Stumbles

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‘The Good German’ takes you on a walk down the shady noir lanes of old Hollywood. Director Steven Soderbergh takes a hard and cynical look at the events that follow after Hitler’s Germany is defeated by the ‘good guys’ in the Second World War. The tagline goes: If war is hell then what comes after? – Well, the answer is; a mad dash by the varied victors to hoard the spoils of war. In this case, it’s a scientist (think Dr Josef Mengele, the Nazi angel of death) with the know-how to develop V2 rocket systems, weapons with extensive use in artillery warfare.

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Post-war Berlin is a dangerous place where strangers greet you with a punch in the stomach and you have to constantly watch over your shoulder for backstabbers. The streets are unsafe because the occupying Allied soldiers are too busy indulging themselves in whisky, women and other decadent pleasures. War correspondent Jacob Geisman (George Clooney) arrives to cover a peace conference. Patrick Tully (Tobey Maguire), a boyish looking American corporal drives Geisman to his destinations. Tully is involved with Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett), a sultry woman who’s been hardened by the ways of war. Brandt was earlier involved with Geisman. But right now, she just wants to flee Berlin with her husband. Her husband is the titular ‘good German’ who can testify to the mad doctor’s war crimes.

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Director Marcus Niespel has helplessly lost himself in the woods in making a film called ‘Pathfinder’. The showdown between Vikings and Native Americans could’ve been more fascinating to adolescents than even cowboys and Indians, had the concept not been bungled. Like a staple action flick, the hero single-handedly takes on the entire Viking raiding party here. The film acquits itself from the laws of reality by clarifying that it’s based on a legend. But in the case of the badly narrated ‘Pathfinder’, legends deserve fairer treatment.

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After being abandoned by the Vikings, Ghost (Karl Urban, ‘The Lord of the Rings’) is fostered by the local Wampanoag tribe. Upon growing up, he discovers that the Viking wrecking crew have returned to wipe out the natives. They are led by Ulfar (Ralf Moeller) who looks like a cross between Dick Dastardly and Gerard Butler. The Vikings kill everyone in the village and chase the elusive Ghost around in thick forests, dark caves and icy glaciers. This is the sum of the first half of the film. And unfortunately the second half has little more to offer.

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Niespel consciously sticks to the Viking stereotype. The Norsemen are depicted as horn-helmed juggernauts who barbarically mow down the helpless; history states they had other hobbies besides this. With the drawn-out chase sequences ‘Pathfinder’ seems to lead to some good action. But the overall dark ambience and the black attire of the Viking warriors make this ‘good action’ extremely hard to find. If you do look past the non-existent script, barely visible action and the universally one-dimensional acting you’ll notice that Niespel has a political message to convey. The unkempt Vikings gleefully slaughter the Native Americans all the while referring to them as “savages” and “filth”. They mirror the hubris of recent powerful civilizations such as Imperial Britain and U.S, which too plundered nations while claiming they were “civilizing the brutes”.

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Niespel shoots through blue and gray filters varying on the backdrop. He does have an obnoxiously persistent tendency to get claustrophobically close with the camera. Karl Urban looks menacing (in a good way) dressed in the Viking attire, but his performance is without any depth. It’s all here, decapitated heads, hacked limbs and gushes of blood. But the movie fails in the action department where recent splatter-fests ‘300’ and ‘Apocalypto’ have scored. Thus ‘Pathfinder’ must journey into oblivion alone.

Humanity is an oblivious frog that sits in a cooker on a
burning stove. The temperature is rising and that frog is slowly being cooked
alive. “It’s important to save that frog,” says Al Gore, the former
American vice president. In ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ Gore’s
message on global warming is thought-provoking and filled with clarity. The
documentary is also thoughtful enough to keep the vigor from dissipating by
charting a course of action once the credits begin rolling.

The short-sighted oil and auto industry honchos drive us to hell
(global warming = hot) in a bus. While the entire scientific community warns of
impending doom resulting from the melting glaciers. The current American
establishment labels it to be “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the
American people.” You see, the auto and oil lobby pumps great amounts of
money into the government. So they have the ability to affect policies that go
against their interests.

ronically, if such a catastrophe were to take place these men of
power will be the last to perish. And the common man who possesses few means to
protect himself will be the first to die. Gore points out that we are already
well on our way to such a disaster. He provides irrefutable statistical evidence
that shows the concentration of carbon dioxide to be in steady crescendo. The
other evidence he shows also leads upwards and off the charts. These are too
frequent to be mere natural anomalies and we are urged to “connect the
dots”.

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There’s never a dull moment with villains abound” - So agreed the Raimi brothers as they borrowed a page from the ‘Batman Begins’ book and brought in a trio of baddies. As a sequel, this one promises to be ‘bigger and badder’. In terms of action, special effects and budget, the Spiderman giant has certainly grown. But it’s hardly dark. If anything, it explores the dorkier side of things as it takes the goofball antics to a dizzying new height. Our well-off neighbor doesn’t even shy away from coming over and borrowing some Bollywood masala. Marvel (no pun intended) at Hollywood’s new-found method of staying fresh and dispelling the humdrum.

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The cannibalistic mutants are back and this time they are more revolting than before. With scaly bodies like snake men and faces that freely oozes pustule from skin pores. The nuclear weapon testing hasn’t left them pretty. So the muties continue to grudge against the human smooth skins. On a base level, ‘The Hills Have Eyes 2′ offers no new twists – good people are still being attacked by mutants living in hills. Director Martin Weisz isn’t able to recreate the intrigue of the first part. And for that reason this film is easily lost in the countless monster movies that form a part of the horror-survival subgenre.

