Went to see the screening of this movie last night with EL on the first night of the Gotham Screen International Film Festival in Tribeca.  The film Radio Free Albemuth is based off the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name which I did not read.  You may have seen Bladerunner, A Scanner Darkly, or Minority Report, all three Philip K. Dick books turned to major motion pictures. This was not the case as Radio Free Albemuth was extremely indie.  Terribly indie.  The story is about a man, Nicholas Brady, who receives transmissions, visions, and directive in his sleep from an sattelite in space regarding the corruption of a fascist, totalitarian government by way of the President.  The president addresses and controls the country by implanting fear using alarming messages of a subversive society of terrorists called Aramcheck, living among us in the world and responsible for death and destruction.  All of this is being narrated by protagonist Nicholas Brady’s best friend, a nonfiction sci-fi novelist, who is actually Philip K. Dick as an autobiographical character of himself in the book.  Ironically accompanied by Alanis Morisette (probably  just coincidence), Nicholas and Philip set out to overthrow President Fremont with a plan to insert subliminal messages into a hit pop song with intentions to spark an uprising of the nation’s people to take action against the state.  The story is brilliant.  The movie, not so much. The book, on my list for sure.  Riddled with bad acting and lame special effects, it was pretty clear there was just not enough money to make this film come together the way it should have.   (1/5)

“This movie is sick!,” is what I heard from behind me every time something outlandish and ridiculous happened, which was about every 10 minutes. I couldn’t help but agree with the kid pretty much every time. Written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, this is campiest yet entertaining movie I have seen this year. What started as a short trailer between Death Proof and Planet Terror (also directed by Rodriguez) in Grindhouse, comes Machete, played by Danny Trejo, ex-federal agent killing machine on a mission to get vengeance for his family and who is set up by Jeff Fahey (AKA Lapidus from LOST!!) to bring down corrupt politician John McLaughlin, played by Robert De Niro. Machete is the Mexican version of Shaft; reckless, violent, tortured vigilante and full time ladies man. Special ladies with significant supporting roles include Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez (her washboard for a stomach is worth every minute), and Lindsey Lohan, who I thought looked incredible. Steven Seagal plays Torres, arch-enemy and evil drug lord responsible for kidnapping Machete’s family, setting up the whole plot from the gate. With a memorable Cheech Marin performance Machete is bad-ass, hilarious, and everything I could have asked for and more from a gory ass Mexican Grindhouse film…but don’t expect an Oscar here. 4/5

So I went to see Inception the other night. I actually enjoyed this mind maze of a movie. Incept by definition means to take in. WELL this movie might be a lot for one to take in if you weren’t expecting to see this type of film. I was ready for it. The story is generally about creating an idea and planting it in someones mind through entering their dreams. BUT there are effects, repercussions, levels and rules of this the dreamworld upon entering. It’s complex in nature because naturally we are as human beings but I thought everything was tied in together really well and didn’t seem too fabricated. There were points of restlessness for me as I doubt they could have shortened something with the number of intertwined sub-story lines, however, if this is the summer blockbuster I’m not mad at all. A little drawn out and a lack of character development but definitely something stimulating, well written with good acting, and for me a second movie visit for this one now that I know how it ends, is most likely in the near future. Christopher Nolan FTW 4/5

FUCKINAWESOME (5/5)

Finally got around to going to the MoMa and seeing the esteemed Tim Burton exhibit. Good thing I bought tickets last week as this thing has got to be the most popular exhibit the museum has ever seen and was sold out by the time I walked out a little after 1:00 pm. Even before I knew who Tim Burton was I knew his movies. They are dark, twisted, but comedic and humorous films who’s images seem to stick with you long after they are over. To name a few; Peewee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice among others. Both are classics of course and two of my favorite childhood movies. My father and I used to regurgitate Beetlejuice lines to each other from that very impressionable time in my childhood. “Hey there goes Elvis, YO KING!” is one that still resonates to this day.

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Good but not great. I’ve been wanting to see this movie for a long time due to the hype of course behind the Scorsese directed picture. It seems they had been running previews for this thing for a year and because DiCaprio came off a stellar performance in The Departed, I was looking forward to it. The previews were a little misleading. They almost made it seem like it was a horror, where Shutter Island was a haunted place and something like the house in The Shining. In terms of the actual movie, Leonardo definitely delivers as the great actor he is and you can’t take that away from him. Without a doubt he makes this movie worth seeing. I also liked how this movie was shot and developed like a novel keeping true to Dennis Lehane’s best seller, where themes were actually prevalent, keeping things tight and nicely connected. However, when it comes to everything else, I felt like I saw it a few times already; between the island, prisoners/patients, mental institution, corrupt cops and doctors. All of which make for an extremely predictable and traditional recipe for a “creepy” movie. Without giving it away I will say, there is ONE movie in particular from within the past 10 years, which Shutter Island lends itself to so much that as soon as the plot was revealed, I immediately thought “wow this is the 2010….” This type of realization coupled with what actually happens was mildly annoying. On the other hand, if you do not predict what will happen before it actually does, you will enjoy it a lot more. 3/5

