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Tom Cruise is back in this action comedy with Cameron Diaz. The trailer promised nice action and some genuinely funny moments, wich is what you get, but way less than anticipated.

To mix action with comedy is quite hard because you have two genres that in theory are opposites and need great balance to achieve something truly awesome. Take Lethal Weapon for instance, or even A-Team. They separate action and comedy without compromising either. Knight and Day doesn't, resulting in a bland mix of genres that fight each other instead of complimenting.

However you get an entertaining time and it's a real summer flick for all the melting people out there.

- peeker

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The Apartment

March 22nd 2010 10:22

The Apartment is the bittersweet, darkly comic tale of a mild-mannered office nebbish who sells little bits of his body and soul to climb the corporate ladder, falls in love on the way up and finds his way back down to redemption. Jack Lemmon will quite simply break your heart in this wry, cynical indictment of corporate America.

The Plot

C.C. “Bud” Baxter (Lemmon) toils away at desk number 861 on the 19th floor of the Consolidated Life of New York insurance building, making a modest living which pays for a cozy little bachelor apartment on the Upper West Side. The problem is, Bud spends most of his evenings outside the apartment, waiting for the coast to clear.

He’s fallen into an arrangement with some of the married higher-ups in the office who use the apartment for liaisons with secretaries, switchboard operators and girls they pick up in bars. They leave his key under the mat, and he’s left to clean up the empty booze bottles, lipstick-stained cigarettes and stray earrings before eating his lonely TV dinner.

The payoff for all of this is supposed to be professional advancement, and Bud starts moving upstairs fast. Meanwhile, he’s falling for a charmingly quirky elevator operator, Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). He doesn’t know she’s next on the list for a tryst with a bigwig in the personnel department. The office fall guy is about to take a series of tumbles that get harder and harder to bear.

The Cast

Not one of the stupendous cast members misses a beat, but Lemmon is a revelation. He’s a stitch orchestrating a complicated switch of apartment appointments, just so he and his 101-degree fever can get a decent night’s sleep. He‘s disarming when he earnestly models his new “junior executive” bowler hat for Miss Kubelik. His bits of physical comedy - leaving a mess of crumpled tissue on a boss’s desk, draining spaghetti through a tennis racket - are inspired.

It’s his unrequited love for Fran, his stalwart support for her, his attempts to get her rat-fink of a married boyfriend to be kind to her and his careful tenderness that will really get you. Will selfless love be the route to his salvation? Lemmon makes you hope so.

MacLaine is lovely and touching as the girl who’s a “bad insurance risk” when it comes to men, falling for an old line from a well-practiced liar, getting her backside pinched in her own elevator, and sadly knowing all along she's the one being taken for a ride.

Fred MacMurray plays an irredeemable scoundrel, the highest higher-up, with a perfect wife and kids in the suburbs and who-knows-how-many girls on the side. He’s ably assisted by a raft of office wolves including Ray Walston as a randy supervisor and David Lewis as a stinker who keeps putting “-wise” on the end of words for corporate double speak and double entendre. “Profit-wise.” “Kubelik-wise.”

Hope Holiday does a fun bit as a bar fly who tries to get Bud’s attention by blowing the wrappers off drinking straws at his bowler hat. Jack Kruschen is wonderful as Bud’s neighbor, a kindly doctor who thinks mild-mannered Bud is some sort of disreputable party animal, but clearly can’t help liking the younger man.

The Director

Billy Wilder was a writer-turned-director, who took the helm of his pictures to save his sharp writing and dark plots from censors and meddling studio executives. He wrote The Apartment with I.A.L. Diamond, his collaborator on Some Like It Hot and all his later work. Wilder's hand is plain in the clever plot situations, crackling one-liners and sharp observations of human foibles. He won the Best Director Oscar for the picture, and he and Diamond also took home the Best Screenplay statuette.

The Backstory

The Apartment was the last classic black-and-white film to win the Best Picture award. (Not until 1993 did another black-and-white film, Schindler’s List, win the top prize.) Lemmon, MacLaine and Kruscher were nominated, but all lost out on the acting awards.

The Apartment also marked the end of Fred MacMurray’s career as a screen villain. The actor received so much fan criticism for his role as the reprehensible Mr. Sheldrake that he accepted only nice-guy roles from then on, including the absent-minded inventor of flubber in The Nutty Professor.

