Movie Reviews - new films reviewed

Mike (Mos Def) takes care of Mr. Fletcher’s (Danny Glover) run-down VHS rental store while Fletcher pretends to be on a holiday attending a Fats Waller memorial service. Fats Waller is the famous jazz musician who was born in the very dilapidated house where Fletcher’s store Be Kind Rewind struggles to survive - at least he was born there according to Mr. Fletcher. Mike is trying hard to do everything right, but his best mate Jerry (Jack Black) gets “magnetized” in an attempt to sabotage the local power plant (because, you know, the power plant is an important part in the conspiracy to control people’s minds with microwaves) and erases all VHS tapes in the store.
To cover up the problem, Mike and Jerry have a crazy idea - they shoot their own 20 minute-versions of the movies people want to rent. In the early stages, they hope to come away unnoticed, but then word of mouth spreads and more and more customers show up to rent a so-called sweded movie. But can their moderate success save the old-fashioned VHS rental against the competing DVD-stores and the imminent demolition of the ramshackle hut it’s located in?

Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind is a celebration of the independent filmmaker, imagination and the old-fashioned way of “hand-made” films, and it’s as sentimental as this sounds. But hey, didn’t you expect a hilarious comedy? With lots of funny attempts to recreate famous scenes from lots of well-known films? Unfortunately, there are no big laughs and not enough of those “Wow, it’s hilarious how they did this scene from that movie”-moments. It’s all endearing, amusing, and the cast is charming, but it’s too much sentimentalism and may raise some chuckles but no screaming with laughter.
Just watch the sweded version of The Lord Of The Ring and some other sweded films on the Be Kind Rewind website instead.

Be Kind Rewind movie trailer

Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg) has not grown up since he went running from his own marriange with pregnant Libby (Thandie Newton) six years ago. He loves his boy Jake (Matthew Fenton) and is annoyed when he meets Libby’s new friend Whit (Hank Azaria), a “perfect” man with manners, money, taste and good looks. And he even runs the Nike River Marathon for charity!
Dennis decides it’s time to grow up and finally finish something in his life - he announces he will also run the marathon, trained by his best mate Gordon (Dylan Moran) and his landlord Mr. Goshdashtidar (Harish Patel) and motivated by the fact that Maya Goshdashtidar (India de Beaufort) will kick him out of his flat when he doesn’t finish the marathon. But it takes passion, determination and stamina to finish a marathon - all the things Dennis never had.

Co-written by Simon Pegg (from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame) and directed by David Schwimmer (yes, the one from Friends ) Run Fat Boy Run is not as quirky as Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead, and it shows that it was written for the US initially. And it was a wise decision to move it to London, because without the British-ness - and without Simon Pegg - it would be just another mediocre rom-com with a stereotyped story and stereotyped gags. But it’s how Simon Pegg delivers those gags which makes you laugh despite the clichés. Kudos go as well to “assistant coach” Harish Patel, Dylan Moran, and the incredibly beautiful India de Beaufort.

What would you do if you could go anywhere you want, with just a little concentration and in no time at all? What if you could teleport, or “jump”, as it is called in this film loosely based on Steven Gould’s novel Jumper: Griffin’s Story (Jumper)? Probably you would enjoy the additional sleep you could get because you can jump right from your home into office without having to deal with traffic jams, traffic lights or delayed public transport. With enough experience, just like Griffin (Jamie Bell) has it, you could even take your car and jump with your car past congestions or red traffic lights. What a thrill! And you could teleport right to your holiday destination, saving the money, time and hassles associated with travelling by plane!
But what if you are only fifteen years old, bullied in school, abandoned by your mother when you were five, and living in a run-down house with your no-good father? David Rice (Hayden Christensen) is such a teenager, and of course he does what you would expect. He jumps into bank vaults, “borrows” loads of cash, runs … well, jumps away from home and starts to live the high life - luxury apartments, hot girls - an eternal holiday, money no problem - there is always a bank vault he can jump into to refill stock.
Years pass before he is confronted with an inconvenient truth - there are people who are royally pissed, not only because of his regular bank jobs but also because they think that “only God should have this power”. They call themselves Paladins, and Roland Cox (Samuel L. Jackson) is one of them. He is black, big, equipped with the latest gadgets to trace and catch jumpers, and it’s his greatest satisfaction to ritually kill a jumper with his knife. And the jumper’s friends and family as well if possible. Griffin, another jumper who is on a mission to kill Paladins, tells David more about his abilities and impairments as a jumper and about the Paladins, and reluctantly agrees to temporarily team up with David to save his father (Michael Rooker) and his highschool girlfriend Millie (Rachel Bilson) and to kill Roland.

