Black Sheep's Blu-Tuesday

There are a few Blu-ray announcements this week that are music to my ears.  First on deck are the Baz Luhrmann extravaganzas, MOULIN ROUGE and WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO + JULIET, both being released on October 19.  The 45th anniversary edition of THE SOUND OF MUSIC makes it's way to BD for the first time on November 2.  Walt Disney is release both of their FANTASIA films together on November 30.  And Sofia Coppola's quiet work of brilliance, LOST IN TRANSLATION has found a December 7 release.  On a separate, non-musical note of business, the Special Edition of AVATAR will be released on November 16.  I suspect that anyone who cared to know that already did.  And what of this week?

HARRY BROWN

I had great anticipation for this Michael Caine vehicle and on many levels, it is greatly satisfying.  It is beautifully shot, shockingly violent and features a Caine performance at its central core that strikes an odd balance of reservation and ferociousness.  To appreciate all of this though, one must forego the main plot.  Caine is HARRY BROWN, a retired marine who lives in some low-income housing in modern day Britain, that is overrun with gangs and drugs.  After his best friend is found dead at the hands of the gangs, Brown takes it upon himself to clean up the streets.  He does it reluctantly and he does have that marine background but that is not enough to get me to buy this elderly gentleman as vigilante premise.  If you don't mind the age thing, it is well worth the rent. (E1 Entertainment)

THE SIMPSONS - SEASON 13

This latest release came out last week but I've now had the chance to watch the whole thing, thanks to the good folks at 20th Century Fox.  I usually judge a season of THE SIMPSONS by the episodes I did not already see and there were a few here.  I know it may seem like every episode has played on TV a million times but there are a few gems that do not get regular syndication rotation and you can see why pretty easily when we're talking about The Simpsons' trip to Brazil.  Yikes, that was borderline offensive.  My favorite though was when The Simpsons come to my hood, Toronto.  Bart learns in this episode that sometimes we only want what we want because we can't have it. This is a lesson this here critic apparently needed a cartoon character to teach him.  Reese Witherspoon guests on this one, which is probably pretty costly to air in syndication given her residuals.  Yes, THE SIMPSONS - SEASON 13 is a good time indeed.

ALSO AVAILABLE NOW:

- HARD CANDY - Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson in an intense game of wits with dire consequences. See Page in her pre-JUNO days and you will know why she's such a big deal.

- THE BLAIR WITH PROJECT - The original PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.  This one was actually scary ... and believable.

- SECRETARY - This early Maggie Gyllenhaal film is sinfully delicious and a whole lot of messed up.  It does prove to em though that there is someone out there for everyone, no matter what kind of freak you are.

Source: Blu-ray.com

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Black Sheep @ The Box Office

This is it, folks.  This is the last box office report for the summer of 2010.  Next week, Black Sheep will take a look at the summer as a whole, picking both the biggest winners and saddest losers.  Knowing how this summer performed though, I would say we're in for a bigger share of disappointment than success.

I think I just learnt this posture in yoga. I think it's called "Arching the Demon".

That said, this last weekend in August performed better than expected overall.  THE LAST EXORCISM and TAKERS both pulled in more than $21 million when neither was expected to come near $20 million to begin with.  With only $300K difference between them, THE LAST EXORCISM is a very tentative winner and final figures could see TAKERS, uh, take the top spot away.  The next three titles, THE EXPENDABLES, EAT PRAY LOVE and THE OTHER GUYS can all celebrate for each pulling in grand totals matching roughly what their estimated budgets were reported as ($80 million, $60 million and $100 million, respectively).  Meanwhile, the film with the slightest drop over last week is INCEPTION, which actually climbs back up two spots this week.  Below the Top 10, French import, MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT opened to an adequate $5.4K average and $150K total and Robert Duvall's black comedy, GET LOW, continued its successful expansion, pulling in another $1.7 million this week for a $3.7 million total.  Finally, James Cameron's AVATAR: SPECIAL EDITION had to settle for 12th place this weekend, pulling in just $4 million on a little over 800 screens.  It isn't that shocking that the biggest film of all time missed the Top 10 in its first reissue considering there was a surprisingly sparse campaign behind it.  The extra cash has allowed it to surpass the $750 million mark domestically.

When are groups of guys on rooftops ever up to any good?

NEXT WEEK: George Clooney goes international on Wednesday in THE AMERICAN on over 2700 screens.  Drew Barrymore and Justin Long try the New York/L.A. thing in GOING THE DISTANCE on more than 2900 screens on Friday.  Also on Friday, Lindsay Lohan returns to the screen as a gun-toting nun in Robert Rodriguez's B-movie revival, MACHETE (2500 screens).

Source: Box Office Mojo

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Aashayein (2010)

Genre: Drama

Starring: John Abraham, Farida Jalal, Anaitha Nair, Sonal Sehgal, Ashwin Chitale, Girish Karnad

