_kelly's Talk

The Princess and the Frog

Remember the excruciating Enchanted (2007)? Well, after Disney blindly thought that they had made a masterpiece (haha!) because of its unfortunately big financial success, they finally decide to step away from the 3D animation temporarily and direct what is, ultimately, a reminder of the traditional style of telling an animated story. The result? Well, instead of proceeding with my commentary, I'll make an intentionally mixed list of pros and cons, and let it speak for itself. In The Princess and the Frog, you will find:

- The typical romance story that made classic Disney famous, told with a predominant mediocrity.
- Non-interesting, boring characters.
- Good animation.
- The first Afro-American princess in Disney history.
- OK songs.
- A provocative use of shiny colors.
- Failed emotions.
- Spoofs of immortal children tales including The Frog Prince.
- A nostalgic reference to The Rescuers.
- A forced ending.
- A partially convincing art direction.
- More boring (animal) characters.
- An average screenplay.
- Slapstick violence.
- Some bits with the humor that made Disney famous.
- An entirely, 100% predictable plot, including several dialogues.
- A rather interesting and original villain.
- A very noticeable inspiration from The Color Purple (1985).
- The melodramatic death of a character that was supposed to increase the emotional touch, but that ended up being distracting.
- The controversial use of witchcraft and voodoo that almost goes unperceived thanks to the childish elements disguising it.
- Unconceivable decisions made by the main character.
- Emphasis on money and materialism.
- Attention towards the futility of discrimination, once again, in a forced way. I mean, the children will OBVIOUSLY reflect on the problems of racism in the actuality...

I rest my case.

54/100

Niñas Mal (Charm School)

This a Mexican movie which is very predictable and has the classic stereotypes that we having seen in many teen movies. The movie delivers a couple of chuckles but nothing more.

Up in the Air

Quietly affecting story about a middle aged confirmed bachelor who makes a living by flying around the country firing people. Romantic comedy takes its time to develop, but as it does, the humor gradually draws the viewer into its easy-going rhythm. Director and screenwriter Jason Reitman's follow up to Juno is a similarly quirky and talky examination of a life. What makes the film so impressive is the witty repartee, particularly between stars George Cooney and Vera Farmiga who plays a sexual liaison he meets while traveling. Together they exhibit a playful sexiness that is surprisingly poignant. Cast also features relative newcomer Anna Kendrick in a breakout performance as a fast-rising recently hired co-worker. Occasionally the dialogue can be a bit pedantic, but it's also that concern for detail that makes these characters so humorous and moving.

Natural Born Killers

"natural born killers" is oliver stone's anarchic anthem in the 90s, tackling into the subject of adolescent spree-killers as a satirized version of 1973 "badlands" featuring still fresh-faced martin sheen and sissy spacek but the 1970s piece is more like dirge for the dazed youth when individuality is buried by social conformity as the young couple extend their excessive energy in astray direction while the 90s interpretation is more targeted upon the obsession with fame and celebrity culture induced by the avarice of media. now here comes the turn for woody harrelson and juliette lewis in their prime youth of edginess exploded in a violent tale like "natural born killers"

the story goes like this without all those distractive boisterous mtv-montages: mallory comes from an abusive family with her father sexually moistering her since childhood, and then she meets the meat-deliverer mickey to rescue her from her obnoxious father by ferociously killing off the whole family. so they elope and make a pact of eternal bond, seeking their exclusive pleasure by slaughtering off everyone they encounter whenever they feel like it. all of a sudden, they've become the nationally well-known heroic figures against the authority, idols for youngers, and perfect material for a cheesy tv show called "american maniacs"..finally the couple got some fatal snake bite and besieged by police force, so they're sentenced into separate prisons awaiting to get executed. somehow the greedy reporter played robert downey jr. detects a great opportunity to catapult his personal status by interviewing this about-to-be-dead serial murderer, so he has a live interview with mickey, during intervals mickey obtains a chance to kill his way off for survival and re-union with his beloved mallory. in the end, the reporter is slaughtered as the director's metaphoric grudge against this corruptive cultural phenomenon...

