Reviews

Green Zone

A couple of weeks ago I saw “Green Zone” in the cinema. I barely heard anything about this film – only that Matt Damon plays the main character and that it was directed by the same guy who did some of the Bourne trilogy – but even that was enough. I wanted to go.

First things first. This film is not like the Bourne trilogy. There are a few moments that bring back the memories, but overall it is a totally different film. The subject is different, the characters are different, the way it was shot is different. Second things second. I enjoyed this movie. As most other Hollywood-made war-related movies it had its share of propaganda, but once I switch on the propaganda filter, there was plenty to enjoy.

Matt Damon acting was awesome as always. He is very natural and very, how should I put it, believable. It is often easy to relate to his characters just because of his acting, and this film is not an exception. The visual content of the film was interesting. While I am not a big fan of handhold shaking camera effect, it works for this film. And gladly not the whole film is shot this way – only the scenes where it adds to the atmosphere.

There was plenty of background work in this film – scenery, decorations, costumes, routine, etc. One of the common ways to avoid this work in a war movie is to switch between a command bunker or Washington office and a blind darkness of the jungle, or something like that. In this film everything is happening in the war zone and story switches between neutral and hostile areas. This creates a nice feeling of being there.

Now, to the important part. The story. While, as I said, it holds plenty of propaganda, I still liked it. At least it attempted to show things from a different angle and explain how things go wrong and what it takes to make them right. There is something to think about and even know, a couple of weeks later, I find myself rethinking parts of the movie. I do want to see it again and probably I will once I get my hands on the DVD.

Overall, a good film. Recommended. 4 out of 5.

The Road

Last Friday I went to see “The Road“. I’ve seen a trailer of it several times before and figured that it would be one of those post-apocalyptic zombie movies that I don’t particularly want to see. But I was with my wife and there was no better choice of a movie in the cinema, so we went.

As I mentioned on Twitter earlier, it’s been a while since I wrote a movie review. But this film is something! It’s such a load of crap! Everything about this film is bad. Not neutral, but bad. The story is extremely shallow. The dialogues are horrible. There is no common sense what-so-ever. The film is boring on so many levels that it’s unbelievable. It is even boring visually. Everything is shot in a greyish colours, with decreased saturation, and with no highlights at all. The images of the post-apocalyptic world don’t touch on any feelings – they are not sad, not horrifying, not inspiring.

I was very surprised to see both Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy) and Charlize Theron (“The Italian Job”, “Sweet November”, and many others) in this crappy movie. They were trying their very best to save it, but there just wasn’t enough ground. Kodi Smit-McPhee, who played a kid, delivered horrible acting and all the dialogues that he had to do weren’t helping at all.

The film is running for almost 2 hours (111 minutes), and I think it is about 100 minutes too long. Overall, I’ll rate it a 1 out of 5 and recommend you avoid it at all costs. It’s just that bad.

2012

I just came back from the movies, where I watched “2012“. Initially, when I heard about this film, it sounded awesome. I even posted the trailer in the blog, when I first saw it. But then, it came to the cinemas and pretty much everyone I know went to see it, and I haven’t heard any exciting reviews yet. Yes, the special effects are awesome. Yes, they destroy the US and even pretty much all current Earth population. Yes, it’s breath-taking at times. But there was no excitement in those comments. No thrill. No sparks. It almost felt like the movie was boring. So, I wasn’t hurrying to see it. But today I finally did. First, because I had to. Second, because all the other movies I’ve either seen or they suck.

So, I went to see “2012” with lower expectations than I initially set. And maybe that was exactly what I needed. Because I quite enjoyed the film. There were, of course, a few tongue-in-cheek moments, such as mobile telephony working when everything was falling under ground or a doctor with 2 hours of practice flying planes or a computer simulation being able to predict wave impacts up to the second during the time when nothing was certain. But that doesn’t matter. You get these in pretty much every movie these days.

What’s important is that the movie had something to show that you haven’t seen before. Yes, everyone saw the end of the world movies. But not at this scale. Ground was falling, building were collapsing, giant waves were playing ping pong with huge ships, trains were flying over airplanes, and on, and on, and on. Some of the scenes were so realistic, that I was grabbing my armchair’s handles. And that happens rarely.

If you are not into huge scale special effects films, then this one still has some drama, romance, and comedy to offer. Comedy especially. I think it actually made the film so much better. If everything that happened in the movie would have been given with the serious attitude, it would be way too boring and unrealistic. But an occasional joke here and funny face there brought this film to life. As did some of the acting.

Overall, I’d recommend this film to anyone who expects entertainment from a movie. 4 stars.

P.S.: If I still haven’t convinced you to see this film on a big screen, consider this: it was directed by Roland Emmerich, who also directed movies like “10,000 B.C.”, “The Day After Tomorrow”, “The Patriot”, “Godzilla”, “Independence Day”, “Universal Soldier” and a few others.

Law Abiding Citizen

I just came back from the cinema where I watched “Law Abiding Citizen“. I vaguely remember seeing a trailer for this film, but other than that it wasn’t ringing any bells or setting any expectations. Even though 7.3/10 IMDB rating was promising.

The film turned out to be rather awesome! From the first scenes it looked like it had enough of everything – drama, action, plot twists, etc. It also felt nicely paced – not too fast, and not too slow. And it was getting better with every scene. I was somehow thinking that it would turn into one of those numerous revenge movies, where you could see through and predict things easily, but it didn’t. Just when I thought I had it figured, the plot was taking another twist, turning the movie even more interesting.

It’s difficult to talk about specifics without giving spoilers away, but I’ll try. While, as I said, I really enjoyed the film, the ending wasn’t up to the par with the rest of the film. It felt hurried into and even like it was from another movie or something. I would prefer a different one. But if there was a chance to shift the movie anywhere, I’d start the opposite direction after the scene with the judge.

Again, cryptically speaking to avoid spoilers, I think the film raises an excellent point on the fight of good and evil. And, unlike many other movies that do the same, there is some really big and strong evil. And, again, unlike in many other movies, the good is represented mighty powerful even if outnumbered. And there is the fight between the two for the whole film. But the ending spoils the fight a bit, since the fight and the whole point of counter-balancing one with another fades away for something else. And I am not even sure what that something else is.

Anyway, nevermind the rant. If you watch the film, you’ll know what I am talking about. And I highly recommend that you do. There is something for everyone and there is a lot for people who like this type of films. 5 stars.

District 9

I couple of days ago I went to see “District 9“. I’ve been waiting for the movie and finally it hit the Cyprus cinemas. I’ve seen the trailer and heard a lot of people spreading good word of a mouth about the film, but wanted to see it for myself.

It turned out to be an excellent movie. First of all, it didn’t follow those typical Hollywood storylines. It actually had an orignal story, which it told in a rather original way of pseudo-documentary. Not that we didn’t have pseudo-documentaries in the movies before, but I don’t remember the genre used for an alien story.

Secondly, it was nice to see action taking place somewhere else. Not New York, not London, not Paris. Not even US or Europe. Not even Mexico. Africa. And not the bushmen Africa, but a rather large city of Johannesburg.

Thidly, there was plenty of good acting. Most of the actors are not the mainstream well-known faces. But the talent is there. Interesting, how unknown actors together with an original story make this film so much more realistic and believable.

Fourthly, there is a whole lot of special effects and CGI. With Peter Jackson being one of the producers, you wouldn’t expect anything else. But all those effects were integrated in the film in a very natural way. After all, the film was about people and aliens, and not about special effects.

Overall, I enjoyed the film quite a bit. It was engaging, original, entertaining, and gave me something to think about. And I don’t ask for anything else from a movie. 5 stars.