Kimputer's Weblog

Jodie Foster is finally back in the seat, after a three year black-out (minus a small role in A Very Long Engagement, her last starring role was in Panic Room). Flightplan practically reaches Mach 1 with $24.6 million.
Second is another new one, Corpse Bride brings in $20.1 million in this stop-motion flick from Tim Burton, with his trusting starring man Johnny Depp (5th collaboration already).
Just Like Heaven drops two places, with $9.8 million. Another new entry at four is Roll Bounce. Targeting the colored youth, it skates together $8 million. The Exorcism of Emily Rose clings on to the top 5, with $7.5 million. It has now a respectable cume of $62.3, basically triple the budget.

I haven’t seen many romantic comedies this year, but the latest weren’t letdowns, so I thought I’d try another one, especially since the line up might be an indication for the quality of the movie. With Diane Lane, John Cusack and Christopher Plummer, you might think the acting part can’t go wrong. The writing and directing comes from Gary David Goldberg, who delivered drama and laughs in Familie Ties, and just laughs in Spin City.
Too bad though it didn’t go as I had expected. Diane Lane is much better suited for the thriller or drama type of movies. My face was especially sour looking when the mandatory punch lines were so weak, it was almost embarrassing. And Cusack is now officially in the danger zone of being typecast for the charming love seeking guy. Mix these ingredients with the VERY dull script, and you have a disaster on your hands. I don’t mind waiting for the good jokes, or the good story, but when you’re still waiting while the end credits come rolling, it’s really too late.5-.

While most guys stayed home, the gals had the power to decide the box office this week. Reese Witherspoon starrer Just Like Heaven, shoots to the top spot. The romantic comedy reels in a not so divine, but still a respectable $16.5 million.
Second was last weeks topper, The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Legal drama/thriller has driven $15.3 million out of the viewers pockets.
Lord of War, a satire starring Nicolas Cage, didn’t really rule, with $9.2 million at number 3. At four, The 40-Year-Old Virgin still keeps himself busy, closing in on the $100 million mark, with this week’s $5.8 million. Rounding out the top 5 is Cry Wolf, the low budget horror/thriller scares up $4.6 million, nothing to cry about if your budget is $1 million.

After the Sundance Film Festival, it finally is doing a limited run in the theatres, and maybe it should stay there, for whatever life there’s left in the movie. Typical independent film feel, with characters linking each other into one big story. It’s not that big of a story though, as it fails to gain any emotional bearing, and even characters don’t get a decent background in the two full running hours.
In short, it plays like Magnolia, but without the excellent writing and acting. In essence, it’s a magnolia that hasn’t been watered for at least a month. Nice to see Steve Coogan in a serious role though (from BBC’s Alan Partridge series).6-.

Second pairing of Ron Howard with Russell Crowe (after A Beautiful Mind), but this time in a more limited soft drama. It clearly doesn’t have the usual multi-faceted drama spectacle we’ve come to expect, and hence, this movie feels a bit bland. Setting and characters are only a handful, and with the 3o-ties style sets, it feels a little bit low budget. Story unfolds as expected, but the acting is up to par. The rest (direction, production design) is also adequate.7+.

Maybe the US public were possessed this week, because the top movie was The Exorcism of Emily Rose, having no real A list stars (Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson) and being based on a real story. It scared up $30.2 million, convincingly beating the next five total earnings together.
Second was The 40-Year-Old Virgin, still not running out of steam, with $7.9 million. The Transporter 2 slows down considerably at number 3, with $7.2 million (a 65% drop). Dropping one place is The Constant Gardener, keeping it green with $4.9 million. Rounding out the top five is Red Eye with $4.6 million.
At six is a disappointing opening for Samuel L. Jackson, a rare pairing with Eugene Levy (the father in the American Pie movies). Action-comedy The Man stands only for $4 million.

Russia’s biggest movie, and hence now also the biggest export product to date (with Fox Searchlight picking up distrib rights of this one, and probably financing the next two sequels), so I had to take a look what the fuss was all about.
Granted, with a paltry $4.2 million budget, it sometimes look very slick, including Hollywood style visual and tricks, but in the end, it’s the story that counts. And in this case, it’s a bowl of spaghetti. A simple story continues in countless meaningless threads, while only the 2 minute setup and 2 minutes end would have sufficed. Acting is reasonable, and so is the directing.
Touted by many fans as The Matrix with vampires, it couldn’t be more true. Too bad it’s literally so, meaning the structure and grand outline is the same (Good vs Evil, the One etc etc), so in the end, it doesn’t add anything new, except for the spaghetti I told you about (witches curses, vampires, prophecies, etc etc).6-.

