Lost in Translation

Lost In Translation

Rating (from metacritic.com): 89/100

Storyline (from IMDB.com):
A movie star with a sense of emptiness and a neglected newlywed meet up as strangers in Tokyo and form an unlikely bond.

Source: My personal collection

Review:

This movie is one of my favorites. I saw in theaters with my mother when it came out, then bought it on DVD. I also own the soundtrack ,which I’m listening to while writing this review.
Unlike with most movies, trying to write a plot summary for this one is difficult. It's not something you can easily put into words, but I'll give it a try.
The basic plot is the meeting of the two major characters, an actor named Bob (played by Bill Murray) and young and lovely Charlotte (played by Scarlett Johansson), who are both staying in a hotel in Tokyo. Bob is doing a series of profitable commercials and ads for Suntory Whiskey, while Charlotte is with her photographer husband. They meet in the hotel bar and start a deep friendship. Bob is having a mid-life crisis. He hasn’t made a film in a while and is in Japan for the profit involved in making foreign commercials. From what we can glean from his long-distance phone calls home, there's trouble with his wife and home life.

Meanwhile, Charlotte, a recent graduate of Yale with the ever-useful degree in philosophy, is trying to find her role in life. Her husband, consumed by his work, expects his wife to explore the city by herself. She wanders around Tokyo, taking a brief trip by bullet train to Kyoto to see the sights. Her journeys reflect her life: in motion but directionless. (Moving forward but going nowhere.)
After meeting her in the hotel bar, Bob starts to accompany Charlotte on her meandering trips, and we see a relationship form. She shows him the youthful side of Tokyo, visiting trendy bars, friends' homes, and even a strip club. They talk and laugh, discuss their lives, and learn from each other.
Then, after a depressing talk with his wife, Bob ends up sleeping with the lounge singer from the bar and is discovered by Charlotte. This upsets her and she ends their companionship. Just before the end of the film, they reconcile. In the last scene, they hug as they are about to go their separate ways, and Bob whispers in her ear. As for what Bob says to Charlotte at the end of the film, your guess is as good as mine. I think he either tells her to stick it out with her husband, or to call him when they get back to the States, but I don't think we were meant to know.

I’m sorry that my words can’t express this film properly. It’s a work of art. In fact, it was this film that really showed me that film can be art, without a purpose besides simply being art. It uses visuals and the soundtrack to full effect, where the goal isn’t to listen to the characters talk, but to let you enjoy the experience. This also means you need to pay close attention to what is and isn’t said. The actors don’t explain everything, they just show it.
One of the things that makes doing this review hard is the way the movie laid out. We have a bunch of disjointed scenes, without dialogue and where one character (mostly Charlotte) is alone, not interacting with anyone. It’s up to you, the viewer, to add or find the context of the scene. If I tell you about how Charlotte looks out her window at the sun rising over Tokyo, it doesn’t seem that important in words, but when you see it, you know what she’s thinking. I also feel that it's important to leave my impressions out when talking about this film. It's up to you to use your experience to find out what's going on.

The actors seem to have been born for their roles. In fact, there are a few scenes that you feel like you aren’t watching their characters, but the actors themselves. For example, there’s a brief scene where Bob goes golfing (with a perfectly framed Mt. Fuji in the background). When I was watching this for the review, I felt like I was just watching Bill Murray golfing, not the character. There are plenty of scenes like this, where character and actor cease to have meaning and you’re just watching people be people.
Another example is the scene in the Karaoke club when they start singing. You can’t tell me that Bill Murray wasn’t enjoying singing those songs and channeling the lounge lizard from SNL.
There’s a great moment where Bob is sitting in a hospital waiting room and starts talking with an older Japanese man sitting next to him. From what I can figure out, the man is trying to explain that’s he’s from the Northern part of Japan, using hand gestures and sound effects. Bob doesn’t seem to speak a word of the language, and is just mimicking the sound effect. If you look in the background, there are two middle age Japanese women listening and trying not to laugh too hard. It’s a classic moment in this film.

