Reviews

Road to Perdition

I’ve seen “Road to Perdition” when it came to the movies. A couple of years later I bought the DVD and saw it few more times. But somehow it happened that I never described on this blog how beautiful this movie is.

It’s a piece of art. Nothing more, nothing else. It feels like nothing happened by itself in this movie. Everything has its reason, and everything has been placed appropriately by the makers of this film. The story, the acting, the directing, the sound and visuals – all of these work in harmony with each other. And like any other talented piece of art, “Road to Perdition” can be watched over and over and over and again.

I particularly enjoy the atmosphere of the 1930s. Clothes, hats, cars, buildings – these all worked very well for the film. It was also interesting to see how modern faces could be transformed into personalities of the past – Tom Hanks, Daniel Craig, and even Paul Newman, although he is a bit of a veteran.

Overall, a solid 9 out of 10.

V for Vendetta

I just watched “V for Vendetta“. Back when it came out in 2006, I was a busy parent, and used any excuse I had to hate the movie. Just so that I didn’t feel very bad about not going to the cinema to see it. I saw a brief trailer of this film on TV and thought that it was yet another comics-based movie about another superhero or somebody like that. Definitely, not something I wanted to see, especially back then. So I passed.

I have to say that I am really glad that I rented it yesterday. I picked it up just by chance. I already had two other movies in my hand, and when I saw this “V” thing, I thought maybe I’ll grab three movies today, since the weekend is upon me.

Brilliant movie! It has all the easy parts – the photography, acting, directing, special effects, etc. Many films do these days. But, this one goes beyond that. It has a really good story. An interesting one. And the one that needs more attention. I’d go as far as call it a political movie. It is about the role of government and mass media in our lives, how it used to be, and how things are changing, and how they aren’t changing for the better right now. It’s a brave story too – not that many films are willing to risk the ensured profits of the entertainment industry by bringing in strong political discussion into a film. But, as it has been proven many times, Wachovski brothers aren’t afraid of risks.

I really enjoyed how this political story was prepared and told. It’s interesting, and it’s very human. If I had to describe it in terms of other movies, I’d say that “V for Vendetta” is a very good mix of “Brazil” (think George Orwell’s “1984” ), “The mask of Zorro“, and “Invisible Man” (any version you like). Yes, something like that.

This is also a film that can be watched over and over again. The photography is beautiful, the soundtrack is great. There are plenty of small details all around. And there is this sense of style and class to it.

10 out of 10 (I know I’ve been giving away too many of high ratings recently, but it appears so that I missed a lot of really good movies)

Deja Vu

When I am looking for a movie to rent or watch in the cinema, I usually check a few things about the title – IMDB rating, cast, director, genres, awards, etc. I try not to read any reviews or plot descriptions, but everything else I usually do. Why am I doing this? Because there are so many crap movies out there that are not worse spending any time or money on. However, there are a few actors, who are like good brands. If I see that actor on a DVD cover, I will rent the movie without any other additional information. I might not even check the title of the film, or try to remember if I saw it before or not.

Denzel Washington is one of such actors. So, when I saw his face on a box of “Deja Vu“, I rented it right away. And, once again, I was right. The film is excellent. It has all to it – excellent story with a lot of twists, excellent acting, suspense, action, great photography, humor, food for thought, and so on and so forth. An extra point goes to those people who picked the cast. Everyone was good. But Paula Patton was really beautiful. Really.

If you are sensitive to spoilers, then don’t read this paragraph. There was a scene in the movie, where an FBI surveillance team is spying on this lady. They are watching her on a huge screen. She is at home, getting dressed or something. But the way she moves around, the way she looks, the way she smiles, it’s so beautiful that they are all stunned. They are watching her in silence for a few moments. Almost without blinking. Well, when the scene is over, I realized that it was like I was there, together with them, watching her. Truly amazing. It was a long time since I watched someone like that in the movie.

Anyway. The film is really good and if you like other Denzel Washington movies with action, drama, and crime, “Deja Vu” is truly recommended. 9 out of 10. Solid.

I Am Legend

I went to see “I Am Legend” with a few friends of mine. Some of them saw the film before a few times, but decided that it was worth another view anyway. That pushed my expectations up a bit. But. The film was indeed worth it.

Here are the things that I liked, in no particular order:

Will Smith. He is a good actor. It just that most of the times he has to do those rather simplistic roles. But in this one, you can see the talent. He does really good.
Visuals. There are some really cool images in the film. In fact, it’s the visuals that create the bigger part of this movie. There is some excellent photography, which could have been easily transformed into still images and paintings.
Drama. There seems to be no shortage of movies about viruses, zombies, and the end of the world. However, so many of them fail to create the drama around the events. Broken families, numerous victims, and blood rivers seem to be present everywhere. But rarely they are used to create the horrific sense of sadness and pity.

Of course, there were a few things that sucked in this movie. I’m not going to go through the details on these, since they aren’t worth it. However I’d like to mention the zombies. I think that the choice of rather cartoon-ish characters was wrong. More “realism” in this area could have made the movie almost perfect.

I’d give it a strong 7.5 out of 10, and a recommendation to watch it, even if you are not a fan of the sci-fi end of the world horror. It’s pretty good.

Dan in Real Life

I almost missed “Dan in Real Life“. I wasn’t even planning to see it, since the poster is does not appeal to me and I’m not a big fan of Steve Carell. I mean, he is OK, but he’s not someone who attracts me to the movie. But anyway. I ended up alone in the cinema. And I’m glad I did.

This is a strong 8 out of 10. There is no point at telling the story or bringing up any scenes from the film – most of them are rather traditional and have been seen before. The movie follows the stereotypical love story with all elements such as close family involvement, road trip, hurting someone’s feelings, kids, rain, “go get her”, etc. All these were present here too, and, I should say, there were very well done.

But the strength of the film is not in the love story. It’s in other things. For me personally, it was very refreshing to see a healthy family. And a big one a that. This whole film was around a well managed and developed family – something they don’t show very often in the movies. This film shows how parents can spend time with their children, how siblings can be good and supportive friends, how important are good family values and how they are passed along and cultivated. This part of the film was so good that I almost could not believe my eyes. That alone is worth the time.

And that wasn’t the only good part. Somehow, the film is very romantic and sentimental. Sometimes it’s said, sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it’s very social, and sometimes it’s very private. And it “feels” very good too. There is an almost natural balance of moods and transitions. It’s not boring, and it’s not trying to squeeze any tears out of you, while, at the same time, it’s not trying to make you laugh so hard you fell from your chair. It asks its share of questions, tries to provide some answers, and leaves a lot to think about, while still entertaining.

With all that, I am a little glad that it didn’t have a strong overwhelming story to tell. It already offered enough, and with a good story it would be pushing its luck. (However there are movies that do both).

Also, there is plenty of good acting in this film. It’s not brilliant or anything, but it is very believable and human. There were some familiar faces cast for this movie, and those that aren’t so familiar, did equally good.

Overall : strongly recommended.