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Reviews
Five Fingers (2006)
Five Fingered rendition parable WARNING: Slight spoiler
In Five Fingers, two people arrive in Morroco as part of a food distribution program. There is nice scenery of Morocco as two volunteers Gavin (Colm Meany) and Martijn (Ryan Phillipe) tour the landscape by bus. He is mysteriously tailed upon his arrival, and abducted. He awakens chained and is realizes he is "targeted". But is Martijn really who he says he is? A North African Ahmat (Lawrence Fishburne) begins a game of chess that is really a game of cat and mouse. As he ends the chess match with increasingly painful torture events. With one tormentor knowing more and trying to learn greater details, and a victim denying, yet somehow giving away more via flashbacks **Spoilers*** Needless to say the difficulty in distribution (since this came out in 2006) is due to the initial execution of one "victime" and torture of another during the War on Terror years 2001-????. It wasn't going to find proper distribution, however, it was curious that it was o.k. to show the torture of would be suspected Islamic terrorists in Rendition, 24 and countless other films, yet not show the reverse situation.
That being said, it is a pretty good film that builds suspense. In the vein of Death and the Maiden or the Interview. In the ending, you really expect a bigger twist - so it is a lot more predictable then it started off.
5.9 of 10
Batman Begins (2005)
Justice vs. Revenge
The frenetic pacing of the first act of Batman Begins takes place before he became Batman. Much of the alienation and solitary repose of Batman was borne from the early death of Bruce Wayne's parents. Henry DuChamp(Liam Neeson) would give direction to the rage that young Wayne felt - the need to balance justice vs. revenge and to channel his anger into a great power.
Michael Caine portrays a dignified Alfred Pennyworth, who is determined to keep the Wayne Manor alive. One minor issue with the plot detail begs the question; Did Jack Napier kill the Wayne parents or was it another character, and the Joker would evolve differently from the original Tim Burton Batman film? The justice vs. revenge theme is illustrated early in the film, and Carmine Falcone (played brilliantly by Tom Wilkinson) was able to antagonize the young Wayne into going on his sabbatical to find some kind of test of his will. The set design of the film hearkens to machine Teutonic and a hurried pace toward the end of the film climaxed into a pulse-pounding ending.
"Its not who I am underneath, its what I do that defines me", was an apt quote for the Dark Knight. Hence, 8 out of 10. A great return for the franchise.
Stratosphere Girl (2004)
comic diary come to life
Stratosphere Girl attempts to be the film, Lost in Translation pretended to be.
It gave a dreamy interpretation of a foreigner lost in Tokyo's netherworld of "hostess" bars. A Belgian student-graduate notices disappearances of girls while working part time at a bar. This is a very real phenomena, because foreign girls are in demand in Tokyo, particularly. A few years ago a similar thing happened to an English girl in 2003. Usually some of the girls, if not most are illegally trafficked in. This film gives an impression of Japan not shown in Lost in Translation. As Angela begins to illustrate her experiences, each transition is materialized. She narrates her story weaving it within her drawings. The director uses lots of natural light and switches to hand-held camera work to give intimacy to the settings.
As she descends into the mystery of the disappearance of Larissa, she meets many archetypes of Japan's powerful underworld. she wishes she could merge with the comic world and often does. Stratosphere Girl is a dream-laden neo-noir film detailing the reality of foreign hostess bars. Its sort of an abstraction between Lost in Translation and American Splendor. her apt quote best describes "the Stratosphere Girl"'s adventure:
"When one is looking for something, everything has meaning."
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
A Mirror of our times?
The odyssey of Jonathan Demme continues with another remake following The Truth about Charlie. The Manchurian Candidate remake trades the Cold War for the Kuwait Gulf War, and Major Ben Marco is played with tragic suffering by Denzel Washington. A preoccupied Liev Schrieber offers his troops a subdued portrait of Raymond Shaw. As usual Jeffrey Wright delivers a solid performance as Al Melvin, one of the mind controlled troops.
Following a return from Kuwait, 13 years after, the patrol members begin to suffer from dreams. All may not be well, as Marco notices one of his members, Al Melvin warns him about dreams he's been having about the lost 3 days following an ambush in Kuwait. As the film moves on, I notice that the more disheveled Ben Marco becomes, the more aware of the conspiracy and the scope of it begins to become apparent. He looks as if he's on the fringes as he begins questioning the apparatus of the secret state and the,corporate totalitarianism that is "Manchurian Global".
