X-Men

X-Men is a tale everyone is pretty familiar with now. In a near future mutants have started to become a part of society and like any deviation from the standard this has begun to make the public uncomfortable; the mutants are viewed as “others” that cannot be controlled and are probably dangerous. The government is working to pass legislation that will force mutants to register, and this makes mutant leader Magneto and his minions take action against the public. The only ones who can stop them are the X-men, the students of another mutant Professor Charles Xavier.

When X-Men was released it was truly the beginning of the contemporary comic book film. We would not have The Dark Knight, Spider Man, or Iron Man the way we have them now if it wasn’t for this film and the film is an excellent movie. That being said, X-Men is nowhere near the level of comic book movie that the fans expect nowadays it is not nearly faithful enough to the source material. I won’t bore you all with the details but the major issues are Rouge being a teen and the absence of mutants like Gambit & most importantly Beast.

What is great about this movie is Bryan Singer. Singer gets X-Men on top of being a fantastic director; many people have speculated that because Singer is an “other” himself he could identify with these characters. Singer himself has admitted that he doesn’t know or read comic books; this didn’t seem to be a problem when he directed his X-Men movies, but it did become a problem when he made Superman Returns.

Director: Bryan Singer
Writer: Tom DeSanto
Wolderine: Hugh Jackman
Professor X: Patrick Stewart
Magneto: Ian McKellen
Jean Grey: Famke Janssen
Cyclops: James marsden
Storm: Halle Berry
Rogue: Anna Paquin

Dr. Jean Grey: Ladies and gentlemen, we are now seeing the beginnings of another stage of human evolution. These mutations manifest at puberty, and are often triggered by periods of heightened emotional stress.
Senator Kelly: Thank you, Miss Grey! That was-quite educational. However it fails to address the issue which is the focus of this hearing. Three words: are mutants dangerous

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

wolverine movie pic
Originally uploaded by pinoy.stoner

Any X-Men junkie knows the basic origins of Wolverine. Logan was born decades ago and his mutant healing powers make is so that he does not age; he’s lived through numerous wars and along the line begins to work for an elite unit of the government with Striker. Finally, Wolverine volunteers to be part of a medical experiment and have adamantium grafted with his skeletal structure and becomes pretty much indestructible. Logan also loses his memory and is hunted by Striker without ever knowing why. This is pretty much the story in X-Men Origins: Wolverine but it is not clearly or concisely told. What could have been a very high energy, dramatic origins story was instead badly written and sloppily directed.

The best way to describe the direction of this movie is leading; Gavin Hood seems to be afraid to try anything atmospheric or to let the audience notice what is in his shots. Instead, he inserts coverage for everything he wants to make sure you see, and all of the shots are the basic master, double, close-up for each scene. However, even this would be forgivable if the writing weren’t so lazy.

Wolverine is the classic example of a screenplay where A leads to B which leads to C without any motivation or means of tying incidents together. Characters do not have motivation for anything, and relationships are very forced. Perhaps the best example of sloppy writing was the first time Wolverine is called “Logan”; it comes in the last act of the film and no one has ever called him that before – it seems like a character just makes the name up. There is also the issue of inaccuricies with the comic book; perhaps the biggest in this film is what happens to Deadpool’s character in the last act of the film. Not only does this break with the actual character of Deadpool but it’s just stupid.

What was great about this movie was for fantastic actors: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds & Taylor Kitsch. As Wolverine Jackman was phenomenal as usual and you could tell he put his all into this film. Schreiber is perhaps the best embodiment of Sabertooh that I could imagine and he is well paired with Jackman. Somehow he just exhudes an animal nature in a way I didn’t know he could. I have always loved Ryan Reynolds and the wise-crackign nature of Deadpool fits him perfectly; I was very upset that Reynolds wasn’t utilized further. Finally, Taylor Kitsch was chosen to portray the most anticipated character of the series so far as Gambit. Not only was he perfect as the souther-boy card shark, but he was the wonderful charismatic character I always remember Gambit being. I was glad that with all the films other fault we did get a sizeable portion of Gambit.

Wolverine is the kind of film that you’ll probably watch and enjoy once, but I doubt it will be a film that the real fanboys want to analyze and watch repeatedly. The ladies will love the man-candy that is all over this film too.

Director: Gavin Hood
Writers: David Benioff & Skip Woods
Wolverine: Hugh Jackman
Sabertooth: Liev Schreiber
Stryker: Danny Huston
Gambit: Taylor Kitsch
Deadpool: Ryan Reynolds

Victor Creed: Do you even know how to kill me?
Logan: I'm gonna cut your God damn head off. See if that works.

