Clash of the Titans / If you’re going to remake a lame-brained ’80s favorite with an obsessive cult following, this year’s version of Clash of the Titans is certainly the way to do it. The 1981 original is, to be charitable, quaint, and therefore ripe for a re-imagining.
John Rabe / The Nanking Massacre, in 1937, was one of the most horrific (and under-reported) incidents of the 20th century. More than 300,000 Chinese were executed, one way or another, as a relentless Japanese invasion–there was no declared war–swept through the city, designed to show “Japanese superiority.” The scale and kind of brutality exhibited were equal to that of the Nazis in World War II, according to some authorities and late-blooming historians.
Greenberg / Critical response to frequent Wes Anderson collaborator Noah Baumbach’s directorial projects has gotten progressively divisive. His characters tend to be self-absorbed white intellectuals who expound on their particular places in the pop cultural zeitgeist whether anyone’s listening or not, which sometimes generates a cringe-filled couple hours at the theater.
Chloe / When a good, even occasionally brilliant filmmaker like Canada’s Atom Egoyan hits a tough patch in his career, we can but hope he will sooner than later climb out of his slump and again deliver films like Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter. Truth to tell, his latest, Chloe, adapted from a French film, finds him three-quarters back.
How to Train Your Dragon / Working within genre pictures, it’s often hard to break the mold and strike out into new territory, something especially true with the PG-rated animated tale. How to Train Your Dragon follows these rules to the letter, utilizing a misunderstood child, the moral of brains over brawn, sprinkling in a unrequited love interest and a magical adventure and the result is one well on its way to merchandizing heaven.
Mother / Audiences here in Hawaiʻi have a long history with movies from South Korea, and now the rest of the country is catching up. In fact, movies from that cinema powerhouse have become positively trendy, with Mother, the newest genre-buster from Bong Joon-ho (Memories of Murder, The Host) opening to rhapsodic reviews in New York.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid / If Diary of a Wimpy Kid deserves credit for anything, it’s bringing back childhood memories. Middle school is hardly a magical place.
Film Review / Repo Men is not a sequel to Repo Man, the 1984 classic, and although similar in plot, it is not connected to Repo! The Genetic Opera.
Adult, adroit and truthfully dark, Roman Polanski’s latest, and perhaps last, suspense film–suspense, mind you, not shock–begins deceptively light and masterfully darkens into a film of great menace, designed for a knowing, worldly audience. Co-written by Polanski and Robert Harris (Enigma), adapted from Harris’ novel, the superbly-cast movie stars Ewan McGregor (in his best role), Pierce Brosnan (his best since Matador), the wonderful Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton), a spot-on Olivia Williams, Kim Cattrall (on her best behavior) and a surprise appearance by Jim Belushi (yes, Jim Belushi) as a bullish publisher whose machinations set the roman à clef story into motion.
In his own heavily edited, hand-held, shaky-cam way, Paul Greengrass continues to analyze and lightly criticize America’s war on terror with Green Zone. The British director of the last two Jason Bourne movies seems to have devoted his career to observing our country’s contemporary military operations and more obviously with United 93, its relations in the Middle East.
Tapped / Hot on the heels of the Oscar-nominated Food, Inc. comes another documentary meant to show how something considered innocuous is actually packaged, marketed and consumed with little to no regard for public safety, land rights or impact to the environment. The bottled water industry had more $3.6 billion in sales in 2008, and that number is surely expected to rise.
Alice in Wonderland / At this point in his adaptations, it’s pretty much a given Tim Burton doesn’t give a goth-hoot about the main character. It’s the Headless Horseman who tickles his claymation brain matter, not Ichabod Crane; Willy Wonka who sweetens his dark, shadowy cavities, not Charlie.
Shinjuku Incident / Jackie Chan, the clown prince of kicking ass, is now 55. Critics have observed that many of his heavily choreographed fight scenes have begun to lose their intensity, which leaves us with the family-friendly Hollywood fare–mostly dreck like the recent The Spy Next Door.
The Crazies / George Romero is often deemed the grandfather of the zombie. Responsible for the pentalogy of genre films beginning with Night of the Living Dead, he’s also the inspiration for endless imitations, some good (Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later), most not (Zombie Strippers,Redneck Zombies).
82nd Academy Awards / “I don’t go to the Oscars anymore. I stay home and watch them on television.
The White Ribbon / The White Ribbon is the front-runner for the Best Foreign Film Oscar this year, and for good reason. It’s cold, calculating and completely unlikable, yet, totally devastating in its absolute unmerciful execution.
Temple Emanu-El Kirk Cashmere Jewish Film Festival / Early March again brings island cinema lovers a unique opportunity: the eighth annual Temple Emanu-El Kirk Cashmere Jewish Film Festival at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. All films are premieres for Hawaiʻi and each of the seven illuminates Jewish culture in careful, poignant ways.
