Hello everyone! Welcome to the weekend. And it’s a huge one for movies, having 8 new films to choose from. 5 in wide release and 3 going to Landmark Theaters. There’s something for everyone this weekend! Sci-Fi, Romance, Animation, Family Films, Comedy, Documentary, Drama. It’s all there. Join me as I sift through them all and tell you which ones are worth checking out.

First up is a film that is highly anticipated by fanboys and filmgeeks across the internet. It’s DISTRICT 9.

Produced by Peter Jackson, but he didn’t helm it. That would be 29 year old rookie Neill Blomkamp. Unlike most special effects driven films, this one actually has something to say. It begins with news footage bringing the audience up to date with the history of aliens landing on our planet. For the past twenty years, they have been living in an isolated section just for them in Johannesburg called District 9. It’s pretty much a slum where gangsters rule and aliens don’t have much say. The main character is a Government agent who is in charge of relocating District 9. A documentary crew follows him around as we see him bumble his way through raids as the aliens are forced to leave their homes. Humans treat these creatures with extreme prejudice and give them no respect. The aliens just want to leave. What’s pretty cool about this portion is that the effects are so well integrated that you hardly notice them. It is also, of course, a social commentary about racism in South Africa. Even though I thought this part was well done, it was often hard for me to get hooked into the story, and that largely due to the lead character. He is so unlikeable! I just wanted him to die. He’s the worst kind of villain. He’s the weasily type that would just sit back behind a desk and have his mindless drones do all of his dirty work. He’s a coward. It might have been a mistake to make him the lead character. Now, the second half is very different as it turns into a more conventional film, with the lead being exposed to the aliens’ biotechnology. He is condemned and ends up joining forces with an alien called Christopher. Call me crazy, but I enjoyed this section much better. The reason is because I really felt for the creature. Him and his kid are easily the most sympathetic characters in the film and when the focus was on them, I started to connect to the story more. The filmmakers attempt to redeem the lead by having him help Christopher but he still does some inexcusably cowardly things to be completely likable. Also, the documentary approach in the first half felt a little gimmicky at times. But the last 40 minutes are freakin’ awesome! Blomkamp has constructed some of the summer’s best action sequences, succeeding over blockbusters like TRANSFORMERS, HARRY POTTER, G.I. JOE, and even STAR TREK. In fact, the visual effects are so good in DISTRICT 9 that I was shocked to find out that it only cost 30 million to make. It looks like it cost 200 million! There wasn’t one time that I thought to myself, “Oh! That looks CG.” Everything looks organic and real. If I made a movie for as little as this and the effects looked this great, I would go down on every single member of the effects team. Outstanding work! This should also be a “new standard” for Hollywood. This movie proves that you don’t need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for big effects. This movie looks better than any blockbuster this year. Seriously! Hollywood should take the accountant’s books on this and find out how they spent their money responsibly. Sci-Fi fans are going to eat this up. I think this could have mainstream appeal. It’s a little different, but it has a rousing finally that should leave audiences cheering. Also, the film is very violent. People explode in this. Sure, I think maybe they had blood hit the camera too many times, but it was still alot of fun! This could have been one of the best sci-fi films of all time if it wasn’t for an extremely unlikeable lead. But who knows. This seems like one of those movies that I may enjoy more the second time, cause I must admit that they throw alot of information at you within the first 10 minutes and it’s pretty overwhelming. So is it worth checking out? You bet! Have fun!

Next up is THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE.

