2006 Film List - Page 4

Adam_S · 12-16-2006, 02:22 AM

Dreamgirls -

(9 of 10)

Superb film and a triumphant musical. Dreamgirls is awesome and incredibly entertaining from start to finish. This is the story of Effie, brilliantly played by Jennifer Hudson, and the rise and subsequent turmoil of the motown group the Dreamettes. Jamie Foxx is outstanding, Beyonce very good and Eddie Murphy steals the show with a fantastic performance.

Among the amazing numbers are:
Move
Steppin to the Bad Side
Love you I do
It's all over
And I am telling you I am not going
I am Changing
I meant you no harm/Jimmy's rap
One Night Only
Listen

Not too shabby to have that many terrific standouts in a musical and the other songs are good, but they're more integrated into the entertainment of the movie, they don't bring the house down though they are wonderfully fun (like the way I want you Baby and Cadillac Man play out).

if the film has any weakness it's the tidyness of the resolution, especially problematic considering how Cadillac Man and Stepping to the Bad Side play out in the first act.

Adam

Adam_S · 12-16-2006, 05:41 PM

The Pursuit of Happyness -

(7 out of 10)

ignore all the critics claiming this is a feel good film or schmaltzy or other embittered crap spilling about the film. Most of the film is about Chris Gardener barely hanging on, everything goes wrong for him but his determination to succeed keeps forcing him to push and push despite being treated like Job--and the film doesn't make you feel good about it.

Pursuit of Happyness earns every piece of emotion it evokes, it is not manipulative.

The film is so self assured that you almost forget just how elegant and well made it is. For example, the sequence of events leading up to the "really nice pants" comment in the trailer is just astounding edge-of-your-seat storytelling.

But what really impressed me about the film is the incredible representation of fatherhood in the film. They nailed it without ever making it into a 'message'. Fatherhood is the engine of the story, but it's a matter of fact, not a "theme" in the sense of an overwrought scene with ridiculous dialogue. He's devoted determined an outstanding figure. This is a Jimmy Stewart role in the sense of It's a Wonderful Life and Will Smith is 100% believable. It's sort of a Gregory Peck or Gary Cooper role in some ways, but I think Jimmy Stewart is the better descriptor. Because I can imagine that aforementioned scene with the "really nice pants" line being delivered by Stewart, or the same tension in the rubicks cube scene coming from Stewart.

Will Smith is superb, and hard to beat at the oscars this year, unless Peter O Toole dies in the next two and a half months I think Smith will win, deservedly.

Adam_S · 12-18-2006, 01:16 PM

United 93

- (7 out of 10)

We all know what the story is about. Paul Greengrass does a great job weaving together the story of the plane with the story of the people in the military and air traffic control as they respond to the tragedy.

Spoiler:

seeing the very first cnn shot of the pentagon took me back... it was the first thing I saw that day when we turned on the tvs in school after a student came back from a run to the office, stunned, and turned on the tv. I remember some of the announcer talk before they cut quickly back to the smoking towers.

The filmmaking has quality and resonance, but there is a sense of respectful distance--we both know the people on the plane (in the sense we are them, as fellow americans) and don't know them at all. There is true horror to hearing them cry as they say good bye, one person to an answering machine. But in not knowing our emotional response is limited, and in knowing what's coming we begin to distance ourselves from the emotion as they begin to fight back.

I don't get the point of the German guy though, it felt like cheap screenwriting.

Spoiler:

Adam_S · 12-18-2006, 01:29 PM

Having seen so many high caliber films in the last three weeks, here's my current top 15 list of the year:

Borat
Perfume: Story of a Murderer
Dreamgirls
The Queen
Monster House
The Departed
Brick
Clerks II
Apocalypto
Akeelah and the Bee
The Proposition
Pan's Labyrinth
Twelve and Holding
Flushed Away
Pursuit of Happyness

Seth Paxton · 12-19-2006, 07:20 PM

Casino Royale
8.5 of 10
It honestly could have been in the running for best Bond film ever, but then the script bogged down about 3/4 through as it tried to leverage in some emotions to carry into the final act. The result was a terrible lull that really plays awkward in the pacing.

It also spent too much screen time on some early action scenes. Take a few minutes out of those and move them closer to the end to keep the audience interested and the pace up.

The strengths are that the tone is probably the best it's ever been in a Bond film. Along the lines of Unforgiven it redefines killing in the Bond genre which gives it a greater intensity in the film. In turn this enhances Bond as a character, he comes off as a truly special individual, someone who is alone in his ability to go to a harsher level of action much like Clint was in Unforgiven.

I didn't like the way they forced poker into the film and it was made worse by the running commentary within the script. It also played out too simplistic because of this. But the idea of Bond being needed for his ability to think within that society as a contrast against his killing ability comes off better in CR than perhaps any film.

