Unlike some other 2009 blockbuster, screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have crafted a legitimate origin story for the franchise. The film opens with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock as children on their respective planets showing a distinct promise of greatness. Over the years, the Star Trek galaxy has become so vast that the characters within it seem to have shrunk in stature, considered more to be model citizens of the Federation than anything more. By focusing on the early years of these two shipmates, Mr. Abrams is emphasizing that Kirk, Spock and their cohorts are not the norm; they are extraordinary; they are superheroes. Continue reading at the candler blog.

Drugs, guns, vulgarity and rims are just the tip of the pigeonholed iceberg that is Benny Boom’s feature debut, Next Day Air; but what this little caper has that so many other films of a similar ilk lack is heart, and lots of it.

The improbable story follows ten bricks of cocaine from a formidable drug dealer in Calexico, California to his dispatcher in Philadelphia by way of an overnight delivery service, Next Day Air. Donald Faison, of Scrubs fame, plays Leo Jackson, a chronically stoned delivery man for the fictitious company, whose mind is so clouded on the job that he delivers the coke to apartment 302 instead of 303, setting events in motion. The drugs end up in the hands of fledgling criminals Guch, Brody and Hassie instead of the diminutive yet feisty Jesus, who prefers to be called “Gee-sus” rather than “Hay-zoos”. While Hassie is sleeping on the couch, as he is for the most of the film, Guch and Brody, played with an incredible balance of humor and charisma by Wood Harris and Mike Epps, respectively, hatch a plan to sell the dope to Brody’s cousin, Shavoo, before the rightful owners get wise to the mistake. Think of it like True Romance but without white people and set in Philly. Continue reading at the candler blog.

The film opens with a hint of promise in northwestern Canada in 1845. A sickly young James Logan, who is to become our Wolverine, accidentally kills his biological father (who had just killed his adopted father!) with his newly discovered retractable bone claws and runs off to the woods. There, another boy, Victor, who we just learned is in fact James’s brother, is waiting. They run off together, promising never to separate and to never go back.

As it turns out, Victor is a mutant just like James. He will grow up to become who X-heads will recognize as Sabretooth, though filmgoers will never know that as he is never bestowed a fabulous nom de guerre as our hunky Logan is (Wolverine, rawr). Since their main power is the ability to cheat death, they live on through history, though oddly, United States history. For whatever reason, these two mutant Canucks fight in every major U.S. war of the last two centuries. This confusion is compounded by the question: if they are immortal, why did they choose to stay thirty-five forever? Normally I might gloss over these niggles, but this is an origin story after all; these are the questions we need answers to. Continue reading at the candler blog.

The film follows Rose Lorkowski, played by Amy Adams, a down on her luck single mother in Albuquerque who makes ends meat by cleaning houses. Rose’s sister, Norah, is a former punk-kid who never grew up, can’t hold down a job, and lives with their idiosyncratic father, played with respectable charm by Alan Arkin. When Rose’s police officer boyfriend, who is married, tells her how much money there is to be made in cleaning up messy crime scenes, a lightbulb goes off and the tiny glint of a plot begins to form. Of course, the two sisters start a business cleaning up crime scenes while dealing with their own emotional hangups.

Duplicity

Mr. Owen and Ms. Roberts play Ray Koval and Claire Stenwick, two former state spies who take corporate intel positions at competing household products firms, Equikrom and Burkett & Randle (B & R). When B & R leaks the existence of a top secret project, the game is on to see who can get to the spoils first. That is really all I can put down here to keep the film interesting for you, so let’s dive into the meat of it. Keep Reading at the candler blog.

The story follows two men, Daniel Archer and Solomon Vandy. The first is a white diamond smuggler and self-proclaimed soldier of fortune played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The second, played by Djimon Hounsou, is a black fisherman who becomes entangled in both Sierra Leone’s civil war and the international diamond trade when his village is attacked by rebels. They are both African, and that is the point.

It seems as though Mr. Zwick sets out to make Gone With The Wind on every outing. He finds singular bits of schmaltz amid nations brought to the brink of armageddon and uses them as his macguffin to, well, blow a bunch of shit up and teach us all a lesson by the end of the pummeling. If ever this tactic works, it works best in Blood Diamond. Most of where this film stands apart is in the actind. Mr. DiCaprio and Mr. Hounsou bring a great deal of heart to the table. Archer as the cold hearted cynic who, surprise, lightens up a bit by the end, and Vandy as the loving man-child who dreams for a simpler world, where he could live in peace with his family.

My favorite moments in this film is a scene where Archer must pretend to be a journalist and Vandy must pose as his cameraman so that they may get a free ride towards the giant diamond around which the film centers. Bear in mind, at the point, Vandy has lost his family, his home, and he has very litttle to gain by finding the diamond anyhow. Still, he pulls Archer aside and yells at him “I cannot do this!” He is referring to lying. The scene is both heart-warming and heart breaking, but in the end I found myself chuckling. The film would be better with more of this, but that is all we get.

I absolutely recommend giving this one a viewing if you haven’t yet.

