21 Jan 2009

Heart Attack: "My Bloody Valentine 3-D," "Not Easily Broken," and "Dolphins"

By Mike Schulz

Jaime King and Megan Boone in My Bloody Valentine 3-DMY BLOODY VALENTINE 3-D

You can assume you're in good hands at a modern horror movie when, within its first couple of minutes, that grizzled, '80s-scare-flick veteran Tom Atkins (he of The Fog and Creepshow and Halloween III: Season of the Witch) shows up as a scowling local sheriff. You pretty much know you're in good hands when the very first thing that Atkins growls, upon finding himself ankle-deep in holiday-themed carnage, is "Happy fuckin' Valentine's Day!" And if, by some miraculous happenstance, you get to watch this seminal genre moment occur while wearing 3-D glasses, to boot... . Well, I've seen better movies than My Bloody Valentine 3-D recently, but bless its forcibly-removed heart, I can't remember the last one that made me feel - in a good way - like a 13-year-old again.

01 Oct 2008

Native American Splendor: "Lost Nation: The Ioway," by Kelly and Tammy Rundle, on DVD October 7

By Mike Schulz

Lost Nation: The Ioway

LOST NATION: THE IOWAY

Last October, Moline-based filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle debuted their documentary Lost Nation: The Ioway, a 53-minute exploration of the Native Americans for whom the state of Iowa was named. And if you were one of the lucky ones who saw this Fourth Wall Films production at its October 11 premiere in Des Moines, its October 21 engagement at the Putnam Museum & IMAX Theatre, or its subsequent screenings throughout the Midwest, you likely already know that it's something special - a fantastically informative, beautifully constructed, and (not for nothing) thoroughly enjoyable piece of work.

23 Apr 2008

"Aloha!" "Oy!": "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "88 Minutes," and "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"

By Mike Schulz

Mila Kunis and Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah MarshallFORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL

Director Nicholas Stoller's Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a happy movie about misery, but during its first half hour or so, the film's rhythms are so unusual that you might not be sure what it is.

09 Apr 2008

Gross Anatomy: "The Ruins," "Leatherheads," "Nim's Island," and "Shine a Light"

By Mike Schulz

Jena Malone and Laura Ramsey in The RuinsTHE RUINS

I caught The Ruins during a minimally populated Saturday-afternoon screening, so I pray that a larger, rowdier audience laughed like mad when our surgeon-to-be hero (the hilariously stalwart Jonathan Tucker) surmised the deadly situation he and his friends were in and barked, with absolute earnestness, "Four Americans on vacation don't just disappear!"

That poor, dumb kid. Never saw a horror movie.

13 Feb 2008

Suffering "Fool's" Not-So-Gladly: "Fool's Gold" and "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - From Hollywood to the Heartland"

By Mike Schulz

Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey in Fool's GoldFOOL'S GOLD

At one point during Fool's Gold's opening sequence, Matthew McConaughey's fortune-hunting hero is seen slo-o-owly hopping along the ocean floor, and for the next 110 minutes, the whole movie seems to be moving at the exact same speed. I understand that director Andy Tennant's (supposed) comic adventure isn't meant to be anything more than a featherweight romantic diversion - an excuse to watch the perfectly tanned McConaughey and Kate Hudson swap barbs while being photographed against intoxicatingly pretty Key West locales - and many in the audience appear content to accept it as such. But, good God, aren't these viewers at all bothered by how mind-numbingly lethargic the pacing is?

03 Oct 2007

Game Faces: "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," October 3 and 4 at the Bijou Theatre

By Mike Schulz

Walter Day and Steve Wiebe in The King of Kong: A Fistful of QuartersTHE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS

Well before Seth Gordon's documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters was released (in other markets) six weeks ago, the director/editor had also been tapped by New Line Cinema to remake it as a more traditionally crowd-pleasing Hollywood narrative. Having now seen Gordon's hugely enjoyable doc, I can barely fathom a more redundant film concept.

08 Aug 2007

Prime Suspects: "Villisca: Living with a Mystery," August 10 at the Englert Theatre

By Mike Schulz

Villisca: Living with a MysteryVILLISCA: LIVING WITH A MYSTERY

Just over a year ago, I was sent a DVD screener from area filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle (of the Moline-based Fourth Wall Films) for their feature-length documentary Villisca: Living with a Mystery. I found it to be a beautifully researched and effectively unsettling true-crime thriller, but unfortunately, there never seemed an appropriate time to tell anyone that; since receiving the DVD, the nearest the movie ever came to our area was during a one-night engagement in Cedar Rapids, and so I held off on writing about the film until it made its way closer to the Quad Cities.

03 Jul 2007

Eternal Patients: "Sicko," "Live Free or Die Hard," and "Evening"

By Mike Schulz

Michael Moore's SickoSICKO

It seems that the older I get, and the older Michael Moore gets, the more I'm conscious of his imperfections as a filmmaker - and the less I could give a damn about them.

21 Mar 2007

Future Imperfect: "Premonition" and "Deep Sea 3-D"

By Mike Schulz

Sandra Bullock in PremonitionPREMONITION

Note: Plot details will be revealed, so here's the Spoiler Alert for those of you who haven't seen the film, and for the two or three of you who haven't seen the film's previews, which give away the entire movie.)

Hollywood entertainments, in general, aim so low that it's disheartening to chastise one for aiming relatively high. But the psychological thriller-cum-melodrama Premonition is infuriating precisely because of its lofty ambitions. For a goodly stretch of the film - nearly the entire first hour - the plotting is clever enough and the direction (by Mennan Yapo) suggestive enough to keep you focused and alert; you're eager to solve the movie's many mysteries along with its heroine. But I left the auditorium frustrated and a little bit angry, and still haven't figured out exactly whom to blame this on.

22 Nov 2006

Tears of a Clown: "Stranger Than Fiction," "A Good Year," and "Wordplay"

By Mike Schulz

Will Ferrell and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Stranger Than FictionSTRANGER THAN FICTION

While watching an emotional climax toward the end of Marc Forster's Stranger Than Fiction, I experienced the oddest case of déjà vu. In the film, a man discovers that his life may be in the hands of an unseen puppet-master - that he, himself, has no control over his own existence - and all of a sudden I was transported back to June of 1997, watching Peter Weir's The Truman Show. Yet what set me off wasn't just that the metaphysics of the two films are similar, or even that a comedian (Will Ferrell instead of Jim Carrey) was enacting the situation; it was that the protagonist's seemingly hopeless circumstances had me in tears, and yet all around me, people were laughing.

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