Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Run Time: 1 hour 47 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Amr Waked, Tom Beard, Kristin Scott Thomas Directed by Lasse Hallstrom (Chocolat, The Cider House Rules) There is nothing more romantic than love defying all logic and odds in order to flourish. That is the theme of many romances, but Salmon Fishing in the Yemen sets the bait very astutely. The entire film seems to ebb and flow like a stream, and it doesn't take long for the hook to catch. Yemen is a country located south of Saudi Arabia, and the waters off of the coast host the exact opposite conditions needed for salmon to thrive. This doesn't stop a wealthy Sheikh (Amr Waked) from wanting to populate the Yemen waters with salmon to support his passion to fish them for sport. He is willing to pay an outrageous sum in order to make it happen. He assigns his real estate representative, Harriet (Emily Blunt), to look into making this absurd idea a reality. Harriet approaches a British fisheries scientist, Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor), for professional guidance on how something like this can be done.
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Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy, Adventure, Fantasy
Run Time: 1 hour 46 minutes, Rated PG Starring: Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, Nathan Lane Directed by Tarsem Singh (Immortals, The Fall, The Cell) The promotional material for Mirror Mirror will tell you that the Snow White legend comes alive. Don't believe everything you read. In Mirror Mirror, the first of two Snow White movies coming out this year, the legend arrives cold and stiff, and if still alive, it is in serious need of a reviving kiss. The tale of Snow White has had several incarnations, made famous in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale collection and imprinted on American culture with Disney's animated classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We all know about Prince Charming, the poisonous apple, and the fair-skin, raven-haired maiden who befriends a jolly band of little people in the forest. Breathe easy Snow White enthusiasts...all of these major elements are still present. What is missing is a sense of wonderment, fear, excitement, or any inclination at all that would make us give a damn about this fresh yet utterly stale fairy tale spin. Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy, Sports
Run Time: 1 hour 32 minutes, Rated R Starring: Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Live Schreiber, Alison Pill, Marc-Andre Grondin Directed by Michael Dowse (Take Me Home Tonight, Fubar) From the opening shot of Goon (really? A gargantuan black hockey player??? [Note: It was later pointed out that this was a cameo from real NHL enforcer Georges Laraque]), there is not a single shred of authenticity. On the surface, it will appear to be a hockey movie, and it isn't, really. It appears to be a comedy, but it isn't very funny. And for those that may say it is authentically a Canadian movie may want to re-consider...our neighbors in the north should be wary of a film like this being associated with them. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Foreign
Run Time: 1 hour 27 minutes, Not Rated Starring: Thomas Doret, Cecile De France, Jeremie Renier Written & Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne (Lorna’s Silence, The Child, The Son) The simple and innocently titled, The Kid With a Bike, is anything but. It won the Jury Grand Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, and deservedly so. Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Romance, Drama
Run Time: 1 hour 38 minutes, Rated R Starring: Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, Simon Russell Beale Written & Directed by Terence Davies (The House of Mirth, The Neon Bible) The irrationality of love is the main theme of The Deep Blue Sea, a masterfully-crafted film set "sometime in the 1950s" as the film states. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and while The Deep Blue Sea works as sort of a moving painting, it fails as compelling storytelling. Rachel Weisz gives a vulnerable performance as Hester, a woman married to a British Judge (played by Simon Russell Beale). The movie flashes around, and in one of the earliest flashes we see that Hester has attempted to kill herself. She has found herself caught up in a passionate affair with Freddie (Tom Hiddleston), a Royal Air Force pilot. Freddie excites her and presents a sense of danger. Even though her husband offers her comfort and a great life, it is no surprise that Hester would throw it all away for lust. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Action, Drama, Sci/Fi
