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Cold Eyes (2013) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : Be careful – and be watchful

Posted on July 3, 2013 by kaist455

“Cold Eyes” is a pure exercise in thriller and professionalism. It is a taut, efficient work not wasting any minute throughout its 2-hour running time, and we are entertained by its main characters defined and driven by their professionalism. Everything we need to know about them for the story is mostly presented through how they do their jobs, and most of them are smart and resourceful enough to be the competent players of their crafts. In their intense battle of wits, a trivial thing noticed in one situation can be a crucial chance for reversal in the other circumstance later, and, like many good thrillers, that makes us constantly anxious about what will happen next.

The movie draws our attention from the beginning with its terrific opening sequence introducing its main characters as also subtly signaling to us that something is going on under the surface. We initially see a young woman in the subway who seems to be on some clandestine mission, and we also notice an ordinary-looking middle-aged man in the same subway car. Both are very watchful about their surroundings, but they are also very, very careful about being not noticed by others – and each other, perhaps.

Keeping the distance between themselves, they do not directly talk or interact with each other at all during this long sequence, but the movie lets us grasp step by step what is really going on between them while a bank robbery plan is expertly executed second by second at the place not so far from their location. There is a cool, calculating mastermind behind this robbery, and we observe him overseeing his henchmen from above while meticulously monitoring the situation outside the bank building. His henchmen do exactly as planned under his careful direction, and everything goes well for them except one small but problematic delay – but all of them successfully escape from the scene in the end thanks to his well-prepared plan.

It is the latest task of Chief Hwang(Seol Kyeong-gu) and his unit in the special department of the Seoul police to track down and arrest these professional criminals. The department is hidden somewhere within the downtown area of Seoul with an appropriate cover for their workplace, and they do not wear uniform often because they must not reveal their unofficial operations to normal citizens(one of police officers jokingly said at one point that they can only wear it when attending their colleague’s funeral).

Aided by the high-tech equipments available to them, Chief Hwang and his unit and others at the department patiently scan over the crime scene to find their culprits. While it is no surprise to us nowadays, it is still rather frightening to see in the movie how our daily life in public can be easily spotted and then monitored through advanced modern technology. Even with only one minor credit card payment, they can immediately get an approximate daily activity zone of yours through your credit card record, and, if you are not as good as the characters in the movie, they will soon locate you within a few hours through many video cameras placed around the streets and alleys of Seoul.

Hwang’s unit members, including a rookie officer named Ha Yoon-joo(Han Hyo-joo), are deft followers/disguisers, and many suspenseful moments in the film involve with how they keep their heads down while never losing the targets on their sight. They fortunately get one lead at the start, but they are well aware of that a brief glance or a casual word can ruin the whole operation, so they must be careful in every step of their maneuvers.

Intensely focusing on their work process, the movie throws some interesting ethical perspectives into the plot. While fully understanding what should be done for their assigned work, Chief Hwang clearly sees the gray morality from what he and his people are capable of as shadowy public servants monitoring the city in the name of law & order. He admits that they may infringe upon the civil rights of the people they should protect and serve, but he and his people choose to stick to what they are doing right now while never looking back, for that is probably the only way they can deal with many morally difficult situations such as when they are ordered not to blow their cover even though they see two people in a dire danger nearby.

The man they are chasing after also never looks back in his work. As soon as his latest work is done, he receives the payment along with another job to do from a seemingly old, humble shoemaker whose cold eyes betrays a ruthless criminal boss hiding behind his shabby appearance. They seldom discuss about their nameless powerful clients, but they know well about what their clients want through what they are requested to do(in one case, they steal a bunch of account books instead of money), and they do not care as long as they get paid well.

As Chief Hwang and his unit getting closer to this criminal organization, the directors Kim Beyong-seo and Jo Eui-Seok keep the tension being accumulated along the plot, and they never step back. They skillfully manipulate the level of suspense with patient shadowings, quick moves, and small nice moments of humor, and they always make the movements on the screen clear to us even when their movie becomes quite busy with many characters respectively operating around one area. They also make good use of the streets and alleys and buildings of Seoul, and that gives a nice realistic touch to the movie while providing the canvass for its slick visual approach to the story.

The actors are well-cast, and they do more than filling their archetype roles. They are unassuming as required, but their good performances reveal the interesting sides of their characters even when they are coolly occupied with their works. Seol Kyeong-gu, who has been recently mired in several disappointing films despite his talent, gives a solid performance as a tenacious chief dedicated to his work and his people, and Jeong Woo-seong is effective as his formidable match who may win their deadly cat-and-mouse game through his brain and body.

Between her two co-actors, Han Hyo-joo is lovely and feisty as a rookie with prodigious visual memory, and one of the best moments in the film is the smooth visual presentation of how she recalls and looks around every detail spotted in her surveillance work. Although we do not see a lot about Yoon-joo’s private life except one brief scene at her home, Han Hyo-joo is an engaging actress to watch, and her character is a smart and strong character to observe; even at the most frustrating moment, Yoon-joo can quickly recover her strength as soon as she spots a chance, and the climax sequence in the third act reminded me that good thriller films are driven by characters rather than actions. The movie has an excellent action sequence, and I must say this is a rare moment where the police in the movie chase down the culprits through a clever plan instead of mindlessly driving after them(and they actually consider public safety, by the way).

