24 February, 2013

DJ B-Clear's March Movie Preview

With March we will probably start to see the quality of films get a little better before we get into the Summer Blockbuster season. Here we go...

March 1st

  • 21 And Over: A standard coming of age formula involving binge drinking, pretty co-eds, witty police and group of pals. This looks like The Hangover for college kids. It's square-john Jeff Chang's 21st birthday and his pals want to take him out for a good time. Jeff over indulges in the booze but his friends manage to get him from party to party in a passed out state (kind of like Weekend at Bernie's without the death) and of course hi-jinx ensue. The thing is, straight-laced Jeff's no nonsense father is coming to town and the friends try to get him back in one piece. Lots of booze related humor, crudeness, dick & fart jokes. When the DVD gets released, count on there being an "uncut" version with more inappropriate scenes.
  • Jack the Giant Slayer: A new version of the old fairy tale that's heavy on the CGI, is directed by . Jack (), climbs the beanstalk and finds much more than anyone bargains for as there is a war between the giants and other non-giant inhabitants. A solid cast that includes , and . Jack is course enlisted to aid in the war and save the princess () from the giants. The trailer looks real cool and Singer has a track record of making exciting films so this could be worth checking out.
  • The Last Exorcism Part II: Another supernatural horror film so be advised! Since there is always a glut of these types of films they all vary. Some are really good, some are watchable, most are disappointing but they all seem to be working on the same formula. I never saw The Last Exorcism when it came out in 2010 but that dealt with the old "found footage" theory a la Paranormal Activity. returns as Nell and surviving the 1st "last exorcism," she's trying to get her life in order and start a new life. However the forces from the the original exorcism seem to have different ideas. The trailer doesn't give you a whole lot but expect a lot of creepy things and to have Nell go through some unimaginable ordeals...again.
  • Stoker: Directed by , the man that gave us the Vengeance Trilogy, is all I needed to know about this film to want to see it (I'm a HUGE fan of Oldboy). plays India Stoker and plays her mother Evelyn Stoker. Evelyn does not the best relationship with India after the untimely death of Mr. Stoker. Enter Uncle Charlie Stoker (), an uncle that India wasn't aware of who seems to have a weird relationship with Evelyn. As time goes by it appears that Charlie and India are drawn to each other and strange things happen. The trailer is well done where it gives you a glimpse of creepy/bad things going on but you're not quite sure what's happening. Based on solely on the director, I am seeing this film.
  • The Sweeney: Originally a British 70's police drama, it gets a modern update directed by . The Sweeney is an elite police squad led by . The squad basically goes after major cases and organized crime. The squad gets results but only if you don't mind getting results by denying criminals their rights. There's also the obligatory scene where the police bureaucrats dislike the way Winstone goes about collaring criminals (by matching their brutality) and threaten the existence of the team. The British do a really good job of telling a gritty crime drama unlike their American counterparts who feel that a gritty crime drama is about a high body count and a lot of bullets. If this film is playing in my area I will make an effort to see it.
  • Phantom: With an all-star cast of talent that includes , and about a Russian submarine. This was film in 2011 but it's not getting released until now and that usually means bad news. The trailer looks like a combination of Crimson Tide & The Hunt for Red October. Allegedly based on true events it stars a bunch of Americans as Russian sailors so there's a big problem there (much like K-19: The Widowmaker). This looks a lot like a direct to DVD title but who knows. Phantom refers to some sort of secret gadget attached to the sub so the title is worked into the dialogue.
  • Welcome To Pine Hill: This art house film is written & directed by . It tells the tale of Abu () a reformed drug dealer that's turned his life around only to be struck by some life altering news and how he must cope with this earth shattering new situation. The trailer doesn't give you a whole lot and it seems to blend the lines of drama & documentary (I stole that so please don't think I'm clever enough to come up with that). This film won some awards at multiple film festivals and it might be worth seeing if you can find it.
Other films opening this weekend include Molly's Theory Of Relativity, about a 28 y/o female astronomer who loses her job and hatches a plan to move to Norway, easily the most spontaneous thing she's ever done. Art house fare. The End of Love is about a struggling actor who's forced to grow up when the mother of his young son passes away.
War Witch is written & directed by , it's about a 14 y/o girl kidnapped from her African village and she tells her life story to her unborn child. It's getting it's US release this week and it was up for a Foreign Language Oscar at this years Academy Awards. Set in 1960s London in the heat of the Cold War Ginger & Rosa, stars and in a coming of age film. The Unspeakable Act tells the story of Jackie, a 17 y/o girl who's brother is leaving for college. The issue here is that Jackie has the hots for her brother.

