Posts tagged review
Movie Review: ‘Source Code’ is a fun and solid thriller
Apr 3rd
If thrillers are your favorite kind of movie, there’s a new one in Carson City that more than beats most of the recent examples; it’s “Source Code” and is at the Casino Fandango Galaxy multiplex.
The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal at Capt. Colter Stevens, who wakes up on a Chicago commuter trail sitting opposite Michelle Monaghan as Christina, a friendly woman with a pleasant smile. Stevens fumbles around until suddenly there is an explosion (the only one, although it is repeated again and again as part of the plot) and the train explodes.
Stevens finds himself in a chamber with a TV screen, where he is interrogated by Air Force Capt. Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) and discovers he is part of a source code. (Don’t worry about what a source code is, though it is a command that computer programmers use in creating software.)
Seems that by the code the subject (Stevens in this case) can go back to a different body during the last eight minutes of that body’s life. So Stevens does so, trying to find the bomb that has been planted on the train. Reason the Air Force is doing this is to find out about a nuke someone is planning to set off in Chicago after the train explosion.
Stevens finally finds the train bomb but only removes one cell phone bomb trigger; he has to do it a second time and gets punched about for his troubles. He finally identifies the bomber and tips off the Army, which stops the nuke and arrests the bad guy.
But it seems that Stevens is really not quite dead in Afghanistan but is kept alive for future events. So how does this leave him with Christina, with whom he has fallen in love? Don’t worry, quantum mechanics comes to the rescue, just don’t ask questions.
This is a well-done thriller without car chases and, as mentioned, only one explosion, perfectly logical given the plot line. Direction by Duncan Jones is crisp and the cast is just right for the story. Technical execution is dazzling, as we’ve come to expect from thrillers.
There’s a neatness about this one (OK, so the science is kind of wacky and it’s best not to think about it all too deeply) that rivals that fine Clooney film “The American.” Jake and Michelle touch off sparks and Vera is a fine Air Force captain (spoken by me once upon a time).
And the photography is spectacular, showing Chicago off beautifully, including that city park next to the Art Institute. And and commuter trains were never as nifty back in the days when I was riding them. If you lived or worked in Chicago, these shots make the movie well worthwhile without the actors.
As thrillers go, this one goes well. See and enjoy.
— Sam Bauman
Cast
— Jake Gyllenhaal as Captain Colter Stevens
— Michelle Monaghan as Christina
— Vera Farmiga as Colleen Goodwin
— Jeffrey Wright as Dr. Rutledge
— Cas Anvar as Hazmi
— Russell Peters as Max Denoff
— Michael Arden as Derek Frost
— Scott Bakula as Stevens’ father (voice cameo)
Directed by: Duncan Jones
Produced by: Mark Gordon, Jordan Wynn and Philippe Rousselet
Written by: Ben Ripley
Music by: Chris P. Bacon
Cinematography: Don Burgess
Editing by: Paul Hirsch
Rated: PG-13, runs about 97 minutes
From carsonnow.org
Review! Watch Source Code Movie Online Free Streaming
Apr 3rd
By sisule
Review Of Source Code Movie, Jake Gyllenhaal reliving the past, it looks for the answer on the thriller Source Code, James Marsden gets to the Passover (Candy) Hop spirit, and the horror film is coming home from the Insidious. Directed by Duncan Jones, who previously worked at his magic in the film Moon, source code is a dramatic thriller that stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Captain Colter Stevens, a decorated soldier who has been assigned to work in a top-level government experiment. What bothers Colter, that he did not remember how he got into the experiment in the first place.
Review! Watch Source Code Movie Online Free Streaming. New arrivals at the box office with stories of fresh action in the trailer ‘Source Code’ if you like the Quantum Leap movie then you will like this movie. Immediately watch on our site via live stream.
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Colter’s latest mission is to work in the “Source Code”, which allows him to relive the last eight minutes in the life of another person to help solve the question of who set off the explosion of a commuter train. If Colter can solve that question, there is hope for a response can be avoided even greater purpose than a threat to Chicago for a second much more awesome explosion.
Watch Source Code VISIT NOW >>> http://WWW.51jkml.com
Relive the last eight minutes of a man’s life over and over again, Colter hunting for the answers, but he discovers a woman named Christina, played by Michelle Monaghan, who may end up causing the soldier divert from his mission.
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From my.granitebaypt.com
Movie review: You won’t want seconds of “Happythankyoumoreplease”
Apr 1st
“Happythankyoumoreplease,” a Manhattan rom-com starring, written by and directed by Josh Radnor (Ted on TV’s “How I Met Your Mother”), is a case of when bad scripts happen to good actors. Given its similarities to a bygone sitcom, one might call it “Friends” without benefits.
