The Prestige (2006)

The Prestige tells the story of two rival magicians who are caught in a battle of One-upmanship and both become obsessed with discovering the secrets of the other's magic tricks.

The Prestige may be the strongest work from an already established director. Christopher Nolan with the prestige has taken a subject, maybe not obviously cinematic and turned it into a accomplished, slick film. While watching The Prestige i felt this sense of an "epic movie" (not to be confused with the crap comedy of this year) it had a certain style and way of story telling that felt different, in that it made you think and guess, which not many films bother to do anymore.

The performances are fantastic, Hugh Jackman i feel was a highlight, in the sense that i had only seen him as Wolverine before, so having this character with such depth, i was suprised how well he pulled it off. Bale also was great, especially begining to shine towards the end of the film when his character encounters issues and conflicts within his personal life. Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson put in great supporting roles that give the film some extra depth.

One of my favourite aspects about the film was how it built tension, and the character study. How a lot of the tension was out of the complete greed of the two main characters. it's hard to explain without giving aspects away, but some of the way the tricks are acheived involve some very sinister methords. Such as use of doubles and their fate, is a very wellcomed "subplot" and adds to the tension of the film.

Some aspects of a sub story in which Hugh character meets a legendary magican called Tesla (played by David Bowie) seem a bit far fetched, but still interesting.

All in all, i will have to say it's quite hard to review this film , as it has a lot of twists and turns, so i have to be careful in what i say. However the final pay off is worth it, its fantastically done. Though even without the final pay off, it's a solid film. I really enjoyed the levels of issues going on (murder, adultery, Greed). That's what i loved, it was a great character study more than anything, these were both well studied, flawed characters that held my attention all way through. With only certain aspects of the Tesla subplot putting me off (was it going into sci fi??), overall this is a fantastic watch. It kept me on edge of my seat, guessing and suprised by the ending, it was an involving movie experience. One of the best of 2006, which was already a damn strong year.

The Science Of Sleep (2006)

Science of sleep is a film by Michel Gondry, director of Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind. Science of sleep follows the story of Stéphane Miroux who lands a job at a calender making firm. In doing so he moves into a near by apartment building. Here he meets Stéphanie, who he falls for. However Stéphane lives on a thin line between dreams and reality and what we get is a love story with a trippy twist.

I think enough has been said about the genius of Eternal sunshine that you only have to mention the name to those who have seen it and fond memories return. So as you can guess i went into this film with huge expectations, and it did not in any way... disappoint.

The first thing that really struck me was how funny it was. More so than eternal sunshine. This film has moments of laugh out loud humour. One example is a scene in which Stéphane is trying to retrieve a letter he sent through Stephanie's door with a coat hanger and we later see it from her view. also look out for Stephane's womanising boss Guy who provides a lot of the laughs. That's what i like about characters, they are very rich, almost cartoonish in their stlye and actions that it only adds a depth to the story and helps blur the line and show the strange reality of which Stephane exists in.

That leads me onto the dream scenes. Oh my god, i wish i had seen this at the cinema if only to watch these brilliant animations play out on the big screen. The dream scenes could vary. whether it was small detail like tap water turning into blue and white tissue paper, or on a larger scale such as a whole town in stop motion animation made out of carboard. The animation was a joyful mix of The Clangers, Beatles Yellow submarine and an L. S. Lowry painting. I have decided to include (at very bottom of the review) a clip and trailer to display what i mean by the animation and show how great it is.

It also displays very well the natural problems that arise in forming a relationship and aspects of Staphane's insecurities are well played out in the film. A lot of the funny moments come out of that and the very real interactions between the two. Such as Stephane's nervs causing him to say crude things in relation to Stephanie. Charlotte Gainsbourg who plays Stephanie puts in a brilliant performance here as does Gael García Bernal & Alain Chabat.

All in all, Science of sleep is every bit as endeering and brilliant as Eternal sunshine. Laugh out loud funny, mixed with the tragedies of love and beautiful imagination and animation that goes above and beyond anything in Eternal sunshine. See it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P0jQHUSWgM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GjjYHVj-mw

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

I wasn't in the mind to dismiss this film straight away, but given the bad reputation that both the film series and Tom Cruise has, it would be fair to go in with low expectations. I tried not too, trust me. It starts very well gripping you with a interrogation / torture scene of tom cruise (what a start!). With the added depth of character given by the fact we have the main character unable ot help the woman, Julia, that he loves, i thought "ok, this is good." then that bit stops.

ah. Now we cut to a cheesy party scene where Tom is walking around, smiling, laghing and making us wonder why he makes all that damn money. Of course this scene is used to lay the ground work to why he loves Julia, but if it would of meant avoiding this scene, i really didn't need to know why he cared for her.

The action scenes were ok, but we'd seen it all before. A scene in which we have a helicopter shooting at cruise on a bridge, is a little far fetched, but hey, quite fun. Though especially during the first action scene in the warehouse i found the cinetography disorientating. Quick cuts mixed with fast beating soundtrack make for an overall confusing experience. My fave action based scene though is when Cruise is Interrogating Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and to make him talk he lowers him through a open loadinng dock part of a plane, in mid air, that was impresive. oh wait did i mention Philip Seymour Hoffman?? well...

He steals the film, but thats no real suprise is it? his performance gives the film an undeserved sense of credibility. Too be honest he really does push this from a below average action film to something worth a look. Though Laurence fishburne and Billy Crudup also push their game up to full pulling in fine performances. I also enjoyed some of the darker tones, such as the brain implanted bomb, i thought was quite dark in that it is done when the character is drugged and it's something you can't get away from. Reminded me of the explosive collars in Battle Royale. If it could of skipped some of the more cheesy or generic moments of an action flick and kept a darker tone, i would of been more happy.

All in all a promising start turns into your average action flick with moments of hope brought in from time to time from supporting players and Philip Seymour Hoffman is no1 reason to watch this film, so i make that about 3 reasons, oh well, its a hollywood blockbuster right?