It’s somewhat surprising for me to see that I’ve been doing this long enough now that movies I saw in theaters and subsequently reviewed are now hitting DVD. That’s probably nothing new for veteran bloggers, but being a young up-start myself that kind of puts things in perspective. Anyway, personal tangents aside, here are some excerpts, grades, and review links for films that have hit DVD in the last few weeks.
DEFINITELY, MAYBE
From the original review: “DEFINITELY MAYBE is a solid entry into the romantic comedy genre, and one of the more memorable ones of the last little while, mostly because it succeeds in elevating itself from just a straight up romance. It doesn’t break the boundaries of the genre, but at least it gives them a gentle little push.
Overall rating: B+
CARAMEL
From the original review: “CARAMEL remains the rarest breed of romantic comedy, the kind that will tickle your heart and your brain.”
Overall rating: B+
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This has been a pet-peeve of mine for some time now, but while recently watching JUMPER, I just got to the point where I felt I needed to get it off my chest. Mostly because I realized while it once was a trend, it now seems to have become an established technique. What I’m talking about is the tendency of films these days to have near seizure inducing editing in a film. Usually it occurs in fast-paced action bonanzas were some fight takes places, whether it involves just two guys fighting, a shoot-out, or just lots of explosions (or in the case of a Michael Bay or Tony Scott film, all of the above). Scenes like that are often edited so rapidly, with so many cuts and changing shots, that half-the-time it’s pretty impossible to make out what’s even going on. It drives me nuts. I didn’t pay $12 dollars to wait an entire film for a culminating final battle, only to have my eyes be unable to process so many subsequent images at once, leaving me seeing nothing but blurs.
Naturally, I understand the (supposed) artistic motivation behind it. The director and editor are aspiring to some form of verisimilitude; the editing is meant to stylistically mirror the kinetic franticness such a fight would have in reality. It’s meant to make you feel like you’re involved in the scene, and there through get you more pumped up about it. The quick editing makes it seem like more things are happening at a more frantic pace, and therefore the events become more exciting, right? Wrong. I appreciate the creative ambitions behind the editing, but I’d rather see what’s going on then have to settle for misplaced artistic ambitions in an action film.
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By: Alexander B. Huls
If any film proves that you need to be emotionally invested in its main character to get you to care about what happens throughout the course of the film, let alone what happens to that character, it’s JUMPER.
David Rice starts out leading your painfully clichéd miserable teenaged life. He’s your typical high school outsider “freak,” who gets picked on by the school bully who – of course – is dating David’s childhood crush, Millie, and comes from a broken home. So when David discovers that he’s a “jumper,” someone with the ability to teleport, it’s no surprise that he takes his new found powers and blows out of town. In no time he makes his way to New York City, develops his powers, and quickly finds a way to use it for his own day-to-day survival (i.e. robbing banks). Flash forward a few years, and a now twenty-something David lives in fancy loft garnished with photos of all the places he’s been, and a vault full of money.
It’s at this point where you start to realize David just isn’t likeable. He’s essentially a man who never stopped being a teenager, using his powers to basically live a life that is an adolescent boy’s fantasy come true. In one sequence he teleports around his apartment with teenage lethargy (instead of reaching for a remote on a couch, he teleports to the other side of the couch), jumps on top of the Sphinx for a leisure lunch, then England for a one night stand (his ability helping him avoid the “walk of shame”), and finally to Fiji for some surfing.
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