The other characters in the movie are mostly defined by their appearances and their behaviors, but the screenplay by Jo Eui-seok gives considerable space to some of them. Lee Jun-ho is likable as one of Chief Hwang’s unit members, and you will be amused by how appropriate his code name is considering his agility. As the strict head of department, Jin Kyeong is both commanding and caring; while she rarely loses her cool façade in front of others, one small detail implies how many times she has been frustrated with her superiors while trying to do her job, and her small private scene with Seol Kyeong-gu shows us two seasoned public servants who have seen and experienced lots of unpleasant things together for many years. The movie wisely does not force them into an unnecessary romantic relationship, so they are just presented as the close colleagues sharing the deep understanding of the nature of their work.

“Cold Eyes”, which is released as “Watchers” in South Korea today, is the remake of Hong Kong thriller film “Eye in the Sky”(2007) produced by Johnnie To, and there is a small nod to that film around its ending. I have not watched “Eye in the Sky” yet, so I cannot tell whether the remake is as good as the original, but I can say that, like Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed”(2006), “Cold Eyes” is a very good remake which can stand on its own with style and substance. Like its characters, the movie does its job well, and the result is an unexpectedly splendid genre piece deserving to be mentioned at the end of this year.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Bank Robbery, Criminal, Eavesdropping, Police, Shadowing, South Korean Film, Surveillance, Thriller | 1 Comment

Jurassic Park (1993) ☆☆☆(3/4) : You can still believe they’re alive again

Posted on June 30, 2013 by kaist455

“Jurassic Park” has aged well as one of the notable milestones in the special effect history. The special effect technology in Hollywood has moved on a lot since its remarkable achievement in 1993, and you may glimpse its dated aspects while discerning the holes and flaws in its standard monster flick plot, but there is still awe and wonder whenever the movie looks at its small and big prehistoric creatures. It may look old, but you can still believe they’re alive again.

Its story premise is utterly implausible to you if you are majoring in biology or have some basic biological knowledge on DNA. An eccentric enterpriser John Hammond(amiable Richard Attenborough) owns a private island called Isla Nublar, which is about 120 miles/190 km off the west coast of Costa Rica, and his big scientific project at the island is almost near the finish line. Extracting the dinosaur DNAs from the mosquitoes which sucked the blood from dinosaurs and then were quickly preserved in amber by chance more than 6.5 million years ago, Hammond’s scientists succeed in cloning dinosaurs through the complete assembly of their genomic data, and they successfully bring back 15 kinds of dinosaurs to the Earth. Hammond’s theme park in the island, aptly named Jurassic Park, is now in the preparation step, and the dinosaurs such as Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Diloposaurus, Velociraptor, and Tyrannosaurus rex are being managed in their respective habitats under the high-tech security system and several safety measures including high-voltage fences, which gave me one of the cringe-inducing moments in the film when I watched the movie as a 10-year old kid.

That looked fairly plausible to me and other kid audiences in 1993, but now my mind observes its premise more critically due to my academic knowledge on how fragile DNA is. Maybe you can luckily get a mosquito who did suck a dinosaur, but it is almost impossible to get the whole genome of a dinosaur through the ‘preserved’ blood from 6.5 million years ago, for it is quite possible that the genomic DNA was damaged from the beginning. Not long after watching the movie again on this Saturday morning, my friend Michael Mirasol introduced me a recent New York Times article on how a group of scientists got the complete genome of prehistoric horse which lived about 700,000 years ago, and it described in details how fortunate they were to get enough DNA fragments for drawing the whole genome map of that ancient species. If you read that article, you will see how utterly preposterous the premise of the movie is(I also can tell you a lot about cloning process requires far, far more than acquiring genomic DNA data, but I am writing a movie review, not a science article).

Anyway, the movie goes along with its rather fantastic premise without thinking about it too seriously, and it magnificently delivers what it promises to us. Yes, we all knew we were going to see dinosaurs before going into the theater at that time, but we could not help but admire its series of awe-inspiring sights including a gigantic Brachiosaurus on lunchtime, and we fully identified with what the characters feel in front of these amazing sights. I know that, as old cousins of birds, some dinosaurs might have been furrier than we imagined, but the movie still reminds me of how enthusiastic I was about dinosaurs like many kids eagerly memorizing those long names of various dinosaurs.

It is unfortunate that its story does not go up as high as its special effects, and I see its flaws more clearly as a seasoned adult audience. Michael Crichton’s novel the movie is based on was an enjoyable book to read, but I was far more fascinated with the part involving its technological/scientific details(remember those fancy mathematical images decorating the book?) than the part involving story and characters, and the screenplay by David Koepp and Michael Crichton retains this weakness while being faithful to the novel. I appreciated that they made John Hammond more human and more sympathetic that his greedy and egoistic counterpart in the novel, and Richard Attenborough has a small poignant scene revealing Hammond’s innocent motive behind his ambitious project, but his character is as functional as the other main characters whose main functions in the story are 1) being dumfounded and 2) being chased by whatever they encounter on the island.

They are Dr. Alan Grant(Sam Neil), a paleontologist, Dr. Ellie Sattler(Laura Dern), a paleo-botanist who is Dr. Grant’s co-worker/girlfriend, and a cocky mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm(Jeff Goldblum), who usually talks about that famous chaos theory or gives good old-time moral/ethical lectures on Hammond’s advanced biotechnology to others. They are invited to the island for giving assuring judgments to Hammond’s concerning investors, and they soon find their initial concerns are right not long after they begin the tour ride along with Hammond’s two grandchildren and a lawyer representing the investors(his demise by one of the dinosaurs is probably a small amusing moment to some audiences).

