High Fidelity (8/10): A great ensemble cast and a wonderful soundtrack make this a fun experience.

“Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?”

Stephen Frear’s High Fidelity breaks the fourth wall from the very opening scene as Rob Gordon (John Cusack) begins sharing with us about his top 5 breakups right at the time his girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), is moving out of his apartment and leaving him. It is evident he is hurt, but he brushes it off by saying she doesn’t even rank in his list of the most hurtful breakups. That is when he begins listing who each one of them were while we get flashbacks of those memories intertwined with the present in which we are introduced to his job, friends, and his passion for music. Rob is a vintage record store owner and his two employees, Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black), are as much music snobs as he is, and they too enjoy making lists of their favorite things usually involving music. The more we get to know Rob, we realize that he isn’t the typical romantic character we’d find in a film like this. He is deeply flawed, he has cheated on his girlfriend, he doesn’t seem to be going anywhere with his life, and he is afraid of commitment. Somehow he always believes to be the victim in the break-ups, but from what he says we know that he has never been boyfriend of the year material. It is hard to root for a character like Rob, but John Cusack delivers such a charismatic and engaging performance that we accept his flaws and want him to get over the heartbreak. Along the way he realizes that Laura really belongs on the list and decides to revisit some of his past flames to discover what he has been doing wrong. 

Frears has directed some great films (The Queen, Philomena), along with not so good ones that feel like direct to TV movies, but High Fidelity belongs in his top list of best films. It is a romantic comedy that has an entertaining script, some great performances, and of course a wonderful soundtrack. The screenplay was adapted from Nick Horny’s book but instead of setting the story in London they bring it to Chicago and it absolutely works. Jack Black and Todd Louiso give strong supporting performances and you believe they actually are these snobs who are living music encyclopedias. They complement Cusack’s performance and deliver most of the comedic moments. As for John Cusack I believe this is one of his best performances although I still need to see a couple more of his films to solidify that claim. The romance in High Fidelity is also incredibly believable and relatable which is hard to come across by in most rom-coms. Neither Cusack nor Hjejle are portrayed as these perfect role models in a relationship, they are both flawed characters who have made some poor decisions.

Even though my music knowledge is very limited, I was able to relate to these characters because of their shared passion. I may not have that same passion for music, but I do for movies or sports so I understood where these characters were coming from and believed the culture this film created surrounding music. The screenwriters knew what they were writing about and each one of the actors delivered, and that is what has made High Fidelity such a cult favorite for many teens. It manages to be smart and funny at the same time. It is also one of the best examples of a film successfully being able to break the fourth wall and including the audience in the genius of the movie and its charm.   

My Review: RED 2 (5/10)

"If there's one thing I know, it's women and covert operations."

If there's one thing I know, it's that if the first film wasn't good, the sequel probably won't be either. That was the case with RED 2 which follows pretty much the same generic formula that it did in the first RED with the new additions of Catherine Zeta Jones, Anthony Hopkins, and Byung-hun Lee. The film has its funny moments, not thanks to screenwriters Jon and Erich Hoeber (responsible for the terrible screenplays of Whiteout and Battleship), but to its incredible and highly likable cast. Their presence alone and their interactions together elevate this otherwise ridiculous film. I guess that the producers decided to make a sequel considering the world wide success the first film had (despite not being a fan) and this time they brought Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest and Fun with Dick and Jane) to take over the director's chair that Robert Schwentke (RIPD and Flightplan) had left unoccupied. This sequel takes the same formula and similar situations by mixing comedy with over the top action sequences. There is nothing sophisticated or fresh about this film, so don't go into this expecting an engaging and thoughtful trailer. 

