linaskk Reviews

Margin Call (2011)

Review of Margin Call

[7/10 · 18 December 2011]

Some people might say that 2 Academy Awards winner Kevin Spacey has lost his prime spark and since performances in American Beauty or K-PAX (back in 1999 and 2001, accordingly) have not done anything worth mentioning. Yes, he starred many great movies at his golden age, 90s: The Usual Suspects, L.A. Confidential or Se7en, to mention a few, but last decade was pretty shallow for him. Seems like Spacey is back in 2011, J.C. Chandor's financial thriller Margin Call. Together with Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto and Demi Moore they try to save huge company from facing financial crisis in 24 hours.

Margin call starts as a reflection of recent nowadays world's events - huge company suffers from staff redundancy and even the most loyal employees are told to leave their jobs. (At this point you might get a little déjà vu from Up In The Air, but similarities of these two ends just around the corner). On his way out, one of the staff managers Eric Dale entrusts secret unfinished project to junior worker Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), whispering "Be careful" to his ear. Young and ambitious genius Peter decides to finish his ex-foreman's mysterious work and finds out that their company is doomed to bankrupt and lose all their capital in very near future. So, the staff has time till morning to figure out what to do. Here rises the moral aspect, what will company chose – sell their stocks, giving away all the problems in package, or just give up fairly.

The cast of Margin Call truly deserves many good words. Amazingly colorful, experienced and talented male actor set like this could have saved almost any lame plot from evolving into disaster movie (capitals or not, doesn't really matter), luckily, they did not have to. Well known movie stars: already mentioned Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Paul Bettany etc., trusted young and unknown director J.C. Chandor on his first journey to the big screen and we here have surprisingly good result. It would be difficult to divide roles to leading and supporting ones, despite their position in company's hierarchy, there are 4 or 5 people getting pretty much the same amount of time in the script and successfully using it.

Technical details of crisis were not escalated here, more likely covered, by a few meaningless dialogues like: "-Do you know what it means? -Yes, but what do you think about it? -The same as you do.". It is understandable that many people do not care about the financial details, but throwing a lot of hardly understandable economical terms at the watcher would seem like way more serious choice than simply wrapping everything in the paper in such a simple way.

Combination of great actors not necessarily grants success to a movie, the Expendables must have been a good lesson proving that. Margin Call has much more: subtle, but well used cinematography, strong dialogue lines, pretty unique plot and thriller's atmosphere, which enables movie about a thing like finances not to appear boring on screen.

Real Steel (2011)

Review of Real Steel

[8/10 · 18 December 2011]

Movies about ring fighters have always been popular – just remember titles of multi Oscar winning movies like Rocky, the Wrestler, the Fighter, Million Dollar Baby etc. Shawn Levy, director probably best known for Night at the Museum, also decided to make one, this time about...robots. Yup, in close future (2020) robot boxing is a new incredibly fascinating hype. Our protagonist Charlie Kenton (played by Hugh Jackman, known from movies like...oh come on, everyone knows Jackman from somewhere, whether it is X-men or Australia) is a boxer forced to retire because of growing popularity of roboboboxing.

Charlie could not keep away from boxing, so he joined new wave, though, he is experiencing not the best stage of his life: sleeping in his truck together with old pieces of junk he uses for various meaningless fights, falling into debts and, what is worst, losing robots in battles. At this stage, out of the blue, Charlie's abandoned son comes into his life, surprising Charlie himself. Of course, raffish ex-boxer is far from being a good father, but this is where father and son relationship begins to emerge, and they emerge by doing the same robo-boxing together.

Hugh Jackman is one of the most popular guys in modern Hollywood, men think he is cool thanks to roles like Wolverine and Van Helsing, women love his charisma and appearance. What is best, he fits in this hot-headed, careless, but deep down inside kind hearted guy's role perfectly. Seems like he was born to do roles like Charlie Kenton. However, Jackman is not the only guy who shines in Real Steel. Dakota Goyo, playing Charlie's son Max, gives really impressive show, being only 12 years old, he outperforms most of the actors two or three times older and more experienced than him. Chemistry between Goyo and Jackman works here well; their problematical father and son relationship looks believable and true. This kid might have hell of a career if he continues working on his talent and skills. Also, Evangelina Lilly finally escaped from mysterious lost island and joined the crew. Though, she had not much space in the plot to expose herself, there were a few scenes to show her potential; she was a nice touch to this movie overall.

