Thursday, May 28, 2009

'M' (1931)



As reviewed by Skinnyblacktie




Directed by Fritz Lang




Starring Peter Lorre, Ellen Widmann, Inge Landgut, Otto Wernicke, Theodor Loos and Gustaf Grundgens.

'Wer ist der Moder?" (Who is the murderer?) Screenwriters Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou ask this question through concerned parents and paranoia struck police men after a ninth child (Inge Landgut) is murdered within the past year. The wake of this social dynamic quickly curls up and slams down hard upon the criminal element of the community and foams over in the form of civilian justice (injustice). And so and so it goes, the criminals of the city devote their time to catching the murderer, not for the greater good, but so the police will stop harassing them as if they were child murderers.

Lang's work is beautifully shot. Numerous chase scenes from brick-walled cobble-stoned city streets to singular light based shots in sewer systems and hide-and-go seek suspense elements in buildings provide a visual suspense witch matches the powerful story.

The acting is a bit overly dramatic at points, but overall the emotion is dealt very well. Peter Lorre does a fantastic job playing quite possibly the first serial killer in a motion picture (sorry for the spoiler... I doubt you can pick Peter Lorre out of I line up...I couldn't).

'M' is a film of cause and effect. For every problem there is a solution...for every solution a motive...and contained within every motive is the benefit of someone somehow. There are no heroes...there are no villains...there are simply the viewers' personal answers to social questions. Buy the end of the film you will ask yourself 'Wer ist der echte Morder?'

Story-----9
Look-----9
Acting-----8
Overall-----9

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Star Trek (2009)

Review by Junior

Directed by J.J. Abrams

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Zoe Saldana, Ben Cross, Winona Ryder, Bruce Greenwood and Eric Bana.

The classic movie and tv series has been given new life by director J.J. Abrams. For years, as the original Star Trek cast aged and fattened and their Next Gen replacements did not exactly light up the box office, Paramount has tinkered with the idea played out here: Kirk, Spock and McCoy as Starfleet cadets on their first mission, meeting for the first time and beginning their historic adventures. For years, Trek fans resisted the idea, saying you cannot recast those iconic roles and find that mysterious chemistry the original crew had. Now, after several Trekless years the studio has done it and have proven the fans wrong! This new, mostly unknown, cast is perfectly matched and by far the best thing about the new Star Trek.

The film begins with a bit of Trek history concerning Kirk's parents and his birth, then jumps to a scene of Kirk as a boy misbehaving in Iowa. Within 15 minutes, we are up to young, rebellious Kirk as he is recruited to join Starfleet by Captain Pike (well-played by Bruce Greenwood), then-captain of the newly christened USS Enterprise. Abrams parellels these scenes of Kirk's rebellious youth with Spock's troubles on Vulcan, not fitting in due to his dual human and Vulcan parentage, and his ultimate decision to join Starfleet as well.

Suffice it to say all the main characters are introduced along the way---McCoy, Sulu, Chekov, Uhura, and finally Scotty. They are all given a few moments to shine along the way. Together with Kirk and Spock, these characters have always been at the heart of the appeal of Star Trek, and the producers, if nothing else, have done a masterful job of assembling a group of very appealing, young actors to fill these roles. They also effectively balance adventure, humor and camaraderie to make this a very promising first outing, hopefully the first of many.

There are other pleasures to be had in the film, particularly for Trek fans. The inside references, the ill-fated red shirt, Bones' usual asides about "green blooded hobgoblins," Scotty and Chekov's accents, Pike's (revised) fate...well, the director and producers did something right for the film to be as enjoyable and promising as it is despite its story shortcomings.

That being said, the adventure plot itself is a mess. The villain, Nero, is unappealing and kind of stupid. The story doesn't hold together well and there are plot holes big enough to fly a Constitution class starship through. Although the creators of Trek have never (remotely) been slavishly devoted to science, they often based their ideas on scientific theories, or when they contradicted science they at least made some effort to give the audience some gobbledegook explanation why whatever they were doing was possible. The writers of this Star Trek, however, seem to not care or simply not understand basic science concepts, specifically the difference in a black hole and a wormhole.

OTOH, the creators did throw a bone to the diehard Trekkies who might kvetch at the contradictions in established Trek lore here. Any such inconsistencies can be explaned due to the time travel/changing history nature of this plot. Everything from this point forward is an alternate, "parellel universe" to the one established in the original Trek. Not really an issues for the new fans this movie hopes to attract, but they obviously want to appeal to their base as well.

Overall, a very enjoyable and promising beginning. Unfortunately, according to IMDB, the same writers are working on the sequel. Fortunately, I anticipate the same cast to return.

Story---5
Acting---8
Look---9
Overall---7