Based on Korean Legend, every five hundred years, fierce dragons and evil mystic warriors appear to keep a legend from being fulfilled, with it’s last attempt at fulfillment being thwarted in the year 1507, consigning the planet to again experience these creatures again, now in the year 2007. Two of these Korean guardians, now reincarnated as a young TV reporter and an antiques dealer, now do what they can to fulfill the legend, even as these creates begin to lay waste to the city of Los Angeles.

And believe me, D-War: Dragon Wars is even more convoluted than what I described above, it’s based on Korean legend anyway, and translated into modern times and in an American environment, it comes off as pretty silly, but with that said I still thought this was a fun movie, if even part of the fun was sitting back and enjoying the film in a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 fashion.

The real saving grace of the film is this absolutely incredible battle that goes on between American military forces and these mystic warriors and dragons across the streets of Los Angeles, it’s just fun as hell to watch and probably some of the very best special effects I’ve seen in a movie all year… and the timing of this is right in the film, because up to this point, this was all almost too silly to buy into before this goes down.

But as one of my friends said after we saw the film, “If I was 10 or 11 years old, this would be the coolest movie I’d ever seen” and he’s absolutely right, for a younger audience, this whole thing is probably pretty cool stuff and they wouldn’t be looking at the stuff I found laughable like Jason Behr playing this “seasoned” TV reporter who’s also an angst-ridden twenty-something cliche. Most of what I saw as the silly stuff of the film is in the American characters, and mostly then around Behr and the actress who’s playing Sarah, another reincarnated character important to the legend. Other American actors filling out the cast include Robert Forster, Chris Mulkey, Elizabeth Pena and Billy Gardell, and to give the Korean filmmakers credit, they don’t do anything to these characters that would make them seem stupid. Billy Gardell has the most comedic moments in the film and they’re totally fitting in with the events, and not done as any sort of audience pandering (like say Anthony Anderson in Transformers).

It’s fun stuff overall, but don’t go into this expecting it to be this serious genre film by any means. It’s got some brilliant effects, but at it’s core, it’s B-movie entertainment and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that at all. Go into it thinking that, and I’d expect most adult audiences will have a pretty good time, if you’ve got a small child though, they just might think it’s the coolest thing they’ve ever seen…

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It’s the old west, after the Civil War. Dan Evans is a struggling rancher who’s lost his leg in the war (and now wears a prosthetic) and is losing the respect of his sons and his wife as he’s watching his ranch being taken from him over a debt he owes. Ben Wade is the leader of a vicious gang of killers who as we see them are attempting the robbery of a Pinkerton delivered money run. Their paths intersect as Dan is taking his sons into the town of Bisbee to try to settle what has happened to him. Dan and his sons see the outcome of the Pinkerton robbery and luckily get away from Wade and his gang only at Wade’s mercy. As the Wade mob moves into Bisbee, they send the sheriff there on a wild goose chase as to where their really at and then split their money and part ways. Again, Dan Evans comes back into contact with Wade, helping to ambush him, and have him captured. One of Wade’s mob sees this happen and rides off to get the rest of the gang to free Wade, and Dan signs on to with the remaining Pinkertons to deliver Ben Wade to justice by getting him on the 3:10 to Yuma train in the town of Contention.

And that’s the basic start of the new film from director James Mangold, 3:10 To Yuma, a remake of a western that I’ve never seen before, so this is new to me anyway. Though the way I understand it, this new movie, in the eyes of most critics is far better than the original and about a half hour longer too. For the most part, I think this is a pretty terrific film, but in it’s final moments it falls apart for me anyway, but I’ll get to that shortly in a spoiler section.

Mangold, who also gave us the excellent Cop Land is sort of on familiar ground again with this story. And he does a great job of setting things up, in particular with Dan Evans and his family. I think starting with Ben Wade, he does a nice job of setting him up as this undoubtedly dastardly rogue who uses his own charisma to get into the heads of his captors, but at it’s end, Wade takes a turn that at least to me doesn’t seem right, and as such didn’t sit well with me. But I’ll tell you, from what I could tell, with four of us there to see this together, I was the only one that it didn’t sit well with, and you may very well feel differently about it.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Where it doesn’t work for me is an alliance made between Dan and Ben at the very end to get Ben on the train. Although Ben’s gang gets into Contention, going through their own travails on the road to get there, and they’re ready to free him, Ben has taken a turn to want to give in to Dan’s desires to make himself a hero for his family, and let him turn him in, even saying that he will escape from Yuma, as he’s done so in the past. Dan gets shot down by Ben’s gang, right as he gets him on the train and then immediately Ben turns on his own gang, who has followed him in to rescue him and shoots them all down in cold blood, all in front of the eyes of Dan’s oldest son. There’s a point where Dan’s son has a gun right on Ben at the end, and has the opportunity to take him right out (which is what I think should’ve happened), but instead, Ben still turns himself in, gets on the train, and as the train departs, Ben gives out a whistle for his horse to come following, as though this sadistic killer will escape within minutes of the train leaving. I honestly thought that this man should’ve had to pay for his crimes by the end, because we are lead to believe that he’s committed some pretty horrible ones, but instead, through this one rancher, in all of these crimes, he’s now found “honor” of a sorts, and that makes it all right- again, your own mileage may vary with this- it didn’t work for me, but I’m a definite minority when it comes to that as well.

