Archive for the 'Twist' Category

Eastern Promises

Published
by
Chalupa
on March 27, 2008
in Crime, Drama, England, Graphic Violence, Investigation, Mob, Mystery, Russian, Thriller and Twist
. 0 Comments

Eastern Promises is a follow-up of sorts to A History of Violence. Both are directed by David Cronenberg, Viggo Mortensen stars in both, and they are both stories about somebody involved in the mob. While Cronenberg’s first mob film takes place in the US, Eastern Promises involves Russian mobsters and takes place in London.

Viggo’s character, Nikolai, works for a very notorious crime family. He’s the driver and he does more than just drive the car from point A to point B. One night he encounters Anna, played by Naomi Watts, as she is looking for somebody at the restaurant owned by the Nikolai’s employers. Anna works at a hospital and a girl died recently giving birth to her daughter. The young girl had a diary which contained a business card for said restaurant. Even though Anna speaks little Russian herself, it is part of her heritage and her uncle, who claims to be ex-KGB, warns her to stay away from the situation. Anna soon finds herself in the midst of a complicated situation as I’m sure you can guess.

One very interesting aspect of this movie is tattoos. In this crime society, tattoos are given as badges and marks of honor. They essentially tell the story of your life. The tattoos are also standardized so anybody can recognize your past glories and exploits merely by noticing the tattoos you have. In the same respect, having tattoos you did not earn can be quite detrimental to ones wellbeing.

Viggo Mortensen is AMAZING in this film. He’s a bit of a method actor in that he heavily researches roles he has and becomes the characters he plays. I know that most people only know him from his exploits in a little trilogy called Lord of the Rings, but seriously guys, Mortensen is a great actor that has been around for a while. I think the first film I remember seeing him in was Crimson Tide. I’ve since seen him in Witness, Carlito’s Way, The Prophecy, Young Guns II, G.I. Jane, and Psycho. The only movie I’ve seen him in that I wasn’t a big fan of was Hidalgo. If you’ve seen any of these and enjoyed Mortensen’s acting skills you should definitely check out some of his other films.

Other noteworthy performances came from Armin Mueller-Stahl, Seymon, who plays the head of the crime family. You’ll probably also recognize Vincent Cassel from Ocean’s 12 and Ocean’s 13. I always remember him as the creepy brother from Brotherhood of the Wolf and the one movie I always throw out there for “wow factor”, Irreversible.

I really enjoyed this film and hope you do too. Let me know if you have any thoughts or comments.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Eastern Promises

Eastern Promises

Published
by
Neville
on November 6, 2007
in Crime, Drama, England, Graphic Violence, Investigation, Mob, Murder, Mystery, Russian, Thriller and Twist
. 1 Comment

I have a confession to make: director David Cronenburg is one of those critically acclaimed directors I just don’t get.

However, his last film “A History of Violence” was the first one I watched and felt its power. I felt there was something there, even if I wasn’t fully understanding just how complex it was.

Similar to “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises” stars the talented Viggo Mortensen and the underrated Naomi Watts in a crime drama revolving around babies, body parts and a sect of the Russian Mafia in London. Written by Stephen Knight, the screenwriter that gave us “Dirty Pretty Things,” another story more specifically about black market body parts, “Eastern Promises” begins with a jolt. True to Cronenburg’s form it seems, the violence in his films is often drawn out–shot without music or edited with stylized style–and it’s also visceral. So are the scenes in “Eastern Promises.” They touch on delicate subjects (underage prostitutes, abortion, homosexuality, pure human deception) and everything seems to be marked by the sins of these Mafia characters (similar to their iconic-like tatoos). The tagline for the film reads: “every sin leaves a mark.” And this is really what the movie is all about. It unpacks this idea through its visuals and asks its audience to be subjected to its darkness (make no mistake about it, it is dark). But can we bear it? Can we endure through it?

