The Kite Runner

Director: Marc Forster
Cast: Khalid Abdalla, Homayoun Ershadi, Shaun Toub, Atossa Leoni, Saïd Taghmaoui
Genre: Drama 2007
Running time: 127 mins.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

As young boys, Amir and Hassan were inseparable friends, until one fateful act tore them apart. Years later, Amir will embark on a dangerous quest to right the wrongs of the past and redeem himself in ways he never expected by displaying the ultimate in courage and devotion to his friend.

Two boys, who couldn't be more different from each other, share a beautiful unconditional bond and a love for kites. Amir (Zekeria Ebrahini) is a well-off and cowardly non-violent with a struggle to please his father. Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada) is Amir's father's servant's son who is humble, brave, and is favored by Amir's father. When the post events of the boys win in the kite flying competition takes a dangerous turn, Amir's cowardice will ultimately destroy his friendship with Hassan. Even as time passes in times of war and passage from Afghanistan to California, Amir's desire to write and please his father, as well as the guilt of the past, prohibits his ability to stand up for himself and move on. When the time comes to possibly mend his friendship with Hassan, Amir is conflicted and scared. It is here, in the struggle for redemption, he finally finds forgiveness in himself and from Hassan.

The music score brilliantly guides the emotions of the character, the story line, and cultural changes. An emotional beautiful and heart-breaking journey that is worth asking oneself, how long are you willing to carry guilt and grudges on your shoulders before it erodes you soul and you can't stand up anymore?

The Blue Tooth Virgin

Director: Russell Brown
Cast: Austin Peck, Bryce Johnson, Tom Gilroy, Roma Maffia, Lauren Stamile, Karen Black
Genre: Comedy/Drama 2008
Running time: 85 mins.
Rating:★

Sam (Austin Peck), an aspiring screenwriter, has always relied on the constructive criticism and advice of his best friend David (Bryce Johnson, a successful magazine editor. But when David provides negative feedback for his latest work, both writers learn that sometimes the truth isn't always the best policy.

Shallow, insecure, and bro-y characters that are trying to come across as they discussing a screenplay, "The Blue Tooth Virgin." Poorly acted, where it seems more of a read-through or dress-rehersal than a continuous film. You don't believe that the characters are who they say they are. Austin Peck's character seems like an uneducated dip-shit that has just recently decided that "Man, I should write screenplays." Well both Peck's and Bryce Johnson's characters are more college frat-boys than established businessmen/writers who are in their thirties.

The film rips off Woody Allen with its 1940's piano music and artsy-fartsy quote breaks to introduce the next sequence in the story. I don't understand why the characters are interacting in certain locations.

Ka-Boom

Director: Gregg Araki
Cast: Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, Chris Zylka, 
Genre: Comedy/Mystery/Sci-fi 2010
Running time: 86 mins.
Rating:★½


A hot comedy about the secrets that lie beneath the surface of life at an idyllic seaside university. Smith (Thomas Dekker), a college freshman who spends his time lusting after his straight surfer roommate (Chris Zylka), hanging out with his lesbian BFF (Haley Bennett), and trying to decide if he can, whether he digs boys or girls. Teen angst soon gives way however to more sinister concerns when Smith discovers that his small Southern California town is also home to a deadly and mysterious cult.

A fun and light satire of self-discovery during the college years. Erotic and surreal film that is not meant to be taken seriously. This film would be better as a television series, almost as an off-shoot to The O.C. than a movie. It also walks a fine line between soft porn and hard porn, leaving you with an "oh yeah!" feeling. Definitely a worth while see, at least for some good laughs among the fluff and density. However, if I wanted to watch a throwback to The O.C. and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I would watch the reruns of those shows instead.

Lincoln

Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levit, James Spader Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones
Genre: Biography/Drama/History 2012
Running time: 150 mins.
Rating:★★★

This inspiring and revealing dram focuses on the 16th President's tumultuous final four months in office as this visionary leader pursues a course of action to end the Civil War, unite the country and abolish slavery.

Though beautiful look at what went on during those last four months, the dialogue is a long-winded and unrealistic poem. Too theatrical. It does show the burden and struggle that one man journeys to change the course of the country for better. Enjoy the dark contrasts in both cinematography and costume design to illustrate at dark time in U.S. history. Tommy Lee Jones's performance is surprisingly the strongest of the whole cast. He brings a strength, powerhouse, and intelligence to the character of Thaddeus Stevens. Daniel Day-Lewis, obviously came from household of a poet, delivers his lines with beautiful rhetoric, but is hardly a believable Lincoln.

