Neverland (2011)

After two other SyFy mini-series seen in the last years, "Tin Man" and "Alice", variations of "The Wizard of Oz", respectively (and obviously) "Alice in Wonderland", I had serious doubts about giving a chance to "Peter Pan". Especially since the director and the screenwriter was the same, a certain Nick Willing who seems to build a career in this genre. As I said when I've seen the previous, these were barely saved by the story that had sufficiently solid variations so it didn't end up in a total failure. "Neverland" is not far, but as "Alice" compared to "Tin Man" is a step in front so you won't say that you lost almost three hours for nothing.

If in the previous cases we had a sequel to the classic story, here we have a prequel. I think it's the most interesting of the three, and I could start from the fact that it gives a sufficiently enough credibility (to be read: non-hilarious) in the area of the stories that connect a fantastic realm to the nearby street. I've always rolled my eyes when I've seen transitions like the train from "Harry Potter", the wardrobe from "Narnia", or others that make the rabbit hole from "Alice", or even the hurricane going to Oz (since we have both of them close) to look like rocket science compared to making paper planes (in the original versions, "Alice" actually explains itself coherent enough through a dream, and some magic shoes with teleporting power to the "Land of Oz" are at least more stylish than a train or a wardrobe + I guess they have some background in the oriental fairy tales). But to come back to "Neverland", which in the current movie is nothing else then a planet in a different galaxy, habitable and to which you can travel a la Stargate, only that this time through an orb. Well .. there would be some more details, and more exactly what's already known from the classic story = the residents that get there do not age + the indigen alien race = a sort of small winged creatures (Tinkerbell species in brief - not to get ridiculous with trying to describe it at late night hours). As the ending, or better said the sequel written long ago by J.M. Barrie is already known it doesn't make sense to give much more details about how it's getting there, but still I cannot jump completely over a key character, even if it will give some spoilers ...

Hook. James Hook. Although this variation changes some of the base story, Hook's origins in this version make some justice (sort of speaking) to the character. I'll limit myself to the beginning which presents Hook as lord fallen into disgrace from London's high society and who manages the activity of a pickpocket gange formed by kids he picked up after being abandoned or from orphanages = Peter Pan & the company. Despite the image created for one second, it's nothing like a Dickensian nightmare which the poor kids have to endure. Hook seems to be a guy who actually cares about them. How the situation evolves and how we get to the well known rivalry, this will be told by the movie. To notice though the part made by Rhys Ifans who, despite some overacting, makes the best Hook I've ever seen on screen, and without any exageration (of course helped by the story) one of the most complex negative characters that I've seen in a while.

Unfortunately, as the others, the movie suffers terribly from the direction. It's clear that we hav something of TV budget here, because it's a made-for-TV production, but there are plenty of series which you could say that are shot for the big screen. Here you have the impression that we have soap-opera direction, not one for a fantasy. To complete a schedule change verdict for outside the prime time for any station that would buy the movie, the effects are sometimes very lame. But well .. we can't have a Peter Pan without seeing him flying, so some hilarious result might be better than missing it completely. Something else, to get the critiques to extreme :), even if we have a much more complex Hook than other versions have, he still seems "unexplored" at the maximum. Even so, it's a definite good reason to watch the movie.

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)

I've heard for the first time about "The Place Beyond the Pines" quite a long time ago. Somewhere soon after "Drive" when somebody was saying on a forum that Ryan Gosling will redo his role, but on a motorbike. Time went over, the movie got an anemic initial release being an indie, but apparently managed to get enough interest to be distributed (in something like half an year) also where I'm located.

I didn't have high expectances, hearing that's either too long and boring, or that it doesn't have a beginning and an end, or that is overdramatized, and many others. To be read = somewhere in subconscious I was expecting to be pleasantly surprised. Well .. not really, but I can't say that it "invited" me to leave the cinema. I would prefer to say only this instead getting into more details about the subject, because I might have liked it better if I wouldn't have read a short review that gave away pretty much everything. I have to say though, not to leave it completely hidden, that the action idea starts with an attempt of a guy, the motorcycle rider above, to rebuild a life lived doing stunts, circus style, across the country. This comes after he finds he has a son in one of the cities he had been. The trailer is quite suggestive about how he tries to "straighten-up". About the role played in this by the other main character (Bradley Cooper), member of the police force in the respective town, I'll refrain from spoilers.

