This year’s Waterfront Film Festival hopes to be bigger than ever

2013 Waterfront Film Festival poster courtesy Waterfront Film Festival

After 14 years in Saugatuck, the festival is moving 15 minutes south to the larger city of South Haven and its larger venues. 

After years of converted venues that were cramped and often hot or uncomfortable, I’m looking forward to this year’s venues:

Two venues at South Haven High School (600 Elkenberg Street)
Venue#1 – Listiak Auditorium (capacity 540)
Venue#2 – AV Auditorium (capacity 370)

Three venues at Michigan Theater (210 Center Street)
Venue#3a – theater (capacity 243)
Venue#3b – theater (capacity 130)
Venue #3c – theater (capacity 110)

Foundry Hall (422 Eagle Street)
Venue#4 (capacity 250)

The last three years have seen about 16,000 people during the four day festival… and organizers are hoping for 20,000 this year.

Back in October, organizers of the volunteer event announced that the festival was moving from Saugatuck to South Haven for at least two years for financial and logistical reasons.  Grand Haven and Saint Joseph have expressed interest to host WFF in 2015-16.

This year’s festival runs June 13-16 in South Haven, including more than 70 movies – including 14 documentaries, dramas, comedies, 2 short documentaries, and 46 short films including several that won at other festivals or awards contention.  Many of the films will have producers, actors, directors and writers in attendance and participating in Q&A sessions following each screening. 

If its your first visit to Waterfront Film Festival, keep in mind that most movies only screen twice during Friday, Saturday,  and Sunday but some movies only screen once, so check the schedule and buy your tickets ahead of time if you really want to see it, because many movies do sell out well before the screening time.

Check out this blog post on the 2013 WFF Lineup: http://blogs.woodtv.com/2013/06/04/waterfront-ff-2013-lineup/.
The full schedule of more than 70 films are available at www.waterfrontfilm.org.

More posts on Waterfront Film Festival:
2013 WFF Lineup: http://blogs.woodtv.com/2013/06/04/waterfront-ff-2013-lineup/

First Look: 3 movies at Waterfront FF 2013: http://blogs.woodtv.com/2013/05/16/waterfront-2013-first-look/

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2013 Waterfront Film Festival lineup announced

70 movies – including 14 documentaries, dramas, comedies, 2 short documentaries, and 46 short films - are coming to the 15th annual Waterfront Film Festival, including several winners at other acclaimed film festivals.

The festival, that runs June 13-16 in South Haven, Michigan includes the Midwest Premiere of “Blood Brother”, which won both the 2013 Sundance Grand Jury Prize as well as the Sundance Audience Award for being the favorite film.  “A River Changes Course” will also make its Midwest Premiere at Waterfront, it won the 2013 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema.

The lineup includes:
“Ape” which was filmed in Grand Rapids, MI by Director/Screenwriter/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor Joel Potrykus, a graduate of Grand Valley State University’s film program
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE: http://youtu.be/S3qd3kdVzKw

Movies highlighted in the press release:
“Syrup” – based on the best-selling book of the same title, is an edgy comedy that details the cut-throat world of advertising through the eyes of a young prodigy chasing fame, fortune, and the woman of his dreams. 
(Stars: Amber Heard, Brittany Snow and Kellan Lutz)
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE: http://youtu.be/H6GCDAcvuCs

“Between Us” – is a dark comedic drama about two couples reuniting over the course of two incendiary evenings where anything can happen. Grace and Carlo are a newly married New York couple who visit their old friends Sharyl and Joel in their huge Midwestern home, collectively navigating rocky relationships, parenthood and financial woes.
(Stars:Julia Stiles and Taye Diggs)
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:  http://youtu.be/CbHTANOSRDk

“Blood Brother” – (documentary) is an intimate portrait of Rocky Braat, a young man whose desire to find a family would lead him to a hostel in India, a place of unspeakable hardship where he would find almost more love and need than he could bear.  (2013 Sundance Grand Jury Prize & Audience Award winner)
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:   http://www.bloodbrotherfilm.com/