The plot follows the events from the previous film as Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is trying to enjoy his retired life now with the company of his girlfriend Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), but the relationship is being affected by his overprotective behavior. She is yearning for some action in her life, so when Marvin (John Malkovich) shows up to warn Frank that there are people following them she doesn't hesitate in wanting to come along. But Frank dismisses Marvin and claims he is overreacting and that he and Sarah should continue to go on with their normal lives. It turns out that Marvin was right, as a Pentagon operative named Jack Horton (Neal McDonough) tries to capture Frank and threatens to torture Sarah unless he gives him some important information. Marvin comes to the rescue and explains that they are being hunted due to their previous involvement in a Cold War undercover operation known as Nightshade involving some sort of nuclear weapon. In order to find out more information and discover the reason as to why these men are hunting them down Frank, Sarah, and Marvin travel to Paris and meet up with Russian agent Katya (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who also happens to share a past relationship with Frank. Former MI6 agent, Victoria (Helen Mirren), is hired to kill Frank as well, but being a friend of theirs she gives them the heads up. It seems these former agents have been forced to come out of retirement once again to settle things once and for all.

If you thought the first film was silly, then you will think RED 2 is even more ridiculous considering the over the top action scenes involving car chases and gunshots. The plot is really dumb and light, and the only fun you might get out of this film comes from the cast. I actually liked Anthony Hopkins and Byung-hun Lee in their particular roles here, but they just couldn't do much with the material. Hellen Mirren is such a talented actress that at moments it felt embarrassing to hear her speak out her recycled lines. The cast did seem to have a lot of fun with the lightness of it all and John Malkovich delivers several funny lines, but I just felt this film was dull, stale, and unsatisfying. To be honest I came into this film remembering very little about the first film, and I can imagine I will completely forget about this sequel as well in a few more weeks because it is beyond silly. Silly can be good at times, but here I think they went a little too far with it. I will give this two and a half stars for the cast involved because they are just fun to watch at times. 

My Review: Broken City (4/10)

"There are some wars you fight and some wars you walk away from. This isn't the fighting kind."

I guess Allen Hughes's brother, Albert (with whom he has always worked with in the past directing such films as The Book of Eli and From Hell), decided this was a movie he was going to walk away from. Albert was the smarter brother here because Broken City really missed the mark with a rather predictable plot involving corrupt government officials, silly twists, and irrelevant character motivations. I felt the story was rather ambiguous and some characters were presented only to introduce a certain plot element and then were completely forgotten (as with Natalie and Cathleen). In this day and age where you can find great TV series why would someone want to go see a political thriller so formulaic as this? Hughes has to offer something much more groundbreaking if he wants to attract audiences. It's not enough just to have big stars and a predictable script. It's a shame that the film is actually more broken than the city, and one of the main issues I had was with the weak script written by Brian Tucker which leaves way too many loose ends. Broken City isn't a terrible movie, but it isn't any good either. 

Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) is a New York detective on trial for having killed an alleged rapist and murderer. The court finds Billy innocent despite the fact that Police Commissioner Fairbanks (Jeffrey Wright) presented some evidence to the city's Mayor, Hostetler (Russell Crowe), which he decided to withhold. The Mayor congratulates Billy for doing the right thing but he is asked to resign. The film jumps seven years forward where we see Billy working as a private detective (mostly hired for adultery cases). He is married to Natalie (Natalie Martinez), an aspiring actress who happened to be the sister of the murderer's victim. Mayor Hostetler hires Billy to follow his wife, Cathleen (Catherine Zeta Jones), whom he suspects is cheating on him. He wants him to do it quietly because he's a few weeks away from reelection and the opposing candidate, Jack Valliant (Barry Pepper) is closing in on the race. Billy is surprised to discover that the person Cathleen has been meeting with is actually Paul Andrews (Kyle Chandler), Valliant's lead campaign coordinator. A few days after he makes this discovery, Paul is found murdered in the streets and Billy realizes that there is much more going on here than a simple adultery case. 

There is no doubt that the strongest thing about Broken City is its cast. Mark Wahlberg is comfortable here playing the tough guy and I thought he gave a strong performance. I did expect more from Russell Crowe who didn't really add much to the movie. The few scenes with Barry Pepper were probably the strongest ones. Catherine Zeta Jones was underused here and her character is simply in this film to move the plot along. The same can be said for Natalie Martinez. So many of these characters were simply part of this film to introduce certain plot elements but then were completely forgotten. There is no character development and pretty much everyone plays stereotypical roles here. If you've seen political thrillers in the past than you'd be very familiar with these one dimensional characters. Despite trying to pay close attention to the plot I still had a hard time understanding how certain elements were connected with one another. Everything felt contrived and the story was too ambitious. By the end I thought the story was just too unbelievable for a film that tried to appear real and authentic.