The film shares much in common with Radnor’s character, Sam, a gifted short-story writer who has yet to master long form. While individual scenes are appealing, the movie does not cohere.
Its three central characters are at that awkward age: too old for casual relations and not ready to commit. Sam is a writer circulating the manuscript of his first novel, a one-night-stand kind of guy. His friend Mary Catherine (Zoe Kazan) has a boyfriend who wants to move to L.A. His best friend, Annie (Malin Akerman), isn’t over her ex.
Sam is irresponsible on so many levels that it sabotages the movie. On the subway to meet with his literary agent, he rescues a young boy, Rasheen (Michael Algieri), separated from his companions. When Sam finds that Rasheen is at odds with his foster parents, he takes the boy in without notifying authorities.
Rasheen is not a character, but a plot device. Sam uses Rasheen to ingratiate himself with Mississippi (Kate Mara, sister of Rooney), a flirty redheaded bartender, and to create third-act complications.
The performers are likable and their attitude is fundamentally sunny. But in “Happythankyoumoreplease” (which takes its title from a cabdriver’s affirmation of gratitude)the plausibility quotient is so low that though you like some of the characters, you don’t believe in them.
From www.denverpost.com
Review: Little bounce in ‘Hop’
Apr 1st
Click photo to enlarge
“Hop” is a chip off the old munk — as in chipmunks, “Alvin and the Chipmunks.” Like the Alvin movies, it has critters interacting with real people. The critter in question — a bunny — is all about music, just like the chipmunks.
And like the last chipmunk picture, about the best one can say for “Hop” is that it adheres to that Hippocratic oath of children’s entertainment — “First, do no harm.”
The latest semi-toon from the creators of “Despicable Me” features an adorably animated and lifelike Easter Bunny and a somewhat less animated James Marsden, the hilarious prince from “Enchanted.” The bunny (voiced by Russell Brand) bangs away his days on Easter Island (literally), wrapped up in his drum kit. “E.B.” wants to be a rock star.
But Dad (voiced by Hugh Laurie) isn’t having it. It’s Junior’s turn to take over the family business. “We can’t make any mistakes. The whole world is counting on us,” the father counsels. The kid, growing up in a vast factory where the eggs, chocolate bunnies and candies are made, rebels. He runs away from home to Hollywood.
That’s where he runs afoul of Fred O’Hare (get it?), a 30ish slacker still living with mom (Elizabeth Perkins) and dad (Gary Cole). Fred hits the rabbit with his car and takes him in out of guilt.
Fred has to help E.B. find his way to Hollywood “heavyweight” David Hasselhoff. (“Hoff Knows Talent,” don’t you know.) And E.B. has to help Fred find his purpose, his “destiny.”
All well and good. But would it kill a writer or three to find a couple of laughs in all this? You’ve got Hugh Laurie and Russell Brand and you can’t give them a couple dozen zingers to make this thing move along? Why cast the hilarious Elizabeth Perkins and the reliably deadpan Gary Cole (“The Brady Bunch Movie”) if there’s nothing funny for them to do?
Only Hank Azaria, vamping it up as the Head Easter Chick in Charge, a megalomaniac named “Carlos” with an Azarian-Mexican accent, lands consistent laughs.
The slapstick is mild-mannered; there’s no romance, not a hint of emotion. The best gag might be the one before the opening credits. The Universal globe logo is shaped like an egg. Director Tim Hill (he helmed the first “Chipmunks” movie, shockingly) is all wrapped up in the “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” scenes — the egg-shaped Easter Bunny sleigh (pulled by chicks) and making sure the rabbit looks at home behind a drum kit. When E.B. jams with the Blind Boys of Alabama, you will believe a rabbit can keep a beat.
But even for a kids’ movie in the post-”Yogi Bear/Marmaduke” marketplace, even for a critter comedy where the critter has very big feet, “Hop” stands out as particularly flat-footed.
From www.mercurynews.com
Movie review: Hop
Apr 1st
by Alex Bentley
Easter movies aimed at kids are in short supply. Now we know why.
In the grand tradition of commercializing making movies about holidays, there’s nothing quite as underrepresented as Easter. Christmas, of course, far and away leads the pack, but everything from Halloween to Valentine’s Day to freakin’ Groundhog Day has gotten their turn at the cinematic bat. Easter, of course, has been well-represented in the religious sense, but watching The Passion of the Christ again is almost no one’s idea of a good time. And when the “best” movie featuring the lighter side of Easter is It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to fill that void.