One of the fun little features of the film is Lemmon's opening narration. It sets the scene in a New York that few would recognize today, where men always wear hats, elevator operators wear uniforms and white gloves, and a nice little one-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side goes for $85 a month.

The Bottom Line

Many cite the screwball comedy Some Like It Hot or the ultimate film noir Double Indemnity as their favorite Wilder film. For me, the prize goes to The Apartment, which lies somewhere in between. It’s both light and dark, cynical and humane. It’s a moving story that condemns human weakness and celebrates strength of character in the same man, and makes you care about him all the way through. It’s brilliant.

Just the Facts:

Year: 1960, Black and White
Director: Billy Wilder
Running Time: 125 minutes
Studio: United Artists

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007: QUANTUM OF SOLACE - REVIEW

November 4th 2008 12:54

After much awaiting the new Bond movie, ever since the success of Casino Royale, I was finally able to see it this past weekend. And ever since the success of Casino Royale, a Bond movie never had as high expectations.It begins few moments after the last movie, with a wild car chase. Bond's Aston Martin is closely followed by an Alfa Romeo (some policemen even mention it's an Alfa Romeo, in case the audience didn't notice). Then the credits, with the new Bond theme, a fitting tune if you ask me. Then we get into the real story, where Bond meets girl, girl tries to kill Bond, and both ultimately end up in the same team. The villain is called Dominic Greene, an appropriate name for an environmentalist. His goal is to take control of a country's water supply in South America, which is what Bond tries to stop through a global hunt. But really, deep down, James Bond is out for quantum of solace, some personal comfort [definition].

This time, directed by Marc Forster, we get a different style than what we're used to. There's a lot of action, too much at times, and the editing is as if it was made by a hypochondriac. Think "Jason Bourne", but even more of that. It's fast paced and a lot of action. So much action that almost every scene ends up with someone being killed, or something in that direction. It's not bad, but unfortunately it causes the story to sore. Marc Foster is a great director, I genuinely enjoyed his other movies, like Finding Neverland or Kite Runner, but looking at his previous work, I can't see a single action flick. Maybe that's the problem. Like a little kid that hasn't had candy in ages drops head first into it when it's finally offered.

Performance wise it was as good as usual, nearly flawless. I was pleasantly surprised by the so called Bond-girl Camille who gave great likability to her role. There's a fire scene towards the end where we can see through her whole character. Of course the real credit for that should also go to writer Paul Haggis, who really knows how to translate emotions into pictures.

As for the villain, Mathieu Amalric, I can now understand why they didn't need any scars or something of that sort to make him bad, because he is incredibly creepy as it is. My only problem with him was he never used this creepiness in action. We never see him do anything bad or disgusting (other than pushing forward his evil plan with verbal threats), but on the other hand, there are moments when he acts like a wimp. I'm not sure that's so good.

It was refreshing to see Judi Dench as always, you can see she really enjoys her part, and Daniel Craig as well, who played a meaner, more straight forward Bond. Yes, I miss the "shaken not stirred" (his drink this time is a coctail of a whole different sort) and the cool gadgets, but there are so many other new things to balance that out and make me wait for later installments to see that stuff.

All in all, an entertaining time, maybe not all the way up there with Casino Royale, but very close. I still hope Marc Forster does another one, because having had Quantum of Solace as his first big action experience it could blow our minds, hopefully more metaphorically this time.

3.5/5

Watch the trailer of Quantum of Solace here.

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THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION - DVD REVIEW

July 14th 2008 15:42

Filmpeek.net got an early DVD-preview of The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, Brazil's selection for this year's Academy Awards. In Portuguese with English subtitles, released by City Lights Pictures.

MOVIE
The movie is a touching tale taking place in year 1970, about a boy, Mauro, left by himself in a Jewish neighborhood while his parents go on "vacation". It needs to be said that 1970 was a special year, since both dictatorship and winning the world cup happened in Brazil. Mauro meets Shlomo there, an old and lonely Jew living next door, who takes responsibility in making sure the boy gets by alright. Next door is also a strong-willed girl, Hanna, who becomes his friend and guide in this new town.

Following a boy's inner coming-of-age story during Brazil's success in the world cup and on-going military turbulence we get a story with lots of drama and humorous moments.

