13 Assassins (2010)

Generally, I try to write about movies that are from lightly to strongly deserving to be recommended. There are exceptions when I don't have the time to see something to fit into this. Today however, I'm gonna make an exception from the exceptions and although I could find a much better (talking about movie value) title to focus on, I've chosen the current one deliberately for an anti-recommendation blog entry. The reason is simply that I was surprised (well, retroactively .. after I've seen the movie) by the ratings it has on pretty much all of the sites: IMDb, Metacritic, RT, etc. And to that to, just fill it up, I could add also some mini-reviews I quickly read to be sure I'm talking about the right movie. It's not because I was expecting more (although I was expecting more ...). It's not because it's an asian production (Japanese to be more precise) that has its specific elements related with the country's culture, reflected in the script, general feeling, etc, and those might seem a bit stupid or exaggerated at some points in time for somebody who's from the western or central part of the Globe. This is not a problem, and as I actually recently wrote I really do have a positive opinion about the eastern cinema (even better than about the European one I might say). The thing is just that "13 Assassins" is a weak weak movie.

Let's say two words about the subject. We have an action set sometime around the early 19th century, the final part of the shogun era in Japan. A pretty quiet period, considering the internal armed conflicts, according to the movie at least. Thing that seems to bore a lot one of the lords placed in charge of a province by the shogun, especially considering that the guy seems to be well qualified for a position in a dark and isolated room of a mental sanatorium for his demented lust of blood. By the way, the first part of the movie has some scenes R rated considering the roughness of the visuals you get to see (and those may make sense if what is following would have been any good or at least more complex .. but in this case are just a piece of trashy gratuitous violence). Going on with the story .. because the appointment of the tyrannical lord was official his subject can't do much .. also officially .. Unofficially however, we have a bunch of samurais - 12 in number in the end + one more .. cheerful .. character added to the group, deciding that things must be set in order by assassinating the evil lord. I don't know if I should give other details because I've already said pretty much everything. There isn't any more in the main subject besides this, half of the movie is the plotting and the other half is a final battle = the execution of the plan.

I think it's a low budget movie, or at least it looks like (or maybe just looks and it's not .. which already tells a lot). The cinematography, the editing and the sound are quite ordinary. I won't say bad, but they don't have anything remarkable. Which is a minus, considering that's a movie with potential at least here if for the story we can't say much. The action takes place more than 90% of the time outdoors and there is a lot of action in the raw sense of the word. As a script, besides the fact you don't have any complexity in the story, and leaving out the cliche parts for which we can consider that those are specific to the culture, time, etc ... there is the final battle, which is very very bad written I think. First of all, is way too long, that's why I'm actually giving thought to that (and also because it's praised as action part on some sites ...). The thing is that besides it's long, it's also plain stupid as script and direction in some points. We have some battle decisions that are amazingly dumb even considering the way of the samurai - to die in battle (but completely forgetting that the battle is supposed to be won as main purpose) - something like "well, it seems it's too boring killing with arrows from an elevated position without much risk, let's drop into battle and see how it's feeling to be surrounded face to face by ten armed bad guys" (at least if the arrow stock was depleted ...). And after this we get some scenes that look like taken from a B series Hong Kong movie where the ten bad surrounding guys try to be as fair as possible and to attack one at a time - and it's actually visible ! (you have at least two scenes where the enemy has the spear almost in the back of a samurai and seems that he's just watching for birds ...). And to add more the ten bad guys are actually more like 20 and maybe it won't be a problem if at some point it wouldn't be stated that there are only 130 enemies left (like it was reported by some electronic scoreboard ...) and they are still flowing in numbers surpassing for sure that value.

Maybe all the bad stuff above could be ignored ... but the problem is that there isn't anything left to appreciate. The only good part of the movie is the acting I think, but .. without much use .. because with two or three exceptions, the characters remain quite undeveloped. You have 13 assassins, but if you try to enumerate all of them after the movie ends, I don't know if you'll be able, because some have only a few lines during the final battle. I'm really wondering, where is the resemblance with the Kurosawa movies, that I've seen mentioned here and there. Well, I don't know .. Probably I'm also overrating it but ...

Rating: 2 out of 5

Source Code (2011)

"Source Code" is the movie that has probably the most idiotic title from all I've seen in the last 10 years - and that's for not exaggerating and saying since when I watched the first movie (is that bad, that I think it's the first time when I actually prefer the Romanian "translation": "Identity Transfer"). And to add a bit more to that, the trailer follows closely on the stupidity level. Probably that's why my final impression is completely opposite, because I expected something bad, and what I've seen was pretty different from that. So ...

