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Rent Movie.com Movie Reviews presents (2005) Rent the Movie Starring: Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal Director: Chris Columbus This film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning rock opera tells the story of one year in the life of a group of bohemians struggling in modern day East Village New York. The story centers around Mark (Anthony Rapp) and Roger (Adam Pascal), two roommates. While a former tragedy has made Roger numb to life, Mark tries to capture it through his attempts to make a film. In the year that follows, the group deals with love, loss, AIDS, and modern day life in one truly powerful story. Rosario Dawson, Jesse L. Martin, Idina Menzel, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Tracie Thoms, and Taye Diggs also star. Rent, the show that in 1996 gave voice to a Broadway generation, has finally become an energetic, passionate, and touching movie musical. Based loosely on Puccini’s La Bohème, it focuses on the year in the life of a group of friends in New York’s East Village–”bohemians” who live carefree lives of art, music, sex, and drugs. Well, carefree until Mark, an aspiring filmmaker (Anthony Rapp), and Roger, an aspiring songwriter (Adam Pascal), find out they owe a year’s rent to Benny (Taye Diggs), a former friend who had promised them free residence when he married the landlord’s daughter. Roger has also attracted the attention of his downstairs neighbor, Mimi (Rosario Dawson), while Mark’s former girlfriend, Maureen (Idina Menzel), has found a new romance in a lawyer named Joanne (Tracie Thoms). Philosophy professor Tom (Jesse L. Martin) finds his soul mate in drag queen Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia). But because this is the late-’80s, the threat of AIDS is always present. The remarkable thing about Rent the movie is that nearly 10 years after the show debuted on Broadway, six of the eight principals return in the roles they originated. They’re a bit older than would be ideal for their characters, but they do have the advantage of having learned the show directly from creator Jonathan Larson (who died of an aortic aneurysm while the show was in previews), plus they started young–we’re not exactly talking Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford here. Alongside a polished performance like Rapp’s–sometimes observer-commentator, sometimes participant in two of the score’s showstoppers, “The Tango Maureen” and “La Vie Boheme”–the two new additions (Thoms in place of Fredi Walker, Dawson in place of the edgier Daphne Rubin-Vega) slip comfortably into the ensemble; the pivotal Dawson makes a seductive case as Mimi when she tempts Roger in the mesmerizing “Light My Candle” or burns up the stage of the Catscratch Club in “Out Tonight.” Moviegoers who have an aversion to people who break into song while walking down the street probably won’t have their minds changed by Rent (even if they are singing rock songs), and the gritty subject matter and lack of big-name stars make it unlikely to cross over to general audiences the way Chicago did. But fans of musicals should find “Seasons of Love” as stirring as ever, and the show’s passionate admirers–the “Rentheads”–probably couldn’t have wished for a more sympathetic director than Rent fan Chris Columbus, or a more faithful representation of the show they love. –David Horiuchi

(30 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents Charlottes Web Movie Review a 2006 film starring Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi and directed by Gary Winick.From the opening credits (done with skillful paper art used for a storybook, “3-D” effect), Charlotte’s Web is charming. To quote the spider, Charlotte (and I suspect author E.B.White would agree), this film version of his story is both “Terrific” and “Radiant”. I was in tears by the end; this film spins a web of great humor and visual delight, and a very moving sort of beauty in both content and form. I was very struck by the art direction….moonlight on Charlotte and her web, the lane turning from Summer to Fall; the wonder of the Fair, with multitudes of details, all done in bright, small spots of color, equally treated, whether balloons or people.  much thought and talent was put into the making of this film.

Without ever being didactic or simple, the messages, too, are lovely and clear. When Wilbur the Pig speaks highly of Charlotte (voiced beautifully by Julia Roberts), a sheep asks, “Are we seeing the same creature?”; “I guess not,” he replies.

In a similar, quietly understated way, the entire barn is awoken to the miracle of Sunrise, as they share the experience with their new young friend, Wilbur. “Has it always been this way?” they wonder. The simple handling, too, of Wilbur’s heart-break, as Charlotte’s hundreds of newly born babies go flying off: “I had so much I wanted to tell you,” he says, “And someone I wanted to tell you about.” There are the makings of a classic fim in this movie rendition of a well loved book.

The funniest moments? Steve Buschemi’s Templeton the Rat, on his back in the buttermilk, the Crows with their discussions of, and adventures with the scarecrow, but the most side-splitting and also most endearing moment was the flying spiders, imitated by the Sheep.

Dakota Fanning, impressive previously for her charismatic role in Man on Fire, is well-cast as Fern, and I was intrigued by Louis Corbett as her brother, Avery. In his initial scene, he asks why Fern gets to have a pig. We laugh, and we feel for him; the screenplay has Avery as a younger brother, and less of an adversary, which works very well.

