Unknown 2011

Unknown 2011

So I went to the movies yesterday to check out the new Liam Neeson flick Unknown and was rewarded with movie with a great plot, good acting, and very clever pacing.  First of all this is the 2011 movie with Neeson and should not be confused with the less popular but fun Unknown from 2006.  This is not a remake and has no relations to the other film (disclaimer included to rub a friend's nose in his misinformation).  This movie is loosely based on a novel I am unfamiliar with titled Out of My Head by Didier Van Cauwelaert, a French author, that from the two reviews I read might be worth a read.  Secondly it has to be made clear that I will be trying desperately to avoid spoilers, which means a lot of details will be hinted at and that plot discussion will be minimal. 

To start out I will just say this movie was really good.  It kept you on your toes, was well acted, and had some action to boot.  I went into this expecting to see more of an action/espionage movie, but this is more of a head game thriller with an espionage plot device and action sprinkles.  The pacing moved quickly at first, then lulled before an epic build up to the last 40 minutes and the last 40 minutes throws you around loops so fast that it feels like a roller coaster.  It is this pacing that makes this movie work so well and credit should be rightly given to the Director Jaume Collet-Serra, known for the creepy Orphan (2009) and fun Goal II (2007), and the Screenwriters Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell.  I must admit I was ignorant of these two screenwriters before this film and their resumes are very unimpressive, but this script was a winner.  The devilish twists and turns, the ample red herrings, and great plot devices like the fantastic ex-Stasi agent may have been ripped straight from the novel, but they were perfectly adapted for the screen.  I have seen Collet-Serra works before and pacing is one area that Goal II failed to do, but in Orphan and Unknown pacing made OK movies great.  The rest of the technical side was pretty common fare.  The sound and music was good, but not noteworthy.  The cinematography, by Flavio Labiano, was solid, but failed to stand out.

What can be said about the plot without spoilers is limited.  The ex-Stasi agent mentioned above is a blatant plot device to fill in background, but the acting and character make it one of the most memorable expositions I have seen in the last few years.  This movie keeps the audience on its toes and it isn't made clear if there is a science fiction, spy, assassination, accidental, crazy, or true loss of reality explanation for the amnesia and series of events that Liam Neeson's character Dr. Martin Harris undergoes.  I frequently questioned facts that were presented earlier in the film as truth and it wasn't until near the end that I really understood all the flip and loops in the plot.

The acting was great.  Liam Neeson is a fantastic actor and seems to have hit a stride in his career where he will be making some really top notch films, notably Taken  from 2008 and Chloe from 2009 both of which are must see movies.  In this he plays part action hero, part man loosing his mind.  He balances it perfectly and little else can be said about his performance.  It was perfect.  It probably isn't award notable, but move aside Bruce Willis, Neeson might be my new favorite middle aged action star. 

 
The supporting actresses are also a great fit for the movie.  The sidekick character, the taxi driver Gina played by Diane Kruger (Abigail from the Nation Treasure movies), displays a great range of emotions and manages to pull off some great action sequences while looking totally terrified.  The character of Dr. Harris's wife, played by January Jones (porn name anyone?) from the TV series Madmen, pulls off cold and calculating in a very chilling way.  The picture displayed lower right almost captures her icy manner.  These two characters have similar looks, but appear to be deliberate contrasts to each other.  The other supporting roles are played well by Bruno Ganz, Hitler in the masterpeice Downfall (2004) the ex-Stasi private investigator Jurgen and Frank Langella as Rodney Cole a friend of Harris.

There is little else to say about this film without ruining any of the pleasant plot twists, except that the film was shot in Berlin and has some beautiful scenery.  The are multiple parts that sell this move.  The plot, the actors, the pacing, and even the very satisfying nature of understanding it all at the end, but the movie has a few shortcomings.  I went in expecting to see more action and was disappointed.  A few more close escapes or fights during the building up phase of the movie would have kept me on the edge of my seat for the whole movie rather than just the epic last 40 minutes or so.  The end fights are short, but give such a satisfying climax and conclusion that I forgave the too tight camera angles and frequent cuts.  This movie might require more casual watchers to think about the plot for 5 minutes after the movie yet won't bust anyone's brain with philosophical questions, but I wouldn't recommend it for the GI Joe fans as the effects and fights are short and spread out.

So in conclusion, I really like this movie.  It should take Neeson fans and people who like spy thrillers for a good ride.  I would recommend this movie for anyone interested in a fun box office movie and fans of espionage flicks.

