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American Women's Club of Hamburg  Film Reviews -- June 2005Reviews by members of the AWC Film Group of films slated to open in Hamburg in June 2005.
(Adele R) Opening June 2, 2005 With Fateless, adapted from his novel of the same name, Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertész and first-time director Lajos Koltai bring us a film which looks at the Holocaust from a new perspective, that of a fourteen-year-old boy: György Koves, hauntingly portrayed by Marcell Nagy in his first film, who survives the worst horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, uncomprehendingly and only by chance. The director and author deliberately leave the larger story unexplained; they show only what György sees and experiences. From that fish-eye view, much remains as unclear to the audience as it was to the boy. The film begins in Budapest in 1944. György’s father is (inexplicably) singled out from his family and Jewish neighbors for deportation to a “work camp”. György, who is now forced to leave school and wear a yellow star, is assigned a few weeks later to work in a factory outside Budapest, a location he must reach by bus. One day a Hungarian policeman along the route pulls anyone wearing a yellow star from the buses. György is herded with the others onto a train which takes him first to Auschwitz. There he is sent to the work camp instead of being gassed, the fate of many of those with him. Auschwitz is followed by Buchenwald and then Zeitz. The scenes of György’s devastating experiences, the bulk of the film, are vivid and heart-breaking. After Zeitz is liberated in 1945 by the Americans, György, who has survived just barely, is disoriented and unable to communicate his experiences. In a bizarre way he feels almost homesick for the camps. Second Opinion by Shelly S By director Lajos Koltai, Fateless opened the Berlinale this year by replacing the American film Heights, which was disqualified from the competition since Glenn Close could not make it to the festival. Fateless takes place in Budapest during WWII where the Jewish family Köves live. Fourteen-year-old György (Marcell Nagy) and family say goodbye to his father, who’s leaving for a work camp outside of Hungary. The family discusses the good fortune that young György has received permission to work in a brick factory outside the city since they need money. On the way to work, he is pulled from the bus along with other Jewish passengers. At this point, György makes some friends. They try to stay together, but this isn’t possible since they are then separated by age; all those over sixteen go to the work camp and the young ones go directly to Auschwitz. György, who is tall, says he is sixteen and passes. He also hopes that he will end up in the camp of his father. From that point on, the film is excruciatingly dismal where people work, starve, are tortured and die. It seems to go on for hours. The film projects a gritty grey feeling that hangs with you like a black cloud over your head. György is also a character that shows no sign of determination, a willingness to live, or even hope. Toward the end of the movie you actually believe that he has resolved to die. This film, along with the film Dallas Pashamende about gypsies living in a garbage dump, gave me nightmares at the Berlinale, where I woke up screaming! If you have tough nerves this film is for you; if you are sensitive visually or emotionally, this is not for you!
