Opinions and Commentary on the World, On Screen and Off.
by Luke Goldstein
Stop! Before you mention all the damage we caused behind us, just know, we’re really sorry.
Rating: 10 out of 10
This is what we have been waiting for. The culmination of years of planning, years of filming and years of cross-pollination of characters throughout the Marvel movie universe. The bar was set unbelievably high and I did my best to temper my expectations as I walked into the theater along with the millions upon millions of moviegoers this opening weekend. When the lights dropped, I mentally wiped the slate clean and hoped beyond hope that it was good (at least better than Iron Man 2). As so many other people have said by now, I was more than pleased.
The Avengers follows the beginning of one of Marvel comics most powerful supergroups, as the world finds itself woefully unprepared for an alien onslaught led by the scorned demi-god, Loki. While the various heroes don’t play nicely together at first, they come together when the time comes and prove they are much more powerful together than apart. Together, they are unstoppable.
Many of the reviews have been focusing on Mark Ruffalo and his charismatic portrayal of Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk. Originally much of the focus was on him because he is now the third actor in as many films to play the legendary green behemoth. Yet after the release, the buzz stayed on him because he brought something to Hulk that was sorely lacking before, humanity. Arguably Ruffalo wasn’t on screen a ton and it’s hard to say whether we have been so amazed with his performance if it was ninety minutes or more, but since Marvel and company immediately signed him to a six-picture deal to continue being big, green and angry, we will all get our chance to test the theory out. I’ve always loved Ruffalo as an actor and I have all the faith in the world he can make this rage monster a dynamic character to watch, but the real gamble will come in the script. We’ve seen full movies with Eric Bana and Edward Norton already, so this next one (or two, or three) need to bring something different, not just a rehash of those before. Luckily, the Avengers phenomenon also allows the next Hulk picture to skip over the origin story, since it’s fairly unnecessary now.
While Ruffalo can rightly bask in the glow of a job exceedingly well done, the rest of the cast deserves praise as well. Everyone up and down the line brought their A-game and they played off each other incredibly well. Robert Downey Jr. can sometimes overshadow people on screen, just due to his charisma, but he did exactly what he said his character of Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, couldn’t do…play nicely with others. However, the pressure was really more on Jeremy Renner (as Hawkeye) and Scarlett Johansson (as Black Widow) since they were only side jobs in some of the previous Marvel chapters. Each did a great job, with extra credit given to Johannson (and possibly her fight double if she had one) for her intro sequence with the Russian mobsters.
I can’t close this review out without bringing up one of the real-life superheros of the story, writer/director Joss Whedon. The man is a living legend in the geek community and this film proves the accolades and unending praise are well-founded. He achieved a perfect balance of action, pace, and story all while managing to encompass the overabundance of characters. Jokes were well-timed and well-delivered and he allowed for possibly risky moments to go all out, resulting in one of the most hilarious and enjoyable scenes in Marvel movie history (you’ll know it when you see it).
Sure, there are some nit-picky moments that you can dig up if you’re so inclined. Feel free to send me what you think those might be and I’ll gladly drop in some of mine. Yet, in the end, the experience is what counts and I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I left (and not just because the final extra scene at the end of the final credits was pure genius). This movie captured absolutely every bit of the tone and energy of a comic book summer blockbuster and if Whedon was a professor, this would be his Master Class.
The End of the Page recommendation: The Avengers is everything you want it to be and more.
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Posted 1 week, 4 days ago at 8:15 am. Add a comment
by Luke Goldstein
Is it just me or are we on fire? We should probably do something about that.
Rating: 4 out of 10
There is something inherently wonderful about those movies that take themselves to a place of pure absurdity, somewhere so devoid of logic or reason that it allows them to drop any and all pretense of the story taking place in a realistic world. Without the shackles of rules and meaning to hold them down, these stories run wild, fully exploiting each and every moment for pure humor, action, machismo, sexuality, or pretty much any emotion under the sun. It’s silly, it’s meaningless and it can be absolutely necessary to any true movie fan’s collection. These campy, cult masterpieces are a true form of filmmaking, but this particular entry into that world doesn’t quite make the “must see” list.
Lockout is the futuristic tale of Agent Snow, an anti-hero pegged with a murder he didn’t commit. His only hope for good favor is to fly out into space, penetrate a floating maximum security prison and rescue the daughter of the President before she is turned into fresh meat for the space crazed psychopaths.
