Starring: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden
Director: Kevin Lima
Country: USA
Genre: Family
Enchanted is targeted toward twelve-year-old girls and this guy over here.
Why does this film work? For all intents and purposes, it should be obnoxious as hell, but there’s something about its complete and utter lack of shame at being so innocent and sentimental that allow it to succeed. Amy Adams, no doubt, is the reason this film flourishes. It’s one of the best bits of casting in the entire decade, as she looks like a cartoon character and plays her naivety at a perfect volume. James Marsden provides quite a few laughs, that should be cheesy, but if you’re buying into the film by the time he arrives it’s not hard to find yourself chuckling. Enchanted straddles a line between Disney parodying itself and paying homage to the films that made it famous. If you’re open to the possibility that a family film could be entertaining, you might actually find a lot of pleasure in this film. If you’re a bitter cynic, stay away, stay far far away.
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupart Grint, Emma Watson
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Country: UK, USA
Genre: Fantasy
Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.
After two films that followed the same formula, a new director stepped in to helm the third installment of the series. Alfonso Curaón, probably best known for Children of Men, turns the frothiness of the previous two films and shrouds it in the dark of night. Where the first two films left audiences with a resonating feeling of sitting by the firelight, Azkaban leaves the audience with the feeling of being lost in the woods at midnight. Gary Oldman steps in, in the perfect way that only Oldman can to any role he’s given, to the notorious role of Sirius Black. The mystique of the Harry Potter series takes a turn for the better here, foreshadowing the long journey to come.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Christophe Waltz, Mélanie Laurent
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Country: USA
Genre: War
The master of homage is back in his homagiest homage yet!
It took two viewings of this film to fully appreciate it. The first time I was looking for the nuance of its brilliance, but it’s quite blatant and I think I took that as arrogance. Maybe it is. This is by far Tarantino’s most patient and deliberate film to date. For being two and a half hours, it’s only filled with a small number of incredibly long scenes. As it’s been said by many more articulate people than I, it’s his use of dialogue to build the suspense of the scenes, particularly the opening. Plus, his dialogue, though completely fantastical as it may be, is just so fun to listen to. Performance wise, Christophe Waltz almost doesn’t need mention as his talent is beyond obvious. However, many harp on Pitt for his lame accent. I, however, found it to be obvious that he knew he was doing a cartoon version of his character… because it is after all a fairy tale film. Once upon a time, and happily ever after.
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoë Saidaña
Director: James Cameron
Country: USA
Genre: Fantasy
You’ll probably want to make sure you see it in 3-D.
Whether you buy into the hype or not, it’s hard to argue that James Cameron’s labor of love doesn’t push the boundaries of current film technology. Seeing the world he created on the big screen, there was no doubt any of it was real, and in the beautiful digital 3D, it was unreal how realistic the realism was… real. Avatar isn’t without it’s faults though, as it forcefully pushes the narrative forward through awkward dialogue. But when it boils down to it, no one is buying a ticket to get the specifics on how a person is transferred into one of the Avatar bodies… a drive down a glow in the dark worm hole and waking up in the body is completely sufficient, and way more fun. It’s this spectacle that the film delivers best. It’s not Cameron’s best action, it’s not his best story, but it’s one of the most fun rides he has to offer.
Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Country: Mexico
Genre: Foreign, Fantasy
The Grimm Bros have nothing on this dark fantasy.
Fairy tales have always been pretty dark at their core. Somewhere along the timeline of passing stories from generation to generation they have become sugar coated to shield children from the horrors of life, (does the current version of Hansel and Gretel have them pushing her into the oven, or do they all sit down and have a democratic discussion about their hardships? I’ve lost track.) With Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo Del Toro brings us all back to the reasons fairy tales exist… escapism, metaphors to understand our surroundings, pure hellish childhood delight. It’s as complex as Del Toro’s previous foray into his personal projects, (The Devil’s Backbone,) as it reflects the harsh reality of war with the mysterious curiosity of fantasy. The real star of the film is Del Toro’s imagination and the creations in which it manifests. Not since Jim Henson’s heyday has there been such enchanting creatures.
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Elija Wood, Ian McKellen
Director: Peter Jackson
Country: New Zealand, USA
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
All good things must come to an end. All great things get a four and a half hour extended edition.
Farewells are always difficult, which might be why there are twenty-five minutes of them at the close of this trilogy. Peter Jackson sealed the deal on his legacy with the release of the final chapter of the beloved Lord of the Rings films, and with much legitimacy. To see the characters at the end of Return of the King compared to the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring, it’s hard to believe that they came from such humble beginnings. It’s impossible not to be bombarded with the word “epic” while watching RotK as everything is bigger and grander than anything I’ve ever seen on screen before. Good luck to all of the sci-fi fantasy films of the next twenty years living in its shadow.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett
Director: David Fincher
Country: USA
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
He was born under unusual circumstances.
David Fincher has brought us some of the darkest tales over the last two decades, which is what makes this film quite of a surprise. While it is certainly dark, it’s more of an undercurrent to a touching and insightful story of a man’s life who was born old and ages backward. It has been compared to Forrest Gump numerous times, understandably, but the two films couldn’t be more different. It’s more than a documentation of an extraordinary character’s life. It’s a dissecting exploration on old age, youth, death, life, and everything that matters in between. Though it’s obvious why Brad Pitt was cast, he definitely pulls his weight and puts in a terrific performance, but this film is just further proof that Cate Blanchett is disgustingly talented.
2007 Films | this guy over here March 11, 2010 | 
Comments (0) 
