The Amateurs

Andy Sargentee (Jeff Bridges) dreams big, but executes small. He spends his days in a tiny bar of his everybody-knows-each-others-business small town. Andy used to be married, but now his wife lives with an ultra-successful and wealthy (but decent) man. His teenage son has everything a teenage boy could want, to include a basketball court in his bedroom. But not much of a relationship with his father.

Andy has a tendency to come up with big ideas which he seems to drag everyone else in town in on. As he begins cogitating in the bar over a tall cold one, the townspeople begin to get nervous. They have seen this look before and it has usually cost them money. When Andy happens upon his epiphany, that is exactly what happens. Andy gets everyone to ante up two thousand dollars so they can create a pornographic film. One that involves almost everyone in town (in some sort of fashion). What we end up with is a tongue-in-cheek examination of the process, where everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Will this finally be the one time that Andy can pull it all together, even as the wheels fall off the wagon? You'll have to watch to find out.



The concept behind The Amateurs (which was originally released in the United Kingdom as The Moguls) is that the end product you are watching are the rough cuts created during the making of the film. So the movie itself is about the making of the film, rather than the film itself. Not an entirely unique concept, but certainly entertaining. The plot does not have the depth of a drama or quite the humor of a comedy, but falls somewhere in between. The characters display some unique traits and have enough depth to keep the film interesting in spite of the thin plot.

The interesting characters are created by an ensemble cast that play some fun roles. Ted Danson as the closet homosexual (and he is fabulous...in more ways than one). Joey "Pants" Pantoliano works at a photo mart kiosk...and talks Sargentee into allowing him to be a "writer slash director." Middle-aged and living with his mom creates some interesting dinner conversation during discussions about the film. Tim Blake Nelson as a plumber who is in love with one of the film stars...and ends up destroying her footage. Willliam Fichtner as a lovable loser whose great revelation is that a girl who works in a mattress store must love sex (and he ends up being right). You couldn't ask for a more veteran cast. Although the script was quirky and mediocre, you could tell they were having a good time doing this one. That created some good chemistry that showed on film. A different cast could not have carried this film...it added to the humor.

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Across The Universe

The cover art on Across The Universe was terrible. Even after reading the synopsis of the film, I wasn't so sure about this one. It is definitely one of those films that borrows a little bit from various places and strings the elements together to create something new. I have seen that concept done poorly too many times to count. However, I am happy to say that Across The Universe did an excellent job, throwing in extremely subtle references alongside those that are easy to spot.

The plot isn't so much what this film is about. It is more about enjoying the ride. With elements of Hair, The Wall and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band combined with Beatles references and trivia mixed together with a 1960s time line, Across The Universe examines the journey of a young man from Liverpool on the road of self discovery. He travels to America where he makes a new best friend and falls in love. His happiness and heartache transpire against the backdrop of the 1960s, where major historical events coincide with his journey, throwing him together with an odd mix of characters representative of the era. At its heart, this film is about the music. Cover songs of the Beatles are recreated to tell the story. At times, that creates some obviously contrived scenes. But its okay...that is part of the concept. It is a mish-mash of psychedelic experiences with animated sequences of strange brew.



Because Across The Universe is about the music, it is important to look at the quality of the covers. The cast was carefully selected to create a diverse look at the 60s. The young man from Liverpool (Jude, played by Jim Sturgess) did an excellent job of acting and had some strong covers. But in terms of tonal quality, I really preferred the two male supporting actors, Max (Joe Anderson) and Jo-Jo (Martin Luther McCoy). Max is an ivy-league dropout that gets drafted. His vocals were strong and grainy, which I enjoyed. Jo-Jo had some great guitar rifts and strong vocals with a tinge of Jimi Hendrix thrown in. The female lead (Lucy) is played by Evan Rachel Wood. Her vocals were eerily haunting. Her soprano voice brought a nice element to songs like If I Fell In Love With You. Other strong vocals were done by Sadie (Dana Fuchs) and Prudence (T.V. Carpio). Other vocals were snuck in during cameo's by stars like Bono (I Am The Walrus). You never know who is going to break into song, which added to the fun...it might be a bum or pimp (Joe Cocker) doing a song which they have already covered. Exceptional vocals made this film work for me.

My own 1960s timeline was a bit off. I thought that the Detroit Riots (I grew up in the city, you would think I knew) happened in 1968. They happened in 1967. I thought Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated before the Detroit Riots and figured that the film had the time line wrong. I was wrong. Reverend King was assassinated in April 1968 after the Detroit riots. Both events were properly sequenced in the film and provided direction or inspiration to various characters. The Kent State Massacre was also portrayed, which did not happen until May 1970. The one time line event that was out of sequence (that I picked up on) was Kent State. The Beatles references were injected throughout the film. One big nod that was given to the band was the impromptu concert performed on top of Apple Records. This occurred before Kent State, but afterwards in the film. That was the only anachronism I found in the sequence of events.

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Thirst

Chan-wook Park is synonymous with tense Asian suspense films. The Korean director caught my attention with his Mr. Vengeance trilogy. Park is back, sinking his teeth into the vampire genre with Thirst, which was released in 2009 under the Korean name Bakjwi. Vampire films (read that Twilight) have gotten soft and have lost their edge. Park is back with a film that tests new boundaries with a film that is certain to make your stomach hurt.

