The Hills Have Eyes 2

Eyes sore

Review by Vives Anunciacion

Directed by Martin Weisz
Written by Jonathan Craven, Matrin Weisz
R18 / 89 mins
Fox Atomic
* ½ (1 ½ stars)

From the trailer I thought Wes Craven directed this, so I thought Hills Have Eyes 2 was promising. The trailer looked promising. I forget that promises were made to be broken.

The original Hills Have Eyes, directed by Wes Craven in the 1970’s, was read as a statement on the US’s nuclear weapons program. Last year’s remake, directed by French newcomer Alexander Aja, was less of a political statement and focused more on bringing horror onto the screen.

The Hills Have Eyes 2, co-written by Wes Craven and his son Jonathan, tried to do both: it’s a loose statement on the US policies on the war on terror (the main characters are National Guards on training for deployment in Kandahar) and it’s a horror movie trying to replicate Aja’s successful remake. Didn’t our mommas tell us never to do two things at the same time?

In the movie, a group of trainee National Guards are sent to the New Mexico deserts to deliver supplies to a military-scientific detachment. On their arrival, the soldiers discover that the site has been eerily deserted and they immediately investigate. No sooner than they set off to the nearby hills that they are picked off one at a time, butchered, axed, like in Part 1, in all manner of death the filmmakers can conjure, by the mutants living in the hills. Quite a few survive by the movie’s end, but only after some very fierce violence.

The actors are forgettable, the characters are forgettable and 5 minutes after the start, the audience couldn’t care less if at least one of the soldiers survived the cannibalistic massacre by the mutants. Thanks to the previous movie, the sequel need not bother to explain the whys and the wherefores of the mutants – which only means this movie cannot stand alone by itself. Would there be a part 3? You betcha.

Yes some scenes are scary, if scary means seeing someone’s head get smashed into pulp bits like a watermelon. But mostly it’s the surprise-gulat kind. I almost jumped in the Portalet scene, but after a few seconds I realized something – the movie isn’t scary, it’s disgusting.

Sunshine

Review by Vives Anunciacion


Lux aeterna
Directed by Danny Boyle
Written by Alex Garland
Starring Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh
PG13/ 98 minutes
Fox Searchlight
*** (3 stars)

When the sun goes dark, it’s the end of trips to the beach. That’s enough reason to rage against the dying of the light.

In a million million years the sun will bloat into an enormous, fat red dwarf, before collapsing into a small lifeless mass called a white dwarf. In Danny Boyle’s new sci-fi thriller Sunshine, there are no million million years but only fifty – in 2057, eight astronauts are sent into space on a mission to detonate a fission device that will re-ignite the already dying sun. Pass muna, Boracay.

Tweaking science a little in order to make an exciting space oddity, crewmembers of the space station Icarus 2 must overcome personal doubt and cosmic challenges in order to deliver their mission. At the core of Sunshine’s journey is the way humans deal with separation and loneliness, especially when you’re millions of miles away from your loved ones.


The movie begins with the mission already months into space, cabin fever and nerves getting into each crewmember of Icarus 2. Hiroyuki Sanada (The Ring) is Kaneda, captain of the multi-racial team of scientists composed of mission physicist Capa (Cilian Murphy, from Batman Begins) pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne, from Troy), engineer Mace (Chris Evans, of Fantastic Four) biologist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh, Crouching Tiger), comm officer Harvey (Troy Garity), doctor and psychologist Searle (Cliff Curtis) and navigator Trey (Benedict Wong). Interestingly, the movie’s website explains why Corazon is called Corazon – she is of Chinese-Filipino descent.

(Spoiler warning!) Midway into the mission, the crew of Icarus 2 intercepts a radio signal from the failed first Icarus mission – which disappeared years before. The horror begins as soon as the crew of Icarus 2 decides to intercept Icarus 1 as accident after accident test their skills for survival and sanity in space.

It’s not the first time that Boyle tackles morality and religion in his movies. His last movie, Millions, featured a boy who can talk to saints and a luggage full of money literally falling from the sky. Most memorable sci-fi movies deal with the same issues, and it’s not surprising that Sunshine melds a little of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the original Solaris and Contact into the story. But overall it’s still a thriller more than a philosophical space trip, which makes it more like the horrific Event Horizon. A little too much like it, to be exact.

