March 3, 2009
Mad Men: Season 3 (2009) ****
February 2, 2009
Duplicity (2009) **
Fairly enjoyable mix of rom-com and spy genres, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen as two sexy and debonaire ex-spooks trying to steal a secret shampoo formula.
9 (2009) **
Visually impressive animated film about little rag dolls fighting huge mechanical beasts in a post-apocalyptic universe.
He's Just Not That Into You (2009) **
Charming soap opera about dating rites and rituals, marital infidelity and romantic commitment. Great actors (Ginnifer Goodwin is particularly charming) in a sweet, but predictable film.
It's Complicated (2009) **
Intriguing film starring Meryl Streep as a divorcée courted again by her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin).
Under the Sea 3D (2009) **
The beauty of the marine life, in IMAX 3D. Filmed off the coasts of New Guinea and Australia. Narrated by Jim Carrey. Length: 40 minutes.
Invictus (2009) **
True story of how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) united black and white South Africa by promoting a rugby team. A PC cinema at its best.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) **
A modern adaptation of "A Christmas Carol", about a heartless playboy (Matthew McConaughey) who gets visited by ghosts of his former one-night stands, and realizes that he will end up alone and miserable, unless he allows himself to fall in love. Directed by Mark Waters, the film uneasily combines the witty sophistication of his best works ("The House Of Yes", "Mean Girls") with the saccharine sentimentality of his worst endeavors (like "Just Like Heaven").
(500) Days of Summer (2009) **
An analytical deconstruction of the concepts of love, romantic bliss and breakup. Brilliant narrative structure, but a bit too cerebral for its own good. Zooey Deschanel ("Gigantic") gives a truly luminous performance.
Knowing (2009) **
Ingenious mix of horror and science-fiction, staring Nicholas Cage as an MIT astrophysician who comes across a mysterious piece of paper that predicts the greatest human tragedies. The film has a great concept, many surprises, and a daring ending, but it's dragged down by very clumsy treatement of human relationships. Like all Alex Proyas films ("Dark City", "I Robot"), it works far better on a cinematic level than on a human level.
Brothers (2009) **
Rather predictable drama about an Afghan war veteran returning home to his wife and daughters.
Taken (2009) **
Very effective chase thriller about an ex-CIA operative (Liam Neeson) going after Albanian pimps who have kidnapped his daughter. As Roger Ebert correctly points out, our hero is "a one-man rescue squad, a master of every skill, a laser-eyed, sharpshooting, pursuit-driving, pocket-picking, impersonating, knife-fighting, torturing, karate-fighting killing machine who can cleverly turn over a petrol tank with one pass in his car and strategically ignite it with another (...) It's the set-up for a completely unbelievable action picture where Mills is given the opportunity to use one element of CIA spycraft after another, read his enemies' minds, eavesdrop on their telephones, spy on their meetings and, when necessary, defeat roomfuls of them in armed combat." But what Eberts fails to notice is that the film is also racist like hell, and it takes a neocon like John Podhoretz in the "Weekly Standard" to be outraged that the film's villains "are not just white slavers, not just bad guys, not just slave-keepers. They're Muslims. (...) It's about an American who goes to rescue his innocent daughter, slaughters dozens of evil Muslims in the process, and doesn't give it a second's thought. Taken is a 9/11 revenge fantasy, even if audiences don't quite know it, and its success reveals that even now, more than eight years after the attacks, a somewhat well-wrought version of such a fantasy has the power to seize the American imagination." All this is true, of course, but it must also be pointed out that Taken is a major disappointement because, despite its subject matter, is has no nudes scenes at all. And that's even worse than being "completely unbelievable" and racist.
January 1, 2009
Angels & Demons (2009) *
A very disappointing sequel to "The DaVinci Code", again starring Tom Hanks as symbologist Robert Langdon. This time, he must solve the mystery of the Illuminati, a secret society at war with the Vatican. While the film is pure Hollywood shlock, director Ron Howard actually managed to improve on Dan Brown's truly dreadful novel - it's hard to believe that such a brilliant piece of work as "The DaVinci Code" and such an incoherent mess as "Angels & Demons" were written by the same person.
The International (2009) *
Cliché-ridden thriller about an Interpol agent (Clive Owen) going after some criminal bankers from Luxemburg. Often boring and always predictable.
Drag Me to Hell (2009) *
Disappointing horror movie from Sam Raimi, nowhere near as good as "The Evil Dead" (1983) and "Evil Dead 2" (1987), though quite similar in the way it mixes comedy and frights.
District 9 (2009) *
Very disappointing. Half science-fiction and half political allegory about racism, it fails to have an impact, largely because its points are rather obvious (yes, we know that the aliens are supposed to stand for South African blacks, but so what ?). And unlike "Avatar", which at least has the courage of its "green PC" convictions, this film is so confusing politically, it's almost impossible to say whether its cynicism makes it borderline racist or its stupidity makes it just plain embarassing. It has been widely praised by film critics, but none of them was ever able to explain what's supposed to be so special about this confusing mess.
Nine (2009) *
Hopelessly boring musical based on Fellini's "8 1/2". A parade of gorgeous women (Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren), a pretentious Italian filmmaker, no story and no memorable songs. And no significant nudity, neither (although a more thorough examination on DVD might be necessary to settle that point). All style and no substance.
Obsessed (2009) *
Basically a remake of "Fatal Attraction", except that Michael Douglas and Anne Archer characters are black, and the Glenn Close character is even more insane and delusional than the original, because no adultery actually takes place.
Julie & Julia (2009) *
Meryl Streep and Amy Adams are trying their best, but even they cannot save this terminally insipid drama about Julia Child and her admirer Julie Powell. After "Sleepless In Seattle" and "You've Got Mail", director Nora Ephron once again tries to tell a two-track story in which the two main protagonists never meet, but this time she fails miserably.
Planet 51 (2009) *
Tedious and annoying animated film about a human astronaut finding himself on a distant planet inhabited by civilized aliens. A parade of boring clichés.
December 12, 2008
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