There are also hints about the relationship troubles in both Bob’s and Charlotte’s marriages. If you notice, neither one of them say ‘I love you’ or ‘I love you, too,' when talking to their respective spouses. In a poignant moment, Bob says it after his wife has hung up. Charlotte’s husband says it once, before he leaves for the week, and she doesn’t say it back. This should be sending up red flags, ringing warning bells and firing off flares about the status of the relationships. I know from experience that it’s always the little things that matter.

As a personal aside, I love how the film shows the Japanese culture, especially the contrast in the amount of space each country utilizes. When Bill Murray is in the hotel, the showerhead only comes up to his chest; he's the tallest person in the crowd by at least a foot; and there's a complaint from Charlotte about him being ‘too big.’ If you’re not over six feet tall, you might not think about it, but, if you are a big person, you know how you stand out. I was waiting for him to hit his head on something, or stoop through doors, but I guess that would have been overdoing it.

There are a few things that don’t go so well. One is the scene where the hooker shows up at Bob’s hotel room and wants him to rip her stockings. It just didn’t seem to fit well with the rest of the film and was excruciatingly awkward to sit through. Then again, that might have been because I was sitting next to my mother the first time I saw it. (It also made the strip club scene very hard to watch as well.) I also wasn’t sure if the character really was a hooker, as implied, or if she was looking to get some cash from him by filing rape or sexual harassment charges.

Then there's the American bimbo who seems to know Charlotte’s husband and seems to exist just to bug the hell out of everyone, including the audience. She detracts from the movie as a whole. However, she does provide a counterpoint to Charlotte's reticence and gives us the idea that her husband doesn't know what might be slipping through his fingers.

When I was looking up the stuff for this movie, I saw a review that simply said “I didn’t get this movie. Is there something wrong with me?” Yes, yes there is. This movie isn’t that hard to ‘get.’ It’s completely open to interpretation and requires close attention, an eye for detail, and some life experience. I’ve seen this movie a few times since I first saw it, and I always find another angle I missed when I saw it the last time. If you’ve only seen this movie once, watch it again. If you haven’t seen it before, watch it and keep your eyes and heart open.

I have to admit, I had a big crush on Scarlett Johansson after watching this movie. She seems so real in this and is also a very attractive lady. Besides, how can you not like this movie, or her, when she spends a fair amount of time in her underwear?

(Did I mention I was sitting next to my mother when I saw this movie for the first time? Hard to enjoy some of it, I have to say, but thanks for taking me to see it, Mom.)

Final Thoughts: How can you not like this movie? It starts with a view of Scarlett Johansson in her underwear.

It is a GOOD movie.

Coming Soon: X-Men

Saved!

Saved!

Rating (from metacritic.com): 62/100

Storyline (from IMDB.com):
When a girl attending a Christian high school becomes pregnant, she finds herself ostracized and demonized, as all of her former friends turn on her.

Source: My personal collection

Review:

It’s finally happened. I thought it wouldn’t have happened so soon, but it just couldn’t be avoided.

I finally have a movie I can’t find fault with.

But, don’t worry; the next review will be a terrible movie.

Let’s get rolling, shall we? I loved this movie so much because it’s not hateful, it handles a touchy subject tastefully, and it leaves you in a better place than it found you.

Saved takes place in a fictional Christian high school outside of Baltimore. We first meet Mary, whose father passed away when she was young, and has accepted Jesus Christ as her personal savior for most of her life. She lives a perfect little suburban Christian life, with her perfect little Christian boyfriend and attends the perfect little Christian school, with all of her perfect little Christian friends. See, she has the perfect life.

But, life isn’t actually perfect, no matter what anyone tells you. After Mary learns that her boyfriend may be gay, and hitting her head, she receives a ‘vision’ of Jesus. She believes he wants her to have sex with her boyfriend, to save him from the ‘evils’ of homosexuality. What he actually says is something a bit different, like most things people say God says. When see comes to, she begins work on ‘de-gaying’ her boyfriend. They kiss, fondle and eventually go ‘all the way.’ (I have to say, the writers and directors really captured just how awkward the first time a boy touches a girl’s boobies.) But, before Mary has sex with her boyfriend, she talks with her best friend, Hillary Faye (played by Mandy Moore), about virginity, while at a gun range. Hillary Faye says that God/Jesus can restore your ‘spiritual’ virginity, then starts shooting a gun. Because good Christian girls defend their virginity with deadly force. No, seriously. “I’m saving myself for marriage. And I’ll use force if necessary.”

