James Cameron returns to sci-fi.

Not a great amount of buzz this week, but the buzz that we have is big. Animated flick from Rob Zombie. Interesting docs — one on advertising and one from Michael Moore. A remake of a horror classic. And James Cameron’s return.
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Inspired by the Judith Miller ordeal where she outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, writer/director Rob Lurie crafts a tense political thriller that argues the pros and cons of the freedom of the press versus national security. How far would you go to defend a principle?

Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale, SNOW ANGELS) is a reporter for the fictional Capitol Sun-Times. At her son’s soccer game she goes up to another soccer mom, named Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga, THE DEPARTED), a woman she only knows as the mom of another student. She tells Erica that in the morning she will be publishing an article that reveals that she is a CIA agent and that the article will be very embarrassing to the current administration. Van Doren is certainly not pleased.
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Quentin Tarantino has been tinkering with this story for nine years. It’s gone through many incarnations and at one time ballooning to the size of a miniseries. In 2007, Tarantino took the primary characters he had created and put them into a shorter script. In August of 2008, Tarantino told star Brad Pitt that they’d have the film done for Cannes 2009. Which was pushing it. So why do I start the review of this film with a history on its production? I believe the final product was greatly affected by these real world facts.

The story progresses in chapters like KILL BILL, but follows two plotlines that merge in the furious ending. Perrier LaPadite (Denis Menochet, HANNIBAL RISING) is a French dairy farmer who is hiding Jews under his floorboards. “The Jew Hunter” Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz, GOLDENEYE) comes to his farm because he has a few more questions for LaPadite who has already spoken to other SS officers. During the interview, Landa explains to LaPadite why the Jew is the same as the rat.
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Many consider this to be a landmark of American cinema. The Library of Congress added it to its National Registry in 2002. It stands as the most influential surf movie of all time and was the first major theatrical film to bring surf culture to the masses. Bruce Brown’s premise was simple — he’d follow pro surfers Mike Hynson and Robert August as they follow the summer season around the globe.

The surfing universe had its center in California in 1966, but the cool Pacific made surfing rough in winter (especially before wetsuits). So the young men head first to Africa and Brown films the boys surf waves that have never been surfed before. In some locations, the locals become infatuated with these white kids floating on boards in the ocean. Hynson and August give them some lessons and some of the children copy them by finding any board that will float. After hitting various spots in Africa, they head to Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti and finally Hawaii, where surfing isn’t totally alien. A reoccurring statement they hear from local surfers in various locations was “you should have been here last week.”
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With Quentin Tarantino’s “Men on a Mission” flick INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS rolling into theaters this week, This Weekend’s Film Festival rounds up a collection of the best “Men on a Mission” films. Suicide missions, convicts, prisoners, prison breaks and one mighty fine bridge make up this week’s action-packed lineup.
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When it comes to pop culture entertainment, Robert Aldrich’s THE DIRTY DOZEN delivers. Good performances in well drawn character types drive this “men on a mission” film. Based on E.M. Nathanson’s novel, adapted by Nunnally Johnson and Lukas Heller, the WWII story takes time to set up its characters and then delves into fun set pieces. It uses the subversive premise and has fun with it, building to a deeper and more emotional ending. And Lee Marvin makes Maj. Reisman a cinematic icon.

Reisman isn’t an officer who likes the politics that go on at the military. He’s ruffled the wrong feathers for sure and now Gen. Worden (Ernest Borgnine, MARTY) has assigned him a virtual suicide mission. He’s to take 12 soldiers either convicted to die or 40 plus years for crimes committed while in the Army. He must train them and lead them into a raid on a French resort where their mission is to kill as many Nazi officers as possible. His rival Col. Everett Dasher Breed (Robert Ryan, BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK) wouldn’t love anything more than to see him fail and doesn’t have any problem trying to help that happen.
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Buy It Now!

I LOVE YOU, MAN Review

As is the case with most Blu-ray discs, the production designers work benefits a great deal. Most comedies don’t have sweeping backgrounds or visual artistry, but production designers go to great extents to fill primary locations with items that define the characters. Of course in I LOVE YOU, MAN, Sydney’s man-cave benefits the most with its rock posters and various man-boy clutter. As for the audio track, it’s not a film to show of the 5.1 with for sure.

The bonus material is the standard stuff that one would expect. A good portion of the extras is bloopers, deleted scenes, alternative takes, and extended scenes. The best of the bunch are the multiple takes where director John Hamburg let his actors improvise their lines, trying different punchlines to the jokes. A great deal of the material is laugh out loud funny and goes to show how difficult it is to choose which take to use. However, the best bonuses on the Bu-ray are THE MAKING OF I LOVE YOU, MAN featurette and the commentary track from Hamburg, Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. In combination, the two features take an interesting look at how the project came to be and how the two main characters where developed.

Get a glimpse of Heath Ledger’s last performance.

The buzz this week is mainly around Terry Gilliam’s THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS. The international trailer is out and Sony Classics is about to pick it up for U.S. distribution. While there are six other interesting projects to look at, none of them come close to DOCTOR PARNASSUS.
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Underdog tales have an inherent drive to them. We like to see the little guy overcome insurmountable odds. This is never truer then when those tales are based on real life. There is a whole subgenre of underdog sports films based on real life players and teams. Here is a documentary that has fun with that subgenre. It’s a real story and the odds are still great, but the playing field isn’t a baseball diamond or a football arena — it’s an arcade.

The film has its hero — Steve Wiebe, a former college baseball star who had the talent for the Big Leagues. Now he’s unemployed and having a tough time finding work since being laid off at Boeing. The film has its villain — Billy Mitchell, the pompous reigning DONKEY KONG champion. While laid off, Wiebe plays DONKEY KONG on an arcade style machine in his garage. With his son screaming at him to stop playing, he records himself breaking Mitchell’s world record. He sends the tape to Twin Galaxies, an organization founded by Walter Day to promote classic videogames that has become the official score keepers. But what Wiebe doesn’t know is that Mitchell is their golden ticket. His endorsement of the org allows it to exist. And it seems he will go to any extent to cheat Wiebe out of the title.
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Sci-fi has been used to talk about real world problems forever. Underneath the aliens and spaceships in DISTRICT 9 is a comment on refugees and their awful living conditions. Director/co-writer Neill Blomkamp is from South Africa and has based this film on his short film ALIVE IN JOBURG. Mixing mockumentary footage, horror, and an odd couple adventure, this sci-fi actioner becomes great smart entertainment.

An alien mother ship has come to a stall over Johannesberg, South Africa. For 20 years, the alien inhabitants have been quarantined in a slum called District 9. The citizens are tired of having these “prawns” living in their city. Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is a middle management crony for Multi-Nation United, the conglomerate assigned to move the million plus aliens to a new refugee camp outside the city. He looks down on the aliens and is eager to find any illegal activity while he serves them eviction notices. In his search of one of the shacks, he finds a vile that explodes in his face. The biotechnology in the canister is key to the aliens’ biologically controlled weapons. When exposed to the substance inside, Wikus begins to transform into one of the aliens.
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