Review: "Better Luck Tomorrow" Showed the Promise of Justin Lin

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 167 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux


Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, drug use, language and sexuality
EDITOR/DIRECTOR: Justin Lin
WRITERS: Ernesto Foronda, Fabian Marquez, and Justin Lin
PRODUCERS: Julie Asato, Ernesto Foronda, and Justin Lin
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Patrice Lucien Cochet
COMPOSERS: Michael Gonzales and Tobin Mori

CRIME/DRAMA

Starring: Parry Shen, Jason T. Tobin, Karin Anna Cheung, Sung Kang, Roger Fan, John Cho, Ryan Cadiz, and Jerry Mathers

The script for Justin Lin’s film Better Luck Tomorrow attracted hip hop entertainer and current minister MC Hammer as a financial backer, and the finished film attracted MTV as a film distributor. Better Luck Tomorrow is the tale of over-achieving, but disenchanted Asian-American teens from middle class, upper middle class, and affluent backgrounds, and since early in the year, it’s gotten a lot of buzz as a cool indie flick. Predictably, however, the young male characters’ world-weariness leads to extreme violence, and isn’t that just so typical of indie films about young men.

Ben Manibag (Parry Shen) is an intelligent, bright boy with his eyes on getting into a really good college where he can study biology and perhaps later go to medical school. He’s so clean cut that he even does charity work at a hospital and heads a volunteer public clean up crew. He and his social group of upwardly mobile Asian-American teens have vague feelings of dissatisfaction. He and his buddies put their overachieving minds to the business of various criminal enterprises. They enjoy the power trip and attention their crimes bring as much if not more so than the cash they earn, but their immoral behavior soon has them stumbling into a plot that has deadly consequences.

As both editor and director, Justin Lin ably adds many filmmaking flourishes that keep his film riveting, kinetic, and mostly fun to watch. The script by Lin and his collaborators, however, isn’t very strong. The characters are cardboard cutouts, and they’re not helped by the actors’ lack of subtlety. The performers seem to have two settings – bored and (a few times) intense. Jason J. Tobin as Virgil Hu is the only actor who seems to get any mileage out of his character.

There is one thing that makes the film a bit of an oddity. It’s about Asian-Americans, and not (thankfully) about bored, spoiled rich white kids and the (tedious) dark underbelly of suburbia. A film about bored youths is almost always about young, white people. It’s as if young nonwhites don’t have lives, or at least don’t have interesting lives in this so called melting pot.

That novelty is actually not a bad thing. It actually makes the film more interesting and adds a lot to the visual flavor. It’s nice to see a film examine something from a new and different point of view. Lin deserves major credit for his willingness to bring this movie, Better Luck Tomorrow, to screen. Reservations aside, he looks, judging by the film, like he could be a very good director. Hopefully, he and his writing collaborators will also get better.

6 of 10
B

Muse to Perform at Global Premiere of "World War Z"

MUSE TO PERFORM LIVE ON SUNDAY, JUNE 2 AS PART OF THE MASSIVE GLOBAL PREMIERE OF “WORLD WAR Z” IN LONDON

Paramount Pictures has teamed up with Grammy Award-winning British band Muse to feature the band’s music in the new film “WORLD WAR Z.” The tracks are from Muse’s latest album The 2nd Law. Following the film’s world premiere in London’s Leicester Square on Sunday, June 2, Muse will perform live from Horse Guards Parade Ground, St. James’s Park. Tickets for the live performance will be available Tuesday, May 28 at 9:00 a.m. BST. For more information and for tickets, please visit http://www.worldwarz.co.uk/MUSE

“WORLD WAR Z” revolves around an ex-United Nations investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop a pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself. Starring Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos and James Badge Dale.

Since forming in 1994, Muse has released six studio albums selling upwards of 15 million albums worldwide. The band earned its highest-ever debut on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart when “The 2nd Law” bowed at No. 2 a week after its October 2 release. Madness, the first single from the album, was No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Chart for 19 weeks, breaking the previous record set in 2007. The “2nd Law” and “Madness” received two Grammy Nominations this year. The group’s last album, The Resistance, reached No. 1 in 19 countries around the world, and they have won numerous awards including a Best Rock Album Grammy Award and an American Music Award for The Resistance.