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation has an honest approach to the characters, making us get deeply involved with what is happening. The picture remains nostalgic throughout, and the director Cao Hamburger managed to get the best from all the cast members, especially the younger ones. Michel Joelsas plays the boy in realistic and sympathetic ways. Of course with all the incredibly young talented actors out there today the competition is tough but Michel gives a good performance nevertheless.

As for the story and Mauro's relationships to the different characters around him, it's not very original. However, since it's not the central theme, it doesn't really matter much anyway. What's important is Mauro's own inner struggle being alone with big responsibilities to get on with his life during this difficult period - for him personally and for the country as well. And in that sense, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation definitely achieves with top scores.

DVD
The DVD has a good selection of bonus material, like cast and crew interviews, a behind the scenes featurette, extended scenes and bloopers. The interviews aren't quite as interesting as I would like, pretty much just summing up the movie from each character's point of view. I mostly enjoyed the featurette which gives a nice idea of the production, from the auditions to the shooting. Of course it's not very long, so you only get so much. And then there are the bloopers that are always amusing and appreciated. All in all, the bonus material is enough to give a pleasant touch to the film.

The DVD is available in stores July 15.

CONCLUSION: 4/5

Trailer:

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THE INCREDIBLE HULK - REVIEW

June 13th 2008 23:22

This is a review of The Incredible Hulk, which I looked forward to since the success of Iron Man. It seems like Marvel has found the correct way to make these movies and I am hungry for more.

If you remember about 5 years ago Ang Lee made a movie about The Hulk, that became a total disappointment. For me the movie sucked for what it tried to be, but I still think it's one of the most original and technically advanced Marvel movie yet. However, when you go to watch Hulk, you don't care. All you need is lots of action and noise.

The Incredible Hulk is a character I consider to be the toughest to make a serious story about. I mean the tiniest misstep and everything can become quite ridiculous. A big green guy that can't speak in complete sentences and smash things up... could might as well be my 7 feet high clumsy cousin as far as I'm conserned (ok, he's not green but that's the only exception).

But what we get is far from ridiculous. It manages everything Ang Lee's version didn't and gives us exactly what we expected - action and noise. The effects are beautiful, the Hulk looks real, and you really sit through the whole movie with an open mouth from all the excitement. Entertaining is an understatement. When the movie ended I felt like only an hour or so had passed.

Edward Norton and Liv Tyler do great performances and the chemistry between them is very believable. To be honest, I'm actually more impressed with Tyler, she gave her character a unique and likeable personality. Tim Roth is also great, but his character was a bit too plain for an actor of Roth's caliber. Then again, the villain always is a monotone and plain type.

Louis Leterrier, the director, has taken a big step from movies like The Transporter and showed that he can do more than superficial watch-and-forget action flicks.

In comparison with Iron Man, well, I don't know how to compare them in this review because they were executed somewhat differently and while I enjoyed Iron Man a tiny bit more, plenty of my friends chose The Incredible Hulk as the better one. And I can understand them as well. If you have the ability, go and watch both of them to decide by yourself. But make sure to make it on the big screen, cause they're certainly worth it.

8.5/10

Watch a TV spot of The Incredible Hulk.
See pictures of smashed cars on the set of The Incredible Hulk.
Watch Tony Stark's (Iron Man) cameo in The Incredible Hulk.

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INDIANA JONES 4: THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL - REVIEW

June 8th 2008 23:10

Better late than never, finally here's a review for those of you that haven't already seen Indiana Jones, followed by the waay too long title, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Therefore we'll simply call it Crystal Skull from now on.

Of course it had a lot to live up to considering the first three films are on the top of modern history. Make the "brand" justice and the fans proud. I'm not a fan, but still appreciate Indiana Jones for being a unique character with adventures full of action and humor. This, Crystal Skull achieved as well.

The movie starts of with Indiana in serious trouble, from which he gets away due to amazing luck, and continues with teaching archeology in class. But after being fired, Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) seeks him out and they get involved in new mysteries about a Crystal Skull.

Now, to take the story first, it wasn't quite as intriguing as previous films. It's hard to care and we don't get how serious or big it is and don't really care either. Crystal Skull seems more of a roller-coster ride than a cult movie. The good thing is, like all Indiana Jones stories, it's based on real items and mysteries - not just something made up. It's like kids playing around with the thought of something cool archeologists have found in real life and come up with a theory that we see in the movie. And after all, Lucas and Spielberg are pretty much like kids with a lot of imagination.

