Film Review: "The Tree of Life" (2011).

From the director of The Thin Red Line and The New World comes The Tree of Life. This experimental epic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick. Jack tries to mend the troubled relationship that he shares with his father, Mr O'Brien. He attempts to find the true meaning of life in the modern world and questions the existence of faith.

After the release of Days of Heaven (1978), Malick began working on a project entitled Q, that would explore the origins of life on earth. He ultimately abandoned the project. During development of an early version of Che, Malick pitched the concept to River Road Entertainment head Bill Pohlad. Pohlad agreed to finance the film. However, Malick struggled to get the project off the ground. During a meeting between Malick, his producer Sarah Green, and Plan B Entertainment, Malick brought up the project. Ultimately, the decision was made for Plan B to finance the project. In late 2005, after the release of The New World, the film was officially announced. Heath Ledger was set to play the lead role, but dropped out. Ultimately, Pitt replaced Ledger. By March 2008, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan, Hunter McCracken, and Fiona Shaw rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place throughout Texas, Utah, California, Arizona, Hawaii, Iceland, Italy, Chile, and Palau. According to Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, as with The New World, he and Malick laid down a series of parameters (a dogma) to be used throughout the film. In an October 2008 interview Jack Fisk, a longtime Malick collaborator, suggested that the director was attempting something radical. He also implied that details of the film were a close secret. Dissatisfied by the look of modern computer generated visual effects, Malick approached veteran special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull, who was responsible for the visual effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), to create the visual effects for the film using bygone optical and practical methods. According to Lubezki, Malick actually consulted with NASA for footage of the cosmos as well as other grand visuals. As was the case with James Horner's music for The New World, much of the music composed Alexandre Desplat never made it to the final cut of this film. Even though he is credited as composer, only a few minutes of his music are heard in the film. The film was shipped to theaters under the code name Oak. Malick wrote a letter with specific instruction to every projectionist in showing the film.

The film stars Pitt, Chastain, Penn, Eppler, Sheridan, McCracken, and Shaw. The cast find the perfect tone for scenes of a few seconds or a minute, and then are dropped before a rhythm can be established.

The Tree of Life is a journey through the life of the cosmos, but it is also a journey through internal space. It conjures visceral emotions by making you sit through its study of a man and his family, spending time just being in their minds and souls.

Simon says The Tree of Life receives:

Film Review: "Cowboys & Aliens" (2011).

The movie's tagline "First contact. Last stand" makes Cowboys & Aliens an unusual movie. This science fiction Western film directed by Jon Favreau; written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus and Hawk Osby; based on a screen story by the latter two along with Steve Oedekerk; based on the 2006 graphic novel of the same name created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. The main plot revolves around an amnesiac outlaw, a wealthy cattleman, and a mysterious traveler who must ally to save a group of townspeople abducted by aliens.

The project began development in April 1997, when Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures bought film rights to a concept pitched by Rosenberg, former president at Malibu Comics, which he described as a graphic novel in development. After the graphic novel was published in 2006, development on the film was begun again, and Favreau signed on as director in September 2009. By April 2010, Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig were cast. Favreau had cast Craig and Ford in the film because they were actors who suited the action-adventure roles so the characters would be less seen as comedic. On a budget of $163 million, filming for Cowboys & Aliens began in June 2010, in New Mexico and California. Despite studio pressure to release the film in 3-D, Favreau chose to film traditionally and in anamorphic format (widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film) to further a "classic movie feel". Measures were taken to maintain a serious Western element despite the film's "inherently comic" title and premise. The film's aliens were designed to be "cool and captivating", with some details, such as a fungus that grows on their wounds, created to depict the creatures as frontiersmen facing adversity in an unfamiliar place.

The film stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Clancy Brown and Keith Carradine. The cast gave lacklustre performances that were borderline comical and silly. Craig and Ford unintentionally drew silly caricatures of themselves when they intended to deliver two new additions to the list of great action heroes. Wilde just seemed to be nothing but eye candy for the men in the audience, especially with that one scene. Her character lacked real personality and purpose even though she was the key to the whole film.

