lundi 25 juin 2007
Current Movie of the Moment - 25juin07
SHREK THE THIRD. the gingerbread cookie man is a golden wonder of pixar animation, and i can't get enough.
Current Movie of the Moment (old)
LOVE AND OTHER DISASTERS. I know it's Britney Murphy and a bunch of gays, but live a little, would ya ?
mercredi 20 juin 2007
BROKEN FLOWERS (rental)
viewed 17/06/07
http://www.brokenflowersmovie.com/home.html
plot : Driving around for paternity's sake.
thought : Boring with a capital "Bill Murray."
(I really like Bill Murray. I do. But why is he always looking so sad and wearing track suits these days ?)
Overall rating : 1.5/5
http://www.brokenflowersmovie.com/home.html
plot : Driving around for paternity's sake.
thought : Boring with a capital "Bill Murray."
(I really like Bill Murray. I do. But why is he always looking so sad and wearing track suits these days ?)
Overall rating : 1.5/5
GOMEZ VS. TAVAREZ
http://www.snd-films.com/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=51899.html
plot : BAD BOYS à la française !
thought : I.E., the jokes make less sense.
The film starts like FAST AND THE FURIOUS, with a drag race. The music is (bad) American rap, the ladies where short skirts and heels, things blow up--gratuitously--and the two buddy cops are minorities--well, one of them anyway. Okay, they're French enough, but their names are Gomez and Tavarez...come on.
Well, the story of GOMEZ VS. TAVAREZ, the sequel to the 2003 film that I missed, GOMEZ ET TAVAREZ, is basically BAD BOYS, with a cutie named Titoff playing the part of Max Tavarez (the lighter minority cop) and the stoic-faced Stomy BUGSY playing the part of Gomez (the darker minority cop). With Noémie LENOIR as our principal short-skirt-wearing diva (and a couple others playing backup), the movie is a fun ride with a plot looser than bad boys and an ending even more predictable. I say, why not ? It's a pleasure to watch the French act like Americans (and by that, I mean, loud, proud and unsophisticated).
Overall rating : 2.5/5 (but maybe higher, had I understood more of the French jokes ? Judging from spectator comments, maybe not)
plot : BAD BOYS à la française !
thought : I.E., the jokes make less sense.
The film starts like FAST AND THE FURIOUS, with a drag race. The music is (bad) American rap, the ladies where short skirts and heels, things blow up--gratuitously--and the two buddy cops are minorities--well, one of them anyway. Okay, they're French enough, but their names are Gomez and Tavarez...come on.
Well, the story of GOMEZ VS. TAVAREZ, the sequel to the 2003 film that I missed, GOMEZ ET TAVAREZ, is basically BAD BOYS, with a cutie named Titoff playing the part of Max Tavarez (the lighter minority cop) and the stoic-faced Stomy BUGSY playing the part of Gomez (the darker minority cop). With Noémie LENOIR as our principal short-skirt-wearing diva (and a couple others playing backup), the movie is a fun ride with a plot looser than bad boys and an ending even more predictable. I say, why not ? It's a pleasure to watch the French act like Americans (and by that, I mean, loud, proud and unsophisticated).
Overall rating : 2.5/5 (but maybe higher, had I understood more of the French jokes ? Judging from spectator comments, maybe not)
BAD GUY (rental)
viewed 14/06/07
http://www.badguythemovie.net/
plot : We hurt, love and die.
thought : Not so bad a guy.
Overall rating : 3/5
http://www.badguythemovie.net/
plot : We hurt, love and die.
thought : Not so bad a guy.
Overall rating : 3/5
MONSTER'S BALL (rental)
viewed 13/06/07
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster's_Ball
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster's_Ball
plot : Black woman under white man.
thought : But maybe there's another point.
Overall rating : 3.5/5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster's_Ball
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster's_Ball
plot : Black woman under white man.
thought : But maybe there's another point.
