Check Out the Trailer

Darren Aronofsky has made a darker version of THE RED SHOES. From a screenplay by Andres Heinz, Mark Heyman and John McLaughlin, he takes the basic premise of the famed ballet Swan Lake and brings it to this psychological thriller. In trying to become the White Swan, a ballerina becomes the Black Swan.

That ballerina is Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman, CLOSER), a naive and insecure dancer who dances with perfection, but lacks that passionate spark. Her company’s impresario Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel, READ MY LIPS) is casting a new version of Swan Lake and is looking to replace the aging prima ballerina Beth Macintyre (Winona Ryder, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS). Nina desperately wants the role, but Thomas doesn’t think she has what it takes to play the sensual side of the Black Swan. Could that be the new tattooed tough girl Lily (Mila Kunis, FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL)?
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

I heard Akira Kurasawa attributed as saying that he spent his entire career remaking the same movie in different ways. Noah Baumbach seems on the way to doing the same thing. Starting with THE SQUID AND THE WHALE and continuing in MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, he seems drawn to neurotic intellectuals, who are trapped by their own high opinion of themselves. In his first film, we related to the push and pull of the children of the neurotic intellectuals. MARGOT was more difficult to love because the characters were too neurotic for use to care about. This film seems to be a reevaluation of the same themes of MARGOT, but gives us likable characters to experience it all through.

Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller, ZERO EFFECT) is the neurotic de jour for Baumbach’s third film. He’s recently had a nervous breakdown and has been invited to stay at his brother’s home in Los Angeles while he and his family are away on an extended vacation. Unable to really take care of himself, his brother’s assistant Florence Marr (Greta Gerwig, THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL) helps him out. They end up striking up an affair despite a large age difference and the fact that Roger is a pretentious prick.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer and Clips

Disney’s 50th animated feature has a bit of everything that one might think of when one thinks of a Disney animated film. For the classic touch, there is a princess rescued by a dashing male hero, a wicked mother, animal sidekicks, musical numbers and magic. For the modern touch, there are irreverent splashes and gags galore. The former parts work much better than latter and in the end traditional storytelling wins the day.

Rapunzel (Mandy Moore, SAVED!) was saved from death as a child by a magic flower that gave her hair magical healing properties. Gothel (Donna Murphy, SPIDER-MAN 2) had been using said flower for years to turn back the effects of time, so she decides to kidnap the baby princess and raise her as her own, keeping her locked away in a tower in the forest. The devious woman tells the girl that the world is evil and that she is safer hidden away. But the now 18 year old girl wants to venture out and see firsthand the lanterns that happen to rise in the distance on her birthday.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

When so many movies are about nothing, TREKKIES director Roger Nygard makes a film about the biggest questions. Why are we here? Does God exist? What is our purpose in life? He travels the world and asks these questions of people of all walks of life. With a light, but respectful touch, he creates a charming film that answers all those questions and doesn’t answer any of them at the same time.

He gives equal time for both the religious and scientific point of view and all that lies in between. Some of the big names interviewed include Indian holy man Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, renowned evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins, Islamic scholar Dr. Zakir Naik, 24th generation Taoist Master Zhang Chengda, co-discoverer of string theory Leonard Susskind, Mormon novelist Orson Scott Card, EMPIRE STRIKES BACK director Irvin Kershner, comedian Julia Sweeney and Carl Sagan’s widow Ann Druyan.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

This is the least rewarding of the cinematic HARRY POTTER experiences mainly because it doesn’t satisfyingly work as a film on its own. Unlike the LORD OF THE RINGS series, each film worked as a solo film, while setting up the continuing journey. DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 1 tries to find its EMPIRE STRIKE BACK moment to end on, but without making Voldemort declare he is Harry’s father, this film left me wanting more, but not in a good way. And yet I want more.