Cowboys & Aliens is a middling sci-fi / western crossover fodder, at best. As a kid, I would enjoy this movie much more than I would as an adult. Aliens and cowboys in a single movie. It seems contrived and dull. Pretty much the end of Favreau's career for serious filmmaking. It starts off really well, stalls a little toward the middle, goes bonkers for one really odd scene, and then derails completely at the end. In the end, it doesn't deliver all that much of what the title promises.

Simon says Cowboys & Aliens receives:

Film Review: "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (2011).

The film’s tagline "Evolution Becomes Revolution" sums up the premise of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. This science fiction film directed by Rupert Wyatt and written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. It is a reboot of the Planet of the Apes series. A substance, designed to help the brain repair itself, gives rise to a super-intelligent chimp who leads an ape uprising.

In 2006, screenwriter-producer Rick Jaffa was searching for a script idea. As Jaffa searched a newspaper articles clipping, one about pet chimpanzees that become troublesome to their owners and heartbroken for not adapting well to the human environment intrigued him. As Jaffa eventually realized it fit the Planet of the Apes series, he called his wife and screenwriting partner Amanda Silver to express his ideas of such a chimpanzee eventually starting the ape revolution, and then the couple started developing the character of Caesar. Jaffa and Silver then wrote a script and sold it to Fox. The script added other elements which the couple had researched, such as genetic engineering. Several tributes to specific scenes, characters, and cast and crew from the previous Apes film series were added in the script. In a 2009 interview, Wyatt said, "We've incorporated elements from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, in terms of how the apes begin to revolt, but this is primarily a prequel to the 1968 film...Caesar is a revolutionary figure who will be talked about by his fellow apes for centuries...This is just the first step in the evolution of the apes, and there's a lot more stories to tell after this. I imagine the next film will be about the all-out war between the apes and humans." Filming began in July 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Filming also happened in San Francisco, California and around Oahu, Hawaii. As the animals in film were meant to be actual apes instead of the anthropomorphic simians of the original franchise, the producers decided not to use actors in make-up or animal suits. After considering real apes, instead Weta Digital created the apes digitally in almost every case through performance capture. 

The film stars James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton and Andy Serkis. The cast gave amazing performances. But the true praise goes to its unlikely star – Caesar, played by Andy Serkis. He gave an amazing performance that genuinely allowed the audience to see the whole movie through his eyes and understand where he comes from and what are his motivations. He made this movie, without him there would be no movie. Full stop.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes summons up moments of great eloquence and power. It's not just the birth of Caesar we're seeing in this triumphant interpretation, it's also the dawning of the beginning of humanity’s end. Here's how any great franchise should start: with care, precision and delicately wrought atmosphere. It's a refreshing approach to the genre, even when revisiting years later, in an era inundated with science fiction movies where each tries to better the last's visual effects budget.

Simon says Rise of the Planet of the Apes receives:

NZIFF Film Review: "Incendies" (2010).

"The search began at the opening of their mother's will." This is at the story of Incendies. This Canadian mystery-drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve, adapted by Villeneuve and Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne from Wajdi Mouawad's play of the same name. Fraternal twins, Jeanne and Simon, journey from Montreal to an unnamed Middle Eastern country to fulfill their mother's dying wish to locate two lost family members; their quest parallels their mother's difficult adolescence in the midst of a religious civil war in the 1970s.

