Eastern Promises (2007)

Directed by David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises stars Naomi Watts as Anna, a midwife working at Trafalger Hospital in London and daughter of Russian and English parentage. While on duty Christmas night, Anna is called to assist in the delivery of a premature birth. The mother has no identification, but she looks young, and Anna roots through her purse only to find a diary written in Russian with a business card to the Russian restaurant Trans-Siberian, in London. The mother dies in childbirth, and the baby barely lives. Anna is determined to find out who this girl was, and who the relatives of the baby are.

Anna begins her hunt by having her drunken, and prone to putting his foot in his mouth, Russian uncle, Stepan, translate the diary for her. She then heads over to the Trans-Siberian to ask about the girl. There, Anna runs into the owner, Semyon (played by Armin Mueller-Stahl), his son Kirill (played by Vincent Cassel), and "driver" Nikolai (played by Viggo Mortnesen). This is when things start to get hairy for Anna.

What is uncovered by Anna (and Nikolai, who is more than he seems) through the rest of the film is a tale of cover-ups, murder, and personal atonement that leads all involved into a contrived, yet well displayed climax. Yes, I glossed over details, but there are far too many twists and surprises that I do not want to ruin for people who haven't seen this film. I hate having movies ruined for me.

Despite portraying just about every Russian character in the film as either a mobster, a prostitute, or their family, I think all involved actually handled the material with a decent amount of respect. It didn't seem exploitative, and genuinely cared for the culture. Kudos to Cronenberg for his handling of the material, and all the actors for immersing themselves in it so completely.

Speaking of writing, kudos to the actors for handling the script so well. I really think each performer turned what are pretty cliched phrases and scenarios into some electric pieces of dialogue. The scene where Nikolai drives Anna home takes on a life of its own with the way they spoke their lines. It makes the viewer forget about the fact that a high schooler could have written a better script.

You know, there wasn't one bad piece of acting that really stood out to me in this film. Overall, the performances were very good. Expecially Viggo Mortensen. He was just so immersed in his character! It was great to watch, because you really get past it being Viggo Mortensen, and after a little bit, all you see is Nikolai. It's tough to do, especially for the guy who played Aragon, and with such a distinct look to him. His distinct look actually worked to his advantage in this role. Naomi Watts was a bit saccharine at moments, and more eye-candy than actress, but overall (and again, especially in the car scene with Nikolai) very enjoyable. When she lets her guard down, she's great to watch. I wished it happened more in this film. And Armin Mueller-Stahl is great to see as a baddie. Who knew the old man had it in him?!

I really grew to care for the characters in this film, so I was totally sucked in and hung up on their livelihood. Kudos to Cronenberg for capturing that, and the actors for giving life to that. Despite its numerous cliches, the ride this film takes you on is great, and well portrayed. Give it a whirl. I even found myself wanting to pick up some modern Russian History books for further background.

From Beyond (1986)

From Beyond (an apt title considering that’s where this DVD practically came from), opens in the dead of night as Crawford Tillinghast (played by the always reliable Jeffrey Combs) is diligently at work in the lab of the brilliant physicist, Dr. Edward Pretorius. In Pretorius’ lab, the Doctor and his assistant are hard at work on the Doctor’s newest invention, the Resonator, a machine that holds the key to the next step in human evolution. By use of resonant waves, the Resonator stimulates the dormant pineal gland buried deep within the brain. With an awakened pineal gland, one develops a sixth sense and is able to see past the veil of reality to look upon another dimension and take one step closer to God. It should be noted that this other dimension has flying, carnivorous eels, unlocks your basest human desires, gives you a raging hard on, and has “IT,” a nameless creature that likes to eat heads. You can see where this is going. Needless to say, axes fly, Dr. Pretorius’ head is bitten off like “a gingerbread man,” and poor Crawford Tillinghast is arrested for murder and thrown into an insane asylum. Then the credits roll.

The TITLE CREDITS.