A few weeks after having sex, school starts and Mary joins her friends in the car pool, where we meet Macaualay Culkin’s fantastic character, Roland. This is a terrible, terrible pun as his character is a paraplegic and in a wheelchair. The group arrives at Mary’s boyfriend’s house and she is total that he’s been sent off to Mercy House, the place where Christian parents go send their failures in parenting, because his father found gay porn in his room. Crushed by this news, Mary tries to make her way through school. She also meets Patrick, the principal’s son, and wonders if she did the right thing in giving her boyfriend her virginity. We also meet Cassandra, the lone Jewish girl in this Perfect Christian school, and by the end of the first day, we see the beginnings of romance between Cassandra and Roland.

Time passes, and Mary discovers she might be pregnant. Rather than buy a test, she steals it, for fear of anyone discovering her secret and ‘shame.’ The results are positive, and she goes to Planned Parenthood to confirm the test results, when she’s spotted by Cassandra and Roland, and the following dialogue is exchanged:
“There’s only one reason good Christian girls go to the Planned Parenthood…”
“She’s planting a pipe-bomb?!?”
“Okay, two reasons.”
After having to come to terms with the fact that she is with child, Mary ends up visiting Hillary Faye’s house, where she’s hosting a prayer circle to ‘cure’ Mary’s (now former) boyfriend of his ‘curse’ of homosexuality. With her world crumbling, Mary lashes out at Hillary Faye, who kicks her out of the Christian Jewels and out of her house. This allows hanger-on Tia (played by Heather Matarazzo, who always seems to play this type of girl) to join the Christian Jewels.

As the year progresses, Mary begins to question her faith and begins to look at her life, and the things in it, with different eyes. When Halloween comes, she is totally separated from the Jewels and Hillary Faye, but has no one is there to fill the void in her life. It becomes obvious that Patrick wants to be her friend (and more), but Mary pushes him away. Her former friends are asked by Pastor Skip to ‘help’ her, which results in a drive-up exorcism, where Hillary Faye throws a bible at Mary while stating she is ‘filled with Christ’s love.’ Mary points out that the book isn’t a weapon and walks away. To cap off this terrible day, she talks with her boyfriend, and finds herself unable to tell him of his impending fatherhood. While it isn’t stated, I believe that she realizes that he’s really gay, and she needs to move on.
After Halloween, Mary is able to hide her pregnancy because no one at the school, except for maybe the teachers, have any idea what a pregnant girl would look like, and even the teachers would have trouble believing one of their students had had sex, much less gotten with child. Eventually, Cassandra figures things out, and confronts Mary. Mary denies it, but Cassandra tricks her into admitting it. Instead of mocking her, as we have been lead to expect, Cassandra comforts Mary, and soon they become true friends, along with Roland.

Soon prom, and the baby’s due date, approaches; Mary, Cassandra and Roland come to find themselves at odds with Hillary Faye. In addition to this, Mary’s mother and Pastor Skip realize they’re in love with each other, but Pastor Skip is married, unable to get a divorce because ‘God doesn’t like them’ or something. Roland posts a pre-plastic surgery picture of Hillary Faye all over the school, resulting in an escalation between her and Cassandra. This culminates in Hillary Faye spray painting all kinds of hateful things all over the school, then planting the evidence on Cassandra and Mary, which leads to Mary’s secret being accidentally revealed to Pastor Skip and the whole school. After this bomb lands in her mother’s and Pastor Skip’s lap, he believes that Mary’s pregnancy is punishment from God for their sinful ways, and says that only if Mary is sent to Mercy House, will he continue to see her. He then expels Cassandra and Mary for defacing the school, even though all he has is some spray paint cans…

