MONDOmagazine

Edge of Darkness
Directed by Martin Campbell
Warner Brothers, 2010

By Miles Baker

I wish that these actors, these characters and this creative team were in a different plot. This film works on many levels, and I want to give it a glowing review, but the plot and the themes it explores does not work with the main protagonist.

I’ll explain.

Long-time Boston homicide detective Thomas Craven’s (Mel Gibson) daughter is shot on his front porch. The reserved and emotionally distressed detective begins his own investigation into his daughter’s death and uncovers a national security conspiracy between big business and the highest levels of the American government. Soon words like “national security risk,” “nuclear armament,” “radiation sickness” and “terrorist” are being thrown around in my nice little crime story.

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Austin Visschedyk, teenage paparazzo.

Teenage Paparazzo
Directed by Adrien Grenier
Co-presented with Hot Docs
Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor Street West)
May 8

By Kerry Freek

Forget Lady Gaga. Thirteen-year-old Austin Visschedyk is the fame monster. Not only is he a paparazzo-in-the-making, but the subject of Teenage Paparazzo comes threateningly close to becoming a celebrity himself, and almost certainly as a direct result of receiving this attention from director Adrien Grenier. Read the rest of this entry »

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Directed by Samuel Bayer
New Line Cinema, 2010

By Sean Kelly

Note: This review contains minor spoilers.

I ended my review last year of Platinum Dunes’ reboot of Friday the 13th wondering if this reboot would be just as successful in bringing Freddy Krueger to a new audience as it was with Jason Voorhees. I have to say that for the most part the answer is no, since this is a straighforward remake, while last year’s film was an original story that incorporated elements from the first three films.

I was about two years old when Wes Craven’s original Nightmare was released in 1984. By the time I was in elementary school, Freddy (and Jason) were pop culture icons — it really says something when even young children are quite familiar with the main villains of horror films. I still have yet to see the original; however, I am sure there are many people who consider it sacrilegious that Platinum Dunes (co-owned by Michael Bay) was even considering remaking the film.

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The correct pluralization would be "two iron men."

By Shane McNeil, Sean Kelly, Leo K. Moncel and Caesar Martini

From the writers of last year’s smash hit series Summer Movie MegaCalendar, prepare to be blown away by the thrilling sequel! More punch-out prose, more dastardly disagreements and more sarcastic humour. We size up this May’s sequels to Iron Man, Shrek and Gladiator (well, for all intents and purposes), and still make time for MacGruber and some curveballs. Join your old favourites as they take on all new challenges in Summer Movie Megacalendar: May 2010. This time, it’s personal.

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Kick-Ass
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Lionsgate, 2010

Defendor
Directed by Peter Stebbings
Alliance Films, 2009

By Sean Kelly

Going In

I was going to write this review solely on Kick-Ass, but then I realized that the similarly-plotted Defendor was just released last week on DVD. This gave me a chance to spin an exciting comparison of two very different takes on what it’s like for an average joe to become a superhero.

Story/Characters

Kick-Ass
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is an average high school student that fantasizes about what life would be like if there really were superheroes. He orders a wetsuit from the internet and decides to live his fantasy. After one of his fights ends up being a hit on YouTube, he attracts the attention of both mobster Frank D’Amico (Mark Strong) and the vigilante father/daughter duo of Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz). Christopher Mintz-Plasse (aka McLovin) rounds out the cast as fellow “hero” Red Mist.

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Clash of the Titans
Directed by Louis Leterrier
Warner Bros., 2010

Before I move onto the film itself, I will answer the million dollar question: Does the 3D look good? Let me put it this way — this is not the film that you would show to naysayers in order to prove that 3D is more than a fad. Heck, even the trailer for Step Up 3D that played before Clash of the Titans had better effects than this. The 3D wasn’t bad per se, but it was really obvious that the film was converted in postproduction –- the cardboard cut-out effect. The CGI creatures did look better in 3D, probably because they were easier to convert. However, they only turned up in a handful of action set-pieces.

Well, enough nitpicking about 3D, let’s move onto the story. The citizens of the city of Argos have decided that they no longer want to respect the gods, so they destroy all temples and statues worshipping Zeus (Liam Neeson). Zeus is not too happy about this, and allows his brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes) to scare the citizens of Argos back into piety. Hades tells the citizens to sacrifice the princess Andromeda before the eclipse or the city will be destroyed by the Kraken (of course, sacrifice or not, Hades plans on destroying the city anyway). As a result, a band of warriors that includes Zeus’ demi-god son Perseus (Sam Worthington) goes on a quest to find a way to destroy the Kraken before it is too late.

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By Sean Kelly

The end of an era is coming as At the Movies, the review show originally known as Siskel and Ebert, will be going off the air at the end of the current season in August. I have never been a regular watcher of the show, and the program has certainly had its bumps in the last few years, but you have to give them full credit; in its 24 years on the air, the show, and the phrase “two thumbs up,” have become engraved in pop culture.

One of the reasons given for the cancellation is that the format of two critics giving their opinions on a film is considered outdated. The last decade or so saw the rise of aggregate sites such as Rotten Tomatoes. These sites pool together reviews from many sources and give a rating based on how many of the reviews were positive. Sites like these have made it easier for people to find a knowledgeable opinion about movies and there’s seen to be no more room for a television show about two guys and their thumbs.