The movie gets a bit hokey when trying to get the votes for the 13th Amendment with quick scene jumping, hoe-down music, and attempted humorously witty dialogue. Set design is very well thought out from the photographs to the tapestry, allowing the audience to feel that they are a fly on the wall observing these American "heroes" as real people, not as a legend or stories.

Meet Bill

Director: Melisan Wallack and Bernie Goldman
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Jessica Alba, Elizabeth Banks, Timothy Olyphant, Logan Lerman
Genre: Comedy/Drama 2007
Running time: 95 mins.
Rating:★

Meet Bill (Aaron Eckhart). By all appearances his life is perfect...a perfect mess, that is. His wife (Elizabeth Banks) is having an affair with the local news anchor (Timothy Olyphant) and he is stuck in a dead-end job at his father-in-law's bank. Bill sees no escape from his miserable life until he becomes mentor to a self-assured teen (Logan Lerman) who is determined to help Bill reinvent his life by setting him up with a sexy lingerie saleswoman (Jessica Alba) who promises to spice things up. Together, the trio confronts Bill's hapless life with humor and energy while forcing him to capture his dream of becoming his own man.

It's never too late to reevaluate where your life is going and start over. Remember the little things in life. Very predictable uplifting story that is transparently vapid. As usual, Aaron Eckhart's characters either go from being really egotistical to insecure or visa versa. The ending leaves you thinking, "Really? that's it?..um ok....well that was kind of a waste my time."

The Loneliest Planet

Director: Julia Loktev
Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Hani Furstenberg, Bidzina Gujabidze
Genre: Thriller 2011
Running time: 113 mins.
Rating:★½

Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are young, in love and engaged to be married. The summer before their wedding, while backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, they hire a local guide (real-life mountaineer, Bidzina Gujabidze) to lead them on a camping trek. Venturing into the stunning wilderness, a brief, shattering incident interrupts the trio's peaceful adventure. A subtle rift opens between Alex and Nica, quickly widening until it threatens to undo everything the couple believed about each other and themselves. Along with their ever-present guide, the young travelers find themselves journeying not only into a landscape that's both overwhelmingly open and frighteningly closed, but also into the farthest depths of their own understandings.

Though in most of the films Gael Garcia Bernal has been in, have annoyed or angered me immensely and the cinematography sucks (as if it was all shot with a camera used purely for home movies and for the attraction of hipsters and artsy-fartsy bullshit), the chemistry between Barnal and Hani Furstenberg is electrifying and delightful. Nevertheless, the movie as a whole fails to hold my attention and the plot drags out to long. "Natural" and "realistic" time maybe, but boring as fuck. Like being the third wheel in their adventure, unable to speak or get their attention.

The Wind and the Lion

Director: John Milius
Cast: Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith, John Huston
Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama 1975
Running time: 119 mins.
Rating:★★★★

In 1904 Morocco, European powers desire a foothold in the Arab world and dessert chieftain, Raisuli (Sean Connery) is determined to stir up tribal fury against them. So he kidnaps an American widow (Candice Bergen) and her children, igniting a chain of events that include President Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Keith) wielding the big stick of foreign policy and Raisuli matching wits and sharing mutual admiration with his lovely captive.

Was there no speech/dialect coach back in the late 70's to work with Sean Connery? His Scottish accent is very present, even though he is suppose to portray an Arab/Berber. Since, it's Sean Connery after all, it doesn't really matter. A diplomatic and calm leader, whose stubbornness and ego is his major weakness. Candice Bergen, before Murphy Brown and Miss Congeniality, gives a very sensuous, strong, stubborn, and vulnerable performances that wonderfully balances Connery's. Cautious and awkward tension in the beginning, as well as each other's stubbornness, makes the romance more desirable. It is a welcomed predictability because it happens organically, not with over the top clues in dialogue, visuals, and soundtrack.

The overall theme is that "lions are noble", but vicious and the winds can come in silently, are strong, sometimes destructive, some times pleasant, and go in the same manner that it came.  Or perhaps like in the ending monologue from Raisuli, "I like the lion, must stay in my place, while you, the wind, will never know yours."

Love the well-shot landscapes of Morocco deserts, though actually shot in Almeria, Spain. The earthy-brown undertones in the Berber scenes and the enriched rose undertones for the European/American is a brilliant contrast of the two conflicting sides.