Shakira is in the closet....

The movies have been put on hold until I can figure out which new release I am going to review this week. In the meantime I decided to take a second look at Shakira’s new video “She-Wolf”.

I am totally qualified to comment on this video.

To prove this to you I will qualify myself by telling you what I know about Shakira.

Shakira is a 32-year-old animal charmer. She is on loan to us from a galaxy far far away. She seems to be musically inclined but recent reports have considered that she may just simply be trying to communicate with her loved ones in said galaxy.  

The first 2-1/2 minutes kind of make my head spin. I got tired because I think she projected all of her hard work on me during the viewing…it’s one of her powers.

The final 60 seconds has now raised a few questions in my mind about what this galaxy is like.

I hated this song so much I bought it on iTunes today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aEW_Z5Va5s&feature=channel

Aloha, Mr. Hand......Dark City (1998)

Dark City is a 1998 film written, directed and produced by Alex Proyas (The Crow, I, Robot and Knowing) that has a substantial cult following and was hailed as The best film of 98’ by Roger Ebert, whom I admire and respect. 

So, dare I use the acronym, WTF? 

I dare. Like Tom Hanks in Big, I don’t get it.

Dark City opens with John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), passed out in an old hotel bathtub, with no recollection where or who he is. During a phone call from his psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Schreber (KieferSutherland) claiming to want to help him, he realizes there is a dead woman in the room. He flees and the party starts. 

The dark city in which this movie takes place is an obvious rip off of Fritz Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis (1927). “The Strangers”, led by Mr. Hand are group of soul sucking albino’s from another planet that reconstruct human’s memories and expand the dark city at midnight every night in an attempt to understand the human soul in order to save their race.

Like any Sci-Fi flick there are a set of contrived rules in order to make everything tick and a single person, John Murdoch, who posses the ability to over come these rules. Now, I don’t really have a problem with Sci-Fi films, nor dark/noir films. I do, however, have a problem with bad acting and terrible editing. Sutherland is a bumbling nerd and Dark City holds the title for movie with the shortest amount of screen time before a cut (did I say that right?) There is a cut every 1.8 seconds, on average. Yikes. This movie tries to deal with the complexities of the human mind, who we are, what makes us who we are, etc. etc. In any case, I think it sailed past its mark.

As a film student I had the pleasure of watching this in class with 40 other film students. When 20 + students are laughing hysterically during the entire climax sequence, you know you have something, errrr, special on your hands. While others seem to LOVE this movie, I found it rather boring and pretty unoriginal in plot with nothing too exciting to keep it afloat.

My Vote: If you are into poorly drawn film-noir/sci-fi/horror flicks, this is right up your ally. If you’re like me you’ll want to go re-watch a much better and very similar blockbuster from the following year, The Matrix.

Inglorious Basterds.....That's a Bingo!

You love him or you hate him. You get him or you don’t care to get him. Either way, when Quentin Tarantino gets to work he gives you something you have never seen before and everything you have seen before all at once. He accomplishes what others only dream of doing. He takes you to the movies.

Randall E. Auxier wrote; “ Tarintino is like a boy in a tree house. And you are invited to join the club. Yes, it’s his tree house, but all you need is the password, and he’ll give you the clues you need to get in. He doesn’t want to control you, or toy with you, he just wants to play. You already know the game. It’s just good (not so clean) fun, and time flies when your having it”.

Inglourious Basterds written and directed by Quentin Tarantino is like several other QT flicks as it is about revenge and more specifically, a woman’s revenge, a QT staple.  Emmanuelle Mimieux, the alias for the young Jewish girl who escaped Colonel Hans Landa, (Christoph Waltz), “The Jew Hunter”, after her family was massacred is out for blood…or crispy dead Nazi’s, I guess. 4 years later she is now operating a cinema in France and falls into the perfect situation to exact her revenge.

Aldo Raine, A.K.A. “Aldo the Apache” (Brad Pitt) is the leader of the Inglorious Basterds and assembles his crew of 8 Jewish American soldiers to help him in gaining 800 Nazi scalps, and that’s not just in expression, he’s taking scalps. Neither his motivation nor the scar on is neck is spoken of. We expected not to get that privileged information (see the Auxier quote above), all we need to know is Aldo is in the Nazi killin’ business….and cousin….well, you know what.

If not for “The Jew Hunter”, "Aldo the Apache" would have stolen the show. Instead, we are treated with two amazing performances and oddly enough, they both left me with a busted gut. I wasn’t prepared for how funny they would be, together, as well as on their own. Tarantino has once again created characters that are bigger than life in Aldo and Colonel Hans and once again his actors have delivered.

Two and a half hours is a long time to endure anything, so be prepared. A few scenes run a little bit too long for my taste, but don’t get discouraged. You get a lot of dialog (but you were expecting that, right? ) with a good portion of it in subtitles so rest assured you will miss something and more likely than not these little things will help IB to grow on you in subsequent visits. Aside from that, the only other down side to things is Eli Roth, “The Bear Jew”. “The Bear Jew” is definitely a bigger than life character, wielding a Louisville Slugger and beating the brains out of Nazis. Eli Roth, well, he directed Cabin Fever . It just wasn’t fair to any of us. 

Those two very small issues aside, Inglourious Basterds might turn out to be QT’s most famous film. In the middle of a summer filled with remakes and flops it will hold its place in people’s minds for the excitement surrounding it and the product it delivered. And who better to re-write history and get the ultimate revenge on “The Fuhrer” than QT.

My Vote: Even if you don’t think you like Tarantino, go see this film. The performances given and the final two scenes are enough to satisfy anyone.