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Kurt Loder Reviews 'Terminator Salvation'

Posted 5/21/09 5:00 pm EST by in Reviews


Christian Bale in 'Terminator Salvation'FROM MTV.COM: A lot of hard work has gone into "Terminator Salvation," the fourth installment of the time-shuffling robot-war series and the first since the 2003 "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" detoured the franchise into the realm of unintentional hilarity. Unlike the past films, the new one is set in the future — the one from which android assassin Arnold Schwarzenegger was dispatched a quarter-century ago to travel back to 1984 and terminate Sarah Connor, the soon-to-be mother of John Connor, who, in the future from which Arnold was dispatched, had grown up to be the leader of the human resistance forces battling the metallic minions of Skynet, the sentient computer entity that had taken over the world. Oh, and also to put a stop to Kyle Reese, who had likewise beamed in from the future for the purpose of becoming John Connor's father. Is your head starting to hurt again?

Joseph McGinty, the director who fearlessly continues to call himself "McG" (a childhood nickname, he says; what if his parents had dubbed him "Munchkin"?), has staged some memorable scenes here. There's a gigantic Skynet aircraft swooping down on a bridge filled with fleeing humans; and a leap from a helicopter into a storm-tossed ocean far below to rendezvous with a rebel submarine; and — in the movie's snazziest interlude — a disembodied Terminator spinal column violently thrashing around on a lab gurney while its human captors struggle to hold it down.

Continue reading 'Terminator Salvation': Metalheads, By Kurt Loder

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Kurt Loder Reviews J.J. Abrams' 'Star Trek'

Posted 5/8/09 11:59 am EST by in Reviews


Chris Pine on the Enterprise bridge in J.J. Abrams' 'Star Trek'FROM MTV.COM:

I'm not a Trekker myself, but I suspect that the vast, excitable legion of those who are will be tickled by J.J. Abrams' genial reboot of their cherished franchise, and that their enthusiasm, expressed in repeat viewings, will enable the film to live long and prosper at the box office. Several of the deathless "Star Trek" phrases are still in position here ("Beam me up!" "Set phasers to stun!"), along with winking nods to the original series' endearingly cheesy effects (the whirly "transporter beam" looks as silly as ever). And the writers, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (who previously collaborated with Abrams on "Mission: Impossible III"), have come up with a head-achingly clever plot device that effectively vaporizes nearly 40 years of earlier "Trek" lore (six TV series and 10 previous movies), and takes the never-ending story back to square one, where it can begin spawning a fresh generation of sequels.

Continue reading Kurt Loder's review of "Star Trek" on MTV.com!

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Tribeca Film Fest Winner Parties In Manhattan, By Kurt Loder

Posted 5/4/09 6:51 pm EST by in News


Actor David Thornton and director Darko LungulovA number of very happy Serbs were packed into a tiny restaurant on New York’s Lower East Side on Saturday night, celebrating the success of their remarkable movie, “Here and There,” which two nights earlier had won the Best New York Narrative award at the Tribeca Film Festival. The restaurant, Kafana, is itself a Serbian enterprise, and director Darko Lungulov, passing the Blog a glass of Montenegrin wine, explained that he had picked it not least because of its kitchen. He said that when he wants really good Serbian food (defined as “a lot of meat” by another celebrant), he comes here – from Serbia.

Well, maybe. Lungulov, dark-eyed, long-haired, lightly bearded and wearing a pair of shoes with some sort of psychedelic landscape painted on them, is half a New Yorker himself. He studied film at CCNY in the ’90s, and after attaining his BA began directing documentaries. He moved back to Serbia six years ago, to his home town of Belgrade, where he came up with the idea and then wrote the script for “Here and There,” which is set in both cities. Read More...

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Coming Soon: 'Moon' - A Sci-Fi Trip To The Dark Side, By Kurt Loder

Posted 4/7/09 11:17 am EST by in Reviews


Sam Rockwell in 'Moon'Last Friday night, weary from pondering the mysteries of the MPAA movie-rating system (why is the wonderful “Adventureland” rated an audience-shriveling R? “Hostel” was rated R!), I found refreshment at a screening of “Moon,” a wonderful movie itself, in a very different, dark, brain-knotting way.

