SHERLOCK HOLMES (starring Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, etc).
The first scene of this movie show how Sherlock Holmes approaches bare-knuckle boxing—like a chess match, only much faster and much more painful for his opponent. That doesn’t change in the movie, except the odds, and the consequences of failure, are much higher.
This is a brilliant action flick of Holmes & Watson, with actual female characters who have character. Both Mary Marston and Irene Adler add to the action, as well as assuring the audience that the bromance only goes so far. Note—Holmes spots a constant two-day bristle. Not only does this show that he’s much too distracted by his little gray cells to shave, but resonates with all the Gregory House fans out there.
Most of you should know the plot already—a mystic lodge of magical gentlemen who end up supporting an evil leader in a plan to take over the British Empire by striking directly at the top. (Well, almost; you wouldn’t know Victoria was Queen by this movie, to be honest). Since the title of the movie is not “How Our Beloved Overlord Gained Power” I think you can figure out how well this plot actually works.
Neat bits—the really big guy who spoke French, the makeshift Taser (when Victorian Technology Attacks), and being shown the clues that Holmes followed instead of just taking them on faith. I also like the MacGyver bit with the fireplace. Downey was marvelous, and truer to the written canon than many other film adaptations. He shows Holmes needing physical violence to exorcise boredom, and what happens to him when he can’t. Jude Law is equally engaging as Dr. Watson--we’re shown why he continues to be his friend’s enabler as he can’t pass a dice game without jingling the change in his pockets. Clearly, being around Holmes supplies necessary excitement in his life (beyond that allowed any doctor in London who ends up playing Twenty Microbes, of course). Watson also keeps Holmes from exploding with his own brilliance, and the great detective clearly realizes that, even as he grumbles over it. Mary Marston, though allowed little screen time, is not the unseen doormat she pretty much is in the canon. Rachel McAdams is seductive, resourceful, and willing to take on physical risks herself, though naturally reacts badly to almost being sliced in half.
One plot hole that I noticed involved Mycroft Holmes. His presence is mentioned (as in they could stay and rest up on Mycroft Holmes’ estate). However, given his canon position in the government of Great Britain, I am surprised that a plot that threatened the entire nation did not bring him onto the scene in any degree. Wouldn’t any intelligent villain have eliminated him first?
Now, I know I’m getting old, but I heard almost all of the dialogue in Avatar and Invictus just fine. However, the background noise in this film was so intrusive that I missed a lot of what was being said, and my husband missed more. Maybe movie sets ought to have a Designated Old Person to complain if the dialogue is lost in the sound mix. There’s no point writing brilliant repartee and quips if not everyone can hear it.
There is an obvious sequel set up at the end (Ms. Adler should really have been much more careful in her choice of employers) and I look forward to it.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
INVICTUS
INVICTUS
It’s a poem by William Ernest Henley, and a really good movie. The film has few special effects, while its heart hangs on the script and performances by its actors, especially Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. At the very beginning, we are shown how South Africa is split apart from seeing the lush rugby field starring the muscular white players with good uniforms, right next to a dirt field with thin black soccer players in rags.
It’s clear that Nelson Mandela wants to integrate the white Afrikaner tribe into his vision of South Africa as a living, prosperous nation, without the bloodbath that characterized the transformation of Rhodesia into Zimbabwe. He starts this process from the very beginning of his accession to the presidency by keeping some of the old bodyguards from DeKlerk before him, much to the dismay of his own people. There is understandable resistance from the blacks, since many of them bled and died (and sometimes killed) to bring Mandela out of prison. However, that part is played down, save for a brief glance at the figure of Winnie Mandela in a newsreel clip. She is not mentioned by name and alluded to briefly only once, but it’s clear that not all blacks are behind Mandela’s attempt to build a country on forgiveness.
In the movie, of course, there is some disbelief on both sides that he really means it. Matt Damon is Francois Pienaar, the jock captain of the Springboks. At the beginning of the movie, they suck and they know it. Perhaps they’ve been pampered pets of the government for just a little too long.
