Everything Is Illuminated (2005) - Schreiber's inauspicious debut falls flat

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+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year

Elijah Wood looks serene encapsulated in sunflowers on this poster for Liev Schreiber's Everything Is Illuminated

Everything Is Illuminated is an adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005)) same-titled autobiographical 2002 novel, written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan (2014-16)).

American Jew Jonathan Safran Foer travels to Ukraine in search of illumination as to his roots and family history.

SPOILER What he finds, which is revealed after about 1½ hour, is wholly predictably a mass grave and reconciliation with the peculiar Ukrainians he meets. - They create the film's only bright moments.
It is an otherwise extremely dull time, filled with insufferably long music sequences - with lousy music - and led by Elijah Wood (Set Fire to the Stars (2014)) as the bespectacled, unendurably alienated Foer. If the film had only had a fifth of the self-complacent, pretentious air it flies contently on, it would have been plenty. 
Everything Is Illuminated seems to attempt to be a dramedy, but taken as a drama it is bad, and taken as a comedy it is even worse.

Related reviews:

Liev Schreiber: Pawn Sacrifice (2014) - Zwick, Knight and Maguire's mediocre chess genius movie (actor) 
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (actor)

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 3.6 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Everything Is Illuminated premiered September 3 (Telluride Film Festival) and runs 104 minutes. Filming took place in Ukraine and the Czech Republic, including in Prague, from June - August 2004. The film opened #45 in 6 theaters to 66k $ in North America, where it peaked at #29 in 110 theaters and grossed 1.7 mil. $ (47.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 1 mil. $ (27.8 %) and Germany with 205k $ (5.7 %). The film won two awards at Venice Film Festival as well as 'special recognition for excellence in filmmaking' from the National Board of Review. Roger Ebert have awarded it 3/4 stars. Schreiber has only directed two episodes of Ray Donovan since the film, and continues to be acting. Everything Is Illuminated is fresh at 66 % with a 6.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Everything Is Illuminated?

Chernobyl Diaries (2012) - Flunky writing ruins abandoned city youth horror

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The evocative, eerie poster for Bradley Parker's Chernobyl Diaries

A group of young travelers decide to postpone going to Moscow to spend a day of 'extreme tourism' in Chernobyl, the Ukrainian city that was abandoned following the 1986 nuclear disaster at the plant there. But the travelers strand here and find themselves ... not alone.
An interesting idea is cluttered up here because of lack of any other good ideas. A few scares cannot counter the fact that all the characters are smooth, uninteresting and incredibly stupid! - They walk into every building, down into every cellar, and cannot possibly imagine to just run the measly 13 miles out of the abandoned zone. Furthermore, the 'monsters' and the ending is disappointing.
This youth-based horror movie is the directing debut for Bradley Parker, who has previously mostly worked as a visual artist on movies like The Time Machine (2002). He directs second unit on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014).
This below average, low-budget horror film proves with its impressive numbers below, why horror is still a profitable and popular genre to produce.

Related post:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 1 mil. $
Box office: 37.1 mil. $
= Enormous hit

What do you think of Chernobyl Diaries?