A Nutshell Review by daface
-
A Nutshell Review: The Namesake
Books allow you to travel without leaving, and on the same note, movies too opens up a visual world that one can immerse into, going to places the filmmakers bring you, and experiencing and feeling the emotions that they try to evoke from you. There are few movies which leave me speechless at the end of it. Not because it's bad, but rather, on the contrary, The Namesake is a superb movie. I was in awe with so much that director Mira Nair managed to pack into its 2 hours, and the intricate layers that make up the movie.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/namesake.html -
A Nutshell Review: I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
I don't want to sleep alone - if you have incredible patience, then you probably won't have to. Otherwise, within 10 minutes, you'll fall into deep sleep, as did somebody in the same screening I went to. I have put off writing the review to see if my opinion would change, and I dare say it has mellowed down. I would have loved to condemn this Tsai Ming-Liang movie, but just like any other movie, its bound to have its lovers and detractors. I for one, disliked the film, but acknowledge its technical merits.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/i-dont-want-to-sleep-alone-hei-yan-quan.html -
A Nutshell Review: 200 Pounds Beauty
I am not trying to sound like a pretentious fool, but seriously, I am curious how do fat people take towards the onslaught of movies taking the mickey out of the weight issue? From movies like Shallow Hal, to Eddie Murphy's Nutty Professor, The Klumps and the recent Norbit, and now, this Korean romantic-comedy 200 Pounds Beauty. You'll left to ponder, how many fat jokes are there left to tell?
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/200-pounds-beauty-minyeo-neun-goerowo.html -
A Nutshell Review: Love and Honor
Love and Honor is the concluding chapter to director Yoji Yamada's loose samurai trilogy. Personally, I have enjoyed the other two, Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade, because they are extremely well made, and have important stories to tell, rather than focusing its energies onto huge action sets with plenty of sword wielding, and Love and Honor is no different.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/love-and-honor-bushi-no-ichibun.html -
A Nutshell Review: Wild Hogs
Major stars getting together for a road trip? Sounds like fun to me, and if the trailer was anything to go by, it was potential for serious laughs as middle aged men band together for some serious male bonding session while hitting the road. Wild Hogs are what Doug, Woody, Bobby and Dudley call themselves - biker dude wannabes who spend their free time mucking around a biker pub, sharing their life's woes.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/wild-hogs.html -
A Nutshell Review: Smokin' Aces
I've enjoyed Joe Carnahan's earlier movie Narc when it was shown here years ago, a gritty undercover narcotics cops and robbers story with Patric Jason and Ray Liotta as a crazed unorthodox cop. Here in Smokin' Aces, a few of the same techniques are employed as to the presentation and style in which the movie was shot, and it makes this movie such an adrenaline rush.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/smokin-aces.html -
A Nutshell Review: Turistas
Turistas is a clear cut Hostel wannabe. The similarities are obvious, with a group of backpacking tourists having the time of their lives, only to have their vacation cut short after taking advice from outsiders, and find themselves in compromising situations which threaten their lives. It's a race against their aggressors as they try and escape... doesn't it all sound so familiar?
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/turistas.html -
A Nutshell Review: Fracture
If you were salivating at the prospect of Ryan Gosling and Rosamund Pike getting hot and heavy under the sheets as suggested by the trailer, well, just so you know, all those uber sexy scenes got snipped off. Not that it's the work of the local film censors, as it's passed clean without cuts here, and watching the film transition between the scenes, it's gone without a hint of a bad edit. Somehow it's good to rid of the distractions to focus on the much touted cat and mouse game between Sir Anthony Hopkins' character and Gosling's, vis-a-vis a face off between a multi-award winning actor, and a young up and coming rising star.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/fracture.html -
A Nutshell Review: The Hills Have Eyes II
I had actually liked the remake of Wes Craven's Hills Have Eyes, which was shown here last year. Directed by Alxandre Aja, it was top notch violence and gore which actually sent a chill, because the victims were an innocent family out for a holiday, and to see them getting systematically deeper into trouble, somehow makes it rather horrific to sit through.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/hills-have-eyes-ii.html -
A Nutshell Review: The Last Mimzy
Directed by the current CEO of New Line Cinema, The Last Mimzy is a children's fantasy movie which goes along the grains of having its children protagonists developing special powers, communicating with one another and with an alien object that no adult (or anyone else for that matter) can, and to help save some futuristic civilization. Sounds like a typical walk in the park for any children's movie you might add.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/last-mimzy.html -
A Nutshell Review: The Good Shepherd
A shepherd tends to his herd, and keeps a lookout for that wolf in sheep's clothing. Robert De Niro directs The Good Shepherd, written by Eric Roth (who also wrote Munich, Ali and The Insider), a tale about the early days of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), its founding and the black eat black world of spy versus spy, as seen from the fictional Edward Bell Wilson (Matt Damon), tasked with the responsibility of setting up the all important counterintelligence wing.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/good-shepherd.html -
A Nutshell Review: Provoked
There were two reasons why I had decided to catch this film, and they are the beautiful Aishwarya Rai and composer extraordinaire A. R. Rahman. Provoked is based on the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, whose autobiographical book "Circle of Light" forms the basis of this movie. However, its textbook delivery style resulted in a film that's quite plain, despite its powerful potential in examining domestic violence against women.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/provoked-true-story.html -
A Nutshell Review: Retribution
Retribution, punishment that is considered to be morally right and fully deserved. And for those who, like myself, have not gotten warned enough from writer-director Kyoshi Kurosawa's earlier duds like Loft, watching Retribution is retribution enough for not heeding that warning with its red light flashing from a distance. I enjoyed Kairo, but somehow the subsequent works of his which I've watched, failed to captivate just as much.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/retribution-sakebi.html -
