Archive for June, 2007

Animal Factory

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 28, 2007
in Based on a novel, Crime, Drama, Independent and Racism
. 1 Comment

This is a movie I’ve seen at Best Buy, Blockbuster, etc for a long time and I’ve always wondered what it’s like. The cover just makes it look so good. I wouldn’t say this was amazing, but I really liked it.

Directed by Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe and Edward Furlong are both inmates in a prison. Dafoe is the head of a faction in the prison and Furlong has just been incarcerated. Like most prison shows, movies and stories, Furlong needs to find some friends fast or he’ll turn into what they call “fresh fish”. This is where Dafoe and his gang of thugs step in.

Dafoe has never seemed like a big and scary person, but he pulled off being tough and formidable here. I wouldn’t want to mess with him. It’s no wonder so many stand up for him in this prison. For some weird reason, he latches onto Furlong and looks out for him; being genuinely friendly in the process. Dafoe sees something in this young man that he doesn’t have with his fellow inmates: intelligence, wit and somewhat of a striving to better oneself. The dynamic duo makes plans to escape. In the end only one of them makes it out, but that’s ok. We’re left feeling like this is how things were meant to be.

This left me wanting to finish watching all of Oz, a TV show about a hard-core prison. I was also left wondering why Dafoe took the time and effort to even look out for Furlong. Maybe this was a peek into the humanity of his character. I’d say this was also some good directing by Buscemi. Interestingly enough, he directed a couple episodes of Oz after making his prison movie. So I guess the real question is does Animal Factory remind me of Oz, or does Oz remind me of Animal Factory?

Waitress

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 28, 2007
in Comedy, Drama, Dysfunctional, Marriage and Romance
. 0 Comments

Now here’s a movie that left me pleasantly surprised. I was a little intrigued by the previews. I occasionally like to cook things and all the unique pies sounded interesting. There was also the fact that Nathan Fillion (Firefly and Serenity) was starring in it AND this was Adrienne Shelly’s last movie.

I usually try to avoid the PG-13 movies because I get annoyed with the crowd. Tara knows what I’m talking about here - all those pre-pubescent teens. Luckily the theater wasn’t full of them this time around.

So Jenna, played by Keri Russell, is pregnant and married to the biggest jerk in the world, Jeremy Sisto. Jenna likes to make pies and starts going to her new doctor who is played by Fillion. Jenna falls in love with her doctor because he’s the only man that has noticed her, and isn’t a jerk, in quite some time. What’s she going to do? How can she get rid of Earl, her husband?

Don’t worry, it doesn’t turn into a murder mystery or get cheesy. Things work out in the end. One of the best parts is when Old Joe, the owner of the diner where she works, tells Earl a thing or two. Everything seems to work out for the best in the end. Definitely a feel good movie. Not quite as feel-good as Amelie, but something to put a smile on your face and worth watching every so often.

1408

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 28, 2007
in Based on short story, Drama, Horror and Thriller
. 0 Comments

Liz and I saw 1408 tonight. It’s a PG-13 thriller about an author who drives around seeking haunted places to write about. At this point in his life he’s seeking out haunted hotel rooms. He spends the night in them and then gives a 1-10 rating on scariness measured in skulls. He doesn’t seem to really get scared by anything until he heads to New York and visits the Dolphin hotel.

The hotel manager is played by none other than Samuel L. Jackson. Good choice for the role. Jackson definitely tries to get Michael (John Cusack) to not stay in the room, but then there wouldn’t be a movie, right? So at first the room isn’t scary at all. It’s just a normal room. Everybody at the hotel seems scared to death to step one foot through the door. Then weird things start happening. Stuff gets moved around, things go back to their original state, etc. Then Cusack starts seeing things, gets freaked out, hurts his hand, and wants out of the room. Too bad though. The room doesn’t want to let him go.