“A River Changes Course” – (documentary) director Kalyanee Mam offers a breathtaking and unprecedented journey through Cambodia, spending two years with three young people attempting to overcome the challenges of deforestation, overfishing and overwhelming debt.
(2013 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema)
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:  http://youtu.be/ih2P46AjgV8

Many of the films set will have producers, actors, directors and writers in attendance and participating in Q&A sessions following each screening.
The full schedule of more than 70 films are available at www.waterfrontfilm.org.
Individual tickets are $12, day passes start at $90.
The festival is June 13-16 in South Haven at four new venues: Michigan Theater, Listiak Auditorium, the AV Auditorium at South Haven High School and the screening room at Foundry Hall.

More posts on Waterfront Film Festival:

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So considering the explosion of social media since I started the blog 5 years ago… and the amount of time that I don’t have in my day, I’m considering changing my focus and allotting more of my limited time to twitter, facebook, and YouTube instead of this blog page.

I’m not sure everyone out there knows it, but this is my side job.  I love it, but sometimes…. its a chore to blog reviews… partially because I’ve set a bar for myself of adding so much detail plus a poster, photos, movie info that it takes SO much of my precious little time outside of work.

I’ve been told by some people, whose opinions I respect, that my reviews are often too long… so I want to flip the script and make it shorter, easier, and more digestible for today’s “drive thru” consumers of information… short, tweet, and to the point. (that “tweet” was intentional, because its always limited on Twitter ).

Blogging is also not as easy as tweeting or updating a Facebook status… I have to turn on my aging desktop computer and start my Internet program, then log in, then find the aforementioned poster, photos, and info for the movie I’m reviewing.   I can’t devote time during my shift to it, then when life gets in the way, I get behind on a review, and I feel bad that I haven’t posted it… my To Do list gets longer… and the next thing you know… I’m behind … and then I skip a review … and next thing you know I haven’t reviewed the Oscar winner or biggest box office blockbuster just because of the process of trying to blog.

I have tried to streamline the process but with mounting time constraints at work and outside of it…plus the ease and bang-for-the buck I can get out of twitter, facebook, and YouTube… it only makes sense for me.  Plus the interaction is easier and more immediate on those sites than the occasional and random conversations I can have on here.

So, unless there’s a massive outcry, I will be giving my movie opinions and info via Facebook posts, in 140 characters or less on Twitter, and in short videos on YouTube … making this page more of a reference guide.

Any thoughts?

– Aaron

Facebook: Laff at the Movies

Twitter: http://twitter.com/aaronlafferty

YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/LaffattheMovies

“Star Trek Into Darkness” may not be as great as the 2009 movie, but director J.J. Abrams continues to prove he knows how to put on an exciting adventure movie.

“Star Trek Into Darkness” poster courtesy Paramount

(My spoiler-free review)

Strengths

“Into Darkness” is a whole new twist on “Star Trek” lore – like it or not, Abram’s franchise is paving its own cinematic history… if you thought the Spock and Uhura relationship was a change in what you know about Star Trek, this new movies takes the rebooted franchise a giant leap forward.  It caters to new and old fans, despite big twists on previous Trek plot/lines of dialogue.  Since I’m not a die hard fan of Star Trek, I was okay with the changes in the 2009 “Star Trek” movie, and these changes don’t bother me either, and although the Trekkie that screened the movie with me enjoyed it too, others may disagree.

“Into Darkness” features many of the most important foundations of an action/adventure you need to impress the modern sci-fi audience: great action, good story, good characters, great effects (actually top notch effects), great sets, good flow (cliffhanger, cliffhanger, cliffhanger) and great technology… and of course, a great villain.