The story follows a man and a boy walking down a road, searching for sustenance and dodging evil-doers, after the end of days. How and why the earth has been scorched into oblivion is never explained because it doesn’t need to be. Mr. McCarthy has kept as much information out of the story as possible, even going so far as to do away with contractions and other formatting niceties, like quotations marks or chapters. The message is clear: show only what is needed, nothing more. I’ll follow suit, and offer you nothing more of the plot, it would ruin the experience of reading it.

According to IMDb, Mr. McCarthy’s books have been adapted into four films so far, including last year’s Best Picture winner No Country For Old Men. The Road represents one of three more films coming out adapted from his work. I doubt the film will be very good, but it’s obvious why it would be made. The novel’s stripped down nature reads just like a screenplay. Action, action, dialogue, scene. This formula lent itself extremely well to No Country, which follows the book almost to the letter.

But this book is very different. There is no chase. There is nothing to strive for. Ultimately, there seems to be no reason to live in this non-world that the author has drawn up for us, which is why this book has mystified readers since its release. Is it a great read? Yes. Is it anything more than that? No. Do I recommend it? Hell yes.

Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Fanboys, haters, newbies, and snobs, hear me out…I liked this movie. The emotional stakes are very high this holiday weekend over whether or not you liked this movie, with the discussions generally devolving into factoid pissing contests over the sanctity of the franchise, the relevance of Lucaspielberg (or Splucas), or the overall state of cinema itself. I’ll try to answer as many of your questions as possible over the next few minutes, but let me start by letting you know one thing, I liked this movie.

The Indiana Jones franchise is once of the most lucrative in the history of fiction, which is wholly fascinating since the original incarnation of the fedora’d adventurer first appeared on the silver screen, a rare feat in an industry bloated with repurposed protagonists. Though bits and pieces of him have been culled from various moments of pop, his celluloid scowl we came to love as the 1980s began bore a new kind of hero for a country looking desperately for one in a time of crisis.  He was steamy, he was smart, and he could crack a phallus like no other, so we immediately latched on with love.

First he conquered the Nazis with decidedly Hebrew magic, then he defeated, uhhh, weird Indian voodoo guys with some awesome magic rocks, and then we watched with awe as he once again showed the Third Reich the door by throwing Christianity in their faces. It was a wild ride and Harrisson Ford slipped into every journey with ease. However, the makers figured he could be dusted off for one more journey.

Our classic baddies, the Nazis, have been replaced by Russian Commies hell bent on beating the U.S. in the cold war. Classic. It’s important to note that George Lucas, love him, hate him, or do either one too much, is extremely astute in choosing his metaphors. He is saying a lot about American military policy over the last few decades…

Review: The Happening

Over the years, we have all conditioned ourselves for the experience of sitting through a film by M. Night Shyamalan. Watch out for empty bits of the frame, because something scary this way comes; be sure not to chatter your teeth when James Newton Howard’s score ramps up; and for the love of Pete don’t let anything happen to the children. While all of those elements fall into place as usual in his latest offering, The Happening, we are also given a delightful taste of a virtuous filmmaker learning from his own mistakes. The film shows a lot of growth for Mr. Shyamalan as a director and really is a step in the right direction for his career. If only his writing could come as far as his helming capabilities.

An homage to zombie/horror films of the 1960s, at least I hope it is, this film isn’t afraid of spreading on the cheese. Some event is causing people all over the Northeast to lose control of their senses and begin committing suicide en masse. The way in which this idea first unfurls is actually quite beautiful in its simplicity. Mr. Shyamalan has a reputation for being a militant preservationist, often to his detriment. He is probably the only filmmaker his age who still edits on a KEM reel to reel.

Review: The Incredible Hulk

I’d like to thank Louis Letterier and the entire team behind “The Incredible Hulk” for helping me to understand the virtues hidden within Ang Lee’s 2003 “The Hulk”. This is not to say that I didn’t necessarily enjoy this summer’s slamfest, but the earlier film, which was mocked by critics and avoided by auds, holds true as both a better film and even a better comic book film. First off, let’s get to the meat of the latest installment from Avi Arad’s juggernaut shingle, Marvel Studios

Bruce Banner’s alter ego has always been a confusing superhero in that his abilities seem too far out of his own control: get him angry and he crushes you. After a quick-cut origin intro that doesn’t resemble anything that happened in the last film, we find our hero hiding out in Brazil, learning to control his rage. This is nice as it seems we might start to see him hone his heroic abilities a bit more later on, but we’ll have to wait for the next film to see more of that.

Review: Quantum of Solace

Quantam of Solace started out quite good, but it sorta devolved into just the same old shlock by the end. I think Malthus’s death is when the film jumped the shark. I don’t, however, believe the franchise did. Ultimately that happened with the end of the cold war, a concept which is toyed with in the previous franchise installment, Casino Royale by Martin Campbell. In this latest outing by costume dramedy helmer Marc Forster, absent is the grief for a bygone era when men in Bond’s line of work were actually necessary, and in its place is a sweeping attempt to humanize a trained killer.

This idea that trained killers possess somewhat of a heart beneath their rock-hard bodes and bloodthirsty training is all to common a concept in cinema these days.

