Drive- Movie Review

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Screenplay by Hossein Amini, based on the novel by James Sallis.
Running Time: 100 minutes (1h, 40 mins.)
Rated R (for strong brutal bloody violence, language and some nudity).
Distributor: FilmDistrict

"If I drive for you, you give the time and a place. I give you a five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours no matter what." That is the line Ryan Gosling's unnamed character (we simply know him as Driver) opens Drive with. These are his rules when he moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals, which you must be able to follow. During these five minutes, he has a timer which he sets for five minutes and while listening to a sports game on the radio, he has police reports on another. When he drives, the skills he has are incredible. When driving two criminals, he's able to evade the police in a quick moment, hiding his car behind the back of a truck and eventually at the Staples Center parking lot, which is crowded with people. That scene just grabbed me and that was only the beginning...

Other than moonlighting as a getaway driver, Driver is also a mechanic at his friend Shannon's (Bryan Cranston) garage and an occasional Hollywood stunt driver. He becomes involved with his neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), a single mother with a young son. The two develop a romantic connection, even when her husband, Standard (Oscar Issac) returns home from prison. Standard needs to pay off his protection money to a mobster, so he asks Driver to help him rob a pawn shop. The heist, however, goes horribly wrong when Standard gets shot and Driver must do everything he can to protect Irene and her son, Benicio (Kaden Leos), when he realizes the gangsters are after more than just the money.

For those who haven't seen the movie yet, please don't think that mentioning the opening scene was a spoiler, because it wasn't. That scene just shows you what he does. Even some of it is shown in the trailer. What isn't shown in the trailer (red-band and green-band) is the amount of brutality and blood this film has. Driver crushes a guy's skull...with his boots! Although I wasn't one of those few people who left the Ryerson Theater, which is where it premiered at this year's Toronto International Film Festival (I wasn't there for the premiere), I can somewhat understand why it happened. While audiences at Cannes could have probably handled it, Toronto audiences are, I think, more calm in sorts. Luckily that kind of reaction didn't translate into my screening, but the audience was still stunned and shocked at the other scenes, especially that elevator scene. But let me move my focus away from the violence and to the movie in a whole.

Gosling really nails his performance as the unnamed driver, who's kind of a silent person. Everyone has been comparing his performance to a young Steve McQueen. I've seen Bullitt, so I guess I could see the resemblance. Carey Mulligan is pretty good as the girl he ends falling in love with and I also liked Bryan Cranston too. Oscar Issac is good as well, but I liked him better in Sucker Punch. Ron Perlman is okay. Christina Hendricks has a small-but-vital role as Blanche and as small as it was, it was pretty memorable. The surprising member of the cast is Albert Brooks, who plays the foul-mouthed Bernie Rose, a former film producer-turned-mobster. He starts off as a calm character, but as the movie progresses on, he becomes much darker and even a bit scary. Brooks will floor you.

Nicolas Winding Refn is the director of the film. Audiences might know him best for directing Bronson, the film that skyrocketed Tom Hardy's career. In terms of production countries, this is his first American motion picture and he doesn't disappoint. With the film made on a budget of $13-15 million, I could tell from the film's first scene that he didn't want to make this Fast and the Furious-type of flick. Refn provides a visual style to the film with wide-angle shots amazingly rendered by cinematography Newton Thomas Sigel. From the helicopter-like shots of Los Angeles to the scenes where Gosling is in the car, the whole movie looks beautiful.

I find it hard to believe that this is based on a book, mainly because I've never read it. I don't think I even heard of the book until the movie came out. The script by Oscar-winning screenwriter Hossein Amini brings some depth to these characters. We don't know too much about them and I think it was meant that way. I love the score provided by Clint Martinez. It brings a lot of that '80's vibe to the film as it's mostly based on electronica and europop. Along with that, I loved how they used Kavinsky's song, "Nightcall" during the film's opening credits. Also, I'm starting to love College's "A Real Hero" featuring Electric Youth. Basically, before I mention more songs, what I'm trying to say is buy the soundtrack either on iTunes or physically in a record store.

In closing, Drive is one of the boldest films that I've seen brought into a mainstream release. Most of the performances are impressive and some of the scenes are pretty unpredictable. It's romantic, thrilling, bloody and brutally violent. Like I said before, don't expect The Fast and the Furious, otherwise you'll be pretty upset. I give the film ***1/2 (3 stars and a half).

Trailerpalooza: Dragon Tattoo, Big Miracle, The Thing, Man on a Ledge, J. Edgar, One for the Money, The Grey

Welcome to another edition of Trailerpalooza! This week, we have the feel-bad movie of Christmas, whale lovers, a shape-shifting alien for a new generation, someone on a ledge, a controversial lawman, another Katherine Heigl movie and Liam Neeson versus a wolf. That last one sounded crazy, right? Well, it's supposed to! Now, let's get to it.

