queen of versailles

this is a very fascinating look at the real estate crash and how it effected the 1 percent.  the film follows an immensely wealthy family as they begin building the largest private residence in north america.  as the construction gets underway the big economic crash takes place and has a huge impact on the family being filmed.  what was originally planned to be a documentary about the creation of this big home, the opulence of this filthy rich family, instead becomes the story of a fortune being lost.  through out the movie we see the husband, a man who made his millions on time-shares, watch as his fortune slips right out of his hands.  it is an amazing glimpse of how the super rich live and how they deal with the loss of the money and status: the denial and bargaining as they come to terms with the dramatic changes in their lives.  granted, its not like the family become destitute or anything, they just went from hundreds of millions, to just dozens...  poor things, i don't know how they could ever manage!   at the beginning of the film the husband is asked by the filmmakers why he wants to build the largest private home in north america?  his reason is 'because i can'.  by the end of the movie he remembers his words and realizes how far he has fallen, how humbled he has become by the terrible events.  its an incredible and raw look at one family dealing with the realities of financial ruin.  it is an amazing documentary, definitely worth seeking out.

fortress 2: re-entry

the first 'fortress' movie i love, its total cheesy fun.  this movie on the other hand, is just total cheese.  the movie begins eight years after the first one, lambert and his wife live quietly with their son in a log cabin in the woods, off the grid.  unfortunately, the government has found them and lambert is arrested once again.  realizing that the last prison, a hole in the ground in the middle of the desert, was too simple to hold him, this time he is shipped off to a prison space station.  there's never really any reason given for this prison to exist in space, but it does anyway...  again lambert finds himself trapped and has to figure out a way to escape.  he works with a few of his cell mates to break in to the warden's office and take control of the space station.  the effects are terrible and the dialog is even worse this time around.  its no wonder this one went straight to dvd here in the US.

fortress

i've seen this one probably a dozen times over the years.  it was a popular favorite among my friends in high school.  i will first of all admit, this movie isn't very good, but that's what makes it even better!  as a fan of the original 'highlander', i have a very soft spot in my heart for christopher lambert- i just love his bad acting and fantastic voice!  this movie though, is not as iconic as highlander for a reason...
the story is set in the future where, due to over population, no one is able to have more than one child.  lambert and his wife had a child who passed away and are caught crossing the border.  she's pregnant with another child, so both of them are arrested and thrown into a high security prison called 'the fortress'.  its a jail in the middle of the desert that basically looks like a giant hole.  lambert is forced into slave labor, mining deep underneath the desert.  his wife, on the other hand, is being kept in the same prison, awaiting the birth of her child, which will be taken by the prison to do with as they see fit.  in order to escape, she cozies up to the warden while he hatches a plan to bring the whole place down.  one of the best parts of the movie is the set.  the fortress itself looks pretty good, especially for 1992!  its fairly predictable in its story line, but is actually quite fun to watch.  the plotting and planning between the prisoners, as well at the revelations about the warden make the film interesting and worthy of the minor praises it sometimes receives.

battleship

its actually worse than its reputation.  i thought, just for a lark, i'd give it a try and see what all the hate was about.  and it was terrible.  i cant actually give a full and honest review of the movie because i fast-forwarded through most of it...  the characters are cardboard cutouts, the action is shiny and big, but oh so boring.  and you want to know what the worst part is?  at no point in the movie does anyone actually say 'you sunk my battleship'.  seriously?  thats the one reason you make a movie based on the board game- the one reason!  i cant even muster up enough interest to write more about the movie, so i'll end it there.

casting by

an interesting documentary about the role of casting directors on tv and in film.  the documentary takes a look at the life and career of many different casting directors, focusing on marion dougherty, a pioneer in the field of casting.  there are many celebrities who show up to talk a bit about how important marion and other casting directors were to their careers.  some, like jon voight, talk about how his entire career is due to marion's work and fighting for him to fill the role that made him famous in 'midnight cowboy'.  there are many interesting stories and examples of her work, including directors who admit that they would have been sunk without the help of great casting directors.  it follows marion's fight to get recognition for the job of casting.  what started out as an unrecognized position eventually lead to there being an actual on screen credit for the work.  the film goes so far as to make the case for having the oscars recognize the role of casting director as a category worthy of an award.  the different views and insights given by those who do this mysterious job of picking actors that would be great for a role and great together is something that is rarely thought of and certainly under appreciated.

