Rick's Flicks Picks on AWN

This film is solid family entertainment that kind of looses its steam closer to the end. The start of this film is brilliant. The satire of Hollywood is dead on. Bugs Bunny is about to make a new picture, but Daffy Duck wants more respect. Warner Bros. exec Kate (Jenna Elfman, TV’s DARHMA & GREG) shows the other execs that Daffy isn’t as popular as Bugs in addition to being difficult. So she fires Daffy and recruits security guard/wanna-be stunt man DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser, GODS & MONSTERS) to kick Daffy off the studio lot.

The beginning is zany and truly captures the feel of the classic Looney Tunes. Director Joe Dante (GREMLINS) and animation director Eric Goldberg (FANTASIA/2000) have obvious respect for the source material unlike so many associated with the dreg that was SPACE JAM. The in-jokes fly fast and furious. Two of my favorite bits are Shaggy and Scooby confronting Matthew Lillard about his performance in SCOOBY-DOO and Fraser as DJ Drake commenting about Brendan Fraser in THE MUMMY movies.

Based on the famous Mexican novel, this film tries to capture the traditions of magical realism on film. Told by a narrator as a family legend, the story follows the love tale of Tita (Lumi Cavazos, BOTTLE ROCKET) and Pedro (Marco Leonardi, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO). Pedro wants to marry Tita, but her mother Elena (Regina Torne, TV’s RIVALES POR ACCIDENTE) won’t let her because she is the youngest, and tradition states that she must take care of her mother until her mother dies. So as a way to stay close to Tita, Pedro agrees to marry Tita’s oldest sister Rosaura (Yareli Arizmendi, A DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN).

At first, I hated the heated soap opera material this film presented. It was melodrama to the nth degree. However, once the magical realism kicked in, I found myself drawn in and captivated by the grand tale and the originality of the metaphors. I will always remember Tita’s quilt, her rose petal quail dinner, the cake she makes for her sister’s wedding and the story of the matches. These are the details that bring life to the melodrama.

It’s amazing that a film about the making of another film turns out better than the original film. SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG exploded into cinemas in 1971, starting on only two screens in the U.S. and becoming the highest grossing independent film of that year. Even more importantly, the film started the sub-genre of blaxploitation films. If there were no Sweetback; there wouldn’t have been a Super Fly or a Mack or even a Shaft.

Melvin Van Peebles will be remembered as the man who opened up America to a poor black man’s perspective as well as telling America that films with black heroes can be box office successes. And who better to tell Melvin’s story than his own son Mario.

Scene: Hollywood execs sitting in a big office. One turns to the other. "Hey, let's make a film where a serial killer plans out elaborate ways to kill people, taunting the police along the way." Second exec, "I don't know, what's the twist." First exec, "It's set in Canada." Second exec, "Brilliant… and we can film it there too." Brilliant?

I'm pretty much a sucker for detective stories. I like mysteries. But the formula is getting old. When I first saw the trailer for this film and saw Angelina Jolie lying in the grave, I wanted to vomit. Grand dramatic gestures by cops are so lame. RED DRAGON nailed how to show a detective getting into the mind of the killer in my book. Additionally, TAKING LIVES throws common sense out the window. Time and time again, the contrivances of the plot make you shake your head.

This poetic Buddhist story has a lot to say about life and death, sin and redemption and love. The metaphor of the changing season representing the stages of life isn't a revolutionary artistic touch, but director Ki-duk Kim does it with original and breathtaking beauty.

Each season represents a different section in the life of the film’s characters. An old monk (Yeong-su Oh, LITTLE MONK) lives on a small floating house in a lake in the mountains. He is in care of a young boy (Jong-ho Kim, film debut) who he teaches metaphorical lessons about life and death. When the boy becomes a teen (Jae-kyeong Seo, RESURRECTION OF THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL), a young sick girl (Yeo-jin Ha, film debut) comes into the care of the monk. The teenage apprentice is quickly smitten by the girl. What happens next I will leave as a surprise. But I will say, the film deals with the issues of rebellion, temptation and redemption.

This film chronicles the faltering life of once big-time PR man Eli Wurman (Al Pacino, ANGELS IN AMERICA). He only has one more client – Cary Launer (Ryan O’Neal, LOVE STORY), an aging star who parties like a 20-year-old with women in their twenties. One of Eli’s less glamorous duties is to cover up Launer’s indiscretions like bailing out actress Jilli Hopper (Tea Leoni, FAMILY MAN) from jail.

Eli is falling apart. He is taking who knows how many prescription and illegal drugs. His doctor and friend Sandy (Robert Klein, TWO WEEKS NOTICE) is worried about him and so is his little brother’s widow Victoria (Kim Basinger, 8 MILE), who has come to New York to convince him to move down South with her again. In the midst of all of the mayhem, Eli is trying to put together a fundraiser for immigrants where he’s trying to get high-profile businessman Elliot Sharansky (Richard Schiff, TV’s THE WEST WING) and civil rights leader Rev. Lyle Blunt (Bill Nunn, SPIDER-MAN) to appear together.