First, we have the brand-new trailer for David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. If you've read my past posts on the film, you'll probably know that this is a must-see on my list and judging by the trailer, it definitely looks like Fincher is probably going to bring a more faithful vision of the book. I'm not saying the Swedish film version wasn't faithful, but we'll see if Fincher's version gives the original a run for its money when it hits theatres December 21st.

Do you like whales? Then you'll probably like Big Miracle. Inspired by a true story, the film stars John Krasinski as a small town news reporter who teams up with a Greenpeace worker (Drew Barrymore) who's just happens to be his ex-girlfriend to rally several rival world groups like Inuit natives and American and Russian military to save a family of whales trapped by ice in the Arctic Circle. Formally titled Everybody Loves Whales, the film will hit theatres February 3rd, 2012.

Next, we have the red-band trailer for The Thing, a prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter cult classic. This movie follows a group of American and Norweigian scientists who originally discovered the shape-shifting alien that kills the the people it imitates. This remake... I'm sorry... prequel doesn't look bad. I don't know if it'll be good, but with a cast that includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton, hopefully this doesn't go wrong. This new trailer more of the shape-shifting stuff as well as some gore in between. The film comes out October 14th.

From Antarctica, we go to the streets of New York as a man plans to commit suicide by jumping off a ledge in Man on a Ledge. Sam Worthington plays Nick Cassidy, an ex-cop and a wanted fugitive. While a NYPD negotiator (Elizabeth Banks) tries to talk Nick out of jumping, he is also helping his brother (Jamie Bell) pull off the heist of a $40 million diamond that Nick was accused of stealing. With that, it'll be the only way he can prove his innocence. Also starring Kyra Sedgwick, Anthony Mackie, Edward Burns and Ed Harris, the film hits theatres January 13th, 2012.

Next up is J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood's latest biopic, which focuses on the life and career of FBI director John Edgar Hoover. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the controversial lawman, who was also alleged of being a closeted homosexual, and joining him is Naomi Watts, Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Lucas, Armie Hammer and Judi Dench. I'm pretty excited for this, not just because of its cast, but Eastwood is one who knows how to direct a good picture. You can expect some Oscar buzz going for it, probably mostly for DiCaprio's performance. Written by Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black, the film will hit select theatres November 9th and will open everywhere two days later on November 11th.

From there, we go to One for the Money, an adaptation of the Janet Evanovich novel of the same name and a film that's been in release date limbo since this July, which is the month it was originally scheduled to open on. It stars Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum, an unemployed woman who lands a job at her cousin's bail-bonding company. Her first assignment is capture a wanted cop (Jason O'Mara), who just happens to be the same guy who dated and dumped her in high school. I don't really don't know about this film at all. I've never read the book, so I'm just going to go ahead and say this. The whole "she's gotta capture a guy from her romantic past" is something I've heard before, so either this is going to be this action comedy that it's supposed to be or this is just gonna turn into another one of Heigl's crappy romantic comedies. We'll just wait and see when the film comes out January 27th, 2012.

However, Heigl's got some competition on that day and that comes from Liam Neeson, who's always a boss. He stars in The Grey, an adventure thriller that follows a group of men who end up stranded in Alaska after their plane crashes. When a pack of wolves come after them, they must use more their heads to survive. The film also stars Dermot Mulroney, Frank Grillo and James Badge Dale. The plot sounds a bit cliched, but judging by the trailer, the way it's executed looks pretty cool. Hopefully, that translates into the whole picture. I'll make it clear once more: this film comes out January 27th, same day as One for the Money.

Moneyball- Movie Review

Directed by Bennett Miller

Screenplay by Steven Zallian and Aaron Sorkin, story by Stan Chervin, based on the book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis.

Running Time: 133 minutes (2h, 13 mins.)
Rated PG-13 (for some strong language).
Distributor: Sony (Columbia Pictures)

Before I start this review, I would like to make it clear that I saw Moneyball two weeks earlier when it made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. I didn't write a review then, so I decided to see it again today, so I can refresh my memory on how the film played out. Now there have been a lot of baseball movies in film history, but now we finally have one that celebrates not only one of the greatest American sports, but the stats that go along with it.

Based on a true story, the film centers on Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), general manager of the Oakland Athletes. The team has been losing most of the games, espcially the ones where they're up against the richer teams, and now they've lost three of their best players. New ones must be found, but they have to be enough to pay for, due to the A's being on a tight budget. Beane, however, challenges the baseball system by teaming up with Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), an Ivy League graduate who has no baseball experience whatsoever and assembles a team by using sabermetrics (computer-generated baseball analysis) and that leads them to an expectedly successful season.

