The Family Stone

Alas, my string of bad movies doesn't seem to end.

With this particular cast and the particular story line, you'd think it'd be a comedy. Meeting your future family-in-law can certainly be portrayed in an entertaining, light-hearted manner. Such experiences often yield entertaining stories. Such is not true with The Family Stone.

What started out with gags and the finacee clearly out of her element, quickly became a depressing, can't end well story. Ugh. It's a little slow to get started, and the humor is sucked out much too quickly. The two paraelle dramas in the background move to the front, and, well, it was easy to guess the ending 20 minutes into the movie.

I don't quite get how this film got classified as a comedy. It's more of a drama with a slash of comedy in an effort to lighten the mood, and falls a bit short. Which you see in the previews are the only funny parts of the movie, and the rest is forgetable.

A very forgettable movie indeed.

Rating: G-$_G$

Rize....But Not To The Occasion

I'm a fan of documentary-type movies, and I'm very interested in urban culture and urban music. When I first saw a preview for RIZE back in '05 I was intriqued. Missing it in theatres I added it to my NetFlix queue and watched it last weekend. For all my interest and curiosity, I found the movie lacking in true exploration of the dance style known as krumping.

The interview are interesting, and interspersing live dance with footage of tribal dance was nicely done. It gives you a sense of the history and evolution of krumping. The athleticism displayed is quite amazing. The dancers clearly practice and keep in shape, but I can't help wondering how they don't all suffer from whiplash.

Urban films have urban, gritty music and RIZE is no different. The music plays well, and the dance battles are well done. I was fairly impressed with those aspects.

During the interviews, it is clear that krumping has become a way to avoid gang life, a means to express your true self and keep it real. Except over the course of the movie, krumping seems to become a gang-like turf war, with two sides facing off in a winner-take-all krumping competition. No blood is shed, but it still has that gang-warefare feel. That detracted from the richness and history of krumping, and the desire to express oneself and connect through dance.

Rating: G$_G$_Ghalfdollar

Da Vinci Code: The Movie

I'm the first to admit it: 9 times out of 10 the book is better than the movie. There are exceptions, like Jurassic Park, Jaws, Seabiscuit, A Beautiful Mind, just to name a few. Good books that turned into good movies.

Ron Howard directed A Beautiful Mind, and did an excellent job. Akiva Goldsmith wrote the screenplay for the film, so you can imagine my excitement when I first learned the two of them were going to adapt The Da Vinci Code to the big screen. I read the book last year on the flight back from Paris, and it's such an intricate story there was a seed of doubt about a movie adaptation, but hey, it's Ron Howard and his stuff is usually pretty good.

Imagine my surprise when I start seeing headlines like "Dud Vinci" in the Chicago Tribune and another bad review from the New York Times. Course, it wasn't a surprise that the movie was ripped at the Cannes Film Festival. French are particular about movies, and even more so when movies feature French cities like Paris. The buzz around the movie is proof once again that any publicity results into dollars, my $8 included.

As a whole, the movie was a drag. Thinking back on the book, that point is a understandable. The novel is awesome, but rather wordy in parts with a very intricate plot. Naturally Howard would have to slice and dice so as not to have a Lawrence of Arabia-length movie. Movie length aside, I was rather disappointed. Uninspired directions. Flat acting by Tom Hanks. Contrived dialogue in drawn out scenes, with humor sprinkled about that was so forced the audience didn't even laugh. Disappointing indeed.

Ian McKellen however, does a good job as the "villian," as it were, in the movie. And so does Jean Reno. McKellen's delivery is entertaining to watch, from his snappy lines to the facial expressions he exhibits when given the box with the rose. The giddiness with which is opens and proceeds to examine its contents is a joy to watch. Audrey Tautou gives a decent performance portraying Sophie Neveu, and Paul Bettany does a nice job of portraying the albino Silas.

Bettany is not quite as imposing as the novel describes Silas to be, but what he lacks in body size he makes up for in facial expression and illustrating cold-bloodedness a true belief in The Teacher and the Bishop. Silas is a well developed character in the novel but a bit under-developed in the film, yes Bettany does a nice job none-the-less. His portrayal in the opening scenes and the scene with the nun gave me shivers. Even now, I have difficult An interesting twist from his role in A Beautiful Mind and its nice to see he has range.

The supporting cast is the saving grace of the film but not enough to warrent a repeat viewing.

Rating: G$_G$_G