Jun 17, 2011
(rated R, 115 mins.) Atom “Sweet Hereafter” Egoyan’s stunning new drama gets in touch with his personal roots. The story is about a long forgotten fact: That over a million Armenians were massacred by the Turks in 1915. Living with the unforgotten pain of watching their parents beheaded and murdered, the hate of that generation helps form the fate of the next generation. The title, by the way, is derived from a mountain in Armenia where Noah’s Ark landed. But, anybody up on their history knows Armenia is no longer on the map. Only Turkey remains. Ari (Arsinee Khanjian), an art history professor writes her new book on Armenian painter and massacre survivor Gorky (Simon Abkarian). This book prompts Ari’s son, Raffi (David Alpay) to question his own father’s death during the genocide. In a sub story, film director Edward Saroyan (Charles Aznavour) and screenwriter Ruben (Eric Bogosian) are in Toronto shooting an epic based on the Armenian massacre. They hire Ari as a consultant and her family as part of the crew. Despite multi-layered subplots that follow, at the core is Raffi trying to understand himself, his legacy, and his father, that will include a trip home to modern-day Turkey. There he meets a skeptical customs agent (Christopher Plummer) believing his sealed film canisters contain drugs. The movie is an important tale that teaches this generation, (in modern terms) through the young Raffi, about the genocide. Director Egoyan’s efforts come off as cinematically convincing in an almost intellectual exercise delivered on an educational level that no high school history teacher could have pulled off. The best news, is like the wealthy Jews and their Holocaust, now the poor and overlooked Armenians, finally get their moment to speak out about their own tragedy.
Jun 17, 2011
Mel Gibson knows how to tell a story. He’s a brilliant director who has the ability to combine war and fairytales. He did it in “Braveheart” and he’s done it again in Apocalyto, mesmerizing the audience into spell-binding fear, laughter and stunning visuals. As the Maya kingdom faces its decline, the rulers insist the key to prosperity is to build more temples and offer human sacrifices. Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), a young man chosen for sacrifice, flees the kingdom to avoid his fate and return to his young wife awaiting him in a cave. And while we have nothing in common with this primitive nation – a people we shouldn’t understand – somehow we do. Gibson knows how to connect us through moments of family and safety and then tear us to shreds when it’s all destroyed. Gibson loves mayhem and massacres and boogey men – whether Scottish soldiers or tribes in loin cloths. And this movie, brilliantly directed and written, is Braveheart again, only this time with nose rings. Every year there are classless ax murdering movies and there are horror films, but this movie tells violence with purpose, within the context of history. And worth every moment of it. Four tiaras
Jun 17, 2011
(rated R, 197 mins.) If you sat through it once, can you sit through all 197 minutes of this classic with even more brilliance from 22 years ago? Following the journey of intelligence officer Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) upriver into Cambodia, Francis Ford Coppola recreates this masterpiece in Apocalypse Now Redux. The new version includes an additional 49 minutes of never-before-seen footage including the much-discussed “French plantation scene’ sequence, as well as an expanded Playboy Playmates sequence, more detail involving Martin Sheen and his crewmates on their voyage and a new Marlon Brando scene. The new version isn’t an improvement over the original release, but more of an expansion of already perfection.
Jun 17, 2011
(Rated PG-13, 103 mins.) Don’t get angry, get therapy — from Jack! Nicholson plays a therapist who is hired to see Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) after an airplane outburst that leads to a misunderstanding. Of course Doc Jack could use a chill pill himself in all his eye-brow raising hostility. This is Jack letting his hair done with silliness and his usual patient insanity, cast opposite lovable Sandler with his attractive passive-aggressive personality. It doesn’t matter if it works or not. The teaming of Nicholson and Sandler is as hot as the “Analyze That” chemistry of serious DeNiro and funnyman Crystal. Marisa Tomei is cute as Sandler’s loving girlfriend and there are a host of cameos including Oscar nominated John C. Reilly as a monk. Just what the doctor ordered for a dose of springtime laughs now that Oscars are done. I mean, how can we resist this team doing their own rendition of “I Feel Pretty” from “West Side Story?”
Jun 17, 2011
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) returns in what should be the prequel to “DaVinci Code” but is instead treated like a sequel thanks to the brilliantly tackled screenplay of David “Spiderman” Koepp and Akiva Goldsman. Full of the same controversy as the first Ron Howard directed plot – can science and religion really share a place in the same room? – this time Langdon is sent to the Vatican and this time he’s got a good haircut. Unlike the confusion in the first movie, this easily outlines a plot about four kidnapped cardinals to possibly take over for the recently deceased Pope. Langdon has written a book about “The Art of the Illuminati” so he knows a thing or two about possibly terrorist plottings. And while the movie feels like some 1969 C list thriller it’s not shot that way. But if you can make it through a very excruciatingly silly and talky first hour, the second hour flies and manages to deliver a big and unexpected ending. It’s just unfortunate there’s a lot of initial explaining without any real, well, explaining. And if all else fails, you’ll love the gorgeous Vatican footage. Three tiaras
