008. Dreamgirls

I just had to use this poster that managed to pull a real life Effie on poor Jhud.

Watch and sing along to the trailer here.

Dreamgirls, also known as "Beyonce: The Musical", is about the struggles of Effie "And I am telling you" White as she goes from back up singer to Donkey from Shrek to back up singer to Beyonce to being totally ousted from her group, all of this while never giving up her dream of making it big. Truly inspirational.

 Despite the snark, I actually enjoyed this movie a lot. It's probably a fictitious take on the life of the Supremes and Motown but it's still interesting to imagine things going on similarly in real life. Jennifer Hudson does a good job as Effie White. Yeah, she's super annoying at times but I don't really think thats Hudson's fault, Effie is meant to be a larger than life diva.

 The pacing in the beginning was a bit slow but that's about my only complaint about this movie. The acting was pretty solid and Hudson is more than competent enough to handle this role, I clearly underestimated her. Beyonce herself is actually a surprisingly good "singer-actress". Eddie Murphy was as close as he'll ever be to creating a character that can compare to Donkey but sadly he fell a little short. Good stuff all around. The music is really good and I even preferred Beyonce's Listen to Effie's  (overplayed) signature song  (in the context of the movie, I mean).

As a side not I want to mention that this could just as easily be reinterpreted as Beyonce's life story. I can imagine the people in charge of casting had themselves a laugh when they decided to cast "Singer clawing her way to the top while receiving preferential treatment among the girls" Deena. They probably looked far and wide before settling for "Singer clawing her way to the top while receiving preferential treatment among the girls" Beyonce. Then they cast Kelly Rowland-esque secondary character Lorell with some chick who often looks like Kelly Rowland. At this point they decided to fuse LeToya and LaTavia into one character (not personality wise, just mass) and bam, you got the Effie character. Effie is later replaced by some character no one remembers (the parallel to that Destiny's Child member no one remembers). While I am aware that this is movie is not about Beyonce and her climb to the top (even going so far as taking time away from Taylor Swift) but rather a fictional take on Diana Ross and the Supremes the similarities are undeniable.

In any case, recommended. If you're a fan of good movies, musicals or both this movie is for you. If you hate musicals on the other hand go watch Kramer vs. Kramer or Austin Powers Goldmember  in case you are jonesing for something good or something Beyonce and can't get your fix from Dreamgirls.

006. Death Proof

You can watch the trailer here.

 In case I haven't made this clear I'm a huge Quentin Tarantino fan. I remember watching Pulp Fiction back in 1995 or so, and immediately falling in love with it. Scenes like Jules and the roommates, or Vincent and Mia's night out stuck with me for 15 years and I can still recite them in my head like it was yesterday-- although to be fair, I've seen this movie many times since then. There is just something about a good Tarantino movie that makes me feel good. His movie have a clear, recognizable identity no matter what sort of genre they are tackling. Its the sort of feature that speaks about the quality of a filmmaker; with Tarantino and his movies, its impossible not to see his love for the movie industry and the influence on that industry that will remain long after Tarantino writes his last dialogue scene. I guess its unusual then, once the previous love affair is considered, that I had not seen this movie up until now. Death Proof is the Tarantino half of a double feature homage to old exploitation films called Grindhouse. The other half belongs to Robert Rodriguez and it wasn't that good.  Sadly I watched that pretty early on, and that added to the disappointing box office, it just gave me the impression that Death Proof wasn't up the standard set and I decided it was maybe for the best if I didn't watch it.  Fortunately I was wrong to jump to that conclusion.

 Death Proof is an original twist on the straightforward slasher film. Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) has a deathproof car, a remnant from an era in which actual stunts were preferred over CGI, and he loves to use it--especially on beautiful young girls. The movie itself is kind of structured around two main arcs, and while it is a nice refreshing idea, ultimately it seems to work against the movie. The first arc did a nice job of setting up the plot and building up the momentum. The second arc just puts back at square one and it gives the movie a very slow paced, empty feel; which is not to say that there is nothing good going on in the second half. Oh no. The second half is good in its own way. The last scenes are among the most satisfying scenes I've seen since Up, although satisfying in a different sort of way. Unfortunately the slow beginning of the second half is a little too much to ignore and it really decreases the quality of the film.