I think the film could’ve been more effective (or at least more accessible to mass audiences) if more music was in the film, but I’m quickly learning that this is not Cronenburg’s style. He seems to like revealing things, not as if it’s cinema but as if it’s real life, and this tension is felt continually throughout the film. Do I believe things like this go on? Absolutely. But can I ever see myself as one of them? Probably not.

It wasn’t until the film’s end until I sensed any kind of humanity in the “villian” characters of the film. What distinquishes people as people and people as monsters? This is another question the film asks.

Mortensen and Watts are both strong here and both give convincing performances with convincing accents. But so much darkness is here I wonder if Cronenburg would’ve been wise to have let a little more light in (into the scenes, into the colors, in the images/icons of the film). I know this is neo-film noir from a very experienced and artistic filmmaker but I still can wonder, right?

All in all, worth a rental, not quite worth the $10 cinema ticket price (unless you want to really really feel the violence–then maybe you should go to the cinema and watch it).

The Kingdom

Published
by
Chalupa
on October 16, 2007
in Action, Drama, Government, Iraq, Kidnapping, Religion, Revenge, Thriller, Twist and War
. 0 Comments

I wasn’t too sure about this one when I first heard about it. I just didn’t know how Jamie Foxx would do in this role. Jennifer Garner had that show Alias and Chris Cooper has proven himself time and again. Even Jason Bateman has done amazingly well recently with Arrested Development, one of the best shows in the past few years. I even had a chance to see a free screening a couple hours away, but wasn’t able to make it. It wasn’t until after I had read some of the reviews that I decided I had to see this.

If you’re not sure of the plot this is kinda about terrorism. It takes place in Saudi Arabia after an American “compound” for oil workers is blown up during a picnic. This isn’t based on actual events, but it’s one of those very plausible stories - especially with all the turmoil currently happening in that region. The FBI ends up sending in a team to help the Saudis do some forensic work at the scene and try to catch whomever is responsible.

Even though this movie turns into action for the last 20 minutes or so, I’ll still argue that this movie is more about people than it is guns and blowing stuff up. I think the root of many conflicts is miscommunication. People on both sides are assuming things based on many factors and reasons, and a lot of times both sides aren’t even talking about the same thing. I think that’s evidenced in this film.

Right from the start the Saudis are very opposed to American involvement in their country and their problems. I can certainly sympathize with that. Can you think of a time you were having a problem or argument and welcomed some stranger stepping up and trying to help/solve your problems? This is seen with the character Colonel Faris Al Ghazi played by Ashraf Barhom. He’s been instructed to “take care” of these Americans and not let them get too involved while the Americans are frustrated they just can’t “dive in” and get their hands dirty.

Eventually the Colonel and Fleury, Foxx, come to the agreement that they’re both just trying to catch a criminal and prevent the continued loss of life. Once they realized they were both aiming for the same goal, just coming at it from different angles, they were able to really accomplish something.

I also liked how the movie showed there were both good and bad Americans; good and bad Saudis. Not everyone who is Arab or Muslim is a terrorist. Not every American has the world’s best interest in mind. I know this movie wasn’t made to help improve relations between countries, but I think it takes some small steps towards breaking down some of these invisible walls of prejudice, racism and hatred. Everybody has lost somebody. The hard part is stopping the violence to try and prevent more. As the Klingons say, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Sunshine

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 18, 2007
in Adventure, Future, Independent, Murder, Sci-fi, Space, Suicide, Thriller and Twist
. 1 Comment

This is Danny Boyle’s latest and greatest creation and I highly recommend it. Other films of his you might have seen would include Trainspotting, Millions, 28 Days Later and The Beach. 28 Weeks Later wasn’t directed by Boyle, but he did produce it.

This is definitely a sci-fi film, but it’s not cheesy and nothing like Battlefield Earth. The Sun is burning out and Earth is going into another ice age. Earth has collectively come up with a way to change this by building a nuclear bomb the size of Manhattan, flying it to the Sun, and detonating it; effectively kick-starting the sun. This all sounds good, but something has to go wrong right? This is a Danny Boyle film.

