Danny Boyle is one of those filmmakrers, who when you look at his impressive CV, wonder how is it that no one mentions him in the discussion for best filmmaker alive.  He might not warrant that title, but he at least belongs in the conversation, right?

With the exception of The Beach and the final act of Sunshine he’s had hardly a misstep to his career, which began with his first feature film in 1995.  Even his lesser films Alien Love Triangle and Life Less Ordinary have a certain charm to them.  But it’s his major works like Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, and Millions which warrent his reputation.  He always manages to go against the conventional grain and breath new life into genre material.

His latest flick, Slumdog Millionaire, which was picked up by Fox Searchlight and Warner Brothers, debuted this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival and has gotten boffo reviews.  The movie took film journalists by surprise, but has left the greatest impression.  Most people were expecting the snippets of David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to knock their socks off, but that movie fizzled.  It seems like Danny Boyle’s movie is at the top of everyone’s list of favorite flicks from the festival.

The movie, based upon the book Q and A by Vikas Swarup, tells the story of Jamal Malik, an illiterate boy from the slums of Mumbai who makes it to the final question of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.  No one believes he could have answered any of the questions without cheating, but through the use of flashbacks we learn how Malik came to learn those trivia questions.  We also learn that he isn’t on the game show for the money, but rather to reconnect with the girl he loves from childhood.  She watches the show religiously.

Slashfilm was surprised he liked the movie as much as he did, writing: “The police arrest and torture the 18-year-old, hoping to uncover some kind of illegal motivation, but instead they get the heartwarming story of his life so far. And that’s why Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire is really clever. The film is not really about winning 10 or 20 million rupees on Millionaire, it’s a love story, told through flashbacks.”

I’ve been trying to find some bad reviews, but instead I get nothing but lines like this from Alex Billington at First Showing, “However, it’s still one of the most excitingly cultured mainstream films that’s all about life, love, and destiny.”

Or how Steven Zeitchik is comparing it favorably to Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, writing that he wouldn’t be surprised to find box office or Oscar success for the film.

The list goes on and on from Cinematical’s raving review to Variety’s Todd McCarthy writing, “Driven by fantastic energy and a torrent of vivid images of India old and new, “Slumdog Millionaire” is a blast. Danny Boyle’s film uses the dilemma of a poor teenager suspected of cheating on the local version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’’ to tell a story of social mobility that is positively Dickensian in its attention to detail and the extremes of poverty and wealth within a culture.”

It is both exciting to see that Danny Boyle may have truly hit one out of the park, one that may become embraced by more than just film freaks.  There is no trailer yet for the picture, but it’s scheduled for a November 28 release date.

Perhaps John Cusack should’ve kept only one Stephen King adaptation on his resume, unfortunately, he made this turd of a movie.  If you’ve never watched John Cusack go crazy in a hotel room for two hours, I suggest you keep it that way.

On the bright side there was one moment when Sam Jackson shows up in the hotel minibar and I thought, you know my refrigerator could use a mini-Sam Jackson to hand me groceries and make my lunch in the morning and just, you know, raise the awesomeness of my otherwise condiment-laiden ice box.

Perhaps Things We Lost in the Fire was one of 2007’s most underrated movies, and for good reason.  How the hell do you market an emotionally honest film about two adults trying to get their shit together?  Steady and mature adult dramas have all but disappeared from Hollywood, which is a shame.

Susanne Bier has crafted a gut wrenching flick that picks ups in the aftermath of a family’s tragic loss.  A widower (Halle Berry) invites her dead husband’s best friend (Benecio del Toro) to live with them allowing the family to cope with losing a husband/father and giving a junky the chance to get his life back on track.

It’s a simple story anchored in emotionally nuanced performances, perhaps the finest performances Berry and del Toro have ever given.  It is a crime that del Toro wasn’t nominated for Best Actor for his boffo performance as a man trying to find redemption after losing the only human who ever cared about him.  Watching him trying to hold on for a family he only vaguely knew and a women that despised him is a true gut-punch.

There is a moment towards the end of the film where Jerry is back at rehab, his ashen and sunken face staring into the camera from behind the blackened eyes of a 1,000 lives.  He’s recounting this dream of when he’s at peace and convincing himself to take things “one day at a time.”  And as he’s doing that, the rain is pouring down outside and Halley Berry finds a bouquet of roses with the note “Accept the Good.”

There are no easy endings in this life, just difficult choices that we are forced to make every single day.  Though Jerry (David Duchovney) is dead from the outset of the movie, his fingerprint is all over every character.  It is Jerry that permeates what everyone does, his goodness and generosity of spirit is the one thing that keeps his wife and best friend from falling into the abyss.

This film comes highly recommended, but you have to be emotionally up for it.  It’s not some Saturday afternoon trifle to be watched with half-attention.  It’s not the story you tell (for this is one that’s been told a million times before?) it’s how you tell the story that counts.  Bier succeeds largely on the backs of Halley Berry and Benecio del Toro.

