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A Dog’s Breakfast

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 25, 2008
in Comedy
. 0 Comments

If you’re a fan of the hit Sci-Fi show Stargate, then you’re sure to love A Dog’s Breakfast.  Written and directed by David Hewlett, Dr. Rodney McKay, you’re sure to recognize him as the main character.  Other face you’ll recognize are Kate Hewlett (Rodney’s sister and David’s actual sister), Paul McGillion (Dr. Carson Beckett), Christopher Judge (Teal’c), and Rachel Luttrell (Teyla).

Hewlett plays Patrick, a character not all too different from his Stargate role.  He’s a little weird and definitely has some quirks.  Out of nowhere Patrick’s sister shows up with a surprise - she’s engaged.  Unsurprisingly, Patrick can’t stand Ryan, Marilyn’s fiance, and immediately starts plotting Ryan’s death.  But what to do with the body?

I’m sure you’ll love this film as much as I did.  Rent it if you haven’t seen it yet.

Rating: ★★★★☆

11:14

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 21, 2008
in Comedy, Crime, Drama, Multiple story line, Murder and Thriller
. 0 Comments

The title 11:14 refers to a time.  On one fateful night, a lot of lives are drastically changed at exactly 11:14.  People die, people are hit by cars, a convenient store is robbed, one girl is playing several people for money, and one guy even losing some very important bits in a bit of a car accident.

I wish I had heard of this one when it came out.  I was really impressed with it.  Some of the cast includes Hilary Swank, Colin Hanks, Rachael Leigh Cook, Jason Segel, Patrick Swayze, and Ben Foster.  I’m not completely sure if this would be considered a neo-noir or not, but it definitely has a lot of those elements in it.  This is another one of those films with multiple time lines and everyone being connected in the end.  It might be good to watch this one without the movie talkers and question-askers.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Happy Endings

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 21, 2008
in Comedy, Drama, Ensemble Cast and Thriller
. 0 Comments

I didn’t really know what to think of the cover, but the plot looked good so I decided to check this out.  Happy Endings is a story about several groups of people all being connected without knowing it.  Kind of like Pulp Fiction.

Mamie, Lisa Kudrow, is a middle aged woman working as a counselor and dating Javier, Bobby Cannavale.  She’s being blackmailed by Nicky, Jesse Bradford - the kid from Hackers, to help him make a movie about her life and her child she has never met.  Meanwhile, Otis, Jason Ritter, has a band and just hired on Jude, Maggie Gyllenhaal, to be their new vocals.  Things get weird though when Otis’ father, Tom Arnold, takes an interest in Otis’ new girlfriend, Jude.  There are a few more characters I’m not going to go into, but I’m not going to spell it all out for you.

One thing I took from this movie was how incredibly messed up some of the characters are.  Mamie is being blackmailed over her son she gave away years ago by a somewhat crazy kid.  All kinds of interesting things happen there.  Otis is also going through hell watching his father being used by his ex-girlfriend while dealing with his own insecurities and issues.  Like I said earlier, everything ends up being connected in the end.

I wasn’t really sure where this movie was going, but ending up really liking it by the end.  There were a lot of strong performances by many of the characters and actors.  I’d recommend checking this one out.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Darkon

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 21, 2008
in Documentary and Fantasy
. 0 Comments

I think most people know at least one person that’s into the realm of the fantasy genre.  I can’t say any of my friends were the type who couldn’t really differentiate between the real and the imagined.  That’s just what I found in Darkon.

The movie was pretty interesting.  There are organized communities of people who fight for different realms and get together on weekends to play out these battles.  Reminds me of playing around when I was a kid.  The main difference is these people have created or bought uniforms, armor, weapons, and equipment for themselves.  In one scene they even built a makeshift castle.  Now that’s impressive.  The only “weird” part for me was when it became apparent not all of the characters were just make believing.  I’m a big fan of keeping reality in perspective.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Ratatouille

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 21, 2008
in Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy and France
. 0 Comments

I’m usually not a very big fan of animated films, not because they’re animated, because the story lines are usually very much geared towards children.  Fortunately I have internet friends like ReelFanatic who give me good recommendations on what’s out there.

