Director Tarun Gupta manages to create a rather solid tragic drama that spends more time exploring its directing methods than telling a story. Not that that’s a bad thing, but as a film I’d have loved to learn more about the characters. Though with the limited time it has, director Gupta manages to derive a lot of interesting performances from the cast, as well as exploring the fading of love in a world that glamorizes it.
Tag Archives: Romance
Decadent Evil (2005)
Hey did you see “The Vampire Journals” from Full Moon? Yes? Well, prepare to watch it again, but in a ten minute nutshell version. On par with much of Full Moon’s corner cutting productions, “Decadent Evil” is mostly just nothing but filler, with clips to the days of Full Moon Entertainment when they were actually trying. “Decadent Evil” is barely eighty minutes in length, and counting the opening clip show, and credits, it’s only about an hour of actual movie. All of which is contrived and based heavily around the hope that you’ve seen and remember “The Vampire Journals” fondly.
The Wizard (1989)
In 1990, my brother and I watched 1989’s “The Wizard” about thirty times a day and loved the movie every single time we popped it in to the VCR. When I was seven, I dreamed of two things. I dreamed of entering a video game competition and playing Super Mario 3, and travelling around the country with the gorgeous Jenny Lewis. Mostly I wanted the second, but playing Super Mario 3 was also a great prospect. There’s no way to discuss “The Wizard” without seeing it through nostalgia tinted glasses, but while most people claim “The Wizard” is nothing but a ninety minute commercial for Nintendo, I wouldn’t so much call it a commercial so much as a mirror on the culture in the eighties. In the late eighties and most of the nineties, Nintendo simply dominated the world.
Wing Commander (1999)
How do you ruin potential for a great adaptation of the cult franchise “Wing Commander” in one fell swoop? You cast Freddie Prinze Jr. of course! The leading man with the charisma and talent of a mop stick leads the charge in this science fiction adaptation of the hit video game series, while Matthew Lillard is his spaz sidekick who screeches like a coked up C3P0 during battle, in spite of the fact that we’re told these are experienced soldiers.
Man of Steel (2013)
Much in the way Bryan Singer practiced with “Superman Returns,” director Zack Snyder displays amazing restraint and subtlety with his version of Superman. Which is surprising considering Zack Snyder is hardly ever about subtlety. This is the man behind the loud and sophomoric “Sucker Punch” and “Dawn of the Dead” after all. But with “Watchmen,” Snyder proved he could disassemble the superhero mythology and completely lands his masterpiece with his iteration of Superman. “Man of Steel” garners a ton of heart and soul, with a tale of Clark Kent’s journey for a sense of purpose and belonging in a home world that’s not his own.
Jack the Giant Slayer (Blu-ray/DVD + UltraViolet Digital Copy) (2013)
I’m always of the opinion that there really isn’t anything new that we can do with classic fairytales, anymore. We can twist them, and reboot them, but in the end they’re really not going to feel fresh or inventive. It’s like that episode of “The Simpsons” where Marge couldn’t afford a new dress for her country club meetings, so she just kept re-designing the same dress over and over. “Jack the Giant Slayer” is exactly like that. Sure, it posits the idea that we’re being given a new tale, but in reality it’s just another take on Jack and the Beanstalk. But this ain’t yo daddy’s Jack and the Beanstalk! No sir! This is the true story of Jack and the Giants before the actual tale was invented.
Warm Bodies (2013)
In the universe of “Warm Bodies,” zombification is a metaphor for social inadequacy. Being a zombie makes it impossible for you to talk and socialize with anyone. The rare conversations a zombie does have, is nothing but grunts and a brief dismissal of the company kept. The really bad introverts are terribly animated skeletons with a thing for self-mutilation. This is kind of a PSA for social introverts but with monsters that you can call zombies. I guess they’re zombies. They’re undead, and they eat humans for sustenance. But I just have a hard time trying to figure out which audience “Warm Bodies” is trying to pander to, if anything. It’s definitely a movie for teenagers. The movie doesn’t so much make zombification a disease, as it is a deadly form of social anxiety.