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MGLevandoski
Reviews
The Last Kiss (2006)
Like a Celine Dion cover of Stairway.
It was hard to like this movie, and hard to not like it as well.
If you pay attention to this very well acted movie, you will realize that it is about some very serious topics regarding inter-personal relationships between men and women(infidelity, for one) and that it ventures into territory that most chick-flicks have never gone and would never dare to. But if you simply watch it as a run of the mill 'guy and girl in love have crisis...problems and solutions ensue' type of movie you will get that too. Writer Paul Haggis has talent, there is no question, but how he was able to pack an adult drama into a chick-flick package, I will never know. But he did.
This is serious fluff.
The Illusionist (2006)
A blaring disappointment.
I was very much looking forward to seeing The Illusionist when it came out on DVD, as I missed its run in theatres, and with grave regret I have to say that I did not like this movie. I wanted so badly to love it, but as it turns out the ending made it impossible for me to do so.
Edward Norton, in typically great form, plays Eisenheim the Illusionist, Jessica Biel plays The Duchess, Eisenhiem's love interest and fiancé to the power hungry Crown Prince(Rufus Sewell), and Paul Giamatti plays the Chief Inspector of Vienna who is in charge of trying to solve the mysteries behind the eye popping feats of Eisenheim. Every actor involved does a splendid job. The story is a love story, with betrayal and mystery, with all sorts of magical sights and sounds. It touches on the mystical/spiritual side of Eisenheim, but fails miserably at following it up with any sort of substance.
The most interesting part of the film, which I bought into, hook, line and sinker right from the get go, was the fact that magic seemed possible. It seemed real. It rooted itself in the supernatural, and then failed to grow. It planted the seed of the magical orange tree in your mind and then forgot to water it.
The movie forgot that it was a work of fiction, and would not allow itself to be anything but reality. It took no risks, it took no chances, it did nothing fantastical and amazing other than showing how fantastic of a let down an incredibly masterful and atmospheric movie can be when the director wimps out and decides he has to make everything explainable and real in the end. All of the hard work and obvious skill that went into making this film into a mysterious and wondrous love story was wasted by the most incredibly copped out ending I have seen in years.
Unbreakable (2000)
A very clever film.
Unbreakable happens to be one of those movie where you have no idea how it is going to end. It is superbly written and directed by Shyamalan, and is greatly complimented by the performances of Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson.
Although there have been many comparisons between Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense, I find very little similarity between the two films. The only thing that is the same, is that they are both written and directed Shyamalan, and they both star Bruce Willis. The story lines are very different.
I feel that it brought some substance to the very dead, and boring, super hero genre. It did this by adding a touch of reality to an other wise very unrealistic story. Shyamalan added the human touch, however cold it might be. The screenplay was great, and not once was it Hollywoodized or made to be overly climatical.
James Newton Howard composed a very fitting score, that complimented what was on the screen very well. It is a great score and I was surprised that it was not nominated for an Academy award.
All in all, Unbreakable is not, as so many have deemed it, a Sixth Sense rip-off. It is film making of the first order and was one of the best of 2000, it is right up there with "Traffic" and "Gladiator". I have seen it three times and each time it was more enjoyable than the last. It is a brilliant film from a brilliant film maker, and I give it 10/10. See this movie, you won't regret it.