Contact Us Advertising Information Online exclusives Cover Story Buzz Feature In Case You Missed It Vote 2009 Boulderganic Fall 2009 Student Guide 2009 Boulder Weekly Sweet 16 Anniversary Boulderganic 2009 Summer Scene 2009 Email Newsletter Legal Services Best of Boulder 2009 Annual Manual 2009 Newspaper of the Future Kids Camp Guide 2009 Wedding Marketplace 09 Jobs available Student Guide 2008 Best of Boulder 2008 Annual Manual 2008 Join Our Mailing List
|
July 2 - July 8, 2009
buzz@boulderweekly.com
 An Unlikely Weapon
In 1968, in 1/500th of a second Eddie Adams photographed a Saigon police chief, General Nygoc Loan, shooting a Vietcong guerrilla point blank. Some say that photograph ended the Vietnam war. The photo brought Eddie fame and a Pulitzer, but Eddie was haunted by the man he had vilified. He would say, “Two lives were destroyed that day, the victim’s and the general.” Others would say three lives were destroyed. Eddie Adams, like most artists, was tortured by his need for perfection. Nothing he did ever satisfied him. He carved out many careers shooting covers for Life, Time, and even Penthouse. Yet, somehow, he was always pulled back into documenting wars, 13 all together. Finally he hit the wall and couldn’t take it anymore. He began shooting celebrities because “It doesn’t take anything from you.” Eddie was comfortable with kings and coal miners. During his time with Parade magazines he photographed Clint Eastwood, Louis Armstrong, Mother Teresa, and Pope John Paul. Not Rated. At Starz — Denver Film Society
Angels and Demons
On the heels of the 2006 adaptation of Dan Brown’s best-seller The Da Vinci Code, Tom Hanks returns to the dullest role of his career, once again under the direction of Ron Howard, who takes the material as seriously as a kidney stone on the way out. Angels & Demons is the same sort of lumbering mediocrity that Da Vinci Code was. It’s more violent, which is something, I guess, and its narrative structure ensures a regular string of cliffhangers. But what turns the pages in print doesn’t necessarily propel a story onscreen. Rated PG-13 (sequences of violence, disturbing images and thematic material). At Flatiron. — Michael Phillips
Away We Go
Glib and charming in roughly equal measure, the road-tripping Away We Go is worth seeing for Maya Rudolph (best known for being underutilized on Saturday Night Live), who plays a mother-to-be living in Colorado with an insurance salesman (John Krasinski of The Office). From the beginning, with American Beauty, director Sam Mendes has never been one to defuse the smugness in a smug script. Much of the dialogue in Away We Go is enjoyable, but in their pursuit of happiness, the two lead characters remain attractive outlines. Rated R (language and some sexual content). At Century and Mayan. — Michael Phillips
 Brothers Bloom
Two con-man brothers (Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody) travel the world in search of great marks. One day they meet Penelope (Rachel Weisz), and from the carefully orchestrated moment she drives her canary-yellow Lamborghini into their lives, their cons take on new meaning. This is a funny, sharply observed, emotionally resonant crime caper, one that lapses only occasionally into preciousness. Rated PG-13 (violence, some sensuality and brief strong language). At Colony Square. — Jessica Reaves
Cheri
Michelle Pfeiffer appears in her first substantial dramatic role since White Oleander, and we are reminded of how much the world of film has lost by her recent absence. Pfeiffer plays an aging prostitute nudged into a relationship with the 19-year-old wastrel son of a fellow courtesan (Kathy Bates). The film makes the most of its French settings, and Pfeiffer is in typically fine form. Rated R (some sexual content and brief drug use). At Esquire. — Kenneth Turan
Dark Side of the Rainbow
The pairing of the 1973 Pink Floyd music album The Dark Side of the Moon with the visual portion of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. At the Boulder Theater. — BT
Food, Inc.
