Only Lovers Left Alive

                I think vampires are misunderstood. Every movie that comes out portrays them as cool blood thirty beasts that only want to suck our blood. Then it went the other way where they sparkled in the sunlight, but let’s not go there again. What I have always wanted to see is a movie where it showed that vampires were like us, except for the whole blood thing. If you feel like me, then wonder no more, because writer/director Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers) has cured our curiosity.

                  Adam (Tom Hiddleston) is a recluse, who doesn’t get out often. The reason for his solitude is because he is a vampire. Adam also happens to be a musical genius, who has a love for rare instruments and making music that no one really gets to hear. Adam uses a kid named Ian (Anton Yelchin) to get the things he needs, everything except blood, which because so many people are contaminated Adam has to get his from a doctor. It seems this vampire is a little out of touch though, and pretty much despises the current time. Adam’s life is pretty uneventful, a lot of sleeping and making music, that is until Eve (Tilda Swinton) pays him a visit. Eve and Adam have been lovers for centuries and they bring out the best in each other. Everything is going great until Eve’s sister Eva (Mia Wasikowska) shows up and changes turns it all upside down.

                  I think it’s good that we got a vampire love story between two vampires, and one that doesn’t paint the same picture of vampire life. Too often we are made to believe that being a vampire would be cool. That’s the other aspect that makes this film an interesting watch, it shows how their life can be a bit boring, especially if you have been alive for over a thousand years. I mean what else can you do when you’ve already done everything? The story moves at a leisurely pace, but then again it is a Jarmusch film, which makes perfect sense if you’ve seen any of his work. Even if you are not a fan of a slower moving movie, you will still enjoy this, just by the performances alone. Plus you get to see a lot of good looking people and that is never a bad thing. Although not exciting, “Only Lovers left Alive” moves you in other ways, and gives you a rare view of the down side of eternal life.

 

 Brian Taylor

Neighbors

Let’s face it, making a stand-out comedy in this day and age is a very hard thing to do. And one thing that I’ve noticed reviewing movies for many years is that it’s hard to make me laugh. Being a critic does indeed make you very critical of what you find funny in films. Sure there are laugh out loud moments in plenty of movies, but trying to sustain laughs for ninety plus minutes for people who’ve seen it all from the classics of the 70’s and 80’s to the gross out comedies of the 90’s is almost impossible. Only in the last few years have movies made me laugh out loud, films like “21 Jump Street”, “Bridesmaids”, and last year’s “This is the End”. Amidst the sea of comedy classic hopefuls the first true contender is here in Nicholas Stoller’s “Neighbors”.

Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne are new parents who are just making it out of the ‘no-responsibility’ zone, he works in an office with the occasional ‘pot-break’, and she is a housewife teetering on boredom. When they get new neighbors in the form of a fraternity house they start to realize how old and possibly how immature they really are. Zac Efron the president of the frat house and his V.P. Dave Franco when challenged by the nice-at-first couple, decide to bring their loud parties and college antics right to their neighbor’s front door.

What starts as simple set up to back and forth pranks turns into a greatest hits medley or an extended trailer of gag after gag. Some quite funny and clever, but the rapid fire nature steals away time when you could be even slightly caring about what happens to the characters. Not that you have to, but the filmmakers did decide to give some paper thin substance to their casts wacky nature and it ends up falling short, at times even bringing the film to a stop. This occurs mostly at the end of the film when it’s huffing and puffing its way across the finish line.

The entire cast is given their moments to display their comedy chops, Rogen is as Rogen as he always is (and I mean that in a good way). Rose Byrne was really great in almost every scene she was in. Efron and Franco both have great comedic timing and played well off each other, and even some of the supporting cast is given time to get a few laughs in, the best of which are from TV comedian Ike Barinholtz as Rogen’s goofy buddy.

Over all “Neighbors” is a decent comedy with some great gags and a really good cast, but loses its steam or in this case its bong water before the party is over.

