This is the way westerns are supposed to be: violent and angry with some great characters. Although it is not set in the American West, it's setting of the Australian Frontier in the 1800s is exactly the same. As the movie opens, we join a gun-battle in progress as Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) and Mike Burns (Richard Wilson) are captured by Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone). The Burns boys are two members of the Burns gang, an Irish band of villains pillaging their way through the Australian frontier. Arthur Burns (Danny Huston), their brother, is the ringleader, the most vicious of the three, and is still at large. Captain Stanley explains to Charlie that his little brother, Mike, will be hanged on Christmas Day. However, he has a proposition: "You want me to kill me brother", Charlie says, "I want you to kill your brother.", Stanley responds, and this sets off a chain of events that challenges the character and moral compass of everyone involved. The writing is terrific and there are so many quotable lines. Pearce and Winstone give fantastic performances as two men who are never sure they are doing the right thing. Huston gives a layered performance as a man loyal to his family and especially ruthless when he decides to be. There is one particularly rough sequence when a flogging is ordered due to pressure of the county and the townspeople in which the bloodthirsty mob finds themselves disgusted when they get what they want. The story takes you down many morally twisted roads, without preaching as to what is the right thing to do. This is probably the best western since "Unforgiven", which mines some of the same territory. "The Proposition" also contains elements of old-school westerns like "High Noon". This is strongly recommended for lovers of westerns. Others may enjoy it, also, as it is very well done.
"Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" mixes the elements of a stoner comedy with the straight man/funny man comedy team that goes back to "Abbott and Costello". Harold (John Cho) is the straight man who begins the film on a quest to follow his dream girl to Amsterdam (this is where "White Castle" left off). Kumar (Kal Penn) is his stoner best friend who never lets good sense get in the way of getting high. When Kumar sneaks a bong onto the Amsterdam flight, it is mistaken for a bomb and the boys end up in Guantanamo Bay. The "escape" of the title happens very quickly and the movie becomes a road comedy as Harold and Kumar go on a quest to clear their names. The movie is definitely low brow humor and very politicaly incorrect. For the most part, however, it is actually very funny. As in their first film, they run into Neil Patrick Harris (playing himself), who is ironically portayed as a voracious womanizer with a taste for drugs and alcohol. Also, as in the first one, Harris' over-the-top portrayal of himself steals the movie. In his limited time on screen, he is brilliantly funny. Harold and Kumar are also being pursued by an incredibly racist, overzealous Homeland Security agent (Rob Cordrry) who is also very funny, even if his character is a borderline cartoon character. Cho and Penn have great chemistry and have great potential to be a long-standing comic duo. The only problem with the movie is that it starts to drag a little toward the end. There is a scene where they actually meet George W. Bush (James Adomian) which could have been very funny, except that it goes on way too long and has the worst makeup job I ever remember. Toward the end, there is a wrap-up sequence that is only a few minutes but felt like it went on and on. It's a funny movie, overall, and I laughed a lot. It just fell slightly short.
"Penelope" is a hard film to pin down. A somewhat modern-day fairy tale, it is an entertaining story with time-honored fairy tale morality. It is a decent family film based on the classic "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" theme. The movie has good production values and very good performances. However, the end result is deeply flawed. For one thing, the film's main concept of a girl born with a pig face letting her inner beauty shine through is hurt by the fact that, despite the pig nose, Penelope (Christina Ricci) is actually pretty! This destroys the plausibility of the scenes when she is meeting potential suitors and they run screaming in horror. Sure, the pig nose would be a surprise, and they may opt out of any relationship, but they just would not be horrified by her appearance (you want horrific, take a look at "Nanny McPhee"! ). While this is somewhat modern day, you also wonder why not have plastic surgery? There is a scene with a plastic surgeon to explain why not, but the reasoning is sort of forced. One thing that stood out when I was watching this movie was Peter Dinklage, who plays an unscrupulous reporter determined to expose Penelope to the world. You see, Dinklage is a dwarf, but it occurred to me that he has managed to put that fact aside and just act. While he does occassionally take a role that accentuates his height (he was brilliant in "Elf"), he often plays just a character, where his, uh, condition is never addressed. That speaks volumes of his skills as an actor and it is very apparent here. Another issue, although this is often an element of fairy tales, is that Penelope is basically an abused child. When the family is ashamed of her look, she is literally locked away in a secret room and raised there her entire life. While this is not portrayed as abusive, what else do you call it? Of course, without this crucial element, you do not have the story of Penelope breaking away and going into the world to find the man she has fallen in love with. When all is said and done, it is an entertaining film and is not a bad time spent with the family. Grade: C
