12 AND HOLDING

This week’s movie:
12 AND HOLDING

I used to be smart once.

I have this theory that we are all born knowing everything. All the mysteries of the universe – the sum total of human knowledge PLUS everything humans have yet to discover – is all there right in our heads from birth. But because the human brain has a limited volume, any acquired experience must ultimately push something else out. The upshot of this is that the older we get, the more we experience, the stupider we become. Ironically, babies are just not physically equipped to deal with omniscience. They might, for example, understand that quarks spontaneously decay in a degenerate spin field, but believe that this just a trivial matter that must be obvious to everybody – and instead, content themselves to totally dominating every other human surrounding them.

Humans tend to peak around 12 or 13 years old

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

Sometimes you just feel like watching a movie that makes you believe that one person can make a stand or even impact modern history.

This is the true story of a German university student who along with her brother Hans were apart of a secret movement called the ‘White Rose’ that distributed pamphlets’ speaking out against the Nazi regime. This movie covers her capture and interrogation over six days.

What I liked about this film is that the characters are simple yet powerful. Sophie could have been your neighbour, or just someone on the street, but it was her character under pressure that made her extraordinary.

This film is not like Schlinder’s List which is an emotional rollercoaster of the victims’ plight; in comparison this film is quite unemotional whilst still being powerful. There is no escape or tension filled action scenes it’s merely an individual’s expression of conviction through words and action.

WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

No one eats poop in this movie!

I find that a good indicator of the quality of a comedy is whether or not anyone ends up eating poop. In a lesser comedy, one that’s not intrinsically very funny, the film-maker will try everything in the Porky’s / American Pie / National Lampoon bag-o-tricks – even if it doesn’t fit – to try to get you to laugh. It often works because they know it will stimulate a little dangley bit on the underside of the brain that causes you to find amusement in the stupidest things – it’s a cheap shot – they don’t even have to work for it. You’ll probably laugh because you can’t help it, but you’ll immediately regret having done so – it’s not really funny when you think about it, and it gets old very fast. It’s an old trick. The old vaudevillians were always trained that when the audience wasn’t responding – do a pratfall – they have to laugh, they can’t help it. What can I say, humans laugh at stupid stuff. Why else would people tune in to television every week to watch home movies of people falling down, or getting hit in the nads with a soccer ball, or getting a pie in the face? This week’s movie, WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY, is funny from the opening scene to the very last fade-to-black. You’ll laugh, guaranteed, but those laughs will have been earned the hard way – with clever dialog and sincere adherence to the story’s premise and material.

A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

Most people know that World War I was no walk in the park. A few films even do a decent job of dealing with the horrors of trench warfare. Paths of Glory and All Quiet on the Western Front come to mind. As great as these two movies are, this week’s film is better.

A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT is not really meant to be about the war. It features the war, it graphically depicts the gruesome realities of the war, it even deals with the devastation that the war produced on the loved ones left behind – but it’s not about the war.

It’s about Mathilde……………….

TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

I can’t help it – but sometimes I just think about everything that’s wrong with the world.

In an effort to keep this review to a reasonable length, I’m limit myself to one thing – ghost stories. Ghost movies are inherently funny and not at all scary like they’re suppose to be. You might not notice it unless you actually think about it. If the movie isn’t scaring the beejesus out of me, my mind starts to wander and think about – well, logic. I start to ask too many questions, and then the movie is doomed. Ghosts just can’t stand up to logic. Try it yourself sometime – when you’re watching a ghost movie, see if one or more of the following questions don’t come to mind…….

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

When I think about it, I realize that it could have all gone terribly wrong!

I know that Stephanie recently reviewed this film but I thought it was time to add my recommendation to hers.

I never doubt the power of a film to reestablish faith in my fellow human beings ……especially those human beings in the film. Film people are so fascinating. When they’re well written, they lead fascinating lives, they experience perfect fascinating romances, they have exciting and fascinating adventures, and – and this is very important – always say just the right things – fascinating. They have problems – they resolve problems. They have conflicts – they resolve conflicts. They sometimes die, but you can always restart the DVD …….and there they are again! The Kinks’ song says, “I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show.” Maybe they were onto something.

BUT ………when a film is NOT well written or directed or produced, it could easily all go terribly wrong.

