Cinema Experts

“The only thing that matters is the ending. It's the most important part of the story. And this one, is very good. This one is perfect.”
Johnny Depp, who is indeed a great actor (remember Edward Scissorhands?), never really got noticed or credit before Box Office Smash Hit Pirates of the Caribbean. Well this is technically Depp's first film since Pirates so he has reeled in a new audience for his films. Secret Window was based on a Stephen King book entitled Secret Window, Secret Garden. The movie was drafted into a screenplay by writer/director David Koepp who wrote many great films including Panic Room, Stir of Echoes, and even the original Jurassic Park.
Secret Window is about a divorced writer named Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp). The movie begins on a depressing note where Mort finds out that his wife Amy (Maria Bello) is cheating on him. The movie than flashes forward a few months when Mr. Rainey is living all alone in the woods. A weird man named Mr. Shooter (John Turturro) shows up and accuses him of plagiarism. Mr. Rainey believes the allegations to be false but is now being stalked by this Mr. Shooter. Then things start to occur and it's up the Mr. Rainey to stop this before him and his ex-wife become harmed.
Another terrific performance by Johnny Depp is the main reason to see the film. His acting is flawless; he delivers yet again another terrific character. What I like about Depp is that he always plays a different weird character in every film he is in and to top it off every character he portrays is likable. I also liked John Turturro who nailed the southern stalker role. He was very creepy and his character was very believable. You don't want to mess with Mr. Shooter, believe me. Maria Bello does another good job and can add this good film to her resume along with her great performance in The Cooler. The cast of this film was right on target.
David Koepp did a good job on the film, there are some really great locations in which this film was shot. The cabin in the woods was very creepy and I liked that the main character lived in this small town. There were also some pretty cool camera angles in the film along with some really suspenseful scenes.
The ending was a improvement on King's story. Lets face King some hearts is two nice a guy to kill off certain characters he admitted his anguish over killing the child in pet cemetery. Koepp had more at stake making this film than king would writing another novella, so it stands to reason he would feel more compelled to get it right.I wonder if King is happy. I think he should be… 8/10

“You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV. On TV is where we learn about who we really are. Because what's the point of doing anything worthwhile if nobody's watching? And if people are watching, it makes you a better person.”
Gus Van Sant is part of the fixture in American independent cinema and although "To Die For" was a piece of work that came from the studios, he films the story of this female go-getter ready for anything to accede glory and fame in a very personal way.
It's built on an alternation of present moments in which various characters who crossed Nicole Kidman's path talk about her and flashes-back that relate the turn of events.
Characters including her parents, her former young lover and friends express their thoughts about her without succeeding in understanding her. There, appears the first quality of Van Sant's work: the somewhat elusive personality of her main female character who especially manipulated her close relatives to go up the social ladder and to achieve her ends.
Manipulation is very present throughout the work with the conspicuous presence of TV and camera. And you have to see the contrast between the dynamic Suzanne Maretto (Nicole Kidman) and her rather listless husband Larry acted by Matt Dillon and especially the teenagers who hang around us like Jimmy Emmett (a young and good Joaquin Phoenix) or Lydia Mertz (Alison Folland). There, appears Van Sant's signature.
"To Die For" includes some of the filmmaker's obsessions revolving around an American youth who is adrift and lacks of marks for their future and security. What Jimmy and timid, hung-up Lydia need is true love, something that Suzanne can't really give them. And her plan to report on an American high school is only a means to establish a little more her galloping ambition. Van Sant will resume his set of themes about a ramshackle American youth and will hone it with his masterful "Elephant" (2003).
The choice of the scenery (Moretto's house) and the brightness of the cinematography, Nicole Kidman's make-up fuel the somewhat quirky side of the venture and Van Sant doesn't deprive himself of gently laughing at her female heroine. I dig the moments when she goes to the office held by Wayne Knight to ask for a job and ends up hosting the weather forecast on a little local area. A task she painstakingly fulfills. Nicole Kidman holds her role at arms' length and has a tremendous screen presence. It's just a shame that Van Sant doesn't emphasis enough on the madness that seizes Suzanne after the murder when she is interviewed by the journalists.
