Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

I have to admit that I was really looking forward to this particular Harry Potter film, well the first part of it anyway because in my opinion "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows" was the best book of the series. Now granted I didn't read all the books and I'll be the first to say that I am not a fan of Rowlings writing but I did catch all the movies (for the most part). This film wasn't my favorite out of the series, that dubious distinction goes to "The Prisoner of Azkuban" because I felt that was the most creative of all the films but when watching "Hallows", everything I remembered from the book was right up there on the screen and that made this movie the best representation of a book to film adaption since The Lord of the Ring movies.

The one thing I did like about the Potter movies is that they weren't all helmed by the same director. The first two were directed by Christopher Columbus and my fave was directed by Alfonso Cauron and that gave each film its own look, feel, and flavor. However that last few films have been helmed by David Yates and while he's done an admirable job, "Hallows" may be his best work. That also goes for the acting of Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. The child actors have finally come into their own and it seems have finally grasped the concept that their performances will last forever. That to the fans of the books their representation of the characters they love truly matters. And that was brought to vivid life during the death of a beloved character.

The previous Potter film and this one pretty much had no change in the staff behind the camera except one huge one. The last two movies were scored by the lesser known Nicholas Hooper and he's done a pretty good job in scoring the movies. It's never an easy task following in the footsteps of the great John Williams but Nicholas did well. This time around however the producers brought in a real heavy hitter to close out the series musically, Alexandre Desplat. It was a very good choice. The movie is dark and dramatic and the music by Desplat fit perfectly. His sound has a darker, heavier feel than anything Hooper has done in the series and since these last two films deals with a war pitting good against evil they needed an artist that could convey that musically and since John and Hans were busy, Alexandre fit the bill and came through brilliantly.

I am really looking forward to part two and seeing how Yates and company pulls this all together. Here's hoping it brings unbridled joy and not disappointment to those lifelong fans around the world. See you at the theater!

the social network

Going in I want to say I heard mixed reviews about “the social network” but as I told those who had trepidations, I would see a movie about the birth of the minivan if David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin were involved so there was no way I was missing this movie. David Fincher is one my favorite directors with a collection of movies under his belt that I marveled at, especially his last one “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. And as a writer myself I love the talents of Aaron Sorkin. His writing is crisp, clean, and littered with humor and irony so when I heard about this project that had these two towering talents involved, I was eager to see it mixed reviews be damned. I’m glad I did because this movie was awesome and those that know me know I don’t use that word much because I hate it. I think it’s overused and has been abused by the burnt out, surfer, pot heads of the word (think Bill & Ted) but in this case the word fits perfectly. It’s awe inspiring and will have you thinking on it for days afterwards much the way “Inception” did. It’s a “talkie” but it’s talking about the one thing we all use pretty much on a daily basis, the phenomenon that is “facebook”.

Based on the book “The Accidental Billionaire” “the social network" tells the story of the origins of facebook from three differing points of view. Those different points of views are told in depositions from those suing Mark Zuckerberg, the man who founded facebook by those he burned along the way. Zuckerberg is played brilliantly by Jessie Eisenberg who gives you the impression that Zuckerberg had a case of Aspergers Syndrome when all this went down. Zuckerberg gets sued by his one and only best friend and initial investor Eduardo Saverin played by Andrew Garfield as well as the Winklevoss twins played by Armie Hammer and their business partner Divya Narendra played my Max Minghella. They initially came up with the foundation of the idea that is facebook.

Zuckerberg comes off as a pompous asshole but you see that this part of his personality all stems from rampant jealousy and insecurity. Zuckerberg so wants to be part of the in crowd and so wants to be cool that he allows Sean Parker the inventor of Napster, played surprisingly well by Justin Timberlake to worm his way in on the ground floor before facebook really takes off. Zuckerberg sees Parker as a God and like Pavlov's dog gives into Parkers wishes and so called guidance without thinking for himself which destroys his friendship with Eduardo Saverin.

The movie starts off with Zuckerberg getting dumped by his then girlfriend Erica Albright and this sets him off. He goes back to his dorm, starts to drink, starts to blog, badmouths Erica and creates a site called "facemash" where Harvard male students can vote on who the hotter girl is in their pics that are side by side. Eduardo makes it into the Phoenix Club and that incites Zuckerbergs jealousy since all he ever really wanted was to be a part of one of Harvards exclusive Final Clubs and it's these two incidents that eat at the core of Mark Zuckerberg or so the movie wants you to think.

Fincher's direction is brilliant. The cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth is dark but the acting is bright and the dialogue is the real star of this movie. The biggest surprise for me though was the score. It was a collaborative effort between Atticus Ross who did the music of the disappointing "Book of Eli" and Trent Reznor, the mad genius behind Nine Inch Nails. The music is pitch perfect and fits the mood nicely. I highly recommend seeing this film, espcially if you are a facebook user (which is exactly where this blog entry will be posted, how's that for irony?). I know I'm seeing it again so....

