Blue Velvet is the story of idealistic college student turned private investigator Jeffery Beaumont as the discovery of a severed ear in a vacant field sends him tumbling into the dark side of his Idyllic 50's subarban hometown of Lumberton.
As directed by David Lynch, Blue Velvet is an engrossing sexually charged thriller about the darkness that exists in our world and what happens when a young man must come to terms with this previously unforeseen side of life. Blue Velvet has a stellar cast consisting of Kyle Maclachlan as Jeffery, Laura Dern as Sandy; Jeffery's main squeeze, Isabella Rossellini as Dorothy Vallens; the vixen in the middle of the mystery, and Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth; an oxygen guzzling, F word spewing, sex obsessed sociopath who uses Dorothy as his sick means of pleasure.
Dennis Hopper and Kyle Maclachlan make the perfect off-setting pair in the film. Jeffery represents the young-faced hope and goodness in the world, while Booth represents the dark underbelly lurking beneath everyday life. Dennis Hopper is a disturbing joy to watch on the screen as he blurts out "fuck" after every other word and is sent into an animalistic fit of rage whenever he catches someone looking at him. He is the ultimate mentally disturbed monster of the silver screen. The first time we set eyes on him as he dons an oxygen mask (to apparently help regulate his breathing when he gets excited) and yells "Baby wants to fuck!!!", we cant help but be intrigued and disgusted with his character. A whole other movie could be made on this character and his backstory.
Kyle Maclachlan though, is the real focus of the film as a young man that is litterally put through hell and a variety of disturbing tests and temptations as the darkness that he has confronted threatens to corrupt him as well. What starts out for him as a joyful wish fullfillment of investigating an engrossing mystery quickly turns into a struggle to bring some light into the world of darkness that he discovers. His anguished sob of "Why are there people like Frank? Why is there so much trouble in this world?!" perfectly captures the essence of his character, a young man that is maturing as he struggles to comprehend this newfound world of darkness.
With plenty of quotable lines, engrossing characters, adult themes, and an intriguing mystery at its heart; Blue Velvet is one of the greatest pieces of American Cinema that is definently a must-see for all over the age of 18. Jeffery couldn't have put it any better than when he muses "It's a strange world, isn't it?"
4/5
Monday, June 28, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Knight and Day plays it a little too safe
Knight and Day has been hyped as Tom Cruise's next big summer action tentpole, and judging from the number of people in my theatre it indeed will be exactly that, But where's the excitement of watching stunt after action filled stunt but leaving with a familiar taste in your mouth, almost as if you had seen those stunts done alot better in previous films. The stunts are pretty cool and some new stuff is accomplished but the spirit is the same as just about every other summer action tentpole.
Knight and Day is about rogue agent Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) and cute clutzy June Havens (Cameron Diaz) as she actidentally falls into his world and he finds himself charged with protecting her. As with every good film this one has a macguffin, and an interesting one at that. The story centers around the first ever perpetual energy battery, which Roy has sworn to keep out of the wrong hands.
Unlike other films, a good portion of the film is focused on this little beauty and the struggles that surround it, the romantic comedy aspect often taking a backseat to this other plotpoint. This felt new and interesting, but everytime I found myself getting interested in this other plot the film sticks its head back in to remind us that it is still a romantic comedy at heart. This is where the film ended up losing me. The charisma between the 2 leads felt forced and so I just didn't buy that this guy would find himself falling in love with this girl for absolutely no reason at all. Why would she kiss him on the plane when she just met him minutes ago? That's not how real love works movie, I'm sorry, but it's not.
Cameron Diaz was surprisingly loveable and was the character I found myself most attracted to, something that I did not see coming, especially since she had to share the screen with Tom Cruise. The fact of the matter was that I found her character slightly more balanced than Cruise's. His character is distractingly goofy at times, an aspect that I felt didn't fit in with his rogue agent persona and it brought back bad memories of him during the couch jumping days a few years back. It's true that Diaz is a bit whiny in the film, but she was still believable in her portrayal of the character, and by the end of the film Cruise had finally found the sweet spot for his character as well.
While Knight and Day is almost guarenteed to leave you with a "been there, seen that" feeling, it's still a perfectly innocent fun family film that, while ultimately forgettable, still has moments where it shines.
2.5/5 stars
Knight and Day is about rogue agent Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) and cute clutzy June Havens (Cameron Diaz) as she actidentally falls into his world and he finds himself charged with protecting her. As with every good film this one has a macguffin, and an interesting one at that. The story centers around the first ever perpetual energy battery, which Roy has sworn to keep out of the wrong hands.
