Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

So I had originally thought the trailer looked semi-amusing but honestly I wouldn't have seen this film if it wasn't playing at the right time for the movie club. Now, I'm wishing I had skipped this week all together and saved the two hours of my life. Somehow, this movie came in at the top spot this past weekend and earned about $29 million worldwide.

The film is Oliver Stone's sequel from the hugely popular 1987 movie. The movie follows the Character of Gordon Gekko after he's released from prison and his attempts at reconciliation with his now grown daughter, played by Carey Muligan. She is coincidently engaged to an eager young stockbroker, played by Shia LeBouf. The whole story is set amidst the sub-prime crisis and revolves around the age old battle between love vs. money.

The plot is very simple, excluding all of the financial jargon thrown at you. It's really nothing that we haven't seen before. Unfortunately, the characters are very one dimensional and I found them highly unbelievable. Their actions just didn't add up with the motivations that should've been driving them. All of the protagonists were good natured, or at least ended up that way in the end. These characters weren't very flawed, even if they did make the wrong choices at times. They, especially Shia's characters, seemed to always have these naive good intentions in his heart. These sorts of idyllic characters don't exist and just weren't believable to me. Not to mention the fact that the daughter is surprised when her stockbroker boyfriend turns out to be just like her stockbroker dad -- who saw that coming?. The characters just weren't interesting enough or complex enough to keep me interested. The plot didn't help out either as it was very simply and predictable.

This was the slowest movie in the history of slow movies. I actually started counting the number of shots of just random buildings in the movie, and believe me it was easily in the double digits. For example, there is a part in the movie where Shia's character takes a helicopter ride. Now instead of showing us him getting into the helicopter and then arriving at the destination, Stone decided to show us him getting in the helicopter, then a 5 second shot of random buildings (again!), a 5 second shot of more buildings, a 5 second shot of a bridge, a 5 second shot of a valley, cut to Shia looking out the window of the helicopter, back to a 5 second shot of the helicopter clearing, then cut to Shia exiting the helicopter.  So now, we've wasted precious time watching this extraordinarily long sequence of a helicopter ride that had no significance or impact on the plot whatsoever. So yes, I had a lot of issues with the editing of this movie. Quite possibly, all these unnecessary edits could've been removed giving us a shorter and more interesting movie? One will never know. There were some nice editing techniques used randomly throughout the movie, with split frame and motion edits etc. However, they didn't stay consistent throughout and were sort of just thrown in there in the beginning and middle of the movie. I always think that the editor should stick to a theme/style throughout the movie, in my opinion.

The actors did a fine job except I did notice that Michael Douglas can't seem to stand still when he talks? Shia and Carey gave acceptable performances. And it's actually interesting to note that in preparation for this role while working with actual stockbrokers, Shia invested $20,000.00 of his own money and actually ended up making over $400,000.00 from it. So this was definitely a good role choice for him.

The problems with this movie was the writing and editing. The story wasn't compelling and the editing made this movie run so extremely unnecessarily redudantly overbearingly s-l-o-w. The actors were fine but it really couldn't make up for the huge negatives created from the editing and writing. I somewhat enjoyed the banter back and forth about the financial crisis as seen in 2008 however professionals of that industry certainly would not speak in the lamymen's terms and analogies used throughout the movie, although I understand it was necessary to convey the ideas to a laymen audience. Unfortunately, I was very very disappointed in this movie and wouldn't recommend this to anyone other than I suppose die-hard fans of the first one. "If you stop telling lies about me, I'll stop telling the truth about you" -- Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Let Me In

So I actually got the once in a lifetime chance to see this movie as the opening film of the 2010 Fantastic Film Festival in Austin , TX . . . with the cast and crew in attendance! I’ll admit it -- I was a former skeptic of this movie. However, I have now transformed, and it happened not that long after the opening credits were projected on the screen. 

 

First we all took the ‘green blood oath’ and drank from our viles immediately after watching the head honchos of the festival parade around in skimpy Viking costumes and then listened to a beautiful rendition of the score of the movie from the Texas Boy's Choir; all leading up to this spectacular US premiere. This was personally my most anticipated movie for the fall. It soon became very obvious that I was in a room full of lovers of the original film, Let The Right One In, which ironically also debuted at the Fantastic Fest a few years back.

 

This movie was a remake of the original Swedish film -- or the American take on the book of the same name by John Lindvqist, depending on your opinion. It is directed by Matthew Reeves, acclaimed director of Cloverfield, and stars Chloe Moretz and Kodi-Smit-McPhee in the lead roles. Also bringing excellence and experience to the cast are Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins. 

