SiM Poster: Iron Man 2

With War-Machine!

If you haven't seen this already, here is one of the posters for the new Iron Man movie being released on May 7th, 2010. Jon Favreau is returning to direct with Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow reprising his roles as Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Worthington and Mickey Rourke are the newcomers to share the screen with the stellar cast from the first film. The trailer for the film should be hitting sometime in December. Be on the lookout for it!

SiM Trailers: Nine

Marshall's next musical his best?

Director: Rob Marshall (Chicago)
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Marion Cotillard (Public Enemies), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Nicole Kidman (Australia), Judi Dench (Quantum of Solace), Sophia Loren (Between Strangers), Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson (Planet Terror), Kate Hudson (Almost Famous)
Studio: The Wenstein Company
Release Date: December 18th, 2009

Synopsis: Nine tells the story of Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), a world famous film director as he confronts an epic mid-life crisis with both creative and personal problems. He must balance the many women of his life, including his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his film star muse (Nicole Kidman), his confidant and costume designer (Judi Dench), an American fashion journalist (Kate Hudson), the whore from his youth (Fergie) and his mother (Sophia Loren). The screenplay, by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, is based on Arthur Kopit's book for the 1982 Tony Award-winning musical of the same name, which was derived from an Italian play by Mario Fratti inspired by Federico Fellini's autobiographical film 8½. Maury Yeston composed the music and wrote the lyrics for the songs.

Short Film of the Month: Signs (November 2009)

Communication is key

Director: Patrick Hughes
Writer: Patrick Hughes, Karl Fleet, Nick Worthington

Distributor: Publicis Mojo and @RadicalMedia
Year of Release: 2009
Running Time: 12:13

Synopsis: This short film is about communication. Using no dialogue it moves the story with facial expressions and the written word on pieces of paper. Hughes creates a depressing, emotional, romantic story that is fantastic. This film could be up for the Best Short Film at the Academy Awards but its release on the internet could make its bid invalid.

Ninja Assassin Surprises

Not in the way you would think though

BY COLIN ENQUIST

Sometimes you need to shut your brain off, let it recharge. You need to enjoy yourself, laugh, weep, cheer or observe people beat each other senseless. Tread carefully; Ninja Assassin does not really fit into any of these categories though. Sure this film will be filed under “the pointless action pieces” category but it is a little more then that.

Saying Ninja Assassin has a cohesive plot might be a stretch. It was surprising as hell though. Opening with an action sequence I really could have done without was making me rethink my choice of film for my Saturday night. Sure it set up many ideals about ninja’s and their role in today’s society, but it just felt like they could have done this much better. Then the next scene changed my perspective, doing a complete 180, it looked like a conspiracy film with ninja’s was about to break Hollywood barriers. Looked was the key word in that last sentence. The story potential was sitting right in front of Matthew Sand and J. Michael Straczynski (who was given re-write duties and only had 60 hours to complete it, Straczynski only slept for 7 hours over that span) but they seemed to miss it. But did I really go see Ninja Assassin for the story? No, but at one point it appeared like a story was going to be a bonus.

So why did I see Ninja Assassin? Three reasons:

Rain – Having heard so much about him and seeing his performance in Speed Racer, I wondered if he could carry a film on his own as Raizo, one of the world’s deadliest assassins. To be honest, that question is never answered with this film, as Rain surprisingly had very little screen time. I still see the potential (which the Wachowski brothers saw in Speed Racer) though and will give his next film a shot, whatever that may be.

The Wachowski Brothers – They directed this film, so why would I not go see it! Wait…what…sorry…damn it! Well my plans were already made when I found out they only produced the film and I could not cancel on friends now could I? My expectations were brought considerably lower after this disappointing revelation.

Martial Arts Films – Being a sucker for any martial arts film (that is not made in America), I was intrigued. Ninja Assassin felt like it was going to bend (to some extent at least) the typical mold for a Hollywood martial arts film.

So did it?

Ninja Assassin will not revolutionize any part of the way we look at cinema but it was different. Still not sure if it was for the better yet. It seemed, at least to me, the action sequences were borderline cheesecake or really well done, not leaving much ground in between. The choice of weaponry made for some interesting fight scenes. Also makes me wish I could throw a Kusarigama (Raizo’s choice in weaponry) around without cutting myself to tiny bits!

One choice that director James McTeigue makes is very questionable, the uses of blood spatter. It was not quite used to the effect that Kill Bill used the technique but more along the lines of some anime films. It seemed like they put more focus on the blood spatter over the fight choreography. On the other hand, during the fights in the shadows, it did help differentiate who was getting sliced and diced.

Not sure if I would recommend this film but it is entertaining. Ninja Assassin is maybe worth a watch once, on a night where your brain needs a rest. No terrible acting in this film, as Noami Harris, Ben Miles and martial arts film legend Sho Kosugi have the only parts in the film where acting is necessary. If you can look past minor plot holes and predictable scenarios then Ninja Assassin just may have good enough action to amuse you.

Oh, one last thing, a message to any studio or director. If you are going to cast Rick Yune, use him in the film, do not cover his face and give him one line to say multiple times!

