Ready for some history, folks?

The movies this week are plundering the past for stories and inspiration. Of the lot, The Baader Meinhof Complex is the most complex, cerebral and ambitious. It reconstructs events in 1970s Germany when the Red Faction army launched a campaign of terror against Germany’s elites and eventually lost.

The film is a box-office hit in Germany, where it sparked furious debates and discussions. But for audiences who are not interested in politics and history, this 2 ½ long film may prove taxing.

The most anticipated movie of the week, and the one that will grab the No. 1 spot at the box-office, would certainly be Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian . Once again, Ben Stiller plays a man who must rescue the Museum of Natural History’s statues which come to life after dark.

The first film was a huuuge box-office hit in 2006. Despite that, we find the sequel as lame and unfunny as the first one – but that’s just us.

If you’re looking for more history, check out Young Victoria which portrays the life of Queen Victoria who, at 18 years of age, took to the throne of England. The Queen’s life, however, is not all that interesting. And even the usually feisty Emily Blunt couldn’t bring fire into her role of the Queen.

As writer George Bernard Shaw once said, “We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.” Go figure.

The Baader Meinhof Complex

In German with English sub

A Golden Village exclusive

German cinema has been going through an active period of self-analysis recently. From the powerful Hitler drama Downfall (2004) to the Oscar winner The Lives of Others (2006), German filmmakers have been digging up their historical dirt and smearing it on the movie screens for all to recall and confront.

The latest autopsy on their country’s past is The Baader Meinhof Complex, a vivid 2½-hour drama that reconstructs the social and political turmoil in Germany in the 1970s. Two young Germans, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, led a group of radical activists in a violent campaign against their government, which they believed to be imperialistic and embodying the same values of the third Reich

Bombing offices and kidnapping public figures, the Baader-Meinhof gang – or the Red Army faction as it was later known – killed more than 30 people and injured many others. The film takes us through the violent chapters of the gang’s history, as well as the aftermath.

Directed by veteran helmer Uli Edel, The Baader Meinhof Complex is already a box-office hit in Germany. But we’re not entirely sure what appeal it would hold for audiences in Asia. Unless you’re a history junkie, the lengthy history lesson is likely to test your patience.

The film moves quickly from one chapter to the next, often skimping on characterisation in order to cover the facts as objectively as it can. Hence, despite the competent storytelling and skilled direction, one never gets a clear understanding of the main characters, let alone empathise. Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck), Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) and Baader’s girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) remain cool and distant enigmas.

Strictly for history and politics junkies.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

It’s the sequel to one of the biggest blockbusters of 2006. And on the surface, it has everything. Big stars? Check. Well-loved historical figures? Check. State-of-the-art special effects? Check. Spectacular set pieces? Check.

Good gags? Uh… Great jokes? Well, um... you see…

Ben Stiller, the museum night guard in the first movie, has since given up that job to become an inventor and CEO of a company that creates gadgets. Despite his newfound success, he misses spending his nights at the Museum of Natural History where the statues come to life at night.

So when he learns that the statues are about to be shipped off to vaults of the Smithsonian Museum where they’ll be hidden from the world, Ben springs into action. Battling the evil Egyptian king Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) who wants to unleash his undead army upon the world, he teams up with famous aviator Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) to save his friends…

Like the first film, Night at the Museum 2 is packed with cheesy gags and half-baked jokes that ruin a good story idea. The script, though decently structured, throws one clunker of a joke after another. You could muster up a few chuckles every 10 minutes or so, but genuine belly laughs are hard to come by. Groans and blank stares may be common reactions.

Night at the Museum 2 is directed by Shawn Levy, who’s behind Cheaper by the Dozen and The Pink Panther. If those movies made you laugh, then by all means, go for this one.

A Shaw exclusive

Emily Blunt is a beautiful and talented actress who first turned on lesbians when she played a mischievous minx in the lesbian drama, My Summer of Love. Subsequently, she tickled gay men with her sharp comic performance as the fashionista in The Devil Wears Prada.

In real life, Emily is said to be so charming that even her co-stars are smitten. The usually reserved Meryl Streep raves about Emily’s comic talents, while Kevin Zegers (Transamerica) admits to having a huge crush after working opposite her in The Jane Austen Book Club.

So far, Em’s been a gem. But in Young Victoria she is absolutely… dull. One may suspect the heavy costumes and the tight corsets, but we think it’s the simple fact that she has to play the Queen. After all, you can’t mess around with the queen’s character too much.

So we get Em not quite being Em in the role of young Victoria who, at the tender age of 18, is crowned the Queen of England. Emily is convincing but constrained playing the young woman forced to make decisions on matters of the state, even though she (understandably) prefers matters of the heart. As the queen falls in love with her German cousin Prince Albert (Rupert Friend), their romance is true, tender and terrifically dull.

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee (C.R.A.Z.Y.) and written by Julian Fellowe ( GosfordPark), Young Victoria is just too respectful to be interesting. They should have rung up the REAL queen of England, Elton for advice first.

Asian cinema has had hits with cellphone movies like Hong Kong’s Connected and Japan’s One Missed Call. But Hollywood had only misses with Cellular, 88 Minutes, Eagle Eye and its own remake of One Missed Call. For some reason, Hollywood studio execs still think the rockets in their pockets are the stuff of good cinema. So we have yet another cellphone thriller opening this week called The Conspiracy.

Actually, it called Echelon Conspiracy in the US, but the Singapore distributors decided to rename it. Why? Do they think Singaporean won’t be able to pronounce eck-e-lone? How silly of them.

The Conspiracy stars former teen idol Shane West as a computer engineer who receives a brand new state-of-the-art cellphone. He starts getting mysterious sms-es that offer valuable information about the future – like which slot machine will deliver a jackpot at which time. Kaching! Soon enough, Shane finds himself the subject of pursuit and police investigation…

The Conspiracy has bad direction, dull dialogue and the most far-fetched storyline you can imagine.

Our advice: Hang up.