Paper_Hanger’s Weblog
Performances, movies and book reviews …Archive for Film Review
Terminator Salvation
I had a spare three hours so I went to see the latest Terminator movie. Warning: plot elements revealed.
I found Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles kind of interesting, so I thought “give it a go.”
Christian Bale gets to play the first adult potrayal of John Connor. I found the rest of the rest of the cast looked like the cast from The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Marcus (Sam Worthington) for Derek (Brian Austin Green); Blair (Moon Bloodgood) for Cameron (Summer Glau) and Kyle (Anton Yelchin) for John Connor (Thomas Dekker ). Nice to see Yelchin showing some versatility (vis-a-vis playing the part of Chekov in Star Trek.
It is an action movie. It is loud and violent, and maybe a little formula-ish. John has to save his future father without revealing too much to those around him. Still, it pays homage to the earlier Terminator movies in a number of places; there is even a ‘tip of the hat’ to Arnold Schwarzenegger
The film stay consistent with the previous Terminator movies. It fills in some of the missing pieces; and does not try to re-invent things.
I have two questions: (i) was that really Arnie in the final confrontation? (ii) John knows that Skynet will one day produce human tissue covered terminators, so why is he so surprised?
0.3
Last Chance Harvey
Warning: plot elements revealed
Warning: sad and often depressing
This film revolves around two characters: Harvey Shine (played by Dustin Hoffman) and Kate Walker (Emma Thompson). Harvey is someone who appears to have hit the dead-end of a long cul-du-sac. Kate, seems destined for something similar, though not as bad – due only to the fact she never married. This film is an exploration of their respective cul-du-sacs and how they help each other get their lifes moving forward. Not surprisingly, they end up moving forward together.
Harvey seems to being by-passed at work and being by-passed at his only daughter’s wedding. It looks like he will loose his job and his daughter. Little cues signal Harvey’s genearl uncoolness – the suit he brought for the wedding is the wrong colour and still has the anti-theft tag still attached! Dustin Hoffman does a great job making Harvey somone who is a little out of step with everyone and everthing. It is so sad to watch – every scene is flinch material.
Katie, is no so much by-passed by life, as not having really started. She seems to be in a very unglamorous job with no great prospects. Then there is the issue of her mother, coming off cancer and an ugly divorce, who keeps ring her up on the cellphone.
But it all ends well for everyone.
On the tissue box scale this is a one, maybe one-and-a-half, tissue box movie.
0.3
Casino Royale
Having watched the sequel, first, I managed to get hold of Casino Royale and finally see the introduction of Daniel Craig as James Bond.
Warning: plot elements revealed
I was disappointed, I felt the major tension builder – the card game was badly handled. The result was that the film was a like one of the old Bob-Hope-and-Bing-Crosby Road-film; only no humour – just action and thuggery. The action scenes were very well done – John Woo has had a big impact in terms of raising the bar in this area. The run up a crane-arm chase segment is so amazing that it is totally unbelievable – the athleticism and skill required reduces the action scenes to choreography for gymnasts. It was like watching the Cirque de Soleil!
The film introduces us to Bond and explains the way he is, but that is useful only if you have seen most of the other Bond films. Otherwise, there are these odd moments when the film seems to pause, before moving on for no reason – the Aston Martin, the Martini, the dinner jacket, and so on.
I read the book when I was younger, and this turned out to be a drawback. Vesper Lynd (played by Eva Green), in the book, works for M16. The concept of sending a Treasury official along to handle the money side of things is so contrived as to be implausible, and against printed reality that I momentarily dropped out of ’sit back and enjoy’ mode.
Also, in the book, Le Chiffre (ably played by Mads Mikkelsen) plays baccarat – not Texas Holdem. The protracted poker game just did not build and hold tension. I felt the game was pretty much ignored and the audience was expected to take it all on trust.
The film is has a very fast pace, and feels like one long chase. There is no end as such, because the film is just part one, and transitions smoothly into part two – Quantum of Solace.
Daniel Craig play Bond very well; I never believed that spies lived the high life and occassional shot someone. Craig’s bond is gritty; he runs, gets wounds bigger than will be covered by a bandaid, gets dirty – much more believeable.
0.3
Young@Heart – Young at Heart Choir
Warning: plot elements revealed
This is a documentary about a choir, whose average is over 80 years old! The Vienna Boys Choir they are not !! But they retain a passion for music and performing. The documenatry is shot over 7 weeks in a hand-held-video-camera style, and is very engaging. The story of the Choir and its members make for a lightedhearted exploration of a serious subject – what does one do as one approaches the twilight years? how show one deal with the loss of a friend and comrade?
The Choir makes regular trips abroad – from their native Northampton, Massachusetts, USA. Stephen Walker and follow the Choir as they put together their next show.
Key to the Choir is their director – Bob Cilman. Who keeps the Choir’s repertoire upto date and re-arranges the music for choristers’ older voices. He works the Choir hard and does not let them settle into the comfortable music of ther ‘youth’. So we see the Choir working on a Sonic Youth number – Schizophrenia!
