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Source Code (2011)
4/10
Promoted similarly as 'Inception', I had to check out 'Source Code'. The story is simple: Jake Gyllenhaal has to relive a bombing on a train through the body of a passenger over and over again in order to figure out who's responsible for the bombing.
There are a lot of problems with this movie; The train where the movie takes place for 70 % of the time looks like a movie set. I dare you to find a train where the top floor has an opening where the walking path would be, only so that the bottom floor can see the passengers on the top floor, making for a nice visual gag but doing this means you only get half as many seats on the top floor (!) I'm digressing here but really. Also, I dare you to find a train that clean. Really.
The movie barrows from "Twelve Monkeys" the most but it doesn't respect it's own set of sci-fi rules. It violates them so blatantly, especially during the ending which ends on a happy note, but in reality Jake Gyllenhaal just took over somebody's body and what happened to that guy? Is he dead? Lost forever in sci fi limbo? And is Jake running off with his girlfriend? Hello?.
My beef was the following:
I liked the idea of the film and even if was unclear about it being alternate universe, time travel, simulation, or a combination of all there, I still went with it...until the end.
It is placed early on that because of the orb in Chicago that it is almost Colter's destiny to stop the bomber and be standing at that final spot and it seemed as the film gives the hero this ending because once the plug is pulled and everything is freeze framed, it is and could be all in Colter's head or his "waking life."
But then we get that ending in the real world and Colter back in the box and it really ruined all of it for me.
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Posted: |
Jul 26, 2012 - 4:22 PM
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By: |
TominAtl
(Member)
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Devil (2010)
8/10
I generally don't like slick high production conventional horror movies*, but I have to say that "Devil" surprised me quite favorably. I had heard mostly how people disliked it, but it held me entertained; not only the who-dunnit aspect, or better, 'who-dun-be-that-here-devil-in-disguise' and even that was done pretty effective. I liked the way the movie cuts between the elevator and the going on's in the building. The menacing outside shots, the 180 angles. And the cast of largely unknown actors (to me at least) do a good job here. I even liked the ending, which had a twilight zone'ish resolution to it. I didn't bother looking up which episode of TZ Shamma'hammalan ripped off for this movie, but suffice to say I liked it!
*I just read that it only cost 10 million bucks to make, pretty impressive.
OH I too touted this film when it was first released!! A very good thriller and a nifty WHO'S DOING IT?? And I got the limited release score from Varese as well. I LOVE the main title music. Big, thrilling and sinister.
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Posted: |
Jul 28, 2012 - 1:03 AM
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By: |
Francis
(Member)
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The Dark Knight Rises 2012
4/10
I had good memories of 'The Dark Knight' and watching 'its' sequel last night, it became clear very fast that I had liked Heath Ledger's Joker; This Batman franchise to me never hit home, with its batman more than ever a guy in a suit with a bad accent. Christian Bale has zero charisma and likability to me as Bruce Wayne and again he feels like the fifth wheel in this movie, with the 'inception' cast and Oldman taking up much of the movie.
I still can't buy into the Batman's lame voice. It never worked and it's laughable each time he appears. And though I thought this couldn't be topped, they introduce 'Bane', one of the IMO lesser villains, who seems to be competing for the worst voice contest. Played by yes, mr. Shinzon himself, Tom Hardy, with only his eyes on display as his mouth is covered with a weird apparatus, I wondered if Inception team mate Joseph Gordon Levitt whispered in his ear "Don't pull a Cobra Commander".
Anne Hathaway is cute as the Catwoman, but she isn't Michelle Pfeiffer. I also didn't get her origin story or motivation in this movie, nor did I get Batman's justification of her actions. I guess he has a crush on her?
Once again, New York city is in grave danger (I had hoped to see Gotham city at least one in the franchise), being overthrown by the fascist Bane who leads the occupy Wall street movement, leaving poor Batman without a dime and instead of killing him off, throwing him down a pit into the most cozy prison spa I've seen compared to the tales they made it out to be. Will he regain his strength and escape? Who even cares at this point. I wish Gordon put on the Batman suit (or even Gorden Levitt) and proved that every man can be Batman, leaving Bruce Wayne down that pit. Wayne seems to spend most of the time sobbing and whining in this movie over his lost love, which is what you want to see in a Batman movie really!