This eye-popping documentary from filmmaker Robert Kenner should win a few hearts and minds regarding what we put in our stomachs. But the film got virtually no cooperation from representatives of the dominant players in industrial food production, and as a result, Food, Inc. is a rangy, well-articulated essay rather than a compelling point-counterpoint. Rated PG (some thematic material and disturbing images). At Century and Chez Artiste. — Michael Phillips
The Hangover
The Hangover takes care of its target audience — males who, after seeing director Todd Phillips’ earlier and funnier Old School, dreamed of joining the Old School fraternity. This film belongs to the what-happened-last-night? genre typified by Dude, Where’s My Car? Groom-to-be Doug (Justin Bartha) is whisked to Vegas from L.A. by his pals (Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms), with Doug’s eerie future brother-in-law (Zach Galifianakis) in tow. Chaos ensues; laughs do not (although Helms is an exception). Rated R (pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Not bad, not good, Ice Age 3 may be OK enough to do what it was engineered to do, i.e., baby-sit your kid for a while and rake in the dough. Lack of comic distinction and forgettable computer animation have always held back the Ice Age projects. Dawn of the Dinosaurs lays out one life-and-death scenario after another, dutifully. No wonder the comparatively simple frustrations endured by the squirrel-rat hybrid Scrat offer some relief. Rated PG (some mild rude humor and peril). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
The Magic Christian (1969)
Guy Grand, Terry Southern’s most anarchic and relevant character today, is a billionaire who spends his millions “making it hot for them.” The film has an all-star cast and includes cameos by Roman Polanski, Yul Brenner, Raquel Welch, John Cleese and others in their 1960s prime. The novel was cited recently in the Washington Post as predicting the culture of public excess seen in reality TV shows, like NBC's Fear Factor. Not Rated. At the Boulder Public Library. — BPL Film Program
Moon
This film could alternatively be titled 2009: A Space Odyssey, as it’s virtually impossible not to be reminded of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece between Kevin Spacey’s soothing ministrations as a computer named Gerty and Sam Rockwell’s efforts to cope as the lone occupant of a lunar outpost. Rockwell plays Sam, a technician working on a strip-mining operation on the moon. There’s an accident, a rescue and suddenly another man in this vacuum-sealed life who looks like a younger version of Sam. Director Duncan Jones, son of musician David Bowie, struggles to find entertainment within the esoteric. Rated R (language). At Mayan. — Betsy Sharkey
My Sister’s Keeper
The harder this cinematic assault weapon went at my tear ducts, the more duct tape I wrapped around them as a defensive measure. Anna (Abigail Breslin), a girl who was a test-tube baby conceived to provide bone marrow to her older sister (Sofia Vassilieva), who has leukemia, sues her parents (Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric) for “medical emancipation,” and while you’d think inter-family legal action would stop all the lovey-dovey montages of everybody cherishing every minute together, think again. Rated PG-13 (mature thematic content, some disturbing images, sensuality, language, and brief teen smoking). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
The New Twenty
Writer-director Chris Mason Johnson’s award-winning first feature (Best Lead Actress, Nicole Bilderback, Outfest; Best Director, First Feature, Ft. Lauderdale) charts the lives of five New Yorkers, a mix of gay and straight best friends about to turn thirty. With emotionally vivid performances and nuanced characters, The New Twenty paints the portrait of a generation living the highs and lows of a Wall Street world destined to disappear overnight. Not Rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
 The Proposal
In this disposable romantic comedy, Ryan Reynolds plays the beleaguered Man Friday to a fearsomely mean book editor played by Sandra Bullock. The editor, a Canadian living in New York, has visa troubles and is threatened with deportation. She strong-arms the assistant into marrying her — quickie divorce to follow — under the suspicious eye of Immigration Services. It’s not terrible, but there’s not much fun to be had watching the Wicked Witch of the Upper East Side get her comeuppance and thaw out and fall in love. Rated PG-13 (sexual content, nudity and language). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
24 City
A masterful new documentary from Jia Zhang-ke, 24 City recounts the dramatic and thunderous fall of the state-owned Factory 420, exploring both its physical demolition and its powerful symbolic echo of a half-century of communist rule. Constructed around eight dramatic interviews, punctuated by snippets of pop songs and poetry, along with beautifully-shot footage of the demolition, 24 City excavates the debris of collective memory and emphasizes the thin boundary between fact and fiction in post-revolutionary Chinese history. Not Rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Public Enemies
See full screen review on page 54. Rated R. At Flatiron, Colony Square, Century and Twin Peaks.
