Movie 43 (2013)

1/5

Movie 43 is an abomination of filmmaking. It is an offensive assault on the senses for 90 straight minutes. This thing--which I refuse to call a movie--is a collection of unrelated images and scenarios designed to disgust and disturb. It is the kind of thing created for reaction videos, with no inherent value. From neck testicles to cartoon cat masturbation fantasies, from parental abuse and incest to graphic leprechaun violence, from gratuitous nudity to yellowface surgery, there is no line it won't cross. I'm disappointed that so many quality actors have sullied their names by taking part in this evil transgression of cinema, this shameful plague of a thing. It makes me shudder just thinking about it. Ugh.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1333125/

Traffic (2000)

4/5

Steven Soderbergh's Traffic weaves an intricate, spellbinding tale that is nearly impossible to take your eyes off of for its entire 2.5 hour running time. The plotting is impeccable, keeping you engaged whether detailing the intricacies of drug consumption or the complex involvement of governments on drug trafficking. The stories, as penned by Stephen Gaghan, are eye-opening and richly-textured. We are thrust into a collection of environments so authentic that we cannot help but take the events that pass as reality. We become involved and complicit; we end up shaken and unclean. Every person has a little bit of good in them and a little bit of bad in them, making decisions equal parts wrong and equal parts right. There are heart-breaking scenes in here, made all the more powerful thanks to superb acting, that combine with profound and provocative ideas to bring home a very specific message: the war on drugs is a lost cause. The film ends on a solemn, haunting note, showing us characters continuing to fight a battle that will never end and will only take more lives. Everything feels so overwhelming, and we are all so helpless to effect change.

But despite my high praise, the movie also fails on a number of levels. Honestly, I hated the editing. The pacing was practically non-existent, with innumerable superfluous scenes cut together haphazardly. (Not that the movie was boring per se, just that there was about 30 minutes of extra footage meandering throughout its nonlinear storyline.) The editing was almost as bad as some of Soderbergh's directing decisions. Really? Blue, orange, and red? That's your big contribution to the story? I'm not saying it's not a well-directed movie from other standpoints, just that the colors were a bit too in-your-face for me. It was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. But Soderbergh still somehow manages to fill our minds and our hearts to their breaking point, giving us a timely and timeless story that is both absorbing and poignant. And also unforgettable.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181865/

Footloose (2011)

2/5

This 2011 remake of Footloose is kind of a funny movie, although not always intentionally so. It purports to be a movie about an out-of-towner (Wormald) who discovers that public dance has been outlawed in his new small town home and attempts to overturn that silly law. It is also about a foolish, old-school preacher (Quaid) who must learn humbling life lessons from his far wiser, far sassier, daughter (Hough) and her precocious teen friends. I guess it's also supposed to be a dance movie, but there are about 3-4 scenes total that involve any kind of dancing. I say that it's funny because I can't wrap my head around the plot enough to suspend my disbelief. A group of drunk teens gets into a car accident while leaving a party that involved dancing, and the next logical step is to outlaw dancing. A high schooler gets so fed up with the unfairness and oppression leveled at him by adults that he has to go to an abandoned warehouse and dance his heart away. Most preposterous of all, however, is the drag race involving schoolbuses that ends in flames. Honestly, I'm not quite sure that the filmmakers were going for, but whatever it was, I don't think they succeeded.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068242/

Soul Surfer (2011)

3/5

Soul Surfer is a very Christian movie that was not advertised as such. Nor was it written or acted as such. That's a good thing, because otherwise you'd end up with a movie like Fireproof. Soul Surfer tells the true story of Hawaii surfer Bethany Hamilton (Robb), who gets her left arm bitten off by a shark on the eve of her professional surfing career. She is saved by Hercules (Sorbo), although I don't think that's his name in this movie. Her father (Quaid) continues to push her to surf, while her mother (Hunt) isn't so sure it's the right decision. She gets frustrated at having to relearn something that used to be so natural to her and wants to quit, but she convinces herself to go on a missions trip to Thailand to gain some perspective.

Soul Surfer is a rare Christian movie where it's a movie first and an advertisement for Christianity second. Unfortunately, it's not exactly the best movie on its own merits, but it's assuredly one of the better Christian movies I've seen in recent memory. The acting was pleasantly believable (except for Carrie Underwood, who destroys every scene she's in). The dialogue was surprisingly well-written and realistic. The script managed to insert Christianity and churchgoing as everyday entities in the protagonist's life instead of emphasizing them to the point of awkwardness. It also didn't force a romance onto us, although it gave us the threads to create one if we wanted it. All in all, the movie is entertaining and uplifting without being too cheesy or ridiculous. I would recommend it to anyone who's interested; don't let the Christian aspect throw you off.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596346/

Vantage Point (2008)

4/5

Vantage Point is a movie Sameer and I light-heartedly made fun of for its over-the-top action and cliched dialogue while simultaneously watching the trailer again and again in anticipation of its release. We decided not to see it in theaters due a slew of bad reviews, but I am happy to announce that all those reviews were wrong! This movie met and exceeded all my expectations. The plot follows an attempted assassination on the President while at a counter-terrorism summit that continually gets more and more unnecessarily convoluted and never actually reveals the terrorists' true motivations. And yet, by the end of the movie, you don't care at all. Because it set up a series of small mysteries and revealed them incrementally such that you finish the film feeling satisfied. It is remarkably successful at getting you to suspend your disbelief from beginning to end.

Dennis Quaid was an actor whom I (and Hollywood) had forgotten about. But he gives a strong, convincing performance that anchors this entire movie. The cinematography was alright, but the real visual star was the locale. The shots were beautiful, although the rapid-fire editing made it somewhat difficult to see at times. The dialogue was not as awful as the trailer made it seem--they picked the worst sentences for the trailer, which magnified their stupidity. The action, however, was incredible. I'm generally not a fan of car chases, but this one had me sitting on the edge of my seat. It is absolutely amazing. This entire movie emanates a feeling of cool. Think Lost meets 24. And watch it.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443274/