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Fast Food Nation hits home
Movie Rating: 8 / 10
Inspired by the incendiary bestseller that exposed the hidden facts behind America’s fast food industry comes a powerful drama that takes an eye-opening journey into the dark heart of the All-American meal.
Richard Linklater‘s Fast Food Nation traces the birth of an everyday, ordinary burger through a chain of riveting, interlocked human stories – from a hopeful, young immigrant couple who cross the border to work in a perilous meat-packing plant, to a teen clerk who dreams of life beyond the counter; to the corporate marketing whiz who is shocked to discover that his latest burger invention – “The Big One” – is literally full of manure.
As the film traverses from pristine barbeque smoke labs to the volatile U.S.-Mexican border, it unveils a provocative portrait of all the yearning, ambition, corruption and hope that lies inside what America is biting into.
I thought Greg Kinear’s performance was awesome as he aptly translates, for the average moviegoer, how it feels to know something is -very- wrong althewhile risking your job if you were to “rock the boat” about it. Bruce Willis plays the rowdy business type who has everything to gain by keeping things just as they are, whichever dangers to human health it may pose. It’s all about the money, right?
Although fast food is often portrayed on screen, most viewers will probably have a hard time going back into a fast food chain to buy a burger since, after all, this isn’t a movie based on fiction, it’s actually heavily inspired (and casted) in real life.
A must see if you feel fast foods are the best of things for our collective future.
Tags: fast food, nation, usa, burgers, minimum wage, cattle, fiction
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Meet the new Bond in Casino Royale
Movie Rating: 8.5 / 10
Agent 007 is back on the silver screen but this time, he’s played by Daniel Craig (previously seen in Munich and Layer Cake).
Casino Royale, which is produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, marks the start of a new “look and feel” for the James Bond movies (21st movie in this 44 years old franchise).
If you liked Batman Begins, last year, you’ll probably like the way this new Bond movie is delivered. Right from the beginning of the movie, the action starts with exciting sequences that remind the viewer that this isn’t just going to be about casino players sitting around a table doing funny faces… this is a fast paced, yet deliciously sophisticated, movie once again plotting “good vs evil”.
Based on Ian Fleming’s novel of the same name, it was the first James Bond book and it published way back, in 1953. The story is meant to introduce James Bond before he holds his famous license to kill (the “double-zero” status). Of course, he gets his “00″s following two professional assassinations in line.
The first of Bond’s missions is carried out in Madagascar where he’s called upon to spy on a dangerous terrorist named Mollaka, played by Sebastien Foucan. Things get slippery and the newly promoted agent decides to investigate on his own term, over and above MI6′s assignement. He’s going the extra mile to find the rest of the terrorist cell which gives way to more action scenes.
From that point on, the movie quickly slides from one exotic location to the next, including the sunny Bahamas where Bond learns about a dangerous link between the terrorists and a banker to the world’s terrorist organizations.
This banker named Le Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen, plans to raise money in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. MI6 immediately assigns 007 to play against him, backed with taxpayer dollars, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his organization.
The English secret agent then entertains strong feelings for MI6 assigned watch dog, Vesper Lynd, played by Eva Green, as they both brave danger together and even face torture at the sinister hands of Le Chiffre.
The Bond-style marathon game proceeds with surprising dirty tricks and violence, raising the stakes beyond blood money and reaching a terrifying climax.
Tags: casino royale, james bond, 007, le chiffre, movie, danger, action
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Nacho Libre is extra cheesy
Movie Rating: 6 / 10
In this rather funny movie, Jack Black plays Ignacio, a grown-up cook in a Mexican monastery and yes, he cooks some sort of nacho “thing” that the orphans have to eat, in order not to starve to death.
So Ignacio is cook alright but he dreams of becoming a lucha libre wrestler, at first to get the attention but eventually, it’s to help feed the orphans something more apetizing than the nacho-gumbo he’s been forced to feed them, mainly because the orphanage is somewhat poorish.
The guys who made this movie also made “Napoleon Dynamite” and “The School of Rock” so in Nacho Libre, there’s so much silliness that at some point (early in the movie), you just go “okay, this is just going to become sillier as the movie progresses”… and it does!
There’s a strong moral fiber to the movie because inside, Ignacio cares very much for the orphans who kind of consider him to be a father figure they never had.
Helping the orphans eat better food (easy to accomplish considering the “stuff” they were previously eating) also helps impress Sister Encarnacion who eventually comes to see Ignacio as a savior for the children and not just a savage who fights in a right with other lucha libre wrestlers.
This already offbeat comedy takes an even funnier turn when Nacho Libre (Ignacio’s wrestling name) takes Esqueleto for a wrestling partner. As the name implies, Esqueleto looks like squeleton which is hardly the type of partner you’d be looking for if you wanted to fight seasoned wrestlers in Mexico. But as it turns out, the two make a good team, in and out of the ring.
The movie opens up so many avenues for comedy that at some point, you may feel there are way too many open ends to jokes that could’ve been wrapped up in a more convincing way. For instance, when Esqueleto becomes the wet dream of woman who happens to be the daughter of the wrestling league, the laughs could go on forever but that side of the story was only minimally explored. Oh, well! Choices had to be made, I guess.
Once you’ve seen the movie, there’s little reason to see it again, unless you’re a Jack Black fanatic and you want to observe his every mimic on slow motion. Renting the movie may be nice perhaps waiting for it to air on the movie channel would be a wiser choice.
It’s funny but in the end, there’s a little something missing.
It’s silly, cheesy, laughable and there are some unpredictable twists -but- somehow, the end of the movie comes at a moment when lots of stuff is going on… maybe that’s because a “Nacho Libre 2″ is in the works, who know?
[[petition-1]]
Tags: nacho libre, wrestling, comedy, movie, jack black, mexican, monastery
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The Butterfly Effect 2
Movie Rating: 5.5 / 10
You’ve probably seen the original and now, you’re wondering if the sequel has the same kind of intensity and drama, right?
Well, it’s sad to say but The Butterfly Effect 2 isn’t very original in depicting this freak phenomenon scientifics refer to as the “butterfly effect” (in a nutshell, it’s based on the chaos theory).
While I found the storyline to be somewhat entertaining because it depicts “high tech”, I felt the main character didn’t convincingly deliver in regards to the sheer terror anyone would “normally” have jumping in and out of a “time tunnel” of sorts.
It’s a fine movie to rent (if you’re a fan for this sort of film) but in my view, it doesn’t have the depth to become a silver screen blockbuster.
Considering the original was so good, it’s sad to see this second release didn’t pack any of the initial excitement that made it so unique.
Tags: butterfly effect 2, psychology, chaos theory, movie, science, high tech
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