Ratatouille is a story about a country rat with refined tastes for food who suddenly finds himself lost and in the heart of Paris.  Away from his family, he must find his own way and ends up trying out his culinary skills at a once renowned restaurant.

I immediately loved this movie from the start.  There’s plenty of seriousness with some comedy thrown in.  Remy, the country rat, befriends a human and Remy is able to prove to his family that not all humans are bad.  I would have to say one of my favorite parts was the cooking challenge at the end, but I won’t say anymore to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it.

I’d have to say this one if fun for the whole family,  and I don’t mean it in the “fun for only the kids” kind of way.

Rating: ★★★★★

In the Valley of Elah

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 9, 2008
in Based on a true story, Crime, Drama, Iraq, Mystery, Thriller and War
. 0 Comments

I’ve been finding it intersting that more and more movies are coming out about the war in Iraq.  The other day it just dawned on me that in 20 years, this war will be just like Vietnam in that there will be plenty of books, movies, etc out there for people to learn from.

In the same way that Lions for Lambs seemed so lame compared to Charlie Wilson’s War, I think Robert Redford’s film once again pales in comparison to In the Valley of Elah.  The first pair goes together because they both deal with war in Afghanistan.  The second pair also makes sense because they both deal with the current “War on Terror” or “War of Terror” as Borat puts it.

This film deals with a soldier that has just returned from home, but turns up missing.  Tommy Lee Jones, plays the boy’s father, is trying to figure out what happened to his son.  Being a veteran, and a bit of an investigator himself, Hank Deerfield isn’t satisfied with the lackluster efforts and figuring out just what happened to his son.  Through trial and tribulation, Hank finally gets Detective Sanders, Charlize Theron, to take a real look at the case and try to piece all the parts together.  In the meantime, Hank is trying to make sense of some of the videos his son had been sending home to him from the battlefield.

This is truly a sad and tragic story, but I feel that it gave me a little peak into what some of these people are going through.  Every once in a while I catch a blip on the news about what’s going on in that region of the world.  The only real thing that’s actually affecting me are gas prices and the economy tanking.  I’m not in the armed forces though, and there’s very little chance of a draft happening again so I’d be really surprised if I ever experienced anything like this first hand.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Across the Universe

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 6, 2008
in Drama, Musical, Romance, Vietnam and War
. 2 Comments

I thought this film looked really cool when I started reading about it and saw the previews and trailers. The concept seemed cool. It was a heavily Beetles influenced love story. I missed it in the theaters and heard some not so great reviews of it. I think I now know why people didn’t like it. This film really seemed like it was trying to copy the success Baz Luhrmann’s success with Moulin Rouge!. The only problem was the movie just didn’t seem to have much direction. Now I know this sounds crazy because how could a movie have no direction when there obviously was a guy called a “director” directing it? I don’t really know the answer to that question, but it just seemed to lack an over-arching vision.

Starring Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess (21) and set during the Vietnam War, this movie follows the romance of an upper class girl and a poor artist. Sounds a little bit like Moulin Rouge, right? The tagline also happens to be, “All you need is love.” I’m not sure why Luhrmann did it so well and Julie Traymor didn’t. This turned out to be one of those movies I had to force myself to watch - and that doesn’t happen very often. Maybe it’s because I’m not a huge fan of musicals. If any of you have seen it and have some thoughts, I’d love to hear them.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

The Host

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 5, 2008
in Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Foreign, Horror, Korea, Sci-fi and Thriller
. 0 Comments

I can’t say I’ve seen too many Korean films, but this one is top-notch in my book. When I saw the previews for this a couple years ago I was looking forward to seeing it. I don’t think it ever came my way though. In classic Japanese-Godzilla-style, a strange mutated fish thing is created in a river due to toxic waste being poured down the drain. Eventually this creature gets big enough to start terrorizing the local population and eating people.

