More Movies.
"Jesus Camp"
written and directed by: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
We always have something to say when we learn how third world countries are recruiting children to fight in their battles/wars. Well, it's happening stateside as well.
If you’re not afraid of the political influence of the Christian right wing, you probably will be after watching this fly-on-the-wall account of the annual Lakewood Park Bible Camp, a gathering for children as young as 5, hosted by Pentecostal minister Becky Fischer in Devil’s Lake, N.D. Filmmakers Ewing and Grady (Boys of Baraka, a SXSW Special Jury award winner) don’t editorialize much, but they set the events of the documentary against the nomination and confirmation of junior Justice Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court.
The film follows two children, specifically: 12-year-old Levi is a bright, born leader whose homeschool lessons teach that evolution is an “idea” and global warming “isn’t really that bad”; shy Rachael loves to witness and hopes to be a Christian manicurist when she’s older. At camp, multimedia sermons and hands-on activities teach the evils of abortion, profanity, and witchcraft. But that’s not all: The kids also salute a cardboard standee of President Bush, whom Fischer says has “brought some real credibility” to Christian government. You’ll also meet Pastor Ted Haggard, who heads the National Association of Evangelicals, which has 30 million members, and who takes a meeting with the president and his advisers every Monday.
The filmmakers do a good job of simply putting the camera on the faces of these kids as they interact while at the camp. You definitely get the fly-on-the-wall aspect, but cannot help wanting to interject and yell and argue with your television screen, as you listen to these adults fully manipulate these kids. The filmmakers are not the ones taking advantage or exploiting these kids. The message these kids are receiving while at the camp is that this is a call to arms, it is crucial that they pick not just any side, but the right side (alt-right, far-right, politically speaking) in this impending cultural, political, and spiritual war.
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"Nancy Drew"
starring: Emma Roberts, Tate Donovan, Craig Gellis, Max Thieriot, Amy Bruckner, Kay Panabaker, Cliff Bemis, Rachel Leigh Cook, Barry Bostwick
written and directed by: Andrew Fleming
Emma Roberts was only 16 years old when she decided to sort of step out of the shadows of her wickedly famous aunt, Julia Roberts, and take on the role of perhaps one of the most popular characters in children's books (at least for my generation). Nancy Drew. Along with the Hardy Boys (the brother detectives that I often read, while my sister dove into every single Nancy Drew book in the series- I can still see the yellow hardcover books, along with my blue colored Hardy Boys books).
Robert Rodriguez made kid detectives popular with his "Spy Kids" series, which was a fresh and entertaining series. Unfortunately, "Nancy Drew" fails on many accounts, but most of all for the filmmakers ridiculous attempt to mix the old with the new. As Nancy, Emma Roberts dresses more fittingly retro (which gets her made fun of and seen as an outsider by her peers- she's just odd to them). You cannot have it both ways and make something successful, especially when it comes to deeply loved characters that should invoke nostalgia for the older audience, instead we get the sense of feeling ripped off. But, that was the studio's or the filmmaker's decision to clearly go for the tween demographic.
In an attempt to make Nancy Drew more appealing to current tweens, the filmmakers have taken the girl out of pedestrian River Heights (located in one of those flyover states, we’re told) and moved her to Los Angeles, where she attends Hollywood High amid a setting ripe for a remake of Clueless. Given her throwback fashion sense of Fifties-style plaids, pleats, knee socks, and penny loafers (designed by costuming pro Jeffrey Kurland), Nancy appears to her chic classmates as ripe for a makeover. Thank goodness for strong-willed girls: Not only will Nancy Drew solve mysteries that stymie professional crime-solvers, she remains self-confident about her unique fashion identity and exceptional intelligence. Yet this 21st century Nancy Drew seems more about the clothes and other tween concerns than the mysteries and danger that fueled her between-the-covers escapades.
As Nancy traverses the city solving a Hollywood mystery that has defied professional sleuthers for decades, her target audience is other contemporary teens and not the older women in the audience who, during their own youth, devoured the character's adventures with each passing book.
