Wrath of the Titans

     Sequels have become a way of life in Hollywood, if a movie does well the first time, why not make another one? In 1981 when the original “Clash of the Titans” came out, sequels were not often made, especially for a movie that did poorly at the box office. Well almost thirty years later, things have changed. “Clash of the Titans” was retold and this time it did well enough to spawn a sequel.                                                                                                             

    “Wrath of the Titans” picks up where the “Clash” leaves off and continues with Perseus’s ( Sam Worthington) fight to deny his god half and live as normal a life he can as his human half. Fate though has other plans for Perseus. The gods are losing their powers and all the things they have accomplished are being undone, including the imprisonment of Titans. Zeus (Liam Neeson) talks Perseus into fighting for his son and the rest of the world so that they can live. Perseus is joined in his quest by Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) and the son of Poseidon, Acrisius (Jason Flemyng) to defeat Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Ares (Tamer Hassan).

   The good thing about “Wrath” is that it is better than “Clash”. The filmmakers no longer had to live up to an original film, so they were able to do their own thing and it shows. The story seems to flow better and Worthington looks more comfortable playing the hero. The other thing that is better is the 3D effects, which don’t look just thrown together like it did in “Clash”. It just shows that sometimes sequels can be better than the original, especially when that original is a reboot of a previous film. This is a entertaining film and worth checking out, so sit back and enjoy the “Wrath”.

Brian Taylor

Flashback Corner-- An American Werewolf in London

“I didn’t mean to call you a meatloaf Jack.”

          If you have anywhere from 5 bucks to .99cents lying around you could own your very own DVD copy of the greatest werewolf movie ever made.  “An American Werewolf in London”.  Released in 1981 this terrific blend of horror and comedy written and directed by John Landis remains the werewolf film by which all others are measured.  In my opinion the only films ever to come close to this kind of greatness are Silver Bullet, Ginger Snaps, Dog Soldiers, and The Howling, the last two of which I think do their best at the horror to humor ratio as it did in ‘American Werewolf’.

The story starts as two college students David and Jack who are hiking through the Yorkshire moors in England.  They come across a pub where they are not welcomed and bullied into leaving but not before they get the warning of “Beware the moon, and stick to the road.”  Advice they do not head as they are attacked by a wolf on the moors.  Jack dies and David is admitted to a hospital in London.

From there the film slows down on the werewolf action, but does not stop on scares.  There are incredible creepy dream sequences that still cause me even at the age I am now to not completely focus on the screen, but I can’t stop watching.  There are some comedic moments with visitations by Jack as a rotting corpse, who comes to David to warn him about what he’s become.  This all leads to one of the great moments in cinematic history, the wolf transformation scene.  Creature creator Rick Baker gives us a memorable and painful look at what it would be like to turn into a werewolf.

What’s great about the film is that most of it all still works, the tone, the sound effects, the humor, the language, and the mythology.  I see now that John Landis really took some chances with this film.  Exposition usually kills me in movies when done badly; here he explains the same thing three times, as warnings to David.  The last of which takes place between him, his almost fully decomposed dead friend, a group of talking corpses, during a horrible porno movie in a Piccadilly Circus theater, and then Landis has David acknowledge that fact.  Genius.

Now I’ll admit I have not seen every werewolf movie ever made, I hear some of the foreign werewolf movies are worth watching; though I still doubt any can surpass An American Werewolf in London which still holds up over thirty years later.

 

--Robert L. Castillo

Flashback Corner-- Time Bandits

“Return what you have stolen from me.  Return the map.  It will bring you great danger.  Stop now.”

          It’s hard being a Terry Gilliam fan.  When someone asks “Who’s that?”  I rattle off what they might know, if they’re in their 30’s or older I say “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. And they’ll shout out “It’s only a flesh wound.”  Any younger, and I just say “12 Monkeys”.  If they don’t know that one, I usually give up.   His messages can be over the top, his humor very layered, but his style is unmistakable.  Whether it’s “Brazil” which took me years to wrap my head around (not really sure if I’m all the way there yet either) or “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” the subject of a later Flashback Corner, you can usually tell when you’re watching a Terry Gilliam film.