Unlike other films, a good portion of the film is focused on this little beauty and the struggles that surround it, the romantic comedy aspect often taking a backseat to this other plotpoint. This felt new and interesting, but everytime I found myself getting interested in this other plot the film sticks its head back in to remind us that it is still a romantic comedy at heart. This is where the film ended up losing me. The charisma between the 2 leads felt forced and so I just didn't buy that this guy would find himself falling in love with this girl for absolutely no reason at all. Why would she kiss him on the plane when she just met him minutes ago? That's not how real love works movie, I'm sorry, but it's not.
Cameron Diaz was surprisingly loveable and was the character I found myself most attracted to, something that I did not see coming, especially since she had to share the screen with Tom Cruise. The fact of the matter was that I found her character slightly more balanced than Cruise's. His character is distractingly goofy at times, an aspect that I felt didn't fit in with his rogue agent persona and it brought back bad memories of him during the couch jumping days a few years back. It's true that Diaz is a bit whiny in the film, but she was still believable in her portrayal of the character, and by the end of the film Cruise had finally found the sweet spot for his character as well.
While Knight and Day is almost guarenteed to leave you with a "been there, seen that" feeling, it's still a perfectly innocent fun family film that, while ultimately forgettable, still has moments where it shines.
2.5/5 stars
Saturday, June 19, 2010
SPLICE
I JUST GOT BACK FROM A LONG, STRENOUS VACATION SO PLEASE EXCUSE THE BREVITY OF THIS REVIEW. I HAD SEEN SPLICE AROUND 2 WEEKS AGO.
Okay, now I know what you're thinking: Where's the witty headliner???? Sorry folks, the sad answer is that there isn't one. WHY??? Because Splice has left me in such shock and so destroyed my expectations of what I believed I was going to see that I am currently unable to come up with any witty one-liners.
Splice is the story of a mad scientist couple, Clive (Adrian Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley), that are really good at creating their own unique animal species. Ready to move onto the next step which involves using human DNA, they are crushed when they learn the organization funding their research has denied them access to continue. Unfortunately, Elsa won't take no for an answer and convinces Clive to forge onwards and create another unique animal species that ends up holding unimaginable consequences for both.
Splice is curently being advertised as a "Horror" film. Honestly, I found the film much more disturbing than scary. Splice acts more as a mixture of character study and frankenstein-esque parable about the dangers of playing God than it does as a horror film. The film isn't necessarily a "Bad' film because I walked in expecting a horror film and got something completely spine-chillingly different. I enjoyed not knowing what was going to happen next. The film does make some risky (SPOILER: or should I say Risque) decisions plot-wise and does have its characters make several interesting decisions, but as I was saying that doesn't make it a bad film; and when in the last 20 or 30 minutes the film decides to attempt to make good on its horror billing the effort falls kind of flat since by that time I found that I couldn't care less about the 2 bumbling idiots on the screen. But it's not a bad film. It's a perfectly good science-fiction film.
While I found that Splice wasn't made for me I'm positive that there are those out there that would LOVE this cool little disturbing flick. So, go ahead, conduct your own experiment and see if Splice is right for you. What's the worst that can happen?
3/5
Okay, now I know what you're thinking: Where's the witty headliner???? Sorry folks, the sad answer is that there isn't one. WHY??? Because Splice has left me in such shock and so destroyed my expectations of what I believed I was going to see that I am currently unable to come up with any witty one-liners.
Splice is the story of a mad scientist couple, Clive (Adrian Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley), that are really good at creating their own unique animal species. Ready to move onto the next step which involves using human DNA, they are crushed when they learn the organization funding their research has denied them access to continue. Unfortunately, Elsa won't take no for an answer and convinces Clive to forge onwards and create another unique animal species that ends up holding unimaginable consequences for both.
Splice is curently being advertised as a "Horror" film. Honestly, I found the film much more disturbing than scary. Splice acts more as a mixture of character study and frankenstein-esque parable about the dangers of playing God than it does as a horror film. The film isn't necessarily a "Bad' film because I walked in expecting a horror film and got something completely spine-chillingly different. I enjoyed not knowing what was going to happen next. The film does make some risky (SPOILER: or should I say Risque) decisions plot-wise and does have its characters make several interesting decisions, but as I was saying that doesn't make it a bad film; and when in the last 20 or 30 minutes the film decides to attempt to make good on its horror billing the effort falls kind of flat since by that time I found that I couldn't care less about the 2 bumbling idiots on the screen. But it's not a bad film. It's a perfectly good science-fiction film.
While I found that Splice wasn't made for me I'm positive that there are those out there that would LOVE this cool little disturbing flick. So, go ahead, conduct your own experiment and see if Splice is right for you. What's the worst that can happen?
3/5
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