How many times have we seen the plot where someone goes back in time to save a loved one from dying? What makes each of them stand out? What makes them a good one opposed to a bad one?
In the latest of this genre, Sandra Bullock stars as Linda Hanson, a housewife who seems to be living a standard week out of sync. The insane part is that during that week her husband Jim (Nip/Tuck’s Julian McMahon) dies in a rather sudden car accident. As Linda wakes up every morning a new piece of the week falls into place and the question still remains when the day of accident arrives can she save Jim?
We have seen this type of scenario a billion times in movies. The gimmick in this film is a little different and often it is a man saving a woman but it all is about the same.
I never thought in a million years I would ever say I like Sandra Bullock as an actress but she really surprised and impressed me with her role in 2005’s “Crash”. She was also quite good in the almost forgotten “Infamous” as Nelle Harper Lee opposite Toby Jones’s Capote.
I still think her performance in “Crash” was the best of her career. The crazy part is that you can see an echo of that performance in her character here. The scene where she meets the cop at the door to hear of her husband’s death is amazing.
The look and panic on her face is utterly priceless. But sadly that is the only scene in the whole movie that really works.
The supporting performances from Peter Stormare, Julian McMahon and Amber Valletta are just rudimentary, cardboard and phoned in. Even when there was supposed to be emotion coming from these characters it was like they were caught in a vacuum.
There is a lot of bad editing, camera work and shifting of scenes maybe the director was trying to achieve a different look for film but instead just gets an incoherent mess. The whole attempt just doesn’t work. I found some scenes to be shot so amateurish that it felt like I was watching dailies. The whole opening sequence and funeral is just horrendous. I have seen “Ghost Whisperer” episodes with better timing and thrills than this film.
The film is directed by Mennan Yapo, who won some critical acclaim for his 2004 German thriller “Soundless”. “Premonition” is his first big Hollywood production and sadly it shows.
Bullock’s strong performance just can’t overcome the utter amateurish and cardboard production.
(1 out of 5)
So Says the Soothsayer.
Ever wondered what goes on inside the body of a disgusting over 40-year old man who doesn’t take care of himself. Well in the new movie, “Osmosis Jones” we find out.
The worst part about the film is the mundane world that Frank lives in. It’s boring and so utterly predictable. The daughter is annoying and her dad is even more so. Was this supposed to be this way or was the film just trying to play up the animation angle. Regardless it was very hard to sit through.
Is elite director Steven Spielberg on a quest or an exploratory journey? Does Spielberg want to become the late director Stanley Kubrick or is he just flirting with the possibility?
The problems that I had with Minority Report were in the believability of the premise. For good science fiction you need to have some belief in what is going on. I had a hard time understanding that a man can be convicted and then locked away in suspended animation before he has even done anything. The movie even contradicts this point when it says that each one of us have a choice before we commit a violent act. If everything is seen and laid out how can we have a choice? The movie says the Pre-cogs are never wrong.
Cruise character says to the man investigating Pre-crime Division (played by Colin Farrell), “It helps if you don’t think of them as human.” Then I scream at the flickering film screen, “Of course their human! What are you some kind of slave-overseer?” The characters also dictate that they try to remain separate from the Pre-cogs. Is this some sort of relief for their conscience? Isn’t this just a justification of enslaving these gifted beings?
In my opinion, the only successful Philip K. Dick transference to film was Blade Runner. In Blade Runner, director Ridley Scott developed and set the bar for dark futuristic films. His vision and the world he created were revolutionary. Now if you compare any other film set in a dark futuristic world you find that the film is just a carbon copy of Blade Runner. Minority is no exception. In Minority, Spielberg needed to find more comparisons and contrasts the just using an all-encompassing hue.
Director Carl Franklin is probably one of the most under-rated directors working today.
The true staple of a good Franklin movie is his mix of jazz and blues anthems throughout the score of his films. The mix here adds to this films intensity as is seen in the tense scenes which are echoed by seemingly tribal drums. The beating of the drums earmarks those scenes with tone and texture. I can’t imagine the hotel scene without the drums.
With last spring’s “Mission to Mars” opening so strongly, Warner Bros decided to push back “Red Planet” so they wouldn’t feel the “Mission” tidal wave. As I entered the theatre to see Planet I thought back to “Mission” and hoped that it wouldn’t be the same kind of thing. I was shocked, delighted and a tad bit disappointed but Planet was still a better ride than “Mission” ever was.
The real sad thing I found about Planet was how they used a lot of hokey ways to get out of tension sequences. One example was when the crew can’t communicate with their ship so they decide to walk over and find a probe sent to Mars back in 1997. (Can anyone say Pathfinder?) They rip apart Pathfinder grab on of the internal boards and two wires and call for help.
What has sharp fangs, ruffled hair, a mean disposition, a craving for fresh meat and an accent?
He follows leads to a gypsy fortune teller who tells him a family curse as a beast starts to rip the camp apart. Lawrence confronts the beast and is bitten. Barely surviving, Lawrence awakens back at the estate. His father tells him more about the werewolf curse saying, “you have done things Lawrence, evil things!” Lawrence Talbot is THE WOLF MAN.
If you love werewolf movies and the mythos around them then you will love this movie. You’ll see all the scenes that pay homage older werewolf movies like the infamous scene from American Werewolf in London where the werewolf runs through central London causing a bus crash.
Probably my favorite scene is when Talbot is sent to a mental institution and the psychologists try to tell him he’s crazy and he is acting out. They chain him to a chair and wheel him into a lecture hall where they talk about him as an experiment as the full moon blooms. Talbot changes and attacks the shrinks. It is a brilliant, brutal and fantastic scene. It kind of reminded me of a cross between of Dr Jekyll and Bruce Banner before they turn into their alter egos. I was just waiting for the line “Don’t make me angry, you wouldn’t like me when I am angry.”
