In the last week, I have seen three of my very highly anticipated 2007 releases. One was a huge disappointment. One was expectantly wonderful. One was a perfect end to what may be my favorite franchise. Some brief thoughts on all three:
Sunshine
4/10
A pretty big disappointment. A lot of it was just unrealism that bugged me. The "5th member" twist near the end was, to be blunt, completely pathetic. I've rarely seen a more idiotic and illogical move in a film. I was sitting there for the entire last 30 minutes in stunned silence, the strong thought of "You've got to be kidding me." just racing through my head. But, no that's not where the unrealism ends. So we are in the future, the sun is dying and we need to revive it. So, what do we do? We send a shuttle of eight people who are absolute geniuses at one particular element that is vital to the mission. It doesn't matter if they can work as a team, and it certainly doesn't matter if these people are complete morons outside of their one particular job, which they are. Seriously, the entire mission is based on dropping the payload and only one person on the entire shuttle has the ability to do it? What a joke. The characters had no depth at all, in my opinion, except for maybe Capa and Cassie though they ignore the small chance of development for Cassie pretty early on. They were all just flat, generic characters that I've seen in 99% of all "epic crisis" films. The cinematography was very poor. All of the snappy cuts and blurs and tilts made me a thousand times more nauseas than impressed. Don't get me wrong though, it wasn't all bad. The visuals were absolutely breathtaking. Mainly through them, the film created an entrancing experience that completely drew me out of the real world. The acting from the entire cast was pretty great, though they didn't have much room to create depth with the shallow characters they were given. Cillian Murphy and Rose Byrne were definitely the highlights, as I expected since they were by far my favorites of the cast in general. So, while entertaining and superbly acted the film was a huge disappointment for me.
Talk to Me
9/10
A perfect blend of uproarious comedy and gut-wrenching drama. This film was a machine built to be driven by Don Cheadle. His performance is the stuff of legends. I don't think I've ever seen an actor become as immersed in a character as he was. It's impossible to describe how absorbed he is into this role. I simply could not believe it. Everything from the voice to the walk, to the facial expressions, Don Cheadle is Petey Greene. Chiwetel Ejiofor also delivers a very solid performance in a role that unfortunately takes the backseat to Cheadle's tour de force. They bounce off each other perfectly and deliver stellar performances, as does Taraji P. Henson. Much like the blend of comedy and drama, the film does a great job of spending as much time on the relationship between Petey and Dewey, the crisis of the nation at the time (MLK's death, the Chicago riots), and the public's reaction to Petey. The contrast between Petey and Dewey was phenomenal. Dewey was living vicariously through Petey, trying to get him to be a bigger and bigger star until he lived Dewey's dream of being on The Tonight Show. But in doing all of this, he ignores why Petey is Petey. He doesn't want to be the big star all over television. He just wants to be the badass motherfucker who speaks the truth and doesn't care who gets offended, but he just wants to do it on the radio. I really loved to see this progression throughout. The film is definitely one of the best of the year so far. I can easily see Cheadle winning the Golden Globe for his performance and hopefully he'll get his second, well deserved, Oscar nomination. I really can't decide whether him or Bale is my winner so far.
The Bourne Ultimatum
9/10
Continues with the tradition of the series so far. Once again, the series excels at being an intellectual, action-packed, edge-of-your-seat thriller that starts with a bang and never lets up. It's a gritty, stylized espionage thriller that is certainly one of the most exhilirating and visceral experiences I've had in recent memory. Greengrass implies the "in your face" techniques that he used in Supremacy which makes the action seem authentic and really puts you into the POV of Bourne, getting your pulse racing and your eyes completely attached to the screen. The cast is all great, as usual. Damon and Allen add the intellect and commanding power to the film. It was great to see Julia Stiles getting a more pivotal rule, since I felt she was pretty underused in the previous installments. The addition of David Straithairn and, more importantly, Albert Finney was absolutely brilliant. They just continued the tradition of brilliant, insanely commanding actors playing the generic "hunt him down" role. They certainly added a lot to what could have been very flat characters. The style used is gritty, suave and very authentic. However, it can become a bit too stylized at times. It can cut too quickly and zoom in and out and tilt all over the place, and the editing could be pretty sloppy from time to time. Other than that though, I don't really have much to complain about. If you liked the first two installments, you'll surely be pleased by this one. If you didn't, then this obviously isn't for you. I was a big fan.
