In Bruges Ebert Movie Review

In Bruges (R)

Ebert: Chetan:

Two Irish hitmen (Brendan Gleeson, left, and Colin Farrell) hole up in Belgium after a contract killing goes bad; one loves the sights, the other just wants out in In Bruges.”

In Bruges

/ / / February 7, 2008

Cast & Credits Ray: Colin Farrell Ken: Brendan Gleeson Harry: Ralph Fiennes Chloe: Clemence Poesy Jimmy: Jordan Prentice Focus Features presents a film written and directed by Martin McDonagh. Running time: 107 minutes. Rated R (for strong bloody violence, pervasive language, and some drug use). Opening today at AMC River East and Pipers Alley. Printer-friendly » E-mail this to a friend » var addthis_pub = ‘rebert_addthis’;

By Roger Ebert

You may know that Bruges, Belgium, is pronounced “broozh,” but I didn’t, and the heroes of “In Bruges” certainly don’t. They’re Dublin hit- men, sent there by their boss for two weeks after a hit goes very wrong. One is a young hothead who sees no reason to be anywhere but Dublin; the other, older, gentler, more curious, buys a guidebook and announces: “Bruges is the best-preserved medieval city in Belgium!”

So it certainly seems. If the movie accomplished nothing else, it inspired in me an urgent desire to visit Bruges. But it accomplished a lot more than that. This film debut by the theater writer and director Martin McDonagh is an endlessly surprising, very dark, human comedy, with a plot that cannot be foreseen but only relished. Every once in a while you find a film like this, that seems to happen as it goes along, driven by the peculiarities of the characters.

Brendan Gleeson, with that noble shambles of a face and the heft of a boxer gone to seed, has the key role as Ken, one of two killers for hire. His traveling companion and unwilling roommate is Ray (Colin Farrell), who successfully whacked a priest in a Dublin confessional but tragically killed a little boy in the process. Before shooting the priest, he confessed to the sin he was about to commit. After accidentally killing the boy, he reads the notes the lad made for his own confession. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Ken and Ray work for Harry, apparently a Dublin crime lord, who for the first two thirds of the movie we hear only over the phone, until he materializes in Bruges and turns out to be a worried-looking Ralph Fiennes. He had the men hiding out in London, but that wasn’t far enough away. Who would look for them in Bruges? Who would even look for Bruges? Killing the priest was business, but “blowing a kid’s head off just isn’t done.”

The movie does an interesting thing with Bruges. It shows us a breathtakingly beautiful city, without ever seeming to be a travelogue. It uses the city as a way to develop the characters. When Ken wants to climb an old tower “for the view,” Ray argues “why do I have to climb up there to see down here? I’m already down here.” He is likewise unimpressed by glorious paintings, macabre sculptures and picturesque canals, but is thrilled as a kid when he comes upon a film being shot.

There he meets two fascinating characters: First he sees the fetching young blond Chloe (Clemence Poesy, who was Fleur Delacour in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire“). Then he sees Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), a dwarf who figures in a dream sequence. He gets off on a bad footing with both, but eventually they’re doing cocaine with a prostitute Jimmy picked up and have become friends, even though Ray keeps calling the dwarf a “midget” and having to be corrected.

Without dreaming of telling you what happens next, I will say it is not only ingenious but almost inevitable the way the screenplay brings all of these destinies together at one place and time. Along the way, there are times of great sadness and poignancy, times of abandon, times of goofiness, and that kind of humor that is really funny because it grows out of character and close observation. Farrell in particular hasn’t been this good in a few films, perhaps because this time he’s allowed to relax and be Irish. As for Gleeson, if you remember him in “The General,” you know that nobody can play a more sympathetic bad guy.

Martin McDonagh is greatly respected in Ireland and England for his plays; his first film, a short named “Six Shoooter” starring Gleeson, won a 2006 Oscar. In his feature debut, “In Bruges,” he has made a remarkable first film, as impressive in its own way as “House of Games,” the first film by David Mamet, who McDonagh is sometimes compared with.

Yes, it’s a “thriller,” but one where the ending seems determined by character and upbringing rather than plot requirements. Two of the final deaths are, in fact, ethical choices. And the irony inspiring the second one has an undeniable logic, showing that even professional murderers have their feelings.

