Genre movies from 2011.

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The Cabin In the Woods - Mark's take
01/05/2012. Drew Goddard directs a film he wrote with Joss Whedon and takes the viewer over a lot of very strange territory even for horror films. While the film is funny and frequently at the same time scary, it also looks at what makes horror films work before it dumps the viewer on the doorstep to one of the great master horror writers (who shall remain nameless). Spoiler warning: I do not think I gave away anything that should bother a viewer, but this is a film that it is best to see knowing as little as possible of what is to come.

The Fabulous World Of Jules Verne (Mark's take)
01/05/2012. Czech animator Karel Zeman, nearly forgotten now, was a genius of the animated film. Here, as his masterwork, he adapts a lesser novel by Jules Verne into a highly creative screen adventure. Showing great imagination on a tiny budget Zeman emulates the look of the lithographs of Verne's early editions and makes his film a pioneer in the style that since has been dubbed "steampunk".

The Moth Diaries (Frank's take)
01/05/2012. One thing is for sure…Hollywood certainly knows how to milk a cash cow. Serving up yet another vapid vampire entry to suck in (no pun intended) the ‘tween crowd, the low-budget gothic horror show The Moth Diaries tepidly arrives on the scene. A banal bloodsucking soap opera looking to shamelessly capitalise on the Twilight sensationalism, The Moth Diaries drains any remnants left of guilty pleasure goosebumps or recycled romantic regurgitation from the fidgety teen scream genre.

21 Jump Street (Frank's take)
01/05/2012. Somehow the warning signs did not look very promising for 21 Jump Street. The regurgitation of bringing back another nostalgic television show from yesteryear would understandably have eyes rolling in back of one’s head. In all fairness the prospect of introducing old television programs that get the big screen treatment for today’s younger audience is not always a bust (witness successful entries such as The Brady Bunch, Star Trek and The Addams Family for example).

Mirror, Mirror (Frank's take)
01/05/2012. Reinventing a familiar and favourite fairy tale that has been told over and over in many various generational television and movie adaptations is taking on a tall order of high expectations. After all, the gamble is a fifty/fifty proposition—either your latest version is considered ambitious and challenging or foolishly recycled and futile. Well, the latter option is probably the more apt selection in this case.

Wrath of the Titans (Frank's take)
01/05/2012. Greek mythology has never been more mangled than the 3-D tepid tale that is Wrath of the Titans. This overwrought and flimsy fantasy is the fragmented follow-up to 2010’s delirious dud Clash of the Titans. Anyhow, Wrath of the Titans is basically wasted energy bogged down in butchered CGI imagery, drab suspense, sleeping pill-induced performances and a dull-minded, manufactured fury that would not challenge the potency of a warm glass of milk as sipped from Apollo’s lips.

ATM (Frank's take)
01/05/2012. The USA-Canadian claustrophobic caper ATM is a little confining thriller that derives its psychological kicks from the logistical intimacy of an ATM kiosk where entrapment and nervous twitches should equal instant chills—at the expense of an unknown hooded winter coat-wearing psycho prancing about the vicinity with a sickened agenda in mind.

The Assault (Frank's take)
01/05/2012. French filmmaker Julien Leclercq’s intense-driven thriller The Assault recalls the horrific 1994 hijacking of Air France Flight 8969 at the hasty hands of four Islamic terrorists. The Paris-bound plane was to depart Algiers as the diabolical hijackers had other perverse plans in mind—mainly to crash the plane into France’s world famous symbolic architectural structure The Eiffel Tower.

Lockout (Frank's take)
01/05/2012. The sci-fi futuristic fable Lockout is a sluggish slapdish of a space thriller that sputters about without an original bone in its bloated body. Bogged down by shoddy writing, weak-kneed acting, recycled special effects, choppy editing, indistinguishable lighting, a cascade of clichés and a familiar blueprint borrowed from a number of past movies catering to the genre, Lockout is an uninvolving actioner that wallows in its derivative dribble.

The Cabin in the Woods (Frank's take)
01/05/2012. The ultra-cheeky frightfest The Cabin in the Woods finally does justice to its overexposed genre by instilling a sci-fi/horror vibe that resonates with fresh thrills, fun-oriented freakiness and a genuine outlandishness that never seems recycled or stale. Simultaneously chilling, introspective and funny, The Cabin in the Woods is joyously off-kilter and vibrantly wicked in its cunning goose-bump gumption.

Chimpanzee
01/05/2012. Earth Day is celebrated in the spirit as it is intended—to observe and appreciate the wonderment of our exquisite ecosystem. Well, Disney Nature has astutely made its notable tribute to our planet’s environmental cause courtesy of its affectionate nature documentary Chimpanzee, a gloriously quaint and affecting family-friendly movie that shines a touching spotlight on primates both in playful and periled predicaments.

The Raven (Frank's take)
01/05/2012. It is one thing to paint iconic poet Edgar Allan Poe as a mysterious and macabre personality. After all, the conflicted famed writer was burdened with demons that far outweighed his penchant for alcoholism. Poe was admittedly intense yet his written work was inspired by sheer brilliant madness.

Sound of My Voice (Frank's take)
01/05/2012. The haunting and provocative psychological melodrama Sound of My Voice is a stirring venture into the realm of indoctrination. Spellbinding in its provocation, filmmaker Zal Batmanglij’s low-key thriller is quietly disturbing in its fixating mode. Persuasive and probing, Sound of My Voice has a hypnotic-like edginess that feels refreshingly original.