However, Mandela’s enthusiasm and clear encouragement of the team slowly begins a great shift. Damon as Francois reflects the changes on the Afrikaner side, though no one single figure appears to do so on the black side. In fact, except for Mandela, the attitude of the whites is, as ever, far more important. Freeman in magnificent in his role, though, spending his health and strength to keep his beloved country from being overwhelmed with hate and blood. Matt Damon is also excellent. As an athlete, Francois shows his slow change towards understanding through his body. The scene where he stands, sits, and turns around in Mandela’s old prison cell literally needs no words.
The rugby games are well done (as far as someone like myself can tell), and realistically depicted (no doubt from actual game films). Commentary might have been helpful to those of us who aren’t sure why Matt Damon is kicking and how the team is scoring. I was interested to see that the old Statue of Liberty play in apparently legal in the game, while the strategy used to slow the Maori From Hell is probably the only one that will really work on someone with his size and ability.
If there is one flaw in the movie, it’s in the treatment of time. It makes sense that it would take five years (I think it did, anyway) to unify the country to any degree behind a largely white rugby team. The set of scenelets between the cops and the skinny black kid during the championship game is priceless, too. However, there is some blurring of dates that made me wonder exactly what was happening when. The World Cup 1995 flag certainly helped at the end, but I wish there had more of that through the movie.
I strongly recommend this movie. It’s quite low on special effects, but is so high in script and acting that it doesn’t need any. I love seeing Morgan Freeman in anything, and am glad he put together this film (he’s the main producer) with Eastwood’s directorial expertise. It was an unexpected pleasure to see Matt Damon reach so deeply into his role. There are no real female roles in this movie, save for the cheerful and concerned housemaid. It would have been interesting to see more of Winnie Mandela, as I am quite certain she was the center of black opposition to Afrikaner integration.
It’s still good, though. Don’t let it get lost in the shuffle of spectacular events at the theater.
It’s a poem by William Ernest Henley, and a really good movie. The film has few special effects, while its heart hangs on the script and performances by its actors, especially Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. At the very beginning, we are shown how South Africa is split apart from seeing the lush rugby field starring the muscular white players with good uniforms, right next to a dirt field with thin black soccer players in rags.
It’s clear that Nelson Mandela wants to integrate the white Afrikaner tribe into his vision of South Africa as a living, prosperous nation, without the bloodbath that characterized the transformation of Rhodesia into Zimbabwe. He starts this process from the very beginning of his accession to the presidency by keeping some of the old bodyguards from DeKlerk before him, much to the dismay of his own people. There is understandable resistance from the blacks, since many of them bled and died (and sometimes killed) to bring Mandela out of prison. However, that part is played down, save for a brief glance at the figure of Winnie Mandela in a newsreel clip. She is not mentioned by name and alluded to briefly only once, but it’s clear that not all blacks are behind Mandela’s attempt to build a country on forgiveness.
In the movie, of course, there is some disbelief on both sides that he really means it. Matt Damon is Francois Pienaar, the jock captain of the Springboks. At the beginning of the movie, they suck and they know it. Perhaps they’ve been pampered pets of the government for just a little too long.
However, Mandela’s enthusiasm and clear encouragement of the team slowly begins a great shift. Damon as Francois reflects the changes on the Afrikaner side, though no one single figure appears to do so on the black side. In fact, except for Mandela, the attitude of the whites is, as ever, far more important. Freeman in magnificent in his role, though, spending his health and strength to keep his beloved country from being overwhelmed with hate and blood. Matt Damon is also excellent. As an athlete, Francois shows his slow change towards understanding through his body. The scene where he stands, sits, and turns around in Mandela’s old prison cell literally needs no words.
The rugby games are well done (as far as someone like myself can tell), and realistically depicted (no doubt from actual game films). Commentary might have been helpful to those of us who aren’t sure why Matt Damon is kicking and how the team is scoring. I was interested to see that the old Statue of Liberty play in apparently legal in the game, while the strategy used to slow the Maori From Hell is probably the only one that will really work on someone with his size and ability.
