Fast & Furious 4
Let’s not get too over concerned about the logistics of this movie’s plot. As I recall, the plot was really a means to an end on which to hang some superb action. An expat American criminal, come action hero, living abroad, returns to Los Angeles, at great personal risk, to track down his girlfriend’s killer. In L.A., he becomes involved with ‘underground’ car racing, in which the cars move at a fantastic speed, accelerated by some form of highly illegal butane gas. Directed by Justin Lin, the movie is incredible action from beginning to end. Vin Diesel, the rest of the cast, and the special effects, are just terrific.
Crossing Over
Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Jim Sturgess and Ashley Judd, along with a few other excellent actors, star in this rather absorbing movie directed by Wayne Kramer. It is a multi-character movie about immigrants from different nationalities struggling, by various means, to achieve legal status in America. Set in Los Angeles, the movie looks at document fraud, political asylum, the Green Card process, and naturalization, along with the effects of terrorism and culture clashes. For some of the characters depicted you feel a great sympathy for their predicament. Others you couldn’t care less about. ‘Interconnected Narratives’ movies are becoming something of a cliché, but, this movie is a definite exception and well worth the experience of watching.
Faith Like Potatoes
Written and directed by Regard Van Den Bergh, this South African movie is based on an inspiring true story. When the political climate makes a farmer relocate his family to the safer environs of South Africa, he suffers one devastating and insurmountable loss after another. At his absolute lowest point, the farmer puts all his faith and trust in God, and, then, a series of amazing incidents start to take place. Cinematically speaking the movie is rather pedestrian, but, it has a great story to tell, and it tells it extremely well.
Stone of Destiny
This Scottish movie is also based on an inspiring true story. Shrouded in myth, the Stone of Destiny is a slab of rock taken from Scotland by an English king 1000 years ago, and it has been kept ever since in Westminster Abbey as part of the English Coronation Throne. Set in 1950, a group of Scottish students from Glasgow break into the Abbey and steal the stone, as a gesture towards Scotland’s nationalistic independence movement. Directed by Charles Martin Smith, and adapted from Ian Hamilton’s book ‘The Taking of The Stone of Destiny’, the movie tells this somewhat serious story in a lighthearted style, resulting in an amusing piece of entertainment.
He’s Just Not That Into You
This is another one of those movies where glamorous young Americans sit around in glamorous apartments, glamorous restaurants, and glamorous nightclubs, endlessly discussing their private sex lives. This time the action is located in the trend setting city of glamorous Baltimore. The movie is saved from tedium by a witty script, some inventive cinematic techniques, and some very good performances from a glamorous cast, which includes Ben Affleck, Jenifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore and Scarlett Johansson.
The Great Buck Howard
John Malkovich is also very good in this movie, as a has-been magician and mentalist who is living on his past glories. Colin Hanks co-stars as a law school drop out who wants more from life, and takes a position as John’s personal-assistant. Together, they hit the road in a dreary tour of seedy town halls, crumbling old theatres, and second rate conference rooms. All the time playing to an aging audience who vaguely remembers John in his hey-day. As a study on the sleazier side of show business, the movie is an eye-opener!
Make it Happen
Produced very much in the style of ‘Flash Dance’ (1983) and ‘Footloose’ (1984), Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars in this dance movie as a budding young dancer who journeys to Chicago to audition for the School of Music and Dance. Naturally enough, she fails the audition and fills in the next couple of months, waiting for the next round of auditions, working as a dancer in a Chicago burlesque cabaret. The plot of the movie is mind-numbing. It is tediously boring and predictable. But, there are some great dance routines, and lots of terrific pop music, hidden away in all the dross. Mary Elizabeth comes across as vivacious, energetic and extremely sexy!
Broken Heart in Winter
Director Claude Sautet presents a bitter/sweet romance in this delicate French movie. Daniel Auteuil and Andre Dussollier play two long term business partners who run an atelier making and repairing musical instruments. When a classical violinist, superbly played by the exquisite Emmanuelle Beart, brings her violin to them for a tune up, the two men both become involved with her. As things turn out, Emmanuelle is to have her heart broken by one of these men. The reasons for this are not made clear until the end of the movie, in a surprising denouement. In typical French style, the movie is sophisticated and elegant, but, it is also alienating. The movie is not sentimental, and doesn’t arouse the emotions at all. In fact, a deliberate ‘distancing’ appears to be implanted through out the movie to keep over involvement at bay. Actually, after watching the movie, all you really feel like doing is just going out for a robust and hearty French meal.