The story of a chain smoker, Rahul (Abraham) who gets lung cancer due to his smoking habits. He has just 3 months to live and decides to make full use of it. He spends his money left, right and center and believes that since he is a dying man, he is entitled to everything. His ego and attitude get in the way for him and his girlfriend, Nafisa (Sehgal). He learns about a special retreat for dying patients where they can spend the last few days of their life being happy before withering away. He meets a whole lot of people at the retreat, including a prostitute, Manju (Jalal) who gained AIDS and is shunned by all the patients, Padma (Nair) a loud-mouthed and rude cancer patient and Govinda (Chitale) a young boy whom people proclaim have super-natural powers. Govinda seemed to know everything about Rahul even without knowing him. He knew his birth name which he doesn't use and his passion for movies, especially Indiana Jones. Padman and Rahul become best buddies and they stick with each other through thick and thin. They also start a 'Wish Fairy Club' where they attempt to fulfill the last wishes of all the patients. The movie at first sight seems slow, which it is. The first half is a big drag and almost anyone would want to leave after the half-mark. Stick around for a bit more, and you would be surprised in the manner with which the movie vastly improves and you actually start enjoying it. Each and every performance in the movie is exceptional, big or small, especially John Abraham, Anaitha Nair and Ashwin Chitale who instead of being overshadowed by the popular image of Abraham, have managed to keep up and support his character throughout. It's a lovely movie and probably many smokers might get an urge to drop the habit right away. The flaw, within the first 10 minutes the rest of the plot becomes predictable but that doesn't make the movie a less enjoyable watch. Is capable of bringing forth a tear even from the cold-hearted.

Thumbs up: Performances of lesser known cast

Thumbs down: First half, predictable plot

Rating: 7.0/10

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Saturday Night Fever (1977)

Genre: Drama/Romance/Musical

Starring: John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, Paul Pape, Donna Pescow

The life of a typical American youth. Work and earn money throughout the week and blow it all away on Saturday night with woman and alcohol. Tony Manero (Travolta) lived the exact same life and was proud of it. He and his bunch of friends went around the city like Casanova's and spend the entire night away at the nightclub. Tony loved to dance and he was the hottest and most dashing young man who burnt the dance floor. Woman craved for him and he loved the attention he got. The club was hosting a dance competition and Tony along with his partner Annette (Pescow) were last years winner. Annette was head over heals for Tony and would do anything to get his attention and go to bed with him. Tony, however, was eyeing the new girl Stephanie (Gorney) who was as good a dancer as he was. He decided to enroll himself for this years competition with her much to the despise of Annette. Most of the movie reflects about the aimless and ambition-less youth for whom sex and money is everything. The movie has some very amazing 70's dance moves and John Travolta fulfills the role superbly. The movie might appeal to someone who loves dance and they might just pick up some really smooth moves too, but apart from that the movie is a now show. Somewhere during the middle the movie gets slow and boring but steadily picks up pace towards the end. Avoidable unless you want to pick up some dance steps or recall your youthful days of the 70's.

Thumbs up: The smashing John Travolta

Thumbs down: May not appeal to all

Rating: 6.8/10

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Weather Girl (2009)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Tricia O'Kelly, Patrick J. Adams, Ryan Devlin, Mark Harmon

A sassy weather girl, Sylvia (O'Kelly) announces her decision to quit her job during a live news telecast. She also revealed her hatred for her co-host and lover Dale (Harmon) and revealed some of his sexual secrets. Having no job, no money and no shoulder to cry on, Sylvia moves in with her brother, Walt (Devlin). Walt's best friend is Byron (Adams) the guy who lives right across his apartment. Sylvia's infamous announcement on TV has made her famous across Seattle but that also made it difficult for her to get a new job. Nobody wants to risk seeing a similar fiasco on their TV channel. 35 and single, shes worried that she may not find the right guy to settle down with and her life is going to be a mess, which it anyhow is. The movie is plain boring with absolutely nothing to look forward to. A cliched romance plot, average performances and no high point at all makes this movie, as you might guess, a big bore.

Thumbs up: Nothing really

Thumbs down: Everything else

Rating: 5.7/10

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AVATAR REVISITED

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY JAMES CAMERON

STARRING SAM WORTHINGTON, ZOE SALDANA, MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ AND SIGOURNEY WEAVER

Jake Sully: I see you.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The biggest film of all time is about to get bigger when James Cameron's AVATAR returns to 700 screens this week with nine minutes of new footage.  AVATAR is one of those movies that I enjoyed but that I did not enjoy nearly as much as the general population did.  Usually when this happens, especially when the film in question almost takes home the Oscar for Best Picture, I tend to dislike the film more than I originally did as a reaction to that response.  What better time then to go back and see what I wrote initially, knowing full well that I was much kinder to this film than I should have been.  Darn hype.

The text in white is my original review.  The text in blue is new.  The text in blue is also not blue for AVATAR; it is just blue.

And here we are. The day has finally arrived. It only took about ten years but James Cameron’s labour of a lot of love, AVATAR, has finally been revealed to a world that has been desperately waiting for it. You’d think it were the second coming from the way people have been lining up for tickets or even from the way in which the film has been marketed. Supposedly, it will change the way we see movies. I haven’t seen a “normal” movie since watching AVATAR earlier today so I can’t fully test that theory but I can see where they’re going with it. AVATAR is nothing if not inventive and expansive. It is certainly unlike anything I’ve seen before but I’m not necessarily clamoring to see it again and again.

So far, I agree with myself.  I actually cannot imagine watching AVATAR again ever.  It was long but still packed a ton of excitement so I got through it.  I feel the second time around though will just be long without the WOW factor.  Also, I have now seen many more "normal" movies since AVATAR and I can't say it has ruined any of them for me.  Well, except for STEP UP 3D - maybe if I had not seen the far more impressive AVATAR 3D first, that movie would have been a blast.  (Please tell me you read that sarcastically.)

I should mention that I’m something of a purist. I am a great lover of cinema but I’m not always able to get on board with drastic change right away. AVATAR presents great possibility for the future of cinema. 3D technology has never been applied to live-action footage (if we can really call this live-action, considering only 40% is real footage and the rest is CG) as extensively as it has been here. My concern is that it could always end up gimmicky instead of relevant. Cameron infuses 3D into AVATAR with such delicate care though that every image becomes an interactive experience. At times, it is as if he is speaking directly to the audience with a visual language that is as original as the planet Pandora, where all of this movie magic takes place. The visual impact is staggering but it is the manner in which the audience is involved in the picture that will make AVATAR memorable.

