Paddington (5/10): I'm not jumping on the Paddington bandwagon.

"Long ago, people in England sent their children by train with labels around their necks, so they could be taken care of by complete strangers in the country side where it was safe.”

This quote is taken from a scene in which Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton), a CGI animated Bear living in a Peruvian rainforest, prepares her nephew Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw), a charming but mischievous marmalade-loving bear, to travel to London after a terrible earthquake has destroyed their home. Apparently the real life images of the children leaving the train station during the war along with a teddy bear in a store at Paddington Station is what inspired Michael Bond nearly sixty years ago to create this beloved children character which has now been brought to the big screen by director Paul King (Bunny and the Bull). To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with the character and this was the first time I was introduced to his world which sort of feels like it comes from the same universe as Stuart Little where you simply have to accept the fact that it is apparently normal for a talking bear to walk around the city and be adopted by a loving family. I’m not going to jump on the Paddington bandwagon here because despite the sweet and charming story I did find it rather tedious, boring, and extremely predictable. With a 98% of critics on Rottentomatoes liking this film, I’m definitely in the minority here, but I simply didn’t find it appealing. 

Once Paddington arrives in London he is temporary welcomed by the Brown family until he finds the explorer who had befriended his uncles forty years ago in Peru. Henry (Hugh Bonneville) and Mary (Sally Hawkins) Brown are the parents of Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin), but other than Mary no one seems too pleased about the intrusion of Paddington in their house. Eventually they all warm up to him despite his mischievous behavior, but not everyone is as welcoming as they are. There is a museum taxidermist, Millicent (Nicole Kidman), who hears rumors that this Peruvian bear is living with the Brown family and she wants him for her personal collection. Peter Capaldi plays the role of Mr. Curry, the Brown’s next door neighbor who is willing to help Millicent take the bear away from his neighborhood, while Jim Broadbent is Mr. Gruber, an antique shop owner who tries to help Paddington locate the mysterious explorer.  

It is evident that the film has an underlying message about the poor way in which immigrants are treated. Paddington is a beloved and charming character that will easily win the hearts of children. The story follows pretty much the same basic formula as most classic children films did. Visually the movie is very stylish and there are several set designs that reminded me of Wes Anderson’s work. Especially those scenes where he uses rostrum camera insert shots to animate several objects. I’ll give King credit for those visually beautiful scenes, but I simply didn’t feel engaged with the characters as most people did. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I had never heard of Paddington before, but as a film on its own it definitely didn’t stand out for me.

My Review: The Railway Man (6/10)

"-You are a soldier, Lomax. You never surrendered." "-I'm still at war."

The Railway Man is one of those films that I find difficult to review because I find the underlying message to be a powerful and redeeming one, while I also find a lot of flaws with the pacing and time lapse of the story. I guess despite never having read the bestselling autobiography by Eric Lomax I would recommend reading it over watching this film. The theme of forgiveness that this film deals with is inspiring, but I think that the book would probably move me more than this film did. I had a hard time engaging with the characters despite the fact that I loved the cast. The flashbacks during the War worked much better than the scenes back home where we see Eric tormented by his past. I felt like the film was rushing things to get to the important climactic scene near the end, but we never got much of a character arc for Eric's present and how he fell in love with Patti (played by Nicole Kidman). As much as I like Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman I really never felt that connection between them considering his character, Eric, was always so disconnected from everything. The story should be an engaging one, but I found myself detached for the majority of the film. It did however succeed in engaging me during the flashbacks with the atrocities Eric had to endure as a prisoner of war, and the final climactic scene also left me interested enough in the story to want to read the book, but it didn't really move me the way it should've.

Lomax's autobiography was adapted by Andy Paterson and Frank Boyce. The film opens by introducing us to Eric Lomax (Colin Firth), as he is boarding a train he sits next to the lovely Patti (Nicole Kidman) and they have a very friendly conversation. The chemistry between them is evident. They eventually marry, but Patti realizes that Eric is still haunted by his past. He loses touch with reality and suffers from recurring nightmares. In order to help him, Patti contacts one of Eric's friends who happened to serve with him in Singapore during the Second World War. Finlay (Stellan Skarsgård) at first refuses to talk about their past, but he gives in and tells her what happened. We see what he tells her through flashbacks. The young Finlay (Sam Reid) and Eric (Jeremy Irvine) have been imprisoned by the Japanese Army and are forced to work on the construction of the Thai/Burma railway. Since they are engineers they aren't forced to do the hard work, but when they discover that Eric has built a radio and been informing the rest of the prisoners about the events that have been going on, they torture him. Takeshi Nagase (Tanroh Ishida) is the Japanese translator who actually tortured Eric and left him traumatized for life. Things take an unexpected turn in the present when Finlay tells Patti that he knows where Nagase is. She has to decide whether it is wise for him to know this so he can confront him, or wether this will affect Eric even more. She decides to tell him and Eric embarks on a journey to confront his past. 