My Review: Side Effects (7/10)

¨Depression is the inability to construct a future.¨

Side Effects is said to be Steven Soderbergh´s last film, but I expect him to come back from retirement sometime in the near future. If he decides this is really going to be his last film then he will go out with a good resume, although I wouldn’t consider Side Effects among his best works, which are Traffic, Ocean´s Eleven, and Out of Sight, but it still is a strong film to go out with it. I actually enjoyed Contagion and Magic Mike more than I did this, but the variety of films that Soderbergh has directed is proof of what a versatile director he really is. His films are all very different from each other and even Side Effects takes a tremendous turn halfway through the movie proving what a great director Soderbergh can be. The movie begins as sort of this drama about pharmaceuticals and depression, but at the midway point it transforms itself completely to a provocative suspenseful thriller. This is not an easy task, but Soderbergh manages to make the transition masterfully. I had a hard time with the pace of the first part of the film, but your patience is really rewarded through the second part where the film picks up completely and has you second guessing everyone´s intentions. None of the characters in this film are likeable, they are all morally ambiguous but somehow we care for what happens to them. My only complaint would have to be that Channing Tatum´s character doesn’t get much depth, but the film really doesn’t focus on him so it is ok. His role could have been played by a nobody and it would have been pretty much the same thing. This is probably one of his weakest performances as of late. Rooney Mara, Jude Law, and Catherine Zeta Jones on the other hand give very strong performances and have us siding for each one of them at different times. This is something only Soderbergh could have pulled off, completely switching the genre of the film halfway through the movie.

This is one of those films that fortunately the trailer doesn’t give away much and that the less you know about the plot the better because the twists are really rewarding. I will describe the plot as brief as possible without giving anything away. Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) had her world turned upside down when her husband Martin (played by Channing Tatum) was imprisoned for some kind of financial fraud. He was imprisoned for four years and he is finally being released. Emily is trying her best to adapt and make the transition back to her normal life after having decided to wait for him, but she´s finding it very difficult to deal with and is suffering from some sort of severe depression. One day she tries to commit suicide by smashing her vehicle into a concrete wall. She ends up in the hospital being treated for mild injuries and Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) treats her and makes a psychological evaluation. He decides to let Emily return home after she promises to continue treatment with him several times a week. During the days that follow, Emily continues to struggle with depression and Dr. Banks begins testing some new medication on her since she is struggling with the side effects. He also decides to set an interview with Dr. Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta Jones), Emily´s former shrink who treated her during Martin´s time in jail. Somehow Emily begins to experience some strange side effects and something goes terribly wrong putting both Emily and Dr. Banks’ life in the public eye.  

Side Effects may suffer from a very slow opening, but it does get better once the suspense begins. I loved the way in which Soderbergh suck me into the film and had me second guessing everything that was going on. That was what made this film enjoyable because I was prepared to stop watching when we got to the midway point. Jude Law and Rooney Mara were both superb in this film; they gave strong performances and had good characters to work with. The screenplay was also really well written with some great dialogues and fun twists. It was written by Scott Z. Burns who had worked with Steven in the past (Contagion and The Informant). He also is responsible for adapting the screenplay for The Bourne Ultimatum. His filmography is proof of what a talented writer he is, and he doesn’t disappoint here with a very clever and ingenious script. Side Effects is one of those movies that sticks with you and has you thinking for days to come. It is a very rewarding and satisfying film, but I´ve had more fun with other Soderbergh movies.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/

My Review: Playing for Keeps (5/10)

