Click here to read my review for A Dangerous Method.
Click here to read my review for Battle Royale
Roman Polanski has almost never disappointed me and it’s been a long while since he has but manages to do so, finally with Carnage. Carnage has an A-list cast (three of whom are Oscar Award winners) starring in a one-act film version of a play that’s entirely predictable, grows more annoying every ten minutes, and shouldn’t have John C. Reilly in it because his acting chops aren’t nearly up to par with the those of his supporting actors. I’m not kidding when I say Carnage has only one act. It essentially ends right where it began and nothing new is learned that we as a society shouldn’t already know.
This film is a terrible disappointment.
David Fincher’s remake of the excellent Swedish film boasts terrific cinematography and excellent performances. I recommend it if one hadn’t already watched the original film. That being said, the original film contains a much smaller budget and feels more raw so its grit feel more atmospheric. This film version’s structure is flimsy and Trent Reznor’s soundtrack is, surprisingly awful but, again, it’s a good looking film and the performances are terrific (I find that Christopher Plummer was better here than he was in Beginners).
I recommend this film version of the film especially because it’s not darker in tone than the original film. Matter-of-factly, this version is more professionally made and far slicker so it has a lighter feeling to it. But it’s still a pretty good film.
It began as a John le Carré novel; then the novel was adapted as a 7-part BBC miniseries in 1979, starring Sir Alec Guinness; and now it has been adapted again but condensed to a 127 minute runtime. I haven’t read the book nor have I watched the original BBC miniseries but after I watched this film version, I felt that I needed to do so and quickly. This film version, although brilliantly shot, directed, and acted, is simply too slow to be interesting.
The story mostly follows a British secret agent named George Smiley (Gary Oldman – nominated for an Oscar for this performance in film) who’s informed that there’s a mole inside his circle and that he must flush him out. But when the mole is finally revealed at the end of the film I had no idea why that specific character was the mole and I didn’t care much, either. I was lost throughout the film, and from early on, and find that not wanting to revisit the film in order to entirely understand it is definitely a failure. The film is gorgeous to look at but is terribly dry and I don’t recommend it as more than a cheap rental because it might still find an audience and because it co-stars John Hurt, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Stephen Graham, Tom Hardy, and Ciarán Hinds.
George Clooney turns in an Oscar nominated performance, one that he should have won a statue for, and it also marks the progression of Alexander Payne as an expert filmmaker. The Descendants feels less like Payne’s usual indie films and more like traditional, classical Hollywood, and that’s a step in the right direction.
Characters create actions that propel the story forward, and The Descendants's Oscar winning screenplay utilizes the classical three-act story structure seamlessly; also, all of the performances are terrific. The music is also, surprisingly atmospheric and the cinematography is excellent. This is an excellent, good looking film, and it's one of 2011’s 10 best films.
The Adventures of Tintin is Steven Spielberg’s best action/adventure film since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989); it’s also a whole hearted apology for The Kingdom of the Crustal Skull (2008).
The film's story borrows from the first three episodes of the animated series (and book series) and is strung together into a coherent, terrifically told yarn of adventure and exciting amateur detective work. All of the classic characters are here, save for Professor Calculus, and are voiced and acted terrifically by Jaime Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, and Simon Pegg, et al.
The motion capture technology used throughout the entirety of the film is also quite masterful.
This is the second best action film of 2011, just behind Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) and needs to be seen, felt, and enjoyed by all, and preferably on the bog screen.
Melancholia is Lars von Trier’s best film. It should have been nominated at the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (in which Kirsten Dunst should have and would have won), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. It wasn’t nominated for a single category but I've managed to forgive The Academy for that.
The film showcases a harrowing portrayal of depression, in which its depressed protagonist (Dunst) hates her life so much and wishes that all other life on this planet, believing it to be entirely meaningless, was extinguished. A giant planet named Melancholia appears in the sky and it’s only a matter of time before it hits the Earth.
This is a tough yet beautiful movie to look at and a great source of escapism.
Here is an honest look into late '50s era British filmmaking and also terrific Marilyn Monroe and Sir Lawrence Olivier impersonations, but that’s about it.
The film follows a young man who does everything possible in order to work in the film industry and eventually becomes Marilyn Monroe’s muse. Her portrayal, performed by Michelle Williams (who should have easily won that Oscar over Meryl Streep) showcases Monroe's damaged behind-the-scenes personality and Kenneth Branagh’s Olivier is also fantastic, trying his best to keep up with her terrible work ethics (or lack of).
