Twilight Lexicon Discussion Forums

The Company of Wolves is an early Neil Jordan film, a dark, unorthodox fantasy based on several stories by Angela Carter and derived from the old Red Riding Hood tales. The central figure is Rosaleen, an adolescent girl (played by a 12 year old actress named Sarah Patterson in a superb performance), while Angela Lansbury is her Grandmother. Despite a modest budget, Jordan creates an intricate, layered tale.

Hairspray.

I was icing and elevating a bum knee and wanted to watch something light hearted and fun (and something I already owned). It did the trick. I definitely felt better after watching it.

In Beverly Hills Cop, Eddie Murphy made the jump from being a stand-up comic to a major film star. A maverick Detroit detective, Axel Foley (Murphy), comes to Beverly Hills to investigate the killing of a friend of his. The Beverly Hills police, however, don't exactly welcome the visitor with open arms; by-the-book Lt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox) assigns Sgt. Taggart (John Ashton) and Det. Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) to babysit Axel. The crime film stuff is pretty routine; this one is a vehicle for Murphy, and a very effective one. If you like his shtick, you'll enjoy this one; Ashton and Reinhold are also pretty good.

Perder es cuestion de metodo/The Art of Losing is supposedly one of the most expensive films ever to come out of Colombia. An alcoholic journalist named Victor Silmapa (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) finds out about a strange murder where the victim has been impaled. With the cooperation of the police Colonel running the case, Victor conducts an independent and potentially dangerous investigation, which leads him to a complicated scheme involving a crooked real estate deal. As a thriller, this one takes a while to get suspense built up and the plot is a bit muddled, but the final 40 minutes or so are pretty compelling. Gimenez Cacho is a solid lead, and remember the name of Martina Gomez, who plays Victor's underage girlfriend--she's making a name for herself in Latin American film.

In Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, the trio of Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu are back for some more of what they do best--flipping their hair and fighting crime (or maybe it's the other way around). This one isn't quite as enjoyable as the first film. There was an attempt to take the story in a somewhat "darker and edgier" direction, which isn't really where Angels need to tread. There's also a horde of guest stars racing onscreen, mostly, but not entirely, for small roles that don't do too much to help the plot along: Bernie Mac, Demi Moore, Shia LaBeouf, Justin Theroux, Robert Patrick, Carrie Fisher, and John Cleese--not to mention Crispin Glover, Matt LeBlanc and Luke Wilson back from the first film. The good side, though, is that the three leads are all in good form. Anyone who's a fan of one or more of them will find enough to enjoy in this one.

The Help for the second time. Loved it as much as the first time.

I'm coming to the conclusion that the 1990s were a very good decade for Shakespeare-to-film adaptations; tonight I watched a very good film version of Othello. The cast is headlined by a pair of unlikely Shakespeareans, Laurence Fishburne in the title role (the first African-American to play Othello on film), and Irene Jacob as Desdemona. Both are very good; however, all who know their Shakespeare know that the crucial character in Othello is that of Iago, one of the Bard's truly memorable creations. Kenneth Branagh's performance as the master manipulator is exceptional, on a par with his terrific Hamlet of a year later. Among those ensnared in his schemes--some more fatally than others--are Nathaniel Parker as Cassio, Michael Maloney as Rodrigo, Anna Patrick as Emilia and Nicholas Farrell as Montano. Twilight fans will want to take special note of Michael Sheen's appearance as Lodovico.

Breaking Dawn for the second time (finally!) yesterday ! I've been anxious to see it again and finally after a month I got to watch it again!

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows

I really liked this one. And I didn't have as hard of a time understanding Robert Downey Jr as I did in the first one.

In Le premier cercle/Ultimate Heist, writer-director Laurent Tuel clearly wanted to make a film in the spirit of Jean-Pierre Melville. Anton Malakian (Gaspard Ulliel), scion of an Armenian-French crime family, wants to leave the criminal life behind and settle down to a quiet life with girlfriend Elodie (Vahina Giocante), a nurse. But his father and crime boss Milo (Jean Reno) is unwilling to let go of his heir apparent. Before everything is through, Tuel hits all the main items on the Melville checklist: the duel of wits between cops and crooks, the big heist sequence, and the overriding mood of fatalism. The film is very tightly paced--too tightly, in fact, as the characters are underdeveloped and as a result, the film isn't as compelling as it could be.