An Old Favorite.

I haven't been to the movies in a while, so I thought I'd take us back, way back, to the time of Alfred Hitchcock and his movie, The Birds.  This movie has earned a reputation as a horror film.  To today's desensitized audience like myself, it looks like it tries to be scary and fails miserably.  If you like horror that gives you jump-scares, like most horror movies do, then look elsewhere.  The Birds focuses on building suspense.  We watch, first introduced to Melanie Daniels, played by Tippi Hedren, as she tracks down a man, Mitch Brenner, to the small town of Bodega Bay intent on playing a practical joke on him.  The story changes from a playful romance to a suspense thriller when the characters of the story are attacked by swarms birds of all shapes and sizes, and forced to stay inside a boarded up house, while the three women in the house are all traumatized or hysterical, and Mitch Brenner, played by Rod Taylor, tries to hold back the swarm of deadly animals with the sheer force of his masculine presence.

It is at this point that the film reaches its high point, as the birds swarm the house, and constantly thud against it, while the people inside struggle to keep their sanity.  Blood sweat and tears of the actors went in this scene, literally.  Ms Hedren was bitten many times by the birds used in the film, partly because of the director's opinion that actors should be treated like cattle.  There are many horrible stories I could tell about how Alfred Hitchcock mistreated his actors, but that's not my job.

The Birds may have a severe absence of the cheap tricks that we have come to expect out of modern films, but it is a classic, and I recommend that everyone should see it at least once.  I give it an eight out of ten

   
                                      Tippi Hedren (Left) Rod Taylor (Right

Catching the Things that People Miss.

When you go in to The Hunger Games: Catching fire, you expect acting as good as the last one, them to stay true to the book that you read going into the theater, and you expect that they will have stepped up the special effects from last movie's cheap CGI fire.  You get two and a half of those things.
             The movie stays true to the book except in the case of the new "Head Gamemaker," Plutarch Heavensbee, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman.  You get a couple of scenes with him in talking with the president that put a whole new perspective on the story.
             Those scenes are stunningly well acted out.  The same cannot be said of those which feature leading lady Jennifer Lawrence.  During the first half of the movie, when the story is centered in the highly advertised "Victory Tour," she talks too fast, and her more emotional scenes are played down so that the filmmakers can show off how good their white uniformed "Peacekeepers" are with billy clubs.  When they get to the second half of the movie, which I get the impression was worked on much more carefully, we get the same acting that we know and love out of Lawrence, as well as the awesome acting of new cast members, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, and Jeffery Wright.  
             The visual effects are improved enough to look like something out of James Cameron's Avatar, except in  the ease of Katniss's trademark fire clothing.  We get a good look at this with the high tech stages of the capitol, the giant hovercrafts that float above everything, and most of all the "Districts," which serve as huge backdrops for forced speeches and scenes of incredible brutality.  The only flaw in these districts are the people in them who in the book are supposed to be starving, but all look stunningly well fed.  A problem that was extremely evident in the last movie.  I suppose there's not much you can do about that though unless you want to risk being as cruel as "The Capitol" themselves



           

Gravity Will Give You Vertigo

I expected to be amazed when I went onto the set of Gravity.  With two huge names like George Cluny   and Sandra Bullock, I knew that the writing had to be good.  Good acting also comes along with those two names, if you put any stock into film awards.

The movie takes place entirely in space, and , since we have not invented star wars style Gravity in space, the characters are always floating.  What is also floating is the cloud of space junk that pursues Sandra Bullock like a shark pursuing a minnow.  The Camera work makes you feel like you're right there with our lead characters, floating around in straight lines or in endless circles.  Your view moves like no other movie ever seen before, and the endless track shots make anyone who watches T.V. with stationary angles and fixed sets get a bad case of vertigo, which is a nice ouch, since our characters are up thousands of miles.

There are small flaws, like looking at the earth, and seeing completely alien landscapes, or understanding why characters take certain courses of action long after scenes are over.  (I'm talking to you George Cluny.)  But these small things are overshadowed by the looming pictures of the great beyond which are the only constant feature in set changes. and Sandra Bullock's acting as she slowly goes insane from one harrowing event after another.

