"They suffered death. Us, their romantic scenes"

Title: The fault in our stars 

Year: 2014 

Genre: Drama, Romance  

Director: Josh Boone  

Writer: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (screenplay); John Green (book) 

Runtime: 126min 

Cast: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Nat Wolff, Laura Dern, Sam Trammell, Willem Dafoe 

Produc.: Temple Hill Entertainment 

Budget: $12 million approx. 

At only 13, lung cancer is detected to Hazel (Shailene Woodley), and on the verge of death, an experimental treatment is what saves her. Years later, her parents make her attend a support group which doesn´t excites her, until she meets there a boy named Augustus (Ansel Elgort). "Gus," to whom an osteosarcoma had snatched him off a leg, doesn´t attend it for his own wellness, but to accompany a friend. 

Based on John Green´s novel, The fault in our stars is a little bit long, teen romantic drama, where two kids touched by variants of the same disease find each other and fall in love, with all what that entails, given the circumstances. 

To suffer, at 16, from anything other than a cold or the chicken pox, I think would be an injustice, when being so much road ahead. There would be nothing to reproach Hazel if her most usual face was of bitterness, if she depended on drugs and on a ventilator, and had to have regular check-ups, plus never knowing when would be she taking her last breath. For all this is that, when hitting Gus she would be giving the timeliest and welcoming accidental step. 

Two years older than Hazel, Gus is an optimistic and of great self-esteem boy, of whose story with cancer is not spoken much until further on, except for us to learn that he´s using a prosthetic leg. What matters is that Gus has no problems asking her out, disregarding that she breathes through tubes and starting a relationship with the girl he likes. 

The fault in our stars addresses, on one side, one of the most beautiful sensations known to man, as it is being in love, while touches one of the worst fears. The fear of losing that person for whom you feel so much affection. The big problem into which, however it falls, is that the romantic part, beyond the cliché, is excessively long. While the gripping and tear drama these two lovebirds in disgrace are condemned to live, appears quiet late. 

Watching it reminded me of Love and other drugs (2010), that although, with another kind of developing and already adult characters, did also had a boy (Jake Gyllenhaal) willing to make his life next to a girl, sick, (Anne Hathaway) in this case, with Parkinson's, and when he himself knew what it meant, besides that, from outside, he was encouraged to leave her. In itself, making comparisons, given the differences between one another wouldn´t sound very fair. But what they do have in common is a love story that if you saw in the first one, it may be a bit repetitive to see in this other. Hazel herself is, in this teen drama, the one in charge of telling Gus that, given her condition, nothing can ever happen between them, that surpasses friendship. Something we already know will happen anyway. 

The fault in our stars has got an interesting dramatic content, with questions like How to live, knowing that what you´ve got is terminal? How to live the falling in love, when, perhaps, the time they´ve got is too thin? How is it your daughter´s condition lived as a parent, when you know that she´ll be living the world long before you? Or who said that the terminally ill are not entitled to find someone? 

The bad thing is that all this is mostly reserved to us for last. While before we are bored with each step of a love story which, throughout the first act and then some more, lacks of elements that could put it above others (although undoubtedly, may be liked by the female audience, just the same). So much so that, arrived the dramatic chapter (which had already begun, but very segmented) one could say ¡Hallelujah! But not for wanting the worse, with a morbid desire to see the characters suffer, but because outside the obvious fact that these guys had met for sad reasons, the process of "seeing each other", "get to knowing each other" and "falling in love" it´s just as cheesy and beautiful and gooey as has always been seen, and made me say to myself: when´s the real conflict coming? 

It would, however, be unfair of me not to highlight the very good performances in both lead roles, which make one to really feel that when they cry they do so because they suffer from their both, strong and harsh reality. 

By the way, if this adaptation was perhaps true to the novel, then I dare to say, of what was written by John Green, that it must have too many needles pages at the beginning. 

