The King’s Speech is one of those films that arrives at the end of the year and says, “please hand me an Oscar.” That’s not meant to be derisive of the movie, just that it has everything the Academy seems to love: an inspirational dialogue-heavy story with a difficult lead performance. Twenty bucks says Colin Firth walks away with Best Actor this year.
After seemingly searching for a juicy role since his duel Oscar winning performances in the mid to late ’90s with The Usual Suspects and American Beauty, Kevin Spacey is back in fine form and dominates the screen in this frequently enjoyable, though heavily flawed, rise and fall fable.
Quality comedies — if they go beyond one sequel — never come in threes. In the case of Little Fockers, three’s a Focking mess. But we asked for it; Meet the Fockers ranks as the highest-grossing live-action comedy in the U.S., so regardless of quality, we were going to get whatever studios served us
All in all, the film is good, but I expected more. I suppose being as good as filmmakers as the Coen Brothers is a double-edged sword. With such incredible additions to American cinema, people (like me) sort of expect them to hit a home run everytime. I’d say it’s one of the weaker Coen films. The bright side to that is that those are still pretty damn good.
James L. Brooks is the name that most likely comes to mind when you’re talking about terrific romantic comedies. However, his name might become less synonymous with the finest films in that genre upon seeing his latest flick, How Do You Know.
All the pieces have been put in place for 1982 cult classic Tron to reinvent itself as a moder-day sci-fi epic. Between Disney sinking hundreds of millions into Tron: Legacy, marketing it like the must-see event of the year and then securing PG rating to make sure anyone and everyone could see it, the film just had to follow through with results. As a technical marvel and stylistic art project emphasizing light, color, sound and symmetry mixed with all kinds of action, “Legacy” shines.
David O. Russell has earned himself a right to an Academy Award nomination for The Fighter. This is not just another Rocky wannabe. It is a story about a man growing up and apart from his family. Marketing hides the roles characters Charlene and Alice will play in the film, along with the depth of Dicky’s troubles. This is a major win for the audience because it results in a bevy of pleasant surprises.
Everything you would want or expect from a fantasy is here: sword fights, dragons, magic, legends, strange creatures, wizards and a quest into an unknown territory. The adventure was light-hearted and there is a great amount of humour. The cinematography and set designs are bright and colorful and this is a perfect film to take children to.
On paper, it has such potential: An intriguing setup, a beautiful setting, a young director who struck Oscar gold and two of the biggest names in show business to play his leads. All the pieces are set up, so how hard can it be for this to come out right? Unfortunately, The Tourist is another example of how style does not always equate to substance.
The Warrior’s Way is some sort of amazing disaster, a bizarre hybrid of genre, filming techniques, moods, themes and pace. I would not go quite as far to deem it as “so bad it’s good,” though it certainly carries some sort of campy allure I haven’t seen since last 2009’s Viking/alien invasion mash-up Outlander. This martial arts Western does, however, play more like an initial idea than a fully realized movie and unfortunately carries more than enough similarities to be lumped in with the video game genre — not the most favourable association.