The movie virtually telegraphs this peril to us even before they arrive at the island. Besides an approaching tropical storm, there is an obnoxious employee with a cockamamy plot to steal dinosaur embryos(it is rather unbelievable that some corporate spy paid $750,000 to this bumbling jerk in advance for that), and we are not so surprised to see that the movie switches its gear from SF fantasy mode to horror thriller mode in the middle of the story.

It becomes relatively less interesting as a result while the characters keep running for their life under urgent situations, but, fortunately for us, the director Steven Spielberg is not only a masterful craftsman but also a talented storyteller. Even with a plain shot of the ripples in the glass of water(this simple effect was created by plucking guitar strings below the glass, by the way), he gives us a clear sense of approaching dread, and then we get a frightening action scene featuring a certain fearsome dinosaur quite determined to eat more than what is served. Although they are not directly shown on the screen during most of the running time, we indirectly come to learn about Velociraptors’ sheer ruthlessness(Sam Neil has a darkly humorous scene around the beginning where his character terrorizes a chubby kid by describing how they hunt), and these savage hunters are indeed effective villains during the tense kitchen sequence where Hammond’s grandchildren must depend on their wits and guts to escape from these lethal predators.

Spielberg and his crew effectively used CGI as another new tool available to them along with the older kinds of special effects. The CGIs in the movie are deftly mixed with live-action models to create very believable illusions on the screen, and the result is more distinctive and more vivid than those bland CGIs we usually get during summer blockbuster season nowadays. While CGI allowed more kinetic freedom for the dinosaurs in the film, more traditional special effects were also crucial in making them really look and feel like living animals, and that is why that intimate encounter scene with a Brachiosaurus(or the head of a Brachiosaurus, shall we say) carries an equal weight to the majestic CGI introduction scene of Brachiosaurus in full view.

While showing many dated aspects as a product of the 1990s(Many electronic equipments in the film do look old-fashioned, and I was personally tickled by the brief appearance of CD-ROM equipment), “Jurassic Park” holds its place well as an entertaining film on the whole. It is more apparent to me now that its story and characters feel deficient in comparison to its outstanding special effects, and that is a major reason why the movie is several steps below Spielberg’s great entertainment films like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”(1977) or “Minority Report”(2002), but I enjoyed its technical aspects and it is undeniable that the movie is a terrific technical achievement to be remembered and cited.

Stan Winston, Dennis Murren, Phil Tippett, and Michael Lantieri certainly deserved Special Effect Oscar award for their superlative job, and the movie also deservedly won two Oscars for its sound mixing and sound editing; we will probably never discover how dinosaurs actually sounded like, but the people at the sound department did a very good job of making the creature sound effects both plausible and believable. John Williams’ great score superbly enhances many amazing sights in the film, and it is a shame that it was not Oscar-nominated along with his equally great score for Spielberg’s powerful film “Schindler’s List”(1993).

For the recent re-release, “Jurassic Park” is converted to 3D, and its 3D converting is well done as far as I can see. The resulting dimness is inevitable, but it is kept on a minimal level, and I was not distracted by 3D during my viewing. That reminds me again of the irony of 3D effect: it is better when we are less conscious of it, but then what is the point of using 3D if there isn’t anything to be enhanced by 3D? The movie tremendously entertained me and other young audiences in 1993 even without 3D glasses, and I was glad that I saved my money through attending a morning screening at the local theater.

　Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie itself as I did 20 years ago, and I willingly recommended it to one of my junior lab members when he said he had never watched it on a big screen. I am less enthusiastic than before as an adult reviewer, but the movie still has its own wonder compensating for its several weak points, and my admiration toward to the movie has never been decreased. It could have been better(Dr. Sattler, aren’t you curious about how they also cloned prehistoric plants?), but it is surely nice to see that one of my sweet childhood memories has lost none of its magic even after 20 years it was made.

Sidenote: When the movie arrives at the sentimental ending, it nearly forgets that the dinosaurs will eventually die within few days due to their genetically modified metabolism deficiency – but that fault would not matter much after the arrival of its unnecessary sequel “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”(1997), which was one of few forgettable works directed by Spielberg.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Dinosaur, Horror, Science, Scientist, SF, Theme Park | 1 Comment

World War Z (2013) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4) : An epic global zombie spectacle

Posted on June 21, 2013 by kaist455

“World War Z” puts all the zombies it can get on the big screen. There are several big sequences featuring lots of those mindless zombies going after the living for spreading their disease all over the world, and some of these scenes are tense and thrilling to watch. But, as it keeps going on and on with more zombie attacks around the world, the movie starts losing steam while becoming more monotonous, and its underdeveloped drama does not help much while it is swarmed by CGI zombies appearing here and there.

When Gerry Lane(Brad Pitt) starts another normal day with his family in the morning, everything looks fine at first. When they are at the downtown of Philadelphia, it seems they are stuck in another long traffic jam with others, but it looks like something wrong is going on beyond their sight. Not long after sensing that, they suddenly find themselves in the middle of frantic chaos, and they see people running away on the streets – and some of them do not look so healthy to say the least.