Of the eight crewmembers of Icarus 2, the interactions between Capa, Mace, Cassie and Corazon are the most narratively significant, and the clashes between Capa’s passiveness and Mace’s physical aggression are the most developed characters in the story and the most emotionally involving. Evans in particular delivers strongly, only because his character is the most pronounced. But that means the rest of the show is thin character-wise, its drama is in the characters’ suffering.

Visually, as with most Danny Boyle movies, lighting is out of this world. The design is disappointing for a sci-fi movie, as it looks great with the outer space scenes but bland with the interior Icarus scenes.

Sunshine may not be the best sci-fi adventure/ thriller to come out in years but is still a strong addition to Boyle’s splendid resume.

On a particularly beautiful day, this is just an ordinary okay movie. But on an ordinary day, Sunshine is a particularly good one.

Call the doctor

Review by Vives Anunciacion

Ang Cute ng Ina Mo
Directed by Wenn Deramas
G / 102 minutes
Star Cinema/ Viva Films
**1/2 (2 ½ stars)

The industry is ripe for an Ai-Ai – Eugene showdown. Wenn Deramas’s lucky cast is still making people laugh in the latest permutation of the “Ina” shows. All hail the queens of (pinoy) comedy.

In this movie, Georgia (Ai-Ai de las Alas) is separated from her Australian love interest, Jack (I didn’t get his name, sorry), and their daughter Christine at the height of the EDSA revolution. While trying various ways to get to Australia, Georgia adopts boy orphan Val, who takes the place vacated by Christine.

Fast forward 20 years and Jack’s unhappy relationships in Melbourne force him to reconsider taking Georgia back. Christine (Anne Curtis), convinced that Georgia abandoned her and Jack before, flies back to Malabon with her Nanny (Eugene Domingo) to tarnish Georgia’s reputation and stop Georgia’s and Jack’s reunion. It’s Malabon versus Melbourne when the nanay meets the nanny (complete with Ozzie accent.)

Absurd as absurdist humor goes, but funny as funny can tell, the narrative is a badminton game of this goes here and that goes there and by the end it’s just a mess and a redundancy of Tanging Ina mother’s concerns and ingrate children. But Ai-Ai and Eugene out-shouting each other is side-splitting, they deserve another movie, hopefully not another nanay one.

Stomp the Yard
Directed by Sylvain White
PG 13/ 110 minutes
Screen Gems/ Columbia Pictures
Showing only in Ayala Cinemas
* (1 star)

We rarely see dancing like this on local entertainment, except maybe with the Streetboys in ASAP every Sunday (in SOP they sing, in ASAP they groove). Great dancing (called krumpin’, but they safely call it stepping, as if it’s a form of riverdance) but what’s the story for?

Young, misunderstood but talented guy gets thrown into a new environment (read: school), meets beautiful and interesting girl who happens to be the girlfriend of the guy he first gets into a fight with, defies peer pressure to perform his way to salvation and becomes the school sensation. Hmm, sounds like a rundown of previous talent shows: Step Up, Footloose, Drumline, even, God forbid, Flashdance.

If this were singin’, we’ve heard it before and no, couldn’t care less.

Rocky Balboa

Gonna fly now

Review by Vives Anunciacion

Written, Directed and starring Sylvester Stallone
PG 13/ 102 minutes
20th Century Fox/ Columbia Pictures/ Revolution Studios/ MGM
*** (3 stars)

Rocky Balboa is saying goodbye. Hats off, sir, and thank you for doing it.

Rocky is old but he isn’t tired. In fact when a computer simulation pits the old-time champ with the current heavyweight champ, Rocky finds himself compelled to move the few stuff still left “in da basement.”

In Rocky Balboa, a TV show simulates a fight between Rocky and the current but unpopular heavyweight champion, Mason Dixon (boxing athlete Antonio Tarver) where the aging people’s champion emerges as the winner. The simulation intrigues both camps, resulting in a scheduled 10-round exhibition game in Las Vegas.

The fight, just like the movie’s concept, sounds like a joke – but it’s actually the centerpiece of the movie. Stallone wants Rocky VI to be the ultimate underdog movie – we think we believe that Rocky is too old a story and Stallone too old an actor to portray a combatant. Stallone, like Rocky (there is no distinction between the two) begs to differ. And just like in the old Rocky movies, he sweats it out and throws punches to prove that it’s never too late to try again.

