Frailty

** – These days it seems like a large number of filmmakers have gotten the mistaken impression that throwing a twist ending into their movie will make it an instant classic. Bill Paxton’s 2002 directorial debut “Frailty” (in which he also stars) is one such movie. I am not immune to the charms of surprising turns in films, but when they are done as clumsily and seemingly out of nowhere as they are in this movie - which tells the tale of a crazy guy who thinks God is telling him to kill demons (i.e. murder people) along with his two pre-teen sons - the charm quickly veers into semi-insulting cheesiness. While the story and plot certainly won’t win this any awards, it’s really the wretched directing of Paxton (who I continually hoped would spout out some gems from the only movie has been good in, “Aliens,” such as “we’re all gonna die, man!”) that makes this so hard to watch. Using techniques like pushes and long, laborious pans up a person’s body are gimmicky and overused even when done well, and here they are done exceedingly unprofessionally. Maybe I am being too hard on this because of Paxton’s heavy involvement, but I found it to be deficient in many respects and a fairly poor entry in a genre I am generally pretty fond of.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

*** - All I can say to Jeff Anderson is this; I sure hope that’s pudding! This is in reference to a scene in this 2008 Kevin Smith movie in which Anderson, while filming a scene of anal intercourse, is blasted in the face by what appears to be a completely full small intestine worth of poop. That scene rivals the one in “Austin Powers 2” in which Mike Myers drinks a cup of poop as the most disgusting poop-related scene in cinema history. Putting that aside, and the numerous shots of Jason Mewes’ ass (and a shot of his ding dong), and “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” is actually a pretty funny movie, and a definite improvement over Smith’s previous film “Clerks II” and “Jersey Girl.” The dialogue is outstanding and the actors do a fantastic job delivering it, especially Anderson, Mewes, the black guy from the US version of “The Office” and Justin Long as a gay porn star. Even Seth Rogen – who I normally can’t stand – is fairly funny in this despite the fact that his main selling points as an actor are, as far as I can tell, his abilities to be loud and hairy. There is a lot about the film that is highly implausible, the romantic plotline is hackneyed and dull, and it is filmed without much artistry, but all of that is par for the course for a Smith film. The key is the dialogue, and Smith is at his raunchy, funny best here.

Iron Man 2

***1/2 – Having a movie both begin and end with someone or something flying into or out of the picture accompanied by the annoying strains of an AC/DC song is not the way for a filmmaker to impress me. Luckily, those two parts of Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man 2” are arguably the worst two in a film that is otherwise pretty enjoyable on most levels. Yeah, there’s a lot of largely unbelievable technology - such as Tony Stark’s creation of a highly advanced particle accelerator in his living room over the course of an evening - but it’s a sci-fi superhero film, so that sort of thing is to be expected. And, yeah, all the shots of women in the movie seem to rather immaturely focus on the hinder region for a little longer than is probably natural, but this is a movie that is supposed to be appealing to adolescent male nerds, so, again, that is to be expected. And, yeah, there are lots of huge explosions and gunfire and corny one-liners being spouted, but… well, I actually like that sort of thing. The plot is a little on the weak/hackneyed side, and seeing as it seems to eschew the comic book’s continuity by combining a couple of Iron Man villains into one, it probably tends to anger the nerdish side of me. But Sam Rockwell was awesome as Tony Stark’s rival Justin Hammer, and lent a much needed breath of fresh air to what could have easily become a rather stal

