Jane Eyre

Director: Cary Fukanaga

Writers: Moira Buffini, Charlotte Bronte

Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender
Release Date: March 18, 2011
Length: 1 hour 55 minutes

Director Cary Fukanaga takes on yet another adaptation of Jane Eyre. You may be thinking “seriously?” How many times has this book been put on the small and big screen? There can’t possibly be anything different about this one. Wrong. The film tells the tale of eighteen-year-old Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska), a girl who at the start of the film has just found refuge in home occupied by two sisters and a brother in the English Countryside. With flashbacks of how Jane got here, we discover Jane lived in the estate of her malevolent aunt, Mrs. Reed (Sally Hawkins) until they sent her away to an all girls’ boarding school, where she suffered the death of a friend and constant physical abuse from her teachers. She then became a governess to a young French girl at Thornfield Manor, where she becomes a friend with the elderly housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax (Judi Dench). Then, Jane meets the feared owner of the estate, the arrogant and handsome Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender). We all know how the celebrated romance story goes on from there. In a way to make this film unique from the rest of adaptations, Fukanaga brought out the “gothic” element of the gothic novel. The film was in now way turned into a horror movie, but there were creepy themes brought out of the story to distinguish it from others. The old mansion created an eerie setting for much of the film as well as scenes filmed during the evening with Jane in this unknown place. The sub-plot of Mr. Rochester’s mental ex-wife also added a sense of uneasiness among the residents of Thornfield Manor. Fukanaga creates a dark ambiance for the entire film including the romantic happy moments of Jane and Mr. Rochester’s romance. With cinematography, scoring, sets and specific visual effects, Fukanaga incredibly invents a new extraordinary kind of Jane Eyre that no one has seen before. One of the best things he does as a director is pick a phenomenal cast. Breakout Australian actress Mia Wasikowska of Alice in Wonderland as well as the Academy Award Winning film, The Kids Are All Right delivers one of the greatest performances in years as the young heroine of Charlotte Bronte’s gothic novel. She carries the entire film with such ease and strength at the same time. Wasikowska took on a role played by at least thirty women on screen, and completely made it her own. She took the audience on an incredibly close and personal journey by exposing Jane’s inner tumult without being theatrical. Every quiet flicker of the eyes and everything about this performance was captivating and proves her to be one of the best actresses of her generation and our time. Wasikowsa shared an indestructible chemistry with British actor Michael Fassbender. Together, the pair created a unique, almost interpreted Rochester-Eyre relationship while not straying too far from Bronte’s original writing. These two actors added such beauty and severity to this famous romance, it made the film truly heartrending. Fassbender previously made an unforgettable appearance with a small role in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds that proved for only a few minutes what an incredible actor he is. The legendary Mr. Rochester is supposed to be nearing forty and most actors who have played him are usually older than that. Fassbender was only 32 when playing him, so he added much esteem and mystery to his performance. He perfectly achieves getting Mr. Rochester across to the audience with his direct stare and strong yet revealing personality, while having a soft love for Jane that somehow fits perfectly into this hard character. With a growing career for both actors straight ahead of them, everyone can look back and remember when they brought us into one of the most powerful stories ever told on screen. The rest of the cast was fantastic including Jamie Bell as the stubborn young man who has Jane staying at his house, while he is greatly attracted to her. Sally Hawkins is wonderfully mean and despicable in her performance as Jane’s aunt who sent her away on unfair reasons. Judi Dench is, of course, terrific as the kind and pitied housekeeper of the mansion. One of the best performances in the film came from Amelia Clarkson, as the tough and tormented young Jane Eyre. This is one of the best, if not the best adaptation of the Charlotte Bronte classic and is by far one of the best films of the year. You are guaranteed to fall deeply in love with Jane Eyre. 

Beastly

Director: Daniel Barnz
Writers: Daniel Barnz, Alex Flinn (author)
Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens
Release Date: March 4, 2011
Length: 1 hour 26 minutes