The Starfleet cast new and old: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban,
Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Peter Weller, and Alice Eve all work well together with good chemistry…. but its how the mysterious character of “John Harrison”, played superbly by Benedict Cumberbatch captivates the audience as a cold and calculating terrorist and one man wrecking crew – the kind of bad guy that the Enterprise crew has never seen before.

But “Into Darkness” is missing one of the foundations of great sci-fi… more on that in a second.

It didn’t feel like 2 hours and 12 minutes long, even when you think the movie is coming to an end … there was another climatic scene.  The movie also looked great, excellent production values and special effects, including great looking tracking shots – bringing us through environment into character close-ups.

“Into Darkness” is also filled with lots of witty and comedic moments, including lots of Kirk’s jokes about Spock, Kirk telling Bones “enough with the metaphors”, and moments like Scotty calling Kirk “James Tiberius perfect hair”.  But its not all fun and games, its a growing up movie for Pine’s Kirk – learning humility with leadership, his command crew is in turmoil, and learning to earn the title of Starfleet captain.

Weaknesses

The one foundation of a good sci-fi movie missing here: being smarter than the audience.   Many plot points were predictable based on previous Star Trek and sci-fi movies before it.  The first one – “Star Trek” (2009) – was so fresh, so different, with things we hadn’t seen before.  But this second one borrowed so much from previous Star Trek movies plus visually from Star Wars and the Avengers it’s hard to like it as much as the first.

Some “chase”/”running” sequences in this one go on way too long, there a few over-the-top moments, and definitely one-too-many nods to the original series.  Its okay to be connected to the past incarnations of Star Trek, but the new movie also needs to step out on its own, like the first one did.

The first two thirds the movie are very gripping, very strong, very solid, but the last third of the movie seems to unravel a bit – taking too long on some scenes and moving too quickly and others… keeping it from being one of the best sci-fi movies.

Other points of interest

The 3-D does add some to the depth of space and CGI locations, but not a must for total enjoyment.

The movie ends with: “…5 year mission, to seek out new life, and new civilizations”, leading forward to at least one more movie, which has already been announced.

The screening I attended did not have any extra scenes in the credits.

THE BOTTOM LINE: (more…)

Waterfront Film Festival welcome event in South Haven courtesy https://twitter.com/WaterfrontFilm

The first glimpse of 2013 Waterfront Film Festival, now in South Haven!

After 14 years in Saugatuck, Waterfront Film Festival has a new home, just 15 minutes south in South Haven.  Well, at least for this year.  Last fall, organizers of the non-profit event had to make some alternate plans due to financial and logistical challenges.

The result was a short move down the road to South Haven, where the city pledged $50,000 in sponsorship and fundraising efforts, committed local business organizations and volunteer groups, shuttle service, office space, and donations.

Today, organizers announced three of the movies coming to the four day festival from distributor Magnolia Pictures.  The festival will take place June 13-16 at four new venues: Michigan Theater, Listiak Auditorium, the AV Auditorium at South Haven High School and the screening room at Foundry Hall.

The annual Opening Night Celebration on Thursday, June 13 will be held at South Beach and includes live music, beer garden and food, celebrity guests and an outdoor film screening beginning at dusk.

South Haven wasn’t the only city to make a bid for the 2013 Waterfront Film Festival.  Grand Haven and Saint Joseph both submitted proposals, and organizers say they will begin working with these cities to plan future events, and with Saugatuck to plan a future return to its original home.

Organizers are finalizing the schedule of more than 70 features and film shorts, but announced three films today:

“Muscle Shoals”, aquired during the recent 2013 SXSW FF exposes the much under-told story of Muscle Shoals, a unique town in Alabama and home to some of the greatest music ever recorded.  Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge, Gregg Allman, Clarence Carter, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Bono and others bear witness to Muscle Shoals’ magnetism, mystery and why it remains influential today.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:  http://youtu.be/FNGtfpim0OM

