DVD Voice

Tonight’s fare was Sister’s Keeper and it didn’t make it easy to stay awake. It’s a film about an ex-military guy who is now a hit man and has a conscious and wants out of the business. But to do so he has to do one last job. A supposedly easy one where an unguarded female has been targeted and all he has to do is walk up and kill her and ride off into the sunset of a better life. Catch is, when she sees him she immediately thinks he is her long lost brother returned home. He lets himself get smitten by her as we learn that his wife and unborn baby both died during childbirth. And like mentioned before, his conscious keeps him from killing her and instead turns him into her protector to protect her from those hired killers who come to finish the job he didn’t.

All in all, Kent Faulcon – writer/director/actor – could have done worse, as the film does show some heart, but he could have done a lot better.

Don’t mistake this in Netflix for My Sister’s Keeper starring Abigail Breslin.

Things learned from this movie:

1. If you are a killer, always wear suits and ties.
2. If you need your gun, grip it tight and hold it way out so that everyone could see as you sneak and peer around corners.
3. Blinds will keep other killers (who are staking out the place your at) from knowing where you are.
4. Never believe that wheelchair-bound old people actually need their wheels or don’t know how to use a shot-gun.
5. Getting shot in the shoulder with a high powered rifle will be ok if you just sit calmly and keep pressure and a dish rag on it.
6. Recently widowed guys keep their house entirely empty.
7. Guys married to a hot chick need a mistress and will leave the hot one soon.

Rated R. 101 minutes (1 hour 41 minutes). Profanity and the mistress rolling around in bed briefly shows off her boobs.

Boogie Woogie, a film that follows a painting titled “Boogie Woogie” by Piet Mondrian as art dealers attempt to buy for resale from an old man (played by Christopher Lee). While he is refusing to sell you see into the art world, the dealers, the artists, and the gallery patrons.

This film has quite the cast to it, Gillian Anderson (of the X-Files), Heather Graham, Charlotte Rampling, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgård, Alan Cumming … etc. As you can see, its easy to have high expectations given the cast, and also that its listed as an “Independent Film” so you really can expect this film to be something different than the ordinary studio establishment film.

It’s ok.

It has twists, but everyone in the film knows what the others are doing (expect for Gillian’s finding out their paintings were sold out from underneath them) and continue on pretending to be blissfully unaware.

It helps if you recall that art is always in the eye of the beholder – if you like something then enjoy it, but don’t let someone push their “art” on you and fake liking it, be honest, enjoy what you want and let others revel in their art if that’s what they want. It is an art scene film, so expect the usual stiff parties at studios, high dollar value paintings, and drugs.

Overall the movie is entertaining enough, for a slow evening. It didn’t make me want to flip it off, but I bet if I had a phone call or something demanded my attention the probability of turning it back on and finishing are kind of low.

Things learned from this movie:

1. You don’t have to be an artist or rich to attend gallery events. If you are invited, go, your just as “normal” as anyone else there.
2. If you have an embedded twin inside you and have it surgically removed, your lover will have it encased in plastic for you.
3. Gay guys sent packing by the girls that they hang out with will break down and jump out of the window committing suicide.
4. Art gallery owners always have to be extremely happy – regardless what happens.
5. Being an artist looks like a lot of fun!

Rated R. 94 minutes (1 hour 34 minutes). Profanity and nudity. But honestly not as much as you would expect for an R-rated film. One scene has a girl getting out of a bathtub, and looking through the quick glimpse you see it all (again briefly). Oh, and an art gallery owner has his male lover come out stark naked and ask him who she was (a female whose name was being discussed) — sooo … you might want to look away during that scene as everything is on display.

Ah… Cemetery Junction, a British film about a very small town in England where a one Freddie Taylor (played by Christian Cooke) is really trying to do something with his life while balancing friends and seeing his school girlfriend come back into his life. Ricky Gervais also co-stars as well as co-directing with Stephen Merchant.

So he lives in a little dinky town where the main jobs are working in a factory. Everyone works there. To get ahead in life he decides to start working for an insurance company selling life insurance door to door. He has to deal with the tugs of his old friends who want things to remain the same. And on top of this he is slowly realizing how fleeting life is and how people never do get what they want or hope to out of life.

