Dom Cobb is an extractor. Industrial espionage. He goes in to get secrets out of the minds of sleeping executives. This time is different. This time the job is to plant one. But his life is somewhere else and this is his last chance to redeem himself.
The cast is first rate. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Third Rock From The Sun) is eminently watchable as he takes himself all the way from tv sitcom to action star with his role. Ellen Page is always watchable in everything she does. Even DiCaprio, and this reporter has never been a DiCaprio fan, is near perfect as he leads his crew into a world where nothing is real except imagination. The further and deeper they go into the subconscious the greater their chance for success and the greater the danger for Cobb and from Cobb himself and his own demons.
The entire ensemble is stylish and slick and subtle as they move through varying degrees of non reality to plant a real thought. Marion Cotillard is especially good as the haunted and haunting “Mal”.
Dirctor Nolan’s dialogue is expository, but that is necessary and it is handled cleanly and stylishly as everything is revealed to you. But come early and pay attention because while it is all there, it isn’t easy.
I need to see it again.
George Hrab (The Geologic Podcast) said go see it. He said it is the smartest most internally logically consistent movie he’s seen in a while and he’s right. But George LOVED it. I just couldn’t get to that place. Its smart and quick and complicated and well acted, but by the end I didn’t feel like that was the best movie I’ve seen in a long while, so I can’t give it 5 of 5 Smiling Maxes. But it was smart and quick and compelling, so on his recommendation alone I am giving it 4 of 5 Smiling Maxes. I want to see it again.
Maturish children can handle the violence as it is no worse than what they see on their tv everyday. Sexuality is minimal, but the story takes concentration. A man said to me as we walked out of the theater. That was the third time I’ve seen it and I still don’t get it. I think I got it. Maybe I missed something. I should see it again.
Christopher Nolan
Writer (WGA):
Christopher Nolan (written by)
Release Date:
16 July 2010 (USA) See more »
Genre:
Action | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio … Cobb
Joseph Gordon-Levitt … Arthur
Ellen Page … Ariadne
Tom Hardy … Eames
Ken Watanabe … Saito
Dileep Rao … Yusuf
Cillian Murphy … Robert Fischer
Tom Berenger … Peter Browning
Marion Cotillard … Mal
Ok. You’ve all heard about it. Here’s one more review.
Go see it. Go see it in 3D.
I’m not a big 3D fan, but this is not your cardboard red and green 3D. You are handed and plastic wrapped sturdy plastic pair of 3D glasses when you buy your ticket (Mine was $10.50. $2 more included for 3D) but its worth it because nobody’s handled them before, you get to keep them, which could possibly be useful in the future, and they don’t distract too much.
I have always had trouble with binocular vision with devices like microscopes and binoculars and for a while I found the 3D distracting. There was always something out of focus. The director sort of forcing you where to look. You may not pay attention to everything in your field of vision but its in focus when you shift to it. But that awareness of the 3D and its manipulations went away as this long film drew you in. In time, I blinked at the flora and fauna which was right in front of me and well behind the persons sitting further up front. I no longer minded being manipulated.
There are little light filled creatures in the movie, which float around quite a bit looking like purple air-jellyfish which I really came to enjoy, though they never spoke or related to either the cast or me. There’s actually quite a bit of purple. And quite a bit of internally lighted fauna. The whole effect is charming.
Which gets me to the manipulation. James Cameron – the director and really the star of the film (no, he’s not on screen) says that the technology should fade and the story should draw you in. It does exactly that.
This story is good guys vs bad guys. This story is cowboys vs indians. This story is nature vs the destruction of nature. Innocent vs greedy. Name your manipulation paradigm – its in there.
The problem is it is so well done, so David and Goliath, such an underdog movie that unless you just root for brutes and thugs, you’re going to like and invest your emotions in the ones (notice I didn’t say people) that you’re supposed to.
Another cliche’ that I did find a bit in your face that I expected was the hieghts. Give someone a 3D camera and he’ll show your a drop off of a thousand feet over some cliff somewhere.
