Film Reviews

Film Blurbs 10-14-2009

OpeningContinuingDoris Duke Theatre Movie Museum University Of Hawaii Unattributed film synopses indicate movies not yet reviewed by HW staff. Indicates films of particular interest Opening Law Abiding Citizen Clyde Shelton, played by Gerard Butler, turns out not to be… [»Read]


A body eclectic

HIFF 2009

HIFF 2009 / One of the greatest appeals of a film festival that doesn’t rely on some sort of theme (be it length-based, region-centric, genre-specific or otherwise) is that each film you see is like a palate cleanser to the last. As this year’s Hawaii International Film Festival… [»Read]


HIFF hits

HIFF 2009 / The folks at the Hawaii Independent Film Festival gave us a peek at a variety of offerings this year. Here are a few more. 9500 Liberty (Tues 10/20 & Fri 10/23) Local-born Eric Byler (director of the amazing Charlotte Sometimes)… [»Read]


The power of music

HIFF 2009

HIFF 2009 / A surefire way to grab your audience’s attention is to break out into song. If you’re going to go that route, however, you damn well better have something to say. In After the Storm, playing Thu, 10/22 and Fri, 10/23 at Dole Cannery, there’s a lot that… [»Read]


Film Blurbs 10-7-2009

OpeningContinuingDoris Duke Theatre Movie Museum University Of Hawaii Unattributed film synopses indicate movies not yet reviewed by HW staff. Indicates films of unusual interest Opening The Baader Meinhof Complex Based on the formation of the Red Army Faction, a group… [»Read]


Movie Clock 10-7-2009

TownWard StadiumWindwardKoolau StadiumEastKAhala 8-PlexKoko Marina Stadium 8CentralMililani Town Center Stadium 14Pearlridge WestLeewardKapolei MegaplexArt HouseDoris Duke TheatreMovie Museum Regal Cinemas no longer releases itsmovie listings in time for Honolulu… [»Read]


Laughing matters

To tell the truth, only the first third of the overrated, overstretched The Invention of Lying is above average. Once, a few years ago, in a San Francisco bookstore, I stepped back to get a better view of a floor-to-ceiling shelf, and stepped, hard, on the foot of… [»Read]


Brainless fun

Comes with video

Zombies, along with vampires, are clearly the two monsters with the best cinematic subgenres. Where the latter get romanticized by people who wear too much black and spend their time espousing middle-school learned philosophy, zombie aficionados celebrate the mindless nihilism… [»Read]


Capitalism for Dummies

Web Exclusive

Capitalism: A Love Story / Right-wingers rev up your tempers and get ready to stab at the keyboard in a tweet-rage, Michael Moore is back. This time our favorite rotund documentary-filmmaker takes on an entire ideology with Capitalism: A Love Story. The subtitle is rather obvious and that’s… [»Read]


Film Blurbs 9-30-2009

Unattributed film synopses indicate movies not yet reviewed by HW staff. ❦ Indicates films of unusual interest Opening The Boys Are Back Let’s see…plot centered on the true meaning of fatherhood: Check. Glib, sentimental movie title: Check. Picturesque montages… [»Read]


Movie Clock 9-30-2009

TownWard StadiumWindwardKoolau StadiumEastKAhala 8-PlexKoko Marina Stadium 8CentralMililani Town Center Stadium 14Pearlridge WestLeewardKapolei MegaplexArt HouseDoris Duke TheatreMovie Museum Regal Cinemas no longer releases itsmovie listings in time for Honolulu… [»Read]


Simon says

Adoration
Comes with video

Adoration / There’s an old saying about what the road to Hell is paved with, and in writer/director Atom Egoyan’s hands, it all starts with what seem like good intentions. A high school French instructor (Arsinée Khanjian) instructs her class to translate a news story about a Palestinian… [»Read]


Sims cinema

Surrogates
Comes with video

Surrogates / In the future, we will never leave the house. Instead, we’ll be sitting safe at home in our “stim chair” stations, controlling robots custom-made in our likenesses. They will go out in the world doing everything we normally do in our day to day existences; work, party,… [»Read]


Space Oddity

Pandorum
Web Exclusive

Pandorum / It is minorly legendary that when Stanley Kubrick was prepping 2001: A Space Odyssey, the best sci-fi film ever made, he watched over 40 movies of that genre. Yet his masterwork does not look in the least like any one of them. Or if, in making your sci-fi debut, you… [»Read]


Film

Pay Jennifer’s Body no mind

Jennifer's Body
Web Exclusive

Jennifer’s Body / As an actor, Kevin Costner followed Dances with Wolves with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and the next film he directed was the critically maligned The Postman. Halle Berry’s next appearance after winning an Oscar for Monster’s Ball was the low-rent… [»Read]