Secret Sunshine is an emotional tour de force, taking its audience to the heart of a mother’s worst fear and then following her ensuing descent into a vortex of depression, denial and ultimately, madness.

Recently widowed Lee Sin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon) moves with her young son to Miryang, the hometown of her deceased husband. There she hopes to establish a new life while maintaining a link to her past. As she settles in, she starts a business teaching piano and begins to make friends. In an effort to impress her newfound friends and neighbors, she talks about buying some land and building a home. This illusion of affluence, however, makes her son the target of kidnappers, who demand a ransom that Sin-ae can’t pay. When the kidnappers don’t believe her protests that she doesn’t have the ransom amount they think she has, her son is found dead and the kidnapper is revealed to be someone close to her.

Such is the plot to only the first third or so of the movie. Where that would be enough for a whole movie in another’s hands, but for Lee Chang-Dong it is just set up for the gut-wrenching journey Sin-ae is on the road to. The success of this movie rests entirely on the shoulders of Jeon, who gives an incredible performance. As Sin-ae’s fortunes continue to sour, Jeon takes us step-by-step through her breakdown and descent into despair. It is this measured, naturalistic performance that keeps the film from becoming mawkish melodrama, overridden with histrionics that seem more about acting a character than being the character. Her work also helps ground the proceedings when Sin-ae becomes involved with Korea’s growing Christian church community.

Beautifully shot, the film paints a portrait of the sleepy Korean town it is set in. People laugh and cry, go about their business and gossip. It’s this universal, mundane reality of life that sets the stage for this tale, as well as propels the story along, helping to anchor the drama of the film and give it more punch-in-the-guts power.

It looks like producer Jerry Weintraub is going back to the mat, overseeing a remake of the 1984 coming-of-age-while-kickin’-ass film The Karate Kid. Weintraub, who produced the original as well as its three sequels, is teaming up with Will Smith and his production company Overlook Entertainment for the remake, according to a report at IGN.

In an entirely not-so-coincidental bit of casting, Smith’s 9-year old son (and Pursuit Of Happyness co-star) Jaden is attached to the project for the title role.

Normally, I’m not a fan of remakes, and am pleasantly surprised when my natural pessimissim towards them is proven wrong, such as in the case of the recent 3:10 To Yuma. But for this film, I’m strangely ambivelant, not being much of a fan of the original film. Still, I have reservations about Jaden Smith taking over the role from Ralph Macchio. Granted Macchio was 23 when he played the role of Daniel-san, but he was baby-faced enough to look like your average teenager. I think casting a pre-teen Smith is going to change a lot of the dynamic and drama of the film, not mention cut out the teenage love story.

Although it confused critics and audiences in its initial 1982 release, Ridley Scott’s science-fiction noir Blade Runner remains, a quarter of a century later, not only one of the most important films in the director’s filmography, but one of the most important films of the decade. As the movie was rediscovered first on video tape and then a subsequent “Director’s Cut” released in 1992, many became immersed in the complex themes the movie explores. And now, director Ridley Scott has gone back to the film for a third, and presumably final time, for Blade Runner: The Final Cut, a digital restoration of the film which sees Scott taking the time to fix a few minor things that have bugged him over the years.

In Los Angeles of just a few decades hence, Harrison Ford stars as Deckard, a retired police detective or “blade runner” whose specialty was the hunting down and elimination of human-looking androids called replicants who have been built to handle jobs too dirty or dangerous for humans. Smart as humans, replicants have a habit of intellectually growing beyond the parameters of their intended design, gaining an autonomy that some would argue grants them their own personhood. As replicants are illegal on Earth and are only allowed off-planet in the “Outer Colonies,” Deckard is called back into service when four replicants, lead by Rutger Hauer in a career defining role, have illegally returned to Earth to ask their creator how much time they have left to live.

Right away, one is struck by the impressive restoration work done on the film. Every frame has been digitally cleaned and the end result is a picture quality that exceeds how the film has looked in any previous release, either theatrical or on home video. Ironically though, the clearer picture doesn’t dilute the film’s murky tone, but enhances it. The audience can now see in greater detail the grit and griminess that Scott and his production team, lead by noted futurist Syd Mead, coated the film with, heightening the verisimilitude of the rundown near-future Los Angeles.

