Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America never did appeal much to me, since he looks kinda goofy and I'm not even American. I do however know the significance of the character and from trailers, the movie looked to be a fine entry to the Marvel series of movies.

The story of Captain America is about a little guy with a big heart. Short and scrawny Steve Rogers (amazingly still played by tall buff Chris Evans) is on a mission to join the US Army in the midst of World War II. Constantly rejected by army recruiters, he finally gets his chance when selected by Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) to take part in an experimental super-soldier program. Under the guidance of Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and British liaison Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), he eventually becomes Captain America and earns the ire of Johann Schmidt a.k.a. The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), a Nazi and old 'associate' of Dr. Erskine working for Hitler. Schmidt has his own plans however and of course, it's up to Cap to stop him.

This movie is a great example of what a superhero movie should be - not too heavy on the drama, not too over-the-top on the 'comic-bookness'. The script and pacing are handled well and takes its time to tell the story. The imagery of the 1940s comic-book world is visually compelling. There are pretty good effects and pronounced '3D-ness' - clearly not a cheap conversion. Props, set design, and effects all blend perfectly together to bring the world to life.

The acting by Evans, while not mind-blowing, is all you could want. As Steve Rogers, he is earnest, brave, and madly patriotic. As Captain America, he's well, Captain America. Weaving is menacing as Red Skull, even if a little one-dimensional. But then, sometimes villains should just be villains. Atwell shines as the love interest and Jones has fun with his small role. The small but important role played by Tucci adds pathos and a deeper meaning to the plot. Most of the movie, however stands firmly on the impossibly broad shoulders of Evans and he sells it very well.

There's a great line in the movie that says that only a weak man knows the value of strength. Captain America: The First Avenger has a strong message of perseverance, inner strength, and patriotism. With a strong script, good effects, and decent actors, who could fault that?

Seven out of 10 baby seals agree and look forward to watching The Avengers next year.


Note: There is an extra scene after the credits, so do stick around.

Hanna

The concept of a young girl being a trained assassin is an oddly compelling one, no doubt due to the strange juxtaposition of the sweet girl and the ruthless killer. Cropping up in anime and film - Gunslinger Girl and Kick Ass spring to mind - the girl assassin is given a dramatic treatment in Hanna.

Saoirse Ronan (what a name!) plays Hanna, a lass of 16 years. Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, she looks like a regular girl, except when she hunts and kills a deer with her mad archery skillz on a generic snow-covered mountainside. Her father Erik (Eric Bana) seems to have raised her in isolation and instilled certain skills in her in preparation for some unknown mission. The first act concerns itself with establishing their relationship and has minimal exposition.

Once her 'mission' starts in the second act, we get plenty of fight sequences set to music. There's a distinctly 'European' feel to these sequences, which is a good thing really. Unlike Hit-Girl in Kick Ass, Hanna displays no glee in her killing, just cold efficiency. The action scenes are interspersed with scenes of Hanna partaking in 'normal' teenage girl activities. Some of these were a little too drawn out for me to be honest, but some involving another teenage girl - probably the first one Hanna has met - provide some really funny lines and comic relief.

The pacing is not too bad, although lacking a certain inertia at times. It's certainly not a non-stop crazy action movie. The acting from Ronan is inspired and believable. It totally makes up for the tepid The Lovely Bones. Bana doesn't have that much screen time, but he does his best and looks good doing it. Cate Blanchett is coldly creepy as the mean CIA agent chasing down Hanna and Erik. She's also obsessed with dental hygiene, which adds a bit of (weird) colour to the character.

The plot points are not entirely original and some revelations are a bit clichéd, but it's handled with style and good performances all around. For these reasons, I give Hanna seven out of 10 baby seals.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

It strikes me that when I started watching Harry Potter movies, I was still in college. A full decade later, much has changed in my life and in the fictional lives of the characters in the movies. I confess that I have not read any of the books, being more into the more 'serious' Tolkien stories. I have however, always applauded the fact that Harry Potter books actually got children to read rather long books, which is a good and increasingly rare thing. I did watch all the movies and enjoyed them to varying degrees from the light-hearted first movie to the darker and more serious later instalments. And so we come to the final movie of the long saga.

