Juno, Atonement, The Bucket List

Juno

Starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Gardner & Jason Bateman

It's quirky, trendy, fun and easy to spend and hour and a half with it's title character, "Juno." In a world of cliques, rules and judgements, Juno (Ellen Page) finds herself thrown into a world where none that matters when she becomes pregnant with Bleeker's (Michael Cera) baby. She decides to have the kid and give it away to a family in need of child - that would be Jennifer Gardner in her best performance to date as Vanessa Loring and Jason Bateman as her reluctant husband, Mark.

Ellen Page is phenomenal, bringing her amiable, wisecracking cynicism to the role, and with the popularity "Juno" has received from the public, Page will be expected to become a favorite, and hopefully not a sell-out (I trust her though). The reality of pregnancy mixed with the hilarious, though over-the-top dialogue, by newcomer Diablo Cody creates a world we know and love to watch.

Grade: A-

Atonement

Starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai & Vanessa Redgrave

Joe Wright, director of "Pride & Prejudice," enables himself to bring a story of longing to life with some of the most beautiful shots I've seen in years. The story is Briony's (Saoirse Ronan, age 13; Romola Garai, age 18; and Vanessa Redgrave), a girl who tragically mistakes (or lies) about an occurrence she didn't fully understand. The occurrence involves a number of people, but most particularly Cecilia (Keira Knightley), her sister, and Robbie, Cecilia's love interest and Briony's childhood crush. Briony's the only witness, but an unreliable one. As time goes by, Robbie is forced into the military and Cecilia exiles herself from her family, while Briony seeks atonement.

Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey ("World Trade Center" & "The Hours") deserves Oscar for his captivating shots, rich with color, angles and symmetry. There is a point in the film, when Robbie and a few army friends walk along a beach of other soldiers waiting to deport. The shot lasts for about five minutes and doesn't stop to blink. There is so much beauty in the filming that it's difficult to take in everything, just as it's difficult for the characters for forgive and forget and reconcile.

Grade: A

The Bucket List

Starring Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman

You would think that Mr. Freeman, a one-time Oscar winner, and Mr. Nicholson, a three-time Oscar winner, would know not to do a movie that involves Rob Reiner and the Seven Wonders of the World. They are obviously losing their minds. "The Bucket List" is the slowest, crappiest, piece of junk I've seen in a while. The only thing that brings the film up a few notches is the duo of caliber. The film was so low budget that they couldn't even spend the money to go to the pyramids or the Himalayas or anywhere else the script takes them - oh, and what a horrible script! The two characters don't even get off their asses for an hour of the movie. Then they fly around together and die. I hate this movie.

Grade: D

Charlie Wilson's War

Charlie Wilson's War
Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman & Amy Adams

Mike Nichols (director) swiftly pours us a vibrant shot of comedy and drama in the very first scene. Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), naked, relaxes in a hot tub with three naked women and another man. They talk about some movie the one girl's starring in, but Wilson is disinterested; he's only interested in the news on the television - the Soviet Union is taking over Afghanistan. As the story continues, we follow the playboy congressman, a renegade CIA agent (Hoffman) and a Houston socialite (Julia Roberts), who band together and pull off one of the greatest covert missions in history, which eventually aided the dismantlement of the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War. We know Nichols can do drama ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Closer"), but I wasn't sure about comedy. However, with his incredible cast - though Roberts is a tad overrated, but still edgy - he knocks down that barrier.

Hanks leads the way through a series of awkward, hilarious situations and also through periods of anguish and loss. It's a perfect mixture. His office is run by bombshell women, all bearing cleavage, save Amy Adams who is Wilson's backbone secretary. She's smart and, though a bit pure, understands Wilson's scandalous ways. Hoffman is a complete lunatic and fits the role to a "T," and Roberts delivers a half-and-half, milked up performance.

There are scenes in "Charlie Wilson's War" that astound us. Emily Blunt plays a blouse-buttoned professional daughter of some not-so-important Texan, and as she sits in Wilson's office, she is disturbed by the sexiness of his office gals. In the next scene, however she is clad in bra, panties and stilettos, in Wilson's suite, with the Washington stud. It's hilarious! Also, as Wilson and Hoffman's Gust Avrakotos team up, trying to gain funds from other countries, the duo use lap dance persuasion tactics to draw the mullah from the countries leaders. Once again, we are dealt a double flavored shot of comedy and drama.

Yet, the truly dramatic scenes in which Hanks and Adams venture to Afghanistan to see the horrible warfare going on there is very touching. Their working relationship is great and nothing is pushed to the limits. It shows Wilson's softer side, never flirting with his secretary or going over her wall.

Though Wilson was able to boost funds from 5 million dollars to $1 billion annually, there is great tragedy in the film, for our government, once the Soviets were out, pulled out of Afghanistan, and as a result, we are now fighting the country we should have stayed to educate.