The starting idea is quite simple. We have a train going to Chicago which blows up at a certain moment. This is a fact that happened (= considered in the past), and that was announced as the "prequel" for the real terrorist attack to come = blowing the whole town up. Therefore, all the affair is investigated under time pressure by the US Army, using the latest secret available technology ... the "source code" ... (again, bad choice of name ... really bad). What's this .. source code ? ... apparently it refers to the possibility for one individual to mentally relive the last 8 minutes from other individual's life, by accessing the short term memory from the dead guy's brain. So, this brings us to the starting point of the movie, when an US Air Force pilot wakes up enclosed in a capsule, having the mission to continuously explode in the bombed train where he relives the last minutes of a passenger, until he manages to find out who placed the bomb there.

From this starting point, the movie gets more and more complicated. What's interesting is that it doesn't attempt to explain much. I really don't want to say more, not to spoil anything, so I don't know how clear will be what follows form here, but ... Well, the ending is not that cryptic being quite easy to understand, but you don't know exactly why is like that = you're pretty much left to place the links yourself to explain it, which I think is the best choice in this case. I will only say that the main idea in what you see is not as time related as it is space related. And from this onwards you can try to fit the facts to get some coherence. As a personal interpretation (which originates in some short story ideas that are waiting to be finished someday ...) and for the sake of the conversation, let's consider as premise that "u're soul" or smth like this is not dead when you're dead. What the movie gives me built from that (actually it doesn't give because it doesn't say how .. but it's supposed to be possible) is an hypothetical solution to the problem of how do you connect "your soul" to "your body" or more exactly to "your late brain" in order for "your soul" not to start again from 0 .. neurologically speaking :). Well, as I said, is a very personal interpretation and I don't have neither the time and the mood to talk about it now ... let's go back to more "real" and concrete stuff :)

Like I said above you won't get much explicit interpretation given by the movie (or at least none that relates to the deeper parts) - it's just facts and as the movie unravels the story will give you more and more information = again plain actual facts. Probably if it would have given all from starters it would be much more fuzzy in the end than it is, so I think it's quite ok scripted as it is = (light spoiler) gradually revealing elements from what's nothing else than the starting context. The thing is that doing so and adding also the repetitive action, the result might be a bit ... cold, if not actually boring from some point on, so we have also a bit of love story added in the script, to add more warmth (besides what the explosion fire gives). My conclusion is that the script is beautifully written (especially considering that comes from a guy who doesn't have much until now besides ... "Species" 3 and 4). To this, you can also add the directing - Duncan Jones ("Moon"). I don't know what else to mention because I don't think there is anything to .. The cinematography, the sound, the effects, even the acting ... all of it is .. let's say normal, nothing impressive. And honestly, you can feel the lack of something more = it would have had top movie potential if it had more to add at least to one of these categories .. without it ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

PS: Did I tell you that the trailer sounds .. plain dumb ? ...

Limitless (2011)

Did it ever happen to you to see a movie exactly when you needed it ? And I'm not referring only to lighten up your day, but a bit more than that. If you know what I mean, you know what I mean :), if you don't .. maybe you'll find out one day ;) ( or maybe not if you're not as weird as me in mood changing :) ) Getting back to the initial question, for me it happens once in a while to see a movie pretty much at the right time when I should see it (although the effect it's usually gone quite fast :) ) .. It was the case for "A Beautiful Mind" in 2002 (was exactly what I needed that spring for some moral boost), also for "500 Days of Summer", somewhere between 2009 and 2010 (well, for this one it would've been better to be earlier :) ..), and maybe also for other titles that I don't remember now .. Ok, I'll cut it short with this part (which probably sounds cryptic enough to generate a ".. wtf .. ?! .." from a potential reader) by just saying that, as it's probably obvious already, "Limitless" just made my day, and in the following I might be a bit subjective due to that ...

What we have here is a thriller, adapted from a book, whose subject develops originally enough for you not to forget the story after two days. All begins with a failed writer, having a contract for a book with an editor, but no book, no inspiration, no money to pay the rent and after a few minutes of the movie no girlfriend. However, the guy gets to have a random encounter on the street with his ex brother-in-law, who seems to be a former light drugs dealer that advanced now to smuggling secret substances developed by private companies. And as every respectable commercial enterprise does, he is giving away free sample to potential customers. Which is exactly where our writer fits in, and the free sample in this case is a pill that enhances the cognitive abilities to maximum. The first effect: the wordless book project gets up to the first part done in a few hours. The second effect: the dosage that made the first effect possible doesn't last for long (and the book is not yet ready) therefore the former potential writer who just went to bestseller author status decides that it would be better to get permanently on his former brother-in-law clients list. Unfortunately, not long after the visit he pays to get this done, his future drug provider becomes his former dead provider being killed by probably other clients looking for the same stuff. Yet, the fate seems to be still on our writer's side, because he manages to find in the dead guy's apartment what the killers didn't - the whole pill stash. And from here onwards .. :) the usual line - see the movie.

