Archive for the 'Mystery' Category

Oldboy

Published
by
Chalupa
on April 23, 2006
in Based on a comic, Based on a graphic novel, Drama, Graphic Violence, Kidnapping, Martial Arts, Mystery, Narrated, Neo Noir, Revenge, Thriller and Twist
. 0 Comments

Oldboy is a movie I learned about from my good buddy Tim Mahan. It’s a Korean film about a man who is kidnapped and held in a room for 15 years. He’s allowed to watch some TV but has no access to things like sunlight and contact with other human beings. Eventually he breaks free and decides to try and figure out who imprisioned him and why. He can’t find his family and friends because the world thinks he murdered his wife and is on the run.

Through the twisted world one man has created, we eventually discover exactly what Dae-su Oh has done to warrant such revenge. I do need to say that this movie is kind of messed up and wouldn’t be enjoyed by many. If you’re up to it though, you might want to give it a try some time.

Four Brothers

Published
by
Chalupa
on March 15, 2006
in Action, Black Comedy, Crime, Drama, Family, Mystery, Neo Noir and Thriller
. 1 Comment

Four Brothers is a movie about four brothers who take matters into their own hands after the death of their mother. The brothers are played by Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights, Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees), Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin and Garrett Hedlund (Friday Night Lights).

My first impulse to see this was because of the actors involved including Terrence Howard (Crash), Josh Charles (Sports Night), Fionnula Flanagan (Transamerica, The Others) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things, Serenity, Love Actually). These actors with the main make for a pretty good cast. I wasn’t really expecting much more than some gunfire, funny moments and sweet revenge. That’s exactly what I got. Even though I enjoyed this movie, I don’t see it making many top ten lists for the year. It is, however, still entertaining and worth watching some time.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Published
by
Lij
on November 20, 2005
in Adventure, Based on a book, Based on a novel, Coming of age, England, Family, Fantasy, Mystery and Sequel
. 2 Comments

I am a Harry Potter fan, and that should be stated from the very start. I love the books and really enjoy the movies, so that is my bias.

I remembered about halfway through Goblet of Fire that other than the ending chapters, this was my least favorite of the books. It’s a great book, but compared to the others, it’s the weakest. I think the same could be said of the movie.

I enjoyed the movie because it was fun, entertaining, and suspenseful enough, but I didn’t like it as an adaptation. I didn’t feel that it really entered the world of Harry Potter and Hogwarts and wizards — and that is exactly what makes the books and movies so great. Usually, you get to embrace the entire existence of these people, but not so in The Goblet of Fire.

Still, I’d definitely recommend seeing the movie, as it’s a great story. Everybody is doing a good job in their roles, even though we hardly got to see half of them in this film. I think Daniel Radcliffe is still doing well as Harry, Emma Watson may be slightly annoying, but she’s still cute, and Rupert Grint is turning out to be my favorite of the three. The kid who plays Neville Longbottom is turning out to be a lot less dorky than they thought he would be, and I bet they’re having to dorkify him before each day’s shoot.

Ralph Fiennes is definitely the best part of the movie. His Voldemort is way better than Gary Oldman’s Sirius Black, that’s for sure. He’s super scary, and if I were Daniel Radcliffe, I’d be terrified of him, even if he was joking around like in this picture here. That big smile Daniel’s got on his face? He’s really thinking, “He’s going to kill me… somebody help me!” I know that’s what he’s really thinking. I know it.

Because Ralph Fiennes does not mess around.

Anyway… to sum up:

  • Good movie.
  • Good cast.
  • Kind of long.
  • Took out too much of the story. (Even to a minimalist like me.)
  • Book/Movie 5 will be better, I’m sure of it.

Stay

Published
by
Chalupa
on November 9, 2005
in Drama, Mystery and Thriller
. 0 Comments

It took me a while to try and come up what to say about this movie; not because I didn’t like it, but more because I don’t want to give too much away. So let me start out by saying this movie is awesome.

