Film Chatting

This has not been quite the restful week I was hoping for. Plus, I can't shake the feeling something's going on at my apartment. Something involving cute little animals, flying castles, and mass destruction. Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing. . .

On the positive side, this 4th of July did see my introduction to the concept of the "sparkler bomb", a creation capable of creating a shockwave strong enough to make Alex' beer fountain out of the can from 30 meters away. It's not pretty, but the power on display was very uplifting after what had been a mostly depressing day until then. Anyway, movies I watched this week, go!

Enemy at the Gates - I've wanted to see this for awhile and my father just happens to own it, so that works out well. I think I find snipers interesting because of their stealth*, and their patience, both of which I'd like to have a greater supply of (Between this and the sparkler bomb, I'm probably sending up some red flags on government watch lists. Darn). Plus, I enjoy Ed Harris' work. He's understated, but effective. I admit, i was not aware of the Soviet's extensive use of women as frontline soldiers, but it doesn't entirely surprise me. Their population was one of the Soviet Union's advantages**. Dad told me the movie is significantly different from the book it's based on, which didn't surprise me. He said the romance was less prominent, and I expect the book was somewhat bleaker. Overall, it was a good movie, and I enjoyed the cat and mouse between Vassily and Major Koenig, the difference in their preparations, accomodations, the people who are important to them. I'm curious what meaning there is between Koenig being an old solider who had already lost a son in this conflict, and Vassily being the young man who is in love. I also wonder whether Koenig ever suffered under the pressure of expectations the way Vassily did. Vassily didn't feel he could live up to the image the national papers put forth of him, Koenig really only seems shaken when he decides he has to deal with the kid. Maybe Germany didn't make as big a deal over Koenig's skills, as the Soviet's did over Vasilly. Also, what happened to the letter Danilov was drafting claiming Vassily lacked true faith in the state? I don't recall his destroying it, did he just never get around to sending it off? Because if he had, I think vassily wouldn't have been involved in the fighting for as long as we're told he is. Anyway, pretty good film. Not great.

Assault on a Queen - Sinatra as a former sub man turned charter fisherman, who agrees to suit up once more for a trio searching for a Spanish galleon full of gold. Things abruptly shift when he isntead finds a basically undamaged German U-boat. Seriously, I mean an abrupt shift. He mentions what he found, says it doesn't show any sign of hull breach, and one of the three, who just happened to work on U-boats during the war says, "If we could raise it, and get it running, why not be pirates?" It's that out of the blue. Can get whiplash from those plot shifts. So they raise the sub, and with a crew of six plot to rob an ocean liner. Except there's all sorts of conflicts. Sinatra falls for Rosa, the fairly well off Italian lady financing the whole thing (Virna Lisi***), but she's in a relationship with Vic, so he and Sinatra keep butting heads because she won't choose. Vic's a racist, and Sinatra has an African American friend who served with England's armed forces (or was he African-English? He has an English accent at any rate), so obvious friction. The German is more unhinged the longer they spend in the U-boat (as my dad said, he had to dodge a few too many depth charges), and brings on a mechanic who's pretty amoral. Anyway, everything goes to hell, and maybe they learn a valuable lesson about piracy. I don't know. It was a little like a Silver Age DC comic: Weird plot twists and things that shouldn't be coming left and right.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse - Alex wanted me to watch it, and I dig women who kick ass, so why not, right? Except the movie just about lsot me at the beginning when it tries to suggest the virus that turns people into zombies somehow is killing the entire planet, causing lakes and rivers to dry up. Yeah, that was a bit much. Still, there was lots of shooting and stabbing of zombies, and that can be fun, provided I don't see too much of it in a short time span. Fortunately, it's been awhile since I watched a movie with any of that. Lucky me. At the end, I wasn't particularly surprised Alice was seemingly more intent on killing all the bad guys than on getting around to making that cure that only she can help create, but I was a little disappointed. Plus, I wonder what the group that escaped in the heli were going to do once it ran out fuel, as I really doubt it could take them to the potentially isolated town in Alaska. Actually, I want to know what happened if they reached the town. If it was actually infection free, had the people gone a little nuts? Fearful of outsiders, that sort of thing?

