A movie about automated surveillance run wild. Cast, camera, and the editing are good enough to make a decent, entertaining thriller. The plot, however, seems to be pieced together from various well-known sources – citing classics like Odyssee 2001 might be nice, but it would be even nicer, to come up with some new ideas. This is not to say that the plot itself if completely obvious. There are some nice twists that keep your attention focused on the movie. However, the nerd part of me prefers those thrillers that are presented as being sci-fi, to cling to at least some major aspects of how things actually work. Because of that, I was sometimes frustrated a bit at how much control the nemesis of this thriller has over practically everything. Instead of just buying into the complete surveillance theme, it would have been nice to work at the fringes of surveilllance and to present a few other tricks than shredding your mobile phone. Nonetheless, if you’re looking for some DVD entertainment this certainly will do. A visit to the cinema won’t be necessary though.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Archive for the ‘review’ Category
Eagle Eye – Patchwork movie.
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008Mannen som elsket Yngve – The aches of adolescence.
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008A Norwegian movie set in the time right after the Berlin Wall came down, telling a story that is both universal und very much located in a particular setting. The medium sized town of Stavanger and it’s suburban surroundings feature as much into the movie as the particular Lebensgefühl of the time: Music (heavily featured are The Cure, Joy Division, Jesus and Mary Chain, etc.), a strange mix of feeling exhilaration about the future and being deeply disappointed with the world, and a strange, unknown feeling that one is getting closer to the end of one’s adolescence. Being in love and being insecure, posing and crying, doing sports and hanging out in your bed, meeting your buddies and sitting on your parent’s sofa watching TV. I really liked this movie because I could relate to it on so many different levels and because the actors are doing good jobs in difficult roles. However, I was not absorbed by the drama, and I could not really connect to many of the characters. Maybe the script was a bit too explicit about some things and maybe the camera did not find the right angles to provide us with sequences that offered us a glimpse into why the characters do what they do. With the exception of the main character, Jarle Klepp, the others remain mostly real depth. We don’t know why the beautiful and utterly cool Cathrine (played by Ida Elise Broch) feels the same ennui as Jarle and his buddies. We have dialogue telling us that the parents of one of Jarle’s friends are highly educated, but we don’t know much about his motivations beyond that. Maybe the film should have been a little longer, maybe the camera should have rested on the characters a little bit more, but as it is now, many characters remained too flat for my taste. Nonetheless, the film was really nice – it could only have been even better. It could have been as good as Fucking Åmål. I would recommend to watch The Man Who Loved Yngve in a nice theater with friends who like to discuss a movie afterwards – something like the Ryder in Bloomington.
IMDb entry | Trailer
The Dark Knight – The dead star.
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008Although I enjoy superhero movies, I do not have particularly high expectations of this genre. Christopher Nolan definitely did an above average job with his Batman Begins, the prequel to this movie. Therefore I was looking forward to seeing more. It was more of the same though – well done, but not overwhelming, breathtaking or inspiring. The plot is ok and the cast is fine, too (although I found the Batman too smooth, he had no real depth, no physical doubts). With his first rendition of the Batman I was happy about the grittyness of the movie. With this one however, I had the impression that the movie tries to be gritty because that is what people are now expecting to see, because a certain kind of grittyness sells. But it was not gritty because it cared for the pain, for the irregularities and the damage that life involves. Therefore, it did not get me involved and did not touch me.
With one exception. Heath Ledger, whom I really, really liked since I first saw A Knight’s Tale, surpassed himself in this movie – tragically. One can too easily see that playing this role, becoming this utterly mad nemesis did not contribute to his well-being. It was a great performance that had almost all of the elements that the rest of the movie lacked and that I wrote abouth in the above paragraph. However, even this character lacked depth. He was the mask of cruelty and evil madness. But he was only barely human, only because of Ledger’s great performance. The short references to his (obviously imagined) childhood did not help. To the contrary, they were the most shallow of stereotypes and would not explain why he is who he seems to be. If you like this genre, I can definitely recommend this movie. If you liked Heath Ledger, it may be worthwhile to see his excellent acting – if you can stand the cruelty that it involves, a cruelty that Heath Ledger did not shun.
IMDb entry | Trailer
WALL·E – Fat & trash. Grit & emotion.