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Paris, Je T’aime’ shows you love in all its wonderful and strange shapes and forms. The world’s finest filmmakers assemble to renew the ‘city of love’ tag given to Paris. The city is their playground and they come up with 18 mini-stories sewn together to form a massive pulsating heart. The directors have some of the best acting talent on the planet at their disposal. It’s a winning combination, and their collective magic makes Paris seem like a place where anyone can find love

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Unaccompanied Minors’ has little to offer to those of us who’ve watched John Hughes’ ‘Home Alone’ as parents or kids. But here, the gags flounder more often than not.
The saccharine sentimentality of ‘Unaccompanied Minors’ proves to be easily predictable. Diabetics beware. Director Paul Feig’s creative visions make this film look like an episode on Pogo TV. It’s obvious that by making a Christmas film, the creators are counting on the giving spirit – your giving spirit.

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The equation isn’t baffling; Ocean’s Thirteen has proven to be far better than its immediate predecessor, but it is no greater than the original. Director Steven Soderbergh’s formula works like a charm; the film looks spectacular and the array of Hollywood’s biggest and most talented stars rightfully shine. But barring aside the visual element, the premise seems unconvincing enough to warrant a full-fledged film. The lack of intrigue that is typical of a heist film makes “O 13” seem mechanical.

“O 13” is about benevolent thieves who bind together when one of theirs has been slighted. Only bad folks get punished here and the good usually land up hitting a jackpot. Willie Bank (Al Pacino) is the Grinch who steals Reuben Tishkoff’s (Elliot Gould, Friends) Christmas. He elbows Tishkoff out of a business partnership in a manner that leaves him in the hospital in a critical condition. But wait, you can’t do that to a card carrying Oceans member and get away with it. Indeed this is what Danny Ocean (George Clooney) seeks to ensure when he sets out to besmirch Bank’s new casino.

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When you’ve hit rock bottom, the only way you can go is up. Such is the case with the original ‘Fantastic Four’ that achieved the feat most ungraciously, but the sequel ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’ fares much better. The film seems more comfortable in terms of its own style. “Silver” is more humor-driven, and in a manner that is more genuine. Of course, you’re bound to be sorely disappointed if you’re expecting the film to stay wholly true to the comic book. The original Fantastic Four already established that the films would be more flashier and less-violent making it kind of like ‘The Incredibles’ played by actual people. Thanks to the PG rating, kids can flock to the theaters and fans will have to sit at home shaking their fists in anger at the barrage of “Silver” trailers.

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There are only two things on the news - the much awaited union of Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd) and Invisible Girl (Jessica Alba) and an unidentified flying object (UFO) that’s been causing huge craters and freezing lakes over; of course no one really cares about the latter. As it turns out, the mysterious force is the Silver Surfer (Lawrence Fishburne) who’s setting Earth up as a nice tasty dinner for his planet-devouring master Galactus. This rocks the Fantastic Four into action and they set out to stop the Silver Surfer. They also ally themselves with their former foe Dr. Viktor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), who looks more like the cloaked Senator Palpatine from ‘Star Wars’ here. There are no permanent enemies in Blockbuster Land as the recent ‘Spider

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People don’t always make perfect sense; sometimes they do stupid and illogical things which go against all traditional sense. In reality, its understandable when people behave in this manner for such is the chaotic creature called man. But it isn’t acceptable when we see Will (Jude Law) act in an unexplainably sporadic manner in ‘Breaking and Entering’. We expect films to make sense unless of course it’s a bizarre creation of David Lynch (‘Eraserhead’). An ambiguous screenplay also amply contributes to making the “B & E” experience a punishing one

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This is a story about how relationships are strained under the weight of urban life, supposedly. Jude Law plays the owner of an eco-friendly land development firm. He lives with his long-time companion Liv (Robin Wright Penn) and her possibly bouncy autistic (she enjoys performing somersaults) daughter Bea (Poppy Rogers). The couple is coping with familial problems. Also Will and his business partner Sandy (Martin Freeman) are being burgled by acrobatic thieves. He stakes out his office and finds Miro (Rafi Gavron) a poor Bosnian immigrant teen to be behind this. Will follows him around and befriends his mother Amira (Juliette Binoche, ‘Chocolat’).

Up till the first half, the film seems interesting; “B & E” seems like a tale of a kind man who has a platonic concern for a woman and her son whom he won’t report to the cops. Then suddenly we see Will and Amira puckering up. It appears Minghella has been ’secretly’ creating a buildup for infidelity. The surprise comes as jaw dropping because neither of them shows any overt attraction for each other. And the odd manner both of them start behaving thereafter just alienates us from them. From there on, “B & E” continues as though struck with a bleeding wound losing sense by the minute.

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Minghella leaves a lot of the story’s aspects unexplored - the developing relationship between Sandy and his African cleaner, the philosophically-inclined prostitute that joins Will during his stakeouts and Bea’s possibly-smitten coach. The French Binoche does a splendid job of playing the immigrant mother. Minghella once again has Law playing the unfaithful lover, but he is well cast nonetheless. Winstone (’The Departed’) does magnificently in his limited role. Unfortunately even they can’t stop “B & E” from being a messy, intermittent and perplexing affair. Watch the first half and then estrange yourself from the rest.