“Blackfish”, a Sundance FF favorite, tells the story of Tilikum, a notoriously aggressive Orca Whale that killed three people while in captivity. Director Gabriela Cowpethwaite uses shocking footage and emotional interviews to present a convincing case against keeping these wild animals for human entertainment.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:  http://youtu.be/nNMR_ryelTI

“V/H/S/2″, a follow up to the critical and fan favorite late-night horror film “V/H/S/”, chronicles the search for a missing student. Two private investigators break into a house to discover a collection of chilling VHS tapes. Viewing the shocking contents of each cassette, they realize the terror of the unexpected.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:  http://youtu.be/sjh-v9Sj-8E

Tickets and passes for the festival will be available at the festival’s website: www.waterfrontfilm.org in late May.

More posts on Waterfront Film Festival:

2013 WFF moving 10-3-12: http://blogs.woodtv.com/2012/10/03/waterfront-2013-to-be-in-south-haven-future-sites-considered/ (more…)

Usually by the third movie in a franchise, we’ve come to expect “just okay” or “good enough”.

But “Iron Man” joins elite movie company as a movie that is not only better than the second movie, its better than the first… and one of the best 3rd movies of a franchise… all time.

“Iron Man 3″ poster courtesy Disney

(My spoiler-free review)

So how in the world do you follow “The Avengers” – the highest grossing comicbook movie ever and one of the best reviewed movies in the genre ever?

If you’re Marvel, you start Phase2 with your most popular character … your most charismatic hero… and a superhero movie that plays as much like a thriller as it does a big budget action movie.

The story picks up after the events of “The Avengers” with Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) trying to come to grips with what happened and what to do now.   But this chapter is much much better better than the last – “Iron Man 2″ (2010) had its story flaws,  production critiques, and overall tone problems that even a talented cast couldn’t make great.   This is closer in style and character to the first “Iron Man” (2008) but it also plays more like a really good thriller, putting our hero in peril.  Much of the movie has Tony outside the trademark suits from the other movies – we now see our hero as vulnerable – physically and emotionally … allowing the audience a stronger  connection to the man inside the superhero suit.

The plot seems simple but is full of cliffhangers and twists to keep us guessing and interested until the final scenes. (see below for more on if there’s a final scene – in the credits*)   The basic story is once again grounded in the real world and filled with action and comic relief, as with the other successful Marvel movies.  There’s plenty of character development both for the returning characters of Tony (Robert Downey Jr.), Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow), Happy (Jon Favreau), and Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and the new characters of Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), and The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).

Its more than just a great cast on paper: in their careers, they’ve won 2 oscars, were nominated for 6 more, won 7 golden globes, and were nominated for 12 more. The individual performances as well as the great on screen chemistry between all the characters make this movie incredibly interesting to watch.

Ben Kingsley as “The Mandarin” in “Iron Man 3″ photo courtesy Disney

RDJ’s Tony Stark is great as always, but even grittier and more vulnerable this time around.  Cheadle’s Colonel Rhodes is a great compliment to Iron Man.  While Paltrow’s ‘Pepper’ and Favreau’s ‘Happy’ show they are more than just supporting characters this time around. One of Tony’s new supporting characters is a 10 year old kid called ‘Harley’ who helps our hero – he’s played great by Ty Simpkins… a nice touch for the movie to really make itself even more accessible for the young fans in the audience.

But this movie really shows its strength with the mysterious new characters of Aldrich Killian (Pearce), Maya (Hall), and The Mandarin (Kingsley).  Pearce always has the uncanny ability to play a character with so many layers that you’re not sure whether you like him or hate him for being who he is… Hall is more than just a damsel in distress, she’s a smart scientist with some baggage, and then there’s The Mandarin.

I’m not sure that another actor could have pulled off what Kingsley did - he’s such a complicated and compelling character as The Mandarin.  He’s a villain cloaked in mystery, a shadowy figure reminiscent of Osama Bin Laden who was bent on terrorizing the United States.  This isn’t a villain with over-the-top comic book theatrics and a showcase of who has the best powers, this is a tense, terror threat set in the real world, with a scary real world villian.  Kingsley’s turn as The Mandarin has to be one of the most unique villains in movie history.  Remember without character development we don’t care about the heroes and without scary villains, we aren’t worried about what might happen to our heroes.

