Movie Review

  • The Godfather: Part II (1974)

    The Godfather: Part II (1974)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) I may not entirely agree with assessments that this sequel is superior to the first film (which seems just a bit more focused that the follow-up), but there’s no denying that the two Godfather films feel inseparable: The first flows into the second one with fewer differences than one would expect, and the second one actually makes the first one feel even better when taken together.  Once again, a really young Al Pacino runs the show, although he’s joined (in entirely separate sequences) by an equally-young Robert de Niro.  Acting both as a prequel and sequel to the original, this “Part II” creaks at more than 200 minutes: the entire prequel alone could have been spun off in its own film.  The Godfather II itself has the feel of a vast epic, with multiple plot lines, grand lavish scenes (including another lengthy party sequence that acts as essential scene-setting), multiple locations, a bit of historical drama and a large cast of characters all headed for destruction.  Even then, there’s a lot that simply isn’t shown, and when the film ends, it feels as if it does so a few scenes too soon.  It’s the nature of the charm of the films that betrayal and violent death is always somewhere in the assumed background of the character’s action: one wrong answer and goodbye!  What may be The Godfather II’s most astonishing achievement is that it actually makes its predecessor even better, by presenting a story with even-bigger implications, digging into the characters and tying off a few grander arcs.  This is big, big-scale filmmaking by Francis Ford Coppola, and it’s a bit of a shame we don’t get such movies anymore.

  • The Godfather (1972)

    The Godfather (1972)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) It’s easy to think that you know The Godfather without having actually seen The Godfather: Few movies have become as integral to American pop culture as this one: You have seen the parodies, heard the references, watched the rip-offs, caught bits and pieces of the TV broadcasts, maybe even played the video game.  But nothing replaces a good lengthy sit-down with the film from beginning to end: Clocking in at slightly less than three hours, The Godfather is a sumptuous piece of work.  Finely mastered, superbly written and featuring a cast of characters that directors would kill for (most notably an impossibly young Al Pacino), it remains an impressive piece of work even after nearly forty years of cultural impact.  Although the innovation of presenting gangster protagonists can’t be properly felt now compared to 1972, The Godfather keeps making an impact through sheer film artistry: All the pieces selected by director Francis Ford Coppola click together in a satisfying fashion, and the much-quoted segments only add to the film.  With a large cast of character and a story that sprawls over a decade following WW2, the script makes few concessions to inattentive viewers.  (It also takes risks that would doom other films, such as setting much of its first half-hour at a wedding reception.)  Most curiously, it’s also a film that feels more rounded by its equally masterful sequel.  Why is it that they don’t make movies like that anymore?

  • Trick ‘r Treat (2007)

    Trick ‘r Treat (2007)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) This straight-to-DVD horror feature may not aspire to sophistication, but It does manage to hit most of its targets as a horror film made for horror fans.  Trick ‘r Treat’s most distinguishing featuring has to be its playful non-chronological interweaving of separate short stories (four main ones, plus a prologue), into a tapestry of Halloween-themed gags.  Some of them are trite and obvious, while others have one or two surprises in store, but they’re all handled with a decent amount of skill, and the visual aspect of the film is as good as anything else in the genre.  Don’t look for redeeming social values, though: The “morals” of the film are ones that only gore-hounds will like, what with serial killers being set against each other, and people apparently being killed for not following a set of entirely arbitrary social conventions.  This being said, c’mon: It’s a self-consciously exploitative horror film about Halloween: it would be surprising if it wasn’t about gruesome deaths first, and everything else after.  Nonetheless, there are a few nice touches here and there as the acting talent slums a bit: Anna Paquin and friends are cute as not-so-innocent girls on the prowl, while Brian Cox and Dylan Baker turn in worthwhile performances.  Special credit also goes to midget scarecrow “Sam”, as close an iconic creation as the film gets.  Trick ‘r Treat all wraps up to a slickly-made, somewhat genre-centric horror film, not noteworthy in any way, but competent enough to warrant a Halloween party viewing or somesuch.