***Minor spoilers as usual; you did watch the first part, right? Right?***






The movie opens abruptly exactly where the last one left off with Big V (Ralph Fiennes) taking possession of the Elder Wand. After burying Dobby (sniff) with honour, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), and Ron (Rupert Grint) set off to find the remaining horcruxes they need to destroy in order to defeat the Dark Lord. It's hard to say more without spoilers, but it's obvious that there will be trouble, adventure, more than a few fantastic creatures, some laughs, some tears, and battles of a magical nature. The classic multi-front battle is well executed with a large battle on one front and several small groups on side-quests to achieve the main objectives that will lead to victory.

The movie doesn't disappoint in the effects department. The creatures are utterly convincing, insomuch as mythical creatures can be convincing. The magical bolts are pretty and deadly. Other spell effects are nicely done and particularly awe-inspiring in the big battle scenes. Sets are impressively constructed and very detailed. Having not read the books, I don't know how closely the movie follows the books, but I imagine it is as close as it could be within the confines of a movie. The pacing is handled well with lulls between action pieces for the audience to catch its collective breath and take stock of the status of all the characters.

The acting in the lead and secondary roles are very good especially in the secondary roles played by veteran actors. Fiennes is menacing and gets to make creepy voices exhorting people to turn on Harry and his friends. Alan Rickman is wonderfully complex in his characterisation of Snape. Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint are dependable as they have been throughout the movies but are sometimes overshadowed by the more experienced thespians.

On the downside, I only have a few little nit-picks. Granted, this is more of a problem with me rather than the movie, but the lore is a little thick and may be confusing to those who haven't read the book or remembered the previous movies. I've had to read up on the interwebs to fully understand some things. The 3-D is pretty good for a conversion and some of the CG elements were well-served by the extra apparent dimension, but due to most of the movie being so dark and gloomy, the dimness caused by the 3-D glasses made it really hard to see things. If I had to do it over, I would give the 3-D version a pass. Lastly, I will also say that I was not impressed with the make-up work in a particular scene.

This last instalment in the long-running franchise ties up the whole plot nicely and is quite satisfying a conclusion. It's weird that there won't be a Harry Potter movie next year, but I'm grateful to have experienced the whole ride. Kudos to the author, directors, actors, writers, and all involved for a magical 10 years.

For bringing fantasy and magic to a generation, I give Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and the series at large, eight out of 10 baby seals.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

After the fiasco that was last week, I finally got to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon in all its 3-D glory. I bravely watched it at the same cinema because it was still the easiest place to get tickets. After months of seeing the trailers and that extra one week delay, I have to say... meh.

***Whole bunch of spoilers, but who cares really?***

This third and perhaps/hopefully final instalment of Michael Bay's foray into movies with giant robots opens with scenes of the war in Cybertron. A lone Autobot ship escapes with some super-high-tech-stuff but unfortunately gets shot at and crashes on (surprise, surprise) our moon. The film posits the idea that the US-Russia space race of the 60s was in response to this crash-landing on the dark side of the moon. Scenes are cleverly spliced with actual footage to show the moon landing as a cover for investigating the huge vessel.

All well and good, so far.

But not for long.

Then we get to the much less interesting Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) who is apparently still unemployed despite having saved the world twice. He has also apparently been dumped by Megan Fox who must have finally realized she was way out of his league. On the bright side, he has inexplicably landed another hot chick called Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). After too many scenes of Sam being annoyingly annoying, we eventually get back to the giant freaking robots. The Autobots find out that the US has been sitting on the location of the alien craft and Optimus is not pleased. They travel to the moon in a spaceship they conveniently seem to have made/bought/stole/conjured and retrieve what's left of the technology which turns out to be an instant wormhole generator system. They also find their long lost former leader Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy) who invented the thing.

Despite being told not to interfere, Sam annoyingly does anyway and investigates on his own. Surprisingly, he finds out things that the military 'intelligence' were unable to find out themselves and so they let him play with them after all. An unexpected betrayal causes humanity to reject the Autobots and ask them to leave Earth, leaving us to fend for ourselves against the Decepticons. To make matters worse, Carly's boss Dylan (Patrick Dempsey) turns out to be as slimy as he seems and Sam has to wade into enemy territory to save her - and hopefully the world, again - sans giant robots.

