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E.J. reviewed...
Piranha 3-D (2010)
Piranha 3D is all kinds of stupid. Right from the opening sequence,… More
Piranha 3D is all kinds of stupid. Right from the opening sequence, the audience watches Richard Dreyfuss - yes, Richard Dreyfuss is in Piranha - reprise his roll from Jaws thirty years older. He may have been able to fight off a great white shark, but he's no match for a pack of blood crazy piranhas as poor Hooper gets eaten alive. Then the film turns into a gleefully bright Playboy video as all kinds of young teens bare all at a spring break beach party right before the piranhas decide to attack them. Literally, this movie is all sex and gore.
But as the opening sequence shows, Piranha 3D is meant to be taken as big, dumb, stupid fun. It's completely tongue-in-cheek, and the more it revels in its sheer silliness, the more fun the audience has. They even got Christopher Lloyd to reprise his role as Doc from Back to the Future, playing a crazed marine biologist who tells the characters all they need to know about these types of piranhas.
As with all teen horror movies, sex and death go hand in hand. The hornier the teens, the greater their punishment and likely graphic death. And since everyone in this movie is pretty damn horny, guess how many people are going to get eaten. Of course, our main teenager leads are still relatively pure, so they will just be placed in life-threatening situations, but they won't fall victim.
Alexandre Aja directs, and Piranha 3D just may be the first movie of his that I actually enjoyed. He understands the film he wants to make and he really wants to pay homage to the exploitation horror films of the 1980s. He knows what works in those movies and he doesn't try to make a serious minded film here. This is Jaws gone wild and silly. However, just because this movie isn't to be taken seriously does not mean that it isn't well made. The photography is absolutely gorgeous. The scenery is given that "beach shine" where there isn't a cloud in the sky, the sun gleans off the actors' golden bodies, and the colours are lush and vibrant. The underwater footage is also absolutely incredible. Even the actors recite the B-movie dialogue in an A-list way.
Piranha 3D is definitely not for everyone. It has it's core audience and it's catering to the demands of only that core audience. But Aja and company know what they're doing and they do it with pride.
8 days ago via Flixster
E.J. reviewed...
So I looked around the semi-crowded theatre halfway through What to… More
So I looked around the semi-crowded theatre halfway through What to Expect When You're Expecting. It was Tuesday night in the beaches, so cheap movie day!!!! As I looked around, I counted how many guys were dragged into this movie by their significant other, and from this number, I began to think about how many of these guys are in that stage of their relationship where talk of having babies has become one of the more front and centre topics of discussion. Once the credits rolled, I knew that even if those guys weren't having this discussion before, they damn sure will be now on the drive home.
I can't imagine too many teens running to the multiplexes to see this one. This is solely for the ladies in their late twenties to early forties who are either thinking of becoming mothers or already are ones and are using this movie as a way of looking back on their pregnancy days to laugh about them. So clearly I was not the target audience here, and I don't think I have the authority to accurately critique such a film. But here I go anyway.
What to Expect When You're Expecting seems to be a product from all the pregnancy books and manuals out there (it's based on one such book). The writers and makeup artists have definitely done their research, not only in accurately depicting the pregnancy bulge, the raging hormones, and the desire for both women and men to want children, but they've created a whole ensemble cast of characters that are all going through different kinds of personal trials. We have the teens who accidentally get pregnant, we have the groups of fathers who are charged with taking care of the kids, we have the infertile 30 something who is looking to adopt, and we have different women experiencing different kinds of pregnancy pains. Within all that, we are supposed to laugh at the jokes, the sometimes witty lines, ooo and aww at the cute moments, and then the babies are born. Lesson to learn: pregnancy is hell but it's all worth it once the baby is born.
This movie didn't offend me. It wasn't stupid, and some of the jokes were actually quite funny. But I think the over-saturation of characters and the "aw gush" ending still couldn't make me connect with it. Maybe it's because this movie wasn't made for me. But then I remember how much I loved Juno and Knocked Up and how much more satisfying those movies were....
8 days ago via Flixster
E.J. reviewed...
American Gangster (2007)
The great director Ridley Scott has three masterpieces behind his… More
The great director Ridley Scott has three masterpieces behind his belt: Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator. He can now add a fourth to that list: American Gangster.
Besides another great performance by Denzel Washington, not to mention the incredible supporting actors he has to work with like Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin, Arman Assante, and Cuba Gooding Jr., the film is a wholly original gangster picture. Denzel's performance is not to be understated however. His fans will get everything they watch the actor for; the smooth talk, the mannerisms, the bad ass stare, the yelling, and the cool demeanour. But like his best roles, he turns Frank Lucas into a fully realized character, a flawed but wholly sympathetic one.
The story focuses on how Frank Lucas was able to make more money than the Mafia through good business decisions. This film could almost be taught in economics classes, except for the fact that Lucas' product is heroine. Image, and an honest living giving back to the community were what helped Lucas get ahead, stay ahead for as long as he did, and never get backstabbed.
The film smartly contrasts his life with Richie Roberts (Crowe), who may stand for what's right, but doesn't impact his community the way Lucas does. Lucas isn't Scarface, nor is he Michael Corleone. He went a diferent way, which makes his story just as important as the others.
Ridley's production team successfully and accurately re-creates a gritty, realistic view of Harlem in the 1970s. They also don't shy away from showing what Lucas' product is doing to addicts. There's no denying that Frank Lucas does bad things. But given the world he grew up in, he did what he could to survive, and survive he did.
Note: I prefer the theatrical version to the unrated cut. I believe that Ridley made the edits for the theatrical cut for a reason and the additions interrupt the pacing and don't add any more depth to the already perfect narrative.
12 days ago via Flixster
E.J. reviewed...
The Hunger Games (2012)
Aside from a few story changes that don't really affect the overall… More
Aside from a few story changes that don't really affect the overall outcome of the narrative, the film adaptation of Suzanne Collins' brilliant novel, The Hunger Games, captures the political and social undertones while making a fast paced sci-fi action picture that doesn't exploit the idea of kids being trapped in an arena to fight to the death. Director Gary Ross knows what he's doing. It helps that he had Ms. Collins as a co-writer and producer to help him accurately portray the novel in the way she envisioned it. That doesn't necessarily make for a good film; The Hunger Games is a great film because of its pacing, its focus, the performances, and the way the film skims over the violence of the novels for a more accurate portrayal of a nation that governs its people through fear and fascism.
Front and centre to all this is Katniss Everdeen, the young heroine played by Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence may be a bit old for the part, but she understands every little conscious and subconscious motive of her character. Just the slightest look from her communicates an entire page of inner monologue from her character in the book. Equally great are her romantic supporting characters, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth). The focus is not on them, but their limited screen presence adds to the complexity of the story and Katniss' plight. Woody Harrelson deserves a best supporting actor nod for his work as the always drunk but very smart Haymitch Abernathy. And the ever great Donald Sutherland portrays President Snow as the ideal villain who will have a very big roll in the films to come.
The film has a more epic focus than the novel, which focused solely around Katniss. It would have been too difficult and too shallow to make a film that satirizes reality tv without multiple perspectives. Ross and Co. remarkably succeed in adding new scenes and finding new ways of communicating all the things that happen apart from Katniss, making the nation of Panem seem as believable and real as the danger in which these children have been forced to be in.
The summer has started early, and The Hunger Games sets the bar astonishingly high for this year's blockbusters. This is a film with intelligence that understands that films work when the action and effects serve the story, not the other way around.
12 days ago via Flixster