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2007 Summer Video Roundup, Vol. II

7/30/07

"Grizzly Man"

I didn't love Werner Herzog's currently-running war drama "Rescue Dawn" with Christian Bale, but I did love his documentary on crazy grizzly bear wannabe Tim Treadwell.  Treadwell, who is profiled here mainly through a few interviews with friends and family, but mainly through archived video footage that Treadwell shot for an upcoming film before he was unceremoniously eaten by his film subjects, is truly a great film subject--he's got a side that seems genuinely interested in the well-being of the Alaskan grizzly bear community, but he is also totally insane.  This mix makes for gripping entertainment, and as a documentary, "Grizzly Man" takes care to tell a fair story and one that has a bit of a tricky ending--do we get to see how it all happened?  No, but there is a sound recording of Tim's final encounter since his camera was running with a lens cap on when he met his fate.  Spooky stuff!

Rating:  Opening Weekend

"Saraband"

"Saraband", a movie by recently-deceased director Ingmar Bergman ("The Seventh Seal", "Fanny & Alexander" and many others), is just one of those movies that completely missed me.  I never got hooked on the film's storyline--concerning a woman who, after going through a divorce with a man some 30 years earlier who she thinks was her one true love--and the pace literally put me to sleep twice over the course of an hour.  That was that for me.  It seems like many other people really liked this movie, but hey, it didn't hook me.

Rating:  Hard Vice

"Lumumba"

Maybe it was the introductory beheadings and chopping of bodies that made "Lumumba" a bit of a foregone conclusion.  Based on the period of time in the Congo where Patrice Lumumba (played here by Eriq Ebouaney) was a part of the ruling class of citizens in that African nation once Belgium decided to let the locals run the kitchen in the early 1960s, "Lumumba" does tell an interesting tale of a man who rose from beer-hawking scrapper to Prime Minister in a span of just a few years and was in office when he was just 36 years old.  But for some reason, the power of his tale just never takes hold despite Ebouaney's strong performance, in part because we know Lumumba is a dead man from literally the opening frames of the film.  Revolutionary tales are always interesting to me, though, so the film is a good sit, it just doesn't resonate the way you hope that it will.

Rating:  Matinee

"Pulse"

Honestly, I thought the trailer for the original Japanese version of "Pulse"--not last year's sad-sack American remake--was absolutely scary.  So, I finally got around to renting the original film and...damn, was I wrong.  I mean, I was WAY wrong about how this one looked.  Creepy only for about 20 seconds, "Pulse" is another of these Japa-creepy flicks; this time around, dead people have a funny way of coming out of walls and computers to terrorize the living, all the way to the freakin' apocalypse.  So dumb on so many levels and--worst of all--really unscary.  Man, I can't believe how off I was on this one.

Rating:  Hard Vice

"Northfork"

An odd mix of drama and fantasy, "Northfork" doesn't do either well but it IS good-looking.  At least, the first hour was.  I give everything an hour to see if it ever catches my interest, and damn, this one didn't do that at all.  It's always nice to see James Woods, though, but his low-key character wasn't doing too much while splitting time with Nick Nolte as a preacher, Anthony Edwards and Darryl Hannah as wackos and a number of other people wearing long black trenchcoats in 1950s Montana.  Again, beautiful photography, awful first hour of a movie.

Rating:  Hard Vice

"Kika"

Catching up on pieces of the Pedro Alomodovar catalog that I have previously missed, I finally got around to watching "Kika", another oddball comedy that follows a woman named Kika (Veronica Forque) as she does makeup for dead people, bangs both a father (Peter Coyote) and his son (Alex Casanovas), and follows a murder plot along with an overzealous reporter (Victoria Abril) throughout the film.  The trademark sex talk is there, the randomly funny dialogue is there, but it doesn't have the same oomph that his later films do, like "All About My Mother" or "Talk to Her."  Still, a fun ride even if the film loses comedic steam late.

Rating:  $9.50 Show

 

Comments?  Drop me a line at justin@bellviewmovies.com.

 

Bellview Rating System:

"Opening Weekend":  This is the highest rating a movie can receive.  Reserved for movies that exhibit the highest level of acting, plot, character development, setting...or Salma Hayek.  Not necessarily in that order. 

"$X.XX Show":  This price changes each year due to the inflation of movie prices; currently, it is the $9.50 Show.  While not technically perfect, this is a movie that will still entertain you at a very high level.  "Undercover Brother" falls into this category; it's no "Casablanca", but you'll have a great time watching.  The $9.50 Show won't win any Oscars, but you'll be quoting lines from the thing for ages (see "Office Space"). 

"Matinee":  An average movie that merits no more than a $6.50 viewing at your local theater.  Seeing it for less than $9.50 will make you feel a lot better about yourself.  A movie like "Blue Crush" fits this category; you leave the theater saying "That wasn't too bad...man, did you see that Lakers game last night?" 

"Rental":  This rating indicates a movie that you see in the previews and say to your friend, "I'll be sure to miss that one."  Mostly forgettable, you couldn't lose too much by going to Hollywood Video and paying $3 to watch it with your sig other, but you would only do that if the video store was out of copies of "Ronin."  If you can, see this movie for free.  This is what your TV Guide would give "one and a half stars." 

"Hard Vice":  This rating is the bottom of the barrel.  A movie that only six other human beings have witnessed, this is the worst movie I have ever seen.  A Shannon Tweed "thriller," it is so bad as to be funny during almost every one of its 84 minutes, and includes the worst ending ever put into a movie.  Marginally worse than "Cabin Boy", "The Avengers" or "Leonard, Part 6", this rating means that you should avoid this movie at all costs, or no costs, EVEN IF YOU CAN SEE IT FOR FREE!  (Warning:  strong profanity will be used in all reviews of "Hard Vice"-rated movies.)