¨How do you get to meet so many hot women? –I have an accent.¨

Director Gabriele Muccino has been successful in the past (The Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds), but in Playing for Keeps he seems to have lost his touch. Everything that can go wrong in a movie goes wrong here with a very formulaic and cliché script, a predictable story, and some over the top performances. Dennis Quaid seems to be playing the same role he played in What to Expect When Your Expecting with a very eccentric approach that hurts the movie even more and presents it in a very cartoonish way. Gerard Butler is another talented actor who seems to have lost his touch as well in the recent years with some bad films. Not even the beautiful and talented ladies (Catherine Zeta Jones, Jessica Biel, Uma Thurman, and Judy Greer) were enough to save this terrible movie. The main problem was its script which was written by Robbie Fox who hadn’t written a screenplay since 1994 (the terrible In The Army Now) and shouldn’t have even considered making a comeback. What I can say about this film is that despite not being funny it is tolerable. It is not one of those films that bore you to death; but it is completely predictable and cliché. I wouldn’t say this is completely a family friendly film despite the happy ending considering the main character is kind of a playboy. Despite the interesting cast this film is completely lazy and empty.

The story centers on George (Gerard Butler) a successful soccer player who played in important clubs across Europe and ended his career in the MLS. He hasn´t had the same success in his retirement and has failed in a couple of business enterprises. George decides to move to Virginia where his ex-wife, Stacie (Jessica Biel), lives along with their young son Lewis (Noah Lomax). He wants to be a better father and therefore moves close to their home so he can spend some more time with him. Stacie is living with her fiancé, Matt (James Tupper), and they both agree that George be closer to Lewis. While George is trying to find a job as a sports anchor, he begins coaching his son´s soccer team. Since he was a well known player all the parents agree he should coach the team and they are all exited that he has decided to be involved, especially the moms which include Patti (Uma Thurman), Denise (Catherine Zeta Jones), and Barb (Judy Greer). Barb is an emotional recently divorced mother, Denise is a former successful TV anchor who offers to help George in achieving his goal, and Patti is a seductive woman who is married to the rich, but manic, Carl (Dennis Quaid). George´s soccer career might be over, but he finds quite a local fan base as a coach. His success with the ladies continues, but he doesn’t want that to be a distraction as he becomes more and more involved in the life of his son. He also discovers that he has feelings for Stacie, and we all know where this film is heading from there.

There is not much more I can say about this extremely formulaic film. Don’t be fooled by this family friendly film because it is kind of creepy in a way with the main character having all these moms stocking him. The impressive cast isn’t enough to save this film since it has a terrible script and the performances were really lazy. Jessica Biel received a Razzie nomination for her performance in this film along with her work in Total Recall, but who I think was really terrible here was Dennis Quaid. The only believable thing about the film was the soccer choreographies which were done really well. They didn’t seem as fake as in some other soccer movies. This is a very forgettable film, but it was tolerable and some of my family members had a good time.

  

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/

My Review: Rock of Ages (4/10)

¨This place is about to become a sea of sweat, ear-shattering music and puke.¨

Filmmaker Adam Shankman just succeeded in bringing to the big screen one of the worst movies of the year. It`s a shame because I had enjoyed his 2008 musical Hairspray, but this one doesn’t work at all. It tries too hard to be funny, but it just felt lame. The first 30 minutes are terrible, the film then picks up thanks to Tom Cruise but it just seemed to drag on forever. The movie may have one of the best soundtracks of the year and that saves it, but that is about the only thing I enjoyed of Rock of Ages. There are a couple few funny scenes but they are too far spread out and like one of the character`s sings near the end ¨the movie keeps on going on and on.¨ I didn’t like that the producers decided to put the words of the song during the musical like if it were a karaoke bar, but I guess a lot of people liked it and it worked for them. I`m just giving my personal opinion and I didn’t think it worked really well as a movie. There were a lot of similarities between this movie and Burlesque, another film I didn’t like very much but is much better than this one. Musicals haven’t worked out really well in the past few years (Burlesque and Nine), and it`s a shame because with films like Chicago, Moulin Rouge, and Dreamgirls it looked like this genre was going through a revival period.

