance as Bill the Butcher. Lewis has a way of making what could have been a static character and bringing the viewer to both admire and despise him equally. Everything he does is grand and charismatic, and the cinematography brings that to light, especially in scenes with large crowds.
The subtle social commentary about the balance between tradition and progress, run beautifully throughout the film until it comes to its ultimate culmination in the end. To me, while this may not be Scorcese’s best film, it is one of his most thoughtful and socially significant ones since Taxi Driver. It is equal parts brutal, bold and beautiful.
There is a downside I will mention in passing: Cameron Diaz. She does her best to sabotage a work of art with her fake Irish accent and cardboard acting, but fortunately she is only in the film a small amount. Also, her performance is counter-balanced by such great actors as Leonardo DiCaprio, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, and John C. Reilly.
While I am not belittling Adrien Brody’s performance in The Pianist, I think Daniel Day Lewis was robbed of the Oscar that year, and it was also sad to see another outstanding directorial work by Scorcese get waived by the Academy, prolonging his long overdue recognition.
Trailer:
To add Gangs of New York to your Netflix Instant Queue, click here.
Even with all the negative buzz about Sucker Punch, I expected it to top the box office this past weekend. However, it was outdone by Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules. Still, both of them sputtered around this weekend, Wimpy Kid made $24 million and Sucker Punch made $19 million. Limitless took third place with $15 million. We definitely have an eclectic bunch of films coming out this weekend, but this week there is a treasure trove of limited releases that might be worth checking out as well.
Synopsis from IMDB: An action thriller centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.
Trailer:
Chris’ Take: I was hesitant to be interested in this film. I am not a huge fan of Jake Gyllenhaal, that might be because my fiance is, but that is beside the point. While it looked like a cool concept, it also looked a lot like Deja Vu. Also, I hadn’t seen a full length trailer until just now either. I had seen the frenetic tv bits of explosions and looks of sad sack desperation that Gyllenhaal has mastered, so I was skeptical. But the full length trailer is pretty solid and it is directed by Duncan Jones, who wrote and directed 2009’s Moon, which was a great film. This will be his second full length feature and the early reviews have been positive (currently 86% on RT) so this is probably a safe bet this weekend.
Synopsis from IMDB: E.B., the Easter Bunny’s teenage son, heads to Hollywood, determined to become a drummer in a rock ‘n’ roll band. In LA, he’s taken in by Fred after the out-of-work slacker hits E.B. with his car.
Trailer:
Chris’ Take: While James Marsden usually does better in comedic roles, this isn’t really what I had in mind. Plus, Russell Brand is just a grating british accent when you take away his continual string of vulgar humor. Throw in the words, “From the Director of Alvin and the Chipmunks” and you can guarantee I’ll be staying away from this one. While I might not be excited about this film, I know people who love animated cute furry animals are, so if that is your thing, this could be the movie for you this weekend.
Synopsis from IMDB: A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.
Trailer:
Chris’ Take: It has been a little while since there was a decent horror film, but based on the cast and people involved with this project, I am mildly optimistic. James Wan hasn’t done a whole lot for the horror genre since he gave us the first Saw film, but that became the gift that kept on giving. I hope that this film is more focused and finished than that, but I will probably wait for DVD for this one.
Synopsis from IMDB: After his wife falls under the influence of a drug dealer, an everyday guy transforms himself into Crimson Bolt, a superhero with the best intentions, though he lacks for heroic skills.
Trailer:
Chris’ Take: My first thoughts about this were that it looked exactly like Kick-Ass, but with a higher billed cast. I watched the trailer though and found myself chuckling quite a bit. Unfortunately, since this is a limited release, I will probably have to wait for Netflix. While Rainn Wilson does look funny in this film, I still am not sure about his ability to anchor an entire movie. Fortunately, this time around he has some better talent surrounding him than his last starring venture, The Rocker.
