'JayC The Movieman' drops in his final batch of reviews of the biggest films in Toronto including some much anticipated foreign flicks and the festival's closer:
The Bad Education From the director of Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down and All About My Mother - comes Pedro Almodovar's newest feature, Bad Education. This wins the prize for the most interesting narrative for any film at the festival this year! It follows the story of Enrique, currently a hot movie director and Ignacio - Enrique's first lover, who re-enters Enrique's life many year's later. What's interesting about the narrative is that some of it, as told through a script that Ignacio wrote, is a fictional re-telling of some points in their life while others is the real way that it happened. It's a fun puzzle-esque film to watch and unravel as we try to discern the truth. A word of warning however - this movie is not recommended to homophobes. Lots of male on male activity - nothing shown of course - but homophobes would be uncomfortable! I enjoyed the flick but wasn't mesmerized by it. 73%
Steamboy Katsuhiro Ôtomo -the director of the highly acclaimed anime flick Akira - returns with an adventure set in an entirely different time period! Steamboy takes place in the middle of the 19th century during the time in which it seems like everything that required power did so by using steam! This movie had some fun elements to it - like the action packed intro and the beautifully animated battle scenes at the end - but the whole thing just doesn't add up. It seems to me like the director really enjoys levers, wheels and gauges as we get to see many of them pulled, turned and fiddled with - over and over! Too much pressure or not enough pressure is supposed to assist in creating tension - but that fizzles. Some fun but certainly not what was expected from the Akira mastermind. 70%
Breaking News Unbelievable! Not necessarily the entire film - but two sequences in particular - the opening scene and the action scene near the end. Both these scenes are each one long continuous shot - which is always fun - but tripled in excitement here as they are both action sequences with shooting, crashes, windows breaking and people running around and dying! It really is jaw dropping to fathom how much rehearsal it took to get it right! On top of all of this there is a really good movie here - slightly marred by a slow middle third - but still very worthwhile! After a cop is shown with his hands up to a bunch of crooks on nationwide TV - the police realize that they have to improve their image. The next time they have to go head to head with the bad guys of the film they are fully prepared with PR people, tons of cameras and whatnot! It's funny at times and action packed at others. If only they trimmed the middle third - which had some funny scenes while the bad guys dined with their hostages - but really slowed the pace down. 82%
Primer You know what - I really can't review this film right now. This is a very confusing film - but in a good way - and I don't think it would be right to rate it without fully understanding it!! Maybe it's the fault of the film or maybe it's just better with repeat viewings - but regardless it was still riveting to watch! This is your bare bones, low budget time travel flick. But this is no Bill and Ted or Back to the Future - this is a very realistic portrayal of time travel - with all the math and science behind it to prove it (well - they prove it with their own math of course!). It starts to get confusing when we notice that there is more than one of each of the main characters walking around. I will not rate this flick as I said earlier - but I will recommend it to time travel and science junkies!
Arsene Lupin Here it is - my favourite film of the festival! This is a grand adventure in the spirit of...shall I say it... Indiana Jones! I haven't felt this exhilarated in a film of this type since Last Crusade! This movie has everything that you need in an adventure flick - a likable hero, disguises, chases, sword fighting, kick boxing, maps and various clues to hidden treasure and way much more. They squeezed a heck of a lot of fun into 2 hours and 15 minutes. I was actually unaware that the movie was based on a series of French books - so it plays very well to the uninformed. Here's hoping that this becomes a series of films as well! I can't recommend this any higher if you're looking for a Saturday Matinee kind of film! 95%
Old Boy This is a very disturbing movie. I am a little upset at myself for giving up on this film half way through. After seeing 40+ movies this week -with some of them being very poor you understand - I was not very confident that this movie would tie up nicely. When it started to come together near the end I perked back up and was shocked at the outcome. This movie needs another viewing from me to be totally fair but needless to say that this movie should have been included in the Midnight Madness films! A man is locked up in a cell that is made up to look like an apartment for 15 years. When he is released he then sets out on a path of revenge and almost more importantly a path of understanding why someone did this to him. All I can say is that when we do figure it out it is mind blowing! Unbelievable! So maybe it was my low faith in this film or maybe the middle part of this film was a bit too scattered (or maybe I was too darned tired after 40 flicks)...whatever it was - I still give this flick an 80%
Jiminy Glick in Lalawood I was looking forward to this one as I am a fan of the Jiminy Glick show. Martin Short is hilarious on the TV show as the rotund interviewer but in a movie version is comes across as very forced and to be honest - boring. Jiminy is on his way to the Toronto Film Festival of all places to watch movies and interview celebrities. Some of the interviews are actually spontaneous (meaning that the stars themselves didn't even know they were going to be interviewed!) and some are planned - and some are interviews with fake celebrities that assist in propelling the lame plot forwards. I was really upset that this film wasn't amazing. Maybe it's passable entertainment for some - but for me it was a big Fail".
