MOVIE REVIEW: Flight

In his first live action film that he directed since Cast Away 12 years ago which earned Tom Hanks an Oscar nomination, Robert Zemeckis is back with Flight, a character driven film with another two-time winner as the lead actor Denzel Washington who gives his best performance since Training Day.

Washington plays Whip Whitaker, a divorced pilot who successfully saves all but six passengers and crew on a regular routine flight from Orlando to Atlanta plane from total disaster after a freak accident due to bad weather. Hailed as a hero, Whitaker's new found glory may be short-lived as investigators unravel his inner demon: alcoholism.

Just like in Cast Away, Zemeckis directs a film about a character struggling to recover after an incident that could had almost killed him. The plane crash and landing scenes were excellent and everything after that turns into a character study of Whip's condition and addiction that can make or break him. Kelly Reilly playing a junkie named Nicole is a standout among the supporting cast and so is Don Cheadle as a lawyer willing to help Washington's character to overcome the legal obstacles at all cost. After Argo, John Goodman makes it two for two in this film as Whitaker's drug dealing best friend.

 After being at the helm of three animated films in a row (The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol), it was quite a shock for me (and I believe most of the audience as well at the screening) that the first scene of Flight involves drugs, full frontal nudity and alcohol. I thought I was in a Scorsese film. Robert Zemeckis finally evolved as a film director and anchored by Denzel Washington's award worthy performance make this a FLIGHT to remember.

MOVIE REVIEW: Chasing Mavericks

In Chasing Mavericks, based on the short but colorful life of Northern California surfing great Jay Moriarty (played by Jonny Weston), the film focused more on how he was able to discover the legendary maverick break in the Santa Cruz/Half Moon Bay area of Northern California, and asked guidance from his surfer neighbor Frosty Hesson (Gerard Butler) to overcome fear and panic and ultimately, to ride those high waves.

This is an inspirational film that would go beyond the usual demographic of the surfer market. Weston gave a charismatic performance of the surfing legend and was ably guided by Butler and Oscar nominee Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas) who plays Moriarty's single mom. This rises above from the last two mainstream surfing themed films released: Blue Crush which is purely eye-candy and lightweight entertainment and Soul Surfer, another true story which has some polarizing religious undertones to it. It also helps that Chasing Mavericks are directed by two of the best ones around: Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential and 8 Mile) and Michael Apted (The World Is Not Enough and Gorillas in the Mist) who took over the last three weeks of filming after Hanson pulled out for health reasons.

The shots of Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay are excellent, it really brought you into that world that exists for hard-core surfers chasing for that mystical waves. Almost everyone (including me) were misty eyed after the closing credits so I can say that Chasing Mavericks has joined the ranks of Rudy and Field of Dreams as sports films that can make grown men easily cry. That was a compliment.

MOVIE REVIEW: Seven Psychopaths

After In Bruges, Colin Farrell teams up again with director/writer Martin McDonagh in Seven Psychopaths, a delightful violently made black comedy that retains the sharp witted charm of their first collaboration with some of the best actors working and changing the setting to Los Angeles, California.

Marty (Farrell) is a screenwriter trying to finish off his script "Seven Psychopaths" with some help from his best friend Billy (Sam Rockwell), a part time actor and a thief targeting dogs and returning them to their owners once it offers a reward. He's doing it with his partner in crime Hans (Christopher Walken) who needs some money himself to help his wife who is suffering from cancer.

Unfortunately, they stole a dog, a shit tzu to be exact, whose owner is a psychopathic gangster (Woody Harrelson). Hilarity ensues in a highly entertaining way that evokes the style of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. If you are a fan of those directors mentioned then Seven Psychopaths is a must see. 

MOVIE REVIEW: Argo

The most entertaining political-thriller that I had ever seen and I also say original, which is a triumph because it is based on a true story during one of the difficult times in modern American history, Argo is Ben Affleck's best film so far both as an actor and most specially a director.

The opening sequence of the modern history of Iran through able narration and drawing board sketches gave moviegoers a simple yet interesting backgrounder as to why the 1979 US Embassy hostage crisis in Iran happened. Most of the Americans working in the compound were taken as hostages by the radical protesters but Argo focuses more on the 6 workers who were able to escape and had taken shelter in the Canadian Embassy.

CIA operative Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) has devised a plan of unusual proportions that can help the 6 get out of Iran: they will pose as the Canadian film crew scouting for locations in Iran for a science-fiction film called "Argo".  With the help of real life Hollywood people like Oscar winning make-up artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin), they attempted the impossible.

From the old Warner Brothers opening logo to Mendez's shaggy hairdo, Argo has the late 70's vibe. Never would I imagine that a real life Middle Eastern political thriller would blend well with comedy and science fiction.  This is a film that you should not miss because this is one of 2012's best and should figure prominently in the upcoming awards season.

MOVIE REVIEW: Hotel Transylvania

It's no surprise that Hotel Transylvania was the number one film at the US last weekend and it help revived the box office after weeks of slump, the animated film was highly entertaining and the actors who did the voices are full of energy and had excellent chemistry due to the fact that they're all friends in real life. It also helped that the name recall of the horror staples that we all know like Dracula and Frankenstein are there, not in a scary but in a whole-hearted fun way.

Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) built a hotel catered mostly to creatures of his kind, away from the human world, many many years back, in honor of his late wife, and to protect her daughter Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) from the outside world, most especially humans, in which he expressed disgust of.

Flash forward to current times, Hotel Transylvania is celebrating Mavis' 118th birthday and Dracula invited all his friends including Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Mummy to name a few as guests.

But all breaks loose when a young American backpacker Jonathan (voiced by Andy Sandberg) accidentally discovers the hotel and he and Mavis fall in love too. Now it's to Dracula to settle things down.

Great supporting voices led by Kevin James, Fran Drescher and Steve Buscemi, excellent animation and witty one liners make Hotel Transylvania highly entertaining. It ain't as great as the similarly themed ParaNorman but Hotel Transylvania is bar notches above Adam Sandler's most recent films and other animated films that came out early this year.