FilmRoar

The BBC web site has released some details about the feature length Wallance and Gromit movie in pre-production. According to the web site

The animated duo will star in Curse Of The Wererabbit, featuring the voices of Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes… The movie is expected to be 18 months in production, and is due for release by Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Pictures in September 2005.

I have come across many references to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and thought I would watch the movie to see what all the hype was about. I now know: it is about top notch acting on top of a good script. In Sierra Madre Humphrey Bogart plays a gringo in Mexico down on his luck looking for a lucky break as a gold prospector. He thinks he has finally found it, not realizing that it is gold madness that has him. Bogart becomes the epitome of shifty-eyed as his character descends into delusional paranoia. With the superb support of Walter Huston as the old prospector and Tim Holt as his partner Bogart shows off his acting chops in this classic film.

Today Geekroar.com was rebuilt on a new server. Dozens of configuration files were updated to accommodate the new setup and the new server. The new server will allow for a number of improvements, mostly enabling the rebuilding of Geekroar’s sister site PWASOH.com. If you notice a dead link or other bug I may have missed please leave a comment on the site so I can fix it.

You know you are doing great when your full length animated movie is praised not for its beautiful style and animation but for the quality of the script. Sure Shrek (2001) has good voice talent, smooth timing, but it is the hilarity of the gags that makes it such a joy to watch. Did you notice that right after we see papa bear comfort baby bear the camera cuts to Farquad’s castle where mama bear is laid out as a rug? Or did you notice Pinocchio pick a fight with one of the dwarves in Shrek’s swamp? Or did you catch all the references like Donkey giving out lines from Dumbo (1941) as he flies or Shrek saying ‘that will do’ to Donkey a la Babe (1995)? No? Well then go watch it again! Chances are you will enjoy it just as much the second time around.

As a fan of grifter movies (Film Roar: Grifters and Con Men), I had Nueve Reinas (2000) [Nine Queens] recommended to me as one of the great con films. I wish I could agree, but unfortunately I found Reinas to be predictable and formulaic. A good grifter story is a con; not just a story ABOUT a con, but a con itself. The con writer knows that the audience is there because they enjoy a good plot twist, a setup, a game where the pieces are all set out and the watcher is challenged to figure out what is really going on, just as the characters do the same. The script needs to be sharp enough to keep the audience engaged on more than one level, forcing the consumer to see the action from the perspective of the character being setup, the one doing the setup and the filmmaker to try and unravel the knotted stories before the movie comes to exposition and the truth is revealed.

Reinas seems to do a great job of this, setting up a plot of unlikely coincidences and intrigue that everyone knows will end with some poor sap being too greedy and loosing his shirt, but the movie commits the ultimate sin and explains away the ending with a cop-out ‘surprise ending’ that has no real foundation. Once you see a few con movies you learn that nothing is immediately what it seems, but you also learn that plot twists must have a point and a foundation, both of which are barely there in this case. I will not go into the details in case anyone who reads this wants to watch it and be surprised, but I can tell you that if you are like me at the end you will feel the urge to yell ‘where the fuck did that come from?!’ I wish I could forgive Reinas for their filmic faux-pas, I honestly thought the acting was top notch with all three leads, Gastón Pauls, Ricardo Darín and Leticia Brédice giving superb performances. The dialog provided by writer/director Fabián Bielinsky was also top grade. It is simply too bad he could not come to a neat wrap up.

What are the Crimson Rivers? If you have gotten to the end of the French detective story Les Rivières Pourpres (2000) [The Crimson Rivers] and you are still unsure what just happened, don’t worry there is nothing wrong with you, that is just the way the movie is. In order to understand the story of Crimson Rivers you have to open your mind to the creepy story, not let the overly present mood music distract you, and most importantly watch the extras on the DVDs where the story line is explained. If you are paying close attention and are willing to do some thinking about what you just saw afterwards you may very well figure the story out yourself, but I would still recommend the interviews and featurettes to anyone intrigued by this movie. Not only will you get some detail on the intricate and intertwining plot lines but you will be treated to some of the secrets of how the astoundingly beautiful and disturbing scenes of the movie were shot. Afterwards you may want to take it for another spin, this time take the time to enjoy the delicate mastery with which director Mathieu Kassovitz captures the grandure of the French mountain peaks, the tension of the detective work and the eerie emotion of the biopsies.

I am eagerly awaiting Kassovitz’ next release Gothika (2003), he so impressed me with the style of Rivers that I now have him marked as a new talent to keep tabs on. I also recommend looking out for Vincent Cassel and of course Jean Reno who just finished work on the sequel: Les Rivières Pourpres 2 - Les Anges de L’apocalypse(2004) [Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse].

I received a copy of The Fifth Element (1997) as a free DVD with the purchase of my DVD player. I had seen it once in a theater before and remembered enjoying the movie but was not sure whether I would want to keep a DVD copy at home. After watching it a second, then a third and a fourth time, I found the movie is so visually rich and amusing that it has become a favorite to pull out on a slow Sunday and enjoy year after year.
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