Archive for June, 2006

The Devil Wears Prada

  • Written by Box Office Boredom
  • Posted June 30, 2006 at 2:27 am

A Film Review By Jeff Fro

Starring:Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep
Directed By: David Frankel
Rated: PG13 for Sensuality
Review Posted: July 14th, 2006

Final Grade:
<

Anne Hathaway has made a career out of being the odd-ball thrown into the world of royalty and high society with her Princess Diaries films. In those movies she is awkward and simple. She is a plain girl who is ignorant of the sophisticated ways of the world. Through hard work and tutoring by her mentor, Julie Andrews, she triumphs and brings her own personal charm to her new found place in society. We sympathize for her because she has a heart of gold and winning looks to match. It doesn’t hurt that she is written smart, funny and clever. Then one day Anne Hathaway co-starred in Brokeback Mountain and flashed her boobs!

So, Anne can’t go back to the “princess” route anymore. Once you go topless – you can’t go back.

She must be thanking God that The Devil Wears Prada came along! In this film she gets to use the same basic formula as The Princess Diaries, but with grown up twists.

Anne plays a newly graduated journalism student who comes to New York to break into the business. On a whim, she interviews for a position as a personal assistant to the Editor of Runway magazine. This obvious Vogue type fashion mag is run by a ruthless business woman played brilliantly by Meryl Streep. The boss is commanding and cold. She is hard to work for and relentless in her demands from her staff. But one thing the film did correctly, they still kept her a human being. She is never so over the top that you find her a caricature or cartoonish in any way.

The credit for such humanity in the performance goes entirely to Meryl Streep herself. She is amazing to watch in this film. She chews out the staff and chews the scenery with equal gusto and it is a pleasure to see her do it. She is a woman who is firmly in control and even though we get to see an occasional glimpse of her pleasure and gratitude, she remains the top dog without question.

Anne, of course, comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion. She faces the challenges head on and conquers her fears and foes by the end. We know it’s going to happen this way, so I don’t mind letting you in on the spoilery details. Heck, if you’ve seen any commercials for this film then you know what I am talking about.

In the end we are left with a few glaring continuity questions. But on the whole it has been a fun jaunt through the racks of high fashion and big business.

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Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Movies, Romance

Superman Returns

  • Written by Box Office Boredom
  • Posted June 28, 2006 at 6:22 am

A Film Review By The Mike

Starring: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey
Directed By: Bryan Singer
Rated: PG-13 for Violence, Perilous Situations, and Lots of Topless Superman
Review Posted: June 29 2006

Final Grade:

When Superman returns in the new film entitled Superman Returns, we find that his lost love Lois Lane is winning the Pulitzer Prize for writing an article entitled “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman”. I want a Pulitzer Prize too, because I agree he’s not that necessary. Here’s why.

When I was a little one, I was always told that nobody’s perfect. And that, if anyone’s close to perfect, they’re a superhero. But they’re never actually perfect. Batman’s just a guy in a suit. Wolverine’s a mutant who’s kinda crazy. The Invisible Girl can’t stay Invisible for ever, and even if she could wouldn’t it be kinda cheap of her? I almost thought Captain America was perfect, but isn’t he a little racist if he’s only the captain of America?

Superman, on the other hand, and despite anything Bryan Singer will tell you, is perfect. If you don’t believe me, watch his first movie. You know, it’s the one where he flies around the earth so fast that it goes back in time to save an already dead Lois from that fate. And that was the first film. This is the fifth, though it pretends to be the third. Or second. I’m not sure.

And therein lies the fundamental error of Superman. He can always be trusted. He makes the impossible look easy. And worst of all, he never fails.

That’s great if you’re looking for a religion, but I’ve already got one. If you’re looking for drama, as the film Superman Returns is, it’s not good. Because as a viewer we know better than to fear any fate a bald madman with a diabolical plot involving genocide in the name of real estate throws at him. When your hero is too powerful to be stopped, and you tell us that, don’t expect us to think twice when he’s falling into the ocean because he’s tired. And when you are going to build on the idea of his helplessness for 150 minutes you are only magnifying the issue.

Yes, Superman has one very big weakness. Nope, it’s not Kryptonite. It’s Lois. The guy gets a little gooey when she’s around, and makes a few decisions that could be viewed as selfish. The same goes for all superheroes. I often wonder just how many poor fictional lives have been lost over the years because a superhero was busy trying to woo some girl while he could have been stopping a head on collision or building a better monorail. It would take Spider-Man, The Hulk, and The Flash about 15 minutes to clean up the middle east….but they’re too busy trying to get their lady friends out of trouble and into their suits (or expandable purple shorts).