the conjuring

i do love a good scary movie, but they seem to be pretty hard to come by.  this one, though, does a great job of bringing the scares.  the story revolves around a real case that the warrens, a married couple who deals with paranormal occurrences, investigate.  the case itself deals with a family that recently moves into an old creaky house and find it to be haunted.  there are some good scares to be had as the story unfolds, showing us little glimpses into the strange goings-on that the family confronts.  they eventually call in the warrens, ed and lorraine, to help the deal with what's going on.  the warrens are played to perfection by patrick wilson and vera farmiga.  these characters are so well fleshed out that you cant help but be drawn in by them and how they are dealing with the situation at hand.  the creepy elements keep growing as the house reacts to their presence, and by the end there is a genuine sense of dread for what might happen.  the director does a fantastic job of building suspense and paying off the promises made in the first half of the film.  by the end i just wanted to see more of the warrens!  i could easily see this turning into a whole series of films focusing on the warrens that the other cases they dealt with- i would certainly be on board for that!

steel

yeah... um... what exactly can one say about this movie?  hmmm.  i guess i'll start by admitting that yes, it is as bad as you think it is.  i don't exactly know what the makers of this movie were thinking, but they certainly weren't thinking of a good movie!  its kind of a shame, really, because the character portrayed in the movie is actually a really great one.  in the dc comic book, john henry irons is a normal everyday man who was so heartbroken by the death of superman (yes, the character's origin comes from that 90's comic book story line) that he felt compelled to try and pick up the mantle of superman himself to fight crime.  since he doesn't have any super powers, he builds for himself a steel suit and emblazons it with the familiar 'S' in honor of his fallen hero.  what we get in this movie instead is a character rewritten to remove all traces of superman (they must not have been able to get the rights for that one, huh?), and instead it becomes about a military man who comes home to find his city has been overrun with crime and feels the need to stand up against the bad guys.  oh, and i haven't even gotten to the best part: shaq!  for some reason someone thought it was a good idea to cast this guy in the lead role.  i'm sure he is an amazing basketball player, but he is considerably less skilled when it comes to emoting...  serving as his mentor is richard roundtree, an appearance complete with terrible 'shaft' puns and all!  with this movie coming out in 1997, its no wonder it took another three years for the superhero movie to recover!

chernobyl diaries

i am a sucker for found footage films.  those are the kind of movies that try to appear like they were filmed by the actual people in the movie, one of the first of these kinds of movies is 'blair witch project' and has recently become more popular through movies like 'cloverfield' and 'paranormal activity'.  in fact, the director of paranormal activity is the brains behind this movie as well, oren peli.  though he didnt direct it, he did write and produce it.  the story follows four college kids russia when they find themselves with an opportunity to sneak in, with a guide, to the abandoned city to do some urban exploring.  of course, things go terribly wrong and bad things happen- this is a horror movie, after all!  the style of the film is very much grounded in the found footage style, but whats kind of interesting is that as the film goes on it almost feels like that style isnt quite as important, and we seem to begin watching in other ways, its almost like the film is a found footage movie, but without the cameras.  the characters arent very interesting or fleshed out, but with these kind of movies it seems to be something that isnt necessary.  the definite highlight of the film is the amazing sets.  now, i'm sure that they didnt actually get permission to film in chernobyl, but the abandoned buildings and city certainly do feel real- there's no way they build those sets!  the build up in the middle of the film does a great job of capturing just how isolated and desolate the area is.  though i dont think the ending is very strong, the build up to it was certainly worth the ride!

ted

ugh.  i guess its self fulfilling prophecy, but i knew i wouldn't like it and, surprise surprise, i didn't.  i know it was huge when it came out, but i only just now have gotten around to seeing it.  i don't really care for seth macfarlane, to be honest, i've never liked 'family guy' or any of the other imitations that he came up with, so i guess i shouldn't be stunned to find that i don't care for his big screen work either.  the story is about a boy who wishes his teddy bear would come alive and be his best friend.  it comes true and they all live happily every after.  this movie takes that premise and asks 'what would that relationship look like twenty five years later?'  turns out that he never grew up and now he's in his mid thirties and still acting like a child, and having his teddy bear around hasn't helped issues at all.  its a rather interesting and fun starting point for a story, but it doesn't really go beyond that idea.  it basically plays out each and every generic trope that one would expect.  in fact, it kind of plays like a romantic comedy between the guy and his bear.  the girl, mila kunis, is merely there to be the obstacle between the two.  she becomes someone who is trying to tear them apart.  the whole movie is terribly predictable and is mostly just pop culture reference after pop culture reference (although, should that really come as a surprise to anyone who knows macfarlane's style?).  the movie is obsessed with the flash gordon movie from the eighties.  that not being a touchstone of my youth (to be honest, i've never even seen it), all the references to it were lost on me.  i'm sure people who love macfarlane's stuff will totally adore this movie, but it was certainly not for me!