Best of 2007 – Page 2 – RazorFine Review

Across the Universe

Alan Rapp / October 11, 2007 / Movie Reviews

Title: Across the Universe
IMDb: link

“All you need is love.”

The film begins with an English dock worker named Jude (Jim Sturgess) who travels to America to find his father. His journey takes him to a college where he befriends a screw-up named Max (Joe Anderson) and falls head-over-heels for Max’s sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood).

Traveling to NY with Max Jude finds himself living with a nightclub singer (Dana Fuchs), a guitar player (Martin Luther), and a young lesbian named Prudence (T.V. Carpio) struggling with her place in the world. Making a living as an artist and designer Jude enjoys his new world until the terrors of war fracture the group’s fragile peace.

What follows is an exploration of love against the backdrop of the 1960’s, Vietnam, civil unrest, violence, and change. Max is drafted, Lucy becomes a civil activist, fame and glory strain the relationship between Sadie and JoJo. The world changes and each struggles once again to find their place in it, stay true to themselves, and grow and change with the times.

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A Coward and an Outlaw

Alan Rapp / October 11, 2007 / Movie Reviews

Title: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
IMDb: link

“He was born Jesse Woodson James on September 5th, 1847, and was named after his mother’s brother, a man who committed suicide. He stood five feet eight inches tall, weighed one hundred fifty-five pounds, and was vain about his physique…he was missing the nub of his left middle finger and was cautious lest that mutilation be seen…he had a condition that was referred to as granulated eyelids and it caused him to blink more than usual, as if he found creation slightly more than he could accept…he could be reckless or serene, rational or lunatic, from one minute to the next. If he made an entrance, heads turned into his direction; if he strode down an aisle store clerks backed away; if he neared animals they retreated. Rooms seemed hotter when he was in them, rains fell straighter, clocks slowed, sounds were amplified.”

Based on the novel by Ron Hansen the film tells the story of the famous outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt) and his friend who shot him in the back, Bob Ford (Casey Affleck). The film is filled with supporting characters and events too numerous to mention here. Plot divergences, threads, and events that work both with and against the main tale. But at its core this is a film about two men and how their destinies became intertwined during their lives and long after their deaths.

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The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Alan Rapp / August 31, 2007 / Movie Reviews

Title: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
IMDb: link

Here we examine video games and the people who play them, not just for fun, but for recognition, glory, and world records; this is the subject of an outstanding documentary, with perhaps the best title of any film released this year (and the rest of the film ain’t too shabby either).

Director Seth Gordon paints us a surprisingly complex tale of two very different men. Billy Mitchell is the king of his universe, the world record holder for Donkey Kong, who once played the first perfect game ever recorded on Pac Man, owns his own company, and is a longtime friend and contributor to Walter Day, the founder of Twin Galaxies (an organization which tracks video game records).

Mitchell was once named “the greatest video-game player of all time” and “Gamer of the Century.” Confident and arrogant to a fault he is the undisputed master of his domain.

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Death has Never Been so Funny

Alan Rapp / August 17, 2007 / Movie Reviews

Title: Death at a Funeral
IMDb: link

lnto everyone’s life, and death, it seems a little chaos must fall. Death at a Funeral brings out all kinds of zaniness as friends and family gather to bury one of their own and end up nearly killing each other as things get further and further out of control. Director Frank Oz gives us one of the year’s best films and the best comedy of 2007 so far.

A death in the family brings together a group of mourners each struggling with their own lives and creates the catalyst for the hilarious and the absurd as nothing goes as planned.

The dutiful son Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen) tries to comfort his mother (Jane Asher), who is driving his wife Jane (Keeley Hawes) crazy with her constant snips, and prepare to give the eulogy everyone expects his brother Robert (Rupert Graves), the famous author from New York, to give.

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TMNT

Alan Rapp / May 23, 2007 / Movie Reviews

Title: TMNT
IMDb: link

What was your introduction to the turtles? Was it the, best forgetten, live-action films? Or was it the late 80’s cartoon with their jokes, and commercial and toy tie-ins? Or the recent Fox cartoon relaunch? Or was it the slew of arcade and Nintendo games? Or were you, like me, introduced to the foursome through the original pages of a black and white comic book Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles?

I ask because whatever your vision of the turtles is will color how you view the film. Fans of the games, the cartooons, and even the other films, may indeed be disappointed as the characters, for the most part, are stipped bare to more closely resemble the original creations. It may surprise many, who keep refering to the “new look” of the film, which is anything but new. It’s not a perfect film, but for a comic adaption to a series that had lost all credibility it’s as close to perfect as you can fit into a PG film. The turtles have finally come home.

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