The Return of What Film Have You Watched Recently

[Global Honored]

Senna
Last night I saw this documentary on Ayrton Senna, the Formula One star who died in a racing accident in '94, still well in his prime. The 3 Time World Champion was recently voted "Greatest F1 Driver of All Time" by his peers, over Scumacher even.
It has an amazing collection of footage, both from personal collections, his driving career and other media as he was a megastar in his home country of Brazil, a champion to the people. Tis doc won some awards and rightly so, the footage is simply phenomenal and the story seems fresh and as if it was happening right before my eyes, not back in the 80s and 90s. Senna's rivalry with Alain Prost and battles with racing politics is featured and incredibly interesting. I would recommend this to racing and non-racing fans alike as it is a human story as much as it is a sporting one. I am only an occassional race fan myself and this really impressed me. Now I need to go pick up the DVD. Check out Senna.

Lincoln Lawyer
Solid legal thriller with Matthew McConaughey turning in a superb performance. A lot of twists and turns and strong supporting cast including William H Macy, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillipe, Bryan Cranston and Josh Lucas. Pleasantly surprised.

[LtMarvel]

Last weekend was the True/False Film Festival:

Comic-Con IV: A New Hope

A love note to the Comic Con International. The cameras follow two want to be artists (one who is from Columbia, MO--home of T/F!), an expert costume maker, the head of Mile High Comics, a toy collector, a couple who met at CCI, and some guy named Stan Lee. The director doesn't put himself in any frame. The film is slickly produced, however. Great score, great sound effects, etc.

In the Q&A after the film, Spurlock stated he'd love to do a movie of his favorite super-hero, Plastic Man, although he has no idea who to cast in the lead. Spurlock admitted to falling asleep in the Green Lantern film, although he had no trouble following the plot despite missing the middle half of the film. Spurlock is fully into the new electronic comic books, noting he's reading more comics on his iPad than he has ever before in his life. Spurlock loved the huge T/F crowds, as well as the band who entertained before the showing, Pearl and the Beard.

[LtMarvel]

Bully

(True/False Film Festival)

This documentary follows several middle school/junior high kids for a school year as they are bullied. It also follows families who are dealing with the aftermath of the worst scenario possible: their bullied kids decided on suicide. Although the cameras are only allowed inside one of the schools of the students the doc follows, you feel that you get the full story. By Mothers' Day, the filmmakers decide that one of the victims was in danger and actually shares footage with parents and school officials (interference is a big no-no for doc makers). One victim is chosen to be bullied because she's gay. We hear her story, but only see her with her very small circle of friends. This is a troubling, well-told film.

This film has a complete anti-bully curriculum built around it. Just days before this screening, the film was denied an appeal of it's 'R' rating. So I watched the film with an eye for the objectionable material. Quite frankly, it is just not there. There are offensive words, but they are far and few between (and spelled to a principal or parent half the time). Green Hornet (PG-13) had worse language and violence. In the Q&A, it was revealed that the film lost the appeal by one vote.

If you are interested, the Q&A revealed spoilers:

that every one of the victims felt the need to move to a new school district

end of spoilers.

The film opens wide March 30. My local theater, Ragtag Cinema, will allow middle school/junior high students to view the film free with a paid adult ticket. You may want to check about similar offers in your area.

This important film

[LtMarvel]

Searching for Sugar Man

(True/False Film Festival)

This documentary tells the solving of a mystery whose solution is too preposterous to be a viable work of fiction. I don't want to spoil the mystery's resolution, so I'll explain the mystery only.

The singer/songwriter Rodriguez recorded two critically-acclaimed albums in the 1970s. The producers who discovered him state that maybe only Bob Dylan was in Rodriguez's peer group. Unfortunately, the albums' sales were dismal, and the small record company dropped Rodriguez in the middle of his second album. The record company folded.

Someone brought one of the albums with her to a party in South Africa. It was the hit of the party, but when they tried to find their own copies, they struck out. Soon bootlegs of the album were being passed around. Eventually, a local record company licensed the music to reproduce the albums for the South African market. Rodriguez was a hit, as both albums became gold several times over, just in the small country of South Africa! The Apartheid regime even tried to censor the albums by physically marring the offending tracks of library copies. Which only boosted sales among young people. By the time CDs were issued, many urban legends had sprung about this two-hit wonder. Did he commit suicide onstage in the middle of a concert? Was he another drug overdose victim of rock music? The linear notes of the original albums suggested different first names for the singer.... Rodriguez was just as influential on the South African music scene as any big star of that era (The Beatles, Elvis, Simon & Garfunkle, etc), but nobody knew what happened to Rodriguez.

So in the CD's linear notes, a plea went out for information....


Like I said, it is a preposterous resolution. Imagine if you were an Elvis fan, but Elvis had just disappeared... Go see this film. Go buy the music (best soundtrack of any film in T/F).

[dupersuper]

Bully

(True/False Film Festival)

This documentary follows several middle school/junior high kids for a school year as they are bullied. It also follows families who are dealing with the aftermath of the worst scenario possible: their bullied kids decided on suicide. Although the cameras are only allowed inside one of the schools of the students the doc follows, you feel that you get the full story. By Mothers' Day, the filmmakers decide that one of the victims was in danger and actually shares footage with parents and school officials (interference is a big no-no for doc makers). One victim is chosen to be bullied because she's gay. We hear her story, but only see her with her very small circle of friends. This is a troubling, well-told film.

This film has a complete anti-bully curriculum built around it. Just days before this screening, the film was denied an appeal of it's 'R' rating. So I watched the film with an eye for the objectionable material. Quite frankly, it is just not there. There are offensive words, but they are far and few between (and spelled to a principal or parent half the time). Green Hornet (PG-13) had worse language and violence. In the Q&A, it was revealed that the film lost the appeal by one vote.

