2009 Film List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking) - Page 3

Re: 2009 Film List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking)

Brothers Bloom is haphazard and flawed but very entertaining and quite satisfying in its own way. 7 of 10

Re: 2009 Film List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking)

I would love to supplement Adam's notes on The Brothers Bloom, but the showing I attended was plagued by technical difficulties, such that I obtained a full refund. What I saw I liked. Either I'll try again or wait for DVD (Blu-ray, if I'm lucky).

Valentino, the Last Emperor is a kind of retrospective biography of the fashion icon from the perspective of his 2007 anniversary show in Rome. The documentary team seems to have enjoyed complete access, because the footage is very revealing of Valentino at work and at the center of the private kingdom that has been constructed around him. Even if you have zero interest in fashion (like me), this is a compelling portrait of a remarkable character: fascinating, funny and stranger than anything a screenwriter could invent.

Re: 2009 Film List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking)

Updated with TERMINATOR SALVATION. Never thought I'd see the day where three horror remakes (Last House, F13, Valentine) featured more imagination than a Terminator movie. A big disappointment but hopefully the next one will be better.

I'm going to try and catch TYSON this weekend as well as DRAG ME TO HELL.

Re: 2009 Film List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking)

Night at the Museum 2 is adequate as a sequel, a bit better than the original, aided greatly by Amy Adams' outstanding Amelia Earhart, which is easily the best thing in either movie by a country mile. It's still horribly flawed by a bloody inconsistent magic system whose internal contradictions are lazy and never explained. Yes it's a macguffin, but to have one be successful, you have to provide a reasonable explanation, otherwise the audience will care, and they'll be annoyed--or at least I will be.

Easy Virtue is wonderful, charming and a delight all around Colin Firth is brilliant, Jessica Biel eventually measures up to the brits (a tough role to play where you have to be intimidated by the other cast members in the beginning and then gradually shed that attitude as the film progresses, it makes her look like she's just not in their league in the early scenes, but the role calls for just that perception of her to be communicated). Kristen Scott Thomas is delightfully bitchy and vicious, and there's an extended scene with a small yippy dog whose humor is so perfectly timed and honed it would feel at home in a Chaplin movie. The dialog is refreshingly full of wit, intelligent yet accessible, which means the film is often laugh out loud funny simply by the cleverness of the lines and the superb delivery and context, very nice to discover that's still possible in a modern film. though perhaps only possible if Noel Coward is your source. The soundtrack is also fantastic, I knew most all of the songs already, but my friend commented at how suprisingly modern all the songs were, not bad for 70+ year old tunes.

Re: 2009 Film List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking)

the Hurt Locker is easily the best of the Iraq war movies, a superb tension-thriller that focuses on a fascinating and intense pair of character portraits of bomb squad members James and Sanborn.

Jeremy Renner is excellent as Staff Sargeant James, the leader of a bomb disposal unit in Iraq in 2004 (a time when there were few such units around, although the film makes the anachronistic mistake of referencing youtube, which iirc was invented 2005 and became popular in 2006). Anthony Mackie is completely brilliant and astonishing as Sergeant Sanborn, and in some ways I was more impressed with his performance as a perfect foil to Renner. Renner displays a ton of range and manages to a remarkable performance. There are undercurrent metaphors about leadership, fear, death, recklessness, courage, sacrifice, and more packed into the film and the fact that it is able to mine and utilize those deep elements of male comraderie is remarkable. In my opinion it's the ability to tap into those sorts of metaphors underlying the stress of combat that all the great war movies have in common, and Hurt Locker can join their ranks.

Additionally the film has the best sound design in a film since Dark Knight or Transformers, it begs to be heard in a terrific theatre, incredibly impressive, and sure to garner at least one oscar nomination for mixing, if not two picking up the editing nom as well. (I also think Mackie could very well get himself a supporting nod here, but that Renner's perf will unfortunately be overlooked. it shouldn't be, it's the first legitimate oscar performance of the year (both of them are). simply outstanding.