What we see here is not different from what we have seen from countless zombies movies like “Dawn of the Dead”(2004) or “28 Days Later”(2002). The rule is simple: don’t let them bite you, or you will soon be turned into one of them. The zombie virus in the film works so fast that we see one unfortunate guy turned into a living dead within 20 seconds after being bitten, and, not so surprisingly, the whole city is quickly occupied by zombies once their rapid attack starts on a full-throttle mode at one spot. Philadelphia and New York go down first, and then Boston and Newark are also gone later, and then every major cities in US is under zombie attack within a few days while the whole world is also thrust into this sudden global catastrophe.

A good thing for Lane’s family is that Lane is a former UN military investigator who still has some connections to be pulled in this emergency. He calls his friend in UN, and, after escaping from another danger in Newark, he and his family are quickly brought to an aircraft far from the East shore, but he finds that they are rescued mainly because he is needed for an urgent mission. Our typical reluctant hero initially refuses, but, on the condition that his family remains aboard the ship while others are taken to a ‘safe place’, he agrees to assist the mission for identifying ‘patient zero’ and finding a way to prevent the continuing spread of the disease.

As Lane and other team members go around the world for their mission, the movie gives us various kinds of zombie attacks as shuffling its locations. There is a suspenseful moment when Lane and others try to leave Camp Humphreys, South Korea during one dark night while not noticed by zombies; as one of South Korean audiences, I must point out that the background of this scene is so dark that it can be anywhere other than South Korea. The movie also drops by Israel, where the survivors are protected by a very, very high wall, and you will not be surprised about what happens during that part if you have seen its trailers. After Lane infers a possible solution from a few small sights he happened to witness, the movie goes to the World Health Organization lab building in Cardiff, UK, and Lane and other living guys have to deal with a bunch of zombie doctors and technicians in the building for getting a crucial chance to turn the tide.

The director Marc Forster and his crew pack the screen with action whenever it is necessary, and the movie rarely feels tedious. There is a visually impressive scene where a massive group of zombies eventually find a way to climb over a big wall and then throw pandemonium over the living as a consequence, and then it is followed by a fearful moment which is certainly one of the worst nightmares you can possibly imagine after you board a plane. While relatively less loud than other action sequences, the Cardiff sequence is handled well with a nice payoff, which made the audiences around me laugh during the screening at last night.

However, the problem is, these sequences do not add up to something more than themselves because the screenplay, based on the book by Max Brooks(yes, he is the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft), does not do a lot besides throwing them into its plot. The characterization is two-dimensional at best, and the drama sandwiched between action scenes feels bland and hurried, and, above all, the ending is artificial and unsatisfying with no particular dramatic impact. After going all over the world with so much action, the movie merely halts with the epilogue montage, and that is all.

And the zombies in the movie are not very interesting to watch. Because the movie is rated PG-13, we do not see much of their gruesome nature(it seems they just bite people rather than eat them), and we do not see lots of blood despite so many shootings and other acts of violence on the screen. This may look more comfortable to some of you, but the zombies of “World War Z” look less scary compared to other movie zombies as a result. I was not so scared by the zombies in the film, and that took me back to how I got bored by those CGI zombies in “I Am Legend”(2007). There are surely real extras wearing hideous makeups, but there are far more CGI zombies out there, and their main job is swarming toward the living characters like a CGI tide surging endlessly against lots of shootings and explosions.

As the lead character at the center of the story, Brad Pitt did a competent job here as a vulnerable action hero, but there is not much he can play except being a caring dad or a skilled professional, and his co-actors are stuck with mostly functional characters who can be bitten at any time if that is necessary for driving the plot. As Lane’s worrying wife, Mireille Enos got a thankless job of holding a cellular phone in many scenes, and you may notice more notable actors like Matthew Fox, James Badge Dale, and David Morse briefly appear and then quickly go away.

“World War Z” was not as bad or boring as I worried, and the running time went faster than I expected, but the movie does not leave much impression on me despite its expensive spectacles. I was pretty tired when I went to the screening at last night, and I felt more exhausted with little satisfaction when it was over, and then I began to miss good zombie comedies. Zombies taste better when they are funny, you know.

Posted in Movies | Tagged action, Family, SF, Zombie | 1 Comment

Cats and Geese on Summer Afternoon (2013/06/16)

Posted on June 19, 2013 by kaist455

They look a little more pleasant as enjoying summer afternoon…

Posted in Photos | Tagged Cats, Geese, KAIST | 1 Comment

Berberian Sound Studio (2012) ☆☆☆(3/4) : A sound engineer stuck in Giallo film

Posted on June 18, 2013 by kaist455

“Berberian Sound Studio” begins with one of miserably dreadful moments that can really happen in our mundane life. Its meek hero dislikes his new job, but he finds himself stuck in that purgatory, and he feels more alienated and isolated in his stark work environment. In such a circumstance like that, it is not surprising that his mental state becomes slowly deteriorated when it seems there is no end in his sight.

Toby Jones plays a British sound engineer named Gilderoy, who comes to Italy for working in the post-production of a fictional Italian horror film named “The Equestrian Vortex”. It is around the 1970s, and that was the era during which many infamous Italian horror films were made. As a matter of fact, “The Equestrian Vortex” is basically a rip-off of Dario Argento’s “Suspiria”(1977), one of famous ‘giallo films’ from that period.

