Being John Malkovich (1999) Review

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999)
Director: Spike Jonze

Writer: Charlie Kaufman

Producers: Charlie Kaufman, Michael Kuhn, Steve Golin, Vincent Landay, Sandy Stern, and Michael Stipe

Editor: Eric Zumbrunnen

Cinematography: Lance Acord

Music: Carter Burwell

Starring: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich, and Orson Bean

Best Credit: Mariah O'Brien as "Girl Creeped Out by Malkovich"

Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes

Rating: R (Language and Sexuality)

Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Comedy

Release Date: November 19, 1999

Before Watching the Movie: It might be a good idea to go into the movie blind or somewhat blind.

Intro: This is a movie I've been wanting to see for a little while. I remember hearing good things about it on IMDb and a friend recommended it to me. I heard it's very different and unique, so one night when I felt like seeing something that fit that description, I decided to give this one a shot. Being John Malkovich is unlike anything I've ever seen before. Yes it's extremely weird and completely mind-bending, but it has an original, interesting and well-told story along with good directing and acting.

Plot: A struggling but brilliant puppeteer named Craig Schwartz (Cusack) is encouraged by his wife, Lottie (Diaz), to get a real job. At his job, he meets a woman named Maxine (Keener), who he falls in love with. Later, he stumbles across a small door in his building that he crawls in and realizes it's a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. Enchanted with the experience, Craig shows his wife, who becomes obsessed with being Malkovich and starts tearing apart her and Craig and Craig and Maxine.

Things People May Find Objectionable: There's some swearing, including some f-bombs, but there isn't much of it. Otherwise, there's sexual content including one brief sex scene, but nothing is explicitly shown.

What was Good:

     -Story: Extremely unique. Because the story is unique, you really don't know and original. The fact that the story is so original and you really don't know where it's going really makes the movie work. It's also really interesting and well-told.
     -Script: Well-written script. I was impressed with the writing in the movie. All of it seemed very good and it worked. I can see why the screenplay was nominated for an Oscar.

     -Originality: As I mentioned earlier, the movie is extremely unique. I don't know of any movie that's remotely similar. To me, this makes the movie extra good. I like an original movie because I have no idea where it's going, and to me, unpredictability creates the ultimate suspense.

     -Acting: Good acting. While everyone gives a decent performance, Catherine Keener gives the best one. I've never seen her on anything else, but she does a really good job. She deserved the Oscar nomination she got for the role. I was also surprised to see Cameron Diaz was in this. She looks really different in the movie compared to now.

     -Directing/Cinematography: Good directing, but subtle. Not much stood out as, "Wow, what an amazing shot!" but the movie definitely had a look to it and the shots were set up well. Good directing. I'll have to check out more of Spike Jonze's work.

     -Characters/Emotional Involvement: The characters seem very subtly developed. I didn't really realize this until after watching the movie. I really didn't realize I cared about a characters until a bombshell of sorts is dropped, leaving the character in a difficult situation.

Just take another moment to admire the poster

Worth Noting:

     -Music/Score: The music was really interesting, as I think they use only classical music for the score. I thought it was a good choice, as it fits the theme of puppetry well and it helps draw you into the film's world a little better.

     -Humor: Though it's billed as a comedy, the movie is more of a drama or fantasy in my opinion There are some funny moments, usually created around the movie's weirdness, but I think the focus is on other aspects. In other words, I wouldn't go into the movie expecting to laugh all the way through l. It's less light-hearted than you'd expect.

     -Intelligence: This isn't a brainless movie by any standard. The concepts, though they're relatively easy to comprehend, are mind-bending and will twist your brain in many directions. You won't finish this movie with out having to think at least somewhat.
     -Weirdness: Just a fair warning that this movie is seriously weird and extremely quirky. I tend to like this sort of thing, but it may be off-putting to some. I'd give it a shot though, as it's worth it if you can stand its quirkiness. 