Before seeing this film, I honestly didn’t understand why a remake was necessary, given the beautiful Swedish film that has barely had time to cool off from it’s own release. Nonetheless, I really wanted to see this film and was able to do so in any movie lover’s fantasy setting.

 

The story follows Owen, a 12 year old boy relentlessly and mercilessly tormented at school, as he befriends a girl, Abby, who moves in next door to his apartment. The pair start spending time together despite Abby’s warning that they can't become friends. Set on a backdrop of recent grisly murders, it doesn’t take long for Owen to realize that something’s different about Abby. Facts and homicides start piling up and Owen comes to the conclusion that his 12 year old best friend is actually a 200 year old vampire.

 

I know that unfortunately a lot of potential audiences are immediately turned off from the first mention of the ‘V’ word, given the recent storm of indulgent movies of similar premises. But I beg you, the one or two readers of this review, to look past that word and read on. This is a truly different story than others I’ve seen and it focuses on the relationship between these two characters. This movie differs in plot and climax than the original. Yes, there are some ‘ Hollywood ’ techniques employed; such as a non-linear timeline and an overzealous police officer character thrown into the mix. Matt Reeves, revealed during the Q&A that he wanted to focus solely on the relationship between the two characters and that was his reasoning for the scenes and characters that he scrapped from the original. He also revealed that he wanted to film to more in Owen's perspective and that was his motivation behind most of his choices. I’m a fan of that decision. One thing I felt with the first film was it was losing a little of its focus trying to follow the subplots, although this apparently was more in keeping with the book. Several scenes were changed but the important, and awesome, ones were kept true to the original, which I liked. So the plot ended up being very similar to the original but different enough to be unique. The dialogue was essentially the same, and almost word for word in some instances. We are also given more information into the characters than the previous film where a lot of it was up for interpretation without much explanation. Also, as a fellow Now & Later lover (yes, the candy), I really enjoyed that element.

 

The striking thing about this film was the beautiful artistic cinematographic elements. This was a highly stylized and artistic film, which I wasn’t expecting at all. Reeves put a lot of time and effort behind his angles and motives with the film. The macro focusing techniques used in the film were great and so beautiful. I loved how the mother’s face is never seen by the audience to symbolize Owen’s distance from his mother during this time in his life, although I think this same element could’ve been used for other characters he was distant from as well. There is a roll-over car crash sequence from the driver's perspective which is breathtakingly completed in -- get this -- a single shot! The whole time I was watching this sequence, I kept thinking ‘when’s it going to cut away?’, but it never did. This was the very first question off the bat during the Q&A and rightly so. I really like the passion behind this decision as it would’ve been a thousand times easier to just do a cutaway edit to a crash image and then cut back to the actors, but Reeves went all out to give us the best sequence in the movie, something I dare say Hitchcock would be proud of. The score was hauntingly beautiful, although a little too ominous at points for my liking. Something, I wasn’t a fan of was how they portrayed Abby during her vampiric fights. They employed growling and yellow eyes to possibly add to the horror element of the movie, but I would have just kept her as human as possible to emphasize the relationship and the loneliness of her character. In the original, there is some subtle growling but more of it is left to the audience, which is different from this film when it’s right there in full frame glory for us to see. That was just one thing I would’ve liked to see different, but it honestly didn’t detract much from the movie.I felt as though just a little too much emphasis was made trying to give this film horror and suspense which wasn't needed and I think just a byproduct of the natural Hollywood effect.

 

Chloe Moretz is fast becoming one of my favorite actresses, and she only reinforces it in this film. The fact that she really was 12 during the making just adds to the awesomeness that is her performance. It’s very probable that I am biased in making my next statement, however I enjoyed Chloe’s performance over the Swedish actress'. I felt like she was more human, which in my opinion adds to the story however apparently in the book  she is less human. However in the end, she once again really holds the film together with her performance (think Kick Ass). Kodi Smit-McPhee also did a really good job. He had less naivety than his Swedish predecessor, which I think is more believable in his circumstance. He was able to come off as a sympathetic character even when his actions are questionable. Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins do good jobs with their characters, and especially with the latter. His character has a complex set of motivations and he pulled it off well.That was something all of these characters were able to do is to pull on the sympathy cord with the audience. Even though we were watching horrific actions taken by these characters, we felt for them. It's surprising when you realize that you're actually rooting for the stone cold serial killer and feel sorry for him when things don't go his way. It's some powerful stuff in this film.