March 8th

  • Oz: The Great and Powerful: Directed by and starring , and , Oz deals with the back story to The Wizard of Oz. Excellent director, excellent cast and a cool looking trailer have me hooked.
  • Dead Man Down: directs his first US feature, a revenge thriller that has the lovely enlisting the aid of to take vengeance on crime boss . The trailer features a lot of bullets and blood. The characters of the film are not nice people so you may end up rooting for the least evil of the cast. The trailer does look interesting and I am interested in seeing this film so I will most likely take a chance on it.
  • Emperor: plays the iconic Douglas MacArthur in tale of post war occupation of Japan. MacArthur and his staff are tasked with what to do with Emperor Hirohito, who's revered as a god to the Japanese people. Do they put him on trial for war crimes or what? Not an easy decision. During the course of the occupation it was the Japanese people that started to revere MacArthur. This has the makings of a sweeping epic but it's tough to be an epic when it clocks in at 98 minutes. The trailer looks interesting but Webber does not have a big enough body of work to pull it off so he has his work ahead of him.
  • The ABCs of Death: Released on VOD & iTunes earlier this year this anthology horror film has 26 different shorts directed by 26 different directors. More info on the stories, which are alphabetical, can be found here..
  • Greedy Lying Bastards: This documentary written & directed by is about what Rosebough calls, "climate change denial campaign" waged by the fossil fuel industry and its front groups. If you're into corporate conspiracy films like I am then this should be interesting. Personally, I believe that the large banking conglomerates and their counterparts care only about profit at the expense of the human race. 

Electrick Children stars in a film about a teenage Mormon girl who gets pregnant and believes its some sort of "immaculate conception" despite what her straight-laced parents think. A coming of age film.  Taking place on the last day of school, Bronx high schoolers contemplate their lives, relationship & future in The We and the I.

March 15th

  • The Incredible Burt Wonderstone: stars in the title role as a magician with a failing act thanks to the antics of Chris Angel/David Blaine type played by . Carell and his partner , try to match wits with Carrey but it all backfires on him. So he enlists the aid of and his child hero, played by (who seems to be in everything these days). Director is known more for his work directing episodes of television shows but it's got a strong cast who know what they're doing in a comedy. The trailer has some laughs so it could be fun.
  • The Call: plays a worker at a 911 call center who gets the nightmare call of a young girl being stalked in her own home by an intruder who has torture & murder on his mind. Halle loses the connection (this is all from the trailer so there's no spolier here) and alerts the intruder to the girl's whereabouts and she feels responsible for her death. Fast forward to present day and gets kidnapped and she manages to call 911 from the trunk of the car. Berry gets the call and she recognizes the killers voice and she's bound to get this killer and make sure that Breslin lives. This looks to be a standard thriller that doesn't look like it's breaking new ground in the genre.
  • Upside Down: This sci-fi romantic film is directed by and it deals with 2 star-crossed lovers Adam and Eve (played by & ) kept apart by class and of course a crazy gravitational situation between their planets (hence the name of the film). Forget the science but Sturgess has to go through a lot to be with Dunst (let's be honest, what guy wouldn't) as he's chased by people bent on keeping him out of their society. I can't see this film being on a wide release but it may be worth seeing as there are aspects that look really cool.
  • Spring Breakers: I'd rather not spend too much time on this but I saw this trailer a few weeks ago and cringed when I saw it. The short of it is that a group of hot, nubile co-eds (the likes of Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and a few others not worth mentioning) decide to fund their spring break by knocking over a store or something in bikinis. While partying on the beach they're arrested for the score and are bailed out by . Franco, who's a Kevin Federline type with Flava Flav silver tooth inserts, recruits the girls into a life of taking down scores. If you're under 25 and dig hot girls in bikinis wielding firearms then this could be the film for you. I won't be seeing this in case you weren't sure.

My Amityville Horror deals with George Lutz speaking out about the ordeals his family went through when they purchased the Dutch colonial house in Amityville, NY. It was the DeFeo murders that led to all the problems of the The Amityville Horror. Reincarnated
deals with Snoop Dog's journey to Jamaica a few years back. is a record producer that finds himself trapped in a strange world after a drug induced black-out. The world is run by society's rejects and he can't get out in K-11.

