Marcshake FILMS

I love watching films because they insist a reaction. We feel joy, disgust, anger, sadness, and wonderment. We love a film, and we hate a film. The only bad films are those that don't incite emotion to an audience.

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Fat Boy Chronicles (2010)

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Fat Boy Chronicles

Movies based on contemporary literature usually is just okay in my book, and this movie is one of those. 

Based on the novel with the same name, Fat Boy Chronicles, tells the story of overweight high school freshman Jimmy Winterpock (Christopher Rivera) and his struggle to fit in, overcome bullying, and his journey to make friends in the most unexpected places in high school.  It's a typical teenage coming-of-age drama, however, the filmic style uses a lot of dark and deep colours in the mise-en-scene to depict a more serious tone than that of your standard TV teenage drama series, Degrassi: The Next Generation. 

The characters were believable and you do get hooked into Jimmy's story and its more active and positive message for young teens who experience weight gain issues. Jimmy eventually takes matters into his own hands and starts running with his dad when he doesn't feel well emotionally, and starts trying to connect with people who are very different from his own personality. He eventually finds out, as we all did in high school, that whether you're a jock or a nerd we're all in the same boat with our problems, insecurities, and trying to pass class to get into college.

Overall, Fat Boy Chronicles is a pretty well-made coming-of-age drama, but so as many other of the same out there. It does have a great and believable message for teens today coping with the same struggles in high school by telling them to actively find solutions for themselves and to seek support from friends and family. This would be a great watch on a rainy, sleepy afternoon with nothing else better to do. 3 pimples of 5 pockmarks 

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Non-Stop

Another Liam Neeson thriller hit the box office earlier this year and has hit the shelves on Blu-Ray with Non-Stop, an aerial hijacking drama set on a British commercial airline. I had the privilege of watching it during this rainy weekend in my Vancouver abode.

Liam Neeson reprises his role (among similar roles in his recent movie-making career) as a hard-boiled, Air Marshal named Bill Marks aboard a red-eye flight from New York to London. Midway through the flight's destination, Marks receives a text message that will set the stage of an unseen hijacker set to kill one passenger at a time every 20 minutes unless he is wired $150 million dollars to a bank account.  Thrills abound in another classic whodunit movie mixed in with the suspense of Air Force One with Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman. However, the film falls short of really captivating audiences with a great twist at the end as are all classic whodunits. Non-Stop delivers a stellar cast with the likes of co-star Julianne Moore (Hannibal) and UK's Michelle Dockerty (Downton Abbey), but their characters are not developed to their full potential as brand-name actors.

Nevertheless, the movie is still an enjoyable watch as all Liam Neeson thrillers are, and I would personally not pass this one up. 

3 broken noses out of 4 gin and tonics

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Director/screenwriter Damien Chazelle premiered his short Whiplash during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won the Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction.  Chazelle then returned to the 2014 Festival with the feature length Whiplash starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons and won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic Film. Andrew, a promising 19-year-old drummer at a cutthroat Manhattan music conservatory, has little interest in being just a musician. Haunted by his father’s failed writing career and plagued with the fear that mediocrity just might be genetic, Andrew dreams of greatness.  The pressure of success ratchets into high gear when he is picked to join the school band led by the infamous Terence Fletcher, a brutally savage music instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student’s potential. Under Fletcher’s ruthless direction, Andrew begins to pursue perfection at any cost—even his humanity. Driven by fierce, searing performances from Miles Teller as Andrew and J.K. Simmons as Terence Fletcher, Whiplash crescendos to a blistering climax that will rattle audiences long after the lights come up. Check out the Meet the Artist interview with Damien Chazelle here. Whiplash opens in LA and NYC on October 10 and expands on October 17. Photos by Daniel McFadden, George Pimentel / WireImage, and Fred Hayes / WireImage

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Whiplash (2013)

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Whiplash (2013)

How far would you go to be one of the greats in history?  Writer/director David Chazelle answer this with a knock-out hit with audiences at Cannes, Sundance, and the Vancouver International Film Festival. Chazelle delivers a musically exhilarating and violent story of a jazz drummer student of one of the best music conservatories in the country and his battle of attrition with a jazz conductor's search for the next greatest Charlie Parker.  Audiences at Sundance called it "the Full Metal Jacket of Julliard" where actor J.K Simmons (Law & Order, Spiderman) plays the foul-mouthed and physically violent jazz conductor, Terence Fletcher to the musically passionate freshman Andrew Neyman, played by Miles Teller (Project X, Divergent). It is your typical story of music mentor who guides a student to become the best -- reminiscent of the 90s, Mr. Holland's Opus, but that's small fry compared to this musical journey. It takes a dark turn when you step into Mr. Fletcher's studio where he breaks spirits and dreams by yelling at you at how much of a fuck up you really are all the while throwing a chair or two at your head and making your fingers bleed raw. Literally. 

