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Showing posts from December, 2010

Complices (Accomplices) 2009

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Accomplices is a movie that is deeply layered.  On the surface it's a who done it.   A murder mystery about a boy whose body is found flooding in the Seine.  On the other hand this movie is about so much more.  We meet out cast of characters first as two detectives investigating this young boys death, and then we meet the boy in flashback.  The two stories move forward until they meet at the end.  In between the story arcs we get to know the characters.  Our two investigators played by Gilbert Melki , as Hervé Cagan, and Emmanuelle Devos as Inspector Karine Mangin really bring a three dimensional feel to their characters.  Both these actors play so real that you really get to know them, and in a way care about them.  Both detectives are in their mid 40's and they have been on the job for some time.  There seems to be a bit of chemistry between the two, but the movie isn't about that, and doesn't dwell on that aspect of their relationship.  The other story arc is about

Pirate Radio (2009)

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Would you believe way back in the 60's jolly old England gave about 30 minutes of pop music a day due to the fact that the government saw rock and roll as immoral, and lewd.  The answer to this was pirate radio .  These were actual ships that transmitted rock and roll tunes to the English while they were in international waters.  It was legal, and the these stations had about 25 million listeners. That's the premise of " Pirate Radio ", and I have to say it's a rocking good time.  Written and directed by Richard Curtis  Pirate Radio is one of those films that transports you to a time where music hadn't been monopolized by corporations yet.  It was the time of the Beatles, The Stones, Iggy Pop, and the Kinks.  The British invasion was on, and what came out of that was some great music.  Pirate Radio is an ensemble piece, and it has a multitude of characters.  There's Philip Seymour Hoffman , as the Count.  Nick Frost   as Doctor Dave, Chris O'Dowd

SALT (2009)

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This is one of those films that escaped me last year.  After seeing it now on DVD I have to say I was very much entertained.   The plot and the circumstances are quite ridiculous, and yet the non-stop action in this film makes it very entertaining.  From the start we are given a full roller-coaster ride of thrills, and I have to say I had fun seeing this film.  Angelina Jolie  gives a very determined performance as Salt a supposedly double agent who runs from both the Russians and the Americans.    The action scenes are really well done, and there is very little CGI work which seems to be the norm in today's films.  That's refreshing, because some of the scenes we can actually see Jolie doing her own stunts.  I must say the lady has some tenacity to do that, and it's what makes the film so enjoyable to watch. Of course there were times where I said to myself while viewing the film that had that happened in real life the character would have a concussion and a few fract

Cloverfield (2008)

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After seeing Monsters I had to go back and see Cloverfield .  A friend said that I should, so I figured why not.  First off I did not see this when it first came out.  I saw footage of it and said that it would just be too jarring on the eyes, and apparently it was for some .  The jarring camera work is enough to put me off, but a funny thing happens when it goes to video.  The screen shrinks and all that shaking of the camera becomes a little bit less annoying.  I say a little less because I swear the filmmaker in me wanted to grab the camera and film it the right way with less shake.  But the filmmakers of Cloverfield knew what they were doing, and that little imperfection added to the reality of what we were seeing.  I mean how scary is a Godzilla movie?  Now if you put a camera in one of the hands of someone running from Godzilla I would think that would be a whole lot more intense.  Not a new idea in this reality based world we now live in, but something someone hasn't done ti

Monsters (2010)

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Just saw the movie Monsters , and was very impressed by the production and the story. This is Gareth Edwards first film of sorts. I say that because Mr. Edwards has done work some some documentaries ( Perfect Disaster , Attila the Hun ) and a movie called End Day .   Mr. Edwards knowledge of what he can do in the realm of special effects makes Monsters a movie a must see.  The story in a nut shell is this: "Six years after Earth has suffered an alien invasion a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border." The two leads in this movie make this movie what it is.  Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able  are actors that are of the highest caliber.  They are believable, and so convincing you think that you might just maybe be watching a documentary.  I'm sure the director did this on purpose.  I've read in articles that the director along with an associate producer/translator, a cameraman,