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Tetro

Rating:

Movie: Tetro (2009)

Studio : American Zoetrope

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 127 min

Website : Tetro

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x96i8n

Review:

It’s been a long and tortuous decline for Francis Ford Coppola since his heady days as the confirmed Titan of the 70’s movie-brat scene. Who else has reached so high (Godfather 1&2 and The Conversation) only to fall so low (Jack)? Redemption (of a kind) now arrives, however, in the form of his latest film, Tetro.

The story centers on 17 year old Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) as he arrives in Buenos Aires in search of his estranged older brother Tetro (Vincent Gallo). Initially hostile and suspicious of Bennie, Tetro slowly welcomes his kid-brother into his world and introduces him round to his colorful coterie of artist and writer friends (which makes the carnival-like first act of the movie seem like a slightly cheesy cross between La Dolce Vita and the high-camp 1960 film version of Kerouac’s The Subterraneans). Starker family secrets soon emerge though to put the drama on a darker footing.

Through the poetry of Coppola’s renewed filmic passion, we learn of Tetro’s shattered past, his apparent failure as a writer and his subsequent breakdown. The bond between the brothers is what drives this story forward yet some of the most revelatory moments are when Coppola reaches back into their shared history to explore the deep family wounds that kept them apart for so many years. Some of the most inspired scenes of the film are those depicting their tyrannical musical genius of a father and the stunningly cruel games he played against his sons.

Another of the films intoxicating charms is how it celebrates the women that keep both brothers sane and (literally) alive – from opera-singing mothers to Buenos Aires bubble-bath beauties, the role that women play as the eternal muse again echoes Fellini. That is not to suggest that the female characters are merely window-dressing. As fine and refreshing a performance as the always electrifying Vincent Gallo delivers, the best moments in the film belong to the brilliant Maribel Verdú (as Miranda).

Tetro is no masterpiece – Bennie’s underwritten character and a slightly disappointing “twist” finale both hamper the Coppola comeback – and it’s overtly “arty” style will certainly not appeal to all cinematic tastes. Nevertheless, if you are looking for something out of the ordinary and which is laced with a desire to tell simple human truths in a stylish way, Tetro makes you an offer you can’t refuse.

-Paul Meade

Drama, In Theaters Drama, tetro

Extract

Rating:

Movie: Extract (2009)

Studio : Miramax Films

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 92 min

Website : extract-the-movie.com

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9oeph

Review:

The title of Extract comes from what the main character (Joel) sells: flavor extract. He is the founder of a local factory that makes nothing but flavor extract and loves talking about the stuff the same way a Trekker loves talking about the Enterprise. When one of his workers busts a nut at work (literally), things begin to get irksome as a pretty young con artist steps in to push Joel, his business, and his home life, into the ground.

Mike Judge has a talent for noticing characters that are absurd but strangely true to life, and this movie takes no exception with the minor roles of this film. If you ever worked in a menial manual labor job, you might recognize quite a few characters in the movie such as: the associate who keeps “voluntarily” soliciting you to go to events you don’t want to go to, the guy who remembers nobody’s name despite how long he’s been there, the musician who seems to be into really obscure musical niches, the gabby old lady who’s always been there and does nothing but gossip and blame the silent and unculpable immigrant worker for everything. There’s a lot there that I have (unfortunately) seen and experienced at one point or another, and I couldn’t help but praise Mike Judge for seeing this.

While it has its share of scenes that are funny just to watch, the humor as a result tends to borderline enough to make it a little too cerebral for the people looking for a quick laugh, and a little too primitive for folks wanting something witty, and I think this will not make it too popular. Still, considering how Mike Judge’s films tend to go cult as time passes, I can see this film’s popularity gaining steam once it hits DVD.

If you do find this film funny, you might also want to check out “The Promotion,” which is also fairly low-key, and strangely true-to-life (that, or my life is very, very, demented).

-Donald Lee

Comedy, In Theaters Comedy, extract, mike judge

Gamer

Rating:

Movie: Gamer (2009)

Studio : Lakeshore Entertainment

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 95 min

Website : gamerthemovie.com

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x99ofj

Review:

Do you expect a movie made by the guys behind Crank about a future of people-controlled first-person shooters to be a masterpiece worthy of several Academy Awards? If you do, then you’re probably going to be disappointed. For the majority of you that know better, you’re probably just wondering if you are going to see something violent and crazy and if your protagonist is going to give you something as epic as his time as King Leonitas. If you are those people: you’re probably going to feel mostly satisfied.

Reconstituted plot aside, Gamer does live up to its promise in being over-the-top with copious amounts of bosoms and blood. In a way, this movie manages to make you feel the mood of a First Person Shooter where you are chunking anything meaty (beware: the shaky camera approach gets used extensively during those scenes), while giving you the sensation of a hedonist humanity that seems too jaded with excess to care about their living toys and some eccentric bits that work fairly well.

That said, I can see people griping about the storyline having a fair number of gaps of nonviolent scenes where “Kable” (Gerard Butler) is piecing together his past. Me, I liked it. These scenes usually had a somewhat artistic slant with the camera work and it did its purpose fairly effectively. For those just expecting a pure modern grindhouse, though, it may seem offset with the rest of the film, moreso with its fairly underwhelming ending that I keep reminding myself is not a homage to Blade Runner despite how much of this film’s plot is reconstituted from other recent movies.

In the end, I can not really gripe the film. It is watchable, moreso with friends, but I’d recommend this film for a DVD night.

-Donald Lee

Action, In Theaters, Sci-Fi, Thriller Action, gamer, mark neveldine, sci-fi, Thriller

9

Rating:

Movie: 9 (2009)

Studio : Relativity Media

Info : Click Here

Runtime : 81 min

Website : Official 9 Site

Trailer :http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ty3i

Review:

I’ve seen burnt-out radioactive wastelands, cities crumpled to ashes from the lasers of flying saucers, jungle-clad skyscrapers of dead cities, and giant biblical meteors/volcanoes/global warming ready to take out 95% of the human population. Out of all the end-of-the-world scenarios I have seen, I did not expect to find a film that would center on a dead 30’s-era fascist empire, let alone one that was animated and has no steampunk elements in it.

Shane Acker’s vision is quite intricate right down to the very aperture blades of his protagonists’ eyes. Character designs for the film are fantastic and I spent a fair amount of time fascinated looking at the character models and the way they interacted with a lightly stylized but palpable end of the world. 9, as well as his eight aptly named automaton brothers and sisters, are the last known forms of sentient “life” in the world. When an arcane device reawakens what destroyed the world (no spoilers!), it is up to them to decide the fate of the world.

As you may tell, the plot is where you will probably find yourself underwhelmed. The acting is not great; that’s not to say it’s not bad either, it just feels very samey: like you’ve seen these character templates before in the same sort of film, complete with a few rehashed one-liners. I do admit to thinking that some characters were more memorable than others, like Martin Landau’s wise but inquisitive #2, but there was nothing really there to keep me interested in their roles.

Perhaps I’m jaded from these sort of movies, or I followed the hype more than I should have. This movie does fulfill a sweet tooth for the person with a taste for eye candy, but I could not really tell you much else that drew me to the film. In short: it’s this year’s Hellboy 2.

-Donald Lee

Adventure, Animation, Fantasy, In Theaters, Sci-Fi 9, Adventure, Animation, sci-fi, tim burton