It’s a well shot, terrifically acted film that doesn’t take any risks but is, atmospherically a tad too light. It could have gone for a stronger, more dramatic tone. But it’s a good film nevertheless and should be rented or purchased, depending on one’s love for Marilyn Monroe and/or Sir Lawrence Olivier.
Director Tarsem Singh began his career directing commercials and music videos and his first full-length feature film The Cell (2000) showcases exactly that fact. However, even though the film is visually brilliant it tells a remarkable story that is entirely character driven and is the film is ends up being an emotionally engaging experience. Then he directed The Fall (2006), which is one of the most beautifully shot films ever made. And even though it’s more visually engrossing than it is emotionally investing, it’s an ever greater achievement than The Cell.
Now comes Immortals and it’s not based on the Greek mythological tale of Theseus, whatsoever. An omen approaches…
Briefly: King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) is a jerk who hates the Gods and knows that the only people that can destroy the Gods are the titans, who were Gods at another time. The titans were defeated long ago and imprisoned beneath Mount Tartarus for centuries (or maybe millennia) by The Gods and Hyperion knows that the mystical, magical bow of Epirus can be used to free them. He plans to do so and sick the titans on all of the Gods in a vengeful rage. Enter Theseus (Henry Cavill): a mortal who is chosen by the Gods to find the bow of Epirus before Hyperion does and, possibly slay Hyperion. I won’t ruin the rest of the film but clocking in at 110 minutes, it’s quite the bore because there’s little story to go around, most of it is senseless, and it lacks much action.
One thing that really bothers me about this film is the adaptation. It shouldn’t but it does. Let me give you an example as to what I mean: in the Theseus mythology, there is a Minotaur that’s performing sacrifices. At one point, Theseus ventures into the Minotaur’s lair, navigates it with the help of Ariadne (it’s a long story), and kills it. Theseus, much like Achilles and Hercules had lived a life full of action and adventures and the Minotaur (and its maze) was quite an adventure. This part of his story, however, is a tragic one because upon Theseus’ journey back home, he forgets to display a certain colour flag on ship’s mast that indicates that he’d slain the Minotaur. His father sees the “wrong colour flag”, believes that Theseus had died, and commits suicide. Most of that story isn’t in the film but the Minotaur is. However, the film’s version sees the Minotaur as a minion of King Hyperion’s who’s just some guy who waltzes around wearing a cage over his head and a bull’s horns instead being a man with an actual bull’s head that lives in the center of a complicated maze and rapes/sacrifices women. It’s more than disappointing; it’s very, truly sad.
The film’s cinematography isn’t very good, either, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The film is shot entirely on sound stages and with green screened backgrounds. Every location in the film is rendered digitally and looks fake. Most rooms in the film are tiny, as are most corridors, and a feeling of claustrophobia will be imminent. And if you ask me, that’s the opposite look and feel that a sword and sandals epic should depict.
The film would have benefited from being shot in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (aka full screen) and that stylistic choice would have been ideal because, aside from Theseus’ hometown, a mountainside village built into the mountain, most architectural designs in the film utilize square motifs. When a giant battle between hundreds of thousands of CG people is about to take place in a giant desert, the terrain is a vast, flat nothing that stretches to infinity and looks just as boring as all of those CG people. And when a large scale corridor battle ensues beneath Mount Tartarus, it’s shot… inside a long corridor where hundreds of extras are murdered, en mass utilizing the latest in CG blood technology. But instead of bodies piling up and Theseus, cleverly piling up the corpses in his entrance in order to block the corridor from his enemies, the bodies just mysteriously disappear between films edits. Curious… and remarkably mind numbing.
I don’t hate Immortals but I was terrifically underwhelmed upon first viewing it in the theatres, because I’m a Tarsem fan. I find nothing interesting in the film; not thematically and not visually. The performances are “straight to video” at best, especially Mickey Rourke’s. He seemed to be bored throughout the entire film. Even when crushing a man’s skull with his bare hands he seemed bored and I can’t blame him. There is essentially no script, and that means that there’s no true motivation to delivering even a decent performance. Rourke knew that when he accepted the paycheck, and so did Cavill. And so did Stephen Dorff (Stavros the thief), Freida Pinto (Phaedra the oracle), Luke Evans (Young Zeus), and John Hurt (Old Zeus). Yes, they’re all in the film and it really doesn’t matter. Anyone can play those roles and not deliver decent performances. Heck, hiring a cheaper cast of unknowns would have raised the special effects budget significantly and might have resulted in larger rooms and corridors.
It’s a disappointing film that’s not worth more than a rental (if even that) and I believe that viewing it on DVD or Blu-ray would show off the bad green screening more so. But at least it’s far cheaper than seeing it the theatres.