Look at me all laying it on thick.  I've said this before but it bears repeating.  AVATAR is a great experience, not a great movie.  It is true that Cameron's 3D in this film has yet to be matched.  Sadly, it has also inspired a bunch of unnecessary 3D experiences.  Still, Cameron did it right, expanding on the film's depth - well, visual depth, anyway.  I read a Cameron quote the other day that basically said he wants to see the day when it doesn't say "In 3D" on posters anymore just like it no longer says "In Colour".  If they do it with his technical approach, it is definitely a possibility.

Now, if Cameron had spent as much time fleshing out his story and characters as he did on the look of the film, he might have had a masterpiece on his hands. The film’s failings are not so bad that they detract from the overall enjoyment factor but with a near three-hour run time, I found myself facing them more often than I would have liked to. If it weren’t for the technological advancements, AVATAR would be nothing more than a really long commercial for going green. None too surprisingly, mankind (or maybe just the Americans as they are the only people around) messes up Earth pretty bad in the future and needs to go elsewhere to pillage for natural resources. Pandora is a highly volatile environment and its inhabitants are deeply spiritual, have a profound connection to their planet and subsequently are completely misunderstood by the belligerent invaders. By keeping it vague, Cameron paints a blanket evil and gives it the already hated face of corporate America. Who knew their reign of terror had such far reach?

In the same Cameron interview I read recently, Cameron talked about how the extra footage being added to this expanded version and the even longer version coming to home video in the fall, was added to appease the fans who said they wanted to see more Pandora.  More pretty footage is not going to serve the story any better and I think this kind of thinking perfectly demonstrates Cameron's own disinterest with his story.  There was a reason the screenplay Oscar was one of the only nods the film didn't garner.  Furthermore, who is the director here?  Why do the fans get to decide what should be in this movie?  Also, between the additional footage and the two planned AVATAR sequels, I feel like Cameron will be seeing the world in blue until the day he dies.

Whether AVATAR will truly change the way we watch movies remains to be seen. Only time will tell if the technology Cameron pushed is used to strengthen or further cheapen Hollywood films. That same time will tell whether AVATAR is a passing fascination or a truly great piece of cinema. There is no denying though that Cameron has justified his crown as one of the great blockbuster filmmakers of our time. He has crafted a work that truly transcends what it means to see a film and invites the audience to partake in a unique experience instead. For the first time in a long time, Hollywood has a movie that is a must-see on the big screen.


Not enough time has passed to see if AVATAR changes movies for the better.  Only one film has been released using the same technology as AVATAR thus far (the aforementioned STEP UP 3D) and any other 3D experience you've had just had the 3D tacked on.  So in the immediate, AVATAR seems to have ruined it for the rest of us but that can still all change.  As for whether it stands so many months later as a truly great piece of cinema, I couldn't tell you.  That would involve me watching it again and I already mentioned how enthused I am to do that.  That said, I never saw TITANIC more than once either.

I will take this opportunity to change my initial grade on AVATAR.

James Cameron, you have been downgraded.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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Toy Story 2 (1999)

Genre: Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Drama/Fantasy

Starring (voice): Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, Wayne Knight

Andy's toys are having a good time as usual. The only person not having a good time is Woody (Hanks) whose arm gets accidentally ripped while playing with Andy. Woody gets shelved where he finds an old toy Wheezy the Penguin whom everyone had assumed was lost. A garage sale is coming up and Wheezy goes up for sale. Woody tries to save Wheezy but gets left behind and later stolen by Al (Knight) the owner of Al's Toy Store. A Japanese toy museum wants to show case toys of Woody and his Roundup Gang, but the toys are now rare and hard to find. Al steals Woody to complete his collection and make lots of money. Woody and his Roundup Gang comprising of Jessie (Cusack), Stinky Pete (Grammer) and his horse Bullseye were once a famous cartoon show and all his accessories and toys were very famous. A new era of space toys brought an end to Woody's show. Buzz Lightyear (Allen) swears to save Woody as an act of repayment for what Woody had done for him in the previous movie. With a few other toys, they undertake a perilous journey to get to Al's Toy Store and rescue Woody before it gets too late. The movie doesn't really give the same feeling its predecessor did and there always is this feeling that something is missing. The movie gets a bit boring at one point but swiftly picks up pace and improves. The animations are fabulous for a movie of its time and would do a good job in entertaining an 8-year-old. The previous movie had some high points and some very dramatic and gripping scenes which the second movie completely lacks. A great movie nonetheless with some scope for improvement.

Thumbs up: Animation, hugely entertaining

Thumbs down: Not as dramatic or gripping as the earlier movie

Rating: 8.3/10

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Anger Management (2003)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kack Nicholson, Marisa Tomei

David Buznik (Sandler) is a man who always gets pushed around and is taken for granted and cant seem to stand up for himself. He keeps his anger locked up inside him which is not helping his life. Things get a little out of hand for him and the court orders him to take up anger therapy. His therapist, Buddy Rydell (Nicholson) has a very funny way to conduct his therapy, which is not going down too well with David. He hates his therapist and he hates all the kinds of stupid things he makes him do. His life goes from bad to worse and the only person he can blame for all of this is Buddy Rydell. Firstly, the movie is badly slow and boring. There is just not enough humour that one would have liked it to have and is badly boring. Towards the end things do improve, but not substantially. Performances are average, plot is decent but the absolute lack of good humour spoils the show. Just makes you more angry that you ended up wasting an hour and a half of precious time.