(Patricia R) Opening June 2, 2005 As a boy Stephen Chow would escape from his modest and crowded Hong Kong neighborhood into the theater and dream of being a martial arts master like Bruce Lee. “I was simply overwhelmed by the movie experience. Watching his film in the darkness I felt as if my heart was going to burst, and I had tears in my eyes. Bruce Lee was so incredible, not only because of his martial arts expertise, but also because of his furious spirit. He just filled the screen. He became everything to me.” From those passionate childhood memories Chow has created a humorous tribute to those former martial arts masters and films. It has now surpassed the record of his former film Shaolin Soccer as the highest grossing film made in Hong Kong in the Asian market. As a young martial arts student Chow discovered that he got the most attention with his silly kung fu stunts, and a star was born. In Kung Fu Hustle he plays a young wanna-be gangster in Hong Kong in the 1940s that has to prove himself to be accepted into the evil Axe Gang. He was humiliated early in his life when he tried and failed to defend a young deaf girl, and he never wants to be seen as soft and weak again. When he visits a poor neighborhood called Pig Sty to try to extort money, the local inhabitants surprise him with their response. Eventually the members of the Axe Gang are drawn in, and the real battle between good and evil begins. Everybody was kung fu fighting……… The film parodies many films and includes scenes mimicking old western shootouts, Bruce Lee moves, Jackie Chan antics, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fantasy flights and The Matrix CGI effects. Chow chose action choreographer Yuen Wo Ping whose work includes Crouching Tiger and Matrix and is one of the most respected action wizards. Chow did lots of his own fighting scenes and claims that it was the most physically demanding film he’s ever done. He also demonstrated that he could work just as effectively behind the camera and let the other masters take over. My own favorite character was the chain smoking, pyjama clad, hair in rollers landlady of Pig Sty, brilliantly played by Yuen Qiu, a star of the 1970s who Chow tempted out of a 20 year retirement. She had been a Bond girl in The Man With the Golden Gun in addition to being in many Hong Kong films. Ms. Qiu said that the hardest challenge was not polishing up her martial arts skills but gaining 30 pounds in two months for the role. She used a diet that Japanese sumo wrestlers follow to bulk up. Stephen Chow can be commended for making a fun and action packed comedy that has taken the martial arts from where they began to a whole new level and still keeping the spirit of what martial arts is all about.
(Osanna V) Opening June 2, 2005 Universum Film presents an adventurous caper across western Africa, starring Matthew McConaughey (Amistad, Wedding Planner), Steve Zahn (Out of Sight, National Security) and Penélope Cruz (All About My Mother, Blow). It is directed by Breck Eisner. Dirk Pitt (McConaughey) is a swash-buckling, kind-a underwater treasure hunter employed by NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency). For years now he has been obsessed by the legend of an ironclad sailing vessel known as the “Ship of death”, that somehow made it from civil wartime America to Africa, after which it disappeared. The discovery of a rare coin associated with the vessel takes Dirk and his long-time buddy and fellow treasure hunter Al (Zahn) to Mali. There they cross paths with Dr. Eva Rojas (Cruz) from the WHO, who is trying to pinpoint the location of what she fears could be the beginning of a fatal epidemic. It is soon apparent that both quests are closely intertwined. It is also clear that corrupt governments, warlords and businessmen are very keen to stop them achieving their goals, though why is a mystery yet to be unravelled. Whether in a luxury speedboat on the Niger river, in jeeps, on camels or handcuffed to the back of a pick-up truck, the journey is fraught with adventure, tragedy and plenty of humour... Though fun and entertaining, Sahara will probably not make it into the annals of great movie history. Even so, McConaughey and Zahn have a convincing and well-balanced rapport: Dirk the guy who believes anything is possible; Al the guy who doesn't necessarily agree but is largely responsible for making the impossible possible. Though a certain attraction between Dirk and Eva is evident, it's not overdone and is only acted on at the very end. Filmed largely in Morocco, the film has some stunning desert scenes and interesting settings. Sahara seems to have been set-up for a sequel – only time will tell. (Patricia R) Opening June 9, 2005 This nearly two hour documentary film explores the history of the Yangtze River in China. Writer and director Tamara Wyss has used the diaries of her grandparents who were in the diplomatic service in Cheng Du in the early 1900s to show a China that existed 80 years ago. Conversations with some of the older residents show a glimpse of another way of life, before the building of the controversial Three Gorges Dam. The Yangtze River is the world’s third largest river, starting from the melting glaciers in China’s Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and winding 6,300 kilometers past Cheng Du, Nanjing and Shanghai into the East China Sea. The river was (and still is) important for transportation and agriculture, the silt deposits creating lush rice fields. Old black and white photos from the diary and interviews with local workers show the laborious means by which boats were pulled upstream by teams of men along the steep river banks. The Three Gorges area is known for its dramatic beauty and historical and religious significance. Serious architectural studies of the Han people of the Yellow River Valley area were started in the 1920s and were lately under serious time constraints due to the eventual flooding of much of the area from the construction of the dam. This project has necessitated the removal of over one million Chinese from their villages and homes. One interesting visit was to the home of an elderly woman who had been forced by her mother to bind her feet as a young girl. Although this practice had been formally outlawed in 1911, the tradition continued among the upper class. The woman commented that her parents had often argued about it, but when her father would leave for a business trip the mother would resume the painful binding. She showed a pair of the tiny embroidered shoes, only three inches long. In 1995 Chinese filmmaker Yang Yenguing had made a film about foot binding but found that it was a difficult topic for the Chinese people to discuss as it is closely tied to female sexuality and submissiveness. Thankfully ten years later this and many other topics are no longer taboo, and film makers can help the Chinese people to express their new freedoms.
