Weekly Round-Up (9/15/13 - 9/21/13)

The Breakfast Club (John Hughes) **1/2 - I was dreading this. It doesn't sound very appealing to me. Actually, I have to admit for a while, I was liking it a bit. The performances are pretty good and I was almost willing to forgive the fact that I saw every freaking irritating cliche I see in many teen movies and teen TV shows being used. Then slowly but surely, it starts to become a whiney, woe-is-me fest that I feared it was going to be. Personally, I don't think this is depicting teenagers as much as pandering to them. It's almost condescending if you really think about it. It is NOT a great film. I would go so far as to say I blame it for all the FLAWS of subsequent teen movies that were influenced by this. But I'm being too harsh. I didn't hate it. But I didn't love it. And please, repeat after me: JOHN HUGHES IS NOT A GREAT FILMMAKER. The sooner people realize that, the sooner we can all evolve as a species. Thanks.

The Guerrilla is a Poet (Sari Dalena/Kiri Dalena) *** - This is a film about the Philippines' most famous communist, Jose Maria Sison. It's part documentary, part narrative film with real footage and actual interviews with the real life participants including Sison himself cut into a full narrative film. The result is always interesting if not always completely successful. Despite the great performances from the re-enactments, I found myself preferring to listen to the real life accounts directly from the horses' mouth. Overall, still a compelling, interesting film worth watching. 

(*NOTE: I got injured watching this movie. At one point in the film, I had to go to the bathroom. I was making my way down the steps when I neglected to see one last step and I tripped. I used both arms to break my fall and I hurt my left elbow. It wasn't so bad at first. I finished the film and even went to see Rush. By the time I got out of that movie, the pain was really intense. I went to the emergency room. Thank God nothing was broken. It was a bone contusion i.e. a bruise. But it's still painful and I'm typing this with one hand. LOL.)

Rush (Ron Howard) ***1/2- I'm no fan of director Ron Howard. As far as I'm concerned, his best contribution to the world of entertainment is executive producing and narrating Arrested Development. It still is but this film manages to be rise above his generally mediocre film output. This is thanks to the combination of a superb performance of Daniel Brühl as Niki Lauda (Chris Hemsworth was good but Brühl was something else) and the cinematography of Anthony Dod Mantel who manages to inject a lot more visual flair than the usually pedestrian Ron Howard visuals. Some credit has to be given also to Peter Morgan's script which managed to make me, someone who knows next to nothing of Formula 1 racing and not really all that interested in it, gripped for a couple of hours. It's not a groundbreaking film but it's still a fine piece if entertainment.