Tag Archives: review

Review: ‘The Raid: Redemption’

Iko Uwais in Gareth Evans' 'The Raid: Redemption' (Sony Pictures Classics)

Iko Uwais in Gareth Evans' 'The Raid: Redemption' (Sony Pictures Classics)

What’s most pleasantly surprising about Gareth Evans’ second film is that it’s a major step forward from his first effort.

‘Merantau’ was certainly a strong debut, taking time to establish and define its lead character, played by Iko Uwais, before moving ahead into muscular, pulvering, extended action sequences that distinguished themselves, in part, because of the underexposed Silat style of martial arts fighting, and to an even greater degree by Evans’ seemingly innate understanding of how to frame an action scene.

Uwais returns in ‘The Raid: Redemption,’ but this time we get only the barest glimpse of his character before he is plunged into chaos — we know he is Muslim, that his wife is pregnant with their first child, and that he has promised to bring someone back. And then he and his SWAT team comrades swarm into a high-rise apartment building, an upside-down Indonesian version of Dante’s Inferno, one where they must rise to the top to capture the drug lord who watches their every move through a plethora of security cameras and commands his own army of armed soldiers.

Building upon their experience in making ‘Merantau,’ Evans and Uwais (and their filmmaking comrades) expand the range of action. Even though it’s confined to a single building, the possibilities appear endless. Death may come swooping down from above, from a distance, through doors and walls and floors and ceilings, by knife or gun or bombs or fists of fury. It’s a nightmare, kill or be killed, with no margin for error.

Once again, Evans frames the action superbly, turning Uwais into Gene Kelly with a machete and a machine gun. Too often, modern action movies must rely on extreme close-ups and quick editing, not only as a stylistic crutch, but also because their lead performers are not trained martial artists and/or fighters. That’s not the case here, and Evans takes full advantage, showcasing the actors and fighters from head to toe, resulting in electrifying sequences that are fully involving before there’s a minimum of cutting; the eye follows the fists and hands and arms and legs and feet as they collide with faces and bodies, crunching and slicing and breaking as they go.

With all of the intense, extremely violent action, it would have been easy to lose sight of the characters, which is a common failing among martial arts films — great fights, weak characters. And though the characterization in ‘Merantau’ was arguably stronger, Uwais has improved as an actor and is better able to communicate emotions through his facial expressions and body movements. His character doesn’t need to say as much to let us know his desperation and determination to save his men, complete his mission, and return home safely to his family.

As it happens, that’s the only fault that I can lay against the film; as good and as intense as the fight scenes are, near the end I was more anxious to see how things might be resolved between the characters than I was to watch another battle sequence.

A second viewing solved that problem, and allowed me to better appreciate the marvelously fluid choreography and the driving momentum of the pace that pushes it past any rough spots.

If you only see one action movie this year, this is the one. It’s authentic, it’s wild, it’s different, it’s original, and it will make you want to stand up and cheer a brutal, engrossing picture.

‘The Raid: Redemption’ opens today at Angelika Dallas, AMC NorthPark, and Cinemark West Plano.

About these ads

Review: ‘Shame’

Michael Fassbender in 'Shame' (Fox Searchlight)
Michael Fassbender in 'Shame' (Fox Searchlight)

Michael Fassbender in 'Shame' (Fox Searchlight)

Boiled down to its essence, ‘Shame’ is a film about an addict. But because Brandon, the lead character, is addicted to sex, the issue becomes confused.

Tall, dark, and handsome, Brandon (Michael Fassbender) appears to be leading an enviable lifestyle in Manhattan. He has a good-paying job, resides in a modern high-rise with lovely city views, and wears beautiful clothes. He exudes a degree of self-confidence, walking naked around his small apartment without bothering to draw the drapes.

Yet it quickly becomes apparent that Brandon is not happy. Despite having the type of good looks that inspire women to gaze at him longingly, he pays for prostitutes, surfs for porn on his home and office computers, and adjourns to the men’s room at work so he can masturbate. And there’s no indication that he’s actually enjoying his multitude of sexual encounters.

In short, Brandon is an “orgasm addict,” to borrow the title of a song by British band the Buzzcocks. He’s moving through life like a sexual shark, always in search of his next release.

Early on, Brandon listens to — and ignores — messages on his answering machine from a mysterious woman, perhaps an old girl friend. Later, the mysterious woman turns up in his shower, surprising Brandon. But that surprise compared to our surprise when the woman turns out to be Sissy (Carey Mulligan), Brandon’s younger sister.