  Another great facet of this movie is the music. I'm not entirely sure if its original score, or if its music handpicked by Quentin Tarantino (I'm leaning towards the latter, I'm sure google could answer this for me but I'm lazy), but each and every song or musical note in this movie fits perfectly. I can't imagine the sultry lap-dance by Butterfly to any other song. Its change of pace and raspy voice made the scene engaging, sexy and frankly even did wonders upping the "creepy-factor" of Stuntman Mike. If I were a filmmaker I'd imagine the sort of care and attention Tarantino pays to every small detail would be inspiring. Hell, I feel pretty inspired right now and I only like writing.

 All in all, Death Proof is a really good movie, even if it is nowhere near Tarantino's best. It is however, a beautiful love letter to the exploitation movies, a time when stunts were "bad-ass" and CGI didn't cheapen everything it touched.  It has a couple of nice little details here and there that give a hint of continuity if you're planning to watch both movies from Grindhouse together.

Definitely recommended if only for the climax of the first act, that is a scene that will very difficultly rivalled in cinema for a long time.

004. The Host

This is the trailer!

  The Host is a korean monster movie that could have easily been the Godzilla of this generation if it really wanted that title.Clearly it doesn't want to, as over the course of its length, it dabbles into a little bit of comedy, and towards the second act shifts the focus from the monster to the much more down to earth "reconstruction of a broken family" theme. And that's totally fine. The Host makes this hodge-podge of genres work. In this sense, its very unconventional. It uses a funny beat to enhance one of its most dramatic moments. It skips forward in time instead of directly dealing with the aftermath of one of the sadder moments. All these things, while not very traditional, work perfectly for the Host and had me on an incredible high for most of the movie.

  Until the end of course. Without directly spoiling the ending (which I won't, no worries) its difficult to describe exactly what it was that changed how I felt about the movie, lets just saw that after being conventional for most of the movie at the very end they totally sold out and gave us the hollywood ending (not as hollywood as you might think, but given the circumstances it was the 'happiest' scenario.) In any case it's not a huge deal, I still liked the movie and I'm still dreadfully awaiting the dumbed down remake that Hollywood is probably going to throw at us eventually. (EDIT: WIKI TELLS ME THEY ARE ALREADY ON IT.)

 I'm not going to pretend the movie was exactly perfect before the ending. Several times, throughout the movie, it glosses over some of the more important explanations, letting you come to your own conclusions or leaving you completely perplexed and distracted. The premise itself is based on the supposition that Formaldehyde turned a fish into a giant ...fish I guess. I've seen the simpsons. I know how fishes mutate. Ultimately its not enough to take away from the enjoyment of the movie, but some plausible explanations could have truly added plenty to the experience.

One of the main driving forces behind the Host is the character work. Frankly, its excellent. Each member of the family is unique (almost to the point of being caricaturesque) and go through very different forms of growth throughout the movie. Hyun-Seo, one of the movies heroines, is refreshingly brave and way more "kick-ass" then Chloe Moretz ever was as Hit-Girl.

Another interesting (if not all that important) theme that's peppered throughout the movie is the anti-american sentiment. Although its not uncommon in countries all around the world (surprisingly even Canada), the predominance of american movies all around the world makes this feature kind of rare. Between the incompetent american scientist that causes the movie, to the trigger happy army/science team that fuck up more than they help to the thinly veiled, irresponsibly utilized "agent orange", clearly these Koreans are not your fans, USA-- and they are not even that kind of koreans.

Probably the main reason this movie works at all, is because we can let go of all our preconcieved "rules" that we (for the most part correctly) assume movies have to follow. Anything is fair game. The main character could die 5 minutes into it (Stop. I understand how thats illogical). For the most part this is a fun unexplored world and is probably one of the main reasons I'm a huge fan of foreign films. There is still a lot of innovation going out there.

Recommended unless you hate subtitles and asian people. This movie has both.

003. Quantum of Solace

You can watch the trailer here.

 In case you don't know, there has been a new James Bond for a while now. They got rid of Mrs. Doubtfire's Pierce Brosnan and replaced him with a much better guy named Daniel Craig. Anyway this is the second movie of the relaunched series--the first one being Casino Royale-- and it is good while remaining unable to match the quality of its predecessor.

