The opening minutes of “Bully” are perhaps the best summary of the bullying dilemma you can imagine. It’s a moment so wrought with accuracy, victims of bullying will nod to themselves thinking “Happens to me all the time!” During one moment after school recess, the local school principal is trying to sort out a fight between two boys who had a fist fight. She demands they both shake hands. One boy sticks his hand out without hesitation and a blank expression, even leaning forward to shake. The other boy refuses, and has a stand off, angrily nodding his head near tears. The principal sends off the first boy, commending him for his kindness, and scolds the angry child for being defiant, chastising him for refusing to settle things. The boy explains that no matter how much he apologizes, he continues being tormented by the other child. The teacher refuses to allow any instance of continuing the conflict resolution and suggests “being friends.” Its small moments like this that continues furthering the idea that bullying as a whole, is a minor issue that really should be dealt with like any other child issue.
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
The Man With the Iron Fists (2012)
It’s disheartening to see that deep down, composer and hip hop artist RZA is just another filmmaker who wants to be Quentin Tarantino. It’s not a surprise to fuel the funding for “The Man with the Iron Fists,” he teams up with another popular Tarantino wannabe Eli Roth, to make a film that desperately wants to be “Kill Bill.” Tarantino can often border on obnoxious with his films, so for wannabes to keep popping up delivering relentlessly obnoxious throwbacks feels like a waste of time and resources. I assume RZA and writer Eli Roth imagined this being shown in double bills with the “Kill Bill” series or, at least “Grindhouse.” RZA displays all the hallmarks of a man anxious to be considered in the realm of Quentin Tarantino’s wonderful chop socky tribute “Kill Bill.”
Swine (2012)
The Brothers Levitch’s “Swine” is a film that’s right up my alley. Told in three parts, “Swine” is a post apocalyptic steam punk Western that takes two warring groups of soldiers and pits them against each other in a wasteland void of human decency and nobility. This reminded me an awful lot of “Firefly” and in many respects it has that epic potential because “Swine” has a really good head on its shoulder with a creative vision that can make it a hit at festivals and garner an immense fan base. I sure as hell would follow this if it became a feature length film. In a world where all law has been abolished, there are two fronts on the battlefield.
Green Lantern: Extended Cut (2011) [Blu-ray]
It’s a shame when a movie has such potential to be greater than the whole of its sum and fails to live up to it in the end. That’s the case with “Green Lantern,” a movie with great promise to be one hell of a space epic with fantastical elements and a killer weapon, and yet… when all is said and done, “Green Lantern” is just a rank mess, a blunder of script faults and horrible exposition that jumps from scene to scene and only manages to pick up once our hero Hal becomes the Green Lantern. And then when he becomes the Green Lantern it’s all the movie is about. He becomes the Green Lantern and…? Nothing else. “Green Lantern” has the promise to be so much more than it puts on the screen, but what it makes up for in action set pieces it lacks in severely uninteresting characters.
Melancholia (2011)
Lars Von Trier’s examination of the apocalypse is a truly divine and ethereal cinematic experience that not only dares to explore the lasting effects of the end of the world, but also dwells on two states of mind concerning the end of the world. Like “On the Beach,” Von Trier examines the world putting on a show for itself in the wake of the apocalypse. In this version of the end of the world, Earth is destined to clash with an unknown planet from behind the sun. After centuries hidden, the planet tagged Melancholia by Earth’s denizens, has finally reached Earth’s orbit and is destined to smash in to our planet as the days progress.
Tangled (2010)
“Tangled” may not be from Pixar, but I’m of the opinion that it deserves as much love as a Pixar film from Disney does. Because as a film that hasn’t been animated from the famous sub-company, it’s surely a breathtaking absolutely imaginative fairy tale that conquers the Rapunzel and adds its own post-modern twist. Though I was initially horrified that this would be a simple “Shrek” clone, “Tangled” is very much in touch with Disney’s sensibilities. It’s more a fairy tale than a comedy and really plays on fate and destiny like traditional Disney tales than trying to hurl self aware comedy at us every single second the film plays. “Tangled” takes a rather boring story and adds a twist to it by offering up more in depth characters and plays on coincidence teaming together two lovelorn selfish individuals and giving them a reason to care for someone else outside of their own needs. That’s what “Tangled” is essentially about: two people who find something to care for beyond themselves and the tangled mess that occurs when they decide to compromise and help one another.
Final Destination 5 (2011) (DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital)
It pains me that we have to sit through the “Final Destination” films when it can be developed in to something with a rich mythos and an overreaching story arc that ties together various characters. Instead it trots out one death after the other and insultingly introduces a new plot element that is not only ridiculous but until now was never mentioned in a movie. Again “Final Destination” sets up a series of questions and never answers them. So I’m left asking why. And with no successful answers. Because the producers behind “Final Destination” don’t feel the need to turn this series in to a semi-intelligent franchise, they just want this to be the films with the outstanding deaths.