April, Week One

After I returned from my month-long vacation, I went about trying to watch as many movies as I could within the shortest span of time, because I was worried that stuff I wanted to see would be pulled out of theatres. And so, I managed to see in two weeks the same number of movies as I typically do in an entire month, which is rather scary. Here's Week One of it, from 16th to 22nd April.


16 April:

TMNT
There is no way the typical male in his twenties will not want to watch TMNT, since the Turtles were like, the coolest thing ever when we were growing up (this also applies to a movie like Transformers). It could suck to high heaven and we'd still go see it, and that's also the reason why this was my first movie upon my return. The animation strikes a nice balance between the darkness of the comic books and the cheeriness of the TV show, and boasts some of the coolest-looking animated buildings around. There's also a spectacular fight scene in the rain between Leonardo and Raphael. Too bad the script was just plain awful with some nonsensical rubbish about some artifacts and monsters and crap, to the extent of opening with a prologue that's set thousands of years ago. Why do that when you've got the freakin' Turtles?


17 April:

For Your Consideration
It was amusing in bits and pieces, but ultimately was a disappointing exercise. While it is funnier than most movies that purport to be comedies, I've come to expect much better of Christopher Guest and his crew. Hollywood types are just too easy to lampoon, although I have to admit Jennifer Coolidge is fuckin' hilarious as the clueless producer.



Der Rote Kakadu (The Red Cockatoo)
Do we really need another movie about East Germany under the GDR? The filmmakers seem to think so, and throw in rock 'n' roll and a young love triangle to spice things up. Trouble is, it never really becomes interesting, and I was so bored (and tired) I slept through a good portion of the movie, and didn't really care that I did.




18 April:

Cages
It's very insulting when some Caucasian filmmaker comes in to shoot a movie supposedly set in Singapore, yet doesn't give a shit about the geography of the place such that the main characters can take a fucking touristy bumboat to a shophouse on an offshore island that looks remarkably like somewhere in Central Singapore. Add to that a trite script that is nothing more than what you'd find on the Hallmark Channel, and you have the sad wreck that's one of Mako's last works. Well, at least he was Splinter's voice in TMNT.

Conversations with Other Women
It's sheer joy watching Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart tackle the almost non-stop verbiage of the script, and the constant split-screen works well both as a formalistic device and a storytelling tool. Lest you think it's too technical and wordy, there are moments of intense poignancy, and the leads' performances bring Truth to their characters. I'd almost call it heartbreaking, and the final shot is pure perfection.

Mr. Bean's Holiday
After all that intense poignancy, here's something utterly brainless. Rowan Atkinson is a comedic genius, and he's really good at physical comedy (although I prefer him in roles that require him to speak), but Mr. Bean is a character that's best suited to shorts, and seeing him in a feature film is just like seeing someone trying way too hard and failing. It was a good idea to throw in a French kid in this one, for he's genuinely cute and has good chemistry with Atkinson. Willem Dafoe also does an amusing turn as a pretentious wannabe arthouse director. The satire of shitty experimental arthouse flicks is easy and cheap, but still funny nonetheless. But sadly, it's Atkinson's solo scenes of Mr. Bean mayhem that drag everything down. I guess the best thing I can say about it is that it didn't suck as hard as the first one did.

Sunshine
Danny Boyle can do no wrong in my book, and he proves that once again with this one... Well, almost. This is smart sci-fi, something that's a real rarity these days, but Boyle keeps us right on the edge of our seats with crisis after crisis without insulting our intelligence. In fact, everything makes sense plot-wise, the cast is perfect (I'm such a fan of Cillian Murphy right now), and the cinematography and set design flawless. This state of affairs continues right up to the Third Act, whereupon everything takes a seriously stupid cliff-dive into slasher flick territory and never recovers. Seriously, what. the. fuck? Still, I definitely love the first two Acts, which is far more than I can say about most movies.


21 April:

The Namesake
I can think of a former schoolmate at NU who'd love this movie wholeheartedly and force it upon everyone that he came upon. Thankfully, I'm halfway across the Earth from him right now, so I don't have to pretend I like it if I don't. But to be honest, I do like it, if only for the performances of Irfan Khan and Tabu, the actors who play the parents of Kal Penn. To be sure, Penn displays far more ability here than he has in anything he's been in before, but he's not even close to their level. The Bollywood veterans leave their song and dance routines behind to play their roles with quiet dignity and true feeling, and are the heart and soul of this otherwise mediocre movie that largely dies when Penn's character becomes the focus.

Breach
Breach is a perfectly serviceable spy thriller that has all the required cloak-and-dagger moments as well as an extremely strong lead performance by the perpetually underrated Chris Cooper. Its biggest flaw is perhaps Ryan Phillippe, who is believable enough as the young rookie assigned to keep an eye on his new boss. In the end though, he has to use his smarts to trick Cooper, and given his ability, he just cannot convince me that he is capable of going up against Cooper and winning. Other than that though, this is an enjoyable enough procedural, from the director of another procedural I enjoyed, Shattered Glass.


22 April:

Smokin' Aces
What the hell is Joe Carnahan, who showed so much promise in his Narc, doing making a Tarantino-wannabe like this? There's a huge cast with some big names, but ultimately almost everyone dies in over-long gunfights where more rounds are fired than in the entire War On Terror. And you know what, we don't give a shit, because they are all annoying as hell and we just want everyone to die so we can leave the theatre and get on with our lives.