Thirst opens with dialogue between a priest, Sang-Hyeon (Kang-ho Song) who feels called to assist a study being conducted by a controversial Order to stop a debilitating illness called EV. During the tests, Hyeon is given a blood transfusion. Unknown to Hyeon, the blood has been taken from a vampire. Hyeon is the only subject among fifty who is healed from the EV, creating a throng of believers that seek him out hoping that he can heal them (or their loved ones).

Hyeon does everything in his power to fight the beast lurking inside him, but requires blood to maintain his health. Without the blood, lesions begin forming on Hyeon, evidence of the other monster (EV) lurking in his blood. Hyeon seeks a peaceful alternative to hunting for his blood, feeding instead on a hospitalized friend who is in a coma. But Hyeon experiences more than just a blood lust, which causes him to be manipulated into engaging in activities he would otherwise resist. Hyeon's sins follow him and eventually consume him, forcing Hyeon to make an impossible decision.



Vampire films have been done many ways. Thirst is an intelligently written look at the genre. Many taboos are explored in this film, along with enough gore to put this film very close to the slasher genre. Thirst is definitely not for the weak-hearted. The special effects are often stomach wrenching. Hyeon is a fundamentally good person. A priest who sought out the disease EV because he felt God had called him to help people. This dictates Hyeon's decision making matrix, which more than once leads him to kill those he loves. The plot creates circumstances that challenge traditional mores. Excellent dialogue (the sub-titles were pretty good...with only a couple of odd translations) combined with an intriguing plot were indicative of a well thought out plot. Park co-wrote the script along with Seo-gyeong Jeong.

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The Last Word

The concept of The Last Word intrigued me immediately. Evan (Wes Bentley) is a writer. Evan is introverted and struggles to relate with people. Most of his feelings are summarized in quotes taken from famous (and some obscure) writers. Evan makes his living as a free-lance writer. He advertises his services on a website called "The Last Word." Evan writes suicide notes that are eloquent and capture the essence of the suicidal client. A strange profession to say the least.

Evan's life becomes more complicated when he is spotted taking notes at the funeral of a client. The sister of the deceased, Charlotte (Winona Ryder) spots Evan and approaches him to find out what his relationship was to her brother. Evan lies, and tells Charlotte that they knew each other in college. Charlotte pursues Evan, who is reluctant to engage in any sort of activities with her. In the meantime, Evan takes on a new client, Abel (Ray Romano) who becomes sort of a sounding board for Evan. Evan's new found love and strange friendship with a client lead him to begin questioning his choices. The lies eventually begin building while the walls around Evans secluded small world begin crumbling around him.




If anything stands out in The Last Word, it would be the writing. The acting was solid, but the dialogue was unique and structured. The plot was different and unpredictable. The characters were well developed and quirky enough to capture ones attention. In essence, The Last Word epitomizes the best qualities of Indie films. There are stretches in the film that are paced on the slow side, but overall, the writing is exceptional. Geoffrey Haley did an excellent job wearing hats as both writer and director.

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I Am David

NetFlix let me down this time. The database suggested that I Am David would register better than four stars for me. I liked the concept and felt like there were definitely some good concepts explored. However, the film had the quality (especially dialogue) of an “Afternoon Special.” The poorly written dialogue was tepidly adapted by Paul Feig from a novel written by Anne Holm. Reading the synopsis of the book, it appears that Feig added an interesting twist to the plot, but changed some elements of the story. This is one where the book might be far superior to the cinematic version.

David (Ben Tibber) is a fictitious boy who, at twelve years of age, has very few memories of anything other than his life in a post-WWII concentration camp. Ben want to escape the camp and enlists the aid of Johannes (James Caviezel). Johannes has become fond of the boy, offering him advice to help him survive. After a brief exchange in the camp, we are guided through twenty minutes of action, overlapped by instructions that have been given to David prior to his escape. The instructions are step-by-step directions to assist David in finding his way to Denmark. Several borders and unexpected challenges await the young escapee on his journey. David meets a variety of people who each share something with David, helping him to understand life outside the confines of a concentration camp.



I Am David is a tender poignant tale that has two very good plot twists to enhance the value of the story. The excellent concept is compromised by dialogue which seems like it is drawn directly from a first –grade reader. The dialogue borders on insulting in simplicity. The film has a run-time of ninety minutes, the first twenty being narrated. That leaves precious little time to develop the characters that David meets on his journey. It seems as if David bounces from one experience to the next with little opportunity to fully engage the other characters. This made the dialogue even more tedious and superficial. The characters really did not matter to me. There was an excellent plot twist at the end that could have paid out in spades if it had been played right. As it was, I merely yawned at the ending. It was squandered on characters that just did not matter to me.

