Month: December 2010

The American

I watched “The American” yesterday.  It’s a rather slow developing drama of an aging assassin, who starts to get lonely, questions his life choices, and wants to quit his trade.  And as in so many other stories, that’s not so easy to do.  And as with so many other stories, women are usually involved.

It’s a nice story.  Not a bad movie.  Some solid acting.  And lots and lots of silence, which makes sense.  It is somewhat slow, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Yet, it is that kind of movie which is difficult to recommend.  Because people usually expect so many different things from an assassin drama.  And I’m not sure this will satisfy many.  It did satisfy me though.

Two things in particular that I liked were the use of Italian language and scenery.  Multi-lingual films are a challenge.  If there are two many languages or too much of two languages, subtitles are needed, and they usually annoy the audience.  Shooting a movie in English, when clearly other languages are involved often seems naive and childish.  So the choices are hard and making a movie with two or more languages involved is not that easy.  This film succeeded though.  It managed to bring the feeling of Italy, the atmosphere, and the language without using too much of it.  Subtitles are helpful, but not required – most of what is said in Italian are short phrases, the smalltalk.   Yet, combined with the scenery of small Italian towns that brings a very realistic feeling.  The place is unmistakable.

Overall, a 4 out of 5.

The Town

I went to see “The Town” in the movies on weekend.  Too bad my experience was spoiled by the total failure of surround sound in the cinema and by a power cut due to the thunderstorm, two minutes before the end of the movie.  But I still liked the movie so much that I downloaded a copy and watched it in the comfort of my own home (really, are there any other options left?).

Before I say anything else, I have to do a disclosure.  I am biased here.  Crime is one of my favorite movie genres in general, and bank robberies, con artists, and heist schemes are among my top interests in movies.

With that, I am now free to say how awesome this movie was.  First of all, it’s a great story with great characters.  Not particularly original, but still great.  It got a slightly screwed up ending, but by now we should be probably get used to them anyway.  Still.  There is plenty to see – action, acting, drama, tough guys, car chases, gun fights, hot girls, Boston accent, and more.

Overall, I’ll give it a 5 out of 5.  But you still remember, that I’m biased, right?

Day in brief

  • Town, American, and Machete are in cinemas all at once. That's more choice than I am used to. #
  • Went to see Town, since I saw Machete twice, and American rating is less than Town. #
  • Not surround sound was off, but 5 minutes before the end storms blew the power off. I'll have to download it now. #
  • K-Cineplex refunds tickets with vauchers. But vauchers aren't accepted on weekends. Thank you very much. #
  • RT @toptweets: RT @marjoriemliu: This is hilarious and strange. Oh, Amazon. What else do you sell? http://tinyurl.com/23ncslz (the reviews a #
  • I favorited a YouTube video — Rockerjoker "Мамонов" (J:Морс cover) http://youtu.be/FY1ZdxEMYdw?a #
  • I favorited a YouTube video — Metric vs Imperial http://youtu.be/pu_illAgCPg?a #
  • I favorited a YouTube video — The Way I Do Math http://youtu.be/ys92zSt4j34?a #

Day in brief