Kyle Kerr

I Retracted It, Didn’t I?

02/17/08 | Movies, Reviews | 1 Comments

Movie reviews!

WATCHED

In Bruges

I am really starting to love Focus Features.  Not only have they produced my most recent favorite movie, Atonement, but they have also brought us such movies as Brokeback Mountain, Lost in Translation, Pride and Prejudice, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Constant Gardner, The Pianist, Billy Elliot, and Eastern Promises, just to name a few.  To add to that list of amazing movies (and cult classics), they now bring us In Bruges.

This movie is not for the conservative at heart.  In fact, it takes a really good sense of humor and a very un-politically correct mindset… both of which I have.  Not only is every other work ‘fuck’, but they manage to throw in the C word about 10 times, and they make fun of blacks, gays, fat people, midgets, Belgians, and just about everything you can think of, while throwing in a mixture of sex (almost), drugs, violence and crudity.  They were able to get away with a LOT in this movie.  And I couldn’t have loved it more. 

Behind everything listed above is some truly remarkable acting, a incredibly witty and well written script, and some surprisingly serious moral undertones.  I’m not really a Colin Farrell fan, but he really won me over in this movie.  He’s a hired hit man, he’s just killed a priest, and yet you’re pulling for him almost from the word go.

Here are some examples of the witty (and crude) dialogue in the movie (not work appropriate):

Ray (Colin Farrell): If I’d grown up on a farm and was retarded, Bruges might impress me.  But I didn’t, so… it doesn’t.

Ray: They’re filming midgets!

Ken (Brendan Gleeson): Harry, let’s face it. You’ve always been a cunt. The only thing that’s gonna change, is that you’re gonna be an even bigger cunt. Maybe have some more cunt kids.
Harry (Ralph Fiennes): You fuckin’ retract that bit about my cunt fucking kids!
Ken: I retract that bit about your cunt fucking kids.
Harry: Insulting my fucking kids?! That’s goin’ overboard man!
Ken: I retracted it, didn’t I?

In the context of the movie, it really isn’t offensive at all.  By the time you reach the conversation between Ken and Harry, the language of the movie is already well established, and it only adds to the humor of the moment.

Definitely worth a watch (if you meet the above mentioned requirements for viewing, that is!)...!

Jumper

I was actually somewhat disappointed with this movie.  It has a really great premise (people who can jump through space and can pretty much go anywhere they want to go), some phenomenal actors had signed on (Diane Lane, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell), and some great special effects to back the sci-fi themes of the movie.

Yet, somewhere it fell short.  Yes, the special effects were really great, and some of the action was thrilling… and, there was a semi-good twist at the end, though most people could probably have guessed it.  But, there were a lot of things that were off-putting about the storyline, such as characters not being surprised to see someone they thought had been dead for eight or so years, and the main character’s flippantly nonchalant attitude to being attacked by a man who was able to keep him from jumping with some strange electronic device.  Not to mention the girl who gets on a plane to Rome with the guy she thought had been dead for eight years without even a second thought.  It also had some really cheesy dialogue at times (to the point where audience members were laughing during “serious” moments).

I don’t know; I’m all about suspension of disbelief in the name of moving the storyline forward.  I mean, you can’t really have twenty minute exposition scenes where you explain everything that’s happening, but there has to be a sense of realism to what you’re doing, too.  I was able to believe the jumping, and the circumstances behind how his first jump happens, and even the war that’s brewing between the Jumpers and the religious zealots who think that no one but God should be able to do what they are able to do (though, I would have liked a little more back-story on them, too…).  But you need to back it up with something, and that something was definitely missing.

See it in theatres if you want, but only for the cool special effects.  This one is probably better left for your Netflix queue.

Until next…

Kyle W. Kerr