“WORLD WAR Z” is directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Drew Goddard & Damon Lindelof, and screen story by Matthew Michael Carnahan and J. Michael Straczynski. Based on the novel by Max Brooks. Produced by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Ian Bryce.

“WORLD WAR Z” is in theaters June 21, 2013.


About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.

SEE THE ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GpxGm-fifiA

OFFICIAL SITE: WWW.WORLDWARZMOVIE.COM

Review: "Before Sunset" is an All-Time Great Romance

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 234 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Before Sunset (2004)
Running time: 80 minutes (1 hour, 20 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and sexual references
DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
WRITERS: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, and Richard Linklater; from a story by Kim Krizan and Richard Linklater (based upon characters by Kim Krizan and Richard Linklater)
PRODUCERS: Anne Walker-McBay and Richard Linklater
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lee Daniel
EDITOR: Sandra Adair
Academy Award nominee

ROMANCE/DRAMA

Starring: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

The subject of this movie review is Before Sunset, a 2004 romantic drama from director Richard Linklater. It is the sequel to the 1995 film, Before Sunrise. Set nine years after the first film, Before Sunset follows the young American man and young French woman who first met on a train and spent a night in Vienna as they reunite in Paris.

It’s been nine years since Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) first met in Vienna. Back then they promised to meet again in six months, but it didn’t happen. Now, Jessie is on the European leg of his book tour. He’s in Paris for a book signing session at a small (and intimate) book store when he spies Celine off to the side… and they pick up where they left off nine years ago.

It must seem nearly impossible that Before Sunset, Richard Linklater’s sequel to his romance classic, Before Sunrise, surpasses the original. Just as in the first film, the lead characters talk and talk and talk, but this time there is the baggage of nine years of disappointments between their meetings. Whereas, in Sunrise, the talk was existential and about hope and promise, this time every topic leads back to two questions for the characters: What if we had both kept our promise to meet again in Vienna?” and the unspoken question, “Are we supposed to be together.”

Sometimes, when we meet old and dear friends whom we haven’t seen for a long time, we find that we pick up with the relationship right where we left off. Linklater, Hawke, and Ms. Delpy take that phenomenon and turn it into art, art that lives and breathes. Before Sunset is a great romantic film and a great film period – a love idyll about ideal romance. Would that more films be about love rather than hate and make us invest ourselves in the outcome of romantic love. Plus, look out for that knock out surprise ending.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2005 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” (Richard Linklater-screenplay/story, Julie Delpy-screenplay, Ethan Hawke-screenplay, and Kim Krizan-story)

Review: "Before Sunrise" a True Romance

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 233 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Before Sunrise (1995)
Running time: 105 min (1 hour, 45 minutes)
MPAA – R for some strong language
DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
WRITERS: Kim Krizan and Richard Linklater
PRODUCER: Anne Walker-McBay
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Lee Daniel
EDITORS: Sandra Adair and Sheri Galloway
COMPOSER: Fred Frith

ROMANCE

Starring: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

The subject of this movie review is Before Sunrise, a 1995 romantic drama film from director Richard Linklater. The film follows a young American man and a young French woman who meet on a train and spend one night in the city of Vienna, walking, talking, and getting to know each other.

After he breaks up with his girlfriend in Spain, American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) takes a train tour of Europe. On the Budapest-Vienna train, he meets Celine (Julie Delpy), a French grad student. They strike up a conversation, and Jesse convinces her to skip her stop and get off the train with him in Vienna where he’s scheduled to take a flight back to American the following morning. They walk and talk and fall in love before Jesse leaves at sunrise, but will they ever meet again?

Before Sunrise is a true romantic film. It’s about two people falling in love, but director Richard Linklater’s film is such an unusual romance because he doesn’t sell the romance between Jesse and Celine using swelling orchestral music or beautiful cinematography of lush sunsets and sunrises. Instead, he forces the audience to accept or reject the believability of the couple’s growing friendship, fascination with each other, and eventual falling in love based upon how they talk to each other. And boy, do they talk. They talk about love, life, relationships, gender, men & women, politics, history, and they sometimes even make small talk.

Before Sunrise is an acquired taste, but if you can accept how unnaturally natural Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are in their performances, how they really seem to be getting to know each other (both as actors and characters), for real, then you’ll like this movie. This is one of those times when a film that is literally filled end to end with thick dialogue is actually as riveting as an action thriller. The ending seems a little too stretched out, but Before Sunrise is an exceptional and unique motion picture.

