Posts from the ‘Movie Reviews’ Category
Feb
2
Really? That was Avatar?
This deflated statement is the best summation I can offer the time I spent at the movies on Friday night. It’s an odd statement to make, because it’s official now. Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time. Just this morning I found out it’s been nominated for 9 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. All of this considered, I figured this was a movie I should see. After seeing it however, I’m the one who feels like the alien. In a world where Avatar was king, I did not like Avatar.
I wish I could say I did like Avatar. I wish I could say I was transported for nearly three hours to a magical world and reminded of the transformative alchemy of cinema. I wish I could say I became someone inside of that world, like Jake Sully himself, pulled for a time into another realty. I wish, at least, I could say the visuals were the most stunning I’d ever seen. I wish, at least, I could concur that this is the reason 3D movies are worth it. But I cannot. The visuals were indeed impressive (but not to my mind revolutionary), yet the movie felt so thin and translucent to me. For over half the film I felt like I was watching a computer animated film, which I was. For a great portion of that time, I felt like I was watching someone play a video game. But I wasn’t supposed to feel that way, was I? It was like watching a magic show from backstage and knowing full well that it’s all a trick. The dialogue was, literally, laugh out loud awful at points. Lines like “shut your pie hole” kept popping up. I was glad for the comic relief, but I don’t think it was intentional. Characters were one-dimensional with predictable story arcs you could decifer the moment they appeared. The political message was so heavy it crushed the films’ joyous and playful moments. And it’s not even a message I disagree with. Worse than all this, there is actually an unobtainable natural resource that causes great conflict and it is called, really, Unobtainium. How does something like that make it into the final draft of a film this big?
What this movie did teach me is that story is king and that there is a deeper beauty that I long for.
I love story. I believe we all love story. I would rather listen to Stuart McLean of The Vinyl Cafè tell me stories for three hours with not a single projected image than gorge myself on vapid visuals, as beautiful as they may sometimes be. I think, for me, the issue here is that I felt like I had no reason to see beauty in the world of Pandora (the world Avatar takes place in) other than the fact that it is physically impressive. But I am not moved by topography alone. All colors are bright. Really bright. Heck, almost everything even glows in the dark! But you know, the old apple tree in my backyard is more beautiful to me because there is a little swing hanging from its branch and every year my kids spend hours beneath its shepherding shade. That tree has taken on meaning for me. I possesses a deeper beauty. That is a true gift. A beauty beneath the beauty. I didn’t sense that in Avatar, and I wish I had.
Reading Jeffrey Overstreet’s excellent review of Avatar, I was reminded that in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy, we don’t get an entirely new world. We get New Zealand, with alterations and enhancements here and there, but essentially, those forests and hills exist. While Overstreet makes the case that Cameron has to work a bit harder, creating a world from scratch, I’m not sure I agree. Through nothing but the power of story, Peter Jackson reclaimed the natural landscapes of New Zealand for the world of Faerie. They became someplace magical because of the deeper beauty behind each location. Because we care about Frodo and Sam and the ring, we care about those forests, too. We cared about them for decades before we got to see them. Even if they don’t glow in the dark.
To me, Avatar’s world is too flashy to be, in any sense, real. Even fantasy needs the weight of reality to some extent. In reality, we notice beauty because it stands out. A flower is such a humble thing, there in the bushes waiting quietly to be discovered by our gaze. Every plant and animal begs for our attention loudly in Pandora, but it is a desperate beauty, like a 60 year old lonely bleach blonde buried beneath blush and concealer. The true beauties of this or any other world do not need their makeup.
I realize that in all of this personal preferences come into play, too. I personally did not like the look of Pandora. I found the characters somehow ugly and I wondered why no creature has any fur. A small thing I know, but everything looks like it’s made of wet leather. I enjoyed the phosphorescent night time jungle, but other than that I personally wouldn’t care to spend much time in Pandora. On the contrary, many people did find it breathtakingly beautiful. Cameron has struck a chord, and that’s fair. I can certainly appreciate the effort that went into designing the world and making it come to life. There is a lot of hard work on screen and that deserves respect. It’s certainly not that Cameron has done a terrible job here. The movie did not feel nearly 3 hours long. It breezed by. I was entertained overall and I do not regret going. It was pure movie escapism and that’s OK. It just wasn’t movie magic, as I’d hoped it might be. As it so easily could have been.
