Showing posts with label Movie review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movie review. Show all posts

Monday, 4 May 2009

Goemon - a legendary Japanese hero

Ishikawa Goemon, a 16th century Robin Hood, became a legendary hero of the feudal wars in the pre-Tokugawa era. He is played by Eguchi Yosuke, a hunk and eye candy if there ever was one.

Born into a samurai family, he had a brutal start to life being witness to the murder of his parents. He was taken under the wing of then warlord and was exposed to an early training to be a ninja.

"Like the cherry blossom which falls from the tree in its prime, the samurai must have no regrets when his life is cut off."

Directed by Kazuaki Kiriya former music video wunderkind turned feature film director, GOEMON is stylish beyond words! Move over Lord of the Rings...this one has it all and more. Check out the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7VGcwqWVEM


The movie starts with an explosion of colour and fireworks celebrating a victorious battle and quickly moves onto a dance sequence in a 16th century dance club. No I'm not kidding! The writhing ensemble in hip hop beat had a definite Bollywood feel which is the rave in most music videos these days, I am told.


The blend between CGI and live action was seamless - quite often you wonder if you are watching anime. Word has it that Kiriya leased a gymnasium and this became the largest green screen set ever. The large-scale battle scenes and flying ninjas over rooftops were especially effective. The director chose to wax and wane between a blue-black-white palette for the action scenes and vivid warm colours at other times.
The love interest of Goemon, Chacha, is exquisitely framed in this tableaux and it is impossible not to fall in love with her the moment you set eyes on her.

Her anime character-like facial features highlight the excellent casting for this movie. The director managed to draw on all the big names in cinema. For movie buffs this is a must see...if it is shown in your country...otherwise use your creativity and find it on the internet.

As with all Japanese movies, anime and TV dramas merchandising of kawaii kyara (cute characters) is a must. They are sold at cinemas and in specialty shops. The popular fad is to collect hand phone charms and literally make your mobile a heavier and noisier device than it already is.

Wednesday, 18 February 2009

The Reader


The Reader, directed by Stephen Daldry, set in post WWII Germany, is adapted from the best seller of the same name by Bernhard Schlink. The author was involved in the making of the movie from start to finish and insisted it be in English.

The book took 10 years to translate. The Germans have a word for it: Vergangenheitsbewtigung — more or less, “coming to terms with the past.” It’s not an easy concept to translate into English; even less so, perhaps, into the American idiom.
The Story
The melancholic Michael Berg (Ralph Finnes) reflects on his past as certain images and places trigger his memory of the summer of 1958 when he was 15 years old.
It was by chance the young Michael (David Kross) met Hannah Schmidt (Kate Winslet), a 30-something tram conducter, on the way back from school. He was feeling sick and she gave him a helping hand. It turned out to be scarlet fever which left him bedridden for months.

On recovery, he brought a bouquet of flowers to thank her but her response was cold. His attraction to her brought him back on a second visit which lead to the begining of a summer infatuation that was to have had a profound effect on the young Michael.

Apart from the intimacy, the couple had a fairly detached relationship until the reading started. From the Odyssey to Lady Chatterley's Lover, Michael read to Hannah, initially after the love-making but then she turned the tables and insisted on the reading first.

The spoiler: No, I wont be that mean to spoil it for you . . .

Reviews

The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw - Friday 2 January 2009

Under the gloss of high production value, under the sheen of hardback good taste, there is something naive and glib and meretricious. It left a very strange taste in my mouth.

Telegraph.co.uk, Mike McCahill - 31 December 2008

The revelation of evil not only confounds the characters here; it numbs the film, stifles whatever wayward life it once had in it.

Rotten Tomatoes
The Reader is a thoughtful and absorbing film, which is packed with delicately-structured twists and punctuated with truly impressive performances.

A superbly crafted yet oddly unmoving film that's easier to admire than to genuinely like.

Best evidence of what a magnetic presence Kate Winslet is: When her role diminishes in the second half of The Reader, the movie disintegrates.

A slow-moving but absorbing story of sexual awakening and moral dilemmas.

At times The Reader is an interesting exploration of both the needs of man and the limits of law. But there are so many dead spots in the film after it gets rolling that the rolling too often comes to a stop.

Have a good read or viewing . . .

Saturday, 17 January 2009

Vicky Cristina Barcelona



Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Tagline: Life is the ultimate work of art

Plot:Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

Won 2009 Golden Globe Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical

Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical - Javier Bardem
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical -
Rebecca Hall
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Penelope Cruz

Director & Writer: Woody Allen

Release Date: 15 August 2008 (USA)


Reviews

New York Daily News - Joe Neumaier: There are two stormy performances from Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz that elevate Allen's melancholy thoughts on love and relationships.

