When hearing that Year of the Fish is a modern-day Cinderella story, that’s not a cue to take your children to it. After all, the movie is about a Chinese immigrant named Ye Xian (An Nguyen) who finds herself working for and in debt to the owner of a massage parlor – in actuality a brothel – in New York.
Year of the Fish is a film festival picture that opened in Seattle (and presumably elsewhere) over the weekend and that rolls Chinese folklore, modern-day issues and a Cinderella love story into one. The result is mixed, but given the obvious small budget and limited scope, it is decent enough. (more…)
Check out the new movie trailer for the upcoming limited-release film Kabluey, which stars Lisa Kudrow, Teri Garr, Christine Taylor, Conchata Ferrell, Chris Parnell and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
The official Kabluey synopsis is as follows:
Inept Salman (Scott Prendergast) comes to help his sister-in-law (Lisa Kudrow) tend to her homicidal toddlers while Salman’s brother is off fighting in Iraq. Salman must take a humiliating job as a giant blue corporate mascot to help make ends meet and hold the family together. Packed with a parade of delightful comedy character actors, “Kabluey” is a hilarious, unique and heartfelt comedy.
A&E is remaking Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain, which premieres on Monday, May 26th at 9pm as a TV mini-series. TV mini-series always worry me, but The Andromeda Strain is a cool enough story that I figured I’d better see it for myself. Thankfully, A&E sent me Part One of the series to review. (more…)
Poor Mena Suvari. The actress, fairly attractive and a decent actress, started off her career about as good as anyone who isn’t named Jennifer Hudson can do: not only did she have a major part in one of the last great teen classics, American Pie, but she was the title character in one of the best movies of all time, American Beauty. She was 20 at the time both of those movies were released, and if that’s how her career begun, just imagine what she’d be doing in eight years.
The direct-to-DVD remake of George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead. Wow.
The movie really isn’t a remake of the Romero original, as it bears little resemblance to that film. The original was a continuation of Romero’s two classics and featured a bunch of characters tucked away in an underground bunker. This new Day of the Dead is your standard zombie flick; what starts off looking like an epidemic of the flu turns out to be a cannibalistic nightmare. Several unsuspecting characters find themselves at the center of a shit storm, and you know the rest. Why this movie is actually allowed to be marketed as “based on the motion picture from George A. Romero” is a bit astounding. Other than being a zombie movie, the two movies are far removed.
As one might expect from a direct-to-DVD release, the movie isn’t anything you should rush out to buy, rent or see. This is no theatrical Dawn of the Dead remake, let me tell you. Hell, it’s not even Land of the Dead. It’s your run-of-the-mill zombie film, with so-so writing, quasi-cheap special effects and so on and so forth.
That being said, it is a step above other direct-to-DVD releases, and I have to wonder if with a little more budget and a little more attention to detail this movie could have gone to theaters. It was clearly made with the intention to go straight to DVD, as the makeup, film quality and script aren’t good enough to take the film to the next level. Still, if you like zombie movies, Day of the Dead is tolerable. It has a lot of action, a fair amount of gore and, for the type of movie it is, surprisingly decent acting.
Suvari holds her own and the rest of the cast do what they’re supposed to. Nick Cannon isn’t particularly good, though he was clearly written with the badass token black guy in mind. Ving Rhames even is in the movie, obviously homage to the Dawn of the Dead remake.
The movie suffers from some unnecessary visual effects; I’m not a big fan of zombies being able to jump long distances through the air, climb on ceilings and so on and so forth. The zombies also sound like dinosaurs, another unnecessary move. Ultimately, Steve Miner, who has directed such quality B-grade films as Halloween H20 and Lake Placid, was given a low budget and tasked with making a direct-to-DVD feature. There is nothing here to suggest otherwise.
Sadly, I just looked on IMDB I see that the budget for the movie is $18 million. That’s not a lot these days, but considering that Shaun of the Dead was made for only $4 million, it actually is surprising that the movie looks a lot better. The decision to go with special effects over quality makeup was clearly a bad one.
The new Dawn of the Dead isn’t as bad as I was expecting, and in fact is moderately entertaining, but a few major but doable tweaks could have gone a long way. Fans of the original will be disappointed.
Is there any question that Cate Blanchett is going to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at the 2008 Academy Awards? The actress is by far and away the most powerful person in the category, and her performance the most memorable.
Hell, Cate Blanchett is the only reason people went to go see I’m Not There, the officially weird but surprising excellent metaphor to Bob Dylan’s life. After all, Blanchett plays one of six versions of Dylan in the film, and if it’s hard to play the opposite sex, Blanchett doesn’t sweat a drop. The movie noticeably picks up its pace when she arrives on camera, and turns in one of the most dazzling performances ever captured on film.
As for the others, there’s not much competition. Ruby Dee in American Gangster? Seriously? That film lost its Oscar steam a long way back, and the only thing going for her is that the Denzel Washington/Russell Crowe film is about to arrive on DVD (but when are votes due?). I don’t remember a single thing about Dee’s performance, and there doesn’t seem to be much of a reason for her nomination other than a lack of good supporting female leads this year.