Shutter Island / After finally winning the Best Picture Academy Award for The Departed, if anyone deserves to cut loose and have some fun, it’s director extraordinaire Martin Scorsese. If you gave the world Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas, and still didn’t win Best Picture Oscar for any of them, finally getting the golden statue merits the right to do whatever the hell you want.
Percy Jackson / Since the introduction of the first Harry Potter franchise, movie studios have been scrambling to find the next tween phenomenon based on a beloved children’s series, mostly with lackluster results (anyone remember A Series of Unfortunate Events?). Now, with only one Potter film remaining, the newest attempt to steal some thunder arrives from the Rick Riordan series Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Thunder’s not all that’s stolen.
Kāhala 8 / Even if the Academy Awards hadn’t bumped its Best Picture nominees up to 10 this year, many critics agree that Pixar’s Up would have made the list. It’s only the second time that an Oscar nod went to an animated film (the first being Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in 1991), but it’s a sign of things to come.
The Wolfman / Ruled by the dictates of a pluperfect moon, poor Lawrence Talbot–played by Lon Chaney Jr, in 1941, Benicio del Toro in this year’s The Wolfman–transforms into a slavering werewolf, ravages and kills savagely, then wakes up human again. There is no greater monster-as-victim figure in American B-movie horror lore.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief / The quest for an heir to the Harry Potter franchise continues and amid the corpses of The Golden Compass and The Seeker: The Dark is Rising comes Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, based on the young adult series written by Rick Riordan. It’s an unoriginal and rather lame children’s flick with a title that sounds like a Motown group, but shockingly, it’s also an entertaining dummies guide through Greek mythology.
Dear John / We are in the movie doldrums. During this period, roughly three weeks before the Oscar ceremonies are held on March 7, the industry dumps all its iffy movies practically at once.
When in Rome / Guggenheim museum curator Beth (Kristen Bell from Veronica Mars) finds herself in Rome for her sister’s wedding. After a flirtation with Nick (Josh Duhamel) doesn’t work out, she drunkenly splashes around the Trevi Fountain, bitterly stealing coins from the water.
Crazy Heart / “That’s when you know you’ve written a good one, when you’re positive you’ve heard it before.” That’s what country singer Bad Blake tells his new girlfriend Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal) as he creates a new song for the first time in three years. And, like a country song, Crazy Heart has a lot of themes that we’ve heard many times before, right down to the themes of the lonesome cowboy losing his family, his job, girlfriends and even his truck.
Given the city’s crumbling infrastructure and rail controversy, it’s hard to believe anyone would want to be the next mayor of Honolulu. But a few do want the job, including the incumbent, Mayor Peter Carlisle, the former Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney who won a 2010 special election to fill the remainder of Mufi Hannemann’s term.
I’d never been to a Honolulu City Council meeting until a few weeks ago. Features, not politics, was my beat.
Victoria Holt Takamine is a kumu hula, a cultural activist and a teacher and has an impeccable pedigree to back up all these titles. Born of an alii family whose kuleana was in Moanalua, she graduated as a hula teacher under the legendary Auntie Maiki Aiu Lake and taught hundreds of students in her own halau (Pua Alii ‘Ilima) and at the University of Hawaii.
On April 25, a state judge dismissed trespassing charges against a Kauai man after finding that he had been exercising traditional native Hawaiian rights hunting wild pigs on private land. Kui Palama, 28, was arrested on Jan.
The city plans to dish out $3.5 million from its Affordable Housing Fund and either purchase or renovate a structure to provide transitional housing for Honolulu’s special needs homeless population. “Our community has invested considerable effort and resources in addressing homelessness,” Mayor Peter Carlisle said in a statement, “but there remains a population whose disabilities or chronic conditions make it difficult for them to participate in traditional shelter programs.” Carlisle is referring to those homeless with mental illnesses, addictions and physical disabilities.
Makaweli Poi faces an uncertain future after its owner, a corporate subsidiary of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) ordered the West Kauai mill to suspend operations May 23. Mona Bernardino, chief operating officer of the corporation, Hiipoi LLC, says the move to shut down Makaweli Poi was prompted mainly by financial concerns.
A resolution adopted by the City Council will solidify an agreement between the City and County of Honolulu and the University of Hawaii Water Resources Research Center (UH-WRRC) to conduct an analysis of impacts from ocean sewer outfalls on the marine environments off of Oahu. The city will pay UH-WRRC as much as $2.5 million for biological and sediment studies in portions between now and June 30, 2017 .
Along with the deep, verdant growth of spring sprouts an unyielding desire to spend more time in the open air. That’s why it should come as no surprise that National Bike Month falls in the sun-drenched time of May.
Of the many letters you publish against rail, how many offer an alternative that won’t send us into further economic demise? Billions of gallons of oil are imported for us from every oil-producing nation on this planet so that we can buy billions of gallons of gasoline.
TheBus is taking a back seat to rail. At the May 3 Downtown Neighborhood Board meeting, an audience member asked city Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka when we could expect the bus route cancellations and changes to be reversed.
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