My rating: 6/10

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"Mistakes happen. But family is the one that loves you and raises you"

Title: Le fils de L'autre (The other son)

Year: 2012

Genre: Drama

Director: Lorraine Lévy

Writer: Noam Fitoussi (original idea), Lorraine Lévy and Nathalie Saugeon (screenplay)

Runtime: 105min

Cast: Emmanuelle Devos, Pascal Elbé, Jules Sitruk, Mehdi Dehbi, Areen Omari, Khalifa Natour, Mahmud Shalaby, Ezra Dagan

Produc.: Rapsodie Production, Cité Films, France 3 Cinéma, Madeleine Fims, Solo Films, Orange Cinñema Séries, France Télévision, Useful Production, Hoche Artois Images

Budget: $2.700.000 million dollars approx.

About to turn 18, Joseph Silberg (Jules Sitruk) takes a routine medical checkup, seeking admission by the IDF. The results are received by Orith (Emmanuelle Devos), his mother, who realizes that there´s something that´s not right. Her son´s blood type doesn´t seem to match with hers or her ​​husband´s, so she decides to find out what´s happened, in fact, afraid to know.

The moment of the truth arrives when the Silberg´s, along with another couple, the Al Bezaaz, are received by the current director of the hospital, where Orith and Leila (Areen Omari) had given birth, and so that unfortunately they are confirmed of the worst. In that distant day, newborns Joseph and Yacine (Mehdi Dehbi) had been whisked to a shelter during a bombing, so that later, with all the commotion, were to be given to the wrong mothers.

Having the doubt been removed (and with the boy´s pictures having been exchanged in the middle), they are diplomatically offered an apology, but as thing´s gone, the damage is already done.

If we were to define life circumstances that are within the completely unexpected and difficult to bear, I think that what was experienced by the Silbergs and the Al Bezaaz qualifies. If it´s hard enough already to learn how to be a parent, or having to decide, for example, to adopt, to find out after 18 years that your biological child has been raised by others and that you´ve been raising theirs, must be a dreadful finding.

The other son tells about how difficult it could be to get to assimilate this situation, both from the point of view of the parents, of their children or their siblings. If as a father you´ve lived moments of father and son, you did it with the person with whom in principle and biologically speaking, you were not supposed to. If you had him in your belly, it´s quite sad to know that who called you "mommy" for the first time was not the same child. But living all that aside, if as a child you grew up in a certain culture, language and ways of thinking, perhaps it´d be even harder to absorb if your real parents were of a different one, and probably tougher would be to internalize it as a teenager. Unless one had quickly matured and had another kind of understanding.

In any event, the above would actually be attached to a package of emotions that would be within the logical and expected. This movie, however, goes beyond this pose given the geographical space where it happens.

Hand in hand to what is told to us has also been to show us some of the socio-political and cultural situation, of these Israelis and Palestinians faced today. Watching myself the film and with all the respect that these cultures deserve, I just couldn´t help it but to feel grateful for being born in the Río de la Plata.

Many things might be said of the Uruguayans. That we´re racist, that we are this or that… but I think that in no way we are as culturally close as these people in anyway, which is a privilege. And it goes without saying that, the more open is a culture the more likely one is less attached to certain guidelines from the ones that rule coexistence.

In The other son, already the starting point is a human error occurred during a "human horror", that is, war. A conflict which, with its ups and downs, has been going on for decades and of which here is spoken from a little discussion between fathers, to when we are shown the border crossing and a section of the West Bank Barrier.

The other thing that is put into evidence is how terrible would be something like this in the Middle East. What I mean is that, of occurring between a Uruguayan and an Argentinean family, other than the obvious shock there would not be such a big cultural change. Inversely, the religious frame surrounding Joseph and Yacine is very strict. To the extent that for some is difficult to focus on helping them feel good, above what they might choose to believe or not, according to their now, true roots.

For my liking, first should be the individual´s welfare as a person, and only then our own spiritual belief. Unless that his welfare itself was linked to his own spirituality.

