The LateNight Shows

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

sharonforever@gmail.com — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:20:00 +0000

In National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Nicolas Cage unlocks century-old puzzle boxes in the time it takes me to write "century-old puzzle boxes."

Since when did treasure hunter leap-frog over movie critic as easiest job ever?

Here is a sequel in which impossibly dense clues are buried for centuries and deciphered with the ease in which you order a latte.

I know these people are all supposed to be smart, well-educated, the best of the best.

But halfway through the movie, Cage's archeological alter-ego Benjamin Gates is kidnapping the U.S. president (Bruce Greenwood -- a Canadian, of course) without breaking a sweat.

If I was him, I'd at least be worried about losing my toupee.

But oh no -- whether Gates is outwitting law enforcement agencies, cracking open a desk in the Oval Office or leading a car chase through the streets of London, he seems about as flustered as a guy who can't figure out where he parked.

Remember Indiana Jones? Tall guy? Hat? Bullwhip? Thing is, he almost always lost. The Ark of the Covenant? Stored away in a crate. The Holy Grail? Buried under a mountain.

The only thing he could ever really be counted on for was being punched or shot or sometimes both.

That made him, amid all the high adventure, charmingly human -- a quality sorely missing here.

But isn't National Treasure all in good fun, you say?

All in good crap, I say.

Book of Secrets isn't just outlandish or ludicrous -- these are embraceable qualities -- but stupefying lazy.

Just consider the plot, which kicks off when a missing page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth mysteriously implicates Ben's great-great grandfather in the assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln.

Ed Harris -- a fine actor apparently in the market for a vacation property -- plays the villain, Wilkinson.

Yes, the movie is really that obvious.

Later, their quest turns to the so-called Book of Secrets -- a hyper-secretive diary passed down from president to president -- and eventually ropes in Ben's estranged mother, played by Helen Mirren, cashing out after last year's Oscar win.

Inspired casting? More like wonky casting -- this may be the most improbable family unit since Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick played members of the same gene pool in 1989's Family Business.

Mirren, trooper that she is, even gets into the action herself -- swinging Princess Leia-style over a chasm -- as everything erupts in a cacophony of underground effects, explosions, death traps and narrow escapes.

Sound familiar?

Yes, it's more or less the end of the first National Treasure.

And, I'm guessing, a preview of what's to come for the inevitable, regrettable National Treasure 3.

The Golden Compass [2007]

sharonforever@gmail.com — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:10:00 +0000

Director: Chris Weitz
Producer: Deborah Forte, Bill Carraro
Screenwriter: Chris Weitz
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards, Sam Elliott, Christopher Lee, Daniel Craig, Ben Walker
MPAA Rating: PG-13

That New Line Cinema did so well with the Lord of the Rings trilogy is both a blessing and a curse. After supporting Peter Jackson's fine work, it's a natural assumption that the company has the means and access to the appropriate talent to develop strong adaptations of youthful fantasy materials (ignoring Dungeons & Dragons, of course). It is, in fact, quite difficult to discuss another such type of film without comparing, but doing so threatens to tarnish some of the shine that The Golden Compass deserves.

I should note that I have read the original Philip Pullman books that this trilogy will be based on. Like Tolkien, Pullman creates a multi-layered world to journey through, but he tends to be tighter with narrative style than Tolkien. What he lacks in verbosity he makes up for in texture, and this may be where some problems will lie for an audience, as he is comfortable not sharing useful character and cultural details immediately. Over the course of this film, some information does get left out to respect the audience's time in a theater, but it in no way affects the enjoyment of watching Lyra's (Dakota Blue Richards) story unfold.

The tale starts out feeling like a rushed jumble of attitudinal moments where children and adults say funny and serious things before the camera cuts to the next verbal jolt. It's practically impossible to follow what they are saying, and you wonder if you've stepped into the middle of a conversation. It takes a little too much time to get your bearings as to what is going on and even for whom you are supposed to be cheering. Once you can finally follow the events, you realize the meaning of some previous cues, but it's too late to digest what you might have found useful, as the film forcefully pushes ahead.

As Lyra's uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) chastises her for snooping, though she saves him from poison, a glamorous Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) strides through the front door and convinces the Jordan College staff where Lyra is a boarder to allow the young lady to venture out with her. It is once you see Coulter's monkey daemon (an animal companion manifestation of the subject's soul that walks alongside them) heavily petting Lyra's daemon that you are finally able to understand who you are following and what to watch out for.

