Summer-Fall 2014 Movie Preview - Part 1

Yeah, yeah .. I know :) I'm again behind schedule with my entries. Don't worry, we'll recover = 2 entries, I hope, in 2 days ;) (with emphasis on "I hope" :P). The usual preview for end of May - start of June. Let's see what summer brings ...

"Edge of Tomorrow", already released in some places, is an adaptation after a Japanese SciFi novel, which according to some was supposed to combine "Groundhog Day" with "Independence Day". Well, somehow I managed to see this movie in a Basel cinema this Friday (don't ask), so I can say that: 1. the small piece of romance that's nicely thrown there somewhere is so waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better (at least for me) compared to what I remember from "Groundhog Day" and 2. who compared this with "I-Day" deserves to be cut in pieces and fed to aliens :D The best movie I've seen this year (well, on par with "Philomena", but a total different genre). I'll dedicate a full entry for it. By then, all can I say is don't miss it ;) ...
"Borgman" is a Dutch production, which I've decided to add on the list to bring some color to the typical made-in-Hollywood collection. I don't know more than it's a thriller that already has been shown in a couple of festivals, and is supposed to get an international release soon. More, in the trailer.
"How to Train Your Dragon 2" comes out in June. For me, "HTTYD" is the best animation ever made (well, I still have some indecision regarding "Emperor's New Groove" - the former #1). So, on one hand this sequel is mandatory to see, but on the other hand I'm afraid that it might have been better not to be made. Because I think it's really, really hard to reach at least 3/4 of what the original managed to offer. And from my experience, the ultra-aggressive marketing (very present these days) was never deserved when it got to the final product. But, we'll see ...
"Earth to Echo" has the release date somewhere at the beginning of July. At a first sight is seems to be a sort of "E.T." remake combined with some "Super 8". Unfortunately for my preferences, seems biased more to the former than to the latter, but since most SciFi's find a place on my list ;) ...
"Jupiter Ascending" is the most recent production by the Wachowski's ("Matrix", "Cloud Atlas"). A bit too colored for me, but I thought it deserves a chance ... after all I can't say that I've ever been disappointed by them ...
"Lucy" is my guilty pleasure :) for this July. Comments are useless. Check out the trailer ;) ...
"Guardians of the Galaxy" starts the month of August, and is the first time when I'm actually 100% convinced to watch a production based on Marvel Universe. Finally, something that seems to depart from the classic recipe of superhero troubled with existential issues. It might sound weird, but I sense something from "John Carter" in this trailer ... even though it doesn't seem to have anything in common ... I'm referring to the atmosphere .. and I loved "John Carter" ;) ...
"The Expendables 3" doesn't require much introduction. Because it probably doesn't have much story either :) But if it gets to the level of the 2nd part (God forbid to be like the first), it deserves the ticket money ;) ...
"Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" ends August. Finally we get a sequel, at 9 years after the first, and after many delays and casting changes. Stuff that usually doesn't announce something good. But, for the sake of the old times ;) ...
For the Fall season, next time = very soon ;) ...

"Game of Thrones"

From time to time I'm writing about mini-series. But something spanning multiple seasons, no. There are plenty of reasons. 1. I'm not watching TV series because I don't have time for it (well, except this one). 2. It's complicated to write about a series, because ... it's a series :) = lot to cover. 3. You don't know when to write about a series .. you might be tempted in the 1st season, but what if the 2nd is better ?, what if the 3rd is abysmal ? And I think I can get more arguments. Still, the "GoT" episode from two Sundays ago ( + the fact that again I didn't see any movie the last week :) ) made me "risk" today's entry ...

It's hard to describe the "GoT" subject. In a funny note I could call it a sort of epic soap-opera set in a fictive medieval realm, with a couple fantasy elements ( three dragons, some zombies and a cult getting from time to time some obscure magic infusion from a "god of fire" ). More present than the fantasy is the drama, which is centered on the battle for the land's throne. Or, if the various noble houses fighting can't get there, at least the target is winning a piece of the country. All this leads to extremely entangled situations, involving lots of characters, with very diverse type of human behavior. Probably that's where the success of the series comes from. Unlike others, in "GoT" plenty of the action threads cut the cheesyness and the happy-end, being probably much closer to a real outcome, and often revealing the darkest side of things. Maybe I should avoid a comparison, because it's definitely not the best one, but for me it's sort of a mix between "Dune" and "Rome" (if smth like that can be imagined). Anyway ...