I have only one caveat about the film, and that is I was about the eighth or ninth row of the theatre and about twenty minutes in I started getting badly nauseaus. This happened once before, when I was unfortunate enough to sit in the fourth row while watching Rachel Getting Married. So I think I just can't handle the shaky cam effect when it encompasses the entirety of my field of vision. As soon as a lull hit, I snuck to the rear corner of the theatre to watch the rest of the film. It's unfortunate, but I was the only one who seemed to have a bad experience with that, guess I'm just sensitive to it, or just watch movies on screens that are too big from too close. :-p

9 of 10

Re: 2009 Film List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking)

Most recent viewing:

Moon: The first film I've seen in a while that felt like genuine science fiction, anchored by a terrific performance (or should that be "performances"?) from Sam Rockwell. I'm not sure how wide a release this will get; so this may not get a big audience until DVD/Blu-ray.

The Taking of Pelham 123: Solid performances all around, but in the end I was underwhelmed. I think it was Helgeland's script. It felt workmanlike but uninspired.

Re: 2009 Film List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking)

The Proposal: Harmless silliness; the right Saturday film after a tough week.

Whatever Works: Even though the script was originally written for someone else, it's perfect for Larry David, who brings a genuine mean streak to the film that makes the familiar Woody Allen character a lot more obnoxious -- and also more interesting. Evan Rachel Wood plays dumb so effectively that she's almost unrecognizable (and she sounds like Anna Paquin in True Blood). Patricia Clarkson almost steals the movie until the bar scene between Ed Begley and Christopher Evan Welch (the narrator of Vicki Christina Barcelona), when they steal the movie.

Re: 2009 Film List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking)

Cheri: The reunion of star Michelle Pfeiffer, director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Christopher Hampton didn't produce a classic like Dangerous Liaisons, but it did produce an interesting film if you watch it with the right attitude. (It was alternately amusing and embarrassing listening to the two Bens on At the Movies miss the entire point of the film.) It's the story of an aging but still beautiful French courtesan who falls into a relationship with the much younger son (nicknamed "Cheri") of a "colleague" played by Kathy Bates. Based on a novel by Collette, it's about what happens when two people whose lives have supposedly deprived them of all possibility of falling in love suddenly do so -- and then don't know what to do about it. Sumptuously produced, often grotesque, sometimes funny, ultimately tragic.

The Hurt Locker: It's great to have Kathryn Bigelow back in the director's chair after so many years' absence. This film following the activities of a bomb disposal unit in Iraq deserves all the praise it's getting and then some. It displays all of Bigelow's characteristic strengths: taut action sequences, crisp editing, a frame that seems to vibrate with tension even when the shot is still. "War is a drug", the film proclaims in a text display at the beginning, and then it proceeds to show us 2+ hours of mainlining.

Re: 2009 Film List (Reviews, Discussion & Tracking)

catching up:

Up is perfection and the year's best film, and in my opinion, Pixar's finest and most sophisticated film to date. 10 of 10

Seraphine is a very solid French film with a tremendous central performance. The film is consistently compelling and interesting but it never really soars, definitely worth watching though, this is a story and artist worth knowing about. 7 of 10

Angels and Demons made me want to visit Rome moreso than I already did. I must admit it was utterly fascinating and far more interesting and compelling than the Da Vinci Code. Then again, I'd had the misfortune of reading the wretched Da Vinci Code so watching the movie was just an extension of the page-turning-tedium of reading the book. Ron Howard does work in this film that I feel is deeply unappreciated, of all the summer action films this one is easily the finest directing. The screenwriting, characters and plot are all cardboardish, but the direction elevates the material into a compelling and very enjoyable film experience. Tom Hanks also contributes a great deal, his presence and performance I feel was a more interesting factor in the film this time, though he's still not so much integral to the plot as he is a writer's homonculus capable of knowing the depth and breadth of minutia necessary to advance the plot. 6 of 10