The other cool thing about any movie with Tony Stark is the cool new technology we get introduced too, not just the newest versions of the suit, but also weapons, computers, and communications.

*Yes, it is worth staying through the credits for the extra scene at the end of “Iron Man 3″, while its not neccesarily a bridge to the next movie, but it is a fun look at the interaction between two members of S.H.I.E.L.D.  There is also text stating that “Tony Stark will return”.

THE BOTTOM LINE: (more…)

Start with John Rambo, lose some of the muscle, improve the vocabulary, amp up the thriller element, set it in present day and make it the main character’s job to save the White House instead… and you have “Olympus Has Fallen”.

Warning to Parents: This is rated R for “strong violence and language throughout”… its sometimes brutal and intense, so its not for kids.

“Olympus Has Fallen” poster courtesy FilmDistrict

(My spoiler-free review)

That first line may be unfairly simplistic, but it was meant as a starting point to compliment a March action movie release that I was cautiously optimistic to see and left the theater pleasantly surprised.   This is more than a typical 1980s action movie with a bulked up movie star… forget Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Jean Claude Van Damme, this is more the Bruce Willis or Jason Statham action hero, who has some vulnerability but lots of courage and training.

Sure we start out with the family dynamics of our main characters Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) and President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) but that’s just to get us some backstory and character depth.   If you know the premise, the first 15 minutes is all backstory and character development and introductions, but once we get into the attack on the White House, the movie is firing on all cylinders.

For me, this is Butler’s best action performance since 2008′s “RockNRolla” … he’s strong, smart, and courageous but not without his own layers of problems that could make him vulnerable…. not just Butler’s performance, this movie is also one of the best action movies so far this year.

The supporting cast is full of veteran actors: Dylan McDermott, Rick Yune, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Robert Forster, and Ashley Judd… but the way the thrilling story goes, its hard to know who’s going to make it through to the end.

The style of the movie puts us right into the action – its not just an attack, its a well conceived plan – the attackers did their homework, knowing the protocols and government response to what they would be doing.   As the attack continues, it goes from being scary to more and more intense… as the attackers use devices and things that – by themselves- may not seem like they’re part of the attack but added up, they are frightening to think of happening.

Gerard Butler in “Olympus Has Fallen” photo courtesy FilmDistrict

“Olympus Has Fallen” has lots of action, but lots of violence, lots of deaths, lots of suffering -the attackers are highly trained, brutal and ruthless – this is clearly not a few terrorists acting alone, we begin to realize this is an organized attack – giving us the gravity of the situation, its more than what the secret service can handle.

We get some standard action storytelling devices with someone to rescue, overwhelming odds, new technology, a device that must also be shutdown, the hero knowing more than the people in charge, someone saying the title of the movie…. but we get some of them in more clever ways than the average action movie.  There are also some memorable one liners.

It was also a nice touch having Morgan Freeman as the speaker of the house – becoming acting President after the attack – similar to “Deep Impact” (1998) when he was the calm voice of President Beck during another crisis.

Some of the situations are over-the-top and exaggerated and the plot points ridiculous, but if you can believe that Rambo could take on an entire army by himself, you’ll enjoy this movie.

THE BOTTOM LINE: (more…)

Franchise ruined.

I’m normally nicer about saying these things but… those two words pretty much sum it all up.

After seeing “G.I. Joe: Retaliation”, I have an even greater respect for Bryan Singer (“X-Men”/”X-Men 2″), Joss Whedon (“The Avengers”), and J.J. Abrams (“Star Trek”) who carefully put together a bunch of popular characters into a movie that worked for both fans and people not familiar with the original stories.

“G.I. Joe: Retaliation” is just the latest mistake, see 2011′s “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” that tried and failed to put a  bunch of characters from an 80′s franchise into a movie and make it interesting and satisfy the fans.

