Cinema Verdict Review: Beginners

Beginners Poster
Beginners
OPENING: 06/03/2011
STUDIO: Focus Features
RUN TIME: 105 min
ACCOMPLICES: Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
This is what love feels like.

Opening Statement
Listeners of the F This Movie podcast may have heard my DVD Verdict colleagues’ defense of the ambitious failure. Those movies try to do something different because they come from an artistic vision rather than a marketing committee, and sometimes the results aren’t successful. I admire movies that are different too, which is why Beginners inspires mixed feelings for me. There are many endearingly unique touches but here’s a case where the sum of the parts don’t add up to a satisfying viewing experience.

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Cinema Verdict Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
OPENING: 07/01/2011
STUDIO: Paramount Pictures
RUN TIME: 157 min
ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Be afraid of the dark.

Opening Statement
Michael Bay’s Transformers was a disappointment, and his Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was regarded by many (myself included) as an insufferable disaster. However, audiences have responded to the franchise with enthusiasm, so Bay is back once again with Transformers: Dark of the Moon. It’s yet another letdown from the famed director, but it comes a bit closer to hitting the mark than either of its predecessors.
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Cinema Verdict Review: Cars 2

Cars 2
OPENING: 06/24/2011
STUDIO: Pixar Animation Studios
RUN TIME: 112 min
ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
We rejoin all our Radiator Spring friends as they jet-set around the world.

Opening Statement
I am a Pixar apologetic at heart. I absolutely love any, well most, Pixar films. Their motto of “Story is King” is the battle cry I let out before every film I watch. I own most of their films, which is much more then I can say for any other studio putting out all animation. So when they give me something sub-par I wince, I sob, I cry like there’s no Santa Claus. The original Cars is my least favorite of all the Pixar films. Some would say, “The least Pixar film is still better then most others” and I kind of agree with that sentiment. However, they have built themselves a rather high pedestal to stand on and when they don’t reach those heights, it’s a long way down. So what happens when these Cars go onto further adventures?
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Cinema Verdict Review: Green Lantern

Green Lantern
OPENING: 06/17/2011
STUDIO: Warner Bros.
RUN TIME: 105 min
ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
In brightest day. In blackest night.

Opening Statement
While DC Comics has a large stable of iconic superheroes that ranks as a worthy rival to the lineup Marvel has to offer, considerably more of Marvel’s characters have been given the swanky big-screen treatment. While Marvel has provided us with films about The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Daredevil, Captain America, Thor and others, DC has primarily focused on the one-two punch of Batman and Superman (with occasional flops about characters from those two universes, such as Supergirl, Catwoman and Steel). At long last, we’re breaking away from the old routine with Green Lantern. Unfortunately, this new franchise is off to an awfully rough start.
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Cinema Verdict Review: The Perfect Host

The Perfect Host
OPENING: 07/01/2011
STUDIO: Magnet Releasing
RUN TIME:93 min
ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
A bank robber lies about his identity, a gentleman invites him into his house for dinner. This will not end well.

Opening Statement
What you expect from a film really paints what you will feel about the film afterward. Whether you are partial to or despise the director or one of the actors, if you’ve heard good or bad reviews from friends, or if you’ve been sucked in or led astray by marketing will already start you with a bias before even one frame has flickered by. I try not to let anything sway me, and to that end, marketing is something that I’m trying to steer away from. Trailers lately have seemed especially poor at marketing. They tend to promise you one thing when the film is going to deliver something else. So you walk in expecting a cool glass of champagne but it’s not until you sit down and drink that you realize you were served a tangy cup of lemonade. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth, to finish the allegory. I start off with this explanation to lay all my cards on the table. I want you to know that my distaste for this film may have originally stemmed from expecting something different then what I received. Hopefully, in this way, I can tell you exactly what you’re in for and save you from the same fate.
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Cinema Verdict Review: Super 8

Super 8
OPENING: 06/10/2011
STUDIO: Paramount Pictures
RUN TIME: 112 min
ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
From J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg.