Even more so than the last movie, this one suffers from incredibly choppy editing, jarring tone shifts, murky plot, silly dialogue, poor script, lack of narrative cohesion, and under-average acting. Speaking of acting, some scenes with Sam and Carly are particularly cringe-inducing. LeBeouf seems to be getting tired of this role or I just don't find the character endearing any more after two movies of him getting whinier and more fidgety. Huntington-Whiteley is little more than window-dressing. Ken Jeong appears so insanely over-the-top that the performance is only a little funny. John Malkovich has an enjoyable appearance. Frances McDormand gives an unremarkable performance. John Turturro is still a little amusing at least in his recurring role. The script doesn't do the actors any favours and features far too many out-of-place and forced one-liners.

The film is not without some silver linings in an otherwise dark cloud. Bumblebee is still adorable. Optimus is still cool. Nimoy makes an awesome giant robot. The effects are quite impressive especially the giant-evil-sandworm-from-hell. The 3-D effects are actually well-implemented and most of the show seems to have been filmed in 3-D. The film seemed not as dim as most 3-D shows. Towards the second half of the movie, the pace improves (not hugely, but better than the tedious first half). Some of the robot battles and other action sequences were actually quite fun to watch, even if some of the battles were too quick and confusing which is not helped by the Decepticons all looking almost the same.

While technically compelling, this latest instalment proves that the series could really use a reboot and/or a new director. They can keep the effects team though. Maybe put more focus on the robots instead of the unnecessary humans.

For technological achievement and for Bumblebee, I give this movie three out of 10 baby seals.

Super 8

If you were a child of the 80s and grew up on early Spielberg movies such as The Goonies, ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Jaws, go watch this movie now; you won't regret it. Being a child of the 80s myself, I was immediately reminded of these classic movies from the acclaimed filmmaker. I have often thought that some of the great movies of all time were made in the 80s and closely adjacent years. Maybe I'm biased, but the quality and child-like charm of those films and others like Stand By Me, Jurassic Park, and the early Indiana Jones movies are hard to deny. While I also enjoy the edgier films of today, I sometimes bemoan the fact that simple but memorable movies like those from my youth just aren't made any more these days. Super 8 changes that perception and allowed me to be 12 again for a couple of hours.

***Light spoilers ensue***
Since this movie has relied on low-key secretive marketing, I'll try not to give anything away that wasn't in trailers.




A classic bunch-of-likeable-kids-have-an-adventure movie, Super 8 opens with an allusion to a tragedy: an industrial accident has left young Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) without his mother. To make matters worse, Deputy Sheriff Jackson Lamb (Kyle Chandler of Early Edition and Friday Night Lights) isn't much of a father. Joe finds solace in a close-knit group of friends including budding filmmaker Charles (Riley Griffiths), borderline pyromaniac Cary (Ryan Lee), somewhat nerdy Preston (Zach Mills), none-too-bright jock Martin (Gabriel Basso), and especially Alice (Elle Fanning) whom he has a bit of a crush on. Four months after his mother's death, Joe and his friends spend the summer making a Super 8 zombie-themed movie under the direction of Charles. While filming at a train station, they witness the most spectacular train wreck ever filmed. In the aftermath, they find some strange cargo and it sounds like SOMETHING came out of one of the cars. The kids high-tail it out of there as the air force arrives on the scene. Not long after, strange happenings occur in the fictional small town of Lillian, Ohio. Weird things go missing: microwaves, car parts, power cables. Dogs run away in droves. People vanish without a trace. As Joe's father tries to grapple with increasingly panicking citizens, he grows ever more distant from his son. Meanwhile Joe continues to work on his friend's movie and nurtures a growing romance with Alice, which is not without some opposition from their respective fathers. The strange events come to a climax when the air force gets more involved and sinister happenings are clearly afoot culminating in a thrilling adventure for the kids.

The acting by the children, especially Fanning (I coulda sworn she was a tiny little girl) and newcomer Courtney, is very good and very natural. The kids all have some really funny lines and background dialogue reminiscent of The Goonies. Their chemistry really sells the plot and the film. The villains are suitably mean archetypes typical of classic Spielberg movies and Chandler does his job of portraying the distant but still loving father as well as one could hope. Using relative and total unknowns for the lead roles was a smart move by Abrams and he may have discovered a great talent in Courtney (who was ironically just hoping to land a commercial for laughs and a little bit of extra money).

