Vantage Point

Release Year: 2008

Director: Pete Travis

Review: The 'Rashomon Effect' is a story telling tool named after Akira Kurosawa's film, where a film replays the same events from different subjective view points.  This is essentially the hook in 'Vantage Point'.  Amid political strife the president of the United States is shot while giving a speech at a summit.  We see the same shooting and the immediate aftermath repeatedly from different peoples perspectives, revealing more and more of the ever more convoluted events.

The problem with 'Vantage Point' is that it tries to be to big.  Rather than be content with being a fun thriller, it tries to go ever deeper down the rabbit hole, becoming more and more unbelievable and complex.  Each time the clock is reset back, and we see the events unfold yet again, it just raises more questions.  Rather than be fun, it started to become frustrating.  Director Pete Travis completely lost sight of what the film could be, and instead takes the audience completely out of the experience by making the entire scenario laughably convoluted and ridiculous.  If he had reigned it in just a bit, it could have been a solid political thriller. It has its moments, but ultimately is too chaotic.  If it is going to rely on such a prominent plot device, it has to be used so that it adds to the story, but it only adds to the frustration.
Rating: 3/5

Twilight

Release Year: 2008

Director: Catherine Hardwicke

Review: 'Twilight' is more of a craze than anything cinematically tangible.  It takes the wildly popular vampire romance, candy coats and shoves it out to mass appeal.  There many similar movies out there with the exact same concept and which executed it in far more interesting ways, and yet 'Twilight' is the undisputed winner of the vampire wars.  It knows its audience and it panders to it.  And boy does it do a good job of pandering.  All said, it isn't the most egregious teen sensation that could come about, and it almost has a 'so bad it's good' feel to it.  I didn't hate the movie experience, mainly because I was laughing at the over the top corny moments.
Rating: 2.5/5

Hunger

Release Year: 2008

Director: Steve McQueen

Review: Prison is brutal.  Starvation is even worse. 'Hunger' is a visually arresting, painfully authentic, peek into the 'blanket', 'dirty' and hunger strikes of Irish republican prisoners during the 1980's.  I'm not up with European history.  I knew little about the political turmoil in Ireland at the time, and certainly nothing of the hunger strike.  The film doesn't go out of its way to set the political climate up.  You enter the prison in the middle of the strike.  Instead of taking sides, it shows both vantages.  Opening with both a prison guard entering the prison showing up for work, and a new inmate, being booked into prison, and entering the strike. These were the only two entry ways into the hell.

Director Steve McQueen does not shy away from any scene that is too brutal, too disturbing, or too disgusting.  The 'blanket' strike came about when the prisoners refused to wear prisoner uniforms, opting instead to go naked, with only a blanket.  The 'dirty' strike meant they refused to shower, smeared their waste on the prison walls, and emptied their urine into the hallways.  Its a completely incomprehensible lifestyle, and not a situation that one would think any human could possibly survive in.  It was crucial that McQueen show the details of this lifestyle.  He had to force the audience to understand how committed these prisoners were to their cause.  It were these details which were essential to understanding the mindset of these individuals who would later go on to participate in the hunger strike.  McQueen delivers, almost revels in, these shots of inhumanity.  It is raw, it is cold, but it is honest.

The visual style is the important element in the film.  McQueen comes from an art background, specifically in experimental films, with 'Hunger' being his first full length feature.  This aspect came through in his effort, and not always in a positive light.  He is very methodic in his framing, feeling completely content to find an ideal camera location, and without moving the camera, have a scene unfold in front of it.  He explained in an interview that his painting background influences his work.  That he frames shots like a painting, only film is more powerful since movement is capable.  Very often this effect is seen.  The static camera focuses on a mundane, but highly stylized scene, and it just sits there for a long time, with very little going on.  A beautiful painting, with just a hint of life, which we are forced to look at for extended periods of time.  The pacing is very slow, the scenes very deliberately executed, and little is said.  McQueen focuses on feeling rather than narrative or action. Giving the theme, this atmospheric approach is effective.