 

I was very pleased with this film and now want to take back all of my criticisms before seeing it. It was uniquely different from Let The Right One In, but didn’t stray too far to be unrecognizable. It kept the beautiful pool, Rubiks cube, and hand cutting scenes that made the first so memorable. This film is definitely on the same level as the first. Better? Perhaps. Certainly is my preference as it deals mainly with the two characters. However, the first film had nothing to work on except for the book, which deserves respect. I think the main difference between the two films, was this dedicated more time to the main characters by eliminating minor characters and subplots out of the equation. Both were beautifully filmed movies, this one just had more time to spend on the cinematic elements. I didn’t find this movie overly scary or gruesome, it was simply more of a darker scarier dramatic piece about relationships and security. It also didn’t indulge in the vampire element, which makes it different from others of it’s kind. I’d highly recommend to everyone to see it during it’s upcoming limited release on October 1^st. “I’ll help you. – But you’re a girl. – I’m a lot stronger than you think I am” – Let Me In.

 

Easy A

So I had wanted to see this movie for quite some time since seeing the initial promos and the fact that I love Emma Stone. The movie looked promising enough to be a fun fresh take on the clichéd high school movies of the past. The film opened up at the second spot this past weekend, under Affleck’s The Town and earned almost $18 million domestically, compared to it’s meager $8 million budget. The highest record it holds is for being #28 on the highest grossing openers for September.

 

The movie centers around Olive, played by Emma Stone, the good yet forgettable California high school student. One day a seemingly harmless lie about her love life turns everything upside down when she suddenly has a reputation she never imagined. She puts her newfound reputation to use and then propels herself into infamy while ironically studying the Scarlet Letter in English class. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson play her parents with Lisa Kudrow, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Thomas Hayden Church , Cam Gigandet, and Alyson Michalka rounding out the rest of the cast.

 

The plot was fresh and unique with tons of witty retorts, with many from Miss Stone. There was a nice amount smart humor in this movie. The screenplay had originally been written with an R rating however over 50 ‘f’ and ‘c’ words were later removed to give it it’s PG13 rating which was their target audience. I wish that hadn’t been done, however I see the business sense behind the decision. The movie plays on cliché’s and actually employs numerous clichés itself in an openly ironic way. It may come across as a fluff script, but I found the writing very clever. The plot flows with great twists and turns. The Olive character is very engaging and likeable. The best part of the movie was most definitely the dialogue. I enjoyed how the movie was semi-plausible and played on the aspect of numerous movie cliché’s throughout without being a straight parody, which is a hard thing to do. Most movies, especially high school ones, are usually either full of unbelievable clichés and if not, they are usually laughable parodies of the aforementioned cliché-ridden movies. It was also an idea that hasn’t really been seen before and it did actually convey a good message at the end.

 

The editing was perfectly paced to keep the humor alive throughout the movie. There were several beats in the beginning which were a little off pace, but hardly noticeable. There were also a couple of slow motion clips which were not done at the right frame ratios and came out a little jumpy, in my opinion, but again I’m just being picky. The soundtrack worked very well with the mood and action of the movie, and I’ve now added it to my soundtrack collection. I really enjoyed the look of this movie with the costume and set design as they were very vibrant and kept a fresh feeling throughout. And the opening titling sequence was also very nice and creative.  

 

The movie was carried by Emma Stone, plain and simple, and she did a fantastic job. She dropped out of Sucker Punch, releasing next year, to do this movie. Some have criticized that decision but I think it was the right decision to move from an ensemble piece to a lead role. To date, she hasn’t been given a movie to carry on her own (Zombieland, House Bunny, etc) and this proves she can do it. She really has a knack for comedy and is truly genuine in everything she does. I’m not sure anyone else could’ve done this role better as she is obviously extremely smart and quick-witted. That’s not to say that the rest of the actors were lost in the background or didn’t add any humor. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, were simply priceless and I loved watching them play off one another. I’m a die-hard Friends fan and so I of course love Lisa Kudrow, although I wish her character had been written a little less depressing.  

 

Overall, I enjoyed this movie throughout. I was expecting a really great movie and it actually went in a different direction than I had anticipated but I still liked it. It made fun of itself at times and took direct references at our beloved 80’s movies which is always a cool thing in my book. The movie had a lot to say about our society in this digital age without becoming overbearing. I was very happy with this movie and I’ll come out and say it was better than Mean Girls. I agree with the gotchamovies that it’s the best teen comedy of the decade because of its ability to not play into the cliché’s without becoming a parody while having a relevant social commentary at the same time along with charismatic witty actors. And to those that may say, ‘Aren’t you forgetting Superbad’; While Superbad was no doubt hilarious, it wasn’t able to pull off the same social commentaries and stabs at overabundant clichés as this movie did. I know that's a bold statement but I think I'm willing to go out on a limb with this one. I’d recommend to anyone looking for a good comedy as I think everyone can relate to this time in one’s life and who doesn’t love Emma Stone? Disclaimer: I’d like to apologize for using the word ‘cliché’ so many times in this review. “I had a similar situation when I was your age. I had a horrible reputation. – Why? – Because I slept with a whole bunch of people. Mostly guys. – Mom!” – Easy A.

