Movies

The Art of War

Watched “The Art of War” on DVD. This is the regular Wesley Snipes action with some gun fights, some martial arts, some car chases, some politics, and some thinkg by main characters trying to figure out things. Nothing more, nothing less.

It is not by any means a bad movie. Neither it is a good one. Just a regular average action. It was so average that they even used Japanese actors (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) to play Chinese ambassador. How much more average can it get?

Average film begs for an average rating. 5 out of 10.

Beyond Borders

I just watched “Beyond Borders” on DVD. This is an excellent drama about two people being in love and not being able to be together. It differs somewhat from many movies that I have seen recently.

The story is excellent. It is very realistic while providing this movie touch to it. There is plenty of excellent acting in the film. Both Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen delivered excellent performance. Accompaning soundtrack was very natural and nicely integrated making the movie a lot more atmospheric and emotional.

Camera work and photography were very good. The story takes place in different parts of the world from Africa to Chechnya and the difference is shown very nicely in the film. Attention to details was also beyond average with great costume design, supporting characters and set decorations.

I probably sound like this film was perfect. Well, it wasn’t but it was very very good. It was naive and slow at places, but these moments don’t spoil the whole impression from the movie.

I’ll give it 8 out of 10. Very very good.

P.S.: In this film Angelina Jolie plays an UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) ambassador. It turns out that she is a Good Will UNHCR Ambassador in real life and that she travelled to 15 countries where she helped refugees. Impressive!

P.P.S.: There is a moment in the film when Angelina Jolie sees a starving kid who is about to die and there is this huge bird sitting beside him waiting for him to die. She than stops the truck, picks him up and saves him. It turns out that this piece is based on a real story. Kevin Carter once made a photograph of a kid and bird like the ones in the movie. He won Pulitzer prize for it. But he, unlike Angelina in the movie, didn’t pick up and save the kid (it was dangerous because of many deseases over there). But he could never forgive himself for it and few years later he committed suicide (source is here, scroll down to the part where it says “Then there is the sad story…”. I picked this up at IMDB forums.).

Walking Tall

Watched “Walking Tall” on DVD. It is a good movie, but it is terribly late. If it was made 15-20 years ago, it would be one of the greatest hits somewhere along with “Commando“. Seriously. It has everything a hit action needed 20 years ago: a special forces muscular soldier, a sexy girlfriend, small town, crooked sheriff, and a simple story built upon revenge. It was pretty difficult to do all of this right two decades ago, but now it is classics and they teach this stuff at school. So this movie is late.

The only two things which are fresh here: The Rock and photography. The Rock is not particularly interesting or anything. Camera on the other hand provided me for some satisfaction.

Verdict: 5 out of 10. Pick it up if you are about to do some time travel. Otherwise, get something fresh.

Gladiatress

Watched “Gladiatress” on DVD. It is an attempt of a prank comedy with parodies on all historic action movies of the last 10 years.

There are a few funny moments in the film, but mostly it is very boring and slowly paced. There are simply not enough jokes. Story needs more focusing too. Too many people are moving around without participating in the film in any way. Decorations and costume design were pretty cheap, but these are pretty tought to get right in the historic movie, not to mention a parody of one.

Anyway, a 4 out of 10 rating on my behalf. Watching of “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” for a millionth time would provide way more satisfaction than this one. Skip it by all means.

Training Day

Watched “Training Day” on TV. I’ve seen this one before when it was in the movies. It does provide for some good entertainment even when watched a second time.

The film is a crime action with Denzel Washington playing a bad guy. That doesn’t happen that often I must say. And even when it does, like in this movie, he does not immediately appear as a bad guy. He is a kind of confused or maybe with slightly messed up limits of acceptable. He acts good anyway. The usual kind of good.

The movie touches on an interesting topic of what is good and what is bad. Like in that South Park episode that asked questions like “Would you kill you father to save your mother?”. In fact this time they were slightly more realistic. How far can cops bend the rules to get bad guys… and along these lines.

Anyway, the film is pretty good and deserves a solid 7 out of 10. Rent it for a Sunday night.