Category Archives: Movies

Movies

Fast & Furious 6 (2013) a (mildly) belated review

Until very recently, I was never a big fan of the Fast & Furious movies.  The first movie was essentially a car-centric remake of Point Break with the late Paul Walker in the Keanu Reeves role and Vin Diesel playing the Patrick Swayze part.

I think I saw one other Fast & Furious film from that point on, 2 Fast 2 Furious (didn’t think all that much of it) and pretty much skipped the others until catching Fast & Furious 5, the film that obviously preceded this one.

F&F 5 proved highly entertaining even if not pushing the limits of the believable.  The interactions between the characters and the element of “the heist” proved an interesting mix and I found the film very entertaining.  When Fast & Furious 6 came out last summer, I was eager to see it but, as with many films I hope to see, would have to wait for the video release.  In the meantime, the film did gangbusters at the box office and appeared to further solidify the series as a great action/adventure saga.

Would I find this sixth film as entertaining as the fifth?

Sadly, no.

Right off the bat, I know I’m swimming against the tide here (Rotten Tomatoes has the film scoring a genuinely impressive 70% positive among critics and an even more impressive -if not outright stunning– 84% positive among audiences), but F&F 6 left me cold.

I think a big part of the reason is because I enjoyed the fifth film as much as I did and was hoping the people working on this one would give us another pretty well written bit of entertainment.  In this case, though, the story is super sloppy with only one admittedly really creative element: The F&F group goes up against their dopplegangers, another group of racing hellions who are stealing high tech military equipment.

Unfortunately, that element is mentioned and ultimately never really dealt with to any great degree.  Like the heroes, the villain(s) of the piece are woefully underwritten, including one that is meant as a “surprise” yet whose revelation of such (I don’t want to get into spoilers) truly comes out of left field and makes not a lick of sense after what’s come before.  Anyway, the villains “look” like the F&F group and do F&F type crimes but that’s about as far as the similarities go.  Their target is a component of something that should have been called the “MacGuffin“, the last piece of a greater computer whole that does something really, really bad.  Truly, I can’t even recall what the heck the bad thing was.

The gang is brought back together by Federal Agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson looking really scary pumped up…seriously, I’m worried about him.  Being that muscular can’t be good for you, can it?) to take on this gang of mysterious and super-efficient thieves with one wrinkle already alluded to in the previous movie: The bad guys somehow have the character of Lefty (Michelle Rodriguez) in their group.  This is significant as Lefty, Dominic Toretto’s (Vin Diesel) girlfriend, was thought dead.

The mission, thus, has two goals: Stop the bad guys before they get the last component to their MacGuffin and get Lefty back to the fold.

What follows, naturally, is plenty of gravity defying stunts and action.  But the action sequences this time around veer into the truly absurd.  At one point Hobbs jumps out of a very fast moving car onto another that is at least two stories below him.  Hobbs does this successfully without so much as suffering one broken bone.

Later in the film, Toretto one-ups Hobbs by slamming his car against a bridge railing, flying at least a zillion feet through the air, catching someone else flying through the air in the other direction and smashing against a car which apparently amounts to falling into a bundle of extra-fluffy pillows.  The person Toretto saves asks him afterwards something to the effect of “How did you know that car would be there to break our fall”?

Imagine that…in this alternate F&F universe a metal and glass car can actually break your fall!

And don’t even get me started about the Runway-That-Never-Ends.

Some time ago a Hollywood figure (sadly, I don’t remember who) said that when making an action film which features considerable stunt work, one should go about 30% over what can be done in “real life”.  In other words, your stunts should amaze the audience yet make them think they could/might happen in real life.  With F&F 6, the “unbelievable” factor was pushed to 500% (Or, in Spinal Tap lingo, waaaay past 11) and that proved tough for me to swallow.

In the end, I found F&F 6 a disappointment because a) the script simply wasn’t as engaging as the fifth movie’s and b) the overblown stunts proved too difficult to swallow.

There was, of course, one other element that may well have affected the overall experience, and that was the presence of Paul Walker.

As everyone who is a fan of the films knows by now, Mr. Walker died in a tragic car accident recently (He was on break from filming this movie’s sequel, Fast & Furious 7).  I suspect seeing F&F 6 in theaters and before Mr. Walker’s death is probably a very different experience from seeing it after, which is of course how I saw it.