Probably the most important stuff to mention in a robot movie is special effects and visuals. Real Steel shines here too, robot animations have never looked so realistic; add huge variety of totally different robot designs, most of the time reflecting their master's personality, and you'll get really great looking portion of action. Camera work is also worth applauds, beautiful landscapes combined with superb lighting makes Real Steel true eye candy.

Sound of the movies is pretty rarely discussed as a separate part, but Reel Steel's sound work deserves a paragraph. Fight sounds do not not leave you any chance to doubt that this is how bashing other robot's head sounds like. Soundtrack, a powerful combination of hip hop/rap music (songs by Eminem, Timbaland and other famous names) and rock (Foo Fighters, Tom Morello) can easily make you blood boil on every fight you see on the screen.

It might sound almost idyllic so far, but not everything is so perfect. The weakest point of Real Steel is its plot; it can be predicted from very first 15 minutes, as soon as you understand what this movie is all about. Careless father's and son's reconnection theme has been touched numerous times before, fighting and climbing to the top is also not a new thing, too. Struggle between human's mind and artificial intellect is one of the most unique aspects, but I, Robot did it almost a decade ago. So, Real Steel is basically a mix of stories seen or heard before, dressed in new clothes, damn attractive clothes well put together.

Real Steel is far more than just a mix of Rocky and Transformers; it is very atmospheric boys action movie, which surely leaves you entertained for whole 130 minutes and it passes like half an hour. It probably will not get an Academy Award or make a change in film history, but it surely is one of best movies this fall.

One Day (2011)

Review of One Day

[5/10 · 18 December 2011]

David Nicholls's book One Day was not something impressive or exceptionally good, but for some reason Danish director Lone Scherfig (An Education, 3 Academy nominations) decided to make her own version of it. Scherfig's adaptation for big screen is pretty much direct one, without any plot changes like alternative of ending, new characters etc.

One Day starts like all love stories do – a boy meets a girl. Two college graduates: beautiful shy girl, wearing over sized glasses, Emma (Anne Hathaway) and self confident charismatic upper-class boy Dexter (Jim Sturgess). They spend the night of July 15th together and this starts their relationship going. One Day takes time of 20 years where characters live two separate lives – Emma is trying to become a successful writer, Dexter is working for his fame as a TV host – but no matter what happens in their lives, they meet on 15th of July every year.

One day was doomed to be ordinary (means boring as hell) romance movie, but showing only one day of the year has made it interesting experience as this became key aspect of whole film. This composition enables us to see growth of couple's relationship over the flow of time. This idea sounds pretty original, however, the most of romance fans must have seen Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer, which has exactly the same concept, only the time period is shorter, so it have not involved changes of environment. Those environmental changes are probably the strongest aspect of whole movie. Hearing constantly changing nostalgic music themes (from Corona's Rhythm of the Night to Ronan Keating's Life Is A Roller-coaster), seeing advancing cars, technology and fashion in general, make this idea of passing time believable.

The main roles are entrusted to always stunning Anne Hathaway and not very well known British actor Jim Sturgess. Hathaway's solid performance is definitely huge input to movie, but Sturgess's character lacks something. His role is to be charismatic, spontaneous TV host, experiencing both, up and downs, of living rich and famous lifestyle, but the actor simply seems to be unnatural in these situations. Supporting actors do not get much attention since One Day is two people story, but Rafe Spall (Emma's husband) and Patricia Clarkson (Dexter's mother) both fits well in their symbolic little roles, making noticeable changes in couple's lives.

One Day is terribly mediocre, moody film. It will be hard to find really good or really bad things after you left your seat, simply because it is average to death. Of course, there are promising aspects such as costumes, locations or music, but they are totally killed by shallow plot. Watching one day might appear as cozy way to spend cold autumn's evening for drama loving women, but for their men it can be painful experience.

In Time (2011)

Review of In Time

[6/10 · 18 December 2011]

Justin Timberlake is quickly becoming one of the most popular Hollywood actors of 2011. After performing in two romantic comedies (Friends with Benefits, Bad Teacher), he finally got leading role in Andrew Niccol's sci-fi movie In Time, where he has to do a bit more than just be handsome. In In Time Andrew Niccol (writer of great movies like The Terminal and The Truman Show) presents the idea of people stop aging at the age of 25 (50 years old woman is played by Olivia Wilde, God bless this technology). But everything is not as idyllic as it sounds, after reaching 25, your time is limited to only one more year, after your time expires you are simply shut down because there is no space left on the Earth. Time is a currency, a key to get everything from cup of coffee to couple of prostitutes, so logic is simple – the less you spend, the longer you live.

