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State of Play (2009) PG-13 127min

April 18th, 2009 Maxim Posted in Movie Reviews, TV / Movies | Comments Off

State of Play (2009)

“State of Play” is a contemporary political thriller based on award-wining BBC TV series with the same title. Directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void), starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams (The Notebook, Married Life, The Family Stone, The Hot Chick), Helen Mirren (The Queen, Raising Helen, Inkheart, Gosford Park), Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman (Hancock, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Jeff Daniels.

The plot: Congressman Steven Collins (Ben Affleck) is a rising star in his party and he is a member of a committee investigating a private security company responsible for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. But when a woman from his staff is brutally murdered, dirty secrets begin to come out, and congressman Collins has nobody else to turn to but his friend from college Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) from a financially troubled Washington-based newspaper. While Congressman Collins is managing “damage control” of the news of his affair with the murdered staff member, there are several other seemingly-random murders, and Cal with his new young partner Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) are first on the scene. Cal and Della need to figure out how and why the murders are linked, under pressure from their very tough editor Cameron (Helen Mirren) to publish the story before others do to increase paper’s circulation, while Cal’s motives to find out the truth go way beyond journalistic integrity. All evidence points to a corporate conspiracy and a trained assassin who will stop at nothing.

The good: Great story with two unexpected twists at the end, mostly thanks to contribution of the writers, Tony Gilroy (The Devil’s Advocate, Bourne movies, Proof of Life, Duplicity) and Matthew Carnahan (Lions for Lambs, The Kingdom). Even though the story is an adaptation of British TV series, the plot idea seems fresh in its contemporary setting. Every character is human and worth rooting for. Every character, protagonists and antagonists, are interesting, three-dimensional and flowed. You never quite know how the story is going to go. Lots of suspense - you will be on the edge of the sit. Very good acting - not surprisingly with the cast full of stars. Russell Crowe is great as always. Helen Mirren was outstanding and memorable, and Rachel Adams (from The Notebook) is just ok. Jason Bateman was great - his character is an asshole who is so repulsive he’s actually funny and likable.

Interesting to note that the film shows that journalism suffers from the same hypocrisy as corrupt politicians and the corporations who are corrupting them to get favorable legislation or taxpayers’ money. Every day journalists have to chose between journalist’s duty and financial interests of their employers and their sponsors.

The whole idea of privatizing national security was very interesting and scary, but it wasn’t developed in the plot - there was enough intrigue without it. Much more interesting is how past mistakes of the characters lead to suffering and even deaths of people, and each may not even know about others’ existence.

Enjoyed the newspaper printing sequence during the closing credits.

The bad: I don’t understand what the title of the movie means in relation to the plot.

Ben Affleck is a bad actor. He probably practiced in front of the mirror, but everything he does seems forced and fake. While Russell Crowe’s performance is so good I actually remembered the name of his character, Ben Affleck always remained just Ben Affleck. He also doesn’t look like his character could have been in college at the same time as Russell Crowe’s character.

Helen Mirren’s performance was very good and memorable, but I don’t think she’s a good match for the role; I’d rather see someone like Meryl Streep there. Some camera angles were giving me a vertigo or creating a sense that something bad is going to happen any moment, like in cheap thrillers or horror movies. Music was appropriate for a thriller, but not memorable in any way. Some minor plot holes, such as why nobody saw a woman being pushed in front of the arriving train in a crowded train station, and none of the 50 security cameras catch it, and she happened to stop right where the camera blind spot was.

The summary: A great thought-provoking thriller with fantasic cast and great acting and plot with many twists. Despite a lot of dialog in the movie, it’s gripping and doesn’t feel too long.

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Rated 4/5 on Apr 18 2009

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Monsters vs Aliens - 3D (2009) PG 94min

April 14th, 2009 Maxim Posted in Movie Reviews, TV / Movies | Comments Off

Monsters vs Aliens - 3D (2009)

“Monsters vs Aliens” is a new 3D animated feature from DreamWorks Animation. Directed by Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon, written by Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky, Rob Letterman, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger.

The plot: Susan (Reese Witherspoon) was about to get married to n aspiring TV anchor Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd) when a meteor fell to Earth and the substance within it transformed Susan into a monster. From then on she was a property of U.S. Government. Her new name shall be Ginormica. The facility in “Area 51″ where Susan is held, also is a home (and a prison) for other monsters that General W.R. Monger (Keifer Sutherland) is in charge of: a jello-bodied B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), The Missing Link (Will Arnett) and a gigantic bug (whose name I don’t remember). They all feel like prisoners there, but soon they are released when the President (Steven Colbert) needs their help against an upcoming invasion of alien robots and clones seeking the material from the meteor - the best known source of energy in the universe.

The good: This movie looks exceptionally good in 3D. It’s not one of those 3D movies where things jump out from the screen at you. The monsters are lovable and each one, as expected, has it’s own goof. Good story. Kids loved the humor in the movie and adults too laughed out-loud. Great animation.