Karate Kid 2010

Karate Kid 2010

Where to begin with a movie that hands you buckets full of complaints before the exposition is even over? First of all this is not the Karate Kid (1984) of my childhood.  Without the happy tint of nostalgia the 1984 Karate Kid isn't exactly a cinema masterpiece, but compared to the new version the original looks better than Raging Bull (1980) mixed with Chunky Monkey ice cream.  I guess the place to begin is with the basics then move on to its few positive features before jumping into some serious ripping.

Karate Kid (2010) is basically a retelling of the original.  The plot goes something like this - a boy gets butt kicked on the street until the boy meets a quirky old martial arts master, then boy gets great at Karate (Kung Fu in this version) and comes back to do the kicking in a big public tournament for the climax.  This plot line worked great in the original, worked OK in a number of sequels and infinite copy cats movies, and plays well in this version.  The 2010 version was directed by Harald Zwart, who's only other movie of note was Agent Code Banks in 2003 and that isn't a good thing.  He creates a fundamentally sound movie, but fails miserably to bring it above the basic shot-by-numbers movie that could have been done by any Nickelodeon channel director.  The Cinematographer was Roger Pratt who has been Director of Photography on various Harry Potters and, a personal favorite, 12 Monkeys (1995).  Pratt is a very talented DP and does the best work on the technical side of this film.  The locations are shot beautifully and there are some great scenes that play with lights and silhouettes.  Another technical note is the talented James Horner, Avatar (2009) and Braveheart (1995), who did much of the music and arrangements using music by pop singers like Justin Beiber as well as original compositions.  Horner doesn't quite inspire me like Bill Conti's music from the 1984 version, but it is solid work that shouldn't bring many complaints.  Major producers on this movie include both Jada Pinkett Smith and the Fresh Prince himself, Will Smith.  Since the star of the movie is their son, Jaden Smith, many have leveled the complaint that they arranged and help bankroll the movie to give their son something to keep him occupied.  After seeing the movie, Will Smith had to have bankrolled this movie to explain the casting of Jaden Smith.  This child actor is no Dakota Fanning and cannot carry a movie.

Before I dive deeply into the shallow end of the bathtub that this movie is, let me go over the good aspects of the movie.  First of all, they moved the location of the Karate Kid from sunny California to gorgeous China.  The locations throughout this film are amazing and frequently breathtaking.  By shooting on location, the backgrounds are lively and filled with extras that look the part better than any Hollywood casting agent could ever dream up.  While the movie is forced to do an obligatory montage of Dre, Smith, training on the Great Wall of China, the majority of the locations make sense for the characters while also furthering the story and background.  Shots of traditional Beijing locations are mixed with scenes filmed with the Beijing National Stadium in the background.  The best use of locations was the section where Han, Jackie Chan's character, and Dre travel to the the breathtaking Wudang Mountains.  This short part of the movie ties in heavily as background for Mr. Han and as an introduction for this movie's version of the 'Crane Stance' which is now a form of hypnotizing a snake... yeah this plays out about is well as you think, crazy eyes Jaden plays this up horribly multiple times throughout the movie. 

Now a smooth transition from praise to complaints.  For this segue I will use the actors.  Throughout this movie a lot of the local talent from China and antagonist children keep almost pulling this movie into the realm of respectability.  To help them on the brutal journey of dragging a bad film uphill in the snow with no shoes is Jackie Chan.  Of the main cast Chan's Mr. Han is the only character worth remembering.  Mr. Han is a complex and quirky character who shows more emotion in little gestures, like grabbing Dre's arm in the Dojo and walking with an awkward gait, than Smith shows throughout the entirety of the film.  He has an intriguing back story that plucked a bit at my heart strings when he was discussing the death of his family and breaks into a sad melody, despite much of that scene being a bit heavy handed.  Chan has a few bad moments, but does great fight scenes and delivers the best performance of the movie.

Now the other side of the coin.  To say Henson, who plays Dre's mother, is a one dimensional stereotype would be giving her too much credit and the other American child, a white neighbor in Beijing, is so bad I choose to forget the character entirely.  This all barely stacks up to the mediocrity that is Jaden Smith.  Smith does not deliver a horrible performance but much of the writing for the character and his character choices make for a snotty, unlikeable, and poorly acted character.  Dre comes across as desperate attempt at Casanova  in a child's body.  Multiple references to intestinal distress help push his awkward flirtations straight into the creepy zone and not in a charming way.  The whole love interest is pushed to the point where it is more than uncomfortable to watch and Smith's 'I'm so smooth' character ruins the great performance of Wenwen Han who plays his love interest.  Lastly on the topic of Smith is the list of little things... he is an adequate athlete, but fails to pull off the martial arts with any grace or believability, his dancing choreography showed prowess that his skateboarding and stunts almost disprove, and his performance was so bad I actually wished they cast Miley Cyrus or Ozzy Osbourne as the Karate Kid.  

