Tag Archive for 'Cillian Murphy'

The Dark Knight

Published
by
Chalupa
on August 4, 2008
in Action, Based on a comic, Black Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sequel and Thriller
. 0 Comments

Liz and I were able to catch the latest installment in the Batman series over the weekend.  We’re both glad we were able to catch it on the big screen.  After all the buildup, hype, and raving reviews, we finally got to see what everyone was talking about.


I was very impressed with Batman Begins and I wasn’t in any way disappointed with The Dark Knight.  I’m already looking forward to the next one.  Heath Ledger did an amazing job with The Joker.  I was reading someone’s comments somewhere and they were talking about how they’ve never been a Ledger fan until now.  They also never realized how menacing and diabolical the Joker could actually be, and after thinking about Jack Nicholson’s portrayal from 1989, they realized that Nicholson was just delivering the same role he had been for the previous 20 years or so.  You may or may not agree with that, but it was a little mind blowing to me.  Maybe I haven’t seen enough of Nicholson’s films, but I’ve never quite understood why people are so enamored by him.  Yeah, he has some good films out there with great performances, but I’ve never been that impressed.  It’s really too bad Ledger isn’t with us anymore for any follow-up films.

Often times in sequels, it’s hard to make something that lives up to the original.  I think Christopher Nolan did a good job in raising the bar by bringing in the Joker, but there’s always room for some improvements.  I don’t think Christian Bale had to really act that much this time around.  The gutteral “batman voice” got a little annoying and old, but it makes sense he was talking differently to try and hide his identity.  Aaron Eckhart did a decent job.  I’ll always remember him as Nick Naylor from Thank You for Smoking.  It’ll be interesting to see if he makes a comeback in the future.

I think Gary Oldman had a much more active role this time around.  He’s such a great actor and it’s nice to see him able to spread his wings a bit.  I liked Maggie Gyllenhaal more than Katie Holmes in the role of Rachel Dawes.  She also fit in pretty well.  It wasn’t like some films where actors change for a particular character and the whole time you’re confused as to who exactly that person is.  Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman were wonderful as usual.  Some friends of mine complained after the first film that they were grossly underutilized.  I kind of agreed, however, it was nice to actually have a “real” actor play the role of Alfred for a change.  I was just happy to have a live body in the role.

Some of the scenes with the Joker are a bit disturbing, but this is rated PG-13, so there’s not a whole lot to worry about.  They cut away at just the right moments in certain scenes.  Liz and I both said we got a little bored in the middle, but overall we thoroughly enjoyed it.  I would highly suggest getting out and seeing this one before it leaves the theaters.  You won’t be sorry.

Rating: ★★★★½

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.

Red Eye

Published
by
Chalupa
on August 25, 2005
in Airplane, Horror and Thriller
. 0 Comments

Saw this movie with Phil, Liz, and Soulman. I wasn’t expecting anything really great, but it turned out to be an entertaining movie anyways. Cillian Murphy turned out to play a great role and was so creepy. It was great how certain people looked at him and just knew he was evil. I think this is the first movie I’ve seen Rachel McAdams in where she’s had a serious role. I’ll probably always think of her as Regina George in Mean Girls. Besides seeing someone stabbed in the throat, I think the best part might have been when she told off the uppity customers at the hotel.

I’d say this is worth seeing once to put in your mental collection of movies.

Girl With A Pearl Earring

Published
by
Chalupa
on August 25, 2005
in Art, Based on a book, Based on a novel, Biography, Drama, Netherlands and Romance
. 0 Comments

Saw this with Liz, Robby and Sara. It was funny cause I kept falling asleep watching Hero, yet I was so awake for this one. It’s definitely not an action or thriller, but I’d saw it has some good acting and just like Liz’s dad said, there’s some beautiful scenes and things are made to look like paintings. Scarlett Johansson plays ‘the girl’ and does a decent job. She kinda has that same look on her face though that she has through Lost in Translation and Ghost World. I think she’s been getting a little better at the whole actress thing though. Colin Firth did a great job as the painter who’s torn between doing a job to get paid and heeding his wife’s wishes. Cillian Murphy is also in this movie - sporting some awesome hair I might add.

This is another movie I’d say is worth watching. It may not keep you completely engrossed or make it to your top 100 of all time list, but it’s something you should be aware of as a movie watcher.

Batman Begins

Published
by
Chalupa
on June 15, 2005
in Action, Adventure, Based on a comic, Crime, Martial Arts, Neo Noir and Thriller
. 1 Comment

I started off with the intent to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith but Sarah informed us that the movie sucked so Liz, Sarah and I went to see this movie instead and I’m glad we did. For starters, we have a star-studded cast including Christian Bale (Treasure Island, Newsies, American Psycho, Equilibrium), Michael Caine (Zulu, Alfie-original, The Italian Job-original, A Bridge Too Far, The Muppet Christmas Carol), Liam Neeson (The Mission, Schindler’s List, Michael Collins, Kinsey), Morgan Freeman (Driving Miss Daisy, Glory, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Unforgiven, Shawshank Redemption, Seven, Amistad, Million Dollar Baby, Unleashed), Katie Holmes (Pieces of April), Gary Oldman (Dracula, True Romance, Leon, The Fifth Element), Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Intermission, Cold Mountain), and Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai). See? I said it was star-studded

I read a review earlier today of said movie that talked about what a crappy film this was. Apparently the good actors just didn’t quite make it good, there was action but it was full of dead spots, blah blah blah. I didn’t see any of the bad things I read about in this movie. I really believe that Christopher Nolan has resurrected the Batman movies - especially after a string of such bad ones. This one definitely rocked. I think this was also the first Batman movie to explain the origins of Bruce Wayne. Liam Neeson did an awesome job as well as Gary Oldman, one of the few films where he’s not the bad guy. I didn’t quite recognize Ken Watanabe, but his voice immediately gave him away. Then we have good ol Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Christian Bale. If you like Equilibrium, you’re definitely going to love this one.

I think this movie will appeal to the comic lovers, the action lovers and the Batman lovers. It’s definitely way more serious than the “Holy Swiss Cheese Batman!!!!” TV series, but fake and unreal like other comic hero movies. This is also a movie that should keep the interest of older kids and adults. There’s not really much swearing and other than people getting the crap kicked out of them by Batman, there’s not much else to deter people from watching this film for content. I rate this as a must see and it will probably end up on my top 10 list at the end of the year.