Most of the changes that Scott has made are to clean up small production errors such as crew members accidentally appearing in the edges of some shots or cleaning up a few spots were the film’s optical effects betray the limitations of the visual effect technology of the time. A majority of these tweaks are so minor that they’ll by-pass all but the most rapid devotees of the film. There are one or two that are fairly obvious, such as the improvements done to the scene where a replicant played by Joanna Cassidy crashes through a series of plate glass while being pursued by Deckard.

Perhaps the only really disagreeable change comes right at the end when Batty releases a dove he was holding as he dies. In the film’s previous incarnations, we see the dove fly into a blue sky, even though it had been raining throughout the scene. This was due to a second unit camera crew shooting the shot of the dove rather quickly. The result was seen by some as a continuity error, though others, including myself, have viewed it as Batty’s life force/soul/what-have-you transcending the dirty world he had found himself in. Instead, the new shot with a digitally created background of the decaying Los Angeles skyline that the dove flies towards takes something away from Batty’s death and its deeper significance.

But while the film has been visually messaged here and there, it still contains the philosophical underpinnings that rise it above the multitude of other science-fiction films. “More human than human” is the motto of the film’s Tyrell Corporation and Blade Runner examines just what it is that makes one human. Is it the accumulation one’s memories and experiences? What if these memories were manufactured? And what is the moral implication of creating artificial life to serve as a slave class?

The future society of the movie refers to the elimination of replicants euphemistically as “retiring.” However, an argument could be made that since they have begun to develop their own consciousness that exceeds their original design specifications, the replicants are alive and that “retirement” is simply murder.

It is these questions that will continue to ensure that Blade Runner remains not just a classic of its genre, but of all cinema.

While the Japanese have certainly overworked the spooky-ghost child meme for all it is worth over the last several years, there is still power in the tragic notion of a life full of potential being cut so short.

Laura (Belen Rueda) has decided to return to the closed orphanage where she was raised, hoping to turn it into a home for disabled children with the help of her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and young son Simon (Roger Princep). All seems well until Simon tells his mother that he has new imaginary friends, whose descriptions seem to match Laura’s memories of other children she knew at the orphanage before she was adopted. In the aftermath of a visit from a rather sinister social worker (Montserrat Carulla), Simon learns that he is adopted and is HIV positive. Upset, he runs away. While her husband concentrates on a nationwide search for their missing son, Laura becomes more convinced that Simon was taken by the ghosts she is now sure haunt the old home.

Click here to continue reading review…

Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s film 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days is a stark and dark look at life in 1980s communist-controlled Romania, a look more chilling than any horror film, as it is rooted in the cold reality that these were the circumstances that an entire nation lived under.

Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), a young woman in her early 20s, finds herself pregnant and unsure of what to do. She turns to her friend and roommate Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) for help. As abortion is illegal in 1980s Romania, Otilia arranges for the illegal procedure to be done at a local hotel and raises the money needed to pay for everything. Gabita, for her part, constantly endangers the girls by not following the abortionist’s directions for their clandestine meetings. Finally, the three meet at a hotel for Gabita’s procedure and while things seem to go right at first, complications arise, forcing Otilia into drastic actions that test her friendship with Gabita.

Click here to continue reading review…

1. The Kingdom (2,792 Theaters, Rated R): This is how I imagine a phone call during the planning stages of this movie went.

STUDIO EXEC: Hey! Is this my star writer!
WRITER: Yes, it’s me.
EXEC: Great! I wanted to talk to you about that police procedural you wrote for me!
WRITER: What’s wrong with it?
EXEC: Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s great. I love the characters, the pacing is dead on, I was on the edge of my seat.
WRITER: Good!
EXEC: …but you have to change it.
WRITER: Why?
EXEC: What you have here, people can see for free on any of the 15 CSI‘s or 10 Law and Order‘s in the comfort of their own home. We need something to entice them to come out to the theaters. Something to separate this flick from the herd.
WRITER: Like what? Set it in a different country?
EXEC: I like the way you think, my boy!
WRITER: Which one?
EXEC: Who’s the writer here? Me, or you. Do you want me to think of everything?
WRITER: Okay, you’re right.
EXEC: But don’t set it in England or France or anyplace else like that. Too boring. It’s need to be someplace edgy and exotic.
WRITER: How about Iraq?
EXEC: No! Too edgy! Too exotic! But somewhere in the Middle East is good. What’s that country next to Iraq…
WRITER: Kuwait? Saudi Arabia?
EXEC: That last one! Saudi Arabia! Set it there! Our heroes will have a hard time with the local bureaucracy. Maybe one of them gets kidnapped by terrorists…
WRITER: Is there kidnapping in Saudi Arabia? I didn’t…
EXEC: It’s the Middle East! Meat and potatoes America equates all of the Middle East with terrorism! It will work! Now get to writing!