“G.I. Joe: Retaliation” poster courtesy Paramount Pictures

(My spoiler-free review)

Let’s start with the good things about the movie, because its a short list.

There is plenty of action – explosions, gun battles, hand-to-hand combat, swordplay, ninjas, reconnaissance, etc.

Sure the action is over-the-top ridiculous and they’re doing things that are basically impossible but so was the 1980s cartoon.

There’s some cool high-tech gadgets, its a little grittier than the first, and there are some new characters and references – familiar to the G.I. Joe cartoons and comics.

The movie leans heavily on the solid charsimatic performance of Dwayne Johnson (Roadblock), the cold and calculating Byung-hun Lee (Storm Shadow), a playful performance by Johnathan Pryce as Zartan playing the president, and convincing new bad guy Ray Stevenson (Firefly).

The best moments in the movie were the interactions of popular characters Storm Shadow (Lee) and his mortal enemy Snake Eyes (Ray Park).   The story arc of these characters will be appreciated by the die hard fans.

Now to the critical stuff:

I am shocked that the Hasbro would put such a potential money making machine of a franchise into the uncapable hands of people that don’t seem to care about the source material… and have therefore, alienated any possible audience they would have left.

I was a fan of the original source material “G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” (1982), and the first movie – “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra” (2009) – which I know, I had problems with, but I eventually accepted most of them.  And although the movie looks like a modernized, live action version of the cartoons… I was very disappointed.

If you saw the first movie, this isn’t a spoiler… you’ll quickly notice that there are many characters missing that were in “Rise of Cobra”: General Hawk (Dennis Quaid), Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Breaker (Saïd Taghmaoui), Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), RipCord (Marlon Wayans).   They were the main characters… now they are MIA without any explanation.  Many of them were very popular characters back in the day.  Two of them were on the poster/DVD case.  And there is no mention of them at all.  Also, Channing Tatum’s role (Duke) is much smaller in this movie.

At the beginning, there is a very weak and confusing explanation to explain what happened since the events of “Rise of Cobra”.  Its odd because that movie ended in a way that could have been seamless into “Retaliation”.

Some of the acting was as emotionless as the plastic toy figures that were a big seller when I was a kid.  Especially ‘Flint’ (played by D.J. Cotrona).  Also troubling was the accent of Elodie Yung playing martial arts expert “Jinx” … is she British?  Japanese? American?  It seems to change during the movie.  But the most distracting performance is RZA as “Blind Master” – he looks like he’s part of a Saturday Night Live skit making fun of G.I. Joe – but he’s serious!!!  And he’s supposed to be this wise and respected man… but its hard not to laugh at his makeup and performance.

There was a story but its clunky and disjointed… with many holes in the plot.  It goes from one set piece to another and introduces one new character after another and its doesn’t all fit together like a good action/adventure movie puzzle does.

Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson in “G.I. Joe” Retaliation” photo courtesy Paramount Pcitures

I could have written a better story in middle school and the fanboys and non-fans would have loved it.   The screenplay would have had the same amount of action, been a little less over-the-top, not the angle this one took to introduce new good guys, I would keep the global trek to find the bad guys and anyone to support the fight against Cobra.  Back in those days, I probably would have also included something like the effort to destroy the weather dominator.  I definitely would include more memorable charismatic characters to add to this cast: Shipwreck, Mutt and Junkyard, and even Sgt. Slaughter to join with the very popular characters of Roadblock, Flint, and Lady Jaye.  Wild Bill, Snow Job, and Torpedo would have fit perfectly into the series’ conventions of adding characters to transport or train the Joes  for special missions.  Not just a better story, I would also have smoothed out transitions from one subplot to another.

The biggest problem with this movie wasn’t the storyline: the movie has no soul.