Thumbs up: A plot with good scope for humour

Thumbs down: Needs to be funny, a lot more funny

Rating: 5.4/10

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Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)

Genre: Science-fiction/Fantasy/Adventure/Drama/Comedy

Starring: Chris D'Owd, Marc Wootton, Dean Lennox Kelly, Anna Faris, Meredith MacNeil

Three friends, Ray (D'Owd), Toby (Wootton) and Pete (Kelly) are siting in a pub and are discussing a topic they are least likely to discuss, time travel. Ray believes in it and reads various fictitious books on time travel. He meets Cassie (Faris) who claims to be a professional time traveller and who knows Ray from the future because he becomes really famous. Toby, who is a film fanatic, writes a crazy movie story which unknown to him would lead him to an adventure of a life-time. Pete refuses to believe Ray's story and after taking a piss, sees a pub full of dead people including himself. He allegedly went through a time-leak and managed to see the future and is badly shaken. The three friends start an adventure through time and realise that Toby's crazy movie idea made them famous, so famous that they might just get killed. The movie attempts at a wacky and crazy plot and almost manages to pull it off. the first half is confusing, slow and boring and its only during the second half that the movie picks up pace and starts making more sense. Perhaps if the movie was more than just going in and out of time and had some interesting parallel plots running alongside it, the movie might have been an even better watch. A nice movie, but may not appeal to all.

Thumbs up: Attempt at a great plot

Thumbs down: Slightly dragged and may not appeal to every ones tastes

Rating: 6.8/10

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Black Sheep's Blu-Tuesday

When you take a vacation, even a miniature one like I took last week, some things inevitably go awry.  For instance, my not being home made it pretty difficult to receive the films I was sent last week.  That being said, my being on vacation means that, even if I were home at the time of their delivery, I would have likely not watched them, let alone written about them.  Here we are though, one week later, and I feel I should get to these lost films as though they were released this week.  But first, speaking of lost ...

LOST - THE COMPLETE SERIES

Unfortunately for me, I do not have the $195 American dollars necessary to obtain this nifty box set here but it is officially going on my Amazon wishlist.  I did not start watching LOST until this year, that is to say, I started watching from the beginning this year. I certainly didn't just jump in at the last second; who could do that and actually comprehend what was going on? I also have not seen a single scene from the sixth and final season (also available for individual purchase) so I will be first in line tomorrow at my video store to make sure that Season 6, Disc 1 is mine.  I will also likely grab Disc 2, just in case.

HAMLET

When I sat down to watch Kenneth Brannagh's HAMLET this past weekend, I found myself wondering just who the heck this Brannagh guy was back in day to be able to get this 4+ hour, unabridged version of the infamous Shakespeare classic made.  A skim through the gorgeous Blu-Ray book commemorating the masterful work answered all of my questions.  Brannagh was considered to be a Shakespearean genius at the time and, albeit not perfect of course, his control over the direction, writing and performance of the titular character is highly commendable.  Fear not, there is a well timed intermission included on the disc for those interested in breaking up the night.

ME AND ORSON WELLES

This is one of the few films of 2009 that I was not able to see before year-end.  I had heard great things about Christian McKay's performance as the notorious Orson Welles and he certainly doesn't disappoint.  He carries himself as though he is the only person of any import in the room at all times and he plays everyone he comes into contact with perfectly, both on screen and off.  Claire Danes and Zac Efron round out the principles in the Richard Linklater production and do so with a fair amount of charm.  Efron is so cute when he tries to act all serious.  In all seriousness though, he does a pretty good job as a bright-eyed young actor on the precipice of success with no idea what is in store.

ALSO NEW THIS WEEK: Move over Jennifer Aniston, J-Lo is having a baby all by her lonesome in THE BACK-UP PLAN.  I'm sure both your mother and mine are pleased about that one.  I, on the other hand, will be locking myself indoors with the 13th season of THE SIMPSONS.  That is, I will be as soon as I'm done with LOST.

Source: blu-ray.com

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Death at a Funeral (2010)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Keith Davis, Loretta Devine, Peter Dinklage, Danny Glover, Regina Hall, Ron Glass, Kevin Hart, Martin Lawrence, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan, Chirs Rock, Zoe Saldana, Columbus Short, Luke Wilson

'Whats the point?' is the question a lot of other people including me would ask after watching the movie. What is the point in remaking the popular British comedy with the exact same dialogues and jokes and only replacing the British star cast with an all-black American one? Aaron (Rock) has just lost his father and is preparing his funeral. His younger brother Ryan (Lawrence) is a famous author and has gained a lot of respect with the family. Secretly, Ryan is broke and leads a lavish lifestyle just to show the world that he has enough money. Elaine (Saldana) and her fiancee Oscar (Marsden) are on their way to pick up her brother Jeff (Short) before heading to the funeral. Elaine gives Oscar some Valium to ease his nerves, which actually does not turn out to be Valium but a hallucinogenic drug he has developed for a friend. Oscar hallucinates about a moving coffin and accidentally drops open the coffin. Meanwhile, Norman (Morgan) has to help a crippled and impatient Uncle Russell (Glover) everywhere and manages to get covered in his poop. Ryan and Aaron are in for a surprise when a midget, Frank (Dinklage) reveals to them that their father feels the other way and blackmails them into paying him money to keep his mouth shut. The movie is word-by-word exactly the same as the British original. Considering that the British movie was made just 3 prior to this one, the core audience remains more or less the same who have seen and enjoyed the original and may not laugh at the same jokes again. Perhaps if the movie had some 'black' or 'nigger' jokes with some slight tweaks here and there, the movie would have been at an entirely different level. If someone hasn't seen the original, they could try this movie first. Once again, what is the point?

