movies Archive

Transformers: Revenge on the Audience

By
amelik
Published: 29 June 2009 1:35 PM UCTPosted in: Movie ReviewsTags: , , , , ,

If two years ago you told me that it was possible to be bored while watching giant robots fight, I would have said, “Sure, I just saw Transformers and that’s exactly how I feel.” But that was then. The newly released sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen would have put the 2007 me into a coma. Director Michael Bay is known for action-packed substance-void movies and he only further cements his reputation with this film.

optimus-1

Revenge of the Fallen picks up where Transformers left off. The Autobots are now working jointly with the US military, in a top secret alliance to rid Earth of the remaining bad guys, the Decepticons. Meanwhile, the main character, Sam (Shia LaBeouf) is starting college. His girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox) is still being hot. In the process of packing, Sam finds the little shard of the Cube again and it makes him go crazy. The rest of the film is about figuring out what’s inside his head in time to save the Earth from the ultimate attack by the oldest badass Decepticon called Fallen. See what they did there? It’s, like, the dude’s name!

The technical level of the visual effects is of course impressive and I would expect nothing less from ILM. But the director again fails to utilize this amazing artistry to maximum effect. He repeats the mistake of the first film by making most of the robot transformations occur too fast, too close and too many times. All you really see are countless shards of metal blurring past the screen until there’s a robot there.

The third act of the movie takes this to the ultimate extreme with an epic battle by the pyramids in Giza. There is non-stop destruction, to the point that you are completely desensitized to it. It’s so action-packed, it’s boring. You don’t even get to stop and admire the magnificent location the production was so incredibly lucky to film at.

I believe people are usually over-analytical when it comes to finding racial stereotypes in movies. (I don’t agree with Stephen’s claims that Aladdin and The Jungle Book have racist undertones to them, for instance.) But even I shook my head at the ridiculousness of Skids and Mudflap – twin robots busting ebonics zingers whenever something isn’t exploding on the screen. At one point, Sam asks them if they could read some ancient Autobot symbols:

Skids: Read? Unh uh.
Mudflap: We don’t - we don’t really do much readin’.

Whaaaat?

It’s probably not worth analyzing the narrative structure and character development of this movie. We all understand it’s a blockbuster sci-fi/action ride. I will only say that even in that genre, the movie is weak. It clashes with itself and turns off beret wearing film connoisseurs and nacho munching hard core franchise fans alike. It attempts to combine serious, high-stakes action with DreamWorks Animation-style goofiness the most unattractive way.

Revenge of the Fallen is not a case of a sophisticated filmmaker pandering to a wide audience. I really believe that Michael Bay is simply not capable of creating anything better than this.

Filmmaking Software Workarounds

By
amelik
Published: 24 June 2009 1:24 PM UCTPosted in: Film ProductionTags: , , , , ,

paperworkThere’s a paper-pusher side to making movies. Of course, there’s the script. Then there’s also the budget, script breakdown sheets, shot lists and shooting schedule. If the project is anything longer than just a couple of scenes and involves more people than just a friend or two, all of this stuff’s gotta be written up in order to get the movie shot without getting lost or compromising everything.

Not surprisingly, there’s a whole industry of software to help you make all these documents for your shoot. But since it’s such a specialized field, the quality of this software is usually pretty mediocre, while the price tag is outrageous! A company called Entertainment Partners makes programs called Movie Magic Budgeting and Movie Magic Scheduling which go for a whopping $500 each. But all they really consist of is clunky, user-hostile spreadsheet interfaces that output ancient, golden-era-Hollywood-style reports.

Some software developers have been getting on the ball. Final Draft, the industry standard screenplay word processor, has finally come out with an updated version and slashed the price by half in the process. That’s what I’m talking about.

But truth be told, the modern indie filmmaker can get by without spending a dime on specialized software. Plenty of freely available applications can be adapted for just about any type of film paperwork tasks. You can get free macros and templates for the office application of your choice, which add screenplay format to your word processor or budgeting structure to your spreadsheets. Here’s one for Word, after just a quick search.

And then there’s Google. Ah, Google, is there anything you can’t do?

I’ve found that the Tasks and Calendar apps are an ideal combination for making shot lists and shooting schedules. Calendar allows you to create multiple custom-named and color-coded calendars which can all be displayed in any combination across various time views. What I have done is create a calendar for

  • Logistics - where I put all the non-filming work, like arriving at location, setting up lights, lunch, etc.
  • Production - which contains the actual shots

I also include a Weather calendar for the area which displays the average expected weather for the day. I then use the simple Tasks app, available inside both Gmail and Calendar, to throw down some actual shots I want to do after lining the script. I use Tasks to brainstorm - add, delete and rearrange the order of the coverage until I finally arrive at a list I’m comfortable with.

