A Month at the Movies - Jan. 2013

"Vincent is like a loose bull on the streets of Spain, or in this case L.A. When he looks at Max, who is the sort of the person who wouldn't even swat a fly, he sees a person wasting his life. Vincent sees the others as people who are always running, either from someone or something, while he considers himself as just a guy "with a job attached to", making him not only an effective killer but also who is human enough to understand the other but not human enough to understand himself."

"From the point where Julia comes into the family, the film plays like Silent Hill away from home. A watered-down, even less minimalistic version of it. It plays on the theme on how your past catches up with you. If it was good, it makes your current life better. If it was bad, it can drive you crazy, make you even badder. Because of that one disastrous incident which involved the death of Clara, Daniel views Julia - who remarkably does and says the same things Clara used to do - as Red Pyramid disguised in a child's body. It also plays on how we compress these disastrous, or shameful if it may, incidents in the back of our minds, and count ourselves lucky that we went unpunished. But at one point or another, you have to confront it, get rid of it once and for all. Silent Hill lures people in and traps them. Daniel bought the horror home."

"1 Litre of Tears may not altogether make you throw your arms in the air and shout out that it is the greatest film ever made, but it might definitely make an impression on you, mostly by Asae Onishi's fearless, courageous performance that is bound to win hearts of viewers. Asae Onishi - who plays the lead role of Aya Kito - was the 3 D's: Delicate, Dedicated and Downright courageous. She so wonderfully, and flawlessly, glided to and fro in her role, almost like a ballerina on an expansive ice ring. Her beautiful looks and dimply smile, topped with an impressive A+ performance, is something I wouldn't mind seeing again. She bought heart, charisma, soul and realism to her character and made Aya Kito a person you once knew but lost track somewhere down the line. Innocently played, but ferociously delivered."

"Cronenberg has over the years evolved like Charmander; He started out with small, but powerful, B-movies that polarized everyone but remained anonymous to a vast majority, namely his non-fans. From mid 2000's onwards, not only he created one of the best pairings with Viggo but became an everyday household name and now has fans, non-fans and curious pedestrians running back to his old films while catching up with his new ones. A History of Violence and Eastern Promises showed Cronenberg's quite unmatched skills of directing and bought Viggo Mortensen to higher heights. But third times a charm doesn't always work, as Sam Raimi proved with his 2 franchises. Unfortunately, Cronenberg has too fallen in that hole of disappointing thirds".

Nic Cage attracts criticism just like a flower attracts a bee. This is one of the performances that even the most ardent of the haters softens down a little just enough to write a breezing compliment. Since I'm one of the few people who actually likes Nic Cage, I'm in total awe of his superb tackling. Meryl Streep not at all felt like a 50+ out in search for a "ghost". She reminded me of a 17 yr. old finding the true meaning behind love and/or experiencing it for the first time, because of her smooth gliding in her character. I believe her script was written on roller-skates. Chris Cooper was impressive in role as Laroche. His Award-winning performance kept you transfixed. At-least me if not you. Tilda Swinton, on the other hand, was absolute dynamite! Boy, she was so delicious in her short screen-time. Brian Cox is a prime example of an on/off relationship: Impressive in some, weak in some. Over here he is the former.

The film opens memorably; It shows Ian just a few short seconds before his death, lamenting about his life. Then it flashbacks to 1973, starting the story proper and, in a way, a documentary of punk rock. We get a shot of his bedroom and are reminded of the fact that even iconic rock-stars (lame term but whatever) started out as nothing more than most of us are now; Posters of Bowie and Reed on the wall, a small plaque of sorts honoring Morrison and various other tidbits. This in a way was satisfying to watch. This created a Frodo scenario of sorts. A normal person starting his extraordinary adventure and becoming the well-known figure as we know him today. Sam Riley, from the word GO, had his role in complete check. It was a highly detailed performance with impressive attention to the subtlest of the movements. And I think he nailed the dead-fly dance. Every time he stood behind the mic, it was always a hypnotizing effect.

The pacing of the film was kinda disappointing but surprisingly on the spot in the scenes concerning Hannibal Lektor - The name was misspelled for the film. The above line is small comfort because Lektor's scenes don't amount to more than 10 minutes. Hannibal Lektor - or Lecter - has been bought to public consciousness by Anthony Hopkins in the sequel, Silence of the Lambs, a performance lasting only 16 minutes. A legendary performance, Hopkins's portrayal of "The Cannibal" has, to many, rendered Brian Cox's take almost useless - a viewpoint I don't fully appreciate. Brian Cox's performance was chilly, haunting and totally mesmerizing. It was his voice that gave his character a different edge, a unique feeling - like a butcher honing his knife, or a finger sliding over the shiny surface of a razor. His incredibly short screen-time had me impressed, and although not to the level of Hopkins, is a memorable, almost iconic new character in itself.

"The cast was quite-well chosen and everyone played their part quite-convincingly - especially Peta Wilson as Mina Harker. She was delicious in her role, but due to the lazy script, the character, as well as the performance, felt slightly one-dimensional. Shane West as Tom Sawyer was a good surprise. Being the youngest, he handled himself in a good fashion and managed to make his character more interesting and less annoying. Jason Flemyng, although not always in my top 10, is an actor I like to watch onscreen because he reminds me of a strong character-actor, or how Peter Greene would've been like had he been a more mainstream actor. He plays Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and was the standout performance from the film. Compared to others he gets a relatively short screen-time but he makes the most of it. Tony Curran, Naseeruddin Shah, Stuart Townshed and Richard Roxburgh were equally better. Due to setbacks, many characters don't rise above one-dimensional. Sean Connery, on the other hand, was too comical to be taken seriously. It was as if he was internally laughing at the whole set-up, which he probably wash... er, I mean was! He was just passable in his role as Allen Quartermain, although he did have the built for it. Honestly, another actor would've been better."

By the time the crew reach to outer space that you realize the first 30-40 minutes just did not belong to the film at all. In all senses, it feels like as if someone fused a rom-com over a disaster movie. Unconvincing moments, stiff directing, rapid-fire editing and weak dialogues are the ingredients of the first quarter. Implausibility aside, the space scenes were quite impressive, but nowhere near Apollo 13. The latter worked as majestically as poetry on page and as smoothly as ink flowing all over the floor. The former, however, worked like a group of doctors having a competition on who can come up with the most unintelligible hand-writing - needless to say, they all do. The asteroid looked like a reject from a comic-world, or something that Galactus would hurl at us should he get really angry. Once Freedom and Independence "safely" land on the asteroid, everyone - and by that I mean everyone - relaxes and totally devoid themselves of all emotion. Was it me or was Billy Bob Thornton for the whole film trying to force up an expression? I guess either he was still reeling from the even bigger disaster that was Alan Smithee or had read the script of Monster's Ball a bit too early. Not once did he feel like a man under tremendous pressure or someone who knows a very terrible secret. In fact, he acted as if his wife found out his collection of porn and now must decide on how to explain to her.