Synopsis from IMDB: When Robert, an inanimate tire, discovers his destructive telepathic powers, he soon sets his sights on a desert town; in particular, a mysterious woman becomes his obsession.
Trailer:
Chris’ Take: Yes, you read that synopsis correctly. No, you were not hallucinating when you were watching that trailer. This is a movie about a murderous, telekinetic tire. The trailer for this film started making tracks (pun intended) several months ago, circulating in movie forums like Reddit, usually with the headline, “Is this a joke?” To tell you honestly, I am still not sure. I mean, it is being released in theaters on April Fools Day, but I hope so much that it is for real because this movie looks subversively hilarious.
Synopsis from IMDB: A teenage girl is targeted by an online sexual predator.
Trailer:
Chris’ Take: I’m really glad that I don’t really have to see David Schwimmer’s face anymore. His first directorial feature, Run Fatboy Run, was a comedy, he stuck with what he knows and he didn’t do half bad, making me like him much more behind the camera than in front of it (not that that was difficult). Now, he is stepping into unfamiliar territory with Trust and it is doing really well with critics and was an official selection at a couple of Film Festivals. I am intrigued by the premise, hopefully going away from the overwrought tone of most predatory films and delving into the ripple effect it creates in the lives of those it involves.
Synopsis from IMDB: A man trapped in a car wreck at the bottom of a ravine must overcome incredible odds to survive.
Trailer:
Chris’ Take: This film looks like a mix of Buried, Alive and Unknown. I like Adrien Brody, except when he is pretending to be an action hero, so hopefully this will recover him from that. I am on the fence about this one, but it might be worth checking out.
Synopsis from IMDB: The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.
Trailer:
Chris’ Take: In a Better World was the Academy Award Winner for Best Foreign Language Film and it is now getting a limited release in U.S. theaters. It looks like a pretty intense view of a long distance family and is probably worth viewing on Netflix, or it might be available On Demand.
Wow, thank God it was $5 movie Monday when I saw this. I went into this film wanting so bad to like it because I had heard so many good things about it and I liked the first Predator movie, but none of the rest after it. I thought that the film had promise, especially since Robert Rodriguez seemed to be the perfect director for this kind of movie. However, I left the theater extremely disappointed. While I knew this would be the type of film where my mind would have to be on standby, I didn’t think that it would be so bad to the point that it expected me to shut it down completely.
“Predators” starts out great, launching us right into the story with Adrien Brody (since you don’t find out his name until later), falling from the sky onto an unknown planet. He is soon greeted by other strangers and it turns out that they are all various types of assassins or killers, with the exception of a mysterious doctor (Topher Grace). They soon find out that they are on an alien hunting ground and need to adapt quickly in order to survive. I could say that there was more to the plot, but there really isn’t.
I thought the opening 20 minutes were great and suspenseful, hitting the ground (literally) running and creating an eerie mysterious atmosphere and some great visuals. Adrien Brody, even with 20 added pounds, didn’t make a great action star, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief there (gotcha Rodriguez, mind is on standby). Lots of ammo wasted in the first 30 minutes, okay, I can deal with that, it’s just a fun summer movie. Then, came the kicker, the female assassin figures out what the creatures are and even tells everyone how they are beaten; you put mud all over your body to block your heat signature. I expected everyone to right away find any mud they could and cover themselves with it. Instead, they go, “Ohhhh, that’s cool,” and completely ignore her. Even the girl doesn’t heed her own advice. I could understand if they left one person uncovered as bait so they could find out more about the predators, but instead they just all stay fully visible with their heat signatures. Maybe I missed something, I hope I did (even though everyone that I was with couldn’t see why they didn’t do it either), but all I could think about the whole movie is that they know how to beat them and they just are too lazy or something to do it until almost all of them are dead. It’s like having a wound that is very clearly going to get infected, but not wanting to go grab the rubbing alcohol to clean the wound because it is on the other side of the room and then complaining that it is getting infected.
