You'll find more adventure in your X-box

I felt like I was in the midst of a third rate video game slaying giant woolly mammoths, escaping flying ostriches and braving saber-tooth tigers in a pre-historic era all to be hero for a day.

Set in a computer-enhanced world where icy tundra abruptly turns into tropical jungle and then dry desert, I couldn't help but question the historical accuracy of 10,000 B.C. I mean, really, what tribe in 10,000 B.C. spoke English and why doesn't anyone from the same clan look alike? Aren't they supposed to have the same ethnic background? Just because writer and director Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day) chose to have a diverse cast (actors hailed from Asia, Latin America, India and Africa) doesn't mean his film would be innovative - rather, it came out disjointed and distractingly illogical.

Driven by an oversimplified, cliché plot of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy undertakes heroic adventure to regain girl, 10,000 B.C. tells the story of young hunter, D'Leh (Steven Strait), who treks across the globe, defeats four-legged beasts and confronts gods to save the blue-eyed beauty, Evolet (Camilla Belle).

On his journey, D'Leh discovers that the world is far more vast than he once believed - including the shocking realization that people other than his tribe are inhabiting the Earth. He also discovers that he is destined to save civilization, and his already simplified character expands into an unbelievable world savior.

Emmerich tried to pull off the fantastic, but this time, I think he might have gone too far. Watching D'Leh's journey, I wondered how he could conquer such a vast wilderness on foot in what seemed to be such a short period of time without showing the signs of aging. Sure, for Emmerich it was easy - he just hopped on a plane for his shots of New Zealand, Cape Town, South Africa and Namibia, but D'Leh didn't have that luxury.

More than the logistics, the writing is oversimplified and ends up sounding cheesy. Unlike Emmerich's other films, 10,000 B.C. is merely a collection of legends and myths thrown together to create a plot. Trying to cover too many things at once, the director ends up sacrificing the storyline.

Not even the softest softie would find this film's cliché lines sentimental or pleasing. I plead with Emmerich, just satisfy the video game feel and cut the cheese already.

With nothing to draw me in to the wannabe adventure, my mind started to wander. Planning what I would have for dinner and distracted by the glow of cell phones as the audience began to check the time, I wanted D'Leh to hurry up and rescue Evolet.

Whether they lived happily ever after or not didn't really matter. By the time the final credits rolled, I too had realized my destiny. D'Leh might have been destined to save civilization, but I had a much more important inclination: I was destined to see this rotten movie and warn my peers to save their $8.50.

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"Definitely, Maybe" a cliché, must-see

Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) thinks it's just another day - another Tuesday or Friday that he'll leave work early to pick up his 10-year-old daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) from school.

However, avoiding an oncoming school bus on his walk through Manhattan or being in the midst of a divorce is the least of his problems. Today, unlike any other, Maya's elementary class has sex-ed and the first thing out of her mouth when she sees her dad in the hallway crowded with angry parents, is the precocious and enigmatic declaration, "we need to talk."

Worried she was a mistake, Maya demands her dad tell her the story about how he and her mom met and fell in love. After much debate, the young political consultant divulges his past love life to his daughter. However, in an effort to protect the innocent and to keep the ever-curious Maya guessing, Will changes a few details along with the names of his past love interests.

Tucked in bed with her princess pillow in place, Maya is ready for what turns into an involved bedtime story of life and love in the early '90s. At the beginning of the story, the only thing Maya is definite about is that her dad smoked, drank and, according to her, was a slut. With the players from Will's past - his college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks), Emily's old friend turned ruthless journalist, Summer Hartley (Rachel Weisz) and April (Isla Fisher), Will's co-worker during the Clinton campaign - Maya's task of revealing the truth about her parent's relationship is daunting. Clip board and crayons in hand, Maya relentlessly weeds through the details and discovers the truth, and, in the end, helps her dad cross the Brooklyn Bridge to make an old memory his future.

Director and writer Adam Brooks, who also wrote Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Wimbledon, and French Kiss, envisioned a romantic comedy that would span generations.

He was quite successful in his aspiration, thanks to creative filming and keen actors. Using flashbacks, split-screen shots and re-winded scenes, Brooks lets the audience live the story. Definitely, Maybe is seen through Will's eyes, but anticipated through Maya's curiosity. While it may seem predictable, that is only a trick. With old relationships constantly resurfacing, the storyline keeps audiences guessing for the complete 105 minutes while they try to solve the equation of Will's mysterious love triangle.

No one could have been better cast for the role of Maya than Breslin. As in Little Miss Sunshine, her charisma shines through playing the young but mature Maya. Holding on to her childlike charm and innocence, Breslin is genuine and her acting touching. Together, Breslin and Reynolds deliver a tender authenticity to a delicate father-daughter relationship.