Food Inc is really a film I shouldn't be reviewing as such a film is basically preaching to the choir with me and I had a disastrous turn a few years back when I took a traverse through health fanatic wacko land. However when I eventually returned to reason I had a few principles I kept. Sugar, flour and Corn products are pretty bad for you, most of the organic stuff is just as industrial as conventional, and you can always find a new degree of 'omg healthy' that is more and more narrow (and expensive) with greater and greater health claims. And the final conclusion I made was that I can't escape corn on my salary anyway because it'll be part of all my meat, poultry, eggs, fish, milk, cheese and any and every prepared food, so perhaps it was all a losing battle anyway. What's remarkable about Food Inc is that it possesses the same sort of conclusions I came to, this is not a hardcore anti industry film, it shows clearly the complexity of the issues, presents alternatives (Salatin's famed farm, for example) as well as the breadth of contemporary food production. More than anything this is a film about how our food is produced, rather it is CAFO beef, mass-chicken, or corn on top of corn and it is very entertaining about showing where our food comes from and what goes into the production of it. Remarkably they got aerials of the CAFOs and undercover footage of processing plants, so much of this film is material that has often been suppressed since due to many states food-libel laws we're not allowed to know about our food's path to us or say anything against us (witness the woman in the film who refuses to say what changes her family has undergone since losing a daughter to industrial food ecoli because she's afraid of lawsuits. and it's a well founded fear that the pants could be sued off her for simply stating specifically how they've changed what they eat. In any event the film is fantastic, very entertaining and I imagine for many people extremely informative, one of the very best documentary's I've seen (crossing my fingers for the oscar). 10 of 10

Whatever Works is another success for Woody Allen, the film is very funny, funnier even than some of his early funny ones. Evan Rachel Wood is a revelation here, delivering her best performance since Thirteen. And she is also gorgeous. Larry David has been called a thinly veiled Woody Allen, and I think that is entirely the wrong tact to take. To me it was clear from the beginning that this character was Groucho Marx, not Woody Allen. The similarities to Woody's own life not-withstanding, I feel that there is a greater sense of anarchy to David's worldview than an Allen characters usually possess. In any event the film is consistently witty, entertaining and charming and the entire audience laughed their asses off. 8 of 10

The Hangover is not at all what I expected. It's more of a comic detective story than it is a frat boys gross out humor. It has more in common with a Coen Bros' comedy than anything else. The script is every bit as tight and well thought out as Big Lebowski or O Brother Where art Thou? and the writers obviously paid immense attention to making every scene matter, both in the initial run through and in planting an element that will payoff later in the film. That's the fundamental genius behind the coen's comedies, that their scripts are so insanely complex yet utterly clear and precise. There have been few other filmmakers who have managed to update the tradition of Wilder or Hawksian screwball comedy into the modern era, but in many ways, The Hangover is the finest Hawks-esque screwball comedy of the modern era, and that was completely unexpected. To be fair, I guessed where the missing groom was from the moment they visited the location (before he goes missing) which if anything enhanced my pleasure in the film. :-p 8 of 10

Transformers 2 is a deeply problematic film that fails on far more levels than it succeeds. I do not think the plot was too complex to follow. I do think that having all the characters be confused during the film doesn't help plot comprehension, especially when the audience is even more confused than the characters. The script also fails to match the humor and charm of the first film, often taking a more serious tone that seems at odds with the action and nature of a film about giant robots clobbering each other. Additionally the robots have no chance to develop their personality because they only ever fight. It really makes you realize how important those scenes of the robots goofing off in Sam's yard was in the first film, as ill advised as it all seemed at the time. Why, for example does Optimus Prime only ever fight? Good guys have a grand tradition of outwitting their opponents as often as they outfight them (except of course in Tarentino crap) I'd have much rather seen some cleverness from the robots to vary their impact in the film. But perhaps the biggest problem with the film is that any rules governing the limitations of the robots powers are completely thrown away whenever it is inconvenient for the writers (because they've written themselves into a corner), as new superpowers are introduced we have less and less stake in each new fight because there's no consistency. I did very much appreciate Fallen's Egyptian royal headdress though which was the film's singular subtle touch. Shia LaBeouf's ability to carry this film is truly remarkable and I really hope that the third film gives him a better script to work with as he's shaping up to be a capable actor accompanied by some very strong charismatic star power, and few actors his age have displayed that quality of late. 4 of 10

Holiday weekend viewing:

The Girl from Monaco: A cleverly dark satire that goes right past some viewers, as Ben Lyons so amply demonstrated on At the Movies. It's about the mess that ensues when utterly incompatible notions of seduction and its uses collide with each other. For the aging celebrity lawyer, Betrand (played to perfection by the great Fabrice Luchini), it's an indulgence and a passtime, pursued in the traditional French manner where the mind is the principal  erogenous zone. For the amoral young weather girl, Audrey (Louise Bourgoin in her film debut), it's both good fun and a useful tool for career advancement. For Christophe, the bodyguard hired to protect the lawyer during his current high-profile case in Monaco (a nicely understated Roschdy Zem), it's all about satisfying a natural bodily need before getting back to the job at hand. The film takes you to some unexpected places, and they're not always comfortable. Featuring the legendary Stéphane Audran as Bertrand's stony-faced client.