Thumbs up: Great performances

Thumbs down: A carbon copy of the original, but written in 'black' ink

Rating: 5.4/10

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Tere Bin Laden (2010)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Ali Zafar, Barry John, Rahul Singh, Pradhuman Singh, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Piyush Mishra, Sugandha Garg, Chirag Vohra, Chinmay Mandlekar

9/11 changed the face of the entire world. Islam and its followers were looked upon with suspicion and the United States became jumpy about any minuscule threat in their backyard. Ali Hassan (Zafar) a budding Pakistani journalist, desires to make it big in America, but his visa gets rejected for seven straight years. He works for peanuts in a little known TV channel called Danka TV and simply hates his job. While covering a certain event, he stumbles across an Osama Bin Laden look-alike and hatches an insane plot to make himself big. Along with his co-worker Gul (Ratnaparkhi) they decide to caste the look alike, Noor (Pradhuman Singh) in a video posing as Osama Bin Laden and sell the video at a high price. They rope in fellow conspirators, namely Zoya (Garg) an aspiring beautician, Lateef (Vohra) a film editor from Saudi Arabia and Qureshi (Rahul Singh) a famous radio jockey to dub the voice of the actual Osama. The video escalates and before anyone knew it, the United States Government was all ready to bomb the middle-east. The movie does the perfect job of being funny and does what it is supposed to do, entertain. The lesser known star cast puts on fabulous performances and the conception of such a plot is marvelous. That said, the jokes aren't all that hilarious or amazing as one expected it to be. Smooth, funny and entertaining is what comes in my mind.

Thumbs up: Great plot, good performances and entertaining

Thumbs down: Could have been more funny

Rating: 7.0/10

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Banlieue 13 (2004)

Genre: Crime/Action

Starring: Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle, Tony D'Amario, Bibi Naceri, Dany Verissimo

English Title: District B13. Paris, 2010. Crime rate in the city is sky-rocketing and in order to curb it, the government built a massive wall around the cities most shady area, Banlieue 13 aka Borough 13. Leito (Belle) a resident of the area steals heroin from the local gang lord, Taha (Naceri). Taha's sidekick K2 (D'Amario) kidnaps Leito's sister Lola (Verissimo) and uses her as a slave and manages to get Leito arrested by the police. A nuclear bomb is stolen from the government by Taha and Capt. Damien (Raffaelli) of the French Police has been assigned the task to recover it. Leito is freed and is made his assistant and guide to navigate his way around the area. The movie has a very average and predictable plot, but what makes it fun to watch is the superior action. The crisp moves of Raffaelli and Belle steal the show and leave you craving for more. Sure, some scenes are a bit overdone and seem like a video game, but they can be easily overlooked for a better overall picture. Great action flick which is short and precise.

Thumbs up: Amazing action and chase sequences

Thumbs down: Unexciting plot

Rating: 7.4/10

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Black Sheep @ The Box Office

Despite the overcrowding with five new wide releases at the box office this weekend, no one was able to unseat Sylvester Stallone and company from the number one spot with THE EXPENDABLES.  The 52% decline for the action flick could have been much worse so the people at Maple Pictures and Lionsgate must be pleased with the word of mouth.  It was expected to rival EAT PRAY LOVE for number one this weekend but the Julia Roberts picture dropped off harder than expected and had to settle for third place, behind vampire spoof, VAMPIRES SUCK, which performed higher than expected.  The Bow Wow led ensemble comedy, THE LOTTERY, performed reasonably well, pulling in the highest per screen average in the top ten, below THE EXPENDABLES, on under 2000 screens.  PIRANHA 3D took as big a bite as one would expect for a number six finish.  NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS was met with little excitement, despite a successful run abroad.  And THE SWITCH brought in a respectable amount given a disaster was expected.  You know the expectations were low when $8 million is a relief.  And sadly, SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD is officially one of the summer's biggest financial disappointments.  Shame on you, people.  You missed one of the best things to happen to this summer.

NEXT WEEK: Summer continues to give up on itself as AVATAR comes back to 700+ screens with brand new footage.  That's right! It's longer now!! The tough guy pick will be TAKERS on 2000+ screens. And THE LAST EXORCISM opens on 2700 screens.  This had better be the last one; those things creep me out.

Source: Box Office Mojo

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Scary Movie 3 (2003)

Genre: Comedy/Spoof/Drama

Starring: Anna Faris, Charlie Sheen, Simon Rex, Drew Mikuska

The third installation of the very famous movie that spoofs on horrors and thrillers. A strange video tape is doing the rounds of the city and whoever watches the tape dies in seven days. Cindy (Farris) a reporter, tries to investigate the strange deaths. Tom (Sheen) a farmer and his younger brother George (Rex) find mysterious crop circles in their farm. George aspires to be a rap artist but doesn't really make it very far. Most of the movie is a spoof of The Ring and just like any other spoof movie, there is no sensible or logical plot but just random spoofs from a whole lot of movies brought together. The movie is not hilarious or roll-over funny but its stupid and funny enough to entertain you for 80-odd minutes. The only reason to watch this movie is because you have nothing to watch and your simply getting the urge to kill time. The movie makes more sense if one has watched all the various movies it spoofs about. Else, one might not understand the joke or the hidden sarcasm. Anna Faris puts on a very realistic performance by being stupid and typically blond throughout. The lesser said about the movie, the better it is.

