The Impossible

Plot: During the Indian Ocean Tsunami in Thailand, a family is caught up in the wave, separated and beaten up. The movie is about their impossible survival. After set up scenes of family life, there is the disaster, splashing in the water, finding the way to help on dry land, and then finding each other.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: An emotional ride though a real life disaster with good actors and a skillful director. A good ride that I enjoyed. 

Highlights are the disaster footage. All the scenes of water splashing over the hotel and landscape are great. The scenes of Maria (Naomi Watts) getting battered by debris on the way to the air surface are exceptional. Most of Watts and McGregor's scenes are great. All three child actors are good -- not wooden at all. 

It was not as melodramatic as I feared that it would be. There are some tear-jerker scenes -- no mistake about that.  The story has is more tangible, realistic, and less manipulative -- or at least less manipulative than it could have been -- it is still a major movie after all. Being a true story helps credibility too.

Besides being about the disaster, it is also about taking care of each other, and taking care of other people. The movie evokes charitable human feelings. 

Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor

Directed by: Juan Antonio Bayona

Rating:  3.5 stars: not as fun-to-watch as my other top picks, but it is a disaster movie. It moves up due to the acting and the rapid pace. About as good as Hunger Games and Avengers. 

 

More: The Impossible is a dumb title because nearly every action movie plot could be called The Impossible. 

Even More No one in Thailand seems to have a sponge to clean the dried blood off our heroes. Seems they could have managed to clean up a little by end of the movie. 

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Les Misérables

Plot: Criminal Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) completes 20 years at hard labor in post-revolutionary France, and then skips out on his parole.  Valjean receives charity in the form of church silver from a priest and ten years later he is a factory owner. One of his workers, Fantine (Anne Hathaway,) gets in a spat with coworkers and is fired. She falls in with prostitutes and is beaten by a soldier. Valjean somehow meets her, and takes her to a hospital where she dies. Valjean learns of her daughter Cosette (Isabelle Allen/Amanda Siegfried) who is watched over by thieving innkeepers Thenardier & his Madame (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter.) Time passes, Cosette is 15, and a revolution is brewing again. Young revolutionary Marius (Eddie Redmayne) falls for Cosette, but police commander Javert (Russell Crowe) is pursuing Valjean, and Valjean hides with Cosette. The revolution plays out, and people die. After the revolution, love wins out.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The good parts are good, and the bad parts are slow. There is grand spectacle with some dull parts. There is some heart-stirring emotion. Some really good songs.

Being a movie cast with famous actors, the songs are staged for drama and less for musical perfection. This makes for more dramatic feeling and less toe tapping. Here is a version of the music on You Tube. 

The best parts are the Anne Hatheway's song "I Dreamed a Dream." She gives a renders a tearfully sad version with enough emotion for Oscar buzz. Of course, Susan Boyle sings it better musically.

I liked the revolution scenes too. Every scene with Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen is a highlight. 

As good as the good parts were, there were several songs that were weak both in musicality and in plot content, and  while the movie did not feel too long, I was daydreaming during the boring songs. 

The visuals are consistently great; the sets and the costumes were tops. 

Compared to other musicals, it is not as good as Evita or Moulin Rouge. I loved both of them. Les Misérables is better than The Hobbit. 

Cast:  Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Eddie Redmayne

Directed by: Tom Hooper, based on the music by Herbert Kretzmer and the novel by Victor Hugo. 

Rating: 3.0 stars. I am glad I saw it.

 

More: I have not bought any songs from the soundtrack, but I am streaming the Youtube version of the musical. 

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (3D & high frame rate)

Plot: Gandolf (Ian McKellen) and a band of dwarves enlist hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Marin Freeman) to join them to fight a dragon in a far off mountain. We hear the backstory of how the dragon took over the mountain, an attack by orcs riding oversized wolves, a visit to Elrond (Hugo Weaving) at Rivendale, being trapped by goblins, another attack by orcs riding oversized wolfs,  and eventually get within sight of the destination mountain by the end of the film. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Not so great. While The Hobbit is the best of Tolkien's novels, this is the worst of Peter Jackson's films. Their are two reasons: the plot and the photography. The Hobbit is a great story with a villainous dragon, a  great climax and happy ending. The movie is not. It starts a silly comic party, and it ends with blah nothing. No dramatic structure.

I know the movie-makers spent millions on special effects, but live action scenes looked fake, especially the first 90 minutes. The computer generated scenes looked LESS fake.  Even the food on the plate at Bilbo's house (which had to have been real carrots and potato) looked fake. The characters just did not look like real people. They looked like over-dressed actors on a stage set. Why? I don't know, but I do know that  Cinematorgrapher Lesnie should get his Oscar revoked. 

