Category: 2009
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Chaw tells the familiar tale of a man-eating wild boar and the brave villagers who confront it. The boar’s descended from the mutant boors the Japanese created when they invaded Korea. These abominations have been low-key terrorizing the countryside for decades and as the hipsters started doing weekend trips from Seoul into the countryside, things…
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The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is a narrated character study. Protagonist Robin Wright is talking herself through her life while the film observes her, seeing where she’s gained the perspective of time and where she hasn’t. The film starts in the present, with Wright and husband Alan Arkin having just moved to a retirement…
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Ondine is very committed to the bit. The film opens with Irish owner-operator fisherman Colin Farrell bringing a woman up in his nets. A beautiful woman. She seems very confused to be breathing air and doesn’t tell him very much about herself. Alicja Bachleda plays the woman. She refuses to go to a hospital, and…
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From the start, Passing Strange is a spectacular filming and presentation of a stage production. Lee’s direction, Barry Alexander Brown’s editing, Matthew Libatique’s photography, they’re all great from go. Lee and Libatique have highlights throughout—and Brown’s cutting excels during the busiest sections—but it’s clear Strange will look great no matter the content. Of course, Lee…
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Somehow this four hour adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma has rapidly delivered dialogue but never manages to work up any energy. It’s just people talking fast at one another, then lengthy “action” sequences, then more fast talking, then more dragging out. It’s especially noticeable with something like the oft-adapted Emma because there apparently isn’t a…
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At least the Ood are doing okay. They’ve gotten Brian Cox to voice their leader even. Sorry, getting ahead of myself. The End of Time: Part One aired a year and a half after the last regular episode, so it probably played a lot different on air than marathoned. Which isn’t going to make Timothy…
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Short set in late 1800s California has long grieving Natalie Smyka falling for the mesmerist (Cameron Cash) hired to cure her heartbreak. Some good direction, not much good acting (Smyka’s got great expressions, no delivery). John Beck plays her dad (only a couple scenes but it’s John Beck). Streaming.Continue reading →
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Lower budget horror movie has some impressive technicals–lots of solid CGI to make a yacht in terrible storm conditions work–but confuses narrative tricks with narrative. Single mum (sorry, mom–while filmed in Australia with an Australian cast, they’re playing Floridians, which might explain some things) Melissa George goes boating with potential beau Michael Dorman and his…
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The only good thing about Halloween II are the end credits. They run like nine minutes, meaning the movie is closer to ninety-five minutes than 105. Even though the ninety-five minutes feels like an eternity. The movie starts with director Zombie making fun of the idea of making another Halloween II. He’s not remaking Halloween…
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Creation is the not the story of how Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany) and the ghost of his oldest daughter (Martha West) collaborated in the writing of On the Origin of Species. That story would make a much better movie. The film opens with a title card explaining it will be about Darwin writing that book,…
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The Invention of Lying is a 100 minute exploration of a gag. In a world without lying–or any fictive creativity whatsoever–co-director, co-writer, and star Ricky Gervais one day spontaneously mutates and lies. He lies for personal gain, only to discover exploiting people doesn’t make him feel good, so he lies to make himself and others…
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Halloween II is terrible. Unquestionably terrible. It sounds as though the director’s cut, which I watched, is even worse than the theatrical cut, based on the items director Zombie added back to the film. But I wanted Halloween II to be good. It can’t be good–even with Zombie’s dumb ideas, there’s terrible writing and an…
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With Fast & Furious, director Lin and screenwriter Chris Morgan do something incredible. They take what, a decade before would have been at best a video game spin-off (maybe featuring the original, now down in their career cast's voices), and make an energetically mercenary movie out of it. The film's ludicrous at almost every turn,…
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The strange part of Los Bandoleros isn’t how it ends lame–it’s how well it starts. Sure, there’s this dumb story about how Vin Diesel, on the lamb in the Dominican Republic, has become a Robin Hood to the local people. Oh, right, forgot–It’s a Fast and the Furious vanity short “film” from Diesel. Undoubtedly something…
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From Her to Eternity, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' first album, runs about forty-four minutes. This short film–part of a comprehensive series (Do You Love Me Like I Love You), runs about forty minutes. It consists of band members, fans, journalists–everyone except Nick Cave–sitting in front of black and talking to the camera. Directors…
