Movie Reviews

Rescue Dawn

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Rescue Dawn
  • IMDb: link

Rescue Dawn

The first thing you notice about Rescue Dawn is how low-tech an enterprise director Werner Herzog has undertaken.  No big special effects, no prolonged large action sequences.  This is a character study, and a darn good one.  Here is a director with a camera in a jungle letting the actors tell the tale.  It’s a great substitute for the big popcorn flicks of the summer for those of you who could give two shits about robots transforming into cars or what kind of wacky weddings Hollywood stars get themselves into on film.

Rescue Dawn isn’t a fun movie, but it is a well made film with a collection of strong performances that provide stark drama in the jungles of southeast Asia.  Based of the true story of the only American POW to ever make it out of the Laotian jungle, it’s an experience to remember.  In 1997 director Werner Herzog captured Dieter Dengler’s life in his documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly; now ten years later Herzog returns to give us a film based on his remarkable tale.

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I Know Where I’ve Been

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  • Title: Hairspray
  • IMDb: link

“I wish every day was Negro Day.”

hairspray-poster

Hairspray is a toe-tappin’ good time with a strong cast, good music, and plenty of fun.  It would be easy to dismiss it as simply a feel good story and the discovery of first-time actress Nikki Blonksy (who was found, in all places, at a Coldstone Creamery).  But beneath the film’s smiles, laughs, dances, and shakes, there’s a story about acceptance and struggle, about a willingness to sacrifice for doing what you believe is right, no matter what it may cost you.

Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky) is your average teen who daydreams in school about being a celebrity.  Tracy and her best friend Penny (Amanda Bynes) race home every day to catch the Corny Collins Show on television.  Hosted by Corny Colins (James Marsden) the dance show is the hippest thing in all of Baltimore.

From here the story breaks into two parts, that are surprisingly wll meshed together.  The first involves Tracy earning a spot on the show despite her size and the concerns of her mother Edna (John Travolta), her crush on Link Larkin (Zac Efron) and her hopes to win Miss Hairspray against the beautiful but malelovent Amber Van Tussle (Brittany Snow).

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You Kill Me

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  • Title: You Kill Me
  • IMDb: link

“My drinking is interfering with my work.  That’s why I’m here, so I can get sober and go back to killing people full time.”
 

you-kill-me-poster

After botching an important assignment Frank Falenczyk (Ben Kingsley) is shipped out of Buffalo to sunny San Francisco to get control of his drinking problem which is interfering with his work – killing people for the Polish mob.

After arriving in San Fransisco Frank is put up in an apartment and given a job in a funeral home by a friend of his bosses back home (Bill Pullman).  He begins to attend AA meetings, finds a friend and a sponsor (Luke Wilson) and meets and falls for a lonely woman (Tea Leoni).  For the first time Frank takes an honest look at his life and realizes he needs to get better so he can return to Buffalo and get back to the work he is so good at – killing people.

Much like The Matador (read that review) the film balances the issues of killing and death with a certain amount of whimsy and some fairly dark humor.  The AA scenes are some of the best in the film, especially when Frank decides to come clean with everyone about what it is he does.

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Odd Duck

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  • Title: Joshua
  • IMDb: link

Joshua

What if your child had always been a little odd, and you eventually began wondering if he wasn’t evil?  Joshua asks this question, and the result is a mixed, though memorable, result that, although I can’t recommend, is still better than expected.

To the causual observer the Cairn’s are your typical upper-middle class family.  Brad (Sam Rockwell) works too hard in an investment company, Abby (an almost unrecognizable Vera Farmiga) stays home and takes care of their son Joshua (Jacob Kogan) and thier newborn daughter Lily.  Scratch the surface however and you’ll find plenty of troubles in the Cairn home.

To begin with Abby has a history of mental problems and increasing anxiety over not being able to care for her new baby.  And then there’s Joshua who, to put it politely, is a little off.  When the family begins to spiral out of control Brad begins to suspect that everything can be traced to one cause – his son.  Is this young nine-year-old responsible for it all?

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Fifth ‘Potter’ Fails at Charms

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  • Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  • IMDB: link

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was all wrong, it felt more like a James Bond movie than one about a teenager trying to surpass some nasty obsticales just to grow up.  So it’s with a melancholy tone that I tell you that this next Potter film is better than the last, but still falls far short of these stories’ potential.

When Warners Execs signed Alfonso Cuarón to direct the third Harry Potter film, The Prisoner of Azkaban, they managed to commit the single best and worst action in the history of Harry Potter films.  The single best action, because Cuarón has a thorough and energetic love and understanding of the quirky world of Harry Potter, and it showed in the film.  It was the single worst action because two films afterwards, it’s now seeming that Cuarón may be the only man for the job, casting a shadow darker than a Dementor’s over the rest of the franchise.  This fifth installment is a large step above that last chapter, but still shows a deficiency at performing charms.

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