But see it anyway for Kidman and the manner Van Sant tells this story of ambition, manipulation and hypocrisy. And David Cronenberg has a surprising cameo at a well-appropriated moment in a vital step of the heroine's fate… 8/10

“They called it the car for every man. Henry Ford himself called it a car for the great multitude. It was functional, and simple, like your sewing machine, or your cast-iron stove. You could learn to drive it in less than a day. And you could get any color you wanted...”
The story of Seabiscuit is actually the tale of four long shots: Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), a wealthy self-made man and natural salesmen who's suffered both personal and financial loss through the Depression, Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), an aging horse trainer unsure of his place in the world with the ending of the frontier, Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire), a short-tempered jockey with various handicaps against him, and Seabiscuit, an undersized mustang whose been mistreated his whole life.
It's the Depression, and times are hard on everyone. The assembly line philosophy of business is starting to squelch independent spirit and people are looking for anything to help escape the dreary day-to-day of life. During this maelstrom of hopelessness, horse racing quickly gathers favoritism among those wishing to witness a spectacle in otherwise bleak times. It's under these circumstances that the film's four main parties come together. Howard, seeking a new business venture in horse racing, hires Smith as his horse trainer and Pollard as his jockey, and upon Smith's insistence, purchases the ill-tempered Seabiscuit.
It's not long before Seabiscuit becomes the “little horse who could”, gaining favor among the sporting fans on the West Coast. But despite the popularity the mustang and his team gains, they are seen as just a cheap novelty by the East Coast horse racing elite, led by Samuel Riddle, owner of the 1937 Triple Crown Winner War Admiral. This mushrooms into a media circus as Howard tries to gain public favor in order to force Riddle to put his money where his mouth is.
The story should have felt cliched and by-the-numbers, but a funny thing happened: the film makers took a nearly forgotten moment in time and managed to invest it with immediacy and suspense. The near mythic meeting of Seabiscuit and War Admiral on November 1, 1938 at Pimlico is an extension of the movie's overall theme; Seabiscuit, the representative of underdog hopes and pioneering dreams, and War Admiral, the recipient of champion breeding and training, a product of assembly line thinking.
Bridges and Maguire give spirited performances, with their characters forming a father and son bond that both men desperately needed. Cooper can give this kind of performance in his sleep, bringing a quiet, stoic depth to the Smith character. The supporting cast is top drawer as well, especially William H. Macy as “Tick Tock” McGlaughlin, the initially skeptical radio sports commentor who becomes a full blown Seabiscuit supporter.
Director Gary Ross captures the time period marvelously, with broken human beings slowly recapturing their dignity and pride against a landscape of barren ruin. The conflicts are fought not on traditional battlefields, but atop magnificent beasts along a circular track, and Ross wisely utilizes this metaphor to full effect.
Recommendable and enjoyable sports movie. Not exactly an intense and gripping drama, but worth a watch… 8/10

“I have given Jerusalem my whole life. First, I thought we were fighting for God. Then I realized we were fighting for wealth and land. I was ashamed...”
In 1935, Cecil B. DeMille made his famous epic "The Crusades" on one of the backlots of Hollywood. What a change in the Ridley Scott film "Kingdom of Heaven" of 2005 with the technical wizardry of a new era!
In "Kingdom of Heaven", wars and battles are fuelled by an assortment of motivations including land, money, political consideration, natural desire for violence, lust for fame, love of the common people, among others. Even more importantly, this "idea" thing does not prevent leaders from practicing tolerance, reaching compromises and even recognizing equality with alien faiths, as the movie tries to show us.
