Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
Movie Review: Visioneers Starring Zach Galifianakis (Man Vs. Office Culture Continues)
Posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
Thirty minutes into Visioneers—a high concept indie dramedy that is, well, brand new to the public—I was consumed by the thought that I, most likely, will never see the movie for sale in a really choice record store. (Don’t worry, this movie review will not serve as a wistful rant on the music industry courtesy of a wannabe Nick Hornby or Chuck Klosterman.) The realization got me down for a half-a-second. Nevertheless, calling Visioneers a “prized would-be staple of the ‘choice record store movie genre’” is a tidy complement that sums up how I feel about it.
In the mid/late ‘90s and early ‘00s, one could find a softly-curated section of DVDs in many independent record stores. Browsing the small selection was a welcome, habitual cool-down after hours spent listening to and considering albums. Generally, the selection amounted to: concert films like Ziggy Stardust, The Show, and Bill Hicks Live. Drug movies like Easy Rider and Neco z Alenky. Godzillas. Tromas. “OG”-flicks like New Jack City and Fresh. Usually a movie starring Natasha Lyonne that wasn’t American Pie. Docs like Grey Gardens and The Corporation. And odd movies starring great comedians like The Magic Christian and The Razor’s Edge. Right, Visioneers would be bunched in with those two.
Of course, “cult movies” is a broad umbrella term for these films, then and especially now, but their location under a roof housing infinite great music birthed the silent notion that the works belonged to a cinematic family. The odd symbiotic relationship is perhaps why the DVDs were rarely purchased; another reason is that, while the DVDs were new, the hands of countless gross nerds, junkies, and patchouli weirdos had flipped them over in states of blank studiousness and after many months of this they felt second-hand. Yet another reason is that most of the diehard culture addicts were shopping for music and…had already seen the majority of these films multiple times.
Weeds Session: Episode “Su-Su-Sucio” Offers Jokes, Hugs, Voyeurism, and Blood Relief
Posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
In our latest wrap-up and discussion of Weeds—a show where it’s increasingly rare to see characters puffing the titular herb, mind you—we take a look at season cinco’s third episode, “Su-Su-Sucio.” After we found ourselves not so much stunned as exhausted and turned-off by the previous ep’s k-hole of casual misery (and forced entry), we were glad to kick back with a breezier follow-up. “Sucio” was filled with hugs, laffs, morning sex, and welcome family admission and reconciling between the MILFy sisters above. (Wait, we didn’t mean they had sex.) Sure, there were a few splotches of mysterious blood, but as with Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker), any blood in this ep came to symbolize relief (her blood) and a fast break (that dude’s). Spoiler alert from here on. I’ve included the plot synopsis for next week’s ep, “Super Lucky Happy,” at the bottom…
Movie Review: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
It would be easy to say that Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen plays like a movie made by a thirteen year old boy for other thirteen year old boys, but if that were actually the case, it might not be such a wretched experience. Made by a filmmaker who doesn’t seem to be much evolved beyond the mentality of a teenager, yes, Revenge of the Fallen could also probably be characterized as the Hollywood sequel machine run amok. Who needs ‘better’ when you can do more, louder, flashier?
Transformers is dull, ponderous and overlong, packed to the gills with glamor shots of busy robot designs and Megan Fox, flashes of idiocy (a small robot humping the leg of Fox, who smiles at it fondly) and endless examples of Bay’s increasingly tedious military porn. If summer entertainment is meant to be diverting and imaginative, Revenge of the Fallen succeeds only in that it drove me into periods of catatonic daydreaming, where I imagined watching anything else. Read More »
Movie Review: Year One Is A Lifeless, Laughless Throwback
Posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
In the wickedly underrated David Wain comedy Wet Hot American Summer, there is a sequence where Michael Showalter, in character as a stand-up comic geezer, entertains a bunch of kids at camp with awful jokes about the Stone Age. The joke isn’t his routine, but that the kids are laughing at these terrible, stale caveman gags. Thinking along those lines, I’d be happier (though unconvinced) if Harold Ramis argued that his new movie Year One was a full-length meta comedy about terrible jokes, though I know it’s just a bad, ramshackle movie that assumes its audience is comprised primarily of children. Read More »
Today, Tony Scott’s rendition of The Taking of Pelham 123 hits theaters. Lovers of Pelham subway-related film will know that the movie is based on a novel by Morton Freedgod (psuedonym: John Godey), in which four armed men hijack a New York City subway train and hold its hostages for ransom. It’s been made into a film twice before: Once in Joseph Sargent’s 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three starring Walter Matthau, and again as a 1998 TV movie starring Edward James Olmos.
As a fan of Joseph Sargent’s original film, I thought it might be interesting to compare his version with Scott’s new version, as I think some of the choices Scott made are pretty fascinating. If you haven’t seen the original, I’d suggest you watch before you read this, as I think it’s a great film that still holds up today. For obvious reasons, this article will contain massive spoilers for Joseph Sargent’s version of the film (1974) and Tony Scott’s version (2009). [Hit the jump at your own risk!]
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Movie Review: Land of the Lost Rocks (Peter Travers Can Suck It!)
Posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
It was a little before the half-way mark to Land of the Lost when a little kid started crying in the theater as the Sleestaks opened their reptilian beaks, revealing row after row of neat, razor-sharp teeth. We hadn’t even reached the scene in which Danny McBride’s misogynist, would-be casino maven, Will Stanton, stared directly into the camera while sitting in a swimming pool, tripping his fucking mind out on “narcotic” alien fruit-juice. The swimming pool was randomly parked on an inter-dimensional white sand desert sprinkled with a Viking ship, a broken-down Cessna, and a meta neon sign that blankly spells “Motel.” And as if exiting from Jeff Goldblum’s ear canal during a Jurassic Park hallucination, dinosaurs big and small were roaming the diverse terrain beyond. Land of the Lost is chockful of original, PG-13-hazing moments. And if you’re a parent and bring your kids to see it, you deserve a cool sticker.
For Hunter’s reviews/wrap-ups of the previous two episodes of Breaking Bad leading up to last Sunday’s divisive finale, click here for ep 11 (”Mandala”) and here for ep 12 (”Phoenix”).
Now that most everyone has caught up with the season finale of Breaking Bad, entitled “ABQ,” on their TiVo and what not, let’s take a look at what went…down. Actually, for the sake of disclosure, the mini-delay of this write-up is also due to the episode being a surprising disappointment in my eyes. For a series that is deftly founded on madcap realism, the natural awes of science, and the odds of consequence, I found “ABQ” to stretch way beyond the show’s established believability (and viewers’ trust therein).
[This review contains plot details revealed in the first 10 minutes of Pixar's Up]
Pixar’s movies have always depicted fantastical worlds spun out of reams of boundless creativity. A rat who dreamed of becoming a chef, and who lived out that dream through controlling a guy by pulling on his hair. An epic battle between ants and grasshoppers. A city full of monsters, powered by the screams of children. A family of superheroes that try to defeat a spurned ex-devotee.
It’s in the context of these wondrous films that Up emerges as Pixar’s entry for summer 2009. Directed by Pete Docter (Monsters Inc.), Up is Pixar’s most ambitious effort yet. Pixar films have always expertly been able to imbue fantasy with real-world emotions, but with Up, Docter tries to create a world that is both distinctively ours, yet also a universe of its own. How well does he succeed?
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Breaking Bad: Episode “Phoenix,” Flynn’s Ugly Website, and Season 2 Finale Predictions
Posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
Our recap and mini-essay for last week’s Breaking Bad proved surprisingly popular. We’re glad to see so many /Film readers tuning in to this superb AMC series; it’s a show that frantically cooks up smart debate…as well as predictions for several main characters that are exceedingly bleak and exciting. Today, we discuss “Phoenix,” the 12th episode leading up to next Sunday’s whoa-insured finale. Beware of major spoilers below. Feel free to share your theories on the end of season two, or opinions on the show’s growing comparisons with The Wire, in the comments.
McG’s Terminator Salvation hits theaters tomorrow, and so far it seems like the reaction is violently mixed. I screened the film earlier this week, and hope to write a review over the weekend, or maybe even appear on the /Filmcast, but here are my quick thoughts. If you’re expecting the movie to reach the bar set by Terminator and T2, you need to lower your expectations. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed this movie. The franchise does get Salvation, as the title implies, and the film is a HUGE improvement over Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
The action scenes are pretty damn cool, with McG paying homage to Children of Men/Alfonso Curon with a series of one-shot single camera sequences (which obviously aren’t one-shot, but stitched together in post) that will have you drooling. That said, the character development is almost non existent, the pacing is a mess and the dialogue could’ve been written by a 10-year-old. Overall, I enjoyed the film.
I know I might be in the minority. I understand how people might not think this is a good movie, but I’m surprised at some of the violently negative reaction the film has gotten in some of the early reviews. I think general audiences will like this film a lot more than critics. The film is getting an 8.4 out of 10 on IMDb with over 2000 votes (I expect this to go down to the 6.5-7.5 range) but only 34% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. I have compiled a bunch of excerpts from the early reviews after the jump.
Discuss: Did you see Terminator Salvation? What did you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Movie Review: The Brothers Bloom - A Con Film with a Heart
Posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 by David Chen
Every now and then, a director comes along whose debut film is so inventive and skillful that it heralds the arrival of a bold new creative voice. For director Rian Johnson, that film was Brick, a Dashiell Hammett mystery set in a California high school. With his stylish filmmaking (on a shoestring budget, no less) and his unique, enthralling dialogue, Johnson evinced a formidable degree of promise. It’s been four years since Brick won a Sundance Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision, and I’ve been extremely eager to see what Johnson would come up with for his follow-up. Does his new film, The Brothers Bloom, show that he’s more than just a one-hit wonder?
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Movie Review and Q&A: Alex Rivera’s Sleep Dealer
Posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 by Devindra Hardawar
Filmmaker Alex Rivera stopped by my sleepy little town (Amherst, MA) this past week to screen Sleep Dealer, his insanely ambitious debut feature film which debuted at Sundance ‘08, and was also nominated for the Grand Jury prize. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Rivera attended nearby Hampshire College, so his visit was also a bit of a homecoming as well. He seemed overjoyed to be back in his old stomping grounds, but the near sold-out crowd at the Amherst Cinema was even more excited to see the film.
Peter reviewed the film favorably last year at Sundance, and I’ve been eager to check it out since then. Read More »
