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Film
Prophet's Movie Reviews Page 13
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Jamie Campbell Bower, Sacha
Baron Cohen, Jayne Wisener
Film Prophet's Review...
Tim Burton’s adaptation of a gothic tale contains stylish costumes,
settings, and music… it is his typical fashion on a spectacle during a
medieval period with cathedrals and such. The story follows Benjamin
Barker alias Sweeney Todd who returns to London after being deported and
locked away for fifteen years to find out what happened to his wife and
child at the hands of Judge Turpin. When he learns about them through a
baker downstairs named Mrs. Nellie Lovett, he sets out to seek revenge.
Depp stars as the title character as the fictional villain who doesn't
necessarily appear as one since he is the lead with a mystique. Depp
never changes his facial expression, as he is always angry looking. He
sings well enough to be satisfactory and acting with it, just as most of
the performers go about miming songs throughout. Practically each
character's first words are through a song or melody. Helena has just
about the same amount of screen time on film as Depp. When she is on,
Depp is usually on. Together, they are twisted. ‘I don't need dreams, I
need nightmares.’ The rest of the cast is mediocre and neither have a
sign of comical relief away from the total gloom of Sweeney's absolute
detestation. Unfortunately, one would wait for a climax that doesn't
happen or resolution for some sort of explanation to Sweeney Todd's
hatred toward everything, in addition. It is a Broadway musical and
Burton makes it cinematic, even though the colors are dark, dull, and
saturated. As a musical, one would be curious about the division of the
script between the songs and actual dialogue. The songs in the film
encompass sung lyrics coming from the mind like spoken thoughts instead
of a lesson or communicating to each other cheerfully by song. There is
no cheerful song as it’s all murky in unhurried voice tenors in a dusk
of an atmosphere. The songs sound redundant, like ones that have the
word Johanna in them, akin to there's no progression anywhere else too
and it gets worse and worse. One time, Todd shaves a man and both sing
simultaneously to a pretty women song and it's flat. Most of the lyrics
are not comprehensible as it comes second to the visual display on the
screen of what's going on in sight. This is what the audience pays
attention to… the sound of the lyrics, music, and the appearance of each
image on screen rather than its material or storyline. Since the lyrics
are underwhelming on lucid context, development of the movie's story can
not really occur by them, but songs occur more than spoken dialogue.
Moreover, the instrumental sounds of the melodies are more thrusting
than the songs. When words aren’t spoken, an ominous sounding music
score accompanies the film. The unremarkable songs and music seem
indulged into the film, rather than being used to boost the shallow
story. This tiresome stretch of low-key songs ruins the sympathy toward
any character in the story. The story itself doesn't seem to flow
chronically either. It starts off for a while where fifteen years has
gone by and revenge is sought for already. The killings are by cutting
throats and they don’t start until just before the hour mark and these
murders go so insignificant and even gratuitous to anyone's worries
after they happen because they're so untailored and disused. The movie
is implausibly wearisome and exasperating.
Final Grade: C+/C
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
Starring John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Raymond J. Barry, Tim Meadows,
Chris Parnell, Kristen Wiig
Film Prophet's Review...
A story through a fifties to eighties timeline is about a fictional
music artist Dewey Cox, whose life lampoons the non-fictional
protagonists in the movies, Ray and Walk the Line. Fundamentally, it is
a spoof on the musician biopic, most obviously patterned by Johnny Cash.
It starts with the introduction of an unfortunate and poor childhood
with a tragedy but not before a key foreshadowing start of a scene that
will occur later in the story. The story has the adversity standards
down for a music biopic; the stubborn father, drug experimentations,
voice talent, accidents, marriage drama, and dream hardships are all
taken to a more ludicrous approach here. These explore all the clichés
of the rock star with parody, except that it contains the same old
cliché jokes throughout. There are plenty of outrageous ideas placed
into the mix like Amish people as record executives and Reilly flipping
over cars on a street, so expect any little idea to crop out since it's
a fictional piece as a comedy satire. Reilly even starts out as a
fourteen year old himself. Reilly's first stage song is a riot where
different expressive opinions are shown and it is the first comical
scene. In the first half, usually scene by scene Reilly lip-synchs to
songs in a music parody where some just look like a Saturday night live
sketch. Occasional humor is sprinkled throughout. ‘Guilty as charged… -
Don't you dare write a song.’ It’s sometimes tame with no comedy
especially after that song and the short rehab section. In the midst of
the other skits, it throws around the types of southern and country
attitudes and settings for comedy, and Dewey making out violently to
women. Some of the humor relies on vulgarities and gets carried away
with pet giraffes and even a genital on screen. Juvenile attempts
involve nudity, jokes about doing drugs, and an acid trip with The
Beatles, which was odd and out of place in context with Dewey's
storyline. There are dry moments too, such as too many trivial songs and
the star cameo appearances who imitate rock icons that didn’t do much.
It exhausted what it had before. The movie lost its music perspective in
the last half hour and turned to irony and less funny material. As the
story develops, audiences will care a little more about the Dewey Cox
character through these smaller sensitive portions even though the jokes
are just nothing new near that final stretch. It is nonetheless Judd
Apatow’s weakest of his three comedies during this release year.
Final Grade: B-/C+
Southland Tales (2007)
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott,
Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake
Film Prophet's Review...
Set in a futuristic landscape of Los Angeles leading up to the fourth of
July at Venice Beach, it is on brink of disaster… and that it is not
only the premise itself, but the entire movie. Insensible is what it is.
An action star has amnesia and his life tangles with a female adult film
star developing her own reality television project about politics and
their screen play on the world ending. A police officer may or may not
be part to a vast conspiracy… or these people may just be haphazardly
abducted. The story and characters are ludicrous, even in the
unbelievable setting. Precisely who are the antagonists are unclear
because everyone appears and acts inexplicable and seditious. The
relationships in this movie are the most off the wall, erratic, and
inconsistent ever. To make things worse, there are dual personality
allusions. Timberlake provides the mundane voice over narration with no
energy and also breaks out later into an ‘I'm not sober, I'm not a
soldier’ music video. Everything is without a purpose or a real
explanation. Even the beginning with a narration and a slide show of
pictures is not a proper way to tell a story. That is what the actual
movie is for to attempt to make the whole part expressive with weight
except elapsing for a tiresome one hundred forty minutes. The artificial
television news clips do nothing but only to disrupt an incredibly
exhausting and worthless movie. All of these clips can be cut out and
reduce the length of this atrocious movie. Since every character is
vulnerable to die and they’re all in a shoot to kill mentality,
eliminate managing a waste of an ensemble. Bai Ling, Amy Poehler, Jon
Lovitz, Janeane Garofalo, and Wallace Shawn to name some had extraneous
roles. A large cast plays in small, puny roles poking fun at themselves
and calls each other bad names. Richard Kelly has a fascination with the
destruction of the world and its people, but it all looks and is
surreal… porn stars talking politics on a show and two cars having sex.
It’s far too pretentious. At one time it is a political dilemma and at
the other it can be an absurd satire. For example, that domestic
disturbance call and its aftermath when The Rock shows his panic
expressions by fidgeting his fingers were feeble. If it’s a satire, then
the humor is very low. The Rock researches and keeps talking about his
ludicrous, bland idea for a conspiracy theory movie to Seann William
Scott. ‘This baby processes energy differently.’ Seann William Scott is
confused the whole time as the audience shares his confusion. Sometimes
he's conscious and sometimes he's not and he like the audience has no
idea. All Gellar's character talks about is her adult film career and
comes off with a treacherous and irritating attitude. How this all
relates to the overall destruction to the world is a bit implausible.
Others discuss sabotage of campaigns and Neo-Marxist factions and
whatever that means, but to what it is subsists up in the air. The
middle of the movie is preposterous and tedious to accumulate its
non-sense. It is one of the few movies where if someone asks another
person who has seen the entire film what it's all about, that viewer
would reply with, ‘I don't know.’ No one can give an explanation for any
of these stories if the movie has trouble at doing so. This movie by
Richard Kelly even makes Donnie Darko look unfortunate. It is so bad
that at stores it ought to be sold in its own section under bizarre
catastrophes.
Final Grade: F/D
Cassandra's Dream (2007)
Starring Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Tom Wilkinson, Hayley Atwell,
Sally Hawkins
Film Prophet's Review...
As soon as the movie begins, it is noticeable it is a Woody Allen
picture with the soundless opening black and white credits. The movie is
a tale of two brothers in London with financial woes. When their Uncle
proposes they turn to a murderous crime, things go awry. The brothers
converse about plotting together in order to raise money then to live
frivolously. Since they do so, there's no clear complex deed until the
story rolls with the planned hesitant murder when the Uncle arrives.
Before this happens, they are not interesting as all they're concerned
with is investments in odd ways and all the women who come across them
briefly. Adversely, there's a gap of a true female lead character and
the movie casts a Scarlett look a like played by Sally Hawkins. The
other female player has no interest in anyone really but herself and
money as the rest the film is crowded by practical roles, like parents
and spouses, who don’t do anything. For the first half hour, the movie
jumps around scene to scene that last each for a minute. Scenes are set
up by too many ill selected set-pieces and locations. Anyone can lose
any curiosity in the first twenty minutes due to its tendency of
skipping around to various locales with minor charades and not yet
adding up to a big credible picture. The British slang, tunes, and
accents don’t help and aren’t fully convincing manly because the
dialogue is rapid, monotonous, and sometimes incomprehensible. The movie
goes without a single laugh or a charming sketch. There are zero amounts
of humor if it was a black comedy. Woody Allen takes the dark side of a
human risk starting with the Uncle’s long tirade proposal under the
trees in the rain to the brothers. The plots of Scoop and Match Point
are similar with murder and then guilt, where none of this is apparent
in the opening hour or so like the others. Allen takes on anxiety to
propel the rest of the film. Even though the brothers own a sailboat and
their own family restaurant, they accept cash for what their Uncle wants
which is to kill a business colleague. One of the brothers, performed by
Farrell, becomes unstable second guessing with distresses about the
fatal operation that's about to happen. These are the remarkable parts
of the movie where fragility is opened panicky and restless guided by
what may be Farrell’s best work. ‘I never said I wouldn't do it.’ Mental
instability and fraudulence are the fundamentals in the story which
drives the final thirty or so minutes to an abrupt ending without a
sense for grief.
Final Grade: C+/B-
My Blueberry Nights (2007)
Starring Norah Jones, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, David Strathairn,
Rachel Weisz
Film Prophet's Review...
Wong Kar-wai’s romantic road film contains four parts where a young
woman makes a trip across America earning money at jobs so she can buy
herself a car. In the middle, she encounters a series of distinguished
and quirky characters as the four parts. It was unusual watching Norah
Jones on the same screen as some of her original soundtrack music plays.
She spends some of her time watching unspoken with gentleness. It is her
story guided by her character's movement through other characters. What
starts out as a rushed story with fast scenes turns into a slower movie.
The camera moved around quickly with rapid cuts and edits. For instance,
the first scene in the café… the manner of the film settles down after
everything from the editing to the story moved so fast yet it's all
low-key when it’s just modest the rest of the way. A lot of the things
are humble… the concise and unsatisfying relationships, the
claustrophobic settings at diners, the melancholy music, and any wearing
drama. Kar-wai’s unique shooting style has glass walls with window
writing in front of a person or panning in between glass material which
makes the picture looks blurry and flashy and quite vigorous. This is a
shallow touch which places objects as separation tools. Some parts are
emotionally draining like when an act comes to an end, but not as much
in Wong's previous directional films. The script didn’t really provide
the level of lines and words it requires to be there. Not many quotes or
philosophical tones stick out like his non-American features do. When
void of lines, the film uses short scenes of mute or pulls a song from
the soundtrack as characters just look at each other bleakly. New
arrivals of performers throughout the movie provide a short spark, such
as Weisz and her entrance in a bar or Strathairn's delusional solitude.
These parts with Strathairn and Wesiz’s characters are melodramatic
dealing with sad truths and mood swings. ‘This stuff tastes pretty darn
awful, well I guess nobody drinks it for the taste right, give me
another one.’ Portman starts after the first hour as a gambler at a
casino. The title is explained during a café talk discussing pie and
other food metaphors to decisions. Other metaphors are played around
such as key chains in a jar of lost dreams. It’s a method to use items
related to anecdotes than moving with an overall coming approach.
There’s something to learn from one another's imperfections, like
missing someone when it's too late, then move on. “It wasn't so hard to
cross that street after all; it all depends on who's waiting for you on
the other side.”
Final Grade: B/B-
The Golden Compass (2007)
Starring Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green,
Sam Elliott, Christopher Lee
Film Prophet's Review...
The convoluted story adapted from a novel follows Lord Asriel, a
ruthless adventurer who is the uncle of Lyra Belacqua, a young girl who
voyages to a parallel dusty universe to save her best friend. A flying
witch helps the young girl navigate a world filled with ethereal
creatures while another sidetracks her and tortures children to separate
them from their souls. These souls are in furry animals as daemons and
they attack each other. When there's a genre labeled as a fantasy film,
the material, of His Dark Materials, can be so absurd as it wants to
because everything inside the otherworldly universe is improbable, and
sometimes a dread. Presumably the biggest budget of its release year,
millions of dollars are spent on talking and battling, employed, and
whiskey drinking ice bears. This movie is not epic in any fashion and
there isn't an army of orcs or anything similar. It mixes and mashes any
mythical scenario with absurd ideas and tiny battles with bears. In
addition, no battles or tremendous effects appear in the first hour. The
magic isn't there just because the film shows and tells about daemons,
endangered worlds, flying witches, airships, ice bears, children wisdom,
and curses with a wasted budget. It won't follow one combination of
items. The story runs off in various places. It first begins with
orphans running a muck telling folklores, but the story in the movie
would make little sense toward the target audience of children about
alternate universes and it’s hardly provocative or moving. Nothing is
unswerving or compelling through the story. Adult characters are
scantily introduced for a few minutes and disappear. Adults talk about
the protection to their children from dust and daemons, but it’s
nonsensical and connectionless. The vicious mammoth creatures are active
with more personality than the adult figures. Daniel Craig as Lord
Asriel who is advertised as the major male role is very forgettable. The
first main creature is actually the first white ice bear that arises
fifty minutes within, which is a little late. 'Yes, that is all!' These
soul creatures, not the bears, are around like pets. Some talk and some
don't and it's inexplicable to why this is, like why Nicole's character
is so very concerned with the girl's, as these moments with the two are
bland. The voyages consist of Lyra talking with a casual adult for a
moment in a new setting and that's it. It follows this and she tries to
discover a path from their realm into alternate realities. The audience
learns about these absurd things as the girl who tries to be clever
does. She has enough to verbally frustrate ice bears too. The first
non-rousing hour provides none of what is featured in the last… so much
for the expensive production. It ends like it proceeds as a preamble to
another movie just to setup a sequel. After a while, every big budget
fantasy movie soon appears to be a poor mimic of each other.
Final Grade: C/C-
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa
Tomei, Rosemary Harris
Film Prophet's Review...
A crime story in a family tragedy places two brothers who are both
unhappy and having financial problems, so the older brother as the
architect of the crime has an idea to rob their parents’ jewelry store.
The robbery act begins from the start and it’s very straightforward. No
fuss or commotion, but the robbery entering the small shop. As the
formula to all robberies in movies, something shoddy is bound to happen,
as it does here delicately. Sidney Lumet can still direct a dynamic
movie. The middle portion of the movie allows time to see what happens
before the act of robbery. It widens through these little segments by
character revealing bit by bit how dysfunctional they all are in the
first hour. It replays scenes with their parts and fills in on little
connections, but they're mostly trivial to the story and more for an
unconventional narrative aspect of a flashback device. Rigid
consequences occur with the separate character threads in
non-chronological order leading up to the robbery. It’s then
unpredictable afterwards in the second half when it gets complicated as
things grow and become clearer. Repercussions and harsh settlements
happen as more nervousness on Hawke's part transpires. ‘He's never gonna
let us off the hook; alright we're going to be paying him back for the
rest of our lives.’ The movie contains an abundant amount of adult
material; playing around in bed, cussing dismissively, murders, cocaine
and alcohol addictions, stealing for money, spending too much money on
kids, and blackmail are some examples. The characters are stubborn,
edgy, and conceited, but each one’s performer is commanding on screen
including acting presence without speaking. They have superb facial
reactions at every moment with or without words. Although spending her
early scenes without many clothes, Marisa Tomei shows how imperative
reaction shots are. She ranges from sanguine to crushed and vulnerable
in her limited time on screen. Her acting is riveting; especially the
part where she admits an affair and Philip acts emotionless. Mostly all
the females are very secondary and roam around like liter, but the
performers make them outstanding. Everyone has chemistry involved, such
as between the brothers and their father. Michael Shannon has a discreet
role but projects danger when he’s in. ‘Sorry ain’t going to pay the
bills.’ The cops’ involvement is negligible and very diminutive. They
are uncaring; for example, the scene where Albert Finney as the father
calls to ask for a detective and all he receives is, ‘would you like to
leave a message sir?’ Hoffman’s association with a drug dealer was used
later on as a contrived toy. The final act is strong and crazy, such
when the brothers enter that hotel suite on a spree, and the conclusion
is horrific. The people in this story are at discomfort and distressed
where nothing is fair. ‘The world is an evil place.’
Final Grade: B
I Am Legend (2007)
Starring Will Smith, Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan
Film Prophet's Review...
A scientist named Robert Neville is immune from a man-made virus that
wiped out the Earth’s population. He appears to be the only human
survivor. For three years, he has sent out radio messages out of New
York City to find any other survivors who might be out there, though he
is not alone. The movie follows Neville through his day, as long as he
gets home by dark. Mutant victims of the plague lurk at night watching
his every move. Neville has one remaining mission, which is to find a
way to reverse the effects of the virus. Will Smith has the whole movie
to himself and like usual, he has the will to carry it all. His Robert
character lives in the deserted city, as New York City is a
representative setting of a disaster to the world in most movies. The
post-apocalyptic story could be effective if it was else where, but most
likely not. The empty, abandoned city opens the film as it is a common
trend to see how New York would look if it was empty and ruined. Mainly,
it is not active without the people, as the movie is barely active.
Caused by its dry plot, anything can occur, like a stampede of deer
running throughout the streets. However, opportunities aren’t exercised.
There are less exciting adventures and momentum that occur in this than
with Will Smith in I, Robot. There’s little excitement to stir around
and the mutants or zombies barely develop during the first two thirds of
the movie. It captures Robert’s desperate connection with a human
civilization. Will Smith has no person to act with, so it is hard to
find a conflict other than the one that's been presented of surviving
alone in a wrecked city and the threat of mutants. Plenty of the scenes
are hushed verbally, instead of when he talks to his dog, 'Let's go
Sam.' and a few mannequins. His loneliness wears away his sanity. He
walks around in the void of daylight alone, so scenes of flashbacks
before the virus breaks and just before people disappear happen. Though,
these don't provide detail to anything early on and it remains unfilled
as it progresses to what Robert sees as he carries around his rifle. In
zombie movies, survivors barricade themselves away and eventually
zombies become a force. Here, he’s alone, shuts the doors, stays in the
dark, and it remains still with monster voices on the outside, then
flashback sequences happen and it replicates the next day. Tension is
low and diminutive battles occur slightly because the exposition of the
disaster incident was not present at the time the movie opens. There’s
little emotional connected with that. The mid-section is extremely slow
and poor. Vacant are the zombies and any horrifying features then.
However, the mutants created by visual effects artists just pose at
their times to scream. They have no personality or qualities as they're
all ferocity. They're quite useless as villains and even creatures and
don't evolve, unlike a flock of bona fide and fierce zombies.
Final Grade: C+
The Haunting (1963)
Starring Richard Johnson, Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Russ Tamblyn, Lois
Maxwell
Film Prophet's Review...
‘Whatever walked there, walked alone.’ Robert Wise's haunted house film
is based on Shirley Jackson's ghost story about a group of people
invited by a parapsychologist to spend time in Hill House of ghostly
possession. A dark, shadowy haunted mansion, shot in this black and
white film, is its setting. A daunting narration and tunes in the
beginning are effective while they last. The movie opens on pure
imagery, like with the delicate spiral staircase, and it’s a very
competent start. Photography and music are two vital elements to a
superb horror movie and this movie had it, but didn't keep that tone for
very long. This all disappears because nothing truly shows up. It lets
the viewers' imaginations work, but only when there are scenes that can
display this effect. These really don't appear on the first day in house
and hardly do throughout the movie. Like the audience, the characters do
not know the creatures or ghosts that lurk and surround them.
Vacillation is to creaky and eerie sounds. Things that pound on the
doors sound actually like gun shots going no where. This movie is more
like The Omen and The Exorcist dealing with supernatural… some spooky
atmosphere, but nothing to put in it during most of the duration. The
overall ambience and no blood are fine. They all don't need gratuitous
gore or inane screams. The story concerns a disturbed conscious and
overwrought woman whose mother died in the house many years ago. The
introduction to the characters is protracted and this movie takes its
time before entering house and when it's not daytime anymore. Her
thoughts are also audible constantly, which do little but state her
obvious fragile mind of wondering. It deals with her conscious thinking
of wondering statements like, ‘I wonder what hill house is like.’ The
movie spends the horror type occasions by showing two shivering females
looking around at walls and listening to sporadic noises. It focuses on
them looking around frightened. Some of those scenes work as playful
teases rather than scares and they sometimes appear silly. The
inhabitants stroll around the house searching and finding nothing but
sounds. The males fill them in on little stories and they be sarcastic,
which drains the film especially at the dinner table, or pretty much
anytime around a table. They talk about the supernatural and eerie
things that go on and have in the past more than character reaction to
this stuff, especially the guys. It's either too adverse or just over
foreboding at points contrasting each by a big margin. The fragile woman
ends up ditzy and dizzy, driving her unstable, mad, and frantic.
Final Grade: B-/C+
The Mist (2007)
Starring Thomas Jane, Laurie Holden, Marcia Gay Harden, Toby Jones,
Andre Braugher, Nathan Gamble
Film Prophet's Review...
Based on the novel by Stephen King, the story settles on a small town
where a thick mist engulfs the area slaying people caught in it.
Terrified people in a supermarket try to survive while a swarm of lethal
critters attempt to get in. It’s a climate of hysteria. Hatred of people
they’re trapped with sets in. Most of the movie takes place in the
monotonous supermarket. The atmosphere is typical. It begins on a
stormy, windy, and dark night by a lakeside house. For about ten
minutes, the movie is overall bland. Tired acting, uninteresting people,
and conversations create an uninviting start. They mostly talked about,
‘what is this, what is it.’ It’s a vague beginning that dreads until the
fright begins to these dreary characters… until a siren kicks in the
town, but the shaky camera never sets still for one second. It acts like
someone is walking with it and it's a messy look. People are haphazardly
tortured out of the blue and unprepared, and then they start panicking
and sobbing. ‘Wow, we have a gun, does anyone know how to shoot it - I
do.’ They are all just victims in an awkward situation stuck in a
grocery store and the audience is therefore ensnared with these shoddy
small talks but with a little more gloom than before. ‘This is no
ordinary mist ok, you open that door, and something gets in here…’ The
creature designs are made up of giant octopus tentacles like an anaconda
and they display what they are capable of doing at a glimpse, which is
ruthless human destruction. Townsfolk don’t believe in the stories they
are told about the mist and call them inexplicable, but without a terror
conflict, these people would not have any sort of real story to tell.
Sooner or later, there are too many ‘sorry’ words said to each other.
Demons gather up and people bicker softly as the movie follows only
these people in the local grocery store. Individual reactions to the
dread outside make skeptics out of them. Again, without the terror, the
movie is very thin and the audience can get bored. However, stubborn
characters are around to keep everyone aggravated. Marcia Gay Harden’s
character as the religious tyrant Mrs. Carmody signals the end of days,
reading verses of the bible, and lectures about human sacrifices and
that they’re doomed. ‘Haven’t I shown that I am His vessel?’ She is as
merciless as the mist itself. ‘You better stop now, you're scaring the
children.’ That's true, because it's more exposure to any terror from
any monster outside for most of the parts. Aside from those parts, the
ones to watch for are its ending, around the hour mark where chaos
briefly enters, and when people leave the supermarket to step outside of
shelter in the mist.
Final Grade: C/C+
Enchanted (2007)
Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Susan Sarandon,
Idina Menzel, Rachel Covey
Film Prophet's Review...
The animated world of Andalasia follows a princess named Giselle,
portrayed by Amy Adams, who is banished by an evil queen from the
classical animation and dumped into a modern-day, live-action Manhattan.
Her amiable prince's step-mother is the evil queen and meanwhile,
Giselle is welcomed by a single parent, portrayed by Dempsey. This movie
takes Disney back to its tradition animation roots with the princess
method. The heartwarming film begins with a fairy tale of a once upon a
time kind and then switches to live action. Taking in an original Disney
feature formula, animal creatures, original songs, and an evil queen
with a crystal ball are all present. It also provides a cute, funny, and
memorable character as the small chipmunk who tries to act out advice.
The princess rescues the prince on an account and more of the like
happens, so it's not copying any Snow White or Cinderella story.
Lighthearted films can capture bliss and this is one that can be counted
on to do so. It finds and creates an equal balance between the two
worlds of live action and animation so one won't forget the animation
authenticity that creates a dilemma in the live world. Both worlds
occupy unique designs and the effects and songs in both are always
story-driven. The story operates with people and their decisions which
makes the movie feel more genuine than it might be if not. Enchanted is
refreshing where anyone and everyone can savor it. It may be the
brightest Disney production in years. Giselle is very likable lead
character, unlike in most recent fairy tale movies. Amy Adams as Giselle
is very charismatic, funny, and at times sad, and shows she's a skilled
actress on top of being never endless cheery and optimistic. When she's
sad near the end of the ballroom dancing sequence, it truly will affect
the audience. She achieves this all on her own, and it’s sympathetic.
The audience cares for her as soon as she is out of place alone in the
big animated-less city. Her change over to the live action world is
interesting to see if she keeps up the same type of glorious tempo the
movie had for the first ten minutes. She does so by acting like an
animated princess with her sound of voice, lines, singing, and carefree
gestures who still believes she is living in an animated society of her
own. She is gullible and harmless, talking to anyone in the kindest way.
More than half of this review is about her because more than half of the
movie is about her shining and making her character worth it. Her smile
and blissful attitude on her face never once feels staged or phony… it’s
faultless. For example, the first hardship she deals with is when she
understands that a couple is separating. Dempsey's initial interaction
to every animated character appearing in Manhattan is sharp. There's
humor at the right moments, parts, roles, and situations where they can
be funny in. Even in the singing, which is very pleasant to listen to in
a movie and not the annoying quality, and abrupt dancing numbers as how
they begin to laugh at, like starting one in a park. The movie is like
its title says it is… it is enchanting with a tremendous ending climax.
Final Grade: B+/A-
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)
Starring Natalie Portman, Dustin Hoffman, Zach Mills, Jason Bateman,
Rebecca Northan
Film Prophet's Review...
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is a strange and magical toy store.
Everything in it comes to life and the store only asks for one thing;
for people to believe in it to see it. The toy store is full of
miscellaneous eye candy in terms of children wonders and amusements,
like a Kermit the frog cameo. That’s how random it gets. Stuffed animals
are alive and it looks like a dated cartoon. The plentiful toys and
vibrant colors all around the store put acting smiles on the kids in the
movie. The whole thing created a playhouse instead of an actual toy
store. Its whimsy, humorless, and thin tale attempts at making an
adventure from purely children sensation and joys and the rest show no
reality, especially when it covers Mr. Magorium’s dying sequences. ‘You
really gotta get better at the jokes.’ Like the wacky Mr. Magorium, it’s
too delightful with the store’s appearance, sounds, music, and smiles.
It's all a sense of glow without a spark or merit. Anything unexpected
can happen and it's no big deal, such as a zebra standing on a couch and
fish hanging from a ceiling. There’s no danger to anyone and it opens
too easy. No real struggles with an enemy occur, except for grief in
some. A boy is the store’s only employee and he has no friends because
the other kids think he is weird. The writing here is pathetic because
one would think it would make him popular for working at a magical toy
store they all worship. He is the narrator sounding like the story came
from a children’s picture book. ‘I don't know why grown ups don't
believe what they did as kids, I mean, aren't they supposed to be
smarted.’ Only a few characters have the majority of the lines anyways
and they don't shape a sensible story out of their boundary. There isn’t
anything original to offer, as it’s a predictable tale. This movie is
for starters, such as preschoolers, and really no one else. The dialogue
is bland and vague for a very simple story. It operates better with
action, which are tantrums characters throw for a bit. Despite all the
chaos from bouncing balls and such, kids may find this store quite a
bore to just watch. There is no adventure or journey, but little bits
that don't add up to consistency as a whole experience. The story isn’t
uniform and at times it never really goes anywhere. With all the magic
surroundings, it never goes into how all this magic happens or why. The
direction enters one thing and leaves it for another. After forty
minutes, the same old happens and it falters when it reaches any area
close to high mode. Mr. Magorium has an impending death that goes on too
long and this segment takes up about twenty minutes. It’s a snooze with
a void and without delights like the beginning offered. The last several
dozen minutes and the colors in the store turn into stale, gray, and
lifeless.
Final Grade: C-
The Conversation (1974)
Starring Gene Hackman, Teri Garr, Harrison Ford, John Cazale, Cindy
Williams, Frederic Forrest
Film Prophet's Review...
Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, an audio surveillance man,
Hackman, is hired by the manager of a large company to record a
conversation between a man and a woman walking in a park. The expert is
detached who realizes his latest client may be planning a murder and he
may the one who is in danger. Damage of privacy and civil liberty are
the themes. The camera follows Hackman the entire time like a sole
traveler walking around to spots with nothing much to do. When Hackman
is alone, he is a loner withdrawn of human interaction, and worried
about his mail being read and people knowing his phone number. The
scenes of eavesdropping are either in a warehouse, in a truck, or
replayed through his memories. It’s all the same conversation over and
over. Two people stroll around in a park is how it is. The movie can be
slow as a snail, but it’s endurable and refuses to produce anything
compelling with a bit of action. It drops back on the conversation on
tape that plays. It's very repetitive. The movie at times goes back to
the 'what a stupid conversation' couple and it tests the audience’s
patience to continue watching. A scene with Robert Duvall, Hackman, and
Ford enter for a few minutes and all that is heard is the same audio in
bits. As for the movie's somewhat stirring parts are when the couple are
being monitored and the sound work goes to effect when it’s first done.
Though, this is played several times in different extents, it allows a
while to figure out why these two certain people are being recorded and
listened to. During the conversation that’s observed in the park, the
sound mixes with the taped conversations being rewind, muffled noises,
and other mechanical noises. Voices break up with some kind of technical
sound to exemplify the sounds of eavesdropping. It’s one of the only
highlights of the film until the final ten or so minutes. All the
audience knows about the couple are from what is seen and heard by
surveillance equipment. These two subjects take up more than half the
movie as the expert tries to decipher the conversation and he’s
concerned about how to prevent something he only knows from the audio.
Other than that, there isn't any other riveting moments and the movie
mainly remains motionless…. particularly at the convention of security
technicians as this part provides no kicks despite the entire movie
being publicized as a conspiracy thriller. ‘I'm not following you, I'm
looking for you.’ Filler scenes expand the movie to about two hours,
like the warehouse night party scene and any scene with Hackman and Garr
lounging together. There is no escapade of pure thrill or chases. It
follows the ordinary man as a dull surveillance expert emotionally
frozen. His conversations, well, are not weighty and he keeps his mouth
shut. The expert is a lackluster character with a guilty conscience by
keeping his own secrets and finding out other people’s ones. His own
isolation of a run of the mill style and subjective point of view grows
a sense of vulnerability and paranoia as a trap in his personal
shortfall.
Final Grade: B/B-
Michael Clayton (2007)
Starring George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack, Tilda Swinton,
Michael O'Keefe
Film Prophet's Review...
Michael Clayton is a man who has worked behind the scenes of a New York
law firm for fifteen years to make clients' personal problems disappear.
The story takes place over the four worst and last days of his career.
It's a moody adult drama that's unsatisfying. There’s corruption within
his law firm and everyone sounds like a cynical maniac startled by
solidity and money coming with destruction of anyone and anything. All
attorneys act guilty and use the f word haphazardly every five minutes.
They look to argue and solve little by it as this becomes irritating and
uninteresting because that's all there is to this movie. It’s a humdrum
of an opening and ending… and also a middle… adults appear and serve to
no rationale, no coherent acts or relationships, and contacts. Figuring
out who is with whom and what things are important to follow is not easy
because it’s dragging mess. There’s isn’t noticeable clarity in regards
to the details of the lawsuit and the stances some characters. Michael
Clayton drives and walks around having conversations with strangers
judging what they have done or going to do then condemning people not to
do something but that something is typically vague. Actually, this is
what everyone does. Lines go back and forth raising their voices and
talking faster. 'I'll be frank with you, I don't like the way this is
going.' They scream at one another to raise divergence and it’s not
engaging. Nerves and insecurities let out like running water. Passive
audiences may lose interest as the movie proceeds. There are no
cliffhangers or intrigue after a scene to pull one into the next. It's
about adults’ pulses in doubt during difficult and unease situations. A
lot more is concerned by the characters than probably more than half of
the audience. The acts don’t transcend to audiences’ concern well
enough. The progression of the movie is confusing and aimless as the
story was very hard to find. It is mostly told in flashback, but this is
just superfluous confusion complicating things. It's extremely boring
and that's all that should be stated… boring just as Clooney wears the
same outfit all the time in this. Arbitrary issues go on and it’s all
shallow. All the commotion is rather hypnotic. The movie requires a
snooze alarm every five minutes because it was a drab lacking in
authentic surprise. It acts way too serious and over the top to be a
dramatic movie.
Final Grade: C-
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson,
Kelly Macdonald
Film Prophet's Review...
Llewelyn Moss, Brolin, hunts one day on a western outback in West Texas
and stumbles upon a stash of drugs, dead bodies, and two million dollars
in cash. However, a callous and psychotic killer Anton Chigurh, Bardem,
follows his tracks. Numerous individuals are also pursuing the case.
Joel and Ethan Coen craft as true artists surrounding setting and
characters’ choices and convictions. Turn off voices and shut down most
sound and audiences should completely understand what's happening. What
are left are natural noises by cutting out any bombarding music score,
voices, and inner thoughts for unpretentious chaos. Only a select few
can pull this off. No foley artists and special effects are here as
it’ll opt for remote sounds. These are the sequences of high points in
the film. They heighten any tension measured in silences over arduous
effects for the majority. For example, a dog that chases a man swimming
in a river. It’s a straightforward crime plot as the year is 1980.
Landscapes are vacant, dusty, and open. The pacing is footstep by
footstep and observance by observance. For a while, it is slow and
steady without any bursts leading up to them sooner or later. The Coens
know how to pace a type of film like this, see Fargo. There also
momentary parts of humor. For example, when Javier first sits down with
Woody, Brolin saying ‘give me the beer too,’ and when Brolin enters a
clothes shop with hospital clothes o; ‘You get a lot of people come in
here with no clothes on’ - ‘ No sir, it's unusual.’ Lee as the local
Sheriff provides a voiceover narrative in beginning and that's about it.
Tommy Lee Jones' scenes dragged on philosophically who wanders in and
out of the story. Down times are conversations with Tommy Lee Jones
investigating the crime scene and conversing. His character is the
fallacy of the movie’s title. He is personified by the old man,
remembering how he never wore guns. Chigurh as the villain does what he
wants and wrestles people to the ground, strangle holding, and choking
them. He is not necessarily a physical brute because his shot is on aim.
He has a stiff posture and he’s collected, calmly intimidating victims,
capable of big trouble. ‘I said what time do you go to bed.’ The kills
are casual in short scenes. Later on in the second half, these bits go
missing between transitions leaving them unclear how or why they happen.
As so, most of the turning events occur off-screen. Llewelyn is more of
an anti-hero who seems like the central character early on and later it
is found out his role is a piece of the pie. Josh Brolin shines and
carries this part in the film. His thoughts are not apparent but the
audience can only presume correctly what's on his mind by his first
observances as a hunter first does. The strongest conflict is man versus
man as the hunter versus the psychopath, as they devise a plan to
outsmart the other. They trace clues of blood, footprints then one is
chased by the other with unique gun shots, played by sounds and tracking
techniques. The true dilemma is of greed when Llewelyn takes the case of
cash and leaves the dead men behind to expire. There is no place to
live, be cultured and safe, or even hide people or items appropriately
in a dying society. ‘You can't stop what's coming.’
Final Grade: B+/B
Bee Movie (2007)
Voices by Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Patrick
Warburton, John Goodman
Film Prophet's Review...
Barry B. Benson is a bee who just graduated from college and skeptical
at his one career choice at making honey. The insect is the movie’s
protagonist who outside of the movie would be insupportable because he
is a bee. Bees are antagonists to human disturbance indoors and
outdoors. This movie makes bees like humans. There are cars,
neighborhoods, jobs, human looking faces, English speaking language,
voices, college, and even clothes. The point is insects don't value
their lives. They are not equipped or smart enough and just care about
pollinating flowers and making honey. They have no jobs or an education
system, yet this film depicts them to. It’s a surreal and childish
portrayal to make very disturbing and annoying creatures kind and
gracious and just go about working. It’s not the kind of storyline
people should be rushing to see. It’s implausible as in a bee develops a
relationship with a woman who saved the bee from being smashed to death.
As evident, the bees are living like in a human society with human
characteristics. It’s too simple as how the movie opens to demonstrate
bees doing the same job everyday with honey and pollen. Bees are not
allowed to talk to humans is as complex as it gets for the first half
hour. That imperative is soon thrown out the window when everyone talks
to all. One would expect something more imaginative and less dull than
what people already know about bees' impact to the environment. Though,
the second half goes with the bees' worldly effect of making honey and
then lessons where an environment message takes over anything else. The
animation is a comedy at first and yet there aren’t jokes often or even
missed jokes at that rate. ‘You're not funny, you're going into honey.’
The first twenty minutes demonstrates their way of living and working to
Barry’s rookie experience. He is quite too plain to make for a central
character and falls under a heroic bee tale. There is also a lack of
supporting cute characters, besides Patrick Warburton’s energetic voice
for Ken. Chris Rock’s character shows up for a few minutes and not
adding anything essential to the movie. His part is so minor that he
gets wiped off a windshield in one scene and that’s about it. The music
score when the Seinfeld’s bee prances around is noisy and invigorated.
Barry goes flying around and screaming, just as humans do when they
notice any bee, as he bumps in all sorts of things and directions to new
territories to his bee character and this does not tell any tale or
something to look forward to, like moving on a tennis ball to places.
This goes for a long time until it gets to the real issue of honey
stealing and the minor nuances between humans and bees and making a big
deal about them all so the bees can win their case. It led Barry into
the next thing, such as noticing honey is for sale on a supermarket
leading to something else quickly with loud, endless music then into
that honey debate in a courtroom because bees don't like people taking
their honey. Therefore, the movie runs from one place to another in a
short time without featuring sweeter moments with growth. Shooting
Winnie the Pooh with a tranquilizer dart was futile too.
Final Grade: C
American Gangster (2007)
Starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin,
Cuba Gooding Jr., Common, T.I.
Film Prophet's Review...
Something has to be up when a guy hands out turkeys to a massive crowd
on a street from a truck at no charge. The movie follows a real-life
Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas, Washington, who builds a heroin empire in
the early seventies by smuggling heroin directly from Southeast Asia
into the United States in the caskets of soldiers killed in Vietnam.
Detective Richie Roberts, Crowe, is on the scene taking action starting
from the streets. Both sides are extremely satisfying coming from
fascinating cop and criminal characters. They are dangerous and dicey,
volatile to the next scene, unaware of one another's presence, until
after an exhilarating crime bust sequence of infiltration near the end.
Every minute, every scene something shocking and momentous greatly
happens, more than just occasional drive by shootings. It progressively
moves at a staggering pace running at over one hundred fifty minutes.
Smooth editing flows to each scene and every aspect of the film,
visually and by a sharp script, blends in with ease. Director Ridley
Scott saturates the colors of the film to show a crumbling and draining
City backdrop. The notable music score infuses wholly in the movie and
dress is fluent while the grit appeal of Manhattan and Harlem allures
the audience into the late sixties to early seventies time frame at the
start capturing an invigorating observation from two distinguishing
points of view around crime, violence, and police corruption. Danger
lurks aggressively into it all. On a morality scale, Frank's business
and family shrewdness with professionalism is marveled at as Richie as
an honorable cop without support from fellow cops originally and makes
up for being a deceitful husband by being a moral cop. Everyone is
stealing and dealing. They are on the opposite sides of the spectrum,
splitting the movie’s sequences of two parallel storylines into one
movie, contrasting and also complementing too. Irresistible to watch,
Washington and Crowe both have developed roles and dynamic presences
on-screen. Crowe's investigations are more entertaining and powerful
than one would see on an ordinary television show. Lucas has done his
research on scene in Asia with contacts all over and not bargaining down
his expectations. ‘I'm on my way over there - right now – yea - oh come
on.’ The movie shows the origins of heroin by showing the creation,
operation, and dealing of the drug before it is dealt on the streets and
injected. ‘The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.’
The atmosphere catches the audience from the beginning and doesn't let
up with its stunning acts in the second half. ‘The most important thing
in business is honesty, integrity, hard work, family, never forgetting
where we came from. See, you are what you are in this world, as either
one of two things; either you're somebody or nobody.’ One of the
shocking incidences is after this quote by Frank by inviting his
brothers to a restaurant in the daylight and ending the scene with the
quote, ‘there you go, twenty percent.’ Also, remember the piano part.
Most come to effect by Washington's physical force by becoming upset. It
is about corruption and how people can fall into it. It’s not a family
entertainment movie like some Scorsese Sicilian mafia motion pictures
can be due to the amount of close ups of miscellaneous heroin injections
and female frontages. Still, the direction and acting is flawless and
everything just comes together to create a dramatic and energetic movie.
Cuba Gooding Jr. as a shadowy and showy club owner is fantastic. Josh
Brolin is stunning as a Jersey corrupted cop, Crowe is vigorous, and
Washington dominates the screen every second drawn to what each does and
says. ‘I ain't running from nobody. This is America.’ This movie is an
American classic and crime-drama cinema at its finest.
Final Grade: A-/A
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
Starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, Amara Karan,
Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray
Film Prophet's Review...
Three grown brothers who haven't seen each other since their father's
funeral come together on a train ride in India a year later. This is a
similar Wes Anderson type of subject by converging related characters on
a loss of a close elder that unites estranged siblings. They look and
act tiresome, middle-aged, discontented, and despondent who like to
smoke. Their facial appearances are oddly physical as the movie
proceeds. Owen Wilson’s character tries to be in command of the brothers
with his itinerary and wanting to make agreements between them. ‘Let's
get a shoe shine.’ The almost gauche choice of settings and music add to
the mature backdrop of India. Its sorts of panning, color palettes, and
not hearing someone when speaking also arises. Jason Schwartzman's short
scenes with Amara Karan, as a train attendant, are the top of the crop
in the movie. ‘Wanna smoke a cigarette with me in the bathroom.’ It’s
the discovery of each in the center of some Indian customs, but almost
every area of the movie ends up random and not coherent. Areas are
filled with unfussy and very short scenarios that aren't memorable, so
in a way, they are unfilled. It’s a simplistic story that’s a loosely
concentrated view of faint lives. However, Anderson and the performers
invite the audience in, but leave them somewhat empty. The melancholic
brothers appear unsuited in India’s civilization just like they are with
each other in a void keeping them astray. They don’t achieve what they
set out to and remain detached arguing over who gets their father's
belongings. Once they get off the train, the film tends to hinder and
they still leave a lot to accomplish between them and all else,
especially after the aimless final dozen minutes that might be wryly
amusing to some. Even coming across as lazy at times, they are
enjoyable, though Anderson reuses the same material from his previous
movies. The story applies India alike to The Life Aquatic with its
underwater sea world. It follows Anderson’s basic requirements of a
film. His sense of very, very dry humor is apparent as usual that
probably won't make the average movie viewer exhilarate a laugh because
they don't display a pleasure or anything loud or crazy. The humor is
flat most of the time usually. Conversations are discreet and comments
are odd. It’s all within a relaxed tone matching the offbeat, but
unperturbed personalities. Again, it's simple and unpretentious. ‘We
haven't located us yet.’
Final Grade: B-
Rendition (2007)
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Peter
Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin, Omar Metwally
Film Prophet's Review...
The story centers on a young CIA analyst, Gyllenhaal, stationed in the
Middle East as he questions his assignment after observing a secret
torture toward the interrogation of a suspected terrorist. There’s only
one main interrogation in the whole movie that began with a kidnapping
and transfer from one place to another. The complete cast lures a watch,
though most of the characters are one-dimensional and stern, but there
isn’t much else to pay attention to. The movie sets up at a steady pace
that is very languid throughout the whole movie. It starts like a
regular story surrounding around intimate ones and responsibilities of
those close. This captures several personal story threads into one
affecting them all together in different circumstances centering around
a chemical engineer taken into custody without a lawyer, fair trails,
contact to family, and none of that alike. ‘No one has told me why I'm
here or what I have done.’ A guy is stripped down of clothes in a dark
dungeon and asked questions with wrong answers they don't want to hear.
The context is not real political, and it chiefly deals with duties of a
person’s role around threats and harsh influences, keeping things
secret, safe, or being heroic in a manner. It is a long form of one
terrorism act with deaths and personal disasters in one quick tragedy.
The cheerfulness is at an ultimate low and there is not even a brief
instant of it till the exact ending. The characters are in traveling
around in a murky view of the world where people torture for answers in
an incessant process. The movie jumps around between countries and
separate groups of people showing their care. Despite dealing with a
previous bombing attack, which is the highest of any kid of action gets,
the interrogations are at minimal. As mentioned, it is one long
interrogation going almost the whole span of the film that’s left
ambiguous until the final dozen or so minutes where Jake just stands
behind and observes the whole time. Other confrontations are dim because
they talk at a low volume about nothing of interest to the audience.
They walk around with constructed facial expressions ranging from
concerned to bewildering. The best of the confrontations is when Streep
and Sarsgaard meet for the first time. The two leading stars, Jake and
Reese, aren't in a scene together… similar to what Damon and Clooney
basically were like in the Syriana mess. The interrogating movie around
a long torture act and one terrorist strike display as minor, tiresome,
and pacified. It’s exhausting out of gas scene after another mellow
scene with little exhilaration to exhibit. A music score could have
tighten or even lighten things up. It’s a simplistic story, leaving out
complexity by being too unobtrusive and not compelling enough, but
enough to get out of about a secret torture strategy.
Final Grade: B-
Into the Wild (2007)
Starring Emile Hirsch, Jena Malone, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden,
Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn
Film Prophet's Review...
Escaping for something one yearns at a young age - absolute freedom on
the road. Emile Hirsch portrays Christopher McCandless, who after
graduating from college hitchhikes around to Alaska to live in the
wilderness. Sean Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer's bestseller acts
indie with its music choice, many of them original songs by Eddie
Vedder, its wilderness setting, and lonesome material. All of it fits to
a super movie experience and the movie grabs the audience right away
with it all to sympathize with Christopher. It opens on a snowy dim
plane with Christopher in vacant surroundings surviving on his own needs
and he’s fully independent. He does whatever, like shooting animals to
eat, and keeps a diary. It sounds like a man versus nature topic, but it
is mixed with a gallant, cautionary road trip. There are no causes or
reasons to any of this, and there are no complications or irritations
with him alone until the movie traces back on the last two years of his
life to have a relevant story added to his character. These show the
strangers and short emotive relationships he has with them, and then
leaves. None of the scenes in the movie are a drag or highly
entertaining, but very soothing to watch. The soft instrumental music in
the background plays to a poignant touch. Director Sean Penn makes the
film as moving as possible, not to dramatize it. The poison plant peas
sequence is the farthest it goes for hard drama. The film meditates on
the things and will resonate on the audience. In one line that -
Christopher doesn't allow himself to get too close to anyone – is a
powerful message and the striking theme in the movie is happiness is
real when shared. Hirsh and Malone’s potent and engaging voiceover
narratives sound calming as can be by offering philosophical
realization. The sister narrates the past that led up to her brother's
deliberate disappearance. Dialogue is intelligent and all the words in
the movie were real at core. The entire movie is crisp and organic. It
is anti-artificial without having an artificial substance. Even Vince
Vaughn has an act in the movie as a very small role and has excellent
chemistry in a top-notch scene in a bar with Emile discussing society
and living to be in Alaska. Christopher’s choices when in essence is
basically living like the common person would centuries ago without
conflicting with humans mainly as a nomad wandering around. He is
hitch-hiking and having no contact with anyone or anything from more
than a few feet away. In the view of modern society, this person is a
homeless, poor bum traveling on feet and who ever stops by to guide him,
in other words, a true hippie. The people he meets give him assistance,
food, and company. ‘Rather than love, money, faith, fame, and fairness,
give me truth.’ He is his own false fib however – getting rid of his
real identity and coming up with a fake name – on the desire to find his
true self. Everyone imagines moving away from every day responsibilities
to go out and travel on the open road, but things bound people like
borders, patrols, money, mundane routines, and all perceptions of the
average way of living in the rat race. ‘Careers are a twentieth century
invention.’ It earns the two and a half hours it runs and the movie is
built around a young man learning a lesson about the value of human
companionship versus being alone and carefree. The people he encounters
were mostly couples too. Among the most affecting are a sixteen year old
girl he meets, performed by Kristen Stewart, and an old lonely male
widow, both who are symbolic to Chris’ going. Hal Holbrook as the male
widow gives an all rounded supporting performance and enters perfectly,
yes perfect, in the third quarter mark of the movie. ‘When you forgive,
you love and when you love, god's light shines down on you.’ The
inspiring movie is ominous and ingenuous on an outlook of a place when
after one’s existence has left the world to be remote.
Final Grade: A-/A
The Heartbreak Kid (2007)
Starring Ben Stiller, Michelle Monaghan, Malin Akerman, Jerry Stiller,
Carlos Mencia
Film Prophet's Review...
The story is difficult and awkward for everyone in it and who watches
it. It centers on a man who is convinced that he has finally met the
right girl and marries too quickly. While on the honeymoon, he discovers
that she is too eccentric for him, and he encounters another girl on the
honeymoon. There’s only misery to be found in this Farrelly brothers
picture that spills false happiness and perpetual loneliness. It kicks
off with a traditional storyline of comedy romance. It is all about Ben
Stiller’s character as the nice guy. He is the whole tone of the movie.
In the beginning, everyone snubs him, especially at the toast wedding
moment in one of the first scenes. He is in despair and depressed.
Therefore, none of the scenes are funny and goes to show gloom of being
alone and single at age forty than a joyful comedy. The conversation
jokes are at low and splashes homosexuality stereotypes. Nevertheless,
it all centers mostly on the teasing of Stiller's character and his
state of unfortunate relationships. Most characters, such as the one
Carlos Mencia plays, are reduced to a single catch phrase, such as,
‘Screw off, I'm joking.’ His wife is into the sex position stances,
‘Cock me Eddie – I think I am cocking you’ and his father cares about
sex too, ‘When your wife asks you to cock her on your honeymoon, you
cock her damn it.’ The sex scenes were more graphic than expected also.
It’s uneasy and edgy at almost ninety percent of the time and it's like
this for him all the way on the endless honeymoon sequence. When given
some advice, ‘you wanna know the secret to a happy marriage, do what I
do, plaster on a fake smile, plow through the next half century, sit
back, relax, and wait for the sweet embrace of death.’ Ouch. That is the
notion coming from this supposed comedy than any laughs at all. The
movie is very short on laughs and humor and it’s concerned with
following his priorities, choices, permanence, and status with
significant others. However, the jokes that play from that don't occur
often and they mostly miss than hit. Stiller is in about every scene.
Since he is the nice guy, his dialogue is not the most comical though he
has the most spoken lines. Therefore, most of the lines in the film, as
one can imagine, are not there for funny moments. He does act
convincingly in his frame of uncomfortable and zany situations playing
to role of a sympathetic guy. He eventually manipulates to his wife in
the second half and every word from there becomes a fib to escape truth
and confusion. It's all not acceptable. There is also a strange,
ludicrous sequence of transferring people across the Mexican border near
the end that was very illogical. It is two hours of nonsense and no real
meaning. Though, the movie is quite bearable despite the ugliness in the
story and low on occasional laughs and pleasures. Exuberant behaviors
and misleading personalities surround him in small situations and minor
predicaments, like the twin brothers. The storyline that advances is
unpredictable, but when it opens along, the message stays as it is…
which is… single people are losers. It’s a stage of disaster the whole
way through. In marrying someone promptly, it is still a misguided
disaster.
Final Grade: C
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
Starring Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, Iain Glen, Ashanti, Mike
Epps
Film Prophet's Review...
Survivors of a virus catastrophe that forms humans into zombies travel
across the Nevada desert and looking to make it to Alaska. Alice,
Jovovich, joins with the group. That sounds like a middle of a story
description because it is. There is no real beginning part or ending
part to this third installment in the Resident Evil movie series. This
movie is somewhat similar to the previous two except the setting changes
to Nevada desert instead of a shabby urban city or large skyscraper. A
deserted desert beholds dirt and decay, no purity or spark, in a rather
dry movie yearning for momentous zombie encounters. Its surprises are
new areas which haven't been displayed yet, and they are all quite dull
like scenes where the corporation committee of men talking about a
project that is forgettable. It’s a post apocalypse so the look of the
settings is a drab. The special effects are not very impressive too when
they are present. The first and second had action happening within the
boundaries of indispensables sequence. Here action is sparse for almost
half until the massive birds attack. When movie starts to go somewhere,
it leaks out. Characters say poor lines and just shoot miscellaneous
zombies. When they investigate rotten areas, it is tedious until loud
music occurs and blood releases with short gore deaths. The notion of
traveling around a place where random zombies can pop up anywhere is
neat, but its handling is lackluster. What it lacks of is concentration
to one clear thing. There’s scientists living underground, testing
around in labs, corporation, survivors group, domestics, satellite
tracking, cloning, telekinesis, and Alice alone in ninety droning
minutes. Most individuals in the story are reckless, pathetic, eager,
and vain anyways. Zombie slashers are typically entertaining regardless
of the quality of the movie, but this has little of a storyline to begin
with. Audiences going into this would ask how much greater the fright of
the zombies will be or will it be just a plain massacre with whipped
camera cuts. There’s only one new zombie who comes at the end for a
short time and the rest are all the same and don’t appear that often. It
is intended to lead audiences into pathways of danger with no humans
around. Jovovich acts woozy and bewildered as her character is meant to
be, then at times switches to a physical force of combat. She is the
star at focal point throughout the movies. She meets Ali Larter’s small
group of human survivors in the desert full of zombies, like prison of
them, and they just stroll around the empty sands gathering up survivors
from the T-Virus plague. Alice must attack to save her life, and the
movie, then move on to the next carnage.
Final Grade: C
Atonement (2007)
Starring James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai,
Juno Temple, Vanessa Redgrave
Film Prophet's Review...
The final punch hits hard. It’s a story of a writer from her negligent
childhood in transition in knowing wrong and attempting to make amends
through an utterly sorrowful experience. Briony, a thirteen year-old
girl, falsely accuses the boyfriend, McAvoy, of her older sister,
Knightley, of assaulting their sixteen year old female cousin. This fib
sparks from her imagination of her infantile and fragile sight. Briony's
unwittingly decisions as a child lead to a terrible crime destroying the
lives of people closest to her. The movie’s adaptation comes from the
number one fictional novel in 2001 named by Time Magazine written by Ian
McEwan. The source material is war romance primarily, with the Second
World War in England and France as the backdrop, then taking a sharp
turn toward cold and manipulating tragic consequences. The story has
plenty of devastating revelations to come near the end that will have
some people weeping. It’s about unforgiving and truth, when it is too
late for redemption. The composed moving soundtrack of a piano and
violin fits in with its sequences engaging throughout. One can be
totally mesmerized by many of the scenes of fantastic scenery,
especially that long continuous beach tracking shot near the warfront.
It has everything needed for a sweeping motion picture…. true art
modeled by true art, it's triumphant. Stunning locations, great acting,
and that uncut scene of Dunkirk beach features. ‘I’ll wait for you, come
back to me. - I will return, I will find you.’ Sweet as it sounds, it is
as it looks. Though, the opening lays low as characters go around
unoccupied without many duties or anything to do on a mansion estate.
They sit at typewriters or around a body of water relaxing. The movie
may not be a grand spectacle and it’s more complex in the story. It is
gripping, poignant, and tragic, kicking The Notebook and The English
Patient out of the water. It’s obviously not a kids’ film, even with the
naïve child aspects, but everyone watching it should be adult enough to
cope with the resulting material. It’s about two sisters where one falls
a love with a guy and the other interprets everything wrong and ruins
everything. Where being a playwright in England was predominating, the
dialogue was rather at a low in the movie. There are little
conversations and there is communication by letters and voiceovers. It's
about not knowing the words to say or to write because it's based on
what the audience and everyone else sees and interprets. The quotes are
indeed remarkable though. The fact is
that filmmakers and storytellers can do whatever they want with the
story and the characters to shape the audience’s perspective, including
the characters who tell it. This first
comes into act by what Briony sees between the interactions of her
sister and boyfriend. It is conveyed by physical language and then a
scene would repeat to show what actually happens. For instance, the
library sex scene from her perspective. It shifts from her peeping
glance view to a second view point. Another example is the vase falling
in a fountain of water. It replays key scenes right after the she
witnesses them, then again to reveal more. Later, it surrounds her false
judgments as those previous parts served a purpose playing with the
audience's viewpoint carefully to look at things from a child. Keira
disappears during the third quarter where the bigger impact is her
sister making amends and late forgiveness where the audience will
undergo a sense of absolute guilt and grief on the twist in the
anguishing end. The focal character is truly Briony even though the
audience may not appreciate it until the end filled with remorse.
‘Imagine not knowing if he'd ever come back.’ It’s a very strong,
compelling story where the finale is overwhelming and everyone will
leave the movie with a bitter taste or a stupendous woe marvelously.
Final Grade: A/A-
Eastern Promises (2007)
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin
Mueller-Stahl, Jerzy Skolimowski
Film Prophet's Review...
Set in the immigrant underside of contemporary London, it centers on a
Russian mob that exploits girls to prostitution who come from Eastern
Europe illegally. Director David Cronenberg leisurely takes his time
with all of this during the film with little steam and makes light of
it. A nurse finds a young infant after the mother dies giving birth and
it leads her to a mob. She tries to resolve to trace the baby’s
relatives. The opening parts contain culture and restaurant scenes in
London. It all appears very standard and there were no apparent details
into any crimes as the mob is just routinely based. It’s a story of two
about people who don't appear to be. It looks like it tries to split the
movie by balancing with two discreet storylines that don't untangle
really. One is a woman finding a family for the motherless baby and the
other is the ties with a mob. In the meantime, an uncle keeps returning
to have small talks with his daughter, the nurse, about the baby and
Viggo has one minute talks on the sidewalk streets with her, but not
much develops from there to broaden a storyline. It remains static.
‘Stay alive a little longer.’ Then there are parts where henchmen cut up
dead body parts. They commit out of sight murders of characters that
never appear in the first place and then talk about it. These are
low-key scenes that aren't critical, like getting off a motorcycle bike
and fixing it, eating dinner, or checking out dead rusty bodies in bags.
The film’s top scene is its mere quality where it occurs in a vulnerable
and sensitive place to be attacked… where a naked man is assaulted by
two thugs in a Turkish bath house. It’s a wicked combat in the sauna
with weaponry of knifes. Other than that, there are no other elaborated
fights, chase scenes, or any hints of gun battles. The violence is
sudden and atypical at a discomforting level, but this only comes at a
few neglected times. Since there is little or no action, the fear by the
mob is solely in the torment which exists in short incidences when gore
releases by slitting throats and that’s that. The movie then proceeds to
move on to the next scene like they never happen. The performances are
very faint without much visual style or plotting aspects to go with
them. Viggo has a rigid and quiet performance, where he speaks fluent
Russian. Speaking of Russian, as a flaw, the nurse spoke English and
read a diary in Russian, which is how she was learning from the young
girl's diary as the film’s narrative. Vincent Cassel does real well for
having an unlikable factor to his character. The mob is quite bland
because of a lot of what they truly do to be a mob is done off scene
dismissing what they do. What remains are shady male adult figures in
trench coats who perform shifty rituals. For all who can imagine,
Viggo’s character may have done some bad things not on camera to please
the mob but his entire character is kind to appear so and less brutal
than others. It underplays a Russian mob at minimal without obvious
layers and action into a banal melodrama and a moralistic story.
Final Grade: B/B-
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Starring Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster, Logan Lerman, Dallas
Roberts
Film Prophet's Review...
Needing money to build a well and support his ranch, a rancher, Bale,
takes an assignment to transport a criminal, Crowe, to a train to Yuma
for imprisonment. The criminal tries to tempt him with an offer of more
money if he can escape. In a remake of a fifties Western, James Mangold
directs with two leading actors which is a promising pitch, but the
result is unexciting and flat halting any kind of momentum. Mangold
begins with an illustrious creation of a rugged society of men where
smoke succeeds from cigarettes, homes burning, and gunshots. The movie
captures Old West objects, like horses and cattle, but little
traditional values, like families and strong dilemmas. The Marshall Law
is hard to come by and men do what they have to do to protect
themselves, but most of it is on the ruthless offense end of shooting
each other. The nature of characters concerns stability, health, and
land, all dealing with money. Everyone is an adult male as a dull slob
who will do it for the money. Some parts are too dark and hard to tell
what's happening. Though, it’s just men walking around melancholic. A
big chuck of the middle is inattentive for viewers to what's being said
because it's so dreary. Conversations are very insipid and uninspiring.
There is no pleasant way in the movie of introducing its characters than
just a bunch of gunshots and guys falling from horses and stagecoaches.
It’s rifle and gun action over character development. The bulk of the
scenes were a drag containing stubborn, rigorously, and humdrum
qualities from everything with no climactic situations or shootouts.
Minutes go by doing nothing on scene but seeing guys looking around. Men
rule the Western genre, but there's also a small need for a charming
romantic anecdote with a woman, except that no women have any kind of
worthy role in the film because everything in this is quite unproductive
and indolent anyways. The story remains bland and sluggish and every
battle and death seem perfunctory. Guys hang around perilously until the
train comes before the redeeming train departing ending.
Final Grade: C+/B-
Shoot 'Em Up (2007)
Starring Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci, Stephen McHattie,
Greg Bryk
Film Prophet's Review...
‘He took a gun; he started shooting at us.’ A carrot eating hobo who
happens to be savvy in gun weapons and combat protects a newborn baby
from criminals out to kill the baby and wanders around town with a
prostitute taking care of the baby. The film running at no longer than
ninety minutes is straightforward what the title says. The amount of
bullets and rage doesn't let up from the first second of film. It opens
up with shooting and crashes like a vicious skit that throws out
actuality. For an hour, it is like this, until parts of the last twenty
minutes when it tries to elucidate it with words than actions. Clive
Owen as the mysterious man aids a pregnant woman right away, similar to
his previous protagonist role in Children of Men, except here he shoots
a gun and kills this time around. Everyone seems to possess a gun
shooting in defense or offense. People take guns from others as guys
come in scenes just to shoot around and drop as steady rock music plays
like video clips for a rock music video that has baby moaning sounds in
the background. Ironically, the times when the baby isn't crying are
when rock music is played in the scene. Owen is typically outnumbered in
violent situations and acts and doesn’t ask. Shooting with a baby in his
arms is part of the mindless action. The longest talks are between
Monica and Clive, but those play to the film's slow moments and when
Clive chops on his carrots. Anytime conversations commence, they are
kept short as shooting occurs breaking it up. This happens on the minute
almost, even during sex in bed. Blood shatters, body parts and limbs
break off, and nameless characters aren't really characters at all. They
are just glimpses of bad guys who merely stand there and fire a weapon.
They are introduced with guns in their hands looking to kill, again with
some mellow rock sound, firing back and forth while continuing to shoot.
Afterwards, the surviving drag wounded bodies along, and either way,
death is upon them by probably guns. Every scene of shooting is the
same, similar to men with bad tempers pointing guns at each other, but
what separates each scene is the style of firing guns and locations of
the shootings. The shootout locations range from rooftops, a public
restroom, a playground, and a freefall in the sky. Charisma from the top
performers standout and if they weren't there, a massive appeal would be
lost toward this flick. The script offers little wit for them and they
are very capable of it. Bellucci doesn't have much to do here but listen
to what Owen has on his mind. It is fun to watch Giamatti play a bad
guy, though his short lines are drained and his close-ups aren’t exactly
pretty. His character tortures people to find out what he wants to know
disobediently. Owen and Giamatti have a rivalry in the movie where
neither two know much about each other too. The last twenty minutes
contains parts of abundant amounts of excessive drawn-out explanations
that serve forgettable unlike the ways of how to pull a trigger. A mere
lesson learned from this is 'getting angry releases an enzyme which can
temporarily reduce the IQ.’
Final Grade: C+/B-
Halloween (2007)
Starring Tyler Mane, Daeg Faerch, Malcolm McDowell, Scout
Taylor-Compton, Sheri Moon
Film Prophet's Review...
A vulgar and dirty prequel beginning, the interaction with Doctor Loomis
at a mental institution in the center, and a recreation of the original
Halloween night killing spree in the final hour is similar to watching
three short movies in one. It’s the first true remake of the very first
Halloween following the early and foremost story of Michael Myers, who
is arguably the number one villain to ever set foot in a motion picture.
Divided into three sections, the opening is like a white trash family
drama, which is part of new stuff. The other new stuff is prison-based
where Michael is basically alone in a mental institution. The rest is
when Michael returns to his hometown in Haddonfield, where he looks to
find his younger sister, Laurie. The back story of Michael is the
strength since it is new and explanative, but also the weakness of the
movie. More is explained in this film about Michael Myers' psyche, but
any fan realizes it never really belonged in the movies because most was
awful filth, loutish and gross substance, yet just the kind of stuff
Myers is made out of it. It explains the things that didn't matter,
especially opening to a filthy sexual oriented opening sequence with too
many cusses and gross references. What the characters said at times was
almost unbelievable. ‘Come on babe, I wanna do it with the mask on.’
Michael's family is made up of a stripper mom, a rude drunk step father,
and a snooty older sister. It’s a cliché of a poor sick childhood, and
then Michael starts killing people who mistreated him. He is a victim of
his surroundings, that is, a stereotype of rednecks and Southerns who
happen to live in Illinois. In the original, Michael has a numinous
about him where the audience has to figure out how genuine sinister he
is as he goes. Many indistinctive victims die slow and painful, crawling
for their survival. For example, Michael beats someone with a piece of
wood to death that lasts longer than it should. There is little build up
to the killings and they were sluggish deaths with loud seizure sound
effects. People are randomly introduced just to be killed off soon, like
the boyfriend, nurse, bully, and so on. Overuse of long bloody deaths do
not compensate for authentic horror and vulnerable characters at stake.
There is no fun in the gores alone. Michael isn’t just an urban
boogeyman legend in this film, but a figure an audience should cheer for
because of his past. Director Rob Zombie chose gore and violence over
danger and sex scenes over trouble for horror and terror. Lots of the
content is disgraceful and disturbing on a movie platform. There’s more
sex scenes combined than all previous films in the series. It also
disgraces women to nudity and weak beings. They are there to make sex
jokes out of them and then die off topless. Rob Zombie is quite faithful
to the original in the final hour during the one Halloween night,
shifting to Laurie Strode for the last hour. Though, the three teenage
girls who were normal with their average babysitting daily lives are now
obnoxious. Laurie is introduced making a visual joke about molestation.
She later squares off against her older brother in a long period of her
screaming for dozens of minutes as she runs away from him. The size of
Michael is noticeably larger than before. He is overgrown, very tall,
and muscular. There’s also a new spin on the piano chord theme song and
it could have been played more for music cues to when the psychopath is
on screen. Take out the music theme and legendary villain and it would
seem like a regular low-brow slasher film. It’s short of timbre of John
Carpenter's first two, but the Halloween series is endless, so expect
more as usual, but on no account to the par of Carpenter’s earlier work.
Final Grade: C+/B-
Stardust (2007)
Starring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro,
Sienna Miller, Peter O'Toole
Film Prophet's Review...
The fairy tale follows a young man, Cox, on a quest who promises his
beloved lady, Miller, that he'll bring back a fallen star, Danes, to her
or else she’ll marry someone else. The fallen star is on the other side
of the wall between England and a magical kingdom known as Stormhold.
Through his venture, he has to contend with witches, goblins, and other
magical evil. The opening narration by Ian McKellan is enchanting,
leading the audience into worlds, humans, and stars to the adventure
that is to come. The storytelling has a sense of mystic with its sound,
music scores, production, and just wonders of direction it'll go into.
The music score is among its strongest assets accompanying the tone of
each scene fittingly and endlessly, whether it's delightful or
conniving. Costumes, fancy housings, and chambers bring out the savor
from the medieval villages. Ships fly, strange little things like mini
living elephants appear, and magic is real and unbounded. The fantasy
tale with a spice of romance is joyful at some parts, but not enough.
Rightfully so, it steadily flops after a promising launch. Here and
there it rises during a few spots. Although, it’s all flash with spells,
landscape art, deaths, and so on, but the charm and attraction is not
constant or steady. There are several smaller plot threads involving
witches, who want youth and eternal life, and princes that complicate
the simplicity. They go all at random roaming around where sets of
people change their agendas. It gets easily cluttered with too many
things to work with the merry side and then cold immortality side as the
movie has a hard time finding a balance, as the evil overweighs the
positive side in the center. De Niro's late comic entrance refreshes
things a bit on a flying ship, but again, it’s too much and the rest is
choppy in segments. Though, the whimsical movie is a gentle fairy tale
at core. There’s a quest of romance, mystical creatures, and lots of
sour malevolence. The cast is diverse and it’s different than the
fantasy norm. Characters often die, some are malformed by the immoral,
and there are plenty of scares, threats, and dreads. However, it’s
really how fantasy movies used to be. The light tale is not too large
like an epic sequel and not too small of a production outcome.
Final Grade: C+
War (2007)
Starring Jet Li, Jason Statham, John Lone, Devon Aoki, Luis Guzmán, Saul
Rubinek
Film Prophet's Review...
An FBI agent Jack Crawford, Statham, seeks revenge on a mysterious
assassin known as Rogue, Li, who murdered his partner. FBI agent Tom
Lone, his wife, and young child are murdered by the Asian assassin.
Crawford is determined to track down Rogue. It opens and continues
without a plausible affair and goes uninteresting as the movie is
interested in establishing macho poses. It also opens like it starts in
the middle of a low class straight to video release action movie. Nearly
all of the fighting and conflicts are reasons why people watch a Jason
Statham or Jet Li movie. However, here it’s not hand-to-hand combat like
their other movies but guys just shooting at each other. It’s nothing
more than another ‘guys with guns flick’ shooting at one another
atrociously. The movie skips introductions to useless violence, then the
tame story and bad dialogue emerges from the convoluted and crowded mess
of people. Action is shown by unexciting violence of guys dropping to
their bloody short death. It looks to unimpressive gore than strong
conflicts. Guns shooting over physical fights with no style make this
lazy movie meaningless into a total action-less piece of drivel. It’s
tiresome after the first thirty minutes and offers little of the
opportunity by having two martial arts icons together in the same
picture. Everyone and everything is one-dimensional and a yawn. Statham
acts exhausted in many parts with confused looks on his face, and then
he disappears at many times. Anything he says is sluggish and one can
barely understand what he says anyways. Jet Li walks around here and
there and Li with a gun is so not his typecast. Both have flashbacks of
trying to remember their trouble pasts. Devon Aoki's talent is also
wasted. It’s an inconsistent random collection of scenes, for example
the club stuff, and people mixed by no reason. There are manly face to
face talks where these conversations are dull that don't reach an impact
to the audience to devour an energetic pleasure. The two leads average
an outstanding fight every, well, actually never until the end. They
share so few scenes opposite of each other. There are times when
watching the movie sporadically, but not attached to what's happening or
interested in how scenes will end. The movie fails to give the audience
any reason to care. In fact, who is protagonist and villain is still the
question after the movie ends. When it's all over, it still has
absolutely no idea what itself was about and what the point of it was.
Final Grade: C-
L'Atalante (1934)
Starring Michel Simon, Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté
Film Prophet's Review...
Jean Vigo’s French romance expedites when Juliette and Jean marry and
Juliette comes to live with him on his steamboat, slowing down
considerably. Also on board are a cabin boy and a strange sailor. It is
coherent these two soon fall to melancholy and back to longing after the
dreary voyage on the river to Paris. Vigo’s film is simple and genuine,
yet tame about these two in their first days of marriage on a boat. The
newlyweds are aimless and basic, though vulnerable thus believable. The
two sailors are clumsy and uncultured, while sewing, laundry, and
playing the phonograph are done to try to beat the mundane life. Simply,
there no big circumstances or dilemmas and they move along finding
little things to do here and there to keep time moving. Juliette is
disconnected with everyone because of the time they are spending
together in close proximity and not being able to do much with it within
the restricted space and utilities. Nuances, gestures, and sublime
expressions grow on the audience and every scene after. For example,
there are parts where they roll around merely bringing out the children
in them. An emphasis of the film is on the visual style deceptive during
the unfolding of the time spent on the boat off the land. It’s
extraordinarily hypnotic during this sequence. The audience watches but
not involved as there aren't any worries when the film takes a far
relaxing approach during the journey down river. The foggy rich drift
creates a trancelike fantasy inducing with arbitrary shots. Nothing
appears to happen, as conscious minds floats without concern. There are
parts when audiences watch and completely forget what happened during
the scene before when a scene tunes up to jolly moments. This is also
accompanied by an accordion composed music score and the movie looks
like a silent picture. Most of the story is on the ship until they leave
to test out the city life. It can be labeled as France’s Sunrise -
innocents from the country swamped up by the big lure of a city, but
less epic and fierce and more exhausting. It’s at minimal without
resolving or even opening hard-hitting issues or any at all. The film’s
message is stronger than anything going on in the film, which is downer.
This near final segment splits the couple’s interactions apart as people
make small mistakes in everyday life. None of which can contest the warm
company of others and the force of ordinary romance of simple unity.
Final Grade: B
Superbad (2007)
Starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Seth Rogen,
Bill Hader
Film Prophet's Review...
Three male high school seniors before school ends deal with separation
anxiety one night during their quest to acquire alcohol underage for a
party that goes awry. They find themselves in obstacles brought on by
pressure by their female friends to arrive with booze at the party.
Teenage insecurity transpires as they attempt at things like booze, sex,
and parties, but fail in unavoidable situations aimed for the film's
comedy. The youth and geek charm humor is delivered by conversations
between the male friends involving crude sets, mainly sex. Plenty of
them open up the movie that concerns about sex where every line
surrounds the subject. Jonah Hill’s character has a niche for absurd and
rapid coarse language but sometimes settles down to say something like,
‘I just kind of sit around all day, draw pictures of dicks’ with a
montage of drawings to follow. There’s gratuitous dialogue that creates
mental images than actual raunchy behavior, which occurs later on and
it’s funnier seeing the physical humor than the early opening acts.
Sardonically, the movie is quite unsuitable for ages younger than its
course of the adolescent crowd. They try to be older than they are
through the phases of immaturity, such as drinking booze and having fake
IDs, but the maturity doesn't tag along which is humorous. The movie is
fast-paced like everyone’s raging hormones where the mind is fully
trapped in the sex and liquor state where they assume to attract one
another. Planted are scenes of ways to acquire alcohol goofy. The
storyline is straightforward, as it’s more about the punch lines in the
thorny interactions. It’s a redundant technique found in other teenage
movies, which is to get the girls drunk so that they will have sex with
them. After the first few minutes, it seemed all the jokes were expected
and the tricks were already out of bag because they're frequently about
the sex topic at the adolescent level. If this was released a few years
prior, it would be just another teenage comedy. The turning event that
made a sharp corner to madcap starts after the first liquor store
encounter and it's purely outlandish during the one long night. They
think they can fool the older crowd, such as cops, young adults, and
others, as these are all ways to refrain them from accomplishing their
mission. The fake ID card with the name McLovin starts for the character
to enter the history among the memorable and great teen movie
characters. The most hilarious scene is the unexpected 80 dollar bill in
the liquor store part that has a high point of hilarity with great
timing. The f-bombs drop just like the uncomfortable situations. ‘You
should really clean this up, someone could really hurt themselves - f my
life.’ ‘F thinking, we need to act.’ Random quotes like - you guys on
myspace – are hilarious and off the wall. Events unfold as they go
separate ways and unit under the pursuit. The casting of unidentified
performers who look like actual high school students rather than having
stars in their twenties was welcoming. Seth Rogen and Bill Hader as the
two unconventional cops are a fun supporting act. For example, the shoot
out on the stop sign and the outcome of the cop car near the end were
frivolous. Besides the occasional uproar, audiences care about the three
teens so they can finally attend the party and complete their mission
for the night.
Final Grade: B
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Starring Matt Damon, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Julia Stiles, Joey
Ansah, Albert Finney, Paddy Considine
Film Prophet's Review...
In continuation of the chase-spy action series, the story centers on
Jason Bourne, Damon, uncovering mysteries about his past rationale and
his true identity. He wants to find out why he's being targeted by an
agency following his movements. The CIA operation repeats its efforts to
take down one target, one man, and the hitmen on call can never
complete. Bourne dodges away, confronts, attacks, and finds out a little
more about the operation, then subsequently jumps again dangerously with
espionage and martial arts against the same. David Strathairn, playing
against his typecast as the lead villain, is a CIA official sending his
operative assets to eliminate of Bourne. ‘It ends when we've won.’ He is
part of an operation responsible for Bourne’s amnesic state. The
operation is back to the old tricks of looking at big surveillance
monitors, wire-tapping phone calls, and going in and out of locations of
agencies that lose interception and fall prey. ‘I hear you're still
looking for me - get some rest Pam, you're looking tired.’ Like the
previous two films in the operation room to hunt down Bourne with
tracking devices, others plot in a room while he's out secluded against
assassins. Bourne puts on the meticulous moves with hand and eye
coordinator leaving guys unconscious and thinks before he executes.
Besides running, jumping, and punching, he is also proficient in several
languages, though this film does not show that aptitude this time. The
beginning catches up briefly by bringing up a few past deaths with taped
conversations and flashbacks toying with various redundant flashback
incidences that shape present situations. This third installment in the
series is in a superior form over the previous two, which is rare
especially in the year of its release. Director Paul Greengrass moves
the action and the story along with the type of music that aims to
create suspense, unsteady camera work, and rapid cuts every second to
keep the adrenaline of the movie in one piece. He shuns special effects
and goes for suspense action of walking around crowds to escape the
followers that usually ends with Bourne defeating numerous assassins at
once quickly. There aren’t many big explosions for attractions, rather
hand-to-hand combats break out any time and the stunt work is preferred
over computer effects. Less time is on trying to regain Bourne’s
background memory so he forms connections with those who remember him,
as this is where ethics and alliances arrive into place. The camera has
a tough time in parts and the dialogue was a bit rough without Damon in
a scene, yet Damon was solid and rigid. The film loses some momentum
after a hand combat ends, but it starts back up again shortly. The film
rushes the tension between everyone with pressures and threats. Imagine
running away from a sniper who is at a concealed location while the
police or anyone else intervenes to slow down matters down... very
arduous. The movie covers several locales such as London, Madrid, New
York City, and Tangier when Bourne is on the move to discover his past
and others are tracing his steps. The foot-chase sequence in Tangier
with Agent Desh, who follows up to be Bourne’s best match physically in
a one on one challenge, through a maze of alleys, windows, and rooftops
is excellent… it’s the best pursuit in the film followed by the car
chase sequence through the New York City streets which puts the film
over the mark.
Final Grade: B/B+
In the Bedroom (2001)
Starring Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei, William
Mapother
Film Prophet's Review...
A family in their Maine home sees their teenage son in a romance with a
slightly older single mother, with two children, who also has an abusive
separated boyfriend. With an acclaim movie and a title as it is,
audiences would be expecting the majority if not all of the reserved
discussion and drama to be in the bounds of the walls in the bedroom.
They would just lay on the bed or under the covers convivial and
welcoming to their lives. Bar none that the private parts, no not the
sex because there isn’t any, of the character issues are kept personal
and inner aloof. None of the action occurs in the bedroom and it all
happens out of the boundaries of the bedroom where it's unsettling and
not safe. A bedroom wasn’t shown until characters have made an impact
else where. The moral of the movie centers on communication breaking
during an impeded marriage where people have to react to a sudden
hardship. The direction by Todd Field shelves up on a soft and gentle
approach where human beings are kind unless tragedy strikes. The home
life, time with neighbors and friends, and with the kids are very
middling and usual for a family, as it opens like so. Females are in the
kitchen and males are outdoors fishing for lobsters, playing poker, and
by the grill. Soon, the story dissolves into uneasiness with others in
situations where sensitivity and remorse arise. Conversations are
usually kept short and to the point naturally. It is too relaxed and
understated for disconcerting clashes, like with the abusive former
boyfriend, and don't glorify them bigger than life. Even the climax of
tragedy is underplayed where few words after are exchanged afterwards.
During this period, the husband and wife mostly have nothing to say to
each other which is represented by blank looks and no words followed by
long black fades between short scenes where they don't communicate
because of one loss. All the talks are in a tone of sorrow with
emptiness and uneasy murkiness within. Sometimes, they are interrupted
by other people, like a woman asking for change at a store, buying candy
bars at home from a girl at the front door for a fundraiser, or even a
young choir singing. The acting here is serious, but versatile enough to
relieve small situations. ‘Um, do you like coleslaw?’ The acting moments
shine in the perturbed occurrences when things aren't planned and
immediate to adjust to instead of the anti- melancholy, at ease as
families try to aim for. Though, there are no riveting moments
whatsoever, the film observes the loss, the blame, the grief, and the
unforgiving. ‘My wife keeps seeing you, I can't have that anymore.’ They
recover unaccompanied and after the half mark of the film makes for
humdrum dealings with the after effects with court trails as it turns
into a festival of misery squabbling, weeping about penalties and who is
responsible. It turns into a subdued self versus self drama for everyone
contemplating ways to fix the problem that is very difficult to solve.
The bleak contact is not enjoyable, though the film is very professional
around the sensitive issue. They deal with pressures of a tragedy that
they have to endure for the sake of their marriage in all of the film's
delicacy. They end up back where the day begins, in the bedroom.
Final Grade: B-/B
Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
Starring Liv Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Bibi Andersson, Jan Malmsjö,
Gunnel Lindblom
Film Prophet's Review...
The drama study of a marriage concerns the raw nature of a relationship
between a man and woman by adultery. Ingmar Bergman directs human
behavior toward one another during a marriage that eventually reaches
divorce, but they can’t keep separated. The marital drama is almost
three hours in length as it was originally a six episode television
show, now segmented by chapters in the film. It’s a typical seventies
production with dull colors, attire, and makeup that's not really
attractive to modern standards, even for a Bergman film, including a
grainy, fuzzy appeal. Every scene is about their marriage with them two
solely featured. It opens with the main couple, Marianne, Ullmann, and
Johan, Josephson, being interviewed for a magazine. The camera is fully
positioned on them for one long shot. It is a continuous shot for a
steady length of time bestowing their ability to go that long and go
over all those lines quite well. This opening sequence is the one that
sticks out as it is excellent at showing their gestures, mannerisms, and
reactions to statements and questions. Here, they open up their
background life history through the interview together. ‘Look as if you
are fond of each other.’ There’s constant chatter with responses
instantly in the movie so there's plenty of subtitles to read but some
go over the viewer's head since there’s a lot in a short amount of time.
It’s so well-written for oral discussion. However, very little actually
occurs despite these intimate talks in this low budget film where the
writing is the main spot. The film always shows them together or
separate on screen as two people carry the whole film without
complementary help. They verbally share and discuss their pains and
worries back and forth. They're certainly not boring and plain people,
rather healthy and cheerful individuals. She is a divorce lawyer and he
is traveling doctor. On numerous occasions they put effort to improve
their marriage assessing both their fortes and failures when they both
start admitting intimate details where some lead to irritations. They
overcomplicate matters through exchanging words quietly and tenderly,
and arguing without being histrionic. As predicted, this all falls
during the late stretch of the movie with nagging and an affair before
divorce papers. The turning point lands right in the center of the film
– man falling in love with another women and leaving, which elapses to
the next chapter. The way the wife reacts to the affair and him going
away for a while displays Ullmann’s physical acting talents, more than
just speaking words. Their relationship and lives continue by segments
as their attitudes and responsibilities in situations show they’re
always going to be vulnerable people. They rekindle through various
stages in their marriage, to divorce papers. They will curse each other
and have temporary rejoice moments, but they have memories that they
hold on to as they rethink their status together. A targeted crowd for
the film would be an older adult audience that would garner the most
sympathy or connection to these people, with quotes like ‘sex isn't
everything’ and ‘married people lose interest in each other’ and
‘getting married was a mistake, it was more of a joke.’ They use
constant random talk to keep interest in each other. The audience never
sees the children's side or the two daughters at all and they aren’t
mentioned in full. They should be relevant in the situation but they are
vacant in the entire of the film that remains on the husband and wife
side. It’s completely on their stances conveying the lukewarm emotions
of the couple. It is a tremendous film between a man and a woman in
adultery, but the bare entertainment value, wordy dialogue, and length
of film diminishes some of its worth.
Final Grade: B-/B
Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Starring Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow, Lars
Passgård
Film Prophet's Review...
A mentally ill young woman returns from a mental institution on a remote
island for vacation with her father, her brother, and a playwright. Her
father is an amateur writer and he observes her sickness in order to
write his story. The movie won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
in its year. Ingmar Bergman’s Swedish film deals with her search for God
that pushes her to the boundaries while others think that he is
nonexistent and it’s all her. Some are distant and empty from another
and they’re afraid of losing her. Bergman casts some of his regulars and
this movie has a very small cast of four main people. The focal point is
always on the four characters and island’s settings that further the
movie and the story, and brace it together. The tranquil settings begin
with a lake and stable calmness in the air. Moreover, the instrumental
score is composed by a violin, and the colors are pale gray in the clear
and spark photography. Each frame in the film is pictured where the
characters are centered in the middle of the frame with sufficient room
for the beautiful scenery. This scenery creates an entire new aroma
satisfying for the viewing pleasure. Another triumphant aspect about the
film is the sharp dialogue sounding poetic and educated, and acting
interaction which also supplements the film viewing. The final line in
the movie is astonishing in wonder. The pacing is steady and unhurried,
almost second by second in its current time span. It sometimes seems
faint on a plotline, but Bergman has his way to capture the audience's
attention elsewhere, as described. There are times when discussions
among them are at idle and it discards character action opting for their
pains and feelings. There are no conflicts from the start which allows
plenty of time to watch the characters alone and bothered by something
unclear. The apparent substance is low, particularly when it gets into
individual divine time with no words. After thirty minutes, there is a
question mark about knowing if God exists that brings them together.
‘Give me some proof of God.’ Her illness is only truly expressed through
her movements alone spiritually which confuses the rest, yet the
atmosphere still fits. They communicate about how confused they are with
her beliefs. However, the film is too soothing, comfortable, and
relaxing for a lengthy time to evoke any striking dilemma that lasts to
the following scenes as it remains soft. It shows people's reactions
towards one’s sacred illness and the slender, but rigid problems that
ensue between them.
Final Grade: B
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