The Verdict: One word comes to mind when thinking about Being John Malkovich: unique. It's not like anything else I've ever seen, and for me that's a very good thing. If you buy into the film's crazy world (and the hell of beans there [brownie points if you get the reference there]), the movie will give you a one-of-a-kind experience. If you can stand a lot of weirdness, I would definitely give this movie a shot.

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The Last Airbender (2010) Review

THE LAST AIRBENDER (2010)
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Written by: M. Night Shyamalan
Produced by: M. Night Shyamalan, Michael Di Martino, Kathleen Kennedy, Bryan Konietzko, and Scott Aversano
Music by: James Newton Howard
Edited by: Conrad Buff
Starring: Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, Dev Patel, Jackson Rathbone, and Aasif Mandvi
Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes
Rating: PG (fantasy action violence)
Genre: Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Family
Release Date: July 2, 2010

A Quick Warning: I just want to let everyone know that for me, school has just restarted (gag), so I may not be able to get posts out as frequently as I was in the summer both because my time is limited and I don't tend to watch as many movies during the school year. I will try my best to get reviews out as frequently as I can, but I can't guarantee I'll get one out a week. Anyway, let's move on to the review, shall we?

Intro: When I was in 4th and 5th grade, nearly all of my friends watch the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. While I never watched it, I heard it was a good show from a lot of people. Several years later, I heard they were making a movie out of it (I originally thought this was what the movie Avatar was going to be about). I didn't have much interest in seeing it until the b-movie fan in me saw that it got 6% on Rotten Tomatoes and was getting universally panned by reviewers. I remember during summer school that year, I was talking to someone about it. They said, "I kind of want to see Last Airbender, but I heard it's really bad." I replied, "That's WHY I want to see it." Anyway, I didn't get around to seeing it until this summer when I bought it from a nearby closing Blockbuster (in the same trip I got Pan's Labyrinth on). Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as good of a fulfillment of my money as Pan's Labyrinth. The Last Airbender has a lot of potential with an interesting and engaging premise and decent special effects, but it's horrible writing kills it and makes the movie wholly unsatisfying and frustrating to watch.

Plot: It's the same basic premise for the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. If you're familiar with the show, you probably won't need to read this section. For those who aren't here's the plot: In some world (not sure if it's this one or not) there are 4 nations: the earth, wind, water, and fire nations that all have special abilities to manipulate (or bend) the given elements. There is a group called the airbenders that can bend all 4 elements that keep all 4 nations in balance. However, the fire nation went on the offensive and killed the airbenders and is on the path to conquering the world. Then one day, a young girl (Peltz) and her brother (Rathbone) in the water nation find a boy (Ringer) frozen in the ice and after unfreezing him, they realize he's the last airbender (hence the title) who has been cryogenically frozen for 100 years and his name is Aang. Meanwhile, the fire nation finds out Aang exists and the exiled Prince Zuko (Patel) is hellbent on capturing and killing him. Aang must contend with the fire nation while completing his airbending training throughout the world.

Things people may find “objectionable”: It's a PG movie, so nothing major. There is some "fantasy violence," but it is all very mild. No blood or gore at all, which made everything a little unrealistic. Still, I can see them turning down the blood and gore to keep the movie a family film.

Ratings:

     -Directing/Cinematography: 7/10. Really not half bad direction. It's clear Shyamalan knows how to direct, and he has a couple of acclaimed films under his belt in The Sixth Sense and Signs (both are on my "to see" list). Now his ability to write is a different matter...

     -Acting: 6/10. The actors are really not that bad, just the words they say as part of the script are bad. I couldn't believe they got Aasif Mandvi, who is a comedian and a Daily Show correspondent, to play the main bad guy. Though he played a serious role, it was impossible for me to take a comedian playing the main bad guy seriously.