There were hilarious references to other movies about monsters and aliens, such as President playing “Axel F” tune on the synthesizer - a tune from the “Beverly Hills Cop”, which, by the way is composed by the same composer - Hans Zimmer (a brilliant composer who wrote music for some many movies over the past 25 years), but even funnier was the tune that he tried to play in the beginning - from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” - a tune that everyone in the theater recognized immediately! Another obvious reference to monster/horror movies was the explanation of how Dr. Cockroach came to be - same way as the handsome scientist got transformed in “The Fly”. Did you notice that one of the General W.R. Monger’s decorations was a Shrek pin! Clearly Steven Colbert and his Comedy Central buddy Ed Helms had an influence in the screenplay: one of the secret service agents referred to the President a “Papa Bear” - this is how Stephen Colbert refers to Bill O’Reilly. The war room was a lot like in Dr. Strangelove. I’m sure there were other gags that I missed. Can you find them?

The F-14 Tomcats and Apache helicopters were also exciting to watch in action. There was also the famous Guppy aircraft used by NASA to transport space shuttles. Don’t know if anyone noticed, but B.O.B. had not only the voice of Seth Rogen, but also his body language. BOB was the most fascinating monster of all because he was… dumb. The view from space was awesome, thanks to 3D.

More jokes during closing credits.

The bad: Didn’t care about the back-story. That Derek character is useless to the plot. Many jokes would be over the kids’ heads.

The summary: a pretty clever, but predictable story designed to please the kids with a few gags to satisfy their parents too. Looks great in 3D. I’m pretty sure small kids will not appreciate the references to other monster/horror/disaster movies, but there’s plenty of pleasing visuals and jokes, and the length of the movie is just right to keep their attention. But without 3D this movie will likely fall flat on its face (he he see what I did there?)

The crew: Director - Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon | Original Story - Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon | Writers - Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky, Rob Letterman, Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger | Producers - Jill Hopper, Latifa Ouaou, Lisa Stewart | Original Music - Henry Jackman | DreamWorks Animation

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Rated 4/5 on Apr 13 2009

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Joyeux Noel (2005) PG-13 1h 56min

April 10th, 2009 Maxim Posted in Movie Reviews, TV / Movies | Comments Off

Joyeux Noel (2005)

“Joyeux Noël” (”Merry Christmas” (UK/US title) or “Happy Christmas”) is a drama set in 1914 during World War I and is inspired by a true story. The film is an international project involving people and locations from France, Germany, UK, Romania and Belgium. The movie is in English, German and French, with English subtitles.

The plot: World War I. 1914. Christmas eve. German, Scottish and French troops prepare to open their presents and try to avoid fighting each other. A German soprano Anna Sörensen (Diane Kruger, voiced by Natalie Dessay) convinces prince of Prussia to sing for the German high command on Christmas eve together with her husband Nikolaus Sprink (Benno Fürmann voiced over by Rolando Villazón). They come to the Western front to perform. The Scottish Lieutenant Gordon (Alex Ferns) and the French Lieutenant Audebert (Guillaume Canet) have an unauthorized meeting with the German Lieutenant Horstmayer (Daniel Brühl) and negotiate a truce for that night, and Anglican priest Palmer (Gary Lewis) celebrates a mass for the soldiers. But when their superiors find out, all must face the consequences.

The good: Great, heartwarming story based on real events, when in 1914 in many places along the front line the fighting troops met on No-Man’s Land and celebrated Christmas together, buried their dead together and played football together during a 1-day informal truce (although there is no historical record of any women singing at the front line). Written and directed by Christian Carion, who was nominated for BAFTA Film Award for this movie. Great camera work. Powerful acting. The movie underlines the humanity of all soldiers and how foreign and preposterous the war is to humanity. People were celebrating together - the birth of Christ and their common values and realizing that they are just pawns in the hands of their rulers. I know I will be frowned upon for referencing Karl Marx, but this movie really shows that many wars are fought by simple working-class people for the benefit of the ruling class of the wealthy - a primary reason why in Russia the Tsar has lost power and provisional government lost its credibility and people could not longer tolerate the rule of the rich, which resulted in February and later October revolution. The film also shows the role of the Church in the war. There’s humor in this war movie too: a sequence where French soldiers are jealous that Germans and Scots are celebrating and French were not invited, and a sequence where all sides are disputing the ownership rights to a stray cat. Beautiful music and singing voices. It was amazing how people who a minute ago were killing each other were unified by a song.

The bad: Minor historical inaccuracies. Unnatural lighting in all Christmas eve trench scenes was distracting - could not get rid of the feeling that there are people with lamps and projects standing around the movie set. The trenches are all brand-new and clean. The only reference to the horrors of war in the movie is the tenor confessing to his lover that he has lice and frozen bodies on the battle field. There’s no build up.

Memorable quotes:

Anglican bishop: “The forces of good against the forces of evil. For this war is indeed a crusade! A holy war to save the freedom of the world. In truth I tell you: the Germans do not act like us, neither do they think like us, for they are not, like us, children of God. Are those who shell cities populated only by civilians the children of God? Are those who advanced armed hiding behind women and children the children of God? With God’s help, you must kill the Germans, good or bad, young or old. Kill every one of them so that it won’t have to be done again. The Lord be with you.”

General Audebert: I don’t understand you. Carousing with the enemy while the country’s partly occupied!
Lieutenant Audebert: The country? What does it know of what we suffer here? Of what we do without complaint? Let me tell you, I felt closer to the Germans than those who cry, “Kill the Krauts!” before their stuffed turkey!

The summary: A great Christmas movie set during World War I.