Movies I've Recently Seen

Listed in reverse chronological order, more or less.

• Terminator Salvation
  In the year 2018, the earth looks like Mad Max country where man-hunting robots roam about, somewhat like the dragons in Reign Of Fire. But resistence isn't futile, and bands of humans fight back against the machine-controlled world. The connection to earlier Terminator movies is tenuous, but the plot is fast-paced, if occasionally ludicrous, and the machines are great to watch in action. (By the way, did you know that any sufficiently advanced security technology can be circumvented by using a cell phone and a USB cable, simply by hooking it up and pressing the "Disable Security" button?)


• The Limits of Control
  Jim Jarmusch once again sends a man on a journey, much like he did in Dead Man and Ghost Dog, only this time it's a hit man who picks up clues that allow him to proceed from various contacts he meets along the way. Even though the hit is ultimately executed successfully, the main part is the journey, and that remains mysterious. What's the point of his contacts trying to engage him in discussions on various matters like culture, language and science? Why does he consistently deny speaking Spanish although he understands it? With this film, stylish as it is, beauty clearly is in the eye of the beholder.


• Das Brot der frühen Jahre (German)
  This adaptation of Heinrich Böll's eponymous novella tells the story of a young man, who -although successfully settled in his job, and engaged to be married to his boss's daughter- leaves it all behind when he meets a young woman from his home village (who he knows from years ago) who is about to settle in the city. Although the man's motives eventually become clear (an unhappiness with his situation, once the immediate needs are met - especially for bread, which was lacking when he grew up), the woman remains mysterious in her aims and general outlook. The narration jumps back and forth in time, and mixes in third person accounts of what happens as told by acquaintances. The film provides an interesting look at Wirtschaftswunder Germany, though, especially Berlin, where the film is shot.


• Gran Torino
  Clint Eastwood is at it again, with all the humanity of Dirty Harry, sneering down everyone and everything he doesn't like, which includes his family, his neighbors and much else besides. But even though decades of practice have left him a misanthrope, this starts to change when he's forced to engage with his immigrant neighbors, tries to apply his Mid-Western values to them (the attempts at which include various guns of his), but finds himself powerless to their humanity that's so different from his. It's subject to debate whether the file has a happy ending, but it's a surprising story well told, and it touches on some deep questions about who we are as individuals, where each of us is headed in the short and long term, and how we're going about it.


• The Champagne Spy
  This documentary tells the story of Wolfgang Lotz, a German-born Israeli who spied on Egypt during the 1960s, especially the rocket program that was aided by German and Austrian scientists. The film intersperses much original footage (even from the Lotz family's 8mm) with interviews with his son, his friends and acquaintances, and even the Mossad operatives that controlled him. The picture that emerges is less about spy tradecraft than about the human cost inflicted on his family, his friends, and ultimately on himself. It's a fascinating glimpse into a side of espionage that's rarely mentioned.


• Das Neuss Testament (German)
  Wolfgang Neuss was one of the preeminent satirists and comedians of post-war Germany. Becoming more of a thorn in the side of society on the Sixties, and a drug addict in the Seventies, this documentary chronicles his life and career all the way to his death of cancer in 1989. Plenty of interviews with Neuss himself (made just days before his death) and his family and friends, as well as excerpts from his films and shows, provide a well-rounded picture of a man who, above all, was always true to himself, and had a remarkably unclouded view of what exactly that self was.


• Die Spur führt nach Berlin (German)
  This movie from 1952 is set in the war-ravaged Berlin, where a gang of currency counterfeiters have continued the Nazi-started operation of printing US dollars. Memorable shots of Berlin abound, showing both the parts that survived as well the ruins of those that didn't - from a murder at the top of the radio tower, through a car chase that ends by the chased driving into the Soviet zone, all the way to the finale in the burnt-out shell of the Reichstag.


• Crank 2: High Voltage
  90 minutes chock full of nonstop, nonsensical, fun to watch action. There's a 4 minute break where nobody gets killed, when the protagonist and his girlfriend get up to a completely different kind of action in front of thousands of spectators at a race track. Any redeeming qualities? Maybe that Jason Statham still looks like a young Woody Harrelson and that his girlfriend is still cute, but other than that...