Those “unbelievable” stunts that bothered me so may well have been even more unbelievable when in the back of my mind I knew what happened to Mr. Walker.  Perhaps if I had seen the film before his tragic accident, my negative reaction might have been lessened.

We’ll never know.

But as it stands, F&F 6 proved a disappointment and, despite glowing reviews from others, I cannot recommend this film.  A pass.

Movies

Elysium (2013) a (mildly) belated review

Following the surprise success of the 2009 Neill Blomkamp directed, Sharlto Copley starring District 9, fans were eager for a follow up.

When it was announced this film would be Elysium and it would star Hollywood A-listers Matt Damon and Jodie Foster along with the returning Mr. Copley and feature a sci-fi premise, anticipation was sky-high.

Was it too high?

To some, the answer would prove to be a resounding “Yes”.  Many fans of Mr. Blomkamp’s District 9 found his follow up lacking, bemoaning problems with the story and, in the case of Jodie Foster, her choice of line delivery.  There was even one critic who listed Elysium among his “worst of the year” films.

As many others, I was curious to see the film.  I liked District 9, though perhaps without the feverish love others had for it.  The commercials for Elysium certainly looked intriguing, with Matt Damon hardwired with an exoskeleton and looking like he could kick some serious ass…

Not bad, I thought.  Not bad at all.

As has become depressingly usual for me, I simply didn’t have the time to catch the film in theaters and had to wait for the home video release to give it a look.  I have.  Did the film deliver or was it the disappointment others felt it was?

The answer to both questions, curiously enough, is “yes”.  The film delivered some really good scenes but I have to agree with others that it was, in the end, a bit of a disappointment…though not quite worthy of being included on any “worst of the year” type lists.

The story goes like this: Worker drone Max (Matt Damon) lives on the squalid Earth while orbiting the planet is the Elysium satellite, the place the rich folks live.  Right away, we’re back in Mr. Blomkamp’s (who also is credited with the screenplay) District 9-like world of the haves and the have-nots.

Max bumps into a childhood friend of his, Frey (Alice Braga), before an accident at his plant irradiates him and leaves him with only five days to live.  Max realizes his only hope for survival lies in somehow getting off Earth and to Elysium, where they have medical beds capable of curing him of his illness.

But getting to Elysium is not an easy task.  A local smuggler agrees to get him on a ship to Elysium provided he steals the memories of a high level industrialist, who coincidentally is Max’s boss at his factory and coldly witnessed Max’s grim medical analysis following his radiation poisoning.  It turns out the industrialist, however, is in cahoots with Delacourt (Jodie Foster) the Secretary of Defense of Elysium, in trying to overthrow the power structure of the satellite.  In his head was a program designed to do just that.

Thus when Max uploads the industrialist’s data into his head, he is suddenly on the run from a fearsome assassin Kruger (Sharlto Copley) while trying to get to Elysium.  He must also deal with the fact that his childhood friend Frey has a young daughter who is dying of leukemia.  Will Max ultimately help Frey’s daughter or will he selfishly try to save himself?

I suspect you already know the answer to this.

Plain and simply, Elysium is a terrific looking movie that features a script that needed some more work.  The cast, for the most part, is certainly game (even Ms. Foster…I’ll get into her performance in a second) and as a director Mr. Blomkamp delivers some very exciting action sequences.  But unlike District 9’s more subtle treatment of the haves vs. the have nots dynamic, Elysium gives it to us with the subtlety of a sledge hammer.  The haves are uncaring in their heaven in the sky while the poor folks live in the dirt and dream of escaping their uncaring hell.

I have to agree with the critics that Jodie Foster delivered an almost bizarre performance/line reading.  It was a curious choice, to be sure.  However, like the other actors in the movie, Ms. Foster didn’t seem to be “slumming” (no pun intended) it.  Her choice of line delivery might not have worked, but she certainly appeared game.  Also, her role was no more than an extended cameo, amounting to not much more than five to ten minutes of total screen time.  Blaming her for the film’s problems is therefore at best misplaced.

Once again I return to the script and its flaws.  In Elysium we have a broad story involving our Earth and an incredibly large satellite for the rich…of which we know almost nothing other than the fact that it is as beautiful as the Earth is grim.  We have a massive satellite that has rivers, mountains, seas and beautiful buildings and a large population…yet somehow does not have any sort of defensive system?

Really?