Right down to the cast, Quantum of Solace remind’s me too damn much of Steven Spielberg’s Munich, by which, while I rather enjoyed that tale of humanity lying beneath the cold hard surface of trained operatives, I mean in the most pejorative sense. When I go to see a film with Albert R. Broccoli’s name in the credits, I have a certain set of expectations that ought be met by the time I finish my $9.00 popcorn.

Review: W.

That Oliver Stone’s “W.” is neither a train wreck nor a bloated Hollywood liberal mud-fest does not necessarily make it a worthwhile endeavor. Jumping back and forth through the life of the 43rd President, the film offers us very little in terms of a personal narrative, instead delivering a mediocre perspective on his presidency that one could have acquired for free simply by living in America over the past decade. Still, Mr. Stone has risen to the daunting task of biographing a sitting President whose legacy is still to-be-determined with a steady hand and a shaky camera to create a vivid picture of the man as we have known him thus far. –Poritsky 11/3/08 1:19 PM

The film opens in the oval office in 2002, as the President and his pals discuss the semantic designation of the nation’s enemies. What slowly comes across as this film creeps forward is that the Mr. Bush is a vicious politician, a genius with selling ideas be they right or wrong.

Review: Changeling

Somewhere in the middle of Clint Eastwood’s latest offering, “Changeling”, the story veers off and becomes significantly more interesting than what you initially sat down to watch. However, unlike some of the tenacious director’s more recent work, the film refuses to capitalize on that newfound interest and instead opts to cycle through the same dreck you had to walk through to get to that point in the first place. This is a real shame because the tale that unfurls is one with so much potential (corruption, resilience, revolution, etc.) that it is hard to believe it could fall short on any of its considerable promise.

First and foremost I would like to say that I am wholly unimpressed with Angelina Jolie’s performance as our heroine, Christine Collins. In fairness to the actress, she really wasn’t given much to work with in the one-note script written by J. Michael Straczynski. Half her lines are either “That’s not my son” or “I want my son back”. Still, she ramps up immediately and never turns it down.

At long last, Bryan Singer’s consistently postponed Valkyrie hit theaters this past Christmas, actually a few months ahead of schedule. The controversy surrounding the film, which provided about two years of delectable biz luncheon gossip, will be forgotten with time, and thankfully so because the resulting film is a slick little addition to Mr. Singer’s short but monumental resume. It is a great little thrill ride that manages to suck you in and convince you of a daring concept, that not all Nazis are bad. In fact, the film is so good at pulling this parlor trick off early on that the audience is even able to sympathize with those most devilish of SS officers.

Based on the real-life attempt to to assassinate Adolph Hitler from within the Third Reich, the film follows the exploits of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, played with surprising refrain by Tom Cruise. The megastar has trouble slipping into historical roles, evidenced by his twenty-first century charm on full display in Ed Zwick’s 19th century drama, The Last Samurai. In that ambitious project, Mr. Cruise appeared to be reprising his role as Jerry Maguire only with more hair and a sword. Not so this time around. Thanks mostly to the visceral pace of Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander’s screeenplay, Mr. Cruise is never afforded the chance to be cute or charming. Instead, we spend the better part of two and a half hours watching the world around him spin out of control while he desperately tries to keep himself grounded in the middle of it all.

On one end of the spectrum in Valkyrie is, of course, Hitler and his Third Reich. As von Stauffenberg divulges via voice-over-diary entries in the beginning, our heroes feel as if Hitler had turned the German empire, initially a concept they all supported, into something so evil, that if left on its current course it could very well mean the end of the world. The detractors wanted to let the world know that not all Germans, not all Germany, supported their megalomaniac chancellor’s ideals. And so, after surviving an airstrike in Tunisia, less an eye and a few fingers, von Stauffenberg is brought to Berlin to join an elite group of conspirators, which is where he is confronted with the other end of the spectrum, the politicians. If Hitler represents pure evil, then this gaggle of blowhards represent the bureaucratic fumbling that allow evil to exist. Being the heroic type that he is, von Stauffenberg refuses to participate unless they canfind a way to control Germany after the impending death of the Führer, fearing just ano0ther dictatorship brewing amongst the opportunistic clan.

The most interesting scene of the film, for my money, happens when an SS captain who has been charged with arresting Nazi officers accused of treason (not von Stauffenberg and friends, but the bad Nazis), is pitted face to face with Joseph Goebbels. Standing alone in an immense office, Goebbels pops a cyanide pill under his tongue as the captian approaches, clutching a telephone receiver. He hands it to the captain; hearing Hitler’s voice on the other end, he realizes he has been duped, and retreats. What is so fascinating is that both men are what we know to be pure evil, and yet Mr. Singer found a way to hook us in, to feel for both men, to feel the imminence of their doom in that moment.

Hopefully this is a jumping off point for the director, whose resume is saturated with blockbuster genre pictures, even though he exploded on the stage with the “indie” success The Usual Suspects. Mr. Singer has more access than almost any director his age, so we can hope to see more of this fare from him in the future, though we love the superhero stuff too.