I wanted to like this, but just found it rather ridiculous as there seemed to be a lot of "Home Alone" moments throughout the film, as well, gags here and there that just seemed foolish. It was definitely a good jumping off point for Emma Roberts career, though.
..........................................................................
"Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny"
starring: Jack Black, Kyle Glass, JR Reed, Ronnie James Dio, Paul F. Tompkins, Troy Gentile, Ned Bellamy, Fred Armisen, Amy Poehler, Tim Robbins, Dave Grohl, Ben Stiller, Meat Loaf
written by: Jack Black and Kyle Glass
directed by: Liam Lynch
If you know what you're getting yourself into by putting this movie on, then I guess you get what you deserve. Either that, or you smoked a lot of weed and feed the premise hilarious. This was Jack Black's first (and final) attempt at writing a script, because he felt so defeated by the process and the reception. But, come on, man. What did you expect. It's an absolutely ridiculous story and plays itself out like a stoner rock opera/musical.
If you're not familiar with the cult of Tenacious D, I'll just say it's a fictional, attitudinal rock & roll duo consisting of the portly, manic Black and the portly, bald, chill-monkey Gass. The self-proclaimed "greatest band in the world" (starring, here, in "the most important film ever made") is a walking, rocking hyperbole storm, incorporating Black Sabbath's dark-arts lyricism with 2112-era Rush's fey fairies and arpeggio runs, and slathering all manner of yuks over the top, from the profane to the pratfall. The plot – actually, it's the pair's origin story – has JB and KG seeking the title's guitar pick, which, having been chipped from the choppers of Satan himself (he shows up in person in the film's blisteringly rocktastic denouement), allows its owner to strum the chords of evil genius with unholy rockability. Both fledgling guitar gods and monsters, JB and KG set out on a cross-country mission to steal the pick from its current resting place in a rock & roll museum and thereby secure their place in rock history.
Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters and Nirvana) makes an unrecognizable cameo as the Devil in the film's finality. Now, that makes it worth it. Or you could just fast-forward to the end, because honestly, you won't miss much.
............................................................................
"Spawn"
starring: Michael Jai White, John Leguizamo, Martin Sheen, Theresa Randle, Nicol Williamson, D.B. Sweeney, Melinda Clarke, Miko Hughes, Sydni Beaudoin
written by: Alan B. McElroy
directed by: Mark A.Z. Dippe
Oh boy, the '90s. What a time for films. They were so proud of their technology that they used it as much as possible, especially in this dark comic-book-turned-movie. It's about making a deal with the devil and the devil represented here is just a ridiculous graphic that floats in a fire of reds and oranges, whose mouth doesn't even move when he speaks. These days, the technological advances are so great and beyond what 1997 had to offer that I can't help but of Gollum or Smaug (from the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchises). Now those are computerized villains!
Spawn was a bit of an experimental art film back in 1997. 20 years later, though, it is a laughable footnote in filmmaking as an art.
A man named Al Simmons (Michael Jai White) is happily married and at peace with himself, when he's recruited on a mission to destroy a biological warfare factory in North Korea. The mission is a setup. He is horribly burned and disfigured, and made captive of the forces of darkness. They offer him a deal: Lead the army of evil, and he can see his wife again. He loves her, and he agrees.
..............................................................................
"Fort Bliss"
starring: Michelle Monaghan, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Pablo Schreiber, Ron Livingston, Gbenga Akinnagbe, John Savage, Freddy Rodriguez, Dash Mihok, Juan Gabriel Pareja, Oakes Fegley, Manolo Cardona
written and directed by: Claudia Myers
This is a very patriotic film. But, it's also a very brutally honest film about the effects of war (on the soldiers and their families). This is also a film with a strong female lead, and Michelle Monaghan owns this role and bears the heavy weight on her shoulders and handles it well. Her character has some deep scars. Maggie Swann (Monaghan) is a proud, tough sergeant who is coming back from an assignment to be reunited with her son (who's been living with his dad, her ex-husband, and his new wife, played by Entourage alum Emmanuelle Chiriqui).
