GOLDEN DOOR/NUOVOMONDO - strange, beautiful, unique!

GOLDEN DOOR is one of those strange magical quiet films that you either take to your heart or find boring and pretentious. For my part, I was enchanted by something so magical and yet so authentic it feels like re-enacted social history.

GOLDEN DOOR opens in rural Sicily at the turn of the twentieth century. It is a country of superstition, mean understanding and deep poverty. Widower Salvatore Mancuso dreams of a land called Califormia where there are rivers of milk and the earth is so fertile that vegetables grow taller than men. So he sets off for America with his two sons, mother and two other girls from the village who will marry Italian-Americans and so gain their citizenship.

The small steps towards this goal make up the two hours of this film, and they are re-created in detail, with an observant glance that makes subtle judgements rather than large political points. The Mancuso family walk to the port-town from where they will sail to Ellis Island. They have scavenged shoes, suits and cloaks to make a good impression when they arrive. Before boarding they must pass medicals and have photographs taken - all strange and wondrous things. A well-dressed English lady, Lucy (Gainsbourg) attaches herself to the family and no-one has the confidence to ask why. A quack doctor tries to sell them medicine for the mute son.

The movie is about the strange bonds that form between the rural family and the well-dressed English woman. The grace of the movie is that it leaves almost everything unspoken and lives a little in the land of dreams. But the movie is also about the petty hurdles that these often illiterate people had to cross to enter into the New World. They are not simply tested for diseases but for being too "feeble-minded" to enter the USA.

But if you see this movie for no other reason, watch it for the beautiful production design by Carlos Conti and stunning use of the camera by DP Agnès Godard. The stand-out shot is an aerial view of the dock-side and the deck of the ship. At first it just looks like a single surface teeming with people. But as the boat pulls away, we see that they are split into voyagers and well-wishers.

The only flaw I can possibly think of is that some might object to the anachronistic use of Nina Simone in the score. (I embraced it!) But frankly, in a world of formulaic studio films, I'd rather directors were too daring and occasionally failed, rather than continually safe. Bravo, Emanuele Crialese!

GOLDEN DOOR/NUOVOMONDO played Venice and Toronto 2006. It opened in Italy in 2006 an din Poland, Sweden, France, Denmark, Belgium, Argentina, Israel, the Netherlands, Germany, the US, Greece and Hungary earlier in 2007. It is currently on release in the UK and opens in Finland on August 17th.

HOSTEL PART 2 is NOT a horror movie, okay?!

HOSTEL PART 2 is not a horror movie. Objectively speaking, it's primary concern is satire not horror. Subjectively, (and bear in mind my wuss-like nature) I was not scared once in the whole 90 minutes.

It opens with a little prologue featuring Jay Hernandez as Paxton - the survivor from the original HOSTEL movie. The prologue ends with a tableau that is not scary but stylised. We then move to Italy where our three unwitting American girls (Bijou Phillips, Heather Matazarro, Lauren German) are about to be lured to a Slovakian torture factory by a hot chick. It's the same MO as in the first flick. To parochial American eyes, Eastern Europe must indeed seem exotic and un-nerving. But for heaven's sake, these countries are in the EU now, if not the Euro-zone. I simply can't take them seriously as spoooooooooooky Transylvanian settings.

It takes us an hour to get to the first death and it's not scary at all - just lame. Writer-director Eli Roth clearly wants to make some big point about how women can be torturing-murderers as well as men, but the scene just comes off as sleazy. The second and third deaths aren't even shown on screen - rather we see before and after - and frankly neither are that gruesome. And as for the final torture scene, it's just crudely funny - like a fart joke. If anyone tells you this is scary, bear in mind that the nasty evil villains are two bit-part characters from Desperate Housewives. We aren't dealing with Freddie here.

So, this movie is not horrific. After all, as I said in my review of the first HOSTEL flick, it's hard to be scared when the people menacing you are rational human beings who can be bought off. (And call me an arrogant capitalist bastard but I live my life in the certain knowledge that however evil you are, my daddy can buy you off.) That point is made to the n'th degree in this film - resulting in a horror movie that sort of implodes on itself. If you can pay to torture and murder someone, then you can also pay for safety. And that, my friends, is why Breitling make a fortune selling Emergency watches.

At best, this is a weak satire on capitalism and consumer society. At worst, it's a waste of time. The original HOSTEL was eons better. There's nothing in the sequel to remotely compare to Rick Hoffman's genius cameo. So, if you want to be genuinely freaked out at the cinema this week-end, check out SHUTTER instead.

HOSTEL PART TWO is on release in Argentina, Australia, Slovakia, Estonia, Iceland, Russia, the US, Germany, Colombia, Latvia, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Belgium and the UK. It opens in Greece, Israel, Serbia, France and Finland in July. It opens in Singapore on August 9th and in Brazil on August 24th.

