Welcome to the Film School Rejects Archive

What an absolutely draining experience. As I left the theater, I felt so emotionally spent that I just stood in the theater lobby, no speaking, not thinking, just standing there. I wasn’t quite prepared for the ringer the Reign Over Me put me through. This is not to say it is a perfect film, it has its flaws, but it creates this vivid portrait of two men going through turning points in their lives, and helping each other find what it is they are looking for. The movie also gives us an Adam Sandler that I have never seen before. In short, this is a surprisingly moving, well acted film that is well worth your time.

I was a big fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when they first appeared back in the 1980’s, and that carried through to the first live action film in 1990. Shortly thereafter, I grew out of the turtle phase and left such things behind me. I have now come full circle and have a growing nostalgia for such things from my youth. With the nostalgia kick, I was intrigued when I first learned of a new animated film, wary, but intrigued. The wariness was immediately eradicated when I saw the first teaser trailer showing the mean green machine in full computer generated glory, sprinting and jumping across the rooftops. Yes, that is what I’m talking about.

This is a very strong week, at least for me. There are plenty of films being released that will compete for your hard earned cash. There are even a number of films that I am not familiar with that are rather enticing. Of course, no week is complete without a stinker or two, and this week is no different. Whether you are looking for family films, tearjerkers, visionary drama, foreign majesty, or classic films, there is something for you. Just like every week, there is one that is standing tall, high above everyone else.

TMNT made a statement in its opening weekend, the mean green machine is back and ready to recapture its place in pop culture. Well, it may not have been that strong, but it did decidedly take the weekend’s top spot over from 300. The animated action film brought a new look Ninja Turtle to the fore, delivering more than this viewer was expecting. 300 held the top spot for two weeks, and while it did slip out of the top slot, it still pulled in a good chunk of change. It will be interesting to see if these two films have the legs to stick out as competition begins to get heavier.

This is a good example of what horror fans have to put up with. Horror fans all know about the good horror films that get everything firing on all cylinders, from acting, to story, to the all important scares. Horror fans all know about the bad horror films, the ones that are so inept that they wouldn’t scare a child and are plagued by a bad story and even worse acting. Then there are films such as The Hills Have Eyes II, which for my money does a lot of things right, but is tempered by the presence of some awful dialogue and acting. It has a story that we have seen before, but builds enough tension and delivers enough gore to keep us, or me at least, interested until the inevitable conclusion.

I’ll admit it: when I was six years old, my world revolved around the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Think about it – four overgrown turtles that are raised by a life-size rat that teaches them the way of the ninja…the possibilities are endless. I ate it up. The toys, clothes, movies, whatever – I had them all. As I have gotten older, I’ve revisited the movies and Saturday morning cartoon, and I’ve realized that this thing that I loved so much was so completely, and utterly stupid. Along comes TMNT to rub salt in the wounds.

There are a few things that you always need to have if you are going to make a decent American vigilante action movie. You must have a hero, filled to the brim with idealism and armed with a degree in kickin’ ass and taking names. You must also have at least one hot leading lady, and you earn bonus points for tastefully putting her in position to be half naked through most of the film. And finally, without question there must exist plenty of gunfights and explosions to keep the audiences entertained in between the afore mentioned partial nudity. These three elements never fail to give Average Joe Moviegoer his money’s worth.

Whoever said that celebrities move away and forget their roots has never met Halle Berry. A native of Cleveland, and one of the Lake Erie shore’s best exports, Berry has always looked back with a fond eye toward Cleveland’s culture, its people and its midwestern charm. So it is only fitting that on Thursday, when Ms. Berry returned to Cleveland for an exclusive premiere of her new flick Perfect Stranger, she was met with the warm roar of the crowd and some good ole C-town weather: rain.