It is a testament to Julianne Moore’s (THE HOURS) talent that I didn’t realize just how badly written her character was until close to the end of the film. She plays straight-laced divorce lawyer Audrey Woods who loses her first case to disheveled attorney Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Bronson, THE TAILOR OF PANAMA).

The film is an “opposites attract”/”free-spirit teaches anal person to learn how to love” type film. All the characters are one-dimensional and rarely display any real human emotions or logic. Plus the plot doesn’t seem to know what it wants. Woods and Rafferty get drunk and then hook up, which Woods is ashamed of and then later they get drunk, in Ireland of all places, and get married. (I am giving no more away than the trailer did). If the drunk hook-up is lame than the drunk marriage is pathetic.

The Coen Bros. humor is very dry. Sometimes you don’t know if you’re supposed to be laughing or not. This works in films like FARGO, but in a film like THE LADYKILLERS, which is clearly a comedy, it really doesn’t work. This film falls into the canon of Coen somewhere along with RAISING ARIZONA, which I am not a super fan.

This film is a remake of a far better Alec Guiness comedy that also starred Peter Sellers. Professor G.H. Dorr (Tom Hanks, THE ‘BURBS) is a ringleader of a heist team that is trying to rob a riverboat gambling company. He takes a room at the house of Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall, SOUL FOOD), a highly religious woman who complains to Sheriff Wyner (George Wallace, LITTLE NICKY) on a regular basis about the local youth playing that hippity-hop music too loudly. Mrs. Munson’s house will allow Dorr and his cronies to tunnel into the riverboat’s shoreline money room and steal the cash. The gang consists of foul-mouthed inside man Gawain MacSam (Marlon Wayans, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM), special effects specialist and explosives man Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons, SPIDER-MAN), tactical master and silent assassin The General (Tzi Ma, THE QUIET AMERICAN) and dimwitted, failed football player and the gang’s muscle Lump Hudson (Ryan Hurst, REMEMBER THE TITANS).

This film is the fourth in the popular Japanese horror series and it is the best. Throughout the series, the main problem has been that there isn’t a clear central character to care about. Here we have Kyoko Harase (Noriko Sakai, narrator of POKEMON: PICHU AND PIKACHU), a horror movie actress who visits the cursed house of the previous films to do a documentary. As in the other films, the curse of Kayako (Takako Fuji) and her son Toshio (Yuya Ozeki) tracks down all that have contact with the house. However, this time they seem to be toying with Kyoko, who is pregnant.

As part of the series, this film does the best job of making us care about a character who is being hunted by the curse. However, the film still lacks any fight by the characters. They all seem like helpless fodder. The inactivity of the characters gets frustrating. If they make a fifth JU-ON, I’d like to see somebody try to figure out the curse and stop it.

In no way am I saying its as emotional wrenching or as intellectually stimulating, but this film reminded me of IRREVERSIBLE. Maybe it was the tone and it definitely has the power to make you squirm.

Director Marina de Van (UNDER THE SAND) plays the lead role of Esther, a self-loathing woman, who after having an accident that severely cuts her leg becomes obsessed with self-mutilation. The film builds slowly developing Esther’s psychology. Her friend Sandrine (Lea Drucker, SHOOTING STARS) and her boyfriend Vincent (Laurent Lucas, WITH A FRIEND LIKE HARRY) become quickly concerned with her dangerous behavior.

The film does a wonderful job of portraying Esther’s uncontrollable obsession. It’s amazing how the film makes you tense just by having Esther alone, because we know how dangerous she can be to herself. Eventually, she breaks with reality and takes the self-mutilation to an unimaginable level. There is a scene in this film that makes you feel so uncomfortable just like IRREVERSIBLE’s infamous rape scene. The only thing I wish the film had done more was explain this next step more. Psychologically I’m not sure what the film is trying to say.

In general, the reviews for this film were not that good. However, Roger Ebert has been championing this film since its release, so I had to give it a shot. The film is based on a novel by Gail Carson Levine, which I have not read, however I have read that the film takes a lot of liberties with the book. First and foremost, the film really tries to be a live-action SHREK by brining pop culture and modern references into a fairy tale setting. This is where ELLA ultimately fails.

The modern winks were hit or miss throughout the film, some even groan inducing. I really think the filmmakers should have modeled the movie more after THE PRINCESS BRIDE, a masterful example of playing fantasy for laughs. Ella (Anne Hathaway, THE PRINCESS DIARIES) has been cursed with the gift of obedience. Whenever anyone tells her to do something she must obey. Once her evil step-sisters Hattie (Lucy Punch, TV’s THE 10TH KINGDOM) and Olive (Jennifer Higham, TV’s STAR) find out about the curse they set out to make Ella’s life miserable. Adding to the tension between Hattie and Ella is Hattie’s love and Ella’s dislike of the handsome prince Char (Hugh Dancy, KING ARTHUR). Ella has an activist heart and dislikes Char’s seemingly pretty boy mindlessness. However, as these types of stories go, Ella and Char are brought together. Char likes Ella because she’s not like the other girls who chase and swoon over him.