As for other horrible parts of this movie, lets talk about the montage again for a second.  Why does the film need a training montage when the entire movie is about Dre's training and the lead up the tournament?  Did the writers and directors not realize the decade of montages ended January 1 of 1990?  And how exactly are these characters supposed to get permission to train on top of one of the towers on the Great Wall of China alone on a beautiful day?  Next would be more complaints about the love story.  A basic story of friendship with hints at the romantic would have been better, and more appropriate considering the age of the characters, but instead they include kissing scenes and overt sexuality when the children dance at the arcade.  If  you drop out the kissing scene and the dance scene, you have a great story of juvenile budding relationships.  Did they have to take it one step too far?  Combined with the bad acting this made any 'love' scene nearly unwatchable for me.  Also this movie makes some pretty good stabs at being an action flick, but only the fights with Jackie Chan have any real dynamic action.  The stunt work and acting of the child antagonists is significantly above par when compared to Smith.  The parkour-like chase scene had a few exciting moments but all the good stunts were pulled off by the antagonists, in particular one 'child' who looked like he was pushing 40 years old.  The action at the climax of the movie was really forgettable and the tournament had all the excitement of a Mat Rat's competition for a tennis fan with the most interesting fights not involving the protagonist. 

Well the complains keep coming to mind, but I am running short on digital paper so I will wrap this up.  This movie was a big blockbuster production and brought in blockbuster money so we will probably be seeing sequels, but was basically a career launching pad for Jaden Smith engineered by his rich and famous father.  Will Smith needs quit buying roles for his wife and kids, but first he needs to stop his daughters music career before she ends the world. Karate Kid fails so hard that it fails to even be properly bad.  It lacks any charm, but could possibly be a good movie to sit down and watch with kids in the 10-15 range.  I would recommend this movie to adolescents who are grounded and people interested in the intricate ways a crappy child star can ruin a movie.

Streets of Blood 2009

Streets of Blood 2009

I have to admit, I love Val Kilmer.  He is still my favorite Batman, despite the movie being bad, and The Saint (1997) is a favorite guilty pleasure.  Recently I caught Kilmer in Felon where his performance saved an otherwise bad B movie and so I had some hope for Streets of Blood when I saw it pop up on Netflix.  It also stars Sharon Stone who has delivered great performances throughout her career, Basic Instinct anyone?, and one of my favorite supporting actors Barry Shabaka Henley, known recently for recurring rolls in Heroes and FlashForward or in an ancillary role in Four Brothers (2005).  Also with a lead role in the film is the rapper 50 Cent, who surprised me by not being horrible.  The director, Charles Winkler, and DP, Roy Wagner, were unknown to me before this film.  I think I will forget their names by the end of the week after watching this film.

This B movie plays out a lot like a made-for-TV movie, but deals with the topic of post-Katrina New Orleans, a topic I find intriguing.  The settings throughout are interesting, but mostly fail to capture the stark and intense flavor of destroyed New Orleans.  Abandoned schools, FEMA trailer parks, and flooding streets are all used to set the stage, but mostly each set comes across as cheap and poorly lit.  The topic of dirty cops being investigated by the FBI in a city that is still in chaos should be a recipe for deep intrigue or at least exciting action sequences.  This movie tries for both and fails to reach either.  Its action scenes are choppy and the attempts to make them gritty creates cheesiness. The twists in the plot are telegraphed with an air horn and police lights, but using the interviews between the police psychologist, Sharon Stone, and the main characters does add a bit of creativity to the script.

Streets of Blood is really forgettable and so was Val Kilmer in the role of the ethical-but-dirty, antihero Detective Devereaux.  Both Kilmer and Stone pull out some decent voice talent trying to represent that distinct southern Louisiana drawl.  Despite the accent the characters, script, and acting were all dull, uninteresting, and lacking in substance.  Devereaux makes multiple references to his hero father, a cop killed on duty, but this lame background fact to make the audience sympathetic with a rogue cop fails almost as badly as the weak half-attempt at sexual tension between Kilmer and Stone.

The one redeeming quality of this movie was that it forced me to reexamine my unprovoked dislike for 50 Cent.  Throughout the movie he puts up a solid effort that would fit in with any B movie and he could easily go toe to toe with other rapper-actors like DMX or Ice T.  His acting didn't rise to the level of the other professional actors in the film, but it was consistently OK.  

