My Review: The Book Thief (6/10)

"When life robs you, sometimes you have to rob it back."

Directed by Brian Percival (who is better known for his work in the TV series, Downtown Abbey), The Book Thief, is a film that has divided audiences. Many people seemed to have hated it for being yet another sentimental and tacky melodrama about Nazi Germany, while others found it sweet, inspiring, and touching. I'm not on either side of the spectrum since I didn't hate it, but I didn't think there was anything remarkable about it either. Based on Markus Zusak's novel of the same name and adapted by Michael Petroni there was some strong material to work with but I found the filmmaking lazy at times. First of all I thought we could've done without that terrible narration from Death; every time he spoke it just completely took me out of the film. The other main issue I had with this film is that while everyone is speaking English in Germany, you have the Nazi's speaking in German which made absolutely no sense. Does speaking German make you a Nazi? I thought it just tried to demonize the language. They should have just stuck with one language. Despite these issues I had with the film, I still found it engaging and moving at times. I found it impossible to resist Sophie Nelisse's charm in this film. She is just so sweet and adorable, I enjoyed her performance. Geoffrey Rush gives yet another masterful performance and I'd recommend this movie based on these two performances alone. Rush's character here is very sweet and human, opposed to some of the other roles we've seen him in. Overall I thought this was an enjoyable film despite all the schmaltz and lazy filmmaking moments. 

The film opens with a narration from Death (voiced by Roger Allam) telling us all how we can't escape from meeting him and how wars seem to accelerate this process. He then introduces us to Liesel (Sophie Nelisse), a sweet 9 year old girl who is sent to live with a foster family in a German working class neighborhood. She arrives during the Second World War experiencing many horrors first hand. She's introduced to her foster parents: Hans (Geoffrey Rush), a sweet and loving man, and Rosa (Emily Watson) a stern and hard working lady. A friendly boy named Rudy (Nico Liersch) welcomes Liesel to the neighborhood and plays a key role in her adaptation. Despite missing her mother she bonds with Hans who teaches her how to read and write. Liesel quickly falls in love with books and she begins collecting some when she has a chance. When Hans and Rosa bring in a Jewish refugee to hide out in their home, Liesel bonds with him and spends even more time reading stories to him, but as the war continues the risks involved for hiding refugees grows, and Death is lurking around the corner collecting its victims.

The Book Thief is a film that seems to be aimed towards a young target audience since it portrays the war from the perspective of a young girl. It has its interesting moments, but it also is very melodramatic and manipulative at times while clearly aiming for the heart. The message is pretty much straightforward and simplistic; books are good, wars are bad. Despite hitting those wrong notes at times, I still enjoyed this film and found Rush and Nelisse's performance extremely charming. This film could have been made much better because it's based on strong material, but I was disappointed with the end result.

My Review: The Best Offer (8/10)

"Emotions are like a work of art. They can be forged they seem just like the original but they are forgery."

The Best Offer is Giuseppe Tornatore's latest film which also happens to be his first one in English. The Italian director will forever be known for his love letter to cinema in 1988 when he directed Cinema Paradiso, a true homage to film. He is a talented filmmaker who seems to always be in control of his craft. The Best Offer may not be a masterpiece, and will probably be forgotten amongst his filmography, but it is a very good thriller with a strong performance from Geoffrey Rush in the lead role. Somehow despite knowing exactly where the film was heading halfway through the movie, it still kept me interested and the 131 minutes went by really fast thanks to great pacing. The story is rather predictable and the film is far from being groundbreaking, but the art direction is so beautiful that it is simply a film to admire. Just like the many art paintings we see in this movie, you don't get tired of watching the story unravel. It's an elegant film and the score by Ennio Morricone just make the experience a more pleasant one. Tornatore delivers a good thriller which thanks to his craft allows you to enjoy it despite all the flaws.

Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush) is an art auctioneer who lives on his own and has gathered quite a large collection of portraits. He tries to stay away from human relationships and keeps to himself. He also happens to be an antiques expert so he knows the value these things have. One day he receives a phone call from a strange woman named Claire (Sylvia Hoeks) who wants him to oversee the valuation of her family's art collection. Hesitant at first due to the fact that Claire never shows up to the meetings, he decides to go along with it when he discovers some pieces from a valuable antique. He takes the pieces to a mechanic named Robert (Jim Sturgess) who tells him he can rebuild the robot  if he continues to bring him more pieces. Virgil becomes attached to Claire when he discovers she's even more emotionally damaged than he is. She doesn't allow anyone to see her and hasn't left her house for years. Virgil's life changes when he finally allows himself to become attached to Claire and help her overcome her fear.

Halfway through the film there is a conversation between Rush and Donald Sutherland's characters that gives away the ending, but thanks to Rush's strong performance we are still drawn to the film. The rest of the cast isn't as strong as he is, but the movie works nonetheless. If the film had been made a few decades ago then I might have enjoyed the twist, but by now we have come to expect these sort of surprise endings. The Best Offer reminded me a lot of Matchstick Men, but perhaps nearly not as good. The film is still worth a watch thanks to Tornatore's elegant direction. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

My Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (8/10)

¨What can I say Gibbs? It`s a pirate`s life for me. Savvy! ¨

The fourth film of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has finally arrived and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I was reminded why I had grown to love Jack Sparrow so much after the previous two sequels had lowered my expectations a bit. I`ve enjoyed all four movies, although none has topped the original one. The good thing about On Stranger Tides (the title taken from Tim Powers’ novel which this film is loosely based on) is that it’s the closest and most similar to Gore Verbinski`s first film The Curse of the Black Pearl. The following sequels seemed to get more complicated and loose some of the focus of what made the first film so great: the characters. On Stranger Tides goes back to the basics and has a much simpler story reminding us that there is no need to complicate the plot when the truly entertaining thing about these movies are the characters. One may argue that two of the most important characters are missing in this film: Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner, but in my opinion Jack Sparrow and Barbosa are truly the central characters. This film lets us focus entirely on Sparrow and that is fine enough with me, while Barbosa takes an interesting and comical approach in this movie. Screenwriters Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio are back for the fourth time and I´m glad they decided to keep things much simpler and entertaining. This time around the man that was missing was the captain of the original three Pirate movies, Gore Verbinski, who was replaced by Rob Marshall (director of Nine and Chicago). I must admit this is my favorite Rob Marshall film now and the second best in the franchise.

Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is back again for another adventure. When his friend Gibbs (Kevin McNally) is about to be hung in London, Jack shows up to rescue him, and in his possession he has the map to the fountain of youth. While in London he hears a rumor that Jack Sparrow is looking for a crew for his new ship. But that can`t possibly be true because he is Jack Sparrow and he doesn`t even own a ship. It appears a woman from Jack`s past is behind this, Angelica (Penelope Cruz), a con-artist who will do anything to get Sparrow to take her and her father, Blackbeard (Ian McShane), to the fountain. Sparrow apparently still has feelings for her, but he doesn’t really want to take them, so he is forced on board the Queen Anne`s Revenge anyway. The ship is protected by zombies who obey Blackbeard`s every command, but that isn`t Sparrow`s only worry: the waters are infested by dangerous mermaids who lure the sailors into the deep sea to be eaten. Blackbeard is an evil man, as one of his Christian missionary prisoners, Phillip (Sam Claflin) points out to him. Angelica is worried about a prophecy that her father will soon be killed by a one legged man, and that`s why she`s in such a rush to get to the fountain before anything happens to him. Sparrow has no intention in saving Blackbeard. Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush) is also after the fountain of youth, although he isn`t a pirate any more. Now he is working for King George and his men. So the race to the fountain of youth begins with several dangers on its way.