Here, speaking with a ravine, given his identity crisis, Joseph Silberg goes in search of guidance. Although, more than anything, wanting to be told that everything is fine and that he can stay the same, for his already taken path, for his attachment to Judaism and for his attitudes towards the cause. However, more aware of his millenary rules, this old man chooses to explain him how is it that you are or aren´t Jewish, scaring him even more, rather than empathize and tell him something like "Don´t you worry. Today is not about God, but about you". I´d like to suppose that, for the non-fundamentalist believer, a person is more valuable than his beliefs, where this doesn´t seem to be the case.

The other son then, speaks of all this. We are briefly described the political and geographical derivations of this war, while it deepens into the critical and irreversible situation, sadly, a direct result of the confrontation. Situation which, if ever happened to us, could have us wondering why, for a lot of time. Then if we were Israelis or Palestinians, we´d be thanked that our children, at least, despite the mistake were able to survive the day they were born.

Parents, on the other hand, I think it´s worth saying that will always be those who raised you and loved you, and whom you called mum and dad from the beginning. What later might happen in the future is analyzed at the moment. But the one which supported you will still be your family.

My rating: 7/10

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"Homaje... or imitation? part 2"

Title: The house of the devil

Year: 2009

Genre: Horror, Mystery

Director: Ti West

Writer: Ti West

Runtime: 95min

Cast: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Greta Gerwig, AJ Bowen, Dee Walace

Produc.: MPI Media Group, Constructovision, RingTheJing Entertainment, Glass Eye Pix

Two years ago I saw Alien Trespass (2009), a science fiction title where an extraterrestrial being took control of a human body, with the intention of conquering the Earth. Then, a few days ago I saw The house of the devil (2009), a horror film where a young college student was deceived and used for a ritual. Although completely different from each other, both shared to have paid tribute to a much former cinema.

To honor in this business has always been very common, as with the Cecil B. Demille award given to celebrities for their lifetime achievement.  But luckily this doesn’t only happen in such circumstances, being the nods that some directors make to their fellowmen, putting some else’s words in the mouth of their own characters, replicating their aesthetics and even their camera approaches. Any of these options would work, unless, like Ti West, they choose to completely trace a style, rather than just taking certain things.

If at its time it had already happened to R. W. Goodwin’s Alien Trespass, that this were now to happen to The house of the devil would only confirm it: these men had misunderstood what was to pay homage.

I can’t know it for sure, because both could have been made only on request. I want, however, to believe that both Goodwin and West felt, in fact, a strong attachment to their projects. Inspired to going back to that movies, today distant and boring, but great before, and from which they would both nourish.

Yet, if was West had sought to demonstrate was that the past is not forgotten, certainly to accurately copy what he’d seen in his childhood was not exactly recommended. I can already imagine how many who hate remakes wont probably even notice that The house of the devil is nearly one, blinded by their admiration to a cinema they praise, while they criticize the current one without much criteria. It’s very common to idolize the past, while the present is destroyed.

From the credits design to the close-ups on the characters, Ti West wouldn’t leave anything to chance, trying to recreate the style of the seventies-eighties terror, and even rolling in 16 millimeters for the texture. Having us seen it without any knowledge of its director or its cast we might have thought that this movie was from that era.

In The house of devil, young Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) comes across a babysitter request that will run her into the mysterious, liar and dangerous Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan). This will receive her at his home, where he plays the needy and varies in his lies, while convinces her of that, whatever it may cost, that night her presence is required.

Sticking, without variants, to the honoree style, West would forget to include a personal and different touch. Between Samantha speaks to Ulman on the phone, goes to do her job and discovers the real reason of her stay, nothing happens that one wouldn’t be able to see in any film from the ones made ​​at that time. The house of the devil would end up been an unnecessary clone, only justifiable if it were to be an exercise of setting, done by students at a film school.

