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Chronicle Review – Dark Side of Flying High

Feb 032012

Chronicle is solid proof that even 26-year-old, first-time directors can fly high with a decent super-hero(es) movie made on a not-so-big budget.

Los Angeles native Josh Trank, 26, directed this eminently watchable film from a story Max Landis (also 26) and he came up with.

The screenplay is entirely Landis’ effort.

What we liked most about Chronicle was that the gee-whiz ‘flying-high’ effects (once close to a plane in the clouds) does not drown the all-too human story of pathos, discovery, happiness, hubris and ultimately downfall.

Nice Teenage Chronicle

Chronicle falls broadly in the same genre as Super 8 and Paranormal Activity.

You know with an off-beat story where bad things start to happen soon after a sunny start, hand-held camera photography, use of security camera pictures within the movie etc.

But we found Chronicle the slickest, the neatest and the best-written of the lot.

Chronicle centers around three teenage boys, the shy and bullied Andrew, his outgoing cousin Matt and the black kid Steve, who stumble upon something strange one night.

The boys are high-school students who have gone to a late-night party. Matt and Steve venture into the woods afterwards where they find an unusual pit. They quickly call Andrew to film the thing since he’s forever going around with a camera filming everything.

Against the warnings of the timid (and badly bullied both at school and home) Andrew, they descend into the pit and lo and behold find a unusual object inside.

Boys will be boys, right?

Yes, they touch the object causing first Andrew’s camera to go black and then giving a big lift-off to the movie in a literal sense.

Dark Side of Power

Soon, the youngsters start developing extraordinary powers including the ability to move things without touching them and ultimately even gain the ability to fly high in the clouds.

The unusual power the boys develop now takes a life of its own with the most timid of them all Andrew changing dramatically.

Andrew’s transition is neatly captured.

First used for harmless pranks, the super-power is gradually deployed for dark purposes.

The descent begins when a car is pushed off the road for honking and tailgating them.

Landis’ screenplay is very taut and the movie marches briskly without a single dull moment.

The three youngsters Dane DeHaan (as Andrew), Michael B. Jordan (as Steve) and Alex Russell (playing Matt) deliver more than an adequate job in the acting department.

Within all these fancy “Hey, I’m Flying” movements there’s an all too human account of Andrew’s dark, disturbed life, both at home and at school.

Special Effects

The special effects are all right.

Although they were not spectacular, there was nothing crude or cheesy about them.

Hey, you got to remember the film’s modest overall budget of just $15 million. Not a big deal for a super-hero movie.

With bigger stars, the movie’s budget would surely have skyrocketed.

Chronicle – Go for It

Your favorite blog SearchIndia.com recommends Chronicle to all ye schmucks in North America.

In any case, the Bollywood mongrels and the Kollywood thieves don’t have any new releases this week.

We had a good time watching Chronicle and came out feeling that our $8.75 was well spent.

Whining Bastard’s Good Night Good Morning is Different but a Boring Movie

Bollywood, Foreign Movies, Hollywood 11 Responses »

Jan 212012

(For Ashwin Kini & Gandhiji)

The first hint of trouble with the whining bastard Sudhish Kamath’s film Good Night Good Morning came when we saw a grateful acknowledgment to Ulaga Madayan Kamal Haasan at the top of the opening credits.

Uh-oh. Not a good omen, we told ourselves.

Ulaga Madayan might be one of the biggest dinosaurs in the Kollywood cesspool but, hey, the fella is a two-bit thief.

Folks, only in Incredible India does a young film-maker start off with something so stupid, so disgusting like acknowledging a shameless thief.

Kinda like an Auschwitz survivor dedicating his book on the dreadful Concentration Camp experience to Der Fuehrer.

Or is Sudhish tacitly acknowledging his inspiration from the song Hello, My Dear Wrong Number from Kamal’s 1976 film Manmadha Leelai.

Who can tell.

Different but Not Good

No matter that we didn’t think much of Good Night Good Morning, we will readily accept it’s different from the run of the mill trash flowing from the Augean stables of Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood.