If there is one flaw in the movie, it’s in the treatment of time. It makes sense that it would take five years (I think it did, anyway) to unify the country to any degree behind a largely white rugby team. The set of scenelets between the cops and the skinny black kid during the championship game is priceless, too. However, there is some blurring of dates that made me wonder exactly what was happening when. The World Cup 1995 flag certainly helped at the end, but I wish there had more of that through the movie.
I strongly recommend this movie. It’s quite low on special effects, but is so high in script and acting that it doesn’t need any. I love seeing Morgan Freeman in anything, and am glad he put together this film (he’s the main producer) with Eastwood’s directorial expertise. It was an unexpected pleasure to see Matt Damon reach so deeply into his role. There are no real female roles in this movie, save for the cheerful and concerned housemaid. It would have been interesting to see more of Winnie Mandela, as I am quite certain she was the center of black opposition to Afrikaner integration.
It’s still good, though. Don’t let it get lost in the shuffle of spectacular events at the theater.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Review: Avatar
AVATAR
This movie is absolutely one of the most gorgeous movies I have ever seen. If you are afraid of heights, do not see this in 3D. However, the actual plot and storyline is fairly predictable once things get going—noble natives, evil, earth-raping intruders, and a valuable natural resource (I really liked the use of the term Unobtanium). The failure to even try to hunt out another concentration of this stuff tells you all you need to know about the humans on this planet, though of course there are good ones who actually care about intelligent life and the science of the planet. The corporate representative is an escapee from The Office, who has clearly decided that being on another planet is simply an inconvenience and not to interfere with his putting game. Colonel Hard*ss seems like a decent guy for someone in the fully upright, locked position, and I have to admit I purely adored those powered suits. However, the contrast between the powered suits and the native life is drawn with a very heavy hand.
The Avatar program allows humans to interact with the natives without having to worry about the atmosphere and/or looking like total weenies (since humans are quite a bit smaller in actual size compared to the People—not as bad as in Battlefield Earth, but once humans are shown alongside natives, fairly clear). However, even though the bodies are hideously expensive and take a fairly long time to grow, nobody ever thought to microchip them in case someone gets lost in the woods. Um, yeah. Right.
Jake Scully is a disabled Marine who is the twin of a researcher for whom a body is grown. He’s thrown into the situation with very little training (although given that he arrived on the planet in cold-sleep, could have received a lot of training and instruction if he had been kept awake. But apparently nobody thought of that, either). However, he adapts quickly and well, since he is a disabled but alive Marine. The contrast between his wizened legs and the joy of the native body is also quite apparent. I am surprised they didn’t have trouble making him come out of his ‘coffin’, though later on they show how he is forced to eat and otherwise maintain his human body.
One other thing surprised me, and that’s the native life. All of the lower life, including up to a lemur-analog, have six limbs, and yet the humanoid level has only four. Yes, we all know it’s that way so human actors can play the characters with proper movement (most small countries could easily live off what was paid for CGI as it was), but it seems odd that the Scientist (played ably by Sigourney Weaver) didn’t even comment on it—there’s another element, called handwavium, that could have been offered up in this case.
Of course, once Jake Sully is allowed to be part of the native tribe (“And then a miracle occurred”), anyone who has seen A Man Called Horse can predict the movie for the next half hour or so (and this is a long movie, so there is room for it). Jake displays how to imitate Homer Simpson falling down a hill on several occasions, but his ability to take humiliation well (remember, he was in boot camp earlier in his life) seems to work out for him, as the natives clearly show how stupid they think he is.
Another thing that bothered me was that Jake was given three extra months to try to persuade the natives to move so that the miners can start going after the unobtainium, but it seems like he spends far more time courting Neytire. He’s not paying attention to his mission. He’s having much more fun learning how to use the nerve fibers at the end of his hair to tame strange wild beasts and commune with the earth and all that, and never says a word to anyone in the tribe about the Sky People wanting to mine their land for Valuable Concessions. And when he finally does the wild thing with Neytire, they don’t use their nerve fiber hair to commune with each other. What’s up with that?
