Digi@themovies: Dark Shadows, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
May 11, 2012 by Digitaria Staff
Whether you are a fan of the original 1966-71 gothic soap opera or the short lived 1991 primetime serial rebirth, you will find little resemblance in Tim Burton’s comic cinematic revision of Dark Shadows. Long-time fans pining for a scary, big budget supernatural thriller have been sacrificed on a pyre of boozy caricatures and high-gloss Burton visual effects.
The story follows Barnabas Collins, a 200+ year old vampire, played by reliable Burton comrade Johnny Depp, as he awakens from a two-century imprisonment at the hands of his nemesis, an enamored witch played by Eva Green. Once freed, Barnabas returns to his family estate to join his living relatives and return the family business to it’s former glory. Unfortunately for all concerned, the 200 years that have passed have given Angelique an opportunity to take over the local fishing business.
After sitting through Burton’s other adaptations, I’ve come to the conclusion that he is at his best when working with original material. So I went in with low expectations. However, the first hour of the film, despite showing very little respect for the source material, is clever and entertaining, with witty characters, a lavish visual direction and the typical Burton A-Team in Helena Bonham Carter and Depp. Unfortunately, much of what is so good about the first half of film evaporates in a mix of rote dialogue, predictable plot developments, melodramatic big budget fight scenes and unexplained character twists. Barnabas may well be turning in his grave. (**1/2) -- Michael Jackson
Based on the Deborah Moggach novel These Foolish Things, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is simply a wonderful film! Director John Madden’s (Shakespeare in Love) film adaptation follows the lives of seven English retirees (played by a cast of brilliant award-winners: Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Maggie Smith, Ronald Pickup, and Celia Imrie), each with reasons of their own for embarking on a journey to Jaipur, India, to take up residence at a hotel catering to the “Elderly and Beautiful.”
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Digi@themovies: The Five Year Engagement, The Raven
April 27, 2012 by Digitaria Staff
The Five Year Engagement had all the ingredients to be one of my favorite movies. Judd Apatow and Jason Segel (my favorite film duo), at it again—check. Make Segel a fish out of water, with a lovely English romantic foil and her hilariously dysfunctional family—check. Add beautiful shots of my old Bay Area hometown (San Francisco)—check! As a promising first half hour dragged into what felt like a few hours more, however, Engagement’s potential fell short—and I, as one of the most faithful Apatow/Segel fans, was disappointed.
Though The Five Year Engagement is actually directed by a different member of the Apatow stable, Nicholas Stoller (Get Him to the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), it follows the quintessential Apatow/Segel formula—take awkwardly oversized Segel and match him with a teeny tiny beauty (this time played by the comely Emily Blunt), combine a mass of vulgar jokes with a couple handfuls of brilliant blink-and-you’ll-miss-it one liners, plant your characters in a normal young-adult life-changing situation (in this case an engagement and a major move), shake it up and the boys will deliver blockbuster gold.
Normally this formula is flawless, especially for me—I’m a sucker for anything those two write and produce (hopefully we all remember Freaks and Geeks?). However, this might be the one exception to the rule—this film moved so slowly that even I was checking my watch. There were at least a dozen fluffy but not funny scenes that could have easily been excised and would have drastically improved this movie and kept my interest throughout.
The flick’s not a flat out clunker; there were definitely some hilarious scenes that had the audience roaring in laughter, and I’m sure I’ll be using a few of the one-liners in the near future. But with that said, there were moments where I wasn’t the only one fidgeting in my seat out of boredom. Out two romantic leads needed to just get it done—and the cutting room staff should have realized they needed to do the same by trimming the fat and getting rid of all the unnecessary scenes. It’s a reminder that the more successful a star or director becomes, one of the first rules the ego pushes off the table is “less is more.” (**) – Alex White
The Raven begins at The End, with Edgar Allen Poe (John Cusack), weak and dying on a park bench in 1849 Baltimore, and a note about how his final days remain an unsolved mystery.