Also in an age when film-makers resort to all kinds of computer generated graphic gimmicks to stir jaded moviegoers, Good Night Good Morning dares to be in black and white.

Except for some flashback bits in color.

Was this black and white move dictated by a modest budget? Perhaps.

Set in and around New York City, the English language movie is about a late night telephone call between a tipsy young guy Turiya (Manu Narayan) traveling in a car with his buddies and a not-so-young lady Moira (Seema Rahmani), alone in a hotel room.

It’s New Year’s eve and both have just left a bar.

Yes, the same bar where their paths crossed.

Both Manu Narayan and Seema Rahmani are decent actors.

And that’s sweet relief considering the Indian film universe is peopled mostly with buffoons like Ajith, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan etc who know zilch about acting.

But when you make a film in a closed setting like a small room or moving car for instance, the script has to be dazzling to compensate for the absence of visual appeal.

That’s where we found Good Night Good Morning wanting.

The script of Good Night Good Morning was just a notch above mediocre.

One of the remarkable films of the simple, one-set genre that we watched a couple of years back is 12 Angry Men. Remarkable for the insight it provides into the human soul.

Everything about 12 Angry Men, from the beginning to the middle and the denouement was striking.

Not surprisingly, the 1957 film won three Oscar nominations – Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing of Adapted Screenplay.

Au contraire, there was not much to get excited about with this two set (a moving car and a hotel room) film Good Night Good Morning.

In our not so humble view, Good Night Good Morning falters primarily because the writing doesn’t keep pace with the off-beat theme.

And the rambling conversation theme itself didn’t endear itself to yours truly.

We suspect Sudhish Kamath’s limited budget determined his choice of theme.

So, were the dialogs sparkling or witty?

Alas, only on few occasions.

While the budget may have constrained Sudish Kamath’s choice of theme surely where the writing was concerned he was not so constrained.

So if you’re looking for the culpable persons to vent your spleen on, they are the film’s two writers Sudhish Kamath and Shilpa Rathnam.

Good Night…Avoid

If you have time to waste, you can watch Good Night Good Morning on TV via the Mela Entertainment channel with the Roku box. No, we couldn’t locate it on the iPad.

But your time would be better spent catching something more entertaining this weekend on the Netflix Instant cornucopia.

Our biggest concern now is that when the word spreads on how a no-name fella like Sudish Kamath has put out an English film, it might embolden the buffoons to come out of the woodwork and throw their film-hats in the ring too.

And that would be a tragedy for the nascent indie film movement in India.

Haywire Review – Tiresome Action Junk

Hollywood 3 Responses »

Jan 202012

Our latest hypothesis is that when a film-maker like Steven Soderbergh gets a restless itch on his cojones to make a movie but can’t think of a decent story then he dives, cojones first, into an action film like Haywire.

Seriously, how much of those mindless jumping, chasing, running, shooting, kicking, punching, killing and strangling can a sane mind take.

So what if all of the above is done by a girl this time.

And by a less than average-looking one (Gina Carano), by the way.

Haywire – Out of Order

Haywire is an appropriate name for a movie considering it’s out of order right from the beginning when a fight at a diner in upstate New York has the male attacker writhing on the floor and Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) hijacking a car and telling the scared witless young owner about recent events that culminated in the attack on her at the restaurant.

Through this flashback trick, we come to know of Mallory’s assignment of rescuing a Chinese journalist in Barcelona and subsequently the near fatal betrayal in Dublin.

Of course, even you schmucks must have guessed by now that Mallory is a covert operative a la Jason Bourne.

The woman who can run, shoot, kill and strangle (well almost) enemies with her interlocked thighs earns her living by working for a security contractor on dangerous assignments that the government would rather not handle directly.

Hell hath no fury like a girl betrayed and the woman is back in the States luring her pursuers to her father’s New Mexico home.

The ones that escape her gun or her arms she chases into the rocks on the beach and leaves them to drown in high tide.

To get the last bad guy, it takes another jump from the roof for the gal.

Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender make up the rest of the cast.

No Actress Gina

Gina Carano, the heroine and central character of Haywire is the Hollywood version of that Bollywood cretin Priyanka Chopra.