I live in small town USA. It’s not really that small. It’s not small enough for everybody to know everybody else – but it IS small enough for a lot of people to know a lot of other people, plus there are little sub-communities of families and neighbors who are very close-knit. But I can only imagine an entire town, even a small one, pulling together the way people do in this week’s film, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL.

Now here’s where this review can all go terribly wrong.

THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA

We Love Movies – SciFi Geek video recommendation of the Week:

Full of insane goofy sci-fi goodness.

When I was a little kid, one of my greatest joys was staying up late at night. I would stay up after my parents went to bed (on the weekends, of course) and watch the late night movies on TV. These consisted mostly of B-grade science fiction and monster movies. My 10 year old imagination readily sucked up features like The Forbidden Planet, Dracula, Attack of the Crab Monsters, and Plan 9 From Outer Space.

They weren’t necessarily great movies, but they were simple – and had the prerequisite elements for an exciting time. Aliens, monsters, vampires, commies, atom bombs, etc. And of course, there was at least one scientist who would figure out how to kill them all. The scientist was always the hero of the story (exactly the opposite is true in today’s films), and maybe because of that, I always wanted to be a scientist ………………….and do science.

THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (TLSOC) is not just a parody of these films. It doesn’t make fun of them. It’s more of a tribute…….

No 2

A New Zealand film (2006) written and directed by Toa Fraser that received 2 nominations at the New Zealand Screen Awards and won the “Audience Award” at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

As a European Kiwi I appreciate the special aspects of island culture, the laughter, the importance of family, the love of FOOD, and I expected to see this in abundance, Instead we start from a place of dysfunction where the family has let life issues and culture build walls to the point where the main character and family matriarch Nana Maria (Ruby Dee) no longer has cordial contact with her children and she misses the family times of the past where laughter and life were center stage.

BUG (2006)

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

Film makers have some nerve these days.

If you’re going to make a film called “BUG”, you should at least have the decency to make it about a government lab near an isolated rural community. The refuse from a secret experiment infects some cockroaches (movie rule #154: always use cockroaches for maximum “bug” effect), making them both super intelligent and super aggressive (plus they reproduce quickly – so they’re also super ……what? horny). They get out and head for toward town. Here’s where you can take time to introduce the main characters and give a little back-story. Cliff is a stranger in town. He’s just passing through, really – but he has a secret he’s not telling. Trevor, the sheriff, years ago had a relationship with Sally, the woman who owns the diner. Sally’s been widowed for four years now but has a teenage daughter who is dating (sort of) the smart kid at school – even though the football jock keeps hitting on her. Then, of course, there’s Professor Evans who, by coincidence, is an entomologist (he studies bugs). He will eventually find a way to destroy the bugs, but will be horribly killed before he can tell anybody. There’s the mayor who will refuse to contact the authorities or admit that there’s anything wrong. Then there are the Gladwells (Molly and Dan) who run their farm out on RFD 122, but don’t get too attached to them – they’re the first ones to get killed.

WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

I cried at the end of Old Yeller.

Of course I was only six, but still …… so what? I also teared up a bit for Grave of the Fireflies, and Love Story, and Ghost, and My Girl, and Bambi, and Pandora’s Box, and The Bridge to Terabithia, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. You know …….the usual tear-jerkers. The point is, I consider myself relatively normal. My black sense of humor non-withstanding, I usually react to films the same way that most people do. So – when I say that I found this week’s movie, about an afterlife populated by people who have committed suicide, rather sweet and endearing, it’s not because I have a warped sensibility (I do, but that’s not why), it’s because the movie really is sweet and endearing.

PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

I’ve decided that I don’t read enough books.

This week’s movie, PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER, is the big screen adaptation of the highly acclaimed bestselling novel by Patrick Suskind. It has been translated from the original German into English and various other languages. It was long thought unfilmable as a movie because it’s about the sense of smell – which is difficult to convey in a visual medium like film ……..but I guess they were wrong!

Once

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

Perfect!

It has occurred to me that, of late, my recommendations have been getting – shall we say – wordy. That is, long. I sometimes have a tendency, when I can’t think of what to write, to start off in an arbitrary direction (like now) and approach it from another angle. It also occurs to me that a lot of you don’t have time to waste and so, are not reading my post. I understand – you mainly want just enough information to decide whether or not this is a film you want to watch. So, I’ve decided to get this part over right at the beginning and let you go on with your day – and for anyone that wants to stay, I tell you WHY you should watch this film.

