tropicalbabe05

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• 
  I recommend you see...

  National Treasure: Book of Secrets

  by Jack

  National Treasure: Book of Secrets starts off on a gloomy night in April 14th, 1865. We aren't exactly sure where we are just yet with the camera panning around, but by the date alone it suggests that the Lincoln assassination is just around the corner from happening. We are immediately introduced to Thomas Gates who is a relative of Ben Gates played by Nicolas Cage. Thomas is offered a cipher from the diary of John Wilks Booth to try and decipher. Thomas begins to ponder over the clue of "The Debt That All Men Pay" when he suddenly notices his guest needing his service might be a bad guy. A struggle ensues and then we cut to seeing John Wilkes Booth in an amazingly well realized recreation of the Lincoln assassination. Mr. Booth kills Mr. Lincoln and then jumps onstage and shouts Sic Semper Tyrannus (Thus Always to Tyrants) before fleeing.
  
  We then cut to present times with Ben Gates and his father Patrick Gates (Jon Voight) giving a lecture on their brand new Civilian Heroes Exhibit. It's quickly established that since the first film the Gates family name has been cleared and is recognized with new prestige and honor. They are clearly basking in a newfound limelight and glory.
  
  However, no sooner than the audience is allowed to take this when Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris) enters the scene proclaiming that their great great grandfather Thomas Gates was one of the main people behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Due to the initially establishing to the audience that Thomas is innocent, we immediately react with the same shock and aplomb. How can this possibly be? Who is this rabid dog Mitch character and what are his true intentions?
  
  Mitch produces a page from the John Wilks Booth diary that has a list of all the men behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. This page he claims has been passed down throughout his families history. We are immediately shown this page seems to be very real and certainly seems to somehow cast Thomas as a ringleader in something we know he didn't do. The plot certainly thickens right out of the gate before there is even any hint that a quest for a treasure might happen. With the rapid pacing of the first film the audience isn't left hanging too long before the film morphs into familiar ground of also being a quest for a treasure in addition to being a quest by Ben and Patrick to vindicate Thomas.
  
  The main characters for the first film are all back for this outing. Harvey Ketiel is back playing the role of The Wolf, I mean FBI badass. Justin Bartha returns in the films Han Solo role as Riley Poole, the wise cracking everyman. Although, we quickly see him lose his red hot sports car early on while noting of this unfortunate turn of events: "You know what taxes are for 5 million? 6 million!" I find it odd in general that frisky single people always seem to opt for red sports cars. Jon Voight also returns as the cranky father figure. This time around he seems to have lightened up some. Diane Kruger reprises her strong female character of Abigail that while dressing prim and proper can be just as gritty and no holds barred as any male. Nicolas Cage of course is back as the cryptographer and historian extraordinaire Ben Gates. This is certainly a role that Mr. Cage shines in, yet I never quite understand why he runs like a retired NFL football player in both films. Mr. Cage is the right mix of classic movie hero charisma and quirky offbeat charm. He is a happy puppy like character with brains that won't bite you, but will certainly find a way to beat you or sneak out of the backyard. New to the cast of particular note are Ed Harris and Helen Mirren. Mr. Harris is effective in a limited role. Helen Mirren seems to just revel in being in a silly role as the mother of Nicolas Cage.
  
  Just like the first film, the film is just as interested in the main characters figuring out each clue as it is with them finding the treasure at the end. In many treasure hunting films the clues merely serve as a small plot device to keep the main plot moving forward or to place the lead character in another exciting location. The National Treasure series aims to have each clue and the solving of it as its own unique set piece. Most sequences of sleuth and solving the clues do seem to be too greatly simplified, in comparison to the first film. The massive screenwriting team the film boasts clearly doesn't want the audience to have to think as much as it did in the first one. While this certainly works to give the audience more time to sit back and enjoy the ride, it results in it having large set pieces with even less things to do in. And with less things to do, things do feel more padded out than they should be. The padding mostly comes in the form of character development, so if you like the characters and really enjoy them, then you have nothing to worry about. We spend more time exploring the characters, what makes them tick and how they respond to adversity. The themes of adventure, history, patriotism is still there, but it is themes of family and global harmony that mark this second outing and set it apart.
  
  Just as in the first film we get to travel to and explore locations tantamount to American history. Book of Secrets unlike the first film sweeps through American history on a global scale and more national scale, we aren't just stuck on the east coast of America. This serves to make the new outing even more sweeping and epic. We also once again get to see historical locations with an all access type insiders' glee, which adds some additional excitement in seeing areas we in our real lives would never be able to.
  
  The set design like the first film is just amazing to take in. One of the huge selling points of this series to date is how rich accurate they try and craft their set designs. History from the past is wonderfully realized through massive and imaginative sets and finished out with digital effects. The blending and balancing of the two creates a magical universe we get to travel into with our characters. In addition the film once again makes incredibly fun use of actual historical places that civilians would never in real life get to explore in this fashion. I think many people have often visited a historical place and wondered what was behind roped off or closed areas. The National Treasure films play into this curiosity very well.
  
  Book of Secrets is constructed into two parts. The first part works as more of a traditional spy film. As we see our main characters chart across the globe as they try to unravel each subsequent clue and riddle. The second half of the film really switches in into more traditional action and adventure film territory. An over the top heist is still on the menu along with a car chase and some escape scenes.
  
  Despite the fact the film features many more locations than the first outing, it seems to be much more about exploring the characters themselves than everything else. So if you like the main characters from the first film, then chances are you will really like this one. If your looking for more action and adventure this time around, then you might walk away disappointed. It's less about being a cat and mouse thriller or adventure and more character driven.
  
