Chris' Talk

The Happening

"There appears to be an event happening..."

Okay, I have rather mixed views about this movie I kind of like it a little but on the other hand, I hate it.

It is properly easier to start of with the reasons why I liked it as there is only probably one reason so here goes...

The first 30 minutes or so where actually quite good and rather entertaining, I particularly loved the opening scenes, as it grabbed my attention. As the movie continued, I was actually wondering why critics gave this such a bad review but they proved they were right in the end.

After 30 minutes, it all seemed to go down hill from there, nowhere near as intense or entertaining as the opening scenes just dull and somewhat boring.

Elliot Moore: Can this really be happening?

The acting was dreadful as was the plot, I feel like Mark Walberg just wanted to laugh throughout. I don't think he looked series at any point which may be down to the fact the role of a science teacher didn't suit him but then again maybe he was thinking about the ridiculousness of the plot. Zooey Deschanel's character, just didn't appear to fit in with Walberg's, it appeared to unrealistic and well annoying.

The main thing I hated with this movie was the actually event causing 'the happening' there are not enough words to describe how ridiculous it was! Seriously! What the FUCK was that about? It may have possible worked, as there were some comedic elements throughout, but once the notion came into place it felt far too rushed, another reason why I hated it, the opening scenes were so entertaining but the rest was well stupid and in the end pointless.


I seriously think M. Night Shyamalan is laughing at us all, come on he had Marky Mark running away from wind for an hour!

Train Conductor: The train service has been discountinued. This will be the last stop for all passengers.
Elliot Moore: Hey, what do you mean? Where are we?
Train Conductor: Filbert, Pennsylvania.
Elliot Moore: Filbert? Does anybody know where that is? Why are you giving me one useless piece of information at a time? What's going on? Hey, why would you just stop? You can't just leave us here!
Train Conductor: Sir, we lost contact.
Elliot Moore: With whom?
Train Conductor: Everyone.

The Spirit

The Spirit: My city, I can not deny her. My city screams. She is my mother. She is my lover, and I am her Spirit.

Firstly, I think I should start of by saying I actually wanted to watch some of Frank Millers other work like Sin City or 300 before watching this.

Having watched it anyway, I didn't love it but I didn't hate it either. I was left feeling disappointed more than anything else, as throughout the entire movie I felt like I was just waiting for it to get better but it never did I just found myself waiting for it to be over as soon as possible and I was glad when it was.

The Spirit: Somebody find me a tie! I don't care what kind, but by God, it had better be red!

The acting was reasonable yet at times irritating; yes, I even found Samuel L. Jackson's performance annoying. Nevertheless, the acting was not the only aspect that left me feeling irritated some scenes particularly the ones with the 'The Spirit' narrating were just plain annoying. Even more so, because I loved the comic book style of the movie it was great to watch, this had potential to be better than it was but turned out to be dull and unrealistic.

Overall, I was left feeling bored on some occasions but vaguely entertained in some parts although not enough for me to want to see this again, at one point I actually wished I had stayed home and watched Sin City.

The Spirit: "What are you?" That's what the woman asked me. Am I some sort of ghost? I still move. I still breathe. I'm still alive.

Bedtime Stories

OMG funny and a very good story.

Milk

Since "Milk" first started getting a little buzz this past summer as it was shown in a few "Fall Movie Preview" article's in various entertainment magazine's caught my attention with Penn in the lead role and Van Sant directing. I didn't quite know what it was about, but when I saw a trailer had arrived I made sure to go ahead and watch it. When I did I could tell it was going to be one of the best movies this Oscar season and it did not dissapoint in that respect at all.

Gus Van Sant probably had his most loved film when "Good Will Hunting" came out, which launched the careers of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck with their brilliant, oscar winning screenplay, and their solid portrayls of the main characters in the film. While I don't see all that much similarity in the actual style of the filmmaking between the two movies, you can see many similarities in the way his character's are handled. Many moments in both films are shown and told with a great amount of realism. While both stories could've been very cheesy and corny, Van Sant somehow makes any of that possible corniness believable and likeable at the same time. At least, believable enough to stay connected to the story being told by the film. I can say that this is Van Sant's return to form. It's his best film since "Good Will Hunting" and it will almost certainly earn him an oscar nomination for his direction. He directs it tenderly and tells his story very effectively. I saw this as a fairly honest bio-pic about a man that really believed in something and helped to bring our conservative country closer to tolerance of the gay community (which we obviously still have not reached).

