Some rediscovered video of David Bowie performing “Jean Genie” during the hey day of glam rock. If there was a revival today would they call it Bling Rock? Bling Boogie?
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol follows the action/spy thriller formula to the letter. There’s not even a hint of straying outside the genre’s tropes. But they do it oh so well. Fight moves I’ve never seen before. Stunning photography. Chase scenes I’ve never seen before. Cool new gadgets you’ve never seen before that walk the line between plausibility and science fiction. Cool cars. Hot women. Lots of bling from all over the world. I had a damn good time at this movie and can heartily recommend it if you are looking for a good action movie.
The movie is well cast. Never been a big Tom Cruise fan, but this is a good role for him and the supporting cast holds their own in every scene, especially Paula Patton who plays on of Cruise’s team mates. She’s just as bad ass as he is and is not the typical withering female that you find in Bond movies. Simon Pegg is quickly sealing his title of geek of choice in the A List Actors league. And Jeremey Renner could easily carry his own action movie franchise.
Of course all those explosions of famous land marks, car chase scenes, building climbing, computer network hacks don’t leave much time for character development. The few seconds of poignant character background development are laughable, “yeah, whatever” moments in the film. That’s fine. No great loss. For what it is, Mission Impossible: ghost Protocol is a bang up good movie.
I know. I know. Anything to get kids to read and get them interested in the wonderful world of books. But to try to lure kids into reading with Angry Birds really smacks of desperation.
Dec 042011
Hugo Cabret's father teaches him how to fix the automaton.
The first thing I think is important to tell you about the movie Hugo is that it has been misleadingly marketed. The movie trailers give you the impression this is going to be a 30′s era steam punkish sort of movie complete with mechanical automatons. The trailer sets you up to expect that robots are gong to play a central part of the movie. They don’t. I’d say that the automaton you see in the trailer plays a pivotal role in the movie. But anyone who enters the theater expecting a whimsical clockwork movie is going to be disappointed.
At first.
The movie is actually a fairly standard-issue orphan story. But it is story that’s beautifully told and it has many facets that explore the same basic theme. The movie’s protagonist, orphan Hugo, eeks out a living, taking care of clocks in a train station and hoping the authorities don’t discover that his drunk uncle has died because if they do, he’ll get sent to the orphanage. Because his deceased father was a mechanical genius with clocks and automata, Hugo is naturally interested in them too. And this colors his view of the world. About midway through the movie he tells his one and only friend, Isabelle:
“I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason.”
Thus perfectly tying the theme of the movie to the setting.
The theme is played out on several fronts, primarily Hugo’s search to find his place in the world. But the theme is explored through the other lonely people Hugo sees in the train station and a mysterious, crotchety man who runs a toy store in the station.
This story line by itself would have made an excellent movie. Especially one that is so amazingly rendered in film. Every scene in the movie is gorgeous.
For better or worse the movie takes a turn as Hugo’s future gets tied up in finding out how is father died and his father’s relationship to the automaton in the trailer. Telling you any more would spoil it. You might say the sub plot overshadows the main plot of the movie. Or maybe it enlightens the main plot. Kinda hard to say. Up to you to decide.
I’m not a judge of acting. But I’d say the cast was fantastic. Asa Butterfield and Chloë Grace Moretz do the bulk of the heavy lifting in the movie, playing Hugo and Isabelle. They have to convince us they are kids still unsure of how the world works while pulling off some dramatic, emotional scenes with strength. But top acting kudos have to go to Ben Kingsley, playing the crotchety old toy store keeper. The minor characters that Hugo watches in the station are well-portrayed by their actors, coming across, quirky, flawed, funny, but very very human too.
Watch for the cameos. I’ll say no more.
Definitely not what I was expecting, but I also thoroughly enjoyed it.