Posts tagged Solid
Movie Review: ‘Source Code’ is a fun and solid thriller
Apr 3rd
If thrillers are your favorite kind of movie, there’s a new one in Carson City that more than beats most of the recent examples; it’s “Source Code” and is at the Casino Fandango Galaxy multiplex.
The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal at Capt. Colter Stevens, who wakes up on a Chicago commuter trail sitting opposite Michelle Monaghan as Christina, a friendly woman with a pleasant smile. Stevens fumbles around until suddenly there is an explosion (the only one, although it is repeated again and again as part of the plot) and the train explodes.
Stevens finds himself in a chamber with a TV screen, where he is interrogated by Air Force Capt. Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) and discovers he is part of a source code. (Don’t worry about what a source code is, though it is a command that computer programmers use in creating software.)
Seems that by the code the subject (Stevens in this case) can go back to a different body during the last eight minutes of that body’s life. So Stevens does so, trying to find the bomb that has been planted on the train. Reason the Air Force is doing this is to find out about a nuke someone is planning to set off in Chicago after the train explosion.
Stevens finally finds the train bomb but only removes one cell phone bomb trigger; he has to do it a second time and gets punched about for his troubles. He finally identifies the bomber and tips off the Army, which stops the nuke and arrests the bad guy.
But it seems that Stevens is really not quite dead in Afghanistan but is kept alive for future events. So how does this leave him with Christina, with whom he has fallen in love? Don’t worry, quantum mechanics comes to the rescue, just don’t ask questions.
This is a well-done thriller without car chases and, as mentioned, only one explosion, perfectly logical given the plot line. Direction by Duncan Jones is crisp and the cast is just right for the story. Technical execution is dazzling, as we’ve come to expect from thrillers.
There’s a neatness about this one (OK, so the science is kind of wacky and it’s best not to think about it all too deeply) that rivals that fine Clooney film “The American.” Jake and Michelle touch off sparks and Vera is a fine Air Force captain (spoken by me once upon a time).
And the photography is spectacular, showing Chicago off beautifully, including that city park next to the Art Institute. And and commuter trains were never as nifty back in the days when I was riding them. If you lived or worked in Chicago, these shots make the movie well worthwhile without the actors.
As thrillers go, this one goes well. See and enjoy.
— Sam Bauman
Cast
— Jake Gyllenhaal as Captain Colter Stevens
— Michelle Monaghan as Christina
— Vera Farmiga as Colleen Goodwin
— Jeffrey Wright as Dr. Rutledge
— Cas Anvar as Hazmi
— Russell Peters as Max Denoff
— Michael Arden as Derek Frost
— Scott Bakula as Stevens’ father (voice cameo)
Directed by: Duncan Jones
Produced by: Mark Gordon, Jordan Wynn and Philippe Rousselet
Written by: Ben Ripley
Music by: Chris P. Bacon
Cinematography: Don Burgess
Editing by: Paul Hirsch
Rated: PG-13, runs about 97 minutes
From carsonnow.org
Rock solid
Jan 4th
4 January 2011 Last updated at 08:41 GMT Director Danny Boyle on his rock solid grounding By Fiona Bailey Entertainment reporter, BBC News 
127 Hours is Boyle’s first film since the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire
Last year saw rags to riches fable Slumdog Millionaire win prize after prize, including eight Academy Awards.
But its helmsman Danny Boyle, named best director at the 2009 Oscars, seems unaffected by his Hollywood success.
The British film-maker, whose other movies include 28 Days Later and Trainspotting, says living in the UK keeps him grounded.
“There’s nothing wrong with Hollywood,” he explains. “If you want to be a big-time director, then you should go.
“But I’ve been very fortunate to be able to stay here,” says the man who has been invited to direct the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The 54-year-old still goes to the supermarket to get the weekly shopping and has an unwashed car he describes as “very, very dirty”.
Climber Aron Ralson (l) is played by Spider-Man star James Franco (r)
But the Lancashire-born film-maker has a valid excuse for this vehicle neglect, having been busy promoting his latest movie 127 Hours.
Harrowing and compelling
The film tells the real-life survival story of Aron Ralston, an experienced rock climber who, in 2003, became trapped in a canyon for five days.
His eventual escape required a superhuman feat guaranteed to turn the strongest of stomachs.
Boyle and his crew spent six long days filming in the isolated mountain ranges of Utah.
The project was ambitious, he says, because Ralston – played by James Franco – is the only character in 90% of the movie.
With the use of feverish fantasy scenes and claustrophobic camera shots, the film builds to a harrowing climax.
“Although it looked unwatchable, it was actually the reverse,” says Boyle. “It is an incredibly compelling story.”
And Boyle says some scenes gripped even him with tension: “I was outside the canyon watching on a monitor, but you sort of believe what you see and you start to feel anxious.”
During Ralston’s entrapment, he attempted all sorts of ways to move a rock that was pinning down his arm.