See this movie with every artist you know, every child you know, and every cynic you’d like to reawaken to Wonder.

Shanti Mai
shantimai.rentmovie.com

(17 votes, average: 3.29 out of 5)

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Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents Who Killed the Electric Car? Movie Review a 2006 film starring Phyllis Diller, Colette Divine and directed by Chris Paine. Though this documentary is filled with interesting facts and utterly charming people, GM’s little EV1 stole the show. An adorable piece of art and functionality, the EV1 came and went without my notice. Yet how I now miss it! Oddly, it was killed by its own parent company - as tragic a plot as any Shakespearean play.

Who Killed the Electric Car? is done as a mystery, with multiple suspects. The soundtrack at times is absolutely brilliant, and the film, whose subject matter could be quite distressing, is done in a manner both fair, hopeful and, at times, humorous. I really liked it. It captured not just my interest, but my heart.

Some people hope to spot Elvis at the local 7-11. I hope to spot an EV1.

Shanti Mai
shantimai.rentmovie.com

(115 votes, average: 4.6 out of 5)

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Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents Amelie Movie Review a 2001 film starring Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Perhaps the most charming movie of all time, Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain is certainly one of the top 10. The title character (the bashful and impish Audrey Tautou) is a single waitress who decides to help other lonely people fix their lives. Her widowed father yearns to travel but won’t, so to inspire the old man she sends his garden gnome on a tour of the world; with whispered gossip, she brings together two cranky regulars at her café; she reverses the doorknobs and reprograms the speed dial of a grocer who’s mean to his assistant. Gradually she realizes her own life needs fixing, and a chance meeting leads to her most elaborate stratagem of all. This is a deeply wonderful movie, an illuminating mix of magic and pragmatism. Fans of the director’s previous films (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) will not be disappointed; newcomers will be delighted. –Bret Fetzer

(39 votes, average: 3.44 out of 5)

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Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents Casino Royale movie review a 2006 film starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green and directed by Martin Campbell In his first mission, James Bond must stop Le Chiffre, a corrupt banker, from winning a high-stakes poker tournament and using the prize money to pay back threatening terrorists who lost money because of Le Chiffre. Casino Royale introduces James Bond before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to ‘00′ status. Bond’s first 007 mission takes him to Uganda where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka. Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides to investigate, independently of MI6, in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell. Following a lead to the Bahamas, he encounters Dimitrios and his girlfriend, Solange. He learns that Dimitrios is involved with Le Chiffre, banker to the world’s terrorist organizations. Secret Service intelligence reveals that Le Chiffre is planning to raise money in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. MI6 assigns 007 to play against him, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his organization. ‘M’ places Bond under the watchful eye of the beguiling Vesper Lynd. At first skeptical of what value Vesper can provide, Bond’s interest in her deepens as they brave danger together and even torture at the hands of Le Chiffre. In Montenegro, Bond allies himself with Mathis MI6’s local field agent, and Felix Leiter who is representing the interests of the CIA. The marathon game proceeds with dirty tricks and violence, raising the stakes beyond blood money and reaching a terrifying climax. The most successful invigoration of a cinematic franchise since Batman Begins, Casino Royale offers a new Bond identity. Based on the Ian Fleming novel that introduced Agent 007 into a Cold War world, Casino Royale is the most brutal and viscerally exciting James Bond film since Sean Connery left Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Meet the new Bond; not the same as the old Bond. Daniel Craig gives a galvanizing performance as the freshly minted double-0 agent. Suave, yes, but also a “blunt instrument,” reckless, and possessed with an ego that compromises his judgment during his first mission to root out the mastermind behind an operation that funds international terrorists. In classic Bond film tradition, his global itinerary takes him to far-flung locales, including Uganda, Madagascar, the Bahamas (that’s more like it), and Montenegro, where he is pitted against his nemesis in a poker game, with hundreds of millions in the pot. The stakes get even higher when Bond lets down his “armor” and falls in love with Vesper (Eva Green), the ravishing banker’s representative fronting him the money. For longtime fans of the franchise, Casino Royale offers some retro kicks. Bond wins his iconic Astin-Martin at the gaming table, and when a bartender asks if he wants his martini “shaken or stirred,” he disdainfully replies, “Do I look like I give a damn?” There’s no Moneypenny or “Q,” but Dame Judi Dench is back as the exasperated M, who one senses, admires Bond’s “bloody cheek.” A Bond film is only as good as its villain, and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre, who weeps blood, is a sinister dandy. From its punishing violence and virtuoso action sequences to its ill-fated romance, Casino Royale is a Bond film that, in the words of one character, makes you feel it, particularly during an excruciating torture sequence. Double-0s, Bond observes early on, “have a short life expectancy.” But with Craig, there is new life in the old franchise yet, as well as genuine anticipation for the next one when, at last, the signature James Bond theme kicks in following the best last line ever in any Bond film. To quote Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin, now I know what I’ve been faking all these years. –Donald Liebenson

