By Dave Montalbano
AdventuresOfCinemaDave.com
Forget last summer’s girlie man movies like Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time and Sex and the City 2, with Fast Five’s opening gross of $86 million, the Summer 2011 blockbuster season has begun!
Currently screening at the Museum of Discovery’s IMAX, Fast Five has the energy, action and humor expected from a Summer Blockbuster.
While some of the action sequences have a taint of Attention Deficient Disorder editing, the stunt work, car chases and heists are well-directed. The climactic fight between Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson and Vin Diesel does not disappoint, but it is the quiet moments that will resonate … in particular, when Vin Diesel’s outlaw character reminisces about going to church with his father and the Sunday afternoon barbecues for the neighborhood.
Written and directed by Max Winkler, Ceremony is the kind of movie that most filmmakers don’t make anymore. Children’s writer Sam (Michael Angarano) tricks his friend Marshall (Reece Thompson) into driving to Eastern Long Island. What is first promoted as a youthful road trip becomes a journey toward obsession. Sam wants to disrupt the wedding of the love of his life, Zoe (Uma Thurman).
Given that Sam is in his twenties and Zoe is in her forties, Ceremony is an odd movie with allusions to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Jonathan Ames. Angarano’s Sam makes the convincing transition from fake Marlboro Man look-a-like to that of man-child who finally becomes an adult. There is much situational humor.
Also opening this weekend is Werner Herzog’s 3-D documentary The Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Best known for his intense films like Fitzcarldo, Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Grizzly Man, Herzog obtained exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave of Southern France, believed to include the oldest pictographs on earth.
The Caves of Forgotten Dreams is a beautiful and approachable film. Herzog, who also narrates, brings a childlike joy through his grandfatherly German accent. The visuals are exceptional and the stories told about the artifacts are life-affirming.
Opening this weekend at the Movies of Delray will be 100 Voices: A Journey Home, winner of the Audience Award at the 16th Annual Palm Beach International Film Festival. This documentary celebrates song and faith as a group of Cantors travel to Poland to sing.
There is so much to do this Mother’s Day weekend, make the most of it!