This whole thing was set in a giant tree! Don’t look down? Not likely! If you’re afraid of heights hang on, yet somehow, there’s only a bit of gratuitous diving over the edge. The nausea passes.
The story is a simple one. [Spoiler] Greedy military/capitalists will stop at nothing to get the “unobtainium” natural resource that is all over the planet of pandora where native 10′ tall Na’vi live in perfect communion with this special world filled with the valuable ore.
Our hero, Jake Sully, a parilyzed marine has been provided an “avatar” an organically grown Na’vi version of himself which exists in Pandora and can be controlled from a tube the marine lays in and virtually controls through neural technology. On Pandora Sully’s lifeless legs can run. He’s austenibly hired by research scientist Dr. Grace Augustine to get to know the natives, a peaceful warlike tribe of thundercats who commune with the natural world and with which they are more than spiritually connected.
We learn quickly that jake is special both in his world as a “jarhead” and in their world as a chosen one. His real mission is to spy on the Na’vi to find a way to persuade them to move out of their traditional home so that it can be bulldozed for the excavation of the unobtainium. Really, wouldn’t it have been just as believable to call it dilithium?
Of course the chosen outsider falls in love with the young daughter of the tribal leader who hates him at first and (stop me if you’ve heard this) falls in love with him later. His heart moves from his loyalty not to Dr Augustine who places him in the program but to the military guy who wants him as a spy on both Augustine and the Na’vi. Here’s a surprise, he not only falls in love with the girl but with the people of the Pandora and his heart moves to their innocent plight as the bad colonel and his bulldozers begin to crush the life out of this living planet. He switches sides even though the poor Na’vi seem to have only bows and arrows against helicopters. How will they ever prevail and save the planet? [End spoiler]
You’ll just have to pay to find out. Its worth the money.
The technology is the star. The story is easy to give in to and just root for your team. The acting is uniformly excellent (I think – its sometimes hard to tell with the combination of actor and animation being something the likes of which we haven’t seen before.)
Really good technology. Good feeling from watching the movie. Hokie good fun. 4 of 5 Smiling Maxes
James Cameron
Writer (WGA):
James Cameron (written by)
Release Date:
18 December 2009 (USA) more
Won 2 Golden Globes. Another 12 wins & 31 nominations more
Avatar Highest Grossing Film of All Time
Cast
Sam Worthington … Jake Sully
Zoe Saldana … Neytiri
Sigourney Weaver … Dr. Grace Augustine
Stephen Lang … Colonel Miles Quaritch
Joel Moore … Norm Spellman (as Joel David Moore)
Giovanni Ribisi … Parker Selfridge
Michelle Rodriguez … Trudy Chacon
Stoic 19th Century detective and his foil of a sidekick smokes pipe, measures footprints, examines evidence under a microscope solving crime all the while remaining British. Not.
Madonna’s ex-husband has a reputation for making smash ‘em up, blow ‘em up action movies. This does not square with what we know about Holmes. Clearly something must give. And since Guy Ritchie is the director, to no one’s surprise, its Holmes! But it works.
The first taste of this version of “Sherlock Holmes” is, too much director. Or at least too much cinematographer, but really, can’t we blame that on the director?
This movie is edited like an MTV video at the beginning. Short short cuts open the action chase sequence that starts the movies. The dark corridors, streets and interiors are such a cliche’ in sci fi movies. Just once I’d like to see a science fiction movie with bright interiors. Maybe that’s why people liked 2001 so much!
Wait you say? This is Holmes, not sci fi? Well the 2009 (currently playing) version of “Sherlock Holmes” delves deeply into the “steam punk” genre, though it comes out alive and kicking while “Wild Wild West” was consumed by the same cultural monster. A little bit of science works with the original Sherlock Holmes character, because he’s kind of a scientist himself, and because he’s such an intellectual.
