MONDOmagazine

The Wolfman
Directed by Joe Johnston
Universal Pictures, 2010

By Sean Kelly

The Universal monster movies from the 30s and 40s are classics and with the exception of Stephen Sommer’s The Mummy and Van Helsing, there hasn’t been any real effort before to modernize these films. Of course, there have been many Dracula and Frankenstein movies since then, but I would argue that those were more re-adaptations of the original novels, than reinterpretations of Bela Legosi and Boris Karloff’s performances. As you may know, released in 1941, The Wolf Man was the original werewolf film, starring Lon Chaney Jr. as the title character. Horror films, and especially werewolf films, have changed a lot in 69 years and this version looked to be much more dark and violent than the PG-rated original. Let’s get started, shall we?

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Crazy Heart
Directed by Scott Cooper
Fox Searchlight, 2009

By Jaclyn L. Katz

Gritty country music and phenomenal acting together build the foundation of Crazy Heart. The film has a cleverly written narrative and is beautifully filmed. What really grabs you though, what emotionally tangles the spectator in the story, is the performance given by Crazy Heart’s star, Jeff Bridges, who plays washed-up country crooner Bad Blake. With a perpetually lit cigarette and a whisky in hand, “Bad” is a grating character; Byronic in his self-destructive ways, he leaves the audience rooting for him to succeed. He is a brilliant songwriter and a romantic, kind soul but has a pathetic addiction to alcohol and self-pity.

Maggie Gyllenhal, nominated for best supporting actress at the upcoming Oscar ceremony, gives a relaxed and absolutely graceful performance as Jean Craddock, the saviour of Bad’s spirit.

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Legion
Director: Scott Stewart
Sony Pictures, 2010

By Caesar Martini

Dear reader: are you like me? Did you see previews of Legion, a movie about God waging angelic warfare on humanity in order to eradicate our species, and think, “Dear heavens, that looks quite terrible.” If you are like me and you had the same snarky thoughts, prepare to have your opinion take a 180 degree turn, and then another 180 degree turn so it stays utterly and completely the same.

The basic story is as follows: God is right pissed with humanity because we’re all a bunch of twats. Fair enough. Instead of sending a flood to tidy things up, he sends his angels to Earth as a sort of biblical pest-control force. Except the angels don’t physically come down and start laying a heavenly beat-down on us, because that would be too expensive and not what the filmmakers decided to do. Instead, the angels possess weak minded humans and use them to attack whoever they can’t control. So in a way, humanity destroys itself.

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The Book of Eli
Directed by Albert and Allen Hughes
Warner Bros, 2010

By Caesar Martini

Denzel Washington is not really an action movie star. Normally when he’s playing a character involved in a conflict, he resolves it with his smooth chocolate charm or velvety leading man growl. And maybe he’ll shoot a dude or two. But he’s not the kind of actor who you see getting involved in scripts that call for him killing five guys in six seconds with a knife designed to hack down small trees. So when I saw just that in a preview for Book of Eli, I became intrigued.

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Sherlock Holmes
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Warner Bros., 2009

By Caesar Martini

You know, when I first saw previews of Sherlock Holmes, I was skeptical. I never pictured Holmes as the type of detective that got into bareknuckle boxing matches with sweaty men, and the whole thing was presented in a silly action buddy comedy kind of way, with Robert Downey Jr. seemingly playing Holmes as a British ancestor of Tony Stark. And though some of those things are not far off the mark, I still enjoyed the movie immensely.

I reconciled the odd disparity between my image of Sherlock Holmes and the movie version of Sherlock Holmes quite quickly because: 1) Apparently, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first wrote Holmes as a somewhat socially unpleasant cocaine addict who was a skilled boxer and stick fighter, and 2) What am I, President of the Sherlock Holmes Fan Club? I was over it before the first preview ended (though apparently, members of said fan club really want Hugh Laurie to be Holmes), and I thought the action scenes were fun, cool, and entertaining.

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Avatar
Directed by James Cameron
20th Century Fox, 2009

By Sean Kelly

It’s been twelve years since James Cameron last directed a feature film. I suppose that after Titanic made over a billion dollars and won a ton of Oscars, Cameron was free to do what he wanted and he chose to make a series of underwater documentaries (two of which were made for IMAX 3D). Cameron has finally returned to features with Avatar and the first question one has to ask is, “Was it worth the wait?”

When it comes down to it, I would say the answer is yes — though I wouldn’t rush off and say that it’s the best film Cameron has done. I thought that the film was good enough that I would list it as one of  my ten favourite films of the year; however, it would probably be somewhere in the bottom half of the list. Read the rest of this entry »

Up in the Air
Directed by Jason Reitman
Paramount Pictures, 2009

By Sean Kelly

When your father is Ivan Reitman, the director of Ghostbusters, you’ve been handed quite a challenge to step out from his shadow. However, Jason Reitman seems to have found a niche in making some intriguing character studies. In Thank You for Smoking we were given a sympathetic portrayal of a tobacco lobbyist. In Juno we learned about the unexpected challenges of teen pregnancy. Now, with Up in the Air, we follow a guy who flies around the country and fires people on behalf of companies that are too scared to do it themselves.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is completely at home with life on the road. With his schedule of firing people and making motivational speeches, he barely spends time at his own home, and is well on his way to becoming only the seventh person to reach ten million frequent flyer miles. Ryan even manages to meet a fellow frequent traveller named Alex (Vera Farmiga) with the same view on life and they quickly begin an affair.

