May 28, 2009

• Movies I've seen recently... (should have posted this four days ago)

  
  The Girlfriend Experience (2009)  B

  Directed by indie-favotire Steven Soderbergh, "The Girlfriend Experience" is definitely not the most traditional movie out there. An "experience" probably is the best way to describe how you should see the movie, as it feels like a cross between reality TV, a documentary, and something resembling a film school student's art flick. There is a story that is being told here, but all the segments are edited purposely out of chronological sequence, that you'll probably need a flow chart to really follow it. Well past the half way point of the movie, don't be surprised if you ask yourself "where is this going?" That's the purpose of how this movie is being presented I suppose, in that the lives of the characters are in a state of flux, in their personal lives and in their work lives, especially in the harsh economic times living in the America of 2008 that this story takes place in. Ofcourse the context of the movie elevates that premise of following people juggling work and life quite a bit differently, especially considering the fact that the main star is real life adult film actress Sasha Grey playing a character who is in the escort service business. It's undeniably fascinating seeing the subject of "high class prostitution" done in this fashion (without showing sex scenes too no less), and there's definitely a very voyeuristic nature in watching the movie. I also liked how the movie suggests that the things she does for her work, actually parallels the actions that her boyfriend does in the more "honest and traditional" job as a physical fitness trainer. "The Girlfriend Experience" is definitely not for everyone to watch, and many will probably find it boring from the slow pacing. While the story and characters weren't as developed as I would expect from other movies, I was still completely interested watching the whole thing play out.

  
  Terminator Salvation (2009)  B-

  Going into "Terminator Salvation,"  there was some concern as to the quality of the film, especially considering the fact that it's directed by McG of "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" fame. Well with that low expectancy in mind, the movie wasn't that bad at all, in fact I did rather enjoy it. In one statement I could actually describe to you how the movie went, "low on dialouge, heavy on action." Oh sure, there's a sense that things are more serious than it's ever been, what with it's gritty post-apocalyptic look, and the whole preventing human extinction bit. In the end however, all anybody will really remember in this movie are the action sequences more so than the story or the characters. James Cameron; who did the first two Terminator films, was able to make us care for the action AND the characters, so I am a bit disappointed with how this movie was done. The problem also lies on the fact that "Terminator Salvation" does nothing really to expand on the Terminator story in a significant way, except for that chance to finally see a visualization of this future that the first movies talked about. There was one surprise for me though, and that is the fact that the character of Marcus Wright; as played by Sam Worthington, is actually the main star that the story really follows, and is probably the one that stood out the most among the cast; which includes Christian Bale as John Connor and Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese. So this wasn't a great film by any means, but if you are at all a fan of the Terminator story, you may as well check it out. It's enjoyable enough to warrant that recommendation.

  
  Angels & Demons (2009)  B

  Acting as the sequel to the immensely popular "The Da Vinci Code," Ron Howard as director and Tom Hanks as the intrepid and resourceful Robert Langdon, once again team up in "Angels & Demons." Between the two movies, this one is probably a better made film than the previous one. There's a caveat to that reasoning however, because The Da Vinci Code still has a more fascinating and better story than Angels & Demons. This movie is still enjoyable to watch though, and the whole Indiana Jones meets history lesson plus mysterious conspiracy theme that this franchise goes for, still works rather well. Several of the sequences in this film revolves around characters that are racing against the clock, solving a puzzle, secretly trying to prevent a murder from happening, while dishing out education about art history. Despite the fact that it can be argued that the plot formula of doing that can get played out, I still thought it was very entertaining to watch. There's also the whole sense of trying to figure out who to trust among the characters, especially with them purposely making you think "oh, he's gotta be a traitor" or something of that nature. I have to also admit that I did not figure out the main twist of the story, which I always got to give a movie credit for achieving that (unlike the first one, I did not read the book before seeing the movie). So "Angels & Demons" is technically a good enjoyable movie to watch, but for some reason it still does not do anything memorably great overall. It's weird how that works out.

  • 8:37 pm
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