Thursday, July 24th, 2008Whew. This movie was quite an experience. The Pixar studio movies of the last decade were usually much better than the average Disney diet that we had to swallow since at least the nineties – for some reason, Disney does not make movies that have enough heart and enough guts for critique, such as the 1973 Robin Hood had. Pixar fills this important void, offering children’s movies that are much more than entertaining. WALL·E, the main protagonist of the movie, is a heart breakingly amiable character. He demonstrates what animations and cartoons can be, if they are done right: instead of trying to be realistic or cartoonish, the animation in this movie focusses on the expression of emotions, on the expression of atmospheres, and the ways settings are felt. Of course, this is a children’s movie. But it is also much more than that. Like the novel which I am reading right now (Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer), WALL·E tells us a story which reflects the not only positive norms and easily forgotten destructive aspects of our societal existence – at the beginning of the 21st century these problems are, in a way, very much different than in the middle 19th century. But at the same time, our longing for sharing our life with people we adore and love remains the same, as does the joy in the physical experience and closeness to things, animals and others. Maybe the story of WALL·E will evoke perceptions and emotions that will help kids and adults alike to avoid producing a future in which the world has become a garbage heap and in which human society consists of people who do not touch each other any more. This is probably the best animated movie from the US of A that I have seen.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Persepolis – Graphic storytelling.
Thursday, June 19th, 2008Simple drawings instead of real life actors, a very well-known script (the movie is based on the comic series), the life of a migrant girl. These are the ingredients of the precisely told and yet very touching animated movie Persepolis. Even if you have not read any of the graphic novels of Marjane Satrapi, even if you are highly sceptic of comics and animated movies in general, even if you do not care much about headscarves and the Middle-East in general – even in spite of all that, you should go and watch this movie. Because it is a great story, told with pictures that make the best of the freedom of animated movies: it does not care about reality as such, instead it focuses on showing how situations feel, how they would look if they were drawn in black and white, like a paper cut. The scences are beautiful, sometimes funny, often tragic.
The only thing which I have missed a bit had to do with my personal reading of the story as such – I missed a bit of reflection about the role of the female protagonist as someone who is very much upper-class in her upbringing and social status. It was not something that was shyly denied or pompously set in scene. However, it was in a way too straight, too un-broken for me. But maybe, perhaps, this is the case because being upper-class comes as a matter of course, not as something special to those who are…
IMDb entry | Trailer
In Bruges – Surprise script.
Monday, June 9th, 2008Undecided about what movie we should watch and feeling a certain tendency to see something entertaining, we decided to try In Bruges even though we were neither convinced by the strange title (the German title translates as Seeing Bruges and Dying
) nor by the taglines. The actors seemed nice enough, so we took the risk. I guess we weren’t particularly happy with our decision during the first quarter of the movie. Collin Farrell is good looking, of course, but he also made the impression of totally overacting his role. Slowly however, the story became clearer, and the contrast between Colin Farrell’s hyper-active character and the calm beauty of Bruges gained weight and texture. At that point in time, the movie became good. In the last quarter of the movie, another change in pace happened. The real villain appears, new turns and events shoot out from every corner and the movie becomes great: entertaining, fast paced and very funny (in a dark, British humor kind of way). To be recommended – the pictures of Bruges are quite beautiful, making a visit to the cinema a good choice.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Le scaphandre et le papillon – Accessing the world through one eye.
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008The description of this movie sounds scary: the main editor of the French women’s magazine Elle has an ischemic stroke that leaves him completely paralyzed. (Time for a nod to French comic culture:) Completely paralyzed? No, not completely paralyzed. A single place of resistance remains. A single organ high up in the head. He can still actively use a single eye. And the accompanying eyelids. Eye and eyelids. This is the way he relates to the world. Even though his hearing (and smell, I think) remains intact, he can only express himself by opening and closing the eyelids of one eye. Not a very optimistic point of departure for a movie. In particular, for a French movie. However, this time we may be educated about the problems of the bourgeoisie, but we are also told a heart-moving story. The way that the main protagonist regains the world is not only grand in itself. It is also shown in a very compassionate and intimate way that still keeps enough distance to respect the dignity of this particular human being – something that is particularly important because the movie is based on true
events, as they say. Great setting, great camera, great script, and (remember, this is a French movie after all) some really beautiful women. One need not fear The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Even if the setting is dire indeed. Do not only watch it if you are interested in problems of perception and communication, as I am. Take a heart and watch it, if the opportunity to do that should arise, regardless of what you think about the actual content
of this movie – it is not about content, it is about relating to the things and the people we have around us.