The film centers around the Park family. The grandfather runs a food stand in a park next to the river. Mr. Park is helped by one son, his daughter is an Olympic archer, and his other son is a bit of a drunk. His granddaughter is currently in the 7th grade and is one of the many victims on the day of the attack. That fateful day, and the death of the granddaughter, brings the whole family back together as they try to deal with the tragedy.

While The Host is definitely science fiction and suspenseful, there’s also some witty humor thrown into the mix amongst some of the more tense scenes. I found it quite hilarious when these sarcastic remarks were thrown in during the scenes when you shouldn’t be laughing.

I would highly suggest this for anyone who even thought of maybe seeing it. While this movie is about a monster, it’s not a scary horror movie that will leave you jumping out of your seats. It’s also not cheesy and boring like many of these can be.

Rating: ★★★★½

Get Smart

Published
by
nathanshorb
on July 5, 2008
in Action, Based on TV Series, Comedy and Crime
. 1 Comment

Let me preface by saying this: I am a huge Steve Carrell fan. He and Jack Black are tied for being able to make me giggle uncontrollably pretty much just by doing absolutely nothing. Just the other day, which shopping for a greeting card, I picked up one of those cards-with-sound that featured Steve Carrell mumbling something or other from The Office. In the middle of the card store, I laughed really really loudly and couldn’t stop. I love Steve Carrell.

And because of that love, I had relatively high hopes for Get Smart. I knew it wouldn’t be a great film or anything, but I expected to laugh quite a bit.

Well, it’s with great disappointment that I tell you: I wasn’t impressed. I really didn’t even laugh all that much.

It’s your typical summer comedy, a chuckle here and there and quite a bit of poor acting and cheesy delivery. But not even Mr. Carrell could redeem it. So much of the movie simply fell flat. You wanted to laugh, but it just wasn’t worth the effort.

Don’t get me wrong. Alan Arkin is decent as always, and Anne Hathaway is a lot of fun, too. The Rock is as bad as ever, and there are plenty of cameos to keep things interesting, too.

Speaking of cameos: I won’t mention who it is in case some of you are rushing out to see it after this stellar review, but one cameo features another one of my favorite actors, and I felt his 2 minute cameo was the best comedic delivery in the whole movie.

In the end, Steve Carrell just wasn’t allowed to shine enough in this film. While he was one of the main actors, the movie didn’t feature him. It also seemed like he wasn’t allowed to take his lines on as his own, and followed the script pretty closely, when we all know he’s at his best when he’s flying off the cuff.

It’s a fine fun summer movie, but don’t go spending nine dollars on it like I did.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Persepolis

Published
by
nathanshorb
on July 5, 2008
in Adolescence, Animation, Autobiography, Based on a graphic novel, Coming of age, Foreign, French and War
. 1 Comment

Persepolis is the animated film adaptation of the autobiographical graphic novels of Marjane Satrapi. It’s her coming of age story, living through the turmoil, wars, and revolts of Iran in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s

Simply put, it’s a lovely little film that really catches the viewer’s attention. Its animation is simple but thoroughly heartfelt and extremely effective. While few of us have lived through wars, seeing our relatives fight for their beliefs and die in the process, we can somehow relate to this story, perhaps because it’s told so candidly. The innocence of childhood, the ups and downs of adolescence, and trying to make sense of it all in adulthood are something each of us experience. Satrapi has said that this was one aim of the film, to show how much of growing up is a universal experience.

In the process of the film, though, we are treated to a little bit of a history lesson of the country of Iran. And while you don’t get all the ins and outs of the history, it makes you eager to learn a bit more.

My only complaint is that the storytelling at times seemed too fragmented. It felt rushed, each segment was brief before jumping to the next event at hand. Satrapi, obviously, is a talented and poignant storyteller, and I would have appreciated a more in-depth, detailed look at some parts of the story

So, this film comes highly recommended. It’s an enlightening and personal story that is absolutely beautifully told. I hope more animated works like it start coming our way.

Rating: ★★★★½