Review: When in Rome

Posted by Elizabeth Hughes Belzil | Friday, January 29, 2010 @ 1:49am

For several days now I have been deliberating how to write this review. I considered an ironic approach (e.g. ‘Wow! Comedy doesn’t get anymore sophisticated than running into telephone posts, spinach stuck in teeth and clown car routines.’ or ‘Kristen Bell’s tour-de-force performance causes audience members to forget that acting is about more than a pretty face’.) Next I tried hyperbole (e.g. ‘This film is as vacuous as space, only significantly less intriguing.’) Finally, I conceded defeat—neither of my approaches seemed suited to the material. When in Rome is one of those films so ordinary in its badness, so unexceptionally ill conceived that it hardly warrants a review. It’s unpleasant but routine, like a daily dose of castor oil or the annual trip to the dentist’s office.

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Review: The Lovely Bones

Posted by Elizabeth Hughes Belzil | Saturday, January 16, 2010 @ 1:44am

Alice Sebold’s best-selling novel, The Lovely Bones, is many things: a sentimental ghost story, a literate crime novel, and, in its best moments, an intimate character study set in 1970s American suburbia. Director Peter Jackson’s adaptation grasps the first two aspects but, unfortunately, fails to capture the third. Strong characters are the novel’s musculature, providing its definition and thematic strength; without this asset the film is a murky mess—both facile and unfocused. Conceptually it is a genre mash-up; imagine the mutant hybrid of Seven and What Dreams May Come: in turns too gruesome for sentimentality-seekers and too saccharine for gore-seekers.

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Review: Daybreakers

Posted by Kyle Tetarenko | Friday, January 8, 2010 @ 1:22am

Amidst the current trend of film studios trying to capitalize on the resurgence in vampire popularity, Daybreakers arrives with a glimpse of a future where vampires have become the dominant species while the remaining humans are tracked down and harvested for their blood.

In the wake of a strange viral outbreak, the year is 2019 and the world’s governments have come to the conclusion that the dwindling supply of human blood will only last another thirty days until there is nothing left. Without a supply of human blood, the vampire population will revert into a primal version of themselves consumed by bloodlust and aggression. This drives the vampire population to take desperate measures; some vampires feed on themselves and each other while others have begun to riot in demand of more blood.

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Review: Sherlock Holmes

Posted by Kyle Tetarenko | Friday, December 25, 2009 @ 4:38pm

In a large departure from previous adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie takes the director’s helm and shows us all his vision of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective. Taking the lead as Holmes is the reinvigorated Robert Downey Jr., complete with pipe and hat and Jude Law as the venerable Dr. John Watson.

Guy Ritchie’s interpretation of the story immediately starts by thrusting us directly into the action and mystery surrounding Lord Blackwood , played by Mark Strong, after his dramatic return from the dead. Also starring is Rachel McAdams as Holmes’s former love who returns to give him more grief as Watson prepares to marry his fiancé and end his crime fighting adventures.

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VIFF Review: That Evening Sun

Posted by Mark McLeod | Friday, October 9, 2009 @ 4:10am

Abner Meecham (Hal Holbrook) has seen better days. At the age of 80, having lost his wife and unable to care for himself, his son has placed him in the care of old-age home. Suffering within the system and determined to spend his final days elsewhere, he packs his bags and leaves destined for his old home, a family farm just outside the city limits. Upon arriving he learns that his son has rented the place to Lonzo Chout (Ray McKinnion) and his family, a group of so-called white trash who've been living off Lonzo's disability cheques for the past ten years. Abner, desperate to regain control of his property, moves into the guest house and a battle of wits begins to play out between them.

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VIFF Review: 65_RedRoses

Posted by Mark McLeod | Friday, October 9, 2009 @ 3:56am

Imagine knowing that unless a miracle happens, you will be dead within two years. In 2007, that was the situation facing then 23-year-old Eva Markvoort. Born with Cystic Fibrosis, a disease that affects the lungs, causing them to fill with mucous and making it harder for those inflicted to breathe, Eva was in rough shape. Due to the condition itself, patients are isolated from others. Unable to turn to people in the flesh, Eva turned to the online community for support. She found it in two other women in various stages of the disease in 65_RedRoses, a documentary that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming, playing at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival.

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Review: District 9

Posted by Elizabeth Hughes Belzil | Friday, August 14, 2009 @ 4:11pm

Tired of sci-fi movies where a species of hyper-intelligent, superhumanly strong and technologically advanced aliens attempt to wipe out the good people of planet earth? South African director, Niell Blomkamp’s District 9 turns the genre on its head, characterizing the humans as villains who subjugate and abuse a marooned ship of insectoid aliens. Despite its 30 million dollar budget (peanuts compared to your run-of-the mill Hollywood CGI extravaganza.) the film is action packed, visually stunning and, to top it off, thought provoking.

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Review: Fifty Dead Men Walking

Posted by Elizabeth Hughes Belzil | Friday, July 31, 2009 @ 3:46pm

The problem with “relevant” films is they almost immediately become irrelevant— “ripped from the headlines” current event movies are the mayflies of the movie biz. Canadian director Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking takes place in Belfast circa 1980—a time when bloody conflict was a daily reality between British troops and the IRA. While the IRA was a hot topic in the 90’s, spurring the production of several films related to the paramilitary organization (Michael Collins, Patriot Games, In the Name of the Father, to name a few), today the subject seems about as passé as neon green shoelaces and slap bracelets. There are several reasons for this: 1) the media’s fickleness in its coverage of international news 2) the IRA signed a disarmament treaty in 1998 3) 9/11. (Non-middle eastern terrorists are so eight years ago!)

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Review: Public Enemies

Posted by Elizabeth Hughes Belzil | Wednesday, July 1, 2009 @ 2:39am

Public Enemies is one of those rare films that boasts numerous outstanding attributes (great cast, great story, great direction, great cinematography) but somehow fails to amount to the sum of its parts. As the ending credits roll, I suspect, audience members will feel surprisingly under-whelmed.

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Review: My Sister's Keeper

Posted by Elizabeth Hughes Belzil | Friday, June 26, 2009 @ 3:18am

A film like My Sister’s Keeper is so difficult to review from a critical standpoint: it’s not a film that loses itself in melodrama but rather a film that shamelessly aspires to be just that. Fans of director Nick Cassavetes’ 2004 tearjerker, The Notebook, can look forward to another overdose of sentimentality and a full two hours worth of waterworks—expect one’s eyes to mist over almost immediately, soon escalating into a steady trickle of tears and, at last, culminating in several minutes of outright sobbing during the grand finale.

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