oliver stone was excellent with those mtv-montages, for example, he sets the episode of mallory in the form of "i love lucy," using 50s sit-com to render the story of a child with a pedophilic father to create a harsher sense of grotesque and to enhance its undercurrent disturbance, a father grabbing his daughter's butt in the background of light-weighted 50s homely melody. or mickey and mallory embrace under the song of edith piar's "life of rose"...numerous examples like that...

stone tries to caricature how fame could empower any half-witted hillbilly in this media-manipulated nation called america, and the dialogues contain great contempt for authority and government and how the commoners are thrilled with a deranged form of anarchism represented by outlaws since the days of john dillinger and bonnie and clyde. stone, in this stage of career, does have lots of political concerns to vent in his movies, thus "natural born killers" has become the utmost pinnacle of oliver stone's career as well as woody harrelson and juliette lewis'.

the soundtrack has some precious gems like underground all-female punk-band L17, which only existed briefly, their classic song "SHITLIST" which is flowing along with juliette lewis' striptease dancing in the outset sequence, and the camera shot and the spunk fit the this smashing punk anthem so wonderfully that it still lingers over my mind endlessly even after a decade when i firstly "natural born killer" as a teenage. then i start to recall the ballistic juliette lewis in the 90s, in my belief she's the best actress ever to play the troubled and neurotic youth, despite she may not be top-drawer of world-class beauty, but there's an agelessness in her that i consider incredible...who else could do the psycho-bitch so well meanwhile preserve a chic it-girl-ness so un-apolegetically like lewis?...maybe courtney love or patricia arquette, but they seem to be more like tenderized vixens who appear more like the objects of desire, the femme fatale type. unlike lewis who could render an extreme spunkiness blended with a frail naivete. same for woody harrelson who seems perfect for this role, un-replacable.

in the 90s, people would critize "natural born killers" as merely sex and violence, but now you see all those pervert slashers made in 2000s like saw and michael bay's texas massacres, "natural born killers" could only be considered cartoonish right now, and oliver stone at least has lots of wits and intelligences upon the subject of violence, such as he uses the interivew of charles manson in mickey's confrontation with the reporter "i kill because it's fate, just like a woolf doesn't know why he's born a woolf and a deer doesn't know why he's born a deer"...now the violence of those 2000s horror pieces are truly more upon the degrading of human impotence without a trace of contemplation upon laws of nature or the course of society or the purpose of humanity. time has proved oliver stone is right and "natural born killers" remains one of the most interesting movies in cinematic history. oh, man, I LOVE THE 90S!

RocknRolla

The movie is clever as well as engaging, due to the valid performances from a cast that is at the best. Not a masterpiece of course but a work having style, energy and filled with whizzing visual gags and graphics.

National Lampoon's Animal House

The movie has a fun cast, some good jokes, some classic scenes, and enough nudity to make it interesting for guys but plot-less and not as funny as some of its copies.

She's the Man

The gags are nice, and I had a couple of laughs, but everything else is very standard.
Decent for one see, but that's about it.

Basket Case

"Basket Case" is one of the cheapest made movies I have ever seen, but it is very good nonetheless and very gruesome, tacky, and outrageous horror flick too. There are not very many professional actors in the whole bunch, but some of them do manage to be pretty amusing.
Horror fans will not want to miss a cult classic like this one.

Horton Hears a Who!

With the message "A Person Is a Person No Matter How Small", "Horton Hears a Who!" is a lesson of respect and rights of the minorities through hilarious situations. The animation is awesome, the characters are nice and I liked this great family entertainment.

How To Get Ahead in Advertising

This is a hilarious movie, excellent satire and has a great performance by Withnail himself, Mr. Richard E. Grant. This is something I can kinda relate to in a way because I'm a marketing student and eventually I will have a figurative boil on my shoulder when my different sides clash. Truly an exceptional movie not to be missed.

