HANNA (2011) (a review)

HANNA (2011) (a review)

Hey, look, it's a teen girl assassin movie! Maybe I'm just sensitive about the subject because I have an idea for one that I haven't gotten a chance to write yet, but with Hanna and Hit-Girl from the movie KICK ASS it seems to be the current trend. Directed by acclaimed director Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement) with a script that landed on the Black List (a list of the best unproduced screenplays in America) not once but twice! Also stars Eric Bana and Cate Blanchet.

The story: Hanna is a teen girl who has been raised in complete isolation by her father who trains her to be a perfect fighter. However, she becomes bored of the isolation and wants to leave. To do that however will set the CIA operative who killed her mother and wants Hanna on her trail. Hanna does it anyway which sets a cat-and-mouse game to the powerful conclusion.

Was it good?

Kind of. I mean, it wasn't horrible and it had a lot of fun in it, but like with KICK ASS, it's one of those movies that you can't think about because none of it makes sense. At all. Really...at all.

And part of the diff with Hanna is that it seems to want to be about something, this idea of kids having to grow up and enter the world, but that metaphore (which I like) just doesn't work in the movie. Part of this is the central problem with the script -- things in a small scale might make sense, but then they don't. For instance, the female agent that wants to kill/capture them. Um, why? I get that she might want to finish the job when she killed the mom, but there really isn't anything behind it. If Hanna's desire to go into the world is a metaphore for kids wanting to grow up, then she is a metaphore for people that want to kill them? Or stop them from growing up...except that doesn't seem to be what she wants because she never mentions anything. She doesn't seem to want a relationship with the child or anything, it's just kill her.

Also, for a girl that wants to leave the weird life of isolation, the only other people she stumbles on are the strange kind of hippy people that she befriends for a short time. Again, it's not like she gets a shot at normal. So is it just that she wants adventure? Because that isn't the feel and the fact that *** SPOILER *** her father dies *** ----------- doesn't really make it seem worth it. In the end, she might have her freedom (unless the agency sends someone else after her now that she has killed a dozen operatives), but she is lost in a world totally strange to her, with no family, no friends...how the hell is that a good thing? What has she really won?

It reminded me of the end of FROM DUSK TIL DAWN when Clooney leaves the girl stranded there by the bar and she just has nothing. Um...yay?

That said, there is a lot of fun stuff in the movie, and as a mindless action movie it does a good job. But this is a movie that screams that it wants to be something more, and the something more just doesn't work.

Still, there's enough good stuff that if you are in the mood with an action movie with a European sensibilty (i.e. slower pacing, weird characters, some plotless mood segments) then it's a good one to check out.

**** RENTAL ****

STAKE LAND (2011) (a review)

STAKE LAND (2011) (a review)

This movie might sound like a rip off of ZOMBIELAND, but that movie had humor. This is more like THE ROAD with vampires. Stars Conner Paolo (Gossip Girl), Danielle Harris, Kelly McGillis, Nick Damici and Michael Cerveris.

The story: America is over. A plague of vampirism has caused the collapse of the nation. Now a man who hunters vampires befriends an orphaned boy and teaches him to fend off the vampires. They meet various people -- some good, some bad -- while killing vamps and trying to find a plae they can live (Canada).

Was it good?

Kind of. There's some nice stuff in here and some good moments, but it is all so dreary and monotone. For minimalist stories like this to work they need to be full of theme. I mean absolutely dripping with it. LOST IN TRANSLATION is the best example of this -- a movie that just got into you how lost and lonely those two people were and how important that connection they made was. The book THE ROAD worked because it focused on that father/son relationship, which was in the movie, but the nuance didn't come through.

Here, I just didn't feel it. I honestly don't know what the theme is. Maybe it's about connection or hope or something, but I just didn't feel it. Eventually, even though there were a lot of good moments, the quiets and the monotones just grew tiresome.

I'm sure the movie will have fans -- and it does enough good things that I think it deserves to have fans -- but there weren't enough to make a fan out of me.

*** AVOID ***

KNOWING (a review)

KNOWING (2009) (a review)

An action sci-fi movie starring Nicholas Cage.

The story: Jonathan Koestler (Nick Cage) is a single father. When his son's school opens a time capsule, his son gets a piece of paper with weird numbers on it. His father realizes it is a code and that the numbers refer to disasters that happened AFTER the time capsule was buried. There are also three numbers unaccounted for -- three disasters yet to come. He tries to warn them, but only becomes a suspect himself. There are other strange people gathering children as well. And John needs to reconcile with his father. The disasters get worse as John realizes the final one will mean the end of the world...

