The Cabin in the Woods 2012

The Cabin in the Woods 2012

By necessity this may be the shortest review I ever do.  Cabin in the Woods is one of those rare movies with plot twists that aren't entirely ruined by trailers.  The twists, turns, and surprises are so interesting, unique and fun that I fear just by claiming that it has twists I could splat a big steaming pile of spoiler on it.  So I will rant and rave about a paragraph or so and then conclude this before I ruin it.

This wonderful horror/slasher/comedy written by the fan favorite Joss Whedon, with the director Drew Goddard, is clever and funny while still delivering a few thrills.  The plot does a few clever pirouettes without falling in the cliche traps of a M. Knight Shyamalan flick.  The acting is good with the ham and cheese delivered with comic timing better than the best rom-com.  The horror and kills didn't track down the trail of gore porn such as the Saw movies, which for this viewer is a good thing.  Overall this movie delivered on its promise of a fun horror comedy with a twist and went far beyond my expectations.  I would highly recommend this movie to horror fans and those looking for a comic take on the genre. If horror and/or comedy are your cup of tea, go see this flick before some jerk wad at the water cooler spoils it... Really go see it before I spoil it...

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale 2010

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale 2010

So who likes campy holiday horror movies?  Well to be honest I do, but Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is actually much deeper than your average Santa slasher flick (see Santa's Slay 2005).  It is a Finnish flick and is a dark tale around some of the pre-Coca Cola versions of our favorite Christmas character.  It reminds me of an old fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm more than the horror flick I assumed it was going to be.  It might be a bit too dark for me to show it to a child that I don't wish to inflict nightmares upon, but it is pretty comic and has a good child actor in the lead.  It would be fantastic for kids that can handle movies with a dark turn like one of my childhood favorites, Gremlins 1984.  Well other than the liberal use of old man full frontal nude shots...

... Make up your own opinion about nudity and society, but for me this falls under personal opinion and to me it was inoffensive.  The nude shots were mostly from far away and quick so you won't be getting the 'giant blue ween' problem I noted in the Watchmen, but it is definitely there. Combining the nudity, dark themes, and a few translated swear words and this film earned itself an R rating by the MPAA (send them an email to complain about the rating, draconian ruling as usual).  I think the director, Jalmari Helander, might have served himself better with some editing for North American release, but that may have been his only mistake in this flick.  With the budget, style, and content it could not have been handled better.  The effects fall short of a big Hollywood movie, but much like Trollhunter they make great use of what they have.  It is done as realistically as a movie about Santa can be which keeps the camp down to a level that is comic without changing the movie into full blown spoof.  The story is great and the main character, played by Omni Tommila, is a protagonist my inner child identified with. Some of the dialogue is bad as it was translated and some of the characters do some odd stuff, but overall this movie isn't serious enough to worry about problems every holiday flick is guilty of.

Rare Exports is one of those foreign gems that I adore.  It is quirky, fun, and completely outside of the modular story telling I am used to in modern cinema.  I caught a few promo videos and the short films it is based on last year and have been eagerly anticipating its North American release.  After finally getting to see it, I can say that I don't regret the rental and will be picking up my own copy soon.   I would recommend Rare Exports to very open minded families and those looking for a completely different Christmas flick.

Castaway on the Moon 2009

Castaway on the Moon 2009

If someone tells you to watch this romantic comedy that miserably failed at its native Korean box office... listen to them.  Castaway on the Moon is a great film that seems to carry none of the hype it deserves despite winning several awards from small film festivals.  The failure of the film is probably attributable to how hard Castaway on the Moon is to classify.  At times it straddles a line between comedy and an in-depth dramatic character film. At other times it bounces between gag humor, romance, and complex themes of isolation in modern society.  At one point it even includes a chase scene with all the adrenaline and quick cuts of a Jason Bourne flick.  Due to its odd tone, long stretches without dialogue (or more accurately monologues in a film about a castaway), and slow pace it is little wonder that Castaway on the Moon didn't see huge box office numbers or fanfare announcing its international release.  These problems are extremely easy to overlook and I think it deserves a bit of fanfare.  Well now that I have teased the reader about its story, I can give a few details.

