The Dilated Pupil's Reviews

Caro Diario was the first title in my Italian movie queue to arrive. That's because it was on XBLA-Netflix. I have ignorantly considered Italian movies to be too moody for daily consumption. But, after some prodding from my only Italian colleague I've given in to his judgmental glances even after his wrong-thinking regarding American Animation. That's right, two capital A's.

Anyways, to the movie. Caro Diario is an semi-autobiographical trio of vignettes involving the writer/director/star of the film, Nanni Moretti. Without getting into the details there are some hilarious sequences very loosely held together. Moretti takes us into his mind without leaving that Woody Allen after taste. In fact, he's like Woody Allen only funny. Think a cross between Larry David and Martin Scorsese. It's an enjoyable movie with lots of colorful characters that leaves me asking myself, "What is wrong with TV anyway?"

First off, this movie looks fantastic. David Cronenberg and Peter Suschitzky (Tha freaking Empire Strikes Back!) are back for their 8th movie together and it's incredible. Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen play the yin and yang roles with Armin Mueller-Stahl playing something else entirely. Eastern Promises is not for those with a weak stomach as the violence is very real, very personal; very Cronenberg. There aren't any shaky cam gun fights or dispassionate Bourne style confrontations. Each line of dialog in the movie, each camera movement, each scene feels deliberate. This is a great "mob flick" set against the Russian underground in modern day London.

I wanted more.

The most terrifying things in the movie are never put on screen but merely referenced here and there which adds texture to the characters. In fact, it hit me later in the film just how flippantly the characters spoke of unspeakable acts. This is where the shock really was for me. Oh, and it has the best fight scene in any movie. Ever.

Did I mention this movie looked amazing?! We watched it on Blu-ray and for maybe the first time I felt like the PS3 was worth the money.

If you've been suffering through mindless action movies you owe it to yourself to watch the best mob movie I've seen in years.

This movie is a mixed bag for me. First off, Penelope Cruz is absolutely worthy of all the praise as of late including her Oscar. Thankfully, while the movie was written and directed by Woody Allen you don't want to throw your TV set through the window. Instead, I found the character's problems as playful as their surroundings. The neuroses is still there but I didn't find it overbearing. Javier Bardem is fantastic as the suave artistic free-spirit and the rest of the cast fill their roles well-enough. That said, Barcelona doesn't look as lovely as possible because it feels like there's a tabacco filter over the entire movie. Really too bad because the movie showcases some of the local architecture. ***

A very 80's sci-fi flick that involves people entering each others dreams with the ability to alter the dream itself. Kind of a neat idea but ultimately suffers from the same problems as most 80's sci-fi. However, about midway through the movie you realize what's going to happen in the end-Dream-off©, ®! That's right, much like all the terrible movies that end with a dance-off, this movie ends with a Dream-off©,® . Ultimately, this is what gets it a two-star rating. In the future when Michael Bay re-makes this movie using Will Farrell, reporters will right about the Dream-off©, ® stating how amazing the special effects were and how hilarious Farrell was battling Ben Stiller and I'll be there to collect my royalties. That's certainly worth **. Thank you Dreamscape.

Elling is a wonderful little picture out of Norway. The relatively unique plot involves two newly released mental patients, Elling (Per Christian Ellefsen) and his brutish friend Kjell (Sven Nordin), coming to terms with life outside of the hospital.

What impressed me most with the movie is that I genuinely loved every character and wanted to see them succeed, if even in their own neurotic way. Normally, when I watch foreign-language films, I'll miss a lot of the humor but the crew took great care in visually presenting the humor and didn't always rely on the dialog. (****)

Steve Coogan gives a humorous performance in this parody of high school musical. The characters are very under-developed and were merely in the movie to setup the next joke and eventually the musical grand finale. It seems as though they just wanted to perform the play scenes but felt compelled to create a parody in order to get it into the theaters. I would have loved to just watch the play for an hour. Some really funny writing but overall, a weak movie.