After that whip bang opening, we’re introduced to our protagonist, the girl wonder Dr. Katherine McMichaels (played by Barbara Crampton, the only woman in cinematic history to literally receive “head”), a hot shot psychiatrist who’s been called in to assess Crawford’s mental state and see if the now manic assistant can stand trial for the murder of Dr. Pretorius. Convinced the only way to find out what truly happened is to repeat the experiment, Dr. McMichaels, under the supervision of police officer Buford “Bubba” Brownlee (played by horror movie staple, Ken Foree), takes Crawford back to Pretorius’ lab and activates the Resonator. You don’t need a stimulated pineal gland to figure out what happens next. To give any more details would ruin the fun of the movie as it takes some exquisitely gory twists and ends in the only way a Lovecraft story can end in: madness.

Much like its predecessor, Re-Animator, From Beyond is a tightly-woven 90-minute film that features a ton of story, delightful B-movie actors and stomach-churning gore. Working with most of the same crew (both in front and behind the lens) of Re-Animator, director Stuart Gordon weaves a wicked, tragic tale of Lovecraftian proportions.

The visual and make-up effects, while dated, provide the nausineating feeling one should feel when one is forced to evolve violently. The make-up effects are particulary gruesome, as faces and heads are pulled off and people melted. Dr. Pretorius (played with menacing abandon by Ted Sorel) in particular gets to showcase the make-up teams slimey imaginations of what a man imbued with Cthulu-like powers would look like. The look of the film is crisp and clean, with it switching to a sickly hue of pink and blue whenever we glimpse the other dimension.

As a follow up to what was started with Re-Animator, From Beyond builds upon the idea that man’s greatest tragedies often start out with the noblest of intentions.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007)

Wow, so I know I don't do many reviews of movies that are still in theaters at the time of writing, but Sweeney Todd moved me enough to write one, so here it is.

This adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical, directed by Tim Burton, follows a once happy barber named Sweeney Todd (played by Johnny Depp) as he returns to London after being sent to a prison colony by the corrupt Judge Turpin (played by Alan Rickman). Judge Turpin wanted Sweeney's wife, Lucy (played by Laura Michelle Kelly), so he sent Sweeney, then known as Benjamin Barker, away to prison and made the moves on Lucy. This, apparently, drove her insane, and , as Mrs. Lovett (played by Helena Bohnam Carter), the lady who sells "the worst pies in London" out of Sweeney's old building, tells it, she kills herself, and Turpin adopts Sweeney's and Lucy's daughter Johanna (played by Jayne Wisener) as his own and locks her in her room away from the world. So, after being sent to prison for years for nothing, Sweeney comes back to London, along with a sailor he meets on the boat named Anthony Hope (played by Jamie Campbell Bower).

Sweeney goes back to his old home and hears the story of what happened from down-on-her-luck piemaker Mrs. Lovett, and he wants revenge. Meanwhile, Anthony is wandering London and happens across the lovely Johanna, as she sits at her window and crochets. He is immediately smitten, and devises a way to break her free from Judge Turpin's home. Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett, in an effort to drum up business for his newly reopened barbershop and draw Judge Turpin to him so he can exact his revenge, see a public display by renowned barber Signor Adolfo Pirelli (played by Sacha Baron Cohen), and Sweeney challenges him to a shave-off. Sweeney wins and Pirelli is labeled a fraud. Not one to take that lying down, Pirelli goes to Sweeney's shop, where it is revealed that he is not really Italian, and once worked as a broom boy for Sweeney, and demands a percentage of his profits to keep quiet. Sweeney's rage boils over and he kills Pirelli. Also on this day, the Judge calls on Sweeney for a shave, and right when Sweeney has the Judge's throat in his razor's sights, in burst Anthony, who reveals his finding of Johanna and beseeches Sweeney for help in kidnapping her. Turpin is enraged, vows to never see Sweeney again and decides to lock Johanna away in Fogg's Asylum, where Anthony can't get her.

Mrs. Lovett, never one to miss an opportunity, decides that she shall use Pirelli's remains as filling for her pies, and, with Sweeney's newfound rage at the world, she will be supplied with many more bodies for her pies. Her business booms with "the best pies in London," and Mrs. Lovett, in her attempt to build a little family with Sweeney (without any input from him, really), also decides to take in Pirelli's young, abused charge, Toby (played by Ed Sanders). The second half of the movies deals with the resolutions to all of these threads, but I don't like ruining endings for people, so I won't.

