Cloud Atlas

First Hit:  A difficult concept to make believable in film but here it works fairly well and is interesting.

The concept that the energy/spirit of who we are never ceases to exist and manifests itself in bodies is not new.

His Holiness Dalai Lama has revisited us 14 times. If you watch the Martin Scorsese film “Kundun” (HHDL’s nickname) you will see an enactment of his discovery of who he is and was. Anyway, Cloud Atlas takes us through people and their connections through many different expressions of their lifetimes.

Tom Hanks plays multiple versions of a good guy as does Halle Berry his connected partner. This very long (almost three hours) film goes by surprisingly fast because there are 6 story lines the audience has to follow.

The credit for this film being engaging and interesting is to the fine direction under Tom Tykwer with Lana and Andy Wachowski. I found myself wanting to know more (and read this also as caring more) about some story lines versus others. T

here were storylines I wanted to dismiss quickly while others I had more interest in. Without tipping my hand too much, the future stories were more interesting to me as were 2 of the historical stories. At times the scenes and sets were amazing in their ethereal beauty while others were sharp in their rough starkness.

Without me having to go back (and I won’t) watch it again, what struck the following day was; did anyone learn enough in their previous versions of themselves to go from being a bad guy to a good guy? Was there redemption? I don’t think so. This thought took me to thinking how much better this film might have been if an energy/spirit learned from their past behavior and moved to a different based energy. But then again it would have been a whole other film.

At one point the film did strike a chord in me which I think is true: “Love is real. Everything else is an illusion. Live in this realm and you will be at peace.”

I wondered how hard it was for the actors to stay in character for all the roles each had to play – and therefore kudos to all. Hanks was very good but typical of himself in his roles as Dr. Henry Goose, and 5 others. Halle Berry was strong in her 6 roles. Jim Broadbent was really fun to watch in his 5 roles. Hugo Weaving had 6 really disparate but interesting roles as the bad guy. Jim Sturgess was the young hero in 7 roles and did this well but I didn’t think the Asian makeup worked well. Doona Bae was mesmerizing as Sonmi-451 (interesting reference to another famous 451) and her scenes stole much of the film. Lana and Andy Wachowski along with Tom Tykwer wrote an interesting screenplay from David Mitchell’s book Cloud Atlas (named for a symphony). They also did an outstanding job of keeping this long film moving and engaging the audience.

Overall:  Interesting, far reaching, and well done but not great.

Atlas Shrugged: Part II

First Hit:  Poor acting, monologue heavy, but better than Part I.

Part I, which I reviewed in April of 2011, was poor from the get go. Part II is slightly better but Samantha Mathis does not bring life or any character to her part as Dagny Taggart.

She is simply not believable as the head of Taggart Railway, and some of her scenes she was not engaged and it seemed as if she was reading the script for the first time. Jason Beghe plays Henry Rearden head of Rearden Steel. He portends to be the guy with all the right morality when it comes to business but not so in his personal life because he is cheating on his wife Lillian (Kim Rhodes) with Dagny.

This film is supposed to move the whole set of films (Rand's story) along so that we wonder how the fight between big private business versus big government turns out and who's right. The government wants the people who have nothing, that don’t create value (according to Rearden), to receive their fair share by bilking big business. If you look at today’s 99% protest marches, the similarities come to light with a slightly different twist. In the film the government creates edicts which will destroy the companies.

Some of the scenes in this film were shot much better than many of the scenes in Part I. And low and behold, Part III will be coming.

It stands on its own that none of the actors in Part I made it to Part II. However, many of the actors in Part II may make it to Part III.

Mathis cannot carry this film in her title role. Speaking dialogue that, in many cases, didn’t work, and when she tried to make it work she wasn’t believable. To her credit, at times, it was completely just a bad script. Beghe was more believable, yet the script led him to have these monologues which got old. Rhodes was more believable and fun to watch in her brief appearances. Esai Morales (as Mine Operator Mogul, Francisco d’Anconia) was amusing and again his role was to spin monologues. Richard T. Jones (as Eddie Willers – Dangy’s right hand man) was good and one of the strongest characters in the film. Duke Sandefur and Brian Patrick O’Toole wrote this monologue driven script with a heavy hand. John Putch did a better job with this film than Paul Johansson did with the first.

Overall:  If you’ve got nothing to do, and it is Sunday, and you like Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged, maybe take a gander to see how different this film is from how you might have imagined the story when you read Rand’s book.

Looper

First Hit:  A film that had me thinking about the story the morning, which bodes very well for it.

While the film attempts to draw one in about time-travel, it is the strong acting and inventive story that makes it work well.

Joe (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) puts aside any feelings he has about assassinating people because; it makes him a good living, the people are from the future – so they’ve already had a life (30 years more than if he were to kill them in real time), and it pays for his drug habit, which is one way he escapes caring much about his actions.

The way this works is that only organized crime, which lives 30 years in the future, has the ability to send people back to the past to be killed. The future world sends notice to Abe (played by Jeff Daniels), who is in the present (or past world) to have a “Looper” (one who assassinates) ready to kill whoever arrives at the designated spot from the future.

The Looper's payment for the kill comes with the person killed in the form of silver strapped to their backs. As a film viewer, you could get caught up in the time dilemma by wondering how the film explains both the past and future existing in the same moment of time, but I strongly don’t recommend bothering with it, especially if you wonder why only crime organizations uses time travel. 