His not talked about enough but still my favorite is “Time Bandits”.  Aside from maybe “The Fisher King” it is his most accessible film, at least it was to me back in in the 198o’s when I watched it on video over and over.  The story follows a young boy named Kevin, which as any writer of young adult fiction will tell you, “You want kids to follow you on an adventure, make your main character a kid”.  Kevin is stuck in a British suburb with a materialistic mother and a father who only wants ‘quiet’.  One night six dwarves come out of his closet, they take him away through a time portal where he has a series of adventures during the Napoleonic Wars, the Middle Ages where he meets the hilarious John Cleese as Robin Hood, to Greece where he meets King Agamemnon played by the still dashing at this time Sean Connery.  The whole time Kevin and his new friends, the self-proclaimed “international robbers” are bouncing around in time they are being secretly watched by Evil played by the always brilliant David Warner, who looks to acquire the map that they stole from God, which allows them to jump from time to time.

What makes the film memorable is the dwarves like Fidgit played by Kenny Baker who was R2-D2 in all six Star Wars films, Randall played by David Rappaport, who was in a fun 80’s series called “The Wizard” and was in a great episode of “Amazing Stories” with Mark Hamill.  While all of them bring the funny, some nail the serious moments, they really make the movie as does the script which is clever for an adult, and fun for a child who like Ian Holm’s Napoleon in the film likes to see “Little thing’s hitting each other!” Also when the character of Evil has to give exposition he does it as he kills off his minions.  Hilarious.  There are some great set pieces and some move along better than others, I do remember being captivated as a kid watching the group try to escape a series of hanging cages.

Watching now I can say it drags a little at times, some of the jokes are dated, and the effects are on the cheap even if they were funded by former Beatle George Harrison who was an executive producer on the film.  However it’s still a fantastic little film that dreams big and I still love the climactic end battle where Evil has to face off against the dwarves, cowboys, knights, tanks, and spaceships.  It still pulled me in and is still one of the best time-travel movies of all time.

--Robert L. Castillo        

The Hunger Games-Review

“Welcome, and Happy Hunger Games”

After watching “The Hunger Games”, there was one thought I couldn’t shake out of my head.  Director Gary Ross really, really wanted to make a ‘Jason Bourne’ movie.

Based on the best-selling series of books by Suzanne Collins about a post-apocalyptic future where the world is broken up into twelve districts, and once a year a boy and girl are chosen from each district to do battle with other districts and each other.  To the death.  The Hunger Games is really about the main character Katniss Everdeen played pretty perfectly by Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone, X-Men: First Class) who volunteer’s as tribute in order to prevent her younger sister from competing in the games.  The film follows her from her coal-mining town to the Capitol where everyone dresses like David Bowie, and eventually to the battle arena, which takes the form of a remote controlled forest.

It takes a while to get to the actual games as the first part of the film takes it’s time to explain everything to the audience.  When it gets going and kids start getting picked off in violent ways, it feels very claustrophobic and blurry in an intentional way.  Maybe they didn’t want to show too much violence towards kids, but then why make a movie where that’s all that happens for most of the story?

What stood out to me as someone who read the first book was the creation of a real villain in Donald Sutherland as President Snow.  In his small role he exudes evil, I wanted to see more of him and I hope to get that in a later sequel.  The other surprise was Josh Hutcherson as Peta, he turns in a really genuine performance that keeps up with the always great Jennifer Lawrence.

The film overall feels like a catch-all for the fans, most of whom are young and don’t really care about the too-tight shots, quick cuts, choppy editing, and the over-exposition.  What they want to see is their favorite characters leap off the page and fight for their lives.  The Hunger Games gives them that, but not much more.

--Robert L. Castillo       

Flashback Corner--The Dark Crystal

“To save our world Gelfling, you must find the shard.”