Why exactly do they have a Secretary of Defense if the satellite has no apparent defensive capability…at least until the “illegals” actual land there?  Add to the fact the too-coincidental meeting between Max and Frey and the daughter that should be called “Plot Point/Hero’s Angst”, the Industrialist who happens to be working on “rebooting” Elysium just as his mind is stolen, Max’s convenient radiation poisoning (which makes him barely able to walk yet when he gets the exo-skeleton he no longer appears to be affected by it much at all) and you begin to feel the film is just a little too manipulative and/or not as well thought out as it should be.

Nonetheless, Elysium is far from a bust.  It is one of those films that are at best “decent” yet could -indeed should– have been far better than it was.  Perhaps that is why it proved to be so frustrating to people.  Had Elysium been made with a no-name cast and featured a no-name director not coming off a smash success, fans might have been a little more tolerant of the finished product.

Regardless and as it stands, Elysium is at best a mild-recommendation for me.  Others might want to skip it.

Movies

This is…amusing (NSFW!)

Seems The Wolf of Wall Street, the latest Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio film has become know less for how good/bad it is/may be and more for the extreme amount of profanity uttered throughout.

How much profanity, exactly?

Glad you asked.  Take a look:

http://www.vulture.com/2014/01/wolf-of-wall-street-counting-all-the-curse-words.html

If you’re too lazy to click a link, here’s perhaps the most comprehensive chart found within the above article:

Number of times every curse word is said in The Wolf of Wall Street

Yikes!

You mean “fucksville” only got used four times?  And that’s like my favorite expression!

Seriously, though, check out the website.  They present plenty of other humorous charts noting the *ahem* flowery dialogue to be found in this film.

Movies

We’re The Millers (2013) a (mildly) belated review

I love raunchy comedies that strip peoples’ carefully crafted masks of “goodness” to reveal that deep down inside, all of us share a streak of immorality, incompetence, and idocity.

One of my favorite recent shows to do this was Reno 911!, which took a cue from the far more serious show Cops! and portrayed a bizarro-world police force full of incompetent (pardon my language) assholes that you just knew lurked not only in the halls of justice but probably in every job in every corner of the planet.

With We’re the Millers, I didn’t really get all that excited with the film until I saw red band trailers:

A group of lowlifes forced to pose as a typical “whitebread” American family so they can smuggle drugs from Mexico into the U.S., all while bickering and cussing each other out?

Count me in!

I tried but failed to see the film when it was released in theaters.  I put it on my Netflix list and, soon enough, it showed up.  Would I find the film as amusing as the commercials?

In a word, unfortunately, no.

Mind you, the film isn’t a total bust, though the very best bits are in the commercial.  There are other bits here and there that are amusing but the film unfortunately takes a too predictable turn toward the maudlin and becomes waaay too “nice”.  When it does, it loses the sharp comedic edge that I hoped would continue throughout (one thing about Reno 911! that amused me is that these characters were losers from the get go and there was never –ever– a chance they would be anything but losers in the end).

So, yeah, the film plays out in a sadly typical and too-expected Hollywood-Committee-Writer way.  The “good guys” in the end do the right thing and the “bad guys” get their comeuppance and the dysfunctional Millers grow into something of a real family.

Ho hum.

How strange.  Here I am on Christmas Day bemoaning a film for being about family!

For those interested and as I pointed out before, We’re the Millers isn’t a total bust, just a film that eventually takes a too-safe story path and wimps out on its initial premise.  It is far, far from the worst comedy I’ve ever seen, but it is also one I hoped could have been sharper, more pointed, and, ultimately, better.

Movies

Nosferatu (1922) an (insanely) belated review

The above title is a bit of a misnomer.  My review isn’t so much about the groundbreaking, absolutely excellent 1922 film as much as about the just released 2013 Kino BluRay HD remaster of Nosferatu.

In a word: Wow.

I’ve listed my top three films of all time before (Metropolis, Orpheus, and 2001: A Space Odyssey).  If I were to expand the list to four, Nosferatu would get strong consideration to be the next entry.  I consider it THE best adaptation (illegal though it was) of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  For those who don’t know, Bram Stoker’s widow sued the studio that released Nosferatu, claiming copyright infringement on her husband’s work.  She won the lawsuit (not a big surprise as the film is essentially Dracula) and it was ordered that all prints of the film be destroyed.  Many were.  Luckily for us, not all.