Lyra leaves with Mrs. Coulter at the prospect of going to the north. She had been secretly watching her uncle propose a controversial expedition to the staff of Jordan College to explore why "dust" was flowing into a man through his daemon. She hopes that Mrs. Coulter will be following a similar course, but soon realizes no plans have been made for a journey. Mrs. Coulter has taken the time to play dress-up with Lyra and take her to parties with rich people, and Lyra becomes curious about what is locked away in Mrs. Coulter's office. When she finds paperwork connecting her with the General Oblation Board (also called Gobblers), she becomes aware that her hero is involved with the disappearance of her classmates. When Lyra escapes her clutches, her new goal becomes to find the children.

The rest of the film is really well paced, beautiful to watch, and has a fluid combination of joyful triumphs and lurking darkness. Lyra's search for the children that are going missing at the hands of Gobblers, including her closest friend Roger (Ben Walker), becomes an intelligent and engaging series of episodes of small challenges. From learning how to read the ancient object the film is named for to winning an armed ice bear's loyalty, Lyra uses believable cunning and an innocent sense of justice to guide us through a variety of battles in pursuit of universal freedom.

Writer/director Chris Weitz handles the material with ease once he becomes comfortable with it, and newcomer Dakota's spunk is entirely infectious. Kidman plays Coulter's various depths with aptitude and gracefully leaves you wondering who will aid Lyra for their own good, or for the betterment of all. There is just enough societal context to understand what is at stake, and to engender care for the outcome, without any overwhelming pedantic lessons to preach.

The Golden Compass creatively evokes how a child's curiosity and care ropes people into her purpose and allows her to grow from a mischievous, unsupervised tot to a being capable of leading and working towards a greater good.

I Am Legend [2007]

sharonforever@gmail.com — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Director: Francis Lawrence
Producer: Akiva Goldsman, David Heyman, James Lassiter, Neal H. Moritz, Erwin Stoff
Screenwriter: Mark Protosevich, Akiva Goldsman
Stars: Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
MPAA Rating: PG-13

To the modern eye, the plot for the 1954 Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend might sound something like Cast Away with zombies. Truth be told, that's not a terrible premise, and Constantine director Francis Lawrence runs with it in this third film adaptation of the novel (and first to keep its title). Where he takes it may not always work, but he makes sure we enjoy the ride.

Will Smith plays Robert Neville, a virologist investigating a genetically engineered cure for cancer that has gone very, very wrong. With most of the world's population wiped out and a small remnant turned into ravenous, infected carriers, Neville ekes out a lonely existence with only a dog for company in the remains of New York City, hunting, foraging, and exploring by day and shutting himself in at night. The infected, as it turns out, are vulnerable to ultraviolet light.

Through flashbacks we see how Neville came to be in this predicament, and how he dedicated himself to finding a cure. Part of that involves capturing infected humans for testing. In doing so, he incurs the wrath of one of the local CHUDs and Neville soon finds out that these creatures are not as dumb as they look.

At first, the film wrings plenty of scares out of Neville's encounters and does a good job of revealing the monsters bit by bit, but once displayed, their CGI-ness is hard to ignore. By the time they're in full-on assault mode, they resemble nothing so much as zombified versions of the I, Robot androids, right down to their wall-scaling and coordinated attacks. This makes for exciting action sequences, but dials down the horror quotient considerably.

Smith, for his part, does a superb job of communicating the pathos and desperation of the last man on Earth. His slow disintegration into madness is subtly evoked, and in one particularly emotional scene he handles one of the most tired clichés of the zombie genre with genuine depth.

The script gives him plenty of help, at first. Screenwriters Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman show plenty of restraint, teasing out the details of the virus and its outbreak over the course of the film while elegantly laying out how Neville interacts with this post-apocalyptic world in episodic vignettes.

Ultimately, the film seems to be on the verge of asking intriguing questions about faith and humanity. The final moments, however, try to answer those questions so quickly that it's like trying to cram all of Signs into about five minutes. The effect is underwhelming.

In spite of these shortcomings, I Am Legend maintains the power to awe. The production design by David Lazan and Naomi Shohan is nothing short of amazing, rendering a Big Apple reclaimed by nature with stark realism. And while the story played out against that backdrop becomes a little too pat in its conclusion, the journey it takes to get there is no less entertaining.

Bridge to Terabithia (2007)

sharonforever@gmail.com — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:23:00 +0000

Watch the Trailer

An 11-year-old boy has his life changed forever when he befriends the class outsider, a girl. Together they create the world of Terabithia, an imaginary kingdom filled with giants, trolls and other magical beings.


Production Status:	Released

Genres:	Action/Adventure, Drama, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Adaptation

Running Time:	1 hr. 35 min.