The cineplex is under attack! The scene is grim, there are film cans scattered, bits of celluloid flutter about like leaves in the wind, and the people…

When a brother and sister discover a strange box they are unwittingly thrust into key roles in a story spanning centuries and wherein the future is at stake. Inside the box are several strange items, all of which prove to have magical properties, but for a purpose that they themselves must discover. Along the way, the two must overcome a government anti-terrorism unit which mistakes their activities for terrorist acts and find help from some unlikely places. The Last Mimzy, directed by Robert Shaye, is a movie aimed at children. But unlike the best of children’s movies, like E.T. and The Little Mermaid, this one is likely to fall flat with adults.

300 is an awe inspiring film. It is a film that forms a basis for myth and legend. Not intent on delivering a balanced historical recreation of the Battle of Thermopylae, the film plays out as a grand tale of battlefield glory. It is framed as an exaggerated tale, propaganda if you will, with the intent of getting the troops rallied for battle. It is a story of resounding good taking on the forces of evil that seek to enslave them. It is a film of new vision, a wildly creative and stylishly realized film that is exciting, breathtaking, and memorable. What does this have to do with the score? Well, the score is equally invigorating. Composer Tyler Bates has crafted a fascinating score which combines electronic components with traditional orchestration. Two worlds of music fusing together into a unique score.
Just as I was when I sat in the theater, I was captivated. The film was told with such style and vision to just hold my attention, the same could be said for this score. The music is bold, dynamic, and plays well with the other-worldly look of the the movie. It has some big orchestral bombast, some crunchy guitar and drum sections, and a solo vocalist that will transport you to another time and place.
Now, I have read about the apparent copying of Eliot Goldenthal’s score for Titus. This is not something that I can attest to, not being familiar with thar particular work. I am not, however, going [...]

It’s been two weeks since that movie came out and the debate about it already seems too long for a simplistic, formulaic, war themed, bloody, gory epic based on a similarly toned graphic novel by the same name, based itself roughly on the main story of the battle of Thermopylae.

With I, Confess, Alfred Hitchcock set out to make one film that would reflect all of his feelings about his Catholic upbringing. The film is based on a 1902 play by Paul Anthelme, and you can tell. The story was probably outdated when Hitchcock made it in 1953, and time has only added to this fact. The film itself, however, is essential for die hard Hitchcock fans, and for fans of great acting.

About 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles is the city of Santa Barbara, California, which claims to be the American Riviera.

This week brings a decent selection of films to choose from. Whether you are looking for Oscar nominees, sequels, superheroes, old school comedy, televised drama, or splatter, there is plenty to go around.

When the remake of Wes Craven’s 1977 gore fest first hit the theaters, I wanted to see it, though I’m not quite sure as to why. But, after reading the critical reception (universal pans), I resigned that I probably wouldn’t after all. We’re only alive for so long, and there are so many movies to see. But then, many months later, I stumbled across an evangelical Christian movie message board, and their repulsion and revulsion at the film piqued my interest anew. Isn’t the enemy of my enemy my friend?
Well, apparently not always, and the lesson learned is that when my instincts tell me to trust my beloved critics, I oughtn’t betray them for the sake of spiting the born-agains. (Although, surprisingly, the film’s cinematography is fantastic!) The Hills Have Eyes follows in the tradition of atomic monster movies in which detonated (American) nuclear bombs cause far more trouble than anyone would’ve bargained for. But rather than adhere to the usual allegory in which mother nature, in the shape of some grossly enraged and enlarged creature, metes out her revenge for the abuse of her green Earth, in The Hills Have Eyes the monsters are deformed human beings, which complicates the metaphor.
In a bit of cheap filmmaking—essential expository information is culled from serendipitously placed newspaper clippings, which have large, juicy, informative headlines—we learn that when the American government ordered some miners in the desert to abandon their land so that it could be [...]

Captain Jack, Will Turner, Elizabeth Sparrow and the whole gang are back! Check out the trailer!