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Digi@themovies: The Lucky One, Think Like A Man
April 20, 2012 by Digitaria Staff
The Lucky One is the latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks tearjerker (The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe, Message in a Bottle, etc.), and hits all its marks: beautiful people, tragic coincidences, anguished love, you know the drill.
Zac Efron, still struggling to break out from his “High School Musical" typecasting, plays a U.S. Marine who, during his tour in Iraq, stumbles upon a photo of a beautiful woman moments before a bomb attack. Three tours in Iraq later, he still clings to the photo that saved his life and becomes determined to find the woman in the photo to thank her.
Having no idea who the woman is or where she lives, Efron’s Marine shows either amazing detective skills or disturbing stalker tendencies before miraculously tracking her down using clues from the photo. Without a car, he treks cross country and finds the beauty (played vaguely by Taylor Schilling) but can’t bring himself to tell her why he’s come to see her and from so far away...possibly because he’s aware of how creepy he would come off, but mostly because he struggles understanding why he survived the war when so many others didn’t.
Efron gets a job working for the woman’s family and ingratiates himself with her grandmother (reliable Blythe Danner) while causing complications with her ex-husband (Jay R. Ferguson). The attraction between the two leads percolates slowly as they gaze at each other from afar, and their sexual tension makes for some of the film’s best moment. While some might think that the age gap between Efron and Schilling is awkward, their chemistry works.
I fell for the love-and-war concept of the story, and while the picturesque Americana landscape was charming and beautiful, the execution was predictable and flat. The characters are all familiar and one-dimensional, though Efron acquits himself and guys who get dragged to this will probably like that he’s not big on words (like most guys).
The Lucky One is a decent enough date movie, and once you know it’s a Nicholas Sparks product, you should know what you’re getting, so don’t complain when you get it. (**) – Dru Kelly
Steve Harvey is best known as the star of a sitcom that bears his name and one of the Kings of Comedy, but he's also the author of the best-selling book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, which is now a movie directed by Tim Story that only keeps the back half of the title. And while Think Like a Man’s storyline is familiar and predictable, the appealing cast and snappy writing put it a step above.
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Digi@themovies: Cabin in the Woods, Bully, Damsels in Distress
April 13, 2012 by Digitaria Staff
If you love horror movies and have been eagerly anticipating Cabin in the Woods, then you might as well stop reading this (or any other reviews) and just go see it. The less you know, the better. Consider yourself warned. Now: If you're the curious kind (you know the type, typically punished in horror movies), then go ahead and read on. I dare you.
It’s not giving anything away to say there's something more to Cabin in the Woods than simply five college students vacationing at a remote wilderness cabin: the trailer tells you and the opening scene sets a completely different stage before an iconic horror film introduction to the victims, er, characters: Heroine (Kristen Connolly) is in her room packing, blinds and windows wide open as she prances around in her underwear. BFF (Anna Hutchinson) and her boyfriend (Chris Hemsworth) drop in to console her about an affair with her professor that ended ugly. They promise that an introduction to dashing hunk (Jesse Williams) will assuage her sorrows. Lovebirds are joined by fifth wheel and total pothead (Franz Kranz) who rolls up in his window-less jalopy, smoking weed out of transformer coffee travel mug/bong. RV is loaded up and head off to a cousin's cabin in the woods. Not on GPS. Totally off the grid.
So, if you've ever seen a horror movie, the kids' fates should be all but sealed. No one is rooting for them and the cards seem to be stacked against them. But the journey is not at all what you think it will be. It's gory. It's terrifying. And It's very, very funny. As directed by Drew Goddard (one of the writers of Lost and Cloverfield), the whole film masterfully walks the line between hilarity and horror, not the first time writer Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has proven himself deft at that challenging intersection.
While the Cabin kids’ performances are pretty good, Bradley Whitford steals the show, though I can’t rightfully tell you who he is or what he does. (Note: This opinion could be drastically biased by my love for Whitford as The West Wing's Josh Lyman.) The final twist in Cabin is completely absurd and seems just a slight bit lazy, but not disappointing because ride has been so much fun.
