Scary Rogue Crocodile

You come to dread watching horror movies these days. Not because they’re scary, but because they’re usually so poorly made. They’re often just showing you stuff in a mirror and calling it scary, or filling the screen with blood and guts and calling it realistic. And so, Rogue comes as a refreshing little surprise. Prioritizing actual horror above all, we end up with a film that’s not particularly original or exciting, but definitely scary.

Pete is a travel writer sent to the Australian outback to write about the growing tourist trade in the Northern territories. He, along with a group of tourists, joins a river cruise down crocodile infested waters. The tour gets derailed when they spot a distress flare upriver, which they decide to follow. It all goes terribly awry when a gigantic rogue crocodile attacks and damages their boat. In a panic, they run their boat aground on a tiny island in the middle of the river. With the rising tide threatening to put them underwater, and an unstoppable predator waiting in the wings, the group must figure out a way to escape their predicament.

You aren’t going to find many new ideas in this film, but there’s some really effective horror in here. It works by keeping everything gloriously simple. A group of people trapped in one place, a deadly predator keeping them from escaping, and an external factor (the rising water) keeping them from just waiting it out. Those elements add up to some powerful suspense. The script also has the patience to not show all of its cards right away. It lets things build slowly, allowing the fear and paranoia to accrue, until it all comes out in bursts of concentrated horror. Again, it’s nothing particularly original, but it’s done pretty well.

The film is a bit of an exhibition of how horror ought to be done. Horror isn’t about seeing someone get harmed. It’s about the anticipation of someone getting harmed. This is where the film excels, but really building that air of anticipation. Director Greg McLean never lets you forget the threat, even while using the threat rather sparingly. The violence is meted out in small doses, never becoming more important than the fear of the unseen. The croc itself looks pretty good, although there’s shot of it near the end that feels kind of off.

There isn’t a lot to say concerning the performances. The characters aren’t exactly the most complex, and don’t require much acting in general. The most that you can really ask from this horror cast is to sell the fear, and they do that well enough. Michael Vartan isn’t the best actor out there, but he’s used to pretty good effect here. Radha Mitchell gets a few nice moments in there. Sam Worthington does a nice little in here as well. The cast mostly gives way to the fear, never giving in to the temptation of just hamming it up.

Rogue is just a nice little surprise. Horror movies in general have deteriorated over the last decade or so, with most of them relying on sheer shock value instead of proper horror filmmaking, or falling back on the camp crutch in order to get away from building an effective story. Rogue does it right, building suspense and withholding violence, letting fear fill the air instead of blood and body parts. It’s the kind of thing that recalls movies like Jaws, and it’s nice to get something like this every now and then.
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You Can't Mess With Zohan!!!

You Don't Mess With the Zohan sort of feels like it started out with a lot more ambition. You can just get a whiff of that certain subversive absurdity that Robert Smigel tends to pepper in his work. Maybe they lost their nerve along the way. Instead, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan falls back on some very old tricks. Big Sandler fans will still probably love a lot of it because of that. Everybody else can probably get away with not seeing it.

Zohan is Israel’s greatest Mossad agent, but he’s grown tired of the constant conflict. He fakes his own death so that he can escape to America and follow his dream: to cut and style hair. Taking the name Scrappy Coco, he takes a job at a small hair salon run by a Palestinian immigrant, Dalia, who’s struggling to make the rent. Zohan’s unorthodox approach to hairdressing makes him a hit with the clientele, and he soon finds himself living his dream. But a greedy landlord, a Palestinian taxi driver, and an old rival threaten to take it all away from him.

The film has some really funny moments in its repertoire, and there are a few big laughs scattered throughout. Unfortunately, the film tends to run its jokes into the ground through endless repetition. The first time you see someone in the film use hummus for something other than spreading on flatbread, it’s pretty funny. The next eight times, not so much. Cheesy disco, sex with old people, and Hacky Sack all get the same repetitive treatment. That’s pretty much the film in a nutshell: some funny ideas, done over and over again, for far too long, until they just aren’t funny anymore. There are bits of cleverness here and there; a light, subversive undertone that almost does justice to the controversial subject matter. It just doesn’t go far enough to actually matter.

One of the reasons the satire doesn’t have any punch is because of the filmmaking. Dennis Dugan doesn’t really have a light enough touch to let any the sophistication shine through. He hits hardest when doing slapstick, and the film works well enough at those points. When the film tries other things, when it dips it toe into the realm of satire, the cracks begin to show. He plays it too big, too broad, and it just becomes another throwaway joke lost among the much easier laughs.

