Hey, look at that, I actually kept to my schedule! I promised at least three reviews by the end of the month. Here's three plus one. I'll keep this short, because I still have plenty to do. Expect me to write on Superman: The Movie, Superman Returns, Strangers with Candy, A Scanner Darkly, and Clerks II amongst others. It's sure to be a blast. Keep checking back.


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Review by Jon Waterman

**

Michael Newman is always in a race to stay afloat. He scrambles to finish his architectural design concepts, because he’s been promised time after time that this next one will land him a position as partner. He tries to make time for his wife and kids, but somehow his demanding work schedule doesn’t seem to want that to happen. He has to juggle an upcoming July 4th outing with the family and a massive new account guaranteeing the promotion with a successful design and presentation. To make matters worse, the neighbors are always flaunting all their new toys. Well, Michael decides to get a toy of his own, a universal remote that controls everything. Little does he know that when they say everything, they mean everything.

In case you haven’t seen an ad, or if you couldn’t guess it already, the remote controls everything within Michael’s universe, and he’s the only one that knows it. He can rewind to watch events that occurred in the past. He can make everyone speak in a different language, use picture-in-picture. He can go to his main menu and listen to the audio commentary on his life (which is really just action description). But most importantly for the sake of the plot, he can fast forward through all the boring stuff like traffic. Sounds pretty cool, but the movie misses out on the key aspect of the fantasy of being able to control your life through a remote. Everyone wants the ability to manipulate time, but you want it to suit your purpose. Why would you fast forward the tough parts? It doesn’t make your life easier or less stressful, it just makes it so that you don’t remember the stress because you put your body on auto-pilot. Wouldn’t it be better and more efficient to pause life and then do what you need to do?
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+++++++++++


The Lake House
Review by Jon Waterman

***

Alex just moved into a rundown mostly abandoned lake house that his father built. Shortly after moving in, he receives a letter in the mailbox asking him to forward any mail addressed to Kate to a specific new address. This makes Alex suspicious, because unless there was a squatter he didn’t know about, the house had been unoccupied since he was a child. He even goes to the forwarding address to possibly let this person know that they must be mistaken. When he arrives, he finds that the new building will not be finished for at least a year. His only option is to leave a letter in the mailbox explaining the situation. They correspond back and forth and eventually discover not only are they falling for each other through their letters, but also that Kate lives two years in the future from Alex.

Can love truly transcend time? The creative forces behind this film certainly hope so. Now the concept may seem rather laughable. I mean come on. Are you really telling me that there’s a magical mailbox somewhere (along with a know it all dog that is never fully explained) that can pass letters back and forth through time? It’s easy to be cynical, but it’s actually easier to get caught up in their alternate reality where it is possible. It’s not like we’re going off the “Kate & Leopold” premise of someone finding a portal to 1875 or whatever by jumping of the right spot of the Brooklyn Bridge. That’s ridiculous. This is simple enough to be effective.
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+++++++++++


Lady Vengeance
Review by Jon Waterman

**1/2

In what became the shocking news event of the town had ever seen, Geum-ja Lee, only nineteen years of age, was sent to prison for the kidnapping and murder of a small child. Her confession and reenactment for the press ensured that she would be in there for a long time. That doesn’t mean she wouldn’t make the most of it, however. While inside, she discovers that her accomplice, Mr. Baek (the one she went to prison to protect) had completely betrayed her. So she climbs the ranks amongst the convicts, makes a lot of new friends, and plots her revenge upon her release. Thirteen years later, the gears are put into motion and there may not be anything or anybody that can stop her.

Chan-wook Park delivers the final and marginally weakest installment in his Revenge Trilogy. After “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” and “Oldboy,” “Lady” doesn’t have a whole lot new to offer, especially in the visual department. It lacks the stunning landscapes of “Sympathy” and doesn’t come anywhere near “Oldboy” in terms of dynamic camera work. But that’s okay. This film still looks great in its own way, even if it is a little more standard in its approach. The story as well gives off the feel that we’ve seen it before. Perhaps it’s that all three share a main thread of kidnapping. But even though they are clearly different, and none share as much as a single character, you sort of get the feeling that you know what’s going to happen in this third installment.
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+++++++++


Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Review by Jon Waterman

***

Ryu will do anything and everything within his power to help his dying sister get the kidney transplant she needs, but for whatever reason doesn’t seem to want. He’s tried being a donor, but the blood types don’t match. Then he got a little more desperate and went to a group he saw advertised on the bathroom wall. Well, he lost his kidney in the hopes that they would find a proper one at a later date. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. After spending the money and losing his organ, he has virtually no other options. That’s when his radical, activist girlfriend suggests they kidnap the daughter of his former boss so they can pay for a proper medical transplant. This has to end well.

Pay close attention to this one. Try not to get up to go to the bathroom or get more snacks, because you’ll probably miss something that ends up pretty important later. There are several McGuffins here, although unfortunately almost all of them are obviously so. Despite that, the effectiveness of the story really isn’t harmed all that much. What should have been a very typical tale of revenge actually turns out to be complicated in the way it’s told. To start, there sort of isn’t a main character. Sure Ryu is the main focus for a while, but after the ball really gets rolling, the boss President Park Dong-jin has his own main thread. This is where the title of the film comes in. Eventually both could be considered Mr. Vengeance and it’s not all too hard to have sympathy for either one of them.
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