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Ninja Assassin
Directed by James McTeigue
Warner Bros Pictures, 2009

By Caesar Martini

I was excited to see Ninja Assassin because the title promised me two things: ninjas, and/or assassins. And I’m pro-both of those things, even if the term “ninja assassin” is a bit of a redundancy. I mean, assassinating is pretty much all ninjas do. There are no ninja chefs or ninja pet groomers. Wait, are there ninja chefs? Trained in the mysterious art of culinary murder, the secret ingredient to all his dishes would be… death! And probably shurikens.

Anyway, Ninja Assassin does indeed have a healthy amount of ninjas assassinating people, yet I can’t really recommend this movie. Unless you’re a huge fan of Korean pop music and want to see pop phenomenon Rain cover himself in a thick layer of fake blood and run around shirtless for half an hour; in that case, this is definitely the film for you. Read the rest of this entry »

2012
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Columbia Pictures, 2009

By Sean Kelly

Have you heard? Apparently the calendar for the long-extinct Mayan civilization is supposed to end on December 21, 2012. Of course, this just has to mean that this is when the world is supposed to end. There are, like, millions of books on the subject that give reasons ranging from polar-reversing solar flares to Planet X crashing into the Earth. If there are books on it, then it must be true, right?

It seems that every decade or two, conspiracy theorists come up with a new cause of the apocalypse (it was only a decade ago when we feared Y2K). While it can hoped that this is all just crazed speculation, it does give disaster film master Roland Emmerich perfect material for his magnum opus.

Emmerich has found a niche in blowing up the world in different ways, whether it is by alien invaders (Independence Day), mutated lizards (Godzilla), or the environment (The Day After Tomorrow). Of those three, I would say that 2012 is probably stylistically the most similar to The Day After Tomorrow, except on a much larger scale — as can be guessed by the film’s 158-minute running time. Read the rest of this entry »

A Christmas Carol
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Walt Disney Pictures, 2009

By Rachel West

With the early November release of A Christmas Carol, the Christmas season is upon us sooner than ever. This faithful yet novel adaptation is a sure-fire way to bring in the holiday spirit, even if your neighbours still have their rotting jack o’lanterns displayed on their porch.

A tried-and-true story, adapted onto screens big and small over the years, a simple title search on IMDB reveals that there are over 35 filmed versions of the Charles Dickens’ classic, from the made-for-TV movie A Diva’s Christmas Carol (sadly, I’ve seen it), to childhood favourite Mickey’s Christmas Carol, to gems like Scrooged. You may think you’ve seen it all before, know the dialogue by heart, and another adaptation is superfluous at best, but this time, the film is in show-stopping 3D.

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The Box
Directed by Richard Kelly
Warner Bros, 2009

By Sean Kelly (no relation)

It would be a bit of an understatement to say that Richard Kelly has had a bit of a bumpy ride on the road to making his first major studio film. His first film Donnie Darko had a nearly non-existent theatrical release (it probably didn’t help that the film was released about a month after 9/11 and involved a plane engine falling onto a house). However, the film went on to become one of the first cult hits of the decade, and my personal favourite, and I wasn’t alone in looking forward to a follow-up.

The follow-up didn’t come fast enough. For the longest time Kelly was set to write and direct last year’s Knowing as his second film, before it moved to Alex Proyas. After five years (and taking a screenwriting job for 2005’s Domino), Kelly finally returned with his second film Southland Tales. The general consensus is that Southland marked a sophomore slump for Kelly, though I dug the film. Read the rest of this entry »

Zombieland
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Columbia Pictures, 2009

By Sean Kelly

According to Zombieland, there are over 30 rules you have to follow in order to survive a zombie apocalypse. The film then goes on to spare no effort in comically reminding you of these rules with giant blocky text every time one of them is followed (or not).

This is probably the first straight-out zombie comedy since 2004’s Shaun of the Dead, which was apparently the film that inspired the filmmakers to do Zombieland. But unlike Edgar Wright’s film, which aimed to be a serious zombie horror film with comedic situations, this film is pure comedy all the way.

The film centres around Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), who is travelling across the US searching for a safe haven from the zombies, who have all but taken over the country. He has survived so far by strictly following the aforementioned rules. These include pieces of advice such as being wary while in washrooms (apparently zombies like eating you when you’re doing #2), making sure you stay in good shape (with all the running you have to do), and not to hesitate in making sure a zombie’s dead by doing a headshot. Read the rest of this entry »