If you are interested, the Q&A revealed spoilers:

that every one of the victims felt the need to move to a new school district

end of spoilers.

The film opens wide March 30. My local theater, Ragtag Cinema, will allow middle school/junior high students to view the film free with a paid adult ticket. You may want to check about similar offers in your area.

This important film

Kids bullied them on camera? Hidden cams?

[LtMarvel]

Kids bullied them on camera? Hidden cams?

No, Bully's cameras were out in the open. The last footage of this kid getting bullied on camera was on the bus, where the camera people were seated in the back seat, while the bullying incident took place about the middle of the bus, requiring the bully to reach across the center walkway to stab his victim with a pencil. But only one school gave the filmmakers that access. Everywhere else refused to allow cameras. All the other victims' incidents were told as stories, such as the lesbian girl confronting some kids following her in a car; she ended up on the windshield when they ran her down.

In the Q&A, someone asked that particular kid if the camera had a dampening effect on the bullying behavior. He said no, the bullies just thought they'd be on TV. What was more interesting to me is that the filmmakers had to get everyone's permission in order not to blur out the minors' faces. There were exceptions, but for the most part they got these bullies' parents to agree to allow their kids to be the face of bullying, in hopes of making the film a more powerful anti-bullying message. I'll be honest here, it surprised me that some of those kids doing the bullying were the same size as the kids they bullied. Others were much bigger, of course.

[Global Honored]

Hearts of the West
Quirky mid-70s film set in 1930s Hollywood starring a young Jeff Bridges as a wannabe Western prose writer ala Zane Grey who falls into a correspondence school scam and ventures west to gain valuable experiences for his craft...ends up as a b-Movie cowboy..further hijinks ensues. Bridges is terrific, there are even a few very Dude-like situations. Also stars Alan Arkin, Blythe Danner and Andy Griffith. Charming film, nothing special but early signs of how good Mr. Bridges is and would be.

[Jared]

Justice League: Doom I liked it, basically feels like an extended JLU two-parter.

Kill the Irishman. Gangster movie that doesn't reinvent the wheel or anything. But it was based on a true story I was unfamiliar with. I don't know how accurate it was, but I found it interesting. Ray "Titus Fucking Pullo" Stevenson is pretty good as the main character.

[Sebastos]

The Mask of Zorro

Great cast, great action and great storytelling. What more could you ask for from this retelling about a legend.

[Richard Bishop]

Took my daughters (6 1/2 and 4-years old) to see The Lorax yesterday; it was the first movie in a theater for either of them.

It was engaging enough, although a little preachy on the environmental message, but it kept them entertained and did not thoroughly bore either me or my wife. The songs were largely forgettable, but the best part came afterwards, when my older daughter declared in the car on the way home after dinenr, "This was the best day out ever."

Those are the moments I live for.

[Global Honored]

Ninth Gate
Polanski directed, Depp starring supernatural thriller from '99. It has its moments and Depp's rogue "book detective" is entertaining enough but nothing original here. Has the Polanski eerie tone, plot about books the summon the Devil....it's ok, nothing special and a bit disappointing considering the brilliant filmmakers involved.

King of Comedy
The HK version, not DeNiro/Scorsese one.
Years ago I was in a big Asian film phase (still love it) and picked up anything I could get my hands on. It started with Kurosawa and Fukasaku then moved on to HK scene - Woo, Fat, Leung, etc. Asian films are a lot easier now to find btw. Anyways, I really loved the Stephen Chow films. I know they are wacky and often times illogical and some of the jokes are missed on my western sentimentalities but I always get a kick out of his bumbling idiot turned hero. They are just feel good movies and the guy is truly "King of Comedy" as far as 90s HK Cinema. So I ran across an old box full of HK DVDs I picked up several years back and decided to check out this one again. The movie allowed Chow to play with the concept of "acting" and actually show off some of his chops in addition to the usual hijinks. It's fun and funny and has great support from Karen Mok, playing a female Chow Yun Fat analogue, the beautiful Celia Cheung as Chow's love interest and of course his frequent partner in crime, Ng Man Tat. Very enjoyable. Will be rewatching many more of these Chow classics in the future.

[graffiX]

Immortals
It was pretty good. Not in the same league as 300, but much better than the Clash of The Titans remake last year. I would put it on par with Troy (maybe a little less than). The visuals were the best part, and it had some good fight scenes and I enjoyed the story. Rourke stole the movie as Hyperion, and the God vs. Titans battle at the end was highly enjoyable.

7/10

[GrifterWC]

The Descent: Part 2 (2009) - Refusing to believe her story about cave-dwelling monsters, the sole survivor (Shauna Macdonald) of a spelunking exploration gone horribly wrong is forced to follow the authorities back into the caves where something awaits.
For a sequel this movie wasn't that bad.

Machete Joe (2010) - A group of out-of-work actors decide to take their careers into their own hands by shooting a low-budget horror film, about an urban myth.
This wasn't a horrible film, but the execution was. The acting and script does the most damage. With a proper director this could have been a good film.

The River Murders (2011) - A homicide detective (Ray Liotta), while investigating a series of murders becomes the prime suspect when the FBI uncovers his close personal ties to all the victims.
An okay film. Was a little slow in certain parts.

[hulahulk]

I just went through the entire Firefly series and Serenity.

Fantastic stuff. Makes me wish the Avengers movie was right now.

[Jared]

Green Lantern. It wasn't bad enough to be terrible, but it was still a long ways away from good. Some writing and editing choices seemed downright amateurish.