Topic: Michael's random reviews

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Enigma  

Summary:
During the heart of World War II, in March of 1943, cryptoanalysts at Britain's code-breaking center have discovered that the Germans have changed their Enigma Code. Authorities enlist the help of a brilliant young man named Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) to help them break the code again. The possibility of a spy within the British code-breakers' ranks looms and Tom's love, Claire (Saffron Burrows), has disappeared. To solve the mysteries, Tom joins Claire's best friend, Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet).

My Thoughts:
Nice one.
This movie has everything a good spy-thriller needs, a broken (anti)-hero, a mysterious beautiful woman, a conspiracy that was built to cover-up another (even greater) conspiracy ... all packed into enthralling 2 hours.
The plot turns and twists so that until the very end you never know where exactly it may want to take you. It's never actually misleading though, you just follow the traces with the main characters until the whole thing is lying spread out before you.

Nice to watch, mediate paced thriller that actually makes you want to know the end.

My Rating: (out of possible 5)

[Najemikon]

The antidote to U571... 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Mary and Max.

Summary:
A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary (Toni Collette), a lonely, nine-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.

My Thoughts:
I bought this, because it was recommended in this forum ... and well ... it's great!
Starting with the old fashioned "Stop-Motion" over the gorgeous details and the great "Voice-Over"-Cast to the outstanding story, this little masterpiece is simply adorable.
In Germany this was advertised as "Comedy", which it isn't. It's funny, yes, and transports loads of deep black humour and finest irony, but ever so often the laughs get stuck in your throat.
The comment of the best of all possible wives was: "Compared to this "Coraline" was a delightful movie", and she is correct. Even though this movie has it's funny scenes you always see the deep tragedy behind the comedy. In the end there were actually tears rolling from my eyes.
I love it and am glad to have this in my collection.
Thanks to Sophie for this recommendation, this little gem would have otherwise passed completely unnoticed from me.

My Rating: (out of possible 5)

[Critter]

I'm really glad you enjoyed this one! Although I must say I think Jon was the one who originally recommended it, I just backed him up because I love it so much. I think it may have been marketed as comedy here as well which is something I find strange. Although I think a lot of films are marked as comedy when they should be otherwise, even Kick-Ass for example. Did you like the music in it? I'm considering buying the soundtrack because I loved the music so much.

The comment of the best of all possible wives was: "Compared to this "Coraline" was a delightful movie"

This made me laugh a bit, although I think that Coraline and Mary and Max are just too different to compare, they are both very dark and sometimes bleak movies in their own right. While Mary and Max' darkness comes from harsh reality Coraline is almost completely opposite with a dark fantastical world coming to life.

[Najemikon]

I did post about it when I saw the clips, but you'd talked about it before.

Just as an interesting aside, I think "Comedy" is becoming a misunderstood term and is a very wide genre. Comedy doesn't have to be funny, in fact it can be just the opposite, because it covers irony and satire. Basically, if a story manipulates its characters to demonstrate a point, it can be considered "comedic". They are not acting naturally.

The flip-side of this is that you could have a drama and the actions of its characters make you laugh out loud until your sides hurt and you can't breath. That doesn't make it a comedy. 

Interesting you mentioned Kick Ass, Sophie, as it was based on a "comic". Marvel and DC make comics, amongst others, but when was the last time Batman or Spider-Man set out to make you laugh? Another example is Dante's Divine Comedy, a poem about travelling through Hell and Purgatory!

This is why Monsters is so brilliant and an important development. It should be Fantasy Horror, but in fact it is a Drama because the characters act naturally, without provocation or intention, and the Fantasy stays very much in the background.

Sorry. It's just I've always been fascinated by the theory of Genre for some reason... 

[Critter]

I don't often think about the fact that comic books are related to comedy in any way. I think maybe in the early days of comics they used to be humorous little stories but now? Do you really think that comic books still have a connection to comedy? I don't think they do. Obviously many comics now are funny, but even more are quite the opposite. I think the term has outgrown it's origins. It's still called a 'comic' but now that is just a medium for telling any story you want, funny or not. Batman and Spiderman don't set out to make you laugh because that's no longer what comic means to those stories. I dunno, maybe you are right. And I'm having trouble right now in wording what I am thinking, but I just don't see it that way.

[Najemikon]

Yeah, you're probably right on comics. I was going a step too far thinking of examples. But you get what I mean about why a film such as Mary and Max is a comedy yet isn't necessarily funny?

Of course I haven't seen it yet and it's probably full of slap-stick you just didn't laugh at! 

[Critter]

Mary and Max does have some clear funny moments, as well as a lot of dark humour so it isn't entirely without comedy, I think the other aspects of the story are just even more pronounced that they take over from the comedy side of things. You haven't even seen it yet? You should get on to that. 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Inception  

Summary:
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible-inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.

My Thoughts:
What a hype, what a nothing of a movie.
This could have been really great, people maneuvering through the subconsciousness and there encountering the strangest dangers ever.
Instead Nolan directed a "Mission: Impossible in Dreamland" with a complete lack of "Dreamland". Instead of using fantasy supported by CGI he completely reduced to CGI. The whole concept for this film screams: "Place your ideas here!", possibly someone even did this, but obviously Nolan forgot to use those.
Sad, after the Batman movies I expected much more.
Even the main cast is remaining totally flat, DiCaprio is playing the same role as in "Blood Diamond" even though he has proven in "The Departed" and "Shutter Island" that he's absolutely capable of presenting us the haunted, hunted and lost individual. Maybe he should stick with Scott and Scorsese, because they obviously get the best from him. Nolan didn't, maybe because he didn't demand it. Strange how the director that made Heath Ledger immortal can be satisfied with the extremely average performance of DiCaprio in this movie.

Movies trying to capture the realms of fantasy should be left to Tarsem Singh or Gilliam, hell, even Burton would have made a better movie out of this concept. Nolan obviously was overstrained here.

My Rating: (out of possible 5)

[goodguy]

What hype, what a nothing of a movie.
...
Instead Nolan directed a "Mission: Impossible in Dreamland" with a complete lack of "Dreamland".

Nolan is certainly the most overrated of contemporary directors. I watched it with severely lowered expectations and found it kinda okay-ish as an action movie, at least on first viewing. On a second viewing, all the exposition crap will probably get boring very fast.

[Critter]

I loved this movie, but I actually agree with you that DiCaprio was nothing special. I did love the rest of the cast though, especially the woman who played Mal. She managed to be so terrifying in some scenes!

[Dr. Hasslein]

I loved this movie, but I actually agree with you that DiCaprio was nothing special. I did love the rest of the cast though, especially the woman who played Mal. She managed to be so terrifying in some scenes!

I believe it's out on DVD and Blu-ray today. I'm very tempted to buy now it but I'm going to wait until my massive DVD spend-up on Boxing Day.

[Critter]

Yeah it is out today. I would go and buy it but I'm waiting hopefully until Christmas. I put it on my Christmas list. I think you can get an exclusive blu-ray tin edition from JB-HI-FI only. I've got my hopes set on that one.

[Dr. Hasslein]

What the hell is it with DVD distributors and bloody collector's tins? I've never understood that!

[Critter]

You're in a forum full of DVD collectors and you don't understand why distributers make special tins? ... Clearly they make them for us! The crazy collectors who will pay extra just for a nice shiny tin.