++Magazine

Imagine Austin Powers undercover as an Indian guru and you get Guru Pitka, the star of this movie. But where the Austin Powers-series made a lot of people laugh, this movie is unable to even make you grin during its, still too long, 87 minutes! Except of course for scenes with Stephen Colbert!

We’re keeping it simple here at ++ and are just giving you the stuff you need to know about this movie: Justin Timberlake is in it and he’s doing an even worst job than Sacha Baron Cohen in ‘Talladega Nights’ pretending to have a French accent! The girl lead is Jessica Alba and she’s just really boring and we’re not sure if she’s a really bad actress or if she acted retarded on purpose because the movie is this bad. Then you have Romany Malco from ‘Weeds’ and he’s just there. Not really good, not really bad. Ben Kingsley really surprised us by showing up in the movie, but I bet when all the famous people who have cameo’s agreed to be in the movie, thought it was going to be the next big hit after Austin Powers. Well, were they wrong! And did we say that Stephen Colbert is hilarious, as usual!

The story is really bad, they didn’t care about the acting at all, but the worst thing is that the jokes are really not funny! And that’s just weird. This guy is the guy behind Wayne’s World, Austin Powers and a lot of funny SNL skits. But hey, if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work. Don’t see this movie. Unless you’re really wasted or haven’t slept for a couple of days, because maybe the jokes will make you laugh then!

Ad people are sleaze bags. Go watch Mad Men and you’ll find out that it’s been that way for ages! And ‘99 Francs’ show us that it’s this way all around the world. No sweat though. Girls love sleaze bags and that’s why a lot of guys want to be sleaze bags. Maybe there’s one or two things we could learn from this film about a French ad-man who shows us his inner thoughts.

Jean Dujardin, the guy who plays the main character Octave Parango, has funny teeth, but that only annoyed me in the close up shots. Reminded me of Patricia Arquette who always bugged me because of those crooked teeth of hers. And what’s her face? Spiderman’s girlfriend. Kirsten Dunst!! Oh, how I hate her! Anyways, Jean doesn’t strike me as a very gifted actor, but he fits the role like a nice pair of tights. The girls are freakishly divine so keep Google ready to find their pictures.

Although I liked the film, which is based on a book by Frederic Beigbeder, the end is a little bit too Al Gore. It’s kind of annoying that there has to be a point and a message and no cowbell. The thing is the anti-ad-world-message isn’t coming through when you show the entire film how cool the ad world is. Even though the people in it are losers, we still want to be them. They have money and sex and drugs and gadgets and Nike’s I haven’t seen before. Well, whatever you want Mr. Director! And the last ten minutes were a drag! Just so you know.

Still recommended for its nice soundtrack, the sneak peek into the advertising world, and the fact that they speak French. Really man, French? Yep, and it sounds pretty cool! As a product I think this film was pretty smartly made, because at times it feels like a really long cool commercial for the ad world. And at other times it seems like a MTV clip on X! Wonder what the good man has planned for us with his next project. A Bientot Monsieur Kounen!

‘Auf Der Anderen Seite’ is clearly one of the best movies of 2007 and although we are pretty far in 2008 we still wanted to give this movie the respect it deserves so much. While some people might stay away from this film because it’s another mosaic film in the lines of ‘Babel’, ‘Amorres Perros’, ‘Bobby’ and ‘Traffic’. but let’s hope this review will make them rethink their position. We were simply blown away by this movie.

Fatih Akin, the director, is a German with Turkish roots and already has built up a pretty strong name for himself with ‘Gegen Die Wand’, the 2004 Berlin Bear and European Film award winner, and the less known ‘Im Juli’. And again he’s able to focus on a multicultural story line without losing himself in endless cliches that we see over and over in a lot of movies about migrants. This movie is about people who try to make the best out of their lives. They try to hang in there and it doesn’t matter whether you’re Turkish or German in the end we’re all trying the same thing. So true man!

The story is divided in three chapters, although not continuous in time. It’s about a man and his lonely Dad, a lesbian girl and her mother, and the quest of another girl to find her mother she hasn’t seen in years. But it’s also about politics, cultural differences and the way death is a red line in our lives.

The acting is incredible, especially the role of father Ali Aksu, played by heavyweight veteran Tuncel Kurtiz, really impressed. Nurgul Yesilcay, who plays young lesbian revolutionary Ayten, is known in Turkey for playing in a lot of TV-series and let’s just say that those roles aren’t as demanding to play as this part. But she pulls it off and she’s unrecognizable compared to her previous roles. Nejat Aksu, portraid by Baki Davrak, is a relative newcomer to but makes a solid appearance as a German scholar with a Turkish dad.

But in the end it’s the details that make this film so close to perfect. The art direction is so close to reality that you keep wondering if everything is shot on available locations. Beautiful cinematography makes it an art piece and the whole story-line is just amazing. In an interview Fatih Akin has stated that he was inspired by the Costa-Gravas masterpiece ‘Missing’ and the Roman Polanski film ‘Frantic’ and this is clearly seen in the incredible depth of story telling.

We hope the rumours are true that this is the second film out of a trilogy, because Fatih Akin has just showed us he’s capable of making back-to-back brilliant films!

Do I like this movie? I don’t know. It’s kind of cheesy and very Hollywood, but still it gives me this happy feeling. Maybe it’s the superb music by Scratch Massive? Maybe it’s the hot French new next thing Melvil Poupaud? Maybe it’s the fact that Adriana from The Sopranos is the supporting actress in this one? Maybe it’s Paris? Who knows? Who cares?!

Fact is that this little wannabe arty farty Hollywood project is pretty entertaining. And besides giving us flashbacks of better movies like 2 Days in Paris, Before Sunset and Last Tango in Paris, it also puts something new on the table, the… Uh, actually it doesn’t have anything new but it repeats a lot of stuff in an original and non-boring way. So if you have a Tuesday afternoon free and this plays at your local theater, go see it. If not, no worries you didn’t miss a lot!

But props to the people who deserve it. Because the director, Zoe ‘daughter of’ Cassavetes, definitely did a good enough job to make us curious for her next project. Let’s just hope she doesn’t repeat the ‘oh, I’m so unhappy because I’m alone and have a boring job and am depressed and taking pills and don’t know how to dress or how to put on make up and try to look ugly but still am a Hollywood actress looking smoking hot and therefor not convincing us at all with her oh so important problems’-Parker Posey type girl.

Meet Henry Roth: a highly intellectual, misanthropic, writer.
Meet his friends: ….
Meet his personal life: …..

Enter Lucy Reilly. When Henry has to work together with a new illustrator for his next children’s book, he’s drowning in self-pity and not planning on making the collaboration with Lucy Reilly, a young, unexperienced but devoted illustrator, end as soon as he can.

Dedication hasn’t been received all to well by the public, while the critics have praised it. The reason for this is probably because the movie is very personal and tells a small story about two people. You have to be ready for a movie like this. If you’re not in the mood or don’t think like Henry or Lucy it’s going to be hard to feel the vibe.

In the line of great pessimists we see a guy who’s greatest enemy is himself. Living life and embracing imperfectness is scaring him so much that you wonder what way the movie is going to take you. It gave us a positive feeling to know that the self-loathing, wanna-be geniuses are still somewhere on earth, even though they are disguised as hipsters now…