The Huge Final Battle is reasonably well done—much better than say, the Ewoks vs. the Empire, though the different tech levels are pretty much that far apart. There are a lot of native casualties because of the higher technology of the humans, but the last minute miracles have pretty much been established as possible, so that was well done. The ending is what might have been if Native Americans had written the script for Inglourious Basterds, and yet Another Miracle Occurs as far as Jake Sully is concerned.
It’s still a great movie, and worth seeing (and it is really spiffy in 3D). Just don’t expect a lot of depth in the script writing.
This movie is absolutely one of the most gorgeous movies I have ever seen. If you are afraid of heights, do not see this in 3D. However, the actual plot and storyline is fairly predictable once things get going—noble natives, evil, earth-raping intruders, and a valuable natural resource (I really liked the use of the term Unobtanium). The failure to even try to hunt out another concentration of this stuff tells you all you need to know about the humans on this planet, though of course there are good ones who actually care about intelligent life and the science of the planet. The corporate representative is an escapee from The Office, who has clearly decided that being on another planet is simply an inconvenience and not to interfere with his putting game. Colonel Hard*ss seems like a decent guy for someone in the fully upright, locked position, and I have to admit I purely adored those powered suits. However, the contrast between the powered suits and the native life is drawn with a very heavy hand.
The Avatar program allows humans to interact with the natives without having to worry about the atmosphere and/or looking like total weenies (since humans are quite a bit smaller in actual size compared to the People—not as bad as in Battlefield Earth, but once humans are shown alongside natives, fairly clear). However, even though the bodies are hideously expensive and take a fairly long time to grow, nobody ever thought to microchip them in case someone gets lost in the woods. Um, yeah. Right.
Jake Scully is a disabled Marine who is the twin of a researcher for whom a body is grown. He’s thrown into the situation with very little training (although given that he arrived on the planet in cold-sleep, could have received a lot of training and instruction if he had been kept awake. But apparently nobody thought of that, either). However, he adapts quickly and well, since he is a disabled but alive Marine. The contrast between his wizened legs and the joy of the native body is also quite apparent. I am surprised they didn’t have trouble making him come out of his ‘coffin’, though later on they show how he is forced to eat and otherwise maintain his human body.
One other thing surprised me, and that’s the native life. All of the lower life, including up to a lemur-analog, have six limbs, and yet the humanoid level has only four. Yes, we all know it’s that way so human actors can play the characters with proper movement (most small countries could easily live off what was paid for CGI as it was), but it seems odd that the Scientist (played ably by Sigourney Weaver) didn’t even comment on it—there’s another element, called handwavium, that could have been offered up in this case.
Of course, once Jake Sully is allowed to be part of the native tribe (“And then a miracle occurred”), anyone who has seen A Man Called Horse can predict the movie for the next half hour or so (and this is a long movie, so there is room for it). Jake displays how to imitate Homer Simpson falling down a hill on several occasions, but his ability to take humiliation well (remember, he was in boot camp earlier in his life) seems to work out for him, as the natives clearly show how stupid they think he is.
Another thing that bothered me was that Jake was given three extra months to try to persuade the natives to move so that the miners can start going after the unobtainium, but it seems like he spends far more time courting Neytire. He’s not paying attention to his mission. He’s having much more fun learning how to use the nerve fibers at the end of his hair to tame strange wild beasts and commune with the earth and all that, and never says a word to anyone in the tribe about the Sky People wanting to mine their land for Valuable Concessions. And when he finally does the wild thing with Neytire, they don’t use their nerve fiber hair to commune with each other. What’s up with that?
The Huge Final Battle is reasonably well done—much better than say, the Ewoks vs. the Empire, though the different tech levels are pretty much that far apart. There are a lot of native casualties because of the higher technology of the humans, but the last minute miracles have pretty much been established as possible, so that was well done. The ending is what might have been if Native Americans had written the script for Inglourious Basterds, and yet Another Miracle Occurs as far as Jake Sully is concerned.
It’s still a great movie, and worth seeing (and it is really spiffy in 3D). Just don’t expect a lot of depth in the script writing.
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