Review: Black Swan (2010)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 30/01/11.

Black Swan

Director Darren Aronofsky follows up his successful 2009 picture The Wrestler with Black Swan. Both films share similar themes such as the extent performers will go through for their crafts: Black Swan in the bitchy world of ballet, The Wrestler in the underestimated and gruelling world of professional wrestling. Black Swan’s plot revolves around a new production of Swan Lake by an esteemed New York ballet company. The production requires a lead that can portray the dual role of the innocent White Swan as well as the dark, sexual Black Swan. Nina (Natalie Portman) is the ideal White Swan, innocent and faultless in technique; while newcomer Lily (Mila Kunis) has the carefree nature and sensuality ideal for the Black Swan. As the two contest the coveted role, Nina’s dark side is slowly revealed but does it come at the cost of her sanity?

Unlike The Wrestler, which was a fairly straight character profile, Aronofsky twists the narrative of Black Swan by installing various levels of psychological thriller and horror so that we gather a visual interpretation of the decline of Nina’s fragile state of mind. Aronofsky does an excellent job of keeping the ambiguity as to what we are seeing: is it reality, a dream, or perhaps an amalgamation of both? But then occasionally a character will drop a quote which makes you rethink your entire thought process and you are continually trying to decipher the goings on. He has made the kind of film that be can be interpreted entirely different depending on the viewer.

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by Luke Miksa on July 17, 2012  •  Permalink
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Review: The Karate Kid (2010)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 14/07/10.

The Karate Kid

Before I start, I need to address what has to be possibly the most misleading film title since The Never Ending Story (or maybe Snatch); the remake of retro 80’s staple The Karate Kid does not contain any semblance of Karate! Forgetting the passive racism – the film is set in China (home of the Kung Fu used in the movie), whereas Karate originates from Japan – it is obviously a ploy to lure audiences to a household brand-name despite all logic and common sense. Either way, it’s pretty poor form from the producers (Big Willie Style!) and another prime example of Hollywood once again patronizing the film-going public.

But now it’s time to take my rage cap off and review this bastard…

He knows never to touch a black man’s radio.

This new take on the Karate Kid sees the action shift from the USA to China, where 12-year-old Dre (Smith) and his mother (Henson) move to begin a new life. Now a fish out of water, the formerly over-confident Dre has to come to grips with living in a foreign land: the language, the customs, weird pre-teen crushes and getting beaten on a regular basis up by a thug of adolescent Wushu upstarts. In steps humble maintenance man – and Kung Fu guru – Mr. Han (Chan): In failing to make peace with Dre’s tormentors and their eeevil teacher, he begins the long journey to teach Dre not only the martial arts to defeat his foes, but the life lessons to help him come to grips with his personal relationships and new surroundings.

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Review: Pathfinder – The Legend of the Ghost Warrior (2007)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 31/05/10.

So it’s come to this. I have tried my best to avoid negative reviews on this site for two reasons:

  • I like movies too much to bag them, finding redemption in some of the most heinous atrocities captured on celluloid (Teen Wolf FTW!).
  • Two – Everyone says I’m a really nice guy (someone said that once).

But then I watched Pathfinder: the Legend of the Ghost Warrior.

Set in a pre-Columbus North America (Vinland), Pathfinder (also a remake of the 1987 Norwegian flick of the same name) stars New Zealand thesp Karl Urban as Ghost; abandoned as a child by his colony of Nordic Viking brethren and adopted by a Native American tribe, Ghost is raised as one of them but is clearly an outsider struggling to assimilate due to his appearance. Years pass until another marauding Viking expedition (led by personal favourite Clancy Brown) shows up with evil intentions:  as Vikings do.

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Review: Paranormal Activity (2007)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 01/12/09.

It would be an understatement to say that Paranormal Activity makes its long awaited arrival on Australian shores with some hype attached. Fuelled by an impressively strong viral marketing and word-of-mouth campaign to gain interest – not to mention the personal approval by one Señor Spielbergo – Paranormal Activityis the proverbial little film that could, slowly gathering screens and demand, and ultimately beating out the dismal – yet popular Saw IV – at the US box office. Triumph all around!

Paranormal Activity revolves around young couple Katie and Micah, the former of which is plagued by an uninvited demonic menace Hell bent (yep) on causing mayhem, misery and other bad words starting with the letter ‘M’. Embellishing the plot any further would do this film a disservice as this is a tale best viewed cold, the chills within are best kept shielded and then unleashed on your maiden viewing.

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Review: Zombieland (2009)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 02/11/09.

From the moment I first saw the trailer to Zombieland, I knew that this horror/comedy hybrid road picture would be right up my alley. But as we all know, trailers can be deceiving – they can make a bad movie look interesting and vice versa. I’m pleased to say that not only is Zombieland an awesome flick, but it’s one of my favourites this year. Booya!

The film starts with Columbus (Eisenberg), seemingly a rare surviving human in post-apocalyptic Earth – now dubbed ‘Zombieland’. Although being on the Woody Allen side of neurotic, Columbus explains that these neuroses are what have kept him alive all this time, written as a list of rules for survival (Rule #1 – Cardio: ‘When the zombie outbreak first hit, the first to go were the fatties’). On his journeys he meets up with Tallahassee (Harrelson), a gun toting redneck whose one mission is to find a Twinkie in Zombieland before they all expire. They then stumble across charlatan sisters Wichita and Little Rock (Stone, Breslin), whom after they con the two men out of their truck and guns join together in their journey west to theme park Pacific Playland.

A standard evening at Coles.

Running at a brisk 81 minutes, Zombieland is non-stop entertainment juggernaut and although it is more on the comedy side than horror, there is plenty is violence and gore at hand but it is more slapstick than gross-out. Director Fleischer does a wonderful job in pacing the film so that we get equal amounts of character development in between the hilarity. After watching this I could say that his style is a cross between Zack Snyder and Greg Mottola (through obvious and not-so-obvious comparisons).

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Retro Review: Legend (1985)

This article was published on the original Sorry I’m Late.com on 30/08/09.

Legend

Legend is director Ridley Scott’s attempt at 80’s style fantasy, starring Ferris Bueller’s Mia Sara as Princess Lili and as her love interest a pre-Top Gun Tom Cruise as forest dweller Jack. In a convoluted series of events, Jack takes Lili to see some sacred unicorns – which he shouldn’t for some reason – and then she proceeds to touch one – which she shouldn’t for some reason. This turn of events leads minions of the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry, in top form) to chop off the stallion’s horn – an item of coveted power – and kidnap Princess Lili, both to be brought before Darkness in a master plan to bring eternal night to the world. Now the ‘heroic‘ Jack, aided by his misfit band of elves and dwarves, must rescue the princess and save the world from its inevitable pitch-black doom.

The massive problem with this movie, and there are copious issues, is the fact that it takes so much pleasure in being so damn dark that there’s minimal fun to be had – a crucial element of fantasy. Take similar genre films from the time – Labyrinth had the music, Willow and Princess Bride had charm and characterisation, and the one thing that they all shared was a sense of wonder. Legend is too dark and scary for children yet the plot and pacing is too juvenile for adults.

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