Someone Like You

Someone Like You is the story of Jane Goodale. She gets her heart broken when she dates a coworker and becomes utterly depressed, depressed enough to become obsessed with figuring out why men leave women and invents a pseudonym that allows her to write about her theory – new cow. However, during Jane’s depression she becomes close to coworker and womanizer Eddie and doesn’t realize that perhaps, not every man is as bad as she makes him out to be.

I have to say that this movie is slow and doesn’t really do anything…really, it’s kind of meandering and boring. I love Ashley Judd but her character is not all that compelling, and the world of day time television they exist in is bland and far too normal. However, this movie lives and breathes on the shoulders of Hugh Jackman – he makes Someone Like You worth watching, and really is why I own this movie. Any scene with Jackman is a scene worth watching, and his charisma rockets off the screen. This is a film that was out long before Jackman was a household name for anything other than X-men and it proves why he has gone all the way to being voted the sexiest man alive.

Directir: Tony Goldwyn
Writer: Elizabeth Chandler
Jane Goodale: Ashley Judd
Ray Brown: Greg Kinnear
Eddie Alden: Hugh Jackman
Liz: Marisa Tomei
Diane Roberts: Ellen Barkin

Jane: What is on your neck?
Eddie: I bit myself shaving.

Oklahoma!

As the Hollywood lore goes Hugh Jackman was an actor in Australia and performed in a version of Oklahoma! which was filmed. While Wolverine was being cast for Bryan Singer's X-men someone caught a performance (or perhaps the recording), noticed Jackman and sent it to those in charge of casting for the film. They were intrigued by Jackman and decided to have him audition - the rest is history.

I have never seen Oklahoma! before and when I saw Jackman's version avaialble on Netflix I decided to give it a try. To me, Oklahoma! is a strange musical - it's a prarie love story with a dark underbelly about a perverted farm hand that covets Laurey who falls in love with Curly, so while you have this cute, flirty thing going on between Laurie and Curly you have the creepy farmhand trying to take Curly out and force himself on Laurey. Strange.

What is remarkable about this version of Oklahoma! is the man that broke out of it - Hugh Jackman. Even in a play Jackman's charisma bursts from the stage and you notice him above everyone else. Let me tell you - Hugh Jackman can sing! I was already looking forward to Jackman being the Oscar host this year, but seeing Oklahoma! has made me even more excited.

Director: Trevor Nunn
Curly: Hugh Jackman
Laurey: Josefina Gebrielle
Aunt Eller: Maureen Lipman

The Prestige

The Prestige
Originally uploaded by Vincent Yeh ©

I have waxed poetically about The Prestige before – but that doesn’t stop me from doing it again. This is a great movie. Quite honestly I cannot find a single flaw in it no matter how hard I try. “Are you watching closely” is the motto woven throughout the film and I can say that I have been watching closely and I still get as much satisfaction out of The Prestige as I did the first time I saw it.

I see a lot of movies, as a result it takes a very unique movie to cause a real jump, fright or tension in me – I recognize the signs and everything that is put into that moment on film so it’s hard to catch me by surprise. No matter how many times I see The Prestige it still makes me tense. This is a story about two rival magicians whose rivalry becomes violent; these men do some really dastardly things to one another until it’s so out of control that they couldn’t stop if they wanted to and every time they do something new to one another I still cringe in anticipation. For me this means Christopher Nolan did his job well.

This is a movie driven by two very powerful actors, two actors that people love and respect but somehow it still doesn’t seem that they truly get the recognition they deserve. In The Prestige Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale manage to do the impossible – they both manage to remain a dominating presence on screen without letting either actor steal the picture. They are amazing to watch and absolutely entertaining to their very core.

One person that I seem to inadvertently ignore every time I write about a movie that has him is the phenomenal Michael Caine. In this film Caine plays Cutter, the man behind the magic tricks, the man that makes all of the magic happen. As always he is witty, charming and capable of assuaging the audiences fears or driving home the gravest of messages. Michael Caine is truly talented and needs more than the one Oscar he has.

Perhaps my absolute favorite aspect of The Prestige is the fact that no matter how many times I watch it I come up with more questions about the film. When I watch so many movies on a constant basis having a film enthrall me and make me question what I’m seeing is the equivalent of a trip to Disneyland for someone that never gets to go, it’s a special treat that I absolutely adore.

Cutter: Now you're looking for the secret. But you won’t find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.

