If 2011's Drive proved anything, it was that Nicolas Winding Refn is a director to look out for. His amazing visual style turned what could have been an ordinary story of a getaway driver into something extraordinary. Now Refn returns with his latest effort entitled Only God Forgives, a film that premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival.
Stand Up Guys is the tale of three elderly men having one last night out on the town together. They realize that there’s not much time left, so they figure, why not get the gang back together and relive their glory days? On its own, this might not seem like such an unusual premise, that is, until you factor in that these guys are all former criminals who used to be involved in activities such as robbery and murder. With that in mind, you can begin to imagine just what kind of a night on the town these three would have.
It may be rather hard to believe, but I hadn’t seen “Funny Girl” prior to this release. It’s quite possible that some may find this to be a bit of cinematic blasphemy, especially for a film buff like me, but unfortunately the Streisand musical was never near the top of my list of older film that I absolutely had to see. What with the impending release of the film on Blu-Ray for its 45th anniversary, there seemed like no better time to finally visit what many consider to be a classic film, so without further ado, let’s dive right in.
The basis of The Intouchables is one we’ve seen several times before in which a plot will take two people who are seemingly nothing alike and from completely different backgrounds and put them together. Even though it’s the kind of premise that gets used quite often, directors/writers Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano manage to make it seem fresher than usual by using a good dose of humor and getting a touching pair of performances out of the leads.
Sinister is a bit of a rarity in the horror genre. Here we have a horror film that actually tries to create its scares out of mood and atmosphere, as many filmmakers used to do it in the days of old, instead of trying to gross out its audience with buckets of blood and other grotesqueries. Nowadays, it’s a sad state of affairs where filmmakers in this genre think that the more blood they throw in, the better their film will be. That’s not saying that gore can’t be a major element, but it can’t be all that you have. If it is, there’s no real reason for the audience to be scared, but if you have mood and atmosphere, there’s no telling what a horror film could do.
Perhaps the nicest thing that can be said of Celeste and Jesse Forever is that it doesn’t follow the incredibly clichéd romantic-comedy formula right down to the letter. After seeing dozens and dozens of rom-com films roll off the assembly line featuring the exact same scenario, it’s a slight breath of fresh air to see one at least try to go in a different direction. That being said, it still falls for many of the old trappings that the formula provides, one of which ends up being a pretty big nail in the coffin for the film from pretty much the very beginning.
Author James Patterson has been writing about his infamous detective, Alex Cross, for several years now. So far, there have been 17 books and three film adaptations. Now I’ve never read a single one of his popular novels, but I have seen the films. “Kiss the Girls” and “Along Came a Spider” were interesting mysteries, and while they may not have been particularly great films, at the very least they had the great Morgan Freeman as the brooding, contemplative detective. Now we come to the third adaptation, which no longer features Freeman. If it was Freeman who opted not to come back, it seems he knew exactly when to jump ship. However, if it was the filmmakers who decided to replace him, then they couldn’t have made a bigger mistake.
“The Possession” is another one of those horror movies that purports to be based on a true story, which right away tells you that it’s either most likely very, very loosely based on something that actually happened or it simply didn’t happen at all and is being used as a marketing gimmick. In this case, it’s the former, but before I begin to talk about the film, I should probably note that I should have thrown in a few more “verys” up top.
Branded is one of the strangest viewing experiences I’ve had in a while. Here we have a film that starts off seemingly wanting to deliver an important message about the dangers of advertising and consumerism before eventually turning into a complete train wreck. Whatever was on the writers/directors’ minds gets lost in a mess of bad writing, muddled tones, and a really silly performance from the lead filled with plenty of overacting. However, before we get to all that, let’s take a look at what little plot the film has.
House at the End of the Street is further evidence as to just how lazy horror film makers are getting nowadays. I realize that the genre is used by many filmmakers as a starting point to get off the ground or to make a quick buck, but does that mean that they can’t put a little thought into their product? This year alone, we’ve already had such turkeys as Intruders, Silent Hill: Revelation, Paranormal Activity 4, Resident Evil: Retribution, and The Apparition. Now, as if the list wasn’t already crowded enough, we get to add yet another. As you’ll see, an overlong title is the least of its worries.
