February 12, 2006

  • movies I've seen recently...

    the New World (2005)  B+

    Hypnotic. Poetic. Artistic. Meditative. Beautiful. These are some words that describes writer/director Terrence Malick's
    "the New World." What we have with this movie is something that
    transcends most other movies, because it really shows the craft of what
    film making is all about. At first, the pacing of the movie is rather
    quick, with scenes that seem to go by way too quick. But at the same
    time, there are scenes that move in a deliberate slow pace that it drew
    me into the experience of the story even more. There are even minutes
    in the film where no dialogue is being said, and all it has are these
    wonderful cinematic sceneries that move the story along. The story
    itself is epic in scope but very dramatic in how it portrays the world
    of that time long ago. This is really not a movie that everyone will be
    able to enjoy, because of the way it's directed. For those of us who
    this movie is made for, it's almost like a religious experience
    watching it. One thing that has to be said though, is that Q'Orianka Kilcher definitely deserves accolades for her work here.
    *this film has been added to my top 20 films of 2005*

    Munich (2005)  A-

    Wow, what a powerful and incredible movie this is. This fictional story
    is the result of the historical events that happened at the 1972
    Olympics in Munich, when Arabic terrorists caused the deaths of 11
    Israeli athletes. The story follows the aftermath of the attack, and
    Israel counters by sending a covert team to eliminate those
    responsible. The movie becomes kinda like a thriller in that we follow
    the journey of this covert team assassinating their targets. We also
    follow Eric Bana's
    character "Avner," who is the team leader. Avner is struggling with his need to
    serve his homeland, the pain of being away from his family, the questions
    about whether vengeance is really the path he needs to take, and the consequences of his actions. "Munich"
    is very uncompromising and thought provoking in execution, but it needs
    to be that way to properly tell it's story. This is definitely one of Steven Spielberg's best work, and it deserves all the recognition that it's been getting.
    *this film has been added to my top 20 films of 2005*