END SPOILERS

Mangold’s got a hell of a cast here, Christian Bale is Dan Evans and Russell Crowe is Ben Wade, and both do a great job with the material that in front of them (I just don’t agree with the end of that material). they’re backed up with some great supporting talent including Peter Fonda, Alan Tudyk, Gretchen Mol, and Ben Foster (Foster’s really good here as Charlie Prince, Wade’s second in his gang– Foster’s one of these guys who’s fun to watch in everything he does, and he’s a far cry away here from the character that he played in The X-Men, The Angel).

Mangold’s movie does look great though (and we saw it in digital projection), it sounds great and as I said, building towards it’s end, it’s a terrific film. I just don’t agree with it’s ending, but then that’s me too, and I’m in a definite minority with that opinion. You very well may enjoy it, and I certainly well give this a second look down the road on DVD…

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It’s the middle of the evening and a lone stranger is sitting on a street bench, munching on a carrot. A pregnant woman runs past him, clearly upset and in pain. A car comes into the scene and a deadly killer gets out clearly in pursuit of the woman. Our stranger, sees that it’s now his time to get involved, and what follows is a deadly chase involving a baby, a senator, a gun trader, a lactating hooker, and a whole bunch of hitmen.

And that’s the gist of Shoot ‘Em Up a new action movie from director Michael Davis, that is clearly a parody of action movies in general and a salute Looney Tunes, John Woo and Takashi Miike in particular. This is one of those movies that clearly divides it’s audiences, with most either wildly loving it or hating it. I enjoyed it, but think it has a few problems, but still thought it was a nice little ride.

One of the biggest complaints that most have about it is the common internet caveat “Where’s the plot?” Well the plot is there, it’s just buried under tons of over-the-top action and parody. I mean make no mistake, there is a story here, but this movie is clearly parody and as part of it’s parody, it buries it even moreso than traditional action films (that get the same complaint) do. There’s motivations for all of the characters, but again, like the plot, they’re at the service of the parody that’s centerpiece.

The action is fast and furious, and sometimes it’s cut a little too much like that. Michael Davis is very fond of the quick cut here, but then again as far as I’m concerned, that’s all part of the parody as well. But here, I think it works to the disadvantage of the film, mostly in the idea that with a few exceptions, you don’t necessarily get that clear a picture of all the action that is going on. Again, I think it’s part of the parody, but here it doesn’t quite translate as well as it should.

Davis has a killer cast at work. Clive Owen is Mr. Smith, our carrot munching stranger at the start, who’s one part stoic action hero and one part Bugs Bunny. Monica Belluci is the lactating hooker who’s here entirely as eye candy and I think she knows that full well (and if you’re gonna have eye candy in a movie, it really doesn’t get much better than Belluci). Paul Giamatti is Hertz, the leader of the hitmen, and he’s all wacky, being a sort of composite Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam, he, more than anyone else is clearly having the most fun in the film. I like Clive Owen, I really do, but his casting is something that I see as another problem in the film. For the type of parody this film is displaying, it almost seems that someone more like a Bruce Willis might’ve better served the part, or at least the Bugs Bunny side of it more.

In a lot of reviews, you’ll see mentions of Looney Tunes and John Woo, and as I mentioned above, I see the work of Japanese cult director Takashi Miike in here too, in particular, this film feels more like an American version of his action masterpiece Dead or Alive, with one of the final action bits here clearly being something that you could easily see Miike do. This is one of those things that wne this eventually comes out on DVD, I hope there’s a commentary from Michael Davis on the disk, because I’d love to hear if Miike was in fact an influence here.

And on DVD is probably where most people are going to see this film- We saw a 10:00 showing of this film last night and I have to say I was expecting a little bit of a turnout, nothing overwhelming, but at least a lot more than the seven or eight people that we had in total in our theatre. I liked it, but I do think it has a few problems, but if our audience was any indication, most probably won’t care if they see it or not.

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Nicholas Hume is a man who has everything, a loving wife, two wonderful sons, a secure job- everything is going his way, or as he puts it, there is order in the universe. His eldest son is a hockey prodigy, and one night, coming home from a big game, Nick and his son find themselves the victims of gang violence, resulting in the death of that son, and now tearing apart Nick’s life sending him into a downhill plunge of violence of which there seems no escape.

And that’s the basic premise of the new movie from the original director of Saw, James Wan, Death Sentence based on a book by author Brian Garfield which in itself was a written response to sequels of a movie based on another of his books, Death Wish. As far as I’m concerned though, this feels like it’s a new version of Death Wish for our times now, and ultimately, with just a minor caveat, I think Wan has delivered a pretty satisfying film, one that has some definite weight to it and not necessarily just an excuse for wanton violence on-screen.

Wan’s clearly grown since Saw it’s real evident here, as at least to me anyway, his storytelling is way more matter of fact and far less relying on some of the tricks that he used in Saw. One of the set pieces of the film, a brilliant foot chase that leads to a final conclusion in a parking garage, is just really well done, often times giving the illusion of a single extended shot, it’s just real exciting to watch. But he just doesn’t rest there, as he’s really on his game with his actors as well.

My one minor complaint with the film concerns a transformation of one of the characters that happens a little too fast, though I think some of that can be explained a bit, I just would’ve liked it more had it taken a little more time in the film.

Kevin Bacon plays Nick Hume, and Bacon is really good here. He’s obviously invested himself emotionally in the role, and he’s asked to do some tough physical stuff as well. We’re pretty much with Bacon through the whole film, and we want him to come out on top- which is certainly a good sign of his abilities. Kelly Preston plays his wife and while I can’t remember the names of the actors who plays his sons, they do a nice job, and they are convincing as a family unit. Aisha Tyler plays a police detective who’s involved with the case and she’s solid here. John Goodman creepily plays a gun runner who’s the backbone of this gang and it’s really fun to watch him work here. And again, I can’t remember the names of the actors who play the gang members (although Saw star and co-writer Leigh Whannell is one of them), but they do a great job, not just playing some two-dimensional cut-outs, but actually having their own weight as well, when they see that their own “family unit” is threatened.

