Director: Brad Bird

Cinematography: Robert Anderson and Sharon Calahan

Screenplay: Brad Bird

Cast: Patton Oswalt and Lou Romano

Rating G
Country: USA
Language: English

Original music: Michael Giacchino

Review:

Remy (Oswalt) is a small rat with big dreams. Born with a particularly well-developed sense of smell, he has a taste for good food -contrary to his family, who have no qualms about eating trash. His passion for food occasionally puts him in danger due to his risky attempts at getting ‘the good stuff’ straight from humans’ kitchens. One of these adventures has the rodent whisked to Paris after discovering the work of Gusteau, a recently deceased chef who claims ‘Everyone can cook’. Remy ends up in the sewers below the chef’s famous restaurant and becomes friends with the new garbage boy, a clumsy redhead named Linguini (Romano). With a little teamwork, the pair’s recipes begin to restore the restaurant’s old fame.

When I heard there would be yet another animated film coming out, I was a little wary. I honestly had the thing boycotted until it came out on DVD and I kept hearing all the amazing reviews. I refused to let myself be swayed, determined to hate the kitchen rat just on the basis that I couldn’t deal with another boring cartoon… And boy am I glad I saw this film.

Pixar is very well known for their innovative and compelling stories, and they’ve completely surpassed any previous accomplishments with Ratatouille. From the breathtaking Parisian scenery to the amazingly realistic detailing, this movie is a visual treat whether you like animated films or not. The story is original, but has a classic feel to it which is reminiscent of older films such as Toy Story, and obviously has the occasional Pixar reference (ie Linguini’s boxers have the Incredibles logo).

The original music is also beautiful, and really gives a melodic feel to the movie.

I recommend Ratatouille for a light-hearted, good laugh which will no doubt please just about anyone. Ten expensive wines on ten!

Links:

- Official Website
- IMDb link
- Theatrical Trailer
- Rent it on NetFlix
- Buy it on Amazon

Based on the book: Den Osynlige by Mats Wahl
Based on the Swedish film: Den Osynlige by Joel Bergvall and Simon Sandquist

Director: David S. Goyer

Cinematography: Gabriel Beristain

Screenplay: Mick Davis and Christine Roum

Cast: Justin Chatwin, Margarita Levieva and Chris Marquette

Rating PG-13
Country: USA
Language: English

Review:

Nick Powell (Chatwin) lives with his over-protective, superficial mother in a perfect house. He aspires to be a writer, but on the same night he’s meant to leave for England to attend a prestigious school he’s brutally attacked by the local troubled teen, Annie Newton (Levieva). With the help of her thug buddies she forces Nick’s best friend Pete (Marquette) to spill his name as the one who ratted her out to the police, getting her arrested for theft. Little does she know that the person who sold her out was actually her boyfriend, on probation and sick of her reckless attitude. The gang leave Nick to die in the woods, but he wakes up the next day feeling normal. That is, until he realized no one can see or hear him but Annie, his attacker. He soon discovers that he hasn’t died, but is rather in a state of limbo between life and death. To return to the world of the living, he must convince Annie to save him.

When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I loved the idea and thought it had a lot of potential. After it came out, however, I heard nothing but negative reviews and decided not to see it until it came out on DVD. Even then I was reluctant, expecting to be sorely disappointed. Instead, I was actually quite impressed. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t he movie of the century by any means… but I do think it’s worth seeing. It brings up some very interesting ideas on life and death (and yes, the in between), but what I really enjoyed was the interaction and development between the two main characters. They evolve a lot during the course of the film, and Annie’s character is especially well presented.

As much chemistry as there seemed to be between Chatwin and Levieva, there was practically nothing between the former and his mother. It was so bad, I couldn’t even play it off as “they have a distant relationship”… it was like watching two complete strangers from two completely different worlds say random lines that just happened to coincide.

The biggest criticism I have about this movie is, incidentally, the subplots. They’re extremely interesting, but grossly underdeveloped. The film goes through the trouble of showing all these intricate characters, but ends up finishing the movie off with an enormous question mark about their fates, and in some cases even their backgrounds. I find there’s nothing more maddening than when a movie places a bunch of questions in the spectator’s mind, and then leaves them unanswered for no reason whatsoever. There’s a difference between that and leaving them unanswered for the sake of mystery. It’s a shame, because if it weren’t for this I think this film could easily have scored at least a couple points higher.

I enjoyed the SPIN-magazine style soundtrack, with a lot of great bands such as Broken Social Scene, Sparta, and TV on the Radio. Obviously it keys in well with the teenage cast and reflects the feel of the movie.

Finally, I have to give a HUGE warning to the people who have seen the trailer for this movie, because a lot of it actually has nothing to do with the movie itself. The old man, for example, is never seen in the film. The trailer is also misleading when it comes to the relationships between characters, and the genre of the movie is nothing close to a horror flick. I would classify it as more of a paranormal oriented psychological thriller, because there aren’t any scares that will make you jump out of your seat… if you do you’re probably drinking way too much coffee.