Recognizing that this movie is a mix of historical fact and dramatized fiction, let me focus on one rather unusual aspect of the hero Balian (Orlando Bloom), a blacksmith inheriting knighthood and an estate from a father appearing out of the blues. As Balian takes over the barren desert estate after the untimely death of the recently-discovered father, he does something that the father apparently has failed to do in all these years – dig into the earth to find a reliable source of water and proceed to make the estate productive. Later, the resilient defence of Jerusalem owes just as much to Balian's knowledge of practical laws of mechanics as to his military skills. In the end, he turns away from the inherited knighthood and goes back to be a blacksmith, taking with him a queen. Triumph of the working class...
Depiction of the arch adversary Saladin follows very much the line taken in the novels of Sir Walter Scott, particularly "The Talisman", as someone mysterious (to the extent of being almost omnipresent - in the novel) but wise and benevolent, a breed of political leader that is sadly in short supply today. The hero Balian, as mentioned, has little interest in divinity and every interest in the welfare of the people. These two leaders, put in today's context, could qualify "Kingdom of Heaven" for a fairy tale.
It's difficult to refrain from comparing the attack of Jerusalem with the attack of Minas Tirith, and this very comparison can be construed as an unreserved compliment on Kingdom of Heaven. Another comparison that can be made is the depiction of a mighty army, done so unimaginatively in two similar movies last year. In Kingdom of Heaven, we see first a solitary figure on horseback at a distant mountain gap. "Saladin's army of 200 thousand is here" says Balian. "There's only one person", comes the reply from a follower. "No, they're all here" Balian quietly responses, at which point the angle of the camera starts to rise, first revealing the patch behind the mountain gap, filled with soldiers. Then, as the horizon of our vision continues to extend, layers of mountains and vales continue to appear, together with Saladin's mighty army deployed in an apparently haphazard, but ultimately strategic fashion. This must be seen to appreciate.
Of the cast, I must first mention Edward Norton. As the leper king of Jerusalem, he appears all the time behind a mask which covers his entire face, showing only his eyes with disfigured corners. But it's the voice that is so mesmerizing. Ever since Fight Club, Norton's voice has such a timbre that soft as he sounds, there are lurking behind tantalizing hints of subtlety, intrigue, compassion, power, and twenty other different and conflicting emotions all at once.
Bloom grows into his role, starting rather expressionless (which may not be totally unreasonable considering that the character has just lost a wife and a child) but gradually gaining in confidence. Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons, playing father and mentor respectively, do not exactly have the most challenging parts in their careers. Eva Green retains the girlish defiance in The Dreamer, but adds to it the maturity and allure required for the role of Sibylla (as portrayed by the script, but not necessarily as recorded in history). And there is good old Brendan Gleeson, in the customary role of big bully fighter which he has perfected in Gangs of New York and Troy. It is clear no one owned Jerusalem in the Middle Ages, and no one owns it now, Palestinian protests notwithstanding. For a history lesson with modern relevances, see this epic… 8/10

“So much has been said about the girls over the years. But we have never found an answer. It didn't matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls... but only that we had loved them... and that they hadn't heard us calling... still do not hear us calling them from out of those rooms... where they went to be alone for all time... and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together.”
I'm uncertain why the daughter of a Hollywood icon would select as her first director effort a nearly unfilmable book of linguistic time bombs and nearly unspeakable tragedy. Jeffrey Eugenides's book The Virgin Suicides is one of the underappreciated gems of the 1990s and surely Sophia Coppola must have known that the critics would have it out for anything she did. So Coppola, daughter of Francis Ford, decided to do something unexpected: She made a gem of a movie that's easy to like and complex enough to savour.
