There Goes Salt Angelina Jolie Shows Herself, One Again, to Be a Match for the Boys As an Action Hero

16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES FILM REVIEW OTHER RELEASES COMPILED BY IAN BartHOLOmeW There goes Salt Angelina Jolie shows herself, one again, to be a match for the boys as an action hero. Her Evelyn Salt, CIA agent on the run from, well, the neighborhood just about everybody, blows Tom Cruise and his ridiculous Knight and Day out of the water in terms of solid action, with an emphasis on real stunts that hurt and a minimum of CGI. This is a spy thriller on the lines of a James Bond adventure, with a plot that does not bear close scrutiny, but enough happens on screen that you don’t really care. Daniel Craig had better watch his back, because Jolie is close on his heels as the coolest secret agent around. Jaffa Well-crafted version of a perennial love story that goes back to Romeo and Juliet. Mali, a young Israeli woman, and Toufik, a Palestinian mechanic who works in her father’s garage, fall in love in the town of Jaffa. Mali is an almost invisible member of her family, whose members lavish all their attention on her brother Meir, a sullen, lazy boy who will inherit his father’s auto business. Ethnicity, religion, class, as well as a good dose of jealousy and possessiveness, all get in the way of a happy ending. Fine acting by Dana Ivgy as Mali and good support from the rest of the cast give this low-key and rather mournful romance its appeal. Piecing Me Back Together (Matataki) Originally scheduled for last week, Piecing Me Back Together is based on a best-selling novel by romance author From left: Gustaf Skarsgard, Torkel Petersson and Thomas Ljungman star in Patrik Age 1.5, directed by Ella Lemhagen. PHOTOS COURTESY OF ZEUS INTERNATIONAL Ren Kawahara. A story of young love interrupted by the terrible consequences of a BY IAN BartHOLOmeW traffic accident, the film features established STAFF REPORTER names in the leading roles. For those in search of a good weepy melodrama, this fits the bill. ‘Patrik Age 1.5’ wedish bureaucracy and middle-class hypocrisy come in for some gentle ribbing in Patriik 1.5, in which Keroro: The Movie 5 tells an uplifting gay couple Goran and Sven apply to adopt a child and story that won’t settle into a picture-perfect middle-class neighborhood. More adventures They don’t have an easy time of it, but surprisingly, of Sergeant Frog leave a saccharine director Ella Lemhagen has not had to resort to the (Keroro), the green considerable armory of hackneyed gay jokes to get laughs, nor frog-like alien, aftertaste does she find it necessary to get mired in the hot, sweaty passions and his earthly Swhich dominate the “gay interest” films that have such a large companion Fuyuki presence at alternative film festivals. Hinata, a young lad Goran and Sven are trying to establish themselves as a couple; obsessed with all properly married with kids, a garden, and maybe even a dog. They things paranormal. Japanese girl group SKE48 want to be open, even if this gives their straight neighbors something was brought on board to do some of the voices, of a shock. Goran, a doctor, who refers to Sven as his “husband,” is and a theme song by J-Pop idol Ayaka Hirahara is a gentle soul who we gradually discover is the stronger of the two, expected to bring in fans. In this anime adventure, even though he lacks Sven’s aggressive masculinity. the social welfare services he worries he will be raped. It helps that Hinata finds a carved image that greatly resembles PATRIK AGE 1.5 Lemhagen deals with the relationship between Goran and Sven Thomas Ljungman, who plays Patrik, is a dead ringer for an adolescent his alien companion Keroro and sets out to with great sympathy, showing them first as a perfect couple in the Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and his sullenness is able to morph into a wary discover how it came to be found on Earth. DIRECTED BY: face of uncertainty, gaucheness and sometimes outright hostility smile of great charm. One of the straight neighbors, in a misguided Strictly for fans. ELLA LeMHAGEN from those around them. Sven wants to share Goran’s dream, attempt to make nice with Goran, talks about how he managed to but as a former party animal with a barely suppressed addiction leverage hiring a Polish maid into a summer of cheap sex, suggesting Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf Desert Trek: STARRING: to cigarettes and whiskey, and a resentful ex-wife and angry that his neighbors have hit on a pretty good deal themselves. GUSTAF SKARSGARD teenage daughter, he finds the difficulties of the adoption process The script manages the tensions between Patrik and his foster The Adventures of the Lost Totem (GORAN SKOOGH), overwhelming, pushing him back towards