Hancock - Alex had already seen this, so it wasn't that big a loss that he slept through almost the entire movie. Kind of like I figured, I enjoyed the movie more early on, when they play Hancock up as a sloppy hero, not particularly concerned with how he gets things done, and seemingly unconcerned with how people react to him. Once he put on the outfit I enjoyed it a little less, but it didn't get as serious as I feared, since you still have the moments where he reminds himself to tell the cops "Good job", and explains to a wounded cop that he's going to pick her up, but it's not a sexual thing, so please don't be angry. That was probably the key, it didn't get really serious when I thought it would. As to the reveal of who and what Hancock is, and his connection to Mary (Charlize Theron), who, as Ebert noted, won't stop staring intently at him, it was OK. The problem is, th drawback of their situation is portrayed inconsistently, as he seems more resistant to damage at times when he should be less so. If a revolver bullet can penetrate his skin, then a whole tank full of flammable gas exploding in his face at the final battle probably should have scarred him more. Also, I think they should have shown off the scars he has earlier, so we're wondering how this invulnerable guy got scars.

I like Jason Bateman as Ray, the P.R. Guy. I think he clearly sees how helping Hancock's image will help him, but I can also see how he really doesn want to help this guy who saved his life, which is nice. And certain revelations throw him for a loop for awhile, but he rebounds nicely. I will say I'm not sure why Hancock is the one meant to be the hero, when the other one says they're stronger, but I suppose it's something about it not being about how powerful you are, but the decisions you make. I actually think the idea that interested me the most is when Hancock is telling Ray and Mary what he knows about himself, and he wonders what sort of a bastard he must be that whe he was injured in the hospital, with no idea who he was, nobody showed up to claim him? I don't agree with his feeling that he must have been a bastard for that to happen, but it's interesting to see that's what he thinks he must have been like, and to consider his actions in light of that. Does he view the hero thing as atonement for past misdeeds he doesn't remember, or does he view it as some struggle against the person he perceives himself to be? I think I wound up enjoying this more than I thought I would, probably because I didn't hate the latter half like I feared would happen.

Silent Hill - I didn't see a lot of good reviews of the movie (except from Alex, and I usually consider his taste suspect), but Silent Hill 2 was such an atmospheric game, I thought this had the potential to at least be really awesome from a cinematography aspect, what they could with shadows, lighting, music, in terms of building suspense. It sort of works at that. I think it might have worked better for me if I'd played the original Silent Hill (or if the movie was based on Silent Hill 2). From what little I know about the game, I'm curious why the chose to make the mom the one taking Sharon to the town, isntead of the father (who does it in the game). Plus, I'm not used to seeing the dramatic change between, oh, call them the "day" and "night" sides of Silent Hill actually happen. In SH 2, James is unconscious, and when he wakes up, everything has changed. I did like that the movie sort of lets us see how the two sides overlap, how a series of fences at day, becomes a series of almost cages at night. And the Silent Hill most people see, versus the Silent Hill the most important members of the cast see was kind of neat, though it didn't really appear that Christopher needed to be wearing that mask.

So the movie was kind of creepy, and I had a definite sense of "When's something going to jump out at them?", and some of monsters came out looking beautiful. Well not beautiful, more hideous, but that's what they were supposed to look like, so the people in charge of that succeeded beautifully. However, the movie came to a grinding halt for me the last-third or so, when the exposition just went over board. Here's the history of the town, and this child that looks just like yours, and here's the deal with that weird lady, and here's what you have to do, and on and on and on. Here's the thing: I don't mind being conufsed by a movie (or a comic, or whatever), because at least it can create a nice discussion on interpretation or whatever, and it can be a nice reason to rewatch a film. For example, I didn't totally understand the scene at the end of the movie at first glance, but the more I though about the more I began to get some idea of what they were driving at. I'm surprised at how calm Rose and Sarah seem to be taking things, since I figure it would eventually dawn on them something was wrong, but I suppose that's a point for debate. But all the explanation had me constantly checking my watch and wondering, how much longer? Also, I was sad one of the characters died (or re-died, perhaps?) The whole thing didn't really involve her, but she had decided to take a stand and it seems like the people who aren't as personally invested in what's happeneing get killed first, which hardly seems proper. I know, proper doesn't really have any place in Silent Hill, but that depressed me far more than another moment in the film.