Taking place "25 years ago" in "Michigan," The Virgin Suicides tells the story of a group of teenage boys and the Lisbon sisters, whose suicides changed them forever. The book is told with a rather unique choral narrator (the entire story is in the first person plural) which makes it clear that the focus of the story is not the Lisbons, but the boys and their attempts to restructure the events of what must have been their final summer of innocence. Similarly, the film features extensive voice-overs, culled from the book, coming from an unidentified member (or members) of the gang. You might wonder why you're never able to distinguish between any of the four or five or six males who wander through the story, or why at least several of the Lisbon girls also blend together, but rest assured it's intentional. The Virgin Suicides is very much about a baffled collective.
The movie begins with the first suicide attempt of the youngest Lisbon girl. When the doctor examining her asks why should would try to kill herself she offers the simple response, "Obviously, Doctor, you have never been a thirteen year old girl." The book and film are both really about men and how incapable we are of understand what it's like to be a thirteen year old girl or a thirty year old woman or really anything in between. And what's even more frustrating is the fact that women seem to understand men so devastatingly well (a trait perfectly personified in Kirsten Dunst's portrayal of middle sister Lux). The narrative such as it is marches inexorably through the gradual awakening of the narrators and the inevitable realization that they never knew anything.
Coppola, who also adapted the screenplay, makes decent use of the book's two metaphorical subplots - an outbreak of Dutch Elm Disease and a cemetery worker's strike. The rot of suburban life lies at the core of this story and Coppola wisely never overplays her hand. She loves using mythic imagery, generally revolving around Dunst, an actress beginning to produce the kind of resume that speaks of longevity. Coppola's background in costuming is also evident, displaying the decadence and tackiness of the observing characters, contrasted with the spare Puritainism of the Lisbons.
Coppola gets mostly good performances from the young generation of her cast. As the only two characters to get individual notice, Kirsten Dunst and Josh Hartnett do excellent work. She's the animal core of the film and he perfectly captures the perplexed, corrupted purity of the male side of the story. Playing against type, James Woods is excellent as the Lisbon's introverted henpecked father and Kathleen Turner is effectively scary as their domineering mother.The Virgin Suicides has perhaps too many moments of whimsy, where it seems too devoted to its source, even when the material doesn't translate properly. But still, it's the moments of magic - the Lisbon girls prom, an eerie family party, and phone conversation spoken only with records - that stand out… 8/10

“The kid gets it all. Just plant us in the damn garden, next to the stupid lion.”

"Secondhand Lions" is a movie which has achieved excellence. The story line is fast-moving and packed with nuance. Various elements of the plot overlap and blend for a harmonious whole. It is not a series of action scenes played primarily for visual impact, but a compelling story which demands attentive viewing.
Flashback scenes are intentionally cartoonish, so that the audience, like the character of the boy Walter, is left wondering whether the fantastic tales of the old uncles' adventurous youth are really to be believed. Uncle Garth tells the stories, which we see through Walter's imagination. We see in the flashbacks what Walter envisions as he hears the stories, and Walter doesn't have the age and experience to see anything other than the caricatures which appear in the flashback scenes. It's not a photo-accurate rendition, it's what a youngster imagines while listening to oral storytelling. For instance, a twelve-year-old Texan in the 1950s wouldn't have been likely to know what a really angry Sheik would have looked like in the 1920s. These flashbacks, and the ways in which they are depicted, are central to the plot of the movie. Through his storytelling, without realizing it, Uncle Garth nurtures a creative potential in Walter (who will grow up to become a cartoonist).
Christian Kane is a magnificent casting choice as young Uncle Hub (the younger incarnation of Duvall's character), displaying just the right kind of spark for the daring adventurer. Kyra Sedgwick is eerily believable as Walter's shallow and self-absorbed mother. The family of hick relatives is superbly annoying.
Haley Joel Osment delivers a solid portrayal of Walter. Sometimes his voice sounds like that of a boy, sometimes like that of a young man, as would be expected in a male of Walter's age. Sometimes Walter cries like a child, sometimes he displays stoic maturity, as would be expected from a boy who is in the transition of becoming a man. We see Walter unsure of himself in the beginning, but later finding his footing. Not too sugary, not too hard-edged, Haley Joel Osment is ideal for the role. He may be overshadowed by Caine and Duvall, but actually holds his own reasonably well, working between these two living legends.