See you at the theater.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

I just want to start this off by saying I think Oliver Stone is a brilliant filmmaker. I have been a fan of his since Platoon. I walked out of the movie physically exhausted and mentally drained and films/movies should have that effect on it's audience. If you don't walk out somewhat changed, however slightly then what was the point? He's helmed some of the most impactful films in the last twenty years. He's taken you to places that you would have never seen and he's never missed the chance to show the world something tragic and/or new, or move you in some way. Except now.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps did not need to be made. I thought going in it was going to be relevant and impactful. That it would show those who don't really know what a hedge fund is or a derivative is and how the banks did their dirt and almost ruined the economy. I thought going in he would show perhaps both sides of the coin, show you the greed, opulence, and decadence of the wealthy and unscrupulous bankers and how that greed impacts the little man who can't seem to find a job or pay the bills. Instead all Oliver gives us is the Shia LaBeouf vanity project.

Don't get me wrong, this is an entertaining movie most of the time and it even made me laugh out loud when Charlie Sheen reprising his role of Budd Foxx came on the screen but it didn't move me and Oliver got bit with the Scorsese bug. So many of the same faces you've seen in Olivers films over the years find their way into this one, hence Charlie Sheen. For the most part though it's all Shia all the time. Just when you thought you couldn't get anymore of the kid thanks to the Transformer movies here he is in almost every shot. Not that he's not charming when he's going line for line with the likes of Frank Langella, Josh Brolin, Michael Douglas, and Susan Sarandon who plays his mother but this project seems to be all about making Shia a household name.

The story follows Shia's character Jake Moore as he works his way through the financial industry as the protege to FrankLangella's cahracter Louis Zabel. There's a nice real father son type relationship between the two men and when Zabel's firm starts hitting on hard times thanks to some foul rumors started by Josh Brolin's character, the impressively name Bretton James. It ruins Zabel and his firm and he decides the best way to handle things is to have a big of chips and then catch some subway poisoning. All the while Gordon Gekko get's released from prison and publishes a book asking the question "Is Greed Good?". He seems all contrite and well meaning and Jake who is dating Gekko's daughter get's sucked in by the man who seems to be saying all the right things and seems like he really wants to reconcile with his daughter who doesn't like and doesn't trust her father. Gekko subtly convinces Jake to go after Bretton and do what the old Gekko would do. Jake didn't need much of a push and the two men form some twisted Batman and Robin. There was never a case though of Batman destroying Robin that I know of.

Gekko was and is a shark and Jake eventually gets bit by the shark and his life falls apart. What makes no sense though is Jake getting this kind of treatment. Granted, he trusts Gekko when he shouldn't but really he's just a nice guy. He's nowhere as ambitious as Budd Foxx was which is what Budd in hot water. Jake just wants to love his fiance and bring father and daughter together and for that he pays the ultimate price. But then Oliver Stone makes a huge mistake in my opinion and goes for the heartwarming ending which is really hard to swallow.

It's a beautiful movie to look at and the clothes, wow! The wardrobe is really impressive and the preformances are as well. The cinematography captures the beauty of New York City nicely (it's really pretty to look at), the music is weak and virtually nonexistent, and the story has gaping holes. The movie does entertain however, it just won't move you.

See you at the theater.

The Town

To say I was excited to hear about Ben Affleck's movie entitled "The Town" is an understatement. After thoroughly enjoying his directoral debut "Gone Baby Gone" I couldn't wait to see his new work and I am happy to say "The Town" did not disappoint. I thought "Inception" had a lock on movie of the year but I feel it suddenly has some serious competition. I had high hopes for this movie going in and it not only met them, it surpassed them. I know, who would have thought it?

"The Town" has an amazing cast starting with the enigmatic Jeremy Renner who fresh off his role in the Oscar award winning film "The Hurt Locker" (the movie that won me my very first Oscar wager by the way) brings a menacing presence to this movie in a way that would make you look at your best friends differently. Playing James Coughlin, Renner is all hot head and danger rolled up in one with such a twisted sense of loyalty that he's not only deadly to complete strangers but to those he loves as well. Affleck plays his best friend Doug MacRay and together with Slaine playing Albert Magloan and newcomer Owen Burke playing Desmond Elmond they are an unforgiving and well organized band of theives from Charlestown, Mass. They take down everything from armored trucks to banks and it's a bank job where Affleck's MacRay meets Claire Keesey played by Rebecca Hall and things really get complicated.