Sita Sings the Blues
A feminist spoof of the ancient Hindu epic The Ramayana, Sita Sings the Blues uses a rich blend of visual styles to wed the story of a modern-day marital split to the saga of the goddess Sita, abandoned by her husband Rama. With funding from a Guggenheim fellowship, syndicated comic-strip artist Nina Paley (The Hots, Nina’s Adventures) single-handedly created this delightful, flash-animated adult cartoon on a laptop over the space of five years. The narrative is broken up by segments of stop-action cutouts as elaborate as pages in a children’s pop-up book, while shadow puppets engage in a gentle sibling rivalry to recount the details of the 3,000-year-old fairy tale. It’s a handmade, heartfelt romp that the corporate heads at Disney could never have achieved. Not Rated. At Starz. — Denver Film Society
Star Trek
The new Star Trek seeks to extend a lucrative brand with a young demographic. But it’s a real movie — breathlessly paced bordering on manic, but propulsively entertaining. The script ping-pongs early on between Iowa and Vulcan, as the destinies of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) entwine. The plot issues — of moderate interest at best — deal with the space-time continuum and alternate reality. The film may not be memorable science fiction, but it's an engaging pop diversion. Rated PG-13 (sci-fi action and violence and brief sexual content).Rated PG-13. At Flatiron, Century and Colony Square. — Michael Phillips
Swanee River (1939)
Stephen Foster was one of the U.S.A.’s premiere songwriters. For the purpose of this film, his sketchy reputation was cleaned up somewhat in order to fashion a more commercial biography. During the War Between the States, Foster is accused of being a sympathizer for the South. He travels to New York with his wife and child. Songs featured are “Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Swanee River” and others. Foster’s Suite for Small Orchestra is also featured. Not Rated. At the Boulder Public Library — BPL Film Program
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Denzel Washington’s easygoing authority compensates for a lot in a sequel that fails to live up to the 1974 original, which starred Walter Matthau as a New York City transit cop locking horns with subway hijackers. Director Tony Scott’s modern version is slick, predictable and, thanks mainly to Washington’s canny underplaying, fairly diverting. John Travolta plays the lead baddie, sporting a handlebar mustache that wouldn’t be out of place in William Friedkin’s Cruising. Rated R (violence and pervasive language). At Flatiron.— Michael Phillips
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
The first Transformers was a headache, but I sort of enjoyed it. It was a Slurpee brain-freeze of a blockbuster. This sequel is more like listening to rocks in a clothes dryer for 2.5 hours. Nobody’s looking for anything other than relentless, brainless action, but director Michael Bay offers nothing but visual and aural chaos. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox run for their lives while the U.S. military and their metallic allies deal with evil robots. Rated PG-13 (intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Up
Balloon salesman Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) shared a dream with his wife to visit South America. After his wife dies, Carl’s yearning for adventure dies as well. Yet it rises again, and Up becomes a chronicle of an unlikely friendship between Carl and an 8-year-old (Jordan Nagai). This Disney-Pixar film feels nervy and adventurous and a little messy, the result of formidable creators working on an enormous budget, enormously well-spent. Yet the expansive emotional landscape of Up is something new. More power to these people. They are making the best films coming out of Hollywood. Rated PG (some peril and action). At Flatiron, Century, Colony Square and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
Whatever Works
See full screen review on page 54. Rated PG-13. At Flatiron, Century and Esquire.
Year One
Hit and miss doesn’t begin to describe this frequently wince-worthy comedy. Jack Black and Michael Cera play outcast members of a Paleolithic tribal village whose wanderings bring them into contact with Cain and Abel and Abraham and Isaac and Sodom and Gomorrah and poop jokes and pee jokes. Harold Ramis directs, and while this won’t join his list of essential comedies, some of the dumb jokes manage to elicit a laugh. Rated PG-13 (crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence). At Flatiron, Century and Twin Peaks. — Michael Phillips
back to top
|
| |