(Alyssa C) Opening June 9, 2005 Based on the beloved book of the same title, which I must admit that I have not read, H2G2 takes us on a journey through the imagination of its author, Douglas Adams, whose imagination was at least as big as the universe. Our traveling companions on this adventure are “everyman” Brit, Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman); alien travel writer and Arthur’s best friend, Ford Prefect (Mos Def); obnoxious and shallow President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell); a girl looking for answers and also for a good time, Trillion (Zooey Deschanel); and Marvin (Warwick Davis, voiced by Alan Rickman), a chronically depressed robot. Our guide on the journey is H2G2, the book within the book (voiced by Stephen Fry), as factual as an encyclopedia, but as practical as an instruction manual with its animated diagrams. Its most important piece of advice is printed on its cover: DON’T PANIC! This film was so funny that I am tempted to write this review completely in the delightful and insightful zingers which make up the dialog. But in spite of the humor, which in some cases is just plain ludicrous, the plot grapples with the Ultimate Questions with which we all struggle. What is the nature of the universe? What is the meaning of life? Throughout the course of the film, we actually get answers. (And the answer, by the way, is not “42”.) Adams himself was highly involved in this film version before his untimely death at the age of 49, which should calm the apprehensions of his devoted fans who fear that the movie will fall short of the book. (He had just finished the second draft of the screenplay when he suffered a heart attack.) Director Garth Jennings makes his feature film debut, and not to detract from his accomplishment, but with a seasoned production team, a talented if not quirky cast, an absolutely brilliant screenplay, and aliens created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, how could he go wrong? Three and ½ stars because the humor in this movie is not for everyone, and not for every mood. So long, and thanks for the fish!
(Mary W) Opening June 9, 2005 Grizzly Tommy Lee Jones and five teenage poster girls for bulimia with overly exposed bosoms and bellybuttons are locked up together in a sorority house -- this film is a twelve-year-old boy’s wet dream come true on the big screen. Jones plays Texas Ranger Roland Sharp who is assigned to protecting the witnesses to the murder of an informant. The witnesses happen to be five University of Texas cheerleaders. Collecting cell phones and barking new sorority house rules, the pep girls pout with enough Botox in their kissers to fill a Longhorn pigskin. All express their unanimous animus towards their jailor who must take them everywhere, except, apparently, to the store to buy feminine hygiene products. As his cover, Sharp poses as an assistant coach to the cheerleaders, donning a Longhorn uniform and raising his two fingers high. In an English class he becomes smitten with Professor Molly McCarthy (Anne Archer). Of course the girls make Sharp look sharp with a complete makeover including ear and nose hair trim with a facial to smooth well-engraved frown wrinkles away for his first date, which is dinner at the sorority house. Sharp is wired for action as the girls coach him through his earpiece and watch him putting the moves on via mini-cam. There is enough bull in this tale to start your own Longhorn cattle ranch. Two Texas stars for the ability of Jones to keep a straight face for this film that should go straight to video. (Osanna V) Opening June 16, 2005 Starring Christian Bale as Batman, director Christopher Nolan also brings Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman into the cast. Batman Begins tells the tale of the child, witness to his parents murder; the young adult, searching for a meaning to his life; and the reconciled man who chooses a double life as business tycoon Bruce Wayne and Batman, the hero crime fighter. A childhood fall down a bat-invested dry well brands Bruce for life with a fear of the flying rodent. Some time later at the opera, the dark performance stirs up disturbing memories, and he asks his parents to leave early. As they slip out the stage door, they are assaulted by a petty thief who, in a moment of panic, shoots both parents. Years later, after abandoning his studies, travelling the world, and living among criminals, Bruce finds himself training with Henri Ducard (Neeson) in a remote martial arts centre that belongs to a shadow society, whose mission through the millenia has been to purge the world of civilisations they consider decadent beyond hope of redemption. It is here that Bruce is confronted with guilt over his parents' death and where he makes the choice that defines his future. Back in Gotham City, he begins his own mission to clean up the underground world of crime and corruption, finding direct and indirect support from various people: Alfred the butler (Caine), detective Jim Gordon (Oldman), inventor Lucius Fox (Freeman), and assistant DA Rachel Dawes (Holmes). Batman Begins is a little slow at times during the first third, but developes impressively. The villains are not colourful, eccentric characters like the earlier movies, but dark and sinister; and Bruce Wayne's evolution is convincing. A touch more humour would have been appreciated!