A girl taking care of someone who never sees, a house which hides a terrible secret and a couple with diabolical plans are part of a plot that, given its characteristic suspense only barely sustains itself and for a while, meanwhile one awaits to happen that original something that never comes.

If hypothetically speaking, we replaced West and the 2009 with a name and date more in line with the alluded cinema, that The house of the devil could have pass for a distant production, I think it means that today it has no place.

My rating: 4/10

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"An ending that deserved a better movie"

Title: The lego movie

Year: 2014

Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Writer: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (screenplay); Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller (story)

Runtime: 100min

Cast: Chris Pratt, Elyzabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Morgan Freeman, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill

Produc.: Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, Dune Entertainment-RatPac, The LEGO Group, Vertigo Entertainment, Lin Pictures

Budget: $60 million approx.

For those of us who know what Lego is, we may like the movie more or less, but I doubt that visually speaking there´s anything to complain. From the shots in a shootout to the water flooding a submarine, all of what´s digitally created matches the design of the little bricks. And even the way the mini figures move their legs, arms, hands and heads is correct.

If, however, objections where to be for the how it was all built, then indeed, there could be a reason for discontent. Although, being this a matter that lends itself for the analysis.

In The Lego movie, Emmet (Chris Pratt) is a common guy, a construction worker, of whom one day the fate of the world becomes to depend on, against the villainous Lord Business (Will Ferrell). Succeed will require Emmet of the help of Wyldstyle/Lucy (Elyzabeth Bakns) and of Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) advises, beside a battalion of characters, fictional and real, willing to follow him.

It was to be expected, for this adaptation, to want some of the Lego collections to be mention. That it is why, out of nowhere appears the Wild West or the Middle Ages; that without a reason Wyldstyle/Lucy is dating Batman (Will Arnett); or that Gandalf (Todd Hansen) from The Lord of the Rings has also got a line.

But the idea should be far from fulfilling the expectations of the older audiences, for being too childish and have an excess of characters. Not even the constant jokes, with references to comics or other expressions are able to improve a movie that is impossible to take seriously.

Nearing then, to the happy and predictable battle finale, and when it seemed to be all said, everything that´s been going on ends up being part of an unexpected twist. Suddenly, that random great mix of characters from different realities, eras and genres has just happened to have a well-defined why. Only just now we see a conflict that we do care about, with opposite interests that truly meet, and of whose resolution we, more than ever, want to be aware of.

The only thing essential until here has been for us to be patient or capable of seeing this film for what Lego ultimately was: a kid´s game.

My rating: 6/10

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"Looking for Bigfoot, scares were little"

Title: Willow Creek

Year: 2013

Genre: Adventure, Horror, Mystery

Director: Bodcat Goldthwait

Writer: Bobcat Goldthwait

Runtime: 80min

Cast: Bryce Johnson, Alexie Gilmore, Peter Jason, Tom Yamarone 

Prod: Jerkschool Productions

Willow Creek is another indie found footage, from comedian and filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait.

Jim (Bryce Johnson) and Kelly (Alexie Glmore) are a young couple who, along with their camera, goes after Bigfoot. Jim is actually the one who believes in this creature, while Kelly is just keeping him some company. 

Here as a starting point is used the famous and controversial "Patterson film" as inspirational material. Fake for some, true for others, and supposedly shot in 1967 at Bluff Creek, California, it is said to portray what was seen by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin. 

Overall, what we´ve got is the couple going over there and interviewing the locals. From someone who tells them about her own terrifying experience, to a complete skeptic, passing by a guy who sings to them, or an aggressive resident who asks them to go away. They are people who live where the ape-man is the best product of merchandising, with the shape of its footfalls even present in meals. 

From one interview to another, Jim and Kelly keep getting closer to Bluff Creek, place of the "Patterson case" and where they set up their tent. Till here one assumes that Willow Creek is preparing us the field for what certainly, is coming up next. 

