Movie Reviews from Ouch!

[Caitriona]

A Review of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, 2005

by curiousa2z

Probably most of us have heard, read and seen more about the Brad/ Jen/ Angelina Saga than we ever want to again. So Sunday night my prurient curiosity won out and I shelled out the $ 8.75 to sit in a large air-conditioned theatre and watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Critics have written at length about their disappointment with Mr. Liman’s directorial efforts in comparison to his work with the Bourne Conspiracy, the flatness of the acting, the trite, shallow script…yadda yadda, yadda…

I say: get over it!

Since when does a summer offering need to be The Philadelphia Story to be entertaining? This was fun!

If you’ve been off the planet, haven’t seen a trailer or read one of the scathing reviews, basically the deal is this:

John and Jane Smith are an ordinary suburban couple with an ordinary, lifeless suburban marriage. But each is hiding something: Mr. and Mrs. Smith are actually highly paid, incredibly efficient assassins, and they work for competing organizations.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith discover a new source of excitement in their marriage, when they’re hired to assassinate each other…and that’s when the real fun starts. The result is the ultimate action spectacle, as Mr. and Mrs. Smith put their um, unique job skills to work and their marriage to the ultimate test.

To sum up:

Whatever the deal is in RL, Pitt and La Jolie have Le Smokin’ Chemistry on-screen, my friends.

Females will love it, - and not to worry boys-, there’s lots of action a la True Lies, (comparisons are inevitable), although I liked it better than T.L. The 115- minute run held plenty of state-of-the-art special effects and incredible stunts, and lots of things getting shot up/ blown apart.

There were also some clever bits of dialogue and fun touches, such as the hostage Pitt and Jolie were interrogating (“beating up†has such an ugly ring to it) wearing the Fight Club t-shirt.

I give it a TK 4 out of 5 Star-rating as a good-chance-you’ll-get-lucky-date flick.

 

[Caitriona]

Serenity

A review by Curiousa2z

This weekend I paid the full ticket price to finally see the film Serenity, Joss Whedon’s first directorial venture on the big screen.
I did it for two reasons:

One, I want it to make a zillion dollars at the box office so TPTB who cancelled
the show in the first place, know there is a fan base. There always was. Plus, I figured if it was half as kick-ass as “Fireflyâ€, it’d be worth the admittance cost.

Second, I wanted to have my humble piece of history in the making, folks.

Oh, the irony.

For those who may not already know, this is only the second time it has happened.

By "it," I’m referring to the process in which a science fiction television show is canceled, becomes a cult hit after its removal from the air, and is brought back to life as a major motion picture with the original cast.

“Serenityâ€, Joss Whedon’s follow-up to his short-lived and much lamented (by me, anyway) TV show, “ Fireflyâ€, thus enters rarefied sci - fi echelons. The only other franchise able to make such a claim was, as the geeks (we know who we are) among us know, “ Star Trekâ€.

For anyone who does not know, set five hundred years from now, Serenity is the story of ex-soldier Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his um, eclectic crew, who consist of his second-in-command, Zoe (Gina Torres); her husband and the ship’s pilot, Wash (Alan Tudyk); Kaylee (Jewel Staite), an engineer ; and Jayne (Adam Baldwin), a tough-talking mercenary type who gets all the great one-liners.

Simply, the plot is set up along these lines: A 17-year old telepath named River (Summer Glau) is being manipulated by this universe’s version of the Evil Empire (called the Alliance) to become a weapon of incredible destruction.( wait til you see her fight!). She is rescued by her brother, Simon (Sean Maher), and the two seek refuge upon the mercenary ship Serenity.

At first, having River and Simon on board doesn’t seem to be a problem, but Simon’s unwillingness to take orders and River’s increasing mental instability generate friction.

Up to now the Serenity’s crew had made ends meet by making a living doing things like transporting passengers or pulling off minor heists. They're happy staying under the radar of the afore-mentioned planetary conglomerate known as the Alliance, but when the Alliance finally locates River, let’s just say they find themselves the recipients of some most unwelcome attention…an Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofer) who is resourceful, highly intelligent and as unrelentingly ruthless in his mission to capture River as Mal is in his characteristic refusal to give up.

Whedon had to write a stand alone screenplay that would make the story accessible to audiences not necessarily cognoscente of the TV franchise, as well as continue the story arc the fans of “Firefly†were familiar with. He even managed the odd playful nod to his coterie of die-hard “Buffy†fans with little in-jokes such as the business with Mr. Universe (David Krumholtz) and his wife. Heh.

Not to gush too much (I took my Joss is God t-shirt off before sitting down to write this) IMHO, he succeeded.

In addition to adding to the scope of the story, Whedon made sure the general fans of adventure/sci fi films would be entertained by a variety of spectacular CGI sequences, whilst still balancing these against more traditional sets and effects.
During his recent whirlwind promo push of the film he remarked:

“I'm a great believer in things that are actually there," he explains. "The trouble with CGI is that it often doesn't look quite real, and filmmakers end up losing their abilities and just going "Hey, we can do this!" rather than trying to show it cinematically. There's also an airlessness to some digital effects that you just can't get away from. In the big chase sequence on the Mule hovercraft, we specifically built a practical vehicle that we could put the actors on, because it gave the scene a reality you just wouldn't get with CGI, even if you had all the money in the world. Which we didn’t.â€

He’s not kidding; the adrenaline rush from fright whilst the crew’s being hunted by the terrifying Reavers leaves you literally on the edge of your seat! OMG!

The fans of “Firefly†will be please to see Whedon kept the charcacters in character, in spite of the transfer over to the to the big screen. And of course, Whedon fans can count on the usual –ahem - witty dialogue:

Mal: â€Trapâ€

Kaylee: “Maybe she just wants to see youâ€.

Mal: “Did you see us fighting?â€

Kaylee: “Ah, noo….â€

Mal: “Trapâ€.

Story arc, revelations about the origins of the Reavers; Sheherd’s (Ron Glass) dark past; ferocious fights, space action, lots of explosions; loss that unexpectedly blindsides you -- Tkers! – it’s a no-brainer:

It kicks ass!

Go see it.