Cabin in the Woods isn't going to leave you terrified of walking back to your car alone in the dark -- but it is everything a good comic horror flick should be. Cabin in the Woods is Evil Dead for a new generation. It’s as good as this sort of thing gets and the first four-star film of 2012. (****) -- Kristina Eastham
Bully is a well-meaning documentary that chronicles a year in the life of five different kids who have been bullied and two families who lost a child to suicide because of relentless cruelty. Produced by the Weinstein Company, it’s been in the news lately as the filmmakers successfully fought to have its original “R” rating (for F-bomb language) dropped to “PG-13.”
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Digi@themovies: Mirror Mirror, Wrath of the Titans, Intruders
March 30, 2012 by Digitaria Staff
Deconstructing fairy tales with a modern twist is so 2012. When I mentioned to my friends that I was going to see Mirror Mirror they asked if that was the scary Snow White movie with Charlize Theron. Having no idea what they were talking about, I IMDB'd it and realized that two directors had the same idea but with different twists. Theron’s Snow White and the Huntsman must be doing a better job marketing itself because none of my friends had heard of Mirror Mirror.
That’s too bad, because Mirror Mirror is a captivating comic reimagining of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, starring Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen. Rising ingénue Lily Collins plays Snow White, and handsome Armie Hammer (who played both of the Winkelvi in The Social Network) is the Prince. Plus there are a slew of little people as the Dwarfs.
But the movie belongs to Roberts, who has a ball as the Evil Queen. She’s the one who spins this fairy tale, narrating an odd opening of plastic doll-like creatures to set up the familiar story. Roberts is quite funny -- her greatest success is that it’s hard to hate her despite the queen’s wicked ways; the audience laughed at her jabs throughout.
The Seven Dwarfs have different names than the ones we’re used to (probably because they’re all Disney properties), but still bring a bundle of personalities and character traits – funny, loving, fierce – and their chemistry with Snow White works beautifully.
The film isn’t meant to be scary, it’s an ideal family film, but does have some interesting twists of "dark magic." Noises in the distance, spells, thieves; even a mythological creature makes an appearance. Set direction and costume design are detailed and transporting.
I would venture to say I loved Mirror Mirror, and while my love for Julia Roberts may have some influence, I also thought the juxtaposition of the new and the classic recaptured some of the magic of first hearing the story as a child. It’s fun, light-hearted, and filled with just enough twists and turns to keep the audience engaged. And just after the movie ends, there is something to keep you in your seat…something that seems a little out of place. But I'll let you discover that one for yourself. (***) – Mariah McFarland
Audiences familiar with Clash of the Titans, the predecessor to Wrath of the Titans, will have a general idea of what to expect in this sequel. And, for better or worse, they won’t be disappointed.
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Digi@themovies: Jeff Who Lives at Home, 21 Jump Street
March 16, 2012 by Digitaria Staff
Tough week for the wannabe Pauline Kaels at Digitaria this week, as SXSW and other missed opportunities kept us from seeing the cinematic update of 21 Jump Street, which has gotten pretty good buzz.
We did manage to make it to Jeff Who Lives at Home, a bittersweet indie comedy that takes place during one epiphany-full day, directed by the Duplass brothers, Jay and Mark.
The day we follow belongs to the titular 30-year-old stoner (Jason Segel), who, uh, still lives at home with his exhausted and exasperated mother (Susan Sarandon) in Louisiana. The day begins with mom sending Jeff off on a simple errand to buy some wood glue. But Jeff believes that everything has meaning and decides to take a detour from his errand, in order to follow life’s signs and see where the path will lead. While the universe may have been indifferent to Jeff thus far, he is ready to take action and discover his purpose.
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Digi@themovies: John Carter, Silent House
March 09, 2012 by Digitaria Staff
I can't speak for purists but for the uninitiated moviegoer, John Carter is an exciting, if sometimes clunky, introduction to Edgar Rice Burroughs' man on Mars.