In typical Tim Burton fashion, the movie has such a strong look and feel about it that he sticks to in every frame. It is gorgeous to look at because of this. A strict palette of blacks, greys, whites, and little else, which captures the dingyness well. I actually hope it gets a costume design Oscar nod. We'll see. The beginning credits, however, were a little jilted, as there was far too much CGI used. There's also a part where Mrs. Lovett has a fantasy about life with her, Sweeney, and Toby, which is such a stark contrast to the look of the rest of the movie: lots of color, almost cartoon-y, which pops so well. Trademark Tim Burton, and he knows how to play his strengths.

As to the singing, and there's a lot, as it's a Sondheim musical and they kept most of the music, I have to say I would have rather heard other voices that Depp and Bohnam Carter. Great actors, especially for their roles, but weak singers. There were minimal moments where their voices stood out. For me, the best singers in the film were Jamie Campbell Bower and Ed Sanders. They put a little "oomf" behind the lyrics, and totally blew away Depp and Bohnam Carter. Sacha Baron Cohen wasn't that bad either, I might offer.

There were a few, but not many, omissions from the stage version. The ones I noticed were understandable. There's an opening number to Sweeney Todd that was cut. Instead the used just the music, which I can understand. The stage version basically tells the story to you, much like the Chorus in Romeo & Juliet. Rather than telegraph the tale, they left it as a surprise to the audience who doesn't know. Everything else was just superficial, so fair play to adapter Christopher Bond.

It was nice to hear the audience getting most of it. This must be a big worry for Hollywood doing adaptations of musicals. But the crowd I saw the movie with was laughing right along with the film when Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett are singing about what people they might fill the pies with, and enjoying little flourishes, like when Pirelli whips out an Italian flag to use as his barber's cape. Although the audience did tune out some parts that dragged on, like the opening, they were drawn into it and hung out in the story for the rest of it.

Johnny Depp, while he did scowl a lot in the film, still was able to emote enough through his scowls that I empathized with him. This is a tricky thing to do, because when Russell Crowe does it, he just scowls. Nothing else. Helena Bohnam Carter is great as Mrs. Lovett. She does whatever she can for Sweeney, and, despite her actions, Bohnam Carter keeps her likable. Sacha Baron Cohen is brilliant at his turn of Adolfo Pirelli. He takes over the screen when he comes on, which is perfect for the character. Alan Rickman was a little bland in this, though. Maybe I wanted to hate him more, but he was a bit too likable, even though his character is a slimy bastard. Maybe I just wanted Rickman to make him more of a bastard. Unfortunately, Johanna is more of a plot device than anything, so not much to say there. Ed Sanders is a little dynamo, though. Great chops on him all around, so it will be interesting to see where he goes from here. And the cameo by Anthony Stewart Head (of Buffy fame) absolutely tickled my fancy.

I really like how they used bright red fake blood, instead of realistic fake blood. There's a lot of it in this movie, what with all the slit throats and all, so you don't get desensitized to it. Plus, I think that helped it keep an R rating.

There is something that gets lost whenever a film is done of a musical. At least nowadays. The theatricality gets lost, which is tragic, because that's how these things start. The stage producers know the limitations of their staging, so they create the show accordingly. Film is not supposed to be limiting, so it's almost like blowing up a picture on the computer, and it gets really pixilated. My friend chalks it up to editing, but I don't know if that is the root. It was during moments where Sweeney Todd is having this internal struggle and he decides to kill as many people as he wishes, where he imagines himself walking down the London streets and threatening men to come in for a shave, that this is glaringly apparent. I think it's just the choices in writing and directing. Is it better to have more of an intimate moment there, rather than a huge and sprawling one? This is up for debate.

So, Sweeney Todd = good holiday, family fun. Totally worth the ride, and you might even get a song or two stuck in your head. I know I had to come back home and listen to the Len Cairou/Angela Landsbury cast recording. Very fun.

Constantine (2005)

Directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Keanu Reeves, this action/horror film is a big screen adaptation of the Hellblazer comic series from DC/Vertigo. I should say a loose adaptation. Yes, I must specify that.

