Defiance (2008)

Synopsis (IMDB): Three Jewish brothers escape from Nazi-occupied Poland into the Belarussian forest, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and others in danger.

Defiance is directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, Blood Diamond) and stars Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell as the three Bielski brothers. 

After some coercion I convinced my father to take me to see this film (the R rating was the problem) and I'm throughly glad I put in the effort. I've always been a fan of Edward Zwick's films and Glory is one of my favorites of all time. The lead actors had also peaked my interest, casting Daniel Craig (blond hair, blue eyes) as not a Nazi in a film about Nazi's seemed like an interesting choice. So when the first trailer for Defiance came out I knew I'd have to see it.

Zwick has a talent for telling stories, there is no question about that. If he has a good script he will bring it to life, often quite vividly. He can inform you of both the history involved, while still keeping you entertained for two hours. 

This is a solidly edited film, while it could do to loose a few minutes of it's 2:06 running time, it really wouldn't matter either way, because if you commit to the story you don't really notice the length. The cinematography isn't spectacular but you do really notice what a good job was being done during the big battle/bombing sequences. The thing I really noticed in this film was the sound mixer's work. It can't be easy to lay a sound track down for a war film, but the job Chris Assells and his team have done is phenomenal. The score is by James Newton Howard and absolutely fits the film, Howard's scores are always good, and this is just another example of his great talent. 

The performances here are very committed.  Who doesn't want to see James Bond kick Nazi butt? Craig turns in a performance better than he's done with Bond, and to rival that of his performance in L4yer Cake. His russian accent does slip into British once or twice, but otherwise he's the actor you want to cat in a role where people need a leader. He shoulders the burden well and turns in one of his best performances yet, without wearing a tux or drinking martinis. Schrieber doesn't get enough film work. I think the last thing I've seen him in was Kate and Leopold. He is an awesome actor and could be the reason the wolverine movie is actually as good as I'm hoping it will be. He plays the middle brother who doesn't want to take orders. He's tougher than the others and has less compassionate. And Schrieber plays it brilliantly. He gives a performance that really makes the film better, because he's believable and perfectly cast. I've never really seen Jamie Bell in anything I can remember, but I do hope to see more of him after this film. He is a solid actor and while his character isn't given as much as the two other what he does with what he is given is awesome. And by the end of the film you really like the guy. The supporting actors are cast well and do a great job. They sometimes reminded me of Fiddler On The Roof with the typical Jewish archetypes present. They give the movie its dimension and make it believable. 

Many people have said there are too many movies made about war, but few of them are of the quality to be watched again and again. Although Defiance has been getting mediocre reviews I think it's at least an 8/10. 

Remembering Jerry Orbach

His name was Jerry Orbach and he was one of the greatest actors to ever set foot on a Broadway stage, a television set, or a movie shoot. He died four years ago today. He left a legacy to be remembered, and he himself became legend. 

It's not every day an actor comes along who can charm an audience with so much as a wink of his eye. Not every actor was Jerry Orbach.  He go his start Off-Broadway in shows like The Three Penny Opera.  He then opened show called The Fantasticks. It was this show in which he turned the song Try To Remember into a standard of musical theatre. A feat that he would repeat many times in his theatre career.  He would go on to originate roles in Chicago, 42nd Street, Carnival, and Promises, Promises. He picked incredibly well. His incredible voice and undeniable charm earned him three Tony Award nominations and one Tony Award. 

His movies aren't necessarily brilliant. But he always shone no matter how mean, how tough, or how nice his character was. After all who else could have been Lumiere? He had a talent for making the character his own. 

Jerry Orbach seems to have made one choice in his career that people remember him for. If they don't know his incredible body of his stage work or his movie roles, they do know that Detective Lennie Briscoe was one of the greatest T.V. Detectives ever.  If you've seen an episode of Law And Order chances are you've heard a Lennie Briscoe world weary wisecrack. These wisecracks weren't even scripted at first, the incredible talent of Jerry Orbach set a standard for Law And Order writers for years to come. Lennie Briscoe was flawed in every possible facet of his life. He drank, and his wives left him, his daughter was killed by drug dealers, but he carried on. And you love him, because Jerry Orbach made you love him. Because Jerry Orbach was phenomenally talented. Because you love Jerry Orbach. When Jerry Orbach got sick and had to leave Law And Order he left a hole that casting for the show is still struggling to fill. And maybe they shouldn't try, why try to replace a legend?

When Jerry Orbach died of cancer, the acting community lost a talent that was bigger than they ever realized. Because, in retrospect, this man was one of the greatest actors to ever tread the boards. He is a legend, and one we should always try to remember. 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

There is a reason this film has been receiving so much award's season buzz. David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is really that good. Brad Pitt stars as Benjamin Button and Cate Blanchett plays his main love interest Daisy. The movie tells the story of Benjamin, a man who ages backwards. But you probably already knew that. 