While Dracula may be best known for its Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee characterization, you’ve never seen a vampire quite as sinister as Max Shreck’s Count Orlok.

When I heard Kino was working on a remastered version of the film, I knew I had to have it.  I’ve seen Nosferatu at least a dozen times with varying degrees of visual clarity, from muddy to pretty good.

The Kino BluRay is easily the best of the lot.

Images are incredibly clear.  Yes, there is grain and scratch marks here and there (we are talking about a film that is close to 100 years old!), but I can honestly say watching this version of the film is like seeing it for the proverbial first time.  Details that I hadn’t noticed before came to incredible life.  For example, the opening shot of the city and church, something that never impressed me in previous versions I had seen of the film, was simply eye-popping.

And that was the very opening scene!

If, like me, you’re already fan of the film and have one or more copies of it on disc and are on the fence about whether to buy the BluRay, don’t.  This is VERY MUCH worth getting.  You’ll likely throw away just about every other version of the film you have.  If you’ve never seen Nosferatu before and are curious to see it, this is the version you should get.  Hell, even if you’re not a big fan of silent films, I can’t see how anyone with even a little curiosity about this classic wouldn’t find something to enjoy within.

Nosferatu is a truly seminal work.  And now, as released in BluRay, you can enjoy it as if it were almost brand new.

Highly recommended.

Some interesting trivia about the film can be found at IMDB’s page devoted to the film.  Check it out:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013442/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv

Two of my favorites:

The character of Nosferatu is only seen on screen for a bit less than nine minutes in total throughout the whole film.

I can totally believe it!  Nosferatu, as depicted in this film, is a menace that lurks over all the film’s protagonists.  Though he doesn’t have that much screen time, per se, his presence is felt almost from the first minutes and certainly until the last.

Ruth Landshoff, the actress who played the hero’s sister once described a scene in which she fled the vampire, running along a beach. That scene is not in any version of the film.

Ms. Landshoff’s character is present for much of the film and, toward the end SPOILERS!!! we see that she, like many of the other townspeople, has succumbed to Nosferatu’s “plague”.  Yet we never really find out what became of her, suspecting she like so many others died but not knowing for sure.  Perhaps there was a further scene like what is described above that was filmed to show her actually falling to Nosferatu yet was ultimately not used.  Very interesting stuff.

Movies

Red 2 (2013) a (mildly) belated review

Back in 2010 the movie Red was released.  The term, which stands for “retired, extremely dangerous”, involved the goings on of a retired CIA agent named Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), his looney tune friend Marvin (John Malkovich) and Sarah (Mary-Louse Parker) a “civilian” Moses pines for.  Into that mix appeared ancillary characters such as the deadly British assassin Victoria (Helen Mirren) and ex-Russian KGB superagent Ivan (Brian Cox).

The movie was an action adventure with the (mostly) over the hill ex-agents kicking some serious ass while Moses romances the somewhat flighty Sarah.  While I admittedly don’t recall too many of the movie’s details, I recall the film was a pleasant diversion, made especially so because of the presence and interactions of all those veteran actors.

Three years later, Red 2 hit theaters and I’ll be damned it it didn’t have a really great theatrical trailer:

Would the film live up to its advertising?

Well…yes and no.

On the one hand, there were plenty of great gags in the film, including several instances where deadly assassins in the middle of planning or executing some kind of skullduggery take a moment to talk about how Moses can maintain a vibrant and positive relationship with Sarah.

On the other hand, as the film played out, I got the feeling what I was seeing was either a “rush job” or was whittled down from a too long run time…or both.  After a terrific opening act (the best part of the film) scenes kind of whizzed by and slammed into each other without much grace.  It simply didn’t flow very well.

Part of the problem may well lie with the film’s very, very large cast, which this time around includes many new ancillary characters.  We have Anthony Hopkins’ potentially looney Bailey.  There’s Byung-hun Lee’s deadly assassin Han.  There’s also Katherine Zeta-Jones’ Russian agent Katja (sadly, the most wasted of the big name stars).

And that’s not getting into the smaller roles!

Red 2 winds up being a globe trotting affair, with the team trying to figure out why they have been marked for assassination.  The peculiars of the plot are quite interesting, involving the possibility of a weapon of mass destruction hidden away in Moscow, but it is the characters and their interactions which are still the main draw.

Perhaps one day a “director’s cut” of the film might show up and smooth over the film’s rushed feeling, but I doubt it.  While not an outright bust, Red 2 is a decent film that flirts with being a damn good one…all while just missing the mark.

Trivia Alert!  Is this the first film to feature the two most famous actors to play the villainous Hannibal Lector?  Sadly, neither Brian Cox, the original Hannibal Lector (from the criminally -pun intended!- underrated Manhunter, which featured the first appearance of the character) nor Anthony Hopkins (the most famous actor to play the role, starting with SIlence of the Lambs) share any screen time together.  Might have been fun to see them face to face!

Ah well!

In case you’re not familiar with it, here’s the trailer for Manhunter.  Years later this film was remade with Anthony Hopkins in the Hannibal role as Red Dragon (the original title of the novel it was based on).  You can see Brian Cox’s Hannibal Lector for the first time at the 1:20 mark…

Bonus, bonus trailer: That of Red Dragon (why the heck not?)…

Movies

2013 Black List

The “Black List” is a list of screenplays that are considered worthy of being made into films…but haven’t been as of yet.  The link below offers what is considered the best of the Black List for 2013 (told you the end of the year brings lists!):

http://www.deadline.com/2013/12/2013-black-list-best-screenplays-full-list/

Going through the list, there are some story descriptions that I find interesting and a whole lot that do not all that much for me.  Two screenplays involving the making of Jaws?  Really?  Two screenplays involving Mr. Rogers?!  Then there’s the way out there screenplay about Stanley Kubrick’s alleged late 1960’s recruitment in the creation of a “phony” Moon landing, in case the real one doesn’t pan out.

None of those intrigues me all that much.

On the other hand…

SOVEREIGN
Geoff Tock, Greg Weidman
A man goes to space to destroy the ship that, upon going sentient, killed his wife.

Sounds like it could be interesting, though the story does seem to bear resemblance to other stories (the Berzerker books, for example) and my own personal favorite original Star Trek episode, The Doomsday Machine…

Some other potentially intriguing stories…

SEED
Christina Hodson
After suffering a devastating miscarriage a young woman and her fiance travel to Italy where she meets his family for the first time, but her grief turns to shock when the local doctor declares that she’s still pregnant. And while her fiance and his family seem delighted by the news, she begins to suspect their true motives are quiet sinister.

Sounds a little like Rosemary’s Baby, but I found the idea intriguing.

CAPSULE
Ian Shorr
A young man’s life is turned upside down when he mysteriously begins to receive metallic capsules containing messages from his future self.

Again, sounds intriguing.  Could see this premise going in lots of different directions.

FULLY WRECKED
Jake Morse, Scott Wolman
An R-rated talking car from the ’80s is brought back into service and teamed up with the son of his former partner, a befuddled cop looking to earn his stripes.

Perhaps one of the more original concepts in the list, the idea of having a talking car (modeled after KITT from Knight Rider, I’m guessing), be a foul mouthed character has potential.  Could be a good comedy…certainly a better idea than remaking The Naked Gun films.  This one has me interested.

Anyway, if you find any of the above interesting, give the full list a look.

Movies

End of the year means…

…end of the year lists!

One of my favorites is the “Worst Films of the Year” type lists.  Call me a glutton for punishment, but there’s something about seeing such lists and considering the works present within them and wondering just what went wrong.

The list presented below is a more “scientific” rather than personal list, as it features the Top 10 Worst-Reviewed films of 2013:

http://theweek.com/article/index/253827/the-10-worst-reviewed-movies-of-2013

Looking over that list I have seen a grand total of…none of the films.  The only one I was mildly interested in and coming in at #2, the Liam Hemsworth/Harrison Ford/Gary Oldman/Richard Dreyfuss film Paranoia certainly intrigued me for the cast, if nothing else.  But with each commercial I saw of the film, the whole thing seemed to scream “MEDIOCRE” or worse.  When the film was finally released and the reviews poured in, what little interest I had in the feature was completely gone.

Time Magazine offers the following Top Ten Worst films of the past year:

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/12/04/arts-and-entertainment/slide/top-10-worst-movies/

A couple of films from the previous list show up here as well.  I never saw the original The Hangover despite my wife’s assurances that it is indeed a hilarious film.  When The Hangover II was released, I watched it with my wife and was completely unimpressed.  My wife was too.  She insisted the original was very good but was just as disappointed in the sequel.  Lesson learned.  Neither of us bothered with The Hangover III and based on the reviews, it appears we missed little.