IMDb entry | Trailer
No Country for Old Men – don’t mess around with the bad guys.
Sunday, April 13th, 2008The main character of this excellent movie was highly sympathetic – careful, decisive, humane. But all of these qualities do not help if you (a) are at the wrong place at the wrong time and (b) are meddling in affairs where evil people have pretty high stakes. This is the outset of a movie that takes its time to tell a story, to depict three main characters who are all thoughtful and experienced. They cirle each other, all coming from very differenct directions. This movie was better than I expected indeed. The casting is perfect, the camera lets Texan plains tell their story, and the Mexican border tells another, related story. This is a very American movie – American in the best sense.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Dance the razor.
Sunday, March 16th, 2008I am definitely enchanted by Tim Burton’s movies. They seem to be like children’s movies – colorful, funny, full of strange things that want to be discovered and explored. But this is only a fleeting suggestion, because his movies are more movies told from the perspective of a child than they are children’s movies. This in itself does not say much about his style, because it still misses out on the thing that Tim Burton does scaringly well: he embraces the cruelty that is part of children’s life and of their attitude towards the world. Long-term consequences, careful planning and intrigues – this is not what steers his characters. It is the delight of the moment, both in pleasure and in cruelty, that guides his characters, that makes his characters so fascinating and so horrible.
Sweeney Todd’s tale is a classic tale that has been told many times. One of the most successful versions was a Broadway musical. This movie is based on the musical, it is itself a musical. I did not know this about the movie before I went into the cinema and I liked this aspect very much. Those of you who know me better are aware that I am a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan – and one of my favorite episodes is episode 7, season 6: Once more with feelings. An excellent 45-minute musical that brings the season’s plot forward on many different levels while still being completely entertaining. Tim Burton offers a bow to the Buffy musical by guest starring one of the main actors of the Buffy series, Anthony Steward Head (a.k.a. Giles). This gesture alone would have me reconciled with any possible shortcomings of the movie, but even without it, it was a good movie. You should be warned though: it is the bloodiest Tim Burton movie that I have seen so far. That should be no surprise though: a barber uses a razor, and it is not difficult to guess what a demon barber will do with a razor. However, even if this is a good movie, for me, it is not one of the best Tim Burton movies – I was not as much involved emotionally as I usually am in his movies. (I think I almost cried during the first five minutes of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, something which never happened to me before.)
IMDb entry | Trailer
Pan’s Labyrinth – Fantastic faun.
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008I saw this movie much later than I wanted to – in fact I wanted to see it before watching last year’s Oscars. That obviously did not work out as planned. Therefore I took the opportunity when the filmclub of Darmstadt University of Technology showed the movie a few weeks ago. Seeing it at the film club had the added benefits of a low price, carry-in food to your liking, and evading the dubbed German version of the movie. Guerra
has a certain ring to it. It is somehow different than war
or Krieg
. One thing, however, is almost always being evoked by this word: cruelty. The cruelty of war is not hushed in this movie, but the movie it achieves something much more important and much rarer: it shows how a child uses a world of fantasy to cope with the terrors that haunt herself, those who are dear to her, and those who are a threat. Is it only her fantasy? You should watch the movie and then decide. Latin american film and prose often has this magic twist. In any case, Guillermo del Toro has made a very good movie that is certainly worth watching. The movie got three oscars and a whole lot of praise. Because of that, I had very high expectations – they were not disappointed, but they were also not exceeded. Even though I am sure El Laberinto del fauno will loose a bit when watched on DVD it will still be a very good movie. Spanish language cinema has quite a bit to offer these years, don’t miss it!
IMDb entry | Trailer
The Mist – that’s what I call an ending.
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008We are in the wintry movie season, extending from the beginning of October to something Aprilesque. This is the time of year when horror movies galore enter the movie theaters. The Mist belongs to the genre, offering a setting not dissimilar to the setting of Dawn of the Dead: people get trapped inside a shopping mall, while Evil is lurking outside. That is how people feel today, one might guess – the shopping mall as a safe haven. However, this is the Horror genre, and the script is based on a Stephen King novel, so we are also taught some contempt for those fools who dwell in the shopping malls of this planet, too.
