Disturbia

Operation Stupid is officially over!

Disturbia, staring the surprisingly good, Shia LaBeouf, is a very clever teenage horror/comedy. Depicting our tech dependant lifestyles spot on is what I truly love about this film. With some very good films under his belt I'm sure LaBeouf will become an excellent actor. He really is the best thing in the 2006 political drama, Bobby.

After the death of his father, Kale, is put under house arrest for knocking out his Spanish teacher. Under extreme boredom and after a few good comedy moment, he begins spying on his neighbors in a very Hitchcockian fashion.

There is some truly funny lines in this film, but the thing is its so realistic and natural. They talk the way we talk and act the way suburbia kids do. From eating peanut butter and chocolate syrup and red bull while watching Cheaters to our extreme paranoia. Or maybe that's just me.

But soon after the comedy banter between Kale and his Korean friend and the love interest and about 80 minutes, Disturbia becomes a very tense thriller. It was expected and built up to but I really expected the horror elements to be far more prevalent in the movie. That's what makes this different...and still very familiar. Hahaha. See Rear Window and The 'burbs.

Fargo

Fargo is such a good Coen Brothers' film. I'd think it was one of the best. Fargo merges the serious Coen films such as No Country for Old Men with some of they're more comedic movie like The Big Lebowski.

Fargo is the true (or is it?) story of a bizarre kidnapping conspired by the victim's husband, non other than William H. Macy, in order to get some cash out of his father-in-law. The kidnappers are Coen regulars, Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare. Stormare plays the quiet and subtle, but sadistic, Gaear Grimsrud. Buscemi, quite the opposite of Stormare, is the load and annoying Carl Showalter, creating an odd couple.



Along the way people began to interfere with Macy's plan. His father-in-law get the police in on it. Frances McDormand, Joel Coen's wife, is a pregnant cop in search of the kidnappers. She puts on one of the best voices in the film besides Macy.

So, I think this is one of the Coen's best. It has great comedy, good tension, although not a tense as No Country.

Donnie Darko

I promise, that one day, everything's going to be better for you.

Richard Kelly makes one crazzzzzzy sci fi thriller that needs you attention! Donnie Darko is a love it or hate affair. So, this film is a dark, comedic, sad, happy, confusing (the first time), drama set in 1988.

I remember the first time I saw this. I was probably about 12 and my dad had this recommended to him. Frankly, I wasn't looking forward to it, but after i saw it i knew it was brilliant! My dad, not so much. He just didn't understand it and just didn't care. I was so engrossed I wanted to watch it again in hopes of understanding.

Fast forward a few year and I see it on TV and it re sparked my interest. Soon I buy the DVD although my parent's protest (they just don't get it I guess) and watch it over and over.

Now then, premise. Donnie Darko is about, well Donnie Darko. I know what your thinking "Sounds like a superhero". Well how do you know hes not? Haha. Donnie is a weird kid. He has massive sleepwalking problems, but that's the first of his issues. Soon he if visited by a very...ugly bunny. Frank is his name. And Frank tells him the world will in in 28 days... 6 hours... 42 minutes... and 12 seconds.

Donnie goes to a very...bad prep school in a small West Virginian town called Middlesex, a very normal town with normal kids. But soon things get strange, out of the ordinary. A jet engine falls in Donnie's room. Thanks to Frank and his sleepwalking he is still alive. From there things go bad. Awesome surreal bad.

Although this film could never of been made in the 80's it has a very 80's feel, which is great. Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal give the performances of there career, playing siblings. Through its absurdity, Donnie Darko can be seen in two different ways. One may see it as a reverse It's a Wonderful Life set during Halloween, or a Messianic tale of a flawed savior. All and all, see this film. Maybe it'll break your top ten. By the way, President Roslin is Donnie's mom. All thoes Battlestar geek like me will get that.

High and Low

High and Low is Akira Kurosawa's beautiful social commentary on Japanese business and culture. This film is a film of two halves really. Post-WWII Japan was a very hard time. A whole country if grief and sorrow after the war. With Films like Godzilla coming out, everyone needed a way to express their inward feelings.




Toshirô Mifune, a Kurosawa regular, plays a longtime shoemaker, Kingo Gondo (almost sounds like a Muppet). The movie opens with other executives of the powerful company paying Mifune a most unpleasant visit. They give a proposition. The other shareholders want to overthrow the 'Old Man', the company president and start making crap shoes so people will have to buy more often. Mifune is absolutely outraged at this and throws them out.






Very soon he gets a call from a mysterious stranger (or is it?) saying he has kidnapped his son, but to their surprise Toshiro's son is still there...but his friend isn't! Soon we get the cops involved and we go to work trying to save the little boy. But the kidnapper's ransom is just about all poor Mr. Gondo has left because he sold most of his money to buy out the shoe company!






So eventually in the second half Toshiro takes a backseat while we follow the detectives and try to find the evil monster who did this dirty deed. The film takes a very weird turn there. As brilliant as this film is, I don't really like the twist. Well no, I do like it, but it just goes somewhere completely unexpected. So as a 'whodunit' some people might not like it, but i just think it feels a little weird. That being said, High and Low is Kurosawa at his best and something that should not be missed.

Mrs.Doubtfire

I can hip-hop, be-bop, dance till ya drop, and yo yo yo, make a mean cup of coco.

Mrs. Doubtfire is one of those classic films I remember from when I was very young. I recently had the chance to see the film on HBO and record it. This is one of those films kids and adults can watch together. Children will love the physical gags and adults can get the more mature jokes and not worry about the kids because chances are, it'll go right over their heads.

Robin Williams is hysterical as Danial Hillard, a recent divorcee hating every minute of it. The struggling actor is, as he puts it, "addicted to his kids". And now he has 90 days to prove that he is a responsible adult and can hold a steady job and create a living environment with his kids, all while only seeing his kids for a couple hours on Saturdays.

Soon Danial finds out that his corporate ex-wife is looking for a nanny. With a little help from his gay brother and 'Aunt' Jack his is turned into a British nanny. Easily he is back into his family's life in the skin of Mrs Euphegenia Doutfire.

Whats is also so great about this film is the references to other great films with a similar nature such as Some Like It Hot, Kramer vs. Kramer, Sunset Blvd, and Psycho. Robin Williams' excellent and layered voices also add comic genus that kids and adults can both enjoy.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

We are the Knights who say... NI.

This classic Python film was the first I saw. Still haven't seen Life of Brain. Filled to the brim with hilarious quotable genus, the Pythons really out did themselves. Everyone know this film even if they've never seen anything Monty Python.

With their first film, Monty Python rip apart medieval history, much like the show often did. We mostly see what is supposed to be King Arthur in search of the Holy Grail, By the way, this film is nothing like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. If what you looking for is an adventure about a cup...go away.

This film is just a ramp through raw British comedy. No seriousness needed. That's all i have to say. Hahaha.

SPAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!