Grade: A-

Halloween (2007)

Halloween (2007)

Starring Tyler Mane, Daeg Faerch, Sheri Moon Zombie, Scout Taylor-Compton, Malcolm McDowell & Danielle Harris

Seeing the previews to Rob Zombie's remake of 1978's horror classic "Halloween" (originally directed by John Carpenter), it was difficult to tell if Zombie's version, bearing the same title, would analyze the past of the freakish murder Michael Myers, or if it was indeed a remake of the original. To my excitement, Zombie's version gives us both, and in doing this, he gives us a double-feature.

The first half of the movie plays out by giving Myers motive, feeling, and personality. To some, this may go against everything the madman stands for: silence, stalking, and mystery. However, the original leaves out motive, something that drives stories and makes for compelling twists and turns - all of which Zombie inserts. The pre-teen version of Myers, played by Daeg Faerch (one of the top creepiest kids ever), has a ton of problems. His dad's a bastard, his mom's (Sheri Moon Zombie) a stripper, his older sister doesn't give a damn, and he's constantly tantalized by school bullies. Apart from his slaughtering helpless animals and other demonic issues, Myers finds safety in his baby sister, Boo. (A possible allusion to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird"). Evil lets loose on Halloween and kiddo Myers lets that butcher knife fly. He kills the bully, his dad, his older sister (who is reported to have been stabbed 17 times, the same number of times Tom Robinson was shot in "Mockingbird"), and her boyfriend. After being put into a mental institution and killing a nurse with a fork, Myer's mommy kills herself and the kid never talks again.

The pre-Halloween story lasts for near half of the movie and makes the film more about Michael Myers than about the original's heroine, Laurie Strode. When Myers breaks out of the asylum, and after killing his janitor buddy who lovingly calls the brute "Mickey," we enter the original 1978 plot - except there's a twist... and motive. Myers isn't just killing people for no reason at all - which, I admit, takes away from the original's unknowing terror - but he's out for someone in particular. He's kid sister, Boo. And he finds her alright. Zombie takes a leap by creating a subplot of Laurie Strode, played by spunky Scout Taylor-Compton ("Mockingbird" narrator!), as the teen version of Boo. After the bloodbath at the Myer's house, Baby Boo was put up for adoption and taking in by the Strodes.

Michael has a motive. He wants his baby sister back. But with an Oedipal twist and an intense climax that parallels and swerves from the original's "house-to-house" case scenes, Laurie doesn't understand that Mickey just wants to be loved. So he tries to kill her as well.

Zombie shows what a true mastermind can do to a perfectly classic film. He makes it his own, and in doing so, he makes it a great, fun, terrifying gore-fest. He even creates an interesting symbolic meaning and history to Myers' infamous mask-wearing. I just don't get why the hell it wasn't released ON Halloween!

Grade: A-

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint & Ralph Finnes

In Harry's fifth year, he finds that Hogwarts quickly changes into something he didn't expect. Controlled by the Ministry of Magic, and particularly the newly appointed High Inquisitor, Professor Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), a sweet-faced, spine-tingling, toad of a woman that if you've read the immensity of the 870 page book, you'd know that just at the sight of her name you want to resort of gauging your eyes out. Harry is also dealing with unhinged dementors, girl trouble, Dumbledore's obvious disregardance of Harry, news of the Order of the Phoenix, and the memory of last year's death of Cedric Diggory and Lord Voldemort's return to the Wizarding world.

"The Order of the Phoenix" as a novel, is long, indulging, tedious, and only worth reading about half of the 870 timeless pages. It is full of nonsensical details that neither heighten the book nor are important to the main plot. It is by far the worst written and edited book of the series. However, that does not go for the film. In the adaptation, director David Yates (who will be returning for "The Half-Blood Prince" in 2008) brings us Harry's world as we have read it in the book. It deals with Harry's mental situation - being tormented by his natural surroundings at school and with the impression Voldemort has left him with, not to mention dreaming exactly as Voldemort sees. With breath-taking scenes and excellent filming, "The Order of the Phoenix" looks and is the best film of the Harry Potter series thus far.

Not only is the directing better in the fifth movie, but the acting is incredibly enjoyable and so much better. Radcliffe, Watson and Grint are finally discovering their characters, as they have shown awkwardness and ignorance in the past - save Grint who's humor has always been fun to watch. "The Order of the Phoenix" also brings an exceptional supporting cast. Actors such as Alan Rickman as Snape, Maggie Smith as McGonagall, Emma Thompson as Trelawney, and of course Ralph Finnes as Lord Voldemort are having loads of fun with their characters, while fresh roles such as Umbridge played superbly by Imelda Staunton, Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, and Evanna Lynch as the strange Luna Lovegood add a sense of superiority to the film. But still, after three movies filmed with Michael Gamdon as Dumbledore, the headmaster is still not adapted as he should be. The late Richard Harris, who appeared in "The Sorcerer's Stone" and "The Chamber of Secrets" before passing away, captured Dumbledore's age and power, whereas Gamdon appreciates only his wizarding caliber and brings an unneeded brutality to the headmaster.

