The Fly (1986)

4/5

The Fly is a horror drama with special effects reminiscent of John Carpenter's The Thing. Jeff Goldblum believably plays a scientist who has recently perfected a teleportation device. When a fly gets trapped in the machine with him as he teleports himself, the two combine on a "molecular-genetic" level. Over the course of the movie, he undergoes a metamorphosis. This change is so fluid and gradual that it effortlessly draws you in. Unfortunately, the characters don't develop as well as the story does. They seem like symbols and metaphors that the plot can alter at will in order to get an important thematic message across.

This movie succeeds in most technical areas. The editing (on a shot-by-shot level) was much, much tighter than in his later Eastern Promises, which helped this movie seem real instead of staged. The special effects were well-envisioned and well-executed, starting subtly and mushrooming at the climactic finale. There were some nice camera movements, although none of the compositions really stood out as being anything more than adequate. I really did not like the lighting, and thought most of the movie was much darker than it should have been. All things considered, this movie is a solid four, but is only recommended for true film fans and not casual viewers.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0091064/

Eastern Promises (2007)

4/5

David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises took me by storm. I was entirely underwhelmed by A History of Violence, so I came into the theater wary. But his new movie blew me away. In addition to a compelling and engrossing plot, believable and realistic characters portrayed through precise acting, it has quite possibly the best fight scene I've ever seen put to film. The cinematography is brilliant, as is the set design, costuming, and make-up. You cannot turn your eyes away from this film. The story unfolds effortlessly and draws us in with perfect pacing, building with twists and turns until its unforgettable climax. That's what she said.

A number of things bothered me though. First, the subtitles. Sometimes they subtitled English dialogue, or sentences spoken half in English and half Russian. This should not be so. Second, the graphic violence. Most of the time it was gratuitous, by which I mean excessive and unnecessary. There is one scene where a dead man's fingers get cut off, which isn't particularly gruesome, but it occurs after the scene has wound down and ended. This ties in with my third complaint: the editing. Every single shot and scene went on just a half second too long. It made the acting and dialogue sometimes seem stilted and staged as shots set up and rest on characters during dialogue instead of seamlessly transitioning between them. Fourth, the ending shot, which would have been cool if The Godfather movies had never been made. All in all, however, these are mostly small, nitpicky aspects and did not affect my enjoyment of the movie. What did affect my enjoyment of the movie was the idiotic family who sat behind us and treated the movie theater as their own living room, kicking seats and discussing banal topics and generally ruining the mood and ambiance. Cocksuckers.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0765443/