Serving one’s loved ones and serving one’s country need not be mutually exclusive. Take it from Maggie: “I love my son and I love my country…I don’t think I should have to choose between them.”
As established in the opening scene, a high-stakes mid-combat rescue mission in the heart of the Middle East, Sgt. Swann is an ace medic who puts fellow male trainees to shame, and she gets a certain kick from authentic boots-on-the-ground experiences (like The Hurt Locker, this is a film that fetishizes combat as something akin to a narcotic fix). But a lingering sense of guilt leads her back home to Paul, who’s spent the bulk of his development with the wife of Maggie’s ex (Emmanuelle Chriqui) as his maternal figure. Understandably, she’s greeted by rejection.
Fort Bliss’s dramatic crux is Maggie’s tenuous negotiation between the domestic life and motherly role she’s trying to reassume in Texas and her persistent attempts to satisfy her professional urge. A hopeful love interest comes in the form of a Mexican beefcake hilariously tattooed with the tag “The Future,” but Maggie’s call of duty ultimately wins out, at which point the film offers its most egregious affronts to narrative plausibility and psychological honesty. In a miraculous aligning of stars, Maggie gets everything her way: a desired leadership role in a return trip to Afghanistan, a disapproving ex (Ron Livingston) suddenly turned accommodating, and a son projecting an impossible display of tender humility in the face of yet another abandonment.
Something tells me that real-life doesn't work out this way, though, but the film does a decent job at presenting all the casualties of war and the prices paid by those that serve.
This is a decent film and worth checking out.
written and directed by: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
If you’re not afraid of the political influence of the Christian right wing, you probably will be after watching this fly-on-the-wall account of the annual Lakewood Park Bible Camp, a gathering for children as young as 5, hosted by Pentecostal minister Becky Fischer in Devil’s Lake, N.D. Filmmakers Ewing and Grady (Boys of Baraka, a SXSW Special Jury award winner) don’t editorialize much, but they set the events of the documentary against the nomination and confirmation of junior Justice Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court.
The film follows two children, specifically: 12-year-old Levi is a bright, born leader whose homeschool lessons teach that evolution is an “idea” and global warming “isn’t really that bad”; shy Rachael loves to witness and hopes to be a Christian manicurist when she’s older. At camp, multimedia sermons and hands-on activities teach the evils of abortion, profanity, and witchcraft. But that’s not all: The kids also salute a cardboard standee of President Bush, whom Fischer says has “brought some real credibility” to Christian government. You’ll also meet Pastor Ted Haggard, who heads the National Association of Evangelicals, which has 30 million members, and who takes a meeting with the president and his advisers every Monday.
The filmmakers do a good job of simply putting the camera on the faces of these kids as they interact while at the camp. You definitely get the fly-on-the-wall aspect, but cannot help wanting to interject and yell and argue with your television screen, as you listen to these adults fully manipulate these kids. The filmmakers are not the ones taking advantage or exploiting these kids. The message these kids are receiving while at the camp is that this is a call to arms, it is crucial that they pick not just any side, but the right side (alt-right, far-right, politically speaking) in this impending cultural, political, and spiritual war.
.......................................................................
"Nancy Drew"
starring: Emma Roberts, Tate Donovan, Craig Gellis, Max Thieriot, Amy Bruckner, Kay Panabaker, Cliff Bemis, Rachel Leigh Cook, Barry Bostwick
written and directed by: Andrew Fleming
Emma Roberts was only 16 years old when she decided to sort of step out of the shadows of her wickedly famous aunt, Julia Roberts, and take on the role of perhaps one of the most popular characters in children's books (at least for my generation). Nancy Drew. Along with the Hardy Boys (the brother detectives that I often read, while my sister dove into every single Nancy Drew book in the series- I can still see the yellow hardcover books, along with my blue colored Hardy Boys books).
