Read these reviews and you should agree with me that since Hollywood has sacrificed its story/writing soul to the gods of big budget special effects, the documentary is the only place to find consistent compelling story telling in today's movie business.
Iron Man 2 -
See it - I'm only giving this a "see it" because I am assuming you like the superhero genre and If you plan on seeing The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor and The Avengers anyway you should your full arsenal of build up movies. Otherwise, I would say to skip this movie. Robert Downey Jr. is increasingly annoying as Tony Stark. I still don't know why Terrence Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle an Scarlett Johansson has taken giant steps backwards as an actress. Then we come to Mickey Rourke. I have a pretty vivid imagination and can suspend reality to accept just about anything but Mickey Rourke as a genius physicist is beyond my imaginative abilities. Although when we really look at Ivan Vanko, maybe he wasn't much of a genius after all. This is supposed to be a brilliant guy on the level of Stark himself and what does he come up with as a weapon? A freaking whip. You know why armies don't go into battle with soldiers armed with whips? Because paper beats rock, rock beats scissors and gun always beats whip.
Robin Hood -
Don't See - I learned a lot of interesting things in Ridley Scott's interpretation of the Robin Hood legend. Robin was the person that first put the seeds of the Magna Carta in the heads of the English Barons. He was committed to teaching orphans about hygiene. Little John was proportional to his size. Robin turned away King Phillips invading French army. Overall, a bad movie that tried to tell too many stories and didn't tell any of them well.
Fix -
Don't See -This is one of those movies I went into really wanting to like. It's a fictional story shot as a documentary. Director Tao Ruspoli plays Milo a documentary filmmaker desperately racing around LA with his brother, Leo and partner Bella trying to raise the funds to get Leo into rehab in order to avoid going to prison. The movie is shot by Tao Ruspoli on a hand held camera and we get to see some interesting parts of LA rarely visited on film but the film fails to sell us on the slightest relationship between the brothers or Milo and Bella. Every character is so completely disconnected from anyone else in the film it's difficult to believe any one of them would go through this much trouble for another.
William Kunstler - Disturbing the Universe -
See it - Disturbing the Universe is a documentary made by William Kunstler's daughters in and effort to understand the choices made in his professional career as a lawyer. For those who don't know, William Kunstler was a lawyer both revered and reviled for representing people like The Chicago Seven, The Weather Underground, the Attica prison rioters, America Indian Movement as well as infamous clients such as Omar Abdel-Rahman, El-Sayyid Nosair and the Gambino crime family associates. The documentary ultimately paints Kunstler as a radical who started out defending those who stood up against the US government but may have gotten too caught up in taking on cases for the fame rather than the principle. The documentary is aided by the daughters' unequaled insight and access to friends, family and associates. It's well worth the hour and a half to get to know a man you may not agree with or even hate but have to respect his willingness to choose a side and put himself on the line for a cause.
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See it - I watched this documentary last night after reading about it on Danny Vera's
blog. I spent a long time in bed thinking about what I wanted to say about this movie. The movie was equally moving, disturbing and enlightening. The filmmakers were embedded with Battle Company in Afghanistan to capture the soldiers camaraderie, fears, struggles and the realities of life in a war zone. They got all that and more. They also captured the emotional and mental scars carried by those who survive. The saddest part of this film is that I'm sure you could make a hundred more with a hundred other groups of soldiers and if would follow a similar arc. Regardless, your opinion of the US involvement in these wars, the one thing we should all be able to agree on is our respect and empathy for the soldiers involved.
Robin Hood - Don't See - I learned a lot of interesting things in Ridley Scott's interpretation of the Robin Hood legend. Robin was the person that first put the seeds of the Magna Carta in the heads of the English Barons. He was committed to teaching orphans about hygiene. Little John was proportional to his size. Robin turned away King Phillips invading French army. Overall, a bad movie that tried to tell too many stories and didn't tell any of them well.
Fix - Don't See -This is one of those movies I went into really wanting to like. It's a fictional story shot as a documentary. Director Tao Ruspoli plays Milo a documentary filmmaker desperately racing around LA with his brother, Leo and partner Bella trying to raise the funds to get Leo into rehab in order to avoid going to prison. The movie is shot by Tao Ruspoli on a hand held camera and we get to see some interesting parts of LA rarely visited on film but the film fails to sell us on the slightest relationship between the brothers or Milo and Bella. Every character is so completely disconnected from anyone else in the film it's difficult to believe any one of them would go through this much trouble for another.
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