FargoReviews.com

The tenth annual Fargo Film Festival kicks off today (Tues, March 2

Fargo Reviews — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:44:39 +0000

The tenth annual Fargo Film Festival kicks of today (Tues, March 2) night with two invited films, Imbued at 7PM by Rob Nilsson from Los Angeles California and Into Temptation at 8:45 by Patrick Coyle of Minneapolis. There will be an opening press conference at the Fargo theater and a Pre-Party at Monte’s at 5.

Nilsson has had films in the Festival from its inception. He will be present at this showing. Imbvued is about a losing gambler that bets on impossible outcomes. The story is a bet of his involving a woman that comes in to his life. I don’t know much else about the film except that it has a strong cast, lead by Stacy Keach,

Into Temptation is about a prostitute in Minneapolis that confesses her sin of committing suicide to a priest before she commits it. The hype is that the backdrop of Minneapolis is one of the things that make the movie worth seeing.

Each of the following nights is devoted to a particular category. Wednesday is Animations night, with The Secret of Kells, an Academy Award nominee showing at 9:15. The Pre-Party is at Mosaic Foods at the Plains Art Museum.

Thursday is Documentary Night, with the Pre-Party at John Alexanders. The showings will include Thicker Than Water, recipient of the Prairie Spirit Award. I’m not sure if this film qualifies as an Indigenous Voices film, but the Native American ‘Voices category has been so remaned.

Friday Night is Comedy night with the Pre-Party at The Silver Moon Supper Club. This showing will include the 2 minute film competition at 9:15. The Pre=Part on Saturday will be at HoDo’s, and the winners in each category will be shown Saturday night. The post party will be at ecce.

Starting at `0AM each day starting Wednesday there will be showings of a diverse group of films ofa all types. In the days when I could attend some of these showings, I found this to be great fun.

Day passes(morning or afternoon) are $5, evening passes $8, and thre are sevral other passes that include more((Good Deal $30, Not a Bad Deal $50 and Heckuva Deal, which includes all films and parties, $100. For more details, visit the Festival website, www.fargofilmfestival.org.

There will be reporting throughout the Festival.

Cormac McCarthy(Brokeback Mountain, No Country for Old Men), The Road, is no playing on the off Broadway screen at the Fargo Theatre.

Fargo Reviews — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:23:53 +0000

Another movie from Cormac McCarthy(Brokeback Mountain, No Country for Old Men), The Road, is no playing on the off Broadway screen at the Fargo Theatre.

The Road of the title is apparently the path taken by the few surviving humans after an unspecified global disaster. There are apparently few human survivors, and many are sick with an unspecified malady which could be radiation poisoning. But it could also not be. The idea of a nuclear holocaust isn’t born out by the fact that everything is damaged, strewn about and in disarray. In other words, the damage doesn’t seem to be in any way localized. In the beginning, thee ae fires which continue on a smaller scale. The sky is gloomy, finding something to eat a problem. Many of the survivors apparently resort to cannibalism. But not so our heroes, a man and his c. 12 year old son, played intensely by Viggo Mortensen and Kobi Smit McPhee. Their pre and post disaster story is told through flashbacks as they make their way along The road to presumably warmer climes.
The movie is about their adventures, if you can call them that, along the journey. Their encounters with other humans are almost invariable with those looking for other humans to kill and eat.

One could say that the movie is a good versus evil allegory. It could also be viewed as a study of the age old question man inherently good or inherently evil?” Or, it could be viewed as a dark adventure story to add to the ever growing list of post apocalyptic stories. I did find it thought provoking, although sometimes boring and not always fun to watch. Smit McPhee’s part isn’t huge, but his performance is more than credible. The filming in a dark, brownish hue an appropriate touch. I thought a typical good art house offering.

In some ways, The Road is a lot like The Road Warrior, and it’s sequels, but I think it’s a lot more serious than that. For a comparison with other movies that would determine whether you would like this or not. The Lord of the Flies might be a barometer. There’s little action and no humor. It’s not a musical or costume drama.

Script: B
Acting: A
Cinematography: B
Relavance: Depends on how you want to view it. A to C.
Necesity to suspend disbelief: Shouldn’t be a problem.

