jeanpierre15 Reviews

The Town (2010)

They say don't go into business with friends.

[7/10 · 23 September 2010]

I don't think this is the crime film it would like to think it is. I gave this movie a 7 on the grounds of it being an action movie. One more sensical than The A Team, Takers, or the like.

I don't think it functions as an effective crime/drama/thriller, because the aspects of criminality are laughable. Either that, or the intent of this film was to portray a bunch of idiots with automatic weapons brutishly ransacking rent-a-cops and incompetently prepared banks. If the latter was the intent, it'd still commit to being over-wrought and sensationalized (the blueprinting voice-overs detailing the guards, the elaborate cosplay, etc.).

People on these boards have pointed out the lack of foundation in the characters; Hamm as a thin hellbent 'detective,' any relational chemistry between Lively and Renner in regards to Affleck. Or even the flame between Lively and Affleck shoddily shoved in to facilitate the plot. But my main concern regarding Affleck and Renner's characters are that they seem to both be very unintelligible.

Renner is crazy--impulsive, like Waingro in Heat, sit his ass in time out, or tell him to cut that sh!t out. And Doug (Affleck), is a moron, willfully compromising his team. So he loves her? Grow up. You don't always live happily ever after. Maybe you shouldn't sometimes. Not that the film made it tangible past words anyhow. If these guys love each other so much, act professional for their own sakes.

I hope there is a director's cut out there so I can make more substantial sense of these inferences. Maybe some transitioning scenes to establish plot elements better.

Thanks for reading.

The Insider (1999)

A Michael Mann film without the shoot out.

[9/10 · 28 February 2010]

I started watching this at midnight, not knowing it was nearly 3 hours long, and did not feel urged to divide it into an additional viewing.

Everything you have heard about this movie is probably true.

Mann crafts a wrenching tale of two men's plight to adhere to their personal ethics. One a Newsman, Pachino. The other a scientist, Crowe.

If the satirical lunacy of "Thank You For Smoking" could be akin to the easy goings of Gerber Baby sauce, then this indigestion in the form of a laxative.

Mann's uncanny and infamous eye for precision and uncompromising realism is a marvel of stylish substance in itself. Almost like it's own thematic element regardless of what it's attempting to illustrate or accompany as a motif.

Unfortunately, I had been preprogrammed by his former films; "Heat,"0 "Collateral" and the often overlooked, "Miami Vice," to expect some sort of climactic hell-storm of machine gunfire. At first, I was actually--prematurely, at that--deeming this destined to be a stop-gap film in Mann's career. By mid-way, the sentiment of how wrong I had been was becoming more than embarrassingly palpable with each furthered development in the plot.

The film could have ended several times. It could have inferred several completely differing resolutions. It proceeds despite itself to formulate it's plot out of significant character's arcs and roles, rather than playing to simply Crowe's predicament. Mann's narrative and subject matter is so layered and sparse with an unrecognizable plot at first glance, it could have properly faired well as a mini-series, similar to that of "State of Play."

Leap Year (2010)

I liked it and I have high expectations.

[6/10 · 11 January 2010]

I generally have high expectations and am just accustomed to be disappointed by most films, even--mostly dramas but i know a tolerable romcom when I see one. Be warned, I might of just liked this because Matthew Goode is very interesting to watch as he differs in his ploying of charisma from character to character.

As Ebert said, it's a quirky and fun ride because Goode and Adams have excellent chemistry. So it's a romcom, it's predictable but with the nuance of displaying the majestic countryside as integral to the plot's procession rather than proselytizing it like some 'roided-out-bankrupted-government's travel brochure, the film remains very watchable. Take heed green children of Ireland, the caricatures and cultural stereotypes can be a wee bit tired, not to say tiring as well.

Fun, though probably not worth seeing over some other films out there this time of year, but definitely over staying-in if rewatching an older flick or finally walking the dog just doesn't do the effort committed any justice.

Engaged within the story, it had me hating myself for enjoying such a throwaway narrative but completely lost me at the final five minutes--at which point my bladder reminded me I need to spray my name in cursive on a urinal.

MINOR SPOILER;

Similar to the conclusion of LOTR, the film has like three endings and can't decide HOW it wants the audience to feel a way, though it knows exactly WHAT they want the audience to feel, so it takes a weird and almost insecurely tacked on 'shotgun' approach. And to be completely honest, I would have rather preferred it to end after Anna boarded her flight, betrothed and leaving Ireland, and then seen a subtle denouement, but maybe I am still suffering post-(500)-Days-of-Summer-syndrome, in thinking I can get it the way the real world is and be left with a strange masochistic desire to be gutted and an unabashed sadistic addition for dissatisfaction, rather than generic convention.

500 Days of Summer (2009)

Achingly Beautiful, the misery of one's love lost - love remembered.

[8/10 · 1 August 2009]

I don't regularly comment on movies, but this has a personal accord with me.

My girlfriend of one year broke up with me the day before I went to watch this film, as promised.

That being said, Tom (Joseph Gordon Levit) embodies my apathy and frustration in every mannerism. He allows the audience to feel his pain and disappointment. Tom is a man with boyish ideals, coming to terms with the grief of rejection. He teaches her how one loves, yet she never learns to except and give as selflessly. Probably because, as I and Tom have painfully learned, you can't teach or bequile someone as you would a child into doing love 'properly.' And sometimes, true love dies, and no sea of tears can change that.

Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel, is fun, beautiful and selfish. Undoubtedly the villain, the film seeks a reversal of standards; the male is now being preyed upon.

Is Tom naive? or is Summer a cruel and self interested girl?

The only thing that really bothered me was the director's incessant need to punctuate scenes of emotional substance with cliché romantic comedy relief. He already broke custom, why conform?

Atonement (2007)

I've had a change of heart...read BOOK-toomuchtrouble saw film-mediocre. second screening I LOVE it

[9/10 · 30 May 2008]

I read the book a month ahead to coincide with the film release in theatres last year i absolutely dreaded the book for its annoying superfluous details. some details i liked others i found painful dull and BORING. i really liked the aspect of war in the book.

NOW THE FILM. upon finishing the book i felt like my time was mostly wasted. so i was rather cynical about the film. i thought it moved too quickly and was cheesy at some points. although the ending in the film stroke deep empathy in me oppose to the one in the book.

i recently viewed it AGAIN (second time) with my gf and i felt defenseless as the story unfolded itself (still too quickly) but rather heart renderingly painfully. i felt the pain briony had felt.. the guilt, agony and torment in which she tried to appease herself.

i gave it like a 6.5 at first viewing and the BOOK a 6. upon the second viewing of the FILM i most say it is the BEST film i saw this year. the plot was much more sentimental than ncfom

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Best Film of the Year....quite simply.

[9/10 · 2 March 2008]

When one watches the Oscars you may assume there was only 5 films released this year: juno, no country, blood and etc. After you really become connected with these characters you'll see a real winner.

The film captures the paranoia of James and the demented obsession of Ford. Also the razor tight rope wire his former gang members have to walk.

Scenery and setting are beautiful. The drama slowly builds as you witness the transformation of a disorientated/immature boy into a confused young man.

Acting is spot on, i thought Affleck was great until i learned he sounds like a bitch in real life. Pitt grows on you (im a fan but at first i thought he sucked)

Astounding storyline which unfolds itself like ART BE WARNED you must have the time and attention span to appreciate