Thumbs up: Short and stupid

Thumbs down: Not amazingly funny

Rating: 5.8/10

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THE SWITCH

Written by Allan Loeb

Directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck

Starring Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Jeff Goldblum, Juliette Lewis and Patrick Wilson

Oh what a cynical, love starved world we live in today that a movie like THE SWITCH can be called a romantic comedy.  A) It is rarely, if ever, funny – not that is doesn’t make numerous, desperate attempts to be just that.  And B) there is absolutely nothing romantic about two aging friends who are so caught up in their own self-imposed neurosis that they cannot see how easy it could all be if they just saw each other for who they really are. It’s like they’ve given up but yet they’re asking us not to.

Poor Aniston is the go-to girl for single over 40 roles.

Jennifer Aniston is Kassie and Kassie wants a baby.  Kassie doesn’t have a boyfriend though; she just has a best friend named Wally (Jason Bateman), an aptly named wallower who has been in love with Kassie for years.  Rather than go the clichéd route of trying to have babies between besties, Kassie takes the other now clichéd approach by having a baby with a baster – y’know, of the turkey variety – instead.  She doesn’t need a man even though the one she wants is standing right in front of her but Wally will have none of this.  In one of those drunk moments that no one ever remembers the next day, he accidentally ruins the sperm sample Kassie wanted to use and replaces it with his own so as not to get caught.  It is essentially a horrible thing to do and an act that could end their friendship.  Hilarity is supposed to ensue but what does is a drawn out delay between the actual act and the inevitable reveal – oh and a lot of moping and complaining in between.

I suspect Bateman isn't faking it here.  He would have to be that drunk to make it through the shoot.

I cannot figure out how it took two directors to put this film together.  This is especially true when novice filmmakers, Josh Gordon and Will Speck (BLADES OF GLORY) don’t seem to have any clear direction between the two of them as to what they’re trying to say.  There is only one thing that makes THE SWITCH watchable and that is Jason Bateman.  As incredibly dry and uninspired as the whole thing is, Bateman manages to bring subtlety and humanity when there is none to be found.  We might know Wally; we may have even been him at some point in our lives.  We also probably don’t enjoy spending too much time with him either because he just drags us down.  Subsequently, so does THE SWITCH.

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I Now Prounounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel

Two firefighters, Chuck (Sandler) and Larry (James) have been good friends since a very long time. Chuck has been Mr. February and all the girls drool for him. Larry hasn't been able to overcome his wife's demise and still mourns her death. Larry saved Chuck's life during a fire rescue mission and Chuck promised to repay him in any possible manner. Larry realised that death can come to him any time and decides to make his children the primary beneficiaries in his life insurance policy. However, he started facing problems in doing so and is told that the only way to get around this is to get married. Being unable to overcome his wife's death and marry another woman, he decides to go to Chuck and get married to him as 'domestic partners'. The government smells a rat and decides to probe into their relationship to see if it is genuine. The duo decide to hire Alex (Biel) as their lawyer and to challenge the governments accusation of their relationship not being genuine. Chuck and Larry must now walk, talk and be gay and show the world how much they love each other. The movie might sound a bit interesting but sadly is not. Developments happen at a slow pace which makes it annoying for the audience. Humour too is not all that great and maybe if the movie would have focused on making it more funny, it might have been a different story altogether. Nothing great, avoidable, to be frank.

Thumbs up: Tries to explore a good story

Thumbs down: Bad humour, lack of interesting developments

Rating: 6.3/10

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Best of Black Sheep: MAO'S LAST DANCER

Editor's Note: As I am just getting back from vacation and this film is scheduled for American release this week, I thought I might post it again for my American friends who might have just skipped over it last time.  It is still playing in Canada as well.

MAO'S LAST DANCER

Written by Jan Sardi

Directed by Bruce Beresford

Starring Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLachlan and Amanda Schull

Li Cunxin: When I dance, I dance for them.

In 1972, in the Shandong province in the People’s Republic of China, a young boy of no more than eleven years old, was chosen. Exactly what he was chosen for was not made so clear at that point. There is no way that a young Li Cunxin could know at that point, when he was separated from his family to go to the Beijing Dance Academy simply because he was technically limber enough to become a potential ballet dancer, that he would go on to cause an international scandal that would in turn make him MAO’S LAST DANCER.

Director Bruce Beresford tells the true story of how Li (played in the film as an adult by the skilled Chi Cao, who incidentally also trained at the same academy in Beijing) came to spend a summer in Houston, Texas on an exchange program and how that experience subsequently made it impossible for him to return to Communist China afterward. While in America, Li has extreme culture clash at first, shocked when his guardian, Ben Stevenson (played by Bruce Greenwood, who could not be any lighter in his loafers if he tried) drops hundreds of dollars in a day of shopping when his parents had never seen that much money in their lifetime. The shock wears off though and Li comes to see that democracy might actually make him a freer dancer as well.

Beresford bounces back and forth between Li’s back story and his time in Houston in the late 1970’s.  The contrasting experiences are drastic and it makes it a little too easy to side with the American idealism that supposedly promotes freedom of expression instead of the strict home Li came from. Still, the story is a true one and a difficult one at that, with plenty of emotional payoff in the end. What makes MAO’S LAST DANCER memorable though, aside from its truths and struggles, is all the beautiful dancing in between. We may not be watching Li himself dance on screen but we do get to see exactly what he was fighting for.

