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Cinema Voyage - Akito Hirata, Filmhunter

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Cinema Voyage - October 2009

Review - Surrogates

October 27th 2009 17:35

The question, "if a movie was made about your life, who would play the starring role" is deemed irrelevant in the world of Surrogates as your surrogate of choice would essentially play yourself. But admittedly it wouldn't be much of a life, as you are wired up in bed, watching your life play out before you. It may be glamourous for a while but in the long term it must get terribly dull not being able to associate with real human beings.

Bruce Willis is suffering from this dilemma. He is policeman Tom Willis who uses a surrogate (complete with a head of hair) to perform his day to day duties protecting his real self from the danger and action his job entails. However Tom is not happy. He is grieving after the death of his son and is hungering for some real life attention from his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike) who is hooked on the use of surrogacy for all facets of her life. Her and everyone else it seems as we are informed that 98% of the world's population uses a surrogate - yes you will need to suspend your belief to even imagine that this could occur.

When the death of two surrogates causes the death of their owners then an immediate investigation takes place headed up by Tom and his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell). Up until this incident it was thought that a death of the surrogate would automatically flip a fail-safe switch protecting the owner from being hurt or injured.

By way of investigation we are introduced to Dreads - humans who refuse to adopt to the change and who live exiled from the surrogate inhabited world. Lead by The Prophet (Ving Rhames) it seems that this particular group has turned rogue ready to undertake a rebellion on the rest of the society. What the movie fails to present is a happy medium - but maybe there just isn't one. There are those who are addicted to the use of surrogates and those that do not want to get involved marking themselves as extremists against the robot cloned world.

Directed by Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), the movie certainly generates some fabulous looking concepts and scenes. I felt however that it could have dealt more into the surrogate vs human aspect rather than heading directly down the action route but then again this is a Bruce Willis vehicle and action is what he does.

I enjoy intelligent sci-fi movies and one of my all time favourites is Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days (1995). The idea of hooking up to other people's experiences like a drug could have been delved into further in this movie particularly when the surrogate you inhabit may not resemble your true self at all. Grey territory indeed!

"Still no official word on when, or if, surrogate services can be restored. It appears, at least for now... that we are on our own." Let's hope it stays that way for a while longer!

Voyage Review: 3/5

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Sci-Fi

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Review - Public Enemies

October 23rd 2009 04:09

Gangsters are often romanticised in movies but with Michael Mann's Public Enemies he just tells it like it is. Shot in a stylised manner, it has character but overall I felt the movie lacked depth.

Johnny Depp is the notorious John Dillinger, enemy of the state who robs from the banks although not from the people. This is his story in parallel with the story of his captor Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), the FBI agent under appointment by J Edgar Hoover to hunt down and kill Dillinger and other criminals like him.

Both Depp and Bale give fine performances although the characterisation of Dillinger is kept close to his chest. We see snippets of feeling when it comes to his love Billie Frechette, excellently played by Marion Cotillard. In fact when introducing himself to Billie he states, "I was raised on a farm in Moooresville, Indiana. My mama ran out on us when I was three, my daddy beat the hell out of me cause he didn't know no better way to raise me. I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars, whiskey, and you... what else you need to know?"

Dillinger is a bank robber and unapologetically tells this to Billie upon their first meeting. It doesn't even occur to him to embellish the truth. Coming across as a little one dimensional, Dillinger lives for today - not having an exit or strategy plan should things go wrong. He has a sense of invincibleness surrounding him and displays this in an amazing fashion by walking into the FBI office where his investigation is being carried out from.

The initial movie starts out with a bang with Dillinger escaping from prison. One by one the FBI closes in on his colleagues until he is the last one left alive. Does this dampen his spirits or make him run? No. He intends to do another job convinced that he will succeed and outwit the police. The movie is quite long - 140 minutes in length - although I didn't feel that it was over long - I just felt that the time could've been used more effectively in some parts. The final scenes wrapped the film up nicely especially those featuring Billie Frechette.

This period in time may be well documented in US history but as someone who is unfamiliar with the history of Dillinger and Purvis, I would have appreciated a little more information to satisfy me more fully. I wouldn't say it is a difficult movie to follow, as it is not, I just wished that we had've seen a little more to the man that meets that eye.

Voyage Review: 3.5/5

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Drama

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Review - Shrink

October 20th 2009 14:20

Kevin Spacey is Henry Carter, a LA based shrink with numerous problems of his own. Trying to overcome his own demons due to the recent death of his wife, he struggles to maintain his own sanity while treating those around him. Ironically he is a celebrity in his own right having recently published a book entitled, "Don't Feel Sad".

The film centres around Henry's relationship with that of his patients, in particular, Jemma (Keke Palmer), a girl who is struggling to come to terms with the death of her mother. Her school has decided that she should visit a shrink due to an "occurrence" in the school washroom and she ends up in the office of Robert Carter (Robert Loggia), Henry's father who also happens to be a shrink. Robert decides that it would be worthwhile for both of them if he sees Henry and thus the relationship which is the crux of the movie begins.

The LA based set of characters in themselves are very interesting - Jesus the drug dealer (Jesse Plemon), Jack the alcoholic (Robin Williams), the ageing actress (Saffron Burrows), overly neurotic agent Patrick (Dallas Roberts) and wannabe producer Keira (Laura Ramsey). The link that connects them all is a little too coincidental and tenuous for my liking and overall there was just not enough meat on the bones to keep me interested.

Kevin Spacey is a fine actor but the storyline however did not do him justice. His acting is well matched with the likes of Keke Palmer and they are the scenes which most stand out in my mind. More of them and less of the others would have made for a far different and more compelling movie.

Voyage Review: 2.5/5

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Drama

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Review - The Brothers Bloom

October 16th 2009 04:11

When I initially posted the preview of The Brothers Bloom back in May I stated that I thought it would be a lot of fun. And from the narrated outset of the movie it was. Clever - definitely. However in the end the cleverness wore me out slightly and I had really given up caring about the characters and their future together.

Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody are brothers - Stephen and Bloom. Passed from foster home to foster home, they discover that Stephen has a knack for knowing what people will do in a given set of situations and creating complicated cons to worm money and even love from unsuspecting victims. As the movie develops it soon becomes clear that even the audience are part of the victims as it becomes difficult to determine what is a con and what is real

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Comedy

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Niagara Falls

October 12th 2009 00:41

With the recent wedding filmed in Niagara Falls for the American based comedy, The Office, it made me wonder what other movies may have been filmed here so I thought I would take a trip back in time to investigate.

1941 - 49th Parallel
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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Movie Chatter

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Cruz and Almodovar Reunite

October 7th 2009 03:44

Pedro Almodovar's latest full length feature with Penelope Cruz has been doing the rounds since the premiere in Barcelona in March. Entitled Los abrazos rotos or Broken Embraces it tells the story of a four way tale of love in the style of 50s American film noir. I love the sound of it already.

His last stint with Cruz on Volver earned her a nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role and him a BAFTA for Best Film not in the English Language

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Movie Chatter

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Review - District 9

October 3rd 2009 04:27

District 9 may have left me with a lot of unanswered questions but in my mind it didn't particularly matter. I enjoyed District 9 over and above any other movie I have seen recently and was thoroughly entertained by Neill Blomkamp's take on the sci-fi genre. Aliens have been appearing in film ever since Georges Méliès 1902 silent film Le voyage dans la lune and District 9 truly earns the right to be a part of the genre.