his old habits. parents well, as Goran and Sven feud over having Patrik in the (喜羊羊與灰太狼之虎虎生威) TORKEL PETERSSON (SVEN SKOOGH), The film flirts with social realism, but this is a bit of a tease, house. Gustaf Skarsgard plays Goran with great feeling, capturing THOMAS LJUNGMAN (PATRIK), A feature film version ANNIKA HALLIN (EVA), and Patrik 1.5 is essentially a feel-good movie in which all the his vulnerability in the face of verbal barbs and emotional turmoil of the Chinese AMANDA DAVIN (ISABELL) characters, with only one exception, both gay and straight, are while still making him convincing as the stronger and more mature television series for treated with sympathy. After a remarkably deft introduction to the member of the relationship. The quality of the acting helps to move young children that LangUage: gay couple and their new neighbors, Patrik 1.5 moves into more the story along at a good pace, providing plenty of emotional depth screens on MoMo SWEDISH WITH CHINESE SUBTITLES conventional comedy territory when the couple discovers that and making the film seem more substantial than it actually is. Kids TV (Momo 親子 because of a typographical error, the child they are to adopt is not a That all will end happily is never really in doubt, for Lemhagen’s 台). The title says it TAIWAN RELEASE: cute one-and-a-half year old, but a 15-year-old social misfit who tells treatment is far too good natured to allow for a sudden turn into all. The goats and the TODAY Sven proudly that he once kicked a gay man in the face. tragedy. Nevertheless, the emotional payoff at the end does not wolves are in a constant battle, and the wolves, But this homophobic sociopath is shown to be more fearful than come too easily, and there is a sense of satisfaction when all works despite all their evil schemes, always come off frightening, even as he accuses Goran of being a pedophile and tells out in the end, even though we knew it always would. worse. For the very young. FILM REVIEW Lunar toons and cookie capers or to cite a conveniently available with a disapproving, emotionally sensible older one named Margo a perpetual second-place finisher which involves skittering robots Originality takes a example, between Toy Story 3 and distant mother (Julie Andrews); (Miranda Cosgrove), a tomboy behind the smug Vector, with his baked into the cookies and then backseat to fast-paced Despicable Me. a wisecracking nemesis named named Edith (Dana Gaier) and family connections, his track suits, ever larger and more elaborate Directed by Pierre Coffin and Vector (Jason Segel); a grouchy old Agnes (Elsie Fisher), a baby-faced his modernist mansion and his DESPICABLE ME gizmos and flying machines, storytelling in Chris Renaud and produced by scientist sidekick (Russell Brand); pixie who is crazy for unicorns repertory of inane, done-to-death is as hectic and desperate ‘Despicable Me’ Universal Pictures and Illumination and a swarm of cute little yellow — sell his favorite kind door-to- catch phrases (“Boo-yah” and DIRECTED BY: as Despicable Me itself. The Entertainment — a new player in minions, whose mostly nonverbal door for the benefit of Miss Hattie “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”). CHRIS RENAUD AND PIERRE COFFIN filmmakers seem motivated above BY A. O. SCOTT the lucrative and competitive world chirping and squeaking provide a (Kristen Wiig), the keeper of their It’s difficult not to see some WITH THE VOICES OF: all by the terror that if things NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK of feature animation — Despicable heavy, derivative dollop of cuteness Dickensian orphanage. of Gru’s inferiority complex STEVE CARELL (GRU), JASON SeGEL slow or quiet down for even a Is there a meaningful distinction to Me cannot be faulted for lack of and merchandising opportunity. Are you choked up yet? Are reflected in the movie itself, (VecTOR), RUSSELL BRAND (DR second, the audience will either be drawn between exercising the trying. If anything, it tries much too And just in case those you laughing yet? You might be which labors mightily to distin- NeFARIO), KRISTEN WIIG (MISS HATTIE), fall asleep or throw a tantrum. imagination and just making up hard, stuffing great gobs of second- industrious little doodads (they before the picture is over, but only guish itself in a terrain dominated WILL ARNETT (MR PERKINS), DANNY And so the projectiles (aren’t a bunch of stuff? When it comes rate action, secondhand humor and look like extra-strength pain- because the alternative would by Pixar and DreamWorks Anima- McBRIDE (FRED McDADE), JeMAINE you glad you paid that extra to children at play, probably not: warmed-over sentiment into every reliever capsules with eyes and be the kind of snarling fury that tion.

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