Mini Reviews
The Cove (out Aug 20) is a doco which focuses on the slaughter of dolphins in a small Japanese coastal town and how a small team of activists are trying to stop it. It opened my eyes to this issue but I would have liked to have seen more about the politics in the background. Grade: B+.
District 9 (out now) is a documentary style science fiction thriller about an alien species who become refugees in a South African camp. It's a very effective movie - putting forward a realistic scenario if such aliens ever did land on our planet. Their weapons are cool too. Grade: A-.
Orphan (out now) was very slow to start... but then something happened. It started living up to the genre and developed into quite the freaky horror flick. It's the tale of a family who adopt a 9 year old girl and then realise she has a personality to rival Satan. Yeah! Grade: B+.
Dance Flick (out Aug 20) is yet another stupid spoof flick from the Wayans brothers. 10% of the population will find this funny. 90% of the population will not. I don't like those odds. Grade: C.
Lake Mungo (out now) is a fictitious Aussie thriller about the death of a young girl who may have returned as a ghost. It's shot like a documentary (kind of Blair Witch style) which makes it a little more believable but the novelty wore off after a while. Grade: B-.
Eden Is West (out Aug 20) comes from Greek director Costa-Gavras and is the story of an illegal immigrant named Elias who is trying to make his way from the Aegean Coast to Paris. He meets an assortment of people along the way - some helpful, some not so helpful. This is a really good film. Not as black and white as you might think. Grade: A-.
Bandslam (out Aug 13) is a teen movie about a nerdy, music loving guy who moves to a new school and becomes the manager of band. He also finds himself falling for two different girls - one an ex-cheerleader and the other a quiet rebel. I didn't think this was anything too special but it does a few things differently from your normal teenager flick and it has my respect for that. Grade: B.
Tyson (out now) is bascially a 90 minute interview with Mike Tyson with clips from his career thrown in. It was great to see this flawed man be so open about his career and his mistakes. However, I'd have preferred to hear the thoughts from others involved in Tyson's career (e.g. Don King) to provide a different perspective. Grade: B.
The September Issue (out Aug 20) is a documentary about Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue Magazine, and her diligence in putting the huge September 2007 issue together. I was looking forward to this but unfortunately, it doesn't dig very deep. Anna's offsider, Grace Coddington, is far more interesting... and creative for that matter. Grade: B-.
Two Lovers (out now) is a romantic drama about a troubled guy (Joaquin Phoenix) who suddenly finds himself with two girlfriends - one who he is pursuing (Gwyneth Paltrow) and one who is pursuing him (Vinessa Shaw). Who will he end up with? Yeah, it's ok. Grade: B.
Coraline (out now) is a darker that your average kid's flick... and that's a good thing. It's the story of a girl who finds a secret doorway in her home that leads to a parrallel universe. Her parents are much nicer in this world but can she live here forever? Great animation, great story. Grade: A-.
