Review: All is Lost

ALL IS LOST:  Someone whose name is never revealed is on his way somewhere in a sailboat alone in the Indian Ocean.  This sounds like quite the adventure for someone who wishes to push the boundaries of endurance and accomplish something truly epic.  But you need to pay attention to the first lines of the movie.  You need to try to understand why this man is where he is.  Try to find some insight into the motivation of Robert Redford's character.  I don't think he was out there to be one of those classic adventurers.  He seems more of a yacht-y out on a neat trip.  In any event disaster strikes, he is forced improvise, abandon ship and survive.

My problem with this movie is that I know too much about sailing and life at sea.  I would hope that J.C. Chandor (the writer) did a lot of research.  There were a lot of mistakes made by Redford's character throughout the movie that made him appear to survive in spite of himself.  I think, though, the character was supposed to be seen as resourceful and less lucky.  And that, ultimately, is the problem with this movie it is hard to really sympathise with a character that makes really dumb decisions when you know what it is he should be doing.

All is Lost, is otherwise a really good movie.  Redford has a monologue at the beginning, speaks a sentence over a radio and says one more word - and that is the extent of the lines.  He acts well and does a good job showing his emotions and frustrations.  The photography is good - above average even.  For such a spartan movie it does very well - the beef with this movie is in the actions of the character that is, I believe, supposed to be more heroic and resourceful than he appears to an educated audience member.

On the Chris' Choice Rating Scale, All is Lost gets 3 stars.

***

Review: Fly Boys

I'm a big fan of WW1 flying films. This was a fun movie, but problematic. The movie is about the story of the French flying squadron that was filled with American volunteers fighting during the First World War before the US joined the fight. The squadron was real and called "L'Escadrille Lafayette".

The movie is fun in that it is a classic war movie with all of the formulas that one comes to expect. We found ourselves guessing who was going to die first and the next plot twist. The characters were one-dimensional and, obviously the plot was not so good.

I enjoyed the movie none the less, but it was a fan-boy kind of thing. There are much better WW1 movies out there that have aged well. I would recommend The Blue Max. Unlike Fly Boys, the movie was filmed entirely using old aircraft and the pictures are thrilling. The use of CGI in Fly Boys was distracting and from a fan boy perspective was a let-down.

On the Chris' Choice Rating Scale Fly Boys gets one star

*

powered by performancing firefox

Review: Marie Antoinette

It has been a while since I last posted a review to this site, but it has also been a long time since I last saw a movie. So, here is one of two movies that we were able to squeeze in on a Saturday night.

Marie Antoinette follows the life of the Austrian Princess from the time that she is betrothed to the Dauphin to the time that she flees Versailles in the midst of the French treason of 1789. Putatively this is a period piece. There are plenty of lavish scenes of the royal court and lives the courtesans. Some of the most interesting points in the movie involve the elaborate ritual of the court as seen from the perspective of the relative outsider.

There were three things that I found objectionable about this movie. The first was the infusions of contemporary music into the score. It was distracting to hear an electic guitar and punk music being played over scenes set in 18th century Versailles. Related to that was the use of montage in order to speed through the passage of time. Such a device is often one of the last resource of a screen writer trying to salvage a poor script. Finally was the constant attention paid to the issue of the consummation of the marriage of Marie and Louis. This did not have to be the subject of the first half of the film. Though an important part of the film it takes too much attention away from other issues that play a larger role in the downfall of the rightful kings of France in the inevitable treason at the end (I am not spoiling anything here because it is a matter of historical fact. If me revealing the fact that Marie was involved in the French Revolution is news to you, then I do not want you reading this blog anyway, feel free to spend your time reading a history book). There is no doubt that the foibles of the Royal couple had something to do with the revolution, and that revolution looms over the entire film. It is an inevitable fact and the movie does not adequately deal with that fact.

It must be difficult to write a film about a story where everyone knows the ending, but that cannot be helped. The writer and director must come up with a strategy for dealing with this fact. This film did not do that, and that is a significant failing. Despite some of the better aspects of it.

