If there’s one thing Academy Award winning director Ron Howard loves, it’s rivalry. And a good true story too. Be it the clash of intelligence between John Nash and Martin Henson in A Beautiful Mind, or the Depression-era battle between boxers James Braddock and Max Baer in Cinderella Man, or the interview based war of words between Richard Nixon and David Frost in Frost/Nixon, Howard’s films often showcase how fear, pressure, and competition bring out the best of one’s abilities. Luckily, Rush, about rival Formula One racers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), has all the makings of a good Ron Howard movie at its core – a riveting true story with a scorching rivalry – and therefore it’s the director’s most exciting and thematically alive effort in years.
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I really wanted to love Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. The 2009 original, loosely based on the classic children’s book by Jodi and Ron Barrett, was a surprise box office smash ($243 million worldwide) thanks to its energetic voice cast and frenetic, nutty humor. Think The Day After Tomorrow if director and disaster-master Roland Emmerich were an 8 year-old with Cartoon Network edge. This inevitable sequel – about inventor Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader) and his friends’ mission to clean up the town of Swallow Falls – keeps the same loveable zaniness that made the first a winner but unfortunately doesn’t bring anything new to the table. It tastes good for the most part but will hardly leave you full.
In this blockbuster age of sequels, prequels, reboots, and adaptations, it’s not everyday Hollywood offers up a challenging, original R-rated adult drama. When they do, it’s usually an under-the-radar festival gem that, if lucky enough, gains some traction at the specialty box office. Most don’t unfortunately. This weekend, the nationwide box office saw the release of one of its most ambitious titles in years, Prisoners, Oscar-nominated French director Denis Villeneuve’s dark, dazzling kidnapping drama that has the cast of an American drama but the atmosphere of a European art house movie. Slow burning and head spinning, our own Zack Sharf praised Prisoners as 
Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners is the first must see film of the Fall Movie Season. It’s certainly not for everyone – the fact that it’s opening nationwide is quite ambitious – but those willing to endure 2 and ½ hours of dark, dense, and devastating material will be greatly rewarded. French director Villeneuve, Oscar nominated in 2011 for the foreign language drama Incendies, has crafted a morally complex studio film in the vein of Fincher’s Se7en and Zodiac, but the mystery here moves and unfolds more like a European art house film, taking its slow, slow time to break down its characters under an increasingly heavy, unsettling atmosphere. Warner Brothers is taking quite the chance opening this one wide but it’s a move that is as risky as it is commendable. The bottom line is that nationwide audiences need more movies like Prisoners – movies that don’t hold your hand, movies…
I didn’t expect much from Luc Besson’s dark mob comedy The Family, but something about watching the great Robert DeNiro in another disappointing effort stung surprisingly hard. For the past couple of years DeNiro has gone from one lackluster motion picture to the next; does anyone even remember The Big Wedding? Red Lights? Being Flynn? Stone? Everybody’s Fine? What Just Happened? Let’s not even mention DeNiro’s participation in the ensemble mess New Year’s Eve. Aside from last year’s great, Oscar-nominated turn in Silver Linings Playbook, DeNiro – and I mean the legendary DeNiro of Raging Ball, Taxi Driver, and The Godfather Pt. 2 – has all but been missing from our screens recently. None of this is to say that DeNiro has actually given abysmal performances – quite the contrary, DeNiro has a level of star power that makes just…
For a director so in love with explosive action and big gun shootouts, it’s ironic French director Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, Leon: The Professional) is such a hit-or-miss filmmaker. His movies often walk a fine line between homage and originality, and in some cases with the right star, such as Bruce Willis in the sci-fi epic The Fifth Element, Besson can breathe fresh life into a genre while respecting its conventions and clichés. Despite his best effort to do the same with the mob genre in his latest, The Family, his first movie behind the camera in almost seven years, the screenplay is so unevenly constructed that Besson can’t quite hit the blend of parody/homage/originality he’s so cleverly trying to target. Given Besson’s track record this should hardly be disappointing, but with a cast that includes Robert DeNiro, Michele Pfeiffer, and Tommy Lee Jones, the lackluster…
Sometime around the end of April anticipation for the upcoming Summer Movie Season reaches an astronomical level. I remember thinking: Will Iron Man 3 be a worthy follow-up to the record breaking Avengers? Can Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder redeem Superman? Will Hangover 3 or Furious 6 dominate Memorial Day? Will Despicable Me 2 out gross Monster’s University? Will summer indies like Fruitvale Station have enough positive buzz to make it to the podium in February 2014? Will Elysium be another Neill Blomkamp groundbreaker a la District 9? Ironically, when September rolls around, after 4 months and dozens of movies, you can’t help but shake the disappointing feeling that not everything worked out how you wanted it too. As they say, “Blame the hype!” While Summer 2013 was a letdown as a whole (more to come on that later this week), the season still provided a handful…
SHARF @ THE MOVIES 