Top 10 - The Austin Chronicle

film listingsUntold ScandalD: E J-yong; with Bae Yong-jun, Jeon Do-yeon,Lee Mi-sook. (2003, NR, 124 min.) Austin FilmSociety: Asia – Hot and Cool. The filmmakertransposes the French novel Les LiaisonsDangereuses, which has inspired severalWestern adaptations, to 18th century Korea. ACasanova who’s been assigned to deflower ayoung maiden becomes obsessed instead witha chaste older woman. For more on the series,see “Extreme Temperature Swings,” Dec. 28,2012. @Alamo Village, Tuesday, 7pm.J dJAngo unchAinedD: Quentin Tarantino; with Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, LeonardoDiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Laura Cayouette,Don Johnson. (R, 165 min.)Quentin Tarantino is back with another whip-smartwish-fulfillment history adventure. Django Unchainedhas obvious roots in the spaghetti Western, yet it’s alsoa love story, a revenge picture, and an action comedy.The love story, in which the former slave Django (Foxx)seeks to rescue his wife Broomhilda (Washington)from the plantation owner to whom she was sold, isvivid and palpable. The revenge drama is violent andbloody, with whippings and near-castration added toTarantino’s vast arsenal of sanguinary mayhem. Eventhe comedy has its moments to shine. As entertainingand eye-opening as Django Unchained is, the film alsosuffers from a certain slackness. Toward the end ofthe two-hour-and-45-minute epic, the film seems readyto conclude – but not before Tarantino stages anotherobligatory, Mexican-standoff flourish. Despite thesequibbles, Django Unchained, with its embarrassment ofriches (and tiny cameos), was one Christmas presentwe couldn’t wait to unwrap. (12/28/2012)HHHHn– Marjorie BaumgartenAlamo Ritz, Alamo Lake Creek, Alamo Slaughter Lane,Alamo Village, Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park, HillCountry Galleria, CM Round Rock, Southpark Meadows,Cinemark Stone Hill Town Center, Flix Brewhouse,Highland, Galaxy Moviehouse, Gateway, iPic, Lakeline,Tinseltown North, Tinseltown South, Westgateend oF wAtchD: David Ayer; with Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, Anna Kendrick,Cody Horn, America Ferrera, Frank Grillo, David Harbour. (R, 109 min.)Screenwriter/Director David Ayer (Training Day, DarkBlue, Street Kings) has mastered the minutiae of theLos Angeles cop-movie subgenre better than anyoneelse I can think of. End of Watch might have been yetanother buddy-cop flick but for the obvious camaraderiebetween LAPD partners Zavala (Peña), who ismarried with kids, and Taylor (Gyllenhaal), a high-strungMarine fresh from Afghanistan. Ayer introduces us intotheir daily grind just after they’ve been tossed into theslipstream of violence and thuggery that is SoutheastL.A. following the shooting of a suspect. On thestreets, Taylor videotapes cop life in a haltingly cinemaverité style. (He’s taking a filmmaking class and this ishis project.) Interestingly, a group of hyperviolent gangbangersis wantonly running amok with their own camerasrolling. Eventually, the two sides, law and lawlessness,collide, and this being an Ayer film, the resultisn’t pretty, but it is wholly believable. (09/21/2012)HHH– Marc SavlovMovies 8FlightD: Robert Zemeckis; with Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, KellyReilly, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood. (R, 138 min.)For the first half-hour, Flight keeps us rapt withthrilling action and a troubling moral quandary. Butonce things become more earthbound, the filmreshapes itself into a standard substance-abusestory. A copious line of coke gets airline pilot WhipWhitaker (Washington) out the door and on the way tothe airport. Suddenly, all your worst fears about pilotsunfit to fly are staring you in the face. Yet, when hisplane experiences massive mechanical failure, Whipmanages to land via crazy, instinctive measures. Heis indeed a hero, but he also had a .24 blood-alcohollevel during the crash. Reconciling those facts is aninteresting dilemma, and one that fuels the ensuinginvestigation. Director Zemeckis shows he still has avivid visual