As for the performances, there's not much to complain about. I didn't expect Oscar-winning quality and I didn't get that either. It was pretty basic stuff, with surprisingly Cate Blanchett being the weakest link. She was messing up her Russian accent all the time and generally seemed somewhat uncomfortable in her role.

Other than that, like mentioned, the action and humor is there and of course the great score. I'm not sure if it was a good idea to make this fourth installment, and I'm not sure they should continue any further, which they might do considering the ending implies Indiana's son takes over the hat. Worth a watch at the cinema as long as you enjoy adventure movies with a powerful ride - it's certainly not bad but nothing special either. Spielberg described it as a "high budget B-movie" and that sums it up pretty fair.

7/10

Watch the trailer of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
See the poster of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

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JUMPER - MINI REVIEW

May 28th 2008 20:11

Since there are a lot of movies and we're a small team of writers, I thought of introducing something I call "Mini Review". I know, it took a lot of imagination to come up with a title like that. I'm sure you understand the point of it, to keep it short and simple. This way, we'll be able to have more reviews and guidance to what movies are excellent, worth seeing, or awesomely bad.

This is a mini review of Jumper, the action/adventure movie a lot of people saw the trailer of and thought "wow, this looks really cool!" Of course I had some female friends just saying "I don't care what it is, Hayden Christensen is really hot!"

It's about David Rice (Hayden) finding out he is a "Jumper", which means he can transport himself to different places just by thinking about them. There are also the "Paladins", who are hunting them down to kill them since they believe only God should have the power to be everywhere.

At first I was excited - in the trailer the story seemed original and the effects did amaze me. And then time went by, the movie was released, and the first reviews came in. What a disappointment to read that so much had gone wrong! But I didn't care, after all I enjoy making up my mind after I've seen myself first as well.

So that's what I did few weeks later. Being warned about it and everything I ignored a lot of annoying scenes, ending up in a braindead state, where I watched just to have something to do while finishing up my popcorns. I don't like being braindead. I get bored.

The effects were great, but after seeing the same ones 500 times over and over again it felt seriously low budget. The actors were good, but having no challenging characters to play, they felt wooden and plain. Samuel L. Jackson, who is a Paladin, has very little dialogue of which saying "Only God should have this power" more than once seems like a serious overkill. And when thinking about it, it's an embarrassingly bad reason to hunt down and kill Jumpers for hundreds of years. This alone removes the reason to the whole movie instantly.

All in all, if you invite people over to a movie night, and you know there will be some talking and not much concentration anyway, Jumper could be a suiting choice. If your purpose is to actually watch a movie, no. DVD is available June 10.

6.5/10

Watch the trailer and poster of Jumper.

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RAMBO (2008) - REVIEW

May 18th 2008 19:05

Soon to be released in DVD, I guess it's time to have a review of this new movie with a cult character - John Rambo.

PLOT
Well, the plot for any of the Rambo movies is easy to explain, since it's not even that important. Basically you get a war or conflict that manages to get Rambo personally involved, and if it's personal there's nothing stopping him.

This time it's the ongoing war in Burma. Some Christian aid workers are being kidnapped by the infantry unit, one of them being a kind woman named Sarah, and some mercenaries are sent to rescue them. They hire Rambo to take them there, as their "boat-man", but of course he soon takes on a bigger role fighting against seemingly impossible odds.

CRITIQUE
Even though most of us think of Rambo as a great breakthrough in its own genre when it first was made, few actually had or dared to have big expectations about it returning 20 years later. Luckily, Sylvester Stallone proved he can achieve that by releasing Rocky Balboa, the other cult character of his. It became good and one year later he got the same positive result with Rambo (previously titled John Rambo).

Rambo is a well done action movie, with of course plenty of blood and gore. It has a) nice directing, b) good actors and c) a working story. There are some stunning images and the flow is smooth, following the storyline loyally.

Sarah, the only female character in the movie, is very well played by Julie Benz, who Stallone supposedly chose since he enjoys the tv-show Dexter with her in it. A good choice mainly because she manages to be sympathetic from the first moment we see her, which is crucial since we don't get many shots at it later on.

As for Sylvester Stallone himself - Rambo is Rambo, he didn't forget. Probably because it's a part of himself, remember that he is also the writer this time around.