The most endearing thing about this Valentine's Day release is the unselfish love of a daughter for her lonely father. Maya believes in a happy ending to her dad's bedtime tale even if it means her parents won't end up together.

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An old favorite: check out "The Fountain" on DVD

An atypical transcendent love story, Aronofsky’s sci-fi The Fountain attempts to shed some light on the bigger questions of life and death: why we are here and what it would be like to live forever.

Spanning over a millennia, with three connecting story lines, the easiest way to tell what time period you are in is by how much hair Hugh Jackman has on his head.

The film opens with Jackman as 16th century Spanish conquistador, Tomas, searching for a hidden Mayan temple, which holds the Tree of Life, in order to save Spain and Queen Isabel, played by Rachel Weisz, from the Inquisitor.

In an abrupt shift, a now bald Jackman (Tom Creo) appears to be a 26th century bubble boy recalling memories and floating in space with a tree as his only companion.

Switching to present day, Jackman, slightly hairier, plays determined researcher Dr. Tommy Creo performing tests on monkeys in order to help save his cancer-stricken wife, Izzi (Weisz).

In a daring attempt to save Donovan, the research monkey, Tommy uses the bark from a tree in Guatemala during surgery and later discovers that the monkey almost immediately improves its cognitive skills. Undoubtedly this is the same tree in both the 16th and 26th century eras.

The audience also learns that Izzi is writing a book entitled “The Fountain” about 16th century Spain and its search for the Tree of Life in the Mayan jungles, which suddenly makes the start of the movie a bit clearer.

Izzi also tells Tommy about the nebula Xibalba believed to be the Mayan underworld where the dead find new life. This belief somewhat explains lotus-sitting Jackman floating in a giant, golden orb.

After much confusion as to what is going on, the pieces of the plot seem to come together; however, they are never fully culminated into one final “Voila!” moment, which does not seem accidental.

The visuals and filming, inspired by David Bowie and 2001: A Space Odyssey, are beautiful and the muted yet slightly golden hue to everything is soothing to the eye.

The emotionally driven performances by Weisz and especially Jackman are extremely poignant and heart-felt.

The Fountain with its non-linear format seems to purposefully have the audience’s mind wander in an attempt to make the viewer think, which may not sit well with some folks.

Its messages to love and live because life is finite are apparent after some time. It tries to make you think about the spiritual instead of the physical and that death is inevitable.

Though the film is a bit odd, it is a nice deviation from the Old School’s of our time.

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Quality oozes from "There Will Be Blood"

Director-writer Paul Thomas Anderson's stark masterpiece, There Will Be Blood, is the story of Daniel Plainview (as played by Daniel Day-Lewis), a heartless man whose unbridled ambition turns him into a ruthless oil tycoon at the beginning of the 20th century. Loosely based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel, Oil!, the film chronicles Plainview's vicious rise to power, through both blood and oil. Today, as the world finds its oil supplies dwindling away, the story is more relevant than ever because it shows the true price of a natural resource we take for granted.

Daniel Day-Lewis not only delivers the finest performance of his career, but one of the finest performances in recent memory. He brings the character of Daniel Plainview to life with an incredibly well-nuanced performance. Everything is spot-on, from his facial expressions to his savage limp. His performance alone will make you sit through the film. For the most part, Plainview is a calm, composed man whose very smile, which seems sincere enough, can send chills down your spine. When he becomes enraged, he invokes the fear of God, not only on his victims, but in members of the audience. Day-Lewis's performance is so convincing, so believable, that you will forget you are watching a film, and instead think you are watching someone's life. The life of someone you would never want to cross, and preferably, never meet.

"What sin are you referring to?" Plainview nervously asks a man who tells him that he must repent for his sins in order to get the black gold buried beneath his land. Plainview wears a look of serious concern because his sins are far too grand and are so embedded into his life that he has forgotten what they are. Plainview is every bit as evil as the devil himself, and at times looks to be even more malicious and inhuman. In the opening scene, we are introduced to him and shown just how far he is willing to go to get ahead. And in the spell-binding finale, all his fury and hatred culminate in a brilliant, brutal scene that will leave you stunned, but not surprised.

At the center of the movie are Plainview's relationships with other people. The most important one is with his young son, who he sees as a business partner. The young boy makes a great partner because he has a cute face that people can't say no to.

Plainview's relationship with another con-artist, Eli Sunday (played by Paul Dano, whose career will certainly take off after this performance), is at the heart of the film. Eli is another power-hungry, manipulative man, filled with that same unbridled ambition. As Plainview admits, "I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people." And probably none more than Eli, who is a fire and brimstone pastor with some control over the minds of the people Plainview exploits. Eli tries to stand up to the tycoon, ineffectively, and their interactions are some of the most intense moments in the film.