The Coen brother’s, Fargo, Blood Simple, Reservoir Dogs, among many others, recent effort, “A Serious Man,” is possibly their darkest film.

Fargo Reviews — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 08:47:56 +0000

The Coen brother’s, Fargo, Blood Simple, Reservoir Dogs, among many others, recent effort, “A Serious Man,” is possibly their darkest film. Given their penchant for darkness, this is saying something. Many of the Coen’s films are shown at art houses, but not this one, although I think it has already left the Fargo-Moorhead area.

The film is billed as a semi-autobiography of the Coen’s childhood in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis during the 1960’s. At that time, I was a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, soI enjoyed the portrayal of 60’s era of suburban era Minneapolis. In those days, St. Louis Park was oft referred to St. Jewish Parm, or th Garden City of Minnesota, a Rosenbloom on every corner. One would not say politically incorrect things liike this as often these days, but for the most part, these usages were not mean spirited. The portrayal of St. Louis Park in the 60’s is uncannily accurate. Wonder how they did that.

The story centers around a normal, if three is such a thing, 30 something family man who is an untenured faculty member at an unnamed institution of higher learning. Presumably it’s the University of Minnesota, but St. Olaf College is credited in the end credits, and I don’t think the U of M was. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter. Slowly, throughout the movie the man, Larry Gopnik, played by Michael Stuhlbarg, sees his life unravel in evry phase. He has serious difficulties with a particular student, his tenure question appears ot pose difficulties, his wife is having an affair with a friend of the family, he has a red neck neighbor(in St. Louis Park? Strains my credibility a bit), his son is preparing for his Bar Mitzvah by smoking pot, and it continues. This isn’t giving away too much, I don’t think, since the movie isn’t about the specific events but more about how they’re dealt with.

I have heard references to the storj of Job in the bible with reference to this movie. Since Gopnik is Jewish, I can see how one could come to that conclusion, but I didn’t and don’t. Job was successful, Gopnik was not, at lest not yet. And the ending and possibly conclusion is different. Even though I have had enough close Jewish friends to empathize with the personal misfortunes taking place on the screen, I alos know enough about Jewish culture to view the movie with some amusement as the characters make all the wrong decisions within the confines of Jewish culture. Sort of like watching a Jewish(I won’t say kosher) I Love Lucy episode, only with much more unfortunate events.

Referring to the last paragraph, I really liked the portrayal of 60′ Jewish suburban culture. There was more involvement with the local Rabbis than I’m used to so I can’t comment on the accuracy of that part of the portrayal, but I have been to a Bar Mitzvah, and that portrayal was accurate.

So, what do we have here? A depiction of a middles class man whose life deteriorates told completely within the scope of a 60’s Jewish suburb. Will you like it? Hard to say. I felt the casting and acting superb/ If you are unfamiliar with our Jewish sub-culture, iit could be interesting from that perspective. I think if you’re in the right mood and have the right amount of detachment, it could be humorous, even hilarious. If you like the Coen brothers, this is them at their darkest. If you’re after light hearted comedy or action and adventure, this mvie isn’t it.

If you do see the movie, there are a couple of things that you may not know that might help you understand the situation portrayed.

There was a tornado in south Minneapolis in the mid 60.s. In the 60’s, the academic community was wrestling with the question of how to award tenure. The idea that we now take for granted of a research university was in its infancy. The question of whether to award tenure in such an institution to an excellent teacher who has weak or no scholarly activity had not yet been decided(for the most part it has been decided: no).

Script         A
Casting       A
Acting         B+
Necessity to suspend disbelief       A
Social Relevance    B
Educational Value     B
Entertainment Value     Depends
Ability to lift the audiences spirits       F

Lorna’s Silence, a Belgian offering from Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne.

Fargo Reviews — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:44:12 +0000

Just left the Fargo Theatre is the just released Lorna’s Silence, a Belgian offering from Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Lorna’s won best screenplay at Cannes and was s 2008 Toronto Film Festival Selection. Pretty impressive credentials.

