Salt (2010)

3/5

Salt is a preposterous action movie starring Angelina Jolie as the titular character. When a Russian defector (Olbrychski) accuses CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Jolie) of being a Russian spy, she goes on the run from fellow agents Winter (Schreiber) and Peabody (Ejiofor) to prove her innocence and protect her husband (Diehl). As countless twists and turns pile up, we go back and forth between her possible motivations. Yes, all is technically explained (or at least left open for you to come up with your own explanations) in hindsight, but it never really made any sense while you were watching it. And that is the most frustrating part about this movie: you never know how to feel or whom to root for. This kind of uncertainty might work in a psychological thriller, but an action movie where someone's life is on the line all the time requires you to love and trust the main character. You must always fear for their life so that with every near miss you can breathe a sigh of relief. That tension is lost in this movie for most of the second half.

The action was above average for the most part, but nowhere near memorable (except maybe the final kill). The dialogue was bland and cliched. If this movie starred anybody besides Angelina Jolie, then it would have fallen by the wayside of our collective memory. But it does star Angelina Jolie, and she carries the entire film. She is mesmerizing. She makes a satisfactory film enjoyable, despite its slew of unimpressive features. Should you see it? Only if you're a fan of Angelina and/or senseless action. It seems like a lot of guys are.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944835/

American Gangster (2007)

3/5

American Gangster tells the story of Frank Lucas, the biggest, baddest, blackest gangster in 60's-era America, and Detective Richie Roberts, the honest cop chosen by the Feds to stop the growing drug problem. There were some things I liked and some things I didn't like about this 2.5 hour movie. So let me break it down to you by half hour episodes. In the first 30 minutes, we are introduced to the trite, hackneyed police corruption plot we've seen a million times before combined with the archetypal family man gangster. In the second 30 minutes, we are introduced to superfluous characters and side stories that take up too much time. The third 30 minutes contain periods of ferocity and tension punctuating the rather senselessly boring nothing that takes up the majority of the movie. The fourth 30 minutes we finally see a bit more excitement and character development. It starts to be more than random information being slowly revealed to us. We are actually engaged by the characters and their actions for once. The fifth 30 minutes are incredible. A truly powerful climax and a high-note to end the movie on. It almost makes up for the rest of the movie. Almost.

The movie is more than technically proficient, but less than necessary when it comes to storytelling. Why are we watching any of this? The one word to describe this movie would be excess. It's as if they had a solid story, and then decided to add junk on the sides. Ridley Scott should decide which story he wants to tell and tell it. He goes for the gangster building up his empire and the cop investigating the rising drug problem. They eventually intersect, so why not just start the story there? People keep asking, who is this guy? How does he do what he does? But we don't feel the same sense of wonder and awe that the rest of the characters do because we know who he his and we know how he sells better heroin for less money. The first hour and a half should have been cut, replaced by 15-30 minutes of more revealing storytelling from either Crowe or Washington's perspective. That would make this a much tighter, much better movie. Instead, it's a limp, overlong, unsuccessful attempt at an epic gangster movie in the vein of The Godfather.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0765429/

Serenity (2005)

4.9/5

Note: I watched this movie as a lover of the space western series Firefly, of which this film is an extension. I therefore will not separate myself from the series in writing this review by considering it a stand-alone film. If the movie interests you, then I recommend seeing the series first and then this movie.

Serenity is an amazing addition to an amazing series. It is different in mood and scope, but these changes, while perhaps not necessary, were better-suited for the feature film, I think. It is less witty and more action-oriented, more epic and less personal (for many characters, though not all). It's darker and fiercer; there is less room for jokes and smiles because the stakes are so high.

The movie fleshes out the already complex captain Mal and sympathizes River more, while most other characters are relegated to the background and expanded on very slightly. The themes presented, on choice and sin and on love's power, sometimes seem heavy-handed because of direct dialogue about it, but are thankfully never shoved down the audience's throat through repetition. Because of the series, the characters have a lot of depth going into the movie, so when they are fighting, I am on the edge of my seat hoping they will not die. And the movie goes so far in how thrilling it is; at one point I almost slumped, having lost all hope, thinking everyone would die and the only way out was for this to all be a dream (which it thankfully was not).

The acting matched the acting in the series (excellent). The cinematography was very similar, although it seemed like it tried harder. There were some shots that were much better than anything I saw in the series though. The music, sad to say, didn't live up to my expectations because I love the theme song and was quite miffed at its exclusion. Watch the series. And then watch this movie. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0379786/

Children of Men (2006)

5/5

Children of Men transfixed me from its beautiful opening shot and never let me down from that point on. The use of long tracking shots throughout the entire movie gave it a gritty, raw realism that made it incredibly powerful. The beauty of the piece is not just in the shot compositions and precise attention to detail, but also the manner in which such cinematic techniques are all put into practice. Everything about this dystopic future is the background because it is the setting of the story and not the story itself. That is perhaps why an explanation for mankind's infertility is never even attempted. Much of the movie is seen through windows, often barred, trapped in cars or buses. Sometimes the background is so richly textured that it is impossible to focus on the events taking place, and we drown in the abundance of information, requiring multiple viewings.

With a single event about thirty minutes into the movie a la Hitchcock's Psycho, Cuarón totally threw out the conventions of modern cinema and had me on the edge of my seat for the rest of the movie. There was no way to predict what was going to come next; anything was possible. And that made this movie truly terrifying. But the heart of this movie is the setting, the sad world our future becomes, where not even the cure to our disease can stop the bloodshed and anarchy.

The dialogue was brilliant, the acting phenomenal. Clive Owen is a magician, but he never steals the show because every other actor was awesome as well. There is one scene I can still see, in which Michael Caine is talking about Clive Owen's baby while Owen is listening in just around the corner. There is so much emotion and heartfelt sadness in that one scene that I would've been satisfied if all of the movie built up to just that one moment. And that is only halfway in; it just gets better from there. There wasn't much wrong with this movie, except that the camerawork was a bit shakier than I would've liked (although nothing so bad as in The Bourne Supremacy).

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0206634/