V for Vendentta

Wachowski brothers’ new production V for Vendetta had generated some controversy before its release, but if V is for Vendetta, then P must be for Preposterous.

The movie is set in futuristic Britain under a totalitarian government that very much resembles Hitler’s fascist regime; even the leader is given the title of High Chancellor instead of customary Prime Minister. V is a freedom fighter/terrorist that both challenges the authorities and plots his personal revenge. As a tactic to terrorize the government, V chooses to bomb important historical buildings. It is laughable to think ordinary citizens would enjoy those explosions as some kind of firework and distressing to realize that filmmakers have V present people hope by destroying part of our history.

Wachowski brothers wrote the script based on the graphic novel and helped produce the film without directing it; however, it is clear that first time director James McTeigue is a protégé of Wachowski brothers. Like Wachowski brothers’ best work The Matrix, V’s story happens almost entirely in the dark and out-of-this-world kung fu is the weapon of choice for the hero. Once again the climactic fight scene reflects heavy influence of Hong Kong kung fu films on Wachowski brothers. They simply love the slow-mo bullet-time technology they revolutionized in The Matrix.

In the movie, V wears a Guy Fawkes mask at nearly all time and it is annoying to see the main character with only one emotion on his face. Natalie Portman plays Evey, a girl rescued by V, and eventually she becomes V’s ally and protégé. Portman has a beautiful and delicate face, but her acting has always struck me as raw. She seems to put too much effort into her performance and in the end all she really accomplishes is a half-decent British accent. Stephen Rea plays another of his trademark world-weary characters. From the very beginning, you know his Inspector Finch will come around to V’s cause. John Hurt is the constantly yelling dictator Adam Sutler. Is shouting a prerequisite for all tyrants?

In the end V’s strategy of using violence to fight violence is just not convincing and it only makes me appreciate Gandhi even more.

The Machinist (on DVD)

2004’s The Machinist may not be as suspenseful as The Sixth Sense, Fight Club and Memento, but it is still an interesting psychological study. Trevor Reznik (played by Christian Bale) has an alarming physique and an even more alarming problem – he has not slept for almost a year. As we follow his downward spiral, we eventually come face to face with the cause of all his problems. The entire movie is shown through Trevor’s perspective and since he is clearly teetered on the verge of insanity, the audience has to decide what may be real and what may be his delusions. Director Brad Anderson drains almost all bright colors out of every single frame and constantly has an eerie music as a backdrop. It creates an uneasy feeling for the audience while watching this movie. Naturally endowed with incredibly good looks, Bale still loves to challenge himself and pursues off-beat roles. Trevor may be the biggest departure he has ever taken. He lost one third of his body weight (approximately 60 pounds) for this part so that he could look Trevor’s skeletal form. Bale is frequently seen without his shirts in the movie and it feels exploitative by the filmmakers to show his body so much more often than necessary. Being a small independent movie, The Machinist came and went in theaters quickly, but it is worth seeing on DVD.

Firewall

Firewall is a Harrison Ford movie. As in almost all Harrison Ford movies, the outcome is a given and we simply watch it to see the process – how he manages to triumph again over impossible obstacles.

The movie is a ripped-from-the headlines combined with a sprinkle of The Fugitive. Its premise is quite similar to one of the largest bank robberies in British history. In December 2004, a group of robbers forced some bankers to open a vault in a Belfast bank after taking their families hostage. The robbers got away with about $61 million. In Firewall, security specialist Jack (played by Harrison Ford) is coerced into robbing his own bank for a team of bandits after his family is taken hostage. In this movie, the thieves do not open a vault and physically remove any money; instead they have gone high tech and merely transferred $100 million from the bank into their overseas accounts. As a tech illiterate, all those high tech mumbo jumbo is completely lost on me, but for some tech veterans, their method may seem a little bit too elaborate. Of course, out of all the tech talks in the movie, GPS and iPod apparently will benefit the most.

For anyone who just want to relax and have a good time at the movie, Firewall is entertaining enough; but for those of you who pay attention to storylines, there are many holes in the plot and it may require stretch of belief. Didn’t I mention this is a Harrison Ford movie? To convey the sense of Jack and his family constantly under surveillance, there are many shots of them captured by surveillance cameras; however, they do not add anything to the narrative and only succeed in making the movie look amateurish and annoying.

Remember this is a Harrison Ford movie, which means Ford could probably have played this role in his sleep. If you have always liked the old Ford, then you will get your money’s worth; otherwise, you will be disappointed. Virginia Madsen plays Jack’s understanding and loving wife Beth. Coming out of an incredible performance she gave in 2004’s Sideways, it is sad that she cannot get another strong role to showcase her talents. With Sideways, she has finally walked out of the shadow of all those beautiful sexpot roles she played in the 80s. Unfortunately, Hollywood can’t create more worthy parts for a gifted middle aged actress. Paul Bettany is the villain of the movie. Ever since he gained some notice for his role in A Beautiful Mind, he has started to prove that he is a presence to be reckoned with on screen. His model good looks and steely blue eyes can easily help him play a cool hero or a sadistic baddie.