Director Daniel Barnz takes on the adaptation of Alex Flinn’s young adult novel, Beastly…that is a modernized version of Beauty and The Beast…with teenagers…and Vanessa Hudgens. You can’t help but be intrigued by this invigorating idea of a film. In true Beauty and The Beast fashion, a girl sacrifices herself to an unknown beast in order to save her ill father and the Beauty and the Beast end up happily in love in the end when he turns into a handsome prince. In Beastly, high school superstar Kyle Kingston (Alex Pettyfer) is cursed by a young witch (Mary-Kate Olsen) and turned into what looks like a bald guy with a bunch of tattoos. His father, after seeing every plastic surgeon in the country, decides to basically hide him away from the rest of the world in a huge house in Brooklyn with his wise Jamaican maid Zola, while slowly losing touch with Kyle. After being isolated for too long, Kyle makes a deal with the father of a girl he likes. Kyle catches the father in the middle of a dangerous crime and uses this offer to save him. The deal is that the daughter, Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) lives with Kyle in his mansion in Brooklyn. Although Lindy is unappeased that she’s been kidnapped in the 21^st century, she eventually becomes friendly and romantically attracted to Kyle. What is so annoyingly unique about this adaptation of the classic tale is that it revolves around the unoriginal theme of looks and superficiality in high school. The overdone message that looks aren’t important is kind of shoved in your face by the story and dialogue throughout the movie. However this does not come across when the unattractive loser is the gorgeous Vanessa Hudgens and the Beast is still very attractive and fit, wearing muscle shirts in half the scenes and nothing in the others. It’s an interesting concept to have a modernized version of the gothic tale and that is probably why the novel worked a lot better than the film. The novel, not being anything extraordinary, was still interesting and enjoyable. You can tell that the film adaptation, of the novelized adaptation of the original story just added cheesy movie romance moments to the plain script. This greatly enforced the shallowness theme down our throats until it was just ridiculously unrealistic that characters would be that mean and petty. The script lost the value of it’s original plot with unoriginal, laughable dialogue spoken by what seemed like a whole cast of terrible actors. Rising British star Alex Pettyfer is no doubt very attractive and has proven to be a decent actor in previous work. However, in no way does he represent his talent with his role he is given in this film. That might be because every character was written so stereotypically without any real deepness or mystery. Actress Vanessa Hudgens has never proven herself to be a staggering performer and is not breaking her streak anytime soon. Her fake voice when she is upset drives the audience’s brains right up the wall while she makes the same old put-on faces she used in High School Musical. The most embarrassing acting job in the film came from Mary-Kate Olsen, who no one’s seen in ages on screen. So how the hell did she end up in this movie? Her lines were the most cringe bearing out of the whole film. I could only laugh when the forgotten actress popped up on screen for her presence and dialogue. The only rewarding performance of the film came from How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris. Even his role was a bit forced, as the blind tutor for the monster of a kid kept away by his mean father. He broke through parts of the overdramatic curtain that caused gagging, with his witty personality and actual good acting background. This movie is somewhat sweet in parts, but is mostly predictable, unintentionally funny, and completely improbable. Suffice to say, no one will miss out on avoiding seeing Beastly. 

Rango

Director: Gore Verbinski
Writer: John Logan
Starring: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher
Release Date: March 4, 2011
Length: 1 hour 47 minutes

Nowadays, animated family films set some high expectations for audiences. With exceptional films like Tangled, Toy Story 3, and Despicable Me spoiling children, it’s hard to appreciate any other films made for children at all. Gore Verbinski, the director of Pirates of The Caribbean comes up with an odd witty but most importantly unique animation western film for kids with Johnny Depp voicing the main character, Rango. Rango is a lonely self-involved pet chameleon that’s fallen out of his owner’s car on the highway. After traveling hours through the Nevada desert, Rango meets the bookish argumentative iguana Beans, who takes him to the animal-filled town of Beans. When Rango arrives there, he accidentally kills a dangerous hawk by knocking over an empty water tower, crushing the predator. From this, the mayor (Ned Beatty) appoints Rango sheriff of Dirt and he quickly becomes a hero within the town. Rango begins to make up stories about where he’s come from and his dangerous experiences wowing everyone, except for Beans. However when someone steals the remaining water of the town from the bank, pressure is put on the supposedly fearless Rango to go and get it back. He is joined by some other civilians of Dirt to help him out, including Beans, who Rango has begun to have feelings for.  Rango sets out to retrieve the town’s water and keep his status as Dirt’s hero but can he keep lying for long? The most enjoyable part of this film is its originality and peculiarity in John Logan’s script. Creating a children’s film that also translates as an old fashioned Western boggles my mind, as I can’t imagine how one could think that up. There is such clever dialogue written between the characters while at the same time so strange. No situations the characters find themselves in or parts of the plot were random, but many of the characters and their conversations were hilariously so. Somehow Logan makes Rango hatable for how arrogant and selfish he is, but also makes us root for him because of the sweet citizens of Dirt and Rango’s endearing romance with Beans. For the first time in an animated movie, Johnny Depp proves to be just as incredible a character actor with only his voice than in the rest of his films. His voice truly –no pun intended- animates the script and brings the whole film to life. Isla Fisher is also exceedingly funny and interesting to listen to as Beans, with her always-panicked defensive and cute southern accent. Other voice actors like Alfred Molina, Ray Winstone and Bill Nighy add humor to their already hilarious characters and script. The actual animation of the film is exquisite and sometimes overshadows some flaws in the movie. The gritty setting of a dry old western town was done perfectly and truly made it seem so real. The only problem with Rango is one that unfortunately cannot be overlooked. Although child friendly in language, Rango has some animation and characters that might really scare some younger kids, including the villainous Rattlesnake Jake, with a machine gun at the end of his tail. Aside from that, Rango is just a wonderful family film. When put beside incredible recent family films mentioned before, yes, Rango loses it’s value but in such an odd wave of outstanding kids films this year, it’s hard not to. Rango may not be an extraordinary film but Gore Verbinski and John Logan create one of the most unique and remarkably weird family films of all time and is well worth your time. 

