District B13 - B-

In any French movie, so you can expect men to slap each other around a little, but in this cyber-European near-future action flick, people get knocked around pretty hard. District B13 is about two partners who infiltrate District B13, a walled off ghetto in Paris, to recover a stolen nuclear warhead. 2 cool things about this movie: 1. martial arts 2. The movie is crafted as an introduction to Parkour or street running, a frantic "sport" and recent internet craze that has men running all over an urban sprawl like a jungle gym. The two heroes (particularly Leito, played by David Belle) are responsible for the coolest scenes that involve frenetic escapes from the gun-wielding gangsters chasing them. This style of handling a sticky situation doesn't involve beating the crap out of every single challenger; the object is to escape. The heroes will throw a punch here or a kick there, just enough to get away. It's really fun to watch, and leaves you wanting to see more. However, the middle of the film drags into such boring pursuits as "plot" and "character development" which left me bored and wanting to see more reasons for David Belle to escape from somewhere. Cyril Rafaellie picks it up with a heart-pumping one man assault on a dirty casino in which he rolls through around 40 guys in a sweet beatdown scene.

The movie kind of went like this for me. Blah blah blah blah *french* talk talk talk WOAH COOL HE JUST SNAPPED THAT GUY'S NECK! blah blah talk talk...

The plot is really bad, but that's what you expect in a martial arts flick, right? Girls get kidnapped, egos get challenged, cars get blown up, heads get busted. The trick is to spend as little time as possible on the canned plot and two-dimensional themes and just focus on the cool stuff. B13 packs the action in, but there are a few dorky scenes that have the two partners philosophizing with each other about "values" and "morality": don't care! Just beat people down, that's all we want to see.

Cars - A-

Another Pixar movie: cute characters, good story, eye-popping animation. Not quite on par with past Pixar greatness, but still head and shoulders above all other CG Animation. You'll like it, whoever you are. 'Nuff said.

The Lost City - C+

Andy Garcia's directorial debut could've flown as a sad story about the loss of a beautiful way of life in the turmoil of the Cuban revolution. Unfortunately a lack of focus on key plot points and a fairly flat retelling of the revolution makes this one a two and a half hour yawner.

The beginning is promising with images of a close family whose ideologies are starting to create division. Garcia is as cool as ever as Fico, the owner of a famous Cuban nightclub called the El Tropico. The cabaret scenes are excellent, which brings me to the movie's only interesting thing - the music. whoever put together the soundtrack really outdid himself with jazzy latin numbers and colorful singers. Unfortunately, Garcia doesn't really come across as a very musical guy, he professes to love the music, but he doesn't really sell it...but that's just nitpicking. The movie starts to go downhill with (oddly enough) the introduction of Bill Murray as a mysterious comedian at the club. Murray's character is perplexing, he never says his name, you never really find out what he does (he never performs, he just hangs out) and you are left to wonder just what in the world his purpose is. He serves as dippy comic relief in some scenes, and as a wry voice of truth in others, but he is never a real person. It really makes you wonder what kind of character Garcia originally had in mind when Bill Murray probably unexpectedly showed interest and got the part just because he's Bill Murray. Unfortunately, because he's Bill Murray that's all he is, and his lines were obviously improved because they don't make any sense with the rest of the script. Dustin Hoffman is equally unneccessary in a bit part as a mob leader looking to take over the nightclub. He appears once at the beginning and at the end, and if you see the movie you'll understand why his character is such a spare.

The story progresses as the family is torn apart by the political upheaval, with sons becoming involved and such. After Fico's brother dies in the revolution, Fico begins a romance with Aurora his widowed wife, a major plot point that is pretty much simmered down into a montage. It's like, they're friends - (several fadeout shots later) - they're in love! I hate that kind of watered down character development that is as lazy as it is ineffective. However, they do have to move the story along, which is (ironically) what Garcia does worst. Too long Andy, too long. There are scores of unneccessary scenes of a brooding Fico or a brooding (insert any other character besides Bill Murray's). There was a lot of brooding going on. Stylistically, Garcia does some cool stuff at the beginning with a well spliced storming the presidential palace/nightclub dance sequence. Fortunately, there is some good support acting. Tomas Millian and Richard Bradford are great ats the two heads of the Fellove household, and Julio Oscar Mechoso is great as a menacing Colonel Candela. Jsu Garcia looks the part as Che Guevarra, but his performance is pretty simplistic. As afore mentioned, the main characters do a lot of brooding and fake crying (you know how actors can cry without sobbing, random tears just drop out). It's too bad that this is what the main characters boil down to. Later in the film, Fico's new love is eventually disrupted, because Aurora goes and hobnobs with the revolutionaries and becomes involved in the government. This was completely unbelievable, she was given absolutely no reason to leave suave, cool Andy Garcia for a gang of scruffy commies. Her changeover is too quick and doesn't make sense, making the parting less bittersweet and more " oh come on" moments.