Overall this movie has B written all over it.  It has cheap sets, a cast of has-beens and rappers, and a script written by tarantula-monkey hybrids with no understanding of character motivation or connections with an audience.  I would recommend this movie to people looking for an action movie to laugh at or to people who want to rethink there image of actors/actresses who used to be sexy.

The Black Hole 1979

The Black Hole 1979

Ah... movie nostalgia... What a wonderful feeling.  Since this is hopefully just a trip down memory lane for any proper sci-fi geek or child of the 80s, I will keep this review short and sweet.  The Black Hole directed by Gary Nelson came out in 1979, before I was born by the way, and was a staple Disney movie for me and most of the TV audience throughout the 1980s and early 90s.  It is now considered a science fiction classic and had some notable talent.  The Director Gary Nelson is most known for countless TV movies and his work on Disney movies and series.  I suppose he put on a good show with fun effects back when the film was new, but I don't think the directing stands out in any significant way.  The Director of Photography Frank Phillips was another Disney regular in the 1970s and he pulled some fun tricks with floating robots, but his best DP credit still has to be the 1971 childrens' classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  The score by John Barry is pure space gold, you might know him as the kinda creator of the James Bond theme song!

On the other hand, there are some good performances by some famous  actors.  The villain in the story Dr. Reinhardt, Maximilian Schell a famous German actor, delivers a really creepy performance as a scientist totally gone bonkers.  The biggest star from my childhood memory has to be the man who played Norman Bates, Anthony Perkins, coming out as a good guy.  He plays a scientist who is dead set on finding life or the next big discovery, but in the end sacrifices himself to save his colleague.

Yet in my view the stars of this movie have always been the robots.  These lovable characters are well voice acted, funny, and have more personality than the rest of the cast combined.  I think the two main 'bots were voiced by Slim Pickens and Roddy McDowell, but they weren't credited in my bluray copy so I am basing that on internet facts.  Either way Vincent and Bob make The Black Hole a classic gem.

If you like sci-fi and haven't seen The Black Hole then you totally were born in the 1990s!  Compared to today's computer graphically aided masterpieces The Black Hole will seem dated and cheesy, but that is also what makes it a classic.  The shootouts are a joke, but the characters are funny as heck.  Lastly, a few of the scenes of the spaceships viewed from space are still gorgeous to this day, but that can't quite rescue some of the interior settings.  I would recommend this movie to fans of classic science fiction movies or anyone who wants to do a Mystery Science Theater reenactment in their living room.

Brick 2005

Brick 2005

Along my recent splurge of the great missed movies of the last 10 years, I came across this absolute gem.  It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and once again the goofy kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun proves he is a serious actor.  Brick is a modern play at film-noir set in a sunny, bright Southern California high school.  It was written and directed by Rian Johnson and was made for under $500,000.

Rian Johnson drew heavily from pulp crime novels and film-noir to create Brick, but the setting and light hearted plays on the serious nature of its own dialogue sets this film apart from other neo-noir films and the 'hard-boiled' noir classics.  The film is set in a generic So-Cal suburban neighborhood, with most of the scenes shot at an equally unnamed high school.  The script uses film-noir dialogue and pacing with modern culture and high school references.  Classic noir terms like 'sap', 'pin' for kingpin, and 'bulls' for police, pepper the dialogue to the point where I kept forgetting what decade the story was residing in.  Usually such discontinuity and juxtaposition would pull the audience away from the experience, but the fast paced, witty Chinatown banter kept me drawn in and excited for the next conversation.

The limited effects and cinematography play out well considering the setting.  There are many rough transitions, especially in the action and chase scenes, but the overall camerawork by Steve Yedlin is solid.  It incorporates some simple camera tricks and framing to make for a few dynamic shots and flashback scenes.  The scenes shot at the mouth of the cement culvert look stellar in their absolute ordinariness.

  The costumes are another area where the film stands out.  In a modern setting most everyone is dressed in the standard of jeans and t-shirts, but a few of the characters stand out and play back to the noir roots.  The character of Laura, played by Nora Zehetner, has a distinctly 1920-30s style.  At times she looks like a high class lounge singer and other like a skanky flopper, but throughout the film the costume designer has her done up with feathers in her hair, brooches, furs, and a wonderful nostalgic flair.

The Pin, Lukas Haas, dresses up like the film-noir villian he plays and his right hand man's muscle car is a perfect character choice.  The last character costume of note is the drama queen/drug dealer Kara, a potentially cross-dressed play actress portrayed by the capable Meagan Good,  who has that flair for the dramatic that fits both the film-noir homage and the fashion of a modern drama student.