Adam Sandler, whether you like him or not, is always a lot of fun to watch. He’s clearly comfortable in Zohan’s skin, and he delivers an effortless and strangely natural performance. John Turturro, who plays Zohan’s Palestinian nemesis, the Phantom, really commits to the role, and his enthusiasm carries you through some of the character’s weaknesses. Sandler’s usual gang of comedians manages to show up, and they do add something to the background of this film. Watch out for cameos from the likes of Henry Winkler, Chris Rock, John McEnroe and George Takei.

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan is really funny at times. There are points in the film where you’re just taken in by the majestic absurdity of what’s on screen. But then it starts to go wrong. The film shows you that majestic absurdity a second time. Then a third. And as it runs its jokes into the ground, your attention may begin to wander towards the paper-thin plot and the stale direction. And it might still surprise you with a bit of inventiveness, but by then, it might be too late. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan has it moments, but all in all, it’s not the easiest film to recommend.
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Dark Success!!!

By now, after months and months of hype and anticipation, compounded with the shroud of Heath Ledger’s untimely death, people are probably expecting The Dark Knight to be practically the second coming of Jesus. It’s not quite that, of course, but it is a tremendously good piece of cinema. Bold, complex, gritty and unwaveringly intelligent, The Dark Knight may have just changed everything.

About a year after the events of Batman Begins, crime in Gotham has plummeted, thanks to the efforts of Lieutenant Jim Gordon, the Batman, and a fearless district attorney by the name of Harvey Dent. The three of them have the organized crime families on the run, and are on the verge of a breakthrough that could severely cripple the criminals’ operations. But a new player has entered the picture; a psychotic, remorseless killer who calls himself the Joker, whose brilliant schemes thwart the authorities at every turn. He issues a challenge to the Batman: reveal himself, or people die. As the body count grows, the Batman is faced with the reality that he may have met his match, and must make a difficult choice that could mean the end of his crimefighting days.

The story was a surprise. It is sprawling and ambitious, almost Shakespearean in scope. It is far more than what we’ve come to expect from superhero films. It is blindingly intelligent and darkly tragic, unafraid of leaving audiences with a bad taste in their mouths. The Nolans’ script is heady stuff, a meditation on crime and how order is achieved in a society. It is Batman and Joker as two extremes in the spectrum of order: the Joker as anarchy and the Batman as fascism. It is a story of how in a battle of extremes, it’s often the people in the middle who suffer the most. And it paints everything in a gorgeous palette composed mostly of shades of gray, sometimes giving you the terrible realization that the villains might be right, and Batman, for all his good intentions, may be wrong.

It’s good stuff. Maybe there are a few narrative shortcuts taken along the way, but Nolan builds his characters so well that you hardly notice. He establishes the threat of his villains so well that you just come to accept their ability to accomplish any of their goals. Nolan’s filmmaking holds up pretty well, too. Nolan fills his scenes with a sense of unease, making every sequence feel like a ticking time bomb. He wisely focuses on the characters, building his movie patiently as we get to know what defines these people. And when things do explode, Nolan offers up a satisfying rush. His fight sequences do get a little messy, but this movie isn’t about the fights.

It’s about people, and thankfully, the people in this film are great. Christian Bale’s Batman is much the same as in Batman Begins, except a little wearier, perhaps a little more unsure of his place in the city. He still employs the goofy scary voice as Batman, but it doesn’t really break the performance. Heath Ledger’s Joker is mesmerizing, a deadly combination of nervous energy, pure danger and unabated psychosis. It’s a landmark performance, one that the late Mr. Ledger will certainly be remembered for. Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent will probably be glossed over by most people, but that would be a mistake, because he’s brilliant. Amazingly, Maggie Gyllenhaal might be better at being Katie Holmes than Katie Holmes herself. Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon is wonderfully subdued. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine bring so much to their small roles, and it’s greatly appreciated.

Since I didn’t just want to buy into the hype of the film, the first I did when the movie finished was list down all the things I didn’t like about it. I came up with a good number of things: it may have been ten minutes too long, maybe too many things were said out loud when they could have been implied, maybe we could have kept Batman attacking from the dark like in the first film, and maybe Edison Chen shouldn’t have been in it (even for just a little bit). Honestly, I could nitpick all day, because I’m trained to find these little flaws, but at the end of the day, that’s all they are: nitpicks. This is a fine film, one that may redefine our idea of what a superhero movie can be. It’s a wonderfully complex film that delivers on the action, but chooses not to stop there. Instead, it gives you more and more, never letting you turn your brain off. This is grand cinema, and it’s a proof positive that great movies are still being made.
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WALL·E did it!!!