Before describing the movie, perhaps a little background is in order. Obne way to gain citizenship in, for example, the United States is to marry a US Citizen. There are actually people in the business of arranging such “marriages,” often for Russians or other Eastern Europeans, but for others as well. Sometimes, one partner is able to convince an American to actually marry hin/her for love. Once in the US and a citizen starts screaming “spousal abuse” and calls the police. The idea is to now that he/she is now a citizen, a quick divorce would free them from the constraint of marriage. As improbable as it sounds, I know somebody this actually happened to. It didn’t work our for the new American, however: even the Fargo police are onto this scam.

Lorna is about the same sort of situation, only in Belgian. In order to obtrain money for her and her boyfriend(Alban Ukaj) to open a coffee shop, Lorna(Arta Dobroshi) agrees to marry a Russian with deep pockets that is willing to pay dearly for Belgian Citizenship. The underworld figure arranging all this, Fabie. played sleazily well by Fabrizio Rengionie. The only problem is thet Lorna has already married the drug addicted Claudy(Jereme’ Remer) who Fabie and Lorna expect to die soon. Problem is, he decides to clean himself up, thus throwing a monkey wrench into the marriage with the Russian. I’ll leave the story at this point, but I’m sure you can already guess that it is not about Sunday picnics and walks in the parki. It is about the underbelly of humanity, but portrayed without malice, just starkly.

Arta played Lorna stoically, and I never knew just what her agenda was. I found her quite attractive, if flat cheated, but she was very believable as Lorna. I had to feel for the mistreated Claudy, and for some reason did not out and out despise Fabie, but maybe I should have. Rengione plays him with all the zest that Al Pacino put into Scarface.

Alright, so the performances wee good, the portrayal of that particular part of the Belgian underworld apparently accurate. Of course, some of these players are not out and out sociopaths, or else there wouldn’t be a story. But should you see the movie? I don’t know. I was not particularly impressed, but perhaps that’s because it had no shock value for me. Except for the subject matter, for which a drug lord could have replaced Fabie, there wasn’t anything new here for me.

Not much action: there usually isn’t in indie’s. If you like movies about the underworld, like the drug culture for example, then you’ll probably like this. If you want romance, comedy, car chases or science fiction, there’s none of that here.

Acting: B+
Story: B-
Relevance: B+

Now showing at the Fargo, Paraormal Activity, is a low budget(I’ve heard/read $11k and $15k) horror show

Fargo Reviews — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:07:08 +0000

Now showing at the Fargo, Paraormal Activity, is a low budget(I’ve heard/read $11k and $15k) horror in the same genre as The Blair Witch Project. The only thing is that, stepping out of character, in my opinion, the former is at least 10 times better than the latter.

As a general rule, I don’t like “scary” movies for the very simple reason that I don’t generally get emotionally involved with the movies. It is,. after all, “only a movie.” Supernatural activity also does not in general interest me for the very simple reason, explained by one of the cast of four in the movie who specializes in paranormal activity, most, if not all, paranormal activity isn’t.

However I was passing the Fargo Theatre last week at 4:45 and noticed gther was a 5 O’clock showing, so given all the media discussion of this movie, I thought I’d give it a try.

The movie, produced by Jason Blum and Oren Pei, directed by Pei and distributed by Paramount, is a hand held video pseudo documentary of a young couple, not married, that move into a new house. Now, it is important to the story that it is not the house that is haunted, but the female half of the couple, played by Katie Fetherston. I don’t need to tell you that strange things start happening, particularly at night when the couple has a video cam running in their bedroom. Realism is enhanced by the lack of a music score.

Much of the film is just film of the couples day to day activities, and is somewhat boring. But maybe that’s intentional. The strange things that happen are achieved without CGI, but by the old fashioned method of moving things when the camera is off. I found this refreshing, and if I was prepared to believe any of this, would have made the film more believable.

Thee actually is a plot, which I had figured out about half way through. But that isn’t the point of the movie. As I said, I’m not usually scared by movies, but I was startled on at least one occasion(I won’t say when), and that’s saying something.