This film can also easily be compared to "Elephant", which was a fictional story done in a realistic fashion about a Columbine like school shooting. This is because a decent portion of "Milk" centers on Dan White's downward spiral into finally bottoming out. His character arch is handled well, and it's entirely predictable and believable that he would've done what he did just looking at the events in the film. This is a great example of a part of the film where the real events are translated very well.

As I previously mentioned Sean Penn takes the title role of Harvey Milk. Harvey is a very smart businessman and entrepreneur who knows how to turn situations around to be in his favor. His character finally starts living his life for real, and he really accomplishes some great things. Harvey Milk is a man that celebrated life. Penn does a great job and handles the character with much care. You can tell Penn spent a lot of time getting all of the mannerisms close to exact as well as getting comfortable kissing various men of the same sex. I'm sure he was not used to doing this, and he has to do it many times throughout this film. Penn has always been an oscar favorite so it's very believable, if not realistic, to think that Penn will, at the very least, be on the ballot for the 5th time come this February. I think he has a shot at winning his second academy award.

Josh Brolin plays the tragic character of Dan White with the proper amount of brutish mannerisms. He doesn't really understand the world around him, constantly not knowing how to handle different situations. His disconnect is unfortunate, but Brolin plays the character believably. If he gets nominated for Best Supporting Actor for this film, he's the most worthy out of all the supporting cast. Emile Hirsch does a decent job as Harvey's enthusiastic event coordinator, Cleve Jones. He knows how to get people to come in droves to one place. I don't really know why he's been getting some oscar buzz for this role. I think if anything Brolin and Franco play more interesting characters than he does. Still a solid performance. James Franco plays Harvey's boyfriend for much of the film, Scott Smith. He is Harvey's true love through the movie's entirity. From the time Harvey meets him, at the beginning, to the time of his imminent death (that you are aware of within the first 5 minutes of the opening title's). Diego Luna does a good job and believably portrays one of Harvey's flings that he has as he's getting elected and while he's in office. He reminded me most of an absolutely insane, high maintenence girl friend, just applied to an effeminate latino man.

The one thing I thought was so unbelievably interesting was the film's absolute relevance to right now. It's as if the filmmakers knew that prop 8 wasn't going to pass, or even that it was going to be on the ballot back when the film was first put into production. There's a large portion of the film devoted to making sure a proposition that would've revoked many rights from gay's across the state of California, prop 6 in 1978, didn't pass. It was really fascinating to see that the opposition to gay rights was using the same illogical, non-sensical arguments then as they're constantly making now. The disconnect and the void of fear between the fundamentalist christian community and the gay community is illustrated poignantly and accurately in "Milk".

The comparisons between "Milk" and "Brokeback Mountain" are inevitable and unavoidable. Both films got large amounts of Oscar buzz for their respective years, had high profile casts, and were of coruse large productions about the gay community (not to mention they were both distributed by Universal's indie label, one of the few that continues to be successful, Focus Features). However they are quite different at heart. "Brokeback Mountain" was an aggressive, rugged, and controversial film about forbidden love, and people afraid of being themselves in order to follow societal conventions. "Milk" is first off non-fiction, and secondly it really is a more tenderly handled film about the gay community that shows a lot of affection rather than raw aggression. While this is obviously a controversial film that is an important additon in the art field to the gay community, it really serves it's purpose as a good bio-pic in it's own right. It has a very well constructed and focused screenplay, effective direction, and a fantastic ensemble cast.