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Apollo 13 (1995)

Genre: Drama/History/Adventure/Biography

Starring: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris

NASA had launched an Apollo Space Programme where multiple missions would be sent on the moon. Apollo 13 was the third Apollo mission intended to land on the moon. Jim Lovell (Hanks) was appointed flight commander along with Ken Mattingly (Sinise) as Command Module Pilot and Fred W. Haise (Paxton) as Lunar Module Pilot. Ken Mattingly was feared to have contracted measles and was dropped off the list just a week before take-off. His replacement, Jack Swigert (Bacon) was appointed just 3 days before take-off. The mission turned out to be a catastrophe when the oxygen tank leaked en route to the moon and had to be turned back towards Earth. The movie is the typical American movie which glorifies American achievements. Good performances by Tom Hanks and Ed Harris go in favour of the movie, but the lack of any excitement makes this movie a drag to watch. Predictable climaxes and anti-climaxes don't go very far in helping either. A decent entertainer but nothing much beyond that.

Thumbs up: Good performances

Thumbs down: Un-exciting and lacks the entertainment factor

Rating: 7.3/10

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Funny People (2009)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman

Although a stand up comedian's life may seem to be fun, it's actually as normal as anyone else's. George Simmons (Sandler) is a famous stand-up comedian and actor who has been diagnosed with a rare blood disease with a mere 8% chance of survival. His life's mistakes and blunders start flashing in front of him and he realises its too late to rectify anything. He hires Ira (Rogan) to write jokes for him and to be his assistant. They start developing a close relationship and George finally starts seeing more meaning in his life. He tries to resurrect his doomed married life with Laura (Mann), his ex-wife. The movie is quite boring, slow and stretched. The little bit of humour is quite lame and doesn't help in making the movie any interesting. The concept and story is good, but could have been explored in a much more interesting and exciting manner.

Thumbs up: Decent story

Thumbs down: Long and boring

Rating: 6.1/10

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Peepli [Live] (2010)

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Starring: Omkar Das, Raghuvir Yadav, Shalini Vatsa, Farrukh Jaffar, Malaika Shenoy, Vishal Sharma, Nowaz, Sitaram Panchal

Lets get to the point. The movie is slow, quite slow and may not appeal to the mass audience. It seems to have been made more in accordance with satisfying critics rather than the regular movie-goer. Natha (Das) is an average farmer from Peepli, a village in central India, and has taken a loan from a bank against his farmland. He is unable to pay off the debt and the local landlord, Bhai Thakur (Panchal) suggests to Natha that he commit suicide because the government would pay his family a sum of Rs 1 lac after he dies as compensation. Natha's brother, Budhia (Yadav) manages to convince Natha that he should commit suicide because it would benefit the entire family. The local newspaper reporter, Rakesh (Nowaz) overhears Natha's plan to kill himself and realises this could be a big story and informs his head office in New Delhi. Word spreads like fire and before anyone knew it, Peepli became a village of commotion and nuisance with political parties and newspaper, reporters hunting down Natha for their own greed. The movie has satirical humour and is very different from conventional media. Aamir Khan has done a commendable job in putting forward a message but has failed to entertain the regular audience. The movie is plagued with rural slang, profanity and sarcasm which makes it a good laugh once in a while. Not a single actor is a known face in the industry and most of the movie was shot in actual villages with actual villagers or lesser known artists playing the major roles. The humour is inconsistent but Natha's mother, Amma (Jaffar) takes the cake in really making you laugh. Don't go if you wish for entertainment, but is a critics delight.

Thumbs up: A different kind of cinema, which is a step in the right direction for Bollywood

Thumbs down: Gets a bit slow and may not entertain the average person.

Rating: 7.6/10

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SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD

Written by Michael Baccall and Edgar Wright

Directed by Edgar Wright

Starring Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin, Anna Kendrick and Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Stacey Pilgrim: Are you legitimately moving on or are you just being insane?

Scott Pilgrim: Can I get back to you on that?

By the time you reach a certain age, if you’ve tried at all to make connections with other human beings, you are bound to bring a significant amount of baggage to any table you sit at.  One of the more challenging aspects of dating is figuring out how to keep your own issues in check while navigating the mysterious aspects of your partner’s past as it is slowly revealed to you.  Fortunately for the majority of us, this particular challenge does not usually entail fighting and vanquishing seven evil exes in order to be with the one we love.  Unfortunately for Scott Pilgrim is SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD, it does. 

Scott Pilgrim is many things.  For one, he is a charming, misguided smooth talker who knows deep down that he isn’t fooling anyone really.  He is also the hero of a cult favorite graphic novel series by Ontario born cartoonist, Bryan Lee O’Malley.  Now, he is the subject of Edgar Wright’s third feature film, embodied by everyone’s favorite younger and clueless romantic, Michael Cera.  A little more than a year after his last relationship ended, 23-year-old Pilgrim has just started dating Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), a high school girl, of the clichéd uniformed variety.  His band, Sex Bo-Bomb, know what he’s up to; his sister (the underused Anna Kendrick) and best friend (the snide but supportive Kieran Culkin) know he’s avoiding.  In fact, Scott is pretty much the only one around who thinks everything is going just fine, until he meets Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), that is.  Ramona is a game changer.

Ramona has got her share of demons to deal with and has decided to leave her past where it belongs with a fresh start in Toronto, where the film is proudly shot and set.  She soon discovers that she can’t just run away from her problems, as much as you’d like to. No, sometimes you have to get your new boyfriend to take on each and everyone of your exes one at a time in order to move on.  I don’t know about you but I don’t usually like to talk about my exes with new people I meet until I’m almost sure they aren’t going anywhere so I feel awful bad for Ramona; her exes, going all the way back to grade school, have formed some sort of evil league of exes that follows her around and ensures that she never finds happiness.  That’s a whole lot of garbage for our boy Scott to take out but Ramona is worth it.  As much as Scott has to physically battle her past, Ramona is the new that could finally help Scott let go of his old.