Hunger

no one could ever forget that almost 30 minutes conversation scene (in which 20 minutes of it consist of one unedited single shot)...Just Brilliant.

Psycho Beach Party

An amusing little homage to 50's/60's beach party/surfing & horror b-movies.

Lauren Ambrose is great (as usual) and the rest of the cast seems to be having a lot of fun with all of the silliness and sexual undertones.

Nothing ground breaking, but it was enjoyable.

Salo (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma)

Based on the book The 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade. Because of its scenes depicting intensely graphic violence, sadism, and sexual depravity, the movie was extremely controversial upon its release, and remains banned in several countries to this day. When Pier Paolo Pasolini was asked who is the film's audience, he said, "It's for everyone. For people like me."

Pier Paolo Pasolini, as is well known, was murdered not long after he finished work on this, his most audacious and confrontational film, yet even the most casual viewing of SALÓ begs the question - had he not been murdered, would he have taken his own life anyway? Every sequence, every shot and practically every moment of this film is so burdened with despair, barely concealed rage and a towering disgust with the human race, one gets the impression that Pasolini was barely hanging onto life - and any attendant shreds of hope - by his fingernails. Although ostensibly an adaptation of one of DeSade's most depraved works channeled through the horrifying excesses of the Second World War with the Fascist ruling classes as its (authentically vile) villains, SALÓ also contains a lot of contemporary criticism - Pasolini hated the modern world, and explained the stomach-churning 'banquet of s**t' as a none-too-subtle attack on the encroaching global domination of the fast food chains. (The scenes of sexual excess can similarly be read as a despairing attack on the permissive society - those who come to SALÓ expecting titillation or B-movie sleaze will be sorely disappointed.) Beyond the nihilistic content, which has been well documented elsewhere, the film has an overall mood that seems to have been engineered to make the viewer thoroughly depressed. Shot on washed-out, faded film stock using primarily static cameras, long shots, choppy editing and very few cutaways, SALÓ has a visual style reminiscent of cinema-verite documentary. Add to this the unnerving use of big band music, piano dirges and the (intentionally?) scrappy post-dubbed dialogue, and the distancing effect on the viewer is complete. SALÓ comes across as one long primal scream of rage, designed to shake the viewer out of his complacency, and in this respect, the film succeeds unequivocally. Whether or not you would care to watch this more than once, or indeed for 'entertainment', is another matter, but SALÓ is an important film that demands a careful viewing ONLY by those prepared for it.

Seven Pounds

What 27% critics liked it? WTF? 77% flixster liked it, that proves we are better than them! ;)

Seven Pounds is a touching movie, dramatized till the max, but hey.. i enjoyed it; more less my parents enjoyed it! Narration, directing is great - they keep you on the edge till the end, you will have a lot of expectation for the finale, but well imo the finale was average. Will Smith proves once again, why after decade he is still one of the best; Rosario Dawson should get appreciated - her acting is fantastic! 2 hours package; worth it.

8/10.

The Transporter

Once in a while there would be some brainless, cool action movie that comes around and The Transporter is it! Love the movie, watched it years back just get around the DVD. Jason Statham is the new Bruce Willis, he is damn awesome. As for the story not too shabby, they don't over dramatized it.

7/10.

Dung fong tuk ying (Eastern Condors)

Der Letzte Mann (The Last Laugh)

"Here the story should really end, for, in real life, the forlorn old man would have little to look forward to but death. The author took pity on him and has provided a quite improbable epilogue."

DER LETZTE MANN (1924)

Director: F.W. Murnau
Country: Germany
Genre: Drama
Length: 90 minutes



To begin with, the second timeless absolute masterpiece by the memorable silent cinema legend F.W. Murnau did not conclude in the way he originally wanted it to. The executives at UFA sought for a more ambitious financial success; therefore, they compelled Murnau and the screenwriter Carl Mayer to close Der Letzte Mann with a happy ending, not to mention that they were pressured to change the film's title from "The Last Man" to "The Last Laughter". There is an undeniable fact in this matter: Murnau was a visionary. When an artist is way ahead of his time, presenting unconventional and amoral thematic material, the biggest possibility is the public's rejection. Murnau was rejected by both the typical audiences and the religious themselves when Faust - Eine Deutsche Volkssage (1926) was released. Nevertheless, Der Letzte Mann is an introspective masterpiece of analytical politeness and moralistic values. It is also a technically dazzling and innovative work of art. With a very cathartic plot and a literally outstanding leading role, Murnau's magnum opus is one of the most simplistic, yet groundbreaking pieces of cinema that defied the sentiments of the world's heart.

