Never Let Me Go
The book on which the film is based was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was nominated by Time magazine as the best novel of 2005. Every basic ethics discussions ponders the question whether it is moral to take organs of one person to save a few other persons. The film is sophomoric, disgusting and sad.
New Moon
The sequel to Twilight is a big disappointment for the adult mind. Only teenage girls with a crush on Robert Pattison will enjoy this film. Nothing new happens. Bella’s vampire boyfriend, Edward (Robert Pattison), leaves her so she can be safe. Bella is crushed and becomes depressed. She spends a lot of time with Jake, who develops a big crush on her and now competes with Edward for Bella’s love. Jake also moonlights as a werewolf. Edward, believing that Bella died, wants to commit suicide. But Bella finds him in Italy just in time to prevent his suicide. They promise each other to stay together forever. The End. We are ready for the next episode, Eclipse, coming out in June.
UP
It is difficult not to repeat myself in reviewing Pixar movies. Once again the studio has made a superb film. Unlike many sequel franchises that tend go downhill pretty quickly, Pixar’s line of films is one wonder after another. Like all the other Pixar films, UP works for young and old. This time even the very old. See this movie with the entire family and embark on a marvelous adventure to South America.
Avatar
What a stunner! Turn the clock back 200 years. Not even the photograph has been invented. Here you are minding your business, strolling into your local pub. After your first beer with friends and family the room is magically transformed into a modern-day 3-D theatre, and you are treated to the visual beauty of James Cameron’s Avator. Grandpa and grandma would probably have a heart attack. They could not fathom that such a lifelike motion picture was possible. Are my eyes fooling me? Is the devil playing a trick on me? No, you are in a time machine, taking you 200 years into the future, and witnessing a major event in the history of motion pictures. Marrying animation with a new 3-D camera technology, James Cameron has taken filmmaking to a whole new level. Unlike Titanic, where Cameron used simple characters, this sci-fi adventure is populated by a wide range of interesting characters. Foremost, of course, are the avatars. Each avatar is a robot-like copy of a person that is controlled by his or her mind. Visually, the film is gorgeous. There are so many novel elements in the film that I wanted to see it a second time right away. Next time I will see it in an IMAX theatre, where the experience will be even greater. A day after watching Avatar, my inner life is still dominated by the effects of this amazing motion picture event.
Postscript Jan 12, 2023. I watched the film again before viewing the sequel. had forgotten most of the plot. Seeing it again was an adventure. Now that global warming has hit us so vividly, Cameron’s reverence for nature comes out even stronger.
Continue ReadingBriefly Noted: 17 Again, Bride Wars & Hildegard
Zack Efron is beautiful and fun to watch. Matthew Perry is a letdown. But 17 Again has a few good lines. Bride Wars is a real chick flick. Men will not understand what the whole thing is about. Hildegard, a film about the first part of the career of post-WW II actress and singer Hildegard Knef, is not nearly is good as La Vie en Rose, the film about the life of Edid Piaff that I reviewed in an earlier entry.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is Hollywood at its best. The film lifts a simple idea from a short story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and turns it into first-class entertainment that touches on deep emotions of the human condition: being in love, getting older, and dying. Hollywood works its magic by hiring great writers (Eric Roth and Robin Swicord) who take Fitzgerald’s plot line of a baby boy who is born old and gets younger and put together a narrative that is much grander than the original short story. Add to this a competent director (David Fincher), two of today’s biggest stars in the leading roles (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett), and a team of splendid set and make-up designers. Voila, you have all the elements of a great movie. The only weakness in this production is the editor: The film could have been half an hour shorter. But the production is so good that you can even forgive this weakness.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
This fairy tale reminded me of children’s theatre, a visit at the circus, and a Hollywood love story and action film all mixed into one. It is fun to watch Jonny Depp play a pirate who has been deposed by his crew and now wants to regain his position as the captain of a famed pirate sailing ship. Some of the dialogues are excellent. The writers know how to put together entertainment for all ages.
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Twilight
Most people I know woke up to the full powers of the flesh sometimes in their second decade. Some experience this discovery as ‘no big deal;’ others are thrown off balance. Trying to explore this new territory with some success often proves dauntingly difficult. Many films have been made about teenage romance. A few of them are delightful to the adult mind. Twilight is one of them. It takes you to a different place: A truly dangerous love affair that every parent, for once, would have a right to oppose: Do you want your teenage daughter fall in love with a classmate who happens to be Vampire? Visually, the film takes you to stunning views and mood of the Pacific Northwest. You don’t want to miss these vistas.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
As far as action films go, the previous episodes of the Indiana Jones franchise left me pretty unmoved. Archeological treasure hunts were never my cup of tea. For this reason, I could have easily done without Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But here I am on the airplane. What the heck, let
Wall E
If you are like me and wonder how Pixar can pull off one creative blockbuster after another, here is an interesting peek behind the scenes of the studio. In an interview the writer and director of Finding Nemo and Wall E, Andrew Stanton, intimates that Finding Nemo did not work as a film until very late in the production process when creative team figured late in the production process that they needed to change the personality of Memo of give the film its captivating dramatic force. Pixar movies, we learn, are not the superb product from day one, but gradually improve. Wall E took over a decade from the initial conception to the completed film. The finished product is yet again a masterpiece. Unlike previous Pixar films, Wall E has a dead serious subject. Planet earth is a post-apocalyptic rubble field, inhabitable by humans. The only creatures left behind is the little robot Wall-E and a cockroach that roam what appears to be the greater New York area.
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