On the Chris Choice Rating Scale Marie Antoinette gets one star
*

2000 Storikengold, Dietrich Joss

I'm enjoying a superb glass of vintage Dietrich Joss Storikengold. It is a fine blend of white hybrid grapes and is one of my last bottles from this excellent Quebec winery. I strongly urge people to give this winery a chance. I've been drinking their product for years, and will be going back this Christmas to stock up again. Give Quebec a chance! Yum!

The Rating Scale

Developed in Conjunction with Mr J.J.E. Imber, Esq

This was lost after some house cleaning on my other site. So, I've reposted it.

Ratings on this website will attempt to follow a rational and meaningful system of evaluation and quantification. There will be two systems. One system will follow a number-name system between -3 and +3 with no fractions and only a theoretical zero. The second system will be identical in substance, but since everyone on earth rates movies using stars we will condescend to a star based system. from 0 to 5 stars using only whole stars. The meanings and terminology of the system are outlined below:

Number- Name	Stars (movie)	Descriptor	Meaning	Success
+3	5	Very superior, fantastic	A Z-score of greater than +2 or 2.275 % of all things of this nature. (98th and 99th percentile)	STRONGLY SURPASSED Revolutionary qualities and others better start taking notice.
+2	4	Quality, very good, excellent,	A Z-score of between +1and +2 or 13.590 % of all things of this nature. (between 84th and 97th percentile)	SURPASSED Has surpassed expectations with unique and innovative qualities
+1	3	Legit, good, alright	A Z-score of between 0 and +1 or 34.135% of all things of this nature. (between 50th and 83rd percentile)	STRONG PASS Has met expectations with general satisfaction
0	"2 1/2"	The theoretical average	This is the theoretical average point. A grade of zero will not be given. Iit has no real existential value. Have you ever had the average wine?
-1	2	Not impressive, has problems	A Z-score of between 0 and -1 or 34.135 % of all things of this nature. (between 16th and 49th percentile)	WEAK PASS Did not meet all expectations, but has certain redeeming qualities
-2	1	Junk, bad, not good	A Z-score of between -1and -2 or 13.590 % of all things of this nature. (between 2nd and 15th percentile)	MARGINAL FAIL with no redeeming qualites (wine would be rejected)
-3	0	*@#^&#	A Z-score of less than -2 or 2.275 % of all things of this nature. (0th and 1st percentile)	SEVERE FAIL Has qualities, but they are bad. This was a step in the wrong direction

The Z-score is a statistical tool. If you decided to sleep through your statistics course or have simply forgotten what it all means please check this website for a brief refresher:

http://www.sysurvey.com/tips/statistics/zscore.htm

Review: Domino

The movie Domino is a movie about a member of the Beverly Hills 90210 establishment who rebels against her mother and becomes a Bounty Hunter. The movie attempts to build a character development story along with the action movie strory. The former is not very convincing and/or interesting; the latter is pretty standard. What saves the movie and brings it slightly above average is the style of the presentation and some pretty cool casting - if it has Christopher Walken chances are it will be cool.

The action story line is told by Domino the bounty hunter in a police interrogation room. Of Course, this has been done, but Lucy Liu is the interogator and there is a good raport between the two. The main action story line develops over an inside job gone wrong, again, it has been done. What makes the movie kinda edgy is the female bounty hunter trying to prover herself. Plus the filming is done in a gritty kind of colour that lends a Bobba-Fet meets American Western in modern LA feel to the movie. I don't like making those kind of analogies any more than most people like reading them. Nonetheless I think the comparison is apt, so tough.

What does this all add up to? A solid action movie.

On the official Chris' Choice scale Domino gets three stars.

***

Some Recent Reviews

Kim
An old movie based on the Kipling book. It was lots of fun and worth seeing. You just can't make movies like this anymore. ***

Primer
An intteresting movie that has garnered a lot of attention recently. I'm not sure it is all that is cracked up to be. Yes, it is cool that it was made for so little money. Unfortunately the narrative is very difficult to follow after a while and the movie gets a little tiresome. I don't really care how much money the movie was made for so: **

Saw
Another interesting movie with a cool premise. Too bad it falls into that category of american film making that just wants to shock and surprise with gore and twist endings. Yawn... *