Category: Cinema

{sidebar id=23} Director Mark Steven Johnson was not very popular character for
comic fans after his weak adaptations of previous comics Elektra and
Daredevil. It seems that he does not want to “disappoint” anyone with this
reputation completing with this Ghost Rider a trilogy of films to forget.
Not even a couple of Hollywood super stars as
Nicholas Cage as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider and Peter Fonda as the devil
himself are able to disguise the lack of quality all over the film.

The storyline is very weak, the film is as predictable as it can get, so
it turns to be horribly boring. The decoration look cheap and the special
effects look totally artificial. Dialogues make you laugh, but not exactly due
to their inventive and nobody believes even that Cage has that hyper-muscled
body for real. Peter Fonda looks plausible but the gang of demons that wander
with Blackheart would not scare a 5 year old child. I think that Wes Bentley
was looking even scarier when filming a plastic bag in American Beauty
than here…

Added to all this Eva Mendes’s and Brett Cullen’s lines
can make you feel like going to prepare some popcorns in the middle of the
action.

The question is: Was this adaptation needed? In recent years we have
assisted to the chained release of many movies whose inspiration is taken
directly from such a rich source as comics is. There have been products for all
kind of tastes, and not all the adaptations are bad (look at the excellent Spiderman
3 released not a long time ago). But maybe it is about time in Hollywood industry to think twice before wasting budget
in another bad film that will pass to story with no glory. Next time that
Steven Johnson’s name will be announced for a new adaptation, I am afraid that
more than one comic fans body will shake in pain. It is known that Cage
collaborated actively in the writing process of the film. From here, we can
just advice Nicholas to keep just in acting roles.

{sidebar id=21} The king of the
comedy is back, and stronger than ever! 2006 was an important year for Eddie
Murphy with two new films released: Dreamgirls and the one in
spotlight here: Norbit.  

After making us laugh with his voice as the Donkey
of Shrek, the help of new technologies plays an important role again, (same
than happened in latest products as The Nutty Professor 1 and 2), to
transform Murphy into three totally opposite characters: The young, sweet, naïve
and sometimes slow minded Norbit, his ugly fat wife Rasputia and the Asian
owner of the orphanage where Norbit was raised, Mr Wong. A multi-role formula
that has worked pretty well for Murphy all over the years.  It comes to my mind in his extended filmography
the exhilarating title Coming to America where he played already four
different roles! Those were “Chocolate sexy” times!

And what can you expect from Norbit?
Well, the story is well known: A poor guy married to the wrong woman, and whose
old love from child times appears again to bring fresh air to his life. But in
this case, the cocktail has tones of…weight personified in Rasputia, Norbit’s
dominant and monstrous wife, who heads the clan of brothers that rule the city
with the muscle: the Latimores.

Murphy’s biggest virtue is that he knows how
to make fun of everything, starting from his own black race and continuing with
all kind of stereotypes. The movie does not bring anything new to the comedy
genre, but I must recognize that there were some exhilarating moments where I
could not stop laughing. As co-starts, a couple of big names in Hollywood: Cuba
Gooding Jr. and Thandie Newton, but the ones who really take the
glory after Murphy are Norbit´s curious pimps friends Eddie Griffin and Katt
Williams. Norbit is recommended for watching with the family or with
the girlfriend in a rainy evening.

{sidebar id=22} We saw snipers in
films like the new version of The Jackal (1997, and by the way, for
those lovers of the detail, the action of the movie was starting in Helsinki) or most
recently with Jarhead, a shout of alert against the paranoid mood that
accompanies the American soldiers while staying in Iraq.

I must
recognize that until now, Antoine Fuqua was a director that had never been
able to convince me. I always consider him too lucky to handle enormous budgets
for creating mediocre products. He is the man behind movies like Replacement
Killers or Training Day, and although he always achieves some
exciting action sequences, their films have always lacked some “punch” to turn
them into real classics. But well, it seems that he has finally
achieved it with The Shooter, his most solid film so far.

The storyline
is good with excellent twists; the action is astonishing, the actors are credible
all the time and you feel hooked to the plot from the beginning to the end.
Probably the success is in great part due to the excellent cast: big names and
great recognized actors like Danny Glover, Elias Koteas and Rade Serbedzija
together with promising new blood like Rhona Mitra and Michael Peña.
The main role as the “difficult-to-kill” sniper goes for Mark Wahlberg,
who shows film after film great skills and good taste when choosing new works, not
only like a tough guy but also touching other genres like comedy (check the
excellent I love Huckabees). Does anybody still remember him in his young
years as the political non-correct white raper singer Marky Mark? The
times are changing…

I hope that Fuqua
can make honour to his status in Hollywood
in the future with more interesting works like this The Shooter. One of
the best action movies of the year.