The film focuses on the story of an aging doorman that works at the prestigious Atlantic Hotel. The man is very proud of his position in his job and, most of all, the prestige he has supposedly acquired thanks to his uniform. When the manager decides to replace the doorman and re-assign him to the preposterously inferior position of washroom attendant, he tries to hide the truth from his acquaintances and relatives. However, he soon is forced to face the scorn and mockery of his friends, his neighbors and the society itself.

Extraordinarily talented German star Emil Jannings, who consolidated his brilliantly multiphacetic acting capacities in Josef von Sternberg's Der Blaue Engel (1930), was always an artist of unparalleled on-screen presence. His remarkable performance in Der Letzte Mann is no exception. Murnau's testament on the human condition is a direct questioning towards the moral values that we, as individuals of a society, have decided to adopt in order to lead a particular lifestyle. Also, it invites to reflection regarding to what extent we have allowed these ideals to influence our behavioral and psychological attitude. Naturally, the film must be launched from a very simple premise: an elderly, proud doorman who is re-assigned to the lowest position possible. In case this wasn't enough, he must contend with the hypocrisy and discrimination of a lavish society. "Is my reputation and my dignity more important than my precious uniform?" This question has the magical ability of appealing to the population of any generation: doormen, attendants, secretaries, entrepreneurs, managers, family men... We are all members of a whole group and, as individuals, fate has caused us to face entirely different faces of the actuality's existence. No face is more important than the rest.

Der Letzte Mann is the first film to employ the technique of a moving camera. Not so surprisingly, every single technical innovation had a particular meaning behind. They demanded significant substance. The principal purpose that the artists behind this film had in mind was to emphasize the importance of the doorman's thoughts. How can the background, the camerawork and the cinematography implicitly enhance the motivations and feelings inside the character without the necessity of displaying title cards? Thus, this silent film is, literally, one of the most silent films ever made: it only displays two title cards for explaining the job replacement and, ironically, the cynical epilogue that was directly aimed towards the melodramatically conservative executives of the UFA. The rest are just perfectly calculated camera angles, shadows, facial expressions, reactions, gestures, stares, spoken dialogues that can be understood with just witnessing the sequence and unfulfilled illusions.

At first glance, we can split the film in half in a justified way. When the attention is put to the main character, we witness his disappointments, his sadness and his humiliation from a high angle, shots that would directly influence Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941). However, when the director allows us to temporarily leave the internal little world in which the doorman lives in, we see the luxurious hotel through an exaggerated lens, enhancing how meaningful the uniform and the vast paces of the hotel are for Janning's character. The irony is derived from the outside world being infinitely bigger than the hotel itself. Screenwriter Carl Mayer suggests that this materialistic world that has been ridiculously exalted by our own pretentiousness can be ultimately destroyed when we come to our senses. The hotel symbolizes the giant enterprise building, the sumptuous mansion, the giant gardens, the vast territorial lands, the humankind's insatiable ambition... all of those insignificant details that can cause the man to be blinded and stop living gratefully and adequately. If we take all of these elements, what remains? The dreams and the imagination remain, an aspect strengthened through two sequences:

1) The protagonist's expertly filmed, artistic dream sequence where he enters the hotel juggling suitcases while gaining everyone's attention.
2) His nostalgic, cold and attentive stare towards his past uniform inside the manager's office.