For all the glowing forests of Pandora, I’d trade 30 seconds of Carl Fredrickson’s balloon-bouyant dreaming in Up.
Here’s to more of that deeper beauty at the movies this year.
Tags: Avatar, Faerie, film review, James Cameron, Up
Posted in Art, Bridge Songs: Faerie, Film, Movie Reviews | 3 Comments »
Jun
30
I had the privilege of checking out The Works twice this past week and I will head down again, for likely the last time, tonight.
This festival is free, and it is outside, both of which, on these balmy summer days, are good things!
My personal favorite exhibit was GRAPHEX – a gallery of award winning graphic design from accross Canada (though mostly Montreal?). It was really inspiring to have a look through that, and I thought I should mention it because it is tucked away on the second floor of Enterprise Square (the old Bay building where you find the Art Gallery of Alberta for the time being. In the same building, on the main floor, you have some modern visual work, sculpture and furniture reflecting “the West” which is also really interesting. I like the “sled lounger” and the end table made of sawed-off branches.
I happened to go on the day of the “no mobile phones” exhibit. The idea was they had an elaborate bungee system setup and would do an impromptu installation by hanging mobile phones donated by patrons for a 24 hour period. It was cool to see this visual representation of many people giving up their “lifeline” for a day. Especially when a phone would randomly ring! The only downer is that I heard they got a paltry 25 phones or so handed in. Perhaps that is a more powerful statement than a fuller exhibit ever could have been.
Finally, if you, make SURE you say hello to Body Creatives Giselle Denis and Dara Loewen. They both have art booths up for you to enjoy and would love for you to say hello. They’d love it even more if you bought a piece of art 
Anyways, I will post some photos I took soon. Even better if you go in person.
Visit the Works website at http://www.theworks.ab.ca/festivalfolder/festival/festival.html
Tags: art show, design, downtown, festivals, gallery, visual art
Posted in Events, Movie Reviews, Opportunities | 2 Comments »
May
26
Before I start this review (my first review in a while), I should give a caveat or two. First of all, I am not a Narnia movie fanboy. Although I did like the first one, I think it is simply a “good” movie and it fell short of my expectations for the series. I do love the books, and am a huge CS Lewis fan. The movie was good, but it didn’t stand up that well to repeat viewings, and it wasn’t a “wow” kind of movie. It is also my belief that the Narnia books get better as time goes on though, so I was able to stay fairly excited in hopes for this second offering.
The second caveat is that I have seen an inordinate amount of Hollywood blockbusters lately. Ironically (?) all with my church. First U23D, then Iron Man, then Indiana Jones. Caspian was the only one out of those four that I did not go to with a group from my church. Yes, the Christian allegory is the one we didn’t rally together to see. Well, the older folks did, but I’m not quite there yet. Out of all four movies I’ve seen in the last couple of months, Caspian has been my favorite. Yes, even beating out Iron Man, which I enjoyed way more than I thought I would. So, all that being said, let me tell you why Prince Caspian has got my number one blockbuster pick so far, and why it has restored my sense of wonder and faith in the franchise. … Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Film, Narnia, Prince Caspian
Posted in Film, Movie Reviews | 2 Comments »
Oct
29
Suffer the Children
You want to get angry at tele-vangelists? No, I mean really really angry?
This expose on the Word of Faith movement is enough to get your millstones ready and fashion your whips. I have much more to say of a serious nature, but for now – take a look at the website and find a copy.
protein excipient interactions
Seen it? Let me know what you think.
Posted in Movie Reviews, Reviews | Comments Off
Sep
27
I posted about The Kindling’s Muse podcast recently, and it has been excellent lately. Subscribe yourself to hear about some great films, a discussion of Christianity and fantasy, and an in depth interview with Douglas Gresham, the adopted son of CS Lewis.
One rabbit trail this led me to (albeit in a roundabout way) is this site – faith & film critics circle .
intestinal worms
It is a web network of Christian film reviewers – all of them of a vein perhaps not in the tradition paradigm of a “Christian film reviewer” (see Jeffery Overstreet article posted previously).
The site is sure to provide a gateway to some excellent reads, and excellent films.