          In any fantasy story, the most important part is world-buliding.  J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that before you start to tell your story, you need a map.  That’s why on the inside cover of a lot of fantasy books, you see a map of the world your about to enter.  Jim Henson and Frank Oz understood this concept when they decided to create the world that would become their greatest film.  “The Dark Crystal”

I was seven years old when I saw this incredible film in the theater.  I was amazed by what was projected on the screen.  What started when I was a toddler learning to spell and count from puppets on Sesame Street, to two years previous where I truly believed a little green puppet was a Jedi master.  Suddenly I was introduced to a fantastic world that was inhabited by these creatures, some weird, some scary, and some heroic.  It helped that it followed many common elements seen in Star Wars, the reluctant hero, a quest, wizards.  It even starts like Star Wars… “Another world, Another time”.

Watching it now, thirty years later, and with a critical eye, I see some faults, like the partial narration, probably used to help kids to understand what’s going on.  The clunky, static way things move, because of the restrictions of the puppets.  However, what has remained thankfully is the appreciation of what was created.  The puppets don’t bob up and down when they walk like the muppets did.   It bravely told a classic story with dark elements not thinking of parents groups or a ratings board.  Let’s also not forget that no film up until that point had used puppets as its entire cast.  And no film has done it since, at least not as successful, magical, and wonderful as “The Dark Crystal” did.  The creative force that was Jim Henson and Frank Oz has never been repeated, the passion and heart that went into the creation of this film is completely evident.  I can’t wait to show my kids who have been raised on computer generated characters.  I can’t wait to say “Look at this…  This, is real.”     

--Robert L. Castillo

21 Jump Street

“I said jump, down on 21 Jump Street”

          I don’t remember much about the TV series “21 Jump Street”.  I remember they were young looking cops who worked undercover in high schools, this went on for years.  And I remember Johnny Depp and his cool hair.  That’s about it.  The film version stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as the young cops.  If there were in-jokes for the fans of the original series I didn’t notice, and it doesn’t matter because the movie is funny as hell!

Hill and Tatum who were a loser and jock in high school respectively, are now friends and partners who get reassigned to an old 80’s program which puts the pair back in school undercover as brothers.  There are funny moments up until here, but the laughs ramp up when they get to the school.  The script by Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) is a rapid fire of joke after joke, plus some great call backs, and the film rarely slows down.

The best moments are when you see a typical scene pulled from every undercover comedy, the relative about to blow your cover, or the goofy car chase, and here they manage to make them funnier.  The directing duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller who made the under-appreciated “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” clearly know the genre and the formula for these kinds of movies, and most importantly, they are fans.  It’s clear when they take a stereotypical scene and turn it around or make it better using self-referential humor.

“21 Jump Street” is by no means perfect, and generally I don’t enjoy too many comedies.  I leave that to the other half of the Cine-men.  I am glad I didn’t miss this one, I knew Jonah Hill would be funny, even when his films are not, he is.  The only x-factor was Channing Tatum, who at least in this role completely nails it.  I hope he picks more projects like this one, they clearly suit him better.  Lastly, stay for the credits, there’s some funny stuff in there to cap off a really entertaining movie.

--Robert L. Castillo     

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

          We all make our ways through life trying to figure out why we are here. Some people believe that we make our own paths through life, but for others they believe that destiny is in control. Jeff (Jason Segel) is one of those guys; someone who believes life gives us signs on where to go. The problem is Jeff is 30 and still lives in his mother’s basement. Most of his days are spent staying home and dissecting the movie “Signs” as he smokes pot. He believes that is film is a metaphor for life, that the signs will lead you to the right choice every time. Jeff’s older brother Pat (Ed Helms) is completely different, someone who is just floating through life and believes you have to make life happen. Pat does not listen well and starts the downward spiral in his day when he informs his Wife, Linda (Judy Greer) about the new car he has bought. Linda is not happy at all, because she wants to buy a house and see Pat’s purchase as just more proof he doesn’t care about her.

   Jeff’s day starts off a little different, when he receives a phone call asking for a Kevin. When he tells the caller they have the wrong number the caller tells Jeff there is always a Kevin everywhere. Jeff’s mother Sharon (Susan Sarandon) ask Jeff to go to the store to pick something up, and on the trip Jeff starts to notice signs that take him on a trip of discovery. On the bus ride Jeff sees a guy with the name Kevin on his shirt, he follows him, that route takes him where he runs into his brother. Jeff and Pat’s relationship has never been close, but they find a common cause that helps their relationship and both start to follow the signs to a better life.