The idea for this outer space romp sprung from the mind of Luc Besson, known as a legend for Leon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita and The Fifth Element. He is also well loved in the action-camp world for bringing us the fast driving, feet flying magic of the Transporter series. So with a resume like that backing this up, there is a certain level of high-paced insanity you expect waiting behind the curtain. Yet what we get here is a transplanted homage to John Carpenter, another legend of camp cinema, and his masterpiece, Escape from New York. Even down to the performance of Guy Pearce (as Agent Snow) it harkens immediately back to Kurt Russell and his iconic turn as Snake Plissken. That is not to necessarily say it was bad solely because of Pierce, just that it didn’t inspire any surprise or intrigue during the movie.
Pierce defiantly gives it his all as the gruff, chain smoking, joke tossing anti-hero, but try as he might to elevate this into the cult upper echelon, the rest of the movie just settles into a straight-to-DVD experience. Although, I will give a special mention to Joseph Gilgun, who played the maniacally unstable Hydell, the crazed little brother of the leader of the inmates. He really got down into the insanity and playful craziness that infused all of his scenes with a chuckle and a shudder.
The End of the Page Recommendation: Lockout has its fun moments, but it never fully traverses that line into campy , thereby leaving it only as bad.
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Posted 3 weeks, 1 day ago at 9:10 am. Add a comment
by Luke Goldstein
So I was supposed to light that on fire, right? Is someone really mad at me now?
Rating: 6 out of 10
Out with the old (Potter and those shiny vampires), in with the new! The Hunger Games is the next in line of young adult adaptations steamrolling their way into the theaters, to the extreme delight and disappointment of fans of the books.
The arguments are eternal: Did it really capture the tone of the book? Did they get all the details right? Did that character actually look like that?
On and on they go, but really, the only question that should be asked is, did they make a good movie? In order to get that answer, let’s move right ahead into the review and see what made it onto the big screen.
The Hunger Games is a dystopian tale of twelve outlying districts that must sacrifice one young boy and one young girl up to their capital every year to participate in a televised battle to the death. Katniss Everdeen volunteers herself in place of her younger sister and we follow her into battle, not only over the other “tributes”, but also over the deadly pitfalls in the arena and the bloodthirsty nature of a society that allows these games to continue.
First off, this movie clocked in at just under two and a half hours, which is incredibly long for a teen flick. Even Harry Potter didn’t dare create such a marathon until well into the franchise where they knew fans would eat up every minute of it. Also highlighting the length was the incredibly slow pacing. The experience was oddly reminiscent of seeing The Da Vinci Code, where the original book was an eye-popping page turner, but the on-screen rendition seemed to suck all the life out of it. The Hunger Games didn’t quite starve itself into a cinematic coma, but there certainly was a momentum and energy missing in the translation.
As for the actors, Jennifer Lawrence was the prodigal choice and really brought much of that angst, conflict and fire-in-the-belly attitude Katniss needed to have. Josh Hutcherson also displayed a great deal of the heartfelt charm and inner strength that made Peeta such an easy character to root for in the books. Wes Bentley also gets a special mention for pulling off the expertly choreographed beard, but I missed a touch of the creepiness I expected from the Head Gamekeeper. Beyond that, everyone I felt did what they needed to do, but there weren’t any stand out performances.
The story was there, the pages played out on-screen almost right off the page, but it felt like they tried too hard to capture everything from the book, making it overly long, yet dropped particular sections that would have better served the overall experience. In that regard, without going into too much detail, I’ll point to the mutts and how disappointing that entire sequence was. The whole point of who and what they were was lost, making them nothing more than aggressive bulldogs.
Now there have been reviews buzzing around all weekend about this movie, so this will likely get swept away in the digital wind of the internet, but I must say this in closing. To those people who were upset because Rue and Thresh were cast as African-Americans, while Suzanne Collins didn’t feel the need to spend a whole lot of time and energy repeatedly describing the races of her characters, those two were in fact written as “dark skinned”, so the casting was not “politically correct”, just correct. Secondly, to those people who went the step further to say that you felt less when they died because of that casting, yep, you guessed it, you’re racist.
The End of the Page recommendation: The Hunger Games will undoubtedly make tons of money and launch the franchise with strength, but I was hoping for more. Hopefully, the franchise will get better as it goes along, as the Harry Potter series did.
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Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago at 9:32 am. 1 comment
by Luke Goldstein
You’re right. You could never pull off this tux.
Rating: 8 out of 10
I was there. I remember the moment when this project got announced and I felt the familiar tearing of a piece of my childhood ripped violently from my past and stomped on the ground in front of me. We’ve been trained by a culture of recycled and rehashed content, making what was once hilarious into something kitschy and embarrassing, turning us into shell-shocked survivors of our own cherished memories. So to say the bar was set low for this would be an understatement of epic proportions, but that’s where the creators get their edge, because there is nowhere to go but up. And they did.
