Quick Reviews

Quick Reviews

03.09.07 (4:25 pm)   [edit]
I've seen way too many movies lately to give each on a full review, so I'm just going to do little capsule reviews:

Children of Men: A great little post-apocalyptic movie. Central premise is that the entire human race has become sterile and there have been no children born in 20 years. The world has mostly descended into chaos, with a fascistic Britain one of the only hold-outs. And then a woman becomes pregnant and everyone is fighting over her and her baby. This is the only bleak post-apocalyptic movie that left me feeling kind of happy and hopeful at the end instead of emotionally drained. Good visual style that recalls the 1984 film, a bit of shakycam that didn't irritate me too much. Good acting all around, especially from Clive Owen and Michael Caine. Characters have okay depth (I really like the history between Caine and Owen's characters), dialogue is pretty good, and people react realistically to the depressing, horrible things happening to them. The script surprised me several times, and watching a brutal army that was just moments ago murdering helpless civilians stop and basically fall on their knees and worship a newborn baby is an image that will stick with me, especially when their enemy attacked them while they were thus distracted. Nice, slightly ambiguous, but hopeful ending caps it off. I am pissed this won exactly no Oscars, but Scorsese's remake of a Hong Kong cop movie took top honors.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: I loved this film when I was a kid, and rewitched for the first time since I was probably 13. It's still great, probably the best Frankenstein film. Yes, that includes, James Whale's 1931 classic. Unlike Whale's and just about every other version (including the many Hammer films), director/star Kenneth Branagh's version is actually pretty close to the novel. Granted, it makes some deviations (especially with the film's climax), but it captures the book's spirit better than any film before or since. Frankenstein's monster is not a stupid, lumbering beast that kills because it is barely aware. Robert De Niro's creature is scarred and hideously ugly, but a kind hearted intellectual abandoned by his "father" and then tormented and tortured by nearly everyone he meets, even if he helps them. You really feel sympathy for him, but you also feel sympathy for the obsessed Victor Frankenstein and his lively fiancée Elizabeth (played with zeal by Helena Bonham Carter). The acting is great and only a little over the top, as is required by Frankenstein. Come on, would you want to see Frankenstein trying to bring his creation to life without yelling, "LIVE! LIVEEEEEE!", looking all wild-eyed and crazy? I wouldn't. The visual are fantastic with some really impressive sets and outdoor scenes. Every location has a great sense of mood and character, and the ignorant peasants, outbreaks of disease, and convincing science ground the film in history and reality a way that random Jacob's Ladders and the stagey castle set of the Whale version never did. I also really appreciate the twists near the end where their maid Justine is lynched and when (sorry if I am ruining this, but the movie is over ten years old) the creature rips out Elizabeth's heart, Victor reanimates her, and then she sets burns herself to death in horror. Seriously, this is classic horror. Very fine work all around, and my only real complaint is that they wimped out and didn't show the creature kill Victor's little brother. I realize it's kind of a Hollywood taboo, but I've never seen a monster rip out the lively female love interest's heart either. Good job, Kenneth Branagh. Make some more monster movies. This is way better than contemporary monster films, like the painful, plotless CG orgy that is Van Helsing. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has style and substance to spare.

NOTE: I am still writing this. Stay calm, there's more on the way!