Garyswordz

Solid, entertaining and uncontroversial, 22 January 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

An odd film, in that the fine ingredients don’t quite deliver the result you expect. Tom Hanks delivers an excellent performance in the title role, convincing, but restrained,qualities that Julia Roberts, playing a wealthy Texan Socialite appears oblivious to.

At 97 minutes the film bounces along from scene to scene, and location to location, aided by a wry, satirical script with a number of “laugh out loud” moments.The dark machinations of politics “on the Hill” are painfully exposed without fear or favour, yet somehow the film falls short of greatness.

Ironically its finely crafted component parts are also its downfall.It is pretty funny, but it isn’t a comedy.It is pretty satirical, but falls short of satire.It is a “Bio pic” which falls short of a biography, and it is also a history of events, without being a history.

The politics of arming the good guys(the Afghans)against the bad guys (the Russians), and then having to treat the Russians as good guys (in the war against terror) and the Afghans as bad guys (in the war against terror)is pretty familiar to European audiences whose governments have been experts in swapping sides as fast as a Warlord for the past 100 years , but this may seem less familiar to US audiences.

Very agreeable light entertainment – which could have been so much more

Solid, entertaining and uncontroversial, 22 January 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

An odd film, in that the fine ingredients don’t quite deliver the result you expect. Tom Hanks delivers an excellent performance in the title role, convincing, but restrained,qualities that Julia Roberts, playing a wealthy Texan Socialite appears oblivious to.

At 97 minutes the film bounces along from scene to scene, and location to location, aided by a wry, satirical script with a number of “laugh out loud” moments.The dark machinations of politics “on the Hill” are painfully exposed without fear or favour, yet somehow the film falls short of greatness.

Ironically its finely crafted component parts are also its downfall.It is pretty funny, but it isn’t a comedy.It is pretty satirical, but falls short of satire.It is a “Bio pic” which falls short of a biography, and it is also a history of events, without being a history.

The politics of arming the good guys(the Afghans)against the bad guys (the Russians), and then having to treat the Russians as good guys (in the war against terror) and the Afghans as bad guys (in the war against terror)is pretty familiar to European audiences whose governments have been experts in swapping sides as fast as a Warlord for the past 100 years , but this may seem less familiar to US audiences.

Very agreeable light entertainment – which could have been so much more

Awkward and Disappointing, 1 January 2008

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

The production values for this film make it fall short of Hollywood blockbuster status, and the script makes it fall short of cult status. What is left is a tired formulaic attempt at the disaster movie genre that will disappear with the ebb tide.

A decent cast, are either miss cast, or cannot be bothered.The beautiful Joanne Whalley is unable to bring any gravitas to the role of Police Commissioner Nash who wears the most irritating matching waist clincher above her skirt.

Jessalyn Gilseg plays the heavyweight part of Director of the Thames Barrier with all the conviction of a fairground candy floss. Her Canadian nationality and accent were presumably drafted in to appeal to a transatlantic audience. It, and she, fails.Her initial appearance in a tight fitting pink jogging suit as she arrives at work is risible.

The part of the “Siren old git who was right” is played by Tom Courtenay as though he is acting in his sleep, and the various plot twists that are designed to energise his son, played by Robert Carlyle, struggle to get any response from him.

Nigel Planer looks determined to commit ritual hari kari for his failings as Met Office Director, or for his acting, or both, and only David Suchet emerges with some credit for his role as Deputy PM.

There was enough in the story, and the cast and the effects to have produced a decent effort. Alas that did not happen

Good but not Great, 21 November 2007

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

By any measure this is a fine film and certainly one of Ridley Scott’s best. One of his great strengths, is his ability to create a sense of “place”, and 60s/70s New York is faithfully, and affectionately, re-created. Clever use of archive news footage of the Vietnam war is interwoven into the story line in seamless style.

Denzel Washington, as Gangster Frank lucas, and Russell Crowe as Cop Ritchie Roberts, play an accomplished double hander which aspires to, but doesn’t quite match or surpass, De Niro and Pacino in “Heat”.The “French Connection” is overtly name checked, and visually alluded to as it competes with esteemed company such as “Goodfellas”and “Serpico” as well as the aforementioned in this well stocked genre.

Washington gives arguably his finest performance as an understated black gangster (I didn’t realise that was possible!)who makes good selling heroin whilst supporting his brothers, cousins, mother and other members of his extended family.Ritchie Roberts by contrast is portrayed as having a dysfunctional home life.

For once the wealth of drug trafficking is not shown without cost.The human carnage is painfully depicted – a million miles away from “heroin chic”. The running time of almost 2 3/4 hours is fully justified as the carefully constructed plot comes to its climax.

So why does it fall short? Well really only by the standards of the competition. The dramatic intensity of the personal duel between De Niro and Pacino in “Heat” is missing, but only because Lucas character is super cool. And the Shakespearean sense of tragedy and impending doom so magnificently evoked by De Palma in “Carlitos Way” is similarly absent.

Based on a true story the denouement where Lucas plea bargains to take down the bent cops is a bit of a plot turn when Roberts avowed intent was to get the big guys – and the Vietnam Military traffickers just disappear off the horizon.Frustrating and unsatisfactory.

Nonetheless a worthy movie that I suspect will stand the test of time

Lightweight Wallpaper Movie, 17 November 2007

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

I was unaware that this film was based upon a true story so judged it purely on its merits. The subject matter of a beautiful model disfigured by a rejected suitor is pretty unsettling. Somehow the soft focus photography and background muzak never quite work with the subject matter.