Jumping at the chance to do so is Hop, a half animated/half live action comedy about the origins of the Easter Bunny. Turns out that it’s a tradition handed down from generation to generation of bunnies living on, naturally, Easter Island. The island contains a massive factory where chicks (as in tiny chickens) oversee the production of any kind of Easter candy you can imagine, from chocolate bunnies to jelly beans. The current Easter Bunny (voiced by Hugh Laurie) is all set to hand the reins to his son, E.B. (voiced by Russell Brand). The only problem? E.B. has no interest in the job, preferring to spend his days lazing around, playing the drums, and dreaming of a life far from his own.
When he’s about to be forced to take up the Easter Bunny mantle, E.B. hops in the magical portal used to deliver all that candy around the world to transport himself to Los Angeles, where he soon makes the acquaintance of human slacker Fred O’Hare (James Marsden) – insert groan here. The duo teams up for a series of nonsensical events, with an extended cameo by David Hasselhoff and the continued pursuit of E.B. by a trio of mercenaries known as the Pink Berets being the highlights.
Some will question why this needs to be said, but Hop is first and foremost a movie for children. It’s silly fun that only has a passing interest (a stop at the front gates of the Playboy mansion here, an appearance by the actual Russell Brand there) at engaging adults on any level. “So what?,” you may say. “Kids deserve their own entertainment, right?” Well, yes and no. I have no objections to filmmakers taking direct aim at kids’ sensibilities. But when two of the writers, Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, were also responsible for one of 2010′s best animated films, Despicable Me, which offered plenty for both kids and adults, the bar should be raised a bit higher. On the other hand, Hop is also directed by Tim Hill, who helmed such other animated/live action combos as Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties and Alvin and the Chipmunks, so things kind of balance out there.
None of the actors fare very well. Everybody who appears in human form is given free rein to overact, the only natural thing to do when you’re trying to converse with a talking bunny. Marsden takes advantage of this the most since he’s the one who’s in the majority of the scenes with E.B. Brand seems to have a ball as E.B., but given his normal comedy persona, it’s hard to see him as anything but overly restrained with most of his lines.
Whether Hop is successful at the box office or not depends on whether families are willing to tolerate a film that thinks that blasting random pop/rock songs is a way to generate excitement, that drops key plot points shortly after bringing them up, that views the height of cleverness as having an egg-shaped globe. Some may not expect more from their “kids” movies, but I sure do.
From www.pegasusnews.com
Movie Review: ‘Insidious’
Mar 31st
The makers of “Insidious” — who have, by the way, done a shrewd and scary job — cite various supernatural titles as inspirations, including “The Exorcist,” “Poltergeist,” “The Sixth Sense” and the great, supple nightmare “The Innocents.” From such a list we can only glean that director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell admire all sorts of fright, from the blatant to the insidiously subtle. This one lies at an effective halfway point between those extremes.
New home, new life: That’s what the couple played by Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne want from their relocation to a handsome, wood-trimmed bungalow. With three kids in tow and boxes still unpacked, however, the family slowly realizes it’s playing reluctant host to supernatural guests. First, a few bumps in the night, a missing keepsake or two. Then comes a frightening voice on the baby monitor. And before long, son Dalton, played by Ty Simpkins, suffers an “accident,” and lands in an unexplained coma.
The script initially carried the title “The Further,” which is the otherworldly realm where the young boy’s mind takes him in comaland. In a “Poltergeist” nod, the distraught parents turn their son-recovery concerns over to a seasoned occult expert, played by Lin Shaye, who travels with a pair of comic-relief paranormal investigators. As the movie progresses the story grows more and more baroque and horror-movie-y. I prefer its earlier, more indirect and atmospheric scares, but “Insidious” represents a sound compromise of instincts, straddling the need to grab teenagers interested in PG-13 gotchas and the collaborators’ desire to rework an old haunted-house formula, honorably.