(Nancy T) Opening June 16, 2005 It is no coincidence that this film opens in Hamburg on June 16, marking the 101st anniversary of "Bloomsday," a longstanding cult celebration date for Joyce fans and Dubliners. Bloom is an ingenious adaptation of James Joyce's novel Ulysses, a massive masterpiece, "...the mere mention of the name brings shudders of academic insecurity." Quoting its Irish director Sean Walsh, Bloom or bl,.m is "the story of three peoples' lives on a single day in Dublin, June 16, 1904." Leopold Bloom (sensitively portrayed by Stephen Rea of The Crying Game and Interview with the Vampire) is an Irish Jew, a rarity in Dublin of 1904, going about his daily routine. We view his journey with a voiceover narrative technique that allows us also to experience where he really lives, in his thoughts and fantasies, as he encounters racism, his debilitating guilt from the loss of his child, etc., which shut down much of his external emotions. His journey starts and ends with his extremely erotic wife, Molly (joyously played by Angeline Ball of The General and The Commitments), the second of the three people, who seems his exact opposite and on whom he dotes, despite her "indiscretions," to an almost masochistic degree. The third main character, Stephen Dedalus (Hugh O'Conor of My Left Foot and Chocolat), whose beautifully sculpted face personifies a blonde Frodo, is the young school teacher who expounds his theories best when intoxicated. The film's rich language is the best treat, referring to mythology, sex, racism, church, and politics in a stream-of-consciousness style that is very natural, fresh and feels contemporary. This is a real credit to Joyce, as there is no film credit for a screenwriter, implying the dialogue is directly lifted from his novel. Highest ratings for this artful film! Walsh describes the title bl,-m as a play on typography!
