Dvd review: Hot tub time machine

A group of friend accidentally uses an hot tub time machine.

The current output of American is so dismal that when we get one that somehow works is practically worth an headline. The premise is all there, in the title, you don’t need to ask more. As a premise is actually good but we saw movies after movies squandering much better premises.

In this case they actually use it in a good way, mainly because they remembered to bring in the jokes and the funny. They don’t work every time and they certainly aren’t the best jokes that you’ll ever hear but they are funny enough and there is a good abundance of them.

As the latest tendencies dictate this is an extremely crude comedy. I love Judd Apatow movies but evidently somebody in Hollywood decided that we really can’t go on without potty humor which is really a shame. Now I can’t put a comedy over dinner if I don’t want to watch people manipulating excrements while I’m eating.

They kinda play with the titular concept but don’t except anything mind blowing; if you saw half a movie about time machines you already know the entire plot of this one. I think that also the screenwriters knew about that and actually aimed squarely for it. The whole sense of Déjà vu is evoked by the main cast who many times talk about the situation in movie terms adding a meta dimension that adds to the fun.

As usual all the main characters need to solve some personal issues but luckily this time they don’t lose too much time over it and when they delve on it they do it in a farcical way, we never stray from the comedy to put a serious hat like so many rom-coms.

In the end if you like a fun comedy and you don’t mind really gross gags this one is aimed at you.

DVD review: Triangle

A group of friends out in the sea for a day of sailing come across a mysterious boat.

The main selling point of this movie is the extremely ingenious plot; it’s brilliant, all clockwork precision and sliding mirrors.

I really can’t say anything about it; the whole fun lies in seeing what’s going on. Try not to spoil yourself about this one; this is the kind of experience that could be ruined if somebody told you about the ending beforehand.

For the rest the movie is competent, there is nice pacing and an intriguing atmosphere permeates it. I appreciated the nice transitions between quiet suburban life, day out sailing and the big boat of horror with his shocking revelations.

The characters are all stock horror movie fodder, even the protagonist is not really that developed. Actually in the end this is a fine example of B movie so we got the grandiose plot, historically B movies pioneered stuff that the mainstream didn’t dare to touch with a very long fork, but we also got the pedestrian everything else. At least here there is no illogical absurdities like “Why don’t we go into the haunted house at the top of the hill and then we split up!”, every decision is at least reasonable and the mental state of the protagonist is, in the end, understandable.

DVD review: The girl who kicked the hornets' nest

Lisbeth Salander in her final battle against a shadowy organization.

The final chapter in the Millenium series, even if I prefer calling it the “Girl who does something” series, is better than the second one but still worse than the first. See a little known fact is that the three movies that came into the world cinemas are but a smaller version of the original six part miniseries that was transmitted on Swedish TV. While the first movie didn’t suffer too much the last two feels at moments oddly disjointed and incomplete with a plethora of continuity errors that maybe are not errors at all and an uneven pacing.

Plot wise this is directly a sequel of the second one, is not really possible to enjoy it without seeing “The girl who played with fire”. Not a lot is introduced here but I consider this a wise move, the second movie introduced so much stuff that really piling more angst on Lisbeth Salander would have been silly. Instead we spent the whole movie tidying up loose threads and solving the situation brought by the previous movie.

There is more to do for the secondary characters, chiefly Michael Blomkvist, and the plot is more reasonable and relatable, still the titular heroine remain a character so difficult, so frail, that I find it difficult to relate to.

Actually looking back to the trilogy I see a story that’s been clearly stolen by a breakthrough character, the various plots that eventually led to the discovery of Sweden “dark secrets”, which apparently do exists at least according to the author, are really just foil for an heroine who practically suffered every evil that society can inflict on a woman. In the end even the author avatar, Michael Blomkvist is a middle age journalist exactly like Stieg Larsson, appears unable to not even establish a proper relationship with her.

Personally I don’t like her too much, there is a point where the piling of the angst becomes too much for me and the punk attitude that she maintain to keep people away from her actually manages to keep me away, but I understand why and how she captured the imagination of millions. A broken butterfly is a very powerful concept.

Cinema review: Immortals

Mythical Greece: an evil king wants to free the titans and it’s up to Theseus to stop him.

Tarsem can be a frustrating director, the most important representative of the generation of special effect wunderkind who came to fame in the 90s and then transitioned to movie making, like with many of his ilk his skills as a director are still somewhat lacking.

Honestly I think that he is a real artist, he uses color and settings in a very creative and unique way. In this movie he drew inspiration from renaissance art and created what is visually speaking an amazing experience. All the designs and the costumes are interesting and original but sadly for every succefull piece, like his reinterpretation of the minotaur which is a sight to behold, there is another which is, to put it simply, ridiculous. The head gears of the gods for example are beyond camp all the way to “Lady Gaga would wear it”.