Eric's story is really inspiring and uplifting, but at times the film didn't feel that way. My major concerns had to do with the way everything felt rushed in the present in order to get to the final confrontation. There were a lot of things that were missing and that affected my overall appreciation of the film. The ending was uplifting and powerful, but the journey was not so much. I really liked the cinematography, especially the scenes in the flashback in the beautiful Thai region. Hiroyuki Sanada also gives a strong performance and plays a key role in the final third of the film. The direction by Jonathan Teplitzky was a bit uneven at times, but I still had a decent time with this film. The cast alone is worth giving this film a shot and the story of forgiveness and redemption is always something I find uplifting and inspiring. As long as you go into this film with low expectations you can take something positive out of it. 

My Review: Stoker (9/10)

¨Sometimes you need to do something bad to stop you from doing something worse.¨

I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed Chan-wook Park´s first American film considering it hadn’t received as much critical acclaim as his Korean films did. I liked Oldboy, but wasn’t a huge fan like most people, but somehow I ended up being blown away with how artistic and well made this movie was. Park can take you to dark places and his movies can be disturbing. Stoker is no exception. Park creates a dark and provocative thriller that begins at a slow pace but the tension begins to rise as we get to the climatic and surprising ending. Park´s film is very stylish, and I don’t think I have seen better camerawork and editing in a film this year. I was blown away with the images and the twists that Park creates in this film. Stoker proves that it is not necessary to sympathize for any of the characters in order for the viewer to care for what is happening. None of these characters are likeable, but Park creates such a dark and twisted atmosphere that I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The slow opening scenes were very stylish and gorgeous to look at. I was completely hooked with the story from the beginning. I was surprised to discover that the script was written by Wentworth Miller (the actor from Prison Break and Resident Evil Afterlife) because the story was pretty gripping. I don’t know if it would have worked in another director´s hands, but Park made the script look good. If this was Park´s first American film, I can´t wait to see what he does next. This film also made me want to watch Oldboy again and see what I missed the first time considering I was a much younger viewer. Park will definitely be on my radar from now on.

India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) has always been very close to her father, Richard (Dermot Mulroney), but has never connected well with her emotionally unstable mother Evie (Nicole Kidman). India isn’t a normal teenage girl herself; she is socially awkward and doesn’t like to be touched. She lives in a large family estate in a peaceful town surrounded by the woods. On the day of her 18^th birthday, she receives the news that her father has passed away in a freak car accident. During his funeral, India is introduced to her Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode), Richard´s estranged brother whom he has never mentioned before. Evie invites Charlie to stay with them, and despite being attracted to him in some sort of bizarre way India isn’t happy with his presence in their estate. Charlie seems to have some ulterior motives, but everyone in the family acts in a bizarre way. This isn’t your typical family and everyone seems to have some disturbed troubled past. Charlie seems to be taken with India, but she distrusts his intentions. As the movie begins to unfold we discover some hidden secrets from the family´s past.

I´ve mentioned how much I liked Park´s direction and Miller´s script, but I also have to give credit to Wasikowska´s performance. She gives a very strong performance as this troubled teen who is struggling to accept her infatuation with her estranged uncle. She has some very difficult scenes here and she delivers at every turn. She is the highlight of this film, although Matthew Goode has some great moments as well and some strange sort of chemistry going on with Wasikowska. The film finds a perfect balance between being disturbingly dark and beautifully stylish. I was really hooked with this thriller and would definitely watch this film again. Stoker may not be as raw and shocking as Oldboy but it still has its twisted and disturbing moments. Park´s style may not be for everyone, but I enjoy his craft and artistic style.  

