Hoover Challenger » Movies

Valentines Day Movie Review

Michael Roby — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:24:33 +0000

Combine the lives of several simple couples, an all star cast and the premise of love and you have a hilariously unorthodox comedy everyone can relate to.

The plot is difficult to follow at points, as it tries to blend many different stories, from teenagers aiming for their “first time” to accepting a failed marriage proposal and forgiveness after an affair.

All of these elements come together into a film that’s bittersweet at times, but simply hilarious at others.

Romantic comedies are something of a staple of a date night, and I’d strongly recommend this one to any couple, young or old. There’s enough content and hilarity to appeal to practically anyone.

The many stars include Ashton Kutcher and Jennifer Garner as best friends struggling in their own love lifes, Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner as a teenaged couple and Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper as friends on an airplane out for something more. These are just a few in the huge all star cast that made up this hilarious comedy.

The movie was not lacking in its different kinds of humor either. There were sex jokes, intelligent jokes and cute love jokes.

Despite never taking itself too seriously, the movie brings several messages of forgiveness, being patient with the people you care about and respecting the nature of love itself. There’s not a lot to learn from this movie, but you may take home some tips anyway.

The only problem with the movie is its struggle to keep consistent and prevent the different stories from becoming too choppy. This is recurring and makes it difficult to connect to the characters early in the film, but more than makes up for itself later.

After two comedic hours, I was left just wanting more of this charming and hilarious comedy.

Frost/Nixon gives chills

Chloe Gamble — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:00:16 +0000

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Fighting for justice seemed to be the dominating theme of this cinematic ode to the most consequential political scandal in American history.

Based on the events of 1977, Frost/Nixon paints a vivid picture of the controversial interviews between British talk show host David Frost and former United States president Richard Nixon. The movie gives a brief synopsis of the incident which led to Nixon’s resignation, three years before the interviews took place, after being tied to the Watergate scandal of 1972.

Watergate was a hotel complex where the Democratic National Committee headquarters were broken into by men who were being paid to investigate Democratic political strategies for the 1972 presidential election. Evidence eluded that the President Nixon had been involved in a cover-up of the break-in and may have been the initial conspirator behind it.

Following his resignation, which was submitted to escape a possible impeachment, Nixon was pardoned of all criminal charges but left the American population with not a word of self-conviction.

When his time in the spotlight began to fade, Frost, who sought to work on a project that would legitimize him in the entertainment business, arranged camera time with a disgraced Nixon (a convincing Frank Langella) in order to revive his career. Frost (Michael Sheen) was an animated, lively TV personality who naively threw himself into a whirlwind of political drama and harsh animosity between a people and their fallen leader. I truly felt Frost’s discomfort as he battled a wave of intimidation, brought on by the increasing intensity of each taping session, which visibly eroded his self-confidence.

The process of forming an intelligent team of researchers, driven by their passionate sense of injustice, and preparing for the highly anticipated interviews played a key role in the big screen version of the play, written by Peter Morgan. The interaction between Frost’s researchers James Reston (Sam Rockwell), John Birt (Matthew MacFadyen) and Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) serves as a comedic build up to the ominous interview where their interrogative questions go up against Nixon’s stonewall answers.

A seemingly defeated Frost suffers through a rigorous battle of wits with a man whose entire career had thrived on his ability to argue controversial issues. Throughout the entire film there seemed to be an underlying plot which showed both main characters as outcasts striving to regain their fame.

The movie climaxes when, during the final interview, Frost targets Nixon’s personal definition of right and wrong. I watched as Frost morphed from a frivolous TV host into a hard core journalist who mercilessly interrogated his opponent until victory was achieved. With his last shred of self justification Nixon confirms his moral corruption when he states, “I’m saying when the president does it it’s not illegal!”

I realize Frost/Nixon is a presentation of a potentially boring storyline but I genuinely feel that, if nothing else, the movie was able to educate viewers about a defining moment in American history in a thrilling and entertaining way. This movie provides its audience with a front row seat to witness the recreation of an event which no one, during the time, ever dreamed would take place; a foreign television host giving Richard Nixon “the trial he never had.”

Gran Torino Ignites

Bea Rendon — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:28:47 +0000

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“Hmong girls fit in better here,” Sue tells Walt. “The girls go to college and the boys go to jail.”

They are next-door neighbors in a once-affluent Detroit neighborhood. Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is a cantankerous, racist old Korean War veteran who deals with neighborhood problems like gang violence with a long rifle and more than a few choice racial slurs.

Walt’s most prized possession is his green 1972 Gran Torino, which he built himself when he worked on the Ford assembly line. After he catches Sue’s nerdy younger brother, Thao (Bee Vang) stealing the car, Sue (Ahney Her) quickly interferes, forcing Thao to work for Walt to repair the dishonor done to the family’s name.

Thao is a shy kid, pressured into stealing the car as initiation into a Hmong gang.

“He can’t stick up for himself, so the gang would be there to back him up,” Sonny Vue, who plays the gangleader, said. “Becoming a gang was really so they could protect each other from other gangs in the neighborhood.

Eastwood, at 78 years old, is perfect for the juicy role of Walt and plays “grouchy old man turned surrogate father” to a T. But almost more interesting than Eastwood’s dual acting and directing is the casting of Hmong actors in Hmong roles.

Hmong immigrants, who originate from Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, began arriving in the United States in 1975 after allying with the U.S. in the Secret War.

But very few movies exist that feature Hmong characters, actors or plotlines, which is why Hmong actor Wa Yang, from Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima told Asian Week he hopes Gran Torino might change that.

“Maybe later,” Yang said, “a movie can be made that tells the story of how we ended up in the U.S.”

Vang and Her, who are both actually Hmong, are incredible, especially as both make their screen debut in this film. Vang’s Thao is believably naïve, and his mentor/mentee relationship with Walt is full of enough light moments that it doesn’t even come close to corny.

As Thao, Sue and their family slowly befriend the prejudiced Walt, his own family, by contrast, is portrayed as selfish and materialistic.

While I appreciated that this hinted that Walt loves his neighbors more than his family, I thought the family was too exaggerated, especially his granddaughter (Dreama Walker). Her character relied too heavily on overused devices to stereotype teenagers, like the bare midriff and an obsession with texting. In one contrived scene, she asks Walt who he is going to give the Gran Torino to when he “like, dies.”

This didn’t take away much from my overall enjoyment of the film, though. The story is moving but not clichéd, the leading cast is terrific and the twist ending sends a beautiful message about peace and acceptance.