VERDICT: Yes! You should definitely see this film! You will love it! You will adore it! It will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and make you want to call your best friend that you haven’t seen since high school. Go out and hire it or buy it today! It’s one of the best movies of the year (2007 not 2008)!

GRINDHOUSE

We Love Movies – Cheesy video double feature of the Week:

DEATH PROOF

PLANET TERROR

Perfect memory rarely is.

The problem with memory is that the world is too full of detail. And as marvelous as the human brain is, it has a finite capacity. So, to conserve resources, it decides what is worth remembering – the rest is discarded. You know this is true – how many times, while driving, have you suddenly realized that you can’t account for the past twenty minutes? Were you not paying attention? Of course you were, but nothing happened of any importance, so why waste brain bytes? You usually do store a certain amount of detail – but with time, keeping it needs to be weighed against cleaning up the clutter and making space for new memories.

People my age remember the sixties as though it were the Golden Age. They remember the great music and the revolution (everything was a revolution in the 60’s), the Cultural Revolution, the political revolution, the sexual revolution, the civil rights revolution, and the lesser known squid revolution (people started eating more squid for some reason). They remember the excitement of big things happening and especially the music. Ask anybody around at that time and they’ll tell you the same thing, “The music was the best, and things – man, things really seemed to matter. Not like today.” Was it really that great?

No.

But the emery cloth of time sands down the structure of memory until you get a little polished marble that represents just the thing you’ve decided was important to remember, the essential concept. Details like The Cold War, the filth, the bad drugs, the gender gap, the generation gap, the bad music, clashes with the police over civil rights and the war, the “real” war in Viet Nam – these are just sawdust that end up on the workshop floor. Does that mean memory becomes less perfect with time? No, just the opposite. Memory becomes more perfect with time because it becomes more focused ……polished ……..shinier.

BLACK BOOK

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

World War Two was not my fault! Honest!

They tell me my ancestors came from Germany – maybe three generations before me. That’s way before WW2, isn’t it? That’s even before WW1 (which, by the way, was also not my fault). But I still have the German name and when I give it, in certain circles, some people still say, “That’s German, isn’t it? The Nazis started WW2 you know.” To which I have to remind them – my name may be German but I am not. Besides, I wasn’t in Germany during the war, and I was pretty young – too young to fight. To which they’d ask, “Really? How old were you?”, and I’d say, “Approximately ……….oh – about minus ten.”

The Holocaust notwithstanding, Germans sometimes get a bad rap for the war. I know plenty of Germans and some of them – a few of them – one or two ……..er, three …….. half a dozen at least – are pretty decent people. Now, I’ll admit that these are not war-era Germans – these are ‘far removed from the war’-era Germans. Still …….. I imagine that, even during WW2, there were good Nazis as well as bad, evil Nazis. I know people who will hate me for saying this stuff, but it’s true. In fact, it’s true for virtually every ethnic group you can imagine.

Having said all that, it’s still pretty hard not to villainize Nazis in WW2 related movies. It’s pretty cut and dry in films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler’s List, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Blues Brothers, just to name a few. Now, movies where you don’t have a clear cut bad guy tend to make you think. Quite often this is good. But films where you do have a definite villain to oppose tend to be more pure entertainment – such as the movies mentioned above – and such as this week’s movie BLACK BOOK.

PARIS, TEXAS

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

The tall man walked out of the desert.

When I was in junior high school, I wrote a short story that began with this sentence. When I wrote it, I thought it was pretty deep. The man later goes on to rob banks but I thought the opening was pretty good. Years later, in a college writing course, I wrote a short story that began with …..

A solitary robed figure emerged from the desert….

I thought the opening line was so good, that I wanted another shot at it. This time the man has amnesia. He can’t remember who he is, or why he was in the desert, and he robs only one bank. I’ve been thinking lately that I might try writing it again. Maybe this time, the man robs a bank THEN escapes INTO the desert. He wanders about for years – lost – until the statute of limitations runs out, then …….

Bearded and tattered, the solitary man emerges from the dessert.