While we are thrown along with Gilderoy to its red devilish main title sequence around the beginning, we do not see the rest of “The Equestrian Vortex”, which seems to be filled with lots of terrible moments throughout its running time. It is mainly Gilderoy’s job to record and mix the sound effects for these horrible scenes while assisted by a handful of crew members and ordered by his boss Francesco(Cosimo Fusco), and, though the sound studio looks pretty lousy even in the standard of the 1970s, Gilderoy works hard for getting his job done every day despite this poor condition. We frequently watch him working at the control booth, and we sometimes look at his long work chart full of the sound effect editing design over the film.

While showing him and others at work in languid pace, the movie intrigues us with the filmmaking techniques behind movie. Like Brian De Palma’s “Blow Out”(1981), which also features a sound effect technician hero working on a horror film, the movie induces us to be more conscious of the aural aspect of movie while looking around the daily work process of Gilderoy and others, and it is rather fun to watch how they create sound effects for their movie. They use various kinds of vegetables and fruits to generate the sound effects they want, and Gilderoy is served with a slice of watermelon on his first day when they have just finished their business with that poor fruit. I was particularly amused by how they used turnips for providing the plausible sound for a certain act of violence – do the sound effect guys still use that method?

We also see the dubbing process while their work continues. As some of you know, Italian films made at that time were all dubbed entirely during post-production process, so we see several actors and actresses come and go around the studio for recording the dialogues and the wordless human/inhuman sounds from their larynxes. The actresses are hired mainly for their scream – or what they can do for the director, who is an arrogant and careless prick who really seems to think he is making a horror masterpiece. At one point, an angered actress reminds us that the exploitative side of those cheap horror films is not only confined in the screen.

While all these things are happening around him, Gilderoy feels more loneliness and isolation as the time goes by. He misses his home in England, and the affectionate letters from his mother intensify his longing rather than alleviating it. His co-workers do not communicate with him much because of language barrier, and they are mostly unkind to him. He sleeps alone in his temporary residence, and, when the work time is over, he usually spends his solitary time with several sound recordings before going to bed.

And, above all, he feels increasingly disturbed by “The Equestrian Vortex”. It is not that the film has some supernatural evil force; even though he knows it is only a movie, its supposedly shocking violent scenes always tremble his vulnerable psyche whenever he works on them. He does not like horror films at all, but this is a job he is hired and demanded to do, and he is literally bullied by Francesco when he expresses his desire to quit the job. He realizes that he has no choice but to keep moving on in this hostile mood – and his reality starts getting crumbled along the work schedule.

The director/writer Peter Strickland makes a compelling psychological horror film focusing more on atmosphere than plot. It requires some patience around the beginning, but its disturbing undertone attracts our attention through its effective sound designs and a recurring red light sign for silence in the studio. We only encounter the horror movie in the film indirectly, but its horrific sounds are enough to stimulate our imagination, and its brooding force throws an ominous tone even on a plain sight of the corridor outside the studio, which comes to evoke that spooky claustrophobic quality we observed from the films like “The Tenant”(1976), “The Shining”(1980) and “Barton Fink”(1991).

The second half of the movie becomes more bizarre, more fearful, and more confusing as it goes into the territory of David Lynch films, and it helps that the movie is anchored by its lead performance to hold us on emotion level amid its accumulating confusion. Toby Jones, who has been one of the most distinctive British character actors in recent years, did a superb job of playing an unstable mind approaching to the possible collapse under his trapped situation, and you may feel lots of sympathy to his character if you have ever had a soul-crushing job experience.

Although I am not very familiar with those giallo films(as far as I remember, only giallo film I watched was Dario Argento’s “Deep Red”(1975)), I found “Berberian Sound Studio” is a well-made horror film with intriguing sights and some tense/scary moments while working well as a tribute to the genre it plays with. I paid attention to its creepy atmosphere, and I enjoyed some of its details, and I was actually terrified at times. How nice it is to see that familiar black glove again, by the way.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Horror, Movie, Sound effect | 1 Comment

Hitchcock (2012) ☆☆☆(3/4) : Mr. & Mrs. Hitchcock – and “Psycho”

Posted on June 16, 2013 by kaist455

If you have some knowledge about Alfred Hitchcock, his life, and his chilling masterpiece “Psycho”(1960), “Hitchcock” will not surprise you. It mainly shows what we have known and heard about him and his personal life and his movies, and, while it is interesting to see how he struggled to keep his artistic vision intact during his small but daring attempt at that time, the movie mostly stays on the level of mild amusement as revealing nothing new or revelatory about what made Hitchcock tick. You may be disappointed because of that, but, seriously, what can you expect if the movie is about a great pervert director whose life and works have been constantly and thoroughly studied and analyzed by countless scholars and critics for more than 40 years?

After its darkly humorous introduction a la “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, the movie, which is based on the book “Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho” written by Stephen Rebello, begins the story in 1959, when Alfred Hitchcock(Anthony Hopkins) was at the peak of his career. Although he has just had another big success with his latest thriller film “North by Northwest”(1959), Hitchcock feels an urge to do try something new because he seems to be stuck in his comfort zone despite his accomplishment, so he starts to search for anything suitable for his purpose.

On one day, he comes across Robert Bloch’s morbid novel “Psycho”, which was inspired by a notorious real-life serial killer Ed Gein(disturbing Michael Wincott). Not only the book itself but also the gruesome and macabre details of Gein’s serial killing attract Hitchcock’s interest, so he decides to make a movie based on that novel although the people around him, including his wife Alma Reville(Helen Mirren), are not that pleased about his decision.

