Movie Reviews – August 2008

These almost got forgotten with Augie’s arrival, but here goes…

Here is what we saw:

Here are my reviews:

The Dark Knight

Batman’s efforts to rid Gotham City of crime are starting to have an effect. A mobster from Hong Kong steals the mobs’ money. Batman is after him. The mob is after him. And into this mess drops the Joker. He promises the mob he will get their money back if they will give him half. But the Joker has his own agenda and money doesn’t enter into it. He is content to give Batman and the other authorities a moral dilemma. Not should we pick good or evil. But if you can only save one, will it be Batman’s longtime sweetheart or the crusading District Attorney. Batman is looking to get out of the biz and he hopes the new DA is the figure that will take his place. Ebert gave this movie 4 stars when he only gave Ironman 3 1/2. I just don’t understand. Perhaps he thought it was somehow deeper but sheesh, we are talking comic book heroes here.

Theater – 3 stars

Live Free or Die Hard

My brother calls this movie “Die Hard in a Wheel Chair”. This time, the ultraorganized criminals are shutting down all of America’s infrastructure. Engineered by smalltime hackers, all but one of which the bad guy has succeeded in killing in an effort to cover his tracks, McClane chases the villains all over with lots of explosions, falls, karate fights, and general daring-do. The young hacker’s piece of the business just happens to be the right one to save the day at the last minute. This is an improbable but very exciting movie.

Netflix – 3 stars

Flawless

I don’t remember this movie ever being in the theaters. It’s a diamond heist caper set in the early 60’s. A woman executive who is constantly passed over for promotion finds herself receptive to a suggestion the janitor makes about stealing some of the London Diamond Company’s rough stones. If they took £1,000,000 for each of them, the company would hardly even notice. The janitor would do all the work but needs the woman because the company president has recently changed the way he remembers the vault’s combination. He can’t go where she can. She gets the numbers and passes them to him but starts to get cold feet. The janitor carries on. When they discover the robbery in the morning, not just a few diamonds are missing, but the entire vault is empty. There are a couple of nice twists at the end. Clever and likeable characters.

Netflix – 3 stars

Nowhere in Africa

This is a German language film with subtitles. In the mid-1930’s a Jewish attorney from Germany has gone to Africa but only finds work as a ranch hand. He sends for his wife and daughter just before it is too late. They are not happy to be in Africa, but things are getting worse and worse in Germany and they do not dare go back. Most of the movie is about their adapting to the completely different way of life. The movie is a little long but not too bad. I liked the character of the daughter who takes to life there perfectly.

Netflix – 3 stars

Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D

A scientist doing seismic research in Iceland disappears. A decade later his brother who is doing the same type of work is told that their lab is going to be shut down. In the meantime the scientist’s son has come to visit his uncle and they notice some interesting fluctuations in the data on the monitors in the lab, which makes them think that they should go to Iceland too. They find a notebook with cryptic clues which leads to an Icelandic seismic institute and hopefully the man who saw the missing scientist alive last. The institute is no more than a name but the man’s daughter lives in the building and she just happens to be an alpine guide. They go to where they know there is an entrance to the volcano and set to exploring. They find many interesting rock formations one of them being just a fraction of an inch thick which shatters when they walk on it and they fall all the way to the center of the earth. As you can imagine many strange things are there, but as you can’t imagine it’s not as hot as hell. After being chased by dinosaurs and carnivorous plants, they find a geyser that they hope is going to blow them back to the surface. It does and they land at Mount Vesuvius. In the meantime the son just happens to have collected a backpack full of huge pure diamonds. The movie was fun enough. It was nothing great. The 3-D was pretty good too.

Theater – 3 stars

Kung Fu Panda

Po, a lazy panda has always wanted to be a kung fu master. When the old head master is set to retire, he is going to impart the golden scroll of wisdom and there is going to be a big celebration. Po wants to attend but it’s at the top of the mountain and he barely makes it there in time. For some unknown reason he is selected. But he knows hardly anything of kung fu and the other masters are not happy. The head teacher has to find out a way to inspire Po. He discovers it’s through eating and then the training begins. Just in time too because the evil snow leopard, the best student ever to come out of the Academy, has just escaped from his maximum security prison cell. The other masters don’t stand a chance against him and it is Po who is left to save the day. This is like every kung fu movie you ever saw. But it is animated and so becomes one that is really, really funny. Every cliché you can think of is there. I thought the animation of the ducks was particularly good.

Theater – 3 stars

Central Station

A former teacher makes her living in Rio de Janeiro’s central train station writing letters that are dictated to her. This helpful act on the part of the teacher towards the poor and illiterate is a wonderful service. But there is a dark side, she often tears up or fails to mail the letters. When a woman and her son come to the teacher to have a letter dictated to her former husband she throws the letter away as she often does. But the woman comes back a few days later and dictates another letter with a picture of the son to be included. As they are leaving the station the woman is hit by a bus and killed. The boy he is left homeless. After several days to teacher realizes he is living in the train station and together they set out on a cross-country journey to find the father. The movie is the story of that journey. It’s not often you see a movie in Portuguese. And the hinterlands of Brazil are interesting to see. By the end of the movie it is kind of touching.

Netflix – 3 stars

L5: First City in Space

L5 Earth’s first space city in in lunar orbit. Everything is going fine but they start to have a shortage of water. They send an unmanned craft to a distant comet that is mostly water with a rocket motor that will alter its course just enough that L5 can capture it and mine the water. Something goes wrong with the engine and the captain of the city or whatever he is has to travel to the comet and clean out the jets manually. He only has enough time to get there before the course correction won’t do any good. As he is fixing things there is a huge solar storm and all radio communications are lost. Did he get the job done? Is he alright? This movie really shows its age. The computer graphics necessary for this type of thing are sadly out of date. It was originally intended as one of IMAX’s first 3D movies and I suppose that would really have helped the look of things. The acting was wooden and the plot was simple, like many IMAX movies. This is a low 3.

Netflix – 3 stars