Mini Reviews - Due Date

Due Date

High-strung father-to-be Peter Highman is forced to hitch a ride with aspiring actor Ethan Tremblay on a road trip in order to make it to his child's birth on time.

Immediately after you saw the trailer for this, you thought of John Hughes' classic "Planes, Trains And Automobiles" The similarity is that an uptight a-hole needs to get home at a certain time and gets accompanied by a severely obnoxious a-hole. What is the difference? While Planes delivers in genuine, emotional development and naturally turns the characters around, this film makes the duo so irritating and annoying in their series of pointlessly bad setups. There is just no reason to give a crap about these characters, their plights or any glimpse of them turning around and I just hated them more and more the more time I spent with them. The humor is just Zach being a complete idiotic obnoxious man-child that you just want to stay hell away from him. Plus the gross-out and immature humor wasn't well-thought out or didn't have a hint of cleverness. The entire journey wasn't worth a crap and you just feel like you want to smack the hell out of these people.

1 and a half out of 5 stars

Mini Reviews - The Illusionist

The Illusionist

A French illusionist finds himself out of work and travels to Scotland, where he meets a young woman.

As a fan of silent comedic expression films like Charlie Chaplin and especially Jacques Tati, this is very much close as seeing a Jacques Tati's film made in modern time and it is truly a gem. From I read about the production, this was essentially an unproduced script by Tati, which was a love letter to his estranged daughter and the film acts as a double statement between the end of stage entertainers and a poignant look of a father/daughter relationship. Director, Chomet, was able to get the main character to look and act like Tati and the animation are just very detailed and beautiful to look. I would come with a warning that it is a slow film with almost no dialogue, so if you're not a fan, stay away. But that is really the beauty and full realization of animation that the focus is more on the art and expression and it is such a refreshing thing to see. The amazing thing is that the film is a mix of beauty and bleakness, you really observe the slow dying change of an era for one group of people and it ends harshly, but kinda realistic. If you are a real animation lover like me, go and see this film.

4 out of 5 stars

Mini Reviews - 127 Hours

127 Hours

A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.

I will say that this is a superior version than a film I really really hate so much, which is Into The Wild. Both of these films present a character that gets stuck in a sticky situation because of a dumb and arrogant decision they make and that they came into a harsh environment totally unprepared. From my view that because of that, these films has to work very hard to make the protagonist likable and sympathetic. While the film "Into The Wild" made the protagonist such an unlikable egotistical d-bag throughout that made me uncaring of his demise (and frankly deserving), this film at least made this character played by James Franco go through a spiritual realization of one's self and does want the audience to really care of his survival. This is probably the first time I have seen Franco really take his acting up a notch and does a real good job for his one man performance especially in one enclosed spot. Danny Boyle's use of cinematography and editing are heavy stylized and they are at times that this element comes off as pointless and overly-done. At times, I kind of wish Danny Boyle would make a subtle film and tone down on his edgy style or strike a balance between style and substance like Black Swan. The film didn't really exactly blow my mind, but it is to me certainly better than Slumdog Millionaire. And geez if you gonna watch this film, you really better have a strong stomach.. because..... ecckkk!

3 and a half out of 5 stars

Mini Reviews - Catfish

Catfish

In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our ... read more In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives.

By the end of this film, people will have a grand mixture of feelings towards the outcome. People will find it sympathetic and heartfelt or complete disgust and hate (and I'm in the latter). And people will also question whether this film is a complete truth or a complete hoax and they will have a huge debate on that. Whether it is, you really have the admire the filmmakers' techniques in keeping the audience guessing and nervous throughout the film. Even having the audience question about the morality of the digital social media such as Facebook and whether the secret was right or wrong, true or false. It is a very neat film to check out and will have you talking about it as soon as you finish it.

3 out of 5 stars