Stop-Loss : Review
By admin | August 24, 2008
Drama is a genre of movies that I never really want to watch so when I find a good one it’s a nice surprise.
Stop-Loss tells the story of a group of young soldiers who return home from the Iraq war to varying situations at home and in particularly the one played by Ryan Phillipe, whose tour is up and is desperate to return to a “normal” life. However, on returning to his base to fill out final paperwork and hand in his gear he is “stop-lossed” and told he must stay in the Army for another tour whether he likes it or not. His life begins to fall apart as he is given two equally unpleasant choices: Return to the hell of Iraq, or give up everything he knows and go AWOL.
The first half hour or so is a little bit “meh” - the soldiers return home to a thickly-accented Texas where fights, depression and idiotic decisions follow them. It seemed that it was going to be unrelentingly miserable, but then as events unfold into more of a road movie, it picks up a lot. I liked the film because it wasn’t pro or anti-war, but merely showed us how fucked up experiencing war makes young people, and it doesn’t present the main character with a clear moral choice, rather it admits there are no good choices in this situation (his choice parralels the decision to go into Iraq, neither option is good - do you absolve yourself of your responsibilities and leave your friends to suffer, or do you willingly go back into hell?)
Generally well acted (apart from Phillipe maybe overdoing the Texas drawl sometimes) and with a pretty believable, though sometimes predictable, plot, it’s an interesting issue that the movie explores and is well worth checking out.
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Dark Knight Review
By admin | August 8, 2008
Don’t believe the hype. The Dark Knight (TDK) is a very, very good film but it isn’t the masterpiece some fanboys would have you believe. The acting, effects and direction are all first-rate but somehow the film just failed to engage me on an emotional level. Perhaps it is the somewhat stretched out structure of the movie, that seems to have multiple 3rd acts that don’t build to a thrilling climax in the way you think. Perhaps because the movie has it’s biggest and best set-pieces prior to the finale. Perhaps it’s because of the strangely cold and emotionless feel to the film… But most of all it shares a problem with many films by directors who have already had one big hit and are given more free reign on their next picture, too much fat that should have been edited out. Peter Jackson’s King Kong had the same problem to an even greater extent - even if in that case it was a case of too little plot stretched out, whereas TDK has almost too much plot, too many twists, turns and dilemmas crammed into it. As much as studio interference bothers me, I feel like someone really needed to say to Nolan: “You need to lose 20 minutes.”
So that’s the bad, but more of the good: Yes, everyone says it but Ledgers Joker is fantastic. With a strange, almost satirically over-the-top American accent, intentionally over-pronouncing certain words “Comiisssiooneeerr”… he’s truly a unique character, and they take the great route of instead of having him be a Joker who makes jokes and tries to make people laugh, he’s just someone who *thinks* chaos and being evil is funny. Bale as Batman is…well, Christian Bale. That’s not a bad thing, but ever since someone pointed out Bale can only do “grim” and “insincere charm”, I have trouble sympathizing with any character he plays. The guy can do gritty better than anyone, but his Bruce Wayne lacks that little bit of empathy he could do with.
The direction and action scenes are superb. The underground car chase in particular being one of those action scenes that just builds and builds until you think it can’t go any further. Then it does. Great stuff an one of the reasons that I hope Blu-Ray players are cheaper by the time this hits home video - action scenes like this are what HD is all about…
It’s also a “superhero” film that (mostly) obeys the cardinal rule of fantasy films “have one or two fantastical elements but treat everything else absolutely seriously”. So we have Batman and the Joker, but the world around them reacts to them like the real world would and obeys the same rules we have: The Joker is kept in a crappy little room in Police HQ, not a Hannibal Lecter style cage. When the bad guys attack a police convoy, they do it with cars and rocket launchers, not Penguin bombs or hot air balloons. Sure there’s one or two “gadgets” that are too far-fetched to be credible: Batman’s sudden “every cellphone in the city is now a radar” technology is ridiculous and also seems to serve so little purpose, other than give Morgan Freeman a character moment or two, that I really can’t believe they didn’t drop the idea.
As I said at the start, it’s a really good film. It’s not The Godfather, but it is up there with Spider-Man 2 and X-Men 2 as one of the best superhero films, and if the franchise can continue being this good I can’t wait for part 3.
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The Happening : Review
By admin | June 30, 2008
On a certain level, this is a really, really bad movie. However, it was a bad movie that I enjoyed thoroughly. The Happening is terribly acted, meandering storyline, logically inconsistent and features bizarre tonal shifts - all things that make it terrible, and I recognize that. What I think drew me in though, was that compared to so many films these days it was at least trying to stand out from the crowd and do things differently. It fails at that, but I’d rather watch a glorious failure to achieve greatness than a half-hearted stab at mediocrity.
The first 30 minutes hint at a film that might have been, a true mystery story about events that can never be understood by humans. Shyamalan then seemingly raises the stakes, before dropping them again: At one point we are told the train our heroes are on has stopped because they have lost contact with “everyone” - a truly scary thought. However, within 10 minutes people are watching the news and receiving video clips of lions eating people on their iPhone. It is strange flaws like this that begin to pile on each other and eventually the film collapses under it’s own weight. It’s bad, but there are hints of Shyamalan’s skill hidden in there. So if you are like me, you might still get a kick out of it…
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Incredible Hulk : Review
By admin | June 25, 2008
Great Hulk film, much better than the first one. A good little action film that, in this cut at least, doesn’t spend too much time trying to be anything more. Excellent acting from all involved, good special effects and just takes itself seriously enough to draw you in, without getting bogged down in overwrought drama. Certainly leaves me interested enough to want to see the rumored 70+ mins longer “original cut” that led to some disagreement between Norton/Leterrier/Marvel. If the missing pieces are up to the quality of the rest, they will be worth a look but I think they made the right decision to make this Hulk a leaner, more muscular one - both in terms of the pacing, and in terms of the monster himself, who looks much better this time around, though still a little bit “nice” rather than the personification of anger he supposedly represents.
Overall, not quite on the level of Iron Man, which I think was up there with the best superhero films of all time: Spider-Man, Superman, X-Men 2, Batman Begins, Blade. This is a more perfunctory affair that never rises above the source material, but when the source material is about a 10-foot tall green giant smashing shit up, maybe that doesn’t matter so much.
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