Proving once and for all that self-absorbed members of the intelligensia don’t make for interesting movie subjects (see: The Squid and the Whale).  Here we get Dennis Quaid as a miserable college professor, who pretty much stays a miserable misanthrope, socially retarded widower, who doesn’t change or grow until the final credits dictates he has to.  Not even Ellen Page, as his also miserable too smart daughter yet quick witted!, or Thomas Hayden Church as the not smart hang loose adopted brother-in-law can save this movie.  Well, Page and Church try hard and their chemistry is the most interesting aspect of this misfire of a film.

Word to the marketing staff - if a movie isn’t funny and doesn’t try to be, don’t sell this to me as some sort of Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, this year’s quirky indie comedy.

So I desperately wanted to watch a really bad movie last night. I was in the mood to see something so atrocious that it might end up being humorous. The choices came down to Strange Wilderness, that Steve Zahn shark movie, Fools Gold with Matt McConaughey and Katie Hudson, 10,000 BC the prehistoric fantasy flick and Drillbit Taylor.

Drillbit ended up looking like the best of a sorry lot. I took the metaphorical mangy dog home with me and I’m happy to report that the movie is every bit as terrible as I was hoping. I pity laughed maybe two or three times throughout the movie and genuinely laughed a few times more.

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Something that no one seems to be mentioning in regards to the shower of love Wall-E has received, which in many ways was warranted and in many other ways seems slightly overblown, is that the Pixar short that played in front of the animated classic was also top notch. Presto was also the best short film that Pixar has produced.

There is no debating this.

The short’s obvious comparison point is the wacky Looney Tunes of yesteryear, where the clever animal manages to upstage the vial human after much back and forth. In Presto we have an elegant magician and his wascally wabbit attempting to outbid one another. The rabbit wants a carrot because he is hungry and the magician justs wants to finish his performance in one piece.

That’s it. That’s the entire premise and it works because the story telling has a clearly defined protagonist, antagonist and dramatic heave that drives the entire plot, with each act to secure the carrot upping the ante. A finger stuck in a mouse trap, an egg splattered face, then an electrocution, and finally a dangerous high wire showdown. There are other bits in between.

Suffice it to say, I enjoyed Presto a lot more than I did Wall-E, simply because this is one of the better screwball comedy bits that has come down the pipe in quite sometime. Pixar has truly outdone themselves on both accounts, just another example of them raising the bar and then clearing it with ease.

At some point they have to crash back to reality, right? Would you want to be the director or animator who delivers the turd? Talk about pressure.

Yeah, yeah.  It’s becoming apparent that The Dark Knight is the greatest movie ever made.  All the early screenings are hitting the net and you can’t cross the street without people throwing around superlatives like Godfather II or Heat or epicfuckingmoviethat’sthebestthingevermade. It also doesn’t hurt that the push for Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar has already started.

Be that as it may, we can now turn our attention to promoting another movie.  Hellboy. I tried explaining the premise behind the franchise to a co-worker a few days ago (he also celebrated the recent SJC Second Amendment decision, there is no correlation to what I’m about to say, except that I thought you should know this.  Also, I’m going to get him to take me to a shooting range.  See, dreams do come true!) and he was just baffled by it.

I was like, so Satan’s child gets sucked through a dimensional portal to Earth by the Nazis during WW II, except he’s rescued by a benevolent American and raised like a human and he protects us from mystical  creatures.  He likes to drink and cuss and eat Snickers and he loves cats.  Basically, he’s like a petulant teenager, except he has horns and a huge right hand that may or may not one day bring about the apocalypse.

I wish I captured his facial expression.  Priceless.  But my guess is he’s now intrigued enough to go and see Hellboy II: The Golden Army when it opens July 11.

According to John Anderson of Variety, “In a previous life, del Toro might have been a maker of clocks — clocks inhabited by gargoyles instead of cuckoos, and which exploded on the hour. But there’s a precision to the visual ornateness of “Hellboy II” that exceeds even that of its predecessor. It’s certainly a more deliberately (and successfully) funny movie, thanks largely to the drily ironic Hellboy — Ron Perlman, who returns with the rest of the cast, and without whom an onscreen Hellboy would have been almost unthinkable.”