Charlie Bartlett - I didn't pick this, but wound up enjoying it. I expected at the beginning that Charlie was going to be yet another Ferris Bueller: the guy who does what he wants, and drags along other people, for both good and ill. While that can be amusing, it can also be a tad annoying speaking as someone who's closer to Cameron (with Alex playing the role of Ferris) in personality. I'll leave you to draw what conclusions from that statement you with. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I found Charlie a likeable character, who really wanted to help people, even if it was a bit self-serving (in his desire to be popular). I wasn't sure how to read Charlie unknowingly riding the "short bus" to school once he starts. Was he just unfamiliar with the concept, having spent apparently quite some time in private schools? Or was it just that Charlie's used to seeing people who have certain issues, and so the other students on the bus didn't strike him as being any different than say, his mother? Just more people who have problems in their lives? He seems to alter his clothing style to suit occasions, at least when he's making a sales pitch. When he offers the school bully a chance to go into the drug business, he's wearing big sunglasses, and has his coat draped over his shoulders in a way that makes me think of Johnny Depp in Once Upon A Time In Mexico****. When he makes a pitch for a play to the principal, he's wearing sporty looking orange sunglasses, that scream movie deal broker guy. Or a high schooler's notion of that.

Robert Downey Jr. was pretty enjoyable as Principal Gardner. He reminds me a bit of Principal Vernon from the Breakfast Club, except I don't think the years have soured him on kids quite as much as Vernon. Gardner still cares about kids, which may be why they don't respect him (pure conjecture)? They sense concern for them, and so don't take his attempts to command authority seriously, because they recognize his heart isn't in it. His daughter Susan (Kat Dennings) is set up so she isn't the cliche kid that despises having a parent that works at her school. As someone who went to the high school his dad taught at, I appreciated that. She's not actively rebellious, she basically admits that she acts as though she dislikes him, just to buy her cred, and that may have been entirely tongue-in-cheek. There is a scene that deals with attempted suicide, and the aftermath of that, and I like that the movie didn't go the really easy route of having Charlie make a speech and now everything is OK. We don't actually know whether any of that character's issues have been lessened by the end of the film. There's hope. He looks a bit more stable, but long-term, who knows?

I wasn't entirely sold on the scene where Charlie has what might be considered his own breakthrough, because it seemed to come too easily. Then again, the students he talked with seemed to experience epiphanies fairly quickly, so maybe that's really how it works, when you have someone to talk to. It showed us something about Principal Gardner as well, giving him a positive moment, after some overreactive parenting, and some poor fortune. That was nice. I'd strongly recommend this one, more so than any of the other movies, for you to actually spend the money to rent. If it sounds like your kind of movie. I wound up liking it better than Juno, probably because I didn't hear as many people screaming about how outstandingly brilliant this film was. That kind of stuff always raises expectations too high, you know?

* Though I've been told I'm pretty good at slipping away unnoticed, and returning the same way, so maybe I have antural gift for it. But I can't sit perfectly still for extended periods of time, so I'm certainly not stealthy in that sense.

** That, the winters, and the sheer size of their country, so they could move their industrial production far enough into Siberia the German bombers couldn't reach it. The Germans never really had a good heavy bomber during the war, expect the FW 200 Condor, and they only made a few hundred of those, and concentrated them on destroying shipping. Probably a good thing, where the Allies were concerned.

*** She really reminded me of Ilsa from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, maybe because of her hair. I hope it wasn't the accents, since Ilsa was Austrian, and Rosa is supposed to be Italian. Funny the hair would remind me, since the movies were made 20 years apart, and set closer to 25 years apart.

**** Or maybe he was channeling Depp in Blow. I haven't watched that, so I couldn't say.