Entertainment Weekly - Owen Gleiberman: The writing is zippy, the story spins like a top, and Bardem turns out to be the wittiest of leading men.

Rolling Stone - Peter Travers: Woody Allen's sexiest movie ever.
Philadelphia Inquirer - Steven Rea: Smoking, shouting, practically shooting off sparks, Cruz spreads a wildfire sexuality across Allen's sunny tableau of Catalan country picnics and scenic Barcelona ramblings.
Variety - Todd McCarthy: Offers potent romantic fantasy elements for men and women and a cast that should produce the best commercial returns for a Woody Allen film since "Match Point."

Friday, 16 January 2009

I'm Not There

I'm Not There . . . Released 21 Nov 2007

Is a tangled web of Bob Dylan's life portrayed by six characters representing different phases of the singers path in life.

12-year-old African American boy, Woody Guthrie (Marcus Carl Franklin) is riding the rails as a hobo carrying around a guitar labeled "This Machine Kills Fascists" as did the real Woody Guthrie, represents Dylan's admiration for the rock pioneer. Woody is traveling across country to fulfill his dream to be a singer.

An artist being interrogated and identifies himself as Arthur Rimbaud (Ben Whishaw), after the French poet that Dylan idolized. Arthur is based on the Dylan of 1964-1965 who tweaked the press in endless interviews.

Quote: "Seven simple rules of going into hiding: . . . Three, if asked if you care about the world's problems, look deep into the eyes of he who asks, he will never ask you again. . . And finally seven, never create anything, it will be misinterpreted, it will chain you and follow you for the rest of your life."

Jack Rollins (Christian Bale), a version of Dylan that focus around Dylan's folk era in the early 60's in Greenwich Village. Jack's story is told by people who knew him, especially a folk star named Alice (Julianne Moore) who is based on Joan Baez. He is also praised by many folk fans who refer to his songs as anthems and protest songs, whereas Jack himself refers to them as "finger-point songs".

Robbie Clark (Heath Ledger). Robbie tells his life story from the first time he met Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourgh, the woman Woody imagined underwater earlier) in a Greenwich Village diner where his fascination with her is her French heritage. Claire is based on Suzie Rotolo (Dylan's girlfriend from the early 1960s), but more so on Dylan's wife Sara Lowndes. Jude Quinn (Cate Blanchett), appears in the opening scene riding his motorcycle just before he crashes, just as Dylan did in 1966. We see an autopsy performed on the crash victim. You question yourself - Did Bob Dylan die? When?

Quote: "You know, I didn't come out of some cereal box. There's no one out there who's gonna be converted by a song."

Billy (Richard Gere), seemingly thinking back on the other Dylans (Billy is based both on the Dylan who withdrew from the public eye in Woodstock after his motorcycle crash and the older, seldom-seen Dylan).

Quote: "People are always talking about freedom, and how to live a certain way. Course the more you live a certain way the less it feels like freedom. Me? I can change during the course of a day. When I wake I'm one person, when I go to sleep I know for certain I'm somebody else. I don't know who I am most of the time. It's like you got yesterday, today and tomorrow all in the same room. There's no telling what's going to happen".
Trivia

Cate Blanchett wore a sock down her trousers to play Bob Dylan. The actress said it "helped me walk like a man."

Kris Kristofferson, who narrates the film, is a friend of Bob Dylan.

Todd Haynes (director) wrote a one-page summary of his concept and the characters, which Dylan approved for his music to be used in the film. It took another 6 years to get the film made due to funding difficulties. It was filmed in Montreal, although the initial proposal was Romania.

The song "I'm Not There" was an outtake on Dylan's album The Basement Tapes. It was never released until its appearance on the film's soundtrack.


Reviews:

Rolling Stone 15 Nov 2007

It's a feast for the eyes, the ears and the Dylanologist scratching around our minds and hearts. Such is the talent of Haynes ? and the magnificent Blanchett ? that chasing Dylan's shape-shifting shadows becomes an unmissable movie event. The film, shot by the great Ed Lachman with a camera eye that misses nothing, produces Dylan himself in the end. But he's still not there.

Variety

A densely idiosyncratic, cubist-like cinematic portrait of a man who often calls to mind Bob Dylan, Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There" resembles a film a precocious grad student in musicology might make about a creative hero. Stylistically audacious in the way it employs six different actors and assorted visual styles to depict various aspects of the troubadour's life and career, the film nevertheless lacks a narrative and a center, much like the "ghost" at its core.

Rotten Tomatoes

  • ...a kind of filmic Dylan song, allusive and evocative and purposefully, poetically ambiguous.

  • A crazy film which shouldn't work, but for most of the time does.