--Robert L. Castillo      

In Your Eyes

 

Writer/Director Joss Whedon once again proves that he loves his fans, by releasing “In Your Eyes” his latest penned film directed by Brin Hill on Vimeo for $5.00 only a day after it played at the Tribeca Film Festival. Much like he did back in ’08 with “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” putting it out there for the masses instead of waiting until a DVD release or even a theatrical one. And while the fan in me believes that was the reason for releasing the film this way, the critic in me believes you get what you pay for with this one.

Not really complaining here, I love the idea of watching a movie written by Joss Whedon for five bucks, which is less than the price of a movie theater ticket. You save on gas, you avoid the constant glow out of the corner of your eye from the people texting, and no one kicking your seat is always a plus. But this particular film borders on the line between ‘Indie’ movie and ‘Lifetime’ movie. It does have the taste of the familiar cleverness with some of the dialogue and the story of a couple trying to connect is vintage Whedon.

Rebecca (Zoe Kazan) a soft-spoken well-to-do house wife and Dylan (Michael Stahl-David) an ex-con with no direction share a supernatural bond, where they can see though the others eyes, hence the title. Since they were children they have been able to feel each other’s feelings, usual the stronger ones, like fear, anger, and even it can manifest itself by way of physical pain. Separated by several states the pair’s connection enhances when they are able to talk to each other, but only out loud, as to make it difficult to do in public, except when masked by cell phones (something they never actually use to communicate, weird). They enter each other’s life just when the other needs someone to talk to and they develop a relationship that gets more complicated as they become closer.

Kazan as Rebecca is really good, not as good as she was in “Ruby Sparks” a couple of years ago, but she nails the role. And Stahl-David performance is much like the entire film; by the numbers. Except for the still unrecognizable Jennifer Grey, there’s no surprises or twists, not that there has to be, but without it, the only thing Whedon and Hill give us is the same old same old. There is nothing unique about the relationship except for the supernatural nature of it and little else. You don’t really care very much about the leads or if they will ever end up together and it’s certainly hard to buy by the ludicrous last twenty minutes of the film.

Okay, now it sounds like I’m complaining. Maybe my expectation was too high, but after “Avengers”, his take on Shakespeare’s classic “Much Ado About Nothing” and “A Cabin in the Woods” Whedon was bound to show his mortal side. He’s not a geek god we all assume he is, he’s just a guy who creates fantastic worlds for us to play in, he can lay down some un-paralleled dialogue, and has the ability to pull you into whatever he’s working on and turn it so that you enjoy it on a level you never thought possible. Okay, I changed my mind again, he is a geek god. But it’s understandable that not everything is gonna be a homerun. I would put “In Your Eyes” in the category of the Nicholas Sparks books-to-films, good date movie, but with the seemingly endless music montages it has, not once do we get the classic Peter Gabriel track of the same name, false advertising.

--Robert L. Castillo      

The Raid 2: Berandal

To me there is one sure way to tell how good a movie is, its ability to stay with me. I think about it and get excited as I tell other people about what I saw. That doesn’t happen often, when you see as many movies as I do everything sometimes blurs together and I get that feeling maybe a handful of times though out the year. “The Raid 2: Berandal” gave me that feeling and I cannot wait to see it again.

           “The Raid 2” is the sequel to the highly enjoyable “The Raid: Redemption”, which is already being Americanized in a remake, but that is another story. We pick up two hours after the first film ended, and Rama (Iko Uwais) is picked to go uncover to help end the police corruption that is brought to light in the first film. Everyone must believe Rama is who he says he is, so he commits a real crime and is sent to prison, so that he can get in with a certain crowd. What follows is not so much a story, but one action scene after another that will take your breath away. With heavy doses of fight scenes that play more like choreographed dance numbers than actual fights (but with lots of blood) all you can do is marvel at them. Everything builds up to the end fight scene that reminds you of a video game both in action and story, but in this case it is all cinematic intense fun.