I’ve had my share of direct-to-dvd’s for this year, but this one, technically, is not one of them. It had a one week screening, but nevertheless, overall reviews are still the same. Bad news.
This time, I kinda dared myself to watch it anyways, maybe just for the laugh of the bad quality (and the download pipe was somewhat idle), but sadly, no such thing. It’s the usual boredom that sets in at the very start of the movie. Waiting for the stars to line-up is a tough job (for instance, Dennis Hopper, Tara Reid, Macy Gray with lotsa second rates also, like Edward Furlong and David Boreanaz) and doesn’t provide me the laughs I hoped for. The direction is heavily flashback-based, and the action is below par.
This is really it for me this year. No more of this shit (Sorry Wesley Snipes, I definitely will not review your just released DVD of The Marksman).4.

With everyone rushing their old tv series remakes to the movie theatres, some people really forget to put the whole thing through the quality assurance engine. One of those that springs to mind was last year’s Starsky & Hutch, but that one had 2 comedians to save the day (just a bit). This one does not have such a thing, worse still, everyone talks with a contorted Southern accent (if you could improve one thing over the series, this would be it). Then there’s the story, which is absent. Also absent is the acting.
That leaves just the beautiful Jessica Simpson, right ? Or wait, maybe the blooper reel is really funny. No, not even that.
This flick actually has a PG-13 rating, but that’s outrageous. It should be limited to “Only 12 year old boys” to protect other people’s money, because that’s the only hazzard I’ve seen happening.4-.

Really small movie, but with a pretty big cast. Basically following a family (4 daughters) headed by mom (Joan Allen) after the father left the family. What follows is mostly safe storytelling, with nothing really out of the ordinary (usually the family bickering about the things we all bicker about). Several guy characters (Kevin Costner) put a romantic spin to this (really) soft drama (or even softer comedy), but it’s still Joan Allen’s character that always hovers around, captivating your attention. In the end, you’ll have smiled and frowned a few times, and while it’s not groundbreaking, it’s slightly enjoyable.7-.

The Transporter 2 drives a better leg than its predecessor, totalling some $20.3 million (about double the original opening). The actioner, this time directed by Louis Leterrier, with only one previous movie under his belt (Unleashed), but again, starring the same street fighting Brit, Jason Statham.
Second this week was The 40 Year-Old Virgin, not impotent by any means with $16.6 million and totalling $71.9 million. Third was The Constant Gardener starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. A healthy crop of $10.8 million is the result (showing in about half as many screens as The Transporter 2). Leftovers rounded out the top five with Red Eye taking $9.3 million and The Brothers Grimm telling a $7.93 million fairy tale.

A low budget war movie, trying to be a artie kinda movie, currently doing its round at selected film festivals and somewhere being released direct to DVD. Taking place towards the end of WWII, we follow two American deserter soldiers somewhere in Western Europe. From the start, you’ll get a gray-ish canvas to elevate the gritty atmosphere. Mixed in, too often, are oversaturated flashback scenes adding absolutely nothing to the slow moving story. Boredom sets in the first quarter to half an hour. As the adventure continues, we also hear voice-over flashback loops, again, WAY too often.
Another constant irritating factor is the musical score, and as the characters in the movie turn into a bit of psychos, so do you.
Written and directed by Jeff Burr, he’s better off writing and directing the usual low budget horror flicks that nobody will ever see (with self-explanatory titles like The Demons 5 and Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings).5-.

Another one from the indie/first time writer director batch, but this time it’s done for the cause of a real charity (Operation Smile), which probably means it’s going to be his only film. Based on his own experiences (parallel to the story’s father), we see one family in the States, and another one in Shanghai. We basically get to know what to charity is, and how it effects the life of the two families (mostly the daughters). While this ultra drama tries hard to be a tear-jerker, maybe a little bit too hard, it’s still a nice sweet story. Even if you don’t read into the charity part (which doesn’t really obstruct the story telling), it’s still an enjoyable uplifting movie.7+.

One of those independent movie that floats around for a long time, opening late in foreign countries, or ending up directly on DVD. A bit like A Sound of Thunder, except this one has a pretty nice concept (and a low budget, with a first time writer/director), where rich people can implant their children with a device which will record literally everything until they die. This raises many issues, changing lives of those who carry it, while others have moral objections. While only bits and pieces pass by pretty quickly, the writing is still pretty good. Good acting comes from Robin Williams, Mira Sorvino and James Caviezel. If you want to see an indie without the heightened risk of boredom, this would be it.7½.

Well, this sound of thunder is just pretty tiny burp, without any lightning for the extra effect. A mix of Jurassic Park and The Time Machine, it had potential. With $80 million in the pocket, the means is there to realise it. However, without a big studio backing it, somehow, all the money drained through a black hole somehow. The special effects are too obvious, and not even worthy of a high quality TV series. The story is not shocking, nor surprising. The acting floats around the mediocre mark.
Hence, it’s no wonder the movie was hidden in the closet for so long (originally to be released in 2002/2003). It might have been better to burn down the closet.5-.