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.


Click
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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Alright, I know. I missed my July 4th weekend deadline. But I'll make it up to you. Sometime within the next couple weeks, there will be another post with at least three more reviews. That's right. By the end of the month, you will have seen at minimum 7 new reviews by yours truly. Reviews you can expect to see in the future include, but are not limited to, Click, Lady Vengeance (finally), The Lake House, Strangers with Candy, Superman Returns and the reason why I was waiting to post Lady Vengeance, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. And you know that won't be all. So, keep coming back. you know you want to.


Wordplay
Review by Jon Waterman

***

Will Shortz loves puzzles. He loves them so much that he became the first person ever to graduate with a degree in Enigmatology, a curriculum he created. You may wonder how someone would parlay a degree no one else has heard of into a full time job. Well, he became the crossword editor for the New York Times newspaper. Will certainly didn’t create the crossword puzzle, but he has taken them to a whole new level. He’s made them competitive. Will started the annual national crossword championship held in Stamford, Connecticut, where thousands rack their brains trying not only to complete the mind boggling grids, but to do so faster than everyone else in the overcrowded room. This is the story of five obsessive competitors and the man who forces them to think inside the box.

In the vein of the spelling bee documentary “Spellbound,” this documentary takes you into the minds and lives of several high ranking people (in the competitive circuit) that the filmmakers hope will be near the top of the competition leader board. I imagine this is the film we would get when those little kids grow up. The same format is also used in “Word Wars,” but very ineffectively since none of the people followed were really likable. In this film, however, it’s not hard to pick a favorite. Everyone has their quirks that help them connect with the audience. It’s easy to sense the passion and see the drive they have to breeze through the puzzles. There’s someone here for everyone to get behind and root for.
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+++++++++


Word Wars
Review by Jon Waterman

*

This documentary chronicles the journey of four individuals as they travel from city to city competing in various Scrabble tournaments. They’ve formed a little community within the circuit and everyone knows who the best players are. Tensions run high and placing fake words on the board will not be tolerated. As they approach the national championship, the cramming and mental stress begin to take their toll. Will one of these eccentric competitors have what it takes to overcome it all, focus on creating the best words available from all their tiles, and win the whole shebang?

Have you ever wondered what kind of person would enter a Scrabble tournament? Do you think you’re up to the challenge and have the word skills to pay the bills? If so then this just may be the movie for you. It may also make you never want to wonder things like that ever again. I can tell you right now that the answer to the second question is a resounding “no.” Unless you’re willing to essentially memorize the dictionary (just the words, definitions are meaningless in this game) and study different combinations of letters, as well as play the game for hours upon hours each day, then maybe you should just play your little cousin if you want to feel better about yourself.
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++++++++++


Overlord
Review by Jon Waterman

****

Tom is a young guy eager to join the British army and help the Allies win World War II. Quickly, he’s introduced to the new code of conduct and regulations he must abide by. We follow him as he stumbles through it all; from basic training to actual combat. From his down time enjoying the company of a nice girl to his departure to take part in Operation Overlord, Tom increasingly becomes more and more disillusioned not only with the war, but also with himself and his place in the world.

Simply put, this is a film buff’s wet dream. The cinematography alone will make you practically cream your jeans. Then when you think about how the filmmakers were somehow able to actually pull off that amalgamation of genres into a potable minimalistic story…well, that might send you over the edge. It’s a shame this film hasn’t been released theatrically before now, more than a quarter-century after its completion. Not only is it an amazingly strong piece of awe-inspiring filmmaking, but it’s also probably the only truly effective experimental narrative feature to be made within that time span.

Every serious film student and hardcore aficionado owes it to themselves to see this film.
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+++++++++


An Inconvenient Truth
Review by Jon Waterman

***1/2

What would you do if you thought the world might end today? I think the answer for most people would be to indulge in every imaginable sin and live in ignorant chaos until the ride came to an end. For others, it would be a time to be with family. Many would go to their respective God, repent and pray for forgiveness or perhaps a way to avoid the end of civilization. I doubt very many would even try to find out if the end was preventable. Even less would actually give it a shot. Saying that the end of the world is coming may be a bit drastic and inaccurate, but the crisis presented before us in this movie has the potential to completely devastate the living populations of this planet with most of our lifetimes. The problem is getting exponentially worse. Is there a solution, and will you be part of it?

The answer to that first part is yes. As for the second part of the question…well, you’re on your own. But I hope you at least watch the film with an open mind before you make your decision. It’s certainly well worth watching. An Inconceivable Crisis is taking place and you’re shown Indisputable Evidence as to what’s causing it and what will continue to happen should the current trends trudge on. The result is An Indescribable Reminder that political persuasion is far too great on both sides and that too many pressing issues get pushed aside in favor of the popular hot button flash-in-the-pan controversies. The system doesn’t seem to have a system that is willing to look past the four-to-six year mark, which is sad, because there are many potentially dangerous situations that could come to a head in the next few decades that require preventative measures now (this global warming being one of them). I’ll get off my high horse now. I think it has a limp, anyway.

I never would have thought that watching former Vice President Al Gore give a lecture about the perils of global warming would be so interesting.
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