     -Writing: 1.5/10

          -Story: 2/10. Let me quickly differentiate the premise from the story so I don't look like a hypocrite by liking the premise and then giving the story section a 2. The premise of the movie, which for Last Airbender is really pretty cool, is the starting point for the story. The story is what happens to the characters following what the premise sets up. Anyway, the story is completely plagued by a stupid storyline that was so cliché and formulaic. The writing was awful and it undoubtedly ruined the movie. 

          -Script: 1/10. Terrible script to match the bad story. The lines are really stupid for the most part. Please, any studio that M. Night Shyamalan is working for, never let him write another script!!!

     -Special Effects: 9/10. The effects are all really pretty good. They're not the greatest in the world, but they really are pretty decent.

     -Music/Score: 4/10. Nothing special.

This Youtube Commenter got it right.

     -Power/Emotion: 3/10  Well, I can't say I cared that deeply about any of the characters. The plot was so formulaic that I really didn't have to be concerned with the safety of the main characters. For any aspiring writers out there, please keep in mind that if the plot is formulaic, it wrecks a lot of the ability of viewers to care for your characters. If it's really clear what's going to happen to the characters (as in, X person is going to live and/or X and Y person are going to fall in love), there's really no sense in getting to care about the characters' fates. If you add an element of unpredictability, suddenly the characters become more important to the viewer and they are much more likely to care about them. Anyway, that's exactly what Shyamalan's bad writing does, as it ruins a lot of my feelings for the characters just because it's so easy to see what's going to happen to them.

     -Adrenaline: 4/10. Though there are numerous action sequences, the movie ends up being pretty dull. This is probably for a few reasons. One is, as I explained at length in the previous section, that it was hard to care about the characters that much. Also, the millions of clichés in the script made the outcome of the fight scenes incredibly predictable, therefore making them less exciting since you pretty much know what's going to happen.

     -Stupidity: 5/10. Everything's really pretty solid. That is, except for the writing. The lines are incredibly stupid and the story is stupidly written.
     -Humor: 2/10. This isn't the point of the movie, but there's a couple mildly funny moments inserted obviously for comic relief.

     -Best Credit: Chris Brewster as "Kicking Firebender."
     -Final Score: The Last Airbender is a frustrating movie to watch. It is mainly this way just because it squanders so much potential for being good and it ends up being completely unsatisfying. The writing ruins the movie, as it is bad and extremely formulaic. If you're a fan of the show Avatar: The Last Airbender, I would not suggest watching it because you will likely be mad at how badly the movie messes up a really pretty cool concept. Even if you're not familiar with the show (like me), I don't recommend the movie, as it is just frustrating and unsatisfying to watch.

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Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Review

PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006)

Director: Guillermo Del Toro

Writer: Guillermo Del Toro

Producers: Belén Atienza, Elena Manrique, and Guillermo Del Toro

Editor: Bernat Vilaplana

Music: Javier Navarrete

Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, and Doug Jones

Runtime: 1 hour 59 minutes

Rating: R (graphic violence, language)

Genre: Fantasy, War, Drama

Release Date: January 19, 2007 (US theater release)

Before Watching the Movie: Maybe read a quick summary or Wikipedia article on the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s just to get a loose grasp on what was going on at the time, since the war features prominently in the movie. Also, this is movie where the less you know going in, the better.

Intro: This is a movie I have wanted to see for a long time. I am a fan of Guillermo Del Toro's work in seeing both of the Hellboy movies and liking both of them. Then on my IMDb prowling and through some recommendations from people, I heard about this movie. Then a couple years later and earlier this year when a local blockbuster was going out of business, I bought the movie for real cheap, and a few months AFTER that, I got around to watching it. My waiting did not go unrewarded. Pan's Labyrinth, though its  is a brilliant movie in almost every way and is and a masterpiece for Del Toro as it successfully blends brutal war and mind-bending fantasy elements so seamlessly.