The Wild Blue Yonder

** - German filmmaker Werner Herzog has always reminded me a little bit of John Banner’s portrayal of Sergeant Schultz in “Hogan’s Heroes” (which also starred deviant sex practitioner Bob Crane, by the way). Kind of a big, jolly, genial, lovable Bavarian type of guy, who seems like he might at any moment throw his huge head backwards in a loud, guttural belly laugh and wrap his enormous arms around you in a beer-fueled outburst of pure friendship and brotherhood. The reason I mention this is because that quality about him makes it very difficult for me to trash one of his movies, such as his 2005 fake documentary stinkburger “The Wild Blue Yonder”. However, I feel that I must overcome my hesitance and move forward with the insulting critique, even though it could potentially cause Herzog to drop his doughy head to his chest and slump sadly into a large, well-worn recliner. This movie attempts to tell some sort of goofy narrative about aliens living on Earth and a human voyage to an ice planet in the Andromeda Galaxy through a series of randomly strung together shots taken from NASA archival footage and an Antarctic deep sea expedition. These dull scenes are connected by a number of faux-interviews with Brad Dourif (playing an alien, which is certainly not a stretch for him) set in what appears to be a junkyard. The movie is crap, but the score – which is a collaboration of Dutch cellist Ernst Reijeseger, Senegalese singer Mola Sylla, and a Sardinian choir – is phenomenal.

Repo Men

**1/2 – This thinly veiled commentary on American consumer culture, corporate domination and health care malfeasance has a concept with some legs beneath it, but fails to maintain enough entertainment value to make it a very good picture. It’s the not-too-distant future and a gigantic conglomerate controls the manufacture, sale and surgical insertion/extraction of the artificial organs and body part replacements that have become nearly ubiquitous amongst the populace. They’re own force of hired goon ‘repo men’ go around maiming, killing and recovering organs from people who are unable to pay the exorbitant fees that are charged for things like new livers, hearts, kidneys, extremity joints and sensory organ enhancements. There seems to be little or no actual law enforcement or governmental control, which struck as odd while watching the repo men run rampant through the streets. Jude Law is one of these repo men who has a change of heart (both literally and figuratively) and goes on the lam while being hunted down by Forest Whitaker and Liev Schreiber. This movie had a lot of what I felt was unnecessary gore and also featured a pretty cheeseball ending that was fairly predictable given that it is frequently hinted at clumsily during the earlier stages of the film. It’s an okay flick, but I certainly don’t have any plans to add this one to my own DVD library.

Castle: The Complete 1st Season

**** - Captain Reynolds plays a roguish mystery novelist who is contracted by the NYPD to shadow a detective team and help them solve murders in the 10-episode first season of this rather light-hearted procedural/mystery/drama show. That summary may sound a bit contrived, and while I would probably agree with that assessment, I think it works well enough as the season proceeds that it can be forgiven. Fillion is always good for a few laughs and the female lead is appealing enough (wink, wink), but I don’t necessarily buy her as an NYC detective, seeing as she is mega-beautiful and often wearing tight jeans and heeled shoes, which I can’t imagine is standard NYPD procedure. The more peripheral characters are a bit hit and miss as far as their effectiveness, with the other detectives being mostly hits, but Fillion’s family (daughter, mother, ex-wife) being mostly misses. Story-wise, I don’t think you’ll find more engrossing 42-minute mystery plots anywhere on TV. And while I’ve always felt an hour long (minus commercials) show isn’t really long enough to make a fully fleshed out mystery that works, most of the episodes of this series are making me rethink that stance somewhat. Overall, it is an interesting and humorous addition to the brand of shows that include L&O, CSI, NCIS and other series with goofy acronyms.

S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale

** - The girl who played the foul-mouthed little sister in Richard Kelly’s excellent “Donnie Darko” is all grown up… and super hot! That is pretty much all I took away from this sadly misguided and unnecessary attempt to turn a rather intriguing intellectual property into what I assume was intended to be turned into a franchise. This movie added absolutely nothing to the original and was pretty much just a rehash of its ideas in a different setting. “Donnie Darko” auteur Richard Kelly had nothing to do with this dull, ham-fisted, confusing and unforgivably lame direct-to-video clunker. The original film has a fairly limited following of sci-fi nerds, and I can’t imagine them (including myself) not being alienated by such a subpar effort, in which all the neat time travel ideas brought over from “Donnie Darko” are turned into gimmicky slop. One of the few bright spots was the solid score and the inclusion of several excellent shoegaze-type songs from the mid-90s by bands such as The Catherine Wheel, Dead Can Dance and The Cocteau Twins. I don’t think I can recommend this movie even for fans of the genre or for fans of the original film.