Some characters are back and some actors return to reprise their roles, most importantly Burt Young, who plays Paulie again (Rocky’s best friend and manger) with such sincerity that he doesn’t have to act to say he is. In this movie people don’t hide the wrinkles on their faces, and the streets are cracked and dark. The beauty of Rocky Balboa is that it is shamelessly nostalgic, and for viewers familiar with its background it is one sentimental trip. Rocky’s mornings are long and his nights longer, as he begins and ends each day visiting the ghosts of his past. He misses his departed wife Adrian dearly.

Yes the movie has its corny setups and yes it has its obligatory crying moments and big speeches. And at some point the boxing match was in fact implausibly exciting. But that’s because Rocky VI is a throwback to the old Rocky days when people were still inspired by simple words and humility and not by bombast and computer effects. Such is the significance of the bar scene where a young patron talks disrespectfully to the champ, compared to the way older people of Philadelphia regard the icon. Rocky belongs to the age when glory was earned through sweat and tears, when the word still held its meaning and not aided by bling.

Simple, sincere and heartfelt, Rocky Balboa shows the most romantic meaning of being a champ – the one that means win or lose, people will still run up those famous steps and raise their arms just like he did, with Bill Conti’s music in the background. Way to go.

Iron ego

war movies

Review by Vives Anunciacion

“Never say die” is the mantra of these war movies dealing with homeland security. Somebody out there is getting rich with these war machines.

Letters From Iwo Jima
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Based on the novel Picture Letters from Commander in Chief
*** (3 stars)

Clint Eastwood seems to have put everything corny in the earlier film Flags of our Fathers and devoted his mind to artistically express Letters from Iwo Jima. Centering on the fates of the soldiers defending the last island at the borders of Japan in the final days of WW2, Iwo Jima recounts the last days of the soldiers on the ill-fated island as their leader, General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) desperately makes strategies despite the odds.

It is very interesting how Eastwood differentiates the companion movies. Flags dealt with the definition of heroism, while Iwo Jima deals with the notion of the enemy. The former is bombast with big sounds and melodrama; the latter is quieter, more introspective – a more honest presentation of emotions.

While Flags was an average street parade for the Stars and Stripes, Iwo Jima makes humans out of the soldiers of the Red Sun. But such is the weakness of the two movies, which presents our “liberators” less heroic while Iwo Jima presents our “invaders” as more human. For this movie, saints exist even in hell.

300
Written and Directed by Zack Snyder
Loosely based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller
* (1 star)

This is a videogame and not a movie. Loud, proud, shallow and violently profane, this adaptation of Frank Millers’s graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae makes certain its macho inclinations by a) making most of its actors, particularly Gerard Butler as Sparta king Leonidas, growl their lines; b) showing beautiful women’s breasts once in a while, and c) referring to the (impliedly weak) philosophers of Athens as “boy-lovers”. Lest it becomes any more historically inaccurate than it already is, pederasty was commonplace in Europe and Asia before the spread of Christianity, so that remark is hypocritical. But that is the subject of a different article.

The movie didn’t promise to be profound, so my friend said after the screening. Yes, let’s celebrate mediocrity once more. Cardboard underwear models contrasted with a very ugly Persian army led by the transvestite Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). When the two leaders confront, the taller, more dominant multi-pierced Xerxes places his hands on the shoulders of bearded cod-piece wearing Leonidas and exclaims, “There are other things to fear!” to the laughter of myself and friends. Nowhere was the movie more homoerotically codified than in that scene.

Confused whether it is plot-based (which it really is) or character-based (starts with Leonidas, but actually tells more about being a Spartan soldier than delving with Leonidas’ character). Over the top everything (including the narration) except for one very crucial ingredient – a cohesive story. It’s just a storyline about the defense of 300 Spartans against 250,000 invading Persians. Looking good does not make a good movie. In fact looking good also doesn’t necessarily make a good person. Maybe we as a race have forgotten bravery, honor and glory, that’s why we invent it artificially in our fantasies all the time. In this case, spray-painted 8-pack abs.

Pathfinder
Directed by Marcus Nispel
Based on an earlier movie of the same title and theme
* ½ (1 and a half stars)

Marginally better than 300 if only because it is a) less violent and b) less over-the-top, Pathfinder has everything similar in 300 – the missing cohesive story, cardboard characters, no actual climax but a series of action scenes.

About the legend of a stranded Viking boy adopted by native Americans somewhere in north America who grows up (Karl Urban) to be their protector when the invading Vikings return. Like 300 this one is beautifully photographed and very literal in presenting its thin storyline. Fortunately, Pathfinder fares better than 300 because of a central character.