Robert Rodriguez made kid detectives popular with his "Spy Kids" series, which was a fresh and entertaining series. Unfortunately, "Nancy Drew" fails on many accounts, but most of all for the filmmakers ridiculous attempt to mix the old with the new. As Nancy, Emma Roberts dresses more fittingly retro (which gets her made fun of and seen as an outsider by her peers- she's just odd to them). You cannot have it both ways and make something successful, especially when it comes to deeply loved characters that should invoke nostalgia for the older audience, instead we get the sense of feeling ripped off. But, that was the studio's or the filmmaker's decision to clearly go for the tween demographic.
In an attempt to make Nancy Drew more appealing to current tweens, the filmmakers have taken the girl out of pedestrian River Heights (located in one of those flyover states, we’re told) and moved her to Los Angeles, where she attends Hollywood High amid a setting ripe for a remake of Clueless. Given her throwback fashion sense of Fifties-style plaids, pleats, knee socks, and penny loafers (designed by costuming pro Jeffrey Kurland), Nancy appears to her chic classmates as ripe for a makeover. Thank goodness for strong-willed girls: Not only will Nancy Drew solve mysteries that stymie professional crime-solvers, she remains self-confident about her unique fashion identity and exceptional intelligence. Yet this 21st century Nancy Drew seems more about the clothes and other tween concerns than the mysteries and danger that fueled her between-the-covers escapades.
As Nancy traverses the city solving a Hollywood mystery that has defied professional sleuthers for decades, her target audience is other contemporary teens and not the older women in the audience who, during their own youth, devoured the character's adventures with each passing book.
I wanted to like this, but just found it rather ridiculous as there seemed to be a lot of "Home Alone" moments throughout the film, as well, gags here and there that just seemed foolish. It was definitely a good jumping off point for Emma Roberts career, though.
..........................................................................
"Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny"
starring: Jack Black, Kyle Glass, JR Reed, Ronnie James Dio, Paul F. Tompkins, Troy Gentile, Ned Bellamy, Fred Armisen, Amy Poehler, Tim Robbins, Dave Grohl, Ben Stiller, Meat Loaf
written by: Jack Black and Kyle Glass
directed by: Liam Lynch
If you know what you're getting yourself into by putting this movie on, then I guess you get what you deserve. Either that, or you smoked a lot of weed and feed the premise hilarious. This was Jack Black's first (and final) attempt at writing a script, because he felt so defeated by the process and the reception. But, come on, man. What did you expect. It's an absolutely ridiculous story and plays itself out like a stoner rock opera/musical.
If you're not familiar with the cult of Tenacious D, I'll just say it's a fictional, attitudinal rock & roll duo consisting of the portly, manic Black and the portly, bald, chill-monkey Gass. The self-proclaimed "greatest band in the world" (starring, here, in "the most important film ever made") is a walking, rocking hyperbole storm, incorporating Black Sabbath's dark-arts lyricism with 2112-era Rush's fey fairies and arpeggio runs, and slathering all manner of yuks over the top, from the profane to the pratfall. The plot – actually, it's the pair's origin story – has JB and KG seeking the title's guitar pick, which, having been chipped from the choppers of Satan himself (he shows up in person in the film's blisteringly rocktastic denouement), allows its owner to strum the chords of evil genius with unholy rockability. Both fledgling guitar gods and monsters, JB and KG set out on a cross-country mission to steal the pick from its current resting place in a rock & roll museum and thereby secure their place in rock history.
Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters and Nirvana) makes an unrecognizable cameo as the Devil in the film's finality. Now, that makes it worth it. Or you could just fast-forward to the end, because honestly, you won't miss much.
............................................................................
"Spawn"
starring: Michael Jai White, John Leguizamo, Martin Sheen, Theresa Randle, Nicol Williamson, D.B. Sweeney, Melinda Clarke, Miko Hughes, Sydni Beaudoin
written by: Alan B. McElroy
directed by: Mark A.Z. Dippe
Oh boy, the '90s. What a time for films. They were so proud of their technology that they used it as much as possible, especially in this dark comic-book-turned-movie. It's about making a deal with the devil and the devil represented here is just a ridiculous graphic that floats in a fire of reds and oranges, whose mouth doesn't even move when he speaks. These days, the technological advances are so great and beyond what 1997 had to offer that I can't help but of Gollum or Smaug (from the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchises). Now those are computerized villains!