   “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” is a drama, with some very funny moments in it; the film was written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, who last did “Cyrus” as well as some other indie favorites. Jason Segel proves once again he is one of Hollywood raising stars and Ed Helms plays a role he is very comfortable in. The film may have a strange title but a story that is all heart and something that is a joy to watch. So don’t miss this one and take a chance and see one of the better films to come out this year.

Brian Taylor

Go see John Carter!

The Big Lebowski, The Iron Giant, Scott Pligrim…John Carter?

          “John Carter” was beaten in the box office this weekend by “The Lorax” by almost ten million dollars domestically.  As the Dude would say, “this oppression will not stand, man.”

I get it.  I do.  Kid movies always do better than live action films.  With the ticket prices, a kid can’t get in a car, drive to the theater, get money out of the wallet that they earned at a job, and pay to see a PG-13 movie.  They have to go with a parent who in turn has to buy a ticket to watch the movie with them.  Hence, kid movies make more money.

There are so many films that deserved more attention in theaters before they found their audiences on video.  Like the films in the title of this blog.  They all underperformed upon their initial release, but found their second life and tons of fans that quote them and would love to see more if done well.  In short “John Carter” deserves your attention, it deserves a chance to ‘wow’ you or at the very least entertain you more than an overly stretched out Dr. Seuss story.

So this weekend most adults will be seeing “21 Jump St.”  Which from what I hear, is really good.  (Come back for my review on Friday.)  But if you got kids over the age of ten, take them to see “John Carter” of all the crap that gets green-lit for sequels, most do not justify it like “John Carter” would.  I loved the universe it created, and I want to see another adventure on Mars.  After one viewing, you’ll want one too.

--Robert L. Castillo

The “World” of Film

   It doesn’t seem that long ago when Hollywood was the center of the movie universe when it came to quality. Hollywood still controls the movie world, but over the last five to ten years other countries are putting out more films as good or better then anything the major studios are releasing. Last Year “A Separation” was nominated for Best Foreign Film and for Best Picture, something you will see more commonly in the future.

      Most people do not enjoy watching foreign films because of subtitles, but in a lot of cases it is worth them in order to see into a culture you may never get to see into. Take for an example “A Separation”, a film from Iran that deals with something that happens in the country often. The story revolves around a family who is going through a separation, when a mother wants a better life for her daughter and her husband wanting to stay to care for his ailing father. An accident happens involving the father and a tale where honor and religious beliefs play a part. Another big foreign film was “The Artist” which came from France and went on to win multiple awards at this year’s Oscars, including Best Picture. Another great film came from Japan called “I Saw the Devil” about a guy who torments a serial killer responsible for his girlfriend’s death.

            Movies have always been a window into worlds that we never see or a way to humanize people that we know nothing about. Foreign films do that not with other worlds but with other cultures. Don’t judge a movie on where it is from, judge it on its story and you might find something you enjoyed more then you thought you could.

 Brian Taylor

“My name, is JOHN CARTER”

I’ve decided not to bury the lead in this review, so I’ll say that without a doubt, Disney’s “John Carter” is why we go to the movies.

We get together with friends and family, want to have a fun night out, and we want to be entertained.  “John Carter” did for me what “Avatar” did not.  It allowed me to have fun while still being engaged in a classic story.  And when I say “classic”, I mean it in every sense of the word.  The series of stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs which the film is based on started over 100 years ago.  The same year the Titanic sank, the fictional John Carter walked on Mars.

The film opens as the writer Burroughs played by Daryl Sabara in the film, comes to visit his uncle John Carter played by Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights) at his estate only to be told, that he has died.  Burroughs is given along with the entire estate a journal left by Carter that tells of his adventures on the planet Mars.  How he gets there and how he can breathe is not as important as what happens when he arrives.  Being in an atmosphere one-tenth our gravity, he’s as strong as ten men, and he can leap tall buildings in a single bound like that other popular alien.  He also quickly meets up with the Martians who inhabit the planet and though many familiar situations becomes a respected warrior or Jeddak, as they are known on Mars or Barsoom in the film.

