September 30th, 2009 admin
Starring: Chad Michael Murray, James Lafferty, Hilarie Burton, Bethany Joy Galeotti, Sophia Bush, Lee Norris, Antwon Tanner, Jackson Brundage, Lisa Goldstein, Austin Nichols, Kate Voegele
Created By: Mark Schwahn
Network: The CW
Original Air Date: 09/01/2008 – 05/18/2009
Love it or hate it, Family Guy displays an uncanny knack of boiling something down to its essence for the sake of a 30 second pop culture gag that have become the show’s staple. So when they condensed bland teen drama One Tree Hill, now in its seventh season as an anchor of the CW Network, into the following exchange: “I’ve got so many problems.” / “Hey, nothing that can’t be fixed by staring at a lake.” You can pretty much fill out the rest yourself. It’s the kind of show that you can break from to spend three months backpacking through Asia, and still manage to get caught up in half an hour upon your return. It’s about decent middle-class Americans in the sleepy town of Tree Hill North Carolina and their daily battle against the worst possible soap opera conventions.
Now the inevitable ticking time bomb with any high school drama is that people eventually do graduate, at which point your comfortable template format (not to mention your cheap, manageable, location shooting) goes out of the window. There are ways around it – the final season of Malcolm In The Middle engineered it so that Reese had to repeat his senior year – but the larger the cast the harder it becomes. Typically after high school the next stop is college (you’re naive if you think graduation will end the High School Musical juggernaut), but really, there is nothing quite so unbearable as “Generic High School Blather: The College Years.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in American Television, Reviews | No Comments »
September 29th, 2009 admin
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September 29th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Melanie Lynskey, Allan Havey, Tom Papa, Eddie Jemison
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Runtime: 108 Minutes
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Rating: R
Steven Soderbergh is not a director you would instinctively associate with comedy, having made his name with a low-key indie and then cemented it with a series of weighty, worthy dramas. Yes, he made the Ocean’s series, but those films were really more fun than they were funny. Similarly Matt Damon is an actor that outside of that series has gravitated towards roles that call for wounded intensity, with the likes of The Good Shepherd and The Bourne franchise. In fact on paper this farcical caricature of corporate whistleblower Mark Whitacre (Damon) is kind of bizarre blend of absurdity and banality you would normally expect to see delivered by the Coen Bros and starring John Tuturro.
This perhaps goes some way towards explaining that while the Informant! has great style and zips along at a fair old pace, propelled by a commanding performance from Damon, it never really hits its comic stride. Based on the tell-all book of the same title from author Kurt Eichenwald (not a comedy – the ! was something scripter Scott Burns added), The Informant! tells the story of the Lysine (a key additive in animal feed) Price Fixing Scandal, and the resulting three year FBI investigation that resulted in what was then a record amount in corporate fines. It was an investigation marred by the fact that their star witness, Whitacre, was in fact embezzling millions of dollars from the company while he was effectively working undercover for the Feds.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Comedy/Romance, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
September 24th, 2009 admin
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September 24th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Matt Bush, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Reynolds
Director: Greg Mottola
Runtime: 107 Minutes
Distributor: Mirimax
Rating: R
Glancing at the premise for this retro, semi-autobiographical yarn from Superbad director Greg Mottola you would be forgiven for assuming that this is the first of many knock-offs taken from the current king of comedy, Judd Apatow, at the hands of his very own mini-me (sort of what happened to Eli Roth after he started banging around with QT). You would be mistaken. For while this does retain some of his mentor’s stoner sensibilities, it breaks free from the vein of crudeness and bromantic shackles that have come to define the Apatow brand, electing instead to keep things sweet and simple, a decision which ultimately serves this movie very well.
Ironically thanks in large parts to the aforementioned Apatow and the catapult that was Superbad, the shadow of Michael Cera looms large over indie starlet, and Mottola stand-in, Jesse Eisenberg; the ganglyness, the knowing deadpan delivery, and the comedic of the awkward pause. Comparisons are inevitable, but to be fair to Eisenberg, he did it first and he does it better.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in Comedy/Romance, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
September 17th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau, Fred Tatasciore
Director: Shane Acker
Runtime: 79 Minutes
Distributor: Focus Features
Rating: PG-13
It is fair to say that if your short film wins you an Oscar, while at the same time turns the heads of both Tim Burton and Nightwatch director Timur Bekmambetov to the point where they want to back you in making it into a feature, then you’re likely harboring a talent that’s pretty special. It’s also fair to say you’re not pushing the bright and bouncy fare the likes of DreamWorks and Pixar. In fact this beautiful dystopic fantasy from former Weta artist Shane Acker, about a band of dolls made sentient during the final days of humanity, could almost serve as a dark funhouse mirror reflection of Toy Story.