I expect Gravity to get at least a couple of award for best special effects in a motion picture, but I wouldn't be surprised if it came up with at leas two more in another category.  I give this movie an eight and a half out of ten.  Leave a comment suggesting what you want me to interview next.

Everything gon' be okay when you see Captain Phillips

For those who know the story of the MV Maesrk Alabama hijacking, the plot of Captain Phillips will be all too familiar.  You will know where the story is going, and will eagerly be awaiting the end, which will drop all the tension that the film has built up.   What will not be familiar is the acting in the film that can build that tension so quickly, and maintain it for the entire movie.  That is that strong point of the film.

Those who think that good acting can only come from big names like Christopher Walken, Leonardo DiCaprio, and everyone's favorite, Morgan Freeman, will be amazed by the skills of Somali actors  Barkhard Abdi, Barkhard Abdirahman, Faysel Ahmed, and Mahat M. Ali.  The acting of these four pirates completely overshadows that of Tom Hanks, except near the end, where the tension drops and Tom Hanks expertly acts out an emotional breakdown.

Their constant interactions with each other are the sections of the film which make it worth watching.  They can turn from Barkhard Abdi's (Muse) continued catchphrase, "Everything gon' be okay, Irish,"  to Barkhard Abdirahman's (Elmi) psychotic shouting in a second.

Caught in the middle of this is Tom Hanks, capturing the role of yet another of his Average Joe caught in an extraordinary situation roles, Captain Richard Phillips.  The only drawback in his acting is his abysmal Boston accent, which does diminish over the course of the film.  Whether this is purposeful, or I was just too focused on other things during the movie is unknown.

These five phenomenal actors, combined with an excellent film score, and claustrophobic camerawork make Captain Phillips' viewers on the edge of their seats for the whole 134 minutes.

I give it a nine out of Ten.

Left to right
Barkhard Abdirhaman
Barkhard Abdi
Mahat M. Ali
Faysel Ahmed
Tom Hanks

Neill Bloomkamp's Done It Again.

When I first walked into the theater for Elysium, I wasn't sure what to expect, aside from the blood and gore that was so common in District 9.  I knew the premise of the story from the trailers that came on every five seconds, but little more than that.  I didn't think that within five minutes of the movie I'd be worried about what would happen to Max, (Matt Damon) and Frey, (Alice Braga).  Neill Bloomkamp uses a collection of scenes from the character's childhood to make the audience familiar with the characters.

After we get to know them, we are abruptly thrust into a futuristic Los Angeles, filled with gangs, violence, and an unforgiving desert landscape.  In the thick of it is Max, who we find out turned into a car thief, and is now a parolee, with a factory job making police drones for a weapons company.  His former partner in crime, Julio, repeatedly tries to get Max back to his former life, but each time Max refuses.

Above all the troubles of the poverty stricken earth looms Elysium, filled with beautiful mansions, Rich executives of corporations, and pods that can cure any ailment that a person can get.  In the thick of it all is the French speaking, but American accented, Jessica Delacourt (Jodie Foster).  She instantly brands herself as the villain of the story by shooting down a ship full of Earth people, intent on reaching Elysium, and rounding up the survivors of the ship that made it onto the utopia, and shipping them back to Earth.

Her character could use a bit of work.  The audience would probably like to know why she says one sentence in English and another in French when in the same conversation, or why she she deliberately disobeys direct orders given to her by her superiors when she is the Secretary of Defense for Elysium.  We will never know.

Back in Los Angeles, there is the psychopathic Kruger, played by Sharlito Copley, who is inseparable from Director Neill Bloomkamp.  His is by far the best written character in the movie.  His unpredictability, which comes from his madness, coupled with his resources provided by the Elysian government make him a menace to all the characters in the film, including Jessica.

Most of the time he is a chaotic element in the movie, killing people left right and center while perusing Max, for reasons I cannot give without giving spoilers, with both an old katana, and knew high tech weapons provided by Philip Ivey's imagination.  (The design of the more futuristic aspects of the film will look familiar to anybody who has seen District 9.)  But sometimes, he does something that makes you rethink the way you look at him, like singing an Afrikaans song to calm a little girl.

The R rated action, along with excellent writing, (except for the lines of Jodie Foster) make Elysium an excellent film, and make it definitely worth watching.  I give it an eight and a half out of ten.