Now, I'm not a baseball guy. I've watched a few games, but I never really got into the sport, even though I've watched similar sport movies like Field of Dreams or The Natural or even The Benchwarmers. That might change after watching this movie. I was really cheering for the team as the film went along, but it's not only about the team. It's about Beane and how he started a revolution. Brad Pitt (who's also one of the producers) plays him with amazing wit and anger, both emotionally and physically. From the film's view, Beane is a complex character. He throws a lot of stuff (two being a TV and his own desk) and he doesn't watch the games that much. His scenes with Jonah Hill and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who plays team manager Art Howe, are great and hilarious to watch.

Speaking of Hill, he makes a big move from raunchy comedies to a more calmer role. When I say calm, I mean he doesn't spew out filthy language or dirty sex jokes, but I didn't expect that from him anyway. He's pretty great in this, as well as Hoffman, as he plays Howe with a gruff personality. There are also some other fine performances from Chris Pratt, who plays team player Scott Hatteberg, Stephen Bishop, who plays David Justice, Robin Wright, who plays Beane's ex-wife and newcomer Kerris Dorsey, who plays his singing daughter.

What makes the movie even better comes from the script, the direction, the cinematography and the score. This is Bennett Miller's first film since Capote six years ago and like that film, he doesn't disappoint. He has some close-up shots of Beane from his eyes to even his hands. He also goes back to Beane's childhood, where he played for various Major League Baseball teams. The script doesn't disappoint either. Steven Zallian and Aaron Sorkin sprinkle this with humorous, fast-paced, memorable dialogue and the score provided by Mychael Danna is effective as well. Wally Pfister's cinematography is great in here too. The Oscar-winner renders Miller's direction steadily, whether it comes to the scenes that take place on the field or the scenes that take place off.

Moneyball is a film that exceeded my expectations, with standout performances, an smart, witty, emotional script, awesome cinematography and an equally outstanding score. You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this film. Like I said before, I'm not one, but after watching this movie (for the second time), I might be willing to give the sport another try. Maybe you will too. I give the film ***1/2 (3 stars and a half).  

TIFF 2011 Review: The Descendants

Venue: Elgin Theatre (Visa Screening Room)
Programme Type: Special Presentation
Directed by Alexander Payne
Screenplay by Payne, Jim Rash and Nat Foxon, based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings.
Running Time: 115 minutes (1h, 55 mins.)
Rated R (for language including some sexual references).
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

In a career that spans almost twenty years, The Descendants is Alexander Payne's fifth film. After the critical, commercial and Oscar-winning success of Sideways in 2004, I was starting to wonder how come it was taking so long for him to make another film. I guess he was just taking a break and a long one at that. I know that he was working on a draft of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry with his writing partner Jim Taylor, but then Adam Sandler came in and started, in Payne's words, "sandlerizing" the script and along with Taylor, he produced this year's Cedar Rapids. But now we come to this film, which happened to premiere at one of the most popular film festivals in the world. Mr. Payne, it's good to have you back.

The film stars George Clooney as Matt King, a land baron and the head of an Hawaiian family with many descendants, which of course is where the film's title is taken from. His wife, Elizabeth, is suffering a coma due to a boating accident and the doctors tell him that there's no way that she'll come back from it. This is a way for him to re-connect with his two daughters: 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller), who first meet when she's picked up from school and 17-year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley), who returns home from boarding school. When Matt tells Alexandra the bad news about her mother, she doesn't seem to care, due to her and Elizabeth arguing over Christmas. Matt didn't know what the argument was about, until now. Alexandra tells him that they were arguing due to the fact that Elizabeth was having an affair with another man. Now, Matt is trying to find the man she was sleeping with while at the same time trying to figure out what to do with their last piece of land.

Like I said before, it's good to have Alexander Payne back in the game and it's clear that his talent hasn't slowed down at all, even after a seven-year hiatus. He brings us a movie that explores the relationships between the family and makes it hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. Payne takes the setting of the film and clearly states in the script that Hawaii isn't paradise. While I'm on the subject of the script, I also want to make a quick mention that one of the writers of the film, Jim Rash, is known best as Dean on Community. That's a surprise. George Clooney's character says, "Paradise can go f%$k itself", one of the lines that stayed with me throughout the screening. Speaking of Clooney, his performance is great and I would rank it one of his best. Payne stated at the Q&A that Clooney was the actor he had in mind when the script was being written. Clooney could get an Oscar nomination for this.

