Category: Movie DVD Quicktakes (Page 34 of 41)

Watching the Detectives

August 12, 2008 / Jason Zingale

Cillian Murphy is the last guy that most people would ever imagine popping up in a romantic comedy, but he pulls it off remarkably well in Paul Soter’s directorial debut, “Watching the Detectives.” Best described as “‘High Fidelity’ for the movie lover,” the film stars Murphy as Neil, a self-proclaimed film buff who runs an old-school video store that specializes in genre flicks and cult classics. When a sexy spitfire (Lucy Liu) enters his store one day, Neil’s world is turned upside down as he’s forced to keep up with her spontaneous and adventurous lifestyle in order to win her heart. A lighthearted rom-com made for film geeks by film geeks, “Watching the Detectives” is much better than I was expecting. Cillian Murphy delivers a solid performance in the lead role, while Lucy Liu piles on the charm as the ultimate high-maintenance girlfriend. Though it may shock some to discover that the movie was written and directed by Soter (one-fifth of the comedy troupe Broken Lizard), it’s a more-than-respectable “solo project” that should finally earn him a shot at stepping behind the camera for the Lizards’ next project.

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Making Of

August 6, 2008 / Bob Westal

Bahti (Lotfi Abdelli) is a talented, girl-loving, Tunisian breakdancer and pretty much the last person you’d expect to find under the tutelage of an Islamist cleric with Al Qaeda sympathies (Lotfi Dziri), begging for a chance a shot at the suicide bombing big-time. That, however, is the precise trajectory traced by Nouri Bouzid’s astute and emotionally adept, but initially slow-moving, look at the causes of terrorism.

“Making Of” starts out as pretty much a straight-up neorealist look at the issue, as we spend time observing how limited 25 year-old Bahti’s life has become and how the U.S. invasion of Iraq provides a powerful, but ideologically confused, focus for his generalized anger. Then, just as Bahti starts to be carefully schooled on the ways of hating Westerners and despising women, the film takes a sudden meta/post-modern turn as the actor Lotfi Abdelli switches from Arabic to French, goes out of character, and begins to angrily question the nature of the film to director Bouzid, and suddenly the title becomes a self-conscious double entendre. These staged segments appear to be aimed at diffusing anger among Tunisians who prefer to deny the existence of terrorism in their homeland, as well as observant Moslems who might be insulted by the film’s respectful, yet critical, look at modern day Islam. In any case, Bouzid’s film is compelling viewing, largely because of two charismatic lead performances from Abdelli as the alienated youth and Lotfi Dziri as the low-key fanatic who indoctrinates him in the ways of hate and death. With its strong stand against terrorism and outspoken humanism, “Making Of” is a thoughtful and poignant choice for Westerners curious about exactly what is being said and thought on the so-called Arab “street.”

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Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood

August 2, 2008 / Will Harris

If you’re a movie buff, you probably smiled when you saw the elbow-in-the-ribs joke of this film’s title, but to illuminate those who don’t know their Hollywood trivia, it’s been said that the success of “Where the North Begins,” which provided a similarly-named canine star (Rin Tin Tin) with his first starring role, was responsible for keeping Warner Brothers from going bankrupt. “Won Ton Ton: The Dog Saved Hollywood” takes that approximate concept – a dog becoming a bigger star than most human actors – and adds to the plot a would-be actress (Madeline Kahn) who’s the only person to whom Won Ton Ton will listen. Bruce Dern plays the aspiring director whose career takes off thanks to the dog, Art Carney is the studio head, and Ron Leibman gets a lot of laughs out of his role as Rudy Montague, a very thinly-veiled version of Rudolph Valentino, but the real fun of the flick comes from the number of old-Hollywood stars who make cameos. Indeed, “Won Ton Ton” might actually beat “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” for the number of guest stars, though it’s a little sad to realize that, in 2008, only real cinemaphiles will appreciate how cool it is to see a cast which includes…wait, let me take a deep breath…Johnny Weismuller, Victor Mature, Rudy Vallee, Walter Pidgeon, Ann Miller, Ann Rutherford, Peter Lawford, the Ritz Brothers, Andy Devine, Alice Faye, Dennis Day, Broderick Crawford, Cyd Charisse, Fernando Lamas, Sterling Holloway, Dorothy Lamour, William Demarest, Jackie Coogan, Phil Silvers, George Jessel, Edgar Bergen, and even Stepin Fetchit. “Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood” isn’t a true classic of the ’70s, but when it comes to films which provide opportunities to say, “Hey, look, that’s (INSERT ACTOR HERE),” it’s in a league of its own.

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Starship Troopers 3: Marauder

July 29, 2008 / David Medsker

Whatever self-awareness the “Starship Troopers” franchise may have had about its neo-fascist nature is long gone in this latest installment, which is a shame because it certainly started off promisingly enough. Casper Van Dien is back as Col. Johnny Rico, who goes from villain to hero in time to save old friend Lola Beck (Jolene Blalock) from attack on a hostile bug planet. The artwork promotes the new weapons the Federation has to play with, but they don’t come into play until the final 15 minutes…and look just like Obadiah Stain’s suit from “Iron Man.” Not only that, the soldiers operating them have to be naked for them to work. Yep, that’s the plot piece they wrote into the story in order to get the girls’ tops off. (Strange, then, that Van Dien later steps out of his Marauder suit fully clothed.) They have some fun with the character of Sky Marshall Anoke – not only is he Sky Marshall, but he’s a million-selling pop star with songs like the recruitment anthem “A Good Day to Die” – and the Federation Updates are always amusing, but it seems completely lost on all concerned that they are asking the viewer to root for a “1984”-style government that sentences protestors to death and views religious faith as an act of rebellion in a godless society. Who funded this, Pat Robertson?

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The Last Winter

July 22, 2008 / Jason Zingale

Much like M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening,” “The Last Winter” is an eco-thriller that tries so hard to deliver its Big Message that it forgets all about being scary. Set in Northern Alaska where oil pumps beneath the ground like blood in veins, the film stars Ron Perlman as Ed Pollack, the leader of a small team of oil scouts who have just discovered that not all is right with the frozen tundra. The group’s resident scientist (James Le Gros) warns Pollack that the permafrost is melting (thus making it impossible for the oil rigs to be delivered by truck), but before he can do anything about it, his fellow team members are slowly driven crazy and then killed by some unseen evil. Ridiculous on so many levels, “The Last Winter” is indeed terrifying, but not like you might think. The performances are wooden, while the long stretches of silence (supposedly meant to add to the suspense) just make it that much easier to fall asleep. Of course, when the audience is finally shown the evil that’s causing all of this, you simply won’t believe your eyes. I’m not one for spoilers, but the nature spirit that’s punishing these people for simply doing their jobs looks like Harry Potter’s Patronus. No joke. It’s literally a blue, CGI spirit in the shape of a moose, and while I applaud writer/director Larry Fesseden for attempting to comment on the world’s ecological troubles by way of a horror film, he’s better off just leaving that sort of stuff to people like Al Gore.

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