Der Letzte Mann is one of the best directed and reflexive dramas of silent cinema, and an influential landmark for future generations to come. Few times can cinema be so straightforwardly honest to the unpleasant nature of the human race, especially considering the original ending that the director had prepared for the film, which would have definitely been the most adequate. With an hypnotic filmic style, a minimalist direction, smart sequences of imagined fantasy, one of the best male leading roles in the very first decades of moviemaking and an inspirational story, F.W. Murnau took a break from the horror genre and assigned the wonderful German Expressionism a humanist role. If you had to choose between your identity as a simple human being and your imaginary "hotel", what would you take? Remember: the movie ends before the unrealistic and clichéd epilogue.

100/100

Akahige (Red Beard)

"The pain and loneliness of death frighten me. But Dr. Niide looks at it differently. He looks into their hearts as well as their bodies."

AKAHIGE (1965)

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Country: Japan
Genre: Drama
Length: 185 minutes



Akahige is, simply, one of a kind. Regardless of the motivations that the multiphacetic Japanese master had in mind, one thing that has remained clear even nowadays is that he aimed towards a different perspective. He required a perspective that exalted humankind at its highest and most moralistic point. The protagonists were no longer drawn into epic battle scenes; ambitious lords were no longer the main characters; samurais did not abound in the screen anymore. Kurosawa's masterpiece is about the perseverance of the human condition and ends up becoming an incredibly powerful learning experience. Toshirô Mifune is back assuming a different leading role, yet mirroring the past personalities he had incarnated. Kurosawa may be an effusive sentimentalist but, during those decades, the Golden Age of cinema had that particular characteristic, a remarkable and unrepeatable capacity to move the hearts of worldwide audiences, to invite them to deep self-reflection and to make an eternal, unforgettable reservation inside their hearts, despite this being the last collaboration between Kurosawa and Mifune.

Akahige is set in the nineteenth-century Japan and focuses on the story of the young recent medical graduate Dr. Noboru Yasumoto who is assigned to work in the Koshikawa clinic for his post-graduate medical training. The non-profit health facility is ruled by the demanding and strict Dr. Kyojio Niide, known as "Red Beard", a man who will indirectly help Yasumoto to accept the crude reality of the impoverished surroundings in order to become a more objective man. In the process, Niide will be subject to several strong life lessons and his monastic lifestyle and emotionally careless patient treatment will become a challenge to surpass. Director Akira Kurosawa was nominated for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival of 1965, losing it against Luchino Visconti for his film Vaghe Stelle dell'Orsa... (1965). However, he won the OCIC award and actor Toshirô Mifune won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor.

What may attract the attention of the film fan the most before seeing this timeless gem is its running time. However, the film retakes the heartwarming melodramatic roots that were present in the humanity of Rashômon (1950) and in the honesty of Ikiru (1952), and transforms them into a giant drama, giant in size and epic in scope. The typical ruthless and nearly emotionless Mifune we got used to has returned; however, a very interesting dose of humanism has been added to his persona. Kurosawa has the attractive habit of assigning psychological features to the characters of his films for then making them to collision in an extraordinary web of events. He also tends to construct rather humorous counterparts. Akahige is no exception. The film is plagued with moral lessons that appeal both the Eastern and the Western culture, and it intentionally pays a lot of detail to the patients inside the clinic. Moreover, the respective attitudes of Yasumoto and Niide are drastically different.

The performances are inspirationally astounding. The film goes from one patient to the next, while we experience nostalgic flashbacks of a devastated and obscure Japan where sadness and solitude seem to be stronger elements than the poverty itself. If this wasn't enough, we see their testimonies and ultimately depressing stories through the eyes of Yasumoto, stories that cover events from the loss of an eternal love in the rainy streets to incredibly traumatic incidents. And so begins the molding of Yasumoto's fate, greatly helped by the disciplinary and narrow-mindedly precise habits of Dr. Niide. Our perspective towards the world suffers exactly the same process that involves gathering the personal anecdotes of individuals who have seen the varied faces of a modern existence and taking the most productive and thoughtful aspects for personal benefit. The surrounding environment is under poverty-stricken life conditions, emphasizing the futility of materialism and the importance of benign and truthful humanity. Yasumoto suffers a great transition, from being a man who involuntarily fainted after seeing exposed guts to a growing man who is accepting the outcomes of his fate, a fate he decided to survive several years before. Naturally, a believable dose of comedy ensues when we see the straightforwardness of Niide disagreeing with the immature arrogance and proud of the young graduate in a nonconforming way. Nonetheless, Akahige divides itself in two separate chapters for introducing us to an emotionally unsatisfied Japanese society in the first half, and unfolding the behavioral changes that the protagonists must work on after going through a strictly visual and non-skeptical process of serious maturity and meaningful realizations during the second half.

