Film Dictionary

February 2, 2008

Iron Man (2008) **

Much better than all those stupid "Spiderman" and "Superman" flicks (though unfortunately not nearly as good as the best "Batman" films). Robert Downey Jr. is excellent as a billionaire inventor and weapons manufacturer who finds himself kidnapped by Al Qaeda-like terrorists in Afghanistan. The film manages a neat trick of being simultaneously pro-Bush's War on Terror and anti-Military-Industrial Complex. But while the politics are a bit muddy, the script is sharp, the action scenes top notch and the performances impeccable.

Gran Torino (2008) **

Clint Eastwood is in a great form as an actor, playing a grumpy (and racist) Korean War vet who befriends an Asian family next door. Unfortunately, as a director, he is a bit lazy in this minor, and uneven, effort.

Milk (2008) **

A sanitized version of the life of Harvey Milk, America's first openly gay politician, assassinated in 1978. No mention of the Jonestown tragedy (which occurred only a week before Milk's killing), only a bizarre reference to Kool-Aid. Harvey Milk emerges as a saint, a gay hero for straight audiences, who can embrace him without cringing and without questioning their prejudices. Sean Penn's performance is excellent (no surprise here), but the film's best scenes deal with the Anita Bryant/John Briggs crusades against gay rights in the 1970's and Milk's successful efforts to oppose them. Not surprisingly, "Milk'' got an R rating, but I bet that an identical film with the same sexual content - but STRAIGHT sexual content - would only get a PG rating. Harvey Milk deserved better. He deserved a more controversial film, a film that would explore his complex personality with all his flaws and wrinkles, to make his virtues shine even more brightly. Instead, he got a whitewash, a canonization, and a Sunday School version of himself. Watch the Oscar-winning documentary "The Times Of Harvey Milk" instead.

Rachel Getting Married (2008) **

Grand Canyon Adventure: River At Risk (2008) **

An IMAX 3D documentary about a rafting trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Water conservation issues is the main topic. Awesome visuals, cute babes, preachy tone. Length: 40 minutes. Directed by Greg MacGillivray and narrated by Robert Redford.

Changeling (2008) **

Frost/Nixon (2008) **

The Visitor (2008) **

Touching film about illegal immigrants in New York City.

Bottle Shock (2008) **

Mildly amusing film about the famous 1976 wine competition, in which California's Napa Valley wines won against the best French wines.

Righteous Kill (2008) **

Robert de Niro and Al Pacino's third film together (after "The Godfather. Part II" and "Heat"), and the first one where they are actually together (unless you count that short restaurant scene in the Michael Mann's film). It's a fine, but routine crime thriller about a serial killer who might be a cop.

The Strangers (2008) **

Well-made horror movie about a young couple attacked in their home by three masked strangers. Superior filmmaking, but the story is so simple (and uneventful) that it stretches the feature film format to the breaking point. Too bad, because it would have made a brilliant short film.

27 Dresses (2008) **

Delightful, but too conventional, comedy starring Katherine Heigl as a perennial bridesmaid who wrestles with the idea of standing by her sister's side as her sibling marries the man she's secretly in love with.

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2008) **

Fine documentary about William Castle, the director of "The Tingler" (1959) and the producer of "Rosemary's Baby" (1968).

Valkyrie (2008) **

A rather pedestrian suspense film about a plot to kill Adolph Hitler in 1944. The film is quite effective as far as the plot machanics are concerned, but it fails to evoke the true horrors of Nazism. In fact, the film could be adapted, without any changes, and set in any country in Latin America during a garden-variety military coup d'etat.

Twilight (2008) **

A vampire film pretending to be a high school flick ? "Pretty In Pink" meets "Dracula" ? John Hughes channeling Tod Browning ? "Pride And Prejudice" with fangs ? Anyway, all the "vampire" stuff is really just a smokescreen for an ordinary "a-rich-boy-trying-to-be-abstinent-while-a-poor-girl-is-willing-to-go-all-the-way" teen romance. Average in every respect.

Be Kind Rewind (2008) **

There are some wonderful moments in this surrealistic comedy from Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind", "The Science Of Sleep"), but it is essentially a one-joke concept stretched a bit too thin for a feature-length film.