Everyone seems to have a problem with 300 and its anti-Persian tone. Iran’s government is upset, Persians all over the world are upset, yet our own Neil Miller stands firm that it is “just a movie,” something that shouldn’t be taken so seriously.

Zodiac is part of the serial-killer sub genre, and the first thing it does it get the killer’s motivations out of the way by playing the Three Dog Night cover of “Easy to be Hard” over a Northern California Fourth of July:
How can people be so heartless?
How can people be so cruel?
Easy to be hard, easy to be cold.
And, thankfully, that’s about all the psychology that Fincher offers. Zodiac, after all, isn’t about what would drive someone to kill, but, by focusing on the twenty-five year investigation into those killings, about what would drive someone to care about them; it isn’t about the banality of evil, but the banality of the pursuit of evil. Who was the man who called himself “Zodiac” who killed at least five people in California during the end of 1960’s and the dawn of the 1970’s and took credit for many more? There’s only one way to find out—to the library!
Based on a couple of books by Robert Graysmith, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, the movie is essentially his story, though for most of the first act he is hidden in the background. Graysmith was a cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the newspapers that the Zodiac sent his rambling, threatening letters and cryptic cryptograms to for publication, who gradually becomes obsessed with the case. First aided by his newsroom desk-neighbor Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.) and later by Detective Toschi [...]

“Beware the stare of Mary Shaw
She had no children, only dolls
If you see her in your dream
Please be sure not to scream”
The minds that created the Saw phenomenon have re-teamed to try and forge another new direction in horror. Unfortunately, it is not so much a new direction as it is a mash up of previously mined ideas. Fortunately, they have merged those elements with style and have created a film that is seriously creepy, not necessarily scary, but definitely creepy. James Wan and Leigh Whannell have set aside the copious amounts of blood spilled in their prior creation, in favor of a ventriloquist’s dummy. As you all know, there is always room for another creepy doll in the horror genre.
The story centers on Jamie Ashen (Ryan Kwanten). It opens with him enjoying an evening home with his wife, when a package arrives mysteriously on his doorstep. Inside is a box containing a puppet, which sparks talk of Mary Shaw and the legend surrounding her demise. You see, Jamie comes from a town that is paralyzed with fear from this legend. Soon enough, she is dead and Jamie is the number one suspect, and is being hounded by a disheveled detective by the name of Jim Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg). What follows is Jamie returning to the town of his birth, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Mary Shaw and what she has to do with the death of his wife.
Jamie returns home to bury his young [...]

Last week’s top two films continued to exert their dominance, successfully fending off the challenges of three new films entering the fray. Of course, the new films did not put up all that much of a fight. It would have taken all three combined to top 300.

Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much is the only film of his that he remade. The original was released in 1934 to great success, and so was the 1956 version. Some critics still prefer the original, but personally, anytime Hitch and Jimmy Stewart teamed up they churned out a classic. This was their third collaboration, following Rope in 1948 and Rear Windowin 1954. In my opinion, Jimmy Stewart is the greatest actor of all time. His work in the ’50’s alone, from Anthony Mann’s Winchester ‘73 in 1950to Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder in 1959, is the most consistent of any American actor. Stewart was always concerned about being pegged as the nice everyman. He did everything he could to keep from being typecast, and it’s not until very recently that audiences have really begun to discover how much talent was inside this man, and his work with Hitchcock was probably his best. That being said, this film is not as good as it could have been, but it’s still worth watching.
The film opens up with the McKenna family traveling to Morocco. Stewart plays Dr. Ben McKenna, while Doris Day plays his wife, Jo. They are accompanied by their somewhat annoying son, Hank. On the bus to Morocco, the McKenna’s meet a man by the name of Louis Bernard. Bernard is a very mysterious man who asks a lot of questions. Stewart doesn’t seem [...]

We believe that our man Brian Gibson hates Alec Baldwin more than anyone in the world. After reading this, you will believe it too.