If there’s one reminder that summer blockbusters are nigh, there’s a lot of skin and beaches shown in these movies.

Back into love

VALENTINE'S REVIEWS

Reviews by Vives Anunciacion
More of a comedy than a romance, Music and Lyrics is the surest date movie this year, unless one is a womyn who likes womyn, in which case, Rome and Juliet is the sweet choice. Whether it’s the cutesy Music and Lyrics, the deeply poetic The Fountain, or the female love story Rome & Juliet, siguradong may date movie opening today na bagay sa girls, sa boys, bakla man or tomboys.

Music and Lyrics
Written and Directed by Marc Lawrence
Starring Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore
*** (3 stars)

The Fountain
Written and Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Starring Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz
** ½ (2 ½ stars)

Rome and Juliet
Written and Directed by Connie S. Macatuno
Starring Andrea Del Rosario, Mylene Dizon, Rafael Rosell
** ½ (2 ½ stars)

Although Music and Lyrics features a fictional icon from the greatest decade of music, the movie doesn’t actually play any 80s song. The movie is about a former 80s pop icon who struggles to revive his musical career but instead finds romance unexpectedly.

Alex Fletcher (Hugh Grant) formerly of the 80s pop band Pop, is asked to compose a hit song for the current pop diva within three days, otherwise he can declare his musical career laos. Enter Alex’s talky plant attendant (taga-dilig ng halaman) Sofie Fisher (Drew Barrymore), who helps Alex marry her rhyme with his rhythm. In short, they’re a match made in musical heaven.

What makes Music and Lyrics work is Grant’s spot-on comedic timing, despite the bland screenplay and uneventful storyline. You can pair Barrymore up with anyone and she will still be as cute as the day she appeared in E.T. A romantic comedy with an 80’s reference but with absolutely no real 80’s music (this so NOT 13 Going on 30), Music and Lyrics is melodious to the everyman’s funny bone.

Conversely, Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain is almost a conceptual love story with the barest storyline and an excess in interpretative visuals. The story, spanning thousands of years, is about the search for the legendary Fountain of youth.

Hugh Jackman plays Dr. Tommy Creo who is in search of a cure for his dying wife’s (Rachel Weisz) cancer, but the movie crisscrosses between a Spanish-era conquistador’s search for the tree of life in Guatemala, the present day Creo and the future Creo who is in a bubble spaceship on his way to a dying star. Sounds confusing? Not so, it simply isn’t that easy to understand. Pretend it’s a music video with random scenes minus the music. What a disappointment from one of the most promising US directors in many years.

Lastly, Rome & Juliet is a light drama, light lesbian romance (well, light everything) from newbie director Connie SA. Macatuno and CinemaOne Originals.

Andrea del Rosario plays pre-school teacher Juliet engaged to marry a young politician (Rosell), when she meets and falls for the wedding planner Rome (Mylene Dizon) (or more accurately, the bride-to-be seduces the female wedding planner). Family and friends collide when the all-female couple decide to fight for their all-female love.

Unconventional the concept may be, Rome & Juliet plays out like an L-Word version of the OC where beautiful people abound (check out how many tisoy guys there are in this movie) and gender issues enumerated (stereotyping, labeling, gender specification of roles, etc.)

Good performances abound from Dizon, del Rosario (even Rosell) and Tessie Tomas, who plays Juliet’s conservative mother. Yes, the conservative mother wears eyeglasses and ganchillos. A movie against stereotyping actually needs stereotypes to tell its story.

King koopa

Review by Vives Anunciacion

The Last King of Scotland
Directed by Kevin McDonald
Based on the novel by Giles Foden
Starring Forrest Whitaker, James McAvoy
R13 / 121 minutes
Fox Searchlight
***1/2 (3 1/2 stars)

Today is Oscars day and Forrest Whitaker will most likely win the golden statue as The Last King of Scotland. Whitaker plays Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who was responsible for the death of 300,000 of his countrymen during his bloody reign.

The story is told through the eyes of fictional character Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a young doctor from Scotland who brings his youthful ideals to the countryside of Uganda. Nick meets Amin when he is called to treat the president after an accident. The young doctor’s straightforward conduct pleases the new president, and the two instantly bond as the best of friends. He is so Scottish, Amin says, that he can be the last king of the Scots.