There’s a lot of other movies that Death Sentence owes to (particularly Taxi Driver) and really I don’t have a problem with that, and I tend to think that this probably couldn’t have been made any other way, without thinking of those movies, revenge films tend to do that. But still, James Wan has put together a pretty effective piece of filmmaking here that I know I certainly enjoyed quite a bit. Very much recommended.

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In the town of Haddonfield, Illinois, something evil and destructive is brewing. Young Michael Myers is the disturbed product of a highly dysfunctional family: an abusive drunk who’s his “father figure,” a stripper mother who harbors no respect from anyone, and a promiscuous sister, who shows him little regard, all he truly has is a baby sister who he does love and a festering and destructive anger, that one Halloween night, comes to a boil in dramatic fashion… and from there a rain of horror falls.

And that’s the opening part of Rob Zombie’s re-imagining of the classic John Carpenter film Halloween, and I use the term “re-imagining” deliberately as a lot of others are referring to it as a remake, and yet there’s some huge differences here. Make no mistake, this certainly does owe to John Carpenter’s legendary original in huge ways, but Zombie has made it his own. Carpenter’s film is very much a product of it’s time, and what Zombie has chosen to do is the same thing, come back with this and make it a product of his time and his worldview, creating a very nihilistic world, with little to no redeeming value in it whatsoever. He’s also chosen to give Michael Myers a very human persona, in his own way- whereas the original keeps Myers as almost this mythic force, Zombie chooses to deconstruct the myth. In John Carpenter’s film, you were always seeing things out of the corner of your eye, in Zombie’s, he shows it to you full one and often lingers over it.

The first hour of the movie is pretty damn good and pretty damn intense. This focuses on Michael’s childhood, his incarceration and his dealings with Dr. Sam Loomis and it’s pretty magnetic stuff. The second hour of the movie comes back to the familiar ground of the first film, and though it’s all covered in about an hour, it actually feels slower in comparison to Carpenter’s original. In particular, the last 15 minutes of the film has a little too much to it, mostly trying for more terror thrills when it could’ve been tied up a little more tidily.

The other thing that bothers me a bit here is that really there’s not a whole lot of anyone to really side with in the film. I tended to think that most of the people were pretty loathsome, and while that pretty much makes sense for the first hour of the film, to me anyway, it decreases the horror of the second hour. The only time when it does veer away from that is with the Laurie Strode character and her parents. But the other thing that happens here is that this is pretty loyal to the events of Carpenter’s original, and I can certainly commend Zombie for wanting to keep it that close, but I think if he would’ve done something a little more different than that, he could’ve come away with something more effective.

The other thing that I commend him with is the music of the film. Tyler Bates provides the film’s music and there’s a good creepy score here that certainly does reference John Carpenter’s original music. It’s quite well done.

Zombie’s got his most eclectic cast yet in this movie- Oh, his regulars are certainly back, Sherrie Moon Zombie, Bill Mosely, Sid Haig and William Forsythe are all here, and you’ve also got other parts filled out by Brad Dourif, Richard Lynch, Clint Howard, Udo Kier, Danny Trejo, Tom Towles, Leslie Easterbrook, Sybil Danning and Mickey Dolenz (of The Monkees). Daeg Faerch is the name of the young actor who plays the young Michael Myers, and this kid is absolutely terrific. Scout Taylor-Compton steps into Jamie Lee Curtis’ shoes to play Laurie Strode, and she sort of reminds me of a cleaner Lindsay Lohan. Tyler Mane plays the adult Michael Myers, and he’s physically quite the change from the original. Big, hulkish and in your face, his presence is certainly one facet of Zombie’s re-imagination. And the always great Malcolm McDowell steps into Donald Pleasance’s shoes to play Dr. Sam Loomis, and he does a great job, certainly playing Loomis in a more down to earth manner, whereas Pleasance’s character was literally a harbinger of doom for what was coming to Haddonfield, convincing you that what was coming was pure and utter evil, McDowell’s Loomis does the same thing of a sorts, but he’s definitely playing this as more a real psychiatrist than what Pleasance did.

Now I am a Rob Zombie fan, I love his first two movies and I still think that this year he’s given me anyway the screen’s best moment with his Werewolf Women of the S.S. trailer in Grindhouse. I’d rank Halloween as third in my order of preference in his films, even though I do think he’s displayed some tremendous growth as a filmmaker here. But, he is re-imagining a genuine horror classic here- and make no mistake about it, John Carpenter’s original film is indeed just that, a true classic. For Zombie to really do it justice he can’t really make any misfires, and yet here he does make a couple. In the end, I still think it’s a worthy view, especially if you’ve seen the original, but it doesn’t carry the same impact as the original- Carpenter literally made your pulse race at the end of the film, but Zombie is just making you wait for the end of his film, and for re-imagining a genuine horror classic, if there’s anything that should be true to the original, it should be the true sense of terror that came out of it. It’s still a worthy effort, it just falls a little short.

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FBI Agent John Crawford lost his partner in a revenge killing over an FBI investigation of Yakuza activity in San Francisco. The killing was carried out by am outside source, known only as Rogue. Three years later, Rogue has resurfaced as a war between the Yakuza and the Triads escalates in San Francisco and now John Crawford is out for total revenge.

