review
The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski’s latest movie is a well-crafted and well-acted thriller.
The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski’s latest movie is a well-crafted and well-acted thriller. At the centre of the plot are a former British Prime Minister, Adam Lang ,who has received a 10 Million dollar cheque to publish his memoir and an unnamed ghost writer who is hired by the publisher to rework the far too boring manuscript and turn it into a commercial bestseller. Pierce Brosnan plays a Tony Blair-inspired Lang and he delivers one of his finest performances in years, at least since his underrated yet brilliant The Matador. Ewan McGregor is the Ghost in the title and, like Brosnan, he is as well on top form. He plays a character who is not only without a name, but also without a family, or history. His only friend or the only person he phones during the whole movie is his agent. We learn from the beginning that he is also a not particularly successful writer, his latest work was in fact the biography of a magician titled “I Came, I Sawed, I Conquered”. He is, in other words, the perfect ghost for the work and the empty vessel at the audience’s disposal to travel through the story. McGregor is however genuine and believable throughout his whole act, even when the script and Mr. Polanski’s direction put him in situations that border parody – as in one of his scenes – kind of hot – with Lang’s wife Ruth (an excellent Olivia Williams), a Cherie Blair’s inspired character.
From the outset rewriting Lang’s manuscript seems a straightforward, boring but well paid job ($250 thousand dollars for a few weeks errand). But the more the Ghost settles within Lang’s environment the more he finds out that things are not as simple as they look. The opening (brilliant) scene of the movie informs us that the body of the former ghost writer (also Lang’s closest aide for years) was recently found washed ashore on the gray and rainy coast of Martha’s Vineyard (USA), the island were Lang is currently living with his entourage trying to finish the book in time for publication. Dismissed officially as alcohol’s induced suicide or simple accident, McGregor finds out that the death of the aide may not be that accidental. An old man (Eli Wallach) tells him that if one considers the currents that sweep the island the body should have never washed where it was found. He also uncovers – by chance – evidences of inconsistencies in Lang’s manuscript. He things they might be the reasons why the former aide ended up drunk and dead in the Ocean.
Meanwhile, Lang is under heavy fire from his own home front. The public hates him for his support of the invasion of Iraq. And now his former foreign minister accuses him of having allegedly authorized the CIA to deport and torture terrorist suspects out from Britain. Lang risks an indictment from the International Criminal Court of Justice for his role in the matter. The public is outraged and wants his head; his only ally is the US-Bush-like administration, embodied here by a US secretary that is evidently modelled on Condoleezza Rice. For the publisher, on the other hand, this is all good news, the media event stirred by the foreign minister’s revelation will mean an increase in sales. The book must be finished as soon as possible.
I cannot reveal more of the plot, it would spoil your pleasure. I can tell you though that at times I had the impression that Polanski was playing us fools with too many threads to follow and not all of them necessary or plausible. But they help building the suspense, setting the scene and putting the characters in context. This is a thriller seen through the eyes of a character who is not well aware of what is going on; add to that that he is also just a modest writer; and certainly not a hot-shot private-eye, then you will understand why his investigation proceeds without following a precise logic, in fact it is often strikingly amateurish. Undoubtedly, he makes some arguable choices during his quest to find the truth. Yet, this is not a flaw of the script, in fact, McGregor’s choices and his mistakes are perfectly understandable and logical, they below to his character. The ghost finds about things out of curiosity or mere luck, as it happens when he is set – accidentally and literally – on the trail that presumably caused the death of the former ghost.
The first five minutes of the movie might give you a heads up on the mood of the movie: we follow McGregor in his journey from London to Martha’s Vineyard (the original location of the movie however is the German island of Sylt). Polanski films this scene skilfully. We – the audience – see McGregor battling with sleep and jet-leg tiredness while trying to understand what is going on. Meanwhile the sky and the sea get ever gayer and rain starts falling. The start, fleetingly, reminded me of the plot line in Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia where Al Pacino’s character struggles throughout the movie with his tiredness. The first part of The Ghost Writer is similar: McGregor tries to adjust to the new environment and time-zone, he is tired and things look blurred. Slowly the mist before his eyes (and ours) disappears and everything becomes clear, but not until the very end of the movie. To repeat, the plot is at times weak and throws in far too many story lines, and in my opinion it leans too-much on the Blair-Lang resemblance to confuse the audience and avoid going too much into the details of the story behind Lang’s manuscript – which at the end we find out hides in fact quite a simple, almost banal riddle. This makes the story far too thin, but nevertheless compelling, this is thanks especially to Polanski’s smooth direction and the actors’ performance.
