Archive for March, 2006

Everything Is Illuminated

Published
by
Lij
on March 27, 2006
in Based on a book, Based on a novel, Comedy, Directorial Debut, Drama, Holocaust, Judaism and Road Trip
. 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, I read Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, Everything Is Illuminated. The book is made up of three sections: letters from Alex Perchov to the character Jonathan Safran Foer, Alex Perchov’s recounting of his days as Jonathan’s translator, and the novel that Jonathan Safran Foer is writing about the town of Trachimbrod in Ukraine.

The three sections are very different from one another. The Trachimbrod story has hints of the supernatural that blends with the surrealism of this vibrant community. The letters from Alex (the hilarious translator who is “not so premium” with English) are revealing and heartbreaking, giving insight to all of the characters, including Alex himself, Jonathan, Alex’s grandfather, and the people in Jonathan’s novel. The events of Alex and Jonathan’s journey through Ukraine are at once incredibly entertaining and terribly, terribly upsetting.

This weekend, I watched Everything Is Illuminated, the film version, which stars Elijah Wood and Eugune Hutz. It was directed by Leiv Schreiber, who attempted to capture some of the mystery of Foer’s book. He directed Wood and Hutz quite well, and I felt that they did an amazing job of portraying Jonathan and Alex.

The movie follows Jonathan (”Jonfen,” Alex calls him) as he travels to Ukraine in hopes of finding Augustine, the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather, Safran, from the Nazis. Alex is his translator, Alex’s grandfather is the driver, and Sammy Davis, Jr, Jr is the tourism company’s “Officious Seeing Eye Bitch.” They three men and the dog travel throughout the countryside of Ukraine, searching for the town of Trachimbrod. They are almost entirely unsuccesful, until they find an old woman who seems to have the answers.

I don’t often compare books and movies, because I think it’s a silly thing to do. Books are not movies. Movies are not books. That said, I will draw some parallels between the book and movie versions of this story.

The ending of the movie is quite different from that of the book, and while I don’t think it is quite as succesful, I am happy that the filmmakers were flexible. I do wish that we could have gotten a hint of the storylines of Jonathan’s grandfather’s life or the lives of the past inhabitants of Trachimbrod, but the focus of this film was on Jonathan’s search.

I do recommend the movie, as it is really funny and quite moving, but I would recommend the book even more. The book will bewilder you and overwhelm you in the best ways possible. I would say that Everything Is Illuminated is one of the best books I have read in years, especially in fiction.

Go read it and find out why.

Waiting…

Published
by
Chalupa
on March 20, 2006
in Comedy, Ensemble Cast, Restaurant and Teen Movie
. 2 Comments

I’d like to start off by saying this movie is dirty. It’s dirty and not suitable for many viewers. I would also like to say this is probably the funniest movie I’ve seen yet in 2006. So take that as you want to, just don’t come running to me if you’re offended by it.

For a line-up we have Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle), Anna Faris (Scary Movie, Lost in Translation, Brokeback Mountain), Justin Long (Galaxy Quest, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie), David Koechner (Wag the Dog, Dirty Work, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40 Year Old Virgin), Luis Guzmán (Carlito’s Way, Boogie Nights, Mystery Men, Magnolia, Traffic, The Salton Sea, Punch-Drunk Love, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events), Chi McBride (Gone in Sixty Seconds, “Boston Public”, The Terminal, I, Robot), John Francis Daley (“Freaks and Geeks” Do I really need to say anything else?), Alanna Ubach, (Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, “Beakman’s World”, Clockwatchers), Robert Patrick Benedict (Kicking & Screaming), Dane Cook (Mystery Men, “Crank Yankers”).

I’d like to say that John Francis Daley, Luis Guzmán and Dane Cook were just amazing in this. Not that I was really surprised, these are some really solid actors. I think their previous accomplishments can speak for themselves.

I have to admit I was really looking forward to this movie by the commercials and previews, but after the movie came out, I almost wrote it off because of what I read on Rotten Tomatoes about it. Once again, I have to say that the critics were wrong when it came to my tastes. I usually trust this site, but it’s definitely not 100%. Eric Dubya Davis was the man of the hour by coming through with a glowing report that re-encouraged me to give this little gem a try.

The story line is basically a 24hr time period in the lives of the employees from Shananiganz, a chain restaurant that embodies most American sit down places - Applebees, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday, TGIF, Outback, etc. There’s also a new guy and we get to see a peek into everybody’s lives while he is being trained and trying to adjust to the slap-in-the-face culture of his new place of employment. A lot of the customers fit the stereotypes of poor tippers, flirters, jerks, etc, etc, etc. Watching some of the extras helped explain some things as you learn the writer/director added a lot of his own life experiences from being a waiter himself.

As I said before, this movie is hilarious, but there’s a good chance you could be offended. So watch at your own risk.

Four Brothers

Published
by
Chalupa
on March 15, 2006
in Action, Black Comedy, Crime, Drama, Family, Mystery, Neo Noir and Thriller
. 1 Comment

Four Brothers is a movie about four brothers who take matters into their own hands after the death of their mother. The brothers are played by Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights, Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees), Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin and Garrett Hedlund (Friday Night Lights).

My first impulse to see this was because of the actors involved including Terrence Howard (Crash), Josh Charles (Sports Night), Fionnula Flanagan (Transamerica, The Others) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things, Serenity, Love Actually). These actors with the main make for a pretty good cast. I wasn’t really expecting much more than some gunfire, funny moments and sweet revenge. That’s exactly what I got. Even though I enjoyed this movie, I don’t see it making many top ten lists for the year. It is, however, still entertaining and worth watching some time.