When prom night comes, Mary is getting ready to go to Mercy House. However, Cassandra and Roland have other plans for her. They get her to sneak out of her house and join them in town. There they reveal that they have evidence that proves Hillary Faye bought the paint, and they plan on attending the prom. They also have Patrick arrive in a limo, and Mary agrees to go to prom with him.
After they arrive, they are spotted by Hillary Faye, who calls them out publicly. Pastor Skip decides to let them stay, but Hillary Faye can’t let it go. Roland produces a credit card bill showing the sale of the spray paint. He is thwarted, as Hillary Faye points out that he had stolen this card and was using it. Hillary Faye is then forced to swear to God she didn’t graffiti the school. When she does, she’s caught by Tia, who discovered a receipt for the spray paint in Hillary Faye’s van, and is not only humiliated for defacing the school and framing someone else, but she also lied and swore a false oath.
She flees the prom, and runs into Mary’s ex-boyfriend, his boyfriend, and others from Mercy House. Mary and the others follow her, running into them, and the ex-boyfriend discovers he’s going to be a father. There’s then quite a bit of powerful dialogue, where we must wonder: is everything in the bible the way it’s suppose to be? Do we let ourselves judge others for what they are, not who they are?
Of course, Hillary Faye is still running around out there, and starts driving like a woman possessed. In her very screwed up state, she decides to take down the huge Jesus she had put up over the summer, and charges it in her van. At the last second, she changes her mind and clips it, while trying to avoid it. Cassandra tells her that was awesome, and Roland comes the aid of his older sister.

It wouldn’t be an ending if the baby wasn’t born, would it? Mary goes into labor, and her mother, realizing that her daughter and her happiness is all that should be important to her, arrives to ride with her to the hospital. Mary gives birth to a healthy baby girl, and is surrounded by the people who truly care about her: Her mother, her friends; Cassandra and Roland, her baby’s father and his boyfriend and her boyfriend, Patrick.

So, let’s talk a bit about this movie. This movie isn’t anti-Christian. No, really, it’s not. It’s anti-hypocrisy. It’s about how even if you believe in something, the important thing is people and how you treat them. I could go on and on about how his movie could help Christian explain their views, but it would fall on deaf ears. If you want a movie that mocks Christianity, this is the movie you will see. If you want a movie that belittles the Evangelical Christian way of life, that is the movie you will see. If you’re willing to view this movie as a heart-felt, subtle, and caring movie, you’ve gotten the movie the writer and director wanted to make.

At the very core of this movie is redemption and forgiveness. It shows that people are people, and that means they are imperfect. Even Hillary Faye is only trying to do what she feels is right for the outcasts, and the school when she gets them kicked out. But, she’s only human, just like you and me.

I can not urge you enough to see this movie. It is a fantastic piece and you will enjoy it, maybe for the comedy, or maybe for the deeper topics. It’s up to you how you want to enjoy this movie, but I can almost guarantee that you will enjoy it. It’s well directed, superbly cast and acted, and is extremely well written. Watch this movie and tell me it wasn’t good or that you didn’t enjoy yourself. I dare you.


Final Thoughts: What would Jesus do? Laugh his ass off and enjoy this movie.

It was a GOOD+ movie.

Coming Soon: Horrors of War

Krull

Krull

Rating (from metacritic.com): N/A (IMBD: 5.8/10)

Storyline (from IMDB.com):
A prince with a fellowship of companions sets out to rescue his bride from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet.

Source: My personal collection

Review:
Krull is the product of the late 70’s/early 80’s fantasy movie craze that swept Hollywood. It could be that people were inspired by the unlikely success of the Star Wars franchise, or it could have been just one of those things. In the era of Conan, Legend, and the Princess Bride, Krull was different. First off, it had a dash of Sci-Fi, with ‘laser lances’ and an evil enemy from the stars. It also had a well-drafted background, which made sense, as well as the sense of a living world. Unlike many other fantasy movies, the writer didn’t feel the need to over-explain every little detail of that world. Things simply were, and you didn’t need a narrator to explain a name like ‘Terrible Slaughter Valley of Damnation.' Not to say the writer took shortcuts to reduce dialogue; it just didn’t need to be explained.

Krull starts with a massive space ship traveling the void towards a planet. The music kind of ruins the feeling, as the composer hadn’t left Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan behind, so I keep thinking the USS Enterprise (with no bloody damned A, B, C, or D) would suddenly appear and strafe the thing.

