Sunday, January 20, 2008

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Starring: Luke Wilson, Uma Thurman

Not bad at all.

L’Empire des Loups

Starring: Jean Reno, Jocelyn Quivrin, Arly Jover

‘L’Empire…’ is basically an attempt by the French to make a slick, Hollywood-style, SFX-laden action film. They succeed as far as style goes but when it comes to the screenplay the film falls flat on its face. As it happens with most movies based on novels, the screenplay is too complicated to be understood by somebody who hasn’t read it.
The storyline: Anna Heymes, the wife of a Government official is starting to lose her memory and suspects her husband of foul play. Capitaine Nertaux is investigating the gruesome murders of three Turkish illegal immigrants with the help of a suspended, bad-ass cop Jean-Louis Schiffer (Jean Reno) who’s an expert on all things Turkish. These seemingly unconnected stories converge with the sole intention of confusing the audience.Things get even more complicated when a Turkish extremist group called the 'loups gris' comes into picture.
The action scenes are not that great and the storyline is a bit too confusing and unbelievable. But the performances are great. Special mention to, of course, Jean Reno, but then he’s batting on the home turf.
Overall, it’s watchable.

Trilogie

Directed by: Lucas Belvaux

A very innovative project with three films (Cavale, Un Couple épatant, Après la vie) cleverly interconnected. The three stories run parallel; some scenes are even repeated but every time they bring out a new perspective. Interesting but definitely not cinema at its best.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Munich

With: Eric Bana, David Craig, Mathieu Kassovitz

The film is about the aftermath of the massacre of Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics. Mossad plans to assassinate the Arabs (called Black September) that planned the massacre and Avner (Eric Bana) is assigned the mission.

Again I had enormous expectations from the film and it didn’t quite match up to them

Three Colours White

This black comedy is a part of the trilogy based on the three French ideals of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’. White stands for equality though, quite frankly, I did not understand what it had to do with the film. Maybe this is an ode to lack of equality. The hero is the underdog and life treats him unfairly; his wife dumps him, he (a Polish immigrant) barely speaking French is left on the cold streets of Paris, homeless and without a passport. A fellow Pole when transports him to Poland clandestinely, huddled in a suitcase. There our hero gets rich by dealing in the black market and plots to take a revenge on his ex-wife. He almost succeeds but old love is rekindled and he ends up regretting.

I had quite humongous expectations from the film since it has got excellent reviews. But I was quite disappointed, maybe because I am not used to watching black comedies. I also did not like the ending since the ex-wife portrayed throughout as cold and cruel is shown full of regret and love all of a sudden.