Sissy has problems of her own, but the chemistry between her and Brandon is a bit off. They treat each other not as siblings, but as old lovers might, and it’s queasily disturbing. Sissy’s presence serves as a catalyst, forcing Brandon to deal with reawakened memories and self-destructive behavior. He’s made a long series of bad choices over many years, and it’s taken a heavy toll on his mental and emotional stability.

Fassbender and director Steve McQueen previously teamed on 2008’s ‘Hunger,’ a dark drama based on the real-life story of prisoners who went on a hunger strike to protest their treatment. ‘Shame’ is not based on true events, but it has the powerful veracity of real life, and is all the more powerful for being so realistic and harrowing in its depiction of an all-consuming addiction.

In an extraordinary performance, Fassbender bubbles forth with emotional pain. He’s struggling mightily to keep it under control, channeling his energies into sexual activity to disguise his feelings and try to dissipate his raging depression. But his thin veneer of respectability is melting under the heat of his pent-up desires; he may be having sex all the time, yet it’s all accomplished without true satisfaction.

Mulligan is rather terrific as his sister, a miserable woman who deals with her own problems with a different type of socially unacceptable behavior. She’s in just as much pain as her brother, but he refuses to provide her with what she wants.

The lingering power of ‘Shame’ is that it makes us wonder what Brandon will do with his life. It’s haunting to consider the consequences if he continues to make the wrong choice, again and again and again.

‘Shame’ opens today at Angelika Dallas and Angelika Plano.

Review: ‘Bellflower’

Bellflower
Bellflower

Star-crossed lovers in Evan Glodell's 'Bellflower' (Oscilloscope Labs)

‘Bellflower’ is an aggravating experience of extremes. It plays, initially, as a road movie, about a woman who impulsively goes on a long-distance trip with a stranger, a man whose existence appears to revolve around modifying his muscle car and building flamethrowers with his best friend. Then the movie shifts gears, becoming an ugly, bloody, extended, fractured mess that has something to do with domestic violence and jealousy and the Apocalypse.

The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January and quickly gained notoriety for its low budget (reportedly $17,000), the handmade cameras used (built by writer/director Evan Glodell), and the live appearance of the filmmakers with the flame-spitting muscle car in tow (very impressive indeed). ‘Bellflower’ also divided audiences, with some rhapsodizing about its daring creative choices and others repulsed and/or unimpressed by those very same elements.

I saw the film at SXSW in March, where responses were again split. (Critical reaction since its theatrical release began have been much more positive than negative.) The first half or so of the movie is not without its charms. Woodrow, played by Glodell, and his friend Aiden (Tyler Dawson) are rough-hewn characters, unruly and immature young men who take utter delight in their mechanical tinkering, making frequent references to ‘The Road Warrior’ as they prepare for an apocalypse they are certain will be coming soon. There is raw beauty on display when flames shoot 30 feet into the night sky from an empty lot in an isolated landscape. And the simple-minded determination of Woodrow and Aiden to survive the apocalypse is impressive, even as it’s a bit scary.

Woodrow flirts with the lovely Milly (Jessie Wiseman), charming her into accompanying him on a road trip. She accepts his invitation, a decision that almost makes you wince because it seems so certain that Woodrow is a serial killer — or wife beater — in training. On their journey, however, Woodrow proves to be proud yet shy as he shows off the alterations he and Aiden have made to the car, a survivalist’s wildest fantasy come true, and he acts like a perfect gentleman. The narrative rhythms are jumbled, but it feels like an oddball independent romance. Woodrow and Milly are a good, quirky match.

And then, with a loud cry of grinding gears, the tone shifts, and the film plunges into territory that becomes sheer bloody torture to endure.

At first, the jarring descent feels appropriately gut-jarring, as Woodrow and Milly’s promising relationship goes south, very sadly and quickly. But then ‘Bellflower’ begins to overtax the visual scheme, become more jumbled editorially, and make absolutely no sense from the perspective of the characters who have been so casually established.

It’s as though the Apocalypse has occurred, but it’s all within the minds of the characters, who must then deal with the consequences internally and can only express their rage, anger, and fear by striking out at others. What comes across, however, is essentially ugliness for the sake of being ugly, and it’s pitched so relentlessly that it becomes off-putting and then tiresome and then boring to watch.

If you manage to stay firmly locked into Glodell’s rollercoaster as it flies off the rails, ‘Bellflower’ could be a turbulent and disturbing ride. From my perspective, having seen it more than five months ago, it remains one of the most distinctive, troubling visions that have been presented on the big screen this year, even though I think it crashes and burns before it reaches its destination.

‘Bellflower‘ opens Friday, September 9 at the Angelika Dallas and Cinemark West Plano.