It was not all bad. Computer generated Gollum/Smeagel was a highlight -- I loved him, but it did not last long enough. The computer animated characters looked good, and the giant eagles soaring were wonderful. The soundtrack was strong, and I even bought one song.

I have thought long and hard about whether the high frame rate was the problem, and I decided no. Even when the characters were still (perhaps especially when they were still) they looked fake. Cheap movies look more real than this. The high frame rate was good during the action scenes. The people fought and throw things at high speed, and I could see it all. In regular movies, action scenes can speed by faster than you can see them. 

Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen

Directed by: Peter Jackson

Rating: 1.5 stars: Not recommended. I previously gave 3.5 stars to Return of the King, and 3.0 stars to Two Towers. The photography and the lack of any dramatic structure that makes this unsatisfying. I don't know if I would have liked the 2D and 24 frame/sec version. 

 

More:  I loved Cate Blanchett's Galadriel.

More:  I heard about the fakeness of the high frame rate images, but I thought it was just curmudgeonlyness. It was real though and very distracting.

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Killing Them Softly

Plot: Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn) rob a mob gambling house, and the mob bosses call in Jackie, an enforcer (Brad Pitt,) to kill the robbers. Jackie calls in NY killer Mickey (James Gandolfini) to help. The robbers get panicked, and people get shot. The movie is intercut with political speeches about the 2008 economic collapse and the election of 2008.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Killing Them Softly is a gritty movie about the criminal underclass.  It is advertised as a dark comedy, but it is actually a tragedy with some political sarcasm. The point being that American government is concerned with money and is a business -- just like running crime mob. Director Andrew Dominik was trying to say the political criminals and street criminals were the same, but in the action he showed they were different. 

While I did like the movie's political theme, it made me think about a book I am reading (The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker), about crime and how government control keeps people safe. In parts of the society without government control and do-it-yourself justice lots of people suffer and die. 

The title Killing Me Softly is supposed to mean Jackie kills people with a minimum of suffering. He shoots people repeatedly to make sure they die quickly, and he shoots from a distance. Are we supposed to admire that? 

The killing scenes were slow motion and artsy with a spray of flowy blood droplets in the air. There is some artistic photography of gritty street scenes too. 

The acting was strong, especially James Gandolfini, who was fun-to-watch as he drank and drank -- an unlikely highlight of the movie. 

I did not care for Killing Me Softly much like Flight, it is about gritty druggy street life with unlikeable people. 

Cast: Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Ben Mendelsohn, Scoot McNairy

Directed by: Andrew Dominik

Rating: 2.0 stars: Not recommended, but with some strong parts.

More: The soundtrack is an interesting collection of tracks from various artists. Highlights were Moon Dance by Carl Stone and Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams by Nico, and I Think this Town is Nervous by The Wreckery.

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Life of Pi (3D)

Plot: Pi (Suraj Sharma) is an adolescent boy travelling with his parents and their zoo animals aboard a freighter from India to Canada. The freighter sinks and Pi ends up on lifeboat with a few animals, notably a Bengal Tiger. The story is told in flashback by the adult Pi (Irrfan Khan.) At the very end the adult Pi gives the story a twist and then another. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Life of Pi is parable with symbolism on a million levels, and director Ang Lee patently draws out a lot of them before the shipwreck. During the adrift-at-sea middle of the picture, there is gruesome carnage that I found really very unpleasant -- I thought about leaving the theater. The animal violence bothered me more than any crime drama or movie.

The tiger is CGI, and it is perfect. I real cat would not have been as good. There are some very pretty fantasy sequences including a glow-in-the-dark whale, and an island with a zillion very cute CGI meerkats. 

Actor Suraj Sharma does a great job in showing fear, bravery or desperation. He was a strong actor. 

When the movie is done, you think about everything that happens, and all the allegories. For example, the tiger's original name was "Thirst." Thirst might drive survivors to do crazy things, and the tiger is some part of Pi.

Director Lee concludes with a line about choosing what to believe about God based on what story you like the best. That reminds me of Don Cuppitt, the controversial British theologian.

Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan

Directed by: Ang Lee, based on the book by Yann Martel

Rating: 3.0 stars because of its ambition, and the ultimate pay off as a parable. It was still quite unpleasant, and I would not recommend it to everyone for that reason. 

More: Like The Master, the movie is not fun-to-watch, and it is  way more fun to talk about later. 

