deekaygee

single serving review: the escapist

presented as a straightforward prison break movie, the british film the escapist is a gritty portrayal of cramped prison life executed with high-intensity cuts and a very fast-paced story. well, two stories actually: the lead up to the prison break is told in flashback while simultaneously showing the tense break in progress.

veteran actor brian cox’s frank perry is the grizzled lifer who needs to get out after receiving some disturbing news via his first letter from the outside in many years, and cox’s portrayal of an inmate resigned to incarceration but awakened with a new-found purpose is an effective one. as an american used to seeing damian lewis (tv’s life) speak in fake american, it was great to see him drop it for his native accent and be badass as bad guy rizza. the rest of the cast, including a beefed-up joseph fiennes, successfully fill their roles as needed by the story.

the real star of the movie though is the prison itself - dublin’s kilmainham jail is a crumbling, cramped, and spatially-oppressive dungeon of a place, intentionally shot so as not to lose any of those qualities. as we’re taken from jail cells to escape tunnels and beyond, we really get a sense of the claustrophobic conditions involved in prison life and prison break.

it’s not a life-affirming sentimental take like the shawshank redemption or a classic like escape from alcatraz, but the surprising and very cool twist in the escapist elevates it from an ok movie to an enjoyable one with just a hint of an insightful message.

3.5/5 thumbs

single serving review: the curious case of benjamin button

twee - noun - something that is sweet, almost to the point of being sickeningly so.

i like brad pitt (fight club, se7en, 12 monkeys). i like cate blanchett (i’m not there, heaven, the life aquatic with steve zissou). i like david fincher (se7en, fight club, panic room, zodiac). so it should be a given that i like the curious case of benjamin button.

except that i didn’t.

it’s been a long time since i was actually, genuinely bored while watching a movie. i’m usually easy to entertain, pretty forgiving of plots, and admittedly an apologist for nearly all entertainment in general (after all, it was better than having hot pokers put through your eyes, right?). during the course of this movie, though, i found myself not really caring so much about what was going on and instead just wanting it to get to the point.

don’t get me wrong - the ambitious movie is shot beautifully and acted wonderfully enough by all involved, and i get that the message is that every moment of life is precious. it’s got some great visuals and even pretty funny in several places. it just seemed that in getting the message across every. moment. became. overly. precious. - to the point of almost becoming disingenuous. ultimately the movie’s too long and, for all its prettiness, button doesn’t deliver on its promise to arouse curiosity.

2/5 lightning strikes

single serving review: star trek

pew pew pew! that’s the sound of phasers hitting my heart. part of what made me the geek i am today is gathering in front of a childhood best friend’s tiny family television and watching old star trek vhs movies on sleepovers; but that’s about the extent of my trekkie-ness (or trekker-ness, if you prefer). as far as this year’s movie goes though, the good news is you don’t need memories or a viewing experience like that to enjoy j.j. abrams’ star trek.

the embodiment of a summer popcorn flick, star trek has it all: action, comedy, impressive (and practical - as in serving the story and not just there for their own sake) special effects. abrams nails the look and feel of the star trek universe while simultaneously updating both, and ultimately gives the impression of already planning out the enterprise crew’s story well in advance (which is no surprise given the heavy involvement of lost talent). however, this does reveal one of its very few flaws: there are several verbal and visual winks and nods that the unfamiliar viewer may not get, thereby reducing (or in some cases eliminating) an intended comedic or dramatic effect.

the plot itself is the movie’s biggest weakness and is ultimately forgettable, although in a story where the core function is setting up the whos, hows, and whys of the main crew ending up on the ship, it’s a forgivable one. it is interesting enough to keep the movie’s pace going as well as give ample “intro” time to each of the saga’s primary members. the ship’s crew as a whole is splendidly well-cast: chris pine’s cocky kirk, zachary quinto’s conflicted half-human/half-vulcan spock. karl urban’s mccoy steals the show though; here kirk and spock share little with their previous portrayals but urban’s near spot-on imitation of deforest kelley’s verbal inflections provide humor and recognition to great effect. the movie’s comedic relief provided by simon pegg’s mr. scott and anton yelchin’s chekov are counterbalanced by john cho’s skilled sulu and zoe saldana’s intelligent uhuru, although i wouldn’t be surprised if abrams and co. mix it up a bit in coming sequels; all are redeemed by a glimmer and promise of opposite disposition in their character.

despite some heavy retconning to scrutinous eyes, by the end of the movie viewers old and new should be well-prepared and clamoring for the further adventures of this incarnation’s inevitable sequels. by the end of the movie, i was immediately ready to watch star trek all over again.

4.5/5 nacelles

single serving review: the wrestler

close your eyes for a second and try to think of the sorest your muscles have ever been. an epic bike ride, a long run, a tough workout, whatever. you were pretty sore, right? now multiply that times a crapload and i imagine that’s what every day feels like for the movie’s titular character, randy “the ram” robinson (played magnificently by mickey o’rourke), an amalgam of bespandexed real-world 80s pro wrestlers. broken and beaten with his heydey long gone, the movie follows randy as he faces the choices he’s made both professionally and personally over the course of his life.

this movie deserves all the awards and accolades bestowed upon it: the cast and crew as well as the camera work are all top shelf. although the raw and graphic violence is sometimes hard to watch, the touching and genuinely funny scenes really counterbalance that weight.

my only (very minor) complaint is that there were a couple of overused clichés in the story that i could have done without, but other than that it’s hard to find any glaring faults in this great movie.

4.5/5 hearing aids

single serving review: miracle at st. anna

having learned film review from nothing but an episode of “ebert & roeper” and a handful of movie blogs on the internet, i’m going to assume that at some point in every director’s career he (or she - but let’s be honest, the ladies don’t really get into playing soldier) decides that they need a world war II story in their filmography. this is spike lee’s entry.

generally regarded for incorporating race relations into his movies, spike lee’s dubya dubya eye eye options were pretty much limited to a few of the most well-known afro-centric soldier groups, most notably the 92nd infantry division “buffalo soldiers” and the tuskegee airmen, and i’m glad he chose the less well-known groups of the two. the movie necessarily takes liberties with historical detail for the benefit of narrative and for the most part it’s effective, especially when dealing with the pseudo-mysticism of the plot’s macguffin device (in the form of the ponte santa trinita statue head).

unfortunately, the movie is pretty heavy-handed at times in its stereotypes of both southern-white-ignorant-good-ol-boys and southern-black-ignorant-religious-types and at some points the score attempts to jarringly and quite aggressively undermine some genuine moments. all in all though, the movie’s a great take on the lesser filmed allied campaign in italy, and even lesser focused-on contributions of segregated african-americans in the armed forces.

3/5 partisans