Deep Focus tag:www.deep-focus.com,2008-10-09://2 2010-03-06T16:57:21Z Deep Focus Movie Reviews and Weblog Movable Type Pro 5.01 Survival of the Dead tag:www.deep-focus.com,2010://2.1923 2010-03-05T23:39:20Z 2010-03-06T00:05:48Z Whatever else you might say about George Romero, it's hard to accuse the guy of just repeating himself. After making his reputation as progenitor of the zombie movie in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead, a bleak, Vietnam-era... Bryant Frazer http://www.deep-focus.com Survival of the Dead

Whatever else you might say about George Romero, it's hard to accuse the guy of just repeating himself. After making his reputation as progenitor of the zombie movie in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead, a bleak, Vietnam-era American nightmare, he upped the ante in 1978 with the blatantly satirical Dawn of the Dead, a critique of consumer culture that shifted easily between slapstick farce and the grimmest of horror-movie imagery. His 1985 follow-up, Day of the Dead, was hobbled by budgetary problems, but it offered an ambitious and ultimately depressing perspective on the Reagan-era military-industrial complex.

]]> Green Zone tag:www.deep-focus.com,2010://2.1922 2010-03-05T22:57:56Z 2010-03-09T02:10:48Z Director Paul Greengrass airlifts Jason Bourne to war-torn Baghdad in this Iraq-occupation thriller that casts Matt Damon as a crusading soldier uncovering evidence of lies and misdirection in the American war on terrorism. It’s a less successful companion piece to his almost unbearably tense United 93. Bryant Frazer http://www.deep-focus.com Matt Damon in <em>Green Zone</em>

Director Paul Greengrass airlifts Jason Bourne to war-torn Baghdad in this Iraq-occupation thriller that casts Matt Damon as a crusading soldier uncovering evidence of lies and misdirection in the American war on terrorism. It’s a less successful companion piece to his almost unbearably tense United 93. Using the language of action movies to build a much larger-than-life experience, these two films build a post-9/11 cinematic mythology, a snapshot of a long moment in U.S. history that reframes debate in aggressively populist terms. United 93 is some kind of masterpiece, but the grander scope and general lack of nuance in Green Zone fuel some awfully stentorian, ham-handed moments that nearly sink the film.

]]> The Ghost Writer tag:www.deep-focus.com,2010://2.1919 2010-02-23T03:21:41Z 2010-03-06T00:09:49Z The Ghost Writer opens, appropriately enough given the film’s generally menacing tone, with the death of a ferry passenger.Did the poor bastard simply get soused and totter off a slippery deck? In a Roman Polanski movie? Not bloody likely. Bryant Frazer http://www.deep-focus.com Pierce Brosnan in <em>The Ghost Writer</em>

The Ghost Writer opens, appropriately enough given the film’s generally menacing tone, with the death of a ferry passenger. The man’s absence is discovered through the presence of an empty BMW on deck after all the passengers disembark. His body, bloated with liquor and decay, washes up on the beach. Did the poor bastard simply get soused and totter off a slippery deck? In a Roman Polanski movie? Not bloody likely.

]]> Black Dynamite tag:www.deep-focus.com,2010://2.1917 2010-02-19T01:17:01Z 2010-02-23T14:01:39Z The 70s exploitation-film spoof Black Dynamite sounds like a fun idea on paper, and it starts to look like a can't-miss proposition when you see the theatrical trailer, which showcases the technical qualities of this loving pastiche. But something about the execution is flat. Bryant Frazer http://www.deep-focus.com Nicole Sullivan, Michael Jai White, and Salli Richardson in <em>Black Dynamite</em>

The 70s exploitation-film spoof Black Dynamite sounds like a fun idea on paper, and it starts to look like a can't-miss proposition when you see the theatrical trailer, which showcases the technical qualities of this loving pastiche. Director Scott Sanders certainly gets the look right, thanks partly to no-frills era-aware photography by DP Shawn Maurer and partly to some digital tweaking that brings the colors in line with that ruddy aesthetic specific to some film prints of the period, and that's crucial to the joke. As the titular bad-ass, a former CIA agent with a reinstated license to kill out to avenge the death of his brother, Michael Jai White combines a deadpan-comic screen presence with enough martial artistry to make a fight scenes work on a more visceral level than pure parody. But something about the execution is flat.]]> It Might Get Loud tag:www.deep-focus.com,2010://2.1914 2010-02-10T01:30:08Z 2010-02-10T01:44:43Z The Edge represents something especially modern in rock-and-roll: the idea of the guitarist as pure technician. A great riff for him isn't so much a combination of notes as a combination of noises -- harmonics, distortion, wah-wah modulation, an echoed din chiming out into infinity like church bells in the Grand Canyon. The guitar itself is just an input device; the pealing tones and rhythms are created elsewhere. Bryant Frazer http://www.deep-focus.com Jimmy Page in <em>It Might Get Loud</em>

My review of It Might Get Loud is online at FilmFreakCentral.net:

The Edge represents something especially modern in rock-and-roll: the idea of the guitarist as pure technician. A great riff for him isn't so much a combination of notes as a combination of noises -- harmonics, distortion, wah-wah modulation, an echoed din chiming out into infinity like church bells in the Grand Canyon. The guitar itself is just an input device; the pealing tones and rhythms are created elsewhere.]]> District 13: Ultimatum tag:www.deep-focus.com,2010://2.1910 2010-02-04T23:45:36Z 2010-02-20T01:57:33Z When D13: Ultimatum is firing on all cylinders, it's a bad-ass action movie. When it functions as a delivery mechanism for a social message, it's corny as all hell, but still pleasant enough. Bryant Frazer http://www.deep-focus.com Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle in <em>District 13: Ultimatum</em>

