Passion (3/10): Vintage De Palma isn't nearly as interesting.

“I used to want to be admired. Now I want to be loved.”

We can all agree that Brian De Palma directed some of his best films during the 80’s and 90’s (Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito’s Way, Mission: Impossible, and Body Double) and let us not forget about his 1976 classic horror film Carrie, but it has been nearly two decades since he has made a great film. We can make a case for him that he doesn’t nearly direct as much as he used to considering it took him five years to make Passion while in the 80’s he directed nine films and five during the 90’s. However his latest efforts haven’t made much of a splash with critics nor audiences. It may come as a surprise however that Passion has a sort of 80’s retro feel to it and that De Palma included some of his classic trademarks like the split screen, long takes with dolly movements, dopplegangers, and several dreamy sequences. Fans of De Palma might enjoy the fact that in Passion he revists these recurring themes, but at the same time he introduces those elements in such  way that they feel like a parody of his own work. More than a De Palma film, Passion feels like an attempt from one of his fans to honor his past work with deliberately forced dialogue and over the top performances. It is a B-movie, but one I really had a difficult time enjoying. There are ridiculous amounts of twists that make very little sense and I lost interest in the story pretty quickly. 

Passion is actually a remake of Alain Corneau’s 2010 French film, Crime d’amour (Love Crime), starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier, and that film seems far more appealing than this one. De Palma adapted the screenplay for this remake which stars Rachel McAdams as a manipulative advertising agency boss in Germany named Christine. Her protege, Isabelle (Noomi Rapace), proves to be very talented when she comes up for a slick advertising campaign for a cell phone company. Executives in the United States are fascinated by the concept she came up with, but when Christine takes credit for her protege’s work things begin to get complicated between them. It doesn’t help that Isabelle is having a secret affair with Dirk (Paul Anderson), who happens to be dating Christine. No one is actually who they seem to be in this world and things begin to get out of hand pretty quickly when Christine tries to publicly humiliate Isabelle. Caroline Herfuth also plays a secondary role as Isabelle’s assistant with who she is a bit obsessive with.

It only took me about ten minutes into the film to lose much of my interest in the film. The acting was over the top and the dialogue extremely forced, and I know that it was intentional but it didn’t make for an interesting satire either. Passion is a film that obsesses over its style and forgets about its substance. The long takes with dolly movements are incredibly distracting at times and I didn’t feel they served any purpose in the story. The final third act is incredibly dull while trying to be clever layering one twist after another which doesn’t make much sense. I honestly didn’t find any redeeming quality from Passion and couldn’t even enjoy the performances from the talented cast because the story was too painful to get through.         

'71 (7/10): Jack O'Connell is quickly becoming a household name.

“Hey, listen, I don't want you worried about me, okay? I'll be fine, promise you.“

Yann Demange’s theatrical debut couldn’t have come at a better time for its lead protagonist, Jack O’Connell, after the success of Starred Up and his breakout Hollywood lead role in Unbroken. O’Connell couldn’t have chosen more physically challenging roles than he has in these three films, but he has managed to make a name for himself and he is an actor I will continue to look forward to. In ’71 he plays Gary Hook, a young British soldier who is sent to Belfast along with his unit during the war in which Irish factions were divided between the Catholics who wanted to be liberated from British rule and the Protestants who supported British involvement. The film however doesn’t spend time explaining the politics and it simply introduces us to this soldier’s life who is abandoned by his platoon when a riot breaks out in the streets. Hook struggles for his life in the midst of the turmoil in these unknown streets where he is deemed as the enemy. He runs into several people along the way without fully knowing who is on his side or who wants him killed. The action takes place during the course of one day and there are several thrills and twists along the way.

Jack O’Connell delivers another solid performance playing a soldier who is struggling to survive. We’ve seen the premise of the left behind soldier done many times before, but in ’71 we don’t get the typical war hero who fights his way through enemy lines. Here Hook fears for his life and is forced to rely on the people he encounters without knowing if they are friend or foe. Burke’s screenplay is minimal but full of thrills and suspense, and its shot with a hand-held camera that gives the chase scenes an authentic feel to them and a sense of immediacy. ’71 doesn’t give the audience a back-story and we are forced to piece the events together as they happen (or rely on our prior knowledge of the events that took place in Belfast), so the politics can become a bit unclear, but the film delivers several thrills along the way. The action escalates as the situation gets out of control pretty quickly and we easily identify with Hook’s character from early on. So it becomes more about his survival than about the politics and reasonings behind the war. Sean Harris, Paul Anderson, Sam Reid, David Wilmot, Corey McKinley, and Barry Keoghan are among the supporting actors who deliver compelling performances, but it’s O’Connell who stands out once again.