When night falls, propitious moment for a lot of things to happen, is when noises and movements begin, distant at first, but then really close, causing fear to take over them both. Jim has placed his camera in front of them and with its light on, turning the scene into a long, though nothing dense "sequence shot", where every single minute is useful. The tension achieved with the sound off box works very well and is always increasing, although it would have worked to complement it with some shots from outside the tent, if not today, at least another night, something that´s left as a pending matter. 

Unfortunately, the moments that give us scares are summarized to this, plus the subsequent attempt of the couple to retrace their steps. Unlike films like Paranormal Activity, it is not even that the intrigue is to be segmented into several night shifts, with increasingly dangerous approaches. If what we´d wanted was to see the hairy giant, the footprints discovered by Jim or the hair they find on a trunk is the most we´re shown. Being patient we´ll be able to see them running into "something", but that´ll only confuse us. Willow Creek ends up being a little, half finished, found footage.

My rating: 4/10

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"Man vs Robot"

Title: Robocop

Year: 2014

Genre: Acción, Crimen, C. Fiction

Director: José Padilha

Writer: Joshua Zetumer (screenplay), Edward Neumeier y Michael Miner (1987 screenplay)

Runtime: 117min 

Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish, Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, Jennifer Ehle, Jay Baruchel, Samuel L. Jackson

Prod.: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Columbia Pictures, Strike Entertainment

Budget: $100 million aprox.

I think that saying that no good movie should be touched, sounds too exaggerated. It´s certainly true that there are titles which are so good, we tend to say they shouldn’t be remade. Think of Schindler's List (1993), Citizen Kane (1941) and The Godfather (1972). And yet, no one ensures us these stories have been told in the only best possible way. Let's then go further back and have a look at Gone with the Wind (1939), also considered a masterpiece. Seeing what it was in its time, it´s clear that today it could be remade and improved, for example, in the acting or in the coloring technique. Finally, if the term remake applies to the best cinema, why not use it for a not so good film. Robocop would be ideal, since, in spite of the fanaticism of many, it is far from being a great movie.

Comparing the original to this one, Padilha definitely touches up the argument for more. Gives Alex Murphy´s (Joel Kinnaman) family a much greater role than before, making Clara (Abbie Cornish) an insistent wife, who refuses to give up on someone that doesn´t even look like her Alex. Further, he fills the movie with controversy, given the high control Omnicorp´s got over the mind and body of the new policeman. Here it is set out the possibility that some day we were no longer our own owners.

This Robocop puts us in 2028, where American company Omnicorp has been selling overseas the ultimate protection for citizens, and that hasn´t yet commercialized into the American market.

The downside is that we see how this works from the streets of Tehran (Iran), where people´s faces are more of fear than of tranquility. An Iranian with explosives, dropping on one of these machines is what was missing to emphasize the idea of ​​terrorism, so associated with the Western Asian countries.

But Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton), CEO of Omnicorp, intends, by any means, to insert himself into the local market. For this, he first has to deal with those who oppose to, that machines without feelings or values, patrol the streets. The key to expand lies in the creation of policemen, half robot, half human, and where Alex Murphy is the best candidate. Thanks to his wife Clara, who didn´t want to lose him, Omnicorp can give an almost dead man, a second chance.

When, after the explosion, Alex wakes up and sees he´s Robocop, is where the remake gains ground to the original. Padilha talks about things that today may be of science fiction, but that could soon become reality.

Same as Verhoeven´s, this Robocop´s got it’s strictly police side, with our vigilante firing against crime. However, here it deepens more on all of what the company is capable of doing to come out wining, even if it means being anti-ethical and lying.

The film puts into question where is that begins the man and finishes the robot, where begins the father and husband and ends the policeman, or what´s of Murphy´s rights, when he can no longer decide for himself.

Padilha at the same time takes certain liberties, such as inconsistencies in the way in which Murphy solves his attempted murder. With that, all he does is to show us aspects of Robocop, which never before had he mention he had, and that don´t even fit.

