Do not go to see this movie if you want your action movies to be extra explosions and fights with a small side helping of plot. Hanna is a movie that is big on story and characterization. It has fantastic fight scenes and completely moved by these great actors and the fantastic music. There may be minor problems and I could list them all, but I am not here to knit-pick. This is a great film, but a person can only enjoy it if they go into it expecting a few slow moments.
The script and the acting is humorous and exciting and thrilling. Each actor plays very well from each role that they are given, especially Saoirse Ronan and Cate Blanchette. Cate is wonderfully devilish and Ronan brings every ounce of her acting ability into this role. She will definitely be one of the greatest actresses of all time in a few more years. And Eric Bana is good as always. Though Cate is such a scary woman who you do not want to be on the wrong end of in a conversation, it is Tom Hollander, as the insane Isaacs, who steals this film. It is difficult to steal the movie away from these three actors. I don’t know if it’s the hair, the polo shirt, or that smile, but he creeps on a scale that can make grown men slither in their seats. He doesn’t do much in the film and in fact never does much fighting; it is his presence in the film is all we need.
The action is great. The fights scenes in the film are well choreographed and look stunning. Some might complain that there is too little which brings me back to my point that this may be an action movie but it is more than that. The film entertains but still makes the viewers think.
And the music moves the film. The movie couldn’t have worked as well without The Chemical Brothers. It would have seemed to me a rip off of a David Fincher film without this score. Although the cinematography looked really cool and the lighting added a fantastic tone to the film, it had the pacing of a Fincher film and it would have emphasized it more without the score. The score made the movement of the film necessary. And the whistling theme of Isaacs churned my blood.
A great movie all around. It has its problems like most movies, but I recommend it very highly.
Next time: Jurassic Park Trilogy and Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton and Duplicity
Saturday, April 9, 2011
The Soloist: 1.5 stars
The Soloist is one interesting film. I am in love with Joe Wright’s style of directing and believe he may be one of the great directors at work today with the likes of Tom Hooper, Kenneth Branagh, Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, and Peter Weir. He has a way with the camera, with his actors, with the script, with the music, and with the scenery. The Soloist doesn’t do this man justice. It’s sad to say that The Soloist could have been better in the hands of a different director.
Mr. Wright knows how to position his cameras. He knows what to do with it in every scene. He knows what to show and what not to show. And he knows what way to light his sets. In The Soloist, he doesn’t. He seems confused and tries to mimic what he did with his two previous British art films in an American bromance-drama film set in 2003. Mr. Wright uses clique camera angles and recopies what he did previously but it doesn’t work. Close-ups in a film like Atonement is fantastic if you have good actors and power behind it, but when you are doing it to show craziness, all the audience feels is awkwardness. And there is even a scene where Nathaniel (Foxx) is listening to a rehearsal in Disney Concert Hall and instead od watching him listening to the music or watching the orchestra (which would have been better) we see these weird Fantasia-like color and wave like patterns popping onto the screen.
That being said, I also felt the performances were too weak for a film of this nature. Jamie Foxx is like a cookie cutter, simply redoing what other great actors have done with being schizophrenic and doesn’t try and be his own. The close-ups of the camera didn’t help, getting right up into his face, however, that still doesn’t relinquish the fact that there is nothing genuine or unique in his role. The same in Robert Downey Jr. Normally great, Downey never feels emotionally invested. The audience relies too much on the failed camera work to speed up the pacing. Yelling out to the camera and the world won’t make an audience feel for the character’s complexity, Mr. Downey. And talking really quickly and randomly won’t make the audience feel you are mentally ill, Mr. Foxx.
Touching more on that, the script didn’t even do the insanity justice. Like I said before, talking rapidly won’t make the viewers believe he is insane, or at least they won’t feel fully invested in the character, which I know I wasn’t. And not only did they do that, they also added into Nathaniel’s character voices that he hears. Yes, schizophrenics hear voices or see people that aren’t there. The viewers don’t need to hear them. If that’s the only time we really get into the mind of the character is when he starts to hear voices, then the filmmakers just destroyed the nature of the character. I also don’t like the flashbacks. The film shouldn’t follow both Steve Lopez (Robert) and Nathaniel. It should follow one or the other, even if the book followed both. It gets too much and I felt I was being split apart. The movie seemed to follow Lopez and then randomly there is a flashback to Nathaniel’s life and those flashbacks are the only times we actually see Nathaniel. Also, the mumbling of Robert is too much. I couldn’t hear a word of his column so I really had to read subtitles in the film.
