Short Reviews #46
Moon (2009)
I have so much praise for this sci-fi flick, I can hardly contain my excitement. Whether it be the excellent performance from Sam Rockwell, the visuals, the set design, the direction, the score and an overwhelming sense of abandonment and loneliness you feel in every frame make this easily one of the year’s best films. The simple premise finds Sam Rockwell positioned on the moon, along with GERTY, a computer (similar to HAL from 2001) to send back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet’s power problems. He’s been there three years and strange things start to happen. Directed by Duncan Jones (who is actually David Bowie’s son!), Moon is an ambitious film yet shot on extremely low-budget (around US$5 million). However it looks more expensive than it is and Jones throws around grand thematic content that any serious sci-fi film fan will embrace with open arms. Clearly inspired by 2001 both visually and in tone, the themes are different for the most part however and it will stay with you long after the credits roll, much like 2001. Although Star Trek made all the money this year at the sci-fi box-office, Moon is certainly the more fascinating of the two.
Short Reviews #45
2012 (2009)
DESTROPORN! Yes Roland Emmerich delivers yet another disaster movie with special effects up the yin-yang and paltry character arcs. But if you expect more from the German filmmaker, you will be disappointed. This is perhaps his finest film in terms of f/x work and watching the world crumble on a huge screen is worth the price of admission alone. The sequence where John Cusack and co flee the destruction in a limo is so outrageously unbelievable yet undeniably thrilling, it makes for great popcorn fun. The same applies when they ditch the limo for the small plane. Of course, character drama is scattered throughout and it’s awfully grating at times that you wish someone would throw Emmerich down a molten volcano cavity, but he makes up for it with ultra destruction. Sadly the best sequences are in the trailer and I was expecting perhaps a little more that they just didn’t show but with a reported US$260 million budget, I guess money has to run out somewhere. Emmerich is now apparently eyeing off Independence Day sequels. Yeeeeeeeep.
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Paranormal Activity sat on the shelves for a while, filmmaker Oren Peli then starting playing it at festivals and eventually Spielberg got hold of it, told Peli to change the ending and the rest is now cinematic history. Costing US$15,000 to make and breaking the US$100 million box office draw, the film is easily one of the year’s best horror/thrillers and if you bought into the whole Blair Witch Project, chances are you will be scared out of your mind with Paranormal Activity. The film focuses a couple living in a house that are haunted daily by a demon in the early hours of the morning and decide to film the events on digital video over a series of October nights. Such a simple premise, director Peli starts with a slow build and eventually revves it up for a terrifying conclusion. He uses the exact same scare technique as all the best horror films – the fear of the unknown. Horror fans who like their films oozing with gore will be disappointed but rest assured, if you watch this sucker just before bed with an audience of people who buy into the whole premise, good luck trying to get to sleep! PS – There are apparently three endings to the film, I’ve seen two and much prefer the original, non-theatrical ending. You can read or see them online (Google is your friend).
A Christmas Carol (2009)
This latest update of the classic Dicken’s story is certainly one to test purists and cinema goers alike. For one, Zemeckis sticks largely to the original source material with characters spouting word-from-word from the text. Secondly, he continues to utilise his performance-capture techniques to realize the characters and world in which the story takes place. I remember reading quite a backlash against the film initially with people saying why doesn’t he just shoot everything live action but once you see the film, you realise it’s far more seamless doing it with performance-capture, 3D and CGI. That’s not to say it’s perfect by any means but Zemeckis is such a master of cinema and 3D performance capture, he knows how to tell a story that is ultimately cinematic and will appeal to all audiences. Of course, if you actively despise performance capture, then this probably won’t appeal to you at all. Jim Carrey plays a number of characters in the film and his performance is one of his best in years, even under the performance-capture mask. Silvestri’s score is also a highlight, with plenty of Christmas carol’s beautifully rendered. The film is actually very dark thematically in places (much like the book) and this is probably too dark for the very young, but teens and above should enjoy what’s on offer here and seeing it in 3D at a cinema is a must. But yeah, we still want another live-action Back to the Future trilogy thanks Zemeckis!
Funny People (2009)
Judd Apatow’s attempt at a Cameron Crowe film? At least in the first half. Then it loses steam and at just over two and a half hours, it does seem to go on, and on, and on, and on…. It’s almost as if because of the success of 40 Year Old Virginand Knocked Up, executives have given him free reign with anything he does. However someone should have informed him “You really need to cut out forty-five minutes to an hour of this second half”. Had he listened, this would have been a much tighter, less conflicted film because all the elements are there – the characters, the laughs, even some drama. But it outstays its welcome in that last half and I really wanted it to end to be honest. Rogan (who lost a fair bit of weight since Observe & Report) was actually likeable this time around, with solid support from his room-mates Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman. But this is Adam Sandler’s film and he does very well in the role. We all know Sandler showed dramatic promise with Punch Drunk-Love and whilst this role won’t win him an Oscar, it does paint him in a different light – especially since the character he is playing is a representation of himself in some way, albeit a more obnoxious and self-centred version. There is much to like here but the film is such a jumbled mess, it’s hard to recommend it.
