Month: February 2012 | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: The Grey [2012]

2012/02/102014/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“Live and die on this day” Struggling to find meaning in a life of solitude by punishing himself to self-exile in a desolate world caught between the pristine white backdrop of untouched snow and the turbulent mass of flesh populating it as a refuge from decent society, Ottway (Liam Neeson) wonders if the time has come to retire. Writing a note to the woman he loves but can no longer see except in memory, he recalls a poem from his childhood and wonders if his fight has led him to…

REVIEW: Senna [2011]

2012/02/102014/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“He could dance a dance with that car” Let me preface this review by acknowledging the fact I have no love for the sport of racing. I realize the amount of physical duress and athleticism it takes to do what these men and women do at insane speeds, but I can never bring myself to watch their cars drive along the same pathway for hours on end. Like baseball, the duration of time spent watching a monotonous display of activity over and over again can never be forgotten by one…

REVIEW: The Woman in Black [2012]

2012/02/092014/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“It’s just chasing shadows” Is it bad that the first thing to pop in my head after loving the gothic atmosphere of James Watkins‘ The Woman in Black was how boring Susan Hill‘s source novel must be? I can’t stop thinking Anne Rice-type bloat with flowery, dark vocabulary lulling you to sleep before the next big scare occurs. In fact, this is pretty much how I felt watching the movie, even startling awake with a huge jolt by a scream only to see the remaining hand print of condensation on…

REVIEW: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island [2012]

2012/02/072014/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“They will not stop until you feed them” After making a boatload of money—that’s the equivalent to one hundred millions dollars if you didn’t know—Journey to the Center of the Earth was almost guaranteed a sequel. Proving they could bring the fictional worlds of Jules Verne to life and somehow make it relevant to a bunch of kids barely able to put down their Smartphones long enough to read a magazine let alone a dense volume of literature, nothing would stop the studio machine from taking the plunge to Atlantis…

REVIEW: Daffy’s Rhapsody [2012]

2012/02/072014/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“Bullets whipping past my tail” Much like 2010’s Coyote Falls brought Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner back to the big screen in 3D computer form, 2012 reintroduces us to venerable favorites Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd in Daffy’s Rhapsody. Using the 1953 ode from Warren Foster and Michael Maltese with music by Billy May—in Mel Blanc‘s original Daffy voice—director Matthew O’Callaghan crafts a theatrical tale of a one-duck show a la Broadway spectaculars. It’s Fudd (Billy West)—fully formed onscreen with speech impediment intact—who starts things off by checking out…

INTERVIEW: Michaël R. Roskam (writer/director) and Matthias Schoenaerts (actor), of Bullhead

2012/02/072020/03/21 Jared Mobarak

Setting up my schedule for the Vancouver International Film Festival by rummaging through its website finding award-winners and acclaimed features worth checking out, it was still a bit of a happy accident I found myself in the Empire Granville 7 for a screening of Bullhead. Unaware of the press protocol for getting tickets due to it being my first day in the city, I found myself at the pass table about two hours too late from being in the tenacious daily morning queue. Miraculously, however, just a mere thirty minutes…

Top Ten Films of 2011: Melancholy with a slice of hope

2012/02/062020/03/31 Jared Mobarak

If anyone tells you 2011 was a bad year for cinema, stop in your tracks, turn around and walk away without ever looking back. They have no idea what they’re talking about. With a wealth of quality films from bonafide auteurs devoid of source material, the sheer amount of original work is astonishing. The trend for remakes will most likely never end, but it’s good to know artists in and out of the Hollywood system are fearlessly treading their own path to make movies exciting again. And by exciting I…

Top 25 Films of 2011

2012/02/062020/03/31 Jared Mobarak

(short and sweet and to the point; culled from watching 150 releases. constantly updated as i catch up to those i missed. click poster for review if applicable) #25: Win Win directed by Thomas McCarthy #24: The Adjustment Bureau directed by George Nolfi #23: Super 8 directed by J.J. Abrams #22: Source Code directed by Duncan Jones #21: Weekend directed by Andrew Haigh #20: The Interrupters directed by Steve James #19: Contagion directed by Steven Soderbergh. #18: Senna directed by Asif Kapadia. #17: Santiago 73, post mortem[Post Mortem] directed by…

Picking Winners at the 84th Annual Academy Awards

2012/02/052020/03/26 Jared Mobarak

For the next week and a half, Spree contributor William C. Altreuter, our online film reviewer Jared Mobarak, and me will share our thoughts on who will take home the Oscars. Let’s kick things off with … Best Supporting Actress. —C. S. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:Bérénice Bejo – The Artist as Peppy MillerJessica Chastain – The Help as Celia FooteMelissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids as Megan PriceJanet McTeer – Albert Nobbs as Hubert PageOctavia Spencer – The Help as Minny Jackson Christopher Schobert: Bill, it seems like every time you and I tackle…

REVIEW: The Innkeepers [2011]

2012/02/032014/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“Why do you always seem so surprised that I talk to the guests?” It’s rare to see an asthmatic this side of The Goonies, but something about a young, petite blonde puffing her inhaler in a horror flick reliant on making her scared enough to gulp air adds a little flavor. Fearless in her desire to have physical contact with the ghost of Madeline O’Malley, Claire’s courage is hard to maintain when an encounter becomes a possibility. The ailment is therefore writer/director Ti West‘s way to make his disenfranchised lead…

REVIEW: Journey to the Center of the Earth [2008]

2012/02/022014/05/15 Jared Mobarak

“No one gets dibs on the mountain guide” I feel really bad for Canada now that the adventure it holds for young Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) and his mother (Jane Wheeler) will never quite live up to the boy’s quick little Journey to the Center of the Earth. Perhaps it can offer something in the way of safety and stability where thin rock formations that crack under your weight cannot, but I doubt it possesses phosphorescent birds. And we all know how awesome those are. One could say our sister…