People have come to wonder when Pixar’s streak of great films is going to end. Even their weakest film, Cars, was still galaxies better than the average Hollywood film. And now, WALL·E is just terribly effective. Just brimming with imagination, this film is one of my favorites of the year, so far.

In the far-flung future, Earth has been left behind by its human inhabitants. A single robot, WALL·E, has remained to carry out his duty of cleaning up the planet. Over the years, WALL·E has developed a bit of a personality, and he’s grown to yearn companionship. One day, he gets his wish, when a female robot EVE arrives on Earth with a mysterious mission. But just as WALL·E and EVE make a connection, EVE gets taken away to space. WALL·E stows away on EVE’s ship, and follows her straight into the depths of space, where the fate of the human race is revealed.

WALL·E keeps things decidedly simple plotwise. Low on dialogue and high on expression, the first half of the film plays out like a pure exercise in visual storytelling. And if there’s one thing that Pixar does well, it’s storytelling. Despite a very limited vocabulary, these characters absolutely sing, exhibiting enough personality to transcend their animated form. The character designs are supremely elegant, keeping things focused on simple expression. The film’s just bursting with imagination, and it’s easy to get swept away in the universe they’ve created.

It’s a given that the film looks good. Pixar has always been pushing the boundaries of animation, and they continue to make things look better and better. But it’s not just the look of the animation that’s improved. In general, their filmmaking has grown leaps and bounds. Emphasis has been given to the film’s virtual camera, which now employs some pretty great shooting techniques. The film ought to be commended for its use of depth of field, and the realistic way they move the camera to follow the action. It seems really basic, but the use of techniques like rack focus and follow focus add an element of realism to the way the film is shot. Through these methods, Director Andrew Stanton has imparted a powerful sense of movement to his film.

This movie once again proves that animated films don’t really need big-name actors to be effective. Ben Burtt, who provides the voice for WALL·E, isn’t even really an actor. He’s a sound engineer, and his devotion to audio clearly shows in the film. WALL·E and his supporting cast are a marvel of sound design. Elissa Knight, another non-actor, has provided the perfect voice for EVE. The actors that are there do some pretty good work as well. Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, and Kathy Najimy provide a nice bit of humanity to the proceedings.

WALL·E is really quite good. There are probably people who might quibble about the film’s inherent anti-consumerist message (especially given that the film is produced by Disney, maker of merchandise), but those are things to be dealt with outside the cinema. Inside, with the projector running, with the story being told on screen, it’s rather difficult to find fault in the film. This is a lovely movie they’ve created: one with great characters, a few good twists, some exciting action, and a good dose of heart. It has a beautiful sense of wonder that will just take audiences away. This film is exactly why we go to the theaters in the first place.
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Mummification... Success!!!

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a good film compare to the other mummy movies that Cohen directed. It started in the end of WWII, the rough riding O'Connell Family -- Rick , Evelyn, and college age son Alex -- have been in semi-retirement. Gone are the days when they would circumnavigate the globe looking for ancient treasure and kicking antiquated butt. When they get the chance to return a precious diamond to the people of China, they jump at the chance. Unfortunately, the gem is instrumental in the resurrection of the evil Emperor Han a ruthless tyrant bent on conquering the world. Luckily, an ancient witch has cursed him to an eternity embedded in rock. Of course, it won't be long before our haphazard adventurers have him up and around -- and seeking immortality via his massive terra cotta army.


Compare to other reviews, they say that this is an annoying film like this statement: "Borrowing every beat it can from the entire Indiana Jones lexicon, and lost in waves of pungent cinematic cheese, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is the latest in a long line of "who asked for it" three-quels as talent paycheck providers. It's a routine romp which owes more to the modern technology of today than the giddy joys of the '30s serials it constantly steals from. How can you defend a film which wastes the undeniable talents of Li and Yeoh and then allows CGI yetis to upstage them both and become the stars of the story? You heard right: Fake as faux fur Abominable Snowmen show up during the second act and become ferocious fuzzy-wuzzy bodyguards for our heroes. They even know the practical way to avoid an avalanche."

I will say that their reviews are a big wrong- wrong because this movie is a big hit even without Yeoh and Li, they can make a surefire hit film. My rating for that film is an excellent rating. I will say that this film have the guts to fight to the academy awards. I would say that do not believe to other reviews that say negative opinions and watch the movie that you can witness the action and the suspense of this film. Go and watch this movie!!!.
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