Overall rating : 3.5/5
lundi 11 juin 2007
A SIMPLE PLAN (rental)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120324/
(no offical site available)
plot : Money makes you act stupid.
thought : Too unforunate to be entertaining.
Overall rating : 2.5/5
(no offical site available)
plot : Money makes you act stupid.
thought : Too unforunate to be entertaining.
Overall rating : 2.5/5
LA MOME
http://www.tfmdistribution.com/lamome/lamome.htm
plot : Edith Piaf is a legend.
thought : Edith Piaf is a legend.
I cannot instantly recall any other French biopic. Oh wait, here are a couple recents--Jean de la Fontaine, and also MOLIERE (with my favorite French actor, Romain DURIS, cutie). I bet I could search on Google and eventually find a few more--but I also have a feeling Gerard Depardieu as CYRANO DE BERGERAC would probably come up first. So I'm just going to put out there that, perhaps, LA MOME is going to be the first wide-release French biopic. And it is a sensation. I don't expect it to do nearly as well abroad, of course, as it has done here in France, but I do hope and believe it will be well-received. We have used RAY and WALK THE LINE as our biopic measuring bars for anything the 2007 box office will attempt to throw (and appropriately, it has thrown nothing), but I aruge that this film again will raise the bar.
You may not have heard of Marion COTILLARD before this film. She plays Russell Crowe's love
interest in A GOOD YEAR. Yeah, didn't see it. But in this movie, I can't even say she "plays" the role of Edith Piaf, the most admired, renowed female French singer of the past century (in my opinion). Cotillard, in fact, is Edith Piaf so precisely, so wholly, she swept me away into believing I was watching "la môme" herself on screen.
The story, as well, is phenomenal. I admire the research and study that the makers of this film, particularly our director and chief writer Olivier DAHAN, obviously persued to create a film that seems to so accurately depict the emotional pitfalls and professional triumphs of this woman's musical career. It is delivered in an effectively engaging non-chronological style with fast editing and none of the typical French cinematic silence. It's a movie about a musician, after all ! The music is weep-worthy. The power in Edith Piaf's voice and the emotion of every note is enough to make this movie a classic, but Cotillard's sensational acting drives it home. An unforgettable life captured on screen.
Scene that sings : Immediately after Piaf reencounters her lover, Marcel, in her apartment after he takes a plane to see her.
Overall rating : 4.5/5
plot : Edith Piaf is a legend.
thought : Edith Piaf is a legend.
I cannot instantly recall any other French biopic. Oh wait, here are a couple recents--Jean de la Fontaine, and also MOLIERE (with my favorite French actor, Romain DURIS, cutie). I bet I could search on Google and eventually find a few more--but I also have a feeling Gerard Depardieu as CYRANO DE BERGERAC would probably come up first. So I'm just going to put out there that, perhaps, LA MOME is going to be the first wide-release French biopic. And it is a sensation. I don't expect it to do nearly as well abroad, of course, as it has done here in France, but I do hope and believe it will be well-received. We have used RAY and WALK THE LINE as our biopic measuring bars for anything the 2007 box office will attempt to throw (and appropriately, it has thrown nothing), but I aruge that this film again will raise the bar.
You may not have heard of Marion COTILLARD before this film. She plays Russell Crowe's love
interest in A GOOD YEAR. Yeah, didn't see it. But in this movie, I can't even say she "plays" the role of Edith Piaf, the most admired, renowed female French singer of the past century (in my opinion). Cotillard, in fact, is Edith Piaf so precisely, so wholly, she swept me away into believing I was watching "la môme" herself on screen.
The story, as well, is phenomenal. I admire the research and study that the makers of this film, particularly our director and chief writer Olivier DAHAN, obviously persued to create a film that seems to so accurately depict the emotional pitfalls and professional triumphs of this woman's musical career. It is delivered in an effectively engaging non-chronological style with fast editing and none of the typical French cinematic silence. It's a movie about a musician, after all ! The music is weep-worthy. The power in Edith Piaf's voice and the emotion of every note is enough to make this movie a classic, but Cotillard's sensational acting drives it home. An unforgettable life captured on screen.