Then I use this list to enter actual events in the calendar. In Day view, I drag out rough estimates of how long setups will take and add descriptions. Once they are all in, I go into each event and fine-tune start and end times to make a more precise schedule. After that, I add in the logistics stuff and end up with a very clear picture of the shooting day. Because the calendars are color-coded it’s easy to see how much there is to shoot or whether there are a lot of company moves. Google even lets you print out a neat version of any view. I print out a single day view, ending up with a sheet like this:

shooting-schedule

I stick that in my notebook with the script and I’m ready to go mess it all up on the set. It’s an extremely convenient tool. In addition, I use Tasks in post-production, sometimes to outline everything that needs to be done on the project, other times to list the visual effects shots left to do. It’s damn satisfying crossing off items on that list because you know that once you’ve crossed off the last one… your movie’s done!

What everyday software do you adapt and use to help in your moviemaking efforts?

‘Art School’ Sucks

By
miamimoviecritic
Published: 13 June 2009 5:33 PM UCTPosted in: Movie ReviewsTags: , , , ,

art_school_confidential

“You’re all wasting your time. Go home.”

This is the best piece of advice given to the students at the Strathmore Institute, one of those East Coast animal factories where youth and optimism go to die. It’s also not a bad suggestion for viewers looking to find meaning and value in Art School Confidential, a black comedy cynically brought to you by the creators of Ghost World.

Loosely based on cult hero Daniel Clowes’ experiences as a student at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, ASC stars Max Minghella as Jerome, a bright-eyed freshman majoring in drawing and painting. Jerome is meant to be our surrogate as he falls for Audrey (Sophia Myles), a nude model in one of his classes. He receives crushing reviews from his fellow students, ultimately learning that, in both life and art, phonies win.

For his part, Minghella is able to conjure up an endearing character seemingly out of thin air. Looking like a more darkly handsome clone of Anakin Skywalker, Minghella makes us identify with Jerome’s disillusionment and fractured worldview. The rest of the cast members (Steve Buscemi, Anjelica Huston and John Malkovich among them) flesh out the sour-grapes script to the best of their abilities. Jim Broadbent is especially fine as Jimmy, the world’s scummiest former art student. But there’s too many throwaway characters, too many misguided attempts at screwball sadism.

While misanthropy is certainly an acceptable subject for a film (it worked for Ghost World, didn’t it?), the story has to be structured in a way that gives our hero a shot at redemption. ASC is nothing more than one bitter observation after another. It’s the worst kind of art: an empty provocation.

‘Adventureland’ is a Fun Ride

By
miamimoviecritic
Published: 18 May 2009 5:20 PM UCTPosted in: Movie ReviewsTags: , , , , ,

adventureland

Before it disappeared from theaters after two or three weeks, I was lucky enough to catch this with a friend and we both thought it was one of the best things we’d seen in a long, long time.

It’s set in the summer of ‘87. Recent college grad James (Jesse Eisenberg) has just lost his European vacation money. Left with few options (he majored in Renaissance Studies), he takes a job at the local amusement park, where he falls hard for a girl, Em (Kristen Stewart). My favorite character at the park is Joel (Martin Starr). He smokes a pipe and has adopted the fatalistic worldview of 19th-century Russian writers like Tolstoy. I’ve known people like this. I’ve known summers like this, too. More than anything else I’ve seen, Adventureland captures the dichotomy created by going to a crappy job every day to work with people you like.

The scenes between Eisenberg and Stewart (so much more vivid here than she was in Twilight) feel achingly real, while Starr and Ryan Reynolds (as the park’s resident Lothario) both turn in career-best performances. The soundtrack is filled with college radio faves by The Replacements, Big Star and The Cure.

This movie is sad, funny and weirdly familiar - each scene reminds you of something you’ve either felt, thought about or, if you’re lucky enough, experienced.

Nick and Norah’s Torturous Playlist

By
miamimoviecritic
Published: 14 May 2009 12:43 PM UCTPosted in: Movie ReviewsTags: , , , , ,

The saying goes that the book is always better than the movie. Recent film adaptations, like The Soloist and Inkheart, don’t exactly dispel that myth, but there ARE exceptions. Ang Lee’s masterful The Ice Storm, for instance, is not only superior to the Rick Moody novel on which it’s based, it’s one of my favorite movies of all time.

Unfortunately, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist is not an exception to the rule. This is an awesomely bad movie, made even worse by the fact that it’s based on one of the most beloved YA novels of the decade. It’s a textbook example of how not to do an adaptation.

The novel, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, unfolds in an engaging, pass-the-baton style. Levithan wrote the first chapter from Nick’s point-of-view, Cohn wrote the second from Norah’s, and it goes on like that for 20 near-perfect chapters. It’s a character piece, with actually very little plot. It opens at a concert in NYC, where Nick’s queercore band (he’s the only nonqueer member) is performing. He meets Norah and they go to a second club, where their favorite band, Where’s Fluffy?, is playing. They get separated and eventually reunite for a blissful finale. The ending feels earned because the characters have just spent the last 180 pages getting to know each other.

The movie isn’t like that. It’s filled with meaningless, un-illuminating activities. Norah’s friend, Caroline, gets lost in the city and Nick’s friends go looking for her. (In the book, they take her home. The end.) Where’s Fluffy? is playing at a secret location, and N&N spend a lot of time looking for clues. This all comes at the expense of character development. We literally have no idea who these two people are, so when the movie tries to recreate one of the book’s best scenes, in which Norah reveals what she likes most about Judaism, it’s downright laughable. The quirky, observational humor that made Cohn’s and Levithan’s dialogue sparkle is completely absent, leaving Michael Cera (as Nick) and Kat Dennings (as Norah) looking a little like lost puppies.