The Dark Knight Movie Review

The Dark Knight (PG-13)

Ebert: Chetan: ****

Heath Ledger stars as The Joker in a scene with Christian Bale, who plays Batman in “The Dark Knight.”

The Dark Knight

// / July 16, 2008

Cast & Credits Bruce Wayne: Christian Bale The Joker: Heath Ledger Harvey Dent: Aaron Eckhart Alfred: Michael Caine Rachel: Maggie Gyllenhaal Gordon: Gary Oldman Lucius Fox: Morgan Freeman Warner Bros. presents a film directed by Christopher Nolan. Written by Christopher and Jonathan Nolan. Running time: 152 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for for intense sequences of violence and some menace). Opening today at local theaters. Printer-friendly » E-mail this to a friend » var addthis_pub = ‘rebert_addthis’;

By Roger Ebert

“Batman” isn’t a comic book anymore. Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” is a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. It creates characters we come to care about. That’s because of the performances, because of the direction, because of the writing, and because of the superlative technical quality of the entire production. This film, and to a lesser degree “Iron Man,” redefine the possibilities of the “comic-book movie.”

“The Dark Knight” is not a simplistic tale of good and evil. Batman is good, yes, The Joker is evil, yes. But Batman poses a more complex puzzle than usual: The citizens of Gotham City are in an uproar, calling him a vigilante and blaming him for the deaths of policemen and others. And the Joker is more than a villain. He’s a Mephistopheles whose actions are fiendishly designed to pose moral dilemmas for his enemies.

The key performance in the movie is by the late Heath Ledger, as the Joker. Will he become the first posthumous Oscar winner since Peter Finch? His Joker draws power from the actual inspiration of the character in the silent classic “The Man Who Laughs” (1928). His clown’s makeup more sloppy than before, his cackle betraying deep wounds, he seeks revenge, he claims, for the horrible punishment his father exacted on him when he was a child. In one diabolical scheme near the end of the film, he invites two ferry-loads of passengers to blow up the other before they are blown up themselves. Throughout the film, he devises ingenious situations that force Batman (Christian Bale), Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to make impossible ethical decisions. By the end, the whole moral foundation of the Batman legend is threatened.

Because these actors and others are so powerful, and because the movie does not allow its spectacular special effects to upstage the humans, we’re surprised how deeply the drama affects us. Eckhart does an especially good job as Harvey Dent, whose character is transformed by a horrible fate into a bitter monster. It is customary in a comic book movie to maintain a certain knowing distance from the action, to view everything through a sophisticated screen. “The Dark Knight” slips around those defenses and engages us.

Yes, the special effects are extraordinary. They focus on the expected explosions and catastrophes, and have some superb, elaborate chase scenes. The movie was shot on location in Chicago, but it avoids such familiar landmarks as Marina City, the Wrigley Building or the skyline. Chicagoans will recognize many places, notably La Salle Street and Lower Wacker Drive, but director Nolan is not making a travelogue. He presents the city as a wilderness of skyscrapers, and a key sequence is set in the still-uncompleted Trump Tower. Through these heights, the Batman moves at the end of strong wires, or sometimes actually flies, using his cape as a parasail.

The plot involves nothing more or less than the Joker’s attempts to humiliate the forces for good and expose Batman’ secret identity, showing him to be a poser and a fraud. He includes Gordon and Dent on his target list, and contrives cruel tricks to play with the fact that Bruce Wayne once loved, and Harvey Dent now loves, Assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal). The tricks are more cruel than he realizes, because the Joker doesn’t know Batman’s identity. Heath Ledger has a good deal of dialogue in the movie, and a lot of it isn’t the usual jabs and jests we’re familiar with: It’s psychologically more complex, outlining the dilemmas he has constructed, and explaining his reasons for them. The screenplay by Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan (who first worked together on “Memento”) has more depth and poetry than we might have expected.

Two of the supporting characters are crucial to the action, and are played effortlessly by the great actors Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. Freeman, as the scientific genius Lucius Fox, is in charge of Bruce Wayne’s underground headquarters, and makes an ethical objection to a method of eavesdropping on all of the citizens of Gotham City. His stand has current political implictions. Caine is the faithful butler Alfred, who understands Wayne better than anybody, and makes a decision about a crucial letter.