Scene that sings : Immediately after Piaf reencounters her lover, Marcel, in her apartment after he takes a plane to see her.
Overall rating : 4.5/5
MARIE ANTOINETTE (rental)
http://www.marieantoinette-lefilm.com/
plot : French queen à la Dunst.
thought : Let them eat costume changes.
Overall rating : 2/5 (but it was really pretty)
plot : French queen à la Dunst.
thought : Let them eat costume changes.
Overall rating : 2/5 (but it was really pretty)
samedi 2 juin 2007
BLACK SNAKE MOAN
http://www.moanmovie.com/
plot : Get behind me, hussy girl.
thought : Charmed by the snake, eh ?
I didn't really get this movie. Still don't really get it. The premise is a weird one. Really don't know where Craig BREWER, the writer and director, got it. But the music is blues hotter than you've ever heard, and it's got Justin Timberlake. So yeah, I saw it.
The premise of the movie, without giving too much away, is this : a man with some inner demons named Lazaurs (Samuel L. Jackson, looking old, rough and tough) finds Rae (Christian RICCI), a beat-up, almost naked skinny girl, passed out on the road by his house...and hijinks ensue. The high points of the film include every scene with music (it's not a musical, but there is some song, and Jackson does all his own singing) and most all the scenes that Jackson and Ricci share.
Justin, who plays Rae's boyfriend Ronnie, shows some great emotions, but alas, he is no where near his top level performance in ALPHA DOG. Christina RICCI on the other hand...is something else. When I think of her, I think, "She's All That...Adam's Family...big forehead." And hey, I'll still think those things, but now I'm starting to think she wants us to think something else. Her role was a weird one, but she owned it.
BLACK SNAKE MOAN, produced by John SINGLETON (same guy behind HUSTLE & FLOW as well as POETIC JUSTIC and a lot of other racially charged films), is a startling film dealing with a social subject (childhood sexual abuse) in a completely artistic way. And by "artistic," I'm not talking Baz Luhrmann or Michel Gondry artistic--though they are ab-fab. I'm talking music of Deep South--Al Kapone, Muddy Waters, Bobby Rush artistic. This movie writhes with heat.
And for all you hiphop heads, David BANNER makes a cameo...in a slightly inelegant way.
Overall rating : 3.5/5
plot : Get behind me, hussy girl.
thought : Charmed by the snake, eh ?
I didn't really get this movie. Still don't really get it. The premise is a weird one. Really don't know where Craig BREWER, the writer and director, got it. But the music is blues hotter than you've ever heard, and it's got Justin Timberlake. So yeah, I saw it.
The premise of the movie, without giving too much away, is this : a man with some inner demons named Lazaurs (Samuel L. Jackson, looking old, rough and tough) finds Rae (Christian RICCI), a beat-up, almost naked skinny girl, passed out on the road by his house...and hijinks ensue. The high points of the film include every scene with music (it's not a musical, but there is some song, and Jackson does all his own singing) and most all the scenes that Jackson and Ricci share.
Justin, who plays Rae's boyfriend Ronnie, shows some great emotions, but alas, he is no where near his top level performance in ALPHA DOG. Christina RICCI on the other hand...is something else. When I think of her, I think, "She's All That...Adam's Family...big forehead." And hey, I'll still think those things, but now I'm starting to think she wants us to think something else. Her role was a weird one, but she owned it.
BLACK SNAKE MOAN, produced by John SINGLETON (same guy behind HUSTLE & FLOW as well as POETIC JUSTIC and a lot of other racially charged films), is a startling film dealing with a social subject (childhood sexual abuse) in a completely artistic way. And by "artistic," I'm not talking Baz Luhrmann or Michel Gondry artistic--though they are ab-fab. I'm talking music of Deep South--Al Kapone, Muddy Waters, Bobby Rush artistic. This movie writhes with heat.
And for all you hiphop heads, David BANNER makes a cameo...in a slightly inelegant way.
Overall rating : 3.5/5
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