Clearly a loving homage to the films of Spielberg, JJ Abrams continues his unbroken streak of awesomeness with this movie that combines many of the elements of the aforementioned movies with the same wide-eyed wonder that made them memorable. Even the music by the Abrams' resident composer Michael Giacchino (who also composed the excellent score for Up among many others) was reminiscent of John Williams' scores for early Spielberg films. The imagery of small-town Americana, gorgeous backlit skies, and kids on bicycles harks back to films of the era as well. The effects are very believable and while Abrams doesn't skimp on the CGI, it is used sparingly and seamlessly, never overshadowing the story.

Derivative perhaps, but Super 8 derives from some of the best material ever made and infuses it with a heart and soul sorely lacking in so many recent films. The plot is well fleshed out and takes its time without ever being boring. Abrams is definitely one of the most gifted storytellers of our time and further collaborations with masters like Spielberg would bear glorious fruit indeed.

For near-perfection in storytelling and for allowing me to be a kid again, Super 8 gets 9 out of ten baby seals.



Oh, and do stay for the credits :)

X-Men: First Class

Wheee.... my first movie review in months...

The X-Men have been one of comicdom's most enduring and popular series. I've been a fan since I was younger and watched the animated series. It was definitely fun to see the stories translated to the big screen and the first three movies were enjoyable to some degree at least. The mediocre X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a bit of a letdown with its less-than-inspiring script and bland storyline. Fortunately, this new origin story returns to the strong roots of the first movie.


**Minor spoilers ensue**





Taking place primarily in the 60s against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis, the movie opens with young Erik Lehnsherr being separated from his parents during World War II in a Nazi concentration camp in occupied Poland which causes him to manifest his magnetic powers. This scene is a duplicate of what we've seen before in the earlier trilogy. What we didn't see was what happened later in the camp, where Erik meets "Dr. Schmidt" who tries to get him to use his powers at will by employing less-than-nice methods.

In the meantime, we also see young Charles Xavier as a poor little rich boy who meets with a young Raven whom we later know as Mystique. This is a new revelation which I *think* is probably at odds with cannon (and maybe with the rest of the trilogy), but I'll grant Matthew Vaughn some creative licence. They become like brother and sister and grow up together.

Years later, Erik (Michael Fassbender) is an adult in far greater control of his powers, Charles (James McAvoy) is an Oxford professor, and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) is by his side as a close friend, though she may want to be more than that. Erik is still hell-bent on tracking down Dr. Schmidt to exact his revenge. Meanwhile, CIA agent Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) in another out-of-cannon turn is tracking down the good doctor who now goes by Sebastian Shaw (the inimitable Kevin Bacon). With psychic Emma Frost (January Jones), Shaw has founded The Hellfire Club and recruited mutants including Nightcrawler-lookalike Azazel and airbending Riptide. When the CIA discover that he and his merry band of evil mutants are planning something dastardly, they attack him with the aid of Charles. The attack fails, but brings together Charles and Erik for the first time with the former saving the latter's life.

Now friends, Erik, Charles, and Raven join the CIA at a top secret training facility where they meet young genius Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult of About a Boy). Hank has invented the first Cerebro which enables Charles to find mutants from all over the world. He and Erik set out to recruit mutants to join the CIA and help them while Erik still dreams of revenge against Shaw. They end up with mutants who will later become sonic-screamer Banshee, plasma-hurtler Havok, insectlike Angel Salvadore, and quick-adapting Darwin. And so the First Class is born.

Campy but cool, this film echoes the strong dramatic undercurrents and message of the first film. While missing the sheer screen presence of Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan, the acting is pretty good all around with McAvoy suitably idealistic, Fassbender suitably bitter and angry, Jones suitably erm... frosty, and Bacon in his element as a slimy villain who makes up for the disparity in physical size from the comics incarnation with a menacing demeanour. The young actors do well in their smallish roles too. The effects are well-made and believable, though Beast looks a little weird.

The story breaks from cannon with Beast as the only actual 'First Class' character shown here since this movie is still in the same continuity as the others. This could annoy the die-hard fans, but it does work. I enjoyed seeing Banshee discover flight and a totally out-of-cannon Havok throwing his plasma blasts around although I sometimes wished they woulda just broken continuity and rebooted the thing with the original First Class characters. Anyhow, the film is worthy of the high critical acclaim received thus far and makes for enjoyable and satisfying summer fare. I love a good origin story and I will certainly look forward to the inevitable sequels.


PS. Watch for an amusing cameo when Charles and Erik are recruiting mutants.