Demme adequately captures the paranoia and rampant patriotism of post 9/11. It seems as if it's a mirror of our current times, except in our world "Manchurian Global" is a sobering reality (insert Enron,Carlyle Group here)(minus the mind-controlled assassins, right?)
The brainwashing scenario fades in and out seamlessly amid "co-conspirators" that appear briefly and seem to vanish. Meryl Streep emulated the original role of Eleanor Prentiss Shaw with vigor and gleeful accuracy. The near oedipal relationship between her and Raymond becoming evident as the film builds to an exciting end. Look for cameos by Roger Corman(a Demme mentor), Al Franken, and a nice role by Bruno Ganz. Denzel Washington gives us a broken, but courageous Ben Marco. A courageous soldier fighting against unbelievable odds to get his story across.
The Manchurian Candidate succeeded where most remakes failed. It updated the Cold War and submits a sobering, fear-paralyzed nationalist, U.S.
"More and more, I think our society is being manipulated and controlled" -John Frankenheimer, director of the original Manchurian Candidate
hence , 7 out of 10!
Alexander (2004)
a noble, inspired film
Oliver Stone's film is as impassioned as Alexander, himself. Alexander(Colin Ferrel) begins to tame his fear by overcoming it. Beginning with the taming of Bucephalus, the wild horse, He sought his destiny, by overcoming his fear. His aim; To match the glory of Achilles. His father(Phillip) teaches him that there is no glory without suffering, and that greatness comes from loss.
He would go on to conquer Asia, Southeast Egypt and be declared the "true son" of Zeus.
The battle sequences in the film had a wide area of weapons and the above shots gave an overhead scope of the battle. Even, a little J.F.K was referenced with "back and to the left" being said during the battle with the army of Darius.
He sought to unite Macedonia and Asia and in doing so sought to overcome the prejudices against both Greek and Asian, by uniting his lineage with Roxane(a very sexy Rosario Dawson). The climactic battle in India with horse backed warriors against soldiers from India on mounted Elephants was epic. Stone using red film stock switches to emphasize his vision of battle. With some premonition, Alexander sees his death in the reflection( of Medusa) of the wine he's about to drink. During this time, men abandon him, as he sought conspirators within his camp. Great performances by Colin Ferrell, Jared Leto, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie, who displayed impressive range as an actress(by playing a woman older than she really is).
Oliver Stone delivered a condensed, impassioned film about The Greatest Alexander of all.
Fukkatsu no hi (1980)
ambitious, but flawed epilogue
In this vision of the early 80's apocalypse films, the U.S. and Japanese co-produced an ambitious film called Virus. It was 1980, and it ran right around the time, Threads (1981) and the Day After (1983)came out. The scenario starts with a submarine surfacing following the reconnaissance of a drone looking for survivors in Paris in the aftermath of terrible plague. Most of the still living international personnel are safe in Antarctica, and are trying to cope with this inevitable Holocaust that ravages most of the world from Spring 83 to November.
In flashbacks, we see how a bio-weapon called MM-88 is passed on in a weapons deal in E.Germany, but in the midst of this transfer parties are slain. Around the same time, President Richardson(Glenn Ford) asserts the peace process with a Soviet Accord in 82', much to the chagrin of the military establishment, which is anxious to get funding for the ARS (automatic response system) which would give them the "Arms advantage necessary to contain the Soviets".
An accident takes place while the weapon is being flown over a mountainous region, accidentally releasing the genetically engineered super virus (Italian Flu) that rages through country after country. Just when things couldn't get any worse, a "fail-safe" retaliatory strike will be accidentally set off when an impending sea quake of about 8-9.0 hits the sea (which will be interpreted as a nuclear blast by the ARS system)
It had the usual disturbing images....the burning of piles of bodies, and the moral dilemmas of repopulating the world. The melancholy music score provides ambiance to the somber proceedings. The continuity is a little stilted because the Japanese version has some events from Japan's point of view added in. Bo Swenson is a hoot in surly "Walking Tall" mode through the film. Ford provides a embattled, stern but rational President, while Henry Silva hams it up as the "military lunatic" on the fringe. The location shots in what looks like Antarctica was pretty good. The production looked top-notch for its time. A pretty good apocalypse film, if you ignore the huge gap in logic towards the end. 5.7 out of 10