The president introduces Nick to a life of privilege very much unlike the average life of a Ugandan. What Nick fails to see is that President Amin treats his fellow Ugandans differently. When the British government exposes the atrocities of Amin, Nick finally realizes the realities of his situation. He makes a thrilling escape, but only after suffering terribly.

Documentary director Kevin McDonald’s first foray into narrative filmmaking is a very interesting success, although the Golden Globe-winning movie is not without some failure. Whitaker benefits from the documents of history for being able to portray the bloodthirsty dictator with such power and intensity, he owns the film as soon as he appears.

Unfortunately, the narrative is confused and is neither character driven nor plot driven. Character-wise, Amin’s is defined by historical references and is not elaborated in the story. We really don’t know why he is slaughtering so many people or why he behaves like a madman in some points – as if it’s understood that all dictators are. Neither is the movie Nick’s, no matter how appropriate McAvoy’s portrayal is of a doe-eyed Scotsman in Uganda. We simply take him for granted as the bida, because he is the white man in Africa. As a political thriller, the thrill part only comes in the last third of the movie, so it really isn’t one.

However, whatever the insufficiencies of the narrative, The Last King of Scotland will be remembered for Whitaker’s pulsating, feverish act so visceral you can smell the sweat glistening on his dark skin.

History lessons

Reviews by Vives Anunciacion

History figures prominently in recent releases of movies, with period pieces such as The Queen and bio dramas like the upcoming Last King of Scotland figuring significantly in the awards season. The History Boys and Curse of the Golden Flower, both opening this week, are both worth the watch despite the few recognitions they have.

Curse of the Golden Flower
(Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia)
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Starring Gong Li, Chow Yun Fat
R13/ 114 mins
Sony Pictures Classics/ Beijing New Picture Film Co.
*** 1/2 (3 1/2 sttars)

Nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design, Curse of the Golden Flower takes the costume drama genre to the extreme, literally dressing up thousands of extras whether live or computer-generated.

Set at the height of the Tang Dynasty, China’s golden age of poetry some 1000 years ago, Curse of the Golden Flower is a family drama about intrigue, in-fighting, deceit and murder within the fabled walls of the Imperial Palace.

Asia’s most famous actress (Gong Li) plays Empress Phoenix, the Emperor Dragon’s (Chow Yun Fat) ailing second wife, whom the Emperor suspects of having an affair with the Crown Pince Wan (Liu Ye), his son from his first wife. When the Empress discovers that the Emperor is clandestinely poisoning her through her daily medicine, she plots for the Emperor’s overthrow on the night of the Chrysanthemum Festival by means of their favorite son, Prince Jai, played by China’s pop prince Jay Chou.

Opulent, lavish and bloody gory to the end, Curse of the Golden Flower takes its theme of beauty on the outside and rotten on the inside to extravagant levels, at times reaching Shakespearean tragedy but told in uniquely Asian cinematic flair. Costing more than $45million (or P2.25 billion), China’s most expensive picture is ten times more colorful and twice more intriguing than Zhang’s last costume epic, House of Flying Daggers.

However, no amount of lavish sets and costumes can outshine Gong Li, who was probably robbed of Oscar acting nomination. Li asserts herself Asia’s premiere actress, combining beauty, fragility and deviousness – she is at once terrible and magnificent to behold. The movie should have been nominated for more awards than just for costume, but who cares, it’s one glorious opera.


The History Boys
Directed by Nicholas Hytner
Based on the Tony-award winning play by Alan Bennet
Starring Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Russell Tovey
R13/ 122 minutes
Fox Searchlight/ UK Film Council/ BBC
*** (3 stars)

Very much like previous inspirational classroom dramas such as Dead Poets Society, Emperor’s Club and Mona Lisa Smile, The History Boys is Britain’s stage equivalent translated to the screen and directed by Nicholas Hytner, also known as Lea Salonga’s Tony-award nominated director in the West End production of Miss Saigon.

Sharp, witty and full of energy, The History Boys features the original Tony-nominated cast as a group of smart but mischievous high school boys prepare for the collegiate exams for Oxford and Cambridge (equivalent to our UPCAT and Ateneo entrance exams).

The best part is that History Boys doesn’t make its drama pilit, even if its coming-of-age themes of sexuality, belonging, purpose and meaning present themselves in intelligent banter. There’s no need to shout O Captain, my Captain, here – but it does make me sorely miss my high school theater life. O high school, my high school, indeed.