As beautiful and meticulously framed as the film is, it all would have fallen completely flat without believable acting.  Fortunately great acting is in no short supply.  The physicality and sheer unpleasantness which the movie demands it put its actors through is a testament to the talent of the actors for pulling it off.  Given that there isn't much dialog, the actors had to show great subtlety resulting in powerful performances, led by Michael Fassbender.  His physical acting and the emotional range he can show without uttering a word was stunning.  There was nothing easy about the acting in this film.  This point is no more evident than in the 17 minute, uncut, all dialog conversation which carries pivotal information about the motivation of the strikers.  Without this scene being delivered perfectly by Liam Cunningham and Michael Fassbender, the movie would lose its purpose.

As much as I appreciate the environment which McQueen creates, I wish there was more background given and a proper narrative intertwined.  Going in I didn't know much about the situation going on in Ireland, and I didn't know any more after watching the movie.  It could have been much more powerful had more context been given.  McQueen sacrificed content for style.  It felt like he got lost in mundane details which derailed the flow and took away from the plight of the prisoners.  'Hunger' is a visually haunting film, which is difficult to watch, but then again, that was the point.
Rating: 3.5/5

Seven Pounds

Release Year: 2008

Director: Gabriele Muccino

Review: At it's core 'Seven Pounds' has a good premise dealing with the complicated emotions of a man who no longer has the will to live.  The problem is the impact is muddled with a clumsy plot progression and dramatic missteps.  Handling a delicate thematic premise with so little subtlety completely slashed my connection with the characters and their plight.  It was if director Gabriele Muccino was trying to hammer in a frail nail with a sledge hammer, ruining what could have been poignant moments.  When these heartfelt moments come off so on-the-nose, it completely takes away from the experience.  By the end I felt myself feeling no pity for the characters, more because it felt like I was being force fed emotion rather then experiencing it.  From the opening scene there was little doubt what Will Smith's character's motivation was, or how the story would turn out.  It never veered from the predictable.  I felt like I was being baited and I wasn't going to bite. There are salvageable messages that can be taken away from the film, and the acting by Rosario Dawson saves the film in the end, but on a whole I was disappointed that such clumsy directing took away so much.
Rating: 3/5

Sex Drive

Release Year: 2008

Director: Sean Anders

Review: A completely forgettable teen comedy, 'Sex Drive' never deviates from the sex comedy template.  The premise is familiar. An awkward teen is looking to lose his virginity, but the girl he likes only wants to be friends.  He turns to the internet and finds a dream girl, the only catch is that he has to go on a road trip to see her which of course is complicated when he and his two friends meet all sorts of sexually charged obstacles.  It's not that this was a completely miserable experience, but there is nothing new here.  You get exactly what you think.  Shallow, crass, humor.  Some of it hits, some of it misses, but its not going to push any boundaries or break new ground for itself.  Any one of its scenes could have been clipped from the mountain of other movies or TV shows exactly like it.  The one redeeming element was James Marsden who does play a great super intense, homophobic, older brother.  But the other acting was nothing special, which sums up the movie as a whole.  It has some laughs, but there is nothing to really get behind.
Rating: 2/5