Rango

There is a small pile of unreleased movie reviews in the Blogger post list. I guess I'll write them up eventually even if they're old news. For now though, I will take a short break from arm stories to write a little review about the last movie I saw: Rango.

***Spoilers, blah blah blah***




Animations, be it CGI or hand-drawn, generally contain at least a few cute characters, songs, colourful backgrounds, and kid-friendly themes and dialogue. This is not one of those animations. Helmed by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, Rango tells the whimsical tale of a pet chameleon who gets tangled in the socio-economic intrigues of a small frontier town (weird I know).

Lars (Johnny Depp) has always longed for adventure. In the opening shots, we see the well-dressed lizard engaging in a make-believe theatrical production with the help of the props in his terrarium. He dreams of being the hero of his own tale and wishes some great event would occur to throw him into conflict from which he would emerge victorious. He gets his wish when his terarrium falls off the car carrying it and he winds up in the middle of the very hot Mojave desert. He meets a sagely armadillo who points him towards the aptly named town of Dirt. Along the way, he meets a female lizard named Beans (Isla Fisher) who brings him to town. Lars decides to go into full character, inventing a legendary persona for himself as a ruthless killer by the name of Rango. One thing leads to another and he becomes sheriff which leads to a rather wild storyline with a cast of characters including a devious turtle with a cult-leader vibe, a mean rattlesnake, a gun-happy family of moles, and assorted reptiles, birds, and rodents.

The character design is decidedly on the not-cute side. The cutest thing in the movie is Rango's wind-up fish toy which doesn't get all that much screen time. The backgrounds are dull and dusty like a dwindling frontier town should be I guess. All this coupled with the dry dialogue and theme makes for a not kid-friendly flick. Adults with a taste for the slightly bizzarre however, might be more appreciative. The visuals while not colourful, are nicely done with great stylistic appeal and cinematography. The basic story is nothing original, being a rehashing of stereotypical Western themes, but is executed well with a wry sense of humour. The voice work can't be faulted and Depp is always fun to hear/see.

This animation may not be for everyone, but if you sometimes like your cartoons a little on the dark and zany side, you'll probably enjoy this as I did.

Let Me In

I've never been much of a fan of horror movies, since most of them are gratuitous gore-fests anyway and not really scary  in any meaningful way. Once in a while though, there comes a movie that transcends the common slasher/monster/evil creature flick and shows us that the horror genre is still very much alive, or at the very least undead.

Vampires are all the rage these days, with the Twilight saga (ugh), True Blood (excellent), and The Vampire Diaries (blah) et. al. creating a resurgence of interest in the bloodthirsty creatures of the night. Based on the Swedish novel and film Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In), Let Me In is a near-flawless execution of a very unusual sort of vampire love story. Set in the 1980s, this is a classic tale of young love not unlike Romeo and Juliet - if Juliet was a vampire.


***Moderate spoiler alert***




The opening scene begins with a man being rushed to the hospital. We hear over the dispatch radio that the man has been in a car crash and is a suspect in a criminal case. He is also horribly disfigured on his face and hands due to an apparently self-inflicted dousing with strong acid. The local detective later tries to get him to reveal his identity but he refuses. Called away to a phone call, the detective returns to find that the man has leaped out the window to his death, leaving behind an enigmatic note.

Cue the flashback: Three weeks ago (I think).


A young boy sits alone munching candy on a snow-covered jungle gym in a small quad surrounded by modest houses. His mother calls to him to come to dinner. We see during dinner and afterwards that the boy is struggling with a broken home, his parents' divorced or separated. An absent father, an alcoholic mother, and daily harrassment by bullies at school make for a very unhappy boy indeed.

One night, while spying on the neighbours, he sees new neighbours moving in - a young girl about his age and a middle-aged man. Something seems off about this odd couple. The girl seems in charge somehow and she walks barefoot through the snow. The next night, after more torture at the hands of bullies, the boy purchases a knife and fantasizes about stabbing his nemesis, using a tree as a stand-in. The girl is suddenly there, on the jungle gym, interrupting his reverie. She introduces herself as Abby (Chloe Moretz), and he in turn introduces himself as Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Like Owen, Abby says she is 12 years old (more or less, she qualifies). Despite her insistence that they "cannot be friends", she nevertheless comes to the quad each night and a relationship blossoms. She reveals precious little about herself but seems to care for Owen as much as he does for her. She encourages him to stand up to the bullies, even offering to help if need be, much to Owen's amusement.