While he and others are going through pre-production phase, we see how much sensational “Psycho” were to the people even before the shooting began. The Motion Picture Production Code, whose permission was necessary for theatrical release by major studios during that period, immediately shows a string of objections as soon as they read the adapted screenplay written by Joseph Stefano(Ralph Macchio). During Hitchcock’s meeting with Motion Picture Production Code people, you may be amused by the fact that showing toilet on the screen was a taboo at that time even though the toilet in “Psycho” was used for destroying an evidence rather than our daily biological need.

Hitchcock also faces the finance problem as the Paramount Studio is reluctant about financing the production although all he needs is a small budget around $800,000(“North by Northwest” was made with around 3 million dollars, by the way). He eventually finances his movie by mortgaging his house, and the production finally begins under absolutely secrecy(you have probably heard that Hitchcock bought almost all the copies of Robert Bloch’s novel in US for preventing spoilers).

His wife Alma, who has been dutiful as his professional partner as well as his personal partner, stands by him as usual, but their relationship starts being strained as Hitchcock pushes the production. In addition, when Alma seriously considers working with a screenplay writer Whitfield Cook(Danny Huston) on a non-Hitchcock project, Hitchcock becomes jealous and obsessive as his dark fantasy represented by Ed Gein hangs around his sight, and that throws shadow of disturbance on the set of “Psycho”.

It is not easy to accept Anthony Hopkins as an iconic director like Hitchcock despite Oscar-nominated make-up, but Hopkins is a good actor, and he wisely channels Hitchcock’s familiar mannerisms while not resorting to cheap mimicry. We are frequently aware of him playing Hitchcock on the screen, but, through his nice performance, we also see that dry, courteous, and talented British gentleman who sublimated his dark inner impulse into great thriller films.

Hopkin’s co-star Helen Mirren does not look like Alma Reville either, but she is also good as a no-nonsense woman who has endured lots of things while living with a great artist and does not hesitate at all to express her frustration when she thinks enough is enough. Like many great artists, Hitchcock is a difficult guy to live with for many reasons including his famous obsession with blond ladies, but Alma knows that her husband is indeed a great artist and, above all, he always needs her. When it seems “Psycho” is a total failure, she immediately assumes her role as his enabler, and we see how “Psycho” was reshaped into a great film we know.

The movie could have shown more about that, but the production process shown in the movie is still engaging to watch none the less, and the director Sacha Gervasi assembled good supporting actors for his recreation. Scarlett Johansson is Janet Leigh, who faces the dark side of the director she admires during the shooting of that infamous shower room scene. She is shocked but she is not so angry because she has already been warned by her co-star Vera Miles(Jessica Biel), who knows several things about Hitchcock as an actress previously working with him. Toni Collette is Hitchcock’s loyal assistant Peggy Robertson, and Michael Stuhlbarg is his hard-working agent Lew Wasserman, and James D’Arcy is convincing as Anthony Perkins, whose unstable persona makes Hitchcock convinced that he finds a right actor to play Norman Bates. The movie also shows several notable people behind “Psycho” including Joseph Stefano, Saul Bass, Bernard Herrmann, and George Tomasini, but they do no more than passing by the story briefly as minor characters.

“Hitchcock” sets its goal on a modest level, and it does as much as it intended. I did not get any new insight or information about Hitchcock and “Psycho” after watching it, but this small movie works as an enjoyable fiction about a great director who comes to recognize the value of his lifelong partner and their enduring relationship/partnership, and I did enjoy the recreation of the making of “Psycho” in the movie. As I said, it won’t surprise you, but I think Mr. & Mrs. Hitchcock would be amused by this little film about themselves.

Posted in Movies | Tagged Actor, Director, Husband and Wife, Movie, Murder, Real-life figure, Real-life story | 1 Comment

Man of Steel (2013) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4) : He can fly – no surprise

Posted on June 14, 2013 by kaist455

“Man of Steel” wants to look different from its famous senior which opened the door for all the subsequent superhero films, and I understand its intention. When several production logos were ominously introduced one by one at the start of the film, I was reminded of that moody and monochromatic tone of the main title scene of “Batman”(1989), and I immediately sensed its serious ambition to soar in a way different from that of “Superman”(1978) and its decent sequel “Superman II”(1980).

Too bad it does not soar as much as it intended or we wished. It is interesting to watch how “Man of Steel” tries to look and feel different while telling the origin story pretty familiar to many of us, but, to my disappointment, it does not have enough spirit to excite my heart. There are several nice visual moments to be enjoyed, and I cared about the story to some degrees, but almost everything in the movie is ultimately hurled into a big, overblown apocalyptic CGI climax which might have been transferred from Michael Bay’s abysmal Transformers sequels. Around that point, I lost most of my interest even though we can hope for better things to come when our mighty hero finally settles in Metropolis as a guy with two jobs in the end.

The movie begins in Planet Krypton which looks far, far different from its cold, abstract counterpart in the 1978 film. This alien world is bountifully decorated with exaggerated costumes and big production designs probably inspired by old pulpy SF fictions like “John Carter of Mars”, and I could not help but think of several video games when I saw those elaborate armors of its inhabitants. I am sure many of my high schoolmates who wasted their time on Starcraft will certainly be amused by the appearance of the high-tech military uniforms of Krypton.