Bored to Death (TV) (2009)
Jonathan Ame’s HBO mystery noir comedy is a fun show, with Jason Schwartzman playing a struggling New York writer/unlicensed private detective who just broke up with his girlfriend, his friend and occasional sidekick played by Zack Galifianakis and Ted Danson, who plays Schwartzman’s magazine editor friend. The entire ensemble is fantastic and although I’ve never been a big Danson fan before, he surprises here. The show doesn’t really have a definitive arc and meanders from episode-to-episode but there are some truly comedic gold moments scattered throughout the eight episode first season. Schwartzman was born to play the lead (he also performs the theme song) while Galifianakis continues to play awkward yet hilarious characters. I prefer this to HBO’s other drifting comedy ‘Hung’ only because it’s much funnier but I just wish the next season knows where it’s going from beginning to end.
Short Reviews #44
Trick ‘r Treat (2008)
Trick ‘r Treat sat on the shelf for over a year but we can finally now see Michael Dougherty’s feature film debut exercise in Halloween fun. It’s a shame this never made it to cinemas because this would be great fun to watch with a huge audience of horror fans. The film interweaves four separate stories much like in the tradition of the Tales of the Crypt 80’s series and all of the sequences work really well. The school bus sequence is a highlight and genuinely scary but the film takes on his black humour tone which is hard to resist for any horror fan. I don’t think I’ve seen a more polished Halloween film since the original Halloween (reviewed below) that captures the spirit of the American holiday. Whilst this isn’t in the same league of seminal horror greats, I look forward to popping this in the blu-ray player each and every Halloween. Dougherty at one point wanted to make one of these films every Halloween but I doubt that will ever eventuate. If I had to knit pick, the only downside was in the last sequence when the sack kid (Sam) removed his head sack. Better to keep it a mystery.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
The latest Harry Potter largely differs in tone to the previous films in the franchise. Whereas the others had various degrees of lightness and darkness, The Half-Blood Prince goes to the darkness and relies on dialogue and mood rather than the spectacle we are so used to with the other films. And that’s fine IF the performances can deliver. Unfortunately the three leads are still fairly average when it comes to delivering an emotional performance. I guess you could blame the actors in some way but I think it also comes down to direction. There is a major death in this film but for some reason, I didn’t emote like I should have. I’ve enjoyed most of the previous films in the franchise but I found this one very cold and quite frankly, boring albeit well-made technically. From my understanding this is the beginning of a major war in the stories timeline so I guess this is a setup film but at the same time, it’s two and half hours long and it feels ultimately uneventful and unsatisfying. Here’s hoping director David Yates can deliver the goods and reach (and hopefully go beyond) some of the cinematic heights of Afonso’s efforts in The Prisoner of Azkaban (the best film in the franchise imho) for the final two films.
Orphan (2009)
The psycho killer child. We’ve all seen at least one example in the genre but this one is actually rather effective. The performance from youngster Isabelle Fuhrman is both exceptional and incredibly freaky at times. This is certainly not one you would watch with kids either as quite violent at times but it’s also well directed and the performances for the most part are very good. The ending gets a little silly but if you get that far, you go with it regardless. Genre fans will lap this one up, everyone else will want to avoid.
Halloween (1978)
The original and still the best, I screened this at our Halloween party this year on blu-ray and it simply looks stunning! Sure it’s aged a bit but the mastery is all there – the music, the cinematography, the way Michael moves, the heavy breathing, the terrible acting (which I think adds to the mood), the building of suspense. It’s definitely on equal footing with Hitchcock’s Psycho (obviously where it gets its inspiration from) and oh my god, shits all over Rob Zombie’s pathetic reimagining. I’m still a little confused as to why it still carries an R rating here in Australia when there’s hardly any blood at all! I haven’t checked out the audio commentary from Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis and Debra Hill. Can’t wait!
My Name is Bruce (2007)
Serious Evil Dead and Bruce Campbell fans will probably get a kick out of this b-grade comedy where Campbell plays himself. I love the Evil Dead films and of course Bruce but this is very by-the-numbers material. Campbell plays himself who is kidnapped by a fan to help hunt a monster in a small town in Oregon. Campbell directed this one and there are plenty of Evil Dead cameos and references. The trouble is, you kinda want to see another Evil Dead film rather than this because it’s pretty terrible. It just goes to show what talent Sam Raimi has because he knows how to use Bruce well in a movie. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to wait until Sam decides to direct another Evil Dead. *Sigh*
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Hooverdust is a pop culture blog designed and developed by James Sann. I cover a range of topics such as Film, Music, TV, Photography, Design and teh internets.
Based in Melbourne and Bendigo, Australia, in my professional life, I am a freelance multimedia designer, photographer and a part-time University lecturer & tutor.
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