Public Enemies. Not my favorite Michael Mann movie, but a very good one.

Tetro. Francis Coppola's first wholly original script since The Conversation. It's a gorgeous film with a much more straightforward plot than his previous effort, Youth Without Youth. A young man, Bennie (impressive newcomer Alden Ehrenreich), comes to Buenos Aires, looking for the brother, Angelo (Vincent Gallo), who had abandoned the family years ago in apparent revolt against their father, a brilliant and world-famous conductor (Klaus Maria Brandauer). Angelo is living with Miranda (Maribel Verdú, from Y tu mamá también) and now insists on being called "Tetro". A tortured story of family secrets and rivalry is gradually revealed as Bennie and Tetro alternately confront and run away from each other. Carmen Maura co-stars as an influential critic and, as always, adds a shine to the screen. Shot in luminous black-and-white with occasional color sequences that leap off the screen, and with sophisticated sound editing by Walter Murch. Some viewers will find it trying and arty, and it does risk both of those things. But it's also brilliant.
Edited by Michael Reuben - 7/12/2009 at 11:58 pm GMT

That's how I feel, having Kloves back made an enormous difference and the film feels more like Goblet of Fire (still the best of the lot. :))  I do think some of the problems from the fifth film are still evident in this film (lack of pacing internally within the scene, for example), but their much less hampered because the rest of the film is strong.  Some of it was frustratingly inane though. :-p

Latest:

Bruno: I laughed. I didn't care what was and wasn't staged.

Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg: Truly fascinating documentary about Gertrude Berg, the woman who invented the TV sitcom as writer, producer and star. During her long career in radio and TV, she single-handedly wrote 12,000 (yes, twelve thousand) scripts. She was also the first winner of the Emmy for best female lead in a comedy. Today no one remembers her, because, at the height of her popularity, she refused to fire a blacklisted co-star, and that was enough to get her show canceled. I Love Lucy took over the time slot, and Gertrude Berg, and her TV alter ego, Molly, were history. The blacklisted co-star, Philip Loeb, whose chief offense was successfully helping to organize the Actors Equity union, committed suicide. The character that Zero Mostel plays in The Front is loosely based on him.

Transformers 2: How badly will my credibility suffer for saying that I enjoyed this? It's a comedy. It's a very silly comedy. Even the robot scenes are comedies. (When Tony Todd brings out that ripe theatrical voice as the Fallen, who can be expected to keep a straight face? When Sam gets tossed on the bed by every college freshman's wet dream, who turns out to be a killer robot, I was almost on the floor!) Now, admittedly, I bring a skewed perspective to all of this, because Julie White, who plays Sam's mother, is one of my favorite comic actresses, and she can crack me up with the flick of an eyebrow. And John Turturro was one of the best things about the first film ("The man's an extortionist!"); I practically cheered when he showed up on screen. 

Bay has always understood that movies like this have to be funny. Sometimes he does a better job than others, and I agree with Adam_S that the big robots in 1 were funnier than those in 2. But then you get one that Mikaela puts on a leash, who pretty much behaves like Leo Getz in the Lethal Weapon films. The big robots may be dull, but the little ones are pretty funny.  

Haha! Nice and a little surprised Michael. I wish you'd posted that review in the Transformers 2 thread it would have made all the difference. There's so much negativity in those threads, that people who enjoyed the film were either embarrassed or scared to post something.

A list of 2009 release films I've watched so far.

Ratings out of 5.

