Archive for June, 2012

Short Take: Just the bounce back from “Cars 2″ that Pixar was primed for

Directors: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell

Screenwriters: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell, Irene Mecchi

Cast: Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters

Length: 1h 33m

Synopsis: Merida (Macdonald) is a Scottish princess, but you wouldn’t know it to look at her. With long, unkempt, fiery red hair and a fondness for tomboyish hobbies she doesn’t often get along with her mother the Queen  (Thompson) who, loving though she may be, relentlessly stresses the importance of obedience and propriety. Merida’s crude but kind father, King Fergus (Connolly), plays the peacemaker whose mannerisms and childish immaturity are not the example Queen Elinor wants for their daughter, yet the three get along fairly merrily all the same. One day, however, Elinor schedules a competition for young men seeking Merida’s hand in marriage. The princess impulsively becomes infuriated. A heated argument is had between the two, and in the midst of Merida’s outburst she runs off into the woods and discovers a secluded cabin where a temperamental witch (Walters) dwells. In an effort to change her fate Merida has the witch conjure a spell that would cause Elinor to change – and boy does it ever. The Queen turns into a giant bear, the land’s most feared and hunted creature. Merida is immediately remorseful, but before too many suns have set she and her mother must work together to break the spell before it becomes permanent. Will the rambunctious teenager save her mother’s fate in time, and succeed in mending the bond broken between them?

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Short Take: It's everything you have a right to want it to be

Director: John Gulager

Screenwriters: Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan, Joel Soisson

Cast: Danielle Panabaker, Matt Bush, David Koechner, David Hasselhoff, Katrina Bowden, Chris Zylka, Christopher Lloyd

Length: 1h 23m

Synopsis: At a lake far from the one we last left infested with prehistoric piranha there lives Maddy (Panabaker) and her stepfather Chet (Koechner), who owns a soon-to-open extravagant water park. Maddy’s romantic interest, a local deputy (Zylka), is in cahoots with Chet to keep hush-hush the fact that the park’s water is set to come from a newly discovered subterranean lake. In that lake (you guessed it) rests countless bloodthirsty piranha that begin surfacing in small groups but are bound to begin doing so in schools. When signs of their infestation arise Maddy and her secret crush Barry (Bush) try to warn Chet to stop pumping the water and their friends to avoid the park, but their counsel falls on deaf ears. Once the inevitable happens, will anyone make it out alive?

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Short Take: Juno Temple’s performance works to make this a movie worth liking, but not necessarily worth respecting

Director: Abe Sylvia

Screenwriter: Abe Sylvia

Cast: Juno Temple, Jeremy Dozier, Milla Jovovich, Dwight Yoakam, Mary Steenburgen, William H. Macy

Length: 1h 30m

Synopsis: The year is 1987. Danielle (Temple) is a high schooler in Norman, OK with a reputation as a “dirty girl,” and it’s not unfounded. As a real man eater she gets around, but does have intolerances for rapscallion-like behavior. Concerned for her wellbeing the school places her in special education classes as motivation to change her ways, and while she’s there she gets partnered up with another social exile named Clarke (Dozier), whose only commonly known attribute is his homosexual orientation. Together they’re given a project which demands that they parent a bag of flour like a baby, forcing them to spend time together outside of school. As they work on their project they begin bonding over their mutual exclusion. Danielle, after newly discovering the identity of her biological father, takes advantage of this new bond by roping Clarke into a road trip to see him. At the same time, Clarke is running away from a father (Yoakam) who has reached the tolerance limit for his gayness. The two runaways’ journey starts off awkwardly enough, but coming back after what they experience will be the real challenge.

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Short Take: A great soundtrack and abundance of enthusiasm have trouble overcoming bad writing and forgettable leads

Director: Adam Shankman

Screenwriters: Justin Theroux, Chris D’Arienzo, Allan Loeb

Cast: Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, Malin Akerman, Mary J. Blige

Length: 2h 3m

Synopsis: The year is 1987. Sherrie (Hough) is just a small-town girl moving to Hollywood to try and make it on her own as a singer. Right off the bus she stumbles upon The Bourbon, a renowned rock ‘n roll joint run by enthusiasts Dennis (Baldwin) and Lonny (Brand) who recently secured one final gig by rock legend Stacee Jaxx (Cruise) in an effort to save the place from bankruptcy. With not but $17 to her name Sherrie begs for a job as a waitress, and thanks to the fellow begging of its bartender Drew (Boneta) she’s hired on the spot. Naturally, a romance blooms. Misfortune begins to mount, though, as activist Patricia Whitmore (Zeta-Jones) successfully protests the moral filth of The Bourbon and aims to have it shut down. In addition to this, Jaxx’s manager Paul (Giamatti) has plans to cheat the establishment, and a Rolling Stone reporter (Akerman) has written an unfavorable article about Jaxx’s fading career. All of this included with Jaxx’s senseless temperament and unreliability puts The Bourbon behind the eight ball. Will the rock ‘n roll landmark’s luck turn around in time?

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Short Take: Probably not what you would expect, but definitely exciting on several levels

As this was a film that demanded extra attention, you’ll first find a review by Cliff Bugle and a second by Marisa Carpico. And even these wont cover everything there is to be said.

Director: Ridley Scott

Screenwriters: Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, Guy Pearce

Length: 2h 4m

Synopsis: In the near future, astronomers Elizabeth Shaw (Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Marshall-Green) make a key discovery that leads them to thinking that the Earth played host to alien visitors during a time before man even conjured the invention of language. They form up with a group of explorers that includes mission supervisor Meredith Vickers (Theron), several biological, geological, and technological specialists, and a robot named David (Fassbender) who is charged with mastering all human-made forms of communication. The expedition destination is a planet (later named LV-223) they suspect holds answers to the genesis of mankind. What ruins they find there, it turns out, were not only made by intelligent life forms, but incredibly ancient beings which share the exact same genetic makeup as humans. What those ancestors, referred to by the scientists as “Engineers,” were developing on that planet, however, proves to be treacherous in ways that could not have possibly been foreseen. With each new discovery the team’s mission faces greater peril, putting everyone’s lives in jeopardy – including Earth’s.

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Short Take: For its style alone it is worth watching, but the story fails in several key areas

Director: Rupert Sanders (debut)

Screenwriters: Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock

Cast: Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth

Length: 2h 7m

Synopsis: In a land far away, a princess was born that had lips as red as roses, raven-black hair, and skin as fair as snow. Her name was Snow White, and she was destined to become the purist of all creatures. Tragically, when Snow White was just a little girl, her mother passed away. Her father, vulnerable and overcome with grief, remarries a lost woman named Ravenna (Theron) and makes her the new Queen. On their wedding night she slays the King and assumes control of the kingdom, turning it into ruins. Though revered for her beauty, the Queen is nevertheless jealous of her stepdaughter’s fairness. For several long years Snow White (Stewart) remains locked up in the castle. The Queen, whose beauty and youthfulness we find comes from the consumption of young girls, seeks to consume Snow White when told by her magic mirror that doing so would allow her to live in youth forever. Luckily, Snow White manages to escape the castle, but is chased by a Huntsman (Hemsworth) hired by the Queen to fetch her. He eventually catches up to the princess but cannot bring himself to carry out his mission. In fact he falls in love with the fateful girl, and together they look for a way to defeat the evil Queen and reclaim the kingdom.

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