A Nutshell Review: The Fog
Hollywood has not gotten over its John Carpenter remakes, and The Fog is the latest in a series. From the trailers, we were teased that "there is something in the fog", but we do not know what. And no, despite being nice to look at and all, the Fog is not at all suffocating.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/02/fog.html
A Nutshell Review: Wolf Creek
Based on true events supposedly, Wolf Creek is an Australian production that adds its two cents worth to the slasher genre. However, audiences today won't buy too much into "based on a true story/event/life/etc" gimmick, especially if your end credits contain a line that reveals all events in the movie are purely fictional. Right.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/02/wolf-creek.html
A Nutshell Review: Munich
The Munich 1972 Olympic games will forever go down in infamy for the killing of Israeli sportsmen by a terrorist group known as Black September. If you wish to know more about the motives and happenings on that fateful day, including the ineptness of the Germans to manage the entire situation, resulting in the deaths of almost all the perpetrators and the victims, do check out the documentary One Day In September. But not to say that Steven Spielberg's Munich fares any less. My recommendation is to watch the documentary first if you wish to understand more of what happened before, then to follow up with Spielberg's movie for the tale of what happened after when the Mossad went after the mastermind planners. So that you'll not be as irritating as the bimbo sitting behind me asking her equally clueless boyfriend "what happened? Why like that?"
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/02/munich.html
A Nutshell Review: Gubra
I'm not going to review this in the usual manner. I hope I'll be able to dwell much more on what this movie meant to me, and how I related to it. It isn't easy, as my thoughts have been rather scattered, because Gubra meant a lot as I ponder during different times. I am most likely to watch it again, after yesterday's world premiere at GV Grand. So before I begin, let me warn you that the rest of this review (if I may still call it so) is full of spoilers. So watch the movie, then come back and read the rest of it. We will agree to disagree, and I truly welcome your views on your emotions towards this excellent movie. But before you leave, remember, you ABSOLUTELY MUST stay behind for ONE SCENE at the END OF THE CREDITS. You will not be disappointed.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/02/gubra.html
You can also read about the dinner meeting with the director and stars here:
http://www.moviexclusive.com/article/gubra/gubra1.htm
or
http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/02/gubra-conversations-with-yasmin.html
and the world premiere coverage here:
http://www.moviexclusive.com/article/gubra/gubra2.htm
or
http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/02/gubra-world-premiere.html
A Nutshell Review: Underworld: Evolution
After Kate Beckinsale's Seline character got around kicking massive rear in slinky black lycra, we had Charlize Theron doing the same in Aeon Flux, and coming soon, Milla Jovovich in Ultraviolet. Sexy costumes, menacing weapons and killer moves seem to be the order of the day. It's no doubt that Underworld would have a sequel, since it was obviously hinted at after the end credits of the original, though it would be three years before it materialized.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/underworld-evolution.html
A Nutshell Review: Transamerica
Felicity Huffman is up and running for the Best Actress Oscar this year, and there's no profound reason to understand why. It's a challenging role, one in which she plays a transsexual. No, not a woman who wants to become a man, but the reverse. Meaning she has to have that constant subtle nuance that she's physically evolving into a woman through the assistance of drugs, while groping with the fact that others know she's a little queer.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/transamerica.html
A Nutshell Review: Nanny McPhee
It's been an awesome, unforgettable 2 weeks of Sepet/Gubra, and reluctantly, now it's back to the regular schedule of reviews, starting with Nanny McPhee.
Nanny McPhee, based on the Nurse Matilda books, tells the story of the Brown family. Mr Brown (Colin Firth) is a widower who has to single handedly bring up seven children. Make that seven mischievious children who has driven away a record 17 nannies. He needs to work to bring home the bacon, but cannot find a suitable nanny who could stand the children's antics. Until Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) turns up mysteriously one day (yes, she did knock), and weaves her brand of wit and magic into the Browns.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/nanny-mcphee.html
A Nutshell Review: Date Movie
What's the plot? There is no plot to speak of. It's just stringing together a series of spoofs into an 80 minute movie, drawing its material, and this list is not exhaustive, from movies like Briget Jones' Diary, Kill Bill, Meet the Parents, Dodgeball, Meet the Fockers (down to the kid and cat), Pretty Woman, When Harry Met Sally, King Kong, Hitch, etc. Some celebrities also get ribbed, like Mr and Mrs Britney Spears, and Michael Jackson.