21 Jump Street follows two former high school enemies who become best friends while training together in the police academy. They find themselves busted down into an undercover program specializing in investigating high schools. Assigned to root out the supply chain of a dangerous new synthetic drug, the two partners try to balance doing their job against the opportunity to re-live high school, for better or for worse.
One of the best things about moving something from the TV to the big screen (which may be one of the only things) is it can open up the latitudes of what those characters can say, do and get away with. How many times did you wish one of our 80s sitcom heroes would just drop that bad guy off the roof, saying “Seriously, that guy deserved it.” 21 Jump Street recognizes that freedom and relishes it from beginning to end without making the classic mistake of overdoing it. They remembered the simple fact that there was a story still needing to be told in order to bring it all together. It’s a delicate balancing act; expanding on the original TV concept, catering to the die-hard fans and making it enjoyable for the newcomers. The people at the helm were able to achieve it with apparent ease, but what may surprise some people is just who those people are: Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.
Beyond starring in the film, and reportedly becoming best friends off-screen in the process, Hill and Tatum are listed as Executive Producers on the film. While that title holds many different meanings in Hollywood, from complete controlling interest in a project to just some guy with a checkbook who never even steps on the set, the fact that Hill and Tatum are listed I believe showed a surprising dedication to the project not common to the actors of their generation. Hill is also credited as co-writer of the story, which as I mentioned before, is an integral part of what made this remake a success. The balance between buddy comedy, coming-of-age, action and tempered sex comedy brought so many flavors to the table it was nearly impossible to walk out and say nothing on-screen actually made you laugh.
The cast choices were also spot on with current comedic favorites like Rob Riggle, Ellie Kemper and Nick Offerman. This trio shaped and smoothed out the comedic arcs when the main characters had to focus on actually moving the story along. Then comes two of the best cameos of all time: Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise, original cast members from the TV show. They bridged the gap between history and present day in an incredibly hilarious scene, which can only be seen to be fully appreciated. Not to be left out, fellow original cast members Holly Robinson Peete had a walk on in an early motor pool scene and Dustin Nguyen is actually on a TV in the background later in the film.
Recommendation: 21 Jump Street is a brilliant modern-day take off of the 80s TV show, finding the laughs in every possible way.
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Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago at 9:07 am. Add a comment
It’s that time of year again where everyone develops sore hands and sore wrists from typing all these categories and names we’ve never heard of, but to be a true movie junkie, you must follow protocol and deliver to the masses your thoughts on the annual nominations for our golden friend, Oscar.
[The movies marked with a "*" means I have actually seen it. Do not expect to see that much in the Doc Short Subject area, those are usually a crapshoot]
Best Picture:
The Artist
The Descendants (*)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (*)
The Help (*)
Hugo (*)
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball (*)
The Tree of Life (*)
War Horse
Still no real clue on how the Academy makes its Best Picture nominations and why there is a fluctuating number, but I have some strong feelings about this years list. First off, Drive should absolutely be there and Tree of Life should absolutely not. Drive was a mastery of silence and tension, while Tree of Life caused groups of movie-goers to walk out wondering if what they saw could even be classified as a film. Sure enough, these are polar opposites in terms of filmmaking and should normally not be compared to each other at all, but in terms of being on this list, that’s where my main beef is. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close also really shouldn’t rank here with the superb fare of Moneyball, The Descendants and Hugo (which personally I think also just scrapes itself onto the list). The big money is on The Artist to win, but without seeing it, I can’t really agree or disagree on that yet.
Actor in a Leading Role
Demian Bichir – A Better Life
George Clooney – The Descendants (*)
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (*)
Brad Pitt – Moneyball (*)
I think this is Clooney’s year. He gave an incredibly subtle performance, showing incredible control over internal struggle and pain versus his usual playful charm. Pitt was great in Moneyball, but his best bud will likely edge him out. Oldman definitely deserves the nomination, but the movie isn’t really great enough to support him taking the win, especially over Clooney. Dujardin took the SAG award and the Globe, but the The Artist was in another category at the Globes and he might get edged out here.
Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn
Jonah Hill – Moneyball (*)
Nick Nolte – Warrior
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Max Von Sydow – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (*)
The word on the street says this is Plummer’s to lose. Between the two performances I have seen, Sydow would get my vote over Hill. I am proud of Hill for moving his comedy career into the dramatic circle and give him amazing credit for wanting to prove himself. It can be an arduous transition and you end up doing double the work just to gain people’s acceptance. Yet, Sydow was the best part of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (all without actually saying one word), making the film just above bearable.
Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis – The Help (*)
Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn
Viola Davis has been cleaning up the awards for her turn in The Help, but Streep and Close have also received tons of acclaim. I still put my money on Davis to close out the season, but either of her legendary competitors could pull the upset.
Actress in a Supporting Role
Berenice Bejo – The Artist
Jessica Chastain – The Help (*)
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids (*)
Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer – The Help (*)
McCarthy did get a Golden Globe for her hilarious role in the raunchy girl comedy, but The Help is dominating across the acting landscape and this could fall that way as well. Look for Spencer over Chastain.
Animated Feature Film
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots (*)
Rango (*)
Don’t really know too much about the first two in the category, but I think the real fight is between the two I actually got to see. Rango is a step forward in animated filmmaking because it was actually shot and treated as if it was a live-action drama that just happened to star a talking lizard. Puss in Boots on the other hand, proved it was more than just a spin-off from the Shrek franchise and provided a heartwarming and quite funny experience that could just slip into the winner’s circle on the big night.
Art Direction
The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (*)
Hugo (*)
Midnight in Paris
War Horse
While Hugo got nominated for the most awards this year, this is where I think it will actually begin to take some of them home. The train station set was incredible down to the last detail and look to Hugo to bring home a handful of statues due to the beautiful visuals. As a possible other option, The Artist (the next highest nominated) could also begin to flex its voting muscle here.
Cinematography
The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo (*)
The Tree of Life (*)
War Horse
Here is the only place The Tree of Life should be mentioned. As a film, I really didn’t find it effective in the least, but in terms of pure visuals and expertise in cinematography, it was impressive. I’m not sure it will be enough to win, especially with Hugo and The Artist taking the spotlight, but here and only here could the tree bloom.
Costume Design
Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo (*)
Jane Eyre
W.E.
People love to lean towards the Shakespearean and Victorian flicks in this category, but it actually could go pretty much anywhere. I would give Hugo and The Artist a nudge based on pure momentum, but this will be one of those categories that determines who really wins your Oscar pool this year.
Directing
Michael Hazanavicius – The Artist
Alexander Payne – The Descendants (*)
Martin Scorsese – Hugo (*)
Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life (*)
Anyone but Malick! Seriously though, he has no shot in this year with Payne doing quite well with The Descendants and Scorsese already taking home the Golden Globe for Hugo. This also could be the place where we see how The Artist actually matches up when not split off into the Musical/Comedy category. It’s nice to see Allen still creating acclaim for himself, but we will have to wait until another time to hear what would likely be an amazingly odd acceptance speech.
Documentary Feature
Hell and Back Again
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Undefeated
I’ve heard a lot of buzz around Pina for some amazing visuals, but no real clue here if it enough to overpower the entire category.
Documentary Short Subject
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
God is the Bigger Elvis
Incident in New Baghdad
Saving Face
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
I want to give it to God is the Bigger Elvis just because it is a great title, but a doc about the tsunami could garner a lot of votes from the heart.
Film Editing
The Artist
The Descendants (*)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo (*)
Moneyball (*)
I really need to see Tattoo because something in my gut tells me the editing was amazing here, but in terms of the three I have seen, Moneyball gets my support for being able to pace and balance a fairly dull topic and sculpt it into a tension-laced experience.
Foreign Language Film
Bullhead
Footnote
In Darkness
Monsieur Lazhar
A Separation
Lots of good buzz around A Separation, especially after its Golden Globe win for Best Foreign Film. Strong likelihood it will continue along the golden path to Oscar.
Makeup
Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (*)
The Iron Lady
What’s more impressive, turning Streep into Margaret Thatcher, removing Ralph Fiennes nose or convincing at least half the public that Glenn Close actually was a man? I’ll go for Albert Nobbs to take this home.
Music – Original Score
The Adventures of Tintin
The Artist
Hugo (*)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (*)
War Horse
Since The Artist is basically all music, you might think this is a shoe-in, but never count out well-known industry names like John Williams (Tintin & War Horse) and Howard Shore (Hugo).
Music – Original Song
“Man or Muppet” – The Muppets (*)
“Real in Rio” – Rio
Not really sure how this category shrunk to only two songs this year, which in itself is a shame, but the highlight is the nomination of “Man or Muppet”, a pure genius chuckle-worthy song from Flight of the Conchords alum, Bret McKenzie.
Short Film – Animated
Dimanche/Sunday (*)
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (*)
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life (*)
I have been able to find some of these online for viewing and out of those I would definitely cast my vote for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (awesome title, by the way). It’s an amazingly adorable tale of a man and his passion for books, something to which I am very much akin to. There is always stiff competition when Pixar is involved (they made La Luna), but I’m pulling for the flying books to swoop down and take the gold here.