Early review from Al - TRANSFORMERS

This review is by guest reviewer, Al, who can usually be found here....

I've never been a fan of TRANSFORMERS, but since the first trailer debuted couple months back I promised myself I would watch it. It comes out in Asia/Aus before anywhere else, so there haven't been any reviews to provide me anticipation of what the film would be like. Let's cut to the chase - TRANSFORMERS was just really disappointing. The special effects were predictably impressive and the larger-than-life robots left me gawking in awe like a child - but once the amazement and fascination wears out, I start wanting more Unfortunately beyond the robot huha and grandiose CGI, the movie just has little else to offer.

The biggest problem I had was with the script. Historically, one of the worst. Most of the lines/phrases are so ridiculously dumb and banal it's not even a laughing matter. You just have to witness it for yourself to truly experience the sheer nightmare that the script is. A couple of times one of the robots (usually Optimus Prime - is this misspelled Who gives a damn) launches into some preachy monologue that's so cheesy, cheap and Hallmark-ish, I feel like ripping my gums out.

Moreover, Megan Fox can't act for nuts - the whole way she was pouting with this bimbotic blank face like she was permanently stuck in a Revlon commercial. Shia LaBeouf fares a whole lot better, but once the focus shifts completely to the conflict between the two robot clans, Shia's character gradually phases out of significance and becomes ornamental (aside from having to run endlessly and protect the cube on which the fate of the planet rests on, but I can't hardly give a damn about). The final street battle scene starts off grea but quickly becomes unfocused and messy. It starts and ends repeatedly, to the point where it becomes anti-climactic and I'm just done with the damn thing. With the material, they had the potential to invent something imaginative, new and possibly groundbreaking, and it's obvious the special effects team worked their butts out to ensure things looked perfect on their part. But in the end, the mediocre, uninspired story and shit stain of a script brings the entire film down.

*Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 100% rating (although I'm sure the figure will go down as more reviews come in). What a joke.

**I know noone gives a shit, and even IMDB doesn't acknowledge this - but there's a part in Transformers that plays homage to Jet Li/Kill Bill.When Bumble Bee changes from the old Chevrolet to the new one, which is yellow and has two black stripes in the middle (the same pattern on The Bride's suit in Kill Bill Vol. 1/Jet Li's old movies), the song that comes on is the song used in Kill Bill Vol. 1 when Oren Ishii and the Crazy 88 is first introduced at the House of Blue Leaves.

TRANSFORMERS is on release in Australia, Italy, Malaysia and Singapore. It opens on July 4th weekend in New Zealand, Austria, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, the US, Israel, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Spain and Turkey. It opens on July 20th in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico; in Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the UK on July 27th. It opens in Estonia, Japan, Iceland and Slovakia in August.

Bina007 adds: I was really interested to read Al's review, because like him I'd been taken by surprise at how cool the ad campaign looked. I have to say, though, that I'm not entirely surprised it sucks. Apparently, like Pirates 3, this is a movie who's release date was set BEFORE they had a cast or script. So it's another case of getting a product - any product - to justify the marketing. Does anyone else think the PR goons have taken over the asylum?

THE FLYING SCOTSMAN leaves it too late to move beyond the genre

THE FLYING SCOTSMAN spends its first hour solidly within the conventions of the under-dog sports movie. It's everything DODGEBALL spoofed so well. We meet Graeme Obree as a little kid being bullied at school. His dad (a rozzer - unfortunate) gives him a bike for Christmas and soon he's speeding away from the bullies and into the record books. We next meet him as a grown man, played by Jonny Lee Miller with a weak Scottish accent. He's down on his luck in Glasgow. But with the help of a Loving Wife, a Chirpy Side-kick (Billy Boyd) and a Wise Mentor (Brian Cox), he soon finds himself breaking the world record on his unconventional "make do and mend" bike. So far so boring. Indeed, the caricature of the evil German World Cycling Federation bureaucrat villain (Steven Berkoff) is insulting.

Luckily the movie picks up in the final chapters. There is an attempt to investigate Obree's depression; the visual representation of his cycle rides is interesting and I like the shadowy final scene. Is this enough to offset the earlier tedium? I'm not sure, but at least you leave the cinema feeling engaged and exhilerated.

THE FLYING SCOTSMAN was released in New Zealand, the US, Italy and Singapore earlier this year. It is currently on release in the UK. It opens in Germany on July 5th and in Australia on August 9th 2007.