 Now to be fair, I watched Casino Royale a couple of years ago and the constant callbacks to the plot of the previous movie were a bit jarring for me. I barely remembered Vesper, let alone whatever it was that led to her death. That turns out to be a somewhat important part of this plot. They also mentioned the americans being mad about Le Chiffre (or whatever his name is) and I have no idea what they meant. At some point Quantum of Solace does become its own movie and you can follow along easily enough with no prior knowledge but the first part could use some work. I'm looking forward to the next Bond film but I really wish they make it a bit more independent.

 This movie has Judi Dench-- who I love since watching Notes on a Scandal. She was born for this role and is in fact perfect whenever she's on screen.This woman plays M so well (and has been playing M for so long) that I often forget M has been a man in other movies. In Quantum of Solace, they give her a very maternal relationship with Bond (while retaining her edge) that works particularly well-- probably because of the chemistry between Craig and Dench.

 Now for the cons (and there are a couple). They replaced Eva Green's sexy Vesper with the inferior (still hot just inferiorly so) Olga Kurylenko. Olga also happens to be a much worse actor than Green, and there are a couple of scenes where the script really calls for some heavy emoting that just received some heavy eye rolling from me. Hopefully next time they find the right Bond Girl.

 There are a couple of over the top ridiculous moments that could be done without. The initial car chase is fantastic and already pushing several boundaries. The Bourne-esque chase on the rooftops, while not entirely original is still a treat. The fighting on the ropes conclusion of this very intense opening? That was too much for me. I can believe the 00s get trained in all sorts of thing but fighting while on a rope? C'mon.

Also the plot. And this next line is going to be a spoiler so skip this paragraph if you haven't seen the movie. The story revolves around the most secret of organizations simply known as the Quantum. This group is so fucking awesome that MI6 has no real knowledge of them (its implied that the CIA is also in the same boat) Cool build up right? They then decide to destroy all sense of "awesomeness" achieved in the first act by revealing that the group's plan is to sell water at a high price. A reveal met by me taking a huge swig of water and having most of it miss my mouth and just flow on my bed. Whatever. It's water. While it might make economic sense (I'm not even entirely convinced it does), one thing it definitely is not, is exciting sounding. I guess oil and diamonds are a bit of a cliché these days but there has got to be some middle ground between oil and water.

Ultimately Quantum of Solace is still a good movie and while its not as good as Casino Royale, its miles ahead of the Brosnan flicks (which I guess still have some cute corny moments but thats like saying Street Fighter is good. Its not.). Its enjoyment is probably enhanced if you remember the plot of Casino Royale when watching Quantum of Solace which I didn't.

Recommended if you liked Casino Royale. Also recommended if you're a huge fan of water.

002. Donnie Darko

You can watch the trailer here.

  Basically everyone and their mother told me to watch this movie. Apparently for a good reason because its probably one of the most unique and interesting movies I've seen in a long time.

  Acting wise, this movie is pretty solid which is actually a bit of a surprise considering that most of the cast is young people-- a particular subset of actors that tends to always come across as wooden and phony. Jake Gyllenhaal does a good job playing the psychologically trouble titular character Donnie Darko. Gyllenhaal's real life sister plays Darko's older sister Elizabeth, while Patrick Swayze, Drew Barrymore, Noah Wyle and Mary McDonnell play the adults in Donnie's life. Mary McDonnell, in particular, shines as Donnie's worried mother.

  In this day and age almost every plot seems tired and cliche, or even worse is a parody of a tired and cliche plot, so its always nice to find a movie with a very original plot. Its hard to describe Donnie Darko beyond sci fi suspense drama, but it would be a disservice to not mention the fact that it tackles very heavy themes like time travel, parallel universes, predestination vs free will, individuality vs collective thought, creationism. Richard Kelly did a great job with the writing and directing of this movie and whoever designed Frank should get some sort of prize because it sets the perfect tone for this movie. Cute from a distance, deeply disturbed once you're more familiar with it.

  Darko is a fascinating movie that was destined to never become anything more than a cult classic since it refuses to underestimate its audience. At the end of the day though, Donnie Darko will have a long long life on DVD and Blu-Ray and thats really all anyone can hope in the entertainment field: longevity.

  Recommended (unless you watch movies while listening to music and talking on msn, in which case you'll probably just find the movie random as fuck and pretty nonsensical.)