Geek For E!

Geek For E!

Creators of the TwitView! Reviews in 140 characters or less.

Movie Review: Men In Black 3 (MiB3)

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been 15 years since the original Men In Black (MiB) hit the big screen.  And harder still to realize that it’s been 10 years since Men In Black II (MIIB).  I must have been neuralized or something.  Luckily all the years fall away once Will Smith’s Agent J and Tommy Lee Jones’ Agent K show up on screen in Men In Black 3 (MiB3).  Luckier still is that Josh Brolin does such a wonderful job as the younger Agent K; what could have been a hammy mimic performance that shot this movie in the foot instead breathes life into the series.  Yeah it’s the same old “Save The World” story we’ve seen before, but it’s just as much fun this time around.

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Movie Review: Darling Companion

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Beth (Diane Keaton) is a woman that is coming to terms with her empty nest.  Her kids are growing up, marrying and starting lives of their own.  Well, Grace (Elizabeth Moss) isn’t going anywhere, or so she insists.  So when Beth and Grace find an injured dog by the side of the freeway, it’s probably kismet.  Beth’s husband Joseph (Kevin Kline) isn’t happy about the new addition, but the dog — christened “Freeway” — soon becomes a part of the family.  So when Freeway is lost in the woods, family and friends all do their best to find him.  Poor puppeh!

When I read the summary for Darling Companion, I jumped at the chance to review it.  Then I saw that it was by Lawrence Kasdan, director of one of my favorite movies, The Big Chill, and screenwriter for my nerd addictions Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, (part of what I like to think of as The Good Trilogy) and Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I tried not to get too excited for fear of building things up too much in my head.  I needn’t have worried; Darling Companion had me harkening back to my favorite feel-good films, like Baby Boom, In & Out, and yes, The Big Chill.

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Movie Review: Sound of My Voice

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Friends Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling wrote Sound of My Voice as a reaction to the shock they had felt moving to Southern California.  We’ve all heard about how everyone seems to be searching for something in the bright Cali sun, and here, in Sound of My Voice, is a breathtaking look at how far some people will go to belong to something.  Utterly mesmerizing and beautifully acted, this is a hauntingly brilliant film that leaves you with more questions than answers.  Instead of tying things up with a bow, Sound of My Voice lets you draw your own conclusions; a brave piece of filmmaking that stands out among most of today’s cookie-cutter productions.  This is the movie Martha Marcy May Marlene wanted to be but just missed.

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Movie Review: The Raven

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“The Black Cat”. “Premature Burial”. “The Cask of Amontillado”. “The Raven”. And now, The Raven, starring Edgar Allan Poe? You betcha. If Poe was the father of the modern detective story, then The Raven is a film that does the old boy justice. It’s a horror film that feels like a police procedural with a love story thrown in. It isn’t the easiest movie to classify, but all the better. The Raven is fun thrill ride of a movie. Thrilling, edge-of-my-seat stuff, and it’s a movie I can heartily recommend.

It’s 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. A woman and her young daughter are found viciously murdered…but the police are stumped when it’s found that all the doors and windows were locked from the inside. How was it done? One policeman decides that the murders echo those of a story he’d read by a Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. So Detective Fields, a man who is as close to forensics as one could be in 1849, decides to ask Poe for his “special knowledge” in the hopes that the murders can be solved. But these killings are only the beginning, and soon Fields, Poe and the whole of nineteenth century Baltimore are caught in the trap of a twisted but brilliant killer.

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Movie Review: Bully

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Every 7 minutes, a child is bullied on the playground.  280,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month.  3 million students are absent each month because they feel unsafe at school.  77% of students are bullied mentally, verbally or physically.  Nearly 42% of kids have been bullied online and almost 1 in 4 have had it happen more than once.

 1 in 4 teachers sees nothing wrong with bullying and will only intervene 4% of the time.

These stats are horrifying.  Bully is moving, heartbreaking film that has a message of hope.  This film offers up the idea that change is possible, one person at a time.  It also shows you up close what it’s like for children who are bullied, with scenes of actual bullying that are often difficult to watch.  Bully should be required viewing for anyone who has been affected by bullying, been a bully, or seen bullying.  Which is everyone.