The movie is directed by Neil Burger ("The Illusionist") and I can say that's almost perfect on this part, especially considering that it manages to get over quite a number of plot holes and loose ends in the script and not letting you to feel them very much (although this doesn't mean that those aren't there). The funny part is that the ending is the one which might seem a bit confuse, and that it might be a bit more developed, but it's not exactly like this ... if you pay enough attention you can get a pretty straightforward conclusion. Without spoiling it, I can say that if the ending was any longer it would have turned into a pretty trivial one. To say a few words about movie making, the most important to consider here is the cinematography. The director of photography is Jo Willems - a totally unknown name for me, until I looked on the IMDb page and I've seen there "30 Days of Night" .. that almost made me to refresh the page to be sure I'm not hallucinating. As worst that .. thing was considering the cinematography, even for a horror movie, as better is "Limitless". I really loved the intro sequence technique, which is reused during the movie. There are also other scenes to be mentioned along with the filters, but considering it's the visuals it would be better to see the movie than talking too much about this now. Shortly put it's the best cinematography I've seen this year.

I'm wrapping up this entry going back to the idea that the movie is directed almost flawlessly, most of the problems it has coming from the script. The view of the main character feelings it creates is superb. The interesting part is that what you see it's almost an on screen transposition of the inner mind way of action that's specific to a manic depressive type of individual (or with bipolar disorder in case this terminology is more clear), and this considering that the subject hasn't anything to do with that (at least not explicitly). But through the presented pill effects what you see is pretty similar with the manic periods in which u feel u can turn the world upside down alternating with the depressive ones when sometimes you feel like not being able to move a straw (the only difference in reality in these cases is that the ratio is reversed = less manic, more depressive ... ). So, to summarize, like I said, for me the movie was more than welcome. The only problem is that this "pill effect" on me :) wears off quite quick ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Informant! (2009)

Welcome to the corn mafia world .. a bit exaggerated, but that's pretty much the impression you get after the first 10 minutes of the movie. Movie which is based on the real case of ADM, one of the biggest cereal processors worldwide. As a genre I don't know exactly where to fit the movie - it seems like a drama with a serious quantity of satire/dry humor and of course with sufficient documentary value. Talking about the last part, maybe is better to start with some history ...

In the middle of the 90's the aforementioned corporation was involved in an international price fixing scandal. If the term is not very clear, in a few words it relates with explicitly negotiating the product prices, or other factors directly influencing these, between more firms, theoretically in competition on the market or at least involved in the same industry somehow. The idea is of course to get maximum profit from the sales, and the described practice is illegal as far as I know in many countries, at least on some markets. Well .. getting back to the movie and to the particular case it depicts, ADM got to be investigated by FBI in US based on the information provided by one of its high ranking executives - Mark Whitacre. "The Informant!" pretty much tells all the guy's story, and what is said about that on the movie poster: "unbelievable" is quite close to the truth. Without giving too many details, I'll refer to a line from the movie, quoted approximately - why a guy with a wife, children, a salary of 350000$ per year and at two steps from the CEO position in the firm will wake up one day thinking to bring down his own employer ? As a light spoiler, the movie doesn't answer you explicitly to this question. You could choose a reason from what is presented to you, starting from plain remorse on doing right vs. doing wrong or just getting in the mood to spice up your life by getting a James Bond assignment (well .. more the feeling, less the action), but all pretty much all of these contradict between themselves at some point. Anyway, if I'm gonna continue the idea I'll say too much, and besides that the opinions are quite personal (and I think that's exactly what the movie wants, for everybody to get their own interpretation of the facts) .. so, I'll stop here with this part.

I think this is the first movie made by Soderbergh, that I actually liked. Not very much, but I can consider it as being ok - it wasn't boring at least, thing that happened with the "Ocean's ..." trilogy and also with another real-case based drama: "Erin Brockovich" (I haven't seen "Traffic" yet). As a general feeling, it reminded me a bit about "Catch Me If You Can" by Spielberg, which is again real-case based, although a different kind of story. Matt Damon, who's not actually on my favorite actors list, makes one of the best roles in his career in this picture. Besides that, I don't know what else I might add ... The cinematography and the editing are pretty much Soderbergh specific to say so = the idea, as least as I can feel it, is to give you an air of real drama that happened some years ago (which is after all the case here). The score is on the comic/satire side of the movie, and is probably the main "technical area" element meant to cut the tension so it won't rise to a level where you can actually feel it.