Sherrie (Julianne Hough from the Footloose remake) is a small town girl from Tulsa, Oklahoma that is pursuing her dream of becoming a singer and therefore is moving to Hollywood. Once she arrives to the big city she is introduced to a new world and from the moment she sets her foot in Hollywood she is robbed. But not everyone is a thief in Hollywood and she finds help from a young man who`s also aspiring to become a rock star. His name is Drew (Diego Boneta) and he immediately helps Sherrie by helping her get a job at the same place he works at: the Bourbon Club, famous for having launched Stacee Jaxx`s (Tom Cruise) career as a rock star. Jaxx is at the pinnacle of his career and is thinking of going solo. He will be presenting his last concert with his band at the Bourbon Club run by Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin). The club is having some financial troubles, but the concert will put it in the map again. Not everyone admires Stacee Jaxx however, as the mayor (Brian Cranston) and his wife Patty Whitmore (Catherine Zeta Jones) want to clean the city by closing down the famous club responsible for so much immorality. Other important characters in this musical include the talents of Paul Giamatti as Jaxx`s manager, Russell Brand as Dennis`s best friend and work partner, Mary J Blige as a strip club owner, and Malin Akerman as a Rolling Stones magazine reporter.

There is not much more I can add about this review but say that Tom Cruise gave yet another good performance. I also liked the young Diego Boneta who I hadn’t heard about before. He has a decent career ahead of him. Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand are always funny and shared some funny moments together. Julianne Hough is beautiful but she didn’t seem to fit the part in this film. I didn’t like her very much in Rock of Ages. My main complaint has nothing to do with the cast, I just think it was poorly directed and scripted. The film has some great music, but that is about it. I wouldn’t want to watch this film again and couldn’t recommend it to anyone.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com

My Review: The Rebound (5/10)

¨She`s still got it. He`s just getting it.¨

(5/10) This is the first film I´ve seen from director Bart Freundlich and I can say I wasn`t very impressed. The Rebound has its laugh out loud moments, but they are few. The beginning of the film didn`t impress me much and I was ready to give up on it, but halfway through the movie it picks up and the chemistry between Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha helps. It is not a great movie, but it is not your typical romcom either and it has a few things favoring it.  The script was written by Bart Freundlich, the director himself, but it wasn`t one of the strong points; I felt the dialogue could have flowed much better, but instead it seems we have two different movies: The first half which focuses much more on the comedy, and then the second half which becomes more serious and focuses on the relationship between the two main characters and the difficulties they experience in their relationship due to the age difference. The plot does deal with some of these issues we haven´t seen much on screen before, but it doesn´t delve deep enough and at the end The Rebound follows the same formula that the other romcoms follow and becomes predictable.

Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is a stay at home mother who really loves sports. Her daily routine involves taking her two kids, Sadie (Eliza Callahan) and Frank (Andrew Cherry), to school and picking them up. During her free time she watches sports and does all kinds of charts and analysis about it. One day her life changes when she accidently catches her husband cheating on her while watching her son´s birthday tape. She gets a divorce and moves from the suburbs to the city with her two children and ends up finding a job as a writer for a Sports TV station in NY. Now that she is working she doesn`t have time to take care of her kids so she needs to find a nanny. Aram (Justin Bartha) is a 24 year old who just got his heart broken by a French girl who used him to get her US residence. He works at a coffee shop next to the apartments where Sandy has moved in, and he ends up babysitting the kids. Aram still lives at home with his parents who are constantly encouraging him to find a better job. He really begins to enjoy his time with the children and ends up falling for Sandy, but the age difference is in the way, plus the fact that both of them have just come out of a relationship. If you´ve seen pretty much any other romantic comedy than you know what is going to happen next.

The Rebound is not as bad as the first 40 minutes make you believe it is, but the last 45 minutes aren`t enough to save the movie either. Zeta-Jones and Bartha have good chemistry together, but the material is not good enough. The movie does have its moments but at the end you will probably forget you even saw this film. It is a mediocre film and mildly entertaining, but not enough to recommend it. Catherine Zeta-Jones is a great actress, but I don`t know what she was thinking when she accepted to work with this script. This is a movie you could live without seeing, although it is not a terrible film either. Only watch it if you have nothing better to do.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/

Mi Segunda Vez (The Rebound) [*Ntsc/region 1 & 4 Dvd. Import-latin America]