This first live-action film from director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL-E, Bug’s Life) is a sci-fi action extravaganza touted as one of the most expensive movies ever made. It’s certainly epic, starting as a slow moving period piece before rocketing into a literally out-of-this world action flick.
First we’re quickly introduced to widowed Civil War veteran John Carter; soon after, we meet a young Edgar Rice Burroughs, who has inherited his dear, late Uncle John's journal. As Ned combs through the pages of the journal, the audience expects to be whisked away to Mars… but instead gets another 20 minutes of John brooding around 19th-century Arizona fighting Native Americans and the guy from Breaking Bad in an old-timey mustache. John Carter is a big ball of testosterone, we get it. Are we there yet?
Things pick up significantly, however, when John finally arrives on Mars. Touted as one of the most expensive films ever made, the film's special effects are obviously extraordinary. However, the sweeping shots of Martian landscapes and breathtaking man, er... Martian-made cities take a backseat to the CGI characters that populate the red planet. The nine-foot tall race of green gladiators with four arms that John befriends will no doubt draw Avatar comparisons but, to their credit, have a distinct personality all their own. Other honorable mentions include the surprisingly spine-tingling White Apes and the enduring dog-like creature that decides to follow John everywhere.
Not much to say about the acting: the female lead (Lynn Collins) is sufficiently easy on the eyes, the bad guys are sufficiently evil and our man, John Carter, as played by Taylor Kitsch, is brooding... Always brooding. One part Phantom Menace and one part Avatar, John Carter would have been a tremendous achievement had it been released a few years ago, but unfortunately, the unavoidable comparisons to too many films that came before it may be this film's downfall.
Which is too bad because John Carter is solid escapist entertainment with tremendous potential for interesting sequels. Like your typical Disneyland ride, if you can get past the first hour of waiting, the actual ride itself turns out to be pretty fun. (***) – Michael Liang
Silent House is a disconcerting thriller that follows the movements of a pretty victim named Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), who is being tormented in a house occupied by an unknown person or evil force. Sarah joins her father at their family retreat - conveniently secluded and lacking electricity during renovations. As dad and daughter settle in for an evening at the home, they start to hear noises from the floors above. Scared and suspicious, Sarah insists that her father check out the mysterious noises. Bad move.
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Digi@themovies: Project X, The Lorax
March 02, 2012 by Digitaria Staff
Not only did Project X fling me back into college, it made me wish I was 10 years younger so I could still party like they did! And maybe enjoy this stupid, sloppy, sometimes funny, wild-house-party-on-steroids of a movie a lot more than I did.
Directed by Nima Nourizadeh in “you are there” fashion, Project X is a hormone-infested film filled with a lot of action and the unthinkable outcomes from the wildest party that you and I would never get invited to. The film is about three not-so-cool high school seniors with nothing but drugs, booze and sex on their minds, who decide to make a name for themselves by throwing a wild, out of control birthday party. But saying you want to throw an “out of control” party and actually holding one are two very different things, and as word spreads around town about the event, the trio get in way, way over their heads.
I'd heard the film was supposed to be similar to Superbad and The Hangover. It certainly was nothing like Superbad, which was kinda raunchy but also rather sweet. There is nothing sweet about Project X—it’s loaded with drug use, profanity, nudity, and midgets.
The whole film is shot in the now all-too-popular mockumentary style, ostensibly recorded by the school’s AV geek, who has ambition but is a total amateur. It was hard on the eyes after less than half an hour, and I got a little dizzy and a headache. Dude – stand still once in a while! There are some similarities to The Hangover, in the sense that it was one escalating shenanigan after another, but Project X is both more outrageous and less funny.
Much of the fun comes from the WTF!?! moments the film keeps throwing at you, so to give away any of them is to reduce what pleasure there is to be had. I won't play spoiler.
