Viva Machete!
September 2nd, 2010 by Gerard Iribe
“They f****d with the wrong Mexican!” You ain’t never lied! Chopped straight from the pages of Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror comes the tale of the man, the myth, the MACHETE! Featuring an all-star cast that include: Danny Trejo, Robert DeNiro, Jessica Alba, Jeff Fahey, Michelle Rodriguez, Don Johnson, Lindsay Lohan, Steven Seagal, and Cheech Marin, the film continues the tradition (at least in 2010) of eclectic casting (The Expendables and RED come to mind). I was honored to have had a chance to screen the film before audiences and nearly had a stroke in doing so. Machete kicked my butt! Continue reading ‘Viva Machete!’
So this is less of a review and more of an extended note, with absolutely no spoilers, regarding the newly released Special Edition of James Cameron’s Avatar (maybe some of you have heard of it) playing exclusively on 3D and IMAX screens now. My actual review of the film can be found 
As the trailer for Takers first rolled some months back, I cringed at the spectacle. It appeared to be a movie of hipness and not functionality. It contained a bunch of good-looking guys who aren’t necessarily known for their acting abilities, but more for their chiseled features. The premise is nothing new. A crew of seemingly capable guys plan the ultimate heist and hit a snag of potentially jail-stay proportions along the way. What could this possibly offer that none of its bank-robbing predecessors have already delivered? 
I don’t have a problem with the “found footage” style of filmmaking. I think, when done well, it’s a fun way of telling a story. That being said, there are the other times when one just has to wonder why someone would still be filming, which tends break the tension of the situation. I had this problem during The Last Exorcism. There has to be a solid 40 minutes of movie here, but for the most part, the movie just didn’t deliver well enough, with both the problems I had with in the handling of the film style and the really terrible “rug-pull” ending. 
It’s seemingly tough to get a solid film about the war in the Middle East out there, but more and more are being made, and this is certainly one of the more successful ones. Stemming from an assignment for Vanity Fair, journalist and photographers Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington’s spent a year dug in with the Second Platoon in one of Afghanistan’s most strategically crucial valleys. The footage captured reveals great insight into the surreal combination of backbreaking labor, deadly firefights and camaraderie as the soldiers work to push back the Taliban and keep the locals at bay. 
After Jonah Hex and The Last Airbender, I really thought my days of walking out of the theater pissed off this year were far behind me. And then there was last week’s press screening of The Last Exorcism. This is not how I usually start off my reviews, but I’m going to get this off my chest right now…I hated The Last Exorcism. If I had a choice, I think I would actually love to watch Bounty Hunter over this again. There I said it. I hated it. Damn! I feel better now! It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off of me. 
Animal Kingdom is an Aussie crime thriller that benefits from fantastic direction as well as marvelous and restrained acting from everyone involved. This is a film that is thrilling, but doesn’t rely on slick editing, instead placing emphasis on sequences built around tension, focus and concentration. The scope of the film isn’t large, but even while only centered on a small family, I was never fully aware of the turns this film would take. Less concerned with focusing on the activities of Melbourne crime families on a large scale, this film follows the plights of few a characters and is incredibly well constructed in that regard. 
There was a time when this film was threatened with the possibility of not being released, only to later be threatened with having a release, but not a 3D release. Fortunately enough, the powers at be made it possible for this film to be release as intended, thus preserving its artistic integrity. Anyway, there is a prolonged sequence featuring a very naked Kelly Brook swimming underwater with her very naked companion, accompanied by the orchestral theme “Viens Mallika Sous Le Dome Edais from Lakme.” This sequence earns the film its first star. 
Although I went into the press screening of Lottery Ticket with zero expectations, I can’t say that I have not been fascinated about this movie’s premise my entire life. My mind is so complicated by the way I process the real world. Instead of thinking how a winning lottery ticket could change my life for the better, my mind instantly drifts off to that dark place in regards to worrying about the safe keeping of that physical ticket until I can cash it. I mean, a lot can happen to a piece of paper, right? 