This film is long, at two hours and forty-five minutes. The time, though, is not wasted. Every nuance of the story is well planned out and showcased properly. Each of Benjamin's adventures is shown thoughtfully and beautifully. I've never seen a film by David Fincher before (I haven't seen Fight Club and Se7en, shoot me) so I can't comment on the way his films normally look. The way he shot this film, however, makes me want to see some of his other work. The subtlety of the camera placement and the objects Fincher showcases make the film tremendously lovely. Even during scenes on the ocean the camera work seem to add a blanket of calm to the scene and the film really does benefit from the perspective the camera offers. Brad Pitt, whose work I enjoy for the most part, gives a wonderful performance here. He has to play an age range from the early 20's to a man in his 70's. He does an awesome job at each age, and as he learns things about the world we really share his experiences. Kudos goes to the makeup and CG teams on this film for making themselves so unnoticed. Their work here is spectacular and I was in awe for many of the scenes where Brad Pitt looked about 25. Through his performance and their work this story becomes what it ultimately needs to be, believable.  Subtlety is really a big part of this film. Every aspect seems to have been looked at before the final prints were sent out. The score fits so well, so beautifully that in itself it deserves to be nominated for an award. This score is unlike most heard today, it is quiet and simple but the message of the music always fits the place it is put. The mood of the film is captured in the score.  I really recommend seeing this film, before nominations come out. That way you can decide for yourself what it deserves instead of having a bunch of people named Oscar decide ; ). But truly, do see this one as soon as you can, it's well worth it. 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 9.5/10

Thoughts On: Chris McCandless/ Into The Wild - Book

“You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatsoever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.” – Richard Feynman.

 

 I don’t think any person I’ve met can say that they haven’t judged someone based on a first impression or based their appearance. Humans are quick to judge others; it is a fundamental part of who we are. The first impression we get of Christopher McCandless can’t be used to truly judge him, but because we are human it is how we judge him. We reach the conclusion that he was stupid for endeavoring to journey into the wilderness to try and find out who he truly was. But, can we solely base out opinion of Chris McCandless on this impression? I don’t think it is fair to Chris or his ideals to say we can. If someone is so different from you, or did something you never would, wouldn’t it be a persecution of his beliefs to say such inflammatory things without first grasping their foundation? America is a place people come to avoid this very persecution in their countries and we pride ourselves on being so accepting of other beliefs. However, in the case of Alex Supertramp we can’t accept that someone who was raised in a way very similar to our own upbringing would seemingly throw his life away. The world was Chris’s oyster, and the fundamental human in us can’t see why someone who had every opportunity would rail against them. Can we ignore the surface for a minute and truly look at the intention of this boy’s actions without blaming him? 

 We might say Chris was stupid for not packing the right gear, or not knowing that the river was going to flood. This is unfair, blaming him for what he didn’t know. If you don’t know something you wouldn’t want to blamed for that thing you didn’t know hurting you.  What McCandless knew of the wild was romanticized, he knew works of fiction. He had no frame of reference as to what it would actually be like. He had no idea what he was going to need beyond what these “accounts” of the true nature of Alaska told him. So that cannot be the reason we call him an idiot.  In his essays from Walden Thoreau wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what is had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived…I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”  This truly seems like a reasonable, a viable option for Chris.

 

Whatever his reason, and that seems to be what we search for in reading this account, he had one. He set out to change himself. To show that what he believed could be applied, could, necessarily, be true. Everything he had done in his life lead up to the events Chris experienced in Alaska. He took a leap of faith to prove this. His leap proved fatal. We can’t say though, that it was all for naught. From the way he wrote during his weeks by the old transit bus Chris experienced a spectrum of emotions from absolute elation, “MOOSE!” to despair, “lonely, scared” toward his decision. What ever the true driving force behind Chris was he seems to have made sure he, as Thoreau put it, “sucked the marrow out of life.”, during his odyssey. He accomplished what he set out to do, you can’t deny that. He learned what it takes to truly survive in the wild, and the quintessential intricacies of the force that is nature, human or otherwise.

It takes an incredible person to make a decision like Chris’s, but to follow through with every bit of the plan is almost inconceivable. He was gambling, and the bet was his life. Nature called his bluff. For some reason Chris McCandless was chosen to send a message and to tell a story. From a beamish boy, to a man learned in the ways of human nature and the ways of the wild, the journey that Chris made in his short life showcases a jump that many people seek to make their entire lives. Before he died Chris made that jump and hopefully he was able to bring the fuzzy corners of his life into better focus. He wasn’t trying to be anything but Alexander Supertramp. Christopher McCandless was not perfect in any way, but he stands out for his imperfections. He endeavored to go into the wild and find what he was looking for, and that is just what he did. The problem was that the obsession he had for finding the truth lead him to his death, although to die never seemed to be his intention at all. He was ready to return, but the insurmountable obstacles he faced due to what he didn’t know ultimately destroyed him. So don’t judge him by what you see right away. Get to know him through those that really knew him, learn his mind, from the things he wrote, and then judge Christopher McCandless on those qualities you didn’t see at first.

