Kim Gentes

Another good idea beaten with a club.

The idea of prehistoric man has always been intruiging to viewers of movies. It links our imagination with our humanity by placing what looks like regular people (with bad hair and low tech) back in a land of monsterous animals and mystical understanding.  10,000BC is another very good film concept.  But like my last review (Jumper) it turns out to be a good idea that seems to get the Jr. High School treatment from the filmmakers. The setting is the African continent, likely across the mid to northern parts of Africa leading from the Great Rift Valley through the Sahara to the Egyptian outlet of the Nile.  It is not completely clear where the journey begins, but it is possibly somewhere around Mount Kilimanjaro or Mount Kenya, and ends up in the early stages of the Valley of the Kings, where the pyramids are still under construction.

The story starts out being about a small tribe of hunting nomads who survive on herds of migrating mastadons.  As the creatures migrations slow down the tiny tribe is slowly dieing off.  A personal struggle is introduced and our protagonist is a young tribal leader named D'Leh, whose love interest is kidnapped by marauding horse riders.  In his quest to free and regain his love, D'Leh and several of his tribesmen wander through Africa, gaining tribes of men to help them against the mighty armies of the evil Egyptian empire.  What begins as a simple love story tries to end up being the ultimate movie about class struggle.  The movie has just two problems- no acting and no directing.  The story was strong enough it could have held a good script under its premise, but the writing and details here totally make the film fall flat.  This film in the hands of a master (Speilberg, Coen brothers, or even Gibson) would have been fun if nothing else.  But not only was the directing about as inspiring as 3 day old soda left in the sun, but the acting consisted of glistening-eyed-looks with pretty people headshots and not much else.

Every attempt at emotion and engagement with actual human characteristics falls dismally short of plausible.  The one thing that does work is the well done visuals and excellent set work.

If you have big screen HD TV, wait till this film comes out on BluRay DVD.  You may otherwise feel like you have lived through 10,000 years of tired, cold popcorn crumbs before this film is over on the silver screen. The film is PG13, but that may be simply because it was just too bad for kids under 13 to experience.  The rating here could have PG and it would have been fine. There are a couple scenes of battle and people getting killed in epic battle scenes, but nothing grisly, or frightful for children 10 or over.

It was good, until the movie started.

You ever get the feeling that someone handed a great idea over to a bunch of 7th graders? If so, you have probably seen Jumper.  This is the action/sci-fi/adaptation gone awry from author Steven Gould.  The screenplay underwent a couple of revisions and direction landed with Doug Linman.  Perhaps another couple script revisions were in order here.  Jumper has a fun premise- teleportation.  Certainly people are gifted genetically to teleport, or so the story goes.  David Rice (played by Hayden Christensen) is one of those people.  The story follows David as he grows from adolesence to adulthood, though he remains selfishly focused throughout.  The story has a few plot twists, but nothing teleports the audience to a believable or even enjoyable place.  Ultimately, the film ends with less pizzazz than it starts and the audience is left wondering how such a cool idea was maimed into the resulting film.  There are touches of interesting action, but the plot and the characters remain undeveloped.  Christensen has even less acting presence in this film than he did in the Star Wars episodes where we played Anakin Skywalker. In fact, he still continues to brood of seemingly nothing in this film, leaving me to believe that he has about 3 poses and about zero acting ability.

The film would have been a good rental or netflix download, but paying full price was probably leaving us all feeling like someone just teleported off with our hard-earned money.

Funny, Heartwarming and slightly absurd.

Juno is the story of a teenage pregnancy, where Ellen Page and Michael Cera play the 16-ish unconventional highschool sweethearts who become pregnant.  Page plays the unbelieveably witty Juno, who is way too smart.  But her lines are so funny and so deftly acted, you buy everything and roll on laughing. Cera plays Bleeker, an emotionally in-touch version of Napolean Dynomite, complete with that same nerdish sex-appeal but lacking the absurd SNL-skit oddball family life. JK Simmons, most famous for his roles on prime time dramas like Law & Order, plays the wise and also perfectly cast father.

