Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Movie Review: Stories We Tell (2013)



Stories We Tell is an extremely personal documentary, directed by the very talented Sarah Polley (Away From Her, Take this Waltz). Featuring interviews from her real-life family, friends, and acquaintances, the movie begins by telling the story of Polley’s mother, Diane, who died of Cancer in 1990. But the story doesn’t stop there; Polley goes on to examine the unique circumstances surrounding her birth, as well as the complex relationship of her eccentric parents.

In a way, watching makes you feel as though you’re invading the privacy of this family, especially since the film seems to focus on a lot of intimate, embarrassing moments in their lives. Yet, the approach feels inviting; every member of the family appears happy to share what they remember and be a part of the film, which helps keep the tone feeling consistently positive throughout.

If you’re someone who can’t open your mind to documentaries, the idea of seeing a film centered around a family you’ve never heard of may seem especially off-putting. However, you’ll be glad to know that Stories We Tell has a nontraditional approach, adding in actors to give life to the narration, which is written and recited by Michael Polley, Sarah Polley’s father.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Movie Review: Man of Steel (2013)



If you have severe ADD and don’t like to be bothered by silly things like blinking, then Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel is for you. But be warned: anyone with even a modest attention span is going to find their eyes glazing over during this action spectacle, which will stand as an example of special effects ruining what could have otherwise been a solid movie.

After an opening segment that shows more of the world of Krypton than was necessary, we finally find Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) as a grown man on Earth, jumping from job to job, obsessively helping those in need. This is actually a very interesting, human approach to the character, one that we haven’t seen in previous Superman films. Clark is a recluse who sees nothing but the darkest sides of humanity everywhere he goes, but still feels compelled to help because of some larger, yet unknown purpose.
 

Monday, June 3, 2013

Xbox 360 Review: Fast & Furious: Showdown





Fast and Furious: Showdown begins with you driving a car through a lifeless city, smashing into every other vehicle you see without any repercussions whatsoever. When the cops show up, you begin flipping them with your … car-flipper device, all the while continuing to race through city streets that feel increasingly confining. At some arbitrary point, the screen will display the phrase “Busted,” meaning you have failed your mission. Now confusion sets in. What the hell did you do wrong?

I was able to complete the mission on my second try (without making any changes), and then I was rewarded with some horrendous cinematics featuring talent-less D-list actors, all doing their best to mimic the character’s from the movie, with absolutely no success. It is then that things just continued to spiral downhill without ever letting up, and I began to realize that playing this game was a terrible mistake.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Movie Review: Iron Man 3 (2013)



Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is now a shadow of his former self. He’s overwhelmed by the reality of seeing aliens; he’s struggling with the fact that he nearly died during Marvel’s The Avengers; and he can no longer seem to to put himself in his Iron Man suit. He’s a manic, depressed man, suffering from crippling panic attacks and insomnia. Even his relationship with the woman he loves, Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow), is on the rocks. This should have been the most interesting take on Iron Man ever: Tony Stark in denial that he’s a good person, obsessed with making sense of the inexplicable things he’s been through over the last few years, and coping by constantly trying to improve his Iron Man alter ego.

But this is not the most interesting Tony Stark we’ve seen – far from it. With one line of dialogue, Tony is reminded he is a “mechanic” who fixes things, and all of a sudden he goes from being in desperate need of therapy to a competent hero in seconds. And herein lies the problem with Iron Man 3 – none of its good ideas ever seem to pan out into anything substantial, making this outing feel hollow when compared to its predecessors. This is a bad way to start off the second round of Mavel films, which presumably will culminate in another Avengers' flick sometime in the future — and that future is looking bleak.