The acting throughout is intentionally flat and serious, another film-noir standard, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt carries his character Brendan through a journey of violence, death, and intrigue with his stoic and quick witted delivery of perfectly antiquated lines.  Nora Zehetner's character has a few floundering moments where her intentions are unclear, but this may have been part of the deliberate mystery surrounding her character.  The rest of the cast plays out their roles in the mystery with the flat lines and deep stares expected in any noir film, but the support characters are truly what keeps the story grounded back at a modern high school.  Particular nods go out to Noah Fleiss for playing the dumb muscle perfectly and to Matt O'Leary as 'The Brain' who is Brendan's researcher and sidekick.

The plot of the movie is a film-noir investigation into the death of Brendan's, Gordon-Levitt, ex-girlfriend who was bound up with some bad people due to her drug use.  The mystery of her death in tied to a missing 'brick' of drugs that has thrown the underworld of this suburban neighborhood into chaos.  High school parking lot brawls, emotional scenes set at the 50 yard line, and even a full-on gang war keep the story moving, but deep down this is all a murder-mystery and  Brendan is the classic detective.

Brick is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.  I am a big fan of the film-noir and neo-noir genres, but this goes beyond being only a genre piece.  It has a unique setting which adds sharp humor to an otherwise serious genre and a mix of historical and modern jargon that I have rarely seen work so well.  I would highly recommend this movie to film-noir fans and to people looking for a witty mystery movie.

Manic 2001

Manic  2001

Recently I have been on a kick of watching a lot of indie and smaller films that have come out in the last 10 years.  Many of these I missed because I was in my 20s and entirely focused on being a expletive deleted, drinking, or trying my best to find an overly stuffed bosom to cram my head in.  Part of this kick brought me to a couple of films starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Manic (2001) and Brick (2005).  Brick will be reviewed soon, but I choose to order my chaotic mind chronologically so Manic is up first.  Manic was directed by
 Jordan Melamed and written by Micheal Bacall and Blayne Weaver.

First of all Manic has a solid cast of actors.  It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt a face we know and love from his early work on the TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun.  More recently he has been in the hit Inception as well as rolls in movies I was not inspired by such as GI Joe and (500) Days of Summer.  This film from 2001 shows the earliest hints of his adult dramatic acting talents.  He plays the character Lyle Jensen, a teenager with severe anger issues and manic tendencies.  It is a serious and deep roll and he pulls it off brilliantly.

The rest of the cast is filled out with the award winning Don Cheadle and other recognizable faces like Elden Henson, Micheal Bacall and Zooey Deschanel.  The roles are exceptionally cast with Godron-Levitt and Deschanel pulling off teenagers with total believability.  The supporting roles look the part and turn in some great performances dealing the difficult subject matter of adolescent mental illness.

Don Cheadle plays Dr. David Monroe the councilor or therapist in charge of the juvenile psychiatric ward where Lyle is committed.  The character of Dr. Monroe is given some depth such as an addiction to smoking, but throughout most of the story he remains a foil to reflect the growth of Lyle.  Despite a limited role in depth, Dr. Monroe is given plenty of lines and on screen time.  Don Cheadle, as always, creates much more depth in the character than was written in the lines.  Cheadle's small acting choices add up throughout the film and culminate in a late movie outburst that is both jarring and moving.  Making Dr. Monroe the most memorable character in the film.

The plot revolves around Lyle, Gordon-Levitt, getting institutionalized after a violent fight where he seriously injured another boy.  Throughout his time in the juvenile psychiatric ward, Lyle's background and abuse are explored and he eventually learns valuable life lessons.  The story is one of exploration of abused adolescents and their resulting mental illnesses.  Lyle's father was abusive and violent, the exact problems that plague Lyle.  His love interest, Tracy played by Deschenal, was raped and Lyle's violence threatens to push her away.  Another character is obviously bi-polar and another appears to just suffer from deep depression due to her mother's indifference.

The plot progression is slow and lacking in serious curves or twists, but it remains interesting and moving.  The writing is sub par, but the acting saves the script.  The characters draw the audience in and helps them identify with the twin problems of being a teenager and suffering mentally illness.  The cinematography and technical aspects of the film are solid and show moments of creativity.  The most notable moment of genius is when the fourth wall is partially broken during a series of taped interviews culminating in a stellar moment by Don Cheadle.

Overall the movie is good with many of the short comings of lower budget films, but good acting and casting keeps the movie deep and engaging.  I would highly recommend this movie for teenagers and people who love dramatic character studies.