Lincoln and Skyfall

OK….so I think I will continue my blog past October. Don't know where it will take me. Right now I just plan on reviewing movies. I still have yet to post for the last 2 days of October horror film watching. Soon….soon…in the meantime, here are my reviews of Lincoln and the Skyfall.

LINCOLN

Spielberg hasn't had a good track record with me lately. Warhorse I passed on because it didn't even look like a reel film, it seemed like a caricature of a Spielberg movie. Seriously, when I saw the trailer for Warhorse I thought it was one of those movie snipes that are designed to ask you to not talk during the movie. You know, you think it's a movie trailer and then a cell phone goes off and the actors in the trailer react to it and realized it's the audience, then turn to address the audience in the theater and ask them to turn off their phones. I seriously thought this was a fake movie. When the title came up and it was a new Spielberg film, I laughed. Anyway,  I also disliked The Adventures of Tintin. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was pretty good, but Munich I couldn't even finish. I use to love his movies. Now, I am to the point where I kinda avoid them. I couldn't pass on Lincoln though because I was dying to see Daniel Day Lewis in the role. Plus the film has been getting a lot of positive buzz.

Lincoln is pretty much a bunch of gray haired, bearded men sitting around board room meetings, court rooms and offices bickering over the law. Sure it's one of the most important points in history, but I have never been so bored by it all. 

Typical scene from Lincoln

The story takes place during the final months of Lincoln's office and it focuses on the fight to pass the 13th amendment of the constitution to abolish slavery. The film never managed to engage me. I was never drawn in to Lincoln's story, probably because the movie focused more on the fight to get the amendment passed and not on any personal aspects of Lincoln. I was really hoping Daniel Day Lewis would get to shine. Don't get me wrong, he's good in the role. Its just not that exciting….it's not really a character piece even though the title of the movie is Lincoln. Go figure. There were bits and pieces about his relationship with his wife and his son who wants to fight in the war much to his parents disapproval, but not really too much about Lincoln. I think the film should have been titled The 13th Amendment. 

A more appropriate title and poster for Spielberg's 

The lighting is beautiful. They obviously studied up on their Rembrandt. Backgrounds fall off to darkness. Everyone is backlit - especially Lincoln. The classic Rembrandt lighting with the triangle of light on the shadow side of the face. Dusty halls and shafts of light. All accompanied by John William's score. It's very over the top. 

Classic Rembrandt Lighting

I don't know what I expected. Maybe a story about Lincoln. Maybe I thought there would be some contrast to the courtroom battles with the battles on the field. Maybe I thought you would get to see the horrible effects of slavery on society. What you get is Lincoln trying to motivate and get the 13th Amendment passed. You get lobbyist trying to cajole/motiviate/manipulate congressmen into passing it. You get another Amastad from Spielberg, incidentally I disliked that film as well.

What makes a good bond movie. What's the formula. You know there is a formula right? If you have seen more than 3 bond films, by now you realize there are restrictions that the filmmakers must stick to. There are plenty of good bonds films and plenty of bad ones and some in-between, but what makes a good one. Casino Royale was a good one --- no correction, a great one. Quantum of Solace was one of the worst. Sure everyone will have different opinions, but generally Quantum was not reviewed as well as Casino. Why wasn't it as good?  Is it the Villian? Is it the bond girls? Is it the plot? Is it the Actor? It was the same actor, so we can rule that out.  Well, whatever it is, Skyfall did it right. 

The new younger Q.

It's never easy to reboot a franchise and it's taken MGM 3 bond movies to do it. The first one introduced us to the new Daniel Craig Bond. Then Quantum…well, lets try to forget that one happened. Now  Skyfall continues to develop the franchise. If you have seen the trailers, you already know there is a new Q. He is a much younger and more of a computer geek/hacker than a mad scientist like many of the past Q's, in fact, the movie jokes about that. His new high tech weapons --- simply just a gun that is palm print activated and a radio transmitter. That's it.  It's trying to update Bond for a new audience. Daniel Craig has signed on for 2 more Bond movies. So apparently they are trying to shape a new Bond and a new Bond audience.

The film starts with a shadowy out of focus figure at the end of a hallway. The figure slowly walks to the foreground gradually coming into focus. It's Bond, now in a close up, with light only striking his eyes, the rest is in shadow. Right away the film hits us with a nicely choreographed stylistic image.  It's not just going to be an ABC thriller that foregoes the visual storytelling aspects. Well, it is directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead) so I would expect no less.

It's also one of the better looking bond films, shot by Roger Deakins (Shawshank Redemption, Big Lewbowski, Revolutionary Road) who is on for his first Bond film. From the beautiful neon reflections of the Shanghai location to the fiery orange silhouettes in Scottland, this film never ceased to please the cinematographer in me.

The Neon Glow of Shanghai

Bond is looking for a lost hard drive. It's not there. Agent is down. Bond could possibly help, but he is urged to leave the agent and pursue the hard drive. We now begin one of the better opening Bond chase scenes. We get a rooftop motorcycle chase, a train top chase, and bulldozer vs gunman fight. Bond uses a bulldozer that is part of the cargo on the train to try and stop our escapee. It's pretty awesome. I think I must have yelled out loud in excitement more than a few times.

The Villian is top notch. Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) plays an effeminate Psychopath. He makes some interesting choices that I am sure weren't in the script. Wether it was his choice or Sam Mendes', it was brilliant. 

If you like Bond movies you must see it. If you like action films you should see it. If you like thrillers you should see it. If subdued costume dramas is your bag and you don't like explosions, then well…you probably weren't even thinking about seeing the new Bond. So if you were thinking about it, just do it.