  Book of Secrets is a film crafted for the entire family to go out and see and have fun this holiday season. As such it's easily the most thrilling family adventure of 2007.
  
  Overall, I think Book of Secrets is a way too simplified version of the previous film on a much grander scale. I think what the ending really gets wrong is not introducing any mythical, supernatural or resonating moments of transcendence in its final act. Some combination of these elements and themes at the end would have certainly taken it to another level of spectacle. We get to a spectacularly realized set piece that gives us and the characters little more to do than just yawn, which is an odd way to go out of an otherwise often exciting film.

  ElectroBoy

  That took me ages to write...

  posted 14 days ago
• 
  I recommend you see...

  The Skulls

  by Jack

  Laced with horribly clichéd secret society mumbo jumbo and unintentionally funny homoerotic undertones, "The Skulls" is a laughable thriller about a pre-law Yale student (Joshua Jackson) so shallow and ambitious that he's willing to throw over his best friend and the girl he loves just to be accepted in an underground campus club of power-hungry blue bloods.
  
  The Skulls, you see, are an indomitable, clandestine handful of the country's social and political elite -- all Yale men -- who the movie tells us founded the CIA among other ominous undertakings. Members are members for life. They get branded and paired up with other members as "soul mates." They live by a musty, leather-bound, 200-year-old book of rules. They cover up each other's scandals.
  
  When this brotherhood accept new members, money is deposited money in their bank accounts, they're given expensive cars, tuxedos (which are worn to frequent Skulls dinner parties), nice wrist-watches, nights with call-girls in a Christian Dior gowns, and -- most importantly as far as young Luke McNamara (Jackson) is concerned -- they pay their conscripts' tuitions and see to it they get into the law school of their choice.
  
  But above all, they keep each other's secrets. So once Luke is in -- following an funhouse initiation ritual so ridiculously cabalistic and ostentatious it's reminiscent of "Phantom Of the Opera" -- he finds himself in a tight spot when The Skulls murder his now-estranged best friend, a campus paper cub reporter looking to expose them.
  
  Caught in a slow-witted, collegiate retread of "The Firm," Luke realizes (a bit late) that The Skulls aren't such a swell bunch of guys after all and has to run for his life while looking for a way to blackmail himself out of the organization and bring the murderer to justice.
  
  Got all that?
  
  Helmed by journeyman director Rob Cohen (Daylight, Dragonheart) and aimed squarely at easily entertained teenagers with eight bucks to burn, "The Skulls" isn't a bad idea for a movie. But when Cohen started casting weightless heartthrobs like Paul Walker (Varsity Blues, She's All That) as Jackson's well-to-do rival, and Wonderbra hotties like Leslie Bibb (TV's "Popular") as his scholarly arm ornament, it became a project with plenty of looks but no brains.
  
  Most of the movie's budget seems to have gone into presentation. It's well-paced and edited, the photography is crisp, clean and exciting and the sets are ludicrously spectacular. The Skulls meet in an ceremonial underground chamber lined with marble pillars, and even Luke's 400-square-foot dorm room has vaulted stone ceilings.
  
  But the characters are deadly dull and the Swiss-cheese scenarios so frequently laughable that the crowd at the preview screening -- enlisted by a local top 40 station, the picture's target audience -- couldn't stop snickering through the whole show.
  
  Without a single moment of genuine suspense and with a climactic confrontation that seems to ignore many of the plot revelations, the movie's biggest problem remains that its main character is fundamentally unlikable because he's so utterly selfish, turning his back on his friends until he needs to be rescued.

  ElectroBoy

  If you look up the word "Rubbish" in the dictionary, there's a picture of this there.

  posted 14 days ago
• 
  I recommend you see...

  The Number 23

  by Jack

  Jim Carrey's The Number 23 finds the former stand-up comedian tackling the thriller genre. The film has received awful reviews from most critics, which is a shame.
  
  Carrey plays Walter Sparrow, happily married to Agatha (Virginia Madsen), with one child, Robin (Logan Lerman). Agatha comes across a book titled The Number 23 and buys it for Walter. As Walter gets deeper and deeper into the book, he begins to become obsessed with 23 and discerns several similarities between the characters in the novel and his own life.
  
  Please dismiss the dreadful reviews this film has received and give it a chance. It really isn't that bad, I have seen a lot worse in this seemingly plagued genre. I must admit despite the intriguing idea behind the film of a number referring to everything in someone's life and therefore driving them insane, the script and eventual plot twists offer nothing new or particularly thrilling. Not that I am saying I knew what was going to happen; the twist certainly surprised me, but it didn't leave me in complete awe.
  
  However whilst the main plot of the film gradually nosedives into all too familiar territory, the film's biggest positive develops from the story within the, err, story. As Walter reads the book, director Joel Schumacher shows us what is actually happening in the novel. The scenes are beautifully shot and lit to create a unique look, perfectly separating it from the rest of the picture.
  
  With the two stories commencing we get two doses of Carrey and Madsen as they also portray characters in the book. Carrey is solid anyway as Sparrow, delivering a very subtle performance as the number slowly obsesses his character. But it is his turn as the lead character in the novel, Detective Fingerling, where he really shines and shows just how far he has come as an actor. As for Madsen, she doesn't really get enough screen time to fully develop both her characters but it is her character Fabrizia in the novel that she is clearly relishing playing.
  
  So okay, I will admit that The Number 23 is an average thriller at best, but still there are positives to help counter the negatives. If you are a fan of Mr. Carrey you most certainly should check out The Number 23; and even if you aren't, don't be completely put off by the way the movie has been received, see for yourself. And after you have watched it, I almost guarantee you will be searching for that number one way or the other.

  ElectroBoy

  Hey, you should really see this!

  posted 17 days ago

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