Something like eight years ago during the yearly Thessaloniki Film Festival, I remember sitting on the stairs of a crammed theater where people were lined up past the front row, laying on their backs with their jackets as pillows. All this fuss, just to watch the extra third screening of that movie “Pi” by a young American director named Darren Aronofsky. We all enjoyed it and when Aronofsky came in to talk about it he couldn’t believe his eyes. People laying on the floor as close to the screen as it probably gets just for him? We loved him too, he was modest and seemed promising as a probable visionary. Cinephiles are always looking for the next auteur anyway.
After “Requiem” he was established. It was time to move his vision forward: “The Fountain”, a tale of love and fear of loss told in three different times; accelerating for a fan to say the least. The time has come and i finally saw Aronofsky’s great comeback. Disappointment is a kind word to describe it.
Tom is a surgeon involved in a research to find a cure for cancer. Izzy is his beloved wife who unfortunately has it. As it accelerates Tom is struggling to beat death in the race for Izzy. In the meantime in the old Spain, Queen Isabel (who looks exactly like Izzy) sends Tomas (meaning Tom) to the new world to find the Tree of Life and gain immortality for her. That’s also the storyline of a book Izzy [...]

Have you ever heard of William Wilberforce? I hadn’t. This film is centered on a man I had never heard of. Maybe it is my ignorance of history, or perhaps the education system is to fault, as I do not recall this figure ever being mentioned in my years of classes. Whatever the case is, I learned about an important figure with a somewhat unfortunate name. And, before you say it, no I do not accept everything shown in this film as fact, I am aware that many elements may have been touched up, switched, or slightly reimagined in the search of drama, while not betraying the core truths of the tale. The end result is an interesting portrait of a man who was good and worked towards that end for his entire life.
The story covers Wilberforce’s life in broad strokes. It is more a film about the movement and the changes that he helped to bring about, rather than the life of the man. This is perfectly evidenced by the lack of any real growth, or connection with anyone in the film. Sure, we see that he is friends with Pitt the Younger, and married to Barbara, and approached by Thomas Clarkson and others to spearhead the movement, but the relationships are more sketched than fully developed. Would it have been nice to see these in more detail? Yes, it would, it would have made the film stand out more to see more of the person than to just [...]

Chris Rock thinks he loves his wife. To top that, he also has the delusion that he has what it takes to make his fans love him for more than just being a comedian. He is under the impression that he is also a good writer and director, a thought that has him headed for disaster.
That potential disaster is a little film called I Think I Love My Wife, which coincidentally was written, directed and stars the iconic comedian as a bored married man who is no longer intimately acquainted with his wife and it is starting to get to him. Rock plays Richard Cooper, a successful financial broker with a wife (Gina Torres), two lovely children and all the problems that every married man is faced with, a monotonous routine and worst of all, no sex. The no sex part is something that Richard was learning to deal with, that is until the day that Nikki (Kerry Washington) popped into his life.
The old flame of a close friend, Nikki comes to Richard with the need for a job reference and the penchant for being a home wrecker. She is outgoing, uninhibited and sexy from head to toe. And on top of that she begins to show some interest in Richard, something that is the ultimate fantasy of any bored married man. Nikki’s only problem is that she is a bit over-the-top with her desire for Richard, to the point where you begin to remember that she is a fictional [...]

In Premonition, Sandra Bullock plays an apathetic housewife whose world is turned upside down when she finds out that her husband has been killed in a terrible car accident. To make matters worse, she wakes up the next day to find out that the accident has not yet happened, that it was only a premonition. After seeing this film I believe that I too have had a premonition. What did I see in the future? I saw that this film will draw in a decent audience this weekend at the box office, then proceed to disappoint it.
Why is such a good turnout expected? Simply because there are plenty of ladies out there who are either tired of seeing nothing but family comedies (a la Wild Hogs) and blatant guy movies (300) filling their local Cineplex. And when they see that Sandra Bullock is starring, they immediately associate that with a sappy romantic storyline. Sadly they are in for a rude awakening when they discover that the closest this film gets to romance is the near rekindling of flames lost through years of stale married life between Bullock’s Linda and her soon to be dead husband Jim (played by Nip/Tuck’s Julian McMahon).
Now the lack of romanticism in this flick is not quite enough to steer audiences away, as it is being marketed as a psychological thriller about being able to see into the future and make moral decisions based on those future events. The only problem there is the fact that [...]