Well something does go wrong. Terribly wrong. What I failed to mention earlier is that this isn’t their first attempt. This is attempt number two. The first mission was not successful and nobody really knows why. If you watched the trailer for this you might get a feeling of 2001: A Space Odyssey in the sense that they’re in space on a mission and the ship kinda takes over. This isn’t exactly what happens, but everything does seem to go wrong.

Warning: Spoilers
I’d love to start spouting off about the plot, but I’m trying to keep it all in here. There are a couple things I found interesting though. One is that the captain of the first ship went crazy from looking at the Sun. We also see the doctor, played by Cliff Curtis, becoming obsessed with looking at the Sun as well, but he doesn’t go crazy. Yeah his skin starts peeling off from over-exposure, but he still has his wits about him. He stayed behind to save them all.

Second, Harvey, the second in command after the captain dies really got what he deserved. The captain gave up his life for the mission to continue. The doctor decided to stay behind and make sure the rest of the boarding party lived. Harvey was the only person selfishly putting himself before the others. Harvey died. I think that was on purpose.

Lastly, as always, things work out in the end. With Trainspotting and the 28 Days series things go crazy in one way or another, but work out in the end. I didn’t know exactly what would happen while watching this, but as always, things worked out in the end.

I’m sure a lot of people consider Boyle to be very pessimistic, but I think it’s the total opposite. I think it’s sort of similar to how Tarantino incorporates violence into many of his films when he’s actually parodying it or making fun of it. You might also say it’s in the same way that Kevin Smith incorporates themes and content into his films for his brother.

So yeah, go out and see this. Rent it when it comes out on DVD. This is going on my top 10 list for the year.

Bourne Ultimatum

Published
by
Chalupa
on August 16, 2007
in Action, Adventure, Assassination, Based on a book, Conspiracy, Mystery, Sequel, Thriller, Trilogy and Twist
. 0 Comments

If you were a fan of the first or second movies, Bourne Identity or Bourne Supremacy, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll love the third installment. This isn’t another one of those tragic trilogies that took a good thing and drove it into the ground…Matrix, cough, cough. They kept it coming and kept improving things throughout the series.

There’s some faces you’ll recognize and there’s also some new ones. You already know Jason (Matt Damon), Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) and Pamela Landy (Joan Allen). Some new faces you might recognize are David Strathairn, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney and Scott Glenn. I was really excited to see Paddy Considine in here. I hope this boosts his career a bit. I thought he was amazing in In America, enjoyed him in Cinderella Man and loved him in Hot Fuzz. Everything kind of comes full circle this time around. You find out how things started, who is responsible for everything and as always, nobody can quite catch Jason Bourne.

Once again the government goes after Bourne to cover their tracks, and end up creating even more of a mess that needs to be covered. This time there’s no playing around though. If you know what the word “ultimatum” means, the movie definitely lives up to it.

I don’t really have much else to say about this. I loved it. Go out and see it. Tell us your thoughts.

28 Weeks Later

Published
by
Chalupa
on May 12, 2007
in Drama, Graphic Violence, Horror, Sci-fi, Sequel, Thriller, Twist and Zombie
. 1 Comment

If you didn’t know, this is the sequel to 28 Days Later. They are, in a sense, zombie movies, but they’re done with class. There’s great acting, great dialog, great cinematography, effects, etc. I think these movies stand by themselves quite well. If you didn’t catch the first one, you should be able to go and watch the sequel without feeling clueless.

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland directed and wrote the first one and produced the second. So even though it’s technically not the same director, Boyle still had a hand in what went on. These movies have shock value. They make you jump. If you’ve seen either, I assume you know what I’m talking about. What I’m proud to announce is that 28 Weeks Later takes it up a notch and still makes you jump a little.

