Kontroll: A great one to start with. Gotta love a film directed by a guy named Nimrod Antal. He’s from Cali but lives and works in Hungary.
It’s about ticket takers, or controllers of the Budapest subway system. Everyone hates them and when passengers aren’t running from, arguing with or fighting them then the other control teams are. Literally never seeing the sun, Bulcsu, played by Sandor Csanyi, (say 3 times fast) decides to never leave the underground. He sleeps on empty platforms and eats from vending machines when he’s not working.
Theres a mysterious killer pushing people in front of trains, rivalries with other controllers, and a love story to boot. A metaphor about growing up maybe? Anyway . . . funny, sad, and grim all at the same time. Excellent film.
13 Tzameti: Another good Euro fiick about a poor roofer, Sebastien, who overhears a client talking about a letter coming with an opportunity to get rich.
When the client dies, Sebastien takes the letter and pretending to be the other guy, follows the instructions to a farm house where he finds out that to get the money he has to outlast other players in a winner take all game of russian roulette. A tense white-knuckle good film.
Now on a lighter note, Beerfest: I didn’t like these guys’ other 2 films, Supertroopers and Club Dread, but Beerfest was very funny.
It’s about an underground worldwide beer drinking contest. 2 brothers start an American team but get humiliated, so the only way to compete is to bet their Grandfathers secret beer recipe that he stole from his brother, the German captain. If you’re in the mood for silly fun, you could do worse.
Hopefully something will come to the theater soon that I’m interested in. The Simpsons or Sunshine. Till next time.
Because I received tons of hate e-mails (2) let me explain why I dislike Shia.
The media has been pushing him as the next great actor for years now. To bad he hasn’t done anything to merit it. He’s neither a box office draw nor has he given a performance of any note. The success of Disturbia suggests that his box office power is increasing, but he’s not there yet.
My lovely Niece Sharon lent me the DVDs of Freaks and Geeks, and Shia had a bit part in 1 episode. I was watching with the commentary on and the director and 1 actor payed Shia no mind, but Martin Starr, who played Bill, silenced them with a “let me say something here” and went on about how “amazing” Shia’s performance was. Shia was in the show for about 9 seconds! Sad, insecure blatant butt-kissing. A nowhere actor trying vainly to schmooze a rising actor. Gross.
Shia gave an interview were he talked about how him, his family and his agent had a meeting and they mapped out everything to the smallest detail what’s going to happen in his career. He talked about how “I’ll only do this type of film till I’m this age, then I’ll win an Oscar, then only work with these actors and directors, then Ill write and direct myself.” This cold, calculating careerism just left a bad taste in my mouth. He’s the little apple polisher from school. He reminds me of Martin Prince, the know-it-all kid from The Simpsons. Ego and image are all that matters. Anyways, a lot of why I don’t like him is really not his doing, and his attitude is probably no different than most actors, but still he makes my skin crawl. Unfair? Yes.
A pretty good summer extravaganza. The transformers are an alien race who come to earth looking for a big cube of energy that can create whole worlds, including life. They come in 2 types: sweet, clean Autobots led by Optimus Prime, and the dirty, evil Decepticons led by Megatron.
Megatron is voiced by the great Hugo Weaving, Agent Smith from The Matrix. There are twists and turns I don’t want to spoil for You Gentle Reader. Speaking of dirty and evil, the obligatory cute teen outsider is played by Shia La-goof. The usual cliches ensue as he trys to get the popular girl played by Megan Fox. The Transformers get them together then the effects take over. Thank goodness.
Good stuff:
State of the art special effects. Good transforming and fights.
John Turturro. Great in everything.
The also great Bernie Mac. A small but funny cameo as a used car dealer.
Some funny bits.
Bad stuff:
Shia La-Douche. I despise this wormy megalomanic. Here He’s like Robin Williams at his manic worst. Fast talking, twitchy and just all over the place. Try decaf and no Red Bull before work.
Too long, at almost 2 1/2 hrs.
Over the top product placement.
Anthony Anderson. He’s usually good but as a hacker genius? Don’t think so.
Transformers is exactly what you would expect it to be: big, loud, colorful and after a slow start, very fast-paced. So get out of the heat, eat some overpriced popcorn, hate Shia La-poof and enjoy the effects. Remember, like all summer blockbusters, shut the logic part of your brain off. Like how a robot the size of a car can transform into a 30 ft robot. You only have so much mass. Anyway, of course it sets up a sequel.
Hey, hello, how are ya? Well, the indestructible John McClane is back and more indestructible than ever! 30% more indestructible than the other action heroes!
Arnold? Please, all he did was fight a terminator. McClane fights the entire internet!
The Rock? Come on, all he did was beat up Stiffler from American Pie in The Rundown. Mac kills the badass sheriff from HBO’s Deadwood.
