The Big Bang

The Big Bang, although imperfect, is a well made, valiant effort from relative newcomer Tony Krantz. It welds together several recognizable genres for a dazzling technicolor coat of a flick, with one of the most interesting troupe of actors, all non type casted, in the last decade or so. You have the noirish detective yarn, the hard bitten postmodern crime thriller, and something unique as well: a constant running theme of physics, evident in both the snappy scientific jargon the actors get to chew on, and the dazzling, neo noirish color palette ranging from eye popping purples to smoky deep blues. Antonio Banderas ditches the strong silent shtick to play private investigator Ned Cruz, a fast talking wiseass who gets in way over his head when a giant Russian ex boxer (Robert Maillet, priceless) hires him to find his luscious pen pal Lexie Parsimmon (Sienna Guillory). This leads him into a dangerous web of eccentric characters including pseudo astro physicist billionaire Simon Kestral (Sam Elliott in a hairdo that would make David Bowie blush), a shady porn director (Snoop Dogg), a sexy small town waitress (Autumn Reeser, making everyone sweat in one of the hottest sex scenes I've ever seen put to celluloid), a kinky ex Hollywood star (James Van Der Beek), and more. The film jumps around in time, as any good noir should, as Ned tells his story to three relentless detectives, burnt out Skeres (Delroy Lindo), sharp, sleazy Frizer (Thomas Kretschmann, excellent), and volatile Poley (William Fichtner steals the show as the bratty, hotshot prick of the trio). There's work from Jimmi Simpson, Bill Duke, and Rebecca Mader. It's a bit muddled at times, and the inevitable style over substance claim will undoubtedly be heard, but it's got style, energy and ambition in droves, providing a neon lit verbal and visual maze of head scratching intrigue and priceless dialogue for the cast to play in. Well worth a visit.

I'm not quite sure how to rate this movie. It's very well made, with excellent (if somewhat typecast) acting from all involved. The direction shows a real sense of style, making bold use of color, hue, saturation, surreal environments, and dream-like sequences... yet all of these seem directly lifted from a David Lynch movie. Indeed, the director has even produced a Lynch movie (Mulholland Drive). The dreamy yet rocking score from Johnny Marr really gives life to the movie, yet constantly sounds like lost tracks from Achtung Baby, the U2 album. And then there's the story. I love the story, but I loved it even better when it was a Wim Wenders movie called Until the End of the World.

This movie is pure plagiarism, right down to the soundtrack (Johnny Marr, what happened?!), but it's excellently made. As an unauthorized and uncredited American remake of Wim Wenders' awesome 1991 movie, there's both a lot to love and a lot to hate.

Someone should be facing a lengthy legal battle right now, and it's a shame, because this movie is so well done. Maybe next time the director will find his own vision, instead of plagiarizing his idols.

This movie is far from being perfect. It is also far from being one of the worst movies I have seen, like some reviewers claim.

The movie delivers quite nicely in several areas: It kept me entertained throughout the full length of it. The cinematography is daring and plain beautiful. The acting is alright, but nothing special. The combination of film noir with very modern imagery and dialogue was weird but interesting to see. The whole woven in metaphorical lines and puns (look at some light effects in the bar!) about particle physics were funny and entertaining to me (but then again, I am a physicist...). But they did not really help the plot or the characters and seemed a little unmotivated and far fetched.

I have to admit though that the storyline of the movie seemed a little half-baked. Take a cup of David Lynch weirdness, a few spoons of sciency talk, a bit of crime genre love story and a few twists and turns for the viewer. No, this does not give you a good story if mixed together. It gives you a strange movie unlike any other. And if it wasn't so well made, this movie would really have sucked given those ingredients.

Overall, I can say that the movie was entertaining, mainly for its stylish mood and look, but nothing that I would recommend as a must-see to my friends.

I watched this movie for two reasons, first, I like the TV Series "The Big Bang Theory", and second, I enjoy watching most Antonio Banderas movies. Aside from this I had no clue what to expect.

The movie starts out well enough and for about the first 40 minutes or so weaves a mildly interesting plot. After a certain point the movie takes a few confusing turns where the viewer is wondering how the new direction is going to align with the plot that was woven earlier. The climax, where the plot is revealed, is surprisingly good. Though, the ending, where the two separate paths the movie had taken are brought together is, in my opinion, quite lame.

The acting is good enough. Antonio Banderas and William Fichtner are good actors and they do a decent job. The rest of the cast doesn't fail either. In the end, it is the script which is a let down. Maybe it seemed great on paper and lost its charm when brought alive on the screen.

One more thing. The script somehow brings nuclear physics into play. Why or to what end is the question the viewer is likely to ask after the movie ends. When an element as strong as science, mathematics or religion has to be brought in, I believe, making it central to the plot would pay off better dividends. For example, "Pi" by Darren Aronofsky or "Back to the Future" movies.

Overall, it is an average thriller with bits of science thrown in. It is not exactly a waste of time, if you happen to catch it on TV. Otherwise, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy or rent a DVD. You aren't missing anything.

Put up the first five minutes from this movie and then put up 'murder my sweet' on and glimpse the originality. That's actually positive, getting good references. Not a good casting, good actors in wrong roles, and unnecessary lame special effects. I get it, got to keep yours eyes on screen, but that ending scene was too much. The rest of the effects, lightning, filters, psychedroad movie scenes were OK, but not really his style, Not really, but OK, though.