From there, it is all downhill. They meet a crazy and overweight Laurence Fishburne and several useless plot devices are introduced, such as there being two breeds of feuding Predators and one of the most boring samurai sword fights I have ever seen. I think if I hadn’t been so put off by the fact at how stupid they were and how they deserved to die I think I would have been entertained, but my brain just could not shut itself completely down to care about these people.
Also, I was pissed off because I counted seven different people throughout the movie who were texting on their phones and it was distracting. This one guy in front of me had a full blown twenty minute text conversation on his phone during the movie. He had his phone open the whole time. I was able to read it over his shoulder and the guy was catching up with an old friend or something about his lack of life .Who does that during a movie? There is a special layer of hell reserved for people who text or talk on cell phones during movies (unless it is a total emergency and if that is happening you should probably leave the theater or it isn’t that much of an emergency).
So, for all of these aforementioned reasons (some cinematic some due to texters) I did not enjoy Predators. I will still probably go see the sequel that it got left open for because I do still hold out hope for a gritty version of the Predator franchise that will bring it back to its full potential.
I’m excited to try my hand at writing a review on a current movie. It is 9am on a Saturday and I am still not fully adjusted to the sunlight beaming through my glass door, but I just wanted to get this out there for my readers before I launched into the rest of my day. (By launch I mean launch myself from my couch to a deck chair and sip a Brooklyn Summer Ale).
I think I will stick with the standard four star system for my reviews. So here goes!
SPLICE (2010) : ** 1/2 out of 4 stars
Vincenzo Natali makes his first highly publicized film after having a cult following since his 1997 indie horror film, “Cube” (in which he plays out his sick mathematical dream scenario of what should happen to English majors who snicker and compare him to literary characters he has never heard of). He makes a stylish effort with “Splice” to make a head smart movie that delves into some seriously disturbing sides of human nature.
Essentially, “Splice” is about two mad scientists who are madly in love (oh that was terrible) and are on the brink of one of the greatest scientific discoveries of their time, splicing the DNA of multiple animals with human DNA to form a compound that could cure many diseases including some forms of cancer. When their project doesn’t receive the go ahead because of the moral implications, they decided to do the un-smart thing and do the project in secret. What they came up with was what looked like splicing the genes from Britney Spears (post-headshave), Gene Simmons to copy his tongue, Susan Sarandon to get her legs, and James Cameron to get the devil’s tail. In reality, it was multiple animals (they only flashed it across the screen once, but the combination of animals is not important) and an anonymous human donor.
The result is the creature, Dren, who takes on predominantly human features, including brain development. She also has a tail with a poisonous pincer. The two mad scientists grow attached to this creature, in more disturbing ways than one and while the creature continues to evolve, the two main characters seem to devolve back to the equivalent of those rednecks in “Deliverance.”
The movie, for the most part, accomplishes what it sets out to do; be a more sophisticated horror movie driven by strong performances from lead actors (primarily Adrien Brody who still looks like he is under contract with the movie “The Pianist” to stay below a healthy weight). What the movie fails to do is be as smart as it thinks it is. While the characters themselves say they have crossed the moral line of right and wrong, they seem to just give a nod to the moral issues at hand instead of fleshing them out entirely and making the film complete.
When this movie is disturbing, it is truly disturbing. There are images from the movie that will stick inside my brain for a while. Also, there is a line at the end of the movie (which I don’t want to ruin) that is on the equivalent to when the zombies first say “Braaaains.” Overall, an ambitious film that could be great if there are some added scenes in the director’s cut DVD.
We’ve been doing the Weekend Film Recommendation for a little while now and this is the first time that I’ve included a Martin Scorcese film, which is surprising because he is my favorite director. There are a couple of his films on Netflix Instant (Casino, Mean Streets, The Last Temptation of Christ) and all of them are more than worth checking out. However, I chose to hone in on Gangs of New York.
Brian Pac Sostak
Chris Petersen
Sarah Higgins
stjerome03
Chris and Pac Take on Hollywood 