Like the fourth film, "The Goblet of Fire," which is an exceptional book but a dimwitted swoosh of a movie, "The Order of the Phoenix" does not stick to the book as close as the first three films - which isn't always a bad thing. "The Goblet of Fire's" demise was its lack of exciting flair. But the current film has so much flair and creativity that it is delightfully overwhelming. Screenwriter Michael Goldenberg, in his first "Potter" movie, fixes what J.K. Rowling failed to do in the book, by simplifying complicated, inessential material, arranging the storyline to a generally easy-to-follow mode, and also threw in a few minor details of dialogue that gave readers a chance to know the back story of the scene without taking away from the movie's main drive. Usually, Rowling has an ability to make the book better than the movie, however, in the case of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," it is certainly not the case.

Grade - A-

1408

1408

Starring John Cusack & Samuel L. Jackson

Talk about a movie that goes from creepy to screwy in a matter of seconds, or should I say within the hour that Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is trapped in room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City. Why did Mr. Enslin even think about going into the said room, supposed to be haunted, after Jackson's hotel owner, Gerald Olin, warned him profusely? He's a writer who investigates the scariest places in America. Now he found a room, got the spiel by Mr. Olin, and is persistent on staying in the room over night. Once in the room, he's introduced to its eerie occurrences - the clock is a countdown (one hour), he hears strange noises, he detects blood stains all over the entire room from past deaths (56 to be exact), and a painting moves to its side, all on its own. These ghostly effects take a grip on the viewer, creating a great sense of paranoia. However, that was only the first twenty minutes of the film, and its a long, gruelingly horrible road to the end.

As Enslin starts to deteriorate and go insane inside 1408, Cusack has his moments of good acting. The rest is full of lines that are too predictably cliche that a burst of laughter is well needed. The movie is Enslin in the room. That is it. He talks to his voice recorder too who acts like a character only it doesn't work as one at all. The rest of the cast is unmentionable because they're barely a part of the film; even Jackson can't make this movie cool.

After the twenty minutes of descent paranoia, "1408" evolves into a room of complete mayhem and chaotic, cinematic malfunctions. The room takes Enslin to different periods in his life which we don't really care about, it takes him to a cliche "Wizard of Oz" dream effect that's not a dream at all, so it's a twist on a cliche making it a cliche in a way, and (SPOILER) though everyone that's trapped in 1408 has died in some grotesque way, Enslin survives, of course, and ruins the whole movie - as if it wasn't already a complete and utter mess.

The flick is based on a Stephen King short story, and it should have stayed in pages, not the screen.

Grade: D-

Knocked Up

Knocked Up
Starring Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen

In a summer full of blockbuster trilogies, "Knocked Up," from director Judd Apatow ("Talladega Nights," "40 Year Old Virgin," and "Anchorman"), is the side-slitting, breath-of-fresh-air comedy of the year. The story follows two young twenty-somethings, Allison (Katherine Heigl) and Ben (Seth Rogen). Being presently promoted to host on an E! television show, Allison and her whiny, dirty-mouthed sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) take a trip to an L.A. hot spot to celebrate. There Allison meets Ben, an unshaven, pot-smoking, chubby, unemployed guy who buys her a drink. When Debbie leaves, Allison and Ben hit it off; Allison looking to celebrate and Ben thinking "I've never had sex with a hot girl!" In a so-called calamity of events, Allison becomes pregnant.

The humor in "Knocked Up" comes from both the antipodean relationship between Allison and Ben and their friends and family caught in the background of the 9-month mistake. The typical Hollywood leash wrapped around "Knocked Up" is that their character opposition, both physically and emotionally, causes the two to fall in love, struggle with this thought, and then, of course, fall back into the swing of things. I'm usually a fan of endings that are atypical of Hollywood feel-good flicks, but for "Knocked Up," I fell for it. Because of the realism of the movie, you become so caught up in the characters that you can't help but root for them. And "Knocked Up's" realistic capabilities is what holds the film together, allowing it to stray from the cheese so many romantic comedies find themselves devouring. The dialogue is so raunchy, so ridiculous, and yet, I hear it all the time among people we see in this film. It's funny, not inhumane.

With an uproarious script, you need the right actors to deliver the lines. These guys do it with class and sass. Rogen and Heigl have great chemistry and flair together. Theirs is the story being told, but it wouldn't be possible with a list of supporting roles, especially the hindering marriage of Debbie (Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd). With two youngsters to care for, this pair establishes a possible futuristic view of what's to become of Ben and Allison: unhappiness and inevitable hostility. Pete needs his space and Debbie needs anger management classes. It's a perfect tool for observation of the audience and the lead roles. Then there's Ben's unruly gang of porn-watching idiots. This clan breaks the tension with riotous comments and sensationally gut-wrenching antics, particularly the bet for Martin (Martin Starr) to grow out his hair while taking minute-by-minute jabs about it. These characters are witty and necessary.

With a brash, ballsy script and actors who know how to deliver a show, "Knocked Up" is the highlight of Judd Apatow's resume and the popcorn hit of the summer.

Grade: A-