Alexander (2004)

Genre

Adventure| Biography | Drama | History

Director

Oliver Stone

Country

Germany | USA | Netherlands | France | UK | Italy

Cast

Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Gary Stretch, Joseph Morgan, Raz Degan, Neil Jackson, Francisco Bosch, Denis Conway, John Kavanaugh, Nick Dunning, Rory McCann, Ian Beattie, Annelise Hesme, Garrett Earley

Storyline

The story of Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell), the King of Macedonia and one of the greatest military leaders in the history of warfare that conquers much of the known world.

Opinion

None of the history teachers I had made Alexander the Great interesting so I really never cared about him. I thought an Oliver Stone movie starring Colin Farrell could have made a difference. Boy, if I was wrong.

"Alexander" is a rather slow and at times tedious and soporific film that is far away from being great.

Even though Alexander the Great has never been one of my favourite historical figures, studying him over and over again produced some results. For instance, I know what a complex figure he was. The tactical genius and indomitable character I was expecting to see isn't in the film. Instead we get an Irish boy with bleached hair.

Other than failing to properly portray both the greatness of such a character and the greatness of his exploits, Oliver Stone decided to focus on the homosexual relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but Stone should have approached to it differently. The values in Alexander's day were different from the values of our day, and the homosexual relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion would have not been the same today. He decided to portray both men like two girls - apparently that's how a man that does have sex with another man acts like -, but this is no sitcom, Mr. Stone.

The film doesn't even have a proper narrative structure. It keeps on flashing back to the past throughout the whole thing, and the plot is so incoherent it needs Anthony Hopkins's constant narration to make sense. Also, there's the embarrassing dialogue.

The cast doesn't make it better. Colin Farrell is awful in here, and plays Alexander as a weak and emotionally distraught man whose facial expressions are painful to watch. Angelina Jolie plays Alexander's mother and for some weird reason she has a Russian kind of accent. The out of place accents are all over the place and very distracting - I mean, Greeks having Irish accents? Can't you do better than that? -, and the acting is over the top.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

Genre

Action | Crime

Director

Justin Lin

Country

USA

Cast

Lucas Black, Sung Kang, Nathalie Kelley, Bow Wow, Brian Tee, Leonardo Nam, Brian Goodman, Zachery Ty Bryan, Nikki Griffin, Jason Tobin, Keiko Kitagawa, Lynda Boyd, Sonny Chiba, Vin Diesel

Storyline

To avoid time in jail because of illegal street racing, American teenager Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) moves to his father's, in Tokyo, Japan. As soon as he arrives he discovers a new, dangerous way of street racing in the underworld of the streets of Tokyo.

Opinion

This is the only film of the franchise I own on DVD. And it's also the only film of the franchise I've watched too many times, I just can't get enough of it. That being said, I'll do my best to be impartial.

"The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" is a refreshing and enjoyable action flick that surpasses its predecessor.

The writing is still not the series strongest suit. The plot indeed is paper thin and quite predictable too - even though there's kind of a plot twist in the end I did not see coming the first time. To be noted I was 12-13 year old at the time -, but at least it is engaging.

And that's because of the series' change of direction. Instead of going good guys vs bad guys, it goes more like bad guys vs bad guys, and the story is focused on the rivalry between the main character, an American teenager, and the nephew of a Yakuza member. It does get cheesy because they are fighting for a girl, but what were you expecting?

The film features none of the original characters - Vin Diesel's Toretto makes an appearance at the end, but I could have done without him because he has no use other than tricking people into watching the film -, but the new ones are quite good, even though they lack proper development.

The action flick part of this is good. The cars are beautiful, and the action sequences are very well choreographed - drifting is so much cooler than regular street racing. And for the guys, it is plenty of gorgeous women - among which there's Nathalie Kelley, the most beautiful in the franchise in my humble opinion.

There's a tremendous problem with one casting though. I don't care how hard Lucas Black does or does not try, he just looks (and is) too damn old to play a 17-year-old kid. Oh, and no matter how many Vin Diesel they throw into the film, Sung Kang as Han would still steal the show.

Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)

Genre

Action | Adventure | Animation

Director

Carlos Saldanha

Country

USA

Voice Cast

Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Chris Wedge, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Will Arnett, Jay Leno, Tom Fahn, Alex Sullivan, Alan Tudyk, Clea Lewis

Storyline

When the valley where they live is threatened by the melt of the surrounding ice, Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo) and Diego (Denis Leary) join the other animals for a journey to high ground, and discover that Manny is not the last of the mammoths.

Opinion

After four years of hibernation, the most weird animal trio ever came back with "Ice Age: The Meltdown", a funny and enjoyable adventure film that is also a good sequel.

Once again, the plot is quite simple and it rather serves as a pretext to show another adventure starring the same trio of the first time, the talkative sloth Sid, the grumpy mammoth Manny and the loyal sabertooth tiger Diego. New characters also arrive: Ellie, a female mammoth who believe she is a possum, and Crash, and Eddie, her two possum brothers, and they make the storyline much more intriguing.

Scrat has a lot more screen time, and, even though I'm probably one of the few that find Scrat an utterly annoying little animal, and despite the fact that its sub-plot has little to do with the rest of the film, it does have two purpose, make people laugh - which works beautifully - and deliver a message without even talking. What's the message? A pretty common one in kid movies, we should not give up easily.

Between a gag and other, in addition to the central theme of friendship, the film also deals with overcoming fears in the face of danger.

Once again, the animation is beautiful, from every single character to the breathtaking landscapes. And the voice cast once again deliver great performances - I particularly enjoyed Queen Latifah's as Ellie. 

Anything Else (2003)

Genre

Comedy | Romance

Director

Woody Allen

Country

USA

Cast

Jason Biggs, Christina Ricci,Woody Allen, Stockard Channing, Danny DeVito, Jimmy Fallon, Erica Leerhsen, KaDee Strickland, Adrian Grenier, David Conrad

Storyline

Aspiring New Yorker writer Jerry Falk (Jason Biggs) learns a lesson the hard way when he falls in love with a beautiful but flighty girl, Amanda (Christina Ricci).

Opinion

I admit I am a Woody Allen fan, so my opinion may not be completely impartial, but I don't understand why some people - critics mostly - have been so harsh with it. Sure, "Anything Else" is nothing if compared to "Annie Hall", but isn't it about time people stop comparing Allen movies to his best movies? I think that's the reason many cannot enjoy films like this one.

I agree that "Anything Else" doesn't bring anything new to the table. It is just another typical Allen comedy having a neurotic, Jewish New Yorker as a main character once again having a troubled romantic life both because he is clumsy and paranoic, and because he can't help but fall in love with the wrong woman.

And there are also many elements recycled from some of Allen best movies - and I gotta admit he seems to be throwing in references just to make sure the film is "Woody" enough - but, in spite of that, the film still manages to be enjoyable and funny.

This time Allen is not the main character, which is played by Jason Biggs, but he is more like a mentor to him, and that allows him to throw in some good, very Allen dialogue. And if the jokes heard over and over again doesn't amuse you anymore, there still are some scenes that will make you laugh, like when Christina Ricci's character is so scared to have sex she has a panic attack, and yet being totally fine with the (good-looking) doctor touching her all over. 

The cast was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't expecting anything from Jason Biggs, but he actually does a quite good job as a young Allen, even though he looks a little lacking in confidence at times. Christina Ricci also does a good job as the romantic interest, and Woody Allen finally plays a role that is more appropriate to his age, an eccentric old man.

Once again, I'm not saying this is Allen at his best, but the film is great to have some laughs.