Chloe

So I saw this movie as a late night Redbox rental decision and after relentless trailers on a lot of the recent DVD releases I decided to break down and finally rent it. Julianne Moore is one of my favorite actresses and after her recent performances in The Kids are All Right and A Single Man, I wanted to see her in this movie. This movie actually already made profit from international pre-sales even before it debuted at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival and to date it’s earned almost $10 million in box office totals with a total budget of $15 million. It was marketed as an erotic thriller and I was fully expecting another Fatal Attraction but still the impressive cast piqued my interest. The movie ended up having a vastly different tone than what I was expecting.

 

The plot is about a wife, Julianne Moore, who suspects her long-time husband, Liam Neeson, of cheating on her. She then hires Chloe, Amanda Seyfried to seduce her husband to see what he will do. The relationships created from these circumstances prove to be more complex and dangerous than Moore bargained for.

 

The plot was different than the age-old cliché’d lover turn crazy story but still fell somewhere along the same lines. This story was more character focused and the central theme was about the tangled web of relationships and also the components of trust. The characters were written well and believable with Moore ’s character being the most complex. The mysterious Chloe is just that; mysterious. We don’t delve into her motives and background but instead must interpret on our own. Her character is written well although may be a little static in nature. There is a dynamic between each character and they are followed throughout the film, which I enjoy instead of dealing only with the main climactic relationships. While other ‘thrillers’ focus on the action and suspense, this seemed to be a backdrop and natural progression of the character’s involvement rather than the main story at hand. I enjoyed this approach to the film and found it unique and fresh.

 

There were some great camera angles in this movie and there was a constant focus on mirrors in the shots, which is a personal favorite of mine. The editing gave the movie a slower subdued pace than one would expect out of a ‘thriller’. The sound editing and score kept the movie very subdued although it did feel very cinematic as opposed to the handheld natural feel. This felt like a movie however more of a drama than a thriller. Also the costumes and set design was quite beautiful and classy.

 

Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried were at the top of their games for this movie. Moore gives a great and complex performance with this character and comes off as very believable. Seyfried seemed to play this difficult role with ease. It was nice seeing her in a different role than the happy-go-lucky roles of her past. Liam Neeson did a decent job which actually should be considered an outstanding performance given the fact that he was in the middle of filming this movie when his wife passed away and he voluntarily returned to finish this film. The fact that he was able to pull that off without any flaws in his performance shows his strength as an actor right there.

 

Overall, this movie turned out to be different than what I was expecting. It had a nice story and some really admirable performances, but again it was subdued and did feel movie-like. I enjoyed the film for the hour or so I watched it and there were some really nice elements within it, however it wasn’t anything exceptional nor is it a must-see film. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys darker moody dramas about problematic relationships. “I try to find something to love in everybody. Even if it’s a small thing. There’s always something, there has to be” – Chloe.

 

 

Resident Evil: Afterlife

So I really had low expectations for this movie and saw it simply because it was a new release and was curious to see the new James Cameron Fusion camera system at work. I knew there had been lots of movies in this franchise ( four, I’ve now verified) and I vaguely only remembered seeing the first one. I was quite surprised when this movie actually turned out to be pretty badass and those cameras are very impressive. It earned the top spot this past weekend and has already made over $68 million worldwide with a budget of only $60 million. It’s also the 7^th biggest opener for the month of September ever.

 

The plot follows the main character Alice, Mila Jovovich, in a world where the zombie virus has taken over and there are virtually no survivors left. She works against the evil Umbrella corporation and tries to find the infamous ‘ Arcadia ’ which is promised to be a virus free haven for the remaining human survivors of the world. She teams up with Wentworth Miller and Ali Larter along the way.

 

Apparently the plot incorporates several aspects from not only the video games but also the previous movies, although I would have no clue otherwise. The premise of the movie is explained somewhat and it was easy to follow without seeing the previous movies. Not everything was crystal clear but it didn’t defer from the overall plot of the movie. There were tons of horror cliché’s in the movie but it was still exciting with different plot changes, characters, and location changes. The plot was pretty much what I was expecting from the action/horror genre. A lot of the character’s choices and motivations are not that believable but afterall it is a zombie movie. This is also a movie where nobody ever seems to run out of ammo and can survive terrible falls and crashes with ease, hence the numerous cliché’s found in this movie.