And that’s the basic premise of the new action movie War featuring two of today’s biggest action stars, Jason Statham and Jet Li. To me this movie sort of plays out like Michael Mann’s Heat but for the short-attention spanned. That’s not a knock on the film in anyway, but there are similarities to Mann’s film, although this one doesn’t quite approach it in the same epic terms. This one plays as more a “B” film, but with some nice set pieces and a flip near the end of the film, that I can say at least I didn’t see coming.

I enjoyed this, but I’ll also tell you it’s hardly the best thing that I’ve seen this year. There’s a lot more that one could ask of this, though it does, at least to me, seem to cross all it’s “t’s” and dot all it’s “i’s.” Director Philip Atwill keeps the movie very fast-paced, but still it could’ve used a little more fleshing out, and probably a little more style and “oomph” to it’s action pieces (though some are very nice, including a final showdown in the San Francisco Yakuza headquarters).

Now I like both Statham and Li, and I can see the attraction to wanting to put them in a movie together (they’ve been in one together before, the science fiction film from Morgan and Wong called The One but that was before Statham’s star was more on the rise). But Statham isn’t hiding his British accent, though he’s distinctly playing an American FBI agent, and Li of course is Chinese, and here he’s playing Japanese- it’s a little goofy, but still having them playing accurate representations of their parts isn’t exactly what this one is about. They’re there mostly for some big-ass action more than anything else. They’re solid here though, with Statham getting a little more of the boost playing the “cop on the edge.”

Like I said above, I’ve certainly seen far better this year, but I still thought this was an entertaining diversion and a nice night out with the friends who I see movies with. Lionsgate didn’t exactly release this one for critical review, and after seeing the film, I sort of wonder why? I don’t think they had anything to be embarrassed by with this, and more than likely they probably would’ve expected reviewers to basically come in and say it’s purely for fans of the stars alone, but had little else to offer- but I guess you never really know. More than likely most will catch this on DVD than anything else, but still I certainly had a good time with it, and again where I saw it, it was shown in a digital projection room and that in itself offers up it’s own sort of fun…

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A space shuttle landing disaster has brought an intelligent virus to the planet. This virus mixes with human DNA and changes it’s host, going from an individual mind to a collective. It doesn’t happen all at once, but the process does spread rapidly, but at first, not overtly. A psychiatrist, Carole Bennell is treating a patient who’s husband isn’t her husband any more, and quickly, Carole discovers that the rest of the world is changing around her.

The Invasion is the fourth movie to be based around Jack Finney’s novel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and it comes to us by way of German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who’s given us a couple of really terrific movies in the past in The Experiment and Downfall. And The Invasion is certainly ambitious in both trying to be true to it’s source material but also find it’s own path as well. In my own opinion, out of the four movies, this is probably the least (I’d rank Philip Kaufman’s version as the very best- this one starred Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams and Leonard Nimoy), but that’s not saying it’s a bad movie by any means.

It’s a short film, and it does feel heavily edited and that there might be a lot more to it than what’s presented theatrically. At the same time, it certainly didn’t feel like something that was missing anything real important, just details that could’ve fully realized it’s ideals. One main idea that the film presents, and I give it big credit for this, is that it would take something like an “alien invasion” like this for humans to truly come to terms and live in peace, that by our own nature, we can’t have a world peace. And on top of that, it doesn’t quite get in your face about it like so many Hollywood films would’ve. That in itself is really refreshing to see in a movie like this when so many want to fall back on some tired Hollywood cliches of the authority figures being the villains- this one gives a little more food for thought.

At the same time, this certainly gives out the homages as well- particularly to Kaufman’s movie- using names like Bennell and Bellicec, and even going so far as casting Veronica Cartwright (who was in Kaufman’s film) as Carole Bennell’s patient who’s afraid of her husband, and an inadvertent key to eliminating this virus.

What it loses though is the whole idea of plant pods growing humans out of them, and the very dark endings of the other films. This one is resolved a little more quickly and is considerably more optimistic, but still pensive about the idea that it’s in our own nature to be cruel to one another. I don’t necessarily mind that, but have very much preferred the dark endings of the other movies. This one is also more openly blatant about what’s happening to the world, whereas the other films were very much isolated events, but with the prospect of opening up further.

Hirschbiegel has a great cast at work here. Nicole Kidman carries the film as Bennell, and she looks fantastic and she does a great job with the part. She’s backed up with solid support talent with Daniel Craig (this movie was completed before he became James Bond), Jeffrey Wright and Jeremy Northam- all doing solid work here.

At the end though, and I am recommending this film, this doesn’t feel as complete as it could and one wonders if perhaps on DVD this might have a bigger cut coming down the road. I hope it does, but still I think this is worth seeing if your a fan of the other three Body Snatcher films- this probably won’t upset any of them as your favorite, but still it offers an interesting take on the idea nonetheless.

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In this screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ fairy tale/novel, we see the story of a mystical world in England called Stormhold, that’s guarded by a wall from humans from the outside coming in. A young man named Tristan, who has more to him than meets the eye, has fallen in love with a young girl who doesn’t feel the same for him, and one night, as Tristan is trying to prove his love, a falling star falls past the wall, and Tristan proclaims his love in such a way that he promised to go retrieve the star for the girl who he’s courting, and from there… Tristan enters a world unlike any he’s ever seen before and learns a few lessons along the way.

Now, right off the bat, I’m gonna tell you this sort’ve thing isn’t my normal cup of tea, but with director Matthew Vaughn behind it (Vaughn directed the remarkably cool movie Layer Cake) it got me quite a bit more interested. I certainly respect Neil Gaiman’s talent, and certainly think he’s a fine writer, though I’m mostly familiar with his comic work, his work on the whole just hasn’t grabbed me the way that it does most genre fans. This isn’t saying it’s bad at all, it’s just not my cup of tea.