After a bit of waiting, the thing finally lands on the planet, Krull, and we learn that it’s the Black Fortress and aboard it is The Beast, who leads The Slayers to conquest and pillage. Of course, we have the standard issue prophecy, where man loves woman and blah, blah, blah. You’ve seen a fantasy movie before, you know what this is. Anyway, the good prince is set to marry his lovely princess, but they get attacked by the Slayers (anyone else keep thinking I’m talking about a band?) and after a great battle, the princess is kidnapped, and the prince grievously wounded. The prince is brought back by a Kindly Old Man, who tells him that he must search for The Glaive. (A note: a glaive is polearm weapon, kind of like a spear.)
Off to mountains they go, where the prince reaches his hand in molten lava, and pulls out… some kind of starfish thing? With blades? Huh? I would have called it the Star-Blade or something, but that’s just me. After recovering this ultimate weapon, they run across a wizard who doesn’t seem all that powerful, and is supposed to be a Dwarf. He joins up with them after being scared by a Cyclops, a special effect well done for its time. The Kindly Old Man explains that Cyclops are ‘sad, lonely creatures’ as their race made a deal with The Beast to see the future, but all they can see is the moment of their own deaths. They are then attacked by highwaymen who end up joining the cause because the prince appeals to their sense of honor… I’m just going to let you think about that for a minute… Moving on, they journey about, finding the Emerald Wizard or somesuch, who tries to help them. He can’t see anything about The Beast, as it is too powerful, so they have to go on another journey.

They end up in some dark, evil swamps, and the Emerald Wizard is replaced by a Slayer. With the Emerald Wizard dead, the Kindly Old Man must visit another seer, who kills any who seek her. He enters a cave with a large, very frightening spider. If I had seen this as a kid, I would have flipped out. The special affects for this thing were also awesome for the 80’s, and really make the thing feel real. It turns out the Widow in the Web is an old lover of the Kindly Old Man and had killed his son. Her punishment was to remain in the web. Somehow, the Old Man forgives her. In order to allow his escape, the Widow sacrifices herself. That’s one way to atone for murdering your child, I guess.

With the location of the Black Fortress known, the adventurers set out to fight The Beast and free the princess. They harness flying Clydesdales (not making that up), and fly/ride to the Black Fortress. When they arrive, the highwaymen start dropping like flies, saying ‘It was worth it’ in so many ways, as does the Kindly Old Man. The Cyclops enters and sacrifices himself so the adventurers can enter the Black Fortress. Inside it looks like the place was designed by H.R. Giger, with an alien, organic look. The prince fights The Beast, but loses the Glaive and discovers that with the power of the princess behind him, he can defeat The Beast.

And they lived happily ever after…

Let’s face it, this isn’t an original movie. It’s pretty standard fantasy fare, but it did have some good visuals going for it. I also like the sci-fi touches, which set it apart from many movies of the time. They couldn't quite capture its scope. Unlike Conan (which I do enjoy), I didn’t find myself saying, “Come on, get on with it already!” I must admit, there are some faults with this movie. But, if you can let yourself enjoy a nice fantasy epic, you won’t be disappointed. It’s worth re-watching if you saw it as a kid, or watching for the first time if you've never seen it.

Final Thoughts: This movie was pretty damn good.

It was a GOOD movie.

Coming Soon: Saved!

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Rating (from metacritic.com): 64/100

Storyline (from IMDB.com):
After New York City receives a series of attacks from giant flying robots, a reporter teams up with a pilot in search of their origin, as well as the reason for the disappearances of famous scientists around the world.

Source: My personal collection

Review:

I love this movie. There, I said it. I saw this movie in theaters and I bought it on DVD. I wish there had been a sequel or something, because this is my kind of movie.

Then I made the mistake of reading the reviews. Most are 3-4 lines, mostly saying it sucked WITH NO EXPLANATION AS TO WHY. If you’re going to write a review, take some time. Dammit people, put some effort into your criticism. I do.

Why is this my kind of movie? It’s a Neo-Pulp movie, meaning it’s trying to recreate the feeling of Pulp works. And it did the job for me.

Let’s start with the plot and background. We have our characters: lady reporter Polly Perkins and Sky Captain, AKA Joe or Joseph, an evil doctor and robots. We know next to nothing about how these characters developed, starting media res as the movie does. Polly learns about a group of scientists that have been vanishing all over the world. Soon after meeting Dr. Vargas, New York City is attacked by giant robots, that begin to tear up generators beneath the streets. It’s during this attack that we get introduced to our title character: Sky Captain. He flies around his P-40, doing his best to destroy the robots without firing a shot. He then flies back to his secluded island base somewhere in upstate New York.