sensibility and a finger on the zeitgeist.But Flight’s pat closing sequence leaves nothing up inthe air and returns all tray tables to their full, uprightpositions. (11/02/2012)HHH– Marjorie BaumgartenMetropolitanJ FrAnKenweenieD: Tim Burton; with the voices of Charlie Tahan, Martin Short, CatherineO’Hara, Martin Landau, Winona Ryder, Atticus Shaffer. (PG, 87 min.)Finally, a stop-motion, animated Halloween filmthat rivals The Nightmare Before Christmas. And of thetwo – simmer down now, gothlings – Frankenweenieis the ookier, more assured, and frankly better film.Filmed in glorious black and white, Frankenweenie isthat rare film that’s both kid- and adult-friendly. Thetitular weenie here is Sparky, a manic little bull terrierand best pal to young Victor Frankenstein (Tahan).When Sparky is killed by a car, Victor seizes on thelessons he’s learned about electricity’s life-giving forceand, before you can say “Boris Karloff’s real name wasWilliam Henry Pratt!”, a stitched-and-neck-bolted Sparkyis re-animated and running around Vincent’s attic laboratory.Comedy and tension, complete with torch- andpitchfork-wielding villagers, follows. Wholly unique yetstrangely familiar, Frankenweenie is, at its electrifiedheart, a story about friendship, family, and the importanceof kidhood perseverance. Never say die whenyou could be saying “It’s alive!” (10/05/2012)HHHH– Marc SavlovMovies 8the guilt triPD: Anne Fletcher; with Barbra Streisand, Seth Rogen, Kathy Najimy,Colin Hanks, Nora Dunn. (PG-13, 95 min.)This film completely surrenders to its premise,with everything else following in a predictable way.Inventor Andy Brewster (Rogen) is about to start ona cross-country road trip to pitch his new product– a cleaner – to major chains. On the spur of themoment, he invites his overbearing mother Joyce(Streisand) to join him. Streisand and Rogen areboth impressive comedic talents, but in an attemptat sophistication, they both very much underplaytheir roles, which is to the detriment of the film.The resulting tone is not shrill, nor does it boast anabsurd number of embarrassing moments. The GuiltTrip fails in a completely opposite direction: It isgentle, loving, and way too understated. Therefore,it’s overwhelmingly sweet, but also unexciting and notabout much of anything. Watching this movie is nota complete waste of time, but it is little more than asitcom-lite diversion. (12/21/2012)HHHn– Louis BlackCM Cedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock,Southpark Meadows, Highland, Galaxy Moviehouse,Gateway, iPic, Lakeline, Metropolitan, Tinseltown North,Westgatehere comes the boomD: Frank Coraci; with Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Henry Winkler,Greg Germann, Joe Rogan, Gary Valentine, Charice. (PG, 105 min.)When high school biology teacher and all-aroundsad sack Scott Voss (James) learns that his cashstrappedemployers are contemplating cutting theschool’s music program – taught by Scott’s elderlywise-guy pal Marty (Winkler) – he dives into the worldof mixed martial arts to help save the music. If thatsynopsis sounds asinine as opposed to inspiring,you’ve hit this mug right on the kisser. Here Comesthe Bomb would’ve been a more fitting title. BetweenScott’s puppy-dog pining for school nurse Bella(Hayek), the evil machinations of the school principal(Germann), and the actual fight scenes of Scott, HereComes the Boom hits every dopey note in the “savethe school” subgenre playbook. I just can’t help butwonder how many real-world high school music andarts programs could have been saved from extinctionby simply not making this movie and donating thefilm’s budget to actual schools in need. (10/19/2012)H– Marc SavlovMovies 8Breakfast at Tiffany’sD: Blake Edwards; with Audrey Hepburn. (1961,NR, 115 min.) Classic Movies. Hepburn bringsTruman Capote’s Holly Golightly to vivid life.It’s a romanticized portrait of an amoral freespirit, but one that remains forever emblazonedon our collective memory. @Flix Brewhouse,Wednesday, 7:30pm.hitchcocKD: Sacha Gervasi; with Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, ScarlettJohansson, Danny