The movie is not so much about the final revelation or the politics behind it; it is more about the relationships among the characters involved in the story, it is about bitterness and love, trust and betrayal. To some extent the movie reminded me of Hitchcock’s The Rope where we know from the beginning that a dead body is hidden in the living room, but what it matters there is the relationship between the two who committed the murder and their former mentor, James Stewart; at the centre of that plot is the dialectic between the three different points of view. The best parts in The Ghost Writer are in fact the duets between McGregor and Brosnan (the one on the plane is excellent) and Mcgregor with Olivia Williams.
The final scene of the movie is quite outstanding, but at the same time it could have been set differently. I haven’t read Robert Harris’ The Ghost – the book on which the movie is based – so I am not sure how the story ends in that book, but in the film Polanski (who shares writing credits with Mr. Harris for the screenplay) opts for a closure rather than leaving the story open-ended. I shall not spoil it, but in the final scene, just before the final closing shot, when we – the audience – are finally revealed the truth about Lang’s mysterious manuscript, Polanski takes an other leaf out from Hitchcock’s book and he does it once again brilliantly: there is a folded piece of paper which is passed from hand to hand that carries with it the revelation that we have been waiting for, the tension builds up to the perfect pitch and eventually we finally see it shaped into the facial expressions of the two characters at the centre of that scene. Polanski could have and should have ended the movie there or soon after, but in fact he goes a bit too far. The end-point of the story comes too quickly and it is therefore almost unbelievable. Polanski should have left the story open-ended, may be taking a leaf or two from other directors, I am thinking for instance of the end in Blade Runner’s the director’s cut.
It is worth mentioning that – if you know anything about Polanski’s long-lasting troubles with the US Justice system – you cannot fail to spot two or three parallels between Lang’s issues and the director’s own story. But these are however non-essential themes; the audience does not need to know about them to appreciate the movie.
The Ghost Writer will not be the best thriller you have ever watched. It is nor Sydney Pollack’s The Three Days of the Condor, neither is Polanski’s own masterpiece Chinatown; and albeit it quotes here and there Hitchcock, it is not in the same league with Vertigo or Rear Window. Nonetheless, The Ghost Writer is a fine artisan job. The product of a director that knows one or two things about thrillers and good movies. That is, one or two things more than any other James Cameron out there. The Ghost Writer is one of those movies that have become a rarity in CGI 3D Hollywood dominated cinemas. There are no visible CGI effects here; nor bombastic car chases or noisy explosions; in fact there are only one or two car accidents; one or two bullets exploded, but there is quite a good amount of suspense, and that is I believe what it counts the most when you make a thriller.
Time runs slow in this movie and the gray-dark palette sets the tone of the movie perfectly. The sky is almost always gray and the air seems full of rain. In times when good movies are more and more a rarity, The Ghost Writer is beyond doubt an unexpected treat. Go and see it.
The movie "Law Abiding Citizen" was AWESOME!
This is my review for the movie “Law Abiding Citizen”. First off, I’d like to say that this movie was astonishing!
I’d like to begin my review with a small summary of the movie. A summary in which will NOT spoil any of the good parts. I’ll present just enough information so that you can get familiar with the plot, and to see if this movie sounds like the right movie for you.
The movie starts out with the main character, Clyde Shelton, being played by Gerald Butler, in his house, with his family. He answers the door to find two men that decide to knock him down, and tie him up. After brutally attacking him and his wife (along with doing “other stuff” do his wife), the two men spot the daughter of the family, and take her into another room, and kill her. The wife also ends up dying. Unfortunately, Clyde can’t give the person who murdered her daughter a harsh punishment because the evidence of her death being caused by his hand was not strong enough. So ten years after the murdering of his family, Clyde plans a very elaborate scheme to “bring down the system”. He plans the deaths of several people, while making sure that the evidence doesn’t add up to make him guilty. The lawyer, Nick Rice, played by Jamie Foxx, cannot prosecute him, because of the weak evidence (despite the fact that he knows that he murdered the people). So will Rice be able to prosecute the one that he knows murdered the many people? Just how well did Clyde perfect his plan? Will Rice step out of his jurisdiction to convict this murderer? And just how well does Clyde make a fool out of the Justice System?