But Superman’s still a cut above the other heroes, because he’s physically capable of controlling Lois’ mind, or of turning back time to fix any slips about her weight. He just chooses not to. That doesn’t make him any more vulnerable, it just makes him a little human in the heart. If that could kill him, he wouldn’t be perfect. But, a broken heart never really killed anyone. So he’s perfect. And that’s boring.

All that said, Superman Returns is a well-made, solidly-acted, and pretty good-looking movie. Brandon Routh fits the cape almost as well as Christopher Reeve did, Kevin Spacey does his best Gene Hackman impersonation as Lex Luthor, and Kate Bosworth manages to go brunette without raising eyebrows. Singer puts the action together well, and the effects work brilliantly.

After all my distaste toward the idea of the hero in the film, can I give you any good reason not to go see Superman’s Return? Not really, because it’s Superman, and the world wants to see him again. I’m just not sure we needed to see him as a tragic savior.

Hopefully the next film will have some fun with the character. Maybe he’ll finally consider following his power instead of his heart. Perhaps he’ll realize that the feelings from achieving great things and saving lives is bigger than the satisfaction he gets from chasing tail. I don’t really think there’d be much drama in that script, but at least it sounds more fun than this movie was.

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Filed under: Action, Comic Book, Movies

Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift

  • Written by Box Office Boredom
  • Posted June 23, 2006 at 2:48 am

A Film Review By Jason L. King

Starring: Lucas Black, Bow Wow, Zachery Ty Brian
Directed By: Justin Lin
Rated: PG-13 for reckless and illegal behavior involving teens, violence, language and sexual content.
Review Posted:

Final Grade:
<

A few weeks back, the theater I work at was running pre-show ads for the movie, The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. I laughed as the makers of the film were quoted saying, “There has never been a movie about drifting before.” I joked with my co-workers that it is true that there has never BEEN a movie about drifting before, but the more important question should be: Do wee really NEED a movie about drifting in the first place?

Lucas Black, star of Friday Night Lights tries to keep the Fast and Furious franchise going with this new film chronicling the lives of illegal street racers. Lucas plays Sean, a high school kid who has bounced around from school to school with his mother and always ending up on the wrong side of the law. But when his mother can’t take it anymore she sends her gear head son to live with his military father, who is stationed in Tokyo, Japan. Suffering from culture shock, Sean stumbles upon a group of people in the Tokyo underground who share his love for cars. He becomes friends with a group of street racers who practice drift racing.

I feel so dirty saying this, especially since I will openly admit that Lucas Black is close to the likes of Paul Walker on my most annoying actors list, but Tokyo Drift was not that bad. If you go into this film expecting shiny, fast cars and cool stunts, this film delivers. The film has everything a viewer comes to expect from a film in The Fast and Furious franchise; a group of good looking gear heads with a ton of money who settle every score possible on a race track. The characters are one dimensional cut outs that don’t really have any in depth when it comes to character development, but it’s not needed for this script. It was meant to be a high octane visual departure rather than any thing with deep meaning or character development. Unlike 2 Fast and 2 Furious Director John Singleton, Tokyo Drift director, Justin Lin, tapped into the idea of no character development and just fast cars and cool stunts and came up with a great escapist film for the average car lover or teenage boy. I would even have to admit, I enjoyed Lucas Black in this role. He played the pretty boy “bad ass” quite well. You could actually see him be that guy in real life, rather than just a frat boy wanna be bad ass. If you are wondering if I can give you an example of the wanna be, just take a look at Paul Walker in 2 Fast 2 Furious. Unlike Black who plays it cool in Drift, Walker spent 2 Fast 2 Furious strutting around in his West Coast Choppers shirt just hoping that viewers would take him seriously. Unlike Walker, Black was able to act just enough to make his character believable.

Before you go out and see Tokyo drift, Be forewarned, this film has a cookie cutter plot, cardboard cut out like characters and requires some suspension of disbelief to completely enjoy. Is this film worth your trip to the theater? The answer is not at all. If you’re a fan of the Fast and Furious series check it out on a rental. If you enjoyed the first film and hated 2 Fast 2 Furious, check it out. But if you have no idea what I’m talking about, save your money. All you’re going to get is a 2 hour fast car stunt show. Some people refer to that as great entertainment, others would call it a waste of film. I’ll leave it up to you to decide- I’m just saying for what it is, it’s not that bad.

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Filed under: Action, Movies, Sports

The Lake House

  • Written by Box Office Boredom
  • Posted June 20, 2006 at 10:21 pm

A Film Review By Jeff Fro

Starring: Keanau Reeves, Sandra Bullock
Directed By: Alejandro Agresti
Rated: PG-13 For mild thematic elements
Review Posted: June 20th 2006

Final Grade:

There is a scene towards the beginning of the film where a tragic accident happens. Sandra Bullock’s character is a doctor and she is on the scene when a bus hits a pedestrian. Unfortunately the man dies.