The script if filled with characters, places, and names of gods all strange and a little hard to keep track of. However the best part is you don’t need to.  It’s so much fun to see the whole adventure play out in one action set piece after another, and all just as exciting.  This could have easily been a horrible retread of a movie filled with things we had all seen before, the reluctant hero, a Princess (Lynn Collins), the elder warrior (voiced by Willem Defoe) and a planet that needs to be saved, the difference is the way it is achieved feels fresh as it plays with stereotypes that are common in other-world adventures while staying true to the essence of the story.  If I try to explain more of the plot, you will no doubt see similarities between “John Carter” and “Avatar”, “Star Wars”, “Dances with Wolves”, “The Princess Bride” but like I said, none of those stories or their creators were around  100 years ago.  This is one of the original’s that those others borrowed from, all of it put together brilliantly by the writers of the film: Michael Chabon, Mark Andrews and witer/director Andrew Stanton (Wall-E).  Like fellow Pixar alumni Brad Bird (The Incredibles) before him, with last year’s “Mission: Impossible -Ghost Protocol” Stanton shows that he can engage in live action as well as he can in animated films.

With ticket prices and concessions being what they are, spending a small fortune at the movies is one we all think twice about now.  We hear something is good, we say, “I’ll rent it when it comes out on DVD”.  This is, as they say “worth the price of admission”.  You want sci-fi action?  It’s here.  You want fairy tale adventure?  It’s here.  You want a great time at the movies again?  Go see “John Carter.”

--Robert L. Castillo

"Guys, I'm bringing the party to you." Indeed

Of all the films I'm looking forward to this year, aside from "The Hobbit", and "The Dark Knight Rises", "The Avengers" I'm most excited for.  Joss Whedon is considered a geek god.  With both "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" series he gave us great TV then in 2002 made canceled series "Firefly" into a feature film "Serenity" in 2005.  Impossible in Hollywood, making a film of a show that only aired 11 episodes, three years later??!!  True it wasn't considered a hit, but to me and others, it showed that Whedon can do a great, fun, action-packed film.

His strength lies in writing fun dialogue, great team dynamics, and turning the stereotypes.  He is on paper, perfect to write and direct a superhero movie.  He had a great 24 issue run of "Astonishing X-Men", he told a cool story, created new characters, played with existing characters.  He made Wolverine into a scared little girl, and made it work.  I think he can take the existing franchises of Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America and blend them together into something memorable.

In less than a month I predict that everyone will know what geeks have known since the young blond vulnerable looking little girl, killed big hulking vampires on a weekly basis.  Joss Whedon is a fantastic writer/director.  He may not be a superhero, but he's one of mine.

--Robert L. Castillo 

Project X

                     Everyone remembers going to parties in high school, but do you remember “The High School” party? “Project X “is a movie about the party to end all parties. It is Thomas’s birthday and his friend Costa is planning a party that will take Thomas, himself, and their friend JB to a new social status.

                       The morning starts off pretty normal as Costa meets Thomas at his place as he gets ready for school. Costa has brought with him Dax, who is going to film a day in the life of Thomas. After a lecture from his parents about what they expect from him while they are out of town, Thomas and Costa head to school to spread the word on the party. School goes well with everyone finding out about the party and the boys head to the store to get supplies. After securing everything they need, they all head to Thomas’s house and wait until the party begins.

                     Things start off slow with it looking like no one is going to show up, but then the crowd starts coming and the party starts kicking into high gear. Once it gets going it is like a snowball as it rolls down a hill, it keeps getting bigger and bigger  . It becomes every parent’s nightmare and every teenager’s dream all in the same night. You see everything you would want to see at a party and things you hope never really happen. “Project X” starts off a little slow, but has some funny moments, all which are provided by Costa. Once the party starts it is fun to watch and I promise you that you would much rather be at the party then watching it on a movie screen. Clocking in at just under an hour and a half this is a movie that is entertaining and fun to watch. It may be far from the movie of the year, but it lives up to being one of the best parties you may ever see.

  Brian Taylor