It’s a sci-fi romance penned by the guy who wrote GHOST. It’s directed by Robert Schwentke who’s last film FLIGHTPLAN was well made, but had a retarded script. Fortunately, he’s working with a more intriguing premise this time. Eric Bana plays Henry. When he was six, his mother died in a car accident while he survived. The reason is because he can travel through time. Young Henry is visited by his older self, explaining to him the condition he has. You see, he disappears at random times and travels to another time period, but only within his life span. When he does this, he’s completely naked and must search for clothes. It only lasts for a bit, and then returns to his correct time. During his twenties (I think) he meets a young woman named Clare (Rachel McAdams), who immediately knows who Henry is. She tells him that she’s been in love with her for most of her life. You see, when Clare was six, Henry visited her and told her about them. Henry feels a little awkward at first, but eventually learns to love Clare. The two begin an intense love affair that leads to them getting married. That’s all I’m going to say about the plot cause I don’t want to give some things away that I found pretty awesome. Since this is about a time traveler trying to date someone, it has some interesting takes on the standard cliché’s of the romance genre. At first Clare feels special by dating someone so unique and is in love with this fantasy. But, once the reality sets in, it becomes more difficult. Like what if he disappears during important events, like their wedding, which happens. This was a very funny scene, cause when he reappears, he’s old and gray, which catches everyone off guard. There was also some cool things, like when Henry from a different timeline calls Clare in the middle of the night to pick him up, while the other Henry is sleeping in bed. Also, if she has sex with one Henry while they other is still around, is that cheating? It’s a pretty neat premise that’s filled with lots of cool ideas. I really enjoyed myself. Usually, something like time travel is only explored in action or suspense films. So it was refreshing to see real people coping with a fantastic situation in realistic ways. Eric Bana is perfectly stoic and mysterious. Rachel McAdams is sweet and strong willed as Clare. Ron Livingston (Office Space) is even likable as their mutual friend and has some amusing moments, like when he discovers Henry’s secret. Is it perfect? Well, any film about time travel isn’t going to be, cause they have the usual loop holes. If you think about it long enough, you’ll probably find many faults. But that’s not what you’re supposed to do here I think. I mean, I was wondering what Henry’s childhood was like growing up with this defect, but that’s not the story here. This is JUST the love story, and it’s very effective. It’s a gimmick, but done well. Last year, another gimmick movie, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, came out and I had trouble feeling any chemistry between the characters. I thought it looked great but was an empty shell. While Robert Schwentke may not be as talented as David Fincher (who is really?), he does a great job. And I thought the actors generated far more chemistry. The story is ultimately more realized in THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE. And it isn’t all downbeat. I think Bruce Joel Rubin does a great job at injecting humor at the most unsuspected times. In a pretty disappointing summer, I was surprised at how smart, involving and sci-fi geeky cool this was. Women who loved GHOST will eat this up. I hope this does well, cause it really moved me. Yes, I even cried a couple of times. A wonderful date movie! And also a great Sci-Fi film! Check this out!

The kids movie of week is the latest by acclaimed Japanese animated director Hayao Miyazaki . It’s called PONYO.

I’m going to say it right now. Not a fan of his. I know he’s got a pretty loyal following, so maybe I just don’t get him. I find his films to be swell looking, but don’t really understand them. This one is no exception. It’s a fantasy about a 5 year old boy named Sosuke who finds a goldfish with a human face he calls Ponyo. The boy feeds it ham and the two form a bond. Ponyo’s father, who lives in the sea and claims that he used to be human (okay…), comes looking for her and takes her away. But she runs away again and this time uses her magical power (okay…) to turn herself into a little human girl, returning to play with Sosuke. But this causes the world to go off balance as storms threaten to destroy everything. It’s up to Sosuke to love Ponyo truly, only then will the world be safe. Okay… Yeah. This movie makes no freakin’ sense. The good thing about it is that the animation looks outstanding. It’s not slick computer animation, it’s late-80’s Japanese animation, flaws and all. I find that refreshing in an era of perfection. Another positive thing was I loved how this film feeds off the imaginations of young kids. My 6 year old was completely absorbed by it. There’s lots of neat images, ideas, strange creatures, and magic that my daughter was amazed by. And by the way the story unfolds, it really didn’t need to make sense to her. In fact, I think she understood it. She felt what was going on and I think that’s what matters. But unfortunately, I need a little more substance than my daughter. I sure like Miyazaki’s style, but could he for once make a movie that made sense? Or realistic characters, like a mother who wouldn’t leave her 5 year alone during an extremely dangerous storm. She was also a very reckless driver. Occasionally, when I just stopped thinking, I enjoyed certain things like Ponyo’s addiction to ham, or how she copes with the human world not unlike E.T., but any time I attempted to make sense of everything, I got annoyed. The logic of the world is incoherent. The problem is (with this and all of his films) that he doesn’t lay down the ground rules of the world that he has created. I love POKEMON. Sure, it’s crazy and weird crap happens, but the first episode explained the world. Miyazaki doesn’t. I don’t know, maybe he feels like he doesn’t have to. This may sound like that I hated it, but I really didn’t. It is nice to see a filmmaker try something out of the norm, and it is unique. Fans of his will surely like it, and I do recommend it for small kids. I also think it’s my favorite of his films, but that isn’t a huge compliment from me. And get ready for the most annoying song of the year during the end credits.