Plot: Like I mentioned above, it's best to go into the movie with not a lot of information, so I'll keep this section relatively short. In 1944, during the brutal Spanish Civil War, a young girl name Ofelia (Baquero) and her pregnant mother are being sent to the countryside to live with Ofelia's new stepfather (Lopez), who is a captain in Franco's army. Ofelia is obsessed with fairytales and one day she is led by a fairy into a nearby labyrinth, where a faun tells her she is a long-lost reincarnation of a princess. Ofelia buys into this and the faun gives her a series of tasks for her to prove her royalty in. She has to carry out her tasks while trying to appease her sadistic stepfather and avoid getting tangled in an escalating Spanish Civil War conflict

Things people may find “objectionable”: The main objectionable thing in the movie is the violence. Some of the violence can be pretty brutal, as Del Toro tries to capture the bloodiness of the Spanish Civil War. There are also a couple uses of the F-word, but if you don't speak Spanish and don't read the subtitles, you won't know!

Ratings:

     -Directing/Cinematography: 10/10. Incredible directing. Del Toro is a fantastic director, and it's clear that Pan's Labyrinth is his masterpiece. He spectacularly blends the fantastical and the realistic elements of the movie to the point where they seamlessly coexist.

     -Acting: 10/10. Great performances by the entire cast. Sergi López, in my opinion, gives the best  performance as Ofelia's sadistic stepfather and army captain.

     -Writing: 9/10.

          -Story: 10/10. The key to having a great story is to always keep the audience guessing what is going to happen next. This is exactly what Pan's Labyrinth's story was like. Even towards the end of the movie, it was impossible to predict the ending, or even where Del Toro was going to take the story. The story also had its share of plot twists that were completely unpredictable.

          -Script: 8/10.  Solid script, even after the translation from Spanish to English. I think Del Toro made sure the translation was accurate since he speaks both English and Spanish.

     -Special Effects: 9/10. The movie is a few years old, so the effects are not what they are today. Even so, the effects work amazingly well with the movie.

Normally I'd add a picture from the movie,
but if I did, it might spoil some of the
creepier moments, so instead, here's a cool
alternate poster I found on the internet.

     -Music/Score: 7/10. Since it's been a month and a half since I've seen the movie (I need to get a review out, that's why!), I honestly can't remember the score that much, but what I remember of it was good and fit the movie well.

     -Power/Emotion: 10/10. Since the story was completely unpredictable, as I mentioned above, it was easy to become concerned with the fates of the characters. By the end, you really get to care about the characters and feel really bad when something terrible happens to them.

     -Adrenaline: 9/10. The tension in the movie started out high and only got higher

     -Mind-Bendingness: 9/10. As this is a fantasy movie, there are definitely some mind-bending moments in the movie, and Del Toro masterfully blends them in with the more reality-grounded Spanish Civil War aspect of the movie. The most mind-bending elements are the spectacular and weird creatures Del Toro comes up with. Creating imaginative monsters is definitely a strength for Del Toro.

     -Humor: n/a. The movie is heavy and dark throughout and leaves little room for humor. Still, the movie doesn't suffer one bit from the absence of humor.

     -Final Score: Pan's Labyrinth is a fantastic movie in every way and is easily one of the best I have seen all year. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy movies or just wants to see a great film. If you can stand the violence and the subtitles, watch this movie. You will not be disappointed.

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Brave (2012) Review

Directors: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell

Writers: Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman, and Irene Mecchi

Producers: Pete Doctor, John Lasseter, Katherine Sarafian, and Andrew Stanton

Editor: Nicholas C. Smith
Animators: Simon Allen, Dovi Anderson, Jude Brownbill, Courtney Casper, Andrew Coats, Robb Denovan, Curran W. Giddens, Aaron J. Hartline, Tsung-Yin Hsieh, Jaime Landes, Ramiro Lopez Dau, Rich McKain, Erick Oh, Charlie Ramos, Jessica Sances, Mark Sanford, Michael Sauls, Benjamin Su, Saschka Unseld, Charlene Wang, Royce Wesley, and Stephen L. Wong