          This movie will appeal to anyone who likes action movies. If it was up to me, writer/director Gareth Evans can make as many sequels to this series as he wants, especially if they maintain this kind of quality. No CGI, only real people doing real stunts that will keep your eyes glued to the screen. There seems to be such a contrast of opinions on what action fans want to see when it comes to the people who make these movies. Some think you need bigger explosions and bigger guns, but in the case of “The Raid 2” sometimes all you need is a guy with a bat or a girl with a hammer to make a film worth seeing more than once. My only complaint is the running time, at two hours and twenty minutes, you sometimes feel the length, but it does pay off at the end.  I can go on some more about all the reasons you should see this film, but I won’t instead I will just end with the best advice I can give, just see this movie, you will thank me later.

 

Brian Taylor    

Flashback Corner--Cronos

 "He thinks it will help him live longer."

“Cronos” is one the most unique vampire movies I have ever seen.  It’s never called out in the film and it stays away from some of the troupes of the genre, but still shows the ones that give you little doubt that you are seeing the classic monster, though viewed through a skewed prism.

Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi) discovers a gold scarab-looking device in the hollow base of a archangel statue.  When activated it sprouts spider-like legs and punctures Gris injecting him with a chemical of some kind.  This begins to reverse his internal clock as he gets younger and has acquired an insatiable need for blood.  At the same time Dieter de la Guardia (Claudio Brook) and his nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) are looking for the ancient device and are ruthless in their pursuit to attain it.

This movie is visually impressive for a first feature by Guillermo del Toro.  Who would later bring his exceptional vision to films like “Hellboy”, “Pan’s Labyrinth”, “Blade II” (the best in that series) and the underrated “Pacific Rim”.  When watching “Cronos” you can see the artist’s imagination striving to be given a bigger budget as well as better actors to tell the story.  That is one of the few drawbacks, the performances are not all that they could be, probably from a lack of understanding the material.  There still remains some classic moments throughout the film, with the sunlight scene, a not gory but equally unnerving blood-licking scene, along with some decent gore.  Ahead of his time is what del Toro is here, few in the early 90’s twisted the genre like he did.  They were mostly of the Bram Stoker or Anne Rice persuasion, and most of us would like to forget 1995’s sad attempt “Vampire in Brooklyn”.  Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino would make a more memorable impact the same year in “From Dusk til Dawn”.  “Cronos” had them beat by a couple of years and this is a great film to go back to if you are a fan of del Toro’s work.

--Robert L. Castillo   

Something Blu--Dredd

If the Amazon customer reviews are any indication, the 1995 film version of “Judge Dredd” starring Sylvester Stallone is a five-star film.  With 102 viewers giving it a five-star rating and only 23 giving it a one-star it must be more amazing than I remember.  Either that or nobody really took the time to devote words of hate to this epic fail at the box-office of a movie.  I do remember seeing it at the theater when it was released, back when I was trying to watch anything and everything.  I committed very little of it to memory.  I remember Armand Assante and Stallone both had the same chin, and Rob Schneider added nothing but shame to the Dredd name.  This 2012 version of “Dredd” is a hard “R” violent, tough, and entertaining B-movie with a better Dredd and better story from the 90’s version, even if the story is the same as “The Raid: Redemption” which was released a year earlier.

Karl Urban (Star Trek) is Judge Dredd a judge, jury, and executioner in a future police state where he and his fellow judges are the law.  Dredd is saddled with Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) a trainee with psychic abilities.  Together they answer a homicide call at a building run by local gang boss Ma-Ma (Lena Heady) who is manufacturing and selling the latest drug to hit the streets ‘Slo-Mo’.  When Dredd and his trainee get to close to Ma-Ma’s operation, they are trapped in the building and hunted by the gang as well as the tenants.  Then it’s one shoot-out after another filled with brutal kills and really great looking shots in slo-mo that show the impact of both bullets and explosions.  The story is easy to follow and a might predictable, but doesn’t take away the enjoyment of what a good action movie should give you.

