“We are men of the hood, merry at your expense” I’ll start this out with the truth: Robin Hood is not Robin Hood—and that’s not a bad thing. You’ll catch on very early once you realize the name Robin Longstride for Russell Crowe’s lead character isn’t an artistic change because it rolls easier off the tongue. No, the Loxley moniker does also exist; only it’s attached to King Richard’s right hand man, neck deep in the Crusades’ final hoorah. Throw in the fact The Lionheart himself dies within the first…
Read MoreCategory: War
BNFF10 REVIEW: Bravo Sierra [2010]
“The Maple Leaf will prevail” Sometimes a film can be successful as nothing more than a good time; a point driven home by the local Buffalo production Bravo Sierra. It’s a satire of the war in Iraq that is so over-the-top you can’t help but become part of the joke. While the first few minutes are funny, the performance of jack-of-all-trades Jason Aupperle, (writer, director, producer, editor, and star), seems too grating to look beyond. The film quality isn’t the greatest, the one-shot cutting abrupt as you wonder why two…
Read MoreREVIEW: Green Zone [2010]
“Don’t be naïve” Yep, that line above pretty much sums up the film Green Zone to perfection. It is not only used once, sober and matter-of-fact, but a second time as a retort with dry sarcasm. America invaded Iraq with the sole purpose of giving Saddam Hussein the boot and entrenching themselves into the very infrastructure of the country, causing it to not only have a puppet leader, but pretty much put their hand up the backside of the entire nation. At least this is what screenwriter Brian Helgeland would…
Read MoreREVIEW: Brødre [Brothers] [2004]
“He had a little boy” I really don’t mind Hollywood remaking films, honestly. If a filmmaker really enjoyed something made overseas, I can’t blame him for wanting to expose America to what resonated so well personally to him. However, shouldn’t he then go the route of Tarantino or Scorsese and bring the actual movie over, helping audiences experience the original? Or have we become so self-righteous and elitist that subtitles cannot be bothered with? Are we really that lazy? To be fair, I haven’t seen the new remake Brothers, so…
Read MoreREVIEW: The Messenger [2009]
“No such thing as a satisfied customer” Most times I feel that the story of a soldier’s return home is more interesting than anything that might have happened while overseas in battle. I think it has a lot to do with my enjoyment in a good story told with riveting performances, and what subject matter can deliver unforgettable acting fodder than readjusting to civilian life post-military? Oren Moverman’s film The Messenger doesn’t fall into that category completely as our main character still has three months of his tour before being…
Read MoreTIFF09 REVIEW: Agora [2009]
“I was forgiven, but now I can’t forgive” I will not deny the fact that Alejandro Amenábar is one of my favorite directors at the moment. With the eerily creepy The Others and the emotionally wrought Mar adentro, how could he not be? And why have I not seen Abre los ojos yet? Disgraceful I know. Well, you can imagine my immense excitement when finding out his new 4th century Egyptian epic Agora would be playing as a gala presentation in Toronto for TIFF. The trailer made it seem very…
Read MoreREVIEW: Inglourious Basterds [2009]
“F*ck a duck!” I like to think that the sheer fact Inglourious Basterds got made means that Quentin Tarantino isn’t all talk. Maybe, just maybe, that Whole Bloody Affair DVD compilation of the Kill Bills will come out. For now though, we should all be happy QT is back to form after his, in my opinion, misstep with Death Proof. As with his previous feature films, Basterds is above genres, mixing so much cinematic history and style to become a beast all its own. Parts WWII drama, parts comedy of…
Read MoreREVIEW: The Hurt Locker [2009]
“That’s spoken like a wild man” While reading about the new Kathryn Bigelow film The Hurt Locker, I found it very interesting that people were saying how it really doesn’t have an anti-war sentiment. I was always under the impression that it would be another liberal propaganda-driven message movie like all the others coming out recently. To my great surprise, they were exactly right. Rather than use the war to tell people already against it to protest, Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal decide to use Iraq purely as a backdrop…
Read MoreREVIEW: Летят журавли [The Cranes are Flying] [1957]
“I am always waiting” Director Mikhail Kalatozov’s film Летят журавли [The Cranes are Flying] is a glorious piece of cinema. From the screenplay by Viktor Rozov, based on his own play, Kalatozov shows us a vision of the heroism of war and the suffering by those left at home. Granted, the film was made in 1957, but having just seen it myself, I must say how much of a breath of fresh air it is. Inundated with countless war movies showing us the front lines and the carnage, the topic…
Read MoreREVIEW: Defiance [2008]
“We should have killed the milkman” A World War II film showing the Jews fighting against the Nazis? It seems like something that is so obvious a topic to portray yet I don’t think it has been done. We’ve been shown Jews surviving, staying strong and getting through the years through help from the resistance, compromising their values to stay alive, or just sheer good luck. With Edward Zwick’s newest wartime epic—the man is a pro at them ever since Glory—titled Defiance we get the unthinkable. Here is a ragtag…
Read MoreREVIEW: Valkyrie [2008]
“Long live sacred Germany” Bryan Singer returns to a world that isn’t inhabited with superheroes, joining an old friend in screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, a partnership that last resulted in The Usual Suspects. The question then becomes whether lightning can strike twice and if Tom Cruise’s thoughts that it would, by producing it as his second feature as head of United Artists, could be correct. With Valkyrie, a “based on true events” tale of high Nazi officials with enough guts to risk their lives to stop Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror…
Read More