  • Making Mr. Right (1987)

    Making Mr. Right (1987)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) This romantic comedy may feature a fully-working android built for the purpose of space exploration, it’s really a disservice to call it a science-fiction film.  To do so subjects Making Mr. Right to much higher scientific scrutiny than it deserves as a fluffy comedy about a woman dealing with an emotionless nerd and his trainable invention.  The SF elements are so wrong that it’s hard to know where to start, so let’s avoid the issue entirely and focus on the comic results of the premise.  Ann Magnuson delivers a fearless performance as a PR expert who has to sell an android to the world at large, which also means interacting with the android’s inventor –a frighteningly plausible Frank Malkovich.  The screenplay itself is generally by-the-numbers, instantly familiar to anyone who has ever seen an “alien discovers human society” society: a succession of idiot moments briefly interrupted by excruciating sequences of social humiliation.  But the performances are charming enough, and the increasingly retro charm of mid-eighties Miami (wow, those clothes!) does a lot to heighten the absurdity of the entire film.  There are enough hints of mild subversion (such as a tropical beach photo backdrop used on a beach) and unusual screenwriting choices to set Making Mr. Right apart from other fantasy-based romantic comedies.  It could have been worse.

  • Food, Inc. (2008)

    Food, Inc. (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) The past decade has seen an unprecedented boom of interest in the way we eat, and after conquering TV networks and bookshelves, those ideas are dripping onto the big screen as well.  In this case, the kinship between books and documentary is obvious: Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) are two main interview subjects and if Pollan is merely credited as a special consultant, Schlosser also co-produced the film.  Food, Inc takes on the task of exploring the less attractive aspects of the secretive food production industry, from corn to cattle to burger.  Along the way, it explains a number of troubling realities that will be familiar to Pollan and Schlosser’s readers: How family farms are a charming relic of the past; how (de)regulation is having a disproportionate impact on our health; how food production is being controlled by very few entities; how those entities have captured governmental agencies and are given extraordinary rights to silence their critics.  Discussing food, it increasingly becomes obvious, quickly comes to touch other crucial social issues such as migrant work, copyright reform, and the role of government in industries.  As a documentary, Food, Inc is up to current standards, with a mixture of interviews, infographics, location footage and archival footage.  It’s not always pleasant to watch, but it’s informative, and gives added context to the growing amount of information about the food supply.  Though heavily US-centric, it describes issues at play in Canada as well -although I’d be curious to see a comparative examination of our regulatory regimes.  Well-made, provocative, stirring and (eek) important, it’s well worth watching as another warning light on our modern dashboard.

  • Bienvenue chez les ch’tis [Welcome to the Sticks] (2008)

    Bienvenue chez les ch’tis [Welcome to the Sticks] (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) It’s probably best not to focus on the fact that Bienvenue chez les ch’tis is one of the highest-grossing French films of all times, otherwise it’s almost de rigueur to question what makes this film so special.  The answer is close to “not much”: As with so many fish-out-of-the-water comedies in which sophisticated characters are thrust in rustic locations for an extended period, you can almost see the clicks of the well-worn plot mechanics at work in this film as scene after scene does its job.  Of course, the much-derided place is full of heart-warming characters with real qualities and problems.  Of course, the lead character comes to love the place.  Of course, there are a few complications.  Perhaps the most amusing element of Bienvenue chez les ch’tis is the excessive setup in which “Le Nord” is depicted, via the usual stereotypes, as a horrible place; the flip side of that setup is the elaborate deception that the lead character ends up entertaining in order to placate his incredulous south-bound family.  Props also go to the willingness to show the epilogue of the tale, something that other films would have avoided.  Otherwise, it’s by-the-number comedy filmmaking.  Well done, amusing and mechanical.  Kad Merad and Dany Boon make up a decent comedic pair, playing off southern/northern stereotypes with energy.  This isn’t a strikingly original film, especially not when every regional cinema seems to have a variation of the same story (For French-Canada, check out La Grande Séduction).  But reasonably well-made films can be a joy to watch even when they follow familiar templates, and this is another one of them.  Millions of Francophones can be unadventurous, but in this case they’re not necessarily wrong.  (But they will want to turn on the subtitles.) The DVD contains an overly long blooper reel, and a slightly amusing featurette in which the film’s two leads try to go back incognito to the village where the film was shot.