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My Review: The Paperboy (3/10)

¨He never did get over his first true love.¨

The Paperboy is an early contender for worse film of the year. This pulpy film noir thriller is so messy that it´s hard to make sense of everything that is going on. The story is just horrible with characters that are too hard to identify with. I couldn’t care less for what was going to happen to them because they were all dislikeable characters, and I really couldn’t figure out why they wanted to help each other out or why they were even together in the first place. The Paperboy tries too hard to mix everything together: a pulpy film noir, with some racial drama, a detective story (that never even solves anything), several anti-romances, and some unfunny comedy. This is just one of those trashy films that succeed in making you feel dirty, but you don’t get anything of real value out of it. I also hated the way that the film was narrated in some scenes trying to explain everything to the viewer like if we were stupid and needed everything pointed out at us (yes, we can all understand that Efron´s character was in love with Nicole Kidman because of his abandonment issues with his mother, there was no need to tell us that through voice over). The other problem I had was that the film tried too hard to shock us through several unpleasant scenes, like the close up of the gator being gutted, and these gross out scenes didn’t really connect with the movie. That is the reason why I felt this film wasn´t cohesive and was too messy. It is a shame because I loved Lee Daniels´s previous film Precious, but this is a huge step backwards from that movie.

  

The film was based on Peter Dexter´s novel of the same name and it takes place in South Florida during the late 60´s. The story centers around the life of a reporter named Ward (Matthew McConaughey) who decides to return to his hometown to investigate a case about an inmate on death row. Ward is trying to catch a big break on this story involving the murder of a local police officer and the conviction of the supposed murderer, Hilary Van Wetter (John Cusack). Apparently there were some irregularities in the trial and Ward has decided to investigate the case with his partner, Yardley (David Oyelowo). They heard about the story through Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman) who happens to be sort of a death row groupie, who corresponds with these men through letters. She falls in love with Hilary and believes he is innocent, so she contacts Ward and Yardley and convinces them to chase this career making story. Together they work on the case in Ward´s father´s home where his younger brother, Jack (Zac Efron), still lives. Jack becomes the driver for the group taking them to the different locations they are investigating and immediately falls in love with Charlotte despite knowing she´s attracted to the psychotic Hilary. The story is narrated by the house maid, Anita (Macy Gray).

The film does succeed in bringing the hot and steamy Florida weather on the screen and only watching the characters move make us feel hot and sweaty as well. This trashy film reminds us of some early 70´s film noir movies with Nicole Kidman playing this sort of modern femme fatale character. Her gritty performance stands in deep contrast to Efron´s sweet innocence. I had no problem with the cast. I thought they all gave strong performances, especially Nicole Kidman and John Cusack as these two sort of psychotic characters. I had never seen these actors in a role like this before. My major problem with the film was the messy story which ended up wandering all over the place and getting lost in the mix of everything. It is no wonder this film ended up getting booed at Cannes because it does fail to connect the major plot points. It was just a little too pulpy and steamy for my taste and it didn’t work at all because I really disliked all these characters.  

     

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My Review: Trespass (2/10)

¨Run, Avery, run¨

That is the same recommendation I`m making to the audience: Run away from this movie as fast as you can, because it is really terrible, one of the worst heist films I`ve seen in years, with the dumbest thieves in film history. The further the movie continues to go with its revelations, the worse it gets. It gave me a really bad headache because there is so much screaming and crying going on. At first I thought this would be an interesting movie considering it starred Nicolas Cage (although he can`t be too reliable lately) and Nicole Kidman, but I couldn`t understand how I had never heard about this movie or seen it screen in theaters. Then after the movie was over, I kind of figured it out; and later I read that the movie was only in theaters for 10 days breaking the record for being the fastest ever to go directly from theaters to home video. It was available in DVD 18 days after the film had been released in theaters. Why? Because it is really that bad. Trespass cost an estimated 35 million dollars to be made, and it grossed less than 25 thousand dollars. This is probably something that director Joel Schumacher won’t be proud of. I think the last film that he directed which I actually enjoyed was Phone Booth way back in 2002. He seems to be in a bad streak recently. Karl Gajdusek was the man responsible for the terrible script, and the story is probably the worst part of the entire film.

Kyle Miller (Nicolas Cage) seems to be a successful diamond salesman. He lives in a big and highly secured house, drives a fancy sports car, and has a beautiful wife, Sarah (Nicole Kidman), and a teenage daughter, Avery (Liana Liberato), who is going through her typical rebellious state. Things seem a little shaky at home since Kyle has to travel so much and Sarah spends a lot of time on her own, and she doesn`t like the fact that her daughter Avery is spending so much time with Kendra, who she considers a bad influence. Avery wants to go to a party with her, and her parents say no but she escapes anyway. That night a group of officers show up at the house asking if everyone is at home because a series a kidnappings have been reported. Kyle and Sarah are convinced Avery is with them so assume nothing is wrong, but when they go to speak to the officers they invade their home and begin searching the home for diamonds. The thieves are played by Cam Gigandet, Jordana Spiro, Ben Mendelsohn, and Dash Mihok. They are extremely aggressive and heavily armed, but Kyle isn`t willing to open the safe so things begin to get out of hand. There is a lot of threatening and screaming going on, but that is about it. The thieves also seem to have some secret agendas of their own, but I don`t want to spoil the movie with all its revelations and ¨twists, ¨ so that is about all I`m going to reveal about the plot.