Another family film is BANDSLAM.

Let’s see if I can remember this one as I saw the press screening over a month ago. Hmmm. A High School kid named Will (Gaelan Connell) moves into a new town where he meets 2 hot chicks, Sa5m (Vanessa Hudgens) and Charlotte (Aly Michalka). Will is really obsessed with music and writes to David Bowie daily. Charlotte is in a band and Will begins to give her pointers, eventually becoming the manager. He also begins a romance with the outcast (never met an outcast that superficially hot though) Sa5m. This all leads up to a big battle of the bands contest called Bandslam. This was quite harmless, but insignificant. It reminded me a bit of The COMMITMENTS and ALMOST FAMOUS. Connell does a pretty good job playing a sad sack and is in grave danger of becoming the next Paul Giamatti. Both female leads are fine but may give kids who are alot like Will in real life false hope that they can befriend chicks with their looks. Lisa Kudrow does her Pheobe-thing once again as Will’s mother, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s nice to see a film aimed at teens that talks about decent music like VELVET UNDERGROUND and THE RAMONES, but the original music isn’t all that good. Everything is simplified and makes it look far too easy to be in a band. I’ve always hated that in films. Even THE COMMITMENTS had that same problem. I looked up the director Todd Graff and saw that he played Hippy (the one with the rat) in THE ABYSS. I don’t really know where I’m going with this but, um… anyway, it’s not a bad family film and should please the target audience well enough. My 6 year old enjoyed it. I guess I would just like a little more. I don’t believe in lowering my standards for family films. Maybe worth a DVD rental, though.

Now for our comedy, THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD.

It’s a vehicle for Jeremy Piven, who has recently gotten fame for being on ENTOURAGE, but I will always know him as Estevez’s loudmouth friend in the 1993 thriller JUDGMENT NIGHT. Here, he plays Don Ready, a car salesman that dealerships hire when they’re trying to clear everything on the lot. He’s good. Real good. And he also has a loyal team to help, played by Ving Rhames, David Koechner and Kathryn Hahn. They’re vulgar, rude and crude, but they get the job done. And… that’s pretty much the plot. It shows buttholes trying to sell cars. Sure, there’s a story that involves Alan Thicke trying to buy James Brolin’s car lot from him, but that doesn’t really matter. The reason for this movie’s existence is to deliver you cheap laughs. And it doesn’t fail on that promise. I laughed quite a bit during this. Since comedy is so subjective, it depends on what you find humorous to determine whether you will like THE GOODS. I thought Piven does a great job acting like a swine saying lines like “I have hair on my balls and I sell cars. THE END!”. Ving Rhames does some great comedic work too. I’m not a huge fan of David Koechner, but he didn’t bug me that much here. Ed Helms (currently enjoying popularity from THE HANGOVER) is very funny as the villain of the piece who has a boy band, sorry, I mean “man band” (since they’re over 30, lol). I was also glad to see Charles Napier in a larger role than just Cop#2. I know him the most for being Murdock in RAMBO:FIRST BLOOD PART II. He was so awesome in that! Here, he plays a disgruntled racist War Veteran. Hearing hateful obscenities fly out of his mouth is pure gold. For me the highlight of this movie is Kathryn Hahn. She was in last year’s STEP BROTHERS, which I loved and thought she stole the film. Well, she does it again here. Every time she was on screen I laughed until I cried. She is a ruthless saleswoman who is more crude than any guy I know. For most of the film she’s trying to screw a 10 year old boy (don’t worry, he has a genetic disorder that makes him look like an adult), and it’s tastelessly outrageous. The scene at the bar when she was trying to seduce him bar is one of the funniest scenes of the year (”Sold!”). Will Ferrell even shows up for a cameo and was pretty funny too. But even at 89 minutes, it occasionally drags and loses some steam towards the end when it tries to tie up some storylines (like an ill-conceived romance with one of the most unappealing actresses I’ve seen in a long time, Jordana Spiro). Still, the laughs were there and I could watch it again. If you get a kick out of raunchy humor like STEP BROTHERS, then you will probably like this enough. I think it’s worth it just to witness the comic genius of Kathryn Hahn.

I hope someone conceives up a comedy vehicle just for her. I’ll be waiting!

Opening up at Landmark Theaters is ADAM.