Read more at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/date-movie.html
A Nutshell Review: Cry_Wolf
And so the shepherd boy cried "Wolf!", but alas, because he had given one too many false alarms, this time round, there wasn't any help rendered at all.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/crywolf.html
A Nutshell Review: V for Vendetta
Remember, remember, the 5th of November. Well, at least that was the original premiere date for V for Vendetta. It would also make a cool (gimmicky) date to open the movie, given that the Wachowskis also premiered their previous movie, The Matrix Revolutions, worldwide simultaneously on 5th November back in 2003.
But fast forward to today, where the Revolutions imploded, and much bad blood spilt from Alan Moore, the writer of the graphic novel from which the Wachowskis adapted this movie from, and giving it a fresh perspective and spin (since the original was set in the late 90s). But gone are the high-tech Matrix-y look, and in place is something quite down to earth, a futuristic England, which is now ruled by a fascist regime.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/v-for-vendetta.html
A Nutshell Review: [FOCUS: First Cuts #1] The Shoe Fairy
The Shoe Fairy is a modern day fairy tale. One which isn't kind to its genre to begin with, highlighting the evil witch and wolf characters and their impending bloody demise in each tale. The Chinese title "Ren Yu Duo Duo" will already hint about the fairy tale from which this movie draws its inspiration from, with "Ren Yu" being mermaid (in this context). Like the Little Mermaid, Dodo (Hsu) looks normal, except that she cannot use her legs. A miraculous operation allowed her to walk again, and slowly she develops an obsession with shoes. Loads of them.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/focus-first-cuts-1-shoe-fairy_17.html
A Nutshell Review: Dorm
Dorm refers to the dormitory of an all boys boarding school. Chatree (Charlie Trairattana) gets sent to the school by his parents, against his wishes. I believe almost everyone would be familiar with the feeling of being uprooted from one school to go to another (be it upon graduation or otherwise), where there's a sense of loss somewhat, especially with friends.
Read more at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/dorm-dek-hor.html
A Nutshell Review: Mad Hot Ballroom
New York City elementary schools have a 10 week long co-curricular activity (CCA) for its students, where they learn ballroom dancing, and then compete in a city wide dance competition. How cool is that? Finally, a CCA from which you can actually learn something useful, a skill that stays with you for life. Imagine learning from young, the steps to the Tango, Foxtrot, Swing, Merengue, etc. Wow.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/mad-hot-ballroom.html
A Nutshell Review: The Hills Have Eyes
Unlike the teenage swingers in Creek, or rich frat kids in Cry_Wolf, The Hills Have Eyes sets focus on a typical family - mom, dad, 3 kids, one of whom is already married to a telco salesman, and have a newborn baby. They're on a road trip (very popular movie element hor?) and made a pit stop at a dinghy petrol kiosk (doesn't it always?), with a sly and suspicious looking pump attendant (stereotypical, I know). They're directed to a short cut (uh-oh, bad) in the middle of the New Mexico desert on the way to California, and naturally, their vehicle encounters an accident - yes, in the middle of nowhere, to set the scene.
Read more at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/hills-have-eyes.html
A Nutshell Review: District 13 (Banlieue 13)
It's errorneous to interpret "A Film By Luc Besson" that the marketing folks slap on the movie posters these days. Besson has of late been lending his name for that purpose on many movies, but nope, he's not the director. Usually involved in another capacity, like writer, or producer.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/district-13-banlieue-13.html
A Nutshell Review: Russian Dolls
Russian Dolls are those wooden toy dolls, which can be opened to reveal another doll, and opened again to reveal another, until you reach the final, tiny one. That in essence, is the movie's message on love and relationships. How do you know that the person you're with, is that final soulmate, the final tiny russian doll at the end of the chain? Or are you still stuck in the process of searching, and breaking up, and perpetually wondering and keeping a lookout for that someone else perceivably better?
