Quantum of Solace

When you are watching a movie that is a revenge story and it's boring, you know it's bad. But when the movie has not one, but two revenge stories and you are fighting to stay awake? Well, that's Quantum of Solace. The follow up to hugely successful Casino Royale is stylish, elegant and beautifully shot, but unfortunately it's one of the worst 007 films ever made. Is it worth seeing? The problem with the film is that it has several great sequences, but it's everything in between that is a problem.

After the loss of his beloved Vesper in Casino Royale, Bond wants to find people responsible. There is also an evil organization Quantum, which is involved in Vesper's death somehow and has spies everywhere. How do we know they are evil? Because they are sneaky people who meet in the opera? Because they have creepy looking members with weird laughter? Yeah, that's pretty much it because throughout the movie all they do is talk apart from one pretty cool murder, but I'll get to that later.

Changeling

Woman's whisper, mother's cry

The Burning Plain

65/100 (107 min, 2008)
Plot: A drama with a two-tiered storyline concerning a mother and daughter who try to form a bond after the young woman's difficult childhood.
Director: Guillermo Arriaga
Writer: Guillermo Arriaga
Stars: Charlize Theron, Kim Basigner and Jennifer Lawrence

Love heals. Love absolves. Love burns.

If you are a movie fan you are probably familiar with the name Guillermo Arriaga. He is the guy who wrote scripts for many great Alejandro González Iñárritu's movies including Amores Perros, Babel and 21 Grams. The Burning Plain is his feature film directorial debut and it really shows his lack in experience when it comes to directing. While the story has many strong points and well written characters, the script is too chaotic. However what ultimately drags the movie down is the execution of that script .

To summarize the plot would be an impossible task - we watch three different women - Sylvia, (fantastic Theron) successful but self-destructive woman who hides her regrets and anger by engaging in casual sex, often with men she barely knows, Gina (Kim Basigner) who has recently beaten breast cancer and now finds herself engaged in an affair with a man, while at the same time pulling away from her husband and her daughter Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence) who sees her mother actions and doesn't understand them.

Prom Night

15/100 (88 min, 2008)
Plot: Donna's senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life, though a sadistic killer from her past has different plans for her and her friends.
Director: Nelson McCormick
Writer: J.S. Cardone
Stars: Brittany Snow, Scott Porter and Jessica Stroup

Kill them all. Please.

I do love horror films. All horror films - the superb ones with great atmosphere and gorgeous cinematography, the scary ones with sadistic killers and even the bad ones with stupid teenagers getting massacred on the screen. If there is one thing I object to is making a horror movie, in this case slasher flick, into PG 13 movie. That's just ridiculous. The only reason slasher flicks with teenagers as main characters are entertaining are the creative, gross and ridiculous ways in which moron by moron, they die. Prom Night is not only a bad horror film. It also continues another trend - of doing pointless remakes to the films that absolutely don't need to be remade.

The film follows Donna who couple years back witnessed her entire family being killed by a stalker, her teacher, who became obsessed with her. Since Donna is played by Brittany Snow who is ugly as sin there goes the credibility of the plot right there.Anyways the guy as blind or drunk may be is infatuated with her - why? Who knows. So he thinks it's a good idea to murder her entire family while she hides under bed and watches him do his thing. He gets caught few days later in his apartment (!), confesses (!), the jury obviously finds him insane which the lead detective can't believe in (!) and he is sentenced for life. He escapes the prison through the ceiling, apparently (!), and the lead detective finds out about his escape 3 days later (!). Yeah, that is fine script right there.

Eden Lake

(91 min, 2008)
Director: James Watkins
Writer: James Watkins
Stars: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender and Tara Ellis

oh, Children!

Stephen Taylor (Michael Fassbender) invites his girlfriend (Kelly Reilly), a kindergarten teacher Jenny, to spend the weekend in Eden Lake, a paradisaical and remote place in the woods. However, his true intention is to propose Jenny. While camping at the lake shore, they are disturbed by a gang of loathsome boys leaded by the punk Brett. The next day, the couple realizes that they have been robbed and are stranded in the woods without their car. While walking through the forest trying to reach the road, Steve and Jenny meet the gang and they are brutally attacked. Steve is captured by the youths while Jenny is seeks a way out of the woods with the criminals chasing her.