Then there is the music. Dario Marianelli composed both of Wright’s previous films. However, there wasn’t much in the way of music in this film. I do not like a film about music to only contain what previous men have composed. There is absolutely nothing in this film that has come through Dario’s mind and all he does is use what Bach and Beethoven composed to fill the film. The movie incorporates these two men’s work, but it shouldn’t be all that is there. Like in Black Swan, the movie is about Swan Lake, but there is newly composed music that adapts itself to Swan Lake and doesn’t rehash the Swan Lake music over and over again. That’s what the film should have done, adapt and use to establish an emotional foothold in our ears.
Lastly, in all of Joe Wright’s films, he incorporates the landscape and scenery into his sets. In England and in France where his past two films take place, he does this flawlessly, but in The Soloist he tries too hard again. Los Angeles is not a gorgeous landscape and not a rich and majestic city. I went there for Spring Break, I know what the streets are like. I’m not sure what Mr. Wright’s intentions were, but it seemed to me that somehow he tries to find beauty in the trash of Skid Row. He reuses these epic sweeping pan shots of the city and somehow it doesn’t really work. In a way it is unique and different and what I wanted to see, but in a way it still didn’t work. It seemed too far-fetched for me to get my heart and my mind into a movie with these kinds of pan shots of the city.
The Soloist is far from good. It is disappointing for me to say that one of my favorite directors has such a trashy film, but it is the truth. I couldn’t sympathize for these characters. All that I am trying to get at is that the film could have been so much more in different hands. Not better hands necessarily, because Mr. Wright still is amazing in my opinion.
Mr. Wright knows how to position his cameras. He knows what to do with it in every scene. He knows what to show and what not to show. And he knows what way to light his sets. In The Soloist, he doesn’t. He seems confused and tries to mimic what he did with his two previous British art films in an American bromance-drama film set in 2003. Mr. Wright uses clique camera angles and recopies what he did previously but it doesn’t work. Close-ups in a film like Atonement is fantastic if you have good actors and power behind it, but when you are doing it to show craziness, all the audience feels is awkwardness. And there is even a scene where Nathaniel (Foxx) is listening to a rehearsal in Disney Concert Hall and instead od watching him listening to the music or watching the orchestra (which would have been better) we see these weird Fantasia-like color and wave like patterns popping onto the screen.
That being said, I also felt the performances were too weak for a film of this nature. Jamie Foxx is like a cookie cutter, simply redoing what other great actors have done with being schizophrenic and doesn’t try and be his own. The close-ups of the camera didn’t help, getting right up into his face, however, that still doesn’t relinquish the fact that there is nothing genuine or unique in his role. The same in Robert Downey Jr. Normally great, Downey never feels emotionally invested. The audience relies too much on the failed camera work to speed up the pacing. Yelling out to the camera and the world won’t make an audience feel for the character’s complexity, Mr. Downey. And talking really quickly and randomly won’t make the audience feel you are mentally ill, Mr. Foxx.
Touching more on that, the script didn’t even do the insanity justice. Like I said before, talking rapidly won’t make the viewers believe he is insane, or at least they won’t feel fully invested in the character, which I know I wasn’t. And not only did they do that, they also added into Nathaniel’s character voices that he hears. Yes, schizophrenics hear voices or see people that aren’t there. The viewers don’t need to hear them. If that’s the only time we really get into the mind of the character is when he starts to hear voices, then the filmmakers just destroyed the nature of the character. I also don’t like the flashbacks. The film shouldn’t follow both Steve Lopez (Robert) and Nathaniel. It should follow one or the other, even if the book followed both. It gets too much and I felt I was being split apart. The movie seemed to follow Lopez and then randomly there is a flashback to Nathaniel’s life and those flashbacks are the only times we actually see Nathaniel. Also, the mumbling of Robert is too much. I couldn’t hear a word of his column so I really had to read subtitles in the film.
