"Django
Unchained" is a blood-soaked, blackly funny, slavery-era extravaganza
of a film, compliments of Quentin Tarantino. It is a movie populated
with great actors delivering great dialogue, with some great gore and
not one but two epic shoot-outs at the end to top it off.
Django (Jamie Fox) is a slave who was separated from his wife,
Broomhilda Von Shaft (Kerry Washington) as punishment when the two tried
to run away together from their plantation. Forced to walk shackled to a
horse, under harsh winter conditions, Django is surprised to encounter
eccentric "dentist" Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), who turns out to
be a skilled bounty hunter.
"Martha Marcy May Marlene" is an amazing cinematic jolt to the nervous system, plain and simple. It stars Elizabeth Olsen as Martha, a girl who escapes to her sister and her brother-in-law's lakeside retreat after involving herself with some scary people.
But this is not the ordinary "victim escapes near death -- victim fights back story." By intertwining Martha's new life with scenes from her past, we are forced to confront the ambiguities of the situation -- is Martha being followed, or does she simply perceive it that way? Was Martha crazy before the events leading to her escape from the cult?
What exactly is Martha's secret? On the surface, she seems like a normal young girl, but inside her subconscious, an inner war rages. Elizabeth Olsen knocks it out of the park as fragile, damaged Martha, running from inner demons and stuck in a constant state of shell shock.
"The Princess Bride" is that rare classic that can be enjoyed by all members of the family, regardless of age. It is also a cute, mostly clean comedy that won't bore adults or go over the heads of kids.
In plotline #1, A sick little boy (played by 80's child-star Fred Savage) is presented by his grandfather (Peter O'Toole) with- not an Atari video game, as he no doubt would've hoped- but a leather bound book, 'The Princess Bride.'
We are soon pulled into the book and it happenings- of its characters, and lively scenes of swashbuckling and daring-do. Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright Penn) loves Wesley (Carey Elwes,) a lowly stable boy, so naturally she torments him and heckles him with constant petty demands (I've never understood why these kind of women always get hitched first- ideas?)
Wesley has neither the lineage nor the money to wed Buttercup, so he seeks his fortune at sea, where he meets an uncertain fate at the hands of the Dread Pirate Roberts. Swearing never to love again, the beautiful Buttercup is nevertheless pursued by the douchey Prince Humperdinck, but her kidnapping at the hands of a trio of oddballs only complicates things for the princess.
The script here is a lot of fun, and the actors' near-perfect delivery of their lines results in one of the most quotable films in movie history. The acting is strong even from the minor players, including Christopher Guest as the devious Count Tyrone Dugan and Mel Smith as the expressive and quite sadistic albino.
One complaint is Buttercup herself, who takes the cake as the most insipid movie princess of all time, and that includes the sappy, crappy, fragile princesses of early Disney. When she isn't planning her own suicide and badgering Wesley, Buttercup can usually be found crying tears that don't seem to dampen her crystal-clear complexion.
Despite my animosity towards the fragile, soppy heroine, I concede that "The Princess Bride" is a both a perennial classic and a movie worth cherishing and sharing with the younger generations, who may nonetheless be skeptical of the 80s' effects. Fun and excellently written, "The Princess Bride" is worth past-tripping for.
There is no doubt -- John Cleese is a funny guy, although he has his occasional misfires (most recently his animated works "Shrek Forever After" and "Planet 51.") Here he is not "Fawlty Towers" funny, but still manages to amuse and entertain, and he is backed up by a great cast, including Michael Palin, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kevin Kline as a psychotic pseudo-intellectual dolt with a preference for mangling Nietzsche.
Manipulative Wanda (Curtis), stuttering animal lover Ken (Palin), nutcase Otto (Kline) and George, the one with the plan, all aspire to rob a jewelry store. Wanda, who is fiddling with all the men's emotions, and Otto, her incompetent lover, decide to double cross George and steal the diamonds, but George anticipates their move, and entrusts the key to the safe to Ken.
I finally finished A Storm of Swords, all 1100+ pages. And I thought Tolstoy gave me a run for my money. I have to say it will win my award -- hands down -- for the most un-put-downable novel of the year. Believe me. My whole family will attest to how insanely obsessed I have been with this book.
Here's the thing about Jim Carrey- he can deliver a serious and
heartfelt performance when you can rein him in and make him sit still
for an hour and a half. He's like that ADHD-slash-spastic kid you knew
in grammar school who ran laps around the classroom to the chagrin of
an obese, middle-aged teacher who thought, in despair, I am NOT being
paid enough for this.
"Liar Liar" gives Carrey the chance to spaz out, make ridiculous
faces, and in one scene, literally beat himself up in a public bathroom.
