Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 3/07/08

Bank Job (R)
Starring Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows
Directed by Roger Donaldson
Based on the famous (and still unsolved) 1971 Lloyds Bank robbery, the filmmakers have created their own scenarios for what might have happened. But there is a problem with basing a caper on a real event. In real life, bad guys are not cute and cuddly. They hurt and kill people who are only doing their jobs. Without the stylistic forgiveness of a film like “In Bruges,” the rapid shift from light-hearted heist to sadistic bloodshed and then back to an action-packed finale is unsettling to say the least.
3 pieces of 70’s Robin Hoodish toast

10,000 B.C. (PG-13)
Starring: Steven Strait, Camilla Belle, Cliff Curtis, Omar Sharif, Tim Barlow
Director: Roland Emmerich
Apparently, even 12 centuries ago, fathers and sons had disagreements about how to behave, only back then, acting out adolescent angst in a world populated by saber-toothed cats and wooly mammoths could put you in mortal danger. From the long preview we critics were shown, this plays like an extended Discovery Channel show only with a plot (but without a Raquel Welch type in a leather bikini).
Unavailable for preview

College Road Trip (G)
Starring: Raven-Symone, Martin Lawrence
Director: Roger Kumble
The Disney folk didn’t have the courage to show this to critics, assuming that people desperate for a G-rated comedy will stumble into the theater thinking it’s going to be hilarious. The film purports to be a view into that right of passage where teens travel to colleges to pick the ones they want to apply to, but why on earth would a pig have to go with them?
Unavailable for preview

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (PG-13)
Starring: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Ciaran Hinds, Shirley Henderson, Mark Strong
Director: Bharat Nalluri
On the eve of Britain entering WWII, a hapless governess is justifiably fired and since no one else will hire her, she takes a job as a social secretary for an American who has too many suitors. A light and cheeky confection with little nutritious value.
3 pieces of British mannered toast

Youth Without Youth (R)
Starring: Tim Roth, Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre Hennicke, Marcel Iures
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
An ambitious failure where the old-enough-to-know-better master director has no one to reign hlm in. The simplistic story of 70-year-old who becomes youthful again after being struck by lightning is crammed with as much symbolism as something made in the heyday of Italian cinema but the end result is just looooong and booooring.
1 and 1/2 pieces of sleep inducing toast

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (Not Rated)
Starring: Michel Joelsas, Germano Haiut
Director: Cao Hamburger
Brazil’s Oscar contender is set amid the confusion surrounding the 1970 World Cup. With the country obsessed by the epic soccer tournament, a boy is separated from his parents when they are forced to escape the country him. Meanwhile, the young boy must leave his home for the relative safety of the Jewish district.
3 pieces of coming of age toast

NEW VIDEO DVDs

Into the Wild (R)
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, Hal Holbrook, Zach Galifianakis
Director: Sean Penn
Running 2 hours and 27 minutes, Sean Penn’s film version of Jon Krakauer’s 1996 book, “Into the Wild,” is too long. After shooting scenes in 35 different locations in the U.S. and Mexico, Penn couldn’t seem to decide what to cut out. The result is a movie which wore me down instead of lifting me up. Some of this, of course, is the subject matter itself. Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) a bright, likable, child of privilege who, despite being a college graduate, retains a sophomoric view of societal and parental constraints, dumps or donates most of his worldly goods and heads off on an il-conceived cross continental odyssey that needlessly costs him his life.
3 pieces of ambitiously flawed toast

I’m Not There (R)
Starring: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, Charlotte Gainsbourg, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams
Director: Todd Haynes
They call him by other names, but it’s all about Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes inventive and engrossing film where the writer/director casts a half dozen actors to portray different parts of the singer’s career in “I’m Not There.” Cate Blanchett’s performance shouldn’t be missed.
3 and 1/2 pieces of Dylan styled toast