Anderson thinks that del Toro got a huge push from Universal, but if anything the studio hampered del Toro’s vision the first time around almost neutering the franchise from the onset.  Given a second chance, it is abundantly clear that del Toro’s chutzpah oozes out of every frame and second of film.  To call him a visionary director would be to short change just what an impressive run he has been on over his last four or five pictures.   MORE »

Yesterday was a big day for me. A day that I had marked on my Fraggle Rock calendar for quite some time, not that I needed a reminder from the over-advertising they did, but Get Smart opened yesterday! Now, I know some of the reviews haven’t been that favorable and the trailer didn’t look all that promising either, but it’s Get Smart. You can’t pass that up, at least I can’t.
Nick at Nite was a major part of my childhood and Get Smart was always my favorite. In fact, I bought a bootleg copy of the series before it actually came out on DVD, to clarify I don’t encourage doing that at all. I also bought it again when it was available in the legit way. I’m a huge fan, let’s just keep it at that and leave my sordid past out of this. Honestly, that’s as seedy as it gets with me. Someone who has a Fraggle Rock calendar with “Get Smart opens today!” written on it can’t be too much of a badass, I’m not hiding anything from you guys.

The movie is exactly what you’d expect it to be. If you go in wanting to criticize it you probably will. If you just want to have fun and enjoy two hours, maybe have a few laughs, then you’ll do that instead. As you could have probably guessed I went in with the latitude (that’s the portmanteau of “latter attitude”). It’s obviously not the most profound movie ever and it’s not even the funniest, but it’s a good time and well worth the matinee price I paid.

The ending was typical Hollywood and left me feeling all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Sometimes I like that though. Now that I think about it, the entire movie was oozing with Hollywood typicality. Boy meets girl, girl plays hard to get, but they end up together in the end, then you throw in some funny bits and action pieces and you’ve got yourself a big time Hollywood summer blockbuster. I’m sort of mocking it in that way, but I still liked it.

The best part was the casting. I knew Steve Carell would be the perfect Maxwell Smart. I can’t imagine any other current actor in that role. This is going to turn into me gushing over Steve Carell I can feel it happening already. Must fight the urge. He always plays the “endearing idiot that doesn’t know that he’s an idiot” so well. Two other small, but wonderful, performances were by Masi Oka and Nate Torrence, who play Bruce and Lloyd, two nerdy tech guys at CONTROL. On July 1st they’re releasing a spin-off DVD called Get Smart’s Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control, which follows what was going on with those characters while Maxwell and Agent 99 are off fighting the bad guys in Russia. It looks cheesy, but I’m sure I’ll watch it.

I’ll keep this succinct, since there have already been clever reviews and informative reviews and the movie as a whole is pretty review proof. In the sense that it is a well acted and crafted action/superhero/summer movie. The story moves briskly enough from set piece to set so you’re never really thinking about it because if you did you would ultimately walk away wishing you had just waited to rent it or download it.

Dr. Bruce Banner is on the run in Brazil and looking for a cure to his Hulk issue so that he can reunite with the lady he loves, Dr. Betty Ross. He’s doing everything from science to breathing exercises to control his anger, well, actually his heart rate. Seems this time around he Hulks out whenever his BPMs get above 200. Good thing the military isn’t trying to hunt him down! Oh wait. They are. So Banner has to run around. A lot. You can imagine what that does.

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The chatter of excited women gathered in the theater set the tone for opening night of the Sex and the City movie. Only a few seats were still empty, and only a few were occupied by men. My sister exclaimed over pre-movie drinks that any man worth his salt would not be dragged to the movie against his will and I had to counter and suggest that any woman worth her salt wouldn’t even try. The SATC movie premier was clearly a night for women to celebrate being women.

With all of the excitement and the tangible camaraderie hanging in the air, I admit I was jazzed to see the movie. However, when I left I felt dazed, confused, and a little pathetic about being a single woman in this world. And, correct me if I am wrong, but shouldn’t the SATC movie make me feel the opposite of that? Uplifted, confident, and secure in my womanhood? Yeah, I thought so too.

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After waiting almost two decades, it’s hard to believe that what everybody went to go see was the best that Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and Co. could do.  Truth be told, this one doesn’t even hold a candle to any of the previous three and makes Temple of Doom look that much better.  However, this is coming from a guy who thinks Temple of Doom is the second best and offers giddy pleasures in a way vastly different but equal to Raiders.

With that said, though, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just comes off as a hack job.  There are bits that work (is there a better action director than Spielberg?) and silly bits that take you out of the movie (yeah I’m looking at you George of the Jungle sequence) and more insect scares (holy shit those giant ants frightened the hell out of me) and moments that left me crying like a little girl (those first two or three scenes with Marion Ravenwood).

But it’s hard to take the movie serious when Indy is actually surprised by shit, ya know?  This is a guy, who is not only immortal after drinking from the Holy Grail (which helps explain him surviving an atomic blast in a refrigerator!), but he’s seen more crazy shit in his lifetime that by the time this adventure rolls around I almost expect him to be utterly detached, blase to the point of being apathetic.

Regardless, it didn’t pervert my childhood (yeah I’m looking at you George Lucas) so it has that going for it.  And still, with all the crazy stuff Indy has been through, I’m drawing a line at aliens and spaceships.

Oh and Shia LaBeouf didn’t ruin the movie, so let’s not start calling him Jar Jar Binks.