For a “scary” movie, this is the best I’ve seen in quite some time. The genre was perfect, if the couple(Micah Sloat is the male half of the partnership) is acting, it wasn’t apparent. If you liked the Blair Witch Project, I think you’ll like this a lot more. If you like drama, you might just enjoy this for how well done it is. If you like CGI, chase scenes or things blowing up, there’s none of that here.

Entertainment:    B+
CGI                    N/A
Susoense:          B
Acting:              A-

Fargo Moorhead Opera performed Giacomo Puccini’s famous opera La Boheme.

Fargo Reviews — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:53:12 +0000

This weekend just past the Fargo Moorhead Opera performed Giacomo Puccini’s famous opera La Boheme. There were two performances, on Friday night and Sunday afternoon. I accompanied some college aged friends of mine and viewed and heard the opera in the cheap rush seats, two rows from the back of Festival Hall on the NDSU campus.

I’m not a frequent opera attendee, but I must remark on the contrasts. When I first started attending the Arts in the F-M area in the early 70’s, Festival hall was a wooden structure just north of Old Main, also on the NDSU Campus. Yes, this is where the concerts were performed, and the acoustics were, well, awful. The F-M Symphony as well as the Opera company were, well, awful. But better days are here: the new Festival Hall, built with private donations, is first rate with wonderful acoustics and comfortable seating and there literally isn’t a bad seat in the house. The performance, described somewhat below, was enjoyable, but I did not expect the Metropolitan Opera of New York.

The choice of La Boheme is interesting given the current national debate about, among other things, health care. The first time I saw/heard La Boheme performed it was a few years ago, also performed by the Fargo-Moorhead Opera. In my experience, the story lines of most operas are pretty thin. The attraction is the music, and La Boheme is no exception. Simply put, it is the story of a group of artists(I’m using art in the general sense) in the Bohemian artist community in Paris around 1840. They don’t have any money nor much food or heat. But they live a carefree, fun life. There is one problem, however. One of them has consumption(tuberculosis) and, of course, they can’t afford medical care for her, and she eventually dies. The Bohemian life has its price.

Now, about the performance. I could go into more detail about the story, but don’t think that would add anything to this review.

The major characters were sung competently by nationally known, but not well known, performers. They included Claire Kutler, who sang Mimi, the consumptive. Marc Shreiner sang Rudolfo, her boyfriend. Marcello and Musetta, another artist and his lady friend, were sung by Mark Walters and Sonya Hedlum. Other performers were Ashraf Sewailam, Paul HIndemith and Peter Halvorson(who sang two roles of one appearance each) rounded out the major cast. All of these performers have journeyman credentials, having performed similar roles in performances of about this level, some a little more prestigious, some less. It seemed to me from reading the program that Halvorson was the most qualified, but I find in Opera and Ballet it is sometimes the case that the best performers sometimes have important but not major roles.

The opera was sung in Italian with subtitles displayed above the stage. I wasn’t able to read the subtitles very well from my nest to the last row seat, but I could read some, already knew the story, and understand enough French and Spanish, which are similar languages so that I was never out of sync with what was going on on stage.

The soloists, while not major league calibre, were very good and a joy to listen to. I did feel both the chorus and orchestra, conducted by Italian Anthony Barese did leave a bit to be desired, in my opinion. In particular, it seemed the chorus was shouting as opposed to singing(maybe it was supposed to be that way, but I don’t think so) and I thought the string section of the orchestra was weak and loose, as opposed to having the tight string sound good orchestras produce. But, this isn’t the Met.

As usual when reviewing arts events particularly at NDSU, I must complain about the lack of attendance. Fully half the balcony was empty, including what used to be the President’s box, as it has been since Laurel Loftsgaard was NDSU’s president.
Of course, there was a football game the next day.

I ffelt this was an entertaining evening, and think we in the area are fortunate to have such a company, as well as a place to perform, in our nudist. I’ll probably go to more of these performances.

The next performance of the Fargo Moorhead Opera is Amahl and the NIght Visitors, December 12th and 13th at the Fargo Theatre.

Fargo-Moorhead movie buffs were treated to several showings of the Manhatten Short Film Festival.