Something that often gets overlooked in film is sound. There Will Be Blood has one of the greatest scores I have ever heard. It is provided by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, and you would never know that by listening to it. The delicate timbre of the strings and cascading classical arrangements add to the film's already intense atmosphere. Much of the story takes place in the desolate countryside, which is beautifully, painfully, perfectly captured on film. The film's world is filled with sand and silence, so the score is crucial in keeping the viewer engaged, and ultimately, it is what holds the film together. The music pulls you in, toying with you, keeping you on the edge of your seat. It pumps intensity into moments that would otherwise seem lacking. At times, the music is as foreboding as the film's brilliant title, which promises that blood will be spilled in the pursuit of oil, in the name of greed.

If the film has a flaw, it may be its length. Clocking in at 158 minutes, some viewers will undoubtedly find the movie slow, but this thought never occurred to me while watching because I was so engrossed in what was happening on screen.

Quality oozes out of the film at every seam. It certainly deserves every one of the eight Oscars it was nominated for, including best picture, best director, best actor, best cinematography, and best sound-editing. Only time will tell how many it will win, but frankly, I don't see the academy doing anything other than honoring Daniel Plainview with the highest praise. They should be scared not to.

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"Atonement" clinks and clanks its way to being a clunker of a film

Follow your high school English teacher’s advice, and read Atonement; don’t just watch the movie. We all know that director Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice) can successfully adapt novels into films, but his most recent film, Atonement, falls short.

Based on the novel by Ian McEwan, the film begins on a sunny day in 1935 at the Tallis’ summer estate in the British countryside. Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), an uptight thirteen year old who feverishly types away fantasy stage plays on her typewriter in her spare time, witnesses several heated encounters between her older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and the housekeeper’s educated son, Robbie (James McAvoy). Robbie and Cecilia both share a fondness for each other that they keep hidden to the world. By mistake, Robbie exposes his intimate feelings for Cecilia through a typed letter, igniting a smoldering love. Just when it seems that they can be together forever, a chain of misconceptions and a juvenile accusation by Briony forever changes their lives. As Briony grows up, she is able to realize the weight of her accusation and the scarring effects that it has had on other people’s lives. Briony’s life becomes defined by her guilt and endless quest for atonement from Cecilia and Robbie.



Briony, at all ages, uses writing and more importantly the typewriter in her quest for forgiveness. As she types away, she begins to learn valuable lessons of how momentous words can be. The typewriter becomes an integral part of the plot. The easily identifiable sound of the typewriter creates positive tension through its natural clank, clank beat. The blunt sound of the typewriter becomes the heartbeat of the film, pacing the story and reiterating the importance of what words have the power to do. Dario Marianelli, the musical composer, pairs the clanking of typing with the urgency of the piano notes to add excitement to the film’s musical score. The unusual beat is evident in the beginning of the film, heightening the climax.

Perhaps director Wright and screenplay writer Christopher Hampton’s best achievement is the unbearable sexual tension that is prevalent in the first third of the film. And just like the product of a typewriter, the first third of the film is clean, structured, and well-paced.

Clank. Clank. Marvelous. Clank. Clank.

The passionate love story that unravels in the course of just one night, seen in the first third of the film, is not convincing enough to captivate audiences for the entire film. Sadly enough, as with all good things, the first third of the film comes to an end. In a bittersweet transition, the sexually charged subtle hand grazes and passionate library love-making are traded in for brilliant yet boring cinematography with a mediocre plot.

Don’t get me wrong, the film’s cinematography is beautiful. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey packs the film with breathtaking depictions of war; for example the British soldiers aimlessly waiting on the beaches of Dunkirk or Robbie cautiously walking through a field of lush reddish-orange poppy flowers. But scenes like these do more for the epic appeal of the movie than they do for the development of the story. The emphasis on cinematography causes the film to drag heavily in the middle, differing greatly from the typewriter rhythm that is created early on.

Claaaaaaaaaaaank. Claaaaaaaaaaaank. Yawn. Claaaaaaaaank.

The longer the film runs, the more you hate Briony Tallis. Her character is seen at three different ages and is perfectly cast in all of them. The young Briony, as played by newcomer Ronan, gives the exact amount of emotion and maturity needed to explain the character as a child. Romola Garai gives a strong screen performance as Briony as a young adult. Garai shows a lost soul seeking for forgiveness and identity at the same time. Although she gets little screen time, the elder Briony, played by Vanessa Redgrave, successfully shows that sometimes wounds never heal.

Some books were never meant to be adapted for the big screen. Watch the film on mute for the cinematography, but leave the plot and characters up to your imagination. Atonement should be read, not watched.

The End.

Clank, Clank, Clank, DING!

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