4.5 Razors

End of Innocence

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Bobby
  • IMDb: link

In the style of Grand Hotel, Emilio Estevez (who wrote and directed) brings us a look at the Ambassador Hotel and the people who work and stay there.  It’s not just any day however, it’s June 6, 1968 and Bobby Kennedy is coming to give his last speech before tragedy would strike, and one of the last remaining beacons of hope in his time was extinguished by hatred and violence.

The film follows the guests and staff of the Ambassador Hotel over the period of a day as they work, play, and ready for an appearance, by who many believe will become the next President of the United States.

The characters include the manager of the hotel (William H. Macy), his wife (Sharon Stone) who works as the beauty parlor, and his mistress (Heather Graham) who works the phone bank with her friend (Joy Bryant)  There’s also a Mexican kitchen worker (Freddy Rodriguez) dealing with a racist boss (Christian Slater), and a bride (Lindsay Lohan) who is marrying a friend from high school (Elijah Wood) to stop him being sent to Vietnam.

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Obsession

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Prestige
  • IMDb: link

“Every great magic trick consists of three acts.  The first act is called ‘The Pledge.’  The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course it probably isn’t.  The second act is called ‘The Turn.’  The magician makes his ordinary something do something extraordinary.  Now, if you’re looking for the secret you won’t find it, that’s why there’s a third act called ‘The Prestige.’  This is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you’ve never seen before.”
 

The PrestigeThe film opens with Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) on trial for the murder of Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), who was killed during his final performance.  The magician who gave both men their start (Michael Caine) is present, as witness, to tell the tale.

The film goes back in time, to tell the story of how the two got their start, their tragic marriages (with Piper Perabo, and Rebecca Hall), their competing affection for a magician’s assistant (Scarlett Johansson), and the event which caused the hatred and rivalry between them.

Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins) weaves a marvelous tale of illusion, half-truths, buried secrets, murder, and most of all obsession.  Like this year’s earlier entry The Illusionist the film involves the secrets of an illusion, and plot twists.  The Prestige succeeds where the other failed in that it doesn’t make the twists and secrets the whole story, instead it’s the obsession between the two men, not their secrets, which takes center stage.

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Unlimited Justice League!  Holy Moley!!

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Justice League Unlimited – Season Two
  • tv.com: link

justice-league-unlimited-season-one-dvdAfter two seasons on Cartoon Network Justice League was revamped into a series not only about the seven greatest heroes of the DC Universe, but including all the super-heroes who gave their lives to the pursuit of justice.  Fans of any incarnation of the Justice League will find something to enjoy here as the series tries to give a nod to each incarnation.

After the events of Starcrossed, where the league battled the invading Thanagarian army, Hawkgirl is no longer a member of the team, and, now aware of larger threats, the remaining six original members decide to open up the ranks of the Justice League and recruit more heroes.

Gone, for the most part, are the two episode story arcs.  Instead we get individual episodes that pair up original members with some of the new members of the team which include Supergirl, Green Arrow, The Question, Black Canary, The Huntress, Red Tornado, Ray, Rocket Red, Dr. Fate, Captain Atom, the Atom, Atom Smasher, and more.

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The Lisbon Girls

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Virgin Suicides
  • IMDb: link

“Everyone dates the demise of our neighborhood from the suicides of the Lisbon girls.  People saw their clairvoyance in the wiped out elms, the harsh sunlight, and the continuing decline of our auto industry.  Even as teenagers we tried to put the pieces together; we still can’t.  Now, whenever we run into each other at business lunches or cocktail parties, we find ourselves in the corner going over the evidence one more time.  All to understand those five girls who, after all these years, we can’t get out of our minds.”

virgin-suicides-poster

The Lisbon girls were beautiful.  The five daughters of Mrs. Lisbon (Kathleen Turner) and Mr. Lisbon (James Woods), a high school teacher, captured the minds and hearts of the neighborhood boys in the early 1970’s in the sleepy Michigan suburbs.

The girls, Therese (Leslie Hayman) 17 years-old, Mary (A.J. Cook) 16, Bonnie (Chelse Swain) 15, Lux (Kirsten Dunst) 14, and Cecila (Hanna Hall) 13, would all be gone in the course of a single year.

In the space of two summers the sleepy suburbs would be woken to the deaths of five beautiful young women, all at their own hands.  The haunting suicides would leave behind unfinished dreams and imaginations by the boys they left behind (Anthony DeSimone, Lee Kagan, Robert Schwartzman, Noah Shebib, and Jonathan Tucker).

What caused such events to occur?  The sheltered life of the girls didn’t help matters, nor the strict homelife.  Was that all?  And if so, was there nothing that could be done?  The film’s characters look back with a tearful eye in wonder.

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Sunshine Shines Bright

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Little Miss Sunshine
  • IMDB: link

This is a terrific little film.  It’s sad when movies such as John Tucker Must Die get huge distribution and marketing while truly wonderful smaller films such as this one will struggle to find an audience.  Little Miss Sunshine is worth both your time and money; it’s so good I didn’t want it to end.

Into every life a little rain must fall, into this family…well, wear your galoshes.  Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a self-help guru who is lives his life to “the nine steps,” determined to be a winner and not a loser.  His wife Sheryl (Toni Collette) is trying to keep the family together despite their financial and emotional difficulties.

Son Dwayne (Paul Dano) quietly worships Fredrick Nietche, he’s taken a vow of silence, and spends his time dreaming about a life flying jets.  The grandfather (Alan Arkin) is a heroin addict who’s main philosophy to the younger generation seems to be – sleep with as many women as possible.

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