He sees his rich boss and the boss’s daughter (an old school friend) who is now engaged to the top salesman and boss’s favorite. Freddie can see how the boss’s wife is ignored. He can see how long time (30+ years) employees retire with applause and a cut glass fruit bowl.

The movie itself is kind of slow and boring, but if you look closely you’ll see that people who have potential and personality will settle for dead-end lives when taking a little risk and chance on life they can find happiness. Only … can they?

So if you watch this one, ask yourself how important is it to notice the people around you and care about them. How choosing a career or settling in life is like letting your dreams die. You have dreams, why not take some action or chances to make them come true. Or at least get yourself a little closer. And always, no matter what, show gratitude to people.

Things learned from this movie:

1. Um … if your vandalizing a sign don’t just wait for the police to show up.
2. Tattooing your chest may seem like a good idea at the time, but get a second opinion!
3. Small towns hold opportunity too.
4. Employers only hire you because it makes them better off. You have to stick up for yourself to get a fair shake.

Rated R. 95 minutes (1 hour 35 minutes). Profanity – a lot of British profanity. No skin aside from some anatomy cartoons and a tattoo of a naked vampire on a guy’s chest. Some fighting.

This gem of a picture, Everlasting Moments, is a Swedish film about an early 1900s family, and particularly of the mother who finds escape through the lens of a camera. Just before she is married, Maria (played by Maria Heiskanen), wins a camera in a lottery and later in life begins to use it after trying to sell it to a photographer who takes a liking to her and teaches her how to use it. Little by little she gets better and finds more enjoyment in taking the photos as her family grows and through tough times of life her husband becomes cruel and abusive.

Honestly, it is a slow moving picture that Jan Troell presents here, but it sort of has to be. The worst part is, for people like me, its in Swedish and you have to read subtitles. But that isn’t a bad thing. It’s a beautiful picture and very touching — if you look and let it speak to you.

If you think about it, you could ask yourself some intriguing questions that are raised by the film. Why do people stay with abusive spouses? How is alcoholism so destructive and why can’t people quit or manage their addiction without it always getting the better of them? Do people have a propensity to cheat and can they not stop themselves? Why is it that some will realize how their behavior is hurting the ones they love, and even be moved by that realization, but yet are powerless to give it up? How do you make ends meet in tough times? Why is art and creativity such a great release from the cares and burdens of everyday life? Why do we have skills that we take for granted while everyone around us would treasure those skills and use them better? Can you find the charm and beauty inside everyone?

But I guess most of all, the film is entitled “Everlasting Moments” in reference to what is caught on film is an everlasting moment. You’ll never be that young again, that particular event or day will never happen again and you have it captured for it to live (as it were) forever. So like a photographer that chooses what they take a photo of and when to time it and from what point of reference to view it from, can we also mold our memories in the same way and keep the ones that look at life in the best possible way? Life is short and those around us that we love and cherish are worth the most in life how much of the bad things or bad habits should be overlooked in hopes of the future? What does keep people together, is it, as the film asked, is it love?

The film, which is based on the author’s family, ends after Maria’s death with her daughter discovering the camera and an undeveloped plate inside bearing the only photo  her mother ever took of herself, smiling back at us.

Not Rated. 131 minutes (2 hours 11 minutes) – yes, that’s two hours. But, while I started this prepared to sit and endure for the evening it flew by a lot faster than I expected.

This slow moving (romantic) drama is a little strange and it’s called Don McKay after the leading character played by Thomas Hayden Church (the Sandman from Spider-Man 3). It also stars the lovely Elisabeth Shue along with the man-does-he-look-old M. Emmet Walsh. It’s good to see Emmet working, good for him, you know?

Basically Don McKay is a high school janitor who has been living in his dead end job for 25 years when he receives a letter from Sonny, his high school sweetheart. Turns out she says she’s dying of an incurable disease and wants him to be with her the rest of her life. The two haven’t been in touch since it “ended badly” those 25 years ago.

It is pretty easy to realize that Don McKay is being played, but you wonder how can he be that dull to not notice? Or does he notice and he’s just playing along, pretending to be dull. His character is dull, however, a stiff guy. But really, who is fooling who, and why? I can’t tell if the movie is supposed to be a comedy, a romantic infactuation piece, or what! It boggles the mind.