Short Film – Live Action
Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic
Not a clue here. Time Freak sounds neat. That’s all I got.
Sound Editing
Drive (*)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo (*)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (*)
War Horse
I actually think this might lean towards Tattoo, but the sound was such a beautiful part of the mix in what made Drive so memorable. I also hold a small candle for the hope someone from that movie will accept the award wearing that amazing dragon jacket.
Sound Mixing
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo (*)
Moneyball (*)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (*)
War Horse
Again, Tattoo, maybe because even the trailer had intense sound elements. Transformers could also pull this out, but then we have to walk award saying, “the Academy Award winning film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon” which just plain hurts my ears.
Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (*)
Hugo (*)
Real Steel (*)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (*)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (*)
This is the first category where I have actually seen everything listed, so yay for me! Glad to see Real Steel got in here, because that was an incredibly under-appreciated film. Yet, while that was a fun ride, I would have to say this is a battle between Apes and Potter. Transformers was visually impressive, as always for that franchise, but Potter could win based on the franchise vote here, while Apes might get votes from all those people who feel Andy Serkis should’ve gotten an acting nod. Either way, I’ll likely be happy with the winner.
Writing – Adapted Screenplay
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash – The Descendants (*)
John Logan – Hugo (*)
George Clooney, Grant Heslov & Beau Willimon – The Ides of March (*)
Steven Zallian & Aaron Sorkin – Moneyball (*)
Bridget O’ Connor & Peter Straughan – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (*)
Another fully filled out category! Here I have much more of an opinion on the outcome. I’m a Sorkin acolyte, so I would love to see him win. Moneyball was tight, crisp and paced perfectly for a story about something so dull, so huge props to that team. The Descendants is my next choice because it was penned with such incredble subtlety and given an amazing ability to breathe. Hugo was great, but really felt like two movies instead of one, so I’m inclined not to see it walk away with this one. The other two were enjoyable, but sadly petered out at the end of the story.
Writing – Original Screenplay
Michael Hazanavicius – The Artist
Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig – Bridesmaids (*)
J.C. Chandor – Margin Call
Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris
Asghar Farhadi – A Separation
Rounding out the list, sadly I have only seen one of these. There is a ton of buzz around The Artist and it could be the big winner overall tonight, but this could be where we get the amazingly awkward acceptance speech from Allen. For the comedy industry as a whole it would be amazing to see Bridesmaids pull it out, but I am not sure the Academy voters are ready for that yet. Maybe next time.
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Posted 3 months, 1 week ago at 9:07 am. Add a comment
by Luke Goldstein
“How can tomorrow ever come when today never ends.”
Rating: 8 out of 10
There are experiences that can never be truly traded away or passed along, no matter how hard we try. The amazement and beauty of childbirth, the crushing sorrow of losing a parent, or even the serenity of knowing a job is well done. Try as we might, these things exist inside us and everyone else will only feel a sliver of what it is like through how we describe it. One of the most profound and life altering experiences is war and no one is affected by it more than those on the front lines. There is always training, there is always a new method to try to prepare, but no one comes back from war the way they went in. Our country is now in the midst of welcoming home thousands upon thousands of soldiers from the fighting in Middle East and those brave warriors face not only the struggles of reintegrating into society (and finding a job), but figuring out rote answers to that all too common question, “What was it like?” Those can be extremely hard conversations to have, but this film documents a program trying to help those soldier find a path to communication.
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience is an essay/memoir writing program that teaches soldiers how to use creative and journal style writing to get their thoughts and experiences cohesively onto paper. These tales of horror, fright, bravery and solitude pull the curtains away from the glorified image of war and patriotism, humanizing the soldiers.
The film brings together not only some of the authors of the essays, but also fellow writers, professionals in telling stories, who happen to also have personal experiences with wartime and being soldiers themselves. Together they weave a painfully accurate and unflinching tapestry of what wartime is really like, not painted in the bright red, white and blue of the flag, but doused in the blackest of night and dripping with the deep red of dead enemies, comrades and innocents. Some of them show the confusion suffered at the other end of a motor attack, while others detail the adrenaline rush of being ambushed and making the split second decisions on whether the person your sights is a combatant or a bystander, and does it even matter.
One by one, you hear about the deconstruction of the basic human belief to protect life as it rages against the programmed need to defend your country, your fellow soldiers and yourself. The documentary does not play itself out as a case for pacifism by any means, but there lingers a certain belief when the screen finally goes black that philosophers have intoned for years: in war, there is no winner.