Run Time: 2 hours, 22 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland Directed by Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Seabiscuit) One of the most anticipated movies of 2012, The Hunger Games has finally arrived. This film is part one of a planned trilogy, based on the best-selling books of the same name by author Suzanne Collins. Set in a bleak and cynical future, this film exists mainly to set up the next two, but is deeply compelling and entertaining enough to make sure that we stick around. In an unspecified future, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) rules over the wealthy Capitol, which is surrounded by 12 impoverished districts. Many years ago, a rebellion was launched against the Capitol by the districts, and was squelched. As a penalty and a reminder for future generations, each district would have to put forth a sacrifice of one boy and girl annually to compete in a fight to the death, where only one child would emerge victorious from all of the districts with their life. The children are unleashed into a massive arena full of forests, rivers and open land and told to kill the others. Cameras capture their every move, and it is broadcast as sport to the denizens of the Capitol. This competition is called “The Hunger Games.” Rating: 2 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama
Run Time: 1 hour 47 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Rachel Hendrix, Jason Burkey, John Schneider, Jasmine Guy Directed by Andrew & Jon Erwin (feature film debut) In October Baby, a college freshman has her entire world up-ended when hearing some startling news from the only parents that she’s ever known. Hannah’s epilepsy, asthma, and entire slew of medical difficulties are due to the fact that she was adopted, after surviving a failed abortion attempt by her birth-mother. At best, October Baby is a deeply religious, pro-life coming-of-age story. At worst, it is a right-wing propaganda film detailing the evils of abortion. It acts as a vehicle for a thinly-veiled Christian message of faith and forgiveness that may only appeal to those who already have found religion, or share in the anti-abortion belief. But politics aside, October Baby is laborious, heavy-handed and schmaltzy filmmaking. In this particular case, hate the messenger, not the message. Or if hating isn’t your thing, feel free to forgive. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Drama, Foreign
Run Time: 1 hour 49 minutes, Not Rated Starring: Tristan Halilaj, Sindi Lacej Directed by Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace) The Forgiveness of Blood drops us directly into a domestic dispute, as two families try to cope with a feud that has torn them apart. Michigan, you may or may not know, hosts one of the largest Albanian-American populations in the US. This film is a modern-day story that takes place overseas, but its relevance echoes throughout our country as an example of how the past can affect the future. Nik and Rudina are high school children living in Albania, and they seem modern and normal. Nik has dreams of opening an internet café one day, and the children are shown uploading silly photos to Facebook and playing Xbox. Their father drives his horse-drawn cart into town each day to deliver bread for profit. He has always taken a short cut through the lands of his neighbor. The neighbor however, doesn’t like that the father is cutting across their ancestral land, and continues to put up a road block, forcing the father to have to drive the long way home, several miles around the block in order to reach his home. Rating: 5 out of 5 starsGenre: Documentary
Run Time: 1 hour 53 minutes, PG-13 Directed by Daniel Lindsay (Last Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong) and T.J. Martin (On the Rocks, A Day in the Hype of America) It’s nearly impossible to describe Undefeated without having it sound like the most clichéd of sports underdog movies. It is a documentary feature about a team of black, under-privileged kids in the South who rise up under the guidance of their new white head coach, Bill Courtney. The program hasn’t won a single game in years prior to Coach Courtney’s arrival. In fact, in the school’s 110-year history, the Manassas Tigers have never reached the playoffs. You can probably guess what happens on the field. It is what happens off of the field that makes Undefeated one of the most powerful and uplifting documentaries of the past several years. Rating: 1 out of 5 starsGenre: Comedy
Run Time: 1 hour 23 minutes, Rated R Starring: Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon, Judy Greer Written & Directed by Jay and Mark Duplass (Cyrus, Baghead) Jeff, Who Lives at Home is a movie about Jeff, who lives at home. Oddly enough, the story almost entirely takes place outside of Jeff’s home, as he is sent out on an errand by his mother to buy wood glue to fix a broken cabinet door. Jeff is played by Jason Segel, and is a lazy, pot-smoking hero, the kind of character that can do no wrong in a fictional world such as this. His life is a dead-end, but his mind operates like a true hippy when he ponders things like destiny and fate, as he does constantly. His life’s path is reliant on signs, and the observationt that there is no such thing as coincidences. Everything has a purpose, like when he answers his house phone and somebody asks for a Kevin. He spends the rest of the day contemplating what this name could possibly mean to him. |
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