tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

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Review by David DiMichele

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There’s one scene in the newest version of The Incredible Hulk that sweeps you up to an emotional high point and just drops you, face first, without any regard. It involves a young woman and her lover in a local restaurant. The rain is pouring outside but they are getting served after closing time because they know the owner. The camera moves to woman's point of view as she stares with ecstasy at her lover while she talks excitedly to him. The camera then shifts focus beyond the lover’s head to a set of swinging doors. Another man, the woman’s former lover, comes from the swinging doors of the kitchen without knowing she’s there. The glances that the woman and her former lover exchange are beyond priceless. He leaves again so quickly that she misses the opportunity that she has been yearning for ever since he left. She says to the old owner with tears already seeping down her cheeks: “just tell me what I saw was real.”  He replies with the slightest nod of his head. She exhales deeply, finally reassured hat her former lover has safely returned from wherever he was. At this point we completely forget  that we’re watching a comic book movie about a gigantic green monster.

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Review by David DiMichele

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Nothing in this film bears any resemblance to M. Night Shyamalans’ previous morbid and dull thriller, Lady in the Water. The Happening departs from that film and from all of the director's previous films, to focus instead on a theme that resonates deeply with our world’s current situation - terrible things happen to people but no one knows why. The result is a slowly building suspense film that binds reality and imagination together in ways that only a master bedtime storyteller could do.

Starring (voices): Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, David Cross
Director: Mark Osborne and John Stevenson
Release Date: June 6, 2008
Running Time: 92 min
MPAA Rating: PG
Distributor: DreamWorks Animation

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A decade on from the release of Toy Story, the new car smell of the age of computer animated feature films is gone. Nowadays it is difficult to justify liking something simply because it looks good. I’m afraid that ship has sailed. No, now we assume the film will look great and so we look to the story to work in conjunction with the animation to make a great film. These days, our assumptions and expectations have been heightened by the success of so many computer animated feature films, but sadly there are few really great ones. But the good news is that it is time to clear a spot towards the top because we have a new member of that illustrious circle.

Starring: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui
Director: Dennis Dugan
Release Date: June 6, 2008
Running Time: 113 min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributor: Columbia Pictures

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My appreciation of the career of Adam Sandler has been a tumultuous affair. It started with Billy Madison. With every bone in my critic and non-critic being, I know it to be an atrocity of a movie. But I still like it. Happy Gilmore paid it forward and then Bulletproof came along. I didn’t like it, but I appreciated the departure from his brand of stupid comedy. Then he went back to his stupid brand of comedy for a few films, then Punch-Drunk Love came out and blew everybody away. Then he went back to the well, then Spanglish. The well. Reign Over Me. The well. And so on. Whether it works or not, every time he tries something different he follows it up with a few old stand by’s. You almost have to admire his tenacity.

Almost.

: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman
Director: Bryan Bertino
Release Date: May 30, 2008
Running Time: 90 min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: Rouge PicturesStarring

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The idea of being terrorized by strangers is nothing new to the horror or thriller genres. Exponentially, the idea of being terrorized by those same strangers within the confines of your home should be scarier. The idea of someone forcing their way into your house threatens the belief we have that we are safest in the sanctuary of our own home. The Strangers attempts to weave that idea into a story, which it does pretty well. It then attempts to sustain that idea for the length of a two-hour movie, which it doesn’t do very well.

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Review by David DiMichele

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If Babe Ruth, arguably the best baseball player of all time, was alive today, would he plunge head-first into the steroid/human growth hormone fiasco that has led to the decay of the game? He was a great player in an era where these enhancements, not to mention the fancy equipment that players of today now swear by, were non-existent…so what need would he have for them? This is what has happened to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the latest installment in what is arguably the greatest series of action films of all time.

Director: Andrew Adamson
Release Date: May 16, 2008
Running Time: 137 min
MPAA Rating: PG
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Pictures

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Review by David DiMichele

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The travesty of Disneyfication that surrounded the first wearying and child-like installment of C.S. Lewis' seven- book series is still lurking somewhere in the shadows of the second installment, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The first half of the movie details the overthrow of Narnia by the ruthless Telmarine Empire, an army of men sporting perfectly-sculpted beards that scream EVIL! The Narnians have problems of their own. Their deceased king's son, Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), is next in line to inherit the throne, but the man who killed his father is his uncle Miraz (played with abundant energy by Sergio Castellitto). Not only does Miraze want the throne for himself, he also intends for his newborn son to inherit it from him. Caspian is thus forced to flee from the medieval castle.

Starring: Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox
Director: Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski
Release Date: May 9, 2008
Running Time: 135 min
MPAA Rating: PG
Distributor: Warner Bros.

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Prior to this weekend, I could not think of a single pertinent reason that would justify making Speed Racer into a feature film apart from the obvious one of exploiting existing media for financial gain. I had every reason to dislike this film. Larry and Andy Wachowski, the force behind a couple of little indie films, Bound and The Matrix, had some splainin’ to do. Since being widely and rightfully accused of ruining The Matrix franchise, they have not set foot behind the camera. I would call this a good thing.

Speed Racer is more than just a movie by the Wachowski Brothers; it is their attempt at reinvention and they want to make a statement. What that statement is, though, is unclear. Do they want to be taken seriously once again, or do they want something that will put a middle finger in the face of anyone who questions their path? Either way, adapting an anime series with a cult following is a curious choice of material. But dig a little deeper and it’s not as much of a leap as you’d think. Look at their directorial efforts – Bound, The Matrix Trilogy, and now Speed Racer. All pretty different movies, but thematically they have a common thread: the observation of the traps people make of their lives and the revelation of their eventual transformation. Basic stuff, I know, but it becomes interesting when you consider that their career is starting to become molded to that same theme. Speed Racer is the Wachowski’s warm embrace of that idea.

But I am getting off track.

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges
Director: Jon Favreau
Release Date: May 1, 2008
Running Time: 126 min
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Distributor: Paramount Pictures

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Review by David DiMichele

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Look past the scorching cosmic-candy red armor that Iron Man dons - which will have fan boys salivating feverishly - and you’ll find that director Jon Favreau has created a superhero film that puts the action on the back burner in order to focus on a deeper and more resonant worldly conflict. I’m not saying the action isn’t there. We get an initial abundance of the high testosterone action that Marvel comics used back in 1963. But what makes Iron Man distinctly different to previous superhero films is its well-polished script, written by the team that brought us Children of Men. This script invites us to shift our minds from action to a profoundly important issue, and that’s more than any other comic book-to-screen adaptation has ever dared to do.

Starring: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris
Director: Jon Hurwitz and Hay Schlossberg
Release Date: April 25, 2008
Running Time: 102 min
MPAA Rating: R
Distributor: Warner Bros

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Man, these guys have had a rough couple of days.

Picking up immediately at the end of the first movie, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay does not waste any time getting back into the story. Having just professed his affection for his neighbor Maria, Harold (John Cho) decides he and Kumar (Kal Penn) need a vacation. This is a stoner movie, so it makes sense that they end up trying to go to Amsterdam. Each of the guys has his own agenda for wanting to be there. Harold doesn’t want to be apart from Maria, who just happens to be there on business, and Kumar wants to be for the same reason as most of the people who travel there: legal marijuana. So here we are, staring down the barrel of inevitability at the sequel to a story about a couple of pot smokers as they head off to Amsterdam. The very idea is obvious and lame. But lo and behold! Something original happens - they don’t make it there. Why? Because Kumar cannot wait for landing to partake in his favorite herbal enhancement and somewhere along the way they are suspected of being terrorists and get sent to Guantanamo Bay.