Some of his shine, though, is stolen by the young actors in the film. Many of the great scenes come from Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller and Nick Krause, all of whom were there at the Q&A. Woodley has obviously played a teenager before, all thanks to that crappy pregnancy show, The Secret Life of The American Teenager, but unlike that show, she truly embodies the actions of a teenage person. Basically her performance is surprisingly excellent. One of the scenes that stayed with me is where her character is told that her mother will die and she cries. In the pool. With that, she has the chance of getting an Oscar nom. Then we have Miller, who makes her screen debut. She's good here too. But the one who really has a breakout role is Krause, who plays Sid, Alexandra's friend. His lines range from "Sup, bro" to "I didn't know old people hit like that" to even talking about his mentally challenged brother.

Sid is kinda stupid, but he shows a smart side as well. I think Krause is one of the best things to come out of this entire film. Oscar, pay attention to him too. There are also some fine performances that come from Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard and Beau Bridges. Phedon Papamichael is the cinematographer behind this film and he renders the Hawaiian landscapes and mountains wonderfully. Papamichael last collaborated with Payne on Sideways and he did a great job there. Its Hawaiian-like score also stayed with me, long after I left the theatre.

The Descendants is definitely one of my favourite films this year. It's an intelligent portrait of a man and his not-so-perfect family that's often funny and often sad. Judging by the long standing ovation, it's very clear that Alexander Payne, Fox Searchlight, the cast and the rest of the crew truly have an Oscar contender on their hands. I give the film **** (4 stars).

If you weren't there at the premiere, don't worry. It's not too late. The film will screen again at the Elgin Theatre on Saturday, September 17th at 11:00 am. The festival runs all the way to September 18th. The film hits regular theatres November 18th in a limited release. Hopefully if it's marketed right, audiences who weren't at TIFF will check it out, so it can expand to more theatres. So if you're one who doesn't plan to see the latest Twilight flick or a sequel to a film with CGI penguins who sing and dance, then I suggest you choose The Descendants. I highly recommend it.

Here's the trailer. Basically it's a taste of just what you can expect:

News, News, News: Box Office, New Clip for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The Labor Day weekend was a pretty big one for The Help. It remained in the top spot for the third weekend in row, earning $19 million and lifting its total to $123.3 million. The last film to do that was Inception last year. It was pretty obvious of a win. I also have to mention that Rise of the Planet of the Apes not only rounded out the top five with $10.2 million, but it became one of August's top earners of all time. Now to the new releases.

Focus Features and Miramax's The Debt took the second spot with $12.5 million, doing even better than they expected. It brought more older moviegoers (70 percent of the audience was age 40 and over) and brought its amount to $14.4 million since its Wednesday debut. It was better than the $12 million earned by another Focus feature, The Constant Gardener, back in 2005. What I'm predicting is that with good reviews (which include mine) and good word-of-mouth (B on Cinemascore), it could gross more than people might be predicting. It might not get the same numbers as The Help, but still.

Two horror flicks had modest debuts: Apollo 18 came in third, taking in $10.7 million while Shark Night 3D brought $10.3 million, slightly edging out Apes for the fourth spot. Audiences didn't really enjoy both films with Cinemascore reporting SN3D got a grade of C and Apollo getting a grade of D. As modest as they were, Apollo 18 had the weakest launch for a "found-footage" film while Shark wasn't as big as last year's Piranha 3D.

While it might not be what The Weinstein Company were predicting, the movie only cost $5 million to make, so there's no worrying for them. However for Relativity, they should be hoping Shark Night grosses as much as Piranha or it'll be a box office disappointment. On Sunday night, Lionsgate showed nationwide sneaks of their MMA drama, Warrior, before it hits theatres this Friday, and those sneaks proved strong.

The first clip for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has gone online and it nice to see a role where Mark Strong has some hair. It recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival and is making its way to the Toronto International Film Festival, which starts this Thursday. Hopefully, I'm there. The film hits the UK on September 16th and in North America December 9th.

Just Really Quick...: Riddick 3 Concept Art

You read that title right. A third film focusing on one of Vin Diesel's iconic characters, Richard Riddick, is in pre-production. If you liked Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick, then you're probably happy. If you only liked one of those movies, you must feel okay or if you didn't like both, sucks for you. Vin Diesel told his Facebook fans that filming will begin in Canada, which is where Chronicles was filmed. He also says that they're trying to go for an R rating, like Pitch Black. Going for that rating could help this film be a much better installment. All that's needed is a good script and awesome special effects.  Concept art has been released coming from Diesel's Facebook fan page. Check it out.

