What We Do is Secret (Film Festival part 1)

This film is a biopic about the lead singer of the original punk band "The Germs". His name is Darby Crash and he is a rebellious, hard drug using, lyric writing madman. The story goes on showing what Mr. Crash's life was like from the time he started the band until the night he committed suicide.

The story mixes a sort of documentary feel along with great concert scenes and witty dialog. This was the first movie I saw at the festival and it was quite entertaining although a little dark for my taste.

The audience got a chance to talk to the director and star of the film after the screening. The director said they had gotten this movie a distributor and it is heading for the mainstream theaters soon. Shane West talked to the audience about how he prepared for his role as Darby Crash and seemed like a pretty down to earth guy when I spoke with him.

In order to really enjoy this film, however, you should probably be interested in The Germs in the first place, otherwise you might be kinda annoyed with the music they play..but definitely well acted and well put together.

Remarkable Power! (Film Festival part 2)

This movie attracted me because of 2 people. Tom Arnold and Kevin Nealon. In case you dont recognize the names, Tom Arnold plays along side the Governater in True Lies and Kevin Nealon is known for his most famous scene as the guy in Happy Gilmore who says "harness the good energy, block out the bad, its a carousel, it goes up and down, and around".

The story is an intricate story of eclectic characters who all find themselves in a different predicament, but the solution to their predicament lies in the story of one of the other 5 or 6 main characters. The problems all stem from the late night infomercial self help tape series "Remarkable Power".

This movie is at some points laugh out loud funny and other points, so clever you have no idea how anyone could come up with an idea that zany.

I gave this movie a 5 out of 5 on the audience choice award, and I really do hope it wins...

Forbidden Kingdom (Film Festival part 3)

I feel like I have seen this movie before, it was called Lord of the Rings. This martial arts version of a classic story involves a boy who is the "one the prophecy foretold of" who is called to return a magical golden rod to its rightful owner. The movie encompasses the trials and training the boy must go through to get the rod back to "the Monkey King".

Now, if your still reading, you will be pleased to know that this movie is actually very well done and quite entertaining. The same cinematography from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was on board and boy did it ever look like it. Amazingly beautiful fighting scenes that go on for extended periods of time all cleverly crafted with Jet Li and Jackie Chan working along side each other.

This movie was a night time even at the Phoenix Film Festival and sold out incredibly fast. Definitely worth a watch if you like fighting and adventure.

Teeth

Im not gunna dance around it..the movie is about a girl with teeth in her vagina..

That having been said its a very interesting art film addressing topics that are usually not taken seriously in movies such as abstinence and sexual violence. It doesnt dance around touchy subjects it runs full force into them and often times leaves the viewer feeling very awkward.

Teeth is a horror movie, but it also ads quite a few humorous moments, because lets face it, how serious can a movie about vaginal teeth be?

It delivers the goods of every horror movie showing us the shots we want and still with-holding some of it for us to decide on our own.

Overall its worth seeing, if you dont get sick easily...

Be Kind Rewind

I am not an avid fan of Michael Gondrys work but I will say that Be Kind Rewind was a very creative and refreshing movie about friends and relationships.

Jack Black plays the same dopey character as in nearly every other movie and it is definitely hit or miss. The first half of the film was very edgy and entertaining but as the movie drew on I found myself asking when it was going to be over. As far as creative offbeat comedy goes, this one is worth a shot

6.5/10

Oscar Aftermath

Well, now that the Oscars over, its time to go back and recap this years winners.
Id first like to say that I went 3/6 in the main categories, which, could have been better but oh well..
Best picture, obviously No Country For Old Men, I called that since I saw the movie.
Best Actor, my unborn child could have guessed that Daniel Day Lewis would win
Best supporting actor rightfully went to Javier Bardem, who had an excellent performance as Anton Chigurh in No Country.

