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Only God Forgives (2013)
Overly Ambitious
The film reunites famed Danish Director Nicolas Winding Refn and Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling to muddling effect. The film takes place in Bangkok where Julian(Gosling) runs an underground drug ring in a Muay Thai fight-club with his brother Billy(Tom Burke). Soon Billy is murdered and Julian looks to find his brother's killer only to discover that Billy murdered an underage sex worker, from then on it is more his mother(Kristin Scott Thomas) hunting down the killers. The actors in this movie do the best they could given that like most Refn films is mostly visual and sound than spoken dialogue. Kristin Scott Thomas is by far the star of the show, though that could be because her character is the only written with emotion. Ryan Gosling turns in a mostly quiet performance, but when he snaps like in "Drive" he manages to be frightening and has a degree of unpredictability in him. The rest of the performances were fine and characters with certain trait just there for visual effect. No where is this more apparent than with a police captain named Chang(Vithaya Pansringarm) who has an affection with the sword and cuts off the hands of those who murder others(blood on their hands) and sings karaoke afterwards.
The cinematography is done by Larry Smith who worked on films such as Barry Lyndon, Shinning, Eyes Wide Shut, and was the cinematographer for Refn's Fear X and Bronsan. With all that said this his best work to date. The allure of this movie is intoxicating and thick, with every shot of this film having something to analyze and is yards and away the best thing about the film. It is one of the most beautiful films all year and does what it can to draw you into the depraved world of sex and violence Refn has envisioned. Props also must go to the production team as well, for several of the sets in the film are highly intricate and fit the setting well, matching the theme of red running through the picture. The soundtrack by Cliff Martinez matches perfectly the haunting mood the film is going for, with soft beats and mostly being atmospheric it makes the visuals that much better and is an example why he is one of the best working today.
With all of that said the film fails, because with all of its stylized beauty there is nothing there and its detachedness comes off of it making the audience not care what happens to the characters in the end. This is a fault of Refn's direction, for he is trying to tell something visually and make it have meaning, but the visuals are so abstract that he is grasping at air. What works in films like Inland Empire and Shane Carruth films is that there is a story to care about, there are characters that are relatable and that we want to know what happens to them eventually. Here the style of the film suffocates out anything and just becomes a stylized movie about violence and sex without any greater meaning to it or something to make it worthwhile. The editing in this film also sometimes makes it hard to tell what is happening in the head of the characters and what is not and how would some characters know of a character they have not met yet, the entire process feels messy. If the film focused on something other than its style the film would have been the better for it.
"Only God Forgives" is a rare miss-step in Refn's career. Perhaps further viewings would prove to be more fulfilling, but as of now it is empty. The film is still worth a watch, for the visuals alone and or if you are a fan of the director's previous work(not just Drive) and Alejandro Jodorowsky(who the film is for).
2/4 Stars
InAPPropriate Comedy (2013)
Cinematic Garbage
This a film that shows why IMDb needs to add a zero star function, for giving this a film a rating equates that this film was in any shape or way good. The very fact that something like this can be made and given the release that it had is down right deplorable. It tries to be offensive, but utterly fails in that regard and just remains juvenile. The sketches themselves are absurd like a Jackass spoof called Blackass, which is just Jackass with black people. How about a play on words with the Amazing Racist, a sketch which is so soft that it is not so much offensive as it is cringe worthy, for it is played too safe. Lastly there is the Dirty Harry sketch called Flirty Harry(Adrien Brody) where everything out of his mouth is a double entendre and would make James Bond blush with embarrassment and I am talking about the Roger Moore Bond, how they managed to get Adrien Brody in this is beyond me. There are other sketches but these three are the ones they are proud of the most and that is not saying much. The framing of this film as different stories for different apps is entirely pointless, for the film seems to forget that what we are seeing are apps. At least in other bad films like The Room, Troll 2, and Birdemic, you at least can laugh at how poorly it is made, here there is no such luck, for you are ticking down how much longer can this 80 minute film go and makes Movie 43 look like a masterpiece of cinema. I would rather spend a month at Gitmo, than ever watch this sorry excuse for a film as long as I live.
Battleship (2012)
Why, just why
I really don't know where to start, for it has been about a year since I have seen a movie coming close to being this bad(Battle Los Angeles) and is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Who's bright idea was it to make Battleship into an alien invasion movie anyway, board game movies can be good, just look at Clue for that. Everything in this movie is a failure of film making other than the effects and Liam Neeson's performance.
The movie is centered around the smartass hero Lieutenant Alex Hopper(Taylor Kitsch) who leads a band of misfits against the alien invasion all the while his girlfriend(Brooklyn Decker) and a crippled army vet try and assist in the take down of alien communications. Now you would think that this movie would be cheesy as all hell, nope, having a root canal is a more pleasant experience than this movie. There is a fine line between a cheesy movie like Independence Day, and painfully bad, Battleship comes no where close to that line it is just bad, and very predictable.
The Characters in this movie are all cardboard cutouts, you have the lovable idiot, the hardass dad, the love interest, the nerd, the badass girl, the rival, and the hero. None of these characters have any depth to them and when they die I don't feel anything, because I don't feel anything for them, for I don't really know them. The acting outside of Neeson whos gives way too good a performance for this movie, ranges from bad to mediocre, surprisingly Rihanna is only mediocre. Decker is atrociously bad in this movie and basically plays a Meagan Fox role. Kitsch looked like he was trying, but the script and the Character let him down.
The special effects in this movie are well down, but they aren't things we have already seen in Transformers and don't really add anything new to the picture. However the action sequences are so poorly done that it is boring, how does one make action sequences boring. I haven't seen action this boring since The Matrix Revolutions, not to mention the Shaky cam, it may not be as bad as the Hunger Games, but it is bad. Outside of one sequence that reminded me of Armageddon, there really isn't anything "good." The aliens themselves are unoriginal in design, yet had an interesting concept behind them with sunlight.