Now we enter the part where I got bored. You see, I’m not really into scary movies and this movie wasn’t even scary. One thing I’ll give this movie is that it didn’t resort to gore in an effort to keep the audience interested. If you didn’t know, horror movies fall back on gore and most other movies fall back on sex and nudity. The really special ones include both - i.e. Hostel, etc. So, like I said, this movie didn’t fall back on blood and guts to scare us. I think this could be seen as both a positive and a negative. Positive because they tried to be a good movie. Negative because it wasn’t really scary, but the PG-13 rating was kept. Any more gruesomeness and it most likely would have been rated R.

So, it got into this loop cycle thing where Cusack could not leave the room. He desperately wanted to, but “The Room” said, “No.” This is where I really got bored. There’s even a “tricky” ending where we don’t really know if he’s dead or alive; in the room or out of it. One thing is for sure though. Cusack’s character isn’t the only one being affected by the room in the end.

Redeemable factors would include the acting. Even though I love John Cusack’s acting, he kinda does mostly the same kind of movies. If you don’t know what I’m talking about check out Serendipity, America’s Sweethearts, High Fidelity, Say Anything and Grosse Point Blank. Now you might say, “But wait, he’s done so many other movies.” This is true. He has. However, with Say Anything being one of his most prominent roles, Liz and I decided this, that is what John Cusack is remembered for. He has been branching out though, I think this is definitely one of those branch-out movies.

Even though I really liked Cusack’s acting, I still gave this one a 2/5 on Netflix. It’s kinda like the movie Monster with Charlize Theron. I really did not like the movie but it had some amazing acting done by Theron. So I’d say this one could be worth watching, but if you get bored by the scary movies you might feel like I did about it.

Letters From Iwo Jima

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 11, 2007
in Drama, History, Sequel, WWII and War
. 0 Comments

This is Clint Eastwood’s sequel to Flags of our Fathers; showing the Japanese viewpoint of the battle for Iwo Jima. It stars some of the same actors and I thought it was much better than the first installment.

Ken Watanabe does an amazing job portraying General Tadamichi Kuribayashi trying to beef up the fortifications and defenses of that tiny island in the last ditch effort to defend their homeland. He and other officers knew it was a losing battle before even going there.

There’s not many war movies out there, made by American studios, that show the “enemy’s” point of view. Especially not in the World War II era. I think it’s a good thing to view them as fellow human beings than savages. I think Eastwood did a good job pointing this out in a couple scenes where one side shows compassion for a POW and gives them medical treatment. At the same time there are other scenes showing brutality, but that’s also what happens during a war.

Being a huge fan of war movies, I would recommend Letters from Iwo Jima over Flags of our Fathers. This movie is more about the people fighting the war than epic battle scenes. Other movies like this would be Thin Red Line and Paths of Glory.

Knocked Up

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 11, 2007
in Based on a book, Based on a novel, Comedy, Coming of age, Drama, Drugs and Romance
. 0 Comments

Yet another amazing creation from Judd Apatow. If you’re a fan of Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared or 40 Year Old Virgin, you’re sure to love this one as well. It’s full of faces you’ll remember along with more side-splitting comedy.

In this film Ben, played by Seth Rogen, meets Alison, played by Katherine Heigl, at a bar and she gets “knocked up”. The story then unfolds as Ben tries to do the right thing and be a responsible father while Alison is trying to deal with an unplanned pregnancy and living with her sister who’s having some marital problems of her own. Mixed in are Ben’s stoner buddies and all kinds of hilarious one-liners that will probably have you laughing out loud. Most of this humor is pretty crude though so it’s something to keep in mind before going to see it. There’s a good chance you could be offended.

One thing I love about Apatow’s projects is they just seem so real and down-to-earth to me. I see these characters and I can relate to them, or they embody someone I know. I see realistic conversations and situations being played out that I could see happening or have heard similar stories about. I think this is why I like it much more than your run-of-the-mill comedy/romantic-comedy that creates impossible situations with unbelievable outcomes.

This has to be right up there with Hot Fuzz being some of the funniest movies of the year. I highly recommend seeing this one.