Last night I finally succumbed to all the hype by everyone I’ve come across who has seen Avatar, and bucked up the $13 for a ticket and a pair of 3D glasses to see it for myself and extremely glad I did. This one actually lived up to it. Avatar basically about the US trying to expand on another planet called Pandora which is inhabited by another race of humanoids.   A paraplegic man named Jake Sully played by Sam Worthington, a marine, is chosen to control his deceased scientist brother’s Avatar and go to Pandora to carry out the expansion. An Avatar is a genetic representation of a human being in the physical form of a Navi; a humanoid indigenous to the planet Pandora. Basically scientists came up with Avatars to walk amongst the Navi, learn about the Navi people, their way of life, and ultimately control them with brute force.  It is very similar to what the British did to the American Indians and money other countries colonizing foreign lands and native people, except dominating with technology in order to tap the natural resources of another moon/planet as a result of a terrible economy and exhausted resources back on earth.  Jake Sully is ordered to go in and survey the area as an avatar and convince the Navi to relocate when he finds himself accepted into the Omaticaya tribe after learning the ways of the warrior and Pandora’s ecosystem.  However, he  faces the conflict of which side to choose when human’s decide to move in on the Navi’s and bulldoze their area of the jungle. There are so many references to terrorism, biblical ideologies, colonization, war, peace, genocide, and much more throughout, that there is no way to pick everything up in one sitting. I feel like this could have been some sort of hidden episode of LOST or something but with slightly cheesy CGI.  The 3D was awesome. I wish there was more stuff that looked like it was shooting out of the screen though.  Avatar took movie making and epic cinema to a new level.  It is the most expensive movie ever to be made and I believe James Cameron really is a genius for this script, story, and execution.  I believe this will be a trilogy and for good reason.  Don’t wait until this comes out on DVD or Blue Ray. (5/5)

Here is the making of the movie. pretty cool shit. embedding is disabled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c4kNLz_4E8

What can I say I’m a sucker for apocalyptic/post apocalyptic blockbusters. My type is comparable to those who make up the traffic before the scene of a car crash, except with people flocking to theaters to see the earth implode/explode, and mankind perish ultimately. 2012 had that trailer that sucked me right in. The one with the airplane flying through crashing buildings. remember? So the story is pretty much the run of the mill, earth is going to end because the sun is acting up and earth’s core is getting too hot and the Mayans predicted all of this happens in the year 2012 blah blah blahhhh. But the Mayans are mentioned once MAYBE twice. Can this tired storyline get any less predictable? BUT it’s NOT the tectonic plates! fuck the tectonic plates man they should have just made it them in the first place because it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. However, they assure you it’s not them so don’t even think about blaming it on the plates. Who gives a fuck really?! Adrian Helmsley is a scientist who figures out from another scientist in India that the earth is going to end. As that story develops and unfolds, John Cusack who plays the main role as Jackson Curtis, a failed author and husband, stumbles across Woody Harrelson as Charlie Frost, a deranged radio host/conspiracy theorist who seems to know the earth is going to end. And then the buildings collapse and the ocean takes out the world as Cusack tries to save his family. 2012 took unrealistic to another level. Jam packed with amazing imagery of the Earth and it’s natural destruction, there is enough suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat and tide you over until the next one of these rolls around. Suspense and Imagery are the the ONLY two things that keep this movie going and maybe kept it going for an hour longer than it should have. They should’ve killed off an hour and a couple more characters. Maybe I should’ve waited in line for New Moon? 3/5

I went to Paranormal Activity expecting to see a horror movie in the same vein as The Blaire Witch Project as I heard all the comparisons and how this movie is on it’s way to being the most profitable in terms of profit margin compared to what it took to make it. Unfortunately this movie was not really scary to me. I wouldn’t compare it to Blaire Witch anyway except for the use of the handheld cam POV, which has since been done with much greater success in my opinion. I’ll put it this way, there are two scenes that were “scary” and I saw one of them in the trailer. Without completely ruining it for you, the premise goes like this. A young couple lives in a house in San Diego and the female happens to have been haunted by a demon for the majority of her life. The boyfriend decides to try to capture it on film and audio and is very successful at it. The characters were a little annoying and mildly entertaining at best. Every point of view you see is through the camera he/she is using throughout the film. It takes some time for things to get rolling, building suspense, but the pay off in certain scenes didn’t really pay at all. And waiting for something I was hoping for started to become more and more frustrating as it progressed. On the bright side, this movie was short (90+ minutes) and definitely kept my attention, even through the anticlimactic scenes. I feel like I would have liked it more if I watched it at home….and I’d also be a few dollars richer. As an indie flick, yeah I can dig it for what it is I guess, but major motion picture? not so sure about that. (2/5)

1/5