The Woman In Black

broderic on February 7, 2012

The problem with the ghosts in The Woman In Black is that they are real. There is nothing left to the imagination. It was a real ghost with a real curse looking to avenge the death of her son by causing misfortune on the villagers and their children. It’s not all in the protagonist’s head, a mature Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe. It’s really there.

The atmosphere was decently creepy. The Eel Marsh House had the great hallmarks of a haunted house: secluded and out of the way, overgrown vegetation, dark hallways and even darker rooms, bad glass in the window panes. Yup. It’s a delightfully scary house. Would’ve been nice if the story could’ve lived up to the spookiness.

The story follows Radcliffe who come from London to close out the affairs of the last, late owner of the Eel Marsh House. The surrounding village doesn’t want him there because once Eel Marsh House is messed with children die horrible deaths. And it happens. Death comes for the kids and it’s the woman in black. Spooky. Radcliffe has to confront this ghost or else personal harm will come.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that I can stay in a house which plainly shows the ghost roaming the halls. Or with a rocking chair rocking on its own. Too creepy. I wish this movie had made me scared to sleep at night but it didn’t.

3 of 5 stars

The Iron Lady

broderic on January 23, 2012

The Iron Lady isn’t a sequel to Iron Man. I think I would’ve liked it better if it did feature Margaret Thatcher in an iron suit taking on the Argentinians in the Falkland War. That sounds more entertaining than what this movie ended up being.

Meryl Streep channels Maggie Thatcher. Except at times I was waiting for her to break character and channel Julia Child. It could’ve been a very good movie if I couldn’t tell which character she was playing. The young actress, Alexandra Roach, had the thankless task of playing the young Maggie Thatcher. People will talk about Streep. They should talk a little more about Roach. She won’t get any mention, but Streep will get a nomination. No idea why.

The problem with this film is that it didn’t give an idea of why Thatcher became who she was. Her dad was conservative. Did she get it from her dad? Why? Which part? No idea why she decided things. She just became Maggie Thatcher. The film also doesn’t touch on why she was the leader for that time. What did she do to make England better? The Falkland War? No idea. The film misses out on why she lost the backing of her party. Was she driven? Did she drive too hard? No idea.

At some point, we should understand who Margaret Thatcher was. It was Meryl Streep and that is all I got from the movie.

2 of 5 stars.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

broderic on January 19, 2012

I’ve never been so on edge during a movie that had barely any action than I was during Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’s a straight up action flick with no action, and yet surprisingly it will have you on the edge of your seat. It reminds me of the 1970s action with no action flicks which is fitting considering its setting, London in the early 70s.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy starts very opaque, fragmented, and hard to follow. The facts as they were: there’s a mole in the British spy agency and it’s up to Gary Oldman to find him. Oldman was retired from the agency because of his mentor’s screw up in his first attempt to find the mole. As his investigation proceeds, it all starts to make sense and the mole gets flushed out. If you don’t see it, you already know who it is.

I liked this movie. So far it’s been nothing but good films this year. Of course this is only the second one.

4 of 5 stars

EDIT: Misspelling! Damn Lion autocorrect!

The Artist

broderic on January 5, 2012

The Artist has already picked up several Golden Globe nominations and will probably pick up more for the Oscars. You wouldn’t think a silent, black and white movie, in 4:3 aspect would garner this much accolades. You would be wrong. Just watch and try to hate it. You can’t. The packed house at The Charles the afternoon I saw it applauded in the end. It captivates. You won’t have another experience like it in the theatres for ages.

So why did I not warm up to it during the early parts of it? Was it the conceit was very twee? Was it that it felt too cute by half? Was it that I was analyzing it too much for its cinematic references? For its technical feats? For its historic accuracy? For its reasoning for being? For why I wasn’t smitten with it? No idea why I reacted funnily in its early going, but when they referenced Citizen Kane, I perked up and began to enjoy the movie. Then I was wholly charmed once I recognized Bernard Hermann’s score for Vertigo that underscored the rush to love at the end. The music put a big, big smile on my face, and it may have pushed the movie to being the best I’ve seen this year (as short as it has been).

The Artist is about George Valentin, a suave actor in swashbuckling silent films. It is 1927 and talkies are on their way, but Valentin doesn’t want to star in talkies. The audience came to see him rather than hear him. In promoting his latest film, he bumps into Peppy Miller. She gets captured in photos by the paparazzi. She enjoys it so much she auditions for a minor role in a movie. Her career is in bloom. She’s on the way to becoming a star of the early talkies. He’s on his way to becoming a forgotten, forlorn actor. His career fades and brings him to dispair. Only Peppy stands in his way of faded glory.

I’m a big fan of classic cinema, and The Artist was all about the old movies. I saw in the film many other classic movies. There was Singing in the Rain and Citizen Kane. There was L’Illusionniste (I know it’s recent, but I had the same French feeling) and Vertigo. The dog was straight out of the Thin Man series. It doesn’t necessarily harken back to silent movie’s like Hugo did, but it recalls classic early cinema.

