Halloween

With Halloween approaching, I've been watching some scary films to get the spook on. I will admit that since I watch most of my movies alone with earphones and at night, I am somewhat scared of the horror category. So I've been watching movies of moderate scariness. :D

Das Experiment

First up, Das Experiment a 2001 German film. Despite this film being made in 2001, it looks a lot older than it is. It has the aesthetics and pace of an Eastern European film. Anyways, the story is based on the Stanford prison experiment of 1971--a psychology experiment that selected 10 men to be prison guards and 10 to be prisoners. The experiment gets out of hand quickly and we are left to see how the guards act and how the prisoners react. Das Experiment has a moderate amount of violence and is a thriller. The director tries to give the film some depth by teasing us with hints of the protagonist's past and emotional struggle, but those moments were really brief and not enough. I like Das Experiment for its storyline--it's interesting to see what happens and how the guards act with the authority that they are given. I also like how it is suspenseful and violent but not grotesque.

Zombieland

I watched Zombieland just before bed last night. It's a really great film to watch on Halloween if you are looking for something gross and funny. It is like the American equivalent to Shaun of the Dead. Jesse Eisenberg plays the leading role (I am sad to say I still haven't seen The Social Network) as a geek who is one of the few people still alive in Zombieland. He meets some interesting characters played by Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. There are some really great and funny moments in the film, and the directorial style adds to it all.

Shutter

Lastly, I started watching Shutter on FX half way through the film today. Like many recent American films, Shutter is a remake of an Asian film--this time a Thai horror film. I thought the film was alright, nothing really special about it, but it does have a good twist and ending. I am sorry to say that these American remakes of Asian horror films get lost in translation. America does not have the strong cultural superstition to make films like this work. I am particularly bothered that the film had to incorporate a Japanese element into it to heighten its fear factor. American horror films have a long history in being violent and gory. But Asian horror films are more psychological and build on cultural superstitions. Hence, Asian horror films don't translate well by Hollywood.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is an attention gripping film from start to finish. Though at times predictable, the film keeps you attached to the screen and the story. Not a second of the film is wasted--the fast scenes give you an adrenalin rush and the slow scenes tell you a story beyond each character's facade. Jeremy Renner plays the daring and risk-seeking Sergeant William James who is a specialist at disposing explosives. James is a great character in that he is mysterious and slightly unlikeable but he is so good at what he does that he wins everyone over with his skills.

The cinematography is raw and journalistic which adds to reality to the film. At the end, I began to appreciate the work that real soldiers are doing for the safety of our country.

P.S. I was quite surprised by the fact that the film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, a female director (who is the ex-wife of James Cameron). Throughout the movie, I did not get the sense that the film was directed by a female. In my film studies class, we had talk about the gaze of the camera which is usually presented in the male point of view aka the Male Gaze. I would expect the film to have a different feel if it had a female director. I thought this was just a topic worth mentioning and exploring.

The Soloist

It probably seems like all my movie reviews have been quite positive thus far; maybe for the except for The Holy Girl. For the sake of some balance to my blog, I will now talk about The Soloist, a more recent movie starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.

The film is based on a true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician who studied at Julliard but became schizophrenic and homeless. Steve Lopez, played by Downey, discovers Ayers and his talent on the streets of Los Angeles. Eventually, Lopez writes a feature article on Ayers in the Los Angeles which garner some attention for Ayers. Lopez even tries to get Ayers back into the music world by introducing him to a cellist and someone at the Walts Disney Concert Hall.

The story looks great on paper and is an inspirational story, but I think the story is badly translated onto the screen. Foxx's costumes are awful to look. I got pretty annoyed of having to look at him. The character of Lopez isn't given enough attention by Joe Wright who directed Pride and Prejudice and Atonement (Atonement is one of my favorite films). Furthermore, there's a lack of focus on the message of the film. It would have been great had Wright just left the film being a story on the life of Ayers. But at the end, he sort of twisted it into a film about homeless people of Los Angeles. The biggest problem, still, is that the film is poorly executed.

Downey does, however, deliver a great performance as a caring but stern supporter who helps Ayers and hopes the best for him.

Mostly Martha & No Reservations

No Reservations is a near frame by frame Hollywood adaptation of the German film, Mostly Martha. NR stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Abigail Breslin, and Aaron Eckhart. MM stars Martina Gedeck (The Lives of Others), Maxime Foesrste, and Sergio Castellitto (Don't Move--a film which I watched in my film class that I still have to review).

I first watched NR in theatre and thought was a good romantic comedy. It had its funny parts like when Abigail throws away the black truffles that she thought was trash and the scene where Catherine sticks the raw steak onto the table of the patron who kept complaining. These two scenes, which are my favorites of the film, are not as well done in the German version. The truffle scene is just a part of a montage that shows the days when Maxime was at work with Martina. And the raw steak scene is not as dramatic or as funny.

The chemistry between the actors of both films had their own problems of various degrees. Catherine, Abigail, and Aaron together are okay. There is some love chemistry between Catherine and Aaron but it did not really work out in the beginning. It did get a bit better towards the end during the dinner at Catherine's house and when Aaron helps search for Abigail. Unfortunately, in MM, the chemistry never ever worked in addition to Maxime appearing to be an unlovable child.

I will, however, say that I thought the individual performances of Martina and Sergio are great and better than those from Catherine and Aaron. They made the film more of a dramedy than a romantic comedy. I thought Martina was better at showing the struggle and the pain she faced as she lost her sister and as she became an accidental guardian. Catherine, on the other hand, was beautiful in the film and did a good job becoming a friend to Abigail. As always, Abigail is cute and lovable.

Finally, a little note on the food of the film...they both made me hungry but skip MM and watch NR.