Was it good?

Kind of. A lot of the movie worked. And I liked Nick Cage in this role. He makes a lot of bad films, but in the right role he can still be a superb actor. However, the movie does have the problems. First is that it's a downer. I mean, yeah, it's an end of the world movie but 2012 (for all it's hokum) at least got right that the movie should end with hope. This movie felt like a downer.

Also, the people kidnapping children and stuff...I mean it just felt so off. It was like a different movie entirely. This movie kept feeling like it was getting pulled in different directions -- it's about stopping the disasters, it's about his father (which was okay), then it's about this girl he meets, then it's about these kidnapping... It meant that what started out as a pretty cool first half just unraveled into a lot of unfocused hokum in the second half. My guess (and it's purely a guess) is that the writer didn't know what to do once he realized he had set out an end of the world scenario where it would be impossible to save people. Now what do you do? Well you intro new elements and try to throw in some weirdness. In all fairness, they did manage to avoid that "Hollywood" cliche ending, but unfortunately they didn't replace it with a better ending.

The funny thing is that it is all made up, so if you've come up with a scenario that is giving you problems...just change the scenario! It's fiction -- you can change whatever you want! If they had kept this movie on concept -- a message in a time capsule that fortells three disasters and a man's attempt to stop them -- it could have been pretty cool. Once they abandon that (basically once he realizes that it is impossible to do anything) is when most of the unraveling happens.

It's a shame because the first half I liked a lot. Enough to...

*** RECOMMEND FOR RENTAL ***

S DARKO (a reivew)

S DARKO (a review)

This is a sort-a sequel to DONNIE DARKO, a film that launched the careers of Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal and is considered by many a classic of strange sci-fi and cool mood music (most notably the remake of "Mad World"). This sort-a sequel focuses on the younger sister, Sam, played by the original actress Daveigh Chase. Rickard Kelly, the writer and director of the original, had no involment at all in this film.

The story: Sam, the younger sister of Donnie, goes on a road trip with her best friend with the dream of becoming professional dancers. Their car breaks down in the desert and weird things begin to happen, incluidng visions and masks and stuff falling from the sky.

Was it good?

No. It was horrible, almost unwatchable.

What makes the first movie work sooo well (for the people that liked it) was that it wasn't about the weird sci-fi stuff -- it really was about Donnie, this nice kid who is kind of isolated and sees all this hypocracy in the way adults act and just really doesn't seem to like the world -- a world that on the surface is a nice suburban world, but is less nice underneath. Like the movie HEATHERS, it tapped into that teen dissatisfaction of the life you see around you and the frustrations teen feel. They even mention a James Joyce story were kids destroy a home just because they enjoyed destroying it and in maybe ways as Donnie becomes more destructive we as both with him and against him, enjoying his lashing out and knowing it is a dangerous path he is going down. Even if you took out the sci-fi elements and just made it about a kid going off his meds, it would be fascinating. With the sci-fi elements adds extra weirdness and complexity that created a movie that could be watched again and again and discussed and argued about again and again.

That's why it became a cult hit.

This movie lacks all of that. First, the portrayal of Sam is weak. She's just this annoying kid who goes on a road trip. Also, but putting her in a road trip (instead of in her home) it guts that central element fromt he first film that made it so connactable. Now we don't connect to Sam, we don't care about any of the people, and we don't really care what happens. The weird elements don't seem to build off anything -- they are just thrown in there because the first movie had them, but they don't seem to have any real purpose. In fact ***SPOILER**** when they kill Sam late in the movie, it is an empty act. There's no emotion that comes with it, because we don't care about her at all. And the rest of the movie just seems empty. If the movie, called S DARKO, isn't about Sam then what the hell is it?

It's a mess, that's what it is.

*** AVOID ***

THE SHRINE (2010) (a reivew)

THE SHRINE (2010) (a review)

A little horror movie starring Cindy Sampson and Aaron Ashmore (Smallville)

The story: a journalist goes looking for a story about missing people that her editor doesn't want. Once at the small village, she and her friends find the people don't want them there and then they encounter a mysterious fog that hides a dark secret.

Was it good?

No. It tries to do the slow build sort of thing, which I can enjoy when the character work is interesting. Here we have a bunch of cliches -- the girl who puts work before her boyfriend, the journalist who wants a story that the editor doesn't believe in so she runs off for it anyway, etc. Once they get to the village it's all very one note. They don't want them. We get it. Compare that to AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON where the boys land at the pub -- a scene that mixes laughter with tension.

