A Hijacking [Blu-ray]

Chilling but riveting hostage/negotiation drama from Denmark
I caught this movie just this weekend here in Cincinnati as a presentation of the non-profit Cincinnati World Cinema. So glad I did.

"A Hijacking" (2012 release from Denmark; 103 min.) brings the story of the crew on a container ship which is on the Indian Ocean on its way to Mumbai, but gets hijacked by a group of Somali pirates. As the movie opens, we get to know Mikkel, the Danish cook on the ship, making a phone call to his wife and young daughter. We also get to know Peter, the CEO of the shipping company back in Denmark. We learn of the hijacking when Peter gets a note slipped in front of him during a meeting. Peter hires a consultant who has experience dealing with this particular situation. Meanwhile, back on the ship, the crew is not treated well by the pirates, and I'm being mild, as the days and weeks go by, while the translator for the pirates and the CEO are trading phone calls over the release money. The pirates are asking a ransom of $12 million and the CEO...





Click to Editorial Reviews

I Give It a Year [Blu-ray]

3.5 stars... utterly predictable as it is enjoyable
I saw this movie in February of this year when I happened to be in Sydney, Australia and it just opened in the theatres there. The DVD/Blue-Ray is already available from Amazon's UK website.

"I Give It a Year" (2013 release; 97 min.) is a British rom-com that follows a young couple in the first year of their marriage. Nat (played by Rose Byrne) and Josh (played by Rafe Spall) marry only months after meeting and then find out that marriage isn't all they thought it would be. We find the couple at a marriage counselor retelling in flashbacks what has happened, primarily Nat being courted by a smooth American business executive (played by Simon "Then Mentalist" Baker) and Josh still having feelings for an ex-girlfriend (played by Anna Faris). To tell you much more of the plot would surely ruin your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Several comments: this movie goes blatantly after the same vibe that made "Four Wedding and...

bitter sweet and really real, not so sweet
I just laughed and cringed my way through this excellent movie. A quick marriage built on lust,
quickly unravels and what fun and a bit painful it all is. Rose Byrne and Rafe Spall are the
not for each other newlyweds who go through quite a time together. Anna Farris and Simon Baker
are suitably unsuitable also.

The ending is quite ridiculously wonderful, as one would expect
from a director who did Bridget Jones and Love Actually, two of my other favorite rom-coms.

Made me want to have a do-over for my former marriages, maybe my former life in general, if such
a thing were possible.

In this movie it is possible and sooooo funny. Enjoy with someone you might just love after all.

Hilarious anti-romcom
It's refreshing to see that the art of cringingly awkward faux pas humor hasn't been forgotten, and this movie does an excellent job of taking it and flying with it. My only expectation going in was 'comedy' rather than a sappy drama or something formulaic, and it did not disappoint. Not that it didn't have any poignant moments, but when it did, it came off as meta, which I'm perfectly fine with.
I highly recommend for those who enjoy 'Coupling' or 'the Office' (original UK version. Interestingly enough, Stephen Merchant is also in here as the obnoxious and repellent best friend, though at times his lines feel more like a separate timeout for his standup routine instead of engaging with the ensemble).

Click to Editorial Reviews

Europa Report [Blu-ray]

Solid Speculative Documentary with some Science / Plot flaws
By calling Europa Report a speculative documentary, I mean to put it in the same style category of Discovery Channel et. al. efforts like "Supervolcano" and "Alien Contact." It invokes the feel of a National Geographic expedition documentary.

Overall, a great effort for a fairly low budget film. The bad science issues are minor - most notable are the rotating arm of the spaceship with no counter rotation of the rest of the ship (Newton's third law anyone?) and the apparently full Earth gravity on Europa.

The plot devices I consider flaws are unrealistic scenarios like: the problems encountered during the spacewalk, the lack of mission planning that threw such a huge wrench into the crew's plans after landing a mere 100 meters from their intended landing site, a lack of ANY redundant way to communicate with Mission Control, and a few questionable decisions by the crew. (I liken the extension of the surface walk to the classic...

Disappointing Indie Sci-Fi/Horror Flick
Let me say that I'm a BIG fan of both real-life space exploration and sci-fi films (including sci-fi horror). SO, I really REALLY wanted to like this film.

Sadly though, I cannot recommend it.

The problems come in not so much from the idea, which is basically good (a manned exploration mission to a moon of Jupiter to search for signs of extraterrestrial life). It's the *execution* that causes this film to come apart at the seams.

First off, the 'found footage/documentary' angle is getting pretty old and tired. It adds little to the film beyond a bunch of annoying 'camera flickers' and bobbles, and a lot of hyperactive and unnecessary jumping around from camera to camera inside the ship. As (over)used, it's a distracting and annoying gimmick.

Secondly, it doesn't help that we care about basically NONE of these characters. Not even Sharlito Copley (of 'District 9' fame), who just isn't given enough time or space to develop before... well,...

Great Concept, Poor Delivery
Overall, the film goes for realism but doesn't do its homework.

1.) It's definitely not worth a 10$ rental. I paid the nerd tax to see it early and it wasn't worth it at all.

2.) The editing really hurt the quality of this film. The first half did a lot of jumping around which made following the film difficult.

3.) The characters were paper thin. The only character that seemed to have the slightest depth was the engineer who has a son on earth. There was little reason to care about the other characters.

4.) The plot was weak. Like the crew, the plot is hard to care about. It failed to set the mood and context of the film and tell a compelling story. The most compelling element of the film is: are we alone in the universe (i.e. is there life on Europa)? It's glossed over in the beginning, but even that wasn't enough to carry the film. As strong as such a discovery is, the film has to really make that theme, and why it's important,...

Click to Editorial Reviews