Aliens in the Attic 
Angels & Demons 
Antichrist  
Avatar  
Boat That Rocked ,The 
Bronson   
Bruno   
Coraline  
Crank 2  
Crew ,The  
District 9  
Drag Me to Hell 
Dragonball Evolution  
Duplicity  
Extreme Movie
Fast and Furious  
Fighting  
The Final Destination
500 Days of Summer 
Friday the 13th  
G.I. Joe - Rise of Cobra  
Gamer  
Hangover ,The  
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince  
Harry Brown  
Haunting in Connecticut ,The  
He's Just Not That Into You  
Hurt Locker ,The  
Hydra 
I Love You Man  
Ice Age 3 Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Infestation
Inglourious Basterds 
Jennifer's Body  
Knowing   
Land of the Lost  
Last House on the Left  
Law Abiding Citizen 
Lesbian Vampire Killers 
Mega-Shark vs Giant Octopus  
Miss March 
Monsters vs Aliens 
Moon  
My Bloody Valentine 
Night at the Museum 2 
9   
Observe and Report  
Orphan  
Pandorum  
Paranormal Activity 
Paul Blart Mall Cop   
Perfect Getaway ,A  
Pink Panther 2   
The Proposal  
Public Enemies  
Push    
Spirit ,The  
Star Trek   
State of Play  
Street Fighter Legend of Chun-Li  
Surrogates  
The Taking of Pelham 123  
Terminator Salvation   
Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen  
12 Rounds   
2012 
Unborn ,The   
Underworld - Rise of the Lycans  
Up  
War Wolves  
Watchmen   
Wolverine  
Wyvern 
Year One  
Zombieland  
HK - Blood the Last Vampire  
HK - Red Cliff II   
HK - Sniper ,The  
Japan - Tokyo Gore Police  
Anime - Storm Riders   




Edited by Steve Christou - 1/10/10 at 8:34am

By the time I saw the film, most of the posting in those threads had already happened. Besides, no one cares what I think .  

This thread is like a personal journal, and I really enjoy that.
Edited by Michael Reuben - 7/27/2009 at 12:15 pm GMT

I agree with that unfortunately. I didn't like Transformers but given how much money it's making, there's clearly many people that loved it. But if you look at only the internet, you'd think it was the most hated movie ever made and that most likely isn't the case.

I forgot to include The Hurt Locker in my 2009 film list, directed by Kathryn Bigelow the film follows an elite bomb squad in Iraq. The film has a documentary feel thanks to the use of mostly unknown actors. There is plenty of tension as the squad goes about its dangerous business defusing roadside bombs, watched by people who wouldn't care a jot if the bombs blew up in the soldiers faces. Recommended.

TV Host: What's the baby's name?
Brüno: I gave him like a traditional African name: O.J.
African-American Lady: WHAT?

I cringed, I squirmed, I laughed out loud and I cringed again. Bruno's not a film I'd watch again in a hurry but it did have some hilarious moments. My favourite bit was the least offensive - Bruno "the most famous gay Austrian since Arnold Schwarzenegger" wants to be an actor in Hollywood and his agent gets him on the tv series "Medium" as an extra, Bruno somehow ruins take after take and gets kicked off.

Warning offensive language ahead -

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Not sure if I can honestly recommend Bruno. But if you're looking for something truly offensive, here it is, enjoy.

Latest:

Lorna's Silence: I'm still warming to the style of the Dardenne brothers, but their latest film has the advantage of a truly gripping central performance by Arta Dobroshi as the Albanian immigrant, Lorna, who is caught up in an elaborate scheme of false marriages (yes, plural) to establish citizenship. Part of what makes the film interesting is the way you're dropped into scenes and only gradually get the information to make sense of them. The criminal enterprise in which Lorna finds herself trapped is never thoroughly delineated -- my wife and I spent a long time trying to piece it together, and finally gave up -- but that's part of the point. Lorna's just raw material for this machine, and the film sticks to her point of view. We never see more of the machine than she does.

Julie & Julia: Another stunning transformation by Meryl Streep, who not only conveys the sheer exuberance of Julia Child, but also the iron will required to get her through many years of revision and rejection before she became the national institution that, in retrospect, she seems always to have been. Unlike many critics, I enjoyed the contemporary portions of the film with Amy Adams playing the failed novelist trying to reinvent herself as a blogger, but that may be because I think Adams can do no wrong. My biggest complaint: Adams and Chris Messina (as her husband) should have been a lot fatter at the end of the year-long project to cook and eat all of Julia Childs' recipes from her influential French cookbook. But they're professional actors; so, of course, they look like their svelte selves. Nora Ephron's best film in years.

Adam: Could have gone wrong in so many ways and doesn't. The film is anchored by Hugh Dancy's remarkable performance as the title character, a high-functioning young man with Asperger's Syndrome smitten by his new neighbor, Beth, a school teacher and aspiring children's book author played by Rose Byrne. Exceptional supporting work from Frankie Faison (as Adam's older friend) and from Peter Gallagher and Amy Irving (as Beth's parents, who have their own issues). If you think you know where the film is going, you're probably wrong.