Rumors about the quality of this film ran rampant months before its release: it was too long, there were reshoots, the zombies looked bad, it was PG-13. Norm MacDonald would have called it "box-office poison."
This made me sad. After a viewing of "Dead Snow," I attended a conversation with Max Brooks, the author of "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War" on which the film would be based. His talk was straight and funny -after all, he is the son of American comedic royalty. I had read the book and loved its Studs Terkel influenced historical take on a long, fictitious war with the dead. It was graphic, tense and it trotted the globe.
"World War Z" cuts out a lot of the book. It had to. There's no way it could do justice to its source material in less than three hours. It turned out fine. The film focuses on human survival and gore is kept to a minimum. I especially liked the take on the "swarm" mentality of the undead and the clever nod to insect behavior. Satirical? Surely. After Romero, many zombie movies are.
Despite a tidy ending, the movie turned a healthy profit and a sequel has already been given the green light. Since "The Walking Dead" has become boring and schmaltzy, we can only hope HBO gives this a chance and revisits the novel for a mini-series. As they continue to prove, they can do things right.
Enough Said
There are movies like "The Station Agent" and "You Can Count On Me" that catch me off guard. Films that show a slice of common life; ones that are funny and sad and moving.
"Enough Said" is no exception.
James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus play two lonely divorcees who eventually look past each others flaws and begin to fall in love. There is a semi-twist to the story, but the thing that stands out most is the acting. It feels natural and has some funny moments. The emotions are genuine, reactions are real. It is easy to be drawn into the story because all of us can relate.
I wonder if I would have had the same feelings had Gandolfini not died. I believe my thoughts on the film would not have changed (although it brings a bit of gravity to watching the film). His size, his meter, his look always made him seem common. His acting never felt forced and was regularly brilliant - for examples, see "Get Shorty" or "In The Loop." It's easy to remember him as the overbearing Tony Soprano, but his best work was when he was subdued. "Enough Said" is no exception.
He will be missed.
As we all grow older, we will remember earlier experiences with fondness and zeal. Maybe we are remembering parties in college, vacations to warm locales or birthday parties at a local pizzeria. Some of us may even recall leading death squads decades earlier and then reenacting the massacres as colorful, staged productions.
Bizzare? Yes. True? Also, yes.
"The Act of Killing" gives stage to Indonesian men who led squads that killed thousands of their own people. Many of them recount their actions with excitement and pride. It is truly frightening.
Is the film asking these men to accept their guilt and repent? Or is it holding the rest of the world accountable for not doing everything it could to prevent such tragedies from happening?
Similar to "Captain Phillips," "A Hijacking" puts viewers on a cargo ship during negotiations with Somali pirates. It's tense, greasy and claustrophobic.
The sailors and captors are tough and rugged, and both want to get home to their families. As they days drag on, they build relationships with their captors and oddly grow close to each other in a perilous situation.
Some of the most interesting scenes of the film are the negotiations between the cargo ship company and the pirates. What are human lives worth to a company? How much is too much? It presents an interesting dynamic and questions what corporations value most.
I believe that "Captain Phillips" is a better movie, but not by much. While we know the ending to "Captain Phillips," the same can't be said about "A Hijacking." It won't be one that you will ever forget.
Technically, this film is amazing. Awash in glows of neon, it takes us through the seedy underground of Bangkok. After her son is killed, a mother forces her other son to track down the killer and take revenge for the family. It's dark and gritty and interesting.
I was not as a big a fan of "Drive" as most others, but I respected Nicolas Refn's direction for its nod to Michael Mann. There is much of that same style in "Only God Forgives."
The movie is brutal and, at times, crawls. At times Shakespeare, at times the life of Christ, the story lets Ryan Gosling quietly brood his way through the mystery. Vithaya Pansringarm plays a retired cop who must also serve justice, a role that is bizarre and frightening.
The movie is at times slow and difficult to follow, but it is also visual and violent.
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