Keanu Reeves stars as John Constantine, a fighter of paranormal activity when the forces of good and evil (in the biblical sense) get out of line. Gifted at a young age to be able to see demons and angels, John committed suicide at a young age, only to live through it. The deal is, now that he's done that, he's doomed to Hell when he dies. So, in an effort to get back in God's good graces, John helps bring rogue demons back to Hell. Along the way he gets caught up in an apparent suicide case involving Angela Dodson's (played by Rachel Weisz) twin sister (also played by Rachel Weisz). She, not believing it was a suicide, or that there are demons and angels, enlists the help of Constantine, who opens her eyes to a whole other reality. DUNDUNDUN!!!

Basically, the movie revolves around a plot between agents of Heaven and Hell trying to bring the son of the Devil to earth to bring about a reign of terror that will bring out the true believers on either side. Constantine, Angela, and a whole slew of supporting characters (played by actors like Tilda Swinton as Gabriel, Djimon Hounsou as Midnight, Shia Labouef as Chas Kramer, and Gavin Rossdale as Balthazar) are wrapped up in this plot as the D-Day for hell on earth commences.

There are so many things that make me cringe about this movie. Not the least of which is the overplayed and overcooked characters and scenarios. Come on, the Devil couldn't be a little more interesting? I've seen more interesting characterizations in an episode of Scooby Doo. What boggles me is how this movie got the green light that it did in this celluloid incarnation? Why did Djimon Hounsou sign on for this? Rachel Weisz? Tilda Swinton? Keanu Reeves is not such a leap of faith there, but still.

I can't even really draw comparison between the film and the graphic novels, as they're waaaaaaaay too divergent, so I won't even muck about with that. In any event, this script was so not entertaining. I really can't pick out one non-cliche in this film. If there is, please somebody point it out to me. Nothing interesting was done in this screenplay. No new ground broken whatsoever. Hellblazer started as a comic in 1988. Had some fresh stuff in it then; not so much in 2005.

Again, I must reiterate: how in the hell did they get these buzz-ed up actors to sign on for this? How did this film not go straight to dvd? The special effects and CGI s weren't eve that good! You need them in a movie like this!

There were a few sparse things that I enjoyed about this film, though. I did like the depiction of Hell, and I did like the Devil arriving barefoot with black stuff dripping from whatever he arrived through. That's about it. All in all, this film is mildly entertaining at best. It could have been so much cooler!!!

Save The Green Planet! (2003)

Lee Byeong-gu is on a mission to save the world from certain destruction. Or he’s completely insane. Or both. Whatever the story is, South Korean writer-director Joon-Hwan Jang isn’t giving out many clues in this dazzling first feature.

Byeong-gu, an addictive watcher of sci-fi and horror movies, fears that the world is in danger of being destroyed by space aliens during the next lunar eclipse. He begins his explanation of his theory with the words “You probably think I’m crazy” and he’s right. Surely his story would be more credible if we didn’t see him gobbling methamphetamine pills by the handful, if he wasn’t being guided by a vision of his comatose mother rising from her bed to cheer him on, or if he didn’t believe that the leader of the alien plot is his ex-boss, against whom he has many legitimate grievances.

Stylistically this movie jumps from one genre to the next on nearly every cut, passing through police procedurals, psycho killer flicks, cop-buddy movies, slapstick comedy, fifties sci-fi, classic noir, extreme gore and much in between. The dialogue is Mickey Spillane by way of Quentin Tarantino. “You are my hero.”, the young hot-shot detective explains to the wizened older ex-cop. “I was in middle school when you caught the gas station killer by following that shit smell.”

The first step in saving the planet, by Byeong-gu’s reckoning, is the kidnapping and interrogation of his ex-boss Kang Man-shik, the head of a major chemical company as well as the son-in-law of the police chief of Seoul. Assisted by his faithful girl-friend, tightrope-walker Sooni, who unquestioningly believes everything he tells her, Byeong-gu barely manages to pull the kidnapping off. And following a life long pattern, where nothing works out the way that expects it to, everything goes downhill from there.

The police are equally hapless, with the lead investigator chasing false leads, while the only progress in the case is made a disgraced former detective pursuing his own private investigation along with the rising young star on the force secretly helping him.