District 13: Ultimatum is at its best and silliest in the opening reels, which place French supercop Damien Tomaso (the lanky, bald Cyril Raffaelli, who's also the film's stunt coordinator) in a chaotic undercover assignment — he's in the back room of a nightclub, decked out in a dress with a peekaboo ass and masquerading as a kind of courtesan to a Chinese drug kingpin. When his backup arrives, all hell breaks loose. The sequence is staged with tongue tucked firmly in cheek — the contrast between Raffaelli's muscular, manly frame and that of his obvious female body-double is faintly hilarious — but it more or less brings the goods, staging an extended martial-arts fight that plays as an affectionate tribute to Jackie Chan in his prime. In other words, props matter, from the stepladder that brings the pain when villains are slammed into it to the priceless Van Gogh painting that Tomaso employs as a delicate weapon at his disposal. You'll laugh, you'll wince. It's a good time.

]]> Fish Tank tag:www.deep-focus.com,2010://2.1898 2010-01-15T02:36:26Z 2010-02-04T23:47:56Z Katie Jarvis gives an easy, naturalistic performance that's pure teenage girl, whether she's bloodying the collective nose of her peer group or (symbol alert) pounding the hell out of a padlock that keeps a friendly gray horse chained up on one of the neighborhood's desolate, nearly empty lots that smells of young men and menace. Bryant Frazer http://www.deep-focus.com 1280_fish-tank.jpg

Fish Tank walks well-trod ground, but it's still riveting from start to finish. Director Andrea Arnold proves that her debut feature, Red Road, was no fluke -- she has a great eye for urban landscapes and a real way with actors. Set in Essex County, England, Fish Tank is all about Mia, an obstreperous 15-year-old with a stack of chips on her shoulder and a way with hip-hop dance moves. The central performance by Katie Jarvis is the bright ball of energy around which the whole film revolves, and she's pretty terrific -- she gives an easy, naturalistic performance that's pure teenage girl, whether she's bloodying the collective nose of her peer group or (symbol alert) pounding the hell out of a padlock that keeps a friendly gray horse chained up on one of the neighborhood's desolate, nearly empty lots that smells of young men and menace.

]]> Moon tag:www.deep-focus.com,2010://2.1895 2010-01-11T01:38:55Z 2010-01-25T00:57:18Z Duncan Jones's debut feature, Moon, is a surprisingly effective—even moving—story of isolation and alienation on the lunar surface. Bryant Frazer http://www.deep-focus.com

My review of Moon is online at FilmFreakCentral:

Paying homage to the science-fiction films of his youth, where space-base bulkheads and otherworldly landscapes were more likely to be styrofoam than CG, story writer and director Duncan Jones's debut feature, Moon, is a surprisingly effective—even moving—story of isolation and alienation on the lunar surface.
]]> Jennifer's Body tag:www.deep-focus.com,2010://2.1894 2010-01-08T03:11:49Z 2010-01-25T00:59:26Z Megan Fox is already something of a comic-book character. She's got attitude to spare, and she's built like one of those impossibly slender Mary Jane Watson figures from early Todd McFarlane issues of The Amazing Spider-Man. Bryant Frazer http://www.deep-focus.com

Evil-but-gullible emo band's attempted "virgin sacrifice" turns promiscuous teenager into demon-possessed cannibal. It's up to her nerdy best friend to keep the sexiest high-schooler in Devil's Kettle from eating her way through senior class.
That's a fairly straightforward synopsis of Jennifer's Body, screenwriter Diablo Cody's much-hyped follow-up to Juno, directed by Karyn Kusama and just out on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. It sounds like a terrific idea for a comic horror movie, turning adolescent sexual insecurity into the stuff of nightmares, and it is pretty smart conceptually. Cast as the titular Jennifer, a sarcastic, wisecracking bombshell of a flag girl, Megan Fox acquits herself beyond the Maxim-girl status bestowed on her by the Transformers movies, turning in a fairly competent performance that progresses credibly from her character's more human presence in the film's opening scenes to the colder succubus she becomes. And Amanda Seyfried, all gasps and big eyes, makes a terrific mostly passive protagonist for the yarn, taking Jennifer's transformation in from a not-so-safe distance.]]> Crazy Heart tag:www.deep-focus.com,2009://2.1893 2009-12-31T22:55:40Z 2009-12-31T23:04:42Z There’s nothing at all new here, but what Crazy Heart has going for it is a bit of authenticity. Bryant Frazer http://www.deep-focus.com Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal in <em>Crazy Heart</em>

Crazy Heart, an amiable on-the-road-again yarn, showcases a singing and strumming Jeff Bridges to great, grizzled effect. Bridges plays Bad Blake, a past-his-prime, whiskey-guzzling singer-songwriter whose near-legendary status in country-music circles is no substitute for a regular paycheck. As the movie opens, he’s arriving for a gig with a pick-up band at a bowling alley in Pueblo, Colorado, where he has something of an epiphany that his career isn’t going exactly the way he had planned. (Given that I grew up in Pueblo, I found this hilarious, even though the location doesn’t look or feel anything like the real town.)

]]>