January 23, 2007

• Movies This Past Weekend

  Now, it's probably fairly easy to guess what I did this past weekend eh? .... saw 6 films (five of which I'll post reviews on now; one of which I must wait until it is released). So, on to the films:

  The Hole
  This, essentially, soft-core porn is a spoof on the classic Japanese film, Ringu. Directed by Wash West (who did The Fluffer), it 'stars' (and I use the term loosely here) big and beefy guys Josh
  Hammer, Tag Eriksson, and Jason Adonis as lads who watch a video tape
  only to have the phone ring afterwards and be told "in 7 days you will
  be gay". It follows the original movie to a tee (make-out scenes aside)
  and has several laugh-out-loud funny bits. Big, beefy, muscle bound
  guys do absolutely nothing whatsoever for me so the make-out scenes are
  dull, boring and (yawn) tedious beyond belief. Course, everyone is not
  me, and G found them quite, um, engaging. Worth a rent if only to
  witness the ridiculous acting, terrible direction, and awful camera
  work. My rating, for the sheer inventiveness of a porn trying to have a
  plot, 2 out of 10. 

  

  
  ... and while on this topic, Priape has started a big video sale continuing to Feb 28th ...  if that's your thing.

  The Forgotten
  OMG,
  where to start the review on this trainwreck of a movie. How about
  with, what on earth was Julianne Moore thinking? This 2004 stinker
  starts out promising but when Telly (Moore) starts questioning whether
  or not her son, presumably killed in an airplane accident, really
  existed (or not) and NSA men in black suits show up things go
  plummeting downhill quickly. Gary Sinise and Dominic West appear just
  as lost and confused as poor Julianne. It's like the worse episode of
  The X-Files you can image, but 91 minutes long.  Joseph Ruben should
  have his directing credentials revoked for this effort (ain't happening
  mind you he's in preproduction for something titled "Crazy Dog" at the
  moment). Sony Pictures should be ashamed to have let this forgettable
  film loose. Unbearably stupid and horrible: avoid. My rating 0 out of
  10.

  

  
  After This Our Exile (Fu Zi)
  This quiet and ultimately sadly moving drama, directed by Patrick Tam, was released last year and premiered at the Reel Asian Film Festival here in November. It stars pop star Aaron Kwak as Sheng, an illiterate and volatile father with a gambling problem in Malaysia. Sheng is married with a wife, Lee (played by Charlie Yeung) and a young son, Boy (played by Gouw Ian Iskander). The film really has two parts. In the first section we witness the the odd love-hate relationship between Sheng/Lin before her ultimate abandonment of both husband and son. Left alone, and saddled with gambling debt, Sheng and Boy become itinerants, roaming from city to city in a downward, sad, spiral that leads to violence, theft, and beatings.  In this second section we witness the odd love-hate relationship replay itself but between son/father ... until they too separate. 

  This film is very quiet but I did enjoy it. I felt immensely sad for the little boy and perhaps, at its root, this was Tam's intent: when families disintegrate children suffer.  My rating 6 out of 10.

  

  
  The Queen
  We're all familar with this story. Like our parents who can tell you exactly where they were when they heard the news of President Kennedy's assassination, we too can recount exactly where we were when first hearing of Diana, Princess of Wales death in Paris. I was camping at Tobermory and happened to pick up CBC radio news that morning. Like so many, it did not compute in my mind Diana was dead. It was that unimaginable.

  This movie, directed by Stephen Frears, recounts that week from the Queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair's perspective and gives, I think, a better understand (fiction though it is) of the Queen's actions. Helen Mirren as Elizabeth is brilliant and she has the Oscar nomination to add to her Golden Globe. Michael Sheen playing Blair is also great. This is classic Frears stuff with not a false move, note or shot anywhere. I can't really say it's Best Picture of the year quality however. It's all rather pompous and dry stuff, sure, but that's the monarchy for you. My rating 7 out of 10.

  
  

  
  Thank You For Smoking
  Released in 2005 and directed by Jason Reitman, this film takes a satirical look at the smoking industry from the point of view of its key spokesman, a fictional character named Nick Naylor (played by Aaron Eckhart), who will do and say anything to keep the choice to smoke an American right. It does draw such a thin line on this topic that one might wonder whether or not the film was actually financed by the tabacco industry. The film is fun and askew and wrong on oh-so-many levels but that's exactly what makes it watchable. My rating (as a rabid non-smoker even!) 7 out of 10.

  
  

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  • 4:15 pm
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