Well, I can answer that last question! Clyde PWNS the justice system! This movie just goes to show that our system is not perfect. People can still go to jail, or be let free, despite the fact that the person may have did nothing or something wrong. And the main objective of Clyde is to completely dismantle the system, to the point in which the entire city gets into turmoil.
The elaborately planned murders, the wicked explosions, and the intense plot made this movie very memorable! But the part that I enjoyed the most was the act of slipping right through the loopholes of our justice system. This is definitely something that could happen in real life, but very unlikely. This movie also teaches the lesson that our justice system is not perfect. And Clyde was the perfect example of the system’s imperfections. The events that happened ten years prior, and his schemes really helped prove this fact.
After pondering for a long time, I came to the conclusion that there is nothing in this movie that is worth mentioning in this review, that I found was negative. Well, now that you think about it…some of the murders were kind of sick…So I official give the movie “Law Abiding Citizen” a 10 out of 10!
This review was the script for my review "Law Abiding Citizen", which will be uploaded to YouTube shortly after this review gets published on this website. The video will be located at:
YouTube.com/DixonRants
The Hurt Locker is an intense portrayal of a bomb squad who work to disarm roadside explosives in the unstable areas of Baghdad during the war in Iraq. The plot focuses on only three main characters, so it avoids any type of stray-offs and allows you to grow a close connection with the characters as a viewer. Character development is at it's best in The Hurt Locker. You are presented with the emotional and physical turmoil that soldiers have to endure during war time.
The Hurt Locker is not the typical war film. It does not dwell on over-the-top action and explosion scenes that most recent war films are built on. The atmosphere of this film is very natural and realistic. It gives you an intimate, in-depth perspective of the grittiness of war. The Hurt Locker captures the insanely intense "do-or-die" moments that bomb squads experience every day during their term of war. Scenes like these are more powerful and emotional than the aforementioned action scenes of recent war films.
I want to proclaim that this is one of the best films of the year, and possibly, the most raw and honest war film of all time.
Moon is a sci-fi drama about an astronaut who is stationed on the moon working for an energy company in order to supply more efficient fuel or planet Earth. The astronaut is played by Sam Rockwell, who does a tremendous job in this role. His only companion on the moon is a sophisticated, talking computer. He experiences the psychological effects of being alone and isolated from home.
The wonderful cinematography and the shots of Earth from the moon are spine-tingling because it gives us the complicated and virtually unattainable perspective of being so close, but yet so far away from home. The moon setting captures the dark and lonely isolation that could make anyone go crazy.
Moon raises many ethical and moral subjects that present the dark side of certain technological advancements, which I considered to be the most powerful part of a slower-moving film. And just for this reason, I think everyone should go see it. This film may not be well-received by "mainstream" audiences, but anyone who likes a well-done thought-provoking film will appreciate this. Moon has been called by many people as "the Anti-Transformers" film. It was in independent theaters around the same time that Transformers 2 was in theaters. Transformers 2 made incredible amounts of money at the box office, and Moon made just a sliver of that, but I think we all know which is actually the better film.
After being separated for seven years after a summer of romance, Noah and Allie are reunited and Allie must choose between her new fiance and her first love.
It’s the year 1940 in Seabrook Island, South Carolina, and the local country boy, Noah Calhoun, is clinging to a bar at the top of the Ferris wheel at a local carnival. His intentions? To gain the affections of seventeen year-old heiress Allie Hamilton, whom he has just met. Noah speaks to Allie as he dangles at an alarming distance from the safe ground, and in her desperation, she agrees to go on a date with him. Despite her promise, Allie proves to be stubborn, and Noah’s continued efforts result in rejection. One magical night, however, Allie’s stubbornness inevitably fades.
The Notebook received several awards following its release in 2004, including the MTV Movie Award and the Golden Satellite Award. Its total box office earnings were over $115 million worldwide. The film, which is directed by Nick Cassavetes, is based on the best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks, whose timeless love stories warm the hearts of teenagers and adults alike.