Trespass had an interesting beginning, but once the home invasion takes place and the thieves begin to threaten and keep on threatening without getting anything out of it the movie begins to go downhill from there. There inside the house with the family held hostage and they can`t manage to get anything done. All they do is yell, threaten, and scream, but make one stupid decision after another. Nicolas Cage`s character was also very unlikeable, and after everything that was going on I could really care less is his family survived or not. This was probably one of the worst home invasion thrillers I`ve seen, and that is too bad considering there were some talented actors involved in the project. Halfway through the movie a series of revelations are made about the family and the thieves, one worse than the next. Trespass seems to go downhill from that point on, and all you want to do thirty minutes into the film is run away from the chaotic script. It`s a shame because Nicolas Cage used to be one of my favorite action heroes, especially during the 90`s with Face/Off being the highlight of his career in my opinion, but recently in the last decade he has made a lot of poor choices and it will be a pity if people remember him for these roles instead of his other greater films.

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My Review: Just Go With It (4/10)

¨Feels good being honest, doesn`t it? Were you telling the truth when you said you might be in love with me? ¨

It actually feels good being honest; unfortunately there is nothing honest about this romantic comedy. The movie is just one big lie after another and I simply couldn`t just go along with it. It made no sense at all and at the same time a five year old could know where this movie was heading from the opening credits. The jokes and gags have been told before by Adam Sandler himself and repeated over and over again in his movies. It was funny in his early Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore days, but listening to the same joke repeated time after time again is simply not funny anymore. As for the romance, if you`ve ever seen a chic flick you`ve also seen Just Go With It and it`s clichés. Dennis Dugan has directed Adam Sandler at least half a dozen times before and they seem to be making the same movie over and over again. I don`t blame them: their films make money in the box office and they seem to be having a lot of fun at work because they don`t even have to try to make a good film because audiences simply are willing to just go with it. If you are the type of viewer who doesn`t really care too much about originality, good acting, or good scripts, then you probably will have a good time just going with it, but I guarantee you will forget you even saw it the next day. This movie was just so predictable from the very beginning to the very end that I simply couldn`t just go with it.

This time around Adam Sandler is Danny, a plastic surgeon and a player with the ladies. His heart was broken several years ago on his wedding night, but he also learned an important lesson on how to get girls to fall for him. He keeps the ring and tells the girls he is married, but is going through a rough time. Apparently they all seem to have a weakness for broken hearted and committed men so he gets what he wants: a one night stand and no relationships. The only person who he is really honest to is his assistant, Katherine (Jennifer Aniston), who somehow finds his ¨romantic stories¨ amusing. She is a single loving mother of two children: Maggie (Bailee Madison) and Michael (Griffin Gluck). The player finally ends up falling in love with a gorgeous and much younger woman named Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) who is a sweet math teacher. Danny never actually plays the married card with her, but the next morning she discovers the ring in Danny`s pocket and is upset that she has slept with a married man. Her parents got divorced and she had promised herself she would never wreck a marriage. Danny really likes this girl so he does the only thing he really knows how to do which is to lie. He says that he is getting divorced, that his wife cheated on him, but Palmer won`t believe him until she hears it from his soon to be ex-wife. Danny asks Katherine to act as her, but through a mix up her kids also get involved and now Palmer wants to spend time with the kids so they all travel together to Hawaii and the lies begin to build.

Adam Sandler always finds the best locations to make his movies. He really makes sure he is going to have a fun time while filming. I don’t blame him; he is a great comedian and really doesn’t have to try too hard. He has proven he can act in dramatic roles as well like Drunk Punch Love or Reign Over Me, but those great movies simply don`t get that much recognition or bring in huge box office numbers, so why stress out when audiences continue to go with his light comedies? Jennifer Aniston is a great actress, and she was alright in this movie. Brooklyn Decker might be beautiful, but she isn`t a good actress. My favorite performance came from Bailee Madison; the girl has a lot of charisma and she delivered the most laughs in my opinion. Nicole Kidman and Dave Matthews play secondary characters and they share some moments, but the script really didn`t help anyone out that much. Nick Swardson played the role of the dumb and obsessed with girls’ character that always shows up in an Adam Sandler film. His sole purpose in the movie is just to be ridiculous. I didn’t find him funny at all. I really don’t understand how Sandler`s character was planning on having a long relationship with this girl with all these lies he was telling her. How does a loving mother go along by dragging her kids into this mess? I mean the kids weren’t going to disappear after the ¨family vacation, ¨ but I guess it really didn`t matter because we knew exactly what direction the movie was going to go anyway. All we had to do was sit down, leave our brains at home, and just go with it.

