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IN
THEATERS
 Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 
The
realm of spectacle and sorcery at the heart of “Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is not the gentle
and capricious place that moviegoers were enticed into admiring
when this series first came to the cinema six years ago. Gone
are the good-hearted and harmless touches of children’s
fantasy, their light-weight and colorful textures replaced
by shadows, dank exteriors, menace and threat, and an occasional
blood splatter thrown in to emphasize the notion of evil being
actively at work in the fabric of the story. We have always
anticipated the world of Potter and his magical friends to
get darker and more solemn, not just because the premise conflicts
require it to, but also because it is of the nature of kids
to look at their settings in more serious a light when childhood
daydreaming is replaced by the reality of adolescence.
Posted
July 15, 2007 |
ON
DVD
 Children
of Men
Alfonso
Cuarón’s “Children of Men” is the
anti-thesis of the modern Hollywood movie dystopia, an endeavor
in which the vision of a condemned human civilization contains
no gloss, depends on nothing proverbial, and insists on taking
paths so seldom traveled that we often wonder if it knows
just how dangerous or challenging the unpaved roads can be.
Its greatest safety net may lie in the fact that the director
has never been of the traditional flavor anyway – sly
and unusual, Cuarón knows it takes a fully analytical
slant for the material to work, and he doesn’t bat an
eyelash. The very soul of the film scoffs at the prospect
of being conventional or formulaic.
Posted
July 9, 2007 |
IN
THEATERS
 28
Weeks Later
The zombie movie is a silly but stimulating
beast, a popular sub-genre in horror that has survived, evolved
and outlasted many of its counterparts for as long as movies
of this nature have been popular on the big screen. Those who
acknowledge it as such would also be more than happy to stress
the fact that the cinematic
undead developed a lot more potential after they were discovered
by George A. Romero, the director who, in 1968, took a nearly
childish premise and used it as a platform for things no one
would have ever expected of the material: that is, thought-provoking
(and relevant) social and political commentary.
Posted July 1, 2007 |
IN
THEATERS
 Pirates
of the Caribbean: At World's End 
There
is a scene early on in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At
World’s End” when Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny
Depp) finds himself barking orders at a crew of insubordinate
misfits that, for the lack of a better word, are also physical
replicas of himself. Because he is the isolated subject of
this multi-faceted sequence in which one Sparrow argues with
hundreds of others, we half expect Depp to be liberated enough
by the groundwork to be able to leap at the material with
zeal and spirit. But the enthusiasm never emerges from his
work; nor, for that matter, does anything resembling general
interest or patience.
Posted July 1, 2007 |
ON
DVD
 The
Fountain 
The
director who undertakes ventures that are about more than
conventional entertainment value is the director who goes
on to make a movie like “The Fountain,” in which
message and concept are bound by touches of experiment in
a way that lends great potential to the way a story can move,
excite and intrigue us on more than just a surface level.
The very existence of the movie is a refreshing notion, a
manner made all the more exhilarating by the sheer gustiness
of its thrust, and its ability to turn its own nose up at
the idea of attracting a crowd interested only in traditional
thrills.
Posted
July 1, 2007 |
ON
DVD
 Hannibal
Rising
If
not for the fact that “Hannibal Rising” acquires
a performance of great intensity and determination from newcomer
Gaspard Ulliel in the title role, its only relevance would be
as a topic of discussion in college film classes where the day’s
lesson is about being conceited and overzealous with a screenplay.
The movie is a mess of monstrous proportions, labored by all
estimations from the narrative perspective, and driven by a
certain smugness that demands the movie’s viewers to blindly
accept any and all plot devices it throws at them, no matter
how obvious and convenient they may be. To call the film obvious
and manipulative in its conviction would not accurately sum
up its most specific dilemmas, either; the screenplay displays
such a lack of skill to its subject that it entirely skirts
important issues, submitting to explanations that sidestep detail
in favor of locating the most simplistic and expedient answers
possible for the material. Hindsight, it turns out, is bad news
when you’re a cannibal trapped in a Hollywood script.
Posted July 1, 2007 |
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