Whale Story
Anyone who feels particularly strong affection for animals, Dolphin Tale will love this film. The movie starts out unpromising but then manages to tell a new chapter the human-animal relationships. Even those who feel that it is pathetic that many people seem to value pets more than other human will find Dolphin Tale at heart-warming story.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
When I read that Brad Bird (who made the wonderful Pixar films The Incredibles and Ratatouille) was recruited to direct Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and that he gave it a special touch, I could not resist to watch this improbably action adventure. Bird did not write the script and hence was rather confined what he could do with film. The entire series could be called “Mission Improbable”. But if you are willing to suspend your critical faculties and just enjoy the fast paced, often surprising action sequences and amazing technological feats, this cloak and dagger secret service film will not disappoint you. If, however, you have not seen The Incredibles or Ratatouille, make sure that watch them first because they are even better.
Crazy, Stupid, Love
The first three quarters of the film are stupid. No, boring is a better word. Everything feels staged. You feel that you are watching a comedy without soul and intelligence. But then suddenly it all changes, you are in for a big surprise and the film comes to life. I wonder if it would be been possible to create this dramatic turn of events without boring me out of my mind for most of the film.
Mrs. Doubtfire
Robin Williams is one of the most talented comedians alive. The range of voice impersonation he can do is amazing. Some of his talent is on display in Mrs. Doubtfire. The film was made in 1993 and feels a bit outdated. There are funny moments but the most enjoyable part of the film is to watch Robin Williams impersonate an old English house sitter.
Our Idiot Brother
If you think you have an idiot brother, watch this film and you will realize that you brother is actually pretty smart. Ned (Paul Rudd) is the brother of three intelligent, good looking and charming sisters and a pretty dumb mother. Paul is not intelligent my any definition of the world, apparently inheriting most genes from his mother. There is something painful to watch someone who is stupid but not overtly handicapped as Forrest Gump. The pain becomes less throughout the film as Ned’s take on life—to trust everyone and to love unconditionally—proves to be winning strategy for happiness. If you are into romantic comedy but want to see something different and have 90 minutes to kill, this film will amuse you mildly. Most importantly you will think that your brother not stupid.
Midnight in Paris
The criticism that I and others have leveled against Woody Allen’s recent work seems to have stung. When Allen moved his camera to London a few years ago, got the same stories transplanted from New York to London. The difference in language seems to have freed Allen. Midnight in Paris only feels a bit repetitive of his previous work. Mostly it is a very clever and cute adaptation of the idea of time travelling. Allen’s alter ego, a writer (Luke Wilson) who feels more comfortable in the past than present suddenly finds himself in the 1920s meeting the great artists of the time. Luke Wilson gives spectacular performance. Taken this 2-hour trip to Paris is worth the price of the movie ticket.
Apparently there is a good new documentary on Woody Allen’s work showing this weekend on PBS.
Continue ReadingEasy Rider
Some have billed Easy Rider the mother of all road movies. Until the end, it is very difficult to figure out where this journey is leading to and what the whole point of the film it. It starts out in the American West. Two bikers (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper) set out to travel east after doing a drug deal in L A, which gives the cash to pay for it. The film covers beautiful landscape of the American Southwest and the hippy culture that started in the 1960s. (If you have never been to America, it would be a nice introduction to landscape.) On the journey the meet people from all walks of life. But there seems no purpose to the journey. Only at the end it becomes clear that the film wants is a philosophical meditation on what freedom really is. I will not give away the surprising final scene.
Crazy Beautiful
There is a fine line between being a genius and being crazy, so a popular saying goes. It is difficult to know whether Vincent Van Gogh, one of whose paintings is a key feature of my homepage design, became insane only later in life after contracting syphilis or whether the roots of his mental illness lie much earlier in his life and paved the way for his creative genius. Cleary, Van Gogh is an example of the proverb that opened this review. At age 37 craziness fully took hold of him and he shot himself dead. When you take a look at his paintings you realize that, even if they depict something a bit crazy, they are beautiful. For the average mortal, however, craziness is generally not related to beauty but to ugliness and destruction. When we see someone act really crazy, we fear that the person will self-destruct sooner or later. This assumption is what the film Crazy Beautiful plays with.
Contagion—Nothing spreads like fear
Nothing spreads like fear is a great subtitle. Unfortunately, the film is a disappointment. After living through September 11, SARS, and most recently the Fukushima nuclear disaster, we all have a pretty good sense that our world could suddenly be turned upside down. Many of us might die because of a natural or manmade disaster. Steven Soderbergh is not up to the task of telling us something more about how ours fears than we already know. The movie feels fabricated and is a waste of time. Watching the footage from the March 2011 Fukushima disaster would give you much deeper insight into how fear spreads. The German public became so concerned about nuclear energy that the chancellor Angela Merkel made a full u-turn in her nuclear policy.
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The Sound of Music
To get in the spirit of Octoberfest, I watched the iconic romantic musical for a second time in my life. The mountains around Salzburg are still amazing but the film has aged less well than My Fair Lady. Too often you notice that the scene is shot in a Hollywood rather than on location in Salzburg. Our eyes have become too discerning about simple tricks in the art of making movies. There will be a remake of My Fair Lady coming out soon and I would welcome a remake of The Sound of Music. But the audience nowadays for a new version of the Trapp family story may be smaller than the more ageless theme and spectacular writing in My Fair Lady.
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