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My Review: Nine (5/10)

¨Directing a movie is a very overrated job, we all know it. You just have to say yes or no. What else do you do? Nothing. "Maestro, should this be red?" Yes. "Green?" No. "More extras?" Yes. "More lipstick?" No. Yes. No. Yes. No. That's directing. ¨

Those are the words that Lilli, a costume designer, tells Guido, the director, in the musical Nine. I don`t think Rob Marshall has the same opinion about that after directing this difficult film which was based on Federico Fellini`s famous movie 8 ½. It is very difficult for someone to try to make a movie based on one of the greatest films from director Fellini who is considered to be by many the best director of all time. Rob Marshall had big shoes to fill, and it had been seven years since he directed his latest musical, Chicago, which gave him an Oscar for best director and best picture. But that was way back in 2002 and this time the film falls short. It counted with an all star cast (5 of the actors won at least one Oscar), an Oscar winning director, a pair of Oscar winning screenplay writers, and Oscar winning designers, but this film went home empty handed in the 2010 Academy Awards because it just failed to live up to expectations. The story just felt flat and it didn`t accompany some of the great musical numbers very well. Compared to Chicago and Moulin Rouge, this film is miles away from those excellent musicals and can`t even be named alongside them. I never saw the Broadway Musical for this movie which won several Tony Awards, but something went wrong between that theatrical version and trying to bring it to the big screen. The Musical Nine was first produced in Broadway back in the 80`s and the main character Guido was played by the late Raul Julia. A more recent version was produced in 2003 starring Antonio Banderas, who was considered for the role in the movie, but it finally went to Daniel Day Lewis. The screenplay for this movie was written by Michael Tolkin (The Player and Deep Impact) and Anthony Minghella (The English Patient and Cold Mountain), but I have to admit they didn`t do a very good job with the transitions from dialogue to musical numbers, which at some points felt too forced.

Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood) plays Guido, a famous Italian director who is having trouble coming up with a story for his ninth film which will be entitled Italia. His latest films have all been flops after enjoying a very promising career during his early years. Guido tries to get away from all the pressure and the media in order to find inspiration. He is having an affair with an actress named Carla (Penelope Cruz from Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Vanilla Sky) while his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard from La Vie en Rose and Public Enemies) stays at home very suspicious of her husband. Guido can`t find his inspiration in his wife because their relationship seems to have cooled down, and he can`t find it with Carla either. Claudia (Nicole Kidman from The Hours) is his Muse and she always works in his film, but this time he can`t even find the inspiration in her. He searches all over for inspiration or ideas for his next film spending time with: his mother (Sophia Lauren), his costume designer Lilli (Judi Dench from Notes on a Scandal), a beautiful Vogue reporter named Stephanie (Kate Hudson from Almost Famous), and even remembering a prostitute from his childhood named Saraghina (played by Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas). Guido`s life begins to unravel in front of his eyes as he sees his directing career going down the drain along with his love life.

Nine is not a terrible movie, but it doesn`t live up to other musicals like Moulin Rouge or Chicago, because it seems to rely solely on sexuality. There are some very good musical numbers which I enjoyed a lot, but the story didn`t seem to work in Nine. The musical numbers were all pretty decent; Fergie`s Be Italian, Hudson´s Cinema Italiano, Cruz`s A Call from the Vatican, and Cotillard`s Take it All, stand out from the rest of the film. But these musical pieces are far too spread out in a movie that lacks a more involving story and better transition from one scene to the next. I think that any director would have died to be able to count with such a talented cast, but this time things didn`t go as planned. Nicole Kidman who was so good in Moulin Rouge, seems to have been the weakest actress in Nine and they could have used her a little better. This could have been so much better, but Rob Marshall didn`t seem to be able to fit all the pieces together this time around and hopefully he will do a better job with his next film which just happens to be the fourth part of the Pirates of the Caribbean saga. Nine is a film you will remember only for a couple of musical pieces, but the rest is very forgettable. I don`t really recommend this film unless you are a fan of one of these actors. Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson all stand out from the rest along with Daniel Day Lewis who is always solid in his performances.