There’s something compelling about this concept. It’s not just me. A few years back, reminiscing with an old high school friend, I brought up this story that I wrote. He told me about a story he wrote that started out almost exactly the same way. A year or so ago, talking to a friend about this film I just saw, PARIS, TEXAS. He hadn’t seen it but told me about a short story he’d written in which a man staggers out of the Sahara Desert and falls dead. The people in the village who find him try to fit clues together to figure out what happened to him. Why is this idea so universally compelling?

KUKUSHKA (THE CUCKOO)

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

The Tower of Babel was a cruel joke ……………….funny though.

Here’s a question for you. If everybody in the world spoke the same language, would we fight less …..or more? I’ve been to other countries. Places where I neither understand nor speak the language – where I don’t know what anybody is saying, and where nobody knows what I’m saying. And yet – I’m still here. Contrary to what many people believe, one can survive this experience.  The same can be said for movies.

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

We Love Movies – Video recommendation of the Week:

I’m writing this recommendation because I’m a firm believer in symmetry.

 

 

During my many years of studying Physics, I’ve developed a deep appreciation of symmetry in nature – of balance. I don’t believe much in God – but if I did, Physics would be his play-book, His Bible. Physics describes the rules that God himself follows right down to the atomic level. You want to know how he created the universe? Physics tells you how. It describes the basic building blocks that form every rule and law of nature from the microscopic to the cosmological. For every particle there is an antiparticle. For every equation there is a symmetric (or antisymmetric) equation that link different phenomena. Balance is key. You eat a balanced diet for good physical health. You balance work and play for good mental health. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For each heads there is a tails with equal probability. The only reason we tolerate evil is because we know there is also good to balance it. Wax on ………wax off.

 

 

What all this got to do with this week’s video recommendation? Nothing – except………..

Factory Girl

When I hired out this DVD, I had already heard that the acting and the storyline was….say… very poor. It had already failed miserably at the Box Office and had gone straight to DVD almost everywhere. So why do you ask, did I want to hire and review this film? – the clothes baby – the clothes!

Before one half of you switch off, I liken a women’s passion for designer clothes to men’s obession with World War II Fighter planes or Classic Automobiles. There really is nothing quite like it… Let me quickly run through the ‘plot’ so we can get back to the clothes. Factory Girl is based on the true story of rich socialite and Andy Warhol’s muse, Edie Sedgwick. She was an ‘IT’ girl of the 60’s, similar to Nicole Richie or Lindsay Lohan today. Edie was famous for being rich, the people she was friends with and her unique sense of style. And what fabulous Style it was!

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

For anyone who is has an interest in business, this is a must see DVD. The documentary looks at the failed Enron company. It looks at all the players and explains how this was the biggest and most significant corporate crime of the century.

I was absolutely ‘fixated’ on this whole, horrible story. Similar to the old fable ‘The Emperor has no Clothes’, Enron is a financial fantasyland until one day a Fortune Magazine journalist asks ‘How exactly does Enron make it’s money?’. Not such a dumb question.

MULHOLLAND DR.

We Love Movies -Video recommendation of the Week:

People are strange, when you’re a stranger …….then again, ’strange’ is relative.

Last week I recommended a movie called The Straight Story by David Lynch (of Eraserhead and Twin Peaks fame). I said that the film was probably the most accessible of Lynch’s movies. Unlike most of his other movies, it has wide appeal. It’s played straight (no pun intended), without venturing into the Twilight Zone. It delivers a feel good pay-off. It promotes positive social values. In fact, it has been praised both by film critics and spiritual leaders for its life-affirming message.

MULHOLLAND DR. ………..is not like that.

CAPRICORN ONE

This was an unexpected surprise in terms on a recent DVD hire. Set in the late 1970’s – only a decade after the first manned mission to the moon – a NASA team plans a mission to Mars. Or does it?? As a result this leads to a cover up or possible national embarrassment.

I must admit when I first watched the opening credits of this sci-fi movie, there was the thought of “Oh well this could be good money really poorly spent…”

But I was to be proved wrong. As I watched on – keeping in mind the whole time that this movie was made in the same year as the first Star Wars – it was easily apparent that some of the action aside (OJ Simptons is one of the lead actors), that this has a great sci-fi plot. So much so that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this got remade at some stage.

THE STRAIGHT STORY

We Love Movies -Video recommendation of the Week:

Let me tell you about my lawn mower.

