http://ambival.net/movies/face-off Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:43:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://ambival.net/movies/face-off#comment-7165 Ambival.net » Movie Reviews » Deja Vu [2006] Thu, 19 Apr 2007 01:51:05 +0000 http://ambival.net/?p=177#comment-7165 [...] I spent the first twenty minutes of this movie wondering when the whole quasi-sci-fi element of this movie was actually going to kick in. You know, that awful moment like in Face / Off (a great movie, don’t get me wrong), the geeky scientist stepping in, saying, “of course … there is … another way …” Though I have to mention, it takes way too long for this movie to get going (I think I clocked it at around 37 minutes where the moment that should occur at around 10-20 minutes occurs), that particular moment bizarrely never comes, and more bizarrely, you never really miss it. The way the movie handles its most fictional element (“Let’s just say, the government has a device that lets me know what’s gonna happen ahead of time …”) almost reminds me of the Tesla stuff in The Prestige – there is no exposition to unveil it or explain it, it is just presented in this way, like, “Okay, people, listen up: this shit exists and this shit works – deal with it.” When someone actually questions it, like Denzel saying, “So how do you turn this thing on?”, regarding the equipment involved, like expecting some complex and hi-tech rigmarole, the answer comes back, “There’s an on/off switch on the back …” The whole thing is surprisingly, almost scarily, easy to take, no pinch of salt required. [...] [...] I spent the first twenty minutes of this movie wondering when the whole quasi-sci-fi element of this movie was actually going to kick in. You know, that awful moment like in Face / Off (a great movie, don’t get me wrong), the geeky scientist stepping in, saying, “of course … there is … another way …” Though I have to mention, it takes way too long for this movie to get going (I think I clocked it at around 37 minutes where the moment that should occur at around 10-20 minutes occurs), that particular moment bizarrely never comes, and more bizarrely, you never really miss it. The way the movie handles its most fictional element (“Let’s just say, the government has a device that lets me know what’s gonna happen ahead of time …”) almost reminds me of the Tesla stuff in The Prestige – there is no exposition to unveil it or explain it, it is just presented in this way, like, “Okay, people, listen up: this shit exists and this shit works – deal with it.” When someone actually questions it, like Denzel saying, “So how do you turn this thing on?”, regarding the equipment involved, like expecting some complex and hi-tech rigmarole, the answer comes back, “There’s an on/off switch on the back …” The whole thing is surprisingly, almost scarily, easy to take, no pinch of salt required. [...]

]]> http://ambival.net/movies/face-off#comment-488 Ambival.net » Movies » The Rock Fri, 14 Jul 2006 01:03:24 +0000 http://ambival.net/?p=177#comment-488 [...] This is the ultimate blockbuster movie, the ultimate Don Simpson movie, Michael Bay’s best. Sean Connery is classier than class, Nicolas Cage is cooler than cool, there’s a cameo by Claire Forlani amongst others, a plethora of quotable lines, and the epitome of a Hans Zimmer score. My interest never wanes watching this one. If I was the kind of person who had a super-exclusive list of movies I considered classics, that I added to only once in a while, now would be the time I’d add this one. ‘Cos it’s definitely some kind of classic, and I can’t think of a blockbuster as purely blockbusting since its release … maybe Face/Off, I guess. [...] [...] This is the ultimate blockbuster movie, the ultimate Don Simpson movie, Michael Bay’s best. Sean Connery is classier than class, Nicolas Cage is cooler than cool, there’s a cameo by Claire Forlani amongst others, a plethora of quotable lines, and the epitome of a Hans Zimmer score. My interest never wanes watching this one. If I was the kind of person who had a super-exclusive list of movies I considered classics, that I added to only once in a while, now would be the time I’d add this one. ‘Cos it’s definitely some kind of classic, and I can’t think of a blockbuster as purely blockbusting since its release … maybe Face/Off, I guess. [...]

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