Check Out the Trailer

With the fire of a classic Greek tragedy, but with an attune eye for the real world, Jeff Nichols’ debut feature is a rare film that keeps you guessing and marveling from beginning to end. Great drama can move you to the edge of your seat just like a thriller and SHOTGUN STORIES does just that. The brother-against-brother feud at the center allows us to see the nature of its characters, while giving us a peek into their dark pasts and hopefully a potential future better than the current state they are in.

Sonny Hayes (Michael Shannon, WORLD TRADE CENTER) has a quiet emotionless demeanor even when he is about to beat someone. He sees things in his life very clearly and matter-of-fact, sometimes to a fault, putting up blinders to the harm he may be causing. His wife Annie (Glenda Pannell, JUST THE TWO OF US) has moved out with his young son, Carter (Cole Hendrixson), because he lost $200 gambling again. To him it’s not gambling, because he has a system. This allows Sonny to invite his younger brothers to move back in with him. The youngest Kid (Barlow Jacobs, GREAT WORLD OF SOUND) has been living in a tent in Sonny’s backyard, while Boy (Douglas Ligon, film debut) literally lives in a van down by the river.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Director Andrew Stanton previously made us believe in the love between a father fish and his son in FINDING NEMO. Now he makes us fall in love yet again with a love story between two utterly charming robots. This daring Pixar production breaks the company’s mold in many ways — it features live-action, the first third is English-dialogue free, and there is a big message.

It’s 2800 and humans have abandoned Earth, which has been consumed by garbage. Left behind to clean up the mess are tiny tractor-like WALL•E robots. They compress the trash into neat squares and stack them as high as skyscrapers. Since it has been centuries since humans left, it seems only one curious WALL•E remains at his task. As he compacts the garbage, he collects items he finds interesting. One of those items is a VHS tape of HELLO, DOLLY!, which he knows by heart. His only friend on Earth is a resilient cockroach. Then one day a giant spaceship arrives and drops off a new robot. The slick iPod-design-style Eve is on a mission, looking for proof of organic life on Earth. As she looks for life, WALL•E follows her every move, smitten with love. So when the spaceship returns to take Eve back to the floating ark in space, WALL•E hitches a ride.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out a Clip

Pixar’s latest short film, PRESTO, from director Doug Sweetland, is an ode to classic Warner Bros. and MGM shorts. And it’s as hilarious as some of their best. A cute white bunny is a prop in the act of master magician Presto. The white rabbit longs for a carrot that is just out of his reach. Rushing out on stage, Presto forgets to feed his pet. During his performance he uses two magical hats to pulled the rabbit from one and out the other. However, this time around the bunny has some surprises for Presto on the other side.

What a crowd pleaser this short is. Sweetland times his gags effortlessly with some great animation acting. Making the gags work all the more is their believability within the world of the theater. When Presto pulls random things out of the hat they aren’t really random. Because this is mainly a gag and performance piece, Sweetland keeps jokes flying at the audience, shifting the context and reaction of his gags just enough to make the next bit of physical humor just as funny as the one preceding it. Mixing humor and charm, this is the kind of animated short that many people think of when they think of animated shorts. Playing along with WALL•E, movie fans are getting two of Pixar’s best.

Check Out the Trailer

And you thought the Hulk had anger management issues — wait till you get a load of Timur Bekmambetov’s new film WANTED. The director of the cult sci-fi flick NIGHT WATCH brings to the screen an angry and violent adaptation of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ comic book series. The film pulses with youthful resentment for crappy jobs and an unfair life. At 21, I would have loved this film probably more than I do now that I’m older.

Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy, ATONEMENT) is a big loser. He has a crappy cubicle job with an overbearing boss and his best friend is sleeping with his girlfriend. He has little money in the bank and he suffers from anxiety attacks. While filling a prescription, the striking assassin Fox (Angelina Jolie, TOMB RAIDER) drops a bomb on him — his absent father was really one of the world’s best assassins and that his father’s killer named Cross (Thomas Kretschmann, THE PIANIST) is around the corner waiting to kill him. After a crazed chase through the streets of Chicago, Wesley meets Sloan (Morgan Freeman, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION), the head of the Fraternity of Assassins. He informs Wesley that his anxiety attacks are really his increased levels of adrenaline that give him superhuman reflexes. So begins, Wesley’s initiation into the Fraternity, one where hazing laws are savagely disregarded.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the brilliant animated film PERSEPOLIS hitting DVD this week, I was inspired to take a look at the rich history of cinema from Iranian filmmakers. We not only have animation, but neo-realism, minimalism, family and melodrama all represented. Some of the films deal with conditions in Iran, while others are just about the human condition. They all hold key roles in the history of Iranian cinema, but as all great movies they hold a universal appeal that touches people from all walks of life. This is a wonderful lineup of films that I hope inspires viewers to check out other films from Iran, a country with a unique and powerful cinematic eye.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

When done well, the simplest of conflicts can create great drama. In Majid Majidi’s CHILDREN OF HEAVEN, the drama is built around a pair of lost shoes. This sweet and moving film is about two children and can be enjoyed by children, as well as the entire family, despite being Persian. Any child that can read subtitles can discover the wonders of this Iranian film. All great art has the power to reach across cultural boundaries and connect us all. It doesn’t contain wizards or superheroes, but is certainly contains magic.

Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) is running errands. When he sets down his little sister’s newly repaired shoes outside the vegetable market, a peddler accidentally picks the shoes up. When he tells his sister Zahra (Bahare Seddiqi) what has happened, she wonders how she will be able to go to school without shoes. With their mother (Fereshte Sarabandi) sick and their father (Mohammad Amir Naji) unable to pay the rent, Ali asks Zahra not to tattle, devising a plan where Zahra will go to school in the morning with his sneakers, run home right after, give him the shoes so he can run and make his midday classes. During the course of the story, the loving brother and sister will grow a closer bond over the many problems that a lost pair of shoes can cause.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s minimalist work has been lauded at film festivals around the world. TASTE OF CHERRY won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. This deliberately paced film leaves much up to the imagination of the audience. However, the filmmaker leaves signposts along the way, which lead you to conjure up images of the lonely lead character’s past and present feelings. Mostly filmed inside a car or from a distance as the car winds through desolate dirt roads, this is a film that gripped me with curiosity, had me anxious with anticipation and touched my heart and moved my brain with flashes of visual poetry.

Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi, THE KITE RUNNER) is a middle-aged man on a mission. He drives along the outskirts of Tehran looking for some help with a job. After some strange looks for several men, he picks up a young soldier (Safar Ali Moradi), who quickly becomes uncomfortable with this sad faced man. What is he up to? What is this job? Is it sexual? Is it illegal? Along the way looking for help, Mr. Badii will talk with a vacationing Afghan seminarian (Mir Hossein Noori) and a kind taxidermist named Mr. Bagheri (Abdolrahman Bagheri).

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Based on the bestselling illustrated book series from Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, Mark Water’s screen adaptation is a highlight reel of some of the best parts from the five-book adventure. Like the HARRY POTTER series, the screen adaptation pares down the material to fit the length of a feature film, some fans will not like this fact, but others unfamiliar with the books will just get caught up in the breakneck speed of the wonderment.

Jared Grace (Freddie Highmore, FINDING NEVERLAND) is a troublesome child to his recently separated mother Helen (Mary-Louise Parker, TV’s WEEDS). Along with his straight-laced twin brother Simon (also Highmore) and fencing-loving sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger, IN AMERICA), they move to the abandoned house of their institutionalized relative Aunt Lucinda (Joan Plowright, 1996’s 101 DALMATIANS). Jared quickly comes to suspect something strange in the house, eventually finding a dumbwaiter that leads to a hidden room where he finds his great uncle Arthur Spiderwick’s field guide to the fantastical world. Spiderwick (David Strathairn, GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK) mysteriously disappeared 80 years prior and set the tiny brownie Thimbletack (Martin Short, INNNER SPACE) up as the book’s protector. Turns out, the forest is filled with goblins lead by the sinister ogre Mulgarath (Nick Nolte, HULK), who wants nothing more than to possess the knowledge inside the guide.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Director Frank Darabont previously made two good adaptations from Stephen King stories, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and THE GREEN MILE. Now he makes it a third, however this is the first time he tackles a King horror story. Like many of King’s more haunting tales, this film doesn’t force us into pleasant messages about humanity. This is horror done darkly, but not sadistically like recent torture porn where gore is the main subject. Like a great B-movie, Darabont taps into primordial human fears, allowing the real monsters to be the humans.

David Drayton (Thomas Jane, THE PUNISHER) paints movie posters in a small New England town. After a storm destroys parts of his house, he heads into town for supplies with his young son Billy (Nathan Gamble, BABEL) and his next-door neighbor Brent Norton (Andre Braugher, FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER), who he hasn’t gotten along with previously. While they’re at the supermarket, a strange fog rolls in from which Dan Miller (Jeffrey DeMunn, THE MAJESTIC) comes running, screaming that there is something in the mist. When David sees something push against the loading dock doors, he gets frightened, but hick Jim (William Sadler, SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) doesn’t believe until it’s too late. As things gets worse, Bible-thumping Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden, MYSTIC RIVER) starts stirring up fire and brimstone. This makes the situation even more dangerous for the non-true-believers like David, his son, Dan, school teacher Amanda Dumfries (Laurie Holden, SILENT HILL), sure-shot grocery clerk Ollie Weeks (Toby Jones, THE PAINTED VEIL), sassy senior citizen Irene Reppler (Frances Sternhagen, MISERY), pretty check-out girl Sally (Alexa Davalos, THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK) and army private Jessup (Sam Witwer, TV’s BATTLESTAR GALACTICA).

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

“What the successful Marvel superhero movies did right was that they weren’t written for 13 year olds. FANTASTIC FOUR is so juvenile it’s pathetic.” That’s what I said about the first film. The second film is even more lazy and depressing. No obvious pun is left untouched. No forced plot point is left un-crammed. In its ridiculous attempt to be hip, the film is groan inducing. More problematic is that all the silliness drains every ounce of tension from this dud, making the experience feel like a flimsy four-hour ordeal.

As we begin, Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd, KING ARTHUR) and Susan Storm (Jessica Alba, THE EYE) are planning their wedding, which has hit bumps in previous attempts due to paparazzi interference. A strange cosmic disturbance is being recorded in space and General Hager (Andre Braugher, THE MIST) wants Reed to build a machine to track it. But it’s right before his wedding, so it’s an internal struggle between his impending nuptials and saving the world. Well, Reed secretly builds the device and during the service his PDA goes wild — the disturbance has arrived in the form of the Silver Surfer (Doug Jones, HELLBOY - voiced by Laurence Fishburne). The alien, who rides on a cosmic board that is the source of his power, is the herald of Galactus, an entity that devours worlds. As Reed, Susan, Johnny (Chris Evans, CELLULAR) and Ben (Michael Chiklis, TV’s THE SHIELD) prepare for the fight, General Hager seeks help from the reborn Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon, TV’s CHARMED).

Read the rest of this entry »