Once they go off into the woods and encounter the mysterious fog it gets more actiony as they become pursued by the villagers who ***SPOILER ALERT**** are actually monsters. Which if you've never read any Lovecraft might be a shock, but if you have then it's pretty standard.

Unfortunately, while the movie tries hard and I do like the slow build concept, there just isn't enough here to recommend. It does a lot of things that an non-inspired monster movie would do but doesn't do any of them especially well and then it doesn't do anything special that could make you really take notice of it. There's no interesting character work, there's no interesting theme, the material is approached in a very straight-forward way and just never finds anything special.

***AVOID ***

CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990) (a review)

CAPTAIN AMERICA, the movie (1990) (a review)

Yes, before this summer's blockbuster film there was an earlier version of Captain America back in the 90's. It starred Matt Salinger (the son of JD Salinger). And yes, it was bad. But was it cheesy fun bad or just bad????

The story: In 1936, the Fascist Italians are trying to create a super soldier. A female scientist objects and runs to the US. The fascist super soldier becomes the Red Skull. The American becomes Captain America. Captain America is sent to defeat the Red Skull and deactivate a missile, which he does but then he falls into the water and is frozen for fifty years. The Red Skull gets cosmtic surgery and becomes the leader of a crime family. Captain America is then revived in the present (1990's) and has to adjust before going to defeat his arch nemesis...the Red Skull.

Was it good?

No. It follows a lot of the comic book beats, which is nice. Maybe if they had made it a little lighter, a little more fun, it would have come off as campy, but it is just so serious about everything. Yikes! Some of the other decisions are strange. Giving the Red Skull cosmetic surgery doesn't make sense...he isn't the Red Skull anymore! And they have Cap doing stuff like stealing a car and abandoning a woman that are very un-Cap like. There are things that are good about the movie...dealing with Cap awakening fifty years later, including Cap's shield (although not much and not well, but at least they tried.)

At best this is a cheesy film to watch and enjoy for it's bad-ness. Or maybe the best thing about it is that it makes us hope that the Cap movie coming out this summer will be better.

*** AVOID ***

(unless you are a total geek like me :) )

THE HOST (2006) (a review)

THE HOST (2006) (a review)

This is a Korean film by visionary director Bong Joon-Ho. It is a monster movie, but a very different one. He certianly has his own unique vision. It was the talk of the 2006 Cannes and has been praised by Quintan Tartantino and made it onto many top ten lists. The version I saw was dubbed.

The story: Bad formaldehyde is illegally dunped into the Han River (South Korea). From this a strange mutant monster appears and begins a rampage. The youngest daughter of a family that runs a food stand is captured. However, the authorities become worried about the spread of a virus and isolate everyone who has come in contact with the monster, including her family. Now they have to break out and try to rescue her even as the authorities try to shut everything down to prevent the spread of the virus.

Was it good?

Yeah...but weird. This doesn't work like a normal monster movie even though it has a lot of elements you would expect -- like a monster, but also the child getting captured, the family trying to save her, the authorities getting in the way, etc. a lot of time is spent with the characters away from the monster. The authorities for the most part seem more concerned with the spread of the virus, which becomes a very large part of the movie as well. There definitely is a strong anti-authority vibe through the movie.

There is also a lot of humor in the film. Like during the first attack by the monster, a woman is trying to get inside a shelter but the people won't open the door. Then she dives out of the way and the monster smashes through the door and kills all the people inside. Nice!

The monster itself is interesting. It runs and swims, but also does acrobatics. They also don't try to hide the monster, letting it run around in full sunlight, unlike many monster movies that put everything in deep shadow. And while the SFX aren't amazing, they are good enough to be cool.

Ultimately, while it is hard to describe, it is certainly an interesting film. Much like LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, the brilliant Swedish vampire film that became a very mediocre American remake, there is just a certain vision to the film that sets it apart.

One thing -- I have read comments that people saw a strong anti-American sentiment in the film. It is an American responsible for the chemical being poured int he river, the American military take over the South Koreans and do some pretty rough stuff. However, I didn't feel like it was specifically an anti-American movie. I thought it was more anti-authority as all the authorities are pitted against the family and their quest to save their daughter. I think to label it as anti-American you would have to be pretty over-sensitive. It's a monster movie with acrobatic monsters. Lighten up.

Also: I have no idea what the title means. At first I thought it was about the virus they keep talking about, but that's not where the movie goes so I am clueless!

*** RECOMMEND ***