The news of the show’s cancellation comes at a time when I felt the show was getting back on its feet. The show has had a tough few years and I have to argue that the beginning of the end for the show began when Roger Ebert was forced to leave the show in 2006 due to his battle with thyroid cancer, which has since left him unable to speak. Co-host Richard Roeper, who became the permanent replacement for the late Gene Siskel in 2000, continued on with a series of guest hosts, most frequently A.O. Scott of the New York Times and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune. Read the rest of this entry »

Ninja Assassin
Directed by James McTeigue
Warner Bros Pictures, 2009

By Miles Baker

It’s pretty rare for us do a second review of a film, but Warner sent me a review copy of Ninja Assassin and it’s only fair to them that I review it. And, as with most things, my take on it is different than Caesar’s. And since he and I have been having some enjoyable, passionate debates on some MONDOcomics reviews I thought I’d set this up as a response to his review.

While Caesar went “thumbs down” on this movie, I’m going thumbs up. Not way up, just up. It achieves everything it wants to. Namely, dudes get chopped up lots and it’s pretty cool. There are big plot holes, no character achieves two dimensions, and there is better action out there — yet, it’s not the worst way to kill 100 minutes. I found it enjoyable — it’s like Enter the Dragon but worse and made now.

The plot, such as it is, centres on Raizo, a renegade ninja trying to bring down the clan that trained him. The film actually spends a fair amount of time setting up Raizo’s training and defection, which is my largest complaint about the movie. Those things, I don’t care about — I just want to see ninjas fight. Neither the acting nor the script are strong enough to carry these sequences. However, once they establish the backstory, Ninja Assassin becomes the action-fest that you were hoping for. The last hour of the film is action scene after action scene — perfect. Read the rest of this entry »

Kevin Smith's cell-out?

Cop Out
Director: Kevin Smith
Warner Bros Pictures, February 2010

By Caesar Martini

Do you like Tracey Morgan? Specifically, have you ever watched Tracy Morgan’s character on 30 Rock, Tracy Jordan, and thought, “This guy is hilarious, but I wish I could see him play the same character with a slightly better grasp on reality for 107 straight minutes while Bruce Willis stands nearby and struggles to tolerate him,” then brother, have I got a movie for you!

The movie is Cop Out, the first film that Kevin Smith has directed without also writing. It is so named as a poke at the movie studio for not accepting Smith’s original idea for the picture, “A Couple of Dicks.” The film follows partners Jimmy (Willis) and Paul (Morgan) as police officers who are tracking down Jimmy’s stolen baseball card, so he can sell it and pay for his daughter’s upcoming wedding.

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Alice in Wonderland
Directed by Tim Burton
Walt Disney Pictures, 2010

By Sean Kelly

I have to preface by saying that I consider Tim Burton one of my all-time favourite directors and I usually end up loving whatever he does. However, I am sure that more casual viewers are happy that Burton is back with a bright and colourful movie after going into much darker territory with 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

This film, of course, is based on Lewis Carroll’s novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The film is more a reinterpretation of the novels, rather than a straight adaptation. However, the basic story is still the same: Alice chases a white rabbit down a hole and she encounters the world of “Underland” and its many strange and unique inhabitants.

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The Hurt Locker. A triumph for film?

By Shane McNeil

The Oscars are a fickle, fickle business. Whichever picture emerges at the end of the night is gauged not only as the preference of the select few voting Academy members (and, somehow, the Three-6 Mafia) but, as the years pass, the picture that best defined an encapsulated the year that was.

It’s not always about picking the best film, as other factors contribute to which film ends up as the last one standing. The social and political mood of the voters comes into play as sometimes does the track record of the filmmakers and where it stands within the canon of their work.

Sometimes it’s a matter of a film that just struck at the right time (American Beauty, Ordinary People), sometimes it’s about giving someone their due (The Departed, Unforgiven) and sometimes, it’s just a film that’s too big to ignore (Titanic, Return of the King).

It’s what makes the Oscars a tricky barometer of cinematic history and what makes Oscar prediction a slippery science. When it goes wrong, the idiocy of an aging group of voters gets heinously exposed (Rocky, Crash) however, when it goes right, you get the lasting films and smart choices that at the very least make a lot of sense in hindsight… like picking The Hurt Locker over Avatar!

With that in mind; I give you the 10 best choices of the last 40 years.

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Neil Patrick Harris steals the show.

By Sean Kelly

It is no secret that the biggest problem with the Oscars has always been its length. It is by far the longest of the award shows and I remember a time, not so long ago, that the ceremony would end at nearly 1am (or 10pm if you are going by the local time of Oscar’s LA location). The Academy has tried many methods in the past to cut down on the show’s length, one of the most infamous being the year they either had all the nominees on stage or presented awards in the crowd.

This year, the Academy had the added trouble of having to show highlights from ten nominated films. As such, there were some stricter time-saving rules. After being compressed last year into a single performance, the best song performances were axed altogether. In addition, the Academy vowed to be more strict on the 45 second acceptance speech limit – though based on what I saw, the major winners seemed exempt.

After watching this year’s show, I have to say that some of those time-saving choices seemed questionable when one takes into consideration what actually turned up in the program. So let me go through some of the Oscars’ filler segments that may or may not have been a waste of time – dependingly mainly on whether or not you enjoyed them.

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