Then the film leaves that event and moves into some hokey romantic lullaby about two hopelessly single people who live in the same lake house two years apart. Through some postal magic that is never clearly explained, they can communicate through time. Keanu plays the person in 2004. He moved into the lake house to symbolically repair his relationship with his distant architect father. See, the father designed the lake house and then I guess abandoned it like he did his family. The father’s character is a real ass which is also never really explained fully.

Sandra Bullock is the doctor in 2006. All lonely and depressed because she can not find a man, she takes a job at a Chicago hospital. She makes regular trips to the lake house, I guess to check her “magic mail”.

About this “magic mailbox”…..if this happened to anyone at all, you would want details from the future, right? Who wins the Superbowl? Who wins the World Series? What are the Powerball numbers for this Friday?

Well, in this reality the people have no need for greed. They just want companionship. They want to be understood. They seek contact with another human so badly that they will settle for a long distance relationship that spans the time/space continuum. They are so self concerned that all else does not matter. It makes all of the characters a little unforgiving. I think we are supposed to like these people, but I doubt that I would in real life.

And also, they accept that this “magic mailbox” is actually possible with very little excitement or reaction. Sure they are a little surprised at first and believe someone might be playing a trick on them…..but within one scene they reject all of that and continue on as if getting mail from someone two years in the future is the most natural thing ever.

Sandra’s character gets shafted by this though since she is the one in 2006 and Keanu can not give her future details, he can tell her only what happened in the past. But he can do things in the past that change her present, which consists of graffiti and creative landscaping. Who the hell are these people?

Sandra Bullock’s character can send information back to Keanu that will change the future. But the consequences of those actions is never considered. “Back To The Future” had more of a consciousness about it’s plausibility than this movie.

It’s almost not necessary to get details from the future in this film. The film maker telegraphs everything that is going to happen well before it happens. Then he takes ten minutes to show you just what we already knew would occur. The characters are not smart enough to pick up on these elements naturally, so we are stuck watching them learn what we already know.

Finally, you now can learn what I already know……The Lake House is bad, boring and so illogical that you could (literally) drive a bus right through the continuity holes. I only wish I knew someone from 2008 who could have sent me some “magic mail” to warn me to avoid this mess, but by 2008 everyone will have forgotten, hopefully.

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Filed under: Movies, Romance

Nacho Libre

  • Written by Jason
  • Posted June 16, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Starring: Jack Black
Directed By: Jared Hess
Rated: PG for some rough action, and crude humor including dialogue
Review Posted: July 7, 2006

Final Grade:

There’s always that part of you who thinks that you can be somebody special. As a little kid your parents tell you that you can be whatever you want to be when you grow up. The pessimist in me will tell you that is not true. For example when I was younger I thought there was a chance I could be a famous baseball star like my hero Ryne Sandberg of the lovable losers, the Chicago Cubs. I was about as gifted at using a ball glove as a boy with no arms. Needless to say, no matter how many times people told me I could do anything I wanted, I knew my limits. Nacho Libre is a film about such a tale on so many different levels. We have Nacho who is quite possibly the worst wrestler in the world, and a film that is so unfunny it makes you want to die inside.

Jack Black takes on the role of Nacho Libre, an outcast monastery cook who dreams of being Luchador wrestler. Nacho finally gets his big chance and with the help of a street urchin. He begins his pro wrestling career in guise, hiding it from the monks and the children that he cooks for.

I can’t suggest Nacho Libre. Truth be told, I chuckled twice through out the entire film. Brought to you by the creators of Napoleon Dynamite, this proved to be a huge miss for Jack Black and friends. While Nacho is a lovable character, the story is full of awkward pauses, and over the top dialog that makes you too uncomfortable to enjoy it. Nacho comes off as an idiot that you can’t relate to, kind of like that crazy uncle at a family reunion that no one wants to talk to. As a viewer you sit there hoping the film would just be over soon.

Try as he may, Jack Black is far too contained in this film to really do anything great. He is limited by the script, and as a viewer we find that when Black is at his best is when he lets his “true” self out. We see quick glimpses of Black’s Tenacious D act he has become famous for, but it’s quickly controlled and he jumps right back into more awkward dialog in an equally awkward storyline.

Plain and simple, don’t waste your time with Nacho Libre. As a fan of Napoleon Dynamite, this is a huge disappointment. This film tried so hard to be Napoleon, but perhaps tried to hard. The film was painfully unfunny, and while it’s not bad enough to make you want to leave, it’s not good enough to even sprout much more than one or two small laughs. It’s certainly not Jack Black’s worst (That’s called Envy),but it’s far from anything that he wants to brag about either.

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Filed under: Comedy, Movies
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