Then there is the music. Dario Marianelli composed both of Wright’s previous films. However, there wasn’t much in the way of music in this film. I do not like a film about music to only contain what previous men have composed. There is absolutely nothing in this film that has come through Dario’s mind and all he does is use what Bach and Beethoven composed to fill the film. The movie incorporates these two men’s work, but it shouldn’t be all that is there. Like in Black Swan, the movie is about Swan Lake, but there is newly composed music that adapts itself to Swan Lake and doesn’t rehash the Swan Lake music over and over again. That’s what the film should have done, adapt and use to establish an emotional foothold in our ears.
Lastly, in all of Joe Wright’s films, he incorporates the landscape and scenery into his sets. In England and in France where his past two films take place, he does this flawlessly, but in The Soloist he tries too hard again. Los Angeles is not a gorgeous landscape and not a rich and majestic city. I went there for Spring Break, I know what the streets are like. I’m not sure what Mr. Wright’s intentions were, but it seemed to me that somehow he tries to find beauty in the trash of Skid Row. He reuses these epic sweeping pan shots of the city and somehow it doesn’t really work. In a way it is unique and different and what I wanted to see, but in a way it still didn’t work. It seemed too far-fetched for me to get my heart and my mind into a movie with these kinds of pan shots of the city.
The Soloist is far from good. It is disappointing for me to say that one of my favorite directors has such a trashy film, but it is the truth. I couldn’t sympathize for these characters. All that I am trying to get at is that the film could have been so much more in different hands. Not better hands necessarily, because Mr. Wright still is amazing in my opinion.
Pride and Prejudice; Atonement: 4 stars; 4.5 stars
There are few films where I can easily say are as beautiful as the old fashioned movies like David Lean’s films or William Wyler or Laurence Olivier. Joe Wright’s Atonement and Pride and Prejudice are two of them. Quite simply these films have some of the most artistic, majestic, and stylistic shots of any films that I have seen in the past two decades. Very few directors alive today can capture such beauty in EVERY shot, and somehow Joe Wright is one of these men who can.
I don’t know how he does it. I wish I knew how he can make every shot, every frame of these films worth looking at. And he fills it with drop-dead gorgeous landscapes and sets and performances (especially the landscapes).
Wright is a lover of long takes. In Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, these takes are the best ones in the film. They draw in the attention of the audience and empower the viewing of the scene with such weight. The one in Atonement lasted for almost five minutes and the scene would not have been as great if they continually cut all the time. I wish some directors would use this technique more.
The actors in both of these films are all top notch. Say what you will about whether they look like the characters they portray or if they don’t act the same way that they do in the books, but every one of them still gives to their respective roles such humanity. And all of them are British; what more could you ask for? (With the exception of Donald Sutherland which I can ignore for a moment because he is good.) Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen, Rosamund Pike, Brenda Blethyn, Tom Hollander, Judi Dench, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Venessa Redgrave, and Benedict Cumberbatch all are superb and well cast, even if the majority of American audiences and viewers don’t know who these people are (which is sad).
And the music is amazing (for lack of a better word). The best way to describe the score for Atonement is how well it fits with the film. Both scores just works so well with the atmosphere of the film and really does work to convey what emotion you are supposed to be feeling and what these characters are feeling too.
Overall, if you haven’t seen these films, watch them. At least go a see Atonement. It really is a film that will stand the test of time as one of the greats in my opinion.
I don’t know how he does it. I wish I knew how he can make every shot, every frame of these films worth looking at. And he fills it with drop-dead gorgeous landscapes and sets and performances (especially the landscapes).
Wright is a lover of long takes. In Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, these takes are the best ones in the film. They draw in the attention of the audience and empower the viewing of the scene with such weight. The one in Atonement lasted for almost five minutes and the scene would not have been as great if they continually cut all the time. I wish some directors would use this technique more.
The actors in both of these films are all top notch. Say what you will about whether they look like the characters they portray or if they don’t act the same way that they do in the books, but every one of them still gives to their respective roles such humanity. And all of them are British; what more could you ask for? (With the exception of Donald Sutherland which I can ignore for a moment because he is good.) Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen, Rosamund Pike, Brenda Blethyn, Tom Hollander, Judi Dench, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Venessa Redgrave, and Benedict Cumberbatch all are superb and well cast, even if the majority of American audiences and viewers don’t know who these people are (which is sad).