Urban is spot-on as Dredd, for one and almost most importantly for comic-book continuity’s sake he leaves his helmet on for the majority of the film.  So the entire time you buy him as Dredd.  He’s gruff and hard as nails tough.  Thirlby is pretty basic as Anderson, she’s essentially a mutant, so if you’ve seen any “X-Men” movie, you know how she is treated by the people around her.  She clearly doesn’t struggle with her power, just with the fact that people think she’s a freak.  My favorite moment with her is where you get that typical moment of her decisions as a Judge and how they affect others.  However the filmmakers don’t harp on it, they just show it as part of the job and never mention it again.  Everything else is Action Movie 101, the battles get bigger and crazier, the big showdown happens and goes about like you’d expect.  And in the end “Dredd” becomes a decent entry into the action genre, and an even better one into the comic-book movie genre.  All of it done without guys in capes and superpowers.

--Robert L. Castillo

Something Blu--The Killer

I had learned how to program our VCR when I was 7 years old.  So by the mid to late 80’s if something showed up on the TV guide too late for me to stay up and watch, I’d just set the timer on the VCR, and tell my parents that they were not allowed to watch any videos that night.  They would roll their eyes and I would sleep soundly with the knowledge that the latest episode of “Tales from the Darkside” was being recorded.  By the mid-90’s I rarely used the timer on the VCR anymore. One of the last times that I did was to record this movie I always heard come up in interviews from my favorite filmmakers at the time, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino always mention John Woo’s “The Killer” as inspiration.  When I watched it for the first time after recording a 1 AM showing of it on Showtime I also could think of no other word to describe it except as ‘inspiring’.

Chow Yun-fat (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) is Ah Jong a professional killer for hire who while on a routine job where he takes out almost a dozen guys in minutes and accidently blinds Jennie (Sally Yea) a nite-club singer who takes a muzzle blast to the front of her face.  He is compelled to watch over her and is introduced to her when he saves her from a couple of guys trying to attack her.  They start a relationship as he decides to take one last job to help pay for her eye surgery. This last job puts Jong in the crosshairs of his own employer and in the sights of relentless Inspector Li Ying (Danny Lee).  When Ying and Jong form a reluctant alliance it leads to one gunfight after another, leading the way to the final showdown in a church.

Even now this movie is awesome as an action movie, every shootout gets bigger and better all the way to the ultimate bullet-fest at the end.  I remember watching it years ago and wondering how a guy could shoot fifteen times out of a six-shooter, or how he could still be so accurate while jumping through the air shooting with a gun in each hand?  But that soon wore off as the action unfolded, with the cool slow motion shots, the crazy kills, to the signatures of John Woo, Mexican stand-offs and the pigeons, yes, the pigeons.  There are moments and shots in “The Killer” that you would see ripped-off for nearly a decade afterwards in American cinema.  The only thing that made me wince a few times was the dialogue, Woo was writing the script as they were shooting the film, and it shows.  And the performances are not stellar nor are some of the situations believable even in the world created here, but it’s easy to forgive when you get action on this kind of scale in return.    

The Blu-ray is as good as a transfer that there can be, it still looks like bad DVD, but nothing takes away from the film, it just places it firmly in a certain time.  You have to remember, in the states in ’89 we just started getting the Die Hard’s and the Lethal Weapon’s and even though those films started a formula that is still being used today, we had never seen anything like this.  It would take us years before we would see a movie as ultra-violent and filled with the ballet-like movements with deadly weapons that make you feel every hit like this one did.  There’s even the epic slo-mo “hero shot” as the cop and criminal walk side by side to face their destiny, guns in hand as a building burns behind them.  This is without a doubt one of the best action movies of all time.

--Robert L. Castillo