Australia

Australia Poster
Originally uploaded by AsceticMonk

Baz Luhrmann doesn’t follow the trends; he doesn’t pay attention to what is popular at the theatres now and try to emulate it – he just makes the movies he feels need to be made and Australia is one of these films. I will heartily admit that I have a slightly biased opinion of Australia as I was able to see a preview screening before seeing the finished film; therefore, I know where the film came from and was able to chart its progress. I will also admit that Australia does have its melodramatic impulses and other flaws that it has to deal with – sometimes it conquers these flaws and sometimes it doesn’t. However, I must also admit that I loved this movie.

Australia is a grand, sweeping movie that in my opinion is not meant to be taken as a genuine historical reenactment like a Saving Private Ryan or even Apocalypse Now; Australia is a love story framed by the spirit of the land it takes place in and the events that surround the characters. The indigenous people of Australia and their traditions of magic play a huge role in the plot of the film and the story and characters of Australia must be filtered through the use of “magic” as well – this magic influence cannot effect one character only – if it is used in the plot it must be used universally for all.

I bring the above up because of the character Nullah, the mixed race aboriginal boy that Lady Sarah adopts when his mother dies. Nullah is the son of a witch doctor, and believes he is a magic man himself; Nullah frames the story as the narrator and is the reason the characters overcome several nearly devastating events – all based on his use or belief in his magical powers. This plays heavily into the end of the movie – Nullah claims responsibility for the lack of a character dying. While I slightly preferred the original ending of the film (where the character did die) this ending does fit with the magical framework surrounding the film – if we believe Nullah can stop a heard of stampeding caddle before they push him off a cliff then why can we not believe he can avoid a bullet?

What I do need to address as I saw the original ending to the film months ago is what was changed with that ending – if you don’t want to be at least slightly spoiled stop reading. Originally someone is shooting at Nullah in Darwin and Drover and Sarah see, Drover rushes out to get Nullah out of the way and succeeds in keeping Nullah from being shot but he takes the bullet instead. Sarah rushes over realizing that the wound is bad, they have their typical last lovers speech about how he cares for her and wishes he’d told her then he dies before help can arrive. Sarah and Nullah continue back to Faraway Downs to avoid the Japanese Army and along the way they meet up with King George and this time she lets Nullah go on walkabout. It was sad, but it was poignant and made Sarah grow further; what didn’t work about that ending was that Hugh Jackman’s Drover is a more compelling character than Kidman’s Sarah Ashley – killing him made his arch seem incomplete. This led to the new ending that is on the film.

In this new ending Drover lives because Nullah’s magic keeps the bullet from both of them and all parties live. Rather than a dying speech about how he loves Sarah and Nullah the Drover actually continues his arch, breaking his mold by returning home with them and seeing his influence on Sarah when she lets Nullah go.

Both endings work for me. The original ending because it makes the movie more of a traditional epic, and the existing ending because it makes the movie more of the magical, reality tweaked setting that I have loved so much from Baz in the past.

I think this movie is going to divide people if nothing else because the MTV/youtube generation cannot sit through a two hour forty-five minute movie well and continue to pay attention if there is not fast cutting and explosions. However, I do think that Australia is the kind of filmmaking that needs to be celebrated; in the way that Moulin Rouge! brought musicals back to the theatres I can hope that Australia will have some kind of influence on current theatre trends as well, bringing back less Michael Bay “epics” and more sweeping, grabbing stories.

Australia

On October 5 I was surprised to see that the preview screening I got to be a part of was Australia by Baz Luhrmann. This was a very rough version of the film, the color timing wasn’t finished, visual effects were rough at best, and the film did not have it’s score in place amongst many other things.

I’m going to start with the negatives of the film, but keep in mind that as this was a rough version it is doubtful that my negatives will stay negatives once all of the films elements are put together. First, there are tonal shifts in the film that don’t feel completely out of place, but they do feel clunky. However, I have full confidence that once the film is finished these tonal shifts will not feel out of place. Also, there were a few things that were kind of hard to follow – characters moving from a to b, etc. but again, I think this will go away.

I’m also going to address what I think people will really object to in the film – it’s length. The film clocks in at almost three hours at this present time, and that is without titles. I believe it is perfect at that length. Yes, it’s long, but I do not think there is anything that could be trimmed from this movie without eliminating an entire necessary point of the film. Australia is a rich old fashioned film, with many characters, plot lines and elements that are all intertwined through the course of the film. Removing even one scene would necessitate removing entire storylines from the picture. Just sit still, get pulled into the story and you will not notice the time.