In fact, “Moon” is a terrific sci-fi space film, one that moves the venerable genre forward with a one-of-a-kind story and a striking visual design that in no way suggests its modest budget or its brisk production schedule (it was shot in about a month). The picture has one star: Sam Rockwell. He plays Sam Bell, a space worker nearing the end of a three-year corporate contract overseeing mining operations on the dark side of the moon. The lunar surface has been discovered to contain abundant amounts of Helium-3, an (actual) isotope that, in the movie, has revolutionized energy production back on Earth. The mining is done by machines; Sam is there to keep the operation humming. Read More...

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NYC EVENT: MTV's Kurt Loder Moderates 'Lymelife' Apple Store Chat

Posted 3/31/09 6:34 pm EST by in News


'Lymelife' PosterEver wonder what happens to a town when it's hit by an outbreak of Lyme disease? So has filmmaker Derick Martini, and that's why he's bringing us "Lymelife." The movie follows the emotional and romantic travels of a young man (Rory Culkin) in a town upset by the Lyme infestation, and also stars Alec Baldwin, Emma Roberts, Jill Hennessy, Cynthia Nixon and Timothy Hutton, with no less than Martin Scorsese as an executive producer.

Having generated considerable buzz at this year's Sundance Film Festival, the film will be hitting theaters in limited release on April 9. But before then, MTV News legend Kurt Loder will be sitting down with Martini and Culkin for a candid chat at the SoHo Apple Store in Manhattan. The interview will happen live at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 2nd, so those of you in the NYC area should mark their calendars now. Click here to read more about "Lymelife," and here to learn about the event.

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Kurt Loder Reviews Clint Eastwood's 'Gran Torino'

Posted 1/9/09 10:39 am EST by in Reviews


Mickey Rourke in 'The Wrestler'FROM MTV.COM: Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" has all the makings of a mess. It's not an especially interesting movie to look at (it's set in a nondescript Detroit suburb), its message is deeply familiar (learn to love thy neighbor), and its central performance, by Eastwood himself, is so broad that it verges on vaudeville.

And yet the picture gets funnier as it goes along — it's sometimes startlingly hilarious; and the ending is original and unexpected, and very un-Clint-like.

Eastwood plays an irascible old coot named Walt Kowalski, a retired auto worker whose only loves in life, now that his wife has died, are his equally ancient dog and his mint-condition 1972 Ford Gran Torino, which he brings out of the garage during the day and parks in the front driveway, where he can admire its gleaming perfection from his porch, while sipping a beer.

Continue reading Kurt Loder's review of "Gran Torino" on MTV.com!

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Kurt Loder's Top Films Of 2008: 'The Wrestler,' 'Milk,' And 'Tropic Thunder' Make The List

Posted 12/30/08 11:25 am EST by in Hot Stuff, Reviews


Mickey Rourke and Darren AronofskyFROM MTV.COM: December's end brings with it once again the curious need for movie reviewers to pretend there's some sort of objective standard by which to determine the year's best picture, director, actors and whatnot. This is an undertaking that doesn't bear extensive contemplation. If more than a thousand films were released in this country in 2008 (the figures are a little murky), you'd have to sit through two or three a day, every day of the year, to see them all. I don't know anyone with little enough of a life to manage this. Then there's the apples-and-oranges problem. "Slumdog Millionaire," "Elegy" and "Tropic Thunder" are all top-level movies, but in no way do they resemble one another; attempting to discern which among them is "the best" would be like comparing androids and avocados, with the winner facing off against a chunk of Appenzeller cheese.

But I guess best-of lists, while very light in the meaningful department, can be sort of fun. Below are some of the year's standout people and pictures, with one in each category arbitrarily allotted the top perch, and some other candidates, often equally deserving of that placement, sub-grouped below. So:

Best Picture: "The Wrestler"

Continue reading Kurt Loder’s look at the best films and performances of 2008 on MTV.com!