Castaway on the Moon has two intertwining storylines.  The first story is of Kim Seong-Geun, played by a very capable Jeong Jae-Yeong, who after a series of events attempts to take his own life by jumping off a bridge into the Han River in the center of Seoul.  He wakes up perfectly healthy but stranded on an island in the middle of the broad river.  The depressing events that bring him to the edge are cleverly laid out starting with the phone call that opens the film.  The rest are presented as flashbacks, but his life before his suicide attempt is only minimally explored.  His background is used to express his despair and explain why when he wakes up on an island in the middle of the river only a half mile from Seoul that he never really tries to swim back to civilization.  Instead he chooses to live out life on his tiny wild island so close to the ordered society that he cast himself from.  Much of this storyline mimics a dark comedic take on the classic castaway stories and closely resembles films such as Tom Hanks' Cast Away (2000).  The parallels to Hanks' film include a very 'Wilson' like imaginary friend to act as a foil for Seong-Geun's monologues. 

The gags, comedy and survival of Seong-Guen are frequently shown through the lens of the other main character Kim Jeong-Yeon, played by the cute ex-pop singer Jeong Ryeo-Won.  An agoraphobic recluse, Jeong-Yeon interacts with the world through the computer and a camera at her window.  Again the character is isolated, quiet, and depressed resonating the tones of despair and disconnection felt by Seong-Geun.  Her photography brings her into voyeuristic relationship with Seong-Geun.  As she watches him live and survive they begin slowly writing to each other via the romantic classic of a message in a bottle.  Their blooming romance is the most touching example of truly damaged love I have seen since Punch Drunk Love (2002) and rarely have I rooted for a happy ending like I did during the roller-coaster of emotions that is the conclusion of the film.  I have to compliment the film on the use of language as well.  The use of English as the language of communication between the characters sets English, one of the most spoken languages on Earth, as a secret tongue used to set the characters further apart from the Korean society they partially inhabit.  This had to be done cleverly considering that English is a common language in Korea.

The few critiques of the film that I have are mostly technical.  While the acting by the main characters was good, the gags by Jeong Jae-Yeong were over the top at times and the minor roles were forgettable even if humorous.  The cinematography was good, if basic, but there were a couple of close-ups of characters that really jarred with the sky or background including one that nearly broke the ending for this hyper-critical viewer.  The last very minor complaint has to be levied against the director Lee Hae-Jun.  He choose to put a few unrealistic, possibly supernatural, aspects in the film.  These were well done gags and one got an audible laugh from me, but take the film in yet another odd direction.

Despite these complaints, I loved this film.  It was touching, sad, deep, comedic and left me with a warm fuzzy feeling that I just don't get from most romantic comedies.  While I am a fan of Korean cinema, this one deserves an audience outside of the Hermit Kingdom.  Sadly, due to its juxtaposed nature it hasn't seem to find that following.  I cannot recommend this movie enough.  It would make a great date night flick, but its deep treatment of themes of loneliness should be enough to appeal to any lonely intellectual.  I would recommend this to fans of Cast Away, couples, and anyone who thinks they can better explain the tones of Castaway on the Moon.


Three quick post scripts.  One, cheers to my buddy Randy for the recommendation.  This film was never even on my radar until you mentioned it.  Second, after a half year off from reviewing (medical stuff) I am back at it.  I apologize for the wait to the few folk who read every post.  Lastly I also need to apologize for my possible butchery of the Korean actor and character names.

Four Lions 2010

Four Lions 2010

Four Lions is one of those foreign films that could never be produced in the United States.  It is the story of a smell cell of incompetent jihadists.  The group desperately wants to be Al Qeada suicide bombers, but the group only includes an idiot, a white man, a social incompetent, a rapper straight out of school, and a family man.  This dark comedy is the story of their struggle to bomb an important symbol of British Imperialism.  They fail in every way imaginable and that is where this movie becomes a fun satire laughing at jihadists. 

The creator, Chris Morris, considers himself a satirist, but the subject matter is a bit raw.  He collated years of funny stories and anecdotes of failed bombers to create many of the gags used in the film, but most are absurdly over the top.  For instance the character Faisal, played by Adeel Akhtar, tries to train crows to carry bombs and fly into buildings.  At the end of the film, the group strap bombs under costumes that include a ninja turtle and a kid's cereal mascot.  The pure absurdity of the characters allows for this controversial film to come off as a dark comedy that seems to condemn suicide bombers while simultaneously seeking to understand them. 

The acting is really good throughout the film with sentimental moments mixed in with the truly idiotic. The main character Omar, Riz Ahmed, is a family man who's wife and son seem to be happy that he is going to kill himself.  He has tender moments with his wife and uses the characters from The Lion King to explain his mistakes at the training camp in Pakistan.  He is the brains behind the operation, but is constantly at odds with the more than a little insane Barry, played by Nigel Lindsay.  Barry is almost a caricature as the overly zealous convert to Islam, but is easy the funniest character in the film.  The rest of the cast fill out a roster of misfits that can even make mass murder funny.  These characters could only work with the stellar writing and directing of Morris.