But with that said, and like last year’s MirrorMask, I’ve gotta say, Stardust is still a very good movie with my only bone of contention being that it’s probably just a bit too long, but other than that, this is a very entertaining piece of work. Matthew Vaughn has perfectly realized this world of Stormhold, and it’s all out there on the screen. And though I’ve never read the actual book, the script and dialogue certainly ring true to what I know of Neil Gaiman.

It’s really a beautiful film to watch, with a lot of great visual effects. My favorite of these being a flying pirate ship that catches lightning from the skies. there’s one scene involving this ship where it’s attempting to “land” in the water that’s just very cool to watch. There’s a lot of great set pieces in the film as well, one of the first that really impressed me was watching a witch (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) setting up a roadside inn and planning to use that to catch the star that Tristan has gone after. There’s a real nice convergence of visual effects, editing, and sound and music that really gives that scene quite a charge.

Good performances around in this film. Charlie Cox plays Tristan, and though I’m not that familiar with this guy, he’s certainly a very engaging personality in this film. Claire Danes plays the “star” that Tristan goes after, Evaine and she does a pretty nice job with the part. I already mentioned Michelle Pfeiffer above, and she’s certainly having fun chewing the scenery here. And Robert DeNiro plays the captain of the pirate ship, who has his “softer” side that’s the sort’ve of thing that I don’t know really works on him that well, considering who he is, but I still give him credit for going all out with it. Look for Peter O’Toole near the start of the film and there’s a great little part that Ricky Gervais has here as well.

We saw a late show of this last night, and honestly I was surprised to see more people in the audience than just the crew I was with. This is a very odd film to picture a mass audience going to, just because it’s different from other fantasy movies in that there’s nothing that’s real kid-centric here (though nothing objectionable as well)- but I don’t know, I’d like to see this do well, but could certainly see it get lost real easily out there too. While it’s subject matter, being this fantasy/fairy tale isn’t exactly my bag, I still honestly think it’s a terrific movie and wouldn’t hesitate in the slightest to recommend it. It’s been tossed out this past week that Matthew Vaughn’s next big project will be a film version of Marvel Comic’s Thor- seeing what Vaughn did here, I really do hope this happens…

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In what seems to be right on the heels of The Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne is still on the run in Russia and now having flashbacks to his early indoctrination. A British reporter gets wind of everything going on with everything with the CIA and the program that gave us Bourne and is trying to uncover everything, leading to a new category of covert ops called Blackbriar within the CIA, but the CIA is on to that as well and thus begins the cat-and-mouse chase with The Bourne Ultimatum.

Paul Greengrass is back at the helm for this movie after handling the last film in the series. Greengrass gave us what I thought was last years best movie of the year with United 93. For the most part, I think he’s in fine form here, particularly with many of the film’s set pieces. The chases and fight scenes in this movie are absolutely convincing as hell, filmed in Greengrass’ shaky handheld camera style, they’re just a lot of fun to watch.

Unfortunately, there are some points in the movie where it just falls on tired Hollywood cliches- particularly that the people in charge of the CIA are, of course, older white men, that any of the women involved here are automatically good, and that the project that created Jason Bourne is intrinsically wrong by the fact of the remorse that he’s suffering from all of the killing that he’s done.

I look at the creation of Jason Bourne to have a lot of similarities with a comic book character, Captain America, except that Cap’s missions have always been portrayed as noble, whereas in the space of the Bourne films, there’s nothing that shows that any of the missions that Bourne performed before his memory loss had any good to them at all. Now for these movies, and Bourne’s state of mind within these films, that’s fine, but to just leave it at that to me anyway falls into a cliche (and make no mistake, the third film leaves it at that). The end result could still be the same, but ignoring the fact that under this project that Bourne may have indeed done good for the country, just seems to push an idea of governmental pessimism that’s certainly popular for the time, but still becoming now an endlessly tired cliche. Personally, I feel that as a citizen of this country, I want agents like Jason Bourne out there in the world.

No fault at all of the cast, all of whom are very good here. Matt Damon continues to show why he’s as good as he is with his earnest portrayal of Bourne and watching him in the action scenes he’s totally convincing that he can do all of the stuff that he’s doing. Joan Allen and Julia Stiles are back from the previous film and joining in with this film are actors David Strathairn, Albert Finney and Scott Glenn, all of course playing the “bad guys” of the piece, and I think doing a great job, but that little bit of balance that I mentioned above just isn’t present.

This is fine as it is, I know with the exception of a particularly bad audience that we had, I had a pretty good time overall with the film. But one wonders just how much more meaty this could’ve been had there been a little more balance shown to the ideas and execution of the ideas that created the project that created Bourne. This is a good series and it wouldn’t hurt it at all to do that, to gray the line more than to draw it out in pure black and white.

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It’s approximately 50 years in the future and scientists on Earth have discovered that soon the sun will burn itself out. Seven years prior to the start of the film, the Icarus project was initiated with the plan being to deliver a tremendous nuclear payload into the heart of the sun and hopefully re-igniting it. Something went wrong though and Icarus I wasn’t heard from again. As the movie starts, Icarus II is in the midst of trying again, closing in on the planet Mercury, when they start to receive a distress signal… from Icarus I.

And in a nutshell that’s the basic premise of Danny Boyle’s newest movie, Sunshine a hard science fiction film that’s in the vein of movies like Solaris, 2001: A Space Odyssey and it’s sequel 2010. And I think it’s a damn fine piece of work.