Krypton’s lofty civilization is on the brink of its end due to its excessive advance through the reckless energy extraction from the planet core, and one of its scientist, Jor-El(Russell Crowe, who is less ponderous than Marlon Brando in the 1978 film and is as serious as he was in “Robin Hood”(2010)), knows it is already too late for them to avoid this catastrophe. He has a plan to preserve and reconstruct his race through his infant son Kal-El, who is naturally born by his wife Lara Lor-Van(Ayelet Zurer) in the opening scene, and he wants the official permission to proceed with his plan from the high officials of Krypton, but he quickly sees that he has to execute his plan by any means necessary when General Zod(Michael Shannon on a very, very, very volcanic mode) attempts a coup d’état with his surly band of soldiers. The movie usually switches to a hyperkinetic mode whenever there exists any slight amount of action on the screen, and I must say the inevitable destruction of Krypton feels like a weightless footnote compared to all the sound and fury coming before it.

A space pod loaded with Jor-El’s son and some device for reviving his race is safely shot to the space before this apocalypse, and the movie quickly moves its story to an adult Kal-El/Clark Kent(Henry Cavill) as soon as the pod crashes into the Earth. Although he has been hiding his super power from others as advised by his wise and generous Earth stepfather Jonathan Kent(Kevin Costner, who incidentally also played Robin Hood in “Robin Hood: Prince of the Thieves”(1991)), he is always to ready to use his power to save people, and he does not hesitate for a second when he encounters a desperate situation at a burning oil flatform.

As the movie frequently goes back to his past in Smallville through several flashbacks, the screenplay by David S. Goyer, who wrote the story for the recent Batman trilogy with the co-story writer/producer Christopher Nolan, handles the story as seriously and realistically as possible in spite of its inherent preposterousness. The movie has a gray tone seeping into everything in the story, and, like Bruce Wayne in Nolan’s Batman films, Clark Kent in this film has the issues to brood and agonize over – especially after he realizes he is a lot different from others. One scene involves his horror caused by the discovery of his ability to see through his teacher and classmates through his X-ray vision(isn’t it harmful to their health, by the way?), and I came to muse on how unexciting Superman’s daily life really is; seriously, it would be miserable to any human being to live with such overwhelming sensory overload every day.

Clark tries to remain unnoticed as much as he can, but it seems the time to reveal his power and identity in public is coming as his stepfather predicted. A big alien spaceship is found in the North Pole area, and, after he instinctively activates it, he learns about his origin and other things through the hologram image of his Kryptonian father, and now he is ready to wear that famous uniform and cape and then fly to the sky.

At the same time, he is coincidentally noticed by Lois Lane(Amy Adams), a young hotshot reporter of Daily Planet who happens to be around the site. Although nobody believes what she witnessed in the spaceship, our young feisty reporter is determined to find this mysterious guy, so she eagerly follows his trails for what may be the scoop of her lifetime.

But a far bigger scoop is approaching to her and everyone on the Earth. General Zod and his surly band of soldiers were released from their banishment when Krypton was destroyed, and they finally come to the Earth for finding Kal-El and, not so surprisingly, conquering the Earth. This is the point where the movie becomes far less interesting as many things are busily hurled, kicked, smashed, pulverized, and exploded on the screen with lots of sound effects and Hans Zimmer’s overpowering score. Its climax part is the massive destruction initiated at the center of Metropolis, and you will instantly think about 9/11 as watching the buildings collapsed and the people frantically running for safety on the street. The movie does not directly show it, but it is rather horrible to think about how many people die during this epic catastrophe.

The director Zack Snyder, who previously made “Watchmen”(2009) and “300”(2007), makes his movie look visually slick and polished. I liked the scene with a metallic mural painting style in which Jor-El tells about the long history of his perished civilization to his son, and the mental conversation scene between Kal-El and Zod has a striking shot when Kal-El faces the horrific aspect of Zod’s ruthless terraforming plan.

But, sadly, there is little fun or surprise in the process, and it gets more tedious and more sterile during its third act. What we get from its exhausting array of bloated actions during its last 50 minutes is your average CGI spectacle which goes only louder and bigger until it reaches to the finish line, and the story and characters are almost swept along with this mess. Superman and other Kryptonians are more or less than the CGI creatures which can do anything they want while not harmed much during their dizzy and frantic action scenes, and, to be frank with you, I do not know why the soldiers in the movie keep attacking Kryptonians even though it is pretty apparent that their bullets and rockets and other weapons are quite useless(but we can say they are as useful as, say, rubber bullets).

The best thing about the performances in the movie is that the actors acquit themselves well even when they are wasted and overshadowed by special effects. Henry Cavill wears the role nicely with a little more gravity; he looks good with his costume, and that is pretty enough for playing Superman, who is actually more of a symbol than a character. As his possible love interest, Amy Adams is charming as before; there is not much romantic interaction between her and Cavill mainly because too many things are happening around them, but I am curious about how their relationship will be developed in the possible sequel because, in this time, Lois Lane is a sharp girl who will not be fooled by Clark’s nerdy glasses(will it be a “don’t tell, don’t ask” romance, I wonder?).

While Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are appropriately cast as Superman’s humble Earth parents, Michael Shannon goes way over the top with admirable intensity as General Zod; he chews every scene of his so fanatically that you will believe a man can chew the Earth. Laurence Fishburne sternly holds his place on the ground as Perry White, the no-nonsense editor-in-chief of Daily Planet. His Perry White is less funny and colorful, but I guess we cannot possibly imagine a colorful and brash newspaperman working in the era of digital media.