Release Date:	February 16th, 2007 (wide)

MPAA Rating:	PG for thematic elements including bullying, some peril and mild language.

Distributors:	Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

Production Co.:	Hal Lieberman Company, Walden Media

Studios:	Walt Disney Pictures

Financiers:	Co-Financier: Walden Media, Walt Disney Pictures

U.S. Box Office:	$82,234,139

Filming Locations:	New Zealand

Produced in:	United States

Pirates of the Caribbean At Worlds End

sharonforever@gmail.com — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:45:00 +0000

Elizabeth, Will and the crew of the Pearl sail off the edge of the map (literally) with the help of mysterious Tia Dalma and the late Captain Barbossa who has been raised by the dead to save Captain Jack Sparrow . He has been condemned to the terrible fate of remaining in the void of Davey Jones’ locker for eternity. But rescuing Jack isn’t the real meat of this movie - Lord Cutler Beckett has control of the heart of Davey Jones, and with that he controls the sea. The nine pirate lords of the world must unite for a final stand against Beckett, Jones and the East India Trade company.

Genre: Action / Adventure / Comedy / Fantasy
IMDB Rating: 7.2/10 (64,939 votes)
Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley

Chak De India [2007]

sharonforever@gmail.com — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:37:00 +0000

Shahrukh Khan stars as Kabir Khan a former captain of ’s field hockey team finds himself denounced and shunned by the country for being in collusion with the Pakistanis.

Seven years later, he resurfaces, armed with burning determination to gain back his lost glory eager to redeem himself as the coach of a girl’s hockey team. The players are very talented but also from states all over and therefore with a game that is hampered by raging egos and regional differences. With a stern hand, he melds the fractious lot into a cohesive team that goes on to compete in the World Cup.

In addition to running the theme on the importance of unity for – a subject that is historically considered to have consistently dragged the country away from independence in its past, the film is also an ode to feminism, with various comments on sexism that plagues .

A great and refreshing summer release, if not one of the rare really good releases Bollywood has had to offer this year

Genre: Drama / Family / Sport
IMDB Rating: 8.3/10 (1,341 votes)
Directed by: Shimit Amin
Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Sagarika Ghatge, Anaitha Nair

Links: IMDB, Trailer, Official Site, NFO
Samples:#1 , #2 , #3, #4, #5, #6

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

sharonforever@gmail.com — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:57:00 +0000

Sean Boswell is an outsider who attempts to define himself as a hot-headed, underdog street racer. Although racing provides a temporary escape from an unhappy home and the superficial world around him, it has also made Sean unpopular with the local authorities. To avoid jail time, Sean is sent to live with his gruff, estranged father, a career military-man stationed in Tokyo. Now officially a gaijin (outsider), Sean feels even more shut out in a land of foreign customs and codes of honor. But it doesn't take long for him to find some action when a fellow American buddy, Twinkie, introduces him to the underground world of drift racing. Sean's simple drag racing gets replaced by a rubber-burning, automotive art form with an exhilarating balance of speeding and gliding through a heart-stopping course of hairpin turns and switchbacks. On his first time out drifting, Sean unknowingly takes on D.K., the "Drift King," a local champ with ties to the Japanese crime machine Yakuza. Sean's loss comes at a high price tag when he's forced to work off the debt under the thumb of ex-pat, Han. Han soon welcomes Sean into this family of misfits and introduces him to the real principles of drifting. But when Sean falls for D.K.'s girlfriend, Neela, an explosive series of events is set into motion, climaxing with a high stakes face off.


Also Known As:	Fast and the Furious III Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift The Fast and the Furious 3

Production Status:	Released

Genres:	Action/Adventure, Sequel and Sports

Running Time:	1 hr. 38 min.

Release Date:	June 16th, 2006 (wide)

MPAA Rating:	PG-13 for reckless and illegal behavior involving teens, violence,.

Distributors:	Universal Pictures Distribution, United International Pictures

Production Co.:	Original Film

Studios:	Universal Pictures

U.S. Box Office:	$62,494,975

Filming Locations:	Los Angeles, California, USA Tokyo, Japan

Produced in:	United States

Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift DVD stars are...

Lucas Black ...Sean Boswell
Brandon Brendel ...Buddy
Bow Wow ...Twinkie

Taare Zameen Par- First Look

sharonforever@gmail.com — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 15:20:00 +0000

Welcome to THE LATENIGHT SHOWS

sharonforever@gmail.com — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:54:00 +0000

welcome friends,
here you will find reviews of all latest as well as popular movies with their possible trailers. Hope you all will enjoy this. And please comment if you like any feature of the movies . Have a nice stay.

regards
sharon