Posted in Art, Creativity & Inspiration, Movie Reviews, Resources | Comments Off
Aug
27
This week’s issue of Vue Weekly features an article by Ted Kerr – a friend of mine who I seem to bump into around town every few months or so. One such meeting was at Urban Bridge Church’s showing of Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher. Ted was in attendence that night, as a representative from HIV Edmonton, who we had invited out for the night.
6 months later, Ted has reflected on that night from his perspective in the Vue Weekly column, “Queermonton”.
I’d love to hear some thoughts on his words – and the night in general if you were there.
Here is an excerpt from the intro to Ted’s article, followed by the link to the full article.
Last winter my friend Lynn and I represented HIV Edmonton at a screening of what we now know to be an irresponsible and homophobic film—Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher, directed by David Sabatino. Unfortunately, no one at HIV Edmonton had seen the film prior to agreeing to be involved in the director-attended screening and group discussion. We have subsequently learned to never do that again. The film is about Loonie Frisbee, a gifted young preacher and closeted gay man who was continually let down by his community leaders and who died of complicaations related to AIDS in 1993.
Within the first 20 minutes of the so-called documentary it was obvious what we were watching was neither journalism nor art but propaganda. Lynn and I watched the film with rapidly beating hearts and clenched fists, both of us hoping that everyone else was also realizing how lacking in rigor and potentially damaging the film was.
As the lights rose, we waited for the first comment from the audience. Our hearts sunk as the hip-looking middle-aged woman started the group discussion with a “thank-you†to the director.
Read the full article here
Posted in Art, Essays and Reflections, Event Reviews, Movie Reviews | 12 Comments »
Aug
20
I had been told I should see this movie. I had actually wanted to see it before I was ever told though – stumbling upon it on the Walden Media website one day while I searched for details of the Narnia movie series.
I need to confess that I have never read the book. I wasn’t much of a reader as a child, and I haven’t went back to play catch up with the many great books I should have read then (excepting some by CS Lewis and Madeline L’Engle). But if the book is half as good as the movie, I should be picking it up shortly.
If you’ve read any reviews of this movie at all, you will have heard about the blatant mis-marketing of this film. Walden has an unfortunate unholy alliance with Disney for distribution (okay, perhaps not all that bad). My guess is that Disney controls (as they certainly finance) much of the marketing of each film. Thus, hot on the heels of Narnia’s world-blockbuster status, they decided to market this as a piece from the same pie. And while there are fantasy bits interspersed throughout Terabithia, they are only bits, and not even true fantasy at that. That being said, this movie IS about childhood imagination and the search for beauty in the face of grim reality. And that perhaps encapsulates all good fantasy anyways. Just don’t expect Lord of the Rings or Narnia – as Disney bets their bank that you will – and you will not be dissappointed.
If the story is not about wizards and elves, then what? Bridge to Terabithia is (and here’s the spoiler) one of the most beautiful stories of death and dying I have ever heard. … Read the rest of this entry »
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Apr
28
There is a documentary in the San Francisco International Film Festival telling the story of a Pastor who was sure he had a divine appointment from God – to make a Biblical Sci-fi Epic. Sound interesting? Read the capsule review from the San Jose Mercury News below …
`Audience of One’
Richard Gazowsky is pastor of the Voice of Pentecost Church in San Francisco, and the voice Gazowsky hears one day is God’s, telling him to write and direct an epic biblical film. He calls it “Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph” and describes his Christian sci-fi spectacle as “`Star Wars’ meets `The Ten Commandments.’” The result is proof that hubris is not confined to Hollywood, and that incompetence knows no religion. Michael Jacobs’ entertaining documentary is full of jaw-dropping moments, not least of all Gazowsky pressuring his congregation to fund his folly through the collection plate. He transports a large crew of amateurs (many of them members of his family) to shoot on location in Italy, and when things go wrong, he waits for God – and some Jesus-loving Germans, who have promised $100 million – to provide. (6:30 p.m. May 3, Kabuki; 12:45 p.m. May 7, Kabuki.)
Read more reviews from the festival on the San Jose Mercury News website
Posted in Art, Movie Reviews | Comments Off
Jan
30
I am always pleased when I watch a movie and get more than I expected.