After talking with his friend and super-scientist inventor Dex, Sky Captain goes back to his office, only to be surprised by Polly. It turns out they used to be lovers, until she (maybe) sabotaged his plane, resulting in a prison sentence for Joe. They bicker, Polly finds out there have been robots running around for several years. They go find the next scientist who’s going to die/disappear and then get back to the airfield in time for the next attack.

This is where the movie starts to really show what it can do. You have snappy dialogue, strong visuals and decent special affects. showing characters dodging through city streets, weapons firing, is what the movie was intended to do. After a bit of time, Polly and Joe track the transmission to Nepal. How do they do this? I don’t know; who cares? This is what Pulp is all about. Over-the-top, kick-ass action and awesome (fake) science. Sadly, when the two arrive in Nepal, the movie starts to go down hill. For some reason, the evil doctor has human agents, who somehow end up being hired by Joe’s old friend. Okay…? Then, they try to kill everyone and get away with the things that Polly has been hiding from Joe for a while. After surviving Certain Death in typical Pulp fashion, they end up in Shangri-La, where they find one of the survivors of the Evil Doctor’s uranium mines and get the next lead in the hunt.

Which leads us… well, I don’t exactly know where. Somewhere in the middle of an ocean. I’d imagine it’s the Atlantic, what with an underwater city around the island. There we finally get to see Angelina Jolie’s character. She’s only on screen for 13 minutes, but she does a good job of showing just who Joe would step out on his girl with. She also gives us the main character’s real name. We’re almost to the end of the movie, and we discover that Sky Captain is really Joseph Sullivan. Oddly enough, by then it kinda fits him. Continuing the plot, we get to see more pulp science, with visual sonar, amphibious planes and flying air carriers – which I totally enjoyed, by the way. There are robots under water and a good fight scene before we finally arrive at the ‘Mysterious Uncharted Island.’ I swear, you could feel the capital letters when they arrived. There’s a bit of character development and some running around, where we get glimpses of the Evil Doctor’s island of monsters. Why is he creating monsters when he’s going to leave the earth and take two of every animal? Who cares? They end up inside, find out that not only is the plan to shoot an ark off into space, but that it’s going to destroy the world when it leaves. This is what pulp villains do. They go for the gold in Evil. The rocket is well done, with the egomaniacal touches that make this movie so enjoyable.

In the end, Sky Captain saves the day, and it turns out the Evil Doctor has been dead all along, his robots continuing to carry out his will long after he has passed away. He also seems to have changed his mind---too late to stop what he has put in motion.

Let’s talk about some things that weren’t so good about this movie. It was too far outside the current norm, which can be hard for some people to take. I liked it, but some people just don’t get that the point was to be over-the-top. It wasn’t trying to be quality, edgy, great or mainstream blockbuster. It wanted to capture a bygone era of entertainment history, which most people in my generation just haven’t experienced. It was imaginative but was also harking back to a lot of stuff that has been overdone.

I really tried to suspend my disbelief for this movie, and it wasn't too hard, but there were a few things I just couldn’t get past. For example, Sky Captain plows his plane into the ocean, knowing that his plane can move underwater. However, the airframe isn't designed to handle the stress of a direct impact on the water’s surface, as the robot bird-planes show us when they impact. Speaking of which, it clearly shows them crash into the water, but when we flash back to Sky Captain’s plane, there's no debris behind it. Small thing, mildly annoying. Then we have the whole amphibious plane thing and it does the same thing. Hitting the water at several hundred feet per second would be like hitting an asphalt street at those speeds. There would be carnage.

Major and minor flaws aside, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. If you haven’t seen it, give it a try. It was what The Phantom and The Shadow tried but failed to be. It was Pulp in look, and in style and it was satisfying Pulp.

Final Thoughts: It you don’t like old movies, you’ll hate this one. If you can’t appreciate what this movie was trying to do, I feel sorry for you.

It was a GOOD movie.

Coming Soon: Krull