I could go on and on nitpicking every detail that is stupid and makes no sense I would be here all day. Overall this movie is a colossal waste of time and money with the only good things being the effects and Neeson , none of which make this movie worthwhile. The only way I can possibly recommend this movie if you see it with friends and bring booze.
1/5 stars
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
The girl with the dragon tattoo
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a murder mystery/thriller directed by David Fincher in which investigative journalist for Millennium Newspaper in Stockholm, Sweden Mikael Blomkvist(played by Daniel Craig). After being found guilty of libel is asked by Henrik Vanger(Christopher Plummer) former CEO of his family's company to stay on his family's island to the north to find out which one of his family members killed his niece over 40 years ago or if she is still alive under all while under the guise of him writing a memoir about him, promising in return a larger salary and evidence to prove he his libel to be false. He eventually garners help from the title character Lisbeth Slanader(played by Rooney Mara) who is a troubled young adult and ward of the state, but is an skilled investigator in her own right. I can't tell you how close it follows the book, but overall it is an entertaining and well put together film.
The acting in this movie is great, but Rooney Mara steal's the show with her performance which is one of the best this year, by getting completely into her role, from getting drunk the night beforehand to look hung over even though she herself is not a heavy drinker and getting stark naked multiple time throughout the movie, once being in one of the rape scenes, and the character herself gives the expression of someone who is dark and anti-social while keeping it fresh, even her accent sounds Swedish. Even though Craig's performance is not as good as Mara's, he still does a fine job acting a serious dramatic part, instead of just a pure action star which I have only seen him as until this point, but his English accent can get distracting at times. The film itself also has a large ensemble of Swedish actors which makes the setting all the more believable.
The on set locations for this movie added to that since of isolation and uneasiness Mikael felt throughout the movie when it starts out in the middle of winter and with Sweden at the time experiencing the worst winter in 20 years it definitely added to the feeling of the movie and with seasons changing throughout the movie it gave the viewer the feeling of months are actually passing by instead of keeping a similar looking environment throughout the year.
Despite all the pros about this film there are still faults to be had with it, the major one is introducing characters who have little to with the plot and forgetting them the rest of the movie. An example of this is when Lisbeth goes to fellow friend house to get a device to trace people's emails, you could say that is to show how she got the item, but there is another item later on in the movie showing her putting up surveillance cameras without showing how she got them, maybe that character got more time in the book, but in the movie he is pretty much useless as a character. Another fault of the movie is that I really never felt like I knew the family, sure there were small note cards, but not enough information to see them as characters and with them barely mentioning their names it was hard to tell who was who and who they hated, when they mentioned them and near the climax when they are piecing together the final parts of the mystery, like Mikael said, "I think I am getting confused on who is who." As I said before I enjoyed this movie and pros far outweigh the cons. 4/5 stars. Rated R for Strong Violence Strong Sexual themes Strong Language Drug and Alcohol use 2 hours and 37 minutes
The Hunger Games (2012)
Does it live up to the hype?(Note: I have not read the books)
The Hunger Games is the first in a series of Post-apocalyptic American novels written by Suzanne Collins starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. The film begins in a place called district 12 where we are introduced to Katniss(Lawerence) and her sister Primrose(Willow Sheilds) getting ready for ceremony in which the government chooses one male and female from each district to fight to the death in the Hunger Games. Katniss' sister gets chosen, but she volunteers in her place and on the male side Peeta(Hutcherson) is chosen. They are then taken swiftly back the the extravagant capital and inevitably the games themselves, while developing a connection in the process.
The actors in the movie do a great job selling each characters, none really stands out as phenomenal. Now that doesn't mean somethings don't stand out, like for example Lawerence had to practice hundreds of times a day to learn how to shoot a bow and arrow, which is an impressive commitment to the role. The rest of the cast however, nothing really stands out as rememberable that someone else could have a hard time doing.
The production design for this film is outstanding, from the extravagant costumes and set pieces in the city. When we first see the city we see how superficial both the building designs and the clothing that people wear compared to that of district 12 which we have just seen and shows a complete disconnect between the citizens of the capital and the citizens of the districts. The best showcase of the design is the parade for those who are going to be in the games, in which it is hard to tell what is cgi and what is not. The best example of the costume design is when Kattnis is being interviewed by a late talk show host and she is wearing a lovely red dress the catches "fire" when she spins, although the effect is laughable it is still nice.
There are 2 big things that bring this movie down, which is the editing during fight scenes and lack characterization outside the main characters. Lets talk about the editing, good god, there were so many quick cuts that it became nauseating and made hard to tell exactly what was going on and quick moving camera when it is not being edited doesn't help much either. Now the lack of characterization would not have been too bad, if it wasn't for one character in particular whose death is played up like it is big and dramatic, but we only knew the character for less than a day, so it is hard to believe that Kattniss would develop such a connection only after sharing 2 scenes of dialogue. This movie would had benefited being 10-20 minutes longer to flesh out the character more. Several other nitpicks of mine include, what was the point of the mocking jay, since it is barely brought up in the story, what are the other districts like, because we really don't know, why was Peeta running around with the group from district 1 who were after Kattniss, but obviously didn't want to kill her and why didn't she bring that up when they caught up, they made a big deal out the sponsors, when she only got 2 drops anyway from their mentor, what was the point of the 3 finger salute, and how did the battlegrounds work other than "it is sci-fi."
Overall however I did enjoy this movie and was a fun time to watch, it just could used a bit more work to make it great, than just being just okay. 3.5/5 Rated PG-13 for intense violent thematic material and disturbing images.