I have a Honda self-propelled, super mulching push lawn mower. It’s the kind that doesn’t need a bag because it shreds the grass clippings so fine that they just disappear into the lawn. And you don’t really have to push it – it goes all by itself and I just have to walk behind it. It’s pretty slick and I’m pretty sure that I’m the only person in my neighborhood to have one. I proudly use it once a week to cut my grass and make my lawn all even and beautiful. However, this isn’t quite the status symbol of suburbia it used to be, since all my neighbors have riding tractor mowers. I, myself, am not allowed to have a riding lawn mower for exactly the same reason that I’m not allowed to own power tools. The logic being – the greater the power, the greater the potential for disaster.

THE HOST

We Love Movies -Video recommendation of the Week:

Ode to the monster movie:

I just saw an outstanding monster movie recently called Cloverfield. It wasn’t like Frankenstein or Godzilla or any of the others I can remember from my childhood, and it will very likely change the nature of monster movies to come – a new benchmark – and when it comes out on video in a few months, I’ll have more to say about it then. But in the meantime, it reminded me of another great monster film I’d seen recently – this week’s movie, THE HOST.

Across the Universe

We Love Movies -Video recommendation of the Week:

There are two kinds of people in the world….

People are always saying this – about all sorts of things. But if you think about it, it’s the most absurd generality – that is, it’s true about almost everything.

Examples may include: “There are two kinds of people in the world ………”

• …those that put people into two categories, and those that don’t.”
• …those that like to carve dinosaurs out of baked potatoes, and those that don’t”
• …those with ears shaped like bake potatoes that are then cut in half then baked some more – maybe with a little pat of butter, and those with ears shape like potatoes that haven’t been baked at all.”
• …those who like to keep a baked potato on a string around their neck, and those that prefer to keep their baked potato ……..er ……….elsewhere.”

…and I haven’t even begun to explore the myriad possibilities of other types of baked vegetables. However, the saying only really has any meaning when it is used to make a distinction between groups of people that are approximately equal in number – like I’m about to do.

Inside Man

This movie did poorly at the American box-office and wasn’t even released at NZ cinemas, so when Wayne picked it out at the local video store, I wasn’t expecting much.

But boy was I wrong! This was the most enjoyable, bank robbery/ thriller I’ve seen in a while. Clive Owen and Jodie Foster were superb! This story has everything – an exciting and clever plot, twists and turns.

Steph’s Rating: 8/10

The West Wing – Season One DVD

This was strongly recommended by one of my work colleagues, who described it as a political drama with excellent acting.

So far we have watched 5 out of 12 episodes and are really enjoying it.

The characters are well thought through and their perspective on current political issues is very insightful. We are having trouble fitting more than one episode into an evening – so it looks like we will be re-renting this box set next week!

Match Point (2005)

Wow, this DVD was a wonderful surprise!

I was hesitant to get this movie out, knowing that it was written and directed by Woody Allen. However being a fan of Scarlett Johansson, I took a gamble and it paid off big time! I think I was expecting a romantic chick flick, but it turned out to be an intense ‘Fatal Attraction’ movie with suspense and intrigue. I was hooked throughout.

This movie is just fascinating and you just get so drawn into Jonathan Rhys Myers character, superb acting by him. Highly recommend if you looking to enjoy an emotional roller coater of love, obsession and betrayal.

Steph’s rating: 8/10

Big Fish (2003)

Easter Weekend – DVD review

A sweet, sentimental story about a dying father and his son, who is trying to learn more about his dad through his “tall-tales” over the years. In the re-telling of these stories, the son begins to understand his father’s character, achievements and his failings.

Although slow in places, there is a lot of wisdom and life truths in these elaborate pieces of fiction. This movie is quite different (unconventional), but I liked it.

Steph’s rating: 5/10

The Faculty (1998)

Easter Weekend – DVD review (Bargain Bin)

Wow, going back in time here! A teen sci-fi/horror tale set in an American High School where the students believe the teachers are aliens! Scary in places (but a SCREAM kind of scary – i.e. not very) and typically predictable. However, it was quite cool to watch these actors before they hit the big time (Clea DuVall ‘Heroes’, Josh Hartnet, Elijah Wood, Salma Hayek, Usher).

Overall, I liked it, based purely on the sole premise that as a young student you always perceive teachers as being ‘different or weird’ and this plays on those teen perceptions quite well.

Steph’s rating: 4/10