Spawn was a bit of an experimental art film back in 1997. 20 years later, though, it is a laughable footnote in filmmaking as an art.
A man named Al Simmons (Michael Jai White) is happily married and at peace with himself, when he's recruited on a mission to destroy a biological warfare factory in North Korea. The mission is a setup. He is horribly burned and disfigured, and made captive of the forces of darkness. They offer him a deal: Lead the army of evil, and he can see his wife again. He loves her, and he agrees.
After the setup, five years pass before the evil ones make good on their promise. Simmons by now is Spawn, seen either grotesquely scarred or in an elaborate costume. He goes to his old home, sees his wife (Theresa Randle) now happily remarried and is mistaken as a homeless man by everyone except his faithful little dog, Spaz.
Most of the movie involves Spawn's efforts to break loose from his bargain with the devil, whose representative is Clown, a fat, wisecracking midget played by John Leguizamo. Other key characters include Martin Sheen as Jason Wynn, a diabolical government agent who hopes to control the earth with biological blackmail, and Nicol Williamson as Cogliostro, Clown's enemy and a counterforce for good. Spawn has agreed to lead Armageddon for the powers of hell, but now finds himself trapped between good and evil.
To think this film was quite a cinematic feat in 1997 says a lot as we've been able to see the evolution of comic book films (re: Marvel, most specifically). It can certainly make you appreciate what we get to watch these days up on the big screen...............................................................................
"Fort Bliss"
starring: Michelle Monaghan, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Pablo Schreiber, Ron Livingston, Gbenga Akinnagbe, John Savage, Freddy Rodriguez, Dash Mihok, Juan Gabriel Pareja, Oakes Fegley, Manolo Cardona
written and directed by: Claudia Myers
This is a very patriotic film. But, it's also a very brutally honest film about the effects of war (on the soldiers and their families). This is also a film with a strong female lead, and Michelle Monaghan owns this role and bears the heavy weight on her shoulders and handles it well. Her character has some deep scars. Maggie Swann (Monaghan) is a proud, tough sergeant who is coming back from an assignment to be reunited with her son (who's been living with his dad, her ex-husband, and his new wife, played by Entourage alum Emmanuelle Chiriqui).
Serving one’s loved ones and serving one’s country need not be mutually exclusive. Take it from Maggie: “I love my son and I love my country…I don’t think I should have to choose between them.”
As established in the opening scene, a high-stakes mid-combat rescue mission in the heart of the Middle East, Sgt. Swann is an ace medic who puts fellow male trainees to shame, and she gets a certain kick from authentic boots-on-the-ground experiences (like The Hurt Locker, this is a film that fetishizes combat as something akin to a narcotic fix). But a lingering sense of guilt leads her back home to Paul, who’s spent the bulk of his development with the wife of Maggie’s ex (Emmanuelle Chriqui) as his maternal figure. Understandably, she’s greeted by rejection.
Fort Bliss’s dramatic crux is Maggie’s tenuous negotiation between the domestic life and motherly role she’s trying to reassume in Texas and her persistent attempts to satisfy her professional urge. A hopeful love interest comes in the form of a Mexican beefcake hilariously tattooed with the tag “The Future,” but Maggie’s call of duty ultimately wins out, at which point the film offers its most egregious affronts to narrative plausibility and psychological honesty. In a miraculous aligning of stars, Maggie gets everything her way: a desired leadership role in a return trip to Afghanistan, a disapproving ex (Ron Livingston) suddenly turned accommodating, and a son projecting an impossible display of tender humility in the face of yet another abandonment.
Something tells me that real-life doesn't work out this way, though, but the film does a decent job at presenting all the casualties of war and the prices paid by those that serve.
This is a decent film and worth checking out.
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