Michael Caine's accent as Uncle Garth is a perfect portrayal of a Texan who has lived outside Texas for much of his life. Garth is no bumpkin hick, but a man who has traveled the world, and in light of his experiences it would not have been credible to give this character a strong country drawl. Even though, as the plot progresses, we don't know how much of Garth's fantastic storytelling we should believe, there is never a question of whether Garth has ventured outside the Texas borders. Michael Caine gives Uncle Garth just the right combination of toughness and tenderness, and treads the fine line of allowing us to see Garth as a trustworthy character regardless of his adventurous stories.
The uncles are very realistic characterizations, and Texas holds many characters like them. The aging uncles had, as young men, gone away to find adventure, and lived on the edge for much of their lives. Then they returned home to retire in a rural Texas setting which they were finding to be just a little too tame, no longer remembering much about Texas country life except for acquiring the obligatory too many dogs. The uncles don't say much to each other because there is no need to say much, they understand each other perfectly. Confronted with age, they seek out reckless behavior, unwilling to sit still and get older, unable to overtly give up on life. Walter's presence suddenly requires them to adapt to new purpose, and to take care of themselves, too, as they are faced with the issue of providing appropriate male role models so that their young nephew might one day become an appropriate man.
The characters must make choices, and not always easy ones. The valiant tales of adventure don't always conclude with happily-ever-after fairytale endings. It is not purely a comedy, but instead probes the depths of emotion... 8/10

“The unlucky are nothing more than a frame of reference for the lucky. You are unlucky, so I may know that I am. Unfortunately the lucky never realizes they are lucky until it's too late. Take yourself for instance; yesterday you were better off than you are off today but it took today for you to realize it. But today has arrived and it's too late. You see? People are never happy with what they have. They want what they had, or what others have. The grass is always greener on the other side.”
Two aging gangsters, once partners, have become rivals when Morgan Freeman's son is assassinated. It's thought that Ben Kingsley had it done so Freeman has who he thinks is a bookie named Nick Carter, Josh Hartnett, to murder his son in retaliation to cover an owed debt. Bruce Willis is Mr. Goodkat, a world class assassin who seems to be working for both Freeman and Kingsley..what his chief motivation could be is a mystery at the offset.
The key to the whole movie comes in a story Willis tells to an unfortunate who listens intently about a kid's father who borrowed from gangsters 22 grand for a horse bet he heard from his uncle(the specific horse, with an ironic name synonymous with the film, has been shot up with tranquilizers). That father and his wife are assassinated because of the bet, but we're not exactly sure about the boy child.
Stanley Tucci portrays a cop keeping a stake-out on both families, quite curious about why Hartnett seems to be in the hip pocket of both Freeman and Kingsley. How Hartnett is able to evade certain death is an unraveling of secrets that'll point out a lot of the mysteries concerning not only Willis' unusual behavior, but the reasoning behind his own.
Is Hartnett who he says he is or merely someone completely different than we could possibly perceive? Lucy Liu has an entertaining, but key role as a snooping coroner who falls in love with Hartnett as she tries to "help" him find out where his old buddy Nick Carter is.You see Hartnett tells Liu that Carter offered him a place to stay after some catastrophic happenings in his life prior to the invite. Liu takes it that Carter has set Hartnett up for disastrous occurrences stemming from unpaid debts.
Some might say this film tries too hard to be clever like a "Pulp Fiction" kind of way and that it succumbs to a convoluted plot. Others might think this movie works the way it tries to be and the way it turned out. I loved this film, by the way. I love how the film plays out and tries to keep you guessing until the end. This film will keep your attention from top to bottom. If you're one of those people trying to look for a thriller that tries to keep you guessing until the end, you will like this movie. 8/10