3 out of 5

Aravind Adiga's "The White Tiger"

"Kill my boss?! Do I dare live out the American dream?"

by Ashley Blunt

The White Tiger is indeed about a man who kills his boss - I'm not ruining it for you, really! The main character owns up to it right in the first few pages, and without much sense of regret or even chagrin. But while it may well be the American dream, this story takes place in India and is very much of India: not only are both boss and employee (and all other characters) Indian, the story of the murder - the story of Balram Halwai's entire life, spirals around and grows out of the circumstances of India.

The pieces of Balram's life are simply and directly narrated by Balram himself, who received no fancy education or special privilege. They immerse us in the India of the moment, and are laid out for us in such as way as to convince us that, in the same circumstances, we would have murdered the boss as well, even though, to be honest, he was not so bad, as bosses go. In fact, the case is made, though not explicitly, that had the boss been a little crueler, inspired a little more fear in Balram, well, then - he probably never would have taken the chance.

Balram's not a bad guy, after all. Aside from the whole "murder" incident, he's generally done his best to live in a decent way. Oh, right -- he's also responsible for the death of pretty much his entire family. But some of them had it coming. And again, when allowed to present the circumstances from his point of view, Balram is quite convincing.

Perhaps you'd disagree with me. Perhaps you'd say Balram deserves to be in prison, to be punished, what have you. But then again, perhaps you'd feel just the same as I did when I finished the book: slightly guilty, slightly vindicated, largely relieved. I don't know. You'd have to read it.

Phineas and Ferb

(The Greatest Television Show Ever)
by Matthew Luecke

I think the subtitle says it all. Though technically a kids’ show on Disney Channel and Disney XD, what a wonderful, funny, good show for adults as well. If you haven’t watched it, start. After I told a friend of mine about this show (he shall remain nameless), he later told me that instead of watching the girls at his gym, he was watching Phineas and Ferb on the television. I found myself watching a rerun of the “Love Handel” episode instead of watching football on Sunday. I saw pictures of adults dressed up like some of the characters for Halloween. Evander Holyfield and Bowling for Soup have guest starred. The songs (yes there are songs!) are so good, they got their own half-hour special.

The premise: in order to not waste their summer vacation, two half-brothers decide to do something every day. In each fifteen minute episode, they do something big. For example, in the first episode, Phineas and Ferb build the most awesome roller coaster ever in their back yard, and across the town of Danville. Every day, Phineas’ sister Candace tries to “bust” them to their mom, who is the only character on the show who never, ever sees their contraptions. Meanwhile, their pet platypus, Perry, sneaks away because he is a secret agent. Agent P battles Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz (and sometimes his daughter Vanessa—who Ferb has a crush on) and his evil invention or scheme (almost always an inator of some type like a monster-truck-away-inator) to take over the Tri-State Area. Most of the time, Perry’s work ends up making Phineas and Ferb’s contraption disappear just in time to foil Candace’s desire to bust them. And there is time for a song.

And there is also time for character development. Candace has a crush on Jeremy who reciprocates. Jeremy’s little sister Susie is evil incarnate, enough to scare the daylights out of Phineas and Ferb’s bully friend Buford. The boys are friends with Buford (the bully who loves his pet fish), Baljeet (the super-smart kid),and Isabella (who has a crush on Phineas and leads the Fireside Girls). Candace is friends with Stacey. The two of them like video game wrestling and a band called “The Bettys.” Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s daughter Vanessa tries to bust her father to her mother, Dr. D’s ex-wife, who never believes he is evil. Vanessa’s mother is also friends with Phineas’ mother. Phineas’ mother, Linda, was a former one-hit wonder named Lindana. Ferb’s dad is an antique collector and lecturer. The grandparents have their own adventures such as roller derby and gorge jumping on motorcycles. Linda and Dr. D went on a date in 1982 where Dr. D suggested she should try to be a pop star and she suggested he start small to try to take over the Tri-State area. Pretty good for a 15 minute show!

So far, Phineas and Ferb have traveled through time twice, visited outer space twice, raised awareness about the aglet (the plastic tip on the end of a shoelace), and most recently found the lost city of Atlantis. Aren’t they a little young to be roller coaster engineers, time travelers, and rocket scientists? Yes, yes they are. (“Aren’t you a little young to be a [insert name here]?” “Yes, yes I am,” is a recurring joke). The show is wonderfully self-referential that way. It’s so self-referential, that the writers “change it up” sometimes. There was one episode where Candace and Vanessa’s clothes got switched at the dry cleaners and Dr. D was building a floating city while Phineas and Ferb built a rainbow-inator. Vanessa couldn’t “bust” Dr. D to her mother before the city sunk and the rainbow-inator self-destructed at the end. Recently, the show has added a character named Irving who is a “fan” of their adventures and waits eagerly for recurring lines like Phineas’ “Where’s Perry?” or Isabella’s “Whatcha doin’?”

There are laugh out loud jokes, clever humor, puns, inside jokes, and sight gags.

What a simply wonderful show. Watch it and enjoy.