“Fighter” is not likely the first word people would use to describe Cera’s composure.  (I believe that honour would have to go “awkward”.)  Still, given everything he has to take on in SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD, he pulls it off despite his awkwardness and because of one other key factor, the hallucinatory direction of Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ).  The world Scott must take on, according to Wright, is one where neo-hipster apathy dictates every aspect of existence and the video game mentality that has permeated the thin skin of all its inhabitants not only dominates the fight sequences but operates on a symbolic level as well.  Anything worth having is worth fighting for and Scott hasn’t fought for anything in ages.  Yet, as he passes level after level, he sees that he’s not so bad at this game after all.  He just needed someone worth playing for and watching him step up his game is so much fun, you’ll be taking on your own world before you know it.  Consider yourselves warned, exes.

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A Single Man (2009)

Genre: Drama/Romance

Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult

Relationships are always difficult to get over. Spending your life with one person and all of a sudden realising that he/she is gone, can be tragic to anyone. Prof. George Falconer (Firth) is a homosexual man who one fine day receives news that his partner for 16 years has died in a car accident. Shock, overcomes him and he finds it hard to even let one day go by when he doesn't feel lonely or doesn't get the urge to end his life. His only respite is a divorced woman, Charley (Moore) his neighbour, who has a crush on George and wished that they could have spent their lives together. Things start changing for him when George's student Kenny Porter (Hoult) starts getting attached to him and he realises that his life might change for the good after all. Many people get put-off from this movie due to the homosexuality story line, but it thankfully doesn't have any content to offend someone. Most of the movie revolves around the hardships of overcoming a homosexual relationship, and although it might sound slow and boring, the movie is not all that bad. Yes, parts are slow, but that's how it is supposed to be and its not un-watchable. A very simple and well-made movie which has little scope for criticism.

Thumbs up: Colin Firth

Thumbs down: Slow and simple. Not very exciting.

Rating: 7.5/10

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Yesterday's Action Hero, Today

An interview with

DOLPH LUNDGREN

for

THE EXPENDABLES

Everything I know about Dolph Lundgren from my childhood, I know because of my brother.  It was my brother who watched and rewatched action classics like UNIVERSAL SOLDIER and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE over and over again.  I merely caught whatever was on when I stumbled into the living room out of pure boredom.  For years, fans like my brother have been waiting to see a contemporary action star emerge that could blow the crap out of everything without calling in their stunt double to do the real dirty work.  I say, why wait for one though when you can have a whole slew of them right now?

Thanks to Sylvester Stallone, my brother can quit holding his breath and get in line for THE EXPENDABLES – a film about a band of mercenaries that infiltrate a tiny island to liberate its people from an oppressive dictatorship and destroy everything they possibly can while they’re at it.  Throwback premise aside, Stallone, who also wrote and directed the project, has assembled a list of bad boys that would frighten anyone into submission – from Jason Statham and Jet Li to Steve Austin and Randy Couture.  And sitting right near the top of this obscenely muscular heap is Captain Ivan Drago himself, Dolph Lundgren.

“I hope people will be entertained and I hope they appreciate a little old school tough guy camaraderie,” Lundgren tells me when we meet during his press stop in Toronto.  “Respect and honour – that’s what’s at the heart of this picture.  It may seem old fashioned but it’s important.”

And he’s right.  Respect and honour are the reason these misfits have stayed together all this time and also what gives the film some unexpected humanity and realism.  Stallone has his convictions; Statham is a loner trying to find something real; and Li is having a hard time making ends meet for his family.  Lundgren meanwhile, has found himself caught up in a narcotics addiction that has changed him from a fighting machine to a liability.

“In the originally script, he was a user but there was much more obvious evidence,” Lundgren confides. “They make a big deal of it but Stallone cleaned it up and made it more ambiguous.” Lundgren imagined his character, Gunner Jensen, in some sort of a hazy romp with hookers and drugs for days before we meet him on the crew’s first hostage mission, blitzed out of his head with an anti-tank gun in his hands.  “People might end up getting hurt,” he quips.

Lundgren didn’t want Gunner to come off one-sided though.  “For me, the big challenge was trying to make him a little funny.  Crazy, but at the same time a little bit charming, a little bit of a Dolph that people hadn’t seen so much of.”

The truth of it is, North American audiences haven’t seen much of Lundgren at all recently, let alone different “colours of his palette,” as he puts it.  With the buzz for THE EXPENDABLES being almost as loud as the film itself, it would seem that we could all be poised to see a lot more of Lundgren and the guys.

“As with ROCKY IV, I had no clue at all that was going to happen with that,” says Lundgren of the catapult to stardom that followed after Stallone gave him his first major break.  Can Stallone resurrect Lundgren’s career 25 years after he helped launch it?  “Stallone is a smart guy. The stuff that nobody believes in, he makes it happen in unbelievable ways.  He’s done it a few times and hopefully this will be one of them.”

THE EXPENDABLES certainly feels like an inevitable hit but it remains to be seen if a bunch of aging action heroes – and I say that with the full knowledge that any one of them could pummel me for doing so – can capture the attention of a generation brought up on action heroes that are a heck of a lot hotter than they are monstrously sized.

“It was a different era but I hope it comes back,” Lundgren says, with a tinge of vulnerability in his voice. “You have these older guys who still have this kind of persona, combined with the humour – that’s what Stallone hopes people are going to want to see.”

Well, that and a lot of big stuff getting blown up.

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