“Man of Steel” is passable as a reboot film, but I am not sure about how much fun and excitement it will be able to draw from its darker and grittier approach a way different from the bright, optimistic, and innocent attitude of the 1978 film. As my friend Michael Mirasol once pointed out in his insightful essay “The Rise and Fall of Superhero”, Superman is its genre’s yang while Batman is its yin, and it is little awkward to see a simple superhero like Superman in a darker light which is more suitable to Batman and other more conflicted superheroes. It surely looks different, and I don’t mind about that, but are we really going to have a fun as promised in its ending? The movie surely swoops on us with all the power and resources it can amass – but it does not soar above its excess.

Posted in Movies | Tagged action, Alien, Reporter, SF, Superhero | Leave a comment

Everyday (2012) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4) : Life goes on as they wait for his release

Posted on June 13, 2013 by kaist455

As a movie observing how life goes on for its main characters over the period of five years, “Everyday” feels vivid and authentic. As watching one ordinary family dealing with a specific hardship imposed on them, you can feel the passage of time along with the small changes they go through, and the documentary-like approach of the movie adds another level of verisimilitude to their life story.

As a matter of fact, the movie was actually shot during a few weeks at a time from 2007 to 2012, and the resulting effect is not different from what we watched from Michael Apted’ great documentary Up series or Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy. The actors in the screen become really older along with their characters as we watch their small episodes one by one, and we become amazed or amused by how some of them have been changed since we began to observe them at the beginning.

The movie revolves around the daily difficulties Ian(John Simm), Karen(Shirley Henderson), and their young children have been facing since Ian’s imprisonment. A crime Ian committed is not explained well in the movie, but it seems he has been incarcerated for some misdemeanor(according to IMDB and Wikipedia, he was charged with drug smuggling), and it looks like he will be released after few years. You may say it won’t be long, but it does feel long to Ian and his family, and they always feel moody whenever the visiting time is over.

The movie does not delve into the details of Ian’s crime or how he thinks about it, but, through its non-judgmental view, we come to find Ian is a nice man who could have been a better dad to his children. Although the incarceration is certainly hard for him everyday, he mostly keeps a cheery face in front of his loving kids as they spend their small precious time together at the visiting room of the penitentiary, and his easy rapport with them shows his better sides to us. Maybe they had some rough times in their past, but it is apparent that Ian and Karen miss each other a lot as a husband and a wife, and there is a tender moment when Karen slightly violates the regulations to satisfy her lonely husband’s certain need.

As the time goes by, we see things getting better step by step for Ian while he is transferred to other cells or other prisons. The mood of the family meeting becomes brighter with more comfortable conditions, and, probably because of his good behaviors, Ian is later permitted to get out of the prison temporarily and spend a short time with his family outside. Leaving their children in a public park for a while, he and Karen enjoy a brief but sweet private time together in a small place.

But it is still hard for not only Ian and but also Karen and their kids. Without her husband, Karen has to support the household by herself, and we see her working as a supermarket employee and then as a bartender. The circumstance is not entirely gloomy; she earns enough money for her and her four children, and there is also some help from the people near her including a friend named Eddie(Darren Tighe).

Days and months and years pass as they move on, but they feel Ian’s absence everyday even though his release date is being closer to them. Elder son Robert(Robert Kirk) looks more sullen and more rebellious than before, and his younger brother Shaun(Shaun Kirk) fights with one of his schoolmates just because of what his schoolmate said about his father. Karen silently struggles with her accumulating loneliness, and we are not so surprised to see Eddie being around her and her children.

The director Michael Winterbottom, who wrote the screenplay with Laurence Coriat, did a very good job of capturing the glimpses of personal feelings inside his characters amid the mundane but realistic environment, and his performers hold our attention with their earnest performances. Shirley Henderson and John Simm convincingly immerse themselves into their respective characters, and we can always sense what they feel or think through their gestures and facial expressions. With her ever-haggard face, Henderson is well-cast as a struggling wife and mother who is both vulnerable and determined, and Simm is her equal counterpart as a likable guy who happened to do a wrong thing and is dearly paying for that.

As their four kids, Shaun Kirk, Robert Kirk, Katrina Kirk, and Stephanie Kirk, who are siblings in real life, remind me of how kids frequently marvel us through their growth. Shaun Kirk, the youngest one, is especially notable because of his considerable changes in appearance observed over five years; he is a cute little kid with round eyes when we meet him for the first time, and then we see him gradually resembling his older brother Robert as he grows up, and then he eventually becomes old enough to talk with his brother about the physical difference between male and female. These four young actors bring their natural bond between them to their characters, and they also look very believable with Simm and Hendersen as a family coping with problems.

Michael Winterbottom has been impressing me and others with the diverse attempts in his diligent filmography. While he made a disturbing film noir drama “Killer Inside Me”(2010), he also made a humorous road trip movie “The Trip”(2010), which has a funny conversation scene between its lead actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon on how to imitate Michael Caine’s voice, and these two contrasting works of his were quickly followed by “Trishna”(2011), a modern retelling of Thomas Hardy’s novel “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” which is set in India.

“Everyday” is his another interesting attempt, and it is an experiment which is successful as well as interesting. Supported well by engaging performances, the movie sometimes becomes a little more relaxed and optimistic as accompanied with several beautiful outdoor interlude shots, and Michael Nyman’s score effectively conveys the sense of passing time along with a tentative sign of hope and optimism. This small movie eventually grows on us as an intimate and touching family drama in the end, and we are satisfied with several small slices of life served to us one by one – while hoping the best for them.