I picked this one up for two reasons: I'm a big John Cusack fan ("Better Off Dead": pure genius and "Say Anything" is arguably the best teen romance film of all time) and it's PG rating is very family friendly. Add to that the story of a man learning to handle his adopted son and it seemed interesting. On all of those levels, it did not disappoint: Cusack was very good, my daughter enjoyed it and it was a heartwarming story. Despite all that, it was really just "OK'. Cusack plays a man who is dealing with the loss of his wife and looks to adopt a child to develop some kind of meaningful relationship in his life. He becomes intrigues with the kid in the orphanage (Bobby Coleman, who was very good) who spends most of his day in a cardboard box because he is "from Mars". The film follows the challenges of Cusack's character dealing with his grief while he learns to be a parent to a "Martian child". Actually, as the film wears on, you begin to believe that maybe this kid is from outer space. It was fascinating to watch this with my daughter and see her buy into the whole martian thing immediately and completely. In a child's mind, it was just that simple: "Of course he's from Mars. Why not?". Some of the story is fairly typical, especially the team of psychologists montitoring the case and sort of thumbing their nose that this man is simply not qualified to raise this "mentally disturbed" boy. It's a good film if you are looking for an uplifting, family story, but it is not the most entertaining film. It is warm and fuzzy with some very good performances: nothing more, nothing less. Grade: C+
"21" is based on the true story of a group of MIT students who perfected a method of beating blackjack and made a fortune, mostly in Las Vegas casinos. Unfortunately, the movie is given such a Hollywood overhaul that the story, as presented, just seems too far-fetched. Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a brilliant MIT student who is trying to get into Harvard Medical School, but is relying on a scholarship because he can't avoid the tuition. He is recruited by one of the professors, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) to join the blackjack team, a group of students who spend their weekends hitting Vegas and card-counting for massive profits. This puts Ben on the adventure of his life. The story is interesting and the movie is fun, but it is loaded with cliches: The "fat friend" who eats a box of Twinkies, the math geeks checking out a girl in the bar: "She's an 8" "Nah, she's a 7.649" "I was rounding up", and there are plenty more cliches sprinkled through the movie. Spacey is good, as usual, but even he was not really challenged by the role and it was just classic Spacey, not great Spacey. Another typical Hollywood element: OF COURSE Ben is infatuated with a beautiful girl (Kate Bosworth), OF COURSE she is on the blackjack team and OF COURSE she falls for him when he comes aboard. That also leads to another plot problem: Ben, who is sort of a shy math geek, instantly becomes a "rock star" when he joins the team. It is supposed to illustrate that you can "be whoever you want to be" in Vegas, but the transition is so fast, it is just not believable. There is also a plot twist near the end that just does not make any sense at all. I can't describe why without major spoilers, so I will leave it at that. You might get the impression after all this that I hated this movie. I did not. It was a fun ride, but it takes a true story and makes it into an unbelievable, cliche-ridden film. For a film based on a true story, it misses the mark of realism pretty badly.
One thing I have to thank "Pan's Labryinth" for is that it has opened up the category of foreign films for me. Now, when I hear about a foreign film I might be interested in, I will now strongly consider it. "The Host" is one that I heard about a while back, but didn't check out until now. "The Host" is a Korean film with a mixture of "Godzilla" themes and "Jaws". The title refers to a mutant creature created when a laboratory worker dumps large amounts of chemicals into the sink, which ends up in the Han River. An amphibian creature later shows up and begins to wreak havoc on the community. Set against the chaos is a simple family whose daughter is snatched by the creature and presumed to be dead. When her father receives a cell phone call from her, it becomes their quest to find her and save her from the creature. The film also delves into the "culture of fear" that governments create to keep its people in line when the government rounds up anyone who has been "exposed" to the creature under the guise that the creature is a "host" for a very lethal virus. The effects and story line were great in this film. The acting was a bit over the top, but I am not sure if that was worsened by the voice actors who did the dubbing for the English language track. I actually recommend that you watch this in the original language with subtitles. It was a fun ride, while still fitting in some compelling social commentary and an examination of the dynamics of a family. There is one great soliloquy from the patriarch of the family as he explains to two of his kids that they cannot imagine the anguish of their brother, who has lost his daughter. An emotional appeal, and one that hit home for me. I found this to be an entertaning two hours. Grade: B-
This is the way westerns are supposed to be: violent and angry with some great characters. Although it is not set in the American West, it's setting of the Australian Frontier in the 1800s is exactly the same. As the movie opens, we join a gun-battle in progress as Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) and Mike Burns (Richard Wilson) are captured by Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone). The Burns boys are two members of the Burns gang, an Irish band of villains pillaging their way through the Australian frontier. Arthur Burns (Danny Huston), their brother, is the ringleader, the most vicious of the three, and is still at large. Captain Stanley explains to Charlie that his little brother, Mike, will be hanged on Christmas Day. However, he has a proposition: "You want me to kill me brother", Charlie says, "I want you to kill your brother.", Stanley responds, and this sets off a chain of events that challenges the character and moral compass of everyone involved. The writing is terrific and there are so many quotable lines. Pearce and Winstone give fantastic performances as two men who are never sure they are doing the right thing. Huston gives a layered performance as a man loyal to his family and especially ruthless when he decides to be. There is one particularly rough sequence when a flogging is ordered due to pressure of the county and the townspeople in which the bloodthirsty mob finds themselves disgusted when they get what they want. The story takes you down many morally twisted roads, without preaching as to what is the right thing to do. This is probably the best western since "Unforgiven", which mines some of the same territory. "The Proposition" also contains elements of old-school westerns like "High Noon". This is strongly recommended for lovers of westerns. Others may enjoy it, also, as it is very well done. 