I want to say upfront – I love kids. I want to have three myself. Whenever I turn on the news and I hear something bad happened to a child I instantly have tears in my eyes. But as I sometimes wonder about my future kids' possible names and how would they look like I always think of infants and kinder garden kids, never about the time when they start to rebel. Teenagers are hell, no matter where they are and who raises them. But hell has many different shades - there is a difference between smoking cigarettes in school bathroom when they are fifteen and torturing strangers when they are twelve.

“Eden Lake” tells a story that can happen to anyone and that is the most petrifying aspect of the film. When you're watching it you think that something like this cannot possibly happen in today's world, but then you start thinking and you come to the conclusion that sadly it is, in fact, our horrible reality – that children like those in the movie can be seen anywhere around us. Stephan and Jenny are a normal couple – she's sweet, loves kids as she is kinder garden teacher. He is trying to look like a macho in front of her, but as he wants to propose, he takes her for romantic weekend at the lake.

In Bruges

(107 min, 2008)
Director: Martin McDonagh
Writer: Martin McDonagh
Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Elizabeth Berrington

Hell, Heaven and Purgatory...In Bruges.

(spoilers)

The mind is its own place,
and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell,
a Hell of Heaven.
- John Milton

Two hitmen are sent to Bruges. It's in Belgium. One of them, Ray, hates the place and calls it a 'shithole', the second, Ken is enchanted by its beauty and enjoys sightseeing. Lovely and simple isn't it?

No it isn't. Ray, whilst being on hist first 'mission' was supposed to kill a priest and he did. The problem is, the bullet reached a little boy and killed him aswell. Ray cannot live with his overwhelming feeling of guilt. He isn't a bad person, he's charming, a little bit shy and lost guy, simple person who is crashed emotionally by one tragic event. For Ray Bruges is hell - he is being hauned by the memory of that horrible event when he sees happy kids. He is bored out of his mind, he hates sightseeing, he has nothing to do with his thoughts and ultimately he can't stand this anymore. He decides to kill himself, on playground, but is stopped by Ken, who sents him away and tells him to keep a low profile. Ray would probably try commit suicide again, but because of chain of hilarious and unexpected events he gets back to Bruges and again meets the girl he went on a date once, Chloe. They walk around the town, they kiss and seem happy. And maybe it could stay like that. Maybe Ray's hell could have become heaven for him, once he delt with his guilt. But remorse and absolution came in different form. Ray's boss Harry kills him because of his conviction that the person who killed a little kid cannot live. Ray dies surrounded by people he met in bruges, on a film-set crowded with people in surreal masks, snowflakes falling from the sky. The movie's ending isn't ambigious as many think - Ray is dead and we as the audience see the last thing he sees.

Elegy

(112 min, 2008)
Director: Isabel Coixet
Writers: Nicholas Meyer (screenplay), Philip Roth (novel)
Stars: Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz and Patricia Clarkson

The biggest surprise in a man's life is old age.

(spoilers)

David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) is growing old. He's a professor of literature, a student of American hedonism, and an amateur musician and photographer. When he finds attractive Consuela (Penelope Cruz), a 24-year-old Cuban and his student, he sets out to seduce her.

Isabel Coixet makes the most beautiful movies about dying. “Elegy” is based on the novel “The Dying Animal” by Philip Roth – it is centered around older man who is aware of his age and how fast the life is running away from him. Kepesh is self-centered, hedonistic and arrogant man who at first just wants to sleep with Consuela. But with time he will be enchanted by her – in the first few weeks he will treat her as any other trophy – he adores her, calls her “work of art”, is jealous of her, follows her. He behaves as “child being possessive of its toys”. But it's only after losing her, because of his fear, immaturity and the lack of courage to face the real world consequences of being with someone, he will realize how much she meant to him.
The character of David is not very likeable, but because of terrific work from Ben Kingsley you really want to know what will happen to him and at some points of the movie, you wish what will happen is good. He may be egoistic, but which one of us isn't. He is frustrated with the passing time so he creates his life to be as pleasurable as it may be. Can he blamed for that? No. At least he is being honest – he leaves his marriage when it stops working out for him, which is not a good thing, but at least it's an honest thing. But he doesn't realize he escapes one prison to build another one, one he will not even know he's locked up in – his own illusion of control. He creates the “perfect” relationship with his friend Caroline (amazing Patricia Clarkson), with whom he was sleeping for the past 20 years. It works for him and for her too. But this haze, this illusion of things working out must perish at some point and it does. That's when David and Caroline have their first real conversation – real because they don't hide they fears and regrets, because they finally are honest to each other.