Of course it's not a perfect movie. After all, it isn't even supposed to be compared with anything but its own predecessors. The fact that the story is weak or that there's no real depth doesn't matter. What matters is it's one of the better if not the best Rambo. So far.

CONCLUSION
Like already said, it's hard to grade this, since you walk into the theatre expecting Rambo and not anything more or less. So, since you get Rambo, and what you expect, in complete proportions, there's not much to complain about. What needs to be said however is, and this is the classic disclaimer, do not attempt to watch it if you dislike blood, gore, war or anything violent. This is pretty much only those things. If you're ok with that, make sure to get or rent the DVD out May 27.

8/10

Watch the trailer of Rambo.
Read about Rambo V.

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GIFF 2008 - HERZOG, SUICIDE AND KID ART

January 27th 2008 23:16

As you know I attend the Gothenburg Film Festival 2008, and so far it's been quite entertaining.

The last couple of days, Saturday and Sunday, I saw two documentaries and a very low budget movie from Chile. The idea with festivals is to catch movies that you regularly never would've had the chance to see, at least on the big screen.

So the first documentary is made by a director I'm sure most of you know about, Werner Herzog. The man behind Grizzly Man which was Oscar nominated and collected quite some buzz, both mouth to mouth and in the media. His new film, and the one I saw, is called Encounters at the End of the World [IMDB].

In Encounters at the End of the World the director himself, Herzog, travels to Antarctica in order to capture the unique landscape and learn more about the people living there. I wanted this to be at least as good as Grizzly Man, but unfortunately that hope resulted in a tiny bit of disappointment. Not to say it wasn't good, but far too plain. No emotions or wow-experiences. However, some really nice images makes it worth watching and definitely renting. If I had to rate it from 1-10, it would get a 7.

The next film is not a documentary, but a movie from Chile/USA. It's called Take the Bridge, by Sergio M. Castilla [IMDB]. I actually only saw this due to lack of other interesting screenings, but I'm glad I did. Not least because of the fact that the director attended and was able to make a Q&A after it.

Take the Bridge is about four youngsters who try to commit suicide, fail, and meet in the hospital where they become friends. Well out of there, they share their dreams and talk about the adventures they sometime wanna make. The layout of the movie is pretty original here, cause I couldn't separate any clear plot, it was more "follow the kids as they do normal stuff and just add some spice for the sake of the movie". Luckily, and this is the part I really enjoyed, there's a woman in between scenes commenting what's going on, and what she says is completely improvised but oh so fun! Take the Bridge is the definition of independent film, but it sadly was done in such low budget that it quickly became boring from a technical point of view. The colors, the image quality and even the acting didn't reach far enough to become a great experience. In a scale from 1-10 I would give it 5.

So we arrive to today, Sunday. I only had the ability to watch one film, because of my schedule, but I'm happy this is the one I saw, My Kid Could Paint That [IMDB]. If you live in the USA or UK you might have heard about the genious paintings of 4-year old Marla Olmstead that sold for over 25.000 dollars each.

If you haven't seen it there was a big discussion going on back in the days this happened, 2005-2006, if the paintings actually were done by Marla herself or if her father helped her or even made them completely. What's interesting and unique with My Kid Could Paint That is that the director himself gets personally involved in this whole story and his own film.

All began with the promise to document the success of this very young girl painting beautiful abstract artwork, and in the middle of it everything changed and became a huge conspiracy. The filmmaker didn't know what to do, depict what he himself thought or listen to the parents pleads about making the documentary into something that could clean their name? The director made a wise decision and simply let the audience decide by showing all evidences from both sides, always with honesty and reality.

I think everyone should see this, especially those who make films as a living or hobby, because it's more than just a story about a girl who made expensive art. It's also the issues of documentaries in general. To what extent will you let yourself get involved in the lives of these people, that you after all follow for months and months? The rating from 1-10 would be 8,5.

All in all I caught 4 movies so far (the first one was Lars and the Real Girl). Tomorrow I'm gonna see Funny Games, an American horror remake.

Until laters!

//peeker

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GÖTEBORG INTERNATIONAL FILMFESTIVAL

January 25th 2008 20:21

I'm currently in Sweden, at the International Filmfestival of Göteborg (aka Gothenburg), which took off today. I've managed to see one movie, before the big opening party.

The movie is Lars and the Real Girl, with Ryan Gosling amongst others. Its screenplay is also Academy Award nominated for best screenplay, so I had ok expectations. The concept was interesting, about a guy who falls in love with a doll because of social issues... At least there's a fair share of originality.

