Saturday, June 25, 2011

supernatural season 6 (2011). created by eric kripke.


i haven't write this past couple of days in my attempt to finish supernatural season 6. i did it, with less satisfaction compared to previous seasons. i would go as far as saying that only hard core supernatural fans would have the patience of waiting 19 episodes before the theme of the season is established. the writers decided to dangle hybrid monsters and introduce characters only to be killed conveniently later instead of taking the tried and tested format of showing the growth and decay of dean and sam's relationship, which in this case i feel not enough time was spent on dean and the angel castiel's dwindling friendship. my biggest criticism of season 6 would be the delay of introducing the season's theme in episode 20 (the man who would be king) which should have been shown much earlier in the beginning of the season. it was as if the writers  had planned a big surprise which then ceased to surprise, due to:
1) not enough clue is given other than castiel's contant reference of a bigger war in heaven in his oft repeated line "there is a bigger picture to look at". what big picture? 
2) sudden change in castiel's character which was pretty much established in season 4 and 5. this could have been tackled by introducing castiel's dilemma in the first few episodes and show the increasing drift between him and his human friends.  
3) issue in sequence and time line. the most obvious would be sam's being reincarnated without his soul. is this due to castiel's inability to bring it back or is it intentional? if this is intentional, it would conflict with his deal with crowley which happened after he brought sam back. 
i get it that castiel had too much to carry on his own and failed in his attempt to emulate dean's unwavering conscience in the face of difficult choices. he is at best ill prepared to be in the position of making decisions simply due to the fact he never had to make a choice all this while. he finds the act of making choices heroic and suffer from self delusion of how important he is as the choice-maker compared to the impact of the choice that he is making.  

this season is all about the road to hell is paved with good intentions. well i guess that's what supernatural has been about all this while. i just wished they had sequenced the episodes in a way that would help the plot to grow instead of being stagnant at times, and more importantly, to invest in the human bonds and friendships between the characters which honestly is the only reason for me to keep coming back. i am a sucker for stories about loyalty and all that crap...whether or not it exists in the real world it's nice to see a bunch of twisted people actually care about each other more than they care about themselves. 

Thursday, June 9, 2011

lars and the real girl (2007). directed by craig gillespie.

i got around to finish this movie last night. i absolutely love the fact that it is a simple movie about a simple man trying to overcome a condition plaguing all things alive - humans at least - loneliness. 

admit it, we all get the pangs of it - even the most friendly, the married ones, the single ones. whoever. 

lars is a simple small town boy who is painfully shy. ryan gosling played the character with endearing sensitivity - it is like he lived a life time of being someone like that. he is in need of human contact but he's too shy for anything of that sort - that he resorted to buying a blow up doll - a love doll - a sex doll. he calls her bianca. he introduced her to his brother and his sister in law and everyone in town as his girlfriend. he sings her love songs. he tells her things a boy tells to his sweetheart. it is as if this doll is an extension of him that was missing all this while - his other half. 

the thing that stands about this movie is, despite his obvious delusion, everyone in town takes bianca as seriously as lars does. they know this goes beyond garden variety eccentricity, but they play along with it because this is the way to show him their love for him. if this doll makes him happy, then by all means they want him to know how much they are happy for him. perhaps he has grown up thinking nobody cares - but by the end of the movie - he makes a conscious decision to let go of the doll and face the world - and he could not have been able to do that without the support of everybody - who takes him just as he is. 

i don't know where the story was shot, the place is white with snow i can feel how desolate one can be. but i was wrong. the people makes it such a warm place. 

it makes me think of how often we quickly close the door on other people due to lack of understanding and  prejudice. how easy it is for us to sideline other people because they are different and do not conform to the  standard definition of being normal, if there is such a thing. it must be lonely for them, those people who gets sidelined.

i am mostly glad lars gets a happy ending.  