(Mary W) Opening June 16, 2005 Well-heeled New York divorce attorney Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore) follows the rules of law. She lives in a fabulous flat where she spends her evenings wolfing junk food glued to the Weather Channel. Having never lost a case, she figures having the prenup signed by a trophy wife tossed out will be a piece of cake since at the last minute moneybags hired an out-of-town shyster. Audrey flounders when the smooth-talking, charmingly dishevelled Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) takes the cake, winning round one of their preliminary hearings. They are, of course, both smitten but don’t bite. Daniel wins. Next case. Audrey faces Daniel again, this time representing an outlandish rock star (Michael Sheen) whose fashion designer wife (Parker Posey) demands financial justice for all of his screwing around. Both parties demand their Irish castle. To settle true ownership, Audrey and Daniel go to Ireland to interview the castle staff, arriving just in time for a local festival. Local stiff drinks and dirty dancing end up with Audrey and Daniel married. The morning after hangover takes them back to New York, only to find their marriage announced in The New York Post. Rather than face the embarrassment of a very public immediate divorce, they move in together. Comparisons have been made to Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn, but Moore and Brosnan have a comic rhythm all their own. Divorce has never been quite so funny! (Adele R) Opening June 23, 2005 I won’t spoil this film by telling you the beginning – I will just say it is not what you expect. And despite all the comparisons in the press, A Lot Like Love is not really a lot like When Harry Met Sally either, although the parallels are inescapable. By comparing the two, however, one does both films an injustice. When Harry Met Sally is the funnier film, but the parallels in the stories have mostly to do with the large span of years between the first meeting and the final clinch and the fact that the two soulmates are really friends before they end up together. Both films also have actors with great rapport and charisma, although Ashton Kutcher (as Oliver) is not as funny as Billy Crystal (who is?) nor can Amanda Peet (Emily) compete on that level with Meg Ryan. But she sure is beautiful (and has great hair, too), and Kutcher and Peet have good chemistry. The charming story, with a couple of surprising twists, is the first screenplay by Colin Patrick Lynch, a playwright and actor. And the film was directed by Nigel Cole, who was responsible for Saving Grace and Calendar Girls. This entertaining movie will win no Oscars, but there is still a lot to like about A Lot Like Love! Second Opinion by Karen P New college grad Oliver Martin (Ashton Kutcher) and starving actress Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet) meet by chance at a club in New York. Their intense meeting and most endearing first time kiss will continue to hang in the balance of their lives for the next seven years. Every relationship they each seem to enter is oddly measured by the memory of their initial New York encounter. To be or not to be, in love…is their question? So, what holds them back from just taking the plunge to get on with their romance and live happily ever-after? They are opposites and recognize that their friendship is better off without a mix of romance. They like their goofy friendship and their safe haven that they have created. But Oliver wants the ideal traditional American Dream that is stable and leaves little room for spontaneity. Emily wants spontaneity to take her to a stable American Dream. As much as they try to communicate these ideals, they never seem to be honest with what is important to them nor their true feelings for each other. There is one main condition that Emily puts on all her relationships which allows her to know if it is her ticket to true love. Oliver tries to discover the condition but continues to brutally fail until Emily herself realizes that this condition was met years ago, giving her the green light to finally be honest with Oliver about her love for him. Unfortunately, too many years go by with their cat and mouse game that reveals an unrealistic chain of events. Thank goodness this is not like Love at all! Although, if it does represent a post-modern generation and how they deal with relationships, they have a bleak future to the art good decision-making and transparency.