Probably the main plus is the cast. And I'll get over the names on the poster, and move to a secondary one - Ben Mendelsohn, who after "Animal Kingdom" and "Killing Them Softly", makes another exceptional complex role of a "law non-abiding citizen", apparently a pretty cool guy, but who in the end you don't know exactly where he's placed between malefic ( as in the deepest dark corners ) and just oportunist. For the rest, the movie is not bad. But for me it doesn't surpass the level of an ordinary life-drama. You could say fter you see it that's ok, that the story has also original parts which you don't see in every movie. Debatable .. There's nothing coming now to my mind, but I wasn't really surprised (and is not just to the fact that I've read the synopsis before seeing the movie). More, the idea that it doesn't have a head and tail is sort of true, especially regarding the tail. I don't know .. I still want to avoid telling too much, but it sort of fits even better on a real-life story that has nothing to show in the end except that life just goes on. My point is not that I would have wanted a spectacular ending or something like that (although to be honest although commercially, it would have probably raised the level of the movie ...), but .. I've seen/heard (and unfortunately also sort of lived ..) real life stories that are more .. "movie prone" than what we have here. At least the last part, which seems to a be an episode of a regular drama series, only that we don't have the following one to conclude the plot.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Oblivion (2013)

I don't even know where to start from. The impression that 2013 is a good year for SciFi seems to be a good point, at least quantity related. "Oblivion" was the first released. It's good that not the last too ...

I have to admit that I was pleasantly impressed by the story. Even if the trailer gives enough info, it's far from giving everything, especially related to the twists in the movie. In brief, we have a pair - him & her - assigned for surveying Earth after a war which caused the evacuation of the entire population. Their role is to ensure maintenance for a set of protection drones which are programmed to eradicate what's left of the enemy resistance. Meanwhile, a series of extraction platforms gather the necessary resources needed to establish the new human colony. Other info: for security reasons, the memory of the two was wiped when they were sent to Earth, and their activity is monitored from a gigantic space station located on the orbit. That's all. I won't say more. Well, maybe just that it's not an action packed SciFi like "heroic fight against the alien invasion ; we win ; the end". No .. the story is nice .. there is romance, some nuances (relatively vague, it's true, but still there) of a psy thriller a la PKD, twists as I was saying. But, there's a problem ...

Actually, two. The script and the directing. I would be extremely critic towards the movie, but I'm stopped by the fact that the screenwriter an the director is also the story's author. So, for that we cut a bit from the guilt. To be fair, everything's rolling on pretty well up to two thirds of the movie. When I was starting to believe that I have chances to witness one of the best SciFi in the last years. Point where .. avalanche .. everything you can get .. cliche lines, dumb syncs a la Hollywood (pay attention to the last two drone attacks), inconsistencies in the action, overdramatized scenes, overacting ... everything. True, the mess is sort of saved by some twists, but these have also downsides (because they add to the inconsistencies - we have DNA tracking capacity from outer space, but to differentiate between a man and a woman at a distance of a few meters is impossible - it will get some sens when you watch the movie, and we have others). So ...

So, I'll try to give some credit to the story and imagine it's ending in another movie done properly :) As in with the ending written differently in the script. Because, as feeling for the first two thirds is after all one of the nicest SciFi's I've seen in a while. You have a dystopian air that gives enough intensity to feel it like a silence between two storms. A romance on top, which, as weird as may sound, remembered me of a scene in "The English Patient" (weird for a SciFi, but if the movie is able to get that from me has a subjective plus). And you have at least a twist which is not announced by anything, it's quite original, and hard to foresee .. but again, the script looks like forgetting it quickly enough after to cut almost all the added value ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Man from Nowhere (2010)

Since Korea is in the news lately, and since I have a soft spot for the Far East cinema, I told myself to change the meridian again (by placing the parallel a bit South than were the general attention is set right now because I don't remember the North to ever have produced something of real interest - in movie terms at least). Especially since "The Man from Nowhere" seemed to be quite attractive after the trailer, thing that's a bit uncommon considering the marketing of the movies from that area.