Totally different actors. We don’t actually see anybody from the first film. Going in, I was kinda wondering what had happened to Jim and Selena, etc. Maybe they survived, maybe they didn’t. We don’t actually know for sure. I think I like it better that way. Everyone did well acting. As far as I know, this is the most violent role Robert Carlyle has played. Definitely a bit more aggressive than his character Begbie from Trainspotting. Also recognized Catherine McCormack (Spygame and Braveheart), Jeremy Renner (SWAT and North Country), Harold Perrineau (Oz, Romeo + Juliet, Lost) and Rose Byrne (Wicker Park, Marie Antoinette, Casanova). It was interesting to see the plot in both movies being driven by children.

One things I must really applaud is how the chaos was filmed. When you had people running around and being chased, eaten, etc. They shot it from the perspective of the victims - running around wildly and panic-stricken. However, it wasn’t so crazy that you felt dizzy or motion-sick. There were also key images that were shown so that you knew exactly what was going on.

I’m interested in taking a look at the soundtrack. The previews had Muse, but the score during the movie was all themed music and no recognizable songs. We have the soundtrack to 28 Days and love it. Hopefully this one will be good as well.

Boyle and Garland were both criticized for being way too optimistic in the first film. I think that was because most of the people lived and you assumed they were rescued and lived happily ever after. Obviously something does go wrong though because there’s a sequel. It would be interesting if there was a third installment - maybe 28 months later or something like that. Depending on where they went with it, the film could be just as good or really bad. There’s a lot more I’d like to discuss and talk about, but I wouldn’t want to ruin the movie for you. That said, I highly recommend this one.

Pan’s Labyrinth

Published
by
Chalupa
on February 5, 2007
in Drama, Fantasy, Spanish Civil War, Thriller, Twist and War
. 0 Comments

Wow. That’s all I could say after watching this one. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into except all I had heard was good and it was a children’s movie? Well, I was wrong on part of that. This is setup like a fairytale, but this is more like something out of Aesop’s Fables where people die and not everything is happy-go-lucky. This isn’t a G-Rated American fairytale like ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pale of water.’

This film takes place during the Spanish Civil War and is centered around a little girl whose mother has just married a fascist army officer. They move out into the country to where the Captain is because her mother is 8+ months pregnant and about to deliver the Captain’s child. He feels like a baby needs to be born where its father is. We soon learn just what a horrible person this father-to-be is as we see him interact with his family, his soldiers and anyone else that gets in his way. This man will stop at nothing.

On the trip, the girl, Ofelia, is reading a book about a fairy princess who finds her way into the human world and is trying to find her way back. In order to cope with the atrocities of her own life, Ofelia projects this story on her own life through her wonderful imagination. This is a very different take on fantasy from what most people are used to. There’s no elves, goblins or ringwraiths in this film.

This is the first time I’ve seen a movie with mythical characters that are good, yet scary looking. I was also physically on the edge of my seat in a couple parts of the movie and I can’t say that happens very often while watching a movie. Many parts of this movie are about discovery and finding out just what will happen next.

I highly recommend this movie to adults looking for a thought provoking imaginative film. Even though it’s unrated, this would definitely receive an R-rating for violence and language. I think the story and morals portrayed are more than worth the objectionable content you might find while watching.

Deja Vu

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 22, 2007
in Action, Drama, Romance, Sci-fi, Thriller and Twist
. 0 Comments

I saw this one at the dollar theater. I love the dollar theater cause if the movie turns out to be a bust, you aren’t out that much. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie. In fact, I was kind of expecting it to be “one of those movies” where I’d be glad I had seen it for a dollar. Surprisingly, I really liked this one.

If you’re not sure what deja vu means, here’s a definition: 1.Psychology. the illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time. Make sense? Well you have Denzel Washington who is a cop and there’s been a horrific crime. While he’s trying to check some things out, he sort of has that “deja vu” sense about the whole thing. We then find out that the government has this big top secret equipment where they can look back in time 4 days 6hours and 45min, if I remember correctly.