Is it mostly all bad? Yes. The action sequences feel more than ever redundant and staged (there is a fight between Batman and Bane in front of Town Hall where the extra's seem to be making out rather than fighting), the new Bat toy, a clunky hoovercraft, is not nearly as cool as the bike was in the previous movie and the action sequences feel so staged and on set, taking place mostly in that one street in the Warner lot that goes down for New York wide lane we've seen used over and over again in the franchise. Seriously I shouldn't be noticing these things in a blockbuster movie!
The score by Zimmer is again a lot of percussion repeating endlessly with some padding and throbbing, a stinger here and there and the blownout brass notes that make the theme... nothing new and thankfully less intrusive than his Inception score. The catwoman theme was cute the first time it played, but worn out the twelfth time it played.
This is a three hour movie that again to me could've easily been cut down to two. Dump the meaningless dialogue scenes that go on forever, dump the gazillion characters I don't care about, including Batman (seriously I wouldn't have noticed)! I'll end with saying that even the twist at the end has been done in at least three movies I could think of, not helping anything.
Oh, and for a movie that's suppose to end the trilogy, I guess they meant Nolan won't be returning.
A letdown finale for me!
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Posted: |
Jul 28, 2012 - 2:51 AM
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By: |
Michael24
(Member)
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The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - 4/5
(Review copied from my blog)
To say I was not a fan of director Christopher Nolan's previous Batman movies would be an understatement. His approach in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight was to abandon any notion of being a comic book movie and instead ground it in the real world, forsaking fantasy for reality to the point that we didn't even get a Batmobile called the Batmobile. It came off feeling like he was much more interested in making character study/social dramas instead of "Batman movies." I simply didn't care for this particular direction, so despite elements that looked appealing to me, it was with some reservation that I decided to see the third and final film in the series on opening day. And maybe it was because I went in with rather low expectations that I walked out of The Dark Knight Rises pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. In many ways, this is the most comic book-feeling of the three movies. And at 165 minutes it's almost fifteen minutes longer than The Dark Knight, but whereas that film dragged slowly this feels closer to two hours. I was really surprised by just how swiftly it moved. I never found myself glancing at my watch or waiting impatiently for it to move forward.
Elements of the film are taken from "Knightfall," a storyline that occupied the Batman comics in the early-90s and also introduced the villain Bane to the Batman mythos. In order to defeat him, Bruce Wayne must be broken -- figuratively and literally -- and fall to the lowest depths of hell in order to rebuild his spirit and will to save Gotham City. Wayne is no longer the young man he once was. His hair is graying, he walks with a limp, and he's withdrawn himself from the outside world. Bale's performance is subdued and his best in the series, and while he still can't quite get Batman's voice right, it's least-annoying here. But the scene stealer for me is Tom Hardy's Bane. The film does an excellent job showing Bane as the superior villain he is, a physically overpowering and destructive force of nature, brilliant in his strategy and tactics. Many will no doubt compare him (unfavorably) to Heath Ledger's Joker but the two are completely different characters, and I personally find Bane much easier to watch. With most of Hardy's face hidden behind a mask, he conveys Bane's menace through the emotion in his eyes, body language, and voice. He is one of my favorite Batman villains, and I really enjoyed watching him come to life in a movie so fantastically. To me, the highlight of the film is Batman's first encounter with Bane. It's a knockdown drag-out fight, bone-crunching in its brutality. It was probably shocking for those unfamiliar with the character to see him so easily hand it to Batman, who normally has no trouble in fights, but it shows how physically superior Bane is. Having loved the "Knightfall" story when I was a kid, it was honestly just a big thrill for me to see that fight translated to the big screen. And yes, we do get the famous breaking of the bat, albeit in a not quite as powerful way.
