Raised by her father (Eric Bana), an ex-CIA agent, in the wilds of Finland, Hanna's upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one. Sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe, eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Cate Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence.
Hanna has the plot of a Hollywood action blockbuster but the style of a European art movie--and this unholy hybrid is fascinating to watch. Hanna (Saoirse Ronan,
The Lovely Bones) has been raised by her father (Eric Bana,
Munich), an ex-covert agent, for one purpose: to murder the American agent, Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), ! who murdered Hanna's mother. Hanna thinks she succeeds and escapes, but she's actually being followed by Wiegler, who will go to any lengths to exterminate the girl.
Hanna could have been little more than a tween reboot of
La Femme Nikita, but in the hands of director Joe Wright (
Atonement,
Pride & Prejudice) the movie spends as much time on Hanna's budding relationship with a girl on holiday in Morocco as it does on Hanna's capacity to kill. Even the action scenes have atypical rhythms (and one violent sequence occurs in a long, sustained shot that will make film geeks squeal with glee).
Hanna is visually sumptuous, emotionally delicate, and completely unlike any other action flick you'll see. The ending goes flat as disappointingly banal plot mechanics take hold, but up until then,
Hanna combines genuine thrills, unexpected complexity of character, and an unusual electronica soundtrack into an enthralling film.
--Bret FetzerRaised by her father (Eric Bana), an ex-CIA agent, in the wil! ds of Fi nland, Hanna's upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one. Sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe, eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Cate Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence.Hanna has the plot of a Hollywood action blockbuster but the style of a European art movie--and this unholy hybrid is fascinating to watch. Hanna (Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones) has been raised by her father (Eric Bana, Munich), an ex-covert agent, for one purpose: to murder the American agent, Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), who murdered Hanna's mother. Hanna thinks she succeeds and escapes, but she's actually being followed by Wiegler, who will go to any lengths to exterminate the girl. Hanna could have been little more than a tween reboot of La Femme Nikita, but in the hands of director Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) the movie spends as much time on Hanna's budding relationship with a girl on holiday in Morocco as it does on Hanna's capacity to kill. Even the action scenes have atypical rhythms (and one violent sequence occurs in a long, sustained shot that will make film geeks squeal with glee). Hanna is visually sumptuous, emotionally delicate, and completely unlike any other action flick you'll see. The ending goes flat as disappointingly banal plot mechanics take hold, but up until then, Hanna combines genuine thrills, unexpected complexity of character, and an unusual electronica soundtrack into an enthralling film. --Bret FetzerX-Men: First Class is the thrilling, eye-opening chapter you’ve been waiting for...Witness the beginning of the X-Men Universe. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took t! he names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men disc! overing their superhuman powers for the first time, working together in a desperate attempt to stop the Hellfire Club and a global nuclear war.When Bryan Singer brought Marvel's X-Men to the big screen, Magneto and Professor X were elder statesmen, but Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) travels back in time to present an origin story--and an alternate version of history. While Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher) grows up privileged in New York, Erik Lehnsherr (Bill Milner) grows up underprivileged in Poland. As children, the mind-reading Charles finds a friend in the shape-shifting Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and Erik finds an enemy in Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), an energy-absorbing Nazi scientist who treats the metal-bending lad like a lab rat. By 1962, Charles (James McAvoy) has become a swaggering genetics professor and Erik (Michael Fassbender, McAvoy's Band of Brothers costar) has become a brooding agent of revenge. CIA agent Moira (Rose Byrne) brings the two together! to work for Division X. With the help of MIB (Oliver Platt) and Hank (A Single Man's Nicholas Hoult), they seek out other mutants, while fending off Shaw and Emma Frost (Mad Men's January Jones), who try to recruit them for more nefarious ends, leading to a showdown in Cuba between the United States and the Soviet Union, the good and bad mutants, and Charles and Erik, whose goals have begun to diverge. Throughout, Vaughn crisscrosses the globe, piles on the visual effects, and juices the action with a rousing score, but it's the actors who make the biggest impression as McAvoy and Fassbender prove themselves worthy successors to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. The movie comes alive whenever they take center stage, and dies a little when they don't. For the most part, though, Vaughn does right by playing up the James Bond parallels and acknowledging the debt to producer Bryan Singer through a couple of clever cameos. --Kathleen C. FennessyX-Men: First! Class is the thrilling, eye-opening chapter you’ve been wai! ting for ...Witness the beginning of the X-Men Universe. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their superhuman powers for the first time, working together in a desperate attempt to stop the Hellfire Club and a global nuclear war.When Bryan Singer brought Marvel's X-Men to the big screen, Magneto and Professor X were elder statesmen, but Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) travels back in time to present an origin story--and an alternate version of history. While Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher) grows up privileged in New York, Erik Lehnsherr (Bill Milner) grows up underprivileged in Poland. As children, the mind-reading Charles finds a friend in the shape-shifting Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and Erik finds an enemy in Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), an energy-absorbing Nazi scientist who treats the metal-bending lad like a lab rat. By 1962, Charles (James McAvoy) has become a swaggering genetics professor! and Erik (Michael Fassbender, McAvoy's Band of Brothers costar) has become a brooding agent of revenge. CIA agent Moira (Rose Byrne) brings the two together to work for Division X. With the help of MIB (Oliver Platt) and Hank (A Single Man's Nicholas Hoult), they seek out other mutants, while fending off Shaw and Emma Frost (Mad Men's January Jones), who try to recruit them for more nefarious ends, leading to a showdown in Cuba between the United States and the Soviet Union, the good and bad mutants, and Charles and Erik, whose goals have begun to diverge. Throughout, Vaughn crisscrosses the globe, piles on the visual effects, and juices the action with a rousing score, but it's the actors who make the biggest impression as McAvoy and Fassbender prove themselves worthy successors to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. The movie comes alive whenever they take center stage, and dies a little when they don't. For the most part, though, Vaughn does right by ! playing up the James Bond parallels and acknowledging the debt! to prod ucer Bryan Singer through a couple of clever cameos. --Kathleen C. Fennessy"Gut-bustingly funny. Bridesmaids gets an A!!!" (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly) From the producer of Superbad, Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin comes the breakout comedy critics are calling "brazenly hysterical!" (Alynda Wheat, People) Thirty-something Annie (Kristen Wiig) has hit a rough patch but finds her life turned completely upside down when she takes on the Maid of Honor role in her best friend Lillian's (Maya Rudolph) wedding. In way over her head but determined to succeed, Annie leads a hilarious hodgepodge of bridesmaids (Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ellie Kemper) on a wild ride down the road to the big event. Starring: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Chris O'Dowd, Ellie Kemper, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Melissa McCarthy, Matt Lucas, Jill Clayburgh, Rebel Wilson, Michael Hitchcock, Terry Crews, Kali Hawk, Tim Heidecker, Jon Hamm Directed b! y: Paul FeigThe delightful Kristen Wiig, who's shone in dozens of supporting roles and on Saturday Night Live, hits a bull's-eye with her first lead role in Bridesmaids. Annie (Wiig) isn't doing so well; her bakery failed and she keeps sleeping with a good-looking louse (Jon Hamm, Mad Men), but she's always had her best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph, Away We Go) to buoy her up… until Lillian gets engaged. Annie becomes maid of honor, but another friend of Lillian's--the rich and lovely Helen (Rose Byrne, Get Him to the Greek)--wants to take over that position. Misadventures with bad Brazilian food, dress fittings, an unfortunate flight to Vegas, and a sympathetic traffic cop (Chris O'Dowd from British TV comedy The IT Crowd) follow, with increasingly hilarious results. Bridesmaids successfully balances raunchy comedy and character portrait. The embarrassing and socially catastrophic stuff, which in too many movies balloons i! nto absurdity, is here kept in check just enough to allow Anni! e and th e other characters to be multidimensional people--without the movie losing its comic capacity for cringe. (Actress Melissa McCarthy, of Mike & Molly, works miracles with a character than in most hands would be pure cartoon.) Wiig's enormous appeal keeps Annie sympathetic, even as she becomes more and more of a train wreck. Bridesmaids is both smart and dumb, raunchy and earnest, and altogether enjoyable. --Bret FetzerThe epic adventure Thor spans the Marvel universe from present-day Earth to the cosmic realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. As a result, Thor is banished to Earth where he is forced to live among humans. When the most dangerous villain of his world sends its darkest forces to invade Earth, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero.Of all the folks in long underwear to be tapped for superhero films, Thor would seem to be the m! ost problematic to properly pull off. (Hypothetical Hollywood conversation: "A guy in a tricked-out, easily merchandisable metal suit? Great! An Asgardian God of Thunder who says stuff like thee and thou? Um, is Moon Knight available?") Thankfully, the resulting film does its source material rather proud, via a committed cast and an approach that doesn't shy away from the over-the-top superheroics. When you're dealing with a flying guy wielding a huge hammer, gritty realism can be overrated, really. Blending elements from the celebrated comic arcs by Walter Simonson and J. Michael Straczynski, the story follows the headstrong Thunder God (Chris Hemsworth) as he is banished to Earth and stripped of his powers by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) after inadvertently starting a war with a planet of ticked-off Frost Giants. As his traitorous brother Loki (the terrific Tom Hiddleston) schemes in the wings, Thor must redeem himself and save the universe, with the ai! d of a beautiful scientist (Natalie Portman). Although directo! r Kennet h Branagh certainly doesn't skimp on the in-jokes and fan-pleasing continuity references (be prepared to stick around after the credits, Marvel fans), his film distinguishes itself by adopting a larger-than-life cosmic Shakespearean air that sets itself apart from both the cerebral, grounded style made fashionable by The Dark Knight and the loose-limbed Rat Packish vibe of the Iron Man series. Glorying in the absolute unreality of its premise, Branagh's film is a swooping, Jack Kirby-inspired saga that brings the big-budget grins on a consistent basis, as well as tying in with the superhero battle royale The Avengers. --Andrew Wright
0 comments:
Post a Comment