...Now heres where it gets tricky

Best Actress and supporting actress were probably the 2 biggest upsets of the night.
Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose won best actress, but honestly I think less people saw that movie than Norbit (which I think might be the first movie ever to get nominated for an Academy Award and a Razzie in the same year)
and best supporting actress was Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton. Her performance in this was worth winning just was completely unexpected over Cate Blanchett's Bob Dylan in Im Not There.

The last of the main 6 categories was best director, which could have been any of the nominees and even could have been Tim Burton for Sweeney Todd even though he got "robbed" out of a nomination.
I put my guess on Paul Thomas Anderson because of how nice There Will Be Blood moved along and how much work he but into the film, but the Coen Brothers also were very deserving and I have to say No Country for Old Men was a better movie.

Also, to many peoples dismay, including my own, Transformers did not win a single one of the 3 categories is was nominated for. soooo...sorry Michael Bay just make Transformers 2 better.

There Will Be Blood

I had been waiting so long to see this movie. It got TONS of award hype. It has one of the most intense actors in Daniel Day Lewis, and frankly, it didnt live up to my expectations.

Now, this is most definitely NOT to say this was a bad movie, it was actually extremely well done, but there were events in the movie, some big and some small that just took away from the story, like the jumping of large amounts of time and the insinuated events that take place off camera and/or that are not explained well enough, but these are hard to describe in detail without giving the movie away.

Daniel Day Lewis will most definitely win best actor in a role that could not have been played by anyone else. His supporting actor in Paul Dano was also a very intense performance as the preacher at the Church of the 3rd Revelation, but at the end of the day, this very well directed and very well acted movie just did not take the cake.

My money is on No Country for Old men for Best Picture

Academy Awards Outrage

Whats with all this outrage about the Academy Award nominations!?
I have read articles on Yahoo, JoBlo, and Rottentomatoes of people crying that their favorite movie got snubbed.

News Flash: we had a great year! there are so many good movies out there and only 5 nominations per category. It is impossible for every "great movie" to get nominated for something.

The leaders of the pack got a bunch of nominations just like every year (i.e There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, Atonement) and lets not dance around around it, these guys are probably gunna win their categories.

Now, on the flip side, does Enchanted need 3 best song nominations, while Walk Hard gets none? Other than a couple of my biased picks, this was the only real category that shocked me. Everyone has there picks that they feel got snubbed, but this years nominations really are not as bad as people are making them out to be.

That being said, my picks for the main 6 categories:

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Best Actor: Daniel Day Lewis
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem
Best Actress: Ellen Page
Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett (the only good part of Im Not There)
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Cloverfield

My apologies for leaving such a long break in between my posts, but I have been busy moving back to school for this semester....that having been said, its safe to say Cloverfield lived up to all its long preceding hype.

The teaser trailer for Cloverfield came out during the previews of Transformers with no title and started internet buzz for the many months to follow until its release. No one anywhere on the web knew a thing about this "mystery movie" until a few weeks ago a full trailer was released including the name.

Since then people have been buzzing about how crazy this movie looks..... and it was indeed crazy

Filmed all by a hand held camera with the only cuts being when the camera man turns off the camera for brief moments, this movie puts you right smack in the middle of this new kind of monster movie.

I got so into this movie and loved how well the director succeeded in making the audience feel like they're actually there. Its Blair Witch Project meets (insert monster movie here) and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time (which sadly is actually under an hour and a half)

But I would most definitely recommend this movie for anyone who doesnt get motion sickness...its an extremely entertaining little flick..

Charlie Wilsons War

2 good reasons to see this movie.

1. the brilliance of the dialogue and acting of Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

2. my grandfather didnt fall asleep while watching, which is how I can tell if he liked the movie or not.

This movie is quite capturing because of how closely it is based on the true story of Congressman Charlie Wilson. Although I was too young to remember everything that went on during this time period, the filmmakers did an excellent job of keep the audience up to speed and entertained.

The critics obviously agree that this movie is worth seeing, as evident by the 5 golden globe nominations: best picture (musical/comedy) best actor (musical/comedy) best supporting actor and actress and best screenplay.

In my opinion, Philip Seymour Hoffman stole the show, but maybe its just because Im biased.