So the steam punk works. What about the story? Is it Holmes? Notorious and brilliant, Robert Downey Jr. seems like a casting against type for the straight laced Holmes. This is however, where Ritchie redeems himself and Downey Jr. shines.
Other directors and indeed the original stories invest a certain self indulgence in the typically disciplined Holmes, and yet keep him cerebral. Ritchie wanted to make action Holmes. This is not Basil Rathbone. This Holmes is indulgent and rumpled and not the impeccable previous portrayal. Ritchie indulges our new Sherlock in a for pay fisticuffs where we learn that not only are his wits as acute as we require, but his person is as fit as his mind. Robert Downey Jr is absolutely ripped for this part. With the action setup, the intellect working (which we can tell when we hear Holmes narrating his plan of attack during the fight, after playing with his larger opponent for a while), our new Holmes is ready to go.
But what of Watson? The other half of the franchise has been portrayed as dim and bungling as well as stoic. Refreshingly our new Watson is as adept physically as Holmes and almost as intellectually capable and the equal in wit, to our new Holmes.
So now to plot. Here again we are pleased to find a task challenging enough for what surely is still the worlds favorite detective (due apologies to Perot and Ms Marple et al).
So, the new bad guy, who is captured in the opening scene, has not only risen from the dead, but predicted three more deaths and he plans to rule the world. When he does, in fact, reappear, we know we have our suitable bad guy.
Add in a lovely future bride for Watson and a devilish, and thoroughly stunning friend/fem fatal for Holmes, lots of tricks, traps, explosions, wit, pace and charm and soon the overly indulgent directing fades to the background.
The story is good, though it was pretty much discernible. The acting is first rate all the way through LaStrade whom we were happy to see as well, and while Kelly Reilly as Mary seemed a bit wooden as the Dr’s future bride, the major players were all at the top of their game. And as good as he is, Downey’s frenetic and internal Holmes was equaled or bested by Jude Law’s controlled yet subtlety lively portrayal of Dr. Watson.
Rachel McAdams as the woman who wrecked and returned Holmes heart seduces the audience as well as the lead and she grabs our attention even away from Holmes when she appears. She’s so brilliant on screen we almost would rather follow her exploits that those of our heroes.
“Sherlock Holmes” is fast, brilliantly acted (if not brilliantly lit) fun, funny, clever and all together equal to the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle franchise. And speaking of franchise, we not only expect another movie, we expect to see Moriarity in the next one. This reporter can’t wait, meanwhile, I’d go see this one again.
Everyone did a good job, even guy Ritchie and Holmes fans will want more. 5 of 5 Smiling Maxes.
Director:
Guy Ritchie
Writers (WGA):
Michael Robert Johnson (screenplay) and
Anthony Peckham (screenplay) …
Release Date:
25 December 2009 (USA) more
Genre:
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)
Robert Downey Jr. … Sherlock Holmes
Jude Law … Dr. John Watson
Rachel McAdams … Irene Adler
Mark Strong … Lord Blackwood
Eddie Marsan … Inspector Lestrade
Maurice Sendak turned his favorite book, a book he wrote which won the Caldecott Medal for best children’s book, over to an MTV video director who had also directed “Being John Malkovich”!
That took some faith.
And Sendak’s confidence was well placed. In an interview for NPR Director Jonze related that Sendak encouraged Jonze to follow his own vision.
And the visuals were spectacular!
Sendak wrote a charming book about a boy sent to bed without his supper for being a “Wild Thing”. In his room the world changes and he becomes the wildest thing of all. The drawings in the book are uniquely Sendak and are important to the feel of the book.
The look of the movie is spot on. So the feel of the movie is spot on. In that same interview Jonze stated that he knew he had the feel for the movie when he realized how he would expand the book. For a book with a few sentences in total, had to be expanded. He decided that the place where the wild things are, and the wild things themselves were all about emotion.
Now just a few sentences is the first hurdle. The second hurdle is to not recapitulate the book or even to narrate it. The third hurdle is, of course, to keep true to the book.