Once captured, strapped to a chair, and having had his head shaved (to block his ability to call for help telepathically), Kang refuses to admit to being anything other than an ordinary man, or to stop belittling Byeong-gu when he’s not begging and pleading for mercy. Kang’s continuing denial of the absurd alien plot quickly begins to chip away at Byeong-gu’s credibility, diminishing the prospect that the whole episode is anything more than an outburst of madness from a man who has been demented for a long time.

And as we watch the first of a series of flashbacks to Byeong-gu’s tragic earlier life that explain many of his obsessions and cast him in a sympathetic light, his increasing desperation to find out how to stop the alien plot before the ever-looming deadline leads him to commit a series of acts of increasing violence that make it necessary to wonder if he’s lost all sense of decency along with his sanity.

Referencing a series of movie psychopaths that ranges from Hitchock’s Norman Bates to the Kathy Bates character in Misery and beyond, Joon-Hwan keeps the audience reeling as he repeatedly jumps from the Byeong-gu’s point of view to the way things look to every one else, constantly questioning the reality of what we’ve watched just moments before. And when Kang tries to turn Sooni against her lover by pleading that “Byeong-gu is crazy. He must have watched too many movies”, it’s not hard to see his point.

This is a movie that never stops presenting new surprises along with observations about issues ranging from police state repression to official corruption to the use of ends justify the means arguments to rationalize acts of inhumanity. It takes a long unflinching look at humanity’s obsession with violence and wonders whether it will destroy it us all, and if we even deserve to survive it.

Linda, Linda, Linda (2005)

Director Nobuhiro Yamashita brings us this little tale of four high school girls trying to get their act together for the school festival.

Aki Maeda stars as Kyoko Yamada, the drummer of a high school, female rock band falling apart. After in-fighting between Kei Tachibana (keyboardist, played by Yu Kashii) and ex-singer Rinko (played by Takayo Mimura), and a gym class accident that jams the finger of their guitarist, Moe (played by Shione Yukawa), Aki must rally the troops to put up an act at the school festival. So, she, along with bassist Nozomi Shiroko (played by Shiori Sekine) must convince Kei to perform. After some reshuffling, it's decided that Kei will learn guitar for the festival, but this doesn't solve one major problem: who will sing? Enter into the picture Korean exchange student Son (played by Du-na Bae, also in The Host), who gets swept up into the band, if for nothing more than a laugh for Kei, and the lineup is complete.

The biggest thing I enjoyed about this movie was its simplicity: the story, cinematography, situations, and more. Yamashita captures high school angst and day to day life perfectly. This is truly a comedy that crosses cultural boundaries. Not being able to tell the guy/girl you like that you like them, getting into petty squabbles that almost end friendships, meeting new friends: all the awkwardness is captured so well. One scene in particular, where Kei and Son are at a bus stop after a practice, it's revealed that Kei and Son have ridden the same bus for quite some time, but Kei has never noticed Son. All this interaction overlayed with the hesitancy and pauses of a language barrier; honestly, this scene could have been filmed voyeuristically and no one would have been the wiser.

This film doesn't aim for and grand story telling, not even toying with the notion of going further than it needs to. At its heart, this is a story of finding friends in unexpected places and what that bond of friendship means. This is so eloquently displayed in scenes such as Son running back in the pouring rain to the recording studio to get Nozomi's bass, or Kei calling in a favor to her ex to get studio time for the band to rehearse. It's the little things that bond these ladies together, and gets them to the stage at the festival.

I love the palpable nervousness when the band gets on stage at the festival to do their number, Linda, Linda, Linda by Black Heart. The crowd has only come inside because it's pouring rain outside, has had to sit through an acoustic/a capella set (albeit technically proficient, but a little boring), and is bored to tears, just waiting for some excitement. Son looks out at the crowd, and looks back at the band in sheer terror. But, god bless her, she bites the bullet and they rock out to a voracious crowd that takes everything the band puts out.

I found myself laughing out loud plenty of times with this film, because despite having never been a Japanese high school girl, the situations and how they are dealt with in the film ring true. A very good watch that brings nostalgia like Dazed & Confused, without the drugs and alcohol.