Huston, Toni Collette, Michael Stuhlbarg, MichaelWincott, Jessica Biel, James D’Arcy. (PG-13, 98 min.)Alfred Hitchcock, the undisputed master of moviesuspense, is given fairly fanciful treatment in thismovie, which is theoretically based on StephenRebello’s book, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of‘Psycho’. Yet, as directed by Sacha Gervasi, this filmis more a love story about the marriage betweenHitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) and his wife, AlmaReville (Helen Mirren), than a historically accuratebackstage look at the making of this importantmovie. Portraying Hitchcock, Hopkins puts in a goodeffort, but rarely convinces completely. Still, the film’sdiscrepancies would be barely noticeable if Hitchcockprovided a more absorbing glimpse of the making ofPsycho. Long after his death, Hitchcock’s contradictionscontinue to hold us in his sway. Both a consummateshowman and a savvy artist, Hitchcock can beall things to all people. But the lovelorn Hitchcock ofthis film’s fantasies would be better off left on thecutting-room floor. (12/07/2012)HHHn– Marjorie BaumgartenArborthe hobbit:An unexPected JourneyD: Peter Jackson; with Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, RichardArmitage, Andy Serkis, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, Stephen Hunter,Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Barry Humphries.(PG-13, 166 min.)All aboard: The Middle-earth Express has once morepulled into the station. Though this initial offering in theplanned trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 fantasy novelfeels regrettably slight in terms of narrative adventureand fantasy revelations, that hasn’t prevented directorPeter Jackson from painting Middle-earth with abundantvisual detail and technical bravura. The Hobbit introducesus to a few new creatures – trolls, the dragon Smaug– and old ones, too – Gollum (Serkis) reappears, creepyand deranged as ever – but the hobbit Bilbo Baggins(Freeman), the wizard Gandalf (McKellen), and an indistinguishableclump of 13 good-natured, hairy-headeddwarves are the primary protagonists here. To sum itup, there is little that is unexpected in The Hobbit: AnUnexpected Journey. Rather than an epic continuation ofJackson’s Middle-earth obsession, the film seems morelike the work of a man driving around a multilevel parkinggarage, unable to find the exit. (12/14/2012)HHHn– Marjorie BaumgartenAlamo Lake Creek, Alamo Slaughter Lane, AlamoVillage, Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park, HillCountry Galleria, CM Round Rock, Southpark Meadows,Cinemark Stone Hill Town Center, Flix Brewhouse,Highland, Galaxy Moviehouse, Gateway, IMAX Theatre,iPic, Lakeline, Metropolitan, Tinseltown North, Westgatehotel trAnsylvAniAD: Genndy Tartakovsky; with the voices of Adam Sandler, KevinJames, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi,Molly Shannon, David Spade, CeeLo Green, Jon Lovitz. (PG, 91 min.)Throwing a bunch of Universal classic monsterarchetypes into an animated film and then using ageneric coming-of-age, father-daughter relationshipas the linchpin might’ve seemed like a good idea onpaper, but onscreen Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania isas generically vacant as Mrs. Bates’ eye sockets. The118th birthday of Dracula’s daughter, Mavis (voicedby Gomez), has finally arrived and the overprotectiveDrac (Sandler), now the manager of the “for monstersonly” Hotel Transylvania, wants to keep her under hiswing forever. But, when Jonathan (Samberg), a losthuman backpacker, stumbles stonily into the hotel,love passes between the vampire’s daughter and thedisplaced skater dude, much to Drac’s chagrin. Not awhole lot ensues that you haven’t already figured outon your own. Universal should sue for damages to thereputation of its classic movie monsters. As for HotelTransylvania,, no need to put a stake in it – it’s deadlydull already. (09/28/2012)HnMovies 8Les Misérables– Marc Savlov56 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E JANUARY 4, 2013 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m