That is, a creature who can’t act if her life depended on it.

Avoid Haywire

Soderbergh is presumably hoping that you’ll be lost in the maze of endless jumping, shooting, chasing and killing to notice there ain’t no story here.

At least, not one you’ve not seen before.

SearchIndia.com recommends that unless money is burning a hole in your pocket and time hangs heavily on your hands you give Haywire a pass, a wide pass.

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Beauty & the Beast 3D – Eye-Popping Feast

Hollywood 1 Response »

Jan 182012

Sometimes even “a tale as old as time” can be (re)told with great panache and charm the audience.

And that’s exactly what Disney has done with Beauty & the Beast 3D.

God knows how many times Beauty & Beast has been made on celluloid and in how many languages.

Yet the latest version did not disappoint even folks like us who aren’t too enamored of animation films.

Although we are well acquainted with this popular fairy tale, this was our first Beauty & the Beast film.

We usually shy away from animation films but, boy, are we glad we made an exception with this one.

Beauty & the Beast – Beautifully Told

From what we can gather, the 1-hour and 21-minute movie we watched today is the 3D version of the wildly successful 2D animation film of the same name released in 1991.

When it debuted as a 2D animation film in November 1991, the movie was a big draw with audiences and went on to win two Oscars and three Golden Globes. By the way, Beauty and the Beast (1991) was the first animation film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Disney spent a few million bucks ($10 million, according to Wiki) gussying up the 1991 film with 3D effects and re-released it last Friday in the U.S.

For all ye schmucks unfamiliar with the love story of Beauty and the Beast, here’s a barebones outline:

One of the best known fairy tales in the Western hemisphere, Beauty and the Beast is the story of a beautiful young girl Belle falling in love with a hideous beast after being imprisoned by the creature. (If it were to happen today, the psychiatrists would call it Stockholm Syndrome. )

What Belle doesn’t know is that the Beast was once a cold-hearted, selfish prince who had been turned into a ugly monster for his bad behavior.

Only when a beautiful young girl falls in love with the Beast would the spell be broken and the ugly creature could revert back into a charming looking prince. And the Beauty and the ~~Beast~~ Prince could live happily together ever after.

Of course, one can have countless variations within these broad contours.

Although both the 2D and 3D versions were playing in the theater we decided to go for the 3D version.

The version we watched today had Belle as the beautiful young daughter of a mad-cap inventor Maurice in a rather provincial little village.

An avid reader of books and markedly different in character from others in the area, Belle is the cynosure of all eyes in the little village including the egotistical hunter Gaston who wants her as his wife.

Being antipodes in character, Belle can’t stand Gaston.

Belle meets the Beast as she goes in search of her missing father who lost his way in the forest on the way to a nearby fair and ended up imprisoned in the Beast’s castle.

To help her father go free, Belle takes his place in the cell setting in motion the greatest animation love story ever told on celluloid.

Compelling Animation

Visually compelling and dazzling bright, Beauty & the Beast is a powerful film with a simple story and a strong moral anchor.

Now we’re of two minds if the 3D was that big a deal.

But since we haven’t seen the 1991 2D version, we can’t say for sure.

‘Tis true that we haven’t seen that many animations in our life but surely this is the best of ‘em all. No question about it.

Be it the wolves attacking Belle in the forest, the beast’s fiery countenance and temper (in the beginning), Belle’s dance in the village lamenting the provincial spirit of the place or the mob attack led by Gaston on the castle toward the end and a thousand other frames in between, the animation was done extremely well in Beauty and the Beast 3D.

More eye-popping than eye-catching.

And holding tightly the animation frames is the narrative and, of course, the music.

No Mere Animation

A tale as old as time
song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast.

There are animation films.

And then there are the animation musicals.

Beauty and the Beast 3D is an animation musical with lively songs and dances interspersed throughout this enchanting film.

Our two favorites from the film were the opening Belle and Beauty and the Beast.

Go for It

SearchIndia.com strongly recommends Beauty and the Beast 3D to all ye schmucks.