The absolute worst change from the novel is the way the film depicts Norah’s friend and Nick’s ex-girlfriend, Tris. She was a complicated character in the book. True, she cheated on Nick, she was self-centered and a total tag-along. But she also helped Norah seduce Nick, and she once helped her friend “take care” of an unwanted pregnancy. (Her unforgettable last line in that scene: “Be careful next time, bitch!”) In the movie, she’s a monster. I think this proves the filmmakers have little-to-no interest in portraying teenagers as complex human beings. When they try to capture other stuff about youth culture - the way teens dress, the kind of music they listen to - it ends up feeling hollow and opportunistic.

One thing the movie does get right is Nick’s relationship with his friends. It’s not a big deal to him that they’re gay, and it’s in these scenes that the movie comes close to making a generational statement.

Bunnies Plot to Destroy the World in ‘The Last Rabbit’

By
miamimoviecritic
Published: 13 May 2009 11:56 AM UCTPosted in: Movie ReviewsTags: , , , ,

rabbit

Seth Welton’s The Last Rabbit is an epic follow-up to his sick (in more ways than one) animation The Rabbits in Apartment #5. Both films were directed in the same deadpan comedic style, and both are gruesome, disorienting and altogether hilarious. I honestly can’t remember a filmmaker who’s taken such a serious approach to such ridiculous events.

Apartment #5 unfolded in real time and depicted a bloodbath in a few simple scenes. The Last Rabbit is much more convoluted, stretching to more than 25 minutes to tell a story rife with assassinations, government experiments and political intrigue. It’s the Mulholland Drive of apocalyptic killer-bunny movies.

In the previous film, two hitmen paid a visit to some cute little bunny rabbits. It was never clear why these particular rabbits were being targeted in such a way. The Last Rabbit makes it crystal clear: They must be taken out at all costs. Thanks to “the madness of democratic rule,” they began a full-blown extermination campaign against every species on the planet. The president, a little girl who speaks in the weirdly mature and articulate voice of a dubbed anime heroine, has adopted extreme tactics to put down the rabbit rebellion. But they haven’t worked - the rabbits can regenerate and heal themselves, just like Wolverine. The film could be viewed either as a tacit approval or a renunciation of the kinds of policies the former vice president is flying around the country advocating these days.

It’s difficult to overpraise Welton’s accomplishments in stop-motion animation. There’s a kind of poetry to the carnage and the geysers - to the deliberate way blood drips down the walls. The sets, involving elaborately decorated interiors and complicated exterior shots of cars moving along paved roads, show an attention to detail that’s simply awesome. The Last Rabbit is a wicked and exhilarating splatterfest.

Props To You

By
miamimoviecritic
Published: 08 May 2009 4:52 PM UCTPosted in: Movie Reviews, Personal, Team JournalTags: , , ,

During my brief stint as an online movie critic, one thing I learned was just how much gold there was out there to go digging for. I can safely say I reviewed some of the best movies I’ve ever seen, period: How To Say I Love You, Playtime with Schlompkins, Honour Wedding, Paranoland, Papiroflexia, Pencil Face and Patrick Boivin’s masterpiece, Radio (the first of many, I suspect). And that’s just to name a few!

I got exposed to some cool new music, like Danny Malone (my new favorite ginger-haired indie-folk artist), Brooke Waggoner (a formidable lyricist/vocalist, not to mention a strikingly photogenic screen presence) and KEXP - Seattle. I learned about international affairs while watching eye-opening documentaries on the Middle East and Africa.

Most of all, I just had a really great time seeing young artists honing their craft. I can honestly say I saw significant improvement in such artists as FetusFilmsInc and DingBatComedies, whose delirious Preacher Man was a surprise sleeper hit. In the months ahead, I’ll be using this blog to follow the progress of these and other filmmakers. I definitely need to check out the new feature film recently completed by Fetus Films, a horror flick called I.Q. And the prospect of a new season of Zomblogalypze, created by Miles2GoFilms, has me hungrier than a flesh-eating zombie. I’ll also be posting updates and reviews of the Deep River (by Adam Stephenson) and Karma Kula (by ninjaigang) series. And I’ll continue to follow the work of Patrick Boivin, Michael Maxxis, The Minor Prophets, Films Royale, mmmcake and others.

I’d like to close with a few shout-outs to a handful of the filmmakers I’ve “friended” (in the online community sense of the word) during my time as MiamiMovieCritic.

Patrick Boivin: I love your genius.
Fetus Films: You guys make me feel lazy.
Minor Prophets: You are the masters of WTF comedy.
Miles2Go Films: You give British humor a good name.
Adam Stephenson: You are an auteur-in-the-making.

Great work, guys and gals. I’ve had fun getting lost in your films. If you have any questions, or if there’s a film you’d like me to spotlight, just shoot me an e-mail at info@thesplice.com.

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