As it's probably known, the series is based on a the writings of G.R.R. Martin, who still has some unfinished books to publish. I didn't read anything, but the script (at least up to the current season 4) is one of the few that managed to keep me on track watching weekly the episodes = the adaptation, no matter how close or not to the original, is excellent. Besides that, the production part (made by HBO) it's far better than many big screen cases. To end with the technical side, we have a soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi, which I'll risk to say it's the best I've heard by now in a TV series. In any case, I've left at the end the most important part .. the casting ...

We don't have many big names among the actors. Actually, I guess many got known through "GoT". It's not the case to start enumerating, because I'll certainly lose somebody. To get back to the intro, as I said, what convinced me to write this entry is an episode - more precisely 6 from season 4. Besides some other scenes + the story development, "the final trigger" to call it so, was the best monologue (acting+script) of a pissed off guy, that I've watched since Pacino in "Scent of the Woman" ( no kiddin' :) ). For me, "Farscape" remains the best TV series that I've ever seen (and for which I hope I'll be able sometimes to get time to rewatch it, but I shouldn't be alone ;) for some reasons). It's one of the few cases which did grow enormously from season to season, up to a level that I doubt it can be easily reached. Even though there are years since then, I can still remember about some episodes like "Daedalus Commands/Icarus Abides", "The Choice", "Into the Lion's Den", "Dog with Two Bones", "We're so Screwed" or others, that most probably don't mean anything to anybody, so I'll stop counting :) ... The point is that "The Laws of Gods and Men" from "GoT" gets to that level, and I'll have it stuck in my head for a while (maybe a bit subjective :) don't know, don't care, but I loved it). Spoiler: the ending, starring Peter Dinklage, script by D.B. Weiss & David Benioff below (for how long it lasts on YT). I don't know how relevant is, being out of context for somebody who didn't see anything from the series by now, but anyway, enjoy ;)

Rating: 5 out of 5 ( until now :) )

The Counselor (2013)

Yes .. I'm late again with last week's entry (as pretty much everything else which is delayed in my life), hoping that I'll manage to find something better than what I've watched last Friday. No time ... So: "The Counselor", probably Ridley Scott's worst movie ...

I've seen bad reviews when it was released, so I skipped it. Good call. In the end, since Ridley Scott is (still ...) #1 in my top directors, I said myself: ok, let's check it out ... The subject: a counselor with pretty shady relations decides, pressed by finance problems, to get involved deeper in a drug trafficking network. The result comes swift & merciless, one of the transports is lost, and some (more or less) coincidences seem to blame the "counselor" & his associates. And ... that's it. Well,... we see what everybody gets. I didn't say everything, to keep some stuff also for the movie, which anyway is a disaster ...

To be fair, the blame is split. The directing is not that bad after all. The script is, however, awful. When I've said years ago, opposed to all critics, that "No Country for Old Men" is a pile of overrated philosophical crap I knew what I was saying, and I still keep my opinion. Cormac McCarthy is doing here a sort of "No Country for Greedy Unlucky Men" in a chaotic and senseless manner. From the idea of buying a diamond ring when apparently the wind blows through your pockets, to the extremely short interval between getting involved in the business and the "your life is over" phase, coming as something that wants to be a sort of divine punishment for the tagline "sin is a choice" ... Emphasizing senselessly on elements lost without any explanation, from (again) the diamond ring turned and analyzed in the first 15 minutes on each side, but totally absent after, to clients of the counselor looking for quarrel whom you don't know, but it doesn't matter because they disappear as fast as they appeared ... Philosophical discourses by almost all the characters from a club owner,a drug lord, a diamond seller (yup ... that ring ...) to a poor Mexican bartender who talks like he finished Harvard but couldn't find another job ... No other comments.