Well, by now I hope all the bad guys in the world have learned not to pick on Harrison Ford or anyone who even remotely looks like Ford. Haven’t they seen enough Harrison Ford movies?

Ali

2001’s Ali is mired in all the biopic trappings and melodramatic uplifts and crises. The movie recreates four major fights in Ali’s unprecedented boxing career – his two fights with Sonny Liston, the 15-round fight with Joe Frazier, and the fight with George Foreman in Zaire that was masterfully told in 1996 documentary When We Were Kings. The fighting scenes in the movie are way too long (besides the fights mentioned above, it also shows Ali’s fights with Quarry and Patterson in lesser details) and seem to be completely one-sided without mentioning any of the controversy involved in the fights, especially with the second Liston fight and Frazier fight. This movie has almost a nonstop soundtrack that it is annoyingly distractive to the audience. Ali is obviously a more serious role for Will Smith, but Smith’s acting has not gone through a metamorphosis. Jon Voight’s Howard Cosell is much more memorable. Overall, Ali does not do justice to boxing as a sport. When We Were Kings is a far better movie as a tribute to Ali and boxing.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

I have to confess that before going to the movie, I did not know how to say the name in Tommy Lee Jones’ directorial debut The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. After the movie, I have found numerous things more difficult to grasp than simply the title. The movie is definitely not made for the mainstream audience and even some art movie lovers may find it not to their tastes.

Burials follows cowboy Pete (played by Tommy Lee Jones)’s journey to bring his friend and help, an illegal immigrant Melquiades Estrada, back to his hometown in Mexico for a proper burial. Along the way, he also carries out his sense of justice on the killer, a racist border patrol Mike (played by Barry Pepper).

The film is written by Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga who also penned Amores Perros and 21 Grams. While I enjoyed the former, I am not a fan of the latter. In Burials, Arriaga has continued his non-chronological and non-linear writing style. According to his Creative Screenwriting interview, Arriaga writes based on character’s state of mind. He reasons that in real life our minds do not follow a straight forward timeline, and we constantly go back and forth between present and past; that is how he writes his movies. The end result could be confusing for audience members not familiar with his method, especially the first 20-30 minutes of the movie. Once the audience understands his structure, they may be able to follow the flow. Arriaga writes all his screenplays in his native Spanish and then has someone else translate his scripts into English. In the case of Burials, Tommy Lee Jones then translated the English script into Texan. Arriaga clearly does not write to merely entertain; he writes to challenge and engage us. Because of his unique manner of delivery, the audience has to stay focused on every dialogue and scene in order to organize all the sequences. In Burials, the audience may find more questions than answers at the end of the movie. It can be quite frustrating for anyone who seeks resolution at the finale.

Burials is divided into four chapters: the first burial of Melquiades Estrada, the second burial of Melquiades Estrada, the journey, and the third burial of Melquiades Estrada. For me, the most satisfying episode is the journey. One reason has to be that this third chapter is mostly told in a traditional storytelling fashion and has little flashback. But more importantly, Pete and Mike cross the border into Mexico and retrace all those illegal immigrants’ trail in a reverse order and witness what life is like on the other side of the border. The movie does not try to solve complicated immigration issues, but it does show compassion and human decency should not be denied to anyone.

The movie does not boast excessive violence and sex, but it is not for weak hearted. It is a movie journey with two guys and a corpse. That corpse gets substantial screen time. Pete has to struggle with nature to preserve the body as best as he could. The scenes are integral parts of the movie, but some people may be grossed out watching it.

Jones does a good job in his first time out as a director. Jones and Arriage have tried to make the movie feel as realistic and natural as possible. It is a tough movie to make and the pace is deliberately slow to emphasize the emptiness and boredom in that sleepy Texan town along the Mexican border. The vast desolate landscape also establishes the main characters’ isolation in their little worlds.

Except Jones, the movie does not boast a star studded cast, but their performances are stellar. I hope Jones won’t start spending more time behind the camera instead of in front of it. In my opinion, he is the best cowboy actor out there in America today. Without saying a word, all the lines on his face have already told a thousand stories. Pepper does a convincing job portraying Mike as an intolerant bully on the road to redemption. Years ago, when I first saw Pepper in Saving Private Ryan, I had predicted that he would become a big star. With Battlefield Earth, his destiny to stardom seemed to be doomed, but he has persevered in playing important supporting roles in serious movies and I believe my prediction will still prove true. Country star Dwight Yoakam also has a small role in this movie and plays the town sheriff. He has surprisingly carved himself a second career by becoming a character actor. Probably due to his country music background, he is especially good at depicting southerners.

2005 has turned out to be an important year in the Western genre. Hollywood has finally stopped making conventional Westerns set in 19th century and started producing some contemporary ones that reflect current social environments. For years, Hollywood has masculinized and glamorized cowboys, but in reality, they seem to be far from that cool Marlboro image and live a hard and lonely life. Willie Nelson probably got it right when he sang Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.