Spontaneous Musings

Seen several movies lately - Walk The Line, Mission Impossible III (wasn't my choice, I had gone to a group outting and this was the film they picked, personally I would have picked Poisdeon.), and My Neighbor Totoro. Plus Ice Harvest and Derailed reviewed in depth below.

Walk the Line is a servicable bio-pic about Johnny Cash's romance with June Carter Cash. During the film, I felt sorry for Cash's ex-wife Vivian and her children - whom he abandons in the film for June, his music and his drug habit. Not necessarily in that order. I can see why his daugher by Vivian had troubles with this film. The film unlike Ray, focuses more on the relationship between Cash and June as well as the drug habit, and less on the music. But like the Ray Charles film - both deal with angst over a brother's death. For Cash - it's his older brother Jack's accidental death in a sawmill, for Ray - it's his younger brother's death by drowning. Both blame themselves. Both retreat into music to deal with it. Both become musical icons for their times. Wasn't in love with the film. But like Ray, fell in love with the music and rushed out to buy "The Legend of Johnny Cash" - a 12 tune retrospective of Cash's music sung by Cash.

Mission Impossible III is no more or less what it claims to be - a Tom Cruise action film, except this one comes complete with long torture sequences. The characters, outside of Cruise's, are barely developed and tend to be "stock". We have the lovely girlfriend/fiancee who is a nurse or doctor (not sure which), the sadistic villain (underplayed by Philip Seymore Hoffman), the wet-behind the ears agency bureaucrat (Henry Thomas), and the nasty chief (Laurence Fishburn). The rest are Cruise's team - who will apparently do anything he wants regardless of how crazy it sounds. They are the most entertaining part of the film, but aren't given much to do and aren't seen that much - Michell Yeoh, Billy Crud-up, and Ving Rhames (I would have been far happier watching these three than Cruise). The film starts with a torture sequence and more or less ends with one. The same one. I'm not spoiling you on that - since you sort of can figure that out for yourself within the first five minutes. The twists in the film aren't hard to figure out. I figured out the big one way before the reveal. And wondered if perhaps I've watched too many of these things - because now I know what's going to happen before it does. There's an unbelievable scene at the end, that I can't reveal without giving the plot away, but it took me out of the movie and I'm good at ignoring stuff like this. Is it a good film? Not really. Serviceable, accomplishes what it sets out to do, but nowhere near as good as action films such as Bourne Identity, French Connection or for that matter the first two Mission Impossibles. Is it a bad film? Nope. It does what it sets out to do. Is it entertaining? Depends on what you like - if you love the tv show Alias, enjoy chase sequences and wild stunts and seeing Cruise get beaten up - you'll like it. If not? Pass.

My Neighbor Totoro by Hizayku Mizakyu (whose name I can't spell) - is a sweet little film about two kids coming to terms with their mother's illness and a move to a new place. Like the directors other anime films - it mixes fantasy and reality. Nowhere near as brilliant as Sprited Away or Howl's Moving Castle, Totoro is fun and sweet and hits the right marks. A good film to rent for the younger set. By younger - I mean 6-10 years of age.

( Making a good Noir Film - reviews of Ice Harvest & Derailed )