Leading up to the release of The Expendables, the main joy came from the fact that Sylvester Stallone had managed to pull together a ton of action stars, from multiple decades, all in for one seemingly cheesy action movie. While the film certainly delivered in that respect, I found the overall result to be more fun as an idea to be excited for and to talk about rather than when actually viewing the film. Both the hard-hitting action and stupidity on display certainly made me enjoy the film overall, but I can’t help but think it could have embraced its over-the-top concept for somewhat better results. 
I think when every red-blooded male heard that Sylvester Stallone was putting together a film that contained some of the most popular action stars from the 80’s and today, they got all googly-eyed as if they had just seen the gates of cinema heaven. I should know. I was one of them. It wasn’t long after then that I discovered actors like Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger would have nothing more than cameos in the potential blockbuster. Booo. Nevertheless, the active lineup is still impressive. 
My love for writers/directors Robert Rodriguez and Christopher Nolan is not a secret around here, but one man that often gets overlooked, because of his UK presence in my opinion, is Neil Marshall. He put out a pair of my favorite films in the past five years, Descent and Doomsday. Now I did not mean to make it seem like these are my two most favorite films of the past five years, but rather I would like to come across by expressing the fact that they are in an elite class of what I would consider to be my most desirable and most watched movies made since 2005. 
Here’s a genre mix – A fanciful comedy set in the world of a gritty buddy cop film. I say this because this movie never tries to make its world feel real, despite being filmed as if it were from the door steps of a Michael Mann cop drama. Instead, we have a film that deals with the basic tropes of a buddy cop film, and pokes fun at them, as well as injects a good amount of absurdist humor that many Will Ferrell films have been known for. 
Some of you probably know by now that I’m not very favorable of 3D. It started out as a gimmick, was revived as a gimmick, and will die as a gimmick. Still, when I saw the 2D previews for Step Up 3D, I saw potential for some impressive use of the novelty technology. So can a little street dancing and 3D make a good marriage on film? It was actually the wife of Why So Blu guru Brian White who said of the Step Up franchise, “You really don’t see them for the story. It’s more for the dancing.” 
Stop! I want to play a game. No, not like Jigsaw does in the Saw movies, but I want to play good cop, bad cop. What? You want to be the bad cop too? How will that ever work out? Well if you are talking about the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg action-comedy film The Other Guys, I have a hunch that’s it’s going to work out to be a pretty ball-busting hilarious good ole’ time. But that’s just me. I don’t mind giving this film a shameless plug or two right off the bat. 
From the fiery depths of geekdom, director Edgar Wright has emerged with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a film daring to defy the conventions of both romantic comedies and action films. His adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim comic book series is a wonderful blend of comedy, action, romance, music, and great visual storytelling. This is a film bringing together a hip young cast, plentiful video game references, innovative action sequences, and a strong alternative/indie rock soundtrack. It’s a blast of entertainment for anyone ready to experience a kinetic jolt of fun unlike anything seen at this level. 
So it occurred to me the other day that Rob Reiner, with the exception of North, had directed a string of very good to great movies up to the mid 90s. After that, he seemed to have lost his way a bit. I am glad to say that this new film of his is a solid coming of age story and in the same sense, a very nice throwback to the “coming of age story” genre in general. Adapted from the 2001 young adult novel of the same title, this film is a lean, nicely paced, teen romance story that works exceptionally well at being entertaining. 
The Kids Are All Right is a well-balanced “dramedy” (comedy/drama) about an unconventional family, dealing with the arrival of another member of the family who is related in an unconventional kind of way. The lightness of the tone, mixed with the overall themes involving family and the bonds of marriage, as well as some strong and sharp comedic moments give the dramatic elements of this film an effective weight. In addition, strong performances from the lead characters also aid the film quite remarkably. 