So… after lengthy mental debate, I finally decided to give The Invisible movie six dead birds out of ten.

Links:

- Official Website
- IMDb link
- Theatrical Trailer
- Rent it on NetFlix
- Buy it on Amazon

Based on the book: American Hardcore: A tribal history by Steven Blush and George Petros

Director: Paul Rachman

Cinematography: Paul Rachman

Writer: Steven Blush

Interviews with: Bad Brains, Black Flag, Minor Threat, SS Decontrol, and too many others to list here…

Rating R
Country: USA
Language: English

Review:

This is a great little documentary that really gets into the nitty-gritty of the hardcore movement. Great interviews with key players in the scene are mixed in with some amazing archival footage from shows that’ll make you want to stage dive in the middle of your living room and quite possibly f*ck something up. For people who, like me, were born after hardcore died, this film could very easily get you buying every CD from the movement that your bank account can handle (and thankfully, as I write this, Christmas is only a week away).

I’ve read a good deal of reviews on the movie, and some of the criticism on it has to due with the fact that nothing pre-1979 which influenced the hardcore movement is presented, and the same goes for anything post-1986. It’s true, the doc centers solely on the prime years of hardcore’s rise and sudden fall. A little more attention could have been put on the rapid decline of the movement, however, because the way it’s addressed kind of gives the feeling that everyone’s still a little bitter about it (which they probably are).

Above all, I think the film did a great job of presenting not only the biggest bands, but also a lot of smaller bands from different areas. Obviously there’s always at least a handful of amazing bands that get left out, but hey, they can’t fit in everyone.

American Hardcore gets 10 thrashers out of 10.

Links:

- Official Website
- IMDb link
- Theatrical Trailer
- Rent it on NetFlix
- Buy it on Amazon

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel

Screenplay: Guillaume Laurent and Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Cast: Audrey Tautou and Mathieu Kassovitz

Rating R
Country: France
Language: French [English subtitles available]

Music: Yann Tiersen

Review:

Amelie is a young woman with a very active imagination. She believes that by taking matters into her own hands, she can change people’s lives for the better. Throughout her personal missions –which include making two miserable people fall in love, giving a terrible boss his just desserts and helping a woman remember the love she once had for her husband–, she falls in love with a young man. Having lived a very secluded childhood due to her father’s suspicions of a heart condition, her social skills are that of a highly imaginative young girl. Her means to seduce the man she loves are creative, to say the least, until she eventually realizes with the help of an old man’s guidance that she may be keeping him at bay out of fear of approaching him directly.

‘Magical’ is really the best word to describe this movie. Amélie’s world is filled with interesting people, which is the first strong point of the film. Every character has a story and a purpose. As the plot develops, you end up not only wanting to know the fate of the main characters, but those of the secondary characters as well. The rendering of each intricately written role by the actors is wonderful, Tautou and Kassovitz especially despite the difficulty of playing credible adults with such childlike naïveté. The artistic direction and the photography also play an immensely important role in this film, creating a world which plays a character in itself. The way the vibrant colors are used to give a childlike feel to the everything the heroine sees adds an interesting and beautiful final touch.

Images aside, the soundtrack for Amélie is absolutely beautiful.

Basically I recommend this film to anyone looking for a feel-good movie that isn’t total crap.

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulin gets 10 ripped photo booth pictures out of 10.

Links:

- Official Site (no longer available)
- IMDb link
- Theatrical Trailer (English)
- Rent it on NetFlix
- Buy it on Amazon

Director: Linda Voorhees, Bess Wiley

Cinematography: Chris W. Johnson, Mark Ritchie, Matthew J. Siegel

Screenplay: Linda Voorhees

Cast: Justin Long, Wendie Malick, Stephen Root.

Rating R
Country: USA
Language: English

Review:

Hal Nester is named high school valedictorian, but refuses to come out of his bathroom until he has found the answer to a formula involving his cheerleading neighbor bouncing on a trampoline. After three months of writing formulas and theories on walls, however, his obsessive and overbearing mother (Wendie Malick) has had enough and will do everything it takes to get him out, as his compulsive father (Stephen Root) idly stands by.

I think the problem with this story wasn’t the acting, nor was it the cinematography. The idea of a seventeen year old genius who refuses to leave his bathroom is interesting, but the movie lacked a few punches in my opinion. This isn’t a typical comedy, I didn’t feel the need to laugh out loud (or even giggle slightly). The comedy is mostly in the hilarity of the situation, and in the character’s ideals and ambitions.

The best part about this movie was the psychology behind the characters. The way Hal (Long) has very little social skills, but still manages to manipulate whoever he needs (from robbers to police officers). I especially liked the grandmothers. As much as they claim to want to help their grandson, they see nothing wrong with frightening him to death by repeatedly pretending to enter his “domain”.

Overall, I’m glad I watched the film, but it was kind of boring.

Raising genius gets 3 bouncing cheerleaders out of 10.

Links:

- Official Website (no longer available)
- IMDb link
- Theatrical Trailer
- Rent it on NetFlix
- Buy it on Amazon