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

**1/2 – This 2004 black and white film written, directed, produced and starring a fellow named Larry Blamire is less a spoof of 1950’s sci-fi/horror B-movies than it is a faithful recreation of one. That being the case, a viewer’s appreciation for this film will be largely dependent upon their appreciation for said genre. After years of watching (or at least attempting to watch) the uncut original versions of movies that were riffed on by the show “Mystery Science Theater 3000” I have come to the eventual conclusion that my appreciation for the genre is a lot more linked to the MST3K riffing than it is to the actual films themselves. However, I do have some fondness for those movies that have cheesy effects, big rubber monsters, wooden acting, stilted dialogue, plots that make no sense, and extreme scientific speciousness. And, quite purposefully, “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra” has all of these things, and very accurately mimics those old films. It doesn’t go for campy spoof at all, instead relying on attempts to recreate the atmosphere, characters and situations that made 50s B-movies occasionally hilarious. To that end, though, the film is only marginally successful in creating comedy. But you can tell that the small cast and crew truly love the genre and made a genuine effort to recapture those days, so I have trouble being too hard on this one.

Spirited Away

**1/2 – In general, I don’t do ‘whimsy’. I have found that pretty much every attempt a film makes at achieving that quality ends in a miserable failure resulting in a horrifying nightmarish ordeal filled with creepy creatures and bizarre situations. “Spirited Away” – a critically acclaimed 2001 Japanese animated film – is the absolute epitome of the above-mentioned failed whimsy, and provides more nightmare fuel per minute than any given freaky European circus or freaky European puppet show. I must admit that there is a great degree of creativity and imagination shown here (or at least a lot of evidence of psychotropic drug use) in the forms of fantastical creatures and landscapes, but the whole deal has the confusing, frustrating and disorienting elements of a fever dream. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever watched any Japanimation that hasn’t had that quality. So I’m going to go ahead and rack that up to the wacky culture of the Japanese and their inability to translate it into something that a normal human would find enjoyable. It’s either that or a large quantity of drugs, and the Japanese are not known as big time users, as far as I am aware. In any event, getting back to the film at hand, I found it pretty dull, extremely odd and lacking in depth. It looked pretty nice, but that can only get a film so far in my book.

Das Lieben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)

****1/2 – Set in 1984 East Berlin, the 2007 German-language film “The Lives of Others” delves into the consequences that an extreme authoritarian government have on the artistic community and the public in general. Director Florian von Donnersmark and the production team do an outstanding job in recreating the East Germany of the Soviet era, while also maintaining a rich and vibrant visual style. I often find it very difficult to judge the quality of acting jobs done by performers who are working in a language that I do not speak. That is not the case in this film, though, as all the players clearly do an outstanding job, especially the unfortunately deceased Ulrich Mühe, who plays a Stasi captain whose newfound appreciation for art in its many forms is awoken while monitoring the activities of a playwright and his actress girlfriend. While it is rather lengthy (about 2 hours and 20 minutes) and not the most fast-paced film you will ever watch, it manages to stay engrossing throughout. The dialogue is difficult to comment on due to it being in German, and certain nuance may be lost in translation, but the English subtitles were of a high enough quality to do the acting justice, anyway. The movie jumps around a little bit at the end, but that doesn’t detract a great deal from a movie that is an outstanding accomplishment.

