jonnyfendi

Generally, there are three themes that tend to be favored by award community and film critics, the winning themes are about humanity ("Schindler's List" {1993}, "The Shawshank Redemption {1994}, "Slumdog Millionaire" {2008}, etc.), patriotism ("Saving Private Ryan" {1998}, "Black Hawk Down" {2001}, "Lincoln" {2012}, etc.) and the world of cinema itself ("Cinema Paradiso" {1998}, "Hugo" {2011}, "The Artist" {2011}, etc.). Well, thiz movie has all three of them. Producer, Director and Actor Ben Affleck is smart enough to realize it and takes advantage of that. Ben Affleck is Tony Mendez, a CIA agent who is responsible for covert operation to extract six American embassy employees out of the rage of Iran revolutionary by pretending to be Canadian film crew. It seems that Ben Affleck has done a tremendous job as the Director. He starts with an effective prologue to provide sufficient information and every time the scene heats up, particularly when the scene of American embassy is invaded, he cleverly adds relaxing piano instrumental music to cool things down and doesn't try to provoke audience into infuriated reactions. Thiz is his third feature films behind the camera after "Gone Baby Gone" (2007) and "The Town" (2010). For the acting, Ben Afflecks looks cool, calm and confident. John Goodman, Bryan Cranston and Victor Garber give brief but consistent performances and the last but definitely not least, Alan Arkin creates a powerful and believable emotion as fearless Hollywood Producer. I also have to put some credit to the Production Designer Sharon Seymour who successfully makes everything look like 1980s such as costume, hairstyle, glasses, car, furniture, television, telephone, everything! How they put attention to detail is undoubtedly amazing. Personally, for me, the power of thiz movie is in the last half hour. Thiz is a good example of what you can get when great script and great editing are perfectly combined. My heart nearly stopped while watching thiz final scene which takes place in Iran airport. They use almost all aspects to create tensions from ticket, telephone, soldier, bus, you name it and they have done it. When it's over, there will be some satisfying and gratifying feelings. In the closing scene, when the camera pans over the toys of Star Wars, Planet of the Apes and other sci-fi movies one by one. It simply wants to remind us that they are not only inspirational icons in our pop culture, but also they have ever saved lives. Great movie, great story, great moviemaker!

Visit My Blog on JONNY'S MOVEE: http://jonnyfendi.blogspot.com

"A person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behaviour." That's the definition of the word of psychopath from Oxford Dictionary. Thiz movie comes from the Directors of "In Bruges" (2008) Martin McDonagh. McDonagh is the kind of Director who can make an effective black comedy with roller coaster storyline and interesting characters. He also shows promising signs of becoming one of the cult movie Directors. The story revolves around a psychopathic screenwriter (Colin Farrell) whose seemingly nice girlfriend is a psychopath (Abbie Cornish), makes friends with a psychopathic dog kidnapper (Sam Rockwell) and his psychopathic assistant (Christopher Walken) who unfortunately stole a shih tzu which belongs to a psychopathic gangster (Woody Harrelson) whose unfaithful girlfriend is also a psychopath (Olga Kurylenko). Meanwhile it's also about a mysterious psychopath (Tom Waits) who carries a white bunny all the time. Well, I just used the word "psychopath" so many times. If you feel confused, it may be true. The first 30 minutes of the movie will probably make you confused. If you feel it's kind of weird, yes, the movie is very weird and comedic as well. The dialogue is interesting and alive. Everything just flows to the right direction. And I almost feel like there is a time when thiz movie criticizes itself. The three main characters are amazing. Let's start with Colin Farrell. Farrell depicts an alcoholic screenwriter who looks like a peace lover but sometimes looks more like a coward in many situations. It's great to see Colin Farrell can bring a different kind of character. And the next one is Sam Rockwell who rocks pretty well. Rockwell's character is the one who sets fire in thiz field of gasoline. He looks confident and believable. People can hate his character but surely will love his performance. Personally, Sam Rockwell's performance is the best performance in thiz movie. Last but not least, it's Christopher Walken. Walken goes back to his roots, bringing an eccentric character, it simply reminds me what he is good at, just like the old times when he triumphed in "True Romance" (1993), "Last Man Standing" (1996) or "Kill the Irishman" (2011). Thiz movie just made me realize that all thiz time, most of my favorite movies has psychopathic characters in them, such as "Pulp Fiction" (1994), "Fight Club" (1999), "Trainspotting" (1996), "True Romance" (1993), "Natural Born Killers" (1994) and many more. Just because we like movies about psychopaths doesn't mean we are also psychopaths, right? Or are we?

Visit My Blog on JONNY'S MOVEE : http://jonnyfendi.blogspot.com

What you might feel after watching thiz movie? You may be confused, you may be disappointed or if you watch closely enough, you may find a hidden philosophy inside. Thiz movie has six stories with six different time periods, from little island in South Pacific to the post-apocalyptic Hawaiian Islands, from the primitive year 1849 to far in the future 2321. The stories come from any direction and finally meet at one point. The story is meant to be connected to one another, however, don't be surprised if you eventually find that the connection is very minor. In point of fact, you may miss the connection if you're not careful. "Cloud Atlas" is the latest project from Tom Tykwer and The Wachowskis, starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Jim Broadbent, Ben Winshaw, James D'Arcy, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, Doona Bae and Xun Zhou. All Actors have more than one role during different time periods. As a matter of fact, some Actors are so buried underneath their makeup that we could hardly recognize them. To make things even worse, some of them are seemingly drawn into comical performances such as Hugo Weaving, James D'Arcy, Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant. The better performances come from Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Ben Winshaw. And the scene stealer is definitely Doona Bae who depicts a genetically-engineered clone named Sonmi-451. Doona Bae delivers a complex and inspiring character. On the directorial side, Tom Tykwer carries out 1936's, 1973's and 2012's segment. On the other side, Andi and Lana (used to be Larry) Wachowski handle 1849's, 2144's and 2321's segment. Personally, I prefer Wachowskis' direction. They can keep up the pace of their stories and prevent it from being boring. It reminds us of how good The Wachowskis really are when depicting futuristic tales, just like what they did in "The Matrix" (1999). On the other hand, even though I love the previous Tom Tykwer's works such as "Run Lola Run" (1998), but thiz time, he seems to have put anything one-dimensional. In other words, Tom Tykwer's direction is boring. If it's not because of the intriguing futuristic tale of Sonmi-451 which is directed by The Wachowskis, thiz movie will undoubtedly become an unnecessary B-Class movie. In the end, thiz is something bigger than you think. It's all about a belief in the universality of mankind. Basically, there is no difference between countries, races and even genders, where white can become black, black can become white and white can become Asian. We are all one, we are all the same, learning and strive for a better condition.

Visit My Blog on JONNY'S MOVEE : http://jonnyfendi.blogspot.com