Being a silent film, the actors had to mug it. Whereas Jean Dujardin plays the main character as a ham, Bérénice Bejo is sweet and sincere as the woman who falls for The Artist. I can’t express how smitten I was with her. She’s absolutely enchanting to look at in this film. She enhances the watching experience.

I think I can watch this film again.

4 of 5 stars.

Seven Swans A-swimming

broderic on December 31, 2011

New Year’s Eve. It’s a new movie opening this weekend. I don’t think I want to subject you, my readers, to something that painful so I’m gonna fall back to one of my favorite Coen movies, The Hudsucker Proxy.

Norville Barnes, a hick from Muncie, Indiana, peers perilously over the ledge as the clock strikes twelve on New Year’s Eve. He wants to take his life because he was a failure at being the CEO of the Hudsucker Corporation, but he was just a stooge put in place by the board to drive the stock down. At the disastrously lowered price, the board members wanted purchase the stock on the cheap. Needless to say, Norville’s idiocy guides the Hudsucker Corporation to new heights especially with the introduction of the hula-hoop, Norville’s invention.

Amy Archer is a Pulitzer winning journalist who spies something funny about Norville Barnes as CEO, and she decides to investigate him. She poses as a fellow Muncian and becomes Norville’s secretary. She finds out how much of an idiot he is, but also that there is some genius to his idiocy. She falls in love, yet, she exposes his idiocy and causes his downfall. “How could you a fellow Muncian?” Queue the climb to the ledge.

The Christmas theme today is the circular notion of “what comes around goes around.” Christmas comes just once a year. It’s gone, but it will be back again next year. Live for that and it will come around again. Give and you shall receive. Or as they said in the movie karma.

The big O! “You know, for kids!”

So as you celebrate New Year’s Eve remember, you do get a second chance. It’ll come around again in a year’s time.

Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

broderic on December 30, 2011

I did like Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol, but I thought it lacked emotion. It was a very rote, by the numbers Misson, but no heft in outlying why we should care about IMF. They were gonna be disavowed, but “meh,” why should I care. The previous installments in this film series forced Ethan Hunt to the brink emotionally. Whether through revenge and betrayal or love and passion, Ethan always was running fueled by his emotions for getting the job done. In this movie, it lacked the personal, emotional investment for Ethan to keep running.

That is not to say the plot was a mess, but the standard rogue agent with a nuclear bomb makes me think Lex Luthor, and Lex Luthor was a comic book villain. This could’ve been a plot for any other task force team — someone look up what John McClane is up to.

I think Paula Patton is beautiful. I think Brad Bird did a fine job on his first live action film. I hope Brad Bird doesn’t just do live action films anymore. I think Tom Cruise runs funny. Simon Pegg is overexposed. Anil Kapoor should be in more Hollywood productions bringing some Bollywood over. I thought when the twist came that Josh Hallowell would be under that mask. I wonder what the IMAX hype was all about.

3 of 5 stars.

Two Turtle Doves

broderic on December 26, 2011

If it wasn’t for Fox Movie Channel, I would be writing this entry cold. As it were, FMC is trying to compete with TBS in a “movie marathon on Christmas Day.” Whereas TBS showcases the beloved, A Christmas Story, FMC comes at you with a more recent entry into the Holiday movie canon, Home Alone.

Yup. That’s today’s treat. Home Alone. The movie that gave us Macaulay Culkin. The movie that reminded us that John Hughes was still alive. The movie that gave us Chris Columbus.

Okay. Since it was a while that I had seen Home Alone, let’s recap. Kevin McCallister gets into a spat with his family on the eve of their holiday trip to France. His mother sends him to his bed, but not before he wishes that he had no family. In the morning in a rush, the rest of the family runs to the airport for their trip leaving Kevin behind. He wakes up finds himself home alone, rejoices, and proceeds to do the things he always wanted to do. Eventually, the Water Bandits come a calling, and Kevin must defend his home from these thieves. Meanwhile, his mom realizing the error is trying to make her way back. Hitching a ride with Gus Polinksi she makes it home in time to find that Kevin has reformed his ways and misses his family.

Today’s Christmas them: home. The place you live. The place where your family is. A place where you gather together and celebrate Christmas. But it doesn’t have to be the old family home. Home could be the place where your friends or with your buddies. Home is where you find yourself surrounded with love. It’s here. It’s there. It’s down the street. It’s physical. It’s metal. It’s the atmosphere of the place. Home is where you are.

I like that FMC has decided that Home Alone is the holiday movie that it wants to make a holiday classic. I doubt that they could make it as such, but they’ll keep trying. I will keep up with it because damn if it ain’t stupid when Jennifer Connelly miscounts children, or when Catherine O’Hara tries to haggle for an airplane seat, or when John Candy (!) shows up as the Polka King of the Midwest. It’s a stupid movie, but there are just as many stupid other holiday films.