I was not a huge fan of Saoirse Ronan in Atonement. I absolutely loved the movie, but Ronan seemed a bit out of her element. OK, she still does a pretty good job (I noticed more the second time I saw the movie), but an Oscar-winning job? I don’t think so. [Correction: I completely confused Ronan with Romala Garai - two odd names, you know. I wasn't a huge fan of Garai, but in fact thought Ronan was terrific as the young Briony. Behind Cate Blanchett, Ronan would be my pick]
Gone Baby Gone was another very good film, and Amy Ryan did a very good job portraying a loser of a mother. That being said, when I was watching the movie, I was never blown away by her performance. I’m not too surprised she was nominated, but she sure as hell isn’t going to win.
The best competition for Cate Blanchett is Tilda Swinton, who plays a stone cold corporate executive in Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney. She has a relatively small role, but she is commanding in every scene; way back in October or whenever I saw this film, I thought at the time that she could be a front runner for an Oscar. Still, compared to Blanchett, Swinton isn’t nearly as memorable; and I haven’t heard any buzz about her, either.
Overall, these nominations don’t surprise me too much; there was a lack of good supporting actresses in 2007, and these are probably the best of the bunch. Allison Janney in Juno is the only other person I can think of off the top of my head who could have been up for the award.
As the New Year fast approaches and the first week of January 2008 beckons, there are a slew of new pictures out at theaters, some of them good and some of them not-so-good. I’ve seen a lot of movies over the last couple of weeks, and while I haven’t posted reviews for all of these films, I wanted to share what I’ve seen and make recommendations. Keep in mind that this time of year I am most interested in seeing dark and depressing pictures (Atonement) rather than mindless entertainment (National Treasure), and that I will generally avoid chick flicks (P.S. I Love You).
Here are the movies you should see:
Atonement The best movie of 2007 so far, though I’m still holding out hope for There Will Be Blood…
Juno Funny and oddly powerful, this will have females going “awwwww…” (seriously, there were several) and guys cracking up. Also has a potential Oscar winner starlet in the form of Ellen Page.
No Country for Old Men Still one of the front runners for Best Picture of the Year. An awesome thriller, even if the ending stumbles a bit…
I Am Legend If you want mindless entertainment, go see this one. Some people haven’t liked it, but it’s a tense thriller, at least until the final act. Will Smith is also great in it.
American Gangster This one is still playing in many theaters, and while it doesn’t blow one away, it’s still quite good.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead Impress people by seeing movie slightly off the beaten path. Luckily, it’s still a pretty slick crime drama.
The Golden Compass It is a bit rushed and could have benefited from a better director, but if you don’t mind anti-Christian themes, The Golden Compass is a lot better than what critics give it credit for.
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets I can’t believe I’m putting this one on my list, but despite the fact that it sometimes doesn’t make much sense or isn’t even slightly plausible, going in with low expectations meant that I actually found this one pleasingly entertaining.
Movies I haven’t seen but plan to shortly (because I hear they’re good)
Charlie Wilson’s War
The Great Debaters
The Kite Runner
The Savages
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Movies to avoid at all cost
Sweeney Todd
Yeah, this one just sucked. I like musicals, but no one told me that Sweeney Todd was going to be a boring movie with some of the worst music I’ve ever heard in my life.
Fred Claus I didn’t see this movie, but it just looked bad.
Pigs are flying. Hell is freezing over. Yes, Uwe Boll has risen from the ashes and will be gracing us with not one, not even two, but three disasters within one month of each other. Yes, can you believe it? Can you believe that he still gets work? Can you believe that distributors still believe in his movies? Can you believe that anyone actually goes watches his garbage?
On January 11, 2008, we get In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, a Jason Statham-starring film. Hell, even if Uwe Boll wasn’t directing the movie, I can tell from the title that it’s going to suck.
On January 25, 2008, we get Seed, also from Freestyle Releasing.
And on February 1, 2008, Postal, based on the video game, comes to theaters from – you guessed it – Freestyle Releasing.
What is Freestyle thinking? Are they just trying to dump these all at once so they don’t have to worry about Boll anymore? Somehow, I’m guessing they have more sinister plans in mind. I’m pretty sure that the soul of Adolf Hitler himself – if he had a soul – has returned and inhabited the body of the President of Freestyle Releasing. What other explanation could it be?
I would not be surprised if these releases turn into limited releases, or get pushed back, but it’s pretty shocking to see that three movies from the same director are coming out within a month of one another, let along from Uwe Boll, who is regarded by many as the worst director ever.
When hearing that Year of the Fish is a modern-day Cinderella story, that’s not a cue to take your children to it. After all, the movie is about a Chinese immigrant named Ye Xian (An Nguyen) who finds herself working for and in debt to the owner of a massage parlor – in actuality a brothel – in New York.
Poor Mena Suvari. The actress, fairly attractive and a decent actress, started off her career about as good as anyone who isn’t named Jennifer Hudson can do: not only did she have a major part in one of the last great teen classics, American Pie, but she was the title character in one of the best movies of all time, American Beauty. She was 20 at the time both of those movies were released, and if that’s how her career begun, just imagine what she’d be doing in eight years.