Hayden Christensen shows that he can act and we can (almost) forgive him for what he did do Darth Vader in Star Wars Episodes II and III, Samuel L. Jackson is menacing as usual, Jamie Bell brings the right amount of crazyness to his revenge-seeking Griffin, and Rachel Bilson shows she can do more than teenage telly drama The O.C..
But of course it’s not about the acting, it’s about the thrill and the ride - and there are enough questions left open (Who exactly are those Paladins and who supports and funds them? Why this ritual killing with this knife? How many other Jumpers are there and what are they doing? Are Jumpers really turning evil? What’s this business with David’s mother (Diane Lane)?) for Return of Jumper and Sister of Jumper - bring on the sequels!

JUMPER movie trailer

Sir Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance) has two daughters, Ann (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson), and he has ambitions for his family. The benign Mary is married to a merchant, but for the more ambitious Ann Sir Thomas and his brother have other plans. They want her to beguile King Henry (Eric Bana) and improve their family’s status by positioning Ann as his mistress. The king’s marriage with Katherine of Aragon (Ana Torrent) is still childless, and when Ann can bear him a son, the family’s fortune will be made.
But the king falls for Mary instead, who doesn’t want to go to the king’s court but can’t withstand King Henry’s wish and the pressure of her father and her uncle. Despite her initial reluctance, Mary can’t resist the King’s courting for long and even falls in love with him. But when she gets pregnant, Henry loses his interest in her, and Ann, who has learned how to tease and fascinate a man in France, seizes her chance.

A historical drama (but not an epic), The Other Boleyn Girl concentrates on the fortunes and misfortunes of two sisters (Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman) and their ever-changing relationships to each other, their family and King Henry VIII. Traded like cattle for the advancement of men by their father and uncle, both sisters still develop strong personalities and try hard to follow their own path. Treachery, intrigues, love, hate and ambitions determine the fates of the unequal sisters, and both actresses use the opportunity to convince. Scarlett Johansson is touching as the modest, pure Mary who knows her place but is so much stronger than she seems - she is able to forgive the inexcusable and to fight like a lioness when necessary. And Natalie Portman is better than ever as the prickteasing Ann who wants to fly too high and has to pay dearly for her unlimited ambitions and overestimation of her capabilities.
The supporting roles are acted in varying grades of quality, but camerawork, set decoration and costumes will not disappoint.
Overall, The Other Boleyn Girl is a worthy “prequel” to Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

*** SPOILER WARNING ***
Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is the “fixer” of a law firm who does the non-official and - if necessary - dirty work. And he is a gambling addict, the restaurant he has opened with his brother Timmy (David Lansbury) just went bankrupt, and he owes $75.000 to the mob. And that are just his personal problems. His friend and workmate, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), one of the top lawyers of his company, just had a mental breakdown during the negotiations in a class-action lawsuit against U-North, an agricultural products conglomerate and one of their biggest customers. Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), just recently promoted to U-North’s chief counsel and and overstrained, finds out that Arthur is in possession of secret company documents proving U-North has knowingly produced and sold a carcinogenic herbicide, and that he is in contact with the plaintiffs. Karen will do anything to protect U-North’s interests and to prove she is up to the job. It’s Michael Clayton’s job to fix the problem, but is he good enough to fix it - or is he already part of the problem?

A cleverly constructed corporate thriller that opens with a bang (literally) and then goes back in time four days to unravel the incidents leading to the explosion of Michael Clayton’s car. But the real thriller is not about lawsuits, car-bombs and dirty legal tricks. The real questions are: What is sanity? What’s integrity worth? and Are you a human being or a corporate drone?
And that are important questions everybody should ask himself. When you are dealing with people in your professional life, it doesn’t matter if you are a top manager, hotshot lawyer or a mere clerk, the questions remain the same.
If you prefer to ponder less grave questions, then at least ask yourself if there is still space for childlike fantasy and wonder in your busy schedule - it might save your life (at least it did for Michael Clayton).