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Terrifying as it might be to say, but S. Darko could actually be worse. It’s an official sequel to Donnie Darko as the producers of that film still had sequel rights, but Daveigh Chase–as this picture’s titular lead–is the only returning cast member. It certainly does not have the involvement from the original’s writer-director. And…
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The Search has an odd problem–director Buchanan isn’t happy with being sublimely profound. Instead, he goes for obvious and slightly forced profound. It’s unfortunate, since the short is otherwise breathtaking. Solitary man Matt Berry, who works for SETI, beta tests one of the at-home antenna kits (you know, for kids). He discovers he’s able to…
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If Repo Chick were a half hour short, it would work a lot better. Sadly, it’s an almost ninety minute feature–even as a seventy minute feature, it’d be a lot better. The problem’s the front end. Cox has to introduce his cast, sure, but he never manages to give the film a real narrative. He…
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Orphan‘s a peculiar failure. The script isn’t particularly good; it’s layered with foreshadowing upon foreshadowing and some very predictable turns. But it has these occasionally strong dialogue scenes between Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard. It runs out of them after a while, but they leave a positive memory. Then there’s director Collet-Serra. He really likes…
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I really wish I could remember the name of the Wonder Woman analog because Ennis does some great stuff with her this issue. He also does something interesting with the Homelander–setting him up to attempt being a superhero. But those developments are on the Seven side of things…. On the Boys side of things, Butcher…
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One should never hope for too much from finales. Especially not from an extremely uneven anthology series like Wednesday Comics. Batman’s bad. Kamadi flops. Superman apparently only remembered after twelve installments he had a wife at home. Deadman is okay. One of the better mediocre strips. Green Lantern is bad. Metamorpho is lacking; Gaiman tries…
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Batman versus dogs, Azzarello’s inspired and Risso can’t even draw a cool Batmobile. Kamandi comes back a little; there’s a big battle scene, lots of panels. Arcudi misses a great Superman: The Movie homage on his dumb Superman strip. Deadman’s okay, though all the action seems inappropriate. Green Lantern is lame; Busiek doesn’t understand weekly…
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Batman’s bad; Azzarello’s desperate to make it a noir and he just can’t. Kamandi’s mediocre. Still nice art but the story’s stalling. Superman has no story and is bad too. Deadman’s got some great art. Oh, Green Lantern. It’s weak again. Metamorpho’s fun, with a periodic table gag, but there’s no story. Teen Titans is…
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Ennis sure doesn’t resolve a lot this issue. In fact, he might not resolve anything. I thought for a minute that hooker from last issue was going to be important, but no. He doesn’t resolve Hughie’s story, he doesn’t resolve the company man’s story…. About all he does resolve is the Wonder Woman stand-in and…
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This issue’s very confusing. First, Ennis wasn’t clear enough before about Hughie’s interaction with Black Noir. I think that name’s right. But it was a lot more traumatic than I thought. Second, McCrea and Burns don’t draw Hughie well. Forget Simon Pegg, he looks exactly like the Frenchman here. Made he and Butcher’s scene awkward.…
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It’s entirely unclear why this issue should be part of Herogasm and not part of The Boys proper. Ennis finally explains a little more about “Vic the Veep,” who’s sort of like the retarded messiah from Preacher, but the vice president. He also explains what happened with the U.S. government on The Boys’s 9/11–I’m not…
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This issue feels more like the regular Boys, even with McCrea and Burns on the art. Ennis opens the issue with the Boys on their mission–of course, he saves a reveal for the last page. Regardless of the actual reveal, Ennis shows a different hand. He’s intentionally keeping stuff from the reader to pique interest.…
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It took until the Boys show up I forgot they hadn’t made an appearance yet in this issue of Herogasm. Ennis has a lot going on–the moronic vice president arriving, the company man explaining the situation to some of the heroes… the Superman stand-in killing everyone on a plane. You know, little stuff. Maybe it’s…
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Herogasm definitely gives Ennis the chance to unwind. Even when the art gets a little lazy–the art’s from John McCrea and Keith Burns–you can tell they’re still having fun. There’s still an edge to the writing, but Ennis is back in his “making fun of superheroes” mode. One just wishes DC had kept the series…
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Wednesday Comics really needs a stronger editorial hand. While some of the creators get the concept, others completely fumble it. The successes (and the mediocrities) make up for the bad patches. In the “no idea how to do the format” section, the issue has Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso on Batman, John Arcudi and Lee…
The Stop Button 