Movie Reviews- Bolt
Every generation has its dog movie. ITheI dog movie. The dog movie which empties the streets of strays and sends stores scrambling to load up on chew toys. The dog movie which causes millions of Americas kids to beg for their very own pet. For you, maybe it was IFox and the HoundI played over and over again on your familys creaking VHS player. For our kids, its going to be IBoltI.
- The Wrestler
Darren Aronofsky is best known as a director of visually experimental, emotionally complex films like IRequiem for a DreamI and IThe FountainI. With IThe WrestlerI, he drops the experimentation and shoots what for him is a quick and dirty film. This is everything which an Aronosfky movie usually is not. IThe WrestlerI, stripped down and raw, hinges almost entirely on the performance of its lead.
- Frost/Nixon
In 1977 Richard M. Nixon granted British playboy presenter turned journalist David Frost a series of twelve television interviews. This was the first time Nixon had spoken since his resignation in the midst of the Watergate scandal and Americans waited with baited breath, longing for the trial theyd been denied by newly president Gerald Fords blanket pardon.
- The Boy In The Striped Pajamas
Its a rare occasion that any movie has such impact that when the film ends, the entire audience exits the theater in total silence. It was a good several seconds after the credits finished rolling and the lights came up before I even realized what I was experiencing. It happens so rarely that it took that a moment for me to recognize it: I was speechless.
- Pray The Devil Back To Hell
Directed ably and passionately by Gini Reticker, IPray the DevilI uses interviews with the women involved as well as limited archival footage to make a powerful argument for everyday strength and resistance. Clocking in at just 73 minutes, IPray the DevilI is an economically told, extremely powerful story, a bolt of inspiration in what remain dark times for the entire world.
- Slumdog Millionaire
The actors enthusiasm, couple with Boyles energy behind the screen, make magic out of ISlumdog MillionaireIs songs and sorrow, its bursts of energy and carefully selected moments of reflection. A story of coincidences and luck and eventually fate, its a classic, perhaps cliched tale-- but one that has rarely felt or looked so alive.
- JCVD
Without a well-told story at the center-- the hostage crisis ends about how you would expect it to-- the meta tricks and Van Dammes raw emotion never coalesce. Sure, its interesting to watch when a guy known for speaking with his fists turns in a credible performance as a real human being. But thats a sideshow, not a movie.
- Repo! The Genetic Opera
The plot goes where it will, without much regard to structure or audience satisfaction, and the occasional good song and ever-surprising set design distract from the boredom that sets in about halfway through. Bousman has squandered a lot of potential from his unique premise, and rather than an epic horror comedy, hes turned in something surprisingly mundane.
- Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
Theres not much here for even the youngest kids to sink their teeth into; its typical homecoming, save the herd stuff and it breezes by so fast that itll feel like the movie belongs squeezed into a Saturday morning, half-hour block of cereal-selling kiddie entertainment. Missing is the originals carefully constructed, almost lyrical waves of cartoony gags and wacky asides set to pulse pounding, hip-hop beats.