And the music is amazing (for lack of a better word). The best way to describe the score for Atonement is how well it fits with the film. Both scores just works so well with the atmosphere of the film and really does work to convey what emotion you are supposed to be feeling and what these characters are feeling too.
Overall, if you haven’t seen these films, watch them. At least go a see Atonement. It really is a film that will stand the test of time as one of the greats in my opinion.
Friday, March 25, 2011
127 Hours: 5 stars
Movies with little dialogue are hit or miss. There can be so much that could go wrong and might not appeal to the viewers. And yet there can be so much that could go right. In 127 Hours, Danny Boyle and James Franco pull it off and it never gets too boring or slow.
There isn’t much to say about 127 Hours, not much to critique. However, what I can say is this: James Franco is amazing. His performance in this film might be his best ever. He truly is a light in the dark times of young American actors. From the very first shot of him in the film, he takes us into this character and we love him the whole time. When his arm is smashed by the boulder, he doesn’t scream, but we do. When he struggles to push the boulder, we struggle too. When his knife is just out of reach, we are reaching for it too. Sympathy is the major back bone of this film (not pity). And when he cuts off his arm, the viewers can’t look away. His bones snapping and cutting the nerves with a dull Swiss Army Knife, we are fixed on him. It’s painful to watch, but we still are watching closely and hope that are thoughts are pushing him forward to escape.
That’s really all I got. James Franco carries this movie with his one arm. He lifts it up as he goes down the canyon. He is the one moving this film. I haven’t seen any of Danny Boyle’s other films like Slumdog Millionaire or 28 Days Later or Trainspotting, but I now want to. It is so moving, tragic, and gorgeous. I loved this movie and I highly recommend this film.
Later this month: Joe Wright Marathon (Hanna, The Soloist, Atonement, Pride and Prejudice)
Early next month: The Original Star Wars Trilogy and Jurassic Park Trilogy and a Lasse Hallström Marathon (The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, The Shipping News, and Dear John)
There isn’t much to say about 127 Hours, not much to critique. However, what I can say is this: James Franco is amazing. His performance in this film might be his best ever. He truly is a light in the dark times of young American actors. From the very first shot of him in the film, he takes us into this character and we love him the whole time. When his arm is smashed by the boulder, he doesn’t scream, but we do. When he struggles to push the boulder, we struggle too. When his knife is just out of reach, we are reaching for it too. Sympathy is the major back bone of this film (not pity). And when he cuts off his arm, the viewers can’t look away. His bones snapping and cutting the nerves with a dull Swiss Army Knife, we are fixed on him. It’s painful to watch, but we still are watching closely and hope that are thoughts are pushing him forward to escape.
That’s really all I got. James Franco carries this movie with his one arm. He lifts it up as he goes down the canyon. He is the one moving this film. I haven’t seen any of Danny Boyle’s other films like Slumdog Millionaire or 28 Days Later or Trainspotting, but I now want to. It is so moving, tragic, and gorgeous. I loved this movie and I highly recommend this film.
Later this month: Joe Wright Marathon (Hanna, The Soloist, Atonement, Pride and Prejudice)
Early next month: The Original Star Wars Trilogy and Jurassic Park Trilogy and a Lasse Hallström Marathon (The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, The Shipping News, and Dear John)
How to Train Your Dragon: 5 stars
While Wall-E, The Lion King, and the Toy Story trilogy are my five favorite animated movies, there is only one movie outside of Pixar and Disney Animated that I love unquestionably and that is How to Train Your Dragon. There is so much to love in this film. One of them is that DreamWorks doesn’t try and sell the film based on voice-talent alone *cough-Kung-Fu-Panda-cough*. The studio sells it because they believe they have a great product, and they really do. This film is art, not simply a fun film to takes your kids. If only all animated films were made in this way, the genre will do so much better.