Review: ‘Colombiana’

Colombiana
Colombiana

Zoe Saldana in 'Colombiana'

Luc Besson loves girls with guns.

High-class married lady Isabelle Adjani pulled a gun out of her bag to threaten punks in 1985′s ‘Subway,’ Besson’s second film as a director. Low-class felon Anne Parillaud was unwillingly trained as an assassin in ‘La Femme Nikita,’ and a very young and violently-orphaned Natalie Portman yearned to be an assassin in ‘Leon’ (AKA ‘The Professional’). Perhaps it’s more accurate to describe Besson as a man who appreciates strong women, as in ‘The Fifth Element,’ ‘The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc,’ and the upcoming ‘The Lady.’ And then there are the dozens of films that he has written, co-written, and produced, most featuring feisty and/or powerful feminine figures.

Zoe Saldana is the latest Besson heroine in ‘Colombiana,’ a story that reportedly began life as a sequel to ‘Leon.’ Her character, Cataleya, played by Amandla Stenberg as a 9-year-old, is violently orphaned when her father tries to quit the criminal lifestyle in Colombia. She narrowly escapes death in a gleeful chase scene, finding refuge initially in the U.S. Embassy and later in the home of her uncle Emilio (Cliff Curtis) in Chicago. After a brief, vivid lesson on the risks inherent in being a hired killer, the film jumps forward 15 years to 2007, where the 24-year-old Cataleya executes a well-conceived plan and, well, executes someone with stealthy efficiency.

Cataleya is established as a woman who has no hesitation at using her physical assets, or any other means at hand, to achieve her goal. She is single-minded in her determination to exact revenge against Don Louis (Beto Benites), the man who ordered the death of her family, and Marco (Jordi Molla), the man who carried out the order. Little else matters to her, beyond a modest affection for her grandmother (Ofelia Medina) and a desire for regular sexual gratification from clueless boy toy Danny (Michael Vartan).

The details of the plot are clearly of minimal interest to the filmmakers, which encouraged me to tap my foot waiting for the next attempted murder. Olivier Megaton, who made ‘Transporter 3′ for Besson, puts all the juice into the action sequences, which are shredded into half-second bites suitable for swallowing without chewing. And because the story serves only as connective tissue linking the less than memorable action scenes, the movie erases itself from your memory as it plays.

‘Colombiana’ passes the time but struggles to maintain your attention.

Review: ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’

dfn-dont-be-afraid-of-the-dark
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

Bailee Madison in 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark' (FilmDistrict)

A lonely old mansion. A family in turmoil. An army of secretive, menacing creatures.

All the elements are in place for an atmospheric, spooky thriller, yet ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ plays out in a perfunctory manner, lacking any creative, surprising twists or genuine, bone-chilling suspense. Based on a made-for-television movie that was first broadcast in 1973, the remake is the brainchild of Guillermo del Toro, who saw the original as a child and nurtured his memories of it by retelling the story to friends.

Long in development, by the time the project finally received a green light, two years after ‘Pan’s Labyrinth,’ del Toro feared he would only be repeating himself, and so he handed the direction of the film to newcomer Troy Nixley, staying aboard as producer and making himself available as a mentor while simultaneously preparing ‘The Hobbit.’ The script by del Toro and Matthew Robbins adds a 9-year-old girl to the original story, making her the protagonist.

Sally, well-played by Bailee Madison, comes for a visit with her father Alex (Guy Pearce) and his girlfriend Kim, (Katie Holmes), only to learn that her actress mother actually sent her away to live with daddy dearest. The couple are caught up in renovating a large, isolated house, hoping to flip the place at an inflated place so Alex can start his own architectural firm. Alex is stressed out and remote, leaving Kim to try and make nice with a little girl who resents her.

A prologue establishes that the home harbors some very dark secrets, and Sally begins to uncover them when she stumbles upon the existence of a previously-unknown basement. Ignoring the warnings of groundskeeper Harris (a muted Jack Thompson), the family explores the dank, cobwebbed space, whose features include, most notably, a large furnace that attracts Sally’s curious attention. That leads to a frightening encounter with creatures of the night … and then another, and another. Naturally, Alex dismisses Sally’s cries for help. Initially skeptical, Kim tries to be as supportive of Sally as possible, but then sees evidence that Sally has legitimate reasons for concern.

Sally misses her mother, seeks help from her preoccupied father, and must settle for assistance from a would-be stepmother. So too for the new version of ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.’ The film misses its mother (the inherent limitations of the original TV movie), seeks help from its preoccupied father (del Toro, who does the best that he can in a reduced role), and must settle for assistance from a would-be stepmother (Nixey, who is well-intentioned but cannot fully replace a birth parent).