Opening Statement
After adding a solid installment to the popular Mission: Impossible franchise and successfully re-booting the Star Trek franchise, writer/director/producer/generally beloved media figure J.J. Abrams finally gets to tackle an original story with Super 8. Steven Spielberg is the film’s executive producer, and it quickly becomes clear that Super 8 is a love letter to the kind of films Spielberg was producing and directing during the early 1980s (E.T. and The Goonies immediately come to mind, though there are a host of other influences). While Abrams doesn’t quite match the best of the films it imitates, it nonetheless proves an engaging, touching cinematic homage.
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Cinema Verdict Review: Smoke

Smoke (Dym)
RUN TIME: 8 min
ACCOMPLICES:
,

The Charge
The story of the person who became the captive of surrealistic madness.

Opening Statement
A short film from Poland brings your daily fill of beautiful art.
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Cinema Verdict Review: X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class
OPENING: 06/03/2011
STUDIO: Fox
RUN TIME: 132 min
ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Witness the moment that will change our world.

Opening Statement
I’ve always had a bit more affection for the X-Men franchise than it honestly deserves. Prior to the release of X-Men: First Class, four installments of the series had been churned out; only one of which had actually been a really satisfying picture (that would be X2: X-Men United). Despite this, the immense potential lurking within the depths of the franchise is undeniable. Part of the reason that a film like X-Men: The Last Stand is so frustrating is that it’s obvious the film could have been a terrific summer blockbuster had it been handled better. Rather than actually re-booting the series, Fox decided to launch an in-continuity prequel which would explore the origins of the mutant superhero team. So, how does X-Men: First Class fare? Well…the series still has a lot of potential.
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Cinema Verdict Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
OPENING: 05/20/2011
STUDIO: Disney Films
RUN TIME: 137 min
ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
In the fourth Pirates opus, Jack’s back. But can this new story under a new helmer be as good as its predecessors?

Opening Statement
There are many people who love the initial entry of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, although seeing the awfulness that was The Country Bears and knowing that The Haunted Mansion was soon to follow, Pirates just seemed like a similar ploy for Disney to pillage their old tourist attractions and try to eke out a few doubloons. However, Pirates found a savior in Johnny Depp and his oddly mannered but oddly alluring Jack Sparrow. He is still the best reason to watch any of the three (now four) Pirates films. He has carved out for himself a place on the list of greatest characters ever committed to celluloid. The success of Pirates led to the inevitable sequels and the unavoidable franchise that developed. Most said the films that followed the first Pirates installment were unfocused and bloated, a CGI discordance. I however find their breadth and scope, the imagination and the gutsy-ness it took to bring these stories to the screen, both amazing and inspiring. The fourth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, is a worthy successor into the further adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow.
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Cinema Verdict Review: Summer Children

Summer Children
OPENING: 05/13/2011
STUDIO: Robinette Productions
RUN TIME:86 min
ACCOMPLICES:
, Official Site

The Charge
This long lost film from 1965 gets a remastering and a new life on the big screen.

Opening Statement
In 1953, Morris Engel made a film called Little Fugative. It was about a boy who thought he had killed his older brother and ran off to Coney Island to live on his own. It’s a charming piece that bucked the trends of cinema at that time. Engel was more interested in capturing the realism of this little boy in this big world than in having a tight and well rehearsed story. Francois Truffaut, famous director of the French New Wave, credited Engel for helping begin this new style that took over European cinema from 1958 to 1964. Their approach was low budget and avant-garde. They dismissed traditional narrative and plots in place of more introspective and existential themes. This, in turn, then began influencing American filmmakers and starting around the mid ’60s the American New Wave, or New Hollywood, began and implemented all the same techniques, most with more solid plot lines and great results. Such films as The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy came out of this era; pieces again more interested in mood and theme, outside of the studio system, but speaking to the culture of that day. Summer Children, directed by James Bruner and written by Norman Handelsman, neither of whom had done a movie before nor done one since, was filmed in 1965 and is an early example of the New Hollywood style film in all its greatness and shortcomings.
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