I have always believed that animated films outside of Pixar, and certain Disney films, were made specifically for kids and appealed only to kids or adults who like childish films (not in a bad way, however). I just am not a child at heart and films with the wistful humor and easy laughs aren’t as much fun for me to watch. Shrek, The Prince of Egypt, and The Road to El Dorado might have been the CLOSEST that I have seen outside of the two previously mentioned studios that I liked. Then I saw this film and I now have hope that there might be a change, but then Megamind came out and my hope went out the door (but that’s another story). I truly hope that in the future this genre will do better.
Now, why did I like the movie? It has such visually stunning animation that looked beautiful and crafted (Pixar is the best example; watch Wall-E) and something was quickly put together in a few months even though it wasn’t. The flying sequences were almost reminiscent to the space scenes in Wall-E with its elegant color schemes and majestic camera angles. The lighting looked real, and in fact, the hired one of the greatest directors of photography to work on the lighting for this film to make it look as real as possible, which I enjoyed. Lighting is key in animated movies and can add more depth to the picture.
Another major plus in the film is John Powell’s music in which he was the first man to be nominated for a best score outside of Pixar and Disney Animated films and it was his first nomination as well. Everything in this score has a point; every second needs to be there. Powell composed the greatest theme of the past year and quite possibly one of the greatest I have ever heard in many years. It is emotional, moving, tragic, comedic, and uplifting. No electronic sounds are added into this piece which would have destroyed the atmosphere it creates. Listen to it on youtube, it is worth the listen.
Then the voice talent is also truly exceptional. There were only three voice actors that I knew in the film, but I didn’t recognize anyone else. Jay Baruchel and Gerard Butler were fantastic and believable as Hiccup and his father. And America Ferrara was descent as the love interest, Astrid. It’s soothing and peaceful to not hear all of these famous actors every second. It’s good to hear other people to talk and not have thirty celebrities’ voices being jammed down my ears for only two or three lines each *cough-Kung-Fu-Panda-cough*.
Over all, a great story that actually looked real even though it had fantastical element and that sounded real with not so famous voices and with music that was both epic and still tame.
Thank you, DreamWorks Animation SKG. I love it.
I have always believed that animated films outside of Pixar, and certain Disney films, were made specifically for kids and appealed only to kids or adults who like childish films (not in a bad way, however). I just am not a child at heart and films with the wistful humor and easy laughs aren’t as much fun for me to watch. Shrek, The Prince of Egypt, and The Road to El Dorado might have been the CLOSEST that I have seen outside of the two previously mentioned studios that I liked. Then I saw this film and I now have hope that there might be a change, but then Megamind came out and my hope went out the door (but that’s another story). I truly hope that in the future this genre will do better.
Now, why did I like the movie? It has such visually stunning animation that looked beautiful and crafted (Pixar is the best example; watch Wall-E) and something was quickly put together in a few months even though it wasn’t. The flying sequences were almost reminiscent to the space scenes in Wall-E with its elegant color schemes and majestic camera angles. The lighting looked real, and in fact, the hired one of the greatest directors of photography to work on the lighting for this film to make it look as real as possible, which I enjoyed. Lighting is key in animated movies and can add more depth to the picture.
Another major plus in the film is John Powell’s music in which he was the first man to be nominated for a best score outside of Pixar and Disney Animated films and it was his first nomination as well. Everything in this score has a point; every second needs to be there. Powell composed the greatest theme of the past year and quite possibly one of the greatest I have ever heard in many years. It is emotional, moving, tragic, comedic, and uplifting. No electronic sounds are added into this piece which would have destroyed the atmosphere it creates. Listen to it on youtube, it is worth the listen.
Then the voice talent is also truly exceptional. There were only three voice actors that I knew in the film, but I didn’t recognize anyone else. Jay Baruchel and Gerard Butler were fantastic and believable as Hiccup and his father. And America Ferrara was descent as the love interest, Astrid. It’s soothing and peaceful to not hear all of these famous actors every second. It’s good to hear other people to talk and not have thirty celebrities’ voices being jammed down my ears for only two or three lines each *cough-Kung-Fu-Panda-cough*.
Over all, a great story that actually looked real even though it had fantastical element and that sounded real with not so famous voices and with music that was both epic and still tame.
Thank you, DreamWorks Animation SKG. I love it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)