Rounding out the cast is Jon Hamm from "Mad Men" and he plays the FBI agent charged with bringing MacRay and his team to justice. Then there's Blake Lively, the amazing Peter Postlewaite and Chris Cooper, as well as the underrated Titus Welliver who plays Jon Hamm's partner. To call this a powerhouse cast is to be putting it mildly and Affleck does one hell of a job getting the best out of each of them. He definitely knows what he's doing behind the camera.

This film has everything you could possibly want for your dollar. Gripping drama, unresolved father/son issues, a love story, and even a car chase William Friedkin, the director of the testosterone fueled "To Live and Die in L.A." would be proud of. The only issues I have with the film are the constant closeups of the actors (you could practically count each facial hair and tooth sometimes) and the music, it's forgettable. Outside of those to glitches, this picture shines and if you ever wanted to get an inside tour of Fenway Park then definitely see this film.

Ben Affleck, director....who knew?

See you at the movies!

Takers

Just to let you know, just to put this up front at the jump, "Takers" isn't the most original film ever done. In fact I think Michael Mann could justify filing a lawsuit against the filmakers of this movie because if this isn't a remake of Mann's "Heat" starring De Niro and Pacino then it's the sequel. Oh and if you missed the shootout at the end of "True Romance" starring Slater and Arquette then rest easy my fine readers, it's in here. As is the blatant and brazen rip off of "The Italian Job" starring Wahlberg and Theron. In fact that movie is even mentioned by name for the heist these well dressed men are about to pull. Like I said, it's not the most original movie ever made.

However, this movie does have a few things going for it and one of them like I stated was the wardrobe. I would have to say that only the Ocean's 11, 12, and 13 movies were better dressed than the people in this film. I would bet that a good portion of the budget was spent on the wardrobe alone. Add to that the fact that this movie had a cast that pretty much included everybody you could think of and even a few surprises and you'll forgive the cliche story line and the blatant rip offs of the movies I listed above.

Idris Elba does his best DeNiro as "Gordon" and leads his well dressed and precise team of thieves on a bank heist as the movie opens. Thankfully the director of this movie, John Luessenhop allows Idris to speak in his native Hackney, England accent. A refreshing change in my opinion (and just for the record I think he'd make a great Bond if they ever make another one of those movies). In his team are Michael Ealy, Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, and Chris Brown and they are a finely tuned machine a with nary a disagreement between any of them. What Idris says is law and the team usually falls in line. That is until an old acquaintance gets released from prison a year early for good behavior.

T.I. plays the appropriately name "Ghost" and he comes back to the gang with a job that would be their biggest payday yet. Michael Ealy's character "Jake" wants him dead immediately but get's overruled by the team because they want to hear about his "job". "Ghost" has a serious bone to pick with his old crew though thanks to a heist gone bad back in 2004 which got him sent to prison. He lost his girlfriend, the always lovely Zoey Saldana to Michael Ealy's "Jake" in the process so there really is no love lost between those two at all.

Matt Dillon does his best Pacino playing detective "Jack Wells" while tracking down this crew while going through a divorce and potentially losing his daughters love, sound familiar? Someone get Michael Mann on the phone. He's truculent with the higher ups and even downright abrasive when it comes to dealing with Internal Affairs. His main focus is capturing the bad guys who robbed the bank and nothing else matters. Rounding out the cast are Glynn Turman, Steve Harris, Johnathon Schaech, Jay Hernandez, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (who I think has been highly underrated her entire career). It's quite the cast and they are deftly directed by John Luessenhop, his second film and first with a budget this large I'm sure but you couldn't tell that by what you see on the screen. While you do see his inspiration from other films and directors he still does an okay job of pulling you into this movie. Sometimes the camera work is sloppy and while you have no idea what's going on at times it's still a solid job. The movie is stylish and glossy and at times even artistic. Scored by Paul Haslinger the music fits the images but sadly is ultimately forgettable.

Would I recommend this movie? Hard to say. That would depend on whether you liked "Heat", "True Romance", and "The Italian Job" and you wouldn't mind seeing all those movies again just this time all at the same time.

See you at the theater!

The Expendables

To say “The Expendables” was one of the worst films I have ever seen would be doing all those other bad films a serious disservice. At least those movies tried to give you something interesting while missing on some front along the way. Maybe they dedicated far too much time in character development on a character you could care less about or maybe they gave you too much action and no character development at all. There were those movies that gave you no story line or decent kind of plot at all and had you scratching your head as to what the hell was going on but the acting was pretty good or the cinematography was amazing. There was pretty much always something you could hang your hat on in those bad films that could almost justify the price of admission, almost. With “The Expendables”, there is no hook of any kind and no justifying the cost of the ticket.