I could say that what we have here comes to complete, in an Asian version, a "triangle" (because I can't call it a trilogy) chronologically formed from "Leon" in Europe and "Man on Fire" on the American side. In other words, the story of a lonely hardened by life guy that gets to be humanized by the position of protecting a little girl by a bunch of other bad, tough and less lonely (they're a bunch ...) guys. Leaving the sarcasm aside, both "Leon" and "Man on Fire" are top of the list in the directing careers of Luc Besson, respectively Tony Scott (unfortunately for the last will also remain top of the list, and Luc Besson went down a lot since "Leon", but who knows ...). "The Man from Nowhere" or "Ajeossi" as original title is .. how to put it ... "nowhere close to the other two".

For the exact story, the tough and lonely guy in this case is a pawn shop owner, former secret agent retired young after .. let's call it a family tragedy .. to not spoil everything. The little girl, the daughter of a club dancer, is spending her time in the same neighborhood, and lacking friends it keeps pestering our lonely character almost daily. The problems start when her mother interferes with a drug sell. And it doesn't take long until she's caught by the bad guys along with her daughter. And by chance, to give a pretty grim tone to the movie, the bad guys are also in the human organ traffic business, and the two are placed on the potential transplant source list. Somehow, the pawn shop owner gets himself briefly involved in the drug sell went wrong, and - without giving many details - instead of minding his own business after a quick interaction with the bad guys, suddenly grows a conscience and starts tracking them.

The story of the movie might be considered catchy. Maybe it actually is. But for me was also chaotic and hard to believe at certain key points, therefore the sarcasm. The first part is slow, the second is alert. Unfortunately none of them is consistent as rhythm = you have fast pace in the first part on which you have to pay attention and think what just has happened when the action moves in a different direction, and pieces to fill in the second part which although dynamic seem to add unnecessary length to the movie. As a negative aspect I might also say that's a bit of a drama excess in all this, although that's typically Asian. Something which I don't know if it's positive or negative is the "harshness level" or the "grim factor". If some parts wouldn't be that superficially handled maybe it would have made it a "hard" movie. Like that the only thing that's probably augmented is the violence factor. To give a plus, because after all the movie is not bad (and that's why I didn't want to spoil the story details), the technical part is standard Hollywood action movie level - nice cinematography, cool editing, perfect action scenes. No comments. But still it doesn't look enough. Because these, and much besides them, we had both in "Leon" and in "Man on Fire".

Rating: 3 out of 5

Fifty Dead Men Walking (2008)

Between headaches, a bad flu/bronchitis and tons of work ( yes, I complain again :) ), I've found some time to watch a movie last weekend. "Fifty Dead Men Walking" wasn't though a choice to leave me too much to comment ...

What we have here is a thriller based on a real case, of Martin McGartland. Born in Belfast, somewhere around the age of 17-18 the guy is recruited by IRA in the context of the Northern Ireland conflicts, and also in parallel gets a "job" on the special branch of the British security service. Like that, for something like two years he makes a double play, pretty tensed, delivering sufficient info about the attacks planned by IRA in order to save an estimated number of 50 potential victims. That's behind the movie title. Since obviously, the failures related with bombs found before time, operations discovered by the peace forces, etc start to get suspicious, the informer is discovered at a certain point. From which point, I'll restrain from further comments since it's probably the most spectacular part, which though not very long it fits perfectly with the cliche of "life beats the movie".

As idea, the character is still alive, and still running from the IRA revenge, hiding apparently somewhere in UK. The movie is based on one of his two books, book on which the opinions are split ranging from hero who sacrificed his life to an oportunist who romanced enough the subject to get a living from it. In any case, it seems that the author's feedback to the movie is that it's as close to the truth as Earth is to Pluto. So, let's get back to the movie making part, because for the real stuff, the situation seems a bit fuzzy :)

The movie is ok as thriller, but I can't say that I was even near to be blown away by it (no pun intended). It's not a high budget production, and the best part of it is probably the casting. The lead role played by Jim Sturgess is very good, but despite the critics the part that got my attention was the one of Ben Kingsley in the position of the connection with the British services. Maybe because it pleasantly reminded me about another movie "The Assignment" where he had a sort of similar part on a variation of a story based on Carlos the Jackal. I don't have any other comments, besides that it deserves your time if you want something to have both action and drama at a level good enough to fill you an afternoon or weekend evening.

Rating: 3 out of 5