In 2004, Villeneuve first saw Mouawad's play at Théâtre de Quat'Sous in Montreal. Villeneuve acknowledged unfamiliarity with Arab culture, but was drawn to Incendies as "a modern story with a sort of Greek tragedy element". In adapting the screenplay, Villeneuve, while keeping the story structure and characters, replaced "all" the dialogue, even envisioning a silent film, abandoning the idea due to expense. He showed Mouawad some completed scenes to convince the initially reluctant playwright to grant permission for the film. Villeneuve spent five years working on the screenplay, in between directing two films. Mouawad later praised the film as "brilliantly elegant" and gave Villeneuve full credit. For the part of Nawal, Villeneuve said he conducted an extensive search for actresses across Canada. He considered casting the main character to be the most challenging, and at one point contemplated using two or three actresses to play the character, since the story spans four decades. He finally met Moroccan Belgian actress Lubna Azabal in Paris, intrigued by her "expressive and eloquent" face in Paradise Now (2005). Although she was 30, Villeneuve thought she appeared 18 and could play the part throughout the entire film, using makeup. With a budget of $6.5 million, the film was shot in Montreal and Jordan. The film took 40 days to shoot with Villeneuve aiming to film no scene without being sure it would not be cut. For the scenes filmed in Jordan, Villeneuve used a Lebanese and Iraqi crew, though he feared the war scenes would be too reminiscent of bad experiences for them. However, he said the Arab crew members felt "It’s important that those sorts of stories are on the screen".

The film stars Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, and Rémy Girard. Tour de force performances were given by the cast, especially by Azabal, who gave a performance that was just as much of an emotional rollercoaster ride as Nawal's life.

Incendies is a nice follow-up to Villeneuve's 2009 film, Polytechnique, another story of vengeance and forgiveness in a cruel, cold world. The virtue, and also the limitation, of this film is that it confronts senselessness and insists on remaining calm and sane. It is a hundred and thirty minutes of pure cinema in which the Canadian director skilfully handles a subject as difficult as the undermined but powerful feminism. The pure emotion and the truths layered into the film are raw, real and devastating. Almost from beginning to end, we're filled with dread and, I must say, a morbid sense of anticipation.

Simon says Incendies receives:

Film Review: "Captain America: The First Avenger" (2011).

"When patriots become heroes." This is Captain America: The First Avenger. This superhero film directed by Joe Johnston, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is the fifth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Set predominantly during World War II, the film tells the story of Steve Rogers, a sickly man from Brooklyn who is transformed into super-soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Rogers must stop the Red Skull, Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry and the leader of an organization that intends to use an artifact called the "Tesseract" as an energy-source for world domination.

In April 1997, Marvel was in negotiations with Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to produce Captain America, with Larry Wilson and Leslie Bohem were set to pen the script. In May 2000, Marvel teamed with Artisan Entertainment to help finance the film. However, a lawsuit arose between Marvel Comics and Joe Simon over the ownership of Captain America copyrights. The lawsuit was eventually settled in September 2003. Following the settlement, Marvel was preparing to license the film rights to Warner Bros. until producer David Maisel suggested that the company produce the film themselves. In 2005, Marvel received a $525 million investment from Merrill Lynch, allowing them to independently produce ten films, including Captain America. Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute the film. Originally, the film would stand alone. In February 2006, producer Avi Arad hoped to have a summer 2008 theatrical release date. In April, David Self was hired to write the script. The film was put on hold during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. However, in January 2008, Marvel Entertainment reached an interim comprehensive agreement with the WGA that would put writers immediately back to work on various projects that were under the company's development. In early May, after the success of Iron Man (2008), Marvel announced the film for a May 6, 2011 release date. In November, Johnston was hired to direct and he hired Markus & McFeely to rewrite the script. Feige cited Johnston's directorial work on October Sky (1999) and The Rocketeer (1991) and his special effects work on the original Star Wars trilogy (1977-83) to explain why he was an appropriate choice. In March 2010, it was reported that Chris Evans was cast in the title role. By late June, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci and Toby Jones rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, with a budget of $140 million, principal photography commenced and took place in London, Manchester, Caerwent, and Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and Los Angeles.

The cast gave spectacular performances, especially Evans, who was magnificent as the iconic American hero and epitomized Justice and heroism in the most American sense.

It is one of the most deliriously funny, ingenious and stylish American superhero movies ever made. It is the ultimate Marvel action adventure–a film so funny and exciting it can be enjoyed any day of the week.

Simon says Captain America: The First Avenger receives: