Kenneth Branagh is one of those classic, old school directors. He makes a movie not for the sake of money, but for the sake of making a great movie. And he has never once gone out of his way to receive recognition for his work. He even declined the OBE (Officer of the British Empire, or being knighted). In everything that he has done, he has done an amazing job with many of his films, but, like all directors and actors, there are some bad ones.
As an actor, he has captivated my mind for many years. I was first introduced to him in my 9th grade stagecraft class with Henry V. Although we did not watch the full length film, we did watch a clip and saw what he could do with his movies. Then the next semester came along and I watched Much Ado About Nothing in my drama class. There I witnessed the full majesty of Mr. Branagh’s acting ability. Ever since then, I have continued to try and watch his other films. However, the majority of his greatest performances are ones where he did not direct the movie. Recently, a movie called Pirate Radio was released with an outstanding cast, but the movie itself was horrible. I could not watch the full movie because it was too sexually explicit, but I did get a chance to see Branagh’s scenes which are some of the most appropriate and best. He was, pardon the expression, laugh-out-loud funny. I couldn’t stay in my seat. Then there is Wild, Wild West, the 1999 action flick starring Kevin Kline and Will Smith. Again, nowhere near a good movie, but Branagh was so good. Other performances that he has done that he did not also direct was the 2001 and 2009 British mini-series called Conspiracy and Wallander, Othello, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
And as a director, he has done some amazing movie. He continues to use several close friends of his in movies throughout the ‘90s. His wife Emma Thompson, friends Imelda Staunton, Richard Briers, Phyllida Law, Robin Williams, and Ian Holm have all been in multiple films of his. He also uses Patrick Doyle, one of his closest friends from college, as his composer. Patrick Doyle always composes beautiful or haunting music for every one of his films. Tim Harvey has been his production (or set) designer for ever film except for his latest, Thor. There are some problems, however, with a few of his movies. Peter’s Friends was not as good as it should be, with such a stellar cast as it does (Branagh, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Imelda Staunton, and Emma Thompson) but the script made it very sexually explicit which it didn’t need to be. But some of his greatest directing films have been recent. As You Like It, with Kevin Kline, Alfred Molina, and Bryce Dallas Howard, was one of his best Shakespeare adaptations. Sleuth (Michael Caine and Jude Law) was a brilliant game of cat-and-mouse with only two roles, Caine and Law. However, like Pirate Radio and Peter’s Friends, it gets a little too risqué. This isn’t to say his earlier works are bad, they are not. His adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was the closest representation of the book (but still no cigar). It did have some great performances by Helena Bonham Carter and Robert De Niro. And his Henry V, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing were all excellent, but also had problems as well.
The see it: Frankenstein, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like, Wallander, Conspiracy, and Henry V.
The don’t see it: Pirate Radio, Peter’s Friends, Sleuth, Wild, Wild West, and Othello.
Next time: Zombie time, with the Resident Evil series and Zombieland
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
A Night on The Town was Not That Great: 2 stars
Ben Affleck gives us another movie to look down on. With only one good movie under his belt, Gone Baby Gone, I was hoping that The Town would be another, but sadly it wasn’t meant to be.
The problems with The Town are mostly with the acting and the screenplay. Mr. Affleck himself co-wrote the screenplay and directed this film, so the problems are laid down onto his shoulders. Critics have been giving The Town great reviews, but here is one reviewer who will not fall to Ben’s feet.
Blake Lively was one of the worst things about this movie. I stand by the opinion that she is one of the worst actresses I have seen, dead or alive. Jessica Alba or Biel could have pulled off this role better than she did. She looked and sounded more like an Italian gangster than a Boston slut (pardon the word choice, although she act that last part a little too much). A fake Boston accent and throwing your hands randomly in the air does not make you a good actress. And then there is Mad Men actor Jon Hamm who plays a cut and dry FBI agent with no background and no point other than to be there. Jeremy Renner is nowhere near as good as he was in The Hurt Locker. His fake accent hurt my ears and completely incomprehensible whenever he was on screen. And Ben Affleck was just being Ben Affleck.
The only two good actors, Rebecca hall and Chris Cooper, could not hold up the movie on their own. Chris Cooper was underused and Rebecca Hall was the only sign of light whenever Affleck was on screen.
The technical aspect wasn’t any better. The cinematography of a film is supposed to help build on the emotion of the actor’s performances and maybe add more. That’s what a talented director of photography would do. For this movie, they just pointed the camera straight at the actors and expected us to be moved by their own performances. The music is also there to help build the mood and give us as an audience more emotion. Harry Gregson-Williams, Hans Zimmer’s most adept protégé, did not do that great of a job with this film. It was a mellowed down score for a mellowed down movie. And when the action sequences came, it was a convoluted mesh of strings and electronic sounds. And the script, as I said, was horrible. There were so many stalk characters. The only interesting character was Ben Affleck’s and Rebecca Hall’s. However, Ben’s character is very contracting: he wants to move on with his life and wants to change, and yet he keeps partying with the boys and sleeps around with all of these girls (we actually see one of the nights). It just seems off to me that if you want to become a moral man and get rid of this life, you would just get out immediately and not just keep having sex and getting hammered.
The cold cut case is just to avoid this movie. Don’t see it. Whatever you pay for it won’t be worth it.
The problems with The Town are mostly with the acting and the screenplay. Mr. Affleck himself co-wrote the screenplay and directed this film, so the problems are laid down onto his shoulders. Critics have been giving The Town great reviews, but here is one reviewer who will not fall to Ben’s feet.
Blake Lively was one of the worst things about this movie. I stand by the opinion that she is one of the worst actresses I have seen, dead or alive. Jessica Alba or Biel could have pulled off this role better than she did. She looked and sounded more like an Italian gangster than a Boston slut (pardon the word choice, although she act that last part a little too much). A fake Boston accent and throwing your hands randomly in the air does not make you a good actress. And then there is Mad Men actor Jon Hamm who plays a cut and dry FBI agent with no background and no point other than to be there. Jeremy Renner is nowhere near as good as he was in The Hurt Locker. His fake accent hurt my ears and completely incomprehensible whenever he was on screen. And Ben Affleck was just being Ben Affleck.
The only two good actors, Rebecca hall and Chris Cooper, could not hold up the movie on their own. Chris Cooper was underused and Rebecca Hall was the only sign of light whenever Affleck was on screen.
The technical aspect wasn’t any better. The cinematography of a film is supposed to help build on the emotion of the actor’s performances and maybe add more. That’s what a talented director of photography would do. For this movie, they just pointed the camera straight at the actors and expected us to be moved by their own performances. The music is also there to help build the mood and give us as an audience more emotion. Harry Gregson-Williams, Hans Zimmer’s most adept protégé, did not do that great of a job with this film. It was a mellowed down score for a mellowed down movie. And when the action sequences came, it was a convoluted mesh of strings and electronic sounds. And the script, as I said, was horrible. There were so many stalk characters. The only interesting character was Ben Affleck’s and Rebecca Hall’s. However, Ben’s character is very contracting: he wants to move on with his life and wants to change, and yet he keeps partying with the boys and sleeps around with all of these girls (we actually see one of the nights). It just seems off to me that if you want to become a moral man and get rid of this life, you would just get out immediately and not just keep having sex and getting hammered.
The cold cut case is just to avoid this movie. Don’t see it. Whatever you pay for it won’t be worth it.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The Expendables
It has been a little while since I have done a full movie review. I hope to get back on track.
Sylvester Stallone is not the greatest actor nor director. In fact no one in this movie are good actors. But this movie still made me happy.
Like The A-Team, The Expendables was a blow 'em up movie without much plot and a lot of predictability. But the action was so great and the fighting sequences were so well rehearsed and thought out, that it really didn't matter. Many of the stunts were superb, especially one that involves Stallone and his knife and a person's head. Another great few moments in the fighting were when Jason Statham would chuck his throwing knives into someone's face or heart.
Again, as I said before, there is not much in the way of story, but there is a lot in the way of stunts. if you like these kind of movies, I would say this is a must see. If you don't, then I would say avoid it.
Next time I will be reviewing The Town, The Resident evil movies, and the start of my actor and director profiles.
Sylvester Stallone is not the greatest actor nor director. In fact no one in this movie are good actors. But this movie still made me happy.
Like The A-Team, The Expendables was a blow 'em up movie without much plot and a lot of predictability. But the action was so great and the fighting sequences were so well rehearsed and thought out, that it really didn't matter. Many of the stunts were superb, especially one that involves Stallone and his knife and a person's head. Another great few moments in the fighting were when Jason Statham would chuck his throwing knives into someone's face or heart.
Again, as I said before, there is not much in the way of story, but there is a lot in the way of stunts. if you like these kind of movies, I would say this is a must see. If you don't, then I would say avoid it.
Next time I will be reviewing The Town, The Resident evil movies, and the start of my actor and director profiles.
Trailer to Watch for Part 3
The Next Three Days: Russel Crowe and Liam Neeson. Enough said, right. i predict it will be one of the greatest action flicks of this fall. Watch the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q73Vda1JFn0
The Debt: Another great action flick with even more great actors. Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington with different accents sound great.
Never Let Me Go: You will definetly see a review for this movie in the next month once it come out. This has Oscar written all over it. I am a huge Keira Knightley an Carrie Mulligan fan. Also, an great up-and-coming actor, the future Mr Peter Parker stars, Andrew Garfield.
Herafter: Another Clint eastwood and Matt Damon team-up. I believe this will be better than there last film together, Invictus. I also am looking forward to seeing Bryce Dallas Howard.
The Tourist: Angelina Jolie has been growing on me. And with this movie she works with Johnny Depp and Pual Bettany, so no matter if she does a good job or bad, there are still two other performances to look forward to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q73Vda1JFn0
The Debt: Another great action flick with even more great actors. Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington with different accents sound great.
Never Let Me Go: You will definetly see a review for this movie in the next month once it come out. This has Oscar written all over it. I am a huge Keira Knightley an Carrie Mulligan fan. Also, an great up-and-coming actor, the future Mr Peter Parker stars, Andrew Garfield.
Herafter: Another Clint eastwood and Matt Damon team-up. I believe this will be better than there last film together, Invictus. I also am looking forward to seeing Bryce Dallas Howard.
The Tourist: Angelina Jolie has been growing on me. And with this movie she works with Johnny Depp and Pual Bettany, so no matter if she does a good job or bad, there are still two other performances to look forward to.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)