Recently Watched Movies and Short Reviews

Match Point
This magnificently written tale of obsession and treachery tells the tale of a upper-middle class Irish tennis pro who falls for his best mate's fiancé. With the spiralling energy of an out of control tennis match, the players depend largely on their own charm and wit to stay above the foray, but ultimately depend on blind luck to emerge victorious. Luck and Bad Luck are the central theme in this gripping tale. Starting out as a drama, this dark story of unrequited love turns into a top-notch thriller midway through the journey and the transition couldn't be slicker.

Scarlett Johansson has never been so helplessly powerless and seductively powerful at the same time. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is leaps and bounds better here than in his role as Henry the Eighth in Showtime's gratuitous The Tudors.

Legs: 8
Mission: 9
Agenda: 8
Script: 8
Acting/Directing: 9
Production: 9
Overall: 9

Down in the Valley
Evan Rachel Wood as "Tobe" (short of "October") is a troubled teen who finds companionship and love in an unlikely urban cowboy (Edward Norton) who is less innocent and honorable than he seems. This story is as much about the importance of good, cellular-family support as it is about the blinding nature of unbridled passion. Love should be tempered with reason as much as any other passion, and Norton's character, Harlan, is a prime example of how his emotional and carnal desires all but shatter his sense of reason and self-control.

David Morse, who plays Tobe's single father, does and excellent job of balancing the antithetical behaviors of love and self centeredness.

Legs: 7
Mission: 8
Agenda: 7
Script: 8
Acting/Directing: 8
Production: 8
Overall: 8

Stay

In a dream-like whirlwind of non sequiturs and visual and cognitive dissonance, director Marc Forster kidnaps his audience and takes them on an unbelievable journey. The story revolves around a troubled young man (Ryan Gosling) who has serious psychological issues. While trying to help the young man and prevent what he thinks will be a tragic suicide, psychologist, Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) experiences events that cause him to doubt his own perception of reality. The ending is one worth waiting for and the path you take to get their is as visually stunning and disturbing as anything you've even seen in a motion picture.

Stay has some of the best, most effective use of computer generated imagery and compositing that I've ever seen.
You can listen to a podcast of Forster's vision regarding Stay by clicking HERE. Part two HERE.

Legs: 8
Mission: 9
Agenda: 8
Script: 8
Acting/Directing: 9
Production: 10
Overall: 9

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
PotC: AWE is, hands down, the most spectacular feat of CG, modelling, animation, and compositing ever.

There was no way of knowing which scenes were composited in a cubicle someplace at Industrial Light and Magic's studios or if there really was a 1000 foot maelstrom swallowing two mystical pirate ships unless you knew that the scene was impossible. But other scenes, like gorgeous skies, deep blue oceans, endless sandy beaches and so forth may very well have been computer generated but still seem totally real to us.
Aside from that (and, honestly, though I rarely suggest watching a film for its effects alone, I think this third installment of the PotC trilogy might reach that status) the story itself was fun and very enjoyable. It's a little difficult to simultaneously syphon through the pirate-speak and the innumeral plot-twists and double-crossing, but the story still makes sense. Mostly.

I think.

The characters we grew to know and love seem to have lost a bit of the chemistry that we enjoyed in the last two episodes. Perhaps its a symptom of a slightly disjointed story or perhaps its a result of poor directing. I'm not sure which aspect deserves more blame, but I can certainly say that without the amazing visual effects, this film would have sucked some serious pirate's booty.

Legs: 10
Mission: 9
Agenda: 8
Script: 6
Acting/Directing: 7
Production: 10
Overall: 7.5

For more of my movie reviews, click HERE.
To see a description of each of the review criterion, click HERE.