Red Eye

Fizzles where it should have popped


Wes Craven's Red Eye is all build-up and no pay-off. With two extremely engaging actors on screen in Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, and an extremely effective premise, the final act of the film really disappoints as Craven reverts to the slasher style cat and mouse game he established in his Scream films. The running time of 80 minutes is misleadingly short as well; while "shorter is better" might be a rule of thumb in suspense thrillers, here the film's end credits hit us while we are still reeling from the speed at which Rachel McAdams's character, Lisa Reisert, goes from victim to victor.

Here's the set up: Hotel manager Reisert is flying back to Miami after her grandmother's funeral. She is befriended in the airport by a charming stranger with the unlikely name of Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy). Surprise, surprise, he also has the seat next to her in the plane! But not really! As it turns out Rippner wants to take out the head of Homeland Security who is to be staying in Lisa's hotel and threatens to kill Lisa's father unless she co-operates with him in his objective.

The scenes in the flight are the best part of the movie, the claustrophobic surroundings adding brilliantly to the suspense. Murphy's performance is especially outstanding here as he goes from charming to spooky in the blink of an eye; it's brilliant the way he smiles, able to make it flirtatious or chilling as it suits him. That said, Rachel McAdamas manages to bring a cerain intensity to her performance, unseen in any of the young actresses today (Did I say "young"? Just checked IMDB and she's pushing 30! Amazing, doesn't look that old!) Its a pity that the ending lets all of this goes to waste.

NOTE: I'd thought Red Eye was a term that would have a special significance in this movie. Turns out, it is just lingo for a late night flight!

Greatest game ever played!!

3rd Ashes Test: England v Australia at Manchester, 11-15 Aug 2005

6 balls to go...

Going gaga over Goblet

Ok, it's happened a lot of times before. The previews, the trailers and everything else look absolutely awesome. The build up is excruciating! It seems like its never going to get here!

And then when it does, everyone goes, "What the...?" All the good parts have already been shown in the trailer; the best jokes, the best special effects, everything!! The rest of the movie is just filler! The greatest example: The Matrix - Reloaded.

So, why am I falling for it again with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire? Ok, so the teaser trailer looked brilliant! All the stills they have been releasing look astounding in their detail! The important new cast members (Ralph Fiennes as You-Know-Who and Brendan Gleesen as Mad-Eye) seem inspired choices. For the first time we have a director who actually respects the material (Mike Newell is a big fan of HP books), who's talented and not unimportantly, British (I think non-British directors do not understand how British actors can make even the most pedestrian dialogue sound majestic). He's also mentioned that he approached the movie as a thriller and compared it to how a Hitchcock movie would be.

Ok, so I AM going gaga! Its my most expected movie of the year, has been since the teaser got here a few months back. Now there is almost a full-length trailer sort of a clip, available through Mugglenet. And that only reinforces my convictions about this!

After all, it can't be that bad, can it?

Recently watched, currently watching and obliged to presently watch

It's been a busy, busy couple of weeks with a lot of research done and hardly anytime to post anything or more importantly, watch anything. Hardly, I said. I managed to squeeze enough time to watch Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, the superhero flick, Hellboy, the ok-thriller, The Game and finally, Super Size Me, about which I made a post recently.

I guess all four are pretty good movies in their own genre. I was actually quite disappointed with The Game, which I had really high expectations of. I had always caught only the first half-hour or so of it in Star Movies back home, quite a few years back, and it always left me very intrigued. These sort of thrillers work in such a way that only a big pay-off at the climax would logically satisfy the happenings early-on in the movie. Well, I'm sorry to report that the ending in this one pretty much destroys the movie.

A lot of people have mentioned that Hellboy is the best superhero movie/comic-book adaptation and I can see that they have a point. Though, the movie does let down in the end (again!), it is over-all a pretty whimsical and fun superhero flick, without every descending into camp. Good fun!

A Clockwork Orange: Kubrick definitely uses his soundtrack amazing well, in his movies that I've seen so far (2001 and this. I've also seen Dr. Strangelove, but that was a long time back and I don't remember too much). The music along with the opening shot in this movie pretty much ensured that I wouldn't take my eyes off the screen till the movie ended. A definite must-see this...

...which brings me to the movies I still have to see. Continuing my Kubrick festival, next up is The Shining. Then, I have the classic (and looooong) director's cut of Das Boot, often called one of the best war movies. After that, it will be two relatively newer movies: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, which plagiarized its name from this blog (and not the other way round as most people might imagine!) and Glengarry Glen Ross, one of those rivetting dialogue driven thrillers.

In other news, I also read Yann Martel's Life of Pi. Very fascinating read. I can't for the life of me figure out whether the whole story is made up or (slight spoiler) only that version of the story!