The story is being told by the aged Noah, who is reading from a notebook to a sufferer of Alzheimer’s disease in a present-day nursing home. As he reads, the viewers are taken back in time and experience Noah and Allie’s heart wrenching tale from the lovers’ perspective. Their love appears at first to be flawless and indestructible, but trouble soon intervenes with their otherwise perfect summer. Allie’s parents disapprove of Noah because of his low income and social status, and eventually insist that Allie not see him anymore. When Allie returns to her hometown at the end of the summer, Noah is left desperate and alone. Allie is heartbroken when she receives no letters from Noah, and believes that he has moved on.
Seven years later, Allie becomes engaged to a handsome young soldier named Lon, whom her parents enthusiastically approve of. As her excessively publicized wedding day approaches, she decides to return to Seabrook to “take care of some things,” and visits Noah for the first time since they were separated against their will. She finds more than a casual friendship with Noah, and now she must make the decision: will she be faithful to her fiancé, or will she be courted once again by her first love?
There were several elements that made this film so successful, including its powerful characters and well-drawn plot. Each actor and actress stayed true to their character, embodying them to the fullest extent. They made the film believable, and they carried the emotions of each situation down to the last line effortlessly. Their movement and dialogue were both perfectly maneuvered together to create awe-inspired responses.
After observing the outstanding performance presented by this cast and crew, viewers will be forced to think about the choices they make, and whether or not to follow their heart. The Notebook is essentially about Allie and Noah creating a destiny for themselves, but it moreover narrates the human story of what we long for, what we settle for, and who we're meant for.
Alex Zuckerman - The New Animated Film You Have To See!!!
Alex Zuckerman is caught in circumstances out of his control when he is abducted by aliens. They implant a mind control device inside of his brain so that he would become an insurgent in their upcoming invasion of Earth. With the help of Sir Psycho; Alex Zuckerman assembles a scary crew - ascending into space on a mission to save Alex’s mind, soul, and ultimately the entire human race.
The story wanders, and the soundtrack is minimalistic. Alex Zuckerman has a unique storyline, and unparalleled graphics. As an entire package - Alex Zuckerman is different than anything you'll find anywhere else.
This cartoon features alien carnage!
You may view Alex Zuckerman at the following URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7wx9WExfzs
Nights in Rodanthe is an unashamedly romantic and likable drama about love, loss, and second chances.
Nights in Rodanthe is an unashamedly romantic and likable drama about love, loss, and second chances.
Richard Gere and Diane Lane reunite for a third on-screen collaboration, following Cotton Club and Unfaithful, their characters brought together by the fates as each faces middle-age turmoil.
Gere plays one Dr. Paul Flanner, Lane Adrienne Willis. They meet at a beachfront inn in the tiny coastal beach town of Rodanthe in North Carolina's windswept Outer Banks.
She's the temporary proprietor, standing in for a close friend who's away for the weekend. He's the inn's lone guest, as he's got personal business nearby, on a weekend that weather forecasters have said will bring violent weather. But the imminent hurricane is only a secondary concern for these two: it's the major storms in their personal lives that are on their minds.
Adrienne is estranged from a wayward husband who now wants to come back to her, and her teenage daughter -- who already resents her for just about everything -- blames her for the lack of a reconciliation because it is she who does not want to resume the marriage.
Preoccupied surgeon Paul is already estranged from his own son (played in a cameo by the uncredited James Franco), who is also a doctor. But Paul is there to look in on a man who continues to blame him for the death of his wife because of an operation that defied the medical odds and went tragically wrong. Paul seeks redemption on both fronts.
These two agonizing souls end up having dinner together, and quickly come to know each other. Each has a crisis of conscience to deal with, each is at a crossroads, neither is necessarily looking for more than a bit of pleasant company and unobjectionable platonic companionship.
Uh huh.
George C. Wolfe, a Broadway and television director making his feature-film debut, works from a screenplay by Ann Peacock and John Romano that is an adaptation of the 2002 best-seller by Nicholas Sparks, who has had three other romance novels turned into movies -- The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, and A Walk to Remember.
The script doesn't end up being nearly as formulaic and predictable as the early going may indicate. And it offers intriguing motifs along the way -- things happening against all odds, for example -- in addition to its central theme of second acts in real lives.
The first half, when the principals are tentatively tiptoeing toward each other, registers solidly because of the charm of Lane, the charisma of Gere, and their unforced chemistry. It works works better than the ensuing relationship itself or the wrapup, which contains a false ending or two.
You'll notice Nights in Rodanthe recalling The Bridges of Madison County in several ways as the plot unfolds. That's both a compliment and a complaint. The film is, for one thing, decidedly weepy, both on-screen and off. But it's also, in spots, legitimately moving.
