Netflix Reviews #10

This is the tenth edition of my reviews of movies that I watch through Netflix or really on those movie channels on TV.  This was an interesting batch.  There wasn't really a bad movie in this bunch.  Maybe one of them doesn't really fit with the others but what the hell.

In the Land of Blood and Honey

Written and directed by Angelina Jolie, this movie is a strange one to launch your directing career with, but I'm glad that Jolie decided to do something like this.  During the Bosnian War, Danijel (played by the always awesomely evil looking Goran Kostic) finds that a woman he had been seeing before the start of the war is a captive in the same military camp he works in.  Ajla (played by Zana Marjanovic) has to suffer through most of what the Bosnians went through (according to the film) by the Serbs.  Danijel is shown to be somewhat uninterested in the conflict and only there because his father is Nebojsa (played by Rade Serbedzija) who is one of the leaders of the whole movement.  The biggest flaw with this film is something that I think a lot of people have noticed when analyzing this film.  It is severely one sided.  That makes part of the message Jolie might have been trying to send to be weakened.  The movie has some pacing problems but I attribute it more to the screenplay than to the directing.  I will say one thing.  I am glad that Jolie decided to touch on a subject that sometimes seems to be pushed under the rug and not spoken about and is still so controversial.  I just wish it could have been a little more even.  I also like that Jolie did not go for Hollywood on this one and filmed a bunch of well known actors and decided to keep it local for the most part.  This way the acting skills of those involved can shine.  Kostic and Marjanovic did pretty damn well.  For a directorial debut, it was quite brave.

5 out of 10 

  

A Dangerous Method

There is something incredibly interesting about David Cronenberg's work that draws me to it.  Whether it be his 80s horror movies Videodrome and Scanners or the incredibly and awesomely violent A History of Violence and Eastern Promises, I will give him a chance no matter what he comes up with.  So while I was skeptical of a movie about the history of psychoanalysis, I was excited to have another Cronenberg film.  The three figures that are central to the beginnings of psychoanalysis are Sigmund Freud (played by Viggo Mortensen, a Cronenberg favorite), Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sabine Spielrein (Keira Knightly).  It is an interesting triangle of sex and ideas that the three characters go through.  The acting is really fantastic throughout and I like that even though Jung and Spielrein were sexually involved, it never seemed passionate in the way we are used to but almost clinical.  Whether the movie gets the facts of these three characters and their relationships right, that is not my field and I have to say I enjoyed the dialogue.  The building tension between Jung and Freud throughout the film is palpable as they express their views on the reasons for mental disorders.  It is definitely a movie that is different from the usual Cronenberg fare, but I'm glad to see Cronenberg expanding his horizons.

7 out of 10

  

The Sitter

What a disappointing movie.  I like director David Gordon Green.  He has some really hilarious comedies to his name (Pineapple Express and Your Highness) but he has also shown that he can definitely do drama with one of my favorite movies of 2007, Snow Angels.  Here, the biggest problem with the movie is not Jonah Hill.  I like his deadpan style of comedy.  It is the freaking kids.  They are annoying every single time they are on screen and I just got tired of seeing them.  Every time the El Salvadorian kid showed up they did this whole Mexican villain sound which was just ridiculous.  The whole thing with Sam Rockwell's Karl the Drug Lord was pretty stupid and almost cringe enducing.  This is definitely not worth even a watch.

2.5 out of 10

 

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

The Mission: Impossible series of movies has come a really long way from the TV show that inspired it.  I can't say that I have been a huge fan of this series of spy thrillers since their inception.  Most of the time, convoluted story lines ruined some decent action scenes.  I have always liked the series penchant for showing some really cool spy technology.  I was leery when tackling this movie even though I had heard it was good.  Why?  Well, to main reasons... Tom Cruise and the director Brad Bird.  Cruise has managed to make three of this movies previously and they were never as cool or as entertaining as something like the Bourne movies.  It has also been almost ten years since the last movie I liked with him in the starring role.  Why was I fearful of Brad Bird?  One look at his filmography will tell you.  While he is a fantastic film maker when it comes to CGI animation, he had never helmed a live action movie.  That was a bit worrisome, but my worries were unfounded as what I got was an entertaining action/spy movie with some cool set pieces, beautiful and interesting scenes and some really awesome technology (that camouflage screen is pretty awesome).  I was surprised I liked this movie as much as I did.  I also liked the addition of Jeremy Renner.  I think he is a great action actor and he fit perfectly with the rest of the cast and in the movie in general.  Also, any movie that gives Simon Pegg screen time is a plus.  Surprisingly good.

7.5 out of 10

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Millenium series of novels by Swedish journalist and novelist Stieg Larsson became a huge international hit after they were published posthumously.  The movie based on the first novel was released in Sweden in 2009.  For some reason, Hollywood decided to remake the movie only two years after the Swedish version was released.  It is hard not to compare the two as they are almost the same (barring some of the stylistic choices).  Both are great movies but I felt this one was hurt by my already having seen the Swedish version and liking it so much.  They couldn't have gotten a better director for this remake though.  David Fincher has shown the eye he has for making terrible violence and incredibly deep characters, both things that this movie needed.  Also, they were lucky that Rooney Mara was able to get deep into Lisbeth Salander's psyche and play her so convincingly.  I thought it would have been hard to top Noomi Rapace's version.  Daniel Craig (as Mikael Blomkvist) was very good, but I liked Michael Nyqvist's version a little bit better.  Truth be told, I liked both movies a lot.  I just felt that this one suffered a bit from it being so soon since the last one was released.  By itself though, this is a fantastic movie and another notch for Fincher's belt.  I also have to give props to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for the awesome score.

