Movie Review: Princess Ka'iulani

The correct name of the Princess contains the 'okina or the glottal stop which is treated like a character within the Hawaiian language. For the Princess' name, it is between the a and the i. I don't have the correct font to do the Hawaiian language so for the rest of the review I won't be using any of the formal Hawaiian spellings for this formal Hawaiian picture. Why am I making this disclaimer? Because when the movie was shown at the Hawaii International Film Festival last year it was titled The Barbarian Princess and there was a big uproar within the Hawaiian community and I don't want that same uproar over my review for not having formal spellings of the Hawaiian names or places.

The movie Princess Kaiulani is not a documentary, but it attempts to convey some of the history of Hawaii's change from a Kingdom with its own sovereign rulers to that of an annexed property of the United States of America while focusing on the young ruler. Most Americans don't know about Hawaii's history like how the missionary families gained power in the islands or what led up to Hawaii being the last state admitted to the Union. Just last year we celebrated our 50th anniversary of the admission. I use the term "we" loosely as there were some people who protested what happened. Ultimately, President Clinton signed an apology resolution in 1993 for the part that the US government played in the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy in 1893.

In the movie, Princess Kaiulani (Q'orianka Kilcher) traveled from England to Washington DC after the overthrow of the Monarchy to talk to President Grover Cleveland. The problem was she had to do it as a citizen and not a princess. She made an explanation to the President involving salt, pepper and cumin. It was a brilliant way to explain the situation to an outsider.

What I found great about the movie is that they used the actual Iolani Palace here in Honolulu for the movie. I've been into the palace a number of times on Kaamaina Sunday where residents are allowed to take the tour for free. The floors are made of Douglas fir so you're required to wear these booties, kinda like surgical booties over your personal footwear to protect the floors.

They have some of the furniture that was in the Palace at the time of the overthrow and they have attempted to give you a feeling of what it would be like in the palace. The last part of the tour is the Throne Room where they describe how the windows would be open allowing people to walk in and out to the lanai or patio and the overall atmosphere during a royal gathering. To even see actors in period costumes on the screen brought a whole new meaning to me of the palace. There were a number of other exciting shots were shown in the movie including the room where Queen Likiuokalani was imprisoned where you can go during a palace tour, but also the Chamberlain's Office in the basement that you can't enter but just view through a Plexiglas door or Kaiulani walking up the grand staircase from the first to the second floor which you are NOT allowed to do at all.

The costumes for the movie were magnificent. I was reading where Kilcher had 20 some odd pieces that were made for the movie. Apparently many of the costumes were made not only to look like the designs of the time but also the material itself was that of the last decade of the 19th century. The one part that would make for a hard time would be the corsets. They were part of the time and were part of the requirements to be the foundation of the dresses. Several pieces of jewelry were reproduced to form the complete package to showcasing the style of the time. If you visit the basement gallery at the palace on display are the Crown Jewels of the Kingdom of Hawaii where you can see actual pieces worn by Hawaiian Royalty.

Something that non Hawaii audiences will be exposed to is some of the culture like the language and hula. Most people know hula as the smooth swaying of the hips called auwana but it didn't start out that way. Kahiko is the older style with strong forceful movements done to chants in Hawaiian olelo or language. Kahiko is generally not shown when there are tv specials coming from the islands. Audiences will experience the olelo both in chant and as conversational language. There is a beautiful scene while the princess walking on the beach, she's presented with a haku or woven lei with an accompanying chant. What was once a dying language has been making a come back. I'm glad this exposure is showcasing what a beautiful and lyrical language Hawaiian is.

The one part of the movie that didn't completely work for me were some of the transitions between segments of the movie. This wasn't the cinematic transitions with fades or wipes, but the abruptness of jumps between locations or situations. If there would be one recommended change, it would be smooth out some of those jumps.

Something that I do find of interest is about the choice of Kilcher as the Princess. A number of people complained about the original title. When it was suggested that Duane "The Rock" Johnson play Kamehameha the Great there were rumblings over a Samoan playing a Hawaiian. Disney is building a resort on Oahu and the Hawaiian community is saying they better get it right with their depiction of Hawaii. Yet strangely enough, I don't remember hearing anything about a non-Hawaiian playing the Hawaiian alii or royalty.

Audiences at the Hawaii International Film Festival sold out five showings of this movie as well as awarding it the Audience Award. It brings to people a great period piece shining a light on an undeserved portion of Hawaiian and American history while spotlighting Princess Kaiulani. If you can find this film at your local theater, I highly recommend checking it out. It is rated PG for some sensuality, brief language, smoking, thematic material and some violence and has a run time of one hour and 37 minutes.

Movie Review: Letters to Juliet

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Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl who loved each other very much. He asked her to run away and marry him. She agreed, but then she got cold feet and didn't show up at the appropriate time. Heartbroken she leaves a note for a fictional literary character who committed suicide over love asking for her advice. Fifty years later Miss Coldfeet's letter is found and acted upon by the Segreteria Di Giulietta or the Secretaries of Juliet. Sounds crazy, right? Maybe, but that is the basic outline of this week's movie Letters to Juliet starring Vanessa Redgrave as Miss Coldfeet and Amanda Seyfried as the advice giver.