Overall, a watchable movie, but a bit less than I expected (and talking about expectations, in a different sense however ... what you can see in the trailer isn't very much related as feeling with you get to see in the movie ... = less comic, more drama)

Rating: 3 out of 5

Jianyu (2010)

"I would turn into a bridge for 500 years and endure the wind and rain"

It probably sounds as melancholic as a soaked cat meowing in the rain, but this is one of the few good lines in the first half of the script from the movie I'm writing about today. Nevertheless .. I'm still writing, because there is a second half of the movie (or maybe because I'm in the same mood with the cat mentioned above .. even though there isn't any rain on the horizon)

"Jianyu" or "Reign of Assassins" as international title, is said to be the most recent movie directed by John Woo, but not exactly by John Woo ... how come ? Well .. it seems that what John Woo directly did was to coordinate some action scenes, and his name was placed on the posters more for marketing purposes. But, probably this doesn't matter too much. The movie is a wuxia = asian fantasy = the genre with ancient martial arts mastering heroes (more or less flying around) + the related setting (usually middle age China). Even if I have a pretty positive opinion in general about the asian cinema (there is a sufficient number of good movies produced there that get only limited distribution worldwide), I never was really a fan of wuxia. Actually I was really disappointed by probably the most known title of the genre: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". The only exception is "Hero" which had a nice story and was quite good in visual terms. Well, going back to "Jianyu", what can I say is that I have mixed feelings about it .. but it might be better to tell a bit about its story first ..

It is said that long ago, a Buddhist monk managed to master the most hidden skills of kung-fu .. and after that died. But even if his soul was gone to other realms .. the body of course remained on terrestrial grounds. And considering the CV of the deceased guy those bones were ranked as holy relic, a rumor being spread, that whoever gets them will master also the martial arts. Well, because of that many people, among them various assassin clans are trying to get the relics, these being split in two parts at some point. The movie starts with an attack against a minister who is in possession of half of the holy body, attack conducted by one of the mentioned assassin clans - "The Dark Stone". Following the attack the minister and his son are killed, and a women, member of the clan, manages to steal the relics and to run away. At least this is how things are presented by the first minutes of the movie. Of course all this doesn't play well with the plans of the clan's chief, a guy pretty much resembling Darth Vader, carrying a hood to cover his eyes and speaking with a gloomy whispering voice (no breath filters added though, we're in the middle age China). Well, to give a conclusion for the movie's initial setting, the idea is that the assassin gone rogue with the relics gets on the most wanted list for the recovery of the loss and this is pretty much the point from the plot develops on.

There are some more things to tell about the first part of the movie, but it will reveal too much. Especially considering that what's above pretty much covers already the essential storyline for the first half. And as I said in the intro this first half is ... simply put .. a mess. Even if it's superb visually and also considering the audio part (as all the movie actually) the script is close to plain rubbish. The actors actually probably deserve a lot of appreciation for managing to keep it somehow "watchable" considering the exaggerated drama that's typical for asian cinema however, the lack of credibility even in the case of a fantasy which makes it to seem pretty stupid quite often, and also the flashbacks that are interwoven in such a bad manner that you probably should watch those parts at least twice to get the point. Well, something changes after the first half .. the action starts to make sense. A love story that seems quite stupid in the first place reveals much more complex stuff behind it and gets to generate the first major twist in the movie. You can see it coming from some point onwards, but it still adds a lot (even with a bit of cheesy drama that's added, but again this is typically for romance stuff in asian cinema). Actually everything starts to make sense as I said in the second part. Even the scenes you were initially tempted to laugh about, like the Darth Vader character voice, have a meaning that's not just "let's put it like this in the script because it just looks cool". At least for an important part of them, this doesn't hold anymore. You get a reason in the second part of the movie for why it was like that. And for example talking about the "Darth Vader voice" the reason is actually the second major twist of the movie. But I'll stop here :) and let the potential viewer to discover more.

As said before, after watching I have mixed feelings in how good is it ... Unfortunately the first half of the movie is somewhere between boring, stupid, not credible, and hard to watch (by the way, the trailer actually might suggest the same thing) and unfortunately the film lasts for two hours. And when I'm saying half of the movie, I really mean half of the movie = you have something like one hour to wait for seeing something that manages to keep you in front of the screen, besides the visuals. But, probably is better for a movie to be like this = save itself in the end, instead of starting ok and bury itself in the second part (anyway, it's for sure even better not to bury itself at all ...). If I would rate piece by piece I would probably give 2 for the first half, and 4 for the second, so the average ...

Rating: 3 out of 5