And the two leads in this agreeable two-hander of a romantic melodrama are first-rate: gracefully assured and appropriately appealing.
With old pros Lane and Gere taking care of the amenities, this inn offers both a scenic view and pleasantly emotional viewing.
SEGA's Epic Failure
"Scrape your knuckles, Catch some tails"
...WTF
THIS MOVIE IS HOORIBLE!!!!!
The movie is awful and I mean AWFUL. For the SEGA fans and the video game lovers for Sonic the Hedgehog, this movie will make you cry. You will cry endlessly for a whole 60 minutes (Yes, this movie's a WHOLE hour long, that's sixty seconds to long!) For those who were lucky enough not to watch it, here's the plot.
"Sonic and his friends are back!..."
This is a sequal!?!?!?(Not really, it's the only sonic movie)
"Eggman has been banished from the land of darkness..." his own home (eggman is the supposed bad guy)
"by the evil metal robotnik!" yes, we haven't heard THAT one before (Sarcasm)
"And if that's not bad enough..." yes, it SAYS the plot is bad
"Eggman tells sonic that he has created his greatest enemy..." here it comes, the ULTIMATE ENEMY OF SONIC! It's going to be awesome right!?!?
"METAL SONIC!!" ****
That's right, the only bad guys here are robot rehashes of other characters. Not only that, but the semi-enemies (one's that are never mentioned or noticed) are the same enemies from the video game "Sonic the Hedgehog" on the Sega Genesis. Here's the question, you add so much into the movie that you have already in the game, WHY DOES THE MOVIE SUCK!?!? Well, i'll tell you why it sucks. For one, THE VOICE ACTING IS THE WORST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD! It makes a mockery of every Sonic chracter EVER! Sonic's voice is to stereotypically teen, Tails' voice has a FEMALE VOICE ACTOR (just like in Sonic '06 on the Xbox 360), Knuckles is Southern, and the onlyperson with voice acting that fits is eggman, annoying and awful. Just like him.
Oh don't worry, there's more. Listed in the top of the review is the actual, real, SUBTITLE!!! Holy ****!!! What were they THINKING!? Do I really even have to address it!? Crap! I don't know about you, but I don't get it! So after an over-dramatic speech, Eggman deals out some comedy with some new charactr (Sera) wo happenes to be a "Cat girl" as som most people call her. The comedy skit was funny, I will give it that. Later sonic and tails have a travel montage (with the video game references) and continue on to the land of Darkness. When the reach there, it doesn't really loo like a "Land of Darkness". It looks more like Tokyo after Godzilla hits. They go on to defuse a bomb (Yes, a bomb) that will cause the apocolypse otherwise. Wow... just wow. And right in the middle of their trip comes Metal Eggman. They have a actually funny battle, but they lose. Oh, wait, here comes the epic antics of.. Knuckles in a Cowboy hat. Wow. He kicks it's *** in, like, 5 seconds. half the time it took to nearly kill both sonic and Tails. Sonic helped, a little bit in killing it. Tails did practically nothing except whine, ad whine, and whine. The trio continue on to defuse the bomb (which still sounds SO WEIRD) with no interruption. They enter the castle and who do they find? The ressurectin of the epic... Metal Sonic. Luckily, Metal Sonic is an ACTUAL Sonic the Hedgehog Character from a few video games. So this one is exceptable. The have a short battle, but not with Metal Sonic, with a reverse convetor belt. It's fast, so Sonic (the supposed fastest thing alive) can't outrun it. 3, uh oh, 2, It's gonna blow! 1, NO! at Zero (0) seconds knuckles happily flies over and pulls the lever. The irony is that Tails did the same but the lever was to tough. wa wa waaaaa.
After the whole "You saved the day, whoopty doo" speech. Comes the final battle with Metal Sonic, finally. It's actually pretty good. It was DEFINANTLY epic, it was a close battle, and Metal Sonic dies by!... a pool of Lava. Yet another video game reference. (Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega Genesis, Zone 2, Acts 1, 2, and 3).
That's the movie. I know you probably think I'm being to harsh on it an admitadly I am, I mean, maybe they did they could maybe... nah, they just ****ed up.
There's my review, have a nice Freaking Day everybody
I'm the CinemaCritic, I watch it so you don't have to!