It’s about a 29 year old man played by Hugh Dancy who has Asperger Syndrome. It’s a higher functioning form of Autism. I’m probably going to be harder on this one more than most critics cause I actually have Asperger’s. I was diagnosed 6 years ago. Every person with this has trouble communicating with the normal world. They also have one thing that they are completely obsessed with. (Guess what mine is… lol) Adam’s is astronomy. He can tell you everything and anything about space, telescopes, etc. His father has recently passed away and is trying to cope with living alone. He meets a school teacher named Beth played by Rose Byrne. She finds Adam intriguing, even knowing about his disability. The two struggle to make their relationship work. There’s also some subplot involving Beth’s father on trial for Tax evasion. At first, I wasn’t sure if I liked Dancy’s portrayal of someone with Asperger’s. Sometimes it felt a little too “Forrest Gump-like” but I did identify with a few things. I used to have trouble leaving the house for social functions, and I have spazed out when a situation becomes to overwhelming. I still have trouble looking people in the eye as well. Rose Byrne is terrific. I really like her and she does a fine job as someone trying to understand her partner’s disability. The stuff with Beth’s father though felt a little too much like it was from THE O.C. It’s contrived, and feels too schmaltzy. It doesn’t help that the father is played by Peter Gallagher who was on THE O.C. For an independent film, it sure feels like a studio production. It’s well directed and acted, but the script feels like a TV movie at times. I’m glad the ending wasn’t too conventional, but there is a better romance out in theaters this weekend.

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD

is a Documentary that chronicles the rise of OZPLOITATION, which is Australian exploitation films from the 70’s and 80’s. It starts off with early sex films such as ALVIN PURPLE, then goes into horror films such as ROAD GAMES. It’s not really educational or enlightening. But if you’re a film geek, you’re going to want to see this! Cause they talk about and show clips from several films that you may haven’t heard of. And I guarantee you’re going to want to see at least half the films mentioned here. I had a huge blast watching film scholars, makers and fans (including the ultimate film geek Quentin Tarantino) talking about their favorites. By the end of this, my notebook was filled with titles of films for me to netflix. I love watching VH1 specials, and AFI specials! This isn’t really that different. It’s a Documentary that’s celebrating obscure films by showing a crapload of clips. I loved it! Film lovers who crave cult cinema aren’t going to want to miss this opportunity to expand their knowledge.

Lastly, we get SPREAD.

It stars Ashton Kutcher as a douchebag who likes to sleep with rich women, and then stay in their homes as they buy him things. His latest victim is Samantha played by Anne Heche. They have sex alot. Then he meets a young waitress named Heather who’s just like him. He wants to change her, but he must change himself first. The plot reminded me a lot of that French movie with Audrey Tatou, PRICELESS, which was a fantastic screwball comedy. SPREAD is not a comedy. It’s a drama, I think. Either way, it’s just plain boring. Ashton Kutcher has toned down his usual irritating traits, but he still makes a very dull lead. Anne Heche was actually pretty decent, and she still looks hot naked. Everyone else isn’t very good. I was surprised that this is from David Mackenzie who made YOUNG ADAM. His direction is still good though. There are a few elaborate stedi-cam shots that were pretty outstanding. It’s too bad that nothing interesting was happening during these shots. I don’t really have much more to add here. This movie is much worse than being bad. It’s boring! Save your time! Unless you have a hard-on for Ashton Kutcher, but I don’t think anyone does anymore, right?

Here is a recap of all of the movies released this weekend:
(based on a four-star rating system)

DISTRICT 9 [R] – ***
THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE [PG -13] – ***1/2
PONYO [G] – **1/2
BANDSLAM [PG] – **1/2
THE GOODS: LIVE HARD, SELL HARD [R] – ***
ADAM [PG -13] – **1/2
NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD [R] – ***1/2
SPREAD [R] – *1/2

So SPREAD is the one to avoid this weekend. In my opinion THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE is the best one, though most people will argue that DISTRICT 9 is. I did like it quite a bit, just wish the central character was more likeable. Still, it’s pretty awesome! THE GOODS is a silly comedy that worked for me. NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD is a film geek’s wet dream, and a film snob’s worst nightmare. ADAM is mediocre. BANDSLAM was ALMOST FAMOUS-lite. And Japanese Animation fans are probably going to want to see PONYO, but I’m not a fan.

Take care everyone! Be geeky and watch movies!!!

This post was written by Austin Kennedy, Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Diversionary Tactics, Does It Hold Up?, Musings, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.