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Kurt Loder Reviews 'The Wrestler': 'A Fearless And Heartbreaking Performance'

Posted 12/19/08 1:40 pm EST by in Reviews


Mickey Rourke in 'The Wrestler'FROM MTV.COM: Mickey Rourke has taken a lot of punishment over the years, most of it with a puzzling eagerness. In movies of the 1980s, like "Diner," "Angel Heart" and "The Pope of Greenwich Village," his whispery charisma made him one of the most fascinating young actors in film. Then, in the early '90s, he bailed out of the business to become a low-level professional boxer, which is where the punishment came in. Now, at the age of 52, with a face so heavily repaired it resembles an Easter Island import, Rourke has found the role of a lifetime in Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," in which he plays a has-been grappler who has also taken a lot of punishment but can't stop coming back for more — punishment is his life. It's a fearless and heartbreaking performance: Rourke himself may look lumpy and worked-over, but his charisma remains undented.

His character is Randy Robinson — "The Ram" — a star on the pro-wrestling circuit back in the '80s. Twenty-five years later, he's still pulling on the tights and soaking up steroids, but the matches are sparse these days, and the money minimal — he works a dead-end supermarket job on the side, but still can't make the rent in the dismal New Jersey trailer park where he lives. (New Jersey, with its bare trees and wintry flatlands, is a presiding emotional presence in the picture.) Wrestling has changed, too: Now your opponents come at you with barbed wire and staple guns, and rake dinner forks across your face. It's a young man's game, and Randy, with his bad back, hearing aid and deteriorating ticker, is no longer young.

Continue reading Kurt Loder's review of "The Wrestler" on MTV.com!

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Mickey Rourke And Darren Aronofsky: Party People, By Kurt Loder

Posted 12/4/08 4:21 pm EST by in Behind The Scenes


Mickey Rourke and Darren AronofskyNEW YORK -- Fox Searchlight Pictures threw the first big movie-biz holiday party of the season on Wednesday night, in the Library of the Hudson Hotel. (It's a "library" with a bar, a billiard table and giant framed cow portraits thick on the walls.) The company had much to be festive about, two of its latest features being the focus of much, as they say, "Oscar buzz."

Director Danny Boyle was on hand to absorb back pats and congratulatory chatter for "Slumdog Millionaire," his quasi-Bollywood love story/adventure movie, which was shot in Mumbai and features, among several other things, one of the year's great soundtracks (by famed Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman). Also in attendance was the film's cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, a madly affable Englishman, who attempted to explain the special camera he'd invented for the picture -- a sort of mini-Steadicam rig, it sounded like, amid the din -- and expressed his great love of India, a country where he's spent a considerable amount of time. Mumbai, especially, he said, is an extraordinarily crowded place ("You open up a cupboard and a family of fifteen comes tumbling out"), and it's a challenge to shoot in, but he'd go back in a minute. Not right this minute, though. First he has to hook up for a new picture with his longtime colleague, the Danish curmudgeon/director Lars Von Trier. Read More...

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Kurt Loder Reviews Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire': 'It Leaves You Breathless'

Posted 11/14/08 11:17 am EST by in Reviews


'Slumdog Millionaire'FROM MTV.COM: Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" is a head-first immersion into the roiling urban culture of modern India, a quest movie that follows its teenage hero through the slums of Mumbai into slave camps, gangster dens and garish bordellos on his way to unexpected fame, unimaginable fortune and — he hopes — a reunion with the long-lost love of his young life. It's a unique adventure movie, and it leaves you breathless.

Boyle is a director who never seems to make the same sort of film twice. He's previously ventured into snarling drug comedies ("Trainspotting"), tropical island fantasies ("The Beach"), zombie horrors ("28 Days Later") and visionary sci-fi ("Sunshine"). Now he brings his rousing genre sensibility to bear on a vibrant world that's new to most of us, and we feel that we're discovering it, in considerable wonder, right along with him. (Boyle also credits Mumbai-based casting director Loveleen Tandan as the picture's co-director.)

Continue reading Kurt Loder's review of "Slumdog Millionaire" on MTV.com!

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