I have mentioned this before, but perhaps that is due to low expectations in the first place. In this case, it was more like no expectations. I certainly knew this was not going to be a movie about gardening, but beyond that, all I know was that this was some sort of spy thriller. The movie I watched does not really fit that genre.
Do not think James Bond, or even Bourne Identity. You’ll be way off.
I should have thought instead of the debut film from director Fernando Meirelles, “City of God”. Yes, the film about Brazilian druglords and dirt-poor slum gangs that kept me up at night. Surely, that director is not into James Bond action.
Nope.
What I got instead was a picture of international corruption, all cradled in the arms of Africa. The story is rooted in political thriller, yes, but it takes us right into the heart of Kenya, into a poor city-within-a-city, throbbing with over 700 000 people with no plumbing or electricity, and into remote villages and ancient tribes. It is here that a pharmacuetical company from the UK has decided to test its’ new drug – a cure for TB. It is here because lives will certainly be lost, and lives are cheaper here. Lives are quieter here. No one will know that the road to this drug’s success was paved with the bodies of dozens of Africans. And no one will care.
That is what grabbed me about this movie – if you can’t already tell. Sure, I thought Raiph Fiennes did a great job as the lead – a tormented man not knowing what his wife does in secret, until her brutal death leads him to find out. He is a man betrayed by friends, work and even country – a man totally alone except through the fellowship he finds in his wife’s sufferings before him. In her death he finds a deep pool of love – out of which he finds he can drink so deeply that his own life no longer matters to him. But that would be giving away the ending, wouldn’t it?
Rachel Weisz, as his wife Tessa Quayle also does a great job. I am still trying to find out if she was pregnant. Some pretty revealing body shots (yes, nudity – not much but be prepared) conflict with a thin Weisz in the special features. A body double? Latex? My wife – who would know – swore she was really pregnant. Anyways, beyond that little miracle, she portrays a passionate activist well – someone driven and in the end consumed by the endless sea of needs found in a place like Africa.
But those and other performances aside, it is Africa herself who stars in The Constant Gardener. To me, it is Africa who is the most beautiful, complex and conflicted character of them all.
The situation with the TB drugs is this; a large drug company has developed a cure for TB – and TB is on the rise. In a matter of years an epidemic will hit the earth and this company will be left holding the bags of gold. All good, except for the drugs rough edges and unfortunate side effects. A re-write of the drug would delay profits and give other companies the edge to develop competing products before launch. The easier way out would simply be to rig the tests. And so, the drug is tested in Africa – the “dark continent” – a place out of sight and out of mind for so many on earth. And the way it is done is heinous. Those getting free HIV tests are also tested for TB – for FREE! What generosity! Only, it reveals them as well as candidates for the drug testing. These same patients sign their rights away in order to receive medical treatment. You agree to the testing basically – or get no medical treatment from the clinic at all. Not much of a choice – if they even understand the choice they are making. Just sign here please.
We are told a fair ways in the movie that over 60 have died so far. Their bodies are buried in a remote place – their existence is wiped out. Dead men tell no tales. Especially when they cannot be found.
It is this horror – and the desparation in Africa in general – that consumes both Tessa (Weisz) and her husband Justin (Raiph Fiennes). And both of them come to believe it is worth it.
As this whole system is explained to Justin, he is told, “this is how the world f**ks Africa”. Something in that line broke my heart. It is still grabbing at me from inside this morning.
The story of The Constant Gardener, based on a book by John Le Carr̬ is fictional, but plausible, I believe. There are most certainly horrors in Africa. There, in the cradle of civilization, there is great evil at work every day. And there, I believe, as people of God Рas followers of Christ Рwe need to be focussed. We need to be concerned.
I don’t know much beyond that at this point, but I do believe the deaths of the protagonists in this movie are heroic deaths, and that their actions in respons to the hurting in Africa are Christian actions.
All of this and I haven’t even talked about the craft of this film.
It was actually shot in Kenya – right in the places where it says it was shot. The people milling about the actors are real people – most of their words unscripted. This is almost half feature, half documentary in the way it is shot. And then there is the camera work. I loved the look of this film – quick, edgy and raw. Great angles, the camera some times fighting for focus as you find yourself struggling to see – “what is going on – get out of the way, I want to see!”. That is what the director wants, I would guess. Anyone who saw City of God will already know him as a master behind the camera.