Politics and beliefs aside, the real effort and success of this is the program itself and how it helps those soldiers returning from a living hell on earth, find their way back into a society that will never be completely theirs. It allows them to find a method of communication, almost a new way of speaking to the uninitiated about the nightmares they have lived through and continue to struggle with. More and more soldiers are coming back with PTSD and a variety of psychological issues, leading to drinking, drugs and a silently suffering uptick in post-return suicides. This program is certainly not the only weapon needed in the fight for the mental health of our returning warriors, but every effort counts and they’re are worth it.
The End of the Page recommendation: Operation Homecoming is an incredibly clear picture of the true life and times of our soldiers, including the issues they face returning to civilian life.
You can also watch replays of this on the Documentary Channel on 2/25 (8pm & 11pm EST) or go ahead and stream it here.
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Posted 3 months, 1 week ago at 10:08 am. Add a comment
image from upcoming-movies.com
by Luke Goldstein
The choice she is referring to in the poster is her hair accessories. She might have overreacted a little bit.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Once a mold is created for a certain genre of film, it can be hard to make anything to rattle the cages again. Anything stepping past that invisible line is referred to as “not really a horror movie” (even though it is), “not quite a sci-fi film” (except that it was), or “a film that defies genre” (which likely means it is just a good film firing on all cylinders). The challenge here is how we as an audience react to a film that dares to peek outside our tiny genre box; every so often we need to just stretch our fingers over the lip of the box to feel for something more. In Haywire, we get our newest example of stretching those boundaries to see what happens when you try to film something “more than just an action movie.”
Haywire is the tension-filled tale of Mallory, a soldier for hire under a private contractor. She is sent on an assignment that goes south fast. Dodging enemies and former colleagues from all sides, she has to find out who burned her and why.
The first thing pulling Haywire out of the box is its director, Steven Soderbergh. Well known for his award-winning films, Traffic and Erin Brokovich, he also found huge success with his rat pack team of A-list actors in the Oceans series. With the dollars he made in the big budget world, he also found time to keep his imagination on its toes with experimental films like Bubble and The Girlfriend Experience. In that last film, Soderbergh tried out a formula, which he continued in Haywire, filling your lead role with someone outside the acting world, someone who actually lives much closer to the part in real life. In Girlfriend, he hired porn star Sasha Grey as the emotionally complicated high-priced escort. In Haywire, he filled the role of ex-marine Mallory with MMA fighter Gina Carano. Obviously this tactic does not always work (just look at 99% of the movies WWE Studios puts out), but when you have an eye for quality and depth like Soderbergh’s, your rate of success is bound to be higher.
Carano is straight street toughness all the way from the first moment we see her on screen to the final intense stare in her eyes. Her real life fighting abilities helped Soderbergh craft a much deeper sense of realism in the action movie violence. No double twisting backflip kicks, no catching swinging sword blade between the palms of your hands, just straight up hand-to-hand, gun-toting reality. He even pulled down the sound effects that we are used to with muted gunshots and thick sounding punches. All of those choices brought together helped you look at the action on screen and say, “Yep, she could totally do that (and likely kick my ass to boot).” He also surrounded her with talented help, like Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton and the recently unstoppable Michael Fassbender (seriously, how many movies has this guy had waiting to come out at the same time?). Even Channing Tatum comes in to give her a reasonable love interest for a moment, a guy who might be able to go toe-to-toe with her in a fight.
While the movie succeeds in the action and tension department, it also falls a little flat in an area not uncommon to Soderbergh films: it just stops. The story plays nicely with the subtlety of the situation Carano finds herself in, but takes so much time showing all the intricacies that it fails to feel completely wrapped up when it goes to black. Making it even worse is the movie clocks in around ninety minutes, meaning there really was plenty of time to give this a more well-rounded ending.
The End of the Page recommendation: Haywire is a fun, smart action film starring a hero not for us to believe in, but to believe actually exists.
Posted 3 months, 4 weeks ago at 12:20 pm. Add a comment
by Luke Goldstein
Rating: 9 out of 10
Watching the daily news each day, you could easily believe we live in a time increasingly overwhelmed by fear and hatred. We could easily slip into depression over the current direction of our governments, our politics and our people and a downward spiral would only lead us into more fear and more hatred.
For as long as there has been good, there has been bad. One cannot exist without the other, but that doesn’t mean we cannot explore their definitions and what makes them tick. The more we understand about the two sides of the coin, the more we can help to influence which side is facing up when we look down upon our world.
The Anatomy of Hate: A Dialogue to Hope is an impressive and sometimes unforgiving documentary by Mike Ramsdell. He takes a balanced and unbiased look at where hate springs forth and what spurs it onward. Bravely walking into virtual lion’s nests of right-wing fanatics, religious zealots and culture warriors, Ramsdell allows the viewer into the living room of “the enemy” (who might only be labeled as such because they feel the same about everyone else).