The Choir members are constantly confronted with their mortality. By the time the documentary is filmed two of their number has died; By the time the documentary has completed post-production, a third member has died. And sadly, just before I saw this film, a fourth member, featured in the documentary has also passed away.
But, it is the way that the Choir deals with the loss of these fellow choristers and friends that is so moving. They resolve to go on performing. One chorister, talking about the death of Bob Salvini, says that if she dies on stage, that they should just push her off stage and keep on singing.
For me, the most moving part of the film was the Choir’s rendition of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young to an audience of inmates at their local prison. The Choir had been informed just that morning of Bob Salvini’s death.
Singing seems to improve the quality of life for the Choir’s members – they were mentally alert (Bob Cilman makes them learn the words to all the songs they sing) and active (regular rehearsals and the choir has some light dance moves). And I think creates a support network for them – something to focus on, other than themselves.
The filming of the documentary must have been fun for the Choir too. Stepping out of a strictly documentary mode, Walker shot three music videos for the Choir – covers of: I Wanna Be Sedated (Ramones), Road to Nowhere (Talking Heads), and Staying Alive (Bee Gees). The Ramones video had the Choir dressed in hospital gowns in a hospital setting and was just surreal. NB: Bob Cilman is a huge Talking Heads fan.
The documentary team get quite close to a trio known as the Three Musketeers; today there is only one Musketeer left. Joe Benoit died before the filming of the documentary’s final concert. Eileen Hall, died at the young age of 93, during post-production; the film was dedicated to her.
The documentary does not dwell on the loss of Choresters, because the Choir doesn’t. The losses hurt, but people are remembered for their contributions and perfomances.
The Choir’s is pretty good – just don’t expect the vienna Boys! Eileen Hall’s rendition of The Clash number Should I stay or should I go, backed by the rest of the Choir, brings the house down. There are also some renditions of classic James Brown and Bruce Springsteen numbers.
0.3
During research for this review, I discovered that Fred Knittle passed away on the 11th of this month. I will remember his solo of Fix It – originally intended to be a duet with Bob Salvini.
Quantum of Solace
Even though I had not seen the prequel – Casino Royale, I had a spare two hours, so I went to see Marc Forster’s take on James Bond: Quantum of Solace.
Warning: plot elements revealed
This film is advertised as picking up exactly where Casino Royale left off, so I wasn’t surprised when the film starts with a car chase – but then again it is not an uncommon way to start a movie these days. Bond (Daniel Craig) is back in an Aston Martin being chased by two black Alfa Romeos – bullets fly, the police get involved, cars crash, Bond gets away.
The surprise is that there is someone in the boot; the bad guys were after Bond’s captive. But before MI6 can interrogate the captive, a mole within MI6 takes out the interrogation team and security team, and almost kills M (Judi Dench).
And so this recreation of James Bond shows us – the audience – a glimpse of the recreated Smersh. Much of the film is used to develop the concept that there is a global conspiracy – MI6’s has a ‘new’ nemesis – Quantum.
Revenge is the theme of this film. Bond encounters Camille (Oleg Kurylenko) a young women scarred physically and mentally, out to avenge the brutal murder of her family. Bond is out to revenge the deaths of: Vesper, killed in Casino Royale; Fields (Gemma Arterton), killed to frame Bond; and Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), killed to frame Bond. Inevitably Bond and Camille pair up – the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Fields’ death is quite unpleasant, drowned in crude oil, and appears to be Forster’s tip-of-the-hat to Goldfinger. Fields is found naked, covered in oil, on a bed; very remanisant of Jill Masterton (Shirley Eaton) painted in gold.
The film is has a very fast pace, and feels like one long chase. The end has the inevitable showdown in the desert, with bullets and bodies flying. The very end shows that Bond has not been consumed by his need for revenge, or perhaps that there are other ways to get revenge, than just killing someone.
Daniel Craig certainly brings a hard edge to Bond.
I thought the ‘bodies in the sand’ lead in, at the beginning of the film, very innovative and very relevant – Quantum are out to corner all of the water in Bolivia.
0.3
Eagle Eye
Prior to the screening of Taken, the following trailer registered with me.
The trailer left me with two threads: a man appears framed for terrorism to coerce him to rob an armoured car; a woman’s son is threaten, to coerce her into assisting with the robbery. But to what end? Who’s is the calm assertive voice on the phone, who gives our reluctant puppets their instructions?
I was intrigued and made a mental note to see it when it came out of a media format that suited me.
This is a Trailer Review
0.3
A few days later, I had some time to spare, so I went to see it. Warning: plot revealed.
This film is set Washington DC. It is Die Hard 4.0 meets 2001.
Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) a gifted but undriven young man is suddenly pitched into some weird terrorist intrigue, when he is framed for terrorism and then gets instructions from a woman who can communicate with him by any networked device. Likewise Rachel Holloman (Rachel Monaghan), a struggling solo mother, is pitched into the conspiracy, when unseen forces threaten her son; she too, get instructions from the woman at the end of the phone.
Our reluctant heros/villians take a little while to adjust to their new role as modern day ‘Bonny and Clydes.’ The early segment is dominated by the calm voice of their ‘controller.’
It turns out that the voice belongs to a computer, and our two reluctants are its proxies. It becomes clear after awhile, that the computer wants them to blow something up. The question in my mind for the second half of them film: was it the President, or the computer itself? – to find out see the film
Eagle Eye is just a little formula. The two protagonists don’t really invoke much sympathy – LaBeouf comes accross very well as the twin who lived in the shadow of his much much more capable brother all his life; Monaghan does her best – but is not given much time to work with – strong editing puts the main focus is on LaBeouf’s character. There is a computer taking control of all the networked devices. Democracy is in danger. There is even time for some romance.
The Major Bowman character was just too much of a ‘hat tip to 2001′; and as if that wasn’t enough director D j Caruso has him (Anthony Mackie) and Agent Zoe Perez (Rosario Dawson) pulling hard drives out of racks.
Billy Bob Thornton plays FBI Senior Agent in Charge Toby Grant. It is his job to apprehend Jerry and Rachel. He makes the most of it.
Still, a reasonable diversion for two hours.
0.3
Taken
I had some time to spare and this film fitted my time constraints, so I went to see it.
This film is set mainly in Paris, and by the end of it no parent will let their daughters to visit it!
The film is about Bryan (Liam Neeson) – a recently retired CIA operative’s attempts to rebuild his relationship with his estranged daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). But first of all he must safe her from ‘white slavers’.
Despite his concerns: Kim and a friend go to Paris in their summer vacation to ’see museums and art galleries’. Both are no sooner installed in her friend’s cousins’ Paris appartment, than they are abducted by ‘white slavers’. Using some old CIA contacts Bryan is able to identify the group and is told that typically if abductees are not ‘retrieved’ within 96 hours then they are unlikely never to be seen again.
It turns out that Bryan was no desk bound analyst and he starts to cut a bloody and destructive path through the Paris underworld. Along the way he encounters a former ally, who turns out to have sold out. By the time you see what the white slavers are doing to their victims, you have no simpathy at all for Bryan’s ‘victims’ – as he brutalises, kills, threatens, and tortures his way closer to his daughter.
This was a very disturbing film. There is graphic violence, graphic torture, and extreme brutality to women. What was most disturbing was the idea that young women could be abducted in a western capital and forced in a short brutal life of drugs and prostitution while the authorities stand by and do nothing.
0.3
I wish that I had chosen another film to occupy my time!
The Forbidden Kingdom
While stuck on a plane, I watched this king fu movie.
The highlight of the film is the fight between Jet Li (a silent monk) and Jackie Chan (a drunken monk); and the film is worth seeing mainly for this sequence.
The rest of the film is some contrived – but then aren’t they all – story about a kung-fu obsessed American teenager who goes backwards in time and sideways in reality to rescue monkey (as in Journey to the West) who has been frozen as a statute by an enemy. He provides the apprentice figure that is well intentioned and generally a menace to everyone around him, but eventually comes right; pretty standard story line.
To ‘balance out’ things there is also a young girl – Golden Sparrow (played by Liu Yifei) – who wants to kill the said enemy of monkey for her own personal reasons.
A ‘must see’ if you are a Jet Li or Jackie Chan fan.
0.3
Trip to the Playground
I wish !
I went to see Warren Miller’s latest film and I wish I could ski a quarter as good as these guys; I would settle for just skiing in some of these locations.
This film is all about have extreme fun in the snow – ski, board, parachute, inflatible ride-on, and ski-do.
Like the Warren Miller film – Off the Grid – I saw last year, there is no plot, its just about getting down the sloop and having fun; an endless search for the ultimate powder sloop, and having the ultimate ride down it.
The film is like southern California meets snow – the dialogue was laid back and poetic and incomprehensible (in a nice relaxed sought of way). Bode Miller’s interview was something else – pure hedonism. It just shows that extreme and /or hardout skiers/boarders are a tribe apart. Jonny Mosley’s narration gave the film a restrained can do attitude – can ski down near vertical slopes, can do a ‘whisky flip’, can do a ‘helicopter 720′, can jump 100’s of feet into a snow bank, can …
The best snow moments for me: the loop-the-loop on the ski mobile, the ski mobile discent down a powder slope, the 250 foot base jump into powder, the helicopters flying parallel with the steep slopes ! and Ski Dubai. The latter is an indoor ski facility that seems bigger than my first beginner slope !
The best people moments for me: interview with Gretchen Bleiler, interview with the Burton Smalls Team (boy snowboarders), and the guy who blowpipes a dart into his friend’s rear.
Overall, I found the film too long: hard as it seems, there was too much action! 120 minutes of non-stop extreme snow sport is too much !!! 100 minutes would have been enough !!The incredible became the norm. I wish there was a little bit more people stuff; I really appreciated Gretchen Bleiler sharing some of her life story. Also, maybe next year, we will see a little bit more of Europe.
0.3