This film is character driven, the story really doesn`t have to be all that complicated and that is fine with me. It`s purely entertaining and fun. Jack Sparrow is his usual self again and I just couldn’t get enough of him; he is always great and funny. Out of the four films this is probably the least funniest. I didn’t laugh a whole lot like I remember laughing in the other movies, but I still had a great time with the action and adventure. Geoffrey Rush is probably the funniest character in this movie showing a different side of Barbosa. Newcomers Sam Claflin as Phillip and Astrid Berges-Frisbey as Syrena seem to be the next Will and Elizabeth for the franchise, although they didn’t get too much screen time. My least favorite character was probably Angelica, I didn`t like her character at all. Ian McShane played a decent villain. The best thing about On Stranger Tides is that the film centers on Jack Sparrow and we get to see plenty of him. The action sequences are really well choreographed and the visuals are great. The scenery is also beautiful. Before this film I wasn’t so excited about seeing another Pirates movie, but this one left me wanting more. This is not one of those intellectual films, but it is what a summer popcorn movie should be like. It`s not perfect at all, but it is entertaining and reminded me a lot of the original.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/

My Review: Munich (9/10)

¨We are supposed to be righteous. That's a beautiful thing. And we're losing it. If I lose that, that's everything. That's my soul.¨

Munich is a very powerful and emotional movie that combines thrills with human drama. I went into this film expecting it to be simply a revenge movie, but it is much more than that; Spielberg doesn`t take sides and brings a lot of interesting elements that open up the debate between Israel and Palestine and which country is really the enemy. Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors active in American cinema and he has directed several masterpieces, Schindler`s List being perhaps the best one. Munich will probably not rank amongst his best work, but it`s still a great and powerful film that required a lot of risks on Spielberg`s part as a Jew because in Munich he never takes sides and by doing so both sides have declared him an enemy. The movie is based on George Jonas`s book ¨Vengeance¨ and the screenplay was adapted by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). The screenplay was beautifully written and also nominated for the Oscars along with four other categories (editing, directing, score, and best picture), although it went home empty handed. Those were probably the strongest elements the movie had, which was finely edited and the score really enhanced the film. I thought that there were also some very good performances from the cast, especially Eric Bana who gives his best performance to date, and Ciaran Hinds who also nails his role. Spielberg has only directed the fourth installment of Indiana Jones since Munich in 2005, but we will be hearing from him soon.

The film opens with the 1972 murders that took place in the Olympics of Munich. 11 Israeli athletes were murdered by a terrorist group called Black September. Munich focuses on what happened after these murders took place although there are several flashbacks during the movie returning to this attack. Prime Minister Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) didn`t negotiate with the terrorists and therefore the hostages were killed, but now she decides to allow for a black operation to take place in order to kill some of the men behind the planning of the 72 attack. They hire Avner (Eric Bana), a Mossad agent who had served as a bodyguard for Meir, to lead the assasination squad which consisted of five men. The other men hired for the job were Steve (Daniel Craig), the driver, Hans (Hanns Ziechler), an expert at forging false documents and passports, Carl (Ciaran Hinds), the man in charge of doing the clean up after the assasinations took place, and Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), the bomb expert who knows more about dismantling them than creating one. The men resign from their official jobs and the Mossad and work as black operatives not tied to the government. They only receive a list of eleven men they have to kill and have to get the rest of intel on their own and work as a terrorist group and the only connection they have with the government is the payment they receive in the Bank and through a middle man named Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush). Avner contacts a man named Louis (Mathieu Amalric) who finds the location of almost every name given to him in exchange for a high price.

The movie begins very slow, but once the assasinations take place the thrills and suspense begin to play a big part in the film. This is not your average revenge film, it`s much more than that. It opens ethical questions and dilemmas on several issues. Even the characters feel remorse for what they do and end up questioning if they are doing the right thing. Ephraim and Avner have very insightful conversations which open up the debate on this issue. It seems as if every murder that takes place is retaliated by the other group, and every leader that is murdered is replaced by a new one so the war will never end. Some leaders justify their actions by claiming it is the price to pay for building their home and having a land. Speilberg is very clever and doesn`t take any sides in this movie, he doesn`t justify the violence and makes you debate over who the true enemy really is. Munich is a very powerful film that relies on good direction from Spielberg and a solid performance from the entire cast. I really enjoyed this emotional thriller and it will leave you debating several issues.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/