So, how did Lars and the Real Girl do? Amazing. Seriously, very well done and I can clearly see why its script is nominated. It's gonna be a close fight between this and Juno.

Well, much to say no time. Until laters.

//peeker

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THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM - REVIEW

September 9th 2007 11:32

Cheers guys, it's been slow lately, but a review should get things in speed again. I'm sure many have either seen or already read few reviews of The Bourne Ultimatum elsewhere, but for those who haven't or who got some kind of a review-fetish, here it is.

PLOT
First off, you should see the first two films before this one. Otherwise there are good odds you won't understand poo.

Jason Bourne is beginning to remember things as he's on a search for the truth behind Operation Black Briar, part of Project Treadstone. Some columns by London-based reporter Simon Ross gets him into a hunt for his true identity and away from the "company" who wants him dead.

And a hunt it is, literally the whole movie.

CRITIQUE
As always Paul Greengrass manages to create a real atmosphere, that could make a viewer believe anything. It's the colors, the camera work, the light, everything. Paul could show the whole White House as aliens and we'd believe G.W. Bush is one. Hmm...

Of course the franchise "Bourne" has always been entertaining, not top-class but certainly in the better collection. They've managed to create a different character than the other similar heroes. Jason Bourne is after his OWN identity, not on a mission by the state or special group, as usually seen. He fights for himself.

The fighting scenes in Bourne Ultimatum are well made, however I can't help but agree with so many other critics that the fast camera-movement during those scenes became a bit too much. I can understand Greengrass' choice, especially after the success with this technique in United 93, but when you get dizzy or the picture gets blurry it's time to slow down. And I'm not one of those "camera-movement-is-a- cheap-trick-and- looks-bad" guys.

As for the performances by the cast I was highly pleased. Matt Damon might not be "grown" as an actor just yet, but the improvement is clearly there. David Strathairn is good as always - now he's a guy that rarely fail. Joan Allen, although too skinny (over 50 after all), she's quite enjoyable on the big screen. A stealthy woman.

The story itself was smart and surprisingly original, the fight scenes weren't boring and the writers made sure not to have a lot of clichés included. Ok, there was a clear one when Matt tells Julia Stiles how he can see every face he killed and so on, but that's pretty much it.

Oh, the soundtrack was nice as well. Suspenseful at times and soft at others.

CONCLUSION
Recommended for the big screen, it sure is worth your money. Don't expect to exit with a whole new meaning about life, however it's one of the better action-flicks. But if you're a "camera-movement-is-a- cheap-trick-and- looks-bad"-guy a rental is more than enough for you.

8,5/10

Watch the trailer of The Bourne Ultimatum.
Watch the poster for The Bourne Ultimatum.

//peeker

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TRANSFORMERS - REVIEW

July 20th 2007 13:52

I'm actually late with this review, considering I saw Transformers pretty early - 3rd July. But like they say, better late than never.

PLOT
I'm sure you all know the basic plot, but maybe not so much about the sub-plot, what makes this movie unique to all the other Transformer movies. Sam Witwicky, played by Hollywood-favorite Shia LaBeouf, finally manages to collect enough money to buy a car that of course ends up being Bumblebee, one of the Autobots, the good guys. In fact he didn't pick the car, the car picked him, because Sam was in possession of the "Captain's glasses" that both the Autobots and Decepticons are after.

Very soon Sam gets involved in this war between the two parties, as he tries to get Mikaela Banes', played by Megan Fox, interest.

Everything ends up in a wild conclusion, with lots of action and incredible visual effects, still without compromising the story.

CRITIQUE
Before seeing the movie I had as high expectations as anyone can have, having all those amazing trailers and pictures in mind. Of course it's dangerous, because sadly most of the times movies with expectations fail to deliver.

I'm in a great position to say Transformers delivered beyond expectations. And it wasn't the effects or the cool robots. I loved it from the beginning, the nearly half first hour without a lot of neither mentioned factors. The humor and plain enjoyable story depicted. I said Shia LaBeouf is the new favorite in Hollywood, and I can understand why. This is a boy with talent and a long career waiting for him.

Of course the wonderful Megan Fox doesn't make things worse. Probably doesn't reach Shia's level, but quite gorgeous nevertheless.