And perhaps since I’m sort of in the same place in life, with a gorgeous girl who I can’t understand what she wants with me or from me, or exactly what — and I too feel that I’m not getting straight answers. Oh well, that’s not your worries.

“Some things are better left buried” the film tells us. And to a large extent that’s true, when somethings over and done, why dig it up? Another nugget is that you can’t live in the past – and that is very true too. The past is gone and done with, yes there are consequences to what has happened in the past, but you can’t change it, so pick up the pieces and move forward trying to make the most of your life from today forward.

Things learned from this movie: In small towns everyone knows your name and history about you from almost 30 years ago. In small towns no one has an answering machine or caller ID or cordless phones/cell phones and busses run whenever you want them. Old men found locked in a car trunk are subject to arrest. Always have an epi-pen handy. Love letters to former flames are like the Field of Dreams – go ahead, pour your heart out, it will at least get you laid in the future.

Rated R (why? I’m not so sure). 87 minutes (1 hour 27 minutes). Profanity, some. A little violence as someone is killed with a broken milk bottle, and more are killed with frozen meat. Zero nudity aside from a little temptation from Elisabeth Shue’s cleavage.

The Maid, or La Nana, is a one and a half hour picture about the ever fascinating life of a maid. You’ll get to follow Catalina Saavedra, as Raquel, around the house as she cooks, cleans, washes, takes her shower, serves breakfast in bed, and more. The trouble starts when the family hires a second maid, despite Raquel’s insistence that she can still do all the work – she’s been there for over 20 years.

Raquel responds to these new maids with hostility – locking them out when they go outside, not letting them back in, disinfecting anything the other maid uses, and so on. Why some of this would be troubling, well, I guess I’ve never been in that situation.

The problem for me with this movie is that it is in Spanish. I don’t speak it. So, I had to read subtitles. It’s hard to put on a movie from Netflix that maybe you are only mildly interested in when you have to stare at the screen the entire time. I mean I usually do that, but having to read subtitles wears on you after a while!

The movie was interesting if you look at it from the perspective of how do you treat those who you consider to be beneath you. For instance, perhaps the janitors at work or school.

Things learned from this movie: If you lock other help out of the house and scrub the shower after they’ve used it, they will eventually quit. As soon as you get to like someone they will also quit. If you get locked outside its ok to take off all your clothes and sunbathe. If your dad has spent a year working on a tiny sailing ship model, you can glue it back together in a few hours and he won’t notice – unless he gets home earlier than you expect.

Not Rated. 94 minutes (1 hour 34 minutes). Mild profanity, if any. Non-violent. Nudity, you get to see all the maids (except one, thank you!) nude or topless in the shower or sunning. The “man” of the house also is surprised like a deer in the headlights and stands momentarily spread-eagle like totally nude — avert your eyes! Another man’s butt makes an appearance.

Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess star in Kari Skogland’s 50 Dead Men Walking, a film based on a true life story about the Irish Republican Army. As a drama, I felt it was a good film … realistic and will keep your interest. My main problem with the film was that it didn’t make the IRA situation and Northern Ireland understandable, in fact to me it make it a little more convoluted.

I didn’t mind the violence, or the torture, or the profanity, it was all a well done part of a captivating movie. It did leave you feeling sad for the guy who seemed destined to have only one option in life and he did not have the opportunity to make a choice.

It is a well-done, almost recommendable piece, that those who are drawn to this subject matter will probably like.

Rated R. 117 minutes (1 hour 57 minutes). Violence – and realisticly done. Profanity. Plus given the Irish dialect, there may have been more profanity than I realized or maybe you’ll actually pick up on less!

One of the movies up for the Best Picture oscar is Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. It was released today, and well, wanting to be up on the Academy Award nominees, and see one of the winners (Mo’Nique wins Best Supporting Actress for this role). Can’t really say that I knew what to expect from this one.

In short, it’s an Oprah Winfrey presented story about an overweight inner city teenager who is pregnant with her second child. It shares with you her struggles to obtain a life and her strength to better herself and pull herself out of the unfortunate circumstances which are not her fault.