For a classic children’s book with unique and classic drawings, the style of the movie must look like the book. This one does.
But more than that it “feels” like the book and that’s where Jonze wins! And he wins with sophistication and subtlety. And there’s a lot of bouncing in “Where The Wild Things Are” so of course the three year olds like it. But an older, more jaundiced eye may be more critical.
“Where The Wild Things Are” wins over the old who read it to kids in their day, and the kids to whom they read it (over and over). It wins with feeling.
The story becomes a tale of emotion. Of life’s great joys and little joys, of little disappointments and some larger disappointments. It is a story of love and loss “That was my favorite arm!”, and of working through the pain and fun of childhood. Jonze gives us that. And he gives us that without being sappy, or even moralistic. He gives us sadness and he gives us joy. A truly sophisticated mix for a bunch of monsters from a kids book.
Max Records as Max is great. He is subtle and available and empathetic and pure joy. Katherine Keener as mom is, well, perfect as the loving, if imperfect mom.
The rest of the movie is Jonze. Jonze said he made three movies. The body movie, the voice movie, and the visual effects movie. James Gandalfini (Carroll), Forest Whittaker(Ira), Chris Cooper(Douglas), Lauren Ambrose(KW), Catharine O’Hara(Judith) and all the rest of the cast AND all of the body actors bring to life a joyful, fretful, wired, worried, happy set of monsters with so much soul and depth that anyone who supposes this movie is for kids alone is going to miss out. Add in a touch of Jim Henson Company and the monsters are born in full dimension!
Watch “Where the Wild Things Are”! Start your own wild rumpus.
There’s a classic tale about a young boy who doesn’t know that he is born to greatness, who lives his life in relative obscurity until his destiny finds him and he becomes a great leader.
Star Trek, is not that movie. From the begining “Star Trek” promises what we already knew would happen. Captain James Tiberious Kirk would become a legend in this world created by Gene Rodenberry so many years ago.
Still we are there at the birth of the boy hero, and we learn of how Kirk, Spock and McCoy meet and are destined to be the now classic characters that they became in the television show from a thousand years ago.
“This is not your father’s “Star Trek” the adds say. They’re right. [Spoiler] They’ve changed the timeline, now we have the same characters, with license to make a whole new history! [end spoiler]
The others are there. The Millionaire, and his wife. The movie star and … No, wait. Different show. This one has Uhura and Chekov and Sulu and Scotty and enough Romulans to make you nervous. In all, a good mix.
First. The best fun of the movie is seeing the characters recreated. Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban are near perfect as Spock and McCoy. Particularly Urban who has the vocal meter and inflection of “Bones” down perfectly. Quinto as Spock looks and holds his body and moves just as Nimoy does (yes, Nimoy is in this one too!) though his voice lacks a bit of the resonance of Nimoy.
Now for the good news. Chris Pine really doesn’t remind you of Shatner at all, though he clearly IS Captain Kirk. In fact they sell it just a bit too much. But at least he doesn’t Shatnerize.
Urhura is luscious. Chekov is fun as is Sulu, but if you’ve seen Harold and Kumar I dare you to not think of John Cho as Harold and not as Sulu. Scotty didn’t exactly sell me as James Doohan, but he was a fun character.
The plot was a little busy. We have a time travel movie here, but with all the action and all the characterizations, I found it just a tad too much to hang on to, though I will be seeing this one again.
A little too much to do here. Too much plot, too much action, too many cuts and too much camera movement – in other words just a bit too much J.J. Abrams (and I like Abrams) keeps this from being a 5, but its just too much fun to give it less than a 4.
We’ll all be seeing these guys again! And the next time – there’ll be Klingons!
Release Date:
8 May 2009 (USA) more
Genre:
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi more
Tagline:
The future begins.
Plot:
A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members.
Maurice Sendak turned his favorite book, a book he wrote which won the Caldecott Medal for best children’s book, over to an MTV video director who had also directed “Being John Malkovich”!