If you saw the previews or have read a little about this you’ll know that the movie centers around a college student, Henry (Ryan Gosling), who wants to kill himself and a shrink, Sam (Ewan McGregor), who is trying to prevent that from happening. Sam’s girlfriend, Lila, is played by Naomi Watts. This seems pretty straightforward until you start getting farther and farther into the movie. Is Henry confused? Is Sam confused? Are we just dumb movie watchers and confused? At one point Henry meets an old blind man who is a friend of Sam’s. Henry freaks out because the man looks exactly like his father, who has been dead for some time. I think you could compare Stay to films like Memento, A Beautiful Mind and Fight Club. I know there’s more out there, but I think three examples are enough here. The basic thing going on here is that you’re a bit confused, things aren’t making much sense, but then you get to the end and everything is explained. I think that’s about all I’m going to say about the plot. Otherwise I’d get carried away and ruin it for you.

The cinematography is great in here. I’d also like to go out on a limb and say I witnessed the best transitions ever while watching this film. The one example I’ve told people is Sam takes a cab to a house. Now you could show Sam walking all the way up to the house or just cut from inside the taxi to the doorstep. In the movie you have Sam stepping out of the cab and then all of a sudden you see somebody standing at the door and then it cuts to Sam at the door. Sam actually saw himself standing up there. The kicker is everything is done seamlessly and you don’t even realize what happened until afterwards. To top it all off, that was a simple transition. Others had complete scenery changes that were all seamless! It’s awesome.

I’d like to end this up by saying while this movie isn’t full of objectionable material, this isn’t something you would want to take a small child to. This is rated R and they don’t do that for no reason at all. I think this movie could fall into the entertaining AND thinking categories, but it mind depend on what you find entertaining. It’s one of those movies that after you watch it you start realizing more and more about it. I would call this one a must-see for the year. It’ll be making its way to my top 10 list.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Published
by
Chalupa
on July 6, 2005
in Action, Adventure, Airplane, Animation, Based on a comic, Based on a short film, Mystery, Neo Noir, New York, Sci-fi and Thriller
. 0 Comments

Here’s another one that was recommended to me by several and I finally saw. This was a very interesting breed of sci-fi-ish movie. It ended up being a lot different then I was expecting. I liked it though. It was kinda cool what they did with the lighting and the whole feel of the film. Then there would be parts where planes were flying over a map and you actually saw the map. I know it’s nothing special, but I thought it looked cool.

Even though I enjoyed this movie, I wouldn’t give it an A+ either. I’d have to give this one a B- at best. Definitely something to see, but not something to necessarily watch over and over.

The Red Violin

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 29, 2005
in Drama, Foreign, Independent, Music, Mystery and Romance
. 2 Comments

This one, like the title suggests, is about a violin. Mark was just telling me yesterday about a similar movie that involves a dollar bill. Basically you see how this one musical instrument has changed and shaped the lives of so many people over a span of about 400 years. It was really interesting and a great idea for a film.

The violin was originally made in Italy and you see it travel to Vienna, China, England, etc. It crossed through the hands of poor and rich alike. There’s a few famous faces in here, but not too many. Some might find this one a bit slow or boring but it’s definitely a drama/make-believe documentary.

The Machinist

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 22, 2005
in Drama, Factory, Independent, Mystery, Neo Noir and Thriller
. 1 Comment

Here’s one I was always wondering about…but now I know. Liz and Robby came over and I’m glad I saw it. We were all amazed at how much weight Christian Bale lost for this role. It was pretty much just painful to see him in so many scenes with his shirt off. He looked like a holocaust victim.

The premise of this film is there’s a guy who works as a machinist in a metal shop and there’s this guy who’s after him, messing with him and the machinist is trying to track him down. This movie reminded me a bit of Memento and Fight Club - I won’t say much else because I don’t want to ruin the plot for you. There were definitely a few twists and I really liked the ending. I wasn’t really expecting it, but afterwards everything makes perfect sense.