The action sequences in ’71 are the highlight of the movie thanks to the sense of immediacy captured through the lens of the hand-held camera as Hook runs through the narrow streets of Belfast. But that same technique also contributes to some headache inducing shaky camera moments. Overall it is a compelling suspenseful thriller that proves once gain that Jack O’Connell can carry a film on his own.   

My Review: Resident Evil Afterlife (6/10)

¨Five years ago... A virus escaped, and everybody died. ¨

It has been three years since the last Resident Evil movie came out. Afterlife is the fourth of the franchise and lives up to the expectations most fans of the series had although it isn`t as good as the first movie. This is my favorite franchise based on a video game and in my opinion the series has worked because of Milla Jovovich. She is great in her role as Alice and has become a huge action star. Paul W.S. Anderson directed the first film of the series and now he came back to direct the fourth one, although he has written the screenplay for all four films so he has been involved with the entire process. The effects are great and if you are a fan of the franchise I recommend you see this in 3D, but if you didn`t like the other films or aren`t familiar with them I wouldn`t recommend them since you might find yourself lost in the midst of the plot. I have to admit I never played the videogames or know anything about them so I can`t say how true to the game the story is, but considering all the videogames that have been turned into movies this is by far the best series. The thing I liked least about this movie was the opening 15 minutes in Tokyo, but I understand they served to connect the end of Resident Evil Extinction with Afterlife. After Tokyo the movie really picks up and I found myself engaged in the story. This is not a movie you will enjoy for the acting, dialogue, or intelligent script, but it is an action packed movie with cool visuals, good fight scenes, and a very hot Milla Jovovich doing what she does best: killing zombies.

The movie begins right where Resident Evil Extinction left us. Alice (Milla Jovovich) is trying to destroy the Umbrella Corporation using her newly discovered clones and goes deep inside Umbrella Head Quarters in Tokyo to kill Wesker (Shawn Roberts). After a faceoff with several soldiers, Wesker escapes in an aircraft and the base is destroyed. Alice`s clones have all been exterminated in the explosion, but she managed to get to the aircraft in time and just when she is about to kill Wesker he injects her with a serum that neutralizes the T-virus in her blood. She losses her superpowers and becomes human and thanks him for that right before they crash in the mountains. Alice survives and decides to go search for any survivors left in the apocalyptic world. She travels to Alaska in search of Arcadia where her friends had parted in the third film. Once in Alaska she finds the helicopter her friends where in, but there is no sign of survivors, the place is deserted. Right when she is about to lose hope she is attacked by Claire (Ali Larter) who has no memory of who she is because her memory has been erased by an Umbrella device. Alice frees her from the device and tries to help her get her memory back, while in the meantime they travel together on a two-man plane to Hollywood in search of more survivors. Here they find the city infected with zombies, but there are a few survivors in the rooftop of a prison cell. They make a forceful landing and meet some of the survivors who think she is here to rescue them. Luther (Boris Kodjoe), Crystal (Kasey Barnfield), Kim (Norman Yeung), and Wendell (Fulvio Cecere) are some of the survivors who tell Alice what Arcadia actually is and together they have to try to get there before the zombies find a way in the prison walls.

Wentworth Miller was a good addition in this film as he plays Chris Redfield, Claire`s brother, but due to her memory loss she can`t recognize him. Alice and Claire are back from the third film and they have a lot of screen time as usual. Miller and Kodjoe give good supporting male roles, but we all know that the Resident Evil franchise is about girls who can kick zombie butts. In the first film it was Jovovich with Michelle Rodriguez, then she teamed up with Sienna Guillory in the second one, and now in the third and fourth films Jovovich and Larter are the true stars of the film. There are some very memorable scenes with great Matrix like effects. The 3D visuals are cool, and I especially liked the scene where Alice and Claire battled the Axeman in the bathroom. This is a popcorn action movie and probably not for everyone. If you didn`t like the other Resident Evil movies then there is no reason why you should go see this, but if you liked those films then you will probably enjoy this one as well.

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