I was immediately floored almost yelling out "oh my god" alongside the audience at its gala screening at the Vancouver International Film Festival 2014, and cringing at J. K. Simmons relentless character. This is a movie where for an hour, you become deeply personally invested with the characters.  Whiplash is an absolute must see in theatres and I wouldn't be surprised for its nomination for the Academy Awards. The movie opened for the public in the US in select theatres in New York, Los Angeles, and Hollywood on October 10, 2014.

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Into The White (2012)

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What happens when you stick Nazis and English WWII soldiers in a room with no food and a couple bottles of schnapps in a cabin in the middle of a blizzard in the frozen wastelands of Norway?   Into The White (2012) is a Norwegian film starring Rupert Grint in his first role away from the Harry Potter movies. The film is loosely based on a true story in which a Nazi bomber plane and an English fighter plane crash lands in the middle of the Norwegian wilderness during a blizzard. The survivors of each crew unexpectedly meet in an abandoned hunting cabin and eventually warm up to each other to survive. No pun intended. If you were looking for a guns a-blazing WWII movie, then look somewhere else. Into The White explores the question of what would it be like to personally acknowledge your enemy in the same room with you, to feel what he feels, to struggle as he struggles. The film in its simplicity, makes you look at war as such a silly happenstance of life, and Into The White does it very well bringing the point home. There were times I had a smile on my face as the Nazis and the English, try to fight a war against one another without their guns by annoying the hell out of each other. Right up until the climax of the movie where they eventually chuck their guns out the cabin and have a merry old time drinking schnapps, eating moss, and working together getting one of the injured Nazis passed out drunk to chop off his gangrenous arm. From that point on, its more drinking, more singing, and more talking about their women from back home.  Its been a while that we’ve seen a heartwarming WWII war film, and one where we see Nazis in a better light. Because I mean, despite evil war mongering Hitler, all the grunts that went to war for him were people too. So if you’re into war films and bromance films, don’t pass this one up. four schnapps out of five pints of guinness

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Europa Europa (1990).

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What's it like being a Jew, a Nazi, a communist, all before the age of 18?  Europa Europa (1990) is an awe-inspiring true story film that tells of the life of 16 year old German Jew, Solomon Perel, during World War II who reluctantly becomes a part of the Hitler Youth to survive the Holocaust. Throughout the film, he goes to courageous lengths to hide his identity from his friends in the Hitler Youth; even to his girlfriend, a staunch supporter of the Nazi regime. But even before that, he was in a Russian orphanage where he became part of the Komsomol (Soviet Boy Scouts). It is rare to find coming-of-age films particularly set in World War II. It is even more rare to find a story as peculiar and wonderful as this one. This is a story of survival and of identity as Solomon Perel struggles with his identities as a German, a Nazi fascist, a communist, and as a Jew; all in an effort to see the next day. He struggles internally with friendships and relationships knowing full well that he is an enemy of the state to the Germans because he's a Jew, to the Russians because he's a German, and to the Jews because he's siding with one or the other to survive. Ultimately alone, the film follows Solomon's guilt ridden, puberty stricken predicament until the film's heartwarming end. I assure you though, this one ends happily.  This film is a diamond in the rough, and I'm surprised that I've never heard about this film. This is truly a forgotten classic, so if you ever find a copy don't pass this one up; you'll be kept on the edge of your seats for a good two hours watching Solomon the Jew surrounded by Hitler's most fanatical youth supporters. This film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay in 1991.

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Monsieur Batignole (2002).

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Monsieur Batignole (2002) is a feel good light-hearted French film about an apolitical grocer and his Jewish neighbours in occupied France during World War II. Monsieur Batignole is a dumpy sort of man who doesn't care about the Germans, the Jews, or his weedy Nazi collaborator son-in-law Pierre-Jean.