Boyle’s film, is not only a bit of a thematic throwback, but a technical one as well. It’s beautiful to look at, but it’s not at all a heavily CGI-rendered piece. If CGI is used, it’s in more subtle effects, but nothing as sweeping as you’ve seen in other films.

Now I’m no science whiz, and don’t pretend to be one. I bought into it’s premise though, Boyle and his excellent cast sold it well to me. I’ve read criticisms where people think that this is two thirds a great movie and that it falls a part for them in the third act. I’ve avoided reading why it falls apart, but I think I’ve got a good idea why now after seeing the film. The third act, featuring the discovery of Icarus I also has another event that I think is the one that’s hard for some to swallow, and yet I think there’s enough of a set-up there that it certainly rang true for me. It all builds to nice, if somewhat ambiguous, ending that I think again is true for the type of films that Boyle makes and is also very much in keeping with things like the above-mentioned Solaris (and I’m talking about the Soderbergh/Clooney Solaris, not the Tartovsky original) and 2001: A Space Odyssey) Boyle even goes further in his salutes to these films, even throwing in a nice one to John Carpenter’s first film Dark Star.

He’s got a great cast at work for him here… Rose Byrne, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis are amongst others in the cast, but I think the real standout here is Chris Evans, who we know best as playing the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies. All of the characters feel like fully developed individuals, and Evans gets a very nice character arc in the film that lets him display some acting muscles that I haven’t really seen him display before. It’s a great ensemble all around, but Evans really does do a nice job here, making me look forward to more serious acting roles from him.

I really enjoyed this, this is the type of science fiction film that really speaks to me, and I applaud Danny Boyle for doing this type of film and adding another genre to his impressive list of credits. We had four of us together on this last night, all of us genre film fans and we all came out really enjoying the film, and I know for two of us, even enjoying it more after the fact, as we talked deeper about it. Very much looking forward to owning this one on DVD and watching it again and again, this one’s up there as one of the best of the summer for me (Ratatouille is still my big favorite though), and it will certainly be one that I’ll be considering as one of the best of the year as well. Highly, highly recommended…

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Once again, in the town of Springfield, things are happening for the Simpsons family, Bart’s feeling neglected by his father, Lisa’s found a new love, and Homer has too, in the form of a new pet pig. It all culminates to yet another point where Homer does something that makes the town of Springfield declared a disaster are from the EPA, and encased in clear dome that there is no escape from, and yet the Simpsons find their escape only after the townsfolk come after them yet again… only to have the Simpsons being the one hope to save the day in the end.

And that’s the premise of The Simpsons Movie an event that Fox bills as 18 years in the making. This one’s been talked about for a long time, and finally it’s come to fruition and I gotta say, it’s a hell of a lot of fun, especially if you’re a Simpsons fan (which of course I am big time- I own all of the DVD sets and there’s many bits that I can quote you chapter and verse on).

Now the thing is, this does play out as though it’s one very extended episode of the show, and for me anyway, I think that’s just fine. I know some criticisms that it gets is that people think it should be more than the show, and it is in some ways (mostly technical), but that thematically it needs to go a bit beyond. I don’t know if it necessarily needs to do that, I could see it trying to stretch it’s boundaries and be an even bigger disappointment. What it does is give you what you know and love and presents it in a way that’s more extravagant and beautiful than it’s ever been done before.

And beautiful it is, it’s extremely well animated display an extensively greater dimensionality than what it does on TV. It’s a terrific blend of both 2D and 3D animation that really makes it beautiful to behold. And I got to see this in digital projection as well, even adding more to it’s presentation.

All of the voice cast are still there, Dan Castellanata, Julie Kavner, Yeardley Smith, Angela Cartwright, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer all do their usual wonderful jobs and this time they’re joined by Albert Brooks (who has also done an episode of the show), playing Russ Cargill, the EPA agent who’s out to impress President Schwarzenegger with his plans for Springfield.

Like I said, if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll definitely have a good time here. And they do, in some small ways, take advantage that they’re not on TV for this film (and there’s an extremely funny bit at the start of the film about why you’d go and pay to see something on the big screen taht you can see n TV for free). I know I laughed very hard during this film and that’s the best sign in the world that it’s working. If you’re a Simpsons fan, I can’t recommend it enough. If you’re not at all familiar with them, well then get familiar with them and then see this movie… great stuff here.

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Paprika is the story of a device called the DC Mini. What the DC Mini does is allow someone to walk through another person’s dream and it’s use is for deep psychotherapy. At the start of the film, we’re given a glimpse into the dreams of a police detective, Konokawa and how he’s suffering from a trauma caused by a murder he can’t solve. This therapy is being directed by a young woman named Paprika who gives Konokawa much comfort. As we shift to the center where the DC Mini is used, we’re introduced to more characters: Chiba, the doctor in charge of the use of the DC Mini, Shima, her direct superior and Takita, the largely overweight and nerdish inventor of the DC Mini, and we also discover that a DC Mini has been stolen, and with it’s theft and unauthorized use, it’s starting to affect those that come into contact with it, and this builds to the point of the dreamworld starting to bleed over into the real world.

Paprika is an epic Japanese anime from director Satoshi Kon who’s best known for his previous work Tokyo Godfathers and it’s quite the thought-provoking film, which after seeing something like Transformers seems like just the thing that I was in the mood for. What this first brought to mind for me anyway was an American film called Dreamscape that starred Dennis Quaid. Paprika is Dreamscape taken to a degree that it probably never could’ve been taken to if made either as live action or as an American movie. It’s a serious story that really does delve into the psyche of it’s characters, primarily Chiba, Konokawa and Takita in ways that seem, at least to me, very right on how dreams work.