If you buy into the story as the film presents it, the time travel phenomena the director takes us through is used to share meaningful parts of the story. And the meaningful parts of the story are about loving someone and how that love drives us to act in ways of honor and dishonor.

The future or Old Joe (played by Bruce Willis) comes back to change his future destiny because of love and Young Joe finds love with Sara (played by Emily Blunt) and her son Cid (played by Pierce Gagnon) and wants to see them live on.

Gordon-Levitt once again shows why he is being a frequently sought after actor – he’s excellent here as Young Joe and carries just enough of Willis’, Old Joe, look and feel to make it believable. The one thing that did bug me was Willis’ ear lobes and Gordon-Levitt’s ear lobes are very different (but they got the injured top part of the ear just right). Willis, is as he does of late, provide an intelligent, relaxed performance that is believable. He’s very good. Blunt, despite a wobbly accent, is outstanding and continues to show me why she is one of my favorite actresses. Daniels in a limited role is perfectly wonderful and takes scenes over when he is in them. Gagnon as Blunt’s child is creepily and charmingly fantastic. Piper Perabo (as Suzie) is wily and wonderful as Young Joe’s favorite hooker. Rian Johnson wrote a strong character script and although the requirement of parallel realities existing at the same time wasn’t handled real well – this film isn’t about time travel and he directed this cast in a strong story about love and redemption.

Overall:  The title of the film detracts from a film that is full of excellent acting and an intriguing story.

Total Recall

First Hit:  I enjoyed this version more than the 1990 version.

Unlike “The Dark Knight Rises” (see previous review), the opening sequence sets up the story well.

The point of the opening sequence of a film like this is to set us up to get our buy-in, to have us suspend our reality and invite us into a story.

Total Recall does this and that is why I enjoyed it. Douglass Quaid, aka Houser, (played by Colin Farrell) is stuck in a life he doesn’t understand. He goes to work making robot enforcers in Great Britain from Australia by getting on and riding the “Fall”.

The Fall is what people call the vehicle which transports people through the only two habitable places on earth, Great Britain and Australia. Its path is through the middle of the earth and when it reaches the core there is a few minutes of gravity suspension because gravity switches its pull.

Australia is called the colony and everyone there is poor. It is ruled by Great Britain and Chancellor Cohaagen (played by Bryan Cranston) and they suppress everything for control. There, of course, is an underground group fighting the rule and Matthias (played by Bill Nighy) is their leader. Quaid’s wife Lori (played by Kate Beckinsale) is a cop and works a lot of nights investigating and killing the rebels.

We learn quickly, she’s one of the best and toughest investigators. Douglas, in his frustration with his life, goes to “Total Recall” which promises dreams that make you feel good. His visit takes us into a new story of what is reality and what is truth.

Although an unbelievable story, it works because the actors, script and direction allows us to believe it.

Farrell is very good and strong in both the physical challenges of the role but by also giving us a true sense of being lost and wanting to find the truth. Cranston is great as the Chancellor. Beckinsale is so strong in her physical role and was fun to watch. Jessica Biel (as Melina) was very good and shows strength in this physical role. Nighy is good in a limited but pivotal role. Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback wrote this effective screenplay while Len Wiseman gave this film believability, fun and action.

Overall: Enjoyable version of this story and worth the price of admission.

Prometheus 3-D

First Hit:  Interesting concept, startling visuals, and a fairly good story but in the end not quite a great film.

I wanted to really love this film. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good space oriented science fiction.

Given the previews and cast, I had hopes for this Ridley Scott offering. Hope emerged at the beginning with the archeological finds but soon it started a long slow fall. It was easy to link David (the android played by Michael Fassbender) to be a cross between "Data", "Spock", and "HAL" the computer.

Elizabeth Shaw (played by Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (played by Logan Marshall-Green) discover a link of cave picture drawings that were dated thousands of years apart and painted by different civilizations. The drawings made them believe that humans were created by some other race that lived somewhere in space.

This leap of faith, sort of speak, wasn’t developed enough to have me come to the same conclusion, but I went with it. The long ride to the solar system where they believe the “Engineers” reside was on a great looking rocket.

All the crew including the scientists were put to sleep for over 2 years until they arrived at their location. The only one awake on the ship was David. The leader of the expedition was Meredith Vickers (played by Charlize Theron.

As expected, there is conflict on this ship because of differing agendas, and the question was; will they pull together when they meet their makers or the alien creatures? The highlights were the attention to detail in the alien planet, the cave, the space ships, Elizabeth’s surgery, and the visuals used to provide information to the crew.

The downsides include the long waits between interesting scenes, the lack of continuity and development of the story, and a redo of alien monsters that climb into people’s mouths to cause havoc (I would have wanted something new).

Rapace is very good uses her intelligence, even temperament and her athletic body to portray an interesting character. Fassbender is strong as an android even when he was just a talking head (see the film and you'll see what I mean). Theron is very strong as the conservative tough mission commander. Marshall-Green was mediocre as the other scientist. Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof wrote a script needing additional clarification and development. Scott directed some sequences with eloquence while others seem to lag and drag.

Overall: This film is nice in 3-D but overall it just didn’t carry the day and was mostly forgotten the following day.