The Ottawa Rabbit Hole

I havee't been to the theatre since April, so I decided to overcompensate on Sunday and see three movies. First up on the docket:

Superman Returns - After a long visit to the lost remains of the planet Krypton, the Man of Steel returns to earth to become the peoples savior once again and reclaim the love of Lois Lane.

I'm a comic book reader, but I have never been a big Superman fan. How can you cheer for a guy who has every power under the sun at his disposal? Plus it means there's no conceivable villain for him to fight, so it's always rescuing people from accidents and natural disasters. This movie more or less delivered on this same theme, but it doesn't mean it's a bad film. I actually enjoyed it a fair bit, although I did find it a bit slow and dull at times (much like Superman himself). The fact is, Clark Kent is a much more interesting character and it's unfortunate he gets shortchanged on the screen time in this film. It's also unfortunate that the kid who played the main guy will forever be compared to Christopher Reeve who it's impossible to top. He did do a solid job though and even got some Reeve style acting in (particularly with Kent's bumbling). The rest of the supporting cast were enjoyable and did a solid job, particularly Kevin Spacey's Luthor which was outstanding. I don't want to say that Lois Lane was miscast, because I'm not really sure what else could be brought to what is basically just a boring role in all Superman stories. Overall though, it's a summer popcorn flick and you definetly get what you pay for: a decent story with killer special effects. 3.5 carrots out of 5

Brick - A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

I've wanted to see this for a while, so I finally committed to my first Kentertainment movie night and went out to the Mayfair. I really didn't know much about this movie going in other than it was well reviewed and involved some kind of mystery in a high school. Turns out it's way more than that. A lot of reviews relate it to a film noire mystery, and they are dead on. This entire plot including the dialogue, with a few exceptions, could be redone in an adult setting and reproduce a 20's style detective mystery perfectly. The main performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (that's right, the kid from Third Rock From the Sun) is great and really brings you into the movie. The storyline itself is pretty complex and provides a lot to absorb. I managed to keep up with it during my watching, but if anybody asked me to reproduce the entire plot right now I'd be hard pressed to do it. I highly recommend everybody check this film out. 4.5 carrots out of 5

Hard Candy - A mature 14-year old girl meets a charming 32-year old photographer on the Internet. Suspecting that he is a pedophile, she goes to his home in an attempt to expose him.

I planned to leave after Brick, but I wasn't that tired so decided to stay for the second half of the double feature. I knew absolutely nothing about this movie going in and maybe that's why I had the reaction I did. This was one of the most disturbing movies I've seen in a while. As the description says, it starts out with a 14 year old girl meeting a 32 year old creep she met over the internet and going back to his place. I was waiting for him to crank up the creepometer for the first 20 minutes or so, then all of a sudden the tables turn and she's in control and wants to punish this guy for being such a creep. The rest of the movie consists of her torturing this guy, but the trick it is mostly mentally with a little physical vilance thrown in for good measure. This film had an 18A rating, and it was all due to disturbing subject matter since there was no real gory violence. This movie was well done, and the two main actors did a stellar job. In fact, pretty much the entire 2 hours is them on screen with little minute long appearances by a handful of other characters. This film is dark and disturbing, but incredibly well done. I recommend it for quality, but be sure you can handle the subject matter. You are not in for a laugh riot when you sit down for this one. 4 carrots out of 5

Posted by WRMB :: 4:28 PM :: 2 comments