Black Swan is exquisite, but it is no Requiem for a Dream. Whereas, Aronofsky’s earlier film was a mouth gaping tragedy, his newest picture is a mind stretching descent into madness. Both works feature key players’ journey into complete and utter self-destruction using distinct visual and sound techniques that the director is known for.
Anyone skeptical of the film due to the male-oriented marketing, including the title change from Rapunzel and dismissal of Broadway vets like Kristin Chenoweth and Dan Fogler from its roster of voice actors, shouldn’t worry. The film is no way a “modern” interpretation either. Aside from the shaky exposition from Flynn Rider, this film is a prime example of that classic Disney storytelling we all know and love.
Love stories are essentially the same — it’s a matter of how you dress them up. Many will see through Love and Other Drugs and count the romance clichés and formulaic characters, others will find the 1996 setting and the pharmaceutical angle refreshing. Both forces are hard at work in this film, but the tipping point goes in favor thanks to the leads, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.
The action in Faster is far more in the vein of Death Wish than Shoot ‘Em Up; brutality over kineticism and exhilaration. Faster is however relentless and often dark and the Rock sells his character with a passion. He is the reason people will venture to multiplexes this fall season and the man never disappoints.
127 Hours is the latest in a string of well-made films from director Danny Boyle, and is his first film following the huge Oscar-winning success of Slumdog Millionaire. Here he tells the story of Aron Ralston (James Franco), the ill-fated (or not, depending on how you look at it) hiker who journeyed alone into the Canyonlands of Southern Utah, only to fall and pin his arm between a rock and a cavern wall.
People complain that the government is full of “red tape.” No one can get anything done because of all of the bureaucracy and paper-pushing. There is a memo for everything from weapons of mass destruction to paperclip storage. The list of agencies winds like a maze and their list of duties stretch from border to border. It’s all a bit much. And Fair Game, a political thriller starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, suffers under the weight of the complexity of its focal bureau — the CIA.
The last three years, the last three months, and the last three days are presented in regularly identified acts of Russell Crowe’s latest thriller The Next Three Days. It’s your typical action thriller with a central character on the run who must beat the odds to escape. In this case it is John Brennan (Russell Crowe) who decides after three years of fighting through the court system to help his wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) beat a murder conviction to spring her from prison. The thriller packs a punch but is inevitably both generic and preposterous. Albeit entertaining, The Next Three Days is ultimately forgettable.
Opening with a rusty looking version of the Warner Bros. logo, an ominous warning, it is clear that we are getting a very different type of Harry Potter. Director David Yates sets out to show a gloomy, bleak world where war and repression are about to inflict the Wizard world.
It’s day six of our Harry Potter Countdown and the big day is nearly here. And to add to your anticipation for that big event we are reviewing 2009’s entry in the series Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
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After David Yates made a very dark, mature and stylist blockbuster and one of the best Harry Potter films Warner Brother showed their faith by allowing him to direct the rest of the series. But whilst he did not quite drop the ball, he was butter fingered this time round.
Day 5 in our countdown brings us to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and things turn for the darker now that Voldermort has risen again. In this film, the series receives its fourth and final director, David Yates. Despite its fourth director in five tries and even a new screenwriter, the Harry Potter franchise takes a huge step forward in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, based off the fifth book in the young adult fantasy series by J.K. Rowling.
