This Animated Short has been nominated for an Oscar this year but has already received numerous awards. The Cat Piano is a noir sort of film and is described as follows, “A city of singing cats is preyed upon by a shadowy figure intent on performing a twisted feline symphony.” Want to find out more about it? Check out the official site. In the meantime watch it now while it’s still on YouTube before they lock it in a vault somewhere for posterity’s sake. Enjoy!
The Cat Piano
Monday, December 14th, 2009Sleuth
Monday, November 30th, 2009
Sleuth is the story of a rich man who invites his wife’s lover over to his home in order to match wits with him and humiliate him or worse. It stars Michael Caine as the rich old guy and Jude Law as the younger man who is living with his wife. What follows is a surprisingly captivating tale of two intellectual men going at it, each one trying to show that his member is bigger than the other. There is some violence but most of it is a test of will and wits. There’s not a lot of action here. The entire story takes place at one large and rather strange home. There are very few actors and a considerable amount of dialog. This is a remake that was supposed to have added something to its predecessor.
I have to say this movie started out a bit boring and I was expecting it to be the same throughout and in a way it was but I somehow got caught up in the dialog, trying to see which of the two would end up on top. The fact is you don’t find out for sure until the end of the movie. Because of the lack of action and the rather static background, (made more so because of the tiny cast), this movie isn’t for everyone. There’s no adventure, no romance, no sex, a small amount of mystery besides who will win the exchange and while there are tense moments in the film, I’d say it’s just barely a thriller. Again, there was a lot of dialog and sometimes it seemed to get a bit mixed together and confusing. That said, the film was good enough to see once and not a total waste of my time. I give this a 3 out of 4 marks. [starreview tpl=16]
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
The Taking of Pelham 123 sets Denzel Washington as a MTA operator against John Travolta as an urban terriorist using a train (Pelham 123) to get money. These two big named stars do what they’re known to do. They tell you where and what to focus on which is manily themselves. Like a train, while there are many things tangentially happening on and around it, this films goes steadily forward towards its end. The women here (was there more than one?) are only important to the point that they affect one of the main actors. No one will win an Oscar for this remake. It’s not that kind of flick. You can see the plot twist from miles away like a bend in the track.
The truth is there is nothing original here. Even the parts that would make it a worthy thriller are somewhat dulled. What’s left are two charismatic actors you want to see that keep your eyes and ears following them until the movie’s end. Isn’t that what a movie should do? Even with Tony Scott directing had there been two lesser actors in the roles of the main characters, this movie might have had a chance to go straight to video. That’s not to say the movie is bad. On the contrary, mistakes and all, it’s worth renting. It’s just not worth owning. Washington and Travolta put on a good show, just not an overly memorable one. I give this a 4 out of 5 marks.
Echelon Conspiracy
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
My first introduction to this direct to video movie was as a poor man’s Eagle Eye. There are a lot of similarities between that film and Echelon Conspiracy. It’s an easy comparison to make but this movie does succeed in creating its own own semi-interesting take. Shane West plays the part of the film’s protagonist, a young guy doing some tech work overseas who receives a mysterious hi-tech phone which provides him with some compelling opportunities. The movie also stars Ving Rhames and Edward Burns, the latter of which seems to show up quite frequently in low budget projects such as this.
Story wise, this film isn’t bad. It starts rather innocent and playfully then becomes a bit of a mystery, then later tries to make its way to an action thriller. All the elements are there; the love scene, the young guy getting in over his head, the espionage, the car chase, the conspiracy, and the mysterious mastermind. The trouble with this film is that it takes too long to get to the action and while entertaining, it never really gets compelling. If there’s a reason why this was never released in the theaters then that’s probably it. It just never becomes much of a thriller. You can hit pause at any part in the movie and come back the next day to pick up where you left off. You just don’t care enough about the characters and their individual plights to really invest yourself in them. I give this movie 3 out of 5 marks.
Awake
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
I rented the movie Awake thinking it would be some kind of horror movie. The tagline talked about the fact that there are some people who actually wake up during surgery. I didn’t look any deeper and accepted that there would be horrible scene after horrible scene of this guy being cut up while he endured this unimaginable pain. Hayden Christensen plays the lead. His character is a rich and successful young man who is in need of a heart transplant. His mother is extremely overprotective and doesn’t know he’s been seeing a beautiful young woman, (Jessica Alba’s character), and is in love with her. By the end of the first 30 minutes of the movie you know most of the players and he is already heading into surgery. The head doctor is played by Terrance Howard. I thought the movie would be over quickly but a major plot twist turned it into a mystery crime thriller. You still get to see the main character suffer while the doctors are cutting into him. Now, however, the real agenda of certain characters comes to light and events unfold that turned this into a relatively interesting movie. I liked it. The acting here isn’t anything to brag about but a good portion of the mystery caught me by surprise. I give this film 3 1/2 out of 5 marks. Rating: 