At one point he tried to set up a pulley system – something Boyle made Franco do for real when recreating the scene.
Documentary versus drama
Following Slumdog Millionaire, the director says he found himself inundated with offers of work.
Yet he was determined not to react to Slumdog’s success, which would have been “foolish”, he adds.
Having already decided in 2006 to bring Ralston’s story to the big screen, Boyle decided to use the “power” Slumdog gave him to finance the project.
It helped, of course, to have Ralston on board, the climber having previously refused to let his story be dramatised.
The explorer had been keen to make a documentary, in which he appeared as himself. Yet Boyle was adamant this would not have worked.
“I told Aron that if we employed him as the ‘actor’, it would be terrible. No one would have believed it.
“My point was we would achieve so much more with a proper actor.
“In order for people to witness what he went through, you’ve got to make them feel they’re in the canyon and they’ll do anything to get out of there with him.”
After Ralston saw the movie, he realised Boyle had made the correct decision, the climber told the BBC World Service.
“He was right, it was a much more powerful and inspiring film for people to see and experience,” he said.
Ralston liked the finished film, admitting he was in tears throughout, but only after one change was made.
Ralston recalled a black raven that flew over his head on a daily basis, which subsequently revisited him in the form of a frightening hallucination.
Boyle originally brought this scene to life by placing a six-foot raven besides Franco’s face.
However, this was later changed to the cartoon character Scooby-Doo, at Ralston’s request.
“Despite it being true, he didn’t want that raven portrayed like that because it was the only living thing he had a relationship with,” explains Boyle.
“He was very clear, and we came up with a much better idea in the end.”
127 Hours is released on 5 January.
‘Town’ is a solid sophomore effort from Affleck
Sep 17th
“The Town” is a solid heist drama.
Ben Affleck’s second directorial effort lacks the emotional texture, heft and moral ambiguity of his debut work, “Gone Baby Gone,” however.
The movie is mainly set in the Boston enclave of Charlestown, which, according to an introduction as the film opens, is home to scores of crooks.
One such crew, led by Affleck, specializes in holding up armored cars and banks.
In the gang’s latest job, they take a bank manager hostage, then quickly release her after the getaway.
Through a series of complications, a romance develops between the manager, Claire, and Affleck’s Doug. She, of course, is unaware of his true occupation.
The movie’s biggest problem is Affleck’s perception of his character: He works too hard to make him as sympathetic as possible. He wants the audience to root for Doug to justify his ending, which is at odds with the book on which the film is based.
It’s as if Affleck wanted to make an art-house crime thriller, while not straying too far from the confines of mainstream Hollywood.
That he doesn’t fully succeed does not diminish his effort. It simply keeps the movie from rising to the artistic plateau of his first directorial outing.
Affleck wisely gives a lot of screen time to co-star Jeremy Renner as the most brutal and dangerous member of the gang.
Renner’s Jim sees things simply — if someone appears to be a threat, eliminate him.
Affleck’s work behind the camera is sure and concise. He knows how to stage exciting and realistic gun battles and is aware of how to build suspense and tension.
The other distracting drawback in “The Town” is an unnecessary coda at the end, which basically apologizes to the decent people who live in Charlestown for focusing on the few rotten apples who live there.
Other than that, “The Town” succeeds at what Affleck and his collaborators in front of and behind the camera set out to do: Offer a gritty snapshot of a rough neighborhood and some of the lowlifes who inhabit it.
Bloom is the movie critic and Blu-ray/DVD reviewer for the Journal & Courier. He also reviews Blu-rays and DVDs for Gannett. He can be reached by e-mail at bbloom@jconline.com
BO: ‘Inception’ Wins Again with $27.5M; Solid $23M Start for ‘Schmucks’
Aug 1st
As expected, Warner’s dream-filled sci-fi thriller “Inception” won the domestic box office for a third consecutive week, grossing about $27.5 million, according to estimates.
For the second straight weekend, the Christopher Nolan-directed film dropped less than 40 percent from the week prior.
Paramount/DreamWorks comedy “Dinner with Schmucks,” opening at 2,911 theaters, was a solid No. 2, meeting its pre-release estimates with an estimated first-weekend haul of about $23.3 million.
The Jay Roach-directed comedy, which stars Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, was produced for about $70 million.
The weekend’s other new wide releases, Universal’s tween-targeted Zac Efron movie “Charlie St. Cloud” and Warner 3D talking-animal family sequel “Cats and Dogs: the Revenge of Kitty Galore,” both floundered.
The follow-up to 2001′s “Cats and Dogs,” which comes with a robust $85 million negative cost, will finish its first three days with $12.5 million — which is about $9 million less than what the original opened to.
Efron’s “St. Cloud,” meanwhile, dropped 32 percent from its lukewarm opening Friday. The $44 million film will end up with a first-weekend gross of only around $12 million.
Official full-weekend studio estimates will be published later Sunday morning.
More to come…