It's also frustrating when it's so obvious that Garcia wanted this movie to portray Cuba as a paradise lost, but he just didn't show enough of Havana for it to be enticing or even realistic. The movie was incredibly claustrophobic, switching between intimate scenes in rooms or clubs and limited exterior shots that show very little of the landscape. Cuba just didn't feel real. All of the culture scenes are the ones that involve the cabaret, which is something of a false environment.
Bottom line, many undeveloped elements are lost in this war drama. If anything it serves as a reminder of how much communism sucks, despite what's hip right now.

Nacho Libre - B

Amid reviews that are both too good and too damning, Nacho Libre lands somewhere in the middle. Fortunately, the success these sorts of character-driven comedies do not ride on critical acclaim. The laughs are silly, and critics rarely give a thumbs up for silliness. Nevertheless silliness is funny (to me), and I found Nacho Libre to be satisfyingly funny. Comedies so often come down to personal preference. What makes you laugh? Comedy directors are always trying to find out, comedy is like hopeful guesswork, hoping that a gag will strike a chord when it may not. Rating a movie's humor is different from assessing it's storytelling or cinematography. I thought Nacho Libre was funny, but you may not.

Jack Black dons a skin-tight wrestling outfit and mask for his role as Ignacio, a Catholic monk who dreams of being a professional wrestler. His dream is challenged by the conservative Catholic lifestyle, and the fact that he's not all that good. His companion is a skinny street urchin who is more help to Ignacio than expected. Sister Incarnacion's Madonna-like (Mary not singer) looks are a good motivation for the pure-hearted Ignacio. Plotwise, you've seen underdog stories a hundred times, but it's Jack Black's performance that makes the film fresh. He delivers a carefully funny performance as Ignacio (his delivery is very controlled, a new style for Mr. Black). He plays his quest of glory kind of like a goofy Junior High kid who just wants to be admired. His facial expressions are remarkably emotive. Jack Black is good at talking with his eyebrows, and he really works the facial expressions in this movie more than ever before.

Jared Hess lights up the screen with the movie's wonderful photography, shot mostly in Mexico itself, with a Mexican crew. Oh yes, about that, some have called out Hess on his silly portrayal of Mexicans, (Entertainment Weekly indicts him with only using Mexican culture for a cheap laugh) but these accusations are unfair. Many comedies include caricatures of any culture, including our own. Napoleon Dynamite stereotypes small-town folk just as scathingly. Hess looks for silliness in all people, not just any specific culture. Plus, the movie is all the more interesting for being shot in Mexico. The hilly vistas and dry desert shots are remarkably pretty, and bold costumes against candlelit adobe rooms give the film a remarkable sense of mood. Such attention to detail is largely foreign to the comedy genre.

Bottom line, if you liked Napoleon Dynamite, chances are you'll like this, too. It's by no means a poorly made film, whether or not you think Jack Black's Ignacio is funny, though your enjoyment of the film may depend on it. This, like Napoleon Dynamite, is a film that will either be loved or hated depending upon your preference in comedies and how many times you've heard the jokes quoted before actually seeing the movie.

A Prarie Home Companion - B+

Robert Altman's fictionalization of the popular NPR radio show is a mild film that is easy to watch and as enjoyable as the folk music that makes up the bulk of the film's spectacle. Fans of the radio show will be pleased to see how Altman has preserved the spirit of the show, while perhaps not every detail (Powdermilk biscuits, and Guy Noir make the cut, Lake Woebegone does not). In this film, the radio show is a variety show that focuses on the music and fake commercials that make the NPR show so fun, while leaving out the long stories and clever monologues that Keillor is known for. In this movie Keillor plays a different version of himself: this one an oblivious, flat host with a penchant for sameness and not one to get too excited about anything. His foil is a wistfully naive Meryl Streep who plays one sister in a singing duo (the other is Lily Tomlin). Lindsay Lohan plays her daughter, a picture of the young generation who is coerced out of her anti-establishment mannerisms by the heartwarming steadiness of the radio show music. Kevin Kline plays a hilarious version of Guy Noir who in Altman's world, is not a private eye, but rather, an absentminded stage manager who fancies himself as one. Other notable cast members are Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilley as two country singers, Maya Rudolph as the overworked stage-worker person (what do they call those people that say "okay people...5 minutes?"), Tommy Lee Jones as the corporate "Axeman" and Virginia Madsen as the Angel of Death.

The plot is simple and focused on this being the show's last broadcast, and all of the conversations and relational dynamics that ensue. The cast blends well. Keillor, Harrelson, and Reilley's entertaining banter (almost certainly improvesational) is fun to watch, as well as Streep's fluttery personality contrasted with Tomlin's no-nonsense cynicism. Maya Rudolph is not particularly interesting, but it is hard for every character to be interesting with such outstanding oddballs as Keillor, Kline and Streep. There are several plotlines, the most ambitious of which being Madsen's angel plot (reminiscent of the Coen Brothers). This sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't, but it doesn't bring down the film at all. It doesn't add any explanatory complications in an otherwise intentionally simple movie, and Madsen's scene with Keillor is very sweet. The movie could be described as slow and uneventful, but that is what Altman is celebrating, the spirit of the ordinary and sameness that has always been the way of small town American life.