Beowulf - *

Beowulf *

Adventure. Warner, Paramount. 2007.
D: Robert Zemeckis.
P: Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey, Jack Rapke, Steve Bing.

“The warrior Beowulf must fight and defeat the monster Grendel who is terrorizing towns, and later, Grendel’s mother, who begins killing out of revenge”.

Good as spectacle, with the director’s strong sense for visual storytelling as its best feature. As literature, it’s not nearly up to the challenge of its source. Songwritters wrote a couple of folk, ancient sounding tunes that are one of the most transporting elements of the film.

Significant production contribution: Sound (Randy Thom, Dennis Leonard), Songs (Alan Silvestri, Glen Ballard)

The Bourne ultimatum - **

The Bourne ultimatum * *

Thriller. Universal, UIP. 2007
D: Paul Greengrass.
P: Patrick Crowley, Frank Marshall, Paul Sandberg.

“Bourne dodges new, superior assassins as he searches for his unknown past while a government agent tries to track him down”.

Gritty, adrenaline-filled action thriller, with realistic action set pieces across the western hemisphere and scores of international cameos. Delivers strongly as pure entertainment, and is barely hurt by its shy turn to politics. Uncommonly good for a third part.

SPC: Direction, Acting (David Strathairn)

Click

Click

Comedy. Columbia. 2006.
D: Frank Coraci.
P: Jack Giarraputo, Steve Koren, Neal Mortiz, Mark O’Keefe, Adam Sandler.

“A workaholic architect finds a universal remote that allows him to fast-forward and rewind to different parts of his life. Complications arise when the remote starts to overrule his choices”.

Modern cover of “It’s a wonderful life!” with the Adam Sandler’s phony ingenuity, dumbshit twist.

SPC: Make up (Rick Baker, Kazuhiro Tsuji).

Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia - *

Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia *
a.k.a. “The curse of the golden flower”

Drama. EDKO. 2006.
D: Zhang Yimou.
P: Zhang Yimou, William Kong, Zhang Weiping.

“During China’s Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself”.

A classic tragedy in the Shakespeare vein, solidly told but not very striking, since this story has been told many times, and much better. The multi-colourful art direction is unusual and very accomplished in the way it manifests the decadence and sense of confinement of the royals. Rare these days: it ends on the right note.

SPC: Art direction (Huo Tingxiao), Costumes (Chung Man Yee), Acting (Gong Li)

El laberinto del fauno

El laberinto del fauno
a.k.a. “Pan’s labyrinth”

Adventure. Wild Bunch. 2006.
D: Guillermo del Toro.
P: Guillermo del Toro, Álvaro Agustín, Alfonso Cuarón, Bertha Navarro, Frida Torresblanco.

“In the fascist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world”.

The awfully clumsy treatment of its political, real plot belittles and ruins the best aspects of the film, which are mostly visual: an imaginative art direction and make up design. Sound and cinematography were cute but far too cloying, and as literature, the film shows a misguided sense of self importance.

SPC: Art direction (Eugenio Caballero), Make up (David Martí), Music (Javier Navarrete)

Ratatouille - *

Ratatouille *

Comedy. Disney. 2007.
D: Brad Bird.
P: Brad Lewis.

“A rat is about to become the most famous chef in Paris”.

In terms of design, photorealism and visual texture, it’s the best Pixar production to be released so far. In terms of narrative is the least accomplished, with narratives gaps lurking here and there, and plot contrivances to spare. Mildly kid friendly.

SPC: Animation (Dylan Brown), Art direction (Harley Jessup)

The Simpsons movie - *

The Simpsons movie *

Comedy. Fox. 2007.
D: David Silverman.
P: Robert Michael Glesier, Grant Hill, John Roberdeau.

“After Homer accidentally pollutes the town’s water supply, Springfield is encased in a gigantic dome by the EPA and the Simpsons family are declared fugitives”.

Everything happens so quickly that one might forget that there is no reason in the world for this film to exist, except for the business it means for the production company. That said, a lot of the jokes are funny, so let’s say, for the sake of brevity, that it works. Probably beats “Shrek” in the gags per second departament, if anyone dars to keep score.

SPC: None.

Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix

Adventure. Warner. 2007.
D: David Yates.
P: David Heyman, David Barron.

“With their warning about Lord Voldemort’s return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts”.

It struggles with the material’s translation from literature to cinema (book seems to be about mental struggle within the main protagonist, here the director decides to approach it through intercut, semi oniric visuals, literal flashbacks, and other cacophonic trickery that makes little sense), its narrative is distorted and overplotted at best and scores very low on dramatic flow. Staunton’s recreation of an authoritarian teacher is, however, dead on.

SPC: Acting (Imelda Staunton), Visual effects (Tim Burke, Craig Lyn, Chris Saw)

The pursuit of happyness - *

The pursuit of happyness *

Drama. Columbia. 2006.
D: Gabriele Muccino.
P: Steve Tisch, Will Smith, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, James Lassiter.

“A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as he’s poised to begin a life-changing professional endeavor”.

Average, anecdotic inspirational drama with a positive message about perseverance and the fight for personal dreams. It doesn’t aim low on melodrama, and it’s respectably directed. Factor of predictability very very high.

SPC: Acting (Will Smith)

The good german

The good german

Drama. Warner. 2006.
D: Steven Soderbergh.
P: Steven Soderbergh, Ben Cosgrove, Gregory Jacobs.

“While in post-war Berlin to cover the Potsdam Conference, an American military journalist is drawn into a murder investigation which involves his former mistress and his driver”.

A bitter, tedious experiment, mimicking the style of old noir american film, but leaving smarts, heart and content out. Its digital backgrounds are ugly to look at, and the concept of the film just ruins everything it had going for, including Cate Blanchett’s femme fatale performance. Composer Thomas Newman recreated effectively the sound of old school film scoring.

SPC: Music (Thomas Newman)