Fargo Reviews — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:53:36 +0000

This past weekend Fargo-Moorhead movie buffs were treated to several showings of the Manhatten Short Film Festival. Fargo was the only city in North Dakota to screen this “festival.” There were 173 screenings world wide on five continents. There were screenings in all 50 United States, with additional screenings in Mexico and Canada to make up the North America screenings. The other continents were Europe, Asia, Australia and South America.

The Manhattan Short began 12 years ago with outdoor screenings on a side of a truck. This year, there were 432 submissions. Ten of these were selected to be sent to the venues mentioned above. The audience were given cards with each of the 10 films lilsted, and each viewer was asked to vote for his/her favorite film. The worldwide votes will be tallied and the winner declared. The screenings all took place during the week of Sept 22 thru 29.

As would be expected, the films were all of high quality and were perfectly fitted for the new Fargo Theatre Off Broadway. There were thought provoking political/ethical films, comedies, animation and more. There wasn’t much in the way of action or romance. Normally, I wouldn’t attempt to review every film in a festival(of course,m this wasn’t really a festival: there were several screenings of all ten films) but In this case, I think each worthy of some comment, so I’ll give it a try.

The first offering was The Boundary, directed by Julius Onah. Film is about an American citizen who had emigrated from the Middle East at some point in his life. He and his family are returning from a trip to their native land to visit relatives, and presumably the boundary of the title is the border between Canada(apparently) and the US. Having crossed the border, the father(Alexander Siddig, Syrianna) is detained because he has the same name as a suspected terrorist. The movie is about his detainment and near incarceration in some suspected terrorist facility before, at the last moment, the FBI notifies the Homeland Security agents that the fingerprints don’t match, and to release Siddig immediately. This is done, but what had been a joyful homecoming had soured in the process.

Se are supposedly a free people and the cornerstone of our democracy is the respect of human rights, both of ourselves and of others. Our actions as a society, in my observation over more decades than I care to admit, has been anything but. At the risk of degrading my review with personal ethical opinion, I have always thought that by denying human rights to others in order to protect what we believe to be our own is misguided and contadictory. This film makes this point poignantly, and it got my vote.

The second offering was Love Child from Swedish director Daniel Wirtberg. It was about a family that with a five year old gril that adopts a cat. The girl, whose real name is Kidra and does a remarkably believable job in the role, finds herself left out of her parent’s attention universe which is concentrated on the cat. Finally, she goes out unnoticed by her infatuated parents and comes back dressed in a cat suit. There’s probably moe to this movie, but I thought it a cute idea, while empathisizing with the girl.

The third short, Mozambique, was filmed by seventeen year old Alcises Soares of Mozambique. I’m nt sure what language the film’s dialogue, but there was no doubt some Portuguese(as is, I believe, the director’s name), as Mozambique, on the east coast ofr Africa, was a Portuguese Colony until the early seventies.

The moviie is about the devastation caused by the AIDS epedimic in East Africa, and in particular its affect on the family structure. In the movie, a boy about Soares’ age tries to unite with what is left of his family.

Next was an animated short, Skhizein, from Director Jeremy Clapin of France. I think this movie a clever idea with interesting CGI. The idea is that the main character, Henri, is struck by a 150 ton meteorite and is somehow knocked 91 centimeter out of reality. So in order to effect anything in the physical world, he had to act 91 centimeters away from whatever he was trying to do. For example, if he wants to answer a phone, he must pick up the receiver by grasping the handpiece by closing his hand on thin air exactly 91 centimeters from the actual phone. The movie could be considered as a comment on mental illness versus different perceptions. Skhizein means “split” of “cleave” in Greek. A cute idea, amusing in the sense of “The Red Balloon.:

From Spain, the next offering was Parking, by Jorge Molina. The story is about an executive who, when leaving work one day, goes to the parking garage to get his car, only to find someone already iin it. The movie is about, I think, about the unstringing of the highly strung executive as he talks to his friend on a cell phone while trying to get his car back. There’s supposedly some message here about failure, but I didn’t really follow that. This is probably as good a point as any to remark that I found the excerpts before/after the film of the director explaining what the film meant annoying. This is not to say Parking is not a good movie on whatever level one wishes to view it.