If this movie came out when Arnold was fighting aliens with faces that looked like crabs and Bruce was fighting foreign thieves in Nakatomi and Mel and Danny were still the most entertaining form of ebony and ivory on the big screen then MAYBE this movie wouldn’t have been so bad. Sadly that isn’t the case. This movie is instead populated by action movie stars, wrestling stars, and MMA stars well past their prime (the budget on makeup alone must have been enormous). Sloppily directed by the heavy handed and ridiculously predictable Sylvester Stallone, this movie does everything it can to insult your intelligence and if you’ve seen his “John Rambo” opus then you’ve seen this movie already. This time though, instead of bringing along a bunch of no names like he did in “John Rambo” he decided to bring along every out of work action star from fifteen years ago hoping to get that dollar out of your pocket. I mean how could you NOT want to see that scene with Arnold, Bruce, and Stallone finally in the same room at the same time?

The dialogue was a joke and the plot is just utterly ridiculous but you didn’t buy your ticket for Shakespeare. You brought that ticket to see things blow up and old white men fight and flirt with women at least half their age and in that case you wouldn’t be disappointed at all. The explosions are many and grow in intensity as the movie goes on. The fights are numerous and border on the ludicrous and the three women in this movie I doubt will ever be using this film to pad their resume. The editing, much like the story is all over the place and apparently Sly has fallen in love with CG blood. He used it in “John” but he’s taken it to the next level by supposedly using guns so powerful that they can blow heads clean off bodies and cut bodies completely in half.

The story (and I use that word VERY lightly) follows a merry band of high paid mercenaries that get hired by the CIA (yawn) to assassinate a ruthless Latin American dictator that’s backed by a rogue ex CIA agent (yawn). There are the subplots of domestic abuse, substance abuse, and guilt for past deeds that took place in some jungle while bathed in blood. In the hands of real actors this may have been believable but for guys who only know how to squint and pump iron it all comes across as fake. The score by Brian Tyler was completely over the top like everything else in this movie. I usually really like his scores but this one, not so much. The music tried to add emotion where the actors failed too and went bombastic during the action sequences in the attempt to get that adrenaline rushing.

If you like and missed seeing Sly, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Eric Roberts, and Jason Statham and you don’t mind the unabashedly simplistic plot then you just may enjoy this movie. A movie that should have been released at least fifteen maybe twenty years ago.

Cairo Time

I have always like Patricia Clarkson as an actress. I always felt she was someone underrated and overlooked in the pantheon of fine actors. I admired her work in movies like "The Green Mile", "Far From Heaven", and "The Station Agent" but I didn't become a fan of hers until "Elegy" (which is a movie I highly recommend). I have also been a fan of Alexander Siddig's work as well. He's a very elegant actor and brings a certain dignity to everything he is in. From his TV work on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", "MI5", and "24" to his work in films like "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Syriana" Siddig has never disappointed. So I was excited to find out these two fine actors were going to be starring opposite each other in a complex love story entitled "Cairo Time".

It's a movie set in the hustle and bustle of the largest city in Egypt and Clarkson's character, Juliette flies to Cairo in the hopes of connecting with her husband Mark who works for the U.N. for a much needed vacation. He's in Gaza and he's been delayed in getting to his wife so he asks an old friend and retired co-worker to look in on his wife. That friend is Siddig's character Tareq who when immediately after meeting Juliette offers her something she's denied herself for years. Was it because of her husband or her lifestyle? You never find out but when she does eventually indulge you can see the walls begin to fall and you see Juliette begin to feel free.

Early on Juliette gets herself in some trouble in Cairo. Walking the streets without being "properly dressed" she is almost attacked by the young men who liked what they saw. So much so that they chased her into a store and the proprietor had to shoo the men away. There are other mistakes made along the way along with some matrimonial bickering with the ever delayed husband Mark. To the rescue of possible physical altercations and plain old boredom comes the ever charming and ever graceful Tareq.

A friendship is formed amidst the beauty and the grit of Cairo and as Juliette grows more comfortable with her surroundings, she grow more comfortable with Tareq. She even begins toying with the idea of staying in Cairo. Much in the way the city has, Tareq has grown on Juliette and while she loves her husband dearly, she likes the way Tareq makes her feel beautiful again. She likes the freedom he represents and just when you think she's about to take that step, just when she wants to take that step, she can't.

Written and directed by Ruba Nadda, Cairo Time is a very sweet and heartbreaking love story between two people seemingly happy with the way their lives turned out only to realize they may have missed out on so much more. And while the score is forgettable, the cinematography is not. It captures the beauty of the architecture, the grandeur, and the madness of Cairo in vivid fashion that it feels like you've visited the city without ever getting on a plane. I really enjoyed this movie and would definitely recommend it.

See you at the theater!