Now to the positives. I knew after seeing Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge that Baz can direct a film and do it beautifully, and I knew that Australia would be in a different style. What I did not expect was for the movie to be as sweepingly beautiful as it is. Baz needs to win a best director Oscar some day and I think he can possibly do it for this movie – and that opinion is based on a rough cut of the film.

Another HUGE positive is the actors in the film led primarily by Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. They are phenomenal in this film and really seem to connect with the material in a very personal way since it’s about their home country.

The journey Kidman takes from tight-laced ice queen to open hearted maternal figure is utterly genuine and so gradual and motivated that you can’t see anything else happening to her character. This is a character that is forced to grow up and mature in a whole other way than an adolescent would and watching her do it is fascinating.

That being said I think that Hugh Jackman steals the show. I truly thought his performance in The Fountain was mesmerizing and Oscar worthy, and I think his turn in Australia again proves that he is one of the best actors of this generation. He truly is the stuff of old Hollywood and has a charisma that would rival Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart – the man was discovered in Australian theatre to play a comic book character and has somehow parlayed that into mainstream Hollywood and art house films. When he walks on screen he immediately captures the entire audience male and female and I think Baz Luhrman needs to count his lucky stars that Russell Crowe dropped out of the role because Hugh brings an almost boy-next-door quality to the Drover character that Russell Crowe just doesn’t have in him.

It is my hope and prayer that 20th Century Fox does not mess with this movie before it is released, and I hope to be just as thrilled when I see the final theatrical cut of the film which I will be reviewing as well.

Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Baz Luhrmann, Stuart Beattie, Ronald Harwood, Richard Flanagan
The Drover: Hugh Jackman
Lady Sarah Ashley: Nicole Kidman
Nullah: Brandon Walters
King Carney: Bryan Brown
Neil Fletcher: David Wenham
Kipling Flynn: Jack Thompson
Dutton: Ben Mendelsohn
Katherine: Essie Davis

The Prestige

The_Prestige08
Originally uploaded by earlyshen

The Prestige was on one of the movie channels last night and I accidentally tuned into it – and I could not turn it off. I forgot how brilliant The Prestige really is; it is an enthralling film filled with brilliant performances, a great cast and an amazing sotry.

I cannot tell you that the story behind The Prestige is simple as I do with some of my other reviews, nor can I tell you all about it as that would spoil the surprise. What I can tell you is that this film improves with every viewing because more layers of the story become clear to the viewer.

My favorite thing about the film is actually how it is structured; the film is structured like a magic trick. One of the characters sets up this structure at the beginning of the film; every magic trick contains three parts, the pledge where the magician shows you something ordinary but of course it isn’t ordinary, the turn where he takes the ordinary object and makes it extraordinary, and finally the prestige where the pay off of the magic trick is revealed - without the prestige the trick is worthless.

The pledge in this film seems so very ordinary; Cutter, Alfred, Robert & his wife Julia work for a magician and the Robert & Alfred have aspirations to become magicians in their own right. While performing a trick they have done hundreds of times something goes wrong and Julia is killed. Distraught, Robert blames Alfred for Julia’s death and both men leave their positions seeking to better the other as the world’s best magician a rivalry fueled by Robert’s anger at Alfred. Alfred and Cutter join forces to help bring Alfred’s magic to the public.

The turn is the middle of the film; Alfred has lived up to his word and created what appears to be the world’s greatest magic trick and no one can duplicate it. Alfred becomes massively popular and eclipse's Robert’s glory; the two men begin to compete even more than before and each forsee’s the other’s next step. Angered even more, Robert seeks to discover how Alfred’s illusion is managed and finally has Alfred stopped from performing his trick by having him arrested and tried for murder.

The prestige is what I cannot reveal, but it truly is the point in the movie where Christopher and Jonathon Nolan take what seemed to be an ordinary rivalry and turn it into something you never expected and a masterful bit of writing that makes the entire movie that precedes it more worth the viewing. Just like promised, the prestige of this film makes the entire movie worth watching again and again.

When I tell you that this movie is different I am not exaggerating. The story is more complex and layered that I can explain here without ruining everything for you. I think that this movie surprises and confuses people, but it is so worth your time.

Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Christopher and Jonathon Nolan
Alfred: Christian Bale
Robert: Hugh Jackman
Cutter: Michael Caine
Julia: Piper Perabo
Olivia: Scarlett Johansson
Tesla: David Bowie
Sarah: Rebecca Hall

Cutter: Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".