I admit, I was dragged to this movie, but I ended up laughing my head off. It was probably too funny, actually, especially for people who might have to deal seriously with this topic.  But the movie doesn't take itself too seriously, and the director here is smart enough to stay away from getting preachy about the issues.  This will be a perennial standout movie on the rental market, and it has already raked in $100million in the US theatres.  It has all quirkiness that links a film to our real world, oddball lives, while maintaining enough Hollywood to make it coexist in a realm of ideology that informs us of "how things ought to be".  I know its considered trite to speak of morality and conscience these days, but this is a refreshing, if slightly unrealistic, story that helps us remember what our best intentions should be.  And there is just enough "Cinderella" mixed in that you get that warm fuzzy feeling without having to throw up at the end.

Juno is a perfect "date" movie for any couple, with a likely cautionary repreave to any children under 13 due to language and sexual themes.  It's PG-13 rating is well-placed, in my opinion.

Far and away, the best movie of 2007.

Cloverfield is the story of an attack on New York City.  I won't spoil the movie for you, and if you haven't seen or read other reviews, then GET TO THE MOVIE. Don't try to find out what happens in this movie before you see it.  You will enjoy the movie way more if you discover the story the way it was intended.  The gimmick here is the "Blair Witch" style handicam filming that is the movie goers eyes through which the events unfold.  But this is done with the masterful nuances of JJ Abrams, who lets the story flow through the camera, instead of forcing the camera to see what will neatly present his storyboard.  It's brilliant.  You come in, remain and leave the story like the characters- uninformed, fearful, occasionally heroic and ultimately human.  The same super-realism photo-imagery that was used in Collateral (Tom Cruise/Jamie Foxx) impacts you here, but with a sledgehammer to the head.

The characters are unquestionably just like us- self-centered and unprepared for much more than living their American lives. Part of the grip of this film is its tanacity to reality, while being a wildly science-fiction yarn.  There is one small hickup in the storyline, in which a military trooper sends civilians back into harms way. Without that I would have given this firm perfect marks on all fronts.  But this plot twist does propel the story to its effective conclusion and forces the camera back to document this happening.

If you haven't seen this in the theatres, get going before its done its run. Again, this is easily the best film of 2007.  If you don't get the word on Cloverfield quick enough to see it on the big screen, you will want to rent this in HD and see it on the biggest screen you have access to.  Swimming in the visual experience is part of the plummet/rise rollercoaster you take with the characters, and you really don't want to miss that effect.

No child under 15 should see this movie, in my opinion.  Far too much realism and imagery, along with language to keep the kids sleeping soundly after watching this one.

Best gunslinger movie, maybe ever. 

No Country For Old Men  is a modern gunslinger movie (set in the 1970's) that is more fantastic than Tombstone, more gripping than 3:10 to Yuma (which I liked) and has the nastiest villian in any genre of the silver screen since Darth Vader.  What I like about this movie is, well, everything!  The hero is a west Texas local name Llewelyn Moss.  Played by James Brolin, he is a perfect combination of a likeable, but earthy local man, with plenty of street smarts and a gritty scathe to his voice and actions that make him seem just tough enough to "kick butt" when the situation requires.  The local sheriff (played perfectly by Tommy Lee Jones) is a weathered old guy who plods along methodically trying to find answers.  Both the hero and the sheriff play exceptional roles.  This movie belongs to the characters, so much so that you hardly care where the stories goes. You remain entralled with the great performances of the actors. But the show hangs squarely on the shoulders of the assassin with a self-inforced code of honor. His name is Anton Chigurh (played by Javier Bardem).  You really haven't seen a villian like this for a very long time.  He transcends the typical nasty villian or brutal tough guy.  Yet it is his honor that keeps him even more feared.  Whatever he promises will happen- and most of those promises are not nice.

The storyline is simple enough- a case full of money ends up in Llewelyn's hands.  Coming upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad, our hero takes a turn to selishly grab the spoils after the conflict leaves everyone else dead. In turn, assassin Anton Chigurh is hired to hunt down Llewelyn and get back the cash.  Once the storyline spins up there are no less than 5 parties in a hunt for each other.  It is a very well written story and the script is simple, pared back for the action to have impact and characters to grip you.  It works and works well.

No child under 15 should see this movie, in my opinion.  There is some language not appropriate, but its the violence and suspense that will prove too much for younger viewers.