Meanwhile, a series of gruesome murders are occuring in the small town, the victims exsanguinated. Abby's 'father' (Richard Jenkins) is seen methodically stalking and murdering a young man in his car, collecting blood in a large container. It's quite obvious that he and Abby are harbouring a bit of a secret. After his latest attempted murder is botched and the flashback merges into the present, we see the identity of the disfigured man and what happened to him. As the detective closes in, Abby and Owen continue to develop their relationship and when Owen learns that Abby is more than she seems, he must choose to either sever his only meaningful relationship or continue along a path doomed to end badly.

The cinematography presents the world as a cold, sad place. The use of muted colours and harsh incandescent lighting makes for a sombre atmosphere well-suited to the subject matter. Matt Reeves, the director of Cloverfield, helms this movie in another genre-bending effort. Seeing the events march to their inevitable conclusion engages the audience closely, with just the right pacing and mixture of light and heavy moments. While there is very strong violence and gore, it is always used in the service of the plot and is never gratuitous.

Much credit must be given to the two leads. Despite their tender years, they deliver startlingly powerful performances. The chemistry seems genuine and natural, their love story sweet in its way (apart from the murders and what-not). Their scenes are at once touching, fascinating, and a little scary. Moretz (who was great in Kick-Ass) plays Abby with a quiet sadness, saying more with her expressions than her words. Unlike her character in Kick-Ass, there is no glee in Abby when she takes lives as she does it out of a necessity to survive. Smit-McPhee (The Road, Romulus, My Father) is also very effective as Owen, playing the sweet but lonely boy looking for attachment in a world that seems set against him. These very believable performances elevate the film to far greater heights than it would have reached with a lesser cast.

I highly recommend this movie for anyone who likes vampires, love stories (sorta), or just a good movie. Someday, I must watch the original Swedish version.

Unstoppable

Still hot off the tracks of  The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 comes another Tony Scott train movie featuring Denzel Washington. This time, Washington takes the role of Frank, a 28-year veteran of the railroad industry. Partnered for the first time with a new and young conductor, Will (Chris Pine), Frank goes out on a routine job bringing in a train to the depot. Meanwhile, a shocking show of negligence from engineer Dewey (Ethan Suplee) results in freight train 777 going unmanned onto the main track at full throttle with no air brakes. In addition to being 'as tall as the Chrysler building', the train is also carrying several tanks of highly volatile molten phenol. Combined with the diesel fuel on board, the train makes for a nice town-levelling guided missile headed to heavily-populated Stanton. Other niceties include a train full of schoolchildren out on an excursion and collision course with 777.

Frank and Will do a little male-bonding where we learn that Frank's wife is deceased and he has two college-bound daughters living in Stanton. We also learn of Will's estranged relationship with his wife which has resulted in a restraining order against him. After learning of and avoiding the runaway train, Frank and Will decide to stop it themselves by chasing it down, attaching to it, and braking it in reverse with their own engine.

Despite opposition by train company VP Galvin (Kevin Dunn) who has made two botched attempts to stop and then derail the train, yardmaster Connie (Rosario Dawson) supports Frank and Will's plan. A chase on rails ensues and when they finally catch up, the hard part really begins.

Like the titular freight train, the movie builds up its momentum slowly into an unstoppable juggernaut. The tension builds and becomes more and more urgent as the train nears its final destination. The cinematography conveys a sense of the unyielding nature of the train as it thunders ominously along. Tony Scott certainly knows his trains! The action scenes are very well-crafted and demands the attention of the audience, growing more and more spectacular towards the end. The two leads turn in convincing performances within the confines of the script. The character development is kept to a minimum as to not detract from the main action, but the relationship develops naturally and believably. The supporting characters do their jobs and the train company is painted as a soulless corporation whose CEO considers only cash loss and stock devaluation in making possibly life-threatening decisions before returning to his golf game.

Based on true events (which I'm sure were much less dramatic), this is probably one of the best potential train-wreck movies you'll ever see.

Sammy's Adventures: The Secret Passage

I started writing this review like a month ago, but never finished... better late than never...

Sammy's Adventures: The Secret Passage is yet another 3D animation not produced by the two major studios. This time, the film is produced by the Belgian StudioCanal. It's in English though, and uses American actors for voice work. It tells the tale of the early years of a turtle named Sammy. His birth and initial trek from the nest to the sea is fraught with drama including being snatched by a bird. He does however encounter a female named Shelly whom he instantly falls in love with but they are separated.

