moviezmaniamaster Reviews

2046 (2004)

A tragedy - in many ways

[7/10 · 13 March 2006]

Why do I have my problems with the movies of Wong-Kar-Wai? As always: the pictures he shows are outstanding, the music is hypnotizing, the actors are the who-is-who of contemporary Chinese cinema. But the overall impression is that of a creamy bitter-sweet chocolate-cake. Since "In the mood for love" (for which is "2046" a definitive sequel) Kar-Wai has made only one development: his erotic is sharper, more powerful, but like in the prequel: his male protagonist shows no evolution. He is as passive and dumb as a chestnut on Xmas eve. I'm beginning to fear that Kar-Wai ends up like Soderbergh: every movie is nearly a masterpiece. And i mean really "nearly", but his art-house-aestheticism is way over the top, the story wants to be multi-level and is in fact only confusing. The dialog is as poetical as boring. Leung is (as in "mood") no match for his female partners. This movie is only saved by the beautiful music and the gorgeous female characters. I'm certainly begging that Kar-Wai turns on another genre and let that existentialism of his be, then he could do something "real" outstanding (like Park did with his "oldboy").

Underworld: Evolution (2006)

Typical Morequel

[4/10 · 26 February 2006]

You should coin a special term for this kind of movies: Morequel. A Morequel is a Sequel which contains: More blood, more violence, more sex, more silly lines than the original for the only reason: to make more money. The talent and good-looking of Beckinsale is totally wasted, the scenes are a playground for Makeup-artists and crazy CG-Freaks. Here you get a 90 Minute Action-Scene plus a Beckinsale-nudity (that was for sure doubled), a wannabe Matrix-Blade-whatsoever shoot-out that makes Genre-Rivals like "Van Helsing" look like a clever thing. The best you can say is: the makers of this picture were cold-blooded enough to draw you the money out of the pocket with style. The only question is: What will be the title of part 3? My tip: "Underworld:Exploitation"...

Antibodies (2005)

Good script, but not too well executed

[7/10 · 26 February 2006]

This story could have been a real masterpiece: it's dark, the characters are strong and the twists to the end are convincing. But the director seems a little too interested to quote and borrow from "se7en" , "silence of the lambs" etc. and so the movie nearly fails to find its own style. I have my problems with German "serial-killer" movies (maybe its because i'm German): the atmosphere and the actors have not the charisma to transport 120 minutes of suspense. "Antikörper" is one of the rare movies, where i think a "hollywood"-version could do better than the original. Maybe that doesn't sound fair, because this movie is still miles above your average "who's done it"-movie - but that was my first impression after the credits rolled. And -by the way- the ending was the weakest part of all.

Angels in America (2003)

Wagner on drugs

[4/10 · 22 February 2006]

First of all: this movie -in my opinion- shows clearly the difficulty to transport a stage drama to the screen. Whereas Nicols made everything right in his adaption "Closer" - here he made nearly all wrong: cheesy cg, pathetic sets and lights, an overdose of state-of-the-art actors. This one wants to be epic, but the constantly pouring down lines give you only headaches. But maybe you have to be an American (gay, communist, anti-communist, hermaphrodite) to understand -or misunderstand- this screenplay, maybe you have to be religiously offended, politically attacked or whatsoever. My after-taste was: a really big, big marsh-mellow. I recommend this movie to all who believe that big is beautiful and long is deep. For all the others: watch "Philadelphia".

The Machinist (2004)

A variation on Dostojewsky's "crime and punishment"

[9/10 · 19 February 2006]

This movie risks a lot. The sanity of its main actor (Christian "Zombie" Bale), the approach to create a killer without a actual killing. A perfect "conspiracy" without betrayers. The comparisons with Finchers "Fight Club", Nolans "Memento" and "Identity" are obvious, but whereas the first one deals with brutality, the second with memory and the third with schizophrenia, this one is more about the inner torments of its main character. The twist (and solution) towards the end is not weaker than that of the ones mentioned above, but its clearly not the intention of the director or the writer to show the audience how clever they are and how blind we were. The movie ends not with the shocking twist, but has a convincing epilogue. The colors, the atmosphere, the actors, the rhythm of this film are wonderful. Dostojevskys Book is shown in a short sequence, and that is mainly the only clue you will get, just how that might end. A "9" at first sight and maybe a "10" on second.

The Island (2005)

Why did this movie fail at the theaters?

[8/10 · 14 February 2006]

It's amazing. I saw that movie a second time on DVD and it made a deeper impression on me than the first time. The plot so well elaborated, the -in my humble opinion- most impressive action scenes of the year (including the best car chase i ever saw, that made the matrix-reloaded highway scene looking pale and cg-doped), fine actors, gripping lines, a superb camera-operating and color-grading in the post-production etc. This movie is -while far from unpredictable- totally satisfying and Bay and his crew did a fine job. So how comes that movie was such a loss at the box-office (for sure the relatiely most unsuccessful in 2005)? In ten years it will be a classic in its genre and further viewer-generations -who are bored with cg will wonder how there were real people who could be so crazy to do such stunts.

Joint Security Area (2000)

Not bad

[5/10 · 2 January 2006]

Being a huge fan of Parks "Oldboy" i bought this movie and was quite disappointed (in comparison), but it is difficult to say where exactly the flaws were. The plot is not without interesting twists and the movie avoids most clichés that you await in your standard military-research movie. But especially the female-lead character is far too weak elaborated. I had difficulties to follow the motivation of all the characters (especially the soldiers), and the cast was permanently overacting. As Park mentioned in an interview "between the lines": this project was mainly intended to hit the box-office so that he could get his next work ("Oldboy") financed, and being the most successful south-Korean movie of all times we have to admit that this goal was achieved. But it is far from the emotional impact that a movie like "No man's land" had on me, who has a quite similar subject. (5/10)