{sidebar id=19}
Reality and
fantasy world get mixed in the last work of director Guillermo del Toro: Pan´s
Labyrinth, being the second of his films framed on times of post civil
war in Spain,
after his terror tale in an isolated orphanage in The Devil's Backbone
(2001).  

The film is
visually astonishing, with detailed and marvellous scenarios that catch totally
the attention of the spectator in the fantasy sequences, all seen through the
eyes of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) who turns to be one of the youngest
revelations of Spanish cinema. But the narration has undoubtedly its best
moments when the very real characters step into screen. The cast of Spanish
well known actors is simply magnificent, with an excellent Álex Angulo
as the rebel rural doctor and one none less excellent and more mature Maribel
Verdú, far from the usual erotic roles of years ago. All of them turning
around Ofelia's stepfather, Captain Vidal interpreted by Sergi Lopez in
a superb role  as a violent fascist who
has to face the guerrilla hidden in the mountains of north Spain 4 years after
the end of the Civil War. Lopez is almost better known in France than in Spain and after
this praising work, it is about time that his skills get more recognized
internationally.

The film is
a beautiful cry in favour of the liberty and the hope in own believes until the
end, surrounded by a fairytale atmosphere. But do not get mistaken, this is not
a film to offer to your children while eating popcorns in front of the TV set.
Violence is often and brutally present all over the film, and the final is not exactly
what you would call “happy made in Hollywood”.
All in all, Del Toro has achieved a very difficult task: fidelity with history in
a film where historical happenings are wrapped into a fabulous atmosphere,
achieving a product that can satisfy equally to fans of American and European
cinema. Brilliant!

{sidebar id=15}The first
feature film of Scottish director Kevin MacDonald focuses on the figure of Idi
Amin, army officer and president of Uganda between 1971 and 1979. But rather
than being a biopic of the atrocities and actions of the dictator, the film shows
the relationship between Amin, played by Forest Whitaker, and the fictional
character of his personal physician, Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy). It is this
relationship what creates a consistent story and takes a glimpse at Amin’s
brutal regime.

The viewer
discovers the character of Idi Amin through Dr Garrigan’s eyes, whose vision of
his friend and leader drifts from sympathy to fear. And so the mood of the film
varies. Considering the subject matter, there is much comedy. The funny first
part of the movie precedes the uncomfortable course of events.

Much has
been talked about Whitaker’s performance, including an Academy Award. But
indeed, his performance is impressive. He steals the show, even though the
screenplay seems to appoint the physician as the main role in the film.
Whitaker recreates the complex psychology of Idi Amin and presents the leader’s
paranoia and egomania.

The Last
King of Scotland lives up to the hype with a solid narrative and its focus on
people and its relations, putting aside easy clichés.

{mosimage}Based on Zoe Heller's book, one of
the most exciting female acting duels that you could imagine has arrived on DVD:
Barbara vs. Sheba,
or what is the same, Judi Dench vs. Cate Blanchett, both winners
of the Academy Award in previous years. Notes on a Scandal, directed by Richard Eyre,
introduce us into a normal English school scenario where two different
professors will become close friends, linked in their destinies in a fatal way:
The old and grumpy Barbara trying to guide the young and beauty Sheba.

{sidebar id=9}Cate Blanchett really looks astonishing in
the film (not a surprise for many since more than one fell in love with her
ambiguous Galadriel during Lord of the Rings, even rejecting Arwen’s
charms). The friendship relation will became vicious when Barbara discovers
that Sheba, who is married and with a daughter of 16 and a son with Down’s syndrome,
is having sex relations with a 15 years old pupil from her school. But more
than judging the morality of the actions by the professor, the plotline is
aimed at showing how dangerous can be to share secrets with the wrong friends. Both
actresses are superb in their roles, but I was expecting a bit more of “punch”
for the last third of the film.

The role of the young boy is pretty much
obliterated in many parts of the movie, and the shared scenes between Dench and
Blanchett turn to be a bit boring at the end. The best moments usually happen
when there is a third guest between the two main characters, as when Barbara is
sharing dinner with the family (mention apart for the great job of the betrayed
husband Bill Nighy), or in the erotic scenes with Blanchett and the
young Andrew Simpson (who made his debut here while having to assist to
his own normal lessons at school).

There was quite a polemic when the film was
about to be released about the sex scenes in the British media, but from my
point of view, that part has been treated with extreme delicacy. In any case,
if you want to find the “leitmotiv” that leads to the female characters in the
film, think more about loneliness and boredom than about lust.

{mosimage}
Run for your
lives, Mr. Bean is back! After the first film released in 1997, and having had uneven
fortune with his appearances in Johnny English (2003) and Keeping Mum
(2005), Rowan Atkinson is back with the character that has driven him into
fame during the last 2 decades with the second (and rumours say that maybe last
one) long feature film that narrates the adventures of Mr. Bean in his way to
holidays in the south of France.