Even More:  One reviewer, Moses Ma, said "just as pi is a mathematical construct that can never be fully comprehended, The Life of Pi is essentially unfathomable… as is the battle between religion, science and spirituality." The following link has another good blog post on the symbolism. 

Lincoln

Plot: Lincoln starts during 1865 near the end of the war. Lincoln (Daniel Day Lewis)  has just been reelected, and the lame duck congress is in session. Lincoln is contemplating the end of the war, and wants to push for the 13th amendment, which ends slavery. The main story is the legislative wrangling that ensues in the deadlocked House of Representatives -- it is simultaneously just-like-today and so much worse. The side plots illustrate Lincoln has husband, father, and commander-in-chief. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Daniel Day Lewis inhabits Abraham Lincoln bringing him to life in the midst of the Civil War. The war & slavery put emotional energy into speeches and arguments. This Lincoln seems to be true to his historical self -- although I have no way of testing that. 

The supporting cast was up to the task, especially David Strathaim as Secretary of State Steward, and Tommy Lee Jones as Rep. Stevens. 

Most of the visuals are historical scenes, where I was always thinking how small all the furniture was and how uncomfortable life was compared to today. There is a hospital visit scene that is memorable for its gross-out effect, and a battlefield scene that had massive carnage.

Lincoln tells a story about the past, but at the same time it is about people and failings today. It is about deadlock in Washington in 1865 and in 2012. It is about racial divides  both then and now. It is about gender inequality between Mary/Molly Lincoln (Sally Field,) Rep. Steven's housekeeper, and during the debate in the House. It is also about war and peace.

Even though, it is only moderately fun-to-watch, I liked it because of its thoughtfulness and heft.

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook. Tommy Lee Jones

Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Rating: 4.0 stars: The superb acting coupled with a substantive topic make this a top film. 

 

More: This film is all about the end of slavery, but one speech foreshadows the suffragette movement that begins right after the Civil War. 

Even more: Another boring, emotionless soundtrack from the over-the-hill composer John Williams. He needs to retire.

Skyfall

Plot: Patrice steals a list of all Nato's secret agents and their cover identities, and Bond (Daniel Craig) is in hot pursuit in Turkey. During the chase, he gets shot by another agent, Eve, (Naomie Harris) and declared dead. The theft's mastermind, Silva, (Javier Bardem) is obsessed with getting revenge on M.  Silva hacks into the computers at MI6, and creates a gas explosion. Soon M is under pressure from politicians, and soon she become a decoy in a trap to capture Silva. [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Skyfall has some great parts. The opening scene in Turkey is a great chase scene with a lot of variety. I liked the bitterness that Bond develops when he is double-crossed, and how the Silva, the villain, plays on it to question Bond's loyalty. (See more on the moral dilemma in the Super Giant Spoiler section below.)  It was smart to give Judy Dench's M a large part and let her act, since she is so good at being tough while being thoughtful. 

This is a darker Bond with few jokes, not very much womanizing, and socializing with the wealthy. The jokes that there are about gadgets from older Bond movies.

Like newer spy movies, the villain is corrupt spy, rather than a business man or a government.  Silva is a British Jason Bourne striking back at his spy masters, specifically M. 

The sniper sequence in Shanghai was a highlight with black silhouettes and blue lights -- very  cool. I don't know why the giant blue jelly fish were swimming outside, but I liked them. 

As the movie goes on Javier Bardem's Silva gets more of the spot light, and the movie becomes uneven. Bardem is best when he is the crazy hacker who someone thinks of M as a mother figure. He is weakest when he running around London and Scotland with a gang of thugs. The gun play and fist fighting are only average.

The music is very good, and the photography is excellent. The scenes of the house in Scotland are tops.

Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Naome Harris

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Rating:  3.0 stars: a better than average movie that does not contend for greatness. Fun to watch and a little bit thoughtful.

More: We actually get to see what Skyfall is, although it is hard to understand why someone would call it "Skyfall."

Super Giant Spoiler [Seriously don't read this.] At the beginning M orders Eve to shoot Patrice on the train even though Bond will also be shot.  Later M justifies this with a Utilitarian argument that many agents are being saved from death, even if Bond has to die. The moral Good being the case where the fewest people die. However at the end of the movie, Silva, offers a double suicide to M. That is she can shoot Silva and herself both together -- the same utilitarian morality applies, but M can't shoot. Bond saves the day, but M's moral authority is diminished, and she dies of her wounds in true cinematic justice.  

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