Sucker Punch

Director: Zach Snyder
Writers: Zach Snyder, Steve Shibuya
Starring: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone
Release Date: March 25, 2011
Length: 2 hours

Imaginative director Zach Snyder, of 300 and Watchmen, delivers his first original action movie, Sucker Punch. Now that Snyder has gained enough recognition and appreciation in his career, he can finally make the fantasy he had as a 13 year old into a real film. Sucker Punch stars Australian actress Emily Browning as Baby Doll, a 20-year-old girl living in the 1950’s who has been forced into an insane asylum by her demonic stepfather. When she arrives at Lennox House, Baby meets four other institutionalized girls, Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), Amber (Jamie Chung) and the cold standoffish Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), who have turned their tragic time there into an escaped figment of their imagination. Under the guidance of the Polish Dr. Vorski (Carla Gugino), the girls pretend the old wrecked theater, being used as a building for the institution, is an old Burlesque bar and they are the dancers forced to work in it. The bar is run by the cocky and abusive Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac), who really runs their division of the asylum and most likely sexually assaults them in reality. After Baby finds out she is due for a lobotomy from the feared High Roller (Jon Hamm) in five days, she tells the girls her plan of breaking out of Lennox House. When Baby dances, she escapes even further into an unreal world, where she is guided by the spiritual and old Wise Man to collect four objects and defend herself. When her peers decide to join her, Baby and the group begin to execute Wise Man’s plan in continuously dangerous adventures within their wildest imaginations. There is always a wonderful eerie feeling created by a Zach Snyder film. With the always interesting choice of music, stunning visual effects and art direction, the film is brought to a disturbingly unreal level. One of the most compelling parts in particular is the first seven minutes of the film that introduces Baby’s story with no dialogue; just fantastic music, slow motion and incredible visuals. Watching Sucker Punch is like going through a beautiful crazy dream of somebody else’s. You aren’t amazingly pulled into the film to the extent that you forget you’re sitting in a movie theatre, but it is always breathtaking to witness. It is safe to say that visually and musically, Sucker Punch nails it. Abbie Cornish and Jena Malone give terrific performances and Emily Browning carries the film very well as the lead character. Oscar Isaac is superbly menacing as Blue Jones and Jon Hamm and Carla Gugino are marvelous in their two-minute roles. There is so much to appreciate about Sucker Punch down to the costumes and make-up besides the action scenes. Those were when I woke up from the dream. I’m unsure if Zach Snyder was trying to make this film replicate a video game but a girl in a sailor’s outfit, sword fighting and shooting undistinguishable figures or warriors seems like one to me. As a girl, who isn’t addicted to video games, I couldn’t fully enjoy the action sequences without thinking they were there to make teenage boys smile and definitely will. If you are the kind of person who falls in love with storylines and settings that are made up in the characters mind, you will respect and enjoy that glorious aspect of this film. If you don’t get anything out of imaginative plots, I can tell you right now, you will not care for Sucker Punch in the slightest, unless of course, you are a teenage boy. Sucker Punch is a film that entices you with its original premise and unsettling storyline, but loses you in its pointless action scenes that take up half the film and will make or break your enjoyment of the film.