8.5 out of 10

Haywire

Steven Soderbergh is one of those few directors who have already gotten the success that they want and they are not afraid to experiment and to try new things.  Always driving himself to do and try new things, Soderbergh films (good or bad) are always an experience.  Soderbergh cast MMA star Gina Carano for his latest experiment.  This is not the first time he has cast a non actor to a starring role (he cast porn star Sasha Grey for The Girlfriend Experience) and probably won't be the last.  For this spy thriller, he decided to do the right thing and got an incredibly experienced cast to work alongside Carano.  Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum and Michael Fassbender round up the cast of actors.  While Carano's acting throughout was suspect, the same cannot be said of the fight scenes.  Avoiding the new trend in Hollywood action films, the dreaded shaky cam, the fights highlight Carano at her best.  The fights feel natural and never do you think that anything that is happening on screen couldn't really happen in real life.  Carano is a natural for this type of action scenes.  The one with Fassbender in the hotel room is particularly awesome.  That said, the story is a little convoluted, but I didn't really watch this movie for the story.  I really do hope Carano keeps going in the movie business because she can fight and better yet, her abilities transfer well to the big screen.

7 out of 10 

A review that breaks rules #1 and #2 - Fight Club

WARNING: Do not hold up to open flame.

Ah Fight Club, one of those movies that seemed to be the perfect storm of awesome when it arrived. These days I group it in there with Pulp Fiction as one of the cliche favorite guy movies, and it has become one of those movies you just have to see.

I honestly hadn't seen the movie in years, and I was recently told that it didn't hold up as well as I remembered (by Fefi), a thought that I refused to even consider. So I picked it up at Costco and made a night of it. And I must say, not only does it hold up, but it might be even more relevant now than it was in 99.

It might sound odd, but in some ways Brad Pitt is like Jack Nicholson. Just stop yelling for a second and I'll tell you why... Every time each of them plays a sociopath or a crazy person it really just makes a movie a million times better. Siously, think about it. If  Fight Club was made in the 70's Nicholson would totally play Tyler Durden. But this is a comparison for a whole other post.

I wasn't kidding earlier when I called Fight Club a perfect storm. The story, the music, the acting, the cast. It all just fits.

Without spoiling the story (this might be tricky), Fight Club is without a doubt one of the biggest and most elaborate mindfucks I've seen in a movie. The type of mindfuck that just totally changes your view on the plot altogether when you see it again. And, to me, that's what makes this movie so great. You can re-watch it and find a new point in the story that just makes you think about how fucked up what you're watching actually is. If you haven't seen the movie, this paragraph makes no sense at all, but it just needs to be said.

The cast is as close to flawless as you're going to get. These roles feel like they were made for these people. Even the smaller parts are just perfectly cast. Meat Loaf as Bob immediately comes to mind as one of the most hilarious yet sad things I think I've ever seen. And seeing it after a couple of years, it's quite shocking how many people are actually in there; I mean, I had an honest "Holy crap, it's Jared Leto" moment.

The main character, played by Ed Norton, awkwardly enough has no name. Seriously. And this is done brilliantly to the point where I had to go all the way to IMDB just to check if his name was ever mentioned. It's not like in other films, where main characters remain nameless and that's 'their thing', in this case it just adds to the character; when he starts out he is the most unimportant man in the universe. And without giving much away, he does acquire a name (not his), and it just goes along with his transformation in the story, which is just really well done.

I mean, look at this sack of shit. He doesn't deserve a name.

His counter part (hint hint) is Tyler Durden, the pinnacle of bad-assery, of course played by Brad Pitt. Durden seems to take it upon himself to fix Norton, and of course hijinks ensue (to say the least). And as cool as Tyler Durden seems, it doesn't take a genius to see that something is off about him. Their friendship starts innocently enough, but it escalates rather quickly when they start beating the shit and piss out of each other.

It takes massive balls to wear shit like this.

The plot starts getting seriously twisted when a love triangle ensues between our two main characters and Marla, played by the always spectacular Helena Bonham Carter. Marla is without a doubt the most damaged woman in existence, and it feels weird because I'm just oddly attracted to her. This girl has issues that would drive most people insane, and that fact is made abundantly clear many times during the story. But what makes it interesting is that as fucked up as she is, it is made even more obvious that Norton's character is truly the fucked up one in their relationship. They play off each other brilliantly, and it just builds interesting characters.

She's so fucked up. I love her.

On top of all that, we have the soundtrack, which just helps suck the viewer into this experience. The Dust Brothers put together a score that just blends perfectly with the images. The drum loops at time are disorienting, but I think that's the idea. You need to be disoriented to go through what Norton goes through, and it's done in a way where you don't even notice it's happening until it's too late. It's rare to see music compliment an image this well, instead of being two stand alone expressions.

The only bad thing I can say about this movie is that the twist isn't all that original. It's been done. But it's not about the twist. It's about the message. And when you look at the bare bones of the message, it's quite cheesy. But since it's delivered in such an awesome way, you just end up walking away from this movie a different person. In this day and age, this movie just hits deep with most people. We all have our issues, and most people don't handle them properly.

So, why is Fight Club so awesome? It's a lot of things. But most of all, it has style. This is one of those movies that knows how awesome it is and it dares you not to like it. It's become quite the cult classic, and rightfully so. It carries a powerful message, and it delivers it without rubbing your face in shit. And I like that.

9/10