Finally, a personalized Five Worst Films of the past year list, this one by Dana Stevens for Slate Magazine:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/12/12/worst_movies_2013-elysium-identity-thief-jobs-oz-and-ripd.html

Once again, we have at least one film repeated between lists, although this list offers some interesting alternate choices as well.  Yet again, I haven’t seen any of the films on this list but finally there is at least one film I am interested in seeing: Elysium.  Now, I know that most critics (and fansboys) were eager to see the well received District 9’s director’s sophomore feature and I know many people were ultimately disappointed by it, but I don’t believe anyone felt it was one of the “worst” films of the past year.

I’ll see soon enough!

Movies

White House Down (2013) a (mildly) belated review

A little while ago I reviewed the 2013 Gerard Butler starring Olympus Has Fallen (read about it here) a variation on the Die Hard formula but rather than set in the Nakatomi Plaza Building, our hero has to deal with deadly terrorists that have assaulted the White House itself.  I enjoyed the film, finding it a pleasant enough time killer despite some pretty silly stuff to swallow if not much else.  Lurking in the weeds, waiting to be seen, was the second Die-Hard-in-the-White-House film of this year, the higher budgeted Channing Tatum/Jamie Foxx White House Down.

A few quick questions and answers:

1) How similar are these two films?

Answer: Very.  Both feature leads who are “damaged” (again, a Die Hard trademark).  Both feature (duh) assaults on the White House with the people behind these assaults seeking to get their hands on the President of the United States and radically change the world as we know it today (I won’t say more to avoid spoilers).  The heroes in both films also have kids (in one film a boy, in another a girl) who are caught in the middle of all this danger.  Bullets are fired and the bad guys (including an “inside man”) manage to barricade themselves in the White House with the hero plays cat-and-mouse with the villains and is the only one capable of restoring any kind of order.

2) How are the films different?

Let me think here…hmmm….Well, in Olympus Has Fallen the President is played by Aaron Eckhart emulating your typical blue-eyed square-jawed all-American Anglo Saxon Commander In Chief while in White House Down the President is played by Jamie Foxx who is clearly emulating President Barack Obama, complete with wife and daughter (one, not two) and a fight against a cigarette habit.

What else?  As mentioned before, Olympus Has Fallen was a far lower budgeted affair compared to White House Down. Further, there was more going on in White House Down’s script, both in terms of story and ancillary characters, than the previous film.

And that, I believe, is about it for the differences.

So let’s return once again to the films’ similarities.  White House Down, like Olympus Has Fallen, is a perfectly OK action/adventure film that succeeds in killing your time without causing you too much pain or regret.  Having now seen both films, however, I can sincerely state that I no longer want to see either again.  The fact is that both White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen are very much disposable entertainment.  Once seen, I seriously doubt that some time in the near or far future I’m ever going to want to revisit either of these films.

Having said that, one final question: Which is better?  I’d probably have to give a very slight edge to White House Down.  That film benefits from its larger budget as well as the slightly better script and a slightly more interesting cast of characters around the hero/President.

Still, I’ve reached my lifetime quota of White House assault films.

Movies

East Meets West…

10 Asian Movies Remade by Hollywood:

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/12/05/east-meets-west-10-asian-movies-remade-by-hollywood/

Not to sound too full of myself (I know, I know…too late! 😉 ), but the main reason I checked the list out was to see how many of the features I already knew about…and, conversely, to see what might surprise me.

The one that wound up surprising me was entry #9, Il Mare, a film that was remade as…The Lake House.  I’ve always had a fondness for The Lake House, starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, because it presents an intriguing romance pleasantly mixed with time travel/sci-fi elements.  Perhaps that’s the way I like romantic films: When they feature elements not usually associated with them (check out, for example, Grosse Point Blank, perhaps my favorite romantic comedy, a film that featured hit men!)

For those who don’t know about either Il Mare or The Lake House, the plot involves a man and woman who communicate with each other via mail left in a mailbox in front of the referred to lake house.  The two come to realize that they live in different times: the woman lives in the lake house in “the present” while the man occupied the same residence two years before.  As the film plays out, there are indications the man may have met his end in the interval.

The two develop a romantic attachment even as the present day woman tries to figure out what happened to this man.

No, the American film is far from perfect, but the charisma of the two leads and the intriguing story line made the film a pleasant diversion.  I’ll have to check out the original.