The effects and main storyline of this genre flick is not a big hit, but good enough for those who are into it. Especially for those who are into the Cthulu myth that has been created by H.P. Lovecraft in his early 20th century – there are some scary, overwhelming things out there in the mist… However, this is not much more than a neat bonus for those who know their literature, but it wouldn’t make this movie particularly interesting. The thing which makes writing this entry a worthwhile endeavor is its ending. In the last two scenes, we get a glimpse of the inventiveness that made The Shawshank Redemption (done by the same writer and director, Frank Darabont) such a great movie: interesting twists in the plot. I really loved how evil the ending is, and dearly recommend sitting through until the end to those with a twisted sense of humor.
IMDb entry | Trailer
The Darjeeling Limited – colorful trains.
Sunday, January 20th, 2008Back in Darmstadt, one of the first things I did was to go to the movies. There wasn’t much interesting on show, but the newest movie of director Wes Anderson caught my interest. Not necessarily because it was done by him (although I quite enjoyed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), but more so because I really liked the main cast. Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman – I like all three of them, and I was curious how three egos like theirs would interact on the big screen. (They are cast as unlike brothers who just lost their father and are searching for their mother in the Indian hinterland.) I am still unsure how to rate this movie. I think the idea, the casting, and the camera work are all well done. However, I was not entirely satisfied by the script and/or the directing. The story and the characters did not catch me emotionally, they remained somewhat on the surface, not touching deeper emotions. Perhaps this is the case because they were on the search for authentic emotions themselves? I do not know. Nonetheless, this movie was quite entertaining. And it was very colorful indeed. The design of trains and clothes ranges from beautiful via charming to hilarious.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Nuovomondo – let the sound tell the story.
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007Two weeks ago, I have been to my now-favorite cinema in Oslo: the Gimle Kino. Located in a very fine art deco building, it only has a single show room, an old school wood paneled and heavily carpeted entrance area where you cannot get popcorn – high-quality beverages and the usual choice of chocolates is being served instead. Very much adequate to the refined setting was the movie we saw: Nuovomondo or The Golden Door. A movie about an utterly poor rural Italian family who finally decides to leave their barren homestead to try their luck in the US of A. When I write barren here, I do actually mean barren. If you do not have a clear understanding of what constitutes a barren landscape (in contrast to a desert, for example) you have to see this movie, and the meaning of this word will much more than dawn on you. It might well overwhelm you.
One thing that took a while until it dawned on me during that evening was the sound of this movie. I think I have never seen a movie where sounds were able to tell so much about the emotions and the materiality of the setting as this one (with the exception of Das Boot, though with submarine flicks sound is an obvious thing to invest in). The landscape, the vessel that ships the migrants from Italy to America, the life below decks – all of these places become really vivid in this movie.
However, this is not where my praise stops. In addition to the sound and the thing about the barrenness – two features which would make this movie outstanding on its own – this work of Emanuele Crialese also offers many openly dreamlike aesthetic images, images that weave themselves into the fabric of the story that is being told. All want to swim in the land of milk and honey, as you will see. So, the story seems fine, the imageary is fantastic, and the sounds scaringly good. Then what about the cast? Do they spoil the thing? No! They don’t! They are actually perfectly fitting, too. I guess you get my drift: I do urge you to go and watch this movie. In a cinema, please, try to watch it in a real movie theater.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Michael Clayton – kind of a thriller.
Saturday, December 8th, 2007The genre given for this film at the Internet Movie Database is Drama / Thriller
, at Apple’s website it is just Drama
. I guess I was expecting a thriller when I went to watch this movie – but in that regard it did not really live up to my expectations. However, the drama part was actually working out good – something that is at least as much thanks to Tilda Swinton as to our omnipresent smart and good-looking main actor, Dr. Ace. The cast and the plot were good, and I actually liked the small touch of another, hitherto unmentioned genre, which played into the movie now and then: mystery! All in all, this is solid entertainment that encourages the audience to take a closer look (some of those with whom I saw the movie overlooked several important clues regarding the mystery – so enjoy keeping your eyes peeled!)
IMDb entry | Trailer
Elizabeth: The Golden Age – Woman warrior queen?
