2007 / James Wan > In his first foray out of the horror genre, the director of the original Saw takes considerable missteps in portraying a revenge-minded father who’s just seen his son brutally murdered. Though Kevin Bacon puts in an adept effort considering the material, the character evolution is weak and oddly paced. In a film such as this, if you plan on taking your work seriously and not simply using it as a method of violence exploitation, you need a foundation on which to base the spillage of the blood on. However, Wan negates any sort of rationale for what happens, making plot decisions that are muddled and hysterical. At the end, there’s an attempt at teaching the moral behind the futility of revenge, but it’s too little, too obvious and too late.
Category Archives: United States/Canada

Interview
2007 / Steve Buscemi > Even at 80 minutes long, Interview tests your patience over and over until you realize the film is actually a Sienna Miller biopic that Steve Buscemi made so he could make out with her. And while that could be considered a legitimate reason in some circles, the sheer pain of having to witness an unending conversation that continuously assaults the intelligence all but nullifies any reason for the film’s existence. Let’s hope the rest of the trilogy isn’t so weak.

Balls of Fury
2007 / Robert Ben Garant > As silly as it sounds, the idea of Dan Fogler making out with Maggie Q takes Balls of Fury two full notches down on the totem pole of love. In theory, there wasn’t much that could go wrong with a parody of Enter the Dragon starring Christopher Walken and ping pong, but the show quickly runs out of meat and starts packing the minutes with unremarkable filler that stretches thin by the climactic sequences. There are some good moments, though better fit to be viewed as clips on YouTube, not with full attention in front of the screen.

The Brave One
2007 / Neil Jordan > It’d be one thing if the moral dilemma was abrasive or tactless, but The Brave One somehow manages to turn the inherent tension necessary in a film such as this into a bit of a snoozefest. Jordan’s attempt to re-wrap the revenge genre fails as there’s too much being slapped together to create some greater meaning. Ultimately, much of the film is simply conventional—Not to mention that the whole bit is a minor personal attack on the borough of Manhattan.

Resident Evil: Extinction
2007 / Russell Mulcahy > The worst thing a Resident Evil-like movie can be is boring. And this one is boring. It’s not really exciting. Nothing really happens. Okay, some things happen but they’re mostly boring. So, nothing might as well happen at all. Though, Milla Jovovich sure can kick some ass. And there are a few explosions to wake you up.

The Ten
2007 / David Wain > The Stella boys are pretty hit and miss: Wet Hot American Summer was fun and quirky, though far from brilliant. The Baxter had a sort of undeniable charm that kept it interesting. But The Ten and its gimmick of playing individually upon Moses’ commandments gets old a bit too quick. Most of the stories lose steam when one realizes that they really don’t go anywhere: They amuse briefly before simply becoming an obstacle until the next story. How much it reverberates simply depends on how much of the Stella comedy you can appreciate without thinking if its all a bunch of inside jokes.

The Kingdom
2007 / Peter Berg > Up until The Kingdom, Berg had quietly been making his mark on the directorial front. Very Bad Things is an often overlooked, underrated black comedy, and Friday Night Lights is undoubtedly one of the finest sports films of all-time. However, in his foray into the action/drama (as opposed to the action/comedy buddy flick The Rundown), he stumbles over a few heavy-handed messages and a fairly insulting foundation: Jamie Foxx and his FBI crew land in Saudi Arabia to investigate a civilian bombing on international soil as if the Saudi themselves are absolutely incapable of such. This type of convenience in the script is downright silly, but it doesn’t stop there. The central conflict finds a magical solution at the buzzer, though Berg does add a couple of rather nice touches to make us pay attention. The Kingdom is not horrible, but it’s shallow and treads thinly on deep water that could have used some further exploration.

A Mighty Heart
2007 / Michael Winterbottom > There are two significant breakthroughs in A Mighty Heart: We learn that it is possible for Winterbottom to produce an apolitical film. Unlike The Road to Guantanamo, which plays the West as the villain from the get go, the film doesn’t utilize the people in the story to prove anything—As a bastard child of 9/11, A Mighty Heart rivals only Reign on Me in its appreciation of the event’s after-effects from a non-agenda viewpoint. It is tactful and intelligent, though not necessarily forgiving or hopeful of the strife and confusion that surrounds our current society.
We also get to enjoy Angelina Jolie in a role that brings her back down to earth, finds us focusing on her character and not the Hollywood megastar that she is. This is a joint accomplishment on both Winterbottom and Jolie’s part that I find impressive, to take the celebrity out of a film and put in its place the strong-willed but broken hearted Marianne Pearl. Combined with an always impressive Irfan Khan, the cast of both professional and non-professional actors deliver an emotionally engrossing picture not to be taken lightly.

Stardust
2007 / Matthew Vaughn > On the back of the success of Layer Cake, Vaughn’s decision to take upon a tale of such fantastic proportions is both admirable and a little suspect. Gone are the calculated plotlines that made his previous venture such a joy to watch, and in their place is a messy, underachieving fantasy that’s all gloss.
The film starts strong by setting up a potentially epic story of lost love and the search for the rightful ruler of a mystical kingdom, but then succumbs halfway to a mildly droning last hour where it becomes predictable and often just downright silly. In fact, most of De Niro’s character is a distraction and seems as if he’s given more screentime because of his big name. Claire Daines is lifeless as usual—hasn’t anyone figured out that the reason she was so good in My So-Called Life was because her character was supposed to be lifeless? Throw in another pointless cameo by Ricky Gervais, and we have the recipe for a bloated project that nearly crumbles on its own weight. There was enough here to enjoy (especially some of the campy jokes), but what could have been a memorable experience instead remains something momentary.

Ratatouille
2007 / Brad Bird & Jan Pinkava > Is Brad Bird the West’s answer to Miyazaki? For a while, I thought that was the case. Both Iron Giant as well as The Incredibles showed off an intense originality that had been missing under the shadows of Japanese animation. Now, I’m not so certain: Ratatouille is a fine film, enjoyable from beginning to end and very warming to the heart. But I just can’t get over the fact that it feels to me as if Bird’s vision has regressed, that he’s fit his story into a sort of a mainstream mold that caters to preconceived notions of what Pixar should do. This feeling of the gut is what keeps this tale from being a classic—or you could just argue that the cynic in me has won this battle.