Nothing but the truth

(108 min, 2008)

Director: Rod Lurie
Writer: Rod Lurie
Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon and Vera Farmiga

 

Don't reveal the source.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
- Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression

Thinking Pulitzer Prize and hoping to bring down a President, D.C. political columnist Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale) writes that the President ignored the findings of a covert CIA operative when ordering air strikes against Venezuela. Rachel names the agent, Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga). The government moves quickly to force Rachel to name her source. She's jailed for contempt when she refuses. She won't change her mind, and the days add up. First Amendment versus national security, marriage and motherhood versus separation. What's the value of a principle?
This movie is the perfect example of how far the writers will go nowadays in order to provide a shocking twist in the end of the movie. In case of “Nothing but the Truth” the price for the twist was very high – plausibility of the story. Scratch those last five minutes and you have a fantastic thriller, about important and complex conflict. Free speech or national security? Is is all right for the government to jail a person because of the information she gives to the public? Even if the information is true? Is it moral to destroy someone's entire life for the sake of telling the truth?

The movie's heart and it's best moments lie in the showdown between journalist Rachel and CIA agent Erica. But there really is no issue as for who you should root for if you consider the acting – Farmiga steals the show easily, from very pretty but as usual, bland Beckinsale. As far as acting abilities go, I believe this is the best Beckinsale can do – she doesn't have much talent and the only reason we feel for her character is because, essentially in the face of common sense, Rachel is an innocent person. She found out about something, she published the story and now she's in jail. It's frightening not because of what character is going through – it's scary because things like that can actually happen in real life.

Farmiga's performance is strong and unforgettable – her work in “Up in the Air” was terrific, but “Nothing but the truth” should have been her big break. When the movie focuses more on Rachel it starts to lose viewer's interest, but when fierce Erica is present it keeps you watching with the biggest fascination. Here is a woman, that you know would be equally effective in reading bedtime stories to her daughter and doing secret work for her country. Farmiga doesn't have that much screen time but the strong script provides her with wonderful material to work with. I found interesting piece of trivia and I'm going to quote it to show you how deep in her character's body Vera was - “There is a scene in the movie where Erica Van Doren is given a lie detector test because the CIA suspects that she leaked her own identity. Rod Lurie, the director brought in a real life polygraphist to polygraph her for the scene. He asked her if her name was Erica Van Doren and if she worked for the CIA. After the scene was over the polygraphist called Lurie over to tell him that Farmiga beat the polygraph test because the machine said that she was telling the truth.“

"Nothing but the truth" also features great performances from Matt Dillon as a confident attorney who tries to make Rachel give up her source and even though he comes off as bad guy, he technically doesn't do anything wrong – he just follows the law, and Alan Alda as the defense attorney. They are both great to watch in their scenes and Alda brings in a lot of warmth and humor to the movie. Rachel's husband is played by David Shwimmer from “Friends” and as much as his character differs from Ross, it's hard not to be distracted whenever he is on screen. Same goes for ER's Noah Wyle, who plays Rachel's boss.

The film has a very good script that fails at the very end. The ending, as much as it may have a lot of sense if you don't think about it, is extremely weak. Because when we find out who the source was, we really can't think of a reason why the source would need any secrecy from Rachel's, especially given all the horrible things that happened when she didn't confess who it was. Was she only fighting for general reasons? For the sake of not revealing the source? Because she is a journalist? I find it hard to believe, that when a woman is jailed, basically loses contact with everyone, can't be with her son, making world a better place would be her only concern. Had Farmiga played Rachel, because of the strength she has I'd believe that. But not when Beckinsale did. I'm not even certain if it was moral for Rachel to use that information in the first place, regarding who the source turned out to be. I can maybe agree with people who say that Rachel was protecting the source because nobody would tell reporters anything if they would easily give the names of the sources under pressure, but as for the argument of protecting the person for the sake of blocking the knowledge of how much blood is on its hands...well, no matter what Rachel does, the blood was spilled anyways.