Once in the sea, he eventually meets another turtle named Ray and they become lifelong friends. The rest of the movie focuses on their travels around the world and their eventual separation. Alone, Sammy encounters ships, humans, and a devious cat. He also makes friends with other turtles and meets Shelly and Ray again.

The movie has fairly obvious environmental undercurrents, starting in 1959. It's never really preachy but shows what it might be like from an unknowing animal's point of view to see the slow pollution of the oceans by human activities. A pleasant enough movie if not entirely original, it's certainly no Finding Nemo. It does however have cute characters (the cat was especially amusing), pleasant colours, and a bit of that animation magic often absent in many animation efforts like the recent Legend of the Guardians which had good animation but no heart.

The 3D effects were very apparent in this movie and it is clear that it was not only added as an afterthought. So here's to more good animations. Personally I look forward to it.

Catch-up Post: Movies

I've been feeling really lazy to write blog entries lately. If I were the blaming sort, I'd say it was a combination of writer's block and too much Starcraft 2 and then too much Plants vs. Zombies (both awesome games BTW). Aaaaaanyway, to get into the spirit of writing once more, I present three short reviews of some of the movies I watched recently.

RED

The trailer for this movie looked fun and it wasn't false advertising. Featuring an ensemble cast of familiar names headed by Bruce Willis as Frank Moses, the movie has humour and action and while not a great film by most standards, it's a good bit of harmless fun.

Frank is a retired CIA agent living quietly at home, flirting with a pensions department employee Sarah  (Mary-Louise Parker) by constantly tearing up his cheques and claiming they never arrived. Sarah dreams of travel and adventure and her wish comes true one day when Frank shows up at her apartment after having survived an assassination attempt by some old enemies. Suspecting a deeper conspiracy, Frank kidnaps Sarah to protect her being chased down by a CIA assassin, William Cooper (Karl Urban) who does not know why he has been tasked to kill an ex-CIA agent but follows orders like a good little assassin. Frank enlists the help of aged former intelligence agents like himself including former partner Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), the slightly crazy Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), ex-MI5 agent Victoria (Helen Mirren), and Russian agent Ivan Simanov (Brian Cox). The group embarks on a quest to clear Frank's name and discover the conspiracy to kill him.

The action sequences are well executed and it's nice to see Bruce Willis can still do an action movie although with less energy than usual. The supporting cast are suitably amusing as well. The plot involving an arms dealer and the Vice President is muddled at best so, don't go into this movie expecting a strong plot and good storytelling.


Buried

Buried presents a familiar premise - being buried alive - but distills it to its purest form in a surprisingly good thriller. The movie opens in total darkness and silence for a good minute, prompting the audience to suspect if there has been a projector malfunction. Then some breathing is heard for some time. Then finally a lighter flickers to life and we are introduced to Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds). Finding himself in a small wooden box, Paul rails against the small space, screams, and tried to claw his way out but to no avail. Calming down, he finds a functioning cellphone and tries to call for help. Meeting with the most unhelpful people ever, he grows increasingly frustrated. Eventually he gets a call from his kidnapper who demands ransom for his release. Paul tries to negotiate with the kidnapper and the embassy representative he eventually gets in contact with. As the audience learns bits and pieces of information concerning Paul's circumstances and life, time is running out for Paul.

With admirable realism, no other characters are seen apart from Paul, with the others only heard as voices on the telephone. Such a minimalist film requires a strong performance from the actor and Ryan Reynolds delivers this in spades. Formerly of sitcom Two Guys, A Girl and A Pizza Place and mostly seen in romantic comedies and the recent Wolverine movie, this role may spark off a promising career as a more dramatic actor.

As much an experience as it is a movie,  Buried succeeds greatly in conveying a claustrophobic feeling to make the audience feel Paul's discomfort. Despite taking place in a box, there are thrills to be found and never feels boring. One small gripe concerns the appearance of a snake. I imagine it must have been thinking Oh hey a box! I will explore it! An attempt to inject extra drama perhaps, but I found it a little awkward. Still, apart from that one little flaw, Buried is a fine piece of film-making and should be seen (unless you're claustrophobic).