So don't expect the melancholic poignancy of "Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind" or "The Truman Show." But if you want to laugh mindlessly
at a comic actor at the height of his powers, this is one to give a
watch.
Carrey plays Fletcher Reed, a slick lawyer who lies constantly, much
to the exasperation and disappointment of his ex-wife Audrey (Maura
Tierney) and son Max (Justin Cooper). Audrey is dating sweet but dopey
Jerry (Carey Elwes of "As You Wish" stardom), but is ambivalent about
taking the next step.
Billionaire Robert Miller (Richard Gere) has built a successful trading company and watched it flourish. He has his brilliant daughter Brooke (Brit Marling) working beside him and his lovely wife Ellen (Susan Sarandon) handling the company's philanthropic work. Now Robert is in danger of having fraudulent business practices exposed and is anxious to sell his corporation before that happens. Then a tragic turn in his personal life puts him at the center of a criminal investigation.
Fast-paced, gory, and with a razor-sharp sense of humor, "The Cabin in the Woods" borrows elements from older horror films and twists them around, making them its own. Never since "Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil" have I seen such originality and creative scriptwriting in a modern horror-comedy.
"The Cabin in the Woods" is truly a marvel to watch, and stands as an excellent addition to co-writer Joss Whedon's repertoire. The plot starts out "typical" and soon reveals itself to be a lot murkier (and more awesome) than it initially seemed.
Five friends- innocent Dana (Kristen Connolly), "cool dude" Curt (Chris Hemsworth), slutty Jules (Anna Hutchinson), amusing pothead Marty (Fran Kranz), and sensitive guy Holden (Jesse Williams) go off on a trip to a cabin in the woods. Marty quickly establishes himself as my favorite, with his pseudo-profound pot-addled ramblings and surprising perceptiveness.
"Reservoir Dogs," Quentin Tarantino's second film after the little known low-budgeter "My Best Friend's Birthday," is a good and polished early effort from a brilliant and controversial filmmaker.
A lot of Tarantino's trademarks are present here: extreme violence, black humor, brilliant dialogue, and an unflinching portrayal of racism, but a little more emotion is present than with Tarantino's other works, including a rather touching relationship between two of the main characters, Mr. White and Mr. Orange.
The color-coordinated characters, Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr. Blue (Edward Bunker), and Mr. Brown (Director Tarantino) are a group of criminals cornered by the police during a diamond heist.
It's no secret that "Let the Right One In" is my second favorite movie of all time, and was, in my opinion, in no need of a remake. The experience of watching this movie is akin to that of reading a great book -- afterwards you want to recommend it to everyone, in hopes that they will feel the way you did watching it for the first time.
Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), an unhappy twelve-year-old boy, is bullied by his peers and fantasizes about making them pay, though for the time being the violence stays within the confines of his imagination. While outside his apartment complex at night, he meets Eli (Lina Leandersson), a strange twelve-year-old who offers him, for the first time, a chance to dream of a different life.
For reasons I cannot fully explain, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and laughed throughout. Blame it on my crazy sense of humor. Blame it on my love of gratuitous film violence and insanity. But mostly, blame it on Tim Roth. Roth's manic, inspired portrayal of swishy, spasticated, neurotic bellhop "Ted" resulted in one of the most entertaining characters I've seen in a while.
Here's the deal- "Four Rooms" is a pseudo-anthology film featuring four segments written and directed by four filmmakers. Each segment follows Ted (Roth) through one insane New Year spent at a hotel and punctuated by violence, weird sexuality, and mutilation. Three of the segments are directed by filmmakers I'm not really familiar with, and the fourth is done by Tarantino.
I liked all of the stories in the film, but in different ways. I didn't really know what to make of the first one. A coven of witches staying at the hotel, played by prominent '90s icons such as Madonna and Lili Taylor, discover they need sperm to complete their witchy potion to bring the goddess Diana to life. And who else for the job but twitchy hotel bellboy Roth?
Sam Raimi avoids the camp of the "Evil Dead" trilogy to deliver some serious scares in "The Gift," a Southern-Gothic ESP thriller that stars Cate Blanchett in the role of Annie, a psychic living in a small town.
When local flake Jessica King (Katie Holmes) gets murdered, Annie's sixth sense acts up, leading the authorities to one man: resident wife-beater and town redneck Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves). Of course, Donnie's not the one who done it, and with her power under scrutiny, Annie must find the real killer before she, too, becomes a victim.
The strength of this movie is that it avoids the pitfalls of modern horror films. First of all, Annie isn't the usual ditzy, flaky, slutty heroine, who along with her group of dumb friends has a total IQ of 50. She behaves in an admirable and most of all, INTELLIGENT way.