So they use this top secret equipment to look back in time and solve the crime. The equipment shows them the past at “real time”. This means that they can’t fast forward or rewind so they better pay close attention. They end up solving the crime and getting their man, but this has gotten personal for Denzel and he still feels the need to tie up some loose ends. This is where it gets interesting and you find out why the movie has its name.

I won’t go into too many more details just because you should go out and watch this yourself. I give this one a surprised two thumbs up.

The Prestige

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 15, 2007
in Based on a novel, Drama, England, Fantasy, Mystery, Revenge, Sci-fi, Suicide, Thriller and Twist
. 0 Comments

Back in September there were commercials and previews out for two movies about magicians: The Illusionist and The Prestige. Trying to keep them separated in my head was quite a task. I even went to see The Illusionist in the theater and thought I was going to see The Prestige. Even though I enjoyed that outing and was entertained by the film, I recently found out The Prestige is way, way better. It even made me want to go watch Batman again after seeing Christian Bale and Sir Michael Caine in action together a second time.

In this film you have two magicians who have been around each other for a long time and are competing to see who is best. There is also a grudge war between the two that all started with an unfortunate accident that resulted in Angier’s wife’s death. In the end, the obsession to be on top ruins both men’s lives and there are a few twists in there that aren’t easily seen through from the beginning.

This film is full of wonderful actors. It was definitely a treat to see Bowie back in action. I think his performance as Nikola Tesla blows his Labyrinth performance out of the water. Andy Serkis plays his assistant. I’m glad to see he’s getting more work. The two magicians are played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. Michael Caine is an engineer who builds and designs the illusions and Scarlett Johansson plays an assistant. Besides just being a great movie, I think this film also portrays what an unhealthy obsession can do to somebody when taken to extreme levels.

One thing I really appreciated was the lack of offensive material. So often in the box office I see films that great, except I can’t recommend them to certain people because of certain content contained throughout. This is one that will hopefully keep you entertained, and, isn’t full of nudity, violence, language and drug-use. So go out and see it. I caught it at our dollar theater. Hopefully it’s playing somewhere around you for cheap too.

Johnny Mnemonic

Published
by
Chalupa
on September 21, 2006
in Action, Based on a book, Future, Sci-fi, Thriller and Twist
. 1 Comment

This is one of those movies I’ve always been a tiny bit skeptical to watch because it’s an older Keanu Reeves movie. I’m not saying I hate Reeves. He’s done some decent things. I’ll admit it. I loved Babes in Toyland when it came out and I was five years old. I’m not ashamed of it. I was also a fan of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Point Break and The Devil’s Advocate. I loved Dracula and The Replacements. Thumbsucker and Constantine were good and I still need to see A Scanner Darkly and The Gift. See, Reeves isn’t so bad. Johnny Mnemonic wasn’t too bad either. In fact, I thought it was good.

This one came out in 1995. Remember how everybody thought it was so cool how Tom Cruise used those gloves in Minority Report? Well, it had already been done in this movie. The plots actually interesting too and I think this movie was way better than Tank Girl. There were also a lot of recognizable people like Dina Meyer from Supertroopers, Ice-T, Takeshi Kitano from Zatôichi, Dolph Lundgren from Red Scorpion and Rocky IV, Henry Rollins, and Udo Kier from Blade. You recognize some of those people, right?

Anyways, the jist of this story is that people put hard drives in their heads to transfer data. Reeves is one of those people and he gets 320gb of data slammed into his head. The amazing thing is that was a TON of data 11 years ago. If you’re a computer nerd like me, you know what I’m talking about. Back then a 120mb hard drive was a decent amount of space. So Keanu has all this data in his head and it’s too much, so he’s trying to get it out before he dies. There are of course some bad guys involved. Ice-T isn’t a kangaroo in this one, but he is in the “underground” and helps save the day.

I’m sure a lot of people thought this one was stupid, but I liked it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.