I fully recommend reading the book, wether you've seem the film or not. I was inspired by Chris McCandless in more ways than one.

 

Australia

Starring:
Hugh Jackman
Brandon Walters
Nicole Kidman

Directed By:
Baz Luhrmann

Synopsis (IMDB):
In northern Australia prior to World War II, an English aristocrat inherits a cattle station the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn stock-man to drive 1,500 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land, only to still face the bombing of Darwin, Australia, by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbor only months earlier.

Thoughts:

This film isn't a typical 2008 movie. It's a throwback to the great war romances, the sweeping outback westerns, and an adventure film on an epic scale. Baz Luhrmann has written, through this film, a love letter to a beautiful land. It's running time sits at 2 hours and 45 minutes, but the story that is told is well worth it. Though it may seem predictable and cliched at times, that is what makes the film enjoyable. The audience is comfortable with they know is going to happen so they aren't disappointed when it does. The plot tells many stories, some of true love, some of loss, and one of the land. Every story story that is started is finished and nothing leaves the audience guessing, the film ends all tied up in a big bow. The performances here aren't particularly moving, but they are top notch and the films big names stars are given a few scenes to show us their chops. Kidman is probably the weaker of the two big names, playing out a role that she seems comfortable in, and one that we have no trouble believing. Jackman does a lovely job with his character of The Drover, he makes him the rugged outback man we perceive him to be. He gives Drover an air of mystery and as Drover changes we can't help but fall in love with him along with Kidman. The accent doesn't hurt either! The standout performance in the movie though in Brandon Walters as a young Aboriginal boy, who Jackman and Kidman take with them and subsequently try to raise. He does a wonderful job, outshining the big stars in the scenes he shares with them. His character says that he is a magic man - or boy, because he hasn't grown up quite yet.  Although we know this can't be true for the time we know him Walters makes us believe that he is indeed magic, and the performance is magical. The thing that really made the film for me however was the cinematography. It is utterly beautiful, and that is the reason I'd say see this one on the big screen. Australia's rugged outback is the perfect canvas for this epic to unfold upon. From shots of the cattle drove to Jackman riding in the middle of a running herd of horses the scope of land is amazing. It is, to a degree, inspiring.

7.5/10

 

Robert Downey Jr.

With U.S. Marshals playing on the T.V. in front of me I felt it was time to post about one of my absolute favorite actors. 

Robert Downey Jr. is one of those actors whose films you go see because he is in it. He can do big action movies like Iron Man, and smaller serious pieces like Good Night and Good Luck. Playing everything from the villain to the suave leading man. The first film of his I saw was The Shaggy Dog, though I had no idea who he was at the time. 

Then last May I went to see Iron Man. By now I knew who Robert Downey Jr. was, and his portrayal of Tony Stark/ Iron Man elevated that film to where it could stand beside Batman Begins and not be ashamed of being another blockbuster superhero movie. 

After seeing Iron Man I slowly started watching more and more of Downey's films. Good Night and Good Luck was one of the first I saw, and although David Strathairn absolutely stole the show in that movie Downey's smaller part was throughly enjoyable to watch.  

I then had the good fortune to see Chaplin, the 1992 film for which Downey was Oscar nominated. He is, in one word, brilliant. To play such an iconic figure and pull it off that well is an incredible talent. He was able to handle the physical comedy aspects of the film, as well as the emotionally demanding task of playing Chaplin. Elegantly played  and thoroughly well acted throughout, if you have not seen Downey in Chaplin, you are truly missing out.

Most actors would never take the chance Downey took when he signed onto the Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder. This wasn't just an R rated utterly inappropriate comedy, but his character, an utterly method actors undergoes a surgery so he can play a black man. So Downey was playing this movie in black face. There are so many ways he could have crossed the line with this movie, but he was able to make this role utterly hilarious. He is one of the best things in the film, as "the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude."

He is an awesome actor, and one who I hope will continue to make great films, of many genres. I am looking forward to The Soloist and the new Sherlock Holmes movie, both scheduled for release in 2009. As an actor robert Downey Jr. score 5 out 5 stars from me.

Spiderman *cough*sucks*cough*

Spiderman (2002)

I didn't start watching the film with very high expectations, and ended up getting about what I expected - a not so good summer blockbuster. I have to agree with Rich and the Simply Syndicated crew on the fact that Tobey Maguire is a wet actor, and pretty fugly to boot. To say the least I'm not a fan. He just wasn't/isn't superhero material, it does not work, even if he puts on the tights and runs around slinging webs. We could have tried for slightly more realistic looking special effects. Stars Wars did a better job and it was made in 1979. Humor us for a second, and don't make it blatantly obvious that you are using CGI and a greenscreen. I have some major issues with the backstory in the film. Namely, why the f*ck did Peter Parker become a superhero? Is it only because he got bit by a radioactive spider? That just doesn't work for me.There was one thing about the film I did enjoy, seeing J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson. He's a great little bit actor, and seeing him in this made me want to see Burn After Reading even more.

We should have just watched Batman Begins.