This PART 1, PART 2 nonsense will mean nothing after July 2011. After that DEATHLY HALLOWS can be enjoyed on DVD or Blu-ray or whatever comes next in home entertainment as one complete film. But because I am not clairvoyant I can’t comment on the complete DEATHLY HALLOWS, because I have only seen half the film. PART 1 is kind of like the equivalent of tantric sex; all build up and no climax. But for POTTER fans, it’s still sex… unless they’re kids, because it’s a family franchise, right?
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Noah Baumbach continues his examination of the neurotic, intellectual and familial in his second film. This time he uses the often-used conceit of a big event to bring together characters that have not seen each other in ages and we watch as the fireworks explode. But with a person like Margot around throwing fire the explosions can be huge.

Margot (Nicole Kidman, THE HOURS) is a writer who never sees her husband Jim (John Turturro, DO THE RIGHT THING). She’s having an affair with fellow writer Dick (Ciaran Hinds, MUNICH), who is married. She treats her young son Claude (Zane Pais) like a confidant instead of her child. Her and Claude have been invited to the wedding of her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Lee, THE HUDSUCKER PROXY), who lives a modest life in the old family home.
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Since the beginning of cinema there have been adaptations of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday ghost tale. Many think of the 1951 version starring Alastair Sim. I have a soft spot for A MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL for its great humor. Director Robert Zemeckis makes his version with puppets as well, only digital puppets. Performance capture has allowed him to do anything with the tale.

Jim Carrey brings to life Scrooge, who here is sickly thin and more vulture-like than ever before. With the performance capture technology, Carrey is able to play the three ghosts as well. The Ghost of Christmas Past is a flicker of fire, who speaks with an ethereal tone. The closest to Dickens’ description I’ve ever seen. The Ghost of Christmas Present is as he has been portrayed before as a large jolly fellow. But I really like his haunting transformation as the hour chimes and he chuckles as he turns to bones. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is often just a shadow creeping on the wall and pointing a skeletal finger.
Read the rest of this entry »

Buy It Now!

Read my review of A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

Whether you hate performance capture or like it, this Blu-ray release will only support your opinion no matter what it is. That’s because the crystal clear presentation shows off everything. The color palette is rich with festive reds and golds in the cheery moments. The darker scenes are balanced wonderfully as well. Blacks are bold and there is no digital problems as characters emerge from the dark into light. Overall the picture shows no signs of aliasing, banding or any other kind of digital distortion.

The audio equals the picture very well. The soundscape utilizes the more action filled moments well. In one screen Scrooge is overwhelmed with chimes and clocks and we understand his feelings. Directionality flows nicely across speakers as characters move across the environment. The soundtrack is presented in DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Before this Argentine film was released in the U.S., it surprised many by beating out frontrunners A PROPHET and THE WHITE RIBBON, both remarkable films. While I think those films are more accomplished than this police procedural meets romance, I can see why Academy members gave their votes to this film. It’s conventional in the way quality films use to be made. It also has an ending that comes to define the entire film, because it’s so unexpected.

Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darin, NINE QUEENS) is a legal counselor who is now retired and writing a novel based on a case that has consumed him for 25 years. What has also consumed him is his boss, Irene (Soledad Villamil), who was involved in the case he is writing about. The case is that of Lilana Coloto (Carla Quevedo), a beautiful schoolteacher who has brutally raped and murdered. Two day laborers were arrested, beaten, confessed and imprisoned in that order. Esposito can’t bear to tell her husband Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago) that he believes the real killer is his wife’s childhood friend Isidoro Gomez (Javier Godino, DECEPTION).
Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out The Trailer

When your mistress asks you to steal the money her husband stole in a bloody armed robbery and then burn down their house to cover up the theft, you know you’re in trouble. This neo-noir from Australia uses this scenario and piles on the complications. Raymond Yale doesn’t know which bad decision is the one that’s going to get him in the end.

Raymond (David Roberts, THE MATRIX RELOADED) has promised to leave his wife Martha (Lucy Bell, OSCAR AND LUCINDA) and run away with the young hairdresser Carla (Claire van der Boom). Raymond keeps saying he wants to save enough to make a decent life for them elsewhere. He’s overseeing the construction of a new resort built around a central square. In contracting the cement supplier, he takes a kickback. But when Carla spots her husband Smithy (Anthony Hayes, RABBIT-PROOF FENCE) hiding a bag full of cash in the attic, she devises a much quicker way to get they money they need to escape.
Read the rest of this entry »