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Movie Review — The Raid: Redemption (Serbuan maut)

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I was lucky enough to grow up when action movies were comin’ in hard and fast at the theaters.  Maybe not so lucky — I did have to sit through more than my fair share of Steven Seagal — but my formative years were spent in a haze of Stallone (Rambo, not Judge Dredd), Jackie Chan (Police Story, not Shanghai Noon), and of course, Ah-nuld.  Which is to say I’m a geez.  So when my crotchety ol’ self got wind of a new martial arts movie from Indonesia, a film that promised to bring back the awesome fight choreography I loved from Chinatown-theaters-only films of the 80s, I was all in.  And I’ve gotta say that if tough-as-nails action is your thing,  The Raid: Redemption is the movie you’ve gotta see.

If you’re thinking “but I don’t like subtitles!  Reading hard!”  Then really, you need to rethink your priorities.  Do Not Let Subtitles Put You Off This Film.  Because if you love badass martial arts, if you enjoy nonstop action, you will enjoy The Raid: Redemption.  This is the type of film that has me slinging overused reviewer cliches like “action-packed thrill ride!”, “best film I’ve seen all year!” and “instant genre classic!”  Why?  Because they’re true.

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Movie Review: Wrath of the Titans

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It’s been two years since Legendary Pictures’ remake of Clash of the Titans.  And it’s taken me  about two years for me to have the taste of suck finally rinse out of my mouth.  Legendary  takes a swing at a sequel with Wrath of the Titans…and well, it’s better than the first film.

Perseus, having given up the option to live with his father Zeus as an immortal in Olympus, is now a fisherman with young son Helius (which is actually the name of the Sun God in Roman mythology, but whatever).  Zeus pops in for a visit, as Greek gods often do, and lets Perseus know that the Gods will soon be no more, thanks to a lack of prayer and belief from humans.  Hey, you screw enough married chicks and you’ll start to get dissed, Zeus.  Only a matter of time.

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Movie Review: Footnote (Hearat Shulayim)

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Boy meets Talmud.  Boy falls for Talmud and devotes his whole life to it’s study.  But all he gets by way of recognition is a small footnote in someone else’s book…while his son goes on to greatness with his own research.  In Footnote, the different ways these scholars research only serves to illustrate the gulf between them.  This film is more a character study than a look inside the politics of the Israel Prize, but the seamless way director/writer Joseph Cedar blends the two creates a film that is a simple, but fascinating,  success.

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Movie Review: The Hunger Games

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24 go in.  1 comes out.  The Hunger Games is a harsh look at an even harsher post-apocalyptic world where the winner of a civil war uses the lives of children from the losing areas as a yearly reminder that the losers have truly lost everything.  Throwing children into a pit to fight it out may seem a harsh topic for Young Adult Fiction — and it is — but it’s a topic that has caused the Hunger Games trilogy (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay) to skyrocket up the bestseller charts.  Fans of all ages love the book, so it’s only natural that there would be a movie in the works.  And now the first book of the series gets it’s close-up with The Hunger Games.

I won’t lie; I’m an unabashed fan of the books.  I read them all in one weekend, the benefit of being late to the party, and I have my ship all ready (Team Peeta!), my nails painted for “my District” (Agro, for 11!), and my favorite secondary characters (Rue!  Cinna!  Caesar!  Finnick!  Oops, jumping ahead a bit….)

This movie is good; real or not real?  Most definitely real.

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Movie Review: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

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Salmon fishing.  Yemen.  Seriously?

Yep.  And if you’ve turned your nose up at the title figuring it’s most likely the dullest documentary ever filmed, you’ll be missing out.  Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a wonderful feel good film, a fascinating indie flick that also happens to have one of the sweetest old-school romances I’ve seen in ages.

Sheikh Muhammed is in love with fly fishing.  Does it every time he heads up to Scotland.  But he has a dream; to have a salmon stream in his homeland.  So he asks his consultant Harriet to find out if that could be a reality, and when the fisheries expert Dr. Alfred Jones tosses out a financial outlay that seems impossible, things start to snowball.  Because the Sheikh isn’t about to let a thing like money get in the way of his passion.

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