JakeStevens Blog

When Edward Norton first starts speaking in an English accent, I thought "great, that's all I'm going to listen for...him messing up an accent." I soon forgot all about that as the story and characters are so gripping that you soon become entangled in their situation. FANTASTIC cinematography throughout and a wonderfully understated score round out this film. My only gripe is that it is ANOTHER remake of a film classic, but in fairness, it's adapted from a novel, so I suppose that fact makes it fair game. All in all, a wonderful cinematic experience.

Yikes. This film starts off all whimsical and lightly comedic (depending on your definition of comedy), and perhaps with a theater full of people, this type of humor might have worked better. But sitting at home, it fell flat and felt false. Things start to get better, and the actors all seem into their parts, but it's the ending that killed then entire film for me. *SPOILER ALERT* When Jones exacts revenge on all those people at the beginning of the film that "do him wrong", it just feels contrived and silly *END SPOILER*. Sorry, folks, I like to give cute little indies a chance, but this one just left me feeling disappointed.

I've never really cared for Aaron Eckhart's acting - his actions ring false to me, and that seems to be the central motif of this film - a false ringing. Nobody seems to really be "into" this film, and as a result, it's like watching, perhaps not a bad play, but maybe a well-acted high school play. The cinematography is, at times, breathtaking, but it's very soft and glittery for a film that I don't think deserved that kind of treatment. Brittany Murphy scares me - even when she's supposed to be a romantic lead, she still looks crazy in the eyes to me. I'm sure first time director/writer Joshua Michael Stern was thrilled when he got the opportunity to direct his first major motion picture with a seemingly star-studded cast, but the actors seemed to be working for a paycheck here, even the wonderful Ian McKellen, whose work in other independent films in most of the time magnificent, but here is just a little too over the top. And if the actors aren't connecting with the script, how can the audience? I found myself bored and uninterested in Eckhart's revelations at the end, and then credits roll. Not the best film watching experience.

I'd say it's mostly the languid pace that began to kill this film for me, because the performances are all top notch. Even the story is well written, with my only gripe being *POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT* Fatima's story line, which takes place in the past, but for dramatic tension, this is not revealed until the denoument, which as I just stated in my review of "The Usual Suspects" manipulative and contrived (Suspects NOT falling into that category, fortunately). I genuinely felt annoyed that everything up to that point had been told to mislead me and make me feel more emotion at the end. There are also a number of plot holes (who DID make that phone call?) which, in my opinion, are hard to ignore. Hmph. I guess I expected more from Tsotsi's director. And now I hear he's doing the "Wolverine" movie...Hollywood. Another one bites the dust, as they say.

There are two reasons I completely disliked this film: the TERRIBLE cinematography (can we say "rack focus", anyone?) and the IMPLAUSIBLE actions of the characters. Let me elaborate: it is shot like episodic television, which makes sense since Frank Darabont seemed to use most of the crew he worked with on "The Shield", but for God's sake...this is a feature film! Some of the shots weren't even in focus...at all! Seriously? 18 million dollar budget and all they can come up with is this? Sad. Then we've got the character's actions themselves. Whereas the natural instinct of self-preservation would kick in to a "real" person caught in this situation (like running for your life when scary shit starts attacking you), these people seem to have little of that instinct. Instead, they seem compelled to stand and stare, scream a little, and get killed. Not only that, but SOMEONE in this small hick town ought to know that INSECTS ARE ATTRACTED TO LIGHTS. The minute that moth-creature hit the window, the lights would be off. All of 'em. At least in MY world they would be. Here, they want to shine MORE lights to get a better look at them, again, standing and staring. Didn't these people see Jurassic Park? Turn the effing lights off! And don't get me started about the ending. Don't worry - I won't spoil anything for you...but you'll be pissed off at, once again, the characters inabilities to preserve themselves. Implausible. Inane. Waste of time.

Director Mark Palansky obviously would cite Tim Burton as an influence, and that's not a bad thing. I'd rate this film as "if you loved Big Fish, you'll probably love this film, too". The script is severely underdeveloped, and the film would probably be subpar were it not for the FANTASTIC performances by all the actors involved. Catherine O'Hara (Beetlejuice?), Richard E. Grant, Peter Dinklage and James McAvoy pull in some amazing performances (considering what they had to work with), but it's Christina Ricci who truly shines. Even with the badly applied prosthetic nose, she charms with such a natural beauty that it's hard to believe all of the blue blood suiters who run away screaming couldn't JUST see underneath that nose to the wonderful person she is. Ricci's acting has definitely improved over the years, and she needs to sink her teeth into something worthy of her talent and beauty. A cute movie for the whole family...and Ricci and McAvoy fans. Even with it's major flaws, I couldn't help but be charmed.

Oh. My. God. I CANNOT believe it took $90 million to produce this bloated, amateurish piece of garbage and waste of film. The dialogue is as cliche and cheesy as they come (Akiva Goldsman's only good film, as far as I'm concerned, is "A Beautiful Mind", and it's hard to believe the same writer created these two vastly different films), the plot is obvious and annoying, and the acting is sub-par, and even Gary Oldman can barely rise above this stinking heap. I completely lost interest in the film when they introduced the alien monkey. What's most insulting, though, is the film's ending, in which all of the main characters have some stupid line, and of course, that kiss between Heather Graham and Matt LeBlanc that the filmmakers were sure we were waiting for, but in reality were dreading. During the flashy end credits, Lacey Chabert can be heard proclaiming during the crappy rap-style ending "This mission sucks!" How appropriate.