Weekly film reviews

By: Vincent Camilleri

BACK WITH A VENGEANCE

“Men in Black III” (In 3D)

Cast: 
Will Smith                       Agent J
Tommy Lee Jones           Agent K
Josh Brolin                     Young Agent K
Jemaine Clement            Boris the Animal
Emma Thompson            Agent O
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Running time:  106 minutes

It has been 15 years since we first saw the seasoned Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) and his young  and wild sidekick Agent J (Will Smith) team up to protect the world from aliens with very bad intentions.  Ten years ago we found the two Men in Black super agents back in their anti-alien police work with Agent K suffering from severe bouts of memory loss. In the third instalment of this multi million franchise K is still as grumpy as ever,  patiently bearing J’s antics and loudmouth as they strut the streets of New York in their black suits and dark glasses.

The two ace agents come in the action in action when Boris the Animal (Jermaine Clement),  makes a daring escape from a moon based maximum security prison. Boris, is an alien in a ravaged human body. He is a one armed  interplanetary criminal who is very touchy about his name and thunders:  “My name is just Boris” when he is called the animal. He has a score to settle with K.   On the 16th of July, 1969, the day Apollo 11 was launched for man’s first landing on the moon. Time travel comes into play when Boris takes himself back to that fateful day in order to prevent K from attaching an anti-alien device to the spaceship and kill the agent before he looses  his left arm  in a gun fight.  Through a good and more human looking alien Agent J gets wind of this and plunges back to the same day in 1969 to give his older buddy all the help he needs.

There he finds agent K, played by Josh Brolin who gives an excellent take on Tommy Lee Jones’s mannerisms, speech and accent. Time plays some tricks on J. He is stopped by a road patrol suspected of theft because he was wearing a suit and driving a snazzy convertible, things which black people did not do in 1969. He  gets to meet Andy Warhol in his atelier only to discover that the sixties Pop Art icon was also a MIM agent working undercover as Agent W.  Agent J also gets to discover what was behind the strong bond between him and Agent K.

Ethan Cohen , the writing half of the Cohen Brothers,  comes up with a rather complicated action packed story  brought to the screen by  Barry Sonnenfeld who directs the series for the third time.  Ethan Cohen’s script keeps the laughs and the action coming at a steady pace while Mr Sonnefeld comes up with some exceptional action scenes shot against breathtaking sets that begin with the escape of Boris the Animal from an impregnable prison to the climax sequence set in Cape Canaveral. Along with the smart performances by Messrs Jones, Smith and Brolin, the chases, weaponry and gadgets that come along with this franchise, mention must be made of the contribution by  Rick Baker in the make up and special effects department. The seven times Oscar winner designed over 100 new aliens for the film and the fabulous MiB HQ.  His creation of Boris the animal, with telescopic eyes, who opens the palms of is hands to shoot deadly darts that pin his victims to the walls with toes that morph into gigantic claws for a better grip on the ground, is an amazing work of art.

This is the stuff that makes film a unique escapist entertainment.
Watch trailer: http://www.imdb.com/rg/s/4/title/tt1409024/#lb-vi3916407065

THE HORRIBLE TRUTH

“The Cabin in the Woods”

Cast:
Kristen Connolly                 Dana Polk
Chris Helmsworth               Curt Vaughan
Anna Hutchinson                Jules Louden
Fran Kranz                         Marty  Mikalski
Directed by Drew Goddard
Running time: 95 minutes

Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen.

If you think you know this story, think again. From fan favorites Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard comes THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, a mind blowing horror film that turns the genre inside out.

Produced by Whedon and directed by Goddard from a script by both, the film stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford.
Sprung from the fertile imaginations of cult filmmakers Joss Whedon (“Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “Dollhouse,” the upcoming The Avengers) and Drew Goddard (Cloverfield, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” “Lost”), Lionsgate’s THE CABIN IN THE WOODS begins like any generic horror film might: a rambunctious group of five college friends steal away for a weekend of debauchery in an isolated country cabin, only to be attacked by horrific supernatural creatures in a night of endless terror and bloodshed. Sound familiar? Just wait.  As the teens begin to exhibit standard horror movie behavior, a group of technicians in a control room are scrutinizing, and sometimes even controlling, every move the terrified kids make. The story behind their involvement is just the tip of the iceberg of a fantastical, I-can’t-believe-this-is-happening odyssey that explodes the conventions of the horror genre in a giddy sugar rush of bloody mayhem, wild imagination and sly humor.
(Production Notes Lionsgate Films)

Watch trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2572394777/

WHEN PARANOID TERROR STRIKES

"Gone”

Cast
Amanda Seyfried                    Jill Conway
Daniel Sunjata                        Sgt Powers
Jennifer Carpenter                  Sharon Ames
Directed by Heitor Dhalia
Running time 94 minutes

Jill Parrish comes home from a night shift to discover her sister Molly has been abducted. Jill, who had escaped from a kidnapper a year before, is convinced that the same serial killer has come back for her sister. Afraid that Molly will be dead by sundown, Jill embarks on a heart-pounding chase to find the killer, expose his secrets and save her sister.

Prolific screenwriter Allison Burnett (Fame, Feast of Love) who wrote the  original screenplay for Gone  recalls that, one day, producer Chris Salvaterra (The Visitor, Fast Food Nation) came to him with only a kernel of an idea for a movie. “He told me that he had an image in his head of a girl in the middle of the woods, buried in a hole in the ground,” Burnett says. “He explained that he had no idea what else followed, but that he couldn’t shake the thought.”
As the days went by, Burnett found that he, too, couldn’t shake the haunting image from his mind. And thus began his screenwriting journey for Gone.
(Production Notes Lakeshore Entertainment)

Watch trailer: http://www.imdb.com/rg/s/4/title/tt1838544/#lb-vi1763286553

Top Ten Films in Malta 23 - 27 May 2012

1. MARVEL AVENGERS ASSEMBLE
2. DARK SHADOWS
3. BATTLESHIP
4. AMERICAN PIE REUNION
5. THE LUCKY ONE
6. STREETDANCE 2
7. THE HUNGER GAMES
8. JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
9. CONTRABAND
10. JACK AND JILL

With acknowledgements to KRS Film Distributors Ltd