And so, if you haven’t guessed, I like it. For that rare mingling of challenge and entertainment – without eroding either element – I highly recommend The Constant Gardener.
Posted in Movie Reviews | Comments Off
Dec
27
OK – I received this article today and thought I would post it in full. I sincerely hope this isn’t a ploy by the producer to get people to see The Nativity Story, but I don’t think it is. I do agree with a lot of what he has to say, and having seen the film, I have no trouble endorsing it (see review below).
Here is the article I received in full …
Monday, December 4, 2006
Hollywood will not make anymore religious films unless Christians go
and see The Nativity Story in large numbers
That’s the view of its producer, Marty Bowen
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
Poster for The Nativity Story
HOLLYWOOD, CA (ANS) — Marty Bowen, producer of The Nativity Story which came in fourth in the weekend box office in the United States, is concerned that Hollywood will not make anymore religious films unless Christians now go and see the movie in large numbers.
Despite many good reviews, New Line’s The Nativity Story, the story of Christ’s birth, only took in $8 million in the United States from 3,183 locations to come in fourth, while, for the third week in a row,
the No. 1 and No. 2 films remain Warners’ Happy Feet and Sony’s Casino Royale, respectively. Buena Vista’s Déjà Vu also remained unchanged from its third place finish last week, netting an additional $11 million.
In an interview with ANS, Marty Bowen said he was disappointed with the fact that the movie only came in fourth.
“I thought it was incredibly disheartening for a variety of different reasons, not the least of which is you hear this common lament from moviegoers that America feels like Hollywood has lost touch with what
they want to see. People feel like there is too much violence in movies and too much disrespect towards the family.
“Now finally a Hollywood studio has stepped up and put their money where their mouth is and has committed to making and releasing a movie, not on a couple of screens but rather on a very big very large fashion – more than three-thousand screens around the country — and giving the audience what they say they want and yet that sense of urgency in that audience isn’t there to go and see it.
“What is disappointing is you hear people talk about how we can make movies better but if you don’t go see them when they are presented to you, Hollywood’s never going to do it again. And that’s what is
frustrating to me because I changed careers to make movies that would inspire people and if there’s not a business for it, and I can’t find a studio to make the movies that I want to make, then that’s
disappointing.”
Bowen, who was formerly an agent, went on to say, “Hollywood hasn’t made a Biblical film like this for decades. The Passion Of The Christ was one man’s journey and he [Mel Gibson] did a phenomenal job.
“I think what happens in a movie like this is that people say, ‘I’ll get to see the movie when I get around to it.’ What they don’t understand is that this is a business. These theater owners have a lot of demand for their screens and if a movie does not perform well on December 1st, despite the fact that it is the reason for this holiday season — it’s the Christmas story — it might not make it to December 25th, and that angers me.
“It just really saddens me that a movie that’s about the birth of Jesus may not be in theaters when that celebration of that birth takes place. And that’s really disappointing.
“People don’t seem to realize that when a studio commits tens of millions of dollars to make a movie they expect an audience to go see it; and if they don’t see it soon they’ll never be around to see it later.
When asked if he had a message to American Christians, he replied, “There needs to be a sense that, if what you want is to see films that are about faith and family and you want to light a fire under your
neighbors to be inspired to live the life that you feel like is fulfilling to you, then you need to support films that have a similar message. If you don’t then you need to be ok with the idea that next year at the box office there’s going to be a movie about some guy cutting people’s throats around a Christmas tree.
“That’s the nature of the beast. It’s a sad commentary to me that when we considered the possibility of naming this movie Silent Night we couldn’t do that because that sounded like a horror film. That’s
awful. So that’s why I put it [The Nativity Story] out there. You can’t wait to see this movie because you’re giving the wrong message to Hollywood.”
Bowen concluded by saying, “It’s not an effective argument, in my opinion, to wait around until Hollywood makes the decision for themselves and then, what they make is something you find morally
reprehensible, and then you protest. To me that’s negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement has always been more effective.
If a movie speaks to what you want movies to be about than you need to support it or you need to shut up.”
So, what are you waiting for? Go and see The Nativity Story before it is too late!
Source:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06120018.htm
Posted in Art, Movie Reviews | 1 Comment »
