The Fountain

Seen sometime last week at AMC Boston Common
* * * * (out of 5)

The basic plotline in The Fountain is interesting enough – a Spanish conquistador falls in love with his queen, and on her behalf quests for the Fountain of Youth. That quest kicks off a 1000-year journey to save his love through the centuries. Simple enough, right? Could be entertaining. What sucks for you is that Darren Aronofsky got ahold of it and made it his own. Still entertaining, but now it gives you a headache to go along with it.

The 16th-century conquistador in question is Tomas (Hugh Jackman), who is one of the few remaining followers of the rogue Queen Isabel (Rachel Weisz). She has been declared a heretic because of her belief in the Fountain of Youth that supposedly resides in the New World. If Tomas can bring her evidence of this, she will marry him and accompany him back to the New World to live for eternity. Sweet deal. Flash forward five hundred years, and here’s present-day Tom Creo (Jackman), a neurosurgeon looking for a cure to brain tumor-induced cancers from which his wife Izzi (Weisz) happens to be suffering. Flash forward five hundred years AGAIN, to roughly 2500 AD, and we have Tommy (Jackman) floating around space in a bubble with a strangely reactive tree, searching for some sort of answer at the heart of a dying star.

Yeah, it’s weird. But strangely enough, it all works. The best advice for watching is to try and hold in your mind that not only as these stories working consecutively, but concurrently as well. It’s difficult at first, but Aronofsky has cut the film in a way that helps you accept that so long as you are open to it to begin with. All three stories are very well done, and Jackman cruises through all three “acts” with style. He gives each era’s Tommy a very distinctive feel, all the while maintaining some of the basic traits that let you know this is still the same guy. Weisz is good too, but she has significantly less to do. Present-day Izzi is the meatiest piece for her, but even Izzi is somewhat weak. She does have a nice contrast between no longer fearing death and still wanting to drag the most out of life in what little time she has left. The dynamic between the present-day couple (the only time we really get to see them honestly interact) is very realistic and nice to watch.

Read the rest at HBS!

Casino Royale (2006)

Seen 20 November 2006 at Regal Fenway 13
* * * * * (out of 5)

I enjoyed the heck out of Casino Royale. As far as I can tell, there’s no reason not to. What we have here is a modern, almost-realistic spy story that has much more grounded characters, better storytelling and much less reliance on the flash that has defined the Bond series since god knows when. Oh, the flash is still there. It’s just approached in a vastly different way.

Originally, I was wary of the idea of “rebranding” – taking old franchises and completely revamping them in order to make something more relevant and “better.” It seemed to me like another way writers were avoiding being original, and thus finding a new way to suck. Batman Begins kicked the crap out of that theory. And now Bond 21.0 kicks the crap out of it again, whips it in the nuts with a braided rope, and shoots it in the head. Which is lucky, because if there was ever a series that needed a new direction, Bond is it.

Royale opens with James Bond (Daniel Craig) garnering his second kill, conquering his last obstacle on the path to 00 status. A cool black-and-white sequence and an insane, parkour-style chase scene later, and we find out that Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a terrorist banker, has lost a huge amount of the money with which his clients entrusted him. In order to make it all back and save his own hide, he has set up a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro, with the winner walking out with $150 million. Mi6 has decided to enter Bond, the best Texas Hold ‘Em player in the service. He and new associate Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) travel to the Casino Royale, well aware that if Bond loses and Le Chiffre wins, the government has just handed over millions of dollars to a terrorist organization.

The reason Royale has gotten so much attention up to release is one of the main reasons the film is successful: Daniel Craig. Craig is a huge departure from previous Bonds, especially the ones that I have come to know (Pierce Brosnan-era). Craig’s Bond is a much more complex character, but at the start of the film you see how different he is. This Bond is a killer; a government-funded assassin. He likes his job, and he's good at it .

Read the rest at HBS!

Happy Feet

Seen 19 November 2006 at Regal Fenway 13
* * * * (out of 5)

I love penguins. Let’s make that clear. So I was somewhat predetermined to love this one. I AM its ideal audience: I love penguins, computer animation, crude humor, family humor… and penguins. So I have to say I’m a little disappointed that I’m not lobbying for the right to post a 38-star review. As much fun as I had with this one, it ain’t worth that.

This is probably the downright cutest movie I’ve seen in some time, easily topping anything from Over the Hedge that had Hammy in it. And it does so with no apology whatsoever. Which is perfectly fine, as far as I am concerned. The kids need something too. And that cuteness will actually drive it for adults to a certain extent as well. No one can argue that the country has been in penguin mode since March of the Penguins, and Happy Feet cashes in with efficiency and style. In the end, it just pushes a little too hard.

The fluffy, tap-dancing baby penguin we’ve all seen in those sugar coma-inducing trailers is Mumbles (Elijah Wood), the newborn son of Memphis (Hugh Jackman doing his best Elvis) and Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman doing a pretty damn good Marilyn Monroe). For whatever reason, Mumbles cannot sing, which the main way penguins find and identify a mate. But he can tap dance like a sonofabitch. In his attempts to woo Gloria (Brittany Murphy), the most beautiful penguin on the glacier, he pisses off just about everyone else, and is exiled from the colony. He runs into five adelie penguins (Robin Williams and friends) that become friends and support as he tries to redeem himself, and win the love of his preferred penguin.

Read the rest at HBS!

... I'm a bad blogger...

And a bad reviewer. This thing sort of comes and goes in phases, phases in which I actually have the motivation to write. At this point in the semester, if I have the motivation to write, chances are it should probably be on schoolwork. Ah well. Here's one.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Seen way the hell back when it first came out at Regal Fenway 13
* * * (out of 5)

I had high hopes that they wouldn’t mess with the funniest part of the Borat character. Watching Sacha Baron Cohen go and prank unsuspecting people, drawing out buried prejudice and opinion with fantastically hilarious results. And then they went took all the funniest jokes and ran them into the ground. And they tried to give him a plot. Gosh durn you, Hollywood.

As most of the country already knows, Borat Sagdiyev is Cohen’s fictional reporter from Kazakhstan who originally appeared on Da Ali G Show on HBO. He has been dispatched to the United States in order to make a documentary about our culture, supposedly so he can return home and improve his already-glorious nation. Shortly after arriving in New York City, he catches a rerun of Baywatch on TV, and immediately falls in love with Pamela Anderson. He convinces his producer Azamat (Ken Davitian) that they should embark on a cross-country road trip to get the “real feel” of America, secretly wanting to get to L.A. so he can marry Anderson… by throwing a sack over her head.

The thing is, a good portion of this film is still pretty damn funny. The positive that will come from Borat is that Sacha Baron Cohen will be elevated to the level of bankable star. Which means, hopefully, that after the movie based on his Bruno character is made, we’ll get to see Cohen branch out into some stuff we haven’t seen (the confirmed spot in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd is a promising start, I think). The best part about the Borat character is Cohen’s consistency. As we’ve seen from publicity stunts for the film, Cohen is ALWAYS in character. One scene at a bed and breakfast in Massachusetts proves this. The inn is owned by an elderly Jewish couple. And remember, Borat hates Jews.

Read the rest at HBS!