My rating: 7/10

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"Many pray to get out. He charges"

Title: Escape Plan 

Year: 2013 

Genre: Action, Mystery, Thriller 

Director: Mikael Håfström 

Writer: Miles Chapman (screenplay), Jason Keller (written by), Miles Chapman (story) 

Runtime: 115min 

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Faran Tahir, Amy Ryan, Sam Neil, Vincent D' Onofrio, 50 Cent 

Prod: Summit Entertainment, Emmett / Furla Films, Mark Canton Productions, Envision Entertainment, Boies / Schiller Film Group, Atmosphere Entertainment MM 

Budget: $50 millions approx. 

If there´s something that audiences like is to have an innocent man, but witty and with tons of patience, trying to escape from confinement. It becomes even nicer if he´s yet to deal with a despicable jail staff plus a corrupt warden. 

Escape Plan has made use of this old formula, although adapting it to an action movie, using two of the toughest guys in the genre. 

The opening minutes has us looking at an inmate, clearly willing to escape. Something he will accomplish by doing his thing and with help from the outside, but for then giving himself up again. 

Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) has actually got nothing, to be called a criminal. A security expert and a sort of Houdini, he dedicates to seek for flaws in the prison system. Always with Hush (50 Cent) and Abigail (Amy Ryan) in his team, plus his three golden rules: to know the layout, understand the routine and have help from the outside or inside. Breslin is a genius escapist, about to take an ugly job, with variations he doesn´t know and where the only thing he´s got clear is that the character he is to play is terrorist Anthony Portos. 

Unexpectedly kidnapped, Breslin is taken to his new destination under sedation, not been able to see where he is going, to communicate it, and leaving his teammates with their hands tied. For the first time, Breslin must work in the dark. 

Escape Plan takes us to a high-tech prison with transparent cells, masked guards, cameras everywhere and even motion sensors. How to get out? I wonder if Harry Houdini would have known. 

Having just got in, Bresil receives the valuable advice "make friends", just before being saved by inmate Rottmayer, his "friend", when he was about to be attacked by thugs. 

The former governor of California, Arnold Schawrzenegger, is who plays this Rottmayer, a prisoner who is too nice, reliable and cooperative, after just having introduced himself, and who ends up making of the escape, lot more viable than what we have hoped it to be. As a matter of fact, when it is finally explained why he´s joined the newcomer, his presence on screen ends up resulting very forced. Arnold contributes so that the escape isn´t for Breslin, the big challenge we had initially expected. I believe I say it all when I add that without Arnold, the action would have taken too long to be waited. 

But at no time Escape Plan intends to be a realistic drama, or to deepen on the human bond, when deprived from freedom. To what it appeals is to entertain, but in the most basic sense. If Breslin hadn´t counted on with any of his rules, his level of planning would have been much higher, and the plot, more compelling. Nor can be said that the jail is so unbreakable, when there´s no one to check the inmates, foreign objects detectors or serious guards who are not distracted so easy. 

When action´s arrived, dozens of highly trained guards are unable to hit their targets, while Breslin or Javed (Faran Tahir), another breakaway companion have no inconvenient doing it, as if they were suddenly shooting experts.

To complete this hostile scenario is that Hobbes appears (Jim Caviezel) as the corrupt warden who cares nothing about his prisoners, and whose not lacking the desire to torment them. It is probably even necessary to be like this, as to run such a place. 

If building-up is what we don´t see much, action we do see and in good quantity. From a small fist fight between Stallone and Schwarzenegger, to a heads up with Drake (Vinnie Jones), a sadistic guard full of hatred. 

Escape Plan is ideal for the fans of brute strength, trickery and gunfire. If what we wanted instead, was a drama with human suffering, and showing us what living unfairly in confinement is it like, Frank Darabont´s Shawshank Redemption (1994) would have been a much better option. 

My rating: 6/10

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