Azur & Asmar


It's taken three years, but Michel Ocelot's latest animated feast has reached the U.S.  "Azur and Asmar" was originally released in Europe in 2006 to huge accolades, and deservedly so.     The story unfolds with a very young Asmar and his mother Jenane living in the equally very young Azur's household as playmate and nanny respectively.  From the opening sequence there are obvious outward differences between the two boys.  Asmar is dark haired, brown-eyed and dark skinned, while Azur is blue-eyed, blond haired and light skinned.  Jenane treats both boys with the same love and care, making sure not to favor one over the other.  She speaks to them in English and in her native Arabic tongue and even breast feeds them both.  Although outwardly... READ MORE >>>

Be Kind Rewind


     Michel Gondry, who directed Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, delivers a quirky, yet charming look on the power that film has on the human heart and a divided community, and how it can bring them together for a common purpose in his latest film Be Kind Rewind.        Mike (Mos Def) works at Be Kind Rewind, a video rental store that supposedly is housed in the building that was the birthplace of legendary jazz pianist Fats Waller.  At least that’s the claim that the owner Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) makes over and over.  Mike’s best friend is Jerry (Jack Black) a junkyard worker who casts his lot... READ MORE >>>

BEOWULF


     Hang on.  Beowulf is a poem of legend and this film version may go on to become a legend at the box office.  Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, What Lies Beneath) has taken this millennium old story of the hero Beowulf and the tormented/tormenting Grendel and added performance capture and 3-D technology, stirred in an excellent script by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary, mixed in a top flight cast consisting of John Malkovich, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, Crispin Glover, and Brendan Gleeson and sprinkled Angelina Jolie on top.  Relax.       As I said at the outset, this version.  There was another version recently that starred 300’s Gerard Butler that didn’t cut.  The Zemeckis’ team version slices it, severs it, and smashes it. ... READ MORE >>>

Brooklyn's Finest
I’m a big fan of the gangster/mobster/underworld sub-genre, so I was looking forward to seeing Brooklyn’s Finest, the latest by director Antoine Fuqua, he of Training Day fame.  Like other films recently, I was let down.  On the other hand, it’s better than most things out there.     Being able to make an urban, crime drama takes a very deft hand.  Screw it up and it comes off clichéd , phony or silly.  Do it right, and you’ve got something close to a perfect allegory for life.  Brooklyn’s Finest is at neither end of this spectrum.  It’s the kind of film that has potential, but it gets in its own way.     Fuqua puts together the kind of cast that could pull off something very intriguing:  Don... READ MORE >>>

CATWOMAN


Halle Berry stars as Patience Philips, a mousey graphic artist who undergoes a strange transformation to become the feline femme fatale, Catwoman, in the first full length feature based on the Bob Kane character from DC Comics. Benjamin Bratt is the straight shootin' cop Tom Lone, who has the enviable task of falling for Patience and being hot on Catwoman's tail. Meanwhile, Lambert Wilson ( The Merovingian in The Matrix sequels) and Sharon Stone are the "success at all costs" husband and wife duo George and Laurel Hedare who head an unscrupulous cosmetics firm that bears their name. Catwoman is never dull, on the contrary director Pitof's frenzied directing style and use of closeups especially during the fight scenes almost made me dizzy. On... READ MORE >>>