The story is quite simple: Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) was ordinary, but exceptionally honorable Ghetto boy counting his last days and one night he accidentally got rich, at the same being accused of murder. He runs away from Ghetto, becomes a rebellious fugitive and tries to make world a better place. Oh, he also grabs attractive rich man's daughter as hostage on his way.

In Time tries to be action thriller and has enough elements to be considered as such – racing cars (ugly modified, weird sounds making American muscles, I must mention), hiding, running, chasing, shooting scenes – but its social aspect rises above them all. Relationship between rich and poor, drama of both sides, different views to life (immortality and 25 years long insecure life; living free and living surrounded by bodyguards and high walls), finally, an allusion to importance of time and money in our real lives.

The main idea of not aging after 25 made whole cast choice a bit limited; all the actors had to be really young, sometimes lack of experience can be felt, especially when the lead actor is not a real professional. However, J.T.'s acting was not bad, so as it was not very impressive. Age restrictions didn't prevent Cillian Murphy from showing good performance, even though he is a whole decade older than his bad guy character – Time Keeper.

Besides really unique main idea, In Time sometimes might feel like a sci-fi flavored Romeo and Juliet's love story, with Robin Hood'ish elements at second half. It has interesting and believable environment, scenes are filled with catchy dialogues, which only improves atmosphere ("Will: Four minutes for a cup of coffee? Will's Friend: Yesterday it was three! Coffee worker: You want coffee or you want to reminisce?"). Sadly, this movie manages to keep interest only for the first half, later on it becomes chaotic and predictable at the same time.

To end with, In Time is not a bad movie, but it probably won't make people who do not like sci-fi change their opinion. Unique ideas like this do not come very often, it had a lot of potential, but, I believe, not all of it was used. Anyway, it still remains pretty interesting new experience, when everything in cinemas starts to give sense of repeating.

The Three Musketeers (2011)

Here musketeers go again.

[6/10 · 15 November 2011]

If Alexandre Dumas lived after the invention of cinema, he would be damn good script writer, I bet. His novel „The Three Musketeers" has been interpreted on screen countless of times not without a reason, even Mickey, Donald and Goofy combo played it back in 2004 ("All for fun, fun for all"). So, here musketeers come again, this time directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, empowered by quite impressive cast: women melting Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings, Kingdom of Heaven), Academy Award nominee Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) and supermodel Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil, The Fifth Element).

„The Three Musketeers" begins with "Assassin's Creed" or "Prince of Persia" game series style presentation of the characters (for those, who are unfamiliar with the titles, it's stealth action games, filled with various ninja'ish special effects). Modern Athos (Matthew Macfadyen) reborns as a diving assassin equipped with gadgets worth even Batman's attention, Aramis (Luke Evans) becomes a roof jumping renaissance ninja and Porthos (Ray Stevenson) seems to have gotten some supernatural strength… Ignoring those new super abilities they got, the cast of three old musketeers does really solid performance, although there are not much space for expressing their potential because of the lack of dialogues and focus of the plot being on other characters (D'Artagnan, King, Richelieu). Another big figure in the plot, Milady (Milla Jovovich), joins trio in robbing Da Vinci's vault (!), Milady performs slo-mo-bullets-escaping-twelve-years-old „Matrix" like run through trapped corridor and after reaching the goal – plans of modern warfare – betrays musketeers.

A year passes, musketeers feel betrayed, lost their way and motivation ("We are warriors, but there is no one to fight"). France is ruled by young, good-hearted, deeply fallen in love and totally not interested in politics King Louis XIII(Freddie Fox), which is manipulated by cunning Richelieu. And here comes hot tempered gaskon garçon named D'Artagnan (young Logan Lerman) and spices things up by challenging all three old musketeers to a duel. Paul Anderson was not very original here and used original Dumas's idea of how quadruplet got together and united for saving the honor of France and fighting Richelieu's (Christoph Waltz) bodyguards. At this point new musketeer's era begins. New era full of action, rapier battles, special effects, airship fights and mediocre jokes begins…

The new version is pumped with visual effects, most of them obviously designed for 3D version. The battle of airships with massive flamethrowers on top might actually be interesting if only you are able to get rid of idea scratching somewhere inside your head that something is just not right. Unfortunately, most of other, almost iconic, action scenes is seen somewhere else: escaping bullets, fighting on the rooftop or crossing "lasers" corridor leaves bitter taste in your mouth.

This story adaptation does not come anywhere close to the level of entertainment Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes gives, but if you are looking for brainless action movie with some nice costumes and landscapes The Three Musketeers still might be your pick. If you are not into this kind of movies or just like Dumas's original story – simply stay away from it.