What sets this film apart from the array of past hate group documentaries is it makes a gallant attempt to get underneath the heated rhetoric and display some of the reasoning behind it. In some cases, such as the white supremacy groups, the reasoning is as flawed as you might imagine, but The Anatomy of Hate gives us a glimpse on how those cycles of hatred spin out of control in the tightly knit echo chambers of small communities. In the section detailing the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, the same logic applies since the congregation mainly consists of one single family.
The movie truly finds it legs in the section regarding the Israel/Palestine conflict that has been raging for years. In interwoven interviews, Ramsdell talks to a woman who lost her son and husband to Palestinian attacks in a very short period and then to young boys on the other side of the wall who believe the Israelis only goal is to wipe them off the planet. It becomes an unending spiral of “who killed who first” with repetitive and deadly repercussions.
Ramsdell also grounds these stories with interviews with various sociology and psychology professionals, who try to unravel the underpinnings to why these rivalries began and what keeps them fueled. One of the more poignant theories is that each of these groups, and many others, share a common fear of the loss of culture. Once we doomed ourselves by understanding our own mortality, we quickly created social contracts to ensure what we created won’t disappear when we die. These groups live under a persistent panic that their culture will be wiped away into the annals of history if not immediately secured away from everyone else through secession or killing off those who challenge it.
This was a valid fear many years ago, but the world has moved on since then, yet these collected pockets hold themselves back like road bumps to evolution. They see the coming interconnected nature of the world population not as a bonus to understanding, but as a muddying of the waters from which they sprang.
The Anatomy of Hate ends on a positive note, focusing on stories of hope and change. Some of these include the very same culture warriors from earlier on, who once calmly spoke of destroying the enemy and the beauty of martyrdom, who now calmly preach dialogue as the true path forward to peace. These beautiful and necessary moments help end the film on a note of hope, a breath of clean air in polluted world of hate.
The End of the Page recommendation: The Anatomy of Hate – A Dialogue of Hope is a poignant and thoughtful portrait of what lies underneath the heated rhetoric of hate. Sad and painful to watch at moments, the last chapter brings it together and creates huge value from the whole.
This film recently played on the Documentary Channel. Check with your cable provider to see if you are a subscriber.
Here are scheduled future airdates (all times Eastern):
Sat, Jan 28, 2012 6:00 PM
Thu, Feb 16, 2012 4:00 AM
Thu, Mar 1, 2012 9:00 PM
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago at 9:13 am. Add a comment
Seriously, how hard is to not make a Scientology joke here.
Rating: 9 out of 10
There are moments when a new franchise trailer premieres in the theater and you can feel the audience sink in their seats, silently ashamed they are even being exposed to it. That is when you know the franchise has pitched into a nosedive, frantically attempting to make major and mostly useless changes to the equation in hopes of restarting it (and its profits). I remember feeling that way when Mission Impossible III rolled out. I went in predicting it would be bad, hoping only for some popcorn entertainment, but was denied even that small request. When Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol peeked around the bend,I had my doubts, but (as always) I gave it a shot. Dear readers, this is why I always take the chance, because it just might be everything it is cracked up to be.
I took a deep breath when I sat down for this one and rechristened my hope for some mindless action and big explosions. What I got was even better.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol picks up our master spy leader, Ethan Hunt, in a Russian prison for an unknown crime. He is extracted by the IMF to once again lead a team of agents into near certain doom as a crazed Russian patriot is trying to get his hands on nuclear launch codes to bring about Armageddon and the next phase of evolution. The chase leads the team across the globe, from the desert paradise of Dubai to the colorful opulence of India. From one step to the next, the action never ceases as the seconds tick down on the fate of the world.
The top of the bill talent alone is a who’s who list of grand slam Hollywood talent. Directed by Brad Bird, this Pixar native is bringing nothing but gold with The Incredibles and Ratatouille already under his belt. Produced in partnership with J.J. Abrams, who actually directed the unfortunate third chapter of this franchise, has hit a major stride while directing Star Trek and Super 8 and acting as Executive Producer for a slew of hit TV shows dominating the airwaves right now (Fringe, Person of Interest, and the upcoming Alcatraz).