Regardless of the end, the movie is still worth watching and it's one of the best, character driven films I've seen in recent years. It has great actors, appropriate pace and a mystery that when revealed will shock you. It also makes you wonder about things, about what would you do if you were in Rachel's place. That is – you think about it, throughout the entire film, except for the last scene.

81/100

Death Race

(111 min, 2008)
Plot: Ex-con Jensen Ames is forced by the warden of a notorious prison to compete in our post-industrial world's most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Writers: Paul W.S. Anderson (screenplay), Paul W.S. Anderson (screen story)
Stars: Jason Statham, Joan Allen and Tyrese Gibson

Drive!

I heard something about Jason Statham's movies from my friend – that he have made three truly awful movies – Uwe Boll's film, “Revolver” and “Death Race”. I haven't seen first two, but having seen “Death Race” I have to say I strongly disagree about last one. The movie is very entertaining, and as an action movie works well. “Crank 2” was hell a lot worse, to the point I would close the review in two words only - “Jason, why?”

In 2012, amid economic chaos and high unemployment, Americans by the millions watch criminals with life sentences race armored cars on Terminal Island. Two-thirds of the combatants die but the winner may earn his freedom. On the day he loses his job, steelworker Jensen Ames (Statham) is arrested for his wife's murder. Sent to Terminal Island, he's offered an out by the steely and manipulative warden Hennessey (Joan Allen) race as the popular mask-wearing (but now dead) champion, Frankenstein, or rot in prison. Jensen makes the bargain. As the three-stage race approaches, he realizes that the whole thing may be a set up - can an anonymous man behind a mask get revenge and win his release?

The race scenes are amazing – I don't have a driving license myself (because I want to live and had I driven a car a lot of people would surely die) so I'm always impressed by any race/chase scenes. I can't even imagine how some of the scenes were made – after all it's all fake – nobody died, nobody's head was decapitated, but all of those stunts look so incredibly dangerous and realistic you totally forget you're watching a movie. The editing is also very nice and Paul Haslinger's score is excellent.

It's really refreshing to finally see (after all those mindless action films) Statham playing a character you can sympathize with. I liked his character in “Transporter” series, but this could be due to the fact he wore a suit and drove a fancy car, but I hated the one in “Crank”. Here the whole set-up for his character reminded me of “Law Abiding Citizen”, especially the beginning – his wife gets killed and he wants revenge. He also has a little baby girl to whom he wants to return to. That's enough for the viewer to root for him.

Statham also finally got actual woman to play his love interest, not those slutty chicks in “Transporter” movies. Natalie Martinez is very attractive and plays likeable character of Chase, Jensen's navigator. They have very good chemistry and Jason smiles about 10 times more than in all “Cranks” and “Transporters” combined. Hell, I'm not surprised he did, finally having a reason to do that. The ending is also very good and satisfying.

The film has two actors in it, who you think should feel out of place, but they don't – Ian McShane and Joan Allen. McShame plays one of the guys who help the main hero with the car and along with other men from mechanic crew brings a lot of comic relief. Allen plays icy warden and is great to watch – she's cold, determined and ruthless. I had the same feeling here as when I was watching Bill Nighy's performance in “Underworld”. Those actors know that the movie is just an action film, far from masterpiece, but still manage to do great work and have some fun in addition to it.

The story is very simple, as with most action films. Most of the film are race scenes, but given how they are placed in a futuristic world (I cannot imagine this actually happening any time soon, people racing to death with the approval of prison wardens and their supervisors) it's interesting and quite unique. The visual side works well – everything is dark and grim, movie's pace is very fast – I wasn't bored for a second. Yes, some of the lines are cheesy and some of the dialogue is awful, but the bottom line is that I had a lot of fun watching the film and I'm glad I saw it, despite awful reviews and opinions about it.

64/100