POMO

For fans of the genre, The Invasion offers a decent dose of spookiness with the still beautiful Nicole Kidman. Casting Daniel Craig as the male lead was a bit strange, but interesting. The biggest failing of the movie is its unoriginal script, which just recycles what we’ve seen in all those “invasions of body snatchers” and The X-Files, without throwing anything original into the mix. On the other hand, I wasn’t bored for a single second. Of course, Spielberg’s War of the Worlds is more exciting and powerful, but The Invasion doesn’t lack some decent tension. This tension is doled out gradually, in a more intimate way and with more subtle emotional nuances.

The Riches is an intelligent, satirical series full of dark humor about a poor American family who “accidentally” moves into an affluent neighborhood. There are no pretty TV faces or angels without a skeleton in the closet. This family’s closet houses an entire cemetery. Sometimes it’s serious as hell, sometimes wacky, and sometimes there’s even action. And it’s always fresh. In the serious passages, we listen to music by Toby Chu in the style Gustavo Santaolalla, while in the comic bits we get the music we can imagine when hearing the name of Harry Gregson-Williams. A great role for Minnie Driver, whom I don’t like much and usually find grating.

Windfall has a good premise, but it would need more humor and chill rather than depression and dealing with issues. People (audiences) expect positive things from winning the lottery and this series tramples on their dreams and illusions. That’s why it flopped and ended with the 13th episode of the first season.

Don’t expect an intimate drama with characters portrayed in detail like in the first installment. Prepare for popcorn shortcuts, superficial glitter in the form of beautiful costumes and forceful milking of the audience’s emotions. Many obviously important characters disappear before the viewer realizes who they were. And the only two characters that make sense in the story (and are well played) are the villains played by Jordi Mollà and Samantha Morton. Director Shekhar Kapur is much better with darkness than with light, and he should try his hand at horror movies. The only thing Blanchett and Owen do is strike fancy poses. I’m afraid that this film was originally longer and we can only guess if it was cut down to size because the non-existent chemistry between Blanchett and Owen (the main failing of the film) was not helped by the additional scenes, or just for commercial reasons, for the consumer audience. At any rate, this resulting “fast” version is closer to Bruckheimer’s King Arthur than to the original Elizabeth.

The characters ride in an ambulance to the sites of various accidents (there are as many as five in a single episode), while dealing with their personal issues. In this series, which is reminiscent of ER, there are no “unrumpled” good-looking fellows like George Clooney; it is rougher, dirtier and less polished, as though it doesn’t even want to gain the favor of the mainstream audience.

The Kingdom is a technically solid and, with the exception of the bittersweet ending, rather intelligent thriller. Dealing with the pressing issue of terrorism is as important for the film as the spectacular yet realistically portrayed action. In the end, however, it is clear that Peter Berg is more at ease with the action. It’s also a pity that the movie ends at the moment when it finally gets going. This leaves the audience entertained but not satisfied. In time, The Kingdom will become outdated like, for example, Rules of Engagement.

There is nothing to say about this except that you simply have to see it. And play Matt Damon’s role and die.

David Lynch’s movies bear the same creative signature, but each and every one of them is different. With the exception of Inland Empire. This film is just a collage of already seen “Lynchian” things and some tricks to make the story more tangled, escalate it and bring it to a close. It’s basically a longer, club version of Mulholland Drive without beautiful actresses, spicy erotic scenes, a reasonable length and compelling visuals, which are replaced here with abhorrent digital graininess. Inland Empire is a deluge of half-baked material that would look better on a DVD together with a collection of the director’s eccentric shorts. Or am I just too spoiled by his other movies?

Hairspray is small and simple, but nice and cute fun for one evening. It is to Adam Shankman’s credit that he is also behind the choreography.

While the dialogue was Tarantino’s Achilles heel, in Rodriguez’s case, it is the story. Despite these failings, both of the Grindhouse movies provide some delicious entertainment, and Planet Terror is an absolute king of the trash genre. On the “Troma scare”, I’d give it five out of five; on a normal scale, it gets three stars.