The evolution of the technical aspects that Kurosawa applied during the 50s is not lost. He seems to have a certain visual obsession with rain, always assigning it several background roles. It served the purpose of a catastrophic isolation and utter disappointment towards the nature of man in Rashômon (1950); it emphasized the existentialist epiphany of the main character in Ikiru (1952); it created a gloriously epic atmosphere in the climatic battle sequence of Shichinin no Samurai (1954). This time, the rain suggests the great unpredictability of life and its unstoppable pace when seen as an irreversible sequence of significant events. Rain is there to enhance joy, or it is there to maximize our depression. Therefore, one may be led to the conclusion that Akahige glorifies our intellectual animal race. It is not an existentialist manifesto or a film of inescapable, destructive consequences. Akagige strengthens the literal translation of "Ikiru", but seen from outside, rather than with an introspective approach. The camera is constantly entering and exiting the clinic, avoiding an unnecessary claustrophobia of pessimism and decorating its three-hour epic pace with an invigorating optimism achieved through a considerably improved cinematography heavy on chiaroscuro artistry.

It could be fairly said that Akahige is the most underrated masterpiece of Akira Kurosawa. A change of style and focus is always an audacious decision. Nevertheless, the outcome is extremely satisfying and has enough non-clichéd substance to keep the audience more than just entertained. Perhaps it took the concept of universal catastrophe that Alain Resnais had used beforehand in Hiroshima mon Amour (1959) and it even may reference bits of Italian neorealism. The film pays the precise attention towards medical care, but a Japan entering the last stages of an already old millennium emphasizes the implicit contrast that existed between the rudimentary medical procedures and the brusque introduction of the more technological Western methods. It is much more than a mere soap opera, or a dramatic theatrical adaptation. It is the result of four greatly talented screenwriters adapting a powerful novel of riveting sincerity. Frankly, Kurosawa was not the only choice that cinema could have resorted to, but he undoubtedly was one of the best. It is an amazing experience.

100/100

The Lookout

This movie really, really surprised me. I thought this was going to be one of those genre movies that capitalized on the teen generation of the time (see The Invisible, and the marketing really followed that) and this is a huge mistake. This is a great thriller. It plays out with a young lead, but the characterization of all of the part players works well. All the leads and supporting are perfect in their roles. I couldn?t think of anyone who would be better in any of these roles. We get involved with all of these people, and it is all fleshed out really well. The script and how it plays out is all familiar, but still seems fresh. It does take some unique views and brings you on a ride that does get you sitting up.

But it isn't just a great story and performances, it has a great look and production overall. This movie gives you a great visual take on many scenes and gives great subtle visuals and camera work. It's a polished visual flair that makes you think about so many movies that lack it, and make you want it in so many more movies.

This movie falls into the unsung category and should be seen.

The King and I

Simply put, a perfect adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical about Anna and the King of Siam. The sets are stunning, the costumes are superb, Deborah Kerr is glorious and Yul Brynner is iconic. What can you say about a film that presents the transcendent ballet, "Small House of Uncle Thomas" within the story, and actually tops itself. The entire film was shot in an extreme widescreen CinemaScope format. The actors practically leap off the screen in one memorable dance sequence. Bold, colorful, breathtaking and unforgettable. A cinematic achievement that deserves to take it's place among the greatest musicals ever produced.