One of the producers, Oren Peli, was the young phenom behind the stripped-down, daringly uneventful “Paranormal Activity.” I liked both “Paranormal Activity” pictures; for millions of teens jaded and pummeled and clobbered by “Saw” and “Hostel,” they were among their first movie lessons in the virtues of slow-burn tension over high-volume viscera. It’s a matter of taste, of course. But “Insidious,” nicely acted by all and photographed in creepy, cold, underlit tones by John R. Leonetti and David M. Brewer, restrains itself in terms of technique sufficiently to appeal to an uptight middle-aged fud like me.
mjphillips@tribune.com ‘Insidious’
MPAA rating: PG-13 for thematic material, violence, terror and frightening images, and brief strong language
Running time: 1 hour,
42 minutes
Playing: In general release
From www.latimes.com
Movie Review: The Lincoln Lawyer
Mar 31st
After starring in a recent string of forgettable romantic comedies, Matthew McConaughey was essentially branded to the unfulfilling, yet profitable role of the talentless Hollywood hunk. In his latest role, McConaughey breaks down this persona with his confident demeanor and swayed-back hair, all while keeping his shirt on.
Based on Michael Connelly’s crime novel, “The Lincoln Lawyer” revolves around the hotshot attorney Mick Haller (Matthew McConaughey) who works out of the back of his Lincoln Sedan.
Famed for his reputation of freeing the guilty and imprisoning the innocent, he receives his biggest case when playboy Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) comes to Haller exclaiming he has been wrongly accused of beating a prostitute.
The courtroom drama does not need to reach outside the boundaries of its genre to remain relevant. Elevated by a good supporting cast and a handful of clever plot twists and dialogue, “The Lincoln Lawyer” is able to stand out.
What is perhaps the film’s strongest, and also most surprising, attribute is leading man Matthew McConaughey. Starting off as a character devoid of a moral compass, he believably conveys the transformation of a man as he begins to recognize compassion among other people.
Coupled with his suave appearance and unquestioning masculinity, McConaughey puts himself back into the spotlight as one of the industry’s more compelling male leads.
A complex game of cat and mouse, “The Lincoln Lawyer” provides a fulfilling film during that time of year where quality is hard to come by. McConaughey breathes authority in his role, and if anything else, his performance is worth the price of admission.
From www.dailytarheel.com
Movie Review: Source Code
Mar 30th
I can already see it at some virtual movie-revival house of the future: a “what-if?” double feature that teams Limitless and Source Code and points out that both films came out within a couple of weeks of each other in the same year.
The similarities don’t stop there. Both feature good-looking young actors – Bradley Cooper in Limitless, Jake Gyllenhaal in Source Code – who stumble into something much bigger than themselves and have to hang on for dear life if they want to survive.
But where Limitless posited a pharmaceutical that allowed the user to be all that he could be, Source Code is a time-travel thriller that spends a lot of time arguing against its being a time-travel movie.
The film’s central gimmick – that scientists have found a way to send someone back in time to the point eight-minutes before a certain individual dies, into that individual’s mind – is clever enough. And it makes a certain kind of Groundhog Day sense.
Gyllenhaal plays Capt. Colter Stevens, a soldier who served in Iraq who wakes up on a commuter train to Chicago. He can’t remember how he got there, he doesn’t know the woman sitting across from him (Michelle Monaghan), though she seems to know him, and he can’t figure out why, when he looks in a restroom mirror, he sees someone else’s face. And then the train explodes …
… and he comes to in some sort of flight-simulator capsule, or so it seems. He can hear voices talking military-computer jargon, trying to get his attention. Eventually, he finds out that he’s part of a desperate experiment.
Just back from fighting in Iraq, he’s somehow a perfect match for that guy on the train. Somehow, the military egghead in charge (Jeffrey Wright) has figured out how to insert Colter’s mind into the man’s brain – for the final eight minutes of the guy’s life.
And that’s his mission: To keep going back into the guy’s brain, in order to figure out who on the train set the bomb – and what he’s done with the dirty bomb he also plans to set off this same day. The catch: The train bombing happened earlier that morning and can’t be prevented, but Colter can affect the future by finding the bomber and bringing back that information.
Except that, as Colter makes his repeated leaps into the past, he discovers that he can change the events he’s experiencing. Does that mean he’s changing the past?
What’s the science here?
Click here: This review continues on my website.
Follow Marshall Fine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hollywoodnfine
From www.huffingtonpost.com
Movie Review: Outside the Law
Mar 28th
Outside the Law (MA15+) 4 stars
Jamel Debbouze, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila
Director Rachid Bouchareb
You’ll like this if you liked 1900, The Godfather, Army of Shadows, The Baader Meinhoff Complex, Days of Glory
The classic Algerian War movie is Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 masterpiece The Battle of Algiers, in which he used black-and-white newsreel-style photography for greater urgency and realism.
French director Rachid Bouchareb moves to the other end of the filmmaking spectrum for his take on Algeria’s war of independence, Outside the Law, a sweeping family melodrama with bursts of operatic violence that recall the masterpieces of Bertolucci, Coppola and Michael Mann.