  • Exactly as weird, deep, nonsensical, rambling and wheezy as Dylan's music. Haynes could have cut his movie in half, then reordered the scenes at random, and what he'd have would be no less cohesive than the product as it stands.

  • In a movie loaded with small gems of insight and inspiration, Blanchett's portrayal of the Jude Dylan is a diamond.

  • The film is bracingly original; it's also mystifying, overlong and at times nearly incoherent. Floating at a distance from its audience, it creates its own smoky logic.

~~bobdylanbobdylanbobdylan~~

I came across this dreamboat in my research on the subject of Bob Dylan . . .

Jakob Luke Dylan, born December 9, 1969 in New York City, is the lead singer and songwriter of the rock band The Wallflowers. He is the youngest of four children born to singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and ex-wife Sara Dylan. It has been reported that Jakob does not like his famous father to be mentioned during interviews. This is not because of animosity between the two, as is widely assumed, but because Jakob has stated that he wants to make his own name for himself.

Sunday, 12 October 2008

La Vie En Rose


A dark, dark, biopic of Edith Piaf's short life of 47 years played by Marion Cotillard.

The movie garnered 4 BAFTA Awards, 2 Academy Awards & a Golden Globe Award.
Marion Cotillard has won seven Best Actress Awards for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose:
The
Golden Space Needle Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 2007 Seattle International Film Festival
The
Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Motion Picture (musical or comedy)
The Prix Lumière (equivalent to the Golden Globe in France) for Best Actress
The
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Music
The
Academy Award (otherwise known as the Oscars) for Best Actress in a Leading Role
The
César Award (equivalent to the Oscars in France) for Best Actress in a Leading Role
The
Czech Lion (equivalent to the Oscars in the Czech Republic) Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Other Awards include:
The
Academy Award for Makeup.
The
BAFTA Award for Best Makeup and Costume Design.

Reviews:

Pursued, caught and devoured by the past, [Piaf] nearly shouts the lyric, "Je me fous du pass・": I don't give a damn about the past.
Compelling but punishing . . . an artful ordeal. The best way to process it . . . rolling your eyes in amazement at its litany of misery and heaps of histrionics.

Edith Piaf has plenty of tragedy in her life, so the movie is dark and moody, but it's compelling and Marion Cotillard's performance is impossible to forget.
This is a surreal and exhausting experience.
The girlfriend; the lover.
Marion Cotillard is fantastic. It is the best sync singing, including body language, since Larry Parks in 'The Jolson Story.'
Filmmaker Olivier Dahan has created many scenes that are quite simply astonishing, and occasionally magical.

Critic A.O Scott of The New York Times, while unimpressed with the film itself, was still rather impressed with Cotillard performance: "It is hard not to admire Ms. Cotillard for the discipline and ferocity she brings to the role."

Fame in USA
Music wise Donna Summer and Grace Jones have made cover songs of La Vie En Rose.

Friday, 3 October 2008

War, Inc.

"Whoever momentarily interrupts the acummulation of our wealth, we pulverize! I'm just not feeling good about that anymore, sir!" (Brand Hauser)

Review 1: For critics of the war with an appetite for red meat, War, Inc. will prove filling, if not quite completely nourishing.


Producer, writter , actor: Sweetie pie John Cusack as Brand Hauser.

Tagline: When it comes to war...America means business. An Incendiary Political Cartoon

Genres: Black Comedy, Political Satire, zany comedy, Anti-War Film (ie Iraq war).

Plot: A political satire set in Turaqistan, a country occupied by an American private corporation, Tamerlane Corporation, run by a former US Vice-President (Aykroyd)

"Look, we've already kicked the shit out of this place. What are we supposed to do? Turn our backs on all the entrepreneur possibilities?"

"Business is a uniquely human response to a moral or cosmic crisis. Whether it's a tsunami or a sustained aerial bombardment, there's the same urgent call for urban renewal." (Brand Hauser)

Review 2: A film that confronts the absurdity and violence of modern warfare by taking it to the surreal and goofy next level.


Yonica Babyyeah: "Do you want massage with happy ending?"

Hillary Duff plays Yonica Babyyeah who is the Britney Spears of Turaqistan!

Review 3: Nice try, but this hallucinatory polemic never jells.


The Tamerlane corporate gift bag contains an autobiography by "Oh, you know who," entitled, "How I Conquered the World and Dealt with Issues with my Father."

Ben Kingsley plays the Viceroy of Emerald City (Get it? ala Wizard of Oz!!).

Review 4: Those who get it will surely spread the word.


http://www.worstpreviews.com/trailer.php?id=878&item=1

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/23/war_inc_john_cusacks_new_film