Nolan also directed the previous, and excellent, “Batman Begins” (2005), which went into greater detail than ever before about Bruce Wayne’s origins and the reasons for his compulsions. Now it is the Joker’s turn, although his past is handled entirely with dialogue, not flashbacks. There are no references to Batman’s childhood, but we certainly remember it, and we realize that this conflict is between two adults who were twisted by childhood cruelty — one compensating by trying to do good, the other by trying to do evil. Perhaps they instinctively understand that themselves.

Something fundamental seems to be happening in the upper realms of the comic-book movie. “Spider-Man II” (2004) may have defined the high point of the traditional film based on comic-book heroes. A movie like the new “Hellboy II” allows its director free rein for his fantastical visions. But now “Iron Man” and even more so “The Dark Knight” move the genre into deeper waters. They realize, as some comic-book readers instinctively do, that these stories touch on deep fears, traumas, fantasies and hopes. And the Batman legend, with its origins in film noir, is the most fruitful one for exploration.

In his two Batman movies, Nolan has freed the character to be a canvas for a broader scope of human emotion. For Bruce Wayne is a deeply troubled man, let there be no doubt, and if ever in exile from his heroic role, it would not surprise me what he finds himself capable of doing.

Chetan’s Finest

• American Gangster-Either you are somebody or you are nobody…..”
• Truands- Bang Bang…
• Halla Bol (Santoshi’s movies cant be bad)

Chetan’s Razzie Awards 2006-07: Movies so bad they make Karan Johar’s flicks look like Oscar Contenders

In order of mediocrity:

1.Om Shanti Om/Cash/ Heyy Babyyy/Partner/Welcome

2. Saawaariya

3. 300 (well the erotic scenes were not that bad)

4. Saw 3

5.Guru- Abhishek Bachchan…..hahahahahahaha……enough said

6. Saw 4

7. Shootout at Lokhandwala

American Gangster

Criminally classic

‘American Gangster’ a gem

By Phil Villarreal

Pvillarreal@azstarnet.com

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.01.2007

“American Gangster” is a film Tony Montana would watch after a night of wheeling, dealing and slaying. The Corleones or Sopranos would discuss it over Thanksgiving. Martin Scorsese will buy the movie’s poster and frame it on his bedroom wall.

Director Ridley Scott brings the thunder in his epic, true-story-based tale of kingpin Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), who rose from Harlem slums to undermine the drug cartels with a disgustingly innovative heroin trade, using soldier’s caskets to smuggle product during the Vietnam conflict. Lucas rules with a quick and heavy hand, driven by paranoia and overwhelming pride. On his tail is detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), a scrupulous cop who refuses to bow to a force plagued with corruption. He sternly exposes colleagues and mystifies even himself by turning in nearly a million dollars’ worth of unmarked bills. As one of the few people Lucas can’t buy, he’s the criminal’s most dangerous foe.

Roberts deals with a failed marriage and his inadequacies as a father. You pull for him to forge on with his career and succeed in bringing down Lucas, if only to prove that one can get ahead by playing by the rules. On the other hand, Lucas — a disciplined, astute businessman — provides just as much of a rooting interest. He flouts old-money authority and socially ingrained prejudice to instill his poor Southern family with wealth and power, allowing them to benefit from the drug epidemic rather than be exploited by it.

In many ways, “American Gangster” is the summation of the Hollywood gangster-film tradition that dates back to the Prohibition era, rolling up all the passion, tragedy and thought-provoking shades of gray the best of the genre offers. Scott wears his influences as Al Capone would a fedora. It’s as though the director went through the history of great gangland films and patched together the best pieces to craft an antihero magnum opus.

Trumpet swells in somber moments recall “The Godfather.” Washington’s glare is as hot as the barrel of a tommy gun as he charismatically romps to ruthless excess in the fashion of James Cagney in “The Public Enemy” or Al Pacino in “Scarface.”

Crowe’s dogged detective is a veritable Eliot Ness, only with darker shadings to leaven the Boy Scout exterior. Scott takes a cue from the structure of Michael Mann’s “Heat,” playing out parallel stories of equally fascinating cop and criminal characters, setting up the climactic room-shaking confrontation.

Washington and Crowe are two of the finest actors of our day, but both actors tear into the material like young bucks hungering for their first paycheck. It’s if they’re attempting to outdo each other, harboring a rivalry as crucial and personal as that of their characters.

There’s enough fire onscreen to singe your eyebrows if you sit in the first three rows, which is fine, because “American Gangster” is quite a lovely way to burn.