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

L.A. Confidential (1997). directed by curtis hanson.

i love micheal mann for what he did with heat (1995) and the insider (1999) but i could not forgive the man for fucking with public enemies (2009) by shooting the film using a dv (digital video). i hate the fact that the 1930's doesn't look like the 1930's in the movie where it could have been a potential tale of a great film noir. 

but this - this movie - L.A. Confidential - has got to be one of the best film done in the film noir genre in the late 1990's. people just don't tell their stories this way anymore. characters become simpler these days - unlike lynn bracken (kim basinger) the girl from a small town who came to los angeles to be an actress but ends up a hooker cut to look like veronica lake, or bud white (a young russell crowe) the cop whom everyone took as one nickel short of a dollar and rely on beating the hell out of everybody to get his twisted brand of justice, or the ever smooth kevin spacey (i love him, amen!) as jack vincennnes the celebrity cop who sold his soul for fame and money and the rookie cop ed exley (guy pearce) who wants to up the ladder the fast way at all costs. a murder at a diner sets of the investigative mood of the story in true film noir fashion - detectives doing the ground work trying to figure out who is the bad guy who thinks he can get away with it. 

perfect writing, perfect cast (supported by david strathairn, danny de vito, the majestic james cromwell), perfect direction, i love the 1950's mood - alas, this movie lost the oscar to none other than the infernally annoying ship - titanic (1997). 

Saturday, June 4, 2011

remember the titans (2000). directed by boaz yakin.

i love sport movies. i love the things that they inspire no matter how corny they seem to be. themes of brotherhood, leadership, courage and team work could never tire me the skeptic in real life. that tells me how much i want them. 

such as this movie, it is truly inspiring, set against a backdrop of racism in the 1970's virginia (the 70's, can you believe that?!) where two football coaches, one black and one white, set out to do a task that looked almost impossible at that time - getting a bunch of white boys and black boys to play football together. the government took an affirmative action to integrate blacks and whites, during turbulent   racial unrest of malcolm x's days. 

i wished our government had been more serious about this. i know it is the end of them had all of us stop fighting and fight them instead - and insist - that racism just won't do, that divide and conquer is not the way to rule this country. 

Coach Boone: This is where they fought the battle of Gettysburg. Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fighting the same fight that we are still fighting among ourselves today. This green field right here, painted red, bubblin' with the blood of young boys. Smoke and hot lead pouring right through their bodies. Listen to their souls, men. I killed my brother with malice in my heart. Hatred destroyed my family. You listen, and you take a lesson from the dead. If we don't come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don't care if you like each other of not, but you will respect each other. And maybe... I don't know, maybe we'll learn to play this game like men. 

pitch black (2000). directed by david twohy.

shitty poster right? looks like a cheap sci-fi movie. you'll be surprised what is in store. however, this film is an example of the golden less-is-more rule. the film was shot on a very small budget in the middle of arid australia, there was no out of the world computer graphics; the moods and lighting were created using mere filters. but the story - as any good movies are - must have a story to tell - and the fancy graphics can come later.  

the film is about a plane that crashed onto a deserted planet inhabited by cannibalistic bird like creatures who prey on people when it's totally dark, which marked the 22 years eclipse cycle. starring radha mitchell, vin diesel and cole hauser - this film has very good character build up and makes good use of vin diesel. he's no good playing tortured or emotionally sensitive people - but he is very good at playing tough macho men. i fell in love with his massive arms. there are muslim characters in the movie which is something new considering it was released in 2000, in a time where the world hardly know about muslims or islam in general. 

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

cassandra's dream (2007). directed by woody allen.

i like woody allen films so long he's not in it. and this piece of gem is one of them. first of all, it made me change my mind about colin farrell. i always thought that he's just an irish man playing his bad boy charm in hollywood and completely an acting fool. wrong. the guy can act. perhaps it takes a special story and director to get his dormant acting talent buzzing again. 

i like the tight plot about two brothers who crossed the line a wee bit too far to get money for their failing business. it all ends badly for them - damned, choices is such a devil in disguise. but we all have to make them, don't we?

the resident (2011). directed by antti jokinen.

the director is finnish. european. i shouldn't be surprised with the amount of sexually explicit scenes shown in this film that is so unlike a regular hollywood production. people say hollywood movies are sexually charged, trust me, that just means you haven't seen european films yet. 

having said all that, while i do not think they are for cheap thrills, they are very disturbing. now i know what it must be like if someone raped me in my sleep. european films produced in hollywood such as this one still gives off that european aura - of being detached and too close to reality. while it takes a lot of getting used to - i don't think i enjoy seeing jeffrey dean morgan jerking off in the bath tub. that's just gross.