The acting wasn’t necessarily bad in I Am David. However, because of the weak character development and generic dialogue, the characters lacked life. It must be difficult for an actor to try and engage an audience with a character whose interactions are sparse or perfunctory. We go through the motions along with the actors and never have a chance to feel anything. In a nutshell, this film lacks soul, and no Oscar-winning performance can change that. Having said that, Tibber was decent as the confused but brave escapee. Joan Plowright was a bright-spot as a kind-hearted artist who befriends David near the end of the film. She was engaging in spite of her limited role. Caviezel seemed genuine enough, but again, his relationship with David was weakly examined. The rest of the cast was forgettable. None of them were bad, just made invisible by dialogue and interaction that lacked heart.

Princess Aurora (Orora Gongju)

Princess Aurora was released in 2005 under the Korean title Orora Gongju. The film follows a skilled Korean detective who is studying to be a minister, a mysterious woman who goes on a killing spree and a bevy of other baddies who happen to cross paths with the sadistic killer. The killings don't appear to be random, so why common thread ties the victims together? That is the question that keeps viewers watching until the end.

I am familiar with the work of Korean Director Park (who had an excellent film titled Old Boy), but do not recall having previously seen anything by Director Eun-jin Bang. I enjoy Korean films, in spite of the sub-titles, which sometimes take away from the visually appealing aspects of Korean film. Because of my affinity for this particular genre, I hoped that Bang would produce a film I would enjoy. He did. Not quite up to the same standard as Old Boy, which had a stronger visual element and graphic novel type storyline. Princess Aurora is more your standard psychological thriller, where you try and get inside the head of killer to figure out what is going on. In that endeavor, this film succeeds in telling an interesting and somewhat unique story.

We pick up the action in Princess Aurorawith a brutal gore-dripping homicide in the ladies room at a department store. An inexperienced detective is mentored along in the investigation by a sage investigator named Detective Oh Sung-ho (Seoung-kun Mun). The department store murder is the first in a series, which are linked together by stickers left at the scene of the crimes of a cartoon character named Princess Aurora. We know the killer. She is Jung Sun-jung (Jeong-hwa Eom). We follow her around as she marks her next targets, and watch as she employs unique methods for delivering their last breath. What we don't know are her motives or her relationships to other characters in the film. These revelations are pieced out to viewers as the film progresses. Although the pacing could be picked up at times and the plot seems a little jerky, the story was interesting and somewhat unique.

Because this is a Korean film, I am not familiar with the cast. That can good, because I can go in without any preconceived ideas or stereotypes regarding the actors. I thought that the female lead was convincing as this films killer. She had an odd combination of ruthless killer and charming introvert. I thought she pulled it off well. Her interactions with the other characters were convincing and fun to watch. Our male lead also does a good job of balancing his role and the chemistry he has with the other characters. The cast was excellent.

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2012

Unfortunately for me, the “End Is Near” did not happen for a painful 158 minutes. 2012 ties together ancient calendars and cosmic events with an end-of-the-world apocalyptic cataclysmic string of events that seem to be timed perfectly to coincide with the near death escape of the major characters. If that fails to be conveniently improbable enough for you, the major characters seem to be so intertwined that their paths crossing could not even be attributable to karma (which seems to be suggested near the end). The explosions and big special effects failed to win me over. This disaster movie was exactly that…a disaster.

2012 introduces us to a bevy of flat characters who are all agenda-driven. They seem to have a limited purpose in the film, which becomes evident quickly (talk about predictability). The flat characters are augmented with cheesy dialogue that I would be embarrassed to claim. Attempts at subtlety were exchanged for beat-you-over-the-head clichés that bombed. Lines like “it’s not the end of the world…” or similar “foreshadowing” language were so blatantly out-there that I felt like this film was written with a first-grade audience in mind. Or were they intentionally trying to insult the intelligence of movie-going patrons? The plot had an interesting direction that could have been explored further rather than relying on gimmicks and imagery to carry the film. Instead of thoughtful writing, we get big explosions, too many close calls and an eternity of celluloid before the film finally ends. And the ending really wasn’t that bad (other than the trite dialogue). An opportunity squandered by Director and writer Roland Emmerich and writer Harald Kloser.



The film opens with a couple of young scientists discovering changes in the Earth’s core caused by sun-flares. The American (Adrian Helmsley, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) works for the government as a geologist. During his visit with Indian scientist Dr. Tsurutani,(played by Jimi Mistry), Helmsley realizes the importance of the discovery and reports immediately back to Washington DC. The matters are brought to the attention of President Wilson (Danny Glover) who immediately initiates a program with other world leaders to preserve our species and as much world knowledge, art and animal species as possible. In the meantime, we meet Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), a failed writer who stumbles on the unfolding events while taking his estranged kids back-packing at Yellowstone Park. Curtis bumps into Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson) during that trip, and given the rough outline of pending events.

Hold on tight…because things are gonna’ get confusing... Curtis is separated from his wife Kate (Amanda Peet) who is currently shacked up with Gordon (Thomas McCarthy) who also happens to be a private pilot. Gordon is also a plastic surgeon, who has done work on Tamara (Beatrice Rosen). Tamara is arm candy for a wealthy Russian named Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Buric). None of them not directly related to each other has ever met the others. And oh, did I mention that Curtis happens to drive a limousine for Yuri when he isn’t writing his loser books?

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