“G.I. Joe: Retaliation” is missing any of the chemistry or heart of the first movie.  The characters you may have liked from the first that had developed chemistry are absent.  In their place: a familiar Snake Eyes and a likeable Roadblock plus a hodgepodge of characters that are either not well developed… or poorly acted.

Also, while I’m on my G.I. Joe soapbox - Joseph Gordon-Levitt didn’t return as Cobra Commander… I understand recasting… its a business… but… the new actor needed to be more animated, more maniacal, more over-the-top like the cartoon and comic book version.  Especially since he looks more like that version and less like the Gordon-Levitt version of the first film.

THE BOTTOM LINE: (more…)

“Croods” not bad.

Make Aaron laugh and have fun time.

Good drawings.

Family will like.

“The Croods” poster courtesy DreamWorks Animation

(My spoiler-free review)

With a fun adventure story, memorable characters (especially “Belt” the sloth), good animation, and solid acting, “The Croods” is a movie the whole family can enjoy.  From five to 75… its a movie that will keep you entertained.

Sure its not going to be nominated for Best Picture and it may be a little corny and cliche, but remember that the target audience is like 5-14… so it works for kids and the adults that go/watch with them.

There are plenty of gags for the kids and jokes that the adults will get (and its all clean humor as far as I can remember).  But the strength of the movie is the characters and the fun storyline of a rebellious teen and her family of cavemen that are forced out of their cave and on a historic, I mean prehistoric, adventure.

That teen – “Eep” – is voiced by Emma Stone, and her overprotective father, “Grug” is played by Nicholas Cage.  The rebellious teen is a typical storyline of movies  we’ve seen before, but kids growing up with this movie may find it refreshing to know they are not alone.  Its a story that’s basic enough for kids to follow and although predictable for adults, its enough to keep us interested.

Its looks good too.  The animation is crisp and the colors are vibrant.

I don’t think the 3D is necessary for your viewing experience, so if you want to save a few bucks while taking the whole family… just see the 2D.

THE BOTTOM LINE: (more…)

I thought initially that I understood what the filmmaker was going for in “Stoker”.

But then things changed and ultimately, I think that they were trying too hard to be different from other thrillers… that it ends up standing out for all the wrong reasons.

WARNING TO PARENTS: This movie is very “R” for what the MPAA calls “disturbing violent and sexual content”.

“Stoker” poster courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures

(My spoiler-free review)

In the beginning, “Stoker” has a Gothic Hitchockian feel… with odd characters, an ominous tone, and it only hints at what may be to come for both us the audience, and the main characters… it slowly builds suspense, includes some innuendos, and throws in some red herrings to keep you guessing… and then… things get weird.   But not the weird you might be expecting or hoping for… its the kind of change that just takes the movie completely off the rails.  Mr. Hitchcock himself would not approve.

“Stoker” is more style than substance.

It has captivating imagery, a unique style, strong production values, dark themes, and mysterious characters.   But it is brutal and disturbing, very much a movie for adults, and the story starts to unravel in ways where the thriller aspect is gone and instead is a glaring question of “what the heck is going on now”.  Its almost as if the first half of this movie had one director and writer, and the second half was a different team just trying to wrap up the story in as many crazy ways as possible… and with multiple flashbacks.  This movie begged to be cut down and retooled… it was on the verge of becoming a new classic, before it  just became a piece of garbage.

I may have even said out loud in the screening: “is this where we’re going with this?”  Everything I thought might happen was wrong… and there were many different ways I thought this movie would go.  This wrong… was not like a good mystery or suspense where a twist surprises you…  this wrong was a bad story that you know the ending and it has many disgusting and perverse layers with fancy camera moves and editing techniques to cover up the shortcomings of the script.

The acting isn’t bad, considering the material….  Mia Wasikowska is intriguing as the main character (India Stoker) who has just lost her father to a tragic accident and her mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) is suspicious in her grief.   Her uncle Matthew Goode is good, but a little over zealous as the creepy relative.

THE BOTTOM LINE: (more…)