Ultimately Craig is the nastiest, hardest Bond yet. He's not as suave as Connery, but when he kills you believe it. He has an edge to him that suggests an underlying level of cruelty that enables him to be the complete superspy rather than just the ultimate playboy.

The gadget aspect was also nicely understated, something the series badly needed. Gadgets are still there, but this is less far-fetched than even the Mission Impossible series. It's fun to have bits and pieces, but it was getting to the point that Bond's talent was being surplanted by the array of gadgets available to him.

Tighten up that script and this moves beyond just being a good Bond film and into best of the year period status. I wish it had made it to that level myself, we need more action films competitive on the great filmmaking level.

Adam_S · 12-21-2006, 01:14 AM

Letters from Iwo Jima -

Letters from Iwo Jima is Clint Eastwood's telling of the Japanese side of the battle of Iwo Jima. He follows two characters, the majority of the film is concerned with Saigo, played by Kazunari Ninomiya. Saigo was a baker before he was drafted, he left his pregnant wife to join the war. The other character is the General in charge of defense of the island, Kuribayoshi, played by Ken Watanabe. Saigo is a reluctant soldier that has been trampled by the Imperial government and he's trampled by the imperial army too. But he's a survivor, focused on his wife and getting home, in many ways he's the most american character in the entire film (more representative of america than the eyeless, faceless, american soldiers we come across in the movie). Kuribayoshi is also a reluctant soldier, not because he doesn't want to be fighting, but he doesn't want to be fighting Americans. he knows they can't win and he keeps battling to save lives, and being thwarted by his honor-indoctrinated subordinate commanders.

the film is beautifully shot, and technically very well put together. But it is very uneven. There are many moments in the film when it stops treading and really reaches for (and achieves) something more, but then it falters again back into the morose slow death of the Japanese force.

Because we have such a strong attachment to Saigo, it's virtually impossible to the emotionally connect to what the Japanese went through as they hemmoraged lives and lost ground. Saigo cares so little for the goals of the imperial army that mainly I wanted just him to survive and to be captured and or surrender to the americans. The audience stays very distant to the tragic goings on of the film.

There's almost no tension, outside of a handful of scenes.
the flashbacks are some of the strongest material because they tell so much about war's effect on humanity and community with so little--much more so than any of the Iwo Jima material.

I find it hard to believe this is an anti-war film--anti fascist yes, anti outmoded military, yes, anti cultural codes that encourage conformity (sadly thought of as honor) over intelligent assessment, yes. But not really anti war. You see some of the horrors of war, but that's a trope common to the genre, and hardly a message.

There are many powerful moments in the film, many superb moments of meditation on the hopelessness of the island and the conundrum that forced the Japanese defenders into but there is also a lot of ennui breaking up those rhythms and preventing the film from really taking off to the next level. Uneven is the best word to describe the film. Very good but not great.

Kazonari Ninomiya does a superb job carrying 80% of the film, and without him I think the whole thing would falter and collapse in the manner Flags of Our Fathers did with audiences and critics.

Seth Paxton · 12-22-2006, 07:42 PM

So Perfume is good. I saw the trailer and was interested. Plus I've remained a Tykwer fan through Heaven and Princess/Warrior.

I'll tell you one thing, at this point my top 10 is shy of many serious dramas and only features 1 "10" - Flushed Away, which I loved. I'm counting on a lot of the films I either just missed or are just coming out to save the year for me.

edit - as I looked I realized something was wrong about that statement...I never added The Departed to this thread or even my XL list for 2006.

Here is the copy and paste from the official review thread.

The Departed
10 of 10
It probably won't end up being my favorite of the year, but this is an outstanding film that seems very likely to be in my top 5. I loved Infernal Affairs and the instant it ended I said to myself "this MUST be brought to mainstream America, the script is just too good not to". And here it is a few years later, just as I'd hoped and without being ruined by a script butcher.

This is a remake on part with how Yojimbo turned into Fistful of Dollars, each with the directors style but without losing sight of the fundamental keys to the plot and themes. In fact in this case Scorsese seems to have locked in on almost all the best stuff and tried to draw more of it out.

There are a few misses on changes, but they are really mild.

I love the pairing of Leo and Marty and I'm glad that started happening. I'm also a big Wahlberg fan and this is another hit effort by him. Baldwin too proves that he has good range between the intensity of a GGGRoss and SNLive when he shows off both at the same time here.

The script adaptation is outstanding, and very often extremely funny. In fact the comedy found within the drama and the characters is better than it is in your average half-assed comedy.

2nd edit - downgraded X-Men 3 to a 8.5 from 9 after a another viewing. Good story/production, poor direction.

kraZi · 12-22-2006, 08:17 PM

wow, those are some crazy lists.