Seyfried's character Sophie is in Italy with her finance Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal) on a pre honeymoon as Victor is about to open up his dream Italian restaurant in New York City where she works for the New Yorker magazine as a fact checker. He is more interested in checking out vendors and products for the upcoming opening than spending time with his love. While he's exploring a vineyard Sophie uses her time to visit the famed balcony in Verona where the story of Romeo and Juliet took place. This is where she discovers the Secretaries of Juliet and is welcomed in by the ladies who respond to letters left taped to the courtyard wall asking Juliet for love advice. Dear Abby and Ann Landers, eat your heart out!

After writing the response to Miss Coldfeet, actual name Claire, Sophie decides to hang with the Secretaries only to get confronted a week later by Charlie (Christopher Egan) Claire's grandson who is mad because Claire has come down from her home in England due to the letter. Sophie meets Claire and a decision is made to try to track down the lost love Lorenzo much to the chagrin of Charlie. This is where Sophie's skills as a fact checker come into play.

The three go gallivanting through the Italian countryside to try to reunite the estranged lovers. But what about Victor? Oh, he's excitedly off at a wine auction. He's so absorbed in the auction that he doesn't mind her traipsing around with the English grandma grandson team. They come to find out Lorenzo Bartolini is a very common name around Verona. Through their journey we get to see many, many beautiful views of the countryside. The Italy Tourism Bureau could use this film as a promotional piece showing off villas, vineyards, roadways and hillsides.

Three people trapped in a car for the better part of a week. Hmmmm....something's going to happen. You know the cars in Europe are generally smaller than their US counterparts. Either they are going to rip each other to shreds or they will become best buds. What will happen to our intrepid travelers? If you follow the breadcrumbs along the way you will know and in that way the movie was predictable. But, I still found the movie enjoyable. Can true love hold out for fifty years? Can Amanda Seyfried's eyes look anymore like Shrek's Puss-in-Boots' big eyes? How many Lorenzos will be contacted before the right one is found? Could the beautiful vistas of Italy be shown off any better? You'll have to watch for yourself. If not for the story, just the images shown alone are worth the viewing. BTW, if you saw the trailer you already know the answer to the BIG question.

The one part of the story that I found interesting was that while not known as the Secretaries of Juliet, The Juliet Club does exist. The idea of people writing to the character of Juliet for love advice is like people writing to Marcus Welby MD for medical advice (for those of you youngins who don't know, Marcus Welby was a fictional doctor on TV during the early and mid 70s). They have been doing this for a number of decades now as volunteer men and women respond to about 5000 letters annually from across the globe. They award the "Dear Juliet" prize on Valentines Day for the most compelling letter received the previous year and the "Writing for Love" for a love themed book. OK, so they must know something... If any of you have ever sent a note and received a response from one of the secretaries, I'd like to hear about it. I think after this film they'll be needing to hang out a help wanted sign to handle the influx of advice seekers sending Letters to Juliet.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: Death at a Funeral

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Funerals are a funny animal, especially when it's a family funeral. Living in Hawaii I haven't attended a family funeral in a number of years. The last time I attended a family function was my brother's wedding and someone made the comment, "it only seems the time this family gets together is for weddings and funerals." In the movie Death at a Funeral, two brothers Aaron and Ryan (Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence) make a similar comment saying that they only have reunions at funerals, in this case, it's their father's.

Aaron and his wife Michelle (Regina Hall) want to move out of his parents home into their own place. Aaron is supposed to give the eulogy since he's older but everyone was thinking that his published author brother would give it. Even when Ryan arrives from his first class flight from New York, he thought that he would be giving it. too Aaron insists that he'll be giving the eulogy once the funeral gets going.

The dad insisted on having a home funeral and Aaron is just trying to make it through the day as things happen to add more stress to the already stressful day. Uncle Duncan (Ron Glass) is there with his son, Jeff (Columbus Short) and daughter Elaine (Zoe Saldana) and her boyfriend Oscar (James Marsden). Duncan doesn't like Oscar and to help calm him down Elaine gives Oscar one of Jeff's Valium which turns out not to be a Valium but a hallucinogen. Elaine's ex boyfriend Derek (Luke Wilson) shows up with family friend Norman (Tracy Morgan) after they stopped to pick up wheel chair bound and crotchety uncle Russell (Danny Glover). Aaron is facing his wife who wants to have sex that day so she can become pregnant to relieve the pressure being put on them by the grieving widow Cynthia (Loretta Devine) who is upset that she doesn't yet have a grand child and constantly reminds Michelle of that fact.

After starting the day with the wrong body being delivered, the funeral progresses from bad to worse. Oscar freaks out as the drugs kick in causing him to knock over the casket which allows the body to fall out. During a short break to bring the situation under control Aaron is approached by Frank, an unknown little person (Peter Dinklage) saying that their dad and him were as Aaron pointed out later to Ryan, on the down low. Frank wasn't in the will and he feels that he's entitled to $30,000 or he'll expose their relationship with pictures that he brought to the funeral. Not a good day to be in Aaron's shoes.