The American

Falsely marketed as an action thriller, The American is in reality an art-housey film starring George Clooney as 'Jack', a mysterious assassin-ish man on the run from other mysterious assassins. The opening set on a snowy backdrop is promising enough and features a shocking act of violence. The rest of the movie is much less shocking, unless you count being shockingly boring.

After the initial encounter with the Swedish assassins, Jack goes on the run to a tiny town in Italy on the advice of his handler Pavel (Johan Leysen). Posing as a photographer, Jack gets a job from a mysterious woman named Mathilde (Thekla Reuten) to produce a gun to her exacting specifications. While slowly realising the weapon, Jack carries on a romantic relationship of sorts with local prostitute Clara (Violante Placido) and a friendship of sorts with local priest Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli). During all this, the Swedish assassins start to catch up with him.

George Clooney turns in a technically strong performance as a weary assassin desperately struggling to find love and attachment and looking for a way out of his chosen path in life. Nothing is revealed about the plot and the motivations of Mathilde and Pavel or even the Swedish assassins. Nothing is revealed about Jack's background either. The movies trudges on at an incredibly slow pace and lingers on scenes for long silent periods. I could have forgiven all this as an artistic film if the ending had made any sense whatsoever. Many critics have reviewed this film positively but I can't say I share their enthusiasm despite the technically good film techniques and lovely cinematography.

I was strongly reminded of the similarly-themed In Bruges which also featured assassins hiding out in a small European town. Unlike this one however, that movie contained an actual plot and an ending that made sense. It was even kinda funny. I strongly recommend staying away from this movie unless you really really like George Clooney or you've got insomnia.

Devil

Let's face it: M. Night Shyamalan's reputation as a filmmaker hasn't exactly been glowing recently. After wowing the world with The Sixth Sense way back in 1999, many of his films have been disappointing. Amid some bright sparks such as Unbreakable and arguably even Signs, there have been Huh?? moments like The Happening and critically panned (although fairly commercially successful) fare such as The Last Airbender.

This brings us to the latest film to bear Shyamalan's once-illustrious moniker, Devil. Written by Shyamalan but directed by John Erick Dowdle, this rather short film tells the tale of five strangers getting trapped in an elevator. The kicker is that one of them is... (wait for it) THE DEVIL. It sounds hokey, but it actually works quite well. The overall feel and pacing of the movie was quite satisfying and the "twist" was interesting if not wholly unexpected.

***Minor spoilers follow***









A quiet day at a high-rise office building is shattered (along with a window) by a jumper who lands on a van conveniently parked below. Still recovering from the deaths of his wife and young son, Detective Bowden (Chris Messina) arrives on the scene. At the same time, by (un)happy coincidence, five strangers end up in an elevator which gets stuck between floors. After the initial panic, the group gets in touch with security guards Lustig (Matt Craven) and Ramirez (Jacob Vargas, also the narrator at the beggining and end of the movie). The guards - who can see but not hear them - assure them that things will be fixed soon (uh-huh).

The group comprises (yes they have names, but they're credited like this and it's more fun this way):

1. The Mechanic (Logan Marshall-Green)
2. The Guard (Bokeem Woodbine)
3. The Salesman (Geoffrey Arend)
4. The Old Woman (Jenny O'Hara)
5. The Young Woman (Bojana Novakovic)

Already getting on each other's nerves, things take a turn for the worse when the power goes out and strange things start to happen. Then people start to die. Each time the power goes out, one more person dies. This naturally creates some tension as the survivors (as well as the guards and detectives watching) are left guessing as to who the murderer is. Ramirez however, firmly believes that it is the work of the Devil himself, based on an old story his mother used to tell him that says the Devil occasionally gathers sinners together and kills them personally. Reluctant to believe in fairy tales, Bowden continues to investigate while getting help to break them out of the elevator. He soon finds out that they each have a less-than-savoury past and the Devil has reason for wanting each of them. It's a race against time to get them out as the remaining survivors dwindle.

The tension in the film is palpable. The writing is tight and the shock moments are effectively used and not overused. The lighting (or lack of it) and camera work nicely convey the claustrophobic environment of the elevator and the fear that comes with each power outage. The actors, all unknowns (to me at least), play their parts well. The Salesman is especially annoying.

In the end, the moral of the story is that Shyamalan should perhaps stay off the director's chair once in a while and just write. Oh, and be wary of your elevator mates...




PS:
Blogger messed up and deleted my post halfway when I made that numbered list. Not cool, Blogger.