Valkyrie

Release Year: 2008
Review: Based on a true story of a Nazi resistance movement from within the German army, 'Valkyrie' is more a political suspense than a thriller. The historical context is interesting and the Nazi resistance in Germany is under reported. The true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and his associates is fascinating. Unfortunately the transition of that story to film just isn't that exciting. Even though it has a standard two hour running time it seemed to drag on. For a film surrounded with such interesting material the film was fairly dull. It's obvious that it wants you to bring in a good amount of knowledge about the Nazis, which while fine, it needed to set a more distinct atmosphere. The war that was taking place around them and the atrocities of the Nazi regime seemed distant and unimportant to the film. There was a distinct feel of bureaucracy above anything else. It seems to want to be a political suspense film, which is hard enough to do when the audience ultimately knows the outcome, but is hurt even further by it continuing to kill tension with dull dialog scenes. Adding to the odd, placid, atmosphere created by the film, was the casting. The acting was fine, but casting Tom Cruise as the lead character as a Nazi makes it hard to connect to the character as a German Nazi who is doing these actions and not Tom Cruise. The handling of the transition of the character from speaking in German to English with an American accent, went fairly well, not brining much attention to it. I don't have a problem with the fact that its an English spoken film, but the casting choices definitely hurt the already lacking atmosphere in the film. I can appreciate the story its trying to convey, but it delivers it in such a mundane package that it's difficult to really enjoy.
Rating: 3/5

The House Bunny

Release Year: 2008
Review: An ensemble comedy which finds Shelley(Anna Faris), a Playboy bunny who, after being tossed from the mansion because of her age, tries to find purpose again by becoming a house mother at a sorority. Basically this film is just one stereotype after another. It features fill-in-the-blank generic jokes, standard characters and, fittingly enough, the depth of a Playboy article. Anna Faris gets far to much praise for her comedic ability, which is all too one note. Her air-head, shallow, blond routine gets old pretty fast and there isn't much else to get excited about here. Just like the house bunnies it showcases, this movie is plastic, shallow and one dimensional.
Rating: 2/5

Baghead

Release Year: 2008
Review: A film written and directed by the Duplass brothers, a duo which embrace "mumblecore", an ultra low-budget genre of films. The movie begins with the main characters, four friends, watching a screening of a film utilizing this very style. This is a genius way to introduce exactly what to expect from the film itself and how it is made. The plot focuses on the four friends who are struggling actors, who after watching the low budget film decide to lock themselves away in a cabin and write their own screenplay which they will then film cast themselves as the actors. The trip takes a terrifying twist when the horror script they are writing begins to come to life. This film starts off very strong, but the plot becomes a bit repetitive and predictable in the second half. The horror twist seemed to cheapen the movie. I liked the direction it was going better when it was just about the four friends trying to make a movie. The low budget aspect also took its toll. I can only take so many close-up shots, going in and out of focus, before it becomes annoying. The acting was a little hit or miss. I don't feel that the actors are very strong, and this showed in a few scenes. However, due to the way the Duplass brothers film, most scenes felt very natural. Improvisation is used extensively and there was a very 'real' quality to the dialog and the chemistry between the actors was strong. I like the aim of the film, but feel the story was too weak and the camera work to shaky to really enjoy.
Rating: 3/5

Yes Man

Release Year: 2008
Review: 'Yes Man' felt forced and unoriginal since the first footage of it was released. It was hard not to watch the trailer and think "didn't Jim Carrey already make this movie?'. It has an absurd premise, a thin plot and absolutely no originality. There were some laughs, but for the most part it always went for the cheap laughs and corny physical humor. Carrey and his love interest, played by Zooey Deschanel, have no chemistry and the result is awkward, forced, scenes. This isn't the worst comedy, but it feels studio driven, with no creativity injected whatsoever. It tries to please too many audiences, takes no risks, and is completely forgettable.
Rating: 2/5

Inkheart

Release Year: 2008
Review: A surprisingly imaginative and entertaining family film, 'Inkwell' blurs the real world with fantasy by allowing book characters to be read into the real world by 'silvertounges'. Unbeknownst to him, Brendan Fraser's character Mo, is a silvertounge, who accidentally reads a villain out of the book 'Inkwell' and inadvertently reads his wife into the book. The adventure to correct this mistake ensues, which features cameos from an assortment of characters from famous literary works. It's quite possible that I like the source material more than the movie, but I must admit I had never heard of the book the film is based on. It's not at the level of the best fantasy films, but 'Inkwell' is a solid movie, that is both fun and original.
Rating: 4/5