(7 votes, average: 3.43 out of 5)

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Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents Die Another Day movie review a 2002 film starring Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry and directed by Lee Tamahori It’s up to James Bond to discover the connection between a North Korean terrorist and an adventurous diamond broker whose looks may be deceiving. The story begins in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea with a spectacular high-speed hovercraft chase and continues via Hong Kong to Cuba and London where Bond meets up with the two ladies who are to play such important and differing roles in his quest to unmask a traitor and to prevent a war of catastrophic consequence. Hot on the trail of the principle villains, Bond travels to Iceland where he experiences at first hand the power of an amazing new weapon before a dramatic confrontation with his main adversary back in Korea where it all started… The 20th James Bond adventure, Die Another Day succeeds on three important fronts: it avoids comparison to Austin Powers by keeping its cheesy humor in check, allows Halle Berry to be sexy and worthy of a spinoff franchise, and keeps pace with the technical wizardry that modern action films demand. Pierce Brosnan’s got style and staying power as James Bond, now bearing little resemblance to Ian Fleming’s original British super-spy, but able to hold his own at the box office. He’s paired with American agent Jinx (Berry) in chasing a genetically altered North Korean villain (Rick Yune) armed with a satellite capable of destroying just about anything. John Cleese and Judi Dench reprise their recurring roles (as “Q” and “M,” respectively); they’re accompanied by weapons-laden sports cars, a hokey cameo by Madonna (who sings the techno-pulsed theme song), and enough double-entendres to keep Bond-philes adequately shaken and stirred. With clever nods to 007’s cinematic legacy, Die Another Day makes you welcome the familiar end-credits promise: James Bond will return. –Jeff Shannon

(13 votes, average: 2.77 out of 5)

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Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents The World Is Not Enough movie review a 1999 film starring Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau and directed by Michael Apted James Bond protects an oil tycoon’s daughter while battling her former kidnapper, a terrorist who can’t feel pain. When British oil tycoon and M’s friend Sir Robert King is killed in a bombing at the MI6 headquarters, it becomes James Bond’s new assignment to protect his daughter and heir Elektra from further harm. Renard, a man who can’t feel physical pain due to a bullet in his head, seems to play an important role in the sabotage of the ongoing construction of the new King pipeline, which can give oil to all the world for the future. The three competing pipelines all end up in Istanbul, whereas the King pipeline is being laid elsewhere, and therefore is an easy goal to anonymous attackers. James Bond involuntarily teams up with emancipated Dr. Christmas Jones, and they soon find out that there is more threat to the situation than just some pipeline sabotage. In his 19th screen outing, Ian Fleming’s superspy is once again caught in the crosshairs of a self-created dilemma: as the longest-running feature-film franchise, James Bond is an annuity his producers want to protect, yet the series’ consciously formulaic approach frustrates any real element of surprise beyond the rote application of plot twists or jump cuts to shake up the audience. This time out, credit 007’s caretakers for making some visible attempts to invest their principal characters with darker motives–and blame them for squandering The World Is Not Enough’s initial promise by the final reel. By now, Bond pictures are as elegantly formal as a Bach chorale, and this one opens on an unusually powerful note. A stunning pre-title sequence reaches beyond mere pyrotechnics to introduce key plot elements as the action leaps from Bilbao to London. Bond 5.0, Pierce Brosnan, undercuts his usually suave persona with a darker, more brutal edge largely absent since Sean Connery departed. Equally tantalizing are our initial glimpses of Bond’s nemesis du jour, Renard (Robert Carlyle), and imminent love interest, Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), both atypically complex characters cast with seemingly shrewd choices, and directed by the capable Michael Apted. The story’s focus on post-Soviet geopolitics likewise starts off on a savvy note, before being overtaken by increasingly Byzantine plot twists, hidden motives, and reversals of loyalty superheated by relentless (if intermittently perfunctory) action sequences. Indeed, the procession of perils plays like a greatest hits medley, save for a nifty sequence involving airborne buzz saws that’s as enjoyable as it is preposterous. Bond’s grimmer demeanor, while preferable to the smirk that eventually swallowed Roger Moore whole, proves wearying, unrelieved by any true wit. The underlying psychoses that propel Renard and Elektra eventually unravel into unconvincing melodrama, while Bond is supplied with a secondary love object, Denise Richards, who’s even more improbable as a nuclear physicist. Ultimately, this World is not enough despite its better intentions. –Sam Sutherland

