Rabbit Hole (2010)

“The only way out is through.”

That is always the solution to an inevitable situation, especially when you’re trying to get over the death of your four year son. In Rabbit Hole, Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart play a couple who are in a situation like mentioned and are trying to look outside for some comfort.

Kidman’s character is the most distraught of the two. The film starts eight months after the tragedy and she is now staying home after quitting her job at a business. Her performance is really strong and she really gets into it. Her character is really pessimistic, while Eckhart’s character is the one who still misses their son, Danny, and tries to seek comfort, like taking the couple to a support group. Kidman’s character tries to make everything better, but subsequently the plans fall through and she needs to take the hard way out. She then finds solace in Jason, the teenage driver who killed Danny. With the awkward relationship, she tries to find another way to get over Danny, but the only way out is through.

Rabbit Hole really is the film that just makes you think. Its subplot adds more depth to the story as it messes with Kidman’s psyche. Also, the recurring conversation of parallel universes really brings out a new outlook and hopefully can make things better. The film is sometimes hard to watch because it’s painful to observe these two people living alone. The performances are breakthrough and they display a real life family who were put in front of a camera to document their mental escape into an unknown, a rabbit hole.

Rabbit Hole is seriously a must see with a 4.5 out of 5 and if your city isn't playing the movie, then you can wait until January 14^th, 2011.

Blue Velvet (1986)

“…unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.”

That is so fucking true. This film will completely blow your mind. Back in the 1980’s, I bet people were just punching people like crazy because this film is FUCKING CRAZY. The film follows a young college student upon returning to his hometown following his father’s hospitalization, discovers a severed ear in a field behind his neighborhood.

Things get out of hand as he connects the ear to a beautiful but devastated singer and her sadistic sadomasochistic tormentor. From there, the most perfect storytelling takes place and you’re hooked.

Blue Velvet was written and directed by none other than David Lynch. Lynch is most famous for his weird cryptic narrative in Mulholland Drive and for his strange symbolism in his feature film debut Eraserhead. Blue Velvet incorporates strong symbolism and a perfectly structured script to tell a story about murder and mystery. Strong themes pop in, for example voyeurism is used by the protagonist a few times. The film had a dark tone, following a happy introduction. The characters are developed almost like they live in a perfect world where nothing happens. But as the protagonist infamously says, “It’s a strange world.”

A perfect structure that couldn’t be toppled, a great cast that worked perfectly well with each other, and strong rhetorical strategies to develop the story and make closures, make Blue Velvet by far the best film of the 20^th century. I give the film a 5 out of 5 and it is currently out on DVD and I highly recommend you stop what you’re doing and go buy it right now.

Due Date (2010)

“Leave your comfort zone”

I suggest you stay in your comfort zone. Due Date is the 2010 road movie starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. It’s about a man played by Downey who tries to make it to L.A. from Atlanta in time for his wife’s due date. However, he runs into the most annoying guy played by Galifianakis. Will they make it on time? Yes, yes they will.

The film was funny, yet it had real touching moments that made you want to sniffle. However, Galifianakis didn’t fool me. I wanted to punch him really, really bad, yet I wanted to hug him. It was hard to sit through this, because it seemed like it was going nowhere; just one mishap after another. The director Todd Philips who directed The Hangover, Road Trip, and Old School, which are all good films, didn’t deliver his clever writing and those funny scenes where we talk about at school. My views are actually mixed, but nonetheless it really didn’t turn out like I expected it to.

With only few laugh out loud scenes and a couple of memorable lines, Due Date doesn’t deliver close comedy as does other films despite its director and the cast. I give the film a 2.5 out of 5 and, although it’s in theatres, I highly recommend you wait until it is released on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (2010)

“Nowhere is safe”

Well, when you’re being hunted down by the most evil sorcerer ever and everyone’s on his side, then yeah, nowhere is safe. That is the situation in the most anticipated film 10 years in the making Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.

The film follows the famous wizard and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger as they hunt down Horcruxes to destroy Voldemort. However on their quest, they run into the Deathly Hallows, which are a supposed myth that, whomever is to possess them, will become the master of Death. The Hallows prove to be the answer to defeat Voldemort once the Horcruxes are destroyed.

All this would’ve been necessary, but the film only consists of the first half of the book, where the Deathly Hallows are only explained and not elaborated.

Being a really big Harry Potter fan, I loved the film. I like the idea of splitting the last book into two films to fit everything, but then again, that didn’t seem to work out. Everything in the last book was already introduced to in the previous books, but not in their respective film adaptations. So, in this film, everything had to be mentioned that was left out in the other films, but that didn’t work out too well. I feel bad for the people who did see these films but never read the books, because the film, and I admit, was horrible at translating everything into the movie. However, people argue that some scenes in the film didn’t make sense. Well there’s a reason for a part two, duh! That “duh!” goes to all those stupid people I ran into on the IMDB discussion boards.

The film however had a lot of effort from the actors, great writing, funny scenes to lighten up the darker mood this film took, and great effects with the great action scenes. I give the film an 3.5 out of 5; I expected better to be honest (it hurts to say that).

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

“Steady your nerves, your sleepless nights are about to return.”