Many of the family situations seem understandable, but the situation as a whole seems larger than life. Most of the humor worked while some didn't. Hey, I'm all in for a good fart joke, but they didn't have to revert to pure potty humor. Maybe if they brought Frank Oz back in to direct this it would have been better. What do you mean "back in"? Well, you see this is actually a remake of a 2007 movie of the same name that Frank directed. It was a British comedy that had the same set ups, relationships and occupations. Even Peter Dinklage reprises his role as the dead man's love interest. It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

These days Hollywood wants franchises where they can take proven characters and create new stories with them instead of spending the time, money and energy to come up with something without having to start from scratch. This seems to be a cost saving measure with a film where you change the location, the ethnicity of the family, and a few lines to try to make it appealing to a new audience. While not as original as I hoped, the power comedy cast didn't deliver a dead pan performance, but provided a lively time that for the most part people could enjoy. Extra kudos to James Marsden. It looked like he had an enjoyable time cutting loose and having fun as he explored the wild side of the characters psychotropic journey.

The movie runs 90 minutes and is rated R for sexual humor, drug content and language.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: Date Night

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Tina Fey and Steve Carell star as Claire and Phil Foster in Date Night, a movie that would be good for a date night. Two powerhouses of comedy are together in this one film and it could be overpowering. Between Steve and Tina, they found the right combination so that they moved the story forward providing lots of laughs but didn't go over the top making for a fun film that any couple on their own date night would have fun sitting in the darkened theater enjoying their own popcorn and soda.

Phil and Claire are a suburban family with two kids and they've gotten into a rut. He's a tax lawyer and she's a real estate agent. They have the sitter come over to take care of the kids and they go out on their weekly date night. They go to the same restaurant where the waiter knows them by name and what they like and don't like. To help pass the time while eating one of them will select a couple in the restaurant and they role play what they think is going on inside that couple's conversation. It got some good laughs inside the theater.

Phil and Claire change their relationship perspective when confronted by a dramatic situation. A close long time couple announce they are going to get divorced. Basically they were bored with each other and decided that they were the best of roommates rather than husband and wife. Claire and Steve looked dumbfounded and questioned whether they were headed down the street called Ho-Hum in their own relationship.

To change things up Claire dresses up for date night and Phil decides to take her into the city, to New York City from New Jersey to a swanky restaurant without reservations when they decide to pose as another couple, the Tripplehorns, and take over a table they wouldn't have otherwise had. I mean really, who would do that? While they're sitting enjoying their risotto and Cabernet two men (Jimmi Stewart and Common) approach the table and ask Phil and Claire to come along with them. Armstrong and Collins who are not restaurant managers,but thugs try to get "the Tripplehorns" to turn over a flash drive. Through a series of circumstances Phil and Claire get away and run to a former client of Claire's, Grant Holbrooke (Mark Wahlberg) for help. Turns out he is Security Consultant who likes lounging around in his place with his shirt off. While Claire might like this, it makes Phil uncomfortable.

In the process of trying to get a resolution for the case of mistaken identity with Holbrooke's help Phil and Claire track down the real Tripplehorns (James Franco and Mila Kunis), fire guns, deal with cops (Tariji P Henson), the DA (William Fichtner), the mob (Ray Liotta) and have one of the most inventive chase scenes involving a stressed out NY cabbie (JB Smoove) that's come along in a while.

For 88 minutes, this movie passed time quickly. The humor was smart and you could tell there was some improvisation going on. It was enjoyable to watch. Some of the scenes you'd say to yourself, "No way that could happen" but other times there were some real truths about couples who have been together for a while were expressed. It got pointed, but I don't think that they ever got personally nasty during the relationship discussions. Some of the pratfalls were classic but you still found yourself laughing out loud or going "oooohh" because you could feel the pain yourself.

Make sure that you remain all the way to the end of the movie. The credits have some funny scenes including out takes and different improve sessions. The movie is rated PG-13 for some sexual and crude content throughout, drug reference, and some language and violence. I'm wondering what sort of people were attracted to this movie as I watched the final credits part of the audience filed out and not one, but TWO people on separate sides of the theater pulled out LED flashlights to light their way. They safely navigated down the steps without falling. Now, if I could just get those people who walk down my aisle and decide to stop in front of me while I'm watching the credits to move out onto the stairs to make a decision about what to do next, that would be greatly appreciated!

BTW, over at the Skurvy Monkeys, I was christened by Design and Proud Monkey with the moniker Movie Monkey. Today, April 9, 2010 I was presented with my own Skurvy Monkey character portrait.

I understand the directors cap but wonder why it doesn't say "I heart POP corn" after all theaters don't serve buttered corn on the cob, but hot dang, everyone is snapping up those big bags of bushed out corn kernels! In any case I'm excited, kinda like Steve Martin in The Jerk when he says "The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need! My name in print! That really makes somebody! Things are going to start happening to me now. " Well, I got my monkey portrait and with this kind of spontaneous publicity things are going to start happening to me now! Thanks Design!

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.