We can only lament what might have been if del Toro had been able to make the film when his creative fires were first stoked.

‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ is now playing wide across the multiplex.

Review: ‘Our Idiot Brother’

dfn-our-idiot-brother
Our Idiot Brother

Paul Rudd, Emily Mortimer, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel in 'Our Idiot Brother' (The Weinstein Co.)

Amusing and lightly likable, ‘Our Idiot Brother’ slides by on the strength of its fabulous cast. Paul Rudd stars as Ned, an organic farmer in upstate New York who is, for want of a kinder description, not the brightest bulb in the socket.

That’s established in the film’s opening scene, in which Ned sells marijuana to a uniformed police officer; it appears that Ned lacks the capacity to think ill of anyone, so he can’t imagine that the officer is lying. Put another way, he always looks on the bright side. Since he also lacks any ability to reason or think things through, he happily regurgitates everything he’s seen and heard without discernment.

The guileless Ned thus manages to injure everyone around him. It’s unintentional, of course, but he’s built up such a long record of being an idiot that his three sisters can barely tolerate his presence. His jail sentence drives his long-term girlfriend Janet (Kathryn Hahn) to break up with him, forcing Ned to live with his mother (Shirley Knight) in Long Island.

From there, Ned begins an odyssey of couch-surfing with his sisters, first with stay-at-home mom Liz (Emily Mortimer), then with tightly-wound fledgling magazine writer Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), and finally with aspiring stand-up comic Natalie (Zooey Deschanel). As he makes his rounds, Ned inadvertently injects conflict into his sisters’ relationships: Liz’s documentarian husband Dylan (Steve Coogan), Miranda’s boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott), and Natalie’s lawyer girlfriend Cindy (Rashida Jones).

Though well-aware of Ned’s propensity for over-sharing, his sisters freely confide in him, thus sowing the seeds of their own destruction. Evidently we’re meant to believe that they let their guard down once Ned is in their midst. Their default mode is to blame Ned for everything, which ends up painting unflattering portraits of three self-involved women who haven’t accomplished much of anything on their own.

It’s more difficult to fathom Ned. Positive thinking is one thing, but completely ignoring the consequences of sharing everything with anyone who asks is much harder to countenance. In effect, he’s saying, ‘Let the chips fall where they may,’ disavowing any responsibility for his actions.

For a comedy whose humor arises almost entirely from character-based situations, ‘Our Idiot Brother’ features a plethora of characters who are incompletely drawn. What remains may provoke laughter, but resonates to minimum effect.

Jesse Peretz, who debuted as a filmmaker with the intimate ‘First Love, Last Rites’ and later made ‘The Chateau’ (with Rudd) and ‘The Ex,’ directs with his characteristic light touch. His sister and brother-in-law, Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall, collaborated on the script from a story that he and his sister dreamed up.

‘Source Code’: Thoughtful Thrills, 8 Minutes at a Time

Source Code
Source Code

Jake Gyllenhaal tries to explain the unexplainable to Michelle Monaghan. (Summit Entertainment)

After a successful bow at SXSW a couple of weeks ago, ‘Source Code’ is now unleashed for your viewing pleasure. It’s definitely worth a look.

Is Source Code an apocalyptic Groundhog Day? It’s very tempting to call it that, simply because the premise of the two films are, at first blush, similar: a man must keep re-living a limited period of time in order to accomplish a goal. In the case of Groundhog Dog, cynical weatherman Bill Murray has to become a better person. In the case of Source Code, however, the stakes are quite a bit higher, and the ambitions of the film are greater as well.

Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) snaps to attention on a train, sitting across from Christina (Michelle Monaghan), a woman who seems to know him, but calls him by a different name. Colter is disoriented and confused; he has no idea where he is and how he got there.

Eventually, Colter learns that he’s on a military mission to uncover the identify of a bomber on the train; the bomber is believed to have targeted Chicago for a terrorist attack, and time is of the essence. Through a blitzkrieg explanation — something about quantum mechanics, muttered by a brilliant scientist / civilian (Jeffrey Wright) overseeing the mission — Colter is told that he can be sent back into the mind and body of a man on the train, but only for 8 minutes. The mission’s overseers, will keep sending him back for the 8-minute loop, and he must piece together enough clues to be able to catch the culprit. He’s fed only a limited amount of information before each 8-minute loop, through the calm, urgent voice of military officer Carol Goodwin (Vera Farmiga).

You can read my entire review at Twitch.