The Debt- Movie Review

Directed by John Madden.
Screenplay by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan, based on the 2007 Israeli film of the same name (or Ha-Hov in its original language) by Assaf Bernstein and Ido Rosenblum.
Running Time: 113 minutes (1h, 53 mins.)
Rated R (for some violence and language).
Distributor: Focus Features/Miramax

On December 3rd, 2010, The Walt Disney Company committed what I think had to be one of the biggest mistakes in their history: they sold Miramax Films for $663 million to an investment company entitled Filmyard Holdings. At that time, at least four films were developed at Miramax and were ready for release. It's a good thing they weren't put into oblivion, so they decided to delay them in order for a proper release. The four films developed there were The Debt (the movie that is the subject of this review), a remake of an Israeli film of the same name, The Tempest, Julie Taymor's adaptation of the William Shakespeare classic, Gnomeo & Juliet, an animated retelling of another Shakespeare classic which involves gnomes, of course, and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Guillermo Del Toro's version of the 1973 television film of the same name.

Disney decided to keep The Tempest and Gnomeo and Juliet and release them both under its Touchstone Pictures banner while Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and The Debt were sold to FilmDistrict and Focus Features respectively. While Tempest didn't make close to a million when released last December, Gnomeo became a surprise hit, grossing a impressive $99.9 million domestically earlier this year. Dark was released last week and has been struggling at the box office and now we come to The Debt. Basically, two reasons why I saw this film was because it was out of the respect I have for Miramax Films and I needed some good thrills and Shark Night 3D didn't satisfy my needs.

The thriller shifts between two time periods: the 1960's and the 1990's. The movie begins in 1997, when retired Mossad agents Rachel (Helen Mirren) and Stefan (Tom Wilkinson) learn that their former partner, David (Ciaran Hinds) has died (can't say how due to spoilers). They undertook a mission back in 1966, when all three (played in their younger years by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas and Sam Worthington) had to track down Vogel (Jesper Christenson), a notorious Nazi doctor who's done human experimentation in extermination camps. The mission was accomplished and Rachel wrote a book detailing the events. But not everything in the book is what it seems. Developments in the Ukraine have said that the Surgeon of Birkenau is still alive, so either Rachel and David didn't know or they're not admitting the real story. Phew, made it through that without any big spoiler. Sometimes I find it hard to write a review on a thriller.

The performances in here are exceptional. I don't need to talk too much about Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson. They're both great as always. It's the younger versions of themselves that I really enjoyed. I liked Sam Worthington. It's roles like this that continue to cement his status as a great actor. Marton Csokas (who I remember well from the Lord of the Rings trilogy) is good as well, but it's Jessica Chastain that steals the show in a lot of scenes. From getting some awards buzz for The Tree of Life to making a guy like me drop his jaw on the floor in The Help, this is definitely her year. Jesper Christenson displays the fear of the evil doctor superbly, especially in the scenes where he plays with the young agents' minds.

The greatly stylish direction comes from John Madden (not the football dude, in case you were wondering), who directed the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love (third time I mentioned Shakespeare in this review). Frankly as much I enjoyed that film, when it was up against Saving Private Ryan, I don't think it should have won Best Picture, but hey, I'm not part of the Academy, so I can't go back in time and change that. While the opening credits roll, Madden sets up a one-shot sequence which is wonderfully shot by cinematographer Ben Davis. Somehow, my heart started pounding with this sequence, even though I didn't know what was going to happen next. The writing co-written by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman, the same team that brought us Kick-Ass, Stardust and X-Men: First Class, is smart, taut and politically charged.

I'm not exactly sure if I'd call this one of the best films of the year just yet, but I do know that this film gave me a hell of a good time. It's clear that Madden, Vaughn, Goldman and Peter Straughan have created a nicely-crafted, almost heartstopping espionage thriller filled with unforgettable performances, a smartly written script, some good twists in between and awesome action sequences. I give the film ***1/2 (3 stars and a half).

Shark Night 3D- Movie Review

Directed by David R. Ellis
Written by Will Hayes and Jesse Studenberg
Running Time: 91 minutes (1h, 31 mins.)
Rated PG-13 (for violence and terror, disturbing images, sexual references, partial nudity, language and thematic material).
Distributor: Relativity Media

Now, if you didn't read the credits at the top or maybe you did, I'll make it clear once again. Shark Night 3D is a PG-13 rated film. That means no extreme gore, no sex or nudity (except for the exposed butt of a guy modeling for an art class and I guess I can count the sexual remarks), no extreme language and to repeat myself, NO GORE! Just a little, but still none that you see in the Saw movies or a movie that's pretty much a huge inspiration to Shark Night 3D, Piranha 3D.