• Thirteen Days
  The movie recounts the Cuban missile crisis from the perspective of the US government. As such it shows how the administration suffered from infighting and differences of opinion between the Kennedy brothers, their advisers and the armed forces; central figure is a special adviser to the President played by Kevin Costner. The film doesn't have many qualities to recommend itself, but it does serve as a reminder of how the instincts and objectives of the armed forces need to be carefully checked by their political superiors - echoes of 1914 loom large.


• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
  A road movie inspired by Homer's epos, I had missed this Coen brothers film when it first came out. This Mississippi odyssey of three fugitives from justice takes many surprising, not to say improbable, twists and turns before arriving at what must be considered a happy ending by Coen standards. It juxtaposes the best and the worst of Southern life in the USA of the Thirties, and keeps the plot going at a nice clip.


• The International
  Tom Tyker's latest film is -if maybe not more upbeat than his previous ones- at least less gloomy, and much more like a conventional high-octane thriller. It's set in the world of finance coupled with weapon dealing, except that there's no Bernard Madoff, but several hitmen who waste no time dispatching enemies, friends who have become liabilities, and policemen to the sweet hereafter. Special kudos to Clive Owen, who inherits from Harrison Ford the title "man of a single facial expression".


• Saw V
  Read the paragraph about Saw IV, and in your mind replace "part V" with "part VI"...


• Saw IV
  John Kramer is dead, but that doesn't stop the games, or the deaths of various and sundry unsavory characters, as well as a few police officers. How do you set that up once you're dead? Well, it's not a movie about the undead, so some other explanation will have to do. And the end leaves plenty of maneouvering room for at least a part V, if not more...


• Claustrophobia
  Another Berlinale entry, this film about several colleagues from the same company deals with living personal and professional lives in the cramped spaces of Hong Kong (although many Asian cities could be substituted, as the director remarks). The original Chinese title was Intimacy, which alludes better to the various false starts in which a romance between two of the protagonists (ultimately not) evolves. A great script, excellent location settings and fine acting make this one a winner.


• Forever Enthralled
  An epic biography about Mei Lanfang -China's best-known opera singer during the first half of the 20th century-, I caught it at its international premiere at the Berlinale. In two-and-a-half hours it deals with family life, professional ascendancy, pushing forward the state of opera , consequences of success, the Japanese occupation, and questions of responsibility. The style of opera depicted takes some getting used to, and -given the breadth of material- there isn't much chance to go for depth, so it wasn't my cup of tea. But operaphiles and sinophiles will love it.


• Warten auf Angelina (German)
  The movie is entirely shot in one apartment, where a paparazzo and a Jolie fan await the rumored arrival of Brangelina in a nearby house, so that they can shoot pictures of them. In the end, they do arrive, but aren't shown, and at that point it doesn't matter much any more. The film is carried by the conversations of the two protagonists, as well as a stream of slightly out of the normal visitors, including a pizza delivery girl, a girl taking care of the apartment during the owner's absence, all the way to various current and former girlfriends of the owner, all of whom have various ideas about the unexpected presence of the two guys. It's kind of hard to describe, so suffice it to say that it's quite funny and entertaining.


• Ronin
  Robert de Niro and Jean Reno are at it again, this time as freelancing guns for hire whose mission is to acquire a suitcase of indeterminate content from a group of seriously protected adversaries. As befits a John Frankenheimer movie, there's lots of action and a series of more or less believable plot twists to keep the action going. It's set in France (particularly in the cities of Nice and Paris), which makes for a nice change of pace from the US metropolises where such movies are generally set.


• Balls Of Fury
  Being a table tennis player myself I finally watched this one when a friend lent me the DVD. (I had refused to pay actual money at the theater on account of a goofy-sounding plot.) Turns out I was right. Christopher Walken is as scarily weird as Maggie Q is cute (even more so with her skimpy clothes), but that's about all the enjoyment I got out of it. The humor is of a kind that may be funny after 6 to 12 beers, but not before that. The plot is indeed goofy, but this is not the kind of movie where that matters. Oh, and if you see it: it has really nothing to do with table tennis as it is known in the real world.


• Vicky Christina Barcelona
  Woody Allen is at it again, this time in Barcelona, with a great cast that includes -once again- Scarlett Johansson and recent Oscar winner Javier Bardem. Only this time he's the romantic lead, not a hit man. While lots of clichés are served up about men, women, Americans, Spaniards etc., the plot mixes them well, and also makes room for discussions about life, love, art, architecture and philosophy. And lest anyone thinks it's all too heady, plenty of action and confusion ensues, inside and outside of the bedroom.

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