John Carter (Mark's take)
01/04/2012. John Carter is the lacklustre title of Disney's film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's A Princess Of Mars, just over a hundred years old. People who have grown up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs novels (or people like me who have failed to grown up but still have read the novels) will probably be startled at the imagination of this epic production. Newcomers and even some non-newcomers may find the story more complex and harder to follow than one would expect from the adaptation of a pulp fiction science fantasy. The viewer should not expect a great story-- perhaps not even a comprehensible one. But it is fascinating to spend time with this visualisation of Burroughs's Mars/Barsoom. Somehow a novel that just seemed like silly fun is transformed into an epic film.

Safe House (Frank's take)
01/04/2012. The overactive, topsy-turvy cliché-ridden South African espionage thriller Safe House presents a swagger that is undeniable. It has an impressive cast led by the charismatic two-time Oscar-winning Denzel Washington. Newcomer filmmaker Daniel Espinosa dutifully incorporates dizzying camera shots and angles to give his excitable exposition some sense of tension-filled urgency. Seemingly, the key elements are there for the making of an intensified actioner ready to pounce on the audience’s sensory mode. Given this introductory breakdown, why does Safe House still come off as a fly-by-the-numbers sensationalistic suspense piece mired in juggernaut conventionality?

Silent House (Frank's take)
01/04/2012. Filmmakers Chris Kentis and Laura Lau tag-team on yet another derivative frightfest that…you guessed it…is etched in tiresome familiarity. The set-up: a periled pretty young gal and a haunted house as her tormenter. Talking about your basic blueprint for a horror movie premise, huh?

A Thousand Words (Frank's take)
01/04/2012. Veteran funnyman Eddie Murphy continues to partake in these woeful assembly line comedies that predictably register with a big thud. Murphy’s latest yuck-it-up monstrosity—A Thousand Words—certainly will leave one hopelessly speechless. Convincingly unoriginal, desperate, lazy and thoroughly insipid, A Thousand Words is utterly painful in every syllable.

From Time To Time
01/04/2012. This is a kind of ghost story, but it is not a scare-fest. It is a reserved but compelling adventure involving ghosts and time travel as a World War II era boy finds his family's mansion is a gateway to a mysterious past that holds family secrets. It was written and directed by Julian Fellowes, who won an Academy Award for his writing of Gosford Park.

The Hunger Games (Frank's take)
01/04/2012. Undoubtedly eager fans and followers with have a ravenous appetite for the competitive and combative thriller The Hunger Games, a high-minded cat-and-mouse caper that pits young folks against one another in a high stakes contest of survival and savagery.

Casa de mi Padre (Frank's take)
01/04/2012. Nobody knows how to grind out lifeless comedies in conveyor belt fashion such as Will Ferrell. Nevertheless, the ex-SNL star continues his consistency with the latest ethnic dud-of-a-laugher Casa de mi Padre. Sadly, Ferrell’s “hombre loco” act wears thin on the nerves and the overall movie is about as hollow as an empty piñata.

The Secret World Of Arrietty (Mark's take)
01/03/2012. By being less bizarre than Spirited Away and having more of a human center to the film, The Secret World Of Arrietty is one of Studio Ghibli's best efforts to date. Adapting Mary Norton's frequently filmed novel The Borrowers, director Hiromasa Yonebayashi gives us a world in which tiny people live in the walls of houses, borrowing food and tools and hiding from the big people.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Frank's take)
01/03/2012. Co-directors Mark Neveldine and Mark Taylor found their twisted niche overseeing the hyperactive octane Crank film series while unleashing an unstable balding one-man wrecking crew Jason Statham onto an adrenaline-powered audience. Granted the Crank franchise was perversely over-the-top in its bid for a cockeyed rush of outlandish thrills. Still, it satisfied its hormonal fanbase with imaginative and exaggerated gusto.

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol (Mark's take)
01/02/2012. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol still does not have the hang of what made the TV show so good. Instead of an intelligent puzzle for the viewer, it offers mindless excitement in one action stunt from Tom Cruise after another. But given that it is a Tom Cruise vanity piece and a mindless action film, it is one of the best mindless action films of 2011. Considerably better than the previous entries of the "Mission Impossible" series formerly animation director Brad Bird gives us quite a ride in his first live-action film. The film is a mixed bag of elements, but some are very good.

Hugo (Mark's take)
1/1/2012. There is a phantom haunting the Paris Train Station. Twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of the station and maintains all the mechanical clocks. This film is about him, but also about a lot more. This is much more than a children's film about a little boy. Beautifully filmed in 3D it, turns into an education for the viewer on a subject near and dear to director Martin Scorsese's heart.

Miss Minoes (Mark's take)
01/01/2012. A cat is accidentally turned into a beautiful woman by a toxic waste accident. Minoes, now Miss Minoes, befriends a failing newspaper reporter and uses her network of cat friends to help get the reporter the news stories he needs. Dutch author Annie M. G. Schmidt's 1970 children's book Minoes is adapted for the screen by director Vincent Bal who also co-authored the screenplay. The result is a rather slight but pleasant family fantasy film.

The Strange Case Of Angelica (Mark's take)
01/01/2012. This film is a Portuguese fantasy written and directed by Manoel de Oliveira. The pace is operatic and slow enough so that there is not much story here. Some dreamlike photography and a soothing musical score are pluses but slow, draggy telling is likely to frustrate the viewer and pay off with far too little reward for the effort of watching.