Noticias

The Story It’s Christmas season, and praise the Lord for this episode. Bob’s Burgers finally introduced us to Bob’s dad, Big Bob (Bill Hader), last night. It’s been almost a decade since Bob has attended his dad’s annual Christmas Eve party at the O.G. burger joint — which looks a helluva lot busier than his place — but this year, Linda convinces the family to go. Some traumatic memories are rehashed and some new ones are created as Bob and his notoriously controlling father cook the holiday away. While their parents (and grandparent) man the restaurant/party, the kids endeavor to create contest-winning Christmas presents for their dad, each with their own lovable twist. The Highlights The first person to grace the screen was Bob, affectionately known as Little Bob in this episode. He was cute as hell: We learned that he was effectively a child...

Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre is a charming and engrossing fable – a sort of Fractured Fairy Tale for adults – that interprets one of today’s most contentious political issues through the director’s distinctly eccentric prism. A strong Palme d’Or contender at Cannes in 2011, Le Havre relocates classic Kaurismäki production elements from Finland to a harbor town in northern France. And, not surprisingly, the veteran director finds this sleepy Britannic burg as rife with idiosyncrasy as any snowbound suburb of Helsinki. Under thick gray clouds, Kaurismäki’s diorama of quirky characters gradually meander their way to moments of epiphany and catharsis, while viewers marvel at the director’s mystical moments of compassionate humanity and playful cinematic homage.

The film takes us through a couple of weeks in the life of Marcel Marx (Andrè Wilms), an unremarkable 60-ish shoe shiner who eeks out a living at the town’s bustling train station.

Chicago – It takes a French village in the sweet, optimistic, good-natured “Le Havre,” a film about a kind man who does something to help another and how the community doesn’t just rally around him but the world produces a miracle for him in the end. It is such a kind-hearted film that suggests without cynicism that doing good not only will bring more good but will essentially be supported by the world around you. Incredibly well-made and memorable, “Le Havre” is a stellar modern addition to The Criterion Collection.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Aki Kaurismaki takes his unique eye to the title city in the North of France for this tale of an immigrant boy who is first protected by a kind gentleman and then essentially guarded by the entire community. Sweet, surprising, smart, and very subtle, “Le Havre” is a gentle film that builds its story through character, setting, and humanity...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 31, 2012

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterion

André Wilms means business in Le Havre.

Le Havre (2011) is a surprisingly warm-hearted comedy film from the usually deadpan Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki (Leningrad Cowboys Go America).

In the French harbor city Le Havre, fate throws the young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms, La vie de bohème), a kindly, aging bohemian who shines shoes for a living. With inborn optimism and the support of most of his tight-knit community, Marcel stands up to the officials doggedly pursuing the African boy for deportation.

Tagged by Criterion as “a political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic French cinema of the past, especially the poetic realist works of Jean Duvivier and Marcel Carné,” the acclaimed Le Havre rang up some $620,000 at the U.S. box office since...

A self-consciously bittersweet comedy, "The Martins" contains a fair amount of laughs, but these are largely negated by an overriding sense that the film is not quite the dark social comedy it thinks it is. The key performances are excellent -- Lee Evans ("Mouse Hunt", "There's Something About Mary") never better and Kathy Burke confirming her "national treasure" status in British cinema -- but tyro writer-director Tony Grounds can't make the project work.

The film could be a cult success in the United Kingdom but might prove a tough proposition to release overseas. The social characterizations are very English, the language consistently strong and the humor not strong enough. "Martins" could well find a home on video shelves.

The film's premise is quite simple: The Martins are a suburban family from hell. Robert (Evans) is an unemployed dreamer who thinks his great escape will come from winning newspaper competitions. He is adored by wife Angie (Burke). The couple have a heavily pregnant 14-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son who can't deal with school. And Angie's tartly dressed mother lives just across the road with a mission to make her son-in-law's life miserable.

One morning, as Robert is cooking bacon on an improvised barbecue in the garden (involving throwing tires onto a fire), his neighbor starts shooting water at the fire. Robert pulls a gun and frightens off the neighbor. He explains to his angry wife that he is just keeping the weapon for a friend.

Things then spiral downward: Robert pulls the gun on son Little Bob's teacher and later uses it to threaten the editor of the local newspaper, which had been staging a competition with a dream holiday as the main prize.

Finally, Robert uses to gun to hold up the elderly couple who won the prize (nice cameo performances by Frank Finlay and Barbara Leigh Hunt), steals their ticket to the "dream holiday" (which turns out to be a trip to a cottage on the Isle of Man) and convinces his family that he won the competition and is taking them away. With the police on their trail, they head up the motorway from London to take a ferry to the Isle of Man, where eventually things come to a head with a blazing row between Robert and Angie, their daughter giving birth and the arrival of armed police.

The idea of a comedy built around a supremely dysfunctional family is appealing -- look at the success of Australian film "The Castle". But Grounds is determined to make the characters as unappealing as possible, so it's hard to sympathize with a man who thinks the world owes him everything and, when it doesn't come through, starts waving a gun at innocent people.

That being said, Evans forsakes his usual physical comedy to give a subtle, at times endearing performance as a common man pushed to his edge. Burke is great as the wife who loves him for his strengths -- compassion for his family and general good intentions -- but eventually despairs of his weaknesses. There is a deliriously enjoyable cameo by tough-guy actor Ray Winstone as a children's entertainer who goes berserk at Robert when he tries to persuade him to perform at Little Bob's birthday party.

Grounds has a good reputation from British television, where he scripted the series "Births, Marriages and Deaths". It was a brave move by the producers of "Martins" to let him take on directing chores, but sadly it hasn't paid off. There is a lot of talent there, though, and his will be a career worth following.

THE MARTINS

Icon Entertainment International

Tiger Aspect Pictures and Icon Prods.

Producers: Greg Brenman, Dixie Linder, Bruce Davey

Screenwriter-director: Tony Grounds

Executive producers: Peter Bennett-Jones, Paul Tucker, Ralph Kamp, Steve Christian

Director of photography: David Johnson

Production designer: Michael Carlin

Costume designer: Stewart Meachem

Editor: Robin Sales

Music: Richard Hartley

Color/stereo

Cast:

Robert Martin: Lee Evans

Angie Martin: Kathy Burke

Little Bob: Eric Byrne

Katie: Terri Dumont

Anthea: Linda Bassett

DI Tony Branch: Jack Shepherd

PC Alex: Lennie James

Running time -- 86 minutes

No MPAA rating...