Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 26, 2007 · Leave a Comment
“Call the florist” The 2007 film lineup has finally begun for me. Sure I have seen many movies thus far, but they have all been holdovers from last year. Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces is definitely a fantastic opener and a hopeful sign of things to come. A mixture of high octane action with some very […]
Category action/adventure, film reviews · Tags Alicia Keys, Andy Garcia, Arrested Development, Ben Affleck, Common, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Joe Carnahan, Martin Henderson, Nestor Carbonell, Peter Berg, Ray Liotta, Ryan Reynolds, Smokin’ Aces, Taraji P. Henson, Van Wilder, Zach Cumer
Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 25, 2007 · Leave a Comment
“Family dysfunction” My introduction to writer/director Yimou Zhang was his first foray into epic territory Hero. The film took the beauty of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and infused it with inventive and powerful storytelling a la Kurosawa’s Rashômon. As a result, the film was an amazing feat of technical and emotional brilliance. I […]
Category action/adventure, film reviews, foreign · Tags Akira Kurosawa, Ang Lee, Chow Yun-Fat, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Curse of the Golden Flower, Gong Li, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Jay Chou, Liu Ye, Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia, Mandarin, Rashômon, Yimou Zhang
Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 25, 2007 · Leave a Comment
(short and sweet and to the point; culled from watching 88 releases. constantly updated as i catch up to those i missed. click poster for review if applicable) #25: Déjà Vu directed by Tony Scott. #24: Lady in the Water directed byM. Night Shyamalan #23: Casino Royale directed by Martin Campbell. #22: Stranger Than Fiction […]
Category top 10 films by year, top 10 lists · Tags A Scanner Darkly, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, Babel, Bobby, Brick, Casino Royale, Children of Men, Christopher Nolan, Clerks II, Darren Aronofsky, David Lynch, Déjà Vu, El laberinto del fauno, Emilio Estevez, Guillermo del Toro, Half Nelson, Inland Empire, Joachim Trier, John Cameron Mitchell, John Hillcoat, Jonathan Dayton, Ken Loach, Kevin Macdonald, Kevin Smith, Lady in the Water, Little Children, Little Miss Sunshine, M. Night Shyamalan, Marc Forster, Martin Campbell, Michel Gondry, Pan's Labyrinth, Paul Greengrass, Reprise, Rian Johnson, Richard Linklater, Robert De Niro, Ryan Fleck, Shortbus, Stranger Than Fiction, The Fountain, The Good Shepherd, The Last King of Scotland, The Prestige, The Proposition, The Science of Sleep, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Todd Field, Tony Scott, United 93, Valerie Faris
Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 23, 2007 · Leave a Comment
“Can you ever forgive me?” The premise for The Quiet always had me intrigued—a deaf mute girl living with a family hiding some dark secrets. Seeing an opportunity to tell this secret, to someone that can’t speak it to anyone if she even read her lips enough to comprehend it, the daughter relays that she […]
Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 21, 2007 · Leave a Comment
“My mother told me to be wary of fauns” Finally Buffalo is able to see the phenomenon El laberinto del fauno [Pan’s Labyrinth] for itself. All the hype and the acclaim have definitely raised expectations for this film by visionary Guillermo del Toro. For myself, I really just wanted to see a del Toro film […]
Category fantasy, film reviews, foreign, horror · Tags Blade II, Cronos, Doug Jones, El laberinto del fauno, Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy, Ivana Baquero, Jim Henson, Labyrinth, Maribel Verdú, Pan’s Labyrinth, Sergi López, Spanish, The Devil’s Backbone
Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 20, 2007 · Leave a Comment
“Do you have monkeys in Scotland?” What happens when a precocious young doctor gets a feeling of claustrophobia at home and decides to travel the world to bring help while having fun in the process? Kevin Macdonald’s The Last King of Scotland tries to show us the answers in the midst of Idi Amin’s rise […]
Category drama, film reviews · Tags David Oyelowo, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Forest Whitaker, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Gillian Anderson, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Kevin Macdonald, The Last King of Scotland, The Shield
Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 18, 2007 · Leave a Comment
“Fantasies becoming reality” Argentinean director Fabián Bielinsky tragically passed away last June. Upon his death, he had completed only two films, 2000’s Nueve Reinas and this year’s El Aura. I have not yet seen his first film, however, everything I have heard has been rave reviews—it even got the American remake treatment in 2004’s Criminal. […]
Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 16, 2007 · Leave a Comment
“A vision of forgiveness beyond the grave” I now can say I have seen a Pedro Almodóvar film in the theatre. Sure I saw five of the eight films included in ¡Viva Pedro!, but those were dvd projections, while Volver was the real thing (as evidenced by it catching fire causing the six or so […]
Category drama, film reviews, foreign · Tags Abre los ojos, Alejandro Amenábar, Carmen Maura, Carne trémula, Chus Lampreave, Hable con ella, Lola Dueñas, Mar adentro, Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz, Spanish, The Usual Suspects, Todo sobre mi madre, Vanilla Sky, Volver, ¡Viva Pedro!
Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 14, 2007 · Leave a Comment
“No more music videos, that’s what I think” Alpha Dog is based on the real life incident perpetrated by Jesse James Hollywood, (surprisingly his actual given name), and his band of 20-something friends getting over their heads when their drug business hits a snag. Hollywood had a debt owed by another young adult and when […]
Category drama, film reviews · Tags Alan Thicke, Alpha Dog, America’s Most Wanted, Anton Yelchin, Ben Foster, Bruce Willis, Chris Marquette, Emile Hirsch, Harry Dean Stanton, Janet Jones-Gretzky, Justin Timberlake, Nick Cassavetes, Outside Providence, Sharon Stone, Shawn Hatosy, The Notebook
Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 12, 2007 · Leave a Comment
“He must have had on some really nice pants” The genre of uplifting, against all odds type stories is probably the second most common behind the against all odds sports tale. Every once in awhile one will come out that just blows the other away, however, they are mostly all just carbon copies of each […]
Posted by Jared Mobarak on January 11, 2007 · Leave a Comment
The day has come where all that movie watching during the year, all that money given to Hollywood players who need none of it, and all those buttered popcorn induced coronaries boil down to one person’s ego-trip of compiling a list of the best of the best. I now join the list of film-snobs everywhere […]
Category essays, top 10 films · Tags 300, A Scanner Darkly, Angel-A, Apocalypto, Babel, Black Snake Moan, Bobby, Borat, Brick, Children of Men, Clerks II, Crash, Flags of Our Fathers, Grindhouse, Half Nelson, Happy Feet, Inland Empire, Letters From Iwo Jima, Little Children, Little Miss Sunshine, Notes on a Scandal, Pan’s Labyrinth, Shortbus, Smokin’ Aces, Sorry Haters, Southland Tales, The Fountain, The Good Shepherd, The Illusionist, The Last King of Scotland, The Painted Veil, The Prestige, The Proposition, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Tideland, United 93, Volver, Zodiac
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