DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CINEMA

* may or may not contain spoilers. THE TREE OF LIFE is filmmaker Terrence Malick at his most meditational. His previous films THE THIN RED LINE (which is a war film, mind you!) and THE NEW WORLD both showcased the filmmaker's penchant for introspection. We hear the thoughts of his characters out loud. His latest outing, which may as well be his magnum opus features a story of life and death, a comparative analysis of binary opposites that is neither confrontational nor shallow. A typical suburban couple, the O'Brien's (Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain) learns that their 19-year old son suddenly dies, and this devastates both of them.  Fast forward to a later time. Jack O' Brien (Sean Penn) is seen in an urban city, in a high rise corporate building. He is adrift in his thoughts, and we get some dwellings on the past. A story of creation told in eye-popping sight and sound follows. Planets rise, volcanoes erupt, organisms evolve, and life is created.  The O'Brien...

BURLESQUE is entertaining where it counts, thanks to Stanley Tucci, and to Cher's authentic turn as a performing mentor to young Christina Aguilera, but the film struggles with too much genre cliches that almost nothing separates it from usual follow-your-dream stories. Girl from small town going to the big city in pursuit of her dream. Check. Conniving rival sworn to bring the protagonist down. Check. Seasoned mentor showing girl from small town the ropes. Check. Stanley Tucci doing the same role as in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. Check. Dreamy but wimpy guy who will eventually end up with the girl from small town. Check. Suave guy who turns out to be a jackass. Check. Unnecessary character. Check. (Sorry, Dianna Agron) I felt like I've watched CHICAGO sans the politics, mixed with some STEP UP and COYOTE UGLY. Oh dear we are in trouble. RATING: 2/5 

My initial reaction was: what the heck is Tilda Swinton doing in an Italian movie? Then again, Tilda Swinton can pass for any nationality. She is British, but she can very well be American (hello Academy-award performance in MICHAEL CLAYTON!), and in this instance Russian-Italian. In fact, this is one of the most daring roles she's ever had, as a housewife in a powerful bourgeoisie family slowly giving in to carnal desires. But lust is only the surface that explains why Swinton's character Emma did what she did. You'd have to consider the social expectations on her as a mother and as a wife, and yes, her right to self-happiness. The shots are beautifully photographed, and the score by John Adams is thrilling to the ears. Tilda Swinton's numerous costumes in this movie alone have a life of their own. Unfolding in classic melodrama fashion sans the excessive shouting, ridiculous plot twists, and characters appearing like mushrooms, I AM LOVE shows us a family ruled by...

I do not know where to begin. CINEMA PARADISO is so enchanting a movie, and so grandiose it leaves you in awe and in a state of euphoria. I only saw it once. Imagine those who've seen it countless times. More than a tale of friendship, of star-crossed lovers, and of love for the movies, CINEMA PARADISO is also a tale of cultural identity, where cinema has become not only a form of entertainment but a means of unifying a society and documenting history. In 1980s Rome, filmmaker Salvatore DiVita (Jacques Perrin) is told that Alfredo, a man from his childhood village has died. Flashback to late 1940s. Young Salvatore (Salvatore Cascio) who is nicknamed "Toto" sparks an unusual friendship with the town's film projectionist, Alfredo (Philippe Noiret). Toto is curious and wily, and is eager to know a lot about cinema. This stems from longing of his father who is sent to war in Russia, and may never even come home. Father Adelfio (Leopoldo Trieste) oversees the film exh...

Either Steven Spielberg possessed the body of J.J. Abrams, or Abrams can really make someone else's movie and call it his own (not sure if it is a compliment or not). Nevertheless, SUPER 8 is a thrill-ride Sci-Fi adventure where dreams come alive once more. Despite the film screaming "Spielberg!" all over (traces of ET and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS are everywhere), Abrams is able to yarn a good coming of age story that is at once nostalgic, and the next, dazzling, though I hate to admit that the awaited moment of revelation where the alien comes out a big blah. SUPER 8 is a collage of Sci-Fi alien films that include those of Spielberg's, a dash of DISTRICT 9, and then there's that Rob Reiner STAND BY ME feel. If at all, SUPER 8 showcases the acting chops of Elle Fanning, the younger sis of Dakota Fanning, who may soon overshadow her better known sibling. First seen on Sofia Coppola's SOMEWHERE, and now here in SUPER 8, Elle Fanning is quickly becoming the next big t...

This is hands-down, one of the craziest and funniest slasher comedy film you'll ever ever see.  Featuring a tire (yes, the round thingy!) as the film's serial killer, the story has the characters breaking the fourth wall, doing self-analysis of the movie in which they are in, and all the while detailing notes about cinematic genres and culture. Quentin Dupieux's first major cinematic outing is a breathtaking, subversive take on Hollywood and the audience's common expectations on known genres. Treated as a human being that thinks, breathes, and feels- the tire aptly named Robert roams around a desert town killing people, in pursuit of a beautiful woman (Roxanne Mesquida) whom he (or 'it') can never have. Meanwhile, characters observe the happenings from a distance, and the plot mixes the imagined and reality into a funny and tragicomic ending. Madness? Maybe. But if we allowed Freddy Krueger to murder people in their sleep, or Michael Myers to become so freak...

Think BOURNE meets EVELYN SALT.  The score by The Chemical Brothers, Cate Blanchett's menacing accent and that dreaded hairdo circa Indiana Jones, and Saoirse Ronan's adaptive portrayal of a deadly killer are all nice, but the script of HANNA needs a little more polishing. Joe Wright's direction is uneven for me, and the events become more and more implausible as the film progresses. Since HANNA is marketed as a action thrill ride cum revenge movie, Wright could have gone all out with the fight scenes. I was left hanging by the end, and I have to say the government experimentation on human beings plot becomes pretty tiring by this time. I've seen Saoirse Ronan in better movies.  RATING: 2/5

The beauty in the films of Adolf Alix is that they enable you to meditate on their elements, the minutest details even— the color of a blanket, the arrangement of furniture in a house, or the mood changes on a character’s face. Alix likes to start his films by establishing his location. In KARERA, we see the Sta. Ana race track and a nameless figure watching by. Then we see Laurice Guillen as she attends worship at El Shaddai, a religious group convening every week in Parañaque, from night till dawn. Later on we learn that Guillen’s character is named LV, who runs an illegal betting scheme and seems to be influential within the race tracks. People know her, and she commands this implied reverence that probably comes with how long she’s been connected with the race tracks. We also see that LV is superstitious, and does not seem to have the makings of a career criminal. In a way it could imply that there are a lot of people like LV, everyday people, who are good-natured but pressured...

A man. His wife. His wife's lover. A private investigator. Wiping blood from your hands is never simple. Recently I've made mentioned about how filmmakers' debut films predict their place in cinema. This is yet another example. BLOOD SIMPLE is so astonishingly gripping, especially during its second half, where the Coen Bros. will take your lungs hostage. Preying on the traditional adultery plot but with a unique twist, the Coen Bros. pits a ruthless bar owner (Dan Hedaya), his wife who can't stand him (Frances McDormand), his lover's wife (John Getz), and a greedy P.I. (M. Emmet Walsh) against each other's throats. As BLOOD SIMPLE testifies, another universal theme that will later resurface in almost every Coen Bros. film is paranoia, and this element usually gets a lot of characters in trouble. The traditional Coen Bros. protagonist, which is a clueless man trying to do good is here, in the form of John Getz, but here he's having more than the usual dose...

VALHALLA RISING isn't for everybody. At once it is a meditative, atmospheric and brutish period film where man clashes with nature. On the other hand it is also a bizarre and tedious drama about inhumanity. (Yes, inhumanity!) Even with no dialogue, Mads Mikkelsen is compelling as One-Eye, a warrior who escapes from captivity and travels with a band of Christian crusaders to the Holy Land. With a young boy by his side, One-Eye navigates through harsh terrain, rough waters and vicious men. Eventually, he can also see the future through visions. Divided into six parts (Lars Von Trier?) VALHALLA RISING succeeds as a brutal epic that is surprisingly treats its antihero with sincerity. Where it fails though is that in its desire to tell its tale, the film becomes too preoccupied with obscurity that it alienates the viewer. RATING: 3/5

They say you can judge a fillmmaker's future by his/ her first film, and MEAN STREETS clearly advertised Scorsese as a force to be reckoned with, with the tight story, the single takes, the unusual camera angles, and the authentic urban crime backdrop.  In MEAN STREETS, Scorsese tackled crime, family, tradition, Catholicism, brotherhood, and a series of Catch 22 situations. Harvey Keitel is suave as Charlie, a man torn between ambition and conscience. Robert De Niro is live wire as the reckless debtor Johnny Boy. Meanwhile, an epic tale of people victimized by desperate situations and social expectations unfolds. Like Scorsese's later films (CASINO, GOODFELLAS, THE DEPARTED) which deals heavily on the moral weight of choices that are difficult to make, MEAN STREETS presents us with a backdrop on urban crime as  seen through the eyes of a conflicted character trapped at the heart of it all.  Moreover, MEAN STREETS paints us a picture of a generation swinging with upbe...

Liam Neeson is scary when he gets mad. He has that brooding physique, and his husky voice will threaten everyone in proximity. In UNKNOWN, he screams at hotel security who are just doing their job, which is proof enough Neeson is one of those guys you don't want to get angry in real life (in line with Mel Gibson, Colin Farrell, and Sean Penn).  At times the movie feels like it tries hard to be BOURNE, what with all the memory loss and the assassins. The character of Neeson here looks like his character in TAKEN, a similarly-themed thriller set in a European country, and there are instances where the events can only have been incepted in Hollywood. Countless times does the film ignore logic. The big revelation towards the climax is a big "What!?", yet the pacing and exposition afterwards and Neeson's authenticity as a hero character saves the film from mediocrity. An American biochemist, Dr. Martin Harris (Neeson) and his wife, Liz (January Jones) visit Berlin to a...

Before seeing X-MEN FIRST CLASS, I already heard a dozen or so hearsays that it will be bad, and unfaithful to the source material. First of all, I don't easily fall into public opinion; second, I am an X-MEN fan, and; lastly and most importantly, WATCHMEN deviated from the graphic novel but it is a damn good movie. Go figure. I don't know, but even purists may be silenced with Matthew Vaughn's reboot of the seemingly dying superhero franchise. Vaughn after all surprised us with his mature and innovative deconstruction of the superhero genre in KICK ASS.  X-MEN FIRST CLASS benefits strongly from Michael Fassbender's tour de force performance of Magneto,  Jennifer Lawrence's sexy rendition of Mystique, and James McAvoy surprising and greatly satisfying turn as a wise and charismatic young Charles Xavier, unique but close to home as a young Patrick Stewart.  Written by six people, including Vaughn and original X-MEN director Bryan Singer, X-MEN FIRST CLASS  dishes...