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/russian-dolls-les-poupes-russes.html
A Nutshell Review: Invisible Waves
It's basically an extremely weak piece of storytelling, with a non-existent, juvenile story. I equate it to a primary school kid's first composition, and the worst kid in class can come up with something more imaginative and interesting. The story does not engage at all, and the characters, you'd wish that they all die to save you the misery of trying to understand them.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/invisible-waves.html
A Nutshell Review: The New World
For the new generation bred on Disney's Pocahontas, The New World is a more adult take on the tale. There is no song and dance, there is no "magicalness" in this new world, and there are no characters perpetually on prozac. Think along this line: the Louis Cha martial arts classic series The Condor Heroes, and Wong Kar Wai's Ashes of Time. The former being Disney's Pocahontas in ease of understanding, the latter being Mallick's movie. Same characters, similar stories, in a grittier adult environment.
Read more at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/new-world.html
A Nutshell Review: Three Times
Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-Hsien's movie at The Picturehouse is a movie with three stories told very distinctly, one story after another. Take it as three short films rolled into one, with each actor playing different roles, each character having no distinct relation to their counterparts in different eras. Having them set in 1966, 1911 and 2005 provided vastly different material for each short film to stand out from one another.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/three-times.html
A Nutshell Review: Ultraviolet
I hate to say this, but Ultraviolet is this year's Elektra. It's a bad hybrid of Aeon Flux, Underworld, Resident Evil and Elektra combined using the production style of Sky Captain, shot against digitally created scenes. Not that it is bad though, I actually sincerely believed, from the trailer, that it had potential to be a really good Milla Jovovich vehicle. Sadly, I was quite disappointed.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/ultraviolet.html
A Nutshell Review: Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Similar to the first Ice Age, the promotional material for the sequel was out in the theatres way in advance, and courtesy of the Scrat character too, up to its usual antics of getting to that elusive acorn. Here, Scrat opens the movie, and emulating the style of the first, he provides most of the laughs, also as an intermission from the actual scenes from the main cast.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/03/ice-age-2-meltdown.html
A Nutshell Review: Inside Man
It's a slick heist thriller, which doesn't conform to the notions of how a heist movie should be. It's the feel good factor at the end of the movie that makes this movie satisfying. This is perhaps the most accessible, and commercial of all Spike Lee Joint films. I'd watch it again, for its engaging politicking story, and for that opening credit sequence.
Read more at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/04/inside-man.html
A Nutshell Review: Rent
The musical movie reunites most of the original cast in the Broadway production, making it a pretty accurate film version in terms of having the right persons play the roles they've already become familiar with. Telling the life of a struggling group of Bohemians in the East Village of New York City, having the musical immortalized on celluloid enabled the production to reach out to commercial masses at the price of a movie ticket.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/04/rent.html
A Nutshell Review: The Producers
Before I start the review proper, since there might be some who just like a peek at what the movie offered and missed out on my all important tip, so I shall mention it first. Stay until the end of the credits roll. Not only will you be entertained by the song sung by Will Ferrell during the roll, and some ad-lib at the end about buying 'Mein Kampf' from Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon, you'll be treated to one last short song-dance sequence sung by almost all the cast in turn, telling you to get lost, get out because the movie's over.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/04/producers.html
A Nutshell Review: [FOCUS: First Cuts #2] I'll Call You
I'll Call You is a modern day romance story, taking a look into what a girl wants, what a guy wants, expectations and the games people play. Manny is your average guy who has been luckless in love. Karen is your attractive television anchor, the quintessential party girl who doesn't know what she wants in a partner. They meet by chance at a pub, and Manny falls for her, hard, after a series of dates. However, Karen only thinks of him as a friend (don't they always?) and soon enough, the couple breaks up.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2006/04/focus-first-cuts-2-ill-call-you.html