The film is good technically and uses some tricks I have seen before, but plays them in new light.  The most notable is that it mixes in security camera and cell phone footage.  With the shots that appear to be taken by night surveillance on the characters these shots are used to break up the more hilarious parts of the film into a regular series of chuckles.  The pyrotechnics are pretty low key, but it adds to the homemade feel of the bombs.  I can't go into much more detail without ruining a clever plot point or a great visual gag, but the other technical aspects, like the music, fit into the film flawlessly.

This film is not for everyone and makes multiple offensive statements about the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks as well as frequent antisemitic remarks.  In the context of a satire I never found myself being shocked by what was said, but other might not feel the same.  This is a great dark comedy and political satire, but without subtitles people who don't understand the thick British accents may be lost by the fast flying insults.  I would recommend this film to fans of British comedies and those that love political satire such as Lewis Black.

Paul 2011

Paul 2011

Paul was a movie I had been looking forward to for some time.  It stars the awesome comedy duo Nick Frost and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead 2004, Hot Fuzz 2007, and the Britcom about slackers Spaced).  They are a comedy set that has turned out cult classic comedies based on a tried recipe of geek humor and pop culture references.  I read a few interviews with the pair leading up to the release of Paul and I had the impression they were attempting a less referential style with a more mainstream appeal.  The inclusion of American mainstream comedy actor Seth Rogen (Pineapple Express 2008, Knocked Up 2007, The 40 Year Old Virgin 2005) as the voice of Paul reinforced that idea.  I wondered how a movie that starts with two British blokes going to Comic-Con would have mass appeal, but geek culture has been becoming the dominant sub-40-year-old culture for years. Because I had this bias going into Paul, I got a great surprise.  Pegg and Frost continued using their famous recipe of referencing geek culture, alien/UFO lore, and occasionally obscure references.  In order to make a movie with broader appeal they added more popular culture references and allowed the humor to dwell mostly on more famous sci-fi using multiple references to the Star Wars series and the classic UFO film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).  This should allow the movie to be accessible to a larger audience, but may sacrifice the cult following of Pegg and Frost's earlier works.

The comedy duo of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg really forms the core of this movie and their fans should feel right at home.  The pair brings in their usual chemistry and fall into their usual roles with Pegg going after a girl and Frost having a bordering on obsession friendship with Pegg.  The chemistry works great, but is not exceptional. Rogen plays the voice of the alien Paul.  He turns in a good performance and delivers his lines with good comedic timing, but somehow the big stoner voice of Rogen never really jived with the tiny surfer style CGI alien on screen.  I think this was more of a casting problem, but it never really detracts from this mostly silly adventure.

In this film the love interest is played by cute and funny Kristen Wiig (best known from SNL, but recently did well in the deliberately bad MacGruber in 2010).  Her character starts as a religious person and this is used to set up multiple gags on evolution/creationism and hardcore hillbilly Christianity.  Her character's main role is to set up a romantic appeal for the movie, but she delivers the best performance of the reality shattering truth that aliens exist and are talking to you.  Despite fainting gags the rest of the cast seem to mostly take Paul in stride, but Wiig's character genuinely struggles with the truth that her religion is false and everything she knows is being shaken up including her morality and relationship to her crazy hillbilly dad.  Wiig's character and her story should upset many religious people and I suggest keeping your more religious friends and family away from this film or you might end up getting an earful.  Her acting is the most notable in the film, but this is a fun comedy and the cast's acting is pretty bad throughout.

Pegg and Frost's previous greats were all with Director Edgar Wright who worked with them on Spaced, Shaun, and Hot Fuzz.  I was worried about Wright not being the director on Paul, but Director Greg Mottola does nearly as well.  The effects, music, and shots from this film don't stand out and lack some of crazy ideas from earlier Pegg and Frost films, but they all work in the film and have good comedic elements.

I have to say that I did not enjoy this film as much as Shaun of the Dead, but it was close to on par with Hot Fuzz.  Paul worked a lot better for me than Pegg's work without partner Frost such as Run, Fatboy, Run (2007).  Overall I think the movie was a great sci-fi comedy and contained such great pop culture references and cameos that most people should find a good laugh.  I would recommend this movie to fans of Frost and Pegg or people who like geek reference comedies like Fanboys (2008).

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