This is my first movie review ever, so I guess the standard I’ll use is, “Would I recommend this to my friends (28yrs+)?” Probably not. It was definitely skewed towards people 17-21 years of age, and male particularly. If you're a parent, you might want to lock up your teenage children so they don’t see this and get any ideas. (*1/2) -- Samira Hamidi
Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax isn’t the worst adaptation of a Dr. Seuss story ever, but since the bottom of the litter box belongs to Mike Myers’ eyeball-gouging Cat in the Hat, that’s really not saying much.
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Digi@themovies: Act of Valor, Wanderlust
February 24, 2012 by Digitaria Staff
Eleven years after 9-11, America remains edgy and sensitive regarding jihad and the war on terror. For that reason alone Act of Valor will probably make money. But this old-fashioned action-packed hero flick doesn’t star Chuck Norris or Sylvester Stallone… it stars real-life Navy SEALs. The guys in this movie aren’t actors -- they are truly some of America’s elite fighting force. Other supporting characters include CIA Agents, a weapons-smuggling Jew, a Ukranian Jihadist, and thousands -- if not millions -- of live rounds of ammunition.
The storyline is believable, even eerily plausible. No spoilers, but if I ever see an ice cream truck near a US Embassy you can bet I’ll get my Nutty Buddy elsewhere. And, living in San Diego I’m all too familiar with the on-going battle of the Mexican drug cartel. At least I can count on the Frogmen of North Island to help keep me safe.
I think all red-blooded Americans love a good fight scene. But it’s the lead-in to the big fights that separate Act of Valor from similar flicks. When these clandestine soldiers are creeping behind enemy lines carrying 40-plus pounds of gear they’re so stealthy that you can hear the crickets chirping. I was on the edge of my seat as they executed their battle plan, and modified it on the fly as needed.
This film isn’t all about heroes being heroes. There are wives, children, and beers on the beach involved too. The picture tries to help the audience soak in the utter torment that these families go through when the men are called to duty. That sentiment is carried through into the credits as the names of fallen soldiers scroll past, before the cast and crew.
Act of Valor pays homage to our boys. These real-life GI Joes may not have Tom Cruise’s hair or Vin Diesel’s swagger. Instead, they offer something better – authenticity and grit. If you don’t enjoy this film, you’re likely to be one of damn few. (***) – Brent Summers
The loose, terrific cast is the best reason to see the raunchy, zany, mostly stupid, sorta romantic comedy Wanderlust. The latest crude product of dumbed-down diminishing returns from Judd Apatow’s waning comic empire (produced by Apatow; directed and co-written by David Wain, best-known for the cult comedy “Wet Hot American Summer”), has its share of good laughs but most of them come early and the film quickly becomes a narrative mess and just another lowest common denominator mess.
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Digi@themovies: This Means War, Ghost Rider, The Secret of Arrietty
February 17, 2012 by Digitaria Staff
There’s a lot to be said about movie star power, and This Means War has it to spare. I should probably start by saying I LOVE REESE WITHERSPOON movies. I have seen and own most of them, and they never let me down when I’m in need of a good chick flick. So, while the other people at Digitaria who’ve been reviewing movies have been making fun of me, I’m going to stick by my guns: This Means War not only met, it exceeded my high chick flick expectations. The entire preview screening audience (including my not-so-chick-flick-loving boyfriend) laughed a lot and loudly. The plot – two top CIA agents are involved in a romantic triangle with my gal Reese – is cute, the action scenes are cheeky but exciting, and everybody – Reese and her hunks Chris Pine and Tom Hardy – look fabulous. I think the movie will appeal to both gals and guys, and it will ultimately join my Reese Witherspoon DVD collection. Thanks, Reese! You never let me down! (***) – Emily Potthoff
The most-likely #1 release this weekend is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the Nick Cage sequel to the rotten blockbuster Marvel comic book adaptation from five years ago, about a stunt motorcycle driver who’s deal with the devil goes awry; I caught it on cable a while later and was horrified, but not in the way intended. It was another depressing case of great special effects (that fiery skull head and demonically powered motorcycle were undeniably cool), wasted in a stupid story and lame dialogue. Sometimes these things get better with the follow-up, but very rarely.
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