The story is very simple: a bunch of hot, young students at Tulane University spend the weekend at a lake house, only to be attacked by sharks shortly after they arrived. But what they don't know is that someone's watching and this is their form of entertainment. Each of these people have a type, because in films like this, there's always gotta be a type (sarcasm). You got the nerdy dude, the tough black athlete, the free spirits, the girl next door, etc, etc and the audience is gonna have one they want eaten.

This review will have plenty of comparisons to last year's Piranha 3D, because as I mentioned before, that's pretty much the big inspiration. Piranha 3D was one of the best films of the year in my opinion. It was the most shameless, goriest (even gorier than Saw 3D), funniest thing I saw all year with creative kills, over-the-top performances and nudity galore. Basically it wasn't afraid to be what it was and what it was was ridiculous, but in a good way. This is also ridiculous, but in the opposite way. Instead of being fun and exciting like Piranha was, it's kinda serious. I know Jaws was a serious film, but that was fun too and it had characters that we actually cared about. This doesn't. It tries, but later, it fails.

At many times, this film gets stupid, again not in a good way. What even raises its stupidity is some guy who chuckles as if he wants to be the next Larry The Cable Guy. He's played by Joshua Leonard, who you might remember from The Blair Witch Project. At least he made his performance somewhat believable. With the exception of Joel Moore (who I remember well from Avatar), the rest of the performances aren't believable. Then again, I don't think they should be. They're not trying to make a Oscar contender anyway. The 3D is effective in a couple of parts, but otherwise it's pretty gimmicky. I know it was filmed with a 3D camera, but at times it doesn't feel like it, which kinda sucks.

The film's director is David R. Ellis, who brought us two Final Destination films (2 & 4), Cellular, with Kim Basinger and a pre-Captain America Chris Evans, and the movie that had Samuel L. Jackson give one of the best lines of all-time, Snakes on a Plane. I really don't know what to say about his direction, not that it's a bad thing. I never really said anything about his direction on his past films.

Look, as much as this is a film to see in 3D, it's not really one that you have to rush to the theatre to see. It's more of a DVD/Blu-Ray rental if you think about it. Yes, as I mentioned before, it's ridiculous (not in a good way) and at times, it felt like a TV movie (then again, TV movies like this are worse, an example is Sharktopus), but at least I wasn't bored and some of the performances were somewhat entertaining. At best, this gets ** (2 stars).

Just Really Quick...: The Future According to Films

The future has been part of film for decades and it really helps us wonder if it going to like that. Maybe, maybe not. But never have I thought someone would make a timeline that takes dozens of movies that have their own versions of the future, until now. Michael Hobson, or @tremulantdesign on Twitter, has created one that as I mentioned before, takes dozens of films that have their own versions of the future. Take a look below. Click the picture for a more enlarged look.

Summer 2011: My Picks of the Worst Films of the Season

Now for the second part of my picks. These are my worst films of the summer. Instead of five, this list has only four films. Three of the films that are on the list were not reviewed by me, because I didn't start the blog at the time. Originally, I would've put Battle: Los Angeles and Beastly on the list, but those came out in March, so technically they're not summer releases. They both felt like ones, though. Let's kick it off with #4 which is...

#4- Zookeeper
It has a good premise- a zookeeper who gets love advice from animals who talk in order to win his ex-girlfriend back- but the way the film executed it was sadly disappointing. Usually I don't expect a lot from a Happy Madison production, but from the trailer, it looked kind of funny. I was wrong. A highlight of the film is Adam Sandler voicing the monkey. It sounds like a weird combination of Louis Armstrong and who knows what? One question I gotta ask: how does Kevin James get a chick like Leslie Bibb in this?

#3- Priest
I liked the manga that this was based on and I was glad to hear a movie was being made. After many delays (because of the conversion of 3D), the film finally came out and it sucked. Why? Because while the manga was so original, this film felt the opposite. It was cliched as well. As much as I liked Paul Bettany in this, unfortunately he wasn't enough to save the film.

#2- Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (Read the original review)
I don't even want to write this again, because it just gives more thoughts on how I should bash this piece of crap sequel. Just read the review. You'll know why this is on the list. After that, you can read my defense of the review. But this film wasn't as worse as what's about to come next. My pick for the worst film of the summer movie season is...

