Original Sin

Antonio Banderas, Angelina Jolie

MGM, 2000

One of my wife's all time favorite movies, particularly because there are copious shots of Antonio Banderas' butt. Good for the ladies.

For the gents, you've got copious quantitites of Angelina Jolie.

And that's pretty much all there is to the movie. Except hot Cuban nights, two people who are in love/not in love/arranged marriage/both strong-willed personalities - strong to the point that they are trying to kill each other.

Danger, passion, romance, intrigue . . . like I said, fairly decent ingredients for a fairly decent movie.

Best watched with your significant other!



VG

Day of Wrath (2006)

Christopher Lambert, Bianca Marsallich

Screen Media Films

Starts off looking like a b-movie with limited sets made of paper-mache stones, but actually this turns out to be a halfway decent film. Basic premise: Lambert returns to his childhood village in Spain to be a constable, but while trying to investigate several murders he is thwarted by the local Inquisitors, who seem to lord more power than they really deserve. It's an interesting depiction of the power that the Church had during those times in the Middle Ages.

The intrigue deepens as the reason for the murders AND the cover up points back to one deeply held secret that runs through the entire village. In fact, everybody seems to be in on the secret BUT Lambert himself, a fact that he actually exlaims about midway through the film, which I thought showed some great self-awareness on the part of the script.

There are, of course, some weak points in the plot (i.e. certain characters who conveniently die in order to disentangle others, etc.) but for the most part the characters are symbolic but are never caricatures, which they could have easily become in a film such as this. The Hungarian assasin, hands down, is the coolest of all. The governor has surprising depth, and the Head Inquisitor himself is unexpectedly multi-dimensional.

So, all in all, this one is nice to watch, just to pique your interest in the Spain of the Middle Ages, the Inquisition and rooting out all the heretics and all that! But it's not earth-shattering or life-changing or anything.

VG

Little Children

Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly

Let's get one thing out of the way: this movie seemed to try to state that Jennifer Connelly is the epitome of beauty and that Kate Winslet was actually ugly. That aspect in itself put this squarely in the realm of fantasy, because Ms. Winslet is far more attractive than Ms Connelly, and Ms Connelly is drop-dead gorgeous.

Secondly, Jackie Earl Haley's portrayal of the just-out-of-prison sexual predator was extremely well-done, but I got the sense that the role itself was written a little blandly. But he certainly seemed to act it to its greatest effect.

Overall, the impression that I really got from this movie is that it should be mixed with American Beauty.

Yes, you read me right. Little Children and American Beauty should be mixed together. Both are about the dark hidden corners of suburban America, and LC could use some of AB's dark humour, and AB would not have been so fantasy-like if it had some of LC's more bland depiction of the community.

Shutter

from the Producers of The Grudge and The Ring,

yeah, but in name only, as this is definitely B-work in comparison to the A-grade that the other two aforementioned movies recieved (and they ARE good, even if their own sequels are not)

This movie has an interesting premise, and good subject matter, and to be honest - a really good point - it's just that the execution is a little dull, the plot disjointed, and it's a little uneven. Certain characters are not developed fully, and the entire point is not adequately expressed. Certain key motivations are only hinted at, with maybe only one line - definitely not completely fleshed out

(nice pun for a ghost movie, don't you think!)

However, I have to say (somewhat subtly, because I don't want to spoil the ending in case you actually DO want to see it) that the decision made by Jane (Rachel Taylor) at the end of the movie was the best part of the movie - in that it was refreshingly different, and at the same time something that a NORMAL HUMAN would do. Her decision brings her character into complete human reality, instead of this idealized feminine characters that we are force-fed time after time.

To me, that was the redemptive moment of this film.

VG

The Ruins

The premise seems like standard horror-movie fare for this generation - college students, foreign locale, picked off one by one in gruesome fashion.

But this movie IS a little different, in that the horror comes from the sense of impending doom. Yes, there is definitely a lot of flesh-cutting and buckets of blood to go around, and yes, tehre are some scenes that definitely make you cringe, and say "EWWW!" but it's strongest aspect is in the simple need to stay alive long enough to get help.

In fact, the scenes in which they're dividing the last sandwich between the four of them is perhaps as chilling as the one where the severed legs get eaten by the . . .

well, that's just giving it away.

But what I can tell you is this: this movie has been touted as being about Mayan ruins, but truly there is nothing Mayan about this movie, so you're not going to be subjected to any supernatural pre-Columbian voodoo . . .

nothing that believable.


And to be honest, I saw this movie on my own first time - didn't think that much of it. Then my wife wanted to watch it with me, and it was actually better second time around. Which made me pause and consider this whole "movie-review" thing: perhaps first impressions truly are not sufficient with this medium. Perhaps film requires repeated viewings in order truly to get a grasp of the actual construct.

Too bad we're all so busy to watch things over and over again. Maybe that's why everything's become so simple - to get the point across first time.


Food for thought.

(and for anybody who's seen The Ruins, you know the inside joke embedded in that last phrase!)

VG

High Tension

French. Horror. Usually the two don't really go together,

but this one does.

Premise: two college students drive out to one's house in the country to relax before their final exams. Lonely house. Out in the country. Two girls. Nobody around. Recipe for some mass-murderin'!!!

Let me put it simply - I absolutely hate today's horror movies, because they are all GORE and no STORY. This one, I thought, would be like that, and while it has GORE GALORE, it also has STORY and SUSPENSE and TENSION. This movie delivers; all the tag lines on the cover are spot-on.

Watch this movie - it's about as good as horror movies get these days. Seriously.

However, they didn't have to kill off the dog. I'm p'o'd about that. They could have just had him be scared off into the fields or something, but they had to go and kill 'im! (and that's the onluy spoiler I'll give ya!)


Now, get off the dang Internet and go watch this movie!!!


VG

Children of Men

Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine

Premise: the human race can no longer reproduce, which makes everybody miserably depressed.

Obviously the writers of this movie have never been parents, because if they had, they would tell you a little secret that even we parents don't like to admit: A world without children seems a glorious heaven indeed!

Well, only sometimes. Like when our children are awake and gritching and whining about EVERYTHING!

But back to the movie! It's very well done, in a dark, bleak sort of way. Could have used more Michael Caine - his character was very compelling, and much more interesting than Owen's or Moore's characters, but unfortunately he had only about one or two scenes and then he gets killed off.

Basically, Moore's a part of an underground radical anarchist group, which apparently gains great strides in Britain when they have no children to focus their attention on. - and they have found one woman who is GASP! pregnant! Realizing that this would throw everything into chaos, they enlist the aid of Owens, who used to be part of the group, to smuggle this beacon of light to safety, because Moore realizes that even in her own cadre there are factions that would try to use this woman to gain political power, as well as factions that just want to kill her in order to maintain a status quo.

Regardless, the movie has it's twists and turns, it's exciting moments, it's standard fare - there is an extremely effective scene toward the climax which is a long camera panshot following Owens' character after a shell has just detonated beside him, and we are caught up in the deadened hearing as he races through this wartime hell, into a bombed out apartment building filled with the poor and downtrodden.

It's based on a novel, and I feel confident that the novel is probably much more effective in detailing the sheer scope of the story. The movie, unfortunately, somehow falls short of its goal.

It's a good one, but somehow unfulfilling.


VG