C Movies
Closer(2004)
I still don’t get what this movie was completely about.
I spent some time last night trying to look it up online. This is set in London England and stars Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, and Clive Owen, and is about love, intimacy, and the lies that always seem to swirl in the midst of the other two.
Jude Law and Natalie Portman fall in love early on in the movie, but then Jude meets Julia Roberts and falls for her. Thinking about her, and playing a bizarre joke on her, Jude hops into a sex chat room and plays with a guy’s head and sends him to meet Julia at the Aquarium. Julia falls for this guy and they get married.
But then Jude still has an affair with Julia, and on and on. There is backstabbing, and there is partner swapping, all except for Natalie Portman. After Jude dumps her she goes back to stripping in London. The movie was extremely sexually explicit, so this is not something I would recommend for a younger audience.
I didn’t care for the dialogue. All of it was witty between the four characters, and seemed a little too rehearsed, like none of them were dumb enough to speak like normal people. There were huge time lapses, like years, when a scene would open which wasn’t a bad thing, just a interesting quality of this movie. And now that I am moving towards things I liked about the movie…
I liked that I left the theater with a little bit of a “What in the name of Petey the Pirate?” There were some underlying themes about lying that were interesting, in particular a line by Natalie Portman that was something to the extent, “Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking off her clothes, But it’s so much more fun if you do.” The whole movie the partners are telling each other, or figuring out about their affairs. By telling this truth they hope to find intimacy, when in fact, it is just the opposite. The intimacy is ruined as soon as truth comes out.
Which is what happened in the end. Jude wants to know if Natalie slept with Clive. She denies it vehemently, but as soon as he makes an ultimatum if she doesn’t tell the truth, he realizes that it is over between the two of them. He comes to her and she tells him the truth, and says she doesn’t love him anymore. In the end of the movie we find out that she lied about her name all along, and that she didn’t need truth to find true intimacy.
So, if you like strange movies and stars, you might want to see this. But the sexual language will put you off if you are reserved at all, and the somewhat non traditional method of telling a story. I would have given it more stars if it was just a touch more entertaining.
Collateral Damage(2002)
This movie must have come out at a funny time. A year after the 9/11 attacks, this is a movie all about terrorist attacks.
Arnold stars as a fireman who has just lost his wife and child to a Columbian terrorist attack. Driven over the edge, he starts
to research how to get into the country and kill those who have taken his loved ones. He miraculously makes it into the guerilla run country and then penetrates the fortress of the terrorist where not even the USA could find him.
In the end of the movie he ends up back in America, trying to stop a bomb. There is a twist and he finds out who the real terrorist mastermind is.
There are a lot of parts I find hard to believe in this movie, and there is some under acting by Arnold. It may be an action film, but you never really feel the loss of his family. Plus the very ending, the villain survives this amazing explosion that would be totally impossible.
The cool thing about this movie is that Arnold doesn’t kill reams of people like a Conan movie or something, actually they are very few. It is a solid action movie and if you are just amazed at how massive Arnold is, then I would check this out. It isn’t particularly violent so for those of you who are put off by the R rating, that won’t be a problem. But don’t come looking for this movie to do anything more then take 2 hours of your life to relax and tune everything else out for some German flavored do-gooding.
Collateral (2004)
Christine Mulligan said that she felt not scared of Tom Cruise in this movie, that he wasn’t the least bit intimidating. That didn’t scare me off from seeing this movie, but after I watched it through for the second time, I would have to say that I agree with her.
Collateral is about Vincent(Tom Cruise) who is a hitman that visits LA to kill five men in the course of one night and Max(Jamie Foxx) is the unlucky cab driver that he randomly picks to be his escort. Max is kind of a timid but strong man, and Foxx does a nice job showing this transformation of a regular human being trying to do the right thing who is pushed too far.
Being a guy, there are some really awesome action scenes, and you root Cruise on in some of his viciousness, but really until the last fourth of the movie, I just felt like it was Tom Cruise running around in makeup, shooting people. But the high paced ending chase scene between Cruise and Foxx with Jada Pinkett Smith is intense and enveloping. You can’t predict what happens, and in the end you are convinced that Tom Cruise is bad to the bone just as he dies.
Like Tom Cruise? You will like this. Like a strong resolve in your main characters, this is a good movie for you too. But if you like movies that are filmed a little more traditional, I wouldn’t recommend this. Michael Mann gives this movie at times a documentary feel with its close-up jittery camera shots that can be a little distracting. But it wasn’t a bad movie, and you can laugh your butt off at Jada Pinkett running around on a tile floor in high heels.
Catwoman (2004)
I knew as soon as previews came out for this movie that I would have to see it for cheap because even the trailers made it
look stupid. But in some respects, you have gotta give this movie props for making it through 10 years of cast and directorial changes, out of development hell to the big screen.
I think though that was kind of the point. The audience after Batman Returns has long since past. This movie wasn’t poorly made, just got lost for maybe a thought originally to cash in on the popularity of Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman.
It didn’t suffer from bad dialogue, but almost worst, just a really stupid plot. A cat breathes on Halle Berry and she has magical
powers. I asked myself, is that so much different than a radioactive spider? Yes, at least that is a little believable. Halle Berry
looks painted gold and walks like a robot most of the movie, and the action sequences which are nicely envisioned are so choppy it is hard to follow.
Either way, I didn’t expect much and I got what I expected.
Cast Away (2000)
I cannot remember a movie that Tom Hanks has done that I didn’t love. I saw Cast Away soon after it came out, and thought,
cool movie, but probably won’t ever watch it again.
Tom Hanks get stranded on a desert island after his plane crashes into the ocean. He is left for dead, and seems to not be able to survive. But after four years, he is still hanging on and with his volleyball named Wilson, he makes one last effort to try to find help.
The thing about this movie, other than the turmoil that Tom Hanks overcomes, physically and mentally, is that it is a whole movie
of him, alone, on an island. 90% of the movie is just with Tom Hanks, and he carries the weight incredibly and convincingly. He makes you believe that he is stranded and at wit’s end. And then there is Helen Hunt. The pain you sense between the two characters when they finally meet again. (Helen Hunt is his fiancee) She always plays very powerful parts, and this one is no different. A sad, but very powerful movie.
Cold Mountain (2004)
The two biggest things that stuck in my mind about this movie, were the music which was really great, and how Jack White was in the movie because he is Renee Zellwegger’s bed partner right now. He was actually pretty good.
An opening scene that was gruesome for no reason and a love that was totally unexplained, interesting in parts but in the end, the point wasn’t deafening. Wouldn’t ever see it again is basically what it comes down to and like most acclaimed movies, no something that really stuck Cold Mountain (2004)with me.