In other words, Bouchareb is using the storytelling style and visual language that speak to a contemporary audience, with pulsating action, full-blooded characters and a level of violence that makes it difficult to separate from one of Mann’s bullet-riddled, body-strewn crime dramas.
Not surprisingly, there is little subtlety and argument in Outside the Law. The tactics used by the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in its struggle against its colonial overlords is barely challenged and the enemy remains as evil and one-dimensional as those in a Hollywood thriller.
But Bouchareb makes up for this lack of nuance by the sheer force of the filmmaking, which brings to vivid life the brutality of the conflict that is now a distant memory for younger generations.
Outside the Law also diverges from The Battle of Algiers in that it is set mostly in France, where the FLN took the war to the heart of a collapsing empire that had just suffered the indignity of being booted out of Vietnam.
After a moving prelude, in which we see the family at the centre of Outside the Law being thrown off their land to make room for French colonists, the movie leaps in time to 1945, when Algerian protesters are slaughtered by the French forces while back at home everyone is celebrating V-E Day (the irony is palpable).
As a result of the massacre, which Bouchareb stages in a breathtaking, deeply shocking manner, three brothers end up in Paris – one in the army after fighting in Indochina (Roschdy Zem), one in jail for his membership for FLN (Sami Bouajila) and the other making a good living as a pimp (Jamel Debbouze).
While Zem’s Messaoud and Bouajila’s Abdelkader join forces, spreading revolution amongs the emigre workers living in the shantytown outside the Renault factory, Debbouze’s Said remains politically unengaged, happily running a cabaret in the red light district of Pigalle.
Former soldier Messaoud, who was wounded in Indochina fighting the Vietnamese, and the Marxist hardliner Abdelkader are divided on the use of violence in liberating their homeland. However, when Messaoud is brutalised by a traitor to the cause he has no option but to kill him, a gut-wrenching scene that recalls the classic Godfather moment when Al Pacino’s young Michael Corleone is forced to murder the men who shot his father, thereby sealing his fate.
The rest of the movie is an increasingly vicious cycle of violence, with the French police using methods that have since become notorious (death squads, torture, targeting families) and the FLN hitting back just as hard.
While Bouchareb is clearly on the side of revolutionaries, he does not sentimentalise or romanticise them. He sees both as equally ruthless and equally diminished by the need to use extreme violence to push their cause.
Outside the Law does a sensational job of dramatising the violence and intensity of the Algerian War, the long shadow of which falls across this year’s French Film Festival.
Outside the Law is on at the Joondalup Pines each night at 7.30 until Sunday.
From au.news.yahoo.com
Limitless: Bradley Cooper Makes Good Pill Of A Movie (Movie Review)
Mar 27th
Limitless: Bradley Cooper Makes Good Pill Of A Movie (Movie Review) 
Limitless is a good movie. The story of Edward Morra (Bradley Cooper from The Hangover) is told in a great mix of jump cuts, brain activity animation, and other cinematic tricks, all for the purpose of making you feel the kind of rush, then disorientation that Morra feels after taking pill after pill of a drug called “NZT.” It’s the kind of movie that makes you think of what you’re not doing to achieve your own potential, then shows you what people will do to maintain the success they reach after doing so.
Limitless was, for a time while watching it, an excellent Oscar “Best Picture” candidate, and it still may be, but for this blogger it fell off about three-quarters of the way through it.
After great pacing and a wild rush of cool dialog and contemporary scenes of New York City (as well as Cooper’s great scenes with his girlfriend girlfriend Abbie Cornish and with Robert De Niro, who plays someone not unlike real life Investment Banker Henry Kravitz), Limitless slows down and you can almost feel the audience lose interest. One woman in the theater even fell asleep for that part of the movie.
It’s as if the director, Neil Burger, and screenwriter Leslie Dixon, didn’t quite know what next to do with Morra. Then, one scene where Morra drinks the blood spilled by his would-be assailant in an effort to get some more NZT in his system, was a bit much for me. That’s about where it went from a “9″ to a solid “7.5.”
Still, Limitless is a good movie. What’s especially nice is that it’s modern: Bradley Cooper gets it on with women of every race and location, it seem, from black, Asian, and white, to women from overseas. That was cool, and it’s great to see Hollywood come into the 21st Century.
Check out Limitless, it’s a good pill of a movie.
Posted By: Zennie62 (Email) | March 27 2011 at 01:17 PM
From www.sfgate.com