In front of the camera, we witness the resurgence of the living legend, Tom Cruise. After a score of years where his personal life completely overwhelmed his on-screen persona, Cruise erupts back on the screen with the fierce intensity the audience has missed for so long. Coming on the heels of some rather underwhelming performances (Knight and Day, Valkyrie), Cruise slides back into the comfortable spy shoes of Hunt like he had never left at all. From the high-kicking fight sequences to the awe-inspiring stunts, Cruise does it all with such enthusiasm you might come to believe the man is made out of pure adrenaline. For Ghost Protocol, Cruise’s intensity and commitment truly lead this cast in the direction of success.
Riding high on the wake Cruise leaves behind, the rest of the cast keeps the momentum going. Jeremy Renner, continuing a meteoric rise to fame after his Oscar nominated turn in The Hurt Locker, gives the crowd a little taste of what we will see in the new Bourne movie (which he took the reins over from Matt Damon). Renner holds onto a lot of that emotional depth we saw in Hurt Locker, but also kick ass in the fashion we have come to expect in the big budget blockbusters. Simon Pegg brings the hilarity, showing once again his subtle style and dry wit, perfectly fitting into the silent moments between explosions and catchphrases. Pegg also got a little extra training for this when he worked under the guidance of Abrams in the recent Star Trek reboot. Rounding out the super spy team is the one real newcomer, Paula Patton, who simmers in virtually every scene she inhabits. Her performance in incredibly layered, something we are not entirely used to in the normally flat eye-candy action roles for women.
From the opening moments to the final fade, Ghost Protocol brings back the action movie genre to what it once was and reinvigorates a sliding franchise. This chapter has the style and intelligence of the original Mission Impossible, while still giving us something bigger and more exciting. So a final kudos must be given to the writers, Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec, who created a story that held together even under the pressure of stunt sequences which exceeded the ridiculous.
The End of the Page recommendation: Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol brings the franchise back to its former glory. An action movie worth the ticket price.
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago at 11:14 am. Add a comment
by Luke Goldstein
See that guy behind me? I can get a shot through the hat and part his hair to the left, without looking.
Rating: 6 out of 10
I couldn’t wait for the weekend to begin because I knew I was going to hit up a popcorn, blockbuster double-header in the theater, Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, a back-to-back pairing almost unmatched this year. Two incredibly big budget franchises with two incredibly charismatic leading men. These are the box office battles I just live for. Since the weekend numbers have already come in, we’ve seen Sherlock Holmes dominate the weekend ($40 million vs. $13 million for Mission Impossible), so the honor of first review goes to them.
Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows picks up fairly close to where the last one left off. Watson is getting married and Holmes is closing in on his arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty. The two masterminds face off against each other in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse which threatens not only the life of our quixotic hero, but his best friend and possibly the entire world beyond.
It’s likely been said before, and as much as I hate repetition I’ll forego it this one time, Robert Downey Jr. was born for this role. Obviously the historical version of Holmes was tweaked and crafted around Downey’s skills and persona, but the magical merge between the real person and the literary classic created something perfect which will be cherished by viewers for generations to come. All future attempts at playing Holmes, which I am sure there will be someday, will be weighed against Downey, a bar now set incredibly high. His charm, wit and energy flow through the scenes effortlessly, keeping the audience in tow no matter what is going on. He also lets his co-stars, like Jude Law (as Dr. Watson) and Jared Harris (as Prof. Moriarty) own the moment equally, not overshadowing their own crisp deliveries and subtle mannerisms. From back-to-front, the performances throughout were playful, charming and more than enough to please any afternoon crowd.
So if everyone was so great in it, why is the rating so low? That is a fantastic question.
The downfall here is the script. If you are going to create a story for the world’s most renowned investigator, you need to plunge the imagination of the audience into a world of multiple storylines, interconnecting webs of deceit and subterfuge, something only Holmes could solve. The first film had this, but Game of Shadows rolls out a plot all too plain for such a complicated enemy like Moriarty. There seemed to be an effort to cover that up by actually showing a room full of interconnecting threads built by Holmes, to demonstrate how complicated this all really was, but that felt a cheap way out for writing a more complex story. Moriarty is the epitome of villains, the mental match for Sherlock Holmes, and in the end he just turns out to be greedy, a motive far below the weight of his character.
Guy Ritchie, the returning director, held up his side of the bargain, but didn’t push anything forward in terms of the style and execution. We got more slam-to-slow-motion shots and a couple good moments of Holmes playing out the oncoming violence in his head in order to predict the exact counter maneuvers. I will give both Ritchie and the screenwriters credit through for the final scene between Holmes and Moriarty, which I won’t go into detail about, but it was a nice twist on a familiar theme in this franchise.
The End of the Page Recommendation: Sherlock Holmes – Game of Shadows brings the familiar fun of the first film, but fails to bring the complexity due such highly intelligent characters.
Posted 5 months ago at 10:22 am. Add a comment
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