Jet Li? Oh whatever! Sure, he fought an entire army in Hero who were armed with arrows, swords and crazy kung fu, but Mac BEATS UP A FIGHTER JET!!! He killed it, killed it realll gooood.
As you probably surmised, Bruno Willis is trying to stop a cyber-terrorist, played by Tim Olyphant, who is trying to shut down the entire US. Bruno is sent to pick up a hacker (Justin Long, the Apple Mac guy) just as the bad guys show up and blow everything to heck. He then has to take him to Washington, D.C. so he can help stop the fire sale.
I know what your thinking–”sounds a lot like 16 blocks”. You are correct. Fistfights, gunfights and mayhem deluxe ensues as each set piece is bigger and louder than the last.
This is the first Die Hard to be rated PG-13 instead of R, so the blood and cursing is toned down. Kevin Smith has a small part, and Bruno is Bruno, but Justin Long is the standout here. So, yep, this is an over-the-top, bickering buddy movie instead of the lone wolf movie the first 2 Die Hards were. Live Free or Die Hard runs a little over 2 hours, but it moves fast — just leave your logic at the door.
The chemistry between Bruno and Long raise this up from mediocre minus to average plus. The real stand out scene is a fight in a cooling shaft between Bruno and a very acrobatic bad guy. A lesser Die Hard, but an O.K. summer popcorn movie. BTW its being called Die Hard 4.0 in Europe.
Next: Transformers. I hear there’s more than meets the eye.
Casino (Widescreen 10th Anniversary Edition): Pretty good Scorsese film, but nowhere near as good as Goodfellas. It’s about the last mafia-connected guys who ran a Las Vegas casino. Robert Deniro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone star. Its an end of an era story with the usual mob action. Worth seeing even at almost 3 hours.
Casshern: I had high hopes based on the trailer, but boy was I disappointed. Some good visuals, the effects were good and the fight scenes were ok, but the long stretches of anti-war rhetoric slowed it to a crawl. Boring gibberish.
Paradise: Blue lagoon ripoff with Willie Ames and Phoebe Cates. They’re chased by Arabs thru the desert till they find love, happiness and a monkey by a cove. They swim, eat fish, and play with their monkey like a bad lifetime movie till the nudity starts. Ah, the old saving grace of skin. Personally, I think that a law should be enacted prohibiting male nudity in any form, but if I have to see a flash of Ames’s willie to get multiple scenes of full frontal Phoebe, then so be it. Why she married the star of the awful movie French Kiss, Kevin Kline, I do not know. Average film with above average Cates. A quick word about Satan. I understand Satan is busy and simply does not have the time to take corporeal form and jab me with his pitchfork every few days, so to torment me he’s sending small, old, leathery oompa loompa looking people to drive about 10 mph with cigarette smoke billowing and I cant seem to pass them. The underworlders got me 3 times this week. I think Satan takes a leather bag and fills it with nicotine scented meringue. Then adds 2 Chuckie doll arms and tosses them the car keys to wreck their psychic havoc on me. Maybe I’m paranoid. Well the lamp says I need to wrap it up, so till next time, keep watching the skies!
: Pretty good Scorsese film, but nowhere near as good as Goodfellas. It’s about the last mafia-connected guys who ran a Las Vegas casino. Robert Deniro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone star. Its an end of an era story with the usual mob action. Worth seeing even at almost 3 hours.
: I had high hopes based on the trailer, but boy was I disappointed. Some good visuals, the effects were good and the fight scenes were ok, but the long stretches of anti-war rhetoric slowed it to a crawl. Boring gibberish.
: Blue lagoon ripoff with Willie Ames and Phoebe Cates. They’re chased by Arabs thru the desert till they find love, happiness and a monkey by a cove. They swim, eat fish, and play with their monkey like a bad lifetime movie till the nudity starts. Ah, the old saving grace of skin. Personally, I think that a law should be enacted prohibiting male nudity in any form, but if I have to see a flash of Ames’s willie to get multiple scenes of full frontal Phoebe, then so be it. Why she married the star of the awful movie French Kiss, Kevin Kline, I do not know. Average film with above average Cates. A quick word about Satan. I understand Satan is busy and simply does not have the time to take corporeal form and jab me with his pitchfork every few days, so to torment me he’s sending small, old, leathery oompa loompa looking people to drive about 10 mph with cigarette smoke billowing and I cant seem to pass them. The underworlders got me 3 times this week. I think Satan takes a leather bag and fills it with nicotine scented meringue. Then adds 2 Chuckie doll arms and tosses them the car keys to wreck their psychic havoc on me. Maybe I’m paranoid. Well the lamp says I need to wrap it up, so till next time, keep watching the skies!