March 22nd

  • The Croods: Dreamworks newest animated release that sees a cromagnion family trying to make it through a changing world. They meet up with Guy (who's the next step in the human evolutionary chain) who's genius that holds the key to fire and the belt. Features the voice talents of Nic Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Cloris Leachman & Emma Stone.
  • Admission: Straight laced  plays a Princeton admissions officer who visits an old classmate, , at the unconventional high school that he runs. He gets to rekindle her not so uptight side and she learns that there's more to life than to trying to find the next great Ivy League graduate. I think Tina Fey is great but I can not deal with her for more than a few minutes at a time. She's pretty much been playing the same character in her last few films.
  • Olympus Has Fallen: Think Diehard meets The Kidnapping of the President. Terrorists take control of the White House and hold the President (Aaron Eckhart) hostage. Rescue efforts fail on epic proportions (almost too epic as the terrorists use surface to air missiles to repel air attacks leading me to wonder, "how did they get stuff into DC with no one noticing this?") Enter Gerard Butler a disgraced Secret Service agent who got stuck in the White House when the attack came. As it turns out he's the only man can save the day (here's where Diehard comes into play). He then systematically goes through the terrorists, racking up a body count and saving the President. He probably gets his job back at the end too.
  • The Sapphires: Set in Australia in 1968, it's a story about a group of Aboriginal teenage girls who form a girl group and ending up going to Viet Nam to entertain the troops. The trailer has a lot of scenes with the girls learning their moves and the down on his luck manager that gets them to realize their potential.

Minnie Driver stars in Hunky Dory, a musical about the summer of 1976 London. From the gang that gave us Billy Elliot. The premise of InAPPropriate Comedy is a tablet with all the offensive apps has made it into the USA and the hilarity that ensues when that happens. All you need to know to stay away from this is that it has Lindsey Lohan and Rob Schneider in it. Eden deals with the kidnapping of a teenage girl from a New Mexico and sent into the sex trade in Las Vegas against her will. Difficult subject matter here.

March 29th

  • G.I. Joe: Retaliation: Originally slate for a Summer 2012 opening the release was delayed by Paramount in order to add the 3-D effects. There was a lot of advertising during the 2012 Super Bowl and there was a "warehouse full of merchandise." There were also reshoots and script changes involving Channing Tatum's character. This usually spells doom for a film much less a potential franchise. Considering the first installment in 2009 wasn't any good and they took a Summer film candidate and released it in the Spring is another bad sign.  It appears that Cobra is running America and has declared the Joe's outlaws and they have to clear their names and destroy the bad guys in the process. I saw the first installment and I won't be participating in the 2nd installment.
  • The Place Beyond The Pines: Directed by , this film deals with 2 guys trying to do the right thing. Gosling is a motorcycle stunt rider turned bank robber to
    provide for his son (that he just met) and wife (Rosario Dawson). Bradley Cooper is an ambitious young cop who gets put into a bad spot about taking money (hello Serpico reference!). The paths for the two are destined to cross as Gossling tries to up the bank robbing up a notch and Cooper is driven to take him down. This film is getting a lot of solid buzz and is probably worth checking out. I liked Gosling in Drive and The Ides of March. Both Cooper & Gosling are capable of excellent performances.
  • The Host: Stephenie Meyer's post Twilight novel about an alien race that inhabits the bodies of earthlings in an effort to take over and allow their species to survive. Similar to Twilight, young love takes the center stage as actual human beings are scarce. This looks a lot like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with a little twenty something (always the 2 best looking people in the room) love thrown in the mix. From what I've seen in the trailer there is absolutely nothing original in this film.
  • Temptation: Is latest release about a marriage counselor who gets in a bad affair (as opposed to a good one) with an obsessive lover. It's got an all-star cast but I get worried that Perry is over-saturating the market but his material is usually pretty good and he's the only Black filmmaker that gets his material consistently out to a mass market.His career's doing fine without my meddling.
  • Mental: Jerry Zucker's latest production that was released in Australia last fall and gets it's US debut. It's set in a fictional Australian town called Dolphin. It's about the Moochmore family and their dysfunctions, which by the way are many. The manage to get Toni Collete, a hitchhiker picked up by the husband Anthony LaPaglia, to help out as a nanny and hi-jinx ensue. LaPaglia is a local politician with 5 daughters who cheats on his wife. After he commits his wife the task of taking care of 5 daughters is a little too daunting and in comes Collete.
Room 237 is a documentary about the imagery and hidden meanings behind  Stanley Kubrick's vision of Stephen King's The Shining. Family Weekend is about a teenage girl who takes her parents hostage after the blow off her big jump roping competition.

That bout wraps it up for March. There will also be a lot of foreign films and other documentary films coming out this month other than what I mentioned.As always, thanks for your time.


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