A post-apocalyptic flight of fancy bubbling over with ideas and allegories, 9 offers a terrifying vision of the future, but one possessing an overriding message of hope. Somewhere in the not too distant future (or perhaps the past?) humanity’s great machines of war turned on us and we were wiped out. Fearing the worst, one scientist imbued nine stitched up creations with pieces of his on soul. Emerging from the rubble is #9 (Elijah Wood), the last of his creations, possessing a singular curiosity and will to unlock the riddle within and restore the spark of life to our decimated world.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Animation, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
September 16th, 2009 admin
Check out what’s new in theaters with my weekly column at IFC.com.
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September 16th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano, Haley Webb, Mykelti Williamson, Justin Welborn, Krista Allen
Director: David R. Ellis
Runtime: 82 Minutes
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Rating: R
With its cheesy franchise status and conveyor belt sequels that while not entirely terrible are the very definition of diminishing returns, it’s easy to forget what a good film the original Final Destination was. A smart, slick nasty little thriller that married primal fears with elaborate death scenes knitted together by an unbearable slow-burning tension leaving a genuinely nasty taste in your mouth that was hard to rinse. Sadly, by the time we arrive at this forth installment, the idea has devolved into gimmick and we appear to be hurtling along on autopilot at a breakneck pace that never allows you to savor the macabre morsels tossed your way.
We know the formula by now of course; a group of fresh faced, socially diverse, and oh-so killable folk narrowly avoid a spectacularly bloody fate thanks to a bizarre premonition had by one of them. But, having cheated Death’s grand design, they are gradually picked off in ever more fun and inventive ways for our, um, enjoyment. But even knowing exactly what to expect there is still something wholly arbitrary about this latest round of summary executions that come thick and fast – too fast, really – and subsequently fail to generate even the vague hint of a chill.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Feature Films, Reviews, Thriller | No Comments »
September 11th, 2009 admin
Starring: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery
Created By: Matthew Weiner
Network: AMC
Original Air Date: 07/28/2008 – 10/26/2008
Taking full advantage of the void left by the conclusion of The Wire, Matthew Weiner’s riveting picket fence tragedy has quietly and without fuss taken ownership of that show’s thrown and now wears the crown of the best show on television. A sharpened skewer aimed at the dark heart of our nation’s romanticized past, Mad Men follows the exploits of Manhattan advertising Sterling Cooper, and it’s employees as they busily work to promote the American dream while simultaneously coming to terms with it as a fallacy in their own private lives.
While it might sound as dry as a mouthful of prairie dust, Mad Men, just like the real business of advertising, is all about the disconnect between perception and reality. Key to the show is that absolutely everybody is hiding something. Whether it’s mousey copywriter Peggy with an illegitimate child, secretly gay Salvador from the art department, or buxom office queen Joan and her abusive fiancée, life at Sterling Cooper is a careful balance of rotating indiscretions. In an era defined by stifling conformity, rigid gender roles, and the dedication to a single, solitary way of life – The American way – Mad Men casts the viewer adrift in a sea of intrigue. The wall of grey-flannel suited gents indicating happy cogs in busy machines, while at home perfectly feminine women wait, quietly going mad in prisons of domestic dissatisfaction.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in American Television, Reviews | No Comments »
September 10th, 2009 admin
2008
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Saul Rubinek, Kate del Castillo, Aidan Gould, Jude Ciccolella, Bruno Bichir, Horacio Garcia, Rojas
Director: Erick Zonca
Runtime: 144 Minutes
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Rating: R
One of the unwritten rules of the crime genre is that the more pathetic and desperate your perpetrator is, the worse things will invariably work out for them, and as the shambolic, self-centered drunk at the center of French helmer Erick Zonca’s overwrought kidnap caper, Tilda Swinton’s titular protagonist is so low she is practically underground. But having endured her antics for the better part of 150 minutes Zonca decapitates the story with an ending so arbitrary that it robs the viewer of the payoff they have waited so patiently (being the operative word) to see.
A spiteful, alcoholic, user she crashes around the remnants of her life from one blackout drunk fuck to another with any random stranger who will refill her glass. Her only friend at this point is Mitch (an underused Saul Rubinek), who has been bribing her with rent money (which she then spends) to go to AA meetings (that she then sleeps through). Feigning interest outside one such gathering she runs into Elena (Kate del Castillo, a somewhat deluded Mexican woman engaged in a futile battle with her wealthy father-in-law over access to her son, Tom (Aiden Gould), the father of whom is dead.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in Drama, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »