Vampiric Authenticity

In the spirit of Vampire movies I watched a Swedish film titled 'Let The Right One In'. This is not a goober-gag fest like 'Twilight', instead this a dark and twisted love tale between a pair of youngsters. We meet Oskar, a pasty-shy 12 year-old, who is plotting a violent retaliation against the school bullies. One evening on the frozen playground outside his apartment complex Oskar meets Eli, a vampiress who conveniently does not wear a jacket or shoes while enjoying the late night chill. They strike up a friendship while her blood hunter-a man we assume is her father- gets caught murdering someone so she can eat. Eli is now alone except for the friendship she is forging with her adolescent neighbor Oskar. While Eli's exterior models that of a 12 year-old, the soul within is aged and knows her vampiric limitations around Oskar.

I liked the movie. There are very awkward moments with the budding relationship between the young stars as well as the chillingly authentic vampire attacks on various people. If there was a reality show about vampires that was poised with fear and rawness, the tone of this film has captured it. It's as if Eli hates the fact that she has to take a life to survive and the moment Oskar actually sees her feed his appetite for revenge is satisfied...maybe it isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Two crafty pieces of the film, besides the creative storyline, are the sound effects and the background music. I know weird , right? Not really, the sound is brilliant because you feel cold, you feel the discomfort of the temperature because almost every scene is set against a winter wonderland. Footsteps crunch softly and smoothly on the glistening snow and the crunch of the vampire's bite made me cringe and feel the pain of being in the moment.

Another element mastered by few films is the ability to get the audience to notice and appreciate the fact that there is no music accenting a scene. As you watch action, horror, suspense-most movies come to think of it-the music really represents the emotions and personality of its sequences, the personality of the movie. 'Right One' was beautifully edited so that those sounds were amplified by the silence of the soundtrack. Very gripping, very telling.

Not a film for the queasy or those turned off by subtitles. 3 out of 5.

Pure 'Twilight' Poetry

I am incapable of saying it better than this...thank you Bill Gibron (Filmcritic.com):

"Twilight is a preposterously preprogrammed snoozer that preaches to the fan fiction choir already predisposed to this dross. It's a spotty spook show romance bathed in the glow of a thousand tween journal entries and accented by a million microns of misspent adolescent hormones. The legions of "Twilighters" -- devotees who have each of the four novels in Stephanie Meyer's franchise memorized -- will lap up every pulled-from-the-pages moment of this manufactured motion picture. All others will be left scratching their heads and wondering what the big deal is."

2 Hours I NEED Back

I read the first book (Twilight) in Stephanie Meyer's series about a teenage girl (Bella) who relocates to a small Washington town and falls in love with a vampire (Edward). I actually enjoyed the book, some parts needed to be skipped due to my inability to relate to the emotions of a 16 year-old girl, but it was interesting enough to invite me into the second book of a four part series. Having read Twilight also helped ease the reluctance I had of seeing the adaptation to the big screen (trailers released months ago made me uneasy - cheap looking special effects, cheesy one-liners...you get the point).

Off we go last night to a Friday night with some other couples to plunge into the cinema which felt more like a high school hallway after 3rd period. The film had 2 positives 1) Being able to visualize characters from the film, putting some faces with the names and 2) Bella: Kristen Stewart is either a great actress or was surrounded by so many terrible ones that she came out looking like a superstar. That's it, the rest is bad, bad, bad.

Let it begin: the logo was terrible. I don't like the spiraling 'g', it looks like a cheap etch-a-sketch drawing. I can appreciate the difficulty that accompanies bringing an extremely popular book to the movie screen, but they overkilled the loyalty to the roots. The film moved very quickly, I guess I should be thankful, and only developed what was necessary to tell the story and crutched the movie on voice overs by the lead character, Bella (this was also done because the acting was terrible).

Speaking of acting, Edward (Robert Pattinson) was described as confident and "cool", but came off as a wuss. Instead portraying the vampire who was in agony by the presence and proceeding craving of our female lead, Pattinson portrayed Edward like a constipated dimwit. It was as if the director took the first shot of every scene. A financially sound decision knowing that the movie will rake in millions on sheer hype so rather than exhaust the allotted budget, let's cut the corners and increase our profits - "Great scene Robert!". The special effects were grotesque, climbing trees like an ant on crack, gosh - with as much green as the studio was projecting you would've thought they could recruit Industrial Light and Magic for some help. Instead they spent their money on ariel shots from the local helicopter tours (see opening credits and scene where Edward takes Bella up to the top of the trees).

I am sad for fans because some will camouflage the reality of a film that should have gone straight to DVD. I won't waste anymore time on this 1.5 out of 5...BLAH! Read the book, ignore the film until it hits your Comcast On Demand 'Free Movie' section.

Trekkie Trailer

Star Trek Trailer

I didn't grow up a huge fan of the series, but am a huge fan of J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, M:I 3, Cloverfield). His remix of the Trek franchise looks fantastic! I caught the trailer before the new Bond film today and loved it. It leaked bootleg online already, but I will post the real deal tomorrow. May 2009...I cannot believe I am excited to see a Star Trek film.

Saturday Solace

Just when I thought I wasn't going to catch the latest Bond flick, a call from the weary confirmed that there was hope. While I only traveled a few minutes to see 'Quantum of Solace', 007 is all over the world in the 22nd Bond film.

The story picks up immediately after 'Casino Royale' ended. Bond (Daniel Craig) remains intent on punishing those that took Vesper away meanwhile shunning any accusation that he was in love with her. Screenwriter Paul Haggis (Crash, The Last Kiss, Million Dollar Baby, Casino Royale) returns to the franchise and delivers an action cannonball. He drenches the audience in jaw-dropping stunts interwoven with the continuation of the development of 007. Meanwhile, we are introduced to more of the minds that run the mysterious company which we come to know as Quantum (see the 'Q' on Dominic Greene's lapel during his charity speech) and given a taste of some darker Bond villains.

Craig is incredible as the tough and intrepid Bond: he's an assassin (great fight scene in the hotel-very Bourne-esque!). Another solid performance by Judi Dench (M), which I thought was arguably her strongest showing since she took on the character in 1992's Goldeneye. Her cinematic ping-pong match with Bond is entertaining. She assumes her roles Bond's chief and ally, but her M cannot resist the desire to also take on a matriarchal presence as she watches James mature and struggle. Great chemistry emitted by Dench and Craig: 2 phenomenal actors.

My beef with this one...venturing too far away from the intrigue behind the company. What made the last Bond terrific was the fact that the action was top notch (as was this one, if not better than the last) and the story was intoxicating. 'Solace' left me a bit unsatisfied, I wanted more suspense from the element of the company that is everywhere but nowhere. I get the fact that the film was to give closure to much of Bond's mental and emotional hardships of 'Casino Royale', I just wanted a bit more. Come to think of it, that's what is missing from most should-be-great films.

Overall, 3.5 out of 5.

Worth a trip to the cinema!

My Five 007's

I am incredibly excited to see the new James Bond this weekend. It looks fantastic, especially as a follow up to the grittier character piece that was 'Casino Royale'. In the spirit of the release of Bond's latest, 'Quantam of Solace', I am listing my 5 favorite Bond films:

1 - From Russia With Love :
Connery mastering the character of Bond. I fell in love with this film because of my father's affinity for the character and this was his favorite. Repetition breeds interest.

2 - Goldfinger


I still do a double take when Bond wakes up to the gold Shirley Eaton on his bed and all the one-liners, not to mention the innuendos. So Bond.

3 - Casino Royale
The Bond of the 21st Century. He's got all the solid action heroes qualities rolled into one: Jason Bourne, John McLane, Martin Riggs...solid! The opening chase scene is arguably the best in film. I love the torture scene where he mocks Le Chiffre, Hillarious!

4 - Tomorrow Never Dies

Brosnan's best in my opinion. We saw a darkness to Bond, which was unusual for Pierce, when he lost Teri Hatcher and it had some great action sequences.

5 - License To Kill
As close to Daniel Craig's Bond as there has been. This one was rogue Bond and caught a lot of people off guard because of how different Dalton's second 007 film was. I enjoyed it.

Who's Going To Be Myagi?

News leaked today that Will Smith and his son Jaden (The Pursuit of Happyness) are signed up with some of the OG team from the classic film 'The Karate Kid' franchise to remake the original. Yes, you heard it right. The story will follow the premise of the 1984 classic but will take place overseas in Beijing. Seriously? Jaden? He is ten years old and as much as I enjoy his father's films I cannot even stomach the visual of this one. All I can think of is the remake of 1987's Can't Buy Me Love, with Patrick Dempsey (Dr. McDreamy on 'Grey's Anatomy), called 'Love Don't Cost A Thing'...stop tainting the classics of the 80's! Next thing you know they are going to reboot The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

This is another bad idea from Hollywood. Are they that desperate for story lines that they have to resort to another remake, which will lead to a prequel that will unveil a spin off TV show that is show 10 years in the future. My goodness, Mr. Myagi is turning over in his grave...wax off whoever came up with this brilliant idea.

Blah...

I can't say that this one impressed me. This one took to long to get to 'The Strangers'. That's not to say that there were not some terrifying moments, but the flick was sub par. Don't waste your time (I didn't...the fast forward feature worked out nicely).

Rock-N-Rolla

Are you a Rock-N-Rolla? Guy Ritchie returns to the big screen with a homerun. The fast talking, witty and explosive characters that he introduced to us in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as well as Snatch are reincarnated in this intoxicating ride.

Ritchie enlisted some very noticeable faces for this one (Gerard Butler-300, Tom Wilkinson-Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, Thandie Newton-M:I2, Jeremy Piven-Entourage) and positions them against a tolerably complex storyline involving British and Russian underworlds. Fantastic performances, especially by Mark Strong as Archie (I also like him in 'Body of Lies') and Nonso Anozie (Tank).

I loved the scene where Newton and Butler are at a party attempting to exchange information regarding the next "job". Butler try's his hand at convincing Newton to give him the time of day by showing off his dancing skills...very charming. She obliges and they communicate through text boxes that appear while they dance like they were mocking a 'HSM3' routine . Another hip motion by Ritchie to differentiate his film and accent the techno talk between his stars.

Thumbs up to the mystery behind the look of the painting, similar to the briefcase in Pulp Fiction...what was in that thing? 4 out of 5 for me...solid acting, hilarious dialogue (especially the relationship between 1-2 and Handsome Bob) and dynamite cinematography.