Over the next week or so, I’m going to be immersing myself in some of Alfred Hitchcock’s lesser known classics. I will review them as I go along, for a bit of a retrospective on a master filmmaker’s most underrated work. I decided to start with Marnie.
In 1964, Alfred Hitchcock was at the height of his popularity with the American public. His two previous films, Psycho and The Birds, were massive hits. His television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents only added to his success. All of this changed when Marnie was released. By all counts, the film was considered a failure. Seen today, the movie is a forgotten masterpiece. With the exception of Vertigo, which was also a failure when it came out, Marnie is Hitchcock’s deepest, most mysterious film.
Audiences have always responded well to Hitchcock when he is out to thrill us, North by Northwest, or when he’s out to scare us, Psycho, but it always takes them a while to respond to the times when he really makes us think. Marnie is the thinking man’s Hitchcock film. It has so many underlying themes and obsessions that multiple viewings are essential. In Marnie, Hitchcock doesn’t want scare us, he wants to us to be deeply disturbed.
Marnie Edgar, played by Tippi Hedren, is one of the greatest female characters in all of American cinema. She is beautiful, intelligent, and witty. She’s also a compulsive kleptomaniac (she [...]

The Pursuit of Happyness is the American debut of Italian director Gabriele Muccino (the original Last Kiss), and he’s proven that he’ll probably have a decent career in Hollywood, if he can continue to churn out more sugary tripe like this film. Based on a true story about a man named Chris Gardner, the film is entertaining almost in spite of itself. Will Smith plays Gardner, a man who can’t seem to catch a break. He sells portable bone density scanners in San Francisco circa 1981. He and his family are barely making ends meet. His wife is played by Thandie Newton, and his son is played by Smith’s own son, Jaden. To be honest, Newton is laughably bad. I mean, she is horrible. Jaden Smith, however, is endearing, and has good on screen chemistry with his father. After a while Mom decides she’s checking out, and it’s up to Gardner to support himself and his son. He applies for an internship that will hopefully lead into a job as a stockbroker. Along the way, they get evicted from their apartment, kicked out of their hotel room, and sleep in a subway station restroom. Gardner is a determined individual, and does his best to persevere. I’m sure you can tell where it goes from there.
The script by Steve Conrad, who also wrote the very underrated The Weather Man, is full of the typical cliches and dialogue; “Did [...]

Sandra Bullock is working her way into another genre, the romantic tragedy. Between this, and last year’s (superior) The Lake House, she is becoming the premiere leading lady in these unexplainable supernatural romantic tragedies. Whether or not that is a good thing is a separate issue altogether. This newest entry is one that left me feeling conflicted. On one hand, there was plenty to like about it, but on the other, there was a whole lot that just did not make much sense.
The story centers on Linda Hanson (Bullock). She gets up in the morning, sees her husband, Jim (Julian McMahon) off to work, drops the kids off at school, and goes about the daily routine of housework. One day, a Thursday, she is visited by a representative of the Sheriff’s Department who tells her that Jim was in a bad car accident which has cost him his life. This sets her on a downward spiral of shock, depression, and possible insanity as she starts to imagine that Jim is still alive, and then dead, and then alive, and then….. or is she? Of course, if you remember that the title is Premonition, so all is not quite as it seems.
The movie, as directed by Mennan Yapo, is quite difficult to follow. You really have to work at piecing everything together. Impossible? No, but requires more work than should be necessary. At times it feels as if the film was arranged in haphazard fashion, with the editors just taking whatever [...]