{sidebar id=6}
But of
course Mr. Bean, a man with the soul of a child, has the ability to turn every situation
into a small disaster. With his “French” language skills reduce to a simply
“gracias”, he will live once more the more amazing adventures in company of
Stepan (Max Baldry) a child that is accidentally separated by Bean from the
company of his father while heading to the Cannes festival.

Rowan Atkinson's
mastery for provoking laugh is undeniable, and he shows a total dominium of his
body, pushing the expressions of his face to paroxysm. The storyline is well
worked and looks plausible, but Bean’s reactions do not look as fresh as in his
beginnings. Fortunately, he is superbly supported by Willem Dafoe in the
role of an egocentric American director assisting to Cannes to release his last “masterpiece”, and
Emma de Caunes as a sweet young actress who will help Mr. Bean to get
rid of the problems he gets immersed into.

Maybe, to
“kill” Bean after this second movie is a wise decision from Atkinson, who
should try to reinvent himself in new roles, and although the film do not
suppose a breakthrough in the comedy genre, there are a couple of interesting
new features as the use of a video camera by Bean all along the film, as well
as good moments like the impressively beautiful 
last sequence when he walks to the beach stepping on trucks to reach the
other side of the road. Not being anything extraordinary, the film makes you
have a good time during the approximately hour and half when Bean almost
literally turns half France
into chaos.

{mosimage}A poor elephant
escaped from a circus and finds itself lost in an alienated landscape in the
middle of nowhere in the mountains of Norway. This could be a perfect
introductory line for a new animation movie of Disney or Pixar… or not? Imagine
that you start to add to the plot features such as that the elephant is a
junkie, has kilograms of cocaine inside his huge ass, and is followed without
compassion by mobsters and even the Lappish mafia on two wheels!

{sidebar id=5}The name of this
eccentric product is Free Jimmy, and was born from the mind of the
Norwegian director Christopher Nielsen, who brings the spirit of his
tacky underground comics to the big screen. With Free Jimmy we are watching to probably, the most non-political correct animation movie of the
history. The characters have no problem at all along the action to use swear
words, have sex or consume drugs. So I suppose that at this stage, there is no
need to warn that this is not the classic animation movie to watch with your
little children, but more like gathering with some friends, drink some beers
and smoke some…cigarettes, enjoying the adventures of the gangs of freaks that
will wander the screen.

 Technically, the animation is excellent, and the irony
and winks to the spectators (the appearance of the Lappish bikers must be especially
appealing to the Finnish audience particularly, and to the Scandinavian ones in
general) reveal the hard work to create a good script. In any case, there is
also time for the sentimental side, especially in the parts where our poor
Jimmy finds the help of the friendly moose during the runaway.

The cast was
joined by Hollywood super star Woody Harrelson
(that is not going through his career’s peak lately) as the voice of Roy Arnie,
the “animal lover” whose dream is to own a circus some day in the future.

This is the first
animation movie totally created in Norway, and shows one more that the
European animation market is not only going through healthy, but also
innovative times. As negative aspects, I have to pinpoint that is not very
long, 86 minutes, and that I could not avoid to have a feeling of pity for poor
Jimmy all over the film. Nielsen has created the closest equivalent to Trainspotting
in the animation scene nowadays, and it is a crazy journey, as addictive as all
the dope that huge Jimmy carries, so do not better miss it!

{mosimage}Diane Arbus, (born Diane Nemerov), was a photographer married with Allan
Arbus (and later divorced), that became famous for her personal style of
portraying “freaks”, those people living apart from the normal American
post-second world war society.

Fur: An imaginary portrait of Diane Arbus is
based on the book by Patricia Bosworth, and shows us once more how good
actress Nicole Kidman can be. A character totally made for the Australian red
haired talent, who masters like nobody else in Hollywood the art of releasing sensuality
behind a faked shyness. Together with her, the “recovered” Robert Downey Jr who
is living a second golden era with his appearance in this or other recent
titles like Zodiac.

The action is
centered in a particular stage of Diane’s life, when she starts to open her
eyes to the world and open her body to the forbidden side of sensuality that
always attracted her. Still married, she is giving the first steps into freedom
and emancipation. So for those who are expecting a detailed biography of the
photographer, better look for other sources. The film is centered basically in
the relation between the ambiguous two main roles, Diane and Mr. Sweeney, but Ty
Burrell, in the role of Diane’s husband, is a perfect third wheel for
conducting the action.

The collection of
freaks show their human side in a film subtly intended to break the borders of
discrimination and alienation in the world. Many will not understand the movie
and will get bored, but for others, me included, director Steven ShainbergSecretary) achieves a different and
entertaining film.
(who already shocked many conservative minds with his previous little essay
about love and sadomasochism)