(Becky T) Opening June 23, 2005 Quiz: who is the director of this film? It opens to jazz music and then pans to a Manhattan restaurant where two couples are deep in an intellectual discussion about comedy versus tragedy (“The essence of life isn’t comic, it’s tragic.”). The answer is, of course, Woody Allen, who tells two stories. In one, Melinda (Radha Mitchell) barges unexpectedly into a dinner party at the home of Susan (Amanda Peet) and husband Hobie (Will Ferrell). She is full of sleeping pills and must be rescued, even given shelter in order to recover from her disappointing and chaotic life. She falls in love with a musician named Billy, but Hobie is smitten with her. In the second story, Melinda (Mitchell in a double role) has left her husband and children for a photographer who disappoints her. Full of pills and alcohol, Melinda disrupts a dinner party, this time at the home of her school friend Laurel (Chloé Sevigny) and husband Lee (Jonny Lee Miller). The party is in honor of a film director who, Laurel hopes, will offer Lee a leading film role. Melinda falls in love with a black pianist, who cheats on her with Laurel. This film is highly recommended for Allen fans who are suffering from withdrawal symptoms and need their yearly Woody Allen fix. They won’t be disappointed, since this film with its fast dialog is more entertaining than his two previous ones. Everything is there: nervous and high-strung liberals, long philosophical discussions which mask basic communication problems, big and expensive New York apartments, infidelity and the Woody humor. It was especially enjoyable to see the two plots merge, intertwine and split off again and not that difficult to differentiate between the two. Probably the second viewing would uncover more of the little subtleties, making it even more fun than the first time. Second Opinion by Patricia R Typical Woody Allen premise for a movie. Create a hypothetical scene in Manhattan with a few witty couples wrestling with love and infidelity and squeeze out a few comedic or tragic drops of irony. The premise is that Melinda (Radha Mitchell, Finding Neverland, High Art) drops in unexpectedly on a dinner party in two different Manhattan apartments and creates two alternate realities, one a comedy and one a tragedy. Although Mitchell skillfully pulls off both versions of her character, the stories and dialogue are too bland to create either laughs or tears. In the lighter version Melinda becomes the object of desire of husband Hobie (Will Ferrell, Elf, Anchorman) whose wife Susan (Amanda Peet, The Whole Nine Yards, Igby Goes Down) is already having an affair so the coast is clear. Hobie and Melinda both have a few dates with others that only help create some jealous tension until they are soon embracing one another. In the darker version Melinda introduces her friend Laurel (Chloé Sevigny, The
Last Days of Disco, Map of the World) to a new lover Ellis Moonsong (Chiwetel
Ejiofor, Love Actually, Amistad), which is OK since Laurel’s husband
is already cheating on her anyway. And besides they both love music. Melinda loses out on
that one. I was hoping for more from Mr. Allen. A little wisdom perhaps, and if not that at least a few good laughs…...maybe next time.
(Pat R) Opening June 23, 2005 The subject is war crimes and the moral dilemma created when a country asks its young people to kill and the even deeper moral quagmire when one’s church either supports or opposes that effort. “The self-examination and self-deception that one must do to rationalize, equivocate and justify ones actions, resulting in troubled consciences wrestling with responsibility and hypocrisy.*” The role of individual conscience in collective evil doing. The Statement was a novel written by Brian Moore, an Irish Catholic, fascinated by the real life story of Paul Touvier, a former French Vichy officer who, after the war, was convicted of treason and sentenced to death but escaped and was on the run for fifty years, supported and sheltered by a network of right wing clergy of the French Catholic Church. In his 20s Touvier had headed the militia's intelligence unit, fighting the Resistance and deporting Jews. In June of 1944 he had selected seven Jews to be shot as hostages in revenge for the killing of a Vichy government official. In 1946 he was tried and sentenced to death in absentia and finally arrested after a robbery of a bakery, but escaped police custody, bringing into suspicion the involvement of high ranking ex-Vichy government officials. In 1971, he was pardoned by President Pompidou in the name of national reconciliation, amidst a great public outcry, as much of his personal property was found to have been seized from deported Jews. He was charged with crimes against humanity but again escaped police custody and in 1989 was finally found hiding in a Monastery in Nice, rearrested, tried and convicted. There is still controversy surrounding the actions of the Catholic Church towards the persecution of Jews during the war. The Church presumably feared a godless Communism more than the stain of collaboration with the anti-Semitic Nazis. Although the Vatican remained neutral during the War, Pope Pius X11 publicly condemned the Nazi actions and allowed Jews throughout Italy to seek shelter in the Church. Hitler had replied that "there is no future with churches; one is either a Christian or a German. One cannot be both." The film is dedicated to those seven murdered French Jews and the 77,000 other French Jews that perished under German occupation and the Vichy Regime. Its director and co-producer is Norman Jewison, nominated for seven Oscars for Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck, The Russians Are Coming, In the Heat of the Night, and The Thomas Crown Affair. Michael Caine is brilliant as the former