#1- Something Borrowed
My God, this film was an annoying nightmare that you wanted to wake up from. I believe movies similar to this get made for women who must be stupid enough to believe that some rom-com cliche can happen and boy, this movie is filled with cliches from the plot to the lines that are said. Ginnifer Goodwin is boring as the main character. She's usually better than that. Colin Egglesfield (or Tom Cruise Jr.) is just dull, and Kate Hudson is plain annoying. Nothing to say for John Krasinski, though. In fact, he almost saves the film. Almost. The most surprising credit of the whole movie was "Produced by Hilary Swank". You can't be serious. Hilary Swank, a two-time Academy Award-winner, produced this?! Whatever, luckily this film came out against Thor, which means it had kind of a hard time at the box office and even though it made back its $35 million budget, most of the movie's marketing was overshadowed by star Kate Hudson's pregnancy. That's good enough for me, because that means not a lot of people saw it. Let me just end this by saying that this is the worst romantic comedy of the year so far. I don't know who will beat it. We'll just see as the year goes by.

Well, that's it. That's my best and that's my worst. The end of the summer movie season isn't really such a bad thing. The fall movie season looks even bigger with films like Contagion, Warrior, Drive, 50/50, Abduction, Moneyball, Real Steel, The Ides of March, Paranormal Activity 3, Killer Elite, Like Crazy, Anonymous, In Time and The Rum Diary. I guess I'll see you in the fall.

Summer 2011: My Picks of the Best Films of the Season

When it's Labor Day Weekend, you know that once again, summer is coming to a close. You got the back-to-school ads showing, there's more cloud than sun and there's not a lot of good movies out there at the end. As sad as that is, it is however the best time for me to count down my picks of the best films that the summer movie season brought us.

#5- Crazy, Stupid, Love. (Read the original review)

It wasn't exactly a clear choice for that spot, but there was no other romantic comedy this year that was more lovable than this. An all-star cast that includes Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone give good performances, but two of the scene-stealers are Jonah Bobo and Analeigh Tipton as Carell's son and the babysitter who he crushes on.

#4- Submarine (Read the original review)

A movie as cool and quirky as this deserves to be on this list. As I mentioned before in my review, I consider this a wake-up call to Hollywood, hoping that they make more films like this instead of just sequels, remakes, reboots and crappy, unoriginal romantic comedies. If you thought I was hinting that they should remake this film, I wasn't.

#3- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

I didn't write a review of this film, because at that time, I didn't start the blog yet. But however I can write a little review of it. The eighth film in the series is truly one of the best. Although it could have been longer, it was still great to watch everything finish the way it did. As always in the films, the performances are great and the visual effects dazzle. I didn't watch the film in 3D, but I heard it was terrible. Originally, this was going to be in the second spot, but there was a film that I thought was a little better.

#2- Captain America: The First Avenger (Read the original review)

This is the best superhero film of the year, better than any of the others I've seen. It's everything a superhero film should be: fun, adventurous, humorous, full of action and character depth. Performances are top notch, whether it comes to Chris Evans as the lead hero or Tommy Lee Jones as the tough sergeant, director Joe Johnson has brought the best Marvel superhero film since the first Iron Man.

#1- Midnight in Paris (Read the original review)

I'm a big fan of Woody Allen's work, but I'll admit some of his films weren't his best, but Midnight in Paris is. From the film's very first scenes to the very end (I stayed through the credits), the film is a gem to behold. Everyone is great from Owen Wilson (who I'll admit makes a better Woody Allen than Woody Allen himself, no offence) to Kathy Bates. Like I said before, not only has the Woodman made one of the best films of his career, he's made one of the best films of the year.

Later, I'll give my picks of the worst films of the summer. I gave some hints on which ones would be on that list in some of my reviews and I might even get a little harsh on one or two of them. You'll see.

News, News, News: Telluride, Walking Dead's Secret Stash, Soderbergh Says Why He Joined The Hunger Games

The line-up for the 38th annual Telluride Film Festival was announced yesterday. It's pretty much in the middle between the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Movies playing this year include The Descendants, Cannes darling The Artist, Martin Scorsese's documentary Living In The Material World and David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method. Go to Collider.com for the full line-up.

Kevin Smith has had a busy little year. He's been promoting Red State endlessly (It's out on VOD now) and he's heading back to television. AMC has greenlighted a new one-hour unscripted series to show what happens inside Smith's comic book shop, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. The first season will have six episodes and is expected to air early next year. AMC also announced that the second season premiere of another one of my favourites, The Walking Dead will be 90 minutes. That will start on October 19th at 9/8c. Six more episodes will follow after that. There will be one little change though. The show will take a hiatus and will return for the final six episodes on February 12th at 9/8c.

Earlier last month, it was announced that Steven Soderbergh is second unit director on The Hunger Games, but yet people were still wondering why even though reasons were mentioned. Moviefone spoke to him while he was promoting his thriller, Contagion (out Sept. 9th) and he took the time to tell them the full story of why he joined one of the most highly anticipated films of next year. This is just an edited version of the story. You can click on the link for more.