I managed to heroically watch the movie to the end despite all the above. The last minutes, however, erased my last bit of appreciation. Spoiler alert (don't give a damn, you should know this): Up to watching this movie, I guess the most horrible murder I've seen on a mainstream title (= we exclude ridiculous scenes from horrors like "Saw", or other niche productions), was killing Joe Pesci in "Casino". It's horrible because 1. the scene develops extremely rough but being realistic in the same time and 2. to make everything more hard to swallow, if I recall correctly the character is based on a real one = assuming with a similar fate. In "The Counselor" case, the "real" element is 100% fabricated = based on a certain device invented apparently by the brilliant screenwriter, which by using a small engine without a stop button, tightens a metallic necklace on the neck until the head snaps and is severed from the body (I wouldn't be surprised that some demented person will try in practice "the bolito" which according to Google is "patented" by this movie). The test subject is Brad Pitt in an atrocious scene taking place on the London sidewalk. I'm not sure that this was really needed in the script .. but I am sure that I am lacking a certain rating on my blog (until now) ...

Rating: 1 out of 5 (maybe a bit subjective for the last part above ... but on IMDb I gave the same .. and there the rankings go up to 10)

I'm lazy to search a trailer for something like this ... check youtube if you really want it ...

World War Z (2013)

Yup ... I'm late again. I'm in general late these days ... But I'm trying to save the last week's entry with "World War Z". I think I wrote a bit about zombie movies before, so I won't dissect the full topic again. Since Romero's "of the Dead" series, it's a subject that has been used many times, covering the full range in the movies market - from very bad to very good. The last one I've seen: "Warm Bodies" was unfortunately at the bottom of the list, so bad that contributed on postponing watching "WWZ". I don't know why, but at the time seeing Brad Pitt in a zombie movie main cast didn't inspire more trust than the undead romantic comedy I had have seen. Well, in the end I gave a chance to "WWZ", and it's not that bad ...

I think it's really hard to pull off an original subject for a movie in this genre. In the end, it's still the classic recipe the one that seems to be more catchy to the public = we have a group of survivors trying hard to stay alive and if possible find a cure. This worked perfectly in "28 Days Later", "I am Legend" and even in the "Dawn of the Dead" remake. And seems to work too in "WWZ", although there are some level differences. The movie sticks to the base idea and keeps a classic dystopian atmosphere, with some life drama in it. The context: a worldwide zombie epidemics ( the standard recipe = you're getting bitten, you transform and you never find eternal peace unless somebody is merciful enough to pass a bullet through your head ). In this context, an UN employee (Brad Pitt), with some field experience in conflict areas, is sent to investigate the possibility of a cure, in exchange for his family being kept under protection on a US Navy ship. One of the nicest parts of the movie which adds a lot to the cinematic experience is that the mission starts on American soil, and gets through Korea, Israel and finally UK. Even if a bit far fetched here and there ( a bit more in the Israel part ... ), all this traveling is a variation from the classic setting where the survivors are typically by foot and within a limited area of movement + it also adds to the impression of a global disaster. I won't get into spoilers about "the hunt 4 the cure", but the idea and the way it develops seemed rather original.

What "WWZ" also has in common with the the other titles above is .. how to say .. a warm feeling that gives a bit of hope for a better world, which is subtly induced somewhere behind and in opposition to the bloody cold terror. You know that despite the chances it seems to have, finally, somehow, the humanity prevails. .. The costs paid vary from movie to movie :) As a light spoiler I can say that in "WWZ" that's probably the problem, and specifically that the "happy-end" seems a bit too "happy". As strong I've been touched by the last zombie attack towards the main character (the scene is epic, both what you see and the symbolism behind), as disappointed I've been by the simplified outcome in the end. I guess it's one of the few cases when I would've preferred more tragedy. But well, a high budget movie has to target as many people as possible and you can feel the "Hollywood superproduction" in there (with all its evils). In any case ...