  • Låt den rätte komma in [Let the Right One In] (2008)

    Låt den rätte komma in [Let the Right One In] (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) “Cold and restrained Swedish film” may seems like an oxymoron, but when it comes to vampire movies, ice-cold restraint can work wonders at telling us a vampire story we haven’t seen before.  There’s no glamour or sublimated eroticism here in the snows of wintertime Sweden, alongside a troubled boy-protagonist who befriends a tween vampire who looks about 12 (but acts 200).  There’s little comedy either as we follow a caretaker who kills strangers to get blood for his vampire protégé, or the bullies who pick mercilessly on the lead character.  But there’s a lot of skill in the way the story is presented, sometimes obliquely, sometimes ironically, sometimes brutally.  (The ending is a pure nightmare, simply due to a camera angle.) At a time where vampire films glitter in the sunlight, Let The Right One In is a welcome reminder that it only takes a bit of imagination to rekindle interest in the sub-genre.  While the film isn’t an unqualified success (it’s slow, it has its share of silly scenes such as the cat-attack one or indeed that entire subplot, and I can’t imagine willingly re-watching this film for fun in anything less than five years), it’s good enough to be noticed, and striking enough to earn modest praise from genre and non-genre audiences alike.

  • The Mist (2007)

    The Mist (2007)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) Stephen King’s “The Mist” having been a favourite story of mine ever since reading it in Skeleton Crew, I was apprehensive about seeing a big-screen adaptation.  Despite the track record of screenwriter/director Frank Darabont, what would become of the story?  As the film gets going, a number of things don’t quite seem to work: The dialogue seems forced, the intensity of the drama seems to jump prematurely, seemingly driven by anticipating the next plot beat rather than evolving organically.  But at the mist engulfs the characters and the monsters slowly appear, The Mist settles down and the bigger problems fade away.  Smaller problems remain: characters make stupid decisions (why, gee, golly yes: insects are attracted to light during night-time), keep making stupid decisions (when you hear “something” in a murderously monstrous environment, the time has come to run) and then make some more stupid decisions.  I also had mixed feelings about the film’s human antagonist, which goes so far into pious-evil territory that she becomes exasperating more than threatening: there’s a difference between hating a character and wanting other characters to hit her on the head with a shovel.  But the film gradually redeems itself with better and better material as it goes along, culminating in a pitch-dark ending that manages to one-up the novella’s original conclusion.  It all amounts to a fairly decent horror film, filled with disgust and terror and bleakness, not to mention tentacled monsters jousting for disgust with dangerous humans.  As an adaptation, it respects the original despite a few early issues.  While those flaws are a bit too annoying to make The Mist anything more than a modest success, the overall result is a respectable entry in the Stephen King adaptation canon.  The DVD has a charming audio commentary by Darabont as well as a featurette on artist Drew Struzan that eventually becomes quite pretentious, but skimps short on the special effects documentaries.

  • Futurama: Bender’s Game (2008)

    Futurama: Bender’s Game (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) Even sub-standard Futurama is better than no Futurama… or at least that’s what’s worth remembering when seeing this third straight-to-DVD feature revival of the TV series.  While there’s little that’s specifically wrong with Bender’s Game, it does seem to lag compared to the other films, and never more so during a third act that takes place in a fantasy world take-off on Dungeons and Dragons.  The jokes seem muted, and depend more on recognition of Lord of the Rings references than anything else.  It’s geeky humor of another sort, of course, but it does seem a bit more off-kilter than the series at its best.  Otherwise, the Futurama mythology is further explored with Dark Matter exploitation details, more of Nibbler and Farnsworth’s history, and another showdown with Mom.  Fans will watch it anyway, but the result is merely entertaining, just not exceptionally so. The DVD adds an entertaining audio commentary track that actually makes the film fun to watch a second time, as well as a few short features that show how much fun it was to work on the show. The best extra, however, is a short anti-anti-piracy PSA featuring Bender, willing to steal, well, anything.

  • Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)

    Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) This second made-for DVD movie featuring the Futurama crew doesn’t seem quite as successful as Bender’s Big Score, but it does manage to hit a few high points along the way.  Much of the film’s most amusing sequences seem to revolve around the rivalry between scientists, which also gives a chance to the writers to include a bit of nerd humor.  Much of the problems with the film seem to revolve around a structure that doesn’t quite seem what to do with 90 minutes’ worth of running time: The story goes from one setup to another, adding rather than building.  This being said, some of the thematic material makes sense: The resonances between polyamory, robot exclusion and the all-encompassing beast at the heart of the plot work to its advantages, but the sauce is thin by the end of the story.  Still, Futurama can usually depend on laughs even when its premise falters, and this second film does deliver its share.  Fans will be happy. The DVD contains a somewhat interesting audio commentary (great for catching a few more of those obscure jokes), as well as a “lost” Futurama script made for a 3D game that’s more conceptually interesting than enjoyable to watch.

  • Up in the Air (2009)

    Up in the Air (2009)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, December 2009) Hollywood is so often geared to kids, teens and family that film made for an adult audience are now rare enough to be remarkable.  So it is that this tale of a professional downsizer confronting professional distress and personal attachment is perhaps more enjoyable for its change of pace than for what it actually delivers.  George Clooney is splendid as a protagonist who comes to reconsider a lifetime of non-attachment, and he has the good fortune of playing against two actresses, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, who do just as well in their own roles: The best scene of the film is a simple three-way conversation in a hotel lobby.  The script itself (which bears only a passing similarity to Walter Kirn’s original novel) seems to be exactly in tune with the times, in-between massive layoffs and widespread hatred of commercial airlines.  Many of the film’s individual moments are oddly amusing, the peek at the life on an ultra-frequent-traveler is interesting and there are clear echoes of Juno in the off-kilter structure of writer/director Jason Reitman’s script.  (Not to mention much of Thank you for Smoking in its cynical premise.)  But there also seems to be an upper limit to Up in the Air’s effectiveness, and the lacklustre third act has something to do with it: After a lengthy detour in Wisconsin, the script more or less goes back to business but studiously avoids wrapping up its threads.  Writer/director Jason Reitman would rather drag things on long enough to diffuse the impact of a more definitive ending, then ends up apparently one of two scenes too early.  Sure, the point is informed character non-growth –which is gutsy enough at a time where “protagonist learns a lesson” is ingrained in Screenwriting 101.  But the ending also deflates some of the film’s prevailing charm… leaving viewers, well, up in the air.  Sometimes, even achieving one’s objective is criticism enough.

  • Bikur Ha-Tizmoret [The Band’s Visit] (2007)

    Bikur Ha-Tizmoret [The Band’s Visit] (2007)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) How you react to The Band’s Visit may depend on your tolerance for unconventional scripts.  The Band’s Visit proceeds from a conventional fish-out-of-water premise (On their way to another destination, an Egyptian police band finds itself marooned overnight in a small Israeli settlement), but ends up delivering a story built on discomfort, twisted agendas and lengthy static shots.  It’s refreshingly original, heart-warmingly human and all of those coded reviewer-speak expressions for “You should feel ashamed of yourself if you don’t enjoy this” but it doesn’t make The Band’s Visit any faster-paced or accessibly rewarding.  The characters are all damaged in their own ways, and their intentions are rarely noble: One’s generous offer of shelter may mask loneliness and attempts to create jealousy, for instance.  Fortunately, the film can depend on good actors to pull it off: Acting-wise, the film belongs to the dogged weariness of Sasson Gabai and Ronit Elkabetz, both of them unconventionally compelling as the leaders of their own groups.  The single-camera scenes drag on, and much of the film occurs in silence.  Which is fairly amusing considering how naturally language is weaved into the script as the two groups of characters converse in their own language between themselves and have to resort to English in order to understand each other.  The ending offers no grand triumph, but a series of small victories that reward without being overwhelming.  Such small and overarching touches do help a lot in making this film interesting and entertaining, but they also push it further into the “foreign curio” category, with a side order of exasperation when the thin plot seems to go nowhere.  The DVD doesn’t contain much except for a thin making-of documentary that affirms that, yes, the film is meant to be slow.

  • Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)

    Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) Given my indifferent reaction to the first Ice Age, it’s not surprising that it took me years, a free DVD and a lack of other distractions to get to watch the sequel.  It’s not any more surprising that I still dislike the very things that I disliked in the original: The ugly character design, the voice actors, the lowest-denominator script… all of which are back in this installment.  This time, the ice is melting away and there seems to be a lot more animals, but this kid’s film offers little to the grown-up audiences.  Much of the film’s emotional beats are obvious, and the ending drags on far too long.  At least the animation seems fair, and Scrat’s nut-gathering antics are entertaining in-between the rest of the film.  It’s not enough to make Ice Age 2: The Meltdown any better, but it’s a bit better than nothing, I suppose.  The DVD contains a number of features aimed straight at younger audiences, although the pretty good bonus short film, “No Times for Nuts” has at least two unsettling Twilight-Zoneish elements that will resonate with older audiences.

  • Doomsday (2008)

    Doomsday (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, December 2009) I suppose we shouldn’t begrudge the boys a bit of fun when then set out to make a Scottish post-apocalyptic horror/action film featuring a gun-toting babe.  Still, Doomsday most often feels like a tedious rehash of about half a dozen far better films, made with mechanical skills and little inspiration.  The plot points are so painfully contrived that they create resentment and very little viewer buy-in.  (A plague contained by locking off Scotland?  Uh-huh.)  By the time we reach the cannibalistic barbarians inspired by Prodigy videos and then a pseudo-medieval tyrant, it’s obvious that if Doomsday has anything left to show us, it will be in bits and pieces of direction, not in the overall script or end result.  Director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent) is lost in the woods during most of the film, but from time to time there’s a striking shot or action set-piece that reminds us of his past successes and makes us wish this was a far better film.  Rhona Mitra (presumably standing-in for Kate Beckinsale) is the only one besides Bob Hoskins who emerges from this film with even a smidgen of respect left.  The action tends to be on the splattery side, something that the “unrated” DVD version tends to maximize to very little improvement over the theatrical version.  After a ludicrous car chase that is still better than most of the film, the ending fizzles off –much like the rest of Doomsday.  It is what it is, one supposes –but there’s a reason why it disappeared from North American theatres in mere days. The DVD extra features make it clearer that the picture was aiming for a deliberate hommage to SF exploitation pictures and is reasonably entertaining in describing how to do wide-scale action on a budget… but don’t redeem the end result.

  • Invictus (2009)

    Invictus (2009)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, December 2009) Perhaps the boldest chance taken with this film is the concept of slowly transforming a political thriller into a sports film.  Picking up moments after Nelson Mandela’s 1994 election as the first post-Apartheid South African president, Invictus goes from nation-building drama to underdog sport film in steady increments, placing more and more weight on sports until political issues becomes subordinate to the results of a rugby tournament.  Fortunately, the film is made by skilled technicians: security issues are used as a way to peek into racial reunification, the legend of Nelson Mandela gets a polish, and we’re shown a nation uniting behind a national sports team.  It’s all curiously enjoyable: The South-African setting and accents are different enough to keep us interested (although I couldn’t help wishing for a big spaceship to appear over Johannesburg), there are plenty of misleading thriller cues (one of them leading up to a thrilling CGI flyby), Morgan Freeman is mesmerizing as Mandela (think “role of a career”), Matt Damon is unexpectedly convincing as a rugby player and Clint Eastwood’s direction is as coolly efficient as always.  Even the clichés (such as more and more slow-motion segments as the game gets closer to completion) and the unequal pacing don’t look as bad when dealt by such experienced hands.  For all of its calculated humanity, Invictus does get viewers to feel better about sports, films and mankind in general, which has its own attraction especially in the usual field of Oscar-baiting films.