A Nutshell Review: The Wind That Shakes the Barley
The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a mouthful, and it plays like a thinking man's Braveheart. While Mel Gibson's Academy Award winner was set in the 13th Century with the Scots battling the English for independence, Wind tackles similar subject matter about oppression, the rallying to arms and the battle for independence, set in early 20th Century in Ireland, sandwiched between the two World Wars. As such, there are many parallels between the movies in terms of the politics behind the scenes, the arguments for and against their rationale of armed resistance and struggle, though Wind doesn't have the large scaled set action pieces for war, and it doesn't need to.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/wind-that-shakes-barley.html -
A Nutshell Review: Partition
Purists who were up in arms about Chinese actresses playing Japanese characters like in Memoirs of the Geisha will probably flip again at the portrayals of Indians by non-Indian actors, and could cite again similar examples whether the country of origin lacked capable actors to pull the roles off (Of course not, this is Bollywood we're talking about, certainly no lack of actors). But hey, this is a Canadian production, and those detractors were likely to have some axe to grind with Hollywood-ized versions of such movies, leaving this movie alone. Or maybe the subject matter explored here outweighed such negative, meaningless, counterproductive thoughts and arguments.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/04/partition.html -
A Nutshell Review: Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 ushers in this year's many sequels in what would be a crowded blockbuster summer, but the question on everyone's lips is, with so many villains he's up against, will our friendly neighbourhood arachnid prevail the movie sequel curse - that with many villains and being the third superhero movie in the franchise, it will most certainly be a dud and a victim of its own success? Sam Raimi will have none of that, and found a special x-factor from within his own Spidey movie franchise to ensure sustainability. And it worked great.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/spider-man-3.html -
A Nutshell Review: The Passion
"This Year's Most Controversial Sex Thriller" proclaims the blurb on the promotional poster. Whoever wrote that must either be out of their minds, or must have watched a different version which contained so many raunchy sequences they were left out for private consumption. But it worked though, as I theatre I went to had screenings which totally sold out.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/passion-ammahit-phitsawat.html -
A Nutshell Review: Summer Palace
In any case, the same old marketing gimmick was to hype that this as the most erotic movie from China, and naturally drew audiences in like bees to honey. I've long classified broadly that movies of the romance genre can usually be grouped into the romantic comedies which Hollywood does well enough, and the romantic tragedies which try to bring out those tears. I've forgotten one more group, so add this to the broad classification now - those that want to titillate. Summer Palace attempts to explore relationships from its leads against the historical backdrop of change in China, but falls flat and seemed to prefer to focus on humping.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/summer-palace-yihe-yuan.html -
Sorry...post wrong area...
-
A Nutshell Review: 28 Weeks Later
Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo takes over from Englishman Danny Boyle in the followup movie to the latter's excellent 28 Days Later, and has come up with something worthy. Should a third movie be made and doesn't screw up the good work already done, it should make a pretty neat trilogy. I enjoy the legendary George A Romero's zombies in his movies, though I have to confess I prefer those in the 28-later series, as their constant running pace provides a shot of adrenaline when our helpless victims try in futile to escape, and somehow in that reckless speed, make them truly terrifying (ok, cos I can't run, and if caught in that kind of situation, I'll be dead meat).
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/28-weeks-later.html -
A Nutshell Review: Priceless
Directed by Pierre Salvadori, Pricess is one heck of a delightful gem. It is playful, cheeky, touching yet breezy, and boasts excellent chemistry between its leads, which is crucial to pull off a romantic comedy so dependent on their banter and interaction.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/priceless-hors-de-prix.html -
A Nutshell Review: Next
I was wondering the strange selection of Nicolas Cage movies to hit the big screens here. There was no love for his Weather Man or Lord of War, which seem on the surface to be probable successes, and I thought World Trade Center was a mediocre effort, no doubt hitting the big screens because of the subject matter, and helmed by Oliver Stone, who seem to be quite muted and didn't turn on the controversy tap. His latest, recent effort in Ghost Rider was fun, but unmemorable.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/next.html -
A Nutshell Review: Blades of Glory
I'm fast converting to a Will Ferrell Fan, given that I've laughed out loud at his silly antics, in particular, the recent effort in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. And now, joining forces with yet another up-coming comedian in Jon Heder (School of Scoundrels, The Benchwarmers), I had high hopes of watching Blades of Glory to chase the week's blues away.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/blades-of-glory.html -
A Nutshell Review: Udon
Don't watch Udon on an empty stomach, or you'll be tempted to gorge on those Japanese noodles right after the screening. Despite its simple presentation, watching bowls after bowls of noodles in your face, and the characters slurping them down with gusto, somehow leaves you with an imagined flavour in your mouth as they smack their lips, while you smack at nothing.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/udon.html -
A Nutshell Review: Bridge to Terabithia
Based on a children's fantasy story written by Katherine Paterson, and produced by the same company that did the latest Chronicles of Narnia, I thought that the movie would probably be mediocre given my lukewarm response to films of similar genre like Pan's Labyrinth and The Last Mimzy. And how wrong was I. Bridge of Terabithia trumps over all the movies mentioned, basically because it had a good story to tell, and stuck to telling that story instead of being distracted by the bells and whistles of special effects.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/bridge-to-terabithia.html