MY BOLLYWOOD BRIDE - sappy

MY BOLLYWOOD BRIDE takes all the worst elements of Bollywood romances and grafts them onto an American style teen-romance. Jason Lewis (Sex and the City) plays a not unattractive American writer who falls for an Indian girl (Kashmira Shah) in LA. He follows her back to Mumbai only to discover that she is a huge move star with a mogul (Gulshan Grover) for a fiance. Is anyone going to be surprised to discover that love conquers all? The movie looks fine, and there is some honesty in dealing with Indian arranged marriages and the bent movie business. However, there are SERIOUS flaws: twee voice-over, wooden acting from the two leads, excruciating dialogue and the most painful rap song since Ice Ice Baby. Definitely one to avoid.

MY BOLLYWOOD BRIDE was released in India in March 2007 and in the US on June 8th. It's available on DVD.

OPENING NIGHT - Rowlands is magnificent; the rest is a mess

In the same year that Verhoeven released SOLDIER OF ORANGE - a film that satisfies the intellect AND gets the pulse racing - John Cassavetes was trying to get distribution for OPENING NIGHT. These days, Cassavetes is touted as the grandfather of independent film. In terms of the practical issues of making low budget films outside of the studio system, that's as may be. But I have always found Cassavetes work difficult. For that reason, I welcomed the UK cinematic re-release of OPENING NIGHT.

The movie centres on a beautiful and successful stage actress called Myrtle Gordon. She has opted out of marriage and family in order to focus her energy on her career. But now she is older than she cares to admit and she's scared. Scared that her beauty is fading. Scared that in her jaded old-age she cannot conjure up her emotions as easily as when she was young. Her reaction is self-destructive: she drinks and smokes to excess, throws herself at men, harrasses the writer and director, fantasises that a young adoring fan is by her side, and has a near nervous-breakdown in rehearsals. She is the very definition of a "difficult actor" but we sympathise because she is clearly deeply, deeply troubled. We also sympathise with Myrtle because the people around her are so self-serving and exploitative. Neither the writer, herself an ageing woman, nor her director, nor her leading man, sympathise with her. Instead, they taunt her, force her onward and exploit her vulnerability.

In short, this is a long intense film about rapacious people exploiting an indulged and self-indulgent actress who is having a nervous breakdown because she is getting old. These are not nice people. But they are real. Or at least they seem real, thanks to John Cassavetes piercing script and loose camera-work, and an astoundingly good central performance by Gena Rowlands.

However, this is by no means a perfect movie. Indeed, on balance, I rather dislike it. For one thing, it is at least forty minutes too long. When you create a piece of art that is so intense and brutal you do not need baggy repetition to hammer the point home. Second, the supporting cast is of varying quality. In particular, I did not feel that Joan Blondell had the strength of character to play opposite Rowlands in the role of her writer, Sarah Goode. It comes as no surprise to learn that Cassavetes originally wanted Bette Davis for the part. Finally, and most fatally, I find the final scene disappointing and unconvincing. It stretches credulity too far and feels as though nobody really knew how to end the film.

So I find myself where I began: acknowledging the important role Cassavetes played in the evolution of independent cinema but not particularly appreciating the substance of his oeuvre. I've been doing some reading to try to help me understand what others perceive as his greatness. Sadly, it's made me neither more nor less appreciative of the work, but certainly more dismissive of the man.

OPENING NIGHT got panned by US critics and did not find distribution. By contrast, it received a warmer reception in European art-houses. Now here's Cassavetes' hurt and angry response, taken from Ray Carrey's brilliant "Cassavetes on Cassavetes":

"There are a bunch of people around in this world who don't deal in concepts. They only deal in narrative and in cocktail parties and in what's going to be not only successful but acceptable to the way people currently are....I'm telling you we have something so much better, so wonderful, that you are just priveleged to see this movie! This picture is terrific!"

And that's the problem. You can't make a movie assuming people should feel privileged to see it! You have to respect the fact that when an audience watches your mvoie they are giving you two hours of their valuable time, not least their hard-earned cash! In his dismissiveness, Cassavetes is being just as patronising toward his audience as Hollywood can be patronising in churning out inferior blockbusters. Moreover, you can make films because you are indulging yourself, by all means. I'd bet some money that Tarantino fundamentally makes flicks because he likes those kinds of flicks and if the audience likes them too then that's cool. But to insult the audience because they don't like your film is just plain arrogant. If you look at the people who gave OPENING NIGHT bad reviews - critics like Kael and Sarris - these aren't intellectual light-weights looking for studio saccharine. They are pioneers of film theory, steeped in the traditions of art-house cinema. So it all smacks a little bit of sour grapes and does Cassavetes no credit whatsoever......

OPENING NIGHT originally opened in 1977. Though panned in the US, Gena Rowlands won the Silver Bear at Berlin for her remarkable performance. It is available on DVD and is currently on limited release in the UK.