"Milk" is one of the very finest films this year, and with the talent it had pushing it along this is entirely logical, if not expected. The subject matter is not only controversial and relevant, but extremely important as well. It will likely be up for Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (for one of the supporting roles), Best Director, and Best Picture. All of the character's in the film seem very believable and human. Even the "bad guys" are handled with care, as the film is very cautious not to demonize anyone, just as it seemed "Milk" never truly hated anyone. He, like the audience, was angry at people simply because they used their influence to make comments that were uninformed and, in most cases, completely ridiculous. Rather than wanting to kill these hateful bigots as many of the bigots no doubt wanted to kill him, Harvey Milk seemed to take pity on them, and always tried to empathize, and understand exactly why they never took the time to truly understand him, and why they were really so afraid of homosexuality. This film serves it's purpose of promoting equality and tolerance well, and it manages to stand alone as an entertaining and insightful look into the recent past to learn lessons that can help us be a better country in the present.

9.5/10

Beer for My Horses

pretty funny and descent movie.

Slumdog Millionaire

Nothing about "Slumdog Millionaire" seemed all that interesting. The plot is very odd, centering around the true story of a very poor boy who had no education somehow winning a game show through knowledge from his past experiences. It doesn't sound bad, but it sounds cheesy to a certain extent. The trailer made it seem a bit over dramatic and it was not all that intriguing. The only thing that truly got me out to the theater were the reviews and the buzz heading into its release and man am I glad I listened to that. "Slumdog Millionaire" is one of the very finest films to be released this year and I could see it up for many awards come this years oscars.

Danny Boyle has directed so many genres and has done so well with all of them that I can confidently say that he just flat out knows how to direct movies. His style doesn't change, but his ability to tell a story doesn't either. It all comes together very well for "Slumdog Millionaire" which is probably one of the toughest positive films in years. It's absolutely incredible the struggles the characters face in the film, and Boyle transfers all of these real life events and cultural factors onto the screen quite poetically and beautifully. It doesn't end up being a cheesy story at all, it's actually rather realistic, and at times it's hard to take. The Indian culture is illustrated beautifully with all the grit and rich colors, and vibrant characters, this film is truly brought to life. I don't think there's another director out there who could've done it better. He also does a great job with pacing. His quick cutting and stylized shooting and editing styles help to speed up the film in some of it's slower moments. Not to mention the fantastic choice of music, mixing mostly Indian music, always with a great beat and some American music as well, when appropriate. It all comes together and tells a great and compelling story in an entertaining way.

The acting in the film is very good from the entire cast. Three separate actors have to play the main character, Jamal, as well as his brother Salim. All three actors who play both characters do a great job. Even the younger actors show a great range, while none of the 6 actors have one particularly weak link of any kind. Much of the supporting cast must've been famous in India because many of the older men in the film just did a magnificent job. The love interest, Latika, was believably gourgeous when the final actress began to play the more mature version of the girl. There is no specific actor in the film that I can look at and say was miscast.

The writing is all very well done. The movement in time is something that could've easily been screwed up but it's handled quite well. It also would've never ever worked as a narrative and the movement in time seemed very logical and necessary to effectively tell the story. The character arch's throughout the film are done to perfection and I can't say there were many moments were I thought something could've been more fleshed out. I suppose the romance plot line was a little simplistic and could've been delved into more, but it was believable enough that it didn't really effect the overall quality of the movie. Another big strength is the fact that it has a very wide appeal. The story is a very universal struggle that any culture can understand. It also should appeal to both sexes as it seems to cross into enough genres that it can interest both men and women. I don't know who truly would not enjoy or get something out of this film. As a whole it could be most easily compared to "City of God" but a little more positive, and I mean that as the highest of compliments. I had very few problems with any part of the film and the writing is no exception.

"Slumdog Millionaire" is a totally welcome and very pleasant surprise. Not only is it one of the few films in recent memory that really immersed you in a very rich and colorful culture, but it also is one of the few that tells a story that will keep you in it's grip from start to finish. I'm sure a lot of dramatic license was taken while adapting this true story to the big screen, but that doesn't take much away from it. It's still one of the most positive yet realistic films I've seen in a long time and I highly recommend it to everyone out there.

9.5/10