Kirk Baltz plays the psychotic stalker well, and his motivation is well observed.However the attack is shown briefly at the start, reprised two thirds of the way through the film and then the courtroom drama becomes the final act. The balancing of this does not work and might better have been told from the courtroom.

Cheryl Pollack makes a decent fist of the title role, but ultimately this is formulaic routine fare that never rises above that standard.

Well Made – But sub Oscar fare, 2 November 2007

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Finding the yardstick by which to judge this film is a challenge. As a straightforward Drama / thriller it is pretty good. Charging through its’ two hour running time, it is pacey, sharply edited, well acted and contains a neat twist. As a landmark “issue” film, it fails, partly due to the complexity of the issues it tries to take on, and partly because Hollywood is still just edging into trying to understand Middle Eastern born terrorism.

The characters, in a packed narrative do eschew stereotypes. Jake Gyllenhaal, as Dougalas Freeman, the junior CIA case officer, delivers a powerful, understated performance. The personification of “less is more”. However his power to single handedly release the suspect at the denouement, and his preparedness to wreck his career by going to the Washington Post, is somewhat “sudden”.

Omar Metwally as suspect El ibrahimi plays the bewildered victim solidly and convincingly, but the real star is Tunis Police Chief Yigal Naor who plays a wonderfully menacing part very well even though he bears an uncanny resemblance to Telly Savalas! The setting in Tunis is about as neutral as the writers could manage, and I suspect that many Americans will not even know that Tunis is in Morroco, it is never mentioned.This is a bit of a problem because some unknown jihadists are plotting explosions there and so the geo political motivations are lost.

Reese Witherspoon, as the suspects wife, does wifey quite well , but despite her pregnant state she is really just ersatz window dressing.The vanity of wearing 3 inch high heels when supposedly nine months pregnant was quite amusing. Its Meryl Streep who really has fun with her role as a CIA Director, Corrine Whitman. More than a cameo, less than a lead, she shines in every scene she is in.

So where does it go wrong? Bowing under the weight of great ambition, the ending is terribly perfunctory, and unlikely. Ironically the “need” to find ways to effectively interrogate terrorists isn’t done justice, and the basis for the evidence which gets Ibrahami into trouble is never really explained.

Although America has a lot of waking up to do about the world around it, the criticism of rendition comes across as being a bit weedy liberal in the final analysis.

Better than “The Kingdom”, a decent step into the world of international affairs for Hollywood

Worthy but Flawed Effort, 31 October 2007

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

It is impossible to pass judgement on this film without putting it into a political context.America sees the World very differently from Europe, and differently again from a Middle East perspective. As an American effort to shake off its shackles of myopia,self interest, conceit and ignorance, this is groundbreaking stuff. As a story it is fine. As a meaningful insight into Middle Eastern affairs, it is lightweight.

The opening sequence of the bombing of the Compound is superb. Taut, sharply edited,frenzied and compelling.However when we cut to the fallout in America some “diverse” casting appears hackneyed.Jamie Foxx as the black FBi leader never quite establishes his credentials, either within character, or for the role,and Jennifer Garners role in saving the hostage at the end is quite frankly risible.

The key Saudi figure, Police chief,Faris Al Ghazi, played by Ashraf Barhom, is given room to breathe and delivers a fine performance of light and shade.A minor pleasure is in hearing the Saudi’s berate the FBI agents for their casual profanities.Most American cop films are predicated on the assumption that all cops have the mouths of sewer rats.

The “investigation” itself is a bit of a mish mash and really unfolds as a plot device to get to the explosive finale.Some decent scene setting is done in the opening credits. But no real attempt is made to explain the motivation for the bombers actions.

as the two hour running time closes you are forced to ask yourself what has actually happened and been achieved, and the answer is not much. However if this film does help to whet the appetite of the American public for Hollywood to start to make more films about the Middle East, it will have done its job. But be under no illusions, this is no “Apocalypse Now” “Hamburger Hill” “Platoon” for the 21st century in influencing public opinion on American foreign policy.

Absolute Tour de Force, 20 October 2007

Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

A ten rating is rare indeed for me.Even the greatest work might always have been tweaked just that little bit more. But with Michael Mann’s masterpiece that would appear churlish, because the sum of its component parts is so overwhelming.

Of course it helps that James Fennimore Cooper’s story is a classic. A story that conjures up vast open spaces, heroic emotions, and rich colours in the mind of the reader.To so successfully translate those images onto the screen is a tremendous achievement.

Daniel Day Lewis is superb as Hawkeye, understated, but decisive, sensitive but brave.The music is as lush and rich as the cinematography which itself has only been matched by “Lawrence of Arabia” and the Epic quality of the film is established from the opening frames to the closing credits.

For a running time only eight minutes short of two hours, Mann keeps the narrative racing along with some set pieces which are quite simply astounding, The Mohawk ambush of the retreating surrendered garrison is as bloody and visceral as anything I have seen on screen, and a chase in the caves under a waterfall as beautiful as it is compelling.

There is no bad language, there are no special effects. There is a nostalgic examination of vanity,pride, love, honour,duty,sacrifice, revenge and injustice. A Shakespearean task is taken on, and achieved by Mann in this regard. Rarely can a project as multi-layered in its ambitions have succeeded quite as triumphantly as this