The animation is wonderful and there’s a lot of great imagery at work here. The style of the film sort of reminds me of a cross of what you’d get if you took American comic artist Jim Starlin and had his work interpreted as Japanese anime. But being anime, don’t exactly expect it to have the same vibrancy that you might get from American animation, it works on it’s own level and that level basically treats this just the same as a live action film might be treated, which what I mean by that is that human characters here are very human in expression and action and not at all over-the-top in portrayal.

There’s a lot to chew on here as far as it’s story goes taking some twists and turns that absolutely demands your full attention- i.e. this ain’t exactly the sort of movie that you watch and turn your brain off to. Yes, there’s plenty of twists and there’s certainly a few things that directly owe to Japanese culture, but if you’re paying close attention, you won’t have any trouble following this whatsoever.

Paprika is an absolutely wonderful film and if you’re a fan of anime, you already no doubt know about the film. Most who want to see this will probably have to wait for a domestic DVD release, but if so it’s worth the wait. We were fortunate and it opened here at St. Louis’ premiere art house theatre, the Tivoli and we got to see it in the theatre’s main auditorium on it’s biggest screen, and it was certainly a wonderful experience. Very much recommended.

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Deep in outer space, war has ravaged a planet inhabited by mechanical creatures called the Autobots and the Decepticons, and now the object of their origin has been ripped from their planet and heads on a direct course to Earth- leading both packs of mechanical beings on a search of the planet- the Autobots attempting to save the Earth and the Decpticons ready to unleash what happened to their world on our world. And a handful of humans are ready to stand in the way and ally with the Autobots.

That’s the nutshell description of Transformers the latest movie from director Michael Bay that owes it’s origins to a toy line created by Hasbro back in the day. I’ve got to admit I don’t have the connection to this that others do. When the Transformers were big, that was also around the same time of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and G.I. Joe and I sided with the critics of those that the cartoons were just overblown commercials for toys more than anything else, they just didn’t grab me. Well, that was snobbish then, and now I’ve got a little more respect for the properties, but I still wouldn’t call me a convert. The trailers for this movie looked incredibly impressive, and so that got me really interested. Plus, I’m not exactly Michael Bay’s biggest fan, but at the same time, I don’t exactly look at his movies with the same disdain that others do either… he makes big-ass spectacle popcorn films, and things like The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and The Island all work for me on some level or another (Personally, I think The Island is his best film). So really, I was looking forward to seeing this.

When he’s dealing with the big-ass action and the various robots themselves, I think this movie really excels… it’s just that when he deals with the people, this movie falls apart (with one exception- I’ll get to that in a moment). The people in this film are cartoony sit-com, almost like what you’d expect to see on ABC’s comedy shows and really they garner no sympathy from me whatsoever. There’s a point in the end where Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, talks about this thing in humanity that he sees that makes them worth saving, and I only saw that with the military special forces that first come into contact with a Decepticon in the film- all of the rest of the people are spending all of their time doing snarky comedy bits in the midst of the action.

Michael Bay has said in a recent interview in Wizard magazine that he was going for total realism in this movie- he succeeds with the Transformers themselves, I’ll certainly give him that, but with the exception of the military force that I mentioned above, fails on any of the other human reaction, like I said devolving it to TV sit-com situations. As I’m watching people like Shia LeBouef, Megan Fox, Anthony Anderson and John Tuturro in this, it almost becomes cringeworthy in seeing their reactions to situations, not so much with LeBouef and Fox, but incredibly so with guys like Anderson and Tuturro. Anderson in particular is almost painful to watch especially considering that he’s made some real dramatic strides on shows like The Shield here he just resorts back to type, or in his case, stereotype. And Tuturro plays this total cartoon character in charge of a super-secret organization that keeps their knowledge of these beings from everyone else, and he just falls into a basic Hollywood cliche of yet again being this authority figure that’s just made to look silly against the man on the street. The first tip-off that everything is going to go into a cliche comes during a meeting of top minds called by the Secretary of Defense (played by Jon Voight) and we focus on a group of geeks recruited fresh from school who are bound to be the ones that find out more than anyone else does at the start (oddly enough, these geeks have within them, their hot chick, who’s more wish-fulfillment fantasy on-screen than anything that might approach reality– but Megan Fox is also that same way).

There’s a scene in the film where Shia LeBouef, playing a character named Sam Witwicky who has ties to the robots, first gains their confidence and decides to throw in. He then begins to sneak around his house trying to find the object that they need, only to arouse his parents suspicions, and this whole scene just plays out as a big joke- an excuse to have a person who’d be the most uptight in the scene say the word masturbation and get a cheap laugh from the audience… it’s just embarrassing to watch.

The saving grace in the acting department goes to Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and the other actors playing the Special Forces unit that first comes into contact with the Decepticons. These guys I totally buy here, they don’t treat the situation like a big joke and they’re good at what they do. I could’ve just watched a movie based around these guys and come away much more pleased.

This gets a very mixed review here, but more going to the thumbs down side of things. On the positive side, you could just look at this as this huge fireworks type of Fourth of July spectacle and probably have a pretty good time with it (and again, I certainly give it points for it’s last half hour which is just pure action and a lot of fun to watch), the robots are the star of the show, that’s for sure. But the people are who they’re fighting for, and Bay just doesn’t even for a moment want to give the common guy a moment of sincerity in the film and as such ultimately fails in delivering to me a movie that I could give a damn about.