Now that we've established that the story and performances were top class, how did the effects do?

Say what you want about Michael Bay, but I still haven't seen a director with the same skills in creating believable explosions, robots, effects, and anything else computer generated. Even Spielberg has to try real hard to match up.

I believe Transformers is Bay's best movie so far and will/can only be topped by a sequel. This is what Bay was supposed to do all along and I'm weirdly afraid we'll never see him in this state again.

Of course there's always something in every movie that could be improved and in this case I guess it's the mess we sometimes see during the robot-fights. Like steel fumbling around on the ground wrestling. I understand it's hard to manage, but those close-ups made things worse.

The climax fighting scene at the end also felt confusing, like what robot died, who lived, who is attacking now, etc, but then again maybe it's something only I experienced.

CONCLUSION
If this review didn't make you want to see Transformers, I failed miserably. I purely recommend everyone to see it and preferably in the cinemas. It almost feels like a one-in-a-lifetime experience. If movies are supposed to be entertaining, this is the definition of movies.

9/10

Watch the trailer of Transformers.
See the character pictures from Transformers.
See the posters of Transformers.
Watch a clip from Transformers.
Watch a TV-spot from Transformers.

//peeker

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FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER - REVIEW ROUND UP

June 9th 2007 19:56

Fantastc Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

This is just a head start, and hopefully we'll get more sources in this round up.

A reader over at AICN sent them a review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It doesn't look good and frankly I didn't expect anything better than the first one. Here's an excerpt:

The director Tim Story and his band of screenwriters have once again broken the hearts of FF fans all over. They have no respect. They have no understanding on what makes the ‘Fantastic Four’ story work, or any story for that matter. I gave Tim Story a break the first time around, but not this time. He should’ve looked back at the first one, compared it to the comic book films that work and just said, “Damn! I gotta sit this one out before I do it all over again!” However, he didn’t do that. He looked at the numbers from the first one and assumed that money always equals success. Now as for the screenwriters; give them a Cartoon Network show and let them have at it. If they have any talent, it could be realized there.

However, good things are said about the Silver Surfer himself, so there's nothing wrong with the special effects. Then again, they're really overrated.

Watch the trailer here.
See the poster here.
See some pictures here.

//peeker

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OCEAN'S THIRTEEN - REVIEW ROUND UP

June 2nd 2007 18:03

Recovering from an incredibly confusing sequel, the third movie in the Ocean's series is approaching a worldwide release. The film has had a screening during this year's Cannes, and yes, critics aren't always to trust, but this time you should.

Basically Ocean's Thirteen is about Danny Ocean that rounds up the boys for a third heist, after casino owner Willy Bank double-crosses one of the original eleven, Reuben Tishkoff. [IMDB]

First off, let's remind ourselves that this is directed by Steven Soderbergh, a talented man with original style. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This time? It certainly does, as TimesOnline admires him for the fantastic effort. The old-fashioned but still modern path he has chosen to take, like the one we loved from the first film, is once again executed properly and entertaining.

But of course not only Soderbergh is responsible for the success, since after all, the story works because of the two screenwriters Brian Koppelman & David Levien, who managed to catch the comedic spirit and suspense these movies are supposed to have. The sharp, quick humor that we normally don't see in real life.

As for the performances, TIME praises George Clooney for his star quality and incredible presence on the screen. I'm sure most females would agree. But of course the other actors, like Al Pacino and Brad Pitt also make a superb effort. After all, nothing less is expected by such big names. Sadly some characters, like Mac and Cheadle, aren't featured much at all.

However, there's always points that could be better. Ocean's Thirteen thankfully doesn't have many and the majority of reviews are positive. Mainly the problem is how the story moves too fast, the characters look too made up on a technical level (light, make up, etc) and few jokes are ending up being a bit silly. Still, obviously these are matters that come across differently for each individual.

Variety thinks the outcome is all in all rather positive in its review, stating:

As smooth as a good mojito, as stylish as an Armani suit and as meaningful in the grand scheme of things as yesterday's Las Vegas betting odds, Ocean's Thirteen continues the breezy good times of the first two series entries without missing a beat.

As a conclusion, you could say the crew managed to bring it back to its roots, successfully adding glamor and style to an interesting story. There's no question about this being for the big screen; the 10 bucks are well deserved.

7,5/10

Watch the trailer here.
Watch the featurette here.
See the poster here.

//peeker

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