Paul

Director: Greg Motolla
Writers: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig
Release Date: March 18, 2011
Length: 1 hour 44 minutes

British Comedy duo, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, of hilarious films such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, team up with producer Judd Apatow and the director of Superbad to give us the road trip sci-fi comedy, Paul.  Graeme (Pegg) and Clive (Frost) are two comic book geeks who have traveled from their homeland, England to San Diego, California for the Comic-Con convention, the start of their UFO hotspot road trip across America. After their stop in Area 51, the pair gets into a car collision on the highway, where they meet the laid-back Alien from the Andromeda galaxy, Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen). After getting over their immense initial shock, they figure out Paul’s ship crashed there sixty years ago and Paul’s been working for the American government ever since. Now that the government wants possession of Paul’s brain, he’s on the run and needs Clive and Graeme to take him to a particular location in the U.S., quickly, with no questions asked. The three begin their journey and pick up Christian-crazed Ruth (Kristen Wiig) along the way who catches the eye of Graeme. Meanwhile, the group is being pursued by juvenile FBI agents, Haggard (Bill Hader) and O’Reilly (Joe Lo Trugilo), led by the mean, Head Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman). This film seems to be a collaboration from all the different well-known comedy groups of popular culture today. The film is produced by Judd Apatow and has his muse, Seth Rogen in the title role, while the film also stars two of Britain’s most well known comedians, Frost and Pegg, who wrote the script together as well. To top it all off, SNL cast members Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader lend their crazy humor to this already jam-packed movie. Despite all this comedic talent, the word to best describe this film is not funny but sweet. From the lovable bromance between Frost and Pegg, to the cute love story between Kristen Wiig and Simon Pegg’s characters, to the adorable character of the extraterrestrial Seth Rogen, Paul’s got major charm. That is not to say that this film wasn’t funny and even sometimes hilarious. Clive and Graeme’s British clever wit and innocence mixed with Paul’s American blunt and crude demeanor created a hysterical chemistry and contrast for the film. The way Rogen made Paul seem like a tranquil wise-ass stoner made the movie and you surprisingly had to remind yourself constantly that he wasn’t human. The second best thing was the presence and talent of the uncontrollably hilarious Kristen Wiig. Wiig is the savior of every film she appears in and her character was the reason this film rose above a mediocre level. She is no stranger to crazy characters, acting on Saturday Night Live every week, and her fanatical performance as the childlike Ruth was brilliant in this film. Bill Hader and Joe Lo Trugilo were also hilarious together as the immature petty agents chasing Paul and Jason Bateman gave a strong performance as the sharp and feared Agent Zoil. Even Blythe Danner and Jane Lynch, who had cameos, added different kinds of humor to the film. Every actor’s comedic performance made the film what it was worth, due to the lack of a solid script. Frost and Pegg created a unique and amusing premise to a script that had many humorous parts. Unfortunately as a whole, the story didn’t have a vast amount of intrigue or liveliness. Paul is definitely not one of the funniest films of the year, but with the exceptional cast, you are promised to laugh during this endearing movie.

The Adjustment Bureau

Director: George Nolfi
Writers: George Nolfi, Philip K. Dick (author)
Starring: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt
Release Date: March 4, 2011
Length: 1 hour 46 minutes

The beautiful Matt Damon and Emily Blunt star in the action-romance, The Adjustment Bureau. Written and directed by George Nolfi, the film tries to make the audience question the overdone question, “Do we decide our destinies or is there a greater fate?”.  David Norris (Matt Damon) just lost his political run for Senator of New York when he accidentally meets the gorgeous and intriguing Elise in the men’s bathroom of a hotel. The two spontaneously kiss and part ways for David to make his losing speech. David and Elise non-intentionally meet again on a bus days later where he receives her phone number. When David arrives at work that day, he is abruptly chased and taken under control by a mysterious group of men wearing trench coats and 1950s fedoras. They tell him that they control everything that happens in the world and he is not allowed to see Elise again or he will dangerously alter his and her “plan”. Despite this knowledge, David stubbornly continues his relationship with Elise as he is desperately in love with her, risking her and his lives in the process. Loosely based off the short novel “Adjustment Team” by Phillip K. Dick, George Nolfi certainly created a film with an interesting premise but as far as plot development goes, ended it at that. This mysterious group of men never really explain who they are, how they do what they do, and how they’ve come to be. As these laughable vague figures are what the main characters of the film are supposed to be afraid of, the film itself loses all its intensity and credibility. Although George Nolfi creates an interesting love story, it’s pretty clear that he has no experience making an action film. Each action sequence was long, drawn out, repetitive and most of all unexcting. When David is trying to get away from this team, he literally runs down four flights of stairs, runs through eight different rooms and dodges one of the them five times all in one action scene. It’s also puzzling how the controllers of the world take this long to seize a normal human being. The only interesting thing about this movie is the natural chemistry between the actors Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, having nothing to do with the terrible writing of their characters because it makes no sense that Damon would risk his and her life after only meeting her twice. Blunt’s character is also written pretty poorly and sexist as most romantic female characters are in these action thrillers. Toward the end, Elise constantly just agrees to trust David even though she has no idea what’s going on even after being warned they might die. The only way you can enjoy this film is embracing the unintentional joke that it really is. Otherwise, everyone can go without seeing The Adjustment Bureau.