Across The Universe
This musical has been specifically designed for the movies, yet its style owes an awful lot to MTV Video Clips. You are either going to love the movie or hate it. It all depends on how you feel about re-interpretations of classic ‘Beatles’ songs. New York in the Sixties and the Vietnam War are seen through the eyes of a group of ‘hippie’ peace activists, yet the whole narrative is conveyed through fabulous new versions of ‘Beatles’ numbers. If you weren’t there for the Sixties, this movie is probably the closest you will ever come to experiencing just what those tumultuous times were all about. However, I am open to suggestions that the movie is somewhat trite!
Rendition
Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon star in this rather good thriller that takes a very serious look at America’s current ‘Anti-Terrorism’ laws. When Reese’s Egyptian husband doesn’t arrive home from a flight from South Africa, she goes to Washington DC to discover what happened. There she is given a total run-around. Jake Gyllenhaal is a CIA agent forced to conduct his first torture, while Meryl Streep is incredibly creepy as a CIA bureaucrat.
I’m Not There
This is another movie that you are either going to love or hate. How you react to the movie all depends on how you feel about Bob Dylan. Personally, I could never stand him, so I guess you know by now how I feel about the whole thing! I just don’t ‘get’ the movie. I don’t understand why it takes something like eight different actors, including Cate Blanchett, to play Dylan at various stages of his career, and I tend to regard writer and director Todd Haynes’ pseudo-biographical-pic as a boring ‘artistic wank’. Anyway, I am sure there are many fans who regard Dylan as some sort of folk-singing legendary ‘living god’, so, as we say here in Bali: “Up to you”!
Sleuth
The first screen adaptation of Anthony Schaffer’s successful ‘West End’ play appeared in 1972. The original movie, concerning an aging writer tormenting the lover of his unfaithful wife, starred Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. This time around Michael Caine has a good stab at the character role, and Jude Law steps into the ‘juvenile lead’. Both actors are terrific. Director Kenneth Branagh makes the most of his exquisitely modern theatrical set, while notorious British playwright Harold Pinter makes some changes to the second act that are remarkable. The movie is very engrossing.
Mad Money
Back in 1996 Diane Keaton, along with Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn, had an outrageous success with their movie ‘The First Wives Club’. Now, Diane Keaton, along with Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes and director Callie Khouri, try to achieve a similar success with their movie about a trio of blue-collar workers who set about robbing an American Federal Bank. The movie does have some amusing moments, but by far the most interesting section is the end credits, and how all three leading ladies manage to achieve top billing.
Awake
If you are currently considering elective surgery, this movie will put you off the idea entirely. A young billionaire undergoes a heart transplant operation, but the anesthesia doesn’t take and he is awake and aware, but paralyzed, throughout the whole procedure. Meanwhile, while he is ‘out’, he learns some interesting facts. Written and directed by Joby Harold, and starring heart-throbs Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba, the movie could quickly become a ‘cult’ horror classic. It is extremely ‘yucky’, but highly enjoyable.
Virgin Territory
That new young leading man Hayden Christensen also stars in this rather disgraceful, funny and sexy farce. Inspired by some of the stories in Italian Renaissance writer Giovanni Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron’, a group of young noblemen decide to wait out the Florentine plague in their country estates. There they get up to all sorts of naughty nonsense in churches, convents and extravagant palaces. Various entangled stories all come to a delightful happy ending. Written and directed by David Leland, forget the mismatched accents and the wrong period costumes, and just sit back and enjoy the movie for what it is: a vulgar, bawdy, ribald and risqué comedy.
The Darjeeling Limited
Three slightly ‘kooky’ American brothers set off by train on a spiritual journey through India. Along the way some really bizarre and totally wacky things happen. Directed by Wes Anderson, written by Roman Coppola, Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman, and starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman, everyone involved in this production tries their best to create an amusing, if somewhat weird, comedy. They succeed admirably.
No Country For Old Men
The winner of almost all the major awards at this year’s Oscar ceremony, you have to wonder if the latest Coen Brothers movie is really worth all that accolade. Concerning a serial-killer searching for a missing stash of heroin, and two million dollars in cash, the movie, in turn, goes from boring to ‘sensationalist’ and back again, as the killer gets rid of anyone in his path. Tommy Lee Jones is dull as the aging and disillusioned sheriff tackling the case, while Javier Bardem fully deserves his Best Supporting Actor statuette as the maniacal murderer. Claims can be made that the movie is allegorical for America’s current internal social and political predicaments, but, on the whole, the movie is actually kind of dreary, even with all its gory violence.
Mr. Robet’s Best Buys
Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp create a creepy and marvelous horror musical.
There Will Be Blood
Daniel Day-Lewis is terrific in this great movie about greed and vengeance.
Across The Universe
Revisit the Sixties through the songs of the ‘Beatles’, in this groovy musical.
Sleuth
Michael Caine and Jude Law have a great time in this adapted theatre piece.
Awake
A particularly nasty horror movie concerning surgery and a faulty anesthetic.
Virgin Territory
A risqué and bawdy romp, based on a classic book, set in Renaissance Italy.
Rendition
A rather disturbing look at America’s current ‘Anti-Terrorism’ legislation.
The Darjeeling Limited
A wacky comedy about three brothers journeying through India on a train.
I’m Not There
Bob Dylan fans will love this movie. The less fanatical will be unimpressed.
Longford
The personality of infamous British serial killer Myra Hindley is examined.
Atonement
Reality, and how we perceive it, is questioned in this elegant British movie.
The Golden Compass
The first installment in this Sci-Fi fantasy film serial gets off to a good start.
La Vie En Rose
A beautifully rendered movie about the life of French Chanteuse Edith Piaf.
No Country For Old Men
Only because it got this year’s Oscar for Best Picture, the film must be seen.