The story is really simple. Back in April, [director] Gary [Ross] -- who is a close friend of mine I've exchanged creative favors with non-stop over the last 15 years -- when he got the boards for the shoot in April called me and said, "Hey, first week of August, I got these two days of second unit. Is there any way you can come down and help me out? Because I'd rather have you do it than hire somebody who I don't know." I said, "Actually, that works out." We'll just be finishing 'Contagion' and prepping 'Magic Mike' and, yeah, it could be fun.

Cut to two months later, and I show up to do this thing. Of course the whole design of it and what's fun about it, for me, is my job is to come in and duplicate exactly what Gary and Tom Stern, the [cinematographer], are doing. To mimic as closely as I can to their aesthetic. And that's what I attempted to do. But if I've done my job properly, I hope I did, by design, you won't be able to tell what I did. Because it's supposed to cut seamlessly into what they're doing. That's the whole point. That's why he asked me to come down, because he knew that I would be rigorous about matching what they were doing.

You know, he showed me stuff on either side of the area in which I was going to be shooting stuff and we talked at length. And I thought, OK, I see what you guys are doing. I know what the tool kit is. I know what the rules are. And it's fun in a way. I found it much more nerve-wracking than when you're shooting for yourself. Because I was constantly thinking, Oh, I hope that he likes this. I hope he likes that.

Submarine- Movie Review

Directed by Richard Ayoade.
Screenplay by Ayoade, based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne.
Running Time: 97 minutes (1h, 37 mins.)
Rated R (for language and some sexual content).
Distributor: The Weinstein Company

Submarine is a misleading title. Although the main character looks at a picture of a submarine in one little scene, it is not about a submarine nor does it take place on a submarine. It's a story dealing with teenage awkwardness and love. It's an homage to such filmmakers like Wes Anderson or Michel Gondry. It's a story that can strike a chord with many teenagers and adults of a certain age. It's British too, so maybe you can work on that British accent when you watch it. I know I did.

The movie follows Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts), a 15-year-old boy living in Swansea who's socially awkward and a little alienated. He sees his life as a motion picture and he hopes that when he dies, there will be silence across the school halls and everyone who knows him will weep and walk in his honor. Like all teenage boys, sex is one of the things on his mind, however he's doesn't search for it in the "American Pie" way. He's more classy and mature about it. He's in love with one of his school classmates, Jordana Bevan (Yasmin Paige) and does everything to impress her, even playing a prank on a student who's overweight. After a chance meeting under a bridge, the two begin to hit it off and start a weird-but-sweet relationship.

Meanwhile, Oliver sees that the marriage between his parents is falling apart. His dad, Lloyd (Noah Taylor) has become depressed and his mother, Jill's (Sally Hawkins) ex-boyfriend, a seductive guru named Graham moves in next door and that makes matters worse, as he worries that she may be having a affair with him. So not only is he trying to lose his virginity, but he's also attempting to keep his parents together, no matter what it takes.

I was surprised at how much I loved this movie. What could have been a raunchy teen sex comedy is instead it's a quirky and smart comedy mixed with moody drama and the performances help that flourish. Newcomer Craig Roberts (who I remember well on the original British version of Being Human) gives a standout performance. Even though he plays a character who's a bit weird, it's very hard not to like him and be invested in the story he tells and the relationship he has with Yasmin Paige's character, who's great as well. Roberts, who also this year had a supporting role in the Jane Eyre remake, is one to watch. Noah Taylor (who I remember from the Tomb Raider movies) and Sally Hawkins (who won a Golden Globe for Happy-Go-Lucky, a film, to this day, I still haven't seen) work well with the material they have and Paddy Considine is hilarious as the seductive next-door neighbor.

The film's director is Richard Ayoade. He's better known to British audiences as Maurice Moss on the sitcom, The IT Crowd. He also directed an hilarious episode of one of my favourite shows, Community and a ton of music videos from artists that range from Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Vampire Weekend. Like that episode and those videos, this film was directed perfectly and the cinematography is magnificent. Whoever did it, I hope he/she does more films. I also like the musical score in here, too. Like the film, it's quirky and moody.

Submarine has earned a spot of one of the best films of not only the summer, but the year. It's original, smart, funny, quirky, and absolutely cool. I even consider it a wake-up call to Hollywood, hoping that when they're watching this film, they realize they can't keep churning out just sequels, remakes and reboots. And even unoriginal romantic comedies, since we get those a lot (*cough* Something Borrowed). I give it ***1/2 (Three and a half stars).

If you're an Arctic Monkeys fan, you'll be happy to know that the band's frontman, Alex Turner wrote the songs for the movie. Here's just one of them, entitled Piledriver Waltz.