There was an intermission followed by an Italian film, A’Mare, directed by Martina Amati. Amare means “To Love” in Italian, but with the apostrophe(A’Mare), it means the man in the sea.

The film is about two boys, about 10, I would guess, that live in a costal fishing village in Italy that go fishing, as they always do, get too far from land, and discover a man floating in the sea. He turns out to be alive, but just barely, The boys are unable to get any passing boa\oats to stop and help them. Thjey finally are able to return to their village and the man recovers, swimming away as a fish or porpoise. The title is an intentional double entendre, being about the filial love between the two boys which was explored by their discovery of the man(apparently Moroccan) in the sea.

Next was Plastic, from Australian director Sandy Widynata.

Preparing for a date, Anna, who is initially displeased with her physical appearance, discovers that she can alter it by pulling on her skin. After trying several different make-over’s, she decides her original appearance wasn’t so bad after all. Not a new idea, but fun anyway.

Perhaps the most intereesting film in my opinion was Miente, directed by Isabel De Ocampo from Spain.

The movie was about the exploited immigrant girls in Spain and what their lives as prostitutes, particularly in the case being examined,. the result on the whole family. Dreams are mixed with reality in ths film, so there is some symbolism and some outright drama. I iwsh the film were longer and supplied more detail so I would have had more to think about.

Lashabiya is a very thought provoking movie, at least to me, from Israeli director Yehezkel Lazarov. It takes place in an elementary schoolyard(supposedly Laxarov’s own, and consists of a game between an outnumbered Israeli and initially ten Palestinians. They play a game, reminiscent of hide and seek, with certain rules. The armed Palestinians try to get to the Israeli while he is hiding his eyes. If he catches one of the moving, the Palestinian is dismissed, as are others for violating other rules. Eventually, there’s one Palestinian and the Israeli left. The just stand and stare at each others as the sound of playing children flood the theater. Lots of food for thought here, I think: The children are the important thing of course, but the two enemies are just staring at each other, not doing anything. I wish the director hadn’t told me so much.

The final film was Hammerhead, from the UK, directed by Sam Donovan.

The relevant story is about the effects of divorce on the child, Boris in this case. Boris’ mother works in an aquarium, and gives him a hammerhead mask to take with him one day when he is picked up by his father. Now hammerheads have eyes protruding out in either direction from their bodies, so they can’t really see what’s ahead of them, only to distinctly different sides. So Boris can see only see two disconnected images when he wears the mask, often of his father on one side and his mother on the other.

As many children of divorced parents would do, Boris trys to untie his parents on a shark spotting trip, but the futility of his efforts is underscored by the presence on the trip of his mother’s female lover. Boris disappears for a while, uniting his parents in their concrn for him, but that’s bout all. something here bout the irresistable force against the immovable object, but more about the tragedy of divorce’s effect on children.

I found all the offerings of high quality, each with some interesting story, point or twist. I must admit my expectations were probably too high: I sort of expected an oscar winner with every film, and that did not happen.

I think we are extremely fortunate to have events of this caliber in our area. Kudos to Margie Bailey and the Fargo Theatre for elevating the level of culture in our area.

Army of Darkness, a cult favorite of most of our entourage.

Fargo Reviews — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:46:00 +0000

Well, it’s fall again, time for the Fargo Theatre to start screening their midnight Friday and Saturday cult film classics. Now, I’m not much iof a cult film buff, and midnight is getting a bit late for me(I’m not as young as I once was or wish I still were), fo I don’t make many of these. But when I do, it’s always a hoot because the audience is usually so into the film and not taking it at all seriously.

This last Friday some friends of mine and I took in Army of Darkness, a cult favorite of most of our entourage.

Army of Darkness is the third in the “Evil Dead” trilogy, began in 1982 with “Evil Dead” by Sam Raimi. There followed “Evil Dead 2,” and then in 1992, the climax, “Army of Darkness.”

The first two movies in this trilogy are klow or no budget standard Grade B horror films. Then, somehow Dino De Laurentis aquitred and produced the finale. This movie had a budget, and it showed. Instead of grainy film, the film quality was first rate. There were many actors and extras and the script and acting was at least professional.