The fights scenes are well filmed and easy to follow. The gods battles are the showstopper here, they are like Matrix on steroids. Actually they are so good that the human battle look a puny and lackluster compared to them. Which leads to the other problem, Theseus, the nominal hero of the tale, does practically nothing to advance the plot and resolve the situation. I’m all for gods’ intervention in Mythical stories likes these but the human hero should do something, if not get rid of him and make the gods the protagonists.

This is actually only a facet of a bigger problem, the plot makes no sense at all, there are holes so big in it that you could fit at least a couple of pantheons and they are so glaring obvious that you can’t help noticing them while watching the movie (Those that you notice while back home and getting something from the fridge, the fridge logic of tvtropes fame, are not that important because they don’t detract from your enjoyment of the movie).

In the end the visual experience is still worth it but it doesn’t manage to convey the sense of epic that should come with a movie like this. With all his flair Tarsem is still not a very good director when it comes to pacing, composition and storytelling and so this movie is oddly devoid of the soul that could have counterbalanced the plot troubles.

In the end it’s been a nice evening and a fascinating throwback to those sword and sandals movies that were all the rage thirty years ago. Actually as a remake of Clash of the Titans this is superior to that terrible thing that we got last year, and it got good 3D to boot.

Tv review: the wire season 5

With a new focus on the media system we get to the end of the story.

This is the last season of the show and it’s kinda difficult to review it. I don’t know if it’s the best TV ever but certainly I never saw a show with better writing.

This last season manages to keep the extremely high quality established in the rest of the series while driving all the main plot lines to conclusion. It’s very good stuff under any conceivable point of view.

As a whole this serial managed to tell a bunch of very interesting stories while at the same time it painted what is the more comprehensive and realistic portrait of a city. Maybe is a bit depressing considering how virtually every character get morally compromised one way or another but it never indulges too much in it.

The closures are all rightly handled and for the first time I’m left with the impression of having just watched a 60 part movie, there is no filling, no throwaway stuff, everything flows nicely from the beginning till the very end. Sadly this is what denied “The wire” the success it deserved, as wonderful as this serial is when played on the PS3 it’s not advisable to watch it on TV, maybe after having missed a couple of episodes, the plot is so thick and complex that it can easily overwhelm.

One advice, watch it, now.

Book review: Rose Madder

An abused wife escapes a life of violence; her husband tries to track her down.

It’s simply not possible to overstate the importance of Stephen King. He single handedly revolutionized a genre and is depiction of American life earned him a place among the all time greats. There are those who would like you to believe that he lost his touch, that he should retire, but they are only little envious people who judge him not according to human standard, where even a “bad” Stephen King is a damn good book, but according to King standard, therefore one of his book is measured against one of his earliest masterpieces and if he doesn’t manage to totally reinvent a genre which he reinvented multiple times he is branded as unoriginal and derivative.

To the book in question this is one of those “bad” king’s book, so still good by anybody else standard. The main story is arguably extremely intense with a chilling depiction of the physical and psychological abuse that a wife can suffer. The first 100 pages are pitch perfect but then, as it often happens with king, he loses himself a little bit with various plotlines that are simply less interesting than the main one. The end, with the obligatory final showdown is again riveting and engaging.

Oddly King decided to spice the story up with an odd mythological counter plot. I must admit that it’s an interesting idea and that it manages to make the whole confrontation a primeval affair but I still have the impression that the book would have been much stronger just with the confrontation between the battered wife and the violent husband.

In the end this is a tad overlong book but it’s still riveting stuff, required reading for all genre fans.

Dvd review: In the loop

A group of politicians sets about starting the war in Iraq.

This movie is a spinoff of “The thick of it”, is practically the same stuff of the little known British TV serial but no previous knowledge of it is required, there is no reference to previous plotlines or stuff like that, is just a bigger, meaner version of the original.

There is a nominal plot with a lot of intrigues and betrayals about it but apart from being really complicated is also not that important because, after approximately 5 seconds you’ll be lost in the beauty of the dialogues.

Now is important to be really clear, these dialogues are some of the most vulgar stuff you’ll ever hear in your life, there is a level of dialectic violence here that is unparalleled so if you are one of those easily offended types, steer clear away of this movie.

The selling point of this movie is all here, in insults so over the top, so brilliantly constructed, that they acquire a strange kind of musicality. It’s a strange and wicked pleasure to watch those despicable individuals, led by the most despicable of them all, Malcolm (Peter Capaldi) the spin doctor of the British Prime Minister, go about the business of politics.

This is also I fear, a fairly accurate depiction of how modern politics works, exemplar is the figure of Simon Forster (Tom Hollander) who finds itself at the center of the political turmoil about the war in Iraq thanks to a series of erroneous statements.

This movie is one of the most quotable movies ever, an hilarious experience.

“Climbing the mountain of conflinct”? You sounded like a nazi Julie Andrews!

Malcolm Tucker