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A plot has been hatched to take down the United States from it’s very infrastructure, by disabling communications and utilities, the United States has become gripped in a very real terror of just not being able to go about their everyday lives… all of this at the will of a former NSA security specialist who seeks revenge on the USA for shutting him down. NYPD Detective John McClane has been dispatched to retrieve a hacker that unwillingly participated in this scheme and from there, finds himself in a situation where again, he must stop terrorists from completing their acts, and saving family along the way.

And that’s the premise to Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth film in the Die Hard series featuring Bruce Willis as John McClane. This time around, director Len Wiseman (Underworld) is at the helm of the film and what they deliver here is for the most part a very entertaining thrill ride, with Bruce Willis in fine form, still quipping as McClane, but also certainly a little more weathered by time.

Wiseman moves this one at a rapid pace, and even it’s “quiet” moments feel kinetic. There’s some real nice set piece stuff at play in this movie (including one scene near the start of this film which is liable to send some fanboys in tears in regards to the what is being destroyed on screen), some of which is quite intense. To me anyway, this is better paced than either of Wiseman’s Underworld films and feels right at home with the prior Die Hard’s directed by John McTiernan and Renny Harlin. The one little misgiving I have with it, and I don’t hold this against the movie, is that some of the action might be a little more over-the-top than some of the other films (in particular a scene near the end involving a jet plane).

Wiseman’s well aided in this movie from composer Marco Beltrami who’s music score is certainly evocative of the first two Die Hard films.

Bruce Willis is terrific, always fun to watch and even still there with his patented horse-eye look when firing his guns at the bad guys. Justin Long (who you know as Mac in the Apple computer commercials) is really good here as the young hacker that’s forced to team up with McClane and he really holds his own with Willis. Timothy Olyphant is Gabriel, the mastermind behind this plot, and he’s also magnetic to watch and just as much a threat as Alan Rickman or Jeremy Irons was in the other movies. And look out, even Kevin Smith is in the film, maybe giving the most animated performance that he’s ever given as a cohort of Long’s.

This is the very definition of a popcorn movie, and yet I tend to think that its scheme is maybe one of the scariest that I’ve seen in a movie in awhile. Having gone through almost two full weeks in the last year without power in my home, I know just how helpless that makes a person feels. There’s just a couple of niggling points in the film as far as consistency of action goes, but easily forgivable as far as I’m concerned. It’s a fun movie as it is, though, and I’d certainly recommend it, as long as you’re a little willing to just give it a few points.

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Remy is a rat, but a rat that’s quite a bit different than his family- Remy likes the finer things, he doesn’t eat garbage and he has a palette and a sense of smell for gourmet cuisine. Remy idolizes a human French chef named Gusteau, who has one of the finest five-star restaurants in all of Paris, but that restaurant has been brought down to a three-star restaurant thanks to a food critic named Anton Ego. Now, through a series of events, Remy has found himself allied with a young man named Linguini, as they both seek to find themselves in worlds totally unfamiliar to both: Linguini in trying to belong in a restaurant and Remy, in the world of humans.

And that’s the basic premise in a nutshell to Ratatouille the newest film from Pixar studios and the follow-up to the previous collaboration between Pixar and writer/director Brad Bird’s, The Incredibles and it is quite simply one of the best movies of the year, easily something that will make it near the top of my Top 10 list for 2007. There is of course, way more to this story than I’m telling you above, but really to say any more would be to deny you the pleasure of watching this unfold for yourself.

The credit for just how fantastic this film is is primarily Brad Bird’s who has certainly demonstrated in both The Iron Giant and The Incredibles a need to advance the animation artform in this country. Both of those movies are high watermarks for both 2D and 3D animation, and Ratatouille raises that bar even higher… not just with it’s beautifully stunning 3D animation, but also with it’s story, a story that is certainly universal for all audiences, but really having a way more pleasant appeal, at least in my eyes, for a more mature crowd. Bird, in his previous films, has had a bit of a retro feel to those movies as well, and he does it here too. Ratatouille at times feels like the sort of movie that Blake Edwards would’ve made back in his heyday.

Pixar’s animation makes something like Shrek The Third look like it was done by amateurs, that’s just how advanced this looks. Camera angles, lighting, attention to detail and above all, characterization is just a step beyond what we’ve been seeing in computer animation, and you just want to bask in this over and over again. The thing is, Pixar does this well enough on their own, but when working with Bird, their game is stepped up, and Bird’s mind takes their tools and works them in directions that’s just not typical for these films. The combination of these talents, and their willingness to work with some more uncoventional story elements is what makes movies like The Incredibles and Ratatouille not just great animated films, but great movies beyond the form.

There’s some really fine voice acting at work here too… Patton Oswalt is the voice of Remy and he’s just terrific here, bringing a real earnestness to the part that sort of reminds me of a Michael J. Fox back in his better days. Ian Holm is the voice of Skinner, the chef who’s taken over Gusteau’s and his just might be the best voice work in the film, very emotive, but also totally filled with character. Peter O’Toole is the voice of Anton Ego and as with anything Peter O’Toole ever says on screen, you’re just totally enthralled when he speaks. The whole film has been voice-casted with careful attention, and these aren’t just computer animation models on screen, but totally feel like living, breathing characters.

This was another film that I got to see in digital projection and that was just icing on the cake on a truly fantastic film experience. For a film that has food as one of it’s centerpieces, it actually makes that computer generated food look luscious and succulent and leaves you wanting to eat at the end of the film… and I’ve never seen an animated movie that has done that before. Do not miss this movie, like I said above, easily one of the very best movies of the year…

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