If you’re into thrillers/mysteries, don’t mind dark films and aren’t afraid of something that might be a bit mildly scary/creepy at parts you should check this one out.

Mysterious Skin

Published
by
Neville
on May 31, 2005
in Based on a novel, Coming of age, Drama, Independent, Mystery and Prostitution
. 1 Comment

I really don’t know what to say about this one, so I’ll try and say very little.

If you wanna see the most disturbingly dead-on portrait of the harmful effects—physically, spiritually, and emotionally—of child sexual abuse, go see “Mysterious Skin.” Although in times it is a little too “indy” and has its cheesy acting moments, it still—in the end—gripped me tighter and pulled me more emotionally into its story than any other film of recent memory has. Its combination of extremely disturbing visuals juxtaposed with two very different approaches towards coping with sexual abuse makes for an intimate, harrowing, and unflinching film.

It could very well be the most emotionally affective movie of the year, but maybe that’s just me. All I know is, few other movies have brought me to tears while simultaneously causing me to turn my eyes away from the screen.

I think “Irreversible” was the last movie to make me seriously do that (minus the tears of course). Wow. Remember that one?

Okay, enough said.

Spartan

Published
by
Chalupa
on May 28, 2005
in Action, Conspiracy, Crime, Drama, Kidnapping, Mystery, Politics and Thriller
. 1 Comment

When picking this one up as well today, I unfortunately was thinking of a different The Salton Sea. Val Kilmer…..’S’ title…..anyways, all was not lost. This turned out to be a good one too. The story goes that way back in the day, when the king of Sparta was asked for military aid he would send one man. In this story Val Kilmer is that one man. Turns out the president’s daughter is in danger and good ol Val goes in to get her out. This film happens to be classified as a thriller/crime/drama. I might even add the word action in there or even a bit of suspense. This one definitely doesn’t keep you guessing like Basic, but it kept my attention. I guess I can cross Spartan off the list, but I still need to watch Salton Sea.

A Very Long Engagement

Published
by
Neville
on December 5, 2004
in Based on a novel, Drama, Foreign, Mystery, Romance, WWI and War
. 3 Comments

Don’t hate me because I saw this movie before you.

Yes, this movie was only playing in two theaters in all of L.A., but I was determined to see it before I went home and so, after church today, I did. Audrey Tatou teams up with the brilliant and visionary Jean-Pierre Jeunet (yes, the wonderful director of “AMELIE”) to bring the world yet another glorious, rapturous, gorgeous film. This time though, Jeunet has decided to take on World War I, and a love between two people that began when they were young.

Tatou is luminous once again, playing the role of a woman stricken with polio, who’s waiting at the homefront for good news from the war regarding her fiancee. Unfortunately, all news coming to her is not so good. But that will not destroy Tatou’s character’s hope, which is what the movie is really all about: the will and hope and desire and fight to live, whatever the circumstances.

Once again, Jeunet has created a story that builds up so much suspense along the way, the final moments of the movie are literally, viewed while holding one’s breath [see the "AMELIE" final scene where Amelie meets Nino in that no talking, silent, face-to-face match up in her apartment:)---only a cat getting sleepy-eyed can break such bottled anticipation and excitement]. With this movie, it’s funny in parts, despite its heavy and dismal subject matter at times…but this makes it a nice mood change (and shift) from Jeunet’s previous work in “AMELIE.” Here, the romance is still there, but it carries much more weight this time around. But the production of “A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT” is nothing short of breathtaking. It would be a travesty for it to be overlooked in either best set/art director or best cinematography categories for the upcoming Oscars.

I wouldn’t say that I liked “A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT” more than “AMELIE,” but I will say that it was a worthy follow-up for Jeunet. It’s as sad as movies can get, yet, at the same time, it’s a movie that makes you want to look to the sky and think that tomorrow may very will be a much better day.