Vichy officer Pierre Brossard, running from both the French government and another killer protecting some one else's dark secrets. Tilda Swinton plays the ambitious French judge determined to track him down with the help of an officer of the French Army, played by Jeremy Northam, as the police cannot be trusted. The director's son, Kevin Jewison as director of photograhy, effectively captures scenes of the French countryside as well as small French villages, helping to create a very real and thrilling historically based drama. *Quote from The New York Times on the novel The Statement by Brian Moore, "A Question of Conscience" by Eugene Weber, 1996 (Nancy T) Opening June 29, 2005 This thrilling popcorn movie keeps you jumping more than popping corn. It seemed to take some visual characteristics of the old B-movies -- with the monsters (aliens in giant tripods who want to suck your blood) stalking in the background, coming to get you. Our knowlege of outer space has changed a lot since H.G. Wells wrote his book at the end of the 19th century. Supposedly director Steven Spielberg stuck closely to the novel, except for not mentioning that the aliens came from Mars -- as this War of the Worlds was set in the present, that would seem too obviously scientifically incorrect. Wells' story is a difficult one -- some people do not like the idea of beings from outer space bent on taking over our world and killing off mankind. And realism seems to be the director's first priority! Spielberg, a master at scaring us (Jurassic Park, Jaws), made the story of survival of the alien attack very personal by viewing the events through Ray's (Tom Cruise) eyes, sometimes with a handheld camera that makes us feel we are runnng along side him. Throughout the film, we only know what Ray knows. Ray is the blue-collar worker "everyman" who is just trying to save his family. His strongwilled children, Rachel and Robbie (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) are visiting him perchance on the fateful day, dropped off by his ex-wife Mary Ann (Miranda Otto). The rest of the film describes their encounters and survival on the difficult journey to find Mary Ann. Tim Robbins plays the disturbed Ogilvy, who seems to offer them a resting place. This film can be viewed in the Geman language version by those (like me) with limited skills. It was very complete visually. Second Opinion by Karen P Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), divorcee and a night-shift dock loading engineer, has been asked by his boss to work overtime, but Ray bails because he is already late to receive his kids who are coming to visit as a part of the joint-custody deal. Ray’s kids, Robbie (Justin Chatwin) and Rachel (Dakota Fanning) are not so thrilled to be spending quality time with dear old Dad nor do they feel at home in his run-down, filthy apartment. While they all get reacquainted, a weird storm is brewing outside. While Ray was getting his normal daily shut-eye, his son takes off in Rays’ hot rod car. The storm escalates to a magnificent intensity. Ray goes to check out the happenings a few blocks away and realizes that what’s happening is more than a storm. Ray observes weirdness to the max! He is frightened but at the same time intrigued by the life forms that are appearing from underneath the earth, as well as the machine-like robots that are larger than life. They are destroying everything that gets in their way. Ray rushes back to his house to get his kids, and they flee just minutes before their house is destroyed. As people are in total confusion, frenzy and chaos, Ray is trying to remain calm but is fearful. He is trying to keep an alert mind in order to make a smart game plan: to re-unite the family. While on the run from the aliens, Ray loses his son Robbie in a massacre attack which leaves Ray and Rachel devastated. Ogilvy (Tim Robbins) gives them shelter in the time of storm and clues them in on the War of the Worlds theory. This modern day sci-fi has much to be desired, but it’s a typical corny, unrealistic fear-factor frenzy which makes for a fun sci-fi classic. Spielberg did his job in that respect, but he should have thought twice about a better script out of respect for his all-star cast and H.G. Wells' classic narrative, which was brilliant. Maybe he should have filmed this in black and white…interesting thought! And what is a Spielberg film without John Williams' fantasy of music? Williams was able to tantalize our emotions with a combination of musical scores from his other well-known sci-fi works, from sweet sounds of E.T. to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Ah yes! Another Twilight Zone form of art!
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Fateless (Fateless - Roman eines Schicksallosen, Sorstalanság) 
Kung Fu Hustle 
Sahara (Sahara - Abenteuer in der Wüste) 
The Chinese Shoes (Die Chinesischen Schuhe) 
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis) 
Man of the House (Der Herr des Hauses) 
Batman Begins 
Bloom 
Laws of Attraction 
A Lot Like Love (So was wie Liebe) 
Melinda
& Melinda 
The Statement 
War of the Worlds (Krieg der Welten) 
Questions?