Saturday, November 17th, 2007To my regret, I haven’t seen the first Elizabeth movie starring the most wonderful Cate Blanchett. (It was done in the late nineties, and Gwyneth Paltrow got the Oscar in her role as Julia in Shakespeare in Love, not Cate Blanchett for her role as the 15th century Queen Elizabeth. Well, I will not comment that. )Instead, I will comment on the nonsensical tag line of this second Elizabeth movie: Woman warrior queen
. The tagline fits with the image that we seen on posters etc. – Cate Blanchett in armor and with open, somewhat umkempt hair and dramatic sky above her. Wrong image. This movie is about costumes, aesthetics, some love, some drama, some war, but mostly about scenes that are shot and presented like paintings. Some of these were pretty nice, but in general I and the other four people with whom I went to see the movie agreed that it was quite overdone. Not to an extent that would make this a bad or dreadful movie, but to an extent that lessened the grip on the audience. There was not enough story to really keep me involved – even if the cast and the acting were perfectly fine. Many shallow characters, too few surprises or interesting twists… A pity, of course. The trailer, however, is great, so you may watch this and then make your decision if this is a cinema, a home or a not-to-be-seen-at-all film for you.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Ratatouille – (Not) A cheesy movie.
Friday, October 12th, 2007The trailer (link see below) for Ratatouille was charming enough to lure me into the cinema for an evening free of philosophic discourse during last weeks conference of the German Society for Phenomenological Research (DGPF) in Darmstadt. In addition, this movie has been made by Pixar, which has produced several highly entertaining animated movies during the last years, making it even more attractive in my eyes. Pixar studies seem to hire the right writers who keep a certain degree of edginess in the stories, thus making their movies stand out positively in contrast to most of the boring Disney productions of the last decade. This is again true for Ratatouille. The main character is charming enough, his buddies and relatives are funny, and his enemies bad – luckily all of them in a not overly schematic way. There were one or two very touching moments in the film and the rest was pure entertainment enriched with several very well-made animations and scenic views. Something for a relaxing evening at the cinema, but also something that you could rent for a night at your DVD booth around the corner.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Auf der anderen Seite – Istanbul, zu Dir will ich kommen.
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007Ich habe schön öfter darüber nachgedacht: Gegen die Wand ist wahrscheinlich mein absoluter Top-Film des Milleniums. Er hat sich mit seiner Intensität tief in meine Erinnerung eingebrannt. Die Latte für den neuen Film von Fatih Akin, Auf der anderen Seite, konnte also kaum höher hängen. Ich bin glücklich, dass ich nicht enttäuscht wurde. Auch dieser Film ist wirklich sehr gut. Eigentlich bin ich vielleicht sogar genauso glücklich, dass er nicht noch besser ist als Gegen die Wand – denn wie hätte ich das körperlich und seelisch aushalten sollen? Der neue Film ist also weniger nervenzerrüttend intensiv. Er ist aber trotzdem gut und hart und zärtlich und spannend und amüsant. Die Charaktere sind auch hier Grenzgänger im politischen wie auch im persönlichen Sinn. Ihr Leben spielt sich entweder in Bremen oder in Istanbul ab, sie wechseln von einer Stadt in die andere, leben, lieben und leiden dort auf jeweils eigene Weise. Das Drehbuch und die Regie sind einfach hervorragend und die Darsteller in ihren Rollen ergreifend. Kamera und Schauplätze tragen ihres bei und machen diesen Film zu einem Muss. Ja, auch für Dich, los, ins Kino!
IMDb entry | Trailer
The Bourne Ultimatum – Speed & suspense.
Monday, October 8th, 2007I enjoyed the first two flicks featuring Jason Bourne tremendously. In a way, they showed what James Bond could be – and finally became, with the most recent, reinvented Bond. Of course, the main character of the Bourne movies is laid out in a way that could be seen as the direct opposite to the classic, self-assured and smug Bond: torn by inner conflicts, not sure who and even what he really is, if he should open up and trust or even love others or not… However, even with these traits, the Bourne movies stayed true to their genre: they were action movies to the core. And they were the best action movies I saw during the last years. All of this is still true with the most recent (and probably last) incarnation of the series. Breathtaking fights, murderous hunts, and extremely well-timed plots that swirl around each other in dazzling arrays. If you are ready for some fast-paced action: go for it!
IMDb entry | Trailer