 

What made this movie good was the cinematography and the action sequences. That Cameron camera is simply beautiful. The opening sequence was extraordinarily beautiful with the multiple angles of slow motion rain dropping down onto a single girl. There were lots of other shots like this in movie that looked like they had to be CGI but were obviously live action. This is also the first live action movie to be shot in 3D based off a video game. Honestly, I think the 3D took away from the beautiful cinematography. There was a fight sequence with Mila Jovovich, Ali Larter, and the Axeman which was one of the best fight sequences I’ve seen in quite some time. It was Rumble In the Bronx good – or even Matrix good. That was probably my favorite part of the movie. The score was also completely in keeping with the movie and made a lot of the sequences feel cooler than they actually were.

 

The performances were fine and exactly what one would expect from an action/horror movie. The leads were very pleasing on the eyes and believable for the most part. The characters were obviously very stereotypical and static but again this wasn’t a character study.

 

Overall, I was actually very surprised by this movie. The only reason to see it is for the awesome sequences. The plot and characters don’t add anything but don’t really take anything away. It had a lot of jumpy moments and some gross effects, but it wasn’t anything over the top. I didn’t find it very scary, apart from the one part of the movie where I literally batted at the screen because a 3D zombie popped out at me. Honestly, I would have really liked to have seen this in 2D to see just how awesome the cinematography really was and yes I understand that the Fusion system is a 3D system, but still. I’d only like to see a sequel if it employed the same cinematography approach as this one. “Five years ago, a virus escaped and everybody died. Trouble was . . . they didn’t stay dead.” – Resident Evil: Afterlife.

Going The Distance

Tagline: A comedy about meeting half-way.

So I had actually been really excited to see this movie since I first heard about it months ago. Not only did it look to be a quirky romcom, but it also starred the oh-so-loveable Justin Long and his real-life girlfriend none other than Drew Barrymore. The movie opened up in the number 5 spot and has grossed over $14 million to date since it opened ten days ago. The budget was $32 million so its almost halfway there. It has actually earned the spot at the 16th highest grossing Labor Day weekend opener. After seeing the movie, I really hope it makes many millions more as it was just a fantastic piece of work.

The movie is about a couple who randomly meet one day when Drew is working a summer internship in NYC and start what they think will be a short casual romance. Soon, their relationship gets serious and she moves back to California and they take that leap and decide to do the long-distance thing. Friends and family include, Jim Gaffigan, Cristina Applegate, Jason Sudeikas, Ron Livingston, and my favorite Charlie Day.

The plot was simple and universal. It was something almost everyone has experienced or could relate to in some way. The characters were genuine and not super-cliche'. I enjoyed the fact that the rest of the cast were genuinely funny as well and not some over-the-top inserts popped in their to set up one-liners (i.e. Dinner For Schmucks). I found the entire cast very humorous and genuine. Most of the humor came from the dialogue and some situational comedy thrown in there as well. There wasn't gobs of gross-out humor or not that much slapstick as seems to be the recent trend in Hollywood. Overall, this was a well written comedy.

There were some fantastic montages in this movie that I really did enjoy. There was also some great titling effects in the beginning. Also the soundtrack was killer, which is to be expected from this non studio film and especially with Barrymore as the producer. The cinematography and editing just added to the exciting fun experience.

The cast was perfect. I immensely loved Mike Birbiglia's cameo as the waiter (did anyone else catch it?). Long and Barrymore worked so well with each other. They fed each other line after line with ease and were such a cute couple to watch on screen. Jason Sudeikas and Charlie Day were also super hilarious and I enjoyed their banter. Cristina Applegate was her usual self and pretty funny. Jim Gaffigan didn't really add much but didn't take anything away either.

I ended up really enjoying this movie and I think I've recommended to all of my close friends by now. It was genuine, funny, romantic, and just a job well done. I was expecting a good time and that's exactly what it delivered. The only thing that was a negative was watching it as a single girl, you're kind of left saying well 'my life sucks' after watching it. Nothing a little 'Greys Anatomy' can't cure in my case. On the flipside, this would be such a great date movie. So I'd definitely recommend this movie to the single and not single alike who enjoy a genuinely funny movie. I will warn that this is a rated R movie and there is several instances of adult themed humor, nothing extremely too distasteful and all of it highly true and hilarious. There is constant profanity though. "What's your favorite food? -- Tortellini. How do you want to die? -- Eating too much tortellini." -- Going The Distance.