All he really cares about is his store, champagne cellar, and hams. The story really begins after his Jewish neighbours get shipped off to a concentration camp and Batignole's family move into their vacated apartment. One night, Batignole hosts a party for German officers when all of a sudden a boy from the recently deported Jewish family comes unexpectedly knocking on Batignole's door. Batignole suddenly becomes a reluctant Jewish collaborator and hides the boy from his family and the Nazis. Although the film deals with a dark segment in history, director Gerard Jugnot focuses on the father and son relationship that Batignole establishes with the Jewish boy. Soon enough, the apolitical Batignole slowly starts to become fond of the boy and eventually tries to find a way to get him to neutral Switzerland.  You can definitely see the loving relationship that gets built between Batignole and the Jewish boy, with instances where Batignole is shown humorously thumping up and down the stairs all day bringing food and toys into the boy's hiding place while avoiding the constant yammerings of his own family, or those heartwarming moments when Batignole worries for the boy when he goes missing in the French countryside. If you're looking for a World War II film that isn't so heavy on the heart, but great for your soul, look into Monsieur Batignole, you won't be so reluctant when you start it :)

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The Outpost (2008)

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What's scarier than a flesh eating zombie coming at you? A bulletproof anti-semetic Nazi zombie coming at you with a machine gun in one hand and a rusty bayonet in the other. That is what makes UK nazi zombie film, Outpost (2008) so terrifyingly fun. 

A scientist and a businessman hire mercenaries to protect them while they examine and pick up an abandoned military experiment hidden away in an abandoned Nazi military bunker in Eastern Europe. That in itself is the first warning sign for these hapless military men. Why would anyone need protection in an abandoned WWII military bunker? Next thing you know, the men are picked off one by one at night by the undead Nazi menace that lurks within the bowels of the bunker. What makes this film so terrifying is how different these zombies are from the zombies we're so used to; aim for the head, run faster than them, and it will all be okay. But no, these Nazi zombies are trained to follow orders, can use weapons, and they don't die from a hail of bullets. Keep this in mind while you figure a way out of a cramped, claustrophobic, and perpetually leaky military facility. What the hell. 

The Outpost finally revisits a zombie genre that isn't explored too often so it's a breath of fresh air to finally see a decent Nazi zombie movie that isn't 1970s campy. However, the film in itself doesn't explore that far into the characters or the narrative history behind the film leaving audiences hanging and or wanting more. For audiences wanting more closure, the sequel, The Outpost II: Black Sun develops the outpost universe and further delve into the characters and meta-story of this failed Nazi experiment. Outpost II is way more action-packed and has a more engrossing storyline than the first. Think of it as a watered-down UK version of Resident Evil except with more believable characters, and with nazi zombies. However, I suggest watching the first film first to get a sense of what's going on in the second film. Basically speaking, The Outpost should just be a one shot movie instead of two. 6 Nazi officers against 8 American tanks 

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One Hundred Years Of Evil (2010)

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What if Hitler didn't die and instead escaped to America and became a hidden orchestrator of American politics and social culture?  One Hundred Years of Evil (2010) is an almost believable mockumentary that follows a Norwegian researcher Skule Antonsen and Spanish documentary filmmaker Idelfonso Elizalde on a fantastic ride through Hitler's life in America and how close he came to another rise in power by manipulating American society. Some examples include his dealings with fast food chain giant, McDonald's in its early years, the near planting of the Nazi party flag on the moon, the reshaping of Mount Rushmore's faces to prominent figures of German history, his brief dealings in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and how he almost started world war III during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the second half of the film, the CIA gets involved and it suddenly becomes a rollercoaster ride as a startling secret is uncovered by Skule and Idelfonso about Adolf Hitler's presence in America.  This is one movie you shouldn't pass up if you are a fan of documentaries and mockumentaries. One of the most hilariously amusing films I've seen as it pokes fun at those ridiculous so-called conspiracy documentaries you see these days on the History channel about Nazis and aliens, Nazis and Atlantis, or even Hitler getting hitched with Anastasia. I kid about that last one.  There are reviews out there that don't give this film its due respect. However, upon seeing the film, the film makers were very self aware of themselves and extra care had been taken to revise history into something hilariously tasteful. The suspension of disbelief was very well done in my opinion, and there were times near the end where I would catch myself almost believing it all, but alas, it's a mockumentary.

This isn't a film for everyone. It is a film for those who have an intelligent sense of humor and have a good general knowledge of the last five decades of world history.  10 swastikas out of 8 bratwursts 

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Zatoichi (2003). Office Kitano.