There are terrific clips of the "sweded" movies here. The best, by far, is a parody of "The Lord Of The Rings".

Kung Fu Panda (2008) **

Take a garden-variety kung-fu epic from Hong Kong. Made it an animated film. Cast a panda in a lead role. The result will be "Kung Fu Panda", a fairly entertaining, if rather unoriginal, cartoon feature from DreamWorks.

January 1, 2008

Frozen River (2008) *

Ordinary drama about smugglers.

The Tale of Despereaux (2008) *

Very lame animated film about a brave mouse.

Smart People (2008) *

A misantropic comedy about a self-absorbed university professor (Dennis Quaid), his emotionally-handicapped daughter (Ellen Page), his pathetic brother (Thomas Haden Church), and his new girlfriend (Sarah Jessica Parker), who looks positively insane for wanting to join such a thoroughly fucked-up family. Set in a small college town in Pennsylvania, the film tries hard to be a smart, sardonic comedy, but falls flat on its face. The only ironic thing in the film is the title - those aren't smart people at all, merely erudite fools.

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008) *

The weakest of all four Indiana Jones flicks (yes, even worse than "The Temple of Doom"), a lousy adventure film about alien creatures from a mysterious city lost in the Amazonian jungle. Cate Blanchett steals the movie as a hilarious Soviet spy (possibly inspired by Natasha from "Rocky and Bullwinkle").

Your Name Here (2008) *

Unbelievably lame and boring movie starring Bill Pullman as a famous writer. A disaster from start to finish.

Marley & Me (2008) *

Boring comedy starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston as a young couple who get a pooch.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008) *

Atrocious movie, unexplicably hailed as a masterpiece by numerous critics. Too long, very boring and completely pointless. It has a few good set pieces (like the naval battle between a Yankee tugboat and a Nazi U-boat), but otherwise it just baffles the mind. Why would anybody, and especially David Fincher (who made such great films as "Seven", "Fight Club" and "Zodiak"), think that a story of a man who ages in reverse (he is born an old man and dies as an infant) would be interesting in itself ? Well, it isn't, and the film offers little else (aside from that naval battle) to compensate for the utter triviality of its main premise. John Podhoretz rightly demolishes the film in this Weekly Standard review. Choice bits: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a failure for two reasons: It's preachy, and it's stupid (...) There are no conversations in this movie, just one character depositing dubious pearls of wisdom into the ear canal of another; and since they're neither wise nor especially pearl-like, they grow extraordinarily tiresome."

The Yes Man (2008) *

Lame comedy starring Jim Carrey.

Wendy & Lucy (2008) *

A homeless woman (who lives in her car until it breaks down) loses her dog.

W. (2008) *

Lousy film from Oliver Stone. He can't decide whether he's making a serious film about the War on Terror, or a satiric comedy about a well-meaning bumpkin who finds himself in the White House and does a mess of things. The actors aren't sure how to play their roles neither. The only exception is Richard Dreyfuss, whose incredible tour-de-force performance as Dick Cheney definitely deserved a best supporting actor nod. His "Drain the swamp", "Nobody will fuck with us again" and "There is no exit strategy, we stay" speeches are the highlights of the movie and can be applauded as rare instances of coherence and straight talk in an otherwise politically-confused farce. Thandie Newton creates a memorable (though crude and vicious) caricature of Condi Rice, but other SNL-ish imitations are completely off the mark (particularly Scott Glenn's inept attempt to re-create Donald Rumsfeld and Jeffrey Wright's pathetic stab at Colin Powell). Toby Jones does only a so-so job as Karl Rove, Ellen Burstyn is a very imperfect Barbara Bush and Josh Brolin's W is very disappointing (as is Elizabeth Banks' Laura Bush). Compared to them, James Cromwell's Herbert Walker Bush is actually quite good, but like Dreyfuss, he apparently didn't get the same stage directions as others, and looks like a serious thespian playing Hamlet or King Lear with a troupe of commedia dell'arte clowns. The film also suffers from omitting many important events of Bush's life (like the Florida recount, 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan and Bush's victory over Kerry).