It’s a tough one to watch. It’s hard to see how cruelly people can treat each other – but on the flip side it is amazing how far a little kindness goes. I don’t know that I can really empathize well with the characters here, because honestly I can’t imagine myself in that kind of situation – but I know it has to be really hard. If you take the time to watch this and honestly feel what’s going on, you can’t help but feel grateful for your life, no matter how hard you think you have it. I know I don’t have it very good, but in comparison my gratitude meter has gone up.

P.S. It is also amazing to see how the character changes over time as the education she is getting (and honestly it isn’t a whole lot) sinks in and makes her more refined and “with it” if that makes sense.

Rated R. 109 minutes (1 hour 49 minutes). Profanity out the wazoo!

Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler (300′s King Leonidis) are in tonight’s Law Abiding Citizen. Clyde Shelton (Butler) has his wife and daughter killed during a home invasion by two men. They are caught and are in the justice system when Nick Rice (Foxx) cuts them a deal. One of the two guys agrees to cooperate and testify against the other one in exchange for just a prison sentence. The guy who cooperates was actually the one doing the killing. (But, because of the felony murder rule, the other guy was just as guilty as if he had killed them). Shelton is upset that they were not prosecuted and that DNA was tossed on technicalities, etc. So, he quietly waits his time and begins setting up his plan for revenge. He finds and catches the guy who did the actual murder in a very slick way – and proceeds to do a real number on him – they tell you what, but you don’t see much of it, if any. Soon, he’s arrested for the murder and while in prison more people associated with his wife’s death are killed. Who’s doing it? Why? Will Clyde Shelton be found guilty?

This movie asks a lot of interesting questions of you. About justice and whether our justice system is not functioning well. It makes you think about vigilantism, and what really is right. Is it just what meets the letter of the law, is it what lets you sleep at night. It does expose a lot of what is wrong with the justice system and legal field, but how is it that we are to change it to make it better?

This movie was rather good. It kept my interest the entire time very well. And up until nearly the end did it become apparent what was going on. I can’t say that it was entirely satisfying as a film, but good and entertaining. Worth the evening. If you like drama/thrillers, you should enjoy this.

Rated R. 108 minutes (1 hour 48 minutes). Language and violence.

This weeks sees the release of Cold Souls, a film by Sophie Barthes starring and about Paul Giamatti. It seems that it is possible to extract your soul and store it. So a burdened Paul Giamaitti, who is playing himself in the film, is told about a service that does just that. And to help him do a stage play easier he decides to have his removed and stored. Only thing is that he discovers being soulless is not such a good idea. The service tries to convince him the soul removal has done what was promised he agrees to renting a Russian poet’s soul to help him play the part in a Chekov. It works, but he decides he wants his own soul back — after repeated comments from his wife that his skin felt “scaly” (when he had no soul) to that he smelled different and seemed different after he got the poet’s soul.

Going back to the clinic he finds that his soul is missing … perhaps they shipped it to the warehouse in New Jersey by mistake. Rather than spoil any more, I’ll let you watch it if you desire. I give it a good rating. Once it started I imagined how good I expected it to be, and it didn’t meet my expectations. It was enjoyable and opens more questions if you’ll let yourself think about them.

There is an article on VenusZine about the movie and the director and her ideas behind it.

Questions like: What is our soul? What does it look like? Do we need it? What happens if you “lose” your soul. Is the soul basically good or evil? Can a soul be dried up? Is it really possible to lose your soul? Do emotions or lack of them make up who you are as a person or is it something else? Would you swap souls with someone else to get away from the pain, emptiness, or worries that you think your soul has?

I think it does slightly reinforce the meaning that you should be happy with yourself. That looking back on your life there are lots of good things and good memories and you should relish those and the people who you share your life with.

The quote by David Strathairn who played Dr. Flintstein in the movie is a great one. “Now, have you ever visited the circus and seen one of these creatures standing quietly while tied to a small wooden stick? You see, when the elephant is young and relatively weak, it is tied to an immovable stick. So later, no matter how large and strong he becomes, he continues to believe that he cannot free himself. Many intelligent people are like circus animals. They never question their self-imposed limitations. And the soul can become just such a stick. They need to break the chains.” It is important to break free of those self-imposed limits, you just don’t do it by removing, disregarding, or destroying your soul.

Rated PG-13. 101 minutes (1 hour 41 minutes). Some profanity. Some total female nudity, you just see butt and boobs on a live model at an art studio.