Rabu, 08 Juli 2009
Trailer for Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant"!
All this time I thought that this film was going to be a dark, super serious type of whistle-blower tale like "The Insider". Obviously I had the totally wrong idea. This looks like "The Insider" mixed with "Burn After Reading"...hopefully that's a good thing...
Selasa, 07 Juli 2009
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" - REVIEW
The biggest surprise I got from "Transformers 2" was that I didn't HATE it. It left me puzzled, until a quick conversation with a friend made me realize why that was so. The film might be hollow crap, but it's well polished hollow crap. As much as Michael Bay is a hack of a director, it's hard to deny the impressive visual effects, and even some of the cinematography (there are some beautifully composed shots, in terms of lighting). Some of the fight scenes are fun to watch as well. HOWEVER....
The one word that comes to mind when I think of "Revenge of the Fallen" is: dumb. And I mean, D-U-M-B. With everything from the protagonist's mom high on pot brownies talking about how she heard her son lose his virginity, to obnoxious twin robots reduced to bad black/latino stereotypes, to not one, but TWO scenes of small dogs humping, to Megan Fox trying to "act", to the Smithsonian museum opening onto a DESERT, this is one lazy effort in the creative/writing department (and 2/3 of the writers also wrote "Star Trek"......). I'll spare you from too many plot details because they'll only leave you with a headache. Opening with a flashback, we find out that the autobots/decepticons have been on Earth MUCH longer than anyone ever knew. An older generation called The Primes landed on Earth thousands of years ago and even got into some nasty fights with ancient humans. This sounds fine, but once you learn enough later in the movie, you come to realize that it basically makes the hunt for the first film's Macguffin (the Allspark) seem trivial compared to what has (supposedly) been at stake the entire time. And this is just one of several plot holes big enough to drive an aircraft carrier through. There's also the question of how two VERY old transformers can teleport, but our "younger" robot heroes can't.
But hey, you argue, "Transformers" isn't meant to be a piece of art, it's an action flick! So why am I determined to judge it so harshly? Because I know that Hollywood is *gasp* capable of better. Let's compare Transformers with Pirates of the Caribbean. The first installments of both trilogies were big hits with fantastic special effects that kept audiences coming back for more. But there's one key difference: characters. Jack Sparrow alone elevated the weakest moments of the inferior "Pirates" sequels, because he was a charming, quirky, ORIGINAL character. Transformers has NEVER had that. The robots are barely given anything resembling personalities, which is more than I can say for the human characters. And even as Michael Bay strives to make his sequel bigger and better, there's never a chance to connect with these characters. So even though the massive fight at the end is cool to look at, it's hard to feel any genuine excitement, because most of the robots (good and bad) never have a chance to do anything to define themselves. Take for instance, a very cool looking autobot named Sideswipe. He gets some really bad-ass action moments in the opening chase in Shanghai, but basically NEVER SEEN AGAIN until the final fight. The same goes for the host of new decepticons, virtually all of whom make their first appearences at the FINAL BATTLE. Though there is a very cool tiger-like robot that gets a few neat scenes, it's meant to be more of a pet to the decepticons, and therefore never speaks. Again, this renders the action more "cool" than genuinely exciting. The only truly exciting moment isn't even a battle scene, but rather a scene where the decepticons try to perform some less than pleasant surgery on our protagonist. And even in the action Bay still can't figure things out. Though he has finally learned that it's best to show two giant robots fighting by pulling the camera BACK, there are times when the blocking is just stupid. Why on earth is part of the climactic duel shot so that great chunks of the action are blocked out by giant pillars? Don't hide the robots from us damnit! So, aside from flat out laziness and stupidity, is there ANYTHING else that could push this movie over the edge in ridiculouslness? As a matter of fact, there IS! In fact, there are two things, and I'll list them for you, but be warned...your head might just explode:
The Two Most Batsh*t Stupid Moments of Transformers 2:
- John Turturro in a THONG (because really, is there anything more sexually stimulating than John Turturro's ass in a thong?)
- A Decepticon with TESTICLES (aka: decepticles).
I'll leave you with that to think about...
Grade: C-
"Franklyn" - REVIEW
I'm in a tricky spot in reviewing "Franklyn", the sophomore effort from writer/director Gerald McMorrow. Not because of conflicting opinions, but because I'm not sure where to place this film: despite having played at various film festivals, it has yet to find a US distributor, even for direct-to-DVD release (which it doesn't deserve). I guess I can label it a 2009 film...for now.
Well, back to the important stuff: the movie itself. The biggest such a film faces is certainly in its marketing. Though the trailers seem to advertise it as "V For Vendetta" with a parallel universe angle thrown in, this is far from being a philosophical action picture. Astonishingly fits into the category of drama better than sci-fi, action, or thriller. Weaving four different-but-separate stories together, the lives of Emilia (Eva Green), Milo (Sam Riley), David Esser (Bernard Hill), and Jonathan Preest (Ryan Phillipe). Though the first three are in our world, battling with everything from crushing breakups to suicidal tendencies, Preest is in an alternate realty, ruled (somewhat tongue-in-cheekly) by religious fervor. It isn't so much about what you believe, but rather that you believe at all. Faiths are set up to follow just about everything, only because it will give them a steady place in society (the best one? Seventh Day Manicurists). However, there are some that are a bit more facsist-like, and its one of these that Mr. Preest is hunting down. In particular, the cult's leader, who kidnapped a little girl and may or may not have killed her. Of course, standing in Preest's way are his lack of any faith at all, which constantly puts him at odds with the current ruling religion. How the four separate stories tie together is the film's strength. Editing is strong, and manages to keep one interested, even as it jumped between four different (and not always clear) stories. Production values are great, particularly in the parallel world, and the score provides a nice atmosphere. Performances, however, are where some of the cracks show, for various reasons. Green, Riley, and Hill are all quite good, but their characters could have benefitted from a longer movie, one that gave each one (well, at least Green and Riley) more depth to work with. Said depth would have given greater impact to the finale, which is best not talked about. On the other hand, we have Phillipe's performance. Here the fault lies more with the actor than with the writer. Though Preest is apropriately filled with cold determination, there are times when Phillipe's line reading veers more toward laziness. Story-wise, McMorrow deserves praise for trying something so different, but there are times when his influences feel a bit too obvious ("V for Vendetta"'s religious domination, "Watchmen"'s Rorscach character). Perhaps the best thing to come out of the movie is the tremendous potential it hints at. All of the ideas, both fresh and derivative came from one brain, and not a team of screenwriters, and that same writer made sure to direct his vision to ensure he had the best control over it. He knows how to get solid work from (most of) his actors. He just needs to balance his ambition with his execution. Here's hoping that he can do it.
Grade: B
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)