Music: Patrick Doyle

Starring (voices): Kelly MacDonald, Emma Thompson, and Billy Connolly

Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

Rating: PG (Scary action, rude humor)

Genre: Animated, Adventure, Family

Release Date: June 22, 2012

Intro: While I am not a huge fan of Disney movies, I do have a lot of respect for Pixar, since their movies are almost always amazingly better than any animated feature any other company can produce, both story and effects wise. When I went to see this, I was expecting another amazing Pixar movie. Sadly, this was not the case for Brave. Though Brave is a good movie with incredible animation, it just doesn't live up to the high expectations Pixar movies receive, as a predictable story and a surprising lack of originality, usually two of Pixar's strengths, weigh the movie down.

Plot: In ancient, I guess it could be Middle Ages mythical Scotland, a kingdom has been divided into 4 sections by a devastating war. The kingdom has recently been reunited under King Fergus, the bear king, though three other clans still exist.  Anyway, the clans decide to meet so Fergus can marry his daughter, Merida, off to one of the other clans and further strengthen the bonds of the kingdom. Merida, however, is a reluctant princess, as she is an excellent archer who does not want to be married just yet. However, her mother, Queen Elinor, tries desperately to whip her into what she thinks a proper princess should be. Merida resists as much as possible until one day when the clans are in town, she runs away and stumbles upon a witch who gives her a potion to help "change her fate," so she gives it to her mom who eats it and the fate-changing potion turns out to be more of a problem than anything else for Merida.

Things people may find “objectionable”: It's a PG movie that's intended for families, so there's really nothing that bad in the movie. The only thing is some mild toilet humor, probably intended to make sure the movie got rated PG instead of G, since PG movies generally sell better than G movies.

Ratings:

     -Directing/Cinematography/Animation: 10/10. Stunning visuals. If it had not been for the cartoon-like characters, it would be hard to distinguish the animated scenery from real life scenery. It was that good. Even the characters, though they looked less real than the scenery, still had amazingly lifelike movements. What never ceases to amaze me about Pixar's animations is how realistically they can make the hair look, especially as it moves with the character. Having worked quite a bit with stop-motion animation in the past, I can imagine just perfecting the hair took weeks, if not months.

     -Acting (voices): 10/10. The voice actors were all good and fit the characters they were playing pretty well. I have to give it to Pixar, they do get the best for their voice acting.

     -Writing: 7/10. The script was good, though they overuse the phrase "change your fate." As for the story, I was a disappointed in the predictability and lack of originality. The story was fine and they did a pretty good job in telling it, but it was pretty easy to guess what was going to happen next, which is never a good thing for a movie script, especially for a movie studio in Pixar that usually has very original stories. There just didn't seem to be anything too surprising in the story, with no major plot twists.

     -Music/Score: 8/10. Nothing special in the way of music, it was mainly just Scottish-themed tunes, but the music did fit the movie well.

     -Power/Emotion: 6/10. Not as high as I expected, though after a while I became at least somewhat concerned for the characters. I think the predictability ruined some of my emotional response because I had a pretty clear idea of what was going to happen, so I wasn't that concerned for the characters I knew would live and end up happy.

     -Adrenalinw: 5/10. There were some fairly exciting moments, but they were not the intent of the film, as the movie focuses much more on the relationship between Merida and her mom.

     -Mind-Bendingness: 1/10. Doesn't really make you think that deeply, but then again, this is clearly not the intent of the movie.

     -Humor: 4/10. There were a few funny moments, but like adrenalin, comedy was not an emphasis of the movie.

     -Final Score: While it's not a bad movie by any stretch, Brave just doesn't compare to any of Pixar's classics and is not up to the level of movies the studio should be making. It's somewhat enjoyable, but it's not the engaging, emotional and clever kind of story Pixar has become famous for making. I hope Pixar is able to rebound some and go back to making the kind of great movies that everyone knows it for. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes animated movies just for the beauty of the animation. It could also function well as a family film.