Rating: 4 out of 5 (at the limit)

Transcendence (2014) + Du Levande (2007) + Noah (2014)

Still alive ... I know, it's the first time when I've jumped over a week without notice (fake promise: it won't happen again & cliche: my life is complicated). Unfortunately I don't have anything good enough to compensate the absence. So, let's try a 3-in-1. Fast, because again I don't have time ;)

1. Life after .. death : "Transcendence" was top of expected list for me on this year announced releases. Harsh disappointment. I don't even know what to bash first. The story, although relatively simple considering how much you could get from "mind uploading" as subject, is still ok. From story to script though ... the disaster starts to catch shape. Let's say I can ignore the ton of IT related stupid stuff placed there for the average viewer (although it can be done without, or try to do it much more accurate - again, the classic example: "Antitrust"). But I didn't see such cliche density for quite a while. Again, I can confirm myself the rule of "don't trust a screenwriter at the 1st script if the movie's not an indie". He will get it done either to shocking too impress (not the case here), either too simplistic for a wider appeal, or he knew the producer and that was enough to get the job. And we can supplement this with the second rule "don't trust a visuals guy at his 1st directing attempt either". Wally Pfister is a good cinematographer - the guy normally working with Nolan ("Inception", "The Dark Knight", "The Prestige"). You can see here too some touch from his side, although he's not in charge with this. But for directing ... the movie has real problems. Well, it's a mix of problems adding the script and the production design, but for some issues the final call comes from the director's side. When you have .. what to pick .. gibberish screensavers on every monitor seen in the movie (to get the geekysh feeling) ... or a pathetic attack using 2-3 mortars to charge on a gigantic subterranean bunker (and on top supported by the U.S. government) - the scene could have been done with an F18 solving the problem quickly, efficient and precise from above .. but well, we wouldn't have had the "romantic drama" (+ an F18 adds more to the budget than some mortars). I don't know .. it really doesn't make sense to lose more time talking, because except bashing the movie I don't think I have anything left to say. It's not exactly the same thing, but I can recommend "Source Code" as a much better alternative. For "Transcendence" I only have one thing to appreciate (and that's subjective), namely Rebecca Hall as female lead character. Except that ...

Rating: 2 out of 5


2. Life after .. just life : "Du Levande" or "You, the living" is a Swedish production that I've seen in small pieces throughout the week. And from which I was expecting again more. I wrote recently an entry on "La Grande Belleza". Well .. if we cut (a bit) from the visuals, we cut (more) from the budget, and we replace the decadence with absurdity the result is pretty much what we have here. The last part is not something bad actually. Basically, the movie is a sequence of scenes, many being somewhere close to Kafka. Not very well entangled though = we don't have a story, and I'm a bit too tired these days to fully appreciate a movie that invests a lot in symbolism ( and if we add "meaning of life" as central topic it already starts to get depressing :) ). But if you're in the mood for food for thought, it's a good choice ...

Rating: 3 out of 5


3. Life after .. the apocalypse : "Noah" - where apocalypse = obviously the flood. The movie is sort of opposite to "Transcendence". The ark story is known by everybody, so you won't get big surprises. Still, if you're not a bible fanatic to get a stroke due to variations from the text, the additions made are very welcome as an original touch. And for directing, it's visible that Darren Aronofsky is somebody who proved his skills before. With "The Fountain" for example, which is close in style here-and-there (or maybe it was just Clint Mansell's soundtrack reusing some notes). Still, "Noah" is not "The Fountain". The metaphor is thinner, and the drama gets a bit hilarious in some points (which strange enough adds a bit of color to the film, although might look a bit pic out-of-place). One thing to appreciate ( at least by me :) ) is that I don't see the production targeting (despite the subject) the by-the-book believers and (obviously) neither the convinced atheists. Or different put, there are parts which probably might work for both ( might .. since I'm on neither of the "extreme sides" I don't know for sure :) ). In the end, with/without divinity, the main message is probably close to: people can change - some do .. some don't - :) but they deserve a chance to prove it ;)

Rating: 3 out of 5