Robin Hood

***1/2 – While substantial liberties are taken with both history and the legend upon which it is based, Sir Wiggly Scott’s adaptation of the classic English folk tale manages to add more realistic elements than most of its predecessors and still retains a relatively consistent level of entertainment value. Being a history scholar, I am well aware that early Robin Hood tales were fairly dark, but the fact remains that most people nowadays associate Robin Hood with the happy-go-lucky overly saccharin portrayals by Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn which are set in a 12th century England where things are pretty much okay except for a high tax rate, an overbearing sheriff and a slightly power-crazed monarch. This version, however, reintroduces a more believable world in which there is constant poverty, illness, famine, brutality, oppression and warfare. That will probably not please those out there who are looking for a good ole family-friendly fairy tale, and may be the reason that the film was met with some critical backlash. Personally, I found the relative darkness and addition of more detailed historical elements (discounting the extreme license taken with factual events) to be some of the best aspects of this take on Robin Hood. It had some cornball dialogue and a number of cheesy scenes - not to mention relying pretty heavily on fight scenes - but it ended up being quite watchable for the most part.

Enemy of the State

***1/2 – It seems to me that all these super-ultra-mega-hyper governmental conspiracy movies are way off base on their expectations of what is actually able to be accomplished by said organization. Speaking as a federal employee with firsthand knowledge, I can say with some certainty that there is so much wasted time, so many uncooperative bureaucrats, and such a lack of motivated staff that the stuff that is presented in these movies is wholly impossible. If one is to fully appreciate a film like “Enemy of the State”, however, it is necessary to leave all that aside and believe the worst; that big brother is indeed capable of - and at least somewhat interested in - watching you. If you, like me, are at least marginally able to do that than you will probably find some enjoyment in this movie, despite the unexpectedly misplaced shootout at the end and the occasional technical gaffe (such as the ability of satellites to zoom in on a moving human by being given coordinates only down to arc minutes – which would actually yield an area somewhat larger than one square mile). It’s actually a pretty entertaining lark with solid acting, some decent action and plot devices, and a lot of jobs thrown to nerdy comedy-based character actors like Seth Green, Jason Lee, Jack Black and Jamie Kennedy, which is always a plus in my book.

Hot Tub Time Machine

**** - Your average gross-out ‘guy comedy’ is made for the very simple reason that studios know they will make money off of them. Dumb guys will take their equally dumb girlfriends to see them every time they come out because they’ll get a few laughs out of it, the tacked-on sentimental bullshit ending will cause their girlfriends to be considerably more likely to put out afterwards, and everybody is happy. While “Hot Tub Time Machine” treads dangerously close to that kind of grim territory, what keeps this above the pack by a large margin is the fact that the characters and situations have very close to zero sentimental content. This movie is played purely for laughs and avoids debasing itself entirely by refraining from being too graphic with the gross-out stuff (with the exception a couple of male asses and some projectile vomit). The retro kitsch factor in this 1986-based film is rather high, but the writers didn’t always go for the easy lame joke like a lot of other movies set in that time period do (such as “The Wedding Singer” etc.). It ends up being sort of like “The Hangover” set in the past with the schmucks-with-a-heart-of-gold crap tactfully extracted. That’s probably why this wasn’t particularly successful at the box office. It also, obviously, has time travel in it, so that certainly helped keep my interest.

Zwartboek (Black Book)

***1/2 – This Dutch film tells the tale of a Jewish woman’s flight from Nazi authorities and her subsequent activity in an underground resistance movement in the Netherlands during the dying days of World War II. I very much agree with what Kate Winslet astutely pointed out in “Extras” about Holocaust-themed movies ‘We get it. It was grim. Let’s move on.” And while this movie wasn’t directly related to the Holocaust, it certainly leaned in that general direction, and quite frankly there is only so much of that kind of thing that I can watch. That being said, “Zwartboek” was extremely well-made and looked fantastic and authentic. The acting was above-average and the fact that the story was told in such a way that you were never really sure whose side anybody was on until the very end kept it from being overly boring. Where this movie turned out being less than stellar was in its pacing, which was pretty slow throughout its 2 hour 30 minute run time, and in the rather disjointed beginning, which almost made it seem like it was just going to be a bunch of random vignettes of the main character’s life. Luckily, it didn’t end up that way, and finished as a nicely-made, cohesive and surprisingly original film on a subject that often lacks originality.