You putzheads are never ever going to see an animation film of this caliber from the Bollywood bozos.

Not in a million years.

Beauty and the Beast 3D is playing in theaters across Amreeka.

Go watch Beauty and the Beast 3D and tell us what you think of the phillum.

On Women in the Movies

Hollywood No Responses »

Dec 282011

* My understanding of women goes only as far as the pleasures – Michael Caine in Alfie (1966)

* They don’t yell, tell or swell, and they’re grateful as hell. – Paul Sorvino on flings with married women in That Championship Season (1983)

* Women are strange little beasts. You can treat them like dogs, you can beat them until your arm aches – and they still love you. Of course, it’s an absurd illusion that they have souls. – George Sanders in The Moon and Sixpence (1942)

* Don’t you know that we dames have got to be something more to the guy than a school girl sweetheart? We’ve got to be a wife – a real wife – a mother too and a pal. And a nursemaid. – Paulete Goddard in The Women (1939)

* All women are wonders because they reduce all men to the obvious. – Ken Niles in Out of the Past (1947)

* A woman doesn’t think. She gets stirred up….Now you know all about women. – William Powell in Life with Father (1947)

And now for SI’s favorite movie quote on women:

* They all start out as Juliets and wind up as Lady Macbeths. – William Holden in The Country Girl (1954)

Boy, Holden certainly got the distaff sex right.

Source: We’ll Always Have Paris – The Definitive Guide to Great Lines from the Movies by Robert A.Nowlan & Gwendolyn W.Nowlan

The Adventures of Tintin: A Delightful Outing

Hollywood 8 Responses »

Dec 212011

For fans of Tintin comics like yours truly, watching ace director Steven Spielberg’s animation debut The Adventures of Tintin turned out to be a rewarding experience.

There was a time in a distant era and a far off continent when we devoured Tintin comics like there was no tomorrow.

Blistering barnacles, we probably read the whole bunch over the span of a few weeks. And relished ‘em all.

So watching Tintin and his sidekicks Capt.Haddock and the smart white dog Snowy come to life on the big screen was an enjoyable moment for us this evening.

Not to forget the presence of the two bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson.

Just in case you’re the curious sort, Tintin was the creation of Belgian comic writer Georges Prosper Remi, fondly known as Hergé.

A Performance Captured 3D Tintin

Like Avatar and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Adventures of Tintin too relies on performance capture techniques of film-making.

For the uninitiated, this means real actors like Daniel Craig (Sakharine), Andy Serkis (Capt.Haddock) and Jamie Bell (Tintin) enact the scenes and their movements and actions are captured by cameras and digitally transformed into animation.

Visually-speaking, Tintin is closer to a live action film than a regular animation picture.

In some scenes, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’re watching a live action film.

But The Adventures of Tintin is not in the same visual league as Avatar.

Perhaps, because lush green forests, gray suspended mountains shrouded in fog, gigantic colorful birds and bluish human-like creatures translate into better spectacles on the big screen compared to the antics of a funny-looking youngster (Tintin) and the crew aboard a ship rolling on high seas.

Still, there were some moments in Tintin that told a powerful visual story.

Like for instance, when in the middle of a sandy desert Capt.Haddock evokes the fierce 17th century fight between his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock and the villain Sakharine’s pirate forbear Red Rackham on the rolling sea we were spellbound by the rich imagery unfolding on the screen.

But the increasing use of 3D in movies is getting tiresome because it seems like no more than a ploy by movie-makers to dip their fingers deeper into your pocket. The extra ticket cost is rarely justified by the use of 3D effects.

A Treasure Chase – On Sea & Land

Tintin is a reporter who joins up with the drunken sailor Capt.Haddock and the intelligent dog snowy to divine the secret of a 17th century ship The Unicorn.

It all begins, however, when Tintin buys a small model of the Unicorn at a street corner. No sooner does Tintin acquire the small model, a mysterious buyer arrives on the scene asking him to name his price for parting with the model.

Of course, the model is a key to unlocking the secret of the original Unicorn ship that sank to the bottom of the sea following a fierce battle with pirates three centuries earlier. Continue reading »

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