8 of 10
A

New "World War Z" Poster - May 23, 2013

WORLD WAR Z

OFFICIAL SITE: WWW.WORLDWARZMOVIE.COM

The story revolves around United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop a pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself.

Review: "Torque" is Fast, but Not Furious (or even good)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 87 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


Torque (2004)
Running time: 84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence, sexuality, language and drug references
DIRECTOR: Joseph Kahn
WRITER: Matt Johnson
PRODUCERS: Brad Luff and Neal H. Moritz
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Levy (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: David Blackburn and Howard E. Smith
COMPOSER: Trevor Rabin

ACTION/CRIME

Starring: Martin Henderson, Ice Cube, Monet Mazur, Matt Schulze, Jay Hernandez, Max Beesley, Joe Doe, Will Yun Lee, Jaime Pressly, Adam Scott, Faizon Love, Justina Muchado, Christina Milian, and Fredro Starr

The subject of this movie review is Torque, a 2004 action movie from director Joseph Kahn. I think of this film as The Fast and the Furious on motorcycles; in fact, one of Torque’s producers, Neal H. Moritz, also produces The Fast and the Furious film franchise. Torque focuses on a motorcyclist who is first framed for murder by an old rival and then, pursued by the murder victim’s brother, the leader of a feared biker gang.

Biker Cary Ford (Martin Henderson) returns to Cali, after spending several months overseas. Not long after Cary returns, an old rival named Henry James (Matt Schulze) frames him for a murder Henry committed. However, Junior (Fredro Starr), the murder victim, is the brother of Trey (Ice Cube), a gang leader who buys the trumped up evidence that Cary killed Junior, and he wants Cary dead. Tie that into the fact that an FBI agent wants to arrest Cary as a drug dealer, and the film Torque has its conflict ducks lined in a row.

Twenty years ago, the Warner Bros. logo would not have appeared at the head of this film; instead the movie company logo that would have appeared in front of a film like Torque would have belonged to such outfits as Cannon Pictures or New World Pictures. I understand and whole-heartedly buy into the concept of popcorn pictures, but Torque is plain bad: bad directing, worse writing, piss poor dialogue, and charisma-less actors. Torque has the power to summon cringes galore, and it is unintentionally funny – not rare in Hollywood pictures, but painful when you’ve already lowered your expectations and are willing to accept even a mediocre movie if it’s mildly entertaining. Torque is not anywhere entertaining.

The last ten minutes, however, are a hoot, and the scene I call “joust of the bitches” is worth the cost of a discounted rental. “Star” Martin Henderson is the lowest of the low-rent Tom Cruise-look-alikes, but no one else in this film is better. Think thrice before you rent this dog.

1 of 10
D-

Spike Jonze's "Her" Due November 2013

Warner Bros. Pictures Slates Spike Jonze’s “Her” for November 20, 2013

Film to open in limited release in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“Her,” the new modern-day love story from Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Spike Jonze (“Being John Malkovich”) and Annapurna Pictures, will open in limited release on November 20, 2013, it was announced today by Dan Fellman, President, Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

The film will be released initially in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, with future cities and dates to be announced.

Written, directed and produced by Jonze, “Her” stars Joaquin Phoenix (“The Master”), Amy Adams (“The Master”), Scarlett Johansson (“Hitchcock”), Rooney Mara (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Chris Pratt (“Moneyball”) and Olivia Wilde (“People Like Us”).

In making the announcement, Fellman stated, “Spike Jonze is known as a filmmaker who breaks the mold, and ‘Her’ continues in that tradition. It’s a thought-provoking love story that speaks to the impact of ever-evolving technology on our personal lives. We love the film, and we are very excited to be able to share it with audiences on November 20th.”

Joining Jonze as producers on the film are Vincent Landay and Megan Ellison. Daniel Lupi and Ted Schipper will serve as executive producers, with Natalie Farrey and Chelsea Barnard as co-producers.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Hoyte Van Hoytema (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”), production designer KK Barrett (“Where the Wild Things Are”), costume designer Casey Storm (“Where the Wild Things Are”) and editors Eric Zumbrunnen (“Where the Wild Things Are”) and Jeff Buchanan (“Be Kind Rewind”).

An Annapurna Pictures Production, a Film by Spike Jonze, “Her” will be distributed domestically by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.