At least that’s the vibe I get off the movie.

2. The Game Plan (3,103 Theaters, Rated PG): The transition from actions star to comedy star sometimes goes well (Schwarzenegger inTwins) and sometimes it goes not so well (Stallone in Stop, or My Mom Will Shoot!). But it does serve to prolong their careers just a little bit.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is still a viable action star. Sure, the last pure action movie he made was Doom, and that was a clunker but his career in that genre was far from over.

But he has been branching out. He recently stared in the drama Gridiron Gang and received fairly good notices for it. This film is another step in diversifying his career.

And if you are going to break into family films, having the Walt Disney name on the flick is a good idea. They are synonymous with family fare. However, they are not always known as for good family fare. And this film doesn’t seem all that original.

It would seem the success of this movie will depend on how well The Rock’s natural charm translates into this new film type.

3. Feast of Love (1,200 Theaters, Rated R): Slowly, almost completely unnoticed, and new film genre has snuck up on us. It is the “ensemble cast examining love in all of its forms” genre.

From Singles to Love Actually, it seems Hollywood has become enamored with this type of movie. And this film is just the latest entry in the burgeoning category.

The movie does have a pretty good cast going for it, with one Oscar winner (Morgan Freeman), and two Oscar nominees (Greg Kinnear and Jane Alexander) in the ensemble. And it is directed by Oscar Winner Robert Benton.

But, from what I’ve seen of the previews, I can’t make out who is in a relationship with whom. It seems that the couples in the clips are different from the ones on the poster. Maybe the movie deals with mate swapping, which doesn’t really lend itself to love. Or maybe I just need new glasses.

It does have kind of a soft opening compared to the other movies this week, lest than half the screens of The Kingdom. It will be hard for the movie to make any impact, even with the sterling cast and director.

Now, the Top 5 predictions. This is what I guessed for last week:

1. Resident Evil: Extinction
2. Good Luck Chuck
3. The Brave One
4. 3:10 to Yuma
5. Sydney White

And this is how it turned out:

1. Resident Evil: Extinction
2. Good Luck Chuck
3. The Brave One
4. 3:10 to Yuma
5. Eastern Promises

Sydney White just barely missed the top five by $462,753. I guess a fairy tale redux is no match for a naked male sauna fight. This makes me 23 for 35 over 7 weeks, and brings my accuracy percentage up to 65%.

But what about this week?

1. The Kingdom
2. The Game Plan
3. Resident Evil: Extinction
4. The Brave One
5. 3:10 to Yuma

We’ll see how we do next week.

Bill

Opening the 45th annual New York Film Festival tomorrow is the latest film from Wes Anderson, The Darjeeling Limited. Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Adrian Brody are three estranged brothers on a cross-country train trip in India hoping to renew their relationship through some “life-changing experience” or “spiritual awakening.” The film is typical Anderson, and I mean that in the best possible way. Click here for my full review.

AnnaSophia Robb, last seen in the under-appreciated Bridge To Terabithia, will be joining Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for the Disney film Witch Mountain, which director Andy Fickman is claiming isn’t a remake of the 1975 classic.

“Not remake,” Fickman told MTV Movies Blog. “We didn’t want to come in and just simply do a remake of a movie that we all really liked growing-up. It’s a new chapter within the world of Witch Mountain. I think that for people who have seen the original, they’re going to be very happy with the direction were going. And with people who’ve never seen it, I think it’ll be an exciting ride for them [as well]. The original book is a very cool dark thriller. We’re pulling elements from that. It’s a much darker movie than in the 70s when they did Escape to Witch Mountain.”

Robb will play one of two siblings with supernatural abilities on the run from an evil millionaire, trying to make their way to the titular mountain and home.

Denzel Washington and director Tony Scott are reportedly gearing up for their fourth collaboration, a remake of the 1974 thriller The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Washington would star as a tough New York cop who has to free a subway car full of hostages from terrorists. Walter Matthau starred as the cop in the original.

The film is reportedly being developed for Sony Studios, though they declined to comment on the Entertainment Weekly report.