(6 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents Tomorrow Never Dies movie review a 1997 film starring Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce and directed by Roger Spottiswoode James Bond must stop a media mastermind from starting World War III for riches and fame. Elloit Carver is an egotistical media baron. Carver has the power to reach every person on the planet through his Carver Media Group Network- except for the People’s Republic of Chinese who refuse his presence in their country. When he is tied to the disappearance of a British battleship in the South China Sea, James Bond is sent to investigate. It is in Hong Kong where Bond meets Wai Lin, a member of the People’s External Security Force of China. With and without Wai Lin’s help, Bond soon starts to uncover a plot that goes all the way back to a mission on the Russian-Kazakh Boarder, and will start a war only to feed the fire that is Carver’s ego. Pierce Brosnan returns for his second stint as James Bond (after GoldenEye), and he’s doing it in high style with an invigorating cast of costars. It’s only appropriate that a Bond film from 1997 would find Agent 007 pitted against a media mogul (Jonathan Pryce) who’s going to start a global war (beginning with stolen nuclear missiles aimed at China) to create attention-grabbing headlines for his latest multimedia news channel. It’s the information age run amok, and Bond must team up with a lovely and lethal agent from the Chinese External Security Force (played by Honk Kong action star Michelle Yeoh) to foil the madman’s plot of global domination. Luckily for Bond, the villain’s wife (Teri Hatcher) is one of his former lovers, and at the behest of his superior M (Judi Dench), 007 finds ample opportunity to exploit the connection. Although it bears some nagging similarities to many formulaic action films from the ’90s, Tomorrow Never Dies (with a title song performed by Sheryl Crow) boasts enough grand-scale action and sufficiently intelligent plotting to suggest the Bond series has plenty of potential to survive into the next millennium. Armed with the usual array of gadgets (including a remote-controlled BMW), Brosnan settles into his role with acceptable flair, and the dynamic Yeoh provides a perfect balance to the sexism that once threatened to turn Bond into a politically incorrect anachronism. He’s still Bond, to be sure, but he’s saving the world with a bit more sophisticated finesse. –Jeff Shannon

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents GoldenEye movie review a 1995 film starring Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean and directed by Martin Campbell James Bond teams up with the lone survivor of a destroyed Russian research center to stop the hijacking of a nuclear space weapon by a fellow agent believed to be dead. Bond, while on holiday, meets the beautiful but deadly Xenia Onatopp, a member of a Russia mafia group and attempts to stop Xenia and another person taking the ‘Tiger’ helicopter, a new design and protected against any form of jamming. Meanwhile, Natalya Siminova, a Russian computer programmer is shocked when her team is wiped out by Xenia and Natalya’s boss General Ourumov who steals the top secret space weapon Goldeneye, a satellite which triggers a nuclear pulse in the target area which destroys all electronic equipment. Bond is sent to discover who’s got control of the weapon and teaming up with Natalya finds that the real villain is someone who knows Bond of old. An old friend of Bond, Alec Trevelyan, plans to destroy London using Goldeneye to gain revenge on Britain and he is even more dangerous as Alec is an ex-00 agent himself… The 18th James Bond adventure was a runaway box-office success when released in 1995, thanks to the arrival of Pierce Brosnan as the fifth actor (following the departure of Timothy Dalton) to play the suave, danger-loving Agent 007. This James Bond is a bit more vulnerable and psychologically complex–and just a shade more politically correct–but he’s still a formally attired playboy at heart, with a lovely Russian beauty (Izabella Scorupco) as his sexy ally against a cadre of renegade Russians bent on–what else?–global domination. There’s also a seductive villainous with the suggestive name of Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), and the great actress Judi Dench makes her first appearance as Bond’s superior, M, who wisecracks about 007’s “dinosaur” status as a globetrotting sexist. All in all, this action-packed Bond adventure provided a much-needed boost the long-running movie series, revitalizing the 007 franchise for the turn of the millennium. –Jeff Shannon

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents Licence to Kill movie review a 1989 film starring Timothy Dalton, Carey Lowell and directed by John Glen James Bond leaves Her Majesty’s Secret Service to stop an evil drug lord and avenge his best friend, Felix Leiter. Shortly after an important drugs bust, CIA agent Felix Leiter is married, but when the drug lord he arrested escapes, kills his wife and mutilates Leighter his old friend British agent James Bond seeks revenge. When “M” orders 007 to drop the matter and start a new assignment, Bond deserts Her Majesty’s Secret Service and embarks on a world wide personal vendetta to kill those responsible. Timothy Dalton’s second and last shot at playing James Bond isn’t nearly as much fun as his debut, two years earlier, in the 1987 The Living Daylights. This time Bond gets mad after a close friend (David Hedison) from the intelligence sector is assassinated on his wedding day, and 007 goes undercover to link the murder to an international drug cartel. Robert Davi makes an interesting adversary, but as with most of the Bond films in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s–and especially since the end of the cold war–one has to wonder why we should still care about these lesser villains and their unimaginative crimes. Still, Dalton did manage in his short time with the character to make 007 his own, which neither Roger Moore did nor Pierce Brosnan did. –Tom Keogh