‘Source Code’ opens wide today across the Metroplex.

‘Insidious’: Children and Haunted Things

Insidious
Insidious

Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson as parents with a haunting problem. (FilmDistrict)

The marketing materials give away too much, I fear, but ‘Insidious’ still offers a pretty decent ride on the light-horror merry-go-round.

Josh and Renai are a normal, happily married couple with three children. They joke easily, are still warmly affectionate with one another, and clearly love their boys. So when things start going bump in the night, surely it must be the new house they bought that is haunted, right?

Insidious starts off on the right foot because Josh and Renai are played by Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) and Rose Byrne (TV’s Damages).

You can read my entire review at Pegasus News.

‘Insidious’ opens wide today across the Metroplex.

DVD of the Week: Fellini’s ‘The Clowns’

The Clowns
The Clowns

Fellini's 'The Clowns' (Raro Video USA)

Made in 1970 for Italian TV, Federico Fellini’s ‘The Clowns’ finds the director fully exploring — and indulging — his fascination with men who dress up in funny clothes and big noses.

The film begins with Fellini remembering a magical night when a circus came to his small town and set up in a vacant lot adjacent to his home. He wanders over in the morning to this new creation and begins watching, leading to a lengthy recreation of a small-town circus performance. But young Fellini is terrified by the clowns. It seems they remind him of other creatures, which leads to a jaunty pictorial of people who are sad yet have a degree of inner strength.

Next comes a segue to a faux documentary film crew investigating the general demise of circuses in Italy and interviewing famous clowns, along with a further exploration of the two archetypes in clowning, “The White Clown” and “Augustus.” Finally we have another lengthy circus act, this one revolving around a mock funeral for one of those archetypes.

A cold watch of the material is intriguing, but not necessarily compelling for non-Fellini acolytes. It’s been many, many years since I’ve watched Fellini classics such as ‘La Strada’ or ‘La Dolce Vita,’ and, frankly, he’s fallen off my cinematic radar. But with this fine new DVD release from Raro Video, I’m feeling compelled to re-watch the man’s work. And much of that has to do with one of the extras on the disk.

Titled ‘Fellini’s Circus,’ it’s a self-described visual essay by film historian Adriano Apra, and it’s simply marvelous. He quotes generously from the film, and then places the clips in the context of Fellini’s overall body of work. He breaks down the shots, from length to perspective, and then explains how the documentary-style footage compares with the more straightforward fictional scenes. It’s all quite fascinating (it runs about 42 minutes), and it gave me renewed appreciation for the film.

Also included is a black-and-white 16-minute short film from early in Fellini’s career (1953), originally included as part of an omnibus. ‘Marriage Agency’ follows a man investigating the phenomenon of agencies that arranged marriages in post-war Italy. He suspects something must be awry, and so proposes that an imaginary friend with a certain disease is looking for a wife, and is quite surprised by what he discovers. It’s nicely handled — there’s a lovely scene where the man is led through the labyrinth hallways of a building to the agency, following a group of children — and it fits the running time perfectly.

Rounding out the package is a very handsome 50-page booklet, richly illustrated with drawings and photos, that includes a lengthy excerpt from Fellini’s book on the subject.

The DVD is well worth a rental for more casual viewers, and definitely will merit a purchase for Fellini-philes.

‘No Strings Attached’: Divine Natalie Portman as Easy Lovin’ Doctor (Review)

No Strings Attached
No Strings Attached

Ashton Kutcher wants to cuddle, much to Natalie Portman's dismay. (Paramount)

Even in a trifle, Natalie Portman is the real deal. If ‘No Strings Attached’ were built entirely around her character, we might be celebrating another triumph. Instead, we have to be content with a romantic comedy that is often quite funny, even as we’re constantly reminded that the two lead characters are hopelessly mismatched.

The fundamental incompatibility between Emma (Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) has nothing to do with their height difference — “When I stand next to him, people think he’s kidnapping me,” Emma tells a friend — nor with their differing career aspirations — Emma is beginning her career as a doctor and Adam is working as a production assistant on a TV show while waiting for his career as a writer to start.

Rather, it has more to do with the chasm between Portman and Kutcher as actors. Portman is completely believable as Emma, a relationship-shy woman with an incredibly busy, stressful job, who uses sex to release tension, provide pleasure, and avoid commitment. We know there’s must be a sizable amount of emotional baggage lurking beneath the surface; she’s too busy to dredge it up for the sake of a relationship. Some of that comes from the script, credited to Elizabeth Meriwether, and some comes from Portman’s performance. It’s a happy marriage of material and actor.

Continue reading →