There was a negative reaction last year to the casting of Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle. She's breathtaking in her beauty and looks uh-may-zing in tight leather, but the script never develops her as anything much more than a plot device. She does a good job with what she has, just never gets to really shine. Still, I'd probably rank her as the third best film version of Catwoman after Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns and Lee Merriweather in 1966's Batman. Rounding out the new characters are beautiful French actress Marion Cotillard as Miranda Tate, a wealthy philanthropist whom Wayne turns to in an effort to save Wayne Enterprises, and John Blake, a young cop who still believes in Batman, well-played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. His backstory echoes Wayne's in that he was also an orphan as a child. Gary Oldman is once again great as Commissioner Gordon, especially once he gets out of the hospital after a long stretch and is able to have a bigger part in the story. Morgan Freeman returns as the series' resident Q, providing Wayne with his equipment and snappy back and forth exchanges that, quite frankly, have grown tiresome by now. Michael Caine is really terrific as well. I found his presence in the previous films distracting because I could only see him as Michael Caine, but here I felt he finally became Alfred. Ironically, he has little screen time and disappears entirely for much of the second half of the film.
The film is far from perfect. For starters, the notion that Bruce Wayne would hang up the cape and cowl because of Rachel Dawes' death is completely out-of-character. If anything, the loss of her would have only further fueled his desire to fight crime. Alfred basically abandoning him is also unlikely. Alfred is the man who is always there to help him back up whenever he falls. It's in his nature to remain loyal to Bruce Wayne to the end, and neither are the kind to let a little tiff come between them. We all know the villains in these movies ultimately meet their end, and for as awesome and seemingly-indestructible as Bane was I felt he went out in a really ludicrous way. It was almost as if the filmmakers didn't want to bother with him anymore as they approached the climax of the film and decided just to do him in as quick as possible. He deserved a much grander end befitting of his larger-than-life persona. A last-minute (literally) revelation about one of the new characters feels arbitrary and forced, and the actual end of the film borders on lame. I didn't like it at all, and it doesn't help that it's telegraphed almost from the start. As usual, Hans Zimmer's score drones along and adds nothing. I really miss the music of Danny Elfman from Tim Burton's Batman movies, which lent such a strong musical identity to the Caped Crusader. But in the grand scheme of things, those complaints are minor because they ultimately don't really damper my enjoyment.
Visually, the film is almost colorful compared to the previous movies, and the snowfall in the film's third act adds good atmosphere. The action is nothing special, but it's technically well-staged and fun. Even if she's never called by her famous moniker, I had a fanboy smile on my face as I watched Catwoman and Batman team up for a rooftop fight with some thugs and then make their escape together as police arrived. It's capped by a nice moment where she vanishes on him during a conversation, giving him a taste of his own medicine. There's very little humor in the film at all, but it's the best laugh of the movie and Bale's punchline is well-done. The fights between Batman and Bane are great, although their final encounter is a bit on the anti-climactic side, especially thanks to Bane's too-quick send off. It's not as intimate as Batman Begins, but thankfully it's not as pretentious or showy as The Dark Knight. It really feels like Nolan finally decided to just embrace the material's roots and make a big, fast, fun popcorn flick to make up for us having to slog through the previous film.
With its style and tone, it feels more like a direct continuation of Batman Begins. It makes me wish this had been the second film, because it actually left me wanting more. It's not a masterpiece, but it's a surprisingly solid movie, and it's the only one of these Christopher Nolan Batman films I can see myself wanting to watch again. It's grand in scale and moves much better than its predecessor, and it provides a big final bang in the battle for Gotham City. With The Dark Knight having been raised upon a pedestal so high by fans, many will only be able to see this film as one that fails to live up, even though it's sure to still make a gazillion dollars. But for me, even with its (admittedly minor) flaws, it's a superior film and some of the most fun I've had at the movies this year.
(Wow! Without broken up by pictures as on my blog, I hadn't realized just what a big-ass review that was. LOL!)
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I like to read other views from board members about TDKR. 
