I know it's been a while since I've posted one of
my reviews. I had heard a lot of good things about this one, so I gave it a
gander. It's a pretty simple storyline. The scenery and sets, were probably
quite inexpensive to execute being that (staying accurate with that time period)
the life and lodgings of an oil prospector in the late 1980's and early 1900's
were pretty low key and simplistic. Although there was some hoopla and about
the cinematography and screenplay (???) I knew the acting would definitely be a
key point for such a simple dish. There in lies Daniel
Day-Lewis. Daniel's acting is unquestionably worthy of his reputation.
His facial expressions and eye movements are flawless. I truly think if he were
in a stadium of people who hated him, and guns were pointed at him, he would
still be able to act out a scene in front of cameras, with varied emotions, and
not show a sign of anybody being around him except the other characters for
which he was interacting with. The only draw back to his character for this
movie was, Daniel's choice of character voice. Trying to create a seriously
stern, calm and hard voice, he came out with a voice that seemed "too" stoic and
wise. To the extent that is sounded like a voice over for a wizard in an
animation. I, being quite adept in voice impersonations a character voice overs,
had Anita in stitches doing my Daniel Plainview (Lewis' character) impersonation
during our viewing. The characters Paul, and
Eli Sunday were cast by Paul Dano which I had remembered from
other roles such as Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine. His
character was absolutely disturbing to the point of skin crawling discomfort.
Which fitted his character's personality perfect. But, the clincher for this
whole motion picture was not the scenery, storyline or thespian performance, but
solely credited to the film score by Jonny Greenwood. The
peaks and tranquil moments were applaudable. At points, the music (accompanying
the movie of course) raised your tension and heart rate. I have not been
physically affected by a soundtrack composition, since the centrifugal force of
John Corigliano. So leniently, I will give There
Will Be Blood3 swords out of a possible 5
Yes, I am finally prepared to give my
review of Beowulf. It should be pretty short an sweet. (which is pretty much my
summary of the movie) It is just a short tale of a Hero of Geats derived from
the ancient poem, and tells of some of the foes he had faced. The film was
played out in a comic book style (fast dashing feats by the cartoonesk
characters with undying bravado, to the varying view point angles and intense
shadings). Which is to be expected with the screenplay being written by Neil
Gaiman (comic book novelist), and for me, that made it more enjoyable. The CGI
was crisp, and the characters were entertaining. There were no parts that were
monumental, that left me like "Holy crap, that was outrageous!" But in
retrospect, Nothing turned me off, Accept maybe how Angelina Jolie's seemed to
be wearing stilettos, which were obviously not indicative to that time period.
I would have liked to have seen the 3D version of this film, I'm sure that would have intensified it a bit. But all in all, I enjoyed it. Again not an edge of your seat action movie, but
an enjoyable representation of the ancient Beowulf poem. I give Beowulf
3 swords out of a possible 5
Ahhh, The Beatles. Let me just say in opening:
the Beatles (as for many of us) had played a large role in my brother's and my life. As a matter of fact,we were part
of the band. Yes, at only four feet high, me and my sibling would stand
cogently, singing loudly many a song into our miniature pool table sticks,
rather from the entire record albums, or from our collection of heavily
scratched Apple Record 45 singles. Yes, we were stars! So needless to say,
Though I had not gone to the theater to see it, I still waited in eager
anticipation to see this brilliant concept of a musical, and tribute to the songs of The
Beatles called Across the Universe. The movies virtues were as follows:
Interesting story concept (although a bit melodramatic). It's cinematography was
well orchestrated and executed, and lots of delicious imagery, eye candy, and
trippy scenes. However: I think the movie relied heavily on our emotional
attachment to these wondrous songs. Which at times did work: At points in the
movie I did get goose bumps. But was it from the movie? Or just from the strong
feelings I have for the songs. I would love to hear comments from non-Beatle
fans on this movie to help clarify that, by removing any bias or influential
favoritism that a Beatle fan would be subjected to. The young (mainly amateur)
actors made the movie young and amateur. I feel a movie of such bold
convictions, represented by such sacred compositions should have been delivered
to us by only the highest ranks of our thespian community. Like the Who's movie
Tommy, with such stars as Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Oliver Reed, Ann Margret
and of course Roger Daltrey himself made more of an impact than say a cast of college graduates would have. Though some of the song renditions were unique, and
had enjoyable twists, most were butchered to a point of resembling Rosanne
Barr's infamous version of our National Anthem. . There were parts that I really
thought were good, like the Strawberry fields scene, and truthfully, I
loved watching the psychedelic displays during the rolling credits at the end of
the film. Also its depiction of the 1960's time frame was pretty credible.
However for me, it just fell short of hitting the mark. Director Julie Taymor
seemed to tried so hard to create an emotional wave out of as many Beatle puzzle
pieces she could put together, but instead ended up with just a bunch of
different flavored crumbs on the bottom of a bag of Party Mix. Sure you might
find a whole cheese doodle or two here and there, but nothing worth a second
viewing. I give Across the Universe 2 swords out of a possible
5
Most of you (or at least my
friends) know that I review movies on my blog post a lot. I have a 5 sword rating system, but I feel some of you do not know
exactly how that translates. Being that 5 swords would actually be 20% each sword, which is a large jump say between
3 swords being positive, and 2 swords being
negative. So, I have made a little chart to translate what my sword
method means. Which combined with the review, should provide you with a gist of
my actual opinion. I do tend to give extra points to movies that have a lot of
eye candy, or good cinematography, or that are bizarre or trippy. Yes, that
means I like Indies movies more than most main streams, that dictate to who and
at what point a person is going to experience sadness, happiness, etc. via the
orchestral climatic tear jerking moment. the silly character thrown in just
incase you brought the kids with you, or the hundred or more nauseating factors
of Main stream Hollywood Movies. That said, this is my sword chart, which will
be available from this moment on in my "Movies" section of my Profile column. I
love objectivity, so please post comments on my reviews. That's the fun of being
humans, we all have different views. ( :
Tuesday, February 19, 2008, 03:31 PM [Movie Reviews]
I really don't know how I miss these movies
when they come out, but for all whom don't know the movie MirrorMask, it is a
genuine gem.
It's writer's are Dave McKean whom I myself
am not too familiar with, and Neil Gaiman, who's writing and producing has
started to blossom in such current productions such as Beowulf and the cinematic
version of his novel Stardust. But where he made his first impression on me was
his comic series The Sandman which ran from 1989 to 1996. These writers paired
up with the Jim Henson Company and created MirrorMask. It is a combination of
live action and CGI animation. As you know I'm not much for telling too much of
the story (I love when you're as surprised as me) but it involves a
Avant-garde circus similar to Cirque du Soleil, and a dreamesque world that
reminds me a lot of Madeliene L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. Which a movie attempt
was made of a couple years back but lacked the dark bizarre mood that A Wrinkle
in Time invokes as literary work. (I always hoped Burton would give that one a
go). Anyhow, MirrorMask had that dark spacey feel, and I would say it had some
influence from the movie Legend as well (Again I won't tell how, but you'll see
parts in this movie that are very similar to parts in Legend). The main
character is portrayed by a charming young actress named Stephanie Leonidas,
whose acting may still need a couple of tweaks, but she makes up for it with her
charisma. The CGI, special effects, characters and the dark bizarre color pallet
used by it's creators definitely plunges you into spellbinding landscape. I
enjoyed it, I wished it were a bit longer in duration, but I have decided to
add it to my personal library. I give MirrorMask ( If not for all of the
above reasons, then at least for it's trippiness and eye candy ) 4
swords out of 5