…Or so they say.

Paranormal Activity 2 is the new horror film just in time for Halloween that is a sequel to last year’s Paranormal Activity. It follows Kristy, who is Katie’s sister from the first one, and her family as they start to experience “paranormal activity” after the birth of the newborn baby, Hunter.

The film takes place during the time frame of the first one, with 60 days before Micah Sloat’s death. The occurrences were caused by the same demon from the first one as it hunted down Hunter. Of course, as typical with haunted house films, the kids are the ones that experience these occurrences and the parents are the ones in denial. It then backfires on the parents and they are then forced to believe that they’re being haunted.

The film was clever but had a few tired scares, like the dragging scene and the loud bang noises. Honestly, I didn’t jump on the parts except maybe a couple. I think the only reason I really didn’t enjoy this film was because a bunch of stupid freshman in the theatre were being, well stupid. Also, there was this kid in back of me who was saying all the stuff that was going on in the film. It really pissed me off. I had to restrain myself in my seat because I was so close to jumping to the back and bashing his skull in.

Anyways, the film was clever, as I have mentioned, and I really don’t know which Paranormal Activity was better. I give the film a slight 3 out of 5, and it’s out in theatres but I recommend you wait until it comes out on DVD and Blu-ray.

Monsters (2010)

“Beware”

Low-budget indie films are the best, and that’s no exception to this year’s new sci-fi thriller Monsters. The film is about a photographer who is sent to retrieve his boss’s daughter deep in Mexico. The two attempt to make past the “Infected Zone” of Northern Mexico and into the United States.

The story focused more on the relationship growing between the two than it did on the extraterrestrial life forms. It had a drama effect to hit that didn’t really match the actual sci-fi-ness of the film. It also had a slow start, taking too long to get to the action. At times I found myself checking the time and how much of the film was left. I was pretty tempted to change the channel but something will tell me “No”, so I decided against it. However, the film did have great dialogue and was well written and also good acting. The extras in the film were actually people who were just there the time of shooting which added a more real vibe to it.

Now, for the titular monsters, their presence were known but not spoken of, or heard of, until probably a good 30-40 minutes into the film. At the climax is when we’re finally officially introduced to them. The special effects were amazing, but they seemed a little off in the film; almost like high school film project where the monsters where photo shopped in the scene.

With an ending that didn’t make sense to me until the second time I saw it, and a great cast with a great script, Monsters is a good film that I do recommend for 4.5 out of 5, but only for the those hardcore film enthusiasts. All you others can fuck off.

Let Me In (2010)

"Would you still love me even if I wasn’t a girl?"

Let Me In is an American remake of the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In, which itself is a film adaptation of the 2004 Swedish novel of the same name. All three stories share the same concept: a bullied young boy befriends and starts a relationship with a weird girl who moved in next door to him. Little does the young boy know is that the weird girl has super strength, wall climbing abilities, and a thirst for blood.

The film started off already in the middle of the film (if that makes sense) then went back to two weeks earlier. Everything basically stayed the same based on the original (I’ve never read the novel) but changed some minor things. One major thing the writers did change was the backstory on the girl. In this film her name is Abby.

Abby, in the original film and novel, was a boy in her human life and was castrated and turned into a vampire. In the original film, there’s scene where Abby is changing and her vagina is shown, or at least where it should be. This whole background was omitted from the film which changed the actual meaning of the quote above, which has a double meaning if you read it carefully.

The film was amazing and featured the best car crash scene in movie history. What I loved is the misguiding genre; it’s not necessarily a horror film, or a romance film, and I can’t piece together what it actually is but it is good. You probably are straining away from vampire films but you can’t stay away from this. Although it might disappoint fans of the original, it’s still a breakthrough nonetheless and will grasp the attention of any newcomer to this franchise. I give it a 4 out of 5 and it’s out now in theaters.

The Social Network (2010)

“You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies”

That’s the tagline for 2010’s The Social Network. The film follows Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, and his crazy antics and exploits. It was based on a book that was consulted by one of the co-founders of the website.

The film starts off with Mark with his girlfriend at a bar. Mark seems to give out his narcissistic personality to early, setting the tone for the rest of the movie. After a fight with his girlfriend, he goes back to his dorm at Harvard and gets drunk, coming up with a crazy idea and insulting every girl that goes to his school. His actions attract two wealthy twins who have their own idea of creating a social networking site exclusively to Harvard students. One thing leads to another and Mark ends up getting sued for his- well for his asshole-ness. The scenes were structured with scenes of what happened accompanied with scenes of Mark being questioned by the lawyers of the plaintiffs suing him.

The film was very right on top and stuck to the same mood and tone throughout. It never got too serious and it didn't get too funny. It was very funny but kept a dramatic aroma to it.

It’s that rare true story that does the trick and in my opinion was a sleeper hit. Many people thought this film wouldn't have potential, but looking back at director's David Fincher's other films, I knew this film would do very good. It opened on October 1 to critical acclaim and positive reviews. From the buzz I was hearing before I saw it I know that this film is very Oscar-worthy.

I give it a 5 out of 5 and you can go watch it now in theatres.