The movie begins with a review of what happened in the first two; at least enough so that the viewer wouldn’t be missi9ng any information needed to understand the -er- plot of the current offering.

The movie concerns a big box store worker played by Bruce Campbell. Somehow, he gets transported back to 13th century England, already a rip off of the sci fi time travel flick “Timeline.” He and his ‘73 Oldsmobile land right in the middle of one of the usual English Viking conflicts. What happens to this conflict I’ll leave in case you want to see the movie, and the reest of the story involves Campbell trying to retrieve a magic book that will, among other things, allow him to get home. So there is much adventure, fighting with real characters and animated ones, in which just about every adventure, horror or war story beginning with The Odyssey, and ending with The Lord iof The Rings, is ripped off (hmm, Oh yes, The Lord of the rings was written before 1992).

The two hours and one minute passed very quickly, since virtually every scene was stolen from somewhere else. Maybe not side splitting stuff, but I was amused constantly during the movie.

This movie is strictly for B-grade horror fans, but remember, this is supposed to be cult classic. If movies like this are tolerated by you, as this one was by me, viewing them with a cult audience can be a lot of fun, as it was for me in this case.

Entertainment value: B
Relevance: None at all
Necessity toi suspend disbelief: total.

Animated children’s movie Ice Age, Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Fargo Reviews — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 05:28:57 +0000

Released in July and now playing at Century Ten is the animated children’s movie Ice Age, Dawn of the Dinosaurs. When I say children’s movie, I mean it: I would say the appropriate target ages would be 5 – 10, although one of my companions was 12, and he seemed to enjoy the movie a lot. There is, of course, the usual humor directed at the adults accompanying the kids, but this movie is a little light on that. Nonetheless, I enjoyed myself, sitting through most of the movie with a bemused smirk on my face.

The animation is terrific, as is the development of the animated characters. The story, which of course I won’t divulge, centers around an Ice Age extended family consisting of a pair of mammoths, one of whom is pregnant, a sabre toothed cat, a sloth and a few lesser mammals. They fall through the ice one day and find themselves in a tropical world inhabited by dinosaurs. They are guided in their journey in this netherworld by a smart character Buck the weasel.

Their journey involves dealing with the unfamiliar world of the dinosaurs and the world of dinosaurs dealing with them. The story(written by Peter Ackerman and Michael Berg) is complicated and well constructed. The adults might enjoy watching it play out.
There are probably lots of Disney-esque messages about family values, accepting who you are and others as they are, as well as some fel good love conquers all ideas. I chose not to think too hard about these issues: I don’t think they were meant to be.

I think most kids will really liike this movie, and there’s enough to entertain most adults. If you like movies like, for example, Bambi, or rather would like to take your children to it, I think this movie an excellent. If you want anything else, go somewhere else.

Story: B+
Animation: A
Relevance: Good question.
Entertainment value: B+

A Bit of late summer fun by Todd Phillips(Old School) called Hangover.

Fargo Reviews — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:34:49 +0000

The movie is about four young adult friends, one of which, Doug, played by Justin Bartha is soon to be married. His friends(Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifonakis) decide to haul Doug off to Las Vegas for a super bachelor party the night before the wedding Los Angeles. After a night of who knows what, they wake up in their $4200 a night villa in the sky with Doug missing, a tiger in their bathrooms and assorted other inconsistencies. The movie is about their struggle to figure out what happened the nigt before, find Dour, and get him back to LA for his wedding.

I was attracted to the potential mystery solving, but any information the three come up with they more or less stumble across.
The movie really is a comedy, with virtually every line containing some worthwhile humor. It’s not slapstick by any means, but it is also not to be taken one bit seriously.

Unfortunately, the movie does not show much of the Vegas glitz, but it is fast paced and entertaining. The four actors(there are others, notably Heather Grahm, whose role I won’t describe as I think it would give too much away about the movie) deliver their lines well and with spirit. There is an excellent cameo by Mike Tyson, in which he completely steals two scenes.

If you like comedy that is not silly or far fetched, then I think you’d like this. If you wish serious drama or serious action, then this movie is not for you.

Script: B
Acting: B+
Necessity to suspend disbelief: Total, but who cares.