NYFF taps "Life of Pi" as opener; "Flight" as closer

I've been slowly eking my way into the festival circuit over the past couple years, mostly with brief and not-terribly-thriving trips to Portsmouth, NH for their annual Telluride by the Sea redux of the Colorado festival. As much as I enjoy the atmosphere, they only ever have one standout, or even entirely solid, film on display, in past years playing host to "The Illusionist" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin". While I'll doubtlessly check out the one or two worthwhile films suspect to hit the fest this year, I have my much more ambitious sights set for the biggest festival on the east coast. That's right. This year has me rearing to go to New York Film Festival.

Of course that process can only be helped along by the choosing of outstanding films to make up its program. It'll be a short while before we get the full listing, but they've hinted at what the overall feel of the fest will be by announcing the film kicking off events. Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" is set to have its world premiere as opening up the festival, a move which has everybody kicking with anticipation at what else is on tap for the festivities. Lee's film has already been praised for the gorgeous visuals of its trailer alone, though how it stacks up for a feature length film is really what matters. I wouldn't caution him to worry, since his film is already a shoo-in for Oscar glory.

For Your Acknowledgement: Train Wreck

Unstoppable starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine is releasing this Friday, and I've already offered my two cents on the production. I obviously believe that you shouldn't see it, as it's a waste of money, but that's up to you. However, to persuade you in the proper direction, I have offered the most dull and boring clip from the movie that I could find. Check it out below, and have at it. Comment on your thoughts!

Film Review: Unstoppable

They say that if you've seen one Tony Scott film, you've seen them all, and I have now seen one Tony Scott film, which is apparently the best. The sad thing is, if I was going to see a new film next weekend, this would've been the film I chose. At least I saw it in advance, so I can tell you to avoid this one. Unstoppable is a film about a runaway train going at high speeds into a populated area, and the two train conductors who go after it to try and stop it. It's said very early on that this is based on a true story, which I highly doubt because I can't believe that events would occur this conveniently or that business executives would be as dumb as they are here.

You can expect a rather shortened film review, because there really isn't that much to say. The first forty to fifty minutes is spent establishing characters and the story, and it fails on that part. We're somehow supposed to believe that Will Coleson (Chris Pine) and Frank Burns (Denzel Washington) have only been working for a day, but have fostered some emotional connection. We don't, because they haven't. Pine and Washington are given one note characters, and turn out two note performances. Nothing that will get you to especially care about these characters too much, but they add a splice of charisma in occasionally.

About five minutes into the film, you realize that the ultimate villain of this film is a train. It's not the sort of unbiased aggression the trailer tried to sell it as. It's a train, with no actually threatening persona attached to it. The film doesn't really pick up speed until an hour in, and even then, we don't quite get the thrills we should. We know the good guys are going to save the day, and that's that. This actually felt a lot like some cheap Michael Bay film. Not like Transformers 2 where the action will sustain you throughout the runtime. The type where you don't quite feel the necessary momentum, and yet it is always loud and headache inducing, which is the feeling I